I wanted Sonic and Tom to go on a camping trip. Sonic and Tom need more father/son bonding pics!
Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just happy to watch it over and over. It's still an amazing movie!
"YEAH!" Sonic cheered. "Road Trip Two, here we come! Woot Woot!" He kicked up dust as he tore around the yard in excitement, no real rhyme or reason to explain his crazy tracks around the whole area. It stopped all other traffic dead, including one partially annoyed sheriff.
"Sonic," Tom sighed, shaking his head. "At least wait to celebrate until after we get everything packed up inside the truck." He finally saw his chance to step past Sonic to make it to the truck, his arms filled with various camping items. Sonic had been told to pack his own clothes, toothbrush, etc., and once he had done so (three times coming up to Tom for inspection and approval), he had decided to race around the yard in excitement. Ozzie was laying on the cool grass in front of the house, contentedly being Ozzie.
"I don't know what I'll do with you two gone for the weekend," Maddie said, a small grin twitching her lips, threatening to release a laugh. "All this peace and quiet will be insane." She managed to contain her giggles as Sonic continued his excited dash right-left-left-right-up-across-and-all-over the yard. Meanwhile, Tom set down the items he held onto the grass, rearranged them to fit inside the already-packed bed of the truck, and then shut the back. He jogged up the steps to give his wife a gentle peck on the lips.
"You could always come with," he muttered. She fought to hold back a laugh.
"Uh, nuh-uh!" they heard Sonic exclaim. They both turned to see Sonic staring intently at Tom, wagging a finger at his human. "You said this would be an us-guys-only thing. No girls allowed." Tom groaned, and Maddie finally released her laugh.
"Plus, I'm not into camping like you are, Tom," she said. "Don't let me spoil your bonding time." Tom scoffed.
"Bonding time? Huh, sure!" he said rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, keep pretending this wasn't your big idea," Maddie said in a near whisper, rolling her eyes back at him. She kissed his cheek, her expression sobering as she pulled away. "Be careful up there. You know how unpredictable the outdoors can get, especially when the snow's just melted."
"I'm not too worried." Tom said. "There are no flash flood warnings for this year for the Holter Lake area, and even Brad sounded confident that we wouldn't have any troubles."
"Other than the river being a little more swollen than last year due to the sheer volume of snow we got," Maddie added, nodding.
"Which isn't that unusual," Tom finished. He turned to eye the truck. "The sheer amount of food I have to bring on the other hand…"
"It's not my fault I have to keep up my metabolism!" A blue blur quickly appeared right next to Tom, one pretending-to-be-annoyed Sonic. "Now can we go? Everything's packed and ready andIwanttoleaveNOWpleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!" Even his jumps were high-powered, causing both humans to see multiple Sonics in just one blink.
"Okay, okay!" Tom laughed. He turned back to Maddie. "I put a copy of our itinerary on the kitchen table just in case, along with Brad's personal number and his station number. If that doesn't work, Wade knows how to get a hold of me. Other than that, everything is packed, and we're going to leave now before Sonic decides our yard needs more ruts." The little blue boy stopped his jumping to fold his arms and pout, big hedgehog eyes focused solely on the Donut Lord.
"Hey! I controlled my running this time," he whined. "Besides, it's hard to be patient when your human is taking forever." Both adults exchanged loving if exasperated glances. After almost a full year of fostering Sonic, they were prepared for these outbursts. However, they still weren't always sure how to address his outbursts, since most of the time they seemed to be brought on by the fact that he lived at a faster pace than literally anyone else on earth. Neither could blame their hedgehog though – Tom had told Sonic just last month about this little activity that they (he) had planned from the start of the year, and even with school and Little League the hedgehog still found time to excitedly obsess about it.
Plus, Sonic was right. It was time to go.
"We'll see you on Monday," Tom said, leaning in to kiss Maddie one more time.
"You better." She kissed him back, before giving him thatlook. "And you better bring back some trout this time."
"Yes, ma'am," he mock-saluted, taking a step back before turning to walk towards the truck.
"I'll make sure of it, Pretzel Lady!" Sonic bragged, stepping up to take Tom's vacant spot. "After all, one of us needs to be the responsible one around here." She held back her giggles, trying to look serious.
"Well, I'm glad you're choosing to be the adult here, Sonic," she said, her eyes betraying the depths of her mirth. Suddenly, a horn honking cut across the early morning air.
"Come on, Sonic!" Tom hollered. "I thought you wanted to get going." He didn't bother to hide his ear-to-ear grin as he started to get the truck rolling towards the street.
"Heyheyheystopitwhat'reyoudoing?!" Sonic exclaimed, speeding off towards the truck. A split second later, Maddie felt a pair of fuzzy arms latch around her waist for a brief hug before disappearing again. "Bye, Maddie!" The duo chorused for one last wave before they vanished from view. The young woman waved back until they disappeared from view. She continued to smile as she turned around to head back into the house.
Time to binge on all the girly movies that Tom and Sonic kept downvoting on movie night!
"Are we there yet?" Sonic whined yet again, turning around to stare wide-eyed at the driver. Tom chuckled despite himself. Driving for hours on end was driving the little guy nuts, especially when there was no obvious end in sight. Sonic had meanwhile perused his Flash comic collection at least five times and had played on his DS up until five minutes ago – choosing to gaze outside the passenger-side window at the trees flitting by.
"Sorry, sport," he said. "It's going to be another hour." He double-checked the GPS despite himself. Yeah, machines didn't lie.
"UUUUUUuuuuugggghhhhh!" Sonic groaned, throwing himself back into his seat.
"Be thankful we haven't run into any holiday traffic yet," Tom said. "That could easily delay us another hour."
"I guess," Sonic mumbled, crossing his arms before looking back outside. "I just want our vacation to start already."
"I would say it started when we left the house," Tom said steadily. "We got time before we reach the lake campground. We may not be able to go race around or go fishing or go hiking yet, but we could do other things, like look out the window, or talk." Keeping his left hand on the steering wheel, he reached over with his right to rest it on top of the boy's head. Sonic didn't say anything, but he didn't move away either.
When Sonic didn't protest, he carefully reached underneath the quills to begin stroking the alien hedgehog's head. Sonic still didn't say anything, but he leaned over as far as the seatbelt would allow, curling towards Tom's side to give the human better access to continue petting him. Tom pretended he didn't see the kid's eyelids drooping, or that he was hearing light snoring only seconds later. He kept the music playing at the lowest sound he could hear.
The last hour of the drive passed in peace and quiet.
The tires slowed as they reached the edge of the dirt clearing. Tom paused as he put the vehicle in park and turned the truck off, taking the few seconds he had of peace and quiet to reflect. He could see the rushing waters of the river before him, as well as the thick concrete structure that spanned the gap between both banks. He didn't see an issue immediately obvious to him, but that was why he chose to stop here first prior to moving farther downstream.
He looked down at the sleeping hedgehog beside him and shook his head in wonder. Kid was either more tired than he had let on or his excitement wore him out that much faster. He reached towards the glove box before thinking better of it, retracting his hand to instead land on the kid's head.
"Whoa – what?" Sonic jolted awake. Before Tom could get a word in edgewise, the hedgehog was zooming all over inside the cab of the truck. He was thankful his first instinct had been to keep the doors locked. "That'ssocooldoesthatmeanwe'reherenowIthoughtyousaidwewerecampingbutthisdoesn'tlooklikethecampsiteyoushowedmeandwhyistheriversoloudandcanweeatbecauseI'mreallyhungry –"
"Sonic," Tom said quickly in his sheriff voice, "breathe." A noisier inhale he had never before heard – at least before accepting a certain hedgehog into his life. "Breathe again." He cut off Sonic's ensuing groan with, "You need to breathe at least three more times before I answer any of your questions." He then eyed the puffy cheeks, closed mouth, and silence around the hedgehog before adding, "Continued breathing, Sonic. You're not underwater; you don't need to hold your breath." Cue a noisy exhale and another couple noisier inhales and exhales before Sonic's breathing came under control. "Thank you."
"So where are we?" Sonic asked again. Tom smiled at him.
"This, Sonic, is the Holter Lake dam. Remember what I told you about dams?" Sonic nodded, looking at him with wide eyes. "Well, this is the one that keeps the water flow under control here at the lake. This is also where my friend, Brad, works."
"That's so awesome! I can't believe how long it is!" Sonic said admiringly, going closer to the passenger side window. "It's so pretty. And long, very long." A beat passed before the hedgehog looked back at Tom. Tom was ready for this.
"No, Sonic."
"Please?" the kid begged. "I swear it won't take me long! I'll be back before you know it!"
"No, Sonic, you cannot run across the dam." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Thankfully, he was improving in his ability to curtail the small alien.
"Why not?" said hedgehog, who was beginning to bristle.
"Dams are monitored by state as well as federal government employees," Tom said easily. It helped that he had anticipated this, and as a result had rehearsed this little speech for a couple weeks. "I don't doubt you could run across and back without being seen by human eyes. But there are still cameras. If you run across the dam and are spotted or caught on camera, we're going to get another visit from the federal government, and it's probably not going to go as well as the previous visit." Sonic pouted again.
"Fine." Tom unlocked his driver's side door, opened it, and got out of the vehicle. "Wait, Tom, what are you doing?"
"Getting out," Tom said, keeping his face blank. "What does it look like?"
"But if I can't go out to the dam –"
"I never said you couldn't go out TO the dam, Sonic," Tom said gently. "I just don't want you running across the top of it." The blue kid froze in place, a wide smile stretching across his face.
"Wait. You mean it?" Tom nodded and pointed at the path he had already picked out.
"I called Brad ahead of time, so he knows we're coming and to meet us on this side of the river. We'll just have to walk –" Tom began, already anticipating the gust of wind that blew past him and sped towards the dam.
"ALREADY THERE, DONUT LORD!" he heard yelled back at him.
"Oh, Sonic," Tom sighed. As he closed the door and used the key fob to lock the truck up, he wondered not for the first time if this was going to go well. He hoped it would. Well, he had hoped it would. Now he would just settle for it going somewhat according to plan.
He started to follow Sonic.
Tom could hear the voices more clearly as he rounded yet another bend in the trail. At least Sonic had the good sense to talk to people while on the trail – it gave Tom the chance to catch up while tracking his progress. Plus, if he was hearing things right, he recognized the voice. That was comforting – it had been a while since he had last talked to Brad, and if Sonic was going to stop and talk to every person he found along the way, at least it sounded like he found Brad first. He had tried to prepare Brad for meeting Sonic, from filling him in on recent family life to giving him a picture of the blue boy, and he would soon see if his efforts paid off.
After another ten minutes of walking, he rounded another corner to come out onto an open dirt area, narrowing to one trail that connected directly to the bedrock that connected directly to the dam. He also saw a tall, blond-haired, hazel-eyed white male in park ranger uniform looking bemusedly at Sonic while trying valiantly to answer the kid's questions that came at him rapid-fire. He would fail. No one could keep up with Sonic's questions, let alone Sonic who sometimes forgot the question as soon as he asked it. No, it was up to Tom and Tom alone to save his friend.
"Brad," he called out, lifting up his arm to wave at his friend. He noted Brad looked relieved to see him. Sonic looked mildly annoyed at having his question-and-maybe-answer session cut short. Life's tough, kiddo. "Hey, good to see you again." They clasped hands and completed a short but manly embrace. Don't make fun of guys who hug each other. Those same guys could also punch their way out of a brawl and avoid any legal trouble. Mocking them for hugging would be the least of your problems.
"You too, Tom." Upon closer inspection, Brad wasn't as pale as he had thought initially. A light tan was starting to form on his skin, cut off where the sleeves began and the ridiculous hat overshadowed his face. "Geez, you eat enough donuts recently?"
"Says the guy who finally learned how to tan," Tom ragged back. "You finally don't have any sunburns on you." He reached to clap his friend on the back, but Brad was too quick for him. "Aw, come on, Brad! Again?"
"Save it, Tom!" The red that flushed his cheeks was too obvious to even pretend to ignore. "That's the one tender spot I still have. At least my arms toughened up."
"And that's what you get for trying to impress the ladies before the summer season opens," Tom laughed, ignoring the hit to his arm. "I see you met Sonic already."
"Yeah." Brad snorted. "If you could call it a meeting. You could have told me more about him, you know. Your kid won't stop pounding me with questions, Tom, and half of them I can't even understand." The kid pouted again, quills partially sticking up this time.
"You just need to work on listening to the fastest man alive, Brad!" he said with a smirk. Tom raised an eyebrow at the kid, while Brad looked confused.
"Sonic…"
"Yeah?"
"… You're a hedgehog."
"So?"
"It's the fastest hedgehog alive. You're Sonic, not Barry Allen." He quickly reached over and ruffled the kid's quills, stifling a surprise yelp of pain when the kid suddenly moved a couple steps over. "And please, be nice to Brad. This is the first time you've met him. I'd like you to get along with one of my friends." Sonic scoffed back at him.
"I get along with Wade just fine." He crossed his arms, tapping one of his red-and-white shoes in obvious impatience.
"Yeah, because he's relaxed and lets you walk all over him." Tom jerked the other thumb towards Brad, who was obviously holding back a laugh. "At least talk to Brad like a regular person before you insult him." Sonic huffed in annoyance.
"Fine." Tom removed his hand from Sonic's quills, wincing at seeing one stuck to his index finger. However, as soon as he lifted his hand up, Sonic disappeared only to reappear in front of Brad. To the forest service guy's credit, he jumped only slightly. For the ensuing conversation, Tom was torn between disbelief and amusement as Sonic appeared to interrogate Brad.
"So, you're Tom's friend."
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"Well, I've known him since high school. We actually went to the police academy together before I decided I wanted to join the forest service and he decided to be sheriff of Green Hills."
"And what do you do now?"
"I patrol the area to keep an eye on any visitors and campers, but primarily to check on surrounding environmental areas for problems."
"Like what?"
"Flooding is one. Between the record snowfall we had last winter and the heavy rains that have happened the last few weeks, the river is higher than it has been for the past few years. Another is the snow itself. The temperatures have ricocheted between cold and warm, which means that even with this weekend's unseasonably warm temperatures the snow hasn't completely melted. But when it becomes this warm this long, that can cause all of the snow to melt together, which could lead to flooding. That plus the current river level could lead to something called a flash flood."
"But that's not going to happen this weekend, right?"
"I can't say so for certain, Sonic."
"But it won't."
"Probably not. But it could."
"But it won't. Because Donut Lord and I are finally here to fish and camp and relax, and nothing will spoil our weekend!" Sonic finished proudly. Tom observed Brad's face change from patient to exasperated to frustrated to amused to calculating in a matter of seconds, and decided he should finally intervene.
"In all seriousness, Brad," he said, trying to hide his grin. "What do you have to tell me about this weekend's forecast?" Brad rubbed his jawline seemingly in contemplation.
"Honestly, Tom? As long as the weather remains sunny, the temperatures don't get higher than 40 degrees, and we don't get any rain, we should be good. I wouldn't worry. Besides, if I did hear anything, you know I'd call you." That's when Tom noted an unnatural gleam in his friend's eye, and resisted the urge to run away. "So… Donut Lord?"
"Yep!" Tom fought the urge to facepalm as Sonic continued to be Sonic. "He's the Donut Lord and the sheriff. He's the protector of all creatures and foods great and small," it seemed to be getting better, "and he eats them if they get out of hand!" Nope – it was too much. Tom Wachowski face-palmed. Brad laughed aloud.
"Good to know, kid," he said straight-faced. Tom glared at him. "I'll remember that if I have any problems keeping animals or donuts in line."
"Hah-hah," Tom said sarcastically. "Don't you have a beat to patrol?" Brad winked at him.
"Surprise, surprise: We are on my beat," he said. "I can continue to keep you guys' company for another few miles or so –" the ringing of a cellphone interrupted whatever he was going to say next. With a quick, "Excuse me," Brad stepped off to the side and snapped open his cellphone. Tom turned to look at Sonic quick, who was now looking back at him.
"What?" Sonic asked innocently.
"Sonic," Tom began, "what was the point of that… that interrogation?"
"Well, you told me to talk to Brad like a regular person."
"That's how you talk to regular people?" Sure, Sonic was usually full of questions when he stopped to talk, but Tom didn't remember Sonic doing that to any of their people back home.
"Well, sure!" Sonic replied, now looking a little more mischievous. "I mean, people who I don't know and who are your friends and who I have to check to see where they fall on the friendship hierarchy." Oh.
"So you just wanted to make sure you didn't have to beat out anyone else for best friend status," Tom said.
"Three words, Tom: Bros before hoes." Tom shook his head.
"That doesn't even apply here, Sonic," he said, giving the little guy an exasperated grin. "But, whatever. I get it. You cool with him?" Sonic looked down and shuffled his feet around a bit.
"Well, yeah." Then he looked up at Tom with such an intensity that it almost took Tom aback. No, not mad, but definitely protective. He was well used to that by now, but every once in a while Sonic could surprise him with how protective he was. "But he can't come with us."
"No, I won't." Tom turned to see Brad putting his cellphone away. "That was my supervisor. He wants me to go check out a complaint some tent campers have about bears. Which does remind me – if I was going to warn you about anything Tom, it would be the bears. All the bears have been roaming around looking for food stuffs since the ice melted. They haven't been overly threatening or tried to kill any people that I can tell or that I have heard, but you know how they can get." Tom nodded seriously.
"I do. Hey man, thanks again for meeting us." He reached out with one hand and Brad grabbed it with his own. One firm handshake and it was over.
"My pleasure. And don't worry, if anything changes you'll be the first one I call." Tom saw Brad's lips twitch as the other man tried not to smile. Tried – right. "Donut Lord."
"Yeah, well, thank you for the help, Brad," he said, quickly clapping the other guy on the back of his shoulder blade. He tried to pretend that he didn't see the wince. "And next time, just wear the sunscreen everywhere."
"Jackass." Tom dodged Brad's half-hearted swipe, grinning back at his friend.
"Dick."
"Bye, Brad!" Sonic said, waving politely.
"See you, Sonic. Good to meet you." Tom nudged Sonic, and together they walked back to the truck. Rather, Sonic got bored after five seconds and used his super speed to run to the truck. Tom continued to walk, ignoring Brad's chuckles as they grew distant.
Lucky guy. He didn't have an alien hedgehog with an insane appetite to feed. Good thing he kept the truck locked.