Rings were one of the most important things in mobian society.
An abundant natural form of energy, coalescing along seams in air and water alike all across the world, and most others that Miles had been to, rings' ability to allow a mobian to survive almost any potential injury unscathed was fundamental to their very survival as a species. And with enough rings even the worst injuries already sustained - and the often deadly system shock those injuries posed to mobians - could be reverted quickly and easily.
They had even doubled as an alternative form of currency throughout the mobian territories for as long as the technology to transfer and store ring energy had been in use. There were few mobians like him who could reliably cope with even minor day to day injuries without risking death, and only slightly more that were fast enough to reclaim some of the rings lost after injury or could find their own "wild" rings, so demand was as omnipresent and consistent as the most vital of necessities.
In their youth, it had been precisely through wild ring harvesting that Sonic had managed to survive, roaming vast areas of untouched wilderness trying to gather enough rings to buy parts and fuel, food and, when the first two were in short supply and the winters grew cold, somewhere to spend the night. Even after Miles had, with embarrassing slowness, learned to navigate and deal with "civilisation" and removed the hedgehog's financial need to do so, he suspected it was as much the feeling of freedom that scouring the wastes provided as their utility and value that led Sonic to continue his life of endless roaming and exploration.
But as useful as rings were there were certain limitations to their use. They didn't restore tissue, they derandomised it. Destroyed nerves and shattered bone, organ damage, so long as the tissue was still there, it was all returned to its proper place. Even a bullet would be expelled as all the material it had displaced returned to where it had been originally, and the destruction done by deoxygenation, poison or burning could be reverted, so long as the mobian was sufficiently alive to regulate the ring energy reaction.
Which left two major areas which rings couldn't help with. Scar tissue, once it formed, was not only not reverted by rings, it was preserved by rings. Miles himself was full of trace amounts of scar tissue from where various wounds had started to heal over by the time he got enough rings together to fix them properly, even in places he didn't remember getting hurt, likely from the rigours of his life on Cocoa Island when he was younger.
The second area, of course, was that rings could not reorganise tissue that wasn't there in the first place. Losing a limb or some fur would leave nothing to restore, returning the gaping hole in your chest to being intact flesh wouldn't stop you from needing to replace all the blood that fell out of the hole in the process.
And, unfortunately for him, he fell squarely in the second category. The natural consequence of a large mobian eye encountering sharp mobian spikes.
"Hey." An unseen hand grabbed his shoulder, making him startle. Amy's hand retracted with a gasp.
"Sorry." Miles rubbed the back of his head with a grin. "Caught my blindside."
"You don't have to be sorry." Amy's voice sounded next to him, weary and miserable. "I just… wanted to tell you we're here."
She'd insisted on coming in with him at the hospital. She'd stayed with him while they'd urgently carted out ring monitors to inject him with all the energy necessary to kickstart the restoration process.
She'd worried on his behalf and asked questions he'd already extrapolated the answers to.
And she cried when they told her the answer.
This part had seemed a bit unnecessary. Rings had restored most of his eye just fine, after all, transmuting a ruptured cornea into an intact eyeball within just a few moments. But enough of his eye had found its way elsewhere to leave him with a scratched cornea and internal bleeding afterwards - as if he'd just been hurt, right there in the hospital room with a doctor there and ready to treat him and a number of onlookers who looked like they had a medical interest in dissecting him to find out how he'd survived fourteen hours without passing out, or away, from system shock.
The door beside him opened. Amy's visage appeared in the corner of his eye, her face lined with worry and guilt.
"I just spaced out, sorry. You didn't have to do that." He turned his head to face her directly. Wasn't supposed to move his eye unnecessarily. Preferably at all.
Amy's lip trembled, just for a moment.
"Stop apologising," she snapped, holding out her hand out with a scowl. "They told me not to leave you unattended after the painkillers they gave you anyway, so you can hold my hand or I can carry you, either/or."
"Amy, I've had worse, don't worry about it, really." He took her hand all the same. No sense in testing her on it right now.
"You won't tell me how it happened, which means it was my fault, and I probably did something terrible."
"I wouldn't say terrible." Miles looked away, rubbing his ear.
"Then what was it?"
"... Did I remember my prescription?"
"I have it. And, see?"
"Not really."
She flinched, he regretted it.
"Sorry, gallows humour."
"Stop apologising before you make me cry again."
Miles grimaced, testing the door of his workshop to find it unlocked. Great, now there were going to be two hedgehogs to manage.
"You've nothing to be sorry for, Amy. It was an accident, you just… fell. I'm as much to blame for not remembering to grab rings." He stepped into the workshop.
"Hey, Tails, where you been all day? Up for movie ni- whoa!" Sonic froze, eyes on Amy, down to her hand, up to Miles' face. "... Evil twin?"
"Just because that happened one time doesn't mean everyone with an eyepatch is an evil twin, Sonic." Miles slipped his despoiled sweater out of hammerspace and tossed it over the side of the couch. "I hurt my eye at the party. Just got out of hospital. Amy's been helping me."
"...Oh."
Sonic's face fell, the same guilty expression Amy shared. Miles could calculate both of their thought processes right now.
"You weren't the one that destroyed Amy's apartment or hurt my eye."
He'd briefly, for a fraction of a fraction of a second, considered helping Amy by suggesting otherwise. Even simple vagueness would have made his Christmas gift for her that much more likely to be successful. But he couldn't resolve one friend's suffering by causing another's, that way of thinking would quickly escalate to red and yellow spandex outfits, doomsday devices and far too much monologuing.
"The doctor said four to five days minimum for the bandage to come off except for applying the medicine."
Amy was speaking. Miles rewound the conversation that had been passing him by. 'Is it permanent?' Sonic had asked?
Maybe she'd been right about the painkillers? Whatever.
"Oh, hey, I was talking with Amy. I thought she could stay here for a week or two?"
"Huh?"
Two hedgehogs turned to stare at him. He resisted the urge to meet their gazes. Eye was already sore.
"It's-" He gritted his teeth. "It's sensible. I'm useless in my current condition. It's better I stay here where I'm less of a liability."
"You're not-"
"I'd only slow you down. You need to be free to move around without worrying about me. Someone here to help me would do that." Miles coolly shut down his friend, the awkward silence that followed confirming that he was right. "I'll... still be able to help with off-site technical support if Eggman attacks. And I'll- I'll be back to normal soon so don't-"
"I'm not worried, Tails." Sonic clapped him on the shoulder, the movement literally blindsiding him, almost sending him off balance. "I know you'll get through this just fine. And I'm not going anywhere unless I have to."
"...Thanks." Miles nodded. He was fine. Injuries happened. He wasn't useless. Sonic wouldn't replace him yet.
"But Amy, are you okay watching him?" Sonic eyed her warily.
"Huh?" Amy shifted next to Miles. "Oh. Sure, I'd be happy to."
"Hey, Sonic, it's pretty late. Do you want to get the movie stuff ready?" Miles rubbed the back of his head. "I'd do it but…"
"Say no more, little buddy. I'll get the snacks out in a flash." Sonic zipped away.
"You never talked to me about this." Amy glanced at him, her voice faintly accusatory.
"Your apartment isn't safe, your window won't close, and you have no fridge." Miles walked over to his desk, hand outstretched to catch the furniture before his shin did. "Sonic will likely stick around for a few days before he gets bored and leaves - if you behave yourself - and this lab is close enough for you to commute to work. I have a spare futon in my room I can set up in the room of your choice. There's no downside for you."
"So you don't really need me at all?"
She sounded hurt. Miles shook his head quickly.
"I wasn't really thinking of myself as a factor."
"Then make yourself a factor." Amy stomped up to him with a scowl on her face. "You're so busy thinking about everybody else that you waited all day with your eye like that." She shuddered. "Think about what you want sometime."
Miles frowned, staring at her worried face. That was new and dangerous territory that sounded like a good way to bird armied, and one of the few things he did want was to not get bird armied.
"Does… this mean you won't stay?"
"Of course I'll stay. You're right, it's not like I can go stay with Cream."
Miles shook his head in agreement. That would involve telling Vanilla why.
"And you do need someone to take care of you. So I'm going to spend the whole time I'm here going caring the Penders out of you."
Miles' eyes widened. He immediately wished they hadn't.
"Hey, Amy! Sweet or salty popcorn for you?" Sonic poked his head out of the kitchen, momentarily freezing her threats of kindness.
"Sweet, please!" She smiled sweetly herself at the object of her affection, sighing with longing as he disappeared once more before wheeling back on Miles. "And that starts now. What are you doing going to look at a computer screen in your condition?"
"Well, I was just going to ask Shadow if he could run the Vortex back for me before someone tries to give me a ticket."
"You're worried about paying a ticket?" Amy raised an eyebrow.
"I'm worried about someone trying to put a ticket on the Vortex."
Amy stared at him in silence for a moment before nodding. "Fine, you have two minutes screen time and that's it. And I'm only letting you watch the movie because I know you'll fall asleep five minutes after you finish your popcorn. And don't think I'm going to let you spend all day messing around with your gadgets tomorrow, plenty of rest and healthy meals for you. And no late nights."
Miles sighed, calling up Shadow's messenger and typing out a quick request with Amy glaring down over his shoulder.
Maybe he should have just put her up in a hotel instead?