Chapter Text
Sonic didn’t understand why or how it had happened, it just did. It was an average day, Knuckles and him were sitting crossed legged next to each other.
Munching on the stray berries and honeysuckle growing out of the bush they placidly sat beside. Sharing how their week was going like usual whenever Sonic had come to visit Knuckles on Angel Island. He had visited alone which he did occasionally, though it was mostly due to Tails spending the day with Cream and Vanilla. Not that he minded of course.
He likes spending time with Knuckles, especially alone since he felt Knuckles was more comfortable messing around him when others weren't around. He was lucky to see it in a way. Knuckles was completely a different person in comparison to his past self.
There was clear improvement in how he handled social interactions, understanding whenever he’s gone too far with teasing Tails and or when someone needs their space.
He tried to get to the bottom of any problem that arises before getting upset. Sure the occasional joke went over his head once or twice or sometimes Knuckles' patience runs thin on really bad days. But he wasn’t as much of a knucklehead Sonic had originally thought he'd be forever.
So it wasn't foreign to Sonic that they were close.
He had stretched freely, feeling his arms loosen as they risen above his head, he stretched out his legs as well and rested them onto Knuckles' lap. Both of the two friends’ lying against the brush and enjoying each other’s company. Sonic smiles softly to himself with content.
This was the life.
Like expected the red echidna didn’t move, only glancing at him briefly, actually smiling before finishing stuffing his face with berries.
“Don’t get too comfortable.” He had warned after swallowing. “I got to do something before heading back to the altar. The sun is almost setting.” He pointed his nose at the sun as it began to fall into the blue sea.
Sonic took that as Knuckles prompting him that it’ll soon be time for him to leave. The hedgehog didn’t want to look upset but failed miserably anyways.
“Oh alright…” He said in a defeated tone, picking up his legs and swinging them away from on top of his friend's. He heard an audible sound of confusion come from Knux, making Sonic turn his head to him expectantly.
They stare at each other for a long moment before Knuckles’ violet eyes then quickly shoot down to the ground.
Sonic smirked as he automatically knew Knuckles wanted to say something and judging by how apprehensive he looked it was probably something embarrassing.
“What? Cat got your tongue Knux?” He teased, his smirk widening once he noticed his friend’s head lowering more.
“Come on, spit it out, I’m all ears.” He said as he raised both his hands to his ears. He moved them for emphasis, causing Knuckles to smile a little as he caught a glimpse. But it didn't last, his expression quickly had a distant look to it. Sonic's mind started racing with the possibilities of what he was going to say.
Maybe it’s about Rogue again. Knuckles always liked ranting about how much he hated her trying to mess with him and the master emerald. Sonic always just chalked it up to Knux liking her and not knowing how to express it properly.
Knuckles was quiet for several minutes until he slowly worked his eyes back up to meet Sonic’s. “Hey, uh. You can stay here if you want.” He spoke softly, seeming to struggle with those words.
Knuckles wanted him to stay?
He knew that Knuckles always pretended he didn’t like being around him just to keep up an act.
The echidna always had to put on his tough guy persona even whenever they were alone. Though once in a blue moon those walls had slowly come down, and whenever it did it always made Sonic’s heart swell with warmth.
As much as Sonic had wanted to stay he shook his head, remembering he had promised to do something for a certain pink hedgehog that wouldn’t stop pestering him.
“Nah it’s fine. I have to go help Amy with something.” He began to stand, beginning to crack his own knuckles as he stretched briefly.
“Oh.” The words were soft and came across as disappointment.
“Okay.” Knuckles said, starting to flick his long draping quills away from his face, staring off a bit in the distance briefly. Sonic frowned at him, starting to feel bad. As he opened his mouth to utter an apology and make a promise to his friend that he’ll see him as soon as he could; Knuckles had placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him mid sentence.
“It’s fine I get it.” He sounded genuine but a bit annoyed as he said this, probably annoyed with Sonic’s rambling. The hedgehog still opened his mouth to say more and began to prod the echidna with an elbow bump softly to his chest.
“But I mean it Knux. I’ll make it up to you, if you wanna brawl I’ll be there-or if you just want to go on a race hunting for treasure I’ll always be there, but don’t think I’ll go easy on yo-'' The hedgehog was stopped from finishing his sentence, only this time with a kiss on the cheek.
It happened as fast as it had ended, soft as it didn’t overstay its welcome. Leaving Sonic stunned, his face flushing as all of his words dissolved into the background noise. What just happened?-
Knuckles looked just as confused and as shocked as he did. They stared at each other, dragging along a few dozen stretches of awkward silence between them afterwards.
Sonic could tell his reaction was freaking out the echidna because he started to look even more horrified with what he had done. Knuckles clears his throat, his face turning before he had turned his body.
“Cya Sonic.” He said with a wave before casually walking away from Sonic as if it was nothing. Leaving the hedgehog still stunned, his fingers dully tracing the spot on his cheek where Knuckles had kissed him.
He didn’t bother chasing after him, unsure of what he would even say to Knuckles if he had caught up to him.
His face was still hot with apprehension. He needed a jog, or just something where he didn’t have to linger on the fact that Knuckles kissed him.
Oh chaos…
He had immediately begun running off to the further part of the island near the altar and hopping onto the tornado.
Not bothering to check and see if Knuckles was around, he just needed to get out of there.
His brain couldn’t stop replaying what had happened between him and Knuckles. It was too much in fact that he had to cancel his plans with Amy and dedicate the entire night to running around mindlessly and not lingering on his thoughts or feelings. But no matter how hard he tried, the thoughts wouldn’t go away.
Looks like this was a situation that he just couldn’t run away from.
***
Sonic had seen Knuckles a week after they last hung out like normally.
He would’ve felt too weird coming the day after the kiss when they had established the routine of visiting once every week.
The hedgehog had prepared for the worst, yet everything was fine. Knuckles didn’t act weird, a little quieter but he still smiled whenever Sonic goofed around with him and still kept his cockiness on full display whenever challenged to do something. It relieved him yet still left Sonic feeling hollow, he felt like he was missing something.
It was only a kiss on the cheek...that didn't mean anything. It shouldn't.
The day went by so quickly it was easy to forget about what had happened, and for a while he did forget about it. They parted their ways and they did the same thing the next week and the week after.
It was as if nothing happened and everything was normal.
Until it wasn't.
Sonic had come to Angel island once more, hearing of Eggman's terrorism on the creatures of the island. Knuckles normally wouldn’t use his radio for emergencies like this, since he could handle Eggman on his own. However due to the scientist's recent status of maintaining a low profile, Sonic had strongly suggested to Knuckles if there's any sighting of him, to give Sonic or Tails a call.
This out of all things was bizarre.
He wasn’t stealing the master emerald, and or taking over Angel island. Only simply snatching up and collecting animals like they were mere objects. It made the blue hedgehog grit every time at the thought.
It’s not like it benefits him at all, not to say that if it did it’d be justified.
However Eggman had no use for those creatures, not even for his own malicious inventions.
His technology was already way past that point. Sonic was beginning to believe it was just something he did on purpose just to get him under his skin. And while he hated to admit it, it definitely worked.
With crossed arms, Sonic stood boldly on the front of the tornado as Tails flew them straight to the source of the disturbance on the floating island.
The plane hovered above the tall trees, unable to find clear space to land. His blue quills waved back and forth in the cool wind, refreshing as the sun had beamed down on his quills.
Though it didn’t take long for him to be ignited with fire as soon as he’d seen flashes of metal shining between the branches of the trees due to the sun's rays.
“Don’t wait up on me Tails!” Sonic yelled against the wind, crouching down to prepare himself to jump.
“This will only take a sec.” He said with a smirk. His two tailed friend only gave him a thumbs up in response. Too focused on piloting as the wind brushed against his fur and goggles.
Then Sonic was off, leaping off of the plane, diving head first above the trees before bunching his body together and curling up into a ball.
His spikes sliced through tree branches as smooth as a chainsaw, plummeting closer to the ground before landing directly on one of the badniks.
Sonic uncurled himself, his body bounced off of the robot, gracefully landing on both feet once he watched it fall over.
Spilling all of the animals that had been inside of its container. Most began to flee, though some were too stunned to move.
Which wouldn’t be a problem, if it wasn’t for the branches that Sonic had sliced through spiraling down rapidly.
“Woah!” He gasped before lunging toward the animals and grabbed them before one of the branches had fallen on top of them.
He let out a sigh of relief as they cheered for him, seeming unharmed in the process. With them in his arms Sonic had zipped off, out of the jungle and toward a lake. Placing the creatures here temporarily, just to keep them safe since that didn’t seem like it was the last of the badniks.
His ears picked up yelling from a distance.
The voices mashed together sounded familiar, without any hesitation the blue hedgehog had dashed toward the sounds.
Weaving through trees and past any boulders in his way before skidding to a halt, reaching the end of a cliff. Peering down at the edge to see the source of the voices.
One of them was from the perpetrator of the disturbance of peace, cackling away as his echidna friend was kneeling and surrounded by his robots.
Now normally Sonic trusted and understood that Knux could handle himself in confrontational situations. Knuckles especially disliked it when Sonic pops in just at the right time to save everyone because it always comes off as showing off.
Which in most cases, he most certainly was.
However the way his red friend had kneeled on the ground his head flickering between the robots made him look like a scared child.
What’s up with that? Sonic thought to himself.
He waited to see if Knuckles would move, but the guardian just wouldn’t. It only took until a robot had lunged at him for Knuckles to decide to move.
He had rolled to avoid the badnik's striking metallic hand, a loud groan in anguish came out of him even though he was unharmed by it. But unfortunately he had gotten in the way of another machine.
It successfully landed a swipe which made Knuckles get knocked off to the side forcefully.
Sonic swallowed hard, his body radiating with heat from the sight of his friend getting thrown around like a ragdoll by another robot who had ganged up on him.
“Okay I’ve seen enough…” He muttered to himself before curling into a ball and launching himself at the badnik that had already struck Knuckles. Uncurling himself to punt it away, making sure to purposely direct it toward Eggman in his mobile.
The man looked surprised and confused.
“W-Wha?! Aw dammit!” Eggman hissed in anger.
Once he had landed on both of his feet he had wasted no time to knock into the rest of the robots.
Destroying them on impact as he yelled out loud through the destruction of his robots. “Come on! Did you really not expect me to be here?!” He let his mild irritation seep through his words, skidding to a halt after there were no more left and he could directly look up at Eggman.
"S-Sonic… Didn't I tell you before I got this?" He heard Knuckles' voice from behind him, very strained but Sonic didn't pay any attention to him.
Too focused on wanting to keep Eggman away from them. "Not now Knux, the adults are talking." Sonic waved his hand dismissively at the echidna.
He could hear the growling arising from Knuckles' chest but he chose to ignore it. He couldn't focus on that.
“I’ve expected you. I just hadn’t expected you to tarnish my fun so quickly.” Eggman groaned as if he had a headache.
Though his irritation quickly dissolved at the expense of Sonic’s, the hedgehog visually gritted his teeth at him.
“You appear to be a bit tense, friend. How about you relax with a nice net hammock!” A net had shot out from the front of his machine. Startled, Sonic immediately jumped out of the way, not anticipating that Knuckles would be in the crossfire.
A loud painful holler came out of Knuckles as his body was propelled backwards, along with the sound of static electricity running through it.
“Knux!” Sonic yelled with panic, approaching him quickly as he looked at his fallen friend. His eyes were shut tight, though still breathing rapidly.
The smell of burning flesh made Sonic’s stomach flip. That was completely unexpected, and way too out of line.
That same vile cackle made Sonic’s head turn to glare at Eggman, his body heating up with the overwhelming sensation of anger. Sonic’s fist balled up as he had trained his eyes onto the man.
Why did he always have to mess with them like this?
The man’s cackling came to a stop once he realized Sonic had jumped above him and already was in a ball ready to smash onto the top of his head.
A shield had guarded the man briefly before Sonic had rammed into his mobile. Knocking it to the side as the glass shield shattered from the sheer impact. Huge shards of glass propelled past Sonic as his body had been sprung upward back into the air successfully. The startled sounds of the man fueled Sonic to keep ramming his body into the machine once more.
Sonic just didn't realize how quickly the man had pressed something before it was too late. He'd enabled another shield around him, Sonic had only expected it to make him just bounce right off it like before. But instead he felt himself forcefully uncurl as an overpowering current of electricity ran through his entire body for only a couple of seconds.
The feeling never left and was unending, a full eternity from the intensity of the shock.
His entire world spun once launched several feet away in the sky, away from the doc before crashing down on the ground. The wind nearly knocked out of him, struggling to find the strength to stay conscious and or move his body.
Too overwhelmed by both shock and pain. Eggman must’ve upped the wattage because Sonic didn’t remember electrocution from Eggman or even anything else hurting this bad.
His entire body pulsated with a burning sensation, his entire nerves felt like they were on fire.
He smelt the very same sharp and familiar smell of burnt flesh, this time coming from himself.
Letting out a choked sound as he tightened his eyes shut, reeling from the immense pain.
Hissing through his gritted teeth, his eyes stung even while they clenched shut. His heart accelerated wildly. Not in the same way as it should when he’s running, more forced and unnatural. It made it harder to breathe-why couldn’t he breathe?
Panic fled his body, he felt like his lungs couldn't function anymore.
He could hear a staggered breath from Knuckles, his friend uttering his name before falling silent.
Sonic had wanted to reply back, but the grip on his chest made it harder to.
“Sayonara rodents!” Eggman announced along with strings of laughter before hovering off.
Oh no you fucking don’t…
Sonic thought with rage, he tried his best to manage his breathing, his eyes stinging as he gaped constantly before he had sat up.
With a hand on his chest his teeth gritted once he felt his body usher him to lay down again. But he couldn’t let him get away with this, he couldn’t.
He won’t.
Sonic forced himself to get up, his chest heaving rapidly as he took a moment to get used to the pain. He had heard small muttering from the echidna behind him but Sonic had chosen to ignore. He just couldn’t allow Eggman to get away with this.
Before he knew it, he had gone after the man, starting off with a sluggish walk before performing a light jog. Frustrating the hell out of him. His vision blurred and swamped but he did his best to just focus on the round machine in the distance.
Eventually he managed to speed up, his legs starting to swish more on the ground. Pushing through both his discomfort and the trees racing across his blurred vision. Sonic had finally caught sight of the gray floating blob getting closer.
“Eggman!” He yelled, regretting as he had lost his breath afterwards. He slowed down to a halt, noticing the man glancing at him briefly but still proceeding. Sonic let out a hiss, his chest expanding slowly before he pushed onwards again, this time pushing himself harder to go faster.
Only becoming less than a foot away from him within a few minutes.
His objective was clear now they were out of the crowded and enclosed jungle and out in the open.
“How many times do I have to electrocute you in order for you to give up!?” The man sighed in frustration, before spinning his mobile around, still going forward but preparing to launch what Sonic had assumed to be another net.
Sonic had prepared himself to be able to move out of the way in time, though he wasn’t confident if he had the strength to. However he didn’t expect Eggman’s mobile abruptly being shot at, his machine crashing down on the ground.
Sonic let out a loud yelp as he definitely wasn’t prepared to jump over the mobile. His foot caught on it before he had made it over, he had let out a painful cry once he felt electricity course his body once more.
It felt just as painful, if not more than the last time. As Sonic had been electrocuted once more the hedgehog’s body had finally given up.
Tripping while he had lost his momentum. He had tumbled onto his face a dozen times before he came to a full stop, face deep in the dirt. A shaky hand of his was placed on the ground beside his face to pursue the action of getting up, but Sonic was too much in anguish to dare try. His heart was pounding against his chest as if it had wanted to escape from him.
He couldn’t breathe.
Sonic was gaping constantly before the world around him faded in and out of the darkness. He could hear the constant ringing in his head. While shutting his eyes he could've sworn he had gone out of consciousness the moment he had them shut.
After he felt his lungs function once more after a dozen or so seconds he decided to open his eyes. Taking a breath. Then another, until he could feel air flow in and out of him securely. He'd focused on this until he had gotten a grip, his eyes had watered due to the intensity of just everything that had happened.
His brain couldn’t distinguish how long it had been since he'd been lying on the ground, but as soon as he had heard Tails' voice before the sound of shoes rushing toward him his brain had suddenly snapped out of his trance.
“Sonic!” His eyes slowly moved, landing on Tails once he appeared before shutting his eye lids. He had appeared so quickly, Sonic couldn’t process it. “Give me a second bud.” He whispered, hating the helpless look in the young fox’s eyes.
Sonic huffed a little before slowly rising up. He thought he'd felt better until his head had decided to punish him and start pounding violently. The hedgehog's vision blurred, an unfamiliar feeling in his throat and head made the hedgehog feel ill.
"Sonic?" Tails had asked while reaching out to him, only to immediately pull back from him as Sonic had hurled bile onto the floor.
"Shi- I mean shoot." Tails quickly saves himself from cursing which was something he was apparently working on. Sonic wondered why.
But right now Sonic could only focus on trying not to vomit anymore of what was left of his lunch. He was back on the floor, his limbs shaking like leaves in the wind, trying to hold himself up.
Tails’ had attempted to place a hand on Sonic’s back, but the hedgehog had only weakly pulled away from his touch, curling up to himself with his head lowered to the ground.
“T-Tails please don’t.” He pleaded gasping from how awful the sensation had felt.
He had heard the fox step back, a soft sorry escaping from his lips as he allowed Sonic his space. Sonic waited, waited until he no longer felt like his insides were trying to escape him and his vision started to clear. Slowly turning his head where Eggman should be, all he had spotted was an empty cluster of dirt and grass on the ground beside him.
“He got away. Sorry.” Tails said, rubbing his head with his hand sheepishly. Sonic didn’t have it in him to get upset at that, especially as Tails had just saved him back there. The yellow fox spoke once more. “But that’s not important, what happened to you?”
Sonic responded with his voice tight. “Knux…”
Tails’ eyes flickered with heavier concern. “Knuckles? Is he okay?”
Panic began to make Sonic’s heart race as Tails asked him, which made his chest hurt. “He got electrocuted by a net!- I-I got shocked as well.” Sonic had said, feeling his heart beat a million times faster as he attempted to stand. “Tails we got to go get him-ngh…” His head had fallen onto the palm of his hand, starting to collapse back to his knees.
Sonic felt like his nerves were fried inside out and numb at the same time. This sensation was overwhelming.
“Alright. But you’re not moving an inch, you’re obviously experiencing the effects of after shock.”
“But I need to see if he’s okay…” Sonic muttered, fighting back any tears that sting in his eyes.
Everything hurt so much. Tails was quiet for a second before running off toward where he landed the tornado and rolling it closer to Sonic. “Come on.” He said, sighing a bit as he offered Sonic a hand. Sonic gave a soft smile appreciatively before doing so. “Where is he?” Tails said as they soon took off into the sky.
Sonic did his best to recall where they had last been and Tails had done his best to land just on the cliff top next to the spot. Sonic had wasted no time to rush toward Knuckles despite his yellow friend’s cries of disapproval. Ignoring the constant pain in his head and chest, and the urge to throw up again. Sonic’s chest started to swell with fear.
“Knuckles get up.” He was about to reach and grab the red echidna until Tails had firmly gripped his shoulder, making the hedgehog immediately stop.
“Don’t touch him or the net Sonic! You might set it off again.” The fox's words were stern, which was something Tails normally doesn't do unless a situation is serious.
Sonic blinked though nodded slowly. Feeling somewhat ashamed for not seeing how obvious that should've been to him. His brain was still fuzzy. He only silently watched Tails as he had observed the net. Taking several moments for him to find a way to deactivate it, trying his best to be careful. “Holy moly is Eggman trying to kill us?” Tails muttered as he pushed aside the net and observed the mechanism closely with his eyes wide with apprehension.
“I don’t get it either…” Sonic said softly his eyes studied Knuckles, his eyes were still shut tight. His breathing rapid and he started to mutter to himself words that didn’t make any sense on his own.
“We need to get him help Sonic, this isn’t good.” Tails said, his blue eyes beginning to cloud, growing watery.
“Y...You’re right.” Sonic said, though he managed to put on a brave face and stand up. “Knux probably won't be happy about getting taken off of Angel island but it's not worth his life. Help me get him on the plane Tails.” Sonic said, grabbing his upper body which almost made Sonic break down in tears. Knuckles felt so lifeless in his arms. It was unnatural and wrong to him.
Tails did his best to help carry Knuckles to the plane with him. Sonic acknowledged how hard it was on Tails to see both of his best friends this condition. Sonic didn't want to be a burden and put this much weight onto him. Yet he couldn’t help but feel so weak at this moment. Why did Eggman have to go fuck them up? He usually wasn’t as sadistic. What’s gotten over him? These thoughts flew through Sonic’s mind as he held onto Knuckles tightly in his seat. Fighting sleep in order to make sure Knuckles didn’t stop breathing.
Tails took them to Vanilla within a span of a few hours. Understanding how Knuckles wouldn’t take waking up in the hospital by himself well and knew that Vanilla had a handful of medical knowledge.
Vanilla had insisted on Sonic staying as well to patch him up and make sure he’s okay even if he’s not in as bad shape as Knuckles, which he didn’t bother refusing. He had already made it up in his mind that he wanted to be there for Knuckles to make sure he was okay. Sonic only had minor burns despite being electrocuted twice, mostly on his chest and foot which he received bandages for. He had pulled out a chair and sat beside Knuckles’ bed, his hand propping up his head. Pinching himself to make sure he had stayed awake through his friend’s slumber. Vanilla had offered her own bed for Sonic but he had refused.
He just wanted to be there for Knuckles.
That’s all he could think about, the only reasonable thing in his head.