It was a few days before Christmas, and Sara was sitting on the porch, bundled up in boots and a warm quilted coat. She was watching Maria, Blitz, and Rift play in the snow. Maria had discovered how to make snow angels and delighted in flopping back in the snow and waving her arms and legs. Sara laughed watching it, though she knew what the boys were up to as they created a tightly packed wall of snow.
A snowball soon smashed against Maria, and the girl was quickly on her feet complaining as several more hit her. "Hey! No fair!"
"Gotcha good!" Blitz grinned and ducked behind the snow wall as Maria hurled a snowball back at him. "Missed me!"
"Oh you!" Maria gathered up more snow and was soon engulfed in a lopsided war.
Rift had a harder time aiming than his older brother and was slower on the draw, allowing Maria to peg him a few times. "Awww!"
"Leave him alone! I'm your opponent!" Blitz yelled, a glint in his emerald eyes. He worked as fast as he could to nail Maria, who had no snow fort to hide behind.
"Well I'm not hiding!" Maria started dodging back and forth, creating a path of matted down snow. She soon found her footing and demonstrated the speed she'd inherited from her father.
"Good going! Show those boys!" Sara encouraged, smiling as her daughter started fighting back and nailing Blitz with snowballs.
The girl wove closer and closer to the snow fort, and soon her foot came flying through it, spraying snow all over the two boys. A blur of blue and purple mixed in the white snow as Blitz and Maria tangled into a brawl.
"Gotcha!" she called, grabbing fists full of snow and smearing it in the boy's face.
"Hey hey! Tone it down!" Sara finally stood up from the porch and hurried over to the ball of hedgehogs.
"She started it!" Blitz called.
"I did not! He did! You saw, didn't you, Mommy?!" She grabbed another bunch of snow and shoved it down Blitz's coat.
"Rrr! I did not!" He squeaked at the cold snow and grabbed Maria's feathery bangs.
"Hey! Now stop it!" Sara knelt down on the snow and removed Blitz's hand from Maria's hair. "Snowball fights are fun, but I don't want it turning into fisticuffs." She drew the two hedgehogs to her feet and pulled them in for a hug. "You were having fun a minute ago, right?"
"Yeah." Blitz nodded.
"Well...it was kinda fun," Maria admitted.
"So, now that that's over, how about showing me what kind of snowman you can build?" She smiled warmly, and knocked the excess snow from their jackets.
"Yeah! I wanna build a snowman!" Rift piped up and started compacting a snowball in his hands. He attempted to roll it into a ball, though he wasn't doing a very good job of it.
"No no, you do it like this!" Blitz cut in and took over for Rift.
"Hey! Not over my angel!" Maria called and went over to the boys, and soon she was helping roll up the middle section.
Eventually a black and red streak arrived at the house, carrying a couple of paper bags. He glanced over at the kids putting the finishing touches on their snowman and then down at the sky blue hedgehog sitting on the steps. "Busy day?"
"Yep. You got the peanut butter fudge for me, hon?" Sara smiled up at Shadow.
"Yeah, had to go to six different stores to find it... And I got some peppermint canes and...you said you wanted the pina colada ones, right?" he asked in a slightly irritated tone.
"Yep. Those're the ones. Thanks!" she replied and helped hold the door open for him.
"Hey!" He turned to the kids, who all stopped and looked over at him. "I got some hot cocoa here." He indicated the bag and headed inside. He wasn't surprised at all by the snow-soaked arms that soon clung to his leg. "Ahh...come on, give me a chance to get in the door." He smiled down at Maria and headed for the kitchen.
About four in the morning, December 25th, Amy stood outside the bathroom door in Shadow and Sara's house. She and Sonic were staying on the couch, while Blitz and Rift had sleeping bags in what would be the nursery for the coming baby. She'd noticed Sara heading for the bathroom and remembered she was still subject to morning sickness.
"Are you all right?" she asked after a minute.
"Uhg... Yeah, I will be," Sara replied through the door. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" She exited the bathroom after a minute, though she still didn't look too good.
"Well yeah, but I heard you coming downstairs. How about a little tea with honey? That helped me out with morning sickness," Amy offered.
Sara thought about it a moment and nodded. "Hey, if it'll settle the tummy, it's worth a try." She smiled a bit and the two girls headed to the kitchen. Sara took a seat while Amy set about getting her the honey tea.
"It's kind of sweet, but I know you won't mind that," the pink hedgehog commented with a smile.
"Ha...I hope the kids don't think I'm trying to beat Santa to the tree." She chuckled.
"They might," she chuckled, and watched the timer count down on the microwave. "How's Shadow taking it?"
"Mmmnnn...he's pretty patient, you know...but he's taking it better than last time." She folded her arms on the table and lay her head down.
"Oh yeah?" She hit stop just before the alarm could go off and pulled the green and red Christmas mug from the appliance. She held a hand over the water, feeling the steam coming off of it before adding the tea bag and a generous portion of honey.
"Yeah...at first he was worried about me hurting the baby, then when I got further along he thought I was falling apart." Sara chuckled. "You didn't wake Sonic, did you?"
"Hmm...I might have, but he can wait for me." She sat the cup in front of Sara and sat next to her.
"Shadow's an insomniac." She took a sip of the tea. "Ahh!"
"Careful, it's hot!" Amy warned a little too late.
"Heh... Yeah. Well he is. He stays awake a lot longer than I do, so he's probably up there wondering why I haven't come back to bed... He pretends he's asleep." She chuckled softly and took a more careful sip after blowing on the beverage.
"Really? I didn't know that," Amy replied and glanced at the digital readout on the microwave. "Well, you've only been down here about seven minutes."
"He'll be down here after me in a minute." She grinned and took another sip. "Eventually he does get tired...winds up sleeping half the day away."
"Ahh, Sonic doesn't have that problem, but he's a lazy bum." Amy laughed. "He loves to relax, and if he's not relaxing, he's running all over. He's been taking Blitz out running, so I keep worrying when I don't see him after a while."
"Afraid he's going to run off on his own?" Sara queried. The smell and taste of the tea was relaxing enough, and it settled well in her stomach.
"Yeah. There's an Ex Gear park not far from here; he's been fascinated by them lately." She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to find him running off there before too long, and he'll probably be taking poor Rift with him."
"He is like his dad, isn't he?" Sara sighed. She'd often told Shadow Blitz wasn't Sonic, but he was turning out just like him.
"Mmhmm... You're lucky to have Maria. You get to play with her hair and dress her up and play with her dolls...I get a couple rough n' tumble boys who like chasing their father around all day," Amy lamented.
"Mmm...Maria likes chasing after Shadow sometimes. I don't want her to be too concerned about looks." Sara shrugged and finished off her cup of tea. "Thanks for the tea, Amy."
"No problem. Hope you can get back to sleep." She smiled and got up out of her chair. She stood still, though, as she caught sight of a black figure standing at the kitchen doorway.
"So there you are," he said softly with his crimson eyes on Sara.
"Yeah. Amy just gave me something for my stomach." She held up the mug and set it in the sink before walking over to Shadow. She leaned up against him and put her arms around him.
Shadow returned the hug and nuzzled her head gently. "Come on back to bed. You need your rest." His voice was soft and manner gentle, though Amy was still creeped out by his eyes. No matter how soft he'd become in Sara's care, they still held a dangerous glint to them that threatened to come loose if the peace of his household were ever disturbed. Sara seemed to be able to overlook it, though Amy stayed rooted in place several minutes after they headed back upstairs, thinking about it.
"..Hey? You up for the day already?" Sonic's voice cut through her contemplative gaze as his blue form was now in the frame of the kitchen door.
"Ahh...no no, I'm coming." She smiled and took a good look at her mate. In the darkness, he was almost black too, but his emerald eyes held a different spark. Shadow's Shadow...that's all there is to it.
About 8 AM the same day, Sonic and Amy's ears cringed to cheering from their boys. "Yay! Santa came!" they cried, followed by Maria, who brought up the rear, commenting on all the pretty boxes.
"Nnng... For a minute I thought we were alone," Sonic yawned, his arms wrapped around Amy and trying to go back to sleep on her.
"Hey!" She laughed and pushed him off of her. "Hold it! You're not opening anything until Shadow and Sara come down!" she scolded, as she caught Blitz attempting to break and enter a gift with his name on it.
A few minutes later, Sara was the first one downstairs, followed a few steps behind by Shadow. He kept his watchful eyes on her. "Merry Christmas!" Sara beamed. She'd changed into a green and red sweater and grabbed a Santa hat off the counter as she headed into the living room. "Everyone get plenty of sleep?"
"Can we open gifts now?" Maria asked first.
Shadow grunted lightly. "Yeah, but you'll have to stop playing for breakfast." He stood next to the couch and watched the paper fly.
Sara laughed and got down on the floor with the kids, happy to hand out the gifts. "Hey...one at a time." She smiled and handed a gift to each child.
Maria admired the pretty wrapping before breaking into a poinsettia wrapped gift. "Ooo! Thank you!" She smiled brightly at a paint by number set she received.
"Oh cool! My own Gear!" Blitz's gift was not so subtly wrapped, as he received his small Extreme Gear board. "Ooo! It's a Blue Streak model!"
"I got turtle!" Rift held up a TMNT toy, a plastic Leonardo with turtle cycle.
A couple of movies, video games, MP3 players, My Little Ponies, play sets, clothing, bath and body wash, jewelry, and stuffed animals later, the gifts were all unwrapped and a big pile of paper and bows littered the floor. Sara looked quite content with several bows stuck to her Santa hat and made her way across the floor to the TV and put in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
With a little help from Amy, pancakes were soon served to the adults and starry-eyed kids. Of course, they were special, filled with vanilla cream cheese and topped with banana slices, honey, and nuts. Hot cocoa and cider were the drinks of choice, and though it was cold outside, the home was as warm as it could possibly be.
"Thanks for letting us come over," Amy said, gathering up the plates after breakfast.
"Eh. Not a problem." Shadow's eyes were cast on Sara the whole time.
Sonic smirked. "Do anything for Sara, wouldn't you?" He grinned wider as Shadow tried to mask his expression. "Ahh, it's okay...but we gotta get back to sparring some time, it's been too peaceful, hasn't it?"
"You're the one who's been slacking, I beat you the last three times we sparred." He shrugged, happy to change the topic. Sara gave him a knowing smile and sat down on the floor to play with the kids.
"It was a draw!" Sonic replied. "I was tired from work anyhow." He stretched a bit and laughed.
"If you'd let your ego deflate a bit, you could admit defeat," Shadow cut back.
"Heh. Never." Sonic stood and headed back to the kitchen, "Hey, Shadow? Want some egg nog?"
"Nah!" he replied and looked down at the little girl who crawled onto his lap while he was distracted.
"You give me this, Papa?" She held up a stuffed My Little Pony.
"Yeah, yeah I did." He put his arms around his little girl and pulled her to him.
"Thank you! I'm gonna sleep with it tonight, and I'll brush her hair...and I'll take real good care of it, I promise!" She snuggled against the fluffy white tuft on his chest. "What'd you get, Mommy?"
"I got her what she wanted." He stroked Maria's fine quills gently. They'd toughened up considerably since she was born, but they were soft as could be. "I let her have a nice family Christmas."
"Huh?" She looked around the room at Blitz and Rift, and Amy and Sonic, and then her mom. "That's it?"
"Yep. I think she likes that more than the night gown." He smiled slyly, watching a deep blush fill his mate's cheeks.
"You mean that thing I can't wear yet? You're cruel!" She wrinkled her nose at him and Shadow gave an honest laugh in reply.
Soon after, a knock came at the door and "Grandpa Chuck" was let into the house. He came bearing an arm full of gifts for the kids and happily joined the festivities. Since Sara's pregnancy was starting to slow her down, he even helped prepare dinner later that evening. While Shadow remained fairly quiet as he did at any social gathering, there was definitely a peaceful look on his face, especially when he looked at his love and their child.