Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Babbysitter Affair ❯ Whoops ( Chapter 11 )

The Babysitter Affair: Chapter 11

 

Early the next morning, the gleeful chirps and lyrical greetings from the birds bid a salutation to the sun.

Its abundant blanket of warmth washed over all that beheld its fiery glow.

A slumbering Amy Rose began to stir in her sleep from the symphonic morning exaltation.

Soon, rising out of bed, she rubbed her eyes and turned her face towards the inviting rays of the sunlight.

Allowing a few yawns and stretches pass, she glanced over to her clock on her nightstand and nearly did a double-take from what time it was.

“10:30!!!!??” she exclaimed, already jumping out of bed and rummaging through her drawers for clean undergarments and pantyhose.

Then frantically, she scooped up the pair of clothes she had left out the night before and began getting dressed.

 

Downstairs in the living room, Knuckles was surprisingly already awake.

His thoughts had wrought the toll of insomnia upon him and all he could think about were his boys and sometimes Rouge.

But much to his satisfaction, the odd thumping sounds from upstairs tore his guilty thoughts asunder.

Glancing upto the ceiling, a smug smile curved his lips as he realized the sounds were coming from Amy's room.

His eyes dashed to one of the large clocks on the wall that also presented the days as well as the time.

 

Smirking, he chuckled to himself and shook his head.

 

Seconds later, Amy came bounding down the steps with one heel on one foot and a skirt on backwards.

 

Impatiently trying to keep her balance, when she reached the living room, she tried slipping on the other heel while hopping around on the carpet.

 

Watching this girl make a living fool out of herself, Knuckles laughed and stood to his feet to greet her.

“Amy...what...are you doing, girl??!”

“I'm running late! What's it look like?!”

“Late?” Knuckles echoed while raising a brow.

Snickering, he took a step closer to her and gripped her shoulder so she could put her shoe on.

Annoyed by his behavior, she threw her wild bangs out of her face and stood up straight.

“WHAT!?” she demanded, obviously flustered.

Taking his time, Knuckles chuckled yet again and patted her on the back.

“Late for your new interview?”

“Duh! What else would I be late for??”

 

Raising yet another brow, Knuckles kept that comment to himself. But he knew that she and Sonic didn't do “anything.”

 

“Turn around...” he stated casually and he rubbed her back and led her attention to the clock he looked at previously.

 

Looking at it, Amy shrugged then glared at him. “What's the point?! If you keep me here a minute longer, you better take me over there!”

“Hehheh...Amy...what day did you say your interview was on?”

“Monday!”

 

“Today is Sunday...” Knuckles relayed with a sniggering smirk.

 

“Sun--” Amy's eyes went wide and she nearly lost her balance from her overlooked moment of stupidity.

“OH MY GOD!!!!!” she cried, a goofy grin on her face.

“Oh my God! It's Sunday!!”

 

Knuckles laughed. “Well, at least it shows your dedication to this interview tomorrow!”

“Haha yeah I guess so!”

 

“What's all the commotion, did I miss the joke?”

 

Both Amy and Knuckles paused in their amusement to acknowledge the newcomer into their conversation.

 

As soon as her eyes beheld him, Amy's features lit up with joy and she ran to him .”Oh Sonic!” she called, throwing her arms tightly around him.

“You're awake! Good morning!!”

 

“Haha, good morning to you Amy! Can I have my lungs back now...?” he playfully wheezed.

 

Smiling, Knuckles walked upto both of them and looked to Sonic.

 

Neither of them exchanged words, but a simple nod each to let the other know that they were on good terms again.

 

Yesterday, Amy and Sonic had a very long and meaningful conversation when they got back to his place.

And much to her surprise and happiness, he agreed to give a relationship a chance.

Although part of him still seemed against the ordeal, he ignored that and went along with it anyway. He did it just to see Amy's genuine smile towards him again.

 

In other positive news, Amy had her new job interview tomorrow as a hostess in one of the most prestigious restaurants in town.

If all went well, she would be back on her feet getting a new place soon.

 

Both Knuckles and Sonic were glad she was making such a startling fast comeback.

 

The two had also agreed to put the whole Amy misunderstanding behind them. And because of that, Knuckles has been enjoying his days away from the house, but he planned on making a trip there sometime soon.

 

As a matter of fact, why not do it now? He had nothing better to do.

 

Smiling faintly to himself and his thoughts, Knuckles waved goodbye to Sonic and proceeded to walk out the door.

 

“Hey!” Sonic called to his friend “Where're you goin' ?”

Curious, Amy slightly removed her face from being nuzzled in Sonic's chest and turned towards Knuckles with wide eyes.

 

'Don't tell me he's going back to that woman already!' she thought and her eyes narrowed into slits at the idea.

 

And Knuckles picked up on her expression immediately.

“Hey, I'll be back, okay? I just want to check up on the boys first. Is that alright, Ms Queen?” he asked with a mischievous grin towards Amy.

 

Satisfied, her features softened and she nodded. “Alright, fine, see ya. Just don't come crawling back here if she kicks you again!”

 

Knuckles laughed. “Well then you'd be even with her because you've kicked me twice in the same week!”

 

The 3 of them shared a warm round of laughter, and on that positive note, Knuckles left out the door.

 

“Hey, don't leave me alone with her!” Sonic joked, giving Amy a squeeze.

Completely in solace, Amy beamed at him and hit him on the shoulder. “What's that supposed to mean!”

“Hahaha! ...Think fast!” Sonic shouted and took off up the steps.

“What! You cheater!” Amy retaliated and was about to charge up the stairs after him, but stopped herself.

 

Looking over towards the doorway, she saw the silhouette of Knuckles standing there watching.

 

“Thank you” she mouthed, then happily ran up the stairs.

Half-smiling, Knuckles 'humphed and headed in the opposite direction.

 

--

 

“Hey hey! Now it's my turn!” a tiny childish voice cried.

“Nuh-uh, it's mine, Amafist! You already had a go!”

“Hey, whoa, you both had a turn...!” Shadow stated softly to the boys.

Disappointed in hearing something they didn't want to, the two exchanged looks and pouted.

 

“Aww, come on Mr Shadow!” Akai whined, tugging on Shadow's glove.

“Pwease? Can we finish the game? It was fun!”

“Yeah, fun!” Amethyst chimed in.

Shadow sighed.

 

The 3 of them had been playing a game of Charades and Clue Jr. for nearly18 hours straight without a wink of sleep.

And they still had the energy to keep going!

 

Shadow didn't mind the staying up part so much, but all the GAMES he had to play with them to keep their INTEREST was another story all in itself.

It was nearly maddening to him. He had no idea how Rouge could do it!

 

For the past 17 hours, Shadow has had his hands full watching the boys. He seemed to get along well with them rather quickly however, especially with Amethyst. But that Akai sure was a handful!

 

He and Rouge kept in touch at least 3 times that day for small talk, check ups on each other and reports on how the boys were doing.

 

Rouge...

 

He wondered when she'd call again.

 

“Mr. Shadow!!!” Amethyst's high voice called. Tumbling out of his thoughts, Shadow casually trailed his eyes over to the young echidna and gave a very slight hint of a smile. “Yes, what is it?”

 

“We wanna play some more!” he pleaded.

“Yeah!” Akai agreed. “But we wanna play a different game!”

Amethyst looked back to his brother with large confused eyes. “We do?”

“Yeah WE do!!”

“...Okay. What game?”

“Oh! How about hide n go seek!”

Shadow blinked. Another game?? As much as he was fine with the boys' company, he had to give it a rest!

Leaning forward, he called both of them closer.

“What is it, Mr. Shadow?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

Shadow smirked at their obedience, but his weariness began to show a little.

“I've got a game. 2 that can be played at the same time, actually... How about we play...the quiet game?”

“Oooh!” They cheered. “The quiet game!”

“Mommy always plays that with us tho!” Akai complained.

“And I can see why” Shadow replied.

“What's da second game, Mr. Shadow?” Amethyst questioned.

 

“...The sleeping game.”

His reply was met with curious and inquisitive sounds.

“We've never played dat...”

“Yeah...”

Shadow inwardly chuckled. “Good. I'm sure you'll love it. But first the quiet game! What we're going to do is, as soon as the quiet game starts, the sleeping game will too, so you'll have to run to your beds and act like you're sleeping. Whoever stays quiet and 'asleep' the longest wins!”

 

Too young to understand the gimmick behind these games, the two boys excitedly exchanged awed expressions.

 

“Oooh! I'm gonna go tuh sleep first!” Akai announced proudly.

“Nuh-uh, I will!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yah-huh!”

“Prove it!”

“I will!” Amethyst protested. He folded his little hands and slipped them under his cheek to pretend that he was sleeping.

 

When Akai saw this, a huge grin crossed his features and he dashed downstairs.

Hearing his brother bound down the steps, Amethyst 'woke up' and scampered after him. “Hey you cheated!!” he cried, struggling to catch up with his sibling.

 

“Haha! I'm gonna win this one!” Akai proclaimed and jumped into his bed.

Amethyst enthusiastically followed suit.

 

Alone upstairs, Shadow stared blankly at the steps for a moment, recollecting what just happened.

He chuckled. “...Too easy!”

Finally alone, he yawned loudly and stretched.

“...Glad that's over with.... Now...” he trailed off, looking around for a place to rest.

 

He wouldn't dare go into Rouge's bedroom to sleep on the bed.

The floor didn't seem too inviting, especially after what he heard about it the other night.

He sighed. As his deliberation continued, his eyes lingered over to the set of couches in the Living Room and in a flash of light, he appeared in front of them.

 

Slight crackles of energy sparked about him and he stood there for a moment contemplating it.

“Hmmm... Chaos Control seems to still be malfunctioning...”

he muttered to himself and sat down.

As he pondered the cause of the irritating predicament, his cell phone began to ring.

 

In an instant, he whipped out the device and rolled it open.

He didn't even bother to check the number. If it wasn't Sonic or Amy it could only be the number that actually mattered to him.

 

“Hello?” he spoke with a hint of suaveness to his voice.

It was unintentional, but it granted him a light-heated giggle from the other end.

“Hello again, Shadow. Sorry I keep calling so much.”

He casually blinked. “I don't mind.”

“Well I do! These are my daytime minutes!” she playfully stated.

They shared a small laugh, then a silent pause settled in.

“Enjoy your vacation yet?” Shadow bluntly asked.

Not really a great ice-breaking comment, but it did the trick.

A slight surprised sound escaped Rouge, then she laughed.

And at the sound of her lyrical pitches, Shadow secretly held the phone tightly and closer to his ear.

“Always the same Shadow. Always business and straight to the point!”

Even Shadow had to chuckle at this, but it sounded more like a 'hmph'.

“Yeah. It gets me answers.”

“Answers, huh?” Rouge inquired. The tone in her voice led Shadow to believe another thought was entwined with those words. But instead of delving into that circumstance, Rouge changed the subject.

“So, how are the boys?”

“... Sleeping.”

“Sleeping?! It's still early for them! How do you do it, Shadow??”

“Me? How do you manage to put up with them like this every day?”

She laughed. “They're my own personal trainers. And I stay in shape! They're a Godsend for that!”

Shadow smirked darkly at this. 'Too bad their father is the exact opposite...' he thought.

And if he didn't know any better, he could have sworn Rouge could read his mind.

“By the way, has that man showed up yet?”

An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of Shadow's stomach at the mentioning of that echidna from her and he groaned.

“Hmmm I'll take that as a no...”

“...No...he hasn't...”

Silence. It seemed she realized talking about Knuckles really bothered Shadow. And in the back of her mind, she knew why and felt a little guilty for it.

But what was done, was done. Regardless of the situation and her feelings years ago, she chose Knuckles. End of story—but was that the whole story?

“Well, be sure to let me know.”

“... You seem very persistent about letting me know that. Is there something you're not telling me, Rouge...?”

She sighed. “... ...Sorry... I just get the feeling he may pop up any moment now. Being away from the boys more than 24 hours is torture to him.”

“... I see...”

“Anyway, if everything's fine right now, I'm going to let you go so you can get some rest.”

“...Thanks...” he said softly. It wasn't really rest that he needed, but it would be nice.

He'd stayed up much longer than that and actually had done so roughly 2 weeks before her 18th birthday.

He and Rouge both stayed up for hours upon hours talking about everything and nothing.

They both found themselves relating on a similar level of understanding as best friends.

But they both knew not all things were as they seem.

“Shadow?? Shadow??”

Rouge's concerned tone brought him out of his rampant thoughts.

He cleared his throat and plainly answered.

“... What is it?”

“ You alright?”

“Yes...”

“Hmmm ... I wonder about that, but I'll believe you...for now.”

“Hmph.”

“Haha, I'll talk to you later, Shadow. Maybe one of these days we can...catch up?”

Catch up? Was that a pass or an invitation?

“...No, I wasn't making a pass at you if that's what you were thinking.”

Damn.

But he agreed. “We will talk later then.”

“Bye Shadow. Thanks again!”

“... My pleasure. Enjoy your vacation.

“I------I will!!!” she chirped.

Her cheerful voice caused him to crack a smile.

Once they hung up, he brought the phone to his forehead, closed his eyes and sighed.

He had to question himself again. Just what was he doing?

'I'm just helping out my ally.' he told himself. 'Anyway, the boys should be sleeping by now. I better go check on them...'

Settling that, he opened his eyes and was in the process of taking a glance towards the stairwell when the sudden muscular form of a certain echidna stepped into his line of vision.