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“Sir, there’s–” Stone’s voice gets caught for a brief moment. “There’s something you should know.”
“Is there?”
The doctor motions for Stone to continue, accompanied by the endearing robot sounds he tends to make as he moves.
Stone swallows harshly, his mouth feeling dry and his throat tight.
Robotnik was gone for 8 months. 8 months. And Stone can say without a doubt that they were the worst 8 months of his life. He didn’t know where the doctor was, if he was coming back, if he was okay. And he hated that it took the doctor vanishing for him to realise his oddly affectionate feelings for him.
All he could think about in his time without the doctor was – well, the doctor. How he had so much to say to the doctor and potentially no chance to do so.
But now, here it is. Here he is. Right in front of him. Here’s his chance.
“After you vanished… I found myself, um,” Stone curses his nerves for getting the better of him. “Well, I– I found myself realising that I hold a certain… affection for you.”
The doctor’s hands fall from their position and his face scrunches up.
“What?”
“You were gone, sir, and I realised just how much I– how much I admire you and your genius,” Stone tries to explain again.
“Of course, you admire me, you blubbering sycophant. It’s inevitable,” Robotnik shrugs, strides around the counter and towards the lab's monitors, tapping away at the keyboard. “Like the inevitability of my genius triumphing over the hedgehog.”
“Right, yes, but that’s not what I mean,” Stone turns around, watching the doctor lean his head back and groan dramatically like a theatre kid.
“Then what do you mean, agent? And make it quick. I really want to get on with business,” he turns, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed and a particularly agitated frown on his face.
“Well, I mean that I–” the agent scans over the doctor's impatient expression.
There’s no way he can tiptoe around this. The doctor just doesn’t pick up on the subtle meanings behind words. Bluntness is his only option.
“That I love you,” Stone blurts out, quickly shifting his gaze to the ground.
And lord is he thankful for the red lighting he’d installed for hiding his flushed face.
“I love you romantically, sir, and I realised while you were gone and it was building up all those months and now you’re here and I don’t want to lose you again along with my chance to tell you that I–” Stone has to take a deep breath as he runs out of air. “Love you... With all of my heart.”
Robotnik’s boots click and clack against the metal flooring until they appear in front of Stone’s dress shoes. He looks up at the doctor who’s expression is now unreadable. Something unusual for the doctor, who regularly wears an anger-driven glare.
Although he can’t figure out what, Stone can tell something is going on in the doctor’s brain.
“Doctor, if you deem it necessary we can never speak of this again. I can ignore my–”
Before he can finish the doctor has seized his face with just one hand, squishing his cheeks until his lips are pursed.
“Agent Stone.”
“Doctor,” he attempts to respond, only managing a mumble as he’s held in the doctor’s grasp.
“I’ll have you know that the only time anyone has ever made a confession of that nature, it was as a dare in middle school. The entire grade gathered to watch my heart shatter when I found myself still alone at my lunch table. So if you’re lying to me – playing some cruel joke – you will not be let off easily.” the doctor growls, pulling Stone closer to him.
"I would never lie to you, doctor," Stone says, words jumbling together.
Robotnik stares at Stone, watching his breathing and analysing his awestricken expression. Stone stares back, nervously awaiting a response.
The doctor gives Stone's cheek a pat as he finally drops his face and clears his throat, hoping to draw attention away from his own reddening face. "Good."
Stone’s eyes blink as he watches the doctor turn away from him.
"That's enough of that, Stone," the doctor steps up to the monitor, flicking through whatever files were left open. "There's lots of work to be done. Order me some parts from this list. I've designed new badnik models that I'm dying to experiment with."
Stone hesitates, confusion fading into fear knowing the doctor isn’t going to want to hear what he has to say.
"Oh, um, there's something else you should know," Stone mumbles.
"Something else? What else could there be, Stone? We're moving on, now!"
"Well, after you vanished… the government dissolved all record of your identity."
"What…?" The doctor’s furious expression quickly returns. "Those mouth breathing… pentagoons!!!"
Stone flinches at the doctor's outburst. He leans in towards Stone as he rambles about disappearances and cancel culture.
"In any event… it's getting harder to be diabolical."
With tense shoulders, Stone prepares to deliver the worst of the news.
"They also froze our assets and bank account," he says, having to force the words out.
"...Cute." The doctor's lips curl up into a smile accompanied by a small chuckle. "But we don't need their funding, do we Stone?"
He plants his hands firmly on Stone’s upper arm. A quick flicker of the doctor’s eyesight doesn’t go unnoticed by Stone. He’s taken by surprise, unsure he saw what he saw for a moment, but no. The doctor did just glance down at his lips.
“No, sir. We’ll show them.”
Robotnik nods, eyes furrowing.
Noticing the doctor's inner turmoil, Stone offers a small smile.
Which, apparently, is all Robotnik needs to convince himself to squeeze his eyes shut and lean forward, giving Stone a kiss. A minuscule kiss that could only really be described as a peck. Brief and fleeting, hesitant and afraid, but a kiss nonetheless.
Stone smiles – no, beams when the doctor leans back, face red and looking nervous for the first time in the years he’s known the man.
“Go get that badnik and start pulling it apart,” the doctor orders, pointing vaguely. “It’s time to get back to work.”
“Of course, sir,” Stone rushes to follow his order.
He’s beyond glad to have his doctor back.