Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before.

Cream's big brother

Chris couldn't believe that what had happened, granted that he had in a way gotten his wish to stay with Sonic. The transport device that was meant to send them all home also had sucked Chris in along with it. Chris remembered how it was at first...

He remembered a sensation akin to falling from a great distance then he had woken up with the feeling of grass touching his face in the wind as he realized people were gathered around him. Jolting up caused the small crowd to back off, their curiosity was what compelled them to stare and now that Chris had woken up they were a little scared at the sight of him.

Chris could see he was in a small field not far from a small peaceful town. The place he now called his home until Tails could find a way to send him back to Earth. The town was called Knothole and was as peaceful as Station Square had been. The furs that were staring at him ran away as they saw him get up and come towards them. In Chris's opinion they couldn't have been older than Cream was. Chris was relived when Amy found him as he wondered into town. He didn't understand why people kept staring at him until she explained that there were no humans here in their world other than Eggman.

Chris was relieved when he was reunited with the others and although they were delighted that this wasn't a parting of ways as what they thought the device would bring but at the same time they felt sorry for Chris being seperated from his family and friends on Earth. They had all gotten together at Vanilla's house to discuss where Chris would stay while Tails would try to find a way to send him back to Earth, preferably without stranding the Chaos Emeralds and them back in Chris's world. Not that they didn't want to see their friends there again, it's just that they had just returned and were starting to return to old patterns.

"So who can take him in?" Tails asked, "Me and Sonic don't have the room."

When Chris looked at Amy she smiled nervously. "Um... Sorry, my house is kinda... cluttered right now."

"By cluttered she means everything she's ever bought and crammed in her closet." Knuckles chuckled, earning a sour look from the pink hedgehog.

"We could take him in, couldn't we mom?" Cream said, tugging on the taller rabbit's dress.

Vanilla smiled and patted Cream on the head. "Unless Chris would like to stay somewhere else we should extend the same hospitality that he showed us on his world."

Chris had no objections, the only other person that had come was Knuckles and he lived in a shack on the floating island. Chris didn't like the idea of roughing it everyday he was here.

Cream and Vanilla's house quickly became a frequent stomping ground for gawkers and curious children who wanted to see the 'monster'. Vanilla would come out and politely ask them to leave which most of the time worked fine. Chris was surprised at the extra beds that Vanilla had, he had counted eight beds and lots of pillows.

"Um, Vanilla why are do you have so many beds? Do you get a lot of visitors?" Chris asked.

Vanilla stopped for a moment as she made one of the beds she had taken down for the young human to use. The older rabbit sighed and remained silent until she finished putting the comforter on and sat on it, motioning for Chris to sit next to her. Chris sat down next to Vanilla, not knowing what to expect nor having ever seen Cream's mother ever looking so serious.

"Well Chris," Vanilla began, "you know that Cream's an only child... I was expecting to have five children when I was pregnant with her."

Chris gave Vanilla a flabbergasted look. "FIVE kids? Wow... that sounds like a major handful Vanilla."

"Not really." Vanilla said with a now very familiar smile. "I know you humans usually only have one baby at a time but here multiple births are common. I was expecting this house to be full of little children, laughing, playing, crying... I remember before I was going to be a mother I dreamed about having sons and daughters to worry over."

Chris nodded, being only twelve he couldn't quite understand being a parent but he knew that Vanilla wanted a family to love. "So what happened?"

Vanilla took a breath to steady herself before continuing. "When my husband was rushing me to the hospital something happened... He was going a little too fast on the road and in the heat of the moment he ran a red light."

Chris didn't have to be psychic to know what happened next. "There was a crash wasn't there?"

Vanilla nodded her head solemnly. "In an instant my hopes for a large happy family fell away. The paramedics managed to pull me out in time to help me deliver but four of them... didn't survive. My husband wasn't as lucky as me or my only daughter..."

Chris gave Vanilla a hug. He knew how loneliness could eat away at a person and wanted to let Vanilla know he was here for her. Vanilla smiled through her tears and patted the child on the head.

"You know Chris, a mother knows a lot about her children. And I'd like for you to look out for Cream while you're here okay?" Vanilla said, gently pulling Chris away to look him in the eye.

Chris blinked, he thought he had done that a lot back on Earth. He readily agreed much to Vanilla's delight who hugged him warmly and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Thanks Chris, make yourself at home. Until Tails can send you back this is your home too."

Chris blushed a little, feeling embarrassed that Vanilla was making such a fuss about him. Still he guessed he should be grateful for being taken in and treated so warmly by Vanilla. If not for his friends he'd be living on the streets maybe.

"I should be thanking you Vanilla," Chris said plainly, wanting to make sure the single mother knew he was being serious. "Without you I'd have to stay with Knuckles, and you know he can get pretty grumpy."

Vanilla laughed, agreeing with Chris and releasing him from her embrace. "Yes, I know. Would you mind playing with Cream until her bed time?"

Chris nodded and left the room. Vanilla felt subdued joy well up inside her. She had remembered how much her late husband had wanted a son and how much she wished that if she had one he would have turned out as kind hearted as Chris.

---

Chris walked out into the living room and found Cream watching TV on the couch. Chris took a seat next to the young rabbit and sighed. What he had just learned about Cream and Vanilla was pretty harsh, he had no idea that Vanilla was a single parent. Then again he had never thought to ask, he had just assumed that he had just been left here on this world. Just was his luck today it seemed.

"Hey Chris would you read this to me?"

Chris was shaken out of his thoughts to see Cream holding a story book out for him to take. It was a good sized book entitled 'The brothers Grim collection.' "... Hey wait this was the book Ellen used to read to me when I was little. How'd you get this Cream?"

"Ellen gave me this book before we left, she said you never wanted her to read it to you after you got big so she said I could have it." Cream said. "I hope that's okay..."

"No it's perfectly fine Cream. Just give me a sec..." Chris took the remote control off the couch where Cream had set it and turned off the television. No sense wasting power if no one's paying attention to it. Chris opened the book to the table of contents and looked at the story titles. "Now what would you like to hear first?"

The small rabbit looked at the names of the stories and pointed to one. ""The little match girl' sounds good."

Chris nodded and read to her. The little match girl is a sad tale of a little girl who earns money by selling matches to support her abusive father and lights the matches to keep herself warm. In the flames of the matches she sees images of her sweet departed mother and begs the image to stay with her. The next morning the girl is found frozen dead on the streets with a strange yet happy smile on her face. The people who find her think that she lit the matches to keep warm and think her death a terrible shame. But in the end the little girl got what she wanted, she was reunited with her mother on the other side.

"Wow that was sad..." Cream said, wiping a few tears from her big brown eyes.

"Yeah, that story used to make me cry too." Chris suddenly gave the little rabbit a hug. "But a hug from Ellen always cheered me up."

Cream giggled and hugged him back. "Yeah, I feel a lot better Chris, can you read me a few more before Mama says I have to go to bed?"

Chris nodded and picked out a few happier tales to read to Cream. As Chris read her the book Cream changed positions as the daylight waned and night began. Finally ending up with her head resting in his lap as she lay halfway between awake and asleep.

"Chris?" Cream asked tiredly.

Chris didn't know what she wanted and looked down at her from the book. "Yeah Cream?"

"Would you stay and be my big brother?"

Chris was very surprised at Cream's meek request and wanted to respond but before he could squeeze out a word he saw that she was already sleeping and well beyond hearing him unless he woke her up.

Chris gently pulled Cream off the couch and into his arms and carried her to her bedroom. After tucking the little girl in bed he felt himself smile before he kissed her on the forehead.

"Good night Cream." Chris slowly backed out of the room and as he closed the door he added; "Sleep tight little sister."

END.

I wanted to do something completely undone so I thought this would be as far out there as possible. Chris can be very annoying I know but if you rob him of his nasally voice, Gary stu ness and his constant SONIKUUU's he can be likable. Hope you enjoyed this, I had fun trying to make Chris seem likable and hope you enjoyed my first oneshot.