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They’ve fully realized it 💞

Sonic is not entirely sure how old he is due to Earth and his home planet being, well, different planets. It’s entirely likely their years are different lengths, and he was too little to figure it out

Which means he doesn’t know when his actual birthday is either

The touch starvation is so strong in this lil blue guy

His need (or as I call it, touch quota) is low

Readjusting to being touched was one of the hardest things he had to do after being taken in by the Wachowskis bc not having ANY touch for a DECADE is v rough

Has beef with a really specific raccoon

Has definitely fought with at least one wildcat

Slept curled up for 10 years and then some bc being all alone on a new planet that may be dangerous is v scary and his quills can protect him while he sleeps

Falling asleep in the hotel room splayed out was one of the first times he didn’t sleep curled up since arriving on Earth

Has a really varied grasp on Earthen knowledge. Can tell you gravity exists, quote almost the entirety of speed, and knows what plants to avoid in the woods but has no idea what Labor Day is

Does not understand why Earth has so many magical people whose job is to break into your house (Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy)

Doesn’t call Maddie “mom” for a long time bc his last mom figure died and caused a lot of complicated emotions

Actually loves to read!! Is very proud of his library

Had a lot maps of Earth in his cave to learn about earth and fantasize about all the places he could go if he didn’t have to hide. This is part of why he could use the portal rings to go to various countries — he wanted to see those landmarks and places

Doesn’t know how to exist in/with silence bc silence meant he was alone and that’s why he talks to himself even after he’s adopted

Is scared of the dark bc he arrived on earth at night after watching Longclaw stay behind

Easily distracted and hyperactive but his brain is actually great at keeping track of multiple things at a time

- thought it was a great idea to jump on a flying machine gun powered robot, and yell “is that all you’ve got?!” and challenge it to another round

- likely stole souvenirs from the world’s largest rubber band ball bc this kid does not have his own money

- saw a dive bar with tricked out cars and lost his mind

- also decided a shirt (either one of Tom’s or this kid stole yet again), a cowboy hat, and Tom’s sunglasses was enough of a disguise for him to go inside a building full of people

- stole a notebook and pen straight out of a waitress’s hands

I did it! This is my 500 follower DTIYS!!! (I kept procrastinating on it smh)

Fine, I'll give him a bath and some blankets 🙄...... *starts crying*

Maddie coddles him alot so he gets a warm bottle of milk with honey in it to help him sleep

movie sonic: *meows*

From what Ive heard, wild hedgehogs hibernate in the winter. I think that maybe instinctively sonic made a burrow in a corner of his cave where he would make a nest, ball up, and hibernate during the winters. Plus he’s in a cave. A nest undergroud and inside a cave would keep him out of the elements and maximize survival chances.

The first one, he’d been left pressed against the walls of the cave, shivering and watching the entrance begin to cover itself with snow until the damp, freezing space began to get darker and darker. He’d done the best he could. Covering himself with leaves and dirt to stay warm. Eventually he wriggled out and braved a snowless day to steal food from trash cans and the supermarket dumpster. 

By the second winter, he’d learned. 

There were charity drives set up for wintertime all over the city. Donut Lord (a newfound favorite person of his) always helped to run them. Sonic was able to sneak through and quickly steal a child’s coat from one of the donation piles. 

The year after that, Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady (his second favorite people) began getting rid of their own stuff. They were moving into a house, it looked like. A big house. A warm house. 

Pretzel Lady stacked old blankets on the porch to send away with Tom to the charity drives. Sonic snagged one as well as some canned food before Donut Lord could come back from his car for another box. They’d never notice. But oh… that had been a good year. When he’d realized what their home smelled like; sea salt and cinnamon and old leather, and he’d buried his face in the blankets that night, huddled against the side of the cave.

He got better and better at winters. One or two, of course, were hiccups. Large storms weren’t predictable. Neither was fever or hunger. But he managed. His accrued collection of stuff grew. He entertained himself in new ways. During winter, he took the time to practice reading and writing. He did his best. 

It was always hard, though, to stand outside of the houses and see the warmth inside. There were holidays. Families came and went. Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady were mostly alone, but they had one another. He’d sit outside until his tail went numb, watching them dance in the kitchen, read by the fireplace, watch old classics that he’d learned to love along with them. 

And then things change. 

The first winter he’s with them is harder for Maddie and Tom than it is for him. Because he asks questions. And they’re convinced that the questions will break their hearts. 

“I have an old blanket of yours,” he says one day, early on. “I can return it! I took really good care of it!”

“When’s that donation thing?” he’d ask another day. When Tom asked him how he knew about that, he shrugged and said, “that’s usually how I ended up getting through winter.” 

Tom and Maddie hide whatever grief they have as well as they can. But they break more than they’d like to admit. They make promises to him in the form of new coats, new hats, and making sure the fridge is always stocked. 

He has nightmares; about waking up alone, the floor covered in snow. About hunger and cold. Screaming down the house until Maddie appears in front of him in the dark, snatching him from under the covers to hold him so tightly, waiting until the ice behind his eyes melts. It’s okay, Maddie whispers, splayed hands pressed into his shoulder blades from where her arms were cirlcled around him. It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re here. You’re safe. He hadn’t stopped shaking, breathing out puffed, panic breaths into the sleeve of the ratty t-shirt she slept in. So she’d taken him along with her back downstairs, taking his hand and leading him down.  

The first time he winds up in their bed is in winter. Memories were fierce and wild things. “We have a visitor,” Maddie whispered to Tom, who’d been woken up by the screams from above and was waiting. He nodded, like it was the most natural thing. For once, Sonic didn’t argue. Climbing over the side of the bed, 

“Hey, bud.” Tom, lifting up the covers to help him find a space. “Rough night?” 

Sonic nodded into the pillow. 

Curling up in a space that smelled entirely like them, pressed between them, closing his eyes tight and trying to see anything other than the walls of a frozen cave. 

Tom smoothed his hand up and down his spine, Maddie curled around him. He was warm, he reminded himself. He was warm, he was warm, he wasn’t alone, he was warm. 

It helps to wake up knowing both those things are true. 

On the flip side, winters become one of his favorite seasons. They don’t go out as much. He watches the world through windows instead of on the cave floor. Maddie and Tom take him sledding and skiing and snow boarding. 

During one movie night, after he’d drifted off on the couch halfway through Detective Pikachu, he’d felt Tom lift him up, bring him to his room. Tuck him in. Turn out the lights. “You know…” he heard the man whisper. “If I’d known you were out there earlier I’d…” The words fell flat and Tom’s voice choked, but Sonic, barely awake, understood. Tom sighed. Kissed him goodnight. Went downstairs to join Maddie.

I just wanted to point out that Sonic is such a babe, a new calf, a tiny bird in flight when it comes to the high five. He has not yet learned the trickeries that come along with it. 

Tom: [Coming into the living room, holding a hand up in the air] Hey buddy! High five! 

Sonic: [eyes lighting up, heart beating, birds singing, the sky opens up and a heavenly choir begins to sing the first, bursting notes of a holy tune. He jumps up to meet the hand with his own]

Tom: [whisks his hand away]

Tom: Too slow!

Tom: Ha! 

Sonic: [staring at his hand]

Tom: Sonic?

Sonic: [staring at his hand]

Tom: Sonic? 

Maddie: [walking in] Sonic? Honey? You okay? 

Sonic: [staring at his hand]. 

Sonic: [sparking]

When he gets up again and unlocks that insane power boost.

Because I can’t resist posting bits and pieces of upcoming chapters.

Anyways, I could imagine that Tom and Maddie would have to become adept at wrangling their speedster son. (I mean, when you really think about it, Sonic wouldn’t have to listen to them if he didn’t want to. It’s just a good thing that he loves and respect them.) But of course, he’s still a kid, and kids get into mischief. Kids sometimes run where they’re not supposed to. So here’s a mostly first draft bit,

*******

Maddie nodded in agreement, turning around while still in her husband’s gentle hold. She put her arms around his neck, pulling him in closer for a kiss. It was at that moment a ‘WHOOSH’ or air followed by a blue blur interrupted their tender moment.

“Oh! Errrrrmmm… sorry. D-didn’t mean to interrupt your weird grown up…. ritual… thing,” apologized the little alien, all the while making a strange face while sticking out his tongue.

Kissing was just something Sonic couldn’t wrap his mind around. Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady did it, people in various movies and TV shows did it, even a whole bunch of his classmates would do it, often brazenly out in the halls or the school yard. (But the sneakier ones would go to the bathrooms. Seriously, just to do that!) Locking mouths and “swapping spit” as he’d heard it referred to a few times before just didn’t seem appealing at all! It was just so strange; stranger than the little kisses to the forehead and cheeks Maddie would often insist on giving him.

“To be continued,” muttered Maddie, giving Tom a mischievous little smile and wink before addressing Sonic, “And you, young man. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

Tom moved his arm to wrap around his wife’s shoulder, giving the strong appearance of experienced and seasoned parents. (Key word here being “appearance.”)

“But Pretzel Lady, I’m not tiiiiiired,” argued the young hedgehog, all the while scratching Ozzie’s head and ears once the old golden retriever padded to his side, “Donut Lord?”

“Sorry kiddo, this time I can’t help you.”

Sonic cast an accusatory look to his caretaker. His hero. This betrayal! From the Donut Lord, no less. It couldn’t be happening. There was only one other option now.

Already predicting what was about to happen next, Tom pulled out his phone, opening up the stopwatch app, “Maddie, your record is one minute and twenty three seconds.”

“I can beat that!”

“Don’t be to sure about that, Pretzel Lady. You’ll have to catch me first!” challenged Sonic, taking on a confident and defiant stance.

Human and alien stared each other down, asserting dominance, each one trying to intimidate the other, (all while struggling to hold back a fit of playful laughter as smiles threatened to crack.)

“And… GO!” Tom called, starting the timer.

Immediately, Sonic was off, dashing throughout the house in a streak of blue, leaving a gust of wind in his wake. Despite not moving yet, Maddie could already feel her heart pounding and blood pumping as adrenaline kicked in. She knew chasing Sonic directly was a fruitless endeavor. However, the woman watched for her adopted son’s blue trail, following the pattern as she took her position. Letting out a deep breath, feeling another rush of air brush right by her side, Maddie squared her shoulders and kept calm, knowing that her little show-off couldn’t resist coming back again for a second pass.

This time she was ready for the speedy little blue devil. Maddie knew he liked to go for the right on the first pass, left on the second. There was a bit of an impact; nothing that would cause either one of them serious harm, but it was enough to knock the wind out of the human. Despite that, Maddie emerged victorious, now holding a rather baffled-looking Sonic in her arms.

“Hey! W-what the-?! H-how did you-?!”

The little blue alien squirmed a bit in his caretaker’s arms, still uncertain about how and when exactly this happened.

“So… you were saying that I’d have to catch you first?” questioned Maddie, shifting Sonic to lean against her shoulder while rubbing his back, “Well consider yourself caught, young sir.”

She was rewarded with a rather defeated yet still playful groan from the teenage alien.

“Yeah. Well, I’m still not tired…”

“One minute and eighteen seconds.”

At Tom’s announcement of Maddie’s new personal best, the woman excitedly pumped her fist in the air before returning to stroking Sonic’s quills. Having a child was never easy; an alien child with superpowers more so. The two of them had been learning Sonic’s preferred patterns over time to a point where both caretakers could predict his movements and catch him in a full run. Maddie and Tom would take turns while Sonic thought of it like a game. (A game he’d secretly just let his two favorite humans win, of course. Or at least that’s what he kept telling himself.)

Despite having been “captured”, the boy was laughing while his short tail wagged. Gently, Tom ran his hand over Sonic’s head, giving his ears a good scratch then gave Ozzie some attention. Now, over the last several months, the little blue space hog had become quite the conisuerrier of his caregivers’ affection. The Donut Lord had larger hands, offering excellent coverage of all the good spots and had become a master of ear rubs. (No doubt with all the practice he’d had with Ozzie.) Pretzel Lady on the other hand had smaller, slimmer fingers with longer nails that could zero in on a single area with surgical precision. Wonderful, gentle hands that lovingly stroked through Sonic’s blue quills practically causing the boy to melt in her arms.

“Let’s get you to bed, little one.” Maddie said, lightly kissing the blue alien’s forehead, causing him to let out a little groan as his muzzle reddened.

“H-hey, I’m not that little,” Sonic protested, resting his chin on Maddie’s shoulder while she walked him out of the kitchen and up the stairs, “And I’m not -yaaaaawn- that sleepy either.”

“Hmph, you could have fooled me, bud,” observed Tom, following behind, “But if that’s the case I guess you could say that-”

“No. Don’t go there! I know what you’re -yawn- gonna say…”

“You could say that in your case, sleep is in short order.”

Another one. So soon too! Tom just laughed as the blue alien tried to hide his still reddening face by burying it against Maddie’s neck, all the while groaning loudly. It was dreadful. Terrible. But he’d expect nothing less of the Donut Lord.

******

So yeah, cute family fluff piece. If you’re interested in the story thus far, it’s called Sometimes All you Need is a Friend.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26085514/chapters/63447325