To my anonymous reviewer: You're right. This is meant to be a romance story, my adventure just serves as the back drop or setting if you will. My whole purpose for writing this was to strengthen the Sonic/Amy and Knuckles/Rouge relationships as well as to pair up Silver/Blaze and Tails/Cream. And about the Shadow thing-I'd already planned on adding him to this story.

Anywho...This is my attempt at Tailream/Crails. Just to let you know, I'm magically making them older: Tails is now 12 and Cream is 10. I know, I know, but I can't do a romance between an 8 and 6 year old, I'm sorry. BTW, here's my ages for everyone else (Amy-13, Sonic-15, Silver-14, Blaze-15/16, Knuckles-16, Rouge-18).

One more thing: I considered adding some bitterness about Cosmo in here, but decided against it. Tails has moved on. To Cream. :)

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Chapter 14: Heads or Tails

Tails hovered about 50 feet above Station Square Mall, wondering how in the world he had gotten himself into this situation. Yes, he could very well blame Amy, but he had brought up the list and it had only naturally followed that he would get to go with Cream. It solved two problems: his need of parts and Cream's need of a date. No, no, bad choice of words-it wasn't a date. It was....a meeting up between two friends that might possibly have feelings for each other.

As if there was a difference.

The fox landed right outside the mall, letting his namesakes flow behind him instead of propel him. His mind was going into overtime as usual, but this time he was considering something that had nothing to do with logic: his feelings.

Now, give this boy a pencil, paper, and calculator, and he could figure out anything you needed to know. But this? Why was this puzzling him now? There was no formula for this, nowhere he could plug in 'Tails' and 'Cream' and get a logical answer.

Yet on the other hand, it more than made sense. All of his other friends were basically paired up already. There was Sonic and Amy, the hero and the girl next door. Knuckles and Rouge, the guardian and the thief. Silver and Blaze, the soldier and the princess. And then there was himself and Cream, the two young ones that tried their hardest to contribute in their own special ways.

Tails had been genuinely happy for his older brothers when they'd gotten girlfriends, but he'd just been content to stay in his workshop, improving the X-Tornado or just tinkering around. It had crossed his mind more than a few times that there'd be a girl for him one day...but how had he missed seeing the girl right in front of him? Cream had always been there, cheering them on and up.

He'd seen what this stuff could do to people; Sonic had been a prime example. When he'd first started dating Amy, Sonic had been...giddy. Laughing for no reason. Always in a good mood. Yet, at the same time, forgetful. Spacey. Like his mind was always blissfully elsewhere.

Now, Tails had been noticing these latter symptoms in himself. But could he afford to let his mind be elsewhere right now?

Tails continued walking through the mall, looking for a glimpse of orange and peach fur, wondering why he felt so nervous. I mean, he'd had known Cream since, well, forever. And it's not like he'd never been to the store to pick up machine parts before.

Sure enough, he caught sight of the rabbit. She was standing next to a fountain, her back to him.

Oh, now there was the problem of how to approach her. As Tails walked closer to Cream, he suddenly felt this weird feeling in his heart.

And then he heard her voice.

It wasn't directed toward him; she hadn't noticed him yet, thank goodness. No, Cream was just singing softly to herself. Tails had never noticed she had such a nice voice before. If he had been afraid to approach her before, now he definitely didn't want to. He just wanted to keep listening to her sing. He couldn't make out the lyrics, but is was enough just to listen. yep, there was no way he was interrupting such a pretty song. Tails would just sneak off to get his parts and head back home.

Tails, she's expecting you, remember? What? Oh no, she was looking, waiting, for him?

He was trying to figure out whether this was better or worse when she turned, and he almost did, too.

"Tails?" Cream asked incredulously, but she smiled. How long had he been standing there? She hadn't expected to see him here, this had been something her and Amy had planned.

"Hi Cream," Tails said, trying to match her smile. She looked happy to see him, yet a little surprised. "Did Amy call and explain?"

Cream shook her head slowly. "Explain what?"

"Oh. Well, I need to pick up some parts, and Amy wanted to go with Sonic and them...so she decided it'd be better if I went with you instead."

"Oh, ok," Cream said, smiling at Amy's resourcefulness. "We'll make this fun!"

Tails nodded, and the two started walking down the aisles of the mall.

"So you have some parts to pick up?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't take too long," Tails said, just realizing there was a good chance he was about to bore this girl to death. Yes, the way to impress a girl was certainly not dragging her through a geeks' store...

"We can take as long as you need, Tails," Cream assured. "Just get all the ones you need."

"Oh, I will. I got a list right here."

Cream swallowed and glanced sideways at him. "So how is it you got to be so smart, Tails?"

He blushed. "I'm not really that smart. I just...I like to build things."

"But you are smart, Tails," Cream asserted. "Any time we need to know anything, you're always right there with an answer."

"Oh, it's no big deal. I just-when I was younger I've always felt the need to know how things work. So I would start taking things apart randomly, just to see how they worked and to see if I could put them back together. I then bought a ton of books, and those helped me to learn all about machines. So I'm pretty much self-taught. I started building more and more, bigger and harder stuff. I got a little frustrated at first, but soon it became so much fun to just work my brain and try and solve problems. I absolutely loved to see how you could take a bunch of spare parts that were basically useless by themselves and combine them to make them something whole and useful. The whole really is more than the sum of the parts. Oh, sorry...."

There, he'd done it again, babbling on and on...

But when Tails glanced back at the rabbit, he saw her chocolatey brown eyes were not glazed over with the boredom he had seen way too many times before. In fact, Cream had been listening attentively to the fox, entranced by how excited he'd been, his blue eyes gleaming. She actually thought he looked really cute when he was going on and on like that.

"No, go on, Tails. Please," she added ever so politely. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."

And she really, genuinely did want to know why Tails liked machines so much. She knew that no one ever really took the time to listen to him. If there was anyone underappreciated, it was Tails. Sonic had Amy, and -Not for the first time, Cream wondered if what she felt for Tails was like what the two hedgehogs shared.

Cream's large ears listened attentively as Tails explained what each of the parts did as they went througout the store, and even though her brain didn't fully comprehend it, she did understand some of it. Or at least she tried to, and Tails gave her points for that.

"What are you going to do now?" Cream asked him as they left the electronics store.

"Oh, I was gonna head back to the workshop and start on that machine," Tails said casually, hoping beyond hope that she'd want to come with him. But there was little chance of that.

"We sure keep you busy," was all she said.

"I don't mind it."

Cream glanced at him. "Tails, why don't you do something fun first? You do so much work, and it's nice to have some time off..."

Tails considered. He really did have to work today, but then again, his normally impeccable calculations said he had a whole week to finish the machine. No problem. So why not take some time and have fun with this girl? Besides, she'd probably been looking forward to having some fun herself.

"You know what Cream? You're right. I do tend to overwork myself," Tails admitted as he scratched his head. "But today, I won't," the fox added with a smile.

And that's how Tails ended up spending the next hour or so with Cream, walking through the mall. Cream ended up buying a new pair of shoes and a necklace. After a lunch, the couple bought one of those huge cookies to share.

Tails glanced at his watch. Oh snap, why did time always go so fast when you were having fun? He really did need to get some work done, considering that the others were probably out risking their lives right now.

"Well, Cream, I just wanted to thank you," he said.

"Really? Why's that?"

"For giving me a chance to take a break," Tails said. "I had a lot of fun. But now I really need to get back to work."

Cream tilted her head a little. "Would you...would you mind if I helped you out?" she asked.

Tails grinned. Help from Cream was music to his ears. "Oh, I thought you'd never ask!" he laughed. "Having another set of hands would really help. But are you sure you want to? It's kinda boring."

"Well, it'll be more fun if we both do it, right? Things are always better with friends."

As if Tails' smile could get any bigger. "You're right Cream. Let's go."

The rabbit then started flapping her ears, and he followed suit by twirling his twin tails, making them into a propellor. The two then lifted off the ground and started flying towards Tails' workshop. Although Tails was partially weighed down with the bag full of machine parts, he was still enjoying flying with Cream. The girl seemed to be having fun as well. She giggled and then glided closer to Tails and took his hand. Tails accepted it gladly, though he flushed a little and his stomach was doing flip-flops.

Almost too soon, they found themselves back at Tails' workshop and the fox was reminded that he actually had work to do. He wished he could just keep flying around with Cream...

The rabbit watched Tails as he unpacked and started sorting all the parts he had picked up. He seemed to have his own little system. When he'd finished, Tails turned to her.

"Ok, now it's your turn."

Cream blinked. "What do you mean, Tails?"

"It's your turn to tell. How is it you learned to sing so well?" He had been too shy to ask her when they were at the mall.

Cream colored. "Oh, you heard that?"

Tails nodded. "You have a nice voice. What were you singing?"

"Oh, it was nothing Tails," Cream insisted, bashfully turning away from his sky blue eyes.

"No, it's ok," Tails said kindly. "I wouldn't have to ask if I didn't want to know..."

They both giggled a little nervously at that.

"Well...my momma taught me," Cream admitted, and shyly looked back at a smiling fox.

"Would you sing again?" he asked innocently.

Cream turned even more red, if that were possible. She'd never sung in frong of anyone before. And she wasn't sure that she wanted Tails to be the first. But the way he was looking at her, his head tilted slightly, his tails wagging, a small smile on his lips. There was no way she was going to refuse him.

"Ok, but I'm not very good..."

"I beg to differ."

Cream blushed again, and started singing, softly at first, then getting louder:

There's a place for us

Where the sun meets the moon

There's a place for us

Where the wind blows over the dunes

We can go there

If you'll just take my hand

Come with me and

We'll race across the sand

There's a place for us

Where the river meets the sea

There's a place for us

Where the wind blows through the trees

We can go there

It'll be just you and me

Come with me and

We can sit by the sea

Tails listened to Cream sing, entranced by her voice. "Wow, that was great," Tails said. "Did you write that yourself?"

Cream nodded bashfully. "Thanks. I didn't think it was very good but I'm glad you liked it."

And with that, the rabbit and the fox started getting to work on the machine. Tails found that he really enjoyed spending time with this girl, and was getting more comfortable around her. This date with her had been just what he needed to refresh him so he could get more work done. He also found that Cream was a really good helper; she'd do whatever he asked without complaining or getting impatient, unlike a certain blue hedgehog.

"Thanks so much for helping me, Cream," the fox told her.

"Aw, you're welcome," Cream said sweetly, "Anytime you need me to help you, just ask. I'll be more than happy to help you again."

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Awwwwwwwww Tailsie has found himself a helper. ;)

And yes, I did write that little song, hope you guys liked it. :D

I hope this chapter pacifies you all for a while because the next few are pivotal to how the rest of the story's gonna go. Might even be a whole week til the next update, sorrys. It's hard to put a number on it, but I'd say this story is about 50-60% done.