Hello!

I am not dead! Yey! Hope you are all doing well!

I promise the others are still being worked on, but here is a little story that has been sitting in my mind and drive for a little while, again a cute little Sonic and a kindly old Kintobor something I love to write though not particularly exciting I'll admit XD

Please let me know what you think and also any ideas that you might like to see for future stories? AU or anything like that, I'd love to hear :)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters as per usual :)

The hollow 'put' of the water droplets as they berated the toughened glass was deafening to the one inside.

Sigh.

They ran down the pane teasing him with races in which he could not compete.

Thunk

His head plunked itself unceremoniously against the invisible barrier that both protected him from the ghastly weather outside and kept him captive, forced to endure its taunts.

Erugh-

Breathing in, he rolled his head against the solid sand. Left ear squished flat, forehead mussed up and cheeks stretched and squashed in the most ungainly fashion. All in all…

-Gurugh.

...he was thoroughly bored.

Sometimes a particularly fast beam of light would go past and he would jump upright in his 'special' seat, watching in true meerkat fashion as it 'zoooom'-ed by. But after a second of staring into the distorted black would emit some sort of odd cross between a huff and a hearty sigh, before resuming the aforementioned position.

Pins and needles were beginning to perform their unwanted acupuncture in his legs. The little figure whined in frustration, moving fluidly to sit and rub the offending limbs. Small brow furrowed while his mind slowly harvested concern. Trying to peer over the tall seat in front of his was difficult at this height. You'd have thought the designers would have more consideration when it came to the little people of this world.

Eurghuh!

Kicking his legs to ward off future pin-like-needles would allow the mind to focus on more important matters for now. Like where had his human gotten to? It was taking alot longer to buy a few essentials than the child expected. And he didn't like that one bit!

Small underdeveloped claws deepening the grooves in the arms of the chair, there from previous trying circumstances (like when there is no where to stop for miles but your body has decreed that you need the toilet right now!), as sharp emerald eyes tried to catch a flash of red anywhere.

The rain was coming down heavier now, cascading down the windows in waves, and the din of the tap dancing on the roof was doing nothing to calm down the hydrophobic fraught with worry for his missing companion. Images of said man floating away in an obscenely large puddle flashed through the boy's mind causing him to practically cry out in desperation. Fingering the child-locks on the safety precautions holding him in place uselessly, (even if he got past those, he'd still have to face the ones on the door so it was all for naught really), his breathing started to quicken in pace. Gasp and whines and pants. Each diving out of his mouth at the first opportunity. The front door clunked open and he could barely contain a yelp.

Swooping through the waterfall now gushing past the open space, came a tall and lanky figure. In stark contrast to the stumpy but dry one. Flicking the coats flap's across his upper body, the man began to remove his soaked coat, not bothering to fold the red material as it was plonked on to the seat beside him. Stiff leather allowing the coat to almost keep its shape and stand up of its own accord, quite comical really, if only he'd cared to look. Rather metal framed eyes looked to the black trousers clinging to his scrawny legs. He only tugged at them a few times before silently declaring them a lost cause.

Getting these off later will no doubt be quite the battle.

Shaking his bald head as he chose to instead face forwards for a moment and try to find a not dripping wet material to wipe the lenses of his glasses so he stood at least some small chance of being able to see.

Hummmah.

After stretching his fingers wide in a finishing gesture the gentleman chose to twist round and address his small companion.

"Well Captain, I can report that it is indeed raining outside!" A warm smile punctuated the sentence.

An indignant moan was his only response, so with a chuckle the human placed a carton of juice, having previously pierced it with a straw, and an unwrapped stick of a chewy strawberry flavoured something in the petite hands of the other. Some sort of peace offering probably.

"Honestly Sonic, I wasn't gone that long. I just had to pick up fuel and sustenance for the journey. You know I can't just pull into the station like most people, I'd draw too much attention."

While the 'pimped' car may have been the cause of a few funny (more like jealous Doc thought) looks, the truth was that the hedgehog was the real problem.

No. Not problem.

He had to remind himself. He felt blessed and privileged beyond belief to have the youngster as budding member of his household. The human-mobian relations were still on the rocky and uncertain side. That is to say, they avoided each other like the plague. Ignorance led to many inaccurate ideas and crazy stories in which there was more often than not little to no truth. Doctor Robotnik was one of… well, one as far as he was aware, who had and could take in a mobian child to have as one of their (his) own. While the authorities that gave the permission (though he only broached the subject with them 3 years in so…), not that he needed permission to do anything anyway, viewed the arrangement as a social and science experiment - such was not the case for the scientist in question. Despite objections to the integration, Ivo had managed to get papers for the boy, who didn't even realise it yet, now had considerably more rights now than his fellow hedgehogs.

The sad thing was that these same rights that gave him freedoms, such as to be able to ride in Robotnik's car in a child's car seat as opposed to a cage, also gave him a lot of attention. Most of it was not good. Even at the tender age of 4 Sonic could sense the atmosphere created by those stares or whispered comments. In a bid to spare the poor kid, Robotnik made it a point to not park his car in the petrol station when refuelling, in the plain sight of others, rather parked close by and out of the way.

Unfortunate victim.

Brought out of his stupor by the hoglet happily teething on the strawberry stick, he turned back to the front to continue driving to his destination. Thankfully the rain was letting up, making driving a little easier. Glancing at his charge in the rear-view mirror he could see the change in weather easing Sonics anxiety.

The doctor didn't stop a smile stretching itself like melting parmesan across his face as he caught glimpses of his little boy muttering what he could only call hedgehog babble to himself and his half eaten chewy food stick as it went on what was shaping up to be a jolly good adventure.

Wuhooooooosh!

Perhaps it was a rocket going on it's maiden voyage into the depths of space.

Wurneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooohum…

Or maybe an aeroplane, leaving trails of vapour in its wake, travelling to new and unexplored territories.

Brrrrrruuuuuuuummmmm…

The strawberry flavoured car was turning left and right in time with the larger metal and less salivary version. The fact that his mode of transport was also considerably less tasty did pop into the doctor's mind.

The muttering was back, the sight in the mirror was one that warmed the cockles of the surrogate fathers heart. It looked like the blue hedgehog was plugging invisible headphones into the chew bar, but then he nodded his head as though he had just said something rather profound before turning the back of his hand to the snack and pressing his thumb to his index and middle fingers. He finished it off by 'spoon' feeding it some sort of disgusting imaginary concoction that Ivo supposed was a version of the liquid medicine he made the hoglet take when he was ill. Whilst he protested vehemently every time, he had no issue telling his half masticated nibble that-

"It mightn't taste nice, but it's for your own good. You want to get better so you can go and play, correct?"

In a voice the Doc grimaced to think was probably not unlike his own.