A/N: Hello, Unikitty fandom! Nice to meet you!

We need a lot more content of Doc and Hawk (because AAHSHSH SCIENTIST GIRL WITH HER BODYGUARD BOYFRIEND), so have this little oneshot :)

Dedicated to the Dr. Fox/Hawkodile shipping playlist that I've been obsessed with listening to on Spotify.
playlist/6GLenGrSTqDYLvufJvRm9J

Dr. Fox had been spending a peaceful evening in her lab deep in the basement, working on some (definitely not illegal and morally questionable) experiments, when a pink and blue blur suddenly barreled right into her chest and knocked her to the floor.

However, she was well accustomed to such interruptions, and thus, it didn't take her quick mind more than a millisecond to figure out what had happened.

Unikitty and Puppycorn had happened.

The Unikingdom's crown princess and her little brother, the prince, were…rather excitable children. Keeping an eye on them was a full-time job, and an utterly exhausting one at that. Richard, the castle's steward and caretaker, took care of most of the kingdom's finances and political affairs, since the princess was far too young, and was responsible for keeping just about everything from falling into disarray. But Hawkodile and Dr. Fox had huge responsibilities on their shoulders as well. Hawkodile accompanied the royal siblings just about everywhere they went, protecting them from every possible threat (and even a bunch of things that had turned out not to be dangerous at all). And Dr. Fox was responsible for furthering the Unikingdom's scientific advancements, conducting research and building inventions that (usually) had the intended goal of helping the kingdom achieve a bright and easy future.

Keeping the siblings happy and entertained was just an additional task that hadn't been written in their job descriptions or covered by the salaries Richard carefully doled out to them every two weeks. But that didn't make it any less important.

"We're back from the mall!" Unikitty cheered, flying up to perform an aerial loop-de-loop.

"I can see that," Dr. Fox commented as she got to her feet. She gently set Puppycorn on the floor and patted his head, causing the little stump of his tail to wag in response. "Where's Rick and Hawk?"

"Ooohh, why do you want to know?" Unikitty purred, swooping down to elbow the scientist in the ribs. The dark spots of blush on the kitten's cheeks morphed into hearts. "Are you and Hawkodile going to do something romantic?"

Dr. Fox rolled her eyes. Ever since she and Hawkodile had gotten together (sort of?) a couple of weeks ago, after the bodyguard had revealed some secret feelings for her that he'd apparently kept hidden beneath his chest for quite some time, Unikitty had become quite the little matchmaker. She was constantly trying to set up some "perfect romantic moments" where the two of them could be alone, almost always accompanied by a picnic blanket, a classical music soundtrack, and a blue horn and a pair of pink kitten ears peeking out from the closest bush, which, more often than not, was suspiciously shaky and giggly.

It was incredibly annoying, and during these little interruptions in her daily schedule, Dr. Fox just had to sigh and remind herself that Unikitty didn't know all that much about matters of romance.

Then again, neither did Dr. Fox. She wasn't even entirely sure what exactly it was she felt for Hawkodile, let alone how to act upon it or whether or not she wanted to make a move to take things further. After he'd confessed to her, they'd come to an awkward, shaky agreement to go slow and steady, letting things progress at their own pace until she figured things out.

But that begged the question…what was the right pace? How was she supposed to know? Could someone like her even handle this whole romance thing?

"No, Unikitty," Dr. Fox answered the princess flatly. "There's not going to be any of that. I just want to greet them and make sure they got home safe."

Unikitty huffed out a tiny sigh. "They're at the front door bringing the bags inside."

So, Dr. Fox stepped into one of her many elevators and rode it up to the ground floor. She raced through the pink halls to the set of double doors that marked the castle's grand front entrance.

Even before they'd dared to grow a little closer than friends, Dr. Fox had always kept a close eye out for Hawkodile. She had never felt right or been able to concentrate as well on her research if she didn't know where in the kingdom he was at any given moment. In the past, she'd always just attributed her concern as being due to their close friendship, but maybe it had always been a hint of some sort of deeper feelings towards him.

When she reached the doors, Richard had just finished pulling the last of the bags inside, grunting, panting, and straining as he dragged their weight behind him. Dr. Fox was just about to inquire as to why Hawkodile wasn't doing a task like this when the floating gray brick turned around, meeting Dr. Fox's eyes with his own.

"Good timing, Doctor." He addressed her in his usual bored-sounding monotone, but his voice came out unusually clipped and heavy from fatigue. "We are most certainly in need of your assistance."

"With what?" she asked as Richard led her outside.

She figured out the answer pretty quick. Sitting with his back propped against the door frame was Hawkodile, sporting several bright, fresh bruises along his arms, shoulders, and cheeks. A crudely-wrapped white bandage was tied around his midsection, likely hiding a more serious wound.

Hawkodile gave her a weak smile and a small wave as she approached him. "Hey, Doc," he greeted her softly. "We bought you some of those weird hot cinnamon candies you like."

Dr. Fox frowned down at him and crossed her arms. "What'd you get yourself into this time?"

"Just a little scuffle. Couple of no-gooders from Frown Town wanted to make trouble."

As Richard excused himself, venturing into the castle to help the prince and princess get ready for bed, Dr. Fox closed the door and took a seat beside Hawkodile.

"What kind of trouble?"

Hawkodile looked straight ahead and let out a sigh. "They were after the princess."

Dr. Fox shivered. This sort of thing had happened before–it was bound to happen once in a while, because Unikitty was such a powerful, well-liked, and influential figure–but it still managed to surprise her every time it happened, maybe because in the bright and cheery Unikingdom, the citizens were almost always sheltered from politics and power struggles. Assassins, criminals, usurpers, and kidnappers were rare around this part of the galaxy, but they did pop up every now and then.

"Did Unikitty and Puppycorn see the fight?" she asked.

Hawkodile shook his head. "Rick led them into one of the stores at the first sign of conflict. They didn't watch anything. Only saw the aftermath." He looked over at her and grinned rakishly. "Gave those guys quite a beatdown to remember me by. I don't think they'll try anything again for quite some time."

"What do you think they wanted?"

Hawkodile shrugged. "Don't know, don't wanna think about it. But anyone who messes with my friends and my kingdom is gonna get it."

Dr. Fox couldn't help but smile back at him. Sometimes, he tried to hide his softness behind his fists and his tough, proud exterior, but she knew the reason he fought so hard was because he had a good heart and so much to fight for. There wasn't a single bad bone in his body; he was nothing but sweetness all the way through.

And he was pretty cute, too. Dr. Fox had always kind of thought he was rather good-looking, but it felt like these past few weeks, she'd been noticing it more. Thinking about it in a different light. It was very distracting, the way her eyes always tried to find him and stare at him in the reflection of her glasses.

But that wasn't the point right now. She pulled a small first-aid kit out of the inner pocket of her lab coat and opened it. "Alright. Let me see."

"Do you just carry that stuff around with you?" Hawkodile asked as he scooted closer.

Dr. Fox raised an eyebrow at him. "You seem surprised."

Hawkodile was silent for a minute, and Dr. Fox knew he was thinking what she was thinking. Of course the castle's scientist would want to keep plenty of medical supplies on board, because if Hawkodile wasn't getting himself into trouble, then Puppycorn certainly was. That little dog was a walking disaster magnet.

"Yeah, I see your point," he said as she unraveled the bandage around his waist to change it. She winced at the sight of a large slash wound trailing along his hip. It wasn't a deep cut, but she'd still have to apply some antibiotics to keep it from getting infected.

"They had swords," he said in response to the questioning look on her face. "Three of them, plus a fourth invisible guy, all armed. It wasn't a fair fight at all. For them." He gave her another awkward smile. "Sorry I keep getting hurt, though."

"Don't be. That's your job." Dr. Fox gestured to her medical supplies. "And this is mine."

"Nah. You're a scientist, not a medical doctor."

"It's my job to take care of you," she clarified. "You're my best friend, and…we work well together." A lot better than I ever planned, her mind added.

As Dr. Fox spread some antibiotic ointment over Hawkodile's wound, then dressed it in a clean bandage, he leaned back to look at the stars. Hundreds of glittering white dots reflected off the black surface of his shades.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Hawkodile scratched roughly at the back of his neck. "You know, I never really noticed the stars all that much until I saw you watching them through your telescope. But now, every time I go on night patrol, I take a few moments to look at them and think about you."

Dr. Fox blinked at him. Then, surprising even herself, she placed a paw on top of his gloved hand. "Is that so?"

Hawkodile nodded. "I used to think of the night as nothing but dangerous. The perfect opportunity for monsters or ninjas to slip into your home under the cover of darkness, punch your lights out, and steal everything you hold dear. But because of you, I've sorta changed my mind."

A few red sparkle matter hearts popped up above his head as he leaned in close to whisper in her ear, "You make the night so beautiful, Dr. Fox."

His words and the tingle of his whisper against her fur made her cheeks combust into fire like a nuclear reaction. Against her will, her sparkle matter broadcasted these same emotions right out in the open for him to see. With a crack and a boom, a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke exploded out of her head and dissipated into the night air.

Hawkodile gawked at the cloud until it disappeared for good, his eyebrows raised in surprise. Then, with a jolt of alarm, he shyly pulled away. Dr. Fox hadn't realized how warm he was until she could no longer feel the heat of his body. The night suddenly felt very cold.

"I'm sorry," he said in a quiet voice, looking down at the grass. "I just…was that too much? Was I moving too fast?"

"No, no, you're fine!" Dr. Fox said quickly. "I suppose I'm just kind of stupid about this sort of thing."

"What? No way! You have the most brilliant mind in the whole kingdom!" Now he was looking at her again, his expression blazing as intensely as the fire she'd accidentally started in her lab last week. "You're never stupid. Why in the world would you think that?"

"Because I feel stupid!" Dr Fox shouted. "About you, about us, just about romance in general!" She ran her paws through the fur on her face in frustration. "There's just too many variables to consider, and I can't use any formulas or equations to figure out what I'm thinking. It's all so confusing to me."

"You're talking about it like it's rocket science," Hawkodile observed.

"I wish it were like rocket science! Rocket science is easy. This is insanely difficult."

"I didn't get it at first, either," the bodyguard admitted. "The first time I felt my heart race around you, I thought I was having a stroke."

Despite herself, Dr. Fox laughed. That was such a Hawkodile thing to do, and over-analyzing a situation like that was quite a Dr. Fox thing to do as well.

We have that in common, at least. We're both such headstrong creatures, too stubborn to give in when our bodies are clearly trying to tell us something. I think mostly with my head, and he thinks mostly with his fists, when what the two of us really ought to be doing is listening to our hearts.

"And then, whenever the feelings returned," he continued, "I'd fly to my treehouse and hit my punching bag until my hands were so sore that I could hardly think about anything else. But it didn't really do me any good. Mostly, it just hurt, and no matter what I tried, a few days later, I'd be right back at square one."

Dr. Fox felt her stomach twist up into a knot of guilt. "I wish you hadn't done that to yourself. You should have told me much sooner."

"Yeah, it wasn't much fun," Hawkodile said with a shrug. He had always been so good at that–playing it cool and pretending things didn't bother him when they clearly did. Even when he was bruised and bloodied from battle, he spent what remained of his energy making sure everyone else was okay. It infuriated her, the way he cared so little about his own safety compared to how much he cared about his friends', but there was also something undeniably sweet about it.

"But I guess what I mean to say is that I understand your frustration," he told her. "I know how hard this romance stuff can be, and I'm willing to wait until you sort your feelings out. We'll take it one step at a time. And if it turns out you don't want…us…and you'd rather we just be friends–"

"No." She cut him off, her sharpness causing his cheeks to darken in color. "I want this. I'm certain of it."

"Really? You're totally sure?"

"Really. I might be completely clueless about how to do any of this, but I trust you more than anyone else in the whole world. There's no one I'd rather try this with than you."

Hawkodile smiled at her, and she felt a weird little tremor in her chest, like the flutter of a pair of wings. "Me, too."

Boldly, she pulled herself closer and placed his arm around her shoulders–once again marveling at how odd it was that someone who was half cold-blooded could run this hot. I should conduct some experiments on that, if he'll let me. I bet he will.

An exclamation point snapped into existence above Hawkodile's head, signaling his surprise, but he didn't say anything or try to move away. They watched the sky together in silence as the evening grew late and black.

There had been many a night when Dr. Fox had set up her telescope and some pillows and blankets on the castle's rooftop and taken everyone up to stargaze. She'd rattled off the name of every constellation and star she could point out, and Hawkodile had patiently listened to her talk long after Unikitty and Puppycorn had fallen asleep under Richard's watchful eye.

She hadn't noticed back then how right it felt, just the two of them together. They were like sodium and chloride–two elements that were both extremely volatile on their own, but when they combined together, they produced something calm and soft.

"Hawkodile?" she said cautiously, and he turned his head to look down at her, his shades still glittering with starlight.

"Yeah?"

"If you don't mind my asking…how did you first realize it? That you liked me, I mean. Was there, like, one big moment when you knew it for sure?"

Hawkodile looked up at the sky, thinking about it for a minute. "I don't think so," he said at last. "It was more like a lot of little moments, like whenever you smiled at me, or gave me a wink, or complimented me, or said we made a great team. And suddenly, I found myself looking for you whenever I did a really radical stunt or beat a monster in a fight, and I realized how badly I wanted to impress you. I think that's when I knew it for sure."

"That's what I've been feeling lately, too. A lot of little moments, like right now." She looked up at him with a grin. "And you do impress me, for the record. All the time."

Hawkodile blushed. "Thanks, Dr. Fox. That means a lot to hear."

Dr. Fox yawned and rubbed at her eyes. She knew it was very late, and if she looked close enough at the stars, she could probably calculate how late, but she didn't really want to.

It was moments like this where she wished Richard hadn't forced her to throw away her time machine. Because she really, really wanted time to stand still right about now.

"You've got that science lecture tomorrow, don't you?" Hawkodile asked.

"Oh, yeah." She'd completely forgotten about that. "And you're patrolling early, right?"

"At dawn," he grumbled. "Normally, I don't mind it so much, because I've always been kind of an early bird, but now I don't wanna. I wish I could just stay right here all night with you."

Awww. His sweet words made another little chemical reaction go off in her chest.

"So do I," she agreed. "But we've both got responsibilities to take care of in the morning. Do you think you can make it to your treehouse?"

"Maybe." Slowly and shakily, he got to his feet, holding on to the castle's outer wall to keep his balance, then winced, almost dropping right down onto his knees. "Maybe not. I'll just crash on the couch."

"Let me help you, at least." Dr. Fox took hold of his hand, pushed open the front doors, and gently led him down the hall and into the living room. Hawkodile limped behind her, favoring his right foot and hardly putting any weight on his left. He must be more injured than I thought, Dr. Fox realized with a pang of pity and a spark of protectiveness. I'll have to perform a checkup on him in the morning.

"Take it easy tomorrow. Doctor's orders," she warned him sternly as she got him settled on the couch.

Hawkodile leaned back against the pillows and gave her a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am."

"I'll find a blanket for you. And some ice for those bruises."

"Aw, I don't need all that stuff," he replied in a sleepy protest. "You always coddle me way too much when I get hurt."

"I'll coddle you as much as I feel is sufficient, thank you very much. You need ice to reduce the swelling so that you'll be in decent enough shape to perform your duties tomorrow."

"Alright, alright," Hawkodile said, holding up his hands in surrender. "You know I can never argue with you when you use that smart, science-y talk."

"I'll take note of that." Dr. Fox threw him a sly wink.

Hawkodile looked away, a slight blush dotting his cheeks. "Just…don't forget to lock the doors. I don't want anything getting in."

It didn't take her long to accomplish these few simple tasks, but when she returned to the living room with a light blanket and a couple of frozen ice packs, Hawkodile was already starting to nod off.

Dr. Fox gently put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm back," she whispered.

"Hm. You're not going to stay up late tonight, are you?" he mumbled, clearly recalling the many times he'd caught her engaging in some past-midnight experiments, her brain too foggy to even figure out what time it was, and sent her promptly to bed.

"No," she said as she carefully arranged the ice packs over his biggest and darkest bruises, her eyes squinting to see properly in the faint starlight, then spread the blanket neatly over his body and smoothed out the wrinkles. "I'm going right to sleep this time. I promise."

"Okay, good," he said through a yawn. "G'night, Doc. Thanks for everything."

"Goodnight, Hawkodile."

He took off his shades and set them down on the couch beside him, then turned away, pulling the blanket over his shoulders. Dr. Fox lingered in the living room for a while, hovering over him. Even though they'd known each other for such a long time, it was rare for her to see him so…unguarded.

There was something alluring about it. It was so charmingly tempting, the knowledge that she and only she was the one who got to see the secret soft sides of him that only came out underneath the stars.

She couldn't deny it to herself any longer. She was drawn to this man, in a way she hadn't even thought was scientifically possible. But now that all secrets were revealed and everything had been laid bare on the table for her to see, suddenly it was all starting to become clear.

Dr. Fox felt safe around him like she had never felt safe around anyone before…save for her robots, but those were merely tools that she could control and program to do and say whatever she wanted.

Yet she couldn't control him. Hawkodile was this close to her because he had chosen to be. Because he wanted to be.

True, he was a little hotheaded, a bit of a "punch first, ask questions later" type of guy, but in truth, Dr. Fox kind of liked that about him. She liked that he could be a bit intense and fiery and hard to pin down, because at her core, she was the same way.

Romance was going to be a challenge, but Dr. Fox loved a good challenge, especially one that stimulated her busy mind past its limits and kept her up at night. One that made her go crazy. One that turned everything she thought was scientific fact right on its head.

I think we were always going to end up here eventually, she mused. It's like it was coded into us. Written right into our DNA.

Quietly, Dr. Fox leaned in close to peck Hawkodile on the cheek, grinning to herself at the furious storm of sparkle matter hearts that popped up around his head.

I think I might be able to handle this romance thing, after all.