Miles opened his eyes, pain bursting across his arms and legs as his thrashing pulled needles free of his flesh. Viscous stinging liquid obscured his vision.

He couldn't breathe.

Squeezing his eyes shut against the pain, he reached out, spreading all six limbs - hadn't one been broken? - like feelers to map his environment. Cables, unknown mechanisms, tubes that he tore out of his nose and throat, making him gag bitter fluid into his mouth.

Walls. Ceiling.

Miles groped upwards, bare fingers pressing against... glass?

Couldn't breathe.

Forcing his eyes open to the burning muck once again, Miles saw a darkened chamber beyond. Fuelled by adrenaline he slammed his tails into it as hard as he could through the gel, pushing himself back to the bottom with the impact.

Again. He brought his feet under him, pushing off the bottom with all six limbs, spinning his body to smash into the glass. He felt it shudder from the impact.

Again. He surged upwards, consciousness fading once more.

Again. He heard muffled cracks. His lungs burned.

Again. He launched, and the glass finally gave way. Miles scrambled upwards, dragging through shards of glass that left stinging cuts as he finally erupted, gasping for breath in the frigid air beyond. A sharp tug yanked at the back of his neck as he heaved himself out, and Miles reached up to feel hard metal at the base of his skull, blood on his fingertips.

Heaving a shuddering breath, Miles pulled himself upright, glancing around to see a large computer screen beside the capsule from which he'd pulled himself, a single line of green text flashing on it.

HAPPYDAYS,EXE :: OFFLINE

A distant alarm sounded. Miles stiffened, turning his head towards the noise. A door, beside a capsule like his own, its own screen showing a message just like his own.

"No." Miles whispered, his voice hoarse from disuse and damage alike.
He stumbled over, shivering and coughing.

There within, with wires and tubes protruding from all across her fur, hung the limp body of a young rabbit, her dull brown eyes staring vacantly out at him.

The End

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading this alternative look at Tails the Fox.

After having a hard time of things in Chaos Break, I figured that poor Miles deserved a little R&R hanging out with Cream and taking it easy for a bit.

Unfortunately with two characters whose only shared traits are pre-pubescence, passivity and a history of ignoring one another, the only way the two of them were going to hang out was if the universe forced them into it, and the rest is history.

This story got a lot less attention than Chaos Break, with, according to my traffic stats, most readers seeing the first chapter of warm summer days, ice cream and small fuzzy people getting along okay with one another and then running for the hills. Since you didn't, since you're reading this, I hope you enjoyed it.

There were two main goals in writing Happy Days. First was to explore one of the more commonly shipped pairings in the gameverse: Miles, a unique but damaged supergenius orphan with a penchant for explosives, and Cream, a… normal, well-adjusted rabbit girl with a loving family, who is not a huge ordnance fan.

Secondly, since was always planned to be a pretty dark story I wanted to avoid the blood and gore of a certain other ".exe" while still putting across a strong air of creepiness and menace, particularly in the story's mysterious villain.

Hopefully I managed to combine these two well enough that the interactions and growth between the two felt genuine, friendly, and comfortable, while also feeling fake, unhealthy, and weird, sometimes at the same time.

If you'd be interested in more Eternal Tails stories, please let me know. If you didn't enjoy it, please let me know that too. I'd also be totally down to see hate filled rants about how Tails x Amy/Chaos/Tikal/Robotnik/Froggy is a better ship, thoughts on the characters' behaviour, any crazy theories as to what actually went is going on (definitely not so I can mine them for ideas later), whether the cover image spoiled you before you even read it, ideas on how to stop people from leaving after seeing chapter one... you know, anything really.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

~ Pan.

Update: Please find the continuation of "Happy Days" in Eternal Tails: Bad Seed.