Hey Arnold and all of its characters and elements belong to Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon. Sonic the Hedgehog and all of its characters and elements belong to SEGA.

Ernie and Cream: Breakable

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy there, kid!"

Cream swiveled her head around at the crackly baritone, Brooklyn accented voice, her giant ears flopping as a result. Both her hands and those of her chao, who hovered just across from her, inched away a little from the stacked, mahogany bricks they were about to lift—four in all, to be exact.

But apparently too many for the little girl and the pink-winged, blue creature fluttering to her side to handle in the opinion of the bantam redhead approaching her; with a hairy hand, Ernie Potts gently nudged her to the side and lifted the bricks himself, trying his best to quiet his grunt of effort.

This wasn't exactly a Herculean feat, but then again, for a man his size, it certainly didn't feel like picking up a box of feathers either.

"I'm sorry, sir. We really wanted you to relax today, so we thought we might handle the bricks for you."

Cream looked on with sadness and regret as the demolition worker deposited the stack into a groove of the "brick-wall maze" that overtook most of the room. The rabbit and her chao, Cheese, jumped a bit at the sound of back cracking as Ernie stretched his spine. As said before, lifting these bricks was no piece of cake, and Ernie (as much as the man would rather believe otherwise) didn't have as much spring in his step as he used to.

'Okay, so maybe the kid an' her little bud were onta somethin'...but hey, I got a reputation 'ere.' And his pride, as a matter of fact—he couldn't let a few kids be showing him up (no matter how adorable they were).

Ernie shrugged his bulky shoulders and flashed a confident grin at Cream and Cheese. "I told ya; you don't gotta do that. Trust me, I've been in the wrecking business fo' uh long time. This reorganizin' shtick is nuthin'."

His façade melted a bit in guilt, though, when he took in the children's worried faces. Cream's eyes seemed as if they'd start leaking tears any second.

"Besides, I told your mutha' I wouldn't let anythin' happen to yas," Ernie quickly added, raising his large hands out in an assuring gesture. "Last thing I need is seein' the look on her face when I hand 'er uh bunny pancake. Ya get what I'm sayin', right, kid?"

"Oh," Cream and Cheese sheepishly looked to the side with blushes. They hadn't thought of that. And they were downright lucky that somebody stopped them in time. "We're so sorry, Mr. Potts. We should've asked first."

The little rabbit's head perked up at the sudden touch of a sweaty but warm hand on her shoulder.

Most folks would've shrugged it off or recoiled in disgust.

Cream did neither. She found it comforting actually, especially when she gazed up and caught Ernie's comforting smile.

"Eh, nuff with the apologies already...," the man's free hand thumbed to a few blue and green bricks lying haphazardly on the wooden floor a piece away. "Lemme help ya with the next ones; deal?"

Ernie almost toppled over from the enthusiastic hug Cream tackled him with, her surprisingly strong arms and hands tightly wrapped around his neck. Fortunately, he managed to return the embrace and prevent both of them from falling over.

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Potts!"

"Chao, chao!" Cheese chirped in agreement as he performed excited somersaults in the air.

Ernie couldn't help grinning along with them—and not just because of the tykes' contagious eagerness or bountiful energy.

For all the fragileness Ernie Potts could see in them, he knew one thing: Cream and Cheese's hearts had no equals in strength.

Enjoy the fluff; you know you love it! ;)