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“Maddie! Thomas!” An old woman shouted from the front porch. She short and thin, her personality seeming bigger than she was. Sonic hopped out of the car with a nervous smile. He hid behind Maddie’s legs, uncharacteristically shy. “Did you bring your baby?”
“He’s not a baby, Ma.” Tom gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. “I don’t think he’d like you saying that.” He turned around, peering at the hedgehog hiding behind his wife. Maddie coaxed him with a few strokes on his quills.
“Maddie!” She gave her daughter in law a tight hug, nearly crushing the poor woman with her grip. “You look great, dear! You’re glowing! Now, where is he?”
Maddie smiled. “He’s just a little nervous,” she assured, scratching gently behind Sonic’s ears. “Do you wanna say hi, Sonic?”
He peeked out, wide green eyes staring at the elderly woman. His nerves eased and he stepped out from behind Maddie.
“Oh my goodness, Thomas!” She cooed. She knelt down and pinched Sonic’s cheek. “He’s even cuter in real life!”
Maddie and Tom had taken Sonic to Tom’s mothers house for the day. The couple planned on getting some decorations for Sonic’s bedroom in the attic.
Grandma Debby fell in love with Sonic from the moment she saw him in a picture Tom had sent her. After all, he was her first (and presumably only) grandchild. “I’m Sonic,” the hedgehog managed to squeak out with a shaky smile. His ears quirked and he looked away, tail slightly wagging. “Donut Lord said that he used to live here when he was growing up.”
“He sure did!” Debby stood up, clasping her hands together. “Oh, your parents have told me so much about you!”
All three slightly flinched at the word parent. However, none of them could conceal the small smiles forming at the thought. “Come on in, don’t be shy. I still have some nerf guns from Thomas’ younger brother.”
“What are nerf guns?” Sonic questioned, tilting his head to the side. Debby shot her head back, giving her son a surprised look.
“Oh, you have so much to learn,” she chuckled. Sonic didn’t seem offended. In fact, he had begun following her to the backyard.
“Tom and I will come out when we’re done,” Maddie announced.
Tom waved goodbye to the backs of Sonic and his mother and entered his old bedroom.
It was frozen in time from his last night at home before moving in with Maddie.
The bed still was unkempt. His blinds and windowsills were collecting dust from the years of abandonment. Tom smiled fondly at the old Polaroids of him and Maddie at 14 years old, their laughter permanently captured.
They were the same age as Sonic.
Yet, the only pictures Sonic had was with Tom and Maddie. He didn’t really have friends his own age, did he?
Maddie pulled him from his thoughts, an empty cardboard box in her arm. Black sharpie read ‘SENTIMENTAL VALUE’ on one and ‘SONIC’ on the other. She gave him the latter. “Maybe we should get him some toys.” She grinned affectionately and strode deeper into the room.
“We could implement that reward system we were talking about last night,” Tom hummed.
“Can’t believe you kept so much stuff here,” she murmured while picking up a Blockbusters late notice. She studied it for a moment then set it back down, wiping the dust on her pants. “Did you ever return ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’?”
Tom, who found the CD hiding in the crack between his bed and the wall, shook his head. “You think I should let them know?” He turned around with a chuckle.
“Shut up,” she laughed. “Maybe we should show Sonic when we get home.”
“If the DVD still works; it’s probably scratched to hell and back.” Tom picked it up and gave it over to Maddie. He tossed a few scattered comic books in his box before kneeling over to get a stuffed animal from under his bed.
It was an orange fox with a red bow tied around its neck. He weighed the options before calling out to Maddie again. “Do you think he’s too old for stuffed animals?”
“I didn’t see any when we went down into the cave, why?” She turned around to face him, eyebrows raised. “We could stand to take that one home. Just for keepsakes.”
He gently handed it to Maddie. She took it with a smile, her eyes softening. “Poor thing. You said it didn’t exist.” She teased, poking him on the arm.
He huffed, cheeks burning in embarrassment at the memory. “You gotta see it from my perspective; you were the first girl that ever liked me. I couldn’t have stuff like that ruining my game.”
Would Tom have to teach Sonic that? How to impress potential romantic interests? Probably not yet, but still. If the moment does ever rise, he’ll have to teach Sonic about romance. And everything that comes with that.
He took a signed baseball and placed it into his box on top of the comic books.
Maddie shrugged with a small smile. “Maybe when he starts school we’ll have to talk to him about that.” An old, fragile corsage hung from her hand, the band a pastel blue. She looked at it thoughtfully then turned to her husband. “I wonder if he’ll ever go to prom.”
“I’d be more surprised if he didn’t, he really liked that b-place we went to when I was a fugitive,” he coughed, hoping his wife didn’t catch his slip up.
Oh.
Drinking also comes with going to prom, doesn’t it? And with drinking, there’s peer pressure, drugs…
He’d also have to tell Sonic to avoid that.
Board games, mixtapes, and movies were beginning to pile up in Tom’s box.
“I think he’ll like your old baseball jersey,” Maddie hummed. She folded it and put it in his box, the words ‘Wachowski 7’ staring back at them both. “It might fit him.”
Maddie picked up a faded picture, one of Tom and Wade on a Halloween night when they were much younger. She smiled and tapped Tom’s back, giving it to him. “You were such a cute kid. We have to keep this.”
Tom nearly folded the moment she gave him a pleading blink, something Sonic had definitely picked up from her. He cracked a smile and sighed jokingly. “You’re lucky you’re so pretty.”
She grinned and put the picture in her box. Tom turned around and opened his closet. He dug around for a bit then pulled out a hidden plastic container. “There’s gotta be something in here that he’ll like…” Tom mused. He tossed an unopened Lego set in his cardboard box along with some action figures. Everything that became ‘uncool’ during middle school.
Middle school.
Sonic is a teenager. A teenager that definitely would not fit in.
And middle schoolers are assholes.
Bullying was added to the checklist of fatherly talks to have with Sonic, along with making friends and self confidence.
He reached further into the box, shaking the thought away. His fingers brushed something soft and plushy. When he pulled it out, he was surprised to find a quilt made for him when he was a newborn. He folded it back up and put it on a desk near his wife.
“Maddie?”
“Hm?”
“Do you think…do you think Sonic sees us as his parents?”
Maddie’s response was the sound of something being put inside her box. “I think…he wants to see us as his friends.” Another thing was tossed into her box. “And we are…in a way. But he also likes treating us like his parents.”
“So, we’re his parents but not at the same time?”
Maddie turned around, a hand on her hip. He smiled sheepishly and stood back up. “You’re thinking about what your mother said, aren’t you?” It was a question but her tone left no room for discussion or argument. She taped up her box before setting it on the floor, picking up Tom’s next. “Just give him time, honey.”
Tom quickly changed the subject, stacking both boxes on top of each other after looking around the room. “Looks like we’re done!”
Maddie sighed affectionately, squeezing his shoulder. She took the top box from his stack and carried it out to the living room.
Sonic and Debby were laughing over a cup of seemingly homemade lemonade and sugar cookies. Sonic turned around with crumbs all over his muzzle. He waved before swallowing, wiping the crumbs onto his plate. “Aw, man! Is it time to go already?”
Tom looked between his mother and Sonic, eyes narrowing in joking suspicion. “Mom, what did you tell him?”
“Just about his father and uncles,” she responded with a smirk. Tom paid attention this time. His heart warmed seeing the hedgehog smile at the sentence.
“When can I come back?” Sonic leapt from his chair.
“I dunno, maybe we could let you sleep over sometime,” Tom hummed with a shrug. Sonic’s grin grew. “Unless Ma doesn’t-“
“Thomas! Don’t even go there!” She chuckled, scratching under Sonic’s chin. “I’ll always be happy to have you over. Maybe I’ll teach you to make orange juice next time”
“YES!”
Sonic practically skipped outside, gushing to Maddie about how great Tom’s mother is. Debby looked after him, falling in step with her son.
“You worried about him?”
Tom grinned nervously, waving her off. “What? You’re crazy.”
“Thomas be honest,” she warned. “Your dad was the same way. It’s natural.”
Tom looked back at his wife and Sonic. “Did Dad ever get over it?”
“Even when your younger brother got hitched he was worried about being a good father.” It was quiet for a few seconds before she began speaking again. That boy loves you and Maddie to death,” she murmured.
“You think so?”
His mother gave him a pointed look before ruffling his hair. “You really are just like your father.” Tom popped the trunk and set his box in the back next to the one titled ‘SONIC’.
“Now you take care of my son when you leave!” Debby told Sonic, scratching on the quills between his ears.
“Will do! He’ll be in bed by 7!” Sonic nodded. They both burst into laughter. Maddie gave him a look, a ‘I told you so’ look before getting into the passenger seat.
“Welp, we gotta get going,” Tom announced to his mom. “We have a movie we gotta show the little guy.”