Chapter Text
“No Charmy it’s my night to pick a movie, I’ve already let you get away with it for the last three weekends, now I’m picking.”
“Awww c’mon boss, your movies always stink! This movie doesn’t even have color!”
“If you’d shut your trap and listen for once I think you’d enjoy this one. It’s a classic! Although it’s probably not something I need to be showing a six-year-old…” Vector trailed off as he tuned in on some of the rather unsavory dialogue present in the old film. But he had been allowed to watch it when he was about Charmy’s age!
“Vector, what is ‘licker’?” the young bee questioned.
Ok maybe Vector wasn’t exactly “allowed” to watch this movie at that age, but his point still stood! “Uhhh-well let’s ah… let’s see, liquor is an adult drink that people have when they want to umm, hang out?”
“Why is it just for adults? Why can’t we have it when we hang out? Oh wait, we’re hanging out right now, we should totally get some!”
“No we definitely should not! For one, you are a child,” Charmy frowned at that, “two it’s not that type of hang out, and three it doesn’t even taste that good anyway- or so I hear, I mean I’ve never actually tried it.” Vector hurriedly tacked on, reddening slightly as he made eye-contact with the shorter. Charmy just shot him an unimpressed look and turned back towards the movie. The croc let out a quiet sigh of relief, shifting back to watch the old film noir he had chosen for the evening.
~~~~~
Charmy was not having fun.
This movie was old, boring, and confusing. And the worst part was the fact that it didn’t even have any color! Who would even want to watch a movie that was just black and white?! Vector was who, apparently.
“Vector I’m boreeeeeeed, can we please watch something else?” Charmy whined, hoping to annoy the croc enough to cave in.
“No Charmy, I already told you two weeks ago that I’d let you pick instead of me, now it’s my turn and I want to watch a movie I enjoy. As much as I love your choices in film, I’d rather not watch something as insufferably loud as you.”
“What does in-suvably mean?”
“It means annoying. Now pipe down so I can at least enjoy the show.”
Charmy huffed and crossed his arms, staring down the tv as if it could switch to a better movie through sheer will. It did not.
After a couple minutes of moping Charmy started to actually understand what was going on, at least a bit. The guy in the hat was talking to a girl about… insurance? Charmy didn’t know what it meant, but he’d heard that word from a stranger that had talked to Espio over the phone awhile ago, to which Espio frowned at, so Charmy knew it probably didn’t mean anything nice if it put his older brother in a sour mood. Although, Espio was almost always in a sour mood, so maybe that logic didn’t apply. Didn’t matter much, Charmy dropped the thought as quickly as it had come.
The movie continued and Charmy was beginning to put the pieces together. The guy and girl were planning to murder someone! That was interesting! Now it’s not like Charmy himself had been a detective for a murder mystery before, he doubted Vector would let him come anyway, but Espio mentioned that he had dealt in a murder case before. Charmy had asked Vector about that, wanting to hear the story, but had been declined with ramblings along the lines of “that was before you and I were around” and “Espio might tell you when you're older.” Sure, Vector was being vague as heck, but Charmy had been distracted pretty quickly after, so he had forgotten about it completely until this moment.
It didn’t matter now because there a murder mystery on his hands! Well, not technically a mystery since they already knew who the killers were, but that’s where Keyes came in. Charmy’s eyes lit up slightly when the “detective” character came on screen, with leads and theories and hunches about how the crime was committed and who-dun-it. The guy was just like Vector was, except way cooler. Suddenly Charmy found himself on the edge of his seat. How was Keyes gonna figure out the culprit? What if the guy covers it up? What’s he gonna do when he finds out that his partner in crime was the one that committed the crime in the first place?! Charmy’s head was spinning.
~~~~~
“Know why you couldn't figure this one, Keyes? I'll tell ya. 'Cause the guy you were looking for was too close. Right across the desk from ya.” Charmy sat on the floor, mere inches from the screen, starstruck. He couldn’t believe his eyes or his ears, that’s the way this movie ends?!
“I love you too.” And the credits roll. WHAT?!
“So kiddo whaddya think?”
“OH MY GOSH THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN PLAY IT AGAIN PLAY IT AGA-”
“Woah, woah, slow down bud,” Vector watched as Charmy zipped around the room like a firework about to explode, “ I get that you liked it but you gotta calm down!” As the words left Vector's mouth he remembered that calm was not in Charmy’s vocabulary. Although not many words were.
“It is way past your bedtime you gotta chill out!”
“Awww what?! Can’t we stay up and watch one more?”
“No. Bed. Now.”
Charmy groaned as we slowly glided up the stairs to his room, right in front of Vector so he couldn’t sneak away. But as he was tucked in, he began to formulate a plan. As Vector closed the door and hugged him goodnight, Charmy began to scheme.
He wanted to be as cool as that Keyes guy, a real detective. Then Vector wouldn’t make him go to bed on time because he would be so cool.
Yeahhhh. Charmy thought as he fell asleep. He was gonna be the coolest detective of all time.
Starting tomorrow.