Chapter Text
It was mid-afternoon, and Tom was trying to get through with his errands, searching though the aisles for hot dogs, ground beef, grapes, mint extract, and maybe a maple glaze donut for himself. As a treat.
When it came to figuring out what to feed the two newest additions to the Wachowski family, Maddie and Tom were still in the trial and error stage.
Sonics high metabolism and energy consumption required more fat content to his diet. Butter and Beef fat added to his chili and other snacks when they could. Sonic seemed to be fine with dairy, but with how bad it is for earth hedgehogs, she try's to keep an eye on it.
It didn't help that Sonic still refused to talk about what he regularly ate during his time on earth.
Knuckles diet was surprisingly low in protein. Him craving raw fruits and vegetables almost exclusively, with some tree nuts mixed in here and there. His biology was so good at storing and keeping protein that eating too much at once would make him ill.
Tails would eat anything handed to him, without any complaint. Even when it was clear he didn't like it, he was just happy to eat. This led to Maddie watching him like a hawk, the veterinarian looking for any signs of malnutrition. Until one day, Maddie caught Tails watching tv while happily munching on a bowl of Ozzie’s dogfood like a bag of chips. She began thinking of ways to work extra meat and protein into his diet.
The Sheriff crouched down to the bottom rack in the health isle. Skimming through the different brands of protein powder, comparing the ingredients to the list Maddie texted him.
• Animal based protein.
• Animal based collagen.
• NO GRAINS TOM!!!
• Sugar free, or real sugar. NO FAKE SUGAR.
• Flavorless or Natural flavor. If they don’t have that, we can try vanilla. NO CHOCOLATE TOM!
• No Dairy Preferably. Avoid lactose and whey if you can.
This was starting to sound like more than what the local Green Hills Food Mart could handle. Probably best to just Amazon it and hope it’s less than $40.
A coin slot like ding came from Toms’ phone, another message from Maddie.
“AB3672SA22004. Coupon code for a 10lb bag of frozen chicken thighs! Store brand! Xoxo.”
With a final look at the shelf, Tom accepted that his search was a failure, but still quickly grabbed four tiny individual packets of “Protein On The Go Extreme! Feed Your Wild Side!” Hopefully this would be good enough to experiment with until he could order the correct type.
Tossing the packets into his basket, Tom stood up straight again. Giving his back a good stretch before lazily heading towards the frozen food section.
Maybe he could talk Marty into selling that old game freezer he sure hasn’t used in years-
“TOM!”
A woman hurried down the aisle after Tom with a cart full of Capri suns, fruit by the foot, and Goldfish crackers. Wheels of her shopping cart squealing all the way.
“Oh! It’s perfect that I would run into you!” she sang, smiling ear to ear as she nearly crashed into the Sheriff with her cart.
“Well, a good afternoon to you too Cathy.” Tom greeted, a bit on the cautious side. Wary about what favor was about to be asked of him. “What can I help you with today?”
Cathy Cooke was a nice lady, with a habit of overdoing it with birthday party's, 4th of July’s, and fishing competitions. Her toothy grin never wavering, she bounced on her heels.
“It’s the playoffs Tom! You wouldn’t happen to be stopping by, would you? My Lil Hunters going to be pitcher this year. I’m bringing the snacks-Well maybe drinks too if Trixie doesn’t text me back in the next few minutes-Will you be stopping by?”
Tom couldn't help a small chuckle. Cathys quick string of sentences reminding him of how Sonic talked sometimes, where he speaks both to Tom and himself at the same time.
“’fraid not.” Tom treaded the water carefully. If he got this right, he wouldn’t be climbing on her roof to fix a solar panel that got loose. Again.
“It’s not like I have a kid who’s playing, and there haven’t been any troublemakers this year. I think you guys got it covered.”
Tom swung his basket to the other arm and shimmied himself between the shelves and Cathy’s cart to once again make his way to the freezer section.
Something inside of Cathy seemed to panic, maneuvering her squeaky cart around the tight-fitting aisle to follow after the Sheriff.
“I mean yeah. I can understand that, but everyone would still love to have you there! Machenzie still plays with that Nerf set you got her for her birthday, had those darts stuck to the ceiling for weeks.” She giggled, thinking back on the memory fondly before gasping, like she missed a step while walking up the stairs. “Which wasn’t a problem! Honest! She had hundreds of 'em, but a strict “No shooting or throwing toys in the house.” Rule is in place now I assure you of that. Also, no ball in the house, or running, or being too loud."
Tom pulled the chicken out of the freezer slowly, a bit confused. Like he missed something, maybe there was an email he had yet to look at? Maybe someone complained about her kids being rowdy or something.
“Well, I’m happy she likes them! How is everyone by the way? Everything good since the Incident.”
“Oh yeah,” Cathy nodded too fast as she followed him to the register, plucking a few liters of soda off the shelves as they walked. Seems like Trixie wasn’t going to be bringing drinks after all.
“Nothing to worry about, not at all. The kids found the whole thing exciting really, and so did Micheal and I to be honest. Plus, we’re all healthy, and the house hardly had a scratch on it.” She paused for a moment, thinking about how she was going to phrase her next few words as they waited their turn in the slow-moving line.
“I can’t stop thinking about it. It feels like a whole new Green Hills, A whole new world! We um...” She looked at the ground a bit, slightly avoiding eye contact for a moment. “Well, we’ve been talking about it…and everyone’s more then on board. About, maybe bringing home a new pet.”
Cathy locked eyes with Tom, looking for…Something. Hope sparkled across her eyes, eagerly awaiting Toms response, reaction, something.
Tom was putting his items on the conveyor belt when he caught on.
“OHH! Yeah, and I’m guessing you wanted me to talk to Maddie about-”
“YES!” Cathy squealed, nearly tipped her cart over, knuckles white from how hard she had been gripping it, the poor cashier jumping a little. Cathy carded her hands though her hair, toothy smile blindingly bright.
“I tried to bring it up to Maddie when I ran into her this morning. I know she was on her way to work and she’s busy, but she said I just needed to schedule an appointment for an adoption meet and greet. Then I saw you, and I don’t know if someone else got to you first-” Cathy started launching her items on the conveyor belt, her pure excitement uncontained now.
“-It’s the cute, fluffy one we’ve been looking at. Maddie probably has a line out the door for that one. Oh Tom, I hope were not too late! The kids can’t stop talking about 'em. Their promising that they’ll be responsible, do their part taking care of 'em, and everything! We’ve already started pet proofing the place.” Cathys Little League feast bagged up; Tom helped her carry her bags of 2 liters to her car.
“I’ll talk to Maddie, I promise. Honestly though, I think your the first one. Maddie hasn’t brought up getting any more adoption requests than usual.”
“Thank you so much Tom!” Cathy practically danced into her car. Rolling the window down she called out. “Should I still call the clinic, or call you? Do you want me to stop by your house or-“
“I’ll let Maddie know I talked to you; she knows about how to go about this better than I do. If anyone else comes calling, I’m sure she can get to you first.” He waved as she backed out of the parking spot.
“THANK YOU AGAIN TOM! SEE YOU SOON!” And with that she drove off. Tom could hear her cheering a bit as she got further away.
“Hmm.” Tom hummed, getting settled in the driver’s side. Pulling out his maple glaze. “Maybe I should have asked if it was a dog or cat she was talking about.” After a second Tom shrugged it off, turning on the gas. “I’m sure Maddie knows who the cute and fluffy one is.”
Tom took a bite and started home. Reminding himself to check his emails, hopefully that will explain why he still feels like he was missing something.