Possibly Love?
By AliceStar
(Sonic and Company belong to Sega! Not me!)
It was just beginning to dawn over Angel Island, as a sure sign of a new day. Birds of different hues and shades of the rainbow sang merrily, and bees whimsically hummed, but none of these noises could compare to the loud snores coming from Rouge's orchid tent.
Knuckles lie awake and rather disgusted with the loud snores coming from the slumbering bat.
All night, he hadn't had been able to get a single wink of sleep, with Rouge kicking, punching and slapping him in her sleep.
And to top it all off, when she finally stopped attacking him, she began to snore like the loudest bears and wolves.
…Knuckles was in unparallel hell…
To save himself from going insane, he scrambled out of the tent and saw that it was beginning to dawn…a fine excuse for waking Rouge up.
'…Finally, a way to get batgirl back! And she can't do anything about it!' Knuckles thought with an evil grin.
And almost giddily, he returned to the tent with an icy-cold pail of water and heaved it upon Rouge. His feral smile ignited like fire.
Spluttering, and outraged, Rouge awoke ungracefully, "WHAT THE HELL?"
Enjoying himself too much, Knuckles gave Rouge another dose, in which most of the water went in her mouth. Now she was livid.
'And that extra bucket was for calling me a jerk in your sleep!' Knuckles smiled warmly with that thought.
"It's dawn, good morning batgirl," Knuckles replied smiling smugly, crouching while rocking on his heels.
He calmly filed out of the tent, while Rouge, in hot pursuit, was fast on his heels, smoldering with anger. With a mixture of jetlag and anger, Rouge looked as vicious and hellacious as any demon.
" YOU'VE GOT TO THE COUNT OF THREE TO SAVE YOUR ASS—"
" Don't you have a Master Emerald to find?" Knuckles chimed coolly, spinning to face her with a smile.
Rouge stared at him heatedly then, realizing that he was getting the better of her, swapped her expression for a cooler one, "Hmph, that's right echidna, now if you excuse me, I've got journeying to do. Ta-ta!"
And with that said, she spun on her heels, and strolled out of sight. Knuckles even swore that he heard her humming happily.
Knuckles sweat-dropped, thinking, 'It's bipolar bat to the rescue…again.'
Knuckles, like the morning before, began to boil water. He sat silently hunched over the fire pit. Rouge returned moments later with a basket of berries.
" Journeying?" Knuckles asked raising an eyebrow at the star-colored bat.
"Whatever, cook homemaker," Rouge said dropping the basket in front of Knuckles and turning on her heel.
"Cook? How does one cook berries batgi—"
Knuckles peered upward and saw Rouge disappear; the only clue of her whereabouts was from the swish of one of her orchid tent's drapes.
What seemed like hours later, Rouge returned in new apparel, wearing something tight enough that would make any guy howl like a wolf.
"Hey Knuckles what do ya think of—" she paused realizing that Knuckles was no longer at the fire pit, "Knuckles? Hello?"
She walked over to the pit where she originally left the berries and saw that placed inside the basket were dark, rich-colored grapes and fresh golden mangos.
She couldn't help but smile, apparently Knuckles had gone through the trouble of retrieving fruit for her.
She also noticed that he left her a cup of steaming Herbal tea. She picked up the basket, set to work on finishing her breakfast and once she finished, she began packing her belongings away.
In a matter of seconds she was back on the trail to the Master Emerald. As she trudged through thick greens, she spotted a familiar echidna perched in a tree studying her every moves.
Knuckles watched interestedly as she awkwardly tottered away with all of her belongings.
When the echidna was barely out of sight, Rouge noticed that he wasn't following her, and she called to him, "Hey, aren't you coming?"
"Nope, you're still nine days away from the Master Emerald," he answered plainly, "And I've got better things to do."
"Like what? Count how many ants there are in a Maple tree?" Rouge called to him laughing.
"Already done that twice, "Knuckles answered absently.
Once the echidna realized what he said sounded so stupid he looked back at Rouge who was staring at him completely silent, "Ignore that…"
"Anyways…Aren't you going to guard me or something? I mean not guard me…but stop me? I'm headin' to the Master emerald for Pete's sake!" Rouge exclaimed.
Knuckles didn't respond to her, but he kept a toothy grin and he hopped out of the tree and slowly went in the opposite direction, his back facing her.
"Hey! You're a bad guardian! BAD GURARDIAN!" Rouge scolded as if he was a dog.
Soon his crimson figure disappeared completely from her sight and she sighed, turning north, yet again.
She slowly began to start across the deep jungle terrain yet again, and she only stopped occasionally when her back was killing her, and to have a couple of snacks too.
Upon traveling, she discovered tall, ruby-colored mountains that were shrouded in an indigo fog. Rouge enjoyed the sight-seeing, but she also remembered that these tall beauties were a landmark as well.
"Heh, the Red Mountains," Rouge said to herself.
As she started through the mountains, her keen ears picked up the soft strides of a stranger.
Due to the great strength in her hearing, she was able to piece together that her stalker was about twenty paces behind her, wearing shoes with slightly worn soles, and from the light creeks she detected, it sounded as if this person was walking on the tips of their toes, not wanting to be heard.
Rouge smiled and planned her surprise attack, and just as fast as lightning, she turned around and gave a loud 'ROAR!'
Knuckles was startled, and fell backwards landing on his butt. Rouge burst out laughing but Knuckles didn't look too happy.
" Wahahahaha! I gotcha didn't I! Aww, did little batgirl scare the big, strong man?" Rouge asked smiling wickedly.
Knuckles stood to his feet and simply dusted himself off, trying to maintain some sort of pride, " Ha, ha, you got me, okay?"
"Admit it, I scared you, didn't I?" she said sounding proud.
"You're absolutely right…only your face could give me such a shock," Knuckles said coolly, knowing that he was pushing her buttons.
And he was absolutely right in his thinking; Rouge's ego was too big to let that remark slide unnoticed. Rouge's face went a slight shade of pink as her words came out slowly and quavering, " Take that back…"
" Which part? The part that I said you're a lying thief…or the part that you're a—"
Before Knuckles could complete his words, Rouge charged at him in complete rage and engulfed him in a tackle.
Knuckles, being taken by surprise found himself knocked flat on his back by someone with half his strength.
" Take that back!" Rouge screamed throwing punches at him, " Take that ba—"
Knuckles tossed Rouge off of himself so she landed painlessly on her back.
She hit the ground with the wind knocked out of her and slowly gazed up into the sky to see the echidna towering over her, "Get a grip! Are you looking for a fight?"
Rouge threw another punch at Knuckles, which he anticipated and swatted away effortlessly.
"No matter what you do, I refuse to fight you, got that?" Knuckles said.
He stared at her a bit longer, and then offered a hand to help her up. Rouge snorted indignantly and rose on her own as she refused his help.
She then noticed an object that was lying at Knuckles' feet. It looked a bit shabby and worn, but she was able to see that it looked like….
…A miniature notebook?
Blinking, she picked it up and gazed at the cover. She turned to look at Knuckles who was studying the view over the Red Mountains.
"Creep?"
"…"
"Creepy?"
"…" (Sighs)
"Okay, okay, Knuckles?"
"That's better, yes?"
"Do you by chance have a notebook?"
"Why?"
"Is it red?
" Why…"
" Is it small?"
"…"
"And lastly, is the cover tattered a bit?"
Something snapped in Knuckles and his eyes became burning amethysts," Give it to me!"
Rouge smiled, "Why?"
" GIVE IT TO ME NOW!" Knuckles roared, advancing on Rouge.
" Nuh-uh! It's mine now," Rouge said with a shifty smile.
Knuckles sighed, and regained his extremely calm composure, "I see there is no talking reason with you, so I come to my last resort…GIMME! GIMME! IT'S MINE! MINE! MINE!"
In a flash, Knuckles was grabbing at Rouge in every direction, Rouge, who was loving every second of it, was playing along.
Once she felt that he was getting closer to taking the book from her, she took flight and hovered above him, smiling.
"COME DOWN HERE NOW BATGIRL!" Knuckles hissed impatiently.
" My, my, my! This isn't the Knuckles that I'm used to," Rouge said coyly, she opened the book and started reading, "Now; let's see what's got you in such a tizzy."
" BATGIRL!" he cried frantically.
"Ah, here we go, 'Day 505; Dear journal, today I tried some purple walnuts to add in my diet and I swear I had the worst case of diarrhea ever! I was going non-stop for weeks!'" Rouge burst out laughing leaving Knuckles feeling extremely embarrassed. He was at least twelve shades redder by now.
" Down….here…now…" He said through gritted teeth.
Rouge flipped through a few pages, and began yet again, " 'Day 896 (Knuckles begins to really panic); Dear journal, today, while guarding the Master Emerald, I met this batgirl, she says her name is Rouge the Bat…' What's this?"
Knuckles looked around frantically and saw a steep cliff, and this gave him an idea.
He ran on the walls of the cliff, just long enough to get leverage, and then he pounced at Rouge, gliding towards his destination with force and sheer determination.
" 'And the bat girl I met…boy, she had to be the most beau—' Knuckles! Look ouuuuuu-ooff!"
Knuckles collided with Rouge in the air, sending them both flying backwards. They both were cast down the mountainside rolling and tumbling.
Knuckles stopped himself from falling by digging his two claws in the redden mountainside. He looked up to see Rouge rolling towards him at a very high velocity screaming her head off.
" Oh shi—"
Rouge smacked into Knuckles sending them both crashing down. Rouge grabbed onto Knuckles's waist screaming and Knuckles flailed in the air helplessly.
While tumbling, Rouge's face bounced off of the rocky mountainside, and she released Knuckles, who once again dug into the mountainside.
He saw Rouge falling helplessly and turned back to look at her, " Rouge! Rouge? Can you hear me?"
A loud splat was heard and Knuckles turned his gaze to look down at the batgirl. It turned out that Rouge had landed in a mud pit, and was now facing the sky, rubbing her temples aggravatedly, " I'm…..fine…"
Knuckles took his eyes off of Rouge and saw something coming down the mountain towards him, "What the?"
It was one of Rouge's heavy suitcases hurling towards him at unreasonable speeds.
"This just isn't my day," Knuckles said wearily.
In a matter of seconds he was decked by Rouge's silver and purple suitcase and he began down the mountainside again.
He landed in the mud on top of something soft and warm. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was on top of Rouge, and she didn't look to happy.
"Get offa me you creep!" Rouge cried.
Knuckles tried to quickly scramble off of Rouge, but yet again, with the return of Rouge's silver and purple suitcase, it smacked him in the back of the head, forcing him to fall on Rouge yet again, but only this he was mouth to mouth with the treasure hunter.
"Mmph! Mmph!" Rouge cried helplessly, trying to move Knuckles.
Knuckles of course, trying to make matters better was just as anxious as Rouge to remove the stranger from his lips.
He felt the weight of Rouge's suitcase and in a matter of seconds, managed to knock the parcel off, and send it flying high, in the sky.
Both treasure hunters scrambled away from each other breathing quickly. Rouge had managed to finds words first.
" CREEP! CREEP! CREEP!" Rouge screamed excitedly, " How dare you do that to me! I bet you had that planned all along, didn't you?"
"Now you're just being extreme, batgirl," Knuckles replied dully.
" Ugh! Look at me, my genuine leather outfit's ruined! Oh, that's it; I'm turning in for the night. I'm gonna take a bath at that lake over there… and don't you even let me catch you within fifty meters of that place, or ka-pow!" Rouge threatened brandishing a fist.
She picked up her suitcase and dragged it over towards the lake still fuming and muttering angrily.
Knuckles watched her slowly disappear out of sight, then he instantly went for his red little spiral notebook that they had fought over. He pulled the pen off of the notebook and began to write:
Day 960
Dear journal,
Today was a very interesting day, and I learned a whole lot more about the female species.
I get the feeling that they like having confrontations…and they're very touchy too….Anyways,
Remember the batgirl I spoke of? We got in a huge argument and she almost tried to read you!
Boy would have my life been ruined! But guess what? I got my very first kiss…it wasn't
glamorous, but it was definitely better than the time I ate those purple berries…Yep, definitely
better…And so I conclude, today was a good day. Until tomorrow, the end.
Knuckles
Age 16
To be continued!
Enjoy, enjoy!
-LuV, Allygurl 8D