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Despite the sun being out in Emerald City, Shadow the Hedgehog’s mood was anything but sunny as he drove from Rouge the Bat’s mansion down to Amy Rose’s house. Considering he’d been out of work for over a year, had terrible luck finding a job, had anxiety over how hard his computer science courses had become, had to deal with a fascist dictator who stole the throne of Mobius and on top of that had constant anxiety over how Amy was doing in the months since her father’s death, he was treading the edge of sanity like he hadn’t been since Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik first released him from stasis. The only people keeping him together – aside from his best friend Rouge the Bat – were Cream the Rabbit and her mother Vanilla, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Sally Acorn, and – most importantly – his adopted sister Venus the Hedgehog. In fact, it was because of Venus that he was heading to Amy’s place today, for she prepared some gifts for his cherry blossom. Ever since Shadow had known Venus, he’d known her to be the generous type, getting gifts for her friends. That aside, once Shadow got to Amy’s house, he parked his 1970 Trans Am, killed the engine and headed for her door, which he knocked on.
“Coming.”
The door opened, and Amy was there, looking as though she’d lost the game of life: her once-vibrant hot pink quills were not only dishevelled, but had also lost some of their color, she had bags under her eyes, and her eyes were rather red.
“Oh, hi Shadow.”
“Hi Amy.”
Amy unenthusiastically stepped aside to let Shadow in, and he noticed that her house had become quite a bit of a mess too, with dishes piling up in the sink, dirty clothes strewn about and the trash bin in the kitchen/dining room being packed to bursting.
“Look, Shadow, I know I look like crap, and honestly, I feel like crap. I’m behind on the mortgage, the electric bill is almost due, the toilet’s backed up, and if it weren’t for Cream and Vanilla, I’d have nothing to eat.”
Shadow stared at Amy. “I know, and I’m going to skip the part where I offer you money and you stubbornly turn me down to let you know that Venus feels extremely bad for you and wanted me to send you some gifts to help you feel better because she didn’t know where you lived. I would’ve mailed them, but since the postal service screwed me over the last time, I don’t trust them to get it right this time, so here you go.”
Shadow held out the brown cardboard box to Amy, who smiled:
“Oh, I can’t turn down a gift from you two! Thanks!”
Amy took the box and opened it. Inside, there was a cherry blossom Lego set and a coloring book titled You Deserve Nice Things by Kate Allan.
“OH MY DAMN CHERRY BLOSSOMS!* This is so nice of her! Thank you so much!”
Amy gave Shadow a big hug and kiss. Even if Amy did seem a little gaunt to him, Shadow still enjoyed her touch, regardless. Besides, she still smelled nice. Eventually, she let go.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to help you clean up,” said Shadow. “We’ll discuss Rouge and I helping you with money later.”
Amy smiled. “Thanks, Shadow. I appreciate you cleaning up, but I wouldn’t feel right taking your money.”
Shadow smiled. “I’ll tickle you if you don’t take the money.”
Amy smiled and playfully slapped Shadow. “Just clean this place up, honey!”
Shadow smiled. Suddenly, the future was going to be all right after all.