Chapter Text
Somehow Rose’s house seemed even more blinding than before.
At least, that’s what Shadow thought. The moment her home came into view, he couldn’t help but question if the hedgehog had added more lights to her series of already bright decorations.
Actually, it wasn’t a matter of if, but how many?
Either way, it was beginning to bug his eyes. The Ultimate Lifeform had no aversion to light, and yet it was currently peeving him more than he’d like to admit.
However that could be attributed to the fact that he had gotten barely a wink of sleep the night prior. Working on his Secret Santa gift so meticulously had taken up each waking hour of the past day.
It was gift with so much thought poured into it, so much history, so much meaning, and yet..
It was stuffed deep into Shadow’s coat pocket.
Hence the reason he was hauling a huge modernized refrigerator behind him, perfectly wrapped in crimson red wrapping paper:
Despite working on such a personalized gift, he couldn’t bring himself to actually give it. Ridiculous, right?
A refrigerator would just have to do. Plus, at least it was something he knew the blue hedgehog had said he’d needed.
With that thought in mind, he trudged forward.
Rose had been very specific on her timing for today. She had sent everyone an exact time to get to her house separately so no gift exchanges were spoiled.
Her garage door was wide open with a handmade poster strung at the top that read,
‘Leave your Secret Santa gifts here!’ with an illuminated arrow pointing to the garage space below.
As Shadow stepped inside, he took sight of the rest of the wrapped presents that had been left already. Some big, some small.
One, okay, he didn’t expect there to be a present even bigger than the fridge he had brought and yet there it was.
Curious.
He set down his gift, careful to avoid any loud ‘thud’ considering the size of the damn thing.
After a successful drop off, Shadow entered the home through the garage door.
The scent of gingerbread and chocolate overloaded his senses, though it was quite pleasant in a way.
Rose was there to greet him, as she presumably had been to greet everyone else who came in through the garage.
“Shadow! You’re here, come come! Sonic and Tails brought some cookies and we were all just about to try some.” As soon as he had entered, he was whisked away just as quickly.
The hedgehog had an extra glimmer in her eye despite it already being late in the day. It was around eight p.m. Rose had been excited about having her friends over the night of Christmas Eve. That way, the group would be able to do their Secret Santa festivities at midnight sharp!
Shadow let himself be led to the main room where everyone else was. He was the last set to arrive, which meant everyone had made it.
“They’re, uh, a little wonky, but they taste good we swear!” Came Tails’ voice. The dark hedgehog looked over.
The kit and his brother were standing side by side, each with an aluminum tray carrying what he assumed to be the sweets Rose had just mentioned. Looked like the pair were in the middle of giving them out. Knuckles was already munching and Rouge laid empty handed, for good reason, Shadow could imagine.
“Uhh… dude, this is just a blob.” Silver said as he held up the cookie he had grabbed from Tails’s tray. It was, in fact, a blob with barely any resemblance to a gingerbread man.
“Are these.. safe to consume..?” The cookie Blaze had taken from Sonic’s tray had more structure, and that was being generous, but the face drawn on by icing made the cookie man look like he was stuck in an expression of horror.
“Oh c’mon, what’re the odds you two just had to pick the worst out of the batch,” Sonic grinned, midway through an eye roll he caught sight of the hedgehog he had been most looking forward to see. A sentiment that had grown more and more throughout these holiday events.
“Uhm,” Blaze peered over to look at both trays just as Knuckles had reached in to grab another handful. At that she grimaced. “Yeah no, they all look the same..” She trailed.
A hefty yet dramatic sigh left the blue blur’s lips. “You guys just don’t get it, but I’m sure Shadow will.”
Oh no.
There was no escaping the blue hedgehog when he had that mischievous grin on his face. His mind was set and there was no avoiding him.
He heard Rose giggling for who knows what reason off to the side, clearly amused by the scene.
In the blink of an eye, the blue rival was standing in front of him, tray extended in offering.
Offering was a light choice of vocabulary if Sonic’s adamant “take one!” was anything to go by.
Shadow was hesitant. As much as he would absolutely love to try one of those.. things, Blaze was right, they did not look appetizing.
In the middle of Shadow’s internal debate between declining for the well being of his stomach and accepting solely for the fact that it was Sonic offering them, the latter seemed to notice his struggle.
And he laughed.
He shook the tray around a bit, looking for something specific amongst the multitude of oddly shaped pieces.
He seemed to find it just a moment later.
An honest and truly shaped gingerbread man.. though the face frosting still was a little wonky. “Er.. oops,” Sonic mumbled once he’d noticed it, but still held it up nonetheless.
“What the— that’s actually a nice one!” Silver pointed from behind with a tone of disbelief for more reasons than one.
“See? You guys just grabbed the bad ones!” Sonic responded over his shoulder.
“You spent like, thirty minutes on that one though,” It seemed Shadow was the only one to hear Tail’s words amongst the light bickering.
Shadow looked into the tray while everyone was distracted. Indeed, every other ‘gingerbread man’ was more of a disfigured star than a man. He didn’t think much of it, the fact he was being given the only good one. It was such a small detail he didn’t have time to think about. In fact, there were more important matters whirling around in his mind if the box in his pocket was anything to go by.
Of course, in the end he accepted the cookie despite his aversion to junk food that Sonic already knew about. It was.. alright every once in a while, he decided.
Sonic seemed happy about it, a smile directed at Shadow before he zipped around the room and handed the rest some more cookies.
Meanwhile, Amy and Blaze had wandered off into the kitchen only to return with mugs of hot cocoa for everyone. Each piece of ceramic fit the holiday theme well with some being modeled after iconic figures from the holiday.
Shadow himself ended up with the pottery rendition of Rudolph. It was rather silly, but the cup felt warm in his hands and he accepted it gratefully.
Idle chit chat combined with the warmth of comforting cookies and cocoa created a calm atmosphere throughout the room. That, alongside the fact that it was nighttime had everyone feeling quite peaceful. Even Shadow.
For the first time in a very long time, he felt restful among a group of others. He had always been an observer rather than a speaker, but he found himself woven into soft conversations with some of the others from time to time. It was all rather pleasant to say the least.
With snacks out of the way, however..
“Alright! Since there’s still over an hour left until midnight, which means still over an hour left till we start the Secret Santa, I got this game that I saw online that I thought would be perfect for us to all play together!” Amy gushed, a box in her hands to display.
The very mention of the Secret Santa worked up Shadow’s nerves. He fiddled with the box in his pocket, still undecided about giving it or not. As for the game, well, he wasn’t the most fond of that idea either.
“It’s just a bunch of challenge cards that are Christmas themed,” She started, reading from the back of the box. “And they seem easy enough!”
Before anyone knew it, the box had been opened with its contents on display. There was a stack of cards, the backs of them decorated with a variety of holiday icons.
“Basically, we take turns grabbing a card from the deck, read the challenge, and complete it! Anyone who fails has to wear the giant red squeaky nose until someone else fails their challenge.” She hummed.
“Alright, let’s get into a circle!”
The group shuffled around until they were sat in a circle around Rose’s rug.
“Now, who wants to start?” Asked Amy, her question answered just a second later by an enthusiastic fox.
“I’ll go!”
Tails grabbed the first card atop the deck. With furrowed brows he read, “Challenge: Silent Night. Don’t say a word until the entire round is over… what!? That’s not fair it’s only my first one!” He pouted.
“Dude, you just lost!” Silver said from beside him.
That took no time at all.
“You know what that means little buddy,” Sonic chuckled. The red nose he had been spinning atop his finger was thrown skillfully to his brother who received it with a frown.
“Awh man..” The nose squeaked loudly as he was putting it on. The face he held was hilarious, he looked like the unimpressed version of Rudolph.
“Tough luck,” Silver nudged with a laugh before reaching to grab his own card. It read,
“Caroling Karaoke. Choose one person to sing a Christmas song with!” He looked quizzically at the card before looking around the circle. His eyes landed on the echidna next to him, a grin forming on his features. “I choose Knuckles.”
“Wait, what?” The echidna in question gawked, his own hand pointing questioningly at himself as if there was another ‘Knuckles’ present in the room.
“Oh this is going to be good.” Rouge smirked. Her polished hands had already snuck her phone out, ready to record the entire display.
“You better not.” Was the response she got from Knuckles. A warning, but nothing serious. They both knew Rouge would always get away with anything she wanted to.
“Yeah, whatever you say, hon.”
What followed was a very, very, poor rendition of ‘Last Christmas.’
Shadow couldn’t help but wonder if Silver only chose to duet with Knuckles because he knew he would sound worse than him. It wasn’t that far fetched. They were absolutely terrible. And yet, they garner a bunch of applause. Pity participation applause if he had to guess.
Since Knuckles was chosen by Silver and completed the challenge alongside him, he was skipped in the circle. At least that was an upside.
Rouge was next and she read the card aloud. “Holiday Holler.. Give your best impression of someone from the circle during the holidays. Hm..”
Her eyes wandered around the circle, staying on Shadow a second too long before moving on and landing on,
“I’ll do Rose.” She decided.
The hedgehog in question clapped, “oh how fun!” She waited excitedly for her impression, which Rouge gave promptly.
It was a disaster. A hilarious one to be precise. With a voice an octave too high and mannerisms that were way too gaudy to be even remotely accurate, Rouge’s turn was over.
After a couple more turns from the other friends, it was finally Sonic’s time to shine. With a little, ‘don’t mind if I do,’ and swiping the next card, he read, “Merry Mistletoe! Take the person to your left with you under the, mistle..toe..”
His voice trailed, head slowly turning to double check just who exactly was sitting on his left. Blown crimson eyes met Sonic’s own.
The hedgehog tracked the way his rival swallowed thickly and the way his brows furrowed, though Sonic couldn’t find any malice in the expression.
“Well, do you forfeit, Sonic?” Amy teased mischievously, knowingly. She herself was victim to the big red nose at the moment, and she wouldn’t pass the chance at pressing Sonic’s competitiveness for a chance to either push him on for his sake, or lose the nose for her sake.
The hedgehog in question seemed to break out of his stupor, the challenge whirling in his gut along with some other intense emotions.
Since when was Sonic the Hedgehog ever one to step down from a challenge?
“Hah! Of course not!” He declared confidently. Though confidence was only a facade at the moment. Sonic looked to Shadow beside him and the way he so easily rose to his feet. Accepting the challenge as well.
It was Sonic’s turn to swallow, his breath ever so shaky as he rose to follow. The pair ventured underneath the damned plant whilst the rest of the group watched.
It was still for a moment, like no one knew what to do now.
“Hurry up already!” Silver groaned, growing bored of the way the game was being slowed.
Sonic rolled his eyes. They were right. It was just a game after all, a game. He bit back his nervousness and fell back into the bundle of coolness he usually was.
With a smirk, he leaned closer to his rival, facing forward and offering his cheek. “What do you think Shadow? Should you do the honors, or should I?” He joked. It was mostly a move to stall just a bit longer, and he turned to see the other’s reaction, or at least response to his words.
What he didn’t expect, was to see Shadow already leaning in on his own. Before he knew it, his vision was nothing but a face full of black fur. His eyes blown up in surprise as the faint whisper of a kiss was placed at the corner of his mouth.
Huh?
Sonic didn’t have time to register what had just happened. By the time he did, Shadow had already pulled away, his eyes on him wildly. “You moved.” He croaked, in disbelief almost. And if Sonic didn’t know any better, he would’ve said he looked flustered.
Oh.
Sonic understood.
He had been aiming for his cheek, but when Sonic had turned to look at him he caught the corner of his lips instead.
He blinked once, then twice. The room has gone silent with wide eyes on the scene. The air was thick, the tension only broken once Sonic had made his quick recovery.
“I did, oops, my bad, Shads.” He hummed, grin wide and playful as if his heart wasn’t hammering in his chest from the accident.
He caught the way Shadow’s eyes looked over his features, searching. Then the way Shadow let out a small breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, shaking his head disbelieving. And the way his hand tensed inside of his pocket.
Strange.
He had seen so many new expression on Shadow these days, this one had to have been one of his favorites.
“Ugh, well you did it.” Amy sighed, though she looked way too happy to seem disappointed to be keeping her nose.
“Yeah, now it’s my turn!” Silver complained, already reaching over to get his card.
The two walked back to their spots in the circle, avoiding any eye contact whatsoever. Sonic held his confident grin and yet he felt anything but. The two sat down, each lost in their own minds, the shenanigans of the game around them muffled around them.
When Sonic finally spared a glance at the other, he seemed absorbed in thought. Unaware of anything else around him, which was strange. The Ultimate Lifeform was always so alert.
A glimmer of hope shimmered into Sonic’s heart, that maybe, just maybe..
He couldn’t finish his thought, too sacred to be even muttered in his mind.
Little did he know that the mind of the hedgehog beside him was left in more of a disarray than it had ever been. And he had no idea, that it was all because of him.