Amy smiled warmly, watching over the blue blur who had made himself comfortable cuddling along her side, sucking his thumb, ear twitching every so often while he napped. Looking up, jade eyes matched ruby, "Still our baby." she says softly while gently petting Sonic's head.
Shadow nods; he pulls the blue blur's bandana down, annoyed not to see the pacifier they had given him hidden underneath. "I thought I told him specifically to keep that pacifier with him to use so he wouldn't suck his thumb." Shadow lowly growled in irritation. "He may have wanted to keep it at home; it's more likely to be spotted if he had it with him all the time. Besides, I don't think Sonic knows he sucks his thumb in his sleep." Amy whispers.
Shadow grunts and twists around to see Tails fiddling with his Miles electric while Knuckles was having a staring contest with a rock. Shaking his head, Shadow turned his attention to the view in the distance. The atmosphere all around was calm and pleasant, and spending this time with his newfound family seemed to enhance that feeling.
If only it would last.
Shadow's ears perked to a faint humming. Rotating them, he listened to the strange sound. "Do you hear that?" Amy asks; he nods distractedly while searching for the origin. Finally, Shadow looks up into the sky locating the source in the distance. "Looks like we have some pests coming to interrupt our picnic," he says dryly. Amy raises as brow and looks in the direction the black hog faces to see a familiar floating round object heading their way.
"Wake blueberry up. I'll alert the others." Shadow ordered, jumping to his feet, and dashed to their companions. Amy shook Sonic repeatedly, calling his name; the hedgehog moaned blearily, in confusion as he awoke from his food-induced coma. "Wha's goin' on?" he yawned.
"It's Eggman, " Amy replied, helping Sonic up, "and he's brought with him some back-up." the blue blur scoffed, shaking the drowsiness away.
"When doesn't he have one or more of his toys with him? S'bout time he showed up! Things were starting to get a little boring around here." he chuckled slightly before settling into a battle position with a smirk growing on his muzzle. Time for some action! Sonic thought before jumping into battle with his team.
It took no time for the group to demolish and destroy Eggman's robots and ruin his plans. A few minutes later, Team Sonic was pounding down the last few bots.
"Grrrr! I'll get you next time, you insolent little hedgehog!" Eggman yelled, retreating to his fortress, "Catch ya later, Eggypoo!" Sonic called back. The hedgehog abruptly froze, a crooked smile twitching on his muzzle.
"Eggypoo?! Haha, hahaha!" he busted out laughing. He had no idea where that ridiculous nickname had come from, but he thought it was hysterical!
Tails and Knuckles laughed also; Amy and Shadow were unsuccessfully trying to hide their snickering at the insulting nickname, unlike the individuals around them busting a gut like immature children. "W-where hahaha-,did you come up with that?" Tails asks, calming down, wiping a tear away, "I don't know it just...came to me, haha-Ouch!" Sonic shouted, face twisting in discomfort when he felt a sharp bolt of pain run down his right leg.
Lifting it gingerly, he looks down. Shocked to see a long cut running down his calf, leaving some of his sports bandages ripped off. The rush of adrenaline masking any pain during the battle. Unfortunately, it was now wearing off, and an increasing amount of throbbing was alerting him to the damage. He grimaces at the wet sticky blood oozing out.
Amy gasps, hearing his cry of pain, quickly running to him, "Let me see that!" she says firmly, bending down to take a closer look. "Ames, cool it. It's just a little scratch."
"That scratch is bleeding heavily and is almost as long as your leg. We need to get this fixed! You could have cut a major artery! And if it gets any bigger, you'll need stitches."
"Amy, would you quit worrying. It's fine. It just needs a little cleaning up, and I can still walk, see?" He tries not to wince as he puts his foot back down, taking a step with the injured appendage to show her everything was alright. But his ears folded back, giving him away; Amy crosses her arms, unamused, "Amy's right. That looks pretty bad." Tails comments. "Listen to them, Sonic." Shadow steps up behind the blue hedgehog. "Guys, seriously, it's no big deal. I've had way worse injuries than this."
Shadow sighs, pinching his brow; as usual, his former rival was going to make this more challenging than it should be. Sonic always plays off his injuries like they didn't exist, to the extreme at times; they were going to have to restrain the stubborn hog to help him.
Shadow sent a look to the group, and they all nodded in understanding, some a little more quickly than others, and surrounded the blue blur closing all means of escape.
Sonic's eyes widen warily, gazing at his friends, realizing what they were planning to do to him. Normally he would have sped off and fled the scene before they even took a step, but this hedgehog was no dummy despite his somewhat immature behavior. He knew that he wouldn't get very far with an injury as serious as this despite insisting to his friends that he was perfectly fine.
Sonic cowers slightly, holding his hands out as if to shield himself from the oncoming attack, "Guys...no. Don't, don't you dare!"
"Now!" Shadow signals. Sonic screeches in surprise, covering himself as his friends pounce on him collectively.
After some protesting and fierce struggling, Sonic found his arms and legs pinned together in Knuckles' tight hug. He wriggles and grunts in frustration. "Let me go!"
"Sorry, Sonic, it's for your own good," Amy says. Tearing off the end of her dress, she wraps the fabric around his leg as a temporary bandage to stop the bleeding. It would do the job until they got home, where Amy had the proper medical equipment. "Come on, guys, let's go to my place so I can get our little emerald fixed up." Amy waves for them to follow her back home with their prisoner.
Knuckles grins down to the squirming mass of blue fur in his arms, "Looks like you get a free ride on the Knuckles express! Chu chu!" Sonic turns red, feeling very tiny after hearing Amy calling him 'little emerald' while being carried by Knuckles; he doesn't have the faintest idea why he has this reaction, though.
Sonic increases his struggling getting angrier and angrier. He looked like a toddler having a temper tantrum. "I don't want a ride; I want to run. Now let me go, Knux!" he yells behind gritted fangs. "Sorry, no can do, bud." Knuckles shakes his head, not fazed in the slightest with the hedgehog's fit,
"Remember the last time I did what you told me? Amy whacked me so hard I had bruises for days. But I can make you more comfortable..."
Knuckles shifts his hold of the hedgehog, moving a spiky quilled head to rest on his shoulder while keeping a firm grip on his arms and bottom, allowing Sonic's legs to fall freely along his ripped sides. Green eyes widen as Sonic recognizes his position as one used by a mother to carry an unruly toddler. "Don't hold him like that! That will just make the bleeding and pain worse! You need to keep his legs up." Tails sternly points out, "Oh, is this better?" Knuckles asks, moving Sonic again, this time into a cradling position keeping his legs high in the air.
Tails nods in approval, "Much better." Sonic's face turns even redder. He tries to say something but ends up silent, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. This position was even worse than the previous, and it didn't help that every time he struggled, Knuckles would press Sonic closer to his chest. He started to sweat and whimper inaudibly when his face was so squished to the point he could hear Knuckles heart beating steady against his own racing heart pumping in his ears.
The voice of freedom screamed for Sonic to punch the echidna, holding him hostage, in the jaw and make a dash for it. Damn the consequences! But that wasn't right. His friends were only trying to help him after all, and something else was holding him back. Another voice told him that something about this was right and to not fight it. Besides being slightly squished, he was comfortable.
With a groan, Sonic gave up fighting the situation. There was no point when the strongest person he knew was keeping him like this. His thoughts strayed at this point, puzzling how someone with the strength to lift a boulder 3 times his weight could also keep him restrained without unintentionally squeezing the life out of the hedgehog like Amy had done to him in the past. Perhaps, in the same way, he could blast off at the speed of sound in seconds yet still be able to stop on a dime at will?
As the group made their way back homewards at a steady pace, Shadow glanced over to the confined hedgehog in concern. Noticing Sonic had given up his efforts to break out and had also oddly enough gone quiet during the last few minutes. He smirked, seeing Sonic acting like he was steamed over his current predicament but could see a small gleam in those emerald eyes indicating he was secretly enjoying the ride.
"Just great..." Amy whined, tugging the remains of her dress, examining several holes in the white fabric, "I'll have to change again, and Eggman ruined my favorite dress. That fat ass is totally gonna pay next time I see his face!" she exclaimed, shaking her fists. Sonic snickered, and Shadow couldn't stop his shoulders from moving a bit in amusement at the pissed off hedgehog.
Chaos have mercy on Eggman's soul.
"Sit!" Amy commanded, shoving the blue hedgehog onto the couch, then turned to Tails, asking sweetly. "Tails could you get me some water and a few small cloths, please?" The fox nodded, making haste, heading into the bathroom for the requested items.
Amy sat in front of Sonic's legs and pulled out a first aid kit hidden underneath the couch; opening the box, she picked out the items needed to fix the hedgehog's wound. Tails returns and hands her the cleaning supplies as she finished setting up, nodding in thanks.
"Now, hold still and bear with me while I clean you up." Sonic shrugged in annoyance, pointedly looking away, pouting and mumbling under his breath about how the whole thing was unnecessary. She ignored the grumbling hedgie and got to work; removing the makeshift bandage, she saw clotted blood covering the cut. Good, that means it's already healing.
Sonic closed his eyes, making sure his expression was as emotionless as possible, ignoring the flickering flutter in his heart as Amy worked. An image of himself bouncing on Amy's lap in a diaper and holding a rattle flashed in his mind. He shook his head, blinking in puzzlement; where had that come from?
Once the cut was sufficiently clean, Amy applied some alcohol onto another cloth, "This will sting a bit." she warned before gently dabbing his leg. Sonic couldn't stop a yelp from escaping before shutting his mouth; his leg jerked lightly in reaction when the cloth made contact. Chaos that stings!
"Oh, suck it up, Ya big baby." Tails snarked at the hedgehog's poor attempts to hide his pain, sitting at the dining table. Sonic sent a deadly glare the fox's way and stuck out his tongue; Tails sighed, rolling his eyes. The tables truly had turned on who was the little and big brother now.
While the two brothers were engaged in their silent bickering making faces at each other, Amy finished wrapping Sonic's leg with proper bandages." There all better!~" she sang, kissing his leg, interrupting the brother's argument, and pulled out a lollipop from the kit handing it over to the blue hedgehog. He felt his heart flutter again.
This was just getting scary.
Ear twitching hearing Tails snickering at him again, he gazed at the bright candy in scorn swatting it away. "What do I look like I'm five? I don't need that!" He complained, voice rising an octave.
Shocked at the outburst, Amy pulled back, feeling her heartbreak a little inside, but she didn't show it; instead, frowning at him. "You sure are acting like a five-year-old, and you could have just said no thanks instead of being rude." Sonic opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comment but was interrupted by a low reprimanding voice. "Just take the candy Sonic." Shadow unwrapped and shoved the treat into the speedster's mouth, effectively shutting him up.
Sonic silently sucked on his candy with a pout, not able to say anything else. He still wasn't used to hearing Shadow call him by his name on a regular basis. That and blueberry was his favorite.
Settling into a hunched position, Sonic wondered how it had all come to this? The way his friends were treating him lately seriously needed to stop, he was starting to feel like he did in his dreams, and he didn't like it. It was weird and so sudden too. Like they had collectively decided to treat Sonic like a little kid.
His head rose slightly at that thought, watching his friends as they took their spots in the living room to watch tv beside him. Were they doing this to get back at him for something? He could see Amy, Knuckles, and Tails coming up with such a scheme just to get on his nerves, but Shadow joining in and not acting like his moody, badass self? No, he had a reputation to uphold.
So why were they all doing it?
Was this some sort of elaborate Eggman scheme?
Sonic snorted, swirling the candy in his mouth thoughtfully. Eggface comes up with some pretty weird plans but just embarrassing me without having someway of it letting him attack the village? No, something else is going on...but what? I can't think of any pranks I've pulled recently that would warrant them all wanting a little revenge on me. Ugh, ok, I need to stop. Sonic furrowed his brows in discomfort as his leg started throbbing again. All this thinking is giving me a headache, and I'm not getting anywhere.
Sighing, Sonic leaned himself further back on the couch. Amy sitting next to her baby, noticed the sad look stitched on his face. Her ears and brows lowered in concern; she couldn't stay mad at her little emerald for long no matter how bratty he could act at times, especially if he was hurting. Leaning over, she whispered, "Hey, you ok?"
"Hmm?" he hummed, "You're awfully quiet. Is your leg hurting? Oh, I knew I forgot something! Hold on a sec, and I'll get you some pain medic-" Amy started to stand, motherly instincts kicking in, scolding her for allowing her baby to be in pain. Sonic grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. "Ames, stop. I'm fine; it's not that bad, and just cause I'm quiet, doesn't always mean something is wrong." he hushed her with a small smile, "Are you sure?"
"Positive, and...uh, thanks, by the way. For fixing me up." Amy allowed herself to relax, assured that what he said was genuine. She softly smiled in return, "No problem, my little emerald." she said, winking at him before setting her attention back to the tv.
Sonic blushed, shifting his gaze away, wishing he would muster the strength to tell her to stop calling him that. Every time she said that he felt a bit warm and fuzzy inside, it reminded him of how she mothered him in his dreams.
Dammit, why won't they go away?! He thought absently, scratching his chest, feeling it twinge inside.