DISCLAIMER:

Sonic the Hedgehog © Sonic Team / Jules & Bernadette Hedgehog © Archie Comics / Ashura the Hedgehog & Lauren Antares © Stephanie "Su Suto" Scott, 02-05

Another miserable Christmas, come and gone. So much anticipation, such uplifted spirits---all wishful thinking. Just like last year, and the year before last, and the year before the year before last, and…

Little Ashura lay curled on his chilly bed, trembling though he was beneath the blanket. There came no warmth from his sad heart, and the love and cheer in the rest of the small house could not permeate into his frigid room; his cell.

Oh, so hopeful he had been! He was smiling from the moment he had awakened that morning. It was Christmas! No matter that the world was constantly against him. It was Christmas! No matter that his father reveled in his suffering. It was Christmas! No matter that his mother would pay more attention to a speck of dust than to him!

It was Christmas.

Christmas was a magical day where everyone was happy, and those that were not happy would most certainly be by the end of the day. The sick danced, the old became young again, and stone hearts melted. No bane could survive the face of Christmas!

Except, it seemed, Jules Hedgehog.

The day had begun fairly normally: Ashura met his little brother Sonic in the hall, already wide awake and heading for the living room. The two boys had embraced and wished each other a Merry Christmas. Then their father had come out of the bathroom and cheerfully hoisted up his younger son, while completely disregarding Ashura's existence. The boy was hurt, of course, but bravely held back his tears and joined his family in the living room. There, they immediately got to the good part: opening presents.

But for Ashura, the worst part.

There were no presents for him; only for Jules, Bernadette the wife and mother, and Sonic. For the third Christmas of his seven-year life, Ashura had been forgotten. And not entirely unintentionally.

The greater number of presents were for Sonic, and as his elation grew, even he began to forget about his brother; the poor, silent child seated in the dark corner. At first, each time Sonic tore open a gift and squealed with delight, Ashura would also smile and give an equally happy gasp. But quickly, steadily, all happiness drained from his soul, leaving it cold and withered as usual.

So fast did the day become dreary. The Christmas magic was gone; Ashura wondered how he had seen it in the first place. He withdrew into a depressive haze, drifting through the day and not really absorbing anything. There might have been a time when Jules shoved him to the floor for walking too slowly. He might have eaten some of his mother's Christmas dinner, and been yelled at for not consuming enough. He might have gotten smacked and then sent to his room for being slow to respond.

Ashura didn't really come back to his senses until a half-hour after he'd been alone in his room. Then his tears dissipated the fog around him. At first only one drop at a time fell, but soon little Ashura's eyes were gushing. He had adopted the ability to cry silently, and so he lay there clutching his bedsheet, his mouth opened wide enough so as to be a scream of agony. But he made no sound, though the tendons on his neck stood out and his face became red. He wailed silently, drenching his pillow as he finally released the pain in his broken heart.

This outburst of sorrow only lasted a few minutes, and as it abated, the bedroom door creaked open. Little footsteps shuffled across the hardwood floor; the sound alone telling Ashura who was in his room. He opened his aching, bleary eyes.

Gradually Sonic came into view, looking woeful and ashamed. "Hi, Ashie," he murmured. Ashura croaked, "H-h'lo," without bothering to clear his throat.

Sonic looked down at his hands, yet hidden from Ashura's view. He was holding something. "I…I got a lotta presents…Lotsa toys an' stuff…"

"I-I know."

Sonic stood quietly for a moment, then finally placed the object he'd been holding on the bed. It was a little red racecar, attached to a plastic base that had been molded to look like smoke. On the back of it was a tiny tab that, when pressed, launched the car. "You can have it, Ashie," Sonic said. "I don't really need it; I got so much stuff."

Ashura sat up slowly and picked the little toy up. He regarded it as if it were an extraterrestrial artifact. "Oh…Th-thank you, Son---Sonic…" The younger hedgehog nodded quickly, then left the room without another word.

Ashura turned the little car over in his hands, and then happened upon the launch tab accidentally. How surprised he was when the car leapt away from him and clattered to the floor! Ashura cringed away for a few seconds, panting with surprise. Then a wave of embarrassment hit him. That was how the toy worked! It was supposed to be launched, to run on its own like a real racecar.

Chuckling at his foolishness, Ashura hopped to the floor, retrieved the unscathed car, and pushed it back into the launcher. He amused himself this way for half an hour, chasing the little car back and forth as he giggled happily.

Then the door swung open.

Ashura froze on his knees and one hand, the other still extended to catch the car, which continued to roll away.

Jules watched the little toy silently, then locked eyes with his son. "Where did you get this?" he asked in the frighteningly calm voice that never failed to chill the little boy's stomach. "I…W-wha…" he struggled.

Jules took a step, and Ashura suddenly came back to life. He lunged toward his little red car, sitting unprotected before the titan. His hand was just over the toy when Jules's booted foot crashed down on top of both. The car was crushed easily, embedding chunks of plastic in Ashura's palm and fingers. The child's face contorted as he screamed with pain.

Jules removed his foot and snapped, "Hopefully that'll teach you not to steal from your brother!"

"I-I-I d-d-d-di…" Three factors kept Ashura from going on: his pain, his stutter worsened by the pain, and unwillingness to incriminate Sonic. Jules sniffed at him and walked away, having done his injustice for the day.

Gasping, Ashura raised his injured hand for a better look. Blood oozed from three puncture wounds, particularly the largest one near the center of his palm, and the entire hand was red and swelling. Ashura lifted his left hand and, despite his shaking, managed to remove the plastic pieces from his right hand. He started to get up then---he was going to go to the bathroom and clean his hand---but was only on one foot when he suddenly became terrified to leave his room. Who knew where Jules would be out there, and who knew what he would do to his son next?…

So Ashura walked on his knees to his little dresser, pulled out an older sock, and wrapped his bloody hand without cleaning it up. The frayed, dirty material hurt his wounds, but not badly enough to warrant leaving the room immediately.

Suddenly there came a harsh rattling bang, from something striking his bedroom window. The clamor was so sudden and unexpected that Ashura jumped and screamed. Then he froze like a hunted rabbit, his heart thudding in his ears, hoping desperately that his father hadn't heard the shriek. His wide blue eyes fixed to the window, waiting for that noise to recur…

There it went! Something small and white flew out from the gray wintry gloom and smacked against the windowpane, producing the same sharp sound as before. Someone had thrown a snowball at the window.

Suddenly, the fear fled from Ashura. He straightened up, his ears perked and eyes brightened. As bad as the day had been, he'd forgotten that he was getting a special visitor!

With the pain in his hand now out of mind, Ashura reached under his bed and retrieved a large piece of paper. He would need this for the meeting. Then he bolted to the window, lifted it open, and scrambled out into the cold.

"Hi, Ashie!…Hey, you're not even dressed! It's cold out here!"

Standing in the snow up to his knees with no clothing whatsoever besides the sock bandage, Ashura merely smiled. At the moment, he felt no cold. "H-Hello, Laur---Lauren."

Lauren Antares, on the other hand, was in full winter weather gear. Covering most of her head was a white wool cap topped with a little pom-pom; a scarf was wound twice around her delicate neck, also covering her chin; her lavender coat, complete with a faux-fur collar and cuffs, was fully buttoned up. She wore a pair of blue jeans, which deviated far from her usual skirts, and boots that matched her coat, with a white stripe running from the furry tops to the toe. And even with her natural coat of fine violet fur to back everything up, she stood there trembling, with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "Are you crazy, Ashie? Your feet'll freeze! Go get some shoes on!"

"N-nah, I-I'm ok-okay; really," Ashura insisted with a gentle shake of his head. "I d-don't even f-feel the c-c-cold." Ironically, his stutter gave the impression that he was shivering.

Lauren peered around Ashura and raised her eyebrows, indicating the sheet of paper he was holding. "What's that?"

"Oh yeah!" Ashura quickly whipped the paper out from behind his back and handed it to her. "I-it's my Chris---Christmas gift to y-you. M-merry Ch-Christmas, Lauren."

At first Lauren took no notice to her present. She grabbed it in one hand, and took Ashura's bloody hand in the other. "Ashie, what happened?!"

"Oh…It…It's just…" But Lauren needed no explanation; she knew Ashura well enough to figure out who had caused the damage. She glared up at him. "What did he do this time?"

"Uh…He just…just stepped on m-my hand. I-it was b-by acci---accident. I…I got in the wa---way," Ashura murmured, avoiding her eyes. "I-I'll be okay. I t-took care of it, s-see?"

With a sigh, Lauren finally took the paper in both of her gloved hands and looked over it. It was a scene drawn in crayon: she recognized herself and Ashura standing on a hilltop, hand-in-hand and smiling for the observer. For some reason, Ashura had added multicolored flowers in the clear sky. A smaller blue hedgehog, definitely Sonic, was running around the hill, with blue streaks and gray smoke behind him to emphasize his great speed. Ashura watched her expectantly. "I t-took some crayons from s-school a-and drew i-it at home. I-I'm gonna give 'em back, you know; I j-just needed to b-borrow them…Do…Do you l-like it?"

But then, with great horror, he saw tears budding in Lauren's emerald green eyes. The bitter cold wind brought them to her cheeks quickly, and cast them onto the picture. "L-Lauren?" Ashura asked softly. "What…What's wrong?"

"I…" Lauren hesitated, sniffed, then continued: "I didn't get you a present."

"Oh…Well, that's ok-kay, Lauren," Ashura said, now feeling confused. "W-why are you s-sad?"

"Because…Because it's not fair!" Lauren replied; that was something she said quite a lot around Ashura. "I shoulda got you something, too! I mean, I wanted to, I really did, but I gotta get money from Mommy or Daddy, and they would've asked what I wanted, and then they would ask who I was getting it for, and I would have to tell them! And then you know they wouldn't give me the money!" The little girl's tears came harder as she went through her explanation.

Ashura's face softened into its familiar knowing, sad look that was so touching. "I-it's okay, Lauren, really. I-I don't mind. I-I'm just happy to g-give you something." His heart began to beat just a bit harder as he made a daring tread into sentimental territory. "I…I like to g-give you things, Lauren; to th-thank you…for b-being my f-friend…" He was not yet educated enough to find suitable words to express his full love for the hedgehog girl, and maybe he never would be able to. It was one of those things that just couldn't be spoken.

Ashura's undying sweetness always broke Lauren's heart, and she did not stop crying as she hugged his picture to her chest. "Thank you…Thank you, Ashie…"

"Lauren…"

The girl looked up again. Ashura had come closer to her, and there was such a gentle look in his big eyes that seemed beyond his years. "P-please don't cry, Lauren. I-I hate it when you c-cry. I-I want you to b-be ha-happy."

Lauren smiled through her tears. "I am happy, Ashura," she said to him in a quavering voice. "I'm always as happy as I can ever be when I'm with you."

And then something very shocking happened. Ashura stepped even closer and wrapped his arms around her. Lauren was so startled that she didn't return his hug right away. Never before had Ashura made any advances to her; it was always she who hugged first, slipped her hand into his first.

This time, Lauren didn't even bother to embrace him, as if doing so would ruin the romanticism. She closed her eyes and relaxed, allowing him to support her. Funny; for a boy so thin and frail looking, he was quite strong. Even with the gentleness he showed now, Lauren could almost feel the strength running through his body. She knew that when he grew up, he would be a big, tough fellow.

But that would not be for many years, and right now, time was frozen; frozen as the wintry world around them. Even the children's icy exhalations seemed to suspend in the air for far longer than they should. And another peculiar thing: Lauren was no longer cold. The gnawing feeling seemed to have vanished as soon as she entered Ashura's tender arms.

"Merry Christmas, Ashie," the girl whispered into his warm chest.

A/N: Yep, this is my sweet lil' Christmas story. I actually finished it two days before Christmas, though its submission here is very belated XD Well, hope you all had a Merry one.