The base was nestled within the forest, which was of no surprise. There were several huts clustered together with larger huts that served various purposes, such as one of them being Tails’ workshop and housing his plane and another large but being the hospital of sorts.

It was night so everyone was in bed. That was actually kind of a relief. Amy could return without being swarmed. Not that she didn’t appreciate everyone worrying about her safety but that she was just tired and wanted to get to bed.

Amy yawned then shook her head. She turned to Shadow, “Thanks for walking me home. It was nice having company.”

Shadow followed close behind the pink hedgehog, he made sure to remain alert the entire time while also replaying the events of what happened in his mind. Something big was going on, he could feel it, he was certain of it. Yet he had a feeling that whatever Eggman was planning was not yet ready, after all otherwise why would Metal Sonic go to such lengths for them to not know what it is.

Regardless the considerations left his mind once they made it to Amy's home, it was rare if ever that he visited the base but he certainly didn't want anyone developing the belief he would become a frequent visitor.

"Hmph, it's fine." He stated before he began to turn away.

"I will rest somewhere nearby, be prepared to start early tomorrow, understood?" It was more of an order than a question, Shadow was a Sargent type, if he wanted to he could probably be one, so complaining something was too much effort wouldn't fly with him.

Amy would’ve started her lessons on how to improve one’s social behaviour since Shadow was being rather rough. But meh. She was tired. It had been a long day and she worked her body quite a bit today. It wasn’t worth it.

She yawned and her eyes closed halfway as sleepiness took over. Then she nodded her head, “All right. I’ll be ready after breakfast.”

Shadow gave a nod before he turned around and began walking away. "Good, then I trust you will be ready." He explained, one thing he did know about Amy was that she was heavily determined, was that always a good thing? No, definitely not, however if he could ensure she focused on something genuinely important she would be a useful ally.

After not too long Shadow was out of sight, he leaped into a tree in the middle of the forest before laying down, close enough where if anyone had followed them he would be prepared to face them.

The sun rose early morning. But it was somewhat cloudy and grey. This signified a threat of rainfall. Which was a good thing for the plants. Things had been dry for a while and patches of grass were starting to turn brown.

Amy was up and dressed and she had gone to the cafeteria for breakfast. Usually she cooked for herself but in this way, she would save time by not having to worry about washing dishes. If Shadow was expecting her to be punctual, any time saving trick would help.

It probably wasn’t the best choice considering what was on her schedule for the day but darn it, Amy was craving pancakes this morning. She drowned them in syrup after smearing butter on top. The pancakes were cut into small pieces before she started eating. “Mmmmm…”

That hit the spot. There was something about homemade pancakes that the premade stuff from the store just couldn’t hold a candle to.

Shadow.. Was bored, he was incredibly bored, he didn't sleep for very long, he didn't need to after all, as part of the ultimate life form project Shadow was made to have near endless energy, only growing tired from pushing himself to his absolute limits or staying awake for months at a time.

Yet as time came to a logical point where Amy would likely be awake he approached the home and knocked on the front door... Only to get nothing. "Rose?" He questioned, knocking again, still nothing.

He let out a sigh before running a hand along his face, getting a few looks from people clearly surprised by Shadows presence in the village.

It wasn’t a normal sight. The ultimate Lifeform hardly came here. And when he did, there was a decent chance he and Sonic would get into a fight each other. Some of the residents whispered to one another as they stared, passing by.

“What’s HE doing here?”
“He’s not going to start trouble, is he?”
“What if he fights Sonic again?”
“Why is he at Amy’s hut?”

Fortunately, none approached him. They knew better than to instigate the striped hedgehog.

Back at the cafeteria, Amy deposited her tray and spent dishes in the proper place and exhaled a satisfied sigh, “Oh yeah, that was what the stomach needed.”

“Amy?”

Amy turned around to the familiar voice, “Oh hey, Blaze.”

The purple cat tilted her head to the side, “Are you all right?”

Amy smiled, “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Blaze pointed to the top of Amy’s head, “This is the first time I’ve seen you without your headband.”

“What?!” Amy’s hands flew to her head and found no evidence of her red headband. How could she have forgotten it? Was she in that much of a rush this morning? Amy without her headband was like Sonic without his red and white shoes.

“Thanks for letting me know!” Amy said quickly as she ran out of the cafeteria and darted down the dirt path to go to her hut. What luck. This was going to make her late, she just knew it!

Shadow was well aware he wasn't quite liked here, he wasn't seen as much of the hero type like Sonic and the others, even though he saved the day the same amount of times. It wasn't some kind of bias towards him, it was simply that he rarely stook around to actually celebrate the victory with everyone. If Sonic and Shadow teamed up, it would end with everyone cheering for Sonic, while Shadow would already be gone.

There was more than that however, Shadow was seen almost like a neutral party, he went against their heroes almost as often as he worked along side them. If he was hard for Amy to read, then normal citizens didn't stand a chance.

As Amy returned to her home Shadow heard the sounds of her approaching foot steps, turning to see her running as fast as she could, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in confusion, was she running away from something? Or even worse... She wasn't mistaking him for Sonic again.... Was she?

Oh boy, Shadow was here already. Surely he would have something to say by attacking her punctuality. There was no time for that, however. A wardrobe malfunction needed fixing!

“Sosorrybutihavetogetsomethingrealquick!” Amy rapid fired her apology as she darted past the black hedgehog to get to her front door. Frantically, she worked the lock and was able to open her door.

The pink hedgehog disappeared inside, not bothering to close the door. There was panicked rummaging in her home as Amy searched for her headband. Well no wonder she forgot it this morning! Instead of sitting on her dresser like normal, the headband had fallen on the floor.

The red headband was placed in its normal spot on Amy’s head and she let out a relieved smile. She exited her home and closed the door behind her. She had a satisfied expression on her face as her speech returned to normal, “Whew! That was a close one. That could’ve been a disaster.”

Seeing Amy immediately run by him was... Unexpected to say the least, he even had to side step so she didn't charge directly into him. This did help prove the point he made the other day however, when Amy wanted to, she too was incredibly fast, such speed was not specific to the ultimate life form and the blue blur. Was she as fast as them? No, but could she keep up? He had no doubt.

The black hedgehog noticed the door was left ajar, part of him wondered if he should let himself, however there was no point, the sooner they got to training the better after all.

Shadow watched as she exited the house once more, he was confused on what exactly this 'disaster' was and slowly looked her up and down, eventually realising it. "You were looking... For your headband?" He questioned.

She donned a nervous smile and put her hand on the back of her head. Her head sank into her a shoulders a little. Busted. “Ah ha-ha…. Um… Yeah…”

The ultimate life form gave a clearly skeptical look, he wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not, what was even the point of such a reaction, regardless it did get her here faster, so that helped anyway.

"Hmph, doesn't matter, let's just get moving before-"

"Before what Shadow?"
Before he could even fully turn around, the black heard the sound of a very familiar voice, he turned fully to see Sonic, an arrogant smirk on his face as per usual. "Never thought I'd see you hanging out with Amy, what's the occasion?" He questioned, his eyes glancing to Amy as he mentioned her, giving a slight wave as he did so before returning his attention to Shadow.

“Good morning, Sonic~” Amy said in a singsongy voice, a blush forming on her face with a beaming smile. Her knees turned in and she clasped her hands together. Her crush was visiting her home! The possible threat of the two breaking out into a fight hadn’t entered her mind as she was too preoccupied with being swept up in her emotions as she often was.

She took a couple steps forward intending to get closer to Sonic but was actually standing equal between the blue and black hedgehogs. “Shadow’s going to train me today, so I can get better at battles. Isn’t that awesome?”

There was an uptick in her voice as she spoke. Amy hoped that maybe bettering her combat prowess would impress the blue hero.

Shadow glanced back at Amy as she gave the greeting, she seemed so different around him, yes Amy was a naturally kind and loving individual, yet she had an extra glimmer in her eye when she spoke to or even saw Sonic. He couldn't really understand it, but that didn't mean he wasn't used to seeing the reaction.

Sonics expression changed as Amy mentioned Shadow was training her, something that he was rather curious about. "Really now, hanging out with Ames isn't really a you thing to do Shadow?" Sonic pointed out with a curious look, even though he and Amy weren't dating, that didn't mean she wasn't one of his best friends, more than that he did care about her safety, he wanted to ensure she was ok but dealing with Shadow? Now that's not usually a good idea.

"It's a deal worked out between the Rose and I, something that doesn't concern you." Shadow retorted, his arms crossed over his chest, he wanted to keep things between himself and Amy, Sonic being here wasn't good.

Being blinded to the tension that seemed to be starting to bubble between the guys, thanks to her adoration for Sonic, Amy went on happily, “Yeah it was kindda strange. But I thought it was awesome Shadow was willing to take me under his wing. He’s really good at fighting so I’m sure I’ll learn at least a couple things.”

That was one of Amy’s qualities: seeing the positive in things. Kind of like a certain blonde Shadow once knew…

Amy got into a fighting stance and proceeded to shadowbox to illustrate her words, “Eggman won’t know what’ll hit him!”

Sonic was now not just curious, he was concerned, just randomly deciding to prepare for the next Eggman attack and with Shadow of all people wasn't like Amy... Something else was going on.

"Eggman huh? Alright Shadow tell me what's going on-"
As Sonic approached however that's when Shadow stepped forward, standing toe to toe with the blue hedgehog. "My business with Rose is none of your concern Sonic, frankly I don't see the problem here." He stated in a stern tone.

Sonic looked away slightly and let out a long sigh. "Alright, but on one condition, I don't want you being too rough on Amy, so I'll be helping today, what do you think Ames?" Sonic tilted his head at the end to look at Amy, giving her a side ways grin.

Amy did manage to break out of her celebrity swooning over Sonic and took notice of the two hedgehogs almost look like they were squaring up with one another. The smile dropped from her face and she contemplated stepping in to break them up. She’s had to do that how many times? Didn’t always succeed and they fought anyways, but didn’t stop her from trying.

Then Sonic disengaged the tension and turned his attention to Amy, making her smile again. He had a really awesome smile.

…

Did Shadow ever smile? Well, there was that one time where he laughed at someone who was trapped in the bathroom stall but that doesn’t count, does it? He always sported a frown. Hmmm… Just what would Shadow look like with a genuine smile…?

Oops. She was supposed to answer Sonic.

“Ah, well, I did make an agreement with Shadow that it was gonna be just the two of us,” Amy replied though with unease in her tone. She’d love for her blue hero to come along but she was also someone who wanted to uphold promises she made. Besides, Shadow seemed like the type who’d take things like honesty really serious. Breaking trust with Shadow would have permanent consequences. He’d prolly never trust her again.

Damn effects of trauma. Sometimes Amy wished she could go back in time and smack the Commander with her hammer to knock sense into him.

Shadow knew he had to make a decision, on one hand he could try and make it clear to Sonic that he couldn't help and this was between him and Amy, or he could go along with what Sonic wanted.

Sonic meanwhile didn't directly respond to Amy's statement, his eyes were on Shadow now, a hedgehog that was rather hard to trust completely, he was far harder to read than most, which further added to many's unease around him.

"Hmph... For today then." Shadow stated before turning his head back to Amy. "As long as you do not object Rose?" Shadow questioned, this needed to work and keeping Sonic suspicious of them would make that far more difficult, if they could put him at ease however that would help a lot for the future.

Amy turned to Shadow and folded her arms together behind her back. She shrugged her shoulders for a moment before she spoke, “It’s up to you. You’re the one who asked for it to be just us.”

Having Sonic around? Heck yes! Although hopefully she wouldn’t mess up and make a fool of herself in front of her hero… Well she had training before so it’s not she could mess up all that bad, right?

Shadow gave a nod, he figured that Rose was probably over the moon for this now, since Sonic was going to be around and was here to help her with her training, he almost felt like he went from scheduling a training session to scheduling a date.

"In that case, let's go." He stated before he headed off, Sonic swiftly moving beside Amy.

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