"Espio!! Sonic said I've grown taller!"

The enthusiastic cry of the hedgehog echoes off the walls of the living room a second before Silver does, Espio smiling as he opens one arm and his beloved bowls right into him. It makes him stagger, indeed a bit more strongly than when he and Silver met three-quarters of a year ago, and the chameleon wraps his beloved in a snug embrace to deposit the both of them on the couch before they can topple over. "Is that so?" he inquires most amusedly. Silver had been out and about with a handful of their friends, where clearly some highly important topics with interesting outcomes have been discussed...

"Yes!!" Silver's eyes positively shine, tail wagging madly against Espio's legs from where they lay splayed out on the pillows. "He said it could even be that I'm taller than you now!"

And that makes Espio laugh in full, before he can help it.

"Really now," he adds, over his beloved's wriggles and more peeved huffs. Because yes, Espio himself has also noticed Silver has become taller; it is hard to miss through the fact he needs to bend down a little bit less to kiss him. But that little bit definitely is a little bit... and Silver, for his part, still needs to rear up on his tiptoes to return such actions of affection. And Espio also can still easily peer around the other's quills to look over his head, or nuzzle Silver's forehead with his horn, and do all manner of things that indicate he is still the taller one between the two of them. Exactly how he likes it.

"You don't believe me," Silver shoots back with a note of accusation clear in his voice, and the chameleon finds himself chuckling under the other jumping right on top of his chest to pin him down on the couch.

"Apologies, small one, but I do not, no. You have certainly become taller, but taller than me... no."

His beloved digging his knees into his stomach huffs, arms crossing and brows furrowing. "You don't even know that. Like, how tall are you?"

"A hundred and ten centimetres or so," Espio easily responds, because he's not been growing that much recently. But he's still got some more ageing and maturing to do, so perhaps the blessing of an increased height will shine upon him shortly as well. "And you?"

Silver's ears flick, ever so pensively, and Espio smirks up at the silence that follows. "Right," the chameleon concludes ever so smugly. "Perhaps... not a hundred and ten centimetres? Maybe? Perchance?"

"But close!!" Silver grumbles back, cyan whirling around him as he raises off the couch. "And you haven't measured me in a while, so maybe now I am and we've just never seen it before!!"

Keeping his mouth firmly shut at the concept of that likely being mere wishful thinking Espio lets himself be plucked into the air as well, feet solidly landing onto the tatty rug that decorates the space between their couches and the coffee table. "Then let us go and take some measurements," he grins, which he does not need to say twice; Silver's already blasted to upstairs anyway, the chameleon darting after him up the steps and towards his bedroom. It had been an idea of Vector's, based on what they'd been doing with Charmy as well: keep a small spot free on the wall beside the doorframe, and scratch lines into the wood based on the child's length with a date and measurement beside it. Silver had been wholly intrigued by the idea once he'd seen the years-long indication of growth the tiny bee has been going through, and Espio had gladly reused the idea in their own shared space.

"Espio, hurry," Silver grumbles at him from where the hedgehog has long taken off his boots and socks, pressing his back against the door's wooden frame as stiffly as a board. "See, I took off my boots, so I'm not cheating!"

With an amused twitch of his tail, because having his boots with their inch-high heels off does not do Silver any favours in the height department, the ninja nods. "Yes, that'd be awful if you were. Who could possible be so heinous as to cheat on a measurement of their height? I'm glad my momiji would never do such a thing." Shooting his impatient beloved a wink Espio grasps the measuring tape from the drawer in his desk with deliberating slowness, barely able to keep a straight face at the golden eyes burning into him with the urging for him to hurry up sparking out with the force of a thousand stars.

"Come on!!"

Chuckling softly at Silver's commanding voice Espio unrolls the tape. "Let's see here... Stand very still, lest you'd be cheating anyway. And that'd be bad too, hmmm?" he gladly teases his beloved some more as he crouches down. The end of the tape starting at zero gets pressed against the very highest point of Silver's head, underneath his five splaying quills, while the part around halfway through the thing gets pinned to the ground, and Espio feigns a long little show of looking between them and fussing with the tape as Silver grows stiffer and stiffer. Just like Charmy, the bee also so adorably obsessed with his height whenever it gets measured. "Well well," the chameleon eventually concludes, crouching up again with the lower part of the tape pursed between his fingers. "Seems like you've got yourself a height of... Hm, let's see here..."

"Of?!?"

"I must be sure to check well, do not rush me..."

"Espio!!"

Laughing at the hedgehog getting all in his face in his scramble to see the results Espio drops the teases, showing Silver the exact place he's holding the tape. "A hundred centimetres... plus one."

"WHAT?!" Silver hollers, and Espio finds himself mentally keeled over in laughter at the sheer outrage on the other's face.

"Sorry, tenshi, but I cannot make it better than that. But an improvement from your one-hundred-and-a-half centimetres from last month, for sure." Grabbing a black pen from his desk Espio dutifully rolls out the tape against the wooden doorframe, noting the date with 101 cm behind it in the tiniest scribble he can manage and carving a thin line at that height into the wood with a kunai. With the tape firmly rolled up and returned to his desk along with the pen Espio turns to comfort his beloved, who's left to pout.

"Es, I hate you," the hedgehog grumbles, glaring a hole into the tape.

With another chuckle muffled at that salty tone of voice Espio leans closer, pressing a kiss against the other's madly-twitching nose. "I love you too, my small one."

"That is not an improvement. Sonic lied to me."

"He's just being cheeky, you know how he is."

Though, Espio can clearly tell that does not sate Silver, the hedgehog's annoyance making way for a deep sigh as his golden eyes flick over each individual line that marks the wall of his growth. Impressive growth over the past months for sure, considering anthros simply are not that tall and the time traveller lacked any proper nurture throughout his life to support him until recently, but the chameleon knows very well that he's not happy with his status as the scrawny kid in their group of friends. The fact that the dozens of thin lines that mar the wood are so close together probably does not help, either.

...But as Espio studies his beloved with a gentle encouragement on the very tip of his tongue Silver's gaze grows more pensive, a hand trailing over his spines ever so slowly...

"Hey, Es? How tall are my quills, actually?"

The chameleon blinks. "Your quills?"

"Yeah!" Silver agrees, flexing the five of them on his head so they're fully raised; which does add an impressive amount of length to his body, not to mention something threatening, Espio has to concede. "Sonic did say that my quills looked very glossy and tall now, and then he said I could be taller than you. Soooo...."

"Oh, no." Immediately realising what most likely had transpired Espio crosses his arms. "That is simply not a fair measurement."

"You've got your crest too, though," Silver smirks back... and Espio can hardly argue with that, much as he wants to. After all, he does find himself forced to incorporate at least a part of his crest into his own height measurements, lest those would become all but impossible...

With a deep sigh the chameleon trudges back to his desk again to retrieve that accursed tape, Silver standing as still as a broadly-smirking statue. "No deliberate tensing," Espio demands, smoothing the other's spines about halfway between when they are at their most relaxed and when Silver is puffing them up. With some difficulty the chameleon can stretch the tape out again from quill to floor, studying the results with his eyebrow raising in concern. This spells trouble for him... "A tiny bit over a hundred and twenty centimetres. That's quite impressive."

"Now you! Shoes off! Otherwise you'd be cheating and that's bad," the hedgehog croons in a mockery of Espio's earlier tease, the tape whisked right out of the ninja's hands and cheeky fingers skittering all over his head as cyan tugs at his feet.

"Alright, alright, easy now." Leaning down to take off his own footwear before straightening himself out as best he can Espio keeps his head steady, the tape pressed against the very highest tip of his head with the familiar cool touch of psychokinesis and the sound of the other half of the thing hitting the floor following...

As does a loud "HAH!!" from Silver, which tells Espio all he needs to know.

"Darn it," the chameleon mutters with a fond chuckle all the same, studying the part of the tape Silver holds pinched between his fingers...

At precisely slightly less than a hundred and twenty centimetres.

"I'm taller!!!" his beloved celebrates, whirling right into the air with a cheer. "Take that, Es! Sonic was right!!"

Clapping his hands for a small applause the chameleon laughs, his beloved's happiness far too contagious for him to sulk about getting defeated in such an unfair way. "Bravo, tenshi. You have won one battle in the overall war." Not, but with how delighted Silver is, Espio can't find it in himself to bring up the fact they don't measure such extensions of anthros' heads for a reason. As it stands Silver's already picked up the black pen and carefully pushed the tape back against the wooden doorframe, marking a Silver slightly above the one hundred and twenty centimetres mark and an Espio slightly below it.

"Tadaah! So we'll always remember I'm taller."

"As if you'd ever let me forget that," Espio grins back. Braggy, and rubbing it in for sure, but two can play that game. "And as if I'd ever let you forget this has been done through highly illicit means."

Silver's face positively glows in mischief. "You're just salty because I'm taller."

"And you're just salty because you still need to stand on the very edge of your tippy-toes to kiss me, hmm?"

"...Oh. Do I?" Head tipping to the side Silver hums, eyes flicking over Espio's body and his own, and his question promptly gets answered as Espio steps closer for a kiss... without angling his own head down, making the hedgehog mewl indignantly as he indeed needs to do exactly what Espio proclaimed to close the gap. Which only makes the kiss sweeter for the chameleon, getting his well-deserved recognition after all. And considering Silver is not wearing his heeled boots that give him just a bit more boost than Esio's shoes give the chameleon, the hedgehog needs to stretch himself out even more than usual. "Okay, okay, I'm still smaller," gets muttered against Espio's lips in the few seconds they use to catch their breath. "But not for long!"

"Do not forget I still have some growing to do as well. I would love to see you try." Holding his beloved close Espio can't help but tease him further by rearing up on his own toes, the hedgehog clutching onto him with a laugh as sparks of cyan quickly come to his aid and decrease the distance once more. Which is how they spent the next few minutes or so, measurements and fraudulent attempts at increasing one's length forgotten in favour of kisses and cuddles. And Espio will never say it to Silver, because he knows how important it is to his beloved, but secretly he wishes Silver will never grow taller than he does. Because Silver is his small one and he's simply too used to having the hedgehog be just a bit tinier...

So clearly he's best off getting to work on growing taller himself immediately as well.

He can't bear to think about the fond humiliation that will follow if he becomes Silver's small one instead, after all.

Author's notes
Hi all! ^-^ My Tumblr has been going insane for the past few days about whether Silver is taller than Espio or not, which probably tells you a lot about the incredibly niche corners of the internet I inhabit, lmao. The answer is that Silver is 100 centimetres and Espio is 110, so Es wins this battle here! The reason Silver is a bit taller than that in this fic is because he's been living in the past for three-quarters of a year, so it is not unreasonable to me that he's grown a bit. BUT I put both their models from Forces and Generations in Blender to see if I could discern if Silver's quills are taller than Espio's crest, and that does seem to be the case!! I am not certain if Silver is precisely 120 centimetres with his quills, but it seems accurate enough, so then Es + crest is a bit below that, haha. And as for whether I think Silver will ever outgrow Espio... I love the idea of Tall Lanky Silver, but I might love Tall Lanky Espio just a bit more. So Silver seems out of luck in the world of New Beginnings with it comes to his height! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and have a great rest of the week🍀