The present
It was silver
But not topped with a bow
He could hear the contents shaking as he held it
Closely to his heart
It had beat with him
The sounds of ringing laughter
The joyful ringing of bells outside the frosty window
He had heard it all
He held the present with his own hands
And it had cried out
In joy
He rocked it. He cradled it close to him, bouncing his knee, his eyes glittering in the sublime light, his smile fixed on his face, as he held the little hedgehog infant, the bottle filled with warm milk in his other hand, raised in the air.
He remembered when Tails was this young. And he had pledged to take care of this abandoned youth as much as he had to his brother, and he hugged the child close, telling him of a loose, fabled lullaby, of the castle that was in the sky, of the hedgehog prince who had lived there, ready to start a revolution on the world, with his small, pale hands.
The castle in the sky
Laced with clouds
Undulations of the goddess' heart
It had burst with color
With life
The sun rises in a open bud
The dew melts away
In the diaphanous sheen
Of the blades of the fields
Never had I seen such love!
For a child who had ruled
Such a beautiful land!
The horses run
In the meadows below you
You take care of your people
With your heart, as diaphanous
As the grass that had shed
Their sunlit tears
The infant cooed, as he rose, taking him across the living room, near the fire place, where the warmth had brewed, and the Christmas tree, that had a present waiting for him, his own child that his mother and father never seemed to want, a lovely child, a wonderful child Sonic thought, and he wasn't sure why he was left alone, in the winter tundra, waiting for his small body to glaciate. But he had taken him away from all the awful things, all the mean things his mommy and daddy had said to him, and he would live here, inside his golden heart that bled for everyone, even those he had never known.
He put him in his crib, and rocked him gently with his foot, as he read on how to care for such a tiny and fragile baby hedgehog. He had studied it meticulously. As he wanted to be a doting father for him, one that he never had, even when he came out of the womb.
He named him Silver, after the present he opened, the color that winter beheld outside, and he opened his present for him, a crown that had been endowed with rubies and garnets, and he had sung to him softly, as Tails had watched the new prince of his own little kingdom being spoiled with all the affectation he never got when he was born, and Tails had said, as Sonic had climbed into bed, watching the baby sleep comfortably in his little manger, "Rest little one, for a revolution will come, when you've fully grown from a small prince to a just and kind king. We will make the world come alive, once again, once the sun sprouts again."
The moon had shed its tears on the land for too long, he thought.