It was a perfectly average day at Doctor Robotnik's laboratory. No business trips, no missions, no field tests, nothing but staying at the lab and doing their regular, daily grind. Stone's workday would be from ten to six, he'd do his usual everyday work, no meetings scheduled, no presentations, no visitors, no deadline crunches.

Simply a regular Thursday.

Except it was going to be anything but.

When Stone came in for the day, the lab smelled off in a way that was hard to define. Curiously, and slightly worried, he walked up to the big crossroad that divided the lab building into two distinct halves and sniffed the air, determining that the smell was coming from the left corridor, which meant the origin was likely the testing lab – or at least it had better be the testing lab and not the kitchen, because if it was the latter he would be having Words with the doctor. Upon entering the testing lab, he could immediately pinpoint the cause of the smell: the large steel-glass cabinet where the doctor tested various weapon proofnesses of his prototypes was covered in soot, metal bits, and chemical splatter. What that meant was that the machine he had worked on yesterday when Stone clocked out had exploded upon testing.

Stone cringed in sympathy; that was days of careful work gone up in smoke – and metal bits, and snapped wires – just like that. At least he hadn't been here to bear the brunt of the yelling that undoubtedly followed.

Seeing that the doctor was no longer in the room, Stone went to look for him in the other labs, and after a couple of misses found him in the assembly lab.

The doctor looked like shit.

Robotnik was wearing the same clothes he did yesterday, right down to the shirt his lunch noodles had dripped little oily spots on. His hair was mussed up in a way it got when he ran his hands through it in frustration. His mustache was unkempt on the right side, where he worried at it while thinking. He had a five o'clock shadow. There was a discarded lab coat rumpled up on the floor in his general vicinity, with his control gloves tossed haphazardly on top of it. A badnik was hovering around, doing nothing useful. A machine that was used for bending metals into shapes was turned on, but doing nothing at all. The work desk the doctor was hunched over in a terrible posture was covered in parts that looked half-done or partially assembled, and there was an empty coffee mug sitting sideways dangerously near the edge, right next to an empty bag of skittles. A granola bar wrapper sat on the floor next to the trash can. The doctor himself was sluggishly attaching wires into what was probably the central unit of the unfinished machine. The bags under his eyes were more impressive than usual as he squinted at the wires.

Stone's diagnosis: the doctor never clocked out and instead worked through the night without sleeping, probably to make up for the prototype exploding. Which meant he was roughly 25 or 26 hours awake now.

He was adorable, all scruffy like this, but it was time for an intervention.

"Good morning, doctor", Stone said and walked briskly over. Robotnik startled despite him having been well within his peripheral vision.

"Stone! What have I said about the sneaking, are you trying to cause cardiac arrest?"

"Of course not, sir", Stone replied with a smile. "In fact, I'm planning to reduce the probability. Are you at a point where you can leave your project unattended for a while?"

Robotnik squinted at him suspiciously. "...Yes, what are you on about?"

"Splendid!" Stone said, clapping his hands together and beaming at his boss. "You'll be taking a nap in the break room, then afterwards I'll cook you a nice breakfast and brew you a Vienna coffee while you take a shower."

Robotnik gave him a death glare, and Stone was glad the doctor didn't yet have the android body he planned to achieve immortality with, because that one would have lasers in the eyes and Stone would be dead.

"I'll grate ruby chocolate on top of the whipped cream", he said, using the ultimate trump card.

Robotnik growled, actually growled at him, and stood up. He stomped the couple of steps over to Stone and grabbed a hold of his tie to pull his head further down for maximum looming, hopefully not crumpling the tie beyond ironing. "I should fire your sorry behind for bribing your superior! You're lucky your coffees are beyond delicious!"

Stone beamed at him some more, and habitually ignored the funny feelings the tie pulling stirred within him. "That a yes for a nap?"

"I will run you through a meat grinder and have you served in the cafeteria on hamburger day", Robotnik hissed, then let go of him. "Fine. We will take a nap, come on."

Stone straightened up and jogged after the doctor while fixing his tie, and then the wording caught up with him. "Wait. We?"

Robotnik kept making his way through the hallways and into the panic-room-turned-break-room. Upon entering, he pointed at the convertible sofa. "Pull out the expansion."

Stone pulled out the mattress expansion while the doctor rummaged through the cabinet for a pillow and a throw blanket that he tossed unceremoniously on the sofa. Then he walked over to Stone and started undoing his suit jacket. Stone almost stepped back in alarm, and the twitch made Robotnik look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're not going to be wearing a jacket and a tie, I want to achieve some modicum of comfort."

Stone's face felt hot, but thankfully the doctor ignored it and continued his ministrations unbothered. Stone helplessly shrugged the jacket off and dropped it on the coffee table next to the sofa, where his tie joined it in short order.

"On your back."

Oh no.

Stone obediently fluffed up the pillow and laid down on his back. He didn't get a chance to make any attempt to calm his breathing or his hammering heart when Robotnik already flopped on top of him and made himself comfortable. His mussed up hair tickled Stone's jaw as he wiggled around until he was satisfied with his position. Stone had very platonic feelings about it.

"Blanket and arms", Robotnik said, which was actually a very necessary command, because Stone did not feel like a particularly competent agent right then and needed all the guidance he could get. In his defense, it was hard to think if your brain only ever sent you rude postcards from foreign lands instead of being there for you.

He pulled the blanket over them to his best ability, and then wrapped his arms around the doctor. At least his arms knew what was expected of them, because quite without any conscious input from his traitorous – and absent! – brain, he started running his hands up and down Robotnik's back in slow, deep strokes. He was rewarded with an equally deep, appreciative hum for his troubles. It reverbated in his lungs and went straight (gay) into his heart and made him feel choked up.

"Wake me up in 90 minutes", Robotnik muttered.

Stone looked at the clock on the wall to verify the time, then swallowed in an attempt to moisten up his throat to hopefully produce a voice to use. "Yes, sir."

A croaky voice was still a voice.

There was near silence in the room for a moment, with only Stone's heart, the second hand on the clock, and Robotnik's slow breathing cutting into it. Then-

"Stone?" Robotnik mumbled, voice sounding gravelly, more asleep than awake. Stone knew for a fact that the doctor didn't sleep talk though, so this was him still being somewhat awake. He made an inquiring hum, not wanting to disturb him any more than he had to, and he also didn't trust his voice a single bit anymore.

"I want to sleep like this every night. Move in with me."

Okay, that bit about platonic feelings? That was a lie. Stone was having very romantic, very gay, and very Robotnik specific feelings. He was having a lot of them.

But he also had boundaries to draw for his own sanity's sake.

He was going to have to live with his voice being whatever the hell it was, because he needed words right then.

"DoCTor-" okay, the voice crack was just embarrassing, so he cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm afraid moving in with someone for nightly cuddles is reserved for romantic partnerships only."

He hated himself. How dare he look into the gift horse's mouth. The doctor was going to rip him a new one, for that matter. He didn't like being told no.

"Hm. Remind me to propose to you when I wake up, then."

Stone's mind went blank. Robotnik did not just say that. He did not. Stone imagined it. There was no way those words left the doctor's very kissable lips. Or if they did, then it was the sleep deprivation speaking. Either way, the doctor didn't mean them.

"Doctor?"

No answer. Only slow breathing, limp muscles, and warmth.

Stone wanted to scream and shake the sleeping doctor, but he did neither. Instead he looked at the clock to confirm the time like a good assistant and then proceeded to listen to his empty head go AAAAAA for ninety minutes.