"How come Tails gets to walk and I have to sit in the cart?"

It seemed like a fair question to the blue hedgehog, especially since most of the toddlers in the store were able to walk.

"Someone needs to make sure the groceries don't get stolen, Sonic," Tom replied.

"What kind of person would steal from the sheriff? What kind of person here in Green Hills would steal period!?"

The man grinned at the hedgehog's complaint, "Fine," he admitted as he checked the condition of the eggs in a carton. "You're in the cart because you have a hard time not touching things."

"I can... Not touch things." Sonic pouted.

"Mmmhmm... And that's how we wind up with six cans of chili on the conveyor belt when I only put one can in the basket."

"We might run out if you don't stock up!"

"Sure. Hold the eggs."

Sonic took the carton from his dad and then looked at Tails. "What do you think we should call him?"

"Who? The baby?" Tails shrugged, "I don't know. I can name my inventions, but I name them according to their function. A person is... Different."

Tom hummed in agreement, "I'd say that your names come from your abilities, like how Sonic is fast and Knuckles, well... Uses his knuckles." He pointed to the little fox, "But then your real name is Miles, which is a more human name, so your kind's naming principles are a little lost on me."

Tails shrugged, "The grownups in my village never really told us where our names came from."

Sonic frowned a bit at his little brother's statement. He remembered the conversation that had occurred a few days after they'd defeated Dr. Eggman a second time...

______

The government was still in town at that point, cleaning up the giant robot the villain had made with pieces of their own equipment and then some, all with the wave of a hand. It made Sonic shudder to remember the power and madness that had come with his grasp of The Master Emerald; he was even madder than he was before, and Sonic had almost lost his life just trying to keep him distracted.
His parents had rushed in and snatched him out of danger just in time, and then they all almost died being crushed... If not for what had happened next.

The Chaos Emeralds, the seven stones within The Master Emerald, had chosen to spare them by letting Sonic use their power. Sonic remembered grasping his parents' hands and preparing to die with them, and then a rush of energy and warmth rushed through him. He barely remembered actually getting up and shoving back against the robot's approaching foot, the rush had left him with only the instinct. When his mind cleared, he was plowing through the robot's foot like a torpedo and flying upward into the air. He still couldn't believe he'd flown!

But if Eggman's rampage and then his own blinding rush had taught him anything, it was that this was a lot of power for any one person- human or hedgehog- to wield, and he just wasn't ready for the responsibility of keeping it. He'd let it go, the emeralds flying off to who knows where.

Even though the energy had healed his wounds, Maddie had still insisted on a check-up for him, Tails, and Knuckles; after all, even if his cuts and bruises were gone, he'd had unfamiliar energy running through him like a lightning bolt, who knew what kind of effects it left behind?

"I'm fine, Maddie, really!" Sonic complained, trying to push her away but remaining seated on the table of her office.

"I'm almost done, Sonic. Just a few more minutes." Maddie's tone was firm, but understanding. "I know it's agony for you to stay still this long, but please..."

Tails was sitting in a chair, watching while picking small pieces of debris out of his gloves. He'd been out for a while back at the hotel in Hawaii, and then his head had taken another hit when he and Knuckles were thrown out of the crashing robot and onto the ground. He'd recovered from that second fall much faster, but Maddie had told him after his own check-up that he still had a concussion from before.

"Ugh..." Sonic slouched in place, wincing a bit as Maddie stuck a medical instrument into his ear. "Ah! That's cold!"

"Sorry."
She definitely didn't sound like it.
"I'll get you finished, and then check Knuckles real quick, and we can all go on our ways, whatever that is."

"What do you mean?"
Sonic tilted her head, "Aren't we all going back to the house?"

Tails and Knuckles stood up a little straighter, looking to each other and then back to the Wachowskis.

Sonic looked to his parental figures firmly, "You're not kicking Knuckles and Tails out, are you?"

Tom looked to the others, "That's not what we meant-"

"I understand your decision." Knuckles interrupted with a solemn nod, "I caused significant damage to your home-"

"So did I!" Sonic argued, "Tom told me not to jump on that drone Eggman brought with him, and I didn't listen, but you guys-"

"Hey. Stop for a second."
Tom grasped Sonic's shoulders, "We never said that we were kicking them out, okay? Maddie just meant that if they wanted to go back home to your planet, then that was okay too. That's all."

Sonic's outraged look faded a bit, his shoulders slumping and his frown disappearing. "...Oh."

Knuckles looked to Tails, "What of you, Fox? Are you going to return to your village?"

Tails was quiet, tugging on his gloves a little more. His tails curled up under the chair, "I... I'd like to stay here... If that's okay."

Tom gave a light smirk, and then walked over to the fox and bent down to his eye level. "...You don't have any parents back home either, huh...?"

Tails didn't make eye contact, "...No... Just the grownups."

Sonic remembered Tails saying that everyone in his village thought his two tails were weird; did that include the adults? Knuckles and Sonic had both lost their villages, but Tails had a village where nobody cared about him.
"Of course, you can stay!" Sonic informed, relieved when the fox perked up. "Both of you can! And if that government guy has a problem with it-"

Tom chuckled, gently giving Sonic a noogie. "He'll have to get through us first..."
_______

"Sonic?"

Sonic snapped out of his thoughts and saw they'd moved on in the grocery store. "Huh?"

Tom smirked, "I said you could get out and look for a toy for the baby now. Get lost in a chilidog daydream?"

Sonic blew the man off, hopping out of the cart and jogging at a human's pace over to the toy section. "As if, Donut Lord!"
_________________________________________________________

When my eyes had closed, I was settled in the woman's arms, and when I woke up again, I was alone... Or at least, I thought I was, at first. I was lying on my back, something soft underneath me, probably a blanket. Over me was a ceiling fan, the blades making slow, lazy circles; it was just enough to stir the air, and the singular bulb in the socket flickered slightly.

Why did this tiny body need to sleep so much? It made it impossible to keep my bearings. I would go to sleep in one place and wake up in another, with no memory of how I got there.

I listened closely, but it was strangely quiet. Where had the hedgehog and the humans gone? It was nice to not have their constant, unrecognizable vocals in my ears, but I was suspicious as to why they had suddenly left me all alone after all that fuss.

I tried to look around as well, but this body's movement was still very erratic; my arms and legs moved when I didn't want them to, and when I tried to move on my own, they went limp. It was quite frustrating.

But as I shifted about randomly, the ground beneath me suddenly shuddered. It wobbled and shifted, and then the face of a massive beast appeared in my vision. Its head was so big it could potentially swallow me whole, long, thick fur hung down over me, and its breathing roared in my ears.

I was underneath it slightly, and it appeared to be looking away. Had it noticed me? I needed to be still and quiet to avoid detection, but this uncontrollable body would not cooperate. Its head bent down, and its cold, wet nose brushed against my fur as it sniffed me. What do I do? What do I-

Then there was a startled sound, and I was scooped up and away from the beast. I looked up and found myself in the arms of the echidna, who was stepping back from the beast and murmuring something to it. He then looked down at me, and just...stared at me for several seconds.

What? I wanted to say, What do you want?

But something else came out of my mouth instead. It had felt like a cough, but when I did cough, something from my stomach rose up and tumbled out of my mouth and onto the echidna's chest fur. He looked utterly disgusted, and I might have felt the same way; but honestly, I somehow felt much better, despite not having really noticed I was feeling bad in the first place.

He held me out from him, looking down at the little chunks sticking to his fur and then hollered something out of the room we were in. The woman was there within seconds, trading the echidna a towel for me. Though the echidna was quite irritated, the woman was laughing, holding me out, and cooing something to me.

This woman had four mobians in her home, one of which was Sonic the Hedgehog, and one of which wasn't even able to move on their own and who had just thrown up on one of the other three. She also had some sort of beast wandering the halls of her home, and yet, she was smiling and laughing like it was nothing...

...Nothing fazed this woman, did it?
___________________________________________________

"Ozzie!"

Knuckles knew that Maddie had set the baby down to sleep on her bed, and left the door open just a crack in case he cried. Knuckles chose to stand guard over the room if only to make sure that someone was there if his cry was too quiet for the woman to hear.

He'd left the doorway for maybe thirty seconds to use the restroom; a baby hedgehog barely bigger than his fist, set in the middle of a queen-sized bed? What were the chances he'd roll off while Knuckles was gone...?

He hadn't thought about Ozzie. He probably should have; he'd seen Ozzie hop up on their bed randomly to sleep many times since he'd arrived, there wasn't usually a baby there.

Ozzie had noticed the newcomer though, and when Knuckles saw him, he was sticking his nose down onto the baby to sniff him.

The echidna moved quickly, rushing forward and scooping the baby up into his arms. He hadn't meant to yell at the dog, and he tried to mend the situation by patting Ozzie on the head before backing up. "My apologies. You are a 'good boy,' I promise..."

Once he felt that the apology had been properly dispensed, he went about checking the baby for any injuries. He didn't look hurt, but perhaps a bit frightened, staring back at him with wide eyes-

"Gyah-!"
Knuckles yelped and pulled the baby back away from him as a stream of white fluid came flying out of his mouth, splashing on the echidna's chest fur. "...Wonderful. Uh, Maddie? The infant just vomited on me!"

Maddie came running a moment later, a small towel in her hand. "Ha! Congratulations, you've been christened!" She announced, taking the baby and wiping off his face before handing the towel to Knuckles. "Don't worry, they just do that sometimes..."

"He has not fallen ill?"

"No," Maddie ran a finger over the infant's quills as he just stared at her. "Babies just spit up from time to time... Hi... Do you feel better now, Sweetie...?"

Knuckles wiped the vomit from his chest, watching their interactions closely, "I do believe he likes you."

"Yeah... I think he does too."