"Cr-Creeam!" She whined.

"Please Amy?" The young girl begged, lightly pulling at the hem of her scarlet dress. "I really do think this is for the best! Please trust me!"

"B-but…" The pink hedgehog stammered.

"My mother believes it would help you too." Cream asserted politely. Her chao doted her from behind, rubbing against her as a reminder and glancing up at Amy with the sweetest, cutest expression she'd ever seen from a chao. "Cheese thinks so too, Right Cheese?"

Even if his bright blue eyes hadn't won her over, the short, unintelligible confirmation Cheese gave to his owner and best friend was more than enough for her breath to catch. Maybe she could have weaseled away from just Cream if she'd mentally debated whether it was right to do or not, but not both of them. Not Cream and Cheese, both beaming her with their bright, caring expressions and making her feel both guilty for having wanted to leave in the first place, and slightly uncomfortable. The little girl may have been her best friend, but she was very devious, in her own, cute and polite way.

"I… Alright." Amy finally relented, releasing with her breath, the will to fight any more.

"Promise?" Cream wondered. Amy would have simply restated her answer, which, to her defense, was at this moment, completely honest, but after her behavior before, she already knew that it wasn't enough. There were very few things that Amy Rose regretted in her life: Strawberry-Chocolate Bonbons, inventing Boxercising, and lying to Cream. Especially lying to Cream. And yet, whenever the temptation came… whenever that was a choice, an option, even a sliver of a hope that she could possibly dream of realizing, she acted. Even when Cream made her promise, made her swear up and down that she wouldn't, she simply couldn't help herself and did it anyways.

Her eyes wandered briefly to the solid oak door that towered a good five feet higher than she stood tall, watching the letters emblazoned along the top in a copper tint that seemed to glare back at her dauntingly, as though threatening to torment her if she so much as thought of continuing on through it. Yet, even as she stood, even as she felt the urge begin to creep through her legs and trail its way slowly towards her heart and mind, she heard a short, quiet murmur that she didn't quite recognize as her own voice.

"Maybe… I need this."

Amy glanced back down towards the young rabbit and smiled, offering her pinky as a peace offering. It was the one link that kept her credibility, that pinky. Some days, she felt that all of the trust that she had left in her friend was stored there, and no matter how hard she wanted to, she would not let that last smidgeon go. Cream quickly tied her own pinky with Amy's and giggled thankfully, tossing herself around Amy in a short hug before stepping away and curtseying to her respectfully.

"Thank you Amy. Thank you very much. I promise, she will help you."

Amy stood upright and stared the threatening name on the door down again, feeling a drain on her earlier confidence. Still, she'd just bound her life to that pinky promise. There was no going back on her word now, she realized.

"If you say so, Cream." She mumbled. The young rabbit took another gentle bow and, assuring her chao did the same, skipped away down the long hall and nearly out of sight. She turned around and gave the hedgehog one last wave before disappearing completely, and before leaving Amy there, alone, in the one place she couldn't feel any less secure about staying.

"Come on Amy Rose, you can do this." Her chest inflated with a deep, ensuring breath, and she released it as slowly as is came. It was just a name. Just a person. Just somebody that she had to encounter, to make Cream happy, and then simply move on with her life. That was all. The bothersome tag that studded the door couldn't, and didn't, even have the power to hope to stop her. Nothing did. She was strong. She was powerful. She was better than this, and she was going to barge through that doorway and take whatever life planned on throwing at her head on, name and title be-darned!

Romani S. Docks, Ph.D.