Whoo! Fourth chapter! Thank you for everyone who reads and reviews, your support has been really helpful. Oh BTW sorry, I forgot to disclaim the song I used in the last chapter. It's called kisskisskiss (creative huh?) by buono, a j-pop group. It's really good, perfect to pep you up a little.

Disclaimer: I do not own sonic the hedgehog.

One would think that in such a big house, it would be easier to sneak out of undetected. So far, every time Kassie tried to quietly disappear from the background for a simple walk around town, someone would find her, whether on purpose or not, and deter her form her journey.

She wanted to get out of here! She had been trapped in this god-forsaken house for two weeks! Her legs itched and her head felt stuffed up with cabin fever. The pretty orange leaves outside were just begging her to admire them, and she new that around town, Halloween and Christmas decorations would mingle as holidays switched.

Well, she had been through hells water's before, surviving three heart surgeries and multiple serious asthma attacks. Kassie was not one to give up.

She picked out a warm outfit, so Ella or Mr. Tanaka couldn't stop her from going out in fear of her health. A light red-violet cap, Black stockings, a maroon skirt, purple clogs, and a lilac colored v-neck. Kassie was about to grab her ankle length coat (leather, her mothers…quite classy actually.) When a sight caught her in the mirror.

She halted and looked back, narrowing her eyes in discomfort. She winced at the red disrupt in her skin, peeking out of her shirt, just below her collar bone. The result of three heart surgeries, a whopper of a battle scar.

She quickly grabbed a deep red scarf, wrapping it, and her coat around her tightly to conceal the evidence of her silent war with her own body.

//////

So far so good, she was currently hiding behind a very large and flamboyant plant in one of the hallways. She could hear Tails, Cream, Amy and Chris, with some of his friends, playing in his room as she tiptoed silently past.

Kassie was amazed that she had made it to the front door, and slipped through it, praying that it wouldn't creak as she did so.

It merely squeaked once, then was silent.

She sighed in relief, breathing in the crisp fall air, and letting it out in wisps as warm breath hit cold wind. Then she heard a clang a the gate. Grandpa Chuck was back form his trip to the hardware store.

Although she new Chuck would be more willing to let her adventure, she did not want to take a chance of sudden doubt in her health procession. She sprinted to a tree in the front yard, ducking behind t and a nearby bush, squeezing her eyes shut as the old man walked past.

To her horror, he stopped just short of next to her.

She almost gave herself up, when she hear chuck call out, "Hey Sonic! Aren't you cold up there?"

"Nah, my fur and all the pretty leaves are keeping me warm. There's something very interesting about leaves falling that they normally should not be going….."

Kassie froze. The voice came form directly behind her on the roof, and she new the last part of that had been directed at her. Kassie slowly turned around and locked eyes with the blue wonder himself, who had one eye open in slight amusement, teasing her without words, while the other remained closed, so as not to alert chuck of her current place..yet.

"Well then…suit yourself, but if you catch a cold, don't come to me if Ella doesn't let you run everywhere you want to."

"Mm." Sonic grunted in recognition of the warning, still looking at Kassie and smirking. Kassie made frantic "No!" signs with her hands, then clasped them together,

"please.." she whispered, shaking her hands in a pleading motion.

Sonic, who still looked at her like he was about to laugh, merely winked at her, and Kassie new she was free to go. Once chuck had closed the door behind, she ran, flailing her arms and everything, to the front gate and swung her body through it and around the wall to hide. This time Sonic really did laugh.

She thought briefly if dumping a bucket of cold water while he slept later would be such a bad thing to do.

////////////////////

She was free!!

Kassie skipped like a little kid for an entire block in her excitement, feeling winded and coughing at the end, but happy nonetheless. She could finally breath without someone else being there, begging her to sing another song for them, explain the technology that was nestle din her chest, keeping her heart beating, reading to them while they cooked or cleaned, listened to old folk tales, or whatever those people could think up.

She loved them all, but geez, giver her some room to live!!

Pretty soon she was in the center of town. People bustled around her, glancing at her, wondering what she was doing in a big city alone, then moving on. She was just a stranger to them, to them nothing was wrong with her health, she was just like them, no an invalid escapee.

Suddenly, Kassie was overcome with an overpowering sweet smell. She looked around, seeing a stall that was selling baked goods for the holiday season. A fresh batch of blueberry muffins lay steaming out in the air. Just as suddenly, Kassie felt overwhelmingly hungry.

"Excuse me, I'd like to buy a muffin please…" she politely held out a five to the woman who was running the stand. The woman looked up form her magazine in interest, then said too fast for Kassie to understand.

"Youwantwomuffin?fivedolla!"

"P-pardon?" Kassie stuttered, the woman's thick foreign accent jumbled up the words she thought she knew, "I just want one muffin thank you,"

"Yes! Two muffin five dolla!" the woman jabbed at the dollar Kassie held out, then grabbing two muffins and placing them in a plastic bag.

"But ma'am, I only wanted…"

"you wantmuffi?,givemefivedolla,or not?" the woman asked irritably. Kassie immediately panicked, she did not want to make her angry, especially because of something like her accent.

"O-Okay.." Kassie conceded meekly. Walking away after paying, not seeing the cheeky smirk the vendor had as she did.

Kassie sighed, short a five but up one extra muffin. It was times like these where she could really use a big brother, someone to guide her and prevent people form getting her flustered or taking advantage of her like that.

Kassie jumped when she heard a loud clang and fierce grumbling afterwards, coming form an alley.

Taking her past knowledge of allies and what could happen in them, Kassie clutched her muffins to her chest, a poor weapon but all that was available, and peeked cautiously around the corner to see.

She blinked, staring straight into the eyes of Knuckles the echidna, who was rubbing his head ruefully after he had fallen off of his perch on a trash can.

She new by the way he was looking at her, as sort of confused glare (thought that could be because his head still hurt) that she shouldn't bother him, that she should just walk right past. But she didn't.

She had, after all, been waiting almost two weeks for another opportunity to talk to him.

Her hand pushed her around the corner without another thought as she crouched beside him, "Are you all-right?"

She helped him up to his feet, knuckles sighed irritably, "No, I'm laying down on the ground with a huge bump on my head because it's a new dance craze."

Kassie looked up at him sadly from the ground, where she sat on her knees next to him. Knuckles felt another pang of guilt. The kid had put herself through a painful asthma attack to help him, is this how he treated her for it?

"Sorry…didn't get much sleep last night.." He muttered looking away.

"I understand.." Kassie assured, looking at her folded hands for a moment.

After a few more minutes of silence, knuckles awkwardly tired to make conversation, as the girl did not look like she was about to leave anytime soon.

"Uh….how..are you? Last time I saw you…well…you weren't feeling to well…" Knuckles stumbled, lifting himself back onto a trash can. To his surprise, Kassie pulled another to sit across form him a little ways away, her skirt pulled over her knees like a blanket of sorts.

"it was just a mild coughing spell, nothing to worry about. Uh-um….I want to apologize…for you know…not being able to tell what you are. I didn't mean to insult you, but I wasn't even sure if Sonic was even a hedgehog…"

Knuckles shrugged, "Don't worry about it I guess, like Amy said, it was a mistake. I..tend to lose my temper without thinking of other people…so I'm sorry if I..made you uncomfortable in our first meeting."Knuckles said with difficulty. He could feel Kassie's warm gaze on the side of his head. Suddenly, he was attacked by the aroma of a fresh blueberry muffin, being held out to him by said girl.

He looked down a the treat for a moment, before raising an eyebrow in confusion at the girl.

Kassie smiled, obviously relieved that the echidna did not in fact hate her.

"Please, I'd like to try this again. My name is Kassidy Daniels, I'm form New York City…and if you want…I'd like to be your friend.."She added shyly, still holding out the muffin as a peace offering.

Knuckles blinked then smiled, taking the muffin then enveloping her small frail hand in his gigantic paw in a hand shake, "Knuckles the echidna, from angel Island….like wise."

Kassidy grinned, overjoyed, "Thank you."

"One question though.."

"What is it?"

"Do humans always give muffins to re-introduce themselves?"

Kassie laughed, coughing here and there, but nonetheless it made knuckles smile too. The guilt seemed to evaporate form his heart and was replaced with something different…affection? Warmth? But why for this girl?

Kassie looked down at her own muffin, still steaming form being kept in the warm bag, then slowly tore it in two, watching the soft wisps of steam rise from the middle of the pastry. She inhaled it slowly, smiling and closing her eyes, officially lost in her own world.

Knuckles, who had already scarffed half of his and burnt his tongue, gave her a funny look, "Why are you doing that?"

Kassie looked up dazed, and shrugged, "I like to watch it…little things like this. It helps slow down time, just for a moment…"

"…Why would you want to do that?"

Knuckles wanted to suck his words out of the air, when Kassie turned to him with a slightly sad smile, her eyes obviously else ware, thought they looked straight at him.

"When you aren't sure if you're going to come out of surgery alive….you learn to appreciate everything normally taken for granted."

For once, knuckles felt that his nickname, knucklehead, actually did him justice.

Knuckles looked up at the strip of sky he could see form the alley they were sitting in. The sun was setting fast, and the temperature was dropping, he felt a gentle breeze blow past him. He took time to notice the goose-bumps that raised on his skin under his fur, which one popped up first, what the wind smelt like, how it seemed to embrace him….she was right…

"I can see what you mean."

Kassie breathed in the same breeze knuckles had, raising her hands to greet it as it rushed past her to say hello to someone else.

From there, knuckles felt himself telling her about Angel Island. The sounds, smells and sights he normally would have thought nothing of. He started to realize how much he missed the island itself, despite his nagging sense of duty to the emerald. He told her about that too, he told her about his adventures with Sonic in the past, adventures with all of them..

When normally, his friends would have gotten bored with his story by now. Yet when he looked up at her to check if she had actually fallen asleep, her eyes were sparkling back with intrigue, her hands placed in front of her in eagerness like a kindergartener at story time.

It felt..nice…for someone to be looking up to him like that, instead of teasing him and writing him off as a knucklehead.

It wasn't until it had gotten truly dark, that Knuckles noticed Kassie tugging her jacket closer to her body, shivering like a leaf. She coughed, yet stared at him, waiting for him to continue his story.

He was about to offer to walk her home, when a wind too powerful to be natural slapped them with cold air. Then Sonic the hedgehog was in front of them, grinning.

"So here you are, thought I'd find you with Knuckles."

"Hi sonic." Kassie greeted smiling warmly, while Knuckles glared irritably at the hedgehog. As if trying to size up what exactly he'd do to tease him today.

"Heya Kassie, you'd better skedaddle back home, The others are going ballistic lookin for you."

Kassie covered her mouth in surprise, "Oh no, I've been out a lot longer than I meant to, they're never gonna let me out of their sight again!!"

Knuckles did not like that at all. He'd never admit it, but he had enjoyed talking with his new friend immensely.

Sonic chuckled, before he scooped her up the next second. Kassie squeaked in surprise and circled her arms awkwardly around his neck so she wouldn't fall backwards. The hedgehog was stronger than he looked. Then again Kassie wasn't exactly healthily heavy.

"Don't worry, I'll just tell them you went for a walk with me, they'll be fine with that! Crap you're cold…better get you home soon." Sonic muttered the end more to himself. Kassie had noticed how chilled she felt. Sonic had a poin,t but..

"K-Knuckles!"

Knuckles turned to her in surprise, having closed his eyes after hearing that Sonic was taking her home.

Sonic looked at her curiously, but she ignored him, leaning towards her new friend, "Tomorrow…I'm making dinner with Ella...will you come over?"

"I don't know…" Knuckles trailed off. There was a good reason he did not opt to go live with Chris. Even a good kid like Kassie had to sneak out of the house thought to get herself free.

"Please?" Kassie pleaded, her big soft eyes chopping away at knuckles will power, "Please knuckles? I'd feel a lot better about you staying out here where it's cold, if you had something warm in your stomach…"

Knuckles locked eyes with her, then after a minute, he sighed in defeat.

"Yeah..okay.."

Kassie smiled happily, more like glowed. "Thank you, you won't regret it, I promise."

She held out her pinky for a pinky promise. Knuckles new sonic was smirking at him, but nonetheless, he awkwardly extended his own pinky form his thick glove and entwined it with her tiny one.

"See ya tomorrow then both of you.."

Sonic chuckled, giving the red echidna a look that promised he'd hear more about this later, "See ya Knuckster, hold on tight Kassie!"

Without another word, sonic went careening back to the Thorndyke mansion. Knuckles could hear Kassie screaming in panic with how fast the hedgehog, and he laughed along with sonic in the distance.

Knuckles lent back with his arms cradling his head, he looked up at the sky and felt the wind again…."She's a nice kid"

Knuckles opened his eyes at the thought, and smiled. Again, he'd never admit it, but he was looking forward to tomorrow a lot more that Kassie could know.

He closed his eyes again, slowly drifting off to sleep.

She's a nice kid…

Awww, Knuckles is starting to warm up to Kassie! I feel a lot more confident about this chapter. I think my spark is starting to come back even with everything going on. I still can't draw a thing though T-T.

Read and review please!