Fuzzbutts: The Sensational Sweets (Patreon)

Meet Sebastian and Carmella Sweet. They're a married pair of sugar gliders, and also Cupcake's parents!

it's late so have some quickie notes

-best friends since childhood, married as soon as they were legally able. Remain stupidly in love to this day and have a million pet names for each other.  

-Legendary acrobats and ringmasters of a successful circus.  As sugar gliders they both possess a gliding membrane and prehensile tails. Carmella has a marsupial pouch in which she keeps performance props and also snacks.

-Pretty busy with their careers until they hit their mid-thirties and remembered oh cripes, we oughta have some kids (small mammals tend to have big, BIG families). Unfortunately struggled to conceive. Undeterred, they decided to go adopt a couple of teeny babies to drown in their particular brand of loud, syrupy-sweet affection

-This plan went out the window when they were taken on a tour through the orphanage and spotted a young bear cub sitting in the corner away from the other children, playing by herself. The adoption agent brushed over the cub, trying to herd Carmella and Sebastian into the small mammals wing, but the Sweets just couldn't help their curiosity

They ask the cub if she'd like to play with them. The bear hesitates before perking up a little, grabbing her ball- but they're not five minutes into a game when a careless swat of the cub's paw sends Sebastian flying, injuring him. The cub runs over to help, reaching out with her giant clawed paws- and Sebastian and Carmella both instinctively flinch. 

That's enough to get the cub lurching backward- but looking down at the tiny couple she hurt- the latest in a long list of others she'd hurt- she fists her paws to her face and begins to bawl, blubbering apologies, desperately trying to scramble back to the safety of her corner.

Well, the Sweets aren't going to stand for this. With the same fearlessness they apply to their death-defying circus routines, they scramble up the bear to rub at her shoulders and pet her cheeks. It was just an accident, everything's alright. Sebastian boasts that her little swat was nothing compared to a scuffle he once got into with a one-eyed bandit cat, and asks if the little bear would like to hear the story. The distraction succeeds in stopping the tears, and the cub curls up and listens, spellbound, occasionally giggling, while Carmella gently corrects her husband's theatrical exaggerations ("No dear, he didn't actually swallow you, remember? I stabbed him with a sewing needle before he could gulp you down proper-")

The adoption agent clears their throat, trying to get the tour moving again. There are other children to meet, he reminds the Sweets. So the Sweets bid a reluctant farewell to the bear cub and move along.

They're allllllmost out of the room when Carmella gives one last look over her shoulder- and sees the cub slumping back down in her corner, hugging her knees. In an instant Carmella has scurried back across the room and has flung herself at the bear. Carmella doesn't need to see any other babies. She wants this one.

The adoption agent sputters, reminding of the far more appropriate children available- smaller, easier to manage children- he brings up the utter insanity of two creatures weighing less than a pound each attempting to raise one of the largest land carnivores on the planet. From their perch on Cupcake's shoulders, the Sweets level a flat look at the agent- before Sebastian folds his arms and says now see here, whatever his wife wants, she gets, and that's all there is to that.

-It actually was insane- suicidal, even- for two tiny sugar gliders to attempt raising a grizzly bear. Despite her best efforts, Cupcake broke a lot of furniture- it was necessary for the Sweets to expand their small home hundreds of times over to properly accommodate the growing bear. Even making her lunch every day was an exhausting ordeal, with each sandwich being larger than the Sweet's own bed. But eventually, everyone adjusts. With tutoring and diligent practice, Cupcake learns to be control her immense strength, and as an adult she can scoop and handle her parents with no fear. The Sweets fuss over their daughter an awful lot, and although Cupcake may grumble and growl, she secretly loves it. She knows she lucked out with her parents, and she loves them more than anything else in the world.

-The Sweets ended up having a surprise pregnancy a couple years after adopting Cupcake, bearing a set of twin joeys. Cupcake will kill you if you look at her little sibbies wrong.

-Cupcake's real name (the one given to her by her adoptive parents) is Charlotte Sweet. "Cupcake" is a pet name that stuck. Her birth name was Gertrude Bruin, which she abandoned with little fanfare. There is no information available on the whereabouts of Cupcake's birth parents, but she finds she doesn't care.