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There was something about the bat that had always been perplexing to Knuckles. Since she had first transferred to Station Square High, he had been under the impression that she hated him. Knuckles often found Rouge glaring daggers at him from across the room and making comments to him, seemingly for the sole purpose of pushing his buttons. He would grunt and growl at her in response, telling her to “Shut it, Bat,” and tried not to get too invested in engaging her any further than that. Despite his lack of response, she continued to badger him for the entirety of junior year and nearly their entire senior year.
Eventually, his curiosity (but mostly, his irritation) got the best of him and he found himself cornering the bat near the soccer field one day after school. He slammed his fist over her head on the brick wall of the school building.
“What’s your problem? You’re always staring at me and you seem to have an awful lot of fun running your mouth about me! Why is that?!” As he interrogated the bat, her expression quickly flickered from one of wide-eyed shock to a smarmy, soft-eyes and a flirtatious smirk.
“I dunno, it depends on how you respond to my next question.” She responded, placing her hands over her heart. Knuckles rolled his eyes.
“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that, Bat?”
“Are you gonna keep asking your questions or will you let me ask mine?”
Knuckles ground his teeth and clenched his jaw, silently urging the bat to ask what she needed to ask and get it over with. What he did not expect was her fingers transferring to his chest, brushing along the white crescent shape below his neckline. His breath hitched in his throat at the feeling, but he could not bring himself to move away from the touch. It felt strangely nice.
“How do you feel about going to the prom with me, Handsome?”
Now Knuckles found himself gawking at the bat when she answered the door to her home. She was dressed in a sleek and shimmering emerald green dress and flaunting gold jewelry on her neck and wrists. The neckline of the form-fitting dress dipped deeply and a high slit was cut in the skirt exposing her legs and golden stiletto heels. She styled her hair in curls and accented the look with shiny lip gloss and shimmery eyeshadow. She looked incredible, to say the very least. And yet, to say those words out loud proved to be incredibly difficult for the echidna.
“Y--you look... like the Master Emerald... Uhh, wow-- Hi, uhh--” Knuckles stumbled helplessly over his words, feeling his cheeks heat up when the bat smirked at him in response.
“Let’s get goin’.” She grabbed his hands and pulled him outside but before she could take him anywhere, he stopped them both in their tracks.
“H--Hold on! I have something for you. Could you stop, for a second?” He protested, pulling on her arm and closer to himself. She stumbled but Knuckles held her up to prevent her from falling.
“Well, get on with it, we’re already running late!” She laughed as she tugged her arm back. Knuckles began digging through the pockets of his tuxedo and finally procured a box from the depths of his suit jacket pocket. He opened the box to reveal a corsage handmade with deep violet peonies that matched the boutonniere he wore. Rouge’s typically smug smile softened as she averted her gaze from her gift to the echidna’s eyes. He clumsily slipped the corsage on to her wrist and mentally noted the way it complemented her bracelets well. He stepped back and cleared his throat, trying his hardest to push the nervousness away.
“Huh. You’re a lot sweeter than I initially thought. You made this yourself, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Don’t get your hopes up. Cream and Amy helped me out.” Knuckles grumbled, waving away the implications of his homemade gift. Rouge felt flattered nonetheless, something told her he was very intentional in putting this piece together for her.
“Well, thank you anyway... And you look very handsome tonight.” She tenderly took his hand and they began walking in the direction toward the venue.
Reality came down upon Knuckles like a pile of bricks as he walked through the venue, a twinkle-light illuminated forest, with the bat's arm interlocked in his. He was still uncertain about how this all culminated but if he were completely honest, he couldn’t complain. After all, if Rouge had been the only one staring, Knuckles would have been none-the-wiser of the bat’s eyes on him.
“Looks like your friends are over there,” Rouge murmured, pulling the echidna out of his thoughts and toward one of tables scattered around the clearing. She brought him to a table where Sonic and Amy, Silver and Blaze, Tangle and Whisper and a few other couples sat.
“Whoa-ho-ho! Lookin’ good, Knux!” Sonic chortled, projecting his voice over the sound of the music as he eyed Knuckles in his full set tuxedo, complete with a bowtie. Knuckles pulled out a chair for his partner, letting her saunter into her seat before plopping himself in the seat next to Sonic.
“You don’t look so bad yourself, Hedgehog.” Knuckles retorted, giving him a grin and offering their secret handshake. Amy smiled at the other couple from beside the blue hedgehog.
"Hey Amy," Knuckles greeted warmly, giving the pink hedgehog a two-finger salute.
“Knuckles, Rouge! Yay, I’m so glad you guys made it! You’re just in time, they’re about to serve dinner.” Amy gleefully hopped in her seat and Knuckles observed as Sonic’s gentle smile directed itself toward Amy. He laughed and placed a hand on her exposed back, saying something about being starved. Knuckles nodded in approval, glad that his friend had finally worked up the guts to ask the poor girl out after years of playing will-they, won’t-they with one another.
Rouge reached her hands across the table to grab at Amy’s. They exchanged compliments with each other before Rouge turned her attention to the others around the table, setting off conversation among the entire group. Their friends laughed and talked amongst themselves until they received their plates.
Mealtime was relatively quiet with only a handful of words exchanged within the group and as they ate their food. As he stuffed a forkful of pasta into his mouth, Knuckles suddenly felt a hand place itself on his knee underneath the table. His thighs tensed and he clenched his fork a smidge harder than he intended, warping the metal handle as he took in shallow breaths. He side-eyed Rouge who looked up to the echidna from beneath her long lashes. Not wanting to draw attention to himself by saying anything to her, he placed his own hand beneath the table and interlaced their fingers, gripping her hand tightly. The intention was to release the tension her sudden touch had caused him, but having her hand in his brought on an entirely different wave of tension, mostly concentrated in his gut. It felt as if his heart had dropped and was now fluttering about in his stomach. The feeling intensified when Rouge’s smile softened.
After dinner, people began to pile on to the dance floor.
“Alrighty, let’s get this night started!” Vector, who was the DJ for the night, announced into the mic as he tapped away at a laptop, queuing up his mix. Vec Vengeance started off with a popular song with a quick-tempoed afrobeat. Rouge turned to her partner with a wide grin and pulled him up from his seat.
“Ugh, I looooove Doja Cat! Come on dance with me!” Rouge walked, rather, swayed backward to the dancefloor with both of Knuckles’ hands in hers. Knuckles awkwardly bobbed his head to the music and let her take the lead. When they made it to the middle of the floor, Rouge chuckled as she watched the echidna try to find the beat.
“I know you’ve got some rhythm somewhere in you, don’t think too hard about it, just let your body move!” She cried, “Feel the beat through me, is it okay if I put your hands here?” She pulled his hands down and molded his palms against her swinging hips. Rouge’s hands came back up and placed themselves on the echidna’s broad shoulders. Knuckles felt his heart skip about twelve beats in that moment. Unable to find the words for a coherent comeback, he instead nodded his head in response to the bat’s question, blushing madly and barely able to peel his eyes from the way her body moved in the emerald bodice of her dress. Rouge snickered as she guided them into less awkward movement. When they got into the rhythm, she pulled him closer to her body until they were flush against each other. Seeing Knuckles’ cheeks getting redder and redder with each point of contact their bodies made caused her to feel a bit bashful herself. In an attempt to save face and maintain her comfortable and confident façade, she craned her neck toward his head and whispered in his ear.
“See? I told ya you could dance. And you look so good doing it.” She pulled her head back until they were nose to nose. Now Rouge was blushing as she became more aware of their current position and it was quickly becoming distracting. Alluring. She could feel his rigid grip around her hips and the way their bodies brushed against one another as they continued their dance into the next remixed song. On complete impulse, the bat tightened her grip on the echidna’s shoulders and placed a kiss on his cheek before pulling back slowly. She hoped to Chaos her makeup would mask the tint of her burning cheeks.
“Wh--What was that for?!” Knuckles hissed, although it lacked the malice of an angry response. He didn't feel particularly bad about the feeling of the mark on his cheek left behind by her lip gloss. He wast just... Shocked. He glared intensely into Rouge’s crystalline blue eyes searching for the answer.
“You know that I’ve liked you for a while now.” Rouge had answered as if her crush on the echidna had been obvious all this time. At least, it hadn’t been to Knuckles... Fuck it, who was he to ruin a moment like this?
As they continued to stare into each other’s eyes, Knuckles haphazardly pulled Rouge’s head back toward his own. He locked lips with her and slowly brushed his hand downward until it reached the small of her back. Rouge would have made a clever comeback had her lips not been occupied. Oh, well... Who was she to ruin a moment like this?
Letting herself sink into the kiss she wrapped her arms around Knuckles’ neck and they mutually deepened their kiss. Rouge felt as if an electric current was running through her body, her knees weakening under Knuckles’ ardent attention. The desperation each of them felt for one another was tangible, their lips remained glued to one another’s until they were gasping for air. As they pulled back to catch their breath, their eyes remained locked, pupils blown, and their chests heaving against the other’s.
“We could do this somewhere that’s not in the middle of the dancefloor...” Rouge quipped breathlessly.
“We should do that,” Knuckles agreed. He carried the bat bridal style and turned foot to quickly find a more private spot in the forest.