"Hey... Bill? Are you still up?"

My ear flicked at the sound of my name, spoken so softly that if I had been asleep, I wouldn't have woken up. I yawned in response, taking a hefty gulp of the cool night air that drifted in through the window, and opened my eyes just a little bit, rolling onto my side and peering across the guild's bedroom, my vision adjusting to the darkness. A few paces away, a brown-furred fox fidgeted nervously, rustling the pile of dry grass she lay on, her six red tails curling back and forth. I reached out and patted the edge of my own bed to answer my new friend, and she let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Bill, did I wake you?" The Vulpix began, her face falling, but I grunted and waved at her before she could continue, shaking my head, then wincing when one of my aura tassels flopped into my face. I did a double take, then grunted. Getting used to being a Riolu was going to take a while, I could already tell.

"Nah, you're fine, Rose, I wasn't asleep anyway," I replied, reaching up to brush the stray tassel away, and Rose relaxed, ducking her head into her new blue scarf and scratching at her cheeks with her forepaws. I couldn't help but chuckle at the cute display, my own tail starting to wag as well, thumping against the ground. "Heh... it's kind of been a crazy day, you know."

"Hehehe, yeah, I know. My heart's been racing since I found you at the beach, and I don't know if it's ever going to stop!" Rose tried and failed to stifle a giggle, and a satisfied grin wriggled its way onto my face as the fire type's happy amusement replaced her earlier shyness. She calmed back down after a minute or two – though her still-curling tails betrayed her lingering excitement - and her hazel eyes twinkled as a silvery beam of moonlight shined into the cozy cave. "But... I really am glad that I finally pushed myself to come here. Thank you, Bill."

"Mmhm." I nodded at the Vulpix, sending her a thumbs-up. "We didn't really get to look around the guild very much, but it seems like a pretty nice place. Wigglytuff was friendlier than I thought he'd be, too."

Rose smiled brightly at my remark, stretching out her hind legs and settling into her bed, trying her best to get comfortable. "A lot of Pokemon come and visit and think he's really strict and tough, but he really isn't like that at all. He loves to go into town and talk with everybody."

"He never stopped smiling, even when we couldn't think of a name for our exploration team," I thought aloud, my mind briefly wandering onto the thought of the puffy pink Pokemon, smiling wide enough to dimple his cheeks while sliding a box of apprentice's supplies over to us, a narrow-eyed parrot sitting next to him in silence. I caught myself just before I rolled my eyes at the bird... then rolled my eyes anyway. "He's way better than Chatot, at least."

"Bill!" Rose barked out in surprise, her fur bristling as she shot me a mild look, and I shrugged at the six-tailed fox. She opened her mouth to speak, but found herself yawning instead, exhaling hugely after a few seconds. "H-haaaww- ohhh... now I think I'm getting a little tired. We probably should be trying to get to sleep now, huh?"

"Probably," I quipped, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion hit me head on, the fatigue from our battle with Koffing and Zubat sinking in fully. My muscles seemed heavy, and even a little achy, too, and it took more than a little effort to bend my knees and curl up into a small ball, my eyelids fluttering a bit in the meantime. Rose was faring about as well as I was, her tails stretching out and sitting limply on her bed, locks of her tuft of headfur drooping near one of her ears. "It's going to be another big day tomorrow. Are you ready?"

"Yep," The fire type replied without hesitation, closing her eyes and nuzzling into the dry grass. "We'll be seeing and doing all sorts of new things now, but I'm not that frightened about it anymore... I can't wait to see... what adventures we'll get to go on..."

"It sounds to me like it's going to be fun," I said, bringing an arm up to my face, the moonlight reflecting off of the bump of metal embedded in my paw. "Just have to give it our all."

"Yeah... we're an exploration team now," Rose's voice grew quieter and quieter, soon dropping to a tired whisper, and I struggled to keep my eyes open, eventually settling on closing one and looking at the brown-furred fox with the other. "So let's do our best tomorrow... partner."

I blinked. "Partner?"

Rose didn't say anything else, her chest rising and falling with each and every gentle breath. She'd finally fallen asleep.

I furrowed my brow, craning my neck to stare up at the rocky ceiling, listening to the breeze rolling outside the cliffs as I mulled over the day's events, the memories playing in sequence, over and over, in my head. Waking up at the beach, meeting Rose, the encounter with Zubat and Koffing, the wild Pokemon inside of that cave... I felt my cheeks heat up slightly when I thought back to Rose's overwhelming gratefulness about her Relic Fragment.

"But how did I even get here in the first place?" I murmured, scrunching my eyes shut and focusing, trying my hardest to think back to before I ended up on the beach, but an abrupt twinge of pain rippled through my head instead. A weary grunt escaped my throat, and I reached up to massage my temples. "G-gah! A-agh... ouch."

I turned to gaze at Rose while rubbing the sides of my head, and I inhaled... and exhaled... slowly matching the Vulpix's pace, a warm contentedness spreading through me when I saw the peaceful expression on her muzzle. The pleasant emotion persisted even after my headache subsided, and I relaxed, shaking my head. My amnesia could wait until later... maybe when it wasn't the middle of the night.

"G'night..." Rose couldn't hear me, but I was too tired to care. "Partner."

A/N: Guess who's playing through Explorers of Sky again?