Children At Play
It was a beautiful summer day on Mobias, and Sonic, Shadow, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge were hanging out with each other at the park. There were children all around them, and over on the street, semi trucks went back and forth at top speed. The sight of it all made Shadow feel a little nervous, his mind coming up with Pet Semmetary scenarios.
Yeah, he still hasn't exactly gotten over that yet.
"Shadow, would you calm down." Sonic chuckled as he rubbed the ebony's leg soothingly. "What's got you so tense?"
Shadow looked down at his blue lover and smiled warmly, his eyes sparkling with love. "Nothing Sonic. Don't worry about it."
Sonic smiled and cutely nuzzled into Shadow's chest, letting his boyfriend pet his quills lovingly.
"You guys remember the last time we were here?" Knuckles smirked. "With the whole group?"
"Ugh, I try not to." Shadow rolled his eyes. "Most embarrassing moment of my life."
"Guess it's a good thing you've started going before leaving the house, huh Shadow?" Knuckles laughed.
"Knuckles don't be mean, it was an accident. He couldn't control it." Amy hissed. "It is not Shadow's fault he got stuck in that swing. I was the one who dared him."
"I already said it wasn't your fault either, Rose." Shadow rolled his eyes. "You couldn't have known."
"Yeah, none of us could've known." Sonic nodded in agreement. "Oh, and Knuckles…"
"Yeah?"
Sonic suddenly pulled his arm back and roughly punched the echidna in his arm.
"OUCH!" Knuckles whimpered, rubbing his now sore arm, glaring at the blue hedgehog. "What was that for?!"
"For laughing at Shadow." Sonic explained. "I said that if anybody laughed at him for wetting himself, I would punch them."
"I thought you meant at the time!" Knuckles hissed.
"You should know by now that Sonic always keeps his word, Knuckles." Tails frowned at him.
"Somehow I knew you would be the first one to start laughing." Sonic said, haphazardly admiring his nails through his glove, not paying the echidna any attention as he leaned into Shadow's chest.
"Hmph!" Knuckles huffed, crossing his arms childishly.
Shadow chuckled and kissed Sonic's head. "Thanks babe."
Sonic smiled and caught Shadow's lips in a kiss. "Any time, babe."
"You two are so mushy." Rouge laughed.
"Hush." Shadow playfully snapped at her.
Suddenly, Shadow's ear twitched when he heard screaming coming from a distance. It sounded a little panicked and desperate. He looked towards the scream and gasped in horror at what he saw.
A little toddler boy was running to the road, and coming down that road, way too fast, was a semi truck.
Flashbacks to the Pet Semmetary flashed before his eyes and he quickly stood up, unintentionally pushing Sonic onto the ground.
"Ow!" Sonic whined, rubbing his tail as he looked up at his boyfriend. "Shadow what's gotten into you?"
However, instead of answering, Shadow took off, hoping to get to the child before he got to the road. The others looked at each other in confusion, until they looked in the direction the ebony hedgehog had took off and gasped.
"Oh Chaos!" Sonic gasped when he saw the child and the semi truck. "RUN SHADOW! RUN! GRAB HIM!"
The child and truck were getting closer to each other every second. The parents were not quick enough to catch up to their son. It was all up to the black and red hedgehog.
"STOP! STOP!" Shadow tried to shout to the driver, but his cries went unheard. He pumped his legs as fast as he could, overexerting himself to get to the child.
The toddler ran into the street, and the driver screech to a jolting halt, but couldn't stop in time.
At the last second, Shadow reached the child, held him close to his chest, and barrel rolled out of the street, away from the skidding semi that passed them by just a hair.
Shadow and the toddler rolled onto the grass, the child still pressed into the hedgehog's chest, protected from harm. They rolled to a stop and Shadow sat up, holding onto the child and rocking him back and forth, petting his head to try and calm his heavy and scared breathing, tears flowing from his eyes.
"Gage! Oh my god!"
Shadow gasped and held onto the boy even tighter, silently sobbing.
This child… this little one year old boy… his name was Gage!
"Shhh. Shhhh." Shadow hushed the whimpering child, trying to calm himself and the boy. "It's ok. You're safe. You're safe. I gotcha. You're safe."
"Shadow!"
Shadow looked up and saw Sonic and his friends, as well as the boy's parents and semi driver running up to them. Shadow held onto the boy, not ready to let him go.
"Shadow." Sonic knelt down to them when he reached them. "It's ok. You saved him. He's safe. You can let him go now."
"Please…" Shadow silently whimpered. "Just a few more minutes."
"Shadow." Sonic whispered in concern as he watched his ebony lover hold onto the toddler.
"Oh Gage!" The mother cried out as she reached them. "Oh my precious boy!"
Sonic's eyes widened as he heard the name if the boy and quickly looked back at Shadow, now understanding why he was hesitant to let him go so soon. He looked back at the mother and her husband.
"I'm sorry that Shadow's being a bit clingy at the moment." He softly explained to them. "You see, he kinda just saw a certain Stephen King movie for the first time, and I guess this whole experience was a bit too surreal for him."
"If you mean Pet Semmetary, then yes, we can understand that." The father nodded.
They all remained silent as they watched the two on the ground, letting Shadow weep into the child's hair as he rocked him back and forth. After a few minutes, Shadow was finally able to pull himself together as he took a deep breath and looked straight into the boy's eyes.
"Now Gage, I'm gonna give you back to your mommy and daddy now, ok, but I need you to promise me something before I do."
"Wha?" The little one year old asked him.
"Promise me you will NEVER run into the middle of a road ever again. Can you do that? Can you promise me?"
"'Tay." Little Gage nodded.
"That's a good boy." Shadow laughed softly and lovingly, kissing the top of the boy's head before standing up and handing the child to the waiting mother. "I'm so very sorry ma'am."
"Don't be, we understand." The mother nodded as she held onto her son. "Thank you for saving our son."
Shadow nodded before turning to the semi driver, who was a young human man. He growled at him. "You should watch where you're going." He hissed at him. "You could've killed him!"
"I'm so sorry." The man quickly exclaimed. "Really I am. I'm new at this job, and if I had known that there was the possibility of children running into the road I definitely would've slowed down and kept an I out."
"What do you mean 'if' you had known?" Knuckles challenged.
"Well there's no road sign to indicate that there are children at play nearby." The driver explained. "Any driver would've made the mistake if they're not familiar with this route."
"Are you kidding me?!" Shadow hissed. "A playground full of children, multiples vehicles passing nearby and there's no road sign to indicate that there's children nearby?!"
He growled. This was an outrage! If he hadn't been there, little Gage would be dead right now! He hissed, not wanting to think about that.
"We need to get that road sign installed." Amy urged.
"Yes, but how?" Rouge questioned.
"... A petition." Shadow suggested. "A petition and a fundraiser to go with it."
"Why a fundraiser?" Knuckles asked.
"Because showing up to City Hall with just a bunch of signatures will probably just end up in the garbage. But if we show up with signatures AND money, surely they'll take us seriously."
"Great idea Shads!" Sonic praised. "Come on. I'll help you set it up."
Shadow nodded and turned back to the family. "Don't worry. By the time this is over, this will never happen again." With that, he, Sonic, and their friends took off to start their plan.
"Buh Buh." Little Gage waved.
…
It was a full month before the heroes had enough signatures and enough money to present to City Hall about their determination to get a road sign installed by the park.
With the 5 pages of 1,000 signatures, front to back, and a raising of nearly one million dollars, as well as Shadow's story about how he saved a one year old toddler from almost getting killed by a semi truck, it was enough to convince the mayor to get a Children At Play road sign installed about half a mile from the park, giving drivers enough time to slow down and keep their eyes out for children.
A crowd surrounded the new road sign, a big red bow ready to be cut off. Sonic, Shadow, and their friends were there, admiring their hard work. Even little Gage and his parents, and even the truck driver before, was there.
"Shadow the Hedgehog." The mayor suddenly called for the red and black hedgehog, gaining his attention. "By my honor and your hard work, I give you the honor of cutting the ribbon, putting our new road sign in use."
Flattered and a bit embarrassed, Shadow sheepishly took the big scissors and approached the sign before sliding the ribbon between the blades and closing them, cutting the ribbon cleaning off of the pole.
"I declare this Children At Play road sign official." Shadow called out.
The crowd cheered, parents relieved that their children will now be safe around the park, truck drivers clapping over the fact they won't ever have to face the guilt of hitting a child, and other parents weeping over the lost of their child that once couldn't avoid the tragedy.
Suddenly, Shadow felt a bit of tugging on his leg and he looked down, smiling sweetly at little Gage before bending down and picking him up in his arms, snuggling him close, earning a bunch of awes and coos from the crowd. Sonic came up and kissed the hedgehog on his cheek.
"You did good Shads." He smiled.
Shadow chuckled before pulling Sonic closer to him and placing his lips to the smaller blue one's.
"No… we did good. I couldn't have done it without you."
"I love you Shadow."
"I love you too, Sonic."
