Whew, finally done playing catch-up, for the most part. Now I can begin writing the new chapters to help progress things along. Thanks again for your patience, everyone, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story- even with the slow updates at times!

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Well excuse me for not giving the right answer!" Touko snapped at N, irritated with the blatant disbelief and surprise he'd shown at her answer. It was sort of irrational, sure, but seriously. He'd asked her a serious question, so she'd given him a serious answer- only for him not to take her seriously at all! She was totally entitled to being a little pissed about that, in her very honest and totally not biased opinion.

He appeared to realize he'd offended her in some way, hands held up as if to placate her. "I'm just curious, every other girl I've talked to has chosen her dreams instead of the truth. I want to know why you're choosing differently, that's all." He had more than a touch of defensiveness in his voice too as he pleaded his reasoning.

The two of them stared each other down again, once again Touko being the first to break the silence- but refused to break eye contact. Her blue eyes were fiery, blazing with restrained temper and the strength born from someone naturally able to fight and defend their beliefs to the bitterest of ends. "I'll tell you on one condition," she told him as she knelt down, replacing her boots with a pair of shoes she always kept with her. Quickly tying the laces with a last, hard pull and double knotting just to be on the safe side, the brunette turn her attention back up, expression suddenly so different she figured he probably thought she had issues with her moods swinging back and forth. "sound like a deal?"

She'd get a sense of how seriously he wanted that answer by making him run against her. He'd have to race her, she'd be able to tell a little more about him from just how seriously he took her as an opponent in that.

...well, and she'd always wanted to run a race across this bridge.

Which, really, was the actual reason why she'd decided to stop being pissed off about his weird responses to her answers and questions. Couldn't be pissed off when she was about to scratch something off of her bucket list of things to do in life, after all.

"Depends on the condition," N countered, giving her a suspicious look. "what do you want from me?"

Got you now. She thought to herself and rose to her feet, pointing quite rudely at the taller boy. "Race me; right here, right now." A Poke Ball flashed, Snivy appearing on her shoulder as Purrloin leaped up to the opposite shoulder with a questioning trill in the Grass type's direction. "You won't give me my bag back, so I have to make it fair." The blue eyed trainer gestured to the two Pokemon on her shoulders. "Snivy and Purrloin should be about the same weight as my bag and Zorua combined."

Apparently the idea of people playing fair is a foreign one to him, she thought to herself with a frown. What kind of life had he been living? Touko found herself wondering once again, that feeling of something being not quite right resurfacing.

"Hmm, what about this?" He'd fished around in a pouch and found where she kept her Poke Balls, tapping it against the bag to absorb it into the device as temporary storage. N gave her a smile, clearly finding himself a genius for thinking of it. N's Zorua popped his head out from beneath his trainer's long hair, looking between him and Touko with a suspicious look in his aqua eyes. "That way you don't have to worry so much, and Snivy or Purrloin can choose to sit out if they'd like."

After what seemed to be a lengthy argument between her Pokemon, much to her amusement and what seemed to be N's concern, Snivy retreated into his Poke Ball with a pointed glare in the man's direction, as if stating he was going to be keeping an eye on him. N chuckled weakly, a case of nerves clear to the long legged girl who was busy stretching with Purrloin draped around her shoulders. "Looks like you and Purrloin versus me and Zorua." He paused while she warmed up, watching her in a way that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Shall we say dinner is on the one who loses?" The older boy quickly spoke, correcting himself at the surprised look on her face. "I mean, as the prize. After all, we're almost to Castelia, and they have a lot of neat places to eat. Nothing expensive, I promise."

...so I beat him in a race, get my questions answered, get an inside look into the kind of person he is, get to race across this bridge like I've wanted to since I was, like, eight, and he's gonna buy me dinner. Touko pretended to consider it, unable to stop the smile from creeping across her face. Poor bastard, he had no clue what he was getting into by agreeing to this, and by upping the ante as well. She almost wanted to throw the race just to make it a little more fair.

Almost.

"You're on!" She agreed, trying not to look as smug and victorious as she was feeling, getting into position as Zorua and Purrloin growled at each other and settled themselves on their respective person's shoulder.

/\/\/\/\/\

"You wanted to know the reason I said 'truth', right?" Touko asked as they headed into the city, descending the winding stairwell down from the bridge. Her cheeks were pink from energy spent and her eyes sparkled with still lingering pride and laughter from her win. She'd promised to tell him, after all, and she was going to keep her promise the same way he'd apparently intended to keep hers. Her fingers toyed with the zipper on her vest as she felt his attention snap immediately away from the ocean and back to her. Well, that certainly got your attention.

"Yes, yes I do." N replied, as quickly spoken as usual. She was starting to find it kind of endearing, rather than annoying and hard to keep up with as she had initially. "But first," he told her as he passed her by, longer legs than her own eating the stairs by twos, even threes with small jumps as he looked up at her from the bottom of the stair and held a hand out to her. "allow me to escort you, my lady of victory."

Still playing the part of the romance novel hero, she thought with a sigh and a laugh. She couldn't help but laugh, she was in too good of a mood to let his weird behavior do anything more than amuse her now. Later, while she showered, she would probably brood upon it and start trying to form theories behind his behavior. Maybe he's a theater student and is super into playing certain roles? That might explain it, actors always use the world as their stage, after all. "You're really full of it, N, but it's kind of cute in a weird way." Touko laughed again, shaking her head as she allowed him to guide her down the steps as if she were a member of royalty. "Did your father teach you this or something?" Maybe she'd get a good answer out of that, a story of how his mother would read him books or something like that.

"No, he's not the type who would do this." N replied, his expression distant, closed off as he paused in thought, perhaps remembering something he'd not wanted to. She felt bad, maybe his father was as sore and touchy a subject as her own. He shook his head, smiling at her again in the way that made her cheeks burn with color. Honestly, a smile like that should've been illegal. "But that's not important," he told her. "making sure you have food in your stomach is much higher of a priority. You can tell me your answer while we wait."

/\/\/\/\

Orders placed and conversation light, for the moment, Touko took the opportunity to once again study N while he people-watched and looked around the restaurant they'd stepped into. Tall and lanky, though definitely stronger than he appeared to be, she couldn't tell if his hair was naturally wavy bordering on curly or if it was just that tangled because he didn't seem to bother with it much. His skin was on the pale side, like he spent more time indoors than outside, and he had shadows beneath his eyes that weren't just from his baseball cap or the lighting in the building. Alright, if you and I are on a chessboard, which color would you be? She paused in her thinking. For that matter, what piece are you?

"Are you ready to give me that answer? Or shall we wait for the food to get here?" N asked softly, startling her out of her train of thought. His hands were folded in front of him, resting against his mouth as he regarded her quietly from his side of the table.

Apparently she wasn't the only one doing some studying, Touko thought and resisted the urge to feel self-conscious beneath his scrutiny. "Ready when you are," she tried to make a slight joke out of it, watching as he seemed to settled a little further in his chair and leaned forward, both elbows on the table as he waited. "Alright." Her gaze dropped to her hands, folded in front of her on the table as they were, thumbs idly twiddling together as she tried to find the appropriate words to explain her answer in a way that wasn't just 'because that's how I feel.' She took a deep breath and raised her gaze back to N's, and went for it.

He looked troubled at her explanation, simple as it was, and looked like he wanted to debate the subject with her- but abstained from doing so. "The truth doesn't lie; not like dreams do." N repeated quietly as their food arrived, paying little attention as Touko attempted to hide her embarrassment by turning her attention to the food on her plate. She liked the way he summed it up, it was simpler than her five minute long mini-rant on why the truth was always better than any dream could be, even if dreams were easier to deal with in the long run because they were the 'what ifs' and ideal visions of the future.

N quickly changed the subject, questioning her further on happier subjects, primarily her childhood with Cheren and Bel, and seemed rather interested in the stories she shared. His expression quickly turned to one of distaste when she began to launch into her favorite one of Cheren, causing her to stop in mid-sentence.

"...let me guess, you've met Cheren?" Touko asked, trying not to sound half as exasperated with her friend as she felt. He was a sweet guy, really, he was. But that know-it-all, always right and blunt as a Hi Jump Kick to the face side of him just... put people off. Permanently, most of the time. Cheren, you idiot, what're you gonna do if Bel and I move away? She took the half-crumpled photo back from N, sighing and scratching her head beneath the cap she wore. "Look, whatever he said to you, I promise he didn't mean it to be nearly as insulting as it probably was." And there she went again, pleading on her friend's behalf for someone else not to be forever pissed at him because Cheren didn't know the meaning of tact even when it hit him in the face.

Judging by the look on her dinner partner's face, that much had been made more than clear, and the skepticism was more than she could stand. Whatever Cheren had said, it had been as insulting as it'd come out, or even worse than she was thinking.

She started to bury her face in her hands, mortified on behalf of the other girl in their little trio and herself as well. Oh my god, Cheren, seriously? What did you say? "I'm going to kill him when I get my hands on hi- huh?" Her attention was snatched by a familiar buzz on her wrist, a cheerful, short chime following immediately after it to let her know someone was trying to contact her. "Oh geez, sorry, I gotta take this... do you mind?" Remembering her mother's lectures, Touko looked to N, seeing if the older boy would care all that much.

He shook his head, giving her a light, though distracted smile. "After the amount of time you spent telling me how important your friend is? Go ahead, I don't mind at all."

She watched him rise and head for the bathroom, blue eyes following him the entire time until he disappeared from sight. Touko worried her bottom lip a moment with her teeth, a whirlwind of thoughts keeping her distracted until the insistent buzzing on her wrist brought her back to the real world. He didn't have to leave. He probably thought he was just being polite, Touko thought as she pressed a button on the side of the Xtransceiver. Her best friend's face popped up, flushed and worried as she adjusted the green beret on her head in a nervous habit.

"Hey Bel, what's up?"