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As the snow fell softly outside, Scourge watched from the warmth of the house as his brothers played in the winter wonderland (no pun intended).
“Hey Scourge, a little help with the presents.”
“Coming Mom.”
Heh, never thought I’d get used to that. Guess I was wrong.
Scourge chuckled as he saw the stack of toys that needed to be wrapped, and grabbed a roll of wrapping paper as he sat down. “Going all out on gifts, huh?”
Maddie smirks as she nudges her oldest. “It’s some of the boys’ first Christmas, we want it to be memorable.”
Scourge chuckles at that. “Fair enough. It is pretty important, hell I still remember Sonic’s first Christmas.”
“Really?” Tom glances over from where he finished putting a bow on a gift. “Tell us about it.”
“Well, it was about 10 years ago, and it was Christmas Eve when we had a big snowstorm…”
Small screeches woke up the green hedgehog suddenly, barely missing the one stone still stuck in the dirt walls above his head. “For Chaos’ sake, Sonic, what are you-”
“IT SNOWED!”
Scourge barely got his jacket on and grabbed a second one for the tiny blue hedgehog that just ran out of the cave and jumped into the nearest snowbank.
“Sonic, chill! You’re going to get yourself sick!” The little hedgehog squirmed as a large jacket was forced onto him before he jumped back into all the snow.
Scourge shook his head a little as he turned back into the cave. “Don’t get too carried away, we need to do a supply run later.”
~~~***~~~
Sonic’s tiny hand fit nicely into Scourge’s as the two walked through town, completely covered in thick winter clothes to hide how non-human they were.
“Ok Sonic, don’t get distracted. We’re only here to-”
“Whoa! Look at those trees!”
Scourge isn’t even surprised as the little hedgehog runs off to look at all the bright decorations in town, dazzled by the sparkling lights everywhere.
He’ll be fine looking at the lights, he knows not to leave the town. This gives me time to get all the supplies we need.
~~~***~~~
Sonic giggles to himself as he pushes snow into a pile, trying to recreate some snow people he saw other people making.
So far he had two balls of snow stacked on top of each other, but he just couldn’t lift the head up and get it on top.
“Hold on, kid.” Larger hands reached around him and put the head on the stack, then picked him up so that he could decorate the face. “Heh, not too bad, Blue.”
“Thanks!” Sonic jumps down to look at his snowman creation, then looks up at his roommate. “Tadaa!”
“Hmm, very demure, very dapper.”
“Why thank you, my good sir!”
They both snorted at that as Scourge picked the little hedgehog up and put him on his shoulders. “Ready to go home?”
“Wait, we need a Christmas tree!”
“A what?”
“A Christmas tree! For Santa to put presents under! The big kids were all talking about it!”
Scourge looked down at the blue hedgehog blankly, which meant there was only one thing to do.
Visit the library.
~~~***~~~
Scourge genuinely had no idea what the kid was talking about until he had a book shoved into his hands and was forced to read the Night Before Christmas out loud.
“So basically, a fat man breaks into peoples’ house at night, leaves behind gifts, and people pay him with cookies?”
“Yep! And it’s only one night a year!”
“... Since when was that a job? I want free food.”
“Scourge!”
“Ok ok, I’m kidding! Yeesh!”
Scourge raises his hands in surrender as the little hedgehog runs off to get more books about this Christmas thing and sighs as he waits.
There is absolutely no way this is real. Like come on, a single dude delivers gifts to every kid in the world? That sounds way too made up, the only people dumb enough to believe that are… the kids.
Scourge glances over at Sonic, watching his little tail wag excitedly from under his disguise while enthusiastically grabbing more books from the shelves.
… It’s not the worst thing to believe in, I guess. And, I suppose playing along won’t hurt him.
~~~***~~~
“Right there! The tree needs to be right in the middle!”
“When the hell did you get so bossy, kid?”
The little hedgehog just giggles as he watches Scourge struggle to get the tree standing up properly, much to his exasperation.
With another grunt, he finally gets the small tree in the ground, standing up straight. “Happy now, your highness?”
“Yes, very happy.”
Scourge nearly screams in pure joy, but holds it in. “Alright let's get those damn ornaments and get this fucking over with.”
It wasn’t until Sonic’s excited gasp that he realized what he did. Scourge drops his head in defeat, then just wordlessly pulls two cards out of his quills, writes the swears down, and hands them to the blue hedgehog.
“So that’s what those cards are.”
Scourge shrugs awkwardly at Tom. “Yeah, since I used to swear like a sailor I needed a way to actively stop doing it all the time. So we came up with a system, if I swore in front of Blue, I had to give him a Free Swear Pass with the word.”
Maddie laughs and awes. “Did it work?”
“Yeah, but now Blue has a stack of swears he’s saving for a special occasion.”
Both parents have a good laugh at that.
Scourge had to admit, the tree looked pretty decent.
Sure, it didn't have ornaments like the ones from the books, but in his opinion the pinecones, leaves, and feathers looked better as decorations.
“Well kid, got your seal of approval?”
“Yes, this is perfect!”
Sonic's excitement was almost contagious as the older hedgehog found himself smiling a bit.
“So, is that it?”
“Nope! Santa needs milk and cookies, and the reindeers need carrots!”
“Right… where do you suppose we get those?”
Sonic stops for a moment, not actually having considered that.
“... We have berries, would that work?”
“It should, I think he'll be happy with anything sweet.”
Words couldn't even describe how warm Scourge’s heart felt after seeing Sonic's relieved smile.
The kid needed this, and though he'd never admit it, he did too.
~~~***~~~
Night had long since fallen, but Scourge just stared up at the cave ceiling as the blue hedgehog slept under his jacket.
Careful nod to disturb the kid, Scourge got up and walked out of the cave, rubbing his face as he just walked through the snow.
Sonic was so excited about all of this, but Scourge knew the kid was going to wake up tomorrow morning to an untouched plate and nothing under the tree.
He sighs as he sits on a stump. “... It’s not fair to Sonic, he wants this so much, but it’s not real.”
I should have just told him from the beginning that it’s fake… but what good would that do?
Scourge stares at the snow covered ground, watching it slowly pile up as tiny flakes fell from the sky.
“... He needs to wake up to at least something under the tree.”
His gaze drifted down to a little pile of broken branches, and an idea came to his mind.
~~~***~~~
Warm sunlight filled the cave slowly, warming up the small hedgehog as his eyes slowly opened, then he sat up fast as he saw the brightly colored presents under the tree.
“Scourge, Scourge! Wake up! Santa was here!”
The green hedgehog groaned as he slowly sat up, rubbing his face as he pulled his leather jacket on, pausing when he saw what was under the tree. “Wait, what-”
Sonic was already at the tree, tail wagging excitedly as he picks up a red box with his name on it. “Scourge! There’s one for you too!”
If he had been paying attention, he would have seen the look of utter confusion as the older hedgehog picked up his green box, but he was too busy opening his gift, eyes lighting up as he took out a stuffed animal of an owl. “Look, it’s just like Longclaw!”
“Yeah, it really is.” Scourge looks back at the tree, setting his present aside for a moment. “Hey Blue, you still got one more for you.”
Sonic tilts his head as he looks back under the tree, and spots a little gift wrapped flimsily in brown paper. He grunts as he reaches under and grabs it, looking up at Scourge just to double check.
“Go ahead, you can open it.” Sonic peeled back the paper, then his jaw dropped.
Sitting his hands were little wooden figurines, carved to look like Longclaw, himself, a few other animals and plants, and a little hut for them all to live in.
The blue hedgehog looks at the green one, then down at his hands. His gloves still had little splinters of wood in them.
Sonic sniffled, then threw himself into Scourge’s arms. “Thank you thank you thank you!”
Scourge wasn’t sure what he was more surprised by, the fact that Sonic loved the gift, or that it felt good knowing he did something right. Either way, he made sure Sonic wasn’t watching as he wiped a tear from his eyes.
“Merry Christmas, Sonic.”
“Merry Christmas, Scourge.”
When the two pulled apart, Scourge stood up and stretched a bit. “I got nothing on the other gifts, that wasn’t me.”
“Cause it was Santa!”
Scourge rubs the back of his neck as he watches Sonic run off to the plate the berries had been on. “Look, he left a note!”
“Wait, what!?”
The two hedgehogs crowd together and open the little letter.
‘Thanks for the berries, boys. The reindeers loved them. -S.C.’
Sonic smiled widely as he held onto the letter while Scourge got up quickly and checked outside the cave. “No tracks…”
“Scourge, you ok?”
“Yeah… guess Christmas miracles really do exist.”