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“Just five more minutes?” Sonic whined despite already heading to his bed. Maddie chuckled and kissed his forehead, then turned to Tails.
The kit was still sitting up with a frustrated expression fixed on his little face. She knelt and put a hand on his knee, tilting her head. “What’s wrong, hun?”
“I-I’m sorry, mama. I just don’t feel tired.” His last sentence sounded like a question, a suggestion. Her heart melted nonetheless, a common occurrence when one of her kids would refer to her as a motherly figure.
“Exactly!” Sonic was up again, at Maddie’s side. “So we should have, like, at least 3 more hours of TV time!”
“First of all,” she chuckled, “all that blue light is bad for your eyes. It’ll make it even harder to sleep.”
Sonic groaned, sitting right next to Tails. She looked back at Knuckles, who was staring at the ceiling stoically. Seems like none of her kids could sleep. Sometimes, she wishes she paid attention to those parenting books her mother had gifted her when Sonic first moved in.
She reached into the depths of her brain, trying to wrack memories of her mother in the same situation she was in.
“You know what, I think I have the solution.” She stood up and went back downstairs. Tom was relaxing in their shared bed, scrolling endlessly on his phone.
“You coming?” He looked up. She smiled at her husband fondly.
“In a few, I’ll try reading them a story first,” she murmured. She crouched and pulled a cardboard box from under her bed, big black letters stating ‘FOR MY GRANDBABIES’. She sifted through the box, internally groaning at the lack of age appropriate choices.
Her eyes began to water after picking up one of the books. It was thin, sure, but the content she knew was inside was enough to make her weepy. Maddie held it up to Tom.
“Not that book,” he chuckled. “Babe, are you sure?”
“Yeah, I think,” she trailed off. “You know how badly I’ve been wanting to read this to them. I don’t wanna wait too long. But what if they think-“
Tom set down his phone and walked over to his wife, rubbing her back. “They’re all calling you mom now. Don’t you think they’d appreciate hearing it from their mom?” She wiped stray tears from the corners of her eyes. “Remember when we started getting serious? You told me that was one of your main goals if you became a mother, to read our baby that book. Now’s your chance!”
She was lost in her own thoughts. Maddie wasn’t ready, because she knew that this book had heavy implications. Saying ‘I love you’, especially after the relationship she had with parenthood before Sonic came along, made her want to faint.
But she did love them. She would go to the ends of the Earth to make sure they have everything they need. The phrase always gets stuck in the back of her throat when sending them off to school or going to bed. When cuddling and watching movies.
And she just can’t never say it. The last thing she wants is for her babies to grow up without hearing that from her.
Maybe, she thought, if I can’t say it, the book will for me.
Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “You're right. I’ll be back.”
Departing with a hug, she went back to the attic. The boys were chatting amongst themselves, but quieted down once they saw her. “What is that?” Sonic leaned over. “Will that make us sleepy?”
“Ah, uh, hopefully. Cmon, Knuckles. Sit down with us,” she suggested with a quivering voice. She sat down on Tails’ bed, feeling the fox crawl into her lap. Sonic and Knuckles sat on either side of her. “Sometimes humans, at least when I was younger, would read to their kids to help them sleep. I chose…a short book. Just in case it doesn’t work for you guys.”
“Is this like a ritual?” Knuckles questioned. “Thank you, mother! For including us in your Earth customs!”
She didn’t, or couldn’t, respond. With a shaky hand, she pulled the cover back.
“A mother…a mother held her new baby and rocked him back and forth.”
Her eyes shifted to Tails in her lap, feeling her heart swell with love.
Maddie prayed that her kids couldn’t notice her voice cracking at the last few sentences. However, they seemed to be more interested in the book. Sonic gently turned a page, then looked back up at her to continue reading. She stroked his quills before continuing.
“He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all over the house.”
She looked down at Sonic, who let out a chuckle. Knuckles didn’t say much, just leaned further onto her arm.
“The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew…”
All of her kids seemed to collectively decide that they weren’t close enough. Maddie, trapped in an ocean of love, was happily drowning. She saw Tom sneak up the stairs from the corner of her eye, and gave him a grateful glanced.
Without moving from the entrance to the attic, he mouthed his encouragement.
“He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and wore strange clothes and listened to strange music.”
Usually, one of her kids would accidentally say something funny by this point. But they didn’t. Sonic kept turning pages once she was done reading, Tails kept nuzzling into her sweater, and Knuckles hung onto her arm.
Her confidence grew the more she read. The tears in her eyes began to dry and her breath steadied. She kissed Knuckles on his head before Sonic turned to the last page.
“When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs.”
Despite her children still being awake, they definitely seemed different. Once she closed the book, she finally met their gazes. They stared at her with their wide eyes, small smiles on each of their faces.
She pulled them closer to her, feeling three sets of arms wrap around her. Any control she gained over her emotions vanished, and tears rolled down her cheeks. She sat up and tucked Tails in, brushing his fuzzy cheeks with a smile. He grinned back and began to doze off.
When she went to Sonic, he had already tucked himself in. She pulled the blankets further up his chest.
“Are you okay?” Sonic whispered.
“Better than ever,” she responded.
He hesitated. “I love you, mom.”
She didn’t respond, either because she knew she was going to cry or because her mouth wouldn’t break from the smile. She pulled him into a hug and stroked the quills on his back. “I love you too, baby.”
When she went to Knuckles, like Sonic, he was already tucked in. He didn’t say much, just held her hand for a few seconds.
“Can you keep the…book…up here?” He asked after a minute.
“Of course I can.”
She set it on his nightstand and turned his light off, feeling all of their eyes on her. She trudged down the stairs wordlessly. The blood rushing in her ears nearly drowned out the sound of Tom telling them goodnight and that he loves them.
When she made it back to her bedroom, she crawled into bed and hugged a pillow to her chest.
“How are you feeling?”
Tom cradled her, kissing her gently. She smiled, through the tears, and opened her mouth to respond.
“Did…did you see that?”
“Of course I did, Mads.” He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “They knew what you were trying to tell them.”
The next few days went as normal, but a lot more ‘I love you’s’ were directed at her and Tom when they parted from the mobians. They also changed their bedtime ritual two days after the book was read to them.
When Maddie or Tom announced it was bedtime, they’d drown their adoptive parents (and Ozzie, of course) in a pile of furry cuddles.
When in the attic, they’d request for her to ‘say the thing’.
So, with a happy smile and tears poking at her eyes. She would tuck in each of her kids while reciting her new favorite phrase.
“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always”
A kiss on Tails’ head.
“As long as I’m living,”
A hug from Sonic.
“My baby you’ll be.”
A kiss from Knuckles.