I really want to get to the main part of the story, but I need to have this part happen in the story first, so I just made a little chapter with this happening, and the important stuff will happen next.
Well, enjoy the cute little chapter!
Ruby and Knuckles were sitting at home one Saturday morning, around the 6 and 1/2th month, when they got a knock on the door. Knuckles looked up fast and stood up.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asked, looking back as she headed to the door to answer it.
"I don't want to be seen!" Knuckles said, and in the blink of an eye, he was in their bedroom with the door half-closed. Ruby moaned in irritancy and turned to answer the door. She answered it and smiled at who she saw.
"Oh! Hello Tails, Sonic; what're you two doing here?" she asked her two visitors. Knuckles felt his stomach drop when he heard Sonic's name mentioned. "What on earth would he be doing here… unless if he knew the secret!" he realized, and he dug his fingernails into the doorframe and listened in on their conversation with teeth clenched.
Ruby led the two boys inside and Tails let out a sigh and finally spoke.
"Ruby, I'm sorry… I told him," he said, looking up at Sonic, whose ears pricked up and he nodded. When Knuckles overheard, he felt his heart skip a beat and he dug his nails deeper into the wood. He didn't know how Ruby reacted, because she hadn't said anything yet. Then Tails continued. "…I'm sorry, but I couldn't keep the secret from my bro!" he defended. "But he promised he'd keep it a secret, really!"
Sonic spoke up to defend his brother. "Please don't be mad at him, it was my fault. I just wanted to see it for myself. I-I want to see my old teammate again," he said, smiling slightly. Knuckles looked out from the crack between the door and the frame, and could see the back of Ruby and his two teammates standing there in the living room. He hadn't realized that he was holding his breath, until he felt a pressure in his chest and he sucked in a deep, quiet breath. The babies were moving nervously, as if they sensed their mother's fast-beating heart and reacted as well, and Knuckles placed a hand on his belly and rubbed it gently to relax the kits. Ruby looked back towards Knuckles and made eye contact with him with an understanding look, and Tails' and Sonic's eyes followed. He could tell Ruby was telling him "Come on out," with her eyes, and he pulled his eyes away from his peephole and backed away from the door, arms bent at his chest nervously.
"Knuckles? It's ok… please come out?" he heard Tails plead. Knuckles shook his head, though they could not see if he did or not, and he spoke up.
"No, leave me alone!" he said, trying to sound mad. Sonic raised a brow at his old friend's odd behavior; his voice sounded cornered, like he was afraid of him or something.
"C'mon Knuckles, Sonic isn't going to say anything, I promise!" Tails bribed. Knuckles only shut the door on them.
"Knuckles, honey?" Ruby called, as she walked up to the room and knocked. Warily, she reached for the knob and opened the door, only to walk in and close it behind her. Sonic and Tails looked at each other.
"He's just a little self-conscious," Tails said to the blue hedgehog. They could hear Knuckles and Ruby talking quietly to one another from inside the room. It was awkward for a few moments, while the two of them just stood there quietly. Sonic cleared his throat and began to rock from his toes to his heels with his hands folded behind his back. And then, they saw the doorknob turn, and Ruby stepped out, coaxing Knuckles out as well, his hand in hers. Knuckles finally stepped into view, and he looked down at the floor, his cheeks bright red, as he stood before his friends. His shirt bulged out where the baby bump was, and a tiny bit of his lower belly already started to show, where his shirt didn't cover anymore. Knuckles scratched at the back of his head and never smiled, as he looked down at the floor and waited for Sonic to say something.
For a few seconds, Sonic just stared at Knuckles' unusual condition with a bit of shock on his face, before Tails elbowed him in the side and he blinked and cleared his throat nervously, looking down at Tails. The fox lip synched "be nice" to him, and Sonic gulped. He had to admit, he was shocked, and he didn't know what to say that the old hothead wouldn't take offensively. Finally, he spoke to the nicest of his ability.
"Oh, well… y-you look good," he said, making a shaky little smile and looking down at his feet. Sonic looked up when he heard a small sniffle, and he saw something he thought he'd never see. "A-Are you… crying?" Sonic exclaimed to the pregnant echidna, whose eyes were squeezed shut and a small tear forming under his eyelid.
"It's the mood swings," Ruby whispered to Sonic. Knuckles sniffled again and spoke, as the tear dribbled down his cheek.
"I hate false flattery, it's just another way to lie," Knuckles said quietly, as he wiped his eyes and opened them, looking directly at Sonic.
"I wasn't lying!" Sonic said.
"Oh shut up!" Knuckles demanded to Sonic. "I know you're holding back a cruel joke in there somewhere. Just get it over with and leave already!" he said.
"No, I'm serious! Some pregnant people look like a mess and have stretch marks and stuff. You look pretty good, considering they're twins!" Sonic defended, trying to give the hurt echidna a friendly smile.
"Yeah, sure; whatever you say!" Knuckles snapped in reply, still not wanting to believe Sonic. He leaned up against the wall in the hall and slid to the floor, face in his hands. Ruby was first to kneel down by him, and she stroked his cheekbone and kissed his forehead.
"It's ok Knuckles, he's not trying to be mean," she tried to convince him, still stroking his cheekbone comfortingly. Sonic took a step towards them, wanting to prove his point, but Tails took his arm in his hand and pulled him back.
"Maybe we should wait until the mood passes," Tails whispered to him. Sonic yanked his arm from Tails' grip and walked up to Knuckles, kneeling down by him, an elbow resting against the wall.
"Knuckles, it's ok," he said softly. "You don't see me laughing or poking fun, do you?" Knuckles wiped at his left, wet cheek and looked up at the speedy hedgehog. "I promised, I won't say anything," Sonic assured.
"But I know you're thinking it," Knuckles said with a quavering voice. Sonic sighed and placed a hand on the echidna's shoulder, and though he flinched when he touched him, he kept his hand where it was.
"Actually, do you want to know what I'm really thinking?" Sonic asked him. Without giving him a chance to reply, Sonic answered the question. "I'm thinking about how lucky you are, to have the chance to experience one of nature's biggest miracles," he said with the gentlest of voices, and Knuckles looked up at Sonic with surprised eyes for a few moments, before he clenched them shut again and sniffled.
"But it sucks!" he whimpered. Sonic huffed humorously and began to squeeze Knuckles' shoulder with his hand.
"Care to tell me why it sucks so much? I wouldn't mind catching up with you and your family," he asked the red echidna, tapping the back of his shoulder and bringing his hand away. Knuckles wiped at his eye and nodded, and he couldn't help but smile at the hedgehog's friendly face.
"Y'know, at first, I thought Tails had gone crazy when he told me you were pregnant," Sonic said to Knuckles. The three of them sat on the couch, while Tails was in the kitchen right next door.
Sonic put his hand under the pearl on Knuckles' neck and lifted it off his neck and into his hand, turning the pearl in his fingers.
"So this little pearl is what started all this?" he asked, looking closely at it.
"Yeah," Tails replied. "It's an ancient voodoo charm, used to give blessings to those who cannot have them."
"Hmm, do you think it could give me a girlfriend?" Sonic asked, dropping the pearl and looking up at them. Tails laughed slightly, but didn't answer his question and continued with what he was doing. He was tinkering with their sink, because it wasn't draining right recently, while Knuckles and Ruby brought Sonic up-to-date with their lives.
Sonic laughed at his own joke and looked at Knuckles and Ruby again.
"So, have you guys found out the gender of the twins yet?" he asked them.
"Nah, we want it to be a surprise," Ruby replied. Sonic let out another laugh and looked to Knuckles.
"Wouldn't it be hilarious if they were twins? It'd be like two mini Knuckles or Rubies around here!" he said, smiling.
"I hope not," Knuckles replied. "Then we could never tell them apart."
"Don't worry; I'm sure even if they are identical, you could tell them apart!" Tails said, peeking his head up from the sink to give his patient and friend a reassuring smile. Knuckles smiled back to say thanks and sighed.
"Honestly, I'm a little glad someone else knows," he admitted. "I was beginning to feel a little awful for keeping this secret from everyone."
"Just here to help!" Sonic cockily said, giving the echidna a smile. Knuckles looked towards Sonic with a stern look and spoke. "But that doesn't mean I want you to go and tell everyone about it now!" he warned. "This is still our secret, ok? The whole world doesn't have to know that I got pregnant!" Sonic and Tails both nodded in reply. But then, Sonic spoke again.
"So… how does it feel?" he asked. "I understand, it sucks, but… how does it really feel?" Knuckles could feel his cheeks warming up, signifying he was blushing, and he looked to his side.
"Well… it's, uh," he started, placing a hand on his belly, "It's interesting," he finally replied, looking down at his belly now. "It's so different; I just can't describe it… it's unlike anything you could imagine," he said quietly. "At first you just feel heavy, like you're carrying dead weight, but then they move, and you realize how real and how alive they really are," he said, tapping on his pregnant stomach with his thumb. "I actually find it comforting." Sonic, though he was surprised by the heart-felt answer he received, smiled and replied.
"That amazing, huh?" Knuckles only nodded in reply. Sonic leaned back on the couch and whispered "whoa" under his breath, contemplating what he'd told him. Then Tails peeked up from behind the sink again and spoke.
"How often do they kick?" he asked. Knuckles smiled; although he was their doctor, he was still a kid, and he was just as curious as any other kid, making him smile.
"Well, one of them is kicking right now, actually," he replied, pushing on his belly a little. Upon hearing, Sonic perked his ears up and looked down at Knuckles' belly. He couldn't see anything, but Knuckles knows more about it than he does, doesn't he?
"I know this may sound weird, but… can I feel?" Sonic asked him. Knuckles gave Sonic a quizzical look, one brow raised, but Sonic gave him a pleading look in reply, and he sighed.
"Sure," he said, and Sonic scooted closer to him on the couch. The blue hedgehog, most known for his speedy, "get up and go" attitude, displayed a very gentle and calm side, when he slowly and hesitantly reached towards his friend's bulging stomach and placed a hand on it. He laid his palm flat against Knuckles' t-shirt, but couldn't really feel much, besides a faint trace of Knuckles' heartbeat. The next thing Sonic knew, Knuckles had his hand around the hedgehog's wrist and was moving his hand.
"It's kicking over here; you should be able to feel it more over here," he said, with a slight awkwardness to his tone, as he moved Sonic's hand up to the start of the bulge, near his ribcage on one side. Sonic sat still, and a moment later, he felt a shift against his skin, and something push against his hand. Sonic's face lit up, and he smiled bigger.
"I-I feel it!" he said.
Suddenly Tails was standing up. "Can I feel?" he asked excitedly. Knuckles huffed and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.
"Sure kid," he said. Tails bounded up to him, right next to Sonic. Sonic took Tails' hand in his and placed it where his hand was, whispering, "See? You feel it?" to him. Tails looked up at Sonic and nodded.
"That's so cool!" the young fox cried happily. Knuckles looked up at Ruby with a smile, and she was smiling back and shaking her head from over the couch.
"Where exactly is it right now?" Tails asked. Knuckles looked back at the fox, then down at his belly.
"Baby 1 is over here, and I think it's got its elbow in my ribcage right now," he said, and Tails took his hand away as Knuckles reached out and pushed against the stretched part of his t-shirt, by his right side.
"It's all the way over there?" Sonic asked with a surprised voice. Knuckles nodded.
"Baby 2 actually just moved. Now it's over here, right in the middle," he said, pushing against his belly right above his bellybutton.
"Wow! It moved fast!" Tails exclaimed, and Knuckles nodded in reply.
"So have you thought of any names yet?" Sonic asked the two of them.
"We've thought of a couple," Ruby said, "But so far we haven't really been able to decide on one good name for each of them. If they're girls, I like the names Emily and Katie."
"And if they're boys, I thought something like Alex, Kip, or Jake," Knuckles added.
"What about Skip?" Sonic offered.
"I think the name Melissa is kinda pretty!" Tails contributed.
"You guys are just making this more confusing!" Ruby said in a playful, joking manner, shoving Sonic slightly and beginning to laugh. Knuckles and the others laughed slightly too, and then he spoke.
"I'm sure it'll come to us when it's time," he said, looking over his shoulder towards the window.
The stuff in this chapter, I just rambled on. I have the rest of the plot all planned out, right down to the letter. I just need to add the dialogue and extra stuff so it isn't so short. I'll update soon... if school starting this next Monday doesn't get in the way. *crosses fingers*