Chapter 2: Life is a Trip!

Sigh... okay, I should probably rewind here a bit, and lay out the situation between Trip and I a little more.

Since you've all probably heard the oft-told tell how trip and I first met, courted and ,uh... got married due to my ignorance. So, I suppose I should start with what came after. We were on the plane ride back to Station Square, having finished our stay on Crescent Island, and had stowed our gear... along with that of our new companion... in the cargo area. Trip had snuggled up next to me, and was resting her spiky head on my shoulder, while the extremely confused Ray sat across from us. This was all so surprising to me, I had expected to comeback from this year-long excursion with training experience and fond memories... not a wife! But as surprised as I was about everything, I was entirely unprepared for what happened next.

"Hey, Trip..." Ray asked her, cocking his head curiously. "... I never thought to ask this, but can you talk?"

I was ready to scold him for that, thinking either she did not want to talk, or could not speak- which one of these it was, was her business. But then, for the first time, my new wife spoke.

"Y-yes, I can, R-ray." Trip replied, in a very... shy and feminine voice. "I-I just d-don't do it that o-often."

We both stared at her, dumbfounded. I was in shock! Ten whole months with her, ten months of spending time together while Ray and I had conversations, joked, and laughed, and she just sat there, silently. Oh, we talked to her all the time, she laughed along with our bad jokes, nodded her head along when we talked, and she frequently wrote many notes for us to read, when she wanted or needed to tell us something. So while there had been some minimal communication... this is the first time I had ever heard the voice of the woman I was now married to!

"Huh, you can talk?!" Ray said in surprise. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Y-you never a-asked." She replied simply, hugging my arm. "There w-was no reason to."

"Trip, you do realize, we just got married... and this is the first time we've ever actually talked?" I gave her an incredulous look. "I've heard communication is very important in a relationship, what does that say about our relationship?"

She gave me a sad almost disbelieving, look.

"Huh... what do you mean we've been talking this whole time?" I asked her in confusion. "Except for your notes, you never said anything?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, smiling.

"Well... yeah I always did seem to know what you wanted, whenever you looked at me." I replied, unsure how that was possible. "But we never talked before, and we're married now. What do we even know about each other? Do you even know my favorite book?"

She reached into my bag, and pulled out my copy of 'King Arthur and his Knights'.

"Okay... but do you know my favorite song?" I ask her, smiling smugly.

Reaching into my bag again, she pulled out my music player, and hit the button and the country song "Sweet home Southern Baronies" started playing.

"All right..." I rub my temples, starting to get annoyed. "What about my favorite food? You never served that on our stay here, so there's no way you could know!"

Putting the music player back, she pulled a cookbook out of one of our bags, and pointed first to a recipe for chili dogs, and one for pepperoni pizza.

"Hmmm..." I sigh, getting desperate. "Okay, then there is no way you know my deepest, darkest secret."

She then smiled at me, mischievously.

"H-how did you know that?! No one was ever supposed to find that out!" I panicked, my face turning pale. "I was young, and it was a funny prank! I swear it was!"

She giggled at the look on my face, embarrassing me even further.

"Okay, you win on that one... but I don't know anything about you?" I point out, pulling out my last, desperate card. But even before I spoke, the answers were already there in my brain."You like raising flowers, cooking pancakes, crocheting, and your favorite food are apples, and your best friend is Amy Rose, and you hope to graceful and like her someday and not be so clumsy. Oh, and you enjoy forest bathing, like I do." I hold up my hands in defeat. "Okay, okay...you win. We know each other better than I thought."

Putting everything back in the bag, she nuzzled back up to me, rested her head on my shoulder again and drifted off to sleep. Ray had already asleep over in his seat, so I put an arm around Trip, and closed my own eyes for a nap.

Now, I know I should have been weirded by all of this, but it just felt... right. Every time I thought about talking to her talking to her, trying to tell her that this was all born out of a mistake, and trying to convince her to go back home... even the thought of it made me unhappy. The more I thoguht about the whole thing, the more realized how attached I was to her. As if responding to my thoughts, she leaned in closer to me, sighing contently. We rode like that all the way back to Station Square.

The next day when we landed, I took all of our stuff to the two adjoining hotel rooms we had booked (Ray is a teen now, so he likes his own room), and went to have a look around town. The day was packed with stuff; I found out it had been a few years since Trip had left the island with Amy and the others, so she hadn't been to the city for awhile, so she was excited to see the sights. Station Square had become even grader since it was rebuilt after perfect Chaos's attack many years ago, and for a improvised 'honeymoon', it did not disappoint. We had burgers at the local fast food place, took the train to tour the mystic ruins, and had fun all day at Twinkle park.

The burgers were nice, after a years of roughing it on the island. (Trip cooking is not bad after years of practice, but I am grateful to not be eating pancakes as often). And Trip and Ray loved exploring the mystic ruins. We even did a zone run trough the ancient echidna temple, and had fun squashing some leftover eggman robots in there! Trip loved Twinkle park, as we good spooked by the haunted castle, and laughed at the fun house mirrors. The three of us rammed into each other on that crazy bumper cars several times! That night, Ray went up to spend some time in the chao garden, as Trip and I hit the casino. Ohhh, boy is she really good earning rings at Sonic pinball, while I'm better at the Nights into dreams pinball (It's a really easy game for us islanders, because when we play, WE are the ball!) She wore a black Sparking strapless gown she picked up at a store we had visited earlier, and I will tell you... she looked stunning. I will never forget how beautiful she was that day.

When we got back to the hotel that night, Ray was already in his room asleep, and the door between rooms was already locked (little bro likes his privacy, and I respect that). As Trip got ready for bed in the bathroom, I pulled out a cot, and began pulling back the blankets. She came out of the bathroom, an annoyed look on her face.

"D-dear... w-what are you d-doing?" she spoke aloud to me, showing this was an important matter to her. "W-why are y-you getting that cot ready."

"Well, you can have the bed." I told her, pulling the blankets back. "I'll sleep over here, and-"

"N-no." She told me firmly, coming over and taking my hand, and gently tugging me over to the bed. "Y-you are my h-husband. I-In my t-tirbe, b-before they a-all p-passed... w-wedding nights w-were special. Y-you belong with m-me."

"But, Trip, I-I..." I stumbled for the right words, as she gently caressed my red armor plating. "... are you sure? Are- are we ready for this?"

"Yes... I-I chose to m-marry y-you..." She pushed passed her shyness, her face turning a deep red as she spoke without a stutter. "This is what I want, Mighty Armadillo."

She kissed me gently, and I began to remove her nightgown. What followed that night, was the most wonderful night of my life. Neither of us had ever... 'been' with someone else before. But for newlywed islanders... instinct just kind of takes over.

The rest of the vacation was a blur, and it wasn't long before it was time to move on. I decided to have a sit down talk with Trip, to see if she wanted us to go back to the island to live, or settle down somewhere. But my wife would have none of it, and insisted that we continue Ray and I's world traveling, but take her along with us. She was tired of living on that island alone for so long... and wanted to see the rest of the world with us. So, went went on a grand journey across the islands, where we had many adventures in many places.

That is not to say, however, that Trip did not have her... quirks. When we were on said earlier 'honeymoon', my wife fell, a lot. She tumbled out of her bumper car at Twinkle Park, and stumbled and broke a mirror in the hall of mirrors. In the Mystic ruins, she bumped into a giant purple and white cat who lived there, falling over in the confusion. She kept stumbling and falling in the Casino, dropping and scatting the rings we won, to the point I was carrying all of them. I was able to catch her most of these times, but there were a few here and there where she hit the ground. Sometimes she would accidentally break or smash something, and someone would start yelling at her. But the sight of an angry armadillo husband was enough to put a stop to that. When we do zone runs and fight robots, she is laser-focused and never stumbles at all, but it quieter and more peaceful settings my lovely little klutz comes out.

Another interesting quirk of my wife is her shyness. She seemed uncomfortable walking around in large crowds, always hiding her face in her gloved hands when others walked by. So I bout her a big, floppy sunhat with a wide brim. She now wears it like she used to wear her helmet, lowering her head and hiding her never acts like this around me or Ray, and usually after talking to a new person for a bit and getting acquainted, she'll pop the act off, and act like her normal self. She's getting better at talking to people and going without the hat, little by little, but I'm aware it is something that won't happen overnight.

Our early lives, during those first few months, was a learning experience for all of us. As we traveled the islands, we would sometimes tour an attraction together, if we were all three interested in it, and sometimes separately, if our interests were different. It was weird, but even when we were touring separate attractions, she would go to the flower gardens, and Ray and I would head to a wrestling match- I could still feel her presence... there, with me. The same way she could just look me, and I knew what she wanted. It was... comforting, somehow. Trip also insisted on cooking all the meals, despite Ray and I'd offer to help. she said she wanted to improve her skills. Her cooking resulted in... mixed results. Everything she gave us to eat was delicious, but the amount of food she burnt while trying to get there was... high. Trip would just nervously laugh it off... despite how much I truthfully told her I adored all of her cooking.

Ray took to Trip immediately, happy to have a 'big sister' around. They would often go take tours or get meals when I was busy with something,and Ray would tell me about the fun they had going to the chao races, or going to a local zoo (heh, animals going to see animals...I know the humans would LOVE to make jokes about that one- even though we islanders just superficially LOOK like animals and share some traits, and are not technically animals ourselves.) I'd hit the pathways to jog, or do some weight training by the beach... but I'd always come back to little Bro's happy stories of that day's adventures... and a stack of hot pancakes or some chili dogs waiting for me. If I came back late that night, I would find something waiting for me in the fridge, which I usually heated up, then sacked out on the couch in whatever hotel room or hostel we were staying at... only to wake up with a sungazer lizard snuggled up next to me. She didn't like sleeping without me , and would zero in on wherever I was. It's one of the things I absolutely adore about her.

Which brings us back to the present.

The three of us had taken to treasure hunting- and retrieving lost artifacts for people- to earn enough rings to go about our travels. One day, I received a message from a Baron Beauregard Rabeau, of Cypress Island. He had a business opportunity for a treasure hunter like myself and my companions, and my wife and little bro were eager to go. So we packed our things, and readied ourselves for the journey to the Southern united federation.