"Sonic, I think you've gone too far this time."

I marked that as the first time that I heard those words from my little buddies lips. It was also the first time I believed what he was saying about myself. Yeah, ok... I'd certainly gone too far. I knew I'd gone too far. Kinda the second it happened, & from there on in there was no lying to myself.
Alright, I get it.
Sonic, you messed up!
And all in the name of makin' things better. See what happens when you step into girl territory? Am I right?! And, everyone wondered why I ran.
Well...
Truth be told (to nobody, seeing I don't exactly post this stuff up) I felt really crappy about this. I mean it, I was feeling the guilt to the point where I couldn't look at her. And- oh, that really hadn't helped anything, the not wanting to be face to face with her bit.
My lime eyes wearily met the slightly condescending look being worn in the eyes of my oldest friend. I noted that as another first. I had to say something.

"Tails, I... yeah, I did." I said stupidly & helplessly, staring at my hands. They were now free of gloves, and drumming on my own table next to a pretty well ignored, boiling fresh mug of hot chocolate. What else could I say? This was the first time. The one time I pushed Amy too hard- after so long!

And I mean, I first met her when we were children. I was ashamedly packing a few, regardless of my ability to run endlessly. She thought a lot of me then, embarrassed me by calling me lovely (who calls a guy lovely?), even when I was feeling rather portly, and dirty from the fight against Metal Sonic. She still wore sneakers, and had someone said the words 'soap shoe' to me, I probably would've giggled like an idiot. Now... well, things were a little bit different. We were getting a handle on actually not being kids now, she was slowly starting to act more like a normal being. She claimed now I got weirder every year. I still say she's the crazy one.

Thinking back on it, nowhere between those two spans of time had I pushed the envelope too far, or had she declared it to be so.

And now that I had, I didn't know what to do about it. A good way to describe my thoughts on this: panic! I reflected in my mind, the night before, the similar- yet much more aggressive- reactions of my other friends. They were upset at me. Specifically Cream. I felt a terrible pang of guilt. Little did the still youngest member of our bizarre, dysfunctional family know, she'd hit me hardest with hers... just her chocolate brown eyes glowering at me, not smiling at me. They'd been filled to the quivering brim and she stood with her fists bawled at her side. She only came up to my belly, but I feared her ability to tear me down all the same- not physically, but with her words.

"Mr. Sonic, I'm disappointed in you. Why would you do something so awful, Amy has only ever been nice to you and you just hurt her feelings! Why? I thought you only hurt people who're bad!"

"But Cream, I never meant to hurt her feelings I-"

"Please, grow up Mr. Sonic! What if you break her heart up too much and she dies?!" She wailed out her childish fear (only a kid could come to such an outlandish conclusion), and then she fled, arm over her spilling eyes toward Amy's house. Cheese hovered by me long enough to 'chao' something at me that might have been an obscenity if I could understand him. He followed after the girl, and I stood there, shell shocked and alone…

"Can we just get something clarified? You don't like Amy like that, do you Sonic." Tails stated, bringing me back to the here & now, and I grimaced. He noted my look and seemed slightly apologetic. "Come on Sonic, it's been years." He looked guilty to be doing this to me, his look reluctant- and he continued in defense. It was almost funny to see him this serious, you know, if I hadn't troubled him. "And it's only fair to say that in this case, I'm on Amy's side as well as yours."

"Well... understandable." I sighed.

"You knew this was coming." Tails insisted. His gaze remained on me heavily, and I felt the pressure of it. His swishing tails took me off guard, their sharp weaving movement startling me. Tails was like the Sherif who wanted answers. I tried not to laugh at that idea, and avoided getting myself into deeper trouble. Why was it that when I was in the deepest trouble, the urge to laugh got worse? Then again, that was no different than me in a battle. Only... this was kind of worse than a battle. I know I can win them.
Why did I think that none of my close friends would ever ask me this? I did what I always did when this sort of thing started! Get a really fast heart beat, breathe like an overheated mutt, and... panic. I quickly took a swig of hot chocolate to do anything but answer and burnt my mouth. Oh, not cool... Tails had warned me about that. Yup. I already looked nervous. But I sat perched in the chair, running my burnt tongue along the inside of my mouth, brow reading attitude as I stared at him.

"No." I spurted, feigning finality.

I hated that he raised his eyebrow curiously at that, that it hadn't ended the discussion about my feelings for the girl. What happened next was actually pretty unexpected.

"Fine, Sonic. Sorry, but I can't have your back if you want to keep lying about it." The fox said wryly, if not with a hint of annoyance as he pushed away from my table, promptly leaving me alone. I couldn't help being floored by this. Whoa! Tails never got upset with me, and seeing him even just annoyed at me surprised me. I didn't blame him. Typically Tails had the patience of a saint, but not today. Not for me. Ah, nobody was themselves right now, truthfully. And I knew this day was coming, just as Tails said. I knew this showdown was gonna happen! Sad thing being, I knew I was the bad guy today. It was kinda ironic, really.

Ahhhh...crap. Why did it have to be today? Why did this have to happen at all?
Idiot.
Should just stick to day saving. You actually have talent with that.

—

/3rd person/

Amy Rose slowly slipped the faintest flower from her hair- a rare accessory in contrast to how often she now went without something in it. She grew tired of the headband, over time, and now decorated her hair occasionally.

It was a slow, reluctant movement- like a beauty queen being asked for her crown to be passed back. In a way, she was. She'd felt this same way many years ago, many times before. She was the number one person in the running for the affections of Sonic the Hedgehog. That is, she should have been.
She took a glance up, slowly, meeting eyes with her reflection in her bedroom mirror that she sat before. How she'd grown over the years, from a child to a girl, now a young lady. Her pink hair, formerly short, now fell just below her shoulders. The delicate waves she'd placed in it for the event annoyed her now- how hard she'd worked to look impressive, for what?

She swore to herself as she matured- as she went from an infatuated, crazy young girl to a more reserved, in love young woman. She swore the day she decided to try something besides being a silly girl, that she wouldn't feel this way anymore. She decided long ago that she deserved better- that if Sonic wanted to, she'd be the first to know. It was a hard choice after years of tailing him, but it was the one that was truest to who she was now. She helped fight for the greater good, she protected Sonic and her friends. She wasn't just 'the girl' anymore.
Though she realized she really did love Sonic as she got older, she decided he'd come to her. It was him who wasn't prepared, not herself, and if he was going to... he'd let her know. She'd trusted him to that, and when she backed off, she saw a great change in him. Then again... that was before any of this happened. Now it seemed things had come full circle into the same routine.

Stupid Sonic!

She sighed lowly, the spurt of breath mostly as a result of the dampness that consumed her cheeks.
Any normal girl would have thrown in the towel long ago.
But of course, Amy had more determination- more affection- more faith than that of any normal girl, and as a young woman it shone through in other ways that were more low key- but still direct. That was something that she knew Sonic was annoyed by when they were younger, but was always certain that it was also endearing. Until now.

She kicked off her new boots abruptly- the kind of boots she used to ogle in windows as a young teen, dream of wearing while going on a date with Sonic, of course- but they were forgotten now. She was just so satisfied to be alone, finally, and cry.
Not her usual, classic sniffling over a safe Sonic, but bottom of the barrel, nothing going right, all bets off tears. Because Amy, after years of pursuing a retreating back, forgotten dates, one sided everything- had come to a decision. She'd come to these when she was younger- was haunted by the remembrance of that now carefree cycle, of sitting on the edge of a bed or couch, thinking it would be her last moments wasting her time thinking about him. Back then, she knew she could never really believe it. Now... things had changed since then. She wasn't the child she used to be. She was older, she was lonely. And she really knew what that meant now, as opposed to all the times she thought she was when she was little- bawling to her friends about how frustrating Sonic could be. She had to take that action. More or less in her eyes, an acceptance.

Sonic really, truly didn't care about her in that way.
Another wave of tears threatened to overtake her, and she allowed it. Tonight would be her last night spent doing so, for Sonic the Hedgehog.

---

Hey everyone, glad to be back in the writing world again!
This is moreso the intro to the story, so I posted two chapters for it to actually make full sense. x3
Proceed onward!!