Chapter Text
It was so unbearably hot.
Amy fanned herself weakly with some unimportant papers found lying around the living room. Thin beads of sweat trickled down her back making her pale blue nightgown and fur damp. An old, worn air conditioner hummed noisily in the background blowing pleasantly cool air into the room, though this did little to quell the persistent warmth permeating within her. An intense tingling sensation pulsed through her body. Little whining sounds came from the pink figure huddled on the couch trying not to move too much, her feeble attempts at relief. It was as if her very being was on fire from the inside out. Flames of desire burned hot in her belly spreading further down between her legs. She whimpered helplessly.
Amy was in heat.
Mobians, similar to their wild animal counterparts found within human territories, can experience estrus (heat) or rut where an individual has a natural urge to mate. This is called the mating season. During this time, pregnancy has a much higher chance of occurring due to ovulation and increased sperm production. It often didn't last for more than a few days, but it varied from person to person, species to species. In rare cases, an individual may never experience it at all. For others, it comes later in life rather than in their youth. Thankfully, it wasn't annual with most going years before their next mating cycle.
The cycle is an individual person’s mating season. Because modern day Mobians’ reproductive behavior is no longer synced up with the yearly seasons, it instead has become a cyclical process, making every Mobian’s mating season different from one another.
Amy just had to be part of the small percentage of the population that dealt with an abnormally stronger cycle lasting longer than the average Mobian. When nature decided to grip its loving claws into her, she was forced to feel every bit of it, as did any that dealt with the dreaded mating season. It made her hide away in her house for over a week in a haze.
Only Vanilla, Cream, and Rouge knew she was dealing with her cycle right now, in case she needed food, supplies, or anything else. Today Rouge was supposed to bring her groceries hours ago.
Accepting that fanning herself with papers wasn’t doing anything, she tossed them onto the coffee table in front of her with, admittedly, a little more force than she intended to use. Junk mail haphazardly fell onto the floor making a small mess of papers scattered around. She couldn’t be bothered to pick them up, though. Not right now, at least. Grabbing her phone off the coffee table, she leaned back onto the armrest of the couch and flipped the phone open to see the time was 3:54pm. “Ughhh, please Rouge, hurry up.” She thought impatiently, staring at the screen in hopes of seeing a new message or call pop up.
The old flip phone she’s had for years didn’t get much use nowadays since she had a much more reliable communicator that Tails designed for her, capable of far more than just texting and calling, but it was shut off in the drawer next to her bed, making her flip phone her only other means of communication. Truthfully, she didn’t want anyone but the few women she entrusted to know the state she was in.
Along with groceries, Rouge was supposed to bring her estrus-liners to get her through the rest of the days Amy would be trapped in her house. She ran out of liners in the morning and arousal left her panties damp, if not outright soaked, in her own excitement. Who would have guessed that walking around with bodily fluids dripping down your legs was this unpleasant? It was only an hour ago that she had to change into dry underwear because her previous pair were so uncomfortably drenched with feminine fluid.
Stuck at home for six full days now with at least another three to four days to go, Amy was also running low on food and house necessities and she knew better than to go outside when she was vulnerable like this.
A Mobian’s estrus or rut heavily affects those of the same species and other hedgehogs were able to easily pick up on the pheromones that she involuntarily emitted. If one on the street decided to harass her, or worse, she’d have a difficult time fighting back. Non-hedgehog Mobians weren’t as much of a threat, but they could still faintly smell the pheromones of other species and can react to it if it excites them enough. Potential danger wasn’t usually a worry to Amy. In her current state, though, limbs were weighed down by dull fatigue while she fought back a constant feeling of breathlessness from panting fits she would get into when the heat burrowing in her stomach was too much for her to take. It made her queasy.
Her ability to defend herself was questionable at best. Taking such a chance was not worth it.
Of course, while she would never be desperate enough to go raising her tail for any decent-looking strangers on the streets no matter how awful the heat got, it would be naive for her to ignore how receptive she was. How badly she wanted a partner to ease the burning pain.
There was an ache deep inside of her, an itch she wished to relieve that none of her toys could fully satisfy. Normally she was never submissive and fragile to anyone, taking pride in her spunky, no-nonsense, positive attitude that got her this far in life. However, when the heat was in full swing, that all went out the window and her thoughts were overrun with fantasies of being rutted like a wild animal.
Softly whimpering, Amy’s tail lashed back and forth. She wanted to be mounted so badly.
Time went by staring at her phone watching each minute pass agonizingly slowly. Her attention absentmindedly shifted to the screen’s wallpaper and she spent some time staring at the photo, reminiscing about the day it was taken. It was an image of Amy, Sonic, and Tails humorously posing while making peace signs in front of a bunch of newly-destroyed Eggman robots. Knuckles took the photo since he didn’t want to be in it, but he still tried to give a peace sign, which resulted in a blurry oversized white mitten taking up a quarter of the photo. She smiled remembering the event, giggling to herself.
Amy spent a while looking at the picture, at Sonic, fixated on his infectiously grinning face.
Her heart thrummed with a paradoxical storm of emotions in her state of borderline delirium. The relationship between the blue blur and herself was complex and she was intimately aware of that fact. They weren’t quite a couple, yet they were far more than good friends. The words have never been said out loud, but his actions spoke louder than words and she knew those feelings of love were deep within him, even if he didn’t show it conventionally. She did wish he’d be a little more open about it… His displays of love could be complicated, subtle, and frustratingly poetic at times.
Inside the top drawer of Amy’s nightstand beside her bed lay a tattered red book with gold borders filled with pressed flowers she was gifted by Sonic over the years. The dates she received them were written on the corner of each page and a small section on what that flower represented was hand-written next to them. Each had its own meaning, something he was trying to convey to her without having to speak the words he was too shy to say.
On the first page was the very first flower he ever gave her when they met as children, a simple sunflower from her rescue on Little Planet. The bubbly little Amy considered it a confession of love at the time, while the bashful little Sonic, failing to hide the blush spreading on his cheeks, adamantly argued it wasn’t. He simply wanted to make her feel better since she was still shaken up after being saved, he’d said. As soon as her younger self was able to save up enough to purchase a book on flower meanings, she learned that a sunflower represents positivity, hope, devotion, adoration, strong bonds, and lasting happiness.
On the most recent page towards the end of the filled book was a lavender rose she was gifted on her birthday a year ago. After giving her the beautiful flower, Sonic leaned in without hesitation, firmly pressed his lips into hers, then whispered, “Happy birthday, Ames~”. Before Amy was able to react, her face as red as Knuckles, he zoomed off into the autumn night with a ’See ya later!’.
That was their first real kiss together.
When she read into what the flower meant shortly after, she cried harder than she ever had before. A lavender rose, according to her research, signifies regality, grace, enchantment, wonder, and love at first sight. It was a flower that represented a budding romance. It was clear what he was telling her. They weren’t dating mainly because of Sonic's reluctance to completely accept such a commitment, but their relationship was intimate enough that the romantic intention was there regardless of the absent title of ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’.
Now as she dealt with her cycle alone, Amy felt equally greedy and guilty that in this moment, that love wasn’t enough for her. She wanted more. She needed more. Emotional love couldn’t satisfy the wildfire raging inside her…but there was no way she could ask that of him. They’ve gotten to a point of kissing casually and made out a couple of times, however, it’s never reached past first base. She hadn’t seen him in months, anyways, probably off adventuring like he always did, so she couldn’t ask him if she wanted to.
Instead, she would daydream, wishing to indulge in the act of beasts and let go of reason, imagining every obscene thing he could do to her in whatever scenario the ravenous lust was able to conjure up. When she couldn’t control it anymore, her toys assisted in temporarily taming the flames licking at her flesh.
On the severest days, when her brain was fried and cognitive thought was a luxury she was no longer afforded, her fantasies took on a darker tone about her hero where the cobalt male forced her legs apart and took his pleasure without remorse. This version of Sonic sank his sharp, white fangs down hard into her breasts and neck until blood welled from the bite marks while violating her innermost parts in the act. A dark figure she could have sworn she recognized would occasionally also appear in the fantasy and the two worked together to ravage the helpless damsel until she was filled with their love.
In her heat-riddled mind, it was the most erotic thing imaginable. She would never, ever admit that to anyone, though. Weirdly enough Sonic’s fur took on a strange green color in some of them, she had no idea why…
Twenty minutes passed before her phone rang loudly, snapping her out of the hot, drowsy state she was in. The caller ID said ROUGE accompanied by a picture of Amy, Rouge, and Blaze at Vanilla and Vector’s New Years party a couple months back. They were quite tipsy with glasses of champagne in hand, wearing New Years hats and other paraphernalia, cheering as the clock struck midnight.
She answered, voice slightly hoarse with fatigue. “Hello?” A cough slipped out, surprised by how weak she sounded.
“Amy, darling, I’m at the front doooor~” A familiar womanly voice sang through the phone as the sound of the doorbell went off. “Let us iiiin~”
Amy laughed weakly. “Alright, I’ll be there in a sec.” She hung up. Her wobbly, aching legs somehow managed to get her to the front door without tripping. As she turned the door handle, a thought struck her.
“Us? Is Knuckles with her?”
When the door fully opened, she was not greeted by one person, but two, both carrying multiple heavy plastic bags of stuff; Rouge, and-
“S-Shadow!?” Her blood ran icy cold in her veins, eyes wide in shock, fighting the urge to slam the door shut. Of all the times to show up to her house, it had to be now? She shot a look at the bat in sheer disbelief that screamed “You brought him here!?”.
“Calm down hun, our precious Shadow isn’t gonna gobble you up.” Rouge said nonchalantly, walking past Amy to the kitchen straight ahead from the front door. She shivered at the low temperature of the room compared to outside’s warm Spring air. “Brrrr, it’s freezing here! You must be burning up for you to have the AC running for more than an hour. Anyway, I know you’re having a hard time but don’t worry, he’s harmless. I needed his help carrying all these bags.”
“Harmless? When I’m like this? Are you sure about that?” Amy asked incredulously, gesturing to herself in her current state. Her satin nightgown wasn’t too short or tight against her form but she looked down and realized how exposed her fur was, shoulders, thighs, and breasts flushed a deep pink and on display for the world to see. She crossed her arms to try and cover her chest, embarrassed. “Seems like an accident waiting to happen, don’tcha think?”
“I’m really not a threat, Rose.” Shadow spoke in a calm, low tone, still standing on the porch with bags in hand. “I don’t experience rut the same way others do. I have to be medically induced. Don’t worry, your pheromones aren’t a risk to me. I can control myself with no issue. Here, take this.” Extending his arm out, Shadow held one of the smaller bags in front of Amy. When she grabbed and opened it, inside was a box of estrus-liners. She blushed harder. “I know how off this situation feels, but I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”
Rouge spoke loudly from the other room. “I think I saw Shadow’s tail wagging on the way up the porch steps!” She cackled in jest. “You must smell very enticing to get such a reaction out of him, Rosy~”
“Shut. Up. That did not happen.” Shadow gruffed.
Amy's ears lowered, expression softening with a mix of slight apprehension and regret at her reaction as if she wasn’t justified in her defensiveness. She was given no prior warning to the important info of Shadow’s arrival and unique circumstances. In the time it took her reeling brain to process everything, his face remained stoic and calm. Sighing, she stepped aside allowing space for the other hedgehog to enter. “Come on in. Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. A pretty sow like you should be cautious when you're like this. That’s a good trait to have.” His lips upturned ever so slightly before he walked by her, remnants of his natural scent tickling her nose in the wind. It was a faint floral musk with a hint of coffee.
Perhaps it was the compliment, the partial smile, the scent, or something else she couldn’t pinpoint, but when his red eyes met hers in passing, it sent a wave of arousal shooting through her. The air escaped her lungs in a sharp exhale leaving her gasping. Everything was overwhelming. The lights were too bright, the sun shining outside was blinding, the air around her was suffocating, her body felt claustrophobic. It was all too much. There was a rush of sensation and her panties went from lightly damp to drenched in excitement.
Admittedly, Shadow was a good-looking guy and she did find him attractive, but was it really enough for a reaction like this? Did she have some deeper buried feelings for him that the heat was dragging out? The possibility of a relationship with the ultimate lifeform crossed her mind in the past, but she never dwelled on that idea for long or took it too seriously. When they went to concerts or hung out, it was just as friends. Shadow didn’t see her in that way, right?
Maybe she was overthinking things and it was nothing more than a purely primitive biological desire to want to mate with someone of the same species. Amy honestly wasn’t sure.
One thing was for sure; He may not react to her, but she was certainly reacting to him.
“Oh Gaia, why, I want him to mount me, please, what’s wrong with me, my ears are ringing, why does everything hurt, I feel like vomiting, mount me, take me, please. Let this be quick, I can’t do this, I’m so wet, oh Gaia, it won’t stop pulsing, my head is gonna burst, I want him to breed me, what's happening to me? I’m scared, I think I’m gonna throw up, I feel dizzy. I have to take a cold shower, calm down, I want his pups, stop, STOP, I need him to ruin me, please, fuck me, please, STOP IT, fuck me, fuck m-”
“Hello, Earth to Amy!” A voice shot through the barrage of thoughts. Rouge poked her head out from the doorway of the kitchen with a can of corn in hand. “You alright? I called you twice already!”
Amy was snapped back to her senses at the call of her name, nearly panting. What the hell was that?
It was like a voice in her head overrode anything she tried to think, turning those thoughts into a jumbled mess of loud white noise. The voice was her own but something was off about it, not quite fitting her usual vocal cadence. The best way she could describe it was carnal, a seductive begging voice on the verge of climax.
“Y-Yeah, sorry, I spaced out for a sec.” Amy shut and locked the front door trying her best to keep her legs from quivering in…arousal? Fear? Her head was throbbing, she was still nauseous, and her body somehow felt heavier and hotter than before. Taking a quiet deep breath, she spoke again as steadily as she could. “What…uh…What did you say?”
Rouge slightly squinted at the pink hedgehog, catching a glimpse of her unsteadiness. “I said; are you fine with us leaving most of the stuff on the table? We can’t stay long.” She emphasized the can of corn by shaking it. “I’m gonna put the cold things in the fridge, Shadow will empty the bags and put everything else on the table and you put them away when you’re feeling a little more stable, sound good?”
“Sure. Go ahead.” She replied absentmindedly, not really focused on what Rouge said.
The steps it took to reach the kitchen were arduous despite the short distance, soon joining her friends who’re already in the process of unpacking. The weight of all the groceries would’ve been far too much to deal with while she’s feeling this weak so Amy was glad they were helping to such an extent. After placing the bag with estrus-liners on the table, she glanced at the growing pile of canned and boxed food, some fresh veggies and fruit, and toilet paper, with many items still in bags that Shadow was emptying. She consciously avoided looking at him.
“My goodness Amy, I don’t know how you do it. To be stuck at home for days on end would drive me crazy! I’m surprised you didn’t run out of food already being trapped here for a week. And to think my cycle only lasts two or three days at most.” Rouge spoke up once she saw the younger female enter the room.
“Ughh…” Amy groaned. “I know, don’t remind me, I would give anything to leave my house.” Amy wanted to go for a walk, be able to sweat this heat off and go about her day like nothing was wrong, but she couldn’t. It made her stir crazy. “I go through food much quicker during this time since I feel like eating everything in sight. This amount usually lasts me weeks.”
Rouge thought for a moment, leaving the fridge open in the process. “Hmm, if I’m remembering correctly, I’ve read that excessive hunger mostly comes from the energy exerted by releasing pheromones. It actually takes a lot of energy for your body to continue emitting your unique scent. Men’s hunger during the rut is even worse. They could probably eat a whole buffet and still be hungry. Isn’t that right, Shadow?”
He cocked a brow, confused. “How should I know? I’ve never actually been in rut. I know I can rut from some old notes left about my reproductive anatomy.” The pile of food on the mid-sized table grew so crowded that Shadow had to start putting items on the counter. “For one reason or another, I was given the ability to produce offspring with the assistance of medical intervention.”
Amy’s ears twitched at that. I want him to breed me, I want his pups. Her stomach twisted in knots, desperately making her want to throw up.
“Well who knows, maybe Amy here might be helpful with that part. She’s plenty fertile and already hot to go~!”
“Shut it!” “Shut up!” Both shouted at the same time, faces flushed. Amy wanted to curl up in a ball and die.
Rouge couldn’t be more amused by their reactions, wiping a tear of laughter away. “It’s a joke, don’t take it too seriously, calm down.” She really knew how to get under someone’s skin. It was anyone’s guess how Shadow survived as her roommate for years before she moved in with Knuckles as his fiance and permanent resident on Angel Island a year ago.
That thought made Amy wonder. ”Hey Shadow, what made you decide to help Rouge with this stuff? Doesn’t seem like something you’d normally do unless she’s blackmailing you or something.” She asked, picking up a box of pasta and pretended to examine the nutritional value in an attempt to avoid eye contact with the sole male occupant in the room.
He didn’t have a moment to reply before Rouge interrupted. “Hey, I’ll have you know that he decided to help of his own free will, no blackmailing required this time.” She hmphed, working her way through the cold and frozen food. “Knuckles sometimes helps me run errands if he’s not busy. When I asked him today, he said something about doing his weekly patrol around Angel Island and that’ll take a few hours. I happened to run into Shadow when I was heading to the supermarket and I figured I’d ask him for some help. At first he said no until I told him the reason why. That seems to have caught his attention.”
Shadow stopped part-way of setting down a box of cereal and looked daggers at her. “I simply chose to help friends out today because I have time to spare, that’s all. Amy being in estrus has nothing to do with that…” His voice wavered off towards the end. The dark tan of his muzzle dusted a faint maroon at the accusation, ears folding back defensively. “I’m not some lewd beast like you.”
Huh. That was the first time Amy ever heard him call her a friend out loud. From the way he seemed to treat her far kinder than he would most people, it was a given that they’ve been friends for years without a doubt, but the sound of it being said was still unusually pleasant to hear. It brought a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest. For a few moments, her tail wagged lightly in delight.
A scoff came from Rouge putting milk and eggs into the fridge. “Uh-huh, sure.” She stretched her arms over her head, releasing the tension that’d been building in her shoulders from carrying the heavy bags. “I’m terrible at doing groceries myself. For anyone else, I wouldn’t bother. But for Amy, that’s a whole different story, I’d never let our sweet girl put herself in danger like that. I wasn’t expecting to run into Shadow, so you wouldn’t believe how much faster and easier things were once he started shopping with me.”
Amy’s face scrunched in confusion. “Faster? You were supposed to drop everything off hours ago, I texted you at nine in the morning!”
“You can thank Miss Jewel Thief over here for that. We would have been here much sooner if someone wasn’t trying to sneak off to steal a jewel on display at the local museum.” Shadow grumbled pointing an accusatory finger at the bat. “I ended up doing most of the shopping because everytime I turned around, you were gone.”
“Well, excuse me, can you blame a girl for wanting the perfect jewel for the perfect wedding ring? And it was the perfect shade of red, too! Today was the last day it'll be out on display and I’m sure if I return later, it’ll probably already be packed up and gone! So pretty, such a waste…” Crocodile tears welled in Rouge’s eyes, lip quivering. “Besides, I paid for everything regardless, it doesn’t matter who grabs it off the shelf, now does it?” She winked at Shadow, any hint of tears and sadness gone.
It was still a surprise to everyone that Knuckles, of all people, agreed to getting married, of all things. Amy was incredibly excited for her friends even if she felt an itty bitty teeny weeny bit jealous at times about it. Amy always wanted to marry the man of her dreams and live a happy, fulfilling life with her partner. Knowing Sonic, that oftentimes felt like wishful thinking on the marriage aspect considering he was still adamantly against the idea.
Amy knew she shouldn’t encourage the illegal behavior, but she had to ask, knowing the bat’s moral compass was heavily skewed in terms of theft. “You’re not gonna try for it again after this?”
“No, Knuckles and I have a date tonight and we can’t miss our reservation for 8pm. There’s this new Spagonian restaurant in Westopolis that I’ve been hearing great things about. Took me weeks to get a spot!” Putting the last of the cold food away, Rouge closed the fridge for the final time. “Anyway sorry we can’t stay much longer, hun, but we’ve gotta get going. I have to start getting ready soon. You're almost done, Shadow?”
“Almost.” Shadow held up a single bag with items still inside.
“Great!” She clapped her hands together. “I gotta make a call with hubby-to-be. Finish with that and I’ll meet you out front. Amy, I hope you feel better soon! Shoot a text my way if there’s anything else you need tomorrow.” Rouge gave a wave goodbye and walked out of the kitchen holding a cellphone up to her ear. The sound of the front door slamming shut reverberated through the house. And like that, the two hedgehogs were left alone. Neither seemed to know what to say in the awkward silence.
The moment lingered for another few seconds before Shadow grabbed the last remaining items, some jars of spaghetti sauce, out of the bag and placed them on the counter next to boxes of pasta. “I tried to keep the food items that tend to go together into groups, that way it'll be a bit easier to put away later. You won’t have to strain yourself as much.”
Amy blinked in surprise. “Oh! Thank you Shadow, that’s very helpful.” She said bashfully. “I honestly appreciate all the help you two gave me today. I’ll see you later.” Her words trail off, unsure of what else to say. As he was about to leave the kitchen, Shadow stopped in front of the smaller hedgehog, her ears pinning back in confusion. Cautiously she looked up at him, though not enough for their eyes to meet. Those brilliant ruby irises were undoubtedly piercing into her, she knew it. After how she reacted earlier, Amy kept her head low with the older male nearly twice her size standing before her.
“Make sure to take care of yourself, Rose. Don’t do anything rash or stupid.” Despite the mildly cold words, his tone was gentle, lacking any kind of edge to it. A gloved hand patted Amy’s head, surprising her. Then it slowly hovered over the back of her head and reached her right ear, giving light scratches that made her squeak out a noise of bewilderment. “Be careful.” He said.
The feeling was immediate, sharp pricks of pleasure shooting down from her scalp to her spine to her groin. Amy's legs noticeably trembled more than before. The more he scratched, the heavier her breathing became, ear flicking against Shadow's hand in response to his touch. It was such sudden stimulation to a part of her that wasn’t touched very often, if at all, and she didn’t know how to react to it. Why did it feel so arousing?
“I know that, you don't h-have to remind m-me.” She panted out the words, voice strained and breathy. The scratching became rougher and she leaned into it, stumbling forward into Shadow’s chest, face pressed to fluffy white fur. His scent was so inviting wrapping around her senses like a cloud with hints of lavender and coffee. A low purring vibrated from her throat in response.
Nghh, o-oh, it feels-” Before she could finish her sentence a second hand came up and scratched behind the other ear, causing her to completely slump onto him. Thin arms wrapped around his waist to pull him closer, her petite form tightly grinding up to Shadow’s broader figure. Her breasts squished against his furry chest with only the paper thin blue nightgown keeping their lower halves from rubbing directly. Though his hands were busy on her ears, he let the heated sow get as close as their flesh and fur would physically allow.
The bubbling heat reached a boiling point in the deepest part of her core, butterflies nauseously swarming in her belly. “A-Ahh, ngh, h-hold on…” Surprisingly he actually stopped, the soft scrapping of his nails coming to a halt. Amy thought for a second that he’d listened to her plea. That thought was cut short when Shadow moved his fingers upward and massaged the tips of her ears between his thumbs and index fingers in small circular motions, tiny noises escaping her. “Haa, mghh, S-Shadow…” Oh, it felt amazing. She bit down on her lip to suppress another moan, whimpering.
Breath tickled her ear when Shadow drew closer and whispered. “You’re quite sensitive here.” His breathing was ever so slightly labored. It was subtle, almost unnoticeable. “You know, if you ever need help when you’re like this, I can assist you with anything.” There was something about the way he’d uttered that last word that almost made her lose herself right then and there, causing a soft moan to slip out of her. Blood rushed to her ringing ears and the only thing she could hear was the rapid drumbeat thumping out of her chest.
It would be a bad idea, she knew, but she needed to see him. Unable to bear it anymore, her eyes rose to meet his.
A faint devilish smirk formed on his lips and his expression was mischievously tender. Shadow’s gaze was completely fixated on her, not quite glazed over, yet not clear either. Amy smelled no pheromones coming from him meaning he wasn’t being influenced by rut. There were many emotions that could be read into the male hedgehog’s face that was too much for her to think about right now.
The voice she heard prior returned, her own voice, but it was faint this time, just out of the realm of her subconscious. It was still and tame. It didn’t try to overpower her thoughts or overstimulate her or tempt her into submission. Words could be heard from the voice, but it sounded as though it cried out to her a mile away. It was muffled, like cotton stuffed inside her ears, and she couldn’t make out what it was saying. Amidst the echoing, inky sounds of words reverberating in her mind, there was one thing that she was able to decipher.
”…So…c…
…o…ni…
…oni…c...
...Sonic…”
In an instant, Amy jolted back away from the form she was clinging to, panting as if she’d ran a marathon. Shadow wasn’t holding her ears tightly so they slipped from his fingers with ease. Amy’s eyes were shiny and wet. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this is a lot to take in. I’m so confused. I don’t know how to feel about any of this.” She managed to choke out before stifling a small sob, tears pricking her eyes. This was too much, she was desperately unprepared for this strange experience and intense realization of attraction; She’s already forming a relationship with the one she’s been chasing for years. Yet…for some reason, she still wanted Shadow’s touch again. “Why do I feel like this?” When she blinked, a lone tear managed to slide down her face.
“I should be apologizing. I might have teased you a bit too much.” There was no anger or frustration in his expression and his gentle demeanor never faded. Almost like Shadow could read her mind, he softly caressed Amy’s flushed cheek with his thumb, wiping away the single tear. “I’m sorry, Rose.”
Amy sniffled, ear shyly pinned back. She couldn’t help but lean slightly into his hand. Against her heated cheek, the leather of his gloved hand felt cool. “That didn’t feel like teasing. But I didn’t hate it.” She fell silent looking downcast, thinking of her next words very carefully. “Shadow, do you…” She took a deep breath. “Do you have feelings for me?”
Now it was Shadow’s turn to stop and think. The room was quiet for a short time, save for the faint hum of the AC in the other room. Their eyes never parted, making Amy’s heart threaten to burst with how fast the pace was going. Then, he finally answered. “Does it matter what I say? Things with that hedgehog seem to be advancing from what you were telling me during our last get-together, so my answer is irrelevant. You’ve been chasing him for years, I doubt you’d give that love up so easily.”
Amy’s eyes widened, confusion evident on her face. That wasn’t an answer she was expecting in the slightest. “What?” Was that a yes? Maybe? Why were the men in her life so damn cryptic about their emotions? “What does that me-”
“Shadow, what the hell is taking you so long!? I thought you said there was one bag lef-” Shadow and Amy jumped out of their fur at the booming voice breaking through the intimate moment, quills bristled in shock, when Rouge abruptly walked into the kitchen shouting. However, she was stopped dead in her tracks when she witnessed the curious scene playing out before her. It was obvious that something happened between the pair if Shadow’s faintly flushed muzzle and subtly heavy breathing was any indication. The frown she had quickly turned into an amused grin. “Oh my, am I interrupting something here?”
Shadow groaned, his smile replaced with an annoyed scowl, pulling his hand away from Amy and shooing the bat away. Amy’s expression was one of a deer in headlights. “We were talking. I’ll be there in a minute. Go.”
“Just talking. Uh-huh. Because ‘just talking’ requires touching someone’s face, right?” Rouge responded, raising a brow.
Shadow adamantly pointed towards the kitchen doorway behind where she stood. “Go.”
Rouge rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Alright, alright. Seriously, make it quick, we need to go pick up my dress.” She left the kitchen once more for good.
With the two alone again, Shadow sighed heavily. “She has the worst timing. I should get going before she has an aneurysm.”
Without warning, Amy took the opportunity to hug Shadow tightly, which surprised him. She squeezed him so tightly he winced in pain, then she released him from the death grip she’d subjected him to. “You’re important to me, Shadow, I want you to know that…I’m confused about a lot, I don’t know what I’m feeling, but you really do mean a lot to me. Both you and Sonic.“ Her eyes welled up again, but she blinked the tears away. Amy leaned up to his face and planted a small kiss on his cheek. “Be safe, let’s hang out after my heat is over.”
Shadow’s face went a deep shade of red, clearing his throat and bashfully scratching the back of his head. “Yes, let’s do that. When you’re feeling better.” He smiled warmly at the pink hedgehog, giving her a pat on the head, avoiding her ears. “I meant it earlier when I said you could ask me for help with anything, at any time. Take care of yourself, Rose.”
“You, too.” She answered softly with an uncharacteristic shyness.
Amy escorted Shadow out of the kitchen to the front door where Rouge sat outside on a wicker loveseat on the patio, speedily typing on her phone. She turned to see the hedgehogs standing beside each other. “About time!” She got up and poked Shadow on his shoulder teasingly. “I was beginning to think you were staying the night. I’d start making the baby registry for you guys right away.”
“Rouuuuge!” Amy screamed, covering her blushing face in horror.
“Let’s go.” Shadow mumbled, ears lowering in embarrassment.
“Hehehe~ Bye-bye darling, rest up!” Rouge waved farewell to Amy who weakly waved back. She watched them disappear down the street before stepping back into her house and locking the door.
Now that she was alone, Amy dropped onto her couch and took the longest sigh her lungs could handle. She was suddenly dealing with a slew of conflicting emotions on top of her heat, significantly worse than before her encounter with Shadow. Her fantasies were usually about Sonic, but the image of Shadow’s alluring gaze wouldn’t leave her mind.
“What the fuck?” It slipped out of her. What else was she supposed to say after all that? “What the fuck?” The memory of his natural scent filling her senses, body pressed against hers while fondling her ears, made her shiver. Her panties and thighs were wet with excitement, a trickle of fluid flowing down her leg. A shower was definitely in order, but first…
On weak legs that could barely keep her standing, she sluggishly made her way up the stairs to the second floor. At the far right end of the hallway was her bedroom where she walked in and closed the door. With the shades and curtains open, the room was bright and she quickly closed them, casting the room in darkness. Beside her bed she opened the bottom drawer, revealing a couple of adult toys and vibrators she’s bought over the years. Like anyone else, she had to satiate her own needs sometimes.
She looked through her toys, some shorter and thin, some larger and more girthy, most in the shade of blue, but nothing seemed to catch her eye. That was until she saw in the back of the drawer, hidden beneath everything else, a relatively long toy in the shape of a male hedgehog’s anatomy. It was black with a red tinted tip. Her womanhood twitched at the sight of it. If she recalled correctly, Rouge got it for her as a present on her 18th birthday because of the color scheme, claiming it to be a joke, but it couldn’t be more perfect for her current predicament.
Amy whimpered to herself. “Just once. Then a shower.”
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Shadow walked through the neighbourhood onto the busy main street with Rouge flying beside him. It was afternoon and everyone was outside enjoying the beautiful sunshine on their porch or yard, unfortunate for the pink hedgehog trapped at home because she would have loved the atmosphere. A group of kids loudly played tag down the street almost knocking Shadow over as they ran by, causing him to huff. “Annoying little brats.”
They headed North to Station Square where Rouge needed to pick up her dress from the dry cleaners in the shopping district. Once she obtained that, the two agreed to part ways.
“Come on, stop being so coy and tell me what you guys were doing! You looked like you were getting hot and bothered back there. Any kissing, touching, anything?” Rouge pressed on, wanting all the juicy details on the two hedgehogs’s time alone, but Shadow remained tight-lipped. She shook his shoulders. “You gotta tell your bestie!”
“We talked for a bit, then she hugged me. I didn’t kiss her.” Shadow shrugged her off his arm, giving as little detail as possible.
“Hmmm.” She squinted at him intently. “I see what you’re doing. You didn’t kiss her. I’ll bet she kissed you.” Rouge caught on, putting a hand over her mouth to suppress a giggle. As they walked by a bodega with its doors propped wide open, the sound of her loud talking made the grumpy grizzly bear shop owner sitting at the register glare disgruntledly at her as they passed. “Did she kiss you on the cheek or lips?”
“...Cheek.” Uncharacteristically, Shadow’s tail lightly wagged, surprising himself and Rouge. He quickly stopped his tail from moving, but the excited urge to wag on its own remained.
“Ohhhh, a kiss on the cheek has you like that? How chaste. Makes me wonder what you’d be like in a full-on rut.” She put a finger to her chin and imagined it in her mind. “With the way you were looking her up and down when she was turned away, I thought you were gonna start rutting any second.”
“I did not look her up and down. At most, I took a brief glance at her. I’ll admit, though, being around her pheromones for a prolonged period of time might have triggered some instinctual urges in me.” It was stated as more of a fact rather than Shadow speculating on his own behavior. Perhaps that was why he, on a whim, had reached for Amy’s ear when he patted her on the head. It was an entirely innocent gesture at first, but from the sow’s reaction, he accidentally discovered a major erogenous zone and by that point he couldn’t help himself and kept going. Had they gone further, had Rouge decided to leave ahead on her own and not stop them, who knows…
Her pheromones were still all over him, requiring a shower to clean off. It smelled alluring and tooth-rottingly sweet, like sugary confections covered in roses. He hoped no civilians picked up on the scent and gave him questionable looks from the undeniable smell of a female in heat embedded in his fur.
“Brief glance? Uh-huh, suuure. In that case, you were briefly ogling her tits.” Rouge teased, fluttering over a stop sign before flying back to Shadow’s side. “If I could see her nips poking through her nightgown then I know you could, too.” She suddenly stopped and thought about it, giving him a suspicious look. “Hold on, if you’ve never been in rut before, how would you know what the weird urges feel like?”
“That’s…not entirely true. I fibbed a bit earlier so Rose wouldn’t be more on edge than she already was. I went through one cycle back on the ARK over fifty years ago.” Shadow remembered suffering from heavy limbs weighed down by exhaustion, an uncontrollable heat melting his insides with extreme nausea. “The Professor wanted to study the effects of the cycle. He gave me a dosage of rut inducers in early stages of development at the time.”
He remembered the confusion and fear after his member involuntarily unsheathed for the first time while he was trying to sleep on the first night of the rut, his own anatomy completely new and foreign to him. With barely any stimulation applied by his hand, he ended up making a sticky, wet mess under his covers. Shadow shuddered. “I was warned that it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience without a mate, but it could have been worse if Professor Gerald was able to get pheromones from a female hedgehog at the time. Regardless, I certainly don’t miss that feeling either way and I’ll only ever choose to go through it again if I decide to sire any offspring.”
“Mhm.” Rouge listened intently to this new info about her friend. None of this was found in any of the classified documents she’d read about Shadow’s creation. “I hear ya, the season sucks. Amy is a bit of an extreme case because her heats are unusual, but even so, I only have mine for a couple days and it still sucks. My stomach gets all twisted and queasy, but I’ll also wanna screw like no tomorrow. It’s the worst, not a fun combo at all.” An elderly human couple walked by and gaped at the bat, the old woman covering her mouth in shock.
Shadow groaned. “I agree, but lower your damn voice.” He said in a sharply hushed tone.
Rouge rolled her eyes, dismissing him with a hand wave. “Fine, whatever.” She took a glance across the street to see a StarDucks. There was a cafe sign board written with big, bold, bright colored letters outside the building that said ‘Happy Coffee N’ Cake Day! Buy 2 coffees, get 1 cake free!’. “Hey, how about we stop for a quick drink? We’re not too far from the dry cleaners so a fifteen minute coffee break won’t hurt.”
“So long as you're buying.” Shadow answered, crossing his arm and eyeing the coffeeshop.
“Why am I not surprised?” Rouge pulled out her pink and white heart-themed wallet. “Fine, but in exchange, you have to tell me what happened between you and Rosy. If you do, I’ll get you whatever coffee and cake you want. Deal?”
He was about to outright say no, but his encounter with Amy left him feeling exhausted physically and emotionally. The pick-me-up would be nice. Coffee did sound enticing even if it was the watered-down liquid type. Sighing, Shadow relented. “Deal.”