Ths is a rather fulffy spinoff from a much much darker story From The Other Side, which has a brief line about birthdays which turned into this. Caution: old 16-bit game references to open ;-)

-–-

Knuckles looked uneasily at the mural. It needed cleaning really. He brushed away the stone dust which had settled on it, starting to obscure the stylised picture of the battle between the glowing hedgehog and the giant robot.

He hadn't been down here since it... happened... it was too strange. And he'd got it too wrong to want the reminder. But something had sent him this route to the surface today, something had made him pause.

He stared at the design until it ceased to be a picture at all, became so many disconnected little tiles. Let his eyes and his attention both unfocus. Paid attention instead to the uneasiness. It wasn't about the mural it was something else, something on the Island, something not entirely unfamiliar and at the same time utterly new to this place.

The hedgehog was here? Again?

The moment it had crossed his mind he knew it to be true and he ran for the surface. Instinct drove him and he emerged less than a hundred yards from Sonic who skidded to a stop, and almost off his feet, one hand flung out, trailing the ground for balance.

"Woah!" he said, recovering his balance and raising both hands. "Hey. Hi! No need for the big entrance! Not here for trouble."

Until that second Knuckles had given zero thought to exactly what he intended to do upon intercepting the hedgehog. He'd just reacted. Now he had to decide and he found himself at a loss.

They weren't enemies. Unless he was wrong about that too. He wasn't sure what they were. Allies? Did Sonic want help in return for setting him straight about Robotnik and helping him recover the Master Emerald? He'd told him, hadn't he, that getting involved in issues on the surface wasn't an option?

"Sonic," he said, warily, by way of greeting. He wanted to add, 'What do you want?' but recognised distantly how like a challenge that sounded and he didn't quite think challenge was the hedgehog's intention. So he left it at one word and waited.

"So," the hedgehog looked round. "I thought I'd come see you. How you doing?"

Was that it then? Was was Sonic checking up on him? Making sure he was still fit for the task of defending the Island? He had been injured when they'd parted he supposed. Exhausted, leaning heavily on the Master Emerald to keep going, but that had been weeks ago. Almost months.

"I'm fine."

For some reason Sonic seemed perturbed by this answer.

"Uh... Good. I guess. So what's new?"

"Here?" Knuckles shrugged. "I dealt with the robots that were left behind."

Sonic frowned. "I thought they deactivated when Robotnik's ship went down."

Knuckles shrugged again,

"They didn't stay deactivated then. Your doppelganger was one of them."

The hedgehog's eyes widened. "Metal Sonic? You fought him? Did you destroy him?"

Knuckles frowned. Him? It was a machine wasn't it?

"I don't know. I thought so, but it was gone when I'd finished checking the rest of the area. Things were unstable for a while though, - the platform may have tipped the thing over the edge when it fell."

"Here's hoping."

"I'm fairly sure it fell," Knuckles felt able to assure him. He frowned again as he admitted, "There's almost nothing left of Sky Sanctuary."

Sonic lowered his gaze. "Yeah. I saw. I'm sorry. It didn't float back up when the Island did?"

Knuckles shook his head and stared at the hedgehog. The loss of Sky Sanctuary, the burning elsewhere on the Island, the disruption caused by the temporary loss of the Master Emerald... All those things were his own fault not Sonic's, and he told him so.

"Is that what you think?" Sonic looked genuinely surprised. "Na, Robotnik causes uproar wherever he goes, it's not like you're the only one he ever fooled. No one's fault, don't sweat it." Sonic grinned. "Anyway, I obviously can't be the only one who knows that 'cause it looks like you're still here guardian-ing, it's not like you got the sack or anything."

There was too much in that sentence for Knuckles to unpick. Still here? Where else could he be? And as for the rest of it...

"A sack?"

Sonic blinked at him. "The sack? Y'know - got the sack, got fired, lost your job?" He tipped his head to one side. "No? I mean - they didn't decide to give this whole guardian thing to someone else because you screwed up over Robotnik, right? So someone obviously thinks you're the best echidna for the job."

Realisation hit and Knuckles, relieved to change topics from whose fault the attack had been, explained.

"There is no one else, Sonic. I'm the only one here, the only Guardian."

"Job for life, huh? So no one got bent out of shape about it?"

Knuckles stared at the hedgehog. He wasn't making himself clear and he wasn't sure why. He spoke a perfectly adequate dialect of the surface language as far as he knew.

"There is no one," he tried again. "No other Guardians, no other echidnas. Just me. If any still live on the surface then they've never come back."

Sonic's expression changed, but Knuckles couldn't manage to pin it down to a specific emotion. His voice when he spoke was unexpectedly quieter.

"No one? Woah. That's... Well, I'd sort of guessed this place was empty - the ruins and so on, but I thought it was just the setup - I mean, it's not the safest living space anyway is it? But you've really got no contact with anyone on the surface any more? For how long?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I don't know. As long as I can remember."

"You don't know?" Sonic looked dismayed. "That's kind of a downer. I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Knuckles frowned in puzzlement. What was it to do with Sonic?

"Sure. I mean it sounds sort of sad? Doesn't it bother you not knowing?"

Knuckles shrugged. "What difference would it make if it did?"

"You never wanted to go looking?"

"Even if I did, I've nowhere to start." Knuckles' head turned instinctively back in the direction he knew the Master Emerald to be. "And I belong here. It's enough." He looked at Sonic. "You've seen what the Master Emerald can do. Do you really think it could be left unguarded?"

He wondered if the hedgehog would point out how narrowly it had been kept safe, how Knuckles had needed his help to do so. But he didn't. He pulled a face instead.

"'Spose not. But I'd have come back sooner if I'd known you were all alone up here!"

"Why?"

Sonic shook his spines, looking almost exasperated. "I dunno, I just would. I'd have wondered if you were lonely, I guess. I mean, clearly not but... Look, if you want me to shove off I'll shove off. I'm not a hedgehog to stick around where he's not wanted."

Knuckles regarded him, trying to work out what to make of this.

"I'm not lonely."

"Fine," Sonic said, definitely irritated now. "Good. Uh... Bye?"

"Wait." Knuckles had spoken before he knew why and frowned, struggling to work it out. He wasn't lonely. How could he be lonely? Loneliness was missing the people you cared for, people you knew - family, friends. He didn't know anybody and Guardians had neither family nor friends. Therefore he wasn't lonely. Wasn't even entirely sure he'd recognise the feeling.

But there was something. Against all physical logic the Island had seemed quieter in the absence of the hedgehog after he'd left than before he'd arrived. That couldn't be what was meant by missing someone could it? That heavy silence? It was beyond belief that he should have missed the hedgehog after one encounter and most of that on opposite sides. Wasn't it?

He stared at Sonic, who had waited. Was watching him, head cocked sideways in curiosity. An uninvited presence on the Island that should have unnerved him but somehow didn't. Perhaps he could work it out if the hedgehog stayed, at least for a while.

"Are you hungry?" he asked abruptly, the closest he could come to an invitation.

Sonic's puzzled look split into a grin.

"Usually!" he said. "Watcha got?"

Knuckles shrugged. "We'll see."

It was still the best of seasons for food, no need to break into his stores so Knuckles gathered on the move, pears, blackberries, the tough-skinned but incredibly sweet fruits that he had no common-tongue name for and knew only as aval-avak. Sonic chattered as followed him, commenting on what, to Knuckles, sounded like completely random topics - the steepness of the hills (good for running on he claimed), how he bounced landing the 'Tornado'. Knuckles took this to be the name of an aircraft but couldn't work out if Sonic thought the bouncing was good or bad. How Tails was up to the tips of his ears in some new and improved version but said 'hi'.

Knuckles stopped outside one of the light overnight shelters. Although he'd built it as a stopgap for summer storms and he spent a lot of time here in the warmer months, it was a still comfortable place to sit and eat in this mild early autumn.

He waved Sonic to a stool and divided out the fruit. He was aware that Sonic had done all of the talking but was unsure what information to offer or questions to ask in return.

Sonic beat him to it before he'd decided.

"This is food?" He weighed the aval in his hand. "I thought maybe you were keeping it to play ball with or knock coconuts off shys or something."

Knuckles felt a flicker of amusement at the hedgehog's bafflement. At least he wasn't the only one trying to make sense of this visit.

He reached for a knife, opened his own fruit deftly in demonstration then switched his grip on the to the blade and lobbed it spinning end over end towards the hedgehog.

Sonic's hand's flashed out and snatched it by the handle.

"Woah!" he yelped. "You always throw sharp stuff at people you invite for dinner?"

Knuckles gave him a small, appraising smile. "I've seen your speed. I had no reason to think you wouldn't catch it."

"Hmm." Sonic considered this. "That a compliment?"

Knuckles shrugged. "A fact. Knowing what your allies are capable of is tactically important."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Well I'm not that tactical a hedgehog."

"That much I already knew."

"Huh, and hitting stuff is sooooo tactical?" Sonic smirked.

"When effective."

Sonic laughed and shrugged. "Well, whatever works." He paused. "So I count as an ally now do I?"

Knuckles frowned. He'd almost started to relax a little but there was the exact problem. "I don't know what else to call you. We have a mutual enemy."

Sonic turned the knife over in his hands.. "Well it's a start." He jabbed haphazardly at the aval. The blade was sharp, but worn to a curve from use and repeated sharpening. Knuckles watched him while opening a second fruit for himself, somewhat messily with his claws, and munching on the sticky sweet inner flesh.

"Even the fruit up here puts up a fight, is that it?" Sonic asked, eventually hacking off enough rind to taste the fruit. "What is this?"

Knuckles licked juice from his muzzle. "It's called aval-avok." He thought a second, then translated. "Something like 'armoured apple?'"

Sonic gouged out another piece. "Huh. Figures. Tasty though." He looked around the shelter. "So apart from chucking knives at visitors, and eating fruit that fights back, what d'you do for fun up here?"

"For fun?"

"To relax," Sonic clarified but it didn't help.

"I relax."

"Yeah?" Sonic sounded almost surprised. "How?"

How? Knuckles paused to process the question. What sort of question was 'how?' Relaxing was relaxing.

But Sonic had already waved away his confusion and changed the topic, his attention seeming to dart about almost as quickly as he did.

"You've got some great loops here!"

This time Knuckles did smile. The Island's features were an area he was far more at home with.

"Yes," he agreed. "They're impressive."

"They're fun!" Sonic stressed the last word. " D'you run through them? Are you fast enough to get round?"

Knuckles couldn't tell if the question was curiosity or challenge. Was it a tactical question? Did he really trust the hedgehog? Had Sonic seen him run? He'd mostly attacked from ambush.

After a moment he nodded though and Sonic grinned.

"Cool. That was the first thing I wanted to do when I realised how quick I could go was get round the loops. Everyone else was just interested in how they got there, history and geology and rubbish guesses about why nobody knew how they got there." He put on a mock serious face and a silly deep voice and wagged his finger sternly. "They're not for playing on, Sonic." He resumed his normal voice. "But they totally are."

He grinned but Knuckles was still several sentences back.

"You don't know how the loops got there?" he asked.

"Uh. Noooo." Sonic drawled. "No one does, do they?"

Knuckles looked at him, nonplussed.

"I do."

He hesitated at the dumbfounded look Sonic gave him and corrected himself. "Well I know what's written down about them anyway."

Sonic's gape broadened into another grin.

"Ohhh, you are going to blow so many of those science-types theories into little bits! Well?"

Knuckles paused to gather his recollection, the wording of the story.

"It was long ago," he started. "Before the Emeralds, before the Master, before control over Chaos was even thought of. The whole world was full of Chaos, was fluid, flexible, chaotic - by definition. The landscape itself would shift and change from day to day, leap up into loops and twists. Turn and buck like a thing alive. A flicker of a change in the energy could make whole hills whipcrack into new shapes, paths suddenly run through thin air. Anything.

Sonic was listening unblinkingly, wide-eyed - perhaps imagining that lashing landscape - silent at last but Knuckles had run out of story.

"Once the Chaos was contained - mostly - in the Emeralds, the landscape stopped shifting. Even if it was in mid twist or upside down or whatever. So we have the loops."

"Hmm." Sonic seemed to be considering it. "Kinda works for me. And you think that's really what happened?"

Knuckles shrugged. "If it isn't then a lot of what else I know about this place might not be true either. It's what's written down. It's not like I've got anyone to ask."

For a moment that inexplicable dismay was back on the hedgehog's face but it didn't last.

"So," he grinned. "You want to go run them?"

Knuckles surveyed him for a moment, then, either infected by the hedgehog's whimsy, or just to see what would happen, he said, "They're not for playing on, Sonic."

Sonic rolled his eyes and staggered back, clutching his chest.

"Ooohhh you wound me! Don't go all grown-up on me! What are you, like a million years old? You can't be any older than me."

Knuckles shrugged but Sonic had already rattled on in a mock childish sing-song voice.

"Please, Mr Guardian, come out and play with the nice hedgehog." He stopped short. "Wait. What? What does 'shrug' mean?"

Knuckles caught himself rolling his own eyes. "What does a shrug normally mean, Sonic?"

"You don't know how old you are?" Sonic sounded incredulous, disbelieving. Knuckles frowned. He'd given him no reason to disbelieve him, had he?

"Well, when was your birthday?"

"Uh," Knuckles wasn't sure that question got them any closer. "When I was born?"

"Nooo!" Sonic flapped a hand. "I mean like your other birthdays. You can count them can't you?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. No one remembers being born! And unless things are far more different on the surface than I ever knew, then people only get born once!"

Sonic paused. "Oh. Right. Your folks - echidnas - they don't celebrate birthdays? I mean anniversaries of birthdays. People celebrate it on the day they were born every year, y'know, cake, presents, party..."

Knuckles considered this. In spite of presents and special food it struck him as slightly morbid, celebrating the inevitable progress of another year. But Sonic's enthusiasm showed he didn't see it that way and despite himself Knuckles was curious.

"On the anniversary of the day they were born?"

"Yeah!"

"Is that when they were laid or when they were hatched?"

Sonic's jaw dropped open.

"Uh... Lai... Hatched?"

Knuckles had thought it was a simple, conversation-making question. but Sonic's answer didn't sound like an answer, it sounded confused. But maybe he just wasn't sure, hedgehogs weren't egg-laying as far as his sketchy knowledge about the surface went.

"You hatched out of an egg?" Sonic waved his hand. "Actually, is that a rude question?"

Knuckles shrugged again. It was a fact. Could facts be rude?

"Not many people who're mammals do is all." Sonic went on. "Platypuses. But I've never been a a platypus birthday party so I don't know." He frowned in thought. "I've seen birthday cards with pics of people popping out of eggs at parties for people who're birds though, so - hatched, I guess. You really don't know? You never had a birthday party?"

Knuckles shook his head.

"Well that sucks," Sonic said decidedly. "We gotta fix that. Next time."

"Next time?"

"Sure." Sonic grinned. "I'm allowed back right. I mean 'ally' yeah?"

Knuckles hesitated but the whole situation had utterly got away from him and there was clearly no threat in the hedgehog, so he nodded vaguely.

"I suppose so."

Sonic beamed and twirled around on the spot. "So we gonna run those loops?

With no good reason in hand not to, Knuckles agreed. And to his surprise he actually enjoyed himself. Sonic chattered about everything he saw and it was interesting seeing the Island through the hedgehog's eyes. It made the familiar new.

Later when Sonic had left with a loud, "See ya!"and it was quiet again, Knuckles walked back to Hidden Palace lost in thought, trying to work out whether he was pleased or not about the prospect of the hedgehog returning. He hadn't told him not to, he supposed, But Sonic was like a little piece of independent, living, mobile Chaos. No wonder he had used the Emeralds with such ease.

Disruptive.

Chaotic.

Twisting Knuckles' quiet, ordered world into loops and switchbacks. Turning it upside down.

He'd been in the hedgehog's company all day, the Master Emerald unattended, nothing more than a murmur at the back of his mind. Perhaps he had set a dangerous precedent. But even so he couldn't entirely regret the day.