Shadow wasn't surprised Silver jumped into the back seat. "Huh," he had puffed. I can't blame you. Your life changed in an instant in the passenger seat.
"Sorry," he mewed, his innocent sunshine eyes peeking from behind the seat. "Instinct. Bad memories."
"Probably both," the black hog shut the door and went around to the driver's side. Should I tell him that this is the car, too? Head shakes were the answer after imagining his shrinking canary irises, like the birds flying away then having a heart attack.
"A lot of people think she was driving," Silver mumbled once his father sat down, "but she flew out of the car in the passenger seat, right?" A nod and a hum. "What...what happened to you?"
The black hog rubbed his forehead, which had something less than a dent in it. "I should've died, too. But, you know, I came out with a fractured leg."
"But you were in Mom's last memories."
"I know; when we're supposed to die, we do, and then we just come back," he explained. "Like zombies or vampires, or whatever."
"Scared?" he asked, a grin flashing in the rear view mirror. You mean of angry siblings and parents coming after me because I eloped your mother and abandoned you?
"No comment," Shadow puffed, turning the car on. "Give me directions to the place."
"Daddy, Daddy!" Dawn squeaked as she ran around in a circle. "Are we going to Aunt Aurora's house?"
Helios chuckled as he scooped up his daughter. "Yes, you silly," he teased. "We're going. Where else would we go?"
"Silver's house!" she squealed. "So we could see Silver, and Silver's family!"
The golden-orange hedghog stiffened. Well... I guess she's right. Silver's family. But that's not his biological family. Selene's gone, and no one knows what happened to Silver's dad.
"Daddy? What's wrong?"
He shook his head. "Nothing. Just thinking about my baby sissy again." He leaned over his daughter. "You do know who my baby sissy is, don't you?" he whispered, like a spy.
"Um, Aunt Aurora?" she whimpered.
"Wrong!" he boomed, poking the toddler, who squeaked. "Aunt Aurora is baby sis! Not baby sissy! Baby sissy is your Aunty Selene!"
"Why is she baby sissy?" she mewed. "Aren't sis and sissy the same thing?"
"No. They're. Not," he hissed a tease. "My sissy is my littlest baby sister. When she was your age she followed me around and called me big brother."
"Where was Aunty Aurora?"
"Falling on her butt and crying about it, like you," he answered, smiling at the bottom lip poking out of his daughter's face. "My baby sissy was super-special. It was my job to take care of her as a good big brother."
"Really?"
"Yep," Helios nodded, becoming less dramatic. "When she was a tiny baby sissy I followed behind her so I caught her if she fell backwards. We were always so close, the bestest friends. Then Daddy moved out of the house and...Baby sissy ran away."
"Where?" Dawn cooed, big purple-indigo eyes gazing up at her daddy. I can't tell her...
"Well..." he breathed, taking a deep breath. "She ran away because she was in love with Silver's daddy. They got married and Silver was born."
"Why don't we see Aunty Selene and Silver's daddy?"
"We do, Dawn," he answered, thinking about when he stopped to have a picnic in the cementary and wandered off to give his sister flowers. "No one knows where Silver's daddy is." One more sad sigh.
"C'mon," the golden-orange hog started. "Let's go see Aunt Aurora."
"Which street is it?"
"Um...I..."
"Don't tell me you don't know."
"Calm down, let me think!"
"There," Aurora huffed, straightening up. "All done." Tropical themed cupcakes twinkled with glitter on the display, shifted and rotated a few times beforehand.
"Now what about you?" she mumbled, staring at the brownies. They were dark and undecorated next to the white frosted cupcakes with summer rings. There's not much to be done with brownies... Why did I make them in the first place?
"I love brownies!" a young voice echoed in her head. The sky-blue eyes darkened when she realized who it was.
"Well, I like cookies," Aurora protested, leaning closer, shrinking the irises in her sister's dark eyes. "So you'll just have to deal."
Selene let out a tiny whimper and ducked her head. "I'm...I'm sorry..." she mewled, shrinking away from her. "Go-go ahead and make some cookies..."
"Gosh, you're such a pushover," the orangle-yellow hejji huffed. "Aren't you gonna help me make them?"
"No-no... I'll screw everything up. I just know it. I always screw everything up." Her face, covered some by her bangs dove into her palms.
She meant school. Selene was outcasted because her chest hadn't hit puberty yet. Laughed at when she was compared to her sister at school. She didn't have big brother to cling to then, and stuck around her older siblings at home.
And now her older sister was acting just like those other girls at school.
"Selene..." Aurora whined. "Don't cry." But the gray girl was already up the stairs.
An hour or so later the orange-yellow thirteen-year-old wandered into her sister's room with a plate. "Selene," she mewed. Her sister peeked out from under her arms from her spot on her blue bed.
She nudged the plate of warm brookies towards the gray hejji. "Want one?"
A tear landed on the counter, and she shook her head. She wouldn't want me to cry about it, she insisted. She didn't want anyone to get upset over her.
After a deep breath, Aurora wandered into the kitchen and pulled out some ingredients, emerging with some fluffy frosting in a hand tube. The tip on it made the frosting look like it belonged on a cake slice, and it tasted like cheesecake frosting.
Perfect.
"Here-here! Stop-stop-stop!" Silver screeched. "Here we are!" Ten minutes of circling the neighborhood like people worthy of the Neighborhood Watch. At least the house wasn't a gigantic chateau like Selene's parents' house.
"Looks like Uncle Helios is here," the hog chirped, pulling out the box for his aunt as he exited. "Better run while you still can."
"Silver!" a lady's squeal sounded, informing Shadow there was no place to hide now. A few feet away from the car, someone wearing a white sundress-wasn't she cold?- and red-orange wavy hair was squeezing the silver boy.
Aunt Aurora, Selene's sister. She'd change from the last time he'd seen her. Taller, less slender, and then her face. She had sky-blue eyes, a pointy-er nose and it was touched with makeup.
"I'm the ugly sister," Selene'd said. I wonder if that'd still be true if...
"So who's that over there?" the same voice that'd called out asked. "One of your friends?"
"Nope. That's my dad."
The crickets were dead so the wind slipped past everyone's ears. Aurora's face hardened like an air-dryed cupcake. "You're... You're that $#%* who carried off my sister. You abandoned your own son, you % ^#!" ran through Shadow's head. He winced for a "You don't deserve him!"
"His name's Shadow," Silver carried on, naive to the hate swarming in her eyes. But she didn't want to curse in front of her nephew, and put on a closed smile.
"Shadow. That suits a dark hog well!" she teased. "It's a pleasure! Come on in!" Why give you small doses when we could just give you the full shot?
When the hedgehogs entered, the silver hog was attacked. "Silver!" the trap squealed. "You're here!" Silver scooped up a tiny pale golden hedgehog and held her high in the air with his arms. A toddler with purple-indigo eyes giggled at him.
"Hi Dawn!" the hog greeted, hugging the tot. "I missed you! You're getting bigger everyday, aren't ya?"
"Yes!" she squeaked, head over his shoulder. Her eyes saw the dark hog behind, and her teehees stopped. Her familiar eyes became round, and she shrunk behind Silver's big quills. "Who's he?" Dawn mewled. "He looks scary."
You're not the first. "That's my daddy. You can call him Uncle Shadow." The girl smiled at "daddy."
"Hee-hee! Uncle Shadow!" she cheeped, squirming. When she was set down, the golden blur bounded into a room about five steps to the doorway. Aurora led the two to the room.
A golden-orange hedgehog had set Dawn on his lap. He sat on one of the beige couch twins facing each other. A glass coffee table was set inbetween them, while closer to the doorway was an entertainment kitchen, lifted about half a foot off the rest of the room. The counter was invaded by party snacks.
"Look who's here, Helios," the orange-yellow hedgehog motioned to the hogs. Silver greeted the hog, assuming it was him. The hand was waved over Silver's ears. Look who's here, the %$#& who took our sister away from us and abandoned our precious nephew.
When the golden hog saw Shadow, his sky blue eyes froze over. But, to the black one's surprise, his warmed back up. "So, are you 'Uncle Shadow', Silver's dad?" he asked, moving his baby to the couch. He strolled over and reached out. "Pleased to meet you."
Weird...I thought Selene was closer to her big brother... Helios' hand shook Shadow's twice, one, two, one, two, without any abrupt movements. The dark one got a "Nice to meet you too," out before the shakes ended.
"Dawn, why don't you show Silver the garden out back? He hasn't seen it before," Aurora asked, dismissing the two from what was about to happen.
As soon as the door slid shut and the toddler tugged on her big cousin's arm, the corkscrew curls whipped at Shadow's face. "You!" she growled. "You horrible, selfish-"
"Aurora," Helios chided in a breath. "Don't jump to that." His sister fumed as he went on. "That's no way to talk to our brother-in-law."
Shadow let out a gasp under his breath, and the lady screeched. "Brother-in-law? No way! He wouldn't have married Selene even if she begged!"
"Aurora!" he snapped. "You don't know!" After a sigh, the golden hog turned to the black one. "So sorry about her. We have no idea what happened to Selene before she died."
"I'm sorry. I should've looked where I was going," Shadow mumbled. "It's my fault she died."
"See?"
"Shut it, Aurora. Well, let's just start with Silver," he prompted, pushing his sister towards the sofa, plucking a brownie from the pile of desserts on the way. Once they were seated on the couch- Shadow sitting in Helios's warm spot and the siblings on the other, the hog began.
"Silver! I didn't know your daddy had red stripes on his head!" Dawn shrilled as she waddled in a circle in front. "Or that he had red eyes!"
Well, I don't think everyone else knew that either, Silver thought as he trailed after the little hejji. "So, how come we never seen your daddy before?" she mewled, gazing up at her cousin like she did with her daddy.
Scooping her up, Silver sighed. "Well..." he started, on lookout for a seat in the winter garden, "you know how I'm a time-traveller?" The pale golden girl nodded, humming. "I went back far enough that no one would draw any...er..." Dawn's little smile mewed What does that mean? "Umm...That no one would think I was their kid. But my dad...
"Can I tell you when you're older?" he grumbled. "There's too many complicated ideas in the story. When you're older, you'll learn them, okay?" The tot pouted at first, but then she squirmed and laughed. Her cousin put her down so she could dart off.
Aurora's hatred had not lessened, just dulled. Whatever hate her brother had was eroded away when Shadow and he talked about Silver. "Yeah, that little punk needed to get involved," the golden-orange hedgehog remarked. "He never got anything broken, but he's gonna get creamed one day."
"Hope not," Shadow returned, chuckling. "How many fights has he gotten into?"
"More than enough. He needs to be home-schooled or something..."
A bell rang in the hallway. "Oh," Aurora spoke, standing up, voice bitter candy. "I'll get that." The dark one's fur stood on end when she walked out.
"So, I'm gonna get another brownie," Helios informed, standing up to go hunt his prey. "You?"
When Shadow made it over there, the other one started, "Look, I don't care whether or not Silver's legit, I just wanna be sure you didn't rape my sister."
What? "I-I'd never!" he blurted, chest swelling. "She curled her tail! And I asked!" The golden one picked up a brownie and chuckled.
"Thought so. Usually guys around that age don't want to have anything to do with their kids. And Silver really wants to know you."
Shadow's chest was tapped by a small metal object. "How do you know?"
"He looked at you before Dawn pulled him away," he informed "Like he was worried." Worried... They wouldn't accept me?
"Helios," Aurora called as she entered, ninety-five percent cacoa voice. "It's Mom and Dad."