This chapter was rewritten on 3/30/2014

Chapter 3

"Knuckles!" Amy shouted and ran over to him, taking both his large hands in hers. "You're here! You're really here!" The red echidna shrugged.

"Yeah. I'm here."

"It's been so long! Wow, look at you!" Knuckles rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Ohh not that long. Only six to seven months."

"Psh, since was six to seven months never a long time." She kissed his cheek and pulled him inside."We all thought you weren't going to-"

"Yoo! Knuckles!" A gust of wind blew right into them as the blue speed devil skidded to a stop right in front of them.

"Sonic! No skidding in my house!" Amy crossed her arms in displeasure. "You're gonna ruin my floors." With a sheepish grin the blue boy wonder apologized.

"Sorry Ames. " Then that little grin turned into an all out smirk when he turned to his redheaded friend. "Red, long time no see. Where you been?" He said while giving his buddy a pound and hooking an arm around his shoulder.

"Same as always. I only stay in one place So-" He blinked at the hedgehog. "Did you get taller than me." He gave Knuckles a cocky cheesy grin.

"Maaaybe. By an inch or two." Knuckles crossed his arms.

"I bet you're wearin heels."

"What?! I am not. You're just jealous."

"Jealous of what peabrain!?"

"You got no right to be insulting someone about their brain. You take that back!"

"What are you gonna do if I don't- OOF!" With a loud crash the echidna found himself being tackled to the floor, sending them both rolling around on the floor yelling curses and swears at one another.

"Get off me ya blue rat!"

"What not gonna throw me off hothead?"

"Oh, I'll do more than throw your fat ass off me."

"What?! I'm nowhere near fat!" Amy sighed and rested her hip against the table that was about to tip over.

"Boys really never do change. Rouge, we need to find ourselves some new friends." The mysterious bat chuckled.

Shadow stared at the two rolling on the floor with disinterest. Though the red male had caught his attention when he walked into the door, he didn't have any interest in watching them wreck the place with their rough housing. The hedgehog couldn't help but wonder why he hasn't seen him before. Out of all of Amy's friends, this Knuckles was one he did not recognize. At least everyone else he's met at this party he'd seen on t.v before with his cousin. But this one... he hadn't seen him before at all.

Unbeknownst to him, Silver had been glancing at him the minute Sonic and Amy went to go greet the new comer. He quietly slid to stand near the black and red hedgehog to ask him something, but became distracted when he noticed Shadows gaze was placed elsewhere. Curious as he was, he couldn't help but ask the obvious.

"Do you know him, Shadow?"

The dark hedgehog blinked and turned towards Silver who he hadn't noticed moved near him. "No not at all. If anything this is the first time I'm ever seeing him." That answer seemed to bid him well, for Silver cast his gaze back over the the red echidna who was hauling a fussy Sonic off of the floor with a cocky smirk on his face, only to be tricked and pulled back down again.

"Okay that's enough you two, break it up!" Knuckles had Sonic pinned under neath him as he sat on top of his lap, raising a fist as if he was going to punch, as Sonic had a firm grip on Knuckles other wrist, as if he was getting ready to flip them over.

"But the party is just gettin started Ames."

"I haven't even gotten the chance to punch his snout in yet."

"Tch-" Sonic smirked. "If I knew you were gonna dirty talk to me Knuckles I would had let you pin me down sooner." And that was when Knuckles face turned a dark shade of red.

"Don't be stupid!"

"Cmon guys, I didn't set all these decorations up just so you two could tear them down."

"Fine." He stood up and offered a hand to Sonic who took it and began to pull himself up. "Don't tug me down this time."

"Can't handle me Knucklehead?" A violet eye twitched.

"I'd wipe the floor with you if we were outside."

"Boys..." Rouge warned.

"What?! We're playing nice!" Knuckles snickered.

"As nice as it's gonna get." That emitted a few laughs from the group. Knuckles was going to add to the remark, but a sudden presence behind him threw him off track. He sniffed... there was two people he didn't recognize here. While he didn't see them he could tell by the two new extra smells there were in

Now he suddenly didn't feel very carefree. He turned around and was greeted with a pair of crimson eyes staring into his own. Knuckles blinked owlishly at the hedgehog before taking a quick step backwards at the sudden lack of personal space. "Uh, hey?" He said in an incredibly boyish way. He wasn't ever really good around strangers.

Though the hedgehog nodded and muttered his own hello back to him, he couldn't help but feel even more awkward than before. He was grateful when Amy decided to jump in and elbow him in the side.

"No need to be nervous Knuckles." Amy grinned. "This is my big cousin Shadow. He's a photographer, and works for one of the city's most popular modeling company." Ah, there was something to go off of.

"Oh, that's neat. I don't really follow all of that stuff but I did hear it pays good." He winked jokingly, making a small smile appear on Shadows face.

"Well enough to keep me going."

"Oh, and this is Shadow's colleague Silver." Amy said pulling him next to her. "He brought him along with him. Isn't he the cutest!" Silver blushed and waved a shy hello at Knuckles.

"H-Hi."

"Hey kid. Word of advice, escape from Amy as soon as possible. Sweet as she is, she's still crazy and probably won't let you ever step a foot back out her house."

"I am NOT that bad!" The echidna grinned as Amy repeatedly punched his shoulder.

Every one got to know each other pretty well in the next couple of hours. Knuckles got most of the attention, much to his displeasure seeing that he's the one noone has ever seen in awhile; though he couldn't fathom why the hell they would even ask what he's been up too. He only stays in one place after all.

Soon as the attention was off him he'd become a lot more comfortable as he resettled within the group once again. They all watched a movie together and made food, which turned out horribly. Mostly because Sonic and Knuckles wouldn't stop fighting in the kitchen. Shadow stayed from afar observing the group from afar, determined not to get involved in their shenanigans. However, his eyes would ever so often drift off to watch the echidna boy and what he was doing. After the mess was cleaned up, they all decided to order pizza instead and start playing games to pass the time.

"Twister! I vote for Twister!" Vector yelled loudly. Charmy whacked him in the head with his back pack.

"Twister is dumb! I wanna play video games!"

"Truth or Dare?! Everyone loves Truth or Dare!" Cream bounced up and down happily agreeing with Amy.

"How about we all play spin the bottle." Rouge said seductively glanced at the boys, who blushed embarrassingly.

"Cmon Rouge, what are we? Twelve." The girls giggled obviously them all thinking the same thing. 'You sure do act like you're twelve.'

"What about you Knuckles. You know you wanna kiss me." She winked. Sonic made a whistling sound, while Knuckles looked back at her and gave her a fake glare.

"Rouge I wouldn't kiss you if I had the most horrid deadly disease on the planet, and your saliva was the only cure." All the guys burst out laughing as Shadow sat there and smiled amusingly. Rouge smirked and sat in Knuckles lap.

"There's no need to be in so much denial about it. You know you love me." She nuzzled his cheek.

"Whatever you say." He ticked her sides and made her yelp and fly off of him.

"Okay how about we just play manhunt. Amy's backyard is pretty big; and I could use a bit of exercise today."

"Great idea, Espio! But only one problem... who's it?"

"I'll be it!" Sonic smirked.

"Not really fair. You can run at the speed of sound."

"I won't use my super speed to catch ya! Promise!" Sonic held his hands up in surrender.

"Alright blue boy, stay in here and count to 200. If you can count that high that is." Vector said getting up and walking towards the backyard door.

"200?! What the hell?!" He then smirked. "Oh I get it, might as well give you a big head start cause with my speed none of you will stay hidden for that long."

"You just said you wouldn't use your speed!" Knuckles said getting up.

"I said I wouldn't use my super speed. I'm still pretty fast without it you know!"

"You better not cheat, Sonic! Or I'm not giving you any of the pizza!"

"Really Ames? You're gonna starve me over a game? RUDE!"

It'd been at least twenty minutes into the game and Knuckle was already tired of hiding. He was tempted to just give away his position just so he could escape back inside. It didn't even sound like Sonic had actually found anyone yet.

"Probably didn't even finish counting to 100 yet." He chuckled and leaned back against the tree. Look at him, running around and playing hide and go seek like they were little kids. Part of him was screaming that he shouldn't be playing around in the dirt with his friends, that he should be back home guarding the Master Emerald from danger. Though he couldn't even bring himself to care much about any of that for the moment. Even though they were all acting like a bunch of pre preschoolers, the child play made him smile in content. 'I almost forgot how much fun it is be just being around these idiots.' Though Knuckles didn't act like it, he really did appreciate his silly group of friends; it saddened him that he didn't get to see them as often as he would like too.

Suddenly there was some rustling in the branch above him that wasn't noticeable before. "Huh...?"

"Greetings."

"Gah!" The other had spooked him, whispering right next to his concealed ear like that. He turned his head and saw Shadow who was lowering himself down to his branch. "Apologies. I didn't mean to startle you. Though it seems that we've chosen the same hiding place." Strange as Amy's cousin was, Knuckles was glad he'd proven to be pretty easy to talk too.

"Yeah, go figure huh?"

"You must be a pretty good climber to have of been able to get this high."

Knuckles grinned. "Yeah well you know, living in the wild can do that to you." He said then returned his attention to the ground as Shadow walked next to him to sit down.

"Knuckles." Violet eyes turned to look at the company beside him. "There's been something on my mind since earlier tonight when I saw you."

The echidna raised a brow. "What is it?"

"I hope you don't take offense to this, but would you mind telling me what species you are? I have a vague hint but I can never be to sure."

"I'm an echidna." Shadows eyes widened at the direct answer and was taken a bit off when the look in Knuckles eyes didn't change not once.

"An echidna? Really?" He nodded. "That's... pretty amazing. Rumor has it that nearly all of the echidna race gone extinct many decades ago."

"They did. I'm the last one left." He said tearing his gaze away from him and looking out to the ground below his feet. Shadow almost regretted bringing the subject up. But he wanted to know a bit more...

"I'm sorry. It sounds like it must take it's toll on you." Shadow leaned in closer.

"It does, but it's nothing new. I've had time to accept and live with it. Though I suppose that doesn't help the loneliness go away." He said sadly but smiled. "But luckily I have people like Cream and Amy to cheer me up when I feel that way."

Shadow smiled at the mentioning of his cousin. "Yeah... we are." 'Seems I'm not the only one my cousin has made an impression on.'

"What was that?"

"Nothing important, Knuckles."

"Targets spotted."Sonic said from the tree branch nearest to them glaring daggers at the two figures.

"And that's our cue to jump!" Knuckles said leaping from the tree. Shadow let out a good natured chuckle and quickly leaped after him.

"Get your asses back here!"

"I can't believe you guys. You all literally destroyed my house." Amy whined picking up a torn piece of curtain, looking around at her now demolished living room. "All those hours of decorating ruined in just 30 minutes. I thought you guys said you were gonna play OUTSIDE!"

Sonic and the others cringed at her angry voice as she yelled at them. "Well we were, until Knuckles decided he wanted to hide inside with Shadow!"

"Hey, Espio never said anything about not using the house as a place to hide." He crossed his arms over his chest glaring at Sonic who stood up angrily and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Will you both PLEASE just shut up!" The room went quiet. Amy sighed and rubbed her temples with her fingers. "It doesn't matter who did what, just... help me clean this mess up or the party is over.." Everyone looked at each other as if they were suppose to do something. Knuckles got up and walked up to Amy petting her on the head with his hand.

"Hey cheer up. I'll help you clean it up. And I'm sure everyone else will too." He sent death glares to the others sitting down on the floor and couch. "Right?" They all nodded quickly and a grin appeared on Knuckles face. "Good. Now get to work."

Everyone quickly scattered around the room, grumbling and fixing things back to the way it was. Amy gave him a small smile and hugged his arm. "Thanks."

"No problem."

There was a pause.

"You know you gotta clean too, right?"

"Shit."

This chapter was sloppily re-written on 3/30/2014.