Chapter Text
The next day Charmy woke up with a spring in his step. Well maybe not that, he normally flew everywhere. Maybe a buzz in his butt? The bee giggled to himself at that. No, no, let’s just say he had a lot of energy that morning. Because he was going to be a cool detective.
Cooler than Vector, like Keyes from that movie they had watched the night before.
Today was an important step in his mission- it was time to look the part. It was time to find a costume.
As Charmy zips down the stairs into the kitchen, he picks up the mouth-watering aroma of griddled chocolate chip pancakes, freshly made on the stove. Dazedly following his stomach, he nearly smacked his nose into Vector's scaly tail. Barely dodging the flailing weapon, he flies up out of attacking range, only to send his head barreling directly into the ceiling fan. Ouch.
“Oh shi-oot, Charmy! Are you ok?! You scared the heck outta me! You gotta be more careful!” Vector spins around quickly, his tail flailing around behind him.
“Well you better watch where you put that tail of yours! It’s basically a weapon down there!” Charmy bites back, adjusting his helmet. “You could’ve killed me!”
“Hey, no, you need to be more careful and watch where your-” suddenly a crash rings out from behind the two bickering. “-going… well uh, guess we can just eat cereal for breakfast right?”
Charmy gave him a look that screamed ‘nice going blockhead.’
“Nice going blockhead.” Vector shot Charmy with a stink eye.
~~~~~
After breakfast, Charmy looked at Vector. How should he go about this? Should he ask straight up? They didn’t really have time to go to the store today. Maybe he could work his way up to it, talk about the movie. Could he just make a costume-
“Charms, you’re staring at me, whaddya want.”
“Weeeeellll, I was thinking-” he begins.
“That’s a dangerous way to open…” Vector mutters under his breath.
Charmy scowls at the crocodile as he continues, “I was thinking about that really cool-er- mid level movie that we watched last night and I wanted to ask you about- uhhh, well you know maybe helpingmemakeacostumetolookreallyreallycoollikethatdetectivecharacteror-
“Woah kid, chill out-” Vector cuts off the young bee’s ramble “-wait, you mean to tell me you wanna play dress up detectives?”
“Well when you put it like that it sounds kinda lame-”
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this!!” Vector's eyes sparkling excitedly. “I have just the thing, hold on-”
Vector practically skips out of the kitchen, heading into the office area. Charmy flies in behind him curiously. The crocodile opens the locker in the corner of the room that doubled as Vector's closet. It was a small, drab thing, but it suited the large reptile considering he didn’t really wear clothes that often.
Charmy buzzed back and forth over Vector’s shoulders, trying to get a good look at whatever the heck Vector was about to pull out of the back of his closet. After rifling through a meager selection consisting of a worn leather jacket, a couple of shirts, a weird gray apron, and a couple back up golden chains, Vector pulls out a musty looking trench coat.
Charmy eyes the outfit up and down. The tan thing was large, but not as large as the Vector he had come to know now. This thing looked old too. The trenchcoat was accompanied by a few other costume pieces. The first being a chocolate brown fedora, covered in a thick layer of dust. The second being an incredibly stretched out tie, almost like Vector had bought a regular sized one but didn’t account for the irregular size of his neck. The third and final thing Charmy couldn’t figure out. It was really strange looking and smelled slightly smokey, yet sweet somehow. It looked like a big fat paper worm.
“Uhm, Vector? What is that thing?” Charmy questions, pointing towards the strange paper worm.
“Oh, uhhh-” Vector’s eyes widen, fumbling as he moves to throw the strange worm in the trash “let’s just not worry about it, not important. It’s really bad for you anyways and you don’t need it for your costume.”
“Yeah, but what is it?”
“Well… it’s called a cigar. It’s kinda like a cigarette, you know what that is, right? And it’s really, really bad for you, Charmy. You should never try one, ya got that?”
Charmy nods with flimsy understanding. He knows what cigarettes are, and his gut twists strangely when he thinks about them, but he can’t pinpoint exactly why. He chooses not to dwell on it.
“Ok! What about the other stuff, can I try it on? Can I, can I can I-?”
“Yes, yes you can, but gimme like two seconds geez!”
~~~~~
A small, unassuming blob makes its way into Espio's room.
“Eh-ahem, Charmy… what are you wearing?” The chameleon inquires, the odd shape of his usually bee-shaped brother distracting him from his previous task.
No response.
“Charmy?” Espio makes his way over, The bee could hardly be seen under all that (what was it khaki? Cotton?) fabric, much less be heard.
“I WANNA BE A DETECTIVE!”
The ninja pauses, momentarily confused. “Charmy. You already are.” he deadpans.
“NO! A REAL ONE!”
Espio's face flickers, annoyed, before steeling himself for whatever asinine debate he was about to get himself into. “What do you mean a real one? And please stop screaming Charmy. I can understand you clearly.”
“LIKE FROM- like from the movies…” Charmy lowers his voice, pouting at the glowering chameleon above him. Said chameleon only raises an eyeridge in response.
“Ya know, like the really cool detectives with the cool costumes! Like Keyes!”
“Who is that?”
“ONLY THE COOLEST DETECTIVE EVER!!”
“Charmy.”
“Oops, sorry! But you have’ta help me Espio! Vector gave me the costume and everything but it’s too big and I need it to fit just right! An’ we both know you’re really good at knitting or whatever-”
“Sewing.”
“WHATEVER it’s called so Vector told me to ask y-”
“Hold on. Let me get this straight. You want me to somehow shrink Vector's nearly full sized adult crocodile coat because you want to be a ‘real’ detective from the movies, rather than a fake one that gets paid an allowance every week?” Espio was pinching the area between his eyes now. Charmy didn’t see what the big deal was.
“Uhm, yeah? I mean it can’t be that hard.”
“All while insulting my refined craft?! Which may I remind you is the exact service you require from me at this very moment!” Espio huffs out a breath.
Charmy crosses his arms, staring daggers at the floor. “Well geez, you don’ gotta get your tail in a twist.” he mumbles.
Charmy glances back up, only to startle back slightly. Espio was basically steaming at this point, his scales changing to a slightly redder hue.
Uh-oh. Time to be nicer. I need all the brownie points I can get.
“OKAY-okay. You’re the coolest, smartest, most sneakiest ninja ever and I will be the kindest, most nicest brother from now on. Happy?”
“No.” The chameleon snarks back, but even so, he lifts the trench coat off of Charmy’s back, releasing his wings from their bulky confinement. “But I suppose I could challenge my skill by making a few adjustments here…”
Charmy jumps up and begins zipping around behind him. “OH MY GOSH THANK YOU SO MUCH ESP! THANK YOU THANK YOU THA-”
“Now hold on just a moment. It will still take me a few days to complete the task, if you are able to be patient for once.”
“AWWW MAN WHAT?!”
Charmy is once again leveled with Espio’s heated glare.
“I mean uh- thanks again big brother! I will be the most pay-shent bee in the history of bees!”
And with that Charmy flies out of the room, buzzing with more excitement and energy than he ever had on a sugar high.
Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.