Chapter Text
Dr. Robotnik was a man of many talents. He had a short fuse, an iq off the charts, and he liked the moments he got to lock that side of himself away. Where Ivo got to shine past the walls he had built around himself and actually be appreciated instead of shamed.
He liked being Ivo. He felt less stressed and broken when he let himself relax and not worry as much about mistakes or making sure everything obeyed him. He could just exist in the world, floating through life in a giant metal crab, just him and his partner.
Ivo sighed. Life was actually strangely peaceful for once. It was domestic and almost cozy to be living with someone he trusted so whole heartedly, someone he felt like he could be open and vulnerable with because they would never use that hurt against him.
The older man looked over at the other end of the couch. The man in a black tank top and cut off jean shorts was so different from the agent he had once called his trusty barnacle. For one, Stone was quite a bit less professional. He shared his opinions, he dressed down, he never even pretended it was just a job to him anymore.
Ivo preferred it. He got to see the side of Stone that snorts when he laughs instead of the professional chuckle, the Stone who sings in the mornings as he cooks, the Stone that paints his nails on the bathroom floor at three am when neither of them can sleep, the Stone who cares so wholly and deeply about him that he decorated his body with badnik tattoos.
The Stone who is just Stone, and not his agent.
Ivo shuffled down the couch until he was pressed against Stone, prompting the younger man to wrap a strong arm around his waist. He looked over at Ivo who had started to trace the badniks and rose tattoos that adorned his legs. Ivo’s finger stopped when it came to the frayed hem of Stone’s shorts, changing direction to start following scars back down to the shorter man’s knee brace.
Stone hummed, holding one arm up as if silently asking the older man if he wanted to cuddle. Ivo took the offer immediately, slamming his face down into his partner’s chest in his hurry to scramble into his lap. Clearly pleased with himself, the bald man leaned over and took a long slurp of Stone’s sweet tea before making his head flop back against the couch.
Stone let out a muffled groan as Ivo elbowed him in the crouch but kissed the older man’s head anyway, accepting his fate and putting his knitting away.
After fumbling to grab the remote for a few minutes, a badnik noticed the younger man’s struggle and flew it over to him. Stone gave her a grateful smile and began petting the drone’s hull as if she were a cat while she settled down onto the couch next to the couple.
Ivo bonked his head against Stone’s chin before turning toward the screen and pointing at the newest episode of Um, Actually.
Stone sighed affectionately, pressing play before wrapping his free arm around the wider man’s waist and pulling him flush. The didn’t watch in silence, Ivo kept bouncing up and down and screaming out the answers to everything he knew while Stone answered more calmly even though neither of them would ever actually get the point.
It was so normal for them. There was no ultimate power to find or alien mammals to harass them or deadlines to worry about. Just two men enjoying each other’s company as they slowly get buried in lovingly named badniks.
Omlette, the badnik who had brought Stone the remote, had been first but eventually she was joined by JoAnne and Pancake. Ivo had named the drones (or let Stone name them) so that he could still keep his babies but sever the connection to his past self. It felt less stressful that way.
Ivo had also removed the few lines of coding that didn’t allow the drones to have personalities. He loved to see the girls grow into their own, even if that meant they now favored the man labeled as Baba in their code over their own creator.
Ivo sighed softly, reaching down to pop his badnik inspired prosthetic off, dropping it into the ever growing pile. The drones shifted, immediately burying it in the mass before slowly beginning to encroach on the couple’s space. First their legs were covered in the drones, but the girls kept spreading until Stone and Ivo were laying flat on their backs on the couch, unable to see the TV for the badniks. It was cozy and perfect.
——
It was three in the morning when Stone shuffled out of the cold bed, his hand finding the pull on the light next to the headboard and clicking it on.
“Sir? Are you ok?” He asked softly, socked feet padding on the metal floor as he walked toward their tiny kitchenette.
The only light in the small room had been from Minnie, the badnik Ivo had turned into a microwave when he was depressed and still relearning how to walk. The genius looked up from his carton of ice cream, his eyes looked tired in the dim light.
“Not really,” he whispered, for once not lying about the answer, “I’m so tired, Stone. I have been for so long.”
The former agent sat down next to Ivo on the other barstool, wrapping an arm around the older man’s shoulders. He knew that the doctor would talk when he was ready and that was fine. He would always be a comforting presence for him so that he could know it was ok.
Ivo sighed through his nose before sliding another bite of ice cream into his mouth, “I feel cursed, Stone. The Robotnik name is cursed.”
Stone stayed silent, knowing that interrupting would only make Ivo shut down farther. He did wipe a drip of melted ice cream off his partner’s chin, licking it off his thumb as he waited for the older man to continue.
“I don’t want to be Robotnik anymore. I never wanted to be Eggman in the first place. I just want to be Ivo. Ivo comes with no strings attached, just a man who is trying his best,” Ivo hiccuped once, turning to look at Stone, eyes shiny with tears in the dim light, “but you fell in love with Robotnik and I don’t want you to leave me.”
Stone tilted Ivo’s head so they were staring directly into each other’s eyes, “Ivo, I love you. Whether that means you are Dr. Robotnik, or my darling Ivo, I will always always love you. Cursed or not.”
The older man sniffled, wanting to look away from the intense gaze of his partner but the eye contact was only broken when Stone pulled him into a hug.
Ivo hiccuped again, eyes watery as he melted into the embrace. He felt bad for doubting Stone’s love and obsession, but he had been reminded time and time again that needing reassurance was not a bad thing. And now that Robotnik was in his past, he was allowed to make mistakes and need validation from his partner.
“You are Ivo, just Ivo,” Stone reassured, “I love you so much.”
The older man nodded into his arm, feeling as the former agent shifted to start picking up so they could go back to bed since it was three in the morning according to the clock on Minnie’s hull. He sighed as he felt Stone lift him from the seat, one of the girls taking the ice cream container to the trash since he had finished eating it earlier.
He allowed himself to be led to bed and lowered down and the younger man curled up in his arms and kissed his cheek.
As they lay in bed, Stone felt Ivo’s fingers trace across the lime green scars that zigzagged up his arm. Each touch sent small jolts of static through both men as they lay in the dark, only illuminated by the strip of lighting in the baseboards of the crab and their matching scars from the chaos emerald.
Ivo angrily curled tighter around Stone, shuffling under their light blanket. He swung his leg stump onto the shorter man, hooking it around his left leg and trying to pull himself onto his partner.
Stone let out a tiny groan as Ivo elbowed him in the chest. The younger man shifted to push his partner up properly, the former agent left his hand lingering on the older man’s ass as Ivo propped himself up on his elbows to look down at Stone.
“I can’t sleep.”
“It hasn't even been five minutes,” protested the man pinned to the bed.
“I’m awake. You have to be awake,” Ivo smiled brightly, “We live on our own time and we can sleep whenever we want so let’s watch a movie now! You can pick, since you want to watch “classics” or whatever,” the bald man grumbled.
“All you do is hate watch,” remarked Stone, fumbling for his laptop so he could pull up the first Jurassic Park movie.
He got Ivo relaxing on a pile of pillows, the shorter man using his partner as pillow instead of laying on top of the shorter man. They watched in silence as Stone stroked the bald head of his partner until he got so fed up he could keep his out burst to himself.
“But dinosaurs aren’t like that!” Stone burst out as he sat straighter and threw his arms up in frustration.
“It’s ok, honey,” Ivo soothed as he tried to pull the shorter man back down again.
Eventually a badnik arrived with popcorn causing Ivo to start shoving it into his mouth like Stone would steal it from him. However, the other man was too busy seething to notice further than a gentle reminder not to choke. He didn’t even realize there was popcorn in his hair.
Ivo nuzzled his face into Stone’s short dark hair and inhaled as the T-Rex roared. The other man growled in annoyance and hid his face in the crook of Ivo’s arm, nose buried in his armpit.
The older man made a face but let Stone continue his frustrated burrowing.
They sat in silence, Ivo enjoying the dinosaurs while the former agent glowered in his arms. Ivo mimicked Stone’s noises of frustration when they got to the coding and “hacking” aspect of the movie.
“It’s not like that!! At all!” He felt his lip curl into a pout as he glared at the TV and then looked down at Stone who was shifting in his arms.
Ivo tried his best to look like a man who’s dog had just been kicked, “sorry for the early condescension of the inaccuracies. I see now that they do not know anything.”
Stone smiled softly, one hand rising to pat Ivo’s cheeks “now we can suffer through the rest of them together.”
“But isn't this just hate watching? I thought that’s what we were avoiding.”
“If you're having fun, it's not hate watching,” Stone pointed out, "because we don’t hate everything. And it's still a good movie, if inaccurate.”
Ivo nodded as if Stone had given him a piece of Sage advice, “very smart thinking, my love.”