"Mmm... huh?"

Sonic sat up, yawning slightly as he took a look around, only to find a large white void. Where was he? Hadn't he just gone to sleep?

Ah, wait. I'm prob'ly dreamin', he thought. This dream feels... different, though...

He got to his feet, then slowly made his way forward, wondering why this particular dream was so empty. It certainly felt like a dream, but at the same time, not so much.

He continued walking, then stopped as a red figure came into view.

...Knuckles? he wondered, though the figure was too blurry to make out.

He got closer, and the figure slowly took form, its back turned to Sonic. It was definitely much taller and bulkier than Knuckles, but it had the same physical features.

"Hey, Knuckles!" he called out, wondering if he'd actually get a reaction.

Knuckles turned around when he heard Sonic's voice. Only, for some reason, Sonic was now shorter, and his scarf and sports tape were gone.

"Sonic?" he replied in confusion.

"Knuckles?" Sonic asked in reply. "What happened to you?"

He sped around the echidna a few times to get a better look, then tilted his head. "Why would I dream you up lookin' so... different?"

"I was gonna ask the same thing." Knuckles also tilted his head.

Sonic was confused. "Y'mean... you're dreamin' too?" he asked. Was that possible? Could two people be in the same dream?

"Well yeah, I'm dreaming..." Knuckles put a hand to his chin. "But wait, how can you be dreaming if you're part of my dream? A dream in a dream? Is that even possible?"

"I dunno," Sonic said. "Let's see."

He held his hand out, then focused, a small flower appearing on his palm. "Give it a try; something I'm not expectin',"he told him.

"Um, okay..."

Knuckles focused for a moment. Suddenly, a unicorn appeared.

Sonic smirked, giggling playfully. "Okay, wasn't expectin' that. Good job." He walked over and pet the unicorn lightly. "I thought you'd poof up the Master Emerald."

"What's the Master Emerald?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic's eyes widened. "...Okay. You're definitely not the Knuckles I know then."

He leaned back, then fell into a chair that he'd conquered up.

"My Knuckles isn't as buff as you, and he's way shorter," he explained.

"Really?"

Knuckles poofed up a chair as well and sat down, crossing his legs.

"The Sonic I know is taller than you, and he wears sports tape like I do," he explained, gesturing with one hand towards his other arm. "He also wears this brown scarf thing, and his 'haircut' is a little different."

"A brown scarf? And a different quill cut?" Sonic asked, trying to picture it. "Sooo, what, like this?"

He suddenly held a fancy wig that had a small top hat with it. He put it on, then stood up on the chair and posed, a long fancy brown scarf appearing around his neck. "I say, dear boy, I must go at the topmost speed at once!"

He leaned back, hanging his body on the top of the chair only. "My word! My ego seems to have increased tenfold! My head is so big that I can't hold it up any longer, oh no!"

He flopped backwards, landing on the ground behind his chair; it was a dream, so obviously he wasn't hurt.

Knuckles cracked up laughing. "N-no, not like that," he replied. "His is... messier, I guess?"

Sonic peeked over the chair, his dreamt-up outfit disappearing. "Messier?" A shovel appeared in his hand, but he quickly discarded it with a chuckle. "Nah, I won't do another one, don't worry, heh."

He sat back down in his chair. "So, you're from another world or somethin' then? I don't think there's any other echidnas in my world besides the Knuckles I know."

"I... guess so?" Knuckles responded. "I don't know any other blue hedgehogs, or echidnas..."

"Huh. I've dealt with alternate worlds and stuff before, but not one like this." He was clearly intrigued. "Why do you think me and you were brought together specifically then?"

Knuckles shrugged. "No idea. Sorry."

"Ah, I've got nothin' either," Sonic said with a sigh, flopping over the arm of his chair. "But hey, we should probably make the most of it, right?"

"Sure!" Knuckles replied with a grin. "What should we do?"

"Hm..." Sonic looked around. "Well, first off, this place needs a serious redo. Waaaay too much white."

He got off of his seat, then turned to Knuckles. "Hey, I wonder how different your world is from mine," he said. "How 'bout we both conjure up a town from our own world?" he suggested.

"Okay, sure!" Knuckles replied. "You first!"

"Oho! Pressure's on, eh?" Sonic asked with a chuckle. "Alright then, I'll give it a try!"

He ran back to get some distance on Knuckles, then placed his hands on the ground. At first, nothing happened, but the earth suddenly began to shake. A large building emerged from the ground, and many others followed. Soon, there was an entire town, and Sonic looked down at Knuckles from the roof with a big smile.

"Like it?" he asked loudly, waving to him.

"Wow..." Knuckles gazed at the town in awe. "Let me try!"

He concentrated, and soon a small village appeared, occupied by shacks that quite contrasted with the tall buildings in Sonic's town.

"Whoa..." Sonic smiled and hopped down next to Knuckles. "Talk about different, huh?"

He leaned over to nudge Knuckles, then jumped back in surprise.

He felt him. Well, not 'felt' felt, as he couldn't feel his fur or the texture of his bandages, but... he felt his presence.

"Is something wrong?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic looked up at him. "Didn't you, uh... 'feel' that?"

"Hm?" Knuckles thought about it for a moment. "I think I did feel something weird. Try it again."

Sonic raised a brow, then shrugged and reached for Knuckles' hand, gently taking it in his own. He didn't feel its warmth or the pattern on the bandages, but he felt its presence, just like before.

"Huh..." Knuckles had never experienced this in his dreams either. "I can feel it too. Cool!"

"I wonder what's up with that..." Sonic said, releasing Knuckles hand. "This is probably the weirdest dream I've ever had." He shrugged, then looked back up at Knuckles with a smile. "But it's fun!"

"Yeah, it is!" Knuckles agreed. He smiled back. "So what now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Sonic asked. He curled into a spindash, then zoomed over to the village Knuckles created. "We explore. Can ya show me around?" He was brimming with curiosity.

"Sure!" Knuckles replied with a grin. He took Sonic's hand in his own and led him into the village.

Sonic let out a small confused noise as his hand was taken, but he didn't really mind. He actually kind of enjoyed it.

Knuckles was really excited as he showed Sonic around the village.

"There's Amy's house... Tails' house... 'Meh Burger'... Eggman's lair... oh, and that's where the other you lives!"

Sonic curiously ran inside of the shack that apparently belonged to the other him. "A surfboard? A coconut husk collection?" He chuckled. "Not exactly what I thought a 'me' would have."

He tested the hammock, then hopped on, lounging back on it and looking over at Knuckles. "Don't tell the other me, alright?" He made a 'shh' gesture by putting a finger to his mouth.

Knuckles chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't!"

Sonic smiled and got off the hammock. "What about you? Where do you live?" he asked, walking up to Knuckles.

"Um, well..." Knuckles avoided his gaze uncomfortably. "I...I don't have a home."

"Y'don't?" Sonic frowned sadly. "Why not?"

"I...I dunno." Knuckles shrugged. "I guess I've just never had a place to live. Nature is kinda my home, I guess."

Sonic understood where he was coming from, but still... even he liked returning home from time to time.

"Oh! I know," he said with a chuckle, holding a small key out to Knuckles. "How 'bout a key to my house? It'll work in dreams only, but it's somethin'!"

"R-really?" Knuckles was surprised.

Sonic nodded. "Yup!" He handed the key over. "You'll see it when we explore my place."

"Thanks!" Knuckles tucked the key away into his hammerspace. "Anywhere else you want me to show you?"

Sonic looked around a bit more, though figured that some of his other friends didn't exist in Knuckles' world. "Don't think so," he replied. He grabbed Knuckles' hand, then walked in the other direction. "Heh, hopefully you'll be just as interested with my world as I am with yours!" he exclaimed.

"I can't wait to see it!" Knuckles replied with a grin.

Sonic took Knuckles over to his side of the world, feeling the echidna's excitement, then started speeding around, listing each and every place out for him. A bunch of stores, a bunch of stands, and anything else he could dream up.

"...and then Eggman has a ton of bases 'cause I keep destroyin' 'em," Sonic explained with a soft laugh.

Knuckles laughed too. "What does Eggman look like in your world?" he asked curiously. He smirked. "Does he still have that silly moustache?"

Sonic turned to him and grinned. "Oh. You wanna see?"

He spun around a few times, then gestured his hand out in a dramatic fashion, a statue of Eggman appearing next to him. "Behold, his egginess!"

Knuckles snorted, then started laughing again. "He looks even more ridiculous in your world than in mine!"

Sonic laughed along with him. "It's pretty hard to beat!"

He calmed down, then tipped the statue over, making it shatter. "So I win in the 'most ridiculous Eggman' contest?" he asked, placing a 1st place ribbon on his chest.

"I dunno, you tell me!"

Knuckles conjured up a statue of his world's Eggman.

Sonic stared at the statue, slightly amused, but clearly knowing that he's winning. "Not bad, but I think we both know who the winner is here."

He chuckled, then took out another ribbon and placed it on Knuckles. "You can have a ribbon for bein' cool though!"

Knuckles blushed a little, grinning. "You're pretty cool, too!" he replied.

Even though Sonic had gotten many compliments like that before, this one made him blush slightly. "Heh, naturally!" he exclaimed, jabbing a thumb at himself.

"I was surprised at how cool you were though. The Knuckles of my world's a huge stick in the mud," he said. "It's a nice change of pace, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Knuckles said. "The you in my world is kind of a grumpy pants, and he doesn't even wear pants. You're really fun, though!"

"Really?" Sonic asked, another light blush on his cheeks. "Heh, hard to imagine a me who's so 'grumpy pants'ish."

"It's hard to imagine a me who's..." Knuckles paused. "Uh, what was that phrase again?"

"Stick in the mud, killjoy, wet blanket, spoilsport, guy-who-ruins-all-the-fun," Sonic listed with a wide grin.

"Yeah, that." Knuckles shook his head. "How could a guy like that be me?"

"Eh, he's got his cool moments when he's not all hung up on guarding the Master Emerald. I could tell right away that you were way more fun." He winked. "You smile more."

"So do you!" Knuckles replied. "I mean, more than my Sonic does."

"Can't help it!" Sonic exclaimed. "If I smile, so does everyone around me, right?" he asked. "It's the best feelin' when I go out to save someone and they get this huge grin on their face."

Knuckles smiled. "I like you," he said. "You're even cooler than my Sonic! ...I hope he doesn't find out I said that, though..."

Sonic blushed again. "Heh, it's alright! I'll prove I'm the cooler Sonic if he does!"

He created a statue of what he thought the other Sonic looked like, then threw a few fake punches at it. "I don't care if he's taller! I'm the best hedgehog!" he joked.

Knuckles giggled. "You sure are!"

He blushed slightly. Did I really just say that?

Sonic looked over, smiling at Knuckles happily. "Hey, that reminds me! You probably wanna see my house too, right?"

"I sure do!" Knuckles replied.

Sonic took Knuckles past the town, then introduced his house. "It's a lot different from the other me's house, and I don't have a hammock..." He walked inside and sat down on an object that Knuckles couldn't recognize, "but I've got a beanbag chair!" He relaxed back on it.

"Looks comfy!" Knuckles commented.

"It is!" Sonic exclaimed. "Here, give it a try," he said, moving over slightly to give Knuckles room.

Knuckles sat down next to him. "Oooh, this is nice!" he said with a smile.

Sonic chuckled, leaning against Knuckles and placing his hands behind his head to relax slightly. "It isn't really a two-person thing, but I guess we make it work."

Knuckles nodded, copying Sonic and leaning back in relaxation.

Sonic looked over at him, slightly amused. "We've gotta be the two most relaxed guys in the world. We're relaxin' while we're sleeping." He faked a gasp. "What if we fell asleep while we were sleepin'?"

Knuckles' eyes went wide. "What if we had a dream while we were sleeping? We'd be dreaming about sleeping and dreaming about something... can that even happen?"

Sonic held his head and fell off the beanbag chair. "Ugh, my head hurts," he said jokingly.

Knuckles giggled again. "Yeah, I think my brain's gonna explode!"

"Oh no! Seriously?" Sonic asked, standing up immediately, even though he had a playful tone. "We've gotta find a way to stop it!"

He placed his hands on the sides of Knuckles' head, smirking a bit. "We should just focus on dumb stuff; like how less-cool-than-me that other Sonic is." He was clearly kidding, but he wanted to see Knuckles laugh.

Knuckles smirked. "Or how silly Eggman looks in your world!"

Sonic nodded. "Exactly!"

He stepped back, an Eggman outfit appearing on him, complete with a huge mustache. "You won't defeat me this time, Sonic... even though you've beaten me every other time, I swear, I'll..." His voice trailed off as he stroked the mustache. "Drat, I didn't think this through..."

Knuckles laughed.

"Eh, I think that moustache looks better on me!"

An Eggman moustache poofed onto his own face. He did his best evil grin and giggled. "Look at me; I'm an evil mastermind of average intelligence!"

Sonic burst into laughter, clutching his chest. "N-no way!" he argued, trying to keep in character and stop laughing so much. "I'm the only Eggman around here!"

"Oh yeah?"

Knuckles went up to him. "Well, I think you're the fake Eggman around here!" he replied with a grin, lifting a hand and lightly bopping Sonic on the nose.

Sonic held back a chuckle. "Oh yeah? I can throw my weight around better than you!"

He tackled Knuckles without warning, hoping to knock him over.

However, Knuckles was very experienced in this sort of thing, and soon he held Sonic captive in just one of his arms.

"Aha! I got you, faker!" he said with a grin, doing his best impression of Eggman's voice.

"Ah!" Sonic's outfit faded, and he pouted. "Alright, alright, I'm caught." He crossed his arms and pretended to be upset.

Knuckles chuckled. He put Sonic down, and his moustache disappeared.

Sonic pointed to his now lack of a mustache. "Keep it off; I say we both look way better without it," he said with a giggle.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Knuckles giggled too.

"Hm... what else could we do?" Sonic asked, though more to himself than Knuckles. "Never dreamed with someone else before; it's weird, but I like it!"

"Me too!" Knuckles agreed. "Hmm..." He put a hand to his chin. "What do you like to do in real life?"

"I do a lot of running, relaxing, and explorin' new places," Sonic told him. "I love nature."

"Really?" Knuckles smiled brightly. "I love nature too!"

"Y'do?" Sonic asked, looking surprised. He grinned, then summoned a small flower in his hand, holding it out to Knuckles. "For you, good sir!" he chimed with a wink.

Knuckles blushed lightly as he took the flower. "Why thank you!"

He sniffed the flower and smiled.

"Yeah, there's a ton of flower gardens in my world and I visit 'em all the time. Here, I'll show ya!"

The scenery around them faded, and a few flowers garden began sprouting up, surrounding them.

"Wow..." Knuckles looked around in awe. "It's... amazing!"

Sonic nodded, laying back on some of the flowers. "If you can ever visit my world sometime, you've gotta see it for real!" he exclaimed. "The smell is amazing!"

"I hope I can come see it someday!" Knuckles went up to him and laid down beside him. "I still dunno how we're having the same dream, but it's awesome!"

"Yeah, I still can't figure it out," Sonic said. "Maybe there's some sorta time-space stuff goin' on, who knows."

"Well, I hope it happens again soon!" Knuckles replied. "'Cause this has been a lot of fun."

"Huh, I didn't even think about that." He glanced over at Knuckles. "Y'think we'll dream together again tomorrow? Er... today? I dunno what day it is; dream clocks aren't a thing." He giggled.

Knuckles put a hand to his chin. "Hmmm... I'm not sure. What do you think?"

Sonic sat up, smiling softly. "I hope so! Besides, we did it once, so it could happen again, right?" he asked in reply.

He really did want to meet up with Knuckles again. He was fun, kind, and Sonic just overall liked the guy's attitude. Even if it was just in a dream, he wanted to keep being friends with him.

"Right!" Knuckles replied. "So, um... how much longer do you think we have? Dream time is so weird..."

Sonic frowned at the thought. "I dunno. I never really timed my dreams before. I'm sure Tails would give me some long explanation about how long it takes to start dreaming and whatever else, but..." He shook his head, his smile coming back as he faced Knuckles. "Let's not think about it. Let's just have fun until somethin' happens, okay?"

"Okay!" Knuckles smiled.

The two played and discovered more about each other's world for who knew how long. They weren't sure if time worked differently there or not, but they still planned on making the most of whatever time they had.

Eventually, while they were deciding on what to do next, Sonic suddenly started to fade.

"Hm?" He looked over himself, starting to feel a bit lightheaded. "A-ah... I guess I'm startin' to wake up."

"Aw..." Knuckles looked sad. He too was also starting to fade.

Sonic gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it. I bet we'll see each other again!" He held out his hand for a handshake.

Knuckles shook his hand, smiling back. "See ya!"

All of a sudden, the world around Sonic faded and he found himself back in his bedroom.

"Hm..." He stared at the hand that Knuckles had shaken, then flexed his fingers. "...Yeah. We'll see each other again."

And with that, he sped out of his room.