KEEPING SECRETS
It was a clear, crisp spring day. A pleasant atmosphere surrounded the whole island. It was Valentines Day, and all that were in love, young and old, were scattered across the island, seeking privacy. It was a very passionate time on the Floating Island. All were happy...all but one. A lonely echidna walked down a trail in the woods, staring at the ground as he went. He was around thirteen and a half, but carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. He hated this time of the year. Wherever he went, he would see a couple enjoying each other's company. He hated it. He thought that they were all fools, wasting their time on love. It was a worthless emotion to him. Something that made you weak and vulnerable. He would never admit it, but he wanted that.
He had been alone for four years now, and his heart grew heavier every passing day. He felt that nobody cared about him. That nobody loved him. His own father had left him, so wouldn't that testify to that conclusion? He began to feel sick, so he stopped walking and leaned his back against a tree. He hugged himself as he shuttered. It was his only comfort. He closed his eyes and began to picture someone in his mind. She was a young female squirrel, wearing teal blue sweatpants and a T-shirt of the same color. Her hair was back in a braid. His head began to droop as he relived that sad moment in his life.
"Knuckles...I can't come up here anymore. My daddy says that a war is starting, and it isn't safe to travel," she said. "I know. My dad told me. It isn't fair! We're such good friends! Why can't those idiots just kill themselves so we can still see each other?" She frowned when he put his head down and a tear slid down his cheek. "It isn't fair..." he whispered. "I know," she said as she hugged him and she began to cry as well. He hugged her back, trying to comfort her, and himself. "Sally! Where are you? We have to go now!" a voice yelled out. They broke their embrace and stared at each other for a moment. He took her hand and kissed it. "I'll never forget you...Princess Sally Acorn," he said. "And I'll never forget you...Knuckles the Echidna," she said as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. He watched as she left in tears, and when she was out of sight, his own tears began to pour down.
This memory caused a tear to spawn from his eye. Any other day, he would have quickly wiped it away, but today was different. He left it where it was as he hugged himself tighter. He felt so empty, so alone, that he just wanted to die right there.
A snap of a twig caused him to quickly wipe the tear away and regain his tough-guy appearance. He looked to see three bats walking towards him. The male was gray and rather tall, wearing a tattered red shirt. Two females, obviously his family, accompanied him. The older female was white, wearing a blue T-shirt and black jeans. The younger female was white like the mother, wearing a pink tank top and blue shorts.
"Excuse me, but I was wondering if you knew where we could find the Guardian," the male asked. "I'm him," Knuckles replied. "I...was aware that the Guardian was an echidna, but I expected you to be...older," the male bat responded, "My name is Vamp. This is my wife, Sylvania, and my daughter, Rouge," he said. Knuckles glanced at them, then back at Vamp. "So why do you want to see me?" Knuckles asked. Vamp put his head down, then finally answered, "We come from a village that was recently destroyed by the war. We lost our home, our friends...everything but each other," Vamp said as he put his arms around his family, "We have family that live about a days journey from here, but we have been flying for so long...I was wondering if perhaps we could spend the night here..." Knuckles looked at him suspiciously. He didn't trust anyone, especially strangers. "Just for the night! No longer than that. Just a day to rest, that's all I ask of you." Vamp was desperate. Knuckles could see it in his eyes. So he finally decided, "Okay. Come with me," he said as he led them through the woods.
They stopped at a large tree. It would have taken about twelve animals at arm's length to go around the total width of it. It was carved out on the inside, and made into a small room. There were two beds in it, with sheets, pillows and comforters. "You can spend the night here," Knuckles said as he showed them inside the tree. Vamp was at a loss for words. He never expected to be housed in such a way. He was expecting to sleep outside tonight. He extended his hand to Knuckles and said, "Thank you, Guardian. You are most gracious." ""You're welcome," he replied as he shook Vamps' hand.
Rouge was looking curiously at a large, carved out circle in the center of the room. "Guardian, what's this for?" she asked. "If you want to build a fire tonight, it would be best to build it in that circle. Just put some soil in it first, or the whole tree will go up," he answered. Knuckles walked over to the door, but before he departed, he said, "If you require anything else, don't hesitate to find me and ask." "Thank you so much, Guardian. We'll never forget this," Sylvania said. "Happy Valentines Day!" Rouge said as he stepped out the door. "Yeah..." he uttered as he left them.
"...And that's how I met Rouge and her family." Knuckles said, concluding his story. At first, nobody said anything, until Vector finally asked, "Is she single?" Espio smacked him in the back of the head. "Moron." As Vector rubbed the back of his head, Mighty said, "Well, she seems pretty cool. It was nice of her to remember you, at least." "Well, we have to go, so..." Sally began. "Oh, I'm sorry! My story took too long. I'll walk you all over there!" Knuckles said. The Chaotix and Julie-Su also accompanied them back to their ship. They all said their good byes and soon after the Freedom Fighters were on their way home. Not too long after, Charmy said his own good-byes.
On the way back, Sonic and Sally were discussing the evening. "See, Sonic? It was a nice time at dinner," Sally said to him. Sonic crossed his arms and looked at her. "That's because Knuckles was MIA for most of the evening," he said. Sally frowned. "Sonic, why don't you just give him a chance? "Sal, we just don't like each other. You have to accept it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna sleep," he said as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Sally growled. She would have yelled at him, but she didn't want to wake the others. She sighed as she concentrated on the journey home.
The Chaotix had gone off to their homes, so Knuckles decided to walk Julie-Su to her apartment. Knuckles noticed a strange silence as they walked. "You're quiet tonight. Anything you wanna talk about?" he asked. "No...n-not really..." she said in an uneasy voice. He put his hand on her shoulder and turned her towards him. She didn't look up at him, so he lifted her chin up with his finger. "What's wrong, Julie? You know you can tell me anything." She stared deeply into his deep violet eyes and sighed. "I...I was just wondering...how close you were to that Rouge girl..." Knuckles' eyes widened and his mouth hung open. He looked down for a second, then back up at her. "Is-Is that what's been bothering you? Rouge?" Julie-Su blushed. "When...when I saw her kiss you...I-I just thought that maybe...maybe you two..." Before she could finish her sentence, Knuckles put his finger to her lips. "Julie, I knew her a long time ago...and even if we were close, you're the only one for me," he said with a smile. She sniffed as she smiled. "Really?" she asked. He brushed her hair back and kissed her on the forehead. "Really," he whispered back.
They walked to her apartment, hand in hand, until they stopped at her door. "Goodnight," he said as he hugged her. "Goodnight," she said as she returned the embrace. When he had walked away from the door, he frowned and sighed. 'Why didn't you tell her? That was you're best chance! I'm such an idiot! If she ever finds out, she'll never forgive me,' he thought to himself.
Julie-Su quickly showered, threw on her evening gown and jumped into bed with a smile on her face. Her faith in Knuckles was completely restored. She smiled dreamily as she thought of him, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The next day, Mighty went out to look for Knuckles, but had trouble locating his friend. He wasn't at home, or in the city, so there was a lot of Island to cover. Mighty searched for half an hour before finding Knuckles sitting on the island's edge. As he approached, he noticed a confused, sad look in Knuckles' eyes. "Knux! What's up, man?" Mighty asked as he sat down next to his friend. Knuckles sighed and looked at Mighty. "Can I trust you to keep a secret?" Mighty looked confused for a moment, but shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Yeah! Why couldn't you?" he said. "This is something I've never told anyone before. You need to swear that you won't tell anyone," Knuckles said. "Okay..." Mighty answered, chuckling. He stopped when he saw the seriousness on Knuckles' face. "Mighty, I'm serious! If you tell anyone about this, and I mean anyone, I swear I'll never speak to you again."
Mighty stared for a moment in surprise, then put his hand on Knuckles' shoulder. "Knux, we've been friends for how long now? Anything you say is between us. That's a promise. We're bros., man!" Knuckles smiled, reassured. "Alright. Well, the truth is...I didn't tell you guys the whole story about when I met Rouge..."
"What do you wanna do now?" she asked him. "I dunno. You wanna go for a walk?" he replied. "Okay," she said as she took his hand, which caused him to blush. "Knuckles, you don't have to be shy around me," she said to him reassuringly. "I know, Sally...but-" "Then come on! Let's go!" she said with a smile as she pulled him along. They walked along a small trail in the woods, still hand in hand, until they reached a small pond. "What's this called?" she asked. "It's called..." THUD!!!
Knuckles opened his eyes in surprise. He had dosed off for about a minute, and then he heard a loud crashing sound. He got up and looked around, but couldn't see anything. Not because it was getting dark, but because this part of the jungle was thick. He could, however, hear some commotion going on not far from there. Being it was his job, he was obliged to investigate. He quietly crept up to where the sound had come from, only to see Rouge out cold on the ground surrounded by a bunch of gorillas.
"Nice shot with that stone! Right in the side of the head!" one of them said. "It was a nice shot, wasn't it? She'll wake up and wish that she'd known that we gorillas don't like strangers!" "Well, I really don't like guys that attack girls, so I guess we all have a problem!" They all turned to see Knuckles flying right at them. Before they could retaliate, Knuckles had beaten them senseless.
Rouge began to stir, so Knuckles quickly ran over and knelt down beside her. "Rouge? Are You alright?" he asked. Her face turned towards him as she slowly opened her eyes. "G-guardian? Where...OW!" she said as she put her hands on the side of her head. "Let me see that." Knuckles said as he removed her hands and inspected the wound. "You're bleeding. Doubt you can walk either. You'd be too dizzy. Just hang on," he said as he gently lifted her up into his arms. They both blushed a little, him more than her, as he took her through the jungle. "Where are we going?" she asked. "I need some water to wash the cut first before I bandage it," he replied. He stopped walking when they reached a pond, the same pond he had dreamt about. He gently laid her down and began to gather some wood. In no time, he had a fire going. He walked over to the pond, scooped some water up in a shell, and began to wash the cut.
"Thank you," she said with a smile. "You're welcome," he replied, not looking at her, his whole attention on her cut. "Okay. It's clean. Now give me a second..." he said as he stepped over to a tree and pulled at some weeds. He came back to her and she looked at the weeds curiously. "This will sting a little," he said as he squeezed a liquid out of the weeds onto her cut. Rouge clenched her teeth and moaned for a second, as Knuckles pulled out a bandage from a secret compartment in his shoe. He always kept one handy if he ever needed it. He wrapped up the cut and smiled. "There you go. Now sit for a few minutes until you're ready to stand up."
While she sat down, he leaned against a tree a few feet away from her. They sat in silence for a minute or so, until she broke the silence. "I don't even know you're name," she said. "Knuckles. That's my name." "That was really sweet of you to help me, Knuckles," Knuckles blushed slightly. She smiled when she noticed this and said, "Why are you standing over there?" His head shot up and he stuttered, "Uhh...I-I...uhhh..." "Why don't you come over here and sit next to me?" she said, patting the ground next to her. Slowly and reluctantly, he walked over and sat down next to her. He glanced over at her to see that she was smiling at him. "So are you doing anything special for Valentines Day?" she asked. He shook his head with a sad look of his face. "No. I don't have anyone to celebrate it with. I...live alone," he said in a depressed voice. Her eyes widened in surprise as she frowned. "That's so sad..." she said. He lifted his head when he noticed that she was holding his hand. They stared at each other for a moment, until she finally said, "You know...you're really cute..." Knuckles blushed as he said, "Uhhh...th-thanks. You're r-really...pretty..." They found themselves leaning closer together until their lips met in a kiss. She slowly pulled away, looked at him, and smiled. "Happy Valentines Day, Knuckles," she whispered as she kissed him again.
"And that's what we did for most of the night. Then I took her home and explained about the cut. We both woke up early the next morning so we could see each other again before she left." Mighty just stared at Knuckles in surprise. He expected this secret to be big, but this was huge! "Wow," was all he could say. "I know," Knuckles said with his head down. "I tried to tell Julie about it last night when I brought her home, but she was worried that something happened between us...and I freaked out... and I changed the subject to us so that I wouldn't have to answer it. She's smart. She'll realize that I evaded the question, and she'll find out the truth, and then she'll hate me! RRRRR! I don't know what to do!!!" he shouted.
"You want my advice? Tell her. Tell her before she figures it out for herself. It may hurt, but she'll appreciate the fact that you had the guts to tell her, rather than keep it from her," Mighty suggested. "If you really care about her, and I know you're crazy about her, then you'll tell her." Knuckles sighed, but then looked up at Mighty and smiled. "You're right, Mighty. I've avoided it long enough. I'm gonna go find her now and tell her," he said as they got up. "Thanks for the advice...and for being such a good friend." Knuckles said as he smiled. "No problem. And this is between us. No one else will know...except Julie-Su, of course, but you get the idea!" Mighty said as they both began to laugh. " So are you gonna swing by the Commons Hall for the concert tonight?" Mighty asked. "Wouldn't miss it for the world," Knuckles replied, "I gotta go find her, now. See ya later!" he said as he began to run away. "Hey!" Mighty yelled, stopping Knuckles. "What?" Knuckles asked. "Whenever I talk to her, she asks about you. She really likes you," Mighty said with a smile. "Really?" Knuckles asked with a smile. "Like you wouldn't believe. She told me herself. I'm happy for you, bro. You're a lucky guy," Mighty said. "I know," Knuckles said as he smiled back and ran off to Echidnapolis to search for the girl of his dreams.