"So you're really moving all the way to Green Hills, huh?" Tails asked, scratching the back of his head. "We've been there plenty of times. Sonic and I practically know the whole zone like the back of our hands." The kitsune let out a soft, nervous chuckle. The young rabbit girl standing next to him didn't respond, instead simply staring off into space, waiting for the train to arrive. After a few moments of silence, Tails continued. "I'll be sure to visit you as much as I can," he said with a smile.

Cream shook her head. "Honestly," she said softly, "I would prefer it if you didn't."

Tails frowned. "Oh, I see…" he responded, confusion in his voice. "So… you'll come visit me then? I guess that makes sense, seeing as how all your friends are in this general area."

The rabbit turned to face her boyfriend. "Tails, there's something I've been wanting to say for a while now." Her voice was low and calm and her face held a nervous expression.

A growing concern grew within the kitsune. "Alright," he replied with concern in his voice, "what's up?"

Cream took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, closing her eyes.

"I… I don't love you anymore."

It was like a knife had been stabbed through his chest. The young kitsune had no idea how to react. There were a few moments of awkward silence between the two of them. At long last, Tails finally blurted out "W-what?" Confusion, fear, sadness, pain- Cream heard all of that and more in his voice. She wanted to cry, but she didn't. The tears didn't come.

"I think we should see other people," she said finally.

"I-I don't understand…" Tears began to well in the kitsune's eyes. "What am I doing wrong? What-"

"Be honest with yourself, Miles, you knew this was coming." The coldness of her words were like the twisting of a knife. She knew that, but part of her didn't care. Part of her wanted to stop talking right there, but something compelled her to keep speaking. "You're a smart guy," she continued. "You know a lot about technology, space, history… all these things I only have a surface level of. You're a brilliant problem solver. I think that's cool. I like that about you." A somber smile appeared on her face for just a moment, before fading away. "But you're too logical. Too calculating. Too analytical. You're… you're cold. You don't mean to be, but you are. It's in your nature. Some people can handle that, but I can't."

Cream placed her hands over heart and looked to her left, still avoiding Tails' eyes. "You fundamentally don't understand how a relationship works. I've had lots of fun with you, Tails. I really have. You make a good friend- but that's all you really are. Sure, we held hands. Sure, we kissed a few times and sure, you did have that passion that screams 'I love you more than anything else in the world,' but it never felt natural to me." She let out a calm sigh, then continued. "Building a relationship is a two person job. Being with you doesn't feel like a two person job. It feels like I'm in the hangar watching you build a plane, occasionally handing you a tool or two. Maybe that's not the right metaphor, I don't know."

There was a silence, before Tails finally spoke up. "What? I-I don't get it… you're breaking up with me because it doesn't feel like I actually love you? Or that I love you too much?" Tears began rushing down his face. "You're not making any sense! I really do love you, Cream! I mean it! You mean the world to me!"

Cream nodded solemnly. "I know you do, Tails, but you don't love me as much as you love working on your planes."

Tails froze. "W-what does that mean?" He stammered out.

"Exactly what you think it means Tails."

The two stood in silence until the train finally pulled into the station. Cream took a bow and said, "Goodbye, Tails." She stood up and grabbed her luggage before looking him in the eyes. His ocean blue eyes were red and puffy as tears dropped down his. She gave him a half-hearted, sad smile and said, "Thank you for all the good times, Miles. I'll always cherish our time together, both as lovers and as friends." She turned away, unable to look at him any longer. "Please… don't talk to me for a while," she muttered, her voice choking up. "It's only going to hurt both of us."

And with that, she ran to the train and out of his life.

A tear fell down Cream's cheek as she replayed the memory of that day at the train station again in her mind. There were so many things she wished she had said, but didn't. She wished she had broken up sooner. She wished she had worded things differently. She wished she could redo the events of that day, but she couldn't. It was all in the past now, and she had to focus on the present. She wiped the tears out of her eyes and looked at herself in the mirror. The simple black dress she wore complimented the old pearl necklace she had borrowed from her mother. She looked nice, she was sure of that.

"Cream!" her mother called from the living room. "He's here!" Cream took a deep breath and let out a sigh of anticipation. She smiled at herself in the mirror and kept smiling as she grabbed her purse and walked out into the living room. Her mother held the door open for a sharply dressed bee. He blushed the second he saw her. "Woah," Charmy muttered. "You… you look beautiful."

Cream giggled. "You look great too," she replied. Charmy turned his head to the side and scratched the back of his neck, blushing.

"Now listen here, Charmy," Vanilla said sternly. "I want her back home by 9:00 PM. Not a minute late, do you understand!"

Charmy nodded furiously. "Oh yes, ma'am! I promise!"

Cream rolled her eyes. "Moommm…" she groaned. "Don't scare him off before the first date has even started!"

Vanilla chuckled. "Sorry dear, I'm just doing my job. You two have fun now, ok?"

"We will. Bye, mom!"

"Bye, Mrs. Rabbit!" Charmy said nervously as Cream walked out the door.

The door closed, and Cream and Charmy stood beside each other for a few awkward minutes. "So, uh," Charmy said finally, still nervous. "Wanna walk with me to dinner? I got this nice seafood place picked out."

Cream smiled. "Of course," she replied, and the two were on their way.

Knuckles sat in the dark staring at his old TV set playing some old noir detective movie. Three cleaned out pints of rocky road ice cream lay at his feet, his face stained with the melted dairy food. He was already halfway through a fourth pint of the same rocky road ice cream. There were unusually empty spots around the living room, a clear sign that he had not redecorated since Rouge moved out. In the movie, an old wolf smoked a cigar and read the news paper, sitting behind a desk in the a dark room illuminated by the half-open blinds.

"It was Friday afternoon, just half-past four," the voiceover in the film said as smooth jazz kicked in. "I was catching up on last Sunday's paper. I'd been too busy working a case all week to stop and give it a read. I was just starting to read up on the latest in a string of grizzly murders that had plagued the streets of the city the past month, when I heard a knocking at my door."

The film showed someone knocking on the door. The wolf pulled the cigar out of his mouth and yelled, "It's unlocked, come on in!" before putting it back in his mouth.

"The door was already unlocked, so I told them to come in," the voiceover continued. The film showed a slender fox lady in skimpy dress walking into the room. "My eyes were met with the visage of a slender fox lady in a skimpy dress," said the voiceover. "Any common street man would mistake her for a lady of the night, but I knew better. She was no nightwalker. She was a dame. It's always a dame."

The fox lady walked over to the desk. "I have a job for you," she said softly.

"She had a job for me," the voiceover spoke. "With dames like her, it was always the same thing. A cheating lover, a bad husband, whatever it was, it was a man in her life she needed dirt on."

"There's a man in my life I need dirt on," the fox lady said.

Knuckles let out a sigh. "Get to the point already!" he yelled at the TV. He pulled out his phone and opened up instagram to distract himself until the movie got more interesting. He scrolled through a bunch of posts from Charmy, a few from Sonic and one from Amy before stopping on a post from Rouge. His eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing. It was a picture of Shadow in a nice suit in a fancy restaurant. The caption read, "On a nice date with a hot man," followed by several different heart emojis. The echidna's shock was suddenly replaced with an overwhelming sense of pure, unfiltered rage. He stood up and threw his phone to the ground.

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" he screamed.

"He sounds like the real son of a bitch," the wolf in the movie said.

"From how she had described this man to me, I thought he sounded like a real son of a bitch," the voiceover in the movie added.

Knuckles' whole body shook with rage. Suddenly, his phone began ringing. He took a deep breath and picked his phone off the ground. He exhaled and answered it. "Hello?" He asked in an unusually happy tone.

"Hey Knuckles, it's Amy," came the voice on the other end. "I just wanted to make sure you were doing ok, you know after the whole break up with Rouge and everything."

"Of course I'm ok!" Knuckles said with a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Are you sure? You can always talk to me, Knuckles. We're friends, after all."

"Oh Amy, you worry too much," he laughed. "Hey listen, I'd love to chat, but I've got some gardening to do."

"Gardening?" Amy asked, confused. "At 7:30 PM?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, alright. Well, I'll leave you to it then. Have a good night, Knuckles, and remember you can talk to me if you need to."

"Thanks, Amy, you're too kind. You have a good night now!"

Knuckles hung up and tossed his phone on the couch, his gleeful and cheery attitude vanishing the second he hung up. He cracked his knuckles and picked up a piece of paper and a pencil. He hastily sketched something on the paper and grabbed a piece of tape. His anger returning, he marched out the front door and into the woods that surrounded the Master Emerald's pedestal.

Tails set aside his tools and dusted off his hands. "Finally," he said with pride in his voice. "She's all fixed and working properly. The owner can come by and pick her up anytime now." He turned to a laptop and opened up his email. He composed an email and typed up the bill and wrote to the client that his plane was ready for pick up. Once he was done, he looked over at the clock. It was 8:28 PM. "Hmm… I guess I should go to bed soon. I've got a big day ahead of me tomorrow." Tails let out a small sigh. "I just have to tell her how I feel… how hard could that possibly be?"

Author's Note: Thank you very much for all the support. Sorry if this chapter was a little all over the place, a bunch of little story threads being set up in this one. The next chapter will finally have lover boy and Amy meet. Thank you for your patience.