Baseball. A family game of baseball. This was it. Sonic had to tell them now. It was the perfect opportunity.

Over a year ago now, this was the very place he'd come and ended up having a breakdown at due to his overwhelming loneliness. It felt like some kind of significance to find himself back here, only now he had a family to play with. A couple of parents. Two friends who already felt like brothers; an older brother and a younger brother. Leaving him right smack dab in the middle of them.

He wouldn't have had it any other way.

The game was surprisingly short-lived, because with Knuckles on the mound, the one and only ball they had ended up getting punched clear across the field and straight through the scoreboard. But there were no hard feelings. Instead of getting mad that they'd lost their ball and basically caused minor property damage, Maddie just suggested that instead they go out for ice cream. The mood didn't drop, not even for a moment.

Sonic answered Knuckles' questions about the earth dessert, while Tails glanced excitedly back and forth between them. As Tom and Maddie approached, Knuckles lifted Tails onto his shoulder and carried the giggling little fox to the truck. Sonic smiled after them, glad to see them getting along so well. As Maddie followed them with Ozzie, Tom hung back and knelt down beside Sonic, his eyes also trained on the other two alien children.

"I'm happy for you, pal," Tom chuckled, as Tails flew himself into the back of the truck and Knuckles considered it for a moment. "You've got your wingmen! Perfect friends to grow up with."

Sonic watched them for a moment longer, snickering a little at Knuckles exclaiming, "Ah, my victory chariot!" and heavily flopping into the back along with Tails. His heart was full, so full, and his smile was uncontrollable.

With a quick deep breath, he lowered his eyes, then turned them to meet Tom's directly. "I've got a lot more than that," he replied softly, then added, ". . . Dad."

He had so much more than just some friends to grow up with. He had brothers. He had parents. He had a home. A family. And he wasn't sure if he could express all that without tears. So he started small.

Tom stared back at him for a moment, surprise momentarily overtaking his expression, but then his eyes started glistening with joy, and he turned his face away, as if to hide tears of happiness from Sonic. "Race you to the truck," he finally replied, his voice cracking a little on the words. Sonic's smile widened at the silent acceptance, and he spun around, excited, as his father shouted "One-two-three GO!" and jumped up to make a beeline for the truck.

He gave him a couple seconds to think he had a chance, and then— just as Tom was calling back, "No, don't go easy on me, I want your best!" he sped ahead and slid stylishly onto the top of the truck. His cool pose was kinda ruined when he ended up sliding off and falling into the back with Knuckles and Tails, but that was more than okay.

Tom pretended to be disappointed at losing, but his smile was still glued to his face as he climbed into the driver's seat and pulled out, heading for the nearest ice cream parlor.

The truck drove much more slowly than Sonic or Knuckles could run, or Tails could fly. But none of them minded. Even though they could've got there so much faster, they preferred to ride along with the people who had loved them, accepted them for who and what they were, and given them a home.

After they got their ice cream, they relaxed in the outdoor booths; it was too nice of a day to spend indoors. Tails had begun explaining every fact he knew about ice cream to Knuckles, who listened with interest. As they remained preoccupied with that, Sonic slid over to where Tom and Maddie were sitting together on the other end.

Knowing exactly what he was doing, Sonic got onto his knees in the bench and gave Maddie a quick hug. "Thanks for the ice cream, Mom!" he chirped, then immediately slid back over to his brothers.

He could hear squeaking noises of surprise and happiness coming from his adoptive mother, as well as some light laughter from Tom. He heard them whispering excitedly to each other, but didn't eavesdrop. Dropping these loving bombshells was actually pretty fun. He really should've done it sooner.

-

The house had been badly damaged once again, but once again, neither humans blamed the aliens. It was Robotnik who had attacked them. Even though Knuckles had dealt most of the damage, they didn't hold it against him, either.

They just . . . knew. Knew it wasn't truly his fault.

Besides, with said echidna's brute strength, Tails' handyman mechanical genius, and Sonic's speed, it hadn't taken nearly as long this time to repair everything.

It had been a few weeks since everything. They'd bought a couple more beds for the new additions: a little airplane themed bed for Tails, and something bigger and more comfortable for Knuckles. The attic had plenty of room for all three of them, and Sonic had been more than happy to share the space with them. It took some adjustments and wasn't without some bickering, but it was all okay.

It was late that night where things finally got deep. When they finally got to say everything they wanted to say.

Technically, it was way past Sonic's bedtime. His parents generally wanted him in bed by 9, occasionally 10 if it wasn't a school night. Tails had been given a bedtime of between 7:30 and 8, being five years younger than Sonic. Knuckles was technically allowed to stay up till around 11, since he was the oldest, but he usually went to bed around the same time as Sonic, claiming he needed a full night's rest in order to be at full strength the next day.

Sonic had gone to bed when he was supposed to, but had been jolted awake a couple hours later from a nightmare. He didn't get them every night, but having the trauma he did, nights were hard sometimes. And this so happened to be one of those nights when he couldn't go back to sleep, despite the comfort of his bed and the soft sounds of both Tails and Knuckles breathing elsewhere in the room. Through the window, he could still see a light coming through the window downstairs, so he slipped out of bed and crept down to see if Tom and Maddie were still awake.

Sure enough, they were, although it looked like they were winding down. They were snuggled together on the couch, quietly murmuring to each other in inaudible conversation.

He almost didn't want to interrupt them, but he'd encountered this situation before and had always, always been told afterwards: "Don't worry about bothering us! If you want to talk, you come talk! Doesn't matter what time it is or if it looks like we're busy!"

So he took a deep breath and wandered quietly into the room with them. Their conversation fell silent as they saw him, then soft smiles crossed their faces. "Hey, bud," Tom greeted him quietly. "You alright? Can't sleep?"

Sonic bit his lip and shook his head. "Can . . . can I talk with you guys for a little?"

"Of course." Maddie shifted and pulled their blanket aside for a moment, inviting him to sit between them. He did so, making sure not to poke them with his quills.

"Did you have another bad dream? Is that what you wanna talk about?" Tom's voice was gentle, with a touch of worry. "Or is it about . . . today?"

"I— well, yeah, another bad dream," Sonic admitted guiltily, then waved his hand. "But I don't wanna talk about that. Yeah, it—it's about today. I . . ." He hesitated. "A couple weeks ago, during the fight—"

Maddie reached down and took his hand, squeezing it in hers.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't say it before." His voice quieted. "It's not . . . it's not that I didn't see you guys as my . . . my parents before. I just . . . I . . . last time I had a . . ."

He groaned. Words were hard sometimes.

"Are you talking about Longclaw?" Tom asked quietly, reaching down to rub one of the boy's shoulders.

"Yes," he mumbled. "She . . . she wasn't my real mom, obviously. I don't know who was. But she was the first person I could ever remember, and she was like my mother. Then I was stupid and she . . ."

"You were just a little one, sweetheart," Maddie murmured. "It wasn't your fault."

"You remind me of her, actually," he admitted with a shy smile. His mother grinned at that, and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

"And then I just . . . spent so much time taking care of myself that I thought I didn't need anyone to take care of me anymore," he went on to confess. "I felt independent, even though it was hard, really hard. I felt like I had to act like a grown-up. No one else was gonna do it for me."

"So it was a little hard to accept that there were people willing to be the grown-ups and take care of you again?" Tom asked.

". . . Yeah," Sonic confirmed, staring at the floor and trying his hardest not to fidget. They were both holding his hands, just like they had when they'd all thought they were going to die, and he didn't want them to let go.

"But—But I can accept it now!" he added hurriedly. "I love you guys. I like being a kid— I like—I love being your kid. It means . . . more to me than I can say."

There was silence for a few beats, and for a moment he feared he'd still said too much. But then the two leaned in even closer to wrap him tightly in a full, surrounding hug. "Bud," he heard his father whisper, his voice a little choked, "You have no idea how long we've been dying to hear you say that."

"We didn't want to force it on you," Maddie added, her own voice equally emotional, and she hugged him a little tighter. "We wanted to love on you and teach you and take care of you like our own kid for almost this whole time you've been with us. We were just waiting for you to decide if that's what you wanted, too."

Sonic's own chest was tight, in a good way, but he managed a light laugh. "You know . . . I used to pretend we were a family. Back when . . . back before . . ."

He didn't need to clarify when. They, all too painfully, knew.

"Well, no need to pretend anymore." Tom squeezed his hand again. "We're here for you. We're your family. We love you, Sonic."

He sniffled a little, fighting like crazy to keep the tears back, but it was hard. So instead of speaking and risking it, he just leaned further back with them and adjusted both his hands to sign back I love you.

The remainder of the night was fuzzy. He remembered one of them reaching over to turn off the lamp, then immediately cuddling in again. He remembered staying like that, just snuggled right between them on the couch, feeling more loved than he had in a long time.

And when he awoke the next morning, snuggled not just with his parents but also with his two brothers (who must've come to join them sometime earlier upon discovering Sonic's bed empty), he smiled to himself as he realized just how lucky they all were to have found each other.