Subliminal, A post-Frontiers SonAmy fic
After the events of Frontiers, Sonic and his friends have gone their separate ways. Sonic should be totally fine with traveling on his own; it's how his lifestyle has always been... and yet he can't help but feel empty without them. With the events of Rhea Island living in his head, escaping Cyperspace is only the beginning, and when he finds himself in front of Amy's apartment, he has a decision to make about confronting his surfacing subliminal thoughts.
Hey!!! This is my first sonamy fic. Very fluff, very angst, and inspired off the idle lines in Frontiers! This is just the first Chapter. The rest of the finished fic is up on my A03, which is pinned on my profile. Hope you like it! Feedback welcome!
Station Square, despite being a bustling metropolis, was pretty tranquil in the late hours of the night. The concrete jungle wasn’t as open and freeing as he’d like for a run, but the views from the rooftops and the atmosphere were what drew him in. Sonic was a well-known hero here, but thankfully he had saved the city so many times, he was just another part of their boring 9-5 routine. As he paced down the city blocks, people walked around him, paying him no mind. It was almost comforting to not be paid attention to and just blend into a crowd. Dashing past a hot dog stand, he snagged his meal in a blur, leaving his tip of rings behind. Even running up a streetlamp and parkouring onto an awning, he received some slight head turns, but eventually they kept walking, uninterested. Sprinting up the side of a building, he sat on the edge, letting one of his legs hang off. The already chill air started to bite him up at this height, but he didn’t mind.
Wolfing down his food, he stared at the familiar skyline. He had grown to appreciate it almost as much as the sprawling canopies of Mystic Ruins, but the city always gave him a distant ache in his heart. Maybe it was just the way a big city made you feel small, maybe he was homesick for the forest, or maybe…maybe it was something else. His eyes drifted across his periphery, watching cars drive back and forth, sheepishly.
Then his eyes settled on a window.
It was just an unassuming window, one of a hundred others on the building, but he felt the ice of anxiety run through his veins. The light was on, the drapes just ever so slightly pushed to the side, like the person living there liked to watch the skyline late at night too:Like they could walk out onto the balcony to enjoy the view at any moment. Without thinking, his legs started to move for him, until he realized he had jumped across the street, using the buildings like stepping stones, and arrived in front of the complex. He stared up at it perplexed, like it was a calculus equation.
Months and months had gone by and that one window light had stayed dark. He had stopped checking after a while. But now it glowed at him in the middle of the night like a beacon, pulling him in. He recognized that every fiber of his being wanted to run up to the window and peer inside, and that unsettled him. Despite his mind screaming at him to carry on like usual, to just drop it, he didn’t stop himself from scaling up the fire escape. And when he finally landed on the balcony railing, he also didn’t stop himself from peering into the window…
The flower pot by his foot toppled over and shattered into pieces.
He felt his arms and legs go numb from the sudden panic. Almost immediately, he heard a shuffling noise from inside and the sliding door creak open.
Amy Rose stepped out onto the balcony, dressed in a simple white nightgown, a sleeping mask pushed up against her bangs over her eyes. Looking down she saw the flower pot in pieces, a lavender rose lying helplessly on the concrete. She scanned the area cautiously, but there was only the whirr of the wind.
Sonic held back the urge to take a deep breath, all his air trapped in his chest. He dared not move a muscle. Hanging off the balcony above hers, he watched as she inspected, praying to Chaos she didn’t glance up.
Seeing nothing of note, she huffed dejectedly and turned to make her way back inside.
He was horrified to face her, but watching her walk away seemed just as terrifying to him. He thought for sure his anxiety would keep him glued there forever in a decision limbo, but some autonomy in him took over. The way he felt like he was internally imploding, he thought the words would come out as a yell, but instead it was a hoarse whisper.
Letting go of the above balcony, he plopped in front of her. She clutched her chest in shock, eyes wide. He half expected her to clobber him with her Piko Piko hammer.
He stood there stiff as a log, awkwardly awaiting whatever her response would be.
“Sonic, what on earth—!?” She managed out. Despite the absolute shock of it all, she seemed to cope pretty quickly. “That was my favorite vase, you know.”
“I can… buy you another one.” He responded meekly. He looked down, rubbing his head nervously.
Instead of the venomous reply he expected, she simply gestured towards the door. “I know.” She smiled reassuringly. We can talk about it inside, yeah?”
Amy’s apartment felt extremely warm and familiar to him despite it being ages since he’d been inside. The interior was a lot more minimalist than he expected from her. It smelled like spice candles from the craft store with the quirky knick knacks to match. He wasn’t sure if it was the comfortable temperature or her welcoming smile, but he felt his frigid body warming up from the outside cold.
She offered him a seat in the living room while she headed off to the kitchen to get some warm drinks. He sat rigidly on the couch with his hands tightly clasped together. He could just barely see her petite figure over the countertop from here. She was muttering to herself and opening cupboards left and right.
His feet tapped impatiently. His fingers drummed on the couch’s armrest. If there’s one thing Sonic was excellent at, it was fidgeting and not being good at small talk. So how did he wind up in a situation where he was a fish out of water?
More importantly, why did he do it to himself?
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud shatter and a sharp inhale from Amy. Quicker than a blink, he was in the kitchen to see Amy on the floor, a broken mug in pieces beside her. Her hands were frozen in time like she was still trying to catch it.
“Hey, you good?” Sonic prompted, crouching down to her level, barely grazing his hand on the small of her back.
She let out a deep exhale. When she turned to face him, he didn’t see the bubbly Amy Rose he had always known, but someone ragged and defeated instead.
“Yeah…just. Dropped a cup.” She muttered. She went to pick up the broken pieces, but Sonic held out his hand to stop her and shook his head, instead grabbing a broom and dustpan from the corner. They silently cleaned up the mess together, working in unspoken unison.
“Maybe I shouldn’t even bother with the hot cocoa. You’re not a hot drink person anyway.” She remarked, dumping the dustpan into the garbage.
Sonic’s heartstrings twisted in his chest. “Hey c’mon, I think a cup of cocoa sounds nice right about now, actually…” He offered her one of his trademark hero smiles.
She returned a smile of her own as she walked up to the cupboard to grab another cup. This time though, Sonic beat her to it and easily snatched two off the shelf for her, setting them on the counter.
“Alright now, where do you keep the marshmallows?”
With two cups of hot cocoa heating up their hands, they made their way to the living room to cozy up on the sectional couch. Amy bundled herself up behind a throw blanket, but Sonic, still feeling rather awkward, sat at the cushion’s edge across from her, afraid to get too comfortable.
There was a painful, knowing silence between them, but thankfully Amy was the one to initiate conversation.
“So, you’re here in Station Square.” She shot him a snickering glance, remembering his less than model entry. “At three in the morning, knocking over flower pots. What’s got you in this part of town? I thought you didn’t like the city life much.”
Sonic felt his face flush a bit. Man, he really goofed on that one. He rubbed his nose with his pointer finger. “Uh. Yeah. Sorry if I woke you up, by the way.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t. My sleep schedule is all messed up. You were going to say?“ she deflected.
“Well, I figured I’d give the city a visit for once. There’s still things to like about it. Thought I could maybe catch you in town while I was at it.”
In response to his comment, for a second, he could see that familiar sparkle in her eyes, only for her to suppress it with a gulp of hot cocoa. “Yeah, I actually just came back to Station Square earlier this week. I was in Spagonia for a few months.”
“Spagonia? Were you on vacation?”
“Hardly.” She let a giggle slip though. That part of her that was missing. And god did he miss it. Maybe he could draw it out again. “I was studying at the university.”
“Woah Ames, no way? What did you study?” Sonic exclaimed, genuinely interested.
His comment seemed to fluster her a bit, but she went for another sip to hide it. “Business management, some social studies, nothing crazy. I just wanted something to do, really.” She explained, trying to downplay it. “It was really nice to do something productive for myself. I’ll probably be going back soon, after the winter break.”
I wanna share that love with the world, even though it may take us far apart…
His heart dropped at the mention, but after clearing his throat for a moment, he thought of a good response. “Hey, sounds good to me.” He lied to himself. “…I wanna hear all about it when you get back.”
She nodded, Sonic’s words seeming to give her some resolve she had been needing. “Mhm.” She nervously brushed a quill away from her face.
And there she slipped away again. Man, where was she? The Amy that was fiery as hell, brimming with optimism and energy, his Amy. Well— everyone’s Amy of course. The want for her back was enough to give him the courage to ask. “Hey Ames…you doin’ ok?”
“Oh you mean the cup? The glass didn’t cut me. It’s fine I got them on sale anyways—“
“No I mean…in general. You know.” He really wasn’t good at this kinda stuff. But he had grown up some from the emotionally stunted boy he used to be. The least he could do is ask a prompting question about his friend’s wellbeing.
The look on her face had a million emotions painted on it. Maybe he messed up by asking, he thought to himself. Amy took a deep breath and seemed to steady her breathing, then took a small pause before answering.
“Do you…ever think about Cyberspace?”
If a question could metaphorically make you feel hit by a truck, this was the one. It stunned him so much to have the topic brought up, he almost forgot to respond.
“Yeah.” Was all he could muster out.
She continued. “I know you already know how it feels, but, being trapped in Cyberspace…it felt like I wasn’t even alive anymore. I couldn’t touch, feel, smell, even what I could see, it didn’t feel right.” She stared down the cocoa in her mug. “Being trapped there for so long. I felt like I was losing myself. And when I came out, I really thought that I did.”
He was well aware of what she meant, and she had told him before back on the Starfall Islands…but hearing it again wasn’t any less heartbreaking. He stayed silent, waiting for her to say more.
“So when it was all over, I was determined to go out and try new things, meet new people, travel the world, I guess remind myself that I was alive and that I wasn’t trapped anymore. But…I never felt better. I couldn’t sleep. Had nightmares almost every night. And the worst part, no one else in the world would understand what it was like if I tried to explain…aside from us y’know. The only thing that gave me hope was…was…”
That’s when she bore into his soul with her emerald eyes, locking him in place. It took her a long time to get her words out, but he was going to wait here forever to hear it if he had to.
It was such a simple, vague answer, but it encompassed and contextualized absolutely everything he could have subconsciously felt about the situation. And he was afraid.
He’d been jittery this whole time, but now the apprehension was really cementing. He was really hoping he didn’t look as much of a mess as he felt.
She placed her cup of cocoa down on the low table in front. He followed suit, feeling guilty since he didn’t drink any. She held her hands against her chest, as if she had to hold back the emotions in her from pouring out at once.
“Cyberspace, it showed me your memories, your thoughts, your feelings. When we switched places on Rhea Island…I saw all of it.” She exhaled a sigh of relief as if she had been holding her breath this entire time.
He couldn’t move. Could barely breathe. Without thinking, he let his thoughts slip out of his mouth in a whisper. “I know.”
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