Title: Watch Them Grow
Fandom: Sonic the Hedgehog
Characters/Pairings: Surge the Tenrec/Amy Rose
Rating: General Audiences
Length: 927 words
Content notes: Just fluff, with some mild identity/self-worth issues for spice
Author notes: Of course I plan on filling one of these and then my whole week goes to absolute hell. First time poster, god I hope I did this right.
Summary: Surge has a question about Amy's decorating choices.

Amy Rose keeps a lot of flowers.

Not roses, surprisingly--Surge had asked her about that once, and Amy had said that, even though she has a real actual house now, it'd be too difficult to keep them healthy. "Besides," she'd said, her tone teasing, "I don't wanna be too obvious." Says one of the most obvious people on the planet.

That doesn't stop her from keeping what seems like every other kind of flower, in pots or in window boxes. There's fake flowers used as hanging decorations, dried flowers in potpourri, and an entire box in her kitchen window dedicated to herbs and witchy ingredients. And handling them is part of Amy's routine, watering everyting every couple of days and, on Sundays, rifling through them with a pair of tiny shears in one hand.

"What's the point of all these flowers, anyway?" Surge finally asks, lounging on the couch and watching Amy critically analyzing the nearest window planter, humming to herself in a way that had somehow gone from 'unbearably annoying' to 'endearing'. "Like, Fluffy's whole victory garden thing, I get. People eat food. But flowers?"

Amy replies without turning around. "They're pretty, and I like to watch them grow."

"So you just look at them?"

"Yeah, or smell them, or use them in other things. I have a collection of pressed flowers, and sometimes I draw them, too."

Surge's muzzle wrinkles, and she swings her sock feet off the arm of the couch to sit up properly (it had taken weeks for Amy to get her to at least take her shoes off before putting her feet on things, and that's just because upsetting her had stopped being funny). "How can you stand doing all that stuff for them all the time, though? And they grow so slow."

Amy giggles, glancing over her shoulder. "You know, would you believe I've heard that before?"

Surge's eyelid twitches. At least Amy knows not to say his name around her. Deprogramming...all of that is still a work in progress. "What'd you say, then?"

"I said not everything's about going fast. In fact, sometimes it's more satisfying when it's slow." Amy turns to fully face Surge, setting the shears on the window box. "You get to see your work pay off. You get to check on it and then, before you even realize it, it's gone from a tiny little seed you planted to a gorgeous flower. It feels good to see them thrive, and know you had something to do with it. It wouldn't be the same if it all happened overnight."

"I guess?" Surge can't say she really gets it, but Amy's eyes are filled with that kind of passion that radiates through the whole room, so it must be important to her. It's something that, at some point, Surge had decided she liked seeing. Maybe she can't reach it on her own, but the reflection of that light still warms her face regardless.

Amy pops her lips, glancing off to one side in thought. "...It's kinda like you."

"Huh?"

"Well..." She waggles her eyebrows. "I've grown on you, haven't I?"

Surge gives her a flat look. "No."

"Oh, come on!" Amy bursts into giggles, the sound like the windchimes outside her house. "I mean it, though. It took you a while to trust me, right?"

"Trust is a strong word." An accurate one, sure, but one Surge is still reluctant to say. THe last thing she needs is Amy getting a big head.

"Uh-huh, sure." Of course, Amy can read her like a neon sign. It's annoying as much as it is an occasional relief. "But it wasn't instant, or even fast. We had to build it over time with a lot of effort. And I've watched you grow a little, yourself. I feel like I've gotten to see more of the real you."

Surge stiffens, lips pressed together as her gaze falls to the coffee table, a desperate attempt to avoid everything else. "...I keep tellin' you, Pinks. There is no 'real' me. This is it."

"Then why have you changed so much?"

Surge doesn't want to answer, because even she doesn't know the reason. Amy keeps insisting that she sees something in Surge that Surge herself doesn't, but that can't possibly be true, can it? She wasn't made to be a whole, real person. She can play at it, sure, but all it is is a weird reflection of the person she hates most.

She still doesn't know how many of her thoughts even belong to her.

There's a light snip from the shears, making Surge's ears twitch. When she looks up, Amy's walking towards her, carrying a wide, bright yellow flower, like a daisy. There's a soft little smile on her face that causes Surge's bitter remark to die in her throat. Silently, Amy leans over and runs the stem of the cut flower through Surge's earrings, tucking the bloom in close to her ear.

"This looks dumb," Surge mutters.

"I think it suits you." Amy's voice is gentle, and yet somehow leaves no room for argument. "It matches your yellow."

Surge meets her bright eyes, the kind of joy she's found herself reaching for more and more desperately over the past months. She sighs.

"...You get one day. And I'm not going out with it."

"More for me, then~" Amy singsongs, leaning over and kissing Surge's cheek. "See? You never would've agreed to that before."

"Don't oversell it."

But Surge can tell her face is blooming red. Maybe she's even smiling.