Did somebody say “Sonic and Maddie bonding time”?
No? Well, you’re getting some anyways!
Mostly fluffy cuteness. With a side of angst, of course. (are you guys surprised? this is me we’re talking about.) It’s only a little angst, I promise. The angst is very brief. It’s mostly fluff. Like, ninety-five percent fluff.
“Hi, Pretzel Lady!”
Maddie smiled. “Hey, Sonic.” She glanced up from her video to see a familiar blue blur racing up the steps. “You just missed Tom. Crazy Carl needed help with something.”
Disappointment flashed briefly across Sonic’s face. Then he shrugged. “Ah, whatever. I can hang out with him later.” He noticed the mat she was sitting on and gasped. “Oh! You’re doing that weird thing you do every day.”
She raised an eyebrow. ”Yoga?”
“I’ve been meaning to ask-” Sonic interrupted himself. “Yeah, yoga, that’s the word. Anyway, where are your bones?”
Maddie laughed. “In my body? Where they’re supposed to be.”
Sonic put his hands on his hips. “No. Way. I’ve tried that yoga stuff before, you definitely can’t do that if you have bones, they don’t bend that way.”
Picking up her phone, Maddie clicked out of the video she was getting ready to work with. “Well, I’ve been at this a lot longer than you have. You’d need to start on something a little bit easier than what I do.”
“Easier? There are levels? What level are you on? Does Donut Lord do yoga? I feel like he doesn’t.” Sonic watched Maddie scroll through some videos. “His bones are not as bendy as yours.”
“There aren’t really levels, you just learn new positions as you go and challenge yourself every once in a while.” She held up the phone so he could pick one. “And no, Tom does not do yoga with me.”
Sonic glanced between Maddie and the phone. “I don’t know anything about this. Why are you holding the phone up to me?”
“Pick a video,” Maddie said. “Yoga will be a lot easier to learn when you have someone to help you.”
He looked surprised, but excited. “Really? You’re gonna teach me?”
“Sure am,” Maddie said, “I’ll be like your Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Sonic’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “No, I don’t think so.” Before Maddie could ask, Sonic was sitting next to her on the map. “Okay! What’s first? Do we stretch? I feel like this is one of those things you should stretch for.”
Maddie leaned forward and touched her toes with her fingertips. “You’re not wrong. It is a good idea to stretch, especially if you’re not very experienced.” She pulled in her legs and pushed down gently on her knees. “Try this one. It’s like a butterfly.”
Sonic studied her movements carefully and copied her almost exactly. He couldn’t push his knees down as far as she could, obviously, but he seemed to enjoy moving them up and down so that his legs looked like flapping wings. “Oh, I get it! That’s the butterfly part!”
“Look at you go!” gave his shoulder a playful nudge. “You’ll be a master in no time.” Knowing he wouldn’t be able to focus for long, she went ahead and started the video. He hadn’t stretched all that much, really, but she’d be impressed if he just made it through the fifteen minute video. They could always do another cool down stretch afterwards.
It was a beginner’s video, so Maddie was prepared for the basics. Sonic, however, was absolutely delighted by the upward and downward-facing dog positions. “Dog? Like Ozzy!” He watched the lady in the video tilt her head back to look up at the sky. “I’ve never seen a dog do this before.”
Maddie considered for a moment. “You know, I’ve never really seen a dog do this either. It’s more like a seal if you ask me.”
“Awesome,” Sonic said, “This is officially the upward-facing seal position now.” They both laughed as they started to transition into downward facing dog. “Now this I’ve seen Ozzy do.” He shifted his hands underneath him. “I wonder if I could do a handstand.”
“Maybe we’ll try that later,” Maddie said. “We’re doing yoga right now, remember?”
Sonic shifted again and then held still. As still as it gets for Sonic, anyway. “Yoga. Got it.”
“You’re doing great,” she told him.
He grinned. “I know, right? This is way easier than whatever you were doing, Pretzel Lady.” They shifted into the next position as Sonic continued talking. “I used to sit on the rock over there, the one behind all the- well, actually, you probably can’t see it. But I used to try and copy you. Man, it hurt sometimes. You can do some really neat stuff.”
She ignored the part where he basically admitted to spying on her. “I’m glad you think so.”
“Why do you do it, anyway?” Sonic asked. “You could be doing so many other things! Like running or playing baseball, but you do this instead.” He glanced over at her. “It’s cool and everything, don’t get me wrong, but just- y’know. Why?”
Maddie gave him half a shrug. “I feel more at peace when I do it.”
“At peace?”
“Yeah, kinda like you with running, I guess.”
Sonic frowned. “Running doesn’t make me feel peaceful.”
“It doesn’t?” Maddie asked as they stood, stretching their arm up into the air. “Then why do you run everywhere?”
“Why do you walk everywhere?” Sonic responded. “It’s just how I get around. I mean, it’s fun, but I wouldn’t say it gives me peace or anything.”
Maddie reached over and stopped the video. “Okay, color me curious. What eases your mind after a tough day?”
Sonic paused, his arms still in the air from the yoga pose. “I like playing with nunchucks, I guess.” His arms fell to his side. “Well, no, that’s not very peaceful. Does ping-pong count? Ping-pong is fun.” He crossed his arms. “Wait, that seems wrong too.”
“Um…”
“No, hang on, I got this.” Sonic started pacing back and forth across the mat. “I definitely do things that put me at peace. Probably. I do, don’t I? What are you asking me for? Because I don’t know! Well, I don’t know either, moron. Oh, shut up. You shut up!”
“Sonic,” Maddie interrupted.
Still pacing, he looked up at her. “Huh?”
She wanted to ask why he had started talking to himself, but decided against it. “Why don’t we… why don’t you show me where you live, huh? Maybe that’ll help you think of something.”
He halted. “You wanna see my cave?”
“Sure,” Madde replied. “Lead the way.”
“Awesome!” Sonic darted into the woods before Maddie could so much as blink. She grabbed her phone and swiped the video away before putting it in her pocket. Sonic reappeared moments later. “Sorry. I forgot.”
Maddie rolled up the yoga mat. “No worries.” She stood. “Now. Lead the way, but a little slower this time.”
“You got it, Pretzel Lady.” Sonic started off again, much slower this time, leading Maddie into the woods. Every so often he’d dart off, but he’d always come back after a few seconds.
The cave ended up being a lot farther into woods than she thought it’d be. “You’re pretty far out here, aren’t you?”
“Had to be,” Sonic said. “Couldn’t let anyone figure out where I was.” He pointed out a small hole. She never would have noticed it if he wasn’t there. “There it is.” Ducking inside, he called, “Come on! I’ll give you the tour!”
Maddie struggled for a moment to get in, but the inside of the cave was a lot bigger than it seemed, so she was able to stand, kind of.
Sonic zipped about the cave, excitedly talking about everything. There was an old dryer in the corner that Sonic claimed was an in-home gym of some sort. The bean bag in the middle of the floor was surrounded by comic books, exclusively The Flash. She watched Sonic demonstrate his nunchuck skills, wincing as he whacked himself in the face.
She walked over to the ping-pong table and picked up a paddle. “Wanna play a round?”
“Yeah!” He picked up the ball and the other paddle. “Ready?”
“Hit me, SpaceHog.”
Sonic served the ball and immediately darted to her side of the table. He watched Maddie for a moment and said, “Wait, I’m doing this wrong.” He went back to his side just in time to hit the ball back to Maddie. “Sorry ‘bout that. Not used to playing with others.”
She laughed. “No worries.” They played back and forth for a while. “You’re pretty good at this.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” Sonic said. “When I wasn’t in town messing with Crazy Carl or watching movies with you and Donut Lord, I was down here doing… this.”
Maddie was still trying to adjust to the whole ‘spying on them’ thing, but it was becoming less and less surprising the longer she hung out with him. The poor thing had nothing else to do. “I’m gonna go ahead and assume you didn’t have any friends over.”
Sonic snorted. “Me? No. I’ve never had any friends here on Earth.” He didn’t seem saddened by the statement, it was just a fact. “But now I have you and Donut Lord! We’re friends, right?”
“Of course we are,” Maddie assured him. “What about the planet where you’re from? Have any friends there?”
“Kind of.” Sonic said. “I was just a kid, and I wasn’t exactly allowed outside much. There was one person, though. She looked out for me. Kinda like a parent.” He smiled to himself. “She was great.”
Maddie noticed the past tense. “She couldn’t come with you?”
“I wanted her to,” Sonic said, “But she wouldn’t. She stayed behind and… well, you know, I came here.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t seem to want to.
Maddie almost missed the ball on the next pass. Sonic seemed to be picking up the pace a little. “Is she the one that told you that you needed to stay hidden?”
Sonic nodded. “She said someone would always want my powers. Which meant no one could know about my powers, which meant no one could know about me.”
“I don’t know,” Maddie said, “I mean, the people of Green Hills know about your powers and nobody wants to use them.”
“They don’t, but that psycho doctor sure did.” Sonic frowned. “A lot of people almost got really hurt because of that.”
“You got really hurt because of that,” Maddie pointed out. “Could have been avoided if someone had known you were out here. We could have helped you. The government never would have even known.”
Sonic waved his free hand flippantly. “Yeah, sure, I got hurt, but that’s not important. It was my own fault for causing the power outage that led them here. Because I couldn’t keep a lid on my own feelings.”
Maddie was having trouble understanding the reasoning behind all of this. “That’s what I’m saying, though. You wouldn’t have felt so alone if there was someone you could turn to. And if you hadn’t felt alone, you wouldn’t have caused the power outage, meaning the government wouldn’t have found you.”
“That’s…” Sonic looked distracted, but he was still hitting the ping-pong ball just fine, which was kind of surprising. Then again, he was used to a much faster game. “That doesn’t- no, what would have stopped the government from finding me would be going to the mushroom planet like I was supposed to.”
“You said you didn’t want to do that,” Maddie reminded him.
“I didn’t want to do that,” Sonic said, “And I’m glad I didn’t have to do that, but it’s what she told me to do.”
Maddie was barely keeping up with the game at this point. “But why would she tell you to go somewhere you didn’t want to go? Did she just assume no one would want to help you? She helped you, didn’t she? Why did she think no one else would?”
Sonic’s expression looked conflicted. “Because… I don’t- she was…”
Maddie hit the ball back to Sonic. “I’m just saying that maybe she was wrong to-”
“She was not wrong!” Sonic shouted. Maddie had to duck to miss the ball the Sonic that Sonic had just hit full force. He slammed the paddle down and put his hands on the table to steady himself. “She wasn’t wrong. Of course she wasn’t wrong.” He glared at the space between his hands. “She was never wrong. I was wrong. I’m always wrong. I never listen, I should have listened to her, why didn’t I- I should’ve just-”
Blue flickered dangerously around Sonic. Which would be worrying in an open area, but even more so here in the cave. “Hey,” Maddie tried, “Sonic, I’m-”
His head snapped up. “No,” he said angrily. “You just- you… no.”
“Sonic, I’m not saying this friend of yours wasn’t trying to protect you,” Maddie amended, “I’m just trying to explain-”
“Well, don’t!” Sonic exclaimed. “Don’t explain it to me! I don’t wanna know!”
Maddie felt bad for pushing, but she had to know, “Why not? She told you that you needed to be by yourself-”
“No,” Sonic interrupted.
“And that wasn’t true,” Madde finished.
“No.”
Maddie knew Sonic was stubborn, but most of the time it was endearing. Now it was almost frustrating. “Why is it so hard to believe that she-”
Sonic hands curled into fists. “Because it means I spent ten years alone for nothing!”
The cave was completely silent. Maddie didn’t dare say anything else.
Sonic suddenly gasped and backed away from the table, the sparks of blue dissipating. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean- I…”
Maddie set down her paddle and walked to his side of the table. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard.” She knelt beside him. “Why don’t we go back to the house, okay? We can do some more yoga. And Tom will probably be home soon.”
He looked up at her in surprise. “Really? But I just yelled at you.”
“Well, I kinda earned it.”
“No, you didn’t,” Sonic insisted, “I shouldn’t have yelled.”
They started towards the entrance of the cave. “And I shouldn’t have made you upset.”
“Yeah but-”
Maddie held up a hand. “You know what? Why don’t we agree to disagree on this one, huh? I’m sorry for making you mad, you’re sorry for shouting. We’ve both apologized and now we’re even. Okay?”
Sonic hesitated. “Okay.” They started their trek back home and Sonic asked, “Can I still try to do a handstand?”
“After yoga.”
“Okay, cool.” He was quiet for a moment. “I really am sorry.”
“I know,” Maddie said. But he would never be as sorry as she was. Everything he said was starting to set in, and she had several issues with it.
Had he really said ten years? Ten years of being alone? There was no way Sonic was more than fifteen, and she didn’t want to imagine a five year old wandering around by himself.
Earth was beautiful, but it could also be a terrible place. She hoped to God Sonic had stayed in the woods for most of his time on Earth, because there was so much, too much, that could have gone wrong.
And, of course, because she didn’t want to think about it, she couldn’t think of anything else all the way back to the house. Sonic unrolled the mat while Maddie found the video they had been using earlier. She’d tell Tom what had happened after Sonic went home for the night.
Except she didn’t want him to go back.
The thought hit her in a surprising moment of clarity while they followed along with the video.
She didn’t want Sonic to go back to that lonely cave in the middle of the woods with no one to talk to but himself, she wanted him to stay.
No, more than that. She needed him to stay. It wasn’t just that she couldn’t bear to think of how desperately lonely he was, and how that must be torture for such a sociable kid like him, but she also couldn’t imagine going a day without telling him not to run in the house.
It wasn’t enough that he visited every day. Sonic shouldn’t have to be alone for even a second, not after being alone for so long.
But it’s not like she had an immediate solution for that. Would Tom even… actually, yes, Tom probably would be okay with it. More than okay with it, really.
“Hey, Pretzel Lady?” She glanced down at Sonic, who was in a completely different position. “You okay? The chic in the video already moved on.”
Maddie moved into the next position. “I’m okay, Sonic. Just thinking.”
“About what?”
She smiled. “Nothing much. Just how awesome you’re gonna be when you do that handstand.”
He grinned. “Dude, it’s gonna be so awesome. I’m gonna show Donut Lord when he gets home! Can he do a handstand? I wanna see him do a handstand.” He suddenly stood upright, yoga pose forgotten. “Oh! I figured it out!”
“Figured what out?” Maddie asked.
Sonic resumed the pose, his grin growing a bit. “I figured out what makes me feel at peace.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
He beamed up at her. “You guys.”
Maddie had to fight the urge to pull Sonic into a hug. She was certain that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from crying tears of paternal happiness. “Tom and I put you at ease, huh?”
“Well, yeah.” Sonic glanced at the video to make sure they were still on the same position. “You know how long I’ve been running? Like, all my life. You guys make me feel like I don’t have to run anymore.” He paused. “I mean, I’ll still run, obviously, but only because I want to. Not because I have to.”
That did it. Maddie’s heart had officially melted.
Her and Tom were definitely having a discussion later.