Secluded

3

Disclaimer: I own none of the mentioned characters.

The rays of the morning sun washed over the scar inhabited by the group secluded from civilization. The rays' heat was intensified on contact with the ebon black body of the only awake member of the troupe. He sat, like a Native American, near a circle of semi-large stones he had collected and assembled in that order early morning. He hardly expected a fire to be lit in it anytime soon, as he desperately hoped that they would be rescued by nightfall, so there would be no need for a pit to house a fire. He had constructed it mostly out of boredom, as he was the first to awake and meet the blazing rays of the hated sun.

"At least there are no more mosquitoes" he thought aloud to no one in particular, viscously scratching at the afflicted areas on his body.

Shadow laid down on his back, crossing his legs and putting his arms behind his head like a boy trying to avoid work. His eyes darted around the vicinity, eventually landing on the embracing figures of Knuckles and Rouge. It seemed to him that Rouge moved over there in the middle of the night, and Knuckles had shifted to the position.

"'Bout time…" he muttered to himself, twiddling a stick in between his fingers.

His gaze turned back to the pair and be began to examine Rouge's vibrant simile of joy. He hadn't seen her smile for real in weeks. He couldn't help but feel joy for his friend, but then began to dread the moment when Knuckles or someone else awoke to find them tike that, and create a commotion or argument. To avoid this, Shadow walked up towards the slumbering body of his bat friend, and nudged her shoulder with his foot, violently shaking her in a rude manor.

Rouge grumbled some swears and bolted upright to face the glowing red eyes of Shadow. She held back a scream of surprise and stumbled outside the tent until her heel nicked the cornerstone of Shadow's fire pit.

"-the hell shadow?!" exclaimed a startled Rouge.

Shadow only grinned and pointed to the spot were Rouge had been soundly sleeping until her rude awakening brought to her by her friend. There was an indent in the ground in the shape of Rouge's curled up body. Knuckles arm was slumped over the spot were Rouge had once been lying, as he had unknowingly been hugging her back in an affectionate manor.

Rouges eyes met those of Shadow, a blush on her face only intensified with the heat of the blazing sun and her sheer embarrassment. She pressed her dry lips together, trying to think of a comeback or some sort of an explanation s to why she had been sleeping next to Knuckles, whom she claimed to hate.

None came to mind.

"If you mention this to anyone, especially Knuckles-"

"Don't worry Rouge; it'll be our little secret. But I suggest you hurry up and tell him before something happens…" mumbled Shadow, as he trudged off into the undergrowth and creepers of the vibrant forest. Rouge began to follow him, as soon as the two were out of sight, Knuckles awoke.

He seemed to have been aroused by an unusually feeling of lust. He had had a dream, a dream that made him feel awful awkward in a way he hadn't experienced before. The dream was about a certain bat, and an adult situation which made him experience a unique feeling. It was like it was something he felt like he needed to have liked, but somehow found it disgusting. While disgusting, it pleasured him in a bizarre way that he felt like he enjoyed. It made his heart skip beats and made him want more, but he was at the same time frightened by it.

While pondering the strange sensation, he wandered off in the same direction Shadow and Rouge had gone not too long ago. As he reached the tree line, Tails awoke, looking like he had forgotten he was stranded on an island with, at the moment, no way off. He noticed Knuckles, and met the gaze of his eyes.

"G'morning Knuckles" he mumbled wearily.

Knuckles grumbled some inaudible phrase and continued to saunter off down his originally intended path.

Rays of light seeped their way through the forest canopy and onto knuckles sculpted form, his head bowed down to the creeper-ridden ground. After clambering his way through an amount of tall, shaft like undergrowth, he began to approach a clearing.

This clearing, however, was occupied by Rouge, who was sitting on a block of granite, twiddling a native flower in her dainty hands.

He glowered at her, remembering his dream as a great deal of fervor washed over him. He continued to watch her until Shadow revealed his black body as he approached Rouge. He watched them talk for a while, maintaining a static position. He wasn't sure what they were saying or why he was to an extent "stalking" them, but continued to do so anyway.

Then, for some reason, Rouge stood up and hugged Shadow, who uninterestingly returned the hug for a brief moment, and began to dash back to the campsite.

His heart skipped a beat. A crestfallen look of dejection formed on his face; his loitering ceased as he turned to flee from the scene, horrified by what he had witnessed.

Rouge, however, noticed him.

"Knuckles?"

"Damn!" he thought to himself, maintaining his position, waiting for Rouge to yell at him for butting into, or what he assumed to be, her love life.

"Knuckles what are you doing here?" Rouge questioned, approaching his sweating body.

As Knuckles turned to face her, she realized what he must've seen

"N-no Knuckles, its not-"

"What do you mean? You hugged him, so what? I just happened to be walking by and noticed. It really doesn't matter…"

What a blatant lie. Rouge knew what he thought and tried to convince him otherwise. She had only hugged Shadow for comfort, not in an expression of love.

"Knuckles ,that was just a friendly hug! I didn't-, well, it wasn't an "I love you hug"."

"Why would you bother convince me?"

Rouge knew Knuckles had, in a sense, caught her. Excuses and explanations rushed through her head in a way that they were flashing by her eyes like grass would to a driver of a moving car.

"Well, I kind of…it's not that, you… I…" she stuttered, not being able to catch one of these excuses that had passed her mind's eye.

"What?"
She didn't know why she did it. It just happened as if willed to be. In a demure fashion, Rouge planted a kiss of Knuckles dry lips. She slowly backed away, staring at his deep amethyst eyes which were clouded with confusion. His face turned a color to match his red fur and he opened his mouth to say something, but Rouge had already taken off into the forest.

Back at the campsite, spirits were not high, but frustration on the other hand, was.

Tails had constructed a crude bow drill from the materials at had. The string was a severed cord from the X-tornado, and the other components from local trees.

It's not that the drill didn't produce fire for them, but that Tails was having a difficult time operating it, as it was a difficult skill to master (I know, I've tried and I can't do it).

"Damn it" Tails muttered to himself, becoming more and more irritated with the lack of flames.

Sonic seemed rather shocked hearing his fox friend swear, as it was something he never heard him do.

"Were are Knuckles and Rouge?" asked Shadow, wondering were the to had gone, and as well becoming slowly irritated with Tails fire making performance.

This comment seemed to create a miniature tumult amongst the three, which was soon ceased when Tails cried out in ebullience.

"Guys! Guys! I think I got something!"

Indeed he had. Small flames stirred at the drills platform and began to leap and dance, performing an elegant ballet in the splendor of the fire pit.

Sonic spoke.

"Tails, take out the drill, Shadow, go get green leaves and dry wood, we'll get lots of smoke that way!" he ordered.

"Who put you in charge?"

"Just do it"

In seconds, Shadow returned with a batch of the requested items and thrust them beside Tails. Tails hastily grabbed the tinder and placed it around the leaping flames in a pyramid like shape, allowing it to catch alight and crate the needed smoke signal that had eluded them for a good hour. The separate noised of the fire formed a sort of drum roll that echoed throughout the sanctity of the campsite.

"Well there's your fire."

"Hey, you never answered my question, where are Knuckles and Rouge?"

"Huh?" uttered Tails, turning his head away from the splendid sight.

"Were Knuckles and Rouge?" Shadow repeated.

"KNUCKLES! ROUGE!" shouted Sonic, hands cupped over the sides of his mouth.

"What!?" shouted a deep and gruff voice.

Knuckles sinewy body emerged from the dense forest undergrowth. A sense of confusion was tactic about him, as he stumbled over to the bustling fire.

"You got a fire going?"

"Where's Rouge?" asked Shadow, rather concerned about his friend.

A deep blush returned to the echidna face, and he began to mutter some inarticulate words.

"Thanks for being clear about it" jeered Shadow, malevolence rising.

"I don't know I haven't seen her all day" lied Knuckles.

Shadow only stared at Knuckles, already sensing the arising vicissitudes in the group.

Elsewhere in the jungle, was the bat that Shadow and the rest had been pondering about.

She was bent double. Her nose was only a few inches from the dirty ground. Tree trunks, plant stems, and creepers that had earlier festooned her were lost in the green dusk thirty feet above the bat. Her body was laid in the undergrowth. Her bare stomach was pressed up against the hearth and her legs and arms crossed over each other. Her arms grossed over her chest to support her head.

She was steaming with sweat and streaked with brown earth, allowing the sweat to cascade off her brow, crating what must be to insects around her a rainstorm.

"Why did I do that?" she asked herself, twiddling a grass like plant in between her fingers.

She had asked herself this so many times since kissing Knuckles and receiving the same answer each time.

"I don't know."

She then heard a clamor and her ears perked up. The hushed crackling of fire was about, as was the smell of smoke as it drifted through the air and into her nostrils.

'A fire?' she thought.

She raised her partially nude body from the earth, dusted herself off, and ran towards the fire.

Authors note: Well, there's chapter three. Review, and I will sleep soundly.