Sonic stretched his toned muscles and rubbed the sleep dust from his eyes to another early morning. Aw man, I was hoping I'd sleep in again. Oh well, the early Sonic catches the chili dog, I guess. He removed the stuffed cheetah that had somehow moved to the top of his head during the night, placing it and the pacifier back in the box.
Jumping up, Sonic started his morning stretches. As he warmed up, his nose twitches, picking up an odd smell. Pausing, he lifted his arms and smelled himself, "Not me, though...whew I could use a shower." looking around, he sniffed the air again.
Following his nose, he looked down and saw a puddle underneath the hammock, "What the-?" He pulled his bed up to see a yellow puddle underneath. Eyes widening in horror, he looked back at his bed to see another yellow stain hanging over the same area. "Oh shit! What the hell?!"
Quickly he went to the cabinet underneath the tv set and pulled out a towel to soak up the urine; thankfully, it didn't stain the floorboards. "Great, just great." he mumbled, "Now I have to do laundry." laying the towel on the bed, he untied his hammock, wrapping it in a bundle. Bending down, he grabbed a bar of soap from the cabinet and carried his things outside to a nearby stream.
Quickly he washed the towel and hammock, hanging the two on empty branches to dry once he was finished.
Groaning, he apprehensively put the same bar of soap he had used on his laundry into his quills and glanced down at his crotch, the fur down there sticking out in weird directions—another reason to shower this morning.
He was grateful he had caught the incident before anyone else could have seen his little accident, so not cool and very embarrassing. As Sonic walked upstream, he wondered what had caused him to have the accident in the first place.
He had never ever wet the bed before. At least not to his memory. Thinking back to last night, he didn't recall using the restroom before going to bed,
"But I've done that plenty of times before and not have an accident."
The stream gradually widened to a small river and finally ended at a rippling pond with a waterfall pouring in gallons of freshwater from the snow-covered mountains on the island.
His personal and private watering hole. The pond was close to home yet secluded enough that if you weren't paying attention, you could easily miss it as towering trees and many bushes surrounded the watering hole. It was the perfect place for Sonic to bathe; he could take his time facing his fear long enough to get clean without anyone judging or bugging him. And the deepest part of the pond only reached his midsection.
Standing at the edge of the pond, he removed his clothes and cringed. No matter how often Sonic frequented, this spot it still took him several minutes to gather enough courage to take a brief dip.
Completely naked, the hydrophobic hedgehog dipped a toe into the water. It was cold. Shivering, he steeled his nerves, shaking away the anxiety in his hands. Slowly he walked in and wadded his way to the waterfall.
To keep his mind off the liquid surrounding him while he scrubbed up, Sonic thought back to the dream last night.
It had felt so oddly familiar like it had happened yesterday in real life. But that couldn't be. He was a baby in the dream, and his friends were all still the same age when interacting with him. A chill went down his spine mainly because of the cold water and remembering how Shadow was in the dream. The dark hog smiled the whole time and treated the blue blur like his own baby, playing and cuddling with him. Not at all like the moody, dark, and brooding hedgehog Sonic knew in real life, it left him feeling kind of unnerved.
Knuckles had been more or less the same. Amy was similar to how she usually was but more motherly.
He briefly considered that the dream had been the cause of his morning accident. But shook away the thought as that didn't seem plausible.
"Maybe I ate something that was a bit off yesterday? Wouldn't be too surprising. Meh Burger's food barely qualifies edible as is. Maybe I otta back off from eating there so much, and hopefully, this was just a one-time thing."
Thoroughly clean, Sonic waded back to shore and shook himself dry like a dog, his fur poofed out. Rapidly running his hands through his quills to downplay the volume, he put back on his gloves, socks, shoes, and bandana.
"Now!" he clapped his hands, putting aside his worries and focused on something more important "Time for some breakfast." crossing his arms, he tapped his foot, "I think there's a berry bush not too far from here..." relying on his old foraging skills, Sonic left the small waterfall in search of something tasty.
*Later that day*
Sonic strolled through the isles of the library, despite his carefree and cool dude rep. It was a little known fact that the speedy hedgehog liked to read.
A finger glided over the spines of the current section he was in. He stopped at a Burgandy spine painted with gold flowers, "King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table." he smiled a bit and pulled the book from its spot. An old favorite of his, Sonic, flipped through the pages, wondering if he should take the book home with him. He had read the story so often, he knew it by heart, yet each time was like the first when he read the classic tale.
Closing the book, he put it back, maybe another time.
Leaving the fantasy section, he looked over the other fiction areas for something that would pique his interest. "Nope, nope, nope, boring, didn't like it, boring, nope, nope, ugh. Is there anything in here I haven't read?" he abruptly stopped at the next section. "Kid's Fiction," the bronze piece of metal said.
Sonic clicked his tongue; he hadn't been in this section yet. Maybe there was a story here that would be interesting? No one else was in the aisle. Walking in, he did the same as before, running a finger on the thinner and more colorful spines.
Eyes half-lidded in boredom, nothing looked the least bit appealing. Just a he was about to reach the end, he stopped and backed up a few steps, bending down; he pulled away one book. His emerald eyes widened in shock at the cover. He had seen it before. It was a picture of a humanoid robot holding a robotic hedgehog.
Sonic's thoughts ran faster than the speed of sound, searching for a seemingly lost memory. He could have sworn on his life he had read this book before. This looks so familiar...but I've never read any children's books before. Quickly he paged through its contents. I remember the story and the pictures...why don't I remember actually reading it? Looking back at the rest of the books on the shelves, he examined each book nearby to see if perhaps he had read any other related stories in this section but didn't find anything.
Only the one in his hands seemed to call to him like an old friend, "Maybe if I reread it, I'll remember? It's gonna drive me crazy until then." he sighed, running a hand through his quills.
Sonic walked up to the check out counter with his book in hand; waiting in line, he impatiently tapped his foot. Only a few people were in front of him.
"Guess I'm not the only one who wanted to check out a book today." He mused.
A young walrus boy ran up to his mother, standing in front of the supersonic hedgehog in line. "Mom, mom! Can I get this book?" he asked excitedly, holding the book out to her, the walrus lady carrying a book of her own in one hand and her younger child in the other glanced over the cover and gave her approval. The young child thanked her, "You're gonna love this story, Chumley!" The baby peeked over his mother's shoulder, cooing at his sibling. The pacifier fell from his mouth.
Using his lightning reflexes, Sonic caught it before it touched the ground.
"Here you go, little buddy." he smiled, giving it back to Chumley; the baby walrus smiled back and popped the pacifier into his mouth and waved bye as the small family collected their books and left.
Sonic warmly smiled and waved when suddenly he froze, eyes widening in horror. That was a pacifier... he thought. I-I-I-I sucked on a pacifier last night... An odd high pitched whine escaped from his lips, his eye twitched.
He felt like a total idiot for not recognizing that red object in the box from last night sooner and an even bigger fool for actually sucking on it in bliss like a baby.
"Excuse me, excuse me!"
"Hm, huh, who wha?!" Sonic stuttered, startled out of his shameful realization. The small beaver at the counter waving in front of him, annoyed by his quiet freakout, "I said, are you going to check out that book?"
"O-o-oh, yes, please." he flustered, handing the book to the librarian. The beaver scanned the book, then raised a skeptical eyebrow at him, "Aren't you a bit old for this kind of book?"
"Oh, it's not for me!" he waved both hands in a placating gesture before leaning over the counter and whispering, "It's for Knuckles. We're teaching him how to read."
"Ah, I see...well, it's about time that big bafoon learned about the benefits of the literary world!" Sonic took his book, hiding it in his quills, smiling through gritted teeth.
"Mhm, yup. Now, if you'll excuse me, we have a lesson in a few seconds, and I don't want to be late, bye!" Hastily he zoomed out of the building before anyone could question his reading choices further.
Why did I do that? I have nothing to be ashamed of. It's just a simple book. Sonic shook his head walking down main street, so what if the book was more directed to younger readers? Plenty of adults checked out books for juveniles. Course those adults were either parents or grandparents, not young bachelors.
His thoughts were cut off when a pink body waved excitedly, running towards him; he smiled a bit and waved back. "Sonic, Perfect timing. I could use your help!"
The blue hedgehog crouched into a battle position, "What is it Ames, Eggman? The Froglidites? ...Gogobas?" he smirked playfully. Amy narrowed her eyes, taking the hint. Getting into character, she looked around for any eavesdroppers before whispering in his ear, "Nope. Worse." his eyes widened, "Shadow's turned on us?"
"Mhm. Worse!" Sonic rubbed his chin, "Well, other than me turning bad. Which I don't think I have...what could be worse than that?"
"No groceries..." Sonic put one hand over his heart. Another covered his eyes as he dramatically moaned, "Oh, say it isn't so!" Amy nodded her head in shame, "I'm afraid so, there's no more food in my fridge." Sonic grabbed her arm and shook her not too much but just enough that she was struggling to make a straight face. "What do we do?! How will we survive without your cooking? All there is-is just, meh."
Now it was her turn to grab hold of his arms, "Get a hold of yourself! I have a plan, but I need your help."
"What is it? I'll do anything!" He begged, "We...are going...grocery shopping." the two hedgehogs stared into each other's eyes one pair emerald the other jade until they couldn't hold their serious expressions any longer and burst out laughing.
It was such a silly game they played with each other from time to time. Pretending something so mundane was a serious issue, and coming together to solve the problem in this case—the need for groceries.
Amy wiped a tear from her eye, "So wha day ya say?" she asked again for real this time. Sonic winked, "Sure! I'm not doing anything else right now." taking her hand, the two walked to the local market.
"Blugh." Sonic flicked at a green leafy stem of a carrot, wiping his hand on his chest as if to clean it of the vegetable's germs. "Do you have to get so much healthy stuff?" Amy picked up a tomato from a pile, squeezing it gently, "Un-like some people, I prefer a healthy balanced diet not filled with junk and fast food."
"My diet is balanced!"
"Uh-huh, so says the person who needs to be tricked into eating his veggies." satisfied by the fruit/ vegetables ripeness, she places it into the basket before walking to a line of freshly baked bread. "I like some veggies, just not all of them." he rebutted, "Oh yeah, I remember how much you loved my vegetarian chili dog recipe I made last week. Almost made yourself sick." she chuckled.
Sonic scratched his head. He didn't remember her making any vegetarian chili dogs. Something else he had forgotten, he shrugged. "Yeah, well, when don't I make myself sick with chili dogs? They're so good, and it's the king of food groups!"
"The King of food groups?" she scoffed, "Yeah, you got your: bread, meat, onions, garlic, beans, and dairy. What more could you need?!"
"How about some fruit? And a little variety?" he tsked at her, waggling a finger. "Those are simply suggestions to add to an already perfect diet." Amy rolled her eyes at him, "Ok, just don't come crying to me if you get scurvy." Sonic smirked, "Not this...hedge-hog..." his voice faded.
The two had turned into the candy aisle, and a rainbow of sweet treats bombarded Sonic's mind. He stopped in his tracks, gazing at them in wonder as only a child could do. Everything was color-coded, red licorice rope, purple gumdrops, gummy fish as blue as his fur, green taffy, and so much more surrounded him!
Amy, not hearing her male companion following her anymore, turned to see Sonic standing mouth open, slightly wide-eyed in the middle of the aisle, lost in the sea of sweets.
A small smile appeared on her muzzle; she had been worried that she would lose the connection the two had made after turning Sonic back to normal. And his recent behavior towards her seemed to validate that worry, but now she could see part of her little blue boy was still inside those big emerald eyes. The pink hedgehog walked beside him and waved a hand in front of his nose, "Hellooooo~ Sonic, you still here?"
He shook his head, "Huh, what? Oh, sorry, Ames." he apologized, glancing back to the candy; she giggled. "Would you like some?" Sonic looked at her, confused, "Some...what?"
"Candy!"
"Oh, um...s-sure. If you don't mind?" she waved her free hand around, "Go ahead and pick anything you like, but just one." he awkwardly smiled a bit and looked over the shelves. He chooses a large rainbow lollipop, "H-how bout this? It's not too much, right?"
"Anything for you, my little emerald~." she winked, making him blush. Sonic and Amy finished their shopping. He put the candy in his quills for later and insisted on dropping the food off at her place before joining the gang for lunch.
Sonic lounged in his outdoor hammock, watching the sunset in the distance as he sucked on his candy. The sun sparkled against the surf of the ocean. Funny how something so beautiful can be so dangerous. Hmm, that sounds familiar...must have heard it from a movie or something.
Having his fill of the picturesque view, he pulled out the book he had checked out of the library earlier that day. Eyes narrowed, he examined the cover, searching for something in the back of his mind. It was there just on the tip of his tongue he could feel it...suddenly, a memory flashed in his mind.
He saw himself a smaller version sitting in someone's lap, following along with the story as that person read to him.
Sonic shook his head. A ghostly chill ran down his back, jaw, and book, dropping to his lap. "Wha-what?" he gurgled in bewilderment. His eyes darted back and forth. The blue hedgehog didn't know what to make of the image that just flashed in his mind; he looked back at the book in his lap, feeling very apprehensive now about reading it.
After several moments he pushed away his hesitation, opening the book he began reading.
This was probably the slowest Sonic had ever read a book. Although hating to do so, he wanted to take his time, hoping it would spark another memory. One that was clearer.
He carefully read each sentence and examined each picture. 30 minutes later, he finished the book. He was left with only one image in his head, still at a loss with no answers to his questions. Sonic rubbed his chin in thought. Who was that person reading to me? Why don't I remember this book before? Am I just having a major deja vu moment? Snapping his fingers, he huffed and bonked himself on the head.
"Silly me, that's got to be it! Just a major case of deja vu. I was just getting worked up over nothing." lightly laughing at himself, Sonic rested his hands behind his quills, closing his eyes, and shifted to get more comfortable. There was nothing to worry about, absolutely nothing. He didn't speculate any longer, filing the weird picture as not worth remembering as he went to sleep. Ignoring the beginning of a knot of foreboding forming in his gut.