Chapter Text
The morning was a quiet affair, Stone woke up naturally, somehow predicting their alarm before it even went off. He looked down and saw he managed to situate himself to lay on the Doctor’s chest for the entire night, it was a habit of his, it was incredible how comforting hearing his heartbeat could be. Knowing he was safe next to him. It was the best way to have a good night's sleep. Stone smiled as he looked up at the still sleeping Doctor, eyes closed and mouth open, he wasn’t exactly an elegant man when it came to sleep, but Stone found it so incredibly endearing. He could look over and find out how much time they had before actually needing to wake up, but he was a little too comfortable for that. Best to imagine they had as long as possible.
He trailed his hand softly to grip onto the Doctor’s, sliding their bare hands together, he gave a satisfied hum at the feeling, while he loved the Doctor’s gloves it was something special to feel his skin, especially his hands, Stone delighted in it, he did it every chance he got. It was so rare, the Doctor slept in those things most of the time. Pale, large, dexterous hands, so capable. Stone admired them from where they interlocked with his own, the calluses the slightly longer nails he’d allowed to grow out, everything.
He felt the difference in breathing before he actually heard the Doctor’s voice, the slight stutter, the deep breath as he came into consciousness, but Stone didn’t feel the need to announce he was also awake, the Doctor would know. “Feeling sappy today agent?” Robotnik’s low morning voice came out raspy.
Stone hummed, “Love your hands,” He mumbled, “Fit together,” He squeezed his hand, feeling as the Doctor gave a responding squeeze, he almost shivered at the sensation.
“Very sappy,” Robotnik teased, his other hand moving from where it lay limply by his side to ruffle Stone’s short hair, strong fingers brushing against his scalp. “I believe we have around twenty minutes before we have anything to do Stone,” He said, voice low, “We could get a few things done in that time,” His hand slid down to tilt Stone’s head towards him,
He blinked up at the Doctor, “What were you thinking of, sir?” He asked, he knew perfectly well what the other man was insinuating, and he pushed himself up as he said it, swinging his leg over and using the Doctor’s chest as leverage till he sat on top of him. The Doctor’s hands settled themselves at Stone’s waist, where they so often did, he liked holding the other man steady. “Do you want my input at all?” He teased,
“Hmm, I think I do,” Robotnik purred, before pulling Stone down to kiss him. It may have been a bit more than twenty minutes, but both of them were diligent about their timing, they remained punctual.
The morning was a lot more relaxing than the previous, it seemed less people tended to go on a Sunday. They wandered around the rest of the convention hall in relative peace, exploring all the remaining areas they hadn’t had a chance to before. They were recognised sure, but it wasn’t like a crowd was forming around them or they were in any danger, if anything happened Stone would be more than willing to bowl down a few teenagers to get them out of there.
It was relaxing really, or nearly so, to people watch and simply browse assorted booths. Other items were for sale there not made by local and smaller artists, there were a few intricate and fascinating display knives out that Stone stared at for perhaps longer than he should. Considering the look the Doctor gave him afterwards.
In all it was a successful morning so far, Robotnik had cycled around the booths without moving so quickly and made a few personal purchases of gimmick items he found fascinating. A knife shaped like a crab was Stone’s particular favourite. They had just found their way around to the gaming corner, a place where it was perhaps dangerous for Robotnik to be considering his history of getting far too loudly invested in whatever game he ended up playing, or else loudly criticising its flaws, but still a good place to settle down for an hour or so before their necessary preparation for the panel.
It happened all at once then, Stone had just left Robotnik who was examining another game, some sort of racing thing, he had begun explaining how inaccurate the design of each car was based on what power it would need to function. But then Stone spotted a flash of awfully, even frighteningly, familiar blue.
Cautiously, hoping it was only a figment of his frankly overactive and slightly paranoid imagination, he left Robotnik to walk down the aisle of computers on each side each with various attendees playing games. “Stone? Are you even listening to me?” Robotnik squawked out after him, standing up from the chair he had just sat in and rushing after his rogue assistant.
Stone followed the blue, speed walking to keep up, and as he darted around another corner just in time his suspicions were confirmed entirely. Sonic, right there, in the same convention as them. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses, not a very good disguise, and a t shirt with some sort of comic book character on it, likely what he was here for if not to track the two of them down. Stone was just wondering what to do about this when the Doctor crashed into him yelling something about being abandoned.
It seemed Sonic had caught sight of them at nearly the same time, or at least had caught on the second he heard Robotnik’s voice. He immediately let out a high-pitched screech and pointed at Stone like he was some kind of freak, which was honestly rich coming from the blue alien hedgehog with super speed.
“Holy crap!” Sonic exclaimed, “How are you even alive? Are you guys following me?” He asked, looking horrified,
Stone frowned, “Following you? We’re here as guests you freak,” Robotnik was clutching onto his arm like his life depended on it, and in some ways it did, Sonic and his little duo of friends had no problems thinking they had straight up killed the Doctor last time they saw each other.
“Hey man, uncool, little dude’s got an epic cosplay on right now,” A passerby said, dressed as what appeared to be Elvis Presley.
Sonic was spluttering, sprinting around them so quickly he kept appearing on different sides and making them flinch, “I didn’t even know that you were alive! How did you survive-What do you mean guests here?” He suddenly came to a standstill a few feet away from them and glared again,
“I’ll have you know you I have become a famous online personality you absolute ignoramus,” Robotnik finally spoke up, pointing an accusing finger back at the much smaller hedgehog.
Sonic frowned at them, a comical sight, before letting out a laugh, “Uh, excuse me?” He said, putting a hand on his hip,
Stone decided it was his time to step in clarify, with any luck maybe Sonic would just go away and they could revisit their never-ending rivalry at a later date, “He’s a streamer, we didn’t follow you to this place we’re here on business.” He said, holding up the passes they both had around their necks to prove their point,
The hedgehog’s mouth was now open, then he started laughing, “You have got to be kidding me, there’s no way,” he giggled, “You’re trying to convince me anyone actually likes you? You really could have picked a better lie Eggman,”
“You’re just mad because I have a loyal follower base, and no one likes you!” It was really not his finest insult, but in fairness, they were both caught off guard very severely. Stone couldn’t fault him for it. Even Sonic raised an eyebrow at the exclamation, clearly not at all insulted.
Instead, he shrugged and said, “Yeah, I’m going to get you now,” and with that Sonic made a move to start chasing Robotnik and with a squawk of honest terror he pulled out a very small badnik from his jacket pocket and threw it at the hedgehog on their trail, before grabbing Stone’s hand and sprinting full tilt the other direction.
Stone glanced behind them to see a giant cloud of red fog appear behind them and no immediate sign of Sonic, which was both a blessing and a curse. He saw other various guests looking confused, and the Doctor pulled out another badnik and tossed it over his shoulder with barely a glance. Stone was a little worried that they were using up their defence system already but he knew the Doctor had come prepared for a reason. They just weren’t prepared for this specifically. Darting through the gaming hall they quickly made it to the other side, moving into where a bunch of panels were happening,
They could hear the menace somewhere behind them quipping, “Watch out, on your left, coming through, sorry ma’am,” He was moving through the crowds at a still startling speed, “Love the pink, great look on you!”
They brushed past a group all dressed in what appeared to be anime outfits, looking at them confusedly as they ran past, Stone had to duck under the range of a large hammer like weapon as he went. The Doctor almost ran head-first into an open door but Stone yanked him out the way at the last second, “What was that one’s purpose?” Stone asked breathlessly as Robotnik led them down a side hall, and Stone realised not for the first time how much of a blessing it was that the Doctor memorised the floor plan. Fuck he loved this man.
“Tracking drone, telling me where he is, we have a 15-second head start,” Robotnik spouted out the facts in clipped tones as he suddenly made a sharp turn, with Stone stumbling over his own feet in the effort to follow the man.
It was brilliant to see the Doctor in action as much as it was terrifying to be running away on foot from a threat they had barely any means to deal with. They had prepared for G.U.N, they had ways to get out of that, but Sonic was an anomaly, barely predictable at all. Stone's heart was beating out of his chest both from the effort of running after being out of true active training for so long and from his overwhelming admiration for the other man. So determined, so prepared, even if he seemed frazzled he always had something else up his sleeve, Stone could have kissed him right there if they weren’t running away from their worst enemy.
He sprinted in tandem with the Doctor who was honestly shockingly fast. It turned out true fear was a great motivator to suddenly be very fast and capable. Still no sign of Sonic behind as they rounded another corner into a main hall all while avoiding running head on into other guests, and finally as they passed through the entrance way Stone saw the blip of a blue blur in hot pursuit. “Doctor he’s going to catch us,” Stone almost shouted, still very aware they were surrounded by people,
“I know!” Robotnik snapped back, clearly exhausted, “Drone,” He pointed at his ear, and Stone noticed the small earphone device there for the first time and wondered when he had the time to put that in. Fuck I love him so much.
Stone nodded, now running faster than the Doctor who was clearly running out of energy, pulling them both along, “How much time?” he asked,
Taking gulps of air between every statement he replied, “Ten seconds, prepare to use pass, target back entrance for safety,” Robotnik gestured vaguely ahead at a door behind the crowd in front of them, Stone nodded, beelining straight over there, once again grateful the Doctor had memorised the entire layout of the venue.
It seemed they were just in time, they had just managed to successfully part the crowd between them and made their way towards a backroom door Robotnik just managed to slam open the door and get inside, and slamming it shut as Stone stayed behind and Sonic in a blur attempted to follow the Doctor out the back,
That was when Stone noticed another stumbling block, the man closest to him was looking rather familiar, too familiar in fact. It was the menaces dad, or pseudo father figure or whatever he was calling himself these days. What was his name again? It was on the tip of Stone’s tongue, when he caught his breath maybe he could speak again. He was running out of time. Shit. It started with T right? Any T name would do, it was short he thought, maybe.
Without much thought Stone reached out and grabbed whatever his name was arm, spinning him around from talking to some guy dressed up as someone from Star Wars. Stone was entirely uncultured he knew some media properties. Could he tell you the character’s name? No, no more than he could tell you the man he was currently hoping would solve their predicaments name was.
“Tim? Tate, Toby?” Stone began spouting names out, and after the split second of utter confusion on the man’s face had passed something like recognition came over him, an angry recognition, well that wasn’t helpful.
“Tom,” He responded bitterly, “What do you want?” he asked, and less than a second later Sonic appeared beside him, not at all out of breath clearly ready to throw Stone into next week if he didn’t get his hands off the other man. Stone noticed the little Badnik appear only a few seconds later and he darted out to grab it, shoving it quickly into his pocket. Sonic’s quills were standing on end now, blue electricity coursing through him,
Stone held his hand up in what he hoped was a surrender, “Calling a truce now, we didn’t know you were here, honest,” He squeaked out,
“Where is he,” Sonic almost growled it out in return, clearly unwilling to hear any form of negotiations.
“Come on, there’s thousands of people here, do you really want them to get caught up in all of this?” Stone said, trying to rationalise what was really a tactical retreat.
Technically, they had enough weaponry on them at all times to be able to get out of this through force but they didn’t want to kill half of their audience today. Or any day actually. World domination could be achieved through much more reasonable means and Robotnik and he knew all too well of the utter destructive capabilities of Sonic and his little friends. They didn’t even really want to kill Sonic and the others only to study them and perhaps incapacitate them. Tom was an asshole who deserved to die a slow and painful death for ever daring to put his hands on the Doctor but Stone knew how to hold himself back. He could make this work for them.
Tom placed a gentle hand on Sonic’s shoulder, “Hey buddy, why don’t you find Knucks and Tails? We can deal with this together.” The blue menace looked up at him with utter bewilderment and betrayal on his features,
“And by deal with it you mean put these guys in jail, right?” Sonic said, clearly feeling a little sore. “They just dusted the entire room back there in some evil-looking red stuff! They could be planning to kill everyone in here, or, or steal something or-“
Stone unlooped the pass from around his neck, “Please, just look at it,” It was a real pass, it looked identical to the other official guests' passes, he knew that wasn’t enough evidence to prove otherwise since they were more than capable of faking it so in a split second move he snatched a program out of a passerby’s hand and gave it to Tom. “We have a panel scheduled,” He pointed to it with a desperate hand,
Tom looked over it for a moment, scanning through the information with a frown, “Sonic, I’m sorry to say it but I think they might be telling the truth for once,” He muttered, handing the program over to Sonic who scanned through it at lightning speed.
“No way, no way at all I would have noticed this, this is crazy!” Sonic almost yelled, “How did you, what?” He sounded utterly defeated,
Robotnik finally poked his head out from out the back, “I told you so freak!”
“Sir!” Stone hissed, unwilling to let their current advantage slip away due to the Doctor’s words. Robotnik glared at him but did shut up.
Sonic looked like he was really ready to murder them both. “You destroyed our town, you tried to kill me twice, you betrayed my friend and hurt us all, why should we trust you?”
“Oh no, I’m not saying you should trust us, I despise you for what you did to the Doctor, I’m saying we should agree to leave each other alone until this convention is over.” Stone suggested, “Like I said, truce,”
“That’s so stupid,” Sonic spat,
“Hey, buddy, it could be dangerous for you to show too much of your powers, same for Tails and Knucks, I know everyone’s in costumes and special effects are excusable but,” Tom shrugged, and Sonic looked up at him with a frown, “We could be bringing a lot of innocent people into it, and at the very least they weren’t lying about being famous,” Tom said softly,
Sonic crossed his arms, “Oh come on, you really believe that?”
“Oh my god it’s Stone!” Talk about timing. Stone had never been more glad to have a random person scream out his name, he turned to face them with a grin,
“Yes?” He said, sounding perhaps a little too smug.
“I wasn’t able to make it to the meet and greet yesterday- I thought I wasn’t going to be able to meet you, oh I adore you on stream your relationship is so inspiring,” They weren’t going to stop talking now, were they? Suddenly Stone was dragged into an almost two-minute monologue about how his coming out journey had inspired them to do something or other. He wasn’t really paying attention, more concerned with the fact he’d turned his back on his worst enemies. If this had been at any better time he probably could have been a much better role model or at least grateful recipient to the attention.
He really thought he was going to be stuck there for even longer, maybe forever, even as the fan put their hands on his, when the Doctor exited his hiding spot, “Hands off my agent,” He said, sliding an arm around Stone’s waist, prying Stone backwards slightly, “Nice to meet you or whatever but really we have places to be,” He then spun them both back around to face a thoroughly unimpressed Tom and Sonic with his jaw on the floor. “Come on, VIP access, we can make negotiations, bring the red and yellow ones too,” He nodded back towards the door,
Leaving behind their flabbergasted fan and after Sonic had rounded up the other two, they made their way back to begin what the Doctor was calling ‘negotiations’ but really was a thinly veiled way to brag about his internet success. The main discussion was mostly Sonic and Eggman shouting at each other while Tom tried helplessly to keep things calm, Stone knew the Doctor could handle himself and therefore turned his attention to the other two creatures.
“Hi Tails,” He greeted, voice light, “Knuckles,” He added with more of an unimpressed expression.
“Goat milker,” Knuckles returned with bitterness.
Tails gave him a wave and a smile, although he seemed pretty apprehensive about the whole thing, “So, you and Eggman then?” He asked,
Stone was suddenly very aware that part of Sonic’s loud complaints were about the fact the Doctor and he were ‘pretending’ to be in a romantic relationship to trick people, oh, if only he knew the truth. The complete opposite was true for a long time, Sonic would have a field day with that too though. But of course, Tails would believe it immediately though, he did think the best of people.
“Yeah, crazy right?” He gave a nervous chuckle, hoping that Tails wouldn’t ask him to expand on it at all.
“No, I knew you were involved.” Knuckles responded, “He had a weird shrine for you.”
“Huh?” Stone stuttered, unsure what on earth Knuckles was talking about. Tails elbowed Knuckles in the stomach making him let out a small ‘oof’ sound and begin to complain before Tails cut him off,
“I think it’s sweet! It’s really cool that you guys found happiness, especially since it seems like you stopped your evil-doing too. So, congratulations!” He beamed,
Now that Stone thought about it, aside from their petty trickery against their audience, they really hadn’t done many evil schemes since their failed takeover of Green Hills. Laid low and relaxed, simply revelled in each others company. Sure, they still make various robots and machinery, but they weren’t being used for devious purposes anymore, they were made for pure love of science and innovation. Maybe they had unintentionally retired from their evil ways, he shot a glance at the Doctor and wondered if he’d realised it too.
“I uh,” Stone stuttered, “Thank you Tails, you were always my favourite. Your use of technology is to be admired even if it does not work in our favour.” He admitted, he also thought Tails was the cutest of the creatures, he was allowed a favourite of his enemies. Tails had done the least to be a menace to them after all.
“Oh,” Tails replied, “Thank you Stone,” He smiled,
Knuckles grumbled, “Stop being nice to him fox, he does not deserve your compliments,” He shot another death glare Stone’s way, clearly not at all impressed by the current situation,
“He was complimenting me Knuckles, not the other way around,” Tails replied, a little confused,
Knuckles let out another noise of disdain, bumping his fists together, “I think we should be solving this with our fists, see who is stronger then,” He announced,
“Knuckles!” Tails squeaked out, placing his own gloved hand over Knuckles as if trying to hold him back.
Stone let out a nervous laugh, really hoping that Knuckles didn’t genuinely try and come for him, “Don’t worry Tails, I don’t think me and the echidna will ever see eye to eye.” He didn’t think it, he knew it, he despised him so much. Even though Knuckles had technically be the arbiter of the Doctor’s return he had also played a key role in destroying him again, ripping everything from him and nearly killing him, Stone would happily tear Knuckles apart.
“I don’t think Sonic and Eggman will either,” Tails said with a nervous glance in their direction, and if Stone followed his glance he would see Tom with a hand on Sonic’s chest as he wildly gestured at Robotnik who was leaning back in his seat arms crossed and looking positively murderous.
With a gentle hand Stone reached over and placed a hand on the Doctor’s knee, “Sir, are you alright?” He asked softly, and even with those words it seemed like the Doctor melted slightly, his whole demeanour softening and looking slightly less murderous.
Robotnik took a breath, “I will make my terms very simple, we ignore each other for the next three days, no insults, or perhaps only a few insults, no provocation, no fighting. We can go back to whatever brilliant or idiotic schemes each had in place after this grace period.”
Tails piped up then, “I think it’s a good idea Sonic,” He said with a reassuring smile, and although Sonic still looked angry and hesitant, he too softened slightly.
Tom then let out a small laugh, “And if they are celebrities, we don’t want an angry mob after us,” He said, glancing around the room they had found themselves in, private and fancy with drinks laid out for them.
“The second these days are over I will kill you,” Knuckles said solemnly, “But although you have been known to break your promises, I do not, and I will trust on the honour of the rock and not you to ensure this truce remains.”
Stone was taken aback, “Oh, thanks, Knuckles.”
“Do you swear it then?” Knuckles insisted, a strange intensity in his voice
“I swear,” Stone hurriedly placed a hand over his heart as though swearing in court.
Sonic let out a loud and annoyed sigh, “Fine! But I’m with Knuckles the second this is over we’re beating your asses,” He announced, sounding a little too pleased about that idea.
“Language Sonic,” Tom scolded,
Sonic looked like he might start pouting in retaliation, “They deserve it!” He complained,
Robotnik clapped his hands together effectively cutting off Sonic before he could go into another rant, “Right, excellent, brilliant, wonderful and whatever,” He said with a wide and false grin, “Can Stone and I go to our panel now because I refuse to disappoint my loyal fans,” He explained,
“This celebrity thing is so weird!” Sonic exclaimed throwing his hands in the air, before moving to gesture wildly at Robotnik, a disgusted look still on his face, “Who in their right minds would want to watch you?”
“Uh, uh Sonic, minimal insults remember,” Robotnik scolded, “It is incredible how slow your mind works considering your speed abilities,” He drawled, miming circles in Sonic’s head, leaning over the table closer to him,
Sonic placed an arm on the Doctor’s shoulder, standing up as he did so, “Doctor, the insults thing goes both ways, let’s leave them be,”
Robotnik rolled his eyes, but stuck his hand out to Sonic, “Fine, perhaps a handshake to solidify the genuine nature of our deal?” He asked,
Sonic was glaring at him as he did it, but still placed his hand there and gave Robotnik a firm shake, then as he pulled back he did a full body shiver, “Ugh, I feel dirty, like making a deal with the devil,” He muttered,
Tails gave a little sigh, “Sonic, insults,” He scolded,
Sonic groaned leaning his head back against the sofa, “It’s in my nature! It’s impossible not to,” Then he made a further frustrated noise, “Why do they have access to such good sofas, totally unfair.”
“How about we say we can insult each other in private?” Stone suggested with a smile, shooting a grateful look at Tails. Beside him, Knuckles gave a short nod of assent, being strangely reasonable and collected in comparison to what Stone knew of the reckless echidna. “Right? Okay then, goodbye, see you never hopefully,” He said with a small hand wave, practically dragging the Doctor out of the room, if they weren’t careful they’d be late.
They walked in silence for just a few moments before Stone slid his hand into Robotnik’s properly, “Are you alright?” He asked softly, looking over at the Doctor who was still determinedly moving forward without glancing back.
“I hope to never see those stupid rats again.” Robotnik snapped after a moment, then he squeezed Stone’s hand, “Perfectly handled agent Stone, you never cease to amaze me in how far your abilities have grown.” He said, pride evident in his voice, Stone smiled up at the other man brightly. He didn’t quite hold the same vitriol to any of the pests aside from Sonic that the Doctor did, and sometimes Stone suspected he hated Sonic even more than the Doctor did.
They had exited the hallway, moving through another backroom with a few more people scattered around, organisers and other guests. Their panel room was nearby, based on what the Doctor had explained before and they really were cutting it close. In all honesty panel was a stretch it was more of a glorified ‘Q&A’ session due to the fact they didn’t work with others, just the two of them.
It had still garnered quite a large gathering, staggering to realise, since even before with the meet and greet everyone had been nicely filed in a line which ranged out of sight, now they were all in one room. Stone had no plans initially to go on with the Doctor for the same reason he had stayed away before, except now it seemed even more pressing. The likelihood that Sonic would betray them and give them up to G.U.N was pretty high, there was no way in hell he’d trust any of those creatures with anything of any importance. Even if they didn’t expose Robotnik and Stone their own antics and stupidity could lead assorted government agencies to their door.
So, just for the meantime, Stone stayed aside and let the Doctor take centre stage as he so often did. Stone adored when he did, the whole world deserved to see his brilliance although of course its true magnitude was reserved for Stone’s pleasure alone. But Robotnik did deserve his audience, he deserved the viewers the art the think pieces the passion that all of them had put in. It occurred to Stone that the Doctor had always deserved an audience larger than himself, he deserved the applause he was currently receiving more than anything, he’d always put on a performance even for the most ungrateful of lowlife halfwits. They didn’t deserve him. But he was right at home here. In a way he loved being to the side for moments like this, he loved seeing the Doctor getting the praise he deserved, proving to the world what Stone already knew so well, admiration is inevitable.
He crossed his arms and waited to the side as Robotnik introduced himself, dramatic as ever, with large gestures and flourishes of his coat, Stone grinned, simply admiring the man in front of him. It wasn’t until people started going on the microphone that Stone even thought about taking his eyes off the other man, so focused on his energy, his passion for everything around him.
“Doctor Robotnik, what is your favourite colour?” The first question started so simply that it genuinely caught Stone off guard, and Robotnik to as he spluttered into the mic with a comically exaggerated frown.
It was a little obvious. He was wearing it right now. “Red you imbecile are you colour blind? Do you see anything else in my wardrobe?” He squawked. “Dear god I expected questions about my creations, about my career the degrees I have slaved over and earned tenfold, but favourite colour?” He exclaimed, waving his hands about wildly,
The offending questioner just had a wide grin on their face, clearly pleased by whatever reaction they had been seeking to incite, “Just thought we’d start it off easy,” They laughed, before walking away and letting the next person along take their place,
“You are a complete idiot if you didn’t know that already,” Robotnik grumbled before allowing the next speaker,
“Hi Ivo, I’ve been obsessed with your channel for a while now and you’ve brought up a couple of times something called the crab, is that what you call your house or are claiming you literally live in a crab?” They said,
Robotnik’s eye nearly twitched at being called Ivo, so familial, it was something they brought upon themselves and usually quite funny, but much more off-putting in person, “We do live in a crab. We would never lie to our audience in that way,” Robotnik replied, deadpan, as the speaker frowned, their question clearly more confused than before they walked up.
They tried again, putting more emphasis in their voice, “No, no, like a real crab?”
“It does resemble a crab yes, although perhaps a little larger,” he waved a hand around walking down the stage in his overly theatrical way, “We have not perfected shrinking technology yet, living inside an actual crab would be ridiculous. It is one of my glorious machines, perfectly maintained by my lovely boyfriend of course,” He said smugly,
The audience 'awed' at that, a strange reaction since Robotnik had said far worse before, but Stone supposed that was already essentially what chat did whenever the Doctor decided to be affectionate, so it was in character. To be expected at least.
With that, the next person in life practically shoved the previous speaker out the way, “When did you guys get together, was it during the great incident that we all saw on screen or was that a breakup and get back together situation?” They asked with a wave of the hands, “You have to spill Doctor,”
“Considering we did not intend to share that moment with thousands upon thousands of people I’m not sure if I should be giving you any further information.” Robotnik frowned, “There had been previous encounters or indications of feelings so to say, I think that’s evident enough, yet all that really matters is we have decided to be open about our relationship now and have been for an awfully long time,” He said, glancing off into the wings to give Stone a raised eyebrow look as if asking ‘can you believe this?’ and while Stone was wondering much the same thing, he gave a grin back instead.
They made a dramatic show of thinking, “What about what Stone said? Mixed signals, pretending that nothing ever happened between you,” They led on, as if expecting the Doctor to continue the quote although honestly despite his perfect memory they had both forgotten what exactly they had said. While it was still clipped and used on various platforms somewhat regularly for ‘angst’ purposes, whatever that was, it wasn’t exactly how they were most of the time and people really didn’t want them to see discourse about it most of the time. They wanted to discuss their little public argument on their own terms, and Stone and Robotnik had no desire to see whatever they were talking about after the first couple weeks.
“Woah there,” Robotnik put his hands up and grimaced, “I think you’ll find that is in fact none of your business and I do not think I enjoy you using an argument never intended to be heard against me,” He said, a little bitterly.
Stone was impressed by the acting ability, he already knew the Doctor could act supremely well but it did honestly seem he was offended. Obviously, the whole point of the argument at all was to spark more controversy and they expected to be a mainstay of their relationship storyline, however, they also did think people would have moved on by now. Apparently not! Maybe they wanted to see them fight again? They weren’t in luck, the worst things they ever fought about in reality were when Robotnik stole the blankets or coffee mugs when Stone was feeling particularly spiteful.
“Tankgate?” The menace of a speaker continued,
“Never happened!” Robotnik rebutted, he didn’t need to give further evidence, “Ridiculous rumour, I don’t know why anyone bothers with that,” Robotnik gave an exaggerated eye roll, continuing to stroll back and forth on stage.
They let out a strange spluttering noise, “The screencaps don’t lie, we all saw it,” Stone was almost impressed at how determined they were to talk about it. It wasn’t often someone stood up to the Doctor for this long, even his fans who really truly loved to torment him often had a limit to how far they would go.
“All were doctored, faked, photoshopped,” Robotnik was ticking all the options off on his fingers, before grinning, “You worthless cretins can be so gullible to obvious falsehoods, it was obviously cooked up by some crazed shipper,”
“I was on the stream you bastard!” They pointed passionately, anger clearly visible. Once again Stone was almost impressed as much as he was concerned for this person’s wellbeing. No one should be this into shipping. “I saw it happen, you can’t make us all forget that easily,” They yelled,
“Oh please, why would I lie about something so stupid when I’m obviously secure in my relationship, unlike you.” Robotnik scoffed again, crossing his arms before waving a finger, “Mods! I believe your time is up loyal follower, I must ask you to step aside,”
They continued to yell even as a security guard put a hand on their shoulder, “You will admit it one day! Just you wait Doctor-“
The door slammed. The crowd who had been watching the person get dragged out of the door now turned back to the Doctor with stunned faces, and a Doctor who looked equally as stunned. “Well now.” He said simply, before waving for proceedings to continue.
“Wow, I think he might have been a little bit crazy?” The next girl in line stuttered as she was handed the microphone as the previous microphone had dropped it on the floor, “Uh, I was just going to ask if you were neurodivergent. A bit of a, uh, anticlimax so to say, compared to the last guy.” They gave a nervous laugh, “I think you’ve mentioned it before, but I couldn’t find any direct clips and I was curious since so many neurodivergent fans including me relate to you.”
Robotnik hummed, “I haven’t had any official testing since I don’t care for our current healthcare system, but it is highly likely I fall under some form of neurodivergence, most likely autism.” He explained, “I fall into many common patterns exhibited by those who also have it. Moreso than ADHD or perhaps OCD, although obviously as many know there is overlap between each.” He stared off into space for a moment, before making another humming sound, “Technically with merely slightly more experience and some slight specific study I could self-diagnose to a medical level, if my sheer genius is not already enough to prove my own abilities and accuracy of self-reflection,”
“I’m autistic too,” The speaker piped up, then looked down in apparent embarrassment at interrupting Robotnik, “It’s pretty cool to hear you talk about it,” They murmured,
“I suspect you are not alone within this room, in fact, it’s highly likely, it is shown that those with similar neurodivergence tend to flock together so to speak.” He said, and the fan smiled up at him, before hurrying off to the side, with the next person taking the microphone right after.
“Hi Robotnik, huge fan man, been an egghead since forever,” He said, sounding surprisingly unenthusiastic for someone who claimed such devotion, “Wanted to ask what was your favourite doctorate you did, since I started watching as an undergraduate college student and now, I’m about to start my own PhD.” He explained,
“Congratulations my dear follower,” Robotnik nodded, clearly pleased on his influence on others. Stone knew initially he had been focused on making informational streams which were certainly some forms of educational, at least they were all highly accurate and theory based. The Doctor certainly always knew what he was talking about. Even if he was a little niche or hard to follow. That was the viewer's problem after all not theirs. “I would say my favourite is my doctorate in women’s studies.”
“You have a doctorate in women’s studies?” The so-called fan spluttered, clearly having missed the several streams of the Doctor discussing foundational literature on the subject or his own personal theories in relation to his favourite authors. So much for Michel Foucault. “I thought they were in engineering,”
“Well, I have five different ones each on different specialised subjects, and do not shame women’s studies it is a truly fascinating field,” He said sternly, and Stone agreed it was one of his favourite theses by the Doctor, he’d read all his published academic work after all, he’d been a diehard fan far before he’d realised it, citing the Doctor in his own work, funny in hindsight, although he didn’t exactly reach the same height of academic achievement. Stone zoned back in, “The way it allows us to examine socialisation and gendered presentation within different facets of society- anyway, everyone should read the works of Judith Butler.” He nodded, as if confirming it for himself.
“I’ll, I’ll keep that in mind during my biochemical engineering focused PhD.” The person spluttered out in return, and Stone really had to stifle a laugh.
Robotnik shrugged, “Biochem is also fine. Not as engaging though. Next!”
“Hi, I wanted to ask if you were okay with sharing an updated version of your sexuality?” The next questioner asked with a slight smile, “You talked about it on stream before, but it was a bit uh, ambiguous.”
“It’s remained so, I’m undecided,” Robotnik responded blankly, and that was true. He’d discussed it with Stone before, he felt no strong urge to be labelled as anything in particular, that was in regard to gender too, while he presented masculinely, he didn’t particularly feel like a man, he just still enjoyed the aspects of male socialisation he partook in, such as his delightful facial hair and the pronouns he stuck with. “So long as I know I’m attracted to Stone that’s all that matters in my life.” He said,
“That’s like, horribly sweet,” They said, clutching their hands together, Stone noted that they were wearing some of the mechanise produced by the artists they had visited the day before. This was a far better and more devoted shipper than the guy from before.
“Oh, shut up,” Robotnik grumbled,
The next viewer went straight into it, “Following on from you talking about Stone, what’s his favourite colour? I always thought it might have been red to match you,”
“It’s purple. So, red is in the mix, blended in if you will.” He said, with a small smile, glancing off to Stone in the wings who was smiling right back.
“Fuck that’s cute too! What the hell,” They groaned, “Last guy was right,” They complained.
“I could bring Stone out right now if you desired,” Robotnik said, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head slightly at his henchman. Stone gave a small nod, if G.U.N hadn’t come yet it was highly unlikely they’d pull anything before the end of the panel, clearly not wanting to make a scene in front of a crowd despite previous incidents implying otherwise.
Applause, for some reason Stone hadn’t expected applause for himself. He knew he was a big part, even a draw, for the Doctor’s streams. He’d participated in them happily and openly and seen chat in action, he’d seen that viewer count grow day by day but he’d never had to face it quite like this. It was very different seeing a line up of people, to see each person in a once off interaction, to see art and clips and tweets and posts and edits and everything under the sun of yourself circling the internet, to now, seeing hundreds of people face to face, cheering.
“Uh, hi,” Stone stuttered into the microphone that the Doctor handed him, hand slipping around possessively around the other man’s waist. “I’m Stone,” he said, feeling some slight deja vu as the Doctor turned to smile at him, brighter than anything. Stone felt his own face heat up, not just from the crowd but simply the Doctor’s natural energy, he just did that to him sometimes.
“Very informative Stone, detailed and bombastic even,” Robotnik teased, fingers tightening around his waist just for a moment, squeezing affectionately, “Would you care to answer a couple of questions for our lovely follower base?” He said softly,
“Of course sir,” Stone beamed,
“Quick, any questions for my henchman!” Robotnik exclaimed, and someone shot their hand up immediately,
“Favourite thing to cook?” They shouted out as the Doctor pointed to them, and Stone giggled at his determined look.
“Soups,” Stone replied, about to go into further detail when the Doctor pointed to the next victim. He pouted slightly at the Doctor, he could have explained how to make his favourite pumpkin soup if he hadn’t been cut off.
Point, “Second favourite drink to make?” A girl in a full fur suit shouted,
“Matcha and hot chocolate! Can’t decide between them,” Stone got it all out before the Doctor kept them moving along, he did have
A frankly villainous grin spread across the next person’s face, and Stone suddenly regretted allowing the Doctor to pick these out for him, “How long were you into him before you got together?” They shouted,
Stone really felt himself get flustered now, and he shot a nervous glance at the Doctor, who already knew the answer perfectly well, but neither was sure about quite how honest they were supposed to be in this setting. It was clear someone would record it and upload it to the internet, especially with questions like this, but really, what was the issue with a little bolder honesty?
“I uh,” The Doctor gave him a small smile, “Since I first met him, I’ve never fallen for someone that way before, it was so easy, he made it so easy to love him.” He said, almost forgetting he was answering the question to some random person he’d never met, that didn’t know them at all really, “The more I learned, the more time we spent together, the more I loved him, it grew and grew bigger and more important than I ever thought was possible and suddenly it was everything to me- he’s everything to me.”
Robotnik looked frankly flabbergasted, mouth open just for a moment before he blinked rapidly, replying, “I love you too, Stone,” He said softly,
The moment was abruptly cut off as someone took the microphone from wherever it had been left, putting their lips close to it and loudly exclaiming, “Twenty-one.” And sprinting away,
Stone, who moment before had been astronomically flustered, couldn’t help but burst out laughing as he’d so often tried not to in front of the Doctor, but really, he could not help it. He almost doubled over in an effort to keep any composure he had left as he practically cackled in front of the audience. It wasn’t his fault the Doctor reacted so explosively to it every time. He couldn’t help that it was hilarious to him.
“Fuck you!” Robotnik yelled out after her even as the doors to the hall slammed behind her, “If anyone tries that again I will hunt you down,”
The next guy had spun around, watching the other girl’s escape from the hall, before awkwardly spinning back around to the Doctor, “Uh, I’ve only been watching like two months but my boyfriend really, really, wanted to go to this con,” He looked around him nervously before continuing a little quieter, “but I never really could get anyone to tell me what twenty-one means, I was going to ask-“
The crowd around him booed the question, someone even throwing what seemed to be a tennis ball in his direction. Why was there even a tennis ball? Who had a tennis ball as a part of their outfit? Surely there was no tennis themed shows. “No violence in my panel!” Robotnik snapped as the guy at the mic dodged away. “We cannot answer you that though,” He added, shaking his head as the guy continued to look more confused.
“Uh, why?” He asked, frowning,
“Confidential.” Robotnik snapped back, before practically shooing him away with a wave of the hand.
Then, in the flash of an eye their whole day was messed up once again by the same blue menace, “Hey egghead what about the time you destroyed a whole town man? Not much to say about that on your stupid streams,” Sonic shouted from the corner of the hall.
“Sonic!” He heard, a disappointed tone of voice coming from more than one person, everyone aside from Knuckles it seemed, who was just shaking his head sadly.
“Oh you quilly hedgehog son of a bitch,” Robotnik started, typing something on his control glove before Stone forcibly put his hand over it, unwilling to give up on this tactically advantageous truce so quickly because of the actions of the idiot hedgehog, they could kill him easily some other day without the audience. He gave Robotnik a look, one that signalled all of those thoughts, and Robotnik knew him perfectly well enough to understand, so with a sigh he said, “Panel’s over my perfect citizens of Eggman nation, Stone and I have some annoying alien business to attend to-“
Cut off again, Jesus Christ could this get any more ridiculous? “Hold it right there Doctor Ivo Robotnik, you’re under arrest” Two people dressed as agents- okay maybe they just were agents and not in a cosplay for an FBI themed show, film or series as Stone had initially assessed. To be fair their uniforms were not in proper order, no ironing or precision at all, pretty piss poor agents to send after them, they frankly deserved better.
“Shit,” Robotnik deadpanned, glancing back at Stone as they momentarily froze on stage.
Stone took over in an instant, “Goodbye guys!” Stone beamed, falsely overjoyed, “Lovely meeting you all,” He gave an exaggerated wave and waved the Doctor’s hand too,
Then, acting quickly he began typing in the key to deploy two smoke bombs, perfectly harmless but an excellent smoke screen, on the stage, exploding in bright red and hiding the two of them from view as they for the second time that day sprinted away. Really this was getting ridiculous, all when it was so easy the day before? Ridiculous.
Stone continued typing on the control gloves, with Robotnik muttering expletives under his breath as they went, “Goddamn it Stone why didn’t I see that coming?” He groaned, “First the fucking hedgehog then G.U.N, are you serious? Why did you ever let me agree to this stupid thing, now we have to get back to the crab and all of that, our luggage Stone!” He complained,
“It’s not things we need sir, if they’ve already claimed the hotel nothing incriminating had been left behind,” He explained as they turned a corner to exit the building,
“What would I do without you Stone?” Robotnik said, squeezing his hand as they continued,
“It’s my fault sir, I should have properly assessed the risk-“ He began but the Doctor cut him off,
“Stone, you were perfect,” He replied, tilting Stone’s head up to press a quick kiss to his lips as they finally halted just outside the convention's back doors. Staff only.
Suddenly, a sound from behind them, “Ugh, that is so gross,” Sonic. Fuck. Of course, they had forgotten to take into account the speed powers. Idiotic. Beneath them. Stone's heart sank.
“Sonic that’s mean!” Tails exclaimed and Stone properly turned to them, tense and prepared to deploy anything, any backup needed. Tails looked genuinely annoyed with Sonic, a rare sight in all honesty, “Sorry about him- I said we should honour our side, you did kind of give them away to G.U.N Sonic and you know what they tried to do to you, to all of us,” He said, and Sonic gave another groan.
“Fine, fine, Tails is right, I shouldn’t have,” He made another face, as though physically repulsed by his words, “Ugh, it sucks so much to have a stupid agreement with you, it feels dirty. Like apologising? That’s so stupid, you literally tried to kill me,” He exclaimed, zooming back and forth as if talking himself out of it,
“What’s your point, hedgehog?” Robotnik snapped, clearly itching to tell him how repetitive and unoriginal his insults were and holding back by the slightest thread,
He frowned at the couple just for a moment, before throwing his hands in the air, “You say it Tails, I can’t believe Knuckles even suggested it at all.” He said, disappearing in the blink of an eye only to appear again with a hot dog in hand, taking a comically large bite and saying with a mouthful, “You guys have gone totally insane,”
Tails approached them, taking something small out of a bag, “We wanted to give you a ring, to escape with,” He said, Stone held out his hand and Tails put a small gold ring in his palm, “If you say the name of your home and picture it, the ring will take you right there!” He said with a small smile, looking up at Stone with honest to god kindness. Stone decided he had definitely picked the right favourite member of the enemy team, “It’s the least we could do, since we messed with your whole weekend.”
“Thank you Tails,” Stone said earnestly, kneeling to his level, “And say thank you to Knuckles from us too,”
A scoff from Robotnik again, “You’re thanking the freaks?”
“Sir,” Stone said firmly, and Robotnik frowned,
“Okay fine!” He broke, uncrossing his arms and saying sarcastically, “Thank you, strange alien creatures who I hate for doing us a slight and really useless service when obviously we could have gotten out of this by ourselves,”
Stone stood up again, placing a hand on the Doctor’s arm and moving to lace their fingers together, “What the Doctor is trying to say, is that we’re grateful,” He shot the Doctor a meaningful glance, “And I for one willing to extend our little truce a while longer,”
“I do kind of want to ask about some of your tech one day,” Tails mumbled, having the decency to look a little sheepish at least.
“Betrayal!” Sonic exclaimed, affronted.
Robotnik narrowed his eyes, “We’ll think about it.” He muttered. “So long freaks, I hope G.U.N doesn’t catch you or whatever, all so we can catch you of course,” Robotnik waved a hand, trying to remain annoyed but failing, Stone gave one last wave to Tails who waved back, and tossed the ring in front of them,
“The crab,” He said, and sure enough, just as they’d seen in use before a portal opened up before the two of them, and while Robotnik let out another annoyed grumbling sound, he stepped through with no further argument.
The portal closed behind them as quickly as it opened, and as it did Robotnik gave another groan, “We just gave our base of operations away to the enemy,” He hissed at Stone, who raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend.
“Sir, it’s called the crab, that gives extremely little away and also could be discovered easily by just watching any of our streams,” He said, and the Doctor, while still frowning a moment longer eventually just sighed.
“I know you’re right I just don’t enjoy admitting it,” He said eventually, and Stone gave a little laugh, shoving him lightly but the Doctor held his hand a little longer, pulling him back around to face him, suddenly much more earnest, “Thank you, Stone, for all of it, I don’t say it often enough,”
“You never have to thank me sir, I’d do anything for you,” Stone said softly, “Being here with you, that’s thanks enough.” He said, pulling the Doctor closer, arm around his waist, firm, possessive,
Robotnik gave a small smile, it was filled with adoration, his eyes warm and loving, so opposed to how they usually were yet so at home in moments like this, they could melt Stone any day, “You’re everything to me too, Stone, for the record,” He said, voice low, and Stone beamed at him for a moment, before pulling him in for a kiss safely back in the home they had created and built together. Where they belonged.
To say the internet had not taken the events of the weekend lightly was an understatement, there had been a flood of new shippers, new theories and a billion other ridiculous things.
The major points are simply that the ‘destroyed an entire town’ claim had been put down to some rumour, as there were no government records of such a thing, the one thing G.U.N had ever done which worked in their favour. Sonic had done no such reputation-destroying act as he’d hoped. Reputation perfectly in fact, if anything it was more damaged by the Doctor not defining his sexuality or having an official diagnosis for autism, which seemed a bit silly to Stone. It was small corners of the community though and quickly overturned in the cycle of discourse within their fandom.
The second major point was that the whole Robotnik was nearly arrested thing had been put down in two categories. One, the people that believed it was all a hoax put up by fans or Robotnik himself. In that theory, either fans had devised a way to trick the audience and Robotnik had been informed beforehand and played into it in a very silly way, after all the time for the panel had been basically up anyway, or Robotnik himself had organised it as a fun way of playing into speculation as to why Stone and he moved all the time. Time zone shenanigans and whatnot.
The other was that it was very genuine and real, hence the previously mentioned speculation as to why Robotnik moved all the time and there seemed to be no legal persons under the names Aban Stone and Ivo Robotnik yet there were traces of them hidden everywhere. Almost like they had been forcibly removed from government records and had their existence scrubbed from everywhere, or something. Not to mention if even half the stuff the Doctor discussed and admitted to onstream was true there was most certainly a search warrant out for them, and a public event they were openly attending was definitely a great place to find them.
Discourse aside, there were a multitude of other delightful things that had come out of the weekend, the 21 clip had been widely circulated in a rather amusing way within their own fandom. Any fan artists shared by them or spotted on the Doctor’s person received a massive boost in recognition and fame. Photos of their fan meet and greet event had been going around as memes across all platforms. Cosplayers were even getting their moment.
Strangely, Stone’s inadvertent second confession had spread like wildfires a sound clip so far as to breach their corner of the internet entirely. It was being used in something the Doctor called Stone was called ‘edits’ which he’d heard of before but still wasn’t quite sure of the concept. It seemed like it was just various clips stitched together with whimsical effects and background music, often with some sort of romantic or sexual narrative, or another thing, but romantic seemed most common. Either way, it seemed like people beyond even them had really resonated with Robotnik being ‘easy to love’ and all of a sudden Stone was being sent ‘edits’ of some random men from a TV shows he didn’t even recognise by his boyfriend only to realise his own voice was in the background of the video. A quite strange and surreal experience really.
Aside from that, meme wise, there was one photo of the Doctor wide-eyed and standing straight as a pin which had blown up on Twitter with various captions saying stupid things like ‘me when I need to be a pole’ or ‘the glorious and wonderful letter l’ which Stone didn’t get but Robotnik for some reason found very funny. Whatever made him happy, Stone didn’t mind, Robotnik was sharing a lot of those now. He’d show them to Stone in bed right before he had been about to drift off to sleep only to start cackling at Stone’s bewildered expression.
So, not really that much had changed, they decided against returning to a convention anytime soon, not worth the risk, and anything with Sonic and co. was a problem for them in the future. It was nice to have the possibility and to have the idea they were chasing them down no longer at play, a truce was the best play.
Then, after that, they just stuck to what they knew best, streaming, and being together. It worked well for them, and honestly, Stone was perfectly fine with the streaming thing now. He knew he’d never really get it, and he never needed to, he had all he needed right there beside him, and seeing his smile day after day was worth any amount of insanity. Seeing his excitement at all the new things their little weekend trip had brought made all the fuss more than worth it.
Overall, really, Stone would call their first convention appearance quite a success.