In the kitchen both the echidna and fox worked rather diligently together. Neither one really saying much. They already knew how each other's day was from dinner— the well of conversation was rapidly drying.

"So are you going to leave me as the odd man out and finally get a girlfriend?" Tails pouted.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. The 'finally' was a little unnecessary. There wasn't even anyone he had the slightest interest in. Well, that was a lie. There was someone but he couldn't foresee it working out. She was a jewel thief and he was a jewel guard— some real Romeo and Juliet stuff. He was in no position to kill himself for love, as he already had too many obligations unfortunately. Oh what he would give to be an idiot in love. Being a regular idiot was already too much.

The echidna instead sighed,"And miss this quality dishwashin' time with my dishwashin' buddy?"

"Good." Tails mumbled,"Because if I get another freeloader like you, I'll go ape!"

"Okay, okay, you got it little man."

Bitterly scrubbing at plates, Tails wondered how much money they would have to pull to actually get a dishwasher. It dawned on the twin-tailed kit, he laughed somewhat maniacally— HE COULD JUST MAKE THE DISHWASHER. GENIUS, TAILS, GENIUS.

Knuckles pumped more soap into the sink basin proceeding to ignore whatever Tails was laughing evilly about now.

"WASSUP GUYS WE FOUND AN EGG."

Nearly causing both of them to drop the dishes they were holding. Knuckles and Tails turned to the front entrance. Sonic had kicked open the door.

"Why do we all enter the house like that?" Knuckles found himself asking aloud.

Tails shrugged," I suspect that this house is on a dimensional faultline where it is predetermined that everyone bound to the laws of fate have to make a dramatic entrance."

Finding their way to the kitchen Sonic repeated holding the egg above his head,"guys we found an egg!"

Knuckles ran the rag over the dish in his hands before setting it on the drying rack,"We heard."

"Did you hear the 'wassup'?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," Sonic said leaning the egg into the crook of his elbow.

Shadow scratching the back of his head as he lagged behind Sonic,"We found it abandoned on our walk. You wouldn't happen to know if anyone around here is missing an egg?"

Tails looked to Knuckles, because Tails wouldn't know off hand given that he was an introvert and a man of science.

Knuckles looked to Tails, because Knuckles wouldn't know off hand given that he was flightier than space cadet.

The pair shrugged.

Shadow sighed,"Well I suppose we could go door to door to see if anyone is missing a…"

Trailing off he noticed how Sonic was looking at the egg. It was as if Christmas came twice in a single day. He was holding the egg in the crook of his arm as if introducing a new best friend.

He shook his head, despite the cute sight it was unethical to keep something that didn't belong to them, "Knuckles, would you mind watching the egg?"

"Huh, why can't I watch it?" Sonic asked knitting his brow, wondering if Shadow was questioning his abilities.

Shadow gestured to Knuckles," Well... Echidnas lay eggs so I thought he would have more of an idea on what to do."

Tails scoffed, "You think Knuckles has ideas?"

The echidna clenched his fist which was filled with the fratricide rage to pick Tails up by the shoes and give the twerp a shake down, "As much as I disagree with that statement," Knuckles glared to the kit, "Tails."

He then continued his previous thought,"He's right, I don't really know a lot about eggs. I never had any brothers or sisters or nothin'."

The fox while nodding his head walked up to Sonic and placed his hand on the egg, noting the coloring on the shell, "Besides Shadow, this is a Chao egg."

"A Chao?" Shadow placed a hand on his chin. He supposed that narrowed down the people on the block that could be missing an egg, more than likely previous Chao owners or Chao breeders.

"Yeah you know those sweet little cherub creatures descended from Chaos?"

Shadow waved his hand dismissively,"Yes, yes, I know what they are- I happen to be in the fantasy karate Chao league at work."

"I didn't think you were interested in sports," Knuckles pondered aloud.

"Why did you think that?"

All eyes fell upon the echidna that had a shoulder leaned up against the side of the fridge, his back crumpling Tails' chore wheel. Knuckles looked the short hedgehog up and down. His face turned slightly pink while admitting," Because… you're y'know… goth…"

Sonic trying to wrangle the conversation back to the topic at hand," This being a chao egg that sort of clears up all the strange noises it was makin'." He poked at the egg, wondering what exactly what it was fussing at earlier.

"What kind of noises were they?" the fox smacked his older brother's hand away to keep him from causing unnecessary discomfort to the baby.

Shadow piped in,"They sort of sounded like… a warbling? It was emitting this orange glow."

Tails hastily, without warning, scooped the egg out of Sonic's hands. Revved up, lifting off to his lab.

"Hey! Be careful!"

Shadow stayed back and began reflecting once again. Who would just abandon a defenseless egg? Clearly it didn't get there on it's own. There couldn't be anyone in this area that depraved- unless…

Unless this was a trick…? Some sort of bomb device in the shape of an egg thought up by none other than the good doctor. He balled his fist, that certainly was a distinct possibility. Sonic… Sonic's judgement couldn't be wrong however, Sonic trusted this strange occurance to be just that- a strange and innocent occurrence. Shadow trusted Sonic, therefore this worry should be laid to rest to the back of his mind.

The overwhelming suspicion still sat in his tensed jaw. Gritting his teeth Shadow chastised himself. He trusted Sonic's judgement; he had to.

Knuckles sipped loudly on cherry limeade through a stripped straw watching Shadow tie himself up with his own thinking. The echidna wondered if Shadow noticed that he was pacing all along the kitchen before resigning to sit on the kitchen counter cross-legged, without saying a single word. Honestly he thought the hedgehog had left already to go check on his partner, but he still sat there with a resting angry face that made him look constipated.

"So…" Knuckles took another sip,"You gonna go look at your kid or what?"

"Kid?"

Knuckles sighed, "Yeah your kid, the Chao. If no one claims it, technically it's orphaned, and if it's orphaned and you and Sonic found it- then it would be your kid… at least I think so, right?"

The thought honestly didn't cross the hedgehog's mind until that moment as it exited Knuckles' mouth and the words sort of floated around the room. Shadow would have a kid? For some reason the idea of impending fatherhood didn't bring him the comfort he thought it should have. A kid… a child… a creature that scrutinized every move and if he were to mess up it would have lasting consequences of possibly being just like him. He suddenly felt very nauseous.

"Say, would you happen to have more of that limeade?"

Knuckles retrieved the pitcher,"What kind of glass do you want?"

Sonic glanced over at the discarded Chao handbook that Tails' had book marked on the floor,"Are you sure the lamp isn't overkill?"

"Oh, ye of little faith." Tails smirked throwing the switch to his extremely large and recently modified fluorescent lights overhead of the three of them.

The lights hummed to life with the same orange glow that the egg had apparently crying out for.

"You really don't mind doing this, kiddo?" Sonic cocked his eyebrow to the fox who seemed vehemently jealous that Shadow would be occupying any sort of fraction of time that Sonic could spend with Tails instead.

Tails blew a raspberry, "Oh yeah… This just gives me a new way to keep food good in here."

"Remember what I said about eating in your lab?" Sonic held up a disciplinary finger.

"Not to leave a mess for the roaches?"

"The other thing Tails."

"... Drink fluids other than mountain dew."

"The other other thing."

"Oh right," Tails finally got it with a snap of his fingers, but deflated disappointedly,"Eat at least one meal with family as it promotes good mental health."

"There we go," Sonic said with finality. He sat on the floor cross-legged tail shifting gradually from side to side, he had a large smile affixed on his face. Sonic looked the most awake at this moment then at any other point of the day- his eyes were clear and focused.

The fox realized how long it had been since he saw the hedgehog like that.

"Hm?"

Tails then noticed he was staring at his older brother," Oh it's nothing, you just hadn't said anything for a bit."

"I'm just really excited to see what it looks like," His hand was propping up his face but he mumbled somewhat coherently," it's been a really long time since we've been to the Chao parks. Now I might get to have one of my very own!"

"That is if someone claims it." Tails reminded him, making sure Sonic didn't get his hopes up so high that they didn't have a chance to survive the landing.

"Mhmm." Sonic dismissed, still staring at the egg, waiting on something really grand.

It was quite sometime later when Tails had left the lab as it was a bit too warm for him- even later when Knuckles put Tails to bed- even later after that later when Shadow hadn't seen Sonic for hours expecting his boyfriend to naturally succumb to his impatience and boredom and join him in the living room for some tv. The clock's seconds hand made it's fifty-ninth lap around Three-thirty-nine am, Shadow realized he wasn't getting that goodnight, he wasn't getting that night filled with board games, movies, and story-sharing that he wanted. He pressed the tv's remote causing it blink out. Dragging his aching back up from the plush navy blue loveseat he trudged his way into Tails' lab, the lights still on and pouring out from under the heavy doors.

Rubbing his stinging tired eyes- he adjusted to the brightness to see Sonic sitting on the ground in front of the egg which was resting on a pillow. The room felt comforting and safe with the dense heat hanging around them. Shadow took a step forward into the garage, "Hey… You coming to bed?"

Sonic said nothing, still hunched over in a comfortable pose to watch the egg.

"Sonic?" Shadow called out in a whisper, "Are you coming to bed?"

Unresponsive.

Shadow blinked, drawing a large sigh from the bottomest part of his chest. Closing the door gently, he stumbled down the hallway toward Sonic's room.

Chest falling, Sonic's hand propping up his chin finally fell after hours of doing its best. The hedgehog's head slumped down his neck folding towards the center of his body. The restricted airflow causing a nasally snore to vibrate his entire head.