Chapter 4

After that eventful day the two of them spent most of their time together. Knuckles showed Shadow around the Angel Island, telling him about it's history and of the stories of his ancestors. Shadow had found it extremely interesting, after all he had spent 50 years of his life in a stasis, so there was a lot of history he didn't know of. Even though Knuckles had no memory of any of the events in the echidna history, he had learned a lot about it from the ancient writings that could be found all over the island. It was a mystery how he could read them, but so were many other things so Knuckles didn't really question it.

Even though Angel Island wasn't really even that big, it took them a couple of days to explore all of it. Mostly because they talked so much that before they even realized it the sun had gone down and it was too dark to keep going.

One day it was so hot the two of them couldn't pretty much do anything. Knuckles hated strong sunshine and Shadow just couldn't handle heat that well since his black fur absorbed heat and he was more used to cool temperatures. In order to survive, the two of them headed to the lake in the center of the island. It was nice to have the whole lake to themselves while all the beaches on Mobius were most likely packed with too many people.

Once they had arrived to the lake and found a place in the shadow for their drinks and stuff, Knuckles stopped and turned to Shadow to ask, "Can you swim?"

Shadow stopped to think about it. "I don't know if I can swim or not." he answered. He had never had to swim so he didn't know if he was capable of doing so. He knew that Sonic couldn't swim, so maybe that applied to him as well?

"In that case we just need to find out!" The echidna announced and then proceeded to take off his shoes and his gloves. After setting them under the tree next to their stuff he saw Shadow staring at him, at his hands to be exact. "What?" He asked.

The black hedgehog approached him and took one of Knuckles's hands into his own and examined it. "I didn't realize these spikes actually grew out of your hands."

"Well, I guess it's a bit weird." The echidna rubbed the back of his head nervously. Not being used to people touching his hands.

"It's fascinating." Shadow said in awe. After looking at them for a little longer he stated, "Your hands are rather small."

"They're not!" The echidna disagreed.

"Yes they are." Proceeding to take off his own glove, he placed his hand directly on top of Knuckles's in order to compare them. "Look."

Knuckles stared at their hands. It was true. Shadow's hand covered his own, not by much, but it did. Knuckles made a pouty face. "What does it matter?"

Shadow let go of his hand and said, "Nothing, I just thought your hands would be bigger since your gloves are so big."

"Those are the only kind of gloves that won't break when I use them." The echidna muttered, crossing his arms.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything bad by it." The hedgehog assured. "It's kind of cute actually."

The red echidna's face turned pink. That had been happening a lot lately. "... if you say so." He mumbled. Knuckles had been called many things, but cute wasn't one of them. Knuckles was a bit insecure of his hands because they were so different from everyone else and that was one more reason for him to use those big gloves, they wouldn't be seen so easily. This was the first time anyone had complimented them and it made him feel kind of happy.

'cute.' Shadow thought and removed the other glove, his Inhibitor Rings and the hover shoes. He placed them next to Knuckles's.

"Ok, let's see if you can swim." The echidna said with a smile and walked to the edge of the lake. "The water is shallow here so you should be okay in case you can't."

Shadow nodded and then saw Knuckles walking into the water. Once he was waist deep he stopped and called for Shadow to test if he could come over.

Hesitantly the black hedgehog stepped into the water. At first the contact felt odd, but as he went further he got used to it. He reached Knuckles in no time.

"At least you aren't afraid of the water, it seems." The red echidna chuckled.

"I don't understand why anyone would be scared of this. It's only liquid.." The hedgehog reasoned.

Knuckles shrugged and went a little further where the water got so deep his feet didn't reach the bottom anymore.

Shadow followed as far as he could with his feet still in contact with the bottom. He stared at the echidna, trying to figure out how he was all the way over there even though the water was so deep. "How are you doing that?" he asked.

"I'm just floating." Knuckles explained. "Try lying down on your back."

The hedgehog did as he was told and successfully managed to float on his back. Knuckles swam to him. "Now, try turning on your belly and then just move your arms like this," he demonstrated the basic arm strokes. He then turned on his back too, "and kick with your legs like this." he showed the kicking movement above the surface so Shadow could clearly see what was going on.

"Okay." The hedgehog said and without further thinking, turned on his stomach and did as Knuckles had instructed and managed to glide through water with ease.

"Ha! You did it!" Knuckles cheered and swam after the black hedgehog whom had advanced even more further.

From there on, swimming came naturally to Shadow. He was soon able to dive under the surface and to use different kind of swimming styles without instructions. Once they were sure Shadow could hold his breath for long enough, Knuckles showed Shadow an underwater cave in the lake. The beginning of the cave was only partially filled with water so they could come up to breath, but from there on the water covered the whole cave. Apparently it continued far under the island, but even Knuckles couldn't hold his breath long enough to swim to the end of it. They'd need to get some equipment in order to do that. They decided they'd do it some day.

Once they had swam enough they got out of the water and went to get their towels from under the tree. "Conclusion: You can swim." Knuckles declared and picked up his towel and started drying himself off.

"I can indeed. I really liked it." Shadow smiled and picked up his own towel and started drying his quills.

After they were both mostly dry (their quills take a long time to dry) they sat down to enjoy the drinks and food they had brought along. As Shadow was sipping his coke he heard Knuckles snort out of the sudden. He saw the echidna looking at him with amusement in his eyes.

"What?" He asked with his brows furrowed.

"Your quills..They're all messy." Knuckles chuckled.

Shadow touched the quills with his hand. They were sticking all over the place from the aggressive drying they had received.

"Let me help you." The echidna offered and scooted closer to the hedgehog and started fixing them by sliding his fingers over them.

Shadow felt shivers run up his spine from the action and his heart started beating faster. Knuckles's touch felt nice against his sensitive quills and he couldn't help but let out a small sound of satisfaction. The echidna smiled softly at this, he knew how sensitive a hedgehog's quills could be so it was understandable Shadow reacted like that. Even after he had it all smoothed out and back to it's full glory, he kept touching no, more like petting the hedgehog's head. He could have sworn Shadow even leaned into the touch.

Shadow was so relaxed that he eventually ended up leaning against Knuckles's chest as he played with his hair. It just felt so nice, the echidna was very good with his hands. The hedgehog felt sleepy all of the sudden. It must've been because of the sun and the fact that swimming was rather exhausting. Before he even realized it, he fell asleep against the echidna.

Knuckles was surprised when he felt the black hedgehog relax completely and actually fall asleep. What was he supposed to do? He didn't dare to wake him up, after all the other one was so comfortable there and Knuckles couldn't deny that it was nice. So he just continued playing with his quills, running his fingers through them in a soothing fashion

He caught a look of the sleeping hedgehog's face. 'Woah..'He's kind of handsome..' Knuckles caught himself thinking and instantly blushed. What was he thinking? As if to make sure, he looked at Shadow again, more carefully this time, studying his features. Unlike Sonic, Shadow's face normally had a certain kind of maturity on it, maybe it was the constant frowning or simply the fact that he was over 50 years old. While it didn't really affect the way he looked, you could see it in his eyes when he was awake. But now when he was asleep, he looked no older than Sonic or Knuckles.

Shadow's eyes had always been interesting to Knuckles. They were angled and had red corners on them, creating a sharp and sometimes a dark look on his face. His pupils, they were crimson red and the echidna couldn't help but gaze into them whenever he could. Most people thought his eyes looked murderous, but Knuckles liked them.

He chuckled. 'Someone this adorable couldn't possibly be murderous.' Somehow the look and the feel of the hedgehog against him made Knuckles feel all warm inside. He was happy. And not just the I-made-a-new-friend kind of happy. This was something else. He knew it. He had never felt like this before.

He too started to feel tired and let out a yawn. The sun wasn't shining so strongly anymore, but the warmth remained. Carefully, he removed his hands of Shadow's quills and set his friend down and then laid down next to him. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

With Shadow on his back and Knuckles curled up next to him, they slept without a care in the world.

A/N:

Sorry this is kind of short, the next one will be longer and the plot will carry on. :