It was in the height of summer and Gadget had just finished his household chores when the doorbell rang. He wasn't used to visitors unless it was Chief Quimby, but he usually hid in various places and never rang the doorbell.
He wandered towards the door, a bemused look across his face growing more prominent by the second.
"Now, I wonder who that could be," he said with a surprised tone in his voice.
Scratching his chin, then switching his blue feather duster from one hand to the other he slowly opened the door. Not seeing anyone in his line of sight, he opened the door further and extended his neck to peek round the corner.
Nothing. Not even a whisper of a human being was there.
Gadget frowned and started to remove his pink frilly apron. (God knows why he wore a pink frilly apron, even HE didn't know that.)
Suddenly a blur of colour whizzed by his front door.
"Red," he muttered, "Red?"
Another blur of red whizzed by, then another of blue, then orange.
"What in the world is going on?"
It seemed the strange blurs of colour were circling, if not chasing each other around his house.
When they were about to start circling again, Gadget took the most almighty deep breath.
"HALLLLLLLLT!"
The colours stopped what they were doing in shock and ended up tripping over each other.
Gadget blinked in a bemused manner. One eyebrows raised slowly, then the other.
"Oh, now what are you four doing? I thought I told you, Digit, to keep an eye on Fidgit while he cleaned his room?"
The blue Gadgetini whirled his eyes around and shook his head. "Sorry, sir," he exclaimed while removing the clump of grass that was embedded in his hat, "But, Data and Scooter flew up to the window and started taunting me and Fidgit to chase them!"
Fidgit, who was lying face down underneath Digit, raised his head and spat out grass. "Yeah, they said me and Digit were rusty old bolt buckets!"
Gadget stood with his hands perched high on his hips and shot the two red girl Gadgetini's an unimpressed look.
"Y-yeah, n-nice to see you a-again too," stammered Data nervously.
Gadget walked forwards and bent down putting his face near Scooter.
"Hello Scooter. No prizes guessing it was all YOUR idea," he scolded.
Scooter just gulped and grinned, she didn't want to deny it, since it WAS her idea and pretty darn good one at that! She should be proud! It was just too easy to get Digit and Fidgit into trouble, even though it was really only Digit she wanted to annoy.
"So," said Gadget standing up straight again, "What are you two young ladies doing here?"
The two red Girl-bots looked at each other and fumbled for a reason. "Oh, er... VACATION!"
Suddenly a voice came from further down the drive way.
"No, we are NOT on vacation."
Gadget knew that voice. It always made his heart skip a beat... that voice, the one he heard for almost an entire year in the 'good old days'.
"Mommy," cried Data and Scooter running towards her, "THEY CHASED US MOMMY!"
Digit and Fidgit gaped at the accusation and were just about to protest when Gadget began to talk.
"I-Inspector P-Prince! How are y-you?"
He ran to meet her with the most beaming smile from ear to ear.
"Heyyy," came her reply, "I'm doing fine, well... I WAS... Until these pair flew off ahead leaving me behind worrying about them."
Gadget sniggered making Data and Scooter look daggers at him.
"Now, say you are sorry to poor Digit and Fidgit you two," scolded Inspector Prince unlatching the two from around her legs, they were holding on pretty tight.
"WHAT? WHY? They chased US!"
Prince raised an eye brow and kneeled down. "Oh, and I'm supposed to go over and tell them off for chasing you and never even think twice that there may have been provocation involved? is that is?"
Data and Scooter lowered their gaze to the grass and coughed.
"I thought as much... Now get onto it young ladies!"
So off they went, heads lowered, to apologize to the two guys for teasing them. All the way Digit and Fidgit watched their every step with huge cheesy grins on their faces.
Scooter saw them as she slowly looked up and tilted her head to Data, muttering something from the corner of her mouth. "We'll never live this down y'know..." Data blinked and nodded furiously at her sibling.
Gadget laughed again under his breath and turned his attention back to Prince who was busy making sure the two girls said they were sorry and didn't pull a fast one. He stared at her noting every little detail of her features. Boy she hadn't changed a bit. "How many year must it be now", whispered Gadget, not realising he was thinking aloud. Prince swivelled around, wondering what he said. "Hm?" Upon realising he had said it out loud, Gadget blushed and looked at the floor attempting to hide his blushing face, which was red from staring at her, not just from his outburst.
"Sorry," he said making circles on the floor with his left foot.
"No, no! What?"
"I was just wondering how many years it has been now," he asked, lifting his eyes up from its fascination with the driveway.
Prince smiled at him realising what he meant.
"Three years," she said tilting her head, making a few strands of her deep purple hair fall over her eyes.
Gadget's eyes obviously found the driveway a fitting hiding spot from Prince's gaze, because they had found it yet again.
"Wow, that long," he mumbled as his face grew redder.
Prince noticed how red he was and giggled inwardly. She reached out a hand and lightly brushed one of her finger across his face. "You are blushing, sir." She winked at him, almost making fun of his superiority in a romantic way.
Upon feeling her touch his face, he lifted his head up and smiled at her. Prince smiled back as they enjoyed a moment of silence, which they had always been able to share no matter what the circumstances were.
Gadget sighed and then quickly grabbed hold of her by the arms dragging her almost instantly into a warm and loving embrace...
