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“Espio!”
Rushing inside the Chaotix Detective Agency from where he had been hanging out with Sonic and Tails in a nearby park Silver frantically looked around, flying through the living room and kitchen as he searched for the chameleon and hollered out his name. Where had the other gone? He had a burning question on his lips, one that had to be answered right now, but if he couldn’t find the one person able to answer it…!
Deciding to try his luck on the second floor instead the hedgehog dashed up the stairs, flinging open the door towards Espio's room and tumbling right against the ninja who had just been about to open the entrance from the other side. Unable to bring himself to a halt in time and not realising what was going to happen until it was too late Silver crashed right into the other, yelping loudly as he ran face-first into a heart-adorned purple chest and came to a stumbling halt. With a grunt Espio staggered backwards, the two of them falling onto the bed in a heap of tangled limbs and tails with cyan flaring up around them as both tried to catch up with what had happened.
Mumbling a quiet exclamation of pain Silver rubbed his head at the force of the collision, frowning as his fingers trailed over the sore spot. That was going to bruise later for sure... But then a warm hand moved over his own, massaging the injury gently, and the hedgehog began to purr as a quiet chuckle sounded from underneath him. “Easy there,” the chameleon sighed as he fixed the hedgehog in a golden gaze, his eyes warm despite his tone of voice. “What’s the rush, small one?”
His ears perking up the psychic jolted into movement, remembering why he had been so frantically running around in the first place. His question! “I was looking for you!” he exclaimed, pulling himself and Espio up from where they laid on the bed and placing both of them on their legs. “Espio, you’re a chameleon, right?!”
Grinning at the fond shake of the ninja’s head Silver’s tail wagged as he waited for the answer. “That is what most say, yes,” his beloved retorted teasingly, beginning to untangle some ruffled spines. “I’ve never found anything pertaining to it being different, at least. Why do you want to know?”
An ever brighter smile making its way onto his face the hedgehog beamed. “That means you can change colours!”
Though his words had been filled with cheerful confidence the hedgehog blinked as Espio recoiled the tiniest bit at the statement, his hands faltering in their movement. “How… do you know that?” the other murmured surprisingly quietly as Silver tipped his head to the side.
“Sonic says so!”
A small huff followed at his words, Espio very pointedly beginning his grooming anew as he refused to meet Silver’s gaze. “You are aware that Sonic is not the most reliable source for this kind of information?”
Rolling his eyes at the chameleon’s demeanour Silver flicked his ears. “I mean that Sonic said it, and then I asked Tails if he was right because I simply do not trust like that, and he said it was true,” he elaborated, making sure to strike a tone which implied it was quite silly indeed Espio was not aware the fox cub had been present also. “But can you?”
“Change colour?” A barely-noticeable grimace making its way onto his face as the hedgehog beheld him in surprise the chameleon nodded, slowly and hesitantly and rather unlike him indeed. “I can, yes. I just… don’t like doing it much.”
“Oh... Why not?” Silver murmured more softly as he leaned in to nose Espio’s cheek. Had he asked something wrong with his innocent question?
With a shrug he ninja began trailing his hands over Silver’s back quills instead. “When I was younger, I couldn’t control it well. Most children my age thought that was quite hilarious,” he stated matter-of-factly, his face almost entirely neutral except for the slightest furrow of his brow. “That… left a mark, and now it makes me uncomfortable, so once I had full mastery over it I stopped doing it in its entirety other than to use it for my invisibility.”
His ears angling to the back of his head Silver hissed lowly at Espio’s explanation, cheerful mood dissipating as memories of his own time in the now-averted burning future stirred up his mind. “That's... ! I’ll-!”
“Silver.” Espio’s fingers moved to rest against the hedgehog’s lips before he could release a passionate rant about the injustices that had befallen his beloved, preferably with some objects flying through the room to accentuate his point. How dare those other children inflict that on the kind-hearted ninja! With his words interrupted the psychic growled instead as the chameleon's hand trailed down and slipped underneath his chin, making their eyes meet as Silver bristled in agitation. “I realise you probably don’t have any qualms against travelling back in time and fighting whatever bullies used to pick on me, but that’s going to open up a temporal and paradoxical can of worms I don’t think anybody knows how to deal with," Espio told him, a hint of a smile forming on his face. "For everyone’s sake, please do not.”
Frowning at his foiled attempt of making the other’s early life happier the hedgehog whined in displeasure, letting his full weight rest against Espio as he pouted. “You didn’t deserve that, Espio! They made fun of you!”
“Well, that all happened long ago, so I don’t think about it much anymore. And besides, I learned how to use my skill to my advantage, and now I can utilise it so effectively that I can turn invisible with no issue. So I suppose in the end all is well,” Espio assured him, his voice soothing and calm as he smoothed out the grey quills until they were soft and sleek once more. He seemed to be happier... but his answering of the question had not satiated Silver, the hedgehog quickly mulling over how to best continue prying.
“So you can change into multiple colours at once to achieve that, no?” he slyly inquired as his anger regarding the injustices the other had faced ebbed away with the touches, getting a nod and a deep sigh in return.
“I can, but I can also change to monochromatic colours, which I presume is the next thing you are going to ask.”
Flicking his ears amusedly Silver took a moment to rearrange his face and ears into the perfect pleading position, pressing his nose against Espio’s cheek as he peered up at golden eyes. He didn’t know exactly what monochromatic meant, but he needn’t inquire if his beloved could just show him instead… “Do you wanna guess what I was going to ask after that?”
“If I can change colour for you,” the dry response came immediately as Silver’s façade dropped just barely and he stifled a mischievous laugh. No doubt the perceptive ninja was seeing right through his act, but he was well aware that saying no to small fluffy hedgehogs was a whole lot more difficult when said small fluffy hedgehogs were actively being as cute as possible.
“Pleaaaaase, Espio? I really want to know what it looks like! Forget what all those other people ever told you, you don’t need to hide it!”
Making sure to send the other his most sweetly imploring glance Silver lowered his ears, letting out a soft squeak as he nosed against the chameleon’s muzzle and tried as best he could to keep the smile off of his face. The other’s resolve was crumbling, he could tell from the slight tensing of Espio’s body and the way his tail flicked ever so slightly behind him…
“Alright, fine,” the other conceded with a deep sigh as Silver inwardly cheered and outwardly pressed a kiss against a pale cheek in gratitude. “But! Only this once, and I’m certainly never going to do it with anyone else around, let that be clear. Any particular colour you want to see?”
“Well, ah…” Musing over the offer Silver flicked his ears, before a colour sparked in his mind. With a beaming smile the hedgehog let the cyan symbols his hands were adorned with shine, stepping backwards a bit so he could see his beloved in his full glory. If there was anything that he would like to see, it would be… “My powers! Can you do those?”
A frown formed on Espio’s face, and for a second Silver feared his request would be too difficult for the other. The characteristic shimmer in his psychokinesis was not one he had ever seen successfully replicated anywhere, but then he gasped in delight as Espio’s purple hue faded away and the same glowing light blue that was the colour of his birthright flooded in its place instead. It started from Espio’s face, rushing up the large crest on his head and down his body and limbs simultaneously until the other was coated in it entirely other than his peach patches of skin and his horn. “Whoaaaaa….” was all the psychic could murmur as the chameleon seemed to radiate cyan itself, lighting up the room in the same way his symbols did when they were resting at night.
Looking to the side Espio’s gaze darkened, his shoulders hunched up as Silver’s marvelling turned to confusion. “Yes, I know,” his beloved grumbled, the colours changing just a tiny bit to a more reddish tint before it all faded away and the purple shade he had always been adorned with blossomed back.
“Know what?”
“A lot of people think it’s ‘cool’ that chameleons can change colours… it’s not.”
“Why not?” Silver shot back immediately. Who wouldn’t want to be able to change colours, and take on every hue they could think of? He’d always fit right in with whatever brightly-coloured clothing the Chaotix forced him to wear when the weather was bad outside!
Crossing his arms over his chest as if to cover up his scales in full Espio burned his eyes into Silver’s own. “Because everyone can immediately figure out what you’re feeling? It’s mostly regulated by our emotions, anyway,” he explained, voice almost bitter in a way Silver had rarely heard it before.
“Oh…” With a flick of his ears the psychic mulled over the proposed disadvantage. “Is that bad?”
“Yes. I’d rather people didn’t know when I was angry, or upset, or worried; changing colours is a painfully obvious tell for that.”
Figuring the painedly-frowning chameleon could use some assurance the hedgehog leaned up on his tiptoes and nosed against Espio’s cheek. Espio liked keeping his emotions in check, instead preferring to show the outside world only his confident, well-trained, and soft-spoken side... Silver had long learned the other only showed vulnerability with those he was closest to, and even then he struggled with accepting it himself. They were rather similar in that regard, and yet... “Well, but everyone always knows what I’m feeling too, right? They can see that from my quills!” Flexing the proud crown of spikes his forehead was adorned with to emphasise his point he beamed up at the surprised chameleon. “They are droopy when I’m sad or hurt, and they’re cool and sleek when I’m happy, and they can bristle when I’m mad! So you and I are just the same!”
Espio was pondering over his words, Silver could see as he made his quills take on all the forms he had described before letting them fall back smoothly once more. “I… suppose,” the other hummed, his voice filled with just a tad less self-loathing, and Silver happily scampered forward to wrap his arms around the ninja. If there was anything he’d never, ever use to mock others for it was an inability to control their powers; he’d had too much experience with such issues himself to even dare consider inflicting that on someone else.
Sensing an opportunity to keep Espio talking about what was bothering him Silver studied a purple scale up close. “What’s the goal of changing colours anyway?”
“Communication, mostly. Like you do with your quills too, as you just described,” Espio explained, his hand trailing over said spines as Silver chirped at the touch. “I doubt it’ll work on non-chameleons, though, since the colour-changing is quite specific… Another reason to just not do it, if you ask me. We also use it for camouflage at times, though non-anthropomorphic chameleons are a lot worse at it than I am, and temperature regulation as well.”
Humming curiously Silver rain his fingers over said scales, marvelling at how sturdy they felt underneath his touch. “But you don’t need to do that last part, right?”
“I’m not exactly cold-blooded, so not particularly, no,” Espio agreed. “Though I can change my purple hue to be a bit darker or lighter if the need is there, like heating up or cooling down.”
“Whoa… That’s really neat, Espio.”
“If you say so,” the more business-like response came as Espio straightened out his back and gently undid the hold Silver had on him, pressing a kiss to a glowing cyan symbol before letting go. “Can I go back to mediating now, or-“
“Nope! I wanna see all your emotions and your colours!” the psychic interrupted with a beaming smile. If non-chameleons didn’t understand the colours, he’d simply learn all of them!
Despite his enthusiastic exclamation a deep sigh sounded in front of him as Espio quirked an eyebrow. “Tenshi… you know I am skilled enough to cycle through a near-infinite amount of colourations, right? We might be here a while, in that case.”
“I want to see it,” Silver repeated stubbornly, figuring the other’s poorly-disguised boasting about his unwanted skill meant he felt at least a little better about it. “Then I’ll see all your colours, and I can learn which correspond with what feeling, and you can see that not everyone is going to make fun of you for it! And I don’t need to see every colour, the ones fitting with your emotions is enough.”
For a moment the hedgehog feared his pestering would make the other push him away, but then he gasped in delight as Espio’s colouration changed from purple to… brown? A very dark, murky, irritated brown that didn’t suit the other in the slightest, but Silver didn’t care much as he looked the other over with a wagging tail. “Brown! What’s that colour mean?”
“Brown stands for annoyance,” Espio groused as he glared down at him, and for a second the hedgehog could only stare before he burst out into giggles.
“Don’t be mean, Espio!” he lovingly scolded the other, smiling as the shade of the chameleon’s scales turned just a tad lighter before morphing into a bright red.
“And red stands for anger-“ the aggressive hue got replaced a deep dark blue as Silver gasped softly in delight at the pretty solemness of the latter colour- “and blue for sadness.”
Nosing against him Silver pressed a kiss to Espio’s cheek. “I’ll make sure you’re never sad, so you never have to become dark blue!” he vowed, earning him a laugh as Espio fondly rolled his eyes and changed colours once more to a lighter tint.
“The thought is appreciated, small one. We also have green; for non-anthropomorphic chameleons that is the colour they most often carry when they’re doing well, though it can be brown too for other species. It depends on where they live.”
“That’s cool,” Silver agreed at the vibrant green forming in his arms, interlinked with a few differently-coloured lines on the other's sides that he presumed were there for him to show off with – a good sign. Espio looked handsome with this colouration too, almost indistinguishable from the pictures of non-anthropomorphic chameleons the hedgehog had seen a few times in magazines, were it not for the fact he was a lot taller. Trailing over one such line curiously Silver hummed in contemplation. “So that’s all the negative emotions out of the way, other than the green? What do the positive ones look like?”
“I do not know what you speak of,” the dry response came as Espio laid a finger on his nose. “For all you know, chameleons can only use their colours to display neutral to negative emotions, not positive ones. Good luck proving me wrong.”
“Oh, I don’t need luck for that,” Silver smirked, twitching his ears at the proposed challenge as he grasped the first idea his mind proposed to do just that with no hesitation. His other hand shooting forward and fingers digging into Espio’s side the psychic giggled at the badly-suppressed yelp of surprise from the other, which was followed by a muffled laugh as the chameleon tensed in his unbidding grasp and the green colour on the scales slowly began to wane. “I think that I can see your much-disliked positive emotions real soon like this,” the hedgehog crooned mischievously, not letting up his ticklish attack in full as Espio scrunched up his shoulders and finally released a bout of laughter, the sound accompanied by a flurry of bright yellow, soothing orange, and glowing pink on his scales at the same time as Silver gasped in delight. “That’s so pretty! Boy, I sure am lucky with such a handsome chameleon as my boyfriend, huh?” he couldn’t help but tease, noting immediately how the colours shifted to contain much more pink and yellow as Espio all but squealed in embarrassment. “So which ones are these?”
Slowly bringing his assault to a stop so the other could at least respond the hedgehog laughed at the slightly-affronted glance sent his way. “Y-yellow is surprise,” Espio explained once he had caught his breath, “while orange is, ah, happiness. And what pinks means, I… do not know.”
“You do not know, huh?” Silver parroted, ears perking up as he was presented with a perfect opportunity for some further love-filled mischief. There was no way Espio was being honest about not knowing, and the psychic could come up with a few more ways to coax the truth out of him. They’d gone over all emotions he could think of, except for one… “So then what would happen if I…”
With a broad smirk on his face the hedgehog stood on his tiptoes, gently trailing his own peach muzzle over a rosy-tinted one and grazing his lips over Espio’s cheek down to his mouth. Peeking down he could see the deep red discolouration that intensified on the other’s face immediately, faltering in and out of existence as the chameleon clearly fought hard to camouflage it away. As he arrived where he had wanted to go Silver finished with a long kiss against the other’s lips, pulling away after a few seconds and grinning in delight at the pinkish shade that had overtaken the magenta scales. “I knew it!”
Laughing in full at the sputtering that resounded from the thoroughly-flustered chameleon Silver grabbed his chance immediately as Espio opened his mouth, pressing another kiss against it. “Pink… is for… flustered,” he purred, accentuating each word with another peck. “And it looks good on you, hehe.”
“Silver!”
Grabbing his chance to tease his utterly mortified boyfriend just a bit more Silver shot him a sly wink, like Vector had instructed him once to do. “Actually, I can’t wait to see it on you more often~”
“Silver! Don’t say that!” Espio feebly protested once again as the hedgehog broke his attempt of acting suavely and burst into a fit of giggles, pressing another peck against his cheek at just how cute the other was being. “How… How did you even know that?!”
Leaning against him with a purr Silver shrugged. “Well, what other emotions were left? We’ve had happiness, and sadness, and angry and relaxed and surprised… Positive ones, negative ones, there weren’t a whole lot other feelings to pick from, or at least I think so.”
“Perceptive as usual, I see…” With a fond sigh the chameleon wrapped his arms around him, the two of them snuggling close into each other’s embrace as Silver chirped softly and Espio’s heartbeat slowly calmed down underneath his ear. He could stand like this forever without minding, never wanting to let go again… “I must say, you were mostly right in your reasoning,” the ninja murmured after some silence, catching Silver’s attention as a hand got slipped underneath his chin to make him look up. Tipping his head to the side at the suave smile that had formed on Espio’s face now the hedgehog beheld him curiously. “We’ve gone over all basic emotions… except one, I’d say,” the other spoke, rubbing circles with his thumb as Silver placed his own hand over Espio’s.
“And which one is that?” the hedgehog inquired, curiosity piqued.The other was being very smug like this, like he usually was when they were teasing... Blinking in surprise Silver turned his attention to the pink-coloured body before gasping as the chameleon’s scales turned into a deep hue of gold. The same gold of his own eyes…
“Love,” Espio murmured as he leaned closer to press a kiss against the hedgehog’s lips. “Which is what I feel for you every day.”
“Awww, Espio.” Feeling his own cheeks light up Silver eagerly kissed the other back, his own small tail trying to place itself around Espio’s as the other wrapped the longer golden appendage around him to pull it even closer. “Now you’re making me flustered, heh.”
“Good. That’s what you get for putting me on the spot like that, with all your pestering about changing colours,” the merciless response came, accentuated by a kiss to his cheek.
With a giggle Silver held the other close, fingers trailing over the shimmering scales. “But you look cute like it!”
“Perhaps, perhaps not,” Espio told him fondly as one hand snuck up to lovingly tug on a grey-furred ear. “But, Silver…”
Murmuring an acknowledgement Silver let his muzzle rest in the crook of Espio’s neck, listening intently to what the other wanted to tell him. “Do you promise to keep this a secret?” the chameleon asked softly, the hedgehog feeling a sigh on his quills. “I’d rather not… be coaxed into doing it with others who might not be as kind about it as you.”
He was worried their friends would be weird about it, Silver realised as he nodded. “Of course, Es. You have my word. And if anyone does find out one day, I’ll make sure they’re not mean about it!”
“It is appreciated, small one.” With a final kiss to his quills Espio straightened out his back, letting go of the hedgehog and trailing down his hand to grab Silver’s. “I must say, with all this excitement I’m not really feeling like mediating anymore. How about I walk you back to Sonic and Tails instead? We, ah, can do this again later. Maybe. If you’re still interested.”
Purring in agreement Silver gave the other’s hand a squeeze, his heart warm as the golden colour on Espio’s scales returned to their usual magenta that he adored so much also. He would protect the other’s secret with his life; seeing Espio so vulnerable, all to make him happy, made his heart flutter and skip multiple beats in a row in a way he couldn’t exactly describe. “I’d like that very much,” he agreed, and as Espio held him close while they walked out into the hall and down the stairs to meet with their friends Silver conceded that it wouldn’t be long indeed before he’d ask to see his beloved burst into all those wonderful colours once more.