Chapter Text
A/N: This will be just a two-parter and both parts are written. Expect the rest - the nutty part - tonight or tomorrow. Thanks goes out to the tumblr hive mind for this one.
The meeting had almost an hour to go, and Robotnik was already falling asleep.
Literally falling asleep, head nodding, breaths deepening. Stone could see it from across the room. He texted the doctor’s watch: You’re dozing, sir.
Robotnik twitched at the watch’s vibration, but his eyes didn’t open.
So Stone buzzed his glove – not hard, just a momentary activation of the electrodes at the wrist. Just enough to get his attention.
The doctor jerked awake and checked his surroundings. Cocked his head questioningly at Stone, and Stone tapped his own watch to clue him in.
The doctor read his texts. Nodded, and texted back: Can’t help it. Too boring.
Stone managed not to smile. I understand. Anything I can do?
Engage me, the doctor ordered.
A far cry from the usual lab policy of not speaking unless spoken to and never saying anything that wasn’t necessary to the work. Tell you a joke?
The doctor glared at him, rolled his eyes dramatically, and lowered his head as if to resume his nap.
So Stone buzzed the glove again. Longer and harder this time, enough for a normal person to find painful. (The doctor was an avid battery-licker though, and not a normal person.). He smirked at the doctor’s glare.
Stop looking at me, sir, he texted. Pay attn. Poor presenter worked hard on that slide deck.
The doctor crossed his arms and turned even further away from the poor presenter, telegraphing refusal to pay attention with everything he had.
So Stone gave another zap.
The doctor faced forward, noisily ripped a page from the handout packet and started folding origami.
Stone checked the clock. There were forty-five minutes left. He had no qualms at all about electrocuting a person for that long. If Robotnik wanted to spend the rest of the meeting thinking up new misbehaviors, he could damn well spend the rest of the meeting paying for them too.
Hey, at least he was now very decidedly awake!
TBC.