"Winter!" he hissed. "You can't go in there!"

She waved her hand dismissively, holding the portscreen up so she could survey the area in front of her. "It will be fine, Jacin. Just a quick in and out, and I'll have what I need."

He shook his head gently, but he knew there was nothing he could do. If Winter had set her mind to it, she would finish it. There was hardly any hesitation as she pulled herself up and over the chain link fence, and Jacin watched as her thick curls disappeared onto the private property.

"Oh for heaven's sake," he muttered, launching himself over the fence behind her easily. The faint glow from her portscreen led him straight to her, and he stood careful watch a few paces away from her. She turned every direction, slowly moving through the yard. "Could you go any slower?" he whispered.

Winter looked up from her screen and stuck her tongue out at him. "This is tricky business. Just do your job and stay alert."

"What kind of pokemon is it? Is this even worth it?" he asked.

"It's a weedle," she answered, and Jason groaned.

"A weedle? Really? Don't you already have a whole bunch of those?"

She looked up at him again and leveled a stare that could freeze a lesser being. Jacin felt no such effect, except for a light heat in his face. "I have one, single weedle already in my collection. And I don't have this specific weedle. It needs me, Jacin. I'm helping it."

Jacin tilted his head back, taking a deep breath of night air. If the idea had been anyone else's, he wouldn't have tagged along. But it was Winter's brilliant plan, which meant he basically had no choice but to follow her and make sure she didn't get into any trouble.

'Trouble' usually included wandering onto private property at almost two in the morning, because she saw something on the screen and, to quote the pokemon princess, "let's just check it out, I'm sure nothing can go wrong."

Something went wrong as soon as a light flashed on in the house behind them, followed by an outdoor flood light.

"Winter!" he said quickly. "We need to go. Right now!"

Winter gasped quietly, and Jacin could tell it wasn't because she was surprised by a series of loud noises coming from inside the house. "There it is," she said, her voice edging towards a certain dreamlike airiness she got when she was happy.

"Winter, please," Jacin begged, but she walked right past him and closer to the house, stopping in front of a small flowering tree.

There was a quiet ping from her portscreen, and she turned with a smile so wide that it could make up for every bit of trouble he ever found himself in while following her around.

Well, almost any kind of trouble.

"You've got until the count of three to get the hell out of here before I come outside and make you regret it," someone shouted, a door slamming behind them.

Winter's smile dropped and her eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"One!"

"I tried!" Jacin said. "You weren't listening to me!"

"Two!"

Jacin lunged forward quickly and grabbed Winter around the wrist, pulling her after him.

"Three!"

Jacin watched as a figure rounded the house just as they barrelled back over the fence, their feet hitting the ground running.

"You better stay out! I'm not counting to three next time!"

Jacin didn't stop until they got back to Winter's window, still open from when she had climbed out earlier that evening to drag Jacin on her adventure. She tumbled back into her room, and even breathless she was smiling and laughing. If Jacin's heart hadn't already been pumping as fast as it could, he knew his heart rate would have sped up.

"Thanks for always saving me," she whispered, her arms leaning on the windowsill as Jacin braced himself on the outside wall. He opened his mouth to respond, but instead she placed a light kiss to his forehead and handed him a water bottle from the case she kept in her room. "Sleep tight, my knight in shining armor."

He grinned as he left, knowing he would do it all again if she asked.