Finding Meggy wasn't a difficult task; After leaving the Showgrounds, all SMG3 and SMG4 had to do was knock on her front door and they were quickly let in.
Getting her to agree to answer some questions wasn't difficult either; After explaining, that they were investigating a break-in, she was happy to help. Due to her time in the police force, she knew how important good witnesses are in cases like these.
And besides, Meggy would never ignore her friends when they need her.
No, none of these things were difficult.
What was difficult however was getting her to stop grinning at SMG3 and SMG4.
"Soo..." Meggy cleared her throat. She and the two guys were now sitting in her living room; SMG3 and SMG4 were sitting next to each other on the couch and Meggy had taken a seat in one of the chairs next to them.
"Are you two dating now?"
"What??" SMG4 and SMG3 asked in unison. By this point, they had gotten so used to people thinking they were dating that they weren't even shocked anymore, just mildly annoyed.
"What makes you think we're dating?" SMG4 asked, tilting his head slightly.
Meggy gestured at both of them. "You're wearing the same shirt – don't couples like showing off by wearing matching outfits?"
SMG3 huffed angrily. "Oh my god, why does everyone keep commenting about our damn outfits?? Every single person we've talked to yesterday had something to say about our detective disguises! Personally, I thought we looked pretty good! Do we usually look like shit or why are people so surprised to see us in good clothes??"
SMG3's sudden burst of anger surprised Meggy. "Woah dude calm down. It's just interesting to see you in different outfits because you two usually wear the exact same clothes every day."
That... was actually true. SMG3 scratched his head – Everyone commenting about their outfit-change suddenly made more sense now. Still; can't people just let a man wear what he wants?
He looked at the shirt that SMG4 had lent him. It was a bright blue, like the Atlantic ocean; Typical for his fellow Meme Guardian but unusual for himself. The fact that they looked like a couple had already crossed Threes mind, but someone else pointing it out still felt a bit uncomfortable.
Would it still be like this if they were actually a couple?
They really needed to finish that conversation about the state of their relationship...
Meggy continued, interrupting SMG3's thoughts. "Also, what was that about a detective outfit? Did you two dress up as detectives for this?? And I missed it?!" Meggy frowned. She would have loved to see her friends in dorky outfits.
Mario and her could have made so many dumb jokes.
"Ah that- that's a long story. Would probably take like 8 chapters to explain." SMG4 chimed in, shrugging. "But we don't have time for that now! We really need to ask you some questions."
"Right right." Meggy sat up in her chair, focusing back on the present. She could think about silly outfits later. "So, tell me what you need to know!"
SMG4 smiled and looked over at his partner, allowing him to take the lead. SMG3 looked at the notes on his notepad, trying to find out what question he should ask first. "Basically.. we need to know everything." He looked at Meggy pleadingly. "We have almost nothing so far."
Meggy couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Wow, great job guys." The sarcasm in her voice was obvious. SMG3 rolled his eyes.
"Okay let's just start with yesterday morning." SMG3 re-adjusted in his seat, straightening his back and looking directly at Meggy. "Please tell us what you were doing between 7am and 8am"
Meggy took a second to think before her face lit up. "Oh! I was jogging with Tari!" The memory made Meggy smile. "We started going on morning jogs together last week! It's really fun, you guys should join!"
"Uuuh yeah.. maybe.." SMG4 gave Meggy a polite smile. He wasn't a big fan of waking up early just to run around and that wasn't going to change any time soon.
Meggy continued. "Our jog was cut short tho because we heard some police sirens"
"Sirens?" SMG3 and SMG4 looked at each other. Mario had mentioned hearing sirens as well! This proves his alibi.
Meggy nodded. "Yeah! We saw some cops walking through a portal in the distance. I wanted to check it out but Tari didn't think it was save." Meggy crossed her arms. She knew that Tari was probably just looking out for her, but a part of her was still annoyed that she couldn't check out what happened.
"A portal?" SMG4 turned towards SMG3. Usually, only one of them could open portals to and from the Graveyard "Did you leave a portal open?"
SMG3 shrugged. "I just wanted to ask you the same thing. I don't remember leaving one open but maybe I just forgot"
Both of them started visiting each other so much that they have started losing track of when they open portals and if these portals ever get closed. Something like this happening was nothing surprising.
The two Meme guardians turned back to Meggy. "So then what happened?"
"Oh, after that I decided to go visit Mario to ask him if he knew what was going on with the police but I couldn't manage to wake him up." She sighed. "That guy is such a deep sleeper – I think only Melony could beat him in that department."
"True that." SMG4 let out a small chuckle.
"And you didn't see Eggdog anywhere?" SMG3 asked.
"No, sorry. And after that I just went home" Meggy gave him an apologetic smile. "But oh! Maybe Tari saw something! She stayed behind because she wanted to eat lunch with Saiko."
"Guess we can question her next – We still have to figure out if she had something to do with my phone anyways" SMG3 said, looking towards SMG4 for approval.
SMG4 nodded. "Yeah, you're right." He turned towards Meggy. "Do you know where we can find Tari?"
"Actually! She's coming over later" Meggy smiled. "We want to try out this new game she bought called 'Suspicious Kitty 6'. You guys can wait here until she shows up and just ask her then."
Meggy got up from her chair. "Besides.. I haven't played any of the other five "Suspicious Kitty" games so I could really use the support"
"I'm not sure if we really have time to play video games..." SMG3 said, but he got interrupted by SMG4 "But we'll gladly stay to question Tari!"
SMG3 furrowed his eyebrows at SMG4.
Meggy nodded. "Okay cool. I gotta go finish preparing the snacks now. I wanna be a good host after all" She said, pointing towards the kitchen. "You guys can just uh.. sit here I guess. Let me know if you need anything!"
"Will do!" SMG4 said. And with that, Meggy disappeared into the kitchen, leaving SMG3 and SMG4 alone.
As soon as Meggy was out of earshot, SMG3 leaned back into the couch and let out a big sigh.
SMG4 turned towards SMG3. "You good?" He asked, slight concern in his voice.
SMG3 rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. Just... can you at least ask me before deciding to play video games with our main suspects?"
"Suspects?! They're our witnesses!" SMG4 said. "And besides, you didn't consult ME when you ran off to chase Mario yesterday."
SMG3's annoyed expression seemed to soften. He looked down at his hands. "I'm.. You..you're right. Sorry."
SMG4 flinched a bit. He wasn't expecting SMG3 to react so... calmly? SMG4 was used to arguing back and forth with his former rival, so seeing him so accepting to his objections was new. It was true that they were a lot closer now, but he apparently still had to get used to SMG3 being.. nice to him.
"This is just so damn frustrating." SMG3 turned to SMG4. "I think.. it's time to admit that we kinda suck at this." He said, letting out a defeated laugh.
"Ah come on, Dude" SMG4 put a hand on SMG3's shoulder. "Don't be so harsh on yourself. We're still new to this detective stuff. You can't expect us to get everything right"
"I guess..." SMG3 sighed. "I just.. I don't wanna mess this up."
SMG3 looked at SMG4 with his beautiful dark red eyes and suddenly, SMG4 felt like Three wasn't talking about just the case.
"What if we did this all wrong from the start? What if we just rushed into this without thinking and this was doomed to fail from the beginning??" SMG3 said. His expression revealed the uncertainty he must be feeling deep down.
SMG4 had to do something. "Three.. I don't.. I don't really know what's correct either. This is new for me as well. I guess... I guess all we can do is try our best and figure out things as we go."
"And if we get it wrong?" SMG3 studied SMG4 carefully.
"Then we'll find a way to make it right again." SMG4 smiled.
And with a deep breath of air, SMG3 smiled as well.
"Yeah.. you're right." SMG3 stretched his arms. "God, I'm sorry for being so mopey. I keep trying to be optimistic like you and all, but then things don't go our way and I lose all this confidence I built up."
"It's fine." SMG4 re-adjusted his hat. "I think I have enough confidence for both of us!" SMG4 gave SMG3 a smirk and Three couldn't help but laugh.
Maybe SMG4's blind optimism wasn't that useless after all.
After he had finished laughing, SMG3 quickly looked around the room as if he was making sure that no one could see him.
"What are you doing?" SMG4 asked but SMG3 just turned towards him to give him a quick hug.
"Thanks dude" SMG3 didn't like to admit it, but he actually quite liked hugging SMG4. And right now just seemed like a nice time for a quick hug.
He wasn't as good with words as his partner, but he still wanted to show his appreciation for him.
Even if it was a bit embarrassing.
Before SMG4 even fully comprehended what was happening, SMG3 had already let go and moved back to his place on the couch.
SMG4 wanted to say something but just at that moment, they heard the doorknob turning.
"Meggyy!! I'm here!!" Taris cheery voice called out, alerting both Meme Guardians to her presence.
As soon as Tari entered the living room, she noticed SMG4 and SMG3 sitting there.
"Oh hey guys! I didn't know you were coming as well! I don't think I have enough controllers for you two..." Tari paused, taking a closer look at the two men.
"Are you two wearing matching outfits? How cute!"
If one more person says something about their outfits, SMG3 will explode.
But before SMG3 could say something, Meggy re-entered the living room with the worst looking.. what are those.. brownies? Muffins?? He had EVER seen.
"Tari! You're here!!" Meggy put her baking on the coffee table in the middle of the room. "I made some muffins for us! Hope you enjoy."
Ah, so they were supposed to be muffins.
Meggy had very obviously not gotten any better at baking since the last time she attempted to bake something. But it was sweet that she at least tried – at least, that's what Tari thought.
"Aww, thank you, Meggy!"
SMG3 coughed, drawing the attention back to himself. "Sorry for interrupting but uh.. we aren't actually here for video games or.. uhm.. muffins."
"He's right." SMG4 added. "We're actually here to question you, Tari"
"Question me? Oh no, did I do something wrong?" Tari gasped, already scared.
"No no, nothing's wrong!" SMG4 said, quick to calm down his friend. "We just need your help for our investigation!"
---
For the next ten minutes, SMG4 and SMG3 recounted everything that happened the previous day, explaining the evidence they had gathered and the problems they were facing now. They even did some slight play-acting to make it more dramatic~.
Tari listened carefully while eating (or at least attempting to eat) one of Meggy's Muffins.
".. And now we have Eggdog back but still no clue as to who took him." SMG4 finished off their presentation and looked at Tari. "So if you saw anything important between 7am and 9am... please let us know"
Tari took a second to think, before turning towards Meggy. "Have you already told them about the cops we saw?"
Meggy nodded. "Yeah. Did you see anything on your way to the lunch?"
Tari shook her head. "Well no.. nothing between the times you mentioned." Tari turned back to look at the Meme guardians. "The only weird thing I saw was SMG1 and SMG2 coming out of a bush after Saiko and I finished our lunch. It almost looked like they were watching us, ha ha"
SMG3 and SMG4 looked at each other nervously. "Haha that's craaazy. Who would do that??" SMG3 said, poorly disguising his nervousness.
But Taris comment did remind him of something.
"Perhaps, have you seen this thing before?" SMG3 said, while pulling out his phone and handing it to Tari.
"Is this your phone? The case is really cute!" She said, carefully turning the phone in her hand.
SMG3 couldn't help but smirk at the comment. Heck yeah his case was cute – take that, Mario.
"But have you seen it before?" SMG4 asked Tari, who simply shook her head. "Sorry guys, this is the first time I've seen this phone. Why do you ask?"
Tari handed SMG3 his phone back. "Remember those text messages we mentioned? We thought that maybe, the person who took Eggdog had ordered you to hack my phone so that they could send these messages to us." SMG3 placed his phone back in his pocket.
"What? No! I would never do that! Hacking someone's phone to threaten them is evil!! I'm not like that!" Tari said, dismayed.
"I know, I know. We just had to check every possibility.." SMG3 said. "I don't actually believe you did it.. if that helps"
Now that he was face-to-face with Tari, he felt a bit silly for assuming that she could be connected to the case. That girl was so sweet and kind, there was no reason for her to take Eggdog.
SMG4 was right after all; his friends all seemed innocent.
Tari smiled softly. "Sorry I can't be of much help, guys"
"It's fine, Tari" Meggy said. "It's up to those two dorks to solve this case, not you. You're here for video games, am I right?"
"Oh right!" Tari said, and pulled out the game she had brought and started explaining it to Meggy.
SMG3 was somewhat unsatisfied. It was a relief to know that none of his friends broke into his home, but this didn't bring them any closer to solving the case.
SMG3 took a closer look at his notepad, trying desperately to find some clue in the notes he took but nothing seemed to give him any hint as to what happened.
Almost as if sensing his frustration, SMG4 turned to SMG3.
"Hey, maybe we should head back to the Starbucks and look over the crime scene once more? I feel like maybe we overlooked something. And besides, it's not like we'll get any more hints here."
SMG4 leaned closer to SMG3, whispering in his ear. "And besides, I want to get out of here before Meggy forces us to try some of her burnt Muffins."
That was, admittedly, a great point.
Both Meme guardians quickly got up from the couch. "Thank you two for your time, but we should really go now."
"You're really not gonna stick around for at least one game?" Meggy asked, raising a controller.
"Sorry but no" SMG4 said "this case isn't gonna solve itself!"
Meggy shrugged. "Fine, your loss."
"Bye guys! Good luck!! I hope you find who did this." Tari said as SMG3 opened a portal back to the Graveyard.
"Oh don't worry; We will."