Baby Sonic One-Shots

Winter

Sonic woke all tangled up in the sheets of Shadow's bed.
Another night full of nightmares with faceless monsters chasing him had driven him to take refuge with his adoptive father. Shadow hadn't said anything, but Sonic got the impression he was starting to get fed up with the late night intrusions.
Shadow was still asleep. Which was unusual. Normally, he was already up and drinking coffee.
Sonic looked out the window, curling back up in the covers. Light was pouring in through the window, but he found that he couldn't see through the glass. It was all fogged up.
He leaped off the bed and pressed his hands to the window. It was cold. His hands came away wet, he swiped one hand down the slick glass.
The world outside was white. Big snow drifts heaped up in the yard, little snowflakes drifted down.
Sonic ran back to the bed and jumped up on it. "Shadow! Wake up! It's snowing!" He shook Shadow's arm, excited.
Shadow mumbled something but didn't open his eyes.
"Shaaaaaaadow!" Sonic whined, tugging on one of his black quills.
"Mmmph. Go back to sleep, Sonic." Shadow rolled over and pulled his pillow over his face.
"Come on! It's snowing!" Sonic shouted.
Shadow sat up and tossed the pillow aside, yawned, stretched, looked out the window, smiled.
"Come on! Come on, let's go!" Sonic started trying to push his adoptive father out of the bed.
Shadow complied, but took his time going down the stairs, ignoring the pestering of the impatient little hedgehog. "Calm down, kiddo." Shadow yawned again. He didn't go to the front door like Sonic was expecting. Instead, he went into the kitchen and started the coffee maker.
Sonic followed with an utterly, cheated look on his face. "B-but, the snow!"
"Will still be there after breakfast." Shadow told him.
Frowning, Sonic scrambled onto his seat, hoping to get through the meal as quickly as possible.
Shadow put a toaster waffle in the toaster for Sonic and poured himself a cup of strong black coffee.
Sonic kicked his feet impatiently against the legs of his chair.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity to the toddler, the waffle popped up and he jumped out of his chair and held his little hands up for the food.
Shadow looked down at him, amused.
"Don't you want syrup?"
"No thank you!" Sonic jumped up and down with bottled up energy and impatience. He barely took the time to swallow when Shadow handed over the breakfast, wolfing it down so fast, Shadow was surprised he didn't choke. Then he was running to the front door. But Shadow got in front of him. "Hold up there, faker." He restrained the kid, keeping him from zipping out the door.
Sonic was practically vibrating with anticipation. "I wanna go outside!"
"Yeah, yeah. You will, just after you put on a jacket. Shadow told him, opening the porch closet and retrieving a small red and blue winter coat.
Sonic thrust his arms through the sleeves, and shoved his feet into his sneakers, and was out the door before Shadow could even tie the laces.
Irritated, Shadow stuck his head out the door and shouted, "Zipper!"
But Sonic either didn't hear him, or didn't care. He was too busy leaping in the snow drifts and catching snowflakes on his tongue.
Shadow rolled his eyes and pulled on his own sneakers and jacket.
Sonic was delighted to have Shadow outside, and immediately grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into the yard.
"Relax, bud. The snows not going anywhere." Shadow told him, kneeling in the cold, cold snow to pull the zipper of the little hedgehogs coat up.
Slam!
Shadow's head snapped up, he looked across the street.
The neighbours were out and chasing their kids around the yard.
The little raccoon twins were all bundled up and throwing snowballs at their parents, who were laughing good-naturally.
Shadow had always though they were noisy, unpredictable neighbours, now, he found himself grinning.
Sonic pulled away from Shadow and nabbed up a mitt-full of snow. Dancing around with a mischievous smile on his face, he lobbed it at Shadow.
Shadow dropped to the ground, only getting more wet then had he just taken the snowball to the face.
A loud laugh made him look up with a slight frown.
The twins dad, Aron, was chuckling. "Ain't winter great for exercise?"
Shadow forced himself to smile. "You might say that." He picked himself up.
Sonic chucked another snowball, but Shadow just held up a hand and blocked it from hitting him.
Aron had one kid under his arm as he walked across the street.
Sonic took the opportunity provided by the distraction and chucked a ball of wet, sloppy snow right into the side of Shadow's head.
Shadow whipped his head around and glared at the little blue hedgehog.
Sonic gulped and tried to run, but Shadow scooped him up and tucked him under his arm.
"I'll deal with you later." He muttered as Aron arrived.
"Didn't know you had kids." He commented.
Shadow shrugged. "Just this one."
"Ones enough, huh?"
Shadow had to agree. "Yeah."
Sonic was still struggling, but stopped when he noticed the little girl raccoon smiling at him from under her fathers arm. "I'm Rosa." She greeted.
Aron smiled down at her and set her back on the ground. Shadow looked at Sonic, who seemed to have frozen.
He didn't look like he was gonna run for it again, so Shadow set him down.
Immediately, Sonic hid behind Shadow's legs and peeked out at the little girl.
Aron laughed.
Shadow put a hand on Sonic's head and said, "What do you say?"
Shadow looked up at him, then back at the girl, who was looking at him expectantly, still waiting for a reply.
Shadow pushed him out from behind his legs.
Sonic stumbled a bit, regained his footing, put his hands behind his back, looked at the ground. "I'm Sonic." He mumbled.
Rosa smiled big. "Wanna play?"
Sonic looked up at Shadow, who gave him a tiny nod of approval.
Sonic grinned and nodded at the girl.
She took his hand and pulled him over to where her brother was building a snowman with his mother.
Shadow watched him go, feeling a small sense of pride expanding on his chest.