Chapter Text
Maddie is in the middle of kneading some bread dough when something orange zooms through the front door and up the stairs. It’s just past one PM, no one else should be home yet, least of all the boys.
Leaving the ball of dough behind on the counter, the veterinarian headed upstairs to see what was wrong with one fox kit.
When Maddie gets to the attic — no, the boys’ room, she corrects herself — there doesn’t appear to be anyone else in the room. Or is there?
She has yet to check under Sonic’s bed or up the hammock but considering that she’s looking for Miles, looking under the bed would be a waste of time.
Her hypothesis is proven to be true when she finds a ball of orange fluff curled up in the middle of the hammock.
Said ball is shaking and Maddie can faintly hear what sounds like sobbing.
“Miles?” she asks so that he knows that she’s there. “Is everything alright?” Maddie asks. He’s clearly not okay so asking that wouldn’t help either of them.
She doesn’t get a response from the fox, so she changes tactics.
“Did something happen at school?” Maddie asks. That does get a response, Miles surprises both her and himself when he launches himself off of the hammock and onto her to tightly hug her.
“Okay,” She can work with this. With as much caution as she could with an armful of fox kit, Maddie makes her way to sit on the floor.
Miles is still crying, she can feel his tears soaking into her shirt. “Something happened at school, didn’t it?”
The kit mumbles something into her shirt, she doesn’t catch it.
“Could you repeat that? I didn’t catch it,”
“S-some students called me — they called me an f-freak,” he tells her. “Because o-of my t-tails,”
This is what she had worried would happen eventually. Even though she had been expecting it, it doesn’t stop her heart from shattering.
“You’re not a freak, Miles,” Maddie tells him. Blue eyes look up at her, disbelief shining in them.
She doesn’t really know what to say next so she changes tactics.
“Now, I left a ball of dough on the counter downstairs that should be just about ready to go in the oven,” she says. Confusion replaces disbelief. “Would you like to help me with it?” Maddie asks.
The fox flies out of her arms to wait for her by the entrance of the attic. Guess that is a ‘yes’ then.
They head back downstairs for the kitchen. True to form, the ball of dough is still on the countertop, exactly where she left it. In the fifteen minutes that she’s been away from it, the dough has risen a little. Not nearly enough but enough for it to go in the oven.
The veterinarian retrieves her bread tin from the pantry, removing its lid before placing it on the counter.
“Could you get the flour?” she asks Miles who hasn't moved, still standing just inside the kitchen.
The fox disappears into the pantry…and returns with the bicarb soda.
“Miles, that’s bicarb soda,” Maddie says. After showing him which container has the flour (and also explaining the difference in purpose and function between the two), they get back on track.
Within minutes, the dough (now in the bread tin) has been transferred to the oven.
Now they have half an hour to kill and most of the baking ingredients were still on the countertop.
“Have you ever made cookies before?” she asks. Miles looks up from the book that she had given him to read that went into a bit more detail about the science of baking.
The kit doesn’t even know what cookies are. Which, Maddie thinks (and Sonic would definitely agree) is illegal and needs to be changed.
So she changes it. Maddie flips through her baking cookbook to the page for cookies. Huh, she didn’t remember this being the recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies.
There are almost all of the ingredients needed already out on the counter, except for peppermint extract and cocoa powder. Once the bottles have joined the rest of the boxes and bottles they can start.
Miles’ eyes light up when he reads the name of the cookies that they are going to be making. Luckily, this recipe only takes fifteen minutes to prep and another ten minutes more to cook.
They use the stand mixer to combine the ingredients together. Maddie has to warn Miles away from the idea of dissembling the mixer later when both she and Tom aren’t home.
Once the cookie batter is done, they have only five minutes until the bread is done (they had taken a bit longer than the suggested fifteen-minute prep time).
The bread comes out of the oven, the cookies go in.
When Tom and Sonic return home just over an hour later, the house smells of peppermint, fresh bread and chocolate.