Chapter Text
"It's a beautiful bright monday afternoon, and you want to spend it at home?!" Ballora sounds shocked and slightly offended as they walk down the sidewalk. She was wearing a purple and gold wool dress, a long sleeve woolen jacket cape, a set outwear plush stitching coat. At least, that's what she calls it. She also has dark purple boots with gold fur and light purple ear muffs with cat ears.
"And where's the fun in that?" Roxanne questions him with a big toothy grin and raised her brow. She was wearing a dark red shirt with a black coat, red scarf, dark gray pants, and black boots.
"Well, if you look around." He gestures to the snow falling and covering pretty much everything. He himself was wearing a black and dark gray jacket, dark tan pants, black boots, and a dark red scarf that Roxanne gave him. "There's cold shit falling from the sky, and I don't feel like freezing my ass off." Eclipse tells his two best friends.
Honestly, he doesn't know how he ended up with friends like them. He met Ballora about two years ago. All he did was let her borrow a pencil, and then she started to drag him with her, saying that they're besties. Roxanne and her family moved into town nearly a year ago, but they met at the fair after she ran him over with a go-kart.
Eclipse thought they were both strange, but he wouldn't change a thing. "Besides." Eclipse sighs. "I have to pick up my little siblings from daycare."
Both of the girls looked at him, confused. "Shouldn't your father be the one picking them up?" Ballora asked. "Why do you have to?"
"He's at work." Eclipse shrugs. His dad works a lot, so him and his siblings take care of the youngest ones. He doesn't blame his dad because he knows he's doing his best. His dad does take exsta days off when he can to hang out with them. The only ones who throw fits about it are Hazard and Harvest, but there's not much they can do about it. "Normally, Sun and Moon pick them up after school." Eclipse continued. "But their class went on a field trip, and won't be back for another ten to fifteen minutes. So, as the next oldest, I'm responsible for them."
"Can't Solar do it?" Roxanne points out. "Isn't he only like, one year younger than you?"
"He is, but him and the younger twins take the bus home. Dad doesn't trust the twins to walk home without getting into trouble, and i think Solar only takes the bus because his friend Nebula does."
"Would you like our assistance? Those two could be quite a handful." Ballora says while re-adjusting her ear muffs.
"Three actually, but yeah, the help would be appreciated." Eclipse sighs in relief. He really didn't know how he was going to keep track of them all.
"THREE!?" Both girls say in unison.
Oh, right. He forgot to tell them about the new youngest. "Right... So dad adopted a new son about a week ago. He's like, one, I think?" Eclipse explained. "He's some other type of celestial solar model. He has rays, but they're different from mine."
"How so?" Roxanne asks.
"How the hell do i explain it? Umm..." Eclipse tries to think of the best way to explain his little brother's rays as they continued walking down the road, now towards the daycare. Roxanne and Ballora follow while patiently waiting for an answer. "Have.. uh, have yall seen Sonic?"
Roxanne and Ballora looked at each other with raised brows before Roxanne crossed her arms. "Are you trying to change the subject?"
Eclipse rolls his eyes. "Just answer the damn question."
"Of course, I just ate there a few days ago." Ballora answered only for Eclipse to face palm.
"No, not the-" Eclipse takes a breath to calm himself. "I'm talking about the blue hedgehog thing that runs fast."
"Ohhhhh, the movie!" It's not just a movie but close enough.
"What about him?" Roxanne asked, still trying to figure out why they were talking about Sonic.
"You know the weird spiky hair on his head and back?" Both of them nod. "Well, his rays are like that, but they're only on his head."
Roxanne seemed to understand what he meant. Ballora took a second before nodding as the daycare was coming into view. "Name?"
"Huh?"
"His name. What is it?" Ballora asks again.
"Uh, Solarflare."
"Man, that's gotta get confusing." Roxanne smirks. "Practically having two Solars in the house."
"Maybe for Solar, but it doesn't bother me. Plus, most of us just call him Flare." He tells them, but then he smirks at a few memories. Sometimes I call him Solar, just to piss off Solar." And he has no regrets.
Ballora chuckles while Roxanne shakes her head fondly as they walk up to the entrance to the daycare. The sign at the top of the building had a colorful shooting star and reads 'SuperStar Daycare'.
"Of course you do, you trouble maker."
"You literally ran me over with a go-kart that you drove out of its area." He deadpans.
"ANYWAYS! Let's go get your siblings!" Roxanne quickly changed the subject and walked a bit faster to the doors.
"Wait for us!" Ballora quickly followed the wolf animatronic as she nearly trips in the snow. Eclipse chuckled at his friends and followed them inside.
~*~
The walk home was pretty uneventful besides from Cosmos constantly trying to pull away from Roxanne because he had seen a butterfly or something. He was wearing a sky blue sweater, a pale yellow scarf, a sky blue beanie with a white fur pom pom, dark blue pants, and yellow boots with pale yellow fur.
Eclipse could tell that Ballora was very grateful that all Terra did when something caught her eye was point and smiled up at her. She was wearing a light pink winter jacket with white fur, pink mittens, magenta pants, and light pink boots with a pink bow and white fur.
Eclipse got stuck carrying Solarflare, but it wasn't as bad as he was expecting. He was wearing a teal blue puffer jacket with dark teal blue mittens and shorts with dark blue pants.
The most eventful part of the walk was coming home to an empty house. He has his own key, but normal Solar and the younger twins would already be home. Oh well, guess he's on babysitting duty.
Ballora and Roxanne ended up staying to help watch them. Eclipse was gonna decline their offer, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. So now he's in the kitchen, microwaving a large plate with a mountain of dino nuggets. The other were in the living room doing their homework while the little ones were glued to the TV.
While he was waiting for nuggets to cook, he shot Solar a text asking him where they're at. It didn't take long for him to reply. Apparently, the bus got stuck in some bad traffic, and they probably won't be home for a while. Well, sucks to be them. The microwave beeps as he pockets his phone.
Eclipse took out the dino shaped chicken nuggets and picked out the hot ones from the still cold ones. He put the hot nuggets on another plate and stuck them in the freezer. The cold ones ended up back in the microwave.
While waiting, Eclipse glanced into the living room to make sure everything was ok. Cosmos was still glued to the TV, Solarflare was in his playpen playing with building blocks, and Terra was sticking different colored star stickers on her bubble pigtails. Roxanne and Ballora were still doing their homework, but they would glance up to make sure the toddlers were still good.
Satisfied, Eclipse went back to the fridge and took the dino nuggets back out. He pokes one to check the temperature. It was warm, good. The microwave goes off once again as he grabs a plastic knife out of the silverware drawer. Dad doesn't allow them to use real knives, which is very stupid if you ask him.
"Can one of you put Solarflare in his high chair!" Eclipse shouts towards the living room as he cuts the warm Dino nuggets into smaller pieces. Once, he had three plastic plates of small pieces of nuggets. He grabbed the hot nuggets out of the microwave and dumped them into a bowl.
Eclipse takes the bowl and plates into the living. He gave the toddlers the small pieces of nuggets and set the bowl in between Roxanne and Ballora.
They looked at the bowl for a moment before Ballora decided to comment on it. "Dino nuggets? What are we, eight?"
"Don't let the red twins hear you say that. You might join the dino nuggets with getting your head bit off by them." Eclipse tells her with a smirk as he sits down to join them in doing homework.
Honestly, Eclipse had no idea why Ballora and Roxanne looked like they were struggling. This stuff was a little too easy if you asked him. It only took him about a minute and a half to finish his homework. Although Ballora and Roxanne made him help them with their homework so he remained there for five more minutes, helping them and watching his siblings.
After a while, Sun and Moon got home. Sun ran past them and heads downstairs, probably to let his two kittens out of his room. Moon, being the asshole that he is, throws a snowball in Eclipse's face, hard enough to knock him over.
Moon bursts out laughing as Eclipse sat back up. He shook off the snow before his rays flared in anger as he glared at his older brother. Ballora and Roxanne were also glaring at his brother. Eclipse could hear a quiet growl coming from Roxanne and hear an annoyed, "How rude." From Ballora.
"Dad said no snow in the house." Eclipse growls.
"Well, he's not here. And besides, I'm sure a little snow won't hurt you." Moon tells him while catching his breath.
Eclipse rolls his eyes before grabbing the now half empty bowl
of dino nuggets. "Then I'm sure watching three tods by yourself won't hurt you." He gets up and starts walking towards the stairs near the kitchen, his friends happily following behind. Moon's amusement quickly turned to anger.
Just before Eclipse went downstairs, he turned back towards Moon with a knowing grin. "And I'm pretty sure Solarflare needs a diaper change." Eclipse only stuck around long enough to watch the annoyed expression on Moon's face immediately turn to disgust.
~*~
They spend the rest of the day playing with Sun's kittens and watching the owl house. Sun joins them on the couch with his kittens to watch the show.
Eclipse thinks their names are Muffen and Cleo. Sun brought them home a couple of weeks back and used to bottle feed them. He apparently found them alone, struggling in the snow. And now they're here, watching tv with a bunch of animatronic children.
When Solar and the Bloodmoon twins finally got home, they joined them, too. Solar was chilling on the recliner while the twins sat on the floor. When asked about homework, Solar said he did it on the bus, and the twins declared that they'll do it later. So never. Got it.
Eventually, their dad got home from work. He sent Roxanne and Ballora off so they could get home before dark. They said their byes as the Bloodmoon twins tried to sneak away. It obviously didn't work, and their dad had them sit down and do their homework. They were complaining the entire time, but they got it done.
Eclipse told their dad about Moon throwing snow inside the house, which Moon got told off about. But once Eclipse was done with the chaos for today, he went to his room to lay down.
But the chaos wasn't done with him quite yet.