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Sonic grew up very differently from him, he supposed.
The blue menace was always openly careless around his comrades and newly assigned parental figures, never ashamed to stumble or learn at his own pace when it came to anything he tried his hand at.
He was bubbly, optimistic, and complacent.
Knuckles was nothing like him, as it turned out. At first, the echidna had thought that they would share similar mindsets on a lot of topics, both having lost their parents at the same age and all. Apparently, he couldn't have been more wrong.
It was a cool morning in green hills, the leaves crunching under their feet as they marched along the forest floor diligently. Himself, Tails and Sonic had chosen to spend the day exploring the ‘endless possibilities of nature’, as Sonic put it, all armed with their own foraged staffs for ‘protection’. They had come across a winding river some ways into their journey, only a few small rocks protruding from the water's surface as a way across. The rocks were slippery with moss and freshwater, spiked in a way that mocked the mountains that loomed above them.
He had assumed that they would simply find another trail, seeing as Sonic’s fear of water often deterred him from pursuing unnecessary advances and all. It was logical, he supposed. And so, he turned to the others to see which way they intended to go now. When his eyes settled on their vibrant coats, Tails’ bright eyes were scrutinizing Sonic's scrunched up face, the aforementioned hedgehog glaring at the water that thrashed against the rocks unceremoniously.
This wasn't too odd, he figured, Sonic had the right to be angry at the water for blocking his path, after all. Knuckles would have smashed the thing if it were possible, however…
“I can craft us a bridge!” He exclaimed loudly, knocking his two fists together in a display of strength, eyes searching the forest quickly for a small tree he could break in half for his impromptu craft project. He almost missed the fond look Sonic sent him as he crossed his arms. “We don’t need to make a bridge, Knuckles. Tails can just fly us over. Besides, where's the fun in that?”
Knuckle's grin faltered in his confusion, turning towards his companion quickly. “Creating a bridge would be very beneficial, it would serve as a long-time pathway between the two sides of the river. What is the point in letting the fox carry us if he will have to do it every time?” he asked, almost incredulous. He had expected Sonic to be all for the idea, seeing as he had also grown up in the wilderness as a child. Shouldn't he know that bridges were important infrastructure when living in an environment such as this?
“Yeah, Knux, that's the point . Exploring is all about the adventure, ya’know? If we built a bridge, it’d take the fun out of it! Sides’, I trust you guys to not let me fall in.” he chuckled warmly, patting Tails on the head affectionately as the fox grinned proudly.
‘Fun’?
He…hadn't expected that from him. Of course, he knows that Sonic was an upbeat ‘live in the moment’ type of guy, but…well, even he should know that the basics of survival indicated that he make things as easy for himself as possible.
He just didn't get it.
Despite this, Knuckles pushed his chest out with a huff as he leisurely crossed his arms. “Fine, hedgehog. But I will reach the other side ceremoniously!” he stated firmly. Sonic let out an airy laugh, asking through giggles what that even meant .
Honestly, he himself wasn't even sure.
-=-
Okay, maybe their fundamental opinions on infrastructure was a bad example.
Because they were two very different people, and none of their ideas were going to be the same as a result. And sure , it was strange for a hedgehog that had lived in the woods his entire life to still be aching for treacherous lands to conquer, but that was just sort of how sonic was .
That didn't have to mean that their childhoods were too dissimilar, it just meant that Sonic was…creative? adventurous?
It doesn't matter.
Sonic was raised differently from himself, he knew. He was a warrior, born and raised to fight and win no matter the cost. He was strong, prepared, and skilled. Sonic was not. That immediately made them worlds apart from each other, and yet still…
It was almost as if the hedgehog's early ‘orphan’ title didn't shape or affect him in the slightest.
At dinner, Sonic talks animatedly about his day. His mouth moves so fast Knuckles questions how he's able to form the words, and his hands move meaninglessly to express today's adventures. His parents grin and engage, affection lacing their looks as they entertain their alien son. It’s endearing.
It’s something he would have done with his father, a long time ago.
They would sit, and Knuckles would explain every detail about the training he had gone through that day. His father would smile fondly at him, pride hardening his shoulders as he held his head high and praised the practicing warrior. The young echidna would beam under the praise, determined as ever to live up to his fathers standards.
It was a memory he tried to keep warm, even under the freezing burn of his loss.
He couldn't imagine doing that with anyone else.
So how was sonic, the untrained civilian, unhardened by war, able to move on, just like that?
-=-
As with most things regarding Sonic, it was always better to be blunt and straightforward with the approach. There was no point in beating around the bush, so any pining curiosity he may have had about their personal differences was pointless, and he may as well just…ask.
That, at least, was a quality they shared.
Knuckles was honest to a point, and Sonic was unafraid to be blunt and ambiguous in his approach to most things he endured. They are both spirits of brutal forwardness, a path carved by their own paws, lest they let nature take its course without them. The need to act, now, or never act again, was perhaps their greatest similarity. And well, Knuckles supposed that was for good reason.
Both had lost so much, that day. And neither wished to repeat the events.
Every echoing mantra of ‘should haves’, ‘could haves’, and ‘what ifs’ left everlasting changes to their daily lives, both unafraid to act in a moment, diving headfirst into danger despite what it could mean for themselves. A strong urge to protect , and yet, he still seemed to fall short.
Knuckles was stubborn. For the longest time, he worked alone, and even still found it…odd, to accept help from his new peers. It was a flaw that his tribe would be ashamed of, and one that Sonic did not possess…unashamed, he relied on his family, relied on Knuckles whenever he acknowledged that he fell short in an area he wished to better in. he allowed himself to bounce ideas off of Tails’ brilliance, plans and tests and ways to really push his seamless capabilities past every conceivable limitation. The way he preferred to use his legs in battle, but spoke to knuckles of improving his other assets; the hours he allowed himself under the echidnas guidance, body weight heeded in the throw of a punch because he wasn't too stubborn to listen , unlike Knuckles was.
He supposed Sonic would have made an excellent tribe member. He was attentive, caring, loyal, and eager to learn. He was not stubborn, hotheaded, or lacking in power in any regard.
Except, that wasn't quite the truth.
-=-
“Me? Are we thinking of the same supersonic hedgehog right now?” Sonic asked incredulously from his hammock, head tilted over the edge to face the echidna across from him. His upside-down gaze held such genuine confusion that it baffled Knuckles, whose posture was begging to stiffen at the others' response despite his already straight backed appearance as he sat cross-legged in a beanbag chair.
“Yes, we grew up in similar conditions, and yet you are incredibly different from me. You carry no stubbornness, you are not easy to anger as I am, and you do not shy from the new people in your life as I am prone to…I cannot figure out why.” He clarified, looking towards Sonic and his ever open expression.
Sonic gave him a look , lips twisting weirdly as if in a loose imitation of a grimace, his nose bridge scrunching up in a display of distaste. “Knuckles, how the hell did you even find your way to that conclusion? Did you look for it in a maze with a blindfold on or something?” he joked lightly, spinning himself around so he was upright again, still staring at Knuckles from over the side of the netting that the hammock provided.
He rested his cheek in a gloved palm, one brow raised. “I’m totally stubborn, and I'm easy to anger. Our sparring matches go on for hours unsupervised because we're both too stubborn to back out until one of us wins, and you remember last week when me and tails were playing Uno and I ran away because I lost?”
The echidna hummed, looking down to the limp hands in his lap, clenching them slightly as he worked to gather his thoughts. “Perhaps you are stubborn, then. But it is a determination that drives you. And frustration at a loss is justified. He did tease you quite a lot. We are not the same in this regard.” purple eyes snapped up to meet green for just a second, before Knuckles turned to face the wall. “I am too stubborn to accept the help you seek out, and I act before I have time to think, as anger often fuels my motivation. You are motivated by determination and justice, and ran then as you were aware you needed to ‘cool off’, as you even said yourself.”
“You found me halfway across the universe because you wanted to avenge your tribe and live up to their expectations of you, if that's not determination and justice, dude, I dunno what is.” Sonic smiled warmly, letting both of his arms hang off of the edge of the hammock, his head hanging lowly with them as he tilted his gaze to meet knuckles’ again. “What's brought this all on, anyway?” he prompted, a mumble in comparison to his usual boisterous tone- and Knuckles loathed that he had dimmed the others spark in that moment.
A long, steady sigh escaped Knuckles’ muzzle as he looked back at Sonic from across the room. “I suppose I am just…curious, as to how we are so infinitely different despite our upbringings. You allow yourself to be vulnerable, and trusting, despite so long without access to these things. They come so naturally for you, as if you are not at all haunted by your past. It is…something I fear that I may envy.”
Sonic's eyes widened for a second, lips parting in shock, just enough for the echidna to spot the other’s pointed canine, before his expression was gentle and composed once again. “Knux, we’re different ‘cause we're two different people, yeah? Sides’, I've had time to re-learn all that stuff since the…since then. And anyway, our childhoods were totally different before and after that even happened, so we’re gonna be different, y’know?” he shrugged lamely. “You just need time, and lucky for you, you have all the time in the world here!” he grinned enthusiastically, throwing his arms out with such force that the hammock rocked a little.
The runner's swinging smile made a tender smile of his own twitch at his lips, forcing his eyes away to look upwards at the skylight as he hummed in thought. “I suppose you're right, for once, hedgehog.” he huffed, half petulantly.
Sonics' offended stammering sharpened his grin, and he couldn't help but feel considerably less irked by the subject, even if just to allow himself a laugh at the way his friend had tipped mindlessly forward and landed flat against the hardwood beneath the swinging sleep spot.
(he missed the relieved smile that crossed his blue friends face as he wiped a tear from his eye with mirth)
-=-
Looking at Sonic interacting with his family was…interesting. Even with the acknowledgement that they were, in fact, still similar, just in different ways; it was difficult to wrap his head around. In some ways, he was still unsure of the hedgehog's analysis.
Sure, he had seen Sonic sit in front of the Tv for eight hours straight just because he wouldn't quit on a game until he'd found every secret and gotten full marks on every minigame. And, okay, yeah , he'd also taken more of a notice of how he could be irritated easily if urged right (he'd taken a notice to a lot of new things about Sonic during this time, actually), but there was still a striking difference between their distinct flavors of stubborn and angry .
Knuckles was stubborn to the point of delaying his own advancement, and angry enough to jump into situations without strategizing. He often caused more issues because of his impulse driven sense of self righteous justice, that he wondered if it was any use feeling the stupid emotion at all. He was hot headed and naïve, unwilling to stray from his pre prepared path, stuck in his past like someone drowning themselves. He was his own worst enemy at times like those, and he knew it.
But sonic .
Sonic was stubborn in a way that made him determined and confident. Sometimes, he came across as cocky, but he rarely had little right to be, never backing down and triumphing expertly at the things he put his mind to. And Sonic's anger was really such a poor label, because he was never angry. In fact, Knuckles had never heard an angered peep from him. It was not all consuming, it was not driven nor harmful, and it was not an impulsive blind rage. Instead, it was the gentle fizzle of a sparkler, ebbing and hissing like a fuse willing to blow, except it's not attached to an explosive. There was no fear of exploding rage and violent consequence, not even the thought of it, not with Sonic.
He was a cool, composed blue, to Knuckles’ burning, vengeful red.
-=-
Knuckles was the moon.
That, may have been an odd thought. Still, the echidna's composure in stressful situations, despite the magma crashing and burning to be let free behind his eyes, proved such a thought. He may have been easy to anger, or strong willed and stubborn, but that came with the intensity of the moon, too.
He was cool headed, distant to a fault. Strong, solid, stable and structured, purposeful .
Sonic was the sun.
he, too, was a raging fire, but instead of magma boiling and brewing, his heat was gentle and all consuming. From a distance, he looked on in awe. The spectacle of being, so free and content, brought hope. It was a signal of visibility, the marker of change, or at least, it was to him.
See, while Knuckles was like the moon, orbital and stuck in a structure that gave him a purpose, Sonic was the sun. He stood, centered in it all, neither a want nor need for the others who circulate, and yet his presence helps them function anyway. Occasionally, a sun flare shoots out and catches another's starry eyed admiration, or futile rage. Still, uncaring, the sun burns on.
His light illuminates the moon, highlights its form among the stars like an astral spotlight taken upon by a lover. Pride in the way it shines, shouting and screaming, ‘hey! Look at this moon, my moon, isn't he just so good?’, because even though the sun needs no one, he aids everyone.
The sun is prideful. He is the center of their solar system, aware of power that he possesses, but not how much .
The moon's pride is of its job, aware and loyal to a fault. He is of power, intensity to rival that of the sun. people talk, they admire, and they sing praise to the moon. The moon is, to some, more than the sun. And yet still, the moon only looks on as others do to him, to that of the sun himself.
The sun, to the moon, is an oblivious force, doing as he pleases with no awareness of his power.
To the sun, the moon is beautiful.
Sonic admires Knuckles as the Sun shines its adoring rays onto the Moon. The two are stuck in a dance, millions of miles away from one another, a long distance love if not for distance itself, for time, and for words. A million of them each are stuck in both of their throats, none with the knowledge of how to proceed.
The sun loves the moon, and admires from a distance. He makes sure the moon shines, and encourages others to look upon him with gleaming gazes full of praise, as he is too far to deliver the message himself.
The moon, in return, guides the sun's fruitful paradise as he sleeps, takes his encouraging light and gives others a sample of his beloved's might. Not many can look into the sun, for fear of being blinded, but the moon does it anyway, and for the others who fear it, he gives them a taste.
That is to say, Knuckles had become a better person through Sonic, and Sonic the same in his own light.
In dismay, Tails shakes his head, watching as the sun and moon orbit each other on the green grass under the stars, paws dirty and grins wide as premature bruises rake through their fur.
Eventually, they would figure it out. Maybe they'd talk, or maybe they wouldn't speak the words at all.
Either way, Tails was smart enough to know, two astral bodies were not so easily swayed.
This time, it was best to let the Sun and Moon rearrange the sky on their own. after all, they were more than capable.
-=-
(in a clearing just below fire glazed leaves, the sun and moon tumble to a halt, their dances’ end a spectacle of blues and reds amongst blades of grass. Their eyes meet from across the solar system, and a million miles is barely one.)