Chapter Text
Seagulls flutter around the ferry terminal. The ship docked at the seaside town is a few minutes away from setting off.
“You sure you don’t need anything?” asks the eager racoon woman by the name of Scraps, grasping Amy’s paws in both of hers.
Beaming, Amy says, “Not at all! I should be asking you that.”
“Girl, you carried my furniture up two floors. Four times. When you said you could lend a paw, I didn’t think you’d just grab everything yourself. And you got angry at me for trying to help carry my own shit up the steps.” With a raised brow, the raccoon utters a laugh of disbelief. “Like, what the fuck.”
Amy waves her off. “You’re pregnant. Like I’d let you do that.” Amy’s technically two years older than her. The fact that Scraps is pregnant just makes Amy feel younger than her for some reason. Parents are people like Vanilla the Rabbit. Adults who actually feel like they know they’re adults. People with an aura indicating they have some wisdom. Not a twenty-year-old racoon who still talks and moves with all the youth still in her step.
Scraps snorts. “My spawn better toughen up if me hauling things for more than ten seconds is their limit.”
“Don’t call them that!” Amy scolds, though she fails to hold in her laugh. “That’s so mean!”
“Hey, carry a litter of five and you’ll be taking those words back.”
Scraps doesn’t look pregnant. Being fluffy makes it hard to tell just how far alone she is. Unlike humans, who’d balloon when pregnant and stay pregnant for nine months with just one baby, things aren’t as clear cut with Mobians. Each subspecies is different, for starters. Amy’s not too well versed on raccoons, but a litter of five sounds about right. And a litter means the kits are small to make room for one another. Gestation periods vary, six to ten months, depending on subspecies.
Unlike humans who have to be careful with how they move, Mobians are generally more physically robust; their reproductive system is built to withstand strenuous activities, with fluid bags cushioning the babies. Still, it doesn’t mean the moms won’t tire out. Amy wasn’t going to let someone carry boxes and drag a coach up a few flights of stairs.
“Seriously, though,” Amy says, a bit of concern in her eyes, smiling lightly, “I can stay a little longer if you need me to, until you settle in. My friends will understand.”
Like Tails and Knuckles, after the events of Starfall Islands, Amy’s left to do her own thing. Over the course of her five-month-long journey around the world, she’d said many goodbyes to friends she’d made along the way. She’d cross paths with strangers, they’d already know her name from the papers, so they’d introduce themselves. She’d help around town, do volunteer work, fundraiser events—those sorts of things.
“Nah, girl, I’ll be fine,” Scraps insisted. “Although, I’m keeping your number in case I need ya to scare the crap out of Mr. One Minute Man if he shows his face again.”
Mr. One Minute Man: AKA, Scraps’ ex fossa boyfriend who’d gotten her and a bilby he was cheating on her with pregnant. Soon as Scraps told him she was pregnant, he’d dumped her via text, then tried seeking comfort with his bilby side chick, only for the bilby to find out he’d been a cheating sleazebag and that she too was pregnant. Mr. One Minute Man came crawling back to Scraps, begging to get back with her after the second woman called him an idiot and threatened to scratch his face off if he didn’t leave her alone.
By Gaia’s sheer humorous irony and their shared loathing of the guy, Scraps and the bilby got along well enough that they’ve decided to move in together into a place by the sea. Amy’s introduction to this whole drama began when she'd seen a disgruntled fossa attempting to beg and love-bomb his way into a relationship with the two women packing up their belongings into a moving van.
Amy had scared the daylights out of him, sent him running. In gratitude, the girls let her hitch a ride with them in the bilby’s tiny beetle car that trailed the moving van, chatting and listening to Jordan Powers’ Pretty Girl Swag on the way. Amy had stayed to assist in moving their belongings while the bilby had gone off to her doctor’s appointment.
“Of course! You’re free to call me anytime!” Amy giggles. Her ears perk up at the sound of the ferry blowing its horn. “That’s my ride. Keep in touch, okay? Let me know when you girls have the babies.”
“I will! Think up some names for these parasites for me okay?”
“Stop! Oh my gosh!”
As fun as this trip was, Amy misses her friends. Their wristwatch communicators have been their main method of communicating with each other. Knuckles had been off treasure hunting, which meant he got into caves and all sorts of areas that restricted how well his communicator worked. They’d only hear from him on the rare occasions, grumbling that the message alerts from his communicator woke him up, the unfortunate consequence of time zones.
He was at least off of his island. Not entirely alone, if Rouge’s flirtatious teasing voice in the background of his calls were any indication to go by. It always startled him, got him agitated, angry, like he thought he’d for sure shaken the bat off days ago after she’d allegedly tried swiping the treasures he’d found.
Admittedly, it’s Amy’s fault Rouge started tailing him; Amy might’ve casually mentioned what everyone was off doing during one of her and Rouge’s girl-calls. Knuckles doesn’t need to know that. At least he’s not by himself. Five months away from Angel Island might be a record for him. Tails had to put up some technological security measures around Angel Island—hovering drones, and sensors on the island’s ground. Something to put Knuckles’ mind at ease.
Tails had been more thorough with his weekly check-ins. He’d landed himself in the news for assisting in fixing a broken dam. Amy had been in a hotel up a snowy mountain when she saw it on TV half asleep and a tad tipsy from the chilled free wine found in the hotel’s mini fridge, the open glass bottle colder after she’d left it on the ledge of her closed window, the mountain air seeping through the seems.
Everyone had been busy. Everyone but Sonic. And it showed.
It wasn’t like him to text so much. He must’ve been incredibly bored if he had the time to send Amy landscape pictures and text her:
[I dreamt egghead was trying to sell me health insurance like i need that and Tails called asking if I could help hide a body]
[And i thought sure pal im on my way]
[sooo long story short there’s no body abd]
[tails got disappointed in me when i said we can make it look like some fancy pants art project Idk ames feels like hes more upset i come over]
[cause now i gotta convince him i wasn’t playing around just to check up on him like i dont trust he can do this himself]
[the adventure not the hide the body thing but he can do that too]
Amy remembered hesitating to ask if he was okay.
Only Knuckles had beat her to it, texting: [Do i even want to know??]
Followed by tails’ text: [Sonic it’s the group chat]
It took Sonic a full minute before texting back [shoot. right] then [wasnt that bad of an idea tho right?]
It was surreal to witness him be so… erratic? Well, more so than usual. Sonic hates sitting still. But he knows when to relax, too. He’s a master at snoozing in random locations. While Amy herself takes multiple naps throughout the day—compensating for her nocturnal hedgehog nature— she can’t possibly see herself sleeping out in the open. The best she can do is dig a burrow and curl up in there.
Sonic just has two modes: superfast and couch potato.
So it’s puzzling to see him texting the equivalent of shower thoughts so often. At times, Tails would point out just how late it was where Sonic was. As a response, Sonic would just run to somewhere where the sun was up. She’d texted him if he was okay, and only had herself to blame when he’d insist he was, because, truly, what else was she expecting from someone like Sonic?
In a one-on-one facetime call between Amy and Tails, she’d apprehensively told him, “I don’t think he’s taking the fact Eggman’s gone on vacation well.”
Or ‘parental leave’, or whatever the Evil Mad Scientist career equivalent to it is. Apparently, almost causing world inhalation and obtaining a little AI girl after the whole Starfall Islands fiasco is something Eggman is willing to put the brakes on for. Would’ve been adorable if it wasn’t, well, Eggman.
It’s at least reassuring that Sage got a good deal out of it; unlike Eggman’s very blatant dislike of his first creations, Orbot and Cubot, he at least likes her. He’d preferred Metal Sonic, but in the sacrificial child soldier sort of way. And she can’t recall Eggman taking time off from villainy for Metal Sonic. She does remember finding a broken Metal Sonic in the snow, looking sad and pathetic enough for her to drag—what her child-self had seen as her bully at the time—back to Eggman. Sage is no doubt Eggman’s favorite now, taking Metal Sonic’s throne and bumping him down to Middle Child status.
But no Eggman means nothing exciting for Sonic to do. In a way, Eggman’s ‘paternity leave’ has rendered Sonic jobless, if being a hero is considered a job.
On the call, Tails had sheepishly admitted, “I don’t think Sonic’s taking his prescription on time since I'm not there to remind him.” Despite a reminder alert being set in Sonic’s wristwatch, he’d snooze the alarm, then either get distracted or tell himself he'll do it later, then forget entirely.
Honestly, the combination of him missing his ADHD medication, and Eggman’s paternity leave, could be why he’s being strangely clingy.
And maybe he’s just lonely now, weird as it might be. They all haven’t exactly enjoyed their time on Starfall Islands, glitching in and out of reality, and dissociating harder than her frustratingly embarrassing failed IUD insertion two weeks ago. (The doctor had told her it’d just pinch. She’d lied. Thank Gaia for free healthcare on Mobian islands. It’d be a robbery if she’d needed to pay for contraceptives and heat cycle management medication.) And right after, suddenly all of Sonic’s friends spread out. That’s… kind of sad, Amy thinks. She didn’t think too much about how all of his friends going off on their own at the same time would affect him. He’s Sonic. She assumed, like everyone else, that he’d be fine. And he’d been fine for the first few months until he began texting more frequently that it became evident he’d missed them.
In fact, when Tails said he’d be coming back—admitting to Amy on a private call that he’d missed his big brother too—and Amy herself announced she might be coming back as well, Sonic excited proposed a reunion party at Tails’, with pizza and soda, and maybe a video game night if Knuckles isn’t afraid of being a ‘sore loser.’ It was obviously bait for Knuckles. One that worked. Though knowing Knuckles, he probably wanted to return to his island anyway.
The ferry sounds off again. It’s hard to tell that it’s moving with how slow it turns away from the port. She leans her elbows against the deck railing, letting the ocean breeze tickle her fur. It’s going to be a six-day trip; Tails might already be home by now.
She has time to just relax on the ferry. She eats lemon baked cod, writes in her journal, sketches in her messy art book in her cabin, and before she goes to bed, she turns the lights of her cabin off, leaves the overhead lamp on to read a book, and ends up shedding tears while reading the last few pages of a tragic romance novel. Finishing that felt good. Cathartic. Even if the fur of her muzzle is a bit damp. She dabs her handkerchief over her face. Her headband is on the nightstand, leaving her quills to freely spread out like Sonic’s.
Her wristwatch communicator—also on the nightstand—lights up and beeps. Incoming video call from Sonic.
She giggles wetly and reaches for it. He probably forgot which island she’s on again and got the time zone wrong. Again.
Her finger and thumb press the two little buttons on the disc of the watch, and it opens like a clam. The screen turns on. Sonic’s launching on the ugly green sofa she remembers Tails has in his downstairs workshop.
“Hey, Ames!” He’s all happy grins and teeth. “Just checking in. Tails made it early and—” His smile falters, the glimmer of delight in his eyes turns into shock, then concern. “Woah, hey, everything okay?” His happy-go-lucky voice switches into something more gentle. There’s a metallic squeak from somewhere on his end; Tails shifting his computer chair, maybe.
“Yeah? Why do you ask?” Amy then pauses upon hearing herself. Her nose is clogged. Right. She’d been crying. She laughs sheepishly at the realization. “Oh! Oh gosh, I wasn’t expecting to see anyone this late. It’s nothing. Sorry about that.” Instinctively, her paw reaches for her eyes, rubbing at her lashes in case she’s got tears.
Sonic just stares like he’s trying to solve a riddle on her face. It’s clear he’s not convinced by her answer. “You sure? Doesn’t look like nothing to me. Did something happen?”
She rolls her eyes. As sweet as he’s being, she’s telling the truth. There’s literally no reason for him to worry because some fictional guy had to say goodbye to his ghost boyfriend. “No, nothing. It’s fine, Sonic. Really. Just read something sad but I’m over it now.” She was not over it—the ghost boyfriend had realized him lingering around was preventing his loved one from grieving him properly. He had to leave permanently, and that’s going to mess her up for another day or two.
Sonic clenches his teeth shut, the calculated look on his face evident that he doesn’t fully believe her. There’s a hint of determination in his eyes Amy’s familiar with. That stubborn kind he wears when he thinks there’s some injustice happening somewhere that he needs to fix.
“Alright. You win.” Thankfully, he lets it slide. “It’s that late, eh? Didn’t mean to make you miss your beauty sleep.” His smirk is one-sided.
She knows what he’s doing. Relenting that she’s not going to talk about what he wants to talk about, intending to bring it up in person later at a later time if she doesn't bring it up herself eventually. There’s literally nothing to talk about. She’s kind of embarrassed now about crying over an angsty young adult book. Maybe Sonic will continue forgetting to take his medication when she’s visiting—he’ll forget to bring up the topic and save her the excuse of explaining what book made her ugly cry.
“Says Mr. I-need-my-nine-hours-of-shuteye-or-I-can’t-run,” she says with an arching brow.
“Touché, mademoiselle.”
She instinctively cringes. “Ew, please, no.”
He barks a laugh. “No, what? The French?”
“Yes, I think I’ve had enough of that.”
His snickers, biting his lip. There’s a mischievous look in his eyes, detecting some gossip he can’t wait to hear. “Should've stopped at ‘Yes.’ Now you gotta tell me. You made it to France?”
She exaggeratingly groans, throwing her head back against the pillow stack. “No, just ended up in a human French neighborhood in a Mobian town. I had to help this poor crocodile family get their kids back from humans after—get this—after humans took them away because the parents were 'unemployed'.”
Sonic’s wheezing. Literally uttering a kettle whistle. In danger of dying from exhaustion at this point.
Amy snorts at the memory, seeing the humor in it but still annoyed by it. “I tried explaining that the family is part of a community that takes care of each other, so that’s not an issue. Then they said the kids were so neglected that they were found half-frozen in the winter with slow heartbeats and… they were just—”
“They were hibernating!” Sonic exclaimed, laughing in disbelief.
“—hibernating! They took the children when they were sleeping! I told them that’s kidnapping, give them back. But no, they wanted passports and certificates and whatever.”
Aside from Rouge and maybe Shadow, she doesn’t know any other Mobians with a passport. Many Mobians could literally fly or swim without the need of public transportation, and those in rural populations don’t have birth certificates or other paperwork ‘proving’ they exist. Passports were mostly a human thing, granted in human cities.
Heck, Amy only knows Rouge has too many human-made passports because the bat casually mentioned they were given to her by GUN for mission conveniences. And if GUN made her passports, then it’s not farfetched to assume they’d done the same for Shadow, the only one she knows who has a birth certificate. A birth certificate listing his a false birthday date, names of parents he doesn’t have, the ‘surname’ Robotnik (because humans have a thing for ownership of other people), and a hospital name Shadow had likely never set foot in. GUN can’t admit he was born in space.
Human passports and human paperwork. Many human countries don’t consider Mobian passports as authentic. Asking a very rural Mobian community for a passport is laughably stupid.
“I tried to play nice but they decided to be jerks, so I just took the kids myself,” she says. It’s summarized, really. She may have brandished the hammer and yelled some threats. “They said I was kidnapping the kids. Excuse me?! You guys did it first! Jeez.”
Sonic wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “Surprised you gave them that many chances.”
“Oh, I wasn’t done. Sometime later, I guess these humans had an adult daughter and she heard what happened. Found me to apologize. She was so sweet. She then gave me some cookies and said they were ‘the good stuff.’ I thought she meant they were delicious?”
Sonic’s eyes bug out. “No.” He looks torn between being shocked and wanting to burst out laughing all over again. “No, you’re messing with me—you gotta be.”
“I ate them on the train.” She rubbed her forehead. “I thought the train took off into space or something. It was just colors.”
“They were edibles!”
“They were edibles,” she says.
On Sonic’s end, in the background, Amy heard Tails’ muffled screech of “They were what?!” Amy almost forgets he’s fifteen now, not eight.
She’s not going to mention stepping off the train and worrying which dimension did the train drop her off at. A bespectacled leopard Mobian had asked her if she was okay, and she’d blurted out 'I don’t know. I don’t feel like dealing with another runaway train being a toxic ex. It’s not even my birthday this time. The cookies are in my head. Ask me when I’m sober.' He’d anxiously asked her if she needed him to call her a taxi, to which she said she didn’t need the taxi driver to babysit her until she sobered up. “That, ugh, that day was a mess.”
“Oh Chaos, I can't believe you got high.” Sonic chuckles with his paw on his forehead.
She can briefly hear Tails asking him if she’s okay. Sonic reassures him he got poisoned during Amy’s birthday party and he turned out fine—edibles shouldn’t be that bad. Tails hisses something about hedgehogs being partially immune to some substances.
“I’m fine, Tails. I got a doctor to look at me. Thank you for asking,” she says, then jokingly grumbles, “At least one of you is considerate.”
“Hey, you handled it like a boss, didn't you?” Sonic shrugs, smirking, knowing she’s not serious. “Besides, sounds like the lady wasn’t lying about them being ‘the good stuff’ if you were seeing shrimp colors. Do regular colors still hit the same, now? Just curious.”
“I’m going to hit you as soon as I’m back.”
“And here I thought you’d be glad to see me. Don’t ya just wanna relax after dealing with the French?”
“Keep this up and I might consider dragging you to swimming lessons.”
He lifted a paw in surrender. “Alright, you win.” He’s still grinning. “I should let you get to bed. Tails’ about to head out and fetch Knuckles; the guy’s gonna take centuries getting here at this rate. Need me to come pick you up? Or I could ask Tails if he’d be passing you by.”
In the background, Tails pipes up, “I don’t mind, Amy!”
Her eyes feel dry when she blinks. She really needs to sleep. She hadn’t been taking as many afternoon naps as usual. It wouldn’t hurt to have a big meal tomorrow, then turn down the temperature of her cabin and take a short five-day hibernation period to recharge. “I’m good for now. I’m on a ferry. Taking the ocean shortcut home. Don’t make that face, Sonic,” she chides, seeing him cringe at the thought of being on a ferry in the ocean. “Some of us actually appreciate the beauty of the ocean. Oh, it’s so gorgeous when the water changes colors with the sky. It’s so quiet, too. I’ve had a busy few months—”
“Dealing with the French,” Sonic supplemented.
“—I deserve some peace and quiet,” she emphasizes, a bit too aggressively. “I’m not passing up a chance for a nice ocean trip before I ease myself back into my usual routines... And before Eggman ends his paternity leave.” That mad scientist lost to a hedgehog and made this gripe his whole personality. “Anyway, might take five or six days for me to touch land again, so don’t wait up for me if you have things to do; I might be the last one back.”
Chuckling lightly, Sonic props his cheek against the knuckles of his paw, half-lidded eyes relaxed, a tiny smirk on his muzzle. “Nah, not really a reunion without everyone here. I don’t wanna be the one telling Cream how could we start the party without ya. Enjoy your little cruise across water, water, and more water. Maybe you’ll get to play Fetch the Fries with seagulls whenever you get bored.”
She playfully sticks her tongue at him. “Sourpuss.”
“That’s Shadow’s title. And good luck with any icebergs out there.” He does a two-finger salute.
Sighing with a gentle smile, Amy shakes her head. “Behave yourself. Goodnight. Tell Tails ‘goodnight’ for me.” Even though it’s probably not that dark over where they’re at.
Tails voices out, “G’night, Amy!”
Sonic snickers lightheartedly. The paw he’s been leaving his head against reaches for the screen, presumably lining his thumb and finger against the two buttons. “Sorry I kept you up. Night, Ames.”
Her brain's already shutting off, one bit at a time. With a yawn, she says, “S’fine. Love you. Night.” Her fingers are on the buttons of her watch. Not yet applying pressure. She thinks she hears Sonic say “Love you too” half a second before he ended the call.
It’s when her screen turns black that a loose screw in her brain rolls back into place. She blinks. Flicks an ear. She’s almost sure she’d imagined that last bit. Yeah. That’s it. She’d missed too many naps and now her thoughts are all loose. Her therapist did warn her Mobian hedgehogs still need lots of sleep to make up for the neglect of their semi-nocturnal instincts.
But the screen of her wrist watch, still in front of her face, lights up suddenly, momentarily flashbanging her. She squints at the screen. Text notifications, one after another. They’re sent in quick, frantic successions.
[I DID MEAN IT LIKE THAT]
[*DIDN’T]
[!!!]
[I TELL TAILS THAT ALL THE TIME ITS A HABIT]
She stares for another solid minute before chuckling lightly to herself, her muzzle feeling warm. Even if he hadn’t meant it in that way, she’s content with how things are right now. She’s never been shy about loving him. He’d flirt here and there on occasions, teasing, giving her flowers, giving her quiet time when she needs it. Tempting her just enough to satisfy her cravings while keeping it just shy from crossing that line that’d shift their partnership into another kind.
His not-so-subtle gestures at least tell her he’s interested. Just not ready. Not now. And maybe never will be ready.
And that’s fine. He’s calling and that's nice. It’s a welcome change compared to how he’d been to her when they were children, back when it seemed like their little ragtag group of orphans messing with Eggman was an all-boys club.
Or, rather, Sonic didn’t want her joining; Tails had been much, much younger, and Sonic was his whole world, so it’s understandable he’d stick to Sonic, leaving her as an afterthought. Knuckles was an odd case. He was a loner, had a shorter social battery and kept to himself, only got involved when necessary. He butted heads with Sonic just as much as he does now, mainly due to Sonic’s attitude that made Knuckles’ temper flare.
She was left behind regularly. It was hard to fit in anywhere when girls thought she was too tomboyish, loud, short-tempered, and weird about future readings; while the boys didn’t really seem to want her joining in on their adventures for some reason. Maybe it’s this children’s game of chivalry that says she’s not supposed to be amongst the three musketeers.
Or maybe it was that she didn't have powers. Not like Sonic or Tails. And while her physical strength was above average for a Mobian hedgehog—something other little girls were mean about, calling her a tomboy—it was nowhere near close to what Knuckles could do. There was something about her being impulsive with a hammer, then going off to have tea parties with flickies, that apparently put her in that in-between status of being a hero and a civilian.
Could be all of the above reasons why she’d struggled to make friends back then.
…Her suspicions of being on the autism spectrum might add to that list, but she’s not ready to do another evaluation for a third ‘inconclusive’ result.
She can’t pinpoint just when Sonic had started mellowing out about who could join in on kicking Eggman’s butt, or when exactly he’d started flirting back and holding her paw oh so casually, as though his touch aversion had never been an issue in the past. Whatever led to this, it’s at least clear enough to her that he’s interested in her.
Just not in an official relationship. She can respect that. She’s told him she would never want to change him. He’s a free spirit. Unconventional. She’s not expecting a traditional relationship from him, that’s for certain.
She mentions this to acquaintances whenever they ask what exactly is going on between her and him. Half the time, they assume she means it in a different way entirely.
She’s been met with various awkward forms of “Ah. The whole… trans thing, right?” It never fails to make her pause and blink. Because she forgets the fact that Sonic doesn’t physically present fully male.
Male Mobian hedgehogs of mature age grow chest manes, sometimes all around the neck. Sonic doesn’t have that. It’s not even remotely close to how some males just happen to have extremely thin manes. He has absolutely no chest mane whatsoever. He still has the tan fur on his arms, something he should’ve shed and replaced with rougher, darker colored fur during his teenage years. He’s twenty-four. Way past that stage.
His voice change was delayed, cracking like a teenager’s for years, taking a ridiculously long time for his voice to settle into something deeper. She’s still not used to hearing that adult voice come out of him, not that she doesn’t like it. He has male scent glands. To most Mobians, it’s noticeable. It’s very possible it’s something he developed from being on HRT, she just never truly thought about his identity until somebody else brings it up.
She’s known him for so long—almost her whole life—that it never really occurred to her he might be trans. It’s just easy to let details breeze past when they’re always present, never pointed out. He never really… ‘came out’? Not as far as she knows. Not that he ever had or needed to. Didn’t really matter, either way. He’s obviously comfortable with himself. Always has been (as long as nobody reminds him of his werehog incident.)
The possibility he’s trans didn’t change how she felt about him, still feels about him. So, no, that has nothing to do with her not expecting a traditional relationship with him. It’s everything else. It’s him being himself, and her loving that about him.
She’s content with what they have. For now.
The topic of Scraps' pregnancy causes one of Amy's long-held desires to resurface: her wanting to be a mom someday.
TBC
Chapter 2
Notes:
Chapter warnings:
-Mentions of medical examinations
-Brief mentions of masturbation and sexual dysfunction
-Mentions of infertility insecurity
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sonic stays still on the couch, his wrist still lifted like he’s checking his watch even though he’d ended the call in his frantic attempt at damage control. He might’ve, sort of panicked. Just a bit. Possible fucked up at unfucking his fuck up.
Amy must know that was a slip up, surely. She knows him—he’s more tactful than that! A confession through text? Really? She’d know that’s not how he rolls. He’s not great with words, but gestures? He’s all game for that. That’s his expertise. Flowers and gifting sweets and holding her paws and little teasing complements and—
Tails is giving him that knowing look. That smug one he’d learned from Sonic. Eyes half-lidded, a one-sided smirk, his back leaning against his computer chair. Tails is a cute kid, but this sly fox smugness? Yeah—that’s Sonic’s influence, alright. Copyright infringement. And a hint of something else, something that’s alluding that this little guy’s going to grow up to be a monster.
“That’s nice,” Tails says. He’s looking Sonic straight in the eyes, baiting him and not even being subtle about it. Oh yeah, Eggman’s screwed once Tails’ an adult.
Sonic clears his throat. “Amy’s cruise?” He feigns ignorance, propping his cheek on his fist. “Not my style. She sounded excited, though.”
Tails playfully quirks a brow. That , Sonic knows Tails learned from him. Sonic postpones feeling proud, because Tails evidently learned to be a little shit from Sonic, and now he’s using it against Sonic himself. That feels illegal.
“Sure,” Tails says, unconvinced, “Amy’s cruise.”
There’s a purposefully annoying silence, the brother’s eyeing each other; Sonic daring him to blurt it out, Tails letting the discomfort hang just to put Sonic on edge.
Sonic cracks first. “Don’t you have movies to snag?”
“Pirating software's done.” Tails gestures to his computer’s double monitors. “Already downloaded stuff. Don’t think there’s enough space in my workshop for a movie night though if everyone’s showing up.”
Sonic waves off his concern. “I’ll drag the other couch down, no worries.”
Tails, of course, isn’t letting him off the hook yet. “Want me to pick something romantic? Feels like you need that.”
“This your attempt at wingmanning?” Sonic says dryly, not impressed.
“You told me I was your wingman.”
Sonic blinks. The casualness in the way Tails said it stumped him stupid. “Sorry, what?”
“You told me I was your wingman.”
“...When?!” Sonic sputters. There’s a little Chao inside of his mind scrambling to find this supposed memory. When in Chaos’ name did he tell his baby brother to be his wingman? When did he even ever ask for one? Did he drunk-text him or something?
Tails is biting his lip. He’s enjoying his poor big brother’s turmoil.
Sonic pauses. A brief memory hits him: Tails piloting the Tornado. Sonic proudly stands on the left wing, rubbing his nose with a triumphant smile on his muzzle. He opens his mouth, and—
The realization on Sonic’s face must be clear as day, because Tails lets out a mischievous, boyish little chuckle that sounds too criminally innocent for the prank he’d just inflicted.
“Really, dude?” Sonic got played, and he can’t help but feel a little proud Tails actually tripped him up for a hot second. “Using my own airplane pun against me like that?” He roughly the fur between Tails’ ears. “How long have you been lugging that one around, eh?”
Tails swats Sonic’s paw away. “Quit it!” he laughs. “Seriously though, are you and Amy finally…?” He gestures at Sonic vaguely.
Sonic scratches the quills at the back of his neck. What can he say? Yes? No? Maybe? Kinda? “Oh, you know,” he starts awkwardly, “me and Amy… we got our own thing going on. She knows. Nothing to sweat about.”
Tails rolls his eyes, though not without a little smile. “Oookay. If you guys know what you’re doing.”
“Why the doubt, lil bro? That little faith in me?”
“I trust you to fight Eggman. Romance?”
“You think I don’t know how to woo a girl?”
“I think you need therapy first. Your psychiatrist prescribing you ADHD medicine every three months doesn’t count.”
Sonic guffaws. “Hey, chemistry takes time.”
“I thought you complained about how all the medicines don’t work long enough with your metabolism."
“Was talking about romance. Can't rush these sorts of things.”
“Need me to call the chemist I worked alongside last month for an opinion on that?”
“Yeah, no thanks. Don’t think professor-I’m-eighty-two’s gonna be an expert on modern dating. Just trust me, I know what I’m doing.”
Sonic’s not worried; Amy’s made it very clear she’s willing to go at his pace. She’s been waiting, and is still waiting, and for all the speed he boasts about, he can’t get himself to haul ass for a matter this delicate. It’s taken him years to get comfortable with physical touch from certain people. That shit took time.
So did his attraction to Amy who, by then, has grown into someone he can’t imagine disappointing. She’s never lost her charm. Delicate and fierce, unwavering in what she wants, unashamed by her emotional tears.
He can’t fuck this up. He really, really can’t fuck this up. They’ve got a good thing going on right now. If he closed that little gap left between them, that no-going-back zone, then doesn’t live up to the thing she's been waiting for all these years—that’ll make him the meanest fucking asshole in existence. Eggman would be embarrassed on his behalf, because how can anyone possibly mess up a relationship this badly?
Amy adores him. Still does. But, unlike him, she at least knows how to go about romantic relationships. She’s put him in a spot a few times, teasing him during their on and off live podcasts, leaving him a stuttering mess on-air. Granted, it was his fault he'd been too obvious with his negative reaction upon hearing her happily describe her time at the concert with Shadow (come on, why him?). At least when everybody pokes fun at his crush on Amy, she's usually not around. Saves him the embarrassment when his tongue trips over itself.
But when it was on-air and she was right there and he was… kinda… the one who made a dig at Shadow first, okay, yeah, he started it. Left himself wide open with his evident jealousy. (Seriously, though. Shadow? At a concert? What the heck? Mr. Emo is a no-show for his birthday party but he's all decked out for Amy's. The guy can't use a printer and still uses a Nokia like some old man —).
Shadow gave her a really good gift. Fantastic for Amy. Sonic admits to that. He hadn't even known about the concert gift. Excuse him; he'd been too busy being a corpse on the floor of a runaway train in the most inconvenient, shoulder-aching position.
At least Amy had been happy. Didn't take much to make her day. Not many could say getting kidnapped by a sentient train on your Birthday was a successful birthday. She's easy to please.
…so the fact that he could see himself fumbling the bag hard on this scares him shitless. If he messes up, doesn't live up to her expectations after all this, it'd suck hard. How would he kiss her without freezing like a stone? How would they fuck?
He paused.
…Oh, sweet Gaia, how would they fuck?
And speaking of relationship expectations: Does Amy think he's genderqueer? Amy should know by now his body type doesn't fit the stereotypical model for what a male Mobian hedgehog is expected to look like. Years ago, when Tails or Knuckles used to bring it up, Sonic would shrug, say, “Eh, it's just how I am.” It wasn't much of an answer. Neither bought it, if their perplexed expressions were anything to go by. But Knuckles left it be. Tails used to hypothesize out loud, wondering maybe it's a skin condition or a hereditary thing. He'd eventually stopped asking about it.
Questions from strangers are another story, because they often already had assumptions at the ready. Like pharmacists bringing up discounts on fur growth products, which he'd ignore; journalists who assume he's trans—in which direction, none of them seem to agree on; he's not even sure of himself about that, either. Without a birth certificate, he hadn't exactly been assigned as anything. Yes, he had started HRT testosterone recently, just a year before the events of Starfall Islands, but not in the way his friends think.
He was born with what he assumed was male genitalia for his species (hard to tell with Mobians having their junk being internal when not in use, neatly tucked away in protective groin pouches, not flailing about like a disastrous failure of evolution.) His package works—those accidental few times the traitorous thing popped out over Amy hugging him were proof enough.
No, he'd started testosterone because his puberty was weirdly slow as heck. He’s fine with the lack of fur growth; it was the persistent prepubescent voice that drove him mad. That, and the embarrassing issues regarding his sex drive. His libido was a wild card every mating season. His body would either not even realize it was the season, or it'd remembered and hit him in a very inconvenient manner, making him horny, only with a limp dick.
He’d tried over-the-counter suppressants. The first one: all was good and dandy. For the first half of the six-month-long season. He's not sure what he did to make it turn on him, but one day it decided they weren't on good terms anymore and wiped the floor with him. Literally. He’d get hit with dizzy spells while on his runs and take hard tumbles, skidding his face—it’s always his darn face—across dirt and grass for however long inertia took him.
He switched to a second brand. Which was worse. It wasn’t just useless; it fucked him up even more. He still got horny. With a limp dick that seemed worse than before. Apparently, the side effects included erectile dysfunction. (Never mind the long list of other side effects ranging from dizziness to heart problems. He wagers most medicines have those). A limp dick by itself isn't a problem—not like it's going anywhere—but to still be horny?! So… not horny but also still horny? Which defeats the entire purpose of a make-me-not-horny pill?
Frustration and lack of patience drove him to seek a solution in the opposite direction: sexual enhancers. If he can’t control the urge, he might as well try to get it up so he could at least take care of the issue. He’d gone to the most empty rural pharmacy he could find. He’s popular, recognizable. He doesn’t need his friends worldwide reading in news magazines that Sonic the Hedgehog was seen getting a sexual stimulant.
He’d tossed in other random shit—a laxative, thrush cream, painkillers, mange treatment, and flea and antifungal shampoo—in the hopes of diverting attention away from the first item. In hindsight, he probably just made himself look like he had a bunch of health issues going on. Didn’t help when he’d noticed Tails being suspiciously anxious about Sonic’s usual consumption of spicy foods, because since when did Tails ask him “Should you be eating those right now?” about chili dogs?
When asked why, Tails would nervously divert, like he knew something he shouldn’t. It wasn’t until Sonic had to rearrange their medicine cabinet after an accidental medicine avalanche all over the bathroom sink that he spotted a familiar tube of thrush cream. Thrush cream that turned out not to be thrush cream, upon closer inspection. It was a hemorrhoid cream. He’d tossed it away and hoped for Tails to forget all about it with time, because there was no way Sonic could just deny having hemorrhoids without accidentally causing Tails to double down on his suspicions of his big brother having hemorrhoids.
The sexual enhancer turned out to not even be worth it: it gave him aggressive crankiness and insomnia. He’ll never forgive himself for snapping at Tails that one time. His last straw was the fact his usual jealousy about Shadow around Amy turned into something more territorial, and realizing that fact scared the rings out of him.
Pills went in the trash. Never doing that again.
He’d suspected he probably had a hormonal thing. The lack of mane growth and the slow voice change had been evident enough. The voice thing in itself had tempted him to go on testosterone, but that meant seeing doctors who’d touch and ask invasive questions. In the end, his continuously irritating voice had been the thing that pushed him to see a doctor. Of course, it ended up being hellish. The axolotl in a lab coat casually asked him how long he’d been on HRT, when had his last hormone test been. His answer made her look at him like he’d told her he pours milk in before the cereal.
Maybe he should’ve said he pours milk in before the cereal. Could’ve saved him from the humiliatingly invasive examination. Her fascination with every little thing she proclaimed ‘abnormal' about his groin was downright creepy. She’d called in two other doctors, like one wasn’t humiliating enough. The doctors commented—to each other, like he's chopped liver—that his junk was on the smaller side. Okay, rude, but whatever. He outright declined further, more invasive examinations.
They hypothesized he had something-whatever-overly complicated medical term. Or maybe some other something-whatever-overly complicated medical term if he'd let them look further.
He’d switched doctors until landing on a meek one who did agree to put him on testosterone, even if she was under the impression they were trying to ‘treat’ whatever the heck the axolotl had called it. Really, he just wanted gender reaffirming care with a side of working boners.
And it worked like a charm. His voice dropped so suddenly that he snickered when it startled his friends. The higher libido is a downside, in his opinion, but at least he can get himself off now. The new suppressants oddly worked fine? (Turns out he probably should’ve checked which suppressants wouldn’t mingle with his ADHD meds. He’d defeated gods and saved the world but almost stupidly killed himself via an incorrect combo of sexual suppressant and ADHD meds. He’d prefer to avoid winning a Darwin Award when kicking the bucket.)
Nobody outright asked him if he's trans. It was always assumed he was even before the HRT. He suspects even Tails and the rest of his friends eventually came to that assumption at some point, too. They've never said it; it's the fact that they've stopped asking about his lack of mane that indicated they've unanimously come to a conclusion of some sort. The publicly popular trans theory was—is still circling, after all.
To be fair, he's never attempted to explain. He's not decided yet if he wants to call himself trans. He'd transitioned, but in an indirect way? He's left those thoughts on the back-burner. Asking himself if he's trans or ‘trans enough’ for taking HRT to ease voice dysphoria and a sexual dysfunction while living as a guy who didn't always pass as a guy to begin with will send him in a never-ending rabbit hole.
Whether or not he is trans just feels secondary to that other thing, the thing he understood as an intersex variation only after all his friends scattered around the world. He had nothing left to do but look into his medical history steeped in unpleasant memories of squeaky gloved paws.
The doctors had used long winded medical terms to describe it. Even brought up treatments they automatically decided he'd be on board with: propositions for reconstruction surgery to elongate his penis, informing him of mane growth treatment facilities. The urgency in their ‘suggestions’ sounded a whole lot like he'd spontaneously combust if he didn't do it. They felt like accusations that he'd been living happily all these years all wrong.
Quite insulting. He's more than content with his dashing good looks and fulfilled spontaneous adventures. He's the king of living freely. It really shouldn't have taken him an Internet search to reaffirm that, yes, his doctors had over complicated the whole thing. Could've simplified it to him, let him go about the rest of his day. Instead, he had to dodge all attempts of medical intervention dead set on ‘fixing’ him. Even though he'd lived as a guy, still is a guy, and had asked for testosterone HRT; somehow, he's not ‘guy enough’.
He's fine as he is. He's just never told any of his friends. Never felt the need to. Partly because it wouldn't matter; his bits are his business.
And partly because… he can't go through this stuff again. The way the doctors just reduced him into a specimen could give Eggman a run for his money.
The fact that medical doctors phase him more than Dr. Eggman is a twisted sort of fuckery. Maybe if the whole ‘taking over the world’ thing doesn't pan out for Eggman in his senior years, he could still get his evil euphoria rush by living up to his nickname, becoming an OB/GYN doing pap smears or something.
Sonic’s not ashamed. And he knows his friends will stick by him regardless if he lets them know. They're just awesome like that.
He hadn't planned on discussing it with anyone at all. He's got nothing to worry about.
…until he remembers who he's been flirting with for the past few years.
Amy.
His thoughts had been inching towards the likelihood of starting a relationship with her. One that's more blatant. She's been patient with him, more so than anyone he's known. He likes what they currently have, but during moments where he'd almost lose her, regrets of what more they could have come crashing down on him.
He really should stop pussyfooting around. But getting more intimate with her might mean… getting… more intimate with her. A tempting but also scary thought. He's never been anybody’s boyfriend before. What if she thinks he's a bad kisser? A bad boyfriend? He's never thought they'd actually get to this point.
What if…
What if… she still wants kids?
When they were little, she used to say she'd want to be a mom someday. She'd always wanted to be one. Is that something she still wants? She hasn't brought it up in at least a decade. Not that there had been any situations that'd prompt bringing the topic up.
He's on board if she is. Maybe not right now—but he's open for discussion about it.
However, that'll put him in a tough predicament. He'd refused to do a fertility test back when declining a further examination. He'd heard ‘high possibility for infertility’ being tossed around then, but he'd been too agitated at the time to pay attention. At the time, he hadn't given two shits about being possibly infertile.
…but if Amy still plans to have kids…what then?
He knows she'd still love him. She'd still loved him when he'd been in his werehog form. Still loved him despite him not giving her the amount of love that she deserves. She wouldn't stop loving him if he's infertile; he's certain of that, at least. She's never asked him if he's trans or why he has no chest fur. Has she guessed he's trans, or just a dude with a skin issue? She's never brought it up. If it's the former, then he can rest easy knowing she's fine with him possibly not being able to give her kids the traditional way.
It's just...
It's confusing how he hadn't been disappointed about having low fertility before, but now that a relationship might be on the table, he admits it's a bummer. He already knows he falls short in many areas fulfilling Amy's relationship dreams, so this just feels like another thing to add to his list of insecurities.
Maybe he does need a therapist?
…He'll get back to that later. Problem for Future Sonic to deal with. It's not like it'll bite him in the ass too hard. He's good at fixing his fuck ups (that call with Amy doesn't count.)
TBC
Notes:
-It will bite him in the ass hard, don't worry.
-Yes, I had to include the stuff about Amy and Shadow's concert because I'm a sucker for making Sonic squirm about it.
-As a chronically ill person with chronically ill friends, medical humor is my thing. I had to mention the pharmacy scene of Sonic buying a bunch of shit cause I'd buy my meds but also add in meds for a family member who also has health shit, and the pharmacists sometimes look at the collection I'm buying and their disturbed faces just read 'Omg, this person is fucked up in all sorts of ways', which, to be fair, I am. But it's always funny when it happens.
-No, I couldn't resist the OB/GYN Dr. Eggman thing. It's in his name, come on. Actually, what is he a doctorate in, anyway? Was that ever stated in, like, any official Sonic stuff and I'm just a dumbass? I mean, I can still be a dumbass regardless. If anybody knows, tell me XD
-Not much story progress in this chapter... Mostly because I wrote this entire story all in one doc and it was around 27k words and I had to split them up as evenly as I could. Things kick off in chapter 3 and it goes fast from there. I'll try posting the 3rd sooner than intended actually cause that's when the story goes from a casual stroll to doing gymnastics lol
I'm still recovering from a fever (yeah, I caught the flu somehow. Because of course I can't go one week without another medical thing happening but no surprise there). Going to try my best to add some info:
-People who are intersex can be cis or trans. It's a spectrum, so the experience is different for everyone.
-Intersex does NOT always mean 'having both male and female genitalia'. While that variation does indeed exist, it is very rare compared to other variations.
-Variations can include things most people have probably heard of but were never informed count as intersex variations, such as having PCOS, micropenis, delayed or absent puberty and so on (again, it's a spectrum). In fact, if anyone has a male calico or tortoiseshell cat, know that's an intersex cat, cause the color pattern requires an extra X chromosome to appear.Again, excuse the typos. Brain fog be very foggy.
Chapter Text
Gorging herself before her short hibernation was a good call on Amy's part. The ship had crossed through some cold weather that would've definitely given her bad brain fog if she'd been awake for that. She gets cold easily; turning down the temperature of her cabin has been enough to ease her into a shallow hibernation, her heart beating once every ten minutes. Nothing compared to the one beat per hour she used to fall into as a hoglet in a burrow under the snow, too young to understand why she’d get groggy and dig. While some Mobian hedgehogs like Silver seem to have evolved to grow thicker coats, Amy’s not lucky in that department, needing winter clothes. Sonic used to just move around a lot to wherever it was warmer.
It takes her a few hours to shake off the post-hibernation fatigue, quills standing up much like how she used to keep them during her youth. It’s the hunger pangs and the desperate need to pee that get her up.
It's late afternoon; the ferry sounds off, reaching Central City port. As fun as her adventure had been, she's excited to see her friends again. She'd sent a text to the group chat that she's made it back on land, hoping she's not too late for the reunion.
She's standing just outside the terminal, near the boardwalk. She thinks of sending another text to the group chat when familiar blur speeds by. She's so used to it that she's the only one amongst the small crowd who doesn't get startled.
Sonic's rubber soles skid against the ground, screeching. “Aaand there's sleepin’ beauty! Awake at last!”
Amy giggles, placing a paw to her chest in a dramatic fashion. “Oh, if only a noble prince had been around to kiss me awake.”
She sees the mischievous glint in his eyes, the side smirk, the knowing lift of his brow acknowledging her little game. Tucking her paws behind her innocently, she leans her face closer to his, edging into his personal space. She playfully watches him hide his nervous anticipation behind the cool front he’s putting up.
“Of course it's never too late to make up for it,” She teases, batting her eyes. Despite his efforts to maintain the impression of being unfazed, she spots a twitch of a brow. She muffles her giggles behind the back of her paw.
He rolls his eyes, a smile on his muzzle. “Back and already can't get enough of me, eh? Can't say I blame ya’—Oof!” He stumbles one step back when she throws her arms around him, her tail wagging. His chuckle rumbles in his chest, his paw on her back. “Missed you, too. Easy on the neck there, I still need that.”
He suddenly scoops her up, her arms still around him. She’s so familiar with how he holds her that she instinctively stiffens her lower back and neck by muscle memory, knowing he’d bolt with her any second.
“Ready?” he eagerly asks.
“If the party’s still on,” she says with anticipation, knowing the answer is ‘yes’; something in her knows her friends had been waiting for her.
“You know it is! Hang tight!”
While Amy herself is quite fast—just very athletic from years of intense activities, nothing supernatural like Sonic—experiencing Sonic’s speed is like sticking her head out the window of a bullet train. He’s careful to not unnecessarily go at his full speed when holding someone; the whiplash alone could get too violent for anyone inexperienced with being carried by someone going faster than monster roller coasters.
She’s used to this, though. She knows when he hikes her up a bit, tucks her closer with her head firmer against him, that he’s going to jump. Knows not to fear when he weaves between Central City cars, jumps over traffic, over lamp posts, glides across the elevated tracks of suspended railways.
Around them, big city lights dwindle into suburbs; suburbs thin out into rural firefly-lit meadows, vegetable farms, small towns. They pass a few other suburbs, eventually reaching a small house she knows is technically Tails’ (Sonic lives here, too, but apparently still regardless it as Tails’ home.)
The reunion's more like a dinner party, really. One without a dinner table, just the scratched up coffee table downstairs that’s seen better days. The couch she’s used to seeing in the living room has been moved down to the weird basement that the brothers can’t seem to decide whether to turn it into a gaming room or guest bedroom or man-cave. They simply did all of the above. The tv, posters on the walls, computer setup, and rumpled blankets on the couches makes it feel like one of those shared college dorm rooms she’s seen in films.
It’s not a big room, but that’s expected, given it’s just Tails and Sonic who live here. Amy occasionally stays a few nights every now and then. The reunion isn't that big, anyway, just their group of friends.
She sees Knuckles is already here, on the couch, eating two still-attached pizza slices. He doesn’t have greasy food that often; he lives by himself, and even when in situations where he’s in town, he’s not a person to go ordering from fast food stops. No one’s exactly taught him how to go about this sort of thing. The guy has very little social skills.
Cream is here, too, happily asking a bashful Tails what else he saw on his adventures, how scary it must've been by himself, how cool and brave he is and how she hopes to be brave like him one day. Her little Chao makes a chime of agreement.
Surprisingly, Rouge is here, lounging on the couch like she owns it, with one leg propped over a knee, and an elbow up on the couch's backrest. While she is a party person, this one’s more akin to a college frat party. It's nothing remotely close to what Rouge’s got going on at Club Rouge: the 18+ only, bar-and-casino nightclub Rouge owns in the city nightlife district. It's a thing she manages on the side. “Everyone has a hobby, hun,” she'd told Amy.
And now here's the bat propping her heels up on the coffee table.
Knuckles pauses mid bit, pizza still in his mouth, when Sonic stops with Amy in his arms.
“Her majesty has arrived!” says Sonic, putting Amy down and giving a bow.
Playing along, Amy hides her grin with a paw. “Oh, you're too kind. But seriously, you guys are too sweet. You didn't need to wait for me.”
“Nah, not much of a reunion without ya.”
The first to greet her was Cream, running to her for a tight hug. Knuckles casually raised a mitted paw in the air as a greeting, mouth still full of pizza. She hugs Tails before he could even get a word in, hearing him bashfully laugh in her ear.
Rouge didn't bother getting up to greet her, waiting for Amy to take a seat next to her.
“Long time, no see. If you'd told me you were going cruising, I would've thought of sneaking on board,” Rouge says with mock hurt. “Word has it, that one you took serves delightful cuisines.”
“As if you couldn't fly to it any time you'd wanted to.” Amy shrugs. “And for your information, yeah, their food was amazing. How'd you know which one I was on?” she asks casually, taking a pizza slice for herself.
She'd eaten on the ferry, but that hadn't been enough to restore the energy she'd used during her short hibernation. It's nowhere close to the hunger and fatigue she used to have as a winter hoglet having her winter hibernation disturbed to go forage in the cold. She's still a very active hedgehog who burns calories too quickly if she's not consistently eating enough. It's no wonder she sees Sonic eat mostly just carbs. She plans to eat most of what’s left on the table here.
“I have my ways.” AKA, Rouge either managed to get access to the team's private chat, or, more likely, she'd gotten a glimpse of the conversation from Knuckles’ communicator when he had no idea.
This really isn’t Rouge’s kind of meet-up. The home looks and smells like two young boys managing it themselves. Tails’ double-screen computer set is in the corner. There’s gaming consoles by the TV stand; the flat screen TV has decade old splotches on the bottom from what might’ve been the brothers attacking each other with shaken-up soda cans.
The two mismatching couches smell like stale potato chips, not from the fresh bowls of new potato chips now on the table, one of which is drizzled with tabasco sauce she can smell too strongly. It was as if the chips themselves being of the paprika-and-lime flavor variety didn’t cut it.
The cheese for the nachos looks clumpy. The two large pizzas and the carton of tacos are take-out; they’re still in their steam-warped cardboard boxes. The drinks are cans of cheap root beer and soda and small juice bottles. No alcohol, given how Tails and Cream are here. Rouge can stew about the lack of adult drinks.
Amy spots Rouge’s purple handbag. She doesn't usually carry anything big enough to use a bag.
Rouge smirks. “Curious? I figured I wouldn’t get hard liquor in Tails’ humble little abode.”
Next to Amy, Knuckles chokes on a globe of cheese and stares at Rouge in shock. “You brought booze?! Here?!” He gestures panicky with his eyes at Cream who'd gone over to open a bag of non-spicy chips for Cheese to enjoy.
Amy can already read Knuckles’ thought process: if Vanilla hears this wholesome reunion turned into a mess with drunk adults, they'd have to answer to Cream's mother. Cream is technically a teen now, and Vanilla's never been a helicopter parent; she gives Cream more freedom than most parents would. But Amy only felt Vanilla's warning tone before and would rather not be at the receiving end of that again; even Rouge had skedaddled and left Any to fend for herself that time.
Knuckles’ tone catches the attention of the two brothers, the older of the two eyes Rouge critically. Sonic casually warns, “Yeah, you better be planning to keep that to yourself. Let's keep this clean.” He grabs a remote and starts going through some movie options in digital folders downloaded off of pirating sites.
Rouge rolls her eyes. “Relax, it's for me.” She pulls a hydro flask out of her handbag, the thing clinking with ice chips inside. “I operate my own establishment full of these. Honestly, I'm offended you'd assume I wouldn't know what I'm doing.” She pours herself a cup using the lid. She sees Amy pour herself some juice. “I'd offer you a sip, Amy dear,” Rouge indicates at Amy’s glass cup, “but you're too picky for your own good.”
“I like to think I have high standards,” Amy defends. She can't understand how anyone would drink anything if it doesn't taste good. “I wanna be sober tonight, anyway.”
“Suit yourself.” Rouge shrugs, then checks her phone, texted someone. “Looks like tall, dark, and handsome might not show up after all.”
Amy tilts her head. “Who?” She recalls who Rouge’s partner-in-crime is and it clicks in her head. “Oh! Shadow?”
Sonic pauses scrolling through film titles. “You invited Shadow? Don’t know if this is his sort of thing. Points for you for trying, though. Tall, dark— he's not tall, though? Pretty sure I got a few inches over him. And the guy's skates got those little heels on ‘em.”
“Showed up for Amy’s big day, didn’t he?” Rouge reminds.
“All decked out, too. Didn’t know he had it in him.” He chuckles lightly, shaking his head. “You think you know a guy.”
Amy herself had been surprised Shadow had gone along with her whole murder mystery roleplay. The outfit ended up looking more like a coffee shop employee and less locksmith on him, but it’s the thought that counts! And nobody had made fun of him about it, too!
“Oh, he was so sweet,” Amy says, remembering how she embarrassingly pointed her finger at Shadow. “Gosh, I can’t believe I accused him of murder when he was just trying to be nice… It looked like he enjoyed himself at the concert, at least.” He was a hard heavy metal guy, but when he was standing next to her with his arms crossed, she’d spotted him tapping his finger on his arm.
Sonic’s brow twitched. He mumbled something under his breath.
Rouge, of course, isn’t going to let that slip. “Something wrong, Blue? You’re not still upset Shadow and Amy went to that concert together, are you?”
Sonic stiffened. “Woah! Who, me? Naaah. What’s there to be upset about? Shadow just doesn’t do concerts. No offense to the guy, but he must’ve been a bore.”
Amy tries not to giggle at how bad he is at hiding his disapproval about the whole thing. Him going from being disgruntled by her as children, only to turn into a stuttery mess about her as adults is funny. He’s been so obvious about it that the boys have been continuously teasing him. On-air, no less. She’d done so, too, inviting Sonic to go to a concert, just him and her; he’d started so badly, the poor guy hadn’t been able to get a word out. She’d saved him from being under the interrogation lamp by inviting everyone else. Sonic hadn’t sounded thrilled by that, either.
Knuckles snickers. “He’s so jealous.”
Sonic grumbles. “I’m not jealous . Amy can hang out with whoever she wants.”
“That's a relief,” Rouge says, taking her gloves off to inspect her manicured claws. “Guess I don't have to worry about Shadow and Amy's little soap opera nights.”
Sonic visibly deflates. “Soap what, now?”
“Their cute little sleepovers. Oh, you don't know about that?” Rouge feigns surprise. “They get together to bake and watch their little shows.”
Knuckles’ grinning like a shark at Sonic's discomfort, whereas Amy and Tails roll their eyes.
“That's not nice, Miss Rouge,” Cream butts chides disapprovingly. “Mister Shadow and Miss Amy just share hobbies. You don't need to feel upset about it, Mister Sonic.”
“Not upset,” Sonic adds too quickly.
Amy decides maybe Sonic can handle one more poke today. “It's okay, Sonic. If Shadow's too busy next time, you're very free to come watch La Última Pasión with me.”
Torn at the prospect of one-upping Shadow on something in exchange of having to suffer through a love-triangle drama that'll surely bore him to death, Sonic's face blue-screens for a few seconds. “Uuh, I'll… put a pin in that.”
“Real smooth,” Knuckles says before chugging some juice.
Sonic pokes Knuckles in the head with the remote. “Remind me again what happened at Amy's birthday party? How you wrecked the arcade machine because Shadow beat you—”
“The thing was not designed for mobians with big paws, okay!”
“The most Shadow's played was probably tic-tac-toe, and he still—”
A sound from the living room upstairs catches their attention: a swift sound akin to a television screen being turned off from upstairs, ending with metal clicks of the soles of familiar skates against wood. They all glance up at the ceiling.
“Huh,” Sonic says. “Didn’t think he’d show up. Guess I was wrong on that one.”
Rouge puts a paw beside her mouth and calls out, “Wrong room, hon!”
There's an awkward pause, then the metallic footsteps approaching the stairs leading down here. Within seconds of stepping downstairs and getting an eyeful of whatever the heck kind of party this was, Shadow's face scrunched up in disapproval.
“You're late,” Rouge teases. “Thought you weren’t going to make it. Better late than never, at least. Was sure you were going to skip out like you did for Sonic's birthday party.”
“I was busy, and you knew that.” He brushes his quills back, and something metallic falls out of it and rolls down the stairs, omitting metallic clicking sounds all the way down. An empty shell casing.
“Hi, Shadow! Glad you made it!” Amy says.
Shadow simply nods in response.
“We're playing a racing video game a bit after this.” Sonic points a thumb at the thumbnail of a film on the TV screen. “Only got three controllers. Wanna get your butt kicked after I'm done with Knuckles?”
Amy's pleased to see the challenging glare in Shadow's eyes.
***
They watched an epic fantasy adventure film, followed by a few loud video game sessions of hover car races. They only have three controllers, so they have to take turns letting other players have a go.
Rouge declines each turn; she's not really into this sort of thing. Sonic and Shadow are always neck and neck. Cream does fairly well for someone unused to video games of this kind, and everybody’s much nicer to her than they are to each other.
Sonic often forgets not everybody sees how he and Tails act at home, because when they're playing against each other and yelling the most obscene threats at one another, he catches the group go silent in concern the first few times until they catch on that, ‘Oh, this is just normal. Okay.’
Amy almost broke a controller. Knuckles did break a controller. That leaves them with two, both of which click for mercy under all the stress Sonic and Shadow are putting them under. It’s always a tie or a hair length win for Sonic. No, it has nothing to do with him having months’ worth of practice with this game.
He lets Tails and Cream have one last go before Shadow can take Cream home before the clock strikes midnight. Sonic gets up, bites onto the last pizza slice left, and takes the empty pizza boxes upstairs to put in the recycling bin. It’s only then he notices Amy and Rouge aren’t around.
Going upstairs, pizza still hanging from his mouth, he hears the two ladies talking out on the porch. He doesn’t mean to eavesdrop; he was on his way to put the boxes out, anyway.
Boxes tucked under his arm, his paw reaches for the door knob.
“The IUD fell out?” Rouge wheezes. “After all that trouble?”
Sonic freezes, knowing, even before his mind understood what he’d heard, that he should’ve heard that particular bit. The two women hadn’t taken this conversation out on the porch for no reason. This is clearly their girl-time. And Sonic just… overheard a thing he probably shouldn’t know about.
He heard Amy groan . “It was a nightmare. They told me it won’t hurt, then it does, then they can’t find it.”
“So you dropped it somewhere on one of your runs? Girl, I wouldn’t be surprised if your IUD is in some bus taking joyrides without you.”
He rears back, taking steps away from the door. Nope, nope, nope. He should stop listening to this.
He should.
Right now.
Yeah.
Right about now.
…IUD? Like, the contraceptive? Why was Amy trying to put in an IUD?
Wait, no! None of his business! He shouldn’t have even heard that! Maybe he misheard? Yeah! He must’ve. Otherwise, it’d mean Amy’s… sexually… active…
…With who? Not him, certainly. And she couldn’t have possibly been hooking up during her little adventure; him and her had been flirting back and forth the whole time. They’d been flirting back and forth for years . She knew she’s got him hooked on the line and had been slowly but surely reeling him in. He’s shown her he’s interested! Yeah, it’s a bit unclear from an outside viewer's perspective, but he knows she knows he’s into her, so she couldn’t be off doing…
…Wait.
Does she know he’s into her? Or… does she think they’re just playing around this whole time? Like how Rouge flirts with everybody but everybody knows it’s just a game?
Sonic goes cold. His mind’s putting pieces together. The picture they form sends a horrifying chill up his back.
Did Amy think, this whole time, their flirty banter was just regular banter?!
Shit. Shit shit shit. Chaos, this is bad. This is so, so bad. He knew he’d screw up with her, but he screwed it up before they even started anything! The IUD! She’d been hooking up after all! Crap. He thought they had a good thing going; but no, he gave her the impression he’d rather have their relationship be just platonic flirting and nothing more. Who was he kidding—he can’t fault her when he hadn’t made moves in so long. She’s gone looking for better options. She’s hooking up with them. He can’t be mad when they’re not even a thing. This is all he’s screw-up.
She hasn’t brought up anything about a partner though? Not tonight, nor during any of her calls. Amy’s not the type to stay quiet about her love life. At least, he doesn’t think so.
But he also thought they were on the same page when evidently they weren’t. They were in different books altogether. For all he knows, she’d hooked up and dumped plenty of dates while he’d been none the wiser.
She doesn’t know he likes her. This is suddenly a very awful situation to find himself in. He hadn’t meant to give her that kind of impression… The IUD means she’s gone to third base with someone, or plans to go third base. He’s suddenly very critical of who it might be with.
Shadow comes to mind. It can’t be… can it? It’s… not impossible. Shadow had been hanging out with her more than he expected. The guy put himself through the embarrassing attire and played along with the murder mystery roleplay all for Amy’s sake. He got her those concert tickets! The more Sonic thinks about it, the more obvious it’s starting to look.
And Shadow’s a private person; it’d make sense Amy wouldn’t want to put him through the experience of getting hounded by their friends asking a billion questions, especially not if the relationship is still new. Shadow would do whatever Amy asked him to do because she asked him nicely, but he’d flip Sonic the middle finger if the same request came from Sonic.
Sonic begins to feel creeping despair. Chaos, he’s so stupid! How could he not see it before!
He needs to stop thinking about Amy doing third base with Shadow. That’s not the image he wants to have seared into his brain close to midnight. This sucks.
Despite his better judgment, his curiosity wins over. He apprehensively creeps closer to the door, pressing an ear against it.
“Thought of any names? How many kids did you say there are?” Rouge asks.
“Five.”
Rouge whistles. “And Mr. One Minute Man?”
Amy snorts. “Coward showed his true colors as soon as he heard he was going to be a dad. It’s fine; he’s not needed. None of us had dads and we turned out okay. The babies will be fine.”
“Mama’s got a good support system going, that’s something at least.”
“Oh, they do, for sure.”
“Know how far along they are?”
“Early enough for a flat belly.”
Sonic blinks a few times. What… the fuck did he just eavesdrop on? Babies? Five? Mr. One Minute Man?
…Amy is pregnant?
He suddenly felt light-headed. Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out. Deep breaths, Sonic. Come on. In, out. In, out. Keep it together. Don't go into shock.
He can, however, get fucking angry. Because what the fuck? Shadow got her pregnant and bailed on her? The two of them were acting all normal the whole time. Or did Sonic just not pay enough attention to spot details in the past few hours?
Okay, okay, wait. Pause. Pause everything! Shadow can be a dickhead, but not to Amy, and he's not that kind of dickhead to be a deadbeat, no-show dad. Until Sonic gets the full story from Amy herself, whenever she's ready, he shouldn’t speculate.
What he heard could mean all sorts of things. Maybe Shadow's not leaving her out to dry, maybe he called off the relationship but plans to stick around? Or…something. Okay, no more speculations. Amy seemed cool with Shadow the entire time, so maybe they talked it over and came to a mutual agreement on something. Otherwise Rouge wouldn't have invited the guy over, just like that.
Rouge sounded too casual about all this not to have known beforehand. At least she had to have known about them dating and breaking up over something before being told what that something was in this conversation, because she's too smart to offer a pregnant lady alcohol. Whatever happened between Amy and Shadow, it's water under the bridge between them.
Rouge asked about names, so Amy's thinking of keeping the litter. If that's the case, then she'll have to tell everyone eventually. He can't let her know he knows. She hadn't told them for good reasons; she might change her mind about having them, or she might miscarry and can't say anything too soon. He wasn't even supposed to hear this private conversation.
Has she been to a doctor yet? She said it's still very early. She might’ve bumped into Shadow on her trip and they…got busy. In a hotel. Or the woods. Or—okay, doesn't matter where they did it! They did it, she conceived, and she moved from one place to another on her travels. She might’ve not had the chance to see a regular OB/GYN.
What if… What if she's scared to tell her friends? Scared what they'd think of her, or worried they might turn on Shadow? That thought makes him deflate. They've all shown they've been good friends… haven't they? She'd know they'd support her and whatever decision she goes with.
She'd…she'd always wanted to be a mom. For years, he hadn't shown her any indication that he would be on board with that. Had that been the nail in the coffin for why she'd been convinced he didn't want her in that way?
…Shit. He'd messed up so badly.
No matter. What's done is done. All he can do now is help her out. Rouge was right; Amy's got her friends to support her when she’s ready. She doesn't need to be alone trying to raise a litter of five hoglets. With a bioengineered dad like Shadow, who knows how they'll turn out, what specific accommodations they'll need.
And even if Shadow might be crap at relationships, he's not cruel enough to abandon Amy with the kids. (If not, Sonic would beat it in his head to take some gods’ damn responsibility. Unless Amy's an amoeba or whiptail lizard or whatever else figured out asexual reproduction, it takes two to tango.) There was no hostility between Shadow and Amy tonight, so they must've worked out a custody/visitation arrangement. Sonic's going to rub it in Shadow's face when the kids end up liking their mom’s fun blue friend more than their broody bio-dad. I'm picking up what you're putting down, Shadow!
Amy’s pregnant. The thought rolls in his head like an incessant red alert. She’s pregnant. He thought she was just hungry from her hibernation with how she immediately went for the pizza and tacos. She was pregnant-hungry! Did she hibernate while pregnant? He’s sure she must’ve verified if it’s safe to do that beforehand.
He recalls how teary-eyed she’d been on the video call they had a week ago. She’d been crying… And yet, she’d managed to stay chipper so he wouldn’t worry about her. She must’ve been so tired. Her needing to go into hibernation makes sense now. She’d been physically and emotionally exhausted. That might’ve made her hungrier, too! He would’ve ran out and gotten another pizza box if he’d known she was starving tonight!
The conversation beyond the door drifts to other things, laughter, Amy mentioning all the wonderful people she’s met, all the pretty places she's seen. Sonic places the empty pizza boxes standing up against the wall by the doorframe and backs away.
There’s an uncomfortably empty feeling in his chest, hearing Amy laugh so carefree, the sound a pleasant jingle.
She’ll be a good mom. Her kids are not his kids, but at least he’ll get to be there for them. He’ll put his grievances aside for what matters right now.
TBC
Notes:
-Before anyone makes any assumptions, this is not an anti-shadamy fic or a love triangle! (saying this as a sonshadamy shipper.) Wanted to make that clear from the get-go. Everything in the tags is what you get.
-IUDs have medical uses other than as birth control.
-I like to make references to other Sonic universes from time to time, therefore: La Última Pasión.
-Hehe he thinks she's having a litter of five... I need to write a fic of them having a litter of five lmao
Chapter Text
When everyone’s ready to part ways for the night, they’re all yawning with wide open jaws, and rubbing at sleepy, dry eyes. Rouge is the only one still wide awake when she flies off, seeing as she typically works at night and sleeps through most mornings.
“Thank you for tonight, everyone,” Cream says, cradling a drowsy-eyed Cheese. “I had so much fun.” She exchanges side hugs with Amy who’s mindful of the Chao in Cream’s arm. “It’s been nice seeing everyone together again.”
Sonic smiles, placing a comforting paw atop Cream’s head. “There’s plenty more parties to have, just you wait and see. You better get home now, kiddo, before your mom gets worried and starts calling.”
Shadow pulled a Chaos Emerald out of his quills. It's always funny how Eggman huffed about how it should be scientifically impossible for them to just stuff things in their pelts.
Cream tells Shadow, “And thank you for helping me get home, Shadow.”
Sonic thinks ‘Oh, he'd better.’ As much as he respects Shadow for handling his separation from Amy in a respectful way, he's still on Sonic's shit-list for not keeping his dick to himself.
Shadow's ear twitches and twists in Sonic’s direction. He stares at Sonic with a lifted brow, confused and questioning.
Oh. Sonic might’ve murmured his thoughts. The rest all look too sleepy to have caught that, thank Chaos.
Knuckles yawns and lifts a paw in a gesture of farewell. “I better get back to my island. Tails, you might giving me a lift?”
“Oh, it's okay, I don't mind,” Tails says. “I'll check where Angel Island is now, but it shouldn't be too long of a ride from here.”
Sonic’s only half listening, partly paying attention to Amy happily bidding them goodbye and beginning to walk out. He says a quick “Be back in a second!” at Tails and runs off to catch up to Amy, stopping in front of her on the curving cobblestone path leading away from Tails’ House.
“Care to ride the Sonic Express one more time?” he offers. For a millisecond, he catches the accidental sexual innuendo in what just came out of his mouth. He shrugs it off, hoping to Gaia Amy's too sweet to jump to that conclusion. He's keenly aware she's sexually experienced while he's not.
She doesn't seem to notice his slip up; she looks surprised but pleasantly happy. “Really?” she teases. “Quit the gentleman tonight, aren't you?”
“I'm not hearing a ‘no’.”
She giggles. “Of course. Who am I to refuse a ride home?”
“Great!” He suddenly yells in the direction of the house's ajar front door, “Hey, I'm taking Amy home!” They briefly hear Tails yelling back ‘Okay!’
Sonic puts an arm behind Amy. “Can I pick you up?” He hadn't asked the first time he'd done so when picking her up from the coast. He hadn't known she's pregnant. Sure, Mobians are compact creatures and their fetuses could handle most kinds of violent jostling around, but he'd gone super speed and he's not sure any studies have been done on how much speed could jelly bean-sized fetuses withstand.
At least, he assumes they're that small… or are they smaller than that, right now?
Even though he knows Amy would've surely made up some false excuse to make him slow down if she'd felt he'd been going too fast for her liking, he feels like a monster now for his earlier carelessness now that he knows Amy is planning to keep the litter.
Still smiling, she lifts a curious brow at him. “Since when do you ask to carry me?”
He shrugs like it's no big deal. “Just making sure. Been a long few months for ya.” And the next few ones would be longer if she's indeed going through with this. “Figured you'd be tired.” He stops himself from blurting out, ‘Not that you look tired or anything’. She does look tired. Yes, they had a party, it's close to midnight, and she ate so much, but she's pregnant too, so she must be feeling beyond exhausted.
She looks at him for a few seconds in silence, still smiling but obviously a little confused. Sonic sweats, bracing himself, ready to literally bite his tongue to not give himself away. He knows what she's hiding and she shouldn’t know that.
She must find his gesture too kind, because she relents. “Alright. You win. I won't ask.”
He breathes a sigh in relief, restraining himself from throwing a celebratory fist in the air. Picking her up, he tries not to jostle her too much, taking her back to her rural cottage-style house. The run takes a few minutes longer than usual, but he’d rather be gentle this time around.
“Thanks, Sonic,” she says as he puts her down.
“It's no problem.” He shoots her finger guns. “If you need anything, you know who to call.”
She lightly chuckles. “Of course.”
His face softens. “Seriously, though. If you need help with anything, or just wanna talk, I’ve got your back.”
She looks at him for a moment, her expression full of kindness and gratitude, with a hint of confusion. “I know. I appreciate that.” She pauses, contemplating, before asking. “Did something happen, Sonic? You sound… worried?”
Sonic sputters, tries to cover it with a chuckle. Badly. “What, who, me? Worried? What for?” I thought we had a thing going but turns out you thought we were just playing around. Now you're pregnant with five because Faker got it in his head he's some hotshot who can just dump you like that, and I'm expected to not lose my mind over this— “Nothing happened.” He places his paw on the crown of her head, her ears flattening. “Just making sure you remember you've got friends who'll drop everything to come help you.”
She stares at him in stunned silence, more perplexed than ever. “Sonic?”
“Get some shut-eye. Call if you need anything,” he tells her, backing away. “G'night!” with a farewell salute, he dashes off, half relieved he'd gotten that out of his system, half panicking he might’ve said too much and now she might be onto him.
At least he got his point across. That’s something.
***
The next morning, Amy's focus is in a haze. She'd gone out grocery shopping and had stared at the carton of eggs in her paw for a bit too long. The fifteen-minute trip to the grocery store had taken thirty, all because she kept stopping and wondering what was up with Sonic last night.
She's tempted to call Tails, ask if he's noticed anything… weird about his brother lately. Maybe Sonic really had missed them that much? But he wasn't all over, say, Knuckles. She's woken up to a text from Sonic asking if she needs him to pick anything up for her from the pharmacy or library. He's hinting at something . What that is, she can't decipher.
She's used to being very blunt about what she wants. It's how she thought communication went. But she'd learned being blunt is too much and might come off rude at times. She's learned to contain it for the most part. But now she's in a situation where either she might’ve given off the wrong impression to Sonic about…something, or he'd misread something she'd said, and now he’s being discreet, thinking she’s in the loop when she isn’t.
Or maybe she's overthinking it all and he's just being extra nice to her lately.
Sighing, she goes through self-checkout, gets home and restocks her fridge; it'd been mostly empty since she'd emptied out all the perishables before her trip. She's been eating out for most of the past few months during her travels, so having a simple homemade breakfast feels right.
Her communicator chimes underneath the wrist of her glove. She pauses dumping fruits into a blender to check. The screen shows a partial text message from an unknown number that reads: [Hi Amy doctor says my spawns might all be girls…] .
Perking up, Amy realizing it must be Scraps, she puts the lid on the blender for safety and opens the message on her wrist communicator to see the rest of the message:
[...its all we can see anyway. All or most of them. One of them ain't a racoon kit. Figured I'd tell ya if I makes it easier picking names for them. I don't really mind cause they'll be placeholder names for their hospital system stuff until they grow up abd figure out what they wanna change their names to]
[Oh and happy jetlag lol]
“Aww,” Amy coos, a paw on her cheek. She'd always wanted to be a mom herself. That's something she's never grown out of.
It's a bit embarrassing to talk about this sort of thing with her friends. And, admittedly, she worries if they'll view her like the way they had years ago. She'd been too blunt, too honest, too straightforward. The boys, and older girls like Rouge, thought she was too childish.
At least Tails, who's younger than her, was doing ‘big boy’ things the boys thought were cool. But her? Her hobbies haven't been to their liking. Separating her more ‘girly’ hobbies from her ‘adventurous’ ones had coincidentally been around the same time everyone began to tolerate her and hang out with her. She's not sure if that was just a coincidence or not, because the boys did join her tea parties on rare occasions, so maybe they thought she was cool enough to hang out with at some point.
Still, she can't help how that's shaped her perspective on how her interests are viewed by others. Her friends have grown up to be good people. At times, they seem even apologetic to how they'd treated her as children. She can't fault them too badly for being kids with a lot of baggage. She's still guarded about admitting she still wants to be a mom whilst still fighting Eggman.
As much as she loves Sonic, it's not guaranteed he'd want to raise kids with her. He's raised Tails, but more as an older brother than a parent. He loves kids, plays with them, babysits, but she just can't predict if he'd want any of his own, or want any with her at any point.
What the two of them have got right now is fine as is. He doesn't need to be her romantic partner. She's content with having him in her life just the way he is. She can have kids; it doesn't need to be with him, though she's not sure if that'll cause a shift in dynamic between her, him, and their friends. It’s unclear how everyone will take it. Not after she'd worked so hard to be taken seriously. She doesn't want them to assume she's carelessly just jumping the gun on this, that she somehow must be trading her love for action for this. (A ridiculous thought; they're not that shallow.)
…She's not even sure she's close to being ready to be a mom. Vanilla had been slightly younger than her when she'd had Cream, but while Cream turned out beautifully, she’d been born a singleton, not part of a litter. Unusual (especially for a rabbit), but preferred nowadays. It's not uncommon for families with few resources and little support to pick a few out of a large litter and surrender or abandon the rest because they can't handle a full litter.
Amy had been born around autumn, one of the worst times for hoglets in rural areas to be born in. If she'd been part of a litter, it's unlikely they wouldn't have frozen or starved during hibernation without a guardian. It's easier on her heart to believe she's a singleton, born at the wrong time, assumed she wouldn't make it, left behind, and actually made it to adulthood on her own. A surviving autumn orphan.
She could adopt autumn orphans. There's always plenty of those in every orphanage she's volunteered at.
She could do that.
Opening her communicator, she texts Rouge:
[They're all girls]
[Or most of them. She said it's hard to see with five in there. I'll look at flower names. Can't go wrong with those]
It's just placeholder names for the hospital until the kids are old enough to have names that actually match them.
She sends the message, looks up at the name she's sent the text to.
That's not Rouge. Oh. Oh, well, it’s not a big deal.
Pressing down for two seconds to delete the texts, she sends a quick apology and brief explanation, before she correctly sends the right text to Rouge.
If Sonic saw it, he'd probably shrug it off. It’s just girl-talk. He'd sent her more embarrassing things anyway.
***
The polecat librarian startled when someone loudly dumped them on the counter. She eyes the tower of hardcover health books that could do well as throwing bricks for a hypothetical future second zombot apocalypse.
She veers back in surprise when Sonic emerges from behind the stack, propping a lazy elbow on the counter.
“Hi,” he greets casually. “I'd like to borrow these. I'm a fast reader; shouldn't take me too long to go over them. Thanks. Say, got anything on, er…” He scratches his temple, thinking, “community child support? Not ‘child support’ child support,” he lowers his voice, murmuring to himself, “‘less the birth certificate-owning bastard thinks he's gotta pay in cash like a human and not in diapers like a normal person.”
“...Sir? Or… Ma'am?” The librarian stammers, nervously sweating.
“Hm?” Sonic snaps out of it. “Oh. Just ‘Sonic’ is fine. ‘Sir’ feels too formal. Ain't my style.” Not the first time he's encountered people making that blunder. Even people who know him as Sonic the Hedgehog from the news sometimes don't know how to refer to him. Everyone probably thinks he's either got some chronic skin issue or he's trans. “Anyway, what I mean is… friends helping raise kids. Like…I mean, I guess that's what I did with Tails?” He's back to murmuring to himself. “Shouldn't be that different, right? I guess we can wing it like we always do with everything else?”
The polecat clears her throat awkwardly, reading the titles on the book spines: ‘Mobian Hedgehog Pregnancy for Dumbass Dads.’ ‘Dude, Her Water Broke, Do I Call the Plumber?’ ‘Holy Shit, I made a Baby. I Can Do That?’ ‘The Guide Book You Wish Your Parents Read Before They Had You.’
The polecat hums in interest. “Expecting?” She hesitantly asks, scanning the books’ codes one by one.
Sonic coolly shakes his head, wearing a friendly smile. “Naaah, just getting myself prepared for anything. You never know.”
“I see.” The polecat's tone is unconvincing, obviously very interested but restraining herself from blurting out insensitive questions that surely aren't any of her business. She tries a more subtle advice method. “If you're interested, I can have books on, er, seahorse delivery, was it? It's what my friend called it. I can have them reserved for you under a pseudonym, if you want.”
Sonic tilts his head quizzically, one ear twitching. “Seahorse de… sorry, I'm not following. I’m not a seahorse, last I checked.”
“Oh, did I misremember the name?” She politely put a paw over her lips, as if that can take back what's already left her mouth. “My friend. He delivered at his and his husband's home with the help of a midwife. He wasn't sure how the hospital would treat him, given…” She clears her throat. “Anyway, he's a leopard, but told me men who… carry… are called seahorses.”
At the blank, almost haunting look on Sonic's face, the polecat determines she's screwed up and fumbles for whatever form of band aid she can put over this damaged social interaction. She tries, “I didn't ask for specifics, of course—it wasn't my place to do that. He'd mentioned reading helpful books on seahorse delivery— if they're called that, I mean. I can get in touch with him and ask for advice for you, if you'd like.”
Sonic doesn't blink for an uncomfortably long time. When he finally comes to, he blatantly says, “I'm not pregnant.” His voice is monotone, like he'd just understood what she was on about and his body hasn't yet decided on how to feel about this.
“Of course not,” she smiles sympathetically, paws on the counter, intertwining her fingers. “It’s why you can reserve books anonymously.”
“Seriously, I’m not. The kids aren't even mine. She—” He pauses, realizing that’s not information he should be sharing. “They’re… You know what? No thanks, I’m good.” He gestures at the stack of books with a thumb. “Can I just check these out?”
The polecat blinks at the disjointed, painfully awkward interaction. “Of course, yes.”
He asks for a taut bag to put them in. He can’t run with all these in his paws, not just because he risks a book corner falling and jabbing him in his eyes, but also because the misunderstanding with the librarian’s made him realize Sonic the Hedgehog running around town with an armful of pregnancy and parenting books might give off the wrong impression.
It’s also convenient to have them hidden in a bag when he shares a home with his genius little brother. Sonic gets books all the time, so Tails doesn’t suspect a thing when Sonic comes home with a bag from the library. He takes the dust jackets off, replaces them with ones from the classic books he owns. He settles on the couch to read. He could technically speed read, but the more medical books have too many medical mumbo jumbo that he needs to read the tiny little notes at the bottom explaining what they mean.
Maybe he shouldn’t have started with the medical ones; the more he reads about complications, the more he starts over analyzing everything from the other night. She’d had soda. Was that okay? It doesn’t say she shouldn’t. She didn’t accidentally sip out of Rouge’s liquor during their movie night or video game season, did she?
Okay, lamenting on the what-ifs isn’t going to get him anywhere. He speed-reads forward to a section that’s actually helpful. Expecting hedgehog mothers tend to go on cleaning sprees and impulsive redecorating and remodeling decisions as a way to ‘clean the nest’, make the space feel more comforting and safer. he’ll check in, see if she’s planning to go do any shopping or if she’s planning to move things around at her house. She could arm wrestle with Knuckles no problem, but there’s a nagging instinct at the back of Sonic’s mind that won’t settle unless he knows she’s taken care of.
There’s a section in the book about the mother’s partner feeling an urge to be of assistance, worrying about feeding her, if her home, her nest, is a safe environment, being on constant alert that can sometimes come off as smothering. The patterns are eerily similar to the panic he’s going through.
Fuck, he’s actually doing it. He’s not Amy’s partner (the disappointing reminder is a mark on his poor courting skills) and neither her hoglets’ father, but dammit, he can’t help it. The guy who’s supposed to be running around like a headless chicken over Amy’s wellbeing isn’t, and now Sonic has to fill the role that the bastard had left unoccupied.
Sonic’s wristwatch beeps with a new message. His eyes are still glued to the book even as he lifts his wrist, taking a few seconds to read the page fully before checking his communicator.
A pop-up message from Amy. The clipped message reads: [they're all girls…] .
His brain bluescreens for a few seconds, letting the open book slip out of his grasp. It plops over his belly. He knocks it over in his sudden haste sitting up, his paw opening the message only to not find the message. He sees the three dots on the bottom indicating Amy is typing something out.
The text she sends him just reads: [sorry! that was for someone else] .
She’d deleted the message he’d read on his screen. He can’t have hallucinated that. He knew what it said before she quickly got rid of it.
They’re all girls.
She’s having five girls.
“Sonic?” Tails’ voice calls from across the house. The fox immerges from his garage workshop, leather brown apron and work gloves on. “Have you seen my… Sonic?”
Sonic's barely noticed he's even there, too busy pacing the carpet while rubbing his temples, muttering under his breath. “All girls they're all girls they're all girls. Five of them five they're big enough to tell they’re five girls five girls, the bastard's left her with five—” He suddenly laughs in a disturbing maniacal way, his grin looking more like a snarl. His fingers clutch at the air like he's strangling an imaginary person. One of his lower eyelids twitches. He then smacks the heel of his palm against his forehead. “Good job, smart guy, you had your chance and you blew it.”
The wheezy laugh that slips out of him sounds similar to Silver's asthma gasps. Sonic’s fingers slowly claw down his face. “Five girls there’s five girls there’s five of them,” he whispers to himself, like he's just letting reality sink in. His attention suddenly snaps at Tails’ direction, and just stares, not really looking at him or acknowledging the fox's existence, his mind too busy sifting the pros and cons of going after his lookalike. It's like he's looking directly through Tails.
Tails, seeing he'd walked in on something weird, puts his paws up in surrender and slowly backs away. “Sorry. I'll just… check the toolbox again? Yeah.”
Sonic doesn't hear him. He's made up his mind.
That emotionally constipated bastard had dumped Amy with five daughters and thought he could just agree to some half-assed visitation arrangement and everything’s just hunky-dory like nothing happened, like he didn’t break Amy’s heart to pieces after she found out she’s pregnant. He broke up with her and now she’s probably puking her guts out into a bucket in her bedroom and there’s nobody rubbing her back and helping her feel better.
Shadow the freaking Hedgehog dumped her. He dumped her . Just like that. Who the heck dumps Amy?! Well, now he’d better be ready for a fist in the face. Nobody messes with Amy's heart then expects to just walk away like he hadn't made her cry.
TBC
Notes:
-Lol he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit.
-My inbox is still full of comments I haven't gotten to yet I WILL GET TO THEM EVENTUALLY.
Chapter Text
Wrapped in her bathrobe, Rouge sits with one leg propped over the other, her slipper dangling in the air. Her apartment in the nightlight district is bathed in morning light thanks to the floor-to-ceiling window she mostly opens at night but appreciates when it's not too bright of a day.
She's slept in and plans for another two hour afternoon nap. Shadow, being her roommate, doesn't seem to mind her odd hours. She'd thought somebody like him would be a night owl. But no, he wakes up at exactly six in the morning like some sort of school teacher and eats coffee beans right out of a mug with a spoon. Very normal behavior. Then again, who's to say that hadn't been his routine back in space.
Her ear twitches at the sounds of cutlery; Shadow making vegetable chips with soybean dip and chickpea salad because he's sick of Rouge ordering take-out for lunch. That, and he prefers every ingredient exactly measured. He'd had Amy teach him modern kitchen technology. He learned out of spit. A major feat, considering the guy uses a flip phone and still struggles using the laptop. It takes him forever to text because he scrolls through letters with the fucking arrow button to select each letter. It's like living with an old man if that old man hadn't been preserved in a freezer for fifty years.
Her ear twitches again. A familiar sound outside the high-rise. Lightning-quick footsteps. It stops, taps impatiently for the mechanical doors to open, zooms up the stairs, completely ignoring the fine elevators.
The rough knocking on her door doesn't phase her. The timing, however, is suspicious. She hears Shadow turn off the stove.
Getting up, she answers the door while still in her bathrobe.
Sonic stands there with his arms tightly crossed, tapping his foot incessantly like he'd been waiting out here for ages.
“Well, Sonic, what brings you to my humble abode?” Rouge leans an elbow against the doorway. “I'd have made my place more presentable if I'd known we'd have guests over.”
“Is Shadow here?” he bluntly asks. No chit-chat. No pleasantries. Straight to the point.
Rouge instantly drops her playfulness. She studies him for a moment, looking him over for injuries, clues, anything. His quills are stiffer than usual. There's an urgency with how he holds his back straight. Interesting.
“Something happen?” She asks seriously.
“Oh, somethings happened, alright. He here?”
She eyes him suspiciously. Oh. He's pissed, she concludes.
Instead of giving it to him straight, she settles with, “Why? I’m going to need some context here.” Might as well try and get some info out of him. Shadow's her partner-in-crime. She's not going to offer him up, just like that.
Sonic exhales deeply, restraining himself. “You of all people would know why.”
“I most certainly don't.” She thinks back to the night they'd all gathered for a reunion. Ah. They'd teased Sonic about his jealousy regarding Amy and Shadow's cute little get-togethers. With a sense of relief this isn't anything world-ending, she lets herself smirk. “This doesn't have anything to do with Amy, does it?”
The way Sonic's ears fold back in irritation satisfies her. He's too easy to rail up.
“Why, Sonic, I had no clue you'd be this upset,” She feigns sympathy, then waves him off. “But seriously, hon, ease up. This isn't anything new. I assumed everybody knew about Amy and Shadow's little play dates.” She lamely adds, “everybody but you, evidently.”
Sonic's foot stops tapping. He freezes in place, doesn't blink for a few seconds. “Everyone?”
She shrugs. “Just my speculation. Don't take it as fact.”
“...I need to talk to Shadow. I can't believe you're fine with this. Thought Amy's your friend, too, but I guess I gave you too much credit.”
There's an edge to his voice Rouge doesn't appreciate. There's something she's clearly missing; that much, she can tell. Sonic doesn't just barge into her home for something as petty as this. Rouge is not a loyal person in certain circumstances, but to vaguely accuse her of…what exactly is he accusing her of? Something's missing here.
Her ears rotate, hearing Shadow tidy up plates and cutlery. She knows fully well he'd been listening, if that exhausted sigh he let out is anything to go by.
“If you boys plan to start fighting, take it outside,” She warns.
“Fine,” Sonic relents impatiently.
Rouge steps aside to let him in. “He's in the kitchen. Wipe your shoes, I don't know where those have been. Knowing you, everywhere is a correct guess.”
Sonic's unnervingly quiet when he stands in the kitchen doorway. Shadow takes his time putting away the unused ingredients, walking from one end of the kitchen to the other in a blue apron. He washes some fruits in a sift bowl under the running sink, holding everything in place with his gloveless clawed paws. “Spit it out,” Shadow says. “You don’t come here for no reason.”
“You're right. I didn't.” For a laid back kind of guy, Sonic stands rigid. His eyes travel to the food on the table, the most normal lunch in the world. The domesticity of it pisses him off. “I know,” he says, “about you and Amy.”
Turning the tap off, Shadow rises a brow, confused. His red eyes travel behind Sonic, meeting Rouge's.
“Think he means you two's little sleepovers,” Rouge supplements, partly entertained by the drama about to unfold in her kitchen, partly hesitant they really might fight and break everything before they could drag each other outside.
Putting the bowl of fruit aside, he takes out a lime, runs a knife in the middle, cuts it in half. “What about it?” With Shadow's gruff voice, it's easy to accidentally assume his genuine puzzlement is aggressive confrontation. He's not particularly good at social situations. Especially not with Sonic who often pushes the right buttons to jump-start Shadow's temper.
“What about it?!” Sonic repeats in an offended, scandalized tone, like he can't believe how indifferent Shadow's being. He probably shouldn’t start shit with Shadow when the guy’s holding a knife, but screw it. “Is this all she is to you? A sleepover? Then you bail on her, just like that?”
It's unnerving for Rouge and Shadow to see him like this.
Shadow pauses cutting another lime. He turns to him and stares, unblinking. The effort of trying to connect the dots in this nonlinear conversation has managed to twist his brain in knots. “Rose called them sleepovers,” he clarifies, still not sure what he's being accused of or why it'd send Sonic to his apartment, looking ready to deck him. “And she allowed me to leave afterward.”
“Allowed you to—” Sonic strangles the air in Shadow's direction, the latter hedgehog looking like he's losing patience with Sonic by the second. “Dude, of course she allowed you to leave! You're just not supposed to walk out!” He jabs an accusing finger into Shadow's white chest fluff.
Now actually angry, Shadow lets go of the sliced limes and smacks Sonic’s paw away, snarling. “It's too early for you to be a pain in my ass.” He points the knife in Sonic’s direction. “And quit talking like I can read your mind. Out with it. If Rose is your concern, know she would’ve informed me if I'd done something to upset her.”
“That's just it! She can't tell you! She can't force you not to leave! That's not how this works!” Sonic rubs both sides of his temples, looking ready to mentally crack. “I know you suck at reading a room, but did you ever think what she must've felt every time you left? Do you care about her at all? I don't know what you two agreed on, but you left her with a huge responsibility on your last ‘sleepover’ or whatever you wanna call it, and you don't expect to pick up what you dropped off? Do you have any idea what she must be going through right now?”
The anger in Shadow's face drops instantly. Because the only conclusion that fits Sonic's questions feel like something Sonic would know fuck all about. “Agreed on? She… are we still discussing Amy Rose?”
“Yes!” Then, Sonic freezes. “Wait… who else do you have…sleepovers with?” He looks mildly horrified.
“No one else,” Shadow says, mildly offended he'd so readily agree to indulge in this activity with just anybody.
A crispy crunch cuts through the tension. Sonic and Shadow turn to see Rouge sitting on the counter, knees crossed, legs playfully dangling. With a purple chip in paw, she chews, swallows, wipes the corner of her mouth with the back of her paw. “Don't stop on my account, boys. I like a good show.” There’s a glint in her eyes like she's figured out something that they hadn't.
Sighing exasperatedly, Shadow squeezes lemon juice into a small bowl, catching the seeds with a sifter spoon. He then grabs the strawberries and slices off the green tops. “Rose and I have discussions frequently,” Shadow tells him. “It gets intense at times, but it's Rose. It's how she is. We part amicably. And she's never indicated she's upset at anything every night I leave. She's the one who invites me, so if you have grievances, take it up with her.” He throws the decapitated strawberries and the lime juice into the blender. “As for our last meeting, if she's hung up on my criticisms of Gabrielle's abuela, I stand by my statements, and Rose and I have discussed it.”
Sonic blinks stupidly, all the boiling rage against Amy's ex deflating with the grace of a farting helium balloon. “Gabrielle's… abuela?”
“Yes. Her upbringing, while valid, does not absolve her of how she treated her granddaughter. And while the storyline's past time setting should be taken into account, Rose and I differ on the weight of responsibility in the grandmother's actions.” Seeing the blank look on Sonic's face, Shadow gestures at him lamely with the knife. “I doubt Rose and I's literary analysis of La Última Pasión is what brought you here, hedgehog. Unless you're intelligent enough to just tell me why you're here, you're losing both our time on your guessing games.”
Rouge's muffled laugh and the television still playing are the only sounds breaking the painfully awkward silence. Unable to control herself, Rouge starts coughing, choking on a bit of beetroot chip. She reaches for a glass, fills it up in the sink behind her, gulps it down. The second she gasps for breath, she covers her mouth with the back of her manicured paws, her shoulders shaking.
“Oh, this is gorgeous,” She manages to say. “If you hadn't been so rude earlier at the door, I'd feel bad for you, Blue.”
Sonic looks between Rouge snickering at him and Shadow shaking his head at him in disapproval. Like Sonic's been the naughty one and not Shadow who knocked up Sonic’s best friend, or Rouge who's somehow taken Shadow's on the matter. Poor Amy's getting double-crossed left and right.
Sonic rakes his fingers down his face, feeling his claws under his gloves lightly scratch through. “I'm not talking about your soap opera! It's the— it's—” Shadow and Amy doing the do. “Don't make me say it, man, you know what I mean.”
For some reason, Sonic’s reluctance to say it makes Rouge turn away and wheeze, her shoulders quivering uncontrollably.
Shadow puts the knife on the board and pinches his muzzle between his fingers. “Rouge, tell me what he's blabbering about before I kick him out through your window. My food's gotten cold.”
Composing herself, Rouge says, “If I can take a wild guess, I think our dear Sonic the Hedgehog thinks you and Amy are doing much more than watching your shows.”
“Rouge.”
“Poor dear thinks you're sleeping with her. Isn't that right, Sonic?”
Sonic winces hard. Just hearing about Amy's sex life out loud feels like he's disrespecting her.
Shadow lifts a questioning brow. “And… what's the issue with sleeping with her? Her couch is of decent enough quality.”
Sonic stares at him, withholding the urge to punch him in the jaw for being so nonchalant about screwing around with Amy. On the couch. It better not be the couch Sonic's thinking of; he'd sat on that thing plenty of times! Sonic’s going to take a five-hour shower in a waterfall after this revelation.
Seeing the absolute torture Sonic's in, Rouge clarifies, “He means it sexually, Shadow.”
Shadow glares at her incredulously, one brow raised, mouth open just enough for the tip of a fang to peak out. When Rouge doesn't reveal she's only messing with him, Shadow's shock turns to anger.
He turns to Sonic, snarling, “What? How in Chaos’ sake did come to that conclusion?”
Blue quills puffing up, Sonic hisses through gritting teeth, “You tell me, Mr. One Minute Man.” His snarl twists into a scary grin. “That not ringing any bells for ya?”
Sensing increasing levels of hostility, Shadow gets right up in his face, muzzles inches away. He growls, “I don't have a clue what you're on about. I suggest you stop here and go look for wherever you’ve dropped your brain.”
Sonic's creepy grin doesn't waver. “Really? You have no idea? I find that hard to believe, given the evidence you left behind.”
“What are you—”
Rouge breaks their intense stare by sticking a chopping board in-between their faces. “Alright, I think that's enough entertainment for now. As fun as this is, I'd like to keep my cutlery intact.” She looks over at Sonic, a suspicious look in her eyes. “Mr. One Minute Man, huh? Why, oh why, does that sound familiar.” She isn't asking. She knows.
Sonic stiffens.
That's right; Rouge had been the one Amy had confided in about her dilemma.
However, Rouge doesn't look smug about it. Just curious. “Did Amy talk to you, or did you eavesdrop?” she asks. No teasing. Just a genuine investigation.
Sonic huffs, crossing his arms and pouting. “Yes, fine, I might’ve listened in. By accident. Haven't told anyone, in case you're wondering.”
Her ears rotate as she squints at him suspiciously. “And what exactly did you hear?”
Sonic snorts. “Enough to know I'm not supposed to go telling people. That, and your roomie here can't keep his dick in a condom.”
Her eyes go wide in surprise. She tries to chuckle. It comes out awkward. “You're joking… right?” Her little chuckle dies pathetically, grimacing. “Oh, you're serious.”
Now that Sonic's thinking about it, he doesn't recall Amy telling her the hoglets were Shadow's. She'd deliberately used the alias ‘Mr. One Minute Man’. Was it really possible Rouge had no idea the guy was Shadow?
Rouge didn't know?! Holy crap…
He feels bad now for how rude he's been. “Sorry you had to find out this way, Rouge. Even I couldn’t believe Shadow could sink this low.”
“Sonic.” She breathes deeply. She doesn't react when Shadow grabs the offending board and puts it away, still on edge. She addresses Sonic. “Guess our little teasing game sprouted roots too deep in your head there. You can relax. Whatever you heard, it’s about Amy’s friend. I can tell you Amy's relationship with Shadow isn’t sexual. Frankly, if she is or isn't sexually active elsewhere, that's nobody's business but hers.”
It's not that! Sonic wants to yell. To hell if she's dated Shadow. Shadow had knocked her up and now she's going to have five daughters to feed while Shadow here gets to be that dad who shows up once a week.
“Amy can date whoever she wants,” Sonic emphasizes. It sucks he's not involved with her, but that ship's already sailed, and he's just got this disrespectful asshole of a hedgehog to deal with. “But Amy needs us on her side and I'm not gonna pretend this guy didn't dump his responsibilities on her just like that. Shadow's your pal, I get it, but you can call out your friends for being jerks.”
Rouge facepalms. “Sonic, Amy was talking about—”
“A ‘friend’, yeah. I get it.” Sonic air-quotes ‘friend’.
Shadow slams the freezer door too hard, then violently manhandles an ice cube tray over an open blender, all while barking, “I'm not having a sexual relationship with Rose—get it through your thick skull.” In his anger, he tosses the empty tray into the sink too roughly. He reaches for Sonic, who, for a split second, looks ready for battle, only for Shadow to just roughly drag him out of the way to reach for the blender’s top sitting on the counter’s edge. “Will you move? Better yet, get out of the kitchen.”
The argument has gone from an almost all-out battle in the small apartment kitchen, to some weird, disjointed conversation made up mostly of aggressive yelling that gets drowned out by the blender’s loud buzzing. Rouge won't be surprised if the neighbors file a complaint. Her poor bat ears are being tortured right now.
As soon as the blender is stopped, she picks up on their…strange bickering.
“—so you admit it, Shadow!”
“I said no such thing! Until you stop being afraid of pursuing her yourself, don’t dump your insecurities onto me. My relationship with her is none of your business—get your paws off my food.”
“Why do these chips look like the ones Amy made before? She teach you how to make ‘em or something?”
“As a matter of fact, she did. And it’s none of your business.”
“You made it my business when you got her pregnant! You’re sittin’ here making snacks—that she taught you to make—like you just didn’t leave her to deal with everything all by herself. As soon as she’s got kids on the way, you bailed on her!”
“I—” The steam engine powering Shadow’s rage screeches to a halt. He stands there, speechless, squinting at Sonic like maybe if he looks at him hard enough, he could figure out if this moment right now is all just an annoying dream. “...what?”
Rouge facepalms hard, shaking her head.
Sonic props his knuckles on his hips, completely through with this guy. “Yeah. I know about that. I shouldn’t have overheard it, but it’s too late now. I know. I’m not tellin’ people, but just know I didn’t think you’d be the kind of guy to throw Amy under the bus like this. I don’t know what custody agreement you two settled on, but just so you know, what you did to her? That’s not cool.”
“Sonic,” Rouge groans, rubbing her temples. “Stop.”
Shadow seems to deflate more and more by the second, the shock in his face evident. “She's… pregnant?”
“Yes!” Sonic says incredulously. “Don’t act like you don’t know.” He recalls Amy’s words when asked about Mr. One Minute Man: Coward showed his true colors as soon as he heard he was going to be a dad. “I know what I heard. She told you she was pregnant and you chickened out!”
Sonic’s so sure. He’s been absolutely, one hundred percent sure that’s how it happened. Amy revealed her pregnancy, Shadow conveniently decided he wanted out, and now Amy’s in a tough spot where she’s thinking of keeping the litter but is definitely too scared to ask for support yet.
But he’s looking Shadow dead in the eye, and those shrunken red pupils look like they’d seen a ghost.
And that’s all it takes to plant a seed of doubt in Sonic’s confidence. “You do know… right?” There’s… there’s no way Amy would lie about this. She’s too kind, and too smart to try something like this. Shadow still looks shell shocked. “Shadow?
“First I hear of this, and I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me,” Shadow admits, all the adrenaline sapped right out of him. “Did she tell you this?”
“Uh.” Suddenly feeling embarrassed, Sonic admits, “No, I, uh, overheard her and Rouge talking the other night. You know, back at Tails’ place? Out on the porch. It was an accident but, uh, yeah.” Crap. Shadow really didn’t know. Did Sonic fuck up this already fucked up fuck up? He might’ve.
Shadow’s eyes turn to Rouge, waiting for an explanation.
Rouge forms a T symbol with her paws. “Okay, stop. Both of you, stop.” When she’s sure the two hedgehogs aren’t going to say any more stupid things in the next four seconds, she directs her attention at Sonic. “Okay. What exactly did you hear? Repeat every word.”
Now with his confidence in the gutter, Sonic swallows thickly and recounts the conversation to the best of his ability. He remembers. He’d been too haunted by each word to forget. The longer Shadow stays deadly silent, hardly blinking, the less Sonic believes Shadow really did know.
Shadow actually sits down, arms crossed, and looks down, clearly thinking, and maybe trying to recall things he’d missed from his last interactions with Amy that night.
“She’d hid it well,” Shadow states, both impressed and perturbed.
“Yeah,” Sonic says, “I didn’t suspect anything until I heard what I heard.” He looks Shadow over, noting how defeated he looks. “So… you and her…?”
“Not sexually or romantically involved, no.”
“...But…?”
Sighing, Shadow murmurs, “Friends with common interests.”
Oh, Sonic thinks. The baking. The soap operas. Pop music concerts.
…Which means Sonic might’ve accidentally found out without her knowledge, and had revealed her pregnancy—a pregnancy caused by an ex-partner who’d bailed on her—to Shadow.
Groaning loudly, Sonic joins Shadow at the table and buried his face in his paws. “I screwed up.”
“You did.” Shadow nods. “How did you even come to conclude it was me who’d done it to her?”
Sonic, still recovering from the whiplash of going from being murderous to confused to offended to taken aback, sputters, “Wha— you— Shadow, not everybody means ‘sleepovers’ like you mean ‘sleepovers’!”
“For the last time, it's how Rose refers to them! And I'm fully aware what ‘sleepovers’ are. It's not up to me to figure out how people like you twist it into.”
“Boys, she’s not pregnant. Do I really need to call Amy to sort this mess out?” Rouge threatens. “Because you know I will. I’ve got nothing to lose. Meanwhile, Sonic over here stands to lose his head from a hammer.”
Sonic cringes. “Okay, yes, I jumped to conclusions! Didn’t mean to come at you, Shadow. It’s just—the way the bastard dumped her with five kids and you and her and… That’s… yeah, that’s my bad, that’s on me.”
Shadow gives him one firm nod. Forgiveness. “What I do with Rose isn’t much of a secret. I doubt anyone thinks of us as anything more than friends, just as everyone knows you have a soft spot for Rose.” When Sonic doesn’t take to his teasing, Shadow seems mildly impressed. “Don’t tell me this is what it took for you to grow a spine.”
Sighing, Sonic props his cheek over his fist. “Look, man, can you just help me out here? Here I thought I was going after one ex, and now you’re telling me it’s not you and the real ex is who knows where.”
He doesn't feel like strangling Shadow anymore even though Shadow and Amy probably cuddle on the couch every weekend to watch their show. (Before she'd gone off on her trip, anyway.) Sonic had been ready to unleash havoc on the guy, but after finding out Shadow hasn't impregnated her nor had he been some lousy ex boyfriend who’d dumped her, Sonic just feels stupid now.
Shadow's been good to her, then. If he's this invested in Amy's sudden mysterious pregnancy, they might as well team up, find out who really did this to her.
“She’s not pregnant,” Rouge repeats in a blunt tone. She's now just… exhausted and mildly impressed this is still going. “I feel like a broken record, at this point.”
“Of course, you’d say that,” Sonic says. “If she’d come to me about it and told me to keep it between me and her, that’s what I’d do!”
“You think this is some sort of friend code thing?” asks Rouge, intrigued.
“She rejected your drink, Rouge!” Sonic blurts out.
Shadow hums in acknowledgement. "That's true."
“Because she didn’t feel like getting drunk. I can’t believe you’re buying this too, Shadow,” Rouge says, exasperated.
Shadow drums his fingers over his arm, thinking. “She’d been unusually famished that night of the reunion.”
Sonic snapped his finger, glad to have someone on his side. “Exactly! And! When people go ‘I'm asking for a friend’, newsflash, Rouge, they mean themselves!”
Rouge looks unimpressed. “Really? You think I wouldn't have caught that? I don't know if you've noticed, but here's some words of wisdom: Amy's not exactly a subtle person.”
Shadow cups his chin, thinking. “If it’s true, and some bastard had indeed fled as soon as she’d revealed to him her pregnancy, it’d be reasonable for her to hesitate in reaching out.” Shadow’s lips curl into a subtle snarl, an actual growl rolling in his chest. “A name and a location. That's all I need.”
“Great,” Rouge shakes her head, sighing. “There’s two of them, now. Sure. Might as well watch the train wreck.”
“Don’t lump me in with him,” Shadow says. “I’m on the fence. I’ve been told two different theories here and they’re going in opposite directions. None of us are even supposed to know any of this.” He glares at Sonic. “Either way, we can’t get involved until she lets us in.
“Rouge, did she tell you anything at all?” Sonic asks. “We need a bit more than ‘Mr. One Minute Man’ to start looking for this guy. What he looks like? Where he lives?”
Rouge inspects her claws. “Sorry, Blue, you're not dragging me into this. Be grateful I haven't told Amy what you've been up to. It's not polite to eavesdrop on ladies, you know.”
Sonic feels the cold sweat at the back of his neck. Rouge had blackmail material on him that he handed to her on a silver platter. “I wasn't meaning to listen in! Look, you don't have to tell us what happened, just…this is about Amy. She's in a tough spot, because some guy out there had the nerve to treat her like this. Do you have anything we can work with? Names? Suspects? Anything?”
She shrugs. “Sorry, I can't help you anymore than I already have.” She then smiles temptingly. “Though, I do admit I'm excited to see where you go from here.”
Groaning, Sonic smacks his forehead down against the table, jostling the plates.
Well. That Shadow-is-a-deadbeat-dad was a bust.
No matter. Going after some nameless guy shouldn’t be his top priority right now. Amy needed a shoulder to lean on. He can’t lose his cool here.
TBC
Notes:
-Yes, I'm aware La Última Pasión is a thing in the cinematic universe only. I don't care lol Referencing other universes is fun.
Chapter Text
Amy spends her afternoon dusting her house and vacuuming. If she hadn’t turned off the vacuum when she did, she wouldn’t have heard the doorbell. She’s not expecting guests. Aside from her friends and a handful of people, she hadn’t told many she’d made it home. She’d certainly hadn’t invited anyone over to come visit this afternoon, and the next season of that drama show starts in another two months, so this can’t be Shadow both ringing and knocking. He never knocks.
Sonic does, though. She sees him standing on her welcome when she opens the door.
“Sonic!” she happily exclaims. Her tail wags behind her, a common stim of hers. She’s not sure how well she masks these days. It’s easier to accidentally stop masking around friends as of recently, because they don’t react badly like they used to as kids. Still, she can’t help but feel like her friends will only continue liking her only if she reels it in.
She’s initially delighted Sonic’s here, then confused at his sudden arrival. It’s not unusual for him to make surprise check-ins on his friends, but this feels too sudden, even for him. Something’s off about his smile. Still kind, just less enthusiastic.
“Hey! This a bad time?” Sonic asks sheepishly, seeing the bandana she’s tied around her head to keep her quills out of her face.
“Oh, I was just cleaning up. I’m mostly done.”
“You're renovating?” he asks with a smile, a suspicious hint of anxiety in there Amy thinks she might've imagined. “Need any help?” he excitedly offers.
She gives him a playful, suspicious look. “You want to clean my house?”
She shrugs. “I'm not much of a handyman, not when I live with one, but I can work a vacuum.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her temptingly. “Come on, You know you want me to say ‘yes’. I see the glint in your eyes, I see it.”
She tries not to giggle at his playful antics. “Okay, what are you up to, Mister?”
“I'm not up anywhere.” He feigns innocence, probably knowing he's been caught, and knows by playing around he might be able to entertain her enough to ease up on him.
Truth be told, Amy's a sucker for their little banters. “Sure, you're not,” she sarcastically remarks. “You've got something up your sleeve.”
He puts out a paw and folds out the cuff of his glove, then does the same with the other. “See? All good. Don't mind me, just a guy asking to lend a helping paw.”
“I don’t know. Let’s see...” She counts with her fingers. “First you ask for permission to carry me, then you offer to clean my house.” She props her knuckles on her hip and daringly looks him straight in the eyes, a playful tilt to her head. “You're being oddly sweet.”
He gives her the most dashing smile he can pull. “And if I am, would you still say ‘no’?”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course not.” She assures him in. “I do expect you to tell me what’s going on sooner or later, though.”
“I'll put a pin in that!” He rushes into her house. In a blink, he's pushed her couch to expose the dust bunnies under there, as well as fluffed out the throw pillows and blanket, rearranging them neatly on the couch.
Turning the cordless vacuum on, he sprints with it all through her home, a blue blur of motion, only occasionally slowing down so the wheels on the vacuum don’t go flying off, or so he doesn’t accidentally have her carpet go kidding from the living room to the kitchen.
“Tada!” With jazz hands, he gestures at her vacuum, still in one piece, miraculously. He’d even emptied out the canister. “Anything else I can help around with?” he asks excitedly. “Move your furniture, paint your walls, replace your bed sheets.”
She hadn't been thinking about putting up new wallpaper, but now that he's mentioned it, it does feel like it'd be a nice touch to add. “I mean, I'd wondered about putting up new wallpaper on the wall behind the TV there…”
He zooms to stand next to her, putting his fingers together to form a rectangle that he squints through with one eye like he's taking a picture with a camera. “What color we thinking?”
She cups a paw under her chin. “Something more… neutral. Can't have too strong of a color. That can clash with the pictures on the wall. So a blank pastel might work. Something to go with the brown picture frames and TV stand.”
“You thinking yellow or green?” he guesses like he's reading her mind.
“I'd say a soft green. Almost vintage. Might match the floral on the curtains better, too.”
“Good point. Be back in a bit.”
She doesn't get phased by the wind he kicks up when leaving her house. He's… being odd, that's for sure. He's obviously avoiding telling her why. But this secrecy is kind of fun. And a mischievous part of her wonders how far he'll take it before he fesses up.
It takes Sonic a few minutes to come back, and while he could've slapped all that wallpaper up in seconds, he's considerate enough to go slow to not make a mess of her house or leave air bubbles in the wallpaper she knows would drive her mad. As relieved as she is about his consideration, she can't help but feel weirded out when he warns her, “Might wanna stand back; the adhesive's got that nasty glue smell.”
Sure, hedgehogs have noses that work better than their eyes do, but she's fought in toxic waste and worked in the middle of a forest fire. Wallpaper glue's got nothing on what she's inhaled before.
Her communicator dings on her wrist. Amy reads the ominous text message Rouge sent her: [boy trouble heading your way honey. Can't spoil the surprise but a certain blue hedgehog might come knocking at your door].
Amy raises a brow. So Rouge has some idea what's going on with Sonic. At least Amy now knows it's nothing serious; Rouge would've said something otherwise.
Amy catches Sonic taking a quick glance her way before immediately going back to working on the wallpaper, pretending like he wasn't curious about her texting.
Amy types up a reply: [too late he's already here and he's acting like I'm cooking him twenty chili dogs. He asked to clean my house and now he's remodeling it. Rouge did you tell him something?]. It wouldn't be unusual for Rouge to play mind games. But if that's the case, then she would've started it last night or before that. Sonic’s been all over Amy since the reunion.
Rouge simply texts back: [lol this is turning out better than I thought. Just so we're clear what's gotten into his head I didn't plant it in there. That's all him. My paws are clean. But do let me know how it turns out].
Amy rereads the message. Interesting. Rouge likes to fib, but the mischievous curiosity at the end of her message hints she might have not really been one responsible for whatever's driving Sonic literally up Amy’s wall.
Sonic smooths out the wallpaper strips with a flat tool, then stands by her side as they both inspect his craftsmanship.
“Not bad, right?” he asks.
She nods. “Turned out a lot better than I imagined.” She turns to him, giving him the most grateful, caring look. “Thanks, Sonic. You've been so helpful.”
Blushing, his fur puffs up a bit in bashfulness. He tries recollecting himself, thrusting his chest out proudly and rubbing a finger under his nose. “Don't sweat it; it was nothing.”
She grabs his paw. “I have one more request. Think you can do that for me?” she asks, batting her lashes sweetly.
In his first attempt at answering her, he looks too long at her face and chokes. Coughing and clearing his throat, he stammers. “I– I– Yeah! I'm down! For it, I mean!— I'm down for it– what's up? You probably haven't had lunch yet. I can go get you something.”
She shakes her head, keeping up that sweet smile. “No, don't worry about that.”
“Are you sure? You must be starving. There's the pizza place nearby, and that doughnut store, and I think Dotty's Sweets should still be open. There's a seafood place near—” He cuts off his own rambling. “Wait, no, scratch that one, they don't fully cook— they weren't that good, I mean.”
She catches his slip up but doesn't bring it up. He's spilling and she can't have him shutting up just yet. She continues pretending clueless, gently tugging him toward the couch. “No, it’s okay. I've had enough seafood on the ship, anyway.”
“You did?!” he yelps, a horrified expression on his face that he quickly shakes off. “Oh, yeah! Right. You did say that. What did you, uh, have, exactly…?” He's so fixated on what she's eaten that he doesn't question anything when she guides him to the couch. She gives him a gentle push on the chest and he absentmindedly sits.
Fascinated by his sudden interest in what seafood she shouldn't eat and what she's already had, she feeds his curiosity. “A lot of things. Let's see…” She hums. “Shrimp, salmon, some crab, squid. Lots of other things I can't recall.”
He swallows, nervous. A weak chuckles quivers out of him, his attempt at a smile appearing more wobbly. “Salmon and eh, that's, that's a lot of things, huh?”
“Yeah, I was hungry. Hibernation and all that. Are you okay, Sonic? You look tense.”
“Fine. Cool. Never been better. So, uh, was the salmon all cooked, or…?”
He's really hung up on the salmon for whatever reason, she thinks. He's genuinely concerned if he can't seem to keep up his usual cool demeanor.
She says, “I think so? I ate so fast, I honestly can't remember.”
That answer obviously doesn't ease his anxiety, it seems. “And… you feel fine, right? If you're not, I can drop you off at your doctor's. Don't gotta explain to me why or anything. I just wanna help. As a friend, of course. It's what friends do for each other, no big deal. I won't even say a word to anybody. It's all under lock and key.”
“...I'm not sick, though?” Amy tilts her head in confusion. Rouge could've at least given her a hint at what she was dealing with here. “I don’t need a doctor, Sonic.”
“Right! Not sick!” He gives her two thumbs ups. “That’s great!”
Now she’s paranoid. “Do I… look sick?” she asks genuinely. She doesn’t feel sick.
“No, no, you look good, you look great!” He laughs awkwardly.
As much as she’s entertained by all this, she needs to get to the bottom of this. She suddenly grips him by his shoulders. “Sonic.” Her stern tone startles him into silence. Breathing in slowly, then out, she calms herself, and says in a gentle yet serious tone, “I haven't told you what my request is yet.”
He stares at her, left classless in anticipation. “...I'm all ears. What do you need?”
Okay. She's got his attention. Now she needs to hold it steady and not have him get sidetracked. ADHD medication just doesn't last long enough with this guy’s fast metabolism, apparently. “I just need to ask you a question.”
He nods, looking serious. “You can tell me anything. I won't judge, that’s a promise.” He mimics her careful tone, like he's expecting her to tell him something big .
“Okay.” She tightens her hold on his shoulders. It's just in case he thinks of bolting out the door when confronted, but he might be taking it as a sign of nervousness, because he softly places a paw over hers that's on one of his shoulders. As nice as he's been, there’s clearly something keeping him on edge. Has he slept at all? Something's buzzing around in his head and it's clearly got him all railed up. He's been suspiciously caring. Did he do something that might irritate her? What did he do that he might be trying to butter her up?
“I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me. Okay?” she says.
“Okay,” he sounds so sure of himself.
“Okay? You promise?”
“Yeah.”
She gives him a knowing glare.
He lets out a genuine chuckle. “I promise. Better?”
Closing her eyes, she gives him a firm nod, content. “Much better. And you better not think of running away.”
“Nope! I'm glued right here!” He smirks encouragingly. “Whatever you've got, I can handle it. Lay it on me, I can take it.”
She takes in his bright smile. “Okay.” Releasing his shoulders, she elegantly lops down next to him. “So.”
“On standby, awaiting your message, commander.” He salutes.
She bites down the urge to snicker. Maintaining her composure, she asks, “What did you and Rouge talk about earlier?”
Whatever bravado he's built up evaporates out of him on the spot. “Me and what now?” he blurts out, caught off guard, like she just spoke to him in a language other than Mobian.
“You bumped into Rouge, didn't you?” she asks expectantly.
His pupils shrink in panic. “I… we…”
He clears his throat too loudly. His eyes dart to the communicator on Amy’s wrist, the panic tightening on his face. Oh. Had he been hoping Rouge wouldn't spill?
“She texted me,” Amy affirms, seeing his ears fold back anxiously.
“...What did she tell you?” he whispers.
Amy wonders what he could’ve done to be so afraid. “Not much. Just to watch out for you. Do you know what she means by that?” she asks using a composed tone, one that means she knows he knows something and wants him to come out with it.
He winces, his cover blown. “Crap… Okay, look, Amy. This is not how I wanted this to happen. It was an accident, I guarantee you that. I didn't tell anybody… Okay, scratch that, I might have let it slip around Rouge and Shadow. But!” he exclaims sharply. “Rouge thinks you were talking about somebody else. Either that, or she was bluffing with me to keep it under wraps. I can't tell with her. But I thought Shadow already knew, cause—” He groans and drops his face into his paws. The rest of his words are muffled.
Amy observes the mental breakdown she'd created. She kind of feels bad now. None of what he's saying makes any sense for her to work out what he's referring to. He's giving her puzzle pieces and they're all the same solid color. How's she supposed to put any of this together? “Shadow's what?”
Sonic shamefully grumbles, “I thought he was your ex .”
…Okay, so he's given her an unsolvable puzzle then tossed a whole unrelated watermelon in there, just because.
At her stunned silence, Sonic groans like he's exhausted. “I know, I know—”
“Shadow's… Sonic, that's not…”
“I know.”
“We never even dated.”
“I know.”
“Is this about what Rouge and Knuckles said? Shadow and I aren't like that, Sonic.”
“I know!” He sounds more and more embarrassed. “I’m dying here, Ames.”
“I thought you knew they were joking. Wait!” She realizes it then. All the favors Sonic had been doing for her, the sudden extra care he'd been adding. Is he…? Surely not. She knows the boys and Rouge—heck, even Eggman sometimes—would tease him about being jealous of how much time Shadow spends with her, especially after the concert thing, but for him to actually think she was dating Shadow? While she was actively flirting with Sonic the whole time? “You… Sonic, what made you think Shadow and I were dating?”
Sonic rakes his fingers down his face, miserably stretching down his lower eyelids. “It just happened. I thought you and him were— and then you weren't, and I thought he dumped you. I was gonna go beat him up. Turns out I got the wrong guy.”
She stares at him, her mouth hanging open. She would've found it hilarious if it weren't for the fact he just admitted he'd gone after Shadow to start a fight over a friendly joke. “You…?”
“I screwed up. I know. I'm sorry. I apologized to Shadow, it's all good. We didn’t fight, by the way. Still, it was messed up. I shouldn't have acted without consulting you. That was stupid, I was being stupid. I just…” He runs his paws through his quills in frustration. “I heard what that One Minute guy did to you and I let my anger get the better of me. I didn't wanna tell you I knew cause I didn't wanna take that choice away from you.”
One Minute… guy…? Amy scans her memory, immediately landing on the source. Is he talking about Mr. One Minute Man? How does he know about her friends’ shared ex? She doesn't recall telling him about it. Had she texted him about the girls during her trip but can't remember? And what does Sonic mean what the fossa did to her? None of this is making sense. Sonic heard something, alright, and he no doubt jumbled it all. “Sonic, what are you talking about?”
“Look, forget about that coward.” He adds bitterly, “It's his loss. A guy who jumps ship when he's got a litter on the way ain't worth it. You dodged a bullet. You deserve better, Amy. You really do.” He grabs her paw, surprising her, and holds it tightly. “Just know we've got us, alright? Me and Tails and Knuckles and the whole gang. Shadow offered to go beat the guy up, if you want. I'm sure Knuckles wouldn't mind getting in on that action. But seriously, if you wanna keep the litter, there's no shame in asking your friends for help. I know how much you've wanted to be a mom. If this is what you want to do right now, we've got you covered.”
With every word that leaves his mouth, a puzzle piece rearranges itself. The picture is clear now, and Amy's eyes widen. Mr. One Minute Man. An Ex who ran off. A litter. That's… that's all Scraps’ situation, but Sonic got the elements of the equation wrong.
Rouge couldn’t have told him this, because Sonic had been acting weird just after the reunion. After Amy had casually filled Rouge in on the events of her adventure.
He must’ve heard it. Or rather, he misheard it.
The litter…Oh, Chaos, he thinks she's— “Sonic, I'm not pregnant!” Her face feels hot. This whole time, Sonic had been under the impression she's pregnant. Her memory cuts back to when she accidentally sent him that gender reveal text. She hadn't known she'd unintentionally fed a brewing fire.
He just looks at her sympathetically. “Hey, hey, it's okay. I know you wanted to think it over, and I’m sorry it got out like this, but everything's fine, I promise. If anybody gives you a hard time, they'll have to deal with me. Me and all our pals, cause these little girls don’t need a dad when they’ve got a kickass mom and all her friends.”
“Sonic, I'm really not pregnant!” She’s blushing madly. He’s being so sweet she’d cry, but oh Chaos, this is a mess. “I was talking about a friend I made on my trip!”
“ ‘Friend.’ Right.” He winks. “Got it. I can go with that if you need me to buy you things and anybody asks.”
Amy's beyond mortified. Oh, you're buying baby stuff? Are you expecting? Who, me? No, it's for a friend. Now just lemme go dump these at Amy's. For the friend, of course. Nobody's going to believe that. She can now see why Sonic hadn't believed Rouge.
“Don't. Tell them. That.” She's never sounded so monotone in her life.
“Yeah, I think we can work out another cover story. Don't worry about it, you don't need to tell anyone right now. I can be a buffer if you need some space from everyone. Oh, and I can do your grocery runs! Whatever you're craving, I can get it at your doorstep faster than you can say—what are you doing?”
“Making a call.” Amy taps the screen of her communicator and waits as it rings, whispering under her breath, “Please pick up, please pick up.”
Sonic awkwardly chuckles. “Can I ask who…? Not that it's any of my business, it's not, obviously. Did I come off as smothering? I'm being smothering, aren't I? Crap. The books don't say how to not do that. I didn't leave that thing open in the living room, did I? Eh, Tails was busy with something, I'm sure it's fine. Again, sorry about all this. Been holding it in since last night. And sorry you had to hear about me being… jealous. I promise, it's not in that weird possessive kind of way, it's just that some guy had the nerve to do this to you. Just… I thought you and I had a thing and then it turns out it might've been all in my head but okay, fine, you're happy with someone else, sure. But he dumped you right when you told him you're pregnant, and I got pissed, cause that's a dick move. And then I thought it was Shadow.” He goes quiet, letting all of what he’d gone through since last night sink in. Crossing his arm, his fingers drumming over his arm, he clicks his tongue and sighs. “Yeah, I think I need therapy.”
That might be the only correct thing he's said all day, Amy thinks. She taps the heel of her boot insistently until the ringing stops with a click, followed by a person greeting “Yo!” on the other end.
“Scraps!” Amy exclaims urgently, on the verge of almost screaming.
“Wow, hey, what’s going on there? Everything alright?”
Sonic’s ears twitch with interest. “Who’s that?”
In her panic, Amy blurts out, “Scraps, Sonic thinks I’m pregnant. Tell him I’m not pregnant!”
Taken aback, Scraps says, with no grace whatsoever, “Umm… you’re… not… pregnant? Congrats? But wait, I thought you did wanna have kids? I’m confused. Also, Sonic, hi, dude. Heard a lot about you.”
Sonic absent-mindedly says, “Hi.” He lifts a paw as a gesture of greeting even though the communicator is only on voice-call mode.
Amy facepalms. “Scraps!”
The racoon laughs. “Sorry, sorry. What’s this about you being pregnant?”
“That’s just it, I’m not pregnant, Scraps!”
“I mean, how long’ve you guys been trying for? You were just here like a week ago. Kinda too early to call it game over, you know? Oh wait, ain’t your man, like, trans or something? You guys picked from a sperm bank then and had no luck, or…?”
Sonic splutters. “I’m not a trans guy!”
Amy pauses. She exclaims, “You’re not?!” at the same time Scraps does.
It dawns on Sonic what he just said and he goes pale. “...maybe? Kinda? Yes and no? It’s complicated.”
“...Oh, shit, did I just out you? Fuck. Sorry, man. Thought it was, like, common knowledge,” Scraps says.
There’s a moment of painful silence. It’s eventually broken by Scraps’ voice. “...You two need a minute?”
“Yeah,” Amy decides. “I’ll call you back later, okay?”
“Sure thing.”
“Oh, and… you said to think of names for your babies? I’ll text you some flower names. Is that okay?”
“That’ll do. Cause I got nothing. See ya. And good luck with… all that.”
With a quiet ‘bye’, Amy ends the call, and the two hedgehogs sit in silence, fidgeting in place.
“So…” Sonic starts, looking everywhere but at her, “that was the… friend.”
“My pregnant friend, yes.” Amy herself can't look him in the eye after having accidentally gotten Sonic to reveal his personal information. “Her and her ex’s ex are both pregnant. By the same guy.”
“Mr. One Minute Man, I take it?”
“Yeah. I chased him off.”
“Good.”
“The two ladies moved in together after. They gave me a ride. They were nice.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah. It was fun.”
The sound of her clock ticking echoes.
“And… you’re not pregnant?” Sonic asks.
“No.”
“The IUD thing?”
Oh. He’d heard that part, too, huh? “Regular heat cycle management medication gives me really bad side affects. The IUD was an option.”
“IUD for heat cycle management?”
“Yeah, it’s used for stopping heat cycles sometimes. It didn’t go well. I’m planning to try a hormone implant.”
“Huh. The more you know. So not pregnant.”
“Nope.”
“Okay,” he says, deflating, sounding almost sad. “Just making sure. Don’t wanna jump to conclusions. Any more and I might beat Silver’s record.” He laughs weakly at his lame joke. “But yeah, that was—that was dumb. Rouge’s never gonna let me live this down.”
“Why do you sound disappointed I’m not pregnant?”
“I mean, you wanted to be a mom for a long time. I thought you were gonna get what you wanted, even if…” he hesitates, “even if it meant not with me. I guess I thought I must’ve taken too long and you ended up having to choose between the two things you wanted—being with me or having kids, and I couldn't blame you for needing to put your foot down. I wasted your time. I’m sorry.”
“Oh…” She’s touched. He just wanted her to be happy. Due to her masking and hiding her goals that are seen as ‘too feminine’, she hadn’t mentioned to him about her wanting to be a mom in a long time, but he somehow still knew she’d want kids someday. “You didn’t waste anything. I have fun when I’m with you. Honestly, we really should’ve talked about this before it got us to this point,” she says guiltily. “I should’ve brought it up, but I was so happy you were finally flirting back. I thought if I mentioned kids again, I’d scare you off, like how I used to scare you off back when…” She takes a second to decide if being honest is too honest, if she’ll scare him off again like she used to before, “...back when I was too loud…”
“Too loud?” He tilts his head quizzically, looking at her with a hint of worry.
“Hm. You boys didn’t like me back then. I wasn’t sure why. It took some time to learn what was and wasn’t too… annoying for you guys. When I stopped talking about my interests and… stopped saying I loved you, it’s only then you started wanting to hang out with me and let me fight with you guys.” Her ears droop at her confession. “I still wanna be a mom someday. I guess I didn’t hide it well enough. I slip up sometimes when I get too comfortable with friends.”
Sonic was looking at her in ever increasing guilt. “You were masking.”
She nods. She’s been suspecting she was on the spectrum for years, but her friends probably had no idea and had thought she was just annoying. “It works. People tell me I’m all ‘mature’ now. I get taken seriously. You stopped leaving me behind.”
“Amy… Amy, that’s not…” He looks devastated, like she might’ve slapped him. “Amy, you were never annoying— I was a jerk. I was a bratty kid. I even forgot Tails’ sometimes cause I’d get too caught up on other stuff and forget. Even now, my lil’ bro has to force me to do the laundry cause then I’ll never get it done.”
That gets a giggle out of Amy.
Sonic smiles lightly at that. It softens into one of shame. “Still, it doesn’t mean I didn't hurt you. It sucks that I did. You don’t have to stop being you. I remember we came to your tea party when we were little and thought, ‘Hey, this ain’t so bad. This is kinda nice.’ And you get all happy when you read your cards and…” He scratches the back of his neck, fidgeting, his ears blushing. “...you stopped saying you loved me… and that freaked me out a bit, cause I had no idea if you liked me anymore. When I thought you got pregnant, it screwed me up. We were flirting for years, then you got pregnant— I thought you got pregnant. It made me think, ‘Wait, was I reading her all wrong this whole time?’ I thought I really blew it.”
She’s not only proud of his vulnerable honesty here, but incredibly touched. He’s apologetic. He misses her saying she loves him. He’s hurt she’d been made to feel like she had to suppress herself to make friends. She’s been restraining herself from being too blunt in public the past few years, but apparently that resulted in Sonic taking it as her not feeling love for him anymore. This mess is two hedgehogs on the spectrum misreading one another because the ADHDer of the two had the attention span of a caffeinated woodpecker and a hyperfocus so intense he’d forget he’d leave friends behind, and the autistic one had turned off her blunt but accurate method for social communication, resulting in confusion, endless flirting with no direction, and a whole lot of guess work on both sides.
“You thought I stopped loving you?” she asks, surprised just how deep of a rabbit hole this is turning out to be.
Sonic grimaced, his mouth pressing into a wobbly frown. He’s clearly uncomfortable. “Yeah, kinda,” he admits, scratching his cheek. “Bummed me out, not gonna sugar coat it there.” He finally looks at her and gives a weak but relieved chuckle. “Guess I got that wrong too?”
“You sure did,” she giggles. “Don't worry, you’re still my darling Sonic, Sonic.”
He snickers, his voice sounding much lighter. “Good to know. And if you wanna be a mom someday, that’s awesome. Doesn’t make you less of a hero. Pretty sure that’d make you double awesome. You can talk my ear off about that and your cards and stuff, it’s fine. I don’t catch half the stuff Tails rambles about, but it makes him happy.”
That brings her some relief. She doesn’t know how hard it’ll be for her to turn off that masking switch she’s trained herself to turn on over the years, but a little bit at a time is a start. “That’s good to hear. I do want to start a family someday. I’m just worried about how it’ll work in the future when I have to decide. Just being by your side has been amazing, but I can’t make you be a dad if you don’t want to be part of that.” Scraps getting pregnant had pushed her worries out of the cobweb corners of her mind and into the forefront.
With tired eyes, his ears quirk to the side curiously. “Why would I not wanna be part of that?”
She can’t believe what she’s hearing. She almost thinks she heard him wrong. “What?”
He gives a half-hearted chuckle. “I guess your future partner might not like that. I didn’t think that one through. I guess we could keep a distance, but I could still help out.”
She thinks back to what he said earlier during his rambling, about him thinking they had a thing then suddenly thought they never had a thing because he assumed she found someone else. And now, he’s shifted from her wanting kids to her with a hypothetical future partner. He thinks she’s going to look for somebody else just because another person might better fit that dream of her having a family. He built an unneeded bridge between those two topics. She unintentionally snorts. “Why would I need somebody else?”
“Cause you wanna have kids with them?” He looks genuinely confused. “When I thought you got with somebody else and got pregnant, I thought you got tired of me and you found someone who… wouldn’t wait so long. And… who’d be able to give you kids.”
Her mind’s putting a few things together. She’s getting a vague idea, but she needs him to fill in the blanks for her. He can’t have biological kids with her: that’s something she knew for years, but only under the assumption of him being transgender, something that he’s now hinted isn’t fully accurate. “Sonic, I don’t need anybody for me to be a mom. I plan to adopt. And I never got tired of you. I kind of already figured you couldn’t… you know. I knew that for a long time. I just thought you wouldn’t wanna be a dad.”
That causes him to perk up in surprise. “You’re… Oh.” He thinks it over, and his eyes go wide. “ Oh! Wait, wait, wait—I never said I don’t wanna be a dad, though?” He suddenly stands up and begins passing, “You were never pregnant, Mr. One Minute Man had nothing to do with you, you still like me.” He clatches his head like he’s having the biggest revelation of his life. “You thought I didn’t wanna be involved when you have kids.”
This catches her off guard. “Sonic, you used to run away every time I brought it up,” she reminds him.
“I was fifteen?!”
“...You… Do you want to be a dad?”
He stammers, his voice clogging in his throat. He swallows down the lump. “I, you— I wasn’t sure! It never got brought up. I was in my head goin’ back and forth about the docs saying I shoot blank shots and probably can’t give you kids, and then I thought somebody got you pregnant, and I— I…” He limply plops back down on the couch.
As discombobulated as she is right now, she restrains herself from interrupting whatever turmoil is going on in his mind.
Fidgeting, Sonic looks away whilst scratching his cheek, the tips of his ears pink. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t want something like that with you. I guess you worked so hard to get to where you are, and I haven’t been the easiest to work with, so you deserved something great. You deserved way more than what I could give you.” He lets out a cynical laugh that sounds like a huff. “But I don’t even know how to give you anything. I thought if I just kept up what we had going, then thing’ll just fall in place all on their own. But after Starfall Islands… It made me wonder how much time we could be having together. I panicked. I was running out of time but my brain wouldn’t let me rush things. And I couldn’t think about when you’d eventually ask about kids without thinking about… I got it in my head that if I couldn’t give you anything perfect, it’d disappoint you.”
She can’t be upset at him for how he’d jumped the gun about the misunderstanding at the reunion. This is a more deep-seated issue of his, one that’s gone unaddressed for years. He had to run out of room in that bottle he stuffed his problems into eventually. He’s not a person to talk things out. Not when the things involve emotional vulnerability. It’s what got them into this situation. He holds a cool, collected persona in public. But he’s still a person like everybody else.
“Sonic…” With one paw over her aching heart, she puts her free paw on his cheek and turns his head so he can face her. “I don’t know what perfection you think I need, but I know what I’ve always wanted.” She playfully nudges his cheek with her snout. “I wouldn’t have stuck around if I was bored now, would I?”
That earns her a soft smile from him, his eyes half-lidded. He’s more relaxed now that he’d gotten the worst of his confessions out of his chest. “Yeah, you got me there,” he lightly snickers with a faint blush across his muzzle. “Crazy to think you’d give up that easily after all the chasing you did. Man, I really suck at this. You fell in love with a moron.”
“I did.” She giggles, feeling giddy, and presses their foreheads together, her tail wagging slowly. “Don’t worry, I always knew you came in a whole package.”
He laughs. “Guess you finally caught me. Fine. You win. I’m warning you, though, I’m clueless from here.”
“You say that like you weren’t before.”
“Touché.”
“I was going to kiss you, but sense you’re gonna be like that, I’ll save it for later.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” he chortles.
She hums. “Mmm, I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”
“Amy, you’re killing me. Together for less than a minute and you’re already killing me.”
She rolls her eyes at his antics. “You’re so dramatic.” She cups his face between both of her paws, their faces inches away from each other. “Okay. Under one condition.”
His smirk twitches. It’s impossible for him to keep calm when their noses are almost touching.
“Go to therapy,” she says.
“Th- therapy,” he stammers.
“Mm-hm. And couple’s therapy.”
“That’s two conditions.” He takes back his cocky correction upon being met with a stern look from her. “Therapy. Right. Got it.”
“And…?”
He whines and gives in, “Fine...and couple’s therapy… Anything else to add? Or am I still on thin ice—mmh!”
Her lips meet his, and he melts, his limbs going lax and ears drooping in bliss. Amy’s so happy she almost laughs with joy through the kiss. When they part, he looks at her with a dazed look and says, “You missed a spot.”
It gets a laugh out of her. It’s high-pitched, unmasked. He grins and nudges her nose with hers. He’s coaxing her for more. By now, she’s too excited to be gentle, and unleashes an attack, peppering his face with kisses until he’s laughing and choking out, “Okay, okay, okay, easy!”
She unintentionally ends up pushing him back until he’s flat on the couch, her hovering over him, the both of them huffing and puffing, smiling with mouths half open, their quills a poofy mess. Her tail’s wagging so fast it’s shaking her whole lower half. It feels great to be openly happy.
She’s slower this time when dipping down to give him a longer, more tender kiss. He sees it coming, tilting his head for a better angle, meeting her with a tiny grunt at the back of his throat.
It’s very quiet in her house now. Every time they part for oxygen, they go for more, both drunk on love and relief. There’s a point when Sonic’s communicator buzzes a few times, but Sonic takes his wristwatch off, lets it plop to the floor, and the two resume where they left off.
The magic pauses when Sonic suddenly goes rigid beneath her. His paws, which had been gently holding her waist, grip at her more firmly with abrupt urgency.
It’s enough of an indication for her to stop and lift her head. She takes note of the hesitancy on his face.
“Are you okay?” She really hopes she didn’t ruin this. “Do you need me to get off?”
“No,” he said quickly. “Nope. All good. Just, uhh…” He hisses, looking for the right words. “Think I got too excited.”
She takes a few seconds to get what he means. Her ears go up when she understands. Right. She’d gone years believing Sonic was an FtM trans guy. But apparently that’s not entirely accurate. Now that he’s made her aware of his existing boner, her mind goes from ‘Not what I expected’ to a nonchalant ‘I can still work with this’.
As proud as she’s feeling about him getting a boner right now, she needs to make sure he’s fine. “Do you want to stop?”
“No, it’s fine. Way more than fine. Thing is, uh,… the stuff down there, won’t look like what you’re expecting it to look like?”
Amy restrains from taking a look at what her hanging skirt is visually obscuring. She doesn’t really care what his thing looks like. That had never been a priority when pursuing this guy for all her life. “If you’re trying to tell me you’re small, it’s fine.” She’s still hovering over him.
He winces. “Yeah, that. Remember when you asked if I was trans? And it’s kind of… yes-no-maybe?”
“Yeah?” She was kind of hoping he’d eventually clarify that, actually.
“About that. I’m on T, yeah, but I always had guy stuff down there. Had dysphoria cause my voice wasn’t where I needed it to be. That, and… some issues ‘getting it up’. Anyway, being on T’s pretty cool and all. The doctors just made a big deal about my dick. They had this long-as-heck tongue twister medical term for it. Were real weirdos about it. I didn’t look into it until you guys went on your solo adventures and I had nothing else to do. Long story short, I'm intersex, my guy’s on the short side, and I’d very much appreciate it if my lovely, gorgeous girlfriend on top of me right now can be very normal about it.” By the time he’s finished talking, he’s cringing at himself hard.
She feels bad he felt the need to even say any of that. He’s clearly uncomfortable, possibly a lingering fear he’d experienced with doctors. His attempt at laid back demeanor fails, because she feels his heart pounding when she shifts her dress out of the way to peek down between them. When she looks back up, he gives her a nervous smile, expecting an uncomfortable comment, a verdict of something, maybe her being disappointed.
Instead, she grabs his face and kisses him some more.
When she pulls away, sees the wide eyed look on his face, she laughs cutely. “You look fine. Wanna see what I can do with it?”
The fur all over his body poofs up, the tufts ruffling going in all directions. The skin under his peach muzzle is warm. “Yes, ma’am.”
***
While the two on the couch giggle and squirm, on the floor remains Sonic’s abandoned wristwatch, the string of text messages from Tails are left unread.
[Sonic can we talk??]
[You left your book open]
[I found the others cause you normally don’t put the fantasy stuff with the classics]
[are you okay]
[Sonic you know I’m old enough you can talk to me about this]
[Did you see a doctor at least?]
[WHY DID SHADOW CALL ME SAYING YOU WEREN’T ANSWERING]
[HE ASKED ME IF YOU ‘FOUND THE GUY YET’ WHEN I ASKED WHAT DID HE MEAN HE SAID IT WAS A MISTAKE AND ENDED THE CALL SONIC WANT DID HE MEAN PLEASE CALL ME]
[SONIC!!!!]
END
Notes:
Sorry I was late posting this one. I dislocated my shoulder (again) and two health issues are acting up but I'm still kicking lol
-IUDs can be used for period control, birth control, and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and so on. Only certain mammals go through mensural cycles, like humans and elephant shrews.
-Most mammals go through 'estrous cycles', meaning they go through a heat/breeding cycle wherein they're fertile for a short window of time, then, if not fertilized, instead of shedding the endometrium, the body reabsorbs it. It's why the characters here have heat cycles.
-Some intersex variation that people are never told are intersex variations until later in life include micropenis, PCOS, NCAH, Klinefelter syndrome, and anything that falls outside the 'typical' sexual development (regardless if it's internal, external, hormonal and so on). Some intersex people are cisgender, some are transgender, and for some, like in the case of Sonic in this fic, the answer isn't that direct in the English language.
-Anyway, glad everyone had fun with this fic. I needed something more light-hearted to work on. I have a few one-shots I finished and will post in a few weeks.
Pages Navigation
Kariminal on Chapter 1 Tue 03 Jun 2025 09:09PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Jun 2025 08:30PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kariminal on Chapter 1 Wed 11 Jun 2025 12:10AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:36PM UTC
Comment Actions
IzaChan on Chapter 1 Wed 04 Jun 2025 12:21AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Jun 2025 08:41PM UTC
Comment Actions
Skyelara on Chapter 1 Thu 05 Jun 2025 01:37AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Jun 2025 08:43PM UTC
Comment Actions
CrazyEchidnaLady on Chapter 1 Fri 06 Jun 2025 04:00PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Jun 2025 08:53PM UTC
Comment Actions
Ran_Ray on Chapter 1 Sun 08 Jun 2025 10:40AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Tue 10 Jun 2025 09:09PM UTC
Comment Actions
creatured0gth1ng on Chapter 1 Mon 16 Jun 2025 11:17PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 1 Fri 20 Jun 2025 12:50PM UTC
Comment Actions
TommyV (Star_V88) on Chapter 2 Tue 10 Jun 2025 10:41PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 2 Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:33PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kariminal on Chapter 2 Wed 11 Jun 2025 12:08AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 2 Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:35PM UTC
Comment Actions
swettyheartty on Chapter 2 Thu 12 Jun 2025 09:58AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 2 Sun 15 Jun 2025 03:36PM UTC
Comment Actions
Deafblerd on Chapter 2 Tue 08 Jul 2025 06:40AM UTC
Comment Actions
CobaltWords on Chapter 2 Sat 26 Jul 2025 01:10AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 2 Wed 27 Aug 2025 03:51PM UTC
Comment Actions
OriQurosy on Chapter 2 Thu 04 Sep 2025 11:09PM UTC
Comment Actions
Skele_masquerade on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 04:16PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:08PM UTC
Comment Actions
IzaChan on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 04:24PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:08PM UTC
Comment Actions
Kariminal on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 04:34PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:06PM UTC
Comment Actions
TommyV (Star_V88) on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 04:49PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 06:10PM UTC
Comment Actions
Blueblur91 on Chapter 3 Sun 15 Jun 2025 09:11PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Mon 16 Jun 2025 06:01AM UTC
Comment Actions
Dawn17 on Chapter 3 Mon 16 Jun 2025 12:50AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Mon 16 Jun 2025 06:01AM UTC
Comment Actions
creatured0gth1ng on Chapter 3 Mon 16 Jun 2025 11:50PM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Fri 20 Jun 2025 12:51PM UTC
Comment Actions
Skyelara on Chapter 3 Thu 19 Jun 2025 01:52AM UTC
Comment Actions
SevenRenny on Chapter 3 Mon 23 Jun 2025 02:39PM UTC
Comment Actions
Pages Navigation