You are a (A/T)

Friends can learn a lot from each other.

Under the beating sun of Bygone Island a group of children stood on a beach, and they seemed to be centered around a child echidna. Whose eyes were watering as the other children bullied him. 

"Ha ha you're so dumb!"

"Yeah you can't even count to ten you silly!"

"My mum said you've never even been to school!" 

All he could do was clutch his fists and stare at his shoes, trying his best not to cry in front of the bullies.

"Can you even spell!?"

"Can you spell sand? S-A-N-D!" one kid shouted and as he did kicked sand in the echidna's face.

Stumbling back the echidna tried to get the sand out of his eyes, but ended up tripping falling to the ground.

"Ha ha ha ha! He fell over!"

"Come on spell it with us! S-A-N-D!"

And then all the bullies started to kick sand at the echidna laughing as they did so.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

All the bullies stopped in an instant when they saw a (A/T) there age standing there.

"Oh no it's (Y/N!)"

"You leave him alone otherwise I'll tell my dad what you did!" she threatened running up to the bullies.

They ran off straight away not wanting to be told off leaving (Y/N) with the echidna. He got up slowly sniffling brushing the sand off him as best as he could. 

"Are you okay?" she asked sweetly.

He didn't reply and kept looking at his feet.

"Don't worry the're gone now." she continued to try and reassure him.

But he still didn't say anything.

"Come on lets get rid of all that nasty sand." she said taking his hand.

He didn't pull his hand away and let her led him back into the market place, she then led him next to the fruit stand where there was a hose pipe. Taking out a handkerchief she got it wet and gently wiped away the sand from his face.

"There you're all clean now." she smiled.

"Thank you." he said very timidly.

(Y/N) was a surprised that he had spoken and secondly that his voice was so quiet.

This was an Island where everyone knew everyone. And so everyone knew that this child echidna was different to other mobians, no one knew who his family was, he rarely spoke and he never played with the other children.

"You welcome, my dad always says to help people and those guys are bullies." she smiled.

He gave a tiny nod.

"What's you name?" she asked in her sugar sweet voice.

"Knuckles." he said shyly again.

"Hello Knuckles, I'm (Y/N) the (A/T)." she chimed holding out her hand.

But he just stared at her hand, confused.

"Don't you know how to handshake?" she asked.

He gave a small shake of his head.

"Well you take each others hands and shake them, it's a way of saying hello." she explained.

As she did she gently took his hand and showed him how to handshake. Knuckles then let his hand fall limply to his side.    

"Why were those bullies being mean to you?" she asked filling in the silence.

Knuckles avoided her gaze, hesitating before saying.

"Because I don't go to school like the rest of you." he said sadly. 

But (Y/N) just gave him a big smile.

"Is that all!? Who cares if you don't go to school, you seem nice enough to me! If those bullies turn up again I'll help you!" she beamed.

Knuckles looked up at her shocked, she was the first kid his age to be so nice to him.

"D-does that mean we're friends?" he asked.

"Yeah we're friends!"

For the first time Knuckles smiled.

"I know!" (Y/N) suddenly said.

"What?"

"If those bullies are mean because you don't go to school then why don't I teach you some things, my dad's a teacher at the school so I can borrow some of his things! We could meet up here everyday!" she suggested.

Knuckles wasn't very keen on the idea of learning, because as far as he was aware school was a hard place. But the thought of meeting up with his new friend was too much for him. So with a smile he replied:

"Okay!"

So the next day (Y/N) met up with Knuckles as they had planned and she'd brought flash cards of the alphabet, pads of paper and lots of coloring pencils. At first Knuckles didn't very much like reciting letter and numbers, struggling to learn to write and then read. 

But eventually he warmed up to it, the letters started to make words, he enjoyed how you could go into different worlds with a few little words. Numbers started to add up and sums were sometimes fun, when they did questions such as 'if there are three bullies and you punch one bully, how many left do you have to punch?'.

(Y/N) was a surprisingly good teacher only moving on when she was sure Knuckles understood. And they continued to meet up and learn together for many years to come. 

When they were five (Y/N) taught him the alphabet and how to read and write.

When they were seven she taught him how to write stories.

When they were ten she taught him the times tables.

And as the years carried on progressively she taught him more. Although despite all the teaching and learning they still did plenty of playing together and having adventures.

And even though as they grew up Knuckles became friends and joined the Sonic gang he still made sure to meet up with him every day at a clearing near the beach. More than often now it was to talk and enjoy each others company, and most of the time it was (Y/N) talking about new books she'd read. 

"I've just finished a book called 'Strange Meeting', it was about the first World War and very sad, but it was a good read." (Y/N) said excitedly one random day.

"And did you finish it a few minutes ago by any chance?" Knuckles chuckled.

He was obviously referring to her reading glasses which she was still wearing. She'd had to start wearing them about a year ago and Knuckles had had to stop himself several times on commenting on how much they suited her.  

"Oh yeah, I forgot to take them off. What about you? Have you run into Eggman at all?" (Y/N) asked.

"He actually showed up today with a new robot called 'Burnbot' and he caused a lot of trouble. Still I got a couple of hits in." he said smugly.

"'Burnot'? I'm guessing it had some sort of flame throwers or something." (Y/N) thought pout loud.

"Actually it didn't, it just had these large claws." Knuckles laughed a little.

"How stupid can Eggman get!?" (Y/N) joined in laughing as well.

This was why they met up everyday.

~The next day~

I can't wait to start these new books, I got some great new titles by the same author I just read about, (Y/N) thought as she happily walked through the market place.

As usual she had just been to the library and returned the books she'd read and taken more out, and there was no doubt she'd read them by the end of the week.

She saw Knuckles talking to a grey wolf, she recognized him as the owner of the hardware store.

"Hey Knuckles!" she began to call walking up behind him.

But she stopped when she overheard what they were talking about.

"But I thought you couldn't read or write, you didn't attend school like the rest of us." the wolf said.

"Well (Y/N) taught me a couple of things when we were younger." he said, seemingly happy enough.

As she couldn't see his face. 

"Even though I went to school I'm still pretty much a dunce, maybe I could get her to teach me a thing or two." the wolf chuckled.

(Y/N) couldn't help but feel a little pride that she'd helped Knuckles so much.

"Oh no you don't want to that!" Knuckles suddenly said waving his hands in a dismissive way.

"Huh? Why not?" the wolf asked.

Yeah.. why not? I always thought I was okay at teaching...

"Although its nice to be around (Y/N) she's not that good a teacher, I-I had to spend a lot of my own time trying to figure out what she'd tried to teach." he said in a rush.   

"Oh, well there goes that plan." the wolf sighed.

Meanwhile (Y/N) slowly backed away clutching her books to her chest, very much hurt. Not wanting Knuckles to see her she took off and didn't realize she'd run to the clearing at the beach. It was just instinct to come here whenever anything bad happened.

As she knew Knuckles would happily listen to her problems, and sometimes go beat up whoever was responsible. Sitting on the ground, resting her back against the trunk of a palm tree she sniffled a little trying to hold back a couple of tears.

Does any of the time we spent together count anymore? If Knuckles didn't want me to teach him then why didn't he say? I was just trying to help...

"(Y/N)?"

Glancing behind she saw the last person she wanted to see.

"Hey are you okay?" he asked seeing her red eyes.

"I'm fine." she snapped a little.

"Well you don't look fine, do you want to talk about it?" he offered worrying about her.

"Oh no you don't want to do that! Although its nice to be around me, I'm not that good to listen to!" she snapped slightly reciting Knuckles' words.

Knuckles stopped at that realizing that she's heard his conversation in the market place.

"(Y-(Y/N) what I meant was-

"Oh I know exactly what you meant! You obviously don't appreciate that I was just trying to help you! Well I'm sorry I wasted my time!" she yelled.

And she ran off home before he had the chance to explain.

A couple of days past and Knuckles went to the clearing everyday but (Y/N) never turned up, and the librarian was starting to worry about her as she hadn't visited the library for a couple of days either.   

So Knuckles took matters into his own hands but when he went to (Y/N)'s house she wasn't there.

There's only one other place she'll be...

And heading to the clearing sure enough she was there, reading a book obviously.

(Y/N) had come here when she saw Knuckles walking around town from her house figuring he wouldn't be at the clearing, sick of being inside she missed reading by the beach.

"(Y/N)..."

Jumping (Y/N) snapped her book shut and avoided his gaze.

"I have nothing to say." she said in a stern voice.

"Well I do." he said.

She just looked away pretending not to listen.

"I'm sorry."

She didn't reply.

"I lied, you've always been a brilliant teacher and I'm really grateful that you took so much of your time to help, but the reason I said those things..."

He paused and (Y/N) glanced at him.

"Is because I'm selfish I guess, I didn't want you spending that much time with someone else..." he confessed, blushing.

(Y/N) looked up at him and it was his turn to avoid her gaze, but he didn't know what to think when she gave a small chuckle.

"Your such a dummy." she chuckled.

"W-what? How am I a dummy!?" he asked blushing further.

"Like I'd help out that wolf! He was one of the kids who was bullying you when we met met!" she laughed.

"He was?" Knuckles asked, clearly not remembering.

"Yes, and I think I'd lack the patience to help him out. That idiot should have listened in class." she continued.

Knuckles was relieved to hear this, knowing they'd made up.

"So..." he trailed off.

"So we're okay you big dummy, now sit down and let me tell you about my latest book!" she said excitedly.

"And what are you reading this time?" he asked smiling.

"It's Shakespeare, and it's a tale of the king and queen of the fairy kingdom, A Midsummer Night's Dream..."