Blood Bonds

Part 20 - Amy the Counselor

It was difficult to look at Amy and not see the pink hedgehog's resemblance to the Head Mistress. Eclipse sat in his oversized sofa, facing the hedgehog, as she picked at his brain with her questions of philosophy and her encouragement for him to open up to her. He had an irrational thought, as ridiculous as he knew it to be, that if he opened up to her as he had with Nutmeg, Mimic might come storming into the room and knock the lights out of the hedgehog. It was an event that constantly lingered in the back of his mind, no matter how he tried to shake it off, and the alien resorted to one of his nervous habits.

Amy, as observant as ever, immediately addressed the problem. "You're squeezing your hands together awfully tightly. Is there something that's stressing you?"

"No. I just... massage my hands whenever they're cold." Eclipse feigned a weak grin, lying through his teeth.

His tutor eyed the obviously forced expression but sighed and returned it with a concerned smile of her own. "Eclipse... what are your feelings towards Shadow at the moment?"

The alien turned his head away, his eyes downcast. Her question reminded him of what had happened the previous day yet again, only earlier, when he had zoned out from Shadow's mentioning his younglings. At the time, the alien had accepted the chance that they were as good as dead, but now that he had hope of their survival, the extraterrestrial grimaced at the memory of the interaction.

"Not good, huh?" Amy's comment pulled him away from his thoughts, and he glanced at her with a sour expression.

The alien decided to take a risk. "I'm... actually kind of confused on how I should feel towards him."

"Oh?" The pink hedgehog tilted her head, and a pang shot through Eclipse's chest as he saw not Amy, but Nutmeg sitting in the couch in front of him. It was like they were back in the squirrel's office, with the Head Counselor curious of Eclipse's innermost thoughts and opinions, and Eclipse intrigued by her interest of such seemingly insignificant parts of him. It disturbed him how similar the two looked and acted, and he secretly wished he could suck it up and return to the school's regular classes just to avoid the thought of her.

"What's confusing you?" Amy asked, drawing him out of yet another fantasy.

"Ah, well..." Eclipse's eyes trailed along the bookshelves towering over them as he faced back towards the hedgehog. "He killed my entire species. That's a reason to hate him. He refused to join the Black Arms when we offered, but then we sort of forced it on him, so it's... understandable that he got mad. But he... he chose a foreign planet over his own species. I don't know, it hurts more than it should. He's a traitor, an enemy, and yet I'm getting upset by the thought of what could've been, rather than what is." His eyes dropped to the floor as he puzzled over his own words.

Amy leaned forward, biting back the urge to remind him he was in the wrong in the situation he was referring to, and instead showed a little sympathy. "Are you still hurting, especially bad, because maybe you still want, no, view him to be an ally, being your only remaining relative and all?"

Eclipse let out a sharp, sarcastic laugh, before abruptly falling into a depression. His shoulders gradually slouched, and his head drooped a little as he decided he would admit the truth to her, as well as to himself. "...Maybe."

"It's understandable you might feel this way," the pink hedgehog soothed him, "but I'd like to emphasize that you're not alone in your situation. Plenty of Mobians have broken families, with people turning on their own parents, and brothers and sisters tearing each other apart."

"Really?" The extraterrestrial was surprised to hear that. "Nutmeg makes Mobius sound like sunshine and rainbows half the time."

Amy gave a half-hearted chuckle. "She's certainly got a bright outlook on life. That's part of the reason she can handle reforming baddies so well... But everyone has their demons, and the way we handle those demons is what defines us as a person."

"I see..." The alien pondered for a bit, before suddenly, "Amy, what's friendship?"

The hammer-wielding champion blinked in surprise. "Why, is the term new to you?"

"I, uh, yeah..." He gulped. "I seem to be the only one around here who's... alien to the term."

"Friendships come in many different forms." Amy explained. "It's the building of trust, as well as a system of mutual support. You know those guys that hang out with Shadow; Omega and Rouge? They're his friends, as well as his co-workers. And Nutmeg and the rest of the Head Counselors? They were friends long before they ever founded F.V.R.; Friends typically have similar interests and hobbies, but it's not unusual for them to live totally different lives." She smiled somewhat shyly. "Teachers and students can have friendships, too. Like how I'm your private tutor. We're building a mutual trust as we speak."

Eclipse's eyes narrowed in confusion, before widening in horror. "You mean it's possible to accidentally make friends?!"

His exclamation burst her bubble, but Amy managed to give him a friendly nod. "It's no accident when a friendship forms, unless you desperately didn't want to be friends with the person, or something."

"Huh, okay..." The alien somewhat relaxed back into his seat, studying the furniture around them in profound puzzlement. "...would that have made me and Nutmeg friends?"

The red-dressed Mobian gave him an odd look. "Well, I mean, did you two have a mutual liking for one another?"

Her question echoed inside his head as he spaced out, picturing the squirrel, seconds before she reached for the doorknob of her office, before Mimic had burned down her parade. Eclipse had opened up to her, and yet she hadn't accused him of being inferior for having the feelings he had. She had even seemed intent on helping him recover his lost fledglings. The extraterrestrial slowly looked up at the hedgehog, a dazed sort of emptiness on his own face.

"Nah."