The hat was a lot hotter today than most days. The little critter poked his nose out from under his home and sniffed the air. The air was hot too. Why was it so hot? He walked forward a little and lost his balance. He tumbled to the ground, though a large and familiar hand caught him.

'Papa!'

His papa brought him to his face and gently petted the top of his head. He loved getting petted. It was one of his favorite things. He was startled as someone suddenly snatched him away from his papa. His eyes darted about until the person turned him around and stared into his eyes.

'It's the nice person!'

He liked the nice person. She petted him gently just like his papa did. She reminded him of that first girl who used to play with him. That girl wasn't around anymore, but he wasn't sad. He had Papa and this new nice girl to play with him. They were really fun! They would feed him too! Papa mostly fed him, but sometimes the nice girl fed him too. She seemed to like doing it.

The nice girl said something to him. He never understood what anyone said. They would often speak, but it would only come out as gibberish to him. He did sometimes catch one word when the nice person and Papa spoke. Hedgy. They said that a lot around him.

He got a little nervous as the nice girl set him in the grass. The grass was dry. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. He knew he wanted to be picked up again. He wished Papa or the nice girl would pick him up. He tried crawling into her lap, but she was too big. He only succeeded in hitting his head on her knee.

He stared into the sky. It seemed really far away. It always did. But after a moment the sky was blocked by another face. Hedgy squeaked and tried once again to jump into the nice girl's lap. He didn't like this person. This man was scary. His face looked different than everyone else's. There was something long and thin going down the middle of it. Why didn't he ever take the long thing off? It was scary!

That wasn't the only reason he was scary though. Hedgy remembered when the scary man had gotten a hold of him one day. He had tossed him in the air, but didn't catch him! Hedgy remembered hitting his head on the ground. It hurt! Papa didn't like that. Papa picked up the scary man and threw him in the air too. Papa didn't catch him. Then Papa did it again. The scary man yelled a lot. He didn't seem to like being thrown in the air. Since that day the scary man never picked up Hedgy again.

Even now, Papa roughly hit the scary man on his shoulder. Hedgy supposed Papa didn't like the scary man being so close to him.

'Yeah! Go away!'

And the scary man did. Hedgy sat up and looked at the nice girl. He wondered why she and Papa hung out with the scary man. But then the nice girl gave him something to eat and he forgot all about the scary man.

'Food! Food!'

The nice girl handed the food over to someone else. Hedgy followed the food and saw it being held by the pretty person. The pretty person began to feed him. She didn't really ever touch Hedgy. It never bothered Hedgy. He had Papa and the nice girl. Today, however, the pretty person began to pet Hedgy. She was gentle too. Hedgy liked being fed and petted. He assumed the pretty person liked feeding and petting.

"Hedgy!"

Hedgy heard that word so clearly again. The pretty person had said it. He briefly looked up at the pretty person before going back to eating. He liked this pretty person. She had a kind face. Sometimes pretty sounds would come out of the pretty person. She had to be nice! Pretty sounds don't come from mean people, like the scary man!

Hedgy finished his food and sniffed around for more. The pretty person picked him up and put him on her shoulder. The hedgehog started to nibble at her long hair. Hair was good sometimes. The pretty person had tasty hair. Hedgy dug his claws into the pretty person's shirt as she stood up. She walked over to Papa and handed Hedgy back to him.

'Bye bye, pretty person!'

The nice girl lightly kissed Hedgy on his nose. He liked her a lot. She was friendly.

The scary man stayed seated. He didn't come near Hedgy too often. The scary man looked at him and for some reason only blinked one eye instead of both of them. Hedgy didn't know what that meant. The scary man was also confusing.

"Hedgy."

Hedgy turned around to the sound of his Papa's voice. It was time to go back home. The little critter crawled under the hat again. He quickly fell asleep in the darkness. There would stay until the next time he came out to see his companions.

A/N: YAY! Hedgy is so cute. And I don't know how he's able to tell that Eles is a girl but not see that Lucille is a man. Don't question it. Just bask in the adorableness of the hedgehog ^_^