A/N: Merry Christmas Eve Eve, everybody!

Every year, I try to come up with a short and sweet oneshot for Christmas. This is the 2014 edition, the first written with the intent of near-immediate publishing. I... don't really know where this one came from, but it works. No romance is intended, so ShadAmy shippers, calm down. ;) Hope you all enjoy!

Hopefully, everything looks okay... This is only the second thing I've posted, and last time I couldn't figure out how to make the line breaks work.

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is, unfortunately, not mine. He belongs to SEGA. But at least SonAmy is finally becoming a thing.

"Tails!"

"What? What is it now?"

"Did you set this up?"

"No, of course not. Why?... Oh."

"Yeah."

"Huh... Cute."

"Don't you give me that! I know you did this."

"C'mon, Sonic, do you really think I'm capable of something that underhanded?"

"..."

"... Okay, look, even if I did have something to do with it, which I definitely don't, it's too late to do anything about it now. What's the big deal about it, anyway?"

"Let's pretend you know the answer to that question. It's her, Tails. I'm literally the only one she would think twice about for this. What's she gonna think when she finds out it's me?"

"Probably the same thing you thought—that it was a setup."

"See? You get where I'm coming from, right?"

"Sure. You still have to do it."

"Oh, come on!"

"If you don't, it won't be me you'll have to deal with. It'll be her."

"It's not like I can't—! Oh, don't give me that..."

"You're a creative guy. You'll come up with something good."

"I hate you so much right now."

"Mm-hm. Good luck. You might need it."

"Those big blue eyes won't get you everything for long, you little pest."

"Who cares? It worked this time. Now get to work, Romeo."

"I am not—you know what, forget it. You're an annoying brat, y'know that?"

"And you're stalling. Get out and get going."

Amy had discovered a question greater than the meaning of life, greater than the existence of spiders and flies, greater than Sonic's refusal of her advances.

What in the world am I supposed to get Shadow for Christmas?

There was no material object to the girl's knowledge that would please the Ultimate Life Form. Nothing short of a certain blond-haired girl would be considered to be worth his time. At this time where stuff was the name of the game, she was at a complete loss for what to do for him short of hugging him, yet even that was forbidden due to the Secret Santa nature of this particular gift exchange. Cream had given them all a week to take care of this, and Amy was down to three days with no inspiration whatsoever.

Wandering aimlessly through the crowded mall was doing nothing to help her case and everything to hurt it. The festive atmosphere was too contagious; she had already bought three things and then gone back to return them when she realized she had been too hasty in thinking Shadow would actually appreciate or even use them. He didn't wear clothes, so tacky Christmas sweaters were out of the question, and Amy didn't even know if he had any hobbies besides blowing up robots. At least Sonic played the guitar—it was easy to shop for him!

This was as far as Amy's thought process got before suddenly, the wall of Christmas sweaters before her erupted into a chaotic mess of flying fabric. The girl ducked with a squeal behind a shelf of t-shirts, but by the time she had oriented herself enough to look back at the spot where she'd just been standing, she had already rolled her eyes and muttered, "Eggman? Really? Now?"

Sure enough, a very familiar maniacal laugh floated through the newly-blown hole in the wall, and Amy sighed before whipping out her Piko-Piko hammer and charging into the parking lot.

As far as Dr. Eggman's evil robots went, this one wasn't anything too spectacular; it was only a couple of stories tall, and its only main features were its central unit, in which Eggman sat to control it, and its four tentacles that seemed to be its primary defense. It was highly unoriginal, even for the good Doctor himself; perhaps, Amy figured, he had only slapped something together so that Sonic wouldn't be able to have a peaceful Christmas, not particularly caring whether or not he actually won.

What caught her eye more readily was Sonic, already present and fighting, taunting the doctor all the way. Amy could have swooned as his nimble form, naught but a blue streak, weaseled around the robot's metal tentacles without slipping once on any slick spots on the asphalt. One one hand, she worried for his safety; she gasped as he jerked away from a tentacle's stab with only inches to spare. But on the other hand, he looked like he was having so much fun that she couldn't dream of taking away from his entertainment; his green eyes shone with the joy of his adrenaline rush as he danced eagerly with danger. He was adorable.

Someone shouted next to her, and before she could pull herself out of her daydreams, she was already in the process of being whisked away from her spot with a squeal. She recognized the glove cuffs of her kidnapper almost immediately and glared up at him; "Hey! What's the big idea, Shadow?! I was daydreaming!"

Shadow returned the look. "You were about to be daydreaming about being hit by a flying car. Then you were going to wake up and figure out it was real."

"Oh..." Amy glanced over his shoulder to see, in the spot where she'd just been standing, a blue car that had nearly succeeded in righting itself after being thrown by Eggman's robot, but had ultimately landed on its side in a pitiful heap.

"Thanks, Shadow!" Suddenly, Sonic was next to them, grinning. "You okay, Ames?"

"Y-yeah, thanks to Shadow." Amy felt bad for snapping at the dark hedgehog, but he nodded at her acknowledgment, and she knew she was as forgiven as she could be.

"Cool." Sonic flipped his wrist toward Eggman's robot, which was trying to untangle its legs in order to attack again. "Care to help dismantle a thing with me?"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "I came here to do some shopping. I'm not giving the Doctor the satisfaction of changing my plans."

The blue hero shrugged. "Eh, your loss. You coming, Amy?"

"Of course!" She tossed her quills at Shadow; "Since some of us are too stubborn."

"I will fight because I want to," was Shadow's cool and clipped response, "not because you want me to."

His fellow hedgehogs exchanged glances before dashing off to save the day, leaving Shadow to his own measures.

"Jerk," was the first thing out of Sonic's mouth.

"He is not!" Amy defended as she swung her hammer at the first attack of the robot's tentacle. When Sonic gave her a flat look, she decided to rephrase; "Okay, so he was a jerk, but you can't blame him for not wanting to get involved! Most people don't like attacking giant robots and putting themselves in danger, y'know!"

"He's got nothing to worry about," Sonic scoffed. He danced around a couple of attacks in quick succession before adding, "He's the 'Ultimate Life Form,' remember? He's gotten himself killed and come back to life before. At this point, he's got this fighting thing handled. He's just being lazy ol' Shads."

Amy had no rebuttal for this, but that was excusable, because this was the moment when Sonic saw an opportunity and suddenly barreled toward the central part of the machine, where Eggman sat scrambling to make his robot do what he wanted it to do. One well-executed spindash spelled the end for the 'bot, which proceeded to burst into flame. Eggman hurriedly ejected his Egg-o'-Matic and began to hover away, shouting the usual "This isn't over, Sonic!" spiel, to which Sonic merely shouted, "Merry Christmas, Egghead!"

The fire department arrived on the scene shortly after this, and after spending an hour or two helping Sonic attend to the wounded passersby and destroyed property, Amy found herself on the other end of the mall—the side she had been on had been taped off for collateral damage—still trying to find something to give Shadow for Secret Santa. She had tried to rope Sonic into helping her think, but as usual, he had run the other way. Now she was frustrated with both boys, and Eggman hadn't helped matters at all by shutting down half of the mall.

"He doesn't eat candy, he doesn't wear fuzzy socks, he doesn't need anything!" she fumed out loud to herself. Apparently, Shadow really did have everything handled, and the fact that Sonic had been right made her feel even more annoyed.

She wound up in a craft store, sifting through fabric and glitter and sewing supplies and finding nothing even remotely appealing to a male hedgehog whose only joy in life was reminiscing over his past. Amy passed by the craft kits with a sigh, not wanting to put any effort into making something he probably wouldn't want, anyway.

As soon as that thought ran through her head, she froze.

I don't want to put any effort into it... Is that what I've been saying all along?

If she had drawn Sonic's name for the gift exchange, she knew she would have stopped at nothing to give him something heartfelt and meaningful and full of her personality; she would have given up a night's sleep or two to make it worth his time. She certainly wouldn't have put it off as long as she had now; Christmas was only three days away. Just because Shadow wasn't Sonic... Was that a good reason to wish he would disappear off the face of the earth for long enough that she wouldn't have to shop for him?

Sonic's words from earlier suddenly echoed in her mind once again; "He's got nothing to worry about. He's the Ultimate Life Form, remember? He's got this fighting thing handled. He's just being lazy ol' Shads."

Does Shadow feel unloved?

Suddenly, Amy felt like the worst being on the planet. She and Sonic had assumed Shadow didn't need anything—mostly because he said so. However, the dark hedgehog was also notorious for being stubborn beyond all belief, especially when it came to admitting his faults. What if he actually did need something, and Amy had assumed the whole time that he was fine just because "He's the Ultimate Life form"?

The previously-fruitless store was suddenly full of possibilities when she took another look around. She looked back at the craft kits, and her green eyes settled on a scarf-knotting kit; inside were black, gray, and green scraps of fabric. Just looking at it, Amy could tell she was in for a solid day of knot-tying in order to finish it in time to get on with the rest of her Christmas preparation.

Her memory snapped back to when she had been cradled in Shadow's arms outside, and she could feel his cold skin against hers underneath his thin fur. She hadn't noticed at the time, having been too busy scolding him for saving her.

Without another thought, she tore the package from the rack and marched toward the register with a bright, excited smile adorning her features.

The crunch of snow underfoot made Amy want to skip for joy; she just barely refrained from such an action for the sake of avoiding a concussion for Christmas. As she passed a Christmas tree, covered in snow, she shook one of the jingle bells, causing its little chime to echo between the buildings of the apartment complex she was strolling through. The maintenance crew apparently hadn't gotten around to shoveling the snow off the sidewalks this early in the morning, so the pink and orange light of dawn sparkled on the freshly-fallen white powder.

It was Christmas morning, and not even the possibility of Shadow not liking her gift was enough to kill Amy's high spirits.

The gift bag in her hand rustled, but she tried to keep it still and silent as she approached Shadow's apartment. Next to his neighbor, whose front door was covered in wrapping paper and a giant bow inside the storm door, the black hedgehog's apartment was plain and cheerless. Amy couldn't help but wonder how the neighbors dealt with Shadow being next door, especially at the holidays.

The carnation-furred hedgehog set the bag in front of the door, then stepped back with a frown. Definitely not festive enough, she thought with disdain. Kneeling down, she fluffed the snow around the bottom of the bag; it would get it wet, but it would look like it had been waiting for him instead of just sitting there.

She almost fell over when the door creaked open in front of her. "Nyeah, Shadow!" she gasped, springing to her feet.

For his part, Shadow did a remarkably good job of keeping a straight face as the girl brushed snow off her coat and dress in a flustered attempt to pull herself together. "You didn't think I wouldn't hear someone humming Christmas songs at dawn, did you?" he deadpanned.

"I-I—no..." Amy hadn't been aware at all that she had been humming! She had no idea what to say; the gold-emblazoned gift bag she had been fussing with was enough to condemn her. Santa wasn't a secret anymore.

"... I suppose I know what that's for." Shadow nodded at the bag, and Amy felt like she had just entered God's courtroom.

"Y-yeah," she stammered. Not knowing what else to do, she reached down for the gift and sheepishly offered it to him; "Merry Christmas, Shadow."

Gingerly, Shadow accepted her offering and peeked inside, trying to see beyond the thick layer of white tissue paper.

"Go ahead, open it!" Amy encouraged him when he said and did nothing. At least there's one bright side to getting caught! Oh, I hope he likes it!

The dark anti-hero gave her a quick look before obeying; he crushed all the tissue paper up to one side of the bag and pulled out a bundle of multicolored fabric. When he released one end of it, the scarf fell and pooled up a bit on the ground by his foot. Different colored strips of fabric—black and dark gray, with splashes of crimson red woven throughout—had been tied together in a rather complex pattern to create it.

There was no mistaking the brief moment when Shadow's eyes widened just a tad and his jaw fell slightly as he stared at the scarf, took in all its intricacies. It was a good few seconds before he got himself back under control, with the usual emotionless frown, but a few seconds was all Amy needed to know that she had succeeded, at least on some level.

"... Thank you," he quietly said with a curt nod. "I appreciate the effort."

Those words coming from anyone else's mouth would have offended Amy; since it was Shadow, she could have leaped for joy. She smiled brightly. "You're welcome! I'm so glad you like it! The kit originally came with green instead of red, but I thought you'd like the red better, so I improvised. It's actually an old dress of mine—I washed it, don't worry. I cut it up and used it instead. I think it came out great, don't you?"

"... Yes. Thank you." That seemed to be all Shadow had to say, for he stepped back inside the apartment and made to close the door.

"Merry Christmas!" Amy hurriedly repeated before he could finish his action. Shadow offered her a little smirk before shutting the door with a soft click.

A large part of Amy wanted to be mad that he'd so rudely left her on his doorstep, but the better quarter of her conscience insisted that Shadow had gone far enough outside his comfort zone simply by admitting that he liked her present. Besides, knocking his door down with her hammer right after giving him a handmade Christmas gift would probably send mixed messages. So, with a little huff that left her mouth in a little puff of white, she left, marching down the sidewalk with the same gusto she'd arrived with.

Now that her little errand was over with, Amy began to think of all the ways she could spend her day now, and her step picked up a little excited bounce as she thought about gathering at Cream's house with all her friends. They always assembled early in the day, barely past dawn, to exchange gifts by the tree like a family. The rest of the day was spent just eating and hanging out, but it was one of the most precious times of the year, as far as Amy was concerned.

As she was envisioning being curled up on the sofa with Sonic, a sudden, strong breeze hurled loose snowflakes up into Amy's face. She cried out, mostly in indignation at having her daydream interrupted, then froze as soon as she could see again, for in the snow now lay a very familiar set of footprints. "Sonic!" she breathed before quickly changing course to follow the prints.

She wasn't led terribly far from her original destination, which had been her own home. It was one of her favorite places, a little meadow just a short distance into the trees that served as her neighbors. In this season, however, all the flowers were dead and buried under an inch and a half of snow, and Amy wondered why Sonic had gone out here at all.

Then, she caught sight of a splotch of color against the white ground, and she gasped in delight. Sitting in a snowbank against a tree lay a teddy bear of amber fur, decked out in a tiny red and green striped sweater and bright blue scarf. Lying next to it was a plastic candy cane, through which she could see chocolate candies stacked upon each other. She wouldn't have believed its existence if it weren't for the pink envelope with her full name written upon it in print that tried so hard to be neat, propped up in the bear's lap so she could see it.

The squeal that left Amy's mouth would have been inaudible to creatures with lower hearing ranges. She knelt down to snatch the bear, completely oblivious to the cold, wet snow against her knees, and hugged it tightly, relishing in its soft fur and plush body. With shaking fingers, she broke the seal on the envelope and coaxed the card out; the cover was a simple but pretty painting of a decorated Christmas tree in some living room, and the words inside followed suit in style; "Wishing you all the joy and peace on earth. Merry Christmas." Then, in the same not-quite-sloppy handwriting, there was an addition; "From, Your Not-So-Secret Santa."

Amy looked up and around her, hoping to catch a glimpse of blue in the trees. When no such luck was afforded her, she pushed herself up to her feet again and cupped her hands around her mouth; "I know you're out there, Sonic! Thank you!"

Then, she turned to go back to her home and pick up her presents to take to the Rabbits', clutching the bear and candy cane tightly under one arm.

Sonic grinned and clenched a triumphant fist. With the grace of a cat, he dropped down from the high branches of the tree he'd set his surprise under, landing solidly in the snow with a satisfying crunch underfoot. He looked back up at his hiding spot for a moment, his smirk never faltering. Then, he walked in the same direction Amy had gone, his slow steps quickly mounting into faster ones until he was gone, leaving a blue blur in his wake.

A/N: Merry Christmas, y'all! (I assume you clicked on this because you celebrate Christmas; if not... well, Happy Holidays!)

Also, there's a poll on my profile; let me know what kind of stories you want to see from me after the holidays!