Shadow's eyes lit up when he saw all the presents before him.
He was placed in the living room by Vanilla before the boxes were even there. Now that he was looking at them, he started to feel a little overwhelmed. His stomach bubbled up as he bounced on the floor, unsure of what to do next.
He turned to the rabbit, feeling lighter than air. He then asked. "Can I open them now Momma? Can I?"
Vanilla let out a short laugh. She then nodded.
Shadow looked at all the boxes. They had such pretty wrapping paper and decorative bows. And there were a lot to choose from. He had no idea where to start. Eventually, his eyes set upon a pretty red box tied with a golden ribbon.
He grabbed it, placed it into his lap, and ripped it open. After he had finished, his crimson eyes sparkled with delight.
He lifted the item from its box and wrapped himself in it. The blanket he had gotten was soft to the touch and had a little colorful bear design on it. He snuggled into it a little more before opening more gifts.
"Rexy!" Shadow chimed, hugging the plush dinosaur before looking for his other stuffed friends.
In the midst of his search, he found a box of multicolored bibs, large LEGOS, several puzzles of baby animals, and a little box filled with a bunch of different pacifiers.
Shadow had popped a green one in his mouth and sucked on it. He then put the box to the side and looked over at his stuffed friends.
There was a red T-Rex named Rexy, a cream colored teddy bear who was called Creme, a brown floppy eared bunny named Choco, and a sea turtle named Swimmy. Yep, that was all of them.
As the hedgehog grabbed them all and squeezed them close, Vanilla started cleaning up the ripped wrapping paper. Once she had thrown it all away, she patted him on the head.
"Do you need anything before I head upstairs?" She asked. "I need to straighten up a few things."
"Bottle please." He replied, putting his pacifier on the couch and laying on his tummy.
Vanilla nodded, turning the muted news forecast off and changing to the middle of a Paw Patrol episode. Shadow looked up at the show in curiosity, watching the puppies do their jobs. Once she changed the volume, the rabbit headed to the kitchen.
The Little hedgehog sat back up and popped his binky into his mouth. He then laid back down and snuggled with his toys, sucking on the pacifier. His eyes remained focus on the screen as he watched the show, almost forgetting about his bottle until Vanilla brought it to him.
"Do you want me to feed it to you?"
Shadow shook his head, putting the pacifier away and taking the bottle. He continued to watch the cartoon and drank his milk. His Momma left him alone, telling him to call her if he needed her. She then made her way upstairs.
Hours had passed downstairs.
Shadow had been doing an assortment of things during this time frame. He watched Nick Jr shows until he got bored. He then started playing with his new toys, building a LEGO structure before knocking it down with Rexy. After a bit of this, he went to his bag and pulled out his crayons and coloring books. He was about to zip it closed when he realized something.
At the bottom of the bag was supposed to be his Maria doll. She was right under his coloring supplies, smiling up at him. But she wasn't there anymore.
Where was she?
Shadow nabbed the bag and shook all of its contents out. She wasn't there. And he knew that she wasn't with all of his other toys.
Which meant…
"Alright little one." Vanilla's soft footsteps were heard making their way down the stairs. "I'm all done! Now we can play-"
She stopped when Shadow had made eye contact with her. His tear filled crimson eyes stared at her concern chestnut ones. She immediately rushed to his side.
"Oh my dear Shadow... what's the matter?"
The hedgehog whimpered. "Ma-Maria's gone…!"
"Maria?"
She remembered hearing that name vaguely in the past. She was connected to Shadow in some way, shape or form. But sadly, that was all Vanilla knew.
But... wasn't she dead?
"Maria!"
The rabbit blinked back to reality with her Little one's outburst. She turned to him to see that he was sobbing uncontrollably. She quickly went to parental mode, wrapping her arms around him and rubbing his back.
"There there little one…" she cooed. "It's alright…"
"I wan' Maria!" he wailed. "Wan' her now!"
Vanilla bit her lip.
How was she supposed to do that? She couldn't just bring a dead girl back to life and then give her to Shadow? That was out of the realm of science.
Right?
"Maria!"
Vanilla sighed. She had no clue what to do now. She just continued to rub his back gently, thinking about a course of action.
Her eyes glanced around the room and noticed that it was already four in the afternoon. Her eyes lit up, turning to the hedgehog.
"Shadow dear?"
He sniffled and looked at her with broken eyes. This melted her heart.
"Why don't we have a quick snack before I start making dinner, hmm?"
Shadow wiped his eyes. "Snack?"
She nodded reassuringly. "And once we're done, I'll ask Mr. Tails if he could help us find Maria."
The hedgehog stuck a finger in his mouth in thought before shaking his head.
Vanilla blinked. "Why not?"
"Cause he doesn't know Maria." He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Only I do."
"We know but we're gonna help you get her back."
"No…" Shadow pouted. "I'm the only one who knows where she is."
Vanilla raised an eyebrow, clearly confused.
"She's at home."
"...Your house?" she asked, realization on her face.
He nodded.
"Is she's a doll?"
He pouted. "No! She's a real person!"
She smiled and nodded. "Oh alright."
Afterwards, she got on her feet and stared down at the hedgehog. She then put her hand out for him to hold.
"Let's go get our snack, alright?"
Shadow grinned, grabbing her hand as the two walked into the kitchen together.