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The days leading up to the weapons expo were filled with stress that lasted well into the night as Dr. Robotnik worked to perfect the designs that were to be shown off at the event. Stone had not hesitated to join the doctor in his late nights, providing him with fuel as well as a sounding board for ideas. Unfortunately, the agent was not as used to staying awake for long periods of time as the doctor was, nor was his body.
The hit to his immune system left him weak and slightly pale on the day of the weapons expo, something that was also noticed by his boss. Robotnik had taken advantage of his addled state to land a solid hit to his abdomen. As Stone bent over coughing, the doctor looked down at him with an eyebrow raised in judgement.
“You’re far from top form today, Stone.”
“Apologies, doctor.” Stone wheezed as he straightened both himself and his tie.
“Just make sure it doesn’t affect your work, agent.” He waved away the apology, “And go make some coffee, we could both use the wake-up.”
Taking the suggestion for the out —and the order— it was, he nodded and quickly made a b-line for the room directly adjoining the lab. Unlike how Stone could nurse a drink for hours before finishing it, Robotnik went through coffee like an athlete goes through water, by the gallon. Because of that, he had installed a small coffee bar off the lab so he would not have to wait for Stone to head all the way to the breakroom in the main building of the compound they were housed in and back for his drinks. The agent did not mind, as it was much easier to craft drinks that were up to his standards on a machine hand-crafted by the doctor.
As the goat’s milk steamed and the latte brewed, Stone splashed water on his face in the nearby sink to wake himself up. The cold water helped to give him a small jolt, but he could still feel the ache of sleep deprivation calling from behind his eyes. Deciding to follow Robotnik’s suggestion, Stone began brewing a drink for himself as he assembled the doctor’s latte.
Opposite to his boss’ complex but sweet tastes, the agent preferred his coffee to be strong and bitter. He did not often drink it, but when he did it was less for taste and more for it to do its job and wake him up. He added two shots to espresso to his brew, hoping the jolt would be enough to get him through the expo without too many yawns.
Stone took his time to finish the badnik he was drawing in the foam atop the doctor’s latte, quickly grabbing his own coffee and making his way back into the main area of the lab. Robotnik studied him as he accepted the latte but seemed to judge him sane of mind upon taste-testing the drink. Stone relaxed slightly, as if he had gotten away with something, following the doctor as he began gathering the last of what they needed for the trip.
He did not end up drinking much of his own coffee as they packed away the prototype badnik and left for the expo, a government vehicle waiting for them outside the lab. Robotnik made his dissatisfaction with the car known immediately, never one to hide his opinion when things were not up to his standards. Still, he climbed into the vehicle when Stone opened the door for him and gently reminded him that they had a plane to catch.
The agent listened dutifully and semi-amusedly as his boss bemoaned the primitive mode of travel, taking a note about starting a project on his own mode of transport when asked. It was not the first time he had been asked to do so, but the doctor was always far too busy with government contracts to begin on such a seemingly benign personal project.
He finished his rant just as their car pulled into the nearby airport, where a jet was waiting to take them out of the country. Robotnik did not trust government issued planes any more than he trusted the cars, but in the years Stone had worked for him they developed a process for dealing with such necessary evils. A delicate routine that was very nearly derailed when one of the airport workers suddenly sneezed directly into Stone’s personal space as they were receiving their tickets from the front desk.
The agent froze as he felt the worker’s spit land on his face, his face blank as a wave of revulsion ran through him as the worker began frantically apologizing. Robotnik, noticing his stillness and eyeing him curiously to see what his agent would do. Unfortunately, Stone knew that nothing good would come of him losing his temper, and they would likely be wasting precious time besides. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down, telling the desk worker not to worry about it as he grabbed their tickets, the bag with the prototype, and began directing the doctor to their boarding gate.
He held that breath until they finally made it onto the plane, letting it out in one long exhale once they were in their seats. Finally, they were able to continue the doctor’s plane routine, the older man receiving an eye mask and neck pillow to help him handle the roughness of liftoff. Robotnik was about to put in headphones to further distract himself when Stone slumped down into the seat beside him, obviously worn from the trip from the lab to here.
He had had to throw away his coffee before they boarded the plane, unlike the doctor who had finished his own coffee on the drive to the airport. The brief shot of caffeine that the drink had given him had already begun to wear off, and it was obvious Robotnik could tell just by looking at him.
“It would be best to sleep while you have opportunity, Stone,” He muttered, making the man straighten up at being addressed, “Recharge that infernal social battery.”
The doctor put his earbuds in before Stone could respond, pulling the mask down over his eyes before he could look up at him in surprise. Normally when Robotnik’s work took them out of the country, the older man preferred for him to stay awake and alert for the flight in case anything was to happen and “this archaic monstrosity of a machine fails us”. For him to instead allow him to spend the duration taking a nap must have meant that Stone looked sleep deprived as he felt.
The realization made him grimace. It would not be good to look unprofessional while on a government job in another country, especially while there as an accessory to Dr Robotnik. It would not hurt to catch up on the sleep that he had missed the past few nights, at least while there was nothing else that needed his attention. He waited until they had made it up into the air before taking the doctor’s advice, his eyes drifting shut as he slipped into a dreamless sleep.
Around five minutes before the plane was scheduled to land, Stone was woken up by Robotnik attempting to step over his legs. He was returning to his seat, having left likely to use the bathroom. He sat up from where he had been slumped in the chair, rubbing his aching neck from sleeping at an odd angle.
He was lucky to wake up right on schedule to help the doctor’s flight anxiety once again, allowing him to grip onto his arm as they touched down. It was something that they did every time they took a plane, Stone silently providing any support the older man needed. They never spoke about it later, but Robotnik always gave him a small squeeze of gratitude before letting go.
In the haze of still-receding sleep, the next two hours passed Stone in a blur. They exited the plane and the airport, immediately getting into the car that was meant to take them to where the expo is being held. Rather than leaving the luggage with the prototype in the trunk as he had before, they brought it to the front of the car with them, the doctor more wary now that they were on unfamiliar ground.
Once making it to the convention center, the two were quickly given their passes and an itinerary for the day’s events. There was still a bit of time left before Robotnik was scheduled to present his prototype, leaving them with time to kill. Stone decided a good use for this time would be to get some refreshments, something to wake him up further as they waited. He looked at the back of the itinerary where a map of the convention center showed where everything was set up, his boss following him when he set off for the table holding whatever catering was acquired for such a fancy and important event. They had attended many of these types of events before, though they had all taken place in various states around the US rather than outside of the country.
The expos boiled down to pissing contests between government agencies, showing off the various weapons each had at their disposal. Showing off was something Robotnik excelled at, and so he had a standing spot as GUN’s go-to for such events, where he would give everyone a glimpse of whatever his latest and greatest project was turning out to be. The arrangement was a tedious but necessary symbiosis, GUN received their bragging rights and Robotnik received his funding.
However, while the expo itself had become old hat to Stone by now, the fact that it was overseas was putting him slightly on edge. The doctor was not as protected as usual, their flight having limited him to only Stone and the prototype rather than his usual entourage of drones.
The agent was more than capable enough to protect the doctor on his own, it was after all what he had been hired to do, but the badniks were a nice bonus as they allowed him to keep track of things going on outside of his immediate area. Stone had lost the usual leg up he had had over the competition, and it had left him and his boss both somewhat unbalanced. So much so that he was glad Robotnik was sticking close to his heels as they wandered the center, getting the irrational and impossible feeling that they were being watched.
“You’re tense,” Robotnik noted aloud as Stone grabbed drinks for both of them. The agent gave a short chuckle at the bluntness of the observation, handing the older man a cup of the least inoffensive drink that he could find on the table.
“I’m just tired, Doctor, don’t worry,” The agent gave him a reassuring smile, which only served to annoy the doctor as he snapped that he wasn’t worried about him. Stone had caused the resulting mini-tirade of insults on purpose, to distract his boss as he looked around suspiciously at the crowd of people surrounding them.
There wasn’t anyone in particular who stood out to him, but they were at a highly prestigious event. Anyone willing to take the risk of attacking someone attending would have to be good enough to be able to blend into the crowd while watching their target. Stone would have to keep a close eye on their surroundings until they are able to slip away after Robotnik’s presentation. They were not expected to stay too long after their obligation was completed anyway, the doctor notorious for his dislike of large social gatherings.
With how long it had taken them to find the catering table, if they were to leave for the stage area right away, they would likely reach it by the time the doctor was scheduled to present. Realizing this, Stone began gently herding Robotnik in the direction they needed to be in, keeping a tight grip on the briefcase holding the prototype. The doctor realized what he was doing after a moment, snapping at him with a smirk that showed he was more amused than offended.
“I’m no cattle, Agent Stone, you do not have to herd me like one.”
“Sorry doctor,” Stone jokes, sharing the man’s small grin, “The sooner we get done here the sooner I can nap on the plane ride home.”
“Hah!” Robotnik barked a laugh, “I’ve been far too lenient with you Stone if you are so unafraid to show me such cheek.”
The two continued to chuckle as they approached the presentation stage. Once there, the doctor had him take out the prototype for him to get set up and run any last-minute adjustments. As Robotnik began running diagnostic tests on his creation, the younger man suddenly straightened, feeling the prickle of eyes on them from somewhere across the room.
Stone glanced around them, but before he was able to locate and identify whoever was watching them, the lights of the convention center went dark. While the windows of the center prevented a total blackout, a wave of unease swept through the expo as people worried about what the cause of the outage was. The agent backed up closer to where Robotnik was still crouched low to the floor over the prototype, the machine too heavy to be placed on the flimsy expo tables.
The low light and nervous shuffle of bodies around them made it impossible for Stone to locate what direction their attackers may be coming from. It was made even more difficult when two shots rang out from opposing sides of the room, causing the chaos in the crowd to double as some people began to scream and try to get away. The shouts of pain from the people hit by the stray shots confirmed that it was them the wannabe-hitmen were after, their aim far too close to them to be purely coincidence.
“Doctor,” Stone began, but was cut off by the doctor speaking up without looking at him.
“Yes, Stone, I already deduced that we were the targets of the attack as soon as the lights were sabotaged. Why else would it begin right before the presentation my baby would have been perfectly functional and able to protect me? Taking advantage of the fact that I was forced to leave the rest of my entourage at home, no doubt.”
Robotnik’s fingers flied over the small keyboard that had opened from the side of the prototype, “I will have the badnik fully up and operational in just a moment, and then this flimsy attempt at an assassination will be over in short notice. You just need to provide cover for me until that happens, should not be too difficult an assignment for even you.”
“Yes doctor,” Stone nodded, eyes scanning in the direction he believed one of the attackers were in based on the direction of the shot.
He was at an obvious disadvantage in the low light, and his lack of sleep had dulled his senses and slowed his reaction time. Their assailants were likely equipped with scopes on whatever weapons they had brought, but it was bright enough that night-vision was more a hindrance than help. That and the amount of people were likely what caused them to miss the first shots, but they did not guarantee safety.
The windows on the floors above were the most likely vantage point for the attack, allowing for a height advantage without having to sneak into the building. Stone’s hunch was proven correct when he spotted a figure in the windows above them crouching low to try and avoid being seen. Even if he by some miracle was not one of the two who had taken the shots, the agent could not take that chance and allow another attempt to be made.
He did not have much on him, most weapons having been taken off of them either before their flight or at the door of the expo, but that did not mean he was completely unarmed. Robotnik never allowed them to be completely weaponless; there was more than just the prototype in the briefcase they had brought. The doctor had already taken a small moment of time while in a loading screen to assemble the pieces of a small handgun and slide it across the floor towards Stone.
His eyes staying trained on the figure in the window, he used his foot to toss the gun up and catch it, quickly taking aim and firing it in that direction. He knew that some accuracy was lost with distance, but he did not care too much as he was simply the distraction. Unfortunately, Stone himself was also distracted, and too focused on the one assailant he could see he had forgotten the one he hadn’t. This came back to bite him in the ass when a bullet buried itself in his thigh, causing him to grit his teeth in pain as his leg nearly buckled.
Whipping around, he aimed for the general area that the other hitman was in, basing it on where exactly he had been hit. As he fired two rounds in that direction, he heard the security for the event finally beginning to mobilize and look for the intruders. That did not prevent the original attacker from managing to land one more shot on Stone however, causing him to cry out as pain bloomed in his side.
“Stone! I did not give you permission to get shot!” Robotnik scolds him, a note of something in his voice that almost sounded like fear. “I will be done momentarily, and if you get killed before that I will make you wish you were dead.”
“Yes, doctor,” Stone grunted as he fired a few more rounds in retaliation, causing the figure to duck out of view once again.
He grit his teeth as adrenaline caused his heart to thump loudly in his ears, looking back towards the attempted assassin that was behind him. Once again, he cursed the fact that they did not have any of their normal badniks with them, unused to dealing with fire from two directions without backup of any kind. The security guards had finally begun to shoot where they believed the attackers were, but they were a little late for the party.
Behind him, Stone heard Robotnik shout victoriously and the familiar whirr of a badnik activating and arming itself. He felt relief flow through him, especially as the freshly awakened badnik zipped past his head and in the direction of the figure at the window. The feeling caused him to smile even as he felt like his limbs suddenly weigh him down much more than usual. He felt himself tipping, a pain in his leg reminding the agent that he had not left the encounter completely unscathed.
As the darkness overwhelmed his vision, his last thought was that at the very least he had done the job he was paid for.
Stone regained consciousness slowly, the first thing he was aware of the electric drone of machines surrounding him. It was familiar, comforting, and it caused him to realize without having to open his eyes that he was in Robotnik’s lab. They felt too heavy to open just yet, and he could feel the dull ache of pressure that meant he was getting sick. He was far too comfortable to want to open his eyes and deal with the world, still floating in that soft place between being awake and asleep.
Awareness of his body came next, the agent beginning to feel a dull ache originating in his thigh and lower abdomen. He rasped a soft grunt at the feeling, shifting in his bed and causing something to beep in acknowledgement over his head. Despite feeling like shit, Stone instinctively smiled at the evidence of the doctor’s technology watching over him, knowing he was in safe hands. Suddenly a door across the lab opened, footsteps getting louder as they approached where he was lying.
Dr Robotnik was the most likely person for the steps to belong to, as they were in his lab and his boss had a very particular rhythm to the way that he walked. The footsteps paused a foot away from him, before the doctor requested a status report from the badnik over his head. The bot beeped a procession of notes, a tune that Stone recognized as the one he usually heard when asking one of the drones for a report on his boss’ health.
The agent furrowed his brows in confusion, beginning to struggle at opening his eyes as he wondered why it was that Robotnik was interacting with the medical badnik. Because of his dedication to the doctor’s health aligning with the mednik’s directives often the drone would listen to his orders over his boss’, causing the older man to dramatically declare it a traitor and claim favoritism whenever it greeted Stone in the lab. The little bot was practically Stone’s in all but name now, so for Robotnik to be using it once again was odd.
His eyes blinked blearily open; vision fuzzy for a moment before he was able to focus down on his own body lying in the bed. He had no blanket over him on the small medical table where he had been laid, allowing Stone to see the bandages wrapped around his midsection and leg. His shirt had been taken off, but his pants had not been, the fabric instead cut at about mid-thigh to allow access to the wound. He felt simultaneously too hot and too cold, probably a fever beginning to set in.
He remembered what happened slowly as he stared down at himself, the plane ride, the expo, the blackout. The hitmen getting two lucky shots on him as he bought time for the doctor to bring his badnik online. He had not necessarily believed that he would die when he had succumbed to his injuries, but he had certainly not expected to wake up in the care of the doctor. Perhaps in a government run hospital with a card signed by his boss waiting for him by his bedside.
Speaking of his boss, Robotnik had noticed he was awake now, looking down at him with a raised eyebrow, “Did you enjoy your little nap, agent?”
“How long was I out?” Stone’s voice was rough with disuse, but the doctor only had to wave his hand for a badnik to appear with a bottle of water gripped in its claw.
“Two days.” Robotnik’s expression twitched slightly as Stone nearly coughed up the water he was drinking in reaction, “The most probable cause is the combination of your injuries and the lack of sleep you received in the days prior.”
The cough of surprised turned into an actual cough, the doctor watching as he attempted in vain to clear his lungs and throat of the phlegm caught in them. Once he had mildly succeeded, Stone’s eyes watered as he took another long drink of the water.
“How did I get so sick?”
“Also because the lack of sleep, though the imbecile who expelled their contagions all over you at the airport likely did not help.” He continued to watch the agent as he set the now-empty glass on the medical table beside him, “It is unlike you to succumb so easily to illness, but I must admit that I am the root cause of it.”
Stone blinked in surprise, an admission of fault being the closest Robotnik ever gets to an apology. Getting a better look at his boss now, the older man was much tenser than normal, holding himself very still as he went back to looking at the younger’s medical report. He was obviously very uncomfortable looking at the report, and yet he had still taken it upon himself to care for the agent, perhaps out of an uncharacteristic feeling of guilt?
After letting the pause stretch between them, Stone spoke up and questioned quietly, “Do we know why the attack was targeting us specifically?”
Robotnik untensed slightly at being given a question he knew the answer to, “A plot for my prototype and its schematics, according to the goon that was captured alive. They seem to be a fringe group from GUN, with enough data on me to know where I am going and how armed I will be. They knew they would never be able to get close to me with my babies watching over––”
“––so they took advantage of the fact that we had to leave them in the US when travelling out of the country by plane.” Stone finished, and the doctor nodded in confirmation.
“Rest assured; I intend to never allow us to be in such a dire position ever again.”
The agent sighed in relief, sounding raspy thanks to his current head cold, “I am glad to hear that. Were you hurt at all, doctor?”
Robotnik scoffed at the question, “No, you made enough of a distraction of yourself for my baby to get up and running before I attained even so much as a skinned knee.”
A grin grew across his face upon hearing that, “They thought you were without your arsenal, but they forgot one of your biggest assets.”
The joke was meant to amuse his boss, who usually got a kick out of Stone referring to himself like he was one of the bots. Instead, it seemed to backfire, the man’s face tightening further in anger, “What the hell is the point of a weapon if it simply breaks after only one use?”
Blinking in surprise the agent realized that the real issue, what was making Robotnik so tense and upset, was the simple fact that Stone had gotten hurt protecting him. Since coming to work for the doctor he had not received anything worse than a superficial flesh wound, and certainly not caught any major illnesses. Thanks to this, the older man had never seen him as physically vulnerable as he was now, and it seemed to have shaken him.
As much as Stone disliked seeing the man like this, it would be dishonest to try and reassure Robotnik that it would never happen again. While it is unlikely to happen when they have the badniks with them, it is not impossible and to pretend it is would be irresponsible.
The agent thought he should break the news to him as gently as he could, “With all due respect, sir, I am your bodyguard––”
His cold must have been affecting his normal ability to placate his boss, as once again that seemed to be the wrong thing to say. Robotnik exploded and bolted forward to lean dangerously close over where Stone still lay back on the table. His eyes went wide at the proximity, heart giving a hard thump as his boss’ finger jabbed into his sternum.
“GUN may have assigned you to me as a bodyguard, but I hired you on as my assistant. As such your life belongs to me, agent, and I will not tolerate you throwing it away like last week’s leftovers! Is that clear?”
Robotnik continued to hover over, panting after having finished yelling down at him, until he seemed to collapse completely and fall onto Stone’s chest. The weight of the other man on his injuries caused the agent to wince, but he did not even begin to consider trying to get the other off him as he seemed to curl into the feverish warmth the younger’s body was emanating. After a moment, he hesitantly brought his own hands up to wrap around Robotnik comfortingly, one on the small of his back and the other at the back of his neck.
“…Yes sir,” Stone whispered softly, and the other sagged further into him at the words of agreement.
“We are going to begin work on my transportation project as soon as you are in proper working order, no more traveling in those unreliable government hired deathtraps.” Robotnik mumbled into where his face was pressed against the agent’s chest, causing it to rumble against him as the younger man chuckled at his words.
It was not too surprising that after an experience such as this one the doctor would want to focus on non-government contracted projects for a while. Though the idea that he was doing such a thing for Stone’s sake made him blush, a rush of heat that he was thankfully able to blame on the fever. The doctor seemed to have forgotten about the illness for a moment, and he could almost watch the train of thought pass through his head as he considered getting up and decided against doing so. He nearly blushed deeper at the thought that his boss was enjoying laying with him too much to worry about the risk of contagion, but he was distracted before it appeared by the other beginning to speak.
Robotnik picked up the metaphor that was used earlier of the agent being a machine, adjusting uncomfortably as he admitted, “I do not know how best to perform maintenance on you, you will have to give me examples of how to… take care of you, when you are like this.”
Stone stared up at the ceiling, trying to remember the last time he had genuinely let someone take care of him, “I don’t think anyone has taken care of me since…”
He trailed off, unsure of how the doctor would react to the information he was about to share knowing how he usually reacted to sentimentality and other such subjects. This only served to annoy Robotnik however, causing him to nudge Stone in the side marginally softer than usual due to his injuries.
“Out with it,” he muttered as the younger man let out a small cough.
“Well, since college I guess,” Stone could feel himself blushing slightly as he admitted, “My boyfriend at the time took care of me.”
Robotnik was quiet for a moment, contemplating the information he was just given, “How did he do so?”
The agent stared up at the ceiling as he reminisced, “I fought him on it a lot, but he insisted on feeding me shitty egg drop soup from a local Chinese place and cuddling with me as I ate it. I told him that he would get sick if he did it, and he did, but that was the last time I let someone else take care of me.”
Once again there was a long pause as the doctor chewed on what he had just heard, Stone trying not to fidget too much as he processed. Surely the other must have realized that the position they were in now was not too different from what he had just described, likely causing Robotnik to have realized the inherent intimacy in such a pose. He debated removing his hands for a moment, but decided he would only do so if the older man made a move to get up himself.
Stone was a tad touch-starved when sick, a detail he had left out of the story being that he had practically begged his ex to come and cuddle with him all those years ago. They had both known he was going to get sick, but the contact was comforting and neither had any real care for the consequences. The agent would be crazy to pass up an opportunity like this to hold Robotnik, the man that had been at the center of his daydreams and fantasies since he had come to work for him two years ago, but he would not force the touch-averse man to stay if he did not wish.
Instead of removing himself from the situation like Stone feared he might, Robotnik instead did the last thing he expected him to do after hearing such a story. Leaning up a bit so he was not yelling directly into his human-pillow’s ear, the doctor called up to the ceiling where a few badniks had come to watch over them.
“Computer, order from the Golden Dragon Lounge, my usual order as well as four orders of egg drop soup, delivery.”
Stone could hardly believe what he had heard; his boss apparently using the story of his ex as a guideline for how to take care of him when sick, “T-thank you, doctor.”
Still the same Robotnik despite the uncharacteristic show of care and worry, he grimaced at being thanked in any capacity, “Your story just made me hungry, don’t get it twisted. And I don’t touch any food that could be described as “shitty”, so you will have to put up with soup that is up to my standards.”
Stone chuckled, knowing the doctor was well aware of the fact that the soup had only been shitty because it was bought with a college student’s allowance, “I think I’ll live.”
“Good, otherwise I dug that bullet out of your leg for nothing,” Robotnik snarked back, causing that chuckle to turn into a soft laugh.
He was still in slight shock over how the last thirty minutes had played out, as unused to seeing this vulnerable side of his boss as much as the man was unused to seeing the same of him. However, the experience had only seemed to pull them closer together, so while Stone would rather not have been shot in the process, he cannot say that he is too upset about the outcome. After all, it had landed him in bed cuddling with one of the most untouchable people he had ever met, something that was not a small feat.
He was prepared to sweep it all under the rug and never speak about it again, as they often did when encountering situations that required a bit more emotional energy. However, even if that were the case and they were to go straight back to the usual two foot minimum distance tomorrow, Stone would remember this day for a very long time. It was the day that he realized after all, in no uncertain terms, that he was important to Robotnik.