"Ok, whew!" Tom huffed, leaning over and letting a weathered cardboard box crash to the ground with a soft thud. What looked like a year's worth of dust shed off the box and onto the brown wooden floor. "Christmas tree retrieved," the man said, standing up straight before leaning back, closing his eyes, pushing his hands into the small of his back, and wincing. "And one trip to the chiropractor needing to be scheduled now." He sighed, as he popped an eye open to see his wife's reaction. Her eyebrows were raised as she looked at him quizzically. She continued to churn a whisk in a blue bowl that was wrapped in her other arm as her mouth hung open as if she were trying to find the right words to say.
"And why didn't you have the boys help you with that?" She asked him, "We do have three of them. And one of them has super strength."
"And let them have all the fun? Ha, no way!" He declared as a golden retriever padded beside him, what looked like a branch from a pine tree clamped in between his teeth as he looked between the two humans. His tail wagged happily as if he had just saved the entire world by carrying the branch. "Right, Ozzie?" Tom asked, dropping to his knees before aggressively rubbing the dog's head with his hands. "Right? No, we gotta have some fun too." He said in a playful tone, making Ozzie's front paws tap on the dark brown hardwood floor in excitement.
"Do you think that maybe we should have gotten a real tree this year?" She asked her husband, worry in her voice. She wanted everything to be perfect this Christmas. And pulling out a plastic Christmas tree that hadn't seen the light of day in who knew how long seemed like they were skimping out on the holidays.
"Nah I think it's fine!" Tom said, huffing and puffing as he tried to catch his air. "I mean a tree is a tree, fake or real. Plus this way we don't have to throw out the tree of the boy's first Christmas with us. It'll make it super special." He assured her with a smile.
"Ok, I guess that kind of makes sense. Wait, where are the boys at anyways?" Maddie asked, her eyes trailing up to where the attic was, where she had seen her husband and kids go to get the Christmas tree.
"Uh, they were supposed to be getting the ornaments and lights," He answered, also looking up. "They should be coming down any second now." He mused as Ozzie started to back away, regaining his owner's attention. "Uh no, Ozzie, we need that for the tree!" He said, reaching over to try and grab the branch from the dog. But the second Ozzie saw he had what his master wanted the dog started to run away. "Ozzie, no! Bring that back!" He tried ordering as he started to chase after him. Leaving Maddie to sigh as she sat her bowl down and started to head to the entrance of the attic.
She and her husband had taken the day off to get things ready for Christmas with their 'sons'. With Christmas being a week away they were definitely cutting it close to the holiday. But normally she and Tom didn't need a lot of fancy decorations to celebrate the holidays together in the past. But with having three kids with them, and this being the first time two of them probably celebrated Christmas at all, and the first time the one would be celebrating Christmas with a family they wanted it to be special for them all. So they were gonna, try, to go all out for the trio. A tree with lights and ornaments, lights hanging from the house, inflatable reindeer and a Santa, Christmas carols, and Christmas cookies, which Maddie had been making the batter for before being pulled away to check on the three. They would stay in the PJs all day on Christmas day, which Maddie herself was getting a head start as she stayed dressed in her fuzzy green PJ bottoms with Christmas ornaments sewn on to the pants, a pink tank top, and white bunny slippers shielding her feet.
"Are you guys ok up there? No one got crushed by a box or anything, right?" She called up the step ladder. A cool breeze shot down from the attic, stopping her approach, and making her not want to climb up the steps.
"Yep, just doing an experiment!" A high-pitched voice called back, and Maddie immediately recognized the innocent tone as the youngest of the three Tails.
"Experiment?!" Maddie asked, her heart skipping a beat. She was well aware of the youngest boy's love for building, but she was pretty sure she had told him not to do any of it in the house. After he managed to catch the kitchen on fire with a toaster and a can of tuna she had made him promise to tinker outside.
"Nope! No experiments!" A new, slightly deeper, voice said, coming from Sonic. "Just uh…"
"That doesn't sound like a good 'uh…'!" Maddie shot up the steps taking a deep breath as she reached over and grabbed onto the white pipelike railing to the steps, wincing as the ice-cold plastic attacked her hand.
"Hanging up lights! Yep just doing some good old hanging up lights practice!" He said, making the lady narrow her eyes as she took her first step up the ladder.
"These are not hanging on me." A bass-like voice, unmistakably coming from Knuckles, "These are wrapped around me."
"Shhhhh!" Sonic hissed sharply, making Maddie roll her eyes as she continued to go up the steps, now without any hesitation. If Sonic was trying to be quiet then that meant something was going on that Maddie wasn't going to approve of.
"Sonic, what you guys doing?" She asked as she got to the top of the steps, the freezing cold air of the attic instantly stabbing her. But as she got to the top she froze and looked around to see that things looked semi-normal. Boxes were still stacked all over the place, though some had been moved around to get the Christmas stuff out. Sonic's stuff was still pushed into his corner, as that was where he slept. Speaking of him, the blue hedgehog sat on his yellow bean, one hand braced behind his head, and his other hand hit a paddle ball as he hummed with his feet legs crossed and one foot tapping away.
"Oh hey, Mrs. Doughnut Lord!" Sonic cheered, stopping his paddle balling as he locked eyes with her. "Welcome to the Speedcave, what's up? Sorry if it's a little messy, I wasn't expecting any visitors today!" He said ushering to the comic books and empty chip bags on the floor. It wasn't the worst that Maddie had seen the boy's bedroom/man cave in the past so she was gonna let this mess slide. At least for the time being.
"Hi Sonic," She sighed, drumming her fingers against her arms, "Where are Tails and Knuckles?" She asked him, narrowing her eyes as she looked around for the other two. One was a small orange fox so he could probably hide from her. But the other boy was a giant red Echidna, so it wouldn't be as easy for him to hide away.
"Oh, those two so and sos?" He asked with a nervous chuckle, shrugging his shoulders. "Haven't seen them in a minute!" He said, his eyes glancing to the side, making Maddie's head turn.
"Uh huh and why did I hear them up here, like a minute ago?" She asked, her hip popping out to the side as her tongue jabbed the side of her mouth. In the shadows of an attic, what looked like a large body was covered by a black blanket. It was almost undetectable and if the blue hedgehog hadn't looked over that way she probably would have overlooked it.
"Were they? Oh well, ha, you know a Sonic minute is totally different than a normal minute." He scoffed.
"That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard fall from your lips, hedgehog." The deep voice of Knuckles said, coming from under the blanket.
"I told you to SH!" Sonic whispered as he leaned over to the form in the shadows. "And it isn't dumb! It's a scientific fact!"
"No the flow of time is still normal even if you are insanely fast, Sonic," Tails' voice chirped from the maze of boxes.
"Ok, wow, come on guys! Do we not understand that no one but me should be talking?" He called out to them. "That's how we get away with things. I talk and get us out of trouble." He coached the two as if Maddie wasn't standing in front of him.
"Never mind that is the dumbest thing you have said to me." Knuckles insisted as he shook his head. The sound of plastic tapping against plastic could barely be heard. The entire thing made the adult sigh as she rolled her eyes stomped over and pulled the blanket off Knuckles.
"What are you guys doing?" She asked, jumping back and seeing the red echidna wrapped tightly in Christmas lights. As if he were a Christmas-themed mummy of sorts.
"Found an outlet!" Tails cheered from within the boxes, making Sonic jump up and rub his hands.
"Alright Tails, let's light the Echidna up!" Sonic ordered, pointing a finger into the labyrinth, and before Maddie could say anything the lights bounding Knuckles lit up. "Ah ha! It worked. Looking good Knucks!" Sonic assured, giving Knuckles a thumbs up.
"No, I look with my eyes." Knuckles said, frowning at the hedgehog's comment. "But these lights are working. And they are only slightly burning me. Nothing that a warrior such as I can not handle!" He said before laughing.
"Tails unplug the lights!" Maddie called out to the missing boy, "And get out from behind those boxes before a box cushes you!"
"Yes, mam!" Tails called out, the lights turning off before the boy flew over the boxes obscuring him. His twin tails spun in the air and acted like helicopter blades as he soared through the sky before landing on the ground with a proud smile on his face.
"Ok, I'm not even gonna ask why," The grown-up sighed, bringing a hand up and rubbing her temples. "Just gonna say, unbind Knuckles, knuckles do not break out. That's a couple hundred dollars worth of Christmas lights I don't want to replace." She said, trying to catch the bulky red boy before he managed to rip all the lights off. "Then bring them downstairs with the ornaments. I'm gonna send Tom to watch you three." She warned them as she turned and started to head downstairs. "With Christmas being so close I don't think you want me calling Santa to tell him you aren't being good."
"Santa, whos that?" Tails asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked up at Sonic, though the question made Maddie freeze. Sometimes, as hard as it was to believe, she forgot that the three boys weren't from Earth. They were just a part of the family and she didn't see them as aliens. But then there were moments like this that reminded her that they weren't normal boys. "And why is Maddie reporting us to him?"
"Perhaps he is a grand warrior!" Knuckles exclaimed, his face as stoic as ever. "Whom she has tasked with dueling us to the death if we do not comply with her wishes!"
"What, no dude." Sonic huffed as he pulled the end of the lights that Tails had plugged into himself. "What is with you and fighting to the death?" He asked, before becoming a blue blue that surrounded Knuckles. After a second the red boy was free from his Christmas bindings. "You know you can fight and it not ending with someone dying?" The hedgehog asked the lights now in neat loops around his arms.
"Sounds like a waste of time and like it will bring no honor!" Knuckles spat, punching one fist into his spare hand.
"Rrrrright," Sonic sighed, and much like Maddie he brought a hand up to his head and rubbed his temples before looking at Tails. "Santa is some big guy who lives in the North Pole, he flies around in a sleigh delivering presents to all the good boys and girls." He explained, putting a hand on Tails' shoulder.
"Oh… that's nice! And what about the bad kids?" The fox asked quizzically.
"Coal," Was all Sonic said at first. "He puts a big lump of coal in a stocking to let you know how bad you've been."
"Oh, that's not as nice." Tails said, his eyes were wide in shock. "Not the worst thing to get in your stocking as you could use it as a fuel source. But I guess if you got cool while everyone else got toys it would really stink." The twin-tailed fox concluded.
"Yeah, but you don't have to worry about it since he not-." Sonic started to say but was swiftly cut off.
"ISN'T GOING TO BE GETTING A PHONE CALL FROM ME!" Maddie said, quick to cut in, as she tried to climb back up the few steps she had gone down. Though in her haste she tripped over her feet and crashed on the ground. The front half of her body was in the attic and the bottom half was on the steps. "Yep, he won't be getting a bad report from me as long as you two listen to what Tom and I have to say!" She said, her eyes shooting an arrow at Sonic, warning the Hedgehog not to finish his sentence.
"Right," Sonic said, frowning for a second as he tried to decipher what his mom's look was. But as soon as the message got through his eyes went wide as he nodded his head and smiled. "So… let's finish decorating and then we'll all write a letter to him!"
"And the point of writing him a letter?" Tails pressed, sounding as if he were gathering information for some sort of thesis paper he was suddenly going to write.
"So that way he knows what to bring on Christmas Eve," Maddie explained, crawling into the attic fully again and pulling the fox boy onto her lap. Though the explanation just made Tails look more confused as he rested his chin on a fist, his tails flicking around, whacking Maddie across the face.
"Hm. Well with how fast the postal service seems to go, I find it very unlikely that any letters could get to the North Pole in time." He said, "Plus how does this Santa fellow know whose all been good and bad? Not everyone has a phone to report to him with."
"Well that's because he's magical," Maddie simply said, as if that explanation should get rid of any doubt Tails should have. "As the Christmas song goes. He sees you while you're sleeping he knows when you're awake." She half heartily sang.
"Well, then shouldn't he be able to magically look and see what I want?" He asked, not bothered by the idea of a magical man, just by the inconsistencies of his powers. After all, it hadn't been too long before that day when he first arrived on Earth to help stop an evil genius from taking over with the help of a giant magical emerald giving him god-like powers. So a man flying around the world in one night wasn't exactly out of the question to him. "Also is he using some sort of magical item to fuel his power? Like is there a Master Emerald-esc object hiding in the Northpole?" He asked, looking up at Maddie for some answers. But the adult just gave him a nervous look as she lifted him up off her lap and to his feet.
"Uh, don't worry about that." She said as she got up herself, brushing the back of her pants to knock any webs and dust off of her. "Just get the rest of this stuff downstairs so we can decorate for Christmas, we'll all sit down and write letters to Santa for Christmas, and we'll go from there. Maybe Tom can answer some of those very specific questions." She promised him.
"Might be a minute until the Doughnut Lord can do much of anything," Sonic said, now looking out of the small circular window that was above his bed. "Ozzie seems to have him pretty busy." He informed everyone, looking back to the ground as his finger, covered by a white glove, pushed against the glass. Hearing that Maddie frowned as she walked over to see what was going on. Outside being dragged across the ground, which was blanketed by a thick layer of fluffy white snow, was her husband. He had his hands around the branch of the tree their dog had in his mouth and was still refusing to give up, and was dragging the man across the yard. Thankfully Tom had been dressed in a brown jacket and a pair of jeans, unlike her PJs, but as the snow was quickly covering him she knew that his covering wasn't going to be helping much.
"Urh…" She growled, "Ok well by we I mean us four until Tom manages to get the rest of the tree from Ollie." She sighed, ruffling Sonics head, making the Hedgehog smile as his head pressed down. "Now chop chop boys!" She ordered as she turned to head back down the steps. "And no more goofing off, we have a tight schedule to keep!" She told them as she headed down the steps. Her day had just gotten busier and now she had to make sure that this really was the best first Christmas the kids had. That was along with making sure that Knuckles was ready to go with the family friend/student of the Echidna named Wade Whipple. Who had been invited to the police officers' Hanukkah celebration. Why did things feel like they weren't gonna be easy?