Chapter Text
It was an hour after the incident. The thought of what almost happened was still haunting Gadget. He was currently going up the stairs, after he had brought Zero something to eat and more pain killer.
If anyone could find out what is wrong with the ruby, it is Tails, so he had decided to ask the kit for help. He knocked at the door and entered the room after being invited inside.
Tails was laying on Sonics bed and scribbled something that looked like blueprints over a bunch of papers. His brothers were sitting infront of the play station. Sonic seemed to try and teach the echidna how to use the controller.
Since they were busy, Gadget just directly addressed his fox friend. “Could you help me with something?”
Tails put the pen aside and looked up at him. “Yeah, what´s up?”
“There´s something wrong the ruby that is hurting Zero and I need to find out why.”
Tails nodded as he quickly stacked all his blueprints together, before walking to his hammock and grabbing a few devices from it. “I´ll be there in a minute.”
“Whoa, whoa. Easy there, buddy.” Sonic had turned around to them, while still sitting on the floor. “It´s already dark outside. You know what mom said about staying up too late.”
“I know, I´m just gonna take a quick look at it.”
Sonic looked like he wanted to argue once more, but Gadget interrupted him.
“I´ll make sure he comes back up in time.”
He hesitantly nodded after a moment. “Alright, I count on you.” Sonic turned back around, only to see that Knuckles had beat him in the current level.
“Never get distracted during a battle, hedgehog.” Knuckles adviced, not even trying to hide his gloating.
“Not fair! I want a rematch!”
Tails followed Gadget outside and they walked down the stairs in silence. Once in view of the kitchen, they noticed Tom and Maddie sitting at the table having a conversation. Maddie noticed them.
“Gadget, we need to talk.” She called out in a stern voice.
“I´ll be there in a minute.”
She nodded and continued the talk with her husband as the two mobians kept walking towards the guest room.
Gadget knocked at the door. A monotone “yes” was heared from the other side, much to their surprise. They exchanged a quick glance, before the red wolf opened the door.
Zero was sitting on the bed again, with an empty plate infront of him. He side eyed them, but mostly the young fox, who seemed to shrink under his stare.
“What do you want?”
Tails nervously fiddle with the device in his hands. “G-Gadget asked me to take a look at that.” The kit tried to hide behind said wolf as imperceptible as possible. Zero looked over at him in a silent question.
“It might help.” Gadget shrugged and took a step aside to let Tails through.
“Yeah right...” He turned his head away and just stared at the wall infront of him. Gadget did noticed the glint of tiredness in the jackals eyes, so at least the medicine was starting to work. A few moments past and nothing else happened.
Gadget looked over at Tails, who was rooted at the spot. “Are you alright?”
“Y-Yeah, totally.” It was an obvious lie. “It´s just... Can´t you stay here?”
“Sorry, they´re waiting for me. Don´t worry, you´ll be fine. He´s not gonna bite you...” Gadget looked over at Zero. “...right?”
It took the sleepy jackal a moment to realize that he was spoken to and rolled his eyes. “No, I won´t.”
“See?” Gadget placed a hand on the kits shoulder. “I´ll be back as soon as I can.” Tails hesitantly nodded, so he left the room and quietly closed the door. He then walked towards the kitchen to the waiting parents.
Walking into the room, their eyes were immediatly on him. “Take a seat, please.” Tom gestured at the chair on the opposite site of the table.
“How is he?” Maddie asked him once he sat down.
“A little better, thanks to the medicine.”
“Good to hear.”
“That´s great and all, we still have a few things to discuss.” Tom added with a stern voice. “It can´t keep going like that. Not after what almost happened today.”
“I know...” Gadget agreed.
“We were lucky it wasn´t loaded.”
“Tom.” Maddie tried to interrupt his rambling.
“Heck, the safety was even still on.”
“Tom!” She placed a hand on his forearm. “Calm down.”
“Right, sorry.” He took a deep breath. “Just been a long day.”
“It was my fault. I should´ve noticed something was wrong sooner.” Gadget told them, as he looked down at the table.
“No, it wasn´t.” Maddie disagreed with him. “He is my patient, so it´s my job to make sure he´s fine.”
Gadget was silent after that, definetly not agreeing with her. It just made him feel worse that Maddie blamed herself for what happened. Tom and Maddie looked at each other for a moment.
“Is there, anything else wrong?” Tom eventually asked.
“I-It´s just...” Gadget thought about what to say for a moment. “I´m really thankful that you let me... let us stay here.”
“But...?” Maddie asked as he was quiet again.
“But, I feel like we don´t belong here. And I don´t mean this world. Just, this home. It feels like we are a burden. You´re trying to adjust to some big changes and we´re just in the way.”
“I know it hasn´t been easy lately, but we can find a way to make things work.”
Gadget shook his head. “No, you already have three kids to take care of. You shouldn´t have to worry about two more people living here.” He looked up at them with as much confidence as he could. “We should move out.”
Their expression changed from surprise to sadness and finally acceptance.
“Alright. We can help you find a new place to stay tomorrow. It´s too late for today.” Tom eventually said.
“As for Zero, we should get...” Maddie began, but was interrupted by Gadget.
“Don´t worry about him. Like I said, you should focus on your own family. I´ll make sure something like this won´t happen again.”
“If you say so...” Tom said, not sounding very convinced.
Gadget then got off his chair. “Speaking of which, I should go check on him.”
They wished him goodnight and watched the wolf leave the room.
“I hope he knows what he´s doing.” Tom muttered under his breath. Maddie only nodded in agreement.
Gadget quickly made his way over to the guest room. Just as he was about to open the door, it suddenly swung open and Tails rushed out of it, almost crashing into him.
“Ah, sorry.” He took a step back to let the fox pass by. “Found anything?”
Tails had to suppress a yawn before answering. “Maybe, I´ll need to analyze this first.”
“That can wait til tomorrow. You should get some rest.” He looked towards the door. “Is he still awake?”
“Mhm, kinda. Anyway, I better go now. See ya tomorrow.”
He watched Tails leave, before entering the room.
Zero was still sitting on the bed, just a bit closer to the back of it.
“Hey.” The jackal gave him a short nod. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired.”
“Well...” Gadget fiddled around at his gloves. “Let me know if you need anything.” He picked up the empty plate from the bed and turned to leave.
“Wait.”
He looked back over his shoulder.
“Could you...” Zero took a deep breath before he continued. “Could you stay here?”
“Oh.” He placed the plate back on the nightstand. “Of course.” Gadget walked to the bed and Zero scooped over to make room for him. They sat side by side in silence. Zero soon leaned over and rested his head on the others shoulder.
It took five minutes until he was asleep. Gadget waited another minute, before carefully laying the jackal down onto the bed. He then picked the plate back up and quietly left the room.
By the time he reached the kitchen sink he had already convinced himself that Zero´s recent behavior must´ve been due to the medicine. Theres no way the jackal would´ve otherwise asked him to stay until he was asleep.
Right?