Chapter Text
Amy woke up early in the morning, earlier than usual. When she looked at the sky, still dark, through her window, she deduced that it must be five or four o'clock, a feeling of heaviness in her stomach, something was not right, but she did not know what.
She, finding herself unable to go back to sleep, got up from her bed and put on her slippers to protect herself from the cold, she shivered when, taking off the blanket, she was greeted with the low temperature of the room, at this hour it was always so cold?
She went into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her spines, normally accentuated and well cared for, were a total mess. They pointed in all directions and, if she looked at herself in profile, some of her back spikes looked just like they did when she was a little girl.
Amy frowned at this. She felt very out of place and that feeling in her stomach didn't help her mood.
She took one of the brushes from the dresser, and began to gently run it over the mess that was her head.
It took her only a few minutes, but even though her bristles were back in place and she could recognize herself in the mirror, the feeling had not gone away. Her mind was blank, she couldn't think of anything that could or would go wrong that day, the situation was starting to get annoying and made her worry increase.
What if it was something to do with Sonic? She thought suddenly but dismissed the idea in an instant. Sonic can take care of himself perfectly plus Shadow was with him, whatever it was, they can watch each other's backs without any problems. She had also seen him a few days ago and he was fine.
Then who? Tails? No, the machine he had invented, after so many accidents in the lab, would have sent a message to everyone. Knuckles? Unlikely, he had gotten tougher over time and had Rouge for support and Rouge tended to get into trouble often, not so much now, but she always got out of it unscathed one way or another and she knew in advance where she was going.
Amy groaned in frustration as her options were quickly overridden.
The pink hedgehog's ear twitched as she caught the ringing of her phone alerting her to a notification. That was enough to divert her attention and make her go back to her room to get her phone. When she checked it was a message from Tails. Why would he write to her at that hour?
«Could you come over?»
That feeling in her stomach grew heavier, reminding the hedgehog why she had woken up in the first place. Her mind came very close to falling into premonitory and disastrous ideas that could have happened but she kept calm and instead decided to respond.
«Sure! I'll be right there.»
She didn't question why the two-tailed fox didn't respond to her message later, with a thank you or an apology, nor why he was awake so early and had sent her a message. The heaviness in her prevented it.
—————————————————
It took Amy no more than an hour to reach the fox's house. In her haste she had only put on a jacket and her usual boots, things she had done almost nothing to ward off the morning chill that was beginning to creep into her bones.
Fortunately, Tails seemed to have been aware of her arrival at all times because the hedgehog was less than a meter away from the fox's house when the door opened, revealing a Tails with an expression of mixed relief and concern on his face.
"Hi, Tails." Amy greeted with a small smile but you could see the worry she'd been carrying since she woke up start to seep out of her.
"Hi." Tails did the same but it didn't last as long as Amy's before he fell back into a fidgety expression. "Come in."
Tails stepped aside, entering the house, heading to the kitchen to pour a glass of water for Amy. She for her part walked in after the fox, closing the door, and headed straight for the couch.
The tension was palpable throughout the room, the worry on both sides slowly suffocating them. Then Amy decided to take matters into her own hands, no longer able to bear the pressure in her stomach and the bad feeling that came along with Tails' message.
"May I know why you called me, Tails?" Amy asked in the kindest tone she could, eyes fixed on the opposite as he returned from the kitchen and sat across from her in the living room. The hedgehog politely declined the offered drink.
The fox visibly tensed at her friend's question and she couldn't help but worry more than she already was, increasing the tension inside her and quickly exhausting her patience. It took all of Amy's strength not to jump on the poor fox and demand an answer to the whole unsettling atmosphere.
The pink hedgehog's insistent gaze made Tails sigh in defeat and after a few seconds, which felt like an eternity, he began to speak.
"It's... hard to explain, Amy." He averted his gaze, nervously. Amy shifted impatiently in her seat, she couldn't help the slight movement of one of her legs.
"What do you mean?" The impatience was beginning to be more than noticeable in his tone, that annoyed her a little more than the situation itself.
Tails swallowed hard, fearing how she would react but still spoke.
"Sonic and Shadow... they disappeared and I can't detect their location..."
The atmosphere became heavier than ever. Amy's eyes widened in utter shock and horror, her whole body went static but she forced herself to speak.
"How long... How long have they been gone?" Amy asked tensely but still trying to remain calm, sometimes it was normal for Sonic to drop off the radar for a while, maybe he took Shadow with him for some sort of rather long date. The pink hedgehog tried to calm herself with that in mind.
"Just over three days, today is the fourth."
It hadn't been long, maybe if it was some sort of long date. Amy sighed in relief but the sight of Tails so tense still put her on alert.
"You haven't told me everything, have you?"
Tails shook his head, his gaze fixed on the ground. Amy looked at him puzzled and somewhat dazed, afraid that the next thing the fox would say to her would put more weight than it already had.
Amy's ears twitched, anticipating Tails' response.
Then the kitsune rose from his seat and motioned for Amy to follow him. She looked at him in disbelief but quickly mimicked the fox as he began to walk deeper into the house.
They didn't speak again, not a single word came out of each other even though their heads were about to explode from all they wanted to say. Amy wanted answers and Tails didn't know how to give her those answers without confusing her more, because he was confused too.
Soon they arrived at Sonic's old room, where the super fast hedgehog regularly stayed, when he wasn't sleeping outdoors, before leaving with Shadow. They both entered the room and, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Amy looked at the fox expectantly.
"Sonic gave me someone before he left, he told me to look after him and keep him safe while he and Shadow were gone, he didn't give any more details."
Tails spoke, his voice slightly shaky, and not looking at the other, his attention fully on the lump surrounded by pillows on the bed.
The fox didn't move from his spot and, looking at Amy, motioned for the hedgehog to approach the bed, which she did after a few moments of hesitation.
At a slow pace, Amy approached the bed and the first thing she saw was a white chao with aquamarine patterns peeking out from between the bundle of sheets, sound asleep. She couldn't understand what was going on at that moment and whether or not that chao could be a problem. The feeling of heaviness, Sonic and Shadow missing, the chao, what else could happen? Then Amy tilted her head slightly towards the little creature and what she saw made her pale and set off all her alarms.
"Tails, why is there a.... baby hedgehog in the bed?"
The pink ears twitched catching the sound of Tails' footsteps approaching and stopping right next to her, now they were both staring at the baby hedgehog with ebony fur and blue-gray stripes sleeping peacefully on the bed, cuddling the chao, who was also cuddling this one. From its size, the little hedgehog could not have been more than a few months old.
"I don't know. Sonic gave it to me along with the chao.... Amy, I don't know what to do, I'm worried. Neither Sonic or Shadow show up and I can't take care of the boy anymore, I don't know how, I don't even know how I could take care of him for three days. I just thought I'd call you now and-"
Amy cut the trembling kitsune off with a tight hug, which he promptly reciprocated. They stayed like that for a few minutes before letting go and looking at the little hedgehog again.
"Does anyone else know?"
Tails nodded.
"Knuckles and Rouge are looking too, so far no luck."
Amy return her atention to the bed. A gloved peach hand stroked the cheek of the smaller hedgehog's peach muzzle, it stirred at the touch but did not wake up.
"How do you think they... had it? If you can call it that." Amy asked, looking at Tails but he just shook his head, expressing that he didn't know the answer to that question.
Silence returned to the room, this time being aware of the breathing of the two smaller individuals.
"He certainly looks like a chubby mix of the two of them." Amy tried to liven up the atmosphere a bit without much success seeing as Tails just gave her an awkward smile.
Amy sighed, she wanted to help in the search for the two lost hedgehogs but her fox friend's situation was something to take care of.
"I can take care of him, I have some experience babysitting."
Tails' face changed a couple of times, starting from confusion, to relief and ending in a slightly chagrined expression.
"Really?" Tails fox wagged behind him. "I'm really sorry to put this on you, I just don't know, exactly, how to take care of a child, I'm lucky this one is quiet but I don't know if that's a good sign or if I can continue like this, really thank you so much, Amy."
Amy smiled reassuringly towards Tails, trying to calm him down.
"It's okay, Tails, this no bother for me, besides, I guess you need to be focused on the radar all the time, don't you?"
The kitsune nodded, a small smile on his lips.
Jade eyes returned to the little guy on the bed and a doubt arose again.
"He has a name?" Amy asked, watching as the child began to squirm and babble between sounds, it made her smile a little.
"Uhm, no, Sonic didn't say what his name was or anything, he was very vague with the information."
Amy hummed to herself, searching her mind for the lists of internet baby names she used for her plants and learned by heart. Seconds later she had a name that stood out from the rest.
"Terios. We'll call him that until Sonic and Shadow come back and tell us what they named him, plus it suits him."
Tails nodded, even though he didn't feel very comfortable naming his brother's... son?, without his brother's consent but he also didn't want to keep calling the little hedgehog "child" or something like that all the time.
Tails' ear twitched as he caught the sound of his communicator in the distance and, after a quick goodbye, he left the room at a fast pace. Amy was left alone in the room, the sun was already beginning to rise, ushering in the morning. She sighed, the smile she had before fell into a sad look and turned her attention back to the newly named baby, Terios.
Jade eyes returned to the window, the sun was almost fully illuminating the entire landscape and, although the pressure in her stomach never left, it gave her a sense of calm and hope, they would find those elusive hedgehogs and pretend none of this had happened. They will also be able to formally introduce their little hedgehog and friend chao and then, together they will have more adventures to tell and remember in the future.
Amy clung to this idea even though her throat closed and her eyes began to sting.
She held on even though deep down she knew they weren't coming back.