Okay, first note on this fic. While I was writing this I was listening to the "Ethno Circus" music track from Sonic Rush, so forgive me if this story seems a little TOO bizarre.

This is a Sonic/Blaze story consisting of both friendship and a bit of romance, don't like it, don't read it. After watching the ending to Sonic Rush (which is an AWESOME Sonic game by the way!) I got a rare inspiration to do a one-shot focusing on these tory itself takes place shortly after the events of the game itself, which might explains Blaze's more cynical attitude in this story at first.

I've edited the story as of today, fixing some of the dialogue and giving the story more personality then before. I love all the comments I've gotten for this story over the years and I'm pleased to see it get so much love.

Now on with the story!

It was a quiet and peaceful day, and Sonic was at Emerald Beach taking much-needed time to relax on the coastline. He had just stopped another one of Dr. Eggman's idiotic schemes to take over the world the other day, and was thankful he didn't try anything again today, Sonic was pretty worn out from the battle.

"Man, days like this don't come along very often." Sonic said, taking a quick second to take a sip from a large fountain drink he got from the local gas station. "I just hope nothing happens to ruin this-"

Just then, a rather large explosion went off in the distance.

"-day." Sonic finished, taking a moment to slap his forehead in annoyance, contemplating if he just willed that explosion into existence by saying that. Setting down his drink, he hopped off his towel and shot off like a rocket down the shoreline to find out what that explosion was about.

Further down the beach, Big the Cat was fishing along side the shoreline with his best friend Froggy. Big was so relaxed he didn't notice Sonic zoom past him. The friction Sonic made from his running caused a large amount of sand to fly up and come down over Big and Froggy. It was quiet for a second, and then Big asked, still under the sand, "Froggy, where are yooou?"

Soon Sonic came to a halt on the edge of a cliff side, where he could see the ocean and a small-secluded sandy area. His eyes widened when he saw a pile of smoking metal wreckage and two figures beside it laying on the sand. Curiosity took over his mind as he shot down the cliff side and reached the scene to investigate.

Sonic was in shock to see the two figures were the purple fire-elemental cat named Blaze, and the evil but gentlemanly scientist known as Eggman-Nega, both were badly injured. Sonic ignored Eggman-Nega and looked down to his most recently aquainted friend, surprised not only to see her back in his dimension, but injured and bleeding. He then noticed she had the seven equivalents to the Chaos Emeralds known as the Sol Emeralds in her arms.

"Hey, hey Blaze!" Sonic called out, kneeling down and using his arm to sit Blaze up. "Are you okay?!"

"Ugh... who..?" muttered the voice of Blaze, her yellow eyes slowly opening and looking up to see the blue hedgehog who once helped her save both their worlds from Eggman and Eggman-Nega some time ago. "S-Sonic?"

"Great, you're awake! So what the heck happened here?" Sonic asked.

Blaze coughed and groaned, "Eggman-Nega tried to steal the Sol Emeralds again… I chased him back into this world… I was able to catch up to the doctor and defeat him..."

'He must have come here trying to get the Chaos Emeralds too.' Sonic pondered to himself, then looked down to her wounds. "You look pretty banged up, I better take you into town."

"Forget it," Blaze scowled, stuffing the Sol Emeralds into a bag and tying it to her waist. "I'll be okay, I just need to get back to my world and-"

Blaze was interrupted when she coughed loudly, a bit of blood had come out from her mouth. Sonic frowned in response to it.

"You don't seem okay. I'll just take you back to my place and get you patched up." Sonic said. He started to lift her up, but she shoved him away.

"I said I'm FINE, okay?" Blaze said, slowly trying to get onto her feet. She lost balance however and stumbled backwards. Sonic quickly zipped over behind Blaze and caught her.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help you, now comon!" Sonic said, hoisting Blaze up onto his back.

"Let me go!" Blaze yelled angrily, but too weak to fight back, "I can do this myself!"

'I wonder what's wrong with her?' Sonic thought to himself, 'I thought she'd remember what me and Cream told her before...'

Deciding to help Blaze now and think about that later, Sonic took off with Blaze on his back, the cat yelling at the hedgehog to release her almost the entire way.

Soon enough, Sonic reached his apartment and came in, setting Blaze down on the couch.

"You're really stubborn you know that?" Blaze muttered, trying to get up off the couch, but her arms shook and she fell backwards on it again.

"Likewise." Sonic grinned, causing Blaze to narrow her eyes.

"I told you about fifty times already I can handle this."

"And I told you thirty seven times that you needed help, I ignored you when you said it the last thirteen times." Sonic joked. "Remember what I told you before, about being able to relay on me and our friends?"

"...that was different…" Blaze said, looking to the side, "The fate of both our worlds was at stake, in the end I had no other choice. Otherwise I'm perfectly able to handle things on my own."

"Not from this viewpoint," Sonic said grinning, "You can't even get up!"

"Watch me." Blaze scowled, pushing herself up again, only to fall over.

"Just go ahead and rest there." Sonic said, getting up and walking to his bathroom, "I'm going to get some bandages for those wounds."

"Forget it, they'll be fine!" Blaze said, seeing him completely ignore her, she thought to herself 'He may be a friend now, but he's still as annoying as hell.'

Blaze laid back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. She sighed and noticed the pictures on the walls around the room, the pictures were of Tails, Cream, Cheese, Knuckles, Amy, and a few others she didn't recognize; like a black hedgehog, a white bat, some kind of red robot, a purple chameleon, a little bee, a green alligator, and what she could only describe as a large purple beach ball with fur and frog on top of it.

"Are these all his friends…?" Blaze asked herself quietly. She then noticed something on the coffee table in front of her, it was a picture that had been drawn with crayons. Curious, she picked up the picture and looked it over. It was of a peachy rabbit, a little blue creature that she assumed was a Chao, a blue hedgehog, and much to her surprise, a purple cat, who was being hugged by the rabbit and Chao, all in a green lined field with a freakishly happy sun over head. At the bottom was written in various rainbow colors, "Me, Cheese, Sonic and Blaze".

'Cream must have done this and given it to Sonic as a gift.' Blaze thought. It was quite sweet that she made something like this, and that Sonic seemed to care enough about it that he'd hang onto it like this. Then her eyes widened when she realized that the blue hedgehog and the purple cat were holding hands.

'W-WHAT?' she thought, 'why are we doing THAT?' She then remembered, just before she had left back to her world. She and Sonic, both in their super forms, had bid each other goodbye, holding each other's hand until they were pulled apart by the vacuum of the dimensions reforming.

'I-It was nothing like that... it was just a way of us bidding each other farewell!' she thought, putting the picture back down.

"Hey, you ready for this?" asked a voice, surprising her. She looked up to see Sonic holding a first aid box.

"Sorry it took so long. I had a party last week with some of the others and when this one kid named Charmy comes over here he likes to play the thrilling game of 'Move Something In Sonic's House From One Place To Another'." He paused at that moment and said, "Which I think really needs a shorter name. What're the chances he had picked the first aid kit, huh?"

"Whatever," Blaze said looking away, a little mortified after seeing the drawing, "I told you I don't need to be patched up."

"Sorry Blaze but you're not getting out of here until I'm convinced you're healthy enough to juggle on a unicycle while singing in Italian." Sonic said firmly. Blaze sat there in disbelief at his bizarrely specific guidelines.

"I don't even know Italian."

"Not with that attitude, now just let me-"

"Back off!" Blaze yelled, swiping her fist at him. Sonic quickly jumped backwards before she could punch him. She groaned and fell back again in pain.

'Man, she's not going to let me do anything to help her.' Sonic thought, 'Maybe what I need is something to calm her down.'

"Hey, did you want some tea instead?" Sonic asked.

Blaze rolled her eyes and sighed. "Okay fine, if it'll make you happy."

Sonic zipped over into his kitchen area and looked over what he had in the cupboards. Unfortunately he seemed to be out of tea packets, either that or Charmy hid them somewhere, but he wasn't about to spend the day looking for that too.

"I'll be right back." Sonic said, "I gotta go out and pick up some more tea. And don't try leaving, I'm locking the top key lock."

"Fine." Blaze sighed, now reading a magazine that had been on the table.

Sonic being who he is, didn't take long to arrive at the grocery store, or to find the tea packets he had been looking for. On the way to the check stand, he passed by the store's floral department where there was a display of different plants. One particular plant's tag name caught his eye and he took a good hard look at it. Sonic just grinned as an idea ran through his head almost as fast as his legs usually carried him.

"Here you go Blaze. Drink up!" Sonic said back at his apartment, holding out a steaming cup of tea to the purple cat.

"Hm." Blaze examined the tea carefully, then took a moment to sniff it.

"Don't worry, I didn't put hot sauce in it or anything." Sonic laughed, "I learned from that a while back."

"Well that wasn't my concern, now it is." Blaze said annoyed.

She had to admit it did smell good, a smell that she had never experienced before, but her instincts told her it wasn't dangerous. Deciding to finally trust Sonic, she took a small sip of the tea. Her eyes were closed as the taste ran through her mouth. Her nose twitched a bit, then she took another sip, then another. Within a few minutes she had finished the entire cup.

"So?" Sonic asked, "Did the hedgehog deliver?"

"I... I admit," Blaze said, "That was rather good. I never thought of you to be able to make tea like this."

"Ah, compliments to the chef." Sonic said smugly.

"Get over yourself, it's just tea." Blaze said.

"So did you want more?" Sonic asked, pleased that she was more relaxed already.

"...yes, please." Blaze said, holding the cup up to Sonic. The hedgehog poured her another cup and she took it, drinking it slightly faster then before.

"This tea is... very good." Blaze said, "Where did you find this?" she asked, almost done with her current cup.

"Oh just got it at the store." Sonic shrugged, but mentally grinning.

'Hopefully it won't be too long until I'll be able to put the bandages on her.' he thought to himself.

"Um, a little more, if you don't mind." Blaze said, holding out her cup.

By her fifth cup of tea, Blaze began to feel much more calm and relaxed. She looked up at Sonic, who was busy setting up the first aid kit to be put to use.

"Ah... Sonic?" Blaze asked.

"Yeah?"

"C-Could I have tea more in cup?" she asked.

"Huh?" the blue hedgehog asked in confusion.

Blaze shook her head, not knowing why she spoke like that. "I mean I'd like my cup in some tea on the…"

"You want more tea?" Sonic asked.

"...yeah."

Sonic poured Blaze another cup, which she downed in practically thirty seconds. Sonic sweatdropped, wondering if maybe this was a bad idea after all.

"Mmm… good tea." Blaze said softly. Her cheek bones slowly rose up to form one of the rarest sights anyone could ever see; Blaze the Cat smiling. Sonic's eyes widened. He hadn't seen her do that since just before she had left back to her home world.

"You make goooooood tea." Blaze said, looking up at Sonic. Sonic gulped nervously at the smiling face before him, what he originally thought was pleasant and admiringly cute was now unnerving him. Mustering up his courage, Sonic sat down beside Blaze on the couch.

"Now hold still Blaze," Sonic said, taking a dab of alcohol on some cotton and dabbed at a cut on her face. Blaze flinched a little, but took another sip of tea and sighed in content. Thanks to the special tea's effect, Blaze barely felt a thing, and it wasn't long until all her wounds were taken care of.

"There, all done!" Sonic said, pleased to see his plan had worked. Blaze took a sip of her tea and looked down at her bandages. "Just stay off your feet for a few days and soon you'll be back to kicking Eggman-Nega's butt again." Sonic said, "I can let you crash here until then."

"Hm, but the Negg..." she muttered, worrying after Sonic mentioned her neemy's name, "He wants aaaall my emerls…" Blaze said, feeling a little woozy.

"Don't worry, I took the Sol Emeralds to Tails' workshop. He was able to craft a force field that couldn't be detected by any sonar device thingies a while back to protect the Chaos Emeralds, and it's working just as well for the Sol Emeralds, so they'll be safe until you're ready to go back." Sonic explained. He didn't really get how it all worked exactly, but Tails knew his stuff.

"...good." Blaze finally said, taking one last drink of her tea. Sonic was about to get up, but then he felt something lay down on his shoulder, he looked to see it was Blaze. She wasn't asleep, but rather just leaning against Sonic for support.

"Uh Blaze...?" Sonic asked, blushing, "You're kinda on my-"

"nyow."

Before Sonic could finish, Blaze wrapped both her arms around his waist, holding him close to her.

"O-Okay Blaze, you can let go now!" Sonic said frantically, blushing more then before.

Blaze seemed to ignore his request however, and instead started nuzzling his cheek with her head. Sonic didn't think he could take anymore of this until he heard a faint sound.

At first he thought Tails was going by the apartment in his Tornado airplane, or maybe the air conditioner was coming on. But then he realized it was coming from Blaze, a soft, rapid sound of content and happiness...

She was purring.

Sonic couldn't believe what was going on. He knew the ingredient he had added to the tea was going to help her relax, but not by this much! Strangely enough, the feeling of Blaze's warm body against his, and the soft purr she was making, didn't feel wrong or anything, he had to admit it was pretty soothing, in a way he kind of liked it.

"Mmm... So gud... tank you..." she purred, then slowly gave Sonic a small lick on the cheek with her cat tongue.

At that point, Sonic's head could be mistaken for a spiked tomato.

"Ben so long," Blaze said, back to nuzzling him, "...tat I felt tis way."

"Huh?" Sonic asked in confusion.

"When, when I wuz an itty bitty kitty... I wuz put into traning... to becom the gradian for the Sol emirls."

"You were just a kid?" Sonic asked. Blaze nodded slowly and continued.

"I... I wuzn't always so culd. I used ta be hapy, and hav friends. but when I becam the emerld persin thing... I, had ta leve it all behind... to enshoe the emerls woodn't fall into the bad hans."

'She isolated herself from everyone when she was a kid to keep the Sol Emeralds safe? No wonder she's the way she is...' Sonic thought to himself, he couldn't help but pity her.

"But now..." Blaze continued in her wooziness, "Yu and Creem... you helped meh bing back tat ol side of me.. when I wuz happy, tank you Sonikku..."

Sonic blinked in reaction. 'Wait, what did she just call me?'

"Whooo…" Blaze said, looking totally out of it, "Why dis couch spinnin 'round? I feel all dizzy!"

"It's not the couch, it's your head." Sonic said sweatdropping.

"My head is the couch?"

"Uh okay, sure."

"Heehehehee..."

"Um, okay then… I think you need to get some sleep." Sonic said, putting an arm under her left one and pulling her right over his shoulder to get her up.

"Yeh I dun wanna go sleep.." Blaze giggled as Sonic took her into his bedroom, where he laid her down on his bed and pulled the covers over her.

"Alright, you sleep here and I'll take the couch for tonight." Sonic said. "Okay?"

"But I thought I was the couch..."

"No, you're a cat." Sonic said rolling his eyes. "You going to be alright?"

"Posso parlare in italiano!" Blaze exclaimed randomly.

"Okay, I'll take that as a yes." Sonic said blankly. He turned to leave but something grabbed his arm.

"Eh?"

Suddenly, the tipsy Blaze yanked Sonic onto the bed, her arms immediately wrapped tightly around his body and held her close against him. She was purring up a storm as she muttered, "I finally found my teddy bear..." snuggling against the blue hedgehog.

If Sonic could be blushing any more at this point, he could be mistaken for Knuckles.

The blue hedgehog tried to squirm out from her grasp, but Blaze just mewled and held him tighter. Sonic sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Well, I guess I can just lay here for a few minutes until she falls asleep, then I can get up."

The next morning, the sunlight came in through the window of Sonic's bedroom and caused Blaze to stir a bit, then slowly open her yellow cat eyes.

"Ugh, my head hurts... where am I?" she asked herself. She took a look around to see an unfamiliar bedroom. Her eyes then widened to see something spiny and blue beside her sleeping. Blaze laid there frozen for a few seconds then...

BAM!

Sonic flew out of the bedroom from the impact of Blaze's punch. He crashed down behind the couch as Blaze stomped out of the bedroom, obviously very pissed off and her body surging with light flames. Sonic slowly got up from behind the couch. He now had a black eye and a round bump on top his head.

"Something the matter Blaze?" Sonic asked sarcastically, rubbing the bump on his head in a failed attempt to relieve some of the pain.

"You..." Blaze said narrowing her eyes, "You drugged me with that tea just so you could defile me!"

"What? No!" Sonic exclaimed, waving his hands around frantically. "We didn't do anything! I just put you on the bed and I was gonna take the couch!"

"Then why were you sleeping on the bed WITH me? Talk!" Blaze scowled, her fists starting to brew with intense fire.

"You pulled me onto the bed with you! You had me in an iron grip!" Sonic said.

"...I-I did?"

"Yeah, you were squeezing me like a koala last night, purring and everything!" Sonic explained.

"Purring...?" Blaze asked, her flames dying down. "Are you sure? That doesn't sound like something I'd do..."

"Well, I couldn't believe it either, but… I guess it might have something to do with what I put in your tea..." Sonic trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. Suddenly, he saw a large fireball being made in Blaze's hand, aimed right at him.

"So you DID drug me!" Blaze said snarling, narrowing her eyes and preparing to launch the fireball, "I'll ask you one thing, why?"

Sonic gulped and said, "Cause you wouldn't let me help you with your stupid injuries!"

Blaze raised an eyebrow, then looked down at herself, surprised to see everywhere she had been hurting was now properly bandaged up.

"You... you did this?" she asked, the fireball slowly shrinking.

"Yeah, and don't worry. The stuff I put in that tea was supposed to help you relax and calm down, it's nothing dangerous or anything." Sonic nodded. "I just didn't think you'd do some of the..." he cleared his throat, "Things you did..." he said blushing lightly.

"I see." Blaze said. "So, what else did I do then...?"

"Well, you were, um..."

"Just tell me everything." she sighed.

"You were kinda, sorta, maybe, nuzzling me, purring a lot... spoke in what I think was Italian, and you... uh, licked me." Sonic said, scooting his foot on the ground timidly.

Blaze's eyes widened, blushing lightly herself, "I... didn't say anything besides Italian words, did I?"

"Actually… you did tell me something about your past." Sonic said "How you used to be until you got put into training to guard the Sol Emeralds..."

Blaze looked down at the ground. For some reason her feet seemed very interesting to stare at in this very moment. "Oh, I'm sorry you had to hear that.. I don't say anything like that to others."

"Nah, don't worry about it." Sonic said shaking his head, "If anything, I was glad to hear it. It gave me a chance to know why you're..." he gulped a bit, "You know, the way you are."

"Well… now you know." Blaze said, looking to the side. She was tempted to talk more, but her thoughts went back to her priotities, "Well, thank you for treating my wounds, but I have to go. Where's the Sol Emeralds?"

"I left them with Tails an-"

"YOU LEFT THE EMERALDS BEHIND?!" she yelled, causing Sonic to cower in a miniature form.

"Relax! There's no way Eggman-Nega can get them! Tails has got them protected!"

"Where is the fox's place?! I'll get them myself!"

"Not now Blaze! You need to stay off your feet until your injuries heal up a little more!" Sonic said, lowering his hands as if to tell her to calm down.

"Don't tell me what I can't do, hedgehog." Blaze said coldly.

"Look, I can understand what you need to do, but you gotta learn to relay on your friends more. You can't do everything yourself." Sonic said, he reminisced about a past situation he had been involved in, "Heck, I remember back when an evil robot version of me tried to take over the world, and even I couldn't do it myself. Luckily I had a lot of friends to help me take him down!"

Blaze glanced up at the pictures hung up around the room. "Your friends... These are the ones you're talking about?"

"Right, we teamed up and took down that wannabe together!" he said grinning.

"I see." Blaze said, "So you've dealt with villains besides that Dr. Eggman character?"

"You wouldn't believe what I've done." Sonic said with a wink, rubbing his nose with his finger.

Blaze thought to herself, then smirked a bit. "Well, if you're so insistent that I say for now, I'd like to hear about some of your adventures."

"Sure, then maybe afterwards I'd like to hear your's!" Sonic said.

And so the two spent the next few days talking and spending time together. They alternated between watching TV or video games at times, other times they'd spend talking between each other of all the adventures, battles, and trouble they've been though. Blaze had to admit, she was pretty impressed by Sonic's crazy antics and unusual but great friends. Sonic enjoyed hearing about some of the quests she had to go on to recover the Sol Emeralds from Eggman-Nega.

One day Sonic took a glance at his watch after the two had completed an intense match in a fighting game. "Wow, it's already 5 pm, I haven't had a chili dog today yet."

"Well, I'm feeling much better then before." Blaze, standing up and flexing her legs, her bandages were almost all gone by this point, her strong body having healed well. "Maybe I better go now, I need to get the Sol Emeralds back to my world as soon as possible."

"Hey wait," Sonic said, getting up as well. "Before you go, why don't you let me give you one more night off?"

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, now that you're healed up, we could just have a night out on the town. I can show you some places to have fun, we could visit Cream and Cheese, and get some chili dogs or something too!"

Blaze contemplated that thought.

"...Sonic, are you asking me out on a date?" Blaze asked, tilting her head and smirking a little.

"Eh, whatever you wanna call it." Sonic shrugged.

"Okay then, sounds nice." Blaze said, "I think I'd enjoy it."

"Alright, I just gotta take a shower first before we go." Sonic said. He started to walk towards the bathroom when he stopped and asked, "Did you want to take one too?"

Blaze's face turned bright red and her eyes widened, stuttering "W-WHAT?"

Sonic just laughed and said, "I meant after I was done, so I would know to save hot water or not."

Blaze blinked a few times, then sighed and chuckled. "Yeah, sure. I'll take one after you're done."

Sonic nodded and was about to enter the bathroom when Blaze said, "Oh, and Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"...thank you, for everything." she said.

"No prob Blaze." Sonic said smiling, then walked into the bathroom.

As Blaze waited for Sonic to be done with his shower, she went into the kitchen area to pour herself a glass of water. As she drank it down, she noticed a plant pot beside Sonic's teakettle. In it was a small green plant and a label tag that had been pulled out of the dirt. She took a look at the tag and grinned slightly, seeing what kind of plant it was.

"Catnip."

She looked over in the direction of Sonic's bathroom, then took a good-sized piece of the plant and stuck it in her pocket.

"Believe me Sonic, we're going to have more fun tonight then you might expect." she said with a bit of a smirk.

Well there you have it. Yeah, I know, it probably sucked horribly. It was fun to go back to this and see how much I've changed as a writer, and edit things a bit more. Stay tuned for my next piece of fiction soon!