Up-side Down Kiss

Sonic thought he knew what being in a jungle would feel like, he’d seen so many movies about them. His first breath under the dense canopy was like inhaling a warm soup made from blossoms. Though his lungs kept heaving the air in and out it was more like drowning than breathing for this blue boy. The noises weren’t loud, but overwhelming in their density. They came from beneath his shoes, at his own level and from above. He’d abandoned his cotton scarf for he was practically filling buckets with his sweat. His footwear was his typical red and white sneakers; he should have worn something more suitable like boots, because his ankles were being prickled by plants and scorpions.

Him and Knuckles were here in this godforsaken place to prove a point; that they could beat the girls in a race through the wilderness, and also prove that they could survive anything. A few nibbling scorpions weren’t going to scare Sonic to death. Not to forget Knuckles was a tough cookie to crack too, considering his buff-muscles and his ‘take-no-for-an-answer’ attitude, whoever thought they couldn’t survive a jungle trip? Sonic had absolute confidence in his friend, although Knuckles liked to disagree.  

“Spider!” The red echidna squeaked frightfully, while he scurried behind a protective shield known as Sonic. The hedgehog sighed, slowly losing faith and what little sanity he had left.

“It’s just an insect,” Sonic said, prying Knuckles’ hands off his shoulders. “We should carry on.”

“Okay,” Knuckles followed his footsteps obediently. It didn’t take long for him to get scared at something else, however this time Sonic continued walking without stopping to see if he was alright. He was so done with this, once he got out of his damn jungle Amy and Sticks were going to get it ten times as bad. Revenge was his guilty pleasure.

It was their fault for talking him into this, although it was equally his fault for agreeing with them.

Heh, Sonic was definitely an expert at getting himself into awkward situations.

Behind him, Knuckles made a peculiar noise as if he was deep in thought, when in fact, he was admiring a bush of Drummond Phloxss’ growing beautifully. Knuckles being Knuckles, lifted his hand and pointed, “what are those?” He asked out loud.

Sonic wasn’t necessarily listening, and so turned his head to see what Knuckles was on about. “Say wha–”

His mistake was made when his left foot stood inside a circle of rope that’d been deliberately placed on the ground. Sonic’s foot was the first thing to tear away from the floor along with his entire body following in pursuit. He sailed into the air, and Knuckles yelped in horror at his best friend being pulled off his feet. Soon after he simply dangled there with arms pointing at the ground and the world set in an upside down perspective.

Sonic cursed, once again he walked directly into another animal trap–one that no doubt belonged to his badger friend. Hidden behind another bush of  Drummond Phloxs flowers a pair of fierce eyes looked at him, rounding the corner to greet him with a rather annoyed expression.

“Sssonic!” It was Sticks. No surprise. “I’m getting real tired of you walking into my traps, for once I want to catch rabbit!”

If he was the right way up Sonic wouldn’t rolled his eyes. “Then don’t put them in places where I step.”

As Sticks continued ranting–and Knuckles, unfortunately, received half the blame. Another figure emerged from the bushes, Sonic guessed straight away that it was Amy.

The pink hedgehog strolled leisurely towards them, glancing between Sonic dangling up a tree and the trap, looking somewhat proud of herself. It then struck him that this trap belonged to her and not Sticks. For some reason that made him sweat even more.

“I’ll let him down.” Sticks declared, pulling out a knife from its sheath.

“No,” Amy held out a flat palm. “I’ll do it.” Sticks didn’t waste time handing the object into Amy’s hands.

“So,” murmured Sonic, fleeting his gaze from Sticks to Amy. “Are you going to release me or what?”

“Actually…” He could see her coming his way, from this upside-down angle he knew there was a grin plastered on her face. So typical for her to bathe in her moment of victory. “Not yet. Not until you admit defeat first.”

Suddenly a heated sensation inflamed his cheeks in embarrassment. “Hang on–no! This isn’t over–”

“Come on, Sonic,” Amy whined. “Your practically dangling at my mercy right now. Also this is the third trap you’ve stepped into so far.”  

Along with his cheeks, his face flushed red too, he possessed hard staring eyes like a kid who refused to back down. Yes, Sonic was wonderful in his own way, Amy could admit that. But when someone else was right, or when someone else had beaten him at something Sonic found that difficult to forget because he was a sore loser.

Although despite his small grudges, soon enough he let the matter go and accepted defeat. “Okay. You win. Now will you let me go?”

It was Amy’s turn to blush, he noticed her grip on the cutting knife intensified, as if her own private thoughts embarrassed her. They probably did, Sonic wasn’t sure what was going on in that pretty pink head of hers. But whatever it was, the more time she wasted hesitating, the brighter her face became. In the end her skin looked like it suffered from a bad sunburn.

“Can I just…” Amy began although stopped as her words got stuck in her throat.  

He raised a puzzled brow, not giving much thought to what he was about to say. “Whatever it is, just do it.”

Quickly, the girl’s lips alight on his lips like a dew freckled petal caught in a breeze, so soft and with the smallest hint of coolness. Sonic stiffened, however it was over as soon as it happened. The kiss was brief and perfunctory, a duty done, a ritual performed. Although the weirdest part was when their lips came into contact, it sent shivers down his back, they were painful sensations purely because he was upside-down.

And Sonic was thrown in a state of euphoria, awe, then a fuzzy feeling that made him dizzy. Apart from the short kiss, so many bad sensations were mixed into one, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could dangle there.

“Amy…” His voice crocked. “I’m dizzy.”

“Oh!” The pink hedgehog suddenly remembered herself before hurrying towards the bark of a tree where the end of the rope was attached. She cut it in half, sending Sonic crashing into the ground head first.  

Blood rapidly rushed to his head as another horrible sensation throbbed inside his skull, when a headache struck, he was it’s prisoner, quite helpless in his cage of pain. Knuckles helped him off the floor, then Sonic threw a side-glance at Amy who was already staring, but as soon as his eyes caught hers she adverted her attention elsewhere, suppressing a smile.

He could tell from her blush that she really liked him.