Disclaimer: I do NOT own SEGA or related characters/ items.
Chapter Six: Mixed Thoughts
"Whew! Whew! Whew!" Knuckles panted, his breathing slowly steadying as he glared at Rouge.
"Whew! Whew! Whew!" Rouge also panted, glaring at Knuckles.
"Stop fooling around and give me back my emeralds!" they both yelled simultaneously at each other, extending their hands violently as they yelled.
Rouge stepped back slightly. "What are you babbling about?" she frowned. "You can yourself a hunter? Attacking a lady? Shame on you!"
Knuckles kept his strict frown on. "What kind of lady goes around stealing gems, anyway?"
Rouge frowned at his comment. "Those belong to me!" she started to walk toward him, before loosing her footing and slipping off the beam they were both on. "Aahh!"
Rouge closed her eyes, thinking that when she awoke she would be dead. But she felt something on her arm. She slowly opened her eyes and looked upward. "What in the world?" she said quietly as Knuckles pulled her back up onto the beam.
They both stared at each other for a few seconds. Rouge was having trouble trying to figure out Knuckles. He argued with her, he probably hated her…so why did he save her?
Rouge's eyes widened as she realized that she was alive and holding Knuckles' hand as she stared into his eyes. Not wanting to take the moment further, she tore away, finding her voice again.
"Keep your hands to yourself, don't touch me!" Rouge said with a frown.
Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Is that how you say thanks to someone who just saved your life?"
"Saving my life?" Rouge repeated, almost as if the gesture was crazy. "Don't think I owe you one!" she tore back, a smile starting to appear on her face. "You just wanted to hold my hand didn't you? That's why you saved me!" Now she was smiling in flattery. "You're such a creep," she said, pulling her right arm up onto her chest.
Knuckles shook his head. "This isn't a joke you know. Think what you want bat girl, I was saving the Master Emerald!"
Rouge's smile faded as she looked away. "No matter what you say, it sounds crazy!"
She threw her emerald shards in front of Knuckles.
Knuckles was surprised. "Wha…?" was all he could manage to say.
"Fine, then just take them," Rouge said with a frown before turning her back on Knuckles. "They stink, like echidna's do!"
Knuckles frowned at her back. "If that's what you thought, you should have given me them in the first place!"
He kneeled down and placed the pieces of the Master Emerald together and a green light blinded them both. They turned away briefly before looking at it.
Knuckles rubbed the emerald, to make sure he wasn't dreaming and all the pieces were restored.
"Finally!" he smiled.
"What?" Rouge asked firmly, closing he eyes and turning her back to him again.
"I'm sorry…" Knuckles looked away as he pretty much forced out, "…if I hurt you."
Knuckles slowly awoke, with his eyes only about a fifth of the way open. 'What the-? Why did I dream about that? That's in the past now…' he thought in confusion.
He tried to lift up his arm so he could rub his eyes, when he felt some weight on it. 'Wha?'
He looked down to see what the cause was and…
"AH!" he was so startled to see Rouge so close; he blushed heavily, his eyes widened and his skin jumped about 5 metres out of his fur.
He closed his eyes tightly, thinking he was having a nightmare before opening his eyes slowly again and looking down. Nope. She was still there.
He inhaled quickly and then exhaled sharply. He had never been his close to a girl before. Or…probably anyone. He was usually defending the Master Emerald, or something else important. He would never let his guard down or let anyone come near him. Or at least not this near.
His eyes were shrinking down to almost their normal size, but they were still pretty big and alert. His blush was burning through his fur, and he felt like he was going to explode he was getting so warm.
'Why is she…what does she think she's…how did she…why did I…?' his thoughts were all jumbled and confused.
He then stared at her intently for a short period of time. His surprised expression slowly softened. 'I guess Rouge isn't that bad…sure, she can unbelievably stubborn at times…but other times…' he smiled softly as his thoughts continued, 'she can be kinda…cute, almost.'
She suddenly started to stir, and Knuckles' skin jumped out of his fur again. He sweat dropped as he watched her yawn, with wide eyes. She stretched and he borrowed his hand back to rub his eyes quickly. He blushed and held his breath absentmindedly as she then rubbed her eyes and stretched again.
She blinked a few times before turning to check on Knuckles.
Knuckles, feeling frozen in the position he was, blushed with wide eyes and a freaky grin.
Rouge jumped to see him awake. "Aah!" she jumped to her feet and stepped back with her left foot. "You're awake!"
"Yeah," Knuckles said with his same expression on.
Rouge frowned slightly. "What's with the freaky grin?"
Knuckles' eyes popped back into their sockets, his blush slowly disappeared and his grin went with it. "Uh…nothing," he said, regaining character.
"How long have you been awake?" Rouge asked, a small blush creeping up on her cheeks, remembering her position.
"A few minutes," Knuckles said, trying to sound calm, a deep blush threatening to take over him.
Rouge blushed and looked a little panicked. "Well…the reason I was in that position was because I found you frozen last night and…" she shut her eyes closed and mumbled "IhadtokeepyouaswarmasIcould," quickly.
It took a minute to register her long mumble in Knuckles' mind but once it did, he just nodded. "Oh yeah…"
Rouge's blush left and she snapped her eyes open again. "What?!" she snapped. "I saved your life and looked after you, and all you can say is 'oh yeah…'?"
Knuckles frowned at her comment. "I was just remembering," he defended himself. "So…"
Rouge watched him intently as he continued, with her eyes half open. She was slightly nodding her head…anything to coax a thank-you out of him would just make her day.
"So," Knuckles repeated, his eyes averting her gaze, "thanks for saving me," he mumbled.
Rouge smiled in success. "You're welcome," she grinned, showing her top fangs.
"So," Rouge spoke up again, "did you end up finding the three emerald pieces, after all of that?"
Knuckles smirked. "Of course!"
Rouge smirked too.
"So I guess we should head to our next destination," Knuckles said before taking out his trusty map again.
Rouge's eyes widened a little. 'Did he just say 'our' next destination? Where 'we' are headed? But…why is he including me all of a sudden?' Rouge thought in confusion.
Almost as if he heard her thinking, Knuckles spoke up. "Saving someone's life affects the way the person thinks about the other person," he said warmly.
Rouge also smiled truthfully. Her eyelids slowly lowered from the top of her eye to about halfway down her eye. She tilted her head slightly down as she smiled at Knuckles.
Knuckles became a little nervous so he announced loudly. "Are next uh, destination is uh," his eyes darted from his map to Rouge as he nervously continued, "Abandoned Mine…" he trailed off as his eyes widened a little as Rouge slowly walked toward him.
Knuckles slowly backed up. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked nervously.
Rouge smiled as she continued to slowly approach him, "Something I should've done when you saved me at Meteor Herd."
Knuckles was confused, and kept backing up until he was up against a cliff. One more step and he would fall. He looked down at it as a few pebbles bounced down the sides of the cliff and then at least a minute later, crashed at the bottom.
Knuckles gulped before turning back to Rouge and not knowing what to expect. He had no time to register what was going on.
BAM!
Her lips pressed up against his, full force. Knuckles' eyes kept wide open, but Rouge closed her eyes as she continued to hold onto the kiss.
'What the -? Rouge the bat? Bat girl? She's…kissing me!?' he blushed deeply. 'But…mmm…it's not…that bad…'
* ~ Cliffhanger! ~ *
In your reviews, please suggest what should happen next (if you have any ideas) and what a good title for this story could be (because I want to change it). Thanks! ^_^
Until next time,
Satokasu Suki