Robert Robertson Adopted!Reader Headcannons
So this really stemmed from a couple of blogs I found in the rr x reader tag and they really TUGGED on my heartstrings. Like, I wrote this whole thing in a day my hands were possessed. I haven't really done headcannons before, which i honestly think you can tell because halfway thru it just kinda turned into a noterized fic LOL but please let me know if you all like it I'm kinda itching to do adopted!reader post episode 8. Go check out @lee-posted and @dixonsstinkysock their works really got my gears turning!
word count: 2,501
I like to think of the reader being a normie that found out he was Mecha Man during one of his missions. Like he barely got away and hand to make an emergency stop on a rooftop, ripping his mask off as when the mech started smoking. Then he sees you, a teenager in a makeshift tent and bed staring at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
He’s got the paperwork in order, as ridiculous as that sounds. As Mecha Man, he has friends in higher places than Robert does. When Mecha Man approaches his lawyer buddy to help a friend of his adopt a kid off the streets, you say “when can I start?”
He makes sure you go to school, much to your dismay. It was something he didn’t really do since his dad had him home schooled. It helps you make friends, something he realizes he didn’t really have growing up. Once his dad died and he pulled away from the Brave Brigade he realized he didn’t have any other people to lean on. He doesn’t want that for you. It causes a few arguments every now and then.
“This is dumb, Robert. I can be helping you out there instead-”
“It’s not dumb, it’s school. Not going is off the table.”
He also makes sure you have everything a kid/teen needs. Definitely takes better care of you than himself. He gives you the room in the one bedroom apartment, and the mattress, plus the best laptop he could afford for your school work.
He calls you kid most of the time, “baby” when he’s worried or feeling especially sentimental, and “bug” or “buggy” because you seem to enjoy annoying him more than anything.
Sometimes you take matters into your own hands with the mattress, forcing him to sleep in your room from time to time when the ache in his back is palpable.
You lived in his apartment for about three years before Mecha Man fell from the sky. For four months you live the life of school, work, and sleep to keep food on the table and the lights on. Beef needed food, the Mech needed to get back to the apartment, and Robert needed time to heal. To you that was all that mattered. Your friends at school seemed to fall away from you a bit when all of your time was spent away from them, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care about anything else at the time.
You cried when we woke up, angry tears the second you were allowed to see him. Too drained, Robert could only give your hand a weak squeeze each time a sob ripped from you
“What the hell, Robert? You promised me you would be careful. I was scared you weren’t gonna…and then it would just be me and Beef…”
He tells himself in the beginning he just wanted to take a kid off the streets, to make sure you dont get into anything dangerous. But really? He saw himself whenever he looked at you. An angry, alone teenager with their guard up too high. Taking a kid off the street turned into caring and raising a teenager. Your relationship is definitely…different from other kids. He’s never really had a present father, his only experience being Chase’s babysitting, but even that was more of a brotherly tough love than anything else. So he takes what he knows from Chase and what he assumes was good from his Dad and mashes it into one. Some arguments are snippy like he’s an annoyed brother, others more serious and confrontational because at the end of the day, according to the law, he’s your father. The dynamic takes a bit to get used to on both ends, but eventually you guys are able to dance the line between brotherly/fatherly love.
“Yes, I would still take care of you if someone bashed into the house and turned you into a snail.”
“Eat your dinner, then homework, then bed…I know I sound lame, that kinda comes with the gig, kid.”
He doesn’t talk about it at work, mostly to preserve some sort of privacy outside of Mecha Man/Dispatcher. He doesn’t need to give them any more reason to keep telling him he has a dad bod.
He comes home from the bar fight all messed up. One glance at him has you pulling the first aid kit from the bathroom, dragging him into your room silently. You take care of his injuries while he mutters tired apologies. All you do is frown, then finish up and push him back into the bed.
“Sleep, Robert. Not on the floor tonight.”
They all meet you at the housewarming party when they invade the house.
Maleva opens a portal through the door. Robert gapes from the floor, Beef already jotting over to the new people happily as they walk through and into his sad, empty looking apartment.
“This is breaking and entering.” He mutters, dropping the bottle on the kitchen island. “I’ve got a life outside of you all, you know that right? I need you guys to know that.”
“What life?” Visi scoffs, turning and looking around the bare home. “You don’t have anything in your living room, I doubt you have anything outside of it either, Robbie.”
“Robert…?” Your voice is muffled through the door to your room. They all freeze, Robert muttering a few curses under his breath. “Is someone here?”
“Company, babes?” Malevola grins, something evil. “Didn’t take you for that kinda guy.”
“No. Stop that, that’s disgusting.” He points at her with no malice, then turns towards your door. “We seem to have some uninvited visitors, bug.”
They stare as you open the door, dressed in oversized pajamas and an unimpressed look on your face.
“And you didn’t think to let me know they liked you enough to come over?”
It’s a lot once everyone comes over. It is more fuel to the “dad bod” fire, just as he expected. Chase got a bit heated, even going so far as to pinching Robert’s ear a bit too hard and yanking him down to his level.
“You lying, deceiving motherfucker! Not telling me about this shit? Another fucking kid in your fucked up lineage and you didn’t think to let me know anything about it?”
Chase likes you though, which is entirely unsurprising. He jokes with you through the party, throwing jabs at Robert almost every chance he could. You didn’t notice, but all he was really doing was trying to keep you laughing through the chaos of the Z-Team for the first time. Robert notices though.
The Z-Team comes to like you during the little party, though most of them already had a soft spot for kids in the first place. You end up talking to Bruno and Waterboy the most, being the closest in ages.
Blazer pulls Chase from the couch to dance, then glances at you with a friendly smile, holding out a hand. You end up swaying to the music with them, grinning from ear to ear throughout the party. Robert has a matching grin watching you have fun for the first time since he woke up from the coma.
Being the rock Robert needed when Chase was in the infirmary. Making sure he ate that night, keeping him company while he sat at Chase’s side, silent but there so he didn’t feel so alone.
Worried as hell when he tells you he just needs to get out of the room, to be alone for the night and get his thoughts together. Terrified when he didn't come back when he said he would, when the floor of the SDN office shook with explosions.
You see him all beated and bloodied, b-line it to give him a borderline abusive hug.
“I knew shit was gonna go wrong the second you left. You’re a problem magnet.”
You shadow him during his hectic dispatching through Shroud’s attack, watching as the whole office scurries to send every hero they have to stop it. Then the lights go out and you’re booking it to the infirmary with Robert and Royd.
“Stay here. I’ll be back.”
“What? Are you crazy? I’m not staying here while you go out there to die–”
He says your name. He’s never sounded so…broken? Exhausted? Scared. “I can’t lose you too. Stay here and keep him safe for me, please.” He hands you the small pocket knife he’s learned to keep on him.
He’s out of the room fast, leaving you to protect Chase and Beef through the attack.
Then Shroud’s goons come in. You try to fend them off for as long as you can, but eventually one of them lands a solid punch to the back of your head. It has you seeing stars as they drag you up to the roof. Then there was a cold pistol to the side of your head.
“Stop!” Chase yelled. Your eyes flicker over the Z-Team, a healthy and flying Chase, and land on the new Mecha Man suit. They all freeze. “Put them down…Elliot.”
“Who? This young fuck?” Shroud jostles you, arm around your neck squeezing for a moment. Then, he shoves you closer to the edge. Your toes scuff against the concrete at the edge. “Like this?”
“Why’s everyone so tense? Don’t worry, I’m not gonna drop them, cause Trankblondie over there will just swoop right in and catch them anyway.” He pulls you up, back with his arm secured around your neck and the pistol to your head. “So yeah, no. If I’m killing the kid, I’m gonna make sure they die.”
“Know this. If you hurt my kid, you will die.” Robert’s voice boomed through the Mecha Man suit. Shroud hums gently.
“Another Mecha Kid already? Trying to keep the legacy alive, I see.” Then he laughs. You can’t see what he’s doing, but through the ringing in your ears you can hear the pistols camber open and drop five bullets. Then the sound of the chamber spinning.
“You remember our game from earlier, don’t you Robert?” You could hear his grin through the mask, an evil smile twisting through his words. Click.
A sob rips from your throat, eyes squeezed shut as the Z-Team shouts from beneath.
“Shame. Maybe the next one will be more exciting.”
“I’ll do whatever you want, just please let them go.” Robert’s voice is frail. You find the strength to open your eyes again, staring back at the lit eyes of the suit, eyes raw with fear.
“Come up here, only Robert, and give me my fucking Astral Pulse.” Then Shroud falls back from the ledge. A gasp you didn’t know you held dropped from your lips, rushed gapes for air following. Shour tuts from behind you. “Breathe, little one. You’ll survive if dear ol’ dad does what I say.”
Robert flies up onto the roof, then the suit opens. He steps out, glaring at Shroud before looking at you. Through the tears welling you meet his eye. He nods once at you. “You’ll be alright, buggy, It’ll be okay.”
Shroud pulls you closer to him, pressing the gun further into your temple. “You’ll only be alright if I get what’s mine.”
“Same time. I just want a fair exchange.”
Robert hands Shroud both Astral Pulses, collecting you in his arms and yanking you back a few steps. He holds you as close as he can, fingers bound to bruise on the back of your back while you try desperately to not fall apart.
Shroud puts the correct pulse in, grinning as his power shows him the future in certainty, then laughs when he points the gun back at Robert.
“If I let you live, my odds of survival decrease exponentially.” Robert takes you a few steps back.
“You’ve already won, Shroud.”
“I only win if you die.” He grins, then the gun fires. The one bullet in the chamber flies. Robert tries to turn, to shield you from the bullet’s range, but instict took over. You shove him just enough to the side, still attached to him, and a white hot pain blooms from your shoulder. You yelp, dropping to the ground.
“No!” Robert shouts, then lunges at a frazzled Shroud.
It feels like a lifetime of laying on the ground, heart beat drumming in your ears as the sun barely starts to rise. All of the sudden Robert’s there, hands pulling the fabric of your shirt at its seams to get a closer look. He stops when you let out a pained whine, grasping at him with your other arm.
“Hurts.” Your eyes are frantic. He is uncharacteristically frantic too.
“I know it does, I know.” He sushes gently, then presses his palms into the wound. Another whine fell from your lips, a tear dropping to the cold concrete. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Dad…it burns…” Something raw comes from him at your words, moving you as gently as possible to his lap, curling around you as he keeps the pressure. “Dad.”
“I have you. You’ll be okay, bug, I gotcha.” He whispers, a tear of his own falling.
The ambulance takes you away by the end of it all, Robert hovering every step of the way until they haul the stretcher into the trunk.
“They’ll be okay, right?” He asked for the twelveth time. The paramedic takes his worry in stride, nodding with a patient smile.
“The bullet missed any arteries. The most they’ll get is a gnarly scar, the hospital is just a precaution for infections or transfusions in nessecary.” He glanced at her while she talked, then gave his full attention back to you.
“Are you able to give us a moment, ma’am?” Her smile shifts from polite to amused.
“Of course. We’ll be back in a moment before we get moving.” Then she’s gone. You meet his eye, pushing the nasty headache forming to the side when Robert takes a step impossibly closer. His hand flies to catch yours, squeezing. You give him a weak squeeze back.
“You’re so in trouble when we get home.” He mutters, a tired look in his eye. You give a halfways twisted grin.
“I can imagine.” You say, then slowly lean into his arm, eyes closed. He huffs, then leans forward and presses a firm kiss on your forehead.
“You knew shit was gonna go wrong all along, kid.” He says into your hair, another squeeze of your hand.
“Must be a dormant power or something.”
“And to think you were supposed to be just like dear Dad, normie and all.” You pause, opening your eyes. He’s already looking at you with a soft look, gentle smile on his face.
“I–yeah.” You say, then lean further into him. “Don’t worry, I think the powers are just a one time thing. Don’t wanna disappoint my Pops.”
He just shook his head, then pressed another kiss to the crown of your head. “You’ll never disappoint me.”
