A Winter Valentines

The First and Last Chapter

The winter is a time well known for gifts and snow. A time where kids make snowmen and have snowball fights. And unless you want to be pelted with snow it's best to avoid the park at this time.

A certain blue hedgehog had decided to disobey this rule to take a walk. Smiling at the kids having fun, he picked his way through the park to the bench he would sit on, occasionally.

Wiping some of the snow off the wooden bench, he sat and tried to ignore the coldness of the surface. Put an arm up on the back of the bench nonchalantly and sighed.

'They look so happy...' he thought. He hadn't really had enough time to be a kid. He always had some responsibilities, to his kingdom, his world, his friends...

The group of children were playing tag, laughing and squealing. The hedgehog smiled. Even with his responsibilities hanging over him like a dark cloud, he could still smile and laugh. He sometimes wonders how he manages it, he'd been through a lot, even before he was able to talk.

Sometime he wondered what his life would've been like without Eggman. He would've been raised by his real parents, his mother that he still hadn't found and the father he'd never met. He and siblings would've always known each other. He would've been... posh.

He always scowled when he thought of that, it always led to worse thoughts. Like never meeting Tails. The poor guy might've been orphaned anyway, and if not he would've definitely been bullied.

And Shadow, he would've been sealed away in that capsule for a lot longer. Omega wouldn't exist, Rouge would probably have ended up locked away and Amy-

'Amy...' he smiled as the image of the cheerful pink hedgehog appeared. He definitely would've not have met her... but he was glad that he had.

Amy Rose had calmed down a little. In other words she stopped becoming the damsel in distress and started showing how strong she really was. She wouldn't hug him as tightly as before, and no longer yelled his name at the top of her lungs.

And they had started to have actual conversations. He found out so much about her that he didn't know. Like the fact that she did gymnastics. He hadn't even thought that she had hobbies, well, other than stalking him.

One of the kids tripped and fell near the bench, her tears snapping the hedgehog out of his reverie.

"Hey you okay?" he asked helping the little girl up.

"I'm okay." The girl sniffled looking up into his eyes.

"You sure, ya don't need a plaster or something?"

"No... thank you." The little girl- a young badger sniffed.

Her friends came over to see if she was alright along with a few parents.

"Oh I'm sorry if we bothered you young man."

"Nah, its fine" the hedgehog smiled at the young sow. "Just be careful okay, the snow can be slippery at times."

"Okay, I'll be careful next time!" the girl smiled.

The group walked off, leaving the hedgehog alone once more. Sighing he started off in the direction of home. The park was quiet without the children there, a very different tone of winter, the one he hated the most.

This was the side of winter that separated families, permanently or temporarily. This was the slipping on ice, no heating kind of winter. And the silence set the mood perfectly.

"Sonic?"

"Amy?" he turned. Sure enough the pink hedgehog was standing in the middle of the path looking at him. She was dressed in a new outfit: she had a red dress with a purple belt and gold buttons, purple socks that went past her knees with pink and red shoes and a red scarf.

"H-Hey Amy..." Sonic stumbled over his words.

"Hi..." Amy looked down at her shoes awkwardly.

"Uh, Amy, listen, I-" Sonic mentally hit himself: where were his words when he needed them?

"...Sonic you wanna go out sometime?" Amy blurted out.

"S-Sure, I know a great place. How about I pick you up about... ten-ish this Friday?"

"Sounds good," Amy beamed. "I gotta go now, I'll see you then."

"See ya later Ames!" both hedgehogs walked away with a skip in their steps and smiles on their faces.