I want to, once again, thank y'all for the amazing support you've been given me! And thank you Mewtwo150 for beta reading my story. You're awesome!
"Hey, Ames! Hey, Cream! What- what are you doing here? It's already so late!" Sonic said, desperately trying to hide how nervous he was.
If Amy knew he was hanging out with his metal double, she would totally freak out. Honestly, he couldn't blame her. Having a robot kidnap you at such a young age is traumatizing, after all. Even if Sonic explained everything to Amy, she might not even believe him. Cream would be more open to it, but only because she's young and naïve.
"I was going to ask you the same thing! I'm walking Cream home, and you?" Amy asked.
'Good', Sonic thought, 'It doesn't seem like they noticed us.'
Sonic responded, putting aside the slight guilt Metal suddenly felt for kidnapping Amy. "I was just running around. Tails had gone to bed, and I was bored, so I decided to enjoy myself a little. Y'know, have some fun!" Sonic said with a joyful tone.
"You must've been running pretty fast, Mr. Sonic. It seemed like there were two of you!" Cream said, totally oblivious to what had actually happened.
"I guess you could say that", Sonic said, laughing nervously. He really hoped Amy wouldn't become suspicious.
"I've never seen you run that fast before", Amy said with a somewhat thoughtful and surprised expression. "If you want, we could bring Cream to her house."
Sonic felt relief coming from Metal. The distinct words 'she doesn't suspect anything' also flashed through Sonic's mind.
Sonic would love to be with Amy. But he wasn't about to abandon Metal. So, he did his best to think of a decent excuse. "I would really like that! But...I didn't sleep that well yesterday, and I need to wake up early, too." Amy and Cream both looked a bit disappointed. "Sorry, Ames. Sorry, Cream. I've gotta go!"
Sonic then took off to a place where he would no longer be noticed but was still not far from Metal.
After Amy and Cream left, Sonic and Metal got out of their hiding spots.
"That was a close one, Bud. We need to be more careful." Sonic said.
"Since when do you care about being careful?" Metal asked, puzzled. Sonic never cared about being careful. He was quite careless, actually. He was only cautious when he had to be, and his friends persuaded him to be careful.
"I'm always careful!" Sonic chuckled and laughed slightly. Metal would've raised an eyebrow at his response if he had one.
"You told me being careful was boring, and that was a week ago!"
"I know, I know, I do think it's boring, but we can't get caught!" Sonic said in a more serious tone.
Metal couldn't help but "make a joke". At least, that was how Sonic and Mobians said it. While capable of understanding and enjoying them, he wasn't built to make jokes. So he had been learning how to make them.
"You've sure changed a lot since one week ago. I can already see the grey quills!" Sonic could feel that Metal hoped he had done a good job of producing "a funny joke".
Sonic started laughing and felt, through his "body", Metal's satisfaction and happiness from the success of his joke.
"Oh, shut up!" Sonic replied half-heartedly, still laughing. "Since when do you know how to make jokes?"
"Since you've been teaching me." Metal said matter-of-factly.
"I was just messing with you", Sonic said as he slowly stopped laughing. "But jokes aside, you've been improving! Congrats!"
"Thank you."
Sonic felt gratitude and a sense of accomplishment coming from Metal.
"No problem, Mets! So, let's keep racing?"
"Just one thing."
Sonic nodded, confusion written on his face.
"You like Amy, don't you?"
Sonic remembered teaching Metal what love was. His database's definitions of love were all very ambiguous. However, Sonic now wished he hadn't even explained what love was to begin with.
"No... I mean- Yeah, I do", Sonic said, embarrassed. "I can't lie to you about it, or anything really", Sonic mumbled, mostly to himself.
"Why don't you just date her, then? If you like someone, you date them, right? That's what you explained to me."
Sonic sensed Metal's confusion. He knew he had to explain the "love situation with Amy" to Metal.
After explaining everything to Metal, Metal asked.
"I understand. But why didn't you just tell her you liked her but didn't want to pursue a relationship?"
"To be honest, I didn't like her back then, and when I started having feelings for her..." Sonic sighed. "I had already rejected her so many times, she had also stopped being so vocal about it. And... honestly, it's always been difficult to talk about feelings and things like that. Guys don't really do that. Even now, when I try, I sound like an idiot. So, I guess that's why I never had the guts to tell her." Sonic spoke with embarrassment in his voice.
"I see."
Sonic could feel that Metal was thinking about a solution.
"I know you think you're too young, but maybe you could give it a try. Why wait? I've been searching 'dating' in my database, and it's something that comes up".
"Not waiting?"
"Affirmative."
Sonic was surprised at how good Metal was at giving advice. Metal had surprised him quite a bit lately. "I'll think about it." Sonic said.
"Thank you for the advice! I didn't think I would get such good love advice from you."
"No problem", Metal said. "Let's finish the race. I know you're becoming impatient."
Sonic nodded. Then they both left, the world blurring beneath their feet once more.
Something was wrong with Sonic. Amy didn't know exactly what it was, but she knew he was hiding something. She'd known Sonic for almost half her life and knew he never cared about sleep that much. Not to the level of not bringing Cream home with her, for sure.
Besides, the "two-Sonic-running-thing" was also suspicious. 'After all, he didn't even agree that it was just him running', Amy thought.
She was almost certain someone was running with him, but why was he hiding him or her? What if he had started dating someone secretly? If he did, why hide her? Amy knew Sonic didn't like her, but she held out hope that things would change. She wasn't as vocal about it as she was back when she was 8, for obvious reasons, and she knew they would probably only be close friends. Still, she hoped that wasn't the case.
Now that she thought about it, Tails was acting strange, too. When she came over to visit them or just hang out, she could tell something was different with Tails. She had asked him about it, but Tails had just brushed it off and said he was fine. Amy now realized he probably knew what Sonic was hiding, but what were they hiding, and why? Amy felt a little hurt. She thought Sonic and Tails knew they could trust her!
All of this was driving her insane. 'Maybe because Sonic has always been open with me, until now, I suppose...', Amy thought.
Then, she glanced at the clock on her kitchen wall and noticed it was getting late. After brushing her teeth, she went to her bed, yawning.
'I need to talk with Sonic or Tails about it tomorrow', was Amy's last thought before drifting off to sleep...
Spoiler Alert: If you've been missing Tails, don't worry! He's going to be a big focus on the next chapter ;)