Chapter Text
“What the fuck did you say, Sonic?” Amy whispers in horror. Her whole body tenses up as the good vibes and divine mood melt away like snow under the intense sun.
And, to tell the truth, Amy could make light of it—the celebration is in full swing. The party they organized at Sonic’s new house to celebrate the acquisition of such is going smoothly, with their friends chatting, dancing, and drinking. The host, for his part, has already had a couple of drinks. Amy could well assume that his words have no deeper meaning, that they are the ravings of a inebriated man or that he is trying to be funny about subjects he knows nothing about.
That’s the crux of the matter: Sonic doesn’t know about these things. Amy wants to think she knows Sonic pretty well (because, by Gaia, they’ve been friends since childhood and time hides no secrets), so she has no qualms about asserting that there’s no room for that kind of information in Sonic’s carefree and fast-paced life. It’s not relevant. It just doesn’t affect him.
There must be another source for it. This isn’t just some cheap joke like the ones Sonic is so fond of.
“Hey, watch that pretty mouth of yours,” Sonic laughs like a very careless fool, his words slipping out like honey, “What’s with that face?”
“Sonic, repeat what you said,” Amy insists again, although she quickly decides it’s a lost cause. Sonic won’t give her what she wants, but she needs to confirm that her ears aren’t deceiving her. “What’s that about today being your hearing? What do you mean by that?”
“To be honest, I have no idea what that means,” he rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed but not as distressed as he should be. “I got sent a... A what? A subpoena? Something like that.”
“Oh, no,” Amy covers her mouth in shock. He must be joking. “No, no, no. Sonic, what did you do?”
Sonic’s shoulders slump in discouragement, as if Amy were killing the mood. He doesn’t find it amusing, but then again, none of this should make him laugh. It’s a troubling matter.
Sonic sighs, “Do you want me to give you the letter I got so you can read it?”
“What’s going on here?” Tails approaches the table, placing both hands on the surface and standing between Amy and Sonic, “Is everything okay, guys?”
Oh, perfect. A sober and, more importantly, reasonable person. Tails recently had his birthday, but he hasn’t found alcohol appealing. For once, Amy appreciates it.
“Tails!” She shouts, agitated, “I think someone sued Sonic!”
Both of their eyes widen. They then share a look of astonishment.
“He got sued?”
“I got sued?!” Sonic brings his hands to his head, though his cry is drowned out by the noise of the music and his friends’ banter. “Why didn’t anyone tell me before?!”
“Sonic, that’s why you have a hearing. That’s what it means.” Amy rests her elbows on the table and leans her forehead on her hands. She feels the stress throbbing in her temples. She can’t believe it. She takes a deep breath and claps her hands together. “Okay, okay, stay calm. We’ll figure this out.”
Although Amy isn’t quite sure what she can do in the first place—she’s currently interning at one of the most renowned law firms in Station Square, yes, but she still has to take her bar exam. She’s nothing more than a mere student.
That’s no reason to falter. It never has been. She’s Amy Rose, and she’ll figure it out.
The brothers exchange a glance, but neither of them is going to say that Amy is the one who’s uneasy here. It’s not a good idea, not when their friend is in this state, and not when Sonic is intoxicated and can’t run. Tails cares too much about her to want to upset her further.
They decide it’s best to wait until most people have left to read the subpoena Sonic received.
But the hole in Amy’s stomach only gets bigger with every passing minute.
~~~
“For... For tax fraud? This doesn’t make any sense!” Amy shouts in exasperation, dropping the stupid summons and pointing at it with both hands. The brothers exchange another glance. “Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t really my area of expertise, but... You don’t have any tax obligations, you don’t have a job! You don’t receive any income other than what the government gives you. You... you have no income to declare! What is wrong with them?!”
Sonic blinks, dumbfounded. He doesn’t seem to have understood a peep.
“Income?” Sonic asks, at a loss.
“I mean, like a paycheck from a steady job… I bet you’re not even registered as a worker. As far as I know, you’ve never worked.” Amy explains confidently, but for a moment, Sonic’s face turns pale. His pupils shrink as if he has realized some tumultuous fact.
He quickly recovers, coughing to cover up what happened, and smiling briskly.
“Nope! I’ve never had a job! I don’t believe it either!” He exclaims, raising a thumb. Amy narrows her eyes.
That was too strange to ignore. Could Sonic be hiding something from her? You don’t hide things from your lawyer! Well... She’s not really a lawyer, true, and she didn’t offer to represent him, but he should take it for granted! Amy is always there for them through thick and thin.
With another dry cough, Sonic tries to feign some seriousness. He crosses his arms and tilts his head, “So? What now?”
Amy sighs in response, deflating.
“If your hearing was today, then we are in trouble. Even though the reasons are beyond stupid, not showing up merits a judge issuing an arrest warrant.”
Sonic whistles, and Amy feels a vein pop out on her forehead. Is he really not worried at all? Amy is mortified!
“Well, it’s not like it’s my first rodeo with getting arrested. It’ll be fine.” Sonic dismisses with a shrug. Tails raises an eyebrow.
“Hey, but have you ever been arrested as an adult?” Tails asks, though Sonic looks at him quizzically, as if he doesn’t see the difference between his current case and all the others. “The laws and consequences that apply are different there. Trust me, someone here gave me a long lecture when I turned eighteen as a birthday gift.”
Tails fixes his piercing gaze on Amy, and she smiles guiltily.
“I get the point, but have I ever not been treated like an adult? I landed in a maximum security prison at fifteen. This is kinda nothing?”
Amy’s eyes widen. He’s... he’s right. She had never seen it that way, and a lump forms in her throat as she thinks about it. Isn’t that too unfair? It’s—
“Oh, but that case was very, very different!” A melodic voice emerges from the shadows, and the trio turns with a jolt. Rouge steps into the spotlight, revealing her perpetual flirtatious smile full of secrets.
Shadow trails behind her for some reason, but he seems to have no desire to be here under any circumstances, his head hanging low with apathy. It’s not unusual for her to force him to play along, after all, and he has never hidden his displeasure.
“The government needed a cover. It was better to make the public believe that you were behind everything than to reveal that our little friend here actually existed. Aren’t they naughty?” Rouge laughs lightly like a cloud, placing a hand delicately on Shadow’s shoulder. He rolls his eyes but makes no effort to brush her off.
“Oh. That explains it,” Tails decides matter-of-factly, nodding once before pointing at Shadow and Rouge with goggle-eyed surprise, “What are you two doing here?!”
“We’re here to give Blue a gift for no longer being homeless.” Rouge raises a bottle of wine, accompanied by a hip sway as if this were an advertisement, “Shadow is not included in the gift, by the way.”
Rouge winks. Tails gasps loudly, Amy blushes, and Sonic whines with disappointment, pouting his lips.
Shadow doesn’t even bat an eye.
“Although I must admit, your conversation has captivated me. Is Blue in trouble again, then?”
“What’s new about that?” Shadow barks. Shaking his head with a disapproving exhale, “I don’t understand what’s so serious about it. I got a letter like that too, and I’m not complaining.”
Four pairs of eyes stare at Shadow, too silent and with expressions that are difficult to decipher. He frowns and crosses his arms as his only form of defense.
“What?”
“Shadow.” Rouge’s expression changes to one of pain. She facepalms, “Don’t tell me you too…”
Amy stands up while slamming the table, her chair squeaking against the floor. For a moment, she seems more pissed than ever before, and she is, but when she looks up, her eyes are bright and wet.
“What’s wrong with you two?! Why do you guys ignore when you’re subpoenaed? Don’t you understand how unnecessarily complicated you make everything?!”
“Not really!”
“I couldn’t care less.”
Amy slumps back into her chair. She doesn’t know why she even tries. They’re both equally stupid. She drops her head back over the chair’s backrest and covers her eyes with her hands. “I’ll have to go to the Ministry of Justice to sort this out.”
“Either way, isn’t it strange? I’m sure Shadow doesn’t legally exist,” Rouge points out, raising an eyebrow. Amy straightens her back and stares at the other woman, bewildered.
“But Shadow works for G.U.N...?” Tails scratches his head, trying to make sense of what’s going on. “What’s the deal there?”
“I’m hired under special circumstances,” Shadow replies stiffly and with some frustration, but beyond his characteristic bad attitude, Amy thinks she detects some sadness in his words. It’s almost imperceptible, but it’s there. She wonders what that’s about. Shadow is so elusive; he doesn’t like to talk about himself. Even though he has been there to help Amy study on more than one occasion (especially when she was recovering from her surgery), she can’t get him to open up.
“Psh, yeah. Special my ass.” Sonic complains under his breath. Shadow still listens, frowning and stepping in his direction, threatening.
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing, man. So you’re copying me again?” Sonic teases, raising his eyebrows a couple of times to provoke Shadow. He rolls his eyes.
“Even at that, you’re incompetent. I got two letters.”
“Two?!” Amy shouts, alarmed. She’s going to pull her quills out of her head. Seriously. She can’t deal with these people and keep her brain cells intact. “What was the other letter about?”
Shadow shrugs, his expression monotonous. Amy wants to throw herself on the floor and sob pitifully.
“Could it be that Sonic also received two letters? Their situations seem to be similar,” Tails elucidates, helpful like always.
“I’ll go check the mailbox, I’ll be back in—” Sonic’s words are cut off. The resulting wind blows a napkin off the kitchen table. Barely two seconds pass before Sonic’s figure regains shape, back in his chair, “Now. There’s another letter from the Ministry.”
Amy swallows hard as she receives the mail. The paper feels like thousands of pins and needles pricking her hands, but she has always been brave, jumping into the fray to defend what she loves most. There’s a reason she wanted to become a lawyer. She can’t tolerate injustice; she can’t leave things as they are.
With determination, she breaks the seal and begins to read, but little by little, her whole world crumbles around her with a few simple printed words.
“Child… Neglect.” She reads aloud. Her hand loses strength and lands on the table, barely maintaining its grip on the paper, “What…? What is this letter talking about?”
She glances up at Sonic, but he and Shadow share an equally frightened look. They must know what this is about.
“Oh, yeah... That’s right. You guys don’t know,” Sonic finally stops staring at Shadow and turns to his two friends. With overly casual embarrassment, he rubs the back of his neck. Amy’s mouth goes dry.
She has always been brave.
But that doesn’t prepare her heart to hear those words. She wasn’t ready. She never would have been, really. Not even in her wildest dreams.
“Shadow and I have a kid.”