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Silver stood in front of the door, nervously balancing on his heels. He was right outside the residence of The Chaotix, ”world famous” detectives.
He was expecting to meet a specific member of The Chaotix, Espio the chameleon. The ninja-detective himself.
Silver and Espio had been dating for a couple weeks now, closing in on their one-month anniversary. Both of them were admittedly clueless when it came to relationships, neither having had any prior experience in the slightest.
However, this hadn’t prevented the two from enjoying each other's company.
Infact, the reason Silver was standing at the doorstep of The Chaotix’ residence was that he and Espio would be having their first date.
Nothing extraordinary, just go out and have some fun, probably visit a café, maybe have dinner if it got late, stuff like that.
Yeah, no, Silver was still extremely nervous even after trying to think rationally.
After hyping himself up for a little bit, Silver went to press the doorbell, before realizing the absence of one, and instead knocked on the door.
”Coming!” Shouted a croaky voice from the other side of the door.
A few seconds passed, and suddenly Silver was standing face to face with Vector. Well, ”face to face” might be a bit generous, the crocodile was downright towering over the hedgehog.
”Oh, hey Silver!”
Vector suddenly turned around, leaving Silver briefly confused before he opened his mouth again.
”HEY, ESPIO! HE’S HERE!” The reptile yelled into the apartment, making Silver jump in surprise.
Despite there only being a few years between them, Vector was Espio’s legal guardian, as well as Charmy’s. This often led to embarrassment on Espio’s part, as he would sometimes accidentally call Vector ”dad.”
Expectedly, Vector reveled in those slip-ups.
Having gotten lost in his thoughts for a second, Silver almost didn’t notice how the crocodile in front of him had been replaced with a purple chameleon.
Silver, suddenly feeling self-conscious, began to blush intensively.
”Hi,” he said shyly, giving a small wave with his hand.
”Hello,” Espio answered, looking just as flustered as Silver, perhaps even more so.
The two of them stood there for a little bit in silence, both parties looking down at the ground like they just saw a large and interesting worm.
Eventually, after what felt like half an hour (actually more akin to ten seconds), Silver couldn’t take it anymore.
”So, uh, you-you wanna g-go? On the date, I mean,” the hedgehog asked, barely managing to get the question out.
”Yes. Definitely,” Espio replied, daring to glance up at his partner.
The two intertwined somewhat shaky hands, and walked off into Sunset city.
Vector walked into the kitchen/hall/living room, and took a seat on the couch next to Charmy, who was watching cartoons.
”Did Espio go on his date-thing with Silver yet?” Charmy asked, eyes still fixed to the TV. The TV antenna had taken on an abstract shape after how much Vector messed with it to find a signal. It looked somewhat like a tesseract at this point.
”Yep, they just left,” the crocodile replied, sinking down into the couch cushions just the slightest bit more. He sighed, continuing. ”Can’t help but feel concerned though.”
”Why?” Charmy asked, the bee managing to switch his focus from the cartoon to Vector.
The reptile awkwardly scratched the back of his head, clearly embarrassed. ”…Look, I know Silver’s a good kid, and Espio can take care of himself if anything happens, but…” Vector began to fidget with his headphones, suddenly seeming very invested in their features. ”…I just feel worried, y’know?”
Charmy sat up straighter, a confused expression on his face. ”We helped fight Neo Metal Sonic, you didn’t seem to be so worried back then.”
Vector groaned. ”No, no, I’m not worried he’ll get into a fight, he’d make quick work of anyone. I’m worried that Espio is gonna go through heartbreak or something!” The croc exclaimed. ”Kid’s not exactly the best at feelings either, so I dunno how well he’d handle it.”
Charmy was half-paying attention, not sure whether to listen to his dad or the TV.
”Ooh!” He exclaimed, having gotten an idea. ”How about we keep watch on him from afar, so we can make sure nothing goes wrong?”
Vector snapped his fingers, quickly moving to stand up from the couch.
”Get your binoculars. We’ve got some faux-detective work to do.”
Silver and Espio had found themselves on the outskirts of Sunset City, having a simple, pleasant stroll. They sat themselves down on a bench in the middle of a gorgeous park. Enough people were there to not make it feel empty, but there weren’t too many to the point of feeling cramped either.
The two boys were relaxing peacefully on the bench, shyly holding hands. Little did they know that in a bush only a few dozen meters away lay Vector and Charmy in hiding, spying on the couple’s first date.
”Looks like it’s going well so far…” Vector commented, strangely enough sounding echoed. It was like another person had said it at the same time.
”…Wait a minute…” He mumbled.
It didn’t take the crocodile long to figure out that he and Charmy weren’t the only ones hiding in that very bush.
He shoved some shrubbery aside, revealing Blaze and Amy crouching down and huddled together, currently looking like deer in headlights.
”…Hi…?” Amy said, a nervous chuckle escaping her.
”WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” Vector whisper-yelled, immediately getting shushed by Blaze, who wearily looked at the couple they were not-stalking to make sure they hadn’t gotten found out due to the detective’s lack of inside voice. Fortunately, they were none the wiser.
”What are YOU doing here?!” Amy shot back, carefully managing the volume of her voice.
”I- uh, well-”
Vector struggled to form coherent sentences, embarrassed from being put on the spot. ”We wanted to make sure Espio’s date went well, so now we’re… spying… on them…”
His voice trailed off as he realized how ridiculous this scenario was.
The group went into an awkward silence as they overheard Espio and Silver mentioning going to the nearby ice cream vendor.
”Okay I embarrassed myself, now it’s your turn to fess up.” Vector said with a huff. ”Why are you two here?”
Blaze avoided eye contact, while Amy smiled awkwardly.
”Similar motives, I suppose.” Blaze admitted, sighing. ”I’ve known Silver longer than I’ve known anyone else, he’s very dear to me.”
Amy put a hand on Blaze’s shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.
”And while he is one of the strongest people I know, he’s… also one of the most gullible. I just wanna make sure no harm comes to him.”
Vector opened his maw to comment, but Blaze stopped him in his tracks by continuing.
”I have no doubts that Espio is a good person. However, I still do not know him very well. The fraction of distrust that I feel towards him is not personal, and will more than likely vanish once we become more acquainted.”
Vector scratched the back of his neck. ”Well that was articulate…” he mumbled.
”Waitwaitwait!” Charmy suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Blaze. ”You say you don’t know Espio well, but you’re both purple!”
The princess looked at the tiny bee with confused curiosity. ”So?” She asked, a small smirk gracing her features.
”So, doesn’t that mean you guys are automatically friends?!”
Silence washed over the group, as if Charmy was expecting them all to suddenly understand what he was saying. Eventually, he put his finger to his chin, pondering.
”Wait, no I think I got it mixed up…” he muttered.
”…Anyways, why’d you tag along, Amy?” Vector asked.
”Oh, I’m just here for moral support!” The hedgehog answered, draping herself over Blaze’s shoulders from behind.
”And because you’re-”
”-And because I’m a love junkie, yeah yeah I know.” Amy said with playful annoyance, interrupting Blaze’s wisecrack.
The four of them continued to sit there engulfed in the kind of awkward atmosphere that usually occurs when you’re huddled together in a bit of shrubbery.
After only a minute or so of the unbearable bush silence, the party heard their stalk-ees return from their walk to get ice cream.
”Guys! Guys! They’re back!” Charmy whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible.
The foursome collectively peeked out of the bush, quickly spotting Espio and Silver, who had gone back to the bench.
”Alright, let’s see here…” Charmy had brought out a pair of binoculars, seemingly summoning them out of nowhere. ”Looks like Silver got some sour apple ice cream, and Espio’s having himself the dragonfly ripple flavor.”
”That’s a real flavor?!” Amy queried, sticking her tounge out in disgust.
”It is, and it tastes quite nice actually.”
All heads turned to Blaze, who had just unabashedly given her positive opinion on the bug-themed ice cream flavor
”What? I don’t have to explain myself.”
The topic that Blaze wasn’t going to explain went even further unexplained after Vector shushed them.
”Listen!” He croaked, directing their attention to the couple they were supposed to be watching over.
”Hey, you have a little something there.”
The four stealth-spectators peeked out of the bush upon faintly hearing Espio’s voice. They saw him poking at his own cheek, trying to direct Silver to the little bit of ice cream stuck on the hedgehog’s cheek. Silver was missing to an impressive degree.
”No, no, on th- on the other cheek-” Espio tried to help, but it wasn’t doing much, so he decided to take action. ”Hold on, let me just-”
Suddenly, to everybody’s surprise, his reptilian tongue quickly shot out and tapped Silver on the cheek, leaving no trace of leftover ice cream. Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared back into the lizard’s mouth.
It took Espio a moment to realize what he had done, but once it dawned on him, his face turned an impressive shade of red as he buried his face in his hands. Surprisingly, he didn’t turn invisible, although he was most likely too embarrassed at the moment to remember that it was something he could do.
Silver on the other hand, was wearing the dopiest smile possible. He looked completely spaced out from contentment, all while Espio was mumbling apologies left and right.
”Awwww!” Amy exclaimed, clasping her hands in delight. ”We should probably leave them alone, right?”
”Yes, you’re correct.” Blaze replied, a satisfied smirk on her face. ”I can tell Silver will be in safe hands with Espio.”
Amy took Blaze’s hand in hers, and the hedgehog waved goodbye to the two chaotix members as they left.
”Bye! Was nice running into you!”
As the girls left, Vector got an idea.
”Charmy.”
”Hm?”
”Maybe we could like… invite Silver over sometime soon. Make him feel at home.” The crocodile suggested, twiddling his thumbs.
”Sounds good to me!” Charmy said, giving his dad a fistbump.
As the two were about to leave, Vector took one last glance at the couple, and then looked down at Charmy.
”Oh, yeah.”
The bee turned to him, curious.
”If you don’t tell Espio about what we did today, I’ll get us some takeout.”