Chapter Text
It was probably only just a few weeks or so after the mess that happened with Robotnik. Things were calming down, and by extension, Sonic was getting used to the changes in his life.
No longer did he have to live in a cave, he even had a family, now! Maddie and Tom were great, they let him have his own room, keep his stuff from the cave, and were there for him now. It was amazing.
Calm can only seem to last so long for someone like Sonic, however.
Stuck inside for most of the day due to it raining for most of the day, he was rightfully itching to move, and very, very bored. Staring out of the window was really all he could do as he waited for Tom to come home.
The sky was growing much darker, though it had been dark all day; threatening thunder and lightning at any moment as the rain staggered and beat down on the earth like it was angry.
Maddie had already come home earlier in the day, she only had a light shift at the vet's office on the weekends; which meant she'd been gone most of the morning but had come home a little after noon.
She sat on the couch now, though earlier she helped the hedgehog overcome his boredom by letting him pick a movie to put on, and let him help her cook before that.
But now, his legs were just itching to run, and it's not like he was afraid of running in the rain. But Tom and Maddie were pretty adamant on not letting him run out there right now, and only convinced him to stay put eventually by threatening the fact that he'd be dirty, and require a bath.
Not being a fan of water, Sonic rightfully listened to their warning and stayed clean and dry, inside the house.
"When's he coming home again?" He called out, keeping his face stuck against the glass, fidgeting. There was only so much activity he could do within the house, and he was hoping that he could get out a little bit of his energy by going out to greet Tom.
Or convince the man that he could go outside. Even if it was getting a little late at this point. Maybe they could play a game.
"Should be pretty soon." Ever patient, Maddie responded to the question with the same calm she always radiated, despite Sonic asking this question about 5 other times within the hour.
He hummed, and continued to wait, watching the droplets of rain fall on the window, and then squinting hard to look out into the darkness at any given random shadow that he might suspect was a raccoon, or some other thing he could make an excuse to check out.
Just as he was going to ask for the 6th time, the lights of a vehicle caused him to close his eyes abruptly, wincing a little and then animatedly moving the curtains that had been essentially trapping him against the window so he could hop down from the windowsill, bolting straight for the door.
Ozzie hopped after him, recognizing the sounds of the truck and barking in excitement, tail wagging, claws tapping on the floor as he stood with Sonic, awaiting Tom.
Sonic went a little further, however, because he moved and opened the door before Maddie could even tell him to stay inside, zooming out and straight over to the opening truck's door, ready to explain the amount of absolute boring things that happened while Tom was gone, and how they shouldn't restrict him again to go outside like that. And that they could totally trust him not to get muddy!
"Hey, Sonic," Tom was quick to give out a greeting. "Get back inside, it's pouring!"
Meanwhile, Sonic had been taking the time to use as much of his energy by speeding around a small perimeter around the yard and back to Tom. "Tom, look, I won't get muddy- you really need to let me come out when it rains because I'm more than capable of staying clean, and-"
His fast rambling was cut short as they made their way to the door to get inside from the rain(Tom was trying to get inside, while Sonic was attempting to distract him enough to keep himself outisde longer) by a large strike of lightning, followed by a loud clash of thunder. It loud enough to even make the most confident person jump.
Tom jolted a little faster to get into the house. "Jeez, that was a big one!"
Sonic kept with him as they finally actually entered the door. "How close do you think that was?"
"Probably not far off. Another reason for you to stay inside." He bent over to give Ozzie a few good pets as the dog wagged his tail, having been a good boy and waiting at the door instead of trying to go outside unlike the blue blur.
Another crash of lightning jolted to the ground, but this time instead of just accompanying the thunder, something much closer crashed, sounding towards the garage.
Then another few other, quieter noises of things dropping within the garage.
Pausing, Tom looked over at Maddie, who had paused from reading her book to glance over at them. "Think those raccoons just broke into the garage?" He questioned, not yet pulling off his jacket.
"Let's check it out!" Sonic exclaimed, ready to go back out into the downpour.
He didn't even wait for either of them to respond, already out the door and at the garage in seconds, opening it up.
Inside, his eyes slowly adjusted better to the low light, and though he couldn't see much, it was noticeable that a window had been opened, making him think about how he had done pretty much the same thing when needing to hide.
There were items scattered onto the floor, it looked like they were knocked over. He couldn't really tell what exactly the items were, but a lot of it seemed to have spilled out of a pushed over box.
Eyes moving around the garage again, Sonic wondered if the raccoons were even in here still, or if they had run into the rain. "Hellooo? Any suspiciously smart raccoons in here? Or a robber? Or someone hiding from the law?"
A small shifting noise made its way to Sonic's twitching ears. His eyes roamed again and finally, he saw it. Underneath the table next to the windows, something furry and curled up shifted, shaking.
"...What?" Sonic was a little confused. Squinting at the ball of fur, he could tell it was larger than a raccoon, and definitely not brown or gray like one, either. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but then two big eyes poked up from the ball and looked back at him.
Those eyes were too big, not close enough to an animal's to be anything from earth. The hedgehog felt his quills stiffen and raise a little bit at the realization.
Tom had finally made his way over to the garage as well, stepping quietly behind Sonic, rain dripping a little from his clothing. The reason for taking that long to catch up was in his hand; He had taken the time to grab a flashlight.
"What's up bud, you find the little culprits? Scare 'em off?" He turned the flashlight on, eyeing Sonic in the low-light before realizing that the kid seemed a little shocked.
"Uh..." Sonic simply couldn't say much initially, just pointing a finger towards the table.
"Oh, a box fell off the table. What a mess," He spoke again, a little concerned from the speedster's lack of response. Following the hedgehog's gaze, he brought the flash light up a little to point at the table in an attempt to get a better look.
Orange fur flinched under the light, eyes that were just barely see-able disappearing into what was probably a tail, but it was hard to tell with just how fuzzy the small creature was. Big ears could be seen flattened to the head.
A cat? No, that didn't seem right. Looked closer to a fox.
Sonic, however, gasped quietly, in shock. Once the light cleared up anything the darkness obscured, he knew exactly what the little fuzzball was.
A fox mobian. A mobian that had to have come from his old home.