"A party...for Shadow? Are you nuts?!" Sonic blinked at his mate.
"It's Sara's idea..." Amy said, giving him a slight pout. "You have to invite all our friends...!"
Sonic sighed and shook his head again, Blitz mirroring his actions. "Amy Amy Amy! This is Shadow we're talking about…."
"I know...I mean... but she wants to give him one." She twiddled her fingers lightly, trying to look cute.
"You do remember Sara's birthday, right?" Sonic gave her a dubious look. Between Sara and Shadow it had been good; Shadow treated her to a nice meal and a ring she really wanted. There were no streamers, no ribbons, no cake or ice cream, and as long as it was just them it was fine. Amy had wanted to take her a cake, though... Sonic rubbed his temples.
"Eh heh...I know that didn't really go over well, but...this is for Sara, okay?" Amy scratched behind her ear nervously, a habit she'd picked up from Sonic. "And...we'll probably need to use the Thorndykes' place for the party, so you need to talk to Chris."
Sonic gave a resigned sigh. "So what do we get the black bum?"
"That's the spirit!" Amy smiled.
Sonic's ear twitched while he thought. "Lemme see...something he'll like…. Well...hmm... Hoo boy this is going to be tough. Can we just get him a gift card to Wal-Mart?"
"Sonic, that's highly impersonal! I'm sure you can think of something." She sat down on the floor and called Blitz over to her. He was getting better at controlling where he crawled to.
Sonic turned his gaze to Amy and sat down a few feet from her. "C'mon, Blitz! Papa wants you!" He opened his arms welcoming, and the babe scuttled out of Amy's lap toward Sonic's.
"Maybe new gloves?" Amy offered.
"Yeah, I imagine he'll get twenty pair..." Sonic wrinkled his nose.
"Paaa paaa!" Blitz tumbled into Sonic's lap and was rewarded with a barrage of tickles.
"So Shoes and socks are probably a no-no too?" Sonic raised a brow.
"Absolutely not! That's far too common." She beckoned the child back to her once Sonic was done tickling.
"Well you're easy to shop for...I just buy you a dress or something that you never wear." He rolled his eyes, ignoring the bitter glare from Amy. "Hey, Blitz! come back! Mama's pissed at me!" He grinned.
"I hate you!" Amy grabbed a pillow off the sofa next to her and threw it at him.
A thought crossed Sonic's mind while giving his mate a once over. "Hey, Amy...I think I know what I'm gonna get Shadow..." Amy gave him a dubious look. "Something Shadow will really enjoy! I think I'll get one too..." He grinned.
Blitz started back toward his papa, but instead of crawling, he struggled a bit to get to his feet. Both Amy and Sonic watched in full attention. He'd stood against tables and chairs, sure, but they hadn't seen him support his own weight yet. With a squeal, followed by some crying, he fell back down on the floor.
"Aawww... It's okay, Baby." Amy scooped the baby into her arms and cradled him in spite of his squirming. "Now what is it you think would go over sooo well that you're smiling that wide, Sonic?"
"Aww, put him down, he wants to try again!" Sonic beamed at their son. "What is it? Well..."
A few nights later, Shadow lay awake as he often did. He eyed the woman he loved, lightly brushing her rich brown bangs from hiding her face. The tightness in his chest forced him to lie back down, though, and he looked at her in a longing way. It was as though he wished for her eyes to flutter open and look at him adoringly. He leaned in and nuzzled her hair, taking in her scent. He enjoyed her touch, her warmth, her smile. He felt quite content to smile with no small amount of pride at the woman he'd taken for his own. His only regret now was how weak he felt.
Shadow's ears adjusted to the sound of Maria crying in the rainbow room. He sighed softly, looking back at his lover. She usually awoke quickly when the baby cried, but she'd been running herself ragged trying to take care of her and Shadow. Of course, she'd blamed herself for his getting shot, for not avoiding the situation, so she may have been trying harder than she needed to. If she had any frustration with Shadow at all, it was likely the times when he neither encouraged nor discouraged, as he'd remained quiet through one of her self-blame sessions. Still, for some reason, he felt he should see what Maria wanted before she woke up.
Getting out of bed wasn't too bad, though shifting from being a stationary object to one in motion caused him some pain. It was now down to a more manageable level as he slipped out of the bedroom and into Maria's. "Quiet. Your mother's sleeping," he said softly, but in a demanding way.
Maria seemed to hush up immediately and simply peered at her "dada" with wide crimson eyes. "Dada..." She held her arms out and shadow obliged her, picking the child up and masking his discomfort the whole time. One of her tiny hands grabbed at the chunk of white fur still clinging to his chest.
"Why do you do that?" he grunted. "Of all the things you could latch onto, it's all about the chest fur, huh?" Maria started giggling a bit and snuggled up to her father's chest. He involuntarily winced at that, but made no sound. He lightly stroked her head, admiring the deep blue quills that were growing in. She began fussing again. "What's your problem?"
He hadn't expected an answer, but he found his crimson eyes locked with hers. There was an intensity to the gaze that didn't belong to a child.
"He's dreaming." As soon as the words flew from her lips, the intense gaze was broken and the world was as it should be.
Shadow wasn't sure he actually heard that. A calculating look that hadn't been present the last few months found its way back into his eyes. She wasn't more than five months old and had just started saying "mama," "dada," and other small words. She'd never said two words together or with such clarity. "What did you say?"
Maria said nothing and seemed blissfully unaware anything at all strange had just happened. She tugged at the white tuft again, giggling. "Dada!"
Making sure there was nothing else the baby needed other than company, he put her back in her crib. He's dreaming. Who's dreaming? Shadow tried to shrug it off as he reentered his bedroom. Sara was still asleep. Good. She needed some rest.
Sara set the date for the party about three weeks after, landing in the middle of June. As the day approached and many cell phone calls were made, Sara noticed her guy slipping further into depression. It couldn't have been because of his condition; he was recuperating quickly according to both Dr. Garrett and Dr. Quack. Work was even going to allow him back on light duty soon (paperwork mostly).
As usual, he was being purely masculine and not telling her anything. He wasn't very open by nature, and on the rare occasions Sara caught something wrong with him, he was hesitant at best to just speak his mind. She supposed part of that was to protect her, knowing his past had been a hard one, but they were together...couldn't he open up a bit more?
Either way, the hardest part of her job was about to begin as the day arrived. Shadow made a slight grunting noise when he woke up, but that was the only sound resembling speech she'd heard all morning. Breakfast was eaten in complete silence. Somehow, Sara couldn't bring herself to say anything; the words just clung to the back of her throat. Eventually she turned on the radio just to have something to break the silence...even Maria hadn't fussed.
"Station Square is experiencing a really strange phenomenon today. Despite our earlier reports of sunshine and swimming pool temperatures, can you believe it's snowing outside? That's right, folks! Harvey Bicksford, age 82, said he remembers the last ti--"
Sara jerked her head to the window, and sure enough, tiny specks of white were gently falling through the air. "Wow..."
"But the last time it snowed here, it was the middle of January! S'truth..."
"Thanks, Mr. Bicksford. As of yet, there is no explanation for the sudden change in weather, but it is not a local phenomenon. Just--"
Sara turned back to Shadow, seeing his eyes heavyset toward the breakfast plate in front of him. She'd had enough of watching him mope, and besides, they needed to go to the party. "Hon?" She actually set a hand on his shoulder; times like these he seemed to only notice when contact was made between them. Though dull and uninterested, his eyes did look to her; it made her uneasy. "Ummm...we were invited over to the Thorndykes'…."
"I'm not going," he mumbled.
"But I already said we'd be there..." Sara pleaded. He sighed. "Please?"
"If you want to go, then go." He shrugged and lay his arms and head on the table, obviously sulking.
"I want to go...with you." She slipped her arms around him, still being very gentle with him. "Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"You're not Amy, don't even try to beg," Shadow's voice returned.
Sara fought the instinct to frown at that and then grinned. "You'll see how much I'm like Amy if you keep sulking...I'm not going to stop until you come with me!" His eyes darted to her in a menacing way, as if to say 'Don't you even dare.'
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At the Thorndyke manor, final touches were being made for the party. Cream had woven little paper chain links that Ella helped her put up. Chris was busy greeting the guests as they arrived. Tails had already come by, as well as Rouge the bat. Big and Froggy couldn't make it, but the Chaotix had managed to show. Charmy and Cream really liked hanging out and were both balls of energy, while Vector offered help with the music. Espio mentioned being dragged to the occasion by Vec and didn't care one way or another about things. Invitations had even stretched through the World Gate, though only Mina and Tiara answered the call…well, Knuckles too, but that was Sonic's doing.
"Tell me again why I agreed to this?" Knuckles arched a brow, his mitts folded across his chest. His purple eyes were completely unamused.
"We needed another emo to make Shadow look happy," Sonic chirped with a broad grin.
"...Why am I here?" he asked again.
"Because you have no social life and need to get away from that floating chunk of rock once in a while," he retorted.
"I do too…." Knuckles said, though in no way excited or convincing in his statement.
"Uh huh... Social recluse in a city of separationalistic echidnas... Oh yeah, there was that one girl…Julie-something?" Sonic inquired.
"-Su. Julie-su." Knuckles put his palm to his face. He kind of wished she'd come with him, but she had other plans. The hapless bachelor was forced into coming to a party he didn't want to be at. Then again, the same could be said for at least half the guests. "Again...why am I here? I'm sorry, but Shadow doesn't strike me as a party animal..."
"It's all my cousin's doin' really. But as for why you're here..." Sonic smirked, "I need you here, buddy. I'm going to go crazy if all I have is Vector to listen to..."
"Okay then, tell Sara the Master Emerald's been stolen again so I have to go..." The monotreme tried to get away, but Sonic held his elbow.
"Sorry! Gotta make sure the party stays lively or else Amy's going to bitch at me...so actually you're kind of anti-bitch protection." Sonic gave a cheesy smile.
Knuckles sighed. "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"
"Nope." Sonic had a rather cat-like grin at his resignation to his fate. "And if you try anything I'm going to tell Julie-su about you and the bat girl." He indicated over to where Rouge was sitting, conversing cooly with High Octane (Sam's name of the day).
Knuckles' cheeks turned as red as the rest of his body. "Y-you wouldn't!" Sonic laughed.