Chapter Text
Stone wasn’t sure what he’d done to earn it, but when he thought about his current lot in life, he knew he had it good. Last year, he was working a monotonous job, had been evicted from his long-term rental and overall felt lost in the universe.
But he weathered the storm, and now here he was working with his favourite person in the world and securely settled in a new home. If life is full of ups and downs, then this was certainly the biggest up in his life so far.
Robotnik’s streaming career had taken off more than ever, and Stone’s help was paramount. He helped map trends, kept his partner out of trouble on social media (and in rare cases do damage control), organised his schedule and sponsorships; All of the things Robotnik hated and never bothered with, but were the key to his growing success.
Stone’s new work duties were more unpredictable and fun than he’d expected them to be. He didn’t have a proper title per-se. He was more of a jack-of-all-trades for Robotnik. Manager, moderator, personal assistant, barista, PR representative, financial advisor, and sometimes even guest-star!
Today was one such day where he was pulled on screen for fans that, for some reason, loved having him there. He didn’t really get it, but the view count and donations didn’t lie, so he did his best to roll with it each time Robotnik roped him in.
“What’s… what is r-p-f?” Stone asked as his eyes scanned the flowing chat.
“Rpf stands for real person fanfiction, have I taught you nothing about the internet?” Robotnik tsked.
“Seems there’s a lot left for me to learn,” he batted his eyelashes.
“And I’ll be the teacher that rocks your world, har-har, blah blah blah, now just get over here,” on autopilot Robotnik skipped over the flirtatious pretences and got straight to the kissing. He planted a smooch to Stone’s lips and effectively gave close to a million people, who had no idea of their relationship status, heart attacks. Which was quite a feat, really.
Stone let out a soft
oh
when his brain caught up to the fact that they’d just unceremoniously and ungracefully come out to the doctor’s fan base. He looked to his partner in worry but Robotnik wasn’t the slightest bit concerned.
“Should we… explain?” The chat had exploded. He wished that was an exaggeration. His eyes snagged on one donation message: Oh my god and they were roommates...
“We owe them nothing, sycophant. Now, why were you asking about rpf of all things?”
“Oh, someone in the chat requested that we read some. About us.” His face was hot in embarrassment as they ignored the absolute chaos unfolding in the chat and in the donation messages coming through.
“A fantastic idea!” Robotnik’s smile was all teeth as he perused the internet for what they needed. “Ooo this one sounds promising.” He opened up a fanfiction with a plethora of tags that made Stone gape like a fish. Robotnik put on an impressive narrator-voice as he read the slim premise-setting introduction of the fic. When it was clear things were turning steamy, he motioned for Stone to take over. “Go on, give us your best dramatic reading.”
Stone shuffled in his seat, straightened his back and cleared his throat. “‘And then’, oh my, ‘they **** *** ***** *** ********** *** ****** *** ****.’” Stone went on to read the most astonishing, deviant, and unabashed depiction of intimacy he’d ever seen. Once he was done, one question weighed on his mind. “How did they know all that?” He asked his partner in honest confusion.
Robotnik’s eyebrows had drawn down, “I will be checking the apartment for cameras. There are some real freaks out there, so we’d best be sure. Anyway, I think that’s enough second-rate porn for one day.”
Stone sputtered in abashed agreement. He was slightly envious of how unflappable Robotnik was about this. Though, perhaps he made up for that with his loud, animated reactions to other things.
“Let’s try the fanart. If my eggheads are anything like me, they’ve got talents worth showing off.”
Stone had discovered the fanart tag dedicated to himself and the doctor a while back. It had been to his great surprise, but if he was being honest, to his pleasure too. Even before the on-stream kiss today, fans had been theorising about the true nature of their relationship for a long time. The fan art was often sweet, domestic and adorable and he liked to scroll through it sometimes, always with a giddy grin on his face.
But of course today, as soon as Robotnik clicked on the tag, the very first thing to load on screen was an intensely graphic drawing of the two of them.
“WOAH!” Stone leapt over Robotnik to close the tab, embarrassment tingling at the back of his neck.
The eggheads were talented indeed… and also quite generous in their renderings.
“...Nice.” Robotnik said after a beat. Stone let out a traumatised sigh. If the fans were insane before, how would they be now? “You know, if it makes you uncomfortable we’ll tell them to stop,” Robotnik said in the kindest way he knew how to speak. “And if any of you keep it up anyway, I’ll make you wish you were never born,” he directed a sharp smile to the camera.
“No, no, it’s not that. Just a bit jarring for the stream, don’t you think?” How the doctor hadn’t gotten into more scandals before Stone started working for him, he’d no idea.
“Good thinking, mi amor. Who needs to consume interpretive parasocial representations of us when I’ve got you right here. And nothing beats the real thing,” he winked obnoxiously.
Stone couldn’t help the happy flutter in his chest. Though… “I was thinking, in the fanfiction, that Robotnik apologised for the tumultuous conditions of our first meeting.”
“The apologising was incredibly out of character, if you ask me,” he huffed a dismissive breath. “Take note, aspiring writers!”
“Mhm and on that note, it reminded me that you never apologised for punching me in the face when we first met,” his eyes danced with mischief, but he kept his serious facade from cracking. “Just thought I should point that out.” It was a fight to keep the serious set in his brow. He couldn’t help messing with the doctor every now and then.
Robotnik stared at him quietly, his eyes falling shut and open in a slow, calculating blink. He searched Stone’s face for a giveaway that the grudge was false, and when he couldn’t find one, he feigned a casual attitude, turning to address the stream. “Good riddance everyone, I have a Stone to appease.”
Before the chat had a chance to wish him luck or to let him know that if they didn’t hear from him in 24 hours they’d presume him dead, the stream came to an end.
As their screens turned to black, every fan was left to go about their day wondering what strange shenanigans went on behind the scenes between the eccentric men. Ah well, until next time. They’d badger their charismatic leader about it later. If Stone left him in one piece, that is.