006. Crystal

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It was a peaceful and quiet afternoon. No paperwork to be done, no missions to be taken care of, and certainly none of the pointless and long meetings that he'd have to go to just to hear people reading out documents. It was all a rinse, wash and repeat process in his head, truly.

As usual, Shadow was in the living room sitting on the coach, a newspaper held in front of his face. Unfortunately, the same old, 'Sonic saved this' and 'Sonic saved that' was printed and had irked him to no end, causing the black hedgehog to roll his eyes and flick through the next page where there was more worthy things to pay attention to.

It was then he felt a shuffle against the paper and a head poked out under it, just in between his legs. Shadow's eyes averted down to an infant giggling at him, her blue eyes looking at his own with a smile.

"Papa," she said and struggled to climb onto him.

Shadow put his newspaper away and picked the little black red-streaked hedgehog up, placing her onto his lap.

"What's the matter, Crystal?" he asked as he looked down at the empty bottle she was holding, "You want more milk?"

Crystal poked her tongue out against her lips and nodded, bouncing up and down in eager. With a small smile, Shadow picked her up into the kitchen. He placed Crystal onto the countertop and started to make the milk. He squirted a little amount on his palm to make sure it wasn't too hot or cold and held it out to his daughter. With both hands, Crystal took the bottle rather quickly and began to drink it. Shadow made sure she was stayed put before he went over to the sink to wash off his mug.

Hearing Crystal whine made him stop what he was doing and turn around. Turning the faucet off from behind, Shadow stood front of her as she took the bottle out of her mouth, tears forming underneath the little hedgehog's eyes.

He wiped off some of the milk stains from her mouth. "What's wrong?"

"Mama," she whined as her lips formed a pout. Crystal sobbed as she rubbed her eyes, "Want mama."

"Mama will be home soon," he said and lifted her off the countertop, "She just had to go somewhere."

Crystal looked at him with a hopeful look and smiled again when Shadow kissed her cheek, causing the infant to giggle and kiss him back on the nose. He smiled and carried her into the living room again, where a yawn was heard.

"Sleepy?" he queried when they sat down. Crystal let out another long yawn and snuggled into his chest and after a few seconds, light breathing followed. Shadow sighed in relief, leaning his head back against the cushions before he also felt his eyes closing.

Tikal came home shortly after and found the two asleep on the couch. Finding the sight adorable, she covered the both of them up with a blanket, leaving a kiss on their foreheads and walked off into the kitchen to start on dinner.

Author's note:

LMAO, yes. PAPA SHADOW. I loved writing this omg, tell me if you want more of these family kinda stuff!

Thank you to Ruu for the name suggestion!