Two young teenage echidnas stood before Knuckles as he read down a list of all the instructions they needed to know about the master emerald and gave them Sonic's number in case there was an emergency. He would have given them Rouge's, because that's where he was heading, but he couldn't really remember her number.

The one boy, who was a darker shade of red, shook his head at Knuckles, "Hey man, you don't need to flip out, we've done this before. We got this place covered."

"I know, it's just, anything can go wrong while I'm gone."

"Where are you going?" the other teenager asked.

"That is none of your business."

"If you're going to Sonic's, could you get an autograph for my kid sister? She really wants one."

Knuckles rolled his eyes, "Sure, whatever," he said, then started to walk away, but stopped and turned back towards them, "Oh and if I come back and there's one piece of emerald missing…..your asses are dead meat."


As Knuckles glided slowly towards Station Square, thoughts raced through his mind a mile a minute; what the hell was he doing?

Was he doing this for him? Maybe.

Was he doing this for his ancestors? Maybe.

Was he doing this for the baby? Maybe.

But was he doing it for he and Rouge? This question baffled him as he found the nearest telephone booth and looked up the address for Rouge's apartment.


The sound of light knocking at her apartment door at 8:00 in the evening startled Rouge because she hadn't been anticipating any visitors. She laid down her Pregancy: For Dummies book and ran to answer the door.

When she opened it and saw who it was, she had to hold herself up against the doorframe.

"Hey," Knuckles said. His cheeks were slightly pink and his dreadlocks were in a mess.

She stepped stiffly to the side to let him in.

"Hi," she said coldly.

She fell back against the door as it closed. It was a tense stand-off. There stood in front of her, was the very echidna Rouge had the desire to leap on and passionately make-out with, but at the same time, wanted to give him a good kick in the groin.

He rubbed the back of his head nervously, "So….how have you been?"

"Pregnant," she said, "Still." She crossed her arms over her chest, "How about you? You still being a douche bag? Or have you finally come around?"

Knuckles closed his eyes and sighed. "Look Rouge," he began, then let a brief moment of pause pass before he said, "I'm sorry."

Rouge's arms dropped to her side, "You're…..sorry?"

"Yeah, I felt like a real jerk after I blew up on you. It was wrong to say those things, especially then."

She frowned, "Yeah. It was real nice to be humiliated like that in front of the entire doctor's office. So I thank you for that," she said irritably.

"I know. You have every reason to be mad at me,"

"Damn right, I do."

Knuckles looked up at her and the expression on his face shocked Rouge. He almost looked genuinely sorry.

"Well," he muttered, "what else could I say to convince you that my apology is sincere and that…" he hesitated, "I really want a second chance with you?"

She narrowed her eyes and looked away shaking her head and not saying anything.

Knuckles sighed, "Fine. At least I tried."

He turned to go but was stopped when he heard a soft voice whisper, "Wait…don't go."

Rouge walked towards him and the two faced each other.

"Take my hand," she said.

"What?"

"Take my hand,"

"Why?"

She sighed, "Just do it,"

He slowly reached over and grabbed her hand. To Knuckles, it seemed like his gloved hand was huge compared to her small and slender fingers.

But she lightly directed it to her stomach, right on the spot of her baby bump. Knuckles face flushed bright red and he was embarrassed to be touching her this way and Rouge knew why because he was incomprehensible, the last time he did.

They stood there for the longest time, in that same position and it seemed like in that one moment, the tension just melted away.

"Do you think you can handle all of this?" Rouge asked him. But at the same time, was also asking herself.

Knuckles nodded, "I think so,"

"Thank you for apologizing,"

Yeah, she knew that was really lame to say, but all other words were failing her.

"You're welcome," he replied.

Then she fell into his arms, which took Knuckles by surprise, until finally he closed his arms around her in a tight embrace, the baby stationed right in the middle, between them.

The rest of the night, Knuckles stayed with Rouge and they watched old rerun episodes of Cops. In between each commercial break, Rouge glanced over at Knuckles to make sure he was still there. She had expected him every 15 minutes or so to all of a sudden take off running. But now that he was here, she didn't want him to leave her again. His face was unreadable as he stared at the screen, the blue glow of the TV reflected in his eyes and he was holding his arm stiffly to his side.

It had been a long night of awkward silences and pauses. That was because Rouge wanted to ask him why he had returned to her. But she was also afraid that he would get upset about it and they would get into an argument. She was sure it was guilt that brought him back but she knew, since it was Knuckles, there had to be something more.

"I'm going to go get some drinks," she announced as a commercial selling Pepto-Bismal came on, "Do you want something?"

"Anything but alcohol," he replied.

She laughed nervously and stood up, using the coffee table as a support, "Yeah," she said, "I know."

He gave her a small grin, before she turned and walked down the hallway to the kitchen. She pulled two glasses out of a cupboard and walked to the refrigerator to get out a pitcher of ice tea. Carefully, she poured some in both cups and as she spun around to carry them back to the living room, she saw Knuckles standing there behind her.

"Oh my god, Knuckles," she said, "You scared the shit out of me."

He smiled, "Just making sure you weren't trying to pull one on me,"

She rolled her eyes and held out the glass to him, "Here, check it out for yourself smart-ass. It's just a plain ole cup of ice tea. It's perfectly harmless."

He laughed as he took the glass from her, then followed her back to the living room.

"Besides," Rouge said as she sat down, "It wouldn't matter if I got you drunk or not. I could still lure you into bed with me,"

"If you think I would give in that easily, you're wrong."

She took a sip, "That sounded like a challenge,"

"Maybe it was," he said.

"Need I remind you of your unfortunate loss at the last challenge you made?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes, "Har, har."

"If I wasn't already pregnant, I'd so do it and I would win."

He laughed, "You can't have sex while you're pregnant?"

"I think so…"

"Google it,"

It was Rouge's turn to laugh, "Knuckles, you crack me up."

"Why?"

"It almost sounds like you want me to do it."

The blush crept up Knuckles' neck, "Well…uh…"

"Because," Rouge continued, "You know you would lose."

"No I wouldn't."

"Come on. Give it up, Knuckles."

"What? My virginity?" he shot back, "I think I already did."

Rouge blinked, "I thought you didn't know what a virgin was…"

"I've been doing my research,"

She smiled, "Oh. So, what else have you learned?"

"Smirnoff isn't the strongest kind of vodka."

"Apparently, it was for you."

"Gimmie a break! It was my first time!"

He noticed how close she had gotten to him. But she kept asking him mindless question that really didn't matter. And while she did this, she had gotten on all fours and crawled over to where he was sitting.

She climbed up on his lap and lightly pressed her lips against his collarbone and brushed them along his jawline. That same fuzzy and warm feeling that hit him That Night, was back.

"Rouge," he whispered as he let each sweet kiss sink into his skin.

She ignored him and kept on questioning him, "So," she said, "You say you can't remember anything from that night at the hotel?"

Knuckles fought to keep his eyes open, "Pretty much everything that happened after the whiskey…"

She smiled, "Well, maybe this could re-jog your memory."

Then, at that, their lips met.

Damn, Knuckles thought as Rouge slipped her tongue into his mouth, How does she do it?"

When they broke off, Rouge buried her head into his shoulder and tilted her chin up to whisper lightly in his ear, "See? You would definitely lose. Again."


The next morning when Knuckles woke up, he noticed Rouge laying next to him on the carpet floor of her living room. Their arms and legs were tangle of limbs.

The soft yellow light from the sun that was still making its rise above the city, came through the window and he knew it was still early in the morning.

He sat up slowly, careful not to wake her. He had all the intentions of immediately returning to his emerald, and began to leave but stopped himself to look back at the sleeping figure of Rouge.

His heart started to race as he watched her. Then he got an idea. He scooped her up into his arms and laid her down on the couch, then draped a blanket over her. She moved around slightly but still didn't wake.

After he was done, he leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Then, feeling slightly dizzy, he got up and left.

--

I think I owed all of you guys a little more Knouge action. But this is the part of the story that always worries me because Knuckles seems so out of character and it's hard to keep it realistic. But oh well, I guess that's why it's called fanfiction. Anyways...a bunch of stuff is coming up soon and they will be together a lot more. :) See ya!