It's a fair trade off, Knuckles figures, to let Shadow get his dirty, grubby fingers all over him instead of all over the Master Emerald. No one is allowed to touch the Master Emerald, save himself, and he'll be damned if he's going to let some crusty, chaos vampire suck it dry.
As far as vampires go, Shadow isn't…. well, he isn't all that bad, actually. He's quiet, keeps to himself, and, most importantly, he keeps his nose outta Knuckles' business. Sure, he comes up to Angel Island twice a month to pester the echidna for chaos energy but it's a small price to pay for the safety of the emerald and Shadow is always as courteous as he can afford to be. Which, granted, isn't a lot.
"Hey," Knuckles grunts, weakly pressing a fist against the hedgehog's side in warning. "I think you've had enough."
Shadow snorts against his shoulder but stays there, so Knuckles drives one spike into his side and pulls away with a glare.
"Listen, if you want to keep this deal, you need to actually stick to the deal."
The deal is this: Shadow comes up to feed on Knuckles when he needs to in exchange for leaving the Master Emerald completely alone - he's not even allowed to look at it, much less touch it -, and he only takes the bare minimum from the echidna. Anything more can, at worst, kill him and, at best, leave him unable to fulfill his duty as guardian.
Shadow rolls his eyes and raises an ungloved finger to pick at his fangs. "Okay."
"I'm serious."
Shadow shrugs, leans back against the wall of the cave, and says, "okay."
"Ass."
Knuckles heaves himself to his feet, wavering when his knees threaten to collapse in on him. Yeah, definitely way too much.
The echidna is just gearing up to give Shadow a solid punch where there's a boom that cracks through the sky, the ground rumbling violently enough to knock him flat on his butt. He can barely hear Shadow's snicker before it's covered up by the sound of trees being violently uprooted, and the jarring crack of shattering wood shortly thereafter.
By the time Knuckles is back on his feet, everything has fallen still. Apprehensive and weary, he shuffles out into the sunlight. Only a couple meters from the cave, a shallow furrow is torn into the ground, ending in a deep crater that leaves him absolutely furious.
How dare someone ruin the sanctity of Angel Island? They had a lot of nerve not only trespassing, but for tearing so carelessly through the forests he considered home. Anger fueling his every step, he staggers up to the crater and, when it appears that the huge furball nestled in the crater isn't going to retaliate, he chucks a sizeable rock at their head.
The heap of fur lets out a huge sigh, unfurling just enough for Knuckles to see that, oh, that is totally a person and they have quite an impressive arsenal of teeth. They start heaving themselves out of the ground, digging long claws into the earth and clawing up hunks of grass and dirt as they surface. With shambling movements, they finally pull themselves over the edge of the crater and collapse.
Quickly, Knuckles hops away and raises shaking fists. He might be fixing to faint, but he's not going down without getting a few good shots in first. He's about ready to launch himself onto the mess of fur and fangs when the creature gently drops their head onto his foot with a sigh, tongue lolling out of their mouth.
"Ew," Shadow remarks from the mouth of the cave.
As drool starts seeping into his shoes, Knuckles has to agree.
Being careful not to jostle the other… mobian? he guesses, he leans down and stares hard into their face. They're completely down for the count, that's for sure. And despite all the fangs and, ugh, drool he can kind of make out what appears to be the basic facial structure of a hedgehog. He's seen Shadow's face up close enough to feel pretty certain of that. What he's not so certain of is the long muzzle, sharp teeth, and killer claws.
None too gently, he yanks his foot back and lets their head hit the grass. A small growl bubbles up, but there's no further reaction.
"Hey!" he calls back to Shadow, waving at their uninvited guest. "Help me with this."
In response, the vampire gestures vaguely at the sun and steps further back into the shadows of the cave.
Huffing, Knuckles turns back around, heaves one massive arm over his shoulder, and drags the unresponsive beast to the cave. It's harder than it would be normally, but he's got enough strength to get them safely into the cave before he drops his burden.
"You were the one who told me that the sun doesn't actually affect you all too much. That it's all a bunch of 'frivolous rumors'."
"Did I?"
"Yes, you did. So stop looking at me like that."
Shadow scrunches up his nose further, going so far as to bring a hand up to block it. "It's not you, Guardian. It's whatever you dragged in here. It smells like rotting meat."
Knuckles looks faintly surprised. "I just had that thing's arm around my neck. It didn't smell any worse than you do."
The glare sent his way is only slightly diminished by the hand covering half of the hedgehog's face. Shadow looks ready to spit venom when he goes wide eyed, blinking owlishly at the heap of dark blue fur at Knuckles' feet. "Oh my god," he mutters. "It's a werewolf."
Scratching at his cheek, Knuckles looks from Shadow to the heap of fur, to Shadow and back again. "I'm not sure about that. It's definitely a hedgehog."
Nose still covered, Shadow huffs hard into his palm, "Werehog then, if you're going to be difficult about it. There's no mistaking that awful scent."
"Doesn't matter what it is. I just want it off my island." The words 'It's time for you to leave, too. Take it with you.' go unspoken.
There's a loud, gurgling snort and suddenly Knuckles is swept clean off his feet. When he tries to push himself back up, a huge arm drapes across his back and goes dead, dragging him down. He can't find the energy to heave himself out from under it, so he stays nestled against the thing's side straining to pull away.
"Aw," Shadow snickers. "It likes you."
Knuckles' reply is muffled by coarse fur, but the intent is clear.
"Regardless," Shadow says, scooting closer so he can tap what's visible of Knuckles' head, "the sun isn't going down for a couple of hours and while it won't kill me, I'd rather not go out into it willingly. So why don't you…" He pauses, steps back. "Just take a nap."
There's another mumble of a curse, some futile shuffling, and a loud sigh. Well, at least Shadow can tell he hasn't suffocated yet. Would be a bit of a shame if he did, really. Sure, he'd have unlimited access to the Master Emerald in that case, but, as much as he loathed to admit, the echidna's chaos energy was… nice. Strong, clean, and surprisingly better than the Master itself.
Shadow settles himself down and gets comfy against the stone wall of the cave again, crossing his arms over his chest. Might as well get a little shut eye for himself, too. If he force that awful smell out of his nose long enough to do so.
Time passes slowly, the only sound the heavy breathing of the werehog punctuated by loud, snuffling snores. It's not even five minutes before Shadow picks up Knuckles' low voice.
"What was that?"
Knuckles head finally emerges, though his torso is still trapped. "I said," he coughs, spits out dark fur. "His name is Sonic."
