Chapter Text
Two months into the pregnancy, Sonic already felt better than during the last one.
"Daddy!" A young voice interrupted the discussion as she entered the room, but she immediately shrunk when all eyes went to her.
Shadow, sitting on one end of the large table, leaned back on his chair and replied. "What is it, Lav?" He said softly despite having just argued with one of his advisors.
Lavender, seeing that Shadow was alright with her interrupting, smiled again and walked up to where her father sat. "Can we play dress up?"
Shadow froze. This... was not the perfect moment for this.
"Can it wait? I'm busy right now." He tried to gently decline. But by her expression... it could not.
Her ears were pinned to her head, her lips were puckered up and eyes already glistening. "But I want to play now..."
The black hedgehog could only sigh, unable to refuse his daughter when she had that expression. "Alright, we'll play. Just give me a moment, okay?"
Lavender's face immediately lit up. "Okay!" Her ears shot up and she smiled widely again.
Shadow loved seeing her happy. It made him happy.
“This is ridiculous,” one of the advisors suddenly spoke, his expression showing clear disapproval. "We're having an important topic to discuss and all you can think about is to play with your childish daughter. What a disappointment." He scoffed, a few others agreeing with him. Shadow could see from the corner of his eye that Lavender's cheerfulness vanished instantly.
"You're the King, Shadow." Another guy next to the first one spoke next. "It's the mother's job to look after the child and raise them properly."
The sound of a chair scraping against the floor interrupted and Lavender was picked up into strong arms. "You do not have permission to talk about my daughter like that." Shadow spoke firmly.
"She's five years old. She should be childish. And if you have a problem with that, then it's your problem." He held Lavender close to him, running his hand through her quills to calm her down. "I'm not raising her like my father raised me."
With that, Shadow made his way out of the room, leaving all of them to discuss it without him.
"Where are you going??" The first one complained again, which made Shadow halt in his steps. "You can't leave until we are finished on what we should do about the homeless people!"
"I already told you," Shadow replied with a growl, before turning to face them all again. "Use the money we have. Give it to them or donate it to them so they could afford the things they need. We should not use that money to make their lives more horrible as it already is."
"We should help them instead of getting rid of them." Shadow said firmly before finally leaving the room with Lavender in his arms. She should'nt have heard that.
"Am I bad?" Lavender's quiet voice spoke from the hedgehog's arms. Her ears pinned down as she looked up at her father with saddened eyes.
Shadow's heart immediately broke.
Great Job, dummy.
"No." He said softly as he brushed a stray quill away from her face. "Don't listen to them, dear. They don't know how to handle a child." Which is funny because some of them have children themselves. Including the first guy who complained.
He kissed her forehead as he walked to her room. "Just be yourself. As long as you don't do anything wrong, nothing's wrong with you."
A smile returned to Lavender's face, though a tear still managed to slip out. "Okay, Daddy!"
In that moment, Shadow swore to himself to protect her from any sort of judgement that was sent to her. She's too young to have to deal with that.
"Uughh, you're really doing a job on me now, huh?" The blue jester sighed, having just arrived at the palace after his performance.
Just like his last pregnancy, he knew that the time would come where he should stop performing and rest his body, until his body was fit again. He could manage that.
It had been hard for him when he was pregnant with Lavender. His boss, T.W. Barker, would not let him rest even after Lavender's birth. But now that Sonic wasn't working for him anymore, he should be fine with resting a few months.
Sonic didn't bother looking around for Shadow. The palace was way too big and maybe he was in an important meeting anyway. So, he decided to look for Lavender in her room first, assuming she'd be there.
When he arrived at her room, he knocked on it before entering it. "Lav? I'm back from my performance—Oh." He froze when he saw what was going on.
Lavender wore a cute pink dress as she sat on the small set of table made for kids. On it was a set of teacups, plates, and a teapot, all made for children to play with. Lavender's bunny plush was there too.
And opposite her sat the King, wearing a white dress with makeup that was obviously done by Lavender.
"Mommy!!" The young hedgehog immediately stood up from her seat and went over to Sonic, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the small table. "Come play with us, Mama!"
"Alright, Alright." Sonic chuckled as he let his daughter drag him to the small table and get him seated between Lavender's and Shadow's seat.
Once Sonic sat, Lavender went back to her little stool and poured imaginary tea into Sonic's cup that she had pushed to his seat. The blue hedgehog looked at Shadow and raised a brow. "What happened to you?"
"Our daughter gave me a makeover. Isn't it obvious?" Shadow replied as he held the tea cup to his lips. His posture was straight and firm as he played with Lavender. He seemed to enjoy his time. In his own way.
"Isn't Papa pretty?" The young hedgehog spoke. "I did my best so that daddy is very pretty today."
"Appreciate it." Shadow said, raising his cup before placing it back on the little plate.
"Very pretty indeed." Sonic agreed, leaning forward and crossing his arms on the table.
Lavender then suddenly sprung up. "Oh! I almost forgot!" She went to her box of toys, rummaging through it before holding another teacup and a saucer for it. She sprinted back to her parents and placed the cup infront of Sonic. She took the teapot and poured some imaginary tea in it.
"For my brother!" Lavender said as she placed the teapot back on it's place. She then placed her little hand over Sonic's belly, already showing a bit of his pregnancy. "He needs to drink with us!"
Both hedgehogs laughed at her behaviour.
Sonic then placed a hand around Lavenders shoulder. "Would you be mad if you get a sister?" He asked softly.
Shadow, noticing the microscopic worry in Sonic's tone, suddenly paid close attention.
Lavender looked up at Sonic, deep in thought. "Can we not have a brother?.."
"It's just that we cannot control if you get a brother or a sister." Shadow started explaining to her, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "And we have no way of telling the gender now."
Lavender looked at the adult hedgehog's, taking in Shadow's words. She then turned to the little table, grabbing her Bunbun before stepping a few steps away and whispering to her bunny plush. Sonic and Shadow shared a confused glance with each other, both shrugging.
Lavender then suddenly turned around again. "Me and BunBun decided!"
"BunBun and you." Shadow corrected. Sonic raised a brow and laughed. "You did?"
Lavender struck her tongue out to Shadow before she continued. "Yeah! I don't care if we get a brother or a sister."
Sonic chuckled. Not even Shadow could hide his smile from her words.
"It's important that the baby is healthy!"
"Couldn't agree more." Shadow said, raising his toy cup in agreement.
Sonic laughed at the two, relieved to hear the answer. "That's important, yes." He agreed.
Lavender smiled widely and went back to her seat on the small table. And the little family continued their little play like that.
Sonic preferred it that way.
After an hour of more playing, nighttime had arrived already. Lavender was disappointed that she couldn't play more, but immediately went to bed when Sonic said they would play tomorrow again.
Lavender was tucked in, her bunny plush cuddled under her chin and fast asleep. Sonic laughed.
"Weird." He mumbled quietly to avoid waking her up. "It normally takes her a while to fall asleep.
Shadow hummed. "We're lucky today then." He said as he put an arm around Sonic's waist and led him out of Lavender's room. Sonic agreed and stepped out into the hallway with Shadow.
Once they were out, they made their way to their own bedroom. Shadow placed a tender kiss to Sonic's head. "How was your performance?" He asked. As usual.
Sonic shrugged as he laughed. "It went well." He replied. "Some people laughed. Some judged me. The usual."
"Unfortunately." Shadow grumbled. He was irritated that people were still laughing at Sonic even after everything.
Sonic elbowed him. "Judgement doesn't disappear overnight. And I don't mind it that much." He said. "I'm more concentrated on the people who like my performance."
Shadow stayed quiet for a moment. His gaze going down to Sonic's subtly visible belly before meeting his eyes again. "If anyone hurts you again or does anything, you tell me." He said firmly, making sure to show that he was dead serious.
Sonic rolled his eyes but agreed. Like always. "Yeah, yeah. You told me that a hundred times already." He then squished Shadow's cheek between his fingers. "You're so protective." He teased.
Shadow only scoffed at the teasing but couldn't help the smile. "Of course, I am. You're my husband and pregnant with my child." He pulled Sonic closer and lightly bit his cheek. "I'm supposed to be protective. Especially with what happened to you."
Sonic could only laugh at the light bite and pull away. "Okay, I get it. The king is protective of his little jester~" He teased again.
"Quit your teasing and let's go to bed." Shadow sighed as he continued walking with Sonic to their bedroom, Sonic happily following him.
Maybe this time, the pregnancy wouldn't be so bad.