Injured (Remake) A Knuckles x Rouge Story

Chapter 4: Bonds Developing

Rouge and Knuckles sat eating the grapes. It wasn't much, but Knuckles seemed to be enjoying it.  Rouge quietly ate as she saw the red echidna, who was just eating away at the grapes. 

"So, Knuckie..." Rouge began, "What else do you do here?" Rouge asked with a smile. 

"Well I do the occasional resting and watching over the Master Emerald, but I'm sure you already know that."  Knuckles replied, making Rouge frown a bit. 

"I mean, anything else more exciting?" She pressed on. 

"Well, I do listen to music..." Knuckles replied. 

"Music?" Rouge asked, "From where? There's practically nothing here!" 

"Well, when someone like Sonic bothers you too much, you're bound to listen to some tunes here and there," Knuckles explained as he looked up to the sky, gloves behind his head. "So naturally, I liked what I heard and wanted to listen to more." 

This genuinely interested Rouge, and she sat closer to Knuckles, "What kind of music do you like the most?"  

"Hip-hop sounds nice, and I do like rock music too,"  Knuckles said with a smile, "Wanna listen to some with me?" 

"Sure!" Rouge said a little too enthusiastically, making Knuckles raise an eyebrow.  

The red echidna then pulled an old looking music player, reminiscent of that of a boombox. Rouge stared at the thing, and various old school hip hop started to play. "Huh," Rouge said. "You sure do have a taste in music I should say," Rouge began. 

"Yeah..." Knuckles said with a toothy smile. "What about you? Is it some cheesy pop songs?" He teased. 

Rouge furrowed her eyebrow ridge. "I listen to good music, you wouldn't know because you've never listened to it before!" She exclaimed. 

"Oh yeah? What would that be?" Knuckles asked. 

"Jazz..." Rouge muttered, but just loud enough for Knuckles to hear.  

"Jazz? That's nice, I do know some songs here and there," Knuckles replied, having heard her. 

"Really? Like what Knuckie?" Rouge asked as she turned to face him. 

"Well there are some songs that sound nice, I don't remember any of the titles though," Knuckles simply replied, making Rouge frown again. There was a long pause until the radio played a different song. "Knuckie, when did you get so strong?" Rouge asked as a blush formed on her face.  

"Well, fending for yourself and a giant rock can do quite a number on you, especially since you are alone." Knuckles responded, "Though, I guess I'm not so strong after all since that Rhinobot did a number on me, huh?"   

"No, no. I think you were really strong back there Knuckles." Rouge hated to admit it, but it was true.  

Knuckles gave her a soft smile back, "Heh. Thanks Rouge." He thanked, earning a nod from the white bat lady. 

The two of them laid next to each other, they were so close to each other that you could have sworn they would be close to holding hands. Rouge was at least the same shade of red as Knuckles by this point and it was unnoticeable with the red echidna but you could feel it was there. 

Just then, the music changed to a different song, it was "La Vie en Rose" by Louis Armstrong. Rouge silently gasped. How she loved this song! It reminded her of how she always felt when she was with Knuckles. She closed her eyes and sighed. She was suddenly brought back to her room when she opened them back up, listening to old jazz standards, and laying down on her bed. She had a smile on her face as she thought about slow dancing with Knuckles, his arms gentle but firm as he held her in his arms.  She was so in the moment that she swore she heard Knuckles calling out her name! 

"Rouge? Rouge!" Indeed Knuckles was, startling Rouge from her fantasies. 

"AH!" She yelped. "Stupid Knucklehead, why did you do that?" Rouge huffed in annoyance.  

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You dazed off a bit there." Knuckles explained. 

"Well, I was just thinking about something! Honestly, don't you know any better than to startle a lady like me!" She huffed again, folding her arms. 

"Well sorry for being considerate!" Knuckles said a bit angrily, making Rouge stop in her annoyance. 

"You... care about me?" Rouge gasped. 

"Well yeah, sure we may argue a lot and you always steal the Master Emerald from me , but I care about your well being Rouge," Knuckles confessed, turning a bit red. 

Rouge blushed, "Thank you...." 'God he's so cute!'  Rouge thought to herself as she smiled.

Silence fell upon the two with only the simple sound of the music in the background again. There wasn't really that much to do here as it was just the two of them, so there was that.  Rouge didn't want to just be stuck here with the red echidna, because she was doing this for the Master Emerald,  right? She turned to Knuckles, and smiled. The way he looked so determined to guard the Emerald, even after facing some really bad injuries. Rouge had to give him credit for his grit. 

"You know...  just before you said you only cared about me to a degree," Rouge pointed out in a slight teasing tone. "Why did you change your mind?" She asked, as she placed a hand on his glove, making Knuckles turn more red than usual. 

"Well, you are here taking care of me," Knuckles began, as he moved his glove out of shyness.  "I just don't really say it much, but thank you." He said with a smile, "Maybe you aren't as batty as before, Rouge..." He confessed.

Rouge blushed, and she gave him a warm smile. "You're just saying that Knuckie," She said. 

"I'm not, I'm just telling the truth." Knuckles replied, making her gasp.

Needless to say, Rouge felt even more conflicted with her feelings.

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Rouge was woken up by a loud sound. She looked around and saw Knuckles, who looked like he was  alert about something. "Knuckles what-"

"Rouge. I won't let anyone harm you. I promise." Knuckles said firmly  as he grabbed her tightly. Rouge looked stunned. 

"Knuckles..." She gawked, as she ogled at him.

 Suddenly a loud explosion could be heard.

"What was that?!" Rouge asked out loud as she and Knuckles began to see what it was, as three, no six mysterious figures all came and decided to wreak havoc on the island. She couldn't keep up with the fast paced movements of the attackers, but it was an equal fight.  Rouge felt a different presence around her, and turned to see one of the attackers about to cause some serious harm to her. Rouge was tired, but she was ready to take them on. Then, a flash of red came and  knocked down the big one, but not before it decided to strike at Knuckles. The sounds of bones being crushed were heard as Rouge saw what happened. 

"KNUCKLES!" She screamed out, as she ran to his body, tears flowing down her cheeks. 

She saw him, he was barely holding on, and was losing blood fast. "K-Knuckles... no...." She squeaked out, as she choked back tears. 

Knuckles' eyes were closed, he looked to be in pain. He was motionless, he didn't move as Rouge begged him to say something. Rouge tried fighting back the tears, for she did not know how to help him, nor knew what was going on. 

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Rouge let out a gasp. She looked  frantically to see the red echidna sound asleep. 
"That was just a bad dream...." She sighed out in relief as she looked up to see the moon.

"Oh Knuckie... maybe..." Her voice trailed off.

"Maybe there is a reason for me to be staying here."  She admitted with a smile. 

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what do you guys think of chapter 4? please feel free to let me know :)