Chapter Text
"A letter?! Sis, come quick! It's from Toronto!"
A girl looking the same age as him shouts, snatching the piece of paper from the mail box. An older girl comes out, and Sonic bows down so that the bush before him to hide himself better.The younger girl gives her sister the letter, jumping up and down impatiently as the other rips the envelope and skims over the content, brows furrowed.
"What?" The younger asks, finally standing still. The other responds with squeels and embraces her, shouting for their parents.
"I'm accepted!" She cries with joy, and Sonic frowns.
"Who is this Toronto guy and why does it make them happy that he accepted her?" Sonic questions, his hand on his chin, then shrugs.
"Whatever.Good for them." He mutters,then the parents show up.He doesn't watch the mother embrace her daughters, or doesn't hear the father declare they are going out to eat. He takes off, the wind quickly brushing off the leaves stuck on his quills. His feet take him to the house he spies on hangs out around the most, Donut Lord's home. Since the sun is still up, the house is empty save for that annoying golden furball Donut Lord spoils. Sonic has tried so many times to understand how a creature like that could be worth all that petting, taking to walks, and even cleaning it's poops.
"I'm totally cuter than it." He says, crossing his arms against his chest, pouting.He watches the dog run in circles in the room, then giggles.
"Maybe Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady like the dog because it is funny? Makes sense to me." Satisfied, he turns away from the window and zips to the entrance of the home, then clears his throat.
"Hello! I'm Sonic and I came here from Mobius! I've been living in Green Hills for four years! Promise I'm a friendly alien, no world domination or abduction plans attached! So...what do you say we hang out sometime? Like... really hang out? Not like...me being there and you being unaware of it?" He says, then deflates.
"It won't work!" He flails his arms, and his brows furrow. He starts walking in circles, his pupils locked on the points of his shoes.
"It shouldn't work, Sonic, Longclaw told you to stay hidden! How can you stay hidden if you talk to them?!" He forces his feet to turn away from the door. Just as he is about to run off, the mailbox in front of the house catches his eye. He can't supress the grin making it's way on his lips, and it takes all of his willpower to not shout with joy right then and there. He shuts his lips into a tight-lipped smile, and clenches his fists.
"Ha! I can write a letter!" He says, excitement filling his chest.His powers buzzing under his skin, he runs off to his cave with a jump to his step. For once, his gaze has a different purpose roaming around his cave than finding something to entertain himself. He manages to find a half-filled notebook he had found in a trash bin, couple of short pencils he can barely hold between his fingers and of course, his crayons. He pulls his bean bag chair in front of the makeshift table, then grabs his limited stationary.
"Okay! Let's begin! To Donut Lord? No, that won't do! What is his name? Hmm..." Sonic has never approached people close enough to hear their names except for Crazy Carl's, who keeps shouting at people to stop calling him that.
"What is his job? Cop? No,that isn't quite right. I've heard them call him... Ha! Sheriff!" To... Sheriff of the Green Hills!" He smiles to himself, then quickly moves on to writing.
"Aha, let's mention this! Hmm, I have to write that... and that...Looking good..." He mutters to himself while scribling word after word, then completes the letter shortly after.
"And, done!" He rips the paper off the notebook and lifts it to eye-level, then grimaces. The letters are all jumbled up and he isn't sure if his spelling is as good as he had assumed it was.
"This looks so... wrong!" Crumbling the paper into a ball, he throws it to the other side of his cave, and bangs his head on the table.
"I should have listened to Longclaw when she told me to practice my writing." He mutters, then lifts his head and flicks his nose.
"It's not too late to listen to her, now! I can totally teach myself to write properly! Piece of cake!" He searches his cave for anything that might help him, and stumbles upon the comics he had collected in four years.He can easily read them since they mainly have pictures with minimal amount of text, which is why he must have read each one at least ten times.
"Maybe I can write the words from here!" He declares, grabbing the issue one of The Flash, his face lits up upon his genius idea.He goes through the first issue with relative ease, gasping upon each word he always writes wrong.
"What do you mean awesome has an e at the end? It doesn't even change anything!" Groaning to himself, he still writes the word despite it's absurd spelling.
"Ridiculous! Wait, how do you spell ridiculous?" He says, skimming over every written book he can lay his hands on to find the word, and groans when he can't.
"It is impossible! I need something more!" Clenching his fists, small blue cracks fly through his quills and he stands up.
"This is gonna make me wish I had school." He falls back down on his chair, and lays his head back.
"Maybe a little snooping around the school will help? Yeah!" The decision is quickly turned into action and Sonic's feet takes him to the backyard of Green Hills Elementary School.
"I think I just broke my record!" His fist in the air, he whoops, and glues himself on the nearest window. Numbers and occasional letters are written on the board, and he grimaces.
"Math? Oh, come on! I don't need Math to write a letter!" He moves on to the next classroom's window, and the one near that. The ritual continues until he realises spying on classes isn't helping him in the slightest.When a loud bell rings out, he remembers this signals the incoming of the flood of students, and zips out of the school.
"That didn't work either. Maybe I can just take the books they are using? Surely they'd have some spares, right?" He nods to himself, and resolves to come back to the school during the night, if he manages to stay awake,that is. Hours of running around and spying information gathering later, the night finally falls. He returns to the school, sneaks through the window that is always forgotten to be closed, then searches everywhere for the brand new spare books. It doesn't take him long to find them, and he realises they are divided according to the grade they are for, and figures first grade might be the best for him. He grabs one set, which includes every subject, and hesitates before zipping out the room.
I kinda feel bad because I don't really need them."His head hanging low, he zips to his left, grinning.
"If they are here, that means they aren't needed!" He zips to his right, doubling his appearence.
"What kind of hero steals? I know Flash would never!"
"C'mon, what kind of hero lives in a cave? You're not a fit to be a hero anyway. Yet."
"But-"
"No buts! Besides, it's written here that these books can't be sold, so they are given free to everyone that needs it! You're a citizen here too!"
"Doubt it, but, okay, whatever! Let's make way to the cave!" Once his second reflection disappears, he leaves the school in a hurry as always. His journey to the cave doesn't take long, and he is determined to begin his lessons after a good night's sleep, which he begins right away, crashing on his bean bag chair.
The morning comes, and he is awoken with nervous energy pulsing in his veins. After a quick stop to Donut Lord's trash, which as always houses what's left of Pancake Wednesday as Sonic dubs it, and devoures them all. When he hears Donut Lord complain about trash pandas, he is quick to disappear into the bushes.
"Seriously, how could these creatures just vanish after messing with my trash? I think we have radioactive racoons in the area or something!" Sonic hears Donut Lord complain, and snickers to himself.
"So they are called racoons! I always thought they were called trash pandas. You're a bad influence on children, Donut Lord!" He clicks his tounge, and decides he shouldn't spend his time making fun of Donut Lord today, he has more important things to do.
"I can't believe I have things to do! Might be the first time in a long while!" Filled with a new sense of task, he returns to his cave. One day turns into weeks, which turns into a month, and Sonic finally completes the first English book. Deciding it was at least a little fun, he grabs the ones for second and third grades, and gets through them faster than the first. The rush to complete the books makes him almost forget why he began studying in the first place, but he remembers when the last exercise in the third book requires a letter.
"If the book itself asks for one, that means I can write letters now!" He exclaims and whoops, then rummages his cave to find a piece of paper.
"To the Sherrif of Green Hills..." he starts again, and this time the writing comes easier. His letters are neat, and his spelling is on point.
"And Sonic overcomes one more hardship! But all these words are a bit boring, let's make this letter more exciting!" He grabs one more paper and his crayons, and decides to draw a picture.
"Wonder what he'd like... Hmm, he likes donuts! But... would an ordinary child know that? I'm not sure..." He looks around his cave to find an idea, then his drawing of Longclaw and himself catches his eye.
"She loved sunflowers... Maybe Donut Lord would, too?" He sighs, then finds the least dirty yellow crayon in the pile, and starts drawing. Once he is done, he folds the papers since he doesn't have an envelope, and quickly makes his way to Donut Lord's home, drops the letter on his mailbox, and awaits his arrival. When his car pulls over, Sonic knows the first thing he will do is checking the mailbox, and complain that there is only taxes and no fanmail or something.
"He is in for a suprise!" Sonic mutters to himself anf ducks back down to the bushes when the human passes near him. Then he opens the mailbox, and laughs.
"Honey! You won't believe what happened!" He says, grabbing Sonic's letter before running up to Pretzel Lady, who waits in front of the door. Pretzel Lady's gaze is questioning, but she is smiling.
"What? The ducks finally paid their traffic fines?"
"Nah, I got fanmail!"
"Really? Come inside quickly, then!" They get inside and the door closes after them.
"Off your high horse Donut Lord, I'm not a fan." Sonic mutters, but his grin betrays his displeasure, and he moves to the window facing their living room to see their reactions to his letter.
Tom can feel his hands tremble with excitement as he opens the folded paper, and he thinks his excitement would sound silly for some people, but he doesn't care. To think that someone appreciates him enough to write something for him gives him warmth, well, assuming that the contents are nice. The letter comes with a picture, and being the curious man he is his interest is drawn to it. It is appearent that the artwork is drawn by a child,but Tom can't help but admire their talent and attention to detail.
"A sunflower? How cute!" Maddie coos, looking over his shoulder to admire the work.
"It's very good! Now, let's see if their writing is on par!"
"You aren't a teacher Tom, just be grateful that you got a letter! Some of us aren't that lucky." Maddie playfully punches his back, and Tom clears his throat.
"It was just a joke! Though, someone sounds a bit jealous!" Tom says, wiggling his eyebrows at his wife, who gently pushes his face towards the letter.
"I can't help it! I'll never get a letter from my patients."
"I hope you don't! That'd be... concerning."
"Enough of that! Let's get to reading!"
"Okay, shush! To the Sheriff of Green Hills? The kid doesn't know my name? So much for fanmail."
"Maybe it is a complaint letter?"
"Ha ha, very funny! Don't interrupt me, please!"
"What? You are the one who commented on it!"
" Okay, I won't do that again. Now,where was I? Yes."
Hello! I'm living here in Green Hills at my perfectly normal house with my parents. I'm eight years old boy and I'm atending Green Hills Elmentary School. I see you everyday when I cross the street with the other kids, you always stop the cars for us! Thank you! Despite seeing you everyday I don't know your name or anything else about you. I'm writing this letter to change that! What is your name? How old are you? What is your favourite color? Mine is yellow, like sunflowers!
And one last question, would you like to be my pen-pal? Write me a letter if you say yes!
Have a good day!"
"What a nice kid!"
"Yes he is. Definitely a worthy pen pal!"
"You'll write back? As you should." Maddie says, and Tom goes to their room to find paper and a pen.He sits on the kitchen table and reads the kid's letter again to properly reply it.
"Perfectly normal house? What a strange choice of words." He questions, then shakes his head. He grabs his pen and begins to write, trying to keep the letter as short as possible, since he guesses the kid would be bored if he exceeded one paper. He looks at the drawing of the sunflower, and figures it'd be only fair if he draws something as well. Guessing the sunflowers are indeed the kid's favourite, he decides to draw his own favourite flowers- daisies. His drawing isn't colorful like his, since he is only good at pencil drawings, which he only learned in police academy to draw identikits.
Once he is done with both the letter and his artwork, he finds an envelope to place the letter in, he gets out of the house to drop it into his mailbox since the kid didn't give him any address.He hears shuffling from the bushes and figures it's just cats, and goes back inside.
Sonic can't believe Donut Lord replied his letter this quickly , and he can barely restrain himself from grabbing the letter in this instant. He figures they might keep an eye on the mailbox to find out who he is, so he forces himself to wait until tomorrow comes and they leave for work. He tries to distract himself as always, even tours outside Green Hills to keep his mind off the letter.He tires himself so that he doesn't wake up until Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady leave their house. After a goodnight's sleep, he wakes up when the sun is up, and the sky is clear.
"There is no way they are still home!" Laughing all the way, he reaches their home, and grabs the neat envelope housing the reply to his letter. He comes back home and carefully opens the envelope to not harm it, and finds two papers. One has a colorless flower drawing on it, and Sonic has to admit that it looks better than what he drew. Then he grabs the other paper, and cleans his throat.
"To My New Pen Pal;
Hey there buddy! I'm Thomas Michael Wachowski, and the Sheriff of this town as you know very well, but you can call me Tom. I'm thirty years old, and I know you are suprised, I look young for my age! But it's the truth. I wouldn't fault you if you no longer want to write letters for an old man like me, bud. Jokes aside, your letter made me very happy. I'm only doing my job but it feels good when people like you say they appreciate me. I'll keep this town safe as long as I can, I promise you that. I also liked your artwork, and I figure you like sunflowers because they are yellow. Or is it the other way around? Write me the answer in your next letter, please! I think sunflowers are your favourite so I drew daisies in exchange, they are the flowers I like the most. Because my wife Maddie gifted them to me on the day I graduated from the police academy. She says hello, by the way. My favourite color is blue. It reminds me of the local lake I used to go fishing with my father when I was your age. It's a great place, I'm sure your parents would gladly take you there if you asked!
Stay safe out there, kid.
Sincerely, Tom."
Sonic reads aloud, and only feels his throat hurt once he is done.There's tears strolling down his muzzle, and he furiously wipes his eyes.
"No time to cry, Sonic! Tom'll look forward to your reply!" He croaks out, then spends the next hour reading the letter again and again; trying to make sense of the words he has never seen before and mulling over the small bits of memories Tom shared, and imagined the nice man turn red when his wife gave him flowers or excitedly talk to his father about his school day while the older man awaited the arrival of fish.
Memories he has no business knowing about, but treasure all the same.
There is his one sentence, that makes Sonic regret ever writing to Tom, the painful reminder of the fact that he is hiding behind pieces of papers, lying with his hands because he is forbidden to with his tounge.
Your parents would gladly take you...
Sonic wasn't stupid, he always knew Longclaw obviously didn't birth him. But he also wasn't smart enough to ask her how she found him.Why was he alone? He wishes he asked her, just so he could imagine that his parents indeed would gladly take him to fishing if they could.
He shakes his head, and focuses on writing a reply to Tom to distract himself.
" To Tom;
Hi! Thank you for replying to my letter! I guess we are oficialy pen pals now! I'm so excited! Since you asked, I should tell you that sunflowers are my favourite since it was my friend's, and I love yellow because of that! I loved your drawing of dasies, though it needs more color. And I'm really suprised that you are that old. But don't worry, I think I can make time for you! Jokes aside, I have fun writing this letters! I even studied so much to write good! Do I write good? Write the answer in your reply please! And, when you call me buddy, do you really mean it? I don't have any friends so no one calls me that. Are we friends?
I have few more questions. Do you like watching movies? Which one is your favourite? Mine is Speed! Keanu is so cool! Have you watched it? I bet you'd like it very much,Keanu has the same job as you there!
I'm very safe! You are keeping the town safe, right? You better! You promised! So you don't have to worry!
Also, I drew the bus from the Speed movie this time!
Have a good day!
Sincrely, can't tell you who! "
"To My Buddy;
Hello! Your friend has a great taste in flowers, sunflowers are beautiful. And about my daisies, what you see is what you get, because this old man right here isn't an expert in crayons like you are. I'm thankful that you could find a space for an old man like me in your busy schedule :) . And that's called sarcasm, doubt they teach you that in Elementary. Your writing is pretty good save for some spelling mistakes. But they only seem to be because they are some hard words. So you're doing pretty good!
And, of course you're my buddy! We write and draw for each other, if this doesn't make us friends, then what would? I'm sure you'll eventually make friends, you're a nice boy, it isn't your fault that kids around you are too blind to see that.
I love watching movies! And my favourite is also Speed! What a coincidence! I have a feeling that we'll get along very well bud. Though I remember the movie being R-rated, I don't think you are old enough to watch it. I guess it can't be helped now, but be mindful of what you watch from now on, alright? I agree that Keanu is a great actor, and his job in the movie is the same as mine, but couldn't be more different. He saves people from bombs and the only bomb I see around here is Maddie's lavender bath bomb. Sometimes I wonder if I should try to become a cop like him. Just a thought.
It's funny that you remind me of my promise, then I write these kind of thoughts. So sorry for that, bud. And I'm glad you're safe!
Your drawing is awesome and I drew the sports car Keanu destroyed the door of in exchange. Looks cool, doesn't it? Wish I had a car like that!
Sincerely, your Cop friend. Not exactly a Keanu Reeves but you'll have to make do."
To My Cop Friend;
Hello! I don't think you should try to be like Keanu. You're cool in your own way! You know everyone in town and they always call you when they are in need! And Keanu almost died in that movie, you aren't in danger here! I'm really happy that you're my friend! My second one, to be exact. My first friend is no longer with me. So please don't get any crazy ideas and become a cop like Keanu or something, I can't lose you too.
Speed is also your favourite movie? Maybe you can be my best friend too!
But I agree with the car, maybe you can buy one if you get rich. Your art is cool too!
I'm happy you think I write good, I actually study the new words from your letters and I think I improved even more! Thank you for that! Also, I know what sarcasm is, duh!
And, before I forget, what is a bath bomb? Does it explode in baths? Is it a weapon? But your wife wouldn't have it if it was, right?
I started studying Math, and there is one question I can't understand. Can you help me out? I wrote it on the back.
This letter is starting to get boring, let's have some fun! Have you heard Crazy Carl's stories? I think they are interesting? Especially the one about the 'Blue Devil'. Imagine a creature like that in our midst. It'd be cool, don't you think so?
I'm drawing an owl this time, it's my favourite animal! I have a guess on what you'll draw, but please try to suprise me!
Sincerely, your best friend :)"
"To My Buddy;
Anointing yourself as the bestie, huh? You're right, though, we hit it off pretty quickly. And I'm really sorry to hear that about your first friend. I wish I could do something to help. You're a strong kid though, keeping your friend's memory alive is no easy task. I'm honored to have a friend like you. I'm sure your first friend is proud, too.And don't worry about me, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon!
A bath bomb is just a colorful sphere that lets out bubbles and a good scent once it touches water. It doesn't explode or anything! I don't get the appeal of it but Maddie enjoys it.
I had a look on the question you wrote and the answer is on the back. I had a hard time solving and explaining it! I hope it is clear enough.
Yes, I've heard Crazy Carl's stories, sadly. In fact, he calls the police station every hour to make us listen. The one about 'Blue Devil' is the most interesting, I have to admit. But I'd be scared if a creature like that existed. Wouldn't you? According to Carl it can travel faster than sound and talk?! I'm not exactly trained to deal with that, thank you very much.
For this letter I gift you the drawing of my golden retriever Ozzie. Was he your guess?
Have a good day, and good luck on your studies.
Sincerely, your bestie ;)"
" To My Best Bud;
Hello! I found my letter under my mailbox. Did you drop it and forget to take it back, perhaps? Also, there is some wet marks on the paper. You're starting to worry me, dude. You didn't even write a reply for a week. Not that I mind but we're still good, right? Did something I wrote offend you? I'm really sorry. Even if you're still angry, please write to me! I have no way of reaching and finding you and it's driving me crazy thinking about the situations you might be in. Did your parents make you stop? If so, don't worry about it. Just write 'yes' and I'll understand.
Sincerely, your very worried cop friend."
"To My Bestie;
Hey there! It's been a month yet I haven't heard from you. I caved and investigated each and every eight years old boy attending Green Hills Elementary, yet came back empty handed. I'm still so worried about you! You didn't even take my last letter from it's envelope. Please ask for help from anyone if you're in trouble. It doesn't have to be me. My deputy Wade Whipple is also aware of you, and is willing to help you no matter what.Even if you just don't want to talk to me anymore, please let me know somehow.Promise I won't be mad, or sad.
Looking forward to hear from you, buddy, you're very missed.
Sincerely, Sheriff Thomas Michael Wachowski."