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Sonic quickly hit mute on his and North’s microphone before they could burst into laughter. Once the little icon turned red and struck through, the two of them lost it, just barely managing to keep the cars in their video game from crashing, which would alert Way to what was going on. Sonic was glad that he and North had decided to use only one microphone instead of headsets with separate ones so he could react fast enough, or else Way would be tipped off to what was happening behind him.
Thankfully, Way was very focused on the simulated race that the three of them were doing on livestream together and wasn’t looking at his chat, who were all reacting as well.
“I can’t believe he came back with a little steering wheel!” Sonic wheezed through his laughter, glancing back at the screen so he could once again see that Martin was standing behind Way and mimicking him on his simulator with a brightly colored toy steering wheel. The pup had peeked into the room Way was in, then had darted off. Only a few people in their chats had noticed the child, so the focus quickly returned to the racing. Then Martin came back with his toy and immediately began copying his stepfather.
It was adorable, and Way had no idea.
Sonic was so glad that they were recording the stream to upload later. They would be able to show the rest of the pack the footage. He was sure that Pete would especially appreciate it. Way always kept Martin away from his simulator when he was using it to stream, especially now that he took part in the online championships, so it was rare to see the pup’s reaction to Way using it. Occasionally Way would post a picture of himself and Martin near the simulator on his private Instagram, and had posted one short video of Martin trying to use it, but they hadn’t expected him to be so excited by it.
Way caught up to the cars in front of him and using DRS was able to do a double overtake that Sonic made a mental note to include in a stream highlights video. He and North cheered, glad they were able to see it with their focus on their monitor showing Way’s stream.
Martin also thought it was just as impressive, his eyes going wide and face lighting up. He darted up to Way, latching onto his arm so he could cheer, “So cool, Mama!”
“Oh my god-! Martin?!” Way jumped, completely startled. The pup jumped back as well, surprised and dropping his toy. It landed on its front, making a shrill beeping sound that made the two of them jolt again. “You scared me.” His car crashed into a wall on screen as he let go of his controller to grab at his chest.
Martin frowned, looking guilty. Sonic and North gave up on trying to keep their own cars from crashing and let their race end so they could laugh even more. Sonic grabbed onto North and giggled that their nephew looked like a sad puppy. “I’m sorry…” Martin mumbled, shuffling his feet.
Way was equally affected by Martin’s big puppy eyes. He lifted the pup onto his lap, pulling his headphones down. “It’s okay, pup. I didn’t know you were in the room.” He fixed Martin’s hair and looked at his screen. Seeing North and Sonic muted but visibly laughing, he nuzzled the pup to hide his unimpressed look at the camera and said, “North and Sonic didn’t tell me you were behind me even though they could see you. It’s their fault.”
Martin looked over at the screen. Seeing the two of them on the computer, he waved to them. “Hi, P’North! Hi, P’Sonic!”
They both hurried to unmute, yelling into their mic so Martin would be able to hear them through Way’s headphones.
“Hey, noo!”
“We love you! Hi!”
“Way, you have to let him stay for another race!”
“Yeah!”
“You two are killing everyone screaming like that. I’ll just disconnect this.” Way shut off the headphones. “Now you can hear the game too.”
“Stay and watch Mama work?”
“For today you can. It’s just a stream for fun with your uncles, not a tournament.”
“P’North and P’Sonic can’t be mean to Mama again!” Martin said to the screen. “Play nice with Mama.”
“We weren’t being mean…!” North protested.
“He’s so cute being protective…!” Sonic cooed. “Way, I want to squeeze him.”
With what Sonic thought was a smug look on his face, Way squeezed Martin in a hug that made Sonic jealous before adjusting him so that he was sitting on his lap properly, facing the simulator. Martin reached up to the wheel on the racing stand and put his hands over Way’s so he could pretend he was driving.
“When we have kids we should use the simulator with them too. I bet they’d like it just as much as their cousin,” North told Sonic.
“When we what?!” Sonic shrieked. “Huh?”
Not wanting the two of them to get carried away, Way rolled his eyes and asked, “Are we restarting this track or doing a different one?”
North let the question go to the chat while Sonic continued to sputter, and they switched to a street circuit instead after enough messages had gone through. Sonic chose the Marina Bay Street Circuit since it had the most corners, which would be more fun for Martin. He also suggested turning down the difficulty level so Way could do more overtakes.
It was hard for them to focus on the race with the pup giggling and cheering through everything. Sonic and North kept glancing at their monitor to see their nephew bouncing and having fun. When North’s car made contact with Sonic’s, Sonic jabbed him and scolded, “Pay attention!”
“You’re not looking either!”
“Stop looking at us and you won’t crash,” Way chided. “You can watch everything on your recording later.”
“But Way!” they both whined.
Way ignored them and told Martin, “Sonic and North aren’t keeping their eyes on the track. This will be easy for us to win.”
“You’re mean! It’s so not fair that you get to have a pup to race with you.” North reached over to grab Sonic’s shoulder and shake him. “Sonic, we need some too.”
“What are you talking about?! Where would we get kids?”
“P’North and P’Sonic are gonna have kids?” Martin asked. “They’re Martin’s uncles, so… I’m gonna have a cousin? When, Mama?”
“Maybe next year,” Way answered.
“Next year? Who’s having kids?!” Sonic’s voice pitched. “What!”
Focused on the simulation, Way got ahead of a car, so Sonic’s flustered shock was drowned up by Martin yelling, “Overtake!”
“That’s right, Martin. Getting around is an overtake. Now we just have to defend our position and work our way up through the rest of the field.”
“Mama will win!”
“Sonic, I bet we would be winning if we had pups to cheer us on like P’Way does,” North said.
“North!”