Work Text:
From the moment he saw him for the first time, he had been fascinated by Robotnik. He had felt it when he first looked at him across the training ground, the indescribable genius he radiated immediately pulling at him. The flawless way he paraded himself among the fools, showcasing his whole capabilities without any care in a world, the dramatic in which he showcased his work as well as the amazing performance of his machine... He had been captured by the genius, immediately.
With time, while working under the doctor, he had come to find other parts of the genius intriguing as well. Not merely his impressive intelligence, but his whole demeanor and his whole being. How could a man like Robotnik walk on this Earth, how could Earth even deserve such a genius, such a funny and cunning man? He had wanted to know everything about him, but his limited access to government information meant that the only thing he could gather on his boss was his first and last name. He had thought about hacking the government, but knew if the doctor ever found out he would have been immediately fired and killed. So, he chose to find the information by himself, by asking. It seemed so complicated and impossible at first, but he quickly gathered when to ask and when not to.
"What PhD did you do?" He asked once, while they worked together on a new project that was requested by the government. Stone's eyes were focused on the piece of machinery Robotnik was currently working on, his hand raised above his work to cast a light with the flashlight he was currently holding.
The doctor hummed, slightly annoyed to be interrupted in his important work. "Engineering, obviously, I'm sure you're not dumb enough to not have noticed."
The Agent smiled. "This is not what I meant. When I first started working under you, you had mentioned having five PhD’s, I’m simply wondering what the others are." Stone made a motion to shrug but remembered his very important job of giving the doctor a light source so he stopped dead in his track.
The doctor rolled his eyes. "If it's a ploy to study whatever I studied in order to take my place, know you're in for tough luck, you'll never be smart enough to compete with what I do." He made a gesture with his free hand to the Badniks and robots to emphasize his point, a triumphant smirk on his lips.
Stone smiled wider. "I know, doctor, your genius could never be matched by anyone."
Robotnik grumbled under his breath something the Agent couldn't quite hear, but he could distinctly recognize the word "sycophant' being said.
"And I'm just merely interested in your personal life." He dared to continue, tempting a shy look at the doctor.
The doctor's eyes rose from the robot on the table to meet the Agent's gaze. "Utterly ridiculous." He said after a short pause, glaring at him. "Just concentrate on your work, if you can even call it that, and let me focus."
The doctor's expression was one of practiced neutrality, but after a few years working under the doctor, Stone could recognize most micro expressions on his face and the slight furrow of his eyebrows betrayed his confusion. There was no real annoyance or frustration due to the sudden question, so Stone continued to press.
"Well, I wanted to know how such a genius as yourself fared in the hell that is university."
His own experience hadn't been that joyous and he wondered if the doctor had the same experience, but every time he tried to imagine the doctor in a situation outside of his lab or the government buildings his mind went blank. Now that he thinks about it, he never saw him outside of ranted government areas. Just imagining him in a coffee shop or worse, a bar, felt wrong.
The doctor used the screwdriver, the sound of the metal resonating in the silence of the lab.
"Well," he said after a few seconds. "It was unremarkable. The classes were as easy as the stuff they make you learn in daycare, and the people were as dumb as the government officials that you see every day." At the mention of the government there was a distinctive annoyance in the doctor's tone.
"Did you have any friends?" He did not know what urged him to ask such a question, something so personal to someone he barely knew outside of work, to his boss nonetheless, but the words left his lips as soon as it crossed his mind and it was too late to retract them now.
"Well, if you want to share that is." He added when the doctor looked incredulously at him. Stone felt his face flush out of embarrassment.
"If you expected me to be the lonely loser at the end of the class you're mistaken, Agent." He huffed. "I was actually quite popular."
"I don't doubt it." The sincerity in Stone's words made the doctor pull a face of disgust.
"But no, I didn't have any 'friends', though plenty of freeloaders saw how successful I was predicted to become and decided it was their personal mission to suck up to me." It was said neutrally, but Stone knew that the doctor was surely annoyed at the memory.
It was expected with the doctor's genius; he isn't surprised in the slightest. University is useful to make contacts with people in your branches, and with someone as bright as the doctor, it's natural for the masses to try and get close with who will surely be the next big star of the engineering world.
"Well, I don't blame them..." Stone trailed off.
"Of course you wouldn't, you're like them." The doctor scoffed, but his tone was light, betraying the fact he didn’t actually seem to care that much.
Okay, touché.
Stone pulled a face between a mix of shame and disbelief, somehow. "I'm not-"
"Don't bother lying." A stern look was thrown at him, but the Agent could recognize the doctor's amusement. Robotnik always loved to make him squirm.
"Well, I guess I fulfil some kind of selfish desire by seeing you work." He conceded.
There was a chuckle. "You're better at sucking up than them, at least. Now shut up and point the light three centimeters to the right."
Pride swelled into Stone's chest, and he could barely contain his grin threatening to show on his lips. He did as the doctor told and shut his lips patiently, not wanting to annoy the doctor in one of his rare good moods. Being complimented, even if jokingly or teasingly -whatever the doctor tone was- is one of the greatest pay he could ever have under the doctor. He's practically living to get praised.
They worked in silence, only broken by the sound of the doctor's maneuvers in the robot. Stone could see the wires being replaced and the battery being changed for a new, more powerful one. The machinery was really a wonderful and genius work, every part of it was organized for the utmost efficiency and for easy access for potential repairs, not that there was a need to, the robot rarely got damaged during service, but it still proved to be a useful addition whenever the need arises, like this one.
This particular Badnik got damaged during a test run in the Antarctic field, which was rented by the government exceptionally for the occasion. The doctor wanted to make sure the robots could survive even the harshest of weather, making sure that no natural phenomena could sway even one of the robots away from its mission, and it had been a success, mostly. The current and newer batch of Badnik could survive the cold just fine, the older ones though, suffered. The old lithium-ion batteries used reacted badly and slowed down the flight speed, which could mean life or death in a real situation, so the doctor decided to change the batteries for the newer one used in the latest Badniks. It is a time consuming and expensive work that Robotnik is more than happy to do to prevent his babies from getting hurt. And Stone is happy to help.
Looking at Robotnik working until late at night, and being at the genius side during all of it, is something Stone didn't know he needed in his life. Before working under him, he had never considered himself as the type of person who could 'settle down' in a stable job. He had to move, he had to surpass himself somehow, and he had to feel thrill and adrenaline. The boredom of everyday life would literally kill him. His work as an agent supplied these three conditions just fine, but after a while even that became redundant. The body guard jobs, the international coups, whatever assassination he had to do, it was all the same, the adrenaline is there during the mission but after, it's a dull and pointless memory. He had nothing to look forward to, no reason to fight, but he clung on anyway, because there was no better option.
That was until he was appointed to work under Ivo Robotnik. He had read about him before, he had witnessed the genius of his inventions firsthand in the wars, but he quite frankly never cared to know who was behind all of this. It was a mistake, in retrospect.
He accepted the job, thinking it would be the regular boring bodyguard work. He had been terribly wrong.
The first week was rough, the scientist standards impossibly high, but Stone always liked a challenge so he did what he knew best, he persisted. He had to endure countless abuse, verbal and borderline physical; endless death threats and his privacy being breached multiple times. He endured it all, trying to mold himself into the perfect assistant. The scientist deserved it, after all, he realized after a showcase of Robotnik’s abilities, this showcase birthing the admiration he now felt.
This endless battle with these standards was what, in the end, made the boredom slowly disappear. He didn't notice it at first, that his life had become much more colorful after meeting the doctor, and he wrongfully thought that the thrill he had whenever seeing the genius up close was the adrenaline of his admiration. But that wasn't it, it was the thrill of trying to be on the same level as the epitome of the human race, it was trying to be worthy of the doctor's attention that made it disappear.
He's quite content to be bored once in a while replying to those annoying emails from the governors and military personnel alike, if it means being under Robotnik's genius, if it meant competing for and gaining this attention.