Waking up to the light of the morning sun was odd after having missed it for three months now. With his windows boarded up his bedroom had been confined to darkness during the day time and only lit by the electric light for a few hours in the evening. He sat up, feeling the ache of stiffness in his back and neck from sleeping on the couch and tried to stretch it out. A deep, relieved sigh left him as he lowered his arms before he reached for his glasses on the coffee table beside him. He stood up and scratched his back, exasperating the worse than usual state of his bed body and then turned to the kitchen for his early morning pick-me-up. He froze. Teal eyes shadowed by powdered eyelids stared at him from over one of his mugs as a white bat behind his kitchen counter took what seemed to be the slowest sip ever.
"Morning, sunshine," Rouge said sweetly but her smirk was anything but. Gadget just gaped. "What? No greeting? Is that any way to treat a friend?"
Gadget stammered but a proper response didn't come out. He looked down the hall, seeing his bedroom door was still closed but for all he knew that didn't mean a thing right now.
"Not even offering me breakfast," Rouge tutted, "that's no way to treat a lady. I even had to make my own coffee."
Gadget stuttered in a panic. "How did you...?" No, that was obvious. "What are you...?" Also obvious. "Why...?" Still a bit obvious.
"Oh come on, you know I've been keeping an eye on Public Enemy No. 1," Rouge said. "At first I was a little miffed, thinking Knuckles had thrown you in the mix because he didn't trust me or something but after yesterday's meeting I realised you're not in it for the resistance otherwise you would have reported something. Besides, Knuckie isn't wily enough to put together a scheme hanging on false sympathy - making it seem like you care just to keep him close but ready to subdue at the drop of a dime."
"I-it's not l-like that."
"No? Then why'd you do it?"
Gadget's eyes shifted to the hall again. Still no movement. "He's sick."
She paused about to take another sip of her coffee and stared at him. "And...?"
He stared back at her, thinking he got the gist of what she was asking but he only had an honest answer forthcoming. "That's... that's all. He's sick from what the Phantom Ruby did to him and I felt bad."
Her eyes narrowed judgmentally. Gadget gulped, sweating under her scrutiny. She finally took that sip, humming thoughtfully and averting her gaze. "So you're saying the Phantom Ruby had some sort of drawback?"
"I guess," Gadget shrugged. "I mean, I'm no scientist or techie so I don't really have any theories but it seems that his body wouldn't have been able to handle the Ruby's power indefinitely."
Rouge nodded and made an interested hum. "That so?" she smirked. "Tell me more."
"I don't really have anything more to tell. That's my entire understanding of it. His body wore down to the point that it made him sick."
"Cardiovascular problems?"
Gadget blinked at her. He'd been deliberately avoiding mentioning those on the belief that Infinite would probably wring his neck if anybody else found out but Rouge had said that as less of a question and more like a statement pending clarification. She nodded to the coffee table behind him. He looked. Was the medicine bag in a slightly different position to how he left it? He wasn't paying close enough attention to it to remember if it was lying that way last night. Its contents would be infallible evidence for Infinite's condition.
"Then I'm guessing he's going to be on bed rest for at least the next 6 weeks," Rouge extrapolated, downing the dregs of her coffee. She sighed in relief. "That makes my job so much easier! Knuckles is such a slave-driver, expecting me to take on this extra assignment and help with the restoration efforts. The extra workload is doing horrors for my skin."
Gadget pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, concentrating hard on her face. Her skin didn't seem any less flawless from his perspective, though her face could have been caked in makeup. He couldn't keep staring because she walked out of his kitchen and towards him casually.
"We don't have any problems so long as he stays here under your tender loving care," she said teasingly, holding the mug out for him to take. Then her demeanour changed sharply, "but I expect you to remember where your loyalties are supposed to lie. Any changes and you are to report to base, got it?"
Gadget gulped, cradling the mug in both hands. He nodded.
"Good." She patted him on the shoulder. "For your cooperation, I won't tell Knuckles. With his temper he'd probably fly in and punch your couch in two and I get the sense that you don't need any more broken things in here."
She snickered, glancing at the hole in the wall.
"I know I'll have to tell the others myself eventually," Gadget admitted.
"Oh, good boy!" she exclaimed, rewarding him with a patronising pat on the head. "I was worried for a second there that I'd have to spell it out for you. I would suggest sooner rather than later to let the truth come out—it has a way of stewing in the dark."
She turned away with a disappointed huff. Gadget glared at her with head hair that now resembled the proverbial bird's nest, put off by that reaction. If he knew better, he would have thought that she was upset that she couldn't rile him up to take a swipe at her. At the edge of the living room she spread her wings and hopped out of the apartment right into midair, turning back briefly just to remind him:
"Regardless of our little talk here, I'm still watching." Then with a strong flap she was leaving.
Gadget remained rooted to his spot for a while, flexing his ears until he was sure that she was gone for the time being. He looked down at the white mug in his hands and that obnoxious pink lipstick mark on the rim before putting on the coffee table. With a burst of worried adrenalin, he vaulted over his couch and ran down the hall to throw his bedroom door open, flicking on the light as he stepped in.
Vacant.
The sheets on the bed were pushed back and left where they fell. Gadget's heart skipped a beat. He rushed to the bed to feel the sheets, check if they were still warm or had gone cold in the night, but when he got to the edge he tripped onto the mattress. Adjusting his glasses that had been jolted in the near fall, he looked at his feet in search of the item he tripped over. Infinite's shoes. They were still lying where they'd been messily left the night before.
He instantly feared the worst. There were only a few reasons he could think of for why someone would leave and completely forget their shoes. Mental images of a black and white body mangled and twisted in a pool of red on the concrete outside the apartment flashed through his mind. He got up to rush back out but stopped at the doorway when he realised he was jumping the gun in the most moronic way possible. Rouge wouldn't have had that conversation with him if Infinite was dead on the footpath just outside. But the jackal hadn't been out into the living area since Gadget woke up. Catching his breath and relaxing again, Gadget stepped into the hall and turned to his bathroom door. The inwards swinging door was open a crack and a large amber eye peered out. Gadget's first offhand thought was how strange that was. Knowing how the door and the walls were configured in this house it would have been quite an uncomfortable contortion into a small space to look through that gap with the left eye but the thought was cut short by the door slamming shut.
Gadget calmly made his way to the door and knocked. "Infinite? Are you okay?"
No response.
"Do you want some breakfast? All I can offer is egg on toast with coffee or tea."
Still no answer. Gadget's ears drooped.
"Are you mad at me?"
"Am I mad at you for effectively placing me under supervised house arrest while I was none the wiser?" Infinite sarcastically replied.
"You heard everything, right? So you know it's not like that."
"Why should I trust you? You're with the resistance and it's abundantly clear who's side you'll choose when it comes down to the wire."
"The war's over. There are no sides anymore unless you want there to be. And even then, why do you want there to be sides? Why do you want to keep fighting us?"
"I'd rather fight than be further reduced to a childlike weakling submissively keening for mercy at the fragile behest of those who defeated me."
"You wouldn't have to beg, some of the others are already sympathetic towards you," Gadget replied but stopped himself from going any further, realising that he was letting Infinite lead the conversation. He sighed. "Now's the time for living without battles."
"In this world, battles are daily," Infinite said in a low voice. "Surviving is a fight that not everybody is equipped to win: the strong live, the weak perish."
Gadget frowned, glaring at the door. His back and shoulders prickled as his hair stood on end. "I'm actually not a fan of social Darwinism and you'll probably find that none of my friends are either. Stop hiding behind a door because you're afraid of your insecurities betraying you and trust me. I'm trying my best."
"I'll bet you're one of those kids who grew up in a rose-coloured bubble. Everything cruel about the world was sheltered from you and caused you to turn a blind eye to how everything is built around you. For all your successes somebody else has failed and you stepped over them to take your place. We only rise when others fall and the broken failures get left behind."
Gadget punched the door, startling Infinite into quiet. His breath came fast and hard, hissing through his teeth as he tried to pull air deeper into his lungs to calm himself from that impulsive fury. "The world isn't like that. The resistance isn't like that. We never left anyone behind when they were down and we won. We didn't have to hide ourselves behind masks and illusory armies because from start to finish we were not alone. You can know what it's like to have someone standing beside you too. Just let me in."
"Stay out there," Infinite growled through the door.
"Come on, open the door," Gadget said irritably. "Even if you don't want to be friends, you still need to take your medication, remember. It's gotta be the same time every day and it'll be more convenient in the morning."
The door clicked open. Gadget didn't barge in, he stepped back in wait. Infinite's gloveless hand tossed something through the gap before the door shut immediately. It clattered lightly on the floor and rolled, nudging Gadget's socked feet. It was a syringe, used up since the cap had extended over the needle. He picked it up, holding it tightly in his hand. He didn't know why Infinite made him so angry. Everything the jackal said to try and put him down irritated him like having his fur rubbed backwards. All of Infinite's thoughts and values seemed to run reverse to his own. How could Gadget make him see differently?
He took a deep calming breath and then turned and walked off to the kitchen where he could dispose of the needle appropriately and get started on breakfast. All he could do was continue to extend the peace offerings and hopefully Infinite would come to realise what a treasure life could be. Plus he was bound to get hungry eventually and if he didn't come out to eat Gadget would simply eat all the food for himself.