It was now evening, and the three Chaotix members were finishing off their dinners. Vector had ordered in rice and prawn balls from the local Chinese, and Espio's mince pies served as desert. They were all sitting at the worn out, red armchairs when Vector put down his empty plate and leaned over to Charmy.
"Charmy, remember to thank Espio for the lovely food, okay?"
Charmy nodded and thanked Espio in his usual cheery manner. Espio met him with a rather lukewarm stare.
"Why thank me? You were the one who paid for the Chinese. You even made sure to get me my favourite meal from there!"
"Yeah, but you were the one who got the pies, and we didn't even beg for 'em!" Vector stood up following this statement, and made his way over to the front door, grabbing the axe that was resting against the wall along the way.
"Anyway, thanks a bunch Esp'. Now I got some food in belly I can go out and find a tree from that dealership we looked up."
Charmy watched as Espio sharply put his plate of half-eaten mince pies on the coffee table and swiftly followed Vector. Vector was prepared to go out in his normal attire, but Espio would have none of it. Just as Vector began to pull the handle of the door to leave, Espio grabbed his tail with his own and yanked him back, making Vector stumble.
"Oi! What gives, Espio? You could have been hurt if that axe had gone in your direction!"
Espio reached around Vector to grab something off one of the coat hooks. "If you're going to go outside, at least take my scarf with you."
Against Vector's protests, he smoothly set about wrapping the scarf around Vector's neck, removing the chain in the process and making sure the knot was tight enough that it wouldn't come loose by normal movement. It didn't look as good on Vector as it did on him, but that wasn't something he cared about particularly.
"There, now you should be a bit snugger out in the snow."
"You're really frettin' about me bein' warm lately."
Vector looked mildly unenthused as he gave a glance at the scarf. He didn't feel like this was necessary at all, but he wasn't about to throw Espio's concern in his face. His mood lifted when he addressed Espio one final time.
"Just make sure you get the house ready for Santa while I'm gone, or we're gonna have one unhappy bee to contend with!"
They both chuckled after this, when Vector suddenly leaned in and gave Espio a small nuzzling on the cheek. He didn't think anything of it, but Espio stopped stiff and couldn't help turn flush with affection. Vector walked out the door in the time it took Espio to shake it off. Vector grinned and gave a thumb up as Espio leaned against the doorway and waved, before he started his own journey through the snow. Espio smiled softly and went inside.
Trudging roughly ten miles in the thick blanket of snow, Vector eventually came across the pine tree farm that he had looked up in the listings. The entrance looked serene. The sign above the gate looked glittery with the remains of snowflakes fallen and the string of multi-coloured fairy lights haphazardly woven across it. In bright red text on a bottle green background, Vector could read out the name of the farm, "Forest Hill". He had no time to stand and stare though, his limbs were getting numb. He walked through the gate and stepped into a yard of sorts, with nothing but bare ground which was soaked by the snow. He looked to his left side and saw a station not too far away, so he called out.
"Hey, anyone 'ere?"
At first, the air remained still with nothing but the sound of the icy wind blowing. After a few moments, it was suddenly disturbed by the sound of clanging coming from the station. There was a fair amount of grumbling and swearing interspersed with it. Finally, a tall and stout man stumbled out, he looked like a bear of some sort.
"Sorry about the wait, had to find the key to the money box before coming out!"
He walked over to greet Vector with a warm handshake. Vector flinched before returning the gesture. After withdrawing his hand, he cleared his throat to speak to the bear about his predicament.
"Look, pal. I just want a nice small tree to get back to the office with. Can you point me to where the trees are?" He put his hand on his hip impatiently.
"Ah, you might have some problems finding any tree at all now. Everyone's already been at them weeks beforehand, if there's any at all they'll be at the very edge of the farm, over that way!" the bear pondered as he pointed toward the north-easterly direction."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I'll find one" Vector grunted as he picked up his axe again to start the trek over to the last patch. "I ain't fussy about how pretty it looks, so there must be one that's been snubbed. " He looked over his shoulder at the farm owner. "I'll make sure to pay when I've got it."
"That's fine. Good luck with your search!" the bear called as he headed back to the warmth of the station.
"Thanks." Vector simply replied.
"And there's Knuckles' card done!"
In the office, the remaining two Chaotix members were busy with their own chores. Charmy was speeding through the card writing while Espio was currently hanging up the garlands on the ceiling. Charmy, picking up another blank card, started writing again while speaking to Espio facing away from him.
"Shouldn't I be putting up the ceiling things Espio? I can fly all around real fast!"
Espio pushed the drawing pin in to secure the second garland on the ceiling. "You can fly, but I can see clearly where the pins are going. You are not well adapted to seeing things in 180 degrees."
Charmy listened as footsteps travelled from the ceiling to the wall, and then from there to the floor. Espio was picking up a third garland to hang up. Having finished off Rouge's card, Charmy decided to help Espio by dealing with the stockings and the hardier mantelpiece feature.
"I've done a lot of cards already, so I'll put the stockings over the radiator and the sleigh on the shelf!" he buzzed as he flew into action and made a beeline for the bags of shopping Espio had brought in earlier.
"Alright then, just make sure to finish off the cards later tonight, you'll need to give out as many as you can while at Amy's house." Espio was back on the ceiling, ready to push up another pin. "Perhaps the decorations will be done before Vector gets back in, so he can be impressed with your efforts."
Vector had underestimated how large the farm was. After 45 minutes, he was still passing stump after stump, with no healthy pine tree in sight. Tired, he stopped to have a break and dropped his axe to the ground. He spotted a particularly large stump to sit on. As he tried to head over to it, he tripped over a rock obscured by the snow, and landed face first to the soft ground. He groaned as he lifted his torso back up again.
"This really ain't going well…" he murmured, gathering himself once more. He crawled over to the stump and heaved himself onto it.
Looking around at his surroundings, he could see fields and fields of brown spots where trees had once dominated the landscape. It was late, so the sky was a wintry dark blue with stars speckled about it. Looking far into the distance, he observed a small village next to an old water mill, and he thought it was something straight out of a dream. Further away still, the Christmas lights of the town blinked on the horizon. The smell of pine and fresh snow was filling his nostrils with a sense of enigma and loneliness. Vector sighed, with a gush of air coming out as a visible vapour due to the temperature.
"Espio would love this place, so quiet and ideal for meditation…" He looked thoughtfully up at the stars. "Give him a little space while I'm fumin' over owed debt and playin' around with Charmy…" He looked over to the village, and then faced forward, his eye ridges furrowed. "Nah, that ain't a plan. I'd bring him over 'ere myself, and we'd sit on this li'l stump together." He jumped off the stump and beamed. "Yeah, and we could just cuddle up all night, takin' in the romantic view before we fixed our gaze at each other an' leaned in to…" He stopped himself abruptly. His tail was wrapped around his own torso and his arms were in an embrace with the air.
"Eheh, guess I got carried away! Might wanna get another view."
He twisted his body around quickly to get the village out of his sight. When he readjusted to his position, he gazed over the new fields. It looked much the same as the other fields. That was, until the corner of his eye briefly flashed upon something green and tall in a field on his right. All alone sat a single growing pine tree, waiting for someone to take it to a good home.
"Yes! Finally!"
Vector scrambled about to retrieve the axe he's carelessly dumped nearby. Laying his hand on it after a sweep of the vicinity, he snatched it up and began to sprint towards the tree.
"Looks about ten minutes away. It'll just take one good swing to get it down, and then I can get back to payin' for the dang thing and get home to sleep!"
He gasped as the cold air choked his breath, but he pressed on. He was determined to get back to his team mates as soon as possible.
By now, Charmy should have been asleep. It was quarter past one in the morning and he was visiting his friends tomorrow. He couldn't help but feel concerned for Espio though, so he fluttered carefully downstairs to see how he was doing. Espio was in the main office, burning another incense stick to try and keep himself at ease, although it didn't seem to be working from Charmy's perspective. Hovering next to Espio, he looked at him with an expression of empathy. This caught Espio's notice, but he didn't turn his gaze away from the smoke of the incense.
"Espio, it's really late. Shouldn't you be in bed like me?"
"I'm keeping watch."
"Watching from here won't find Vector quicker. You gotta sleep! Vector'll be back soon!"
"I'm not sleeping." Espio turned his head away from Charmy.
Feeling defeated, Charmy shrugged and started to slowly fly back to his room. Just as he got past the front door, there was a large bang as the door was forced open and a sharp gust threw him out of the air.
"Heya, Charmy!"
Vector went over to the grounded bee and gave him a rough noogie. Charmy giggled, struggling to break himself from Vector's grip. After the giggling had subsided, he gave his own greeting and hugged his fatherly figure. Vector returned the hug back with one arm, the other holding the tree still.
"You're up late! You must 'ave been worried a whole lot about your dear boss!"
Charmy's glee turned to nervousness. "Not really, Vector. I was trying to get to sleep in bed just five minutes ago."
Vector was partly crestfallen, but mostly curious. "Huh? So, if you weren't waitin' for me, why…"
"He was." Charmy interrupted, pointing towards the office. Vector followed the point and saw wisps of smoke gently floating out of the office. He knew that Charmy wouldn't light anything, he'd punish him if he did. That left just one conclusion, and not one he really wanted to face alone. When he stopped looking at the office, Charmy had already left to go to bed. His hand had been forced, so he carefully crept into the office, trying not to alert the chameleon. Inevitably, that failed.
"Seven hours." Espio remarked frankly.
"Sorry, Esp', I wasn't plannin' to be that long. It was just further away than I thought it was. And do you know how long it took to find a tree?
"Do you know how much I was worried about you?" Espio stared straight at Vector's eyes, making the message all too clear.
"Well you shouldn't 'ave been. I'm the toughest member 'ere, I can take on the snow for that long!"
"You're an ectotherm!" Espio slinked over to Vector, raising his voice. Vector backed off a little, it was rare he heard Espio flare up like this. "Wandering out there for so long could have killed you! You could have gone missing for all I knew, and then…I don't know what I'd do."
He slumped down, tearing up. He felt completely empty thinking about the possibility of losing his beloved Crocodile. Vector simultaneously felt distressed at seeing his favourite Chameleon in such a state. In response, he kneeled down and put his arm around Espio's shoulder gently.
"Look, Espio, you've 'ad a rough night. If you get some rest, I can deal with decoratin' the tree and getting' everythin' together for later, 'kay?" He smiled weakly to coax Espio into obedience, but Espio didn't take the bait.
"You've been out seven hours straight looking for that tree. You're the one who needs sleep."
"But you and Charmy did the rest of the office, and it looks great! It's my turn to handle the jobs!"
"No."
Vector shook his head. He knew that he wasn't going to win this one now. With his quick wit, he formulated a compromise in his mind.
"Alright then, how about we do it together then?"
He stood up and stretched. Espio, out of his stupor, followed suit. He was still glancing at Vector suspiciously, suspecting something amiss with Vector's new idea. Vector went over to the shooping bags near the wall and brought out the required decorations. He dumped them unceremoniously at Espio's feet, startling him. Taking advantage of this moment of weakness, his tail swiftly manoeuvred around Espio's torso, before dragging him into his own body.
"And while we're doin' that, maybe we can…get to know each other a li'l better, hmm?"
Vector flashed a slight grin and gazed warmly down at his friend. Espio didn't return the look, but his scales turned pink with a mixture of embarrassment and excitement. He wasn't going to argue with Vector on this idea. He simply wrapped his own tail around Vector as he was lead towards the tree, which was waiting to be integrated into the homely surroundings of the office.
