"The greatest hatred, like the greatest virtue and the worst dogs, is silent."

~Jean Paul Richter

Despite Touya's efforts in trying to talk the two guys out of it, in the end a battle ensued. The older brunette was still lucky enough to get Kyohei to at least give his new sewaddle a potion before sending it out to battle. The caterpillar was, to say the least, reluctant towards the whole idea of battling a well trained oshawott, but Touya couldn't blame him seeing that the rookie made a huge mistake in the very start. A huge mistake in the form of the following words:

"Okay, sewaddle! You're a part grass-type, right? So show me a nice Razor Leaf!"

There was a short, awkward silence. Touya simply facepalmed at what was happening, chuckling with slight amusement. That kid sure had a long way to go. The pokemon to whom the ridiculous command had been directed stood frozen in place, confused. You could almost see the question marks popping in the air all around his tiny little head. In a matter of moments the bug gave up trying to figure out what it had been told and it resumed to its previous search for food, ignoring the trainers around this. This elected some more laughter from both Touya and the eevee who were now both nearly rolling on the ground with laughter. Hugh, however, didn't seem equally amused. In fact he gave out an annoyed sigh as he called his oshawott back in its pokeball.

"...I think I'll let you train with your team some more before I challenge you", he muttered. "Seems like you have a lot of catching up to do to keep up with me."

Apparently Hugh wasn't the only one annoyed by the situation. Kyohei shot and angry glare at Touya, then at the eevee and lastly the sewaddle that was now munching on the corner of their tent. He then eyed Hugh, a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"...I can still fight", he muttered. Yet the red eyed young man refused.

"I would have an unfair advantage against you if we battled. You seriously need to toughen up your team", he spoke darkly. "Or do you want them taken away from you?"

"No way", Kyohei murmured and scratched his head, lowering his gaze. "I... I'll get the hang of it soon. Just give me some time and I'll prove myself worthy."

But Hugh was no longer listening. Touya had now caught his attention and he eyed the stranger with utmost curiosity.

"And who might you be?" he asked the still giggling brunette. Touya forced his laughter to an end and glanced at the blue haired trainer.

"I'm Touya", he replied to the question, offering his hand for a formal handshake. Hugh held his hand without hesitation. "You must be Hugh. Kyo here mentioned you to me a couple times."

"Is that so?"

A short moment of tense silence. Touya rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Kyohei who glanced at Hugh.

"So uhm... you had breakfast yet?" the younger brunette asked his neighbor with a smirk. "We just woke up and we could get you some if you're hungry."

"Breakfast?" Hugh questioned in confusion. "It's almost noon already. I was just planning to head to Floccesy for some lunch."

"It sure doesn't look like noon", Touya commented with a mutter.

"And you say 'noon' like it's actually late", Kyohei noted. "How goddamn early do you even wake up, Hugh?"

"I have things to do", the trainer replied with a snort and positioned his bag more comfortably on his shoulders. "So, unlike some people, I wake up early."

A wave of bitterness washed throughout the camp. Kyohei just lowered his head with a bite on the lip while Touya shot an angry glare at Hugh who didn't seem to give a shit. The messy haired bluenette merely shrugged a little.

"I'm going now", he announced and waved his hand to Kyohei mostly as a goodbye. "See you around. Enjoy your breakfast."

And with that he walked away, soon disappearing in the fog. As soon as his figure could no longer be seen Touya hit Kyohei with his elbow to get the boy back on earth. The rookie flinched for a second before getting the message and calling his sewaddle back in his pokeball. He sat on the moist grass next to his mentor and sighed deeply.

"What did I do wrong?"

"First of all: don't be reckless when it comes to battles. Always make sure none of your team mates are injured before beginning", Touya started. "Secondly: that's a young sewaddle. A baby, it seems. Sewaddles learn Razor Leaf as they grow up. They aren't born with the talent. The more you train him, more quickly he'll learn it."

"Oh..."

Eventually Touya started searching his bag for something to have for breakfast. Too bad he appeared to be running low with food supplies seeing that he could only find a couple bottles of lemonade, one can of soda pop, some leftover candy and some pokefood. He threw one of the lemonades for Kyohei who thanked him with a wide grin, stating:

"Arceus bless living without parents."

After a while of them munching down a rather "healthy" breakfast consisting candy bars and lemonade, Touya spoke.

"Why do you let Hugh treat you like that, by the way?"

The younger brunette bit his lip and looked away smiling a hint sorrowfully.

"Because I deserve it. I caused great pain for his whole family with my selfishness."

"You were just a kid. You couldn't have known."

"It's still my fault."

"It's not a reason to be treated that horribly."

Kyohei let out a deep sigh and turned to look at his eevee. The silver ball of fur was lazily laying on its stomach near the tree the sewaddle had climbed in and seemed relaxed and carefree. He then took a look at the pokeball of his newest catch that he was still holding in his hand. Noticing the disappointment in his eyes, Touya smiled at the rookie.

"Hey, don't worry", he hummed. "You said it yourself. You'll get the hang of it soon enough."

"It'll take forever", Kyohei murmured grumpily and pouted. "Hugh will forever look down on me if this goes on."

Touya laughed at the childlike face the younger guy was making and patted his shoulder.

"That's just more reason for you to train like hell today, right?"

A/N: Sorry for the lateness, my Internet connection has been rather cranky lately. :c

In other news: I'm gonna write some cutesy wutesy lemon about Blacksquareshipping for a contest in dA. I'm going to upload it here as well when it's done, so stay tune for that if you're interested. xD