The first time Agent Stone accompanied Doctor Robotnik on a business trip was full of surprises.

The first surprise he learned about when they arrived at the front desk of the hotel they'd be staying at. The doctor checked in, not yet trusting Stone with their travel arrangements, and received a total of five key cards for their party of six. He checked the room numbers and handed four of the cards for his bodyguards to pass around, leaving him and Stone with just one. In short, the two of them were sharing a room.

Stone supposed it was because he was the doctor's personal assistant, not just a bodyguard like the others, so he needed to be closer at hand. It was kind of flattering to be trusted to exist in the same space as the doctor in a more relaxed setting, possibly even witness him sleeping.

The second surprise awaited him in their shared room.

"Um", he said eloquently, once he set down their luggage and had the time to look at the room properly and confirm that no, there was no second bed lurking out of view anywhere. "Doctor, are you certain we didn't mix rooms with one of your bodyguards?"

Robotnik paused in the middle of taking off his coat to give Stone a thoroughly unimpressed look. "I don't make mistakes, Stone. You'd do well to use the limited storage capacity of your itsy bitsy brain to retain that piece of information for future reference."

Yeah, he deserved that one. It didn't dispel the confusion though. "Filed away, sir. However, it has come to my notice that there is only one bed in this room. Won't that be an issue?"

Robotnik's unimpressed look didn't waver in the slightest, until he rolled his eyes and finished the task of putting away his coat. He took off his shoes, gave a few commands to the singular active badnik in the room, then took off his control gloves as well and stuffed them in his coat pocket. Only then did he turn back to Stone.

Time for the third surprise.

"What you see as an issue is a completely deliberate choice made by me", he said, walked over to his suitcase, opened it up, and started taking out various items. New clothes were laid out on a chair, a small red hygiene products bag was set aside, a rainbow coloured pill organizer was set on the counter, and so forth. "By now you should know how I am about people touching me. However, human beings have this inconvenient need to be touched or else they start malfunctioning. It's a waste of time, social batteries, and tolerance to allow for such a thing on a daily basis, so to save myself the hassle, we'll be taking care of that overnight while we're here."

Robotnik ended his explanation there, like everything was now nice and clear.

Everything was not nice and clear in Stone's opinion. His face felt hot, his heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest, and his brain was packing its bags to leave for a holiday in Puerto Rico – it was wearing a tacky sun hat and massive sunglasses.

He was 100% sure this was not in his job description, and while Doctor Robotnik was rather unfairly attractive to the point where Stone was almost certain he'd end up in trouble with his heart sooner or later, he kind of had objections to the suddenness of this. And the fact that his consent had been assumed rather than asked for beforehand.

"I… uh…" he really, really didn't do well with his articulation today.

Robotnik turned to look at him again, and after reading what had to be very plainly written on Stone's red face, his expression went from neutral to a sneer immediately. With a snarl he stalked over to Stone and jabbed a finger on his chest while invading his personal space. "Stop with the filthy, depraved thoughts right this instant. We will absolutely not be engaging in any disgusting human copulating here! That will never be on the table, no matter the circumstances. What I had in mind was platonic, non-intimate holding of one another, but if you cannot keep your vitiated mind out of the proverbial gutter, you're spending your night in a bodybag with the rest of the trash this hotel produces."

Stone was nodding along long before he finished processing the doctor's words, ready to agree with just about anything to lessen the ire directed at him and alleviate the clear discomfort Robotnik was just about radiating and failing to hide behind the anger.

Only after Robotnik pulled back a little to continue glaring at him did Stone have the time and space to review the words.

No sexual expectations then. In fact, Stone went ahead and tentatively labeled the doctor as asexual for now, vowing to come back to that thought later with better time. What was actually supposed to happen was… cuddles? Yes, the gist of the tirade sounded a lot like sleeping in each other's arms.

It was unorthodox, not in his work contract, and probably should warrant some kind of a word with HR, but Stone found that he didn't mind. In fact, the longer he thought about it, the more he accepted the idea. It had been a while since he had cuddled with anyone, and Robotnik could honestly use some TLC to destress. It could be nice.

Yeah, he could work with this.

His shoulders relaxed and he gave a smile at the glaring doctor. "Alright, doctor. Do you want to be the big spoon or the little spoon?"

The tension in Robotnik's frame dissipated and his glare eased. He gave Stone one more slightly suspicious look, then whirled around to return to his unpacking. "You'll have to earn the right to be the big spoon with time, agent."

Stone's smile widened, but he carefully kept the need to chuckle at bay and instead went to see about his own suitcase.

ooooo

Light late dinner consumed, teeth brushed, pajamas donned, and Stone was more than ready to hit the hay and catch some z's so he could be up bright and early for tomorrow morning's meetings. The doctor was still tapping away at his travel tablet at the small table, but seemed to be just about done too, judging from his posture and the frequency of the typing – it sounded like last minute corrections rather than producing new text.

The badnik followed Stone to the bed and scanned the nightstand after he set his phone down, then hovered unsettlingly by the ceiling, its eye lens directed at him. Just as Stone was about to question the arrangement, Robotnik spoke.

"It'll keep watch so that you don't get up to any funny business while I'm asleep and vulnerable", he said, and turned off the tablet's screen. Stone was kind of offended, didn't they already have this talk? Robotnik stood up and turned towards him, eyebrow raised. "Trust but verify, agent. If you get up at night to use the bathroom or drink water, make sure to show the badnik your empty hands upon returning or it might assume you fetched a knife and vaporize you."

"Duly noted, sir", Stone said, offense replaced by exasperated amusement. Doctor Robotnik could be a paranoid bastard, which, considering how many bodyguards were assigned to him by the government, was probably warranted to some extent. Stone added 'not stalked by the badnik overnight' right next to 'getting to be the big spoon' on his list of future achievements that he hoped to one day unlock as trust milestones with the doctor.

Robotnik hit the lightswitch to turn off the ceiling lamp, then climbed onto the free side of the bed. He waited for Stone to click off the bedside lamp and settle down with his back to him, then shuffled closer under the blanket and tossed an arm around his stomach while the other curled against his back.

His hands were cold even through Stone's pajama top, the hold was all sorts of awkward, and he clearly didn't quite know where to place his head other than generally on the pillow. Regardless, Stone took a deep breath and sighed slowly to release the tension on his own muscles, curled his legs in a little, and took a tentative hold of Robotnik's hand over his stomach. The fingers twitched, but settled back down, accepting the hold. After a moment of tense silence from behind him, Stone felt Robotnik move a little closer again; he slotted his legs into the curve Stone had left for him, brought his chest flush against Stone's back, and lightly pressed his face to the back of Stone's neck. Finally feeling they were both more or less comfortable, Stone closed his eyes and smiled into the darkness.

"Good night, doctor."

There was a nonsense mutter mumbled into his neck that Stone chose to interpret as a reluctant reciprocation. His smile widened momentarily, before he slowly but surely willed his body to sleep, like a good agent used to sleeping on command.

It was nice to be cuddled, if he was honest, even if it was by his cranky superior.

Come morning, he had to carefully pry himself from Robotnik's very, very snug hold to get ready for the day while letting the much-less-morning-happy doctor sleep a little longer. The awkwardness of the previous night was not present, and the doctor seemed in a remarkably good mood, so Stone marked himself down to happily doing this arrangement again in the future.

A little platonic cuddle with one's boss never hurt anyone, right?