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Music reverberates around the lab as he sets down his tools and smirks at yet another technological masterpiece sitting before him. Yet as he turns to tell the good news to Stone all he finds is an empty desk. Confused, he's about to start looking for his missing agent when a faint snore sounds in-between the changing of songs. Following the quiet noise, Robotnik soon finds himself standing over the couch hidden in his lab for late nights.
And there asleep, attempting to use his jacket as a blanket, lays his agent dead to the world.
It's a beautiful sight. His charming agent Stone, usually so methodical and organized, spread out on the couch like a starfish. Smiling to himself at the adorable sight, Robotnik grabs the blanket from behind the couch and begins to cover the other. But as he grabs the other's dangling arm to put it back on the couch, he catches a flash of white on the other's wrist and whatever warmth in his chest goes cold.
Right. The coffea arabica. For a moment, he'd forgotten it was there. He'd forgotten what it meant….for both of them.
Clutching his right covered wrist, Robotnik returns to his desk before carefully and quietly removing his glove revealing the mark that lies underneath.
It's a small thing. Splotchy in its color scheme of browns and whites. Horns, large and curved but not spiraling. Eyes tiny but staring straight back at him whenever he looked. Just a simple little goat on his wrist. But it's not really its appearance that was the enchanting part to him. No, it was always what it meant that made it important.
Because it meant someone would care for him. Would want to be around him, no matter how cruel or weird he became. Someone that he'd be able to be happy, truly happy, with because the fates had aligned to mark them as his and him as theirs. It was a reminder that no matter what happened…there was at least one person out there who loved him.
Someone that for as much as he wished it, as much as he wanted, was not Stone.
Because he's seen Stone's mark. An intricate white on black sketch of a coffea arabica flower. Numerous times he's seen the distinct image sitting innocently on his agent's wrist. And just like a few minutes ago every time he sees it he's reminded that the love, because it is love even Robotnik won't deny it to himself at least, he feels for the other can never be anything more than this.
Screamed out compliments. Staring at the other wanting, needing, to see the awe in those amber eyes aimed at him. A blanket dropped over the other after a long night. Just simple gestures of Robotnik's brand of kindness that can be overlooked as just eccentricities of a madman.
His destiny, regardless how he wishes, will never be tied with Stone's that way. That much is clear from the marks. So he'll keep searching. He'll keep looking through every database he can search for any sign of who his soulmate is until he finds them. Then maybe…maybe once he finds whoever matches the little goat on his wrist…maybe he'll stop wanting what he can't have.
Footsteps sounding between the music draws his attention, and Robotnik rushes to put his glove back on.
He watches bittersweet affection a lump in his stomach as his agent stumbles into the lab bleary eyed from sleep, still wrapped in the blanket. Turning his attention back to his creation lest he be caught staring, Robotnik fiddles with the machine in hopes the other is too tired to see it's already complete. The playlist dying down, quiet descends upon the lab except for his agent's steps. Deliberately looking away, he hears more than sees when Stone reaches his side.
“You…’ahh…you finished it then?” Stone asks while trying to hide his yawn.
“Of course I finished it! And while you were sleeping like a layabout mind you.” He keeps his tone mocking trying desperately to hide the affection wanting to leak through.
“A layabout you tucked in.”
“I didn't tuck you in! I was…I was just making sure you didn't wrinkle your suit jacket…it's the only one you have that looks even remotely presentable.”
“Admit it you tucked me in. You tucked me in because you looooovvvvveeee me.”
The exaggerated word and the light tone are both indicators that his agent is joking. That the sentence doesn't mean anything. But…but that word….that word no matter how jokingly it was said just makes him think back to his earlier musing.
“Don't be ridiculous, Agent! Now if you're done wasting my time-”
“Doctor I didn't mean-”
“Falling asleep on the job, making me hunt you down-”
“It wasn't my intention-”
“Then you start speaking such ludicrous nonsense as me loving you. As if the very notion wasn't impossible.”
An uncomfortable silence springs between them the second the words cross his lips. They both stand there staring at one another. Him with his face locked in a sneer that takes all his willpower to hold. Stone with a quiet confusion and sadness pooling in his eyes.
“...impossible…huh.” A bitter smile on his agent's face forces him to answer despite wanting to just shove the other out and lock down the lab.
“Of course it's impossible our marks don't match.” Why can't their marks match it would fix everything if they just fucking matched.
“So?”
“So? So?! It means everything you moron! Even if I loved you, which I don't obviously, because our marks don't match there's no guarantee that you'll return the sentiment. Therefore it wouldn't be worth the effort.”
“It would be worth the effort solely because we loved each other! It would be worth it because it was our choice!” A cold heat is slowly entering his agent's voice but he refuses to acknowledge it, too focused on the panic that rebuttal set off.
“Choice? There is no choice with soulmates, that's the point Stone! There's no choice so there's no risk! The marks mean whoever has them is guaranteed to stay no matter what happens. You can't have that if the marks don't match!”
“You, the great Doctor Ivo Robotnik who has turned the scientific world on its head since you were twelve, is suddenly afraid of a little risk?”
“It's not fear! It's logic! What would you expect me to do? Trust that you would defy fate just because you felt like it? Trust that those feelings wouldn't fade even when you meet your real soulmate?”
“Yes! Of course you could trust me to do that! I love you doctor! Not some idiot with a goat on their wrist who I've never talked to before, just you, the man I trust with my life!”
A slight panting follows Stone's exclamation as the agent stares at him waiting for him to respond. But he can't. He can't because all his mind can focus on is the last thing Stone shouted. A goat on their wrist. A goat not coffea arabica. Why would he-
Mind lost to his questions, Robotnik almost misses the tears gathering in his agent's still furious eyes. But no matter how confused he is, he doesn't miss Stone dropping the blanket and turning to leave. Refusing to let the other go until he understands, he tackles the other, sending them both harshly to the ground. Pinning the other down he grabs Stone's wrist and holds it up to his eyes.
While he's seen the mark a hundred times before he's never truly looked at it. At first it's just as he's always seen it. A white lined sketch of a coffea arabica over a black background….yet something seems off the longer he looks at it. Squinting his eyes, Robotnik flicks down his goggles and filters through the lens functions.
There.
Hidden underneath layers of ink, glowing brightly to his current ultraviolet lens, is a familiar goat. A goat that had it been uncovered he's sure it would be in hues of browns and whites. Petting at the skin as if he could remove the false mark, Robotnik turns amazed eyes back at his agent who still lays there confused.
“Why hide the real one?” He needs to know, he needs to understand why Stone would risk everything by hiding the truth from him.
“Because I wanted it to be my choice. I didn't want to be pushed together with someone just because a late blooming birthmark just happens to match someone else's. I wanted…I wanted it to be real and not just expect-”
A kiss interrupts the other's words and Robotnik feels a wonderful satisfaction at how quickly Stone melts into his touch. How foolish he's been. Of course his agent is his soulmate. Who else knows him so well? Who else cares for him like the agent does? Who else loves him like Stone does? How could he ever assume someone else would be worth more.
Pulling away when air becomes a necessity they stare into each other's eyes panting with faces flushed.
“Wh-what changed your mind?” Stone whispers as if afraid to break the moment.
“Seems fate is kinder to you than you thought agent.” Confusion follows his comment up until he removes his glove for those amber eyes to see.
Later there will be apologies made for denying the feelings felt with rage and insults. Conversations will be had to discuss how a relationship is more than just a matching mark on a wrist. But that's later. Now…now fingers trace each other's marks with kisses in-between as only half true complaints are made about the marks being accurate. And they hold one another still on the lab floor content for the moment that they have finally found who they were looking for.