Hey all! How're you doing this week? I've actually been somewhat productive and began some artwork for this. It's nothing huge, since I don't have the best resources, but it's something, right?

No major news, as per usual, so I'll leave you to it.

Have a good weekend!

Arby xx

It was now late in the evening, thanks to Vector being the only one with a watch. Both Nocturne and I had to sleep on the couch, which neither of us minded since there were two of them. Espio had already gone up to his room, while the rest of us were downstairs finishing a large pizza. I was overwhelmingly content with how at home I felt despite only being there half a day. The atmosphere was incredibly pleasant as we watched some random movie on TV. It was an action movie without a doubt and we all had a bet going at who would die.

"As long as the dog lives, I'm happy." I told everyone. Nocturne nodded in agreement.

"I want the guy's wife to die." Nocturne suddenly added. I could see Charmy and Vector giving her a strange look, just as I was. "What? Then he wouldn't be tied down and have to risk his ass to save hers."

"Uh, she's not great with the whole 'relationship' thing." I quickly spoke up before things got weirder.

"That's cool." Charmy spoke. "No one in this house is anyway."

"Hey!" Vector interrupted.

"Ha! Yeah right!" The bee mocked. "How many girlfriends have you had?" We all turned to the blushing croc, who simply looked away in embarrassment. "Told ya." We all chuckled, except for Vector.

"Well, I think it's time for someone to go to bed." Vector announced with a smug grin.

"Aw, come on!" Charmy complained.

"Now, mister!" Vector argued. The kid huffed angrily before storming up to his room. "Now then, which of you two is going to tell him a bedtime story?" We both looked up at Vector with confusion. I assumed this was our first test to prove that we could handle the hyperactive 6 year-old. Knowing exactly what he meant, I got up and tugged on Nocturne's arm.

"Come on."

"I have to go to?" She whined.

"It'll be fun and good practise." I told her before we both headed into the boy's room that still had the light on.

His room was painted with black and yellow stripes to match his own colour and he had a dark green carpet. There was a small TV and games console in the corner. A little wooden desk was next to his bed with a wooden chair tucked underneath. Upon the desk, were many drawings that Charmy had done while others were placed on the walls. In the middle of the room, was a child's bed that had plain orange bed sheets. Charmy was already half under the covers with his arms crossed, mumbling words angrily to himself. The child looked surprised when he saw us both walk in.

"What're you guys doing in here?" He asked.

"Apparently you like to be told bedtime stories?" Nocturne questioned, which Charmy's constant nodding told us 'yes'.

"There are no books here though. Vector normally just makes them up." Charmy told us. I personally loved improvisation, despite being hit and miss with it. There was a second chair next to the bee's bed, which Nocturne sat in.

"Ok, this can't be too bad." She said to herself as she thought of a story. "Um… once upon a time, in a land of concrete towers, was a pigeon. This pigeon was very special because it was a white pigeon. One day, the pigeon flew freely, but it wasn't paying attention, so it flew into a window. The end." Charmy and I both started laughing. It wasn't all that funny; it was just that it came from absolutely nowhere.

"We're meant to be getting him to sleep, not hyping him up all over again." I told her after I had calmed down.

"Oh yeah… well, I tried alright? I never said I was any good." She said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. I gestured for her to move so I could sit down.

"I'll do it; you go and get some rest. It's been a long day." She agreed and said her goodnights before leaving the room.

"Alrighty then…" I began as it was now my turn to think of something. Charmy snuggled up in his bed sheets, which was, without a doubt, adorable. I ended up telling him a story about a big, strong bee known as the 'Honey Saviour'. By the grin on Charmy's face, he seemed to enjoy it. This bee would take on armies of hornets and wasps in order to return honey to the 'Bee Kingdom'. He was hailed throughout the land by the other bees and had a great deal of honour bestowed upon him. Before I knew it, I had finished the story with the hero bee saving the kingdom from the legendary 'Hornet Armada'. The only problem was, was that Charmy was still awake.

"That was so cool!"

"You're still awake?" I questioned. He nodded quickly.

"Yeah, Vector's stories are good and all, but he seems to not care after a little while and just wants to go to bed, so he rushes it and I just get bored and doze off." The bee explained. I was saddened more than anything to hear this, but also surprised how much a simple story meant to the 6 year-old.

"Vector means well, Charms. It's just that running a detective agency and looking after you don't tend to go hand in hand all the time. He works hard to give you a roof and take-out pizzas." Charmy smiled, I could tell that he understood what I meant, which led me to wonder if anyone had ever just sat down and talked to him like this. "Go easy on the croc from time to time, ok?"

"No problem!" Charmy smiled wide, which I couldn't help but do in return.

"Goodnight Charmy." I said softly before turning out his light. As I was about to leave, he suddenly called out to me.

"Arb, wait!" He whimpered with panic. "I'm umm… scared of the dark." The child announced. I was once again surprised.

"You learn something new every day." I thought.

"Could you maybe just… stay here for a while? You don't have to tell me another story or anything." He compromised and despite it being very dark, I could already picture his wide, vulnerable eyes staring at me.

"Alright, I'll stay, but only of you go to sleep." I told him.

"Thanks!" He said a bit too loud, causing me to 'shush' him. "Goodnight Arby." He whispered.

"Goodnight." I repeated as I stayed sat in the chair next to him.

The next morning was bright and sunny just like the day before, but this was simply a disguise to the brutally cold air that accompanied it. I could feel someone gently nudging my shoulder in an attempt to wake me up. As much as I didn't want to, I opened my eyes to see that I was still in Charmy's room. I lifted my head from the arm it was resting on to see Nocturne giving me a strange look.

"Someone was tired." She commented with a grin. I yawned and stretched. My body ached from sleeping awkwardly in a wooden chair.

"I don't remember falling asleep." I replied. "What time is it?"

"Nine in the morning."

"…You woke me up… at nine in the fucking morning?" I whispered with a clear growl.

"Before you get all mad or whatever, Vector told me to get you up. Apparently this is when 'work' starts." I raised a brow at this.

"Have you done any work so far?"

"If eating toast and drinking tea is work then… yeah, plenty."

"Where's my tea?" Being woken up really didn't help my temper and a lack of hot drinks in my system only made it worse.

"Sheesh, take it easy. There's enough downstairs for you. Vector had to stop Charmy from devouring it all though, so you'd better hurry up." She gave me one more pat on the shoulder before returning downstairs. I stood up, much to the disagreement of my legs and followed her shortly afterwards. I shook myself awake and again jumped upon forgetting I had quills on the back of my head. I smirked at the thought before joining the others.

My first sight was Vector sat at his desk with a big mug of coffee next to him as he sorted through some paperwork. Charmy was watching the morning cartoons on TV with a slice of toast in his hand. I glanced to the lockers in the corner as I came down the stairs to notice Espio in his spot with his eyes closed yet again. Nocturne came out of the kitchen and handed me a mug. I smiled warmly to show that I was truly thankful for her making me some tea.

"Thanks."

"Perhaps that'll ease your temper." She remarked. I hit her playfully in the shoulder before sitting down next to Charmy. He smiled happily at me and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey Arb!" He greeted.

"Morning Charms." I replied with a nod before I took a gulp of tea. It felt like a hug as it went down and helped me a lot to shake the sleep off.

"Thanks for staying with me last night. I didn't want the monsters to get me." He explained. I could understand, I was the same when I was a kid, but as I grew older the darkness became more of a friend and less of an enemy.

"And thanks for not waking me up this morning." We both chuckled. "I'm also going to teach you that there are no monsters in the dark." The bee gave me an odd look.

"Y-you are?" He sounded nervous for reasons I wasn't sure of.

"Yeah, I'll show you that you have nothing to fear." I smiled again to try and comfort him and while he smiled back, I wasn't sure if he was fully convinced.

"Do we have any jobs today?" Nocturne spoke to Vector out of nowhere. I had to silently question why she was so keen. Maybe she was bored?

"Haven't had any calls or anything, so… nope." Vector replied. He didn't sound too concerned with the lack of jobs, but surely he was worried about the bills, right?

"Perhaps me and Arb could go around the city and look for jobs here and there for some extra cash." Now I was getting suspicious. She would normally be the first to turn down work if it ever came up. I wanted to trust her motive for trying to help the trio, but my instinct told me there was something else.

"But you guys have only been here a day." Vector added. "You don't know the city at all."

"I know the city! Can I go?! Can I?! Can I? Can I?" He squealed right in my ear. Vector again rubbed his head.

"Alright alright, Charmy, you go with them and show them around." Vector told him and he did a back flip in the air in response. With that, I downed what was left of my tea and followed the other two outside.

"How odd." I thought. I knew it was a cold morning, but I could barely feel it. It then dawned on me that my fur was keeping me warm. I then looked to Nocturne, who didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by the low temperatures.

"Aren't you cold?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders.

"No, why?" She asked in return.

"Just wondered. Since you're a reptile, I thought you'd feel the cold a lot more." She then nodded in agreement after thinking about it, but then began walking down the road. I shrugged it off and followed.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Charmy was the first to ask.

"Well, we could go find some work like Nocturne said unless that was just an excuse to get out of the house." I said whilst staring at her. The chameleon glanced at me with a slight glare.

"Ok, you're partially right." She admitted much to my surprise. "I did want to get out and start earning us some money, but I also wanted to talk to you, but since Charmy's here, that'll have to wait."

"What's up? I won't say anything! I swear!" The bee begged. Nocturne growled in annoyance.

"No way! You'll only go back and tell the other two."

"I don't think he will." I suddenly jumped in. Nocturne did not look happy in the slightest.

"Are you serious?"

"I don't think keeping secrets is a good way to start things off. We want them to trust us, don't we?" An irritated sigh escaped her.

"What is it with you and trust?"

"It's a big deal to me, alright?" I said sternly in order to stop the oncoming argument. "At least tell me what it was about." I tried to compromise and it seemed to work.

"It's about Espio." She said. Her serious expression told me that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"What about him?" Charmy asked. With a sigh, she continued with her attention focused on me.

"I don't think he likes us."

"What? How do you know?" I questioned not wanting to believe it.

"When I left you in Charmy's room, I had to walk past his door in order to get downstairs. When I did, I heard him talking. I can only assume he was thinking out loud." I looked away. The next question I was about to ask, I really didn't want to know the answer to.

"What was he saying?" Now she looked away from me with a concerned look. Even Charmy remained silent with his face looking both curious and sad.

"In short…" She began. "…he was saying how we didn't belong here and that we should go back to where we came from." I stared at her not knowing what else to say. I couldn't understand. Did we do something wrong? I sat on the curb and rested my head on my arm. Charmy sat on my right, while Nocturne sat on my left.

"Why would he say that?" Charmy asked, obviously as shocked as I was.

"I was hoping you would know." Nocturne questioned in return. Charmy thought about it, but couldn't think of any obvious reason why.

"I have no idea. Did you make him mad?"

"Well, clearly the two of us simply being here made him mad so…" She trailed off and looked back at me. "Are you ok?"

"Perhaps it's just a one off." Nocturne tilted her head in suspicion.

"You heard what I said, right?" I nodded.

"Of course I did, but we can't just go around saying that he hates us. We've only been here a day. Maybe if we prove that we aren't useless, then maybe he'll change his opinion." Both Nocturne and Charmy grinned. Something about proving Espio wrong hit a chord in the pair.

"Alright, let's show that chameleon whose boss."