Sweet
“Betcha I can fit all five of these rolls in my mouth.”
“No way…”
“You think it wise to doubt me? The hedgehog that downed three chili dogs in ten seconds.”
“That was different!”
“Alright…the challenge has been accepted…first roll in now. And…two…nd free…”
“Sonic, you are spitting bread crumbs all over the table.”
“Aww prt of th chalng, mum!”
Maddie rolled her eyes and shifted her gaze up to the ceiling. A nice dinner for her birthday was a stretch. She knew that with three alien boys in attendance. A good natured smirk crossed her face as she heard Sonic go for roll number four.
“Umm, excuse me?” Tom raised his hand at their passing waiter. “We’re gonna need more rolls over here.”
“Of course, sir.” he responded, eyes ogling the three brightly colored boys as Sonic tried to punch the fifth roll into his mouth.
“Yeah…thanks…” Tom responded, pulling his hand up over his eyes to rub his temples.
“Fee…fiv ll n dare” Sonic tried to boast through a full mouth of dinner rolls.
Maddie pulled her wine glass to her lips to hide her embarrassment…and a bit of a humored smile. She was definitely going to need Tom to order another bottle at this rate.
“No way!” Tails replied in indignation “That fifth one is NOT in!”
“Mmmhmm.”
“Maddie…would you like me to hit him for you?”
Maddie snorted into her wine glass, then swallowed down the gulp she had in her mouth.
“No, baby.” she replied sweetly, giving the young echidna a head scratch, “No, I knew what I was getting into requesting a birthday dinner out.”
Knuckles hummed his displeasure as Sonic gave up and began pulling most of the chewed bread out of his mouth and replacing it back into the basket. He chewed the remaining rolls that could actually fit, taking a deep swallow to rid the remaining bread from his mouth.
“Lighten up, Red.” Sonic spoke with an easy smile. “We’re just having fun.”
“At the expense of Maddie’s ‘special night’” Knuckles answered, repeating what he had been told of the evening. “We are celebrating Maddie’s day of birth.”
“Do you even know what a birthday is?” Sonic questioned as another basket of fresh bread was placed in front of the family.
“Tom explained it to me as the day that a person enters this world.” Knuckles replied. “And someone as special as Maddie should have a nice remembrance of her existence.”
“Aww, thanks baby.” she said, giving the eldest another head scratch of appreciation. Knuckles leaned into it, eyes closed with a soft smile.
Sonic just rolled his eyes. “Suck up.” he muttered.
Maddie went for another long sip of her drink as Knuckles glared across the table at the smirking hedgehog. Tom gave Sonic a nudge which caused the blue blur to roll his eyes again.
Just in time to break up the impending escalation, the waiter returned with their dinners. Knuckles watched intently as the man set a plate in front of each individual at the table. Once the waiter placed noodles with a side of fruit in front of him, he looked up at the man.
“I commend your fine service and appreciate this bountiful meal in celebration of our matriarch’s day of existence.”
The man stared back with wide eyes.
“He means thanks for the food.” Tom said behind his hand with a smile.
“Oh…ummm…thanks, kid.” And the waiter shuffled off as Knuckles picked up his fork to dig in.
“So…I know Sonic doesn’t know his birthday. He was too young to remember the exact day. So we celebrate when he came to be a part of our family instead.” Tom started, causing Sonic to puff up his chest. “But do you boys know yours?”
“Well…I knew the day on Mobius…” Tails started, pulling his tails together as his thoughts drifted to where he came from. “But we have different ways to tell the days, a different sun and moon. It would be pretty difficult to translate a birthday from there to here.”
“Oh…” Maddie said, reaching forward to stroke her youngest cheek. “It’s alright, sweetie. We will figure out a day to celebrate your existence. You deserve to have a day just for you.”
“Dang right!” Sonic exclaimed as the foxes cheeks flushed and a sheepish smile appeared on his face.
“Is it the same for you, Big Guy?” Tom asked, causing Knuckles to look up from his food.
“We did not celebrate such things in my tribe.” he started thoughtfully. “We had other ceremonies for coming of age and graduation into a warrior.” Knuckles eyes dropped back to his noodles, absentmindedly pushing the food around the plate with his fork. “I did not get to participate in such things.”
“Gee dad, way to kill a mood.” Sonic joked with an elbow to Tom’s side. Tom looked at Maddie with an apologetic smile.
Maddie took another sip of her Merlot, swirling the glass in her hand. “Don’t worry, guys.” she started, lifting Knuckles chin back up. “Trust me, we will figure something out and it will be great.”
“And forget about the actual day and all that.” Sonic started as he brought a fry to his lips. “Everyone knows the best part about a birthday is the cake!”
“Cake?” Knuckles asked, tilting his head curiously.
Sonic slapped his hand to his forehead and ran it down his face with a groan. “Oh, geez. Please tell me you have had birthday cake!”
“I have!” Tails answered with excitement.
“See, at least someone at this table is a normal person!” Sonic joked, shoving another fry into his mouth.
“What is this…birthday cake?” Knuckles asked, popping a grape into his mouth.
“Oh man…am I going to get to watch you eat your first piece of cake??” Sonic asked, jumping to his feet in excitement, shoes sinking into the soft bench of the booth.
“Cake is the best!” Tails insisted, tails wagging behind him. “I mean, to be fair the cake I’ve had was thrown out and I had to scavenge for it…but still…really good!”
Sonic’s mouth hung open at the little fox’s admission.
“Ok, ok…wow…I mean…heart breaking!” he said, squeezing Tail’s shoulder. “But all that’s behind us now…and we are all getting real, good cake, fresh and perfect and amazing!”
“What is birthday cake?” Knuckles repeated, annoyance entering his voice.
“I’m not even going to tell you!” Sonic exclaimed with a wide grin.
Maddie looked up, meeting Tom’s eyes. “Is it sad that I’m kind of excited? Everyone always gushes about their baby’s first cake experience…now we get to experience it too.”
“I am not a baby!”
“We know, sweetie.”
Tom snickered. “So we are ordering the chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate, right?”
The waiter came to the raucous table slowly, taking in the scene in front of him.
“So, how was everything?”
“What is birthday cake?” Knuckles demanded of the man, his fork laden fist hitting the table causing the glass to shake. Maddie took her hand and placed it toward his muzzle to silence him.
“Everything was wonderful, thank you.” she answered giving the cautious waiter a smile.
“So, anyone save room for dessert?”
Sonic once again got to his feet, voice now dripping with importance. “Mmyes, my good sir. We will take the birthday cake…with allll the chocolate.”
“One chocolate birthday cake…” the waiter spoke as he scribbled on his notepad. “Would you like some candles?”
“Why, of course! Need you ask?” Sonic clapped his hands lightly together. “And make it quick. Chop, chop.”
The waiter looked at the hedgehog, back to Tom and Maddie, than shuffled away without a word.
“Sonic…”
“What?”
Maddie stared, then took another long sip of her wine.
The next ten minutes passed in a relative calm. Sonic kicked his legs happily while chatting to Tails about the latest Nintendo game all the while flashing Tom wide eyed glances in the hope that he would get the hint.
Tom was turned to Knuckles who was encouraging the man to try grape pancakes. “You can put chips of the chocolate and banana in them…why not grapes?” And Tom shook his head with a smile. “Grapes would be in everything if you had your way.”
Maddie smiled softly and leaned into the back of the cushion behind her and let the joy of being with her family fill her to the brim. This was her first birthday since their family became complete. The feeling of warmth spread through her chest (or maybe that was the wine) as she looked from boy to boy. Despite some of the theatrics and mild streams of embarrassing behavior this was shaping up to be the best birthday she had ever had.
She was pulled from her reverie by Sonic’s ecstatic voice. “The cake is coming!”
She turned and her eyes widened as she watched the waiter return with a large, whole chocolate cake adorned with candles. Another, older man walked behind him, face plastered in a smile under his trimmed beard.
The waiter set the cake down in the middle of the table causing Sonic and Tails to lean forward and sniff the scent deeply through their nose. The older man pushed the waiter behind him and clapped his hands together.
“I thought we were getting a few slices.” Maddie commented, her eyes trained on the chocolate monstrosity placed in front of her.
“A whole cake, on the house, to celebrate the mom of the heroes of Green Hills” the older man (the manager?) announced.
“Ohhh, this is awesome…” Sonic chittered, eyes wide.
“This is too much.” she replied with a thankful smile. “We appreciate it.” She was drawn from her conversation by a soft tug on her shirt sleeve.
“Maddie…are cakes normally ablaze?” Knuckles looked up at her questioningly.
“No…It’s because mom’s so old!” Sonic laughed.
“Ha! The more wise the warrior, the more celebratory fire! Maddie must be very wise indeed!”
Madde pursed her lips together and shook her head, trying to hide her laughter under mock offense.
“Easy, boys…” Tom answered, trying to hold back his chuckle. “Your mother is young, and beautiful, and perfect…” then he leaned toward the two boys “And you never refer to a woman as old.”
“Shall I serve the cake?” the young waiter asked.
“Wait!” Sonic shouted, causing the fox to start and drop his fork. “We cannot continue until we sing the honorary birthday song!”
“Sonic…please don’t…”
“There is a celebratory song?” Knuckles asked.
“Only the best one ever!” The hedgehog jumped to his feet once again and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Patrons of this fine establishment, please join us in singing happy birthday to the best mom a hedgehog could ask for!”
Maddie covered her face with her hands.
“And a one, and a two, and a three…”
The restaurant followed Sonic’s count down and all began to sing in a loud, out of tune, choir of voices. Maddie found herself taking another long sip of her drink, sinking in her seat, her cheeks hot with embarrassment.
“Maddie, sit up! They are all singing for you.”
“I know baby…”
“But you should sit tall and proud!”
“I think I’ll just stay down here…”
When the singing was complete Sonic sat back down with a very proud, and maybe slightly diabolical expression and rubbed his hands together. Maddie let out a relieve sigh and sat back up in her seat once the eyes of the restaurant were no longer trained on her.
“Cake time!”
Maddie blew out all the candles causing smoke to billow up from the middle of the table. The manager pulled out a large knife and began to slice the cake, placing a large piece of wedged death by chocolate in front of each member of the table. Tails began to wag his namesakes and picked up his fork to dig in.
Everyone at the table picked up their forks and began to eat.
“Oh, yes!” Sonic moaned with a mouth full of cake. “This is just…chef’s kiss”
Maddie smiled as she enjoyed her own bite of moist chocolate excellence. She glanced to her side eyeing her oldest and frowned. Everyone had started eating except Knuckles. He held his fork, dwarfed in his large fist, and stared at the slice of food like it may bite him.
“Come on, Knucklehead.” Sonic encouraged through bites. “Dig in!”
“Is something wrong, sweetie?” Maddie asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. Knuckles turned his large purple eyes toward her.
“I have never smelled a food so…rich before…”
“Trust me, hon, you’re going to love it.”
Knuckles turned back to the cake on his plate. He slowly brought his fork down and separated a bite from the rest of the slice. A piece that was probably seventy percent icing. He sniffed it suspiciously then slowly brought it to his mouth.
Everyone lowered their fork and everyone’s attention became trained on the echidna as he took his first bite of cake, eager to see his reaction. Sonic subtly pulled out his phone and pressed record.
The cake entered his mouth and his sharp teeth slowly pulled it off the fork.
His eyes immediately widened and his face almost scrunched as if in pain. He moved the piece of chocolate in his mouth with his tongue and clenched his eyes shut against the overwhelmingly sweet flavor.
Sonic began to snicker as he took in the echidna’s discomfort as he processed the overwhelming richness in his mouth.
“Hon, you ok?” Maddie asked, trying to bury her giggle.
Knuckles chewed stiffly then forced himself to swallow the macerated pastry, his eyes still closed in tension. His tongue began to move over his mouth to free the stuck icing from his teeth. Then his mouth began to smack open and closed as he tried to rid the rest of the cake from his mouth.
At this point Sonic couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. He burst and sank into his seat in a fit of giggles. Tails hid his face behind his hands, trying desperately to keep his chuckles to himself and failing miserably.
Tom bit his tongue, trying to hold back a very amused smile. He reached out and patted the oldest’s hand pulling Knuckles attention back forward as he continued to smack his lips.
“So…how was it?”
The echidna blinked a few times, tears threatening to pool from his eyes. His eyes looked a Tom, then drifted over to Maddie who immediately pulled back her laughter and hid her smile behind her hand.
“It…was…” he trailed off, suddenly very aware that everyone at the table was staring at him in some form of expressive hilarity.
“It was…what?” Sonic snorted.
Knuckles narrowed his eyes, not liking the feeling that he was being laughed at. He squared up and pushed the residual discomfort down below the surface and glared.
“It was…interesting.” he finally concluded, causing Sonic to break back into giggles.
“Can I just say I am so thankful I was here to experience this.” he breathed out.
Maddie finally was able to hide her laughter enough that she could address him without him feeling offended. She picked up her hand and scratched at the back of his neck. “So, are you ready for your next bite?”
Knuckles’ face scrunched again and he brought his purple eyes back to the slice of sweetness laying before him. He swallowed, then brought his eyes back to Maddie, pointedly ignoring the continued amused stares fro across the table.
“I…think I will discontinue my,” he swallowed hard, “…enjoyment of this delicacy for the evening.”
Tom couldn’t help his snicker at the answer. Sonic, however, was not done yet.
“Dude…you realize it’s highly offensive not to finish the whole piece of the celebratory cake, right?”
Knuckles’ eyes widened and he leaned back in horror as he locked eyes with the large sugary opponent that sat before him.
“Sonic, stop.” Maddie scolded, then turned back to her oldest. “That’s not true, baby. You don’t need to eat anymore if you don’t want to.”
A deep sigh of relief passed warriors lips.
At Maddie’s stern glare the rest of the family took their eyes of Knuckles and began to finish their own pieces of cake.
Once the family was finished and their left overs (mostly cake) was packed up they drove back home through the streets of Green Hills. They pulled into the driveway and everyone began to slide out of the car and make their way inside, immediately greeted by an ecstatic golden retriever.
As Tom flipped on the lights and headed to the kitchen to put the left overs away he looked over his shoulder at his wife and grinned. “So, good birthday?”
Before she could answer, Sonic interrupted. “MY favorite part was when the most dangerous warrior in the galaxy was defeated by a piece of chocolate on a plate!”
Knuckles growled and leapt and Sonic who yelped and quickly zipped out of the way.
“I will throw you through the window, hedgehog!”
The two boys ran through the house and up the stairs, Knuckles chasing the teasing hedgehog to the attic. Tails smiled softly, shrugged his shoulders, then followed his brothers upstairs.
A loud thump and a deep yell resonated from the attic. Maddie shook her head and smiled, listening to the lively noises of her boys, her kids, as they wrestled through the attic. She walked over and placed her arms around Tom, giving him a peck on the cheek.
“Good?” she asked, flinching and smiling at the upstairs cacophony continued. “It was the best.”
@year-of-the-echidna
