Delphox was in love.

She had fallen in love maybe a few years ago. She didn't exactly remember which day, but she knew, roughly a few years ago. She was, yet again, day after day, locked up in her room, forced to research on more precious potions—it was what her family did. Delphox never agreed to it, but her parents forced her to, and locked her in her room the entire day, making her research on more puzzles. Delphox didn't bother to escape—it would result an in even worse punishment.

One normal, forced-to-research day, Delphox looked out of the window that sat right beside her desk where she researched on her potions. She watched the Pokemon play outside, and sighed wistfully, hoping that one day she could be like them. But of course, her parents would do this to her for as long as they lived. I guess I'll have to wait, Delphox sighed in disappointment.

She scanned the area, and somewhere near the center, there was where she first saw him. Greninja had a soft, tender look on his face as he spoke with a Frogadier—his sister, most probably. Delphox fell in love with his facial expression, his smile, his freedom, and lifted the window to try and strain her ears to hear his voice. Eventually, she did, and he was chatting with his sister about pointless things. Delphox let out a smile—a real smile—that she hadn't in a long while. She watched him and he, in fact, lived quite near her—but it didn't matter... What was the point if she probably couldn't communicate with him?

He came in front of her house every day—Delphox didn't know why, but she then found out it was his sister's favorite spot—there was a small pond nearest to her house, and the rested in the shade of her house after having fun. Delphox was tempted to jump out of the window and perhaps have a normal conversation with him—but that was impossible for her, because... well. That's for later.

One day, he came alone, without his sister, and there was no other Pokemon there. Greninja looked miserable, as if he might burst into tears any moment. Delphox couldn't control herself, ripped out a blank sheet of paper from her research book and crawled down a sentence. She folded it into a paper plane, opened her window and threw it down at him.

Greninja looked surprised as he received the paper plane. Delphox peeked out from her window and blinked at him. He unfolded it and scanned the simple, two-word question and was surprised and how good she was at telling something was wrong.

What happened?

Nothing, he wanted to write, I'm fine. Some part of him told him he was better off telling someone apart from his family—a stranger, even. He made a writing motion, signaling he had nothing to write with, and Delphox blinked at threw down a pen, which he caught skillfully. He uncapped it and began writing down a simple sentence that allowed the Fox Pokemon to understand.

My sister died.

He threw it back up with his ninja skills, and for a moment, Delphox thought he would just tell her nothing happened, but when she opened it, she leaned down the window and gawked at him. She turned back to her desk and frantically wrote something back down, folded it back and threw it back down at him. She wasn't sure how he managed to throw the paper plane two storeys back up, but... all right.

Oh. I'm sorry. What happened to her?

Greninja sighed and wrote back something. Then, looking at Delphox, rather annoyed, wrote down something else. Delphox frowned—she hadn't meant to offend him in any way. Why was he so annoyed, then? Something she didn't do?

Throwing it back up, Delphox caught it clumsily, smiling sheepishly down at him. It dropped into a frown when she saw him frowning at her, arms crossed, an impatient look on his face. The Fox Pokemon looked away and opened up the paper plane.

Just... some fatal illness. Can't you shout to me instead of writing? It's rather time-consuming.

Delphox blinked at the last two sentences, frowning, and wrote again, folded it back and threw it back down. Greninja growled in annoyance when she still didn't shout to him. He would have thrown a Water Shuriken at her, but he saw her innocent, apologetic, sympathetic face that he couldn't bring himself to attack her with something she was weak against, and instead, tried to control his impatience and opened the paper plane.

I'm mute.

Greninja felt like an idiot now. He (kind of) snapped at her for not shouting to him and in reality, she was mute, born without a voice. He slapped himself on his forehead to ensure he was thinking properly and began writing down a reply.

Oh... sorry.

He threw it back up at her, she caught it, and immediately whirled around and didn't come back for a while. Greninja frowned. Was she angry at him for misunderstanding her? Once she read the letter, she probably wouldn't feel that angry. But she still wasn't there, and so Greninja walked over to the pond and placed a gravestone there along with a bunch of daisies.

When he turned around, a paper plane was there, where he was standing around twenty minutes ago.

So she hadn't abandoned him... yet.

He raced over to pick it up, and unfolded it swiftly. He read the letter.

I'm sorry, I was just held up a bit just now. Anyway, it's fine.

Greninja sighed gratefully, for one reason or another, he didn't know, wrote his reply and threw it back up to her. Delphox caught it and smiled down at him, turning away to write her reply.

Can't you use telepathy?

So he only just thought about that. Delphox sighed yet again. This was like telling him she was mute... except in another manner. It wasn't like she couldn't control her telepathy or psychic powers—she did both very well—but... if she did... then it would be bad for her.

She wrote something and threw it back down to him, leaning out of the window expectantly.

My parents will notice the psychic waves that are transmitted and they'll come over and punish me.

Confused, Greninja wrote something back to her, then threw it back up.

Why would they stop you?

Delphox hesitated, pen making a deep ink stain on the paper. She considered telling him everything about her family—and just when she decided against it, she remembered Greninja had told her his sister died, so it was her turn now. The reason she was held up just now was because her parents had just come in. Sighing, she wrote down everything, in the longest manner, and threw down another piece of paper along with the original one so Greninja had space to write as well as read.

After reading her terrible life story, Greninja sympathized with her. He looked at the time, gawked, and wrote something.

I feel so terribly sorry for you... but I have to go now. I'll talk to you tomorrow, too.

Delphox looked at the paper, and smiled.

As the days went by, Greninja rapidly fell in love with Delphox. Behind her hardworking, serious shell, that was only displayed to her parents, was a sweet, considerate, kind, personality. She helped him through getting over his sister's death, and now they were talking like all good friends would—just through a paper plane.

Delphox looked shyly upon the Greninja one day, and decided it had been too many years since she started liking him. She decided it was time to confess, even if it would make things awkward, or even if he liked her back, she just needed to do it. She couldn't keep the emotion bottled up any longer, and just decided to just spill it out to him.

Her pen quivered as she wrote, having to cancel out many words since she made a lot of errors. Folding it carefully, she closed her eyes, placed a Lucky Chant upon herself, and threw down the paper plane.

Greninja caught it, the same way he had done one too many times. Instead of peering out, Delphox was instead more carefully withdrawn into her room. Frowning, Greninja opened it.

Um... thing is... I... like you.

Greninja nearly choked on his breath.

He reread the sentence over twenty times, to ensure he wasn't dreaming, he slapped himself, and nothing happened. He was there, in reality. All this time he thought it was a one-sided love, and in fact, she liked him back. For how long? Well... she said she first saw him around ten years ago. Greninja inwardly gawked. She had liked him for so long?

Greninja just stood there awkwardly and stared at the paper.

Delphox sighed. She decided to just drop everything, jump out of the window, and talk to him telepathically for the first time ever.

"So?" she asked, rather fearfully, mental voice quivering slightly. Greninja's head snapped up and saw her. Her mental voice was still beautiful, like wind chimes blowing gently in the wind.

"Uh... well... I... What about your parents?"

"I don't care about them anymore."

"Well... uh..."

"Can you just give me your answer? I don't care what it is, I just need it so I don't have to wait any longer!" Delphox fumed.

Stunned at her anger, Greninja was in a daze, and replied with only half his brain working. "I... uh... like you too?"

Delphox stared at him. "You... uh, do?" she asked nervously, not sure if he was just pranking her or... something else stupid he was known for doing. "Hello? Hey! Hey, Greninja?"

"Yes!" Greninja snapped, and without any warning, pulled her into a hug and kissed her fiercely. Delphox blinked for a couple of seconds, then promptly began digesting the fact that her ten-year crush was kissing her. She squeaked.

"U-Uh—Greninja?"

Greninja pulled away and blinked at her. "What?"

"I'm—I'm, uhm, sorry, but my parents... they're still... in that kind of thing, they still want me to research."

"Does that matter?"

"Yes!"

"When will they let you go?"

"They said just a month more—then I'll finally be free! This is my first time outside, do you know that?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes!"

"Well... I suppose I could wait a month more. If you're going to be free for the rest of your life, I could do that..."

"Really? Thank you, Greninja! I'll work hard for my last month, so please don't talk to me, okay? Just wait for me! I'll be with you before you know it!" Delphox smiled brightly at him.

Greninja nodded. "All right. See you, Delphox."

Delphox turned and began climbing the ivy that had grown to her window. Greninja watched her from below, as she climbed to the second storey, to her window, and into her room. Delphox smiled, not caring if her parents punished her—because the love of her life was waiting for her now. Smiling gently, caressing the first ever plane she had ever thrown to him, she whispered gently to herself.

"Wait for me, Greninja."