Hey readers! Arctic Fox here! I'm sorry for not posting for a couple of days. Every other weekend I go to my dads and I don't have a good computer there. So I want to let you know that every other weekend I will barely, if at all, post. Hope you enjoy! Arctic Fox out.

A couple of hours later

POV: Ryu

Ryu's eyes opened and he looked around. He saw that he was in his bed. Surprised, he wondered how get got there seeing how he never put himself to sleep. The last thing he remembered was turning into a Lucario as a favor for...Winter. He then blushed a tomato red when he remembered what happened. Floating up, he went towards the lake that he saw was nearby. It was still night time so everyone was still sleep. He laid on his back with his tail curving around him. He brushed his scarf out of his left eye and laid it on his chest. He stared at the stars and drifted into his own world. He didn't feel something lay down next to him. He was too distracted with what happened before he fainted. His blush coming back, not enough to show in his fur but enough to make his face feel hot. He sighed as he shook his head, not wanting to think about that for a little while. He went back to his thoughts.

"I know I am really a human, not that they know, but for some reason...I just have this...feeling...about Winter. I didn't dwell on it because I felt that it was nothing. But after Winter kissing me...I think i'm starting to know what the feeling is...I think i'm falling in love...Ugh that sounds so weird but yet...so right." Ryu thought. His eyes glazed over as they lost focus with the world. He then felt a another weird feeling. This one wasn't emotional. It was Psychical. Focusing back on the real world, he felt a tug on his neck. Realizing someone was pulling on is scarf, he turned his head in the direction. What he saw made him jump and yell at bit. Winter was laying there in his face, smiling.

"W-Winter! Don't scare me like that! I'm not a fan of getting scared! I'm lucky I didn't have a heart attack!" Ryu yelled. Winter's smile disappeared and put her head down.

"I-I'm sorry Ryu..." Winter said, a her eyes watering up. Ryu just smiled and hugged her. She jumped herself and hugged him back.

"Its ok. You didn't know." Ryu whispered to her ear. Winter smiled and hugged him harder. Ryu grunted as all the air in his lungs was forced out. He forced a smile and looked at her ear.

"Winter...I...like...breathing...you...know..." Ryu gasped out. Winter let him go right then and looked at him, guilt in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry!" Winter said, while Ryu dropped to the ground, gasping for air. Once he got enough Oxygen, not that he needed it, seeing how Mew's can live in any environment including space, into his lungs he got up. Looking at Winter, she still had a worried look on her face, and smiled.

"Well that was...a unexpectedly big hug." Ryu smiled, floating back up till he was at head height with her which was only 3 feet 6 inches. Winter blushed and looked away.

"Hey Winter? What are you doing up? I'm up because I kinda already took a...nap. So why are you up?" Ryu asked, blushing till it showed through his fur. Winter blushed slightly, easily visible because of her white fur.

"I wanted to talk to you abut...what I did." Winter said, blushing. Ryu blushed harder and looked off.

"Listen Ryu...I wanted to say I'm sorry for doing that. It was uncalled for. I hope th-"

"Winter. You don't have to apologize for doing that. Its ok. Matter of fact, I guess its karma. Not saying that it was a bad thing, but I did kinda tell Raichu that Pika liked him." Ryu smirked slyly. Winter smiled.

"Yeah she did tell me that. How did you know though?" Winter asked. Ryu just smirked again.

"It was fairly obvious. I'm surprised I even had to tell Raichu it was that obvious. She kept looking at him and blushing." Ryu laughed. Winter just smiled before getting serious again.

"Well, I also want to tell you that, even though I think you already now by now, but I'm...in love with you." Winter said. Ryu blushed and answered in the best way he could. He grabbed her head with his tail, pulled her close, and kissed her. Winter was supreised for a second before kissing him back. After 10 seconds, Ryu pulled back and smiled.

"I believe that was a good answer to that. Ryu said, smile never leaving his face. Winter blushed and smiled back. Grabbing her paw, he pulled them back to the camp.

"Come on Winter, we have a long day ahead of us. Let's get some sleep." He said, slight sadness in is voice. He wanted to spend more time out with her. She nodded and led herself be led back to the group. They never knew that Pika was watching with one eye. Pika smiled at the two and closed her eye, going back to sleep.

Setting Winter down on her bed, Ryu tucked her in. She smiled at him before closing her eyes. As Ryu laid himself down, he heard her deep breathing and knew she fell asleep. He smiled when he thought of what happened at the lake. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep. Not knowing the dangers that would happen the next day.

The next morning

POV: Ryu

Ryu yawned and opened his eyes. He floated up to his normal floating height of around 5 feet. Looking around, he saw that everyone, except Winter, was up. He floated over to Luna.

"*Yawn* Did you make any breakfast yet?" He asked. Luna smiled at him. She handed him his favorite breakfast food. His eyes widened and he hugged Luna. She chuckled and whispered something to him. He blushed and quickly floated off to his bed. After sitting down, he ate his food. He wondered what to do with Winter. He knew he was going to get some remarks about it but he didn't know what kind. Finishing his food, he floated back over to Luna and gave her his plate. She smiled and took it.

"You eat fast, you know that right?" She said. Ryu laughed.

"You tell me that every time I finish eating." He said. She laughed with him and shooed him off with her hand. Floating off, he sat down as he waited for every one to finish packing up. Zeena was already ready, she didn't have to make breakfast, and was waiting for Luna, Raichu by her side. After Luna finished packing, she returned her team, except for Pika and Ryu, and stood up.

"OK, let's go." She said, walking out of the clearing and onto the path. While they were on the way to the next city for the tournament, They kept fighting random trainers that wanted to battle. Although it was annoying, they did get some good money. Luna and Zeena were always talking. They would talk about random stuff like Battles, strategies, hair, the usual girl trainer stuff. Ryu never really paid much attention to it. He paid enough attention so that he never flew into a wall or got lost mind you but he never paid attention to what they were talking about. After walking for 5 hours straight, it became time to stop for some lunch.

After they set up the camp, he floated over to Luna's team. As he got closer, he could tell they were talking about him. Curious to what they were talking about, he went invisible to...join...the conversation. He then noticed that Winter wasn't there. When he got there, Pika was talking at the moment.

"Really early this morning I saw Ryu and Winter holding paws. It was so cute! I never knew it would go this far!" Pika said, Ryu's eyes widened when he heard that Pika watched him and Winter. Only because of his strong will power, did he not uncloak and yell at Pika. He wanted to know where this was going.

"Aw! That's so cute! I wonder how far they will go?" Fly said.

"I really don't get why you girls care so much. If they want to let us know they will. Don't need to talk about it." Shadow said. Ryu smiled at him. At least the only other guy was on his side.

"I didn't really like him that much when I first met him but now I kinda grew on him. I hope this doesn't change his personality." Ash said, frowning. Ryu silently laughed. If only she knew he heard that. She would never say that if he was around.

"Well let's get back before Ryu or Winter noticed we are gone." Pika said. Ryu smiled evilly.

"Too late for that." Ryu said. They all started looking around and he decloaked right in front of them. They then all fixed their eyes on him. The girls faces like a child getting caught doing something wrong. Shadow's face one of humor as he was on Ryu's side. Ryu chuckled.

"I didn't know that you girls were the gossipy type. And Pika, It's not nice to spy on your friends." All the girls faces went to horror as they realized he was watching the entire time. Shadow just laughed. Ryu smiled and left it at that and floated away. After another hour of walking, They heard something they never wanted to hear. The team Rocket Motto.

Everyone turned towards the song and saw the Meowth balloon again. Again, a claw appeared and grabbed Ryu, doing that same thing as last time.

"RYU!" Luna yelled. She and Zeena both called out the rest of their team. When Winter saw that team Rocket had Ryu, plus him screaming in pain as his energy was drained again, she became pissed. She formed a Aura sphere and launched it, yelling the entire time. However, instead of blocking it like they thought they would, Jessie and James simply left, taking Ryu with them.

"Ryu! No!" Luna yelled and followed them. However, they activated some sort of Rockets on the balloon and flew away. The last thing Ryu saw of them was Luna running at towards him with her arm out and Fly trying to fly over. Then he blacked out.

A couple of days later

Ryu screamed in pain as he was tossed into a room with his collar that disabled him from using his moves. They have been experimenting on him for days. He couldn't remember what not being in pain felt like. His life was a living hell. They kept experimenting on him to try to create the most powerful Pokemon ever created. They cloned him and made a thing called "Mewtwo". He beat that easily. Now they just tried to control him by trying to brainwash him. That failed. Now they just decided to break him. Every day all they did was put him in the most painful machines known to man. They pierced his body with countless needles at once. Never his head though. They didn't want to kill him, just break him. They would drown him to a inch of his life before pulling him out. They would burn him alive. Suffocate him. Every thing that could be done to inflect some form of pain. He knew his will was running out. A couple more of these "Experiments" and he would break. At least they let him keep his scarf. What they didn't know is that the only reason he didn't break already was because of it. It reminded him of Luna, Zeena and...Winter. If they took that away, He would have broke after almost drowning. While he was sitting in the corner, screaming from all the pain he was in, he didn't hear a alarm go off. Didn't hear the sound of a familiar voice scream his name. Didn't feel arms picking him up. Didn't see a White and black Lucario looking at him in concern. Didn't feel the sun on his broken body. Didn't hear the sounds of cops arresting Team Rocket. Didn't hear the Lucario scream his name. All he could feel was the pain. All the heard was him screaming. All he could see what the back of his eyes. All he could tell about the outside world was...nothing. After being jolted, he screamed even louder before the pain made him black out.

A couple of hours later

He woke up screaming from the pain. He wasn't in as much pain as before so he could hear people yelling at him, arms holding him down. He scream out.

"NO! LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO BE PUT IN THOSE MACHINES! I'LL HELP YOU! PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" He screamed. He was cut off by something going over his mouth. He opened his eyes to see a hand covering his mouth. His eyes started to tear up when he saw Luna looking down at him concerned. When she saw that he was looking at him, she told someone to let him go. As soon as he felt no resistance holding him down, he jumped up and gave Luna the biggest hug in the world. He started crying into her shoulder. She hugged him back and patted his back as he cried and cried, happy to be away from those people. He stayed that way for 10 minutes straight. The only reason why he let go was because Luna asked him too. He could have kept going for hours. He looked at her and saw she had cried to. She smiled and looked at him, tears still falling down her cheeks.

"Welcome home." Stepping to the side, He saw her team looking at him, tears in their eyes as well. He started crying again and gave them all a hug. He then saw Winter. She was looking at him, tears falling freely. The rest of Luna's team smiled and let him go. They then turned around so that Ryu and Winter could have some private time. Winter then, tears still falling, ran at him and picked him up in the biggest hug she could. She then kissed him and they stood like that for 10 minutes. Ryu pulled back and smiled. He was glad to be home.

...I can't believe I wrote that...The only reason I did was because I ran out of ideas in the middle of writing this. So, If you have any ideas for story progression please tell me. If I like them, I can write them to avoid another thing like this happening. Anywho, The tournament will be the next few chapters. Please give me ideas...I don't want to have to write this kind of thing again. I almost started crying myself. Arctic Fox out.