A silent Dawn bashed in the door to May's room. She ran over to the bed excitedly. The bedsheets that were covering May were picked up instantly and tossed aside. The wide smile on her face crashed when she laid eyes on May's expression.

A solid line of salty water trailed around May's cheeks. Her eyes were completely bloodshot. Still sobbing, she turned around to see what had happened to the thin blankets that were on top of her a moment ago. "Oh...Dawn...Or is it Latias?" she choked out, forcing a smile. "What's wrong?"

Latias frowned. After a moment of pondering the situation, she bent down to kiss May softly on one of the wet cheeks. May, being paralyzed by the touch, didn't even realize the other girl blowing out of the room.

The Hoenn Trainer eventually came back to her senses. "...Please let that have been Latias. God, I won't ask for anything else today if that was Latias. Deal?" She gulped, thinking of the horror of actually being turned on by a kiss from Dawn.

Whatever the case was, she didn't have much time to think about it. The true blue knocked on the wall just outside the door, then peeked her head in. "May? What's wrong?"

"Oh!" It finally hit May that she'd been crying. As if it'd mean anything, she quickly started wiping her face off with her hands. "N-No, nothing, I'm fine." Knowing that this tactic literally never worked, May forced herself to continue. "I was just thinking about...something I probably shouldn't have been. Anyway, I guess it's morning?"

"Actually, you're wrong," Dawn answered with a curious grin. "You just missed morning by about eight minutes."

"What?! It's already after noon?" May shouted, panicking.

"Yeah..." Sick of talking about such a casual subject as what time it was, Dawn stepped into May's loaned room. She sat down on the bed next to her, setting a hand peacefully on her knee. "It's okay that you're worried about Brendan, May. There's no reason to hide that. We'll find him, you know that!"

May forced a smile as quickly as she could. "Thank you, Dawn." She sat up so she could give Dawn a friendly hug. "Brendan..." She sighed, though she tried to keep it to herself. "...I forgot about him. Thanks for giving me something else to worry about, Dawn..." Once more, she sighed before letting go. "Anyway, I'm sorry to keep everyone waiting. Do you want to head to my house now?"

"Sure! Anything has to be more fun than hanging around this dump." Dawn stood up to exit, but May grabbed her arm first.

"Wait, Dawn! Umm...If you don't mind me asking...Damage control?"

Dawn blinked at her for a moment, not understanding what that meant. After it hit her, she laughed. "No worries. We're all good again. Even Umbreon and Latias signed a peace treaty."

The positive response gave a bit of life back to May. She smiled, also rising up.

The two girls left the room, though not before May looked back to make sure she didn't leave anything behind.

The group was out the door as soon as everybody rejoined with each other. All four were close, though there was definitely less space between Dusk and Dawn. In spite of being the only one to actually know where they were going, May wasn't in the lead. Dusk always being in that position had become a habit. Latias seemed to eye the Sinnoh Trainers often, though the eldest didn't bring any attention to it.

They were about half an hour away from May's home. And the woman knew what she wanted to talk about on the trip over. Of course, her first priority was breaking the ice.

"Sorry for sleeping in. I don't even remember the last time I've done that..." May noted, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"It's no problem, May. Not like we were going to do much today anyway, right?" Dusk sighed. "...Karma's laughing at that question right now. I can feel it."

Latias seemed to whine something, but couldn't manage a single sound while in human form. Her eyes were locked worriedly on May.

She smiled back warmly. "If you're worried about me crying earlier, Latias, it's okay. I'm fine."

"Crying?" the only male interrupted.

"Yeah..." she replied quietly, sending him a message to drop that subject. "Dawn, I--"

She stopped talking. Dawn turned her head over her shoulder to see what the matter was, though nothing was to be found but a flustered expression.

"Oh, um...I was wondering how long you've been hanging around with Latias? You two are awfully close."

Dawn blushed, masking it with a giggle. "I guess so. Um...Well, actually, I guess we really got to know each other because of Wizard getting stolen. Come to think of it, we really haven't been seperated since." Dawn laughed. "Fate, maybe?"

Latias turned her head opposite of the entire group.

May continued playing innocent. "What do you mean? You got to know each other?"

"Well, yeah." Dawn's eyes stayed on the road below. "We really bonded. She even drew some pictures about her past in the sand. I wonder if they're still there..."

"This is going too easy," May mused. "Oh, really? Would you tell us? I'm definitely interested..."

Latias jerked her head toward Dawn. She didn't need words to convey her discomfort about this subject.

"...Actually, how about some other time?" Dawn replied with a hidden frown, having caught Latias's glance. "Um, sorry, I don't mean any offense or anything..."

May looked over to see a relieved expression on Latias. It made her frown. "Shoot. Dumb dragon. Don't apologize! I understand. Did you sleep well last ni--"

"I don't want to talk about it."

May blinked. It took her a quarter of a minute to remember to respond verbally. "Um...What?"

Dawn's fists clenched. "I said I don't want to talk about it."

Once more, May was nothing short of baffled. "Don't want to talk about wha--"

Dawn stopped walking, enabling her to spin around and kill May dead with a single glare. The rest of the gang promptly stopped as well, though Dusk was the only one to completely turn his back to the conversation. "Last night! I don't want to talk about anything about last night! My word, can't you people get that? Umbreon did the same thing this morning! If I don't want to talk about last night, then I'm not going to!"

May's eyes were unknowingly and unnaturally wide. "...D-D-Dawn, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to--"

"I'm sure you didn't." She turned back around, rested her forehead on three fingers, and sighed. "Look, can we just go to your house now? Where is it? I'm going to run ahead. I just want to be alone right now."

"Y-Yeah...um...Just take your next two rights, and find a pale green house...That's mi--"

May couldn't even get to the bottom of her sentence before Dawn took off running. Latias gave May one of those 'hurt my friend again and I'll eat you' looks, then quickly chased after her.

"...Pikachu," Wizard sighed.

"Sound familiar, buddy?" Dusk wondered.

May turned her still-winded self to her remaining teammate. "Huh?"

Dusk rubbed Wizard on the top of his head. His back was still turned to May. "We made the same mistake of talking about last night too. It went just about as well as that did."

"Pika pika..."

Finally regaining her composure, May found the energy to fold her arms and look in another direction. "...A warning next time, Captain?"

"It's probably a bad thing that I'm more scared of Dawn than I was Giovanni, isn't it?"

May chuckled, finding herself out of her anger fit already. "I don't blame you. If looks could kill, I'd never know whatever happened to Brendan."

The remaining two got to May's house. Leaning on the bottom of the two-story building was one Dawn, with another one standing right next to her. When she heard the footsteps of her friends, Dawn turned her head up from the well-trimmed grass and sighed. Latias also turned her head to look at them.

"I'm...sorry," Dawn muttered out before either of the other two had a chance to talk.

Awkward silence filled the short space in between everybody. When she realized that her friend wasn't continuing, Latias shifted on her heel and gave Dawn her own death-dealing stare. She received it, and like many others before her, cringed. She forced herself to turn back to her friends, though she could only manage a weak glance.

"I'm sorry...for blowing up like that." Latias smiled. Dawn noticed this out of the corner of her eye. She knew that the Pokémon was enjoying this, but couldn't figure out why. "...To both of you. I'd just...prefer if we left last night alone, okay?"

"Dawn..." May beamed, almost to the point of laughing. "Of course it's alright! We were never mad at you for that, so you don't have to apologize so much for it." She froze. "Er, I mean, we're not mad at you for anything! Dear, I need to stop making that mistake...um...Umbreon, back-up?"

Dusk chortled. "Whatever. Come on, let's get inside. I'm hungry."

As she began walking towards the door, May stretched her arms. "Oh, it feels so good to not have to worry about training today...Too much work for too little pay." She twisted the doorknob and instantly walked inside. Umbreon soon disappeared behind her.

Dawn got off the wall and turned to follow suit, but shifted her head over her shoulder to glance at the tinted Latias.

The split second she realized she was getting stared at, Latias craned her head in a different direction, looking at any random object her eyes could focus on. Her face continued heating up.

"...Latias?" Dawn began quietly. "Why was it so important to you that I apologized to May and Umbreon?"

Latias brushed it off at first by shrugging, but then she shook her head. Her eyes were anywhere but near Dawn's.

Dawn turned around. Curiosity, and maybe even anger were on her face. "Latias, what? You've had weird moments ever since we got to Hoenn. What are they--"

May peeked her head out the door. "Huh? Are you two coming?"

Latias quickly took the opportunity. She blew past Dawn with her face possibly more red than when she's in Pokémon form, and dashed into the house. May had to quickly sidestep just to get out of the way.

"...Grr..." Dawn cursed, storming her way to the door as well.

Sensing her friend's anger, May was careful while shutting the door after her tempermental friend had stepped through. "Um...So...What do you feel like doing? It doesn't look like anybody else is home right now, so..."

"Could I just watch TV, please?"

May wasn't intending to give Dawn an argument when she was in this state. "Sure, of course! The family room's over there."

The bottom of the two stories was impressively generic, to put it simply. The couch, chairs, television set, and grandfather clock stood in one room, with useful kitchen appliances in the other. A random French boy was pillaging the fridge. There was no wall seperating the two, so it was basically one large room. In the back were stairs that led up to the next floor. The walls were painted a fun white, with nothing but the occasional family picture covering it.

Dawn made it about two steps towards the couch before May let out a loud gasp. "Oh, Dawn, I completely forgot! Have you checked to see what that Pokémon was?"

"Pokémon?" Dusk echoed from the kitchen.

A heavy smirk rose to Dawn's face. "Yep! I checked it this morning. You two can see it later, okay?"

"Oh, sure..." She gave the curious Dusk a quick shrug before deciding to give him company. She walked over to the counter and jumped on it just in time to watch Dawn turn the TV on via remote control. Wizard was laying down next to her, having already been there. "Today's...weird. I think I should have stayed in bed even longer."

Wizard yawned, causing Dusk to laugh. "I think Wizard would have liked that, too."

May turned her head to look at their team icon. "Wizard? Is something wrong?"

"...Misses Ionu," Umbreon answered quietly.

"Ooh..." May giggled and also laid down on the wide counter, snuggling close to Wizard. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his soft fur rubbing against her face. "It's okay, Wizard. I promise you that Ionu loves you very much, and misses you as much as you do her...I also promise you that you'll see her real soon! Whether she comes to Hoenn, or you go back to Sinnoh, I don't know, but we'll find some way..."

Wizard didn't reply. May assumed she knew why. "Hm...So cute..."

Dusk smirked. "...Thanks."

"It's just the truth."

"Not that!" he quickly shot back. "I mean, for helping him..."

"Oh..." May stood up straight. "Of course." She giggled. "Wizard's just as important to me as you are, you know."

"That's reassuring. Thanks."

May laughed. When she calmed down, she decided to change the subject. "Did I miss something?"

"I think you might have missed the aisle that contained good food..." Dusk moaned. He finally shut the fridge door and started opening every cabinet he came across.

"I just got back to Littleroot from being shipwrecked, and you blame the food shortage on me?!" she pouted. "For your information, I was talking about Dawn and Latias..."

Dusk pulled out a box of crackers. "Oh. Well, that's something I can't help you with. I have no idea where those two stand, either. I'm just kinda playing it by ear."

"Any idea where Latias went?"

"Upstairs, I think..." Dusk mindlessly answered, enraptured with the odd-tasting salty snack he'd slipped into his mouth.

"I think I'll go talk to her..." May got off the counter and headed for the stairs. Before heading up them, she turned her head to see what Umbreon was eating. "Umbreon? Um...Are the words 'Love from Johto' written on that box in permanent marker anywhere?" she inquired.

Dusk glanced at the blue box. He spotted the writing, and nervously nodded his head up and down.

May blinked. "Those were a gift from my brother...when he first went to Johto. Um...four years ago."

"...That..." Dusk started, looking around for a napkin. He found a paper towel and didn't hesitate to empty his mouth out. "...That would answer alot of things."

Not quite sure what to feel about that situation, May blankly continued on up the stairs. By the time she reached the top step, she'd put the thought out of her mind.

Every door in the well-lit hallway was shut except one, which happened to be May's own room. She silently stepped inside, immediately immersing herself in the familiar surroundings.

Her room was unknowingly not that different from Dawn's: a hot pink rug covered the floor, and lighter pink covered the walls. The single window in the room gave a beautiful view of the outside, where quite a number of Professor Birch's Pokémon were playing together. Unlike Dawn's room, May had a dressing table, complete with as many useless perfumes and other make-up supplies as could be imagined. She also had a laughably small television set, with an older gaming console hooked into it.

Something that was less familiar in the room was Latias. She had been looking out the window, but immediately turned around to watch May the moment she realized she was there. Her eyes never shifted.

Noticing that fact made May feel a little uncomfortable, but she tried to shake it off. She walked into her room and kicked her boots off, which landed in a messy pile at the foot of her bed. She crashed into her mattress back-first and let out a groan of pleasure. She closed her eyes, feasting on the comfort. "Oh, that feels so nice..."

Her thoughts were interrupted when Latias started heading towards the door, a bit of a depressed expression on her face.

"Oh, Latias, no! I didn't mean to kick you out! Actually, I was hoping we could talk for a minute..."

Latias put her hands inside her pockets. She slowly turned around to face May and nodded her head.

May sat up, then lifted her dirtied-in-a-mishap legs onto her bed and folded them. "I've been thinking about some things, and I was hoping, if nothing else...Would you mind talking about last night?"

Latias lowered her head. She never actually answered the question, but since she didn't run away, May figured it was safe to continue.

"I need to know..." May got off the bed. She walked over to Latias and got down on a knee. Looking up to her, the Hoenn Trainer set a hand on Latias's shoulder. "Latias, do you feel as though Umbreon and I don't accept you?"

To say Latias felt uncomfortable would be an understatement. She removed her hands from her pockets to put them behind her back and looked away.

"Don't. I'm praying, Latias, please don't think that way. Umbreon and I love you just as much as Dawn does."

Latias blushed, but didn't physically react to it.

"I won't ask you how you told Dawn about your past, and why she seemed so angry last night, but like I told Umbreon...I noticed that you never denied anything of what she said, and that worried me. I'm so grateful for all of my friends, and that includes you! Do you want to know something?"

A slight nod.

"You're scared that we don't accept you just because you can't talk, right?"

Another, more pronounced nod was given to answer the question.

"Well, I entered this Contest for charity once. It was at Mossdeep City, and guess what? We couldn't talk to our Pokémon!"

The gentle, innocent look of surprise Latias gave put a smile on May's face. She continued.

"The entire Contest, we had to come up with strange ways of communicating with our Pokémon to tell them what to do...Finally, though, I decided to just learn morse code! That was all I needed, and I blew my way right to the top in that competition!"

Latias bowed slightly, happy to hear of the victory.

May dusted Latias's shoulder off. "My point is this...Just because something like silence hinders us, it doesn't mean that it has to block us completely. If we pull through and just keep going, all of our challenges will be overcome. Just like that Contest." May smiled. "You aren't some weird alien, Latias. And I'm definitely not 'just putting up with you,' like Dawn put it last night. You're the same as us, but just a little bit unique, which is why we love you so much. We're all just a bit unique from each other when you think about it, huh?"

Not knowing if she was supposed to answer, Latias nodded again.

"I just want you to know that it's okay. If you ever have a problem that you can't tell Dawn for some reason, don't be scared to come to me. Or Umbreon. Okay?"

Latias happily nodded. As soon as May stood up, she took the opportunity to thank her by giving her a friendly hug.

"Aww..." May rubbed the silent girl's back. "I'm a sucker for mushy moments!"

"May?" the only other female voice in the house rang out. There was light thumping just outside, which implied the voice was heading up the steps. "Do you want to--Where are you?"

Latias almost immediately dropped the embrace with May...then hid behind her. Before the woman could inquire, Dawn's head popped into the doorway.

"Oh, there you are. What channel is, um..." She paused for a moment. "...Latias? Do I bite?"

Peeking her head over May's shoulder ever-so slightly, Latias shook her head.

"Uhm..." Dawn stifled a few laughs. "If you say so. Anyway, a car just pulled in your driveway, but nobody's gotten out yet. Oh, and what's the cooking channel? Umbreon keeps going on about something about vinegar and four-year old crackers, or something, and..." Her voice drifted away for some reason.

May laughed. "I'll be right down!"

Dawn vanished.

"Well, are you ready, Lati--Huh?"

When May turned around, she was greeted with a surprise. Latias was blushing. Profusely. Her gaze was on the floor, and she was fidgeting around in her position. Her right wrist sometimes rubbed her cheek, but besides that, both arms were kept behind her back.

"Latias, what's...wrong..." May's heartrate suddenly increased. Her head jerked back to the doorway, where Dawn just was, but quickly turned back to Latias. The girl's face was possibly even more red than before. May almost started panicking. "L-La-Latias...? Y-You..." She gulped. "...It...isn't Umbreon that you have a crush on, is it?"

Wearing a shy smile, Latias shook her head softly.

May cupped her hands over her mouth. "...Oh...my."

Her mind somehow automatically shifted to what Dawn had just said. Remembering she had guests, May turned around and dashed out of the room, leaving Latias quite confused.

When she hit the bottom step, there was still nobody different in the house. Dawn was laying on the couch and Dusk, along with the sleeping Wizard, was on a chair. Though the TV was on, both had their eyes on the closed window.

"Have they come in yet...?" May asked pointlessly.

Before either could respond, the front door opened.

"Well maybe if you actually pretended to care about her, you'd--"

"I do care about her, and you know--"

"Talking about me?" May interrupted with a wide smirk on her face.

"...Sis!" the younger boy shouted, running into May's arms. He only reached as high as May's neck.

May quickly closed the embrace. "Oh, Max, it's been so long..."

Observing the two, Dusk was almost a little afraid to stand up. He knew that he was two years younger than Max, but was probably a little bit taller. The boy's green shirt was easily eye-attracting, and his brown shorts looked a size or two too small, but Dusk wasn't going to say anything. The other person to walk in was obviously their father, since the labcoat gave it away. Besides looking more youthful and overall more fun to be around, Professor Birch actually didn't look much different from Rowan.

Curiosity swelling, May stepped back. "Who were you talking about just now?"

"Um, uh, uhm..." Professor Birch stuttered, setting a hand behind his head. "...Just...a friend, actually! You don't know--"

"MOM," Max shouted, staring angrily at his father for wanting to dodge the subject.

Still keeping an ear to the conversation, Dawn dug into her holdall and pulled out a notepad and pen. She quickly jotted a sentence down, then handed it to Dusk.

"Being invisible is fun, isn't it?"

He forced himself not to laugh.

May doubled the amount of glares her father was receiving. "What?"

Max folded his arms and looked at May. He was angry, though obviously not at her. "Mom and Dad hate each other! Mom doesn't even live here anymore!"

"Now, Max--" Birch tried to mediate, though it didn't end well.

"What?!" May repeated.

"They don't even care about us!" Max continued. "They just got into one stupid argument and never bothered to work things out." Unsure of his own emotions, Max started heading for the stairs. It never occured to him to turn to his side and see that Dawn and Dusk were watching him swagger off.

"Hold on, Max--"

May held her arm out. "Save it. You got more problems to deal with than him." She folded her arms and stepped closer to Birch. "Did I miss our family newsletter while I was in Sinnoh?"

"...Well, actually--"

"It was a JOKE, Dad!" May retorted. "Why was this kept from me? How long has it been going on?"

"...May, we didn't feel the need to tell you because we thought we could work it out. And we still might! We're in counseling right now, doing everything we can. Please try to relax, May. We're going to be fine, and you know that both of us love you and Max no matter what happens...Alright? Come here..." Birch hugged his daughter.

Dusk gave a quick smirk as his eyes fell on Wizard. "...I can only imagine that this is how Rowan treated Dawn."

May put her arms around his back and sighed. "...I missed you, Daddy..."

"I missed--" Unlike the one before him, Birch finally turned his head to see the other two Trainers hiding in plain sight. "...Oh. Hello there!" he shouted, releasing May from his grip. "Introductions later?" He turned to May and kissed her on the cheek. "I need to go check on the Pokémon. I promise that we'll be a family through this, okay?" He sidestepped his daughter and jogged over to a back door.

May, however, headed for the front door. When she got there, she leaned forward and repeatedly banged her head on it.

Dawn stood up. "...M-May? Is there...anything we can do?"

Bang. "Knock me out." Bang. "Or kill me." Bang. "I really don't care which." Finally, her forehead rested on the door. "I've been awake for an hour and really, really want to go back to bed..." she mumbled to herself.

Dawn looked back at Dusk. He wasn't much help. She sighed and sat back down on the couch.

A few seconds passed, and everything except anything changed. May slowly peeled herself off the door, turned about-face to her two friends, and bowed. "I'm...sorry. You really shouldn't have been forced into that drama."

The bluehead once more felt obligated to stand up. "You're apologizing? May, the general rule of thumb is that you only apologize for things that are actually your fault."

"I know, but..." May's head turned off to the side. "It just wasn't fair. Would you two excuse me? I want to talk to Max..."

Dawn forced a smile. "Beat it."

May turned and ran back up the stairs, two at a time.

"...Wow." Dawn sat back down. Feeling it was just about worthless right now, she reached for the remote to shut the TV off.

Silence.

"...Umbreon, we have to come up with something."

"For what?"

"For what?! For May! And Max. Tell me that we don't owe it to them to atleast try to cheer them up with something. C'mon, just admit that the bowing was weird, even for May. When we finish saving the world and that together, it's usually a good indication that we're not strangers anymore..."

"And how do you recommend that we, two completely insignificant parties, meddle in May's family affair? Isn't there a chance that doing that could be considered rudeness?"

Dawn found herself without many words after that.


The entire day passed before the entire group actually managed to get back together. Dusk and Dawn were in their same seats as before, though the latter was sitting up straight; her lap was being used as a pillow for Latias, who was sleeping soundly. Max was in the other chair, and Professor Birch had pulled another in from a storage room for himself. May was on the floor with her back against the couch. A now-awake Wizard was sitting on her lap.

All of them were eating their dinner of hot dogs and potato chips. Considering that not much had been said through-out the day by anybody, the silence was only made even more awkward.

Birch knew he was in the spotlight. And hated it. "...So, Dawn, you're quite lucky to have made such great friends with a Latias like that. How did you two come to know each other?"

Dawn didn't reply immediately. She was too busy restraining herself. "...It's not 'a Latias,' it's 'Latias.'" She eventually forced herself to answer. "Actually, we just became best friends a couple days ago. Wizard ran away, so we had to call Latias in for help...and the rest is history," she recalled, smiling at the unconscious lookalike on her lap.

Birch nodded in interest. May and Dusk, however, both looked at each other, then at Dawn. Neither of them were going to question why she changed the story...but it was definitely on both their minds.

"Umbreon?" Dawn spoke up. "Could we go for a walk?"

"Oh, um...Sure," he replied, finishing off his hot dog.

"Latias?" Dawn rocked her own lap, vibrating Latias's head. "Wake up! We're going for a walk, okay?"

Latias sleepily nodded, then rolled over and shut her eyes.

Dawn rolled her fingers. "...That meant you, too, Latias..."

She yawned and stretched before complying. She got off Dawn and lazily rubbed her eyes.

"Please excuse us, Professor Birch," Dawn stated, standing up.

"Oh, yes, of course!"

Dusk bent down towards May. "C'mon, Wizard, you need to burn some of that energy..."

Wizard yawned, then clamped onto May's leg. "Pikachu, pika p--"

May giggled. "It's okay, Wizard. I promise that we can hang out later tonight, okay?"

Dusk picked the reluctant Wizard up. He counteracted by literally digging his claws into May's skin. She flinched in pain, but after realizing what it was, actually started laughing. After prying the mouse away from her, Dusk, Dawn, and Latias all left via the back door.

May chuckled, rubbing her new claw marks. "That mouse has seperation issues..." She suddenly glared at her father. "...And speaking of seperation..."


"What was that about?"

They weren't very far from the house. They had made it to a hill, and were nearly at its peak.

"The main reason I did it was to get out of the house...I want May to talk to her dad. But besides that...UGH! I needed to vent."

Dusk looked at his friend. Before he could inquire, a bright light shrouded Latias, somewhat blinding the other two until they finally looked away. When the shine faded, Latias was still in human form, but looked nothing like her previous incarnation. She now donned short, brown hair, a wrinkled, lavender shirt, and baggy black shorts. She also looked much closer to her age of six, unlike the previous 14-year-old body she inhabited. She hardly reached as tall as the humans' waists.

Dawn blinked. "...Latias? What was that about?"

Dusk chuckled, turning his eyes back to the grassy path they were walking on. "Looks like a mini-May without the bang things, doesn't she?"

Smiling joyfully, Latias ran to Umbreon's back and plucked Wizard from his perch. Holding him as high in the air as her smaller body allowed, Latias galloped forward, gaining a lead on the remaining two. Wizard was understandably confused at first, but finally came to terms and grinned. "Pikachu!"

It was Dusk's mind's turn to go blank. "...Well...I guess I could support that shipping, but I'm not drawing fanart of it."

His partner didn't reply.

He turned his eyes to her. "...Dawn? You okay?"

"I'm fine," she finally answered, rubbing her eyes.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Believe it or not, I'm not always a drama queen, Corsica..."

"Really?" He turned his eyes forward again. Wizard was now chasing Latias, possibly resuming their game of tag that they had on the island. "Good thing you told me, or I'd have never--OW!"

Reliving the good old days, Umbreon was smacked in the dead center of his face with Dawn's handbag.

He rubbed his nose, semi-fearful that it had been broken. "...Ow. Didn't avoid the Pokéballs."


"...Max, May..." Professor Birch sighed. He didn't continue.

"Alright, we got our names down. You can say something else now."

Dinner had come to a close almost immediately after the Sinnoh heroes left the home. May had moved up to the couch, but nothing changed otherwise. Both kids had their arms well folded.

"Well, I--! I...just don't know what you want me to say."

"Funny. Max and I got talking about that same subject earlier." May glanced at her brother, but quickly returned to her father. "Dad, we..." She also exhaled deeply to keep herself calm. "...We think it's alright that you and Mom are having problems communicating. We hate it, but it's just one of those things that we really can't do much about..." She shifted in her seat. "What we want to know is why you're being so secretive about it. How long has Max been home now? It's been atleast a week since I called from Veilstone, hasn't it? Max told me that the fight happened the night that I called. Why have you kept everything that you could from him?"

"I--"

"He told me that you always run from the subject. Like you've already done to me once today. Why is it taking me to finally get you to sit down and start explaining? And why am I just finding out about this now?!"

"May, I understand your frustration, but I've already told you the truth. We didn't want you to get upset over nothing, because we thought we'd have it worked out by the time we even saw you again."

May narrowed her gaze. "That's your excuse? And then I was going to live in denial of this for the rest of my life, never knowing that my parents almost split up? What makes you think Max wouldn't tell me?"

Birch turned his eyes to Max. "It...was...his idea not to tell you."

"UGH." May's face ran into her open hands. She rubbed her temples with her index fingers. "I thought you had my back on this, Max..."

"I'm sorry, May..." Max pushed up his glasses. "I just...didn't want to see you hurt..."

Silence.

"...You know what?" May's hands fell into her lap. "I won't even worry about that right now. I can get Max's side of this some other time. Why are you two fighting? What caused it? And, again, why was this kept from Max for atleast a week?"

Birch flailed his arms. It was rare that his daughter ever got so emotional like this, but even he figured that it was coming one of these days. "I...I don't know. It's just...things. They happen."

"So, wait. Let me get this straight." May scratched her nose, then checked her fingernails. "You...don't know why you're brinkering on the edge of divorce with Mom. Did I get that right?"

He thought about the question for a minute. "...If I say 'yes,' do--"

"No, Dad!" May retorted, the reflection of a small tear in her eye. "Why aren't you taking me seriously? Max is sixteen, I'm almost nineteen! Dad, we can handle hard problems, but not when you keep hiding them from us like this...It's beginning to hurt. Why don't you trust us?"

As Birch opened his mouth to shoot down the thought of him not trusting his kids, there was knock on the front door. The group looked at each other. May rubbed her eyes and got to her feet, though her legs were a little shaky from getting so worked up. "I'll get it..."

She walked over to the door. Despite her current emotional problem, any tears were well-hidden when she opened the door. Instead of a human, however, she was instantly greeted by a Torchic. It ran up to her leg and rubbed her head on it. "Torchic, Torchic, Tor...!"

"Huh...?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" somebody panted, running in front of the open doorway. "Torchic tends to do that alot."

May looked up from her ankle to the person now standing in front of her. "Um...Hello. Can I help you?"

"Yes, actually. I'm looking for somebody named Umbreon, and heard that you know him."

"Um..." May replied cleverly. She'd always had a bit of trouble keeping conversation up with strangers. "Yes, we're best friends. He was here until a little while ago. May I ask why you need him?"

"Oh, again, I'm sorry!" The person offered a hand for May to shake. "My name's Johanne. I'm Umbreon's mother."