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Another long, long day of working to take over the world… And destroying those three annoying alien pests! After him and grand-tastic left them chained up in the hands of a (or in this case the endless mass and atom absorbing) mini black hole, he was sure they’d be gone and done. That was three less things to worry about, and now one more thing. Why do these freaky aliens keep appearing?! Shadow wasn’t all that bad, Ivo decided. Even if he was a bit 2017 edge lord.
Now, Ivo loves his Pap-pap more than anyone! Well… Almost more than anyone. While having a genius who can truly rival your brain working with you is amazing, it’s also extremely tiring. And honestly, Ivo was beyond happy to turn in for the night. He didn’t entirely care where Gerald and Shadow resided for the night, but it certainly wouldn’t be in the crab. He sent Gerald off first, with a big grin and a slightly awkward hug, waving him away. Shadow wanted to stay for Stones’ guac, but that was a bit tiring for the two men. Especially when Stones’ big, shining brown eyes bore into Ivo at every opportunity he got.
Perhaps a break was needed… He knew what those puppy dog eyes meant when they came from his dear sycophant, and he felt in the mood to indulge them. He turned to Shadow, who was standing with his arms crossed, watching La Passion with Stone. Occasionally, he would free an arm to dip a chip in the guac, popping it into his mouth with (what Ivo assumed to be) a happy grunt. Clearing his throat, Ivo finally spoke, smiling rather forcibly.
“Well, my dear little edgy alien, I think it’s about time you go and find my Grampy-poo for the night!” Shadow, somehow, has the gall to look confused at the fact he was being asked to leave, his ear twitching.
“But I haven’t finished the guac.” He looks to the half eaten bowl, and Ivo simply walks over, plucks it up with the bag of chips, and drops it into the hedgehogs hands, who grunts in surprise, scrambling to catch it all. “Here you go! When we rule the world, we can have much, much more guac! And tomorrow Stone can make you nachos.” He brings a gloved hand up to awkwardly pat Shadows head, the mobian teleporting away before it can even happen. Jerk.
Ivo clears his throat, looking at Stone. The man meets eyes with him, and he watches him melt, pouting deeply. Ivo just chuckles a bit, sitting down on the couch next to him as his gloved hand comes to pet his head. “Now what’s wrong?” He mumbles, watching as his agent lowers down until he’s laid in the mans lap, his hands balled into fists to rest his head on, looking up through his black hair. Ivo curses the way his heart jolts and his cheeks warm up. Human emotions are messy, complex, and this one is one of the worst.
Affection. The warmth that swirls around in his stomach and chest like hundreds of butterflies hatching from their cocoons and flying up right into his chest cavity, knocking the wind out of him. Either way, his hand still moves to gently pet and scratch at his scalp, listening to the soft whine it drags out of the man. Well… more like his pup. It’s been months since Stone had been in any headspace of this kind, let alone a pet one. It had Ivo excited, wanting back the normalcy of their little night routine.
“Do you want to go change, pup?” He rumbles out after a moment of silence, watching as Stone jolts up and nods, already scrambling to go to their shared room. Ivo chuckles, getting up with a grunt of effort, rubbing his back. He forgot how bad it hurts when he sits after so much running and walking after months of depression. He saunters into their bedroom, seeing Stone already in just his boxers and a soft sweater, plain black, but very comfortable. It was cold in the crab most of the time, so their wardrobes had changed to fit the temperate.
“Does my darling sycophant want his collar?” He muses finally, seeing Stone in the corner of his eye scramble up to get on the bed, sitting on his knees as he nods his head. It’s… cute. Ivo quickly finds the collar, plucking off his gloves for the night. He runs his thumb over the velvet fabric, a deep red with a dog bone dog tag. It has the name ‘Aban’ on it, and the backside of it says to return to Ivo Robotnik if lost. He remembers how ecstatic Stone was to be claimed as Ivo’s pup a long, long time ago. Somehow, that excitement still hadn’t faded. Stone immediately brightens at any petname that starts with ‘my’, like it’s the greatest compliment in the world to be Ivo’s. Which is true, he is the smartest man living, nobody is worthy of that title.
Nobody but Stone.
Back to the present now, Ivo turns and quickly clasps the collar around the mans neck, watching him break out in a grin as he shifts on his knees, side to side. It’s enough that Ivo was turning around to dig in the closet for the ears and tails he made the other. He’s a genius, it wasn’t hard to make even better accessories for his pup, especially ears and a tail that connect to his brainwaves. When Stone first came to him with it, he was red in the face, mildly ashamed. And, he’ll admit, he did call Stone a weirdo and an imbecile, but spent nights over his desk, tweaking the programming so it was perfect. He had 3 prototypes he begrudgingly used on himself, just to make sure they worked okay with movement. They did, after a few work ups. He even spent hours meticulously sewing and air brushing fabric together. Stone mentioned he loved German Shepards, Ivo thought it fit. It was his agents birthday when he had dropped the medium sized box on his desk, grumbling as he snatched his latte and walked away. Stone was ecstatic, he remembered it so clearly.
“Doctor? What’s this?” Stone had asked carefully, wanting to avoid a chop to the throat or yelling. Ivo didn’t respond immediately, taking a sip from his latte as he faced away, his ears a bit red. “Just open the gift, you damn imbecile. Or would you rather I give it away or toss it?” That had Stone ripping it open, gasping and dropping the lid of the box as he stared, wide-eyed, at the contents. His hands shook as he reached into the box, carefully pulling out the ears first. His fingers ran over the fur, feeling how soft and lifelike it was. He put them down carefully, picking up the large tail. The doctor remembered his favorite dog… And he even remembered Stones long rants about how much he liked long haired German Shepards. The tail was beautifully sewn, painted and cut, like a dog hat had just came from a stylist.
“Well, Agent Stone?” Ivo had snapped after a moment, gripping his latte so tight Stone was worried it may explode everywhere. He wrung his hands, his face red. “T-They’re beautiful, sir! I-I can’t- I can’t believe you got this for me. It must’ve been so expensive, I’m so sorry-“ He wasn’t sure why he jumped to apologizing. But this was a weird thing he did, and he didn’t want the doctor to spend millions on something he deemed as weird. Ivo sighed deeply, rubbing at his nose for a moment. “Stop apologizing, pup.” It cut Stones next apology off sharply. The two stared at each other, and Stone was ready to possibly shoot himself from embarrassment before Ivo had rushed out of the room, demanding he had to use the restroom.
That day, Stone had put them on, finding it was extremely easy to do. He looked at himself in the mirror, entranced by what he saw. He had adjusted his hair to cover his human ears, so now he just had the dog ears. His tail swayed slowly behind him, and when it finally registered it was… him, his tail would start to wag wildly, hitting the wall of the bathroom over and over. It caused Ivo to yell for him to come, and he rushed out, his ears perked and his tail raised up. The man took one look at him, and then quickly looked away, burying himself right into his latest project. He liked what he saw. He thought that Stone looked good.
That enough had his tail going again.
Ivo shakes his head, clearing his throat as he turns around, carefully moving to attach the ears to Stones head, and then hand him the tail to put on. It was situated quickly, and his long tail was already wagging slowly. Ivo huffed, moving to usher the other back further so he could sit down, taking off his shoes and socks first, before undressing to his boxers, finding his silk pajamas to put on. Stone had shifted to lay on the bed, resting his head on his ‘paws’ his ears raised high and his tail thumping against the bed. The way he watched Ivo with so much adoration made the older man squirm a bit, that fuzzy feeling in his chest growing tenfold.
“Pup,” he started slowly, turning to look at Stone. The pup had his head raised already, one of his ears flopping down, and the other straight up as he tilted his head in curiosity. Ivo subconsciously moved to scratch his chin, humming slightly. “How do you feel about master making dinner? Your favorite, too.” Stone jolted up, letting out a small yip as his tail started to wag wildly. That thing was definitely classified as a lethal weapon, the way it knocks over items, and sometimes Ivo. The taller man chuckled, nodding his head as he stood up. Stone didn’t entirely eat dinner much anymore, much too focused on aiding Ivo and his grandfather. He deserved something nice, and even Ivo himself hadn’t had dinner. He padded into the kitchen, looking around for the pans, avocado oil, potatoes, zucchini, noodles, chicken, heavy creamer and other items. It’s been quite a long time since Stone had eaten his chicken Alfredo, and he was craving it himself.
“Aban, get your toy and go to the couch.” He ordered, watching the pup turn quickly and hop over to the bedroom, coming out with a squeaky toy. He held it in his mouth and chewed on it, letting it make those high pitched noises that egged him on as he hopped on the couch, curling up. Ivo cursed himself for not bringing his control gloves, having to quickly walk to the tv to turn on some bird videos for the pup to watch. Stone was immediately immersed in the colorful birds, all chirping and dancing around. It made Ivo’s job a lot easier. They talked over things Stone may do in his headspace, but one they didn’t fully expect was that if he was bored, he would rip things apart like a real puppy. Ivo understood. He did that too as a kid, even now. Though his is more rage induced, rather than just being bored.
He quickly got back to the task at hand, making dinner. After so much takeout and fast food, a home cooked meal sounded mouth watering. It would have been better if it was Stones, but he knew if he even uttered that, the man would fall out of his headspace to cook. That’s the last thing he wanted, truly. He set to start the sauce first, already having some frozen since about a year ago. It was still quite edible, he’d just have to add some more heavy creamer. He let it thaw out as he dug through the cabinets, finding the small area for Stones special items. He pulled out, specifically, a dog bone shaped cookie cutter. It was just sweet and simple, so he cut the potatoes and zucchini up at the right medium thickness, making them into the bone shapes. He washed it off before deciding to do it to the chicken too, taking a breast and cutting it into three slices to drive the cutter through it. That was a bit tougher, but he managed it well.
Turning back to the stove, he started to add some of the heavy creamer, mixing it in as he added spices to the sauce. He threw down another pan, adding the avocado oil to heat up as he cut his own potatoes, zucchini and chicken. He checked on Stone once in a while, just making sure he wasn’t tearing anything apart while he was distracted. He wasn’t, luckily, simply lying on the couch and gnawing on a different toy as he watched the birds. Ivo adored the way his head would tilt and his ears would perk at certain sounds or movements from the birds, like his own little prey drive was going off. Ivo was sure that he heard a faint growling at other dogs or even cats in the background of the videos, which made him chuckle a bit.
He dropped the chicken into the pan, letting it cook as he opened the preheated oven, shaking spices over the potatoes and zucchini before sticking them inside. He set the oven for about 20 minutes, and then worked on washing the knives, cutters and cutting boards. He diverted his attention to the sauce once in a while, also mixing around the chicken, but soon turned on a medium heat over a pot of water, getting ready for the noodles. He turned off the sauce, letting it thicken for the next 15 or so minutes as he walked to the living room, bending down to press a soft kiss to Stones ear. Stone whined softly, unable to actually feel it. Ivo chuckled again, petting his pups head and muttering things to him until he rose up, going back to tend for dinner. He spent the next 10 minutes making sure the chicken cooked fully, and the noodles, before the oven beeped. He turned it off, putting on oven mitts to pull it out. It smelt delicious, and he knew it because he could hear Stone sniffing the air, sitting up on the couch.
“Aban, dinner!” He called, hearing the pup almost fall off the couch to run to the island, immediately skidding to the floor to his on his knees, his tail wagging. Ivo grins down at him, opening the cabinet to pull out a large dog bowl with the lettering ‘ABAN’ on it. Ivo carefully uses a spatula to put the dog bone fries in it, setting it down. Stone knows to wait, sitting up fully and staring directly at his owner for permission. Ivo watches him intently before he sighs.
“Eat.” He commands, watching Stone lean down to take a fry and eat it from the bowl. The bowl was… pretty 50/50, only for food, never for water. He wasn’t sure if he’d have the other use a fork for the noodles yet. He turned to the cabinet again, getting his own bowl as he mixed the noodles and sauce together, taking a good amount for himself. He added his zucchini and chicken separately, not wanting to mix up their food. He grabs a fork and napkin and sits at the island, eating his food quietly. Stone is rather quiet, despite having his head shoved in a bowl to eat. Ivo pats his head a few times, surprised to see how fast the pup had eaten. There wasn’t any mess, so he grumbled slightly and picked up the bowl, making Stone his bowl of Alfredo. He set it down, watching him bend down to eat before he sat back up, pawing at his owner with a whine.
“Thought it was too messy for that.” He agreed, grabbing a fork for the other. It took some arranging, but Stone was eating again, so Ivo continued his own eating. Wiping his mouth as he finished 10 minutes later, Stone was also done, nosing his bowl towards the man’s foot. Ivo picked it up, ordering Stone to go use the bathroom and brush his teeth while he cleaned. Cleaning didn’t take too long, and Ivo was ready to use the bathroom, brush his own teeth and sleep.
When he came into the room after his nightly routine, Stone was lying by the bed, not going up unless invited. Ivo huffed, getting under the sheets before patting the bed. “Aban, up.” He said finally, exhaustion slipping into his voice. Stone climbed up, stretching and doing circles on the bed before he laid down, being close to Ivo, but not too close. Ivo shifted to pull the covers over the pup, who had his eyes closed already, head on his paws again. He gave a deep inhale, and then huffed, nuzzling happily into the sheets that smelt of Ivo. Ivo wanted to crush him, honestly. Stone gave him horrible cuteness aggression.
He opted out for a rare kiss to the other’s head, scratching by his ear for a moment before lying back down, clapping his hands for the lights to turn off fully.
He would close his eyes, being lulled to sleep by the faint, yet repetitive sound of thumping against the bed.
It was a good night.