#femstone

“It’s not Christmas yet, stop yelling that damn song at the top of your lungs.” Stone complained loudly to her colleagues who had yet stop singing ‘All I want for Christmas’. They glanced her way for a moment, considered their options and carried on. Not a single care thrown.

Stone sighed loudly and cursed the printer for being slow. Even as a government facility with trained agents and high-tech security and weapons, this building was filled from top to bottom in brainless idiots. Every winter was the same stunt pulled again and again. Stone was getting sick of it.

As the last of the papers finished printing, she hauled all of it into her arms and started to march back towards the lab. Everyone who past by her either greeted her, wished her a ‘Happy Holiday’ or a ‘Merry Christmas’ or simply nodded in her directions. She didn’t respond to any of them because she had more important things to do.

The hallways were the same as usual, but small lines of paper snowflakes or pine trees were hung up in corners and over windows. The breakroom was nearly fashioned into something that looked exactly like a room that would come out of a cheesy Christmas romcom and it no one seemed to complain about it besides her and the doctor.

The elevator was crowed when she reached it. People flooded out like a school of fish being released from a fishing net, almost bumping into her several times and knocking all the papers out of her arms. Stone didn’t bother turning around to swear at whoever it was or even glance their way. She was just too busy.

When she finally exited the building and made her way to the off-site lab, the snow outside was already starting to melt into her shoes. There wasn’t much yet, but definitely enough for it to get in. Stone sighed another time and tried her best to get back without any more inconveniences.

Though, something didn’t seem right when she reached the doors of the lab. Something felt off, like a trap set to go off as soon as she goes through the doorway. Maybe it was her agent instincts acting up, but Stone was sure someone set up a trap, harmless or not.

Setting the stack of papers down and quickly removing her coat so she could set the papers on, Stone reached for the panel next to the door and selected ‘Alert’. The button looked like it was to send a message to the doctor or anyone within the lab of possible security lockdowns, breaches or enemies infiltrating. In reality, it was a doorbell option.

Stone waited for a moment before a screen popped up on the panel. The face of Iva Robotnik popped up, hair messed up, eyes tired and table crowed with mechanical parts. The doctor didn’t look well at all due to the weather, but Stone had found ways to calm her down luckily. One of the first methods was make her coffee, of course, and then handle any imbeciles around the lab. Easy and done.

“Doctor, I want to request for an agent to come to the front door.” Stone said calmly, shoving her hands into her pockets. “I think there’s a trap here.”

Robotnik stared at the screen, looking a dead corpse, and sighed. Now that the agent was paying attention, the doctor wasn’t wearing her gloves. Instead, she switched them out for the pair that Stone thought she’d lost. That brought a slight flush to her face, but it wasn’t at all noticeable due to the cold outside already making her flush.

“It’s just a mistletoe, Stone.” Robotnik groaned. “Some moron set it up for ‘the Christmas spirit’.” She waved her hands in the air with a mockingly deeper tone, indicating that it was a man who said it up. Or, at least Stone thought so.

Nodding and apologizing to her doctor, she entered the lab with the stack of papers and indeed found the mistletoe there, though it looked much better than your average ones. Carrying on with the doctor’s orders, Stone ignored it and carried on with her work.

Throughout the rest of her workday, however, Stone continuously see her colleagues get trapped under the mistletoe and then fake-nervously peck each other on the cheeks or literally start kissing each other with the doors still wide open. Stone had to tell them to get inside and close the door unless they wanted to get fired for wasting the doctor’s precious resources.

Eventually, everyone stopped doing it, but the mistletoe remained above the door until the end of the workday.

Stone was forced – or maybe she forced herself into this – to work for another hour, helping out with the most tedious work and cleaning up the lab. The doctor’s cold had gotten more evident, with her sniffling back and forth, eyes burning up easily and sneezing every now and then. The agent had taken her coffee away for obvious reasons, but Robotnik still whined and pulled at Stone’s sleeve to get her caffeine back.

“I’m clocking out now, Doctor.” Stone said as she bid her doctor farewell, hovering over her for a moment longer to get a long, tired groan from the genius.

The lab was going onto low power mood, with most of the lights lining the walls going dim and the sound of machineries dying down. Any badniks near Stone bid her farewell as well with small but affectionate head butt. Stone loved it when the badniks does that, because they had seen them do the same with their mother. Even if other agents say they’re just a line of codes, programmed to be affectionate towards their creator, Stone denied it. She wasn’t listed as a second user in their program.

Before Stone could leave the lab, a hand touched her lower back, pushed her forward and spun her around. Stone let it happen, as she knew no one else was in the lab other than Robotnik. Well, even there was, Stone could always shoot them.

“Not so fast, Agent.” Robotnik said, and even with her slightly stuffy nose, she still sounded as intimidating as ever.

“Wha- “Stone started neutrally before…

Was…was the doctor kissing her? Those are definitely lips against her own.

Oh god, she was actually kissing her.

Stone didn’t have too much time to process before Robotnik pulled away. On her face laid a proud, confident smirk, her hands gripped Stone’s elbow lightly, leaving the agent enough chances to escape. She didn’t.

“You’re under the mistletoe, Stone.” She said in a sing-song voice, pointing up towards the mistletoe that was still hung up there. “And, according to my calculations, you’ll get sick now too since I transferred it to you.”

There she goes, being factual and intellectual again. It was still charming. It felt like she was flirting with her.

“Are you saying you’re sick-trapping me?” Stone joked back, her lips tingling with the kiss that happened just a few moments ago.

Robotnik let go and just walked off before sneezing loudly. Stone doubted that Robotnik even realized that she kissed her, but Stone could wait. The realization would settle in soon.

Before Stone left, the agent heard the doctor sneezed again. Somehow louder than the last.

Yup, still as charming as ever.

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“Iva, won’t you come here?” The Sister asked the small child, her hand covered in flour and a bit of icing here and there.

Iva stood in the doorway to the kitchen, just peeking in at the slightest to see what she was doing. Winter was ushered in really quickly, and the orphanage had never felt so cold. Iva was usually cold all the time, but she felt like she could freeze up into a big ice cube at that very moment. Her scars hadn’t healed properly so even the slightest chilly breeze stung.

Dressed head to toe in thick winter wear, Iva waddled inside and shed off one of her coat, keeping the thinner one underneath on. When the Sister saw that her hands were still gloved, she went and washed her hand as Iva got on her tiptoe to look at the messy counter. A big bowl of batter sat near the wall, a dirty whisk sat inside of it and eggshells were scattered on the table. The sugar jar was wide open; the cinnamon was out as well with some already dusting the counter. Cut butter, baking tray and parchment paper set out. Food coloring on one side and several cookie cutters.

She assumed that she was making cookies for the other kids to enjoy. Iva wasn’t sure if there would be any left for her after the cookies were served. She would bet that she would be munching on any small crumbs that they didn’t want because it looked slight burnt.

“Come on now, let’s take off your gloves so you can help me.” She smiled softly, drying her hands off with a towel before reaching for him.

Iva saw her reaching towards her hands, her own hands spread out and fingers close to each other in order to pinch off her gloves. The small ginger haired child flinched back away from her, hands held close to her chest as she stared in terror. She remembered what those kids had done to him. Their laughter, their mocking and pointing, but she remembered the stares best. She remembered what the other nuns had done, their method of discipline and the way they repeated God’s words. It terrified her.

“Oh dear…” She muttered to herself, looking at her own hands before looking at her fearful face. “I’m sorry. You can take off your own gloves, right? You’re a big girl now, after all.” She tried to brighten the mood by giving her words of encouragement, but Iva wasn’t feeling it.

But, in an attempt to not disappoint, Iva slowly took of the black gloves and placed them at the dining table. For the rest of the time they were making cookies together, she didn’t try to reach out for her again. Instead, she showed her the cook book and instructed by words and motions, pointing towards the ingredient he needed and what cooking instrument she should pick up. Iva liked best the part where she got to cut out the shapes of the cookies and made sure that they were perfect before dipping it into the oven.

“Alright then, let’s clean up while we wait for the cookies to bake.” She sighed happily and clapped her hands together. “We can start on the icing after it cools down.” She didn’t get to make the icing.

Iva offered help as best as she could because she could only reach so far and so high, but the cleaning process was finished with before she knew it. The oven dinged and Iva rushed over to open it up before the cookies burnt. The sister placed on the oven mitts on and pulled the tray out carefully. The smell was wonderful.

The icing part was quite hard which Iva didn’t expect, but she managed to make a Christmas ornament shaped cookie she liked. It was all red, with white stripes and dots, there were zig-zag lines on the bottom with small dots under each point. It was her first cookie in a while, and the sister was proud of her for it. She gave her another one before giving the rest to the other kids. The second one was a Christmas tree, but the star was purple instead of yellow. She thought that was kind of weird but she ate it either way.

~~~

“Iva, let’s make some cookies for the holiday.” Stone suggested happily as she was packing up after club activities. Everyone had already left before, but the empty space was more than welcomed. Robotnik only gave her a confused look as she pushed her googles from her eyes.

The early morning had faded away to a chilly evening, with the lights on campus lightning pathways and lonely gardens. The hall was quieter than before, with only a few footsteps echoing off the walls and quiet chattering of the upcoming winter. Iva Robotnik was a 23 years old student with long, messy ginger hair, eye bags and glasses that don’t fit her age. She sat hunched over the desk she had long claimed in the club as hers with a desk lamp shining down over small, delicate mechanical parts.

Stone was one of the many prodigies of the country, graduating from high school with honors and enrolled in university at 20 years old. A little earlier than Robotnik, but that didn’t matter. She used to have long hair, but now she cut it short and shaved it to a boyish hairstyle. Robotnik thought she was one of those wannabe tomboys, but quickly found out she just did it for convenience. Young, bright-eyed, smart and extremely sociable, she got attached quickly to the ever closed off genius.

“How about you shut your yap while I’m focused?” Robotnik suggested with a hint of sarcasm. Cookies? At this age? Sounded way too childish and absurd.

Stone only stared back at her with an unimpressed look. When Robotnik though it was a good idea to start dating Stone to make some statistics and for research, she didn’t think that she would so quickly get attached to the younger girl and, in turn, Stone became bolder in terms of back talks and cheekiness. Robotnik wasn’t sure if she hated it.

“Come on, it’ll be fun and stress relieving. You can beat the living fuck out of the batter while I make the icing.” Stone suggested with a shrug and a smile, throwing on her winter coat on and getting ready to leave the club’s lab. “Call me if you change your mind, Iva.” And with that, she left.

Robotnik was peacefully left to her own devices again, which she felt grateful for, but the setting guilt of denying Stone of something that could clearly strengthen their bond and make their relationship more meaningful made Robotnik leave the club early. Or as early as it gets anyway.

It was nearly 8PM when she arrived in front of Stone’s dormitory building. She could see some students living in the building walking down toward the carpark so they could drive around campus for a while with their partners or simply go out to buy some decorations of the upcoming holiday to decorate their small room. Robotnik didn’t feel like decorating her own dorm room for any festive holidays, but she felt like Stone might like that if she ever visits.

Dialing Stone’s number as she walked up the stairs to Stone’s floor, Robotnik took several breaks on the way to catch her breath and discuss about some things with Stone over the phone. The girl over the phone seemed to be excited for it, as she quickly told Robotnik to go to the Home Economic room to use all the equipment there.

“Why the hell didn’t you say that before? I’m already half way up towards your room!” Robotnik shouted over the phone, listening to the way her voice echoed off the walls. She could imagine Stone wincing at the volume of her voice, but couldn’t deny that she could also envision a little smile there.

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.” She said between giggles. “Just stay there, I’ll come down real quick. And as compensation, I’ll carry you back down, your Highness.” Stone said before hanging up and leaving Robotnik to her thoughts.

“No.” Robotnik quickly snapped, the thought of someone laying hands on her made her shiver. She would never know someone’s intentions even if she wanted to.

The line went silent, but she could hear faint breathing from the other side. Stone was thinking, she was concerned for the respond that she had given her. Robotnik thought about elaborating, or apologizing, but she doubted any of those options would make the situation better.

‘She’s going to think I got sexually harassed now.’ Robotnik sourly to herself, face palming and sighing quietly.

When Stone’s voice filtered through again, they talked for a while about the concerning answer and tone the ginger had given her. Eventually, the bullying of the past and the punishments she had to bear went out the window, which actually made Stone more worried. Again, the older of the girls reassured her that she had mostly healed since then and that they won’t be doing any more of those. Stone sighed in relief and requested that Robotnik tells her if it did happen again.

It had been a while since anyone ever treated her that nicely, and Stone was more than an ego boost to her in this little dating experiment. She might actually like Stone, but she was also unsure. They’ve never kissed, only ever hugged or held hands with Robotnik wearing her gloves. She felt like her love for Stone might be the root of some other problems, but she pushed that out her mind.

‘You’re not living with them anymore.’ Iva scolded herself, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking into her scarf after she had hung up. ‘You can date girls if you want to.’

Luckily, Stone was down quicker than she thought so Robotnik quickly pulled herself out of her self-loathing and looked up at the girl she was dating who was a few steps above her. She was gorgeous, to be completely honest, and Robotnik wasn’t sure if she could find anyone like her. Compassionate to her own interests and her field, strong even if she was beat black and blue, kind towards those who helped her and those who betrayed her. She was an angel in Robotnik eyes.

“Don’t stand there and stare.” Stone smiled and walked the rest of the way down towards the ginger. “I promised I would carry you so let’s go.” She didn’t promise anything, but Robotnik didn’t feel like walking down the steps either.

Huffing and shifting herself in Stone’s arms after she was on since she still felt somewhat uncomfortable being held, Robotnik wrapped her arms around Stone’s neck and let the stronger of the two carried her down. Stone’s body was always naturally warm which was another thing that the genius loved about her. Every cold night would immediately get better if she just busted into Stone’s dorm and lay in the same bed with her, provided that her roommate would be out to visit his own girlfriend. Stone had never minded it, in fact, she was happy that Robotnik came.

She told her she never dated anyone like Robotnik before, who openly asked and requested for what she needed without hesitation but then also respect her partner’s choices right afterwards. Robotnik felt more special after their first night cuddling each other in a storm.

The sky was like a white paper of there was dark ink on it. not exactly black but not it didn’t exactly had color either. If anything, it looked purple-ish, and Robotnik liked it. Stone hummed a random song on the way towards the Home Economic room, occasionally bouncing the ginger in her arms with a smile. Robotnik was surprised the few first times, but then she felt sleepy afterwards.

“Alright, we’re here, your Highness.” Stone joked and slowly lowered Robotnik down. Despite their height difference, Stone still felt a little taller than Robotnik whenever she carried her.

The room was dark, empty and awfully chilly. When Stone switched on the lights, the pair could tell that no one had used this room since the morning as all the tables still looked clean and all the equipment in their place. Robotnik walked inside and rummaged around the cabinets and drawers as Stone messaged a supervisor if they could use the room.

“Good, we got all the ingredients here.” Robotnik said as she hauled out everything and placed them on the table.

Stone shot a thumbs up her way and ran a hand through her hair. The ginger watched as those fingers gone through dark strands of hair and thought of the same ones that had beaten up a guy who harassed her over homework a few weeks ago. God she was strong, and Robotnik would not trade her for any other person.

The making started with Robotnik spilling flour all over herself and then having a small fit. Stone cracked the eggs but then went off the find food coloring for the icing so Robotnik had to take over. As promised, Robotnik did beat the living fuck of the batter as the wooden spoon in her hand almost flew out of her grip at some point. The process was, to say, entertaining. Robotnik remembered making gingerbread cookies when she was young, but she had since then forgotten their flavor.

Another thing was that she was not quite repulsed by or feared physical contact from other people now. Yes, on many occasions, she might deny physical contact outright unless it was absolutely necessary or unexpected, like bandaging her wounds or someone bumping into her by accident. Being carried by Stone made her feel a bit more reassured that touch might become something important in their relationship.

“Here comes my favorite part.” Robotnik mumbled and smiled to herself, taking the cookie cutters from Stone and pressing it into the cookie dough and then the edges out with the pad of her finger.

Stone only watched as her smart girlfriend gone through the process of making sure that all the cookies looked perfect and in form with the original mold before handing it over to Stone to put in the oven. Robotnik looked proud of what she did, even if it had nothing to do with engineering, scientific breakthrough or biological horror. Stone smiled back with a warm feeling growing in her chest.

For the icing, Robotnik only watched with a curious eye. She stood behind her the whole time, swinging back and forth just to look over her shoulder. Stone thought that it was very feline-like of her to do that, and that warm feeling grew more intense. Like a hot oven, but instead of heat and fire, it was love.

The cookies were done baking by the time Stone had placed all the icing in the piping bags so she rushed over and took them out before they burnt. Robotnik peered at the frosting in the bag, choosing what colors she wanted and what she deemed not fitting. Well, nothing was not fitting, in all honesty, but she much preferred her usual red and white.

Again, like when she was young, she went straight for the ornament shaped cookie, making sure that the damn thing wouldn’t burn her hand before she started on the icing. They spent the time putting the icing onto the cookies discussing what they hated about their courses, which teacher they hated the most and if they were going to plan another date.

“Of course we are.” Robotnik said as she finished the last cookie with a satisfied smile. “My treat. We’re going to the skate park.”

Stone liked to skate, but she didn’t do very well on a board, but the new pair of roller-skaters she had bought about three months ago were doing her good in terms of burning off energy. Then, right after that day, Stone bought the older of the two a skateboard.

Typical for a lesbian date, really, but Robotnik couldn’t think of anything better. She didn’t have enough savings to go shopping with her, restaurants won’t do either, so skate park it was. Luckily, Stone didn’t seem to be against the idea and actually seemed excited.

They packed up the rest of the cookies that they weren’t going to eat in small plastic bags with bows to tied it shut. Stone might be giving this to her friend group, but Robotnik was going to keep most of it to herself.

“Here.” The ginger said plainly and handed Stone a cookie.

It was similar to the one she had before. A Christmas tree with white icing crossing over it like lights. The small, multiple colored dots acted as ornaments and the carefully piped on purple star on top as a finishing touch.

Robotnik muttered a ‘Love you’ before shoving it into her hands and promptly leaving the Home Economic room. She wasn’t going to leave Stone completely, of course, she was just taking this as a chance to sneak back towards her dorm and lay in her bed until she comes back.

From this day, maybe she won’t be so opposed to physically touching Stone.

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OKAY I GOT A BINGO I'LL MAKE MORE IF MY EXAMS ALLOW IT