Briana: I haven't read many SonicxKnux stuff yet either, so I figured, time to fix that. ;) Glad you like it so far, and here's more! Thanks for commenting.
Echo the Fox: Heh, that made my day! xD Hungry, you say? Well, I'm sure Knuckles would share his grapes… maybe. Uh, anyway, thanks for the comment and cute song! As for your question, I don't think it just has to be one or the other. I realize that neither Sonic nor Knuckles are very romantic types, so a lot of the romance stuff will likely come off as more friendshippy. ;) So, I guess both!
All other anons: Since there are several of you just under the 'Guest' name, I'm not sure how I can respond to you guys unless you type a name in the box. ;) Still, I appreciate that you took a moment to comment either way, and I hope you like the new update.
Here, have another little chapter. :3 Nice to see you guys are enjoying it so far… including a few of you I know who have ironically managed to find me. ;)
Chapter 3: Acceleration
Angel Island raced by them in a blur.
Knuckles had never gone so fast in his life. He could hear the sounds of Sonic's repeated, pattering footsteps below. In reality, they were slamming the ground hard, but the blue blur was moving so quickly that the sounds themselves could hardly keep up.
He was on Sonic's back, the hedgehog holding firmly to his legs as they went around his body. Sonic was making a focused effort on keeping his quills down in order to prevent hurting him. The hedgehog did so easily, and held him easily too, like he was used to it. Knuckles figured that he probably was, since he had carried Tails this way before.
Of course, it helped that Knuckles had let Sonic absorb a small amount of energy from the Master Emerald first. That was what let him handle the echidna's weight with relative ease. At first he had protested, but had ultimately conceded knowing that it was only a tiny, tiny fraction of the Master Emerald's energy that Sonic would need for this.
You wouldn't know it. The experience was so amazing and invigorating, one would think you would need an infinite amount of energy to make it possible. But Sonic was, by and large, his own energy. An innate speed demon.
Knuckles had one arm gripping a quill and the other wrapped around Sonic's front for good measure. He noted with distaste how tightly he was gripping, but he didn't dare to loosen it. A fall at this speed would be injurious at best, even for him. And even for Sonic, too, for that matter. They were both built for resilience, their species' natural spikes providing a lot of protection. But precious little could protect one from wiping out at hundreds of miles per hour.
He imagined that was part of the appeal for Sonic. Sonic liked a little spice of adrenaline in his day.
Normally, Knuckles didn't understand that kind of attitude. He thought it reckless and potentially self-destructive. But now, in the midst of experiencing such speed, such exhilaration… such fun, he couldn't help but temporarily reserve his own opinions. It was hard not to see why Sonic was the way he was, doing something like this. Even if for only a few minutes, Knuckles felt he could understand.
When it was over, he found himself stunned and disappointed at the stillness of the world. He let himself off Sonic's back, breathing heavily.
The hedgehog looked at him, ears up with curiosity. "Are you okay? How was it?"
"It… was… amazing," Knuckles confessed in a rare moment of uncensored joy. "No wonder you can't be still. That's just crazy."
"Ya don't get tired of it, either." Sonic smiled, reaching out a hand. Knuckles grasped it and pulled himself up. "One way to wake yourself up in the morning."
The guardian wondered why he was still breathing hard. It wasn't like he had done anything. Maybe the excitement alone had caused it. Smiling too, he met Sonic's green eyes. "You know, uh, thanks," he said awkwardly. "I'm, uh, I'm glad you convinced me. It was… interesting."
"Want to know what'd be even more interesting?"
Knuckles found himself genuinely curious about the answer, for a change. "What's that?"
Sonic gestured to the edge of the island. "Doing that, down on the surface. Think how much faster we could go. So much more room, less stuff in the way…"
"Sonic…" Knuckles turned away. "I can't. You know that."
"Not even for a little?"
He shook his head. "Don't rub it in," he muttered.
"Oh, so you do want to." There was no trace of teasing in Sonic's tone; it was only gentle. The hedgehog's ears fell. He wanted to help, wanted to bring vibrancy to this lonely soul. It had been a year since their last fight against the doctor; normally it never went that long, and without Knuckles having a good reason to leave the island, he had gotten immensely bored. Sonic could see it just looking into those violet eyes.
"In an ideal world," Knuckles said, "there are a lot of things I'd want to do. But most people don't get everything they want, Sonic."
Sonic tried not to feel stung by the remark. He knew what Knuckles was implying. "I don't get everything I want. The things I do, I just get because I go for them no matter what other people think I should be doing."
"What if you were here, though? What if you had to protect something with so much power, or risk the lives of a lot of people? Already, you protect people more than anyone. You must understand."
"I do, I do," Sonic said, nodding. "It's just that… well, sometimes you have to put yourself first. Even if only a little. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do." He paused. "I know it isn't that simple, but… honestly, if someone wants that gem of yours badly enough, they'll just keep trying until they get it. You'll end up recovering broken pieces, or trying to find it, like always. It's how it always happens."
"Which is all the more reason to guard it. If I didn't do that, who would? And anyway, it's my responsibility to prevent that kind of thing from happening for as long as I can… even if I can't prevent it forever. I have to do my best."
"I'm all for that," Sonic said. "It's just, there has to be another way. There's gotta be more for you out there than this!"
"Maybe, maybe not," Knuckles said neutrally. "Sonic… what do you want that you don't get?" He wasn't sure why he was asking. Maybe just to know for sure that even Sonic had some gaps in his life. Knuckles was tired of feeling like he was the only one missing out on everything.
"Sometimes I wonder…" Sonic began casually, "what it's like when you're, you know, with someone. Not very much. I mean, it's really just not my thing, but…"
Knuckles cut off Sonic's rambling. "Why not try being with Amy, then? Not like you don't have the chance."
"It's not that simple," Sonic said.
"Please." Knuckles frowned at him. He envied people like Sonic. But if there was anything that stung more than watching someone have the life that he wanted, it was watching them discard an opportunity without even realizing what they had. It was almost sickening to him how much people took things for granted. Sometimes, even Sonic.
"It's really not!" the hedgehog protested.
"You at least have the opportunity. If you choose not to take advantage of it, then what reason do you have to be upset over it? You could try it anytime you wanted." He paused. "Not everyone can do that, you know."
"But I don't like Amy like that," Sonic said. "And besides, I…"
"What?" Knuckles snapped, then felt bad for being impatient. "…Go on."
"I just feel like… if I were to try being with Amy, or anyone for that matter, I'd be acting selfish because I'd know right from the start I would end it later. I wouldn't stay. I can't."
"Why not?"
Sonic shrugged. "It just ain't me, Knux. You know that. I couldn't pin myself down like that. And so I just… don't even bother with it. Even when I'm curious, even when I think I might be missing something. Because I'm afraid I'd hurt someone or make them believe in something that'd never really go anywhere."
"Pardon my bluntness, but isn't that your problem? You still have the choice. The only reason you don't is because you're afraid of losing your precious freedom."
"Well, you have a choice too," Sonic pointed out. "Everyone has a choice. You're only trapped if you choose to be."
"So you're asking me to compare guarding something that could endanger the world, with guarding your own selfish freedom? I just don't see the comparison."
Sonic shrugged. "At the end of the day, it all comes down to the same thing: what's worth more to ya. And besides, my own 'selfish freedom' is just me, the same way guarding the Master Emerald is just you."
"I didn't mean that," Knuckles said quietly. "You… you are not selfish, Sonic. If you were, you wouldn't have bothered to try and help me. If you were, you wouldn't have gone through so much to fight your enemies and protect people you don't even know."
"Hey, don't get all apologetic on me. I can handle ya." Sonic smiled. "The thing is, you do the same thing that I do, Knuckles, just in a different way. You fight to protect people… only yours is constant, never ending. I get breaks, and when I get breaks I explore or whatever. I hang out with people. I see the world. But you don't get breaks. I don't think that's right, Knuckles."
"Yeah, well, thanks," the guardian murmured noncommittally. "Guess I'm full-time, huh. I don't think it's right either, but that doesn't change anything."
"The world has changed because of people who don't think something is right," Sonic reminded him. "Heck, you and me and Tails have changed things before because we don't think Egghead is right."
"But it's not that…"
"Simple? No, it's not. Nothing is simple, and I think we've said that enough for a lifetime today. But that doesn't mean it's impossible. Nothing is impossible, either."
Knuckles was sorely tempted to tell Sonic to go fly off the edge of Angel Island, over the ocean, and back to Station Square if nothing was impossible, then foresaw the hedgehog's likely response – 'Sure thing, lemme just go hop in the Tornado!' – and decided against it. Besides, he didn't really want to say anything that would encourage Sonic to leave, even if it was only in jest.
…For a change.
Reduced to concurrence, Knuckles finally nodded. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."
Sonic looked at him, surprised. "Are you serious? I mean… I think I'm right but I didn't expect you to."
"Tell me, then, Sonic," said Knuckles, "how do you think to make these things possible?"
He didn't expect Sonic to have an answer, and was already feeling a sense of grim satisfaction at that fact. To his surprise, disappointment, and contradicting relief, Sonic did. "I'm thinking you and Tails could put your heads together, and get some kinda security system going for the shrine!"
Ego sufficiently depleted, Knuckles merely listened as Sonic elaborated.
"I mean, it might take a while, but Tails is better at that kind of thing than anyone around. I'm sure he'd love to help ya. Maybe you could wear something around your hand that would go off if someone new was detected on Angel Island."
"I can already sense through the Master Emerald's energy when someone is on the island."
"I'm talking about when you're not on it yourself, silly. You can't still sense that when you're not near the Master Emerald, can you?"
Knuckles shook his head no.
"Then, there ya have it! Though, you'd need to work with Tails in order to make it happen, so you'd have to leave the island a little bit anyway in the meantime. Maybe we could use the opportunity to go for that longer run, eh?"
"I didn't say yes yet, Sonic."
"You haven't said no yet."
I need to stop getting myself into these types of discussions. "Let me think about it. It does sound like a good idea, but I can't make decisions like this lightly. And Sonic," his voice became very firm, "You have to understand that even if we do this, it doesn't mean I can leave the island all the time. There will still be many times that the Master Emerald has to come first."
Sonic nodded. "I understand that kinda thing better than you think, bud," he said. "Even if for different reasons."
Knuckles nodded too. He knew that to be true, from what Sonic had said about relationships earlier. Indeed, Sonic knew what it was like to deny one desire because something else was more important – in Sonic's case, other people's feelings, and his own freedom. In Knuckles's case, the duty his bloodline had held for generations throughout millennia.
Neither of them were in a position to live a life where they were tied to any other commitment. Knuckles had never consciously realized it before, but now he understood. He and Sonic had more in common than he had ever thought.
"Sonic."
"Yeah?"
"…Thank you. For today. It was enjoyable for me."
"Aw, it's nothing. I…"
"No, it's not nothing," Knuckles said, shocked at the conviction in his own voice. It wasn't often that he found himself addressing Sonic – or anyone – with such gratefulness. But for all things he wasn't, Knuckles was honorable when it was warranted. He owed it to the hedgehog to at least say thank you. "It is something, to me. You brought some freedom to this place for me, today. You reminded me what it's like to… have fun."
Sonic strode closer to his echidna friend. Without thinking about it, without reservation, he grasped Knuckles's shoulder and gave a squeeze that was both confident and encouraging. "Come with me." Sonic smiled. "Talk to Tails about security. Stay a day on the surface. Don't think about it this time; you owe that to yourself. Just once, don't think about it. Just say yes."
For the second time that day, Knuckles abandoned forethought and caution, and agreed.
It would be the second of many times.
