Like Old Times
Knuckles groaned as he sat up, his quills a tangled mess. As he reached up to smooth them down, his phone buzzed. He picked it up and, through sleepy eyes, saw that he had a text from Sonic. He tapped it and read the message from his friend.
Amy wanted to check out the new mall that opened up, and she HAD to drag me along with her, it said. Knuckles rolled his eyes; he never had patience with Amy and her obsession over Sonic. Tails is coming with us. You want in?
The last thing Knuckles wanted to do was make himself listen to Amy's giddy girl talk about shopping and Sonic, but he decided having a mild-mannered chat with his friends would distract him from it. He briefly debated the safety of the Master Emerald he guarded, decided today would be uneventful for it.
Sure, he texted back. I'll meet you guys there.
He made his way to the surface world and sprinted in the direction of the new mall. He could see Sonic, Tails, and Amy at the entrance and waved to them. Unsurprisingly, Amy was almost plastered against the blue hedgehog, much to his obvious discomfort.
As soon as Knuckles joined them, Amy dragged her crush through the sliding glass doors and into the shopping complex, the fox and echidna trailing behind them, casting each other annoyed looks. Knuckles could bear Amy's chattering for a grand total of two seconds before he began a light conversation with Tails. Seeing how much Sonic wanted to escape the clutches of his pink admirer, his friends included him in their chat. However, Sonic was forced to drop out of it several times when Amy pointed something out to him and wanted him to tell her how she'd look in a certain type of clothing.
It seemed as though she were the only one having fun, but that quickly changed.
Right after they turned a corner, a honeybee nearly bumped into them.
"Oh, sorry." he said, giggling.
"Charmy?" Knuckles said in surprise.
"Huh? Oh, hey, Knuckles!" Charmy said happily. "Didn't think you'd be here."
"I kinda got dragged into this."
"Charmy!" a male voice that sounded goofy and gruff at the same time called out. A crocodile and chameleon came running up to the group. "How many times I gotta tell you? Don't speed ahead like that!"
"Sorry, boss."
"Vector!" Knuckles said happily and approached his old friend. At that moment, Vector's face lit up.
"Hey, Knux! What's up?" The crocodile and echidna clasped hands. "How ya been, man?"
"I've been great! Dude, it's been so long!"
"Tell me about it. We just got back from a super tough case." Vector addressed Knuckles' friends and frowned when his vermilion eyes landed on Amy. "She drag you here?"
"Nah, the only one she drags anywhere is Sonic. He and Tails just wanted someone to talk to while she runs her mouth." Knuckles muttered.
"Humph. No surprise there." said Espio.
"Well, hey, as long as we're all here, why don't we all walk around together?" Sonic suggested.
"Sounds cool to us." Vector agreed.
They continued to stroll around, only now Knuckles hung back with Vector, wanting to talk and catch up on things with his friend. Sonic, Tails, and Amy walked ahead of them, while Espio and Charmy were in front. Sonic and Tails-and even Amy-turned to look at the echidna and crocodile as they laughed about something.
"Looks like they're having a nice conversation." said Tails.
"Yeah, but can that croc be any louder?" Amy said, frowning.
"You never did like Vector that much, did you, Amy?" Espio asked from ahead of them.
The pink hedgehog just pouted and refused to respond.