New Beginnings

Chapter 23 - Introspection

If Silver was alluring from nearby, he certainly also was from a distance.

Trailing his hand over his face for not the first time that afternoon Espio stifled a sigh, not daring to take his eyes off the three talking anthros in the valley of Floral Forest Village. So far everything seemed to be going well, no flashes of cyan or attacks illuminating the horizon, but he couldn't help but feel worried. Even from the distance he could see Silver's crown of quills bristle... So much could go wrong, bringing down the chances of the time traveller ever daring to trust others to a new low. Maybe sending the other to talk to Amy and Tails on his own had been a bad idea after all-

"You know, most people consider a party to be a time to have fun an' go wild, not sit by yerself and brood."

Jolting just barely at the familiar voice cutting through his thoughts the chameleon looked at the new arrival from the corner of his eye. Usually he would have heard the other coming from a mile away, his subordinate being rather loud and hard to miss, but Silver had him too captivated without even knowing it... Though the head detective of the Chaotix didn't need to know that. "Hello, Vector," Espio greeted as the crocodile sat down next to him with a grunt. "Perhaps my idea of having fun is to sit by myself and brood, have you ever considered that?"

"Your idea of fun is a whole lot different than mine, then. Might even describe it as 'really boring', if I'm honest," Vector shot back teasingly.

Rolling his eye fondly Espio flicked his tail; he and Vector had known each other for so long, gentle banter like this did nothing to faze him anymore. "It's a good thing we don't all think the same in that regard, then."

"True." Stretching himself out the crocodile sent Espio a look the chameleon struggled to place, warm and intricate and yet also containing a glimmer of a form of teasing he was quite sure he had rarely seen before. "Charmy is playing with Cream and the Chao in the village, but here it's kinda quiet. Where's the kid?" the other hummed.

Of course, Espio realised as he gestured towards the valley where three people could be made out in the distance, one of them bristling slightly less now and the two others seemingly relaxed also. Vector wanted to ask about Silver; with how much the timid psychic had been at his side the past few days, he should have expected the deductive crocodile to figure out something was missing sooner than later now that he was absent. "I sent him on a small adventure. That is, he's talking to Tails and Amy," he explained. Nodding to the dip down the hill where everything seemed to be going fine still Espio straightened out his disposition and calmly folded his hands together; there was no need for Vector to know how much he had been fretting the past few minutes, after all. "They seemed like good candidates for him to try and befriend, considering they're both rather people-oriented, if that makes sense."

"Heh, you mean they're kind and like hedgehogs, like you," Vector chuckled as the chameleon's calm mood wavered and he sighed deeply instead. Fighting Vector on this point would be an impossibility, as much as he wished to protest he liked Silver, not because the other was a hedgehog but because he was... himself, his wonderful self that had the chameleon entirely enamoured at this rate...

"That too," he merely responded, instead of diving into that particular titbit Vector likely would be dying to hear about and Espio was dying to make sure he never learned in the first place.

Though he chuckled, Vector became more contemplative as the two of them looked over the parts of Cream's and Vanilla's town they could see, which contained more people than the ninja figured Silver had ever been in the vicinity of. "Why are you makin' him do so anyway?" the crocodile spoke up. "I can't imagine he appreciated it much, kid is so guarded."