The day was Christmas. Amy Rose was busy readying her house for the holiday, setting up the gifts her friends had left the day before under the Christmas tree and placing decorations around the rooms. Her best friend, Cream the Rabbit, was helping her decorate the branches of the enormous pine, while Amy kept hurrying back to the kitchen to check on the dinner she was preparing for that evening. Everything had to go perfectly tonight; the pink hedgehog would make sure of that.
As the meal Amy was preparing finished cooking, the doorbell suddenly rang. The hedgehog turned towards the entrance to the kitchen and shouted to her rabbit friend still in the living room.
"Cream, could you get that, please?"
Cream, who had been kneeling beside the tree, stood up and walked over to the front door. Her Chao, Cheese, who had been helping her place the ornaments on the branches, followed her away from the tree. Cream opened the door to find one of her closest friends standing on Amy's Welcome mat: Tails the Fox. Tails was carrying a large dish of yams covered with tin foil in his hands.
"Hi, Cream!" he said happily to the rabbit standing before him. "Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas, Tails!" Cream replied with a smile. She opened the door wider to allow the fox entry into Amy's house, then, once he was inside, she closed it again.
Within the next hour, the rest of Amy's guests arrived at her house. First came Knuckles the Echidna, who appeared at the front door shortly after Tails, bearing a basket of special handpicked fruits from Angel Island, meant for one of the options of that evening's dessert. After Knuckles came Shadow the Hedgehog, who brought a homemade strawberry and chocolate cake to the house, a dish his late friend Maria had once taught him to make. Maria's favorite holiday had always been Christmas, for it was one of the few days of the year when she could feel like a normal child, when she could spend time with friends and family; therefore, to honor her, Shadow had insisted on bringing his friend's dessert to the dinner.
Amy's last guest, however, did not arrive at her house until the sun had set completely, the dining room table was set, and dinner was about to be served. As the friends all took seats around the table, the doorbell rang for the fourth time that evening. Amy, who was the only one still standing, walked over to the front door to answer the ring. Opening the door, the pink hedgehog saw the person she had been most looking forward to seeing that day standing on her Welcome mat: her crush, Sonic the Hedgehog.
"Merry Christmas, Sonic!" she said, grinning at the blue hedgehog.
"Merry Christmas, Amy!" Sonic replied, smiling back at his admirer. She stepped aside to let him enter the house.
"I'm so glad you're finally here" the pink hedgehog told her crush as he stepped over the threshold. "I was afraid you weren't coming!"
"Are you kidding?" Sonic laughed. "I would never miss Christmas, especially with you making dinner!"
Amy blushed at her crush's remark, closing the door behind him. Sonic then raised his right hand, in which he was carrying a bowl of chocolate pudding covered with plastic wrap. In white, red and green icing, the blue hedgehog had drawn a Christmas tree design over the dessert.
"Where do I put this?" he asked Amy. The pink hedgehog took the bowl, then gestured towards the dinner table in the next room, at which the rest of their friends were already seated.
"Don't worry" she answered. "I'll put this away. Please, have a seat!"
Sonic did as he was told, taking one of the two unoccupied chairs at the table and sitting down. Amy disappeared into the kitchen for a minute, then returned bearing the main dish for that evening's dinner: a large roasted bird filled with stuffing. She placed the bird in the center of the table among the others dishes, then took a seat in the last empty chair, which was placed directly across the table from the blue hedgehog.
"Well..." said the pink hedgehog, turning to face all her friends, "shall we begin?"
The six friends plus one Chao all held hands in a brief Christmas prayer, led by Amy. The pink hedgehog had a little difficulty beginning, for she was holding Sonic's right hand in her left, but she soon found her voice, and managed to lead her friends through the prayer. When they were finished, Amy insisted everyone begin eating.
Dinner was delicious. All of Amy's friends complimented her on her cooking, offering at least one kind remark about the food. The only one who didn't say a word about the cooking was Sonic, though this was probably due to the fact that his mouth was almost always full of food throughout dinner. Instead, he simply looked up at Amy, winked at her, and smiled. It was enough; his admirer understood the message he was sending her, and she nodded back in gratitude.
After dinner came the desserts. Despite the fact that everyone had eaten quite a lot already, they all seemed to have room left in their stomachs for something sweet. The desserts disappeared nearly as quickly as the main course of dinner had, with each friend trying a little bit of everything on the table. When everyone had eaten their fill, each friend sat back in their seat and quietly remained in the same position for a minute, not one of them saying a word.
After a while, one friend managed to work up enough energy to speak. Amy sat up a bit straighter in her seat, turned to face her guests, and spoke a single enlightening phrase:
"Who wants presents?"
At the sound of the word "presents", everyone else sat up straighter and smiled. Laughing, Amy stood up and began clearing the table. She was helped by the rest of the party; evidently they all felt that the sooner the table was cleared, the sooner they would be exchanging gifts by the Christmas tree.
A week and a day earlier, each of the six friends now present at Amy's Christmas gathering had drawn one of six pieces of paper from a bowl. Each piece of paper had a name written on it: the name of one of the friends participating in the event. Each friend was to receive a gift from the person who had drawn their name from the bowl; it was a Secret Santa gift exchange. The presents the six friends had chosen for their recipients were now sitting under the Christmas tree in the pink hedgehog's living room.
As soon as every dish and piece of silverware previously placed on the table was back in the kitchen, the friends all took seats by the Christmas tree. Amy sat down closest to the pine, and, once her friends were all seated on the floor, she reached for the pile of presents and picked up the first one she saw: a medium-sized box wrapped in red paper. The pink hedgehog read the tag attached to the box, then looked up at her guests and smiled. She quoted the writing on the tag:
"'To Sonic, from your Secret Santa.'"
Everyone turned to Sonic, who grinned at the very thought of being the first to receive a Christmas present. The blue hedgehog happily took the box from his admirer, and as he unwrapped it, she told him:
"After you open it, you have to guess who it's from."
Sonic pulled the red wrapping paper completely off the package, then opened the box. As soon as he saw its contents, he burst out laughing.
"I know who this is from!" he exclaimed happily through his laughter.
For a minute, no one else understood why the blue hedgehog was laughing, for they couldn't see what was inside the box in his lap.
"What did you get, Sonic?" Tails asked his best friend curiously. Instead of answering right away, however, Sonic pulled out a slip of paper that was placed immediately beside his actual gift within the package. He read the message aloud to his friends:
"'To the "Second Fastest Thing Alive". Maybe these will help you keep up with me. Merry Christmas!'"
Sonic placed the slip of paper on the floor as his friends laughed along with him. The blue hedgehog then extracted his Christmas present from the box to show it to everyone else. It was a pair of hover shoes, exactly like the ones currently being worn by the black hedgehog sitting only a few feet away from him. Sonic pointed to his No-Longer-Secret Santa, grinning broadly.
"Shadow!"
Shadow grinned at the blue hedgehog whose name he had drawn from the Secret Santa bowl, nodding at his friend's correct guess. Sonic thanked the black hedgehog for the present with a hearty laugh and a brief one-armed hug. Amy then clapped her hands and called everyone's attention again.
"OK, it's Shadow's turn now!"
The pink hedgehog searched through the pile of presents under the Christmas tree for a moment, until she found the one with a tag reading "To Shadow, from your Secret Santa". She picked up the large package wrapped in bright paper and handed it to its respective recipient.
Shadow unwrapped the gift to reveal a large wooden chest with ancient runes carved into it. The chest had a special lock, shaped as a Chaos Emerald and set to open with a special combination, to be determined later by the owner. Opening the wooden box, the black hedgehog noticed that it had a particular purpose: to hold a Chaos Emerald securely within its compartment.
Shadow looked up from his Christmas present with a smile on his lips. He glanced around at all his friends, pretending to wonder who could have given him this gift.
"Let's see..." he began in a light sarcastic tone. "Who could have given me this special chest to guard a Chaos Emerald? Who among my friends cares the most about the Emeralds' safety?"
Shadow's gaze stopped on the red echidna sitting at the opposite end of the circle from him. The black hedgehog grinned at Knuckles, who began to smile slowly back.
"Thanks, Knuckles", said Shadow happily. "This will really come in handy."
Knuckles laughed, then proceeded to explain about the chest. The echidnas of his tribe had learned how to fashion these chests long ago, and they were specially designed to shield the Emeralds' energy from the world, so they wouldn't fall victim to potential threats. This particular chest was one of a few that were left from the ancient days of Knuckles's tribe; the rest had been destroyed by the strange life form Chaos over 4000 years ago.
After Shadow, it was Knuckles's turn to open a present. The echidna unwrapped the gift he had received from his Secret Santa, and opened the box to reveal a pair of shovel claws. The moment he saw them, Knuckles pulled the claws excitedly out of the box and slipped them over his hands. He then looked around at his friends, trying to guess which of them had given him the one item he had desperately wanted for the past three months.
"Let me think", the echidna began to wonder aloud. "Who was I with when I mentioned I needed new shovel claws back in September?"
Knuckles thought for a minute, then, suddenly, it came to him. The red echidna turned sharply to face the two-tailed fox sitting next to him.
"Tails!" he exclaimed. "These are from you!"
Tails laughed and nodded happily, confirming his friend's correct guess. He then accepted the echidna's thanks and one-armed embrace, while Amy picked out the next present from under the tree.
Tails took the present wrapped in bright green paper that the pink hedgehog handed to him, and unwrapped it to reveal a box with a picture of a model jet on it. The young fox gasped at the sight of the picture, then glanced around excitedly at everyone else. It was harder for Tails to guess who his Secret Santa was, for all of his friends were aware of his passion for aircrafts.
The two-tailed fox thought carefully for a minute, then dropped his gaze on his best friend.
"Sonic?" he asked. The blue hedgehog smiled, then wagged a finger at the young fox. The model jet was not from him.
Tails resumed his wondering, turning to face the only other friends of his who could be his Secret Santa: the two girls sitting close to the Christmas tree. The two-tailed fox stared at them silently for a moment, until finally he dared to point at one of them, the one sitting directly beside him in the circle.
"Cream?"
The young rabbit glanced at the Chao floating beside her, and the two began to laugh. Indeed, Cream was Tails's Secret Santa. The fox laughed joyfully, then hugged his rabbit friend and thanked her for the gift. Amy then picked up one of the last two presents under the tree, and handed it to Cream.
The young rabbit lifted the present in her hands. It was soft, light and irregularly shaped. Cream then proceeded to pull off the pink paper covering the present, while Cheese watched her progress over her shoulder. When the wrapping paper was completely removed, a plush Angel Chaos Chao was sitting in the rabbit's hands.
Cream grinned broadly after unwrapping the toy Chao, hugging it tightly. The young rabbit collected plush Chao as a hobby, and an Angel Chaos Chao was one she had been wanting to add to her collection for as long as she could remember. Unfortunately, though, plush Chaos Chao were very rare, and therefore very difficult to add to a collection. As hard as she had tried, Cream could never find the toy Chao she wanted anywhere.
The rabbit looked down at the plush Angel Chaos Chao in her arms, ecstatic. There was no need to wonder for even a second who her Secret Santa was. Cream turned to her right to face her best friend, and immediately hugged her tight.
"Thank you, Amy!" she exclaimed happily, knowing how difficult it must have been for her friend to find the plush Chao. "I love it!"
Amy laughed as Cream embraced her. Everyone else grinned at the young rabbit's adorable display of emotion. Through all the excitement of opening gifts and observing each other's reactions, nobody noticed when one of the group slipped away from the bunch and disappeared. Everyone's attention was now on Amy, who had just released her best friend and was reaching for the last present under the tree: the one with her name on it.
The pink hedgehog knew immediately who the gift was from, as did everyone else. There was only one friend who hadn't been identified as someone's Secret Santa yet. Amy gently tore the blue wrapping paper off her gift, trying hard to control her excitement. The box was rather small, but this fact did not discourage the hedgehog in the slightest. The best gifts come in small packages, she knew.
When her present was unwrapped, Amy lifted the top off the box and checked its contents. Inside were three items: a red rose, a sprig of mistletoe, and a card. As her friends watched her, the pink hedgehog lifted the card out of the box and read it to herself. On the card was the following message:
"(Amy, do NOT read this card out loud.)
If you want your real Christmas present, meet me by the tree on the hill outside the living room window after all the presents have been opened. Bring the mistletoe. Sincerely, your Secret Santa.
P.S. Show our friends the rose, so they don't get suspicious."
Amy smiled as she finished reading the message. She then looked up, and suddenly realized that Sonic was missing from the circle. Following the instructions on the card, she picked up the rose and showed it to everyone else still in the room. They all smiled at the sight of the beautiful flower, then turned to the opposite end of the circle from the pink hedgehog to find that her Secret Santa had disappeared.
Before they could begin to wonder where he had gone, however, Amy spoke up.
"Could you guys help me clean up, please?"
The friends collected all the wrapping paper strewn across the floor to toss it out, and picked up their respective Christmas presents to put them away. As her guests helped her clean up the living room, Amy placed her rose on her coffee table and slipped out the front door to meet her Secret Santa, holding the sprig of mistletoe he had given her in her right hand.
Sonic was waiting by the oak tree outside his admirer's house, standing in the dim light shining on the hill from the living room window. Amy rushed over to him excitedly, and when she reached him, she noticed he was standing with both his hands behind his back.
"Did you bring the mistletoe?" the blue hedgehog asked her, smiling. Amy nodded and showed it to him. Sonic then proceeded to give her instructions.
"Hang it on this branch, then close your eyes."
Amy did as she was told, barely able to contain her excitement as she hung the mistletoe on the low branch directly above them. The pink hedgehog then closed her eyes and waited. A few seconds later, she felt two things: the first was her crush's lips briefly touching her cheek, and the second was a medium-sized object being placed in her hands.
"Merry Christmas, Amy!" said Sonic happily. "You can open your eyes now."
The pink hedgehog did so with a smile, blushing profusely as she looked first at her crush, then at the present he had given her. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary book, but upon opening it, Amy discovered it was a photo album, full of pictures of herself and her best friends.
After drawing her name from the Secret Santa bowl, Sonic had taken the week preceding Christmas to collect photos of Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Cream, Cheese and himself from the entire year and put them together into one album. The result was the perfect Christmas present for Amy, who loved to keep memories of her friends but did not yet own a complete photo album with pictures of them all. The pink hedgehog laughed happily as she leafed through the book, then threw her arms around her Secret Santa and hugged him tight.
"Thank you, Sonic!" she exclaimed as he laughed and hugged her back. "This is the best Christmas present I've ever received!"
"Look through it to the last page", the blue hedgehog told her.
Amy released Sonic and turned to the last two pages of her new photo album. As soon as she saw the pictures on them, she grinned and blushed. On the second-to-last page was her favorite picture of herself, from a day she had gone to the beach wearing her best sundress and a sunhat. To the right of this photo, on the very last page, was a picture of Sonic, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. Underneath the picture of himself, the blue hedgehog had written the following message:
"To Amy Rose, my 'Number One Fan' and a great friend. Thanks for an awesome year, Amy! Merry Christmas! Love, your friend, Sonic the Hedgehog."
Amy laughed after reading the note. She thanked Sonic again with another hug, which he gladly accepted and reciprocated.
"Merry Christmas, Amy!" said Sonic, releasing his admirer and winking at her.
"Merry Christmas, Sonic!" Amy replied, blushing even more profusely.
The two hedgehogs then made their way back to the house, Amy hugging the photo album as she walked. Sonic and Amy briefly exchanged glances and smiles before stepping into the house and joining their friends again. They each knew what the other was thinking, and silently agreed: today had been a wonderful day. It was a very Merry Christmas.