A few weeks later Knuckles stood on top on the master emerald, trying to clear his thoughts. He thought about all the time Rouge had spent with him over the last few weeks and the feeling he felt coming back that had been absent for 7 years. He realised that he had to take a leap of faith and hope for the best. But what if she was just doing some harmless flirting like she did to all the other nice males she meet? That question buzzed through his head , feeding his doughts . If it wasn't for his nerves , Knuckes would have asked Rouge the question a long time ago. When she flew up to the island once again Knuckles saw his change and ran up to her.
" Hi Rouge" he said casully.
" All right Knucklehead" she replied and Knuckles winced, he always thought of the world Knucklehead as an insult. I cant let that bother me, he thought, its now or never. Knuckles shifted his feet uncomfertably and began
" So , um Rouge, I was wondering if er, you were, ya know" oh god this is hard! He thought to himself , spit it out! He thought Rouge turned to him and said with curiosity and anticipation
" What?" She said , taking Knuckles hand in her own and closing the gap between them . He felt a surge of emotion as she did this , not used to that kind of physical contact. He swallowed trying to gather up his courage and struggled to say trying.
" Well I was wandering if you were doing anything later on today, or tommorow or any day really I mean you know me all I do is guard the master emerald so im not really that..." He was cut of when Rouge quickly leaned forward and kissed him. He almost gasped in shock but and simply froze for a few seconds . His heart thuddering through inexperiance. Rouge began to pull away when she realised he wasn't responding and blushed a little , feeling stupid that she had misinterpreted Knuckles request. But when Knuckles realised this he bought Rouge body back to his , pressing her against his chest . He then realised this is what he wanted and before he knew it he was kissing her , feeling a huge rush of exitment.. Rouge broke this kiss and said with her confidence back
" It took you long enougth to ask me" she teased. Knuckles stood there gobsmaked for a few seconds then snapped back into attention
" I was too nervous " he said feeling slightly embarrised. Rouge sighed and Knuckles said with a bit more confidence
" I was thinking we could go to the coast , I don't know that much but I heard its really nice there" he paused , arguing in his mind weither to say what he wanted to. " Plus " he said pausing again " I heard it's really romantic" Rouge smiled said
" I'd like that". With that she turned and flew off, but not without kissing Knuckles again.
After a while the rest of the gang had partners too. Shadow was with a mysterious black female heaghog named Siberia who had orange tiger strips alone her arms and quills. Although they hadn't really officail gone out or told anyone, they could tell form the way they acted around each other. Of course Shadow had not aged at all and looked exactly the same. Tails was with a silver fox named Talim, altough they had only been dating for a few weeks . His fur alittle longer and his hair was jelled to look cool. Espio was with a blue water dragon named Aquariun and vector was with his wife, a crocodile named Seringety. Sonic had finnely exepted Amy and he was going out with her, altough he didn't regret it as much as he though he would.