Snow fell on the streets of town as carolers wandered bringing songs to the people and anthros of Emerald Town. Children played in the white fluff in their front yards as their parents shoveled snow off their driveways so that they could go to work the next morning. The sun was setting as the air got colder and everyone was thinking about heading inside, but not some people as they were having a little holiday get together at the home of Mr. Miles "Tails" Prower. It wasn't a party, but just a little pre-party for the bigger party that was to be held on Christmas Eve.

"Okay everybody who wants some eggnog?" Tails asked as he walked into the living room with a tray with mugs of eggnog on it.

"I do!" Ky raised his hand in the air and waved at around. "I love eggnog." He was sitting on one of the couches next to the fireplace that was burning some firewood on it. He rubbed his hands together by it and breathed into them to warm up. "Damn it's cold outside."

Tails put the tray on the coffee table and gave him a mug of eggnog. The vampire accepted it and took a drink. When he was finished he had an eggnog moustache. "Thank you Tails." He thanked the fox and put his mug on a coaster and put it on the coffee table.

"You're welcome Ky." Tails replied. He turned around to the other people there standing by the kitchen. "Any of you guys want some eggnog?"

Sonic raised his hand in the air. "I'll take some." He paused his conversation with Blaze the Cat to accept the drink from his best friend. He took it and made sure not to spill it on his ugly green Christmas sweater which had snowmen on it. Amy had made him wear it as she wanted them to be some sort of couples' thing even though they weren't a couple, well, in her mind they were. Amy had come in a red ugly Christmas sweater with Christmas trees on it. The blue hedgehog took a swig of his eggnog and nodded to thank Tails. The fox smiled and sat down in one of the chairs at the island with his own mug of eggnog.

"I love Christmastime." He said while smiling at his best friend. "It makes me feel so warm and fluffy on the inside.

"I like it too. I like the snow and all of the sugar cookies. But I think you feeling fluffy on the inside has something to do with you eating so much food around this time." Sonic poked him in the belly and laughed.

"Hey! My metabolism isn't as good as yours! Don't call me fat!"

Sonic just laughed more. "I'm just teasing you."

Tails pouted.

"Ah! No pouting, remember Santa."

Shadow stood leaning against the wall near the front door with an extra pair of warm gloves on to warm his hands. He looked over at Rouge and breathed out. Why did he have to be here? Rouge walked over to him. "Hey you grump. How about you come over here and be social for once?"

"I don't care for social events such as this one." He replied. "I would rather be by myself."

"Oh come on! I know why you don't want to be here. It's because Kris and her brother are here isn't it?"

"No it's not."

"Yes it is. You have a tiny crush on Kris and you're pissed off that Ky is here because he doesn't like you hanging around her."

"Shut up."

Rouge saw the embarrassed look on his face at her words. She pulled on his arm. "Com'on go talk to her."

Shadow pulled back on his arm and almost slightly dislocated it. "Ow."

"Just go."

Shadow shook his head no.

"I won't stop bugging you unless you go talk to her."

"Fine then, if it will get you to stop bothering me about it."

"Good boy."

Shadow rolled his eyes and pushed himself off of the wall. Kris was over by the fireplace in her hedgehog form roasting a marshmallow on the fire. When Shadow got over to her she had popped the squishy, spongy sugary gelatin mass in her mouth. He tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Excuse me." He said.

"What?" Kris replied with marshmallow in her mouth. She swallowed it and turned around. She was surprised to see that the black and red hedgehog was talking to her.

Oh shit he's talking to me! Was all that she thought as she stared at him. She put down the rod that she used for the marshmallow and waved at him. "Hi Shadow…"

"Hi."

"Um…It's pretty cold outside isn't it?"

"Yeah." Shadow replied. "So…How's life?"

"G-good." Kris tried to think about something to say that wasn't about Harry Potter or Pokémon. "So…What's your Hogwarts house?" She asked him. Fail.

Shadow cocked his head. "Uh."

"Dammit!" Kris slapped herself across the face. "I'm sorry." She looked away from him. Several seconds went by before Shadow answered.

"I'm a Slytherin."

Her ears perked. "Whoa."

"What?" Shadow asked.

The crimson hedgehog turned around. "No way! I'm a Slytherin too!" She had a excited smile on her face.

"That's cool."

"Way past!" Sonic shouted from across the room.

"What's your favorite book?" Kris asked.

"The Half Blood Prince." Shadow answered.

"Snape kills Dumbledore!" Sonic yelled from across the room also.

"That was a good one." Kris replied to him. "My favorite is the Prisoner of Azkaban."

Shadow and Kris talked on about Harry Potter while Amy watched Sonic and Blaze talk to each other, making sure they weren't doing anything more than talking. Ky crossed his legs over each other.

"Amy, he won't do anything. Stop watching them."

Amy turned to him. "I'm sorry Ky, it's just that I know that she likes him and- Ohhh!"

"Relax, it's a party."

The pink hedgehog fell back on the couch and sighed. "I at least hope I get him for the gift exchange."

Tails turned around at that. "I almost forgot!" He flew over to get a black top hat will holly on it and some sheets of notebook paper. He started to rip the notebook paper into tiny strips to have people put their names onto them so that he could blindly pick their names out for the gift exchange. "Everyone put your name on a piece of notebook paper that I'll give you. I'll pick from this hat who your gift exchange partner will be." He gave out the little strips of paper and waited for every person there to write their name on one. When everyone had given their paper back with their name on it he shook up the hat.

"Okay I'm about to pick the first pair!" Tails put his hand in the hat and picked out two of the papers. "Okay, first we have… Blaze and Silver!"

Blaze and Silver looked at each other and shrugged.

"Next is…Amy and Sonic, and I'm not just doing this because I'm scared of Amy and what she'll do if I don't put her with Sonic."

Amy nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

"Next…Me and Cream. Okay. Finally…Shadow and Kris."

Fuck