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The lights were blinding as Metal made his way through the crowds of people. His Father was too lazy to take the time and meet up with the people he was actively trying to buy the facility he's walking in from so he sent Metal Sonic to do it instead. The man didn't bother to give him a voice for it either, just said to write on a pice of paper and it would be fine.
There were a lot of people here tonight; the facility that had once been a train station was now a night club filled to the brim with youths enthusiastically willing to fulfill it's new purpose. Metal Sonic weaved through them as much as he could, but he is made of a non-flexible metal. (Highly unreliable for a machine made with a need to be flexible.) The machine groaned as he was blocked yet again, when the conga line cleared he made his way through the crowed as fast as he reasonably could when he bumps into someone head on.
Quickly the person tries to stab him, successfully getting their knife into his side. A wound that would've been fatal in an organic being. Metal raises his voice in offense but stops when he sees the face of his would be murder.
Infinite...
The jackal looked at him in the same since of awe struck recognition. His mask still on, same silver as before shining beautifully in the multicolored lights of the club. Then they met eyes. Fear strikes the mercenary and he books it right out of the facility. Metal Sonic following shortly after, knife bobbing uselessly in his side as he jets over to the person behind the third most complicated relationship in his life.
Metal caught up to Infinite fast, without the Phantom Ruby the jackal was outclassed in everything.
Stoping in the silent streets Infinite turns to face Metal with a face the steel nemesis was familiar with on his Father and even Sonic at times. A face he was sure he'd never see the one person he chose to have in his life make at him. The badnik stops immediately creating the same image as before, but with a new background.
"What do you want?" Infinite snarled. His voice filled with what Metal Sonic only knew as hatred.
Finding an excuse fast the robot ripped the knife from his side and handed it to its owner. Looking at it now it had some blood residue on the blade, smeared from being logged in the badnik.
"I know that's not why you're here..." Infinite said taking the knife with a little apprehension. Infinite sighed and dropped the knife to his side, "you want to see me don't you." Infinite said as a statement rather than a question.
So what if he wanted to see Infinite, reconnect with him a bit? Was that so wrong? Metal beeped out the question before he could think to get the note pad his Father had given him to communicate.
Luckily Infinite knew enough of his cues to have a rough idea of what he said, "I'm not the same as before, you're not the same as before it would never work out again. It hardly worked out the first time!"
Metal whipped out the notepad and pen then began writing furiously. "It never truly ended, our separation was a small break that was prolong by others."
"That's not the point." Infinite said after reading the printed text, "I'm different now. We won't have the same chemistry as before, hell you're father doesn't even like me anymore! Not after I tossed him and his new ChatGPT daughter into the stratosphere!"
"I don't care! I still want you, you're the best thing that's happened to me and I'll be friends with Sonic before I let you get away again!" Metal Sonic writes, almost breaking the pen, he doesn't care. He came out to a lost war and a reportedly dead partner. Not only that, but his last memory of him being fighting about his overprotectiveness which was a trauma response! He's not about the fumble his chance at getting the only person who truly likes who HE is again.
"You should care! He could decommission you! Lobotomized you! I'll sooner kill myself before I let that bastard TRY to lobotomized you!" Infinite yells, less and less hate filling his voice.
"He won't hurt me, not with Sage preventing him! Worst he'll do is add extra surveillance over me."
"So he'll change for ChatGPT but not you?"
"This isn't about him it's about us! I know you still care about me and I still care about you so what's stopping you from forming a relationship with me again. You don't have to be my boyfriend again we can be friends, please Infinite I just want you in my life!"
"I'd ruin your life, that's the problem!" Infinite yells, dropping the notepad. "I'm not stable, I'm not strong, I'm not what you need me to be! I've lost it all Metal! I'm not letting you put yourself into a situation like this!"
Infinite's chest heaves as Metal stands stunned for a moment, not grasping his composer fast enough before Infinite moves on, "You'd loose everything that means something to you. Your Father, Brothers, maybe even you Sister I don't know how you view her. I know they mean a lot to you. And you wouldn't have any power! You'd be just as powerless as everyone you've ever looked down upon in your life, I know you hate feeling like that!"
Metal picks up his notepad and starts writing, he doesn't care. Infinite means so much more to him than anything he just described. Metal has all the power he could ever need with Infinite, they can make a family from scratch! He's fine being a glorified test tube if it means being Infinite's glorified test tube. He'd rather be charging in a bed next to Infinite in a shitty hole in the ground single handedly raising the electric bill than spend another night in his high-tech charging station without his jackal beside him. He wants his jackal back and he's willing to leave everyone he knows behind to get him. The fact that Infinite remembers anything about what Metal likes just proves to him that Infinite would be willing to do the same if their positions were reversed.
He hands Infinite the paper, now stained with the dirt from the road. The mercenary trembling with each line he reads, trying not to cry from how much it means to him that Metal would do those things just to be with him. "Are you sure?" He asks, his voice filled with emotion.
Metal Sonic nods, holding Infinite's hand as he does so. He can't help but remember the first time he saw Infinite. The way he was talking with the Jackal Squad having a natural fun conversation. Then their first kiss. That day in space right as meteors illuminated their blossoming relationship. Their first "I love you's", their first night together, their everything. Metal Sonic would easily trade the world to be able to experience their everything again, to gain more first with Infinite and vise versa.
Consumed with emotion the Jackal kisses him. Metal reciprocates instantly. His free hand going right to the jackal's shoulder. The clink from Infinite's mask and Metal's metal face the only sound the night streets hear anymore. It's like they are back in the death egg, pulling juvenile pranks and making out whenever they want to because they're in love.
Pulling away from each other Infinite pants heavily, "I'm so happy..." Infinite says as he pulls Metal Sonic into a tight protective hold. Metal snuggles into it, missing how tightly Infinite used to hold him, not afraid of retaliation.
After the hold loosens Metal flips through the notepad and rips out the pages his Father needs to buy his facility and pins it to a random wall. He then takes his ear off, pulling his Father's tracking device (not the only one) out and slapping it onto the papers.
Turning back Infinite catches him in his arms again and Metal beeps, "Take me home."