A.N.:

Well, last chapter was entirely devoid of romantic development. How do I make up for that? By posting this: Nearly two-thousand words primarily composed of the stuff.

Is it any good? I can honestly say I have no idea, but I've done what I can. Feedback is beyond appreciated! Genuine thanks to the four people who have thus far written reviews.

Please try to enjoy.

Brandon's eyes shot open. The cool mud on his back, only partially dried by the morning sun, made itself terribly apparent, sending a shiver through his body.

He sat upright, displacing the arm that had been holding tightly to his chest.

A dream?

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He had been hyperventilating in his sleep.
As he exhaled, he noticed something peculiar. Despite the fact that he had just slept on the cold damp of the forest floor, he felt comfortably warm. His fingers weren't even partially numb. He flexed them to accentuate this point in his mind.

It took a moment for it to register in Brandon's mind that the arm he had earlier displaced was not his.

His gardevoir lay just a few inches away from him, still sleeping soundly. He couldn't help but smirk at the sight of the pokemon, so cute as it slept.
He picked up the hand he had dropped and gently attempted to rouse the pokemon from its slumber.
With no response earned, Brandon noticed just how cold the gardevoir's hand was.

"... what with you being nearly dead."
The memory of the voice echoing through his mind, a renewed sense of panic struck him. He immediately felt for a pulse. Strong and steady, the neck warm to the touch.

He let out a sigh of relief. Still alive, still relatively warm. He lightly smacked its cheek.
A wince. Good.
Surmising his companion was just exhausted from the previous day, he decided to let it sleep a while longer. They would still need to move, though, the last thing Brandon wanted was for them to spend another night out here. He gently lifted his friend from the ground, careful not to wake it, and started walking out of the clearing they had slept in.

An hour passed before the gardevoir so much as stirred.

She was aware that she was moving, without moving herself. Samantha wasn't sure where she was or why, but whatever it was she was laying on was warm, a fact which she was quite content with.
Reluctant to break the wonderful comfort she was enjoying, she eventually conceded that waking up would be something she'd have to do eventually. Arching her back to stretch, she slowly woke herself from her half-sleep daze.

The crisp April sky obscured by heavy forestation, otherwise a beautiful sight, served as an unfortunate reminder of the previous day. What an ordeal... and it wasn't yet over.

The day had at least ended well, she thought. She blushed slightly as she did.
Samantha couldn't be exactly sure of what it was that had driven her to cling to her Master in the way she had. A part of her was glad she did, as it afforded the both of them much-needed emotional support, as well as a solid bit of rest. The rest of her, though, wasn't so sure that it was a good move to make.
Samantha had always loved her Master in the way that most pokemon do. He was always kind and supportive, and took good care of her. She had always returned this sort of love in kind.
Last night, if only for a fleeting moment, had turned that love into something stronger; intense and nearly palpable as it clenched her throat and warmed her chest.

On her side of the fence, anyway. She couldn't know if it meant the same to him as it had to her, and she certainly wasn't about to burst right out of the gate and ask him.

Banishing the thought with a deep breath, she decided to find out how she was being moved. Turning her head, she was immediately met with her Master's smirking face. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Mornin', Sammy." He said, a bit of relief evident in his tone.

Samantha's heart now lodged in her diaphragm, she couldn't quite bring herself to speak. She also couldn't break her gaze from his eyes, so warm and familiar...

Brandon's smile faded a bit. "Is there something wrong?"

A moment passed before she managed to squeak out "Y-you're carrying me..."

"Oh! Sorry, I should have woken you up." He made to set her down. "I-"

"No!"

Brandon stopped, his confusion matched with the intensity of Samantha's blush. In truth, there was nothing Samantha wanted more at this moment than to remain in his arms.

"I-I mean... thank you." She smiled slightly in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

His smile returned in response. "No problem."

He stood there for a brief moment, unsure of what to do next. Samantha was doing everything she could not to look him in the eyes, having only just successfully torn herself from them.

"So," he said, deciding to walk again, "slept well?"

Despite Brandon's positive outward demeanor, he didn't quite understand his gardevoir's behavior.
The best he could guess, he had done something to upset her. If she were only upset at the situation they currently found themselves in, he supposed, she'd at least be able to look at him. He couldn't be certain as to what exactly it was he had done, but he felt awful about it.

A couple of hours had passed since she had woken up, and her gaze remained vehemently on absolutely anything that wasn't him. The two had stopped to rest, and sitting next to someone who refused to look at or speak with him was slowly eating at Brandon's psyche.

Finally, he broke the thick and uncomfortable silence. "Sammy?"

She could only nod in response, being so busy thoroughly scrutinizing the grass beneath her.

"Samantha, please look at me." He said, his frown evident in his voice.

Her eyes shifted toward him, but her face remained fixed toward the grass. The awful tightness she felt in her stomach wouldn't allow her to do any more than that.

A bit frustrated, he sighed. Adjusting himself, he met her face.

"Sammy, you know I'd never do anything to hurt you," he started, placing a hand on her shoulder, "but it looks like I've gone and fucked up anyway."

Her eyes widened at this, allowing her to fully meet his gaze.

"Would it bug you to give me at least a hint as to what I did? Or is communication out the window already?" A genuinely sad tone rung through his forced smile, despite his attempted levity.

With that, a fire now burned in her chest. All but choking on the rising heat within her, she realized she was about to do something entirely stupid. This was not a precedent she wanted to set.
As her face drew slowly nearer and nearer to his, she spoke, though her voice sounded alien to her ears behind the haze of her emotions.

"How could I be upset with you?" she breathed. "I love you."

Brandon eased a bit, relieved.

Samantha, strengthened by her admission, had every intention of closing the distance between their faces, to feel Brandon's lips lock with hers, to once again share their warmth. She leaned forward.

Not a force of Heaven or Hell would stop her now.

"But something is bothering you." he said, more as a statement than a question.

No, mere words would serve to do that just fine.

Samantha froze in her slow advance. The meaning of everything in the last three hours had gone completely over his head.
This moment of hesitation served as a crack in the armor of her intense emotion, one which her mind soundly broke through.

What in the Hell was she doing?
This thought circled her mind in various forms as she sat rooted to the spot, looking into her Master's face with a dumbfounded expression, blush impossibly deepening.

This was patently ridiculous. As if one night of hugging would so drastically change his view of her. It wasn't the first time they'd done that, either. It was an emotional experience given what lead up to it, but not Earth-shatteringly so, not life-changing.
She had made a big deal out of nothing, there was no way something so silly could affect the both of them so deeply.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The number of changes Brandon saw in Samantha's facial expression in the seconds it took her to think all of this, both significant and minute, affected him with a feeling to match it.
Confused, he couldn't find the words to further question her. To find the words for anything, really. He swallowed the breath he had taken in preparation to speak, understanding only that.

With a resigned expression, he managed "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Oh, how she did. To put this issue out in the open, to release it from herself, would be the greatest relief she could imagine. Every fiber of her being seemed to internally scream this in unison.

"Thank you... I don't." She sighed, standing as she did.

He couldn't help his stomach from dropping.

Looking down at him she said, rather flatly "We should keep going."

He nodded, frowning, and stood to meet her gaze.

As she walked past him, he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, gently rubbing her upper back with the other hand. "Whenever you feel like it, you're free to tell me about it."

And there was that damn blush again.