Author's Note: Hey y'all! Been a while for this story, hasn't it? Well, I'm back at it, haha

Forgive me if the tone/story seems a little bit different than previous chapters, it's been a few months since I wrote for this story- I was taking a break from it as I worked on other things. Hope it's not too bad!


When Maddie woke up, it was to the smell of sugary pancakes. The smell of syrup was strong- letting her know that Sonic was definitely awake and the cause. She reminded herself of the situation last night, and let out a sigh as she moved quickly to get ready for the day.

The door was cracked open, and Ozzy was not in the room, neither was Tom. Meaning they were up, and at the very least, the little fox alien was not freaking out again. If he did, they surely would have woken her up, or she would have woken up from the noise.

Neither adult in the house had work today; even if they had, it was now called off. The reason being that they had been in one big mess after another upon Sonic's arrival; so in preparation, they immediately called off work for a day or two just incase they somehow ran into some kind of alien-invasion- or so Tom had suggested could happen.

When she moved quietly out of the room, down the hall, and into the kitchen, where she was immediately greeted with... much less of a mess than she had anticipated.

It was mostly the counters and the tables that were messy at this point, which were easy to clean off. Ozzy was in the room, laying down a short distance from the table, with no spots on him. That was good, because it was an effort to clean batter off an excited dog's fur.

Sonic was the first to notice her, grinning, some small bits of uncooked pancake batter stuck to his quills.

"Good morning, Maddie!" He greeted loudly. "We just made pancakes, and they're sooo good!" He stood on a kitchen chair to reach the table, with a fork and a pancake piece stuck to it; likely in mid-bite.

In front of him, was a large plate with an equally large three pancakes on it. All of them were covered in syrup and whipped cream, which would have been way too much normally, but the veterinarian assumes it was given a pass today due to circumstances.

Standing on the same chair next to him, looking a little nervous but overall friendly, was the little twin-tailed fox they discovered last night. Unlike the bits of batter on Sonic's quills, he seemed just as clean as he was last night. He was definitely looking a lot less panicked, which was great to see. His cheeks were puffed and his jaw was moving; meaning he was in the middle of chewing on his own bite of pancakes, which he was likely sharing with the blue hedgehog.

It seemed that Sonic was trying very hard to be friendly to the younger child next to him, to the point of insisting that the fox share his seat and meal after they made it. This was impressive to her, since she had been told of his worries last night by Tom when they went to bed. Despite his worries about why the fox was here, and what it could mean, he was doing his best to be friendly and see the good in those around him. It warmed her heart to think about.

In any case, it was an undeniably adorable scene; the hedgehog and fox sharing a seat like little kids might do, and she didn't want to interrupt the mood, so she didn't comment on it. Instead, Maddie smiled and responded to Sonic. "Good morning," She spoke in a friendly tone, before turning to Tom, who was sitting across from them, eating his own pancake, which was normal sized and not drenched in syrup. Next to him, was another plate of normal sized pancakes, with a little bit of syrup and whipped cream on top- just the right amount that Maddie enjoyed.

"Thank you for making breakfast," She commented as she sat down to eat her own share. "I assume you two helped make these, right?"

"Yep," Sonic said, enthusiastic as always. "I tried to poor the batter but I did it a little too quickly, so Tails took over for me. He's really careful and neat with when he helps." The speedster said, gesturing to his orange-furred friend, who's ears lowered slightly in slight bashfulness.

"Yeah, I'd say he's more capable than you, Sonic." Tom broke into the conversation with a playful remark.

"No way! I can go across the country in seconds, I'm the most capable hedgehog on the planet!"

"Well sure, since our hedgehogs are little nocturnal rodents that don't have hands, I'd say you are too. Not a high bar, really."

Before the banter could continue, though, Maddie decided to cut that conversation off for more pressing matters. She moved her gaze back to the little fox who had a small smile on his face as he watched the two bicker. "Now, Tails, I think maybe we should talk about how you got here, and why. Are you okay with that?"

The fox in question shifted, namesakes beginning to twirl anxiously behind him in the cramped space between his back and the chair. Eventually, he nodded, he agreed. "Um, yeah, we can."

Sonic decided he'd start, since he spoke first. He seemed hesitant, but eager to ask all the same; which made sense, given the past he's had. "Are you- are you from... Mobius?" The name of Sonic's home planet was said quieter than the rest of his question, as if he feared saying it may bring all those after him to him at this very second. Sonic had a track history of avoiding the subject and even what his old home was called if given the chance to when Tom or Maddie tried to ask about it.

Tails' ears pricked in recognition of the name. "Yes, I'm from Mobius," He replied simply, looking a little surprised at the choice of the first question. Or maybe surprise that he himself remembered.

"Why did you come here, to this planet?" Tom asked, now. When the fox's eyebrows furrowed, he reiterated thinking that the fox was not sure where he was. "You're on Earth, not Mobius, right now. Did you know that? How did you get here?"

"I knew this was... Earth, but. Um, I'm... I don't know how I...," Tails said, quiet. It wasn't very much of an answer.

"You don't know how you got here?"

"I don't... I don't remember. I feel like I should remember." Tails looked down, feeling a little bad about not remembering. He allowed his namesakes to curl around his waist and moving his hands to the fluffy white tip of one of them- a nervous habit.

"What about why you came here? Was there a reason for leaving your home planet?"

He moved his other hand to his head, wincing. "I'm sorry. I can't remember... I was... I was coming to Earth for... for something. Um.."

Sonic's quills raised slightly at the indications of such a sentence- even though he'd made up his mind that the fox probably wasn't here to find him or take his powers, it still was unnerving to hear.

He had to hope this didn't have anything to do with him, anyway.

Maddie smiled kindly as the vulpine tried to remember. "It's okay, sweetie. I think you might have forgotten because of how scared you were last night, maybe. You might remember soon. Do you know what you were doing before you were coming to Earth?"

"Um..." The fox shifted uncomfortably, pulling his two fluffy appendages closer to himself.

She decided to move the questioning to different topics, to keep the stress down, so she spoke again. "How old are you, do you remember that?"

Tails looked back up at that question, a little unsure still at first, but only for the reasoning of not remembering why he came to the planet in the first place, rather than the current question. His expression morphed into calm, certainty.

"I'm five," The kit says; he knew this, at the very least.

The sudden worried glances from the others in the room made him feel small. His ears flattened against his head.

Maddie had suspected he was young, but neither her or Tom could pinpoint the kit's age from the beginning- Mobians were very different from humans. They couldn't really tell Sonic's age either. Being told that this little fox was only five, though... It felt like being punched, the idea of this kit being on his own at that age.

Even Sonic had a worried look, but for different implications than the other two. While Tom and Maddie were suddenly concerned about a small child being on his own and sent to another planet, Sonic's mind flashed to his own past, brain worrying that Tails was just like him.

"Do you know if someone was chasing you?" Sonic blurted out.

Tails' gaze went to him and he frowned. "...I was scared," He replied, thinking hard, but unable to come up with anything other than remembering his own fear of the storm. "But I really don't remember. Sorry, I'm sorry. I was just scared." He seemed to curl into himself a little, the expressions that everyone giving him making him just as worried as they looked. His eyes flashed with wetness; a sign that he may cry soon.

Sonic, at the sight of the fox closing himself up more than just from nervousness, backpedaled on his interrogation and panicked.

"Oh, no, It's okay, you don't have to be sorry- you just don't remember. That's okay!" His hands waved around in an attempt to calm the younger one, before he eventually settled on wrapping his arms around the kit that was sharing his seat, to hopefully make him feel better. In turn, the fox stiffened slightly, but accepted the hug gratefully- what nervous five year old wouldn't accept comfort when offered? "I'm sorry I pushed it." Sonic apologized to the orange fluff in his arms.

The twin-tail turned his face to the blue furred shoulder to avoid the others' gazes and hugged back hesitantly, sniffling a little, but not crying, and not responding.

"We don't have to worry about it right now, you can stay here while you try to remember. We can help you!" Sonic's head moved so he could see Tom and Maddie, as it was turned the other way previously. Although Tom had said they were going to help him last night, his eyes still pleaded with them to re-confirm it.

"...You're going to help me?" The kit whispered, peeking up towards the hedgehog and pulling away slightly, seeming a bit surprised. Sonic, taking this as a hint that he was feeling a little better, pulled back too, not quite letting his arms drop yet from the hug.

Tom took it upon himself to respond. "Yeah, whatever's happened with you, and how you got here, or why- we can help you. We already helped one hyperactive blue hedgehog," He said, trying to pick up the mood slightly. "So I don't see why we wouldn't help you, too." He smiled reassuringly when the kit's head finally moved back enough to look towards the other two again.

Tails' big fluffy ears lifted up a little from their flattened position.

"Really?" He asked, just in case. One could never be too sure. His gaze moved from Tom, then Maddie, who offered nothing but kind reassurance with her own expression and body language, looking like she wanted to get up and hug the kit.

Sonic grinned when those big blue eyes fell onto him next, and he let go of the kit, instead presenting a thumbs up. "Guaranteed, little buddy!"


Author's Note:
When will I learn how to properly end chapters? who knows

Edit: I've gotten quite a few questions about the age thing so:
please note that this story is AU / not going completely off of the Sonic movie, at least not the credits scene. Tails' canon age is 8, but since this story is an AU idea for me, I've set both Sonic and Tails at younger ages for the story. The partial reason for this is because Sonic seemed a lot younger in the Sonic 2020 Movie to me, so I made Tails younger respectively to fit that.
edit 2: changed Tails' age to be a little older.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Feel free to leave a review to let me know what you thought! Thanks for reading !