Baby Sonic One-Shots

Being Dad Part 3: Bedtime

Sonic swung his legs against the legs of his chair and slurped his milk happily.
After he'd reassured the little hedgehog that he wasn't going to send him away for getting water on the floor, Shadow sat Sonic at the kitchen table on top of his pile of phone books with some milk and cookies and combed out his messy quills.
Shadow only wished he could muster that kind of enthusiasm in his little charge when it came to supper and bath time.
Once he'd finished with his snack, Sonic pulled away from Shadow, who was just getting the last of the snarls combed out, and slipped out of his chair.
"Can we watch tv now?!" He asked, racing into the living room.
Shadow followed slowly, checked the clock. It was almost midnight. He realized he'd been pretty lax about getting the kid to bed on time. What was on time anyways? 9, 10ish? Plus, Sonic had already been falling asleep before Shadow had gotten him all riled up over that bath.
"Sorry buddy, it's bedtime."
Sonic had climbed onto the couch and had been bouncing up and down on the cushions. Now, he stopped and stared at his guardian. "Huh?"
Shadow knew the kid had to know what bedtime was, after all, he'd been with several other families before this, and at one of those institutes no one wanted to call an orphanage, surely one of them had educated him on the topic. But in the few days he'd been with Shadow, they'd just, fallen asleep on the couch while Tom and Jerry chased each other around on the tv. And that was Shadow's fault.
He'd been realizing things a lot lately. Like the fact that his own upbringing wasn't really helping him figure out how to deal with caring for this kid.
"Look, I know I haven't, uh, set a rule in place for bedtime yet, how about we start today?" Shadow said, wanting to at least try to explain the sudden change in schedule.
"But I like it the way it is!" Sonic cried.
"I know." Shadow sat on the couch next to him. "But apparently it isn't good for you." He thought he was being pretty reasonable, but apparently, the little guy didn't share the sentiment.
Sonic's bottom lip quivered.
Shadow was pretty sure he'd read somewhere, or had heard it from someone that that was an early warning sign of a temper-tantrum from an overly tired child.
"Hey, come on now, how'r you gonna grow up if you don't get enough sleep at night?" Shadow said quickly, trying to avoid the coming storm, thinking about how this conversation was all one sided. A crazy hedgehog arguing with a smaller, and even crazier hedgehog who wouldn't even say anything.
Sonic sniffled. Then dropped onto the couch. "Just a few more minutes? Please?"
Shadow was surprised how easily the kid switched from a meltdown fuelled by exhaustion to Bambi eyes and the word please.
Sonic took Shadow's stunned silence for confirmation and settled in to watch some show about a murder that Shadow probably shouldn't have been watching with a 5 year old.
Shadow shrugged, figuring he would probably drop off pretty soon anyways.
Not 5 minutes later, he noticed Sonic stifling a yawn.
Shadow clicked off the tv.
"Hey." Sonic said in a mild protest, a good sign that he was running on empty.
"Come on, time for bed." Shadow told him, standing up.
Sonic stood on the sofa and crossed his arms, trying to look tuff and totally awake. "I don't wanna go to bed." Then he yawned, then tried to hide it by covering his mouth with his hands. "I'm not (yawn) sleepy yet."
Shadow chuckled and scooped the kid up, walking towards the stairs.
Sonic didn't put up a fuss, or complain, just wound his skinny little arms around Shadow's neck and rested his head on his shoulder.
Shadow climbed the stairs carefully, hearing soft snoring coming from the sleepy toddler. When he reached Sonic's room, he carefully laid him on the bed and slipped his shoes off his feet.
Sonic mumbled something in his sleep, but didn't open his eyes.
Shadow pulled the blanket over him and rubbed the little guys quills softly.
"Goodnight buddy."

It was around 2 in the morning when Shadow woke to a pair of little hands tugging on one of his quills. He opened his eyes to find a little blue figure staring up at him with wide, scared eyes.
Shadow rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position, then pulled the kid into his lap. "What's up kiddo?"
Sonic was shivering and he curled in close to Shadow's chest.
Shadow wrapped his arms around him and waited, figuring it was one of those times where it was better to just wait and listen.
"I- I had a nightmare." Sonic whispered  after a while.
Now what, genius? Shadow asked himself. Not coming up with an answer, he just laid back and pulled the blanket over the both of them, holding the little guy close.
That apparently wasn't enough.
Sonic's little body started shaking harder and he cried.
"It's ok, Sonic. I'm here, I'm here." Shadow whispered softly, trying to calm him down.
Sonic hiccuped. "You were gone. An, an I was alone again!" He cried harder.
Alone again. Shadow had experienced firsthand what it was like being on your own with no one to rely on, nowhere to go. It sucked big time.
Shadow sat up and turned on the light, then took the little hedgehog by the shoulders and looked him squarely in the eye. "I will always be here for you."
Sonic wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Promise?"
"I promise." Shadow told him, hugging him close again.
Sonic stopped shivering and eventually quieted down.
Shadow didn't take him back to his own room that night, just waited for him to fall asleep, then turned the light off and curled up around his little son.