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Chapter Text

As the sun peeked through the curtains of their mobile lab, Agent Stone was already preparing coffee and breakfast for his boss and partner, Ivo Robotnik. They had both been promptly waking up early in the morning on their quest to catch the blue space alien who had been wreaking havoc on Green Hills. They had been assigned together for months and had started dating a few weeks prior to the arrival of the hedgehog. Their communication still needed some… improvement, but the rest of their relationship had been going smoothly.

This morning in particular, the Doctor had slept past his usual 4am wake up, so Stone figured he had been up working on new badniks and needed to sleep. Since the start of their relationship, Stone had a little more leeway to make decisions and push Robotnik to have slightly healthier habits. 

After coffee was prepared, Stone walked into their shared room in the mobile lab to begin the arduous task of not only waking up Ivo Robotnik, but getting him out of bed. 

He crept over and gently stroked the doctor’s hair, letting his hand run down Ivo’s cheek as he spoke softly in an attempt to avoid being berated for both letting him sleep in and waking him up. “Ivo, you’ve gotta wake up for me, I have a latte for you just the way you like it…”

The doctor grumbled in response, so Stone tried a second time: “Doctor, you don’t want breakfast to get cold after all the work I went through making it, do you? I wouldn’t trust the badniks to be able to reheat my food if I were you.”

Still minimal words and continued grumbling. Stone leaned down and wrapped his arms around his partner, trying to slowly bring him back into reality. 

“I’m going to pick you up and carry you if you don’t get up this time, Ivo. If you want to catch that blue hedgehog, then-”

“Augh! Hedgehog!”* Robotnik screamed, flailing his arms upward and making direct contact with his partner’s left eye socket. 

“Ow, Doctor, what the heck?” Stone quickly jumped backwards with a hand on his eye. That’s going to leave a mark. 

“Aban? What is wrong? Tell me at once!” Robotnik frantically declared, using Stone’s first name in a moment of fear. 

“You hit my eyeball, doctor,” Stone said laughing. “Your motor control is always a little off when you’re tired.”

“I assure you my motor control is functioning to its optimal capacity, Stone,” Robotnik rolled his eyes, “but if you require assistance I will get you an ice pack and have the badniks scan you to make sure you didn’t receive any other head trauma from waking me up.”

“If I let you dote on me like this, will you promise to finally eat something before we go look for the-” Stone looked around carefully to make sure the Doctor was far enough away, “space hedgehog?” 

“I guess so, but only because I like the way you make them. Don’t try and pull anything like this again. It’s already thrown off my schedule, Agent.”

Stone wasn’t sure whether this was Ivo’s attempt at expressing satisfaction that Stone is okay or his attempt at humor or his genuine frustration about his schedule being changed. He knew asking the doctor would be a harder question for Ivo than quantum physics would ever be. 

An hour later, both of them were dressed and more or less presentable for the day. Stone had a vivid, reddish purple bruise forming around his eye from the morning, but felt like he was in great shape otherwise. The doctor gave Stone a quick peck on the cheek before they separated and exited the vehicle one after another. 

Stone saw another agent whom he’d trained with searching the grounds as part of the team. He walked over to the agent to say hello while Robotnik booted up the badniks for searching and tracking.  

“Agent Stone, I haven’t seen you in forever, what a coincidence we’ve both been assigned to this case!” 

“Agent Martinez, it’s great to see you! How have your assignments been?” 

“Well, considering I’m still alive and present, I’d say they’ve gone well! I’ve gotten to do some sweet travel and swing by California to see some family! How have you been, Stone?”

“That’s wonderful! Things have been great, I couldn’t have asked for a better assignment and I’ve been on some of the best adventures of my life over the last few months.” Stone avoided explicitly mentioning his new partner, but he didn’t think it was too important to the conversation. 

“Agent, I just noticed your face- are you… um.. Okay?” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it- I got a black eye this morning trying to get the doctor up.. You know how he is,” Stone spoke softly, brushing it off. He really didn’t want to get into the whole thing. 

“Well, as long as you’re.. Happy with your assignment I guess.” Martinez wasn’t sure what else to say about the situation, but it didn’t matter, as Stone was called back quickly to put on his own set of gloves and help with the drone tech. 

When Stone returned to the doctor, Robotnik raised an eyebrow and suspiciously asked him who that was. 

“Doctor, that was a coworker that I’ve done previous assignments with, don’t worry. You can be so upset every time I talk to another man.”

“YOU KNOW OTHER MEN?!” 

Stone wasn’t sure whether Robotnik was joking with him or was genuinely jealous, but he knew asking would earn a snippy “I don’t feel jealousy like all you typical humans, Agent .” 

The rest of their day went along mostly well, and by the evening, Stone and Robotnik had made some progress on tracking the hedgehog and determining how they need to best modify their technology. 

As the evening drew to a close and they sat in bed together to debrief and wind down, Robotnik glanced over repeatedly at his partner’s face while they talked.

Stone replied with a soft and genuine, “I can see you looking at my eye, Ivo. Seriously, don’t worry about it, I didn’t get many questions and it feels fine.”  

“You know I didn’t mean it, right?”

“I think that’s the fifteenth time you’ve asked me that.”

“Actually, it was the twelfth. I have 5 PhDs, I’m pretty sure I can keep track of what I say.” 

“Yes, of course, doctor. I didn’t mean to insult your intelligence, only your motor skills.” Stone laughed as Robotnik glared at him with the grouchiest pout he’d ever seen. “I love you, Ivo.” 

“I love you too, Aban,” Robotnik said, pulling up the covers and settling into bed. 

“Ivo, if I hear the sound of typing, I will take your gadgets away in the name of protecting you, so you’d better sleep.”  Stone knew he had no real control over the doctor’s sleep schedule, but he knew he could certainly try. But by the time he was done making his empty threat, his partner was already sleeping next to him.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days passed without anything more than a few asks if Stone was okay, since word had gotten around amongst the agents that Dr. Robotnik had given him a black eye. The talking seemed to have died down, which is all Stone and the doctor could ask for while they continued their mission. The last couple of days saw immense progress in the doctor’s technology, and they were closer than ever to catching up with the space hedgehog. 

Dr. Robotnik had asked for a latte while he was working on a particularly difficult component of his new quill-based energy system, mostly as a way to allow him to have space while he thought through the issue. He accounted for approximately an hour of free time, as he told his partner there was no rush.

The doctor knew that not having a time limit meant Stone would likely spend a few minutes picking up the rest of the lab or helping with the badniks. While Robotnik was reluctant to have Stone anywhere near the badniks, the small robots took a liking to Stone, who had spent time observing the doctor tinkering with them and knew how to fix them. 

While Robotnik worked on his new system, Stone quickly got a latte going, made himself a coffee as well, and took a few minutes to pick up the kitchen. He wasn’t an idiot and knew the doctor needed a minute to think without people. A badnik hovered into the kitchen and Stone turned around and beckoned it in.

“Wanna make me a latte art suggestion?” Stone asked the badnik. 

The Badnik hummed quietly and projected a design of a couple badniks. Stone shook his head and laughed, but agreed to make the robot design. 

When the latte was done, Stone gave the badnik a pat on the head and went to go back to the doctor. As Stone approached the computer room, he heard loud music coming from inside and laughed to himself. “Stone, please leave so I can focus by playing very loud music. Only you, doctor,” Stone thought. 

When the door opened, Stone went wide-eyed. The very rigid, academic Dr. Robotnik was dancing around the room without a care in the world. Stone stood there frozen with the cup of coffee not knowing whether to stay put or slowly back away. 

Suddenly the doctor turned around with vigor no farther than a meter from Stone. Both of them immediately started screaming in what could only be described as a mix of shock, terror, and embarrassment. The doctor’s hand flew up and knocked the cup over in Stone’s hands, spilling hot coffee on Stone’s hands. 

Stone was taken by surprise but didn’t fail to catch the falling up with what coffee was left in it, steady the cup on its plate once again, and give it to the doctor. Who knew government instincts would help with spilled coffee?

Despite the very evident burning on his hands, Stone steadied his facial expression to hide the pain and said timidly, “I brought you your latte with steamed Austrian goat milk?”  

“Of course I want a latte, I love the way you make them!” Robotnik yelled back, clearly also trying to grasp at any thoughts not frazzled by their previous screaming. 

As Robotnik took the cup, he noticed how Stone winced when their hands briefly touched. He squinted his eyes and turned around to sit at his desk again. Did Stone just try to hide burnt hands? That was a stupid question. Of course Stone was hiding burnt hands. And it was all Robotnik’s fault, knocking the cup over. Accidents happen, sure, but now his agent and partner was going to have stinging hands for at least the rest of the day. 

The doctor thought that “Stone really should’ve been more careful,” but this quickly transitioned into believing “I caused the person I trust the most in the world harm and I am not capable of love and I am a horrible horrible person unworthy of any affection and care.” What started out as one bad feeling directed at Stone became spiraling catastrophizing. “He only tried to do something nice for me and all I did was burn his hands!”

Well, there was no fixing the situation by sitting here and yelling at himself. It didn’t take 5 PhDs to figure that one out. He had better go take a look at his partner and see if everything was okay. 

When he finally found Stone, he was relieved to see Stone rinsing his hands gently in the sink and treating them properly. Yet, Robotnik still felt horrible. This was all his fault. 

“Ivo,” Stone turned around in surprise, “can you tell me why you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” 

“I’ve seen ghosts before, as I designed special plasma cameras for a project years ago, and this is not how I reacted.” 

“Apologies, I didn’t know that would make you so indignant. You know that’s not what I meant.” 

“I did not.”

“Well, would you be able to tell me why you look worried? You never look worried.” 

“That’s a stupid feeling.” Robotnik crossed his arms, but quickly un-crossed them after Stone looked at him with a knowing glance and raised eyebrow. “Pin yourself to the wall, Stone.” 

What a turn of events, Stone thought. Always expect the unexpected with Ivo Robotnik. Stone backed himself into a wall.

Robotnik grabbed Stone by the wrists and pinned his hands above Stone’s head.  Stone winced again as Robotnik used his free hand to inspect the burns on his partner’s hands. “Second degree burns, I see. Have they been hurting terribly?”

Stone couldn’t help but nod his head, hoping he wasn’t about to be called weak. Instead, Robotnik quickly pushed a few buttons on his control gloves. A badnik whirred around the corner and scanned Stone’s hands before spraying them with something cool and nice that stopped the stinging. 

The doctor finally let go of his partner’s wrists and gently moved Stone’s arms down. He took some bandages from the badnik nearby and loosely wrapped Stone’s hands. As he let go of his partner, he noticed lasting red marks on the other’s wrists. He had done it again and not even noticed. He couldn’t take care of anything or anyone without messing it up. 

“Doctor, you’re making the ‘I definitely don’t have feelings and also haven’t seen a ghost’ face again.” 

“Aban,” Robotnik said curiously as Stone looked surprised at the use of his first name. 

“Yes, Ivo?”

“Am I completely and utterly incapable of caring for you? I keep hurting you and I don’t mean it, and all it’s reflecting is that I am a monster incapable of love. First the black eye and then the coffee burns and now your wrists are going to have bruises.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time, doctor,” Stone said suggestively. 

“Stone, I’m being serious!” 

“I know, Ivo. I love you and I am not mad at you, okay? I know you never mean to hurt me, and we always laugh it off. Remember how we laughed when you walked straight into the kitchen counter? Or when you tripped on a pinecone in the Wachowski’s backyard and skinned your knee on their patio? Your lack of motor skills do not make you a monster, they just make you you , Ivo.”

“But hurting me is one thing, and hurting you is another.”

“Ivo! I am okay. I am not mad, sad, or anything else your brain is coming up with. I am laughing, it is okay, and my hands will be okay. You came and took care of me, and they’ll get better. I trust you and I know you never mean to hurt me.”

“If you say so,” Ivo huffed, crossing his arms. Stone nodded as he leaned over and planted a kiss on the doctor’s cheek. 

They returned to their working area before being called to a meeting with Walters and some other agents. Stone drove the lab to the meeting and made an effort to park menacingly across multiple spots in the lot. 

As they went into the building to meet, Stone noticed other agents and government personnel glancing at his hands. He pulled his sleeves down to cover his wrists and hands as much as he could and channeled a glare to tell people to mind their own business. 

During the meeting, Stone got up to use a bathroom and ran into another agent whom he didn’t recognize.  

“Hey man,” the other agent said to Stone, “all of us on the team have noticed the black eye, the bruises, the bandages, and so on, and-” 

“Thanks for the concern, but you really don’t need to worry about it,” Stone interrupted.

“Agent, if you’re being abused by Robotnik, you’re gonna need to tell someone before its too late. I wouldn’t put it past him to abuse anyone he works with, let alone gets close to. Honestly, the man isn’t even huma-”

Stone slapped him across the face with a harsh “the doctor would never, idiot,” rolled his eyes, and walked out of the room. 

Walking back into the meeting, Stone straightened his face and tie like nothing had happened and sat down next to the doctor. His doctor. Robotnik gave him an inquisitive look, which Stone answered by grabbing Robotnik’s hand under the table and smiling. Stone thought about telling Robotnik about his encounter, but figured the doctor didn’t need any more reinforcement that people suspected that he was hurting Stone. They left the meeting calmly when it ended, but Stone couldn’t help but notice more people looking at him as they left together. He put an arm around the doctor as they left the door, just for show.

Chapter Text

That night after the meeting as Robotnik and Stone returned to the lab, Robotnik could tell that Stone was off. He had a badnik scan his vitals and noticed that Stone was just slightly outside of his normal ranges. Did something go on at the meeting that Stone wasn’t telling him? 

As they sat on their couch together, Robotnik didn’t miss the way Stone buried his palms in his eye sockets and sighed, exasperated. Finally, he figured it out! 

“Stone, I finally understand why you’re acting so out of the ordinary!” the doctor exclaimed. 

“Tell me, what have you gathered then?” Stone said in the flattest tone Robotnik had ever heard. 

“You are mad at me because I got you humiliated by other agents at the meeting.” He had triumphantly figured out an emotional puzzle. Ivo Robotnik was once again never wrong. 

“Ivo,” Stone sighed. Now Robotnik was going to get yelled at. He was so smart, yet a failure to keep his own partner protected from injury. He was the worst creature to ever walk planet Ear- “Ivo, you are not listening to me. I said you were wrong.”

“Preposterous! I am never wrong!” 

“Doctor,” Stone said gently, removing his hands from his eyes, “you were wrong the other day when you thought I hated you and wrong last week when you bumped into me and I hit the doorframe and you said you were a monster. Do you perhaps notice a pattern?”

“Yes! I have terrible motor skills, which is why I need even MORE robots to do my work for me.”

Stone raised an eyebrow before shaking his head in laughter. “Try again, doctor.”

“There is definitely no other pattern present in your statements.” Surely Ivo Robotnik had ended this argument. Stone would never know he got the point. And he could avoid sharing his emotions. 

“You know that I know you better than that, Ivo. You need to understand that I am not mad at you, I am not sad because of you, you are not abusing me, you are not hurting me, and you are the love of my life.” 

“Fine.” The doctor huffed.

“If you stop pouting, I’ll tell you why my blood pressure is so high. I know you scanned me on the way home.”

“I did no such thing!” 

“I can see all the history of the tech.” Stone laughed again. Ivo knew he had to play along and pretend to not blame himself if he wanted Stone to finally get to the point.

“Okay, okay. Go on and tell me the problem.” 

“If you really want to know, I got into an argument with another agent. They think that you… are doing some nasty things on purpose that are leaving me hurt.”

“I knew it. I am hurting you and now the whole government knows.” 

“Honey, look at me. Would the smartest man in the whole world hurt his partner on purpose? I don’t think so. But can you understand why I was so hesitant to tell you? If you react like this-”

“Like what?” the doctor pouted vehemently.

“The way you’re blaming yourself and being all grumpy about it. I need you to listen to me before your mind goes nuclear.” 

“Ego te amo audioque, Stonam, which is Latin for ‘Stop talking about ME and start taking about YOU’”

“Doctor, I’m pretty sure you said you love me and you’re listening to me. Also, I’m pretty sure I would be ‘Stonum’ in the accusative.”

“Whatever, you don’t know how I spell my words.” 

“Well, as long as you’re listening to me, I’m just fed up with the government. I’m tired of the meetings and questions and rumors. Walters called me earlier today to ask me if you were treating me okay. Before I worked for you, I worked for someone who really was hurting me, so I think Walters is just concerned.”

Robotnik leaned over and gave his partner a hug before he realized what he was doing. He gently planted kisses on Aban’s face and shoulders in an attempt to provide what little comfort he could give. “I’m sorry I didn’t know all of this, Aban.” 

“It’s truly okay, Ivo, I chose not to tell you.” Stone enjoyed the love from his partner and tried his best to soothe the worry. Stone wrapped his arm around the doctor and pulled him in close. After a while of cuddling and conversing between kisses, both of them went to bed holding each other in their arms. 

The next morning, Stone woke up early and carefully leaned over to wake up his partner. They both got up and dressed without any new injuries or emotionally charged conversation, which was a win for both of them in different ways. The meetings from yesterday were behind them, and Stone would make a continued effort to ignore the questions and rapidly-spreading rumors from the other agents assigned to the case of the space hedgehog.

They exited the lab on their way to search the Green Hills police station and interrogate their substitute sheriff. As Stone and Robotnik went to join the rest of the government team inside the post office, Robotnik went to open the door for Stone. 

Robotnik opened the door excitedly, in an attempt to be chivalrous and gentleman-like, but his vigorous door opening was met with a loud *smack* and a yelp from Stone. Not again! 

“Stone, Stone look at me, are you okay?” Ivo worriedly grabbed Stone’s shoulder and turned him around, both inside the station. Robotnik could see tears in Stone’s eyes, and it broke his heart into pieces to see the love of his life crying because of something he’d done.

Ivo discreetly grabbed Stone’s hand and tried to provide comfort. “Doctor, it’s okay, really,” Stone laughed through the tears, “I’m only crying because the door hit my nose, not because I’m hurt. Don’t you know everyone cries when they’re hit in the nose?” 

Yes, yes, the doctor knew just fine. But it didn’t make it better that Stone was the one hurting. Robotnik grabbed a tissue box from the vacant front desk and handed it to Stone in case it was bleeding. He could hear Walters and the team asking if everything was okay along with an order to hurry up from the other room. How was Robotnik going to explain this one?

Robotnik and Stone entered the room together, Stone holding a bloody tissue at the end of his nose. 

“You two- meet with me as soon as we’re done here,” Walters commanded. This gave Robotnik and Stone however long this interview took to come up with some explanations. 

Within minutes, Stone’s bloody nose had cleared up and he was back to normal, or, as normal as one can get as a government agent dating his genius scientist boss. Seeing Stone okay greatly calmed Robotnik down enough to do the interview competently and scare Tom over the phone. 

Stone and Robotnik hung back as Walters glared at the doctor and sighed. “Doctor, I need an explanation from you. Now. I’ve received reports from several agents who are suspecting you are abusing your agent. Not only have they mentioned Stone’s higher frequency of bruises, but some agents suspect that today, you walked in and slammed him into the door! I need you to comply with work safety codes, since you and Stone have had far too many workplace safety violations since you’ve started working together.” 

“If you want me to keep working for you, commander I-Can’t-Do-My-Job, then you’ll erase all of the violations and pretend this conversation didn’t happen, nor your conversation with Stone the other day.”

“How did you know-” Walters stammered out.

“I told him,” Stone explained. “Commander, I promise you that they’re all just accidents. The doctor isn’t doing anything to hurt me.” 

“That’s fine, agent,” Walters said, “But I need to hear it from him .” Walters eyed the doctor suspiciously.

“I concur with Agent Stone, does that suffice?” The doctor wasn’t above being pretentious as long as he had to have this stupid conversation.

“Fine,” Walters gave up. “But I’m keeping my eye on you. And your agent can leave you at any time if you keep up your bad behavior.” 

Both Stone and Robotnik rolled their eyes and shared an exasperated glance and a smile. Walters left the room and Stone could practically hear the doctor’s brain turning. Sure enough, Robotnik pulled Stone nose-to-nose, as gently as he could manage. 

“You know there’s only one solution, Agent Stone.”

“What is it, doctor?” Stone was more than slightly concerned with the phrasing.

“I’m going postal.” 

Stone burst out in hysterical laughter, “Ivo, oh my gosh, no one says that anymore!”

Chapter Text

“Okay, Stone,” Robotnik said pensively, “What can we do to get them off of our backs once and for all?”

“Excellent question, doctor. Perhaps we could come up with something to erase their memories? Or send them a present with tiny badniks inside? Or, we could take over their communication systems and blast your 80s  playlists. That would torture them plenty.” 

“Hey!”

“Sorry, sorry. The real torture would be you dancing to it.” Stone laughed at his partner making such a pouting expression. 

“That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“Keep up, Stone. Obviously, we’re going to do all of the above. Step one, you make some excellent coffee. Then, I’ll make a memory erasing concentrate solution and add a minuscule amount to it, enough to wipe their memories of the last week of injuries but not of the need to track down the hedgehog. Following this, I’m going to hack into their communication systems and play music with perfectly engineered sound, or perhaps electric shocks of some kind, to control their minds and,” Stone jumped in to finish the sentence word for word with him, “make them all dance uncontrollably until we make them stop.” 

They high-fived and got to work. Stone worked on engineering some of the tiny badniks to deliver his coffees without spilling. He also made sure to label each cup as if it were an apology coffee from Robotnik rather than their secret plan. While he was working, Robotnik entered the room with a beaker of solution for Stone to use. 

“Here you go, perfectly measured to erase enough but not too much of their memories.” 

“Aww, Ivo, I love it when our plans come together.” 

Our plans. Robotnik didn’t know how he felt about that, but something inside him leapt for joy and he decided they needed to plan together more often. He should tell Stone this! Yet, what came out of his mouth was “You’re adorable when we get to be evil together. I love you so much.” Stone blushed and kissed Robotnik, and Robotnik was pretty sure his heart was going to explode. 

“Stone, why do I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack when you look at me like that? Have you hacked the secret to mind control?”

“Doctor, I think you’re experiencing an emotion.” 

“Nonsense!” 

“I’m certain you’re experiencing love, Ivo.”

“Oh.” Well, that made a little sense to Robotnik. Stone leaned in again and kissed him gently. Robotnik was going to have a heart attack again. Unbelievable. 

“Just thought I would perform another test to see if the results were the same, doctor. And I am in fact correct.” 

“-oh” Robotnik couldn’t handle it. They didn’t usually get this affectionate while they were working. He calmed down as Stone rubbed his back between his shoulders and told him that he was going to be okay and that it was normal to feel like this when you like someone. Robotnik couldn’t figure out why he never thought he was going to die when they cuddled on the couch together or watched bad 80s movies. But he certainly wasn’t going to complain about this new,...weird feeling. 

“Any better, Ivo? I’m sorry if it was too much, I know emotions are difficult for you.” 

“Yes, much better. I order you to do this again later to see if I react the same way.” With that, Robotnik got back to work on hacking his playlist into the government system. Stone always came up with good ideas.

Stone laughed. Of course Robotnik would never ask for affection outright. It was affection for science .

Finally, they had finished their projects and began to execute the plan. Stone had perfected the latte art of “leave us alone” and “my apologies,” based on who was to receive the coffee. Robotnik was excited to review and approve Stone’s engineering, which was as expertly done as if Robotnik had done the job himself. 

The two got to work sending out coffees and drones to various agents and commanders with whom they were annoyed. Stone had programmed the mini badniks to send them a signal once coffee had been consumed, and if coffee was not consumed, the drone would drop some solution in the nearest consumable item as backup. 

Once all items were consumed, Robotnik would activate his communication system hack with enhanced mind control features. That way, when their memories were wiped, they would be left dancing and confused. 

Stone and Robotnik sat eagerly in the lab watching statistics come in about the coffee. So far, the plan was going perfectly. Most people had at least a little coffee, and some had finished it entirely. Only a couple people needed an extra solution put into a water bottle or nearby snack, but their success was through the roof. 

While they waited for the digital report to hit 100% of target before hacking the systems, Stone pulled Robotnik in for a kiss. “Thanks for doing all of this for us.” 

“I could say the same to you, Agent ,” Robotnik responded, wrapping his arms around Aban’s waist and pulling him in close. 

The screen soon turned green, and the two men got to work quickly overriding all the communication systems. Stone had a brilliant mind and excellent memory of all the codes and channels they needed to do this, and it made the actual hacking so much easier for Robotnik, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. 

“Are you ready doctor?”

“Let’s do this, Stone.” And with that, Robotnik linked up what Stone deemed his “most annoying 80s playlist” to the system. Outside the mobile lab, the two men could hear confused screams and shouting about what was going on. Stone and Robotnik hurried through the lab to peek out of a window. Sure enough, the agents outside were dancing to the music blasting out of their phones and walkies.

“Doctor, this is the most over the top and ridiculous way to get revenge. I love it.”

“I know, Stone. It’s because I love you.” Robotnik pulled Stone in as he wrapped an arm behind the other’s back. 

Minutes later, various government personnel began to confusedly look around at each other dancing to music of unknown origin. When they looked at the source of the music, all they could see was Robotnik’s signature red logo.

 Stone and Robotnik watched it all through their cameras and windows in the lab. They could see Walters shouting, “I’m going to get you for this, Robotnik!” as he danced around angrily. 

“No you won’t,” the doctor and Stone said in unison as they laughed at the display of utter incompetence and over the top ridiculousness going on around them. 

“Was this sufficient revenge, doctor?” Stone asked as they laughed. 

“For now,” Robotnik said triumphantly.

The two men laughed with their arms around each other’s backs. Robotnik looked over at Stone. “You're giving me that nauseating feeling again, Stone.” 

“Butterflies, doctor?”

“If that’s what you call it.”

“It means you love me, Ivo.”

“Then in that case, I have butterflies for you. Satisfied?”

Stone kissed him on the cheek and shook his head. “I love you too, doctor.”