"All these schedule-changes in such a short time. It's baffling that we actually still hold a schedule." Leanne frustratingly crossed out several lines from her paper and began to write over them. Sticky-notes and placeholders were attached to different portions of the notebook to remind her of the changes she was currently fixing. Another three were added, and two were removed and replaced. "These people seriously need more discipline… Isn't that right, Sato?"

"Hm? Who needs what now?"

"A-AH! S-Sato! Y-You're awake!" Leanne tensed and laughed in embarrassment. "D-Don't mind me… I was just talking to you while you were asleep…"

Sato slowly rolled himself to his back, groggily moaning throughout the entire process. "Ow- ow- ow- ow…"

"Don't move too quickly now, I had to patch you up this morning. Whatever fights you had with Maylene last night, put you in pretty bad shape."

"Maylene…? Fights?" He rubbed his eyes and blinked them hard. "Morning…? MORNING?" With a jolt of excruciating energy, Sato shoved himself off the bed. "OUCH! I – I'm late for my Thinker duty!"

"Don't strain yourself over it. You won't need to start until another hour. It's still the early morning shift running – Tracey and Angie aren't finished with their round." Leanne massaged the injured man's shoulders. While doing so, she checked his bandages and his temperature – ensuring that she kept herself busy with more than one task at a time. "I have a question for your shift, Sato, if it's alright for me to ask…"

"Mm?"

"Do you need a replacement? I know it's only Thinker duty, but I can get someone else to take your place if you're not feeling well enough."

"No. No, I'll be fine. I'll probably just find some spot to sit while I'm up there."

"You'll need the fresh air as well." The Battle Analyst moved around him and flashed a light into his eyes. "After this I need to replace some of your bandages, just to let you know."

Sato looked down and stared at his bandages. Feeling around his body, he noticed they were in 'hard to reach' areas as well. "Um… Leanne? Who put on my bandages?"

"I told you: I did."

"…All of them?"

"It isn't the first time, Sato." Her face turned slightly pink. "And please, I'm doing this professionally… You know how the others get when they have to take care of you."

"Speaking of others… Where is everyone?" He sat up and scanned the almost empty room of E-7. A few pokémon outside of their pokéballs encircled and followed a troubled Todd and a fascinated Tonya – pushing for their morning meal. Only Pikachu and Espeon seemed to ignore the human feeders, finding more interest in sleeping in a pile of laundry. The complete scene only reminded Sato that their next meeting needed to concern itself with the subject of allowing the pokémon some time outside the base and possibly becoming more integrated with the HBR.

Before his thoughts could drift off completely, Leanne answered his question, "They're having breakfast." Sato's stomach growled on cue. "Not to worry, I've made a little meal for you!" She cheerfully clapped and pulled up a tray from underneath his bed.

The Aura Guardian leaned forward and carefully sniffed the items on the tray. From his senses, he could tell the items looked and smelled absolutely delicious – however, his memories prevented him from drooling over or desiring to devour the food. Leanne wasn't always the best cook… As far back as he could recall, Farron was the chef of the old team. Before he had come along, they all had to depend on their subpar cooking abilities, and Leanne was admittedly the most subpar of them all. "…Is… Is it safe?" he thoughtlessly questioned.

The comment earned him a flick on one of his wounds. "For your information, I've improved quite a bit in my cooking skills. That Bianca is quite the quick learner."

"Then why haven't you cooked for us before?"

Leanne's face turned an obvious pink. "B-Because… I w-wanted you to be the first to try my cooking…" She covered her expression with her hair and moved slightly away from the bed. Her overly shy reaction was a trademark Leanne-behavior, one that Sato was quite familiar with – though he knew it was only the surface of who she was. It was not as endearing for Sato anymore, as it was a disappointing reminder that he still knew very little of the Analyst.

Compared to the others, Leanne and Sato were never as close as they wanted to be with one another. Time and circumstances had kept the both of them too distant and busy to spend proper time together – a problem the two had hoped to have remedied at some point within their lifetime. Outside of finding the time and place to do so, as they could never find it, Leanne had always made the time and chosen the place by acting as Sato's direct assistant. It was a position she had chosen for convenience's sake – and a position she had earned, rather than was made for.

While the other members of the old team had direct uses of their skills and abilities within several missions and dangers they constantly found themselves in, Leanne had no such benefit. Before becoming involved with Sato and his task to rescue the world from Team Rapture's control, she was an average Pokémon Researcher… and nothing more. Her now-signature skills in lightning-fast organization and impossibly-perfect memorization of data were never a part of her previously. Through trial, discipline, and extreme focus, Leanne had built her skills from the ground up – all in an effort to help Sato on his world-changing journey.

Her beyond-impressive dedication to their cause had made Sato more interested in getting to know the Pokémon Researcher. She returned the interest by providing her newfound abilities for his personal benefit. She became his secretary, his tactician, his technician, and his nurse. Leanne provided him anything and everything he would ever want or need outside of what the others could offer – and it was in that role that the two had become close. Though the two knew it was hardly as close as they preferred.

Leanne was reserved, introverted, and often reclusive. The Pokémon Researcher had little close relations with others outside of pokémon and her now-gone direct family. Her only comfort had originally been within pokémon and her work and research on them. Socializing with fellow humans was an action she found extreme anxiety and confusion in. As such, Sato was her first real human 'friend' – and the only one she was willing and wanting to open up to.

Despite this desire, she had never gained the chance to fully open up to Sato. Often being dragged away by dangers and other relations, Sato's interactions with Leanne only found time in professional settings. And yet it was in this environment that the two had been left yearning.

Sato wanted time to get to know Leanne – to open her up – to find out who she was and what she wanted in life. He wanted to see what made her tick, and what drove her to keep going. There was a treasure hidden inside the Researcher's locked personality, and he wanted her to unlock it – he wanted her to become her absolute best. Her shyness and hesitation, however, had made such a task near impossible. Contradictions and indecisions clouded and littered her emotions, preventing any such efforts to find fruition. And so Leanne stayed distant, nervous, and continuously awkward… towards herself and towards others.

Time never changed these barriers, no matter how much the two desired it.

But circumstances have.

Sato reached over the plate and grabbed the spoon that was placed on the opposite side of him. With a leap of faith and a hope for the best, the Aura Guardian scooped a large portion of the strange rice-meal and shoved it into his mouth.

He swallowed… and opened his eyes in surprise. "This… This is pretty good!"

Leanne's face lit up. "Y-You mean it?"

"Keep improving and –" Sato devoured three larger scoops of the food before continuing, "And you might actually give Ritchie a run for his money!"

Leanne's face turned a bright red. The compliment was too much for her, and she doubted that he meant those words… but it was everything she had ever wanted.

Where time had failed them again and again, circumstances had changed everything between the Aura Guardian and the former Pokémon Researcher. The two still had no time to get to know one another – but now they had the opportunities.

Within their original team of five members, Leanne could never get the chance to spend personal time with Sato due to how much the others always needed his presence. In a team so small, everyone needed each other's presence at one point or another just to function well. Unlike the others, however, Leanne never seemed to require anyone's emotional support in order to continue her performance at peak efficiency – so she never bothered. This lack of need had virtually erased all necessary time they could have used to socialize. And though she knew she was guilty for it, Leanne had never given the effort to mend this problem due to her fears of social repercussions. She had only hoped the opportunity would lend itself.

Now within a team far too large to keep any of its members wanting: Leanne had found her opportunity. Occupied with their wide assortment of schedules, tasks, and personal hobbies, the new team of Mayas, Ramies, and Farrons were now too busy interacting with one another to demand the Aura Guardian's complete attention. This had left a large gap for Leanne to finally make her first steps in opening up to Sato.

From asking questions that had nothing to do with missions or future plans, to clumsy tries at humor and wit, to her current victory with cooking: Leanne was beginning to lose the last remaining traces of apprehension towards Sato.

Realizing this, she smiled.

Sato smiled back. "Mm – sho ish May alrehie waitihm owh fehr foh mi?"

"Um… Excuse me?"

"Ah." He chewed the food in his mouth and swallowed. "I said is May already waiting out there for me?"

"May?"

"For the Thinker duty. She is scheduled to do that with me today, right?"

Leanne blinked and shook her head, realizing what he was referring to. "Right, I forgot to tell you…" Adjusting her glasses, the Analyst began to flip through several pages of one of her notebooks. "…forgot… to tell you… that… Ah, here it is. Maylene is taking her place for the morning shift with you. May wanted to move her schedule to… Let's see… Tomorrow afternoon, taking Misty's place – except it isn't Misty's place anymore, it's Gary's. And Misty is scheduled for tonight, which was Gary's spot, but Gary had already taken Maylene's place."

Looking up from her notes, she noticed Sato eating as fast as he could while he packed a few items into his bag. "Um… You know you have a good amount of time before your schedule starts, yes?"

Sato nodded. "I know, but I don't want to keep her waiting." Grabbing a water bottle, he chugged its contents in seconds. "Don't want to be late for my first date."

"…Date?"

He stopped in his tracks. "Oh… Er… Not my date. Um… Ash's date."

Leanne twitched. Her form had almost split into its individual parts, but was held back together at the last second. "…Ash's date?"

"Well, you see, the thing is…" The Analyst's once-muddled emotions sharpened into a single, clear feeling. As a fully-awake Sato, he had no access to Ash's use of Empathy – yet the Aura Guardian could feel the destructive change in the atmosphere. "Last night… Um…"

"Last night, Ash and I hooked up." Maylene suddenly appeared from behind Sato. The pink-haired Gym Leader wrapped her arm around the Aura Guardian teasingly. "And today, he owes me a date."

Leanne's eyes narrowed.

"Th-Thing is, um…" Sato could tell that Leanne was beginning to close herself off completely. All the effort she had gone through in order to find trust and partnership in humans was beginning crack and shatter. That was the last thing he wanted. But without the necessary time to think, he had no idea what to say towards the introverted Analyst. He could only hope that the Bianca from Unova would prevent the whole of Leanne from sealing herself.

"Oh don't worry your pretty hair over it, Leanne!" Maylene pulled at Sato's neck with her arm and ruined his already bed-made hair. "It's just a date. And it's just me. Don't think I'm gonna' go run off into the sunset with him or anything like that. Just see it as two guys hanging out, OK?"

…

"Would you rather I date him as Ramie?" Maylene continued to push.

Leanne exhaled slowly through her nose. "Be sure to keep your mind on the objective." her tone was cold and withdrawn, yet it held no spite or bitterness. She then waved the two off and returned to her paperwork.

Maylene eyed Sato's expression and gave him a smug grin. He raised his eyebrow towards her in response. Dragging him out of Room E-7, the fighter drilled her fist into his elbow. "See? I can handle her. No worries."

"I suppose so…"

"Now get outta' here. I'm on a date with Ash, not you, oldie."

Sato laughed nervously before closing his eyes and receding into the subconscious. The body he had occupied became noticeably shorter, and the ever-evident scar faded back onto his eyes. Ash had regained his body… and was still asleep.

He fell backwards, snoring loudly. Maylene crouched quickly and prevented him from hitting the floor. With a tug and a pull, she began to drag him down the corridor. "Hey! Wake up! Shoot… How are you so heavy?"

"In the Storm Room, we have Angie, Gary, and Todd! You three will be training under their morning schedule."

"What? But I just got off Thinker duty! At least give me time to sleep."

"This isn't up for debate, Angie. You should have had plenty of sleep last night." Leanne denied the tomboy's request and moved on, "Be sure to keep an eye on their training methods and their most promising recruits. We need to find out how best to assess and approach their teams' capabilities for the upcoming Raid, so this is important."

"I know a few –"

"Todd, you were told to not allow Tonya in the room for this meeting. Please remove her."

"Oh come on, Leanne. She's –"

"Not up for debate."

The Photographer sighed. He escorted his guest from the room while muttering under his breath.

"As the noon Patrol team is heading out in the next hour, I need Tracey, Anabel, and Misty to prep their bags and ready to leave in the next thirty minutes or less! Do your best to help and learn from them. Treat them as you'd treat our own group."

A hand was raised.

"No debates, please. Thank you."

The hand remained raised. Leanne continued to ignore it. "With the –" Her next words were cut by a loud cough… from the one with the raised hand. "I said no debates."

"Not a debate, ma'am! Request to join the Patrol!"

"You're already planned for something else, Dawn. I'll get around to it."

"Not to offend, ma'am, but I don't think it would be beneficial for me to be on watch duty again for the pokémon."

Leanne looked up from her notebook and eyed the blue Coordinator. She wasn't entirely sure how Dawn had figured out which duty she would be scheduled for, but she concluded that it would have been a safe guess that she would be dropped into that position once again… considering that the Coordinator didn't have much use in the other fields. "Noted. However, you aren't fit for Patrol duty."

"Neither is a Sketch-Artist who is in need of sleep, ma'am."

…

The Battle Analyst's hand ran through her golden hair, desperately wishing that something would just stay according to plan. She didn't have time for this. And she was quite tired of giving into everyone's opportunity when she could never keep her own… "Very well, you'll be trading out for Tracey. Angie, you're out of the Storm Room and will be assisting Tracey in Pokémon Monitor duties."

"Yesss. Thanks, Dawn." Angie tiredly cheered.

"Bianca will be taking your place in the Storm Room."

Angie snorted.

Leanne shook her head. "Would you rather perform in the Storm Room?"

"No thank you. Laugh retracted." she immediately responded.

"Very well then. BiBi and Latias will be in charge of tutoring the Resistance members on Pokémon. If anyone is in need of them, they can be found in Room A-4. Again, that's Room A-4 for anyone that needs to speak to the Alto Mare Bianca or her latias! Any questions!"

Angie raised her hand. "Where's May?"

"I'd like to know that myself." Leanne sighed. "For now, we will consider her absent from her duties. Are there any other questions!"

…

"Meeting concluded! Locate yourselves to your assigned rooms and duties!" Leanne nodded and turned away from the crowd.

The group split and hovered towards their jobs for the day.

Tracey, however, separated completely and approached Leanne. "Hey… Are you okay?"

The Analyst didn't turn towards him. She busied herself with clearing up the whiteboard behind her… which became futile when she realized that she had accidentally used permanent markers. "…Dominique was the only one with nail polish removers in her bags." she muttered to herself.

"Leanne…"

She turned, massaging her forehead. "Now I have to bother the Resistance soldiers for a remover…"

"I can ask them for you."

"Thank you Sketchit. That would be very much appreciated."

The Sketch-Artist lightly held the golden-haired Analyst still by the sleeve. "Leanne. What's wrong?"

…

"I know something's wrong. …You look tired."

"I didn't get much sleep."

"You wrote on the board with the wrong markers…"

"We all make mistakes. And that's what the remover's for."

"…You started a meeting without Ash or Sato."

…

"It has something to do with him, doesn't it?"

"I must be going. Take care of the board for me." She moved his hand away and headed for the room's exit.

"You're not usually this obvious either, Leanne."

She stopped halfway. "…What do you want, Sketchit?"

"I just want you to know that I'm here for you…"

"Thank you Sketchit. But what I need right now is for you to leave me alone."

"…Oh, okay."

"Don't take it personally. I just need time to clear my thoughts before I have anyone attempting to fix them for me."

"Right… Right, I understand. Come talk to me when you need to, okay?"

"I'll consider the offer." She turned back towards the door and exited.

Tracey stood by the whiteboard, staring at the room slowly empty of its occupants. He sighed and began to clean up after the meeting's mess. "He isn't worth worrying over, you know…"

Hearthome City. The 'Warm & Kind' city that sat at the heart of Sinnoh. Within another time and reality, its several attractions and competitions had made it a popular destination for Trainers and Coordinators alike. From its hotels, to clubs, to squares, to halls and stadiums; the city of Hearthome was a world within a world – a place where one could live out their entire lives within its boundaries and never uncover all it had to offer. And to many visitors' surprise: Hearthome City offered all this without becoming a bustling metropolis.

For everything it represented and owned, Hearthome contained its busied activities within a peaceful haven. Its districts were filled with trees and large, open spaces occupied by plant and animal life. There were as many parks and forested areas of rest as there were buildings of commerce. With its balance of civilization and nature, one could have considered it to be a paradise, many had already considered it to be a home away from home, and all had considered it to be a place of 'warm & kind' atmospheres. Its year-long mild weather, its calming and pleasant air, its friendly and helpful residents, and its slow-trickling events and festivals all benefited the city's title. It was a place Sinnoh could be proud of having as its heart.

That, however, was in another time and reality.

Hearthome City lay before them now as a twisted version of what it had once been. Trash and unknown debris littered and marked the floors and walls of forgotten streets and buildings. The buildings themselves were menacing figures – pocked with bullet holes and stained with hopefully-nots at their base, they crawled several floors high as windowless bastions to a war no one was a witness to. There were nearly uncountable amounts of them, separated from one another by claustrophobic alleyways that twisted and turned into quick dead-ends and frightening chokepoints. At their borders stood more buildings – made of wood and rusted steel, the outer structures showed the city's futile attempts of expanding for their infinitely-growing populace.

The most unsettling trait of Hearthome City was the fact that its "infinitely-growing populace" was nowhere to be found. The city lay silent; void of life and movement. Like a hive that had been mysteriously abandoned: the ghosts of what had occurred and what could never have were now its only occupants. It was a lost battlefield, a graveyard of hope, and the heart of Sinnoh.

"Pretty depressing, isn't it?" Maylene shrugged as she leaned against a dimming lamp post. "You know, people from all over Veilstone would keep talking about this place. Always saying how beautiful and amazing it was. Kinda' made me want to take a vacation out here someday."

She massaged her neck and frowned. "Then when I was sent to survey this place for you guys, I thought I'd finally get a chance to see what all the hubbub was about. Lo and behold, I found it like this. Nothing like the brochures, if you ask me." She snickered awkwardly.

Ash was at a loss for words. Her descriptions of the surroundings he could not see were too different from the Hearthome City he had known. He did not know where to start to express his disappointment and sadness for what had happened to the once 'Warm & Kind' city. He did not know if there was anything left to say or feel that hundreds, if not thousands of others had already expressed for the now-lost city of Hearthome.

"You said the lights were working… Why would they be working?" a logical question was his answer to the moment. Knowledge of whys acted as a buffer for depression. It was a lesson he had learned from Sabrina.

"Not the question you should be asking." Maylene seemed to be holding back a smirk. "Ask another one."

"…Where is everyone?"

"Bingo. Answer is: In Hearthome."

"They're the Resistance?"

The fighter kicked at the lamp post. "Darnit! You ruined the fun of me giving the answer!" She sighed. "Got it right. The people of Hearthome now work as the HBR. It's one of the reasons why they're the largest Resistance group here in Sinnoh: An entire city's population went underground to fight off the Empire's grasp in this region."

"And Hearthome still stands as their surface fortress as well as their dealing grounds for any black markets or underground groups?"

"…You just love taking the fun out of revealing secrets, don't ya'?"

"But if the entire city went underground… Then why are there so few of them down there? There's hardly a thousand members in the HBR…"

"…You're going to answer this yourself, aren't you?"

"Either they're hiding them off in a section we don't know about… or they've split off to start new groups or help the other Resistance branches. Maybe both."

"And the next question is…"

"Why are all news stations in Sinnoh still reporting on Hearthome City as if it's still functioning?"

"And the next answer is…"

"As a form of counter-intelligence or as a false fact to keep the rest of Sinnoh ignorant?"

"Which means…"

"Hearthome City was a vital spot for the Rocket Empire. And the HBR aren't staying defensive because they can't take on the Empire's forces… but because they're protecting something here that the Empire wants."

"Exactly." Maylene applauded.

"Have you known this the entire time?" Ash faced at the fighter with curiosity.

She finally let out her smirk. "I had a hunch. I had no real facts to base it off of, but I knew if someone smart took a look at it they could confirm it for me."

"Heh… Thanks!"

"For what?" She blinked.

"You just called me smart."

"Don't let it get to your head. I never said you confirmed it for me."

"…Oh."

Maylene pressed herself away from the lamp post and approached Ash. She punched him playfully on the arm. "You're an easy one to disappoint, aren't ya'?" She laughed. "Buck up, kid! I was just kidding! I do think you're smart!"

"Y-You do?"

"Mm? What's with the surprise? You don't get compliments much?"

"Not really… Especially not in the smarts-department."

"Ash, you're the third smartest person in our team. You don't need a compliment for something you obviously are."

"What? Third smartest?"

"Yeah, just under Sabrina. I think Bianca's got Sabrina beat, if you ask me. Don't tell Sabrina that… she'll kill me."

Ash searched into Maylene with strange interest, wondering if she was holding any form of sarcasm. Much to his complete shock: She wasn't. "…You really think so? But what about you? You're definitely smarter than me, Maylene."

She snorted. "Pff! No way! You can outthink me easily in most situations."

"But you're so level-headed and –"

"Before you make me punch you until you shut up, know that I'm not too fond of being swept off my feet with compliments."

"…OK."

Maylene laughed heartily and punched Ash across the arm. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better though. I know I'm hardly leadership material ever since Sabrina came along. Heck, things have changed since she got involved. Now you're the head of the team. Funny how things work out, eh?"

…

Ash began walking down one of the alleyways, encouraging the fighter to follow. He smiled as she caught up. "That feels like an eternity ago…"

"…Yeah," Maylene nodded. "Just you, me, and Angie. Going on a crazy adventure to save your mom and the rest…"

"And before that, too…"

"When you invited me over to your house?"

"And before that…"

"Heh… I didn't know you then. We only met at my Gym before that, when I was having problems with my confidence."

"Isn't that weird?"

"What? Confidence issues? Not really. I have that every now and then."

"No…" Ash felt around the object in front of him. With a grunt, he leapt up to a hanging ladder. "Not that. I meant… Isn't it weird that we didn't really know each other that much and yet here we are?"

Maylene followed him up the ladder with ease. "Not really. I mean, we went through a lot. So it's not too strange."

"What I mean to say is: I've travelled a lot. I've met and been with a lot of people throughout my journeys. But I've never been in a relationship with any of them. Not even a single date. You're my first."

"…You're my first, too, Ash. Where are you going, anyways?"

He climbed into an open window and landed loudly into an abandoned room. "Exploring. And I think what I'm really trying to point out is the fact that… Well… I thought I'd end up dating Misty or Angie first. Or someone else. I kind of didn't expect to have my first date with you."

"I bet you didn't expect your first date to be at an abandoned city either." Maylene snickered as she swung herself through the window. She landed with a spin. Ash applauded, despite not seeing her exact stunt – she bowed regardless. "And besides… What's wrong with me? I know I'm not the most attractive gal here, but I've got my positives. You're not exactly a hunk."

"N-Not what I meant."

"You sure have a hard time saying what you mean."

"What I mean-mean is: I don't know you that well." Ash clarified with a cough. "I know Misty. I know Angie. I know a lot of the people on our team really well… But you? I don't really know much about you, 'Lene. Before we went out on this journey, I hadn't even spent a full day with you. And even the days we spent together after, I didn't really get to know you that well."

"Hey, that hurts. I thought we got to know each other through our fists."

"Well yeah, there's that…" His fingers traced along the walls, feeling every crack and texture hidden within the room. Memories of what might-have-happened and what-this-could-have-been filled his mind. "But the two of us never really hung out outside of fighting…"

"…I don't really know how to 'hang out' outside of fighting, Pokémon Battles, and eating…" she admitted, embarrassed. "Do you… want to have a Pokémon Battle?"

"…I forgot to invite Pikachu. And I didn't bring any poké balls."

"Ah. Well… I don't think there's any food here."

Ash's somber thoughts of the room suddenly vanished as he laughed at the fighter's simple outlook.

"What's so funny?"

"We can hang out in different ways, you know… I mean, we're hanging out right now."

"We are?" Maylene looked around the room. It had taken her seconds to realize that the two of them were not currently involved in a mission, unless you count 'thinking' as a mission. In a few seconds more, she realized that neither of them was prepping for a fight, a battle, or a meal. This was no training session. This was no meeting. This was no after-battle conversation. This was no tactical assessment. And this was no formal discussion.

The two of them were talking. For no real reason other than to talk. No fighting, no eating, no mind games involved. It may have been the first normal conversation she had ever held with someone outside of her time in the Academy. "There's a lot of 'firsts' about you, Ash."

"Huh?" He turned towards her direction, flinching as his hair got caught on one of the cracks in the wall. "Ow-ow…"

She giggled at his predicament. "I said there's a lot of 'firsts' about you. You're the first guy to ever get me excited about getting into a fist fight with. The first one who could ever talk to me through their fists. The first one who ever got me daydreaming about them. The first guy to treat me out to a nice meal. First person I've ever dated. And now you've got me talking to you like… we're normal or something. I never really had a talk like that. First time."

"Wait. You daydream about me?"

"You're a nice guy, Ash…" She seemed to ignore his last question. "And if you want to count when you invited me to your house: You technically took me over to meet your mother, so…"

"I guess so. Wait. What?"

"The problem here is…" She approached him and helped him get the last of his hair out of the cracks. Before he could thank her, she pinned his shoulders against the wall. "Ramie kissed you. I didn't."

Her lips pressed against his for the second time. Yet it was the first the two of them were fully aware of. The soft, warm, wet touch of his lips tempted Maylene for more. She pushed herself clumsily onto him. The hot breaths that exhaled from his nostrils skimmed and embedded themselves against her skin, encouraging her to stay. Her hands let go of his shoulders and awkwardly wrapped themselves around his waist. He fit comfortably in her hold, tantalizing her to explore. Her fingers slipped into his shirt…

She pulled herself away before she could go any further. "Ah… Hah… Ahm…" Her face was flushed red. Wobbling to keep herself from falling over, Maylene took a moment to notice that it was taking a massive amount of effort for her to stay focused. Light-headed and feeling strangely 'hot', the fighter struggled to snap herself back into her earlier sense of the world. "There… There we go. First kiss. Better. Lot better."

Ash was breathing hard. His blanked eyes remained wide open – his face completely pink.

What had been a spontaneous action of affection for the Veilstone City Gym Leader, had been a terrifying and enticing experience for Ash. His blindness had made his other senses acute. Every touch, from her rough lips that turned smooth to her powerful fingers that turned gentle – every taste, from the strong flavor of coffee in her breath to the surprisingly sweet sugar remains that clung to her mouth – every smell, from the fading stench of sweated skin to the uniquely alluring scent that came from her hair – every sound, from the creaking of the walls that their weight pressed against to the extremely light moans that the fighter didn't realize she made – every sense that came from Maylene's kiss had forcibly trapped Ash into a moment of passion he never realized he would find attraction to.

"I… uh…"

"You want to take it a step further?"

"What?!"

Maylene snorted and slapped her palm against his shoulder. "Pff! Calm down, Ash. Even you should know you can't ask for that on the first date."

"WHAT?!"

She chortled loudly, much to his embarrassed irritation. "Oh learn to take a joke, Ashy! I'm just having fun with ya'."

Ash's cheeks turned a deep pink. His mind rushed in circles trying to find a topic to change to. At the moment, he knew the fighter would have far too much fun teasing reactions out of him. "S-So… How did you switch off with May?"

Maylene's laugh quickly disappeared at the mention of the Coordinator. She cleared her throat. "Hm? Switch what with who now?"

"May. For the Thinker duty with me. She was scheduled for the morning duty with me. How did you convince her to switch with you? I doubt it would've been an easy negotiation."

"Ah… Well… Did you know she caught us last night?"

"Caught us?"

"Us dating. She found out."

"…That doesn't sound good."

"No, it wasn't. Sh–" Maylene blinked and tilted her head at Ash. "Wait. You're not blind to any of this, are you?"

"Technically I am."

"Oh har-dee-har. You know what I mean! You probably knew she was there the whole time!"

"Possibly…"

"Yet you still said 'yes' to me… Why?"

"You asked."

"I asked?"

"You asked." he repeated. "No one has really asked me out. They hint at it, they suggest it, or they joke about it. But no one has ever really asked…"

"So you're saying if anyone, absolutely anyone, came up to you and asked you out first. You would've said yes?"

"No…"

"But you just said you only said 'yes' to me because I asked."

"Not really. I said 'you asked'. I don't know how I would've reacted if anyone else asked. But when you asked… it felt like a 'yes'."

Maylene pulled her fist back, then pulled it down, then pulled it back again; unsure of how to react. "Is this a compliment?"

Ash waved in quick pacification. "N-No, not at all. I'm just saying that, well… I felt fine with you asking. And it felt like the right decision to say 'yes'. I dunno. I'm not always thinking about long run stuff… It just felt right at that moment."

"…That doesn't answer my question: If you knew May was there, then why did you say 'yes' to me in front of her?"

"Are those two things related?"

"YES! I mean… Wait. No… Um…" The fighter growled in frustration. "Now you've got me confused! Why wouldn't those two things be related?"

"Did she ask me at that moment?"

"No, but…"

"Then it was just you asking me. She just happened to be there."

"But – uh… But what about your relationship with her?"

Ash sighed and slid down to a sitting position. Maylene followed after him.

The two of them sat in silence before he answered, "What about Misty? Angie? Anabel? Bianca? Dawn? Sabrina? What about everyone?"

She nodded. "Yeah. What about them? Shoot, you're a Casanova…"

He ignored the last comment. "What I'm saying is: If I had a problem with saying 'yes' to you in front of May, then I'd have a problem saying 'yes' to you without her there either. If it's my relationship with her that I'm concerned about, then I wouldn't have said 'yes' to you. If it's my relationship with anyone else that I'm concerned about, then I wouldn't say 'yes' to anyone at all."

"So you're not concerned at all?"

Ash groaned. He dragged his fingers across his hair. "Of course I'm concerned… But would it be better to say 'no'? If I said 'no' to them, then what am I saying to them?"

"That you love someone else?"

"No… it's saying that I don't love them. Or choose not to love them…"

"No man can serve two masters, Ash."

"Not the point… The point is losing that connection I have between them. It's going to change into something more distant or going to disappear completely if I said 'no' to any of them. Just like…" He fell silent; his mind and heart fading to a place where Maylene couldn't follow.

"…Ash? …Just like what?"

He tilted his head up and towards her. His eyes remained blank, yet they invited her to look into them. "Maylene?"

"Yeah?"

"How would you feel if you could never see me again? If you could never see me the same way again? If we could no longer fight the way we do?"

Within his eyes, Maylene knew Ash was drowning in strong emotions; emotions that she herself could not even begin to express. Maylene was no good with emotions. She rarely knew what to do with her own or how to rightfully feel them. The few that she was familiar with were simple ones that even a child could understand. But in Ash's eyes were emotions she could not understand – should not understand. They were old emotions. Ancient. Tempered and refined. She had no right to believe that she could give them the satisfaction they sought.

But she wanted to – and so she would try.

"I'd be sad. Depressed, maybe." She shrugged her shoulders and looked away from his eyes. "But what can I do? If I have to move on in life, the best thing I can do at that point is forget that connection and try to find a new one…"

"Exactly." Ash gave a smile… a sad smile. "And once it's forgotten, it's gone."

…

The room fell silent.

A heavy emotion filled the air – one that was familiar; one that no one wanted to remember. Maylene didn't know what it was, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Sealing it out with her abilities, she became immune to its touch. Yet in her safety, she found guilt. Ash was becoming weighed down by the emotion… Reminders of pasts long gone and warnings of futures eternally coming slit and struck against the Empathic's chest. On his own, Ash struggled to keep his smile. He was alone in plights that he would soon name his own – and she was the one to leave him with the burdens she could have carried alongside him.

It was nothing new for her. Maylene had always aimed to protect herself from the troubles of sharing emotions – her past serving as her constant reminder of betrayal and lies formed from such a sensitive action… Yet at this moment, she could feel nothing but her own betrayal and lies. She was betraying herself – lying to herself. A part of her, one that she was not quite familiar with, wanted her to see that though what she was doing may have been correct – who she was doing it to was a mistake…

A part of her desperately wanted her to see that… Ash is worth it.

Breathing out, she loosened her control and allowed the familiar emotion to weigh on her. Her hand reached out and held Ash's. "I don't want to forget you." was the only thing she could say.

He smiled; a genuine smile. The emotion began to fade, along with his sadness… disappearing to a place where no one could follow – where no one would ever want to follow.

"That's why I said 'yes' to you. Because you never did forget me." he replied with a cheerful grin. Maylene didn't know what he was referring to, but she felt gladdened by his smile.

"I don't know what I'll ever tell them." Ash coughed until his normal tone returned. "But I do know that I'll say 'yes' to you. Even if they're there. The relationship I have with any of them is between me and them – it has nothing to do with anyone else. Same goes for us. You asked. I said 'yes'. And here we are…"

"You said 'us'." Maylene blushed. "As in… our relationship?"

"…Is that bad?"

"…I like it, actually." Her fingers wrapped around his clumsily. With a shuffle, she pressed her shoulder against his. "Nice to know I've got backup…" Her head gently leaned against his.

…

"Hey Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I might like dates…"

"Yeah…"

…

"Hey 'Lene?"

"Yeah?"

"Nice job avoiding my question."

"I'll answer it if I get to kiss you again…"