The Locket

What is it…?" He asks for probably the 12th time.

"Just open it!" You tell him impatiently

"It's a booby trap isn't it?" He says accusingly "It's a prank"

"No!" You insist. "Now friggin open it!"

You're sitting on the floor of Dr. Robotnik's garage, the never ending mess of genius strewn about the two of you. He has a neatly wrapped Christmas gift on his lap and he keeps looking from it to you, and back again. He turns it over in his hands one last time before quietly huffing to himself. He begins to unwrap it carefully. You can't tell if he's trying to preserve the paper, or he's just nervous.

The gift is long and slender, it's obviously a box, but a box full of what? Robbie finishes unwrapping the paper to reveal the obvious container inside.

"I swear girl, if this is one of those jumping snake pranks I'll kill you!"

You roll your eyes at him and try to think back to any time you'd actually seen one of those in real life and not just on TV.

He slowly and deliberately slides the top off the box and peers inside. His face goes immediately to a pale shade of red.

"I...wow…"

Inside the box is a sparkly new ratchet set, and after looking at it for some time he looks back at you, astonished and pink.

"How did you affor-"

You shush him with one finger to his lips and then point back at the box.

"It's what you wanted right?" You ask, knowing full well what his answer will be.

"Of-of course!" He stutters out and the shade of pink darkens. "This is an amazing gift! I am delighted! I've been looking at them in popular mechanics for months now…! Stupendous Lacky, stupendous!"

You smile and tug at your collar sheepishly.

"Well it ain't all that, it's just some tools…"

This time he's the one who shushes you, but with a finger to his own face.

"It's great. It's a great gift and that's that!"

You both sit in silence for a while. He takes the ratchet set out of the box and turns it around in his hands, marveling at how customizable it is, how high end. You watch him and wonder what he's really thinking. Suddenly his head snaps up and he looks at you, spooking you out of your contemplation.

"What?" You ask, wondering if he saw some flaw, if you bought shit that was made in China…

"I-I also have a gift for you!!!" There's that cute little stutter again. Dr. Robotnik has always had a loose grasp on his emotions and he tends to stutter when he's overwhelmed.

"Um, that's not necessary" you say, nervous. "You're always the one helping me out with school work and all that…" but Robbie has already pulled out a present from one of the draws he can reach from the floor. He presents a small gift, one that fits neatly in his palm. The gift is not wrapped like yours was and you see that it's a plain black box with no markings or logos.

Suddenly all at once again Robbie is blushing and looking down. He had extended the box to you, you were about to take it as he quickly yanks it back towards him.

"It's not… I don't want you to think…" you watch him as he stutters and looks down at his lap, before looking into your eyes.

"It's not as cool as yours!"

And with that he thrusts the small package toward you, into your waiting hands.

You look at it, now feeling as nervous as Dr. Robotnik had probably felt upon receiving his. You don't have literally one clue what a sheltered momma's boy like him could possibly think is a good gift for a young adult woman your age and you hope it's not something embarrassing.

You lift the edges of the box delicately and have a look at the contents. Inside, nestled against a piece of crumpled tissue paper, sits a small silver locket, round in shape, inlaid with intricate designs of leaves and holly. A locket…?

You look up at Dr. Robotnik, now feeling that you might be the one getting pranked this year.

"A locket…?" You ask again, but this time out loud.

"It's a necklace!" He says matter'o'factly. "It's to keep a secret message in I think, or something useful, albeit very small" he's nose wrinkles and he talks, it's obvious he has no idea what he's talking about.

"Some of my online friends from the forum I run said it would be a good gift idea. I've uh, I've only ever bought presents for Momma, and she just likes lottery scratcher cards and Mike's Hard Limeade…" he trails off again.

"They said girls your age like jewelry, and looking-" he sounds like he's going to "-pretty..! So I asked the man at the Jewelry store to recommend me something for a girl I know and he picked thi-"

"It's lovely" you interrupt. You carefully pick the locket up and and turn it over in your hands. It has a long thin silver chain attached, and you unclasp it dutifully, allowing yourself to put it around your neck and close it again. Then you pick up the locket part in your hands and pry the tiny metal front door open, revealing the small compartment within.

"See, you can hide like, secret codes in there!" Robbie says excitedly, it's like a piece of spy jewelry or something. It's a rather weird idea for jewelery,, but the concept is cool!"

You look up at him and despite yourself you're sporting a huge grin. "You do know this isn't for…" you try not to giggle but don't succeed. "You know this isn't for secret codes right??" You ask him and smirk.

"Hmm, well it doesn't seem like it'd even hold a suicide pill or anything else, so it obviously has to be paper that you put in there" he says quizzically.

"You do put paper in here" you say and look down at the locket. When you look back up it's with a nervous rose tint on your cheeks. "But you don't put just any paper in here... You put a picture of someone who you…"

"A picture of someone? Someone else? Why would you do that??"

You suddenly realize you might cry because his gift did end up being awkward, just in a roundabout way. Now you're having to explain to him that he's gifted you something that signifies deep romantic affection and you don't know how he's going to take it.

"Well you see Robb- Dr. Robotnik you're supposed to put a picture of someone you love in there. So you can look at it whenever you please"

Dr. Robotnik's mouth forms a slow O shape, and you watch as he realizes just what that means.

He begins flapping his arms about comically, stuttering as hard as he ever has.

"Well, you see, I D-DIDN'T KNOW THAT!! That STUPID s-store clerk didn't tell me what it MEANT! That irresponsible bafoon! I'll march R-RIGHT back in there and demand he- MMrrgfff"

Robbie can't talk anymore because you're leaning forward, on your knees, and you're kissing him.

You drop the empty box gently on the floor and you shakily raise both your hands up to frame his cheeks, holding his face towards yours.

"Ahh, wah-" is all Robbie can squeak out in his surprise before you take your chance and guide your tongue against his own, wrapping around it lewdly.

He's obviously never kissed like this before and it almost seems like he's trying to push your tongue away with his own,confused at your actions. You guide your own tongue along his teeth and he clumsy bites at it a little, letting another small yelp, this time of fear, escape from between your locked lips.

It's only when you feel like you may pass out from lack of oxygen that disconnect yourself from Robbie. He's been surprisingly compliant the last minute and a half of kissing and when you pull back he looks to be in a trance, his eyes hooded thought his furrowed brow betrays it. He's panting quite heavily and his face is flush, a little sweaty even.

"What are you doing..!?" He sighs out, his voice higher than usual, tinted with a sense of confusion"

"I don't know" you say "I think we're kissing…"

He stammers "I k-know we're kissing! What I want to know is why you're kissing me!? Is t-this some kind of joke!?"

"Because I like you. Because I like the gift." You say flatly and unblinking at him.

"Oh, I…-"

You're kissing him again. This time he doesn't seem as shocked, but he still nonetheless let's you take the lead. You put one hand behind his head, stroking his hair, petting at him lovingly. Soon kissing feels like a step towards something bolder, and you disconnect, nestling your head in the crook of his neck, pushing down his tall jacket collar with your chin and latching your open mouth onto his pale white collar bone.

"Ayhaa" he squeaks out, but his squeak turns soon to a delicious high pitched moan as he begins to struggle against you. You let your tongue flick against the smooth skin of his neck, darting quickly back and forth, you assume greedily that he's probably very ticklish there.

"Ah, ahh, ohhaahhh-" he stutters out, gasping.

You grab a hold of his waist with both hands and raise yourself up on your knees and high as you can go, looking up into his face again.

He's much taller than you, even sitting down, but you manage to push against him slightly more than you were before, deepening a new kiss.

Suddenly you hear loud footsteps outside the room and you fling yourself away from Robbie unceremoniously. You land on your back and the wind is knocked out of you for a short time before you can process the rest of the situation.

"Robbie!? Robbie are you alright!?" You hear a voice from behind you and you turn around creakily on your back, holding yourself up with your elbows.

Dr. Robotnik's mother is standing in the doorway, in all her pink MooMoo clad glory. She is a spectacle to behold. Her face is painted with a look of worried exasperation and she looks from Robbie down to you on the floor, wrinkling her nose at you before darting her eyes back to her precious and very stupid son.

"What happened!? Are you alright Robbie!? I heard you fell, did your stupid friend mess something up again!? Are you hurt!? Do you have a booboo!? I told you-"

Dr. Robotnik cuts his mother's tirade short.

"I'm fine M-mother" he stutters. "My lackey here just fell, and w-well, I just thought she spilled some precious chemicals so I was worried! You know how expensive they are. I'm sorry for scaring you!"

"Oh" his mother says curtly and aims daggers down at you on the floor.

"Well, if she keeps messing up it would probably be best to find a new, better assistant, would it!?" She says and you can feel each of her words has bite to them.

"Yes Mother…" Dr. Robotnik says sounding defeated and nervous. He looks down at you with a face of regret and worry about having to lie, placing the blame on you.

"Well alright then" Robbie's mother says and begins to close the door. "My soaps are on soon so contain your...Lackey. Make sure she doesn't mess anything else up or she'll have to clean it up herself!"

Robbie looks so ashamed and you can't help but feel bad for him, well, pity is a more apt word. It's rather awkward to see him go from genius inventor to cowed Momma's boy all the time, sometimes multiple times a day.

Robbie's mother quickly closes the door and you can here we stomp down the hall again to the front livingroom where she'll spend the next couple of hours watching her obnoxious daytime soap operas she loves so much.

You immediately look back at Robbie and he looks like he's about to cry. You let yourself crawl back over to him and he looks down at his knees, seemingly not wanting to face you after throwing you under his Mother's bus.

"I'm sorry I-"

His face is in your hands again and he goes silent, waiting to see what you'll do next

"It's okay Robbie" you say, and smile. "I like the gift, the locket. And I know exactly who's picture I'd like to put inside" you say, sheepishness on your voice again

Robbie looks confused at first, but he soon makes the connection and begins to turn crimson. He tries to reply but you're kissing him again, under the sparkling Christmas lights encircling the garages ceiling, & he doesn't stop you, not for a long time.