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Aboard the Sky Patrol it was never quiet anymore. During the day, the whirring and humming of the machinery joined the bustle of the passengers; during the night, the werehog roamed around, the click-clack of his spiked shoes filling the hallways.
Sonic yawned, careful to cover his mouth with a hand just in case. No one, not even he himself, was used to his fangs yet. After his first feral stint – because that was something he had to accept, that he could go feral – a flash of his teeth still inspired unease. Instincts didn't always care who those fangs belonged to, and considering the history of everyone aboard... yeah, Sonic didn't hold it against them. He had enough other things to worry about, like the fact that he needed to catch a wink of sleep tonight. Diurnal during the day, nocturnal during the night, his sleep was all kinds of messed up. He still slept, of course, but it was far from ideal. Just what he needed, really, another thing to keep him up at night. The topic of the day was Knuckles and Amy's imminent departure. Them teaming up made sense, them leaving made sense, Sonic's weird, conflicting aversion to seeing them go didn't. The Master Emerald had to be put back together, there was no way around it. And Knuckles, as its guardian, along with Amy, whose Mystic Melody aided in locating the shards, were the best people for the job. They were both more than capable of taking care of themselves, those hotheads. Sonic knew that. Hell, there was no doubt in his mind that they were gonna be fine. It was just... they had only just been reunited, he hadn't seen Knuckles in ages, so he was going to spend the night moping about it. Not that he had much right to, considering his own track record of disappearing.
So his nightly wanderings continued despite the days' exhaustion piling up. Something itched beneath his skin and drove him onward, onward, onward. But there wasn't much space to run on an aircraft, which confined him to the same circular route past the bedrooms. Click-clack, click-clack, his shoes left tiny prinprick marks.
Eventually, he stopped for a break in one of the walkways with floor-length windows. His feet ached somewhat, and he flexed his stiff fingers. Sunrise was a bit farther off, so he settled down to watch the night instead, because the stars were beautiful and not because he was vaguely dizzy. He click-clacked his claws against the floor and tried to relax his jaw. Sleep was at the very edge of his vision, lingering. He would settle for a power nap at this point. Some sleep at all would be nice.
While he considered the potential mortification of curling up here and risking being found the next morning (because if he went to his room now, he surely wouldn't be tired anymore), Knuckles appeared. Sonic smelled him before he even heard his footsteps thanks to his enhanced werehog nose. Knuckles smelled very earthy, the kind of scent that caused some of the tension to bleed out of Sonic's muscles.
"I know you're back there, Knux," Sonic said when his friend's steps stopped quite a distance away from him.
Knuckles cursed under his breath before his pace picked up again. "I thought I was being quiet," he admitted, sitting down next to Sonic.
Sonic snorted. "I can smell you, dude."
"Since when?"
"Comes with the beast thing." Sonic tapped his nose. "So, why're you here? Missed me that much?"
Asking was a formality, really. Sometimes sleep was hard to come by for any of them. They both already knew why they were here, but hey, Sonic was good at talking for the sake of it.
Apparently, Knuckles was really tired, because he didn't acknowledge the teasing remark. Instead, he just shrugged and said, "couldn't sleep. You?"
"Trying not to howl at the moon, that kinda stuff."
Knuckles barked a laugh and Sonic tried to push down how much it felt like a win. He tried to push down a lot of things, especially as a werehog. Be it added instinct or the vulnerability of night or simply plain exhaustion, but it was becoming harder to hold back certain... urges. Though he had learned to channel his destructive feelings into constructive thing, these urges were a different caliber. They were worse. Being angry or upset could be turned into something more, something to use to protect his friends. But this? He had to force it down. Yeah, yeah, do not suppress your feelings, bla bla bla but c'mon, what was he gonna channel "desire to tenderly cradle his bro to his chest" into?
Yeah.
That was perhaps the worst side effect. He couldn't help but feel protective over his friends and he craved phsyical affection like he hadn't received a friendly touch in years. Having Knuckles sit this close to him only made him more aware of it. He could easily put his hand over the other's, press their shoulders together...
"You're tensing up," Knuckles remarked, side-eyeing him. Great.
"'m feeling restless," Sonic said, which was mostly true.
"Eager to get going?"
"Something like that." He shifted to put some more space between them.
"I've been hearing you run around tonight. When do you sleep, man?"
"No way, you're worried about me?" Sonic teased, a smirk on his lips.
"Actually, I am," Knuckles replied quite seriously.
Sonic's breath hitched and he averted his eyes. That was another break in their usual routine. Was he slipping so much that even Knuckles noticed?
"Well, you don't have to. I'm fine," Sonic said.
Knuckles, ever the gentle guy, elbowed him. It didn't hurt as much as it usually would, since Sonic was still a werehog, but it stung for a moment. Their gazes met again, Sonic with a frown and Knuckles with a glare. In the pale moonlight, all colours were washed out. Even Knuckles's fiery red quills had become muted here. It stirred something barely definable in Sonic's chest. He had to move, to get out.
He unconsciously bared his fangs, only realizing it after he had done it – Knuckles only crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow as if to challenge him.
"Alright, fine ," Sonic snapped, quietly mortified at himself. "Maybe there are some things on my mind. Big deal."
His hands flexed and he pushed them to the ground.
"You dont have to bear this burden alone." Oh chaos. That's his "guardian" voice. The one he used when he wanted to seem calm and collected, ready to deliver wisdom. He eerily sounded like Moss the Sloth.
"That's rich, coming from you."
"I am accepting help. You remember, when you got upset that Amy's leaving with me?"
Sonic growled and straightened, towering over Knuckles although they were both still sitting. "Thought I told you not to start with that."
"Thought you knew better than to run from your problems."
Sleep deprivation was officially going to his head. He couldn't afford to start a fight with Knuckles here, especially not when the trigger of this all was that he wanted to cuddle with him. Chaos.
"Sometimes I don't know why I like you," Sonic snarled, jumping to his feet.
"Likewise," Knuckles shot back, rising to his feet as well.
A devastating silence settled over them as they glared at each other. It was like the whole ship quieted down in tense anticipation. Yet the atmosphere between them was louder than the quiet night had been before.
"Whatever. I'm leaving tomorrow anyway," Knuckles said.
Right. An ice-cold shiver grabbed hold of Sonic. Knuckles and Amy were going away. This was the last night they had together. They probably wouldn't see each other again until the planet was restored. Immediately, the aggression bled out of Sonic's posture.
"Do you really want to know what's on my mind?" he asked quietly.
Knuckles nodded, lightly crossing his arms.
Now, how to explain this to him? Sonic didn't get what was happening, either. He had never felt like this before, so pointing to his transformation as a cause was easy. But the yearning didn't exactly stop when he was his normal self, it was just easier to ignore. There was... well, it hadn't been exactly the same, but... when he had first seen Sally and Amy again when he landed in this post-Genesis Wave dimension, he hadn't been able to hold off from scooping them into hugs. He had been so impossibly happy and relieved to see them again. And now it was almost like that feeling except all the time and worse when he was a werehog.
"It's about this form," he began, which was true enough. "It's weird. It makes me want to do weird stuff."
"Like the howling at the moon stuff," Knuckles said, his brows furrowed.
"I was kidding about that, Knux," Sonic said in a gentle tone aimed to annoy Knuckles. "But yeah, it's like, instincts, or whatever."
Knuckles nodded, like that made sense. "I get impulses from the Master Emerald sometimes."
Hold on, that was a lot more interesting! "Impulses?"
"Like suggestions," Knuckles non-elaborated. "What do your instincts want?"
"Are you really gonna make me talk about that? It's embarrassing."
Knuckles grinned. "That only makes me want to know it more."
Sonic rolled his eyes. "Should have known," he muttered. "You have to make this difficult, don't you?"
"Only because it's you." There was something in Knuckles's voice when he said that that went beyond their usual teasing. His posture had softened and he looked at Sonic with stifled curiosity. For a moment it was hard to breathe and harder still to keep still. Sleep-deprived, Sonic didn't let himself think anymore. He figured that, if Knuckles could look at him like this, he wouldn't be mad if he followed his instincts.
"Dude, I'm just gonna show you."
He waited only long enough for Knuckles to give some sign of affirmation before he wrapped his arms around his friend, noting how small he seemed while Sonic himself was a werehog. Immediately, his restlessness calmed to a content hum and warmth spread through his chest to every point of contact. Knuckles almost disappeared into his fluff as Sonic pulled him closer, the echidna going ramrod straight.
"This is the problem," Sonic murmured as a purr began to build in his chest. He forced himself to let go again before it could spill out and chanced a look at his friend instead.
Knuckles's eyes were wide open, a furious blush on his cheeks. It seemed he had no idea what to do with his hands, or the rest of his body, really, while he spluttered and stammered. Then he (tenderly) punched Sonic's shoulder – finally a sense of normalcy.
"You-!"
Whatever Knuckles might have managed to babble, Sonic cut off with a chuckle. "Yeah, weird, right? Now you know, so now let's forget about it, okay?"
"You're still too close," Knuckles said stiffly.
"Oh." Sonic blinked. His body was still curled in Knuckles's direction, his head bowed so that their noses were nearly touching. Before he could move away, however, maybe even apologize, Knuckles's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Kinda getting mixed signals, Knux."
Knuckles sighed, his breath spilling over Sonic's muzzle, and refused to make eye contact. "I guess... I missed you, too."
"You guess?" Sonic teased giddily.
"Even though you're so annoying," Knuckles groaned.
He ducked down to hide his face completely in Sonic's chest. A shiver raced down Sonic's spine and pooled in the warmth in his belly.
"Are you... encouraging me?"
"Shut up."
Carefully, Sonic put his arms around Knuckles again. When that didn't end the world, he rested his cheek on Knuckles's head and inhaled his scent, before he exhaled and relaxed into the hug. His eyes slipped closed of their own accord as his exhaustion caught up to him. His heart calmed and the purring started up again. It spiked when Knuckles snuck his arms around him in turn.
"Don't tell anyone about this," Knuckles said, muffled by Sonic's fur.
Sonic laughed quietly. "I'll keep this part of you all to myself."