hi. this is really experimental, so please dont get upset.

Many days had passed since the entire Mephiles incident. Thought there was still pretty clear mystery surrounding the subject, Shadow didn't like to talk about it, so it was hardly even addressed.

The hiveminds had grown much during the short time, and they all had names now. Each had a seperate trait, and each could easily be told apart. Everyone was about half their height, coming up to Shadow's stomach or lower ribs, meaning they were too large to easily carry a lot if not all of them at once anymore.

Sonic yawned and stretched out on the couch, fully bothering a hivemind that decided that his lap was a perfect place to sleep as he turned to look towards the kitchen.

"Shads? Home yet?" he called, voice croaking as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. The child crawled off onto the other side of the couch, laying with the rest of his brothers and sisters who were all irritated at the sudden extra weight. "What time is it?

"It's six thirty AM, Sonic. And I don't live here, remember?" The ebony hedgehog spoke evenly, aware that Sonic was only waking up because he smelled food. He was forced to cook early to compensate for the eleven mouths to feed, save for himself. After how much snacking he's done along the way, he couldn't possibly want a plate for himself.

"Crap, yeah. Hey, uh, I'm awake," he started, voice deepening a bit as he yawned "Need... help, or something?"

"Yes."

Sonic secretly hoped Shadow wouldn't take him up on his offer, but then again, when did Shadow ever make anything convenient? He heaved himself up, where everyone available took his spot and left him no more room even if he wanted to sit down again. "Okay," he whispered, trudging into the kitchen just to see the table somewhat set already with a single mug of coffee at his place.

"This for me?"

"Yes." Shadow glanced at him, then towards the couch. "That couldn't possibly be comfortable."

Sonic blew a raspberry before taking a few careful sips. "It's never been comfortable. I'm regretting letting Knux sleep over."

Shadow then began serving up three plates and wrapped them in clingwrap to keep it fresh and warm, right after fighting with a strand of it that got caught on his fingers from static cling. "That was my fault. The kids were getting bigger and stronger and I couldn't possibly leave them unsupervised to destroy your home while I worked."

He didn't say anything at first, simply enjoying his coffee. Warm and just a bit sweet, but it did have a certain bitterness. He normally didn't like bitter coffee, but today he actually liked it. He also didn't touch on how Shadow said 'the kids'. "Yep. Don't beat yourself up, they got big fast, but Tails said that they're now growing so slow that it'll take years for them to get to normal height."

"They used to be able to ride on my shoulders."

"Everyone was at one point, Shads. Things grow up."

There was a pause in the air, but not awkward. A comfortable silence in which the two simply thought, Shadow turned away to prepare small breakfast plates for the hiveminds while Sonic nursed his coffee with a content smile.

Then, the smile waned. "Shadow,"

"I do not want to talk or think about it, Sonic."

He flinched, "I wasn't gonna say that. I was going to say, do you think you can still handle all of them... at once?"

When he finaly finished that last plate, Shadow turned around and leaned against the counter. Their food could cool a bit; they once ate fistfuls of dirt because they spilled their juice in it, he was sure they didn't care about cool breakfast. "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Sonic fiddled with the handle of his mug, coffee now a bit too hot to drink right now. "There's eight of them, and each has a different learning skill and each skill needs different lengths of time to master," he looked up, catching Shadow maintaining direct eye contact. His expression was blank. "They're doing really well with all the tests and the illness tests, but they still need to be... well, themselves, but you don't..."

Sonic looked into the swirling coffee, ears folding back as he ran his fingers

"I don't what? Finish the sentence." Ruby eyes narrowed dangerously at what the other was suggesting.

"I... don't know, really. I'm not gonna dance around the subject anymore, so: I think you might need help. Other than leaving them here to sleep and eat, they need to get out. Knuckles has already started liking one of them, the girl with all that strength, and Tails and I like Champ and Steve." He shrugged "I know you're being a great dad, Shadow, but--"

A plate was roughly dropped in front of him, food almost toppling out of it as he barely stopped the bowl from spilling over.

"Breakfast is ready." Shadow growled, then huffed nearly silently and in filled eight children, each scrambling for their plates and eating well before they got close to any chair.

"Shadow," said 'great dad' began to walk away, ignoring Sonic completely. "Shadow, you aren't listening. Shad--"

And he was gone, out the front door. Sonic groaned a bit louder than he tried to, alarming the hiveminds into paying attention to the surroundings than just their food.

As Knuckles and Tails came downstairs, groggy and mumbling that it was still too early for them even though an hour had passed before Shadow was done cooking, the children narrowed their eyes and stormed off.

"Not you guys too!" Sonic called out "And you're not even going to finish your food!?"

"Bad bloo," One of them chanted, and while it was impressive that their English was getting better and thag they were able to walk instead of crawl now, being called a 'bad bloo' by a rather angry childish voice couldn't be taken seriously. "Bad! No!" The rest chanted in delayed unison, and Sonic deflated in his chair, picking at his food now.

Tails looked at the door as it slammed shut, taking a careful seat and unwrapping his plate. "What was that about, Sonic?"

Knuckles sat as well but didn't speak, simply shoveljng food into his mouth. The blue hedgehog frowned.

"All I did was suggest that Shadow needed to think and see if he could handle all eight of them still!" He stabbed the table with his fork, folding back his ears as he pried it back out from the wood and rubbed his fingers on the marred surface. "They're growing up now, and each of them are different and need different people to help them do what they do best."

Knuckles paused long enough to grunt. "So you told a dad to give up his children because he's not good enough anymore?"

"No! I--" he then stopped, realizing fully that what he said did sound a little... no actually very rude. Shadow was right to be upset with him.

"Sonic," Tails whined, his namesakes twitching quite robotically as he dragged his hand down his face in exasperation. "If anything, they should go so school, not be given up. Go say sorry and correct yourself."

It was odd that his little brother and old friend were the ones giving him advice and not the other way around, but he heeded it, standing up to excuse himself and go to the front door.

The short walk from the kitchen through the living room felt like miles yet somehow wasn't long enough at the same time, and as he gripped the handle and slowly opened the door, he spotted Shadow. He was sat on a downed tree, one of his children on each leg while one styled his quills. They rest happliy talked to each other and their father in a mix of broken english and their alien tongue.

It was... a wholesome scene.

xoxo

hewwo. i didn't think i would ever write this, yet here it is. those who deleted hive mind from your favourites: idk if i'll continue this. there was one review asking for a continuation, so...

this is hella Not beta read, so theres probably tons of mistakes