It’s a warm sunny summer afternoon and it’s been 9 months since Shadow died. His scientifically engineered disease took a toll on the whole family, but not as much as it did for Sonic. The blue hedgehog has been clinging onto his friends and children to stay mentally well during this time of grieving.
Somewhere along the way though, reality split. Timelines converged and the heart broken family witnessed a new face emerge into their front yard.
Danny laid flat on the ground groaning.
(ugh, what the hell happened??)
They looked up, the sun stung their eyes but as they blinked to restore their vision, they saw the house. And noticed... Papa!?
They had the urge to call to him but something felt off, not to mention the other kids that were with him. So Danny made a cautious move, pushing theirself off the ground and getting to their feet, they greeted them.
"Hello, I'm not from around here," they threaded a hand through their quills, "what do you call this place?" They asked with a smile.
Hearing Sonic speak, they blinked. Grief. They knew a bit about it but seeing it first hand was different than they imagined especially since it was Sonic.
They hold his hand tighter, "hang out with us first, we can talk to Dad before leaving... please?" Danny offered.
“I’ll stay.” Sonic agreed. His heart settled into the moment even though it kept wandering over to the grave.
Watching Danny play with the littles filled him with peace. “Just be present.” Amy reminded Sonic as the two sat together at the picnic table.
As the kids played together, Danny only grew more fond of them. They humoured their little siblings with games and jokes until they just sat together on the grass.
Danny pulled a piece of paper from their quills, and began absently folding it into something. "Do you guys have any friends from school, maybe around the neighborhood?" They asked, smiling.
“Ruby and Arrow are my cousins!” Maria chimed. “Ruby is a bat, she won’t let me play with her makeup.”
“Arrow likes to wrestle.” Zephyr then made a big reenactment of him fighting with the echidna. “Look at me.”
“Arrow and Ruby are Rouge and Knuckles kids.” Sonic explained from the bench. “Maria and Zeph don’t go to school yet. Shadow and I were going to keep them home till first grade which we should be enrolling Maria in soon.”
Danny listened to the kids talk before Sonic chimed in, they nodded at the new information.
"Aunty Rouge and Uncle Knuckles are together in this dimension!" They exclaimed. They had always admired the Rouge the most, even though they saw Knuckles sparingly, he's still awesome. "Would love to meet them all—" they finished with their little project, if one would call it that. "It's a frog," they placed the origami on the ground and pressed down the end lightly with their finger. Once they released the tension the paper frog leaped forward.
Maria clapped and giggled while Zeph ran and grabbed the little paper frog.
“I want it!” Maria wailed.
“I had it first!” Zephyr argued.
“How about you ask Danny for another one?” Sonic suggested. Then Sonic turned to Danny, “Sure, we can go visit them on Angel Island tomorrow if you want.”
Danny giggled while watching the kids. "I can make another when we get home." They smiled before turning to Sonic, "that would be rad, dad."
Danny's expression fell slightly, "uhm, can we go visit Daddy now?" They whispered.
