Chapter 19 - The start of something beautiful...

The reason why Knuckles had to go back to his birthplace wasn’t known by anyone. No one knew why… Vector and Mighty had been talking to him the day after in private, and many hours later, they came back… Knuckles looked devastated, and not long after that, they said goodbye to everyone else after Knuckles packed a few things and were on their way back home to Angel Island… As to the question if he ever came back, he wasn’t very clear. But he did, except it still took 8 years before he came back…



But… Sonic and the others said they had to go as well… To look for something, I don’t know. I can’t really remember but I think they mentioned something about some emeralds. And so they set off as well… They’ll be back but, not for a few months… So Blain, Cody, and I were the only ones left in the village…



And as for me… I kept living on like I always did… The months passed by quickly and summer was about to kick in… I still went to school, and if you’re wondering what happened to Shamara and Rico… Well… We still saw them… We both had a bit of a problem going to school and actually see them, but I guess they had the same with us. I never had the guts to face Rico ever since that night, and many months passed by without seeing him… It was actually a shame that it all led to this, because we had a really tight friendship… Except… I fracked up with Rico and never had the guts to take responsibility for it … And before the holidays started, Blain and I saw Shamara and Rico walking away together… That was the last time we saw them…



But everything seems to fade away slowly as the summer holidays came… Two months of relaxation, sleeping in, parties, beaches, and all that… I have to admit, this was by far the best summer I ever had… When Blain stayed over that night, he never left… So at some point, we decided to live together with the three of us… Blain, Cody and me…



One day… Well, on a Tuesday to be exact, was a very hot day. We’ve only had summer holidays for a few weeks now, but the temperatures were rising quickly, even before the holidays. You saw people walking around half naked through the streets in town eating icecream and some even splashed in the large fountain on Brawshore Falagate Square. People used everything to keep cool but for some reason, I wasn’t really affected by it. Maybe it was because I was used to temperatures like that and… Well… Others weren’t.



But it did affect me at night though… It was so hot and muggy and taking cold showers didn’t really help. The blankets were thrown waaaaaaaaay back in my closets and only had a pillow at night. But there was this one thing that helped a bit, and it’s kinda embarrassing to tell about it. Hehe, I’ll get back on that later…



I’m getting sidetracked again…. Anyway, as I said, Blain and I decided to live together, and on that hot Tuesday, we moved his stuff to my house. Well, it wasn’t really much. Blain didn’t own much. Except his clothes, and some big metal case… And a few other cases which had some logo on it…



Nicole: What’s with all the cases?
Blain: Trust me, you don’t wanna know.
Nicole: Can I…?
Blain: No… Don’t.
Nicole: Why not?!

Then he just looked at me and smiled, and walked off with his things to my house. As soon as I noticed I was alone, I couldn’t resist peaking in the cases to see what he was hiding… So I opened the big one first… At first, there wasn’t anything that really seemed out of place. A pair of leather gloves, some maps, a few pistol clips… Body armour with that RRTS thing… A flashlight… Some documents about his past… And- Wait… I picked up the dossier that was filled with papers and all sorts of stuff. As soon as I opened it, I noticed all sorts of data about the four of them… As I flipped the pages, I came on his file record thing. That his real name was “Epsilon 223” and not Blain. Well, Blain was mentioned as a codename or something further down the dossier. It also said about all of the imperfections he suffers from after he was created and every other little thing. It said he suffered from claustrophobia… I didn’t know that… I mean, I know he was created but… Not anything like this… All of his campaigns were tracked and recorded, from the Assault on Westopolis to the re-capture of Station Square… It also said he was missing in action ever since Robotropolis fell…



Blain: You know… I was saving that…

I jumped up and let the dossier fall out of my hands and looked at him. He picks up the papers and placed it back in the case…



Nicole: Well, I-
Blain: I was saving those documents but… They gotta be destroyed.
Nicole: … Why? I mean, everything you ever did, are in those documents! It contains you’re history!

Blain: Exactly, that’s why they gotta be destroyed…

Nicole: Yeah but… Why…?
Blain: Well if they ever look for me in the future, they can’t prove anything… After these documents are destroyed, I would have never existed… I’ll just be another average creature… And then I can truly leave the past…

Nicole: I see…
Blain: Come on, let’s go.

He grabs the cases and he held his arm so that I would take and smiled. I hooked my arm underneath his and we walked out of his for the last time…



We would go to the beach but it actually got me thinking. I liked swimming, except… Me in a bikini… My tail looks so ridiculously huge whenever I wear a bikini. I stood a long time in front of the mirror to look if it wasn’t… Too stupid…



Blain: Come on! Hurry up! What’s taking you so long?!
Nicole: Hold on, almost done!

I peeked around the door of my room to see what he was doing. He wore his black tanktop with the urban camo pants along with his lowtops. He always wears that…



Blain: Come on, come on, come on!
Nicole: Ok, ok, ok! Chill!
Blain: What are you doing in there anyway?!
Nicole: Ok… Ok… I’m coming out… Promise not to laugh…
Blain: … Uh, sure…
Nicole: Promise!
Blain: … I promise.

Then I sloooooooooooooooowly opened the door and peeked around the corner. He just stands there looking with a baffled frown as to question what the hell my problem was. Then I slowly got out of my room. And the rest of me… In a bikini… A red one… I just stood there uneasy. The fact that he just stared at me and didn’t say anything didn’t really help either…



Blain: Whoa… Uh…
Nicole: … So…?
Blain: Eh… I uh…
Nicole: …
Blain: It’s just that I’ve never seen you like that.
Nicole: … Are you staring at my @$$?
Blain: What?! No!
Nicole: Yes you were!
Blain: No! What makes you think that?!
Nicole: Well the fact that you’re blushing gave me a hunch…

Then he turned even redder. I couldn’t help but to smile at him as I went back in my room. That didn’t solve the tail issue though. Having a huge tail can have an advantage but… Sometimes it’s just a drag and a pain in the @$$… Literally…



Anyway, I dressed in something comfortable and wore flipflops. I got out my sunshades and… Waterbottles… Towels… And that’s it I think. As soon as I got out of my room, I noticed Blain had dogtags around his neck and his sunglasses as well.



Blain: Ready?
Nicole: Yup!
Blain: Then let’s go.


So we went over to the beach. I searched for Cody to see if he wanted to come along, but he said he was gonna meet up with friends and was gonna spend the night at one of them. So, that just leaves me and Blain going to the beach…



It wasn’t that late when we arrived at the beach. Around 13:00 hours and yet it wasn’t really crowded. You saw all sorts of creatures and a couple of humans having fun in the water and on the beach. We looked for a nice quiet place and placed the towels on the ground. A couple of kids were playing in front of us… So I took off my clothes and just kicked back while putting my shades on… And not long after that, I felt a ball hitting my stomach…



Kid: Can I have my ball back!?
Nicole: Uh, sure. Here you go.
Kid: Thank you!

And not long after that, it hits me again…



Kid: Oh! Can I have my ball back?!
Nicole: Sure but watch where you’re going with that!
Kid: Thank you!

Then the kid fracks off again with the ball as Blain was just snickering…



Nicole: What?!
Blain: Their not gonna listen to you… *chuckles*
Nicole: Why not?!
Blain: You’ll see…

At that point, the ball hit me again… This time, I threw the ball at Blain… He didn’t realize the ball belonged to that kid and popped it with his left hand… Then the kid looked baffled at Blain and ran away crying…



Nicole: Aww, now look what you did!
Blain: …


Not long after that, some ice-cream guy came along with a cart, yelling, “ICECREAM!! GET YER ICECREAM HERE!!!” He looked funny though. Anyway, I went over to him and bought two ice creams. Vanilla flavoured ones with those crispy cones, you know? Well those. After I gave Blain his ice-cream, we started eating and at some point, he stared at me with a grin. He nudged my arm and my icecream went right up my nose… Then I just looked baffled at him…



Blain: You got a little icecream on your nose.

Nicole: Oh really?
Blain: Yup… Hehehe…

Then at some point, I asked if he could rub my back with sun block… I lay down on my stomach and took off the straps of my bikini top as he sat on me… Normally its not a weird sight if you see someone else doing it, but… The way it happened was… Awkward… He squirts some of that stuff on my back and rubs it really gently…



Nicole: Dude, you gotta rub harder.
Blain: Like this?
Nicole: No, harder.
Blain: … This?
Nicole: No harder!
Blain: …
Nicole: Harder!

Then I just looked around and noticed people were staring at us after realizing what I said… Oh the embarrassment…



*sighs*



…



That sort of stuff always happens to me. Not long after that, I guess people forgot about it. Anyway, after a while, the heat became unbearable. And seeing other people in the water and all that looked refreshing. I bet it was. So Blain and I went for a swim… Luckily, I remembered to put on the straps of my bikini top otherwise it would have been really embarrassing…



I jumped on his neck and sat on his shoulders as he held me on to my paws and were arsing around until he tickled my paw and I fell off his shoulders… We continued arsing around, splashing water and tickling and laughing…



At some point, I held on to his shoulders and stared in his dark blue eyes… There was always something about those eyes… Every time I stare at it, I felt myself drifting away… Maybe it was because I was in the water but… Still… It always had a rather weird effect on me and made my belly go all tingly and fuzzy… He never really showed it, but that day, his eyes told a lot… And we just floated around for a while as we stared in each other eyes…



We slowly sank under water while we still stared in each others eyes… I felt how he held on to my waist as I supported my forehead against his and closed my eyes… And as soon as I opened them, I stared in those eyes again… From that point, I knew it was more… That it was more then just friendship and that he felt the same… A quick stare in his eyes told me more then 1000 words… Everything I ever thought about him,, I knew he thought the same about me… He strokes his hand through my hair as oxygen bubbles slowly floated upwards towards the surface and had a little smile on his face… He smiled a lot more often then he used to, but this was a special smile… A smile I’ve never seen… With every move he made and touched my hair, belly, waist or anything at all felt intense… Those gentle touches are something I’ve never felt before and I thought way back what love truly meant… Heh… Turned out I knew nothing…



As soon as we reached the surface, we held on to each other… I stroked his cheek as he still held on to my waist… And not long after that, he kissed me… Which… Was actually surprising… I didn’t complain though… Hehe…



People started to go home… We didn’t… We stayed until the sun went down… For some reason, this sunset was more beautiful then any sunset I’ve seen so far. Maybe it was all in my head, or maybe it was because I watched it together with Blain… Whatever it was, I was happy…



As soon as we got home,, he had a determined look on his face for a short time…. No smile, whatsoever…



Nicole: Something wrong…?
Blain: No… Why you ask…?
Nicole: Because… You look all serious…
Blain: Yeah… I’m intending to close down a chapter of my life tonight…
Nicole: Oh…?

He grabbed the metal cases of him and looked at me as he stood up…



Blain: Come on…
Nicole: What are you gonna do…?
Blain: Closing down a chapter…

We went towards the lake with those cases… At first, I didn’t get it but as he stood at the bank of the lake, he looked at me, smiled and nodded to join him… So I went over to him and grabbed the handlebar of the case…



Blain: You ready…?
Nicole: Hmm-mm…
Blain: Ok…
Nicole: One… Two… Thr-
Blain: Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa!! Wait!!
Nicole: What?!!

He dropped the case and got out the pistol, the ammo and the gloves… After that, he closes it and picked it up while I held on to the handlebar on the side as I just stared at him…



Blain: … What, I like those gloves…
Nicole: Hehehe…
Blain: We’re doing this together ok…?
Nicole: Sure…
Blain: Ok… One… Two… Three…

At that point, we both tossed the case in the lake, and it slowly sinks… Blain threw the rest of the cases in the water as well… He looked at and sighed as we saw the cases sinking slowly… For a second there, I thought I saw a tear running down his cheek, so I put an arm around him…



Nicole: You alright…?
Blain: … I am now…

And we sat down in the grass… It stayed silent for a moment until he grabbed my hand…



Blain: Nicole…
Nicole: Yeah…?
Blain: I gotta tell you something…
Nicole: What is it…?

Blain: Well… You made me realize that there are more things in life… And… I’ve put my past in the past, and I’m living like there is no tomorrow… We’ve both closed down a chapter of our lives and… We’re beginning a new one… And I just hope we can start the new chapter together… You’ve been a good friend to me, Nicole… No one and nothing can take that away from me…

Nicole: That’s why I’m here for right…?
Blain: Heh… I know I’ve been acting like an @$$ in the past, but-
Nicole: Hey…

I caress his cheek as my other hand strokes his quills…



Nicole: Like you just said… In the past… This is now… It’s a whole new chapter… I also did things I regret but… It doesn’t matter anymore…

Blain: You’re right…
Nicole: Let’s go home, ok…?

So we went home… Blain took a shower to wash of the seawater as I cleaned up a few things… Well… It got me thinking… The bathroom door wasn’t locked… So I just stepped inside…



He turned around and watched as I took off my cloths… I felt that he looked at my body and then I just stepped in the shower… I stared in those blue eyes again and placed my hands in his as I kissed him… I guided his hands down and every moment seems so intense that at one point, the water drops seem to freeze in mid-air… And that there was nothing else on the entire planet except for Blain and me…



And after we were done taking a shower, I lay down on bed as he sat at the end of it, touching my paws. I didn’t really know why though, but it felt funny. But at some point, I got up and pulled him down on the bed and encase you’re wondering… We were naked so... I guess you can see where we’re heading… Heehee… Anyway… I kissed him again and guided his hands down… And he just looked at me with big eyes so… I kissed him again to assure him everything was fine…



Nicole: Wrong place…
Blain: Here…?
Nicole: Nope… A little down…
Blain: …
Nicole: That’s my bellybutton silly…


Well, he looked a bit embarrassed to say the least but… Hehe… I couldn’t help but to smile as he finally found the right place. I guess it must have felt like for him that he was on a treasure hunt or something… “X marks the spot”… But for me, it felt waaaaaaaaay different… It felt like… I don’t know… I only did “it” two times and yet I never felt anything like this before… The way he did it was so gentle, like I could break into thousands of pieces any second… And after a while, I sat on his face. He tried to say something but… Hehehe…



We did a lot more that night and even went further then that… Except I’m not bothering to actually tell you that… You ought to guess it… But yeah… That was a real intense night… Blain and I were no longer friends… We were more then that… And that was the start of something that would last for a very long time… Like I said… Best summer ever…

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