New chapter!

Thanks for all the compliments everyone.

I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or the fairy tale.

You know the drill. Read, review, and enjoy!

Knuckles stopped walking and crossed his arms as he surveyed his surroundings. He was in some sort of shop and saw the wooden sign behind the counter and read, "Knuckles's Shoes." He looked around at the pathetic-looking shop. "Looks like business isn't so hot."

Going to the back of the shop, he saw Blaze as she stirred something in a pot on the oven and wearing a scraggly looking dress. Turning to face him, Blaze informed, "Well, I hope you figured out that business isn't doing so good and we're incredibly poor. You only have one pair of shoes to sell and enough leather to make another pair." They both heard the ding of a bell from a door opening. "Better go see if you can sell that last pair."

Nodding in agreement, Knuckles returned to the front of the shop and saw Shadow standing there, looking around the room with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "What are you doing here?" interrogated Knuckles and the ebony hedgehog turned to face the scarlet echidna.

"That's none of your business," Shadow responded, "but from what I can tell…you have no business skills." Taking a short stroll through the shop to see what there was, he soon looked back at Knuckles. "No skills at all."

"Heh. If you're so skilled at running a business…why don't you take over?" sneered Knuckles.

"Tsk. I'm not helping you because I'd be part of this ridiculous story." Shadow responded. He picked up a pair of onyx black and pure white leather shoes and looked over them before putting them down with a smirk. "Heh. I'm actually surprised you were able to do something like this yourself…I have to give you more credit than I do."

"I'll pound you!" Knuckles snarled as he clenched his teeth and both fists before he swore at the black hedgehog who responded with a rude gesture before taking off out of the shop. "I hate that guy!"

Hearing the bell ring again, he groaned as he saw Rouge saunter into the shop wearing a pink and white winter jacket and take a short look at what there was. Going to Knuckles, she looked at red echidna and commented, "You really don't have any people skills, do you?"

"What do you want Batty?" Knuckles hotly responded and Rouge rolled her eyes at him.

"I need a new pair of shoes." She answered. She saw the lone pair of shoes, picked them up, and looked over them before looking at the Guardian of the Master Emerald. "I don't have a pair of shoes like these for my collection. And you made these Knuckie? I'm impressed."

"Stop calling me Knuckie!" Knuckles fumed, clearly angry about what skill level he had. "And for your information…yes! Yes I did make them!"

"Whatever Knuckie." Replied Rouge. "I'll take them."

Taking a box from behind the counter, Knuckles put the shoes in the box and shoved them at the bat and stated, "That'll be 20 rings."

"Oh, sorry Sweetie, but I don't have that many rings right now. I'll pay you back later." Rouge sweetly told him and Knuckles nodded in agreement.

Casually strolling out of the shop, Knuckles realized what just happened and muttered under his breath about how the female bat tricked him. Returning to the back of the shop, he saw Blaze sitting at a pathetic looking table with two steaming cracked clay bowls of something that smelled awful and she told him, "It's cabbage. It's the only thing we had enough rings for."

"Uh, I'll have to pass," Knuckles reacted, "I'll cut out that other pair of shoes and finish them and sell them to someone tomorrow."

Going to a work bench, he performed the task in a few minutes before going to the lumpy looking bed. Staring up at the ceiling, the red echidna yawned. "I hope things do start to turn around in this story." He thought to himself and drifted off to sleep.

Waking up the next morning, Knuckles stretched as he got out of bed and shuffled to his work bench. Sitting down at it, his violet eyes widened as he saw the pieces of leather were now slick neon red sneakers with a white strip and gold buckles on each of them. "What the…" Knuckles trailed off as he picked up one of the shoes and looked over them. They were absolutely perfect with no stitch out of place or sign of imperfection. "Huh. Guess it's my lucky day."

Going to the front of the shop, he proudly set the new shoes on the counter and gazed at them until he heard the ding of a bell. Looking in the direction of the noise, he saw Rouge walk into the shop and go to the counter. The treasure hunting bat picked up the shoes and looked over them before asking, "These are pretty nice and they'd look great with the rest of my shoe collection. How much are they?"

Pulling out a brown cardboard box, Knuckles stuffed the shoes in them before passing it to her and answered, "30 rings…and I want the rings up front."

"Ugh, fine." Rouge scoffed as she pulled out a large black wallet with a single pink heart and took the requested number of rings from it.

Dumping the rings in his open hand, Rouge stashed her wallet away and left with her shoes. Remembering his transaction with her yesterday, Knuckles exclaimed, "Hey! She still owes me 20 rings!"

Blaze came to the front of the shop and questioned, "What are you making such a fuss about?" She saw the gold rings glittering in his hand. "That's great! You can get enough leather to make two pairs of shoes now!"

"Sweet! And that means no cabbage for supper!" Knuckles cheered.

Later in the evening, after buying enough leather to make two pairs of shoes and a hearty supper that was 100 percent cabbage free, Knuckles went to his work bench and cut the leather with the same plan he had yesterday.

Stretching his arms as he woke up the next morning, Knuckles pulled himself out of bed and yawned as he dragged his feet to the work bench. Preparing to get to work, he sat down and, once again, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw two pairs of shoes in the place of the leather; one a pair of high heeled boots with the same scheme as the pair he found yesterday without the buckles and a pair of boots with aqua tips, indigo down the sides, and silver down the middle. Once again, he looked them over to find no imperfections and proudly strutted to front of the shop. Placing them on the counter, he smiled at them and heard the ding of the bell. Rouge casually strolled to the counter, saw both pairs of shoes, and remarked, "Oh, these would go perfect with the rest of my collection of shoes. How much for both of them?"

"60 rings." Knuckles countered as he pulled out two boxes, tucked the shoes inside and slid the boxes to the bat. "And the rings upfront."

Scoffing from the decision, Rouge pulled out her wallet, gave the requested number of rings to the red echidna, stashed her wallet away, picked up the boxes, and left.

"Hey! You still owe me 20 rings!" called Knuckles, but knew that she was long gone. Looking at the glittering rings, he did some quick math and smiled. "Awesome! I can get enough leather to make four pairs of shoes!"

Once again, he repeated the same routine of cutting the leather for the shoes out and going to bed, hoping he could have three for three.

Bouncing out of bed, Knuckles rushed to his work bench as excited as a kid on Christmas and cheered as he saw four pairs of shoes ready to be sold. Not bothering to check over them, he dashed to the counter and set them down, waiting to hear the ding of the bell. A few minutes later, he wish was granted and he saw Rouge enter the shop again and go to the shoes. Picking them up and looking them over, she smiled before looking at Knuckles, "These are perfect. How much for all of them?"

"Seriously? You're buying four more pairs?" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Yeah. So?"

"How many shoes do you have?

"Not including these four…46.

"Holy crackerjacks! You have 50 pairs of shoes? Why do you have so many?

"I like buying shoes. Is it a crime?" Rouge retorted. "How much for the shoes?"

"Uh, 120 rings." Answered Knuckles as he packed the shoes and Rouge dumped the requested number of rings onto the counter, snatched up her purchases and rushed away. "Aww, snap. I forgot to get the 20 rings she still owes me!"

A few days later, Knuckles finish cutting out the leather for several more shoes and smiled. He turned out rather successful in the shop, thanks to Rouge and her shoe fetish…and whoever kept making the shoes Rouge kept wanting to buy. Getting ready to go to bed, Blaze commented, "You know, we should stay up and see who keeps making the shoes for us."

"We could or you know, just ignore them and let them keep working." Shrugged Knuckles and Blaze shot him a look. "Okay, okay. We'll stay up and see who keeps making the shoes."

Turning the lamp onto its dimmest setting, Blaze hid behind a large chair as Knuckles hid behind the bed and they waited patiently to see if they could see who the midnight shoemaker was.

Blaze and Knuckles were still hiding when they heard the clock ring to acknowledge it was midnight and the duo saw a blue hedgehog and a two tailed fox dash in and head towards the work bench. The blue hedgehog directed the fox with color schemes and designs before the fox began to stitch and sew the shoes to perfection. The instant the job was done, the fox looked over the shoes to make sure that he made no mistakes, Tails gave a thumbs up to Sonic and the pair pounded fists before they dashed out of the room as fast as they came. Coming out of their hiding places the instant they were sure that the pair was gone, Blaze and Knuckles looked at each other and Knuckles remarked with extreme excitement in his voice, "So, Sonic and Tails are behind this…time to put those shoes up for sale and score some rings!"

"Hold on a second." Blaze replied as she put a hand on her hip and the crimson echidna faced the lilac cat.

"What?"

"We have to do something for them."

"How come?"

"Hello. They saved the shop. They're the reason we're not eating cabbage anymore."

"So?"

"Let's make some clothes for them," Blaze suggested, "they'd probably like it. I mean, they wear basically nothing and it's the middle of winter. All they got are shoes."

"Hey. If you want to make them clothes…go on right ahead," replied Knuckles as he stretched with a yawn, "I'm going to get some shut eye before I go and bring home some rings."

Looking at the Guardian of the Master Emerald as he yawned and started snoring loudly as fell asleep, the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds gave a disapproving look before she crawled into her own bed and drifted off to sleep.

The next evening, Knuckles cut out the leather he bought from Rouge's contribution from buying all the shoes as he commented, "You know, I don't know how Rouge can afford all the shoes she buys. I mean, she keeps getting all these rings to buy all these shoes."

"Well, she likes her shoes." Blaze shrugged and held up the winter jackets she made. "Do you think they'll like them?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's just get this over with." Replied Knuckles and Blaze sighed as she set the jackets on the work bench and positioned them as perfect as she could before she and Knuckles hid behind what they hid behind before.

Once again staying up until midnight, Blaze and Knuckles watched as Sonic and Tails bolted in and go to the work bench. Noticing the jackets, the pair looked at each other in surprise and then in delight before Sonic grabbed the larger of the two as Tails took the other and put them on. Looking over themselves in a nearby mirror, Sonic did a short and impromptu break dance as he grinned, "Now we're dressed so cool and neat, why cobble more for others' feet?"

Tails nodded in agreement and the pair pounded fists before they sped out of the room and Blaze and Knuckles came out of their hiding spots. Glaring at the lavender cat as he crossed his arms, Knuckles fumed, "Aww, Blaze! They bailed thanks to you and your idea to give them clothes!"

"Well, we're well off and don't have to worry about money anymore." Shrugged Blaze before putting a hand on her hip.

Hearing a dinging noise, the pair saw a set of elevator doors slide open and Blaze and Knuckles quickly dashed through them before they slid shut.

Stopping inside the elevator as the doors shut and the elevator began to move, Blaze and Knuckles looked between Amy, Rouge, Sonic, Silver, and Tails patiently waiting for them before Knuckles looked at Rouge and questioned, "Do you really have a shoe collection?"

"Of course." Rouge answered as she crossed her arms, "why wouldn't I have my shoe collection?"

"How many?"

"Oh, more than I said I had in the story."

"How much more?

"A LOT more."

"There's something wrong with you." Decided Knuckles and the treasure hunting bat shot him a death glare.

"No. I'm just a girl who likes her shoes," Rouge hissed, "and if you ever insult my shoe collection again…I will make sure you suffer extreme pain with my best pair of three inch heels."

Slightly worried by the threat, Knuckles took a step away from Rouge and the elevator gave a slight jerk as it stopped. The doors opened and the group exited the elevator into the next fairy tale.

My comment:

Rouge and the shoes: I think Rouge would like to buy shoes. She strikes me as one of those people who would have a collection of shoes…after jewels of course.

Okay, so I hope you liked the chapter and please review.