Author's Note:
Just finished this chapter like, a few minutes ago, so I hope there aren't any big mistakes in it that I didn't catch! This chapter's a little angsty, I guess would be the word? Showing a little bit of Sonic's feelings on the situation! But don't worry, things cheer up!

Review Replies:
SuperTailsFan0812 - Thank you so much for another super kind review! I'm glad you liked that they were trying to calm Tails down ;u; Thanks for keeping with my story so far!

Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! I'm really liking working on this story


Maddie took a small step back, putting her hands on her hips after her short examination. The fox, dubbed 'Tails' by Sonic, was a bit too skinny, but other than that he seemed fine. She wasn't sure of his age, but even on an alien species she could tell he was younger than Sonic.

What was clear, however, was that the kit really needed a bath. He was almost gray in some areas, and a few spots had mud stuck to the orange fur. The rain water had not been doing him any favors in clearing it, unfortunately.

"You don't look like you're hurt anywhere, but I do think we need to give you a bath. We can all settle down and talk more after. That Okay?"

Tails' ears perked up, despite his nervous demeanor, and nodded. "Okay."

Maddie moved to pick him up gently instead of letting him walk, to which he to accepted being carried quickly. She gave the other two in the room a look as she walked, mouthing words towards Tom that Sonic didn't quite catch.

In return, Tom and Sonic glanced at each other. A short awkward silence followed as Sonic frowned, now in the silence his mind already jumping to thinking about why a mobian would show up.

"What do you think?" The adult commented, after a moment. It brought Sonic out of his thoughts.

"What do I think about what? Him?" Sonic knew the answer, but he still had to ask anyway. Down the hall, the noise of the faucet turning on for water could be heard through the now closed bathroom door.

"Yeah. Any ideas on why he's here?" Noticing the worried look on the hedgehog's face, he continued, "You feeling okay about it?"

"I uh.. I dunno. The first thing I thought of is that maybe he's here for my powers, but he looked so young and scared..." Sonic trailed off, eyes wandering towards the hallway where Maddie had taken the kit.

"Well, even if he was, we can deal with it. You've got the whole town of Green Hills backing you up." Tom responded, moving to take his jacket and shoes off now that he wasn't needed to go back outside.

"That's only what I thought at first, though. Did you see how scared he was? What if he's not someone after me, but someone like me? Running away because he's different?"

The weight of these words were heavy when said out loud, and the man must have been able to see how heavy it was on him, since he stepped back closer to Sonic, who was still standing(because it had been a better way of staying closer to eye level with Tails) on the chair.

He pulled the younger into a quick, loose side-hug. He was careful of where he was putting his arm so he didn't get pricked by quills.

"We can deal with that, too."

Even if the reply wasn't very helpful, it was reassurance enough to Sonic, though maybe the hug also helped. He smiled, looking back up at the cop. "We can help him, right?"

Tom stepped away, made a face like he was contemplating, and then nodded back, returning the smile. "Yeah, I think so. I helped you, didn't I? What's another alien- who also was strangely found in my garage and I feel like I should point that out- on the list?"

The speedster hopped down from the chair, "Yeah, actually, that is really weird. What are the chances of that happening? One-in-one-million?"

"Probably higher than that." The adult took the lead once Sonic got off the kitchen chair, moving towards the living room. "Why don't we sit down and put on a movie while we wait for them? No use sitting around worrying."

The blue hedgehog flashed to the couch, hopping up and watching Tom catch up with him and sit down with the remote, putting on a particularly kid-friendly cartoon movie on, which successfully covered up the sounds of the storm outside(which had seemed to calmed down a little, with less thunder and lightning for the moment) as well.

Sonic normally would have whined and wanted to watch some other action-filled movie because he was more mature than to watch a child's movie, but thinking ahead, he instead said: "I'll only allow this kind of movie right now because there's a younger kid in the house and he might like it when Maddie brings him out here."

Tom laughed quietly at the statement, "Ahuh. I believe it."

They lapsed into silence as the movie officially started, watching it instead. Or well, in Sonic's case he did watch it, but at some point, Tom got up to likely check on either the two in the bathroom or Ozzie who had pitifully whined once or twice from inside the bedroom.

Sonic wasn't sure which at first, because he didn't follow him over, instead choosing to wait where he was.

When Tom had returned without Maddie or Tails- or any news on them- he concluded that it was to calm down Ozzie within the bedroom. When he sat down again next to the hedgehog, he kept an eye on his watch and checked his phone, keeping track of the time they sat there.

It wasn't very long when the two exited the bathroom, but likely a little longer than it probably should have taken normally. Given the circumstances, it was reasonable.

Maddie entered the living room with one somewhat-dry fox, holding him against her chest as he had his arms wrapped around her neck, head tucked away there as well. It seemed the kit had grown comfortable with her within the time it took to get him clean.

His tails curled up closer to him still, flickering slightly, giving away his continued nervousness, along with his ears being a little lowered still, but they were perked up more than they were previous, so Sonic took that as a good sign.

When she stopped walking, looking at the two sitting on the couch, Tails shifted in her arms to turn his head around and look at them. His eyes were drooping a little in a way that most kids do when they're sleepy, but not quite the same. Likely, since he was young, he was just tired.

"Got him all clean. What do we think?" She asked, likely referring to his now much brighter orange and white fur.

"Amazing!" Sonic responded as fast as his speed. "He looks like a whole new fox!"

Not quite right away, the kit let out a quiet laugh; which encouraged Tom to continue off of Sonic's statement. "Are you sure that's the same kid, Maddie? Seems totally different."

"Oh, I'm sure. There's a whole clogged drain of dirty orange fur to prove it, too." She responded warmly, but the comment made the kit duck his head down a little. "Sorry," He mumbled.

"Not to worry, sweetie." She said back, then spoke again.

"Now, I know I said we'd talk some more about all this after the bath, but it's pretty late and I think we could all use some relaxing. Why don't we settle down and watch this movie that Sonic and Tom are playing?"

Though it was a question, she had already begun to move to the couch. As she did so, he eventually muttered out another "Okay," quietly. She sat down on Sonic's left, letting the kit drop to her lap, but didn't set him down off of her, allowing him to decide what he wanted to do from that point.

He didn't move off of her lap right away, instead looking around himself and her, roaming the room. But after a second, they locked onto Sonic, who was watching him as well. The twin-tails' eyes moved back down towards the couch, and then slowly he moved out of her lap, into the gap between herself and Sonic.

The spot wasn't very big at all, but Tails didn't seem to mind, settling carefully between them and moving his name-sakes' to curl around himself, as he turned to focus on the movie that was playing.

Sonic's gaze kept on Tails for a few moments longer, and the kit's tail closest to him was half on his leg too, but the speedster couldn't bring himself to mind it at the moment, and leaned back into the cushions to re-focus on the movie instead.

It was hardly a few minutes in when Tails slumped down, asleep. It was a little surprising, and the movement of him plopping down onto the cushion fully did in fact grab everyone's attention. Thunder rumbled outside, but it didn't rouse him. Was the fox really that tired?

Maddie whispered an answer to them both, as if she were reading Sonic's mind.

"He was showing bad signs of anxiety and was pretty frightened when I brought him in the bathroom. I gave him some of the vet meds I have to calm him down; the kind that help the pets in my work. Looks like it put him to sleep quick."

"I am so glad you're a vet," Tom replied in just as quiet of a whisper.

Sonic normally might have responded, but almost as if the last hour or two's chaos hit him at once, and made him feel relatively tired, so he just returned to look at the movie without commenting on it, until his consciousness drifted into a calming darkness.


Author's Note:
That's all for now! Hope you liked it! Let me know what you think ! And of course, as always, requests/idea suggestions are open for this fic!