The next day it was Valentine's day, the local folks around the whole Hedgehog Village seemed to be in a collectively positive mood, hung and put many decorations on display wherever they could and some special Valentine stores opened up.
"Awww, my favourite day is finally here," Amy sighed dreamily while holding a heart balloon in her hands, looking at it she decided to hang it by the entrance of her shack. The balloon nicely complimented the place and the sight made her softly smile.
"Hey, Amy!" Sticks walked over to her with a happy smile on her face, Amy waving her hand in greeting manner.
"Hi, Sticks. Are you going to join us this year?" she asked the badger, who usually wasn't interested in these special occassions.
"I suppose I could give it a try," Sticks shrugged and Amy gave her a kind smile.
"You can always leave, if anything makes you uncomfortable," she gently patted the badger's shoulder. In fact, Sticks wanted to see, if she could capture the dark hedgehog, seeing the occassion as a great opportunity, for everyone is going to be busy with the celebration and thus nobody will focus on her and her little plans. At least, she believed so.
"I know," Sticks nodded in confirmation and Knuckles soon joined the girls, wearing a black bow tie along with a formal jacket and even pants and formal shoes.
"Wow...," Amy widened her eyes, for she has never seen the echidna wearing such choice of clothes.
"Hello, ladies, I feel super generous today," Knuckles said proudly with a bright smile on his face, trying his best to act polite and formal. The girls softly giggled in response and all the three mobians started walking towards the center of the village.
"It does fit you, Knuckles," Amy admitted, making Knuckles feel even happier.
"Thanks! I am trying my best," he replied in joyful tone.
Surprisingly enough, they found Tails wearing a simple white button shirt, dark purple bow tie and black pants along with black shoes. The fur on top of his head was also specially styled and he smelled like a soft cologne.
"Oh Tails, you look...." Sticks wasn't able to finish her sentence, since she was trying to find the perfect word to describe the male fox.
"Handsome?" Tails raised an eyebrow before chuckling, the others laughing along with him.
"Are you going to try your luck with Zooey?" Amy asked him curiously with a small grin on her face, flustering the poor fox boy, who blushed in response.
"Ehhh, maybe? I-I mean.. she seems to like me back," he admitted and rubbed his head while smiling in nervous manner.
"Trust me, she is all over you," Amy winked at him to boost his confidence and bring comfort to him.
"I hope you're right, Amy," Tails replied quietly and looked around to hopefully catch a sight of the female fox. Today, he was going to confess his feelings properly to her and prayed for the best result possible.
"Have any of you seen her?" he asked his friends, Knuckles shook his head, Sticks shrugged and Amy frowned thoughtfully.
"I don't think I saw her today," Amy said carefully, hearing Tails softly sigh.
"But no worries, Tails, I am sure she will show up anytime now," Sticks tried to comfort their friend.
"Thank you, guys," Tails smiled at them, grateful to have such good friends by his side.
"Is Sonic going to join us?" Amy asked him afterwards, which made the fox remember the conversation with him from the day prior, but he kept his promise to never speak of it.
"I am not sure, I haven't seen him since the last morning," he replied honestly, wondering, if the blue hedgehog is now with Shadow somewhere.
"Oh, hold up," Amy pressed her communicator button to connect with Sonic's line.
"Hey, Sonic. Are you going to hangout with us today?" she asked and along with the others waited for any possible answer. There was a rustling noise before the blue hedgie's raspy voice spoke up.
"Hey... isn't it too early now?" he sounded sleepy, which made the group quietly giggle.
"Well, maybe, but it's Valentine's day and I think it would be shame, if you miss it," Amy replied calmly, watching the flickering communicator, whenever Sonic spoke.
"I'll come later, maybe," was his response followed by another rustling noise. Tails now started doubting, that Sonic is indeed with Shadow, yet... the reason, why Sonic would MAYBE come later, could be exactly him spending time with the black hedgehog.
"Alright, have a good rest, Sonic," Amy replied to the communicator.
"Thanks, Ames. Say hi for me," Sonic yawned before the line got shut off as the blue hedgehog ended the call and probably went back to sleep.
"Alright, now that we- uh oh, uh oh! Guys, guys, help!" Tails was about to ask about their next plans, but then noticed Zooey in the distance, she wore a dark purple empire waist dress with matching headband and simple ball-shaped small earrings decorating her face. She also had a natural brown eyeshadows applied on along with a black eyeline and no lipstick, since she liked to be rather natural, hence used only some decent kind of makeup and clothing.
Tails hid behind Knuckles and lowering his ears he got weak in his knees, starting to tremble out of the nervousness.
"Don't worry, Tails," Amy spoke to her friend as she dragged him from behind Knuckles and made him stand right in front of her, holding his shoulders tightly, yet comfortable.
"Just remember to stay yourself, get into a conversation with her, offer her some snack or whatever she likes and you should be fine. Everything else will then happen naturally," she advised him, trying her best to help him with his little crush. Little BIG crush! Tails listened to her carefully, yet had to swallow the lump forming in his throat from how nerve-wrecking such situation was for him.
"O-Okay, I'll d-do my best," he stuttered and Amy helped him fix his appearance, smiling at him she felt like his proud big mama.
"You'll make it, Tails. Good luck," she said softly, Sticks patted his shoulder and nodded in agreement with Amy, Knuckles gave the fox a thumbs up and a wink.
"Alright, I'll make it," Tails tried to regain his confidence and taking a deep breath he finally walked towards the girl of his dreams.
"H-Hi," he greeted the female once he approached her, while the group went to take seats in front of a local café and watch Tails from afar.
"Oh, hi, Tails. You look... stunning," Zooey said quietly while softly blushing, her heart skipping a beat in the process.
"Aww, hehe, thanks! You look gorgeous," Tails said nervously while giggling, feeling a sweatdrop roll down his forehead and he quickly wiped it away to avoid any awkwardness.
"Thank you," Zooey replied with a soft smile on her face. Tails still had in mind Amy's advice, clearing his throat he gestured towards the snack stall.
"Would you like some snack?" he asked her almost automaticaly due to following the advice from Amy.
"Oh, I ate just moments ago, but we can have some snacks later, if you want," she replied calmly and giggled, when she saw him acting so nervous despite how much he tried to hide it.
"Of course! I will be happy to!" Tails nodded in response, smiling at her. She returned the smile and through a straw she sipped a smoothie she got for herself moments prior. However, there was an extra straw in the cup.
"Do you like smoothies?" she asked him while offering him the drink. Tails nodded, accepting the offer he took the extra straw with his lips and sipped the tasty mix of fruits and cream, which nicely melted in his mouth and soothed his nerves.
"Awwww, look at that," Amy smiled in dreamy way, when she saw the two foxes acting so cute together.
"See, she even had an extra straw in her drink, it's a proof!" she added and glanced at her friends, who nodded in agreement.
"Yup. It won't last long and they are going to walk around while holding hands together," Knuckles replied and gently clapped his hands together.
"And they're going to lick each other and eat each other's faces too!" Sticks threw in a comment of hers, which made Knuckles laugh almost histericaly, while Amy gave her a serious look.
"It's called 'kissing', Sticks and it isn't exactly licking," she corrected her wild friend, who was amused by the fact, that Knuckles easily broke out of his formal character and now laid on the ground while laughing hard, even holding his stomach.
"To me it always looks like they want to eat each other," Sticks shrugged while crossing her arms, probably feeling lucky to never be interested in relationship stuff. She had some other things to be bothered by, like, when is Shadow going to finally show up, for example. In fact, she hasn't seen Shadow for a while now, ever since he stopped visiting the village. To her, it was suspicious and she made up theories, that he might be planning something behind the scenes.
"Uh, Sticks.. you will probably never understand these things, will you," Amy sighed while cupping her face as she leaned her elbows on the table in front of her.
"I rather prefer to never understand that, else it might infiltrate my mind and then I won't be able to get rid of it!" Sticks gave out a usual paranoid response, which Amy could already count with, so she just nodded before returning her glance back to the foxes, who moved somewhere else now and sitting together in a grass under a palm tree they laughed together, chatted and at one point they held hands together. Amy smiled upon the sight and considered one little love mission accomplished.
Another 'mission' she had in store was about herself of course, but she didn't seem to really find anyone fitting for her around the village, maybe except for Sonic, but again, she saw him rather as her brother, same with Knuckles and especially Tails. Then there were a few other interesting villagers, but none of them seemed fit for someone like her. And lastly, Shadow was also a potential option, but knowing how he is, Amy assumed, that Shadow is going to be very similar to Sticks, also not interested in relationships.
Hence, instead of trying to find herself a partner, she decided to help the crushing people and her friends get together with their other halves. And it made her happy either way, for she was caring and deeply understanding.
☆•~•☆
Several hours later, when the morning transformed into a sunny afternoon, Sonic finally showed up in the village, seeing the various decorations and words spreading the love all around he felt his heart actually ache at the sight, for it only reminded him of Shadow even more.
"Lookie who decided to finally arrive," Amy approached the blue hedgehog with a soft smile on her face, happy to see him here.
"Hi, Ames. Where are the others?" he greeted her, then asked curiously, as he couldn't see the rest of the gang anywhere around.
"They're all hanging out on the beach," she gestured towards the said area, Sonic giving it a quick glance before returning it to Amy.
"And why are you here?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Getting some ice-cream," she shrugged and led the hedgie towards the ice-cream stall, him following her.
"Ooooh, so many flavors!" his eyes brightened at the colorful sight of the various ice-cream flavors, now indecisive about which flavor(s) he might choose for himself. For some reason, he wondered, which flavor(s) would Shadow choose. Or if he even liked ice-cream in the first place. The azure hero felt a little sting in his chest from the bitter thought, that this day is such a special opportunity to get together with his crush, who will probably never show up for the whole time. Shadow's sudden absence is surely a mystery to him and he is trying his best to find out, where Shadow disappeared and why.
".....Sonic? Sonic! Hey, are you alright?" Amy waved her hand in front of the hero's eyes, which finally snapped the hedgehog back to reality and made him focus on the hedgette in front of him.
"Hm? What's up?" he attempted to shake the unwanted thoughts out of his head.
"It's your turn," she explained briefly while standing aside with an ice-cream cone in her hand already. She chose watermelon and lemon flavors.
Sonic frantically moved his eyes across all the flavors and in rush he chose blue raspberry with strawberry. Receiving his cone he also found out, that today everything was for free, so he could safely keep his rings in his 'quills inventory'. Glancing down at the ice-cream in his hand he frowned upon the thoughts filling his mind, which were caused by the sight of the red and blue colors, in the middle mixing up into purple shade. Blue reminded him of himself of course, for he was the only blue furred mobian around here. A bright, vibrant royal blue. The red, obviously, Shadow's crimson stripes and eyes, without a doubt.
"Is something wrong with it?" Amy asked him so suddenly, that he even flinched and felt a bit of the melting ice-cream dropping on his hand, which he quickly licked clean before fixing the melted parts by licking them off of the cone.
"Uh, no, nothing's wrong, hehe," he chuckled nervously, which actually worried Amy to an extent, as she raised her eyebrow in slight suspicion.
"You seem off today," she stated matter-of-factly before licking her own melting snack as the two walked towards the beach in order to join the others.
"I guess I overslept?" he tried to come up with some reasonable explanation for his actions, keeping his mouth shut about anything including Shadow.
"Hmm... I don't know, Sonic. You.. act a little weird lately, in general," Amy replied carefully, not wanting to insult her friend with her observations. The day they played Twister she got a lot of suspicions about him, she could just straight sense the strange energy in his presence. And now she sensed it again. Not to mention, that yesterday she didn't see him at all.
"Oh, please, you know me, adventures and stuff- oh Tails!" Sonic brushed it off and quickly finishing his ice-cream he rushed towards the twin-tailed fox boy, who was playing beach volleyball with some other mobians, Zooey being in the opposing team, ironicaly enough.
Due to hearing Sonic's call, the fox boy turned his head in the hedgehog's direction and got hit by the beach ball straight to his face, which made him stumble and fall onto the soft sand underneath.
"Soniiiic! This one is on you!" Tails complained as he stood up and brushed the sand particles off of his fur before getting suddenly dragged to a more secluded area, which confused the both teams.
"Sorry about this, buddy, but I need your help," Sonic spoke quickly to him, while Amy stood in the distance, clearly feeling upset, that Sonic simply ditched her like this.
"With Sha-"
"Shhhh! Not so loud," Sonic hastily covered the other's mouth to shush him before removing his hand, when Tails gave him a brief nod of understanding.
"I haven't seen him, Sonic. Not anywhere around the entire village, I don't know where he could be," the fox boy delivered the bad news to the hero in whisper, making Sonic lower his posture and turn sad.
"Okay... sorry again, heh, have fun," Sonic replied in rush before suddenly speeding off, away from the beach entirely. Tails noticed Amy looking towards him and gave her a shrug, as he could 'hear' her silent question about what the heck is going on with Sonic. He then returned to his team and resumed the sport game, Amy decided to sit nearby and watch them while rooting for the both lovers, despite them being in opposite teams.