Part 3 of Silvers brother dads!
I have succumbed. Been convinced. I shall fold to the temptation to make more fluff with the brother dads and little silver. Have a third part! More fluff!!
Sonic universe setting: Movie universe
Background: Black arms invasion happened and Eclipse was included as a vanguard. Black arms were defeated but Eclipse was spared. He changed his form to look like a hedgehog and stays with Shadow as a hedgehog rather than a Darkling.
Time period: About 200 years after canon. (about two weeks after Silver has been taken in by the brothers)
Part 1, Part 2, Part 4
Silver was getting used to being with Shadow and Eclipse.
Shadow was the one who decided where they went and what they did, for the most part. He was also the one who reminded Silver to eat. Silver ate a lot more now, which was nice. He thought asking for food was bad, but it wasn't bad with Shadow and Eclipse. It was nice.
Eclipse argued with Shadow a lot but also played a lot with Silver. And he also let Silver ride on his shoulder as much as he wanted! Silver hadn't been carried this much before, he was always told he had to be a big boy. But Eclipse never refused. He picked Silver up any time he reached up and any time he let out a soft whine from getting tired of walking. It was really nice.
Silver liked them a lot. A whole lot. He never thought arguing could be soft and that he could do things without the floaty energy making things difficult.
But now Eclipse wanted Silver to use the floaty energy... And he wasn't sure if he liked it.
"Just make that small stone float! Go on." Eclipse gestured to the stone by Silver's feet with a frown.
"I... I can't..." Silver shifted on his feet, just to make sure the heavy things around his legs were still there. As long as they were on, the floaty energy wouldn't appear... That's what Shadow had said. But he didn't want to take them off...
"You carried me and Shadow, of course you can." Eclipse huffed and grabbed Silvers head to make his eyes focus on the rock. "Now pick it up and crush it."
Silver shifted on his feet again and let out a soft sound of distress. "But-..." He started before Eclipse got annoyed by the whining. "But what if it gets too much...?"
"Nothing you can do would be enough to overpower ME." Eclipse let out a scoff and pressed his hand a little harsher on Silver's head. But not so it hurt, both of them were very nice with touches that never hurt. "So do it. Now. Before Shadow gets back. You-. uhh... You want to impress him, right? This would impress him. And crushing it would be good!"
Silver looked up at Eclipse, then gave him a timid nod. He... did want to impress Shadow. Or make Shadow smile. Shadow smiled when Silver did good things, so if destroying it was good, then...
Silver looked at the Stone. Then bent down to carefully remove the things around his legs. Silver shivered when he felt his floaty energy a lot more with them gone, but he tried to focus on the little rock. He held out his hands and focused on the floaty energy inside him...
Only to end up floating himself. Silver barely got time to flail and start to panic before Eclipse grabbed him, forced the floaty energy down and put Silver on the ground.
"No. Your chaos energy was only on you that time. Put it on the rock." Eclipse pointed at the rock with his eyes narrowed. "Again."
Silver nodded, a little more nervous but... But Eclipse had caught him. And he'd done what Shadow had done. So he could take away the floaty energy too... Silver took another deep breath, held his hands towards the rock and focused... repeating "float, float, float" in his mind to try and make the rock listen-.
It started to glow slightly cyan and wiggled. Silver perked up when he saw it, but then the glow faded. Eclipse let out a snort and a cackle, his hand still on top of Silver's head.
"What kind of pathetic thing was THAT!? You're so weak!" Eclipse's grin was wide as he looked at Silver. And even if Eclipse called Silver weak, that was okay. Seeing Eclipse grinning made Silver feel happy.
"What are you doing?"
Eclipse twitched when they heard Shadow's voice and Silver turned towards the other brother with a smile and a wave. Eclipse let out a soft huff and bent down to put Silver's anklet things back on.
"Just seeing if it can cause destruction yet."
Shadow's eyes narrowed on Eclipse as he set down the bag of supplies he'd gotten. Silver ran over towards the bag to take a peek inside. There were all sorts of wrapped things in there...
"He's still a CHILD. Do you even know how to teach someone to use chaos energy?"
"Well, at least someone have to. Especially since SOMEONE is too much of a 'worryheart' to do it. It can't be too difficult."
Silver looked up to see both brothers looking at each other with their arms crossed.
"He's scared of his power. You can't force him to use it before he's ready." Shadow argued back with his eyes narrowed.
"I wasn't forcing anything! I just told it to make the stone float. It was pathetic, it barely moved." Eclipse let out a soft scoff.
"It will take years before he can do whatever it is you're expecting of him."
"Then even better to learn earlier! Then I would've wasted less time."
"As if you have anything productive to do with your time."
Silver's eyes widened when their arguing became less soft. More serious and tense, both of them starting to growl and it made Silver feel scared. He didn't want them to fight like that, that's what made his parents not like him, Silver didn't want the brothers to stop liking him!
"Shadow!" Silver shouted as he quickly pulled on the fur on Shadow's hip. He shrunk back when Shadow looked down at him and quickly let go of the fur. "Don't fight... I-I just wanted to impress you..."
Shadow eyes softened a little when Silver said that. Eclipse let out a loud 'Ha!' as he pointed towards Silver. "See!? I didn't force it to do anything!"
Shadow sent another glare towards Eclipse, then crouched to be more level with Silver to talk with him instead. "So you want to learn how to use your power? Are you sure? You still seem scared whenever it's mentioned."
Shadow was right... Even now when he mentioned it, Silver could feel himself tense up at the thought of that floaty energy. It was scary... And Silver couldn't control it. But...
"Y-You and Eclipse can stop it... So I'm okay and I don't hurt anyone." Silver nodded and clenched his hands in front of him. Like someone does to show they are super determined. "I wanna do good things with it. And not be floaty every time."
Shadow let out a soft hum as he looked at Silver for a few moments longer. He then nodded. "Alright. We'll teach you."
"We? What we?" Eclipse asked with a scoff, his arguing tone turning soft again. "I'm a better at chaos energy than you are."
"So you think you have the patience to teach him yourself?" Shadow looked at Eclipse with a raised eyebrow. "Even those small, boring but useful things?"
"I have patience! And lots of it!" Eclipse walked over to pick up Silver and settled Silver on his shoulder. The little hedgehog reflexively grabbed hold of Eclipse's quills to hold on while Eclipse pointed at his brother.
"I'll make this one better than any other mortal YOU have ever taught before! I can teach things just fine!"
Shadow's mouth twitched into a small smirk as he looked between Silver and Eclipse. "I'll give you a week before you give up and beg me for help."
"Won't happen." Eclipse growled, still soft arguing, then turned towards the surrounding trees. "We'll just start with something lighter! You'll be on MY level of chaos mastery by the time I'm done with you, little thing."
Silver let out a soft giggle when Eclipse poked his stomach in a place that tickled. His tail started to wag as he hugged himself close to Eclipse. "Okay! I'll do my best!"
Eclipse never called Silver by his name for many years. But "little thing" became what he called Silver. It was special, it showed that Eclipse cared for Silver in a way he didn't for anyone else. Everyone else were "creatures" but Silver was "little thing". He really liked their lessons even if Eclipse got annoyed sometimes. He was still Eclipse's "little thing" and Silver was very happy to be Eclipse's special little thing. It meant Eclipse wouldn't leave him. And that's what was most important.