Silver the Hedgehog let out a yawn and blinked a few moments before he realized where he was and what had happened last night. He remembered that he had a great time, had his first kiss, finally found out after all his life his father was Shadow the Hedgehog and was now in his new room. He would've turned fifteen if agelessness hadn't been inherited, and Mephisto the Dark, something like his older cousin, for some strange reason, but fortunately, didn't show. The young hedgehog rubbed his eyes a little and shuffled out of bed. He was drowsy enough to almost run into the left side of the door if he hadn't sensed it in front of him. With a side step he ambled forward slowly into the living area.
His father lived in a same-sized house as Venice's family; huge master suite occupying the upstairs, a kitchen mirroring a living area, although it wasn't shown immediately, and bedrooms surrounding that area. Silver had taken the one next to the living room.
Partly startling him, a black and pale-powder blue figure landed to his right side and tried to blow into a party horn. All that came out was phhhhfff...phh...oonnnn...
"Ah, who needs that!" Mephisto growled, throwing it aside. "Happy Belated Birthday, Silver!"
"You can play a trumpet, but you can't blow into that?" he asked. Mephisto was demon-spawn, and his muzzle was pretty much passable membrane and he could eat, unlike his father, Mephiles, who had no digestive system whatsoever.
"Shut up and come over here!" he whispered, beckoning him over to the couch, a diagonal left from the door. A nicely wrapped box waited for the two, and the sixteen-year-old set it on Silver's lap. "I would've come to your party if my father hadn't told me about your little cousin. I didn't want to scare the poor girl."
"You would've scared everyone," he muttered as he tore open the package. When he opened it, he found a nice...gory...T-rated...violent first-person shooter waiting for him.
"...You even scare me sometimes."
"Grr! So he was right! My father said you'd hate it and you do!" The demon-spawn started mildly cursing under his breath, then went, "Will you ever play it? Maybe, I can hack into it and make it an E-10 + game. You would play that, wouldn't you?"
"I...I guess."
"Great!" he cheered, snatching the game and putting it into a bag on the table and then pulled out another box. "This one is from both of us. You'll like it, I'm sure," he grumbled handing it over. Tearing at it, he found a nice little set of missing crochet needles from Silver's possession.
"You're catching on," he replied, walking back into his room and dug through the black yarn tote that was neatly put along the wall. The young hedgehog found his needle container and, as his mother would have done, put them in their order.
"You're just like her," Mephisto noted, eying his behavior.
"Who?" Silver asked, turning his head. "Mom?"
"Yes, just like Aunt Selene." Shadow and Mephiles were less than brothers, so it was alright for Mephisto to call Dad "Uncle" and vice versa for Silver. "But I guess it had to rub off. Her memories are most prominent in you after all.
"But the past isn't so important, anymore. I hear you have a girlfriend!" Leaf was the one who shared the first kiss with him.
"Yeah, Dad told you, right?"
"Yes and no. My dad said he heard it from Shadow. What does she look like?"
Leaf! I forgot I asked her to move in with us! Silver's face went pale. I didn't even tell Dad! "Crap!" he muttered under his breath, but Mephisto caught it. "Oh? What's wrong?"
"Where's Dad? Did he wake up already?"
"He's talking with Solaris," he joked, "ruler of all time and sun." Solaris was a creature Mephiles mentioned often...but what did he mean by that?
"What?"
"What, still naïve? He's in the backyard talking to Father."
"Oh. Is that what you meant by 'Solaris?'"
Mephisto's sigh was long and drenched in frustration. "Why. Are. You. So. Very. Square." With a flick of his wrist, he guided him outside, but to get there, they needed to go diagonal left from Silver's room, past the kitchen area, and then down the hallway to the left. Outside, everything was covered in snow; Silver's knees were chilled. There wasn't a sign of the two hedgehogs anywhere.
"Hmm. Must be hiding from us," the dark-green-eyed demon-spawn grumbled. "He knows perfectly well I hate having my mind messed with, especially if it's on purpose, and he's the"-he cursed here-"puppet master!"
A familiar chuckle reached Silver's ears to his left. "I wasn't even trying this time, Mephisto." Mephiles was standing in the shadows of the patio. Shadow was right behind him, "But don't curse in front of your cousin."
"Er-yes, sir," Mephisto ducked his head.
"Finally awake, Silver?" Dad asked.
"Yes, um, I wanted to talk to you about something, I, uh..."
Silver froze as the doorbell rang in the house. "I'll get it." CRAP! Must be Leaf, with all her stuff, I can't just turn her away...
"No, I'll get it," Shadow replied, heading back inside, when Silver finally realized Leaf didn't know where this house was. Mephiles quivered. "Let's get back inside before you both catch a cold."
"Who's at the door?" Silver asked, childishly.
"I'm guessing some solicitor or some one from the neighborhood... I'm not sure. It wasn't expected."
But the young hedgehog's face went pale again when he heard, "Oh! Hello, Leaf."
!
"Silver?" Shadow's eyes blazed with anger, but his face was confused. "Why did Leaf have all those boxes outside?"
Frightened, the words came out from Silver's mouth very slowly. "I...was trying to tell you that I asked her... if she wanted to... come live with us... But I didn't think she knew where we lived."
Dad looked down for a moment. "That might be my fault; I gave Vienna our address. Must've asked her directions." A heavy sigh came from him. "All right. We can't just turn her away now."
His eyes were still bright with anger as he went to show Leaf where she could stay. Mephiles and Mephisto had disappeared somewhere, probably because Mephiles was timid and Mephisto is more afraid of himself than any other thing. Mephisto left, though, but Mephiles' head, in the form of a shadow on the wall, peeked out from behind the headboard of Silver's bed. "I wouldn't worry about him, Silver; he's quite capable of ridding himself of rage."
"He's mad at me, isn't he?"
"Surely, if Mephisto invited someone to live with us without my permission, I suppose I would be angry as well, but Silver, you are more so innocent than Mephisto, who has more corrupt reasons than yours. He'll get over it soon enough."
"I hope so..." Silver shuddered a little, before going to see Leaf. He hadn't seen Leaf because his dad had immediately shoved the poor kid into his room. He went along the wall that his doorway rested on and heard a bit of rustling. Leaf. He walked in.
Leaf was a green and fairly attractive hedgehog, with three long bangs and one light blue one. She had lustrous blue-green eyes, and was wearing her green vine dress with black leggings. The brown coat she must've been wearing was draped over a chair on the near side of the room. Her eyes sparkled when they met.
"Silver!" she dropped something back in the box and went over to hug him.
"Hi Leaf," Silver cooed, returning the embrace. "I didn't expect you to come today…"
"I know; I'm sorry, but there were some people who needed my apartment sooner, so I had to…" They pulled away and Leaf added, "Vienna and Venice say hi."
"Oh, you went to Vienna?"
"Yeah, you didn't give me an address and they said that your dad just gave it to you. I would've called you, but you didn't give me a phone number. Mind helping me move in?"
"Oh. I would, but I need to put my stuff away, too, sorry," he ducked his head before backing out of the room. Going into the room he first opened up the duffel bag; whatever counted as clothes would be in there. He hung up his tuxedo in the closet, put his homemade beanies in a drawer, then bored out of his mind, he psychokinetically opened the top drawer and tossed the balled up fuzzy and slipper socks in the drawer. In his backpack was his laptop (he had always preferred them over tablets for typing), his e-reader, and his drawing tablet. All of them went on the desk or in one of the drawers the desk had. His "crochet-crap" as Venice had called it was nicely placed between the nightstand and his bed. Then he walked over to Leaf's room. About a third of the boxes were stacked and empty.
"Done already?" she asked, folding a shirt on her bed.
"Well, I am a male hedgehog," he jested. "What can I do? Take those"- pointing to the box pile-"outside?"
"Sure. Let me know if I forgot something inside one of them." With a lift, the young hedgehog carried them out to the front to be put on the curb like Vienna had taught him and Venice to do as soon as they were old enough. He tripped, though, stubbing on of his toes. The boxes tumbled out of his hands.
"Great," Silver grumbled, getting back up, picking up each one and moving it back where it needed to go. As he went back up the steps he noticed something odd in the chilly grass. Stooping, he inspected it.
It looked like a dark purple gem of some sort, but he couldn't tell, so he reached-
"Wait!" Mephiles cried out, startling him. "Don't touch it!"
Childishly, Silver wondered out loud, "Why not?" as the demon stooped towards it. "It holds a curse against all who touch it. But why on earth is it here...? I've heard that it can move by itself but only so often..."
"I dropped Leaf's boxes and it must've..." Silver's face went pale. "Leaf. But she's-"
"It does bare a significant resemblance to..." the black hedgehog-shape shuddered. "Now it clicks. I'll destroy this" -he umbrakinetically picked up the gem which furiously glowed purple-" and you, look out for Leaf, understand?Go with her if she goes outside. Don't go through the rest of her stuff. And don't mention this to a soul. Let me do the talking."
"What are talking about-"
"You're still too naïve for me to explain this now. You'd tell someone, I'm sure. Now, get back in the house before someone comes by. Be a good hedgehog and don't tell anyone. I need to go somewhere for a little while." The green slit eyes shone promise. "I'll come back, and if you've kept this secret I'll tell you what I know, okay? Is that fair?"
With a frustrated growl, the young silver hedgehog nodded and headed into the house. What's he hiding? How come I can't know right now?
"Hey, Silver, what's wrong?" Leaf asked, putting a raincoat in the closet across from here. "You look angry."
"It's nothing; I stubbed my toe."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, it just hurt for a little bit. It's alright now...I'm gonna go...back into my room now..."
"Oh, all right."
Why do I have to look after Leaf? What made Mephiles shudder? Is it any of my business? What if he has a loose screw?...But Mephiles wouldn't be talking in such a harsh tone if he went crazy; it'd be shaking and nervously laughing...
For now, I'll listen to him...