cookythefoxcat, JackleTheKitsune, Mana the Cat Magician, AutoKnight01, holospartoi258, poka, Tyranifex, Jonman14, JazzTheHedgehogSingingStar, Novus Umbra, 01sonamy01, SherryBlossom.

Chapter 11: Loose Ends


"I know, little guy, I know," Sonic whispered down to his son, who was wiggling around in his arms and clearly uncomfortable in the down-coat and corduroy-pants warming his small body. "But Amy wouldn't a let me outta the house without ya wearin' somethin' in this weather..."

Sonic stopped briefly to fill the passing snow-covered mailbox and then picked up the pace again, not wanting to halt for too long. For as long as he kept running, he wouldn't feel the frigid wind piercing his own unclothed body. Winter was by far his least favorite season, for a lot of reasons. One being that on his runs he had to watch out for black ice so he didn't fall on his butt. Another being that the cold air hurt his lungs... and he could go on and on. But still, the mail had to be delivered no matter what, and so he still had a job to do.

At least he could bring one of his kids along with him once a week now. His boss, Wheat, said he didn't mind, and it gave Amy a break from having both twins to take care of. The teen mother was slowly becoming a little less clingy with them as well, although Sonic had a feeling she would be overprotective of them all throughout their lives... it was just who Amy was. He just hoped that she wasn't becoming jealous of how much time he was spending with them now.

Chase started giggling as Sonic sped up - a noise that was music to the older hedgehog's ears. There were few things that he liked to hear more than his children laughing when he took them on a run. Both of them really seemed to love it, making Sonic think they'd both inherited that need for speed he had. This made him impatient and longing for the days when they could run and race him themselves, and do more than just the rather speedy crawling they could do now.

Finally finding himself at one of the special destinations, Sonic approached the door and rang the bell. He shifted his slight weight back and forth from his heels to his toes impatiently.

"C'mon, c'mon, I don't have all day," Sonic muttered under his breath as he felt the cold catch back up with him.

His left sneaker started tapping in a haphazard fashion as the hedgehog continued to wait. Normally he didn't do face to face deliveries, but this time it was special. Besides, Amy had she'd said she'd love for him to hand deliver all the wedding invitations. And once he'd gotten these passed out and they knew who all was coming, all that was left was the much-dreaded waiting. The planning was all but over with... well, everything except the honeymoon. Sonic had volunteered to select that destination, and had quite a few places picked out for that.

A dark smile curved up his muzzle before Sonic was brought back to the present and decided that he was done waiting. If Rouge didn't want to answer the door to retrieve that blasted Chaos Emerald and her wedding invitation, so be it.

The next few zones passed without much ado, and then Sonic was back on his normal route. Next up he was going to visit his second best friend to let him in on the news, as after all… what was a wedding without a Knucklehead?

Arriving at the base of the frozen shrine holding the sacred Master Emerald, Sonic dug into his mail pack with his free hand to pull out a highly ornate card. He then looked up at the top of the shrine and almost dropped both the invitation and Chase. There, at the top, was the famous last echidna, yes… but also the even more famous batgirl thief. Now this was nothing new… except for the fact that they were both laughing. And actually not trying to kill each other this time.

Now this was too good to pass up.

"Hey guys," Sonic said with a cheeky grin on his muzzle as he made his way carefully up the icy steps.

The pair stopped conversing and looked at their visitor, and thanks to Sonic's speed he could make out a redness on their cheeks that couldn't be just from the nippy weather.

"Hey Big Blue... and Little Blue," Rouge greeted him and eyed Chase.

"Sonic," Knuckles nodded at him.

"Well, you two are in a good mood," Sonic teased them both before handing them each their invitations.

"Is that a crime?" Rouge raised an eyebrow at him before using her nail to open the envelope and peel out the card.

"Oh no, just sayin', yer not usually…" Sonic drifted off as he smiled down at Chase.

"Da-da..." the boy said determinedly and looked at his dad with huge emerald eyes. "Da-da!"

"Yep, I'm your Dada," Sonic tenderly said back to him, and had to smile that Chase was already calling him that.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was struggling to open the envelope, as his gloves didn't have fingers.

"Need some help there, Knuckie?" Rouge teased him, as she couldn't help but notice.

"No." The echidna scowled and turned away, a little embarrassed that he couldn't quite get it open. He tussled with the piece of paper for a few seconds before muttering, "Screw it," and then used his knuckles to slice the top part off, finally freeing the card to be opened.

Rouge watched his struggle and found herself holding back a laugh before she opened her own card and read it. Her aqua eyes got big as she saw the date and location.

"Valentine's Day, huh?" the bat shot Sonic a glance, who shrugged.

"Yeah, you know how Amy is. She's been goin' nuts with the plannin', hasn't she Chase?" Sonic brought his free hand up to tickle Chase's nose, and the boy sneezed. "You two gonna be there?"

"I guess I will," Knuckles said gruffly.

"How many others are going?" Rouge asked.

"Ah… we're tryin' ta keep it small, actually," Sonic admitted. "Mostly because it's gonna be expensive anyway on V-Day… so we're thinking 40 people, tops. Close friends, ya know."

"Small weddings are better," Knuckles agreed and shivered a little as the wind picked up.

Sonic followed suit and hopped from side to side to warm up, hoping that Chase didn't mind. "Yeah, it's more personal that way. But anyway, I can count on both of you two to be there…" he grinned. "Together?"

"Heck no, I'll be there, but I'm goin' alone," Knuckles insisted and crossed his arms.

Rouge smirked and pulled closer, resting her gloved hand on his strong arm. "I think you'll change your mind in two months."

"And why would I go with you again?" The echidna immediately pulled away from her touch, not wanting to look like a wuss in front of Sonic.

"Because," Rouge said confidently and threw her head back. "I'm the only one who will make sure you don't go and make an idiot out of yourself… though that's a tough job even for me."

Sonic rolled his eyes at their antics, but then remembered something. "Oh, Rouge, before I forget..." Sonic reached into his quills to produce that blasted purple Chaos Emerald he still owed her. "Sorry it took so long, I haven't had time to breathe the past few months."

He casually tossed it at the bat, and she caught it and smirked. "Thanks darlin'... I was afraid you'd forgot."

Knuckles winced at Rouge's use of a term of affection, even though she meant nothing by it. He hated it when Rouge flirted with him, but he hated it even more when she flirted with other guys... and he wasn't sure why.

"Well, I'll see you two later then, I gotta run," Sonic said and zipped off, deciding it was time to move on. He had one more delivery to make, and then all of the invitations would be out.

His next stop was a certain detective agency housing three of Sonic's most odd friends. And now that he'd thought about it, it'd been a long time since he'd caught up with the trio. Time was just going by so fast right now.

After jumping over an unplowed snowdrift, Sonic finally reached their door. He raised his hand to ring the bell, but couldn't find a switch... and ended up knocking to call one of them to open. But as soon as his gloved fist met wood... the whole door fell in and crashed to the floor, somehow still in tact.

"Dada?" Chase asked and cringed a little at the slam.

Sonic's eyes got huge as he realized what he just did. "...whoops... don't know my own strength, heh..." the sheepish hedgie said and then raised his leafy green eyes up to meet Charmy's golden ones.

"Oh, it's just Sonic! ... Don't worry about the door, we're still waiting until payday 'til we fix it," the bee explained.

Espio appeared to take hold of the door and lift it back into place, sealing off the icy gust of air, as the hedgehog entered with a chuckle.

"Alright then." He readjusted his grip on Chase, who was kicking against his stomach.

"Hey Sonic, what can we do for you?" Vector asked with a huge grin, showing off his pointy teeth. "Cute kid, by the way. You and Amy doing okay with the wedding stuff?"

"Heh, thanks, and yeah we are... speaking of that..." The hedgehog reached into his pack to retrieve three engraved invitations and handed one to each of the detectives. "I'm here to formally invite all three of you to Amy and my wedding, which'll be on Valentine's Day."

"Oh, we already knew it was on Valentine's Day," Vector said proudly and set his card down. "My keen detective skills were able to detect – "

"Vanilla told him," Charmy butted in, smirking at his boss. "His girlfriend, hee hee..."

"Quiet Charmy," Vector hissed at him, his green scales turning pink.

"What we mean is… we're looking forward to attending," Espio said, used to his erratic colleagues by now.

"Great, so you guys can all make it?"

"Unless we get some work between now and then... we should be free," Vector said.

"What is the dress code?" Espio asked sensibly.

Sonic sighed. "Well, I don't really mind either way... but Amy'll be pissed if you guys don't wear tuxes. Just sayin'..."

"We'd rather not deal with a pissed off Amy," Vector agreed.

"Is there going to be cake there?" Charmy asked, licking his lips at just the thought.

"Yep... Amy's already got the cake ordered... red velvet, I think," Sonic said.

"Oh boy!" Charmy gushed. "Red velvet... yumm-y!"

"I've never had that kind before," Espio remarked.

"Yer missin' out," Sonic said. "Red velvet cake is amazing... but anyway, glad you guys are on board... I'll be looking forward to seeing you guys there. Now I gotta run, so see you all later..."

"Bye Sonic, take care... and thanks for the invitations!" Vector called out to him as Sonic disappeared into the cruel winter wind.

...~...

Finally, finally all of the day's errands were done, and Sonic was able to head back home, and see his other half and other child. He was looking forward to not only that, but warming up in front of the fireplace and eating dinner. Today had been shockingly cold, and Sonic had spent most of it outside and without any clothes on... and it was beginning to catch up with him.

Using his own house key, Sonic entered his home to be greeted by his fiancee in the foyer, her peach-colored dress covered in green and orange splotches of baby food.

"Sonic, you're freezing!" Amy gushed, noticing he was more blue than usual.

"I'm f-fine," Sonic lied through his chattering teeth.

"Oh, get in here," Amy insisted and dragged him into the living room and took the frozen infant from his arms. "Oh, Chase, my baby..." she cuddled up to him and kissed his head. "He's cold too, I'm glad that he had clothes on anyway…"

Sonic shivered as he sat down in front of the blazing fire. "Aw, Chase is a champ, he's tough as nails, ya know that... hey Sierra," Sonic greeted his daughter, who was sitting in a high chair, her bib covered in baby food as well.

"Maybe, but you need to start leaving them home now that it's winter."

Amy draped a quilt around Sonic's shoulders and wrapped him in a warm hug with her one free arm. "There you go, Sonic..." She gave him a peck on the cheek. "...and next time I'm not letting you out of the house without some clothes."

Sonic hid his smile into the warm red and yellow blanket. He would roll his eyes for his ego's sake, but Sonic secretly adored it when Amy fussed over him this much. Especially if it meant she gave him something warm to eat. He snuggled into the blanket and let his eyes watch the dancing yellow and orange flames, inhaling the homely scent of burning wood.

"Aw, Ames, remember last time I tried to wear pants?" Sonic joked, rubbing his hands together, still shivering.

That made Amy smile in spite of herself. "Still, you're going to wear at least a jacket… Oh, what am I going to do with you..." Amy muttered and went off to get her son into some warm pajamas. "Oh... and keep an eye on Sierra so she doesn't choke on her spoon, okay?"

"Will do," Sonic agreed and turned to his daughter to give her a huge grin.

The girl returned it, showing off her two baby teeth and squealing.

Chase and Sierra were slowly being weaned off their mother's milk onto more solid food, though they were still going to nurse for a while. But feeding babies turned out to be a very messy endeavor, Sonic had found that out the hard way. He'd had to spend an extra few minutes in the shower the past few days, scrubbing his fur to get the baby food out of it.

A minute later, Amy came back in with an azure hedgehog wrapped in green flannel pajamas in one hand and a plate full of chili dogs in the other.

"Oh, oh, oh…" The extra saliva was already forming in Sonic's mouth as he stared at his favorite food, cooked to perfection by one of the best, all lined up in a symmetrical row on the blue plate.

"You're welcome, don't eat it too fast," Amy said, but realized that it was too late as Sonic started stuffing his face.

The girl rolled her eyes a little, but still smiled affectionately at her fiance. She loved all of his little quirks.

The gleam of her shiny engagement ring caught her eye as Amy turned back to her twins, and she let a smile crawl up her face in remembrance. "Since the planning for the wedding was now less hectic, Amy had really calmed down. Maybe she wasn't able to go all out like she'd always wanted to and have a huge party with hundreds of guest, but Amy had made do. She had tried to be optimistic through all of the hard choices and sacrifices she'd had to make. After all, if she was going to be married to Sonic, what else did she need?

The girl was still stoked for the wedding, of course, but now that most of the work was done, she was able to relax and just bask in the thought that she was going to be married to Sonic soon. Oh, just two more months until the most romantic day (and night) of her life. But, back to the present. In the meantime, the twins were really keeping her on her toes, especially now that they were eating and crawling.

"Did you feed Chase today?" Amy asked Sonic, putting her son into his high chair.

"I did, gave him three bottles..." Sonic swallowed his last bite and then raced to the kitchen to put his plate away, eager to help. "So I guess he needs some solid food now, huh?"

"Well, if you can call this solid," Amy said and held up the jar of baby food.

"Here, Ames, I'll get him," Sonic took the jar and spoon from her. "I don't mind, really. You just finish up with Sierra."

"Okay, thanks. Are you sure you're okay, though? You were purple when you came in ten minutes ago."

"That was ten minutes ago, and those chili dogs, man... they're somethin' else... but anyway... are you ready to eat, buddy?" Sonic asked his son and started feeding him, carefully loading up the small spoon and sticking it gently in the infant's mouth.

After both twins were fed and cleaned up, the parents put them on the floor to crawl around and play.

"Aw, look, Ames, they're already racing." Sonic smiled proudly down at his children who were quickly crawling side by side.

Jumping off the couch, the father took a hold of one toy and brought it back and forth as Chase crawled over to him and touched the toy.

"Gaagoo!" Chase exclaimed excitedly.

"Yes, they're both fast... and I have to watch them like a hawk," Amy said and leaned back to stop and watch for a moment. "Today I left Sierra alone for one second to make a call... and the girl was gone when I got back. I freaked out, but she had just crawled into the next room. Fast, though."

"Looks like they both got some of my speed," Sonic grinned fondly. "I can't wait until they can run."

Amy groaned a little. "I guess I'll be the slow one in the family... and still chasing. First you, and now our kids."

"Aw, it'll be fun, Ames. You can let me handle most of that, I'd love to. 'Bout time I started having some competition in the speed department... besides my fakers, of course."

"Of course," Amy agreed and smiled sweetly. "So... did you get all the invitations passed out today?"

Sonic nodded. "Yep, looks like pretty much everyone's coming. Some said they wanted to wait and see, but we got about thirty people committed now."

"Thirty... " Amy thought for a minute. "I think with that many guests I can still fit dinner into the budget you gave me."

"Really?" Sonic looked up. "You know, Ames, I'm really proud of you, keeping the price down pretty good, even though it's on V-Day."

"Well, I am a good shopper, and it's not like I've been planning this out for years or anything," Amy giggled and blushed a little. "Ah, I had fun, though... planning weddings is something I would do for free."

"Yeah... so with all the planning done... does that mean that we can move the date up, to say... tomorrow?"

Amy shook her head. "Nope, Sonic, you are going to be patient. I know that you can do that for me. Besides, I'm not completely done, I still have some loose ends that I need to tie up...and all the waiting will make it that much sweeter once February Fourteenth finally does arrive, right?"

"... nah, I don't think the waiting will do anything but kill me, Ames. Why don't we just elope? We can take the kids with us and just run off an' -"

"Out of the question, we're having a true blue wedding, Sonic," Amy said firmly and finally came off the couch to kneel down with her kids, placing a hand on Sierra's quills. "I've been waiting for this for almost nine years, and you're not going to deprive me from it."

The blue hedgehog groaned but grinned and turned back to his kids. "Alright, Ames... whatever you want, girl. I just want to make you happy with all of this."

"Aw, thanks Sonic!" Amy leaned over and hugged him. "You really have. Thank you so much for all of this."

"My pleasure... I love you, Amy."

"Oh, I love you too, future husband."

...~... A/N ...~...

Yes, another filler chapter. I realize it was a tad boring and there wasn't much to it, but I thought skipping ahead to the wedding would be too fast. And I wanted to show the time spent waiting for the wedding and get others' reactions... as well as I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THE CHAOTIX IN PASSION!

It also allowed me to show another stage in the twins' development... they're now, about... 8 months or so... I've researched [human] baby development and I'm sorta playing off of that, although speeding it up a little, as I have a feeling anthropomorphic hedgehogs mature faster than humans do.

I'm trying to make the timing of this story make sense... right now it's early December, and most of the wedding planning is done. Chase and Sierra were born in late April-ish, and Sonic proposed in June... (if you count back 9 months, that would mean that Passion started in July of the previous year...) Oh, and I guess, considering Sonic and Amy's "canon birthdays" of June 23 and September 23, they would be 20 and 17 now, which isn't all that young to be marrying.

As for which twin inherited Sonic's speed... I've actually thought a little too much about that. ^^' At first I was gonna have just Sierra have his full speed and have Chase be normal (and have Sonic be a little disappointed that his son didn't turn out just like him, as 9 times out of 10 your kids don't turn out how you want them to.), but then I decided that wasn't likely for one twin to get his whole power and the other get nothing... (even if they are fraternal). And I liked the thought of two toddlers that are zipping around everywhere (poor Amy)! But hey, there's never gonna be another Sonic the Hedgehog... even his own children are gonna be slower than him because they have Amy's genes.

Plus, there's the whole question of how Sonic got to be so fast himself... in the games canon, we don't have a backstory. Is it pure genetics (Was it some rarely beneficial mutation? I think that's it... but it's still very complicated...) or is it also because he's in incredible shape from so much practice? I dunno, Biology is a subject that I've always hated and never paid attention in (though in hindsight I should've as I'm gonna have to take it again, but when you're thirteen years old, as I was when I took it, you hardly care about school most of the time... yes?)... either way, both twins have super speed to some extent, and one may be faster than the other, but they're both slower than Sonic... at least for now...

Gah, I just ranted my keyboard off...