Chapter Text
The moment Espio opened his eyes he knew something was wrong with him.
Be it the fact that the sun was shining brighter than it should've on an early morning, the absolutely pounding headache he had just woken up with, or the fact that he felt both hot and cold at the same time, he wasn't sure, but he still decided to treat it as if it were a normal day.
He suppressed a groan as he got out of bed, making sure not to wake up anyone else. That is, until he heard a loud crashing noise coming from downstairs followed by a "CHAAARMY!!!"
Confused, he glanced at the digital clock that was on his nightstand: 8:48 AM.
He had slept in almost 3 hours later than he usually did.
That was weird... Just what exactly had happened last night for him to wake up this late?
And why did he feel so... sick?
Espio didn't hear the loud footsteps going up the stairs, and reached for the doorknob, nearly getting smacked in the face with it as the door opened from the other side.
"Oh shoot, sorry Es. Didn't realize you were awake. Feeling better?" Vector asked as he walked in the room, holding a bowl of steaming liquid.
'Feeling... better? Did something happen yesterday? If how I'm feeling now is supposed to be better, how bad was I feeling yesterday to the point where I dont even remember anymore?' Espio thought to himself.
When the crocodile didn't receive a reply and only got a confused stare in response, he smacked his own forehead. "Did Charmy wake you? Gosh, I told him to be quiet to not wake you up."
"No, um.." The chameleon mentally smacked his forehead after the second word came out of his mouth. 'Um'? Since when did he use filler words like that? And why was his voice so raspy and shaky?
He cleared his throat in an attempt to help.
"I woke up on my own, actually."
The absolute awkwardness in the silence that followed was... not pleasant. Why? Espio usually worked well in silence. So why was this silence so weird? And why for Gaia's sake did his head hurt so much?
Vector (thankfully) broke the silence.
"Well kid, I'll uh.. I'll leave you alone for now. Oh, and here, Vanilla made you some soup to help you feel better."
The soup was placed on the nightstand and the door was shut before the chameleon even registered what the crocodile had said.
'There it is again. Feeling better. Ask him what happened. Ask-- and he's gone.'
Espio fumbled with the doorknob as he opened the door to his room again, calling for the crocodile.
"Wait, Vec--"
He was interuppted as he started coughing, turning his head back into his room to not accidentally cough in anyone's face.
The crocodile was halfway down the stairs when he heard his name get called, turning his head around again.
"Yeah? What'd you need?"
Vector turned around and walked up the stairs again. He wasn't sure how to feel about leaving Charmy unsupervised downstairs, especially when they were a couple minutes to opening, but the bee was distracted by the TV, and this shouldn't take that long at all. Plus, taking care of a sick was more important.
"What exactly happened yesterday?"
This was gonna take a while.
---
"Sooo.. you don't remember anything about what happened yesterday? At all?"
The two reptiles were seated on the edge of Espio's bed. The bowl of soup still on the nightstand with some steam coming up from it.
Espio shook his head, regretting it immediately as the room started spinning for a couple seconds.
Vector sighed, rubbing his temples.
Espio stared at him. He looked so tired. Has he not been sleeping lately?
"Well, you seem to be doing better than you were yesterday, so... that's good. Well, no more color changing anyways.."
A pause, and then Espio's eyes widened.
"I-- what?"
The last time the chameleon remembered himself changing his scales to practically every color on the visible light spectrum on accident was when he was little and couldn't control it. And another time when he was... oh. He was sick.
Vector let out a chuckle as he saw the chameleon's face of realization.
"Well, kid, looks like you figured it out on your own." He patted his back before getting up. "We're opening soon. You're off work today cause.. well.. wouldn't want you to get any sicker than you already are. Also don't think the clients would want to get sick either..." The last part of the sentence was muttered, but Espio could still hear it.
And then realization struck the chameleon again as he realized what Vector just told him.
"I can still--"
"No. Absolutely not." The reply was immediate and cut him off before he could even finish his sentence, as if the crocodile was expecting that response. "You're going to stay in bed until you get better. I already made the mistake about listening to you yesterday when I knew there was something clearly wrong with you, and look what happened."
Espio stared at the ground, slowly recalling the events that had occurred the day before.
...
He had woken up with a low-grade fever that day.
The thermometer he had grabbed from the bathroom the moment he felt something was off with his body read 99.3⁰F.
'Low grade fever... minor cold. Probably caught it from Charmy.' He thought to himself. Despite being ever so careful around his little brother while taking care of him, Espio still caught Charmy's cold.
'If that's the case, then how is Vector doing?' The crocodile had not been careful around not catching Charmy's cold at all. In fact, he did the exact opposite of what Espio did and straight up spent the entire night next to the bee. It was as if he was asking to get sick.
Espio opened the door and walked out of his room, peering out the hallway.
Empty and silent. Just how he liked it.
It was a rarity in the Chaotix Detective Agency, and even though this was something that happened in the early mornings, today seemed... much quieter. Maybe it was because of the lack of loud snoring that usually came from the office downstairs because Vector decided to pull another all-nighter and fell asleep at the desk again.
Whatever the case was, Espio planned on using this wonderful opportunity to his advantage.
He walked down the stairs and towards his spot next to the lockers, letting out a deep sigh as he started meditating.
Until he was met with a pair of arms wrapping around his face.
"HI ESPIO!!"
"Charmy, leave 'im alone." Vector said with a sigh. "Mornin' Espio. You're up later than usual."
'Later than usual? That's not right.. they're up earlier than usual..' The chameleon thought as he pried the bee off his face. Then, he saw the clock on the wall. '7:43 AM. Ah, he's right.'
"Taking care of Charmy last night must've took a toll on my body, that's all." Espio shrugged it off. "Speaking of which... Charmy, you seem to be feeling better."
Said bee let out a giggle as he flew in circles (as well as he could anyways, with the lockers in the way) above Espio's head.
"I do! And I feel like I could sniff every flower in existence! Ooh, and have enough energy left to race Sonic and win! And, and..."
Vector let out a chuckle as the bee rambled on, turning his attention towards Espio who had resumed his meditating.
His scales looked duller than usual, which was alarming if he also considered how the chameleon woke up late and how Charmy was sick the past few days. He swore Espio was also shaking a bit as well.
"Hey, Es, you doin' okay there kiddo?"
Espio opened one eye to look at Vector before closing it again.
"I'm fine."
Yeah... Vector didn't know why he didn't expect that response. He tried asking again.
"You sure? You're looking at bit under the weather."
"I'm fine."
Vector could've sworn he saw a slight furrow in the chameleon's eyebrows as well as a tensing in his shoulders.
'Oof, yeah, I'd better leave 'im alone before he goes moody teenager on me. How to fix this, how to fix this...'
"Alright, I'll leave you alone. Charmy and I'll be eating breakfast in the kitchen if you feel like joinin' anytime soon."
He got a grunt in response and he sighed, turning towards the small bee who had quieted down to listen to their conversation.
Espio listened as Vector and Charmy walked into the kitchen. Letting out a sigh, he opened his eyes and stared as his scales. Meditating had not worked out in the slightest. Unlike most days, he couldn't find it in himself to focus in the slightest, especially with the headache that he had suddenly started developing. Also, Vector asking if he was alright simply just by looking at him made him think that there was something noticeably wrong with his body, and Espio planned on figuring out what the heck it was.
Lo and behold, he found the issue the moment he looked at his arm.
His scales were a duller color than normal and for some reason he could not stop his arm from shaking, even if it was a little bit.
That was odd. Espio wasn't feeling cold at all in the slightest. In fact, it was feeling a bit hot in the agency, which he supposed was also normal in the middle of spring. Vector must've turned off the A/C to prevent those bills from getting too high.
Espio continued to stare at his arm as he willed the scales on his arm to blend into the floorboards of the agency, making sure his camo ability was still functioning properly.
Seemingly happy with the result, he turned his arm back to normal and tried to make his scales appear brighter. However, instead of the purple color that he was aiming for, he accidentally made his scales too bright and ended up being electric purple.
Espio's eyes widened and he immediately stopped changing his scales, letting out a sigh of relief when they actually listened and went back to the odd dull purple color that he was trying to get rid of.
Well, as long as his camouflage worked he supposed his current scale color shouldn't really matter all too much, as long as it remained purple and not a bright yellow or whatever.
As if on cue, his scales started turning a bright yellow and Espio nearly threw himself into the locker and locked himself in there when he heard the loud chattering in the kitchen walk towards the office/living room where he was sitting.
"Espio, Espio! The pancakes today are honey flav-- Why do you look like me?" Charmy flew towards Espio, either not noticing the others face of absolute horror or ignoring it, and buzzed around the chameleon as he did his very best to compose himself.
"I was just experimenting with myself. That is all. And I figured what better way to do it than to use the colors of my coworkers?" Espio answered the question in the calm manner that he usually spoke, but mentally he was wracking his brain trying to figure out what on Gaia's green earth was going on with his scales today.
"Oh! Well, I think you remembered my colors wrong then, because you forgot the black stripe-- Oooh!"
Espio wasn't even controlling it anymore. The moment he heard the instruction, he had already added black stripes to his scales and made his scale patterns to follow Charmy's. Now the bee was buzzing excitedly around him, observing every detail and shouting out some more details that the chameleon had missed, and of course, would fix immediately because his body went rogue and was not listening to him in the slightest.
He just hoped Vector wouldn't--
"Charmy! Come back and finish your pancakes! We have cases to get through today!" A loud voice bellowed out from the kitchen, followed by a crocodile face peeking out from behind the wall. "And leave Espio alo-- uhh.."
Vector stared into the wide eyes of Espio as Charmy looked between the two having what seemed to be a staring contest and giggled as he noticed Espio's scales start turning into Vector's scale pattern. It stopped changing colors halfway, so it made it look like Espio was having trouble deciding whose coloration to follow and decided to combine the two instead.
"Okaaay... well I'll be picking up some things from Vanilla's house. Finish your breakfasts and don't forget to clean up afterwards." And with that, Vector had walked out the door of the agency, closing it behind him.
---
Charmy and Espio sat in the kitchen eating their breakfast. Espio's scales had finally calmed down after Charmy flew into the kitchen muttering something about how he had to finish breakfast quickly if he wanted to use up all the time he had left while Vector was gone.
Except, Charmy couldn't eat as quickly as he wanted to because Espio kept making up excuses and giving the bee some of his pancakes (which he didn't mind, the pancakes were delicious).
When Charmy looked over at Espio poking at his own food, he noticed a small bead of sweat dripping down his face. That was weird. It wasn't hot in the agency at all. The A/C was running perfectly fine (and Charmy knew this because he had spent the hour that he had been awake for flying under it to see if he would get blown away) and Espio usually didn't mind any weather at all.
"Hey, Espio?" Charmy asked between mouthfuls of pancake, "you didn't catch my cold, did you?"
Espio snapped his head up and stared at Charmy.
"No, that's-- Why do you ask?"
"Cause you look sick." The bee answered simply, shoving another pancake into his mouth. "An' you wouldn't just change colors because you felt like it. You think it's 'not something a ninja should do' or whatever you said."
Well, if Charmy of all people could tell there was something wrong...
"It's just a cold. It'll go away eventually. We're opening soon, come on." Espio stood, his chair sliding back. He ignored the way the room started spinning when he stood up too fast, and how much his head hurt, and how hot and cold it had gotten, and how Charmy was staring at him as if he were crazy, and how the one pancake that he had managed to eat despite his lack of appetite was threatening to come back out, and--
The phone rang.
"I GOT IT!!" Charmy rushed over to the phone before Espio could do anything about it. Usually, he wouldn't let the bee answer the phone, but Espio doubted that he would be able to even walk over to it in his current state.
Espio closed his eyes, slowly sliding back down into his seat. He took a sip of water, counted to five, and stood up again, this time much slower than before.
Vector walked through the front door carrying a bunch of bags, setting them down on the counter and narrowed his eyes at Charmy on the phone. A quick glance to the left and he noticed Espio leaning against the wall listening to the bee talking to the client on the phone.
"Heehee! Don't worry miss, I'm sure we'll be able to find him! Team Chaotix is on the case!" Charmy buzzed happily as he put the phone down, still giggling. A piece of paper torn out of the small notepad they had kept in an office drawer somewhere was in his hand, presumably with the location of the client written on it.
"Uh Charmy? Mind tellin' us what the case is?"
"Yeah--" A snort. "A little girl was calling us because she lost her teddy bear somewhere and she can't find it. Her mom thinks that it's probably somewhere in their garden because that's where she saw her daughter playing with it."
"Hm. Okay, but what's so funny?"
"The bear's named Mr. Needlemouse! Pfftahaha!" Charmy doubled over laughing as Vector put a hand on his head and muttered something that sounded like "Oh for Gaia's sake..."
Espio let out a sigh. "Come on, we better get going, then. The client is waiting."
The sooner the day was over with, the better, the chameleon had thought. He knew Vector had his suspicions that he was sick, and Charmy already knew, but that wasn't going to stop the ninja from being forced to take a day off. All he had to do was finish all the cases they had today, go to bed early, and wake up tomorrow as if he was never sick in the first place. Because this was a simple cold. It could barely be classified as a fever. And none of that would start unless they finally got a move on and started on their first case of the day.
"Wait, Espio, are you sure you want to come? I thought you had a co--"
"A couple of questions about a later case, yes. But that's for later. We should get going before our client decides to find someone else." Espio cut off the bee immediately after he had even mentioned the possibility of leaving him out of the case.
'And for what?' He thought, 'A simple cold is nothing to worry about. I'm not Charmy's age. I can handle it.'
Vector was looking at him with that concerned face he always made whenever someone he knew decided to make a stupid decision. That 'someone' usually ended up being Sonic in the times that they've worked with the hedgehog, but the 'stupid decisions' that he made also usually worked out in the end. Espio felt that this was no different. Except this time his decision only affected himself and not the fate of the world. And it wasn't stupid.
"Alright, let's go. Somethin' tells me that the teddy bear is in their garden, but the client's mother just wanted to make things funner for her daughter and asked her to call us." Vector grabbed the car keys hanging on the wall next to his desk and grabbed the tiny piece of paper with the client's location on it, heading out the door with the two others following behind him.
---
Vector could not have been more right.
The teddy bear--Mr. Needlemouse-- was in fact in the garden. Apparently it was the little girl's birthday, and she had mentioned to her father that she wanted to go treasure hunting on her birthday. And since she had mentioned that her plushie was her most worthy treasure, her father had hid it somewhere in the family's backyard, scribbled a poorly drawn treasure map with "Happy Birthday" written at the top of the paper, folded it, left it on the table, and left for work.
The mother had called the father when her daughter came running up to her crying about how her teddy was gone and something, something, something... Espio couldn't recall all the small details.
In fact, Espio couldn't remember much of the other cases that they had taken that day. Only that they had successfully solved them all (they weren't necessarily huge cases anyways, mostly just small favors) and that he had felt himself slowly deteriorating. The supposed "small cold" he kept calling his fever had definitely gotten worse, and he was sure that he was radiating heat from his own body at this point. The chameleon was surprised that the other two members of the Chaotix currently sitting in the car with him didn't notice his unusual behavior.
Or maybe they did. Espio didn't even care anymore at this point.
He was sitting in the backseat next to Charmy with his eyes closed and his elbows resting on his knees, head leaning against the back of the driver seat where Vector was sitting, trying to darken his surroundings because the brightness of everything was not helping his headache in the slightest. Espio was just glad that they had finished their cases for the day and were currently heading back home to the Agency.
And then he heard an explosion.
"Woah!" Vector exclaimed, stopping the car and looking towards where a large plume of smoke could be seen. Espio and Charmy were looking towards it as well. "Well, that could only be one person:
"Eggman!" Charmy and Vector shouted at the same time, coming to the same conclusion. Espio said the same thing, except his sounded more like "Eggman..."
Vector tapped on the side of his headphones, a boom mic clicking in place: "Hey Tails, do you copy?"
A static-y noise could be heard from the backseat where Charmy and Espio were sitting, then: "Yeah, Vector? What's up?"
"Eggman's attackin' Seaside City, might wanna get Sonic down here. We heard an explosion, but we're not sure how many badniks there are just yet." The crocodile narrowed his eyes as the sound of another explosion and maniacal laughter could be heard. Yep, that was Eggman all right.
"On it! Could you guys keep him busy while I get the Tornado ready? It might be a bit before we get there."
"'Course. Just don't keep us waitin' too long."
"We won't!" Vector slid the boom mic back into the side of his headphones.
"Well boys, you heard the kid." He let go of the brake and stepped on the gas pedal, driving towards the billowing cloud of smoke.
---
Vector parked in a spot that he felt wouldn't damage the car. They would walk (or run) the rest of the way there.
Running usually wasn't usually a problem for Espio. Heck, he was even the fastest out of the three Chaotix members. But this time, he found himself falling behind. He felt that even moving his legs required a ton of effort.
And of course, this didn't go unnoticed by either Chaotix member.
"Espio! Keep up!" Vector called behind his shoulder.
Charmy buzzed back towards the chameleon: "Espiooo, come on!" He tried dragging the chameleon forwards by the arm, but recoiled at the sudden warmth he felt upon contact with his arm.
"Woah! Espio are you sure you're not--"
"I'm fine." Espio replied through gritted teeth. "Now hurry up, Vector's waiting."
He sped up his pacing, running past Charmy, who quickly caught up to him anyways, and joined the crocodile who was waiting for them behind a building.
"Okay. Here's the plan..." Vector started as they caught up to him. "Charmy, you distract the badniks while Espio, you..."
Espio found himself zoning out while the crocodile went over the plan. Everything was spinning and he couldn't focus... Maybe if he closed his eyes for a little bit...
He didn't even realize he was falling until something grabbed him.
Espio didn't move. He didn't feel like opening his eyes either. Everything was spinning, and everything was too bright, and too loud, and it was too hot and too cold... and someone was yelling in his ear.
Groaning, he slowly opened his eyes and was met with two pairs of golden yellow eyes staring back at him, concern written all over both their faces.
Noticing how they had stopped yelling, Espio started closing his eyes again, leaning his head back into what he assumed was Vector's arm. And then they started yelling again.
"Wh-- Espio!" Vector snapped his fingers in the chameleon's face until a pair of yellow eyes were glaring back at him. He couldn't believe the temperature of the chameleon's scales when he first made contact with them. Was he really about to fight Eggman in his condition? And was Vector actually about to send him into the fight without even noticing his condition?
Well, he knew there was something wrong with Espio. He realized it the moment the chameleon had started changing colors. That was why he had went to Vanilla's house to pick up some medicine in case the ninja was sick or something. He just didn't realize it was this bad.
"What?" Espio asked the question so casually it could've made anyone forget about the situation he was currently in.
"Were you seriously going to fight like this?"
A slow blink. Then:
"I-- yes? Is there a problem?"
"Is there a pr-- Are you crazy?!" Vector stared at the chameleon with an incredulous look on his face. "YES, THERE'S A PROBLEM! You're burning up! You obviously have a fever, and you're clearly not in any shape to fight right now! Why did you try to hide it?!"
"...It wasn't... important." Espio avoided eye contact with the crocodile, ignoring how the other tensed at the reply. Oh, Vector was not having any of this, he just knew it.
"NOT IMPORTANT?? ESPIO, YOU--"
"Umm.. guys...?" Charmy tapped the crocodile's shoulder.
"Not right now, Charmy." Vector waved him off and turned back towards the chameleon that he was currently holding. Although, he seemed to be looking elsewhere, too.
"Just what are you two lookin-- Oh crud.."
"Ohohoho! What do we have here?" Eggman giggle mischievously, rubbing the robot that he was controlling's hands together. "Well, if it isn't the Chaotix! What brings you three here? Trying to solve a case?"
"Tails. We need you and Sonic here. Right now. Eggman's found us and we're not exactly in shape to fight-- Espio, Not. Another. Word." Vector immediately cut the chameleon off the moment he opened his mouth. He stood up, still holding the chameleon and pulled Charmy behind him protectively.
"Oh? Sonic and Tails are coming, too? And Espio, what is going on with you?" Eggman took a step closer to the Chaotix as they slowly backed away. "You know... you three always confused me. Do you fight to save the world or to pay rent?"
"Why can't we do both?!" Charmy yelled from behind Vector, sticking his tongue out. "We've kicked your butt before, and I bet we can do it again right now!"
"Oh really? Because last I checked, your most skilled fighter is currently out of commission!" He let out a chuckle as he took another step towards the three. "I wonder how Sonic'll react when I use you guys as bait!"
"And I wonder how you'll react when you realize that your robot army is gone and that I won yet again!" Sonic said from on top of the robot that Eggman was controlling's head. "Oh and also we disabled this one, too."
"WHAT?!"
"Aaand done." Tails flew up from behind the robot, grabbing Sonic as the robot powered off and toppled forward.
Eggman flew out from his eggmobile before the head slammed into the ground.
"Wh-- But I-- You-- AUGHHHHH! Curse you Sonic! I'll get you next time!" And with that, he flew off, disappearing somewhere into the sky.
"Are you guys alright?" The twin-tailed fox asked as he flew towards the Chaotix, dropping the blue hedgehog on the ground before landing.
"Yeah. Thanks for coming." Vector set Espio down gently, but kept a steady hand on his shoulder to prevent him from falling.
"Dude-- Espio, you look terrible." Sonic said after noticing the chameleon. "Did-- did you fight like this?"
"No, thank Gaia. But he sure as hell was about to." A glare was sent in the crocodile's way, which Vector ignored. "Anyways, we better get home before someone nearly passes out again."
A grumble sounded from the ninja, but he didn't struggle when the crocodile hoisted him up and planted him on his back.
"We'll seeya around, Sonic."
"Bye Tails!" Charmy waved goodbye to the fox as Vector waved goodbye to the hedgehog. The bee then planted himself on the crocodile's head as they headed for the car to head home.
...
Espio blinked as he remembered yesterday's events.
Right. All of that had happened. But that was yesterday. Maybe he could still...
"But I'm feeling be--"
"Espio. You couldn't even remember what happened yesterday. You're still sick. Quit trying to pretend you aren't."
"But--"
"I am not having this conversation with you again. You're off work until you get better. That's final. Now drink Vanilla's soup before it gets cold. It's good for you." Vector walked towards the door to leave before stopping. "And if you even try to train to 'hone your ninja skills' I will personally barge into your room myself and force you to stay in bed. Or I'll ask Charmy to do it. Understood?"
"..Roger.." Espio stared at the ground in defeat.
"Good." And with that, Vector left the room, closing the door behind him.
Espio let out a long sigh, grabbing the bowl of soup on his nightstand.
Today was going to be a long day.
He took a sip.
At least the soup was good.