Meeting At The Sunset

Chapter 3: Cream's Feelings

It has been three years since Super Sonic defeated Perfect Chaos. The ARK crisis had been resolved, Shadow survived his fall through the atmosphere and him, Cream and Rouge joined Sonic's team. Sonic and Amy and Knuckles and Tikal were couples.

Tikal had spent a week living at Knuckles' apartment, and was already getting on well with everyone. She was also getting used to the modern world, as she was one of the last remaining members of the tribe Chaos destroyed. She already became good friends with Amy, Cream and Rouge.

But things didn't seem so good for Cream, despite her job and good life. Amy, Rouge, Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow and now Tikal knew the real reason why Cream joined the group. That reason was Tails. Everyone could tell how she felt about him, except the kitsune himself. He couldn't even tell by the amount of times she visited him at his house.

A day came when Knuckles got the day off. Sonic and Knuckles had planned to visit Tails. They also told Cream that they'll be there to back her up if she wanted to Tails how she really felt. She agreed, reluctantly, because she would have preferred it if Amy, Rouge and Tikal were there.

Tails' House:

Sonic, Knuckles and Cream waited outside the Fox's house, having already pressed the door bell twenty times. After another five minutes of waiting, and another fifteen times of pressing the door bell, a slightly disgruntled Fox opened the door. His face lightened up slightly seeing his friends.

"Hey guys." Tails said.

"Hey Tails." Sonic said back.

Tails stood in the doorway for two minutes, before Knuckles said anything.

"Uh…Tails? Are you going to let us in or are we going to have to push you out of the way?" Knuckles asked mockingly.

"What? Oh yeah! Sorry guys, come in!" Tails said quickly. "Sorry, daydreaming."

Sonic laughed. "Again." Cream merely blushed.

Tails led them to his underground lab, where he worked on all sorts of experiments, some involving the Chaos Emeralds.

Cream looked around the lab, as she had never been down there before. She noticed the Gold Chaos Emerald on the corner table furthest from the stairs. She wanted to go over and pick it up, but she didn't dare in case Tails was using it in an experiment. Eventually, Tails said something.

"Well, guys, as you can tell by the Chaos Emerald, I'm performing an experiment." Tails said, pointing into the corner with the golden gem in it. "I'm trying to see how much percentage of Chaos power it inputs to Sonic when he goes Super."

"That's cool." Sonic said, turning to the two-tailed fox.

"Can we go upstairs? It's a little uncomfortable down here." Cream asked as politely as possible.

Tails smiled. "Sure." He showed out the lab, before leaving it himself. Sonic, Knuckles and Cream went to sit in the lounge, as Tails made drinks for them. After a few minutes, the Kitsune walked through the door, with a tray carrying two coffees (for Sonic and Knuckles), a glass of lemonade (for himself) and a glass of orange juice (for Cream).

"So what brings you three here?" Tails asked his friends, intrigued by their visit.

"We came to see how you're doing." Knuckles said, before turning to Cream, who was lightly blushing, looking at her feet. Tails didn't notice.

"What else brings us to Station Square's best mechanic?" Sonic asked, giving his friend a thumbs-up.

Tails smiled, before taking a mouthful of his drink. He then looked at Cream, noticing her looking at her feet, her face red. He walked over to her and sat beside her. Sonic and Knuckles stared.

"Hey, Cream, you okay?" Tails asked the red-faced Rabbit.

Cream didn't know what to do. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through her mind at once. "Why's he sitting so close?", "Why am I not answering him?" Her face then went redder.

"Cream? Are you alright?" Tails asked the Rabbit once again.

She suddenly burst into tears and ran out the house. The three stared after her. Tails looked confused, whereas Knuckles turned to Sonic. The blue Hedgehog merely grinned.

Twinkle Park:

Cream ran through Twinkle Park, before sitting under a tree. She was still crying from her sudden outburst at Tails' house. She sat there, for hours. She heard a voice singing happily in the distance, which gave her one of two guesses: Amy or Tikal. She sat up and looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Tikal passing through, wearing a similar dress to that of Amy's old ones.

Cream called her name about ten times before Tikal acknowledged the voice. She saw Cream and walked towards the Rabbit. After about two minutes, the Echidna reached Cream. Tikal gasped looking at Cream's eyes, which were red and puffy.

"Cream, what happened?" Tikal asked her friend as she gestured her to sit down.

"I was at Tails' house with Sonic and Knuckles." Cream began, tears falling from her eyes. Tikal knelt down in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" She asked the Rabbit.

"Tails got us something to drink, then I don't know." Cream replied. "Tails sat next to me, and I just got scared, so I ran here."

"Does Tails know how you feel about him?" Tikal asked again.

"No…he doesn't." Cream said slowly, trying to stop crying.

Tikal sighed. "Sonic and Knuckles went with you to back you up?"

"Yeah." Cream cried.

"Listen Cream, there's only one way you can do this, and that's tell him on your own." Tikal said. "Look at Sonic and Knuckles, and how they pulled through for Amy and me. It took three years, but that doesn't matter. If you don't tell him, then he'll never know, will he?" Tikal finished.

Cream looked up at the orange Echidna, before smiling. "You're right Tikal." The young Rabbit stood up. "Thanks."

"Anything to help a friend." Tikal smiled, watching the rabbit run off towards Tails' house.

Tails' House:

Fifteen minutes after leaving Tikal at the park, Cream arrived back at Tails' house. This time he didn't take as long to answer the door. He opened it, and saw Cream exhausted.

"Sorry about earlier Tails." Cream said politely.

"It's no problem." Tails replied. "Come on in."

Cream entered the house, and was gestured to a seat in the lounge. As she entered, she noticed a sort of machine next to the underground lab door.

"Want anything to drink?" Tails asked.

"Just some lemonade please." Cream replied, being polite again. As soon as Tails got to the Kitchen, Cream went back into the hallway to look at the machine.

She began poking it, to see if it would activate. It didn't. After two minutes, Tails entered the lounge, he noticed that Cream wasn't there. He entered the placed the drinks on his coffee-table and entered the hallway. He saw her examining the machine.

"Cream! Get away from that!" Tails shouted.

Cream jumped in surprise, and accidentally knocked the machine whilst turning round to face Tails. The machine wobbled, then, unfortunately for Tails, fell through the open door of the lab. Tails rushed past Cream, who followed suite, scared.

Both came across the machine, which had activated itself in the lab. It charged through most of Tails' devices and experiments, before turning on the corner with the Chaos Emerald.

"Oh no. Please no." Tails muttered, loud enough for Cream to hear. But the machine didn't.

The machine ploughed through its way through some of the wreckage it had already created, and came into contact with machine next to the Chaos Emerald. A light shone, and before Tails had time to shout "Get out of here", an explosion occurred.

After all the smoke had cleared, Tails and Cream stood there covered in dust and soot. Both had blank expressions on their faces. Cream was the first to say anything.

"Tails, I'm so very sorry." She said as politely as she could.

"Get out." Tails breathed, his face turning angry. Cream stared at him.

"Tails?" Cream asked.

"GET OUT!" Tails screamed at the Rabbit. "I HATE YOU! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, AND GET OUT OF MY LIFE!"

Cream's eyes welled with tears. Surely he didn't mean it.

"GET THE HELL OUT!" Tails screamed once more.

Cream didn't hesitate. She ran up the stairs and through the front door. She slammed it back into place. About fifty metres from the house, she looked back at the house. She saw the two-tailed Fox standing in the doorway, making some sort of waving gesture. She stared confused. The door was then shut. She continued to stare, before a very hard object hit her head. She looked at the ground, placing a hand on the area of impact. It was the Chaos Emerald. She picked it up, with even more tears welling from her eyes. She ran straight to her apart, her heart broken.

To Be Continued…