Forever Young
Summary: Sonia and Bartleby return from their honeymoon and are prepared to begin their life together with their sons, Basil and Brose. A life without the fear of being roboticized but hardly a life without problems.
Prologue
In the hotel room of the tropical resort they had chosen for their honeymoon, Bartleby and Sonia lay together. A sheen of sweat shimmered off their fur as they caught their breath.
"Today was just gorgeous, Bartleby." Sonia said.
The mink stroked her hair lovingly. "Yes. It still feels like a dream. I can't believe I can finally, legally, call you 'my wife.'"
"And I can call you 'my husband.'" She smiled.
"It's all over," he stated. "The sneaking about, the hiding, the running. We can be together and all of Mobius can know just how much I love you."
"And our children can grow up safe and sound in freedom. We don't have to hide them away from the world." Sonia said.
He kissed her deeply. "No, no hiding ever again. And I don't have to worry about you leaving when the sun comes up."
Knuckles gratefully accepted the Queen's "offer" to stay for the next week("It's just one more week, until they get back so it's not just you and Dingo watching them"). The offer had just been a thinly veiled order to be honest.
The first day, he and Manic were playing with the twins on the throne room floor. Sonic was off being "tortured" by the tutors and their mother had some business to take care of.
"They are so cute." Manic said with a goofy smile. He looked at the giggling Basil and Brose as they had their feet tickled. "Yes you is, you two is." He stuck out his tongue and made faces, earning a burst of laughter from Basil. Brose had his eyes on Knuckles. However, Manic forgot the first rule of playing with a baby, always watch the hands. "Ow!" He yelped as Basil's small hand latched onto his hair and yanked. Tears peaked in his eyes at the jerk of pain.
Knuckles laughed at Manic's predicament before gently pulling the boy's hand off the hair. "No, no, Basil, you don't want to hurt your Uncle Manic."
"Yeah like he understands that." Manic chuckled as the pain slowly receded. "They're just babies."
"I know but babies are smart. I read in those books Bartleby got that they can start learning almost immediately and actually will learn more in their first year then they'll learn in their entire lives." Knuckles pointed out.
"Really? I didn't know that," was the response.
Knuckles nodded matter-of-factly. "Yep. The younger the brain is the more malleable it is. They're like sponges, soaking up everything they can get. That's why it's important to start early."
"I don't know. If they soak it up anyway, can't we just let them be kids?" Manic reasoned. "There's no need to rush is there? Can't they just play?"
Knuckles shrugged. "Nope guess not. It should be up to Sonia and Bartleby anyway."
Brose looked at his brother. Why weren't their uncles playing with them? To get his attention, Brose's hand went to Knuckles long dreds and pulled similar to how Basil pulled Manic's hair.
"Yeowch!" Knuckles yelped. He freed his hair. "Okay, okay, I get it. Silly." His fingers tickled the baby's belly.
"WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT!" Cyrus ran into the throne room. He stopped at the sight of his friends playing with the twins. For some reason, he felt a little bit of jealousy whenever he saw them. He thought he'd put Sonia behind him a long time ago. He knew it was his own fault he never did anything about his crush on her.
AN: Yes the first chapter of the sequel to Rock-A-Bye is done. This story is mainly going to follow them living life. Maybe I'll bring in a villain if I feel it's necessary and can fit well but they're not gonna be along the lines of a super villain with devastating powers or anything. We're mainly looking at just characters having douchemonkey-moments.
