Tackle! A bad fall and a missing weedle?

Hilda resisted the urge to slap herself as N grew ever closer. There was no point in trying to run, anyway. Based on their previous meetings, he would say something about Team Plasma, talk to her weedle, look confused, and then walk away. Surely this time would be like all the rest. Or not. Most likely not, but Hilda didn't know that yet.

"Hilda, w-wait!" N was panting when he reached her. He bent over and leaned on his knees, trying to regain his breath. After about twenty seconds of silence, he finally regained his breath, as well as his posture. He stood up straight now, towering over Hilda. And I do mean towering. I mean, he's like nine feet tall or something.

Hilda looked up at him expectedly. Surely, after that little show, he had something of importance to tell her.

But he didn't.

The two continued to stare each other down in silence. Unfortunately for the circus-goers, they were standing smack dab in the middle of the pathway to the bathrooms. A few of the more kind-hearted people tried their best to maneuver around them, but one of the old ladies N had knocked over beforehand now found that she was in dire need of a potty break. Once she saw who was holding up the line, she seized the opportunity.

With all the strength she could muster, she rammed her body directly into N's. Unfortunately for N, the old woman was a veteran trainer who currently held the region record for number of marathons ran in 12 weeks – 28 full marathons, to be exact.

N went down. And he went down hard. Some people in the crowd even took it upon themselves to yell 'timber' as he fell.

With N now lying on the ground with an old woman on top of him, Hilda realized that now was the perfect time to make a run for it. Now. Right now. But she didn't. She just stood there with her hand covering her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. Rather than running, she fell to her knees in a fit of laughter.

N only stared up at the night sky. The stars were beautiful tonight, but it's a shame he didn't seem to notice. The only thing he noticed was the sharp pain coming from his lower back. And also the old woman on top of him. He was shaken from his state when zorua walked up and licked his cheek. He struggled for a minute, trying his very best to get the woman off of him and finally stand up, but his best just wasn't good enough.

Zorua rolled his eyes and walked over to Hilda's shaking form. She was doubled over in laughter, occasionally banging her fist on the ground. Rather than lick her, zorua grabbed ahold of her ponytail and began tugging it. Hilda was unfazed by this at first, but eventually realized that it actually kinda hurt. She tried shooing zorua away, but to no avail.

The crowd heading toward the bathrooms had now congregated around the scene. Some people recognized N as the person who had ran into them earlier and were cheering the old woman on, while others recognized Hilda as the girl who had twice thrown popcorn at some Plasma grunts and gave her their regards and praise.

Noticing the crowd, Hilda managed to subdue her laughter and stand up, with zorua still latched onto her ponytail. She dusted the dirt off her legs and readjusted her bag, only to find that her weedle was not there. Panic flared and she began to shake her head left and right, searching the crowd for her pokemon.

"Thank you, thank you, everyone! Uh, I hope you enjoyed the show and all," she called out, nerves threatening to steal her voice, "but I think I…lost my weedle. Has anyone seen him? Maybe?"

Hilda tried her best to gain the crowd's attention, but they were focused on other things at the moment. Other things meaning N. They had all forgotten Hilda and had ceased complimenting her long before she realized Weedle-Dee was missing.

As Hilda continued to beg for someone's help and flail about, N's situation was only growing worse. He was slowly losing his ability to breathe, and despite his attempts, the old woman would not listen to reason and get off of him. All hope was lost. This was the end. It's time to say your goodbyes and last words now, because you don't really know how much time he has left.

But – wait! What's this?

N regained his ability to breath, and his entire being felt lighter. He hadn't realized until now that he had clenched his eyes shut shortly after being licked by zorua. With a deep breath, he opened them to find Hilda leaning over him. Her hand was extended toward him, and she was staring him down a bit impatiently.

The old woman was laying on the ground a few feet away, a look of shock coating her facial features.

He didn't take Hilda's hand at first. He tried to pick himself up but stopped short when he was overcome with a sick headache. He collapsed back on the ground – though luckily he had only managed to lift himself about 3 inches – and rolled to his side. He struggled to lift his right hand to massage his forehead, which had apparently been hit upon impact.

Hilda noticed his pain, but honestly, she had other things to worry about at this moment. Weedle-Dee could be anywhere in this dang circus. She couldn't waste any time looking for him, but that's exactly what she was doing now. Wasting time, waiting for N to do something. Go figure.

Not wanting to waste any more of her time, she grabbed the hand he was using to hold his forehead and hoisted him up. Unluckily for her, hoisting him up only meant lifting him into a sitting position. He groaned in pain, but it's not like anyone really cared about his feeling at that moment. Especially the crowd. Most people had remembered where it was they were heading and why they were heading there, so the crowd was starting to thin out. The bathrooms had quickly became the most populated area this side of Castelia City. Those few remaining just stood around, awkwardly waiting for something else to happen.

Hilda, now annoyed more than anything, rested her hands on her hips and began to stare N down. Feeling the weight of her glare, N looked up sheepishly. Or mareepingly? Whatever is a good pokemon reference. Anyway, with his hand still grasping his head, he made another attempt at getting up, but just like last time, he got nowhere.

Hilda was still glaring at him as she reached her hand out to him once again, but rather than doing so out of annoyance, this time around she did so because she felt sorry for the guy. He was pretty helpless, after all. Pathetic in a way, but certainly not as pathetic as Ghetsis. Hilda wouldn't have known this, however.

N noticed that the air of hostility was slowing alleviating and made an attempt to grab her hand. He failed of course, but by this point, Hilda understood that they would go nowhere with this and Weedle-dee would probably go everywhere if they waited any longer. She grabbed his hand once again and was finally able to lift him to his feet. He swayed for a minute, but once he managed to regain his footing, he muttered a thanks, refusing to look at Hilda the entire while.

But when he did look at her, he noticed zorua still hanging from her ponytail. If N was a jokester, he would have said something along the lines of "keep hangin' in there, buddy," but he wasn't much of one. Another good joke gone to waste.

"Zorua! What are you doing?" N broke the silence that had long since grown between him and Hilda, who had only just now realized why her head was starting to hurt. She shook her head slightly, sending the pokemon flying. Luckily, he saw this coming a long time ago and was prepared for the landing. He stuck it perfectly, and I could almost see a judge holding a scorecard with the number 10 printed on it in the distance.

N scowled at Hilda at first, but then remembered that he had been the one to chase after her, so in a way, this was certainly and entirely all N's fault.

Hilda remained unfazed at N's glare and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him closer to her. When he was down to her eye level, she stared him straight in the eye and asked, "Where is my weedle?"

N tried to avoid Hilda's gaze, flitting his eyes left and right so as not to look her in the eye. He was feeling incredibly uncomfortable with this violation of personal space. He opened his mouth to say something about that, but zorua cut him off instead.

'Just tell her to look in her bag! That thing's been there the entire time!' Zorua growled softly. He was honestly tired of this escapade and really wanted to go home and soak his eyes in bleach. The image of that clown still stained the back of his eyelids. Really, that stain was almost as bad as Ghetsis's fruit punch stain.

N only nodded in understanding. "Hilda, maybe you should…check your bag."

"What?! If he was there, I wouldn't be so upset right now! Seriously! Check in your bag! Hmph" She opened and closed her hand, mocking N. N didn't understand what she was doing or that she was mocking him, so he repeated himself.

"If it gets you to shut up, fine! I'll check my freaking bag, okay?" She opened her bag and moved some of items around. "I didn't see him! Okay, now let's actually go and-"

"Look again. And, you know, actually look." N nodded his head toward the bag.

Hilda took a step back and threw her bag on the ground. She made a big show of sitting down, being sure to add in some exasperated sighs for effect. Slowly, she opened her bag and sifted through its contents. A bottle of toothpaste. A rubber duck. Those corn chips from earlier. Her pokemon team. A half-eaten stick of beef jerky. But no weedle.

"He's not here!"

"Let me see." With that, N leaned down and grabbed the bag while Hilda crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. He unceremoniously poured the contents of the bag onto the ground. When he saw there was no weedle, he brought the bag closer to his face. A self-congratulatory smile crossed his face and he turned the bag upside down, shaking it slightly.

Weedle-Dee fell from the bag with all the grace of…some witty comparison.

Hilda stared at the weedle, her mouth gaping wide open. I think a fly even flew in there. She looked from the pokemon to N, then back to Weedle-Dee.

N smirked and stood up, realizing too late that he was still recuperating from that fall. Nausea overcame him, and he nearly fell down again. Noticing this, Hilda snapped out her shock long enough to stop the boy from toppling over. She shot up from her spot on the ground and held her arms out. She caught him, but only just in the nick of time. A second later and we would have had to repeat about half of this chapter, and seeing as nobody wanted to sit through it once, well.

Now laying half on the ground and half on Hilda, N sat rigid. This was the second time his personal space had been violated in the last three minutes, but he wasn't as bothered about it as he should have been.

"Weedle! Wee!" Weedle-Dee started to chirp. He only made this specific chirp when he saw someone he recognized, which actually happened quite often. But this chirp was often confused with his mischievous chirp, so in all honesty it could go either way.

Hilda and N both glanced down at Weedle-Dee, then to each other. Both reeled back in shock, finally noticing that N was practically sitting on Hilda. N ended up falling backwards, back to his rightful spot on the ground, while Hilda tried to kick herself back a few feet, away from him. This didn't work quite as she planned, seeing as she ended up just getting tangled in N's overly long legs. N had completely given up on everything by this point and only stared straight into the night sky. At least this time around he finally saw just how beautiful the stars really were.

"Hey, Hilda! Is that you?" Hilda's eyes widened as she began to frantically look around. 'No, please, please don't let it be-'

"Hilda? Honestly, I would expect you to have just a little more pride." Another voice now. And Hilda recognized them both.

"Wow! Uh, well. What are you…doing?" Bianca looked quizzically down at her friend. She looked slightly embarrassed as she tried to readjust her beret. Cheren followed her lead and readjusted his glasses before looking down at the two on the ground.

Hilda could only squeak. Luckily for her, N was fully capable of speech, despite his position.

"Well, you see, when I realized I had been sitting on Hilda's lap-"

Okay, so, maybe unluckily for her, N was fully capable of speech, despite his position.

note: thanks for the reviews, guys. I'm glad to know I'm not the only person to find this funny.

anyway, sorry about the first couple chapters being so short. This is about the length they'll be from now on, but it'll update more often, promise.

have fun, kids