Eggman is down but not out. Let`s not forget the other dangers that there are floating around for our favourite people.

Also for clarification, when I talk about temperatures, I measure in Fahrenheit.
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It`s Sunday today, which means it`s back to school tomorrow. Today is also the second day of November, another day closer to winter. Coming to this realization has made Amy realize something else. She had meant to buy a new winter coat yesterday but Eggman`s attack had made her totally forget! Luckily she isn`t in immediate need of the coat. The temperatures are still warmer than usual for this time of year but it won`t last. She will need this coat for the school week as the weather channel had said that the temperatures are going to drop down into the low 50`s.

As she stands in front of her mirror that is over her dresser, Amy brushes out her hair to get herself ready for the mall. With so many shops there, surely there will be one that will have the coat she is looking for. But what coat IS she looking for? What style? What colour? What fabric? Well, she should certainly make up her mind once she sees all that the stores have to offer. She is in no hurry anyway. Sonic most likely will be busy investigating the Eggman situation.

She sits down on a chair in the kitchen and slips on her red and white boots onto her socked feet. She lifts up one of her feet and admires how her boots look. Amy has had these boots for some time now but she still likes how she looks in them. She smiles to herself feeling satisfied with how she looks for the day.

Amy rises up from the chair and walks to her front door. She twirls her house key by it`s ring around her finger and she hums a little tune to herself. She opens her front door to leave but stops dead in her tracks.

Shadow is at the door with his hand raised as though he is about to knock on her door. Both are surprised to see the other there. A smile appears on Amy`s face as she laughs a little,"Well, hi there, Shadow. I didn`t expect to see you."

Shadow lowers his hand down to his side,"I thought I would come see you today."

"Well, I`m about to go the mall to shop for a new coat since winter is coming and I can`t find my original coat. You can tag along if you want."

Shadow nods his head,"I will do that. I can provide a ride for you."

He turns around and starts walking down her path. Amy steps outside and closes her door behind her and checks it to be sure that it is locked. When she turns back around, she sees Shadow heading for a motorcycle. She happily bounds up to Shadow and the bike,"Wow, Shadow! I didn`t know you had one of these!"

Shadow watches Amy run her hand over various parts of the bike,"I usually don`t need it since I can outrun it but...Today just seemed like a good day for it."

Amy clasps her hands together in front of her body,"You`re going to give me a ride on your bike??"

Shadow nods his head, rather hoping she would go for the idea,"If you would like."

"That would be-!"

A voice interrupts her,"Amy?!"

Amy and Shadow turn to the side and see Sonic approaching them. Shadow huffs, perturbed by the appearance of the blue-haired one. Amy`s reaction, however, is shocked to see him here. Sonic usually doesn`t come to Amy`s house by himself or if he does, it`s usually to drop Tails off with her. But here he is, walking towards her and Shadow with no one else with him. Amy blinks,"Sonic? What brings you here? I mean, not that I`m complaining or anything."

Shadow lowers his head a little at her latest statement.

Sonic reaches Amy and seems to be ignoring the fact that Shadow is here with her,"I was coming by to see if you had any plans for the day."

"Actually, I`m going to the mall with Shadow-"

"Huh?"

Sonic looks around her and sees Shadow. Shadow is standing beside his bike with his arms folded, looking quite seriously at Sonic, almost with a warning. Sonic gulps. Who knows what Shadow will do to Amy if he gets her alone. And how does he know that Shadow will allow Amy to make it to the mall? He will have to make sure that she is safe. Sonic clears his throat and turns his attention back to Amy. He tries his best to not sound eager or anxious,"Mind if I come along? I`ve got nothing else going on today."

Amy finds Sonic`s recent behaviour very strange,"I thought you were going to be tracking down Eggman?"

"He`s fine for a while. He probably won`t be stirring up any trouble today."

Amy smiles,"Well, if you`re going to join along, I should get more money."

She turns around and goes back up the path to her home. She unlocks her front door and goes inside. Since she will have Shadow and Sonic going with her to the mall, the trip might as well be more fun which will require more money. As soon as her front door closes behind her, Sonic turns to Shadow and the atmosphere suddenly changes from awkward friendly to malice.

As Shadow mounts his bike, Sonic walks up closer to him. His approach doesn`t go unnoticed. Shadow turns his head to the side and looks at Sonic. Both males are glowering one another. Neither one has to voice their opinion of the other. Neither one is willing to allow themselves to be intimidated by the other. With his eyes locked onto Sonic, Shadow starts his bike`s engine. It roars to life. A couple of quick revs and the bike is ready to go. Shadow looks at Sonic and his body language subtly warns Sonic to "back off". He speaks to Sonic in a dark tone,"There is only room for two."

Sonic scoffs, throwing aside Shadow`s statement,"You`ll just have to ride it alone. Amy`s going with me. It`s much safer."

"Hm! Amy will be just fine with me."

"You act recklessly. Besides-!"

Sonic lifts a foot and taps the side of the bike with the broad side of his red and white shoe, in which he receives a very annoyed look from Shadow for his actions,"This thing doesn`t even look like it could hold together with two people on it."

Shadow unleashes a guttural growl. Sonic looks back up to Shadow now sensing that he is getting to him,"I bet you drive just as recklessly as you act. If Amy gets on that bike with you, I doubt she`d make it to the mall alive. No way I`m going to let that happen."

Sonic makes his intentions of keeping Amy away from Shadow quite clear. Shadow`s hand reaches down to the side of the bike opposite of where Sonic stands. There is a small snap as his hand works a catch. It`s quickly followed by Shadow`s voice which is growing more dangerous,"I`d like to see you try..."

The front door closes shut which breaks the two males away from their heated conversation. Amy bounds up to the both of them unaware of what has just taken place on her front lawn,"Ok, I`m ready now, guys!"

Sonic quickly turns to Amy,"Would you like me to carry you, Amy?"

Amy`s smile drops and she looks confused,"I thought I was going to ride with Shadow?"

"Well, you know, motorcycles are rather dangerous. You hear about them on the news every other day. People who ride motorcycles that get caught up in an accident rarely survive it. I heard of one guy recently who got hit, fell off his bike from being struck by a car and then another car ran his head over. Motorcycles especially don`t offer any protection if something happens on the road. It`d be much safer if I were to carry you."

(AN - Above statement about the motorcycle driver is based off a true story.)

Amy looks to Shadow who leans forwards and folds his arms on the handlebars of the bike. He sits his head down on his folded arms while he turns it to the side to view Amy. This is a relaxed position to emphasize his lack of worry,"I`ve been driving for a long time. It`s perfectly safe."

Amy smiles to Sonic,"I think it`ll be ok, Sonic. Thanks for the concern."

Shadow raises himself back up to normal position as Amy comes to him and his motorcycle. With Amy temporarily distracted by climbing behind Shadow on the bike, Shadow gives Sonic a smirk. Not just any smirk. This smirk is wicked; it shows that Shadow knows that with Amy choosing to ride with him instead of Sonic he is victorious over Sonic. Sonic only lightly scowls at Shadow. It`s a light scowl because he wants to hide it quickly from Amy once she turns back around where she could see him. But the anger inside him rages on how Shadow is rubbing it in his face that Amy picked him.

As planned, Sonic wipes away the scowl quickly as Amy settles down on the bike. She turns to Sonic,"Will you be ok, Sonic?"

Sonic waves it off to seem unconcerned,"Pbbt, I can outrun that thing easily. I`ll be there before you guys."

Amy smiles,"Then I guess we`ll meet you there?"

"Yeah sure."

Sonic gives Amy his usual thumbs up and then he dashes off to run to the mall.

Amy wraps her arms around Shadow`s waist tightly. She has no idea how fast he plans on going and she wants to be sure she has a good grip so that she does not fall off.

Once sure that everything is secure and ready, Shadow has the motorcycle tear off down the road. They make a tight turn around the corner and leave the residential area. Coming onto a road with other vehicles on it, Amy hugs Shadow a little tighter as the motorcycle is picking up more speed.

Through her own body, Amy can feel how amazing Shadow`s body feels. While Sonic`s body is quite lean, mostly from all the running around that he does, Shadow`s body is different. His loose clothing hides how well toned he is. She can feel the strength coming through him as he works the bike to shift and move. The high speed and tight turns aren`t the only things that are enthralling Amy. She sighs softly and lays the side of her face against his back, watching the world go by just beyond the edge of the bike. Her arms remain tightly wrapped around his waist. A smile works on her face and she begins to daydream what he is like underneath all of this fabric. It doesn`t take much of this before a blush works on her face at these thoughts.

Shadow can feel Amy laying her head on his back and the tightening grip she has on his waist. Even though he should be concentrating fully on his driving, he can`t help but let his mind wander. Though he can`t feel her body as well as she can feel his, he still thinks he has a good idea of what hers may be like. Being caught up in his own mental desires of his female passenger, he unconsciously twists the throttle and begins to speed up.

Amy`s eyes flicker as the bike speeds up. She`s beginning to feel that he is racing about as fast as he can. The reality is, he is driving slower and with more care than he would if it were just him on the motorcycle. When it is just him, Shadow would drive recklessly; darting between oncoming cars, leaping off the sides of the bridges and other wild stunts. But now, he has a passenger with him and he certainly isn`t going to do anything that would put her in danger.

They aren`t aware, however, that they are being watched. Sonic runs on a series of overpasses and side roads, keeping pace with them. He wants to watch them, to make sure Shadow doesn`t do anything to endanger her. However, he sees that her arms are around Shadow`s waist and cannot help but to feel a tinge of jealousy. She should be holding on to him, laughing and having fun. She should not be hanging on to Shadow with her head resting against his back. He grits his teeth as he watches and decides that he has to act soon if he wants to make Shadow leave. If he is gone, he will have nothing to draw away Amy`s attention. Perhaps he could get GUN involved and remove Shadow from the picture for good? He doesn`t have much against him personally, but all`s fair in love and war. Yes, if Sonic could get GUN involved somehow, they will have Shadow sorted out and then all of his worries with the dark rival male will be diminished.

Shadow and Amy arrive at the mall. Shadow drives the bike up along the sidewalk, keeping the speed going. He searches along the outside of the mall to look for a store in particular. Amy mentioned earlier about needing a new winter coat, so a clothes store would be a good place to start at. He sees a clothes store that has a large entranceway on the side of the mall`s building. This clothes shop is a big one, two stories. This would be a good place to drop Amy off so that the motorcycle could be parked.

Shadow drives up to the clothes shop entrance then he brakes suddenly. The inertia of the speed of the motorcycle thrusts Shadow and Amy forward lightly. This is done on purpose by Shadow to get Amy pressed even closer to him.

Sonic, who is still keeping the distance from the two, catches this little act. His mouth parts open slightly upon realizing that the harsh braking was done on purpose.

Amy laughs a little and lifts her head up from it`s resting spot on Shadow. Shadow turns his head back to Amy and catches sight of her smile. Amy is a little sad about the bike ride being over. Maybe if she asks him later on, they could just drive around for a while? She slowly dismounts the motorcycle and steps onto the sidewalk. She turns to Shadow, expecting him to dismount as well but he doesn`t. He simply tells her that he is going to park the motorcycle and will meet her back here afterwards. Amy nods her head and watches Shadow drive off to search out for a parking spot.

She turns back around to face the mall building and sees Sonic standing before her with his arms crossed and holding his cocky smile. She steps up to Sonic,"Well, Sonic, looks like you were right about running faster than the motorcycle."

Sonic nonchalantly responds,"Yeah...And I wasn`t even going all that fast either."

"You weren`t waiting long, were you?"

"Nah, not really."

"Oh good."

Amy knows that Sonic usually becomes quite bored very easily from doing nothing. If he is too bored, he will usually take off and get into God only knows what kind of trouble. Though he usually takes care of himself and escapes the danger, it still worries Amy and makes her mad when he just takes off like that. If only he could manage to sit still long enough, he might be able to appreciate other things besides speed.

Shadow approaches the scene and makes his presence known. Amy happily grabs the wrists of both males and pulls the two of them with her to the clothes shop.

As they walk by everyone, people stop and take notice to Sonic`s appearance. Fighting Eggman and other evil that comes about has certainly made him quite the celebrity. Many of the citizens say such comments as "Look! There`s Sonic Hedgehog!" and "Wow, I didn`t know that Sonic comes here!" Usually Sonic would run away from admiring crowds but he has more important matters on hand at this moment. He has to spend time with Amy to gain her favour and to make sure that Shadow isn`t going to pull any shady tricks on her.

Normally, Amy would be striking a pose and telling everyone how she is Sonic`s girlfriend. But she has matured over time and has a mission of getting a new coat on her mind.
Shadow, on the other hand, finds all of this attention unnerving. How could those two deal with people crowding around them and yammering about some nonsense? It is quite annoying and leaves them little space. Shadow`s internal feelings about the crowds though soon die down as Sonic and Amy begin to shoo people away, albeit in a friendly manner so that no one thinks illy of them. A wash of relief comes over Shadow as people begin to finally back off and not pester the small group. He watches Amy as she tries to get people to leave them alone. She is being very gentle about it and people are being friendly towards her right back even though she is shooing them away.

Maria had that kind of effect on people...

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