SonAmy: Blue Christmas - Ch. 1

CH. 1 – Invitation

December 15^th, a year later

It was a bustling house.  Houses around the world were as crazy as this one was at this time of the year.  But this home was different.  Usually houses were filled with all kinds of Christmas decorations adorning the home with a well-lit Douglas fir with too many ornaments on it… or filled rooms with simple furniture and a television somewhere in the residence.  Not this house.  There was none of that.  Despite four people living there, all the shelves were barren, the house lacked furniture, and there were no pictures hanging from the walls.  Only a few more items that were waiting to get put on the truck remained.  That was why it was crazy.  It was moving day with ten days until Christmas. 

A green hedgehog with straight-up-and-bent-forward-at-the-top spines kicked up his feet on his brother’s coffee table.  He flipped on the television to see a news report.  “Hey, bro!” he called.  “You’re on TV!”

“In today’s news,” the grey vixen reported, “one week ago, terrorists from Chun-nan kidnapped the twin daughters of United Federation President Julius Carter, Elisa and Amelia.  Just mere hours after the kidnappers’ successful raid, they were found on the doorstep of the U.F. President’s mansion in northern Central City, gagged, tied up, and genuinely kicked around.  The girls, accompanied by a familiar hero, were unharmed, but shaken from the events. 

“Who was this hero?  None other than the Hero of Mobius, Sonic the Hedgehog, of course!  According to reports, Sonic had found the kidnappers’ hideout on the southern end of Central City, and the kidnappers were easily apprehended by the Blue Blur.  Upon delivering the children back to the President and First Lady, President Carter agreed to reward Sonic to show his gratitude for his daughters’ safety. 

“And that brings us to today.  The President will be rewarding Sonic with a brand-new mansion located on a tall cliff to the north of Station Square with a great view of the Central Sea.  Today is moving day for Sonic.  Moving into his new abode today will be his best friend Miles “Tails” Prower.  In addition, Sonic will also be moving in with his brother, Manic, and his sister, Sonia.  Sonic, Manic, and Sonia are the sons and daughter of Her Majesty, Queen Aleena I.

“When home’s new residents arrive at the mansion, the President and First Family will be there too to help unload the truck and help them settle in.”

After a few minutes of boredom, the green one flipped off the television.  “Manic!” his ugly-Christmas-sweater-and-flannel-lined-jeans brother called.  “Get up!  C’mon, bro!  We need to get all of this into the truck A.S.A.P.!”

Manic got up.  “Chill, Sonic!  I’m moving!  They just put up a thing on the news about you and us and the new place.”

“Yeah.  Fine and dandy,” Sonic said flatly.  “Now help me with this couch.”

As they lifted the furniture piece, Manic quipped, “Heavy couch?  Heavy lifting?  Where’s Knuckles when you need him?!”

“He’s guarding the Master Emerald, idiot,” Sonic said while struggling with the heavy piece.  “Besides, Sonia’s just as strong, if not stronger than Knucklehead.  Now quit your complaining and keep moving!” 

“Then why isn’t she carrying this?!”

“You and I both know that she could easily lift this, but this thing is too massive and awkward for one person to get a decent grip on.  And quit your complaining, Manic.  At least Sonia’s getting stuff on the truck.”

“Okay, Ebenezer Scrooge, I get it, now shut it.”

After another half-hour of putting everything into the large truck, the tailgate was slammed shut and the move was ready to go.  Sonic looked back at the old place, remembering all the good times that they had in it. 

“Sonic!” his sister called.  “We’re ready to go!  We’ve got it all locked up!”

“Great!  I’ll meet you there!”  Before they could respond, Sonic blasted away kicking up snow from the previous night’s snowfall. 

“Go figure he wouldn’t want to drive with us.”  Sonia was none too pleased with her big brother, but also knew that she did not expect anything less from her eldest brother. 

He did not get too far ahead of the over-sized truck.  But he did arrive at the new mansion first.  Awaiting him was the First Family, plenty of the Family’s Secret Servicemen, and a horde of reporters, the last one mentioned being the least liked by Big Blue.  He knew that they would all be here.  They would probably hamper him the whole time when he would be trying to get all his stuff inside.  With his warm clothing on, he put on his trademark smile for the shutterbugs and quickly made his way to the President, whose family was wearing big smiles at the sight of him. 

The eight-year-old girls were given the green light from their mom and dad to go to Sonic as he walked up to them.  They ran to him, and when they got to him, he scooped them up in both of strong arms and held them like the little children that they were.  They gave him big hugs.  The parents were in tears, especially the mother.  He walked with the little ones still in his arms, showing no problem in carrying them. 

“Welcome home, Sonic,” said President Carter. 

He put the children down, and they quickly went to their parents’ side.  “Thank you, Mr. President,” Sonic responded, shaking the politician’s hand.  They turned around when a loud horn had gone off.  The moving truck was in the driveway and parked close to the house.  The cameras were going off like crazy as Tails, Sonia, and Manic all got out and went to Sonic.  After a few handshakes with President Carter, they all posed for a photo with all eight of them in it.

After hours of unloading, Sonic picked up the last box in the deepest part of the truck and brought it out, zooming to his room.  It was full of his personal possessions.  He set it down on his bed and opened it, going through its contents individually.  Some of the things on the top were various small mementos and “trophies” from previous adventures as well as a few signed pieces of sports memorabilia.  Sonic was a big racing fanatic.  Go figure… 

Then he picked up something that made him sad: a reminder of what have been. 

It was a picture of a Christmas party from the previous year with him and his friends at the Castle Acorn.  It was night he would never forget.  That night, Ken “Monkey” Khan, known collectively as “MK”, had proposed to Princess Sally Acorn, Sonic’s ex-girlfriend, at that party, to which she accepted.  Sonic had heard that the two were recently married privately over a week ago, and were probably still on a honeymoon trip that was rumored to be circumnavigating the globe. 

But Sonic did not have a picture of that.  Instead, it was him and Amy in each other’s arms.  The marriage proposal was not the only romantic thing to happen that night.  That night, Sonic and Amy had been dating for a roughly a year heading into the party, but it was that night that Sonic had said that he loved her.  To Amy, it was the ultimate present considering for years she had been after him.  There were a few more pictures of him and Amy, some were just of them making faces at the camera, dancing, and a few more odd snaps.  He hung his head in guilt as he looked at them all. 

“Sonic?” someone had asked with a knock on the door.  He turned around to see the President. 

“Oh, hey, Mr. President.  Come in,” Sonic responded. 

He nodded and walked in.  “Sonic, I just wanted to say, ‘thank you’, again.  Words can’t do justice how happy I am that my girls are safe, and it’s all thanks to you.”

“It was no problem, Mr. President.  I’m always here to help.”

“I know that, especially considering you’ve had experience in the past years.  So, Sonic, what are your plans for this Christmas?”

“Are you asking me if I am available for Christmas?” Sonic asked sarcastically.  The world leader smiled and shook his head.  “Because I don’t know if your wife would like that.”

“Heavens, no!” President Carter said chuckling.  “I’ll be with my family at the White House during that time.  But what about you?  Are you going to be seeing your mom?”

“Unfortunately, we aren’t gonna be able to get together since she’s in Mobotropolis dealing with peace treaties.”

“How is Aleena doing?  It’s been a while since we’ve last talked.”  It usually was not good practice to not refer to a queen without referencing her title first, world leader or not.  However, President Carter and Aleena were great friends.  Besides, Sonic’s entire immediate family hated being referred to by their royal titles.

“She’s doing alright.  She’s still kickin’, if that’s what you’re asking.  I won’t be able to see her until the end of the year at the earliest, but she’ll hopefully be done with treaty negotiations soon.  Why do you ask?”

“It’s about family and friends, Sonic.”  He looked confused and raised an eyebrow.  “It’s Christmastime, Sonic.  This is the time of the year when you should be with your friends and family.  I know you have the majority of your family living with you now, but when was the last time that you saw all your friends?”  As he asked that question, he saw one of the pictures of him with a pink hedgehog.  Sonic noticed the man’s wandering eyes and hid it behind his back. 

“It’s been about a year or so.   They’re all doing their own things these days.  That’s what happens with growing up.  And lemme tell ya, it sucks!”

“Heh. I can relate to that.  But I think you can all meet up for Christmas.  Is that picture you have you and a significant other?”

Sonic hesitated in answering.  “Well… I…  it’s… it’s complicated.”

“Oh, come on, Sonic.  How complicated could it possibly be?”

“The ‘we-haven’t-spoken-in-a-year’ kind of complicated.”  Only in his wildest dreams would it ever be that complicated.

The politician’s smile disappeared.  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s a long story, and it’s one that I haven’t talked much about to many people, so if you would excuse me, I’d like to keep this one close to the chest… in more ways than one.”

“Alright, I’m sorry that I pried.”

“Mr. President, if I may ask, is there a reason you’re asking all these questions about me?”

“My point is this.  When my little girls were taken away from me, I felt so helpless.  Even though I had every asset known to man at my beck and call, I still felt that I should have been searching for them myself.  I would have given anything to see them alive.  But then you acted and rescued them.  When you delivered them safely, I had an epiphany or sorts.”

“An ‘epiphany’, sir?”

“It’s like a big self-realization that sort of rocks your world, usually for better.  But anyway, I realized that life is incredibly precious and you need to spend as much time with the ones you hold dearest to you as you can, Sonic.  My advice to you this Christmas season to see all your friends.  Socialize and enjoy each other’s company.  Or in the case of your lady troubles, at least try to make amends.  Do you understand me, Sonic?”

“Pardon my asking, sir, but why would I want to do that?”

“Because it seems to me that you’re awfully distracted by your lady troubles.  Are you still seeing the Princess of the Acorn Kingdom?  No, Sally doesn’t have pink fur, unless she changed it fot some odd reason… wait, how many girls are you seeing, Sonic?”

“Uh… to answer your second question, ‘I’ll say ‘no comment.’  As for your first question, Sally and I ended it a few years back.  We mutually agreed that a freer spirit like me wouldn’t be cut out to sit on a throne all day making laws.  At least with my mom, she’s willing to respect my decision to not become the king when she dies.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you and Sally split up.”

“Yeah, well, I prefer keeping my personal life out of everyone’s life.  I find that I survive longer if I do that.  Besides, Sally just got married to another friend of mine not too recently.”

“Oh?  Who would that be?”

“Ken ‘Monkey’ Khan.”

“From the Dragon Kingdom?  Really?”

“Yep!  They had the wedding a few weeks ago, albeit a private ceremony.”

“Huh.  Well, when I see them next time, I’ll have to give them my congratulations.”

“Me too.”

“Maybe you can congratulate them yourself if you can meet up with them for the holidays.”  Sonic looked at him weirdly.  The hero knew one thing: President Carter was really pushing for Sonic to see his friends… and it did not seem like Carter was going to leave until Sonic had given him his proposal.

“You really want me to have a get-together, don’t you?”

“Sonic, what you really need is some time with your friends, and this time of the year is famous for it.  Besides, I saw you looking at that picture that you have back.”  Sonic nervously darted his eyes to the picture and back.  “I thought as much.  Look, Sonic, I can see that your heart is hurting.  You miss your girl, yes?”  Sonic sighed and nodded solemnly.  “You miss your friends, yes?”  He nodded again.  “I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, Sonic.  That’s your mom’s job.”  Sonic smiled and chuckled at the joke.  “I’m kidding; you do what you want to do with your life.”  President Carter’s smile disappeared as he put on a serious face.  “I know you’re hurting, and Christmas is the worst time to be alone.  And don’t say that you’d have Sonia, Manic, and Tails with you for the holidays.  Just by how intensely you were looking at that picture of yours, I know that you miss her.  I don’t know if you love her or not, because that’s not my business.  But just from how defensive you’ve acted, well, I’ve said enough, Sonic.  I think you get what I’m saying.”

He looked up at the wise leader of the United Federation and nodded.  “Yeah, you’re right.  But what should I do, Julius?  How would I get my friends and her to come here?”

“Well, you have this brand-new house.  It’s Christmastime.  I think you can figure something out.  You usually do.”  A light bulb came up in Sonic’s head.  He smiled when he realized it.  “Now, Sonic, I’m needed back in Central City soon, and there’s one more gift to give you this year.  So if you’d follow me outside.”  He nodded and followed the leader to the big front doors to see a large tree as well as Tails and his siblings. 

“Sonic,” the President began loudly for the reporters to hear, “as one last ‘thank you’ for saving my daughters, we’d like for you to have this fine Douglas fir for your home!”  He gestured to his agents who unveiled a mighty pine tree that was 20’ tall, much to his amazement.  “You’ll have to get the decorations yourself, though.”  Everyone, Sonic included chuckled at the statement. 

“Fair enough,” said Sonic.  “I guess you can’t do all the work.”

“Sonic, if you could get the doors, we’ll quickly get this animal inside!  But first, my daughters would like to give you their own little present.”  The little girls ran up to Sonic again and he kneeled down to their level to see their adorable faces. 

“Thank you, for saving us, Sonic,” they said in unison, and they gave him a kiss on each cheek.  The reporters’ cameras blinded him, but he did not mind it.  It was absolutely adorable.  He hugged them both.

“Thank you, girls.  Merry Christmas!”

“You too, Sonic!”

A few hours after everyone else had left, it was just Sonic, Sonia, Manic, and Tails.  They four had been moving in and out of rooms to get themselves situated.  Sonic had been in his room for over an hour working on something, but what he was doing, his housemates did not know.  Manic was busy watching early Christmas specials with a platter of Christmas cookies on his lap with a tall glass of whole milk on a nearby table.  Tails was flying around the tree working on putting the giant tree’s lights on.  Sonia was finishing up supper for her speedy brother.

“Sonic!” she blared, “Get your chili dogs!”  Sonic was out in a flash, plate in hand.  “Seriously, how can you eat this stuff?!”

“Hey!  At least I work it off unlike a certain doctor we know.” She rolled her eyes as he put the three chili dogs on his plate. 

“What were you doing in your room?  Getting your room all tidied up?”

“Not exactly.  The President and I had a talk, and he suggested that maybe we need to break in the new place.”

“Why would we break-in to our new digs, bro?” asked Manic.  “Makes no sense.”

“Not that kind of ‘breaking-in’, you reprobate!” Sonic chuckled.  “As in ‘putting it to good use.’”

“Such as?” asked Tails.

“Well… the President alluded to the four of us hosting a Christmas party with all of our friends!”  The three others looked at each other.  Manic was down with the idea, but Sonia and Tails would need more than that.  “I see that you’re all not sold on the idea.”

“No, I’m not,” said Tails. 

“C’mon, buddy, think about it!  We haven’t seen the old gang since we were at Acorn Castle last Christmas!  We can show them the house, and we’ll have a big spread of candy and food!  We could ask the Chaotix to play with us in the living room!”

“Wait, play?” said Sonia.

 “Yeah, have more than enough room in the living room to set up a nicely-sized stage and play some Christmas music, we’ll enjoy the fire, we’ll catch up, and we’ll binge on fruitcake.  It’ll be a blast!”  Manic was already sold, and now so was Sonia.  “Tails, it looks like my sister and bro are on board.  What about you?”

Tails had his arms crossed and sighed loudly.  “How many people?” he asked unenthusiastically. 

Sonic whipped out a list from his jeans pocket.  “The list has us four, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Big, Blaze, Silver, Rouge, Shadow, Vector, Charmy, Espio, Ray [the Flying Squirrel], Mighty [the Armadillo], Sally, Monkey Khan, Rotor, NICOLE, Antoine, Bunnie, Shard [the Metal Sonic], and Mina.”  Then Sonic gave him a list. 

“Let’s see, 4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 19, 21, 25?!  Twenty-five of us?!”

 “Calm down, Tails.  Besides, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the house is gigantic!  We could turn this place into a hotel if we wanted to since we have so many rooms!  They could stay the night if they needed to!  We’ll have more than enough room!”  Tails was waffling.  “C’mon, bro, for me?”

Tails starred his brother-from-another-mother down.  With a sigh, Tails said, “Alright, alright.  But we’ll need to do a lot of preparation.”

Later that evening, Tails was sitting on the kitchen table, and Manic was looking for a late-night snack before heading to bed.  Tails shook his head.  “First Manic raids the cookies,” Tails thought, “and now he’s decided he needs to eat something else.  What a pig!”  Sonia walked out of her room adorned in lime green onesie and noticed the gold-furred fox studying the list, and she pulled up a seat.

“What’s up, Tails?”

“Sonic is playing at something with this party.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, earlier today when the President was still here, I overheard a conversation between him and Sonic.”

“You eavesdropped on their conversation?”

“Attaboy!” exclaimed Manic, who sat down to join the discussion with a bag of chips.  “That’s pretty dishonest, Tails, and I appreciate a man who does that!”

Tails rolled his eyes.  “Manic, you can be a real… what did Sonic call you earlier?  A ‘reprobate’?  Yeah… you can be a real reprobate sometimes.” 

“I try,” Manic said proudly.

“Anyway, I heard them talk about a few things regarding family and friends at Christmas.”

“Okay,” started Sonia, “not exactly an interesting topic.  And family and Christmas?  Sounds kinda like a cliché.”

“Let me finish.  I heard the President start to poke around Sonic’s personal life.”

“Ooh, dangerous territory.  What’d he say?” asked Manic.

“About those closest to him.”

“Aw, he thinks about us!”

“Manic, I think what Tails means is that it’s not just limited to the three people at this table,” rebuked Sonia.

“Thank you,” Tails responded.

“Are you suggesting someone like Amy?”

“Who else?” he asked dryly.

“Whatever happened between those two anyway?  All he told me was that he was ‘too late’.”

“It’s almost been a year since it happened.  Amy was leaving for grad school that started in January.  She wanted to get there so she had time to get all her stuff in order before school started.  The day she left on the train, Sonic promised he would see her off, but Sonic never showed up… at least not on time.”

“Oh yeah… now I remember,” added Manic.  “No one saw him until after New Year’s.  And when he did come back, he was wearing clothes!”

“You’re right.  That was… surprising,” said Sonia.  “Something about him changed.  We’ve all noticed that he’s gone into a subtle depression ever since that day.  Heck, they haven’t spoken or seen each other in a year.”

“HE’S GONE A YEAR WITHOUT EVEN TRYING TO DO SO MUCH AS CALL HER?!”

“Shhh!  Quiet down!”  Manic rubbed the back of her head and spawned a nervous smile in embarrassment.  “You think he hasn’t tried?  I’ve overheard him try, but whenever he hits her voicemail, he just loses it.”

“Oh, come on!” Manic said.  “Her voicemail can’t be that bad.”

“No?  I’ve tried calling Amy a few times to try and open up what happened between Sonic and her, but more times than not, I’ve gotten her voicemail.  Heck, I know it by heart!  It goes, and I quote, ‘Hi, this Amy Rose.  I am currently unable to take your call at the moment.  Leave your name and number and I’ll call you back as soon as possible’.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound bad.”

“I’m not finished.  ‘And if this is Sonic.  I don’t want to hear any excuses.  You hurt me, and I just don’t want to speak with you’.”  Manic cringed.

“Ouch,” Manic said. 

“Yeah, he’s still sore about it,” said Tails.  “They haven’t talked in a while, but he confided in me that he can explain it, but he just chickens out when he gets to the voicemail.”

“Explain why he was late?” asked Manic.  Tails nodded.  “Well, what was the reason?”

“That’s just it.  He won’t say anything else.  He says he wants to, but this is something that he would need to talk to Amy directly about, and that bringing up that day just hurts him inside.”

“Poor Sonic,” said a now quieter Sonia. 

“I think that’s why he wants a party.”

“For Amy?” asked Manic. 

“Exactly.  If you ask me, I think they’re due for a reunion.”

“Agreed,” she said. 

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Meanwhile in Sonic's room, Sonic looked at that same picture he had in his hands earlier.  He tortured himself by looking at the snap for every second he held it.  He had cried plenty of times whenever he had that picture in his hands.  It brought nostalgia and familiar feeling of love to him, the latter being something he wanted to desperately to have back. 

He could not take it anymore. 

He whipped out his cellphone, brought up her number, and called her.  “Hi, this Amy Rose.  I am currently unable to take your call at the moment.  Leave your name and number and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.  And if this is Sonic, I don’t want to hear any excuses.  You hurt me, and I just don’t want to speak with you.”  That voicemail was all too familiar with him, but he was finally going to get past it.  Swallowing his fear, he was ready.

“Hey, Ames.  Long time no hear.  Listen, I don’t know if you heard the news in recent days, but I did get a new house… no, that’s not how I wanted to say that.  I was wondering if… if….”  He banged his head against a nearby wall and let out a huge sigh.  “Listen, Amy, I know that my voice is probably the last one you want to hear, but just hear me out.  We need to talk.  I know you think that there’s no way to explain what happened at the station that day, but believe me, I can.  I need to see you.  The reason that I’m calling is because I want to break-in the new house with a Christmas party… or a get-together.  Whatever you wanna call it.  I don’t know how much you’ve kept in touch with the old gang, but Tails, Sonia, Manic, and I haven’t seen much of anyone since last Christmas.  If you haven’t seen them in a while, then you can come, if you want to.  I’ve already started talking to others, and some of them are down for it.  Trust me, they’ll want to see you since you’ve been at grad school for a year.  There’ll be food, songs, and drinks around.  It’ll be a good time.

“Now, I’m not gonna force you to do anything.  I’ve never done that to you, and if I have, then I apologize.  I’m sorry that I wasn’t at the train station; you have to believe me that I am.  But a wise man told me today that we should at least try to make amends for Christmas, at least.  Amy, I’m really sorry for what I did, and I still blame myself for not being there for you when I said I would.  Honestly, I haven’t exactly been happy ever since I last saw you.  The fact that I can’t see you every day kills me, and I hate it how we haven’t spoken in a year.  But I guess that’s not your fault, is it?  It’s mine. 

“Look, I just want to see you and at least try and have a good time.  If you could just give me a chance, I can tell you why I wasn’t there for you.  I really can!  I’d only feel comfortable telling you.  Just you, not even my siblings or Tails.  Amy, I want to see you, but if you don’t want to see me, then I respect your decision, but if not for me, at least come by to say, ‘hi’ to your friends.  I hope I can see you.  The party’ll be on Christmas Eve night.  There’s no need to bring a present.  There’s no gift exchange of any kind.  It’ll just be a friendly party.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Okay, I’ve taken up enough of your time… that is if you’re still listening, so I’ll let you get back to your grad-schooling.  I hope I can see you soon, Amy.  Bye.”