Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and Happy Holidays. This is a story I had in mind and wanted to share for the Holiday season, hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat don't belong to me, they belong to SEGA
Living in a world that's on the edge of disaster can change how a person can think and act. It can make a person think of life in a dark and more straightforward way of thinking, almost with a stricter and more battle-hardened outlook on everything. With everything in the world crumbling right before one's eyes.
But even that wasn't enough to bring down the spirits of a psychokinetic hedgehog.
Silver was in a building that both him and Blaze had used as a safehouse of sorts so that they could be able to regroup for when life out in the large crisis of a city is too dangerous for them and they must get away to safety.
Silver was currently in the safehouse, alone with nothing really to do. He was however looking through an old document he had found while he and Blaze were out foraging for what they could find for the night, as well as something that could help to further help them to try to save the ruined city, although the latter was proving to be at the point of impossible. Silver was optimistic that they could find a way to fix this, however. Blaze could only grin and bare his optimism, as she thought differently, but that's beside the point.
Silver was looking through the document and was fascinated with the information that he saw. The particular document he was reading was different. Rather than basic information of simple survival tricks or even giving some facts about where a certain region they were in was about or what may have led to the ruined future they are currently in right now, there were instead mentions of festive things to do during a "holiday", as it was being called. Such festive things included putting up colorful lights, something called "caroling" around in the community, putting up a tree and decorating it with different lights and ornaments. This all seemed like a great occasion he could have had. The "holiday" in question was mentioned as Christmas.
The hedgehog smiled as he read through the pages and thought of how this could have played out according to what was in the document.
"Man, this "Christmas" day sounds really cool." He said to himself. "I wonder what it would've been like to actually be a part of it."
Silver looked through more of the document, not noticing as Blaze had entered the safehouse. She had just gotten back after a small little exhibition after she had suggested that her and Silver split up to find some supplies they would need for the next few days or tonight at the very least. Suffice to say though that she couldn't really find anything while she was out, and she had been out for quite some time too. She made an agreement with Silver that the abandoned complex they were in now would be their little safehouse for now and agreed to come back here. When she got back, she sighed but then looked around and she saw that Silver had come back from his own exhibition, but he also had something with him. Whatever it was, he seemed fixated on what he was looking at, which she could tell was some kind of file that had remained intact to her surprise. He was looking through the file and he kept his eyes on it too, it seemed as if he was a little too preoccupied with it and nothing else seemed to matter or exist in his own little world. She didn't think anything of it until she heard Silver talking.
"It would probably be really cool to celebrate this." He said with a smile.
"Celebrate what?" Blaze asked, causing the white furred hedgehog to jump in surprise.
Silver looked over to see that Blaze was standing right at the doorway of the safehouse, and he sighed in relief upon seeing the purple feline, thankful he didn't have to go to attack mode over a possible trespasser. Though given the state of... Well, everything in the ruined city, that was highly unlikely to begin with.
"Oh, it's just you, Blaze." He chuckled nervously.
"Well, yeah. What were you expecting, an Iblis Biter?" She asked with a slight snicker.
"No." Silver had protested, sounding a bit upset and scared too. "I just... Wasn't expecting you to come by so soon."
"Well, you don't have to take that to heart, it was only a joke."
"Hard to believe... You never make jokes." Silver whispered to himself.
"Excuse me?"
He panicked when he knew that she heard him and looked up at her, shaking his head.
"Nothing! I didn't say anything!"
She narrowed her eyes a bit, but shrugged, thinking nothing of it.
"Okay then." Blaze said nonchalantly and walked over to a small desk to sit down.
Silver looked at the document again and noticed that a common theme that seemed to be emphasized is being together with friends and family during this special and magical time. Silver grinned as he glanced up at Blaze, who was sitting on a nearby chair and seemed to be lost in thought as she stared up at the ceiling, presumably daydreaming or more likely being cautious. Even in a safehouse, Blaze was just as aware of her surroundings as she was if she was out in open potential danger. Silver glanced back at the document again and smiled, before setting it down and stood up, looking over at the purple feline.
"Hey, Blaze?"
"What is it, Silver?" Blaze asked, turning herself around on the chair she was sitting on and looked back at the hedgehog.
He glanced back at the document, smiling a bit and looked back up at her.
"I've been reading through this document, and I found out something that I was hoping we could do."
"Oh, that's nice, I suppose." She said and turned back around on her seat. "So what? Is there some mythological place you would like to someday visit based on that document?"
"I want to celebrate Christmas, Blaze."
Blaze had nearly fumbled around and fell off the chair as Silver had told her that. She had never heard of what he had asked, but she had a feeling that what that entailed surely were things that no longer had easy access to. Besides, she had never heard of that word before. Must've been from a long time ago, and typically, with the state of how things are now, if it was from before this crisis, then it's safe to assume it's a lost legend.
After a quick second of mild shock, she looked over at Silver.
"What?"
"I want to celebrate Christmas." He repeated.
"What's Christmas?"
"Well, according to this document, it's a holiday that comes once a year and you get to decorate the place with lights, and you even get to decorate a Christmas tree, but it's mostly a time to be with friends and family, according to the document."
"A tree?" Blaze asked, sounding dumbfounded. "You decorate a tree?"
"Well, yeah." Silver said. "You also get to decorate and hang up lights around the place too, even around city buildings too. Sounds like a really cool holiday."
She shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh.
"Silver, not to be a downer, but I would like to think there are more important things right now than an ancient myth." She said
"Well yeah, but this can still be something to possibly consider."
"Silver, just take a look outside." Blaze said, motioning with her hand out to the fire and brimstone outside, accompanied by the destroyed buildings. "We live in a literal apocalypse. Our main priority needs to be what we can do to survive and not get killed, not contemplating whether or not we can celebrate something that's been long forgotten."
"I know that, Blaze. I was just kinda hoping you'd be more enthused about this, but I get it." He said, sounding defeated and pretty stupid too.
Blaze could see that this hurt Silver quite a bit. She sighed and looked back out at the city, what was left of it anyway.
Blaze imagined how the city would have looked in the way Silver had described it in the document. Truth be told, she was longing for a change quite similar to what Silver had wanted, but she also has no choice but to be the one to keep Silver in line. He's smart, but he's also naive, which leads him to make rash decisions that would otherwise get him injured, or even killed, so she has to step up. For Silver's sake.
But she'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit that it would be nice to get away from all of this, no matter the method.
She looked up to see as Silver had turned around and was about to head out. She looked at the document and sighed.
"Fine, we can celebrate Christmas."
Silver's ears perked up when he heard Blaze say that, turning back to her with a small glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"Wait what, seriously?"
Blaze nodded then Silver ran up and picked her up in a hug.
"Oh, thank you, Blaze! I knew you would want to try it!"
"Silver, let go! You can put me down now!"
Silver brought Blaze back down and released the hug, rubbing his arm as he looked to the side, quite embarrassed.
"Sorry. I got a bit carried away."
"A little more than "a bit", but you're forgiven."
Silver smiled and went back to pick up the document, while Blaze brushed and straightened her jacket.
"Well, let's get started." He said with a smile. "I guess the first thing we need is a place to call home, I guess."
Blaze, with her arms crossed, looked around in the room of the safehouse in an observant manner for a few moments before looking at Silver.
"I say we've got that covered."
He looked around too and smiled and kept reading.
"Okay next, lights."
"Lights?"
"Yeah, lights. Like regular fitting little light bulbs. They can be regular or colored lights according to this."
"Silver, there are no lights here." Blaze said. "This city doesn't run on electricity, and the only light bulbs left in this world are buried under debris and rubble and magma most likely. Destroyed too if that's the case, so that's definitely out of the question."
"Oh. I hadn't thought of that." He said and rubbed his arm and looked down.
Blaze went up and patted his shoulder, making the hedgehog look at her.
"I'm just pointing out the facts." She said. "Anyway, what comes next?"
"Hmm... Decorating a Christmas tree from the look of things."
Blaze looked outside to the city again, knowing full well that they will not find any piece of wood lying around, let alone a tree.
"Do I even need to say it..?" She shook her head.
"Blaze, I know, but there has to be something out there. We just have to try our hardest to find it."
"But Silver-"
Before she could say anything else, Silver had already used his psychokinesis to fly up and zoomed out of the safehouse.
Blaze let out an exasperated sigh as Silver had left without a second thought like that, knowing she would be in for a wild goose chase over nothing, but pushed that aside and went to follow Silver.
Hours later, Silver and Blaze returned back to the safehouse. They had spent the whole day searching around the city for the supplies they needed for Christmas, but as expected, they couldn't find any of the things. completely unsurprising to a certain purple feline.
Silver had let out an exasperated sigh and started to pace around the room, while Blaze watched him pace back and forth, staying out of the way, arms crossed as she watched the hedgehog. She could see how hurt Silver was after he had such high hopes of getting a chance to celebrate this Christmas thing, only for them to be crushed to little specks of dust. Things usually played out like this, both are unable to find much of anything they would need or to gather some supplies to maybe satiate Silver's curiosity over something he had wondered about, but he seemed to be more hurt than previous times.
Silver walked up to the wall and started to slam his fist in anger. Blaze wasn't too terribly surprised that Silver even had this reaction, she could tend to him at the very least since they were safe and pretty far away from any threats.
"Why?" Silver asked to himself more than to Blaze. "I just wanted to be able to celebrate this Christmas thing. Why did it have to be impossible to locate the supplies we needed?"
Blaze sighed, stepping up and bringing her hand up and held onto Silver's shoulder in a comforting manner.
"Silver, you shouldn't expect for this kind of stuff to just happen."
"I know, but... I was really looking forward to trying and maybe getting to experience what it was like to celebrate it. It's just not fair..."
He went to the wall next to a window and he slid down and hugged his knees close to him, letting out a disappointed sigh as well.
Blaze saw this and walked over to him and sat down next to him, not putting her hand on his shoulder, but just to be next to him since she was sure he needed at least that right now.
"Silver, I'm sure we can be able to do this another day."
"But I wanted to be able to do this today." The hedgehog said and looked down. "Why is it that every time I want to try something, things always have to backfire in some way?"
Blaze didn't know how to respond to that, so instead she just sat there in silence, not saying a word.
"Maybe it's better that I don't get to experience this day." Silver said suddenly. "I'm such an idiot... What was I thinking anyway? I thought it'd be possible to celebrate this ancient myth. Why bother anyway? I'm just going to disappoint myself in the end."
Not wanting to hear anymore, Blaze turned over to Silver and brought him in for a comforting embrace. Silver was taken off-guard with this but returned the hug after a short while.
"Enough talk. You sound like a child blaming yourself for everything." She said a bit sternly.
Silver couldn't believe what Blaze had said to him, but he knew she was right. He remained quiet and just let the embrace continue.
"Now I understand that you were looking forward to this, but not everything can go the way someone wants it to."
Silver could only remain quiet as he had his head on her shoulder. Blaze had started to pet Silver comfortingly to calm him, despite the fact that it looked like he didn't need that right now.
"You may have not gotten the chance to get all the things necessarily ready to get this "Christmas" to play out like it was more or less supposed to. But that shouldn't be what matters most. There is one thing we were told to get that we had from the very beginning."
Silver was confused as to what Blaze had just told him. How was it possible they had something they needed from the start? He brought his head up and looked at her.
"What do you mean? What did we have the entire time?"
"I remember as you were reading through the document that you had said that Christmas was a holiday to spend time with friends and family."
Silver was a bit lost as to what Blaze had meant by that, but then a sudden realization had hit him. He looked around on the floor to see where the document was at, and it was there, resting on the ground. Silver went to pick it up and read through it again, and sure enough, he had found what Blaze was referring to.
Christmas was a time to get together and spend time with close friends and with family.
The white hedgehog put his arms down, looking back to Blaze and he started to speak, his voice sounding a bit shaky.
"Wow. I... I can't believe I was so stupid to not realize this."
She didn't say anything, just happy to see that Silver had actually cheered up from the looks of things, which was a relief to her. That was until she heard what she assumed to be sniffling from the hedgehog and stepped up to him.
"Silver? Are you feeling okay?"
The hedgehog nodded and turned around to face Blaze, revealing that he had a few tears welling up in his eyes.
"I'm just happy to know that we had hope for this... I hadn't thought clearly of it, but you did... It's as if you knew what to do for this to play out the way it was meant to..."
She uncrossed her arms and smiled at Silver, as said hedgehog went to wipe the tears away from his eyes.
"Just one question..."
"Yes, Silver?"
He took in a deep breath to calm himself down a bit before speaking again.
"How did you remember that this was a time to spend with friends and family..?"
She smiled, rolling her eyes playfully.
"Let's just say that you're a lot like my brother, and that I would do anything to protect you or help you if you need it. So, when I heard you say it was a time to spend with friends and family, it just stuck with me."
Silver smiled as he and Blaze hugged once again.
"Thank you, Blaze." Silver said and broke the hug. "This may be my first Christmas, but I won't forget it, not in my lifetime."
"For what it's worth, I had a good time too. Maybe not going out in a wild goose chase all day, but it was nice to have spent time with you. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
They both smiled, then a small pile of debris had fallen to the floor, startling the two. Blaze had seen the debris and got an idea. She walked over and kneeled down on the floor and started to rearrange the rubble so that the small bits of rectangular metal were standing up and had been put in a circle together and leaned over to make the shape of a pyramid with the larger piece of paper in between the pyramid. She then got some small paper and dust and twirled it up and placed it on top of the pyramid, letting it drape down. Then as a final touch, she snapped her fingers to ignite a small fire, and brought it over to burn the paper on top of the debris.
Silver had seen what Blaze had done and saw as she stood back up and looked back at him, giving the hedgehog a small smile.
"Blaze? What is that?"
Blaze let out a giggle and looked back at the debris.
"Well, since we were out all day and couldn't find what we needed to make a tree for Christmas, I thought it would at least be nice if we had our own mini Christmas tree from the debris." She said and looked back at Silver. "What do you think?"
Silver slowly smiled as he got up and walked up to the pyrokinetic cat and gave her a hug.
"It's a great idea, Blaze. You certainly helped to make this Christmas memorable."
She smiled and hugged Silver back, then walked over with him over to the window. They both sat down on the floor, using the wall for support and Blaze had leaned her head on Silver's shoulder, yawning as she was feeling tired, it was getting pretty late after all. Silver moved his arm to Blaze's shoulder and held her close as he had yawned from feeling tired as well.
"I hope you enjoyed your first Christmas, Silver..." Blaze tiredly said.
Silver glanced up at the mini Christmas tree Blaze had made and looked back at her, smiling.
"It was everything I could've imagined. Thank you, Blaze."
Blaze smiled and had closed her eyes, ready to go to sleep now.
"Merry Christmas, Blaze..."
She looked up at him and he chuckled a bit.
"What did you say?"
"It's in the document, it was apparently said to help spread some cheer for Christmas, and to tell other people to be polite. I guess it made sense and it made people feel good and in the mood too..."
She nodded then closed her eyes again.
"I suppose there's no arguing what was established long ago... In any case, Merry Christmas, Silver..."
The hedgehog smiled and he soon felt Blaze's body go limp as she had succumbed to sleep. He brought her close to him, resting his head on her and closing his eyes.
"Sleep well, Blaze..." Silver whispered before also going to sleep as well.
With that, they both were fast asleep, happy that this Christmas was actually something worth celebrating, at least with what they had gotten which was to spend it together the way it was supposed to be. The fire from the mini tree would go out as they slept, ending the day and, according to Silver, the best Christmas as well.