You Are Home, Tails, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

"Sonic, Maddie told me they have sprinkles."

"Ice cream and sprinkles?" The hedgehog grinned, "This is your new destiny."

Tails looked away before either of them saw him flinch, the low hum of the truck radiated through his fractured ribs. But the kit ignored the pain as he looked back between Sonic and Knuckles, a small smile coming over his muzzle. They'd come so far these past couple of weeks.

The kit held in a groan as they went over a speed bump. Quickly rubbing his eyes so his friends wouldn't see the tears sprang in the corners of his eyes. The deep ache in his chest throbbed just a bit and a lot more.

It was the same ache he'd woken up to in Hawaii, the one he so vehemently insisted had gone away by now, the one that had a heartbeat of its own.

But it was just a fracture, and Tails could handle that with no problem. He was just grateful it wasn't broken. A broken rib hurt so much worse. And there was always the chance of it puncturing an organ. You didn't have to worry about that for a fracture.

But it still hurt.

It hurt so bad.

Tails quickly wiped his eyes again before anyone could see. Don't show weakness, a familiar voice in his head advised. It was the same voice that taught him to hunt and tie his shoes by himself. The one that made him tell Tom and Maddie about the two moms waiting for him on his home planet.

The one that made him lie.

The one that wouldn't let him have a family.

It wasn't as if he didn't trust Maddie with his injuries, as far as he could tell she was as wonderful as a vet as she was a person. But the thought of having her check over him, for her to look at his bruises and scars and everything, after everything she had done for him, made him skittish.

So Tails stayed silent as they made their way to the ice cream shop. When he got out of the low humming truck he was rewarded for his efforts with two scoops of mint chocolate and a drizzle of hot fudge.

They were seated in the back corner but all eyes were on the Wachowski family. Not that Tails minded, being born with two tails you got used to the looks others gave you, but Tom and Maddie seemed uncomfortable.

"So..." Maddie started, shifting in her seat a bit. "What's everyone- "

"Puppy!" A small voice shrieked as a toddler ran up to Sonic, wrapping her arms around his leg, and giving him a few pets. The hedgehog smiled and held up his paw to her. "High five!" And she gave him one.

"No!" A woman's voice bellowed from the other side of the store. The woman in question came over with a few large steps to their table, grabbing the little girl under her arms and lifting her into her arms. "Laura no!" She pulled the little girl away, muttering a few profanities under her breath as she rubbed hand sanitizer into her hands. "It could have diseases!" She said loud enough for everyone including Sonic to hear.

In the three short weeks Tails had known Maddie, he'd never seen her face as red as it was now. She started to stand up, looking at the woman with fire in her eyes before Sonic grabbed her hand and gently gestured for her to sit back down. He gave her a smile that said "It's okay" but it was not okay, and everyone knew it.

Still, Maddie slowly let out an angry breath and sat back down. Whatever that was they could talk about it after ice cream.

Tails rubbed gentle circles into his forehead as he walked into the bathroom. The deep, rhythmic throbbing of his head echoed through his blood, spreading to his chest and continuing the never-ending cycle of aching pain.

He winced as he flipped the switch in the bathroom, the bright light sending his mind spinning. Stars danced in the corners of his vision as he stepped onto the step stool and looked at himself in the mirror.

His paws ran over the white fluffy of his chest and pulled his fur apart so he could stare at the bright purple marks below it.

He pressed down on one. "Ow!" He whined. Yep, still fractured.

Tails leaned against the sink and tried taking in a few deep breaths, debating whether he should run his head under cold water.

He caught a glimpse at his toothbrush. His yellow one that stood in a cup with a red and blue one, the one Maddie had gotten him when he first made his promise to stay on Earth, to protect the master emerald.

Originally his thought was to make himself a place in the forest right outside the Wachowski home. But apparently on Earth children living without their parents was too abnormal. So Sonic offered to share his bedroom. Just until the Master Emerald Security System he was working on got finished then Tails could go back home to Mobius. To his 'family'.

Tails let out a sigh then instantly regretted it. A sharp pain came through his chest. But he didn't whine or scream. No, he didn't make a sound. Hurting was okay. Hurting was normal. But acting like you were hurting was dangerous.

Tails pulled back the fur on his collarbone and looked at the scar underneath it; three deep claws gash across one side of his chest to the other. It was the first and deepest scar he'd ever been given. And he was glad his thick winter coat covered it.

Wouldn't want anyone asking questions.

There were more like it though. One one the tip of his tail. One on his foot. His thigh. His arm. His whole body told a story, and that story's motto was 'Don't be a freak because freaks get jumped and freaks get scars'.

Tails stepped off the step stool and shook his fur so his marks were covered again. He needed to finish his project so he could leave Earth. He was becoming too comfortable here. It was going to make adjusting even harder.

The kit opened the door and started to walk out.

"Ooof!" He almost fell as something blocked his way out. Sonic was in the doorway, staring at him with attentive emerald eyes.

Carefully the hedgehog helped him up and pulled him back into the bathroom, seating himself on the bathtub rim.

Sonic folded his paws in his lap. "You've been quiet lately buddy." No. No. No. He knows! "Is it about what happened at the ice cream place?" Huh?

"Huh?"

Tails racked his brain for what his friend could be talking about. When nothing came up he just nodded, whatever it was he was sure Sonic would blab about it anyway.

Gloved paws grasped his own as Tails bit the inside of his lip until he tasted the metallic taste of blood. Sonic looked at his odd expression with a sad smile before the hedgehog went on a long tirade about how humans needed time to get used to them and how young humans like that girl Laura didn't know better.

"-It's not like other planets bud. Humans here aren't used to visitors. You understand?" Tails nodded, not bothered at all by the incident at the ice cream shop.

Sonic swept Tails into a tight hug before letting him go. Then, he walked over to the door to leave and looked back at the kit. "Are you sure you can't stay longer than two months?" Sonic frowned.

"Positive."

Sonic sighed and wiped his eyes free of tears, "I'm gonna miss you, buddy. Make sure to visit." He winked, then left out the door.

Tails kept sitting there in silence. Did he just have a sit down with Sonic the Hedgehog... in the bathroom?

"I'll be right back." Tails said as he set his bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, making his way into the kitchen.

They had been watching the Incredibles 2 for the fifth time this week, just getting to the point where the villain was revealed, and the Wachowski family was on the edge of their seats. Tails thought that now was as best a time as any to get up unnoticed.

Tails found his way outside, then out to the shed where he had set up his earthly workshop, taking out his little pouch of rings that he hid in an old dresser.

The deep ache came again, hitting him against the chest as the kit winced and slowly lowered himself to the floor, tails wagging in apprehension.

Be strong, he told himself, don't go crying now. We wouldn't want Maddie to hear you, would we? Yeah, that's right. Stay real still and think of home.

Tails tried to imagine his old cave on Westside, the one he'd found on the outskirts of his hometown. But all that came to mind were the flowery meadows he'd roamed as a baby, the one he'd been abandoned in.

And he took a ring, and he threw it, and he jumped in.

He didn't notice the echidna or the hedgehog sneaking behind him, however. No, he would not see them until it was too late.

Knuckles knew something was wrong with Tails before the ice cream parlor incident. The way the kit winced as they came over a speed bump. How he'd look away when the truck made a sharp turn. Even his pitch at the baseball field had suffered the effect of the weakened fox kit. There is something the fox is hiding from everyone, the echidna thoughts as he makes his way into the living room. Tom and Maddie were setting things up for movie night. Incredibles 2 again because there were only so many movies this family could relate to.

The echidna sat down with a grunt, a bowl of popcorn and candy in front of him as the loading screen for the movie came on. In the hall he could see Sonic leave the bathroom first, then Tails. Peculiar.

But Knuckles let it go again and laid back.

Halfway through the movie Tails got up and left through the back door. Knuckles followed him outside with his eyes then looked at Sonic, who nodded.

The two of them got up off the couch, leaving a weary Tom, and passed out Maddie behind to watch over the fox kit.

Another weird thing, Tails, who is usually hyperaware of his surroundings with his razor-sharp eyes and big ears, didn't seem to notice his friends following behind him.

They watched in the doorway as the kit entered through a portal into a flowery field. And Knuckles saw his chance and he ran in there after the kid. And that's how the two of them ended up in Mobius.

A long time ago, if Tails had ventured to this side of the woods on his own he would have gotten lost easily. But thanks to his cunning fox brain he was able to come up with a system that showed him the way back to his cave.

First, he had to find the path marked with three large stones piled on each other. Then he needed to take a left at the tree he marked with his claws. And finally, he'd take a right at the village gate and climb over the old rickety bridge across the river.

Tails scoffed as he looked at the village gate. On the wall beside it was a mural of a certain fox with two tails and an evil look painted on his face. Below it read 'NO FREAKS OR OUTSIDERS'. Surely Tails was honored by this.

Then once he made it across the river he was home. Home to Mombot 1 and Mombot 2. Home to his other inventions. Home to his pile of dirty old blankets and pine needles for a makeshift nest. Home and alone and oh so lonely as he ever was.

"Greetings, son." Mombot 1 greeted Tails at the entrance, the entrance being a hollowed-out log jammed into an opening in the mouth of the cave Tails lived in. Even if he was still living in the orphanage (and he hadn't been for a few years now) he thinks he'd keep this place as a workshop. It was moldy and cold but it was far out enough from the village to escape bullies and close enough to the dump that he could scavenge for mechanical parts.

Mombot 2 rolled over to him, doing a quick scan before bringing him into a cold metallic hug. Tails sighed as he let the cold metal encase him. Sure he missed them, but it wasn't like they were sentient, they weren't the best replacement for the real thing.

They weren't Tom and Maddie.

Tails huffed at the thought of the two humans. Sure they were nice and he considered them friends, but he also didn't want to take advantage of their kindest. He didn't want to want them as his parents.

But he still did.

He grimaced as he thought of everything they had already done for him; Kept a roof over his head, took care of his two best friends in the world, and brought him extra meat because his diet required it. Tom even let him ride beside him in the police car the other day.

They had done so much for him.

Too much for him.

Tails sighed then instantly regretted it when that familiar ache came back. Slowly he made his way over to a strange metallic device and laid down in it. He flipped a switch and cold air started coming out of mechanical hands. The sticker on the side read: the Freezeheal3000.

Sonic wasn't sure what he was doing following Tails like this. When he got up during the movie, and Knuckles got up to follow him, he expected the kit to turn around and catch the two of them. But he never did.

So now they are here, out in the jungle without the slightest clue about where they are, chasing down Tails as the kit makes sharp turns and stops and continues up the path.

And just when he thinks he has him in sight, the kit runs into the bushes, disappearing in the trees as a large gate towers over the Wachowski brothers.

The hedgehog sighs as he looks at the gray brick decorated in moss and cracks and debris. He runs his paw over a mural of a familiar yellow fox kit, wondering what Tails could be doing out here and if their bro fist bump and promise to protect the emerald meant anything to him.

Ribbot.

The sounds of the forest behind him seemed to intensify as he reached a paw over to the handle of the gate, hoping the townsfolk didn't consider speedy hedgehogs or warrior echidnas to be freaks or outsiders.

Buzz. Something far away jittered to the right of them.

Creak. Sonic opened the gate. Then he took his phone out of his quills and used its flashlight, Knuckles right behind him as the two stepped into the darkness into a world even the bravest kit they knew didn't wish to enter- Into an unknown village on an unknown planet with unknown people. This is going to be fun.

Tails laid back as the metallic device under him hummed. It was sending cooling radiations down to his aching bones, numbing them.

Sure, he could have gotten the same effect from an icepack. But taking from the Wachowski kitchen would raise suspicions and he's tried and failed to make a freezer out here in the middle of nowhere.

And now with the pain dulled Tails could let himself think. Think about how he ran here without telling anyone where he'd be. Think about the movie and the home he'd left behind.

He sighed as he made a move to sit up. He needed to get his bag of rings and go home to check on all of them. To make sure the emerald was safe.

AHHHHHHHH!

AHHHHHH!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Tails' ears perked up at the sound. The screaming came from about half a mile away. It told everyone in the five-mile radius that they were there. That this was their territory.

Fighting the urge to scream himself Tails made his way out of his cave, walking down the withered old path to a familiar cliff side that tilted up towards the setting sun.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"RAHHHH!" Something from the bushes scattered past. Tails followed it with his eyes. The dark figure seemed to grow in the shadows.

The trees behind him made a rustling sound, and Tails was half certain someone was playing a mean trick on him.

"Sonic? Knuckles?" He called into the darkness, imagining his brothers friends following him all the way out here.

No. That wouldn't happen, he told himself he was too careful for that to happen.

AHHHHHHHHHHH! Something shouted from a few miles away. A cold scary feeling drifted over Tails then, his cave long forgotten as he found his way into the bushes, hiding from whatever is out there and is like himself.

Rustle.

His head snapped to a dark shadow in the distance, stepping over the path he had made in the jungle. Then another figure, a bigger figure, appeared behind that one.

Crunch.

Tails hoped that that was a tree branch and not a bone being crushed in a monster's jaw.

Given his track record, it was most likely the latter.

Still, the kit made no move to move yet, staring intently into the darkness.

How could he let his guard down like this? Monsters sense fear. He fell right into it's paws.

Tails bit the underside of his lower lip until he tasted the metallic taste of blood. He tried to get up. He tried to fly away. But the deep ache in his chest pushed him back down. His breathing got faster. His pupils dilated. And he pushed himself deep down into the protection of a thorn bush. And he stayed there as the moon rose above the clouds

Foxes were more seclusive than echidnas of Knuckles' tribe, and that said a lot. So seeing so many of them, as dusk turned to night, was strange to him.

Knuckles stared at the silhouettes of the foxes gathered on the stoop of a large house, olive green eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight.

"Hello?" He heard Sonic say as the hedgehog passed by them, taking a step towards the family as Knuckles fought the urge to pull his brother back. The streetlight ahead of them flickered as an elderly fox strolled over, cane carried in his heavy hand. His long white beard almost reached the sidewalk.

"Go back to the shadows from which you came." The elder told them, pointing his cane at him and Sonic before setting it down and leaning heavily down onto it. "Go back," He croaked one more time as he opened his mouth and let out the most guttural scream Knuckles has ever heard.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Knuckles watched the old fox for a few minutes, then he grabbed Sonic's paw and started to leave. Back to the forest Tails had led them to. Back to the flowery meadows and streams. Back where no stranger would scream at them.

Sonic always liked foxes. Foxes were cool. Foxes were sneaky and playful and like a dog in a cat's body. Their coats were warm and their eyes were pretty.

But these foxes, these foxes were scary.

Sonic glanced backward as he and Knuckles ran back to the gate. A hundred slanted little glowing eyes followed them as they ran. Yellow teeth reflected off the moonlight as a few foxes snarled at them. Their silhouettes are coming closer to them now. Sonic just barely had time to close the gate before.

AHHHHHHHHHH!

He flinched as one of them howled. But at least the chase was over. As if any of them could outrun him anyway.

Sonic rubbed tears out of his eyes as he turned his phone back on. All he wanted to do right now was go home, but they couldn't return without his little buddy. So Sonic turned on his find my iPhone app and pressed on Tails' icon.

Thumb. Thumb. Thumb.

Tails curled around himself even tighter, willing the noise to go away. But it wouldn't because it was inside him.

Thumb. Thumb. Thumb.

He pressed a paw to his aching chest, tears growing in his eyes at the pain. Why did it have to be like this? Why couldn't he stay on Earth?

Thumb. Thumb. Thumb.

Breathe Tails, breathe. He told himself. You can't escape if you die of suffocation.

Little branches were digging into his tails and Tails was pretty sure he was laying on more than a few sharp rocks and the remains of a crow. But he couldn't see the dark figures anymore, so at least there's that.

The wind got a hold of the bush around him and he shivered, pulling his tails tighter around himself. The scent of pinecones and freshwater relaxed his senses as he looked beyond the branches at the stars around him.

Whuush. Whuush. Whuush.

Hoot. Hoot. Hoot.

Swish. Swish. Swish.

Tails stared downward from the stars to the darkness surrounding him. Two figures were walking on the trail he had made into the jungle. And they are getting closer.

The wind picked up a little and the kit shivered. His whole body was aching now and the figures were only coming closer. It was too late to make a break for it. This was it. He's going to die.

"Tails?"

Sqweach! Sqweach!

Birds fluttered above their heads in the trees as the moonlight aluminated over Sonic's bright emerald eyes. Tails slowly uncurled from himself as Sonic pulled some branches apart and helped him out of the bush.

Tears were running down his muzzle now, but he could hardly feel them as the hedgehog pulled him into a tight hug. Knuckles was standing up on a rock, gazing at the moonlight, keeping watch.

"You wouldn't happen to have a ring on you?" Tails sniffed. But all he got in response was Sonic's 'Oh we're fucked' face.

Tom didn't like this. No, Tom didn't like this at all.

About forty minutes ago his two eldest sons had followed their youngest outside to the shed. This wouldn't be considered unusual at all. Tom welcomed it since it gave him and his wife a chance to rest on the couch alone. That was until they never came back.

The movie ended and Maddie was asleep. Tom got up and made his way to the shed. Sitting on an old dresser by the door was a satchel of rings. And the zipper was still open, almost like someone had opened it and took one out without thinking.

And suddenly only bad thoughts came into Tom's mind. His children; were lost somewhere without their rings to welcome them home.

Tom ran out and got in his police car. Wherever they are he's going to find them. He just hoped they were somewhere in Greenhills.

The sun was long gone by the time Tails made it back to his cave. Knuckles and Sonic behind him as he cleared the entrance to let his friends in.

Mombot 1 and 2 offered them refreshments as Tails sat in his nest of blankets and pine needles, thinking over the predicament he had placed himself in.

Not only did he doom himself to an eternity living near a village that despises him, but he also brought his friends along to be hated beside him.

Okay, so he didn't know Sonic and Knuckles were sneaking up behind him, but he should have taken his pouch of rings with him! Oh, but he was in so much pain he could hardly think straight. But he knew he wanted to return eventually. Why wouldn't he?

Tails tried to sniffle a sob. He learned a long time ago not to cry. To cry was to reveal yourself as weak. Revealing yourself as weak gave others the chance to see just how weak you are.

But Tails couldn't help but cry now.

He forgot his rings and he broke his promise, leaving the Master Emerald without anyone to guard it.

Now he was never going to get to finish that movie. Now he would never play baseball with Tom again or study horse anatomy with Maddie. He was stuck here and the worst part of it was he got his friends stuck here too.

Getting rings last time was hell. Getting them again is not something he thought he could do. But he had to try, if not for himself then for his friends.

Sonic always wondered what Tails' house would look like. He imagined it as a two-story house with a picket fence and two dogs. A room painted in baby blue and model airplanes hanging from a string in the ceiling. Two vixens would greet them at the door and introduce themselves as Tails' moms. And everything would be as it should be.

Instead they got this.

A small cave tucked into the backside of a mountain, covered in moss and dirt and rock.

No bed just a pile of raggedy old blackest and pine needles in the corner.

No picket fence just a small tunnel made of a hollowed-out log tucked into the entrance.

And no dogs or moms just two metallic fox robots sitting in the corner (this was the weirdest thing) sipping on oil together.

Oh, and a strange metal device Tails was now lying in.

Brrrrrrhhhhhhh.

Freezerheal3000 it read on the side. Tails said it was supposed to make him feel better, but from the look of the little guy it wasn't doing it's job very well.

"Soooooo," The hedgehog drawled out as Knuckles sat on the ground, legs folded neatly underneath him. "Where are your moms?" He turned his head slightly to the side in confusion. Tails just gestured to RoboMom2 and laid back, relaxing as the strange device under him buzzed.

"Oh." Sonic tried to mask his concern, but was this all really it?

It was.

Tails was trying to breathe, he was. But the world was spinning around him and no matter how tight he tried to dig his claws in the ground he couldn't seem to hold on.

Oh, and now his chest was doing that thing where it didn't want to exhale, great.

The kit closed his eyes and focused.

Three things you can hear, he told himself as he listened to the flickies chirping above him. The cricket in the grass sang its sweet song. Sonic tells him to breathe.

Two things you can feel.

His socks on his feet. Knuckles' paw on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes, unsure if he was doing this correctly.

One thing you can see.

Tails looked at the moon in the sky staring at him and his friends. Most planets have at least three of them, but for some reason, Mobius and Earth only have one.

He jumped as he felt someone put a hand on his back. Sonic was in front of him now saying something, but to Tails it seemed like he was a million miles away.

Tails pressed his paw against the small scar on his collarbone, remembering how he'd gotten it.

He had been a kid, even younger than he was now, just a baby, playing by the river bend, gathering crawdads to eat later when a group of older foxes went his way.

"Watch it, freak!" A reddish-brown fox had said as he pushed the kit forward, knocking him against a sharp rock. "Heh! Heh! Heh!" He left as Tails sat back up, crying like the child he was. Blood was seeping down his cut onto the rocks below him.

Carefully the kit picked one up and threw it at the bully.

Things get foggy after that and Tails still isn't sure what happened. He remembers the pain though. There was so much pain. And as long as he was on Mobius there would be lots of it. Lots of pain and blood.

Tails came back to his body as a paw started petting him. Sonic was telling him to breathe. And the kit tried but it was hard. It was so hard. Why does it have to be hard?

He wipes the tears away that were welling up in his eyes as Knuckles leads the trio to a pair of lights in the distance.

"-Rings." Knuckles concluded as he and Tails followed Sonic towards the village gate. But when the kit saw what they were implying he shook his head, gesturing to the old cemetery on the edge of the forest instead.

The atmosphere of the abandoned cemetery was stifling and eerie. Centuries-old gravestones shone in the moonlight as the Wachowski brothers and Tails found their way inside the old gate that kept the dead within the confines of land.

Solemly Tails took out a shove and dug it into the dirt of Goody Holly May who died in 1828.

Knuckles, ever the enthusiastic digger, dug his way past the cold stiff dirt just enough so they could open up the coffin.

Inside an old withered skeleton greeted them. Her paws wrapped around a satchel full of rings her departed family had left for her.

"Sorry Miss May." Tails shuttered as they took the satchel, closed the lid of the coffin, and started the process of reburying the old vixen without her rings to guide her to the underworld.

It had to be done.

Sonic has eaten a lot of different foods in his past thirteen years of life, but dinner at Tails' house has got to be the strangest experience so far.

Tails opened his paw a little so he could see the little flicky he had stashed in his paws, its chirps dying as the fox lunged for its neck.

Crunch.

Sonic had to look away as Tails coughed out a few feathers, blood from his fresh kill running down his mouth. Sonic shivered in revulsion. It was too bad the village folk were too wary of outsiders or they'd get something from the market.

Steal something from the market more like, as they didn't have any money nor any rings or anything to bargain with.

Sonic sighed as he looked over to Knuckles, who Tails had instructed to gather eggs from the nest, but instead, the echidna had become sidetracked, pulling a grapevine off its branch, about to take a bite.

Just as he was about to take a bite a familiar paw slapped it out of his grasp. "Don't eat that!" The echidna gave the little fox a bewildered look causing the little guy to put his paws behind his back and shift his weight on his foot. "Um, it's not edible."

"It looks okay to me?"

"It's not its- "Tails let out a long groan, pressing his paws against his face. "They poisoned it."

"Who poisoned it?"

"The kids from the village."

"Why would they do that?"

"Because... "Tails mumbled something but Knuckles couldn't hear him. "What was that?" Tails mumbled something slightly louder. "Fox I can't understand you."

"They poison any food I could eat, okay!" Sonic did a double-take, fully intending to butt into the conversation and not leave well enough alone as Tails would have liked him to. "Why would they do that?"

"They just... "Tails looked away, "They just hate me, okay?" The kit was fiddling with his paws, staring at the grass beneath his feet as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"Tails, "Sonic put a paw on the kit's shoulder, "Can you tell us why?"

Tails gave one look at his tails and winced. Knuckles shook his head in understanding as Sonic just stood there confused.

"I don't want to."

"Okay."

Tails shook his head, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve. "They just don't like me."

"It's okay."

"I didn't do anything to them."

"I know buddy."

"I want to stop thinking about this now."

"Okay."

And Sonic dropped it. Feeling bad he'd brought the topic up in the first place.

Maddie was doing the dishes when Sonic came home. Gently the vet placed down the popcorn bowl she had just dried off and looked at her son. He's seen better days.

He was dirty, a thick layer of mud covered the bottoms of his shoes. Dirt and twigs littered in his quills. A few dead leaves managed to be caught in his fur.

"Mom?" He questioned as he stepped out of the ring portal alone, she would learn later that Knuckles was teaching Tails how to hunt.

Maddie smiled as she welcomed her son home, making a mental note to tell Tom about his reappearance.

"You should have seen it, Mom. It was sad. He made his own robot family. And they aren't even sentient like the ones from the movies!" Maddie had been doing dishes when Sonic hopped through a portal back into their home. Knuckles had stayed behind to "take care of some business" and Tails was in too much pain to hop anywhere. That reminded Maddie, she needed to get some baby aspirin. Poor thing had been hurting in silence for days.

Sure, when their kids had just disappeared they had been worried, but as soon as they got a few reassuring texts from Sonic they were fine. How ever Tails got their phones to work across dimensions is beyond her understanding.

And now her hedgehog son, her younger one, was pacing back and forth in front of the kitchen island, pulling out his quills as he explained to his mother how their ostracized fox friend had saved them. And how he didn't have anyone to take care of him. Robot moms could only do so much.

"We can't let him live by himself, Mom," Sonic told her with big eyes as he stopped pacing and threw a couple of quills in the trash can.

Maddie had only known Tails for about three weeks now. And the kit had been lying to her face. But still, she thought, he was the sweetest, most intelligent kid she knew. And if she could provide him with a loving home, she would.

Hell, he was already enough like a member of the family now. Sonic's been calling him "lil bro" since the day they met.

She wasn't his parent, at least not yet, but Maddie couldn't imagine their home without the little guy.

"Where is he now?"

Sonic stopped pacing and looked at her, a smile coming over his muzzle. "At the river."

"Go find him and bring him back here."

Sonic jumped up in excitement. "Are you going to adopt him?"

"Maybe," Maddie said, still having to talk to Tom about this. "Just bring him back here." And so Sonic took out a stolen ring and left.

He was watching Knuckles place a handmade net in the water when he heard it.

Crack!

The sound reminded him of wood breaking down the middle, and his mind immediately went to the rickety old bridge a few miles up the river. The one he told his friends to be careful with. Judging by the blue blur splashing in the stream a few yards out, Sonic didn't heed his advice.

Tails has never run faster in his life. Injuries long forgotten. Chunks of dirt and moss spit behind him as he ran straight into the river, his only thought on that blue little speck. The speck he had to save from the rapids below them.

Tails jumped in the water and swam over to him, arms coming around the hedgehog's shoulders before the waves could pull him away. The smell of fish and mildew flooded his nostrils as he heaved the scrambling hedgehog out of the water onto the sandy shore.

Then he collapsed.

Drip. Drop. Drip.

Water was trailing down Tails' fur leaving a little puddle that was soaking into the fabric of the carpet. The kit was shaking deliriously, and apologizing so very much.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry- "The kit chanted as Maddie wrapped him in a baby blue towel, he dug his claws into the fabric as the vet examined the bruises on his chest, gently pressing down on one as a tear ran down Tails' muzzle.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. "The woman reassured as she handed him some baby Tylenol. The poor thing should have come to her sooner about this.

She took out a thermometer from her vet bag and placed in under the kit's armpit.

"I want to go home." The delirious kit with a fever told her as she dried him off.

"You are home, Tails." She responded, because he was, the newest member of the Wachowski family.

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