"Mother." Knuckles tugged on Maddie's arm, pulling her attention away from the book she'd been reading on the couch. "We have run out of grapes."

"Oh?" Maddie sat up a little, closing her book and flashing the echidna a quick smile. "Sounds like we need to hit the grocery store, then. I think we need more cereal, too."

"What has the store of groceries done to deserve our hitting it?" Knuckles demanded as she stood up and headed into the kitchen to find Tom and their other two boys.

"Figure of speech, hon." Maddie reached down and gently squeezed his shoulder. She glanced up again as she approached the kitchen and called through the doorway, "Hey, babe?"

She heard him call back, "What?" in something of a distracted tone, and walked in to find him rummaging through the cupboard, apparently searching for something. Sonic was sitting at the counter nearby, talking his ear off about his most recent baseball practice.

Tom looked over at her as she walked in, then immediately looked back at the cupboard. "I think we're running low on coffee. I can't find another bag."

"That works out, actually," Maddie replied with a grin, and he glanced back to her with a raised eyebrow. "I've been informed we're also out of grapes-" she flashed Knuckles a knowing smile- "and I know we definitely need more cereal. We up for a shopping trip? Or is it too close to dinner?"

Tom glanced at the oven clock, which read 4:02. "Nah, I think we can make it. Shouldn't take too long to just grab a couple things and go."

Sonic jumped off the stool he'd been perched on and was at Maddie's feet in an instant. He'd done this so many times now, Maddie no longer jumped when it happened. It was . . . a new normal, and one she didn't mind one bit.

"Can we pleeease get some more chili, too?" he pleaded, eyes sparkling. "Oh- and pizza! And guac?! Please please please please please!"

Maddie rolled her eyes with a laugh. "We'll see, sweetheart. For now, we're just gonna get what we actually need."

"Tails?" Tom called to the living room, startling the little fox from his fixation on the mini helicopter toy he'd been tinkering with. "We're all heading out. Make sure you put your stuff away where it's not going to get broken."

"Coming!" Tails scooped up his things and flew them upstairs to the attic, then flew back down a moment later to grab his shoes from one of the cubbies by the door (a more recent addition). Sonic had already put his shoes on, as had Knuckles.

As Tom locked the house up, the boys and Maddie headed for the car, with the trio making it a race of who could get there first. From what she could see, Sonic had definitely won, but then Tails protested something about they were supposed to touch the car door handle, not just the car, and Knuckles was demanding a rematch. With an amused smile, Maddie pressed the button on the key fob to unlock it so they could get inside.

By the time she and Tom had climbed into the drivers and passengers seats, Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails were all in their seats and buckled- Tails had to ride in a booster seat still, but he had no trouble buckling himself in. Occasionally he had trouble with unbuckling, but that was usually when he was rushing.

"Do you have, like, an actual shopping list?" Tom asked as he pulled out of their long driveway and started the five minute drive to the nearest grocery store.

"I'm pretty sure it's just those three things I mentioned." Maddie stole a glance in the rear view mirror to see their boys. Tails was fidgeting with something Sonic had left in the car from the other day, half listening to whatever Sonic was telling Knuckles. Or . . . telling himself. Knuckles was staring out the window.

It was hard to tell who Sonic was talking to at times. A lot of the time he just babbled to himself nonstop; a side effect still lingering from his prolonged isolation before he'd properly met her and Tom. It didn't seem to be harmful, so they hadn't made any attempt to stop it, but it did make them sad sometimes when they remembered the reason.

Maddie shook away those thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. Sonic- and the others- were okay now. She and Tom would love on them and be the parents all three of them had so desperately needed. They couldn't do much to repair the hurts in their lives from their pasts, besides try and make up for it now.

"That's good, then." Her husband's relaxed voice pulled her attention back to him. "With luck, this shouldn't take more than maybe twenty minutes."

In hindsight, they really should've known better.

Because honestly, even having the fastest kid alive, a child genius, and a warrior teen as their children, nothing ever got done fast.

It didn't help that the store they ended up at wasn't exclusively groceries. The second Tails saw the appliance and technology section, he was begging both parents to let him go have a look. And with the fox kit's big blue eyes, it was still difficult for Tom or Maddie to refuse.

(They knew they had to learn eventually. They'd never get anywhere with parenting this kid if he managed to get his way anytime he weaponized his own cuteness.)

Sonic had announced that he would find everything they needed in less than thirty seconds, but thirty seconds had long come and gone because every interesting thing on the way kept distracting him. It wasn't like he (or the other two) hadn't been to a store before, but for Tails and Knuckles, living on earth in a real family was still a new experience, and they spent most of their time treasuring every new thing they saw and felt. For Sonic, even though he'd now been living with Tom & Maddie for over a year, it still didn't feel long in comparison to the ten years he'd spent alone, watching the world from the hidden sidelines. Thus, to this day, he continued to relish every second he got to spend out in the open with no fear of being seen.

Knuckles was the only one who wasn't immediately drawn to go check out every new thing. Instead, he walked stubbornly by Maddie's side like a bodyguard (Tom had noticed he'd taken a special liking to her, as she had to him). Despite not joining his brothers, though, he still eyed them and his surroundings with a curious gaze.

Even though the presence of the otherworldly anthropomorphic children was not new to the citizens of Green Hills, neither Tom nor Maddie felt comfortable with the idea of letting one of them go off on their own. So, unable to resist the baby eyes, Tom ended up tagging along with Tails to the technology section.

Which was how Maddie found herself standing in the middle of the coffee and tea aisle with her entire family gone except for her eldest.

Knuckles peered up at her. "Would you like me to track down Sonic to ease your mind?"

"It's okay, hon." She smiled, trying not to betray the way her heart just melted at the kindness and consideration of the young echidna. "I can just call his phone real quick."

"I could call louder with my voice," Knuckles offered, but Maddie politely declined the suggestion and dialed her middle child's number.

"Hey, Mom, wassup?" Sonic's energetic voice picked up almost immediately. "You'll never believe what I found; remember that action movie series we watched a few months ago? They made a SIXTH one! Crazy, right?! Also I found a mess on the floor but I'm not sure if I should clean it up or not-"

"No, baby, don't-"

"Where are you, anyway? Oh! I was supposed to be finding the stuff we needed! What was it, again? Soup? No, cereal! Well, can cereal be a soup? Like a cold one that's sweet? Nah, that sounds like a dessert. Anyway, I'm coming!"

Maddie blinked several times at her son's rapidfire voice, and the next thing she knew, he'd already hung up.

Knuckles scowled. "He did not listen."

She shrugged with a little, knowing smile. "Your brother just isn't the best conversationalist. I think we know why."

The echidna's violet eyes softened, just for a moment. Then determination hardened them again. "I will find and bring him to you!"

"Wait, he did say he was coming-"

Maddie broke off at suddenly recognizing the voice hollering through the entire store: "MARCO!!!"

Her eyes went wide. "Oh, no-"

Then, a higher pitched voice: "POLO!!!"

A hyper giggle echoed from the direction of Sonic's voice, then he called "MARCO!" again.

Tails once again responded with an eager "POLO!" And thus their game went on.

Not sure whether to be humiliated or amused, Maddie chose to go find what they needed. She'd just grabbed the last thing when Sonic materialized at her side, giggling like a maniac, with Tails slumped over the hedgehog's head wearing an equally delirious smile of pure joy.

Tom was frantically running to catch up with them from further down the store, his eyes wide. "Not my idea," he panted as he arrived, and Maddie laughed.

"I knew that would work!" Sonic wheezed as he tilted his head and dumped Tails onto the tile floor. "Waaaayyy more effective than phones!"

Maddie narrowed her eyes, still internally battling as to whether this was acceptable behavior or not. "What, was this previously orchestrated?"

"No, no, no!" both Tails and Sonic fumbled over each other's words as they protested. Tails fell silent and nodded eagerly as Sonic quickly explained, "One of my teammates taught me that game at practice a couple nights ago! He said it was normally something that people play in pools, but his family sometimes uses it to find each other in places!" He trailed off, apparently uncertain as to whether he was in trouble or not, then quickly asked, "That's okay, right?" with just the slightest tinge of anxiety lacing his tone.

All thoughts of punishment had left Maddie's mind as he'd explained, and as she met Tom's gaze, it seemed he felt the same.

Having a family was still so exciting for Sonic. Hearing that he was trying out things with them that he'd heard other families did for fun . . . Well, something about that was just so touching.

So they didn't get back home till 6, and it wasn't a big deal. So their dinner was late and not as fresh as they'd been hoping. So what?

It didn't matter that things weren't perfectly orchestrated anymore. They'd done what they needed to do, their kids had had fun, no one had gotten hurt, and as far as they were concerned, the evening went just fine.