Disclaimer: I don't own shit. All character (c) their respective owners. I own Musica and Blaze the Hedgehog, and jesserfly owns Ciel the Cat and Tomas the Raccoon. Yeah, that's pretty much it for now.

A/N: I promised myself long ago that I would never upload anything to do with my fancharacters onto this website ever again, as much as I love them. I feel somewhat ashamed that I'm breaking this promise, but at the same time I don't care anymore. This is a gift for my best friend in the entire world, Jess (known by the account name jesserfly on this site). I'm uploading this at her request, because she wants to read this by chapter on this site and she's doing the same for me. So, please enjoy, but know that I'm writing this for Jess, so the only opinion that really matters here is hers. Please enjoy Jess! I hope you like it, and happy holidays! 3

Part I: What's wrong with Kory?

"Seriously, what the hell is up with her lately?" a white hedgehog groaned as she sat down in the empty chair in front of her. "Do you have any idea?"

The blue hedgehog sitting across from her shrugged his shoulders before taking a drink from his soda. When he caught her giving him a death glare, he put down the soda and tried to come up with a better answer. "Look, I have no clue what her problem is. She never got like this before, so don't ask me, ok?"

The white hedgehog crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance. "Well it's pissing me off. Like, majorly, and I really have to figure out what her deal is because there's no way I'm dealing with that," she jerked her thumb to her left, "for the rest of my life. Christ, it figures that right after I move in she has to get all mopey and depressed."

"Well you could always move in with me," he said, grinning like an idiot.

"Yeah, in your dreams, Sonic!" she rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the tiny, and I stress tiny, smile that formed on her lips after that.

"Well, now that I've got you in a good mood, we can try and figure out what her deal is, so we can fix it. Because the faster we fix it, the faster things get back to normal."

"Hey, news flash: Things around her have never, ever been normal!" she replied with a smirk.

Sonic rolled his eyes at her, and then looked toward the subject of their current conversation and ongoing dilemma: Korina Angelopoulos, aka Kory the Mongoose. For the past few weeks, her condition seemed to be worsening: she would skip meals, then binge eat on junk food and fast food; she would barely speak, and constantly appear to be in a daze; she would stare off into space after a while and wouldn't move or respond to people; she would sleep in when possible, then stay up all night either on the roof of the apartment complex or god only knows where; and sometimes Musica could hear her crying by herself when she thought no one was around.

Musica, the white hedgehog, looked to her left as well, and she looked on in despair. She had been so excited to move in with Kory after all the bullshit between herself and her womanizing brother, Blaze, but now she could only watch as her best friend slowly shut herself off from society. It truly bothered her that they couldn't figure it all out. One day, Kory had been fine, and the next she turned into this mess.

Musi's gaze shifted past Sonic when she noticed white flurries falling faster and faster from outside the café they all sat in. It was snowing hard; already a few inches stuck to the ground, and they streets were filled with slush and ice. Her eyes widened considerably, and she jumped up, already half way to the door to play in the frozen rain filling the streets. Well, she would be half way there, except Sonic had his hand wrapped around her arm, tugging her back to the chair next to him.

"Hey hey, we can play later! Right now, we have to figure out what's wrong with Kory!"

Musi gave him a sheepish grin. "Oh….my bad?"

Sonic couldn't help but grin as Musi turned back to look at Kory, who was absently drinking her hot cocoa before letting out a heavy sigh. Musi looked back at Sonic and then asked, "Well wait a second. Maybe there's a pattern to all of this?"

"Go on…"

"Well, you said she's never been like this before, right?"

"Not as long as I've known her, no."

"Okay," Musi rested her head on one hand and pushed her platinum blonde bangs up and out of her eyes. "Okay, so if she's never been like this before, then maybe that means something happened recently, like something really big, which set all of this off." Musi bit her lip and tried to think, but really had no clue where to start. "Say, when did she start acting like this anyway?"

Sonic thought for a minute before answering, "Ah…I'd say about three weeks ago? Or something close to that?"

"Well, did anything happen three weeks ago?"

"Nothing that would really affect her like this…" Sonic responded. "I mean, Ciel got that operation kinda recently, but he's already recovering and doing great, so it can't be that. Other than that, nothing else really significant happened in the past few weeks that I can think of."

Musi sat back, completely stumped. It made no sense at all. This was supposed to be a happy month filled with friends, family, holiday cheer, and all that other bullshit. So why in the world was Kory so down in the dumps?

"Oh wow," Sonic exclaimed. He was looking at a little calendar posted on the edge of their table. "I totally didn't realize Christmas was in 5 days!"

Musi's ears perked up. "Wait, for real?"

Sonic nodded, and Musi went back to thinking. "So shouldn't she be happy?"

"Yeah, I don't see why not. I mean, this month is all about presents – and you know she loves presents – and you know, holiday cheer, the gift of giving, mistletoe, and-"

Musi gave him a skeptical look as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Right, so why would she be upset? She should be happy! It gives her an excuse to do loads of romantic shit with-" she gasped and stood up, eyes wide in alarmed realization, "-Sonic! That's it!"

"Woah woah woah! Hold it; I'm not doing any romantic stuff with anyone unless it's you!"

"No, you moron, I figured it out! And cut the shit before I give you a romantic black and blue across your face!" she warned him. "Anyway, it all makes sense! If this time of year is when you spend it with someone special, and do all sorts of romantic stuff, then Kory must be lonely!"

"Why would she be lonely? She has all of us!"

"That's true, but we're all paired off at the moment!" Musi counted off on her fingers. "Blaze has Ciel – I think, Tomas has…Silver?, and I have-*cough*you*cough*"

Sonic gave her that knowing look that pissed her off, but responded to what she said anyway, "Okay, but doesn't she have Shadow? Or am I completely out of the loop?"

"See, that's the thing here! Shadow's been missing for almost a month now!" Musi glanced at Kory to see if the yellow mongoose heard her, but sighed in relief when her friend remained in her catatonic state. "Anyway, he's been missing, and it's been really fucking her up. We have to do something about this!"

"What, are we gonna go out in this weather and search aimlessly for the next five days, hoping and praying that we happen to find Shadow by chance, before we freeze to death?"

Musi looked shocked. "Of course not!" Sonic sighed in relief. "That's your job!"

Sonic spit out the soda he was trying to drink, spraying a fine mist of Chaos Cola across the floor. "Uh-uh! Nooo way! I hate the cold!"

"Oh don't be such a baby!"

"Look, I don't mind helping Kory out, but I'm not doing it when there's supposed to be some crazy blizzard starting up any day now!"

"Sonic!"

"No thanks, not doing it!"

"For me?"

"N-what?"

"Do it for me?" Musi grumbled out. "Just think of it as…my Christmas present, ok?"

"Aw come on, don't say it like that!"

"Please? I just want to see everyone happy for once…"

Sonic paused, then let out a sigh of defeat. "The things I do when you ask nicely…"

Musi jumped up with a grin and hugged Sonic, before pushing him toward the door, saying, "You're the best!"

"Hey wait, where are we going? It's almost 10 at night!"

"Well, you're going to Tails' Workshop right now so you two can figure out a plan of action to find Shadow. And I'm going to take care of a few things while you're gone. You know, important girl stuff and all that."

"Like what?"

"Don't worry about it. You'll see when you come back! Now get out there and hurry the hell up; we've got five days, and the clock is ticking!"

Sonic stood just outside the café, in the freezing cold as snow fell all around him, and all he could say to himself was, "I get the feeling I always get the short end of the deal…"