Knuckles felt a little out of place in Spagonia like the city itself thought it was better than him and he didn't like it, everything was so fancy. The architecture was a little too extravagant for him. Still, he knew he was judging a little too much based on appearances so he would keep an open mind. Rouge tapped him on the shoulder, and as he turned to face her, she handed him a cannoli. "Don't look so grumpy Knux you'll scare small children." The bat teased as she handed him the pastry.

"Hey, I'm not that intimidating, am I?" Knuckles complained as he took a bite out of the desert.

"Well, not to me, but that's just because I know you're a big old softy" Rouge laughed before taking a bite of her own cannoli. "Now come on, Knuckie, Tails' Colleague is letting us stay with him for free. The least we could do is show up on time." Rouge finished her food and ran ahead, Knuckles followed after her, struggling not to drop his food as he did so.

"Here we are, Spagonia University, Tails' associate Professor Pickle agreed to let us use the dorms." Rouge explained as they came to the entrance.

"That can't be his real name." Knuckles said mostly to himself unbeknownst to him the man himself had overheard.

"It actually is my dear boy, peculiar as it sounds. Knuckles, I assume, and this must be Rouge." An elderly man dressed in a brown suit addressed the pair. He was swiftly followed by his assistant, who was carrying a stack of books.

"I do wish you wouldn't wander off, professor." The man sighed in an exasperated tone a little out of breath.

"Nonsense, I had to greet our guests." The old man replied, gesturing to the pair. "I've had two dorms prepared for you, curfew is at 9:30 and I don't want to catch either of you past it, we won't be having any of that in the university." The professor lectured, clearly misunderstanding the pair's relationship.

"That?" Knuckles asked out loud, clearly not catching his meaning with a roll of her eyes. Rouge leaned in and whispered in his ear, causing the echidna to flush even redder than his quills. "We would never!" he stammered to correct the misunderstanding.

"Well good, Dinner will be served at exactly Five Thirty. If you miss it you'll have to feed yourself. Now you two have some sightseeing to do, hmm? My assistant has prepared a map to guide you to the city's biggest attractions." The professor offered as his assistant attempted to reach it while carrying the books.

"Well thanks but I usually prefer to wing it if that's okay with you, Knuckles." Knuckles simply shrugged before nodding in response to Rouge's question. It didn't really matter to him either way.

"Fair enough, Well then, I'll see you two later. Come along." Professor Pickle took his leave followed closely by his assistant

--

"Why does everyone we meet assume we're a couple?" Knuckles complained as he walked through a market with Rouge. She was focused on a jewellery stall, but not so much that she didn't hear him.

"Who can blame them? People don't typically travel alone together if they're just friends." Rouge wasn't wrong. He'd probably just have to suck it up and get used to it. "Honestly, I don't see why you even bother correcting them."

"Well, if I didn't, then they'd keep on thinking we were together." Knuckles argued, but Rouge simply shrugged.

"Well, do you want to be?" Rouge asked, turning to look at him with an unreadable expression.

"I…" Knuckles trailed off slightly before coming up with a response. "I don't." He didn't sound completely sure himself, something Rouge picked up on, but she decided not to mention it for now.

"Exactly. We know where we stand with each other, so what does it matter what anyone else thinks?" Rouge made it sound pretty simple, and while Knuckles still wasn't sure, if it didn't bother her, he couldn't very well let it bother him. That would be like an admission of defeat

"Yeah, you're probably right." Knuckles agreed in an attempt to sound more relaxed it didn't work.

"I always am, now come on you big lug. I promise Omega I'd get him a souvenir he can be so sentimental" Rouge grabbed Knuckles by the hand and dragged her towards a market stall with a large variety of handmade trinkets he was actually glad to be here, he'd been looking to get Rouge a gift as thanks for agreeing to come along with him.

While Rouge was distracted looking at gifts for Omega, he wandered off by himself, eventually coming across a jewelled necklace that shone almost as brightly as the Master Emerald. He bought it without thinking, really. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but as he walked out of the store, he was hit with a wave of buyers remorse.

Wait, would a woman want jewellery from someone she's just friends with? Isn't this more of a couples present? He was probably getting in his own head about this, but what if that was how she took it?

"Hey Knuckles, you think Omega would like this key chain?" Speaking of Rouge, she had seemingly finished shopping herself. She seemed to forget she'd asked a question when she noticed knuckles had gotten something. "What's in the bag?"

Quick think of a good lie! "It's a souvenir for Tails." Knuckles answered, doing his best to sound confident. Unfortunately, that brief hesitation was enough for Rouge to guess he wasn't telling the truth.

"You know, I would have believed you, but you hesitated for a moment, I won't pry, but just so you know, you aren't fooling me." Rouge saw through him as easily as ever. Honestly, her ability to do that was almost scary.

"Whatever! Let's just go already." Knuckles snapped, already turning to leave.

"Knuckles get back here! I still have to pay for this" Rouge complained, quickly paying for the souvenirs she'd gotten before following after him.

--

Dinner had been pretty uneventful, and frankly, 9:30 was far too early to go to bed, especially for Rouge she was nocturnal. She was bouncing off the walls in her room, but she couldn't leave. She didn't want Professor Pickle thinking she was sneaking out of her room to see Knuckles. His comment about "That" earlier came to mind.

She looked out the window to try and take her mind off it, and a thought came to mind. There was no way he was watching the window, right?

Her theory would turn out to be correct as she found the window unlocked, She quietly pushed it open before slipping out into the night.

Knuckles sighed, looking over the necklace again. "Why did I even buy this? It's not like I can give it to her, I'll just give it to Cream, I guess, kids like shiny things." A knock at his window almost made him drop the necklace in surprise, but he just about managed to keep a hold of it.

Knuckles opened the window and came face to face with Rouge after a moment of hesitation let her in. "Rouge what are you doing here? We were supposed to stay in our rooms."

"So? We both know I'm not one to follow the rules, and it's not like you were gonna sleep this early." Rouge argued in her typical unconcerned tone.

"That's not the point." Knuckles glared at her, trying to keep quiet. "What do you want anyway?"

"Nothing, I just wanted some company," Rouge complained. "Why do you always assume I'm here to mess with you? Come on, I need to burn off some energy before I can even think about sleeping."

Knuckles thought for a moment before nodding. "Sure, why not? Someone's gotta watch out for you. "

"Oh yeah, because Spagonia is so dangerous." Rouge rolled her eyes before heading out motioning for her to follow him. Knuckles headed out after her, and the pair landed on a nearby rooftop.

"Hey, how come you can fly anyway?" Knuckles simply shrugged in response to Rouge's question.

The Pair wandered around the city for a little while, mainly sticking to the roof tops, eventually taking a break at the top of the clock tower.

"You can see the entire city from up here, huh?" Rouge mused, sitting next to Knuckles resting her head on his shoulder.

Knuckles initially froze at the contact as it had taken him completely off guard, but he tried to relax. "Yeah, it's pretty nice." He agreed, looking over the city. Hesitantly, he put one arm around her shoulder, holding her as she rested her head on him before immediately deciding it was too awkward and letting go. "Nope, I can't do it. You are way too close!" He complained as he got up before Rouge even had a chance to tease him about it he held out a jewellery box.

"This is just a thank you for coming with me! There's no other meaning behind it, okay?" Knuckles stated firmly, doing his best to sound serious.

Rouge took the box and inside, she found a silver necklace encrusted with a green gemstone. "You sure there's no meaning behind this? It's certainly a romantic gift for a friend." Rouge joked as she put the necklace on. "How does it look?"

"You look nice," Knuckles mumbled, though he wasn't even looking at her.

"What was that?" Rouge leaned in a little closer as if she couldn't hear him.

"I said you looked nice!" Knuckles yelled before turning and jumping off the rooftop, still very much red in the face as he did so.

--

Hey, so the Sonic 3 manual says Knuckles isn't very good with girls, so I figured it would make sense for him to be shy, right? I don't know made sense while writing it.

That new trailer was wild, huh? Sonic just straight up died.