Chapter Text
A few months into their symbiotic relationship, Stone was cleaning up Robotnik’s lair when he found a shimmery red scale on the ground. He felt worry clinch at his chest as he stooped to pick it up. The scale was about the size of his palm and clearly from the dragon he shared a home with. It was stunning, the way it glistened back and forth as he moved it.
Stone shoved it down the front of his tunic for safe keeping so he could ask Robotnik about it when the dragon returned. He had gone off to fetch more Austrian goats.
A little while later Robotnik stuck his head back into the cave, a goat still hanging from his mouth as he happily munched on the charred corpse. He wiggled through the opening and plopped himself down on his gold to watch Stone clean. Only the knight had stopped cleaning the second he entered and was worriedly moving closer to him.
“What.” The dragon huffed through his full mouth.
“Your scale!” Stone said, slightly out of breath from climbing up the pile one handed. He reached into his tunic to pull out the scale and held it up for Robotnik to see.
“Yes, that is my scale, Stone,” The dragon blinked one eye and then the other, clearly not catching the point Stone was making before dead panning, “Brilliant observation.”
“If they fall out like this, does that mean you're sick?” The knight asked.
“Oh, Stone! Cease your worrying, they do that every spring so I can grow a new shinier coat.” The dragon dismissed the knight's concern, “I usually just toss them out to hear they pretty noises they make.”
He watched as Stone made an angry noise and pulled it close to his heart, “you can keep them if you want, I don’t care,” the dragon yawned, “But you will have to get them off. It’s so itchy and I can never reach the right places.”
Robotnik continued to complain as he tried to use a hind leg to scratch at his side, “guh!”
Stone immediatly snapped to attention, climbing the dragon and dislodging the scale.
Robotnik sighed in relief, before directing Stone to the next area of discomfort and the next. In the end, Stone had picked enough scales off that he had a sizable hoard himself. Robotnik said it wouldn’t be very tidy for Stone to keep them in the gold hoard so the knight set to work making himself chainmail. It was sturdier than the metal he wore before so it would be better able to keep him safe because it was impenetrable by arrow or sword. It was also Robotnik’s.
Stone wore his new chainmail around the cave constantly. The knight often slept in it, much to the dragon’s amusement. Even when he had to leave the lair for missions as he called them, he would still slip the smooth scales beneath his shirt so they would stay close.
Robotnik felt a heat in his chest every time he glanced over at Stone to see the knight wearing his scales. He felt protective. He felt like Stone was his, but not like he wanted to order him around or even add him to the hoard. Stone was his in a way that made his heart flutter and his brain turn to mush.
The dragon lowered his head to watch Stone.
“Ah, Robotnik, can I help you sir?”
“No. Just watching you work,” the dragon’s voice was soft, almost hesitant.
Stone reached up and patted him on the snout, “let me know if you think of anything that you need.”
Oh, Robotnik could think of something he needed but he couldn’t bring his mouth to say it.