Mobianmates

I'm going to say this right now. Expect a lot of Sonic from me in the next month or so. This is just the first of a few fics to come.

There are not that many fics that has just Knuckles and Shadow as the main characters. And as a result, I've decided to try one to experiment. Because of their personalities, this should be interesting to do. Lemme know what you think!

~KF

"Out of all people, he had to choose me to his errands..."

Shadow the Hedgehog could be seen on Angel Island, walking gradually to the Emerald Shrine. Now of course, he wouldn't just came there just for the sake of coming to the island. From what he just stated could only mean one thing, and that he was visiting the guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles the Echidna. However, there were two things wrong with that picture. First off, Shadow and Knuckles never conversed with each other that often. Not that they despised each other with a burning passion, but they never known each other that well, in spite of the many missions to save the world.

Secondly, he rarely had a reason to drop by Angel Island, just like he can't find a reason to visit Sonic the Hedgehog's house. If anything, it would be the last thing he ever wanted to do in his life. So, why in the world would the Ultimate Lifeform would stop there out of all places?

To explain, his rival Sonic told him that he had quite a bit on his mental To-Do list. And one of them was to pick up his dark blue headphones that he left at his friend's place the previous week. If one was listening to his reaction when he hung up the phone on the teenager, he found it weird that he could save the world as much as he pleased, yet he couldn't be responsible for his own belongings. And if he forgot things like that, it was just another reason why it would be best for him to not join G.U.N., not caring if he even wished to or not.

So Shadow doing that task for someone else whom he didn't even consider to be a close friend was just another one of his problems. On the bright side, as long as he went with the flow, nothing could go wrong. He could hurry and get back to what he was doing before he was so rudely interrupted.

Fortunately, Knuckles the Echidna didn't have as much of an attitude as Sonic did, at least according to the black and red male. Sonic wasn't afraid at all to claim that he was quite a bit of a bonehead, which made Shadow believe that he shouldn't get his hopes up and expect the unexpected.

As he was approaching the Master Emerald altar, he prepared himself for what was going to come.

"Turn around."

That sudden voice made the employee of G.U.N. stopped promptly in his tracks. Slightly groaning in his mind, he realized that the interaction between him and the violet-eyed echidna himself came sooner than a little later.

Finally facing the opposite direction, he met Knuckles the Echidna at last. The sixteen year old had his arms folded in a slight smirk. "I've been expecting you. Still mad at him?"

Out of all the things he could have said to Shadow to greet him, he chose to question him on what he thought of Sonic at that moment. He couldn't have cared less, however, since he couldn't let all of his feelings be trapped on the inside.

"Did he ever thought of you just coming over to his place?"

The slight smirk nimbly turned into an annoyed frown. "You know leaving Angel Island and forgetting of the Master Emerald would be the last thing I do. You heard what happened when I was tricked."

Shadow turned his head away. "I apologize... Faker just makes me sick at times. It makes me wonder if he's the bane of my existence..."

Knuckles shrugged in response. "I don't blame you. I've been around him more than you have, so I know how he could get. Heck, even Tails can get irritated by him. So anyways, I can go get his headphones real quick, and you don't have to worry about being here any longer than you have to."

"At least he shows maturity..." Shadow thought. "It's not that, it's Faker. The fact that he would ask me of all people to do his pointless favors is beyond me."

"What about Tails?"

"He claims that he's working on some big project and not wanting to stop until it's done." He shook his head. "From what I heard from that blue pain in the neck, he's in the 'final stages'. And Amy's babysitting Cream while Vanilla's doing whatever, since the Chaotix are working on yet another mission."

The red echidna raised an invisible eyebrow. "That leaves Rouge."

"I've attempted to call her many times, yet she didn't even answer." He replied. "I've left her five voicemails, so I'm going to assume that she's asleep."

"Good. The one thing I don't want is to have her irking the crap out of me." Knuckles then paused for a moment. "...You do know that she flirts with me, right?"

It was the other Mobian's turn to raise an eyebrow. "...She flirts with you?"

"Yeah..." He rolled his eyes with somewhat of a sigh. "Rouge being her irritating self is bad enough, but when she actually flirts with me, man if that's not creepy, I don't know what is!"

"...She... she told me about it once, but for the most part I ignored her. We were at work that day, so I was obviously worrying about bigger things."

"All I gotta say is that if we were ever a couple, I would tell her right in her fact that I would rather make out with Blaze."

As Shadow was listening, he was pondering on whether Knuckles was as vexing as Sonic expressed or not. If anything, he seemed to be more understanding than the Blue Blur. At the slightest aspect, he could share a few words with him without having some type of argument. If he was on Angel Island with the two, he would have added some humor that wouldn't have helped a thing, not to mention completely ruining the moment.

"...Does she flirt with you, too?"

That made Shadow's eyes widen in astonishment. "...What?"

"She... told me that it's one of her favorite past times just to mess with you..." Knuckles said in detail. "So,... does she?"

The Ultimate Lifeform simply couldn't believe what he was hearing. "...That's what she was doing to me?"

"...You mean..." This was obviously the shocking moment of the day for both of them. Though, Knuckles was a little more dumbfounded than flabbergasted. "...You didn't know? ...Come on, Shad! All this time time and you're finally putting the puzzle together. Tell me, what would she do to you?"

"...She..." It took him a second to think. "She would normally rub my arm, but I... didn't perceive it that way... I viewed it as if she was showing affection. But now after you telling me otherwise, I... I don't know what's going on with her, Knuckles. She's just... strange to me at times."

"...You... you don't think she... likes you, do know?" His voice was increasingly getting deeper.

Fortunately, he shook his head in reaction staring at the ground. "I don't think so... Me and Rouge are more like brother and sister. We would visit each other, but most of the time is her visiting me. Even so, she would only rub my arm and talk to me, nothing more."

"Thank goodness." He finally calmed down in relief. "If Rouge the Bat actually liked you more than a sibling, we would have a really big problem. And I know you don't see her that away at all."

It was rare for Shadow the Hedgehog to chuckle slightly. Regardless, if he was around someone like his rival, Sonic, he would have done anything in his power to prevent him from doing so. Although with Knuckles, he didn't even attempt to hide it. "If that was the case, I would think of it as a nightmare that I can't escape from."

Following that sentence, the last of his kind took the time to quickly collect his thoughts. "You know, he doesn't seem to be that much of a jerk, compared to what Sonic said. He actually seems pretty cool if you don't try to bother him. Perhaps we should talk more often to learn more about each other."

"...But,..." Shadow's voice interrupted. "...If Rouge somehow liked the both of us, we... wouldn't be on good terms at all."

"Psh, you're right about that." Knuckles rolled his eyes. "We would be fighting everyday, calling each other anything we could think of. ...Hey, I have a question if you don't mind..."

"...?"

"...Why did I just say that? I probably shouldn't ask him right now. But, I don't know the next time we would see each other... Here goes nothing..." Thinking it through, he looked at the G.U.N. employee straight in his eyes. "...We already know the answer to this, but how do you see Sonic? Do you at least tolerate him?"

"Tsk..." Just the hedgehog's name was enough to make him think of all the times he would vex the darker Mobian to seemingly no end. All those times he would do it out of boredom, all the times he would challenge him to a race, and the time he celebrated his fifteenth birthday. Oh, how Shadow didn't even want to remember what happened back then. "...Well, you know I don't consider to be a close friend in the slightest. At the very least, we are acquaintances. Yes, there are times when I would at least tolerate him, but when he's not decent, he is Big the Cat II. Why do you ask?"

"...Am I tolerable to you?"

Now, that question was what made Shadow appeared to be stupefied a little. What he thought of Sonic was definitely not stunning. On the other hand, he never really thought about Knuckles it up to that point. He never tried to test Shadow's patience in anyway. The powerhouse of Team Sonic typically had no reason of doing it, especially knowing how he was. As a matter of fact, based on the conversation they just had, they never bickered once. Not even a disagreement.

"...Let's just say that I would rather deal with you than the blue nuisance." He admitted.

At first glance, he didn't know if he should be happy or offended. Nevertheless, he shrugged it off and laughed. "Good to know that you don't hate my guts."

He was going to reply, but then he felt something vibrating. Pulling his phone from hammerspace, he answered the phone call.

"Rouge?"

"What are you doing? You called me like five times."

"I wanted you to do something for me, but it has already been taken care of. What were you doing?"

"I took a nap and put my phone on silent. And since when did you wanted me to take care of your errands?"

"Blame Faker."

"Whatever, Shads... Hey, I've got nothing to do, so do you wanna head to that restaurant up the street from my house for dinner?"

"I don't care."

Without even waiting for an answer, he hung up to look back at Knuckles, who was now smiling more. "Got a date tonight?"

"Not really." He shook his head. "Rouge is always dragging me into things whenever she's 'bored' as she claims to be. But, she is just... unpredictable..."

"No doubt." The echidna couldn't agree more. "Hey,... since we're not hostile to each other,... should we hang out more often? ...I mean, when we're trying to save Mobius and whatever, we usually don't talk to each other much. Mostly because we never actually had the chance. So,... are you cool with that?"

"..." He thought for a moment, then nodded. "As long as you don't act like that so called 'fastest thing alive'."

Hmm... something tells me that there should have been more. Not saying that I don't like it, but I feel as if this is... undone?

I'm gonna leave it up to you guys to decide. Criticism doesn't hurt.

Questions:

1. Should Shadow and Knuckles consider each other friends?

2. What is Rouge's problem?

3. I'm not really a romance person when writing Fanfiction, but Shadouge or Knouge? Take your pick!

And just so you guys know, I'm releasing my first Valentine's Day fic soon for this archive. Stay tuned.