Sailor's Song

Amy goes over to Sonic's place to speak of a possible intervention with Tails, Knuckles and others. Amy and Sonic are alone, stubborn and both of them are sticking up for their best friends in a way. Sonic wants to hear more from Tails about his breakup with Cream because their relationship was based upon lies and Amy wants more out of Tails because he wrote in an e-mail that the breakup centered around Cream's homosexuality. This e-mail from Tails outed Cream. Both agree to at least hear Tails out because it's the right thing to do.

DISCLAIMER: Marine, Cream and all other related characters and properties are owned and operated by SEGA Corporation and Sonic Team. This author makes no such claims and is not paid or compensated for the production of this fiction. Please do not flame.

(Chapter 7- Sour Cream)

It doesn't take long to know where her heart is right now as she looks over several pages of sheet music while she tunes her bass guitar. To be honest, Cream's heart, even though she dated Tails for more than two years and enjoyed herself, has been with her music since her teen years.

Cream got ten sheets of music from Mighty and Ray for rehearsal tomorrow evening in preparation for their first gig at the Central Watering Hole. It's at rehearsal where they'll be joined by keyboarder for the Green Spades and Ray's twin brother, Roy, who handles most of the bookings for the band and spent Cream's audition confirming most of their Greater Central City dates leading up to the July musical festival.

The riffs aren't that difficult for her, given her expertise, but she would rather practice beforehand in order to impress Mighty and the boys than stumble at the starting blocks having them question her ability. She goes through each riff about four times and after nearly two hours practicing in her room, she just holds the bass in her hands for a few minutes with her eyes closed and her thoughts focused as she meditates.

"You know, I'm really beginning to get pissed off about this," Cream hears from inside her head.

The memories don't want to leave despite her thinking beyond Tails at this point. Cream is confident and is quite strong despite her age and perceived weakness, especially in comparison to her friends. She just feels a need to have a handle on her environment in order to get the most out of it. Not having one's eye on matters will cause a great deal of trouble for her and those around her.

"First you cancel a date, then you no-show, then you call saying that you aren't feeling better, yet Sonic saw you around town that very night. Why? What were you doing then that you couldn't do with me?"

Life has a funny way of helping out those who don't think they need it. Not even ten days ago, the bass-playing rabbit was content with what came her way. Cream knew she couldn't hold onto the pseudo-feelings she had for Tails forever and she never had an intention to try. She knew that around the time of graduation, she'd have to give up the charade. Cream was very surprised Tails held his temperament for as long as he did but knew that when pushed, he'd crack under pressure like most would.

"You…you little bitch! I can't believe this! This entire time, you've just been playing me for a fool because I was a good enough friend for an experiment whenever you were ready to actually be honest?"

She freely admits that she is not 100 percent innocent in this matter. Cream likes to position her role in the breakup as being the lesser of two evils, but that still leaves her in an unenviable category of deceit including acts of betrayal, exploitation, pandering to pressure and a blatant lack of trust. She cheated on Tails, as well. No, she had no full-fledged affairs and, by definition, remains a virgin. Cream did, however, take her occasional bite of forbidden fruit with dancers and club-goers over the years with none being the wiser.

"You fucking piece of shit! How could you? Seriously? What were you on when you thought this was a good idea? You may not have loved me, but I had feelings for you. Now you're here and telling me that none of it matters? What will your friends think—hell—what will your mother think when she hears this?"

It's activity that she admitted to Tails with very little in the way of tears or ill emotions flowing from her. It wasn't so much dread coming out of her when she admitted that she's attracted to girls, rather a feeling of relief. She and Tails could go about their lives with as little heartache as possible and Cream could go through the delicate process of explaining just why she's no longer with Tails.

"You're not gonna tell her?" that voice in her head goes again. "You don't know how your mother will react and that's why you hid this from her? That her innocent little daughter is a fucking queer? Not that there's anything wrong with it…unless you're using people for your own benefit. Perhaps I should give you a little help if you're not gonna say anything."

That last sentence takes the cake for Cream and has left her a little sick looking back on matters. Her prized control of matters got taken out of her hands when the fox made the decision that Cream had been hiding behind her own protective veil for too long and needed to be seen for what she was. For some reason, that meant exposing her darkest secret, causing her to be naked amongst her crowd of friends and family. Tails had every reason to make her feel what he felt in terms of betrayal and he did his best to make it play out in favor of him, having Cream look like a real fool for lying.

"Yeah, go ahead and run, you pig!" Tails screams while Cream tearfully runs out of her ex's home. "Try convincing your friends that you aren't full of it when they read the truth!"

That strategy, more or less, backfired for good reason. Tails could not fathom the grand amount of support Cream's friends would have for her even if she loved differently. They knew that these were the actions of a lover scorned and didn't hate Tails for it as much as they saw it as a big, emotionally driven foul-up. When Tails found more slanted stares in his direction than hugs of support, he climbed back into his hole where no one could criticize him for his actions. This is the hole he's stayed in for almost a week.

Indeed, it has not been the best of weeks for Cream the Rabbit. From a declining romantic relationship with a friend who was nothing more than a friend to titillating details, however true they may be, spread about her through cyberspace, she's at a personal low. She doesn't even want to get into all of the messages on her social networking sites where certain 'friends' have dropped her quicker than a hot potato and slammed her harder than a pro wrestler because of this revelation. Some of them, who mistook her wholesome image and family-friendly music to be an authentic representation of her, or a message from the high places, got thrown for a tailspin by the news. It didn't matter. It would've happened anyway, but Cream didn't want it to go by in this fashion.

So Cream plays her bass to remember simpler times when matters of love did not cloud her vision and make her forget what's most important in life, such as her music. She'd reminisce and play tunes about her family and how her mother would throw picnics for all her friends, including the Chaotix. While it's difficult to craft those thoughts with a bass guitar, it didn't matter to her. She'd only later find that Vector had ulterior motives for attending every picnic Vanilla had, especially in recent years, but Cream didn't mind it because it was Vector, who'd never hurt either mother or daughter.

She wishes she could say the same for her relationships—why is she doing this? Clearly, playing the guitar isn't working like she thought it would, so Cream unplugs the instrument from its amplifier and puts it to the side. Looking around the room for something to get her mind off of the two-tailed fox and how badly she betrayed his trust.

The pictures always give her a nice escape and looking at them often gives her good memories. Heading over to her desk, Cream can immediately find herself in framed pictures with Sonic and his siblings Sonia and Manic the Hedgehog, the original Sonic Underground band. Aside from those there are photos of her playing bass for her secondary school's jazz ensemble, winning a talent show in Station Square, and learning how to play the piano with Vector when she was much younger.

'Damn it, why does the past keep this to me?' she thinks. "They lied. Good old days, my foot. I need to put this nonsense behind me." Another thought just came to mind concerning her best friend beyond Amy, and it brought her to her pet chao, Cheese. The young fellow, spritely as he was, could not shake the fact that something was very wrong with his brother, Chocola. Going to the chao garden over a decade ago, he found no sign of his brown chao counterpart.

Hearing from various sources, he learned that Chocola apparently disappeared. Cheese made it his mission to find his brother and told Cream that he'll come back when he finds him. He wouldn't explain the reasons why but he said that it was a serious matter that could delve into great chaos if not properly handled. Cream wanted to give Cheese some help but he declined saying that there's no more time to waste and left after a strong hug from Cream.

It's been more than ten years. Cream hasn't seen Cheese. While she found it difficult to let go initially, she thinks about him on occasion now, only hoping that nothing bad happened to her chao and his brother. "But it's been more than ten years," she figures. Shaking her head, Cream curses herself for punishing her psyche like this.

Deciding that her room gives her too many memories, Cream leaves it to go to her mother's room. Before she can get to the partially-opened door, she hears crying from the other room. Looking into the crack left behind by Vanilla, she sees it. Cream's mother is actually sobbing while looking at what appears to be a photo.

For about half a minute, Vanilla just cries and Cream wants to go in there and figure out what it is without eavesdropping, but she just wants to see what's wrong with her. "Oh my dear," Vanilla says in between her sobbing. "My dear Cane. I really wish you were here right now." Cream gasps before covering her mouth in shock. Vanilla is talking about her late husband and Cream's father, Cane. "Our daughter has…not been doing the right thing." Her fears were realized. Vanilla was crying over Cream. "She broke up with her first boyfriend, because…oh, god. I can't even believe it. She's…she's a lesbian and she's been…doing things to girls that I really don't like."

This made Cream nearly slip her grip on the wall's edge. Where were the supportive words when Tails sent the e-mail about Cream and when she had no choice but to explain her actions? What happened to standing by her daughter no matter what? Was it all for show by Vanilla and to make sure that Cream didn't stray far away from the norm? Sure, she was being more than a little flirtatious with women a step or two above prostitutes, but she still valued her body. It didn't mean that she shouldn't have a little bit of fun.

"I just don't know what to do about this," she admits. "I love our daughter, Cane. I love her so much it hurts, but…I—I'm lost! She's always been the model girl, but seeing that…that venom from Tails and hearing the same thing from Cream. I…I gotta let her know my concerns. Whether she has children or not, I don't care. I want her to be safe, first and foremost, and based on what she's told me, she's not being completely safe. Not to mention, she did lie to me and her friends. It seems like a different Cream from where I sit. It just…"

Cream's heard enough. It's not so much the words but the fact that she didn't hear these concerns right away. She got the vibe that her mother loved her and was just acting as a concerned parent, but why couldn't Cream hear any of this? It boggled her mind to no end and left her with quite the sour taste in her mouth. After all, aren't they a family? Yes, Cream hid a lot, but couldn't her mother say all of this without consulting the departed?

No matter where she went, it seemed, Cream would be hit with some sadness. Whether it was the past or the present, she found nothing to hang on to but the good memories, which outweigh, just barely, the bad ones. Cream's gotta go. Her home gives her too many memories as well. Without informing her mother, she goes back to her room, writes a note, takes out a wallet, goes downstairs, leaving the note on the kitchen table, and does her best to quietly leave the house without her mother knowing that she's gone. Shutting the door silently behind her, she sighs in relief and goes over to her scooter to take a ride somewhere.

She's not a rebel, at least not in her mind. But sometimes life asks her to step back and get away if only for a moment.

When it comes to Cream, though many things are going right in her life, she needs to take a breath and come back to the here, now and beyond.

It's for her sake, and no one else's.

A/N: So Cream is turned off by her mother's words, her chao's lone mission, her ex's harsh but true statements and life in general…sucks! Where will she find happiness? Find out soon!

Until then, it's been Rave!