It was a bright, sunny day. The sun rays were attracted to the master emerald. The rays made it shine more than usual. The Shrine the emerald adorned sparkled from the light's reflections. Knuckles never noticed how pretty an emerald that contained such power could be. He was fascinated by it.

Knuckled enjoyed that quiet. No Robotnik, no Sleet, and no idiotic Dingo to bother him. Too bad he wasn't that lucky when it came to the royal triplets. He liked his friends well enough. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic have been a big help to him in the past but they had their days. Sadly, the day they decided to come see knuckles was one of those days.

He didn't quite recall how it started. Did Sonic say something? Or was it Sonia? Either way, Sonic and Sonia were very competitive with each other. One word, and they're off! At this moment the two of them were racing around Angel Island to prove who was faster. As for Manic, he was the more quiet of the siblings. But then again, anyone could seem mute standing next to Sonic and Sonia.

Knuckles turned his eyes to Manic. The younger sibling was toying with some gadget or something. Knuckles wasn't quite sure. He walked down the staircase and startled Manic by placing his hand on the other's shoulder. "Dude!" Manic jumped, scratching his forearm with the wrench he was fiddling with.

"You okay?" The wound wasn't deep, but it must be stinging. "Let me see." Knuckled offer to take a look. Being on his own a lot, he knows a decent amount of first aide. Mostly from trial and error. The scratch was long, about four inches and tore a minor amount of skin. Manic adverted his eyes, even though he grew up on the streets he was pretty quimish when it came to this stuff. A little bit of blood trailed down. It wasn't much, but Sonic and Sonia would freak out. They were very overprotective of Manic. Sonic more than Sonia.

Knuckles couldn't help but roll his eyes at the thought of Sonic freaking out of something so small, which he has done before. But he couldn't blame Sonic, he just wanted to be a good brother for Sonia and Manic, and he is. Knuckles pulled Manic's arm closer to him. He red echidna began licking the blood off his arm in an attempt to clean the wound.

Manic gave it no thought, like it was sucking out poison from a snake, only not totally like that. Knuckles stood up and lifted the other up by his hands. "Could've been worse. I could've had a butcher's knife instead of a wrench." Manic said jokingly as to pretend to be brave.

"I'm not sure I know anyone stupid enough to play with a butcher's knife, so let's keep it that way."

"Aw, always gotta take the fun outta life." He gave Knuckles a friendly shove.

"Yep." He returned the shove with a stern look.

"An expression like that makes me melt. You must be a real lady killer, Knux."

"Keep on joking, wrench boy and we'll see who'll be doing the killing."

"You wouldn't"

"Wanna try me?"

"Maybe later." Manic winked at the other causing Knuckles' tawny skin to turn as red as his fur. "Now, don't you look cute." He gave Knuckles' cheek a little pinch and giggled.

"Yeah, yeah." Knuckles turned around hiding his reddened face. He chalked his red complexion up to the summer heat. Several moments passed in utter silence. The awkward quiet was broken when Manic proceeded in doing something more awkward.

He wrapped his arms around Knuckles' waist from behind. It was almost impossible to avoid the phrase; SURPRISE BUTTSEX! But miraculously he didn't say a word then. He pressed his cheek against Knuckles'. "Your face is warm."

"Yeah?" Knuckles twitched, confused and nervous. He added another feeling to list as Manic traced the other's figure along his body; arousal. Knuckles was never handled in such a way before, he couldn't bring himself to speak against his friend. Mostly because he was starting to enjoy it.

Manic gently fingered his way down between Knuckles' legs. The punk prince nibbled the other's shoulder as he too was beginning to crave more. He moved his tongue along the other's collar bone, up his neck and cheek bone where he stopped with a kiss, "Knuckles?" He panted softly to the other boy.

"Yeah?" Knuckles didn't know how to respond. Every word came out slowly from the pleasure he felt.

"I. . ." Manic forced his body closer to Knuckles'. His chest against his shoulder blades, his groin against his tail, but he longed for more. "I really like you."

"Yeah?" He blushed even more, he couldn't say he felt the same way. He only saw Manic as a friend, he never thought of him as anything else before. Knuckles lifted the other's hands from and turned around to face him.

"Yeah." Knuckles stopped him from saying anything else with a passionate kiss and forced him to the ground. The guardian ravished the prince's mouth for about a minute before releasing him. They panted, unsure of how to proceed. "Knuckles. . ."

"Manic!"

"Knuckles!"

Two familiar voices called from a distance. The two too far to really comprehend what they were doing. Knuckles stood up and offered the prince his hand. Manic kindly accepted and was pulled to his feet. "Manic." Knuckles' eyes examined the other.

"Yeah?"

"We can continue this later if you want that is."

"I'd like that, Knux."