1: What's wrong, Sonic?

He moaned,while gentle hands traced down his body, the fingertips touching just the right places to send shivers down his spine.

"Sh-Shadow...," he whimpered, his hips bucking against the hedgehog over him, while the rest of his body felt like mush under those capable fingers. "Please... more...," he begged and growling possessively, the seme leaned down to fulfill the request, nipping and licking every single one of the mapped-out places he had found so far, going to deeper located places of his love's body each time, drawing passionate moans out of his uke.

He was almost too lost in pleasure. Almost. Over the quills of his mate, he suddenly saw a tall figure in the shadows, moving closer to their bed, stepping into the light.

His eyes widened and his heart beat painfully fast. It was a human, an old man, with round glasses, white, neatly combed hair and a walking stick in his hand. His usually wrinkled face was halfway rotten, the left half of his face just a skull, with the eyeball hanging out of the socket, while the right half was a mass of pale-greenish flesh.

The dark, remaining eye was watching them with unhidden greed. "Come on, give me, what I want!," he snarled.

"AAAAHHH!" At once, Sonic sat up, panting. In the next second, he felt his body turning to the side and before he had grasped the situation, he already fell off the branch and down the tree he had sat on, into some bushes, landing on his back.

"Not again.," he groaned, while waiting for the world to stop spinning. He noticed, that the sky didn't look much darker than when he had dozed off, it couldn't have been more than two hours of sleep he had gotten.

He frowned. Again a nightmare. Since about two weeks, he had those strange dreams. They all started the same, him and Shadow...well, about to do it, but every time it became... interesting, there was something interrupting them. And the reason was getting worse each time. At first, he had dreamed of Tails and Cream coming unexpectedly in the room – a true nightmare, if that would truly happen – then, in the next dream, he had gotten a phone call, both, in reality and in his dream, which had woken him up.

The most disturbing one so far (not to mention the last one a few minutes ago) had been Eggman barging through the door, wearing a pink tutu – and nothing else – and telling him, that everyone was waiting for his show...whatever show he meant. He shuddered at the memory. Thankfully, the dream had faded mostly out of his memories by now and the details weren't as clear anymore.

And now, that. He had recognized the half decayed human, of course. How could he ever forget this face? Thanks to this man, he and his friends had gone through a martyr beyond compare.

Jester Perringten.

The name alone was like a curse and no one of them could hear it without feeling their chests constricting with the painful memories. Thanks to this man, Sonic had doubted his own body and mind, his whole being.

All had started with Eggman outing him as an uke, something, that some male hedgehogs were. Ukes were male in appearance, but could become pregnant, like females.

And Perringten had known and used that. He had kidnapped ukes and semes – the completely male hedgehogs, so to say – to let them mate again and again. He had wanted the pups resulting out of the forced pregnancies, but for what – Sonic had no idea. He had only seen one of the pups, that had gotten born there, anyway. It worried him, that neither Shadow, his boyfriend and mate, nor Tails, his brother by choice, had seen the babies on their way back from the Island – that had been the name of the hellhole, as harmless, as fitting.

Sonic frowned, while blinking in the sun above him. He himself...had had pups, too. Perringten had let another seme rape him to provoke Shadow into raping him as well. The dark seme had just in time snapped out of it, but it had been too late. His virginity had been gone and he had been pregnant from the other seme. He wasn't so sure, if he was glad, that he had had a miscarriage, that had almost costed him his life in the process.

Sometimes, if he hadn't have anything to distract him, he asked himself, how it would have been. Being pregnant, and stuff like that.

Well, on Perringten's little landmass of horror, he would have been chained to a bed for the three months the pregnancy would have lasted, to get the children cut out of him afterwards, without seeing them ever again, if even once. But now, he was free...

Sighing, he sat up and shook his head, fast. He didn't know, why he was suddenly thinking about something like that.

Since about two weeks, everything was out of whack – again. For some reason, he had started to feel almost as ill, as he had about two years ago, when Eggman and Perringten, as a very temporary team, had brought him into thinking, that he was really just a completely weak uke. They had drugged him secretly, until he had been convinced, that he had needed to go to the uke institute, a fake institution, that he had never seen, he had been kidnapped to the Island right away.

The worst part had been, that Tails, Amy and Knuckles had found out about the fake uke institute and had gotten themselves captured, while trying to find and rescue him. Especially Tails had suffered a lot during this time and Sonic couldn't forgive himself for ever doubting himself, which had brought them all in this situation in the first place.

And now, his body was failing him again. Since those last two weeks, he was feeling very ill: He felt often sick to the stomach, which resulted almost always in vomiting, if he had something in his stomach, or not. He couldn't even run anymore, without upsetting his stomach, which was, why he denied himself his favorite hobby for the time being, unless it was absolutely necessary.

He got fevers at random occasions, which passed usually within an hour or so, but sometimes only after a day, or two.

He had sleeping problems, that either kept him awake for long time periods, or, as it had been at first, had kept him in a so deep slumber, that only being thrown in a bathtub filled with ice cold water (his friends had been desperate, but he was still a little miffed, because of this stunt) could wake him up, and to top it off, he had frequent, quite annoying headaches...like now.

He barely had an appetite anymore, especially not for his favorite food, chilidogs, mostly, because he vomited them out anyway shortly after eating them, but he also just didn't like them right now. If anything, he ate fruits and vegetables – in masses. Not that he wasn't a fan of healthy food, but the amount he was eating lately, was simply ridiculous... and Shadow probably needed to make sky-high debts to get his cravings...

The worst part was, that his instincts were going crazy. He was keeping a distance to each and everyone. Whenever Tails, Shadow, or whoever, came closer to him, even if they just tried to help him, he found himself backing off, or even running away. It wasn't out of fear, at least not the fear of getting hurt by them, which was a little reassuring, but he still felt the rare knot of panic in his gut, whenever someone came to him. Everyone needed to keep at least one meter as a distance, if they wanted to talk with him properly. One step closer – and Sonic was gone.

It was scary, how similar this was to the events from about two years ago. He hadn't have cravings (besides the craving for absolutely no food at all) or had felt the need to distance himself back then, but otherwise, it was the same.

The most important difference, however, was, that his mind was still clear. He didn't feel scared of anyone or anything, or started to cry every five minutes (a little exaggerated, but not much). He didn't doubt himself, not this time. His mood wasn't the best right now, like before, but this time, it was, because he hadn't been able to sleep properly for days now and often reacquainted himself with his food. Still, that he was this sick with these particular symptoms...

He looked up, when he heard a noise and looked up to see Knuckles, standing a few meters away from him, a disapproving glare on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. "Not again.," he growled. "Hehe...," the hero laughed, embarrassed, scratching his head quills. Of course, the echidna meant his scream, because of the nightmare.

Since he had started to feel strange, Shadow and – to the blue one's surprise – Knuckles were quite literally going crazy with worry.

Shadow had almost obliterated Mobius in his search for Eggman and when he had found the man, he had...interrogated him into the hospital, just to find out, that he was truly innocent, he had nothing to do with Sonic's current condition. Him being in hospital meant at least, that Sonic wouldn't have to worry about the evil genius anytime soon – and the hero had the feeling, that Shadow had intended just that.

Knuckles had had meanwhile almost destroyed Sonic's and Tails' house, trying to find any tiny robot, that might inject the hero with a drug to lower his health, like it had been the case before. Even after Eggman had been declared innocent by Shadow, Knuckles hadn't stopped.

The outcome: he had tried to kill mosquitoes and other insects with his fists – and usually just hit the furniture to debris. When he had almost killed a stray kitten, that had somehow found its way in the house and was now living with a neighbor's child (and was probably still traumatized), the hero had decided for a change of tactics – which was, why he was since eight days living in a corner of Angel Island, where the echidna could live out his protective instincts to the maximum, without killing anything innocent. Besides, if something dangerous or threatening came on the island, the echidna would know it immediately. This move had actually calmed Knuckles' protective instincts down and reduced them to a manageable intensity.

As the island's guardian, Knuckles reacted still to each and every single one of his screams, that were always caused by his frequent nightmares, which was going on his nerves, by now.

For some reason, he hadn't tried to throw him off the island (either literally, or metaphorically), yet, even though he had all reason to do this – and Shadow was making it really clear each day, that he would rather have Sonic with him, even though coming here was the least of his problems.

"Sorry, Knux.," the hedgehog apologized for luring him here...again. "Would you FINALLY take it?," the echidna grumbled.

Sonic frowned immediately. As he had sleeping problems, the guardian had offered him a herb, that grew on Angel Island and that would help him to sleep for once, but Sonic had refused it every time, as well as every other herb for his current ailments so far.

Why? He wasn't quite sure. His instincts were keeping his guard up for some reason and he refused to take anything, that could lower it again...at least that was the only explanation he could come up with.

As Sonic's nightmares were by now also influencing the sleeping rhythm of the guardian as well, Knuckles was ready to do almost everything to get the hero to let them both rest. And just forcing the herbs down his throat was getting more and more attractive.

Suddenly, the echidna raised his head and whipped around. "Shadow, get off my island!," he barked at a bush and really, just a second later, the dark hedgehog came out of his hiding place, by now not surprised anymore.

Shadow had an unique relation to Chaos Energy – unlike all other living beings, he absorbed it and didn't give it off in small amounts, like it was usual with all other life forms on Mobius. Knuckles, as a guardian, could see the Chaos Energy floating over Mobius' surface and of course saw it immediately, when the energy was pulled in a certain direction. Needless to say, that it annoyed Shadow to not be able to sneak up on the other male.

"What are you doing to my mate?," the agent growled, not hiding his aggression. Sonic quickly jumped up, although his stomach and head both protested painfully against the action. He could guess, that this whole situation was stressing his mate out, and seeing now Knuckles almost towering over his uke, who had sat on the ground, was just adding to the tension the seme had to feel currently.

"Shads, calm down! It was nothing, I swear!," Sonic quickly reassured him. Having been in a relationship with him for about two years, the hero knew, that Shadow would protect him without a question and get very aggressive in the process.

Usually, he listened to him, if he said things like 'I'm fine', or 'I can handle (it) myself', but right now, saying both would be a lie. He had grown weaker and lost weight lately, even he himself with his limited knowledge about ukes and semes could imagine, that this was firing up the other's protective instincts.

Seeing, that the two were still in murderous moods, Sonic stepped between them. "Give us a sec, okay?," he asked Knuckles calmly, indicating silently for him to go. The echidna huffed, whirled around and marched away towards the temple. "I would hurry, Rouge was with me.," Shadow called after him, but the echidna, knowing, that he was just trying to get under his skin, didn't react to it.

Shadow turned to Sonic and saw him frowning. "What?," he asked. "Could you stop being an ass all the time?," the hero replied, annoyed, feeling his mood dampen more, than it already had been today. He hated, how Shadow was towards his friends, even though he already knew, that Shadow was acting like that, because he was jealous.

They hadn't have a lot of moments just for themselves so far, because they had been too busy – with saving the world, usually –, but whenever they had have the time to be just among themselves for something else, than sleeping, Shadow had almost always showed jealousy.

It had been touching at first. The news of Sonic being an uke and being on the Island (although the details had not been published, there had leaked out enough for most people to imagine the (wrong) rest) lured several males of all species in his range, whenever he went out, and they were trying to hit on him. They seemed to think, that he wouldn't be able to fight them off, if he had been so long in this place. It had been touching, how Shadow had let those guys back off with a glare or a threat (if necessary), because he got, that Sonic didn't want to fight against and hurt them in any way.

By now, however, the dark seme was going paranoid with jealousy. He saw possible rivals, where there weren't any, especially among Sonic's male friends and fans.

He had even looked at Tails with a murderous glare on several occasions, until Sonic had told him strictly, that he was a brother and best friend to him – and that he would break up immediately, if he continued to do that. The threat had saved at least the young fox genius from Shadow, but the rest of his friends had to be careful not to get too close to Sonic still, when the dark agent was present as well.

Until now, Sonic had no idea, how he could tame the jealousy in his boyfriend. He couldn't always threaten with a break up – years of fighting against Eggman had taught him, that threats had a short expiration date concerning the effect they had.

That Sonic was living with Knuckles (so to say), was provoking Shadow's jealousy greatly – but what could be done against it?

It wasn't, as if the blue hedgehog could simply live with the agent. He had no home for himself, he either stayed with Sonic, or, if he wasn't there (like now), with Rouge, as he had done before the Island-incident. As staying with Sonic, to share his twin bed with him, sleeping together in each other's arm (well, not during the last two weeks...), was heavenly anyway, he hadn't thought about his own place. Now, he regretted it – and Sonic did so, too.

The hero never missed the subtle glares towards his abdomen, that he got from his mate. He knew, what Shadow was searching for. His symptoms, the tiredness, the vomiting, the mood swings (in a way he had those, thanks to his general condition), the strange cravings, the headaches – this were all symptoms of a pregnancy. Tails had researched it by his brother's request, after he had noticed the stares for the first time.

It took no genius to guess Shadow's thoughts from there – Sonic was pregnant because of Knuckles.

It was absolutely absurd and if the echidna would EVER hear of that, he would strangle most likely both, but the hero understood, why he was brought into thinking that. Just like in his dreams, he and Shadow had never gotten far with their intimacy.

The reason? He himself. Whenever Shadow's hands (or mouth) wandered too far south, Sonic found himself pushing him away. As if everything beneath his waistline was a taboo for his boyfriend.

At first, Shadow had blamed the rape and the unwanted pregnancy Sonic had had to endure for this, thinking, that both experiences had made him weary of physical contact. He had wanted to give him all the time he needed to recover, but the blue uke had reassured him, that he wasn't controlled by the past, that this wasn't the reason for his reluctance...he just wasn't able to understand or tell, why he was acting like this. Even shortly before Sonic had started to push everyone away from him, he had still kept him waiting, which just caused Shadow confusion as to why he was refusing him.

And now, both hedgehogs were feeling the consequences of their doing. Sonic's mind was torturing him with dreams, that let him yearn for more of his mate's touches, that he couldn't have in his current condition, while Shadow was getting lost in completely wrong ideas, that let him see his mate in the arms of another.

Sonic would love to end Shadow's thoughts concerning his – imagined – condition, but he didn't know, how to make him realize, that he wasn't pregnant. Maybe he should finally go to a doctor, which he had avoided so far? Tails, Shadow and pretty much everyone else had tried to get him to one, but he had refused every time.

"Any change?," Shadow changed the topic of their conversation, before they would have a fight. It wouldn't be the first one, since this mess had started. Sonic was really moody and Shadow really stressed, so they had ended up several times shouting at each other in rage, until someone dragged Shadow away – or Sonic fled, whatever happened first.

The hero just sighed and shook his head, not saying anything. Shadow pressed his ears to his head in distress. So he still didn't want him closer to himself. He hated to see his mate like this, to feel so powerless, to not know, what was going on. If only there was something he could do!

The two mates looked at each other, not sure, what they could say. If they could say anything, without slipping into an argument.

Two pairs of ears flew up and two heads jerked, when they suddenly heard a double scream, penetrating the silence between them, coming, as they both knew immediately, from the direction of the temple. At once, they raced towards it.

Alright, that's the real first chapter! How do you like it? I'm a little insecure about the short chapters. Usually, I just write a lot in one chapter, but the editing afterwards is a bitch, so I decided to try it with shorter ones, that will at times contain cliffhangers, like now. Is that okay? I'm tempted to make rather shorter and more chapters, than longer and less...

Sorry, that there isn't much happening already, but with shorter chapters, I should be able to update more often. I think, that I will be able to update on Thursdays from now on, unless I'm busy with something, then it would be sometime during the weekends.