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"My," Knuckles says with a low, doleful tone, parting the living-room curtains so that he can peer out the window. Rain races in a thick continuous sheet down the glass, obscuring the view of the backyard. "How the gods weep."
"No one's weeping," Maddie says, and strokes back his spikes, which have bristled in distress. They aren't sharp at all, she's found, so long as she pets along the grain, the same as Sonic's. "It's nature, it's nice. Rain is what makes the grass green and the trees grow."
"Yeah, big guy, rain isn't so bad!" Sonic says, appearing beside them with a speed-of-sound blue blur. Maddie's past the point of being startled by such things, and just reaches down to stroke his spikes, too.
"Earth loves rain, Mom's right. It's an important part of the planet's water system," Miles says from the couch. "It's super fascinating! There's precipitation, and transpiration, and evaporation, and condensation…”
"The canine does not love rain," Knuckles says, and he's not wrong; Ozzy's cowering under Maddie and Tom's bed as they speak, as is customary for rainstorms. "He seems to me a very spiritually sensitive creature; therefore, this storm probably bears a dark omen."
"No dark omens," Maddie says gently. She shuts the curtains and reaches for his hand, leads him away from the window and toward the couch. Miles is fiddling with the remote, scrolling through Netflix. Knuckles comes without a fuss; he hasn't pulled away from her in weeks. "Everything's okay, sweetheart. Let's all sit down, c'mon, I bet Ozzy will come out of hiding when he sees how brave you boys are."
"Super brave!" Sonic follows and hops up onto the couch with them. Maddie tugs Knuckles into her lap, then draws Sonic and Miles against either side, tucking them under her arms, hugging Knuckles to her chest. There's some poking, Sonic's spikes under her armpit, Knuckles' under her chin, but she doesn't mind. "We'd never let any dark omens hurt you," Sonic says, snuggling closer until he can throw an arm around Knuckles. Knuckles wrinkles his nose in annoyance, but doesn't squirm away.
"Never ever," Miles agrees. He reaches for one of Knuckles' hands, gives it a squeeze. They're all so affectionate with each other, and it always stings Maddie's eyes a little. Somehow, she would've expected three brothers to fight like cats in a bag, but they very rarely do.
"Ever," she adds, and drops a kiss to the top of Knuckles' head.
"Enough of this ridiculousness," Knuckles says, though he's making no effort whatsoever to escape the Wachowski Family Cuddle Pile. "You act as though I'm afraid. I'm not. I was merely pointing out the fact that this storm is probably a dark omen foretelling our imminent doom." He swallows audibly. "That is all."
"We're not imminently doomed," Maddie says. "Miles, sweetie, let your brother pick the next movie."
"Uh, excuse you, Mom means me," Sonic says when Miles offers Knuckles the remote. Sonic smiles sheepishly at Maddie's chiding look. "Bad joke?"
Knuckles takes the remote, but it's no surprise when he immediately presses it into Maddie's hand. He still doesn't quite understand how to use it, despite Sonic and Miles' many attempts to teach him, and out of frustration he's crushed four remotes in the past three months. "Mother, I wish to watch the magic closet movie."
The Chronicles of Narnia, he means; that's his favorite movie. "You got it," Maddie says. She searches for it, and restarts it from their last rewatch.
Sonic groans. "Can't we watch one of the sequels instead? We've never seen those, this one we've seen about a gazillion times."
"We haven't seen it a gazillion times.” Maddie chuckles. "Just try to find something new about it this time, something you didn't notice before."
"Impossible, I notice everything!" Sonic proclaims, then cringes when Maddie ruffles his spikes. "Mom!"
"Narnia’s good," Miles says brightly. "I like the part when the beavers talk."
"Indeed," Knuckles says. "But the part I like most is when the older siblings embrace the runt, and forgive him, and love him despite his betrayal."
A silence sweeps over the couch as a sharp-tipped spear passes through Maddie's heart. She gasps and bundles Knuckles more tightly into her arms, so his head rests on her shoulder. "You didn't betray anyone," she says firmly. "That's enough of that."
"Yeah!" Sonic says, looking a little speared himself. "Now, if you'd teamed up with Robotnik after we became a family, maybe that would constitute betrayal, but as it stands, no way. You're the most loyal guy I know."
"More ridiculousness," Knuckles grumbles, crossing his arms. "You think I'm equating myself to the runt? I'm no runt."
"Or a traitor," Sonic says.
Knuckles just grunts, noncommittal.
"Or a traitor.” Sonic pronounces it slowly. "C'mon, say it, or I'll bother you forever."
Miles nudges Knuckles when he only frowns more deeply. "He'll do it, y'know," Miles says.
"Oh, yeah," Maddie agrees. "Not a threat to be taken lightly."
Knuckles sighs heavily, twice; he can be dramatic enough to rival Sonic when he wants to be. "Very well," he says, and then, with extreme reluctance, "Or a traitor."
"There ya go!" Sonic grins at him.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Miles says, beaming.
Knuckles just grunts again and turns his face into Maddie's shoulder as if to hide his expression. She rubs his back, surprised to see him so shy; he must be really upset, poor baby.
Ten minutes pass, and it dawns on Maddie that movies won't be enough for the boys. The TV's not enough to block out the clatter of the rain, and Knuckles isn't even watching it, his face pressed flush against her shirt. Sonic and Miles are fidgeting already, clearly bored. It's only a matter of time before one of them leaps up and sprints off to find trouble, and the other will surely follow. She kisses Knuckles' forehead and squeezes Sonic and Miles against her sides, to perk them all up.
"I think we need to play a game," she says. "Something to take our minds off the rain, and keep us busy until Dad gets home." Tom's stuck doing paperwork at the station. He already missed dinner, but he's promised to either get home by bedtime or call to say goodnight and help Maddie deliver the traditional Wachowski Family Bedtime Story.
"Yes, a game!" Sonic cheers, vibrating in place with excitement.
"An excellent idea," Knuckles says, his voice muffled against Maddie's shoulder. "I suggest we play Appease the Gods. Does anyone have a goat they're not too fond of, and a dagger?"
Miles gasps, horrified. Sonic laughs.
"Nope, we're not sacrificing any goats," Maddie says, patting Knuckles' back to soothe his put-out whine. "I was thinking more along the lines of..." She trails off for dramatic effect, and grins. "A dance party!"
Miles throws up his arms, horror quickly becoming happiness. "Yay!"
"Oh yeah!" Sonic's gone in a blue flash and back just as instantaneously, his tablet and Bluetooth speaker in hand. "We're 'boutta raise the roof up in here!"
Knuckles flinches, filling his fists with Maddie's shirt. "No, no, we should most definitely not damage the roof in any way," he says thinly.
Maddie melts, and opens her mouth to comfort him, but Sonic beats her to it, at Knuckles' side in another blue flash. He's smiling gently when he takes one of Knuckles' tense hands, working to uncurl it from Maddie's shirt.
"Hey, big guy, it's okay. 'Raise the roof' is just an Earth saying, it means to have a party," Sonic explains. Maddie's so proud of him, it rams her square in the chest. "I'm scared of getting wet, you know that, but we're home, we're safe here. Everything's gonna be fine."
Knuckles peeks up from Maddie's shirt. "You swear it?"
"On my Switch," Sonic says solemnly. "Now, how about that dance party? I was thinking we could make it a competition, too!"
"Uh..." Knuckles sighs. "Very well. But I don't want to dance, only watch."
"Aww, c'mon!" Sonic groans in disappointment. "You'll have fun if you just —"
"That's okay, Knuckles, you don't have to dance," Maddie says, cutting in here, because as fantastic a brother as Sonic is, he can be a little pushy sometimes when it comes to games.
"Yeah, you can just watch me kick Sonic's butt!" Miles hops off the couch, and makes grabby hands at Sonic's tablet.
"In your dreams," Sonic says, handing it over.
"Yeah, my daydreams!" Miles counters. Maddie can't help but laugh, they're so precious. "Anyway, what should we dance to first?"
"Just put my 'Awesome Collection' playlist on shuffle!” Sonic says. “There's something in there for everyone. Music of my impeccable taste, Mom's obscure indie songs, your dubstep... There's even some cowboy stuff for Dad and Knuckles."
It's the most hilarious thing. They've experimented with just about every kind of music there is, and found that the only genre Knuckles isn't mostly indifferent to is country. Granted, this might have less to do with the music itself than the way Tom presented it to him as "one of Earth's greatest achievements ever," and "what all the badasses listen to," but the fact remains. Sometimes he even wears Sonic's cowboy hat around the house; Maddie's been meaning to sneak a picture of him in it.
"Alright!" She gives him a little shake, hoping to excite him, but he just frowns up at her. "This is gonna be so much fun!"
"Of course it is! Now, Mom and Knuckles, you guys will be the judges, 'cause you aren't dancing," Sonic says. Maddie's glad he understands that she can't join in, she has to stay sitting with Knuckles. "So you get to decide who's the best dancer. And it's even more exciting because we don't know what kind of song is gonna come on!"
"I hope none of your songs come on," Miles says to Maddle. "They're nice and all, but they're hard to dance to!"
"Well, they're slow-dance songs," she says. Actually, they're more like "quietly studying for hours" songs; her favorites are without lyrics.
"Wouldn't bother me. Master dancers can dance to anything. I could dance to a fart," Sonic says, completely straight-faced, and seems surprised when Maddie and Miles laugh. Even Knuckles cracks a small smile, half-hidden against her shirt. "What?" Sonic says. "I could!"
"I guess we'll just have to find out who the master dancer here is." Maddie grabs the remote and shuts off the TV. Training her expression into that of a fierce referee, she points to Miles with the remote, then to Sonic; they giggle in turn. "Alright, you two, I want a nice clean dance-fight. No shoving, and no gadgets or superspeed, just pure dancing talent."
"What does the winner get?" Miles asks excitedly, rocking back and forth on his heels.
"The winner gets..." Maddie considers, and knows now that she has to declare it a tie, and somehow get Knuckles into the game so that he can win, too. "Extra dessert!" They already had a piece of store-bought apple pie each, after their spaghetti, the only dish Maddie can reliably make without the assistance of Sous Chef Tom.
"Wow!" Sonic gasps. He turns to Miles. "Sorry, buddy, I was gonna let you win, but now I have to beat you."
Miles glares at him for a moment, then hurries over to Maddie with an imploring smile and impressive puppy-dog eyes. "Mom," he begins. "Have I told you you look really pretty today? And, Knuckles, are those new socks?"
"No?" Knuckles says.
"Get outta here, you!" Maddie shoos Miles away, laughing. "No bribing the judges! On the count of three, hit shuffle."
Sonic sticks his tongue out at Miles as he comes back to stand beside Sonic, tails drooping. "Nice try!"
Maddie opens her mouth to begin the count, but stops when Knuckles, still huddled in her lap, tugs at her shirt to get her attention. He's staring up at her with his severe little face.
"I'm not certain this is an appropriate time for dancing," he says when all eyes are on him. "Perhaps we should join Ozzy under your bed. Not to hide, only to guard the Emerald,” he adds hastily; it's hidden in a shoebox there. “Seeing as we're under siege by Thor.”
"Like from The Avengers!" Sonic says. "That'd be cool."
"Yeah!" Miles says. "You wanna play Avengers instead?"
"No way, no switching games! Anyway, you just wanna get out of losing."
"Nuh-uh! Stop trash-talking me."
"Okay, okay, sorry! Here, come get a good-luck hug."
"Good-luck hug!"
"Oh, sweetheart," Maddie coos, because Knuckles has gone wide-eyed and tense, as if he's worried Thor himself might burst through the ceiling and smite them all in revenge for not taking him seriously. She lowers her voice so that only Knuckles can hear her, reassuring him while Sonic and Miles cuddle. "I'd fight all the gods in all the worlds to keep you boys safe, and I'd win. Don't you trust me?"
"Of course," he says. "But —"
"Then believe me," she says. "We're gonna play a game, and eat pie, and everything's gonna be okay. Okay?"
He looks less than convinced, but he nods, and that's good enough for Maddie. She hugs him closer, then goes back to grinning at Sonic and Miles, who spring apart in preparation for the countdown.
"Okay, here we go," she begins. "One! Two! Shuffle!"
The first song is bouncy dubstep, which is one of those things Maddie will never admit to hating for fear of being labeled Old and Uncool. The dancing is clumsier than usual, mostly just hopping and spinning, because it's close to bedtime and their stomachs are full, but still ridiculously adorable. Maddie laughs and claps along, bouncing Knuckles on her knee just a little, so he'll feel involved. The music thoroughly drowns out the sounds of the rain striking the house, and he seems more relaxed the longer it plays, even clapping with her after a while.
The next song is country, one of Tom's favorites, and Sonic's first move is to throw an invisible lasso over Knuckles and tug hard. He groans in exaggerated frustration when Knuckles won't budge.
"You wanna try dancing now?" Maddie asks Knuckles when Miles abandons his own dancing to help Sonic, gripping the invisible rope and pretending to pull. She kisses Knuckles' cheek. "I'll get up with you, we'll do it together."
"I'm not sure," he says, hesitating. He's not the most confident dancer at the best of times, and almost always needs this kind of coaxing.
"Please!" Miles whines, almost falling over when he pretends to yank.
"Yeah, please!" Sonic grabs Miles' shoulder to steady him, and together they pull on the invisible rope with all their combined strength. If it were a real rope, there'd be a Knuckles-shaped hole in the wall. "I'm missing my other little brother, it's killing the vibe!"
"I'm two seasons your elder. Also, your rope is intangible," Knuckles says flatly, but Maddie can tell that he's moved. He wouldn't be fidgeting his feet otherwise, on the fence about getting up.
"Then they need their big brother." Maddie gives him a gentle nudge. "Just for one song?"
Knuckles sighs, all drama, and finally hops off Maddie's lap. "Very well," he says, bristling when Sonic and Miles are immediately on him, wrapping him into a group hug. Maddie slides off the couch, too, and gets on her knees to join in the love, her arms around all three of them. "Just for one song," Knuckles grumbles.
Ten songs and a half hour later, the storm has become a non-issue.
It's still raging on, waves crashing over the windows, water pellets striking the roof, but they can't hear it, too swept up in the music. Maddie feels like a teenager again, jamming out at a sleepover, throwing her head and swaying her hips, hair swinging wildly over her shoulders. She also feels like a mother hen, watching like a hawk to ensure her chicks don't fall over or crash into each other. Miles is starting to droop a little, but Sonic and Knuckles are still going strong, holding hands and bouncing around each other with infinitely more enthusiasm than rhythm. It's one of Sonic's breakneck, electric-guitar songs, almost too fast to follow.
"I fear no omens!" Knuckles declares halfway through, his chest puffed, and Maddie falters, because —
"Woah, that's hardcore!" Sonic says; Maddie's thoughts exactly. "I fear no omens!" he echoes, booming.
"I fear no omens!" Miles giggles.
Maddie whoops. "I fear no omens!"
The party continues for another few songs, until Miles starts tripping over his tails. He's obviously drained, so Maddie scoops him up and dances more gently with him on her hip. She's glad when one of her slow songs comes on next; it should provide a good segue into settling down and getting ready for bed.
"What do you think, boys?" She taps the tablet to pause the music. There's no immediate protest, with Sonic yawning hugely and Knuckles tiredly rubbing his eyes with his fists. "Are we ready to declare a winner?" Maddie asks.
"Uh-huh." Miles yawns, too, and drops his head to her shoulder, mostly limp in her arms.
"Yup! I declare that I win," Sonic says, then winces when Knuckles shoves him. "Hey!"
"Knuckles, sweetie, no shoving," she chides, smiling when he sticks out his tongue at her. He gets silly when he's overtired, less like an alien warrior child and more like a regular one.
Her smile widens when he turns and hugs Sonic in apology. Sonic grunts as he tries and fails to pick Knuckles up, probably wanting to swing him around like he does Miles sometimes. "You're too dang dense," Sonic says, and settles for swaying them both from side to side as if in another dance. The only one strong enough to carry Knuckles around for longer than ten minutes at a time (Maddie's record) is Tom.
"But you're right, Sonic, you do win," Maddie says warmly.
"Yes, I knew it!" Sonic releases Knuckles to spin around in celebration, an exultant blue blur.
"And Miles," Maddie says. She rocks Miles and kisses his cheek to wake him up a little.
"Five more minutes," he mumbles.
"And Knuckles." Maddie grins down at him and Sonic, their near identical looks of confusion. "You all won, it's a three-way tie!"
"Yay!" Sonic claps, then wilts as his eyes move from Knuckles, whose eyelids seem to be growing too heavy to keep open, to Miles, who's asleep again in Maddie's arms. "Aw, man. Everyone's tired."
"You're tired, too," Maddie says, chuckling. Sonic's always the last one clinging to a game, and the least willing to give it up for bedtime. "You just don't realize it yet. C'mon, you can help me get your brothers ready for bed."
"But what about extra dessert?" Sonic asks. "If we all won, you owe us three pieces of pie. Maybe I can eat Knuckles' and Miles' pie for them, since they're indisposed."
"I don't think so, sweetheart. Nice try," she says when he pouts up at her. "We'll have pie for breakfast, okay?"
Sonic considers this for a moment, then grins. "Okay!" He grabs Knuckles' arm and pulls it over his shoulders, Knuckles groaning in protest even as he leans heavily on Sonic for support. "I just can't believe these two goofs are going to bed a whole hour early," he says. "Now we'll be the only ones awake to greet Dad when he gets home."
Maddie is the only one still awake when Tom gets home. The rain stopped soon after she tucked the boys into bed, all three of them out like lights the second the blankets came up over them. They're all bundled together in Maddie and Tom's bed; she doesn't want anyone waking up afraid if the rain starts up again tonight, which it's liable to do. Ozzy's here, too, having emerged from under the bed to jump up and claim his usual sleeping spot at the foot of the mattress when the storm cleared. Maddie's precariously close to falling asleep herself when she hears the front door open, Sonic and Miles snuggled up to one side of her under the covers, Knuckles the other, her arms around them all. No one stirs, not even Ozzy at her feet.
"Hey, babies," Tom says upon finding them like this, lighting up despite his obvious exhaustion. He tried to call at bedtime as promised, but the boys were already knocked out by then, so Maddie rejected the call and sent him a picture that, in her humble opinion, really should be printed, framed and kept forever.
"Hey, honey. You wanna get in on this cuddling action?" Maddie says, when Tom just stands staring in the doorway with an adoring smile on his face.
"Do I ever! Ugh, they're so cute. Even cuter than in the picture.” He hurries over to the bed. Maddie heard him stop in the bathroom on his way down the hallway; he's changed into pajamas, and his breath is minty-fresh when he leans down to kiss her. "How was your night?" he asks, sliding under the covers beside Knuckles, managing to wrap his arm around all of them at once.
Maddie catches his hand and laces their fingers together. “Fun,” she says. “We had a dance party-slash-competition. It was a three-way tie, so I've promised the boys pie for breakfast.”
“Oh, wow! Lucky ducks. I can have pie for breakfast, too, right?” He grins at the incredulous look she gives him, though of course he can. She thinks she will, too.
“How was your night? Did you get everything done?” she asks.
“Mhmm. It was miserable, though. I missed you all so much.” Tom squeezes her hand. “Tell me more about the dance party, and dinner. I feel bad for missing a whole night —” He breaks off, gasping as if at a terrible realization. “And we skipped a Wachowski Family Bedtime Story, that's unheard of!”
“Oh, honey.” Maddie leans in to kiss his cheek over Knuckles' head.
“It's just… This time is precious, y'know? They're only kids once,” Tom says, a worried pinch between his eyebrows. “Pretty soon they'll be going to college and being superheroes or whatever, and we'll be left wishing we could have one more night like this.”
He gets sentimental when he's tired, and she loves him so much for it. “We had spaghetti for dinner. It was a little undercooked, but no one complained,” she offers. He smiles, watching her eagerly, as if she's drip-feeding him water after a trek through the desert. “This one liked it so much he wanted seconds, then thirds.” She nods to Knuckles.
“This one likes everything,” Tom says, nuzzling Knuckles' spikes. They've yet to encounter an Earth food Knuckles didn't scarf down like he'd never been fed before, even vegetables, which Sonic and Miles will only eat if they're bribed with sweets.
Maddie thinks of how Knuckles clung to her on the couch, and her smile droops. “He was afraid of the storm,” she says. “I've never seen him like that before. He thought ‘the gods’ were mad at us. He wanted to sacrifice a goat.”
“Aw.” Tom looks crushed by this news, and presses a heartbreakingly tender kiss to the top of Knuckles' head, as if in apology for not being here. Maddie squeezes his hand, wishing he wouldn't blame himself like he's probably doing. “Poor baby,” he says. “Were any goats harmed in the making of this dance party?”
“No.” She chuckles quietly. “But the dancing definitely helped. And Sonic and Miles, I wish you could've seen the way they were just…there for him, y'know?” She brushes her unheld hand over Sonic's cheek, then Miles’. “A kid couldn't ask for better brothers.”
“We couldn't ask for better kids.” Tom's damp eyes move from Knuckles' face to Sonic's to Miles’. He's smiling again when he lifts his eyes to Maddie's. “And a man couldn't ask for a better wife.”
“I love you,” she says with a wide grin, “Donut Lord.”
“Love you, too, Pretzel Lady.” He presses his face to Knuckles' spikes to contain his laughter. “You still have no idea where that comes from.”
“Oh, I'm gonna find out,” she says, reaching over Sonic and Miles for the bedside lamp. She steals one last look at them all before she turns out the light, her perfect, improbable family. It'll be her turn to work all day tomorrow, she has a ten-hour shift at the clinic to look forward to, and she'll miss them every second.
“Are not,” Tom says in the dark.
“Am too.” She yawns.
“Are —” He yawns back. “Not.”
“Am…too...”
“Are…”