39 with knuckles (and anyone else)? 👀 👉👈
here ya go!
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It’s always something with those two, Knuckles thinks when he sees the Tornado touch down, engine smoking, and passengers worse for wear. He shakes his head at them, already telling himself that he really has to draw the line somewhere, that he’s helping no one when he’s constantly bailing these two out of whatever shenanigans they’ve gotten themselves into.
No way is he intervening. Not even when he sees Sonic – visibly singed, and limping when he hops out of the Tornado. Knuckles is a rock. Wholly unmoved by their plight.
It lasts for all of three more seconds.
Tails flies out of the Tornado then, looking strained, like the movement is painful. Knuckles has already taken a step closer to investigate. That’s when Tails falls out of the air, leaving Sonic to scramble to catch him. He does, barely, and only by grabbing Tails’s scruff. But the movement unbalances Sonic, and they land in a heap.
Knuckles sighs.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing to help him, he begrudgingly admits. As long as they don’t need the Master Emerald.
With that in mind, he shakes his head, already cursing his lack of willpower. But they do seem to need help, even if it’s only a safe place to sleep and heal. As long as they don’t need the Master Emerald, Knuckles supposes he can live with that.
Sonic and Tails are still in a heap on the ground when Knuckles arrives. He peers down at them, and only Sonic blinks his eyes open to look at him.
They glare at each other for a moment, each testing the other’s willpower.
Then, Sonic gently nudges Tails to wake him up.
Tails yawns and rubs his eyes. “Hm?”
Knuckles waits patiently for the little fox kit to notice him, and prepares himself for the inevitable startling. It passes quickly – to his surprise, Tails seems happy to see him.
“Hello to you too,” Knuckles says after a beat. “Should I even ask what happened?”
“Robotnik,” Tails says seriously, in that too-old-for-a-little-kid voice of his. Smart, but with childish lilts on many of his words. “Can we stay here for a little while? Sonic got really hurt.”
Sonic huffs. He gently smacks the back of his hand against Tails’s arm, but Tails just smiles.
“Please?” Tails adds. “We’ll be good houseguests this time.”
It is definitely not what Sonic was getting at, Knuckles thinks. He can’t even picture Sonic trying to raise Tails to be polite. Whatever polite attitude he has is surely due to whoever raised Tails prior to… however it is they met.
Knuckles tsks. “It’s fine. As long as Robotnik didn’t follow you, you can stay here. But once you heal up, I want you off my island.”
Tails looks immediately relieved. “Thank you. Hear that, Sonic? Knuckles let us stay after all!”
Sonic makes a movement with his hands that Knuckles doesn’t catch, but that makes Tails pout.
“He will too have food,” Tails says. Then, shyly, glances up at Knuckles. “...Right? If we do have to catch it ourselves, that’s okay too of course, I was just, um, wondering.”
Knuckles’s eye twitches. But he keeps his temper in check. For now. “I have soup,” he says flatly. “That should do it for you two until you can forage for yourselves.”
The promise of food, it seems, finally is enough to rouse them. Sonic slowly gets to his feet, with Tails struggling to help him, and between the two of them, they finally get upright. Tails attempts to help Sonic walk, but Knuckles doesn’t trust the fox kit’s shaky legs as much as Sonic seems to.
“Stop.”
Tails and Sonic blink up at him with twin confusion. “What?” Tails asks.
Knuckles easily pushes between them. Without a word, he slips one of Sonic’s arms around his neck, so he doesn’t have to lean on the kid to walk.
Truthfully, Knuckles is surprised Sonic is letting him – but even though he must be in pretty rough shape, it has to be a relief not to make the little kid prop him up. Even though Knuckles is deeply skeptical at Sonic’s abilities to shepherd a little kid, it’s clear he cares about him and doesn’t want to burden him. Which is only right, seeing as the kid can’t be more than five.
Tails, even more than Sonic, looks relieved. “Thanks, Knuckles,” he says. Then, he starts to step forward with shaky legs of his own.
Knuckles uses his free hand to grab him by the scruff.
Sonic makes a choked sound and tries to squirm away, but Knuckles doesn’t give him the chance to.
“Here,” Knuckles says mildly, “Let me carry you.”
It’s not as though he’s giving Tails much of a choice, of course, seeing as Tails is still held up by the scruff. But Knuckles thinks it’s extremely polite of him to at least explain.
“Are you sure?” Tails finally asks, in a small, uncertain voice.
Knuckles just grunts. Instead, he answers Tails by scooping him up and resting him on his hip. Tails seems to know what to do from there, saving both him and Knuckles the embarrassment of saying another word about it. Still, his namesake tails swish uncertainly even as he loops his legs around Knuckles’s middle.
“...Thanks,” Tails finally says, voice small as he buries his nose into Knuckles’s white crescent patch.
“Next time don’t get injured,” Knuckles says flatly. But there’s warmth in his voice despite himself.
From there, they make a lopsided, limping trio. But even Knuckles can admit to feeling relieved when they all sit down for soup a few minutes later, sitting in the warm glow of the Master Emerald and its shrine.