"Here we are, home sweet home!"
Sonic grins as he pushes the front door open with his foot, his arms being occupied by his half asleep partner and their newborn twins. The sun had fully risen by the time the hedgehogs arrived home, they would usually be eating breakfast together and making plans for the day by now, today would have to differ from that routine though. Today and perhaps even a few more days after would be for resting and bonding with their new hoglets, as well as establishing a new routine to accommodate them and their needs.
Shadow yawns softly and looks up at his partner with a sleepy smile, his head resting against the blue hedgehog's shoulder. Both of the newborns still slept peacefully in Shadow's arms, their soft fur revealed to be white now that they were mostly dry.
"I wonder what color they'll be when their quills come in" Shadow wonders out loud as Sonic brings them upstairs into the bathroom to get them cleaned up before getting settled into bed.
"I dunno, they could surprise us and end up being yellow or something, my brother is green even though nobody else in my family is. Hedgehog genetics can be a mixed bag, even without alien genes being thrown into the mix" Sonic says, setting Shadow down on the closed toilet lid so he could get a warm bath started.
"At least they don't seem to have any obvious Black Arms traits like horns or extra eyes, they have adorable little hedgehog features" Shadow replies, smiling softly as he watches the two hoglets sleeping in his arms. Everything from their tiny folded ears and pink noses, to their stubby tails and paw like feet was undoubtedly hedgehog, and undoubtedly perfect in Shadow's eyes. Although he would still think they were perfect even if they did inherent traits from the alien side of his genes.
Sonic slips off his gloves, shoes, and socks before helping Shadow into the bathtub with their hoglets then joining them in the warm, soapy water. He settles in across from Shadow and grabs a bottle of his partner's favorite lavender scented shampoo as well as a bottle of baby shampoo and a washcloth "You clean them up while I take care of you?" He asks.
"Sounds great to me" Shadow replies, shifting one of the babies onto his lap while the other remained settled against his chest so he could bathe them one at a time. Sonic moves to sit behind Shadow so he can shampoo his quills, picking out a few stray flower petals and blades of grass before squeezing out a handful of shampoo and gently massaging it into his partner's quills and fur.
"Did you come up with any more name ideas for them while you were out there?" Sonic asks, thinking back to the list they had started over a month ago. They had agreed that picking out a list of suggestions would be best so their child wouldn't be nameless by the time they were born, although compiling said list turned out to be quite difficult since they wanted to make sure the name they chose would be perfect. Thankfully they had already included both boy and girl names as well as some gender neutral names since they wanted to keep the gender a surprise until after they were born, at least they didn't have to narrow down their options to a single name anymore since they had two hoglets instead of just one.
"I did think of one actually, how does Sol sound for one of them?" Shadow suggests as he delicately washes their son's fur while their daughter continues to nap against his fluffy chest.
"I love it!" Sonic beams "It fits our little boy. I actually thought of a suggestion for our baby girl too, what do you think of calling her Molly?" He suggests, looking over Shadow's shoulder to watch him handling their newborns with a gentleness that not many people would expect from him unless they truly knew him.
"It's beautiful, I love it!" Shadow grins tiredly, carefully swapping the twins so the newly named Molly could be bathed next, now that her brother was clean and already back to napping peacefully while Sonic finished rinsing the soap out of Shadow's quills.
"Sol and Molly it is then!" Sonic chuckles as he steps out of the tub and grabs four towels, one for each of the twins, one for himself, and one for Shadow. He carefully takes Sol and dries the boy's tiny body before swaddling him in the towel, they could properly dress the twins once they were back in the bedroom where they had more space to do so safely. Shadow unplugs the tub's drain to let the water out before passing Molly to Sonic so she can be dried off as well and so he could get out of the tub to dry himself too.
Soon the little family of four was settled comfortably in bed, finally able to rest and relax together after an eventful morning. Shadow yawns and sighs happily, his body seeming to sink into the soft bedding.
"I'm exhausted, but at least everything stopped hurting" The black and red hedgehog mumbles as he shuts his eyes, lack of sleep and over exertion finally hitting him now that his hoglets had been born and he felt safe and comfortable. Sonic was there to take care of everything now so Shadow could finally get some well deserved sleep, at least until Sol and Molly woke up and needed to be fed or have their diapers changed. For now the two hoglets were curled up together between their parents, having somehow managed to find each other despite their eyes not being open yet.
"Thank you, Shadow. For everything. For carrying our children and bringing them into the world, for loving me and staying by my side throughout everything we've been through together. For putting up with my immature B.S for so long. You and the family we've made are my whole world, my everything. Before we got together I never would have imagined myself in a relationship at all, let alone with kids! The idea of settling down and changing who I was used to scare me, I didn't want to lose my freedom and I didn't want to have to slow down for someone else. But you never expected me to do any of that, you came along for the ride and let me grow and change on my own terms. I changed for the better, not because I felt forced to change but because I wanted to change. I wanted to be better for you so I could make you as happy as you make me, I hope I've been able to do that" Sonic tells his partner.
"Where did all that come from, Mr.Sappy Isn't My Thing?" Shadow chuckles, leaning forward to kiss Sonic while being careful not to disturb their sleeping hoglets "Of course you make me happy, since we've been together I've been the happiest that I can remember being in a very long time. I never would have thought that it was possible for me to be this happy again, I was lost and angry for so long until you gave me a new purpose in life. You helped me realize that my promise to make everyone on this planet happy included myself as well, you've helped me stay on the right path to be my best self. You and our family are my whole world too, I don't want to imagine what my life would be like without you in it" Shadow says with tears in his eyes, the mere thought of losing Sonic making him emotional "Sorry, I know how much you dislike seeing people cry. My hormones must still be out of wack" He sniffles and rubs at his eyes.
"Don't be sorry, it's good to cry every once in a while. You've been through alot and you've barely gotten any sleep lately too, you must be totally exhausted" Sonic replies while pulling the covers up over Shadow's shoulder and fluffing up his partner's pillow "Get some rest, I'll take care of everything while you take time to recover. I'm not taking no for an answer" He grins.
"Fine. I love you, you persistent pain in the ass" Shadow huffs in amusement as his eyes shut and he quickly drifts off into a deep sleep, unable to force himself to stay awake any longer.
"I love you too, Shads. Sleep well" Sonic smiles fondly at his family before turning out the lights and settling into bed with them, dozing off himself soon after.
