New Beginnings

Chapter 9 - A New Member

Espio had retreated to his favourite spot in the office: against the lockers next to Vector's desk, able to keep an eye over the entire room while not in the spotlight himself. After his and Silver's impromptu intermezzo the booklets had been found easily enough, though both of them needed to a moment to relax and calm down their racing hearts before making their way downstairs again. Luckily for Espio Silver had begun rambling about all the things he had found in the storage the moment he burst through the door, the already-present bright red blush flaring up even more each time his gaze drifted over to the chameleon. It was a clear indicator that he had not yet calmed down about the situation yet, a dead giveaway to everyone who saw him that something had happened, though Espio himself did not fare much better. At least the psychic's uninterruptable rambles were successful enough at instantly stopping any attempts from his colleagues to inquire about what had taken them, and Charmy was too distracted by his picture books anyway. Before long they had all settled with no further questions asked, Silver and Charmy on the couch and Vector with his feet up draped up on the tabletop again, which the chameleon pointedly ignored. Some mannerisms the crocodile would probably never unlearn.

Standing there so quietly gave him time for some introspective. He had kissed Silver on his forehead, entirely accidentally and not premeditated, and the hedgehog had returned the favour to his cheek. That had been on purpose; Silver had asked for his permission, which he had given in a flare of foolishness and stupor. Even more (worse?), based on how his body and mind reacted he had liked it. On the other hand, not even moments prior he had reached the sound conclusion that he had no feelings for Silver other than a desire to protect him and be there for him and soothe his pain and keep him close and never let him go again. All these were entirely justifiable considering the hedgehog's situation, certainly not an indicator of anything more, so why? He was supposed to be the responsible one here, down-to-earth and reserved and unbothered by needless emotions and desires, and yet the time traveller managed to bring down every brick of his walls by just being near him. Occasionally he caught his hand having drifted upwards to his face as he stood musing, fingers stroking over where the tingles left behind by Silver's lips ghosted still. Every smug glare Vector sent his way was pointedly ignored also as he forced his hand down again, and attempted to move his attention to anywhere other than his muzzle and thoughts.

On the other side of the small room the two younger ones were going over one of Charmy's picture books, the bee animatedly bouncing in place while the hedgehog peered at the pages with immense intrigue. Between his jumbled musings Espio had been following the nonsensical conversation with half a mind for a while now, as had Vector, the two of them occasionally grinning at each other or rolling their eyes at the childlike activity. "That's the animal you drew in the kitchen!" Silver called out, and Espio quickly had to look away from his adorably twitching ears. "It has the same kind of flower around its head... but why is it yellow? I thought it had all the colours of your pencils!" Despite his flustered mood the chameleon could feel a smirk build up at the disappointed tone. They'd have to explain to him later that a six-year-old's coloured drawings were perhaps not the best guide for learning more about the world.

"It's boooooring, right?" the bee agreed instantly. "It would look so much cooler if it were yellow and black, like me!" A stern glare from Espio's side prevented Vector from snorting and drawing their friends' attention to them. If anything, the bee got his conceited behaviour and mannerisms from the crocodile, so the head detective had no room to complain or wisecrack. The next page of the booklet was revealed in the meantime, studied under another scrutinizing stare of Silver.

"This one is white and black... did they forget to colour in the white parts?"

"That's a, uh-" the bee lifted the book as close to his face as possible, squinting at it intently as he made out each letter- "Z... Um, E... And a B... a zebra! I guess they just look like that, even though it's boring."