Tinybit here, and I'm bringing something new. At the reader's request, and my whim, I give you the first chapter of my sequel to A Double Rescue. Enjoy!

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"Ah! Will you quit that! You're so immature." Rouge said with a smile, wiping away the water Knuckles had splashed in her face.

They were relaxing at the Angel Island lake together. Knuckles had gone for and swim and Rouge was relaxing until he soaked her.

"Ha! You haven't even begun to see immature yet." With that, Knuckles leaped out of the water and pounced on Rouge in a tickle attack.

"Ah, no! Hahahahaha! Stop! Ah!" She squirmed to get away but Knuckles had her pinned as he tickled her stomach furiously.

"Ha, I didn't know spies were ticklish." He continued his attack with a mischievous grin.

"Wah, hahahahahaha! Please, stop! Ahahaha, please!" Tears streamed down her face from the uncontrollable laughter.

"Fine. But you have to do something for me."

"Anythi-hi-hing! Haha, please!"

He stopped and gave her a moment to catch her breath, a triumphant smile plastered on his face.

"Wooh. Okay, you're right, that was way more immature." He was still sitting on top of her pinning her in place. "Alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Kiss me. And not just a light one either." He winked at her playfully.

Rouge smiled. "Well you didn't have to torture me for that." She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him into passionate kiss.

They'd been together for almost three months now, so this wasn't to out of the ordinary. Rouge's bones had healed now, though they still caused her occasional pain, and a scar remained on her stomach. Tails had come over and helped to repair the fractures in a very professional style, he'd even used some of his own methods to slightly accelerate the recovery. Because of this, he was currently the only other person who knew Knuckles and Rouge were a couple. They knew they'd have to tell everyone eventually, but for now it didn't matter.

Word must have gotten around about Nak and Slick's beatings, because since then, there'd hardly been any attempts to steal the Master Emerald. This meant lots of bonding time for Knuckles and Rouge.

Suddenly, Rouge's ear twitched and she broke away from Knuckles, suddenly alert. "Someone's on the island."

Knuckles tensed and looked around cautiously. They were both silent for a moment.

Then Rouge relaxed. "It's just Sonic. No one else's feet move that fast."

Knuckles eased up and rolled onto the ground next to her. "Well, technically Shadow's can"

"No, he's only as fast as Sonic because of his hover skates. They make a very different noise than Sonic's shoes."

"You weren't kidding when you said your ears were powerful." He smiled at her.

"No need to kid about it." she smiled back and sat up. "We should probably meet him at the altar, otherwise he'll be asking where we were."

"Yeah." Knuckles sighed and stood up, helping Rouge up as well, before they walked back to the altar.

They got there at almost the exact time Sonic did.

"Hey you two, what's up?" The blue blur said as he screeched to a halt in front of them with his usual grin.

"Not much." Knuckles replied. "You need something?"

"No." He shrugged. "Just thought I'd come say hi."

"Well hi then." Rouge said with a small wave.

Sonic stared at her for a moment before turning to Knuckles. "Okay, I'm not stupid. What's going on with you two? Rouge has been here a lot lately. And I know her injuries are healed. So what's up?"

Knuckles blushed and glanced at Rouge.

She nodded. "We've got to tell him sometime."

"True." He sighed.

"Ooh, this is going to be more interesting then I thought." Sonic said, his grin widening.

"Knuckles and I are dating." Rouge said bluntly.

Knuckles blushed redder before saying. "She lives here now."

Sonic was silent for a moment before falling to the floor with uncontrollable laughter. "Hahaha! You're jokin' right? Knuckles has a girlfriend? Hahahaha!"

"And what's so funny about that!?" Knuckles said, indignant.

"Haha, sorry Knux, but you're just a little too hot-headed for me to believe it."

"Oh yeah! This coming from the guy who moves too fast to notice the girls chasing him."

"Pssh! I notice Amy, she's gotten too quick to ignore."

"Well that's not a very nice thing to say." Rouge responded.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Ames is great, she's just a little overbearing. Still though, even if I did buy Knucklehead dating, him getting you?" Sonic arched an eyebrow from his position on the ground.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Knuckles flew back into a rage.

"She just seems a little out of your league is all." Sonic traced her curves in mid-air to emphasize his point.

"So you're saying I'm incapable of getting a hot girlfriend?" His eyes were narrowed in a death-glare that Sonic didn't seem to notice.

"Well, no offense, but you're a little too ditsy to have charmed her."

Knuckles nearly leaped at Sonic, but Rouge noticed in time too grab his arms and hold him back. "Woah. Calm down Knucky."

Sonic gave a loud snort. "Knucky."

"Shove it blue boy, you're not helping." She glared at him and he went silent.

Knuckles calmed down a bit and Rouge let him go, but he continued his deadly stare.

"Now," rouge continued, turning back to Sonic. "First off, Knuckles happens to be a very intelligent person when he's calm. Secondly, he's also got more than enough muscle to attract a 'hot girlfriend.' And thirdly, your just jealous because Knuckles gets all this and you don't." She imitated Sonic's previous hand movement to emphasize her point before sticking her tongue out at him.

Knuckles looked mortified, and Sonic was barley controlling a bout of laughter.

"You think you could have been a bit less… emphatic?" Knuckles said through gritted teeth.

"What? He's too dense to get it if I phrase it any different." She shrugged and it was Knuckles turn to grin while Sonic glared at the bat.

"Whatever." The hedgehog shrugged it off. "I still don't buy it. You're gonna' have to prove it."

Rouge looked from him to Knuckles and shrugged before going over to Knuckles and planting a gentle kiss on his lips right in front of Sonic.

Once she pulled away, Knuckles grinned and forgot Sonic was there for a moment, just staring at the batgirl.

Sonic's eyes were huge as he responded. "Well, I suppose that's proof enough." He got up and smiled. "While I'd love to continue this conversation, I've got to go spread this around the group." And before either of them could say a word, he dashed off.

They watched him go before Rouge spoke. "Well he can be a pain in the ass."

"No kidding."

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Hehe, annoying hedgey isn't he? I realized one of the things my last fic lacked, was Knuckles getting pissed over something stupid. So there, problem solved. And I couldn't resist the tickle attack. Please review, it makes me happy. It also prevents Kirby and Slick from violently attacking you... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Oh, and to Hillary, you don't have to have an account to leave a review. ;)