I Love Summer

"I'm going now mom!" I called behind myself as I crammed my feet into well worn sneakers.

"Wait!" mom shouted running from deep inside the house. "You need your hat!"

"For real?! Mom, I'm not 10 anymore. I don't need a sun hat," I sighed, and picked my shoulder bag off the floor.

"Is that all you're taking?!" she exclaimed. Clasping her slightly age spotted hand over her mouth, hiding her fine wrinkles from too many years of smiling.

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, I don't need anything else. Grandpa has most else taken care of in Verdanturf.

Mom pulled her hand away from her mouth and tucked a couple stray, frizzy, dyed hairs behind her ear before fiddling with her gaudy babble earring with a Magikarp on it. "Are you sure you know the way?"

I tilted my head to the sighed and sighed, "Yes mom, I've been going there every summer for 12 years now." I checked my bracelet watch and happily told her, "Mom, I've got to get going now, or I'll miss my bus."

She took small steps towards me with her arms open, I mimicked her gesture and with one large step from me we hugged tightly, "I love you Hotaru." She whispered quietly. Her body was shaking slightly; she was probably trying not to cry.

"I love you too Mom." I hugged her tighter before breaking the hug. I took a step back, smiled, clenched my bag and cheerfully called out, "I'm off!" I turned around and stepped out onto the concrete.

I only glanced over my shoulder once as my mom called out to me, "Be safe!" my response was a simple, but huge, smile spreading from ear to ear.

I walked through Mauvile, looking straight ahead, my beaten sneakers quietly gripped and ripped at the white concrete with each step. Mauvile was close enough to being a city that buildings reached three of four stories tall, but nothing outstanding like Slateport or Lilycove. In fact the biggest things this town has going for it would be the game center that lights the town at night. Several homes and short businesses lined the road I walked, each with well maintained, small yards.

A light, humid, breeze rustled my shoulder length, plain brown hair, as I tucked the few strands that were freed by the small gust I looked up to see giant, white, cumulus clouds forming against the otherwise cloudless, blue sky.

Once again I turned my gaze forward to an enclosed bus stop. The summer heat played tricks with my vision, causing everything to look as though it were rippling slightly. A wooden bench with an ad on its back for the other big draw in this city, the region's largest bike shop. No one else rested at the bus stop so I placed my heavy shoulder bag on the bench and stood at the entrance of the glass enclosure, the heat trapped within the glass was suffocating.

As a non-trainer in order to ensure safety when traveling between towns a person is recommended to take a bus or some other form of motorized transportation in case of random Pokémon attack, but I've never been scared of such things, it's just much more convent to take a bus between towns then hiking 50 miles.

As I waited for the bus I allowed my mind to wonder, it brought me back to the first summer I had gone to Grandpa's in Verdanturf. Just outside the tiny town rests the route connecting here and there, route 117. The northern border of the route was made completely from trees and legend would tell that it was a forest where the Gijinkas lived and any human stupid enough to enter would be lost forever.

When I was six-years-old I had been stupid enough to enter. It was a summer day, much like today, with storms threatening along the horizon and scorching heat. Back then I loved dresses and would wear them every day, it mostly stopped people from asking if I was a boy, my hair was kept so short back then that people couldn't tell otherwise. Like the stories, I had gotten lost within the forest. I ran around aimlessly, desperately in attempt to get out but soon enough my energy had been drained. I sat in the shade of the trees and cried, with my face in my knees, for the fear and loneliness. The only noise I could hear was the slight rustle of tree leaves and the cries of Volbeats.

"Hey kid!" I heard a grown-up's voice call.

I stopped crying and gave a good sniff as I looked around the shaded forest floor and through the thick tree trunks a man with a Blastoise's mask peeked out.

"A…." I muttered as I started to stand up, then with tears streaming down my face I started running towards him with both my arms out, ready to hug him with all my might, "A Person! I'm saved!"

"Woah!" He shouted and leapt out of my way, I ended up crashing with full force into a tree trunk. Once I peeled my face out of the bark I held my red nose in my hand and looked back at him with tears in my face. That impact has really hurt. He awkwardly apologized and asked me the strangest question I had ever heard, "I'm sorry, are you a human child?" I tilted my head questioningly and he continued on, "If a human touches me I'll disappear."

"'If a human…?'" I repeated before asking, "So, you're not human?"

I giggled to myself as I noticed the bus approaching, back then I didn't care but the me of now thought that he had had the worlds worst fashion sense. That day, and every time I had met him after that he always wore that Blastoise's mask and his short, light blue colored hair was just long enough to be played with by the wind. His shirt was a bright pink, buttoned, Hawaiian shirt with green and yellow flowers and he wore a maroon T-shirt under that. His blue pants were short, much like girl capri's. Worst of all, he wore black socks and simple flip-flop sandals.

I paid my fare and took a window seat before returning my mind to that day.

He answered my question with an extremely vague, "I am someone that lives in this forest."

I'm sure my young eyes sparkled as I asked him, "So you're a Gijinka?!" then I pondered out loud, "What do you mean by disappear?" I reached up and attempted to grasp his arm and he took a step back. I stood and reached for him again. He dodged. I smiled and started trying harder. I ran at him with more speed, once again he jumped aside. This continued with him jumping out of my way until he picked a thick stick off the ground and as I ran towards him with a big smile he clubbed my head. It hurt even worse than crashing into the tree. I rolled on the thin grass and dark dirt with my head in my hands. Through my tears I whispered to the dirt, "You're defiantly not human!" I sobbed a couple times before spitefully muttering, "No human could ever hit a child like that!"

"You're a scary brat," he sighed, "To disappear means to be destroyed. It's the spell Jirachi placed on me. If I touch a human it'll be my end."

I still had tears in my eyes as I sat up and I started to realize what I was trying to do to him from his point of view, I gave a small bow and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Here," he sighed, holding out the fallen branch to me, "Hold this sense I can't hold your hand. You're lost, aren't you?" he wasn't even looking at me as he spoke, "I'll take you out of this forest."

"Thank you!" I cried happily and I leapt up to hug him.

His response was to quickly hit me with the stick and he yelled, "Don't do that!"

Once I had picked myself up again I walked with him, hand-in-stick, he walked slowly as one of his steps equal three of my tiny ones. "It's like a date!" I laughed.

"Not a very romantic date," he sighed.

As we approached the entrance to the forest he asked me, "So, You're not scared?"

I looked back up to him with a big smile and asked him, "Of what?"

"Never mind, from here all you have to do is walk straight and you're out." He nodded towards a gap in the trees. We both released the stick and faced each other, "Goodbye," he said with indifference.

"Are you always here? Can I see you if I come back?" I asked.

"Many Pokémon and Gijinka live here. Don't the villagers say, 'Once you enter the forest your heart will be lost and you'll never return'?"

I smiled and ignored the part about being lost, "My name's Hotaru, what about you?"

There was a long pause as a strong wind rolled off the small mountain that held the 'Rustruf Tunnel' and once the wind had died he had vanished.

I took a couple steps backwards and shouted to the air, "Anyway I'll be back tomorrow with a thank you gift!"

I turned and started to run though the remaining trees and I could hear his voice over the rustling tree leaves, "It's Aoi!"

I turned back and looked at the trees one last time, he still wasn't there. I shrugged and calmly walked out of the forest and out onto the route. I looked up to the sky, the sun had mostly set beyond the small mountain but the sky was still bathed in a bright red-orange glow.

I slowly walked along the route when Grandpa came into view, he called out to me, "Hotaru!"

I smiled and ran towards him with my arms open for a hug, "Grandpa!"

"You idiot!" he shouted and hit me on the head with his fist. "Don't go onto the route, or the forest by yourself! What if you get lost!"

His fist to the head didn't hurt as much as all the beatings with the wooden branch earlier in the day but it still brought tears to my eyes, "Grandpa!" I cried and I hugged his midrift.

He sighed and hugged me back with one arm and gently rubbed my head with his other. Later we walked hand-in-hand back to Verdanturf. I looked up to him and asked, "Grandpa, is it true that Gijinka live in the forest?"

"In Jirachi's forest? Well it's only a legend," he whispered, just barely louder than the chorus of Volbeats and Illumises songs, they had started to come out of hiding and dance in the sky. "When I was younger I wanted to see a Gijinka so my friends and I would venture into the forest. We never did see anything but every now and then I thought I'd seen a person out of the corner of my eye." He looked up to the darkening sky and laughed, "Every summer you can hear a quite melody from the forest, much like festival music. Now that I think about it, Iwa and her friends once said they secretly participated in a summer festival in the forest but…. It would have been impossible for the townsfolk to have a festival in there so everyone figured they had found a festival for the Gijinka. That's when the stories about Gijinka really started to fly."

The next day I brought two popsicles from Grandpa's store with me to the forest. I entered through the gap Aoi had shown me and once I passed a couple layers of trees he was there, just sitting on the ground. "You came!" he declared loudly in a flat tone of voice, "I didn't think you'd actually come back."

"You were waiting for me!" I cheered as I ran at him with open arms.

I received a hard bonk on the head from the same thick stick from the day before, "You're a slow learner…." He sighed.

"I was just so happy…. Sorry."

"Anyway it's really hot out here, let's go someplace cooler."

"Huh?" I responded. He had spent all of yesterday telling me to stay away from the forest, now he was inviting me in?

"Don't worry, I'll bring you back out."

I smiled and answered, "Okay!"

We walked together as we each ate a popsicle stick, I can't even remember which flavor I had picked, but I remember crossing over a small stream hidden under the trees shade and once we had reached the other side of the bridge a black object hidden within the trees caught my eye. It was much like a black blob with on giant red eye and a huge smile filled with sharp pointy teeth, "Aoi, is that a human child? Can I eat it?"

The heat did seem to go down as goosebumps formed on my arms and neck; I took a couple steps behind Aoi. "No, she's my friend," he answered without much tone in his voice.

"Is that so?" the blob's deep voice grumbled, "Human child, don't touch Aoi. If you do, I'LL EAT YOU!"

"ATCHOO!" Aoi sneezed loudly, flipping his Blastoise mask up slightly and scaring the black blob. The black blob jumped, it shrank in size and turned pink before running away at full speed.

"Huh, a Ditto?" I asked as my heart rate returned to normal.

"A trainer abandoned him a long time ago, he's perfected his transforming ability so he can change into anything he imagines."

"That's so cool!" I screamed, throwing my arms up into the air. I then looked to Aoi and asked, "Hey why do you wear a mask? Are you a Blastoise?"

"No real reason," he brushed off my questions and asked, "Why don't you tell me about yourself, Hotaru?"

"Are you curious?" I asked as coyly as I could.

"I'm here because I'm curious."

Every day after that I entered the forest, even the boring things were fun as I played and ran around the forest. We played tag using a long, thin stick. Aoi showed me around his beautiful forest and one day he took me to a small patch of grass free of trees where wild flowers of every color danced in the breeze.

I picked some of the flowers carefully as Aoi lied down, once I was done, I stood up and dusted off my dress and ran towards him. "Aoi! Are you awake?" I asked and he didn't respond. I kneeled beside his head and reached towards his mask. I figured it would be okay to touch the mask. Slowly, carefully, gently I placed my hands on his mask and I lifted it straight up.

His face was totally normal.

He smirked slightly as he opened his golden eyes.

"Sorry!" I screamed, slamming the mask back down on his face.

"Ow! Assaulting someone in their sleep! You're scary!" he sat straight up and rubbed where his nose would be if the mask wasn't in his way.

"Sorry," I muttered looking down as the tall grass, "but you were pretending to be asleep weren't you?"

He brushed off my question, crossed his legs, placed his elbow on his arm and rested his chin on his fist. With a slight laugh in his voice he asked, "I looked normal, didn't I?"

"Why do you wear that mask?"

"If I don't wear this kind of mask I wouldn't seem like a Gijinka, would I?"

"You're weird…."

It was the first time I had heard Aoi truly laugh.

A couple days later it was time for us to part, summer had come to an end, so on our final day as Aoi walked me out of the forest I looked up at him and told him, "Remember how I said I was only at Grandpa's for the summer? I have to go back home no matter what tomorrow. "

"Okay," He answered flatly no even look back at me. I was slightly hurt by the lack of emotion. He then turned back and asked me, "Will you be back next summer?"

"Yeah!" I smiled.

That's when I started to long for the summer. Each summer Aoi would wait at our spot just a couple layers into the trees. Such fun summers passed.

Then when I was nine I heard loud thumping. A giant man walked out from the trees. His skin was a strange, dark shade of gray, his hair was pure silver and he wore armor much like the Knights of European myths. "Aoi!" He called with a deep voice which sounded wise, mature but strong. "Aoi, be careful!" he placed his large hands on both of Aoi's shoulders and looked down through sky blue eyes to the eye holes in Aoi's mask. "That's a human child! If you touch it you'll disappear!"

"Thanks, but don't worry about it. I'm fine," Aoi reassured.

The tall man with drew his arms and started to walk back into the forest with each of his steps a heavy, resounding, thud before turning over his shoulder and glaring at me, "Human child, Do not touch Aoi." He proceeded to walk into the forest.

This is when I learned that the Gijinka seemed to love Aoi and that they could touch him. I looked around the forest an noticed many children, about my size however the boys had back hair with curly, yellow, antennas stick straight out of their heads, and they wore matching yellow and gray stripped shirts with black shorts. The girls had curly purple hair with short, straight antennas sticking from their fore heads; they wore blue shirts with yellow bows and black skirts. "Aoi! Be careful!" they chanted, almost as though they were singing.

A couple days later I sat with Aoi in the small meadow of flowers, watching the clouds roll through and block the sun for a matter of moments, "Aoi, My parents won't let me become a trainer. Not that I really want to train Pokémon and battle but I mostly wanted to be able to come over here and just be here all the time. They told me, 'all we ask of you is that you graduate high school!'" I grumbled.

"Is that so….?" He responded in his usual blank tone.

Later that afternoon I snuck away from him and hid in one of the trees.

Sure enough he soon started to look for me. "Hotaru? Where are you?" he called.

I smirked as he started to walk under my tree.

"Hota-"

"BWAH!" I screamed as I flung myself upside down and dangled from the tree branch.

"Whaaa!?" he screamed and jumped back.

As I dangled with a smile on my face my dress flipped over and revealed my pure white panties and covered my face, "ack!" I squeaked, and struggled to get my skirt facing the right direction before attempting to get back on top of the branch.

"What are you doing?" Aoi sighed.

I was blushing like crazy as I held onto the branch, "I just wanted to see your surprised face. At least when I'm with you can you take off your mask?" I asked. The look on his face should have been priceless.

He started to lift his mask up slightly as he spoke, "I can but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing in particular…" then I heard a loud crack. Before I could react the branch snapped and I was plummeting to the ground head first.

"Hotaru!" Aoi screamed, running towards me with open arms to catch me.

When I realized what was happening it was too late for me to scream 'No' and I was falling fast.

Aoi reacted faster, pulling his arms back at the last second and allowing me to fall onto a bush. "Th-that was dangerous…." He weakly muttered.

I had landed on the bush, sprawled out like a mankey and I slowly slid off the bush, landing on the dirt softly with my head.

"I'm sorry Hotaru, are you okay?"

I started to brush the leaves out of my short hair with my hands as I weakly smiled, "But thank goodness…. Aoi… No matter what you can't touch me." He knelled beside me and his mask was looking straight at my face. "No matter what… okay?" I gave a hearty sniff before I let my tears pour. I buried my face in my hands and cried wholeheartedly. I'm no longer sure which it was that made me cry harder, the pain from the fall or the fear of losing Aoi.

The next summer and the summer after that I'd go into the forest. I entered middle school when I was 12 and I entered the forest the first day that summer wearing my new school uniform. "Check it out Aoi! I'm a middle-schooler now!" I smiled and gave a small curtsy. At this point I had decided to finally grow my short hair out to be shoulder length and I would tie it back in a different way every day.

"For some reason you look like a girl! It's weird!" he responded after a moment of thought.

"I am a girl! What's that supposed to mean!"

As usual when there was a question he didn't want to answer he brushed it off, "Let's go."

I smiled, "Okay!" and we entered the forest together. As we walked side by side I noticed that my age was quickly catching up to his. The young me who had thought of Aoi as a 'man' now saw Aoi as a older teen, not too far away from my age. Every year my appearance changed and Aoi stayed more or less the same.

At this point I started to wonder when I would bypass Aoi in terms of age; somewhere in my heart I had been hoping that Aoi was human.

Another couple of summers passed, when we were a parted I would still think of him. I wanted to see him. I wanted to touch him.

The summer I finally entered high school I once again entered the forest wearing it. I had gotten tired of creating new hair styles every day by this point so I simply cut my hair off and it was just about as short as it was when I was a small child, I pulled my bangs back with a couple barrets.

"You're in high school already…" Aoi sighed.

"Yep," I smiled and calmly answered.

Aoi laughed slightly as he reminisced, "Hotaru doesn't try and jump on me anymore."

I snorted slightly, "I maybe a slow learner but I did figure out my lesson after all those beatings!" I looked up to the sky as a cool breeze rolled in off the mountain. A couple small cumulus clouds passed under the sun. "I graduate in three more years. I can't wait. I've told Grandpa that I'll take over his Pokemart so I can see you all the time. Fall, spring or winter even."

I turned away from the sky and looked straight at Aoi's mask.

"Hotaru…. Let me tell you about myself." He turned away from me and looked out at the flower filled meadow. "I'm not a Gijinka but I'm not human. Apparently I had once been a human but I was abandoned as a baby in the forest. At the time I should have died but the Pokémon and the Gijinka's of the forest wished very strongly to Jirachi, so Jirachi granted their wish and kept me alive through his magic. Because of this I'm much like a ghost, unable to go to heaven." Aoi turned and looked at me through his mask, "Hotaru, its okay for you to forget me. A Body dependent on Jirachi's power is weak. Once I touch a human the spell will break and I'll vanish. I live an unstable life and you'll always—"

I cut him off, "If you touch it, it'll disappear. Just like snow. Aoi, I think of you even during winter... Aoi, don't even forget me. Don't forget."

I was sure that one day time would pry us apart. Even though it was like that, until that day, I wanted to be with him.

Our summer passed like all the others and then on the next to last day Aoi and I sat, fishing in the small creek, just talking.

"A Gijinka Festival?" I repeated.

"No… a festival held by the Gijinka," he sighed with a small smile on his face. He had pulled his mask up slightly, exposing the left half of his face which was facing me.

"What's the difference?" I grumbled.

"It's all about phrasing. Before you were so young that I was afraid you'd be scared but do you think you can come out tonight? I've been wanting to bring you."

"I want to go!" I shouted. Jumping up and pulling my rod out from the water.

"The lets met at eight at our usual place."

"Sure, it does sound scary though, a bunch of Gijinkas? And it's at night too…"

"Don't worry. The festival tries to imamate human ones, I'll protect you," he smiled before pushing his mask back on his face.

"When you say something like that it makes me want to glomp you!" I laughed, seriously trying not to hug him.

"Go for it, it'd make me really happy," he answered in his flat tone.

I had no response to that.

Time quickly passed and soon enough it was night. I had gone home and changed into my red, flower embroidered yukata. The forest was like nothing I had ever seen it before. It was lit by soft candle light and hundreds of people walked through. Some wore traditional yukata's like me others wore more normal, western style clothes. Some were strange heights, either weirdly tall or short, some with strange body builds and strange figures, others with ears and tails.

More importantly it was my first, and only, time seeing Aoi out of his ugly Hawaiian print shirt, he wore a simple green yukata, tied with a dark blue sash, and finally, he wore his sandals without socks! He still wore his mask though.

"Wow this is amazing. They all look almost human! Though some of them aren't very good…"

"Yep, sometimes humans mix in and you can't even tell the difference," he answered flatly, looking at the crowd.

I laughed and suddenly remembered what my grandpa had told me that first time I met Aoi, "You're talking about Iwa!"

"Who?"

Taking a page out of his book, I ignored the question, "This looks like it'll be fun."

He pulled a cloth out from his yukata's sleeve and held it out to me, "Here, tie this around your wrist so you don't get lost."

As I tied the cloth tightly I laughed, still thinking about that first day we met, "It's like a date!"

"It is a date," he teased.

I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as I looked down and smiled.

We walked together as close as we dared, dragging each other all over the fare. I laughed at a boy with a poochyena tail that wagged from side to side as he tried to catch gold fish with a paper scoop. The giant Gijinka with gray skin that I had met long ago was serving cotton candy, which he offered us one for free with a big smile on his face. As we shared the cotton candy I finally learned that he was an Aggron Gijinka.

Music and laughed filled the air. Cheers when they started setting off fireworks. After the fireworks the two of us slowly walked away from the festival, still tied by the cloth. The happy noises became quieter and more distant as we walked.

"Hotaru, I…. I can't wait for summer any more. When we separate I still want to see you, even if I have to go through crowds."

I wanted to say something, anything but the words couldn't make their way to my mouth. I reached towards his hand before settling to grab the cloth between his free hand he pulled off his mask. He was smiling as he placed it on my face. I tensed up awkwardly as he leaned in a kissed right below the eye hole.

He opened his eyes as he stood back up, he look straight through the eye holes and smiled as he spoke in his flat tone, "You can keep that mask."

We continued on walking, no longer exchanging any words. I tried to understand his actions. I figured that next summer he wouldn't be in that place. That was his way of goodbye.

A couple young children ran past us, the first was laughing that the other couldn't catch up and then right the second one passed Aoi, he tripped on a stone and nearly landed on his face. Aoi grasped his bare arm and stopped him from falling.

"Thanks!" he called, looking over his shoulder as he started running again.

"Be more careful!" I shouted at the child.

A faint light started to pear in through the eyehole and I looked at Aoi. His body had started to glow, his hand was breaking apart, turning into a blue green light and floating into the arm. Aoi stared at his hand in shock.

I gasped as I finally understood what was happening, "Aoi?! That kid? Was he human?!" I glanced the direction the child had run and then back to Aoi. Aoi looked from his hand to me. "Aoi!" I shouted.

He held out his arms and smiled, "Hotaru, I can finally touch you!"

I ripped off his mask and flung it quickly as I jumped up into Aoi's arms. We embraced tightly for all of a single second before his body evaporated into the air. The momentum of my body flung me to the ground hugging only his yukata, I sobbed, burying my face into the cloth. His remaining fragments of blue-green light swirled around me and as they faded I swear I could hear his voice. It whispered to me in his flat, un-expressive tone, "I love you."

Hugging his yukata even tighter I sobbed, "I love you too…"

I took several hours for me to stop crying enough to pick up Aoi's Blastoise mask. Still holding his yukata I gently placed his mask on top, hugged it and then brought the spot and kissed to my mouth and gently kissed the spot back.

"Hotaru," a soft child's voice called to me. I looked up. The Ditto from when I was six-years-old stood mixed into the trees in a slightly less scary form of his trade mark, 'black blob monster.' This time he had two eyes and a small, toothless mouth. "Thank you. Even though we wanted to be with Aoi forever, he wanted to touch a human."

Several small children, much like Volbeats and Illumises, appeared through the trees, "He finally got to hug someone."

The following two years I spent my summers throwing myself into learning how to run Grandpa's Pokemart. I no longer looked forward to summer, the memories caused my chest to hurt and I would cry, but I can still recall the warmth of his hug and the memories of all the previous summers.

After an hour's drive the bus finally came to a stop in Verdanturf and as I slowly walked off the bus my grandpa stood at the stop smiling. I smiled back at him. I think I'm finally going to have a good summer.

A/N: and that hour drive took you an hour to read (sorry! It ended up being much longer then I thought.) This was largely inspired by the TV show in America a couple years back called 'Pushing Daisies' it was about a guy that had a strange power. He could touch the dead and bring them back to life, then when he'd touch them a second time they would die again and be unable to be revived another time. If he allowed a dead person to live for more than a minute someone else would die. He used this power to help solve murder mysteries and then one day his childhood love was the one on the table. He brought her to life again, solved her murder but he never touched her a second time, she came to live with him and fall in love with him but because they couldn't touch they would kiss through saran wrap and stuff.

I've started to really like writing stories about people that live in the Pokémon world rather than people training Pokémon in the Pokémon world. I also felt that there's not enough 'Love Lost' fics I decided I need to write something slightly sad because once again I'm having a hard time producing a funny complex chapter so I'm getting my angst love out here lol (Why is funny so hard?!)

I usually don't write with Japanese names because that off puts some readers but there was so much Japanese culture with that festival that 'Serena' and 'Darien' (yes I had originally named them after the English Sailor Moon dub…I'm showing my age…) didn't seem to fit so I changed it to Hotaru (Firefly) and Aoi (Blue) I figured with all the firefly Pokémon 'Hotaru' was suiting.

This fic is LRGR: Leave a Review, Get a Review. Put LRGR in your review and I'll review you back!