Chapter Text
CRASH!
The sound rang through the silence of the house, sounding like a cannon going off in a tunnel. It was loud enough to make the dead sit up in their graves to wonder what was going on. Or at least it's what Tails thought as the fox boy jumped in his bed, being yanked out of a dead sleep.
“Wha?” Tails asked, his hands reaching up and rubbing his eyes as he moved his head from side to side, seemingly not noticing he couldn’t see anything with his hands covering his eyes. It took the fox a couple of seconds to realize what had woken him up, making him frown as he lowered his hands and focused his eyes on the closed hatch of the stairs to get to the house. Thin streams of light were escaping through the cracks, which in the middle of the night no lights should have been on with everyone asleep. Unless Tails was gonna get the radioactive material that he had asked Santa to build a generator for the house, Tom and Maddie were still gonna be paying an electric bill. So they were strict on making sure that lights were turned off whenever no one was in a room.
But then to make things worse the sound of muffled voices made the boy’s ear twitch and his heart skip a beat. There was someone in the house! And if they were moving around at any late hour Tails figured the person was there for some less-than-desirable reasons.
“Sonic… Sonic!” Tails hissed as he reached over and started to shake Sonic the best that he could.
“Mm… Sure I'll take another chili dog… five more actually!” The hedgehog said dreamily, his hand reaching up a hand with five fingers out before his hand crashed down and he rolled over on his side.
“S-O-N-I-C!” Tails said, using both of his hands this time, emphasizing Sonic’s name as if the name had four syllables. This attempt made Sonic snort as he sat up, his eyes nothing more than slits as he looked around tiredly.
“Huh, what, no the chili dog stain was from Ozzie,” The hedgehog grumbled before crashing back down.
“Sonic, someone's in the house!” Tails tried to say to his hero, wanting him to do, well, the hero things.
“No silly!” Sonic giggled loopily, “Doughnut Lord house… protect… him will…” Sonic sighed as he took a deep breath in before starting to snore lightly. The half-asleep hedgehog’s words did make some sense. Tom/their dad/caregiver/Doughnut Lord was a cop, a well-known cop, in the town of Greenhill. Everyone knew who he was, where he lived, and the perks of living in a small town. So anyone breaking in knew they were going to be gambling while dealing with a cop.
BANG!
Another loud sound made Tails jump up, holding the thick heavy blue blanket he had to his chest. But looking to his sides the other two boys seemingly weren’t bothered by the loud sound. Sonic continued to sleep soundly while Knuckles slept, sitting up in his bed, his arms crossed not making a sound. Which was strange as Tails always thought Knuckles would have been a loud snorer. It might have been a part of the Echidna’s survival training that made him sleep so quietly. Either way, only Tails was seemingly aware of the loud noise coming from below.
“Ok Tails,” The young fox said, taking a deep breath in, letting go of his blanket. “Time to do… something?” He said with a confident head nod. However, the rest of his body needed some time to get the message that it was time to move. His hands quivered as he tossed his blanket to the side and he had to make an effort to get his legs to move. As he made his way to the stairs, he swiped a toy dart gun from Sonic’s beanbag, figuring having a toy ‘weapon’ was better than no weapon. When he got to the stairwell the boy took a deep breath and gently pushed down on the stairwell, sending it crashing down. A loud high-pitched eeeerrrrr as he first pushed the stairs down, and then the step slid down to the wooden floor below with a loud BANG. But as if he had stumbled into a horror story, the stairs let out a high-pitched eeeeerrrrrrr. Making Tails take a sharp gasp. But after a tense moment, he didn’t hear anyone coming closer.
Ok, not risking the step. Tails thought to himself as his Tails twisted together tightly before they started to spin. His body lifted off the ground as he floated down to the main floor of the house. A light beamed from the living room, a shadow dancing in it, giving Tails enough vision to fly around without knocking into anything. It also revealed the light green footie PJs that Maddie had helped him into, Santa Claus and reindeer all over the cozy PJs.
“F-freeze!” Tails said, trying to sound as tough as he could, turning the corner to the living room and landing on the ground with a soft thud. Though as he stuttered and his voice cracked the boy's tone was anything but tough. But the person in the living room let out a shriek as they jumped. Their hands instantly went to their side, but grabbing at nothing they started to pat at it.
“Oh right,” The person sighed as he turned around, revealing their face in the light, making Tail’s eyes go wide as he dropped the toy gun. The man standing in front of him was in a fuzzy-looking red and white coat, pants, blank boots, and a red hat with a white fuzzy ball at the end of it. He had a white beard that went down to his belly.
“Santa?” Tails asked, taking a step back as if the figure might attack him.
“Yep!” The voice said before cringing and clearing his throat. “I mean… Of course, it's me!” Santa said, his voice suddenly getting deeper. “Who else would be here, delivering presents?” The man asked as he took a step to the side and gestured to the Christmas tree that had finally been put up. Though they had to hide the section with a missing branch because Ollie lost it. White and gold tinsel was wrapped around the tree with Christmas lights twinkling in every color of the rainbow. But under the branches, well more so surrounding the entire tree, where boxes wrapped in golden-colored wrapping paper sat, a red sack laid empty by Santa’s black boots. “I just finished placing all your family’s presents under the tree and was getting ready to head to my next house.” He informed Tails as he reached over, his hand covered in a black plastic feeling mitten, and ruffled the Fox’s head.
“I got to go get everyone!” Tails cheered, his tails swaying excitedly behind him, turning to go wake everyone up, “They’re gonna be excited to see you!” But before he could get a step in Santa grabbed him by an arm.
“Hold on now!” Santa said, his voice losing its deep tone for a second. “I can’t have everyone seeing me now. It would ruin the magic of being Santa Claus. We need to keep this a secret between us!” Santa said as he reached into his vest and pulled out a candy can that was almost half the size of Tails, like the one he had gotten from Santa a couple of days prior. “Now go wait in your parent's room so I can uh… Magically leave!” He ordered the boy.
“Yeah ok!” Tails cheered, taking the treat he was offered, and as soon as his arm was released the fox dashed away through the kitchen, down the hall, and into Tom and Maddie's room. The door had been left open, probably so Ozzie could slip in and out of the room with no issue. It also made it so Tails could slip in.
“Tom! Tom! Tom!” Tails whispered, rushing to the left side of the bed where the man normally slept, reaching up to shake the man awake. But his hand just grabbed at the disturbed sheets from where the man had been lying.
“Huh, what?” Maddie said, sitting up, “No Sonic… No chili dogs on the couch!” The lady gasped sleepily. But after a second her eyes focused as she saw the top of Tails’ head looking over her husband's side of the bed, as if he were trying to imitate a hippo. “Tails, what's going on?” She asked, reaching to her nightstand and turning on a light.
“Santa!” Tails cheered, climbing up on the bed, and throwing his hands in the air as he rested on his knees. “I just saw Santa, he was putting presents under the tree! He told me to come in here so he could leave!”
“Oh, well that's exciting!” Maddie cheered, reaching over and pulling the boy close. “And I see he gave you some candy…” She mused, her eyes looking past Tails and the empty spot where her husband should be. “That's great, but let's not eat this until tomorrow.” She sighed, gently taking it out of Tail’s hands and sat it on the night table.
“Should we wake Sonic and Knuckles up so we can open up the gifts?” He asked excitedly as his eyes sparkled up at Maddie.
“No, it's waaaaaay too early for that,” She scoffed as she grabbed her phone and checked the time. “Ha, yeah 3:47, way too early.” She said as she sat her phone down and turned her lamp off. “Let's just try to get a bit more sleep before we do anything.” She sighed as she rested back down on her pillow.
“Ok, sounds good.” Tails said with no argument as he started to scootch to where he climbed on the bed. “I’ll make sure not to wake Sonic or Knuckles.” He promised but paused as Maddie gently put her hand on his shoulder.
“Oh, sweetie, just stay here. You might walk in on Santa again and I don’t think he wants that.” She guessed, making Tails’ lips purse. The logic was sound.
“Can I sleep here? This isn’t my room?” Tails said frowning. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.” He said, conveniently not connecting the dots that bursting into the room on Santa’s orders had already made him intrude.
“Yeah I’m sure,” Maddie said with a giggle before yawning and lifting the covers beside her for the boy. “If you ever need to come in and spend the night with me and Tom, you’re more than welcome to.” She promised Tails though as a low grumble came from somewhere in the room Maddie sighed, “And Ozzie”, making the fox smile as he slid beside Maddie. Once he was enclosed with the blanket he rested his head on the pillow and sighed.
“Night.” He said softly before he felt Maddie give him a kiss on the forehead, his heart fluttering again.
“Night, sweetie,” Maddie said with a yawn before resting her head on the pillow again and falling back asleep.
______________________________________________________________________________
Tails wasn’t sure how fast he had fallen back asleep, but when he opened his eyelids again the morning sun was lighting the room, and he was now pressed between both Maddie and Tom, with Ozzie lying on top of the three of them. He didn’t remember Tom ever coming in from what he was doing during Santa’s visit. Or Ozzie becoming a blanket for them.
“Wahoo!” Sonic cheered, jumping up to the foot of the bed, dressed in an oversized yellow T-shirt, dropping to his knees and he started to shred an air guitar. “Santa came! Present 0’clock is nigh!” He cheered, “Come on, sleepy heads!” He said before dashing off the end in a blue blur.
“Merry Christmas,” Tom said, his voice muffled from the pillow his face was buried into.
“Merry Christmas,” Maddie said as she sat up, rubbed her eyes, and checked her phones. “Eh, 6:30. Not much better than 3 in the morning.” She sighed, throwing her legs to the side revealing the fuzzy white PJ bottoms with snowmen on them, and grabbed a matching white robe, covering the top of her body that was being protected by a short-sleeved T-shirt. Which was more modest than the white T-shirt and boxer shorts Tom wore. “Tom, I’m gonna get some coffee ready, you try to make sure no one opens anything until we’re both out there.” She ordered as Tails rolled over and slid off the bed, landed on the floor, and rushed to the living room. Where Sonic was rushing around, picking up boxes, and shaking them.
“Oh, that one sounds good!” The hedgehog cheered, rubbing his hands together as he looked at the presents deadeyes like a shark getting ready to strike”
“Where did all these boxes come from?” Knuckles asked, his fist in the air as his head turned from side to side. “Were we invaded last night and burdened with these? Is this some sort of sign for war?!”
“No Knuckles,” Tails said, “ Santa visited us last night and left us all these! I saw him!”
“So we were invaded!” Knuckles growled, “That is it! I shall travel to his residence and shall battle him. Our duel will be glorious!” He cheered.
“No, this is a good thing Knuckles.” Sonic sighed, walking to the Echidna, slapping his hand on Knuckles’ shoulder. “There's gonna be all sorts of awesome stuff in here for us! Maybe a new pair of running shoes, new issues of comics, maybe!” He gasped, using both his hands to shake Knuckles. “Maybe it’s an instant chili dog maker!” He cried out, letting his legs go out on him and letting himself fall to the ground.
“I guess anything is possible.” Tom sighed as he walked out into the living room, sat on the couch with a yawn, and rubbed his eyes.
“Whoa DL, rough night?” Sonic asked, staying collapsed on the ground. “Can’t be good for the sharp shooting if you’re tired.”
“Eh, just had some stuff to do last night.” The man said with a small smile on his face, “I’ll be fine once I get some coffee in me.” He assured everyone.
Thankfully it didn’t take too long for Maddie to come into the living room with two large coffee cups in her hands. But when she handed her husband his cup of coffee she let the three boys to gather their presents and open it. Once she allowed them to open the presents the living room became a war zone of shredded glittery gold paper, boxes, and ribbons. The white carpet soon blankets from the wrapping paper, Ozzie standing in the kitchen area watching the chaos ensue at a safe distance.
Sonic had managed to guess some of his presents. A new pair of running shoes that looked nearly identical to his current pair of shoes, and a few new comics to add to his collection, though the instant chili dog maker was missing. But he did get to open a box almost three times his size, revealing a treadmill that his parents got him so he could run even on rainy and snowy days. Then there were a few smaller things like a few new paddleballs, a dance video game, and some candy.
Knuckles was far more cautious about opening his presents. As if Santa had maybe trapped the boxes with a bomb. But the Echidna was pleasantly surprised with his own gym workout set, stress balls, weights, and plenty of body spray for when after the red echidna was to use the workout set.
“Hm… I accept these offerings, Santa Claus! But do not dare try to cross me!” He yelled to the sky as if Santa was listening to him. But picking up everything he got he started to march away. “Now if you will excuse me I have to get ready for the Wades holiday tradition of Haunekka.” He explained. “I shall make my return in seven days time. If I do not make it back on time. Fear not I am merely in leagues of dangerous peril and trying to survive with only my wits and what I can scavenge.” He said, making Maddie shoot Tom a worried look. But Doughnut Lord only shrugged his shoulders as he took a sip of coffee.
“Wades driving, it wouldn’t surprise me.” Tom joked, making his wife smirk and shake her head.
“Ok, and I believe that is everything.” Tails cheered as he looked around at his haul from Santa. He had a few boxes of building blocks he had seen at the store before, if memory served him right they were called ‘Legos’. A drone about the size of a dinner plate was still in its box, a brand new set of tools, packets of nail and screws, and what looked like a black box with solar panels on the top sat around Tails. Tails grabbed a white letter that waited on top of the box.
“Dear Tails, sorry I couldn’t get any radioactive isotopes for you, but those are illegal to own. Try this solar power generator in the meantime.” He read off. But Tails didn’t show any disappointment in his gift as he lifted the box up, smiling as he examined it.
“Happy with everything?” Maddie asked him, getting a head nod from the fox. “Ok well that's good. No flying the drone in the house though.” She told him, figuring she would stop a problem from happening in the future. “But you kids enjoy your presents. I’m gonna get started on breakfast.” She said getting up before a loud thud came from the attic.
“And I’m gonna help Knuckles before I have to fix another hole.” Tom sighed, jumping up to his feet, leaving Tails and Sonic alone.
“So, did Santa do a good job or did he do a good job?” Sonic asked, putting an arm around Tails.
“If by Santa you mean Tom and Maddie, then yes.” Tails said with a giggle as he looked up at Sonic.
“Whaaaa? No… I uh meant the guy in the red suit, who totally exists.” Sonic said, removing his hand from Tails and rubbing the back of his head, not meeting Tails’ eyes.
“Sonic, I may be little but I’m not so easily fooled.” Tails said as he carefully put his generator down. “I mean the presents are wrapped in the same paper we got at the mall.” He pointed out.
“Ok fine, you’re right, the presents were from them.” The older teen sighed, “So what was with the whole ‘I saw Santa’ deal then?”
“Well Tom and Maddie really wanted me to believe in him and they went through all that effort. Taking me to see him, pretending to deliver our letters, Tom dressing up as Santa last night.” He listed off. “Tom is a lot skinnier than the Santa we saw at the mall and the beard was clearly fake.”
“Eh… Yeah maybe Doughnut Lord should eat a couple more doughnuts before trying to cosplay as Santa again.” Sonic scoffed. “Well then how are the presents then?”
“They are nice.” Tails said, looking at everything. “But honestly, the best present was having a family to spend it with!” The fox cheered before tackling the hedgehog in a hug.
“Yeah, I feel the same way.” Sonic said soft, a smile on his face, as he returned the hug and resting his chin on Tails.
“Ok, who wants hot chocolate?!” Maddie called from the kitchen.
“I do!” Both boys said, instantly breaking out of their hug and rushing towards the kitchen to get their Christmas treat.