Work Text:
What the fuck.
Agent Stone has smoothly spun Robotnik behind a pillar and he's alternating taking shots and directing Robotnik to the next spot for cover mostly by gently but firmly manhandling him. Robotnik can't stop staring.
He's pretty sure if they'd just sat still for sixty seconds, he could have got the badnik automatic rifle operational, but Stone didn't think they had that time and now Robotnik is glad he didn't push it when Stone started taking the lead.
This is amazing. Just watching him in his element. Robotnik knew Stone's military history and combat record replete with medals and commendations, but seeing him in action is another thing entirely.
It's fucking hot is what it is.
Robotnik has always recognized that Agent Stone is a classically attractive man. If you go for that sort of thing. But holy Christ on a cracker. Stone looks like he's out of some sort of secret agent movie with his black suit and his steel Glock with reloads that keep coming out of god-knows-where, and Robotnik is starting to wonder if he's making a fool of himself.
They reach a building after sprinting down an alley and Stone locks and barricades the door behind them.
"That should keep them for a while. Catch your breath and then we'll go meet the helicopter on the roof." He double takes when he looks at Robotnik. "Are you okay? Did you get hit? Are you in shock?"
Ivo guesses he is, in fact, making a fool of himself. Clearly he didn't respond quickly enough because Stone is now patting him down, which is honestly only making everything worse.
"I'm fine!" Robotnik shouts, jumping back away from those strong hands. "I didn't get shot. I've just never seen you work like that. I've never seen anybody move like that outside of a movie."
"Oh." Stone looks bashful for all of half a second before his professionalism kicks back in. "As long as you're alright, we should head to the roof. Don't let Peggy fall behind!"
Robotnik doesn't know how the badniks have all somehow acquired vaguely mid-century nicknames, as he keeps insisting they don't need names. But now there's a Dinah and a Peggy and a Reggie. There's a bunch more but Ivo refuses to use the correct monikers so he mostly tries to forget them.
Ivo is still staring at Stone even though he keeps telling himself to stop all the way to the helicopter. And then all the way back to their lab.
Ivo keeps catching himself doing it well after they've arrived and should be settled. Enough that Stone is catching it too.
"Hey, umm. Maybe you should consider actually seeing the government therapist this time. I know you've been in firefights before but today was kind of a lot for anyone."
"Not for you apparently."
Stone shifts his weight uncomfortably. "It's, well. That's because I go to the therapist."
Ivo just wants to go to bed. "What I need is to go to sleep."
"Yeah. Okay. I'm going to bring it up again tomorrow, so just do me a favor and think about it."
"Completely unnecessary, but your attention to detail is noted. My loss of composure is unrelated to trauma, I can assure you. I'll be good as new by tomorrow."
Stone nods but doesn't look at all convinced. Dottie, the badnik, whirrs and chirps beside him.
Robotnik is not good as new the next day. He did think about it all night, as suggested. Well, perhaps not quite as suggested.
He can't seem to look Stone in the eye without imagining his hard body pressed against him again, each time with less and less clothes. It's not contributing to a functional work atmosphere.
Stone is twenty years younger than him and in prime shape, not to mention has a great job (with a great boss) and a great salary. He's a catch. He is probably dating attractive, kind, normal people who have some sort of work/life balance. Or maybe just one person and they're in love. Maybe they have a dog and a garden. Robotnik realises he's never heard anything about Stone's personal life. To be fair, Robotnik never asks anyone, but usually he has to hear about it anyway when he's around someone for any length of time. Robotnik does think he's seen signs of Stone being into guys. But the evidence is inconclusive.
At any rate, Stone is not going to be interested in the asshole who shouts at him for coffee every day and gets him almost killed a few times a year.
Robotnik isn't interested either. Not in any serious way. This is just some infatuation brought on by adrenaline.
Robotnik shakes his head again and refocuses on his task.
Stone has obviously noticed.
"Do not." Robotnik starts. "Do not even bring it up. I simply didn't sleep well last night." He slept too well. Visions of special agents danced in his head. "A byproduct of all the adrenaline, nothing else. I will be fine."
Stone's mouth tightens but, to his credit, he says nothing.
Until later in the week when Robotnik has started dropping things like some fucking idiotic lovesick schoolgirl.
This somehow gets worse when he manages to spill an alien battery acid all over Agent Stone through his complete clumsiness.
At first he thinks of nothing but saving Stone’s skin, literally, but by the time Stone is standing in the decontam shower wearing nothing but a far-too-small towel held around his hips, Robotnik is regretting everything.
Stone's chest is glistening. His hair is artfully messy and dripping onto his shoulders. His abs are cut like a chain link fence. His pecs are flexing. Okay maybe that last part is wishful thinking.
This is not the first time Ivo has seen Stone naked. This is the first time he’s noticed.
“You remember where my spare clothes are in the closet?” Stone asks, entirely reasonably.
Ivo blinks heavily.
“Doctor?”
Ivo finally rouses himself from his stupor.
“I’m okay now, I just need you to grab my extra suit,” Stone continues.
Robotnik jumps to it. This is embarrassing. And dangerous. He can’t keep letting the stupidest part of his brain run the show.
When he drops something again the next day, he just sighs as he can already see Stone heading over to talk to him as Harold the badnik cleans up the mess. Ivo slept worse the last few nights, or maybe better? There were more dreams at any rate. This is absurd. This is rapidly going to start toeing the line of sexual harassment at this pace and, while he's gotten into trouble for pretty much every other type of bad behavior, that is one thing he has never put his employees or coworkers through.
"Perhaps my sleep last night wasn't as restorative as I'd hoped," Robotnik tries to cut him off at the pass but Stone looks serious. Overly serious. Robotnik raises an eyebrow.
"Okay, so. I'm just going to be really blunt here. I've dealt with this before," says Stone.
Oh god. Fuck, Ivo can't believe he's been this obvious. He's getting the polite rejection already? Sure, he's been sputtering and forgetting what he's talking about when looking into Stone's deep, dreamy eyes, and yeah, sure maybe he accidentally started an electrical fire when Stone handed him something and their fingers touched, but come on!
"Sometimes, your opinion of people can change. Or they might just remind you of something you'd rather forget."
What? There's nothing about that day that Ivo ever wants to forget. And his opinion of Stone hasn't really changed: Ivo's always known he was a lethal weapon and a stone-cold fox to boot. Pun obviously intended.
"It's not always possible to continue working with someone after you've seen them in combat, especially if you haven't been a soldier. We can look into getting you a new agent assigned, maybe temporarily. But I really think you should just go talk to someone."
"What?" Robotnik knows he's slowed today, but he's flat-out not comprehending what is going on here. "Are you trying to quit?"
"No!"
"What the hell are you taking about then?!"
"You just. It seems like you're having trouble working with me since the incident. I don't want to be causing you more stress or PTSD."
"You're not. How can I assure you that you're not?"
"You could go to therapy."
"I'm not fucked up because of the gunfight! You know I've been in this kind of thing before."
"And I know you've never continued to work with anyone you've gone through a traumatic experience with."
"That's not—Aggh—that wasn’t because of some “trauma”, that’s because they were useless! And that's not even what I would classify this as. It just surprised me. You surprised me."
Shit. That made it worse. Stone is looking even more nervous somehow.
"Look. You're not the first person to be put off after seeing action with me. It's. I'm used to it. It's okay. We'll just find you someone else."
"Wait, do you think I'm, what, disturbed by you being a murder machine?"
Stone obviously wouldn't have used those words. His eye twitches almost imperceptibly.
"I knew that when I hired you!"
Stone sighs and this time he just looks resigned. "It's different when it's in person. It's okay. Most people find it difficult to handle. And if you won't even try a counselor... I'm just not comfortable working around someone who's jumpy at me all the time."
Robotnik starts laughing. Oh holy fuck, is he going to have to admit what's actually happening just so he doesn't lose his agent?
"What? What's going on? Why are you laughing now?" Stone is looking around like he's missing something.
"Okay. Okay, alright." Ivo slaps his own thigh. "Okay. Don't take this the wrong way, and I promise you, I will never bring it up again, or make it an 'uncomfortable work environment' or anything else unprofessional. And I should hope my track record in this department speaks for itself."
Stone waits to hear where this is going.
"I wasn't going to say anything because I know it's not HR approved, but I can't let you just go on thinking I'm horrified by you or something. The problem does not require therapy because it has nothing to do with the violence and shooting. Well, actually, maybe a little bit. No! Wait, listen. My point is that I didn't think you were awful, I thought you were hot." Oh god, he said it. "So, just give me a few days to reconcile with that, and it'll never be a problem again."
"Oh," says Stone, taking in his words. "Oh," he says, his cheeks blushing. Did Robotnik just call him hot? "Oh." He swallows heavily.
"I mean, if you want to transfer, obviously, you can. I'm just saying, we're adults, we can handle this professionally. Nothing has to change. It doesn't have to be anything more than a crazy thing that happened."
"What if I wanted things to change?"
Robotnik's face falls. "Yeah. That's your prerogative. I can sort out a transfer."
Stone looks almost too calm now. His expression has lost all the anxiety and has relaxed into something almost... slinky, Ivo wants to say? It's confusing, to say the least.
"Well. As you said. We're adults. Perhaps we could handle this like adults. Doctor."
Robotnik's eyes must be cartoonishly large right now. "Like... adults?"
"Sometimes, crazy things happen." Stone is looking at him with a predatory gleam in his eyes and Robotnik feels like he's back in one of his dreams.
"Uhh yeah. Yeah, that's possible," he agrees, and then Stone is manhandling him back against the wall again, and Ivo is absolutely thrilled with the addition of a kiss this time.
Stone's entire body is pressed against him, and if he'd thought it was a turn on before, damn, is the man even better when he's trying.