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The day started like any other day. The birds chirped, plants swayed in the breeze, and every once in a while a small animal would scurry across broken stone bricks.Quiet. Peaceful. And lonely.A young Echidna boy sat on some moss covered steps and stared at the sky, wishing for the millionth time for someone, anyone, to break the silence of this deserted island. He didn’t know where everyone had gone so long ago. Why didn’t they take him with them?A strange blue object sped through the greenery below, catching the boy’s attention. What was that? He’d never seen something like that before. What if it was a monster?If it was dangerous, well, at least it was interesting. He gathered his courage and followed the trail of the strange blue thing.He tracked it to the beach where he saw a strange big thing and two other boys. The older one noticed him and called out to the Echidna. He sounded friendly, but he didn’t understand the words he was using.Shyly, he came out from the foliage. He stayed several paces away, though. He hadn’t seen anyone in so long. He tried to say hello, but the other two boys just looked confused. Did he do something wrong?The smaller boy talked rapidly to the other with words he had never heard before, who nodded in understanding. Then they both hopped into the strange thing on the beach. The blue kid looked back at the panicking Ecidna and offered him his hand. The intent was clear. He wanted him to come with them.He didn’t even hesitate. He didn’t what was going on or what was going to happen, but anything was better than rotting in this place alone.
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It hit him like a tree out of no where. Well, okay. Sonic was the one who hit the tree. But still!They hadn’t been doing anything special. Sonic was having a bad day and decided to cheer himself up by hanging out with Knuckles. The big goofball was always up for a challenge. Sonic usually one, but even when he didn’t he wouldn’t deny he has fun and doesn’t feel bad about it at all when it comes to his friend.Knuckles actually won this time. It didn’t dawn on Sonic that the Echidna would have more knowledge about plants than him. Then again, Knuckles was a huge nature lover so that was his mistake.“Okay, Knux. You win this time.” Sonic feigned more annoyance than he actually felt.“Aw, that’s okay!” He then surprised the Hedgehog by dropping a flower crown on his head. “You can’t win all the time, Sonic!”Even during the run back to his shack, Sonic was utterly confused emotionally. Why was he so thrown off by some silly chain of flowers? Or was it the Knuckles that was tripping him up?A mental image of that goofball smile came to mind, making Sonic loose his focus on his surroundings. He should have kissed him.Wait! What?!Sonic noticed the tree too late, ramming right into the thing and landing on his tail end. He chose to lay where he landed and glare up at the sky.“I hate you, universe.”
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“Okay, I’m going to tell you something really funny. But please, please don’t laugh. Okay?”Knuckles tried not to shuffle his feet in nervousness as Sonic looked at him in mild curiosity.. His friend seemed to be taking him seriously at least. That was saying something as people rarely did.“Right! So, yeah.” Knuckles had to force himself to keep eye contact. “I know this is weird because you’re a guy and I’m guy, but, like, I like you. Like, like you, like you.”Sonic looked confused and looked away. “There was too many uses of the word ‘like’ in there to make any sense, Knux.”Knuckles didn’t know how to feel. Was this a rejection and Sonic was being nice to give him an out? Or did he really not understand? Knuckles had so much trouble with English…He wasn’t backing down, though. He got this far. Knuckles closed his eyes and took a breath.“I like you like I’m supposed to like a girl.”There was a moment of silence, and then a weird squeak sound.Knuckles cracked open an eye to see Sonic hiding his face behind his hands and his ears pulled back. Thinking he screwed up, Knuckles was going to apologize before Sonic spoke up.“That’s-!” Sonic’s voice cracked and he removed his hands from his face to clear his throat. “That’s called a crush…”Even from where Knuckles was standing he could see how red Sonic’s muzzle was under his fur. Oh man, he really screwed up! He-!“And if that makes you weird, well… Then I am, too.”Wait, what?“Look, I’m not good with emotions! I like you, too, okay?!” Sonic crossed his arms. “Can we not make this a big deal?”“So, we just ignore it?” That didn’t sound good.“What? No. I mean.” Sonic sighed a rubbed his face. “Can’t we just be casual about this and not act like one of Amy’s stupid romance movies?”“Oh. Like just go to Meh Burger together or something?”“Yeah.” Sonic was still clearly blushing, but his expression soften. “That would actually be pretty nice.”And here Knuckles thought Sonic was going to laugh at him!
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All Sonic had to do was keep calm and play it cool. No need to get anyone’s attention to what was really happening between them. And he definitely didn’t want Knuckles to think there was a mutant slug trying to devour him from the inside out, though it certainly felt like it.But nothing terrible happened. They went to Meh Burger and sat down together. The conversation was perfectly normal for them, no one looked at them with disgust, and Sonic managed not to throw up from nerves. It was looking to be a successful date.Then Eggman had to stick his mustache into things.“Well if it isn’t Sonic and Noodles.”“What do you want, Egghead?”Does he seriously not remember Knuckles’ name by now or is he just being a jerk? Either was possible.“Oh, I just thought you seemed to be enjoying your day a little too much and came here to fix that.” Eggman laughed to himself. “Robots, attack!”A swarm of motobugs zoomed in and surrounded the 0-star eatery, trapping the patrons inside.Sonic groaned and looked at Knuckles, who looked determined. “We better get this bug infestation out of here.”“Right!”Knuckles smashed through the line, allowing Sonic to run through the circle. He ran fast enough to keep out of reach so they would follow him around the village center. He made a sharp turn, causing many of the robots to smash into a wall.Sonic lead the survivors to Knuckles. Once in range, the Echidna punched the ground and sent the last of the robots flying.Sonic came to a halt in front of Eggman. “That was pathetic, even for you.”“Oh, what? I’m supposed to be awesome all the time?” The Human stroked his mustache. “Everybody has their off days.”Knuckles looked at the man, confused. “Wouldn’t that require ‘on’ days?”Sonic and villagers laughed at his observation as Eggman blew steam out of his ears.“I don’t have time for this! I have schemes to hatch.”The couple watched Eggman storm off and shrugged.“Sorry about that, Knux.” Sonic grinned sheepishly up at him. “I didn’t expect him to show up and ruin things.”“Uh?” Knuckles blinked and tilted his head. “He didn’t ruin anything. That was one of the worse attacks ever. Besides, it was fun.” He smiled ad leaned down to whisper so only Sonic could hear. “Besides, I was super nervous before.”“What? Really? Actually… I was too.”They went back to their meal after that, ignoring any whispers behind their backs.
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If anyone ever asked Knuckles why he kept this random clam shell, he’d just tell them it was pretty. Not that anyone else would think so. It had a round little hole in it, leaving it damaged and imperfect. But the way it looked wasn’t the real reason why Knuckles kept it.Sonic had given it to him one day while they hanging around the beach together.“Hey, look at that shell.” The Hedgehog picked up the clam shell and showed it to Knuckles.“Aw, it’s broken…”“Sorta. That hole means the poor little guy that lived in it got eaten up by a snail.”“Woah. Really?” Knuckles carefully took hold of the seashell. “How’d that happen?”“The shell’‘s supposed to protect the clam, but the snail’s got a tooth that drilled through it. Neat, huh?”Even if Knuckles told someone why he kept the shell, they wouldn’t understand. Then again, most people didn’t bother to explain or teach him anything. The shell was a reminder not only of a cool fact, but that Sonic thought it worth his time to teach it to him.
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Most people would say meeting the ghosts of your boyfriend’s parents would be the weirdest “meeting the family” experience someone could have. And it was, Sonic wouldn’t deny that. Especially when you don’t speak their language and they clearly hate you, but whatever.No, as far as Sonic was concerned, being found by his siblings was way weirder to him. Partially because he hadn’t seen them since they were all little, but mostly because they were so accepting of all this.“Oh, you have to tell me how you get your quills like that!”Sonic watched Sonia gush over Knuckles, utterly speechless.“The dude’s nice. I see why you like him so much.” Manic threw his arm around his long lost brother. “I wouldn’t of pegged you the sort to settle down or nothin’.”“How you both okay with this?”Manic laughed. “You’ve been stuck on this island with those stupid villagers too long, bro.”
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“Are sure Amy won’t kill us for this?”Normally Knuckles was more than happy to join Sonic for a good prank, but this one seemed a bit too dangerous. Pulling a prank on Amy was sure to make her mad and she could be really scary.“Pscht, please. The worst she’ll do is lecture us on being immature or whatever.”Sonic understood Amy better than he did. Maybe he was right and everything would be okay.Knuckles helped Sonic rearrange every knickknack and artifact in Amy’s house, placing everything in weird places. Like her big stone slab was on the toilet, the fake fishbowl was in the window, and one of her cutesie craft projects was strung around the kitchen. Amy was going to be so mad when she saw the mess they made!Once their dirty work was done, the pranksters hid in the garden to wait.Knuckles did his best to hide behind a shrub, made harder by the fact Sonic chose to hide in the exact same spot. Not that he would complain. They both had to cover their mouths to keep from giggling too loudly and giving their position away.Amy screamed the moment she walked into the door. They couldn’t hold it back anymore and both prankster fell out of the shrub laughing.“WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU TWO, MY HOUSE ISN’T GOING TO BE THE ONLY THINGS THAT’S A MESS!”“I thought you said she wouldn’t kill us?”“Uh, change of plans.”Knuckles felt Sonic grab his hand before speeding off and dragging him along.
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This was going to sound totally lame, but Sonic had never kissed anyone before.Oh, sure, Sonic considered himself quite the ladies’ man and thought he could seduce any girl he wanted. But he stopped at flirting because he wasn’t a donuthole who used women. It’s just that Sonic never liked anyone enough.Well, there was Amy, but the idea of dating her was too scary.Also, Sonic may or may not be a little shy when it came to romantic relationships.He had no idea why he did it. He could blame the adrenaline high from their latest stunt. He could blame Knuckles for being too damn cute when he’s having fun. The point is that Sonic screwed up big time when he kissed his goofball friend.There was no fireworks or sparks, like people like to say happens when you kiss someone. It was a total disaster. Their mouths didn’t line up quite right because their noses got in the way and their teeth bumped painfully.But the worst part about it was that he wanted to kiss him again.So Sonic did what he usually does when facing his own emotional mess: run away.He cursed his own cowardliness of emotions. Sonic would have to face Knuckles eventually, likely with Amy sticking her nose in it.
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“Uh, are you guys sure you want me along?”Knuckles looked back at Tails confused.“But we always go to Rotten Fruit Festival together.”“Yeah,” Sonic said. “Besides, they put up this hilarious picture of Eggman this year. You know you wanna throw some tomatoes at him.”“Yeah, but…” Tails sighed. “You guys are, like, together this year? I don’t want to a thirdwheel or anything.”“Don’t be silly, Tails. You’re not a wheel.” How funny!“No, Knuckles.” Sonic thought a moment. “Tails is worried we’ll be too busy hanging out with each other and he’ll be left out.““Oooohh!”“Look, Tails, it’ll be fine.” Sonic put his arm around his friend. “We’re not like the couples in Amy’s stupid romance movies.”“If you say so…”Knuckles was so glad Tails was going. He didn’t understand why his friend would feel left out, but he’d make sure that wouldn’t happen!
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“So how is this experiment of yours going, boys? Any hints on when the ladies of the village can expect you back on the market?”Sonic was absolutely frozen by Soar catching him off guard and asking him this random questions out of the blue. What experiment?“I- what?”“You know,” Soar laughed. “This whole thing with Knuckles!”Oh. OH!“What the what?!” To hell with be flustered and confused, Sonic was mad now! “There’s no ‘experiment’! Now get out of my face you a- donuthole!”Taking advantage of Soar’s surprise, Sonic dashed away to go find his boyfriend. If the anchor-bird had been this bold with his questions, then the other villagers had to be spewing the same nonsense. Knuckles heard more than people realized.
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Every Sunday afternoon, Sonic and Knuckles curled up together for a nap. Sometimes it was on the beach, or on Sonic’s porch, and they even snoozed in Amy’s garden once.Knuckles can’t remember how or why it started. It’s just something they did.He asked Sonic if he’d prefer to stay in his shack or at least on the beach once. But his boyfriend waved it off.“It’s kind of like an adventure sleeping somewhere random. I get why you do it every night.”Maybe he should invite Sonic to sleep outside with him one night, just the two of them, Knuckles thought. Maybe that could become a tradition,too.
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“That’s totally the right color! See!” Sonic held up the pillow so Knuckles could see it better. “It’s exactly the color she wanted.”Sonic hated being in this home goods store. It completely wrecked his wicked image. But they ruined Amy’s stupid couch pillows and now they had replace them before she found out. Ugh.“No, I’m pretty sure it should be more purple than pink.” Knuckles tilted his head like a confused dog and squinted.Before he could argue his point, Sonic caught sight of something in the corner of his eye. He spotted Sticks sniffing around with a hunter hat on. Shit, what was she doing here?! If she caught them there’s no doubt she’ll find out and tell Amy!“It’s Sticks! Quick, hide!” Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the shoulder and pulled him behind a shelf.Unfortunately, Knuckles had resisted the sudden movement. The clumsy oaf tripped and knocked the Hedgehog to the ground. Luckily for Sonic, Knuckles managed to catch himself before he fell on top of him, but now he was hovering over him awkwardly.They just kind of stared at each other for a moment.“Heh-hem.”The pointed cough broke the tension and Sonic scrambled to his feet. The shop rep gave him a knowing look that made Sonic blush to his chagrin.“S-sorry!” Knuckles said as he got back to his feet. “Clumsy me!”“Oh, I’m sure.” The shop rep snickered as he left.Sonic groaned. “We are never shopping here again.”
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Sonic and Knuckles were hanging out in Sonic’s shack doing nothing in particular. The radio was playing, but neither paid it any mind until te song changed.“Oh, I love this song!”“Really?” Knuckles was mildly surprised Sonic would share that fact with him. “I thought you said this kind of music was too ‘sugary’ for you. Though how music can be full of sugar I don’t know.”“Hey I can make an exception thus song.” Sonic surprised Knuckles by grabbing his hand and dragging him from his stool. “C’mon! This song is way more fun when you dance to it!”Knuckles didn’t even consider refusing. Sonic was rarely this cheerful and held his hand through the whole song.It didn’t matter what the song sounded like at this point. It could have been a Justin Beaver song for all Knuckles cared. This was the best song ever as long Sonic was dancing with him.
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Sonic was zipping down the beach home from Tails’ workshop when he spotted Knuckles settling down for the night. He stopped, not quite sure what to do.Their relationship had changed a bit recently and it was really throwing Sonic for a loop. Were they officially a couple? Or were they friends who only went on a couple casual dates with each other? He was never good with this sort of thing.Deciding to put his confusion to the side for now, Sonic went up to Knuckles to wish him goodnight.“Yo, Knux! Callin’ it a night?”“Oh, hey Sonic,” Knuckles said. “Yeah, but I’m gonna look at the sky first.”Sonic blinked and looked up. Sure, it was completely clear and a new moon, but he didn’t see anything special about it.“You really like the stars, huh?”“Yeah!” Knuckles then got quiet. “I don’t remember much about my parents, but I remember the stories they told me about the stars.”Sonic didn’t know how to respond to that. Knuckles had never brought his past.“Silly, right?” Knuckles asked, laughing sadly.“It’s not silly at all,” Sonic said. He sat down and took the Echidna’s hand. “Willing to share some of those stories with me?”“I’d love to.”Knuckles pointed to each star as he talked about them, telling stories of a monster and a magic gem. Eventually Sonic laid down with him, which Knuckles responded to by wrapping an arm around him and drawing him close.Sonic could get used to this.
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The sky was pretty dark. Knuckles wondered if he should sleep in a cave tonight in case it rains. Or maybe crash at a friend’s place. He hasn’t visited his lamp in a while…A drop landed on his nose, breaking his train of thought. Then another, and another. The drops increased to a light drizzle, making Knuckles shiver.Well, Amy’s was closest. She wasn’t as willing to let Knuckles in as Sonic or Tails, but she wouldn’t leave him out in the rain.“Ugh. You too?” Amy asked, looking more annoyed than usual.“Huh?”Amy didn’t answer, but moved aside to let Knuckles in. Sonic was sitting on the couch, glaring out the window.“Just stand there while I get some towels.” Amy began to walk away before adding, “And don’t move! I don’t want you getting everything wet!”Knuckles stood there awkwardly, twiddling his thumbs. Normally he would not be so uncomfortable around his boyfriend, but Amy was there. Sonic made it clear their relationship should be secret. Something about people judging or something. Knuckles knew Sonic cared a lot about his reputation so didn’t question it.Sonic was the first to break the awkward silence.“I wish it wasn’t raining.”“Hey, at least you didn’t get all wet,” Knuckles saif, trying to lighten the mood.“Yeah, but-” Sonic groaned. “Now I’m stuck here with Amy. And it’s doesn’t help that you’re here.”Knuckles flinched at that. Was he really that embarrassed by him?“S-sorry…”“What?” Sonic looked back over at Knuckles. “No, I don’t mean it like that!” He looked around to make sure Amy was still on the other side of the room. “I wish we were alone. Just you and me, y’know?”“Found them!”Both boys jumped. Amy handed Knuckles of the the towels before laying the rest out on the couch for him. She looked between the two with an expression Knuckles really didn’t like. Sonic seemed pretty suspicious, too.“Here’s Knuckles. Why don’t you sit next to Sonic?”Knuckles was coaxed to his spot as Sonic glared at Amy, who smirked for some reason and went into the kitchen. He had no idea what was going on now.
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Sonic was super suspicious.Sticks was especially twitchy today. Not in the usual “I’m a nut job who thinks aliens are hiding under our beds” kind of way, either. More in the “I’m doing something sneaky” manner. This was way scarier, to be honest.On top of that, Tails and Amy were also being secretive. Tails wouldn’t let Sonic in his workshop today and Amy was giggling too much. Clearly the three of them were up to something, and Sonic had a feeling it had to do with him. Why else would he be excluded?So he turned to the only person he felt was not part of this plot.“So, uh… The guys are acting weird, right?”Knuckles looked up from the wood he was piecing together. Maybe it was a bird house?“Really? I just figured they wanted to be left alone today.”Sonic made Sonic stop and think a minute. Yeah, that’s probably it. Tails is busy on an invention, Amy is wrapped up in some silly romance novel or something, and Sticks is being paranoid and hunting something in her head.Uck. Maybe Sonic was the one being paranoid.“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Sonic cheered up as Knuckles smiled in response. “What’cha makin’ anyway?”“Oh. A bird house.”Yep, called it. Knuckles liked to play off his woodworking as manly and all, but really he just built birdhouses and whittled flowers and animals. It was more cute than anything.Sonic spent the next hour just watching Knuckles work, just enjoying the day. It could be nice slowing down every once in a while…“Oh, there you two are!”Amy’s shout startled the two. Thankfully, Knuckles had place the finished birdhouse on the ground for the time being so he hadn’t broken it this time.Sonic stood up as he remember his earlier paranoia. Now here was all three of the other team members acting like they were up to something. They better not be planning a prank on him.“Hey guys!” Knuckles was as guileless as ever.“Hey Sonic, come with me for sec,” Tails said as he actually push him back toward his workshop.As he was quite literally being pushed away, Sonic could here Sticks pull Knuckles in another direction as Amy made up a lame excuse to be somewhere else. Okay, now this was getting weird.“Tails, what’s going on? What are three up to? Is this some sort of prank?”“Prank? No way!” Tails finally got Sonic into his workshop and threw a sports jacket at him. “We actually set you up on a date!”“What?!” Sonic pulled the jacket off his face. “It better not be with Amy. Me and her already talked about that-”“No, no. Not Amy.”“Tails…”Sonic glared at his best friend a moment, then reluctantly took off his neckerchief and put on the jacket. “Fine, I’ll go along with this because I’m not willing to upset some poor girl because you guys are being nosy.”Tails snickered. That set alarm bells off in Sonic’s head. Maybe this is actually a prank?Once they finally made it to the designated date spot, Tails left in a hurry. Sonic took in everything to look for traps. It looked like an ordinary picnic in a field. Looking at the sky, it was clear with how low the sun was it was meant to be a sunset picnic. Clearly an overly romantic set up of Amy’s making.It wasn’t long before Sticks showed up with a very confused Knuckles and leaving him there.Knuckles was more dressed up than Sonic had ever seen him. The only time he’s seen the Echidna in a suit jacket was his Dreamboat Express/Dude-itude get up, but that was gaudy and sparkly. Heck, Stick had managed to get his athletic tape off. He didn’t look half bad, actually.“I guess this is supposed to be some sort of double date?” Knuckles just looked so confused. It was distracting.“Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s a prank.” Sonic combed through the picnic basket, only to find normal picnic fair. “Hmm. This might be trickier than I thought.”“Uh, well…” Knuckles looked sheepish. “Can we eat while we wait to be pranked? I’m hungry.”Sonic just shrugged and pulled out the food. Amy wouldn’t mess with their food. She was too proud of her cooking to purposely sabotage it.They ate quietly, the talking being done by some nearby birds, as they watched the sun get lower in the sky and waited for the inevitable. But as time passed, Sonic became increasingly aware that it was just him and Knuckles. Alone. Both dressed up and at a sunset picnic.Sonic growled and facepalmed.“What’s wrong?”“I don’t think this is a prank.” Sonic refused to bring his head up from his hand because he didn’t want Knuckles to see him blushing. “They did set us up on a date. With each other.”“Oh.” There was a pause. “Oh!”Sonic tried to rub the redness from his cheeks.“Sorry, this is my fault.”“Uh?” Sonic looked up. “What do you mean?”“Well…” Knuckles blushed and looked away. “Um, I might have told Amy I have a crush on you? I thought she’d tell me how to get over it, not try this…”Sonic couldn’t help it. He laughed. It took him a few minutes to calm down and explain.“I thought Tails and Amy did this because of me.” Sonic shook his head, the blush back on his face. “I guess we’re both to blame for this. I guess they figured we’re stupid and needed help.”“They weren’t really wrong, I guess,” Knuckles said, shrugging.“Yeah, but don’t tell them that.” Sonic scooted closer to his… friend? Boyfriend? They’ll have to figure that out. But for now. “Now how do we get them back?”
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Knuckles thought it was really nice Sonic invited him along. The explaination was that he had been really looking forward to seeing this classic action movie that was only showing tonight, but Tails had already promised Zooey he’d take her. Sonic didn’t want some sort of wheel? Knuckles didn’t get it, but if it meant he got to go then he was cool with it.Luckily, Tails and Zooey weren’t the stereotypical couple making out in the back row. They did sit together, though, so Sonic sat between Tails and Knuckles.About ten minutes into the movie, Knuckles got distracted by Sonic and Tails quietly bickering.“Shh! I’m trying to watch the movie.”Sonic grumbled an apology as Tails glared at him. For some reason Zooey was giggling. Knuckles figured Sonic was just trying to give Tails advice or something and ignored it.He was distracted again when he felt Sonic’s arm against his on the armrest.“Oh, sorry,” Knuckles whispered and removed his arm. Sometimes he forgot how much room he took up.Sonic grumped in response, and surprisingly so did Tails. Zooey just giggled again, though this time she was almost snickering. What was so funny?But that wasn’t the end of it. It seemed like Sonic was purposely sitting closer to Knuckles. Maybe he felt weird next to Tails and his girlfriend? And he kept offering Knuckles popcorn. Yeah, it was nice and all, but Sonic just didn’t act right. He wouldn’t even look Knuckles in the eye. It was weird.When the boring part of the movie with the sappy romantic scene started, Knuckles decided he couldn’t wait anymore and got up to go to the bathroom. He was surprised to see Zooey waiting for him outside the men’s room door.“Aren’t you missing the movie?”“Action movies really aren’t my thing.” Zooey giggled and jabbed her thumb back in the direction of their screen. “The show for me is watching you three boys fumble around.”“Uh?” Knuckles scratched his head. “What’s so funny?”“I might as well tell you as it’s not fair that you’re out of the loop.” She leaned in as if telling a secret. “This is a double date. Tails had managed to find a way to convince Sonic to ask you out and this was it.” Zooey huffed in good humor. “He’s just too chicken to tell you, I guess.”Knuckles was floored. So this had been a date the whole time? And it was going badly, too. Well shoot.They returned to the theater together. Zooey winked at Sonic, who glared suspiciously at her. Knuckles sat back down to enjoy what was left of the movie. It took a few minutes, but Sonic eventually resumed his practice of slightly invading Knuckles’ personal space. Except this time, Knuckles placed his hand over sonic’s on the armrest.
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Sonic kept his head up and refused to acknowledged the villagers as they stared and pointed.The team had gathered at Meh Burger for lunch. Tails was rambling on about some invention, Amy asking questions every once in a while, and Sticks spouting weird theories about the invention coming to life to kill them or something. Nothing out of the ordinary here.Well, escept for the fact that Sonic was holding Knuckles’ hand with their fingers interlocked. On the table. Quite openly.But they didn’t owe anyone an explanation. It was perfectly normal for a couple to hold hands.
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“Seriously, Knux. What is it?”Sonic could be really stubborn when he got stuck on something. Knuckles just wished it wasn’t what his magical ability was this time.Everyone had at least one. Amy had ice powers, Tails could move metal without touching it, Sticks could blend in with her surroundings, and Sonic could gather energy from anything which boosted his supersonic speed. Knuckles thought his power wasn’t near as cool, so he concentrated on working out.“It doesn’t matter. Why ask?”Sonic glared at him. “C’mon! It can’t be that bad! It can’t be worse than Dave’s conjuring mold ability.”Okay, yeah it wasn’t that bad…“All I can do is make time slow down.”“Seriously?!” Sonic stared at him in disbelief.“See? It’s silly. It’s great for a break to listen to the trees and all. Can’t hear them at normal speed. Not good for much else.” Knuckles figured Sonic would find it especially boring. As much as he’d love to slow down time and sit around with Sonic, his crush hated slow and wouldn’t like it.“Show me.”Knuckles sighed. “Okay, but we’re going to have to touch or you’ll get slowed down, too.”He was shock when Sonic grabbed his hand without hesitation, but maybe he was just eager to see the slow down. Knuckles stared at the clouds as he concentrated until they stopped moving. It became very quiet except for odd raspy whispering in a strange language.“What is that?” Sonic looked around, unable to pinpoint where the noise was coming from.“Oh, just the trees.” Knuckles grinned. “They talk funny, right?”The two sat still a moment. Knuckles had no idea what Sonic was thinking.“Maybe I should stop? I know this has to be boring for you and it’s got to be weird holding my hand-”“No.”“W-wha?” Knuckles looked back at Sonic, who held his gaze.“It’s nice.” Sonic snuggled into Knuckles’ side. “It’s calm and no one can bug us. I like it.”Knuckles had no idea what to say. They continued to sit quietly, enjoying each other’s presence. He’d almost thought Sonic had fallen asleep.“Hey, Knuckles.”“Hm?”“You’re magic’s awesome.”
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Knuckles was acting funny. He kept making lame excuses to not hang out and had the look of someone hiding something. He was pretty bad at being secretive, though.For some people they would suspect their boyfriend of something unethical and would snoop. But Sonic trusted Knuckles. The Echidna didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Not to mention he didn’t have the type of smarts to pull something like that off. Knuckles will tell him what’s up when he’s ready.It’s funny. No one would consider Sonic patient in the slightest, but he found that waiting for Knuckles to take things at his own pace wasn’t hard at all.So Sonic let it slide and took a nap. Hey, if he was going to wait he might as well laze about while he did it.When Sonic woke up an hour later, Knuckles was there holding a box.“Oh good! You’re awake!”“Yeah. You could’ve woken me up, dude.”Knuckles shifted his feet sheepishly. “Nah. You looked too cute and sleepy.” He held out the box suddenly. “Here!”Sonic chuckled and took the box. Just like Knuckles to get distracted. Not that he’d wake him up anyway.“Is this why you’ve been so shifty lately.”“No!” Knuckles blushed and looked away. “Maybe. Was it that obvious?”“You’re not exactly subtle, Knux.” Sonic decided to spare his boyfriend any more teasing and open the box. “Oh wow! This is amazing!”Inside was a little replica of Sonic’s shack with little hand carved figures of the whole team to scale. It was actually really impressive. For someone who couldn’t count most of the time, Knuckles had amazing spacial awareness when it came to making things.“D’you like it?”“You kidding? I love it!” Sonic carefully placed the model down. “You’re really talented, you know that?”Knuckles blushed but didn’t say anything. As proud as he was of his strength and fighting ability, he was really very shy about his gentler talents.He was too cute. As sappy as it was, Sonic couldn’t help but kiss him and make him blush harder.
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Knuckles punched a nearby tree, causing it to shake in protest. Luckily for the tree it was built to weather svere natural disasters and survived its encounter with the angry Echidna. Otherwise he might have felt bad about it later once he’d cooled off.For now, though, Knuckles was super mad at Sonic. Well, that wasn’t completely true. Yes he was mad Sonic wasn’t completely truthful with him, but Knuckles was also mad at himself.He should have known Sonic didn’t actually like him the same way. Why would he? He could get any girl in the village with a smirk and wink. All the time spent together without the others, all the smiles, the secret sharing? All just things to besties do. Not romance, no.Knuckles’ anger fizzled down into hurt. He knew he was stupid, but this was especially stupid even for him. He slumped to the ground and cried.“Hey, Knux! Where are you?”Knuckles clenched his teeth and tried not to make any sound. He didn’t want to embarrass himself and have Sonic see him crying like a wimp.“There you are!” Well shoot, Sonic noticed him. “What happened? That girl’s perfume didn’t chase you off, did it?”Knuckles couldn’t even crack a smile at the joke. Sonic must of noticed because he sat next to him and put his arm around his shoulders. Knuckles shrugged it off.“Woah, hey! What’s with the attitude all of a sudden?”“I’m not in the mood to hang out, Sonic.” Knuckles pulled his knees up and crossed his arms over them. “Don’t you have something better to do, anyway?”“What are you mad at me for?” Sonic rubbed his face in frustration. “It’s not my fault that clingy shop girl kept asking those questions. It’s none of her business.”“It’s not about what she said. It’s what you said.” Why was Knuckles even bothering with this?“What’d I say?!”“Don’t play dumb, Sonic!” Okay, now Knuckles was back to being angry at him. “You told her that romance movies were stupid and that you hated them!”“Yeah, and?” Sonic tilted his head. “Of all the things she asked, why is this the one bothering you?”Knuckles growled and pulled at his quills. How was he not getting it?!“But you watched ‘Beloved Among the Sky’ with me and you liked it! Why would you lie about that?” Knuckles pointed an accusing finger at him. “Or was it an imposter pretending to be you?”“Okay, you’ve been hanging out with Sticks too much.” Sonic waved the finger out of his face. “No, I don’t like ‘Beloved Among the Sky’. It’s one of the sappiest, most gag-inducing romance garbage ever. But!” Sonic looked Knuckles in the eye. “You love it so I watched it with you. And I did enjoy to experience. Because I saw it with you.”“Oh.” Then it sunk in and Knuckles blushed. “Oh!”Sonic snickered, relaxing now that Knuckles had calmed down. “Yeah, I was a bit more interested curling up with you and watching you rather than the movie.”“I’m sorry…”“Just don’t tell Amy what our first couples fight was about. She’ll never let me hear the end of it.”
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Sonic had no idea what Shadow’s damage was or why the other Hedgehog was out for his blood specifically. Seriously, he hadn’t spoken two sentences to the guy and suddenly Shadow is declaring vengeance on him or something.Normally Sonic let it slide once Shadow teleported back to wherever he came from. But this time he was pissed.The overpowered bastard showed up out of no where, for no determinable reason, and called Sonic out. Then a kid had accidentally gotten in between them while trying to get away and Shadow told the poor thing off, making her cry. Given his villainous nature, she was probably lucky he didn’t hit her. Then again, Sonic didn’t think Shadow would stoop so low as to attack a noncombatant much less a small child.“Hey! She’s just a kid! Leave her alone!”Knuckles stomped over and loomed over Shadow, who looked a bit surprised.“You’re nothing but a bully!”“Uh, Knuckles? I wouldn’t-”But Sonic didn’t get to finish as Shadow punch Knuckles right in the face, sending him flying across the battlefield. As the Echidna tried to get up, the villain teleported before him and dragged him up by the quills.“So you think you can take me, you pea-brained neanderthal?” Shadow, still holding him by the quills, slammed Knuckles into a nearby building.“Hey, leave him alone!” Sonic’s shout only got an ear twitch as Shadow was more interested in his current victim.Knuckles managed to stagger out of the rubble, only to be pushed down again. Shadow said nothing as he wrapped his hands around the Echidna neck, crushing his windpipe.Sonic realized with horror that Shadow really would kill Knuckles.It was like a switch had been flipped. Everything seemed to slow down and all Sonic could see was Shadow strangling Knuckles.He spin dashed into the villain without warning. He didn’t give Shadow any time to recover as he slammed back into him and bashed his head against the rubble beneath. Sonic didn’t let up, choosing instead to grab a sharp rock and was about to bring it down on Shadow’s face as hard as he could.“Sonic, no!”Sonic blinked releasing the rock form his hand. Was he really about to murder Shadow?“So that’s what it takes, does it?” Shadow laughed, though he was clearly in pain. “Insulting you and attacking you. Attacking you’re friends… None of that got the reaction I wanted.” The villain pushed his bewildered rival off him. “But this! This is what I wanted.”“N-no!” Sonic couldn’t believe he would kill anyone…Shadow smirked. “If I had actually killed one of your friends, you would have though.” He looked over the now shaking hero. “Or is it just the red idiot?”Sonic swore he felt his heart stop. If Shadow had actually succeeded in killing Knuckles? He felt his blood turn to ice and a dark pit of hate build in his gut, the rage threatening to return.“Hmmm. Interesting.” Shadow showed his back to Sonic. “Until next time, Hedgehog.” And then he disappeared.Sonic stared blankly at the spot for a moment.“He’s breathing!”There was a blue flash as Sonic knocked Tails over to get to Knuckles. The Echidna was wheezing painfully and was beaten black and blue, no doubt having more than a few broken bones to deal with. The Hedgehog didn’t even think as he collapsed onto his friend and started to cry.He’d embarrassed about it later, and have a lot of soul searching to do. Knuckles wasn’t just his friend. He was so much more. It was scary to think about. But what was scarier was what Sonic was going to do to Shadow next time the bastard dared show his face again.There was something dark inside of Sonic he hadn’t realized was there, and Shadow had awakened something terrifying.
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Knuckles had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.Sonic was flailing and splashing around in a pond, having fallen in while not paying attention. It was pretty funny considering it was basically just a big puddle, shallow enough for Sonic to easily stand in.“Knuckles, help! I can’t swim!”Knuckles rolled his eyes and walked into the water to save his boyfriend from his own silliness. He held the poor trembling Hedgehog to his chest to soothe him.“You’re fine, Sonic. It isn’t even deep.”Sonic slowly opened his eyes and looked down, seeing that Knuckles wasn’t even waist deep.“Uh…”Knuckles giggled as he wadded back on land. He didn’t let go of Sonic, though.“If you can’t keep out of water, I’m just going to have to carry you!”“Knuckles, no…!”
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Sonic had been twitchier than Sticks all month. But he was paranoid about a real threat, with a real face. It was only a matter of time until Shadow came to challenge him again and Sonic had to be prepared.The shift was unmistakable. Sonic was more violent in his clashes with Eggman, to the point the man had actually taken to hiding in his lair after the third confrontation. And without Eggman to fight, Sonic actually took to training. Nobody on Team Sonic had ever bothered to train before. Why? All the villains were losers.Even the villagers had taken to avoiding Sonic whenever they could. He only ever went out when one of his friends dragged him out to Meh Burger, anyway. He spent all his time training or with Knuckles.That was the other thing: Sonic had gotten super protective of Knuckles. The poor Echidna could barely get a moment to himself. The only way he managed to shake Sonic for a while is if he let another teammate watch him. He said at first that he had liked the attention, but now it’s way too much. It was getting to the point the villagers had started to avoid Knuckles as well for fear of angering Sonic.Amy and Tails had tried to intervene. This wasn’t healthy for either of them and Sonic needed to chill out. Sticks had been the only one who didn’t see anything wrong with Sonic’s behavior. As far as she was concerned, he was right and Shadow was going to go after Knuckles.Knuckles didn’t know what to do. He appreciated the concern, and especially the affection, but sonic was too intense. He could only hope Shadow would finally show up and they would have their usual fight, and everything blow over. He couldn’t see anybody he knew as a killer, even Shadow.When Shadow did finally make his move, it was one no one expected.Sonic was on the beach, smashing badniks he had Tails modify for him to use as training dummies, with Knuckles taking a nap on a beach chair.Beep! Beep!Knuckles was startled awake by his wrist communicator. He waved off Sonic’s suspicious look and pointed to his wrist.“It’s just Amy, Sonic. She probably just wants me to do something with her.”Sonic scowled, but chose to drop it for now. There was quiet talking on the communicator and Knuckles started look really worried.“What is it?” Sonic walked over when the line was closed. “What’d she say?”Knuckles looked worried and Sonic didn’t like that at all. Was Shadow spotted? Did he threaten her?“She said she went to see Tails in his workshop, but something was wrong. She was really upset and I think she was crying.” Knuckles frowned and looked away. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”Did something happen to Tails’ workshop? If Shadow left a message there, Tails was going to be steamed!“C’mon, lets go check it out,” was all Sonic said.The sight at the workshop was not what he expected. The village police were there, actually doing their jobs for once. Some other villagers and their clones were hanging around outside the police tape and were trying to see what was happening inside. The sergeant was talking to Amy just outside the door, who was crying pretty hard.Sonic and Knuckles elbowed their way through the crowd and ignored the barrier.“What happened, Amy?” Sonic called out.Amy looked up and only cried harder at the sight of him. She tried to stutter her way through an explanation, but gave up at the first word.“A terrible crime has been committed here,” Beaver Policeman replied for her. “I’m afraid your friend Tails is… not with us anymore.”Sonic froze. “What?”“I suggest you leave the crime scene and leave it to us-”“No way! You guys are completely useless!” Sonic pushed him out of the way and ran into the workshop.What he saw would haunt his nightmares. He simply stood for a minute and stared. Tails was…Sonic left, rushing past the others at the door. But not without grabbing a piece of paper left on Tails’ body.He ran back to his shack and curled up on his hammock, staring out at the sea. He had destroyed the note already, but the words he wouldn’t forget.“You were so concerned about your boyfriend that you left your brother completely defenseless. Sloppy, Hedgehog.I’ll be in the canyon at midnight.The Ultimate Life Form”“Sonic?”Sonic blinked, only now noticing Knuckles in the doorway. He slowly stood up before falling back to the floor and cried.“Sonic!” Knuckles rushed over to hold him. “I’m so, so sorry!”“You didn’t do anything,” Sonic sniffed, his misery burning into anger. “He did.”“Are you sure?”“Yes!” Sonic looked up at him. “He left a note! He’s taunting me!”“Sonic…” Knuckles petted the Hedgehog’s head, trying to calm him down. “Sticks thinks he’s trying to get you to fight to the death.”“Oh, I know he is.”“Don’t do it!” Knuckles held onto Sonic so tightly it hurt. “If you loose he’ll kill you.”“And if I win, I’ll kill him,” Sonic said quietly.There was silence. Then Knuckles started to tremble.“You wouldn’t do that, Sonic.” His voice was shaking. “Even to Shadow. Even after what he did.”“And if I don’t, he’ll kill someone else!”Sonic broke down crying again and Knuckles had nothing to say.They stayed together like that well past nightfall. Then, Sonic removed himself from the embrace and slowly walked to the door.“Sonic…?”“I’m sorry, Knuckles. I have to.”And in a flash of blue, Sonic was gone.
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Knuckles did his best not to cry as he and Sonic held each other. His boyfriend was crying, being the the emotionally stronger of the two, but he was clearly upset as well. And how could he not be with such terrible news!“What are you two doing?” Tails asked, catching them on his trip to the village center.Knuckles felt Sonic pull away to point at the poster in front of them, but he said nothing. The poster should have been explanation enough.“So they’re going to remodel the library. So what?”“But it’s horrible!” Knuckles sniffled. “Where am I going to read those backwards comics if the lie-berry is closed?”“They’re called manga,” Tails said flatly. “And you can’t read, Knuckles. You just look at the pictures.”“But they’re so cool!”“And it’s worse than that,” Sonic butted in. “You know how much time Amy spends at the library? What do you think she’s going to do? Remember when she couldn’t hold her crock self-improvement meetings at the City Hall?”Sonic and Knuckles both shuddered. So much toothpaste…“Well, I’ve got things to do. Good luck with that.” Tails shook his head as he went back the way he came.“How are we going to survive this?” Sonic began to pace, wringing his hands.“I know!” Knuckles wiped his face. “It’s going to be such a bad week!”“Huh?” Sonic stopped and blinked. “Why only a week?”“Our misadventures are weekly and all, so it’ll probably be a week,” Knuckles clarified, shrugging. “Then something else happens.”“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Sonic sighed and kicked the dirt. “I think we should go hide in a cave until whatever happens blows over.”Knuckles smiled a little and nodded. A whole week with just the two of them sounded nice…“C’mon.” Sonic put a determined look on his face. “Lets get some supplies and head out.”The two gathered enough junk food, blankets, and comics to last them a week and hid themselves away to console each other over the loss of the library.
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Sonic tried to ignore Amy as she watched him in amusement.“So you got all these blankets so you and Knuckles and build a fort in the shack?” Even her tone was teasing.“Yes, and?” Sonic didn’t see what was so funny. “If you’re going to make fun of use for being immature, don’t.”“Oh, no,” Amy said, trying not to laugh. “I don’t think it’s immature. It’s romantic.”Sonic stopped what he was doing and stared at her like she was crazy. They planned to build a blanket tent like a couple of kids and playing video games all night. What was romantic about that?Amy rolled her eyes. “If you don’t get it then I’m not explaining it.” She picked up a note left on the table. “And what’s this?”“Uh?” Sonic blushed when he noticed the paper. “Don’t look at that!”“Embarrassing?” She ignored him of course. She giggled and winked at Sonic. “For someone who hates sappy romance clichés, you sure do engage in a lot of them.”“I do not!” Sonic’s face only turned redder.“Sonic, this is a drawing of you two looking at stars. And I know Knuckles didn’t draw this because it’s not very good.”“It’s a reminder for him! He can’t read, so I have to draw it.”Amy gave him a flat stare. “There’s hearts on it. Face it, it’s a love note.”“No it’s not!” Sonic was sick of Amy’s suggestions. “Look, Amy, if you’re here just to make fun of me-”“Hey, Sonic!” Knuckles called from the beach.“That’s Knuckles.” Sonic pushed Amy out the door.“Hi Knuckles,” Amy said, giggling.Knuckles blinked, surprised to see her. “Uh, hi Amy. What’s up?”“Nothing,” Sonic answered before Amy said anything to embarrass him. “She was just leaving.”“Of course.” Amy giggled again. “I don’t want to interrupt your date.”Sonic rolled his eyes, face flaming. Why was Amy so romance obsessed and nosy?“Well, if everything’s fine-” Knuckles started.“-Then we’ve got a fort to build,” Sonic finished.Amy raised a brow ridge.“What?” both boys asked in unison.“You doing that thing again.” Amy was smirking.“Amy, what are you-” Sonic sighed.“-Talking about?” Knuckles asked, tilted his head.Sonic glared at her as she started laughing and shaking her head. What was with her today? What were they doing that was so funny?“You two are too much.” Amy cleared her throat. “Well, I’ll leave you two love birds to each other. I promised Sticks I’d help her make fruit preserves.”Sonic and Knuckles stood on the porch and watched her leave.“Well that was-”“-Really weird.” Sonic shrugged it off. Girls. “C’mon. I got all the blankets we need.”“Oh! Did you get extras for us to wrap up in?” Knuckles was really excited.“Sorta.” Sonic grinned and grabbed his boyfriend’s hand. “I only got one, but I made sure it was big enough for both of us, so it should be fine.”“Even better!” Knuckles grinned back. “I’m so gonna beat you.”“No way!” Sonic winked. “You know I’m the reigning champion at Fightin’ Dinos!”Knuckles rolled his eyes. “Prove it! Winner gets a kiss from the loser.”“You’re on!”
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Amy always went on a cleaning frenzy in April. She’d start singing about spring cleaning and and how “a clean home is a happy home!” This year she somehow tricked the whole team into helping her.“Knuckles, can you pick up the couch, please?” Amy asked, far to chipper.Knuckles sighed and carefully hefted up the heavy furniture. He didn’t want to damage it and have to sit through one of Amy’s lectures again. He also made sure to be careful of Sonic sorting through old scrapbooks at the table. Luckily, Tails and Sticks were put on porch and trash duties, so were outside.“Hey, look at this!” Sonic held up one of the scrapbooks. “This one has to be years old! I think we’re all still teenagers here!”Knuckles was curious and set down the couch. Maybe a little too roughly as Amy growled in protest. He ignored her and went over to see what Sonic was talking about.“Okay, you can take a break,” Amy grumbled. “But only five minutes!”“Yeah, whatever, Amy,” Sonic muttered and pointed at a picture. “Look! It’s Eggman before he started getting grey in the ‘stache!”Knuckles giggled and pointed at a picture of himself. “Look how small I was! All that working out really paid off!” He flexed his arm, clearly bigger now as an adult who spent much of his time building his bod.“Psch. You haven’t been small since we first met as young kids.” Sonic rolled his eyes before finding another picture. “And look how short Tails was. It’s hard to believe it now that he’s as tall as me.”“That’s right, Tails is a lot younger than the rest of us isn’t he?”“Yep. It’s easy to forget.”Sonic and Knuckles looked through the old pictures and all their memories. They totally forgot about Amy before she interrupted them.“Sounds like that book’s from before you two started dating.” She giggled and took a picture of the two men staring at her in confusion.Knuckles blinked at the sudden flash, startled. “What was that for?”“Well, I need pictures for more scrapbooks, right?”“You’ve got too many already,” Sonic muttered. Knuckles looked over at the pile still waiting to be sorted.Amy huffed. “You just don’t get it, Sonic.” She clapped her hands once. “Break times over! Time to get back to work!”Both men groaned.
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“I don’t know if I can do this. What if I fail?”Sonic glared at his boyfriend and held his hand“You’ll be fine, Knux.” He gave a reassuring smile. “We’ve worked on this all month. I know you can do it.”Knuckles smiled nervously back and triple checked that he had his pencil. Sonic squeezed his hand in support. He was very confident in him.Sonic waited outside the test room impatiently. It was so boring! But he had to be there when Knuckles came out. No need to cause a misunderstanding.Other testers slowly filtered out over time. Each kid held a piece of paper in their hands. Most were grinning at the score at the top, though there was one who looked about to cry. Sonic began to worry as more testers came out and no Knuckles.Eventually, Knuckles did finally come out with his own graded test. He was concentrating on the score and didn’t notice when Sonic met him.“So?” Why was Knuckles frowning? He couldn’t have done badly, right? They worked so hard together…!“Oh.” Knuckles smiled a little. “I’m no genius, but I passed.” He handed the paper over.Sonic took it and looked at the score. A wave of relief washed over him. Knuckles passed. Not by much, but still.“This calls for a celebration, don’tcha think?” Sonic asked, grinning back.“Yeah!” Knuckles bounced a little in happiness. “Does that you will write me love notes? Now that I can read them?”Sonic blushed. “Where did you get that-!” He groaned. “Never mind, I know exactly where you got that idea.” Sonic glanced at Knuckles’ hopeful face and sighed. “Okay, okay. If it’ll make you happy.”“You’re the best, Sonic!” Knuckles cheered and picked up his bashful boyfriend in a big hug.“Yeah, okay. Just put me down before my face turns into a tomato.”Knuckles put him down. Sonic grabbed his hand and began to lead him to Amy’s to meet the others. Things he did for his boyfriend.
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Knuckles was about to do something really stupid.Okay, so he always did something stupid, like everyday. But this was stupidest thing ever. If he was smart he would just keep his mouth shut and forget all about this.Knuckles wasn’t smart, though. He was actually as dumb as a rock, and knew this.So as he and Sonic were having a contest to see who could spin around on one of Tails’ whirly-gigs and not throw up from getting dizzy, Knuckles opened his big dumb mouth.They were both lying on the ground, laughing and coughing. It was just so much fun, and Sonic was smiling and he doesn’t smile like that too often, and it’s cute, and-“I love you.”Oh man! Knuckles was so dead, he knew it! Why did he have to go and blurt out his feelings like that? Sonic liked girls and was going to think he’s weird! What if he doesn’t want to be friends anymore?“I-” Sonic cleared his throat, face red. “I, uh, love you too.”“You don’t need to try to make me feel better,” Knuckles said. “I shouldn’t’ve said anything. It’s stupid-”“No it’s not!”Knuckles was startled and sat up. It was nice Sonic clearly still cared about him as a friend and all, but-“I mean it.” Sonic forced Knuckles to look at him. “I. Love. You. And yes, like more than a friend.”Knuckles didn’t know what to say. He felt Sonic take hold of his hands, but he could only stare at them dumbly.Knuckles admitted to Sonic he was in love with him.Sonic said he loved him back.Sonic said he loved him back!“Okay?” Sonic was smiling reassuringly when he looked up.“…Okay.” Knuckles smiled back.
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Sometimes Sonic wished he could be as easygoing as Knuckles was when it came to expressing his emotions.One day, the goofball’s picking flowers and putting them all over Sonic’s shack, not caring if it’s a silly or girly activity. The next, he’s got Amy helping him set up an art exhibit with illustrations of their relationship for the whole village to see.It’s a bit overwhelming and it takes everything in Sonic to not runaway from the onslaught of sappy emotions it makes him feel. If he had known Knuckles was going to be this assertive with his affections, Sonic might have thought twice about dating him.(That’s a lie. Sonic would have dated Knuckles sooner if he’d had known.)But with all of Knuckles’ metaphorically, and literally, telling everyone on the island how much he loved his boyfriend, it kind of made Sonic feel inadequate.What did Sonic do to show how much he loved Knuckles? He didn’t give him flowers, there was nowhere for Knuckles to put them. He didn’t make art for him, he could barely draw stick figures. He didn’t leave love notes, Knuckles couldn’t read them even if he did. What could he do?So he swallowed his pride and asked Amy for advice.To her credit, she only giggled and gushed a little about how cute the two of them were. Then she found him a book and a tape. It could have been much worse.Sonic spent over a month studying and practicing. He didn’t want to embarrass himself. He didn’t expect to be perfect or anything, he wasn’t a miracle worker. But he refused to make the mistake of meaning to say one thing, but it sounds like he said something else.He finally got the courage to speak when sitting with his boyfriend on the beach.
“The sun (is) hot. Should you and me get frozen cream?”
Knuckles looked over at Sonic in surprise. Sonic tried not too look nervous.“Uh, did I say it wrong?”“No. No, that wasn’t too bad.” Knuckles grinned. “Other than an accent, that was almost perfect.”“It took me a month, to be honest.” Sonic relaxed and scratched the side of his nose. “It was a lot harder than I thought it’s be.”Knuckles pulled Sonic into a hug. “It’s nice to hear Echidnian again.” He pulled back and winked. “And the accent’s cute.”“Yeah, well…” Sonic tried not to blush. “I think you’re going to have to help me from now on. I ran out of study materials.”“I’d love to!” Knuckles agreed. “And yeah, ice cream sound awesome right now!”