it had already been a year, since then. time flew by, as per the usual. initially, sonic had tried to keep up with G.U.N, but they had been very mum about julius' conditions & how he was faring. kept on saying that it was 'private' and they were respecting julius' right to privacy. so, slowly, sonic stopped asking. he had no real gauge for how long these sorts'a things were suppose'ta take. but he guessed it made sense that it'd take a long time: julius'd been a... pretty disturbed person.
"it's been a year," amy's commenting, and sonic hummed; they were sitting in a smaller, retro themed cafe from the 90s, she stirred her milkshake drink, "since anyone's seen or heard from robotnik. a year. that's usually pretty long for him, right?" slurping noises from that straw. sonic smirked, staring out that window.
"ames, y'sound almost worried for 'im," he teased, and then she visibly choked, gently kicking and nudging his leg under the table. they both laughed, amy moving to wipe at her mouth with a napkin,
"no, never. i just think it's.... it's got me worried. what if he's planning something big?"
an eyebrow of sonic's lifted at that. he hadn't really considered that, but then again, he knew where julius was. none of the others did. from their perspectives, robotnik just, stopped showing up one day. he remembered when the people of station square realized he wasn't a threat anymore: they'd celebrated.
"awh you know him, amy. ol robotnik," never julius in front of his friends. "'d probably keel over before he ever tried anything that intense. f'he wanted to blow up the planet, he coulda done it ages ago."
"....that's, true." a sigh, she stirs that milkshake drink, a hand moving to rest on her chin. this really was on her mind, huh? sonic couldn't say he blamed her entirely. julius'd been a pretty big weight over all their heads, for the longest time. "....do you think he's....?" she's asking that next bit quitely, but hesitates. they both know: do you think he's dead?
"no," at least. he hoped not. "he's probably off somewhere, just doing whatever it is he does when we're not involved or around."
she looked like she'd never thought of that before: robotnik, having a life outside of his chaos and destruction. she hummed, biting and nibbled against that straw.
"here's your food, loves!" a rosy cheeked human woman set the plates of lunch in front of amy and sonic, "enjoy!"
sonic grinned, giving a thumbs up to her before he started digging into his meal. amy rolled her eyes fondly, and started to eat her own food.
they never brought up the topic of robotnik again.