Merry Holidays everyone! And by holidays I mean New Years (which you'd know if you read the title, which I'm assuming you did). Anyways, I've had this little idea bouncing around in my head for a while and I'd like to write it. Unlike most of my stories, this one's actually set in something resembling game continuity (by which I mean exactly one game will be referenced. Very vaguely), although everyone's older. Enjoy!
A Knuxouge New Year
Why did I agree to this? thought a bored echidna as he sat on a loveseat near the TV displaying the pre-ball drop festivities in Empire City. For the first time in ages, Sonic had convinced the guardian to leave Angel Island and spend time with friends, never mind the fact that he hadn't left the island in ages. Sure, he'd helped with world-saving missions before, letting Chaos and Tikal guard the Master Emerald in his absence, but that was the past. He'd reaffirmed himself to his duty, and was ready to guard the M.E. for the rest of his life. What else could he do?
He surveyed the room again. It seemed like just about everyone was there. Sonic and Blaze, who seemed to have grown a lot closer in the time he had been gone, were admiring some gizmo that Tails and Marine had made. He smirked if I didn't know better, I'd think they were an actual family. I don't recall Sonic ever being so reserved. Another familial group sat across the room. Vector and Vanilla were reading a story to Cream and Charmy. Okay, that's a little more believable. Although, where was the third Chaotix member? Espio was currently playing a video game with Shadow, it seemed, and the other two members of Team Dark were watching as well. Knuckles also noticed Amy and Silver playing checkers on the other side of the room. Everyone seemed different somehow, and he felt incredibly out of place. I shouldn't be here. I'll stay 'till the ball drops, then I'm outta here. Guess I'll just watch TV in the meantime he thought, not noticing someone walking over to him.
"So, how is my favorite echidna? I haven't seen you in forever" said a voice Knuckles knew a little to well for his liking.
"What do you want, Bat Girl" he grumbled.
"To talk to you, obviously" she said, plunking herself down next to him "I mean, you've been gone forever. I've missed you."
"You've missed the Master Emerald" said Knuckles, not even looking at her.
"Ohhh, come on, why can't I miss both?" she said teasingly. Had she always been this annoying? Although, I suppose things haven't changed as much as I thought thought Knuckles.
"Also" said Knuckles "If you really missed the two of us, why didn't you just fly up to Angel Island?"
"Honestly, I've been busy" said Rouge with a sigh "Shadow's been getting more and more restless, and I keep having to stop him and Omega from doing stupid stuff. It's not like Eggman's been doing much recently."
"Really? Did he finally get caught?" asked Knuckles, surprised to hear Eggman wasn't causing trouble.
"No, not really, it was just sort of, like, out of nowhere, he said he was tired of having his plans thwarted, so he destroyed his factories and started a record store. I saw him pretty recently, and honestly, he seems pretty happy with the change. Even Sonic thinks he's done being the bad guy."
"Well now what's Sonic gonna do with himself?" asked Knuckles "I mean, as far as I remember, all he did was battle Eggman."
"Well, that is interesting" said Rouge with a grin "Strangely enough, Sonic and Blaze seem to be becoming a thing. I don't know how she feels about him, but I can tell he's definitely into her. Even their sidekicks get along, too. They seem like family already."
"Huh, that's exactly what I was thinking earlier" said Knuckles.
"Great minds think alike" said Rouge "Come on, let's go outside" she said, pulling Knuckles up off the couch and onto the patio.
"So" she said, once they were both leaning on the patio railing. It was a bit cold, but the were in a warmer part of the world, so it wasn't unbearable "What have you been up to? I don't think you ever answered my first question."
Knuckles thought for a minute. She sounded unusually sincere, which worried him. Or perhaps he was being paranoid. Truthfully, he hadn't been doing much. Guarding the M.E. meant that he sat by it and didn't do much else. Sure, he had Chaos and Tikal for company, but Chaos never said anything, and Tikal mostly ignored him, preferring to play with the chao that occasionally appeared near the shine.
"Not much" he answered. It's not like he was lying.
"That's a shame" she said. Knuckles then thought she would go off on a long tangent about what she'd been doing that would bore him to death. Instead, she said something else.
"You really should come down here more often. I don't have a lot of people to hang out with, and you're fun, even if all we do is argue" she said, smiling sadly at the view off the balcony.
This was unexpected. To Knuckles, it almost sounded like she was feeling the same way he was about life at the moment. He didn't know how to reply, but tried anyway.
"I…don't know. I mean, I'd like to come back. But, well, I've got to-"
"Yeah, yeah, keep the planet alive or some dumb shit like that" she said, sounding annoyed all of a sudden.
"It isn't dumb! Do you realize how much stuff the M.E. keeps in place? I bet the answer would blow your mind!"
Rouge turned a glare his way. It wasn't intense, but was clearly sending some sort of message that he wasn't quite able to interpret. Then she lost the expression, and let out a giggle.
"What?"
"Your expression just there was priceless" she said. Had Knuckles been privy to her thoughts, he would have heard the "and really cute" that she tacked on to the end of that sentence in her head.
They stood there for a moment. Finally, Knuckles had to say something.
"I just don't understand you" he said in exasperation.
"That's the idea" she said.
"I mean, what the hell's your deal?" he said "First time we met, you come up to my island, and try to drag the M.E. off with you. You're moving so slowly that I catch up to you before you've even gotten it anywhere. And then you yell at me like I'm stealing your stuff, instead of the other way around. And then there was that time you tried to sneak past me and lift it. You couldn't, and I laughed at you. You slapped me in the face and ran off. Next time, you come back in, with a big smile, and start bargaining for it, as if the last two times had never happened. Then there's the time you actually managed to distract me, and drag it out to that desert, and we both know what happened after that, and I could go on and on and on. You have tried to trick me, steal from me, talk me into giving the M.E. to you, drag me around on crazy adventures, tease me, do I don't know what kind of things, and drive me insane! And know you're just standing here, acting like you've completely forgotten about the Master Emerald! Why did you even want it in the first place?! What use could you possibly have for a giant gem three times your size that you can't even lift?"
There was a silence after that. Rouge looked rather taken aback, and Knuckles wondered if he should say something when-
"Well" said Rouge "Sounds like I've been on your mind quite a lot" she grinned, and leaned onto his shoulder, which he tried to ignore.
"...Not that much" he grumbled, really hoping he wasn't blushing.
"Ohhh, come on, I'm enough to stick around in anybody's mind" she said, her voice distinctively changing pitch into her more seductive tone. She was also putting all her weight on him by this point. This wasn't the first time she had done this, so Knuckles was now more on guard than anything, as she had tried to catch him unawares by doing this in the past. It only worked the first time. And that one other time. Which didn't count.
"Hmmph. I think about everybody I know down here. You just happen to be part of that" he said, hoping she believed this. The fact was, he definitely thought about her more than the others, although he wasn't sure why. Sure, he'd had a lot more interaction with her, but that couldn't mean anything, right?
"I didn't say you didn't" she said, straightening back up. He relaxed, tension he didn't know he had while she was leaning on him leaving his body.
"I mean, there's all sorts of great people down here." she continued "There's Sonic, who's still a fun guy, even if he's starting to commit to Blaze. Tails is starting to grow up, and he and Shadow even have a friendship of sorts now. Amy's relaxing more over Sonic, although I don't think she's too fond of Blaze at the moment. I've gotten to know Silver, and he's nice, if a bit skittish at times. Cream's growing nicer and nicer as the days go by, and the Chaotix really seem to be getting their act together. You're really missing out."
"W-well" said Knuckles, trying not to show how much that last sentence had hit him "What about you?"
"Me?" said Rouge, who looked somewhat surprised "Since when did you care about me?"
Now Knuckles was really confused. Her usual response to him showing the slightest concern toward her was a teasing phrase of some sort. Now she sounded confused.
"Umm…uh" Knuckles really had no idea what to say. Fortunately, he was interrupted by Shadow poking his head out of the door.
"Hey, you guys want something to eat?" asked the artificial hedgehog.
"Sure" said Rouge right as Knuckles was about to decline "Do they have any ice cream?"
"I'll go check" said Shadow, disappearing back into the house.
"…what were we talking about?" asked Rouge. Knuckles shrugged, hoping he still wouldn't have to explain himself. Shadow came back out onto the porch again. Carrying a…very large bowl of strawberry ice cream.
"There you go" he said, leaving as soon as he put it on the outdoor table.
"That's odd" said Rouge, staring after Shadow.
"What?" asked Knuckles.
"I wasn't expecting him to actually get any. He hasn't done anything that nice in ages. This is a really big bowl, though. I almost think I'm being insulted somehow. Do I look too thin?" she said, glancing down at herself, then over at Knuckles.
"Wha-Um, I mean, you look…fine, to, me, I guess" he said awkwardly. She giggled.
"Oh, don't worry about me. I guess I should eat some. Do you want any?"
"I'm good" said the guardian.
"Well, at least sit down" she said, motioning with the spoon the ice cream had come with. He did, and sat there. That sat in silence for a while, Rouge eating the ice cream. Then she paused.
"I can't possibly eat all this. Are you sure you don't want any?" she said.
"I told you, I'm good" said Knuckles.
"Come onnnnnn" she said, holding a spoonful right in front of him "Try it, it's not poison."
Knuckles sat still, unwavering. He didn't know what she was up to, but he was pretty sure this wasn't something normally done. Then, her expression changed.
"You're doing it again" she said.
Knuckles opened his mouth to ask what exactly was he doing, giving Rouge the perfect opening to feed him the ice cream. For a moment, he sat there, wondering if he should spit it out or not, but decided he didn't want to get beaten by a spoon. He ate the ice cream. Rouge giggled again. Knuckles didn't remember her ever being so giggly. She ate another spoonful of ice cream, then offered him the next. Deciding at this point that it would be flat-out rude if he refused, he ate it. This went back and forth for a while, she had a bite, she gave him a bite, always with a smug look on her face.
"What exactly was I doing?" said Knuckles after a while.
"Oh, just being a knucklehead" she said with a grin, giving him another bite of ice cream.
Knuckles decided to turn the situation around. The next time she gave him a bite, he took the spoon.
"I'll do it" he said, giving her a bite, which she daintily took from the spoon.
"Mmm, and they say chivalry is dead" she said with a smile.
"Whatever"
% % %
After a while, they stopped eating ice cream, and looked off the balcony. Night had finally fallen, and the stars had come out. Rouge came over and sat on his side of the table, pressing herself into him.
"What? It's cold" she said when he gave her a look. He looked back at the stars, and she looked with him. They stared out at the sky, dark, yet filled with light. Somewhere in the background, they could still hear the party going on, but for now, it was just the two of them, and the world above. Knuckles felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. Contentment.
Then Rouge broke the silence.
"Tell me" she said.
"What?"
"Tell me about the Master Emerald. Earlier, you said I wouldn't understand it. Get me to understand" she said, looking into his eyes.
"Oh. Well…to be honest, there's a lot I don't understand myself…"
"That's okay" she said "I won't know if you get something wrong"
That caught him a little off guard. He had never heard her speak in such an…understanding tone before. For once, she genuinely sounded like she wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Okay, well, as far I know, how the Master Emerald works is-"
"No, tell it like a story. I want to hear a story" she said.
"Oh, okay. Give me a second" he said. He'd never really told a story before. Her only response was to snuggle closer to him a bit more.
"Alright. The story of the Master Emerald" he said "goes a little something like this"
"Long ago, before anything ever existed, there was chaos. Not the god of destruction we know today, but simply, pure chaos, wild energy more powerful than any star. Unstoppable, it raced through a void of oblivion and nothingness, doing whatever it wished however it wanted. But in order for something to live, it must have balance. Some small part of the chaos realized this, and sealed itself away from the rest. It took upon the form of something solid, stable, unmoving. An emerald, if you will. But it wasn't the Master Emerald yet. Thus order was created to balance the-"
He suddenly realized Rouge was asleep. He realized this because of her soft snoring. It wasn't grating, like that of some hedgehogs he had heard. In fact, it was kind of…cute? Man, I must be cracking up if I think she's cute.
"Hey, Rouge, wake up" he said. A little, rude, sure, but he knew that he was never gonna hear the end of it if Sonic found the two of them like this.
"Hm?" she said sleepily. Then she bolted up "Oh, I'm so sorry! It's just, um, uh…"
"What?" asked Knuckles, not knowing why she was so flustered.
"I-well, I mean, your voice is…r-really relaxing, and I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately a-and-" she said. Knuckles wasn't sure, but in the light coming from the inside of the house, it almost looked like she was blushing, which he had never seen before.
"Not getting sleep? Why?" asked Knuckles, now genuinely concerned. He knew just how bad sleep deprivation could be.
"It's, just, well…" she stammered. Knuckles put an arm around her, hoping it would calm her down.
"What is it?" he asked "You can tell me."
"W-well, I think I said earlier, but Shadow's been getting himself into a lot of trouble lately. He seems to have found a friend in Tails, but he'll go out for days at a time, just, vanishing off the grid, and at the same time, I'll hear about some disaster or something, and I'm sure he's the cause, even if he doesn't mention it when he gets back. I'm worried about him."
"I thought you just worked with Shadow" said Knuckles, feeling annoyed for some reason.
"Well, I mean, when I first met the guy, I thought he was an arrogant jerk. And he is. You just have to know him to see other bits of him. To be honest, I've started thinking of him as a little brother, even though he's way older than me" she said. She sat there, and looked sad.
"Is that all?" asked Knuckles.
"I-I think so" she said.
"Okay. But if you've got anything else on your mind, you can talk to me about it."
"…thanks"
Once again, there was silence. The stars shone. The air grew colder. Rouge leaned back into Knuckles again, and he leaned into her a bit as well.
% % %
Eventually Rouge spoke again.
"A-Actually, there is something else…"
"What?" said Knuckles, noticing her voice sounded a bit odd.
"It's, well, I don't know how to say this, but…um, ohhh-" she sighed "Never mind" she said in a defeated tone."
"Hey, if you say it wrong, I'm not gonna know" said the guardian. She gave out a weak chuckle.
"What?"
"Always willing to believe the best in people, even if they don't deserve it" she said with a sad smile.
"Everybody's got something good in them" said the echidna. That was his philosophy, and one he stood by very strongly.
"In all the time I've known you, I've been a constant annoyance to you" said the bat "I didn't know what to make of you. You didn't guard the M.E. like a guard protecting some jewelry, but as one protects their own. I wasn't expecting that. And then I got to know you, through our own arguments, and hearing Sonic tell stories about adventures he'd been on with you, and I felt as though you were just, so…different than anyone else I had ever met. You were honest, and kind, and seemed like you genuinely wanted to do good. It made me feel ashamed of the things I did in the past. I tried to hide that feeling by annoying you, seeing if I could bring you down with me, or something, I don't even know. I told myself, you were just a big dummy, nothing more than a knucklehead. But eventually, I just wanted to see you. I just wanted to hear you. I just wanted to know you. But if I ever got close to such a goal. I pushed you away again. I wanted the chase, but didn't think I deserved the prize" she stopped, and…was she crying?
"Let me tell you something about myself" she said "My worst fear…is-is being alone. With nothing more than my thoughts. A long time ago, I'd do anything for company. Too much, almost. Then I found you. You were all alone. Just like me. You were someone I could connect with, not that we ever really did. But I really wanted to, I-I just didn't think you'd want to have anything to do with me. Then, when you left, I felt like I'd lost a part of me, I'd lost my own personal friend, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about you. These days, I don't want to go on any more adventures. I'm done with that. I just want to stop, and, settle down, y'know? Kind of like what Sonic & Blaze are starting to have. But I need someone else for that, or I'll never be able to stop. I need you Knuckles. But I'll never have you. We don't deserve each other. I don't even know why I'm still talking. Why I thought you'd-"
He interrupted her by pulling her into a hug. She cried. Eventually, she didn't.
"Let me tell you something about yourself" said Knuckles, to whom a whole lot of things, thoughts, and feelings were starting to make sense.
"You were an annoyance, yes, but, to be honest, you were also one of the only interesting things in my life. Guarding the Master Emerald is what I have to do, but you at least helped keep it interesting. Not many others ever tried to steal it, so all I would do is sit there, wondering what the point of it all was. The fights we had may have been rough, but you fought well, and it seemed like you were fighting for something, even if it was only for the M.E. That's something I can respect. You're one of the few people who actually tried to get me used to the rest of the world. But you made me figure it out for myself, instead of simply explaining everything, and I feel like I understand it better now. You may think what you've done to my life is negative, but that couldn't be further from the truth."
She looked up at him.
"Really?"
"Definitely."
She smiled a beautiful smile, and leaned back into him.
Then the moment was completely shattered. By Sonic, who bounded out onto the porch, causing the two of them to straighten up and move apart.
"Hey, the countdown's about to start! C'mon!" he raced back inside.
Knuckles and Rouge looked at each other.
"Well?" said Rouge, her usual smirk in place "Shall we?"
"Sure" said Knuckles. They walked back in. It looked like several people had left, the only ones left being Sonic, Blaze, Shadow, Tails, and Marine, who was asleep. The countdown was going, and they all counted down with it
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6…"
% % %
After the countdown (and an eventful scuffle caused by Sonic trying to "accidentally" give Blaze a new year's kiss) the bat and the echidna walked away from the house. They didn't know where they were walking, but that was fine.
"Well, that was something" said Knuckles.
"Indeed" said Rouge "Shadow's quills may never recover"
They laughed for a bit, and kept walking down the road. Knuckles still felt odd.
"So…about what we were talking about earlier…"
"What?" said Rouge, putting her hand into his.
"I-It's just, what you were saying, about settling down…"
"With you" she said happily.
"But, I can't, I mean-"
"What?" she said. She sounded almost scared, as if she knew exactly what he was going to say.
"I-I can't do that. I have my duty. I can't just ignore that."
"But, but why?" she said, sounding crestfallen.
"I can't. I can't just leave. This-This is too much, too fast."
"Yes you can leave. Please" she said, tears forming in her eyes. Knuckles was starting to get an idea of just how long the bat had been waiting to tell him about her feelings. Maybe even before he left to go back to Angel Island
"This is something bigger than the two of us-"
"But I love you!" yelled Rouge, throwing her arms around the guardian, sobbing.
"I-I feel the same" said Knuckles. And he did, even if he hadn't realized that was how he felt until she said it. He had loved her, because she was always there. She was a part of him. He wanted to stay with her. To be with someone. To never be alone again.
"Then why can't you stay?" said Rouge.
"I-I-I just can't" said Knuckles, pulling away, and walking away from her, not knowing how to say the real reason without sounding like a heel. That he wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of shirking his duty.
"Knuckles…" she said. He ignored her, though it hurt.
"Come back" she said, desperation seeping into her voice. Still he walked.
"Please!" she practically screamed. But he couldn't.
And that's my first romantic story done. With a sad ending. I've never written anything like this before, so please keep that in mind when writing a review. Thank you for reading and have a happy new year!
And who knows, maybe something else will happen. It's only a month and a half until Valentine's day, after all