You& me, and our mate

ch 3; Ice skating

Finally Knuckles gets his texts answered on messenger.
And since he is curious if Mephiles told him the truth about the phone, he takes the phone up and starts dialing the number he got yesterday.
"Hello?-..." Shadow answers unsure. Cause Knuckles' contact information wasn't saved in the phone yet.
Knuckles exhales in relief. Maybe Mephiles told him the truth.
"Hi Shadz-... It's me, Knuckles"
"Oh?-... Hi-... what's-... Up?"
Knuckles smiles.
"Nothing special-..." he shrugs.
"I wonder though-... Would you like to ice skating on the lake?- ... I can pick you up with the car, and drive over there... Then we can maybe visit Vanilla's Cafe afterwards?" Knuckles suggests.
Shadow starts inhaling and exhaling a few times until he clears the throat.
"Why not?-... It could be fun... I will text you, my home address..."
Knuckles brights happily up.
"Awesome!-... See you-... Ehm... Can I pick you up in an hour? Or you can't until later?" He asks, and wants to meet up while the sun is still shining from the sky.
Shadow chuckles.
"It works-... I will be ready in an hour... See you later knux"
Knuckles smiles.
"Yeah~... Bye..." he blushes with increased heartbeats where it pounds faster in pure happiness.
They hung up.

The echidna stares dreamily out over the trees.
The rays of the sun, shined somewhat warmly on his red fur.
It starts feeling as he is falling hard for Shadow.
Even the cold isn't bothering him.
The feelings for the hedgehog, keeps him warm.
He gets deeper and deeper in the daydreams, where he could already imaging how he picks Shadow up and drives over to the lake.
It isn't until the phone in the hand, starts beeping, he flinched back to the reality.
Knuckles opens the text, and sees the address to Shadow's house.
He smiles and starts typing an answer.

Then he stands up, and shoves the phone in the pocket.
He walks up through the stairs' last steps, and walks closer to the master emerald.
There is a small platform with letters and numbers as buttons.
He starts typing a secret code, and a shield of metal starts covering the master emerald.
If anyone try breaking in, an alarm will starts ringing on his phone. Alerting him for the intruders.

Knuckles starts walking home, where he will prepare himself for the outdoor date.
He start making a cup coffee to warm him up.
The heat from the flavored water doesn't bothered him, and he swallowed the coffee in no time.
Then he fills a small thermos with the remaining coffee.
When he has putted the bottle cap on, he walks to the bathroom where he takes a shower.

A while later when he has dried himself with a towel, and with the air dryer, he takes on new set of clothes.
A pair of warm socks in wool, black leggings, and a warm and comfy hoodie in violet color.
The echidna takes the thermos out to the hallway, where he also takes the coat on and wraps a scarf around the neck.
Then he puts the boots on, and a pair of white, winter gloves.
With the thermos in the hand, and the skates over the shoulder, he walks out through the door.

Knuckles gets into the black Chevrolet Impala, his father owned.
For some reason, his siblings forgot about the car, and only took some money before leaving the village.
The car itself is very expensive, and could be sold for a lot money.
But Knuckles doesn't cares about money, the memory of his father is more important.
And the car reminds him about his father, who loved taking care of the car. He also drove Knuckles around for fun.
So, every time Knuckles starts the car, it feels as he was the small boy, who sat on his father's lap, when they took a trip around the village.
The presence of his father is around when he drives.

Knuckles places the skates on the floor between the backseats and the front passenger seat, and the thermos on the backseat.
Then he puts the seat belt on, and starts the motor.
He turns a slightly on the seat, to make sure no one would be behind the car. Not like there are usually someone out here... Except a few forest animals.
Then he starts driving backward with the car, to get out from his garage.
Soon he turns the steering wheel to the left.
Then he starts driving forward to get down to the village, where he would pick Shadow up.