Charmy's Family

I am Matthais123. This is a one-shot about one of my favorite, underdog, underappreciated, Sonic the Hedgehog characters: Charmy the Bee of the Chaotix. If this seems out of his character, please just have an open mind, because this is possibly how he feels. Vector might seem a little out of character too, but aren't all big guys really softies at heart? By the way, I'm using poetic license.

Charmy the Bee, the youngest member of the Chaotix, was sitting inside a closet. He had just spent the day with his two newest friends, Bowser Junior and Diddy Kong. He had met them at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games a while ago, and the three of them became fast friends, and now, they were as thick as thieves. The day had gone great. It was filled with exciting dares, double dares, ice cream, and great practical jokes. They also traded stories about their adventures, and that is how the trouble started.

Although Diddy and Junior were really impressed by Charmy's Chaotix adventure stories, Charmy suddenly noticed something. Diddy's stories all involved the other Kongs, and Junior's stories all involved the other Koopalings and his father, King Bowser. Charmy realized that they both had fun with their families; their brothers and sisters. After thinking about this after the day was through, the cold, hard reality of it struck Charmy, hard. He didn't have any family to be with. Such a fact truly crushed him, so he just went to the darkest, quietest place he could find, and that was the closet. He didn't want the other members of the Chaotix to see him crying like this.

Charmy sat crying in the closet for about ten minutes, but he was suddenly interrupted when the door swung open. It was the boss of the Chaotix, Vector the Crocodile.

Vector couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Charmy. Vector knew the little bee well, and he was a smiley, happy-go-lucky type. He had only seen Charmy cry once in as far as he knew. Vector had said something mean to Charmy because he was being annoying, and Charmy just burst out crying in response. Vector could tell that it was really just a tantrum outburst, and after the crocodile ordered Charmy to stop crying, the bee just said, "Ok!" and hitched up his smiling face again as if no tear had run down his face at all.

However, Vector knew that this time was different. This was no tantrum outburst. Charmy was sitting in a dark closet, with his antennae drooping sadly and tears running under his goggles and down his cheeks in complete silence, with the exception of the odd sniff or sob.

"Charmy?" Vector said with a rough, shocked voice, "What's wrong with you? Why are you sitting here crying in a closet?"

Charmy looked up at his boss and whimpered, "I don't… have anyone…"

"What are you talking about?" Vector exclaimed, "You have tons of friends! Let me tick em' off for you. There's me, Espio the Chameleon, Mighty the Armadillo…"

Charmy shook his head vigorously and said, "No, no, no! I mean, I ain't got no family! Diddy has a whole bunch of brothers and sisters. Bowser Junior has his dad and seven siblings. I don't have anybody!"

Vector stared at Charmy, and then he remembered how he came to meet this little bee…

"Vector, the Chaotix are a marvel! You found the parents of all the children that were separated from them during that awful Eggman attack two years ago!"

"Har, har, har! Just doing my job Miss-,"

"Hold on boss! Didn't we discover that one pair of parents didn't survive the attack!"

"Huh? What are you talking about Espio?"

"Wait! He's right Vector! The report says that the parents of the 2 year old bee we found, meaning he's 4 years old today, have indeed perished!"

"Oh yeah, now I remember. The poor little guy. He'll be alright at the orphanage, right Miss?"

"Well, all of the other children will be reunited with their parents tomorrow; he'll be left all alone, I'm afraid."

"Vector! We can't let that happen!"

"Hmmmmm… Well… Espio, do the kids know about our parent investigations?"

"No boss."

"Hmmmmm… Well then, there's only one thing I can think of doing right now."

"I'll bet it's a stupid idea…"

"Espio!"

"Err, uh, sorry boss. What's your idea?"

Vector would never forget the day he adopted Charmy into the Chaotix. However, Vector suddenly realized that none of the Chaotix really took the time to make him feel like he was a part of an actual family, instead of just a worker in an agency. Nevertheless, the bee still grew up with a very cheerful disposition, that's why Vector named him Charmy. But now, Charmy was suffering for want of a family.

Vector took a deep breath. He knew what he had to do. Vector lifted up Charmy's chin and looked straight into his eyes. "Listen Charmy," he said, "You may not realize this, and it's probably my fault that you've never realized this, but the Chaotix really are your family. We all care about you a lot. We each care about each other, and we help each other out. That's how a family works. You don't gotta look alike to be family, no matter what anyone says. And… well… I'm definitely no father, but I guess I could be a really big brother, if you want me to be."

Having said his piece, Vector waited for a response. Charmy just sat there, looking up at the big crocodile. It all sounded so strange coming out of the big, green crocodile with the rough, croaking voice. However, it seemed to make a lot of sense to Charmy. It also seemed to slowly soothe and heal what got crushed inside of him.

When Charmy didn't respond, Vector sighed and turned to leave. "Well, I tried," he thought miserably.

"Vector!" Charmy cried out.

Vector stopped and turned around. The little bee quickly flew up into the big crocodile's strong arms and hugged him.

"Thanks," Charmy said simply with a smile in his voice and on his face.

Vector smiled back, and he just had to let out a chuckle. Charmy finished his hug and fluttered down beside him. "So…" Vector began as both bee and crocodile walked off side by side, "Tell me all about what you did with your new friends today,"

THE END