"Well, merry Christmas to you, young Mister Tails." Vanilla stood at the doorway with a bright, peaceful smile on her lips.
"Good evening, ma'am." Miles glanced past her to a still running car. Was that... Vector? Guess Cream had been spending time with Charmy today?
The rabbit in question scrambled out of the back door of the car, clad in a long blue and white coat with black leggings completely unrelated to what she had tried on at the store previously and clutching a pile of gifts bigger than herself.
Presumably she'd just tortured him for the best part of three hours for fun. Miles kept the frown off his face with dint of will.
"For you, dear, if you wouldn't mind carrying them in for me?" Vanilla extended a much smaller pile of packages towards him.
"No problem." Miles slipped the lot into hammerspace with a few moments of careful thought.
Hammerspace was one of the few aspects of chaos control that Miles held any particular talent at, a function of willpower and spatial intelligence, it was sort of like holding in your stomach. The more you stored, much like the more you ate, the more uncomfortable and strenuous to hold it all in. Most mobians could handle a few small items, while something the size and length of Amy's hammer, or hammers now, carried around all day long as they were, was a daunting feat not many could replicate.
"Thank you very much. I'm counting on you to look after Cream at the party, Mister Tails. I'm sure it will be fine because you're so responsible, but just call G-Merl if there are any problems, alright?"
"Uh, sure thing." Miles slipped into a calm expression.
Was that a threat? 'Take care of Cream or the murder robot gets involved'? No pressure or anything.
"Hi, Mister Tails!" Cream beamed at him, clambering up the front steps with difficulty. "Happy Christmas!"
"Now, Cream, you have fun tonight but be sure to behave yourself. Do whatever Mister Tails and Miss Amy tell you to do while you're here, alright?"
"Yes, mama." Cream nodded dutifully. "This is for you, Mister Tails." She balanced the pile in one hand, extending a jade papered package towards him.
"I'll see you tomorrow then. Merry Christmas again!" Vanilla gave a brief curtsey and turned away, easily dealing with the steps that gave Cream such trouble as she headed towards the passenger side of Vector's car and shortly vanished from sight.
"Alright, best get inside. Everything go alright with your… uh… coral thing?" Miles tweaked open the door he'd been holding with his tails. "Want me to carry those?"
"Hm?" Cream blinked at him. "What did you say, Mister Tails?"
"The boxes?" Miles held out his arms.
"Before that." Cream nonetheless passed over the pile, adding to Miles' hammerspaced burdens.
"Oh, Amy said you had a coral thing. Just wondering if it went okay."
"Oh! Carol singing." Cream laughed. "Yes, thank you, Mister Tails. Just a small get together with the family."
Oops. Miles frowned. Not like him to make that sort of mistake.
"So has everything been going well at the party?"
"Yeah, it's been pretty quiet so-" A noisy crunch rang out from the open door in the upstairs hallway to a chorus of raucous laughter. "Well someone just broke something I guess?" He rubbed the back of his head with a frown. Hopefully just Big being Big, but she was talking to Sonic. He started for the stairs. "We should probably get inside before... the noise. Bothers anyone."
"Mister Tails?"
Miles turned to see Cream standing at the base of the stairs, smiling sweetly up at him.
"Could you please carry me up the stairs?" She batted her eyelashes at him.
"Didn't Amy say you could fly up?"
"I couldn't possibly do that, Mister Tails. I'm wearing a dress."
Miles raised an eyebrow.
"You're-"
Cream scrunched her face a moment and her leggings slipped into hammerspace.
"See?" She folded her arms, expression no less sweet than before.
Miles snapped his mouth shut.
"Mm? What's wrong Mister Tails?" Cream tilted her head, putting a finger to her lips. "Is there a problem?"
"You seem like such a nice bunny." Miles shook his head with a frown.
"I'm very nice, Mister Tails. I promised to do whatever you tell me to, didn't I?" Cream twitched her tail.
"...Nope, not going there. Guess you leave me no choice." Miles sighed, stepping back down towards her.
Cream's smile broadened for a moment before he snapped both tails forward, lifting her into the air and over his head with a surprised squeal.
"Mister Taaails!"
"What? You wanted this, right?"
"No! You're no fun, Mister Tails!" The rabbit wriggled behind him, dangling helplessly from his grip as he ascended the oversized steps for the second time that evening.
"I know why you're doing this you know."
"Huh?"
"Messing with me all the time. You're trying to make me less timid, right?" Miles shook his head. "It's not going to work though."
"Oh really?"
"Yep, I'm onto your schemes."
"You don't think swinging a girl upside down around a stairwell is bold?"
"... I may have miscalculated."
"Mm. Little bit."
"Well… Still onto you though." Miles neatly deposited her at the top of the stairs. "Sorry for not being fun."
Cream glared at him, cheeks puffed out before letting out a long sigh.
"You're wrong."
"Huh? No, pretty sure I'm-"
"That's not why I tease you at all." She shook her head.
"Really?" Miles raised an eyebrow.
"Well it would be great for you if you weren't so shy, Mister Tails." Cream leaned closer, making him sway back. "But don't you remember what I told you?"
"Whah?"
"I really like-"
Whatever Cream's revelation, it was interrupted by Knuckles smashing out of the front door in a heap, rings bouncing everywhere. Amy's lovely laughter sounded from within to a chorus of merrymaking. The two bandicoot sisters slipped out after him, heading for the stairs at a brisk walk.
"Um, bye, Mister Tails. Say goodbye to Amy for us."
"Sorry we never got a chance to chat with you properly."
"Uh…" Miles raised a finger, but they didn't stop to reply.
Knuckles hopped up with a scowl, collecting a few rings before they vanished before racing back inside with a grunt. The music, which had been silent, restarted.
"We should probably go see what's going on in there, Mister Tails."
Miles nodded, already scrambling forward to try and reign in the fallout before anyone got seriously hurt.
Well… she didn't seem mad.
Despite the state of the furniture, which she was currently walking over, stumbling along the back of the couch with her hammer swinging between her fingers and a glass of eggnog in the other. One chair was already in splinters across the floor, while the coffee table was split neatly down the middle, shattered plates all across the ground.
"Cream!" Amy cried out, hopping down and racing forward, hammer arcing down.
Miles lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Cream's head, putting himself in the path of blow, teeth gritted-
Piko.
"Isn't it the best?" Amy laughed, wrapping an arm over Miles' shoulders and rubbing a pink tinged cheek against his own. "Tails is a genius. You should ask him to make you one."
She shoved her glass into Cream's hand with a giggle, losing her balance to swing from the smaller fox.
She wasn't the only one acting weird. Sonic and Shadow were pressed against one another, singing loud accompaniment to the music in a surprisingly tuneful duet, Rouge was wrapped around Knuckles - not in itself unusual, but Knuckles hadn't pushed her off. Only Blaze and Big seemed unaffected, both standing stiffly at opposite sides of the room watching the chaos.
"You two sh- whoop!" Amy giggled as Miles swept her off her feet, slamming the door shut with a tail. "Oh! Wrong person, silly fox!"
She burst out laughing again, tweaking the fur on his cheek.
"Cream, help me to the kitchen." Miles stumbled forward, glass and porcelain crunching beneath his shoes as he slipped between chairs and broken floorboards.
"Sonic! Heeelp!" Amy swung in his grip, kicking her legs and flailing her arms against him hard enough to hurt. "I'm being foxnapped!"
"We're just getting you to the kitchen, Amy."
"Doesn't matter." Amy flumpfed in his grip with a miserable sigh, pressing her face into Miles' shoulder. "He didn't even look at me anyway."
Well either she was crying or her spines drew blood. Did he remember to grab rings today? Probably should have done that before he came, considering.
"What's wrong with her, Mister Tails?"
"More than usual?" Miles tried to decant the pink hedgehog from his grip but she held fast. He sighed, heaving her over with him to the counter and snagging the empty pitcher she'd left there earlier, taking a long sniff. "Somebody spiked the drinks."
"Oh... That's not good."
"Not good at all." Miles glanced between pitchers with a thoughtful expression. "Seems to be just the eggnog."
"Oh no! I'm spiked too!" Amy giggled as she dangled from his grip. "And I'm spinning! Spin dash!" She swung a hammer out of hammerspace. The side of the fridge collapsed with a dull whump. "Wroooong one." She giggled again. Miles snatched the weapon from her grip and spaced it himself.
"Oh… Definitely not good." Cream hovered by his elbow, leaning against him.
"Alright, listen, Cream, even I've had some, so my judgement is compromised. I need you to get Blaze and Big to help grab anyone that's been drinking eggnog and bring them in here so we can start sobering them up, alright?"
"Oh… One problem, Mister Tails?" Cream tugged at his sleeve. He turned round to see the rabbit clutching an empty glass before her "I drank it too."
"You didn't." His face fell.
"Miss Amy gave it to me!"
"You're not even seven!" Miles grasped Amy with his tails to free his hands to pull on his ears. "You shouldn't be drinking!"
"Yet here we are." Cream shrugged.
Miles sighed. Alright, he was likely going to get away with mild tipsiness himself, based off a sip. From memory, fairly strong stuff assuming that was why his drink tasted funny. No idea how many glasses Amy had had. At very least his, probably her own. The girls were likely to be more affected than the denser boys, but, Rouge aside, they weren't as likely to knock the building down, he could-
Wait, why were those lights at the window flashing the wrong colour?
