A/N: So..uh..hi. Before you all read, I heavily advice you to go to my profile and read. If you don't care about anything I have to say (I don't blame you) then ignore this and continue on with the story.

"Are you serious right now?" Shadow asked, his eyebrow raising slightly as he leaned against the wall of the apartment building.

Amy nodded her head weakly, her arms trembling slightly. Whether it was from the news she'd just received or the freezing night air, she wasn't sure. The pink hedgehog rubbed her arms roughly, trying to relax herself.

Shadow stared at the girl from the corner of his eye, but said nothing. What could he say? She was obviously hurt and upset by what she had just found out, and Shadow wasn't exactly the person to go to for comfort.

So, Rouge was pregnant. With Knuckles' child. Two of the most immature, childish, irresponsible people he knew were going to have a baby together.

Well, shit.

"I can't believe this. How did this happen?" Amy whispered, her eyes trained on the concrete ground.

"Well, when a boy and a girl love each other-"

"But they don't love each other!" Amy snapped, her eyes filled with a sudden intensity. A burning sensation filled within her, and she soon found herself on the brink of tears. "I've known both of them for majority of my life. They're like family to me. Hell, they are family! We tell each other everything. One of them would definitely tell if something was going on between them."

Amy looked over at Shadow, her eyes scanning him for a sign of confirmation. But there was none. He was standing beside her, his hands stuffed in his pockets, and his eyes closed as if he were having the world's worst headache.

"Right..?" the pink hedgehog asked weakly. She didn't expect an answer from the other hedgehog, but not hearing one suddenly made her knees go weak.

Still leaning against the brick wall, Amy slowly slid to the cold ground. She got into fetal position and stuffed her face in her hands.

Rouge hated Knuckles, and Knuckles felt the same for her in return. They argued on a daily basis. They curse each other out like it's going out of style, and on a few occasions, they have gotten physical with each other. Sure, it was never anything too violent, but it was certainly enough to make Amy think that they hated each others guts.

Apparently, she had been wrong.

"You better not be crying."

Amy lifted her head from her hands and stared up at Shadow in confusion. "What?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed down on her. "I said, you better not be crying."

"What makes you think I'm crying?"

The dark hedgehog shrugged. "Every time something tragic happens, you starting crying and shit. It's really annoying."

Amy glared up at him. "I do not."

"Sure, whatever you say."

The pink hedgehog sucked her teeth loudly and rolled her green eyes. "Whatever. It's not like I would expect you to understand."

Shadow's ear twitched in annoyance. "Excuse me?"

Amy shrugged herself, playing the the lose thread on her top. "You don't care about anything. So I wouldn't expect you to care about something like this. I mean, Rouge and Knuckles mean the world to me."

"Then why are you being such a selfish bitch?"

It was Amy's turn to be surprised. "Excuse me?"

Shadow rolled his crimson eyes and stared at her in irritation. "If they really meant the world to you, then you wouldn't be acting they way you are right now."

Amy blinked a couple of times, the look on her face saying that she still didn't quite understand.

Sighing, Shadow took a seat beside Amy on the ground, crossing his legs native style. "Rouge and Knuckles are having a baby. Whether you want to or not, you're going to have to accept that."

Amy looked away from Shadow's piercing gaze and frowned. Could she accept something like that?

"And the only way you can begin to accept it," Shadow pressed on, "Is if you stop thinking about only yourself."

"But I-"

"Can't change what happened. Did they make a mistake? Probably. Do they regret it? Maybe. Can you do anything to change it? Of course not."

Amy thought about it for a couple a minutes, then gave a tired sigh, her ears flattening against her head. "You're right. It's just..weird. I mean, they're the last people I would think would end up together."

Shadow shrugged ever so slightly. "No shit. I've known Knuckles for almost five years now, and the guy's not exactly father material."

"Oh, and you are?"

Shadow snorted loudly, rolling his eyes and choosing not to answer the question directed towards him.

Amy couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. The thought of a mini version of Shadow running around was kind of funny. It was also a little terrifying. Amy wasn't one hundred percent sure yet.

"So, Rouge and Knuckles were messing around. Interesting..."

Amy stared at Shadow for a few seconds, then made a face of pure disgust. The thought of Rouge and Knuckles having sex? Ugh. "It is not interesting! It's just plain wrong. "

The pink hedgehog felt herself getting all upset over again, and her face twisted in a mixture of anger and disgust.

Shadow chuckled lowly, his hand coming up to pat Amy on the head as if she were a kid. "Yeah, well I'm sure they feel the same way about us."

One of Amy's ears raised up slightly as she thought about it for a moment. She remembered when she had told Rouge about her plan to ask Shadow to be her friend with benefits. The bat hadn't been the most supportive at first, but the idea grew on her. Amy hadn't told Knuckles yet, because she was almost positive the echidna would blow the world's biggest fuse. But, in the end, she was sure he would be okay with it.

Amy suddenly felt a large amount of guilt growing inside her as she realized just how selfish she had been acting. No matter what decision she had made, whether it was good or bad, Rouge and Knuckles had always supported it. Hell, they had supported her even when she had wasted four years on someone who hadn't even loved her!

And here she was, judging them for being together. Sure, it was creepy and kind of weird for her, and the fact that they were having a baby together was beyond ludicrous, but the least she could do was support them. They had done the same for her so many times before, so the least she could do for them was be there

Amy was pulled out of her thoughts as her ears picked up the sound of a heavy sigh. She looked over at Shadow, who was now standing against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"So, what are you going to do?"

The pink hedgehog stood and stretched her arms, her ears twitching in the process.

What was she going to do?

"I'm going to stay the rest of the night with Rouge. She fell asleep on the sofa, but she's going to have one hell of a headache when she wakes. I want to be there for her when that happens."

Amy watched Shadow with hard eyes, and almost squealed with delight when he gave her a nod of approval.

"Kind of sucks that we won't get to finish what we started," he spoke softly, Amy blushing as soon as she realized exactly what he meant, "But whatever. It's for a good cause, I guess."

The pink hedgehog nodded slowly. There was an small silence between them that was only slightly awkward.

Amy almost breathed a sigh of relief when Shadow spoke up.

"Well, running around metropolis at almost five in the morning has been fun, but I think I'm going to head home now." Shadow said, kicking himself off the brick wall and heading back to his beloved bike.

Amy watched him get halfway there before a thought occurred to her. "Shadow, wait!"

The ebony hedgehog stopped in his tracks and looked back towards the female, his brow raising in both irritation and curiosity. "What now?"

The pink hedgehog chewed on her lip, suddenly nervous to ask the question that she so desperately wanted to ask. "Back when we were at Knuckles' house. Were you..were you really going to call the police on Rouge?"

There was a thick silence that settled between them, and for a moment, Amy wasn't sure if he'd heard her or not. It wasn't until he turned his back towards her and continued walking to his bike that she got her answer.

"Of course not. Friends don't do things like that to each other.

~FwB~

Rouge let out a loud groan as she stirred in her bed, her head pounding like someone with a mallet had just hit her.

Slowly, she stretched her arms out, waiting to feel the familiar caress of her silk sheets as they rippled down her body. However, what she got was an uncomfortable spring in her backside.

"What the hell?" Rouge asked, her eyes opening slowly as she sat up as fast as her headache would allow. She was in her living room, and her "comfortable bed" was actually just her uncomfortable couch. The lights were turned down low, and the only brightness in the room came from the slightly opened windows.

The albino woman frowned. She didn't remember going to sleep in the living room last night. Then again, she didn't remember much from last night...

"Good morning, sleepy head."

Rouge almost jumped out of her fur as the voice invaded her sensitive ears. She spun around to face the kitchen, where the voice had come from. Her head soon began to spin, and she had to keep it from bobbing back and forth by grabbing it gently with one of her manicured hands.

Slowly, the world began to still, and her advanced eyesight came into focus. Soon, she was staring a pink hedgehog dead in the eyes from across the bar top in the kitchen. "Amy? What the hell are you doing here? God, you almost gave me a heart attack."

That's if this headache doesn't kill me first.

Rouge watched as her closest friend came around the counter with two steaming mugs in her hands. The pink hedgehog set them down on the coffee table, then took a seat on the couch across from Rouge.

"It's a long story. Here, drink some tea. I know you have a hell of a headache right now." Amy began, gently sliding the cup of hot tea towards the bat.

Rouge looked at the cup, then at Amy, then back at the cup. Her teal eyes filled with suspicion, and soon she found herself wanting to ask a million questions. "How did I end up he living room, and why do I have such a headache..? Oh God, I didn't get roofied again, did I?"

Amy rolled her eyes tiredly and picked up her own cup of tea and brought it to her lips. She blew on it gently, then took a sip, half listening as Rouge continued to freak out.

It was about two minutes into full panic mode before Amy set down her cup. "Rouge, relax! Nobody roofied you!"

At least, Amy didn't think she got roofied.

Rouge let out a sigh of relief and picked up her tea, taking a cautious sip of it. She almost groaned in pleasure as the warm liquid ran down her dry throat.

"You got drunk last night." Amy began, the tone of her voice laced with seriousness.

Rouge waved her hand dismissively, completely missing her friend's tone. Setting down her mug, Rouge let out a soft chuckle. "Oh, is that all? Well, serves me right, then. That's what I get for drinking on a weekday."

"You went to Knuckles' house last night." The hedgehog pressed on, her expression never wavering.

Rouge froze, her waving hand coming to a halt as she was informed on what she had done last night. Rouges head ache intensified, and she wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. However, there was no way her friend was going to let that happened until she got the answer she wanted, and there was no way Rouge was going to give it to her.

"O-Oh yeah? He probably owed me some cash or something. Who knows?"

Amy sighed, squeezing her temples as her own headache began to arise. "We all know, Rouge. We know everything."

Rouge could tell by how her friend had put emphasis on "everything", that her little dark secret had finally come to the light.

"Fine. So you know about that. I'm supposing that idiot told you." Rouge said, grabbing her mug and taking a big gulp of her now lukewarm tea.

"You told me, Rouge." Amy said, watching as her friend downed the tea.

The albino bat sat her mug down again and licked her lips. She wasn't sure quite how to feel right now. All of it was too much, and her pink friend wasn't exactly helping with the problem.

"Alright, alright. I guess you want some answers, right?" Rouge asked, rolling her suddenly heavy eyes as her friend nodded hard.

"Tell me everything. When this started, how long it's been going on, when you found out..all of it."

Rouge let out a groan and rubbed her head to ease the throbbing headache. "Alright, fine. But I'm going to need a lot more tea if you want to know everything."

Amy could help the smug smile that spread on her face.

"There's some brewing right now."

A/N: So, yeah. That story sort of got us nowhere, and didn't really answer any questions you all having probably been asking for Glob knows how long. But, this is a warm up chapter for me, since it's been ages. So..yeah.

Hope you all did enjoy, though. Sorry for the world's longest wait...