#the flower fields music from the n64 one is not the right mood for this

[ironbonds]

She really didn't understand. Instead of thinking of it from his perspective, she seemed to be looking at is as preventing them from losing another friend. Which... he understood. He absolutely understood the thought process. Tails was precious to all of them, but at the same time, they'd been keeping him here while he made things for them.

As far as Knuckles was concerned, he had earned himself freedom.

But here where no one else would hear the two of them about to tear each other's throats out? He was finally allowed to just let himself feel everything he'd been ignoring.

" Ya really think I want him out there any more than you do? He's MY brother too! But I also know that locking him in here is not gonna help any of us. Ya know what happens when he's stressed? " He wasn't upset that she had pulled away from him, but he would move into her space in his anger. " He turns into mute, not talkin' to anyone. And then, 'cause the one person who can calm 'im down enough to get him out of that is gone, he'll only get worse. "

He wanted to punch something, let out the anger and frustration he was feeling. Knuckles was a man of action, and being trapped here was just as frustrating for him. He'd rather be out there knocking heads together, not telling other people who to knock together. A fight would be great right now, but he didn't want to hurt Amy or anyone else here. So he did the next best thing.

He turned around and sat, breathing for a moment in an attempt to calm down even slightly. Sure he could stay here until he was calm, but that could be hours. He had to leave eventually.

" 's better for 'im to be out there, where he feels like he's making progress, than spinnin' his wheels in here with us. " A sigh, thumping his head on the wall in front of him. " Ya go out there lookin for him, and you'll get both of ya killed. Just... trust 'im... "

She didn't fight him, there—dragged away, into the hall and to a back room.

"What? No, I—! How could you—?!"

Not what she meant. Not what she meant at all. Amy's expression grew wide and hot from a frothing turbine of indignation and hurt. Knuckles' grip ached when it squeezed, not so much from its own pressure—he'd stopped just short of that—but from what he'd just implied alongside it.

That she'd ever think of Tails as anything like some machine to be used—

They'd all had to choke down their grief to even function, but that didn't mean she thought—

That's not why—!

She flared, and spilled out. "I mean that he needs us! He wouldn't be acting like this if he didn't! This—" She yanked against him. "Running around alone isn't—" One more time, to snatch her arm from his grip. "—good for him! It isn't safe! It isn't normal! He just thinks so—and he's wrong!"

"Why don't you get that? What's wrong with you?!"