"Tell me I'm crazy!" said Aki as he yelled in Karma's face with his hands on her shoulders. Meanwhile in Karma's mind, she did think that her bestie had lost his marbles.

"Tell me I've gone mad!" he said. "I don't wanna believe it! I can't think of you that way! I wanna believe you're different!"

There was a painful minute of bliss.

"...sure." Karma finally said. "Just what the hell are you getting at? I would've prefered to have heard that first instead of your thoughts."

"It was after I left yesterday." he said, hands still on her shoulders to prevent her from escaping. "I saw you through your front window. I watch you and Darkrai...You guys..."

Me and Rai...?

It took a brief look-back on the previous day, and then she turned white. She felt stupider than the said pokemon for slipping up because of that kiss. It wasn't even a deep kiss! It was a quick and casual way any lover would say I love you to the other.

"I don't wanna think it's true," said Aki as he tightened his grip on her shoulders. "so I need you to answer me right now. Is Darkrai the guy you said you were with? Do you... prefere pokemon over men?"

"It ain't like that!" Karma said in shock to his last question.

"Then tell me I'm wrong!" he demanded. His grip on her shoulders eased and allowed blood to flow back into her arms. She knew he would never leave until she gives him an answer; and she thought that if she denied anything, Aki would never be satisfied. They would never be able to look at each other the same way again. Both had the image that he would see her and imagine her naked with her pokemon every time he stares at her.

There was no real way out of it.

"I'm not into that sorta thing." she said. "It's only Darkrai I am say... into."

"So I'm not crazy?"

"No."

Aki let go of her. His breathing was too silent to be normal, and he began to sway a bit from where he was standing. Karma grabbed his shoulders before he passed out. He sat down on the foot of the bed behind him, still seemingly dazed.

"You... are with your pokemon." he said.

"Er... yeah, I am." said Karma.

"You're with your pokemon."

"I am."

"You're with your pokemon."

She could only stare at him with growing concerns.

'I think he's broken.' she thought to herself.

"You're with your pokemon." he repeated again. "You're telling me that the guy I have always wondered who you were dating was right next to you this whole time?"

"... yeah?" she nervously answered.

"For how long?"

"Uh..." she said, glancing to the side. "about half a year now."

"And ya never had the guts to tell me?" he asked.

Her jaw dropped slightly. Had she hated him, she would have slapped him and booted him out the window.

"This isn't something I can just tell you! I can't possibly explain to you or the others in any way what it's like!"

Aki stood up, having regained himself from his dizzy spell. He had to allow all of the things he was hearing to repeat in his brain over and over. He swallowed the drool building up in his mouth as a way of giving his still dizzy mind occupation that helped him stay focused.

"Do you not trust me enough? I've always told you that I was there for ya. If anything bothers ya, you know you can tell me anything."

Somewhere in the world, a volcanoe of frustration had just erupted.

"Do you think it would have been that easy for me!!?" she shouted. She grabbed his fitting shirt in her fists, stretching it out. Her outburst pushed him back into the bed, but little changed in her. She proceeded to yell directly in his face from on top of him.

"Do you think I enjoy hiding it!? Do you think I enjoy lying to you or anyone else about it!? I hate baring with all of it! You don't know what it's like! I wanna shout it from my roof! I love Darkrai! He makes me feel safe when my mom is gone! He treats me like I'm his princess! He comforts me when I'm sad! He is everything I want in someone, and if you can't handle it, then go fuck yourself!!"

Her tears dripped from her cheeks onto his face. Aki stared up at her with wide eyes. He could not remember another time she was this upset.

"I don't care anymore what people think! I won't get rid of what I have now! Darkrai is staying no matter what! I don't care what the hell you have to say about it!"

She bit her lip and began sobbing. She let go of his now wrinkly shirt and got up, only to fall to her knees crying. Aki sat up and pulled his shirt down to flatten it out while Karma wiped her tears with her wrists.

"You okay now?" he asked her.

"No I'm not." she said sloppily.

Aki slid off the edge of the bed and onto his knees. He reached to her to give her a hug, slowly at first to see if she would accept it. She scooted away on her rump, soon curling into a fetal position to hide her face from him.

"I'm not angry with you." he said.

She peeked up from behind her arms and asked, "You aren't?"

He shook his head and said, "You're too cute for me to be mad at you."

She lifted her right arm and gave him a pathetic punch in the chest.

"You're an idiot." she mumbled.

He opened his arms and pulled her close into a hug. She scooted back over to him and rested her head on his collar bone. Moments passed without a word between the two. Karma waited for him to say something first, but he never spoke a word while her brain constantly delayed her chance to speak. Just as she opened her mouth, Aki spoke first and gave her a slight scare.

"If you're happy, then I don't care." was what he last said before suggesting he should go. Now, Karma was regretting a lot of what she had said. It was out there that she was dating her pokemon, and it could be interpreted that she had slept with him.

"GIRATINA FUCK, WHAT HAVE I DONE!!?" she cried. Rai could only pat her shoulder and was all the less helpful.

"Well," he said. "look at it this way--it's not as though your whole life is ruined, and as big of a lie that is, everything is fine right now."

"YOU DICK!!" she screamed as she beated him to a pulp with one of the couch pillows.

"HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU CALM ABOUT THIS!?"

"Ow, ow, ow! That hurts! Hurting!"

She threw the pillow across the room far enough to land on the stairs. She landed on top of her weakened partner and cried.

"Why did I say shit!? What the fuck is wrong with me!? I'm sorry! I'm so fucking sorry!"

With the strength he had left, Rai wrapped his arms around his trainer's shoulders. He let a brief sigh slip out. More than likely, he may be taken away from her soon. The time he had known her felt too short to end a friendship. The time should be doubled until death do them part. His only regret was dragging her into her own grave. They had a good run while it lasted, he felt.

"We still have today," he said. "and there may be tomorrow and the day after that. However long or short until the day I lose you, I will enjoy every second we have left."

His mouth appeared over his collar. His tounge poked out of his lips and licked his mate's red cheek, stealing one of her drops of salty water.

"No more tears. You should enjoy our remaining time, too, darling."

She sniffled up the waters trying to escape from her eyes, only to explode into an even louder and bigger sobbing fest.

"DARKRAAAAIII!!!"

Thus, after enduring the remainder of the day, the real wait began. Over the weekend, Karma closed the gym for vacation. She had changed her mind about leaving country for a romantic trip, and Darkrai simply did noy care about going places. The weekend itself was uneventful, and so was Monday and Tuesday. Come Wednesday, Karma was ready to have a mental breakdown. Nothing was happening, and it was too dreadful to bare.

Darkrai, on the other hand, was taking it more easy than she was. Thursday afteroon, he was taking a nap in Karma's bed for a change. The said human was pacing around her room as a way to occupy herself. He could tell she was in distress.

"Hey." he grunted.

She stopped pacing and turned to see him. He patted the empty spot next to him.

"I'm the trainer. Don't tell me to come." she nagged.

"Just get over here." he snarled.

She let out an exaggerated sigh and eventually flopped into bed with him. Rai grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer. She instantly snuggled up to his chest with a leg over his hip. She was once again dressed as lightly as ever. Today was a loose black tank with purple panties. Though she was exposed, he was not desiring pleasure. He only wanted her next to him.

"That's my bud." she said, squeezing him.

"That's my girl." he purred, giving her nose a peck.

"Shut up." she said and rolled her eyes. "It's not as cute when you do it."

"Mean."

During their little snuggle session, the doorbell rang. The same old tune that rang in the house sent Karma into panic. Darkrai made the suggestion that he could answer the door, but Karma did not catch that he was joking and yelled at him to stay put.

"Don't move or I'll send you to your ball."

She put on a sweatshirt that was long enough to hide her butt and left the room. Rai yawned and rolled over to the spot Karma had laid. He took a long, deep inhale of her sheets. Even when stressed, she still smelled like her old self.

"C'mon down, stupid!" Karma hollered from downstairs.

He groaned hesitantly. Being lazy, he took a shortcut through the bed and floor. His head poked out of the downstairs ceiling. No one noticed the mythe above them. To his surprise, Aki and Deoxys were just entering the front door. Karma gave the extraterrestrial a pat on the head and a kiss on the cheek.

"What're you doing here? Don't you have to work today?"

"I took the day off." Aki shrugged. "I wasn't in the mood to go in anyway."

"Darkrai, what are you doing?" asked Deoxys. He had taken notice of the head coming out of the ceiling. The trainers looked up, as well. Aki held in a small smirk while Karma shook her head.

"Get down from there, dippy."

Rai emerged from the ceiling and (with means to show off) landed eligantly on his stubby feet next to his darling. Karma only rolled her eyes and flicked him in the head.

"S'up, man?" asked Aki, patting the dark type's head. His greeting was rougher than what he was used to, giving him a minor headache.

"You guys are free, right?" asked Aki. "I'm not interrupting anything?"

"No, no!" said Karma. "Today is boring as hell. Stay a bit, 'kay?"

Darkrai glanced at her for a second. She sounded frantic. He could smell her deodorant, which he figured was potent because she was visibly sweaty. His senses told him she was very nervous.

"How wonderful it is to see you!"

He jumped out of his skin. Deoxys had gave him a hard pat on the shoulder and left his hand there as he leaned to his face.

"Of course," he whispered. "you won't be as happy when you hand over those poffins you owe me."

His head whipped around, and he stared at the other blankly at first. Too many mixed emotions were running through his brain.

"Please tell me the reason Aki knows was not because of you." was all he could say.

"I did not have to tell him." Deoxys said with a slight snicker. "We both saw you two in the window last week. You should have seen the look on Aki's face, and when we got home, he completely lost it."

"Believe me," Rai groaned in defeat. "you should have heard them arguing last week when he told her about it."

"Believe me," said Deoxys. "you should have heard why he was upset. He was more pissed that the 'mystery man' was right in front of him the whole time. I could not help but roll my eyes at him."

Rai shook his head with his hand on his scalp. "That doesn't surprise me all too much."

He glanced towards the said human, who Karma was allowing to stay in her house, but it was evident to Rai that she was uncomfortable near him.

She invited him to sit on the couch while she made them coffee. She used the only matching brown mugs in the cabinet for their drinks. She remembered that Aki had a craving for more bitter things, so she left his coffee bland while she added an inappropriate amount of creamer to hers. She came back to the living room with both mugs full of fresh caffeine. She handed Aki his bitter drink and sat on the opposite end of the couch from him. He thanked her and blew into his mug before taking a sip.

"Good coffee you got." he complimented her.

She nodded her head and took a sip from het mug. Both of their mouths were busy sipping, so she used the monent to reached over the couch arm to pet Rai, who was in his bed. Rai lifted his head and nuzzled it against her hand, purring.

"You need to gimme birthday ideas." said Aki out of the blue. "Tell me what you want."

"I don't fucking know." Karma sighed.

"Don't you want anything?" Aki asked, expecting a solid answer, but with her, that was considered impossible.

"Why do you gotta make a big deal about it?" she asked back. "My birthday is four months away; besides, turning eighteen doesn't mean much."

He objected every bit of her reason. "It does so. It means money, cake, and presents--which you need to give me ideas on."

"I don't want anything." she said. "You do enough for me. I don't want a present. I don't want some stupid, singing card with cash. Don't worry about it so much."

"You'll change your mind." he said.

"Says you."

He chuckled, taking another sip from his mug. He turned his head to his left to see Deoxys. He had taken a seat on the couch arm next to him. The alien was leaning against the human with an arm behind him and over the back of the couch. Aki reached up and scratched his partner's chin with his fingertip.

"I know you probably don't want me here. You have every right to be pissed off at me." he said.

"I-I'm not." Karma stuttered. "It's always nice when you come by, a-and no one else comes around as much as you do."

"Heh, yeah." he said with a shrug. "I'm sorry about last week. I sorta came off as a dick, didn't I?"

"Well," Karma said, glancing away from him. "I-I mean, I can't blame you."

She looked down at her coffee. She tipped the mug back and forth that caused the drink to swirl in its cup. She became a little sunken into her own distraction, but woke herself from it just as quickly.

"Are you really okay with it?" she asked in the tone of a mutter. She said it quiet enough for Darkrai to not hear. He was still rubbing his face all over her hand as she petted him.

"I know I can't make you stop, so why try?" he said in response. "I mean, I'm not against true love or whatever the hell it's called. Who says that lovers have to be the same species anyway? You're practically a grown woman. You know what you want, and if what you want is Darkrai, then I don't care. You're clearly happy, so I won't fight with you about it."

"Er... thanks, man." said Karma. She knew Aki had a bleeding heart, but damn.

He IS an emo.

"I honestly don't know what else to say to that." she said.

Aki chuckled, "What else is there? I'm not repeating myself. Ain't it clear? I'm cool with it, all right?"

"'Kay; I know now." she sighed then smiled. "I promise I'll start being more honest with you, also."

"Arceus, woman, it's not like I'm asking for details."

He caused her to smirk and choke on her coffee. Yeah, she thought, there was a chance that they would be able to return to the norm. She could be finally able to talk to someone about what it is like to love a brat like her mate and not be judged. The whole world had just been taken off her chest, and she could breath again.

"Since we're talking about honesty, I would assume that also implies me." said Aki.

"Uh... I would imagine." said Karma. "You should always be honest... even though don't have any right to tell ya that."

He laughed, "I'll just tell ya that you don't have to feel alone. I think I'll be able to understand what it's like being stuck with an attention hogging brat."

Deoxys glared down at him. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he elbowed the other's head.

"Hey, you are." Aki whined as his head was pushed on impact.

Karma swallowed some more coffee as she watched them. They reminded her of the petty fights and arguments she and Rai often shared. Even Rai could relate, who was listening from his bed on the floor. The pettiness was all too relatable.

A little too much, if you ask them.