Knuckles' eyelids slowly started to lower until they were about halfway down his eye.
'Wait a minute! What am I doing? I'm…kissing back? We're rivals! We can't do this…besides; I don't have time for love! I have to treasure hunt, and protect the Master Emerald from people like her,' Knuckles frowned and regained his character as he tore away from Rouge.
Rouge slowly opened her eyelids halfway.
Knuckles closed his eyes and kept frowning, finding his voice again. "Don't ever do that again. I'll be at the Abandoned Mine."
And with that, he glided away.
Rouge sighed as she dropped to the icy ground and sat with her knees up and her hands far behind her back to prop her up. She looked up at the sky a little sadly before closing her eyes tightly and then opening them.
'Stupid echidna…' she thought angrily. She put her face in her hands before sighing in frustration and looking up at the sky once more. 'What came over me, anyway? It's not like I actually love him or anything! That kiss was meaningless!' she scolded herself through her thoughts. She froze and went over her thoughts again. A confused, distant expression appeared on her face, '…right…?'
DING! DING!
Rouge jumped a little at the sound. She had been so caught up in her thoughts she didn't expect for her cell phone to ring.
She yanked it out of her pocket in a huff and shoved it against her large ear. "What?" she snapped angrily, still a little embarrassed about her reaction to her cell phone.
"Rouge, how are things going?" an anxious, kind of raspy male voice asked on the other end of the cell phone.
Rouge's eyes widened a little at the recognition. "Oh! Hello Doctor…" her lips formed a twisted grin as her eyelids lowered. "Things are going perfectly!" she some-what lied.
"Perfect," Eggman replied happily. She could hear his smile in his words, and he started to chortle evilly. "I'm counting on you bat girl, just lure Knuckles a little further and then he'll be mine!"
"You can…count on me," Rouge tried her best to sound happy and confident in herself, but her conscious took over.
"Is everything okay?" Eggman asked. Not really in concern, more anxiety. He wanted to make sure Rouge got her job done so he could eliminate his competition one by one.
Rouge shook her head clear of her nagging conscious thoughts. "Of course, doctor. Knuckles will be yours in a matter of time…"
"Great. Talk to you lat– oh," he paused. "Shadow wants to talk to you."
Rouge was slightly surprised. 'What in the world could he possibly have to say?' "Okay…" she said slowly, "put him on."
Shadow's deep voice greeted her. "Hey there, bat girl. Where are you right now?"
"Hey Shadow, what's up?" Rouge greeted calmly. "I'm at Shiver Mountain."
"I just wanted to remind you to get your job done quickly, and to not mess it up because we're all counting on you. Eggman's taking care of Tails as we speak," Shadow lifted the phone away from his ear and put it at about an arm's length so Rouge could hear what was going on.
Shooting could be heard, as well as the clunking of metal as they ran around in their Mech's. "I'll never give up!" Tails said confidently before, Rouge guessed, shooting Eggman. She guessed this because Eggman groaned angrily in response and then said, "Is that all you got? Get a load of this!"
Shadow put the phone back to his ear to hear her response.
"Yeah, yeah," she sounded very impatient, "I'll do my best and Knuckles will be out of the way in a matter of time."
Shadow frowned even more than he had previously. "Whatever. Just don't mess up," he clicked off the phone.
Eggman laughed triumphantly, obviously winning against Tails, before entering the room Shadow was in.
Eggman questioningly stared after Shadow as he dashed away. "Where do you think you're going?"
Shadow turned back to him briefly, "I'm checking on Rouge. Somehow I think she'll screw up and actually fall in love with him or something stupid."
Eggman laughed. "Bat girl? Fall in love with that gullible knucklehead? Ha!"
Shadow looked at him seriously. "Well she gave up her emerald pieces at Meteor Herd to him before. People don't give other people things they adore and work hard for, if they hate them," he said.
Eggman frowned. "She gave up her emerald pieces?" he growled. "Why did she go to all that work of collecting them, if she was just going to give them up?"
Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because she had a crush on him," he said before adding, "and a rather obvious one at that."
Eggman crossed his arms over his chest. "Well I guess it doesn't really matter, anyway. The only thing we needed from her were the Chaos Emeralds, which she didn't hand over to Knuckles thankfully, so-" he looked up from thinking aloud to where Shadow was.
Shadow was nowhere in sight. Eggman shrugged, thinking he had already left to find Rouge.
***
Meanwhile, Rouge glided off toward the Abandoned Mine.
She looked and looked, anxious about the moment they were going to meet up with each other. That would probably be one of the most awkward moments of her life.
She suddenly saw a red object in the distance, digging into the ground. "Aha!" she said as she glided off toward him.
She took a deep breath and then exhaled sharply when she landed, as he popped out of the ground.
"My emerald, my destiny," he grinned as he placed the three emeralds behind him somewhere, safely.
"Ahem," Rouge cleared her throat to get his attention. "Uh…hi," she forced a smile.
"Rouge," Knuckles greeted coldly.
Rouge awkwardly started to walk toward him. "Listen, I…"
CRRAAAACCKKKKK!
Rouge and Knuckles jerked their heads toward the ground to see if they could see what made the noise.
A small crack in the ground started to grow into a huge crack. The ground started to shake.
"W-w-w-w-h-h-h-h-a-a-a-t-t-t s-s-s-s-h-h-h-o-o-o-u-u-u-l-l-l-d-d-d w-w-w-w-e-e-e-e-e-e d-d-d-d-o-o-o-o?" Rouge asked, her voice shaking as she ground started to violently rock unpredictably.
Knuckles opened his mouth to respond, but they both flew forward as the ground started to crumble beneath them.
Knuckles quickly got up and grabbed Rouge by the wrist and pulled her up.
"Where are we going?" Rouge asked in a worried tone, and Knuckles just kept his grip on her wrist as he ran forward. A mine cart caught his eye in the near distance.
"Quick – into that mine cart!" he said quickly as he jumped into the cart. Rouge jumped in behind him and it started to move at an incredible speed.
However, the breaking ground was gaining on them.
Rouge absentmindedly held Knuckles tightly as they entered a lava pit.
Knuckles looked back at the ground. "Well, it looks like we lost it," he grinned.
"Uh…" Rouge was too shocked for words. She just pointed forward.
Knuckles focused in front of him and a huge lava bubble that was getting ready to burst was centimeters in front of them.
Knuckles clenched his teeth. "Lean right!" he commanded, slanting heavily to the right. Rouge followed his example and tightened her grip on him as she leaned right. They narrowly missed the lava bubble, and it burst mere seconds after they passed it.
They both sighed in relief before going up a slanted wall. "Lean left!" Knuckles commanded loudly over the grimacing sounds of lava churning and bubbling.
They simultaneously leaned left, and then they were safely on leveled ground again. They got out of the lava pit and sighed in relief when they noticed they were no longer being chased by a crack in the ground, or bursting lava bubbles.
Rouge blushed faintly as she slowly tightened her grip on Knuckles and hopped out of the cart. He climbed out with ease.
He walked up in front of her and lowered his head slightly as he grinned smugly.
Rouge smiled. "Don't think I owe you one! You've only saved my life twice!"
Knuckles chuckled in good nature, knowing she was being sarcastic.
They stared at each other for a brief moment with warm smiles on their faces.
***
Short chapter this time - sorry! ;_;
It took a while to rearrange everything to get the *new* Prologue in. I suggest reading it before this chapter, but…whatever. ^_^ Anyway please review! I need ideas for the next chapter desperately or the story will DIE because I have no more ideas in my mind!! >_
Also: (as LilDaisy already knows) I was thinking of putting a song in this story. Should I? And if I should, what song?
Thanks!
~ Satokasu Suki