Chapter Text
It was a sunny morning, and Knuckles sat with his arms and legs crossed in his usual spot in front of the Master Emerald.
His eyes were closed as he took a moment of rest, but despite this, he was very much still alert of his surroundings.
Alert enough to hear fast footsteps approaching the shrine.
He and Sonic had planned for a short sparring session today, but not until much later in the day, which is why it was a bit odd how early the hedgehog was.
Knuckles still grinned to himself. Maybe Sonic thought he could get the jump on him, catch him off guard.
That dumb hedgehog, he should know better than to try a sneak attack on the island’s sole guardian. He heard the footsteps skid to a halt.
“Nice try Sonic, but did you really think you-”
Knuckles finally opened his eyes, and his words got caught in his throat.
“...um?”
Looking back at him were some equally confused dark eyes.
Standing there at the bottom of the shrine’s stairs wasn’t exactly his Sonic, but a very familiar, younger version of him. They stared at each other in silence, the other shifting on his feet awkwardly as if waiting for something.
Knuckles finally stood up carefully, not taking his eyes off the shorter one.
“You’re back,” he called out loud enough for the other to hear, and that seemed to be enough permission for the other, as he seemed to perk up at the acknowledgement. The little blue blur sped up the shrine’s stairs, stopping just a feet away from the echidna.
Knuckles had put his fists up on instinct, but soon lowered them to step back and stare dumbfounded at the small hedgehog. The other grinned, apparently finding the action amusing.
Still the same Sonic, Knuckles thought.
But soon the other’s grin dropped, and he quickly started waving his hands around in signs, as if to explain something, most likely how he got here.
“Slow down, little guy!”
Young Sonic stopped and pouted at the nickname, but did as requested. He made sure the echidna was paying attention to him before starting to sign again.
He drew a circle above him first, then jumped in the air, letting himself fall on his back. Knuckles took a step forward to help him up , but soon the smaller one was back on his feet, dusting himself off before shrugging. Knuckles blinked.
“So… you fell through a… hole in the sky? Portal? And just landed here on the island? No clue why?”
Young Sonic nodded, yes, then scratched his head and simply shook his head no.
Knuckles sighed. He would’ve been more confused if he wasn’t more worried about his guest’s sudden arrival.
“Well, last time you were here, trouble followed right behind, are you sure nothing or nobody followed you? Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary?”
The blue one dipped his head like a scolded child, and Knuckles couldn’t help to think how cute he looked. He quickly shook his head at that thought; he couldn't get distracted now.
Young Sonic ditched the pout to seemingly think for a moment, but eventually shook his head no again.
Knuckles sighed, again. He didn’t have time for this; he needed to focus on his duties, but he couldn’t just not do anything about the little guy. He looked back at the Master Emerald, then back to the innocent and almost pleading dark eyes of the small hedgehog.
Knuckles groaned.
“C’mon, let's get you to Tails. He seems to be the expert when it comes to this… stuff.”
The shorter one grinned big then did a little spin, seeming to agree with the plan. Knuckles motioned him with a nod towards the stairs to wait ahead at the bottom again. He couldn’t leave the Master Emerald exposed while he was off duty. He watched the other hop down the steps one by one for a bit before turning towards the gem.
Once he was done securing it, he went back to his small friend who he motioned for him to follow now, which the younger Sonic happily did. They walked for a while before Knuckles stopped when they were nearing the cliff side of the island and turned to the shorter one.
“Hey, I know you’re the fastest one here, but we’re going my way, so you might want to hold onto me.”
Young Sonic tilted his head to the side in confusion, and Knuckles could only grin at him awkwardly.
It’s still early enough at Tails’s home for breakfast.
The fox was finishing cooking breakfast for himself and the known blue hero, who was sitting by their table, finishing up his first plate.
Tails approached the hedgehog with his second serving, and sat down across from him with his own plate. Before digging in, he stared at his older brother for a moment, before deciding to speak up.
“So… are you finally telling him today, or…?”
Sonic suddenly choked on his last bits of egg, coughing and trying to regain his composure before responding to the young fox.
“I-I don’t know what you mean. Actually, I'm kinda full. I think I should go for an early run,” Sonic pushed his first plate away and stood up, starting to stretch his arms.
Tails rolled his eyes, “Come on, Sonic, sit down. You really think I wouldn’t notice?”
Sonic opened his mouth to argue, but decided against it. It was too early to argue, especially with Tails. The fox could always figure this kind of stuff out, and it was only a matter of time, anyways.
Sonic sat back down again with a sigh, bringing his second plate closer to him. He poked at it with his fork, his appetite unfortunately gone.
Tails continued once the hedgehog sat down, “How many visits is it going to take for you to finally open up?”
Sonic groaned, putting his fork down and sitting back on his chair, crossing his arms.
“I don’t know how many, Tails. Chaos knows I’ll probably just keep visiting forever. If he hasn’t caught up by now, what’s the point of telling him? Besides, I really don’t want to ruin this strong bond I’ve been able to build with him…”
Tails shook his head, “Sonic… you know how Knuckles is, he-”
“He isn’t dumb, Tails.”
“That’s not what I was going to say,” Tails rolled his eyes, “I was going to say that he's naive. You know how he is with social cues. If you don’t tell him things directly, he might never figure it out."
Sonic groaned again. Tails was right. All the things he's tried have not been too forward. Just some vague words, little hints, small touches.
But that was the thing, Sonic didn't want to be too forward.
He knew how inexperienced Knuckles was at most things, especially in the social part. He didn’t want to make the other uncomfortable. Granted, it's been a few years now and Knuckles has learned some things, but he still wasn't fully… there yet. Especially with him always being away on Angel Island; he would still miss out on most things to focus on his responsibilities.
And Sonic couldn't blame him. He respected Knuckles's commitment, he just wished the echidna would take more breaks and not worry too much. Enjoy life, just like he does.
"Ok, so what if I tell him? So what if it's mutual? What's next? He's inexperienced and I'm not exactly an expert. What if it's too awkward and I ruin it anyways?"
The hedgehog held his head in his hands. There were too many risks.
Besides, at the end of the day, Knuckles's friendship was more important than having a relationship with him.
But it would still be nice…
Sonic jumped slightly when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. He raised his head to look at his younger brother, who gave him a small smile.
"Sonic, Knuckles isn't going to just push you away if he doesn't share your feelings. If anything, he'll try to understand. You know him better than anyone. You know how kind hearted he is."
Tails didn't feel the need to add that he thought the echidna shared his brother's feelings as well. He didn't want Sonic to think he was simply saying that to cheer him up.
Tails was observant, he could tell, but he wasn't going to get in the way of things if he didn't have to.
Sonic gave a sad smile and nodded, looking down again, "Yeah, you're right. That's one of the many things I love about him, anyways."
Sonic eyes widened and his cheeks lit up pink as he realized what he said. He brought one of his hands to cover his mouth and quickly looked at the young fox again, who looked equally surprised, but also ready to laugh in his face.
"Wow, you really do like him!"
"Shut up, Tails!"
Then suddenly there were heavy knocks on Tails's door, making the duo jump in surprise. Sonic stood up in alert, but Tails put his hands up.
"I'll get it."
The fox approached his door carefully. Those heavy knocks were a bit worrisome, but if it were an attack, whoever or whatever it was would've knocked the door down by now.
Maybe it was Big.
He opened the door just enough to peek, but then gasped and opened it fully.
"Knuckles!"
Sonic jumped again at that, his face feeling much warmer than before now. After shoveling his breakfast quickly into his mouth, Sonic sped away to another room for a moment to recover himself, not wanting the echidna to see him in his current state.
Knuckles stood at the door, smiling down awkwardly at his friend.
Tails was about to properly greet him, but his words caught in his throat as his eyes trailed down to the blue mass stuck to Knuckles's side.
"Um?"
"Yeah… I- We need your help."
Tails blinked at the younger version of Sonic as he seemed to cling to Knuckles for dear life, eyes screwed shut. Knuckles placed his large gloved hand on top of the smaller one's head in a comforting way.
"Hey little guy, we made it. It's ok. "
Tails was a little taken back by the gentle tone, but still smiled at the action. Behind all that brute force Knuckles truly was really just a gentle guy. He watched as Knuckles stroked the smaller one's quills, which made the blue one slowly open his eyes.
Addressing his surroundings and finally landing his eyes on Tails, the small Sonic jumped up in excitement and away from Knuckles for just a moment. Tails raised his hand in a greeting.
"Hey! Nice to see you again!"
The smaller Sonic responded by jumping up and high fiving his raised hand. Tails giggled.
Suddenly, their Sonic sped up besides Tails, which startled the smaller Sonic to Knuckles's side again. Knuckles sighed.
"Yo Knuckles! What are you doing down here?" Sonic asked with a big grin, before said grin faltering as his eyes landed on… himself, holding onto one of Knuckles's legs.
"Seems like all versions of you are destined to get in my way," Knuckles said with no real annoyance as he raised his captured leg. Young Sonic held on, no longer startled but as if to mess with the echidna. Knuckles frowned at the smiling face looking up at him.
"What's he doing here?" Sonic asked, crossing his arms as he looked between his best friend and his other self.
"He just appeared suddenly, for no real reason, at least that's what he said to me," Knuckles explained with a shrug, "I was hoping Tails could pull something up. Anytime this guy shows up something is bound to happen, I didn't want to risk it."
Tails hummed, "Yeah, that's fair…"
The fox motioned for the others to follow him inside. Young Sonic detached himself from Knuckles, finally, and went ahead to follow Tails to his workshop. Sonic's attention went to his best friend, who finally entered the home. Sonic grinned at him.
"Why was he clinging to you?" Sonic tried not to sound jealous, especially of himself, but then thinking about it, he wasn't too surprised a version of himself was doing such a thing.
"I told him to hold onto me while I glided us down here. Didn't know you were afraid of heights, too," the echidna teased, walking ahead of the hedgehog.
"I'm not! I fly on the wing of the Tornado all the time, you know this," Sonic waved his hand in dismissal as he followed right behind Knuckles.
"Well maybe the little guy is a little different," Knuckles shrugged.
They made it to Tails's lab, where the fox was sitting at his computer, typing away and chatting with the other Sonic.
Before Knuckles could approach Tails, Sonic took a hold of his arm to stop him. The echidna raised a brow, giving his full attention to the hedgehog now.
"Are we still on for later today?" Sonic tried not to sound too eager, but even he couldn't ignore how fast his heart was beating in the presence of the red echidna. Faster than it usually was, anyways.
Knuckles scratched the back of his head with his free hand, "Depends on what Tails comes up with. If this is something we have to take care of now, we might have to move the sparring for another day, or maybe do something else?"
Sonic frowned at the idea of their plans being moved, but still held onto hope with the mention of doing something else. Maybe they could just relax today after this was all solved, lay back together. Watch the sunset and talk until the stars were high up in the night sky.
Sonic hadn't realized Knuckles had slipped from his grasp during his daydreaming. When he snapped out of it, the echidna was already leaning against the back of Tails's chair, looking up at the many screens.
Sonic frowned and stepped up to them, standing at the right side of the red one.
"Came up with anything?" He decided to ask.
"Just a second," Tails responded, standing up and grabbing some type of device. He motioned for the smaller Sonic to step back, and the other complied.
Tails used the device to scan him, a yellow beam going from head to toe. Other Sonic looked down at his body in amazement as the scanning finished. The device beeped, making Tails hum in thought.
"What is it?" Knuckles asked.
Tails sat back down and typed a few things before sitting back in thought.
Knuckles squinted his eyes at the screens, as if that would help him understand. Sonic chuckled while watching him.
"Well, I don't see any trace of something necessarily evil … it just seems that he has some type of…residue," Tails finally replied, spinning his chair to face the others.
"Residue?" Sonic asked this time, looking at his other self.
Young Sonic frowned, looking down at this body and patting his round belly.
"Yeah," Tails then stood up, "See, last time he was here, I thought it was because of the situation with Infinite messing things up, but seeing it now, it turns out he just has some left up energy from that monster that broke time and space that one time on your birthday.
I thought it was maybe triggered by his running. He explained to me that the portal that sent him here opened up suddenly while he was running, but if that were the case, portals would be opening all the time, right?" Tails addressed the other Sonic, who nodded.
"So my guess is that these portals open at random near him while he has some energy left in him, so it doesn't really mean something is coming," Tails finished with a shrug.
Knuckles scratched his head, trying to process all the information given to them. All he really got from it is that there wasn't an imminent threat, so that was good, at least.
"Soooo, how would he get back then?" Sonic asked, trying not to sound too eager for the other to leave.
"Like I said, he still has some energy left, another portal should open up sooner or later, but I can't exactly say when. Again, if they were triggered by your- his speed, then he could just run and open one up."
Knuckles put his hands on his hips, looking at the other Sonic in thought. The smaller hedgehog noticed and tilted his head at him.
"So what now? We just wait for another portal to show up?" The echidna questioned, deciding to just cross his arms.
"Essentially. It should appear near him, whenever it does. So we can't wait here, you guys should go somewhere with an open space. I don’t want the house to go down a portal!” Tails added quickly, waving his hands around.
Knuckles glared at the young fox, "So you mean go back to Angel Island?"