"Ok, I've already got some cold bottles of milk and apple juice waiting in the fridge for when he gets thirsty, baby food is in the cabinets, there's also a diaper bag underneath the changing table if you guys decide to go out, and-"
"Rose, will you please leave." Shadow growled, "Yeah, don't worry, Ames, we've got this!" Knuckles pulled the annoyed hedgehog into a headlock, "Ok, ok. I'll go." Amy hugged Sonic and kissed him on the cheek before giving him to Shadow, "I'll be back soon, baby, be on your best behavior." she said with a motherly tone bopping his nose. "Yes, yes, now go!" Shadow waved, pushing her out the door and swiftly closed it. "Chaos, you'd think that girlfriend of yours was your mother." Sonic glared at Shadow, wiping away the kiss. "Not my girlfriend, and definitely not my mother!"
"Uh-huh, sure she isn't." he teased, "She's not!" Shadow ignored his denial, "Well, what do you want to do now?"
"Got any more pancakes left?" Knuckles asks, holding his growling stomach, they all look back at the table, seeing nothing but empty plates,
"Guess we're going out." says Sonic. "Meh Burger!" he and Knuckles cheer. Shadow places his free hand on his hip-shaking his head,
"Alright, let me clean this mess up, and then we can go. Knuckles keep Sonic occupied until I'm done." he hands over Sonic to his large friend and walks into the kitchen to work. "Alright! Come on!" Knuckles says, hurrying to the nursery, "Wow! You sure have a lot of toys." he comments, seeing the toys thrown out of the toy chest, he sits down Indian style, placing Sonic in front of him. "What do baby's like to play with?" he mused, scratching his chin; Sonic rolled his eyes with a bored expression. His friend must have forgotten that though he looked like a baby, that didn't mean he actually was a baby. The only toy out in the room that he was even remotely interested in was the toy car, not that he knew what to do with it. As a kid, he didn't have any toys or the time to play as a kid should; he was to busy trying not to starve. Besides, everything else was too babyish.
"Maybe you'll like this." Knuckles picked up the sky blue rattle shaking it in his face. Uh-huh yeah, sure this is so- his eyes lit up, pupils dilated, staring at the rattle. Sonic cooed and giggled, reaching for the toy, Knuckles gave it to him, and he shook it, enjoying the noise it made. He snapped out it, Wait a minute, what am I doing? It's just a stupid rattle. It shouldn't be...this much...fun? He experimentally shook the toy one more time much harder and shrieked, giggling with delight seeing it light up. Knuckles chuckled at the adorableness. "Do you liiiiikeeee this?" he asked, picking up and showing him the plush cheetah bobbing it up and down, talking with a funny voice, "Hi, my name is Speedy, and I wanna be your best friend!" Sonic dropped the rattle, distracted by the plush, "Aaaaaahhh!" he smiled, hugging the soft toy that was three times as big as he was, cooing in happiness. "Just when I think you can't get any cuter!" Knuckles decided to have a little fun himself; he got on his belly and playfully growled, "I'm gonna get you!" Flicking his fingers at the little hedgie who shrieked, crawling away, taking the plush with him.
"You can't escape!" Knuckles growled again, lumbering after him, the blue blur giggled at his silliness. He couldn't remember the last time he'd ever had this much fun. Beating Eggman was fun for sure, but this was different and just as, maybe if not more fun. Tail wagging, he scurried under the crib, thinking his large friend wouldn't be able to reach him there. He looked out, not seeing the red echidna. Suddenly he felt something tug his leg then quickly pull him back, "You can run, but you never can hide from the Tickle Monster!" Knuckles grunts pulling the baby hedgie out, turning him on his back and razzberries his little tummy. Sonic screamed and giggled at Knuckle's sneak attack flailing when his belly is mercilessly razzberried.
Shadow walks into the nursery and chuckles, leaning on the doorframe, watching the giant echidna play with the hysterical hedge hoglet.
"You better stop pretty soon, Knuckles or blue will be as red as you." Startled by the voice, Knuckles stops his tickling, "What? Oh! Sorry 'bout that little blue." Sonic says nothing laying in a starfish position, panting with a huge grin on his face, trying to get his breath back; that had been exhausting but fun!
"Let me get him changed, and we can go." Shadow picks up Sonic, his natural blue color returning to his face, and placed him on the changing table. After unsnapping and removing the footie, he noticed that Sonic was wet; bending down, he grabbed the supplies and untapped the diaper. Sonic looked at Shadow, puzzled as to why he was taking off his diaper. He didn't use it, did he? He looked further down, seeing the yellow stain that said he did, his bladder releasing probably during Knuckle's tickle attack, he blushed, I-I-I didn't even feel it this time. A minute later, his embarrassment washed away when Shadow began applying the baby powder and smiled peacefully. Shadow noticed the small baby smile and smirked, "Seems someone is enjoying their diapers." Sonic looked away, blushing, and still smiling. He wasn't about to admit that he might be starting to like being diapered.
Shadow wipes his hands after finishing the change, "I think we'll leave you with just a diaper and socks. It's supposed to be quite hot today. Knuckles go grab a bottle of milk and apple juice each while I get the bag ready." Knuckles salutes, marching out while Shadow picks up Sonic and sets him down on the floor, grabbing the empty diaper bag underneath the table he begins to fill it. While Shadow was busy, Sonic crawls back to his toys looking for Speedy; he sees the plush still under the crib where he left it, smiling tail wagging, he pulls the stuffed cat out and hugs its soft fur. Shadow zips up the full diaper bag, heaving it over his shoulder before lifting Sonic, still clutching his plushie into his arms, "Alright, squirt, let's go get Knuckles feed."
Sonic suckled the cold apple juice while being cradled by Shadow. Knuckles sat across the table, enjoying his Meh Burger breakfast. Though it was early in the day, the summer heat was already beating down on the island. Sonic was grateful for Shadow to have had the foresight to leave him in just the diaper and socks and to bring something cold for him to drink. He pushed away the bottle when he finished.
"What do you guys wanna do after this?" Sonic asked, "Hmmm..." Knuckles contemplated with a full mouth, "We could play coconut hurl, volleyball, go for a swim, have a race-" Shadow sighed, "Knuckles, it seems you have forgotten. Sonic is currently incapable of doing any of those activities."
"Oh, well...what do you suggest?" he shrugged.
"We could go for a walk, play video games, hang out at the beach, watch a movie."
"Why don't we hang out at Amy's, watch a movie, and play video games? I don't want to give people or Eggman too many opportunities to see me like... this." Sonic gestured, "Sounds good to me!" Knuckles stuffed down the rest of his meal, "Sensible too, we can stay out of this miserable heat." Shadow grumbled, glaring up; having black fur was an advantage in most cases, just not on hot summer days.
The guys were just about to leave the one-star restaurant when unexpectedly (even though this happens on an almost daily basis) screams, and the sound of something exploding was heard. Up ahead, a group of Crab-bots and Bee-bots were causing havoc while Eggman hovers above in his Eggmobile, commanding Burn-bot to burn everything in sight. Shadow growled, "That idiot just doesn't know when to quit. Here!" he shoved Sonic to Knuckles, "Stay out of the line of fire and get out of here, I'll put the fool in his place." leaving Knuckles to protect the defenseless speedster, Shadow skated into battle hoping to quickly diffuse the situation before any more of the village is burned down.
"Oh boy, come on, let's see where we can hide." Knuckles picked up the diaper bag and ran to the direction of the beach. Burn-bot fired a ball of flames, barely missing them blocking the path, he turned on his heels running the other direction into the forest. A Crab-bot jumped in his way, snapping its sharp metal pincers, not being able to punch the bot out of the way with his hands full, Knuckles turned again to the village. Unfortunately, Eggman, Shadow, Burn-bot, and some Bee-bots were battling in that direction. He saw no safe way to leave the battlefield, and Shadow was being overwhelmed by Eggman's robots. He looked down at his charge, staring up at him, wondering what they were going to do.
He hated to leave his little buddy alone, but he needed to help Shadow if they were going to win this fight, "Ok, listen to me, little blue," he whispered in his ear, "I'm gonna hide you somewhere, and I don't want you to move until me or Shadow come back. Ya got it?" Sonic firmly nodded. Knuckles nodded back, opening the diaper bag he placed Sonic inside and hid the bag under a Meh Burger table, "I'll be back." he quickly whispered before running to Shadow for back up.
Sonic poked his head out of the bag hugging Speedy. Just because he had to stay out of the action didn't mean he couldn't watch Eggman get his butt kicked. This was the first time to his memory that he wasn't involved in a fight with the egg-shaped genius; he had wondered at times what it felt like to be a spectator instead of a player. Everything looked as he had imagined. Cool! He awed in silence, watching Shadow chaos spear and blast ruthlessly with precision and focus the Bee-bots and Burn-bot. He cheered for Knuckles punching and kicking the Crab-bots away, swiping left and right with grace and power. The little ball of fur rooted for his friends, imitating their moves. Yeah, give them two lefts then a right! Use a chaos spear... ohhh right in the hard drive that'll show old Eggface! Gasp!
Sonic ducked back into the bag a Bee-bot's laser almost hitting the table he was hiding under; Shadow disposed of the bot before it could fire again then returned his attention on Burn-bot. Whimpering, Sonic poked his nose, followed by his head out the bag again. That was a close one, Speedy. He hugged the plushie sucking his thumb in comfort. Man watching is almost as dangerous as fighting. At least Knuckles put me someplace out of the heat.
10 minutes of punching later, Knuckles had destroyed most of the Crab-bots and some of the Bee-bots, giving Shadow the ability to focus all his efforts now on Burn-bot, who had stopped firing at the village and was using his flame thrower on Shadow. The ebony hog dodged its flames, landing in a crouch. Between the summer heat and the fires, he was beginning to get a little tired. He growls in irritation, ready to end the fight, "Let's finish this, you useless piece of scrap." Shadow chaos spears it's right arm and pretends to run to its damaged component, it's optic eyes diverted to where it assumed where Shadow was going to hit next. Burn-bot fails to see him teleport behind and sends another chaos spear through its body, exposing its power source. He jumps onto its back and yanks away the battery tossing it right to Eggman's screaming face. "Nooooo! You miserable rodents ruined my brilliant plan! I'll get you for t- hold on a second." the doctor paused from his rant, clicking on his beeping wrist communicator, "What is it, Orbot?! I'm right in the middle of my evil rant!"
"Just letting you know that your washer stopped and the honey glazed evil ham is almost done baking."
"Oooh! I've been waiting for two days for that ham! Alright, I'll be there by the time it's done." He hung up the communicator, "Sorry gotta run, we'll continue this next time. Toodles!" The Doctor waves leaving the scene without a care.
Shadow furiously roars at the insufferable doctor, leaving the battle before he can claim victory. He kicks the remains of Burn-bot, shooting it straight at a fire hydrant knocking it clean off, water explodes out onto the fires, putting them out. Some of the local children yelling with delight, run towards the spewing gasket relishing the relief from the hot sun. Knuckles walks up to the angry and slightly damp hog, "Wow! When did we get a new water park?" Shadow grunted in annoyance, crossing his arms. "Wait a minute..." Shadow's eyes widened in realization, "What are you still doing here? Where's the baby?!"
"Helping you, duh, Team Knuckles was going to go down if I didn't step in, and what baby are you talking about?" Knuckles snorted the first part like it was obvious and scratched his head on the second. Shadow gripped Knuckle's shoulders, forcefully pulling him down, red eyes piercing, "You lost it?!" he barked. "Lost what?"
"The baby hedgehog, you're so-called leader and fastest thing alive, that annoying blue blur, SONIC!"
"Oh," Knuckles chuckled, "He's fine. I put him someplace safe."
"WHERE?" Shadow shook Knuckles back and forth, "He-e-e-e-e-e-e's u-u-u-undr th ya-a-a-a-a-a-a-ble-e-e-e." he pointed to the now scorched and blackened Meh Burger restaurant. Shadow zipped to the tables looking over and under them for any evidence of the blue blur's presence. "Sonic? Sonic? Sonic?!"
"Ah!" Came a squeak from one of the tables that wasn't severely burned; Shadow ran over and bent down to see something shuffling inside the diaper bag. Pulling it out, he unzipped the opening to see a fuzzy blue ball stare back at him, sucking his thumb with a smile, Oh thank Chaos, he sighed, taking Sonic out of the bag he hugged him. Sonic was surprised at his rival's reaction. Had Shadow been worried about him? The thought made him smile more as he rested his head on the white tufts on his chest.
After a moment, Shadow realized what he was doing and coughed, pulling his rival away from him, "Well, ahem. Glad to see that you're ok." Sonic crosses his arms with a cocky smirk and wiggles his eyebrows. Uhuh, act like you don't care, Mr. Softy. Shadow's usual scowl returned, "Whatever you're thinking, baby hedgehog, get it out of your head right now."
"Ok, ok, geez. You're even more in denial than I am, and I'm not a baby!" The hedgie rolls his eyes. His smirk rapidly turned into an uneasy frown; something felt wrong; he didn't feel right. Temperature rising quickly, he started to sweat and tremble. Shadow's scowl disappeared, changing to a worried expression. He pulled Sonic back to him; he didn't look good; he felt warm and was shaking. "Hey, what's wrong? Do you feel sick?" He tried to ask when out of nowhere. Sonic started to glow pink, "What the?!" he exclaims as he and Sonic are bathed in bright pink light.