"Chespin," the small Grass-type, green and brown Pokémon said softly, almost doubtfully as it stared straight at the distressed detective.
Harry, still taken by surprise, only stared at the intruder for a few moments, before clearing his throat and speaking up, "How long have you been standing there?"
The Chespin again tilted it's head, clearly confused, "Chespin."
"Oh right, that's all you can say, to me anyways," he turned, picking up his mug and placing it into the sink, when he turned back the Pokémon was still there. "So how'd you even manage to get in here, I could've sworn that I locked the..." Harry trailed off, as soon as he noticed that his apartment door was in fact wide open. "...door. That'll do it alright."
"Chespin."
"I was tired," his arms flew up defensively. "You try working all day and then coming home."
"Chespin."
Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes, "At least you're not an Espeon, or any Cat-type for that matter. You know it was probably Miss Price in the apartment downstairs. She's probably the one that insisted you were feral and all that."
"Chespin."
"Yes, I have to tell Fernando about you, don't you have an owner?"
"Chespin."
"Alright, one more mug of coffee, as is deserved and then it's off to Pokémon-control with you."
Harry turned once again, retrieving his mug from the sink and getting some more coffee going, while fetching the broom and dustpan, "Stay here," he waved a finger at the Chespin, "I've gotta clean up your mess really quickly."
He recklessly left his newfound guest alone in his kitchen, but with the everlasting fatigue covering him and the stress of the coming day, he didn't find himself minding much. Carefully he stood over the shattered lamp and began to sweep, getting even the smallest shards of glass into a well rounded pile and then swept the entire mess into the dustpan.
"Should've known better than to cheat a friend and waste the chance that I'd been given-" The loud ring tone from his phone rang out before he even got the chance to stand up.
Harry sighed, putting his tools aside and rushing to his room.
"So I'm never gonna dance again, the way I danced with you-"
He picked his phone up and answered right on time, just barely before the saxophone solo, which would have sent the call to voicemail.
"Harry Goodman, how can I help?"
"Harry? Oh thank goodness you're awake, look it's chaos out here and we need you down here asap."
"Conan?" he immediately recognized the other man over the phone. "What's going on?"
He seemed to take a heavy breath, taking his time in answering, "There's been another murder-"
"Where? What's the address? Any suspects on site? Any-"
"Harry," Conan spoke firmly, needing the chance to explain. "There's way too much going on here to explain over the phone. You should come over- make it fast too, it's only a matter of time before the press gets here and I'd rather have you get a good look at this mess without any distractions."
Harry nodded, mostly to himself, "Alright, I'm coming over right now. Address?"
"It's on Kyobashi street, right next to the business district. You'll probably see the patrol cars when you get here," he breathed heavily again, making his anxiety easy to read over the phone. "Gosh Harry it's a mess out here, like a broken lamp or something, you know?"
Harry couldn't help but think of his own broken lamp at that remark, "Yeah, you don't say. I'll be there in ten minutes."
As soon as he hung up, he already had his shoes back on and was already quickly making his way out of the apartment and roughly putting his coat on.
It took shutting the door behind him and a few steps towards the staircase, before he remembered his as-of-yet unmade mug of coffee.
"No Harry, you have a job to get to," he mentally scolded himself for even thinking such thoughts. "But then again, it is really early and I am kind of thirsty..." Harry stood between his door and the staircase for an uncomfortably long period of time, a fierce debate raging between his coffee-deprived body and his much more logical mind. "No, no, no, job first, coffee later and no more- what about that Chespin? Can't just leave him all alone."
That was excuse enough for him to run straight back into his apartment and immediately make a beeline for his collection of caffeine-oriented delicacies.
"Chespin."
The Pokémon seemed to be gesturing to something, but Harry was far too deep in his own world filled with the promising thought of the calm before the storm, "Don't you worry buddy, we'll find your owner soon, I just gotta-"
Harry's eyes opened in surprise and he felt his jaw slacken when he turned around to the sight of the Chespin sitting calmly next to a mug filled halfway with freshly made coffee. He almost couldn't believe it, but after stumbling over and slowly picking the mug up, letting it's warm ceramic kiss his lips, before downing most of it, in spite of the intense heat and the fact that it was much too sweet whilst simultaneously pertaining an oddly bitter taste.
"Chespin?"
That had sounded eerily like a question, more than just a sound and suddenly he was thrown into a memory from the past, one which had burrowed itself deep in the back of his mind, determined to not be forgotten, but not eager to be found either.
"Dad! Dad! Hey Dad!" Tim had gone from merely poking him, to full on jumping on top of him. "Dad! C'mon wake up already!"
Harry did his best to pretend to be sleeping, even taking the effort of throwing in a fake snore.
Tim, however, was having none of it, "If you don't wake up, I'll tell Mom that you forget me at the park that one time."
"Whoa!" Harry jumped up into a sitting position, suddenly awake and well. "I thought we agreed to never speak of that. I even bought you extra ice-cream," he pouted, feigning a look of betrayal.
"All's fair in birthdays and war," Tim giggled at his father's face before once again, cheerily, jumping on top of him. "Now come on, we still gotta eat cake and sing happy birthday and Mom says we can go bowling! Oh and by the way, happy birthday Dad!"
In his excitement, the young boy hugged his father and ran out of the room, while Harry watched fondly.
It wasn't quite how he had imagined waking up, preferring the thought of his wife next to him. He reached over hand stretching out over the spot where she had been laying. It was still warm and that feeling was enough to persuade him to rise out of bed and put on his slippers.
Already from the top of the staircase he could see the balloons, pinned up to the walls by bright red stripes of ribbon. "They clearly went all out," he thought to himself with a smirk.
He smiled and made his way into the kitchen, where he was immediately greeted by the sound of singing and clapping.
*"Happy birthday to you,*
*"Happy birthday to you,"*
*"Happy birthday to yoooouuuuu,"*
*"Happy birthday to you... hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray!"*
Harry embraced them both as they pulled him in for his second bout of hugging that morning.
"You should see what we got you Dad!" Tim exclaimed, before rushing off to fetch whatever the present was.
That left just Harry and his wife, gently swaying as they held each other lovingly.
"You look nice today," he mumbled absentmindedly into her ear.
She laughed softly, "Of course, can't wear slippers and a gown when your parents are coming over."
"Wait," his eyes suddenly shot open in awareness. "What?"
"Your parents, they're coming over today," she looked at him strangely. "Babe, don't tell me you forgot."
"What? Me? Forget? I-I could never, I just..." he winced at the look she was giving him. "Okay, I might have forgot."
She sighed, "Well, they'll be here in an hour, so plenty of time to get ready. Where would you be without me."
"Lost," he answered simply, while planting a passionate kiss on the side of her face.
Tim promptly returned, expressing an 'eww' when he saw his parents kissing and gently placed the colorful square box on the table.
Harry sat down at the motioning of their hands and without waiting a moment longer, he began to unwrap the present...slowly...meticulously. He fought back a smile, knowing that he was frustrating them both in taking so long.
"An hour babe. Time isn't exactly on our side."
"I'm trying to save the wrapping paper."
"Tim, go help your father."
And just like that the wrapping paper had been torn off and Harry was left to look into the now opened box.
It was a deerstalker hat, checkered in different shades of brown. Harry lifted it out carefully and fitted it on, only having to adjust it slightly. He couldn't help, but feel a little bit like Sherlock Holmes.
"I love it. Thanks you two."
"Glad you like it, now come on, go get ready," she tried ushering him out of the kitchen.
Harry looked at her with fake indignation, "Hold on, I need a cup of coffee."
"One cup of coffee," she told him outright, with a warning tone in her voice. "One."
"I was only going to have one," he waved his hands defensively, to which she just replied with an amused huff.
He looked on as the woman he loved went off to some other part of the house, thinking of how truly lucky he was to have her.
"Hey Dad."
"Yeah, kid?"
Harry spun around to face his son, who sat at the table with a gleeful expression, "Coffee?"
He ruffled Tim's hair as he sat down before the mug of coffee on the table, "Who taught you how to make that stuff?"
"Myself."
"Yourself, huh."
"Yup."
It was too sweet, to the point of tasting like caffeinated honey. The mug was only filled three quarters of the way up and there was the suspicious taste of a dash of salt. All in all, not a very good cup of coffee, but seeing the anticipation on Tim's face was too much for him to give an honest opinion.
"Best coffee I've ever had. Nice work kid."
"Chespin?" The Pokémon asked again.
Harry, finally snapped out of his daze and looked back to the Chespin, "It's great, real, really great. Thank you."
Maybe he should have been concerned about the fact that the Chespin smiled a pleased smile when he said that, but then again he hadn't even questioned how such a small Pokémon with limited powers would have even made a cup of coffee and he was tired, so, so tired.
Choosing not to think much of it, he finished off the rest of his not very good coffee and almost jumped when his phone beeped from his pocket.
Pulling it out, he looked down at the notification, a message from Conan.
"You said ten minutes, not ten hours, right?"
Harry resisted the temptation to reply with a snarky message of his own, realizing that he probably should have been hurrying. He looked back to the Chespin, as he placed his mug down on the counter, "You know, Poké-control would probably take a while to get here and I need to leave right now."
"Chespin."
"And you know, you're honestly not half bad, so I'll tell you what. You can stay with me until we find your owner."
The Pokémon's eyes lit up in happiness, "Chespin!"
"Yeah, yeah, I like you too. Now c'mon, can't leave you alone in here and heck, maybe you'd even like to get a look at the things I do."
He invited the Chespin to sit on his shoulder and so the Pokemon quickly scrambled up the side of his arm, planting itself on his shoulder.
"Now, let's go see what this case has in store next."
