Salutations to everyone and welcome to my second Valentines Day short story. This time I'm exploring Sonic and Sally in a pre-Mobius 25 years later setting. These two are always a challenge for me, yet when SATam was still on I could be them and feel it. So this was a very good way for me to really work with these two and on a personal basis with themselves. I hope this all meshes out well.

This short popped into my head, not like the other in a dream, but more so to kind of hold an anniversary type deal. And really to show how life does go on, though not how we envisioned it.

So I pardon myself until the end. Disclaimer: I respect the rights of the creators of the main characters and others that are mentioned and this story is not for my own profit.

I beg of you all to enjoy this. Happy Valentines Day.

By: Mauser

There was something about the shy, late spring wind blowing across his fin blue fur, caressing what skin shown on his face and chest, that he wished he could feel without standing completely still. But he saw himself moving. He saw himself running through the golden, green canopy just a little more than a skip-hop jump from the long stone balcony he felt isolated on, leaning on the mason railing with his arms supporting his body. His emerald eyes darted up and down the gaps and narrow trails that dotted the tree tops, tracing the minuscule paths he would sprint on, switching from one to another like he was on rails. He could feel his arms just inches away from propelling him over the cold grey railing and plummeting down to the grassy garden, and just at the moment when his blue body would smash through, he'd excite the muscles in his amble legs to catch the ground and use the energy to start his–

Sighing, he dove his head down between his arms and tried to search for something to ease his mind. For a moment, he glimpsed away from this world to a far off one that wasn't so distant in the past. When his sight had focused from the blurred, however vividly clear rolling terrain from his aloft dream, the world he was trying to run away from came calling back to him. From the gold buckle of his left red and white shoe, crossed over his right, he could trace the words from the reflective shine of the falling sun somewhere off to his left side:

Hero of Mobius.

A grunt escaped out the side of his lips, turning his head up to roll his face over his right shoulder. "And Sonic is waiting," he impatiently decried to the air around him under his breath, his matured voice startling him some. He was still try to get used to it. Stabbing his shoe on the corner of a laid stone he looked off over the balcony, finding seclusion in seclusion. "Hope Uncle Chuck doesn't need me back anytime soon."

Usually she didn't take this long. And usually what she had to say didn't take nearly as long as the wait. Yeah sure, we can try something–oh wait, something came up; No, can't tonight Sonic–council wants me and Elias present; I don't want to travel anywhere, Sonic–public isn't happy about our decision.

A scant eye to the far twin double doors passed the full bed suite six paces behind him. "What about me Sal? I can't even play catch-up to my ole friend anymore without you losing your cool–" His abrupt sigh seemed to push the wind inside the chamber, blowing the silk bed drapes like elegant kites around the queen sized bed.

One only slept in by a Princess.

Wait in her chambers, the female fox receptionist said after leading him here; make yourself somewhat comfortable–just don't touch anything; she should be along in a moment; we know she asked for you to come. At least I'm not here dying at a certain predetermined time or I'd taken the ring check for the next boat outta here. No matter how older he got–certainly didn't feel it–he hated standing around and waiting!

And on this one thought he sighed something away from his heart he already knew. He'd taken up a life of waiting...for what he didn't know–

His pointed ears twitched when the sound of a door latch chirped behind him. Bringing his crossed foot over to stand completely on, he turned himself around just in the moment to see the right door open slowly. His eyes widened when her clear, confident voice murmured through the gap. His world known smile filled his face when her chestnut-furred body, covered under a dark-pink gown, which he'd never thought he would see her in for the longest, slid through the door. In fact, he hadn't seen her wear it since Bunnie and Antoine's wedding over five years ago. But still she looked immaculate, watching her turn as the fabric swept the floor and her eyes toward–

What smile he possessed vanished when he saw the strain of frustration shudder from her eyes as her hand gentle closed the door. He tried to step forward, wanting to will his feet to run and collect her in his hands. But her shoulders stood like towers, offering no invitation for him to approach. She hadn't even gazed upon him yet. She hadn't even turned away from the door when her eyes began to rain with tears.

But like the girl that lead him through countless victories against his mortal enemies, she didn't whimper under her glistening gaze.

The breath he took didn't seem to be the value he needed to gain her attention. "Sally."

Her left hand found the her elbow, closing her arms tightly against her chest. She didn't hear him.

"Yo, Sal," he echoed, almost lurching forward to greet her across the stone balcony, and the red carpet floor.

In the four steps he took, she'd turned her eyes to him. Her lips opened but she didn't say a thing. And just before he let his smile return, before his hand touched her, the chestnut squirrel...stepped passed him and glided toward the perch he had left. He followed her with his head, standing completely stunned.

For a bleak time, and only the hand full in his life, he was feeling unwanted by her.

"Sal?" he slip from his lips under eyes looking for life.

Letting her ghostly present–or maybe his–not become an open seam to slip in the cold, he walked with a straight back to her. "Hey," he let out under a trying, solace, voice, "what's wrong, Sally?" He stepped onto the stone balcony, feeling the place he'd just left had changed in aura. His eyes were drawing at her exposed back from her gown, tracing her long auburn her down to small of her back, watching the reverberation of her crying take away her beauty.

When his left hand touched her shoulder, like catching her before she'd made up her mind to run, he inched his face easily towards her. "Sally," he said as soft as he could–

"I wish my father was here," she choked out. Her hands were smothering her face and keeping him from seeing her venerable eyes. "I need him now." He squeezed her arm, wondering if she knew he was there. If she'd look to him, she would find his face was asking.

"I'm not ready for this...I can't do this now," she sobbed in her hands.

"Not ready for what, Sal?" Sonic voiced as easily as he could.

Her hands fell away, searching for her gown to whip her tears off. "Elias..." her shudder voice said weakened She turned her face away from his ashamedly. "Elias renounced the crown today Sonic."

His mouth nearly slammed the floor. "What!? You mean he's quitting?" S

he nodded her head under turned lips and drawing eyes to the forest beyond.

His own mouth stammered. "Wha–what does that mean for you?"

Wet, glistening feminine eyes met his, but Sally's voice hadn't resisted from her inner call to not cry again. "It means I've become Queen of New Mobotroplis, Sonic." A breath escaped from her. "It means it's all up to me, now."

"Well..." He stood back, eyeing her in disheartened puzzlement. "Why are you crying about it, Sal? I mean–" His hand left her; his vacancy turning her head to expose the coming scathing eyes if they should emerge. He squinted more in bewilderment. "Sally, you can do this. I mean it'd be like old times, just...less adventure–"

"It's different, Sonic," she said too plainly for him, her face turning away from his and looking down from the balcony. It surprised him; letting him down from an assault he thought was coming.

And for a moment, a deafening silence elapsed between them. His head was rolling but on a spindle. Different? He didn't know this word. And he thought he knew Sally didn't know it either. Different? It didn't sound right. It didn't sound right coming from her.

"What do you mean different," he festered squeamishly in agitation, his deeper voice falling out of his mouth like it knew what to do. "How could this be different. You lead us through a heck of a lot worse, Sally, and you say that this is different? C'mon," he simpered, throwing an akimbo stance, "you gotta be pulling my quills."

Sally, to his sinking spirit, turned her hand away and pushed her right hand out to cease him. He couldn't believe it.

"Just stop, Sonic. Please. I'm..." She held back her coming cries. "I'm thinking."

He leaned his head over, trying to search out her diverting hues. "Hey, you called me here. Remember?" he begged under a pleading visage. "If you want me to, I can go talk to your brother, Sally."

"It wouldn't make a difference."

"How do you know?" he offered, doing his best to keep his voice tranquil in reason. "You know he'd listen to me. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have this rubber-stamp title on my shoes."

This made her stare at him, though distant. "Title? How could you say that? That was his token from all of us for what you did, Sonic."

"Yeah, and look at me," he barbed. "I'm a dishwasher in my Uncles' hot-dog diner down the road." He shrugged his shoulders with a mere hint of indifference. "So much for the Hero of Mobius."

She took one step to him to meet his green eyes to hers; letting what emotions that consumer her fall into him. "And it's all by choice...right?"

He gave a surely smile that didn't last. Some how he felt an urge to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah, it is, Sal." He broke his stare from her. "But you know my Uncle has seen better decades. That's why I'm in the back."

And he knew she was reading every word of the lie he was saying. From the down turn of her chin to her lowering brow straight at him, he knew she didn't believe why he'd taken to the back room, soaking his fur with every stray splash of soapy water. But if she saw what he did every day, hiding himself in the back and watching his Uncle Chuck talk with every passing ear, every colored fur, every jabbering mouth, she'd see why he had. She'd see why he turned to a life of obscurity. Why the Hero of Mobius wasn't in the lime light anymore. He was happy watching other people live theirs in their own.

"Sal–"

But she'd turned away from him, crossing her arms tightly against her chest and letting him only see her long, pony-tailed auburn hair. The sun stroked it as with his heart just upon the reflection of her in the orange light. It seemed the shadow she cast placed him inside of it.

"So where's your crown?" he asked in a mute voice.

Her deep sigh raised and lowered her back at him. "I'm being crowned in about half an hour."

"Is that's why you asked me to come tonight...just to see you become Queen?" he asked in a pardoned voice.

Sally's hair shook like a tree in the wind with her head. "No, Sonic." Her head lowered. "I–"

His hand began to move forward before his legs could, trying to reach and comfort her on her shoulder. He could hear her voice struggling. He hated when she cried.

"I–I should've seen this coming?" her trite voice echoed to herself. "I've should've known he was going to do this again. Just him passing on more work onto me should've–"

Sonic's touch stopped her. For the moment his hand was on her fur, she didn't acknowledge him. When she'd drifted her head over to see his eyes, he wish she hadn't looked to him all. He was reading the absolute doubt in her eyes; it was pooling out in her tears. "Sonic..." she began in a longing voice. "Do you know why I've always asked for those small, dinner dates with you?"

A full, confident grin eclipsed his face for once in a second. "Because you need someone cool in the castle once a month just to spice up the place."

Her wavering head, her lifeless hand reaching at his hand behind her wasn't reassuring. "No, Sonic...What do we usually talk about?"

His smile had faded; her serious tone and slumping body murdering the boisterous hedgehog from long ago. "Yeah, Sal. I mean, about Tails, Bunnie, the whole bunch of Ro-Butt-Nick kickers." His eyes furrowed in perplexity. "In fact that's usually all we talk about."

And on this, Sally had turned toward him, still holding his hand. "Sonic, you're the only one of the Freedom Fighters I get to talk to. Through you, I only get to watch my friends grow up just by what you tell me." She squeezed his hand which made him look down at it for a brief moment. He wasn't liking what she was leading him to. "You know how much I want be there to watch Tails go through High School?"

"You're going to be there for his graduation, right? I mean, it's in a few months," Sonic interjected, hoping to throw her off.

But she was Sally. She only closed her eyes to be dissolved in the thought before going on:

"Sonic...we've all been growing up. We've been growing up...and apart." She saw his eyes twitch to her's in a subtle defiance. She could hear his shouting through his breathing. If he'd known how much she was suffering as it was. "My ceremony will be the end of us seeing each other, Sonic. My time will be devoted to the people and the Kingdom...and–"

He stepped back, breaking her hand away from his, startling her.

"No." His face melted, showing his hurting and besetting scorn. "I don't believe that, kiddo! No way! Robotnick didn't come between us; your royal highness back when we were in the heat of it didn't come between us, so like heck you getting promoted will do the same now!" A striking hand our, across his chest, like scattering lying newspaper clippings off a table. "If there's anything different in this it's that you are selling yourself short. Why are you denying this, Sally? You've lead us...shoot, you've lead me trough the thick and the anorexic, and you know me–I'm the toughest, strong headed hedgehogs that ever graced over this planet in a hurry and somehow you kept me on a straight path." He felt himself breathing hard. "In fact you kept us all on a path that got us here. Look at Knux and Julie-Su. They're rebuilding like us, and they've found time for each other and their friends." And with his pause, a guilty smile escaped him, making him scratch the back of his head. "Well, all except me for some reason."

A frowning smile came across her lips that almost made Sonic rejoice. "Yeah." Then it faded. "Yeah."

Turning, Sally in her elegance that from Sonic's eyes was all natural, walked to the stone railing, placed her arms on it and leaned forward. The grass outlaying patch by the castle was brilliant in the setting sun.

"I'm sorry, Sonic...but this is different." Her sighed came burning out of her lungs. "It's settled–"

The figure in the corner of her eye in a flash became a blue blur, and just as her eyes and turned her head over to see him, she found him standing on the railing, his chest pointing east, however his eyes and face diving straight into hers. He didn't say a word for the moment her heart had time to beat. "What are doing, Sonic?" she willed herself to ask under her weakened breathing.

He held his stare at her, grinding his teeth before he stood completely up and turned to the coming blanket of night. "I'm going to do what I do best, Sally...I'm going to run!"

"To where?" she gasped in a demanding, struggling voice, stepping towards him, hoping he'd look back down at her.

"Anywhere but here!" he growled under steadfast eyes.

"Why!?"

Sally's driving voice steered his head for him to peer inside her hard breathing, aching soul. "Because if this it, if this is the way it's going to be from here on out, when you get some bigger, fancy crown; then I'm juicing outta here and I ain't 'lookin back, Sal." Breathing in through his noise, he didn't let up, even when her tears were pouring out over her emotionless face. "And if you want different, then it's going to be different without me. I didn't let Robotnick have our lives, and like fuzz-balls I'm going to let this control us! If it takes me to scatter around the world where you or anyone else around here don't know where I am, then you will see how different things will be." She still didn't flinch, and his ankles where starting to lower to launch. "You're my best friend, Sally Acorn–" His heart twisted inside him, nearly producing a tear; "You're my best friend. So, if you go through with this, if this is absolutely it...then I'll leave here with you as my best friend, and not some Queen that I have to watch grow-up on some stupid chair, and one I can never talk to, jab at, or make idiot comments so I can hear you laugh when you're not so prim and proper!"

While his heart was still pumping, while his own words were burning in his skull, he turned his emerald eyes away from the girl he only truly loved in his life, turned away from her without a single nod, smile, or squint for a farewell, nice 'knowin'ya, and lowered himself at the knees, aiming for a spot just at the edge of the tree line, and readied himself to–

A firm grip at his ankle just above his sock stopped him colder than ice and brought his quivering, angered face down and become affronted with lonely, anguishing eyes tearing from a scared girl he never thought he'd ever see again.

"Don't, Sonic."

He shuddered, trying to shake his head and calm his aching heart. "And why not?"

The stare they held with each other could've measured time. He watched her eyes searching through his, seeking answers to unvoiced questions. And when none were found, she darted her head to the her bedroom and gazed at the door in a frantic way. What? I didn't hear a knock, his mind festered. But yet he followed her gaze, and locked on to the twin double doors. He thought back to when she'd entered. Her back was straight, straighter than he'd ever saw. Her voice was sharper when she told someone something. And her instant walk that took her passed him. And her outburst. And all of this. Why? She was–

Looking up at him. He felt her stare warming every fiber of his being. And when he met her eyes with his, the only thing he could do was just gaze into them...harder than he known he had. He was reading her, though he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"What were you thinking of doing, Sally?" The question made her swallow. And he too. This was very unlike her. "You didn't come up here to get me for this, did you?" He held his passive stare. "What were you thinking of doing?"

Her sob echoed upon her watering eyes, her soft face reaching for him through the distance:

"To runaway."

Air. It flowed around them, caressing their fur and making them remember that they were both alive, holding each other in their gaze. Only their forceful breaths gave movement to their bodies.

He didn't know what to say, or even what to do. He was so consumed with her diving soul into his, fighting to hold on to him, he felt empty with energy, yet he knew it was there. He knew it was built up waiting to explode. But she was keeping him at bay...like she had for most of his life.

Looking away, he shot his eyes to the ground below. Coldness filtered through him, changing his perception of the bright, faltering day. The sun glazed the stone, turning it into silver, smoothing it to a bloodless character of metal that followed the curve of the broad pedestal the large balcony was perched upon. And he was there again. He was there in body and spirit and the only thing that was missing was the sour smell of the former, massacred Mobian City. Approaching from either end of the round castle wall in a steady march were two royal guardsmen. But he didn't see a beaver or the racoon in his eyes. Their spears had vanished; their fur removed.

He was there in that filthy, metal city; no more the waste land that it was.

He jutted his head down to Sally. "Yo, Sal, two chrome-domes 'lookin 'ta party."

She released his ankle, breaking her sad eyes as well from him, and peered down the balcony wall. Her voice was still wet, but he still heard her steadfast calm, commanding undertone. "Can we make?" she asked.

His eyes fidgeted to both closing beings. "As soon as the SWATbots pass, we can scoot with their backs turned."

His youthful self was ringing his ears but his corporeal voice, older, matured, sounded out of place to him. He felt discouraged by it, and enough so that he leapt down back onto the balcony and at Sally's side. Just as he was about to open his mouth...her finger came up to his lips. Looking down at her gown, she darted her eyes back inside her room then back to him.

"Wait here." She moved off, right hand holding up the excess fabric to keep her from tripping as her legs hurried her towards her bed chamber.

"Hey, where you going?" Sonic asked, almost following her.

She rounded to the left of the open glass doors. "Just wait, Sonic," she calmed him in a comforting voice, disappearing as soon her words met his ears.

Shrugging his brows, he turned and sulked back to the railing. The guards were just a few meters from each other. In only a short time the SWATbots would pass and they would have to hurry. Sliding back, he concealed himself from their casting visors if they should ever peer up. Looking up himself, he scanned the small forest canopy that was the large palace gardens. Beyond that was the scatter outlaying field and thickets that were spread all around New Mobotroplis. The wall and shield that once persevered and protected the nanite city was gone along with Nicole, leaving endless boarders that his eyes could see.

A knock came from the chamber doors. "Princess Sally," came a straining, muffled male voice from the other side. "Your Highness, the ceremony is about to begin."

Sonic lowered his voice, it added a drastic touch to it. "Sal, they're about to get through door! Hurry up with Nicole and those fireworks!"

He remembered when he held Sally, watching her let her tears fall upon his shoulder as Nicole shut herself down. Her presence wasn't needed anymore, he remembered Nicole's voice saying to them. He hated it. He hated it with all his heart. It wasn't fair that when Robotnick was gone, burned to a crisp or whatever Knuckles did to him, that on that same feeling of triumph in the utter end, Sally had to say good bye to her companion. But he never said it the way she would've known.

Had he said what he truly wanted to her just a moment ago?

"Your Highness!?" barged the concerned voice, banging on the doors. "Your Highness, you can't be late for this!"

A single step forward. "Sally! Yo, Princess, we need to juice, and P.D.Q!"

From the edge of the doorway, she glided out from the sanctum she had escaped to. His heart ceased when his eyes traced her chestnut fur body. What she had reappeared back to him in was nothing more than her blue boots, a white sleeveless shirt that hugged her humble breast and cut just deep enough to expose her upper collar, striding confidently in her blue vest, the last one that was made for her and still fitted her trimmed body. And her legs were only covered by her own brown fur.

"Let's go Sonic," she ordered, her tone driving straight at his pumping, energizing soul. "The charges will go in two minuets. Can you get us out of the city by then?"

She walked up to him, stopping only inches from his chest. For a time, his mind was blank.

But his old, childhood-self came racing back. "Is that a challenge?" he scoffed.

Three hard thumps barked from the door.

Ceasing what little moment there was in the back of their minds, Sonic scooped her up in his arms, holding her at her back and under her knees. Jumping up he slammed his feet on top the railing and shot his eyes downwards. The bots had just passed each other by three paces.

The touch of her strong arms wrapping around his neck and chest sent a haunting, euphoric chill down his quills. He'd thought he would never feel her body against his again like this. How did she still remember how to hold on to him just before a run? Her left arm was snug under his throat, her right reaching under his large quills and grasping her hands tightly. Then she squeezed him...harder than he ever remembered.

"Here we go?" he said; swearing his voice was choking.

A hard swallow, strengthening arms, he brought her closer to him, closing her legs closer to her body. And with his right red and white shoe, he stepped over the ledge and pushed out with his left foot. Gravity was instant the moment he felt it. He'd forgotten how fast the ground would come up to greet him. The railing had flown passed him in a heart beat. The silver walls were instantly replaced with the stone blocks. And just before he cleared the second story, he landed both his feet on the wall, holding his right against it and skidding down. When the small pinnacle he spied not more than a blink before he jumped came, he snagged it with his right foot and pushed up!

The weightless sensation came to him like cold water on a hot day. Relieving. Liberating. His eyes aimed straight for the ground the moment Sally squeezed him. His long ago cue to start pumping his legs. And the ground was just right there. He could taste it!

His spinning legs caught and the onrush of air and pushing forces washed them in forgotten feelings. He banked with his body to cut through the trees, feeling his body being pulled in directions momentum wanted to go. He glided atop exposed roots, like skipping stones on water. And turning his head back for just a mere instant, he saw the trees bending towards him as he passed, become victims of his vacuum of air he was dragging. He felt his lips tug into the fiercest smile he'd ever felt in a long time. The same smile he had when he first discovered his cobalt talent.

Looking forward, he only had time to think to cut right and hard, letting his feet claw up the side of a school building, sprinting across the wall. When the corner came, he jumped, creating an arc of blue, red, white and brown that trailed with Sally's auburn hair to the grassy null.

And in a breath, they were out in the open.

They were free.

His breathing was steady, but deep. He felt his feet rolling across the grass like he was treading on a silk road. How long has it been since he felt this? The glee in his heart of his explosion. The dissolving yearn of being alive with the absolute tranquility and peace that no one on Mobius could touch him at his rocketing rate. How long had it been since he ran this fast? It felt like a lifetime. All the feeling he was cherishing deep within him, that had built up for him, made it seem so.

He leaned right and tracked around two clumps of trees. Looking back, feeling Sally's arms rub around his neck, he smirked when his eyes witnessed the shirking city in the distance. He was doing it again, and it felt so good. He had escaped, and he did itwith her in his arms. Facing forward, he gunned his legs. The wind rushed around his quills and ears, bending them back. It flowed around her hair and made it stream freer than they were–

"Take us home, Sonic."

His green eyes drifted to hers the second his mind was taken by her voice. Her lips were whisper in his ear. "Take us back home, Sonic," she said again in a faint, gentle, wet voice.

And he knew where she wanted to go. He knew to turn west; to chase the twilight.

"Am I dreaming, Sonic?"

Her voice was as smooth and light as the very gilded touch the early quarter moon was casting against the star filled night sky. Why of all times did she have to sound like what his inner self was feeling as his eyes carried the sight in front of him to his heart? It wasn't in ruin; but it laid peaceably waiting for its death to come from merciful wanderers. That was how what remained of the Freedom Fighters' Headquarters. That was how it called to him and Sally. Its open wooden door hung from the bottom hinge while the body was in stillness, liken to topple over at anytime to the inside of the black archway.

His heart was still beating from the run, yet his soul was tempered with sadness he had no worldly idea to describe. "No, Sal. It's still here."

"After all these years since we left?" He watched her hand shield her lips with a gentle touch. "I was hoping...thinking it would just be ruins. Like, returning back to the forest we had constructed it from."

Hoping? His own voice repeated, sounding as if he was wanting the same thing she was wanting to hide from him. But hoping for it to be all gone...to help erase it all from their past? What was this? In a very large way he was happy it was still erected. Or did he? He felt his soul searching for meaning though his mind was rejecting everything, only clinging to all that he knew he cherished from the very past he was seeing decaying helplessly before his eyes.

"Maybe it's like us, Sally?" Her longing eyes came as a welcoming release to his own inner-dwellings. "You know? Never gives up."

Her eyes held onto his, like out reached hands though the void to each other, yet they weren't more than a stride away from their pulsing hearts. A breath of time passed before she looked towards the lodged door and set a foot for it. For the three footfalls she took, he watched her under an even gaze. Her beauty had never faded, and the coming moonlight perpetuated it further in his heart, driving him to follow her; to chase after her long red hair.

Stopping when she did at the edge of the dilapidated archway, the dead brush that overhung from the roof almost nearly blown away from the years they tended to it, he wadded in the moonlight behind her, watching where her eyes were going. Should he go in? Should he guide her in? It felt like the darkness they were trying to see through was the barrier that was denying him his answers.

And her's as well. Apprehension had fallen from the quiver she was holding on to. Sonic could see the corner of her mouth tightening. "We don't have to go in, Sally," he quietly said, placing his gloved hand on her shoulder.

She reached over across her chest and clasped his hand, looking on. "Can we see the rest of the city?" she asked in a distant whisper. His heart throb at behest of her. It cried ruthlessly of his affection for her when she turned to him. "See what's still left."

He stiffened his jaw before he let a carefree smile come across his smug lips. "No, problemo. Just hang tight."

Pang; when he leaned down to pick her up in his arms, he felt a pang racking at his heartstrings. When she wrapped his arms around his neck to hold on, he felt a new fuel soaking inside his body, sparking at his legs that propelled him across the lanky meadow, and bound for the large, standing and fallen timbers.

He could feel the sensation of coming home burning in his legs as the he launched forward. He was bathing in the passing, blurred forest, cutting through it on the old path, watching past faces greeting him on his return as he sped passed. But the darkness had clung them to her cloak. Shadows danced from the large hanging branches of the red woods and oaks above him, scattering the path.

Then they passed a large, wrecked tree-house; it's walkways collapsed to the ground, the open gaps that were the past occupants' windows stared blankly at them as they shot by. Antoine and Bunnie's place, his mind reflected with a jolt in his inner-voice.

And in two shades of passing moonlight shadows, he leapt to jump over a ghastly large fallen tree trunk. He didn't skip a beat in his whirling legs, pressing Sally tighter to his chest to cushion the landing.

"That was Geoffrey's old post," she gasped in his ear.

The skunk's face appeared to him just as fast as he cleared the what had been the City's inner sanctum under a lush canopy, now dotted to let the night sky peak in. He could still feel the jealousy he had for St. John, even now when the Commander was still happily married to Hershey. He could still feel the very real boiling temper he had for the skunk.

But in the end, he had won...and he'd lost.

"Guess the smell got to the roots finally," he scoffed under a bright grin.

And she took in with him. "Still there, huh?" Sally said with a knowing twinkle.

A smirk of his cheek while powering forward. "He tried to get between me and my best friend, Sally. I won't forget that. Friend's just can't let that stuff stand."

But she had always been something more than a friend. But he felt at times he was something less to her.

He shot passed into open ground, veering slightly to the right and passing a large heap of large stones and grey bricks. Castle Acorn, he mapped in his head, following faster to destination he felt he was being pulled to.

"Sonic?"

Her voice was wind in his sails, pushing them further west. He leaned forward, squeezing her into him. "Just hang on!"

He wafted passed their huts, but their eyes descried them as if they were walking by. The crumbled roof of his; he saw it as still up tight; saw himself sitting outside on the blank of his porch watching the world go by in a fifteen year old's eyes.

They passed her's; seeing the gouge in the center become whole; Sally seeing herself talking with Bunnie; when being a growing girl still mattered to the both of them, yet their childhood was torn by war.

"Sonic? Slow down. I want to see this."

But he'd passed Tail's old hut; catching him and Sally in the corner of his eyes, reading his best buddy a bedtime story; the fox curled up in the bed starting his trip into the dream world while he and Sally looked onto him. Liked they had grown up in that instant for Tails' own childhood's sake.

And he passed Rotor's place, the Chaotix's, Knuckles and Julie-Su's, and ones his mind wasn't able to grasp in time. He was pushing faster toward what was driving him. It was the last place.

Please let it still be there!

The down hill slope blurred by. The wind was in silence across his ears. Trees spawned into view just ahead.

It better be there!

Tall grass like fan blades spurred from the ground. His heart throbbed in his chest, smashing his chest wall to pieces. He was on overdrive. He was denying it all.

"Sonic!"

And he loved her...

...He leapt with his last foot fall. His upward shot carried him over the grass, across the cat-tails the moon let slip in its sliver of light. And the instant his momentum tilted his body, he rolled his back, pulling Sally tighter against his chest. "Hang-on," he screamed in his barring voice.

The flicker of moonlight below him made his heart get set for his release, yet telling him to shut his eyes, to stiffen his quills.

And sally's soft voice in his ear opened the gate:

"Sonic..."

The splash into the lake liberated him to the fullest his heart had ever felt, opening his eyes to see her's holding onto his. Bubbles floated passed them like rising stars in the shimmering moonlight surface. But he held onto her. And she to him, closing toward his face, closing to his lips...and planting her released love onto his.

It was like his very soul was breathing into hers. And when she pulled away, he felt his heart exhale its last breath of oxygen. He watched her release her arms from around him, pushing away and letter herself float to the surface. Her hair radiated freely around her body, her blue vest drifting around her chest, her shirt breathing with the current as she drifted from him. When soft touch of his quills landed on the lake floor, his mind never recognizing the feeling, she had arched her back and treaded her arms, pushing herself to the surface, letting his eyes look over her perfectly toned and sculpted underside.

Like rising from bed, he gingerly kicked with his legs from the vegetated floor. Weightlessness consumed his senses. Even with his lungs crying for the want of air, he still kept his steady pace, letting his buoyancy lift him back to her, racing to catch her before she broke the surface. How so entrenched was his eyes on her radiance. How his heart had always wanted to see her like this. To see her soaking in happiness.

Cool air saturated his fur as his head broke the surface; his lungs exhaled as fast as he could muster them. But not as fast as he could to inhale when Sally's lips dove for his, slamming at his mouth with the suddenness as she appeared, then sheering at his body and chest, devouring him. He breathed into her, grabbing at her vest to hold her close. He soon found his hands acting on passion, cupping her left breast, letting the narrow opening of his fingers stroke her nipple under her soaked shirt, making her instantly gasped for air when his touch seared at her body. She ate at his lips again, diving her tongue inside his mouth and dancing with his. Her saliva was like an elixir he'd never tasted before, but had longed and yearned for her sweet taste.

And he traced his lips down her neck, sucking the water that was sponged in her fur . "Sally," he gasped upon returning to her wanting, tearing eyes. "Sally, I can't believe it's still here!" he shouted emphatically, his eyes captivated by her glimmer wet hair in the moonlight.

"What is?" she said, breathing hard. Her hands were strong as she held to him.

"This." He shot his face around them in the cool water. "The Lake of Rings! I–I thought it would've been drained when Eggman destroyed Knothole–"

She inched closer to him, placing her strong but caressing hands at his temples, silencing his overjoying voice with a well planted, belayed kiss. "I knew it wasn't. I knew it through you, Sonic."

He locked with her eyes, easing his hands away from her firm body. "Through me?How?"

His breath was ceased when she embraced him, sliding her head across his shoulder, letting it rest her quivering chin. "Because I trusted you, Sonic. Since the days when we were just kids–when my father was still fighting his war–I trusted you with me...

"...and later my life."

She pulled away and glanced in his green hues. She could see herself now...and then; watching her father from high above through the balcony-banister railing. And Sonic looking on with her, staring at their moment before their innocence was taken, and Robotnick throwing her father through the portal to the Zone of Silence. The day her whole life had changed. Yet, he was there to guide her.

He had always been there. Even now.

She closed her arms around him tighter, her tears ebbing from her eyes. "Sonic, can you be here for me. Will you stay...just this last time?..."

He held her, closing his hands at her back. "Do you want me to?" he said, holding his own tears back.

Her shudders filled his body with quivers.

"I want you to. I need you, Sonic. I need you here, I need you near me–" Her crying chocked her from him.

"I'm not leaving you, Sally." He brought his face to consume her sight. "Sally, you're my best friend. You've been my best friend since I first laid eyes on you when we were kids. I can't just shove you out like that. Even if I did run, I still couldn't live without knowing you were still being my best friend. And that you were happy and safe."

Her face calmed to his, driving her cringing eyes into his heart. "But you've always treated me more than that."

He let a stray shrug come from his shoulder. "Yeah, so. I always thought of you as something more."

Silence passed between, saved the sound of them treading water.

"Remember what came out of here, Sal?" Sonic said, releasing his hands from around her waist.

Her face lite some under the moon, letting it cast around her at the open lake, hearing the frogs begin the night chirps. "Yeah...me..Bunnie; you...Tails. We all played in this lake." She could see them all splashing each other on the summer days in the cool, natural pool.

And in every twenty-four hours...one would appear; would rise up from the depths...

"Sally."

She stopped suddenly, swallowing her heart down as his low, sincere voice carried just centimeters to her.

"Sally Acorn..."

Her eyes turned to find his...but between his emerald hues, pinched between his fingers was a small...gold ring.

"Sally Acorn," he solemnly whispered. "My best friend." His eyes reached into hers. "Will you marry me?"

Every twenty-four hours, a power ring would rise from the depths, and Sonic would snatch it and let its powers energize him. Those rings lead him, and her, to victories unimaginable against a superior foe that Sonic only saw as his mortal enemy.

Her open lips turned as she breathed in what lay before her eyes. "How...how long have you had this?"

A smile tugged at his lips. "Since the day I kissed you...when you awoke from your fall."

"That was seven years ago," she relayed into his eyes.

He bowed his head, his hues never leaving her gasping stare. "I know. I've kept this in my right glove since then...letting it be my goal to one day ask you. It made me keep myself alive. This was the only ring that never vanished, but kept me going strong. All for you, Sal. All for us."

His eyes glistened from the quarter moonlight. Droplets tapped at the water under him, and Sally realized that he was crying. What she saw right then was that he had made it. To run? He was always running...and straight to her heart. And here he was, at the end of the trail, at the end of his journey, and the pain, and the fatigue, and the yearn, and his carried burden had arrived to the doorstep to her heart...crying for his wish to be granted. The little boy she had first seen so long ago was being held in her eyes, yet older in his body, he was still the same boy she met in her father's caslte.

She reached for him, wrapping her arms around his back and pulling him close to her lips, messaging his with a force that drove her answer to him...yet was gentle to make them both cry at the soft touch.

Filling her lungs, she hovered over his ear, and under the most able voice her soul could obtain from her beating heart:

"I will, Sonic...I have to for you...Your running is over..."

I hope this satisfies a lot of you; mainly in seeing closure to these insepertable characters in a way many of us knew that they would be happy together. How was the beginning? I started this out to have Sonic in repose, finding himself suddenly older, and Sally beating him to the idea, and absent from his everyday life.

I really had a delima of how far I wanted this to go. So I settled on "in the middle." Course when I did some date calculations, it fits. So for y'all who wanted more...you can always write your own.

Till next time, I'm still working on fininshing "The Guardian Who Came in from the Cold," but this was a nice reprieve from it all.

I hope you all have enjoyed this, and please feel free to leave your comments to tell me how I did.