"CHARMY?!"

Tails and Cream ogled at the bee in front of them at the same time. "Charmy? What the heck are you doing here?" Tails demanded from the energetic bee, who looked enthralled at the moment.

Cream furrowed her brow, but gasped lightly as she suddenly remembered something. Charmy looked curiously at Tails and Cream. "Well, wouldn't you guys know why I'm here?" he asked. "Cream told me that there were cookies here, in Toledo. And guess what, Creamy?" Charmy removed a large plate from behind his back to reveal a dozen steaming-hot cookies.

Tails slowly turned to look at Cream, who looked very bashful at the moment. "Cream…what did you DO?!" Cream's lower lip trembled, and she shrunk closer to the ground.

"Hey, Tails!" Charmy demanded to the fox, floating over to Cream. "You're upsetting her! I'm sure you guys didn't MEAN to come to Toledo!" The bee put a comforting hand on Cream's shoulder. "Hey, it's OK, Cream. We just need to pick up Espio and Vector and we can be a family again!"

Cream suddenly stood up and glared at Charmy. "No!" she squeaked. "I'm sick of being a 'family' when it means I can't step foot out in the open for months on end! I don't want protection from the Screwball Detective Agency 24/7!"

Charmy stared at Cream with a funny expression. "Screwball?" he asked with wonder. "Who are they? Are they in partnership with the Chaotix?"

Tails calmly strode over to the nearest pole and started banging his head on it.

Well, he thought. This is just turning out wonderful. We have the mother of all idiots mixed in with Ms. Innocence, who has apparently started to turn into Ms. Not-So-Innocent. Tails took his head off the pole and leaned against it, trying to think. Still, I need to get rid of Cream and pair her up with someone that she'll love. Her and Charmy are alike, right? Well, whenever they're not fighting, but still. It just might work…

"Hey guys!" Tails suddenly interrupted the argument between Cream and Charmy. "I just got the perfect idea! How about instead of fighting all day, we go out someplace to eat! I'm starving, and I'm sure you two are too…"

Charmy blushed as his stomach growled.

"See?" Tails said with a smile. "Cream, let's check into a hotel and we'll have Charmy take us to a great restaurant. OK?"

Cream's brown eyes shifted from her 'boyfriend' to her 'boy friend' and she sighed in defeat. "Well, OK," she said.

Tails grinned as Cream started to follow Charmy out of the airport. Maybe things would turn out alright after all.

**************************************

"Well, here's the place!"

Tails and Cream stared at the restaurant that Charmy had led them to…if you could call it that. A more appropriate name would probably be 'pub'.

"Do you go here often?" Tails asked the hyper bee, trying to remember how old he was. He was four years younger than himself, so if he was 15…that would make him 11.

Charmy grinned triumphantly. "Yup!" he replied. Tails wasn't so worried about Charmy, since he probably ingested lots of caffeinated substances daily anyway; he was worried more about Cream, who probably had never as much as a sip of alcohol.

Cream seemed to read Tails' mind and smiled. "Oh, don't worry Tails," she said softly. "I'll just order some food, and I'll get a bottle of water somewhere."

Charmy led to two into the pub, and they narrowly dodged a flaming football aimed at their heads. Tails gawked at the person who threw it, who was obviously too drunk for his own tastes.

The three sat down at a booth as a waiter bustled over with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. "And what can I get ya'll to drink?" she asked.

"Umm, I'll have some water," Tails said, hoping that Cream would follow his lead. The waitress winked at the fox.

"Not feeling hot tonight?" she asked as she wrote down the order. Tails blushed and muttered a no as he flipped through the menu.

"Margarita!" Charmy sang. The waitress chuckled to herself as she scribbled down the name. Cream ordered water as well.

Tails flipped through the menu with wide eyes, trying to find something…anything…that wasn't beer battered. Finally, he landed on the steak menu and decided to order a 7 oz. sirloin. Cream furrowed her brow as she tried to find something to eat.

"What are you having, Charmy?" the rabbit asked in her innocent voice.

Charmy grinned. "I'm having the chicken!" he announced. Then he grinned sheepishly. "But it's kinda a lot. Will you share it with me?"

Cream ponderd a moment, then smiled. "Well, OK, might as well save some money. Right Tails?" Both sets of eyes settled on the fox. Tails seemed to read their expressions.

"Wait, so suddenly I have to pay for this?" he demanded, but he didn't have long to protest before the waitress came back and took everyone's orders. She also brought everyone's drinks.

Charmy blew softly on his margarita to cool it off. Tails stuck up an eyebrow. 11 years old, and this kid already knew how to drink some alcohol. What had the Chaotix been teaching him?

Then the bee looked across the table to Cream. "Would you like a sip?" he asked politely, offering the glass to her. Cream stared at the fizzy drink for a moment before finally giving in.

"Well, a tiny sip won't hurt," she assured herself and took one little drink of the margarita.

ONE HOUR LATER

"OK, uh, Cream, I'm going to be leaving now…"

Cream smiled at Tails as she held her fifth margarita in her hand. "Aww, are you sure?" she asked calmly. Despite all the drinks she had, Cream was actually very much in control of herself.

Charmy, on the other hand, was insane. He literally bounced off the walls. "Yeah, c'mon Tails, we should go play some games! We could ride around on the little carts they carry stuff on at the hotel! We could eat all the breakfast food before they even serve it! It would be AWESOME!"

Tails grinned as best he could at the two. "Er, no…um, Cream, do you want to stay here with Charmy?" The fox knew that Espio would soon become very curious about Cream's sudden disappearance, and would recruit Vector and hunt the two down.

Cream hiccupped, which was the first sign she'd displayed all night that even indicated she might have had something to drink. "Sure," she replied, her innocence still sparking in her voice.

With that, Tails went back to the hotel, grabbed his things, and hurried to the airport for the first flight home. He was tired of having all these insane dates following him, and he wanted to get rid of the other two as quickly as he could.

Well, how was it? Yeah, I know, kind of a blunt ending, but I know that you guys were probably hungry for another chapter…so here it is. I've put up another story, but it shouldn't get in the way of me updating this one.