The fire crackled, gurgled and hissed, as he poked the beast with his stick, letting the logs rest in the mouth of the monster.
The monster that had kept them warm, every winter.
He expected his friends to come. They were supposed to come for his Christmas gathering, but it was possibly too cold for them to want to come out of their warm abodes, out of their warm little rabbit holes.
The turkey sat on the table, choking with stuffing, the skin looking glazed with gravy. He wasn't sure where Tails was either. He went outside to get a Christmas gift in the stores that seemed so far away, a train away. Station Square was busy with festivities, and he hoped he would be alright, swimming in the sea of people who were shopping, rushing home to see their families, buying their own turkeys and hams and roast beefs, and he stabbed the turkey with his fork, seeing the gravy and juices seep out. It was a delicious turkey, seeming to be eaten with no one.
He felt lonely, this year.
He heard a jingling of bells outside his window. He thought it could've been ol' Saint Nick, but he knew he was only a child's tale, to keep children in line to get good gifts. Tails didn't even believe in him. But as he heard the rushing and chiming of bells, and reindeer hooves on top of his house, he shut off the fireplace, thinking someone was coming, someone special, with a red and black face of soot and cherries, with a sack as large as himself, with a white fluffy fur that looked like the whipped cream snow outside…
The sack was trapped in the chimney! Shadow came tumbling down, the wood still a little hot, the lifeform feeling the heat scorching him. He tried not to embarrass himself, as the toys and bric-bracs came plunging on his head, on the coals of the dead flames, and he huffed like a hedgehog, sounding like a freight train, and he gave Sonic his gift, wrapped in a little golden bow. "Take it, before I change my mind," he said.
He tore off the bow, unwrapped the wrapping, and he found the gift was a picture frame, of both Sonic and Shadow in what he called "grandma sweaters", sitting around the fireplace, with his other friends.
"The others are coming, so you better get that turkey warmed up. I hope it's good, but coming from you, I know you won't make it even halfway decent."
Sonic was used to his huffy attitude. It was his way of showing he cared.
The others arrived in droves, carrying boxes and bags of pies, hot cocoa, warm oven-roasted hams, and so much more. They sat at a long table, like a real family had, the families that none of them seemed to ever had, except for each other.
After the great feast, they sat around the fire place, drinking hot cocoa, watching Christmas specials on the TV, talking to each other, handing out presents.
As he laid his head on Shadow's shoulder, him slightly purring underneath his skin, he thought he truly wasn't lonely, anymore.