What's this? Yet ANOTHER started story? You bet! Well, I did mention that I was going to post one near Christmas to get rid of my stupid Writer's Block and a few of my Threatening Plot Bunnies…
Anyway, y'all have StarVix to partially thank for this gem :) Her fabulous story "A Hedgehog Thanksgiving" inspired the idea!
Disclaimer: It's in the summary. I WILL NOT say it again. I've got better things to do with my life than REPEAT MYSELF. I have got to make better use of that Ctrl+C feature, don't I? ;)
"Yeah, Mom, I'll be there," Sonic the Hedgehog said over the phone, his shoe-clad feet propped up on the arm of the couch he was reclining on. "Should I bring anything or…?"
"Just what you always do, dear," his mother declined cheerfully.
A full-fledged grin spread across Sonic's features. "Of course. But nothing else?"
"Oh, no, remember the last time you brought us a 'treat?'"
Sonic could hear the gentle teasing behind the remark, but didn't mind it at all, instead responding with mock indignation. "Hey, I've gotten way better! That last cake I made didn't even make anyone sick!"
"Well, your stomachs had to have developed an immunity at some point."
"Nuh-uh!" Sonic denied, wagging a finger even though she couldn't see him (she was in an entirely different hemisphere of the planet, after all). "Tons of people who had never tasted my wonderful baking before had some! I even got Shadow to try it!"
"Well in that case, how much help did Tails give you?" his mother asked, a knowing smile in her voice.
Evil woman. "Er…" But she did have a point.
"And that reminds me, Tails is coming, too, right?"
"Well…" Sonic began thoughtfully. "Not sure, he might spend Christmas with Cream and her family this year…"
"I'M COMING!" Tails's voice thundered from another room.
Sonic laughed. "Never mind. He's coming."
"Yes, I heard," Aleena's amused voice said. "And there's one other person I want to see come…You mentioned him earlier: Shadow."
"Shadow the Hedgehog?" Sonic asked, surprise laced through his voice. "You want me to invite Shadow the Hedgehog?"
"Oh, sweetie, I know he's your archrival, but he has our name!" his mom beamed cheerfully over the phone. "He should celebrate with us!"
"Well…" Sonic hesitated.
"Do I need to bring out Mother's Demand?" A deceptively sweet voice.
Sonic shivered as the stern undertone that had appeared. "No, no," he assured her. "I don't have a problem asking. I just don't think he'll take me up on it, that's all." He might even give me a Christmas gift this year when I ask, Sonic thought wryly, - if a Chaos Spear through the foot counts.
"Then I will use Mother's Demand. Tell him THAT."
"Somehow, I doubt that'll mean the same thing to him that it means to us," Sonic pointed out.
"Then you'll just have to explain it to him," she said briskly.
"I'll do my best," Sonic promised. "See you soon, Mom."
"You, too, honey. Take care, and try not to injure yourself."
Sonic rolled his eyes. "I won't…I know…I know, don't worry, Mom…" A soft smile graced his features. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, Mom. Tell everyone we love them, and we'll be there. Alright, bye."
He hung up the landline and sank back into the plush seat with a sigh. "Now how am I going to do this?" he murmured.
"What did she want?" Tails asked as he came into the room, leaning over the sofa to gaze down at his frustrated foster brother.
"She wants me to invite Shadow," Sonic mumbled.
"Shadow?" Two large, pointed ears stuck straight up as their owner wondered if they were working properly. "Seriously?!"
"Yeah, seriously," Sonic grumped.
"But…he…heh…"
"He's not so bad, Tails," Sonic said to the kitsune. "And he could use some quality time with the Hedgehog Household." Here he wiggled his eyebrows in a silly manner, making it clear that Tails the Fox and Yours Truly were included in said Household.
"True," Tails acknowledged as he brought to mind memories of the Christmas get-togethers Sonic's family had each year. They were some of the happiest memories in his life. "But…I honestly cannot see Shadow of all people showing up and getting along with everyone."
"We are just a tad bit…rambunctious, aren't we?" Sonic grinned as he too recalled the fond times.
"Since when did you get a dictionary?" Tails asked playfully. He quickly returned to seriousness, though. "But do you think you can pull the Begging Puppy trick? You managed to wriggle out of bringing Amy by using that."
Sonic grimaced at that memory. Oh, yes, once his parents had caught a drift of the fact that Amy was his "girlfriend," they had insisted that she come. It took many arguments over the phone, written letters insisting she was just a friend, NOT someone he took a romantic interest in, and a personal visit to them explaining that she was a rabid female fan to get them to revoke their announcement. And even then it had been close, the Begging Puppy look being the thing that definitively tipped the scale in his favor. But even that was ineffective against…
"No go, li'l bro," Sonic shook his head. "She pulled off a Mother's Demand on me."
Tails raised his eyebrows. "Somehow I doubt that will mean the same thing to him as it does to us."
"That's what I said, but she told me to make him understand it. And besides, she did make sense." Sonic sighed again.
"Oh?"
"Same last name. Thus, he belongs in the Hedgehog Household."
"Ah." Tails considered for a moment before standing up. "Well, good luck." He rushed out of the room.
"Hey hey hey! Seriously, man, way past uncool!" Sonic shouted, aggravated by his best friend's refusal to help him figure out how, exactly, he was going to invite the moody, black hedgehog. "Well, I guess best thing to do would be to wing it like I always do. Heh."
And with the usual wishful thinking, Sonic T. Hedgehog disappeared into the snowy distance.
Shadow T. Hedgehog was having a very average day. It generally went something like this: get up. Report to GUN. Hang around, bored, until they found a mission for him. Complete the mission. Repeat. He was currently in the third stage, hanging around waiting for them to give him a mission. Sometimes this stage could last for weeks, so he had decided to sit on a park bench with his communicator on and a scarf wrapped around his neck. At Rouge's insistence, of course, because he was the Ultimate Lifeform. He didn't need some piddly little piece of fabric to stay warm.
Red eyes flicked up and glanced around through the falling snow. He wasn't sure why he liked to come to this particular spot. It always seemed torturous, seeing so many people pass by, but not the one who was the most important of all. A few children ran past, hurling snowballs at each other. One landed close to Shadow's hoverskate.
In the opposite direction, a happy couple walked past, hand in hand and arms swinging in a rhythm, smiles on their faces. It was amazing how spirits seemed to lift at this time of year; Shadow just couldn't make sense of it. It wasn't that he didn't understand Christmas; his family, the Robotniks, had taught him all there was to know about it and celebrated it with him each year.
And now he engaged in the holiday's traditions with his teammates, Rouge and Omega. He went shopping, found and wrapped their presents, and stuck them under the decorated tree. Showed up on Christmas Day and wished them a Merry Christmas.
But even when Maria had been alive, Shadow had never experienced the happy feeling that Rouge seemed to always hold on that day. And when he asked about what was making Rouge so happy, she always just answered with a question of her own: 'why the sour face, Mr. Ultimate Lifeform? Scared to have some fun?' It just wasn't her way to openly explain her feelings to others, and she wasn't about to change. He understood that, because he never answered her questions, either.
Omega was a robot, so he wouldn't understand. Anyone else Shadow knew at least to some degree would probably mock him or laugh in his face (a certain blue speedster came to mind here) and he was not asking a complete stranger.
Shadow silently continued to observe the happy humans walking across his field of vision in the snow, letting his thoughts chase each other in circles the way they often did. He never seemed to have any answers, did he…
"Hey, Shadow," a voice said from beside him.
Surprised, the black and red hedgehog jerked alert, snapping his head around to give the blue hedgehog sitting beside him an emotionless glare. Sonic had arrived so fast Shadow hadn't even seen him sit down. "Hmph," he said noncommittally. His muscles tensed slightly in the presence of his ever-annoying rival, although right now, Sonic seemed more nervous than challenging…
He waited for Sonic to do (or more likely say; he was a chatterbox) something. Whenever Sonic approached him, he always had a cocky smirk on his lips and was "revving up" his feet, or threw a childish insult at Shadow in an effort to goad him into some contest or other. And then he always, always, ALWAYS kept up with him. He didn't win, Shadow was relieved to say. But he always felt his pride shrivel and his frustration grow when the Blue Blur kept pace with him. He couldn't turn his head without coming face to face with the faker's challenging grin or gritted teeth as he tried to outdo him.
Except now, Sonic wore neither. His eyes were flicking off to the side, and he kept twitching. And he stayed silent. "What do you want, blue hedgehog?" Shadow finally asked in his usual deep, gruff voice.
"Er…" Sonic looked down at his feet.
Oh, Shadow could guess. "No." He turned his head away.
"What?" Was it his imagination that his rival's voice had a trace of alarm?
"No, I will not race with you," Shadow stated clearly. Maybe he didn't get cold, but he didn't enjoy the cold. Or the ice that came along with it.
"Oh, heh heh…" Sonic laughed weakly. "Phew, that's a relief."
Now Shadow was looking at him again, and even if Sonic couldn't see it, he was genuinely puzzled, even a little curious at this entirely new attitude of the cocky blue hero.
"I don't want to race, Shads." His rival's voice turned into a mumble.
Shadow merely raised one eyeridge. "If you don't want to race, faker, then what do you want?"
"I, uh hnn…My mom called and, uh, she – " Sonic took a deep breath and finally locked onto Shadow's face, staring his hostile archrival straight in the eye. "She wants you to join us for our Christmas celebration. This year."
There was another long silence wherein Shadow felt as though he had just had a bucket of ice cold water dumped on his head and it was seeping deeper into his fur with every passing moment.
"…Excuse me?"
"Well." Sonic looked down again at his knees. "She just called, you know, asking if Tails and me would be there this year, and then she told me that she wanted me to invite you since we have the same last name and everything and-"
"Your mother," Shadow cut Sonic off. "Your mother…called you…and asked you…to invite me…to your family's Christmas party."
With the tough part (breaching the subject with his unfriendly counterpart) done, Sonic regained his mental footing and slipped into the familiar persiflage he and Shadow always threw at each other. Granted, it was usually to insult the other, but… "Define 'invite,' exactly," he commented dryly.
"What?"
"Try something more like 'threaten.' She said that she would use her 'Mother's Demand' if you said no." Here Sonic grimaced and flinched at the same time. "You don't want to see her Mother's Demand."
Shadow remained silent, his mind more occupied with other things. Namely, this unwarranted invitation.
"No."
Or rather, the headache of refusing it. He knew from experience that Sonic was more stubborn than a mule. In fact, he could probably replace the mule's role in that old proverb.
"Come on, Shadow, please?" Sonic nearly pleaded with his former enemy.
"Give me one good reason why I should come," Shadow said coolly, knowing he had won. "Why should I join my archrival's family for their Christmas party instead of celebrating with my own teammates?"
"If you can call that celebrating," Sonic snorted. Shadow shot him another glare, but the blue hedgehog remained firm. "I hate to break it to you, Shads, but there is a whole lot more to Christmas than just giving and getting presents and saying 'Merry Christmas.'" When he didn't get a reply, Sonic cast a thoughtful side glance at Shadow and continued, bringing up the one thing, the one topic that could further shock Shadow at this point.
"You've never actually gotten that, have you?" he mused. Shadow's quills rose at the unwanted analysis. "You've never…actually…experienced Christmas, have you?"
"Of course I have!" Shadow snapped hotly. "Mari…" The name died on his lips, but he continued, rushing through his words. "Maria and the Professor explained it all to me!"
"Yeah, but you've never actually felt it, have you?" Sonic pointed out, navigating into less treacherous waters. Although that wasn't really saying much because the Ultimate Lifeform was still glaring daggers at him. "There's like…this warm glow…I dunno, I can't explain it that well…but you've never…never…" He seemed at a genuine loss of words.
And that probably was better for his health, because another word and Shadow might have succumbed to the temptation of tossing a Chaos Spear at his annoying rival. Why he hadn't already he didn't know.
No, he did know. Sonic might give him the answer to the question that had plagued his mind every Christmas, the one he had been pondering just before the faker showed up. And what Shadow wouldn't give for an actual answer to his questions for once instead of some piece of evidence or logic that just sent him running off into deeper circles…
"You've noticed it, haven't you?" Sonic asked, continuing to observe his rival, and Shadow suddenly felt naked beneath those idly questioning green eyes. "You've seen how everyone's happy…"
Sonic was pushing it, however. Shadow snarled at him, and Sonic finally backed off.
"But I'm getting mushy and gooey here, and that's not my style. But still…" The blue hedgehog tilted his head. "Do you want us to show you why?"
Shadow stared at him, internally cursing at himself. A million reasons. There were a million reasons out there for Sonic to pick from; he had even mentioned some of them earlier, his mother's threat, their similar last names…
…and he had to go and pick the one reason out of that million that actually compelled Shadow to say,
"Hmph. Fine."