Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't belong to me.

Rating: T - for safety.

Summary: It's Sonic and Amy's first Christmas living together, so of course it's going to be filled with laughter, tears, quarrels, tinsel and Christmas kisses.

A/N: This has resulted from my husband and me decorating our tree together today! 2 things happen in this that happened with us and for the rest, well my imagination just run away with me. This is Sonic and Amy; my muse just can't help herself! I hope you enjoy, reviews are love. :) x

Christmas Cheer

Christmas, a time of year to spend time with family and friends, indulge in more hot chocolate than normal and decorate your house so it looks better than your neighbours down the street. Mistletoe gets hung in special places and presents are wrapped, bowed and placed under the tree. It's the time of year when people are generally happier than normal and looking forward to eating lots of food and spoiling their loved ones.

For Sonic and Amy though, that wasn't all it was, because this was their first Christmas in their first home together. Though it had been months since they took that huge step forward in their relationship, this was the first big special celebration to be spent together. It also meant having to go out and buy all the things a new home deserves with Christmas. Out with the old tree and decorations and in come the new, shinier more impressive displays.

When Sonic asked Amy to take that huge step forward with him it was almost as good as him getting down on one knee and proposing to her. She'd been smiling for days after and ecstatic that his feelings ran as deep as hers, that he truly did see a future for them together if he was asking her something so important. Their friends didn't seem as surprised as she was; maybe because she was used to just having him stay over most days and assumed that it would just naturally continue that way until eventually he was there every day.

But Sonic is traditional in some ways and this was important to him. So, instead of just moving in to Amy's cottage like she thought he would want to do, they looked for a house together in stead. So they could start up from the bottom together, building and making a home - together.

Just like he was having to do with their new, heavier than it looks Christmas tree.

Dragging the box into the living room because it was so wide he couldn't wrap his arms around it, Amy stood bouncing on her Christmas socked feet in excitement. "Oh I can't wait to see how good it looks!" she beamed, all but clapping her hands together. Sonic huffed as he dragged it further, trying not to grouch about how they should have got the guys to come and help with it. "It was such a bargain too, I'm sure it'll last for a couple of years at least." Amy continued either ignoring seeing Sonic struggle with the box or just not noticing it as she pondered over her new tree.

Sonic for his part tried not to make a snarky comment back and finally dropped it with a loud thump at his girlfriend's feet. Amy fell on it instantly, ripping the binding off it so she could open it up. Like most things when they're first unpacked you wonder just how they got it vacuumed into the box so nicely. The second Sonic's eyes fell on the bushy, large green tree all but busting out of the brown box he had to wonder if he'd ever get it backin! People keep their tree up all year round right? That or he'd be asking Tails to create an invention that shrunk things and brought them back to real size before it had to be packed away and placed back in the attic.

"OK, where's the base?" Amy wondered, unsure what to do as all she could see was lots and lots of artificial pine leaves and berries. Lifting the largest part out first, followed by the next part and finally the third, she located the base. Clicking it into place she put it in the exact spot she wanted the tree to go and stood back. "Right, bottom part first," she instructed Sonic who looked at her with a pointed stare, waiting for the rest. "Oh right, can you put it in the base please, my super helpful, handsome boyfriend?" Amy asked again, much sweeter and less commander-ish than before.

"Better," Sonic smirked, his pride swelling at being called handsome. Hefting the bottom piece he slipped it into its holder and watched as the branches all automatically opened up and fell into place. "Well that saves a job," he muttered, lifting the next part on top of the first. Once it was put in he stood back and looked up. "Err, Ames, just how big is this tree anyway?"

"Hmm?" Amy asked distractedly, plucking at a few small branches to make them bush out more. She glanced at Sonic and saw his slight panic and back at the tree, a faint blush coating her delicate cheeks. "Only8feettall," she mumbled quickly and into the tree where she'd tried to hide herself. Hearing Sonic's strangled gasp she involuntarily looked up and right into his shocked and frustrated eyes. "It was on sale! Besides I told you I wanted a big tree . . ." she trailed off, giving him her best puppy dog eyes to soften him up.

It worked, because one look into them and Sonic was a goner. Rolling his eyes and shaking off the surprise he reached for the last part. "Fine, I'm sure it'll be fine. We've got ladders right? Cause I'm not calling Tails here just so he can decorate the top."

Grinning a little with triumph Amy stopped preening the tree and gave Sonic her full attention. "Sure! We've got this."

"Uh-huh," Sonic huffed, picking up the last piece of the tree and reaching as high as he could on his tip toes to slot it into place. He's grown a little more with age, but he's still not seven feet tall, high enough to get that last piece in. Once he had though he stepped all the way back with Amy and just looked at it. It was definitely an impressive tree! Full, bushy, no gaps and looked about as artificially real as they were going to get. "How much did you say it was again?" he questioned, noting how expensive it looked. "The truth, Ames, cause you already mentioned sale."

Shifting a little bit from foot to foot, Amy chewed down on her lower lip a little, wondering if she could tell a little white lie. But Sonic knows her better than she knows herself and she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "Three hundred Mobians," she winced slightly, waiting for Sonic to lose a little bit of that cool of his and demand they take it back. But when he stayed quiet she looked at him and saw his eyes closed as he tried his best to not react. "OK, we'll keep it until it's bare of artificial pines and it looks like a twig, I promise!" Amy cajoled, as if she hadn't mentioned having it for a couple of years and then buying another.

Sonic isn't famous for keeping his cool in stressful situations for nothing and all those battles with Eggman didn't even come close to any fight he and Amy have had in the past. So he has plenty of experience in exercising that famous cool and did so then too. Releasing his breath, taking Amy at her word he leaned down and kissed her on top of the pink Santa hat she wore. "OK." was all he said and let the subject drop.

Knowing a lucky escape when she saw one, Amy wrapped an arm around Sonic's waist to give him a side hug while they looked at the tree. "We're going to have the best Christmas tree around."

"In all of Mobius," Sonic agreed, starting to feel some of that lacking Christmas spirit come to him at long last as they moved the tree box out of the way and got started on putting on the lights. Back when he lived with Tails he used to let him do it because it just seemed smarter to let the Kitsune genius unravel the lights and fly them around the tree. Now though he didn't have his best bud to help them, so it was all on him.

While Amy chose what lights she wanted and made sure they worked, he got the ladder and positioned it in front of the massive tree, trying not to shake his head at the size of it again. Once Amy had decided they started at the bottom and started winding them up. Before long Amy had reached her height limit and Sonic wasn't faring much better, so up the ladders he went.

He was just trying to unhook a pesky little light from a branch when he felt her hands on his back quills, sending all kinds of delicious feelings through his body and swaying him off balance. "Chaos!" he cried as he reached out for the tree to steady himself, ignoring Amy's giggling behind him. "Geez Ames, do you want me to wear the tree or decorate it?" he asked as he looked down at her. He couldn't ignore how cute she looked in her hat that was a little too big for her and her fluffy Christmas socks.

The expression she had and the fire in her eyes were far from cute though. Hot, passionate and tempting was what they were.

Swallowing Sonic turned back to the tree and freeing that stubborn light. Amy kept her hands to herself for a grand total of two minutes before she couldn't help but reach out and touch him again, running her hand up his back to his quills again, knowing how sensitive he is to be touched there. What was she supposed to do, seeing her handsome boyfriend up there on that ladder, looking all manly and hot while he decorated the tree, that firm look of concentration on his face. It just set something off in her!

And so her hands had gone wandering.

"Amy! As much as I'm enjoying you groping me, can you not do it while I'm up a tall ladder with a string of lights in my hand? It's a little distracting." Sonic croaked, his concentration completely broken now and his patience ready to throw the damn lights on to the tree and be damned with wherever they landed while he raced Amy off to their bedroom. But he knew that could come later, for now they'd started a job, he wanted to finish it. Even if his body was telling him something else.

Her giggling wasn't helping either.

Having had her fun Amy walked away to start placing other decorations around their home, small things like Christmas oven mitts in the kitchen, stockings on the mantle piece, small collectables on the sideboard. She placed a Christmas themed snack bowl on the coffee table and red embossed cloth over the dining table; the whole time humming Christmas songs to herself while she danced around, adding the little touches to their home. Mistletoe hung over the front door to catch Tails and Cream out, and Sonic of course. Though those kisses she could get whenever she wanted, it was still fun to have it there.

"Lights are done!" Sonic cheered as he agilely jumped down from the ladder and flipped the switch, looking proud of himself. Amy wandered over and admired his work, only tweaking a light here or there until she was 100% satisfied. "Looks greats, right?" Sonic beamed, nodding at the tree as though he'd just decorated that, the house and cooked Christmas dinner all on his own.

"Yes, it looks amazing," Amy praised him, pulling him over to help with the baubles.

"Wait, don't we have to put the tinsel on first?" Sonic stopped, reaching for the shiny silver stuff that was already shedding over their carpet.

"Sonic, we had this discussion, remember? No tinsel on the tree." Amy stood up, grabbing the other end of the tinsel and tugging at it.

"Actually, I said I wanted tinsel on the tree and you said no, then you jumped me and we never finished the argument." Sonic deadpanned, not letting go of his end either. "It's not complete without tinsel, Amy."

"No, it's not complete without lights, tinsel is a fire hazard. See the difference?" Amy pulled.

"Newsflash, lights are a fire hazard too, worse than tinsel actually." Sonic grinned back, pretty confident he'd just settled the argument.

"No tinsel on the tree." Amy forced, pulling on the strand again.

"Yes." Sonic pulled back.

"No."

"Yes."

"No!" Amy tugged harder this time.

"Yes!" Sonic pulled back hard enough to make Amy take a step forward, both of them shocked.

Then Amy's eyes narrowed and Sonic gulped nervously. "If you put tinsel on that tree I won't make you chilli dogs for a month and don't even think about saying you'll go somewhere else, because I can make that not happen too."

Sonic's eyes widened to comical proportions before he dropped the tinsel and raised his hands in surrender. No one threw a threat like that at Sonic, especially one from Amy Rose that he knew she'd be able to fulfil. He didn't want to suffer for a month and go into withdrawal! Amy smiled sweetly at him and he felt his pride deflate a little at just being beaten down in a debate about tree tinsel. "Your lucky I love you." he grumbled more to himself as he reached down for a box of baubles.

"Oh I know I am!" Amy giggled all sweetness and sunshine again. As though thunderclouds hadn't just swarmed her face and made her voice demonic enough to give Sonic nightmares.

Half an hour later though their argument was forgotten about as they playfully decorated the rest of the tree together. Sonic would move Amy's carefully placed baubles for his and she would re-adjust his when he wasn't looking so they were spaced out more. One or two got broken in a bauble fight, but neither of them cared as they built up their memories of their first Christmas tree together. When it came to placing the replica of the red chaos emerald - complete with inner glow - on top of the tree Sonic helped Amy keep her balance on the ladders as she reached up on tip toes and finished off their tree.

"You said no tinsel on the tree, but you never said anything about not around the rest of the house!" Sonic cheered as he grabbed some of the shiny colourful strands and used his speed to race around their home, placing it wherever he felt like. Most of it got wound around the banisters of the stairs; others were placed across windowsills and furniture. Amy wouldn't have been surprised if she found it strewn around their bedroom too.

"Sonic, have you ever heard the phrase, less is more?" Amy couldn't help but tease him once he came to a triumphant stop in front of her again.

Rolling his eyes before he turned towards the kitchen, Sonic called over his shoulder. "Not when it comes to Christmas and tinsel, Ames!"

"I'll have to remember that for next year," Amy muttered back, though Sonic never heard her. Looking around the room she knew there was something missing, something she'd meant to do. And then it hit her! Grabbing the small box of lights she'd brought to go along their fireplace mantle, Amy started to unravel them as she walked up to the fire. Maybe that was her fatal mistake, trying to walk while she undid them. Or maybe she was distracted by listening to Sonic sing off-key in the kitchen while he made hot chocolate.

Whatever the cause was by the time Sonic had come back in the room with their mugs, he found Amy sitting on the floor with a tangled mess of lights in her hands and tears streaming down her flushed cheeks unchecked, her eyes squeezed closed.

"What's wrong? What's happened?" Sonic asked, rushing over to her side.

Hearing him Amy raised her head and just lifted the lights up in her hands in answer. But what Sonic thought were tears of pain, or maybe frustration was wrong. No, Amy was crying with laughter as her shoulders shook and teardrops fell into her lap as she dared not move anymore in case the lights somehow got tangled up even more. "I barely touched them and this happened!" Amy managed to gasp out between bursts of laughter and giggling. Each time she glanced at them it just made her chuckle even harder because isn't that one of the most frustrating things about Christmas - untangling fairy lights?

Sighing with relief that it wasn't anything other than a funny moment, Sonic carefully took the lights from her hands and got set with trying to figure out where the end was. Amy for her part just sat back and watched him work, his dextrous hands moving and weaving the lights in and out until he started to see how they were supposed to look. He wasn't aware of the intense look Amy was giving him, or of the heat building from the fire beside them as his expression morphed from one emotion to another the closer he got to figuring them out.

"A-ha!" he cried suddenly, making Amy jump out of her daze of staring at her boyfriend and took the offered end of lights from him. "Where are they going?" he asked, slowly placing them on the mantle where Amy directed before stepping back while she switched them on. The twinkle and warm glow of the lights combined with the steady flicker and heat from the fire made him sigh with contentment. "They look great there." he smiled softly at his girlfriend, pleased all together with how festive and comfortable their home looked for the Christmas holidays.

"Thank you, Sonic," Amy whispered before suddenly kissing him, knocking the blue blur a little off balance as he automatically caught her, about to kiss her back when she pulled away. He gave her a questioning look, more to ask why she stopped than why she was thanking him. "Thank you for decorating our house with me and for asking me to move in with you in the first place. You've made me so happy."

More than used to Amy's emotional declarations and the resulting happiness hearing them always brings forth, Sonic winked and pulled her closer. "Thank you for saying yes."

This time the shimmer in Amy's eyes wasn't because of laughter, but rather something more tender, precious and adorable.

Both moving in at the same time, their lips came together in what started off as a soft caress, one that spoke of love and adoration for each other. Of the life their building and the happiness shared from doing something so normal and heart-warming. But with Amy's earlier passion still very much at the forefront of Sonic's mind and her teasing him while he was up the ladder, the kiss soon turned in a different direction. His lips glided across Amy's in a show of possession, stealing the breath from her lungs as they danced in a timeless sync of devotion and longing.

As quick as ever, Sonic broke away and tossed Amy over his shoulder before her mind had time to catch up with her body. Without missing a beat Sonic ran for their bedroom, grinning at the squeal in her voice before he stopped and backtracked to the front room again. Amy caught sight of the bright red tinsel trailing behind him as he ran and frowned.

"What are you doing with that?" she asked as he raced into their room and placed her on their bed.

Grinning with pleasure Sonic trailed the tinsel over Amy's body, watching her eyes dilate as her mind caught up and her eyes hooded as she lay back on the pillows. "Just finishing what you started earlier, Ames." he replied before capturing her lips again, the tinsel still in a tight grip in his hand.

Amy quickly decided before she lost her mind to Sonic's hands and kisses, that maybe tinsel isn't that bad, when used correctly.