#bonus 2: tails wakes them up next morning with the smell of freshly made pancakes

[latin-dr-robotnik]

SonAmy - First flight

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all have many stories about the heroic feats they achieved with the help of the Tornado. Since their first adventures they used the famous biplane to confront Dr. Eggman... but what about Amy? How and when was her first flight?

“Tails! Have you seen Sonic?” 

Amy approached the Tornado, parked just outside the workshop. She travelled all the way to the Mystic Ruins in hopes of sharing a little picnic with the blue hedgehog. The calm and warm evening served as the perfect set up for a date; but thing is, he wasn’t informed at all!

She got no response, yet could still hear some mechanical noises coming from the Tornado. Frustrated, she left her picnic basket on the ground and started walking with leaden feet towards the plane.

“Tails, I asked you a question! No need to be so rude! Tails!”

But a different, unexpected figure rose from within the cockpit.

“Uhh, Tails isn’t here.”

“Sonic?!” She froze in place for a moment. “Oh, I’m sorry! I thought it was Tails ignoring me!” 

She looked away for a moment, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole ordeal. Sonic was looking a bit rough and dirty from working all day inside the plane. He was even playing with a big wrench on his hand.

“Heh, nope. He left early and hasn’t returned... yet.” 

Amy took an extended look at him, and the plane, then back at him.

“What... what are you doing, exactly?”

He chuckled. “Hey, I can take care of my plane on my own, do a little maintenance on it, y’know!”

She covered her mouth with her hands, only her eyes left visible, shining and excited as ever. 

“Oh my gosh! Is it actually your plane?”

“Well, duh, of course it is!” He leaned over the side, pointing to the letters SONIC printed on the red fuselage. “See? My name, my plane. Tails just likes to use it more than I do, haha!”

“Oh, I see.” she looked away again, directly back at the basket she left behind. “Hey, I think you must be tired from working on that plane all day... wanna join me for a picnic?”

Sonic scratched the back of his head, a little hesitant.

“I... can’t right now. I need to test this baby and see if it’s working as intended and-”

He stopped himself for a second and kept staring at her, pouting with her arms crossed. Doing test flights alone is a perfectly fun routine, but her sole presence was enough to give him a completely new idea.

“Let me tell you something,” he asked with a smug look on his face, “how about you join me and test this thing together?”

Amy opened her eyes, shocked by the sudden proposition.

“Y-you mean f-flying together?” She blushed a bit. “I-I mean I’ve never flown in my life, but sure! I’d l-love to!”

Sonic jumped from the cockpit up on the wing, then extended a hand to her, smiling.

“Heh, then jump on!”

“What!? You mean o-on the wing? D-don’t you have another seat or something?”

“Nope, the wing is for passengers.” Sonic reassured her, then shifted his head to the horizon beyond the runway. “But don’t worry, the day is perfect for an evening flight, there’s almost no wind and we have another hour or so of sunlight. Not that I can’t fly at night... but I don’t like the look of those clouds in the distance.”

He pointed out a massive barrier of clouds still far away. She nodded and climbed on top of the wing, still a little unsure of this whole thing. She’s never been in the air, let alone standing on a wing, with nothing to hold her! Was it really safe?

Well, Sonic wasn’t too bothered about it - in fact, he was pretty excited! His face lit up with excitement as he returned to the cockpit, setting everything up for takeoff. After flipping some switches and checking everything, he raised a hand to his mouth, as if mimicking a real commercial pilot communicating through a speaker.

“Ok Ms. Rose, this is your captain and pilot of the day Sonic the Hedgehog speaking. We are just about to take off - time of day: 18 hours 39 minutes, temperature is... warm, I guess. We have a lovely sunny evening, with clouds in the distance potentially limiting the amount of air time we’re gonna get today. Hold on tight, as we don’t have seatbelts in the economic class, and please enjoy your first flight with Hedgehog Airlines. Captain out!”

She giggled through the entire speech, feeling excited as ever but at the same time scared of doing all of this for the first time. She kept her eyes on the runway ahead, standing in silence as Sonic kept flicking some switches and adjusting the stick.

Captain Sonic soon returned for take-off.

“This is Captain Sonic speaking again, we are taking off!” He said, while accelerating the plane. “This is standard procedure, so please bear with us as we reach optimum speed and...”

Amy panicked at the speed and movement of the plane. Sonic pulled the stick swiftly, and up they went!

“And we are in the air. Next destination: the Mystic Sea!”

Amy felt the rush of adrenaline kicking in as they were no longer on solid ground, but also struggled to find some stability riding on the Tornado’s wing. Sonic was right, there was little to no wind... when they were stationary. Now that they were cruising the skies at speed Amy quickly realized the challenge she was facing.

“Wah-ah! This is too fast!”

“Heh, you call this fast?” He chuckled, breaking away from his Captain character. “C’mon, don’t try to resist against the wind, just stand there and... open your arms to it!”

Amy stumbled a bit as Sonic leveled the plane to a stable height, flying further into open sea. She finally managed to find her footing, looked at the sunset... and stretched her arms as much as she could on both directions.

It felt great. She never felt as free in the wind as at that very moment. Opening her arms was like taking the role of the sail of a ship, free to be taken wherever the wind decided to. They were going fast, yes, but after facing her initial doubts and fear, she stopped caring about it.

She closed her eyes and let her head fall on her back, enjoying more than ever the warm sun and the fresh wind. Sonic looked up, watching her be so happy that he couldn’t help himself but to smile tenderly, reminiscing the first time he ever took to the skies, and how good it felt as well. It’s the small details like that, bursts of energy and happiness that sometimes get lost in everyday life, in doing the same thing repeatedly and losing that original spark in the process. He’s been flying all over the world for a while now, and it started to feel like regular business. But just at that moment, he remembered just how beautiful it should feel.

He kept smiling at her for a minute, then snapped back to reality. He wanted to have some fun now.

“This is your Captain Sonic speaking.” He interrupted her. “We are changing our route to go through the ever so impressive Mystic Crags! We’re gonna need the help of our passenger and her open arms to direct us to and through the crags. Buckle up because we’re about to start dancing!”

Amy looked at him over the shoulder, her arms still wide open and more confident than ever.

“Let’s do this.”

Sonic moved the stick north-wise, and pulled down bit by bit. In a matter of seconds, they were flying pretty close to the water and heading directly back to the coastline. Amy kept her eyes locked in the rocky and rugged terrain ahead, with tall cliffs that lead into the sea, followed right by the many, many crags sticking randomly along the shore, all in different shapes and heights. The entire place seemed like a bird’s training ground, twisting and turning between rocks and natural arches. 

“Okay, time to test how this baby truly handles.”

Sonic gripped the flight stick with determination, his sights fixed on a tentative route around the crags at full speed, but keeping in mind he wouldn’t be able to do many tricks with a passenger on board. 

No silly barrel rolls or anything like that today.

Amy felt the adrenaline rush reaching its peak as they approached the first set of crags. She focused on keeping a solid enough foothold as Sonic turned from left to right, up and down constantly. Both of them were so concentrated not a single word came out of their mouths through the entire show, just enjoying the adrenaline rush. First they raced past the rocky coast, then another lap through a different route, and another one... and after a while, a final grand tour around the entire place that culminated with them flying through a rocky arch and coming out high up in the sky again.

After such a rush, Sonic turned west right back to the sea, and both started laughing at the same time.

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Amy cheerfully exclaimed while looking at Sonic, jumping in place and then holding her hands close to her chest. “I wasn’t sure if I was excited, or scared, or pumped up, or everything at the same time! The wind felt great, then it felt so thrilling rushing by all those rocks at that speed! I hope you could’ve seen my face, I was so seriously concentrated the whole way through, haha!”

Sonic’s laugh slowly turned into a serious face of concern.

“Hmm...” He said to himself, “I don’t really like the look of those clouds...”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Sonic?”

“Uh, I mean-” He covered his mouth again and looked back at her. “This is your Captain Sonic speaking, I’m afraid we might have to go back to base earlier than intended, a storm is certainly coming soon and Tails wouldn’t like to have a soaked plane inside his workshop! Uhh... captain out.”

“Oh, right.” She looked up, watching as more and more clouds started forming right above them as the last rays of light tried to pierce through and the wind started getting a little rougher. “It’s a shame, really, but I understand. Let’s go home, captain~”

The last minutes of the flight were spent in a bittersweet silence. 

On one hand they were having so much fun and were so happy everything turned out like it did; but on the other they weren’t able to stay for longer like that, being practically forced to return home. Risking flight in stormy conditions was strictly off the table for Sonic, and so they bid farewell to the crags, and then the sea...

Sonic landed the Tornado just outside the workshop gates, and he made sure to check everything before leaping out of the cockpit and back on solid ground. 

He lended a hand to Amy, offering to help her jump off the wing, to which she nodded and grabbed it.

“That was so fun. Thank you, Sonic.”

“Thank you for flying with Hedgehog Airlines,” he joked one last time while putting one hand on his mouth and the other on the back of his head, “I’d appreciate if you rate your experience today with five stars.”

Amy smirked, then without a single doubt she jumped directly at him, hugging with more strength than usual.

“Oh, I’d rate you TEN STARS if I could!”

“Heh... ow, Amy, it’s fine haha, no need to... squeeze this much”

He slowly put both of his hands close to her back, barely touching her. Then he noticed the picnic basket she left earlier.

“H-hey, about that picnic...”

Amy let go of him, and reflected on the main reason she was there to being with.

“I... I don’t think we’ll be able to do it now.”

“Why not?”

“Well, the clouds...”

“It doesn’t have to be outside, though.”

Sonic winked at her. And her face instantly lit up.

“Oh, Sonic! You’re a genius!” Amy ran back to pick the basket, then pointed at the small door to Tails’ Workshop. “Shall we do it inside?”

He slowly walked towards the bigger hangar doors, smiling all the way through as Amy was about to open the other, smaller door.

“Yup. I’m gonna store the plane and join you in a super sonic second!”

“Oh! I’m so going to pick a movie to watch tonight!”

“Heh. It’ll be fun.”

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Bonus: Ever wondered what happened to Tails? He actually came back home sometime after midnight, and wasn’t happy at all - he was completely soaked! Turns out the day wasn’t too kind for our lovely fox, and the storm that arrived earlier that night and never left did not help at all. At the moment he opened the door, all he wanted moment was to get inside his bed and not be disturbed by anything or anyone. 

Yet, when he entered the workshop and passed through the living room, he found Sonic and Amy sleeping on the couch in front of the TV, Amy in particular resting on Sonic’s shoulder. 

At first he didn’t pay too much attention to them, opting instead to walk upstairs to his room, but just as he was opening the door he had a change of heart. He silently pulled out a blanket from his bedroom and came back to cover them. Then, he turned out the TV, the lights and finally went to bed, smiling tenderly at the two on his way up the stairs. 

Even after having a completely awful day, the sole sight of two of his best friends peacefully resting together was enough to warm his heart again and cheer up his night.

[Author’s note: if you’re confused about my take on Tails’ workshop layout or you simply want to read more from me, check out Sonic’s Memento Collection! Oh, and also my Special Content Section. Happy birthday, Amy!]