H-okay. This is my first oneshot, but I loves it sooooo much! As I have seen great lack of Tails-Knuckles on the Net I should say that I am the first to ship this pairing. If you have writen and pudlished one of these stories before I did plz tell me!

Keep in mind this is all told from Knuckles's POV!

All characters belong to Sega

He came to me first. I wondered about it for a long time, but never asked. You see, Tails would normally have gone to Sonic first, and cried to him, but that little guy came running to me first. I didn't know what to say, how do you console someone you don't really know? But it didn't seem that he wanting to be consoled, he just cried.

Later he was able to tell me what had happened, but he made me promise not to tell Sonic. You see, someone had threatened him pretty badly, and he could only think to run to me. Apparently he'd been walking off the train when this guy came up to him, grabbed him and said something like he was going to kill him. Well, Tails is just a kid you know, so he was scared to death.

I asked him why the guy had said that and the fox went all quiet, and just looked at the floor. We were in my kitchen on Angel Island, and he was across the table from me, and mug of tea in his hands. I didn't try asking again, but I needed to know. We sat there for a long time, before Tails started to talk again. Maybe he was answering my question, or maybe he just wanted to change subjects, but he described when he and Sonic had been out flying somewhere. Admittedly I didn't listen a whole lot then, but I nodded and all that.

Soon we were talking about anything but the incident, and whenever it looked like the conversation would go there I'd have change course fast. But pretty soon we fell into silence again and all I could do was look at him from across the table and hold my breath.

I didn't know why he was making me nervous, but seeing him like that was painful for me. I mean, you just can't look at Tails and say 'No'!

So I sat there watching him, his golden head bowing every now and then to drink his probably cold tea, and tried to think of something to say.

I got lucky, the phone rang in the hall and I almost ran to pick it up. The extension cord from the phone was pretty long, so you can walk around with it, but after what Tails had said I didn't really feel like moving.

When I answered the loud ringing, it was Sonic. Sometimes I wonder why I gave him my number, but for once I was in the mood to hear his annoying little voice. Anything was better than looking at the terrified little fox.

"Hey Knux, have you seen Tails?!" he always screams into the phone, and just before I was about to say 'Yeah, he's here,' I saw Tails making 'No!' signs from the kitchen. I mentally kicked myself for letting that kid get the better of me, but I told Sonic I hadn't seen Tails and that he should try calling someone who's better with kids. I slammed the receiver down without saying goodbye and walked back into the kitchen. Tails was sitting backwards in his seat, looking up at me with that little lost puppy look. Kids always get to me when they do that.

"What was that about?" I asked gently.

"Uh—I dunno, I guess I just didn't want to talk with him." Tails knew that he was bad liar, we all knew that, so I was sure that he was honest with me this time.

"You don't wanna talk to Sonic? Tails, are you sure you're gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, I think so. I just…didn't want to talk to him." His voice trailed off from there, and I let him off the hook that time.

I looked up at the clock, it was almost ten. To be sure it was really that late I glanced out the window, and sure enough all you could see was pitch blackness and the glow of the Master Emerald in the distance.

"C'mon kid, let's get you to bed." He could stay the night, as long as he didn't give me that puppy look again.

Tails looked up at me with those big blue eyes, and as he stood I put my hand on his thin back. I walked him the single bedroom, told him he could have my bed for the night, grabbed a blanket and tossed it on the couch in the living room. Not having had dinner, I got some grapes out of the fridge and moved out into the cool night for a walk.

I kept away from the Altar for the first time that night, wanting only to clear my head. I must have made three circuits of the island before I went back inside, because I was freezing by the time I got back in. Nights are always colder when you live on a floating island.

I laid down on the couch, wrapped the blanket around me, and was asleep in moments.

It must have been three when Tails woke me up, but I couldn't be sure.

"Knuckles, I—I need to tell you something."

"hmm…" I was barely awake, but through my eyelids I could see the fox's silhouette.

"Knuckles, c'mon. This is really important." He was worried, or whining. But the emotion in his voice was enough to make me sit up.

"What?" I growled, blocking the harsh light with one hand. Why kids always turn on all the lights, I never understood.

"It's about what happened earlier." Now I saw that he was shaking.

"Yeah,"

"That guy, I think he said that stuff because of something on the Internet."

"And that is?" I could only guess what was on the Net about Tails, but I hoped it was nothing to do with porn.

"Ya—Ya see, there's rumors and stuff on the Net, and one of them said that…"

"Well?"

"One—one of 'em that I—that I like other boys." He whispered the last part, but the blow was the same. He was just a kid, he shouldn't have been in that kind of stuff!

"Oh…" it was all I could manage to say.

"Knuckles, I—I'm scared."

"Of what? That guy's an idiot, I mean you can't go around believing that kinda stuff."

"B—but—"

"Tails, you just gotta forget those kinds of people."

"But, it's not really a rumor."

"I—what?"

"I—It's not a rumor. I think Amy said something about it once." My heart cracked in two. Here was this little kid standing terrified before me, wrapped in a blanket, and telling me that he was gay.

Tail's eyes went all glassy and watery, and my throat almost closed up.

"Turn out the light, will ya?" I choked out the words, and in a hurried movement he ran to the light-switch and flicked it off. The darkness was welcome, and I could see much better as he stumbled back towards me. "Come here,"

I made room on the couch, and he hesitantly laid down. He was still shaking, so I pulled the blanket over him and had to wrap my arm around him to keep it over us both.

He squeaked a little, and I tried to console him a little.

"You just need to learn not to tell Amy anything." I heard the laugh he tried to stifle.

"But what if someone tells her?" he squeaked into the darkness. I closed my eyes but dared not to move closer to him.

"Lie. Tell her that the other person was lying."

"But what if she—"

"Just take it easy and learn to ignore idiots."

He squeaked, I had moved slightly to get comfy.

"Does that really work?" He whispered nervously.

"It works for me."

Reveiw plz!