Work Text:
When Maddie and Tom discovered that they’d be the proud parents of 3 alien creatures that had abilities to practically destroy an entire city in less than 10 minutes, they were obviously a little bit worried.
They accepted that fact pretty quickly though. But Maddie then got worried about the health of her kids. Sure, she’s a veterinarian. Yes, they’re partly animal, but she couldn’t help but wonder just how biologically similar her kids were to their.. well, earthy counterparts. She assumed it couldn’t have been that similar- however, it never hurt to ask. So, she’d find some info about hedgehogs, foxes, and echidnas, and then unprompted and completely by random she’d just ask them a question based on her findings.
Her favourite fact that she found was that baby echidnas were called “puggles.” It was a very cute fact, especially compared to some of the other things she managed to read about the animal.
She also discovered that male echidnas have heel spurs. Spurs on their hind legs, which many assumed used to be venomous. Maddie considered asking Knuckles if he had them- and maybe if they were venomous or not.
Then one day- cleaning day, to be specific, the boys were allowed to explore, but not too far! But, on their little ‘adventure’ they came home a mess. Like, quite literally a mess. All 3 of her boys came home filthy and covered in mud from head to toe. Not a single inch of anywhere on their body was mud free. There was even mud in their shoes and gloves- how did that get there?!
Tom and Maddie, who were just tending to their front lawn, stifled their combination of a groan and a snicker at their boys who had just arrived back.
“Well,” Tom said, standing up and approaching them, “you guys kinda were due for a bath.”
“Come on, you guys know where the bathroom is.” Maddie said, backing up Tom. Sonic wasn’t very fond of baths, Tails hated how his furr always fluffed up into a big ball afterwards, and Knuckles was.. for lack of a better word, indifferent.
“But you guys just cleaned and we’ll track mud into the house!” Sonic yelled out, gesturing to himself and then to his brothers.
Tom and Maddie didn’t even bother hiding their clearly audible groans.
. . .
Two words.
Garden Hose.
More words: Water balloons, water guns, and little tikes kiddie pool.
if you couldn’t tell, the boys had their baths outside in the backyard. Their shoes, socks, and gloves were tossed into some big bucket filled with water and soap to be soaked so it’d be easier to manually clean off the dirt. The boys however got the best bath of their life.
The first part they didn’t enjoy all that much- since it was just Maddie and Tom lathering them with soap and other cleaning supplies, but the second part of the bath- the part where they had to get the soap off- was the best.
They pelted each other with water balloons, they shot each other with water guns, they (tried) to fit into the plastic little tikes kiddie pool and all together had a blast.
Maddie and Tom watched as their kids giggled and played, feeling some parental pride. Then, Maddie noticed something a bit odd about Knuckles.
She remembered reading somewhere that male echidnas had spurs on their hindlegs.
Knuckles, however, was spurless. It didn’t even look like an injury or attack was made that caused this- it just looked like they… never existed. Like spurs were never meant to be on his body.
Maybe, wherever he’s from, echidnas just don’t have spurs. Maybe something happened, or maybe he was just born that way.
Whatever it was, she’d just ask him later.
. . .
Then came the worst part of baths.
The part after the bath.
Sonic, who was wrapped up in a towel and resembled a burrito, helped his dad in trying to dry Tails. They both wielded hairdryers while Tails wore some noise cancelling headphones and just rubbed himself with towels.
Which meant that Knuckles was left with Maddie and some tea.
Maddie and Knuckles had a pretty normal conversation- at least, as normal as conversations could get with Knuckles. They moved from question to question pretty quickly, since Knuckles had the habit of responding to things in just one word and sometimes in just grunts or any form of non-verbal communication.
Then, she remembered the spur thing.
“Oh, actually, I was reading this article about echidnas- earth echidnas- and I learned that male echidnas actually have spurs on their hindlegs. Now, I noticed earlier during the bath, that you seemed to lack spurs. Could you tell me what happened, maybe?” Maddie prompted, curious to learn a bit more about her little warrior.
She didn’t notice when his breath hitched slightly at the word “spurs.” She didn’t notice when he tensed up a bit more than usual when she said “male echidnas.”
But she definitely did notice the change in atmosphere after the question.
Knuckles, who usually presented himself as such a big and strong warrior- someone who could most likely kill you in less than a minute- now looked like a scared little kid who was just confronted about something.
“Honey?” Maddie prompted, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to-“
“I’ve been lying to you, pretzel woman.”
Oh? Maddie perked up a bit and held onto her mug of tea a bit tighter, “lied to me about what?”
“I’m not who I say I am. I’m not.. not male.”
Oh. Oh.
“Are you- are you saying you’re…?”
“At birth I was a female, hence the lack of spurs near my feet. But I’ve never really… felt feminine, I suppose. This type of thing wasn’t unheard of in my tribe- but it wasn’t exactly common either.”
Maddie knew she had to handle this situation delicately. As delicate as she could.
Knuckles kept on speaking, “I’m sorry for my lies, pretzel woman. It’s just that.. being referred to as your son- and quite frankly anything that’s associated with masculinity is just.. it feels more.. like me, I suppose. It’s hard to articulate these feelings into words, I’m sorry.”
Maddie handed a cup of tea to knuckles and moved closer to him, crouching down to get to his eye level.
“You have nothing to apologize for, Knuckles. Don’t you ever apologize for just- wanting to be you. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my son , my wonderful and brave and handsome and headstrong son . You can be whatever you want to be, and your dad and I will support you every step of the way. ”
Knuckles looked up at Maddie with longing eyes. Eyes that, to be quite honest here, she didn’t know he was capable of making. He’d never looked at her so softly before.
“There’s a term for this on our planet, you know. Transgender.”
“…transgender?”
“It’s when… uhm, you don’t conform with the gender you were assigned at birth. Like.. your gender identity, I think that’s what it’s called- is different than the one you were given at birth.”
Knuckles made a little ‘oh’ sound before speaking up, “I suppose I am transgender, then.” Knuckles stated, quite matter-of-factly.
Quiet seeped back into the room as the two took their occasional sips of tea.
“Thanks for trusting me, knuckles.”
“Thank you for being trustworthy, mom.”
“..should I tell the others?”
“If you want to. Do you want to?”
Knuckles nodded and soon a family meeting was set up in the living room.
. . .
“I am not who I say I am.” Knuckles said bluntly, looking at all of them.
“You- you what-“ Sonic said hesitantly before being abruptly shushed by Maddie.
“Could you… elaborate?” Tails asked, ears perked up as he looked at Knuckles with pure confusion.
“You all think I’m a boy, right?”
Everyone nodded.
“Well, I’m not.”
“That- you didn’t-“ Tails sputtered, looking even more confused than before.
Sonic spoke up as well, “You didn’t elaborate, you just gave us even more que-“
“Let’s give him a chance to elaborate then.” Tom cut in, looking at Tails and Sonic. Tails whispered a quick “sorry” while Sonic made motion like he was zipping his mouth shut.
“I’m not exactly a boy. At birth, I was female. I’ve always felt more… masculine, I suppose. Then, when you took me in and had no idea of my past, I suppose I could’ve just.. kept up the lie that I was a boy my whole life.”
“oh,” was all that Sonic managed to sputter out. Maddie and Tom held each other's hands tightly, while Tails fidgeted with the blanket draped over the couch.
Knuckles awkwardly shifted in place, “I hope this doesn’t change anything about how you feel about me.”
“Why would it change anything?” Tails asked, sitting up straight, “you’re just being yourself.”
“Others did not think of it that way. Others were not as accepting as pretzel lady.” Knuckle's eyes shifted uncomfortably towards the floor, his body tensing up a bit more.
“Wait, you knew before me?” Tom asked Maddie, turning to meet her gaze.
“It’s not my place to tell you. Besides, he dropped this bomb like 10 minutes ago.”
“I didn’t drop any bombs!” Knuckles yelled out defensively. He did not want to be grounded again.
“It’s an expression, bud.” Tom laughed, leaning back on the couch again.
Everything became quiet again. Knuckles took a step forward, “so.. you guys accept me?”
“Of course we do!”
“Why wouldn’t we?”
“You’re just being yourself- what’s so wrong with that??”
Knuckle's usual “resting bitch face” soon shifted to something else. Knuckles made a face he rarely made- a face of pure awe. He shifted closer towards his family and opened up his arms awkwardly,
“Thank you all for being my tribe.” He said as they all formed one big group hug.
Knuckles felt something he hadn’t felt in a while.
He felt accepted.