New Beginnings

Chapter 6 - Adorable

Adorable, was all his thoughts could tell him as he scrambled to get out of the living room. Adorable, the inquisitive way Silver had petted his face in a copy of Sonic's mannerisms, adorable how he had barely been able to supress a chirp when Espio's fingers had struck a sweet spot behind his ear, adorable how he had reacted when he had made Espio sneeze. Adorable how he had used his powers to eat his food, adorable how curiously he had studied the second floor, adorable how he had twitched his nose as he had slept underneath the bed. Adorable, adorable, adorable.

That's enough!, he snarled to the clamour in his head as he paced in the upstairs corridor near the small guestroom. Silver was merely a friend of his, though friends did not usually pet each other so intimately. Silver only thought they did because Sonic had done it with him, in a bid to offer the hedgehog a smidge of physical comfort without freaking him out. Yes, Espio tried to convince himself, the time traveller simply had no idea what he was doing or why some would consider it inappropriate. It made sense considering his lonely existence before travelling back to the past. Nor had he actually meant anything with it either, only attempting to make Espio feel better in a way that had been inflicted on him also, so why did the chameleon get so utterly flustered to his core by the action? Even worse, why had he dared reciprocate?

It was all Vector's fault, Espio snarled mentally as the teasing tone of the crocodile firmly echoed through his head. He had gleefully jumped on the possibility to poke fun at him the instant his walls were down, not that the ninja had expected anything less of his occasionally-childish colleague. He knew that with his rigorous training regime and general withdrawn nature both Vector and Charmy were genuinely concerned about his wellbeing, often asking him to take it slower and take some time for himself... except their teases and juvenile pranks to attain that goal usually made him only more determined to push himself to his limit or seclude himself, if only to prove to them that he could take care of himself. Silver's concern on the other hand had been friendly and caring and well-meant and serious and... adorable.

"Espio?"

The chameleon whirled around as the object of his jumbled thoughts made his way up the stairs also, looking at him with worried eyes as they were laid on the other. "Did I do something wrong? You left so unexpectedly," the hedgehog sincerely asked as he made his way over to where Espio had been fretting, not breaking eye contact for even a second. His irises were yellow, Espio noted in his trepidation, almost the same shade as his own. After a moment of silence, wherein the chameleon wracked his mind about what he could possibly say in return without making things worse, the hedgehog added: "If it's the case, then I apologise. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"It's... not your fault," he tensely responded to Silver earnest but unnecessary apology. It was Vector who had said Espio and Silver looked cute together, which had unleashed the chain reaction of embarrassing flustered feelings in the former in the first place. Despite being the instigator of the situation Silver could not be held responsible for it, the chameleon reprimanded himself. Though the fact that he looked so adorable now surely didn't help- no. "Vector... simply exaggerated some things beyond what they were, is all. He and Charmy have a tendency to poke fun at me and each other, and this time, it... got to me, so to say. It has nothing to do with you, you needn't worry."

"That's not nice of them," Silver bristled as he stepped a bit closer still. "They should be kind to you!"

Of course Silver also looked adorable when he was angry, and it became even more difficult to suppress the blush on his face. "It's alright," Espio offhandedly assured him, refusing to look the psychic directly into his eye to prevent his thoughts from coming back and opting to look at the ceiling instead. "I tend to point out their flaws and failures as well. You can laugh at each other without it being in mean spirit. What Vector said... was not meant in mean spirit either." He knew it to be true himself; no matter how rattled he had become Vector had simply been teasing like they often teased each other, nothing more.