BEFORE YOU READ…
I would suggest brushing up on your knowledge of Sonic Archie characters for this story, especially considering some of the characters in this story haven't been brought back because of the Sonic Archie Comics ret-con a few years back (Monkey Khan, Shard the Metal Sonic, etc.) I would suggest looking them up on the Sonic wiki page.
PROLOGUE
December 24th, previous year
"Please be late! Please be late! Please be late!" he said himself in quick succession. "Please be late! Please be late! Please b-, WHOA!" He tried to skid to a stop, but the snow-covered pavement made it impossible to do. CRASH! And that was why he couldn't stop in time to avoid a car that had just stopped in front of him at a stoplight. He was already in a lot of pain, but being the strong hero that he was, he got up anyway and was determined to not stop. The armadillo that he had hit ran out of the car, quickly inspecting if there was any vehicular damage, to which there was none, and saw if the man was alright.
"ARE YOU OK-? HEY! YOU'RE-!"
"Can't stay to chat!" the blue blur said before resuming his painful, mad dash.
As if his chest was not hurting enough, now he was sure that the crash had fractured his sternum and a few ribs. But that did not matter. His body's aches and pains would have to wait. He just had to run amid snow-covered roads and sidewalks that would be blanketed in more of the white stuff later in the night. It was accumulating at a high rate, and that meant that he had a chance. A fool's chance, but a chance nonetheless that he did not miss her.
"Finally!" he said as he began sliding to a stop. "Whoa!" He did not count on a patch of snow-hidden ice to be on that particular portion of hard, cold sidewalk, and he slipped, landing on his tailbone. "Why now?! Why's all of this happening now?!"
The pain he was suffering from was getting worse, but that was something that would eventually go away. He had the patience for that, at the very least, but not the bad conditions. As if he did not like water enough, small, cold pieces of his phobia were making running, to him, an ironically frustrating experience.
He picked himself up, groaning as he did it, and jogged into the building's main lobby. He looked feverishly, looking for the right screen. When he did, he wished that he had not.
"No! No! No!" He searched for the platform number and zoomed through it.
"Hey! You can't go through without a ticket!" screamed the falcon security guard.
He cared little for the security. He could explain later. As he got closer to the floor, he prayed that the locomotive was late, that what he saw on the LED-TV screen about the train was a typo, a sick, Christmas prank.
Thirty minutes late. That was how late he was.
Sonic the Hedgehog. Late. No one who knew the hero, whether personally or from word-of-mouth, could ever dream that he could have been late for anything. But it was not his fault. He had the burning proof on his chest. But he still blamed himself. He prayed the locomotive was late because of the heavy snow.
He burst through the doors and skidded to a stop to see nobody on the platform. He looked furiously for someone, anyone. Every bench, trashcan, bathroom stall, everywhere. She was nowhere to be seen. Never had he felt so defeated. He looked down the tracks to the tunnel where the train had gone through.
"Why? WHY?! WHY DO I HAVE TO BE LATE NOW?! WHY?!" He made the realization. Hell, he had said it.
To him, the unthinkable had happened. He was late. He made a promise, and he had not kept it. It was not his fault, but not to him. He blamed himself. He was at fault.
The most heartbroken of faces came across him as his eyes began to well up. The torture he had received, the exhaustion from his snow- and slush-filled run, and the unfamiliar feeling of defeat came over him, and his knees gave out because of it. "Are you happy, Sonic?" he asked himself lowly. "Look at what you've done, you little jerk."
Meanwhile, the doors behind the hero burst open. The falcon security guard had his bulldog partner with him. "There he is!" the falcon said. "Okay, buddy; now how come you didn't-?" He stopped himself the minute he realized who he was talking to. "Ohmygod! It's Sonic!" He did not respond. Hell, he did not even hear him say it.
"Reggie, get a picture of us!" the falcon said as he forced his phone onto his partner. He went to Sonic, knelt beside him, put his arm around him, and smiled stupidly as the bulldog moved in front of them to get a picture. He was about to snap the picture, but then he saw the hero's face.
"Reggie, what are you waiting for?" His partner pointed to Big Blue's face. The falcon looked. His joy was replaced with concern at that moment. All he saw was a hedgehog with a thousand-mile stare, too stunned to react, and on the verge of tears. Heck, he had not even moved, even when the falcon put his arm around him. "Hey, buddy, are you alright?" He did not answer, not verbally at least. All he did was shed a tear. "Yo, buddy? Sonic? Yoohoo! Snap out of it!" He began shaking him. Still nothing out of the hero. "Are you alive, or what?!"
"I was late," Sonic forced out.
"And he's alive!"
"Tim…," the bulldog said lowly. "Sonic, what happened?"
He looked at the canine. "Reggie, right?" The bulldog nodded. He turned to the other one. "And Tim, yes?" The falcon nodded.
"Sonic, did something happen?" asked the bulldog.
Sonic sighed. "You could say that," he replied softly, but loudly enough for them to hear.
"Sonic," said Tim as he put a hand on his shoulder. "Whatever happened, it's going to be alright."
The hero shook his head at the guard and gently pushed the falcon's hand aside. "I wish you were right."
"C'mon, Sonic, it couldn't have been that bad!" His partner glared at him and elbowed him in the kidney. "Hey!"
"This isn't the time. Can't you see the poor guy's in pain?" He turned his attention back to Big Blue only to see him begin to walk away toward the exit. "Hey, wait, Sonic!" he said as he jogged to the doubly wounded vigilante. "Sonic, if there's anything-."
"Reggie?" he said, interrupting him. "Tim? Listen, I'm real sorry about blasting through you two."
"It's alright, Sonic," said Tim. "And I'm sorry about what I did."
"It's alright. I'm used to people trying to get a picture of me." He sighed. "You just caught me at a bad time. If there's any kind of punishment you have to give me, then please give it to me."
"We can let this slide, Sonic," said Reggie. "It's alright."
"Reggie, I wish it was," Sonic said as he began to walk away.
Right as he was about to head back inside, Reggie asked, "Sonic? Are you going to be okay?"
Sonic turned back to the duo with another tear going down his muzzle. "Have you boys ever made a promise? A promise to someone you loved?" They were perplexed by his question, but eventually nodded. "Have you ever broken that promise?" They shook their heads. "Well, that's what I just did, gentlemen," he said lowly. "I just broke a promise." He turned away again and went inside. "I can't believe it…," he said to himself. "God, she must hate me right now."
He continued to mentally berate himself the entire walk out of the station. His clothes were a mess. His pants were all kinds of destroyed. His jacket was pressed to his chest, and while it gave him warmth, what lied beneath it hurt like hell from the torture and the abuse from slipping and sliding because of the snow and the lack of traction that came with the white crap.
But what hurt the most was that he had something for her in his jacket pocket. A going-away present. How fitting, given the time of year. But now it only served as a reminder that he had failed, and he couldn't bear to let anyone know that he had failed, much less his friends and family.
"I have to go off-grid," he said in his head. "I can't let them see me like this. I'm hurting. That's not what a hero should be. I'm just lucky I know a place to hide out."
The second he got out of the train station, he ran. He clutched his girl's present with all of his might as he booked it out of town. He had to be somewhere else to be alone, to heal up, and to try to fix himself mentally. His friends, as great as they were, could not help him this time. It was his fault, though others would argue that it was not. But he had to do this alone. Because to him, it was his fault that he was late, and now he hated himself so much that he couldn't bear to be in her presence, though he could be there in an instant. What would she think of him? To her, probably a liar. A promise-breaker too. And now he was off to deal with his "due" punishment. Because to him, he had broken a promise to his Rose.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
It is finally here! Welcome to SonAmy: Blue Christmas, my second published fan-fic.
First things first. I actually wrote this story before I wrote my other story, SonAMy: Affairs of State. I got the inspiration to write this story after reading a SonAmy one-shot called "One Last Time", and you can find it one DeviantArt and ; it's not hard to find. I wrote this during entire month of December 2014, but I didn't publish it intially for a few reasons. Firstly, I was incredibly nervous on how well my work would be received. Secondly, it was a VERY rough-sounding story with all kinds of grammatical mistakes. I edited this story before I did the full-scale revision of Affairs of State and then again during December. Thirdly, by the time the rough first draft of this story was done, it was too late to publish for Christmas because no one would've been able to read it until after Christmas had passed, but considering how rough it was, that was probably a good thing.
Before I conclude and begin uploading more parts to this story, I have to say this: this story is incredibly corny. It deals a lot more with love than Affairs of State did (by a landslide), it's very light-hearted, and it doesn't have many dark elements. There are a few, but not many. That being said, the rating for this story is a T/Teen rating. Also, this story will have Christmas songs (9 of them) in them and Sonic and company will be singing those songs, meaning that this a musical as well. The songs aren't all classic Christmas tunes and carols like "Silent Night". Some are more traditional than others, and all songs will have a YouTube link so that you can listen along with the songs as they are sung if you feel inclined to do so.
With all that said, I hope you enjoy SonAmy: Blue Christmas and do not hesitate to tell me what you think of the story. All characters in this story are the property of SEGA and Archie Comics. All songs are the property of their respective artists and record labels. Enjoy the story, Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas.
