Love in its Winter (A Shadamy Story)

Chapter 1: the wrong Valentine

The sun rises in the morning, bathing the hills and trees in a soft, orange glow. One of the first people to stir on this particularly beautiful day is Amy Rose the hedgehog, a close friend of the hero, Sonic the hedgehog, but she wishes that they were more than friends. A lot more. However, as she looks at her calendar, she smiles, hoping that today, she will finally be able to win her blue boy's heart. Because today on her calendar, circled in a heart shape, is February the 14th, also known as Valentine's day. She's been planning something extra special for the past month, and she's sure that this will work. "Mph..." Amy makes a sound as she moves around in bed, trying to get some feeling into her tired body. she sits up, rubs her eyes and yawns with a smile. "Sonic will finally be mine..." She says to herself, her mind filling with thoughts of Sonic finally being romantic with her. Her eyes move over to the beautiful Valentine's card that she has made for him. it's a work of art, with glitter, a message saying 'will you be my valentine?', the whole works. She smiles, proud of her handiwork, before yawning again and going to shower.

10 minutes later, the bathroom door opens and Amy emerges in a cloud of steam with a towel wrapped around her. She takes her time choosing what to wear today, knowing that she needs to make a proper impression on Sonic. She makes sure that she chooses a dress that won't reveal too much of her because she wants sonic to love her for her, not her body or anything else. After some consideration, she takes out a medium-length red dress with beautiful floral patterns from her wardrobe, and smiles at how nice it looks.

Amy drops the towel and lets it fall to the floor, then stands in front of the full-length mirror in her room. She examines herself, rather shocked by how much she has changed physically. She had never really paid that much attention to herself, but now, she realises how much taller and curvier she is. She has grown a lot since she was a kid, and it shows. It's not just her body, either. Her quills have gotten longer, reaching down past her shoulders, which themselves are broader.

Amy takes this all in, and smiles at how much she has matured. "If I've grown this much, i must be more mentally mature, now. Getting sonic to love me should be a cinch." She says, before finally putting on her underwear and getting fully dressed.

Checking the time, Amy sees that she still has around half an hour before she needs to leave for the Valentine's Day party she has organised for her and her friends. It had been Knuckles who had offered up his home for the party venue, and Amy was grateful for this because Angel Island is a beautiful place, and it just seems appropriate for what she has planned.

Amy goes downstairs and makes herself a simple breakfast; she's feeling a bit too excited to eat a lot right now. As she eats, she looks at the group photo on her wall, and thinks about how much she wants to see her friends. There's Silver the hedgehog and Blaze the Cat, who had finally gotten married last month after 3 years of dating, and had accepted her invitation almost immediately. Then, there's Cream the Rabbit and Tails the Fox, who, in Amy's opinion, made the cutest couple in the world. Being the youngest people in her friend group, they had only been together for two months, but that hardly mattered. There was Sonic, of course, and all the others; Knuckles the Echidna, Rouge the Bat, and finally, standing at the very edge of the photo, is a red-and-black hedgehog with a grumpy expression on his face.

Amy had never really known what to make of Shadow the hedgehog. For a start, he was the so-called 'ultimate lifeform', grown in a tank by Professor Gerald Robotnik, the great-great grandfather of none other than Dr Eggman. Shadow wasn't exactly evil, though, it was more like no one ever knew what side he was on until he explicitly told them. He has always been a dark kind of guy, but despite her misgivings, she has invited him to the party anyway, and had been incredibly surprised when he accepted.

Any finishes her breakfast, washes her dishes and gets ready to leave. Once outside, she waits for Tails to pick her up in his tornado; his biplane was the only way they could get to Angel Island. And sure enough, the dark speck on the horizon grows bigger and bigger, until the red biplane lands smoothly in front of her. In the pilot's seat, an orange-yellow furred fox pulls his flight goggles onto his forehead and smiles at Amy.
"Hey Amy, need a lift?" He says. Amy smiles right back.
"What gave you that idea?" She replies, already starting to climb into the passenger seat. "To Angel Island!" Tails laughs, and the plane's propellor spins to a blur as the tornado takes off into the sky.