A/N: I had this unpublished work in my docs, so here you go! A Knuckles/Rouge oneshot, because it's one of my favorite pairings.

You Like Bad Girls

Knuckles was tired of the same old routine. Wake up, make sure there were no intruders on his lush island, eat some grapes, fall asleep. It was the same cycle every day, at least when he wasn't helping Sonic and his ragtag group of friends save the world. Nowadays he was a little less lonely, graciously so. The beautiful, mystic spirit of Tikal had been released from the Master Emerald, and she accompanied him on his island, providing as much help as she could.

Unfortunately for Knuckles, Tikal was a pacifist. Which meant if there were any true danger, she would most likely refuse to do any harm to whoever was after the Master Emerald. He admired her sweet nature, but it wasn't going to benefit his guardianship in any way. Still, she did make decent company. And she wasn't bad to look at…

But he couldn't think like that.

She was his ancestor, a member of his clan that had died off so many years ago. Sometimes he wondered if she were truly alive as well, since she had been considered deceased for such a long time. But he was able to remind himself that she was indeed a sentient being that breathed and moved just like he did, whenever he touched her. Sometimes she would bring him a vine of grapes and he would grab them, allowing his spiky-gloved fingers brush against her soft ones. He yearned for physical touch, to hold someone, for someone to talk to. And he satiated that desire by putting the moves on his great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother.

Cool.

Maybe he needed to trust her. Allow her to guard his emerald so he could go down to the surface and refresh his mind. Talk with Sonic. Try to improve his social skills and meet a girl that he had absolutely no blood relation to. He had enjoyed being alone for so many years. He never thought of it as being lonely until he met Sonic. He never realized how much he wanted someone to be with until Tikal came into his life… and stayed. Back when he first came into contact with her, she had been a spirit. He couldn't pinpoint the exact moment she was able to develop her physical body, but he figured that he lived on a floating island and guarded a large gem that had the power to neutralize all seven Chaos Emeralds. Their world didn't make sense. And he wouldn't have had it any other way.

But as much as he adored Tikal and thought she was great company, he wondered if he really was interested in her, or rather the idea of being in love. It felt weird to look at her in a risqué manner. She was so innocent, so pure. He loved it. It was a rather nice contrast to his gruff, threatening nature. They were alike in some ways. They were both compassionate and kind at heart. He liked innocent girls. Partially because he too was innocent, in his own, unique way. It wasn't the kind of innocence that Tikal had, though. Rather, it was the kind you had when you had no choice but to isolate yourself from the rest of society. It was more of naiveté.

So if Tikal wouldn't be the right girl for him, who would be?

Amy? Nah, she's in love with Sonic, and no matter how many times he denies it, he loves her too.

Cream… is half my age. And has a squeaky voice. Ew.

Shade? Well, dating someone from an alternate dimension is a bit complicated. And as much as I enjoyed working with her, her serious nature would much more be suited to someone like Shadow.

Blaze… She would be a good match for me. She's beautiful, classy, and is a guardian of the Sol Emeralds. She would understand me very well. She's serious like Shade, but retains the amount of class and innocence that girls like Tikal and Amy do. Too bad she likes Silver.

…

"Ugh." Knuckles groaned out loud.

He really was in a slump. Why did relationships matter to him all of a sudden? They would only interfere with his guardianship. Perhaps it would be better for him to focus all of his energy on the Master Emerald instead of worrying about having a girlfriend. Tikal would make for good company, even if they were nothing more but distant, platonic relatives.

Knuckles had been leaning back on the stony steps to the altar, his eyes opening and closing as he found himself in an odd half-asleep, half-awake state, while thinking deeply about what exactly he was looking for not just in a woman… but in life.

Yes. He decided that he liked innocent girls. That's why he befriended so many of them. All of his female friends were kind and gentle and sweet. They were also beautiful, he couldn't deny himself that. But this want that he had for a relationship was the last thing he wanted to be thinking of at the moment…

"Knuckles, I brought you some lunch." A soft voice called out to him.

He was fully awake now, staring into the pretty, blue eyes of Tikal. She smiled at him, handing him some fresh grapes. He smiled back graciously, popping a few into his mouth and closing his eyes to savor the sweet, sweet taste.

"Tikal, I have no idea where you find these… They are so amazing. Much better than the ones I'm able to find."

She blushed, "I just look around a lot, that's all. Being here in the present day, even if we are away from everybody else… It is quite delightful. I explore as much as I can each day, so I suppose that's how I was able to find such good fruit for you. This island truly is beautiful, Knuckles."

"Not as beautiful as you." Knuckles said so suddenly, he couldn't take it back.

Her cheeks turned even redder.

"O-Oh!" She stammered, not sure how to respond.

He wasn't… flirting with her, was he?

Oh, heavens no. He couldn't be.

She simply smiled at him embarrassedly.

"Thank you very much Knuckles. I-I don't know what to say…"

"Yeah, neither do I…" Knuckles replied. He knew that his slightly flirtatious actions towards Tikal had been subtle. But how would he explain calling her beautiful? Oh gods, he was an idiot.

"I appreciate your kind words, I truly do, but… I realize that I f-forgot to bring you some water to go with your meal!" She stammered, scampering off into the underbrush.

Knuckles watched her run off and grimaced. He frowned, casting his gaze downwards towards his 'meal.' Damn it! Now she would never look at him the same way again. He hoped that this wouldn't affect their friendship too much, he would have to explain to her that he meant it in a 'friendly' way, because there's no way he could date his relative!

"Gah… I'm such an idiot!" He said out loud, happy that no one, especially Tikal, was in the vicinity to hear that.

Or so he thought…

There was a slight 'clinking' noise atop the altar. The smell of perfume wafted down to him, and he recognized the scent immediately.

"Can't argue with that," a sultry female voice rang out, and Knuckles turned, getting into his fighting stance only to be met face-to-face with his rival, Rouge the Bat. She was standing on the Master Emerald with a hand cocked on the left side of her infuriatingly curvy hips and was smirking at him.

"Rouge! What are you doing here?" He demanded. He hadn't seen the mischievous bat in a couple of months, he assumed that she had either moved on from his emerald or was too busy doing petty missions for the government. A double agent slash jewel thief… Her life was really weird.

"I'm here to claim what's mine… Unless you're willing to give it to me." Her aquamarine eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Why would I do that?" He asked, swinging his fist at her threateningly. "You're never getting this emerald!"

She rolled her eyes, gracefully flipping off of the large jewel and landing in front of him.

Perfection was the word that came to mind when he saw the elegant action. But elegant wasn't a word he'd usually use to describe Rouge. The word he was thinking of was a bit degrading… but it fit her to a tee.

"I think you have something else on this island that you're more interested in than your emerald, Knucklehead." As she said this, her eyes lost that luster they once possessed, though the taunting tone in her voice had never changed.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me echidna, no matter how good you are at it. I saw your little girlfriend while I made my way here." Her tone changed from playful to accusatory and stern. She had stepped forward and jabbed her finger onto his chest.

"What girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend." He denied.

"Oh, really? That girl with the big blue eyes? She's an echidna, just like you." He couldn't help but detect a bit of hurt in her voice.

"That's not my girlfriend! She's like… my grandma."

"What?" Rouge asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, you heard me. Her name is Tikal, and we're from the same clan. What happened was that 4,000 years ago… Wait a minute!" Knuckles paused, glaring at her. He was so caught up in his emotions, and the last thing he needed was this pest interfering with his thinking.

"Why am I explaining this to you? Get off of my island, bat!"

"Why? So you can canoodle with your little echidna princess?" She sneered at him.

"Rouge, I'm serious."

"So am I. If you don't tell me who exactly she is, I'll tell Sonic and Tails and Amy and all of your other loser friends that you have a girlfriend!"

"What the heck!? You're crazy!" He yelled at her.

"Fine. I guess I'll just go then. I think I have Sonic's number…" Rouge said, strutting past him and pulling her cellular device out of her pink breastplate. Knuckles blushed. Did the girl not have pockets?

"Okay fine!" His arm shot out and latched onto hers. He couldn't help but allow his fingers to linger on her soft, supple skin momentarily. Damn this yearning he had for love and physical affection. It was making him have suggestive thoughts towards his rival, for crying out loud! He yanked her back, forcing her to sit down so he could explain everything to her.

But before he got the chance to say ANYTHING, Tikal had come back with his water.

Perfect timing.

"Hey Knuckles, I brought you some… oh! H-Hello." Tikal came back with a leaf folded up with fresh water. She handed it to Knuckles, though her eyes were fixated on Rouge. She had a timid smile on her face and waved at the curvaceous bat shyly. Knuckles found it adorable that she was so coy around strangers.

However, Rouge did not.

She glared at the echidna and stood up, eyeing her up and down as though she were a piece of meat.

"Hmph." She grunted, sounding so much like Shadow that Knuckles felt a sudden pang of jealousy at the thought of how much time the two spent together.

She walked up to Knuckles until she was right in front of him, then got on her knees and leaned over to whisper into his ear.

"You could do so much better," she whispered in such an alluring voice that it made his knees feel like they had turned to jello.

She was so very good.

"It isn't like that." Knuckles murmured to Rouge, but unfortunately for him Tikal heard loud and clear.

"Pardon? What isn't?" She asked curiously.

"None of your business." Rouge interjected sharply, before Knuckles could give her a proper answer.

Tikal's lip quivered, surprised at the bat's cold reply.

"O…Okay…" She stammered, her hands slightly shaking. "I'll just leave you two to your own thoughts for a moment." She walked off again.

Knuckles frowned, watching her leave and wondering where exactly she was going. But for now he had a pest to get rid of…

As soon as Tikal was out of sight, Knuckles turned to Rouge, ready to yell at her until his throat was sore.

"First of all," He said, standing up after taking two large sips of his 'leaf-water,' "Don't talk to her like that. Ever."

Rouge arched an eye ridge, standing up as well.

"Secondly, I wasn't lying when I said there's nothing going on between us. That isn't even any of your business, but I guess I need to put that out there since you don't know how to mind your own business."

Rouge rolled her eyes at this.

"Okay, fine. Who is she?"

Knuckles sighed, staring at her intently as he told her everything. He told her about how they had been from the same clan, he told her of their shared blood, how she got trapped in the Master Emerald, and how she got out…

By the end, Rouge looked a little dazed.

"Four thousand years old?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah." He said sheepishly.

"I mean, I always had a hunch that you liked older women, but… wow." She licked her lips when she said this.

"What? What made you think that?"

"I'm older than you." She said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Knuckles' heart nearly stopped.

"Wha-what!? So? Why would THAT matter?" He asked, feeling extremely embarrassed that she would say something like that. Just WHAT was she trying to imply!?

"Oh, no reason…" She twirled the ends of her white fur playfully.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't like her like that? It's incest for crying out loud!"

"Is it? Is it really?" Rouge asked challengingly, "I mean, your blood relation spans thousands of years, countless generations… it's hardly there."

"So?"

"So… if I had a totally hot grandfather that came back to life after being dead, I'd totally do him."

She giggled at his shell-shocked expression.

Sometimes, Knuckles had a hard time talking to Rouge. Well, scratch that. Talking to her was always mentally exhausting. Some of the things she said were absolutely deplorable, but seeing the way she responded to men and the way she dressed… Well, there was no doubt in his mind that she would willingly deliver on half the things other girls found to be disgusting. She was a freak.

A sexy, careless, liberated freak.

But still a freak.

"You're gross." He said, turning away.

She smiled, walking in front of him so that he was staring at her again.

"Don't act like you don't love it." She said.

"I'm not," he moved past her.

"So what? You really don't have any feelings towards that little princess of yours?"

"No. I don't." He said stubbornly. To an extent, it was the truth. He wasn't in love with Tikal, but rather the idea of having someone to love. So far, she was the closest one he had.

"Good." She said, sounding satisfied.

Knuckles turned back to look at her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why do you care about who I like or don't like?"

"I don't, trust me Knuckie… It's just that she doesn't seem like your type." She said with a shrug.

"Oh really? Then what IS my type?" Knuckles asked, curious to what she had to say.

"Oh, I don't know…" She said, feigning innocence before continuing. "I always thought you liked your girls to be a bit… naughty." She had a predatory grin on her face, exposing her sharp fangs. She looked like a seductive vampire.

Knuckles genuinely did not know how to respond to that. His response came in a series of rather mortifying stutters.

"Wh…Wha… What!?" He said, blushing like crazy.

"Yeah. Just admit it, Knuckles. You like bad girls." She grinned, stepping forward.

Instinctively, he took a step backward.

She was wrong. Absolutely wrong. He knew that his attraction to Tikal wasn't a true attraction, but that didn't mean he liked girls that were the exact opposite of innocent. And, well… why would he?

"I do NOT like bad girls." He said.

"Ah, classic denial." Rouge chuckled, walking forward quickly and intentionally brushing her shoulder past his. His whole body stiffened at the single movement. He couldn't remember ever meeting another woman who could have this effect on him. He didn't think that it was love he felt at the gesture, not even desire… It was frustration. If Rouge was good at anything at all, it was pushing his buttons and driving him crazy. Sure, she was attractive, far more attractive than the women he was actually friends with, and far more developed as well. But he didn't just care about looks. He was after more than just that.

"I'm not in denial!" He said, turning to look at her. He wasn't sure where she was going, but she was staying out in the open air, not bothering to go into the vast expanse of trees and shrubbery that made up the heart of his island.

"Yes, you are." She replied sexily.

"No! I'm not! Why would I like bad girls?"

"Because we're fun, unpredictable, and exciting. Good girls are so… boring. Sure, they're sweet, but so what? You live a boring life. You need something different to balance it out." She turned to face him, and it was only then that he realized how gorgeous she was. Sure, she could be considered 'beautiful,' from a conventional standpoint, much like all of his female friends were. But there was something else she possessed that the others didn't…

She was sexy.

It was a word Knuckles didn't think much of until recently.

All of his friends were young and innocent and somewhat childish. Rouge was curvy, sporting fantastic hips, shapely legs, and large breasts. More than that, she was the type of girl that was intact with her sensuality. She wasn't afraid to be verbal about what she enjoyed partaking in and what she enjoyed doing. She was experienced in the art of love and seduction. Plus, she was a troublemaker. She wasn't a bad 'girl,' she was a bad 'woman.' The term, however, sounded awkward, which is why she might have settled with referring to herself as a 'girl.'

Looking at Rouge now was making him feel all sorts of queasy, especially considering her words made sense. He WAS bored on his island, and even though he had Tikal as company, the primitive echidna was far too 'cookie cutter.'

But he was NOT about to admit that she was right, or imply that he found her appealing in any manner.

"I don't like bad girls… And I DON'T like you, so don't think like that…"

"You're lying." She said with a smile, sauntering over to him once more.

"I'm not…" He said, finding himself taking steps backwards yet again.

"Yes, you are dear. I can always tell when somebody is lying."

"Yeah? And how's that?" He asked, continuing to step back.

"Your heartbeat. I'm a bat. We have excellent hearing. And I can't help but notice that whenever you see me, your heartbeat accelerates… It's rather interesting."

"Doesn't sound that interesting to me." Knuckles grumbled, forcing himself to stop walking backwards. One more step and he would fall of the damn island.

"It does to me." She said smiling, "Tell me Knuckie, have you ever heard of sexual tension?"

Sexual tension. Was that what he was feeling right now? Being with Rouge always left him heated… in more ways than one. But he had learned to differentiate sexual attraction from emotional attraction. He had yet to share an emotional attraction with a woman, but when it came to physicality, he couldn't deny that he had looked and thought about Rouge in 'that way.'

"Rouge, I don't know where you're going with this." He said, his voice lowering as she got closer and closer to him… Closing the distance between them.

"You're lying again. You know exactly where this is going, that's why you stopped backing away…" She said, her face so close and her body lightly touching his. "You need to stop wasting your time with all those goodie-two shoes and find a woman that actually excites you." She whispered, then grabbed his arms, pulling them so that they were wrapped around her waist.

"Rouge…" His eyes were closed now, his lips slightly shaking with sweet anticipation.

"You know you want this," she said, before placing her lips upon his.

She kissed him gently at first, knowing that it was probably his first, and wanting to take her time with him.

But that wasn't how they worked. No matter what they did, there was a certain aggression, a primal instinct that seemed to be unlocked whenever the two were together. Immediately, Knuckles broke through that with one rough swipe of his tongue, forcing her mouth open to allow him to explore.

The bat let out a startled yelp, which quickly turned into a moan, and soon she was fighting back, the two had a silent contest with their tongues, seeing which would come out victorious.

But Rouge was far more experienced than Knuckles was when it came to matters such as these. She buried her nails into his arms, causing the echidna to cringe slightly at the pain, then pushed him down so that she was lying on top of him, all the while her lips never left his.

She was so aggressive, so passionate, so strong… But above anything else, she knew how to handle herself against a guy like him, and it made him even more impressed.

You need to stop wasting your time with goodie-two shoes and find a woman that actually excites you.

Her voice reverberated throughout his mind, and it hit him like a ton of bricks, that he had never experienced a 'dull' moment when Rouge was around. She set his soul ablaze and made him feel angry and odd and happy and stupid and aroused all at once. He was so sure that he wanted a girl that would make him feel happy, but now he had a woman that had the ability to make him feel, and at that moment that's all he could have ever wanted.

She pulled away eventually, emitting a disappointed growl from Knuckles.

"Heh, you wanna go for round two?" She asked, smiling at the expression on his face.

Knuckles didn't respond with words, simply grabbing her arms and pinning her down underneath him before swooping in for a second, steamier kiss.

Perhaps he did like bad girls.