List: Darkspine Sonic759, GalexiatheChao, Satora-wolf, SilverDawn2010, Sonic Speed Blue Blur 23, and Xoxomtmodnarxoxo!

Ahg…late by 2 hours. Sigh…oh well. Merry late Christmas, my readers! This chapter probably takes a different twist then you might think, so, sorry GalexiatheChao if this wasn't what you were looking for…I still had fun writing it. Onwards, march!

Chapter twenty-nine

Wake-Up Rule

It was six-thirty in the morning when it all began. The sun hadn't yet risen, it being too early for it to do so during the winter season, but even so a light was suddenly switched on in the Hedgehog house.

Dash the Hedgehog had hardly gotten a wink of sleep the night before, and the instant he turned on his lamp, any weariness left instantly rushed away. Grinning, the boy giggled. He knew what day today was, and he turned to his clock, hoping to read a reasonable hour to wake his parents up. But alas, the clock read 5:38 A.M., and his giggling ceased entirely. Huffing impatiently, he crossed his arms, allowing himself to sink back into his warm covers. Of course, it just had to be an hour before his parents would let him wake them up. The rule of 6:30 had been set only last year, but he would have no leeway over forgetting, for the rule had been pounded into the hedgehog's mind day after day.

"Don't forget," his Dad had reminded him last night, while making sure the boy was in his bed and not pacing his room, waiting for tomorrow to arrive. "The rule's 6:30. No earlier."

"It's not like you'd mind," the boy muttered back, staring down at his feet. "You wake up at 5:30 practically every day anyway."

"Without waking Mom," Sonic reminded him for the thousandth time. This conversation had become a popular one between himself and Dash in the last weeks. "Try an' get some sleep. Come tomorrow mornin' you'll be needing it."

And so, the six year old had tried his best to get some rest. He forced himself to not open his eyes for five minutes, he counted sheep, he made his mind blank…but no matter what he'd done, the image of new running shoes or Christmas cookies or even a toy football ran through his mind. There was no escaping the truth in the boy's mind; Christmas would be tomorrow. No matter how hard he tried he could not push that one thought out of his mind.

And so he'd suffered two and a half hours, before finally, finally, drifting off into an unstable sleep, dreaming of ham and popcorn and Santa and reindeer. Being such a light sleeper, he awoke at about 3:00 A.M. to the sound of something-or someone- downstairs, making an awful racket. But he'd been too tired at that point to get up and investigate a small noise. For all he knew, it could've been Santa leaving, and there was no point tempting himself by going down to see the presents hours before the wake-up call would be allowed.

Of course, here he was, only two and a half hours later, wide awake and ready for action. He wondered then why his Dad wasn't up, at least taking a short run in the snow. Christmas seemed to be one of the only days Dash knew his father to stay in bed an extra hour, which was peculiar, because the boy knew from experience that his Dad loved Christmas almost as much as he did. Why would he sleep longer than all the kids?

But, Dash reminded himself, it's not like it mattered. His Dad was still asleep, that was that, and there was no way Dash could wake him up right then and not expect to get in trouble in some form.

"You're getting too old for this, Dash," the boy recalled his mother telling him last Christmas, when he'd woken them at 5:34 to the second, unable to wait another minute. "I mean, really honey, you're going to turn six in two weeks!"

To Dash, six years old seemed like a great age to still wake up parents. He argued that he had friends who still did-and he did. He wasn't lying in this case.

"You're not your friends though, sport," his father had replied back good naturally, after glancing at Amy to make sure that's what he wanted her to say.

After all the arguments between himself and his parents, Dash had finally come to terms with it. No, he didn't understand it, per say,-again, his father was capable of waking up that early- but he did understand that his parents weren't going to be flexible in this area. Which was, as he had worded to his parents, a mighty shame.

"Nice word choice," his father had chuckled, but there had been no changes.

Agonized to the point of desperation, Dash swung his legs over the bed and stretched, before he began pacing. He'd come to realize over the years that pacing really didn't help that much, but it was better than sitting and twiddling his thumbs. He huffed periodically as he continued pacing, glancing at the clock anxiously every minute or so, only to be angered further every time he saw the current time. This just wasn't fair. How could they put a time limit on Christmas? Technically, it had arrived the moment he fell asleep. But no. They had to set a dumb, pointless—

A sudden loud noise forced Dash out of his thoughts, and his ears twitched uncertainly as he gazed at his door, curious as the sounds of hollering and shouting increased, until he was certain he knew what was going on. Frowning, he ran to his door, practically breaking it down as he opened it, and he ran out, following a blue streak as it raced to his parents' bedroom. Taking a leap, Dash reached out for the streak, somehow managing to catch it by the legs, and the two blue hedgehogs went crashing to the ground.

"Da-a-ash!" the four year old whined beneath his brother, and he shoved his older brother off of him. "Get off! What was 'hat all 'bout?"

"What do ya think you're doing, headin' to Mom and Dad's room?" the older of the two screeched, growling angrily. "Ya can't wake 'em up! It's fourty-six minutes too early!"

"Forty-five, and that's only your dumb rule," Flash answered back coolly, frowning back at Dash.

"No it ain't, it's the girls' too!"

"Do I look 'ike a girl to ya?"

"Yes!"

"Well I will 'ave ya know, I weren't the only one headin' to 'heir room!" Flash hollered angrily, yanking himself out of his brother's grip. Before Dash could stop him, the child ran off to their parent's bedroom, racing in through the open door to join the other two-Rose and Nick.

Furious that his younger siblings were breaking the rule, Dash zoomed in through the open door himself, yelling angrily upon seeing his Dad sit up tiredly and his Mom curl into herself and turn to her other side.

"Dad, don't let 'em get away with this!" he cried out, jumping up and down. "I tried to stop 'em, but Flash here wouldn't listen!"

"Stop blamin' me!" Flash hollered, "and you can't point fingers, either. Momma says that iz not nice."

"It's not nice to wake us up either," Amy muttered as she too sat up, leaning her head against her husband's shoulder. "Just because we didn't give you three multiple warnings on not waking us up, it doesn't mean you can go around and expect to not get in trouble." Dash pumped a triumphant fist in the air at her lecture, giggling manically. Oh boy, they were going to get in such big trouble—

"And Dash, next time let us deal with it," their mother continued. "We were already up by the time Nick and Rose came in, because you and Flash kept hollering at each other."

"I couldn't let him get away with it…" Dash whined. It seemed he was always getting into trouble more than the others. Even Flash got away with more, and he could run around the house just as fast as he could.

"Well, anyway…" It was their father who spoke at last, breaking the awkward silence. "I suppose since we're up now, we might as well go open presents…can't we, Amy?"

"Why do I even bother?" she muttered, more to herself than anyone, and she laughed pitifully, yawning as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Alright. Alright we can open them now, as long as the girls are up and Samantha will wake up easily."

"Taken care of," Kyler's voice came from the door, and the family turned to see Kyler and Violet, Kyler holding the sleepy baby in her arms, smiling lightly. "C'mon, let's go! I can't wait any longer!" Kyler finished, giggling softly, and before anyone could stop her she ran off towards the living room, bouncing Samantha awake by her movement. The rest of the kids, just as excited, followed eagerly behind, their mother shuffling after them tiredly. But Dash stayed behind, waiting for his father, who was usually the fast and impatient one of the family to start heading out of the room himself. As the two headed out, Dash felt a hand ruffle through his spines, and he glanced up, blinking as his father messed with his quills.

"Ya tried," Sonic said, grinning and chuckling. "Thanks, sport."

The boy blinked in surprise, then smiled back weakly.

'You're not mad?"

"Not really. I'm actually glad we had an excuse to get up. I was already wide awake myself."

"So…we can wake you up at 5:30 every year now?"

"Nope," Sonic answered swiftly, smirking at his son's bemused frown. "Don't worry, sport, the others will get the lecture they need. Ya did pretty good." They reached the living room then, and Dash grinned upon seeing all the dazzling gifts underneath the Christmas tree, wrapped in pretty bows and multiple wrapping papers. And before Sonic could possibly stop him, the boy lunged for them, anxiously searching for his gifts, and Sonic grinned, now even more wide awake, the rule regarding wake-up call being 6:30 now long forgotten.