Chapter Text
"Rise and shine, little buddy!"
Miles jerked awake at his desk to find Sonic's grin dominating his view, the blue hedgehog staggered drunkenly before him despite the early hour with what could only be called the tinsel-based devastation of Miles' lab behind him.
"December?" Miles rubbed sleep from his eyes with a yawn.
"Yes!" Sonic punched the air, sending the pale contents of his glass sparkling up towards the ceiling. "Whuh-oh."
He leapt up again, catching most of the liquid back into his glass and a good proportion of the remainder in his mouth. Barely a drop spattered onto the metallic floor.
"Getting an early start are we?" Miles grabbed a wet wipe from a box on his table with the tip of a tail, polishing the spill without bothering to stand.
"You know it! I've gotta spread the joys of the season!" Sonic whooped once more, almost stumbling backwards before catching himself to drain the rest of his drink. "I'm gonna go say hi to Shadow!"
"Okay have-" Miles sighed, pulling a ring of tinsel off his fluffy head as the dust settled from Sonic's rapid departure.
One of these days he was going to have to tell his hero that eggnog wasn't actually alcoholic.
…
Just as soon as it stopped being funny.
Miles yawned again to encourage his protesting body that yes, it had slept long enough, and no, it did not matter how long that had been. Pressing a button on the rim of his desk the young fox blearily searched the festivities on his desk for the blueprint he'd been working on the night before.
Despite his constant house guest's unreasonable festive cheer, life was currently… good for Miles "Tails" Prower, the smartest, strongest, fastest and only mobian fox around. The world was, at least presently, peaceful - at least the type of peace Miles cared about, which involved more an absence of fat moustachioed super villains than any particular geopolitical happenings, which were rather outside of his purview. His life was quiet - mostly quiet, he pulled a sprig of holly from his computer's ventilation - and, most importantly to Miles, his friends were currently happy.
Happy friends, after all, were friends that stuck around. Presumably his parents had not been happy when they'd abandoned him on a deserted island before he was even old enough to remember their faces, but the important life lesson they'd taught him in doing so had served him well: Make people happy, don't be a bother, keep a low profile, and if he failed then they would abandon him and an army of angry bird people would try to kill him.
He wasn't sure that last part was necessarily a rational concern on his part, but since he'd met Sonic, his first ever friend, and put this philosophy into practise he had to say that he hadn't had to fight even one army of angry bird people, so it couldn't be entirely discounted.
The coming festivities presented an opportunity for Miles to make his friends even happier, which was perhaps the only part of this dismal time of year that he really enjoyed, so long as he could determine the appropriate gifts and avoid the odd social disaster, at least.
Like last month, when he'd been asked - or bullied into - setting up a date between Sonic and Amy Rose, his hero's self-professed, slightly desperate, girlfriend. Or at least as close to girlfriend as someone could be when the object of their affections had a tendency to bolt at multiples of the speed of sound the moment they saw them coming.
Miles held out a hand as a sealed blue and yellow canister dropped down from the ceiling, liquid sloshing inside. He pushed the top with a gloved finger, releasing a plume of searing steam from a spout that popped open on the lid.
"Still superheated, huh?" Miles tutted with a frown, pulling open a drawer on his desk to pull free a cup sequestered for this very purpose before pressing another button. A moment later a handful of ice cubes dropped down from the same opening, clattering into his cup before he poured the steaming brown liquid in after it, taking a careful sip a few moments later.
Gross.
But eventually? Miles took another gulp of his watery beverage. Eventually this was going to work out with on demand tea. Or at very least give him another way to induce third degree burns in case of supervillain attack. A bad result was inevitable for progress.
Still awful though. Miles made a face as he switched on his monitor, already looking for the chat program where five different icons flashed at once.
Looked like Sonic was right on schedule.
Deliberately ignoring the black and red symbol that presumably contained Shadow's monosyllabic instructions to remove his hyperactive blue intruder before bodily harm was enacted upon both of them, Miles went for the safer, if only marginally so, option of Amy's pink icon.
:: happy December!
:: he's out early today huh?
:: He actually Tinsel Bombed you this year?
Well that was progress.
Miles snorted. Things had… got out of hand last month, in the way that one disaster would trigger another, and she'd never got that date in the end - at least with Sonic. He'd ended up going on several, as much as something could be called a date when the other person had no romantic interest for him whatsoever. But he'd muddled through somehow, he'd even gained a friend in Cream, her young rabbit friend, which was the opposite of what he'd expected to happen.
And, while he hadn't quite managed to get her the date she'd wanted, she had managed to grab dinner with her "boyfriend" - along with Miles and Cream, and apparently Sonic's policy of avoidance had ended.
:: no
Dangit.
:: I left the door unlocked and everything!
:: he just left the box outside like every year
:: Darn, sorry.
:: I'd swap if I could.
He'd quietly drop that box of decorations into an incinerator if he could too, though of course that wasn't an option. Sonic was his best friend, after all, and just as assuredly as he didn't want Miles to fight giant robots anymore, he wanted him to clutter his workshop with shiny ornaments for a non-trivial percentage of each year. It was a price he happily paid for his friend's happiness, and to ensure he didn't leave.
:: that's alright
:: he's just shy
:: I'm used to it
:: already got my decorating done, wanna see?
:: Sure, alright.
Shy. Right. Miles sighed. After five years of increasingly aggressive pursuit, up to and including assault with a deadly weapon, the hedgehog's normal aversion to romance had progressed into a straight up phobia of being alone with her from what Miles had seen, locking their relationship in a constant state of one sided flirtation and broken hearts. Amy, however lovely she might be, rarely showed those better qualities around the object of her obsession.
A file icon popped up on his screen, an image of Amy's living room, with its odd mishmash of human and mobian furniture, filled his screen. Amy stood dwarfed in front of her couch with a radiant grin, the pink hedgehog's bare arms held wide as she presented the same decorations as cluttered his own workspace, yet somehow tasteful, artful… Basically "greater" in every category except perhaps enthusiasm.
But Miles' eyes instead gravitated to the sofa, where two plush toys cohabited on the cushions, one blue and one orange. Life size - or slightly more than life size in his case - plush toys of himself and Sonic. He pressed a hand to his cheek with a groan.
:: They're on the sofa now?!
:: of course! hanging out with my boys for breakfast
:: I should never have won that for you.
:: too bad, never giving it back
He'd drop it in the incinerator if she did anyway. Back when they made that toy line he'd have been even smaller than he was now. Why had they made it so much bigger than him?
:: so how are things going with you and Cream?
:: got any plans together for the holidays?
:: Cream? Not seen her since we were all in Soleanna together.
:: that's no good!
:: does she know you're in the area next week?
:: Uh, the better question is how you know.
:: pfffft. how would I not? did you forget?
:: Uh, no? Obviously. I meant in general.
Great. Now he remembered. Sonic, roving vagabond that he was, generally preferred to spend his time in warmer climes in winter, to better suit his bohemian lifestyle - at least between thwarting the Eggman, or whichever flavour of the month villain showed up to cause mischief. But Amy had invited her friends to a Christmas party later in the month. Miles had even promised to try and make sure Sonic actually showed up on time for once.
:: girl's gotta have some secrets
:: oh, and don't worry
:: I'll try and remember to get the boys back in my room before the party
:: Don't make me Actual Bomb your apartment.
:: you wouldn't dare!
:: No comment.
:: mhm anyway going to go eat
:: maybe you should make some plans with Cream when you get here?
:: you don't want to miss your chance, right?
Miles sipped his vile beverage, tapping his lips with a slender finger. His chance to endure the rabbit's teasing, most likely. That bunny girl was merciless. But Amy was right, friendships, especially new friendships, were things that needed tending. He might even learn from Cream what Amy, inscrutable and confusing to him as she was, might want for a gift.
Yes, Miles kicked back in his chair, stretching his shoulders as he nursed his "tea" and reviewed his other messages for the morning. All he needed to do was settle in, have some nice quiet time hanging out with his friends, nothing that would end up with him as a viral internet sensation, again. Then he just had to make it through a party, select perfect gifts, prevent Sonic from enraging Amy into a violent rampage, and he was on for a nice, quiet month where nothing major threatened to upend his nice, stable, existence. Simple.
A crackle of orange lightning exploded across the room behind him, a scowling black and red hedgehog stomping out onto the metal floor with a familiar blue figure clutched in his grasp. Shadow tossed Sonic to the ground, pulled out a pistol and shot him in the head, provoking a shower of golden rings. Casting a stern glance at Miles the self-proclaimed "ultimate lifeform" spun on his heel and walked out in another burst of orange.
"So..." Miles sipped his drink. "Didn't like the decorations then?"
"Mmm…" Sonic sat up, rubbing where he'd been shot with a sheepish grin as he recovered one of his lost rings before it faded away. "He'll come around eventually. You still got any eggnog?"
Miles sighed and nodded. The blue blur vanished towards his kitchen with a whoop of excitement.
At least mostly simple.