♡ 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐎𝐘𝐒 𝐱 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒 ♡

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 → 𝐊𝐍𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐒

By @StAr_Dem0ns ft. they/them pronouns!!

❤

I can't believe this!

Why don't they trust me anymore?

I can take on anyone!! I don't need help!!

Knuckles huffed, arms folded across his chest and balanced atop his knees. A pout crossed his muzzle, aglow in his frustration, and his eyes squinted in the brightness of the early morning to see past the luminance and express his annoyance in slanted eyebrows.

The same kind of thoughts had been spiralling around his already overworked mind since the second he awakened, and wouldn't seem to leave him alone during the night either. He kept thinking about them during his poor sleep at the foot of the shrine, waking up countless times to have to lock them away for later before another failed attempt to catch just a few Zs.

But they kept coming back, and even invading his dreams. Ever since he heard the news a few days ago, it haunted him like a ghost and casted darkness over him like a shadow. Every move he made in his position as guardian of the most sacred jewel in the universe felt wrong, which was a feeling he could admit now that he'd never encountered.

Where he would usually never feel anyone could compete with his protective quality, he suddenly understood his flaws. They seemed more obvious every time he tripped up one, like dents in what he thought to be his smooth success. He always saw himself to be tougher than leather, but now he wasn't so sure...

The whole idea of having someone else to come and help him in an assignment he felt only belonged to himself startled him. It pushed him out of the flow, forcing him to doubt his every move and contemplate if he really was as mighty as he believed. To say he'd felt down recently would be an understatement larger than the gemstone he sat before at this moment...

Knuckles gave another sigh, leaning back until his body bent over the stone step laced in ancient tribal carvings he sat on. He flung his arms above his head just before where the structure of the smooth rocky shrine changed to house the Master Emerald. His quills spread out as his head hit the ground, rather harshly, but he didn't seem to notice, his skull always feeling thick enough to withstand any amount of pressure.

He stared at the sky with his large hands placed to his chest. He could feel his breaths trembling and his chest throbbing, as if he were to cry, but he wouldn't be caught dead preforming an expression of such weakness. He couldn't seem to wipe the frown from the tanned skin of his muzzle, his eyes dazzling in the hue of two precious amethysts gazing into the sky with hopes to remove it.

Knuckles tried to calm himself down with a deep breath, breaking his admiration of the bright blue sky for just a second to close his eyes along with it. It seemed to dust his mind free of these thoughts that gnawed away at his confidence, like everything reversed to take the more supportive route of telling him it would all be okay.

Sure, he could admit he'd fallen for some villainous tricks in the past that threatened the safety of the emerald and therefore every soul alive in the universe, but it hadn't stopped him before. Even when people had nagged to him about replacement and having someone not so gullible in charge of something so valuable, he ignored it in a determined and optimistic stride.

But apparently, enough was enough. Apparently, those who pursued evil ways had taken advantage of his stupidity too many times. Apparently, the protection of the Master Emerald needed improvement and a desparate change, meaning someone to assist Knuckles and be the aspect of his brain to process the dangers of situations before stepping too far into them, something many people believed he just didn't have.