A/N: Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

A breeze from Azure Lake cast a chill over the shore, but inside a certain cabin on the southern shore, there was plenty of warmth as Sonic the Hedgehog and co. were busy cooking food for Thanksgiving. In particular, Rouge the Bat expressed her happiness at being present here:

"I have to say, it's nice to spend Thanksgiving with Team Sonic! Usually, I have a smaller celebration with Shaddy, but I figured I'd do something different for once."

Sonic was frying a turkey. "That reminds me: where's Shad this year?"

"He's spending time with Amy and her family." Rouge briefly turned away from the oven that had the sweet potato pie she was baking to clasp her hands together next to her head. "Oh, I'm so happy for my Shaddy baby!"

Knuckles the Echidna stopped preparing the gravy and crossed his arms. "You might be happy, but I would rather have ya spendin' time with him."

"Oh, don't deny your feelings, Knuckie! You've been looking forward to this as much as I have!"

"I was until you came along!"

Rouge wrapped an arm around Knuckles and giggled. "Oh, you're so silly!"

"Sonic, get this crazy bat away from me!"

Sonic snickered. "In a sec! I just wanna see the look on your face!"

"OH, COME ON!"

Sonic and his soul brother Miles "Tails" Prower – who'd been making some cranberry sauce – had a good laugh at the whole thing, much to Knuckles' chagrin:

"I HATE BOTH OF YOU!"

Sonic and Tails laughed even harder, causing Knuckles to growl and push Rouge away.

"Knuckie, why so aggressive today?" said Rouge. "This is supposed to be a peaceful occasion with friends!"

"Oh, don't play dumb!" said Knuckles. "Besides, you're supposed to be Sonic's boyfriend!"

Rouge feigned a surprised gasp. "Oh, how could I be so forgetful? Thank you for reminding me, Knuckie!"

Rouge gave Sonic a hug and kiss, which he gladly returned. Tails smiled when he saw this. However, their little makeout session was disrupted when they heard knocking on the door, although Sonic knew this was coming thanks to his Hedgehog Sense.

"I'll get it!"

Tails ended up being the one to get the door, and standing there was…

"Hey Cosmo!"

"Hi Tails!"

Cosmo the Seedrian set aside the container of potato salad she was carrying and gave Tails a big hug and kiss, which he gladly returned. Having not seen her in a while, she felt softer, warmer and more cuddly than usual. Sonic and Rouge gave a collective "awww" when they saw those two hugging. Eventually, Cosmo broke off from the hug and grabbed her potato salad.

"Come on in!" said Tails.

Cosmo did so, and Tails closed the door behind her.

"So, how's it going, Tails?" asked Cosmo.

Tails smiled. "Well, considering I'm among friends who are like family to me, I'm doing very well! How about you?"

"Not too bad, but I missed you terribly!"

"But you're here now, right?"

Cosmo giggled. "Of course! Now, where do you want me to set this potato salad?"

Sonic gestured to the table. "Put it on the table over there."

"OK."

Cosmo set the potato salad on the table.

"Funny seein' ya here, Cosmo," said Sonic. "We thought ya'd eaten it for sure!"

Cosmo smiled. "Well, fate has a funny way of working things out sometimes!"

"I'll say," said Knuckles.

"Excuse me, I don't believe we've met before," said Rouge.

"I'm Cosmo the Seedrian; I'm Tails' girlfriend!"

"Nice to meet you! I'm Rouge the Bat; I'm Sonic's girlfriend!"

"Nice to meet you too!"

Cosmo and Rouge shook hands with each other.

"So tell me, how did you and Tails meet?" asked Rouge.

"Well, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were engaging in an interdimensional war against a group known as the Destructix. The Destructix had happened to take their fight to my world, and after some negotiations, my people and I agreed to fight alongside Team Sonic."

Rouge smiled. "Fascinating! Now, what's this about Sonic saying you were supposed to die?"

"It was a last-ditch effort to stop Scourge. After he'd gathered all the Anarchy Beryls, he nearly had Super Sonic beaten, but I found a way to manipulate the Beryls' power to our advantage. Unfortunately, this also had the effect of putting me into a coma. Ever since that day, I consider myself lucky to have survived, and it is this that I am most thankful for. That, and meeting Sonic and friends, but especially Tails."

Tails smiled nervously and blushed, which Rouge took notice of:

"Awww, look at that, Fox Boy! You're blushing! How adorable!"

Tails chuckled nervously. "Well, we did get along famously…"

"So, are we expecting anybody else?" asked Cosmo.

Tails frowned nervously and put his finger on his chin. "Well, I was expecting one other person…"

"Who?" asked Knuckles.

Somebody else knocked on the door.

"I'll get it!"

Sonic answered the door.

"Hey Sonic! Is Tails here?"

"He is. Come on in, Zooey!"

Zooey, who was carrying a cooking pot, stepped into the cabin.

"Hey Zooey!" said Tails.

"TAILS!"

After setting the pot on the table, Zooey also gave Tails a big hug and kiss, which the Two-Tailed Wonder enjoyed. However, there was one other party who didn't enjoy it…

"Tails, who is this girl and why did she kiss you?" Cosmo had her arms crossed.

Tails smiled nervously and tapped his index fingers together as sweat ran down his face. "Um…Cosmo…this is Zooey. She's my…well…we met after I thought you died, and…"

"I'm his girlfriend!" Zooey waved at Cosmo.

"YOU'RE his girlfriend!?"

Zooey frowned. "Tails, why is this girl getting mad?"

"Eh…heh heh…well, it's not like we dated or anything…"

Zooey put her fists on her hips. "Wait, so you're saying you've been seeing ANOTHER GIRL behind my back!?"

Cosmo growled. "Oh, so you thought you'd ditch me for somebody else because you thought I was dead!?"

"Hey, I don't know anything about that, but I bet Tails has pretty poor taste to be dating somebody like you!" said Zooey.

"Oh, THAT DOES IT!"

Cosmo and Zooey charged at each other, and they would've beaten the snot out of each other were it not for…

"Hey, WHOA WHOA WHOA, hold it, girls!"

Sonic had stepped in and extended his arms out to the sides to stop Cosmo and Zooey. Despite this, though, the two girls struggled to try to get in a shot at each other:

"Get out of my way, Sonic!" said Cosmo. "I'm going to finish her!"

"Not if I finish you first!" said Zooey.

"Look, I can dig the fact that both you mamas are mad at each other, but this is Thanksgiving! It's supposed to be a groovy occasion, and we can't be tryin' to bust each other up over a misunderstanding like this!"

"So what do you suggest?" said Cosmo.

"Well, if both of ya wanna piece of my man Tails that bad, why don't we talk it out? You two seem like reasonable mamas."

"Sonic's right," said Zooey. "We shouldn't be fighting over this." She stroked her chin. "Still, I wish there were an easy solution to this…"

Knuckles stopped working on the gravy and crossed his arms. "Yeah, well you two better find one quick! All this fighting makes me wanna puke!"

Cosmo sighed. "I'd like to solve this too, but nothing I can think of seems…" Cosmo paused and raised her index finger as she smiled. "Wait, I've got it!"

Zooey raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What do you have in mind?"

"Come closer and I'll tell you!"

Sonic stepped aside and let Zooey walk over to Cosmo, who whispered something to her. The blonde fox nodded, smiled and let out an "ah!" when she heard what the Seedrian had in mind, and both girls focused their attention on Tails as they slowly walked towards him:

"So Tails, we know you like both of us…" said Cosmo.

"So, we came up with a solution…" said Zooey.

"You get to have me every other day…"

"And you get to have me every other day after that!"

Cosmo and Zooey surrounded Tails and each wrapped their arms around him.

"Isn't that wonderful?" said Cosmo and Zooey at the same time.

Next, Cosmo and Zooey kissed Tails simultaneously, causing him to gasp as the heat and redness rushed to his face. Within seconds, he passed out.

"TAILS!" exclaimed Sonic, Knuckles, Cosmo and Zooey all at once.

The four of them rushed to his aid.

"Tails, are you OK?" asked Cosmo.

Zooey gently slapped Tails on the cheek. "Wake up, Tails!"

Knuckles growled. "You two better not have killed him!"

Sonic put his index and middle fingers on Tails' neck. "Nah, he's alive. He probably just couldn't handle bein' kissed by two girls at once."

Tails groaned as his eyes slowly opened.

"Ugh…what happened?"

Sonic held four fingers in front of Tails' face. "Tails, how many fingers am I holdin' up?"

"Sonic…why are your fingers green?"

Sonic smiled nervously. "Yeah…he'll live all right."

While the rest of the gang was showing concern for Tails, Rouge clasped her hands together and held them to the side of her head as she smiled.

"Awww, Fox Boy gets to go out with two girls! How adorable! You're such a lucky little cutie!"

Tails sat up and was rubbing his head. "Yeah…real lucky…"

"Gosh, I need to get a picture of all of you!"

Tails bolted to his feet and waved his hands around. "No no, Rouge, it's fine! Really!"

"Come on, Tails; I'd love to be in a picture with you!" said Cosmo.

"Yeah, it would be so cool!" said Zooey.

Tails blushed and smiled nervously. "I dunno…passing out from being kissed was being too much…"

"Please?"

Cosmo and Zooey both clasped their hands together and gave Tails the "Bambi eyes" look. On one hand, he still felt that two girls was too much, but on the other hand, he valued their feelings.

"Well…all right…"

"Awesome!" said the two girls simultaneously.

"All right, lovers, bring it on in!" said Rouge.

Cosmo and Zooey surrounded Tails again. Both of them wrapped an arm around him, smiled and rested their heads against him. Despite his intense blush, the Two-Tailed Wonder had a look of resignation on his face, which got Rouge's attention:

"Oh, don't be so pouty, Fox Boy! Put on a happy face!"

Tails feigned a smile, while Sonic and Rouge got together to each take a picture.

"Say cheese!" said Rouge.

"Cheese!" said the three lovebirds.

Sonic and Rouge each took their own pictures of the three, much to Tails' displeasure:

"Sonic, Rouge, when this is over, I will kill you."

Knuckles punched his palm. "I'll help!"
"Come on, don't be so negative, pal!" said Sonic. "We ain't tryin' to make fun of ya; we just want ya to be happy!"

"Besides, I'm only teasing!" said Rouge. "You of all people should know me by now!"

Just then, a "ding" resounded throughout the cabin.

"Oh, that's the turkey!"

Sonic carefully removed the turkey from the deep fryer and placed it on a stack of paper towels in a pan on the counter to drain, while Tails attended to the cranberry sauce, which miraculously didn't burn. Then, the oven timer went off.

"Ooh, that's the pie!"

Rouge removed the pie from the oven and set it on the counter to cool off. Both Cosmo and Zooey expressed their approval of the food:

"Ooh, all of that smells delicious!" said Cosmo.

"I know!" said Zooey. "I can't wait for it to be done!"

"Well, good news," said Tails. "The cranberry sauce is just about ready!"

"The gravy is just about done, too," said Knuckles.

Knuckles and Tails took their pots off of the stove to let them cool. Meanwhile, Sonic decided to kill time with some idle chatter:

"So Knux, what made ya want to cook gravy for us?"

"Well, I didn't want to be the guy to participate in 'Crapload of Mashed Potatoes Day', but at the same time, I had to bring something to this get-together, so I figured that gravy would be perfect."

"They smell like they'd go great with my mashed potatoes!" said Zooey.

"Personally, I'm more interested in trying Fox Boy's cranberry sauce," said Rouge. "Where did you get the recipe?"

"It's an old Prower family recipe," replied Tails. "It's actually not that hard to make. "All you do is mix sugar, water and cranberries, though our recipe is more of a cran-cherry sauce because it also includes cherries."

"Sounds interesting!" said Cosmo.

Knuckles stroked his chin. "Ya know, given that, I might make my own cran-grape version sometime…"

Sonic gave a thumbs-up. "Hey, I can dig it! Anyways, the turkey oughta be cooled off some by now."

Sonic took the turkey and set it in the center of the table, while Rouge, Knuckles and Tails took their respective dishes and set them on the table as well, with Knuckles pouring his gravy into a large gravy boat for serving. Everyone then sat down and was about to dig in when…

"Hold on!" said Rouge.

"What it is, Mama?" said Sonic.

"Before we eat, I'd like to join hands in prayer."

Sonic nodded. "I can dig it. Let's do it to it like Sonny Pruitt used to do it to it!"

Everyone joined hands, while Rouge recited a prayer:

« Béni soit la Terre d'avoir donné naissance à cette nourriture. Béni soit le Soleil de le nourrir. Béni soit le vent qui porte sa graine. Béni soit la pluie d'étancher sa soif. Bénies soient les mains qui ont aidé à cultiver cette nourriture,

pour l'apporter à nos tables, pour nourrir notre esprit, notre corps et notre esprit. Bénis soient nos amis, nos familles et nos proches. Sois béni. »

After this prayer, everyone proceeded to serve themselves some food. Naturally, Sonic really piled it on, which got Cosmo's attention:

"Sonic, are you really going to eat that much food?"

Sonic smiled. "Just watch me!"

Sonic proceeded to devour his food, much to Rouge's chagrin:

"This is not an eating competition, Piglet Hog!*"

Sonic smiled. "What? I always eat my food like this!"

Sonic continued to inhale his food, so Rouge proceeded to make pig noises at him, which caused Knuckles to burst out laughing.

"Knuckie, don't laugh!" said Rouge. "It's not funny!"

"Oh, you sound so stupid right now!"

Rouge frowned, while Sonic and Tails burst out laughing as well, not at Rouge, but more because Knuckles was laughing. Cosmo and Zooey – who had been sitting on both sides of Tails – looked at each other and shrugged. Eventually, Rouge couldn't help but laugh herself:

"Oh, I can't with you guys! Your laughter is so cute!"

Sonic smiled. "What can I say? I try to make days like this happy ones!"

Tails swallowed a piece of turkey. "I know it's a happy one for me."

Zooey lowered her fork. "Speaking of happiness, I'm curious: since this is Thanksgiving, what are we all thankful for?"

Sonic raised his hand. "I'll go first! I'm just thankful for bein' able to live life to the fullest and havin' a bunch of friends and loved ones that I can count on in good times and bad!"

Rouge smiled. "Very nice! Me, I'm thankful for being able to escape abject poverty and to carve out my own path in life."

Tails nodded. "Never knew you were so poor at one point, but I'm happy for you, Rouge."

"It's not a chapter of my life that I like to talk about often, but I suppose it can't be helped." Rouge took a bite of Tails' cran-cherry sauce. "Mmmm, you really outdid yourself here, Fox Boy!"

Tails smiled. "Thank you, Rouge!"

"You're welcome!"

Knuckles swallowed some potato salad. "Well anyways, I'm thankful for Sonic and Tails helpin' me to realize that there's more to life than just bein' stuck on Angel Island all the time. It's nice to know I can trust that the Master Emerald will always come back home safely no matter what happens."

Rouge smirked. "Wanna bet, Knuckie?"

Knuckles gritted his teeth. "Bat Girl, you already tried stealin' it once. Don't ya think enough is enough?"

"Careful, Knuckie! It might not be enough!"

Knuckles growled. "Then maybe me flingin' some mashed potatoes at ya would be enough!"

Rouge frowned. "OK, I don't appreciate your attitude right now, mister! You know I'm only joking!"

"Are you? To be honest, I don't appreciate yours, either!"

Sonic made a pushing motion. "Whoa, let's be mellow here! I know it's a sensitive subject, but let's let bygones be bygones! Besides, I wanna hear what Cosmo's thankful for."

Cosmo swallowed some mashed potatoes. "OK. I'm thankful that I could depend upon Sonic and his friends to defend the multiverse, for meeting Tails, and for surviving a coma."

Tails smiled. "I'm thankful for meeting you too, Cosmo!"

Zooey shot a cold glare at Tails, causing him to blush.

"B-but I'm also thankful I met you, Zooey! However, the one person I'm most thankful for is none other than Sonic! He not only taught me that it's OK to be different, but he helped me to realize that I am worthy of being loved and that I can do anything that I put my mind to!"

Sonic smiled. "Awww, how sweet! Come here, Keed!"

Sonic gave Tails a big hug, which he gladly returned. While this wasn't the first time that either of them had hugged each other, it was still as cozy and comforting as ever. Cosmo, Zooey and Rouge let out a collective "awww" at seeing this cuteness.

"Sonic, Tails, you two are definitely getting your picture taken!" said Rouge.

"We don't mind, right Tails?" said Sonic.

"Well, all right!"

"I want a picture, too!" said Zooey.

"Me too!" said Cosmo.

"All right, girls!" said Rouge. "Big Blue, Fox Boy, are you ready?"

"Ready!" said Sonic and Tails.

"Say 'cheese'!"

"Cheese!"

Zooey, Cosmo and Rouge all got a picture of Sonic and Tails embracing each other, just another happy moment in an already happy holiday.

After everyone had eaten and drank their fair share, Sonic and Tails helped Rouge with the cleanup, while Knuckles, Zooey and Cosmo took some leftovers to go.

"Thanks for inviting me over, Sonic and Tails!" said Zooey. "I had a great time!"

"Ain't no thang!" said Sonic.

"You're always welcome here!" said Tails.

"Cosmo, sorry again for getting angry at you," said Zooey.

"It's OK; I forgive you! I'm glad we could come to an understanding!"

"Me too!"

Cosmo turned to Tails. "So Tails, since I get to have you every other day, how about we go back to my dimension to spend the night?"

Tails gave a thumbs up. "OK!"

Rouge waved and gave a flirty wink to them. "Have fun, you two!"

"Yeah, and tell me all about it!" said Sonic.

Tails gave another thumbs up. "Will do!"

"Zooey, wanna hang out some more?" asked Sonic.

"I would, but I promised my parents I'd spend time with them, too."

"OK, have a safe trip home!"

"I will! Bye, everybody!"

"Bye!"

Everybody waved as Cosmo, Tails and Zooey went their own ways.

"Well, I'm outta here too." Knuckles headed for the door. "See ya around, Sonic."

"Hold on, Knuckie!"

Rouge flew in front of Knuckles, who sighed.

"What do you want, Bat Girl?"

"A huggle!"

Rouge huggled Knuckles, who turned even redder than he already was and growled.

"Let go of me."

"Not until you huggle me back!"

"Fine…"

Knuckles returned the favor. As much as he was reluctant to admit this, he needed this badly. Meanwhile, Sonic couldn't help but suppress laughter.

"I can hear ya laughin' over there, Sonic!"

Rouge had to bite her lip to suppress laughter as well.

"That does it, I'm outta here!"

Knuckles removed himself from Rouge's grip and headed out the door, leaving her with Sonic.

"Oh, I love teasing that guy so bad!" said Rouge.

Sonic scratched his head. "But why? I mean, you're my old lady, so why keep messin' around with Knux?"

Rouge wrapped an arm around Sonic. "Relax, Big Blue, I don't have any romantic designs on him…well, not anymore! I'm just doing it because he's so fun to tease! Besides, you're my one and only loverhog!"

Sonic smiled and wrapped an arm around Rouge. "OK, I trust ya, Mama! Actually, I wanted to tell ya somethin' else…"

"Yes?"

"You'll never replace Tails, but you're my favorite woman in the whole world. I couldn't ever imagine leavin' ya for anybody else."

"Oh, Sonic!"

Rouge pulled Sonic into a loving embrace and kissed him, and he returned her embrace. It was another day in a series of fortunate and happy encounters for the Blue Blur, and he was eagerly looking forward to the next.

*The nickname "Piglet Hog" is used with permission from KagamiPINKAgreste

A/N: I would've set the second pairing to Tails, Cosmo and Zooey, but this site would only let me put in four characters.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.