Work Text:
“What in Chaos are you doing?!”
Gadget was totally used to Zero eating all sorts of weird things. The jackal was practically a garbage disposal when it came to food.
He was not, however, expecting Zero to be slowly eating a cactus.
Spines and all.
“Nothing.”
“You’re eating a cactus, how is that nothing? And why a cactus of all things? We have food.”
“You’ve clearly never lived in the desert before.”
That was a poor excuse, but he didn’t care.
“How the hell does that give you an excuse to eat a cactus over literally anything else?! You’ve lived here for months, this isn’t a desert. Where did you even find a cactus around here anyway?”
“I didn’t say it didn’t hurt. And you seem to have forgotten the current state of Green Hill. There is plenty of desert nearby.”
“Then why are you- And... No- You can’t just-“
“Why not? It certainly hurts less than-“ Zero suddenly stopped speaking, hissing in pain before spitting out a couple of cactus spines. He decided not to tell Gadget that the spines were not what caused him pain in that moment.
“Less than...?”
“Shouldn’t you be getting cleaned up? You were helping with rebuilding today, correct? I can smell the burning rubber and oil on you.”
“I just got home.”
“And you smell awful. Go.”
Zero was really set on avoiding the question. Huh.
Sure, he did need to go shower, but curiosity was getting the best of him.
“Tell me why you’re really eating a cactus first.”
“No.”
Zero had now drifted from vague disinterest to flat out petulance, which was a bit odd to see. He must really be embarrassed about something to be acting like this.
Gadget could have sworn he heard a whimper come from the jackal, too.
“Zero-“
“I said no. Get off me, you’re going to make me need a shower too. Not that I would usually be opposed to that, if I got to join you, but I’m not particularly in the mood at the moment.”
Gadget had only put his hand on Zero’s shoulder to elicit that much of a response.
There was definitely something Zero wasn’t sharing. It was kinda cute, watching him get so worked up about it.
The wolf paused for a minute, studying his boyfriend’s face. The jackal was holding his jaw partially open at a somewhat odd (and definitely uncomfortable) angle, as if it hurt to close his mouth. He couldn’t be sure, of course, with the cactus in the way. (Since any sane mobian wouldn’t have a cactus in their mouth to begin with, much less if their jaw hurt... wait. Oh..)
“Zero. Take the cactus out of your mouth, please.” Gadget tried to make his voice sound the way a mother would when gently scolding her children, and it apparently worked, even though he was also trying to hold back a laugh.
After initially curling into a ball in response, the mass of black and white fluff growled at him, before a small spiky green ball emerged from the fur.
“Thank you. Now, tell me... which tooth is it?”
“Excuse me?” Zero hissed. His ear twitched slightly, confirming Gadget’s suspicions, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with the jackal.
“You have a toothache, don’t you?”
“What in Chaos would make you assume such a thing?” the jackal slowly uncurled again to look incredulously at his love, who was struggling to keep from laughing even more now.
“You’re not closing your jaw right, even without the cactus. I still don’t know if I want to know why you decided on a cactus over anything else, but whatever.”
“I was in the desert. Did you want me to eat a scorpion or something?”
Gadget chuckled,” Could still come home and take meds. Idiot.”
Zero sighed.
They both knew Zero hated taking medication. He had been fine with it for the first few weeks of his stay at Gadget’s house, but as soon as he no longer needed them, he refused to get anywhere near them. It was really funny, him treating it like it was a food he ate too often, and therefore grew to hate. It couldn’t have been because taking pills was difficult for him. And they didn’t taste THAT bad.
“Why do you insist on taking such good care of me?”
“Because I love you, stupid.” Gadget moved to hug him, but Zero hissed again as he made contact with his fur.
“I said don’t touch me. I’m serious. Go take a fucking shower before you get anywhere near me.”
“I take a shower, and you go take meds. Deal?”
“How about you go take a shower and then we’ll discuss this?”
Gadget walked over to the closet and pushed the door open, and Zero knew, before he even grabbed anything, what was about to happen.
“Alright, fine! I’ll go take the meds. Put that away!”
Gadget grinned, laughing to himself as he twirled the broom in his hands around a couple times.
“Thought so.”