It was Christmas Time on Bygone Island, and the whole island was covered in a thick blanket of soft white snow, which, while no doubt cold, looked beautiful with the full moon shining down on it. Snowflakes were seen falling from the sky, making no sound as they fell gently down to the ground.
Tonight was December 24th, Christmas Eve, and there was just one more day before the most wonderful day of the year would arrive, and that was Christmas Day, which was December 25th. A magical day that only came around just once a year.
As stars twinkled in the cold night-time sky, with a light windy breeze blowing across the top of the island, somewhere within the jungle grounds, two young lovers could be heard giggling and having playfully festive fun.
Taking a further look down into an opening within the jungle grounds, which was covered in deep snow, the playful laughing was coming from Tails and Zooey. They were both wearing festive scarves, red Christmas jackets with white fluffy fur-linings on them, thermal gloves, black trousers, and black winter shoes, which touched through the blankets of snow as they ran around the jungle together.
As Tails ran, he was suddenly hit by a cold snowball that was thrown at him by Zooey from behind, causing him to fall into the snow, face first. After a couple of seconds, Tails lifted his face from the snow, which sprinkled off him, as Zooey caught up from behind him and stopped, happily pelting him in the back with yet another snowball.
"Ahh! Zooey!" exclaimed Tails, before laughing, "That snowball was cold!"
"Hehehe!" Zooey giggled, "Gotcha good, Tailsy!"
"And I'll get you when I snowball you!" replied Tails, as he got up from the snow and grabbed some snow in his hands.
Playfully, Zooey blew a raspberry at her boyfriend and giggled, before she saw Tails crunch up some snow in his hands into a snowball, ready to throw at her.
Knowing that he was going to throw it at her, Zooey squeaked in pretend fright and turned around to run away, but just as she did, Tails quickly turned himself around and threw the snowball at his girlfriend, which managed to pelt her right on the back of her jacket with a 'Splat!'.
"Agh!" Zooey shouted, "I've been hit!"
"Gotcha back!" Tails giggled.
Zooey slowly turned around and gave him a playful smirk, knowing it was on now, before she chuckled and ran towards Tails, who was too busy giggling to even notice her running towards him.
When Tails looked at Zooey, he noticed her running towards him, and before he could even jump and use his tails to fly above her, Zooey jumped at her boyfriend with a playful shout and tackled him into the snowy ground, grabbing a big handful of snow and shoving it right into his face.
"Eat snow!" Zooey shouted playfully.
"Agh! Cold!" Tails shouted, while laughing, "I'll get you for this, Zooey!"
He then started to build a little pile of snow in his hand to return her favour, but before he could do that, Zooey quickly caught onto this sneaky move and started playfully tickling him under his arm, which immediately caused Tails to drop the snow he had collected in his hand and start laughing out loud.
"Eeek!" Tails shrieked, as he started laughing, "Hehehehe! Not fair, Zooey!"
As he started laughing more, Zooey giggled and kept him pinned down and tickled him all over his squirming body.
"Hahahahahaha! Zooey! Stahahahap!" Tails cried as he laughed his heart out.
However, despite Tails' pleas and his attempt to wriggle his way out of her tickling wrath, Zooey was merciless, in a playful sense of course.
"Oh no, my little Tailsy!", Zooey teased him, "You deserve this little punishment for throwing snowballs at me! Coochie coochie coo!"
Zooey kept wiggling her gloved fingers on his sensitive spots. She was amazed at how Tails felt the tickling sensation even through his thick clothes and told herself she was lucky to have such a ticklish boyfriend. The two foxes shared a heart-warming moment of being engaged in their tickle fight, as Tails, while being tickled, did manage to move his twin tails from under the snow and use them to tickle Zooey at her waist, catching her off guard.
"EEK!" squeaked Zooey, "Hahahahaha! Tails, NOHOHOHOHO!"
"My turn now, sweet peach!" giggled Tails as he tickled her.
While Zooey laughed her heart out like her boyfriend did, Tails managed to push himself upwards and make them both roll themselves over in the snow, as they continued tickling each other and throwing snow at one another.
After some fun ticklish minutes rolling in the snow together, they were both exhausted and they collapsed on the snowy ground on their backs, looking at the darkening night time sky, before they looked at each other, holding each other's hands as they gazed at one another, their blue eyes bright and sparkling like the snowflakes falling from the sky above them.
"Oh, Zooey, I've had so much fun with you, tonight", Tails said dreamily, as his face was red from both the coldness of the snow and his loving emotion.
Zooey giggled at the cuteness of her boyfriend, before she then rolled over to get on top of the fox, subduing him again and gave him a romantic look.
"Me too, honey," replied Zooey, smiling beautifully at him, "I couldn't be happier than being out here in the snow with you."
With the snowflakes continuing to fall silently around them in the snowy jungle, the two young foxes then shared a long, tender and passioned kiss, their love for each other keeping them warm in the cold weather they sat in together.
After a couple of seconds, Zooey broke off their romantic Christmas kiss, rubbed noses with her boyfriend and rolled back over next to him once more.
"Phew, all these games in the snow have really worn me out," Zooey sighed.
Tails nodded in response, replying, "I'm feeling tired too, and the night is coming in quickly as well. We'd better go home and get in the warm before it gets too cold out here."
With these words being said, Tails and Zooey got back up on their feet and started their walk back to Tails' workshop house. On the way, they were embraced in each other to keep themselves warm, giggling quietly together as they trudged through the snow, deeply in love with each other.
After a nice quiet walk through the snow, passing through the festively decorated Hedgehog Village on their journey back from the jungle, within the front yard of Tails' home, Tails and Zooey glanced at a snowman that they had built just earlier in the evening, one of its arms that looking like it was waving at them.
Giggling, Tails and Zooey waved back at the snowman before passing it.
Once they had crossed the snow-covered front yard, they reached the front door, where Tails unlocked it with a key and opened the door, gesturing for Zooey to walk on through first, which made her giggle at his gentlemanly gesture to her. Once she was in, Tails followed suite and closed the door, to prevent the icy cold winter wind from infiltrating the workshop home.
Luckily, Tails had started a fire before they left and thanks to the fireplace, it had heated the whole room, with the flames still quietly crackling and burning with high flames in the small pit.
On top of the fireplace, two Christmas stockings were seen hanging above the fire, as well as a festive wreath with a red bow and two small golden bells on it.
The entire place was ornamented with boules à neige, which were, of course, snow-globes with a couple of paper stars, snowflakes, candy canes and holly to go with it.
Of course, no home would be completed without the Christmas Tree. In addition to the gingerbread men and candy canes from Zooey, all the ornaments; the balls, the garlands, the electric lights, matched each of their friends' colours:
Blue (Sonic), Red (Knuckles), Pink (Amy), Orange (Sticks), Purple (Perci), and of course, Yellow, which represented both Tails and Zooey.
Even the star at the top was multicoloured with the same colours as the Christmas Tree lights.
Underneath the tree was a small electric model train set that was seen quietly running under the tree, running on a long oval of snow-covered track, built on a specially made set that gave it a festive look. There was a small station, some miniature figures, light for the small station building, a tunnel that curved to the right, and even a miniature setting of Santa Claus seen with his sleigh of presents and reindeers in a little mini village.
Running the train set was a small six-wheeled snow-dusted British based tank engine, producing both sound and actual steam as it circled the tree, pulling three small freight cars loaded with miniature Christmas presents seen inside them, along with a flatbed truck with a loaded snow-dusted tree lying down on it, two freight car boxes, one with Santa's sleigh on it, the other with a reindeer on it, followed by two small passenger coaches and a guard's van that trailed on the back of the train from behind.
To put it simply, the Christmas Train just looked absolutely wonderful.
Anyway, as Tails and Zooey looked at their precious Christmas Tree with happy festive smiles, they took off their scarves, gloves, jackets, and shoes, which were all wet because of their fun in the snow. Both of their fox furs were all wet as well, therefore, they shook themselves like dogs and giggled at each other, as they looked a bit fluffier due to the shaking.
"Fluffy fox," Zooey teased to Tails with a sweet smile.
"You're even fluffier than me," replied Tails, giggling.
While leaving their snow-covered shoes by the entrance of the front door, Tails went to put their wet clothes in the wash basket, and once he got back, he wore a red Christmas pullover jumper with a couple of silly patterns on it.
He gave the same pullover jumper to Zooey, and she put it on immediately.
"Say Zooey, how about some nice Christmas music to give our evening a nice festive mood?" asked Tails.
"Be my guest, sweetie," Zooey replied, kissing him on the cheek.
Blushing, Tails walked over to a modern looking ghetto blaster-like stereo player, and placed in a CD with Christmas songs into the middle of the player, and no sooner did he do this, the ghetto blaster stated to play some Christmas songs, starting with the song, "Jingle Bell Rock" much to their joy.
Once Tails came back over to Zooey, they once again looked with pride at the Christmas Tree that they had decorated together, with some of the decorations being made to represent the members of Team Sonic, even the bandicoot twins, Perci and Staci, were seen as decorations, and also, Dr Eggman and his two lackies, Orbot and Cubot, were seen as decorations on the tree.
Colourful pressers and neatly wrapped gifts laid at the bottom of the tree, as the Christmas Train continued to quietly chuff around the little set near the presents, sounding its whistle and producing the steam coming out of its funnel. The small and almost inaudible sound of the train's wagons going over the model train tracks could be heard as it circled around the base of the tree.
Tails giggled in delight and briefly watched the train circle around the set, since it was something that he enjoyed doing like any train-loving child would do, before he and Zooey moved straight to a nearby leather sofa, which was right in front of the fireplace to keep them toasty warm from the cold winter weather.
Once they had taken their places sitting down on the sofa, Tails and Zooey took off their socks, which were wet as well, and put their bare feet on a nearby coffee table, so that they were facing the open fireplace, where the fire kept on burning and cracking silently. The nice sensation of warmth came right to their toes, and they hummed in happiness.
"Oh, my goodness, Tails, this is absolutely perfect", Zooey said, happily.
"Yes indeed, my lovely Zooey," agreed Tails with a smile, "It felt so cold outside in the snow, but now that we're inside together…".
"We can warm up in front of the fireplace and enjoy each other's company for the rest of the night," Zooey finished, nuzzling her boyfriend playfully.
Tails smiled at her and slowly embraced her, nuzzling her back in return with a quiet, happy purr. Zooey blushed at this little gesture, before she smiled in a romantic manner and nuzzled his temple in return with a cute little purr of her own, giving him a sweet kiss on his left cheek, then kissed his right cheek, before finishing with a slightly bigger kiss right in the middle of his nose.
"Funny kiss!" Tails giggled happily.
"Only for you, my special little guy," replied Zooey, winking at him.
Wiggling her toes, Zooey giggled at Tails, when her boyfriend then kissed her on the forehead, before they shared another tender kiss on the lips.
The amount of love and affection that they shared together within the kisses they shared was the sign that showed how much they were deeply in love with each other. It was almost like they could never be apart from each other, especially not after Tails rescued Zooey from Eggman's Mega-Bot in the town when it tried to harm her.
Tails would do anything to keep Zooey safe from harm, even going as far as protecting her from anything that may threaten her.
Anyway, after they broke their kiss, Tails and Zooey embraced each other once again and cuddled up close together, sharing both the warmth and the magic of Christmas together, while the snow fell from the sky silently from outside.
"I love you, Zooey," Tails said quietly.
"I love you too, Tails," Zooey replied back.
The two closed their eyes and went into a quiet little snooze as they enjoyed each other's company, with no one to ruin their special evening.
A little later on into the festive evening, the two young lovers were still in front of the fireplace, continuing to cuddle up close together, holding each other's hands and nuzzling their faces gently in a playful manner.
While the model train continued to circle underneath the tree quietly, the ghetto blaster was snow playing the song 'Let It Snow', which was just the right song for the snowflakes that was still falling from outside the building. The model train then sounded its whistle and chuffed around the tree once again, it the steam puffing in small clouds as it ran on the festive set.
Tails and Zooey were both enjoying each other's company, with the heat of the fire keeping the room warm, while they continued to snuggle each other, almost refusing to let go of one another. They giggled cutely and would sometimes tickle one another just for a playful little tease, and wiggle the toes on their feet to keep them warm.
Their winter clothes were most likely completely dry by now, although that wasn't their main concern right now, as they were too focused on their romance more than anything else at the moment.
Opening her eyes, Zooey sighed with a smile and looked around the decorated living room, before she started to think about something that was still missing from the Christmas scene that she was sharing with her boyfriend. Something wasn't present in the room, and it wasn't the tinsel that was already hanging from the ceiling up above them.
After some thinking, she realized what was missing, looking at the coffee table in front of them, and seeing that they didn't have any hot chocolate drinks to share. A warm beverage like that was needed to make this moment extra festive, not to mention it was a tradition to drink hot chocolate during Christmas.
Teasingly, Zooey then gently poked Tails on the top of his foot with her big toe, which made him wake up with both a startle and a giggle.
"Yes Zooey?" Tails asked.
"Tails, there's something that we're missing here from this lovely movement," Zooey said.
"Oh yeah?" questioned Tails curiously, "What's missing, Zooey?"
"Some hot chocolate of course, sweetie," teased Zooey, smiling, "No Christmas is complete without a warm mug of hot chocolate."
Nodding with a chuckle, Tails gave Zooey a kiss on the cheek, before he got up from the couch and looked at his beloved girlfriend.
"Well, in that case, I'd better go and get some warm mugs of hot chocolate for us to have together," Tails replied, flashing a smile of his own to her.
"Don't be too long now, okay?" Zooey said, pretending to shiver, "It gets cold here without you next to me."
With a nod and a roll of his eyes playfully, Tails walked off into the nearby kitchen, walking barefoot since his socks were still wet from the snow, although this wasn't a problem for him, since he wasn't too particularly bothered by the feeling of walking without any shoes or socks on.
On his way over to the kitchen, Tails briefly looked out of a nearby window and saw that a snowstorm was happening outside, where the ground was being covered up with much deeper piles of soft white snow.
Moving away from the window, Tails proceeded to walk into the kitchen, where he opened up a kitchen cupboard and grabbed two chocolate cups, which were ornamented with a snowy urban landscape, before he took them over to the other side of the kitchen and set them in place underneath new invention, a hot chocolate machine that he had conceived and built by himself.
It was designed to select the sweetest aroma of the cocoa you poured inside, to make a truly lovely hot chocolate for Christmas.
He turned and adjusted some buttons on the machine, pressed the 'Start' button, and within a couple of seconds, the machine then poured a delicious hot chocolate that you could smell in the whole room while the machine made a low sound, since Tails also thought about a silencer to make it less noisy.
Once it was ready, he pressed another button on the machine, which added whipped cream to the tops of the hot chocolate cups.
"The perfect way of making hot chocolate in the winter," Tails thought to himself, grinning warmly, "Zooey's gonna love this."
He took the two cups from under the machine and set them down on the worktop very briefly, before getting a tray out from underneath the table, and placed the two mugs of hot chocolate onto the tray. Tails then walked over to the other side of the kitchen, where there was also a plate of chocolate chip cookies that he and Zooey had baked earlier in the afternoon.
Picking the plate of cookies up from the counter top, along with collecting a nearby mistletoe from another table worktop and putting it into his pocket for later, Tails placed it on the tray next to the mugs, before he picked the tray up and carefully made his way back over to the couch in the living room, briefly glancing at the model train running around under the Christmas Tree as he walked along.
Zooey was awaiting for him, having just wrapped herself up in a blanket to keep warm from the cold, while the fireplace continued to crackle quietly. Then, the vixen turned to her left and saw Tails arrive with the biscuits and the hot chocolate. She squeaked in excitement, as Tails set the tray down right in the middle of the coffee table, before sitting down on the sofa himself once more, cuddling up to Zooey again.
"There you are, Zooey," Tails said, gesturing to the tray, "Two mugs filled with delicious hot chocolate and the plate of chocolate chip cookies that we baked earlier today as a little side treat for our special evening together for Christmas."
"Very nicely done, Tails!" Zooey complimented, taking her hot chocolate off the tray and giving it a gentle sip.
The moment she took that sip and gulped it down, her tastebuds were soon met with a tingling sensation of sweet and delightful chocolatey goodness, as well as feeling the hot beverage warming her on the insides of her body. She did also end up getting a bit of whipped cream on her mouth, which she licked off without so much of a problem.
Tails waited patiently for her reaction to his specially made hot chocolate.
"Like it?" Tails asked.
"Oh, Tails," Zooey said, grinning delightedly, "This is the best hot chocolate I have ever drank! It's warm enough and deliciously sweet with the whipped cream on the top of it! Perfect for Christmas!"
Tails blushed as he felt gratified by his girlfriend's opinion.
"Well, I tried to create a special hot chocolate that sums up the sweetness of our love," Tails replied.
In turn, Zooey giggled and blushed herself, then she leaned towards him and kissed him on the cheek, making Tails blush even more.
"You're a fluffy ball of cuteness," Zooey flirted, winking at him.
With nothing more said, the two foxes focused on sipping their hot chocolate mugs quietly, enjoying the tasty warm beverage and whipped cream that tingled their tastebuds, all the while eating a couple of the chocolate chip cookies, sometimes dunking them into the hot chocolate for a little fun.
A couple of minutes later, Tails finished drinking his hot chocolate, although when he put the empty mug down onto the coffee table, Zooey suddenly laughed playfully at him, because on his muzzle was a chocolate and whipped cream mixed 'moustache', which Tails giggled at and quickly wiped it off with his hand.
"Looks like the hot chocolate didn't disappoint in flavour and taste," Tails said to Zooey, as they snuggled up together.
"It certainly didn't, Tails," agreed Zooey, "Not to mention that our homemade cookies were very tasty, too."
Nodding, Tails then dug into his pocket and got out the mistletoe that he had picked up from the kitchen earlier one and teasingly held it up between himself and Zooey, giving her a playful teasing look. And when Zooey looked up and saw the mistletoe that her boyfriend was holding up between them, she blushed almost a deep red, and looked at him, before giggling at him.
"There's just one more thing to make this festive evening extra special, sweetie," Tails said, sweetly, "A kiss under the mistletoe near the fireplace."
Giving her boyfriend a very loving and romantic look, Zooey scooted herself much close to Tails, while he did the same thing, and wrapped their Fox tails around one another, giving each other half-closed sparkly eyes and smiles that showed how much they were in love with each other.
In the background, the ghetto blaster was playing yet another Christmas song, this time it was playing 'Silent Night'.
"Merry Christmas, Zooey," Tails said, romantically.
"Merry Christmas to you too, Tails," Zooey replied, smiling lovingly.
Finally, after gently cupping her hands on the two-tailed fox's little face, Zooey closed her eyes and gave Tails a gentle and passionate kiss on the lips, which was a gesture that Tails, who had closed his eyes as well, returned to her, with some love of his own to share to his girlfriend.
As they deepened their Christmas kiss, wrapping their arms around each other and laying down on the sofa, the fireplace continued to crackle quietly with the flames rising and lowering with each crackle they produced, keeping the while workshop home toasty warm.
After a couple of seconds, the two broke the pie kiss and started nuzzling each other once more, doing nose rubs, sharing one or two smooches with each other, and even gently tickling each other to get a couple of festive laughs out of one another, while the snow fell silently outside and the model train set under the Christmas Tree continued to run around the bottom of it quietly.
They couldn't wait for Christmas Day to arrive, when all of their friends would come together and start opening up the presenters that were wrapped up and waiting to be opened up from under the tree, and even Team Sonic's arch enemy, Dr Eggman, and his robots, Orbot and Cubot, were allowed to join them for Christmas Day, because even though he was their enemy, nobody should spend Christmas all alone.
As we leave the two loving foxes to enjoy their special evening alone together and eventually fall into a peaceful slumber on the leather sofa, the snow outside the workshop house continued to fall from the night sky, as stars shined brightly from up above in the heavens, while a cold wind gently blew across the whole of Bygone Island, as it was left in silence, with nothing to disturb it.
To put it simply, it truly was a silent night.
The End