Your Fault

"This is your fault, hedgehog."

Although the accusation in itself was so common between them, it hung disturbingly heavy in the dry air, gaining even more weight through the subtle echo in the high and yet narrow tunnel.

"Oh yeah?!" Sonic's comeback didn't waste even the fleeting instant Knuckles' voice reverberated in the otherwise deadly quiet environment before the words were shot at the Emerald guardian.

"Oh yeah!" The red echidna underlined just how sure he was on whose fault the situation was with a forceful gesture and ended up brandishing the torch he was carrying, what brought the flame dangerously close to Sonic's face.

With the quick-footed reaction he was known for the blue hedgehog dodged their only source of light that was so uncomfortably invading his personal space. His quills slightly ridged on his back when just enough anger and surprise flooded through his system to make his neck prickle with it.

He folded his arms firmly across his chest, feeling his ears slowly curve backwards as he fixed the red echidna in a glare he hoped was hot enough to fry his toes. "Then tell me again whose idea it was that exploring the tunnels is a great free time activity!"

Knuckles snorted, but thankfully moved the torch further away from Sonic's nose. "I didn't ask for you to come and join me! I explore hidden tunnels and caves on the island every winter; I could have done it just perfectly without your company."

"My being here is the mistletoe's fault alone!"

Knuckles laughed. "What problem do you have with this stupid piece of cut-off greenery?"

"That's none of your business." Sonic waved a hand around to evade the topic of evil traditions. "What do you even want here?"

The walls, floor and ceiling were all made from the same, huge sandstone bricks, painted all over with hieroglyphics and weird symbols that made no sense at all to Sonic. Apparently no-one had been in this particular tunnel for several years at least; their feet left deep footprints in a thick layer of dust on the floor and the air tasted as dry as in a desert.

Sonic coughed on a strange mixture of the dryness in his throat and an only partly stifled laugh. "It's not that there was anything exciting to do in here, right?"

The red echidna grunted. "I am the guardian, and it's my job to look after the entire island. That means also the old tunnels underground."

A frown dug into Sonic's brow. "What is here to look after? The walls? The funny symbols nobody can read anymore? Oh, I know! It's the dust bunnies hiding in the corners, right? Do you need to pet them?"

Once more the torch was shoved uncomfortably close to the hedgehog's face. "There's a lot to look after here! You need to check for possible cave-ins! These underground tunnels carry mountains on top! If the island falls, the walls can get damaged and that damage may cause great problems to whatever happens to be above them! If there is damage to a wall and the island has fallen, water can break in! Standing water in a tunnel that has been dry for centuries can cause huge trouble to the entire structure! It's really, really important the underground parts of the Floating Island are in a good shape! And…" Knuckles waved with the torch, but apparently he'd run out of arguments for the moment. "And I can read these symbols, hedgehog. Any more dumb questions? No? Good." He huffed out a breath, almost seeming exhausted after the excited speech that was so much longer than his usual statements.

The sheer length of it was in fact enough to make Sonic speechless for several seconds. Then he managed to make an "um" sound.

A smug grin darted over Knuckles' face. "Wow. You were silent for almost the time I need to say 'super sonic speed'. That must be a new record."

Sonic quirked an eyeridge in the not very successful attempt at giving his face a hurt look while it was still somewhat stuck on dumbfounded surprise. "I can be silent for a lot longer than that! When I go for a run, I'm silent all the time!"

The grin still lingered on Knuckles' face; in the flickering shine of the torch it even appeared to be growing another bit, revealing some teeth that were surprisingly sharp for someone whose diet primarily seemed to be fruits. "You? Silent on a run? Then remind me again who is always screaming 'Whoo!' and 'Yeah!' and stuff like that at a volume sufficient to let the entire zone know blue hedgehog's coming through?"

"'Whoo' is not even a word; that totally doesn't count!" Sonic finally managed to convince his facial muscles to portray an appropriate look of reproach. "Besides, it's awesome if the entire zone knows super fast blue hedgehog is coming through. Everyone should see something that awesome. And it makes less idiots stand around in my way taking up space and slowing me down." Shamar's bazaar immediately came to Sonic's memory. Those people really stood around in the way too much.

Knuckles shot him a stern look. "Sure it is." He shook his head, obviously more to himself than to Sonic. "Oh, and my point still stands; you can't be silent for a minute. You've done nothing but talk my ears off ever since you came here, and that was hours ago."

"You didn't even have ears when I came here, and don't go trying to blame that on me." Knuckles stared and with the notion that now the echidna was momentarily speechless and in so far he won that round, Sonic firmly tucked his fists under his armpits, giving Knuckles a sideways glance that too much resembled a five-year-old trying to look deeply mad. "Fine, I'll give you the silent treatment now. You were calling for it. Your own fault!" He turned away, with clear ostentation looking at the wall instead of Knuckles.

The echidna chuckled in mocking relief. "What brings us to the beginning of this wonderfully enlightening discussion, right?"

Entirely unwavering Sonic kept demonstrating how many times more worth his interest the wall was compared to Knuckles.

The guardian watched Sonic's turned head for a short moment, the curved quills still too ridged and pointed out to sway with his steps as they did when relaxed, then he let out an audible sigh. "Hm. Silence. Finally."

That Sonic was actually trying to prove how well he could go without talking to Knuckles anymore showed two minutes later when their tunnel finally crossed with another one. Knuckles stopped in the middle of three new possible ways to take and the heated discussion which one would get them out of the vast system of underground tunnels they were lost in for hours didn't start anew.

What didn't make the decision any easier to Knuckles. The tunnels all looked the same. Pale sandstone walls that gained a golden tint from the shine of the fire, but it didn't reach far and only ten meters away blackness swallowed up the world and took away any chance to judge which one of the new pathways led closer towards an exit.

In the end Knuckles picked the way to the left more on a whim than based on any logical judgement. Since he was apparently intent on ignoring him completely Sonic didn't even question the choice; he simply tagged along still holding a staring contest with the wall.

After another minute the hedgehog's loose leash on patience finally slipped though and he cleared his throat, flicking a short glance over at his friend from out of the corner of his eyes. "Uh, I guess I still have a question."

Knuckles didn't quite manage to suppress a chuckle. "You lose, hedgehog. Epically."

"We didn't bet," Sonic noticed and flashed his best grin at the echidna.

"Dang." Knuckles groaned. "Fine then, what is the question?"

Sonic shrugged. "About what you said… You know, about these tunnels being so important… Why is water bad in them? Hydrocity survives just great partly flooded."

"It's meant to contain water and was built from different materials." Now that it was no longer personal and just some factual talk, Knuckles' voice was low and calm. He indicated the walls framing their path. "This is sandstone. It pulls in water easily, like a sponge. It erodes quickly, the bricks break apart, the walls lose stability. The longer the water stays the worse it gets."

Sonic nodded, in some distant corner of his mind processing that it was funny to have Knuckles explain stuff and not Tails. It was just made weirder by the fact they weren't talking Chaos Emeralds or something related at the moment.

Knuckles was frowning at his companion's thoughtful silence. "Are you going to say something?"

"Oh? I didn't know you wanted me to say something. I thought you wanted me to keep my mouth shut." Sonic couldn't persuade the grin to stay off his face.

It seemed contagious; the corners of Knuckles' mouth also twitched upwards. The humour stayed on his face for just a second though before it was defeated by a frown as the guardian pointedly looked at the torch. "I hate to say it, but our light is burning down."

Sonic's green eyes widened a fraction. "Really?"

Knuckles blinked. "Yes?"

"Oh." Worriedly Sonic regarded the torch more closely now. Knuckles was right, the part dunked in oil had already burned down completely and the flame was now rapidly shrinking while it desperately consumed the last bits of wood clinging to the handle. With a quiet crackling noise and a tiny burst in brightness the fire lost out and with their only light starved and extinguished instant blackness fell over the ancient tunnel.

For a long moment they stood, both knowing the other's eyes were still glued to the spot where the light had vanished. With the darkness also an odd silence fell over the room, a dull and yet deafening sensation Sonic found was washing into his ears with almost the same might water possessed. In a way, it made sense as it was also silent underwater.

In spite of Knuckles' complaints he talked too much, Sonic actually fancied quietness. He liked the quiet in the lonesome caves of Green Hill Zone, or the beaches of Adabat, or the wide desert of Sand Ocean. But that was quiet, not utter silence. There was always something to hear, the whispers of wind, the songs of a bird, the brushing of waves over the sand.

Actual silence was mighty, powerful. A vast, heavy emptiness from all around you, smothering and constricting even though it made the room around you suddenly feel so much bigger.

The deep, total blackness all around made the silence even worse. Sonic had been in completely dark places before and there was something about them that could drive you nuts within minutes. Tails had once explained it to him by saying the brain was used to input, especially visual input, and that it couldn't properly handle being suddenly completely devoid of anything to process. It made your imagination kick into overdrive and Sonic found his brain apparently enjoyed coming up with concepts like spike traps moving down towards him from a ceiling he couldn't see, long, glazing blades two times the size of his own spikes steadily approaching just to impale him. How could he tell he wasn't walking right into a bottomless pit with the first best step he took into the blackness?

Sonic was sure if he told that to someone most people would call it irrational fear of the dark. Sonic knew better. He wasn't afraid of the dark; darkness was just absence of light and totally harmless. He was just worried about not seeing where he went, and given all previous experiences he found he had all rights to worry. Especially in some crazy old tunnels on the Floating Island.

Still, a part of him enjoyed the course events had taken, the prickling thrill tingling down his back and the adrenaline pulsing in his veins. In a way, Sonic lived on it, was as addicted to it as to running and chilli dogs. Despite the subtle worries, a smile stayed on his face, plastered there by his quickening pulse.

As exciting as it was, nothing really clued Sonic on how to continue now. "Um, Knuckles?"

"Yeah?" Something lacing the tone of the echidna's words didn't sound smug anymore.

"What are we going to do now?"

"The same thing we did the last two hours. Trying to get out of here."

"How do you think we're going to do that?" Sonic frowned, full well knowing Knuckles couldn't see it. "We didn't exactly make a lot of progress while we still had light. What are you going to do, smart-ass? Dig us out?"

His hearing seemed to get a boost now that his eyes had become practically useless and Sonic could pick up the ruffling sound Knuckles' dreadlock quills made. Maybe he'd shrugged. "If all else fails, I'll try that. Until we're that desperate, we'll just continue. Come over here and feel along the wall."

Sonic nodded uneasily in spite of the uselessness of such a gesture. "You sure your ancient pals didn't install any death traps round the next corner?"

"Why would they?" The sound of carefully placed footsteps told Sonic Knuckles had decided to walk on.

"Dunno, they tend to do that? Entirely accidentally, of course?" The blue hedgehog felt a smile grow at the mental image of an old Echidnaen architect looking over his plans for a building and wondering how the giant balls rolling down to chase people got there. Sonic figured he should keep talking to Knuckles, it took away the silence and made the darkness a lot more fun to think about.

The chuckle that came from directly in front of him clued the hedgehog also the echidna appreciated the conversation. "How can you accidentally install a death trap somewhere?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'd manage. They set loose a giant monster on accident." Silence followed and Sonic realized too late he'd maybe hit a sore spot with that not overly mindful comment on his friend's ancestors and their sad fate. "I'm sorry," he mumbled in the attempt to keep the damage as small as possible and the two of them on good terms. "I shouldn't have said that."

Knuckles sighed quietly. "It's okay. They actually were stupid in a way."

Sonic could think of a couple of things to say to that, including the teasing remarks Knuckles being a descendant of the trap constructors also didn't always come across as a shining picture of smartness, but he didn't want to risk the somewhat relaxed atmosphere between them, and the unfamiliar feeling of Knuckles explaining the construction of tunnels to him was still evident in his mind, too. Therefore, this time it was Sonic who remained quiet.

What forced Knuckles to pick up the conversation again if they didn't want to be groping their slow way through a dark tunnel in sickening wordlessness. "I still don't understand why you're here."

Another shrug nobody could see. "I told you, I needed to escape to a safe place and this was the first best thing I could think of."

"Let me get this straight. You take that plane of yours, battle it through the winter weather up to my entirely snowed-in island, land here and seek me out to practically beg for asylum and then you even tag along into this underground maze without a question just to make sure I let you stay here?" Knuckles' spines ruffled audibly again and Sonic concluded he was shaking his head. It fit the disbelief in his tone. "All because of some cut-off twig?"

"Let's not forget you got us lost in this underground maze more quickly than I could realize it was happening."

"You're dodging the point," Knuckles noticed sharply. "You've been dodging it all day, but I take it you don't want to stay quiet so you gotta talk and I suppose you better spill now."

Sonic groaned, but gave in. "Okay, okay, fine. I'll explain my misery to you if you don't get us any more lost."

Knuckles grunted dryly. "I think that's hardly possible. I'll try getting us un-lost instead. Now shoot, I don't have all day."

"Oh, do you have much more interesting things to do right now?"

"Sonic."

The hedgehog sighed deeply. He didn't need to let it through to Knuckles that he was even kind of happy to find a listener, even if the echidna was the last person you expected to listen to something like Sonic's current trouble. Okay, second to last if you counted Shadow in.

"Alright, I'm talking, okay?" No reply came and Sonic had to continue. "The problem is actually rather simple. You see, there are a whole lot of holiday traditions. Some are nice, like putting up a decorated tree and putting presents underneath it."

"That's kind of nice, yeah," Knuckles agreed. "What's up with that twig? Do you also decorate it?"

Sonic grimaced. "No, some people put it up as decoration. You hang it up on the ceiling or under doorways. It looks weird if you ask me. But I wouldn't mind a few green branches hanging around. It's just that someone came up with the idea that two people standing under a mistletoe… have to kiss. And I saw Amy hang up the things all over the place."

A tiny moment of silence followed, then Knuckles burst into a fit of close to hysterical laughter. "You're - hiding here - from Amy? Really? - That's too - rich-" The echidna struggled pretty obviously to stop laughing, but wasn't quite able to even catch his breath.

Sonic felt hurt at his friend's utter lack of sympathy. "Yes, I'm hiding from her! She - wants to eat my face!"

"Run - away if - you don't - want - her to!" Knuckles still gasped in between words.

"She has a giant hammer of doom! And she hits me! I can't trust her not to carry it around all the time just to trap me under a stupid piece of lousy decoration!"

Knuckles took a shuddery breath, but he still sounded way too amused for comfort. "I also hit you and you trust me enough to seek shelter on my island," he pointed out.

Sonic bit his lip. He'd never really contemplated the concept. "Well, yeah," he said. "You don't try to eat me alive."

Even without seeing it Sonic just knew Knuckles was grinning. Somehow he could hear it in his voice. "I don't see your problem. What's so bad about her kissing you?"

"I… don't want to?" Sonic shrugged. "Would you want someone to just jump at you and kiss you?"

"Dunno, never thought about it," Knuckles trailed. "It could be worse than Amy, right? Imagine Eggman was under the mistletoe."

"I could spindash him," Sonic said pointedly.

The remark made for another short-lived silence, then Knuckles spoke up quietly. "I don't think I'd mind running into Amy under that mistletoe thing much."

"Excuse me?" The statement seemed too unlike Knuckles to believe it, too personal, too open, especially with Sonic being the one he talked to. But perhaps, the hedgehog realized idly, he wasn't the only one who hardly had anyone else to talk to.

"I… I dunno, I think she's kind of ..." Knuckles paused briefly. "She talks too much, but I guess I like her quillstyle."

For a second the teasing comeback that in a way it resembled Knuckles' own way to wear his spines lingered on Sonic's tongue, but then he swallowed it for the sake of the strange trust they seemed to be treading on right now.

"But I don't think she likes me," Knuckles continued.

Sonic pondered if it made any sense at all trying to contradict, then decided against it. "No. Not until you paint yourself blue."

Knuckles laughed. "To have you tell me I'm copying you?"

"Rightfully so! You totally would be copying me. There's only one blue hedgehog in the world."

"I'm not a hedgehog."

"Oh." Sonic blinked in the darkness. "I guess so."

Some long moments dragged on with just the sounds of cautious footsteps on dusty floor echoing through the tunnel.

Then Sonic spoke up again. "Knuckles?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think mistletoes grow on your island?"

"Why am I concerned about that question?"

Sonic grinned. "Relax. I was wondering if they taste any good. Maybe we can make a soup or something once we're out of here."

Knuckles chuckled. "I should have figured you're hungry. You didn't have your fix of chilli dogs or similar junk food for what… three hours?"

"Four, I guess."

"Oh, four. You must be starving."

"I am!" Sonic ran a hand over the hole that sat right where his stomach ought to be. He didn't expect Knuckles to understand the implications of having a super fast metabolism.

"Sure. You'll drop dead from starvation any minute now." The familiar dryness was back in the echidna's tone; whatever moment they'd just experienced was clearly over again.

But Sonic liked the banter. In some odd way it was terribly relaxing. Even though they'd gotten lost in a dark old tunnel, he was glad he'd decided to come up for a visit. And it still seemed better than the alternative. "Your lack of concern for me is hurtful, Knux."

"Shut up."

"Really? No more nice talking? Are you getting sick of it?"

"Against my better judgement not too much, actually."

Sonic smiled at the revelation his fancy for their banter wasn't that one-sided. "But?"

"I smell sulphur. And I think I see light."

The short statement had an almost electrifying effect. Sonic leaned past where he knew Knuckles was, eyes strained wide open in hopes to catch some of the light. He didn't see anything yet though; Knuckles' eyes were a lot better in the dark than Sonic's. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

It took another minute until Sonic could finally make out the silhouette of the echidna walking in front of him and by that time the smell of sulphur was persistently stinging his nose and the air felt increasingly hot against his skin. "We're almost at Lava Reef?"

"Yeah." Knuckles nodded, Sonic could see it now. "And I guess we're almost out of here." The smile was clear in his voice again.

Sonic was smiling as well as he strolled after his red companion. "I'll admit that was not bad."

Knuckles pointed towards the now visible opening of the tunnel. A reddish warm light filtered in softly. There was obvious triumph on the guardian's face. "Was there ever any doubt? My sense of orientation doesn't fail me."

In light of the echidna having gotten them out of this ancient maze safely Sonic swallowed the remark he would normally give to that. He regretted it as soon as the walls opened around them and they found themselves on a tiny outcrop that clutched a stone wall overlooking the huge crater of Angel Island's central volcano. Thirty meters below, boiling hot lava was glowing in the deepest ambers and reds.

Just a couple of seconds passed in stunned quietness as echidna and hedgehog disbelievingly took in what was before them, then they turned to each other, accusing fingers readily pointed out.

"This is all your fault!"

And so another discussion started, with a fresh, new start, but otherwise commonly known characteristics.

Sonic grimaced, absentmindedly listening to Knuckles' tirade why this all mighty screw-up was his fault alone.

For once, Sonic was sure it wasn't Knuckles' fault. It wasn't his fault either. There was just one thing to blame. In that moment, the hedgehog wished for all mistletoes in the world to burn in the crater below.

Speedy's note: This story was written for the Kelviniana forum Mistletoe challenge.

Truth be told, I don't normally do challenges and contests. I'm still not sure if my story entirely fits the criteria of this particular contest, but what gives? It was fun to write and I managed to type something based on a challenge without bending myself and my writing out of shape. I consider that win already.

A happy end of the world to everyone, and a Merry Christmas after that. Oh, and a Happy upcoming Birthday to you, Bamf! :)