Chapter 2
"So where do you wanna eat?" Knuckles asked. They had just gotten out of the forest and were back at the shrine.
Shadow thought about it a little and shrugged. "I don't really eat out that often. I don't know many places."
"Well where have you been?" The echidna inquired while checking up on the Master Emerald. Just in case.
"I think it was some place called Monty's? They had burgers.." Shadow waited at the bottom of the stairs leading to the M.E, not wanting to invade.
"Oh, that. I've heard it's good," finishing his check up, Knuckles headed down the stairs. "But I've never been there, since they don't have a vegetarian option."
The black hedgehog turned to his friend. "You're a vegetarian?" He asked surprised.
"Yeah, I just never ate meat growing up and when I tried it when I was older it just made me nauseous." Knuckles explained. A bad memory including hot dogs, a trip to the bathroom and lots of puke, suddenly surfaced. He made a face and shivered. " Thankfully there's lots of fruit and vegetables growing on this island so I get by."
' Well that certainly explains his good figure.. wait what?!' Knuckles was slim. He didn't have any fat on his body, but he didn't have any visible muscle either. He looked really healthy. It was so weird. How could someone so small be so strong?
Pushing the thoughts about the echidna's anatomy aside, he carried on the conversation about where to eat. "Let's just go to a place that has a vegetarian option then. You pick."
Knuckles didn't take long to decide. "Alright, I know just the place. Let's go!" He said and took off, this time running. Shadow followed.
They got off the island and quickly made their way through the city, after a couple of turns, Knuckles slowed down and stopped in front of a pizzeria named Brockin'.
"Pizza huh?" Shadow said, looking at the place closely. It was a small place, but it had a warm atmosphere and looked really appealing even for the black hedgehog.
"It's been a while since I ate pizza and this place is really good. Is it okay?" Knuckles asked softly. He hadn't even considered the fact that Shadow might not even like pizza.
"It's okay. I've tried pizza a couple of times. It's satisfying." He stated.
'Satisfying?' Knuckles laughed. "Only you would describe food as satisfying."
Shadow frowned and crossed his arms. "That's what food is supposed to do, right? How else am I supposed to describe it?"
"Well.. there are words like delicious, tasty, mouthwatering, scrumptious, yummy-" Knuckles was about to keep listing them, but Shadow interrupted him.
"Fine, I get it!" He put his finger to Knuckles's mouth and smirked. "Geez, what are you? A dictionary."
Knuckles just shrugged. "If you want to be fancy you could even say," he paused, brought his chest out, closed his eyes and in a sofisticated tone said: "it was divine."
Shadow let out a sound that kind of sounded like a laugh, but one couldn't be too sure. "That was amusing."
The echidna chuckled. "I am amusing. C'mon, I'm starving. Let's get food" he said and entered the pizzeria.
Shadow followed right after him and was welcomed with the delicious smell of pizza. His stomach growled in response. He heard the clerk welcoming them with a big smile on his face. It seemed like he knew Knuckles.
The said echidna turned to Shadow and said, "this is Brock," Brock was an elderly bear with a moustache on his face and an appron around his waist. He nodded towards Shadow and greeted him. Knuckles continued. "We saved his restaurant from Eggman a couple years ago so he let's us eat here for free."
"Anything for you boys!" The bear said happily. Then took a closer look at Shadow. "Hmm, I haven't seen you before?"
"I'm new.. I quess." Shadow said.
Knuckles took it upon himself to introduce the black hedgehog. "This is Shadow. He's been helping us save the world for a while now."
"Ohh! In that case he deserves pizza! You boys order whatever you want, on the house."The elder bear rejoiced. Such a nice old man.
"Ok, Shadow what do you like?" Knuckled chimed. "This place has pretty much everything you could imagine to put in a pizza."
Shadow looked at the options listed to a board above them. He crossed his arms. "I like spicy things. Can you work with that?" he asked Brock.
"Leave it to me!" The bear responded, then turned to Knuckles" And for you Red? "
"You know what, surprise me." The echidna said with a smile. "I'm so hungry I'll pretty much eat anything."
The bear laughed loudly. "Will do! Just go wait at a table, you'll food will be right over!" And with that, the bear disappeared into the kitchen.
The restaurant had booths with red couches on each side and a round table between them that was covered with a white tablecloth with red stripes on it. Since it was so late, there were only a few people in there.
Knuckles and Shadow seated themselves to a booth in the corner of the restaurant. Both of them sat on the opposite sides so they were facing each other.
"Spicy food, huh?" Knuckles questioned. It was interesting to learn facts about the black hedgehog.
"Yes. From all the foods I've tasted, I've found the spicy ones the most..." Shadow hesitated for a moment, then added. " ..delicious."
The red echidna smiled. He knew Shadow was practically a genius, but his dictionary was a little simple and old fashioned. 'well he is like 50 years old after all..' He hadn't been designed to describe emotions or different foods. But in any case, he seemed to learn fast.
"Do you like spicy food?" Shadow asked rather hesitantly. He wasn't sure what sort of questions you should ask when you were getting to know someone. He felt a little awkward.
"Uhh.. I don't really handle spices that well. I'm more into milder flavors." Knuckles answered softly. "Probably cause they don't grow on Angel Island so I never got to use them."
"So you never left the island when you were young?" Shadow pondered, resting his elbows on the table.
"I never had a reason to. Ever since I can remember, my only duty was to guard the Master Emerald, so that's what I did." Knuckles explained.
"You have no memory of how you came to be?"
"No. I've just sort of always been there. I have memories from when I was a kid, but other than that I can't remember." The echidna reported.
"That certainly sounds mysterious." Shadow commented. How old was Knuckles even? How did he manage to survive alone as a child? The black hedgehog had so many questions, but he didn't feel like it was appropriate to ask them yet. He chose to change the subject.
"How do you survive through winter? Fruits and vegetables don't grow then,right? And isn't it cold up there?" Shadow asked curiously. The few winters he had spent on Mobius had been tough, but surely they had to be even worse on Angel Island. Since it was higher.
"I just come down here to buy food." Knuckles revealed. "And it's not like I'm staying out there in the cold the whole time. I do have a house, you know? plus my fur grows thicker in the winter."
"I honestly knew nothing about you, I apologize." The black hedgehog said sincerely. He wondered if anyone else knew these little facts about the red guardian.
"Nawh, that's okay." The echidna smiled. He honestly didn't mind at all. No one had ever taken the time to ask about his life, so while this was new to him, it was rather nice. He didn't know anything about the black hedgehog either, now was a good time as any to get some information. " So where do you live?"
That's how conversations worked. You ask a question, get an answer and then answer the same question yourself. Shadow did just that."G.U.N provided me with an apartment." He thought he'd keep the answer simple, but then figured he might as well share some more. "At first I lived at the G.U.N headquarters, but it was so noisy there. When I made a complaint about it they gave me my current place."
"That's great! Have you enjoyed your apartment?"
"It's enjoyable, yes. I don't really do nothing besides sleep there though." Shadow said.
"Hmmm," Knuckles put his elbow on the table and leaned his head against his hand. He was kind of happy to hear about the hedgehog's personal life. "What about on your days off? You do have those, right?"
"I do have them, but even then I don't do anything in particular. " Shadow gave it some thought and then added, "I like to do target practice and travel around, things like that. You don't have days off I assume?"
"Well, guarding the Master Emerald is sort of a year around job, but some days are quiet and since I can sense if the emerald is in danger I don't necessarily have to be there all the time." The echidna explained.
Shadow blinked. "That's a surprising."
"How so?" Asked Knuckles.
"I quess I just assumed that all you do is guard the emerald.. Forgive me for my ignorance." Shadow apologized.
"Well I can't really blame you. When I was younger that was all I did, but that was because back then my bond with the Master Emerald was weak. I couldn't sense if it was in danger so I had to stay close to it." Knuckles reported. Things had definately been tough back then.
Shadow was about to ask another question, but he was interrupted by the loud voice of Brock who came to them. With his right arm he carried two large plates of pizza and with his left a tray that had drinks on them.
"Here you go!" He boomed happily then set the plates and drinks down in front of the boys He then listed the ingredients on each one. "Both of your pizzas have the same basics, tomato sauce and cheese, but Knuckles's pizza also has mozzarella, since you really like cheese. Then there's cherry tomatoes and broccoli!"
"It looks great! Thanks, Brock!" Knuckles rejoiced.
Brock then turned to Shadow who was eyeing his pizza carefully. "Your pizza has both salami and pepperoni, which are medium spicy by themselves, but then I also added paprika and a small amount of chopped jalopeño. I think it should be spicy enough for your liking."
"Thank you." Shadow said bluntly.
"Well, I'll leave you to it! Enjoy your meal!" And with that, the bear was gone once again.
The pizzas had already been cut so the two of them just started eating right away.
Knuckles took a large bite of his first slice and let out a satisfied moan. "This is so good!" He turned back in his seat to give Brock a thumbs up, who just simply smiled and gave one back. The echidna then continued eating.
Shadow's first bite was more careful, but as soon as he'd tasted it, he finished the slice fast. "It really is!" He too said with an actual smile on his face and took a bite of the second slice.
Knuckles smiled too, he was glad Shadow was enjoying the food. The two of them happily ate about half of their pizzas before slowing down. The pizzas were big after all, so they couldn't possibly finish it all in one go. And besides, they wanted to keep talking.
Shadow took a sip of his drink before he continued the conversation from earlier. "So, what did you do to make your bond with the Master Emerald grow so strong?"
The echidna swallowed the piece he had been chewing and shrugged. "I don't know. I grew older, shattered the emerald into pieces a couple of times, spoke with some spirits. Stuff like that."
The hedgehog snorted. "You shattered the Master Emerald!?" He was surprised the guardian could do that even though his duty was to protect it.
"Yes, to keep it from being stolen." Knuckles stated. " After doing that, I just have to collect the shards and the Master Emerald will re-assemble itself."
"Isn't it hard to find all the shards?" Shadow asked and took a bite of his pizza.
"Not really," The echidna answered. "when I shattered it for the first time I realized I could sense where the shards were, so tracking them down was pretty easy."
"That's really impressive. There's so much I didn't know about you." He complimented. He then locked eyes with Knuckles and with a smile he said; "You really are a fascinating creature."
Knuckles could feel the heat on his face. He was blushing. That was such an unexpected thing for Shadow to say! "I.. uhh.. thanks. So are you." The echidna spoke softly.
Shadow blinked a couple of times. Was the echidna blushing? He definitely was, but why? He just didn't know.
From there on they continued their meal, chatting about whatever popped into their heads. Even after their plates were empty, the conversation carried on. There were so many things for them to learn about each other so they just couldn't stop talking. They would've probably stayed there for hours if Brock didn't interrupt them. It was late and he needed to close up the restaurant.
The boys both looked at the clock on the wall and realized they'd been there for a long while. Both of them thanked Brock for the meal, who in turn told them they were always welcome. Shadow and Knuckles then left the restaurant.
"Well that was delightful." Shadow commented. "I approve of this place."
"That was an A+ review." The echidna laughed, but then looked down sheepishly and softly said, "Thank you for today, Shadow. I really enjoyed your company."
Shadow's eyes widened in surprise, this time it was him who blushed. "I enjoyed yours too.." he mumbled just loud enough for the echidna to hear.
Knuckles didn't notice the blush on his face and even if he had, he'd probably just have blamed the cool air. "I really appreciate it. To be honest I was feeling kinda down today, but you cheered me up." He smiled at Shadow.
The hedgehog felt joy in his chest. He was happy that he had managed to cheer the echidna up even though he had obviously been feeling miserable when he had found him in the forest. Feeling appreciated was another new feeling for Shadow and he seemed to enjoy it and the fact that it was Knuckles whom the appreciation came from made the feeling even better.
"You're welcome, Knuckles." He assured and heard the guardian yawn again. "Wanna take a walk? I could really stretch my legs a bit"
Knuckles smiled widely. " Sure! " Even though it was late he didn't feel tired at all. After staying at one place for such a long time, a walk was just what he needed.
This part of the city was old and most of the lights were broken, but the light from the stars above them was more than enough to light their way as they walked through the city in the middle of the night. It was a pointless stroll, they didn't know where they were going. But it didn't matter. It was odd, really. They had just spent one day together and they already felt comfortable around each other. Even though they were quiet for now, it wasn't awkward at all.
Everything was looking good until they came around a corner and ran into someone they really hadn't expected or even wanted to see.
Sonic The Hedgehog.
tbc