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It had taken Knuckles some time to procure some items he’d lost long ago. These items, which he had found just around the time he had met Rouge and Shadow, during the events of the ARK incident, had been lost because of how often he moved around and his lack of a home. He didn’t have a place to store them, so he had normally left them around the Master Emerald, as bringing them with him wasn’t always a viable option.
Rouge had found information that Eggman had acquired all three of the items, and Knuckles decided they were useful enough to go after. It had been easy enough, as they were stored in a base Eggman hadn’t been at himself.
On his way back to Angel Island, he had come across a lake he had seen once or twice before but never truly taken in. It was beautiful, surrounded by a lush forest, and there was a double-track trail that led to a small, abandoned cabin on the West side of the body of water. Some forgotten, large steel containers were scattered around the cabin, which was also located by a small dock that extended about twenty feet over the water. Normally, humans disrupting nature would’ve bugged Knuckles, but this was exactly what he was looking for.
He walked over to the cabin as he contemplated how long ago he had last used the items that he now wore—the Hammer Gloves, the Air Necklace, and a pair of Sunglasses—deciding it would be best to test them out, since it had been years. After adjusting his items, he moved onto the dock, looking down at the clear, blue water once he reached the end of the wooden platform, before diving into it. He swam close to the surface, looking at the rocks that lined the lake bottom, watching distant trout swim away, out of sight. Once he dove down deeper, he watched the minnows do the same thing, retreating to the safety of rocks.
He had no need to hold his breath, thanks to the Air Necklace, so he let himself enjoy the lake for upwards of fifteen minutes. When he reemerged, he turned to look for the dock he had come from, and then sighed when he saw Sonic standing on it. The blue hedgehog gave him a big wave, once he was spotted.
Knuckles swam over, grabbing the edge of the dock. “What are you doing here, Sonic?” he asked, pulling himself up and shaking off any access water as he got to his feet.
“Wow, you know you’re really graceful in the water?” Sonic asked rhetorically, giving him a handsome little smile.
Knuckles blinked and then simply gave him a look, wanting an answer as he moved to walk back to the cabin.
Sonic turned and walked with him. “Rouge told me you’d gotten those old items you had back in the day, so I wanted to come visit you to see them,” he explained. “I always stop at this lake on my way.”
“Why? You don’t even swim,” Knuckles said.
Sonic eyed him a little bit, openly. “Sometimes I just like to admire things,” he hummed with a fake innocence to his tone.
Knuckles blinked once and looked over at him, warmth spreading across his cheeks, despite the cool water he’d just been in. “Whatever,” he breathed, waving his comment off.
“Hey! I remember these!” Sonic exclaimed when Knuckles had lifted his hand, grabbing the echidna’s wrist gently and pulling his arm closer, to get a better look at his gloves. “You were always so cool with them.”
Knuckles huffed, tugging his arm away. “I want to make sure they still work,” he said, gesturing over to the steel boxes they were walking up to.
Sonic smirked. “Oh, right, go ahead,” he said, stopping to let Knuckles go the rest of the way by himself, not wanting to get in the way.
“Are you going to watch me?” he asked with confusion.
Sonic smirked at him. “Like I said, sometimes I just like to admire beautiful things.”
Knuckles blinked again, huffing again and quickly turning to the boxes. “You said nothing about ‘beautiful’ things.”
“Well, I’m saying it now,” Sonic said.
Knuckles just grumbled a little bit, before raising his fist and smashing one of the boxes in front of him, then using his other hand to destroy another one.
“I have no idea how you’re that strong,” Sonic commented, before the next punch. Knuckles chose to ignore him, just busting another container. “Seriously, I’m pretty sure you could completely demolish me.”
Knuckles nearly choked, that time, turning and looking over at Sonic, who had a fist on his hip, smirking. “Chaos, Sonic,” he breathed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
Sonic laughed softly. “Sorry, too much?” he asked, sounding very amused.
Knuckles sighed, eyeing him, his cheeks flushed bright with blush. He didn’t say anything, just turned back to the last couple of crates, the steel shattering under his final blows, however his confidence was a little thrown, and he felt as if Sonic’s gaze was burning a hole in his back. He moved forward to inspect the steel scraps, pretending to search for anything that had been inside, even though that really wasn’t the point.
“Now the Sunglasses?” Sonic asked, still watching him.
The red echidna nodded, straightening up to glanced over at him. “I doubt there are any invisible items around here. That tech hasn’t been used in years,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Yeah, but I’d like to see you with them on. They’re hot,” he said, rubbing his nose and grinning at him still.
Knuckles blushed even more, giving a little embarrassed chuckle as he brought up his hand to lower the Sunglasses on his head. He glanced around, not seeing anything in the vicinity, as he had predicted. “Yeah, nothing here,” he breathed.
Sonic paused a second, before walking over. “There’s something here,” he said, reaching up to pushing up his Sunglasses, to look into his purple eyes.
Knuckles blushed deeply, blinking at him. “Is— Is there?” he stuttered.
Sonic nodding, unabashedly checking him out now as he lowered his hands to cup each side of his muzzle. The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and when Sonic leaned in and kissed Knuckles, the echidna sighed through his nose, sliding his hands to Sonic’s waist and closing his eyes. He let the hedgehog lead the kiss, relaxing as they finally crossed the fragile line that they’d been playing with for the past few years.
When they broke away from each other, Sonic smiled at him. “This is why I wanted to visit you, in case you didn’t catch that.”
“I got it,” Knuckles chuckled, even though he hadn’t been expecting this when he had first caught sight of the hedgehog.
Sonic chuckled with him, moving to take both of his hands with his own, careful of the special gloves. “Then can I come with you back to Angel Island?” he asked, quirking a brow.
Knuckles contemplated, before giving a small nod, smiling when Sonic’s expression lit up. They leaned in together, to kiss for another moment. When they pulled away, Sonic let go of one of his hands. “Alright, let’s go.”