Soooo, I'm back (on this fic, I mean) :D
As some of you guys already noticed, I've been quite active, however I've been kind of neglecting this story.
Nevertheless, I'm gonna finish it before the third movie comes out 3 And thank you so much for all of your patience and support :3
Without further ado, here it is
It couldn't be . . .
No.
His mind had to be playing tricks on him . . .
But, yet, as he looked around to desperately prove this wasn't reality, his kid and his- Tom's faces completely betrayed the glimpse of hope he had.
They looked shocked and surprised.
Why didn't he run away with Tails while he had the chance? Why did he stop and look directly at the man before he could connect the dots?
Before any of them . . . could be in potential danger?
Why was he so stupid? Why couldn't he stop messing up? Why did he feel stuck all of a sudden?
First Longclaw... now this.
Was he just a big screw-up?
He just hoped Carl wasn't . . . a threat.
They had their fun over the years, but Carl tried to capture him… multiple times, actually.
He had never tried to reason with Carl- Sonic wasn't supposed to be discovered by anyone after all.
(And yet again, another failure of his- he couldn't even keep his Tails from calling for help.)
While he was grateful for what Carl had done- for indirectly helping him feel like he existed- Carl was also the one who tried to prove he was real for years.
What if someone else was with Carl?! What if the whole town discovered he existed?
That . . . his son existed?
He felt like his heart would burst.
His son was in danger. He was in danger. He had to get out of here now.
"Ya finally saw him, Thomas." Carl said, breaking the awkward silence that had since followed and Sonic's thoughts, "See, I told ya I wasn't just makin' things up! And there's another one too!" Carl, then, looked at Sonic and his son (Carl wasn't supposed to know about Tails), with the most suspicious glare that screamed, 'What are you planning?'
There was no way Carl wouldn't do everything in his power for the whole town to find out- he had proved as such.
He held Tails' hands tightly (since when was he so close to his son?) and ran…
"So his name is Sonic?" Carl asked, after Tom had called insensately Sonic and Tails's names, with a mix of unsettled curiosity and excitement from someone finally seeing Sonic.
Except this shouldn't have happened to begin with.
He should have brought them somewhere safer.
He didn't even know where the- no- his kids were.
And he hated it.
"And he was with that... yellow creature?! This is even worse than I thought, Tom. What could they be planning? We need to tell-"
"Carl, not the time." Tom interrupted Carl, earning a surprise look from Carl. "Don't tell anyone about any of this. They are just kids, and they aren't gonna be conquering anything or whatever." Tom said it as fast as he could.
What mattered the most was protecting his kids.
Protecting Sonic from a mistake he could be about to make...
Carl was stubborn, and Sonic knew that. If Tom can't convince him, not only will Carl be more persistent in catching Sonic, but they couldn't live with them…
"Wait… you knew about them?!" Carl asked, looking flabbergasted. "For how long have you known, Tom?
This was bad.
Really bad.
Not only did Carl (probably) find out he knew about Sonic and Tails, which could imply so many bad things, but Sonic ran away with Tails.
Tom just hoped Sonic had gone either to their old cave or their (new) home.
If they had gone to the cave… the whole surprise would've been busted, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
What mattered was making sure Soni- his kids- were okay.
Sonic was obviously capable of taking care of himself and Tails.
It was the physiological aspect that concerned him.
A few days ago, Sonic mentioned and showed them some kind of . . . rings that could transport them to any desired was honestly kinda freaky, but aliens existed, so he really shouldn't be shocked anymore.
And while Tom and Maddie appreciated immensely the trust the hedgehog and the fox had given him, Sonic was still very against anyone else knowing about them, especially the rings . . . for obvious reasons.
But what if . . . Sonic decided to go to whatever planet without telling them first?
What if Sonic believed... it would've been the best for everyone?
Did Sonic even have the rings right now? Was it with him, or in the cave?
Why couldn't Tom remember if he did?
Tom and Maddie had already talked about this. Neither of them were experts- far from it, actually- but mixing a decade of complete isolation with a teenager
Yeah, it could get problematic fast.
And now that they were attached to them- to their kids- there was no way he or his wife were letting them go, even if they only saw them as their friends.
Especially now that Sonic and Tails didn't look so dangerously thin.
This was going to be a long night.
He just hoped it would end well…
That, next morning, Tom and his wife would be greeted by Sonic and Tails' smiling faces.
"Hey!" Maddie started, after answering the call, interrupting his thoughts. "Wade and I are almost done with everything. Are Sonic an-"
"Carl found out." Tom interrupted his wife,
He didn't exactly enjoy interrupting his loved one, but he had no choice. This was important.
"What?!" Tom could hear a glimpse, after Maddie's "yell," of Wade asking if something was wrong.
"Carl just stumbled across the park and saw them, and Sonic ran away with Tails, but I don't know where they went." Tom replied in the fastest way he could while making himself understood.
He had no time to waste.
"Tom . . . what if they . . . go to another planet?" Maddie finished, more and more disturbed as the severity of the situation weighed on her.
Obviously, it would be hard for Maddie to not see them anymore, either.
… Harder, actually.
"You still haven't explained what's happening, Thomas." Carl asked somewhat impatiently.
"I'm sorry, Carl. Just give me a minute." Tom said he just hoped he would be able to convince Carl to not show his kids.
In the worst-case scenario, they would probably have to run away from Green Hill.
But that was incredibly unlikely.
There was no way Tom or Maddie would ever let Carl come close to any of them if he was revealed to be untrustworthy, that is.
But hopefully, Carl will keep it a secret.
Considering Carl didn't run immediately to tell the whole town about Tails and even wanted an explanation from him, perhaps… things would end up well after all.
He just hoped- believed- his intuition was right.
"I'm going to tell Wade everything." As Maddie was talking, he heard his best friend asking, 'What's going on?' in the background. If the situation wasn't so serious, Tom would've laughed. "And I'll ask him to go to the cave. I'll stay here, okay?"
He had the best, most understanding wife ever.
"Thanks, honey. I'm going to be explaining everything to Carl now. Call me if you know something. Love you." With that, Tom ended the call, both of them silently aware of the dangers Carl knew it could bring.
I apologize for the chapter being kind of short, I was struggling for some reason with certain parts of this chapter. The next will be longer than usual, tho! So look forward to that :3