Augustine nervously shuffled across the Ice, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He was starting to regret this, he knew he wasn't very good at battling and that he would probably lose in front of a large amount of people, but Aurea seriously needed to get out more. At the time the idea of entering a tournament sounded like the most exciting thing around, after all it was a chance to meet new people and, by extension, new pokemon. But now…Augustine bit his lip as he lifted his leg and rubbed it against his ankle.

He looked back at the crowd and at Aurea before he let out a visible breath, crystallizing the air for mere seconds.

Lily , a young lady with brown hair, blue eyes, a beautiful flowing dress, and puffy purple jacket stood across from him, before she shouted something.

"Would you mind if I go first?!"

Augustine smiled and nodded before bowing down, keeping his eyes level with his opponent. He stood up tall and kept his gaze set on the young girl before him. She, in turn curtsied with a small smile set on her face.

"Alright Amaura lead the way!"

Augustine let out a small gasp as the small blue pokemon appeared. It physique was similar to a small dinosaurs, with a white belly, and a gem on it's side. Above its eyes sprouted large wing-like sails that, unlike it's baby blue body, were a creamy peach that faded into a light pink.

Augustine remembered this pokemon for one very specific reason.

"Amaura, the tundra Pokemon : This ancient Pokemon was restored from part of its body that has add been frozen in ice for over 100 million years, it is normally calm and lived in a cold land where there were no violent predators.

He could work with this.

"Froakie, time to battle!"

Augustine had realized two out of the three pokemon he had wouldn't be able to take on this pokemon, Amaura was an ice type, and sadly for Augustine, two of his three entered pokemon were susceptible to the ice type moves.

With this handicap his team certainly had a smaller chance of winning, normally Augustine would just go for Garchomp, for obvious reasons such as her powerful strength, but Garchomp was also a ground type, which meant it's attacks were twice as ineffective and defense was twice as low. The ground type was stronger against rock but ultimately it was not too helpful. That was a double negative impossible to Chespin was a grass type, and therefore weak against ice, with no real advantages against rock.

Which left Froakie. Froakie was a water type, which meant it could handle the ice type attacks and rock types attacks, even if there was no large benefit, it was enough to take on the Amaura.

The blue frog pokemon emerged excitedly form the pokeball, before he hopped up into the air excitedly, and blew on the large amount of bubbles around it's back and neck.

Agustine only had a few moments to gather his thoughts before a call erupted from his opponent,

"Alright Amaura use Icy Wind!"

The cold snow that had been softly falling down from the sky was abruptly blown away as a large gust of wind began blowing throughout the area. Augustine felt his cheeks begin to freeze up and his hands become clammy, his body was cold, but he wasn't freezing. He was used to cold weather, winters in Kalos were like what he imagined being hugged by a Vanillish would be like.

His eyes cut back towards Aurea who was sitting down in the boat wrapping the too big coat somewhat tighter around herself, before giving him a smile and a thumbs up. Augustine waved back, relieved to see her warm and not trying to offer him his coat again, he was glad she was smart.

He turned back to the girl standing in front of him and called the next move,

"Froakie use water pulse!"

A pulsing blast of water shot out of Froakie's mouth and blasted Amaura, who gave out harsh cries of pain.

"Walk it off Amaura, use growl!"

The small seemingly innocent pokemon suddenly let out a disturbing growling noise that made Froakie withdraw for a second. Augustine clenched his fist, digging his nails into his skin, he had been hoping Amaura would have been confused apparently not.

"Attack with bubble beam!"

"Parry it with rock throw!"

The delicate bubbles shot at the rock, which easily popped them and continued on towards Froakie.

"Now, while they're distracted use powder snow!"

"Dodge it!"

Froakie was injured and had just gotten up only to be blown back by a gust of frost. He stopped moving and slowly a thick layer of ice formed around it's body.

Augustine let a small cry escape from his lips as he watched Froakie become a sitting duck, he waited for Lily's next move with baited breath.

"Amaura use rock throw again!"

Augustine's mouth dropped and he quickly yelled,

"Froakie aim down and use scald!"

Hot water skirted over frozen ice and quickly melted it, letting Froakie loose;meanwhile, the boulder was advancing on froakie quickly, barely ten feet away when Augustine yelled,

"Jump over it...now!"

The blue bubble pokemon sprung into the air and above the rock, which continued on, and crashed into the wall. Augustine felt his confidence grow and he threw out his hand,

"Now use water pulse!"

"Amaura dodge it and use powder snow!"

Amaura threw itself to the right, barely dodging the blast of water before it took in a deep inhale of breath.

Augustine's eye widened before his face became set. Not this time.

"Now Froakie use scald!"

The steaming hot water quickly washed away any trace of snow and splashed onto Amaura who had just been about to release the gust of frost into the air.

"One more try Amaura! Use take down!"

It was an all or nothing move, one Augustine easily took advantage of,

"Froakie dodge it!"

Unsurprisingly Froakie somersaulted over Amaura, who ran straight into the wall with a large crash, followed by the thump of a large body hitting the ground. Augustine let out a relieved sigh, glad that at least one of his plans had worked.

"And it looks like the professor has won! Man just watching that made me sweat! Give em' a hand folks!"

"Magnificent job Froakie!"

"Let's get you healed up Amaura."

The two acquaintances shared a kind nod and left.

Augustine nearly skipped over to the boat he was so relieved, during the whole entire battle he was worried about losing. It honestly was surprising that he was able to focus so easily on battling, even if his ideas were always changing. Normally his attention would be shifting everywhere he never had an actual strategy and was pretty inexperienced. The only thing that his mind could really settle on would be his research, that he could babble on and on about for hours without tiring. He wondered what had made it so easy to focus…

"Augustine! You did great! Looks like yesterday's training really paid off huh?"

Augustine clambered over the railing of the boat and smiled back at her,

"Yeah I guess it did."

"For a second you had me worried," Aurea trailed off as she bit the top of her index finger looking down. Augustine made puppy eyes,

"Hey I'm not that terrible at battling!"

"I know," Aurea sighed looking up at him, "I just thought that … nevermind."

Augustine nodded and looked away confused letting the comment register in his mind, he looked back down at her before he let out a small chuckle.

"What," she looked up at him inquisitively.

"The coat is just so big on you, it looks,", He coughed, a bit awkwardly,"cute."

Aurea's face paled then reddened as she his her face behind the massive sleeves of the brown coat.

"Shut up," she mumbled. Augustine felt his face turn red and his stomach churn for a moment watching her blush, but pegged it down to the aftermath of the freezing cold and adrenaline rush of the battle.

Suddenly the boat jolted and shook. The passengers on the boat cried out startled as the boat suddenly began to rise over the water. Augustine immediately grabbed onto the rail and didn't let go until the boat settled with a thud and people had begun to file out onto the cruise ship. Augustine stepped back in front of Aurea and raised his arm,

"My lady?"

Aurea's face was painted with confusion before she let out a laugh and took it. They started their walk out onto the boat in happy silence until an excited yell was heard and a camera flashed. Suddenly they were swarmed by reporters, cameras, and microphones.

"Hey hey! When did you two of you get into a relationship?!"

"Have you been keeping the relationship a secret?!"

"Are you two dating? How will the long distance relationship work out between you two?!"

Augustine thought for a minute, wondering just about how that really would work before be remembered that he wasn't in a relationship with Aurea to begin with. He had opened his mouth to answer before he jumped away from Aurea who had shot him a killing look for a split second before she had raised her hands up and tried to smooth everything out. Augustine turned around trying to find an exit while his mind raced for answers, only to have his vision clouded by the flashing colors. Millions of voices screamed around him, spots danced in his vision, and his breathing began to hitch. He wasn't used to this much crazy.

Augustine felt like a deer in the headlights, his mind was jumping from left to right. He looked around again and felt his nerves explode.

"Excuse me but we have to go there are some important...files…in our suite! Goodbye!"

He yanked Aurea's hand and ploughed through the crowd,

"What August-auggh ow?!"

Augustine felt her hand slipping as she began to fall behind, he tightened his grip, almost feeling her bones grind together. They rushed through the halls of the ship and ran into the elevator. Augustine slammed his palm on the button trying to shut the doors on the reporters that were driven enough to chase after them. He sheepishly waved through the closing doors,and jammed the button, not stopping until the doors had finally shut. He let out a groan and leaned against the wall.

"Augustine, what was that?"

Augustine flicked his eyes open and nearly jumped onto the wall. Aurea leered up at him, her voice was at a deadly whisper, ears were red, eyes narrowed, and hands raised up curled like claws. Augustine screamed silently for his voice and tried to answer,

"Couldn't … bright...crowded...crazy...escape."

Augustine gasped out, choking on air and lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest,

"Augustine," she sighed",That was really unnecessary we could have easily sorted everything out with the press then."

Augustine crinkled his brow, he hadn't thought about that.

"I'm sorry Aurea but there was just so much going on and…" Augustine bit his lip before staring at the doors of the elevator, the reflective metal played with the objects in the small room, distracting his mind from his worries. His eyes traveled back down to Aurea who had cleared her throat.

"Look I'm sorry, I just was overwhelmed before, I don't really like crowds...or enclosed spaces."

Aurea raised a brow and swept her eyes around the elevator. Augustine's followed before he realised where they were. He squeezed his eyes shut and steadied his breathing, focusing his thoughts away from the feeling of his chest being pressed down on, and thought of his lab in Kalos where pokemon wandered outside.

He looked at her with pleading eyes and he could see the anger and resolve melt off her face.

"Fine, but when we go back during the second round today I'll consult the press."

Augustine felt relief at the idea of actually having a plan and gave off a weak smile before the elevator's doors opened and the two were, once again, meet with flashing lights and loud voices. They had forgotten about stairs.

Aurea gave him a weak shrug before turning towards the numerous reporters,

"Look, we are simply co-workers, there's not much else to say. During the tournament today, I had simply forgotten my jacket, and Augustine was letting me borrow his. Now if you'll excuse us…"

Aurea took Augustine by the sleeve and pulled him away from the assault on his senses. The two bypassed the group of people and were followed by sound of shutters until they reached their room, where Augustine watched Aurea slam the door and lock it with a satisfied smile.

Hey! I'm so sorry for the late update! I really don't have a reason just a bad excuse of writers block...but from now on I'm going to try to set up a 1-2 week deadline so I actually get work done and what not. Enjoy! ^v^