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Starline and Infinite glared at each other, the two had been working together for some time to stop that damn hedgehog, but their personalities found a way to somehow constantly clash. They were both proud, stubborn, and hurled insults with every word, as natural as breathing. And now they were at an impasse, living together in a dinky ass repurposed Eggman base had been cutting into both of their fraying mental states. And worst yet-
“You killed my cactus!” Starline yelled out. “Those are practically indestructible!”
One week, Starline had left Infinite to his own devices, only to come back to his beloved cactus that he’d had since a child, Bethany, and see that she was dead. How on Mobius the jackal had managed that was beyond him.
“Just give me access to the base’s hologram room!” Infinite shot back. It had been one of their many points of contention, Infinite wanting access to the simulator for training practice, and Starline refusing to acquiesce control of it.
Starline snorted at the outburst. “This whole operation would be futile without me, I am the intelligence. You are simply the brute force that is occasionally useful for me.”
“How dare you.” Infinite growled out, stepping closer to Starline so he was practically hovering over him.
“Do you truly think that there isn’t a single person on Mobius that doesn’t know that you use the Phantom Ruby to make yourself appear taller?” Starline continued to snark, going right for Infinite's regular height jugular.
“I use the Ruby for our machinations, and I did it for our plans!”
But Starline just hummed and shook his head in disappointment, it was a shame, in those times when they were not slinging insults, they actually had a pretty good back and forth, their ideas and goals meshing well with one another. And in one time when Starline had gotten a peek under Infinite's mask, he could even admit that he found the jackal… handsome. Such a waste of what was almost a good partnership, but if Infinite was going to be too difficult, then Starline would dispose of him without a second thought.
Infinite growled in Starline’s face, his yellow eye practically glowing in the low lab light.
“You want to cut deep, huh? You want to play dirty?” The jackal’s mask was practically touching Starline’s face as they squared off. “Alright. You’re. Not. Masculine.”
“Ah!” Starline gasped twinkily in shock, before regaining his twinky bearings and clenching his fists. “You overrated little twink!”
“Hey!” Infinite exclaimed in a not quite twinky way but it also wasn’t not-not twinky, y’know? “I am a twunk! That is a combination twink and hunk, alright? Hunk.”
They stared at one another in silence for what felt like minutes before Infinite ripped off his mask so he could crash his lips into Starline’s weird platypus mouth, the two of them making out sloppy style before [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] on the lab floor.
Maybe their partnership could be beneficial after all.