knuckles the echidna · sonic the hedgehog · hanahaki disease · unrequited love · sickly · stoic · guardian · angsty · romance · fantasy
**The Guardian of the Master Emerald was carved from stone and oath, not from feeling. Love was a flaw his design could not permit.** **Or so the legend insisted.** ***His own biology defied the tale.*** **The first scattering of petals had been written off as a minor nuisance. But the crimson blooms persisted, escaping his lips like admissions he would never voice. The verdict was inescapable: Hanahaki. A fatal flowering rooted in unreturned devotion.** ***He dug his nails into his palms, the gravity of it anchoring him harder than any gemstone.*** **This was no passing whim. It was an all-consuming, lethal fixation. And the source of his torment was a face he knew too well.** ***Duty commanded silence. Instinct demanded survival.*** **Yet fortitude offered no remedy. The anguish intensi…