Reg was on his way toward the stairs down to the train station from work when he heard Kaira's voice calling to him in the distance over the mumbling chatter of the crowd.

He quickly spun around, a smile growing on his face upon hearing her voice. "Kaira! Hey!"

She pushed her way through the crowd and hugged him for only a second to avoid them drawing attention. "Hey Reg, did Dad give you my message?"

Reggie nodded. "That he did. How was it?" He began tugging her along to the train. "Oh, you officially must visit my place now," he said with a chuckle.

Kaira quickly followed along and boarded the train with him. "I had the dullest last few days ever, I had to pull double shift at guard duty instead of doing healing because of that damned war. People haven't been mistreating you just because you're human have they?"

Reggie shook his head. "No, just some looks that could kill. Slight exaggeration. And honestly, I'm a bit worried about you even being seen around me. I don't want to drag you into the flames with me, Kaira, y'know?"

"If it means spending more time with you I'll take the flames any day. I tell you, I couldn't stop thinking about you all the time during my shifts, just standing there daydreaming."

Reggie blushed, but wiped his face clean of something that wasn't there to cover it up. "Well, I'm honored on two counts then. I've had that same 'problem'," he said, making finger quotes to go with the word. "Did he give you my message, or has he been busy?"

"No, I haven't heard from him for a good while, he's been doing marathon negotiation sessions with his brothers to try and keep the other remaining neutral nations out of the war. I haven't seen him since I asked him to give you my message."

Reggie chuckled. "This can be a good thing, then!"

"Well fill me in!" Kaira said, eager to hear what was making him so excited.

Reggie laughed suddenly, smiling wide. "Oh, not just yet. If he tells you beforehand, then fine, but this can be used for a surprise!"

"Oh fine! I guess I'll have to just wait and see then!" Kaira said and playfully gave him a light slug on the shoulder. "At least tell me how your last 2 days have been while I was busy!"

Reggie shook his head. "I'll explain it in detail once we get home...well, when I get home, however you'd wanna word that, but the gist of it is that it's not best to talk about it on the train."

Kaira followed Reg into his condo and waved gently to Blaze. "Hi Blaze!"

Blaze waved backed enthusiatically. "Hey Kaira! Nice to see you around again!"

"It's nice to be around that's for sure! Reg sure keeps a fine condo here, and his Pokemon aren't half bad either!"

Luxtra roared from the next room, apparently to emphasize her greatness. This caused a fit of laughter on Reggie's part, considering it was a full-fledged roar. "That was awesome," said Reggie, once he composed himself. "She doesn't do that often at all."

Reggie then composed himself and looked towards Blaze. "Hey, Blaze, can we have a moment?"

Blaze tilted his head quizzically, but nodded. "Sure. Want me to herd the masses to your room?"

"Sure, it'll keep us from being distracted." Blaze immediately hopped to work, having to pick up the ever-excited Growlithe and carry him to Reggie's room.

"Now then, fill me in!" Kaira said once the room was clear

"Well," Reggie began, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table for Kaira, "as I said, I'm gonna save the message as a surprise. But first, I wanna talk about us."

Kaira sat down across the table from him and took up a more serious demeanor. "Sure. Is something bothering you?"

Reggie nodded as he took his seat as well. "There's a lot bothering me about the last few days, but I want to let you know beforehand that you don't have to worry. I suppose it's just that I'M worried."

"I understand, this war is complicating things quite a bit. Maybe I can help you feel better?"

Reggie shook his head. "You'd relieve the worry I've got right now, but it would return. Save your energy, okay? It's just that I really am worried about what you may have to go through, first off. I know you said you'd deal with it for me, and it means a lot to me. But I'll still worry."

"I never really had that much of a reputation to begin with, and with you here the words will just slide off of me like a flamethrower attack on a Blastoise's shell. But what about you, can you handle it?"

Reggie smiled a bit. "That I can. I know I can take it. It's seeing you hurt that would be rough on me."

Kaira paused for a moment as if debating something internally before continuing. "Trust me, I can handle it."

Reggie nodded, smiling. "You're amazing," he said quietly, a relieved sigh following.

"I can sense you have something else on your mind though." Kaira said, reading his mind just a tiny bit.

Reggie nodded once again. "I do. Amanda is back."

Kaira turned a little bit pale and remained silent. She couldn't bring herself to even ask any further questions, she just jumped to a conclusion and gently hid her face in her hands. "Not this again..." She said quietly.

Reggie almost felt his own color disappear. "No, no no no, Kaira, listen. I thought I had gotten rid of her. She came back, and she wants me back. But you know what?"

Kaira slowly composed herself and looked back up at him, he could see that tears had started forming in her eyes. "What?"

That was very near too much for Reggie to bear. He got up out of his chair and very gently gripped her shoulders. "I told her no. I told her that I was taken. I'm not going anywhere."

Kaira stood up and pulled him in close for a hug, squeezing him tight enough to wind him a little bit. "Oh thank the Goddesses, I hoped I'd never have to lose someone again."

Reggie held her close for several minutes, once again wanting the moment to last forever. But after a few minutes he slowly backed himself up, taking both of her hands. "Kaira...what did happen?"

"I was involved with another 'Two about 55 years ago right before the founding of K'telle. Needless to say, it ended terribly." Kaira said, pain evident in her voice.

Reggie smiled, placing a hand on her cheek and kissing her forehead softly. "I'm here to stay. I promise you that."

"What is this, Reginald," came an all-too-familiar voice from the door. Reggie could only manage a sigh.

"Speak of the devil," he whipsered to Kaira.

Kaira blinked and turned around to see Amanda standing there and stepped back away from Reggie instinctively in surprise.

"So I guess you've decided then," said Amanda, slightly saddened but a hint of anger far from hidden.

"Amanda," began Reggie as he began to approach her slowly, "I told you I wasn't coming back."

Kaira didn't know what to say, she just stood back silently and tried to blend into the scenery while the scene played out.

"Reginald Sergei Thompson--"

"Amanda, knock that off," said Reggie, cutting her off. "You may be angry, but it's not like I lead you on. I TOLD you I wasn't coming back."

"So you'll pay for your own jet out of here, then? With what money, Reggie? You've got nothing!"

"I've got enough to live with, considering I'm NOT going back there either."

"What?" Amanda seemed appalled instantly, suddenly fully aware that she was losing control of everything.

"You heard me," Reggie said, getting closer to Amanda, and progressively angrier. "I'm not going back to the States. I like it here."

"What about your family, then?" Amanda spoke as if she was playing her trump card.

"See that over there," he asked, pointing at his Vid-phone in the corner. "Wonderful invention, those."

"Then who will love you? Until I came along, you had nobody!" Her tone remained the same, triumphant in some twisted manner.

A sudden burst of bravery filled Kaira and she stepped forward. "I will, and I'll give him more in 3 days than you could in the weeks you knew him!"

Amanda found herself fumbling for words now. Reggie had turned to look at Kaira, then slowly turned back to Amanda as he spoke. "You and I, Amanda... we wouldn't have gone far. We were nothing more than friends," he said, now speaking apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I can easily see a future with Kaira. I care for her. And if you can't accept that, then you may as well just leave now and never speak to me again. I won't put up with someone who can't accept that we're happy."

Amanda immediately turned on her heel. "Goodbye then, Reggie."

"Goodbye, Amanda."

Amanda stepped outside of his condo for the last time, Reggie whispering "good riddance" as the doors slid shut behind her.

"Wow... what a bitch!" Kaira noted casually.

Reggie laughed slightly as he turned back to face her. "And you were worried when I mentioned her name."

"Well I suffered for a long time after my last rejection, and to be honest I couldn't help but feel scared about it happening again over the last few days."

Reggie nodded slowly. "I understand, Kaira. Now, unless I'm missing something, that conquers the problems I've been having. Is there anything you need to talk about?"

Kaira sighed heavily and sat back down in her chair. "Besides the scare you gave me? No, not really. It's going to take a bit for me to get those nasty memories reburied in my subconscious again.

Reggie smiled and stood next to her for a couple of seconds before speaking. "What about the relationship you had earlier? I've learned that the best way to cope is to get it off of your chest. Maybe I can help?"

"I don't want to burden you with my past stupidities..." Kaira said quietly, not putting up that much resistance.

Reggie chuckled. "Alright, let me put it this way then, Kaira: You've helped me IMMENSELY back at the Sanctum. Let me help you this time. Please?"

Kaira took one more heavy sigh. "Oh alright. Can I get a glass of water please?"

"Of course." Reggie walked over and filled a glass up before placing it on the table for her. "Anything else, M'dear," he asked with a silly smile.

"Just promise me you won't laugh at how stupid I was!" Kaira asked before taking a big drink.

"I'm only allowed to laugh at my own stupidity. You're safe."

Kaira took a few more gulps of water before setting the glass down half empty and beginning her story. "It started when I was a naive and impressionable 17 year old kid. I developed this massive one-sided crush on a 'Two from Lord Cygnus's family. I hardly ever even talked to him, but I was absolutely smitten with him."

Reggie nodded, smiling still. "I actually find that cute."

"I kept my secret for almost a whole year, and when I finally told him he said he'd love to get to know me better and to see where things went. I went nuts, obsessing over him every moment of every single day and getting more and more infatuated while He only really seemed casually interested. I should have seen it coming there but I was so blinded by my feelings that I let it come right up to me and hit me in the face."

Reggie sighed quietly and gripped her hand gently. "Like I told Nolus before; we make mistakes and we learn and move on."

"We were out on the dumplands cleaning out the pollution to make way for K'telle when I finally discovered it. Lord Opulous had us all linked together to streamline our work when I heard him telepathically whispering sweet nothings to someone else, and that someone else was my sister Jeselle no less!"

He cringed inwardly. "Yea, wow. That's just...ow..."

"He told me that he was never really interested in me in the first place either, and had been involved with Jeselle even before I told him how I felt."

"So he basically lead you on just for the attention."

"Just because it made him feel big to have more than one girl fawning over him!" Kaira said disgustedly. "And the worst part is that my sister refused to do anything once the secret was out. She told me she loved him too much to break up with him just for me."

Reggie shook his head slowly. "Makes me wanna beat him senseless."

"Heh, and you know, I almost did something even worse than that." Kaira said, flinching at the memories.

"Do I wanna know," asked Reggie in good humor.

"I chased him down and stabbed him in the shoulder with a psychic energy blade. I would have done more if dad and his brothers hadn't stopped me!"

Reggie laughed but stopped himself. "Oh WOW, I'm glad I'm on your good side!"

"Heh, I would never do that now. I was young and foolish back then, and I learned the hard way to never do that again."

Reggie nodded. "Still, it's better to be on your good side. If you left me it'd be much worse than an energy blade in my heart." He hugged her close once again, stroking her back slowly.

Kaira hugged him back and kept speaking, "And you know what the worst part was?"

"No, what?"

"The brothers decided that I was too emotionally volatile after the breakup, so they ruled that I should have 5 years to cool down without my psychic powers so that I wouldn't abuse them again."

Reggie cringed once again. "I can see how that would be one hell of a sentence."

"I can't tell you how humiliating it was. Everyone was out using their psychic powers to build our society from the ground up, and I had to stay home and watch, taking bureaucratic paper pushing for my first job. You can't imagine the jeers and taunts."

"Well," said Reggie as he finally pulled back, "Someone has to make up for all that at some point. And I may be the man for the job."

"It'll be pretty hard for you to be any worse than Aturiel was, that's for sure!" Kaira said, rolling her eyes.

Suddenly the smile fell off of his face in a blink, both of his hands more-or-less flopping to his sides. "Who? WHO did this?"

"Aturiel Kesta. Why, do you know him?"

Reggie sighed and brushed his hair back slowly. "He's my supervisor at

Montalbo..."

"No way!" Kaira said, her eyes bugging out a little bit.

"Yea, 'fraid so. I gotta put up with him often... and to think, I thought he was a good guy..."

"I haven't seen him in so many years... maybe he's changed?"

"Well," he began, "it's possible. But still, it'll be hard for me to FULLY enjoy his company after learning what he did."

"Don't you go getting yourself fired from your job just because me now alright?"

"Not without a backup job," laughed Reggie. "But honestly, I don't mind it there. I won't get myself fired. Just because you asked so nicely," he added with a smile.

Suddenly they heard what must have been a very short kind of scream from Blaze as groups of paws trampled their way down the stairs led by one louder set. In a matter of seconds it was Reggie's turn to scream as he was flattened by his whole team, excepting Blaze.

"Looks like they got tired of waiting for us!" Kaira said with a laugh, bending over the huge pile of Pokemon with the human at the bottom.

"Seems that way," replied Reggie in a hilariously strained voice as Luxtra sat on his stomach. "Guys! Breathing would be WONDERFUL right about now!"