There was a certain sense of unease as Miles approached the little cottage.

He didn't really know how to explain it. Cream's home was warm and cosy, full of love and warmth and domestic bliss. Holiday decorations - now hung up in twice their previous number after Sonic's surprise addition - twinkled merrily at the windows. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky, the winter sun sparkled off thick snow that had settled in the garden the night before, dancing among icicles hung from the bare trees as artfully as if they'd been placed there by design.

Alright, maybe it was because this was almost as far removed from anything Miles could relate to as physically possible. His own existence was mostly that of a hermit after all. Few visitors unless they needed something from him, roaming the world as he moved from lab to lab to ensure he was close enough to support Sonic whenever he was needed - or whenever his hero wanted to spend the night indoors for a change.

Well, that or maybe it was because of the laser sight that had painted him as soon as he stepped out of his, currently car-shaped, Vortex. Miles pulled back the hood of his jacket to wave at the gizoid observing him from a window. The robot turned to vanish back inside the tastefully selected curtains.

Yeah, he hadn't programmed G-merl to be very friendly towards him when he'd repaired it and entrusted it to the frequently kidnapped rabbit family. Last thing he needed was the stress of another potentially world ending super weapon being readily available to him. He already had at least three nations set up for a policy of mutually assured destruction against his various labs just on the off chance.

Heh. At least so far as they knew. Miles trudged up the snowy path, spinning his tails to clear the way behind him for his hopefully hasty retreat.

There was even a pair of snowmobians. Twigs for arms topped with pairs of old white gloves, and what looked to be a pair of long socks for the ears on one and two pointy twigs protruding from the head of the other. Perhaps Charmy came over to play? The bee frequently liked to accompany Vector places, and according to barely attended chat gossip Vector was constantly visiting Cream's mother for some reason.

Miles carefully angled his tails away from the snow sculptures all the same. Icy particles sprayed out into a fine mist behind him even as the thrust propelled him forward through the waist high snow. There were times that being less than three feet tall was an advantage, but generally this was restricted to sneaking through vents like a super spy, something he rarely got to do nowadays.

Finally Miles reached the door - mobian scale, fortunately, though he was hardly tall on that particular metric either. Mobians grew until their late teens, and Miles had plenty of that ahead of him. He propped himself up on his tails to knock firmly on the thick wood before taking a step back, closer, if only barely, to the sanctity of his own cloistered existence. And getaway vehicle, just in case G-merl was feeling ornery.

A few moments later the door opened to reveal a pale coloured rabbit with brown markings on her fur, well over a foot taller than him and dressed in sensible, classic attire. Miles stiffened as Vanilla, Cream's mother, peered down at him with an inquisitive look.

"Oh! If it isn't young Mister Tails!" She smiled.

"Good morning, Ma'am." Miles smiled up at her, suppressing an urge to step further back. Parents were another strange phenomenon of Cream's existence he wasn't accustomed to. Well, he didn't have much familiarity with dealing with family members in general, really. Off the top of his head, Sonic had an uncle he rarely saw, Amy had left her parents on Little Planet to follow Sonic to Earth, and Knuckles the Echidna, like Miles himself the only one of his kind around, technically had a four thousand year old ghost auntie, but it rarely came up. With the mobian population on the decline worldwide from the constant predations of Eggman, even single parent households like this were rare, especially among the less populous species.

"Come to take Cream shopping, right?" Vanilla prompted gently.

"Oh! Right." Miles rubbed the back of his head. That was reassuring. He hadn't known if he was supposed to ask permission or just tell her that he was taking her daughter off on a supply run.

"Oh! You swept the path? Thank you, dear. I was meaning to ask G-merl to do that before you arrived."

"It's no problem." Miles' strategy for handling the extended friends and family of his own social circle was generally the same as with his friends themselves - be generically helpful and desperately avoid anything that might offend them, and thus his friend by proxy, until he could beat a hasty retreat. "How's G-merl doing anyway? I can come by and perform some maintenance while I'm in the area?"

"Oh, that would be lovely, thank you. I'm sure I can't tell about such things." Vanilla waved her hand with a smile. "I'm afraid Cream's not ready yet, why don't you come inside and I'll make you a cup of tea?"

"Oh, um, uh, sure." Miles grinned weakly.

Dangit. Vanilla swept him inside with ruthlessly practised courtesy against which Miles had no defence.

"Sorry about the mess, dear. I did what I could after Sonic's… delivery."

"You… get used to him." Miles blinked at a hallway that could only be described as "aggressively festive". Tinsel hung from every surface, wreaths and decorations arranged tastefully, but densely, on every wall. Even the ceiling was compromised, with enough sprigs of mistletoe to cause a second Ragnarok.

"Cream darling! Your guest has arrived!"

Vanilla in miniature, though with orange markings instead of brown, wandered into the hall wearing a pale yellow nightdress, locked eyes with Miles and vanished once more with a startled squeak.

"She'll be ready soon." Vanilla didn't miss a beat. "Why don't you come into the kitchen, dear?"

The kitchen was less "eye-catching" than the hallway, which meant either that Sonic had exhausted his payload before he reached it or more likely that Vanilla had made the sensible decision to sacrifice another room in the interest of fire safety. He'd more or less done the same thing on his arrival at his current workshop, except his own change had been to move the decorations blocking his hangar door into a box before he'd broken out the flamethrower.

Miles settled at a thick oak table - sturdy like the door. Mobian households preferred nice sturdy furniture, especially with young abnormals in the house.

"Any particular type of tea, dear? Inagawa? Dojima? Sumiyoshi?" Vanilla held up a colourful teapot.

"Anything's fine, thank you." Miles smiled. He'd spent a good half his life learning the hard way not to be picky about what he consumed.

Vanilla turned with a clinking of cups.

"So, Cream tells me the two of you have been spending more time together lately?"

"Hm? Yeah, we've… started to." Miles busied himself looking at cabinets, all carved wood, all set to mobian scale. Very fancy.+

"That's nice to hear, Cream has always thought very highly of you."

He wasn't sure why. Miles tended to remain in Sonic's shadow, keeping a low profile where he could. It was the best place for someone like him.

"She's not been causing you any trouble, I hope?"

"Uh, no, we've been... having lots of fun." Miles put on a grin, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, I know dear. I've seen the video."

He winced. A good two thirds of the world had at this point according to the view count.

"The choreography was very well done."

"Eh heh, thanks." He should have waited in the Vortex. Maybe he should go there now and hit the self destruct button a few times?

Vanilla placed a steaming cup in front of him, sent a plate of festive cookies sliding towards him and still somehow held her own cup in a feat of domestic sorcery Miles had thought impossible with only two hands.

"So… what are your intentions towards my daughter, dear?" She smiled pleasantly as she sat opposite.

"Uhh… You'd have to ask Amy, I guess?" He shrugged. "I think we're just going shopping? We... might head somewhere to eat?"

"I see." Vanilla sipped her tea, pinky finger extended. "Well you're a very nice young fox, Mister Tails. I trust you to keep her best interests in mind."

"Uh… thanks?" Miles tilted an ear in confusion as he grasped his own beverage. This was why parents were confusing. Nobody asked Sonic what his intentions were. He just showed up places and did things. He took a careful sip. Ooo, mint.

"Hi, Mister Tails!" Cream lunged breathlessly into the room, a nervous grin on her face for reasons Miles assumed parent related. Was the stereotype... baby pictures? He didn't have much source material to go off.

"Hey, Cream." He raised a hand. "Ready to go?"

"Oh, yes, sorry." The tiny rabbit, barely half her mother's towering height, fiddled with the tip of an ear as she looked away. "I... thought Miss Amy was coming to get me a... bit later."

"Cream was so excited she couldn't sleep." Vanilla sipped her tea with a serene smile.

"Mama!" Cream pulled on her ears, aghast.

"Sorry, dear." Vanilla covered her mouth to chuckle. "Your tea is on the sideboard."

The conversation turned trivial, with Vanilla quizzing Cream on the warmth of her attire with a level of concern wholly alien to the fox quietly observing them before asking her to pick up a few things in the city. Miles settled contentedly into his cookies, which appeared to be at least thirty percent carrot, happy to observe the conversation safely from the outside. Finally it was time to go, and he surreptitiously zipped past any overhead plant life to the front door to hold it open for his mischievous rabbit friend with a smile.

He swore he felt the laser target paint the back of his head as he left.