Stormy night

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

And that was it. With deceptive calm, I sauntered up to my blue target. “Really? She means nothing to you.”

“Keh. Less then that, Shad,” he replied, shrugging.

“I see.” I cracked the knuckles on my left hand, preparing.

“Well…” He shrugged. “Okay, that’s overstepping it. I kinda, vaguely consider her my friend. Kind of.”

Now I cracked the ones on my right hand. That’s right, Sonic, keep digging yourself into a hole so I can bury you in it. “Ah.”

“Hey, you look really pissed.” He smirked, proud of himself. “I finally figured out how to get to you: talk about your love life.”

“Not even close, you waste of fur.” When Sonic looked at me, confused, I punched him in the mouth, sending him flying back. Before he could react, I was on him, landing blows as quickly as I possibly could, my vision as red as my eyes.

Pain did not even register when I slammed into the staircase wall. I just jumped up and went at him again. When I smelled blood, it only fueled my adrenaline.

When I kicked him in the chest, he flew through the backdoor. Within a single second, I was on top of him again. His fist cracked into my cheek, snapping my head back. Then we rolled, each landing ungraceful short jabs, trying to dislodge the other.

Finally, I flipped him onto his back and stood, pressing my heel against his neck. “Don’t you ever, ever, talk bad against Amy while I’m in earshot. You got that?” I pressed down harder when he only glared at me. “You got that?!”

The furious look faded into a slightly fearful one. “Crap, okay!” he wheezed. “Okay! Jesus!” I moved my foot and he stood, panting. “Christ, are you in love with her or something?” He brought a hand to his throat and started to cough. “Holy crap…”

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth. “I certainly am not in love with her,” I hissed.

“Yeah, right.” I took a step towards him, but he held out his hands in a gesture of peace. “Okay, okay. You can deny it, I don’t care.” He shook himself, splattering mud, rain, and some blood around. “I’ll see you later, Shadow. Maybe then you’ll be calm enough to be honest and stuff.”

When he ran off, I smiled to myself, noting his limp. I turned to walk back through the broken door and looked up for some reason. Amy was staring out of a window, eyes wide, a hand over her mouth.

“Oh hell…” I muttered. I walked inside quickly, wondering how she would react. It seemed as if she’d seen the entire fight, or at least the last half of it.

“Shadow!” I looked up to see her nearly at the end of the banister. Her landing was wobbly, so I took her arm. She looked up with wide eyes and I blinked. She seemed…worried. About…about me?

“Shadow, are you okay?” She slipped from my grip and ran her fingers gently over my face. “I saw you hit the wall and I got so worried! I thought you had been hurt but you got back up as if it were nothing and punched him again.”

Then her breath hitched. “You’re bleeding!”

My lip was throbbing. I wiped it and shrugged, studying the blood. “Split my lip. It’s nothing.”

Without warning, she yanked off my gloves. “You need clean ones,” she mumbled and turned to start up the stairs, only to frown at them. I shifted closer with a sigh, intending to carry her. She took a testing step and as it apparently did not hurt her, she ran the rest of the way up.

Shaking my head, I started after her at a slower pace. As I walked I realized that my knee throbbed dully, the pounding in my head echoing it. Added to that I was soaked and was sure that some of the blood on my fur was actually mine. I sighed. What a great day this was turning out to be…