💾 Archived View for tilde.team › ~khuxkm › writing › elixirs_and_potions › ch3.md captured on 2022-03-01 at 16:34:30.
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"How could she?" That was all Sonic could say. He had woken up on the third day in Amy's bed, and obviously, he was confused. What was going on? Why was he in Amy's bed? Suddenly, the memories came flooding back: the picnic, Amy giving him the pink lemonade, everything that had transpired in the last 2 days. He wasn't sure what had been in the pink lemonade, but whatever it was, it had made him fall in love with Amy. At first, he wasn't entirely sure that Amy hadn't done... something with him. As his memories came back, this was confirmed, and yet, Sonic still felt violated in a way. He got up to leave when he heard a muffled groan from the bed. "Come back to bed, sweetie..." Sonic couldn't face her. Not here. Not now. And so, he ran. --- Zero was minding his own business, relaxing and making potions, when he heard a frenzied knocking at the door. He paused; who could it be at this hour? "It's open," he yelled back to the door. He was expecting maybe Amy, maybe Silver. Those two usually came to visit every once in a while. What he was not expecting was to immediately get flattened by a certain blue blur. "...Can I help you?" Sonic was a mess. "I need help." Zero looked his blue friend over. "Obviously." Now that Zero thought about it, Sonic looked like he was on the verge of tears. "...Can you call Shadow?" Zero smiled. "Sure." He walked over to the phone. "Hey, Shadow? Sonic needs your help..." --- Sonic was on the couch, bawling his eyes out, with Shadow and Zero trying to help him calm down. "How could she? It was just so out of the blue, she took me to a picnic spot in the mountains, I didn't even see it coming-" Zero put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Shh, shh, I know, I know. You're okay now." Shadow, meanwhile, was pacing the wall behind the couch. "I knew it, I knew it, I knew something was wrong and I didn't do anything about it, I'm an idiot-" Both hedgehogs were interrupted by a knock at the door, and a familiar voice. "Zero?" Sonic immediately dove behind the couch and started faintly crying. Zero rolled his eyes and whispered to Shadow. "Take him to the guest room, second door from the stairs." Shadow nodded and complied, leaving Zero to deal with Amy. He opened the door, and Amy immediately started questioning him. "Have you seen Sonic? He left early this morning." Zero blinked. "Hi, Amy. Yeah, actually, I have seen him. Why don't you come in and take a seat?" Amy walked in, looking around as she sat down on the couch. "Do you know where he is?" Zero walked over and sat next to her, deciding to play dumb for the time being. "Not right now, no." He knew exactly where Sonic was, in fact: lying on the bed in the guest room, with Shadow trying to keep him calm enough to where Amy wouldn't notice him. Amy didn't need to know that though. "How'd the love potion thing go?" Amy sighed. "So I gave him the potion in lemonade, like you said. I saw hearts flash across his eyes, and he seemingly had a long conversation with himself before he admitted that he loved me." Zero noted to himself that that was easily explained as the potion's doing, especially since the Sonic in his guest room very clearly did not love Amy, at least not in the way she loved him. Regardless, he nodded, inviting her to continue. "He and I spent 2 whole days together, but this morning he got out of bed and ran away. I haven't seen him since." Zero paused. "Wait, how exactly did you give him the potion?" Amy shrugged. "I emptied the bottle into a big cup of lemonade and gave it to him to drink." Zero facepalmed. "Amy, what did I tell you not to do?" Amy looked lost for a second, so Zero decided to help her. "I said not to give more than one dose at a time!" She looked down at the floor. "I don't remember you saying that..." Zero shook it off. "Anyways, it seems like he doesn't actually like you that way, seeing as how he ran away first thing when it wore off." Amy was still looking at the floor. "I should own up to it. I'll tell him about the potion-" Zero stopped her quickly. Too quickly. "No, no, you don't need to. He still has his memories, remember?" Amy paused, realizing something. "You do know where he is right now, don't you?" Zero sighed. "Yes, I do-" Amy grabbed him. "Tell me!" He flipped her over his shoulders on reflex. Luckily, the couch broke her fall. "Honestly, after what you did to him? You're the last person he needs to see right now." Amy glared at him. "Well, you should own up to your part in it. It's your fault, too!" Zero looked at her. "What, and have him hate me like he probably hates you? No!" He walked over to the door, opening it. He took a deep breath before gathering every ounce of authority in his body. "Amy, *get out of my house*." She sighed flippantly and walked out, glaring at him the whole way. As soon as she was gone, Zero shut the door and yelled to the guest room. "Coast is clear!" Shadow emerged from the guest room with a blubbering Sonic. He was mumbling, and Zero could catch bits and pieces of it. "...stupid Amy...stupid potion...stupid me...should've known better..." All the same, Zero could plainly hear Shadow, trying to calm his rival down. "It's not your fault. There's nothing you could've done differently." Zero sighed to himself. Did he feel bad about what happened to Amy? Yeah. Did he hate that she didn't follow his instructions? Sure thing. But was he willing to throw himself under the bus? No, sir. Sonic would never know who gave Amy the potion, not if Zero could help it. Still, he thought to himself. Things had never blown up this spectacularly in the past when a love potion had been used. Yeah, sure, some people had relationships ruined by a love potion, but not usually to this level. He was drawn out of his thoughts by a loud sniff from Sonic. "How would you even make a love potion?" Zero internally shuddered. Time to lie through his teeth. "Well, it's not that hard, if you know what ingredients you need. You can get most of the ingredients and equipment for around 100 rings if you know where to look. She probably made it herself..." Sonic was so mad, Zero swore he could see Sonic's fur darken slightly. "That no-good, rotten, horrible-" Shadow could see where this was going, and decided to try and stop him. "Calm down, Sonic-" It worked, in the sense that Sonic's fur returned to normal, but Sonic collapsed into Shadow's arms. "Calm down? **Calm down?** You don't know what it feels like to have your feelings toyed with! You don't know what it's like to wake up in a stranger's bed, with no idea of how you got there and barely any memory of the past 2 days!" Shadow simply held Sonic close. "You're right, I haven't. But I do know that murder is a crime that will get you thrown in jail for life. She's not worth that." Sonic simply sighed. "You're right. She's not even worth my time anymore." He stood up. "I'm cutting her out of my life." Zero and Shadow were happy for Sonic. But little did they know, Amy had stayed behind and spied on them. She's crushed. Sonic, her love, her everything, rejected her entirely and is planning to cut her out of his life. She has nowhere left to go. She has no reason to go on.