The dim light shown through the blinds of the cluttered and unkempt office and home of the Chaotix Detective Agency. Documents lay strewn about the desk and floor. The purple chameleon trained in the arts of shinobi sat behind a desk, sipping a cup of herbal green tea. Espio, now a 28-year-old man, hadn't changed much outside of becoming more in tune with his culture. Working with the Chaotix had brought a lot of frustration to him, to the point he even considered quitting a few times. After returning to his roots and practicing his ninja techniques once again, however, he had once again mastered the secret of patience. And boy oh boy, was patience exactly what he needed right now.

In the middle of the room, below the slowly moving ceiling fan, Vector paced back and forth, his eyes twitching from the frustration that had so evidently taken root in every part of his body. "72 dollars," the crocodile muttered. He turned to face his shinobi friend. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Espio took a light sip of his green tea, then set the cup down on a small, delicate plate, not once even looking at Vector. "For the thirteenth time," he said softly, "yes. 72 dollars."

"Did you add in the money I made off all the plays my music got on Spotify?" Vector asked, a tinge of hope in his voice.

"All three dollars and twenty-seven cents of it, yes," Espio retorted calmly, snuffing out the hope Vector had left.

Vector's massive, gloved hands formed into big, angry, violently shaking fists. "Those cheap bastards… I got a hundred thousand plays this month…" He plopped down on the couch, slamming his fists against the cushions next to him. "GAH!" he yelled out in anger. "How the hell do we only have 72 dollars in spending money this month?!" He held up a hand to Espio. "Not the whole run down this time, just the cliff notes."

Espio inhaled slowly, then exhaled just as slowly. He opened his eyes and looked at the papers in front of him. "We had three cases in total last month. The total payout for all three was two thousand dollars and a home-made cake that said 'Thank You' written in icing."

Vector smiled. "Her baked treats are far from the only sweet thing about her."

Espio ignored him and continued. "A good chunk of that income went to paying off rent, more went to utilities, and a good chunk went to our ever increasing internet expenses and cell phone data plans. Factoring in the money you made from the music you've released on your Spotify account, we are left with exactly 72 dollars."

An incredibly fake smile plastered upon the crocodile's face. He turned to face Espio and simply nodded his head a few times. "I'm gonna murder that kid," he said finally, an unusual calmness in his voice.

Espio didn't react to the sudden tonal shift in his friend's voice. "72 dollars won't be enough to pay for an attorney, Vector," he replied.

A soft buzzing sound came from outside the building, soon followed up by the key turning in the front door's lock. The door slammed open, revealing a grinning bee lifting the goggles up off his face and holding a brown, grease stained bag in his other hand. "Who's hungry?" The young man yelled.

Vector stood up and hunched over to face the man. "Chaarrrmmmyyyy!" he yelled. "Do you have any idea how much money we have left for spending this month?!"

"Hello to you too, Vecky," Charmy sarcastically responded as he closed and locked the door behind him.

"72 dollars! We have 72 dollars for a month of groceries because of your stupid internet bills!" He glanced over at the bag in the bee's hand. "What the hell is that?! How much did you spend?!"

Charmy held up the bag. "Oh this? I got us all some burgers! It was like… twenty-five bucks or so."

Vector gripped the sides of his head as his eyes widened. "Tw-tw-tw…" he stuttered out. "TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS! THAT'S ALMOST HALF OUR BUDGET, YOU IDIOT!"

Charmy pulled out a small burger box. "Soooo you don't want your triple quarter-pounder with extra cheese, extra bacon, and caramelized onions?" he asked, making a fake pouty face.

The crocodile almost lunged at the bee, snatching the box out of his hand. "Give me that," Vector grumbled.

Charmy giggled to himself. He reached into the bag again, feeling around for the two other boxes, only to find one. He frowned. "Shoot," he said looking into the bag. "Sorry, Espio, I could've sworn yours was in-" He looked up, only to see that Espio was quietly munching away at his simple, lettuce-wrapped plain burger. "…Here. Right. Ok then." He shrugged and tossed the brown bag in the trash as he walked over to a leather armchair with his own box in hand. He sat down in the chair, and opened the box, grabbing his own small hamburger and taking a bite.

"Listen, kid," Vector said between messy bites of his gargantuan burger. "You need to start taking our finances more seriously. How are we gonna survive the month off 47 dollars?!"

Charmy smiled. "Who said we only have 47 bucks left in spending money?"

"I DID!" Vector bellowed. "You just spent 25 dollars on dinner! We don't have a case going on and Espio's been spending all day rechecking our finances at my request, and this is all we have left."

Charmy raised an eyebrow. "What about the plays your music is getting?" he asked.

"Chump change," Espio chimed in.

"It's highway robbery!" Vector whined. "I should be getting at least ten cents more on every play!"

Espio rolled his eyes. "Like that would make much of a difference after taxes," he muttered.

Charmy smirked. "Well, what about me?" he asked smugly. "I happen to have a silver play button."

"Your adsense earnings are hardly making a dent in your ever increasing internet bills," Espio replied.

"Oh, I… I see. Huh…" Charmy looked down for a second, lost in thought.

"Perhaps if you took more sponsorships, we'd be in a better financial position."

Charmy rolled his eyes at Espio's remark. "Come on, really? I have integrity. I'm not gonna take a sponsorship from some crummy mobile game I don't play or VPN service I don't use. You don't want me to be a sellout, do you?"

"That's exactly what I want you to be," Vector chimed in. "Maybe we'd finally get rich that way."

Charmy sighed. "Money's all you think about, isn't it, old man?" he muttered.

Vector slammed his fist on the couch. "I'm 32!" he yelled.

"I know…" The young bee's voice turned to one of mock-concern. "You've practically got one foot in the grave already. Espio's not far behind…"

"I'm not dignifying that with a proper response," Espio muttered.

Charmy ignored him and continued. "Soon it's only gonna be me, the stylish 18-year-old Charmy Bee, the sole leader of the Chaotix crew. If only his two best friends were as young and nubile as he…" The bee held his arm to his head, acting as if he were about to faint.

"You really know how to get on my nerves," Vector growled.

Charmy chuckled to himself. "Hey, look, it's not all bad," said to the frustrated crocodile. "I was planning on dipping into my personal savings this month to help out anyways. Plus I'm gonna stream tonight, I get a good amount of donations on average."

"There goes my mediation," Espio mumbled.

Charmy shook his head. "I won't be too loud, Espio, don't worry. Unless Jimmy says yes to that idea I had…"

Vector raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell is Jimmy?" he asked, visibly confused.

Charmy smirked. "I wouldn't expect an oldie like you to know him, but he's one of the biggest influencers out there right now. He also just so happens to be a fan of the Chaotix Detective Agency, and a subscriber to yours truly." He pointed to himself for emphasis. "I pitched him an idea for a video on his channel and if he likes it, we might be able to say good-bye to these awful finances we've been having lately!"

Vector's massive jaw dropped. "Hang on- you're actually doing something to help the business? Who the hell are you and what did you do with Charmy?!"

"I help out! I clean sometimes!" the bee scoffed."

"Not often enough," the chameleon at the desk muttered as he scraped some days-old cereal crumbs off the corner of the desk.

Charmy sighed. "Yeah, I could probably do more, couldn't I? Tell you what, I'll help clean the whole house tomorrow before I go out on my date."

"You have a date?" Espio asked as he looked up, his interest suddenly piqued."

"Yep!" the bee replied with a big grin. "I passed by Cream at the train station earlier today. We caught up, talked about how we've been, I took a risk and asked if she wanted to go to the movies tomorrow, and to my amazement, she said yes!"

"You're going on a date with Cream?!" the crock on the crouch yelled as he jumped up in surprise.

"Sure do! And if you're nice to me, I might even tell her mom how awesome you are, Vec!" the bee smirked as his crocodile friend, who started to blush.

"I'll uh… I'll keep that in mind," the crock said sheepishly.

Charmy turned to see Espio suddenly inches from his face. "Gah!" he yelled, jumping back in surprise. "Quit it! I hate it when you do that!"

Espio ignored him. "A relationship is a serious commitment, young man," he said, his tone flat and serious. "You are young, selfish and immature, but you are still a good man. She has been through one bad breakup already, I trust you will not be the second."

Confusion washed over the bee's face. "Uh, no offense, but it's just the first date. There's no need to start worrying about stuff like that right n- ACKK!" Chaney was cut off by Espio suddenly grabbing him along a specific nervous point along his neck that caused him to suddenly feel stiff and stuck in place.

"Hear my words, young man," the chameleon spoke coldly. "A woman's heart is a precious thing. To break it and move on like some fancy, big shot player would make you scum. Especially given your place of influence in the social media landscape. A hundred-thousand people is nothing to sneeze at. If you use your position as an entertainer to become some heart breaker, then I will break a bone in your body for every heart you break. Do I make myself clear?"

"Uh-huh," the bee managed to spit out, given his stiffened statement.

Espio let go of Charmy's neck and he immediately keeled over and began to hyperventilate. The chameleon bowed to the bee and said, "Thank you for your understanding," before returning to the desk.

"So yeah," Vector said to break the silence, "in case you were wondering, that's why I don't really really go on dates much."

"Now you tell me," Charmy huffed. Suddenly, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to see the notification. It was a new email marked as "important," so he opened up immediately and read through it, his eyes widening more and more with each line he read. He shot up and locked eyes with Vector.

"Are we doing anything Saturday?!" he asked, excitement in his voice.

Vector shrugged. "Not really, why?"

"Clear the day!" Charmy yelled excitedly. "We've got a not-so-niche internet not-so-micro celebrity coming to check out the agency!"

Elsewhere, Tails struggled to get some sleep. Knuckles had gone back home just two days prior, leaving him alone with his thoughts. The kitsune lay awake in bed, his eyes locked on the ceiling above. Two days was all that was left. Two days stood between him and an early wake up. Once again, his plans for Saturday morning ran through his head.

Tails sighed, resting his hand on his head. "Miles, Miles, Miles…" he muttered. "What are you doing to yourself?" He glanced over at the photo booth strips that sat on his nightstand. Each one featured him a few years younger with a rabbit girl beside him. The first few strips were just the two of them making silly faces, laughing and overall having a good time. The strip that lay closest to him, however, was different. It featured her giving him a kiss on the cheek, followed by his look of surprise and her giggling. The next picture was him grabbing her chin, a smirk plastered on his face, with the next picture showing him kissing her and the final one showing her wrapping her arms around him and kissing back.

"Why did I dig those out?" he thought to himself. "Why do I keep thinking things are going to go so badly? Amy and I are friends. Good, close friends, but just friends. Besides, it's not like she's over Sonic. She's still convinced he's playing hard to get. What chance would I ever have with her?" He let out a long, deep sigh.

"Just think of it like you're going to hang out with Knuckles, or Sonic," he said to himself. "Just, you know, if Knuckles or Sonic was a girl. Who is pink. And has cute matching bangs to yours. And shiny emerald eyes that make the Master Emerald look dull. And a cute laugh… and a soft voice… and a warm, caring smile you'd give your life to protect…"

Tails rolled over and shoved his face in his pillow. "Ugh… this is a disaster…" He turned on his side and stared at the wall, trying desperately to take his mind off his love life and catch some sleep.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading, shout out to WhosAnonymous for leaving a review on every chapter so far, it's been a great motivator. Remember to Read & Review, and thanks for reading.