Pokémon Lapis

Chapter 25: Rule Card

(Beth Larson)

Beth was nodding off sitting up in her chair. Her vision went double even though she struggled for it not to… the one thing keeping her upright was the cup of coffee she held in both hands. It had gone cold a long time ago. She didn't even like coffee, but… well. Gina and Amaris swore on it to stay awake. The opposite effect seemed to be taking control of her, though.

"Ow!" Jason hollered, and that snapped Beth awake pretty good. She blinked hazily as the double-Jason solidified into a single Jason—he was jerking his wrapped arm away from one of the Pallet researchers like he'd been bitten.

"Mr. Fremont—if you'd just stay still for five more seconds, I'd be done… and we could all go about our lives," the man said, disgruntled.

"Yer jerking me around like a loon!" Jason complained. "That's a human arm attached to a human being, you know."

"I… am aware you are a human being," the researcher said, sounding like he was truly and utterly at the end of his patience. "Please, Mr. Fremont."

"I'm Jason, not 'Mr. Fremont.' If you're gonna re-break my arm you might as well call me what I like."

Beth bit her lips and lowered her head, trying not to smile. Jason could be a handful, and it was amusing… when he wasn't being a handful at her. She guzzled the last dregs of her coffee, spotting the black silt at the bottom of the cup and gagging a little. It was ice cold.

Ever since the Aerodactyl specimen had been recovered, the Pallet labs had been a flurry of activity. Alana looked more and more dishevelled every day, her hair in a state of utter disarray, tossed up in a messy bun or lopsided ponytail, her eyes tired and puffy. Beth suspected she was sacrificing sleep for her research.

According to Alana, she was "synthesizing a serum to detox Pokémon from Pokéball chemicals." That was largely over Beth's head, though she understood the idea behind it—just not the process, by any stretch of the imagination. Secondary on Alana's list of things to do was to make a chemical-free Pokéball—it would serve basically as a housing unit for Pokémon, but would be next to useless when it came to capturing wilds.

Beth was still pretty unclear about that, and didn't want to disturb Alana by asking her more questions—she was busy hunched over her chemical workstation on the far side of the main labs. Beth put her empty mug down on a side table—or what she thought was a side table. When it tilted worrisomely to the left, she realized it wasn't a side table at all, but a precariously-leaning stack of research books. She snagged up her mug, went to stabilize the stack—

And another researcher kneeled down to help her right it. Beth glanced up and recognized Maria's face at once, one of the researchers who had come in to help from out of town. She was an associate of Alana's from Saffron—and was seven months pregnant.

"Oh, god, Maria! No, let me," Beth said, handing Maria the mug and doing the harder work of righting the stack of books she'd unknowingly started to tip.

"Still not invalid," Maria said, though kindly. She did, however, stand up, one hand braced at the small of her back, while Beth fixed up the books. Beth stood, took her cup back, and smiled awkwardly at her.

"It was masquerading as a table," she said.

"They do that," Maria agreed. "The coffee's awful today, isn't it?"

"Is it not supposed to taste like that?" Beth asked, curious. "It was pretty bad."

"God, no. I'll get you some real coffee soon, promise," Maria said, giving her a twinkling smile.

Alana might be up to her eyes in research and chemicals, but Maria was free for the time being—so Beth cleared her throat and bit her lip. Maria lifted her dark eyebrows to her, curious, and Beth tried to word her questions properly.

"Alana was a little… muttery, and absentminded Professor-y, when she explained what was going on," Beth began, carefully, but Maria was smiling. "I'm not sure I completely understand what she's doing."

"Who does?" Maria asked, shaking her head. "Well, I mean, I do, but that's only because I have a background in chemistry and biology—for the rest of you it's got to sound like gibberish."

"Really smart, cool, impressive, gibberish," Beth assured her.

"Be that as it may," Maria said. "I think I can put some of this into layman's terms. But, to start, did you have questions?"

"Uhm…" Beth began. "Yeah, I mean—I guess I don't really understand what she means by the fact that her new Pokéball won't be useful for catching Pokémon. I mean. What's the point of a Pokéball if it can't be used to catch a Pokémon?"

"Good question," Maria said, heading over to a more comfortable looking chair to sit in. They'd dragged it out of one of the storage rooms for her. "Well… Pokéballs have two functions, the way I see it. One is to initially capture a Pokémon, upon which time sedating chemicals are pumped into the Pokémon while it is absorbed in the form of data. Right?"

"Right," Beth said, squirming just a little as she dragged a stool from one of the tables to perch on. Worded that way, Pokéball tech sounded awful, bordering on monstrous… like brainwashing.

Maria seemed to see her hesitation. "And the other function is to house Pokémon for the convenience of travel, and the like. So… Alana is basically saying that the Pokéballs she is trying to create will not have that sedating chemical in them, and will basically only function as housing units."

"Ah," Beth said, understanding. "So if you were to take an Alana Pokéball and chuck it at a wild…"

"It would be next to useless, because that wild would still be… well. Wild. Riled up and feral. But if you were to let out Starmie, and transfer Starmie from the Pokéball it's currently in, into an Alana Pokéball…"

"It would be fine, because Starmie is already trained. So… Starmie would just be… what, swapping homes?"

"Swapping homes," Maria affirmed.

"So… how would people catch Pokémon? If all they had at their disposal were Alana Pokéballs, I mean," Beth asked.

"It's a good question," Maria said. "I personally don't have the answer. There're old books and references to what people did with wild Pokémon before the invention of Pokéballs… we approached them in the wild, slowly… tamed them just through time and proximity, no quick battle followed by a tossed ball."

"Wow," Beth muttered. "That sounds… slow."

"It was, I'm sure." Maria turned to Alana's turned back and observed her colleague. "It's a strange thing, to imagine a world without Pokéballs."

"Not possible," a voice said from their left. Amaris was on his way over to Alana with a stack of print-outs, but paused to join their talk for a time. "The world is far too dependent on Pokéballs to say goodbye to them permanently."

"But do you mean as storage devices or as catch aids?" Maria asked Amaris, assessing him shrewdly.

"Storage devices, mostly… but if I'm being honest, catch devices, too. Who would want to go back to training a Pokémon like—"

As if on cue, the Aerodactyl in the corner let out a murderous, low warble and bashed its skull against the plexiglass. Amaris smirked, and gestured to it. "Like that?"

"You make a fair point," Maria said. "Not saying I agree with you, but a point is a point." Amaris snorted. "How's Alana doing on the gene sequence, anyway?"

"It's slow going," Amaris said. "I'm her printer monkey for the time being, but she promises she'll run the sequence by me before she actually takes it to trial."

Beth had a sneaking feeling Amaris wouldn't know a proper sequence if it bit him on the ass, but just wanted to be part of the process. She couldn't blame him—so much of this was his uncle's work. "Carry on, printer monkey," Beth said, smiling at him.

As Amaris headed off, Beth turned back to Maria. "I guess I just have one more question…" she said, and her insides tightened a little. "When a Pokémon detoxes from the chemical that made it compliant in the first place… what happens?"

She'd expected a sure answer. A, 'don't worry about a thing—your team is your team and they'll love you no matter what.'

Instead she just got a flicker of uncertainty in Maria's chocolate brown eyes, and a pursing of her lips combined with a lost, sympathetic expression. "That… I don't know," she said, softly. "And I expect Alana doesn't know, either."

The conversation had turned from uncertainties and business to when, precisely, Maria was due. Beth got to get right up close to her swollen belly and try to feel the baby kick, but she got a feeble stir at best—and she thought she might have imagined it. Maria told her not to worry, and that her little one was already shaping up to be both nocturnal and a trickster—kicking her awake in the night and refusing to show off for friends during the day.

Beth's train of thought went from babies to families, to how she had always wanted to start one of her own… to how unlikely that all seemed now. It was a dismal train, stopping at darker and darker stations, and it finally stopped altogether at one she hadn't thought about in weeks. Rei.

The last they had spoken, he'd told her to look him up if she survived. It had been cold and callous, and Beth was sure he hadn't meant it. Beth's hurt and anger, though deep when they did occur, burned out quickly. She was able to see where people's real intentions stemmed from, at least most of the time, and Rei had been speaking from a place of anger, confusion and fear.

She… didn't really want him to think she was dead. He probably wouldn't—would probably just assume she didn't want to talk to him anymore after the way things had ended. And, truth be told, Beth wasn't sure she really wanted to talk to him, either.

But the bottom line was still the same—she wouldn't sleep right if he thought she was in trouble, or actively still in danger, or worse. Before she could chicken out, she pulled out her phone.

She expected to agonize over the message, type and delete, type and delete, but what she wrote was surprisingly succinct and perfectly to the point the first go around.

I just wanted to let you know I'm alright.

She stared at the nine words for a little while, mulling them over… and before she could think better of it, punched send.

Then she powered down her phone like a chicken and stuffed it in her back pocket. It was done. Later, when she was braver, she'd power the device up and see if she had any missed calls, voicemails or texts from him. She wasn't even sure if she hoped more that she would, or wouldn't.

Beth was exhausted. All this emotional heavy-lifting, on top of being groggy from a very late night the night before had her shuffling inexactly down the halls, going this way and that, retracing her steps when she took a wrong turn. It would have been worrisome that she'd forgotten the way to her own bedroom if her room hadn't recently been changed up. With the new batch of scientists who'd been called in, the Research Center was stuffed to the gills, and it was now four or even five of them to a room. They'd shuffled up and remixed themselves accordingly as best as they could, but it was cute—one of the researchers had been fretting about whether or not to put "boys and girls" in the same room together. The group had laughed that off—they'd shared rooms, tents, and even sleeping bags with each other so many times it was hardly an issue.

Beth shared a room with Victoria, Gav and Kaylee, and she finally found it after not too long. It was dark when she opened the door and let herself in, and she crept quietly to her bed. Gav, Victoria and Kaylee were likely all still in here—their sleep schedules were completely borked, and she didn't want to wake any of them up. Though, apparently, at least one of their number was awake. Gav's PDA was on low-light mode, and he was curled with his back facing her, the dim light reflecting his silhouette.

Beth yawned, stretched, let down her hair, dropped her hair tie in her open duffel bag, and sat down on her bed.

Her squirming, struggling bed.

Beth screamed.

"Holy—" Victoria exclaimed, and there was shouting and cursing from the other three beds in the room. Beth leapt about three feet in the air and spun around to face her bed, torn between getting as far away from it as possible or tearing the covers off to excavate whatever it was. Someone turned on the light.

A cowlicked, bedraggled Blake was sitting up in her bed, tangled up in her blankets, wide, dark eyes fixed accusingly on her.

"... What are you doing in my room?" he asked.

"Blake!" Beth shouted, aghast. "This is my room!"

Blake looked around at each face—Victoria, Gav, Kaylee—then looked back at Beth like he almost didn't believe her. Her nostrils flared and she huffed angrily at him, stomping her foot. "You scared me half to death!"

"I'm the first door on the left," Blake grumbled to the rest of the room.

"Right!" Beth corrected.

"Yeah, so, the rest of you need to—"

Realizing her linguistic faux pas, Beth waved her hands in the air. "No. You're the first door on the right get out!" Her heart was still going a mile a minute and a hot flush had travelled from her ears across her nose down her cheeks all the way to her neck and chest. She rounded on Gav next, who had been awake. "Gav! Why didn't you tell Blake he had the wrong room?"

"I thought he was you," Gav replied candidly, and Beth could have died.

"What, I suddenly look like Blake now? I don't have boobs anymore?" she exclaimed, then turned to Blake, who was still sitting in her bed. "Move!"

"Beth…" Victoria said, sounding supremely tired. "Please stop screaming about your boobs." She paused, then turned to Kaylee. "I really wish that was the first time I'd had to say that to her." Kaylee snorted, then burst out laughing and Beth grit her teeth.

Blake finally, finally shuffled upright and moved to the door, grumbling… and taking her blanket with him.

"Mine!" Beth said, snagging it away from him as he turned back to look at her like she was insane.

"Calm down, crazy lady," Blake mumbled as he finally made it to the door and let himself out. Beth threw a pillow at the closed door a split second later. Why Gav, Victoria and Kaylee thought this was all so hilarious was beyond her.

Beth didn't have any more close encounters of the Blake kind over the next few days, though he did make it a point to tease her, sitting in her seat during breakfasts and even trying to put on her sneakers outside once. His toes barely fit into the opening and he looked at them as if truly baffled while Beth tried to stop from laughing herself to death.

"Well, Gav seems to think we just look so much alike," Blake explained. "It's an honest mistake."

She spent her time mostly talking with Spikey—it had been a unanimous vote that the PLF no longer had the right to "keep" contacts to themselves, as the group had been successful getting the fossil revived and extracting a pure sample from it where the PLF had been sitting on it for who knew how long.

The fossil—that was another story altogether. If Beth had been thrown around a pen and had her arm fractured by a furious, rabidly murderous prehistoric Pokémon, she would make never going near it again a top priority. Jason's… priorities were different.

He was near the cage more often than not, arm in its cast and sling, and he seemed to have fallen into a routine with the beast. It flew into a rage whenever it saw him—probably sore that it hadn't had a chance to eat him—and Jason stayed right where he was, staring it down. He didn't move a muscle until it exhausted itself and slumped down on the ground, leaning up against the glass and huffing foggy, tired breaths against it.

"Thattagirl," Jason said during one of his "enrage the Aerodactyl" sessions. "Don't you feel silly now?" The Aerodactyl snapped her jaws at him and he smiled, and laughed.

Beth had to admire him, as much as she wondered if he was maybe a little suicidal. He didn't even have Factor A like his brother… he was just genuinely an unflappable trainer, and though he didn't say it aloud, the whole group knew…

Jason wanted to tame that creature the "old fashioned way" and fold it into his team.

"Can you believe Lance supposedly trained his dragons this way?" Gina said, watching Jason pat the glass near the Aerodactyl's tired, miserable head. "He's such a badass."

"Right?" Beth said, a little sadly. A badass, certified and stamped—and one who was convinced they were on opposite sides of a battle from him.

Tim had been beyond interested to watch Jason's technique, but League business had called him away for a few weeks. Orion gave the Pokémon a wide berth, not wanting to interfere with Jason's attempts to get through to it. On the rare occasion that Nathan Fremont emerged, he looked better and better. He wasn't as gaunt, but was still looking sort of weary.

It was on one of his "out" days that he made the suggestion to his sons. "You kids need a drinking night. Yer all of age now, right? Scratch that. Even if you're not, do it anyway."

"I—" Jason began, a little uncomfortably, but Beth didn't think it had to do with the suggestion… he was just generally a little uncomfortable around his father, still. "What?"

Beth was a little surprised by the suggestion, from Fremont, of all people, but as she mulled it over in her head, she sort of liked the way it tasted.

Orion smiled. "None for me, thanks, but the rest of you should. We have a little down time while Alana synthesizes that gene… everyone's been training and researching and otherwise keeping on the ball really well, but this might be some of the only time we have to do something like this."

Jason seemed unconvinced, and while a few murmurs went around the room, most of them positive, she studied him while trying not to look like she was studying him. She thought she knew where he was coming from.

Jason was, by and large, still reluctant to have fun. If it came to having fun while they were also moving forward with their mission, that was one thing—he joked with Gina and Amaris just fine, and seemed to take genuine pleasure from his sessions with the Aerodactyl. But this was different—this was designated "down time," and Beth could tell it chafed him. There was a lot wrong with his life right now. He'd traded his fiance for his brother, in a way, losing one and gaining the other. The time when he had had neither of them had been the most miserable of his life.

Beth cleared her throat softly. "I'm all for it. I think we need to unwind."

"Unwind?" Kaylee asked, appearing out of nowhere. "I discovered the perfect board game for this night of unwinding. Say no more—I'll orchestrate it." With that she pulled out her phone and started texting people. Normally it would be something Beth would do—party-organizing and planning, and it tickled her that Kaylee had taken up the mantle.

Her phone buzzed against her shirt front a moment later and she scooped it out.

okay hard working party people! meet in lab 4 tonight at 8 pm. yes there will be alcohol. yes there will be board games. yes Gav is not allowed to bring his PDA. yes I will enforce this rule. HUZZAH

To the group's credit, not a single workaholic failed to show up. Some trickled in late, like Amaris and yes, Gav, who was very nearly pat-searched by his sister to assure that he didn't have his PDA on him. Kaylee had moved all the chairs away from the middle of the floor, and littered it with pillows instead. The group selected their sitting spots and Beth wound up between Blake and Gina.

"So, this is a… sort of weird, obscure game," Kaylee explained, and Gina snorted and covered her mouth as Kaylee produced it, though Beth wasn't sure why. "The best way to play is to just roll to see who goes first, select your player token… and jump right in."

Jump in they did; and very soon after the first card was drawn, Beth could see what kind of game this would be.

"Where in the world did you even hear of this game?" Zahlia asked as Gav finished imitating a naked mime fishing in a thunderstorm to the barely-breathing hysterical laughter of the room at large.

"I found a copy of it at Gina's place, don't look at me!" Kaylee said, gasping for breath and wiping tears from her eyes. "Bravo, Gav. Bravo. If the whole espionage thing falls through you could be a mime. A naked fishing mime, well-versed in surviving bad weather."

"I hear there's a real job market for that," Gav said genially.

The drinks they had were assorted—wine coolers, beers (which hardly any of them were touching), fruity mixed drinks and the like. Beth selected a blue, girly drink with a long, exotic name and sipped from her bottle, wondering if she'd feel anything. So far it was just a lot like a sugary soda, which didn't bother her in the slightest. It was delicious.

Amaris' turn was next, and he grumbled as he rolled and landed on a purple card. "That's a Performance card!" Kaylee said gleefully, and Amaris' hand froze as he hovered it over the purple deck.

"Oh, no. Performance card? I dislike the sound of that very much, thanks," he said, going to pluck his token off the board—but Gina dove on his hand and yanked it back.

"Uh-uh, Drake! You're in it to win it now!" she said. "No backing out!"

"Or what, you'll remove my hand for my insolence?" he countered, staring at her like she was insane. Beth only smiled. It was so good, seeing them interact like this again—they'd both been miserable while they were "fighting"—though "fighting" wasn't a good word for it. "At odds" fit better.

Amaris was eventually goaded—mostly through series of "I dare you" jibes from Gina and Jason—and selected his card, reading it. Then his face contorted and he threw it with great vengeance into the middle of the pile, knocking over Orion's game token.

"Foul play!" Orion said, righting his token and picking up the card with faster reflexes than anyone else. He read it, then burst out laughing. That, too, was a pleasant sound to Beth. "Oh, yes," Orion said, grinning a little ferally.

Amaris stood up, looked around as if lost for a moment… then put his arms up in an O shape above his head. Beth stared at him, not understanding.

"Oh, come on—you can do better than that!" Orion said, reading the card aloud. "'For the next round, you are a ballerina. Work it, baby. Go for the gold. This card remains in effect until your next turn.'"

Gina was dying of laughter, but Jason recovered enough to holler, "Get on your toes, Drake!" as he jabbed his empty bottle at Amaris' feet.

"Watch it, you drunken bastard!" Amaris snapped, to which Jason retorted that he was nowhere near drunk as he'd only had one. "Yeah, uh-huh, I remember Cinnabar," Amaris replied, briefly putting one leg up to touch his toes to his knee. "Lightweight." The group dissolved into laughter and talk as someone shoved the dice towards Beth.

Beth eagerly snagged up the dice and proceeded to roll a six. She snatched up her player statue and moved herself up six spaces to a blue card, which was apparently a rule card. Gina ooooh-ed, though it wasn't really apparent why.

Beth knew why when she flipped it over and read out loud:

"Hold hands with the person to your right. This rule stays in place until removed by another rule card."

Beth glanced to her right, where Blake's eyebrow was taking a long hike up his forehead.

"What if one of us, uh... has to—"

"Pretend to be a naked mime fishing in a thunderstorm?" Gav offered helpfully.

"Yeah, or that."

"You're just gonna have to stand up there and hold her hand while she does it," Kaylee said, a truly wicked grin on her face. Beth exchanged a shrug with Blake and linked her hand in his, switching her bottle to the other hand as she did so.

"That's not such a bad rule," Blake said, relieved. "I can live with this."

"I'm so flattered," Beth said in a perfect impression of Blake's deadpan voice, rolling her eyes.

"What? That's a good thing! A compliment, even."

There were chuckles as Victoria took her turn next, rolling a stunt card and having to lift the game board three feet in the air without disturbing anything on it. Everyone clapped for her as she struggled with this feat (Beth and Blake decided to clap with each other using their free hands).

Zahlia's turn was one Beth had been looking forward to, and when the girl drew a blue card, Beth was now among those oooohing at her. Zahlia frowned at it, then read it aloud. "Act like one of the Pokémon on your team. This rule card stays in effect until removed by another card."

"Lots of options there," Orion said, grinning softly.

"... I know, right?" Zahlia said, sighing. With that she let out Haunter, and looked at him as he grinned at the rest of them and loop-de-looped happily. "Alright," she said, with a shrug, and a moment later donned a bright, face-splitting grin at the rest of them that actually gave Beth a shiver. It was so wildly out of character for Zahlia, and the group alternately made freaked out sounds or laughed. Zahlia turned to Victoria, who was seated beside her, and lifted up two locks of her hair playfully for no reason.

"Okay, this is creeping me out," Victoria said with a laugh, and Haunter, startled, looked like he was thinking about the same thing.

It wasn't until Amaris' next turn (and the subsequent freedom he savored from his ballerina card) that Beth began to feel strange.

It was subtle, at first. She was merely very aware of her right side, perhaps a bit more than normal. She thought at first it was a strange buzz side-effect, but it wasn't long before she realized she was hyper-aware of Blake.

It wasn't any particular part of Blake, at first; just Blake in a very general, vague sense. Gradually though, that changed, too. His hands were warm, and rough. That was the first thing that occurred to Beth, tailed closely by the realization that it must have been from all their HM Guy training and the climbing they did at Victory Road. A little bewildered, Beth frowned for a moment, trying to pin down that train of thought. She supposed it made sense that she was thinking about Blake's hand, though. She was holding it, after all. Holding hands was made into a very intimate thing, even from grade school, and Beth had to wonder why. There was nothing inherently sensual about simply touching someone, and the way the two friends were positioned was innocent and casual.

It was just strange, the way every little shrug or shift seemed to be outlined in blaring neon light to her. She felt Blake swiping the condensation off his bottle of beer as if she herself had done it, and for some crazy reason her throat went dry when Blake reached up and drew his free hand messily through his dark hair. Beth took a swig of her drink to stave off the dehydration, which made no sense. Alcohol was dehydrating, of course.

"Beth, your turn again!" Gina said, still recovering from laughing at the I-am-a-toaster card Jason had pulled. Zahlia fixed her creepy grin on Beth and murmured, "Hau, Hau, Hau."

Beth yanked a hateful purple performance card after rolling a five, and read it as Jason said in a very huffy tone, "Please, I'm the most fantastic toaster in the world!" She felt her face heating up, and something of her misgivings must have shown on her face, because the group ooh-ed and ahh-ed around her.

"What'd you get? What'd you get!? Come on!" Kaylee demanded, poised on tenterhooks and with her fingers curved like claws, ready to snatch. "Is it confidential?"

"No, but—" Beth started, and before she could say anything else the card had been grabbed from her. She wished she had use of her right hand, which was her dominant face-palming hand. She had to settle for her left.

"Oooooh!" Kaylee all but howled. "Slow dance with the person to your right until the timer runs out!"

"What's with the person to my right?" Beth asked with a weak chuckle. "I think the deck is stacked."

"I'd have stacked that," Jason said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. It didn't really make sense, but he got a slug in the arm from Gina for his troubles.

Beth glanced at Blake and shrugged. "Sorry, man," she said. "I guess you're just going to have to suffer with me through all my terrible card draws."

"You do manage to attract the most demonstrative ones," Blake agreed, getting awkwardly to his feet with Beth.

"Okay B-names, show us what you got! Over there, over there," Kaylee said, pointing to a more open area farther from the circle. "Just kick that chair away."

"Literally kick it?" Blake asked teasingly, poised to punt it out the open door.

Kaylee whined "noooo!" at him playfully, waving her drink at him. "Jerk wad, I control your timer." If Beth had to wager, Kaylee was more than a little buzzed.

"Foul play!" Beth said, frowning, but right at that moment Kaylee flipped the timer over brutally and shouted "go!" and Blake's hand was at the small of Beth's back, pulling her close.

"Oh no," Beth said, laughing nervously. "I drew the card, I get to decide how we dance, and waltzing is not going to happen. I do not know how to waltz."

"You drive a hard bargain," Blake said, raising his eyebrow skeptically, but a surprisingly wicked smile coursed across his face. "I bet you don't know how to dance backwards."

"I recognize that as you trying to bait me, and I am choosing to ignore your jab."

"Dance, fools," Victoria demanded while Kaylee turned the timer back over.

"At least we're already holding hands!" Beth said chipperly, trying to diffuse the intense awkwardness she felt pooling in her stomach. Normally she was completely unembarrassable. Why was this so different? Blake didn't seem bothered at all.

"Yeah, fancy that, the rule card was good for something DANCE NOW," Kaylee said thoughtfully, ending with more frightening demands.

"But—this is sad," Beth protested, stalling. "No music. Not cool."

"I can fix that!" Jason chirped, dragging his Dex out of his pocket and flicking through it. Gina made a sound of longing and looked over at it. When Amaris said she should have thought twice before losing hers in the ocean, she walloped him next. A few seconds later a smooth multiple-part harmony rhythm and blues song coursed through the room, shockingly loud from the small device.

Beth glanced over to Jason. "How are we supposed to waltz to this?"

"I thought we weren't waltzing," Blake said, while Amaris said, "Why in the world do you have such a sappy love song on your Dex? Fremont… man card, now."

"Don't waltz," Victoria said, simply. "Technically the card said to slow dance. You remember how, right?" she asked, and then she and Gav jumped up at once as if this had been rehearsed, leaping into position. Gav had his hands on Victoria's waist and Victoria's were at the back of Gav's neck. "Voila."

"But we have to hold hands," Blake pointed out.

"I think we can give you a reprieve for this," Orion said, speaking up for the first time in a while, a small smile on his face. Then he stared over at Jason for a moment and suddenly burst out into a crooning chorus along with the singer. "Do you still feeeel the same? Or am aye-aye-aye the one to bla-a-a-me?"

It was so unexpected that the room went silent for a second, and then erupted into laughter. Beth snorted and then clapped her hand over her face, and Blake grinned down at her like she'd just given him a gift. He mumbled, "oink" at her and she swatted him.

"For the love of—dance!" Victoria demanded, and the timer got started over yet again.

Blake moved his hands down Beth's body, resting them at her hips, and Beth reached up to put her own now-free hands up to the place where Blake's shoulders became his neck. She tried to get t-shirt instead of skin, but it was difficult, as he was in a sleep shirt with the neck hole stretched all to hell. Blake was making easy, unconcerned eye contact with Beth, whose own eyes were darting uncomfortably to various other parts of Blake's face and the decor around the room.

"Sorry, again," Beth murmured. "My card-drawing skills are truly amazing."

"You don't have to keep apologizing," Blake said, smirking. "Besides, it could be worse. We could be slow-dancing to the PokéRAP."

"Ooh, true," Beth said. "Jason does seem like the kind of loser who'd still have the PokéRAP on his Dex."

"Hey!" Jason protested, though a second later it became clear what he was protesting. "The PokéRAP is awesome and you're just pissed you can't remember it all."

"Everyone remembers the PokéRAP," Beth said, sighing. "Electrode, Diglett, Nidoran, Mankey, Venusaur, Rattata, Fearow, Pidgey."

"Seaking, Jolteon, Dragonite, Gastly," Blake added seamlessly. "Ponyta, Vaporeon, Poliwrath—" At the last one he hitched a big, creepy smile to his face and sing-songed, "Butterfree!" Beth burst out laughing and hunched her head and shoulders up between their bodies.

"You got it wrong, genius," she said, peering up into his face, her own alive with mirth. "It's Poliwhirl, then Butterfree!" She imitated his face on the final Bug-type's name.

"Nope, it's definitely Poliwrath. Then Butterfree!"

"No, sorry, it's Poliwhirl. I should know, being that they are Water-types."

"Ooh, now, that's a bet I'll take you up on. What, hmm… a free backrub when I'm right."

"Oh, when you're right, hmm?" Beth said, quirking an eyebrow at him. "We'll see about that, Nakawa."

A moment later, at any rate, the song switched to an upbeat rock tune, and Beth and Blake both did a double-take to the other side of the room. The little hourglass timer had long since run out; Beth scowled and shot a glare at Kaylee—and Victoria, who had her camera phone trained on them. From behind her, Zahlia was still giving them that eerie grin.

"Hey now," Blake said with bland disapproval. "That timer is only like 45 seconds long. I call shenanigans."

"You all suck!" Beth said, letting go of Blake—but a second later there was a rousing chorus of "hold hands!" Beth groaned theatrically and snagged Blake's hand up aggressively, to which he gave her a mock-frightened look.

The ensuing gut-shaking laughter from everyone allowed Beth to blend once more into the social group and ignore the painful pounding of her pulse for a while. She downed her warm drink in one go while no one was paying attention.

Beth realized the following morning, around a little bit of a hangover, that she would have to find Blake and admit defeat—a cursory internet search had told her that yes, it was Poliwrath in the PokéRAP. Sighing and getting to her feet, she made her way out the door and to Blake's room (first one on the right), which he shared with Zahlia, Gina, Jason and Amaris. She lifted her hand to knock but the door opened before she had a chance to.

She had a smile hitched to her face, but instead of Blake she came face-to-face with Orion. A blush crept up her face—had she interrupted him and Zahlia during alone time? But Orion stepped back and wordlessly let her in.

"The Nakawas are gone," he mumbled. "We're trying to figure out if this note they left is… legitimate."

Beth felt her heart constrict. "Can I see it?" she asked, putting a hand out.

Amaris, who was the one with the note, gave it over to Beth. She stared down at Zahlia's distinctive, tiny, neat handwriting.

Blake and I have to go check on our mother. She's not in the best of health, as it turns out. We'll be back the second we have to mobilize. Don't worry and we'll see you soon.

Beth let out a breath. "Oh, good. I thought we were looking at foul play here, or something. This note seems pretty straightforward."

"It's just odd that they took off so suddenly without bothering to wake us up," Amaris said. "If the Nakawas really are just visiting with mom… I'm rather cross. It's not good to up and vanish from this group leaving nothing but a note behind." Orion looked slightly uncomfortable at that.

Beth left the boys to it, but a frown creased her face. She pulled her phone out of her bra, as her pants had no pockets, and typed up a text to Blake.

Hey there, fellow B-name, she typed, biting her lip. What gives? You left without saying goodbye? Or trying to steal my shoes? She smiled at that, skimmed the text, and continued to write. By the way, I have to eat my words… you were right, it was Poliwrath. And Butterfree!

She was about to hit send when her phone minimized the text—and an incoming call lit up her screen. Beth's heart somersaulted—it was Rei.

She stared at the phone while it rang and vibrated in her hand, not picking up—she'd made up her mind the second she saw his name that she didn't want to talk to him. When the call went to voicemail her text to Blake politely popped back up, having waited its turn. She stared at it, dumbfounded, and punched "send."

A second later a text popped through on her phone, and it was so short she could read the whole thing in the notification banner up top.

Message received. - Rei

It had taken him a full week to reply that he knew she was alive. Beth grit her teeth. Maybe if she'd picked up his call he'd have been more apologetic—but suddenly Beth didn't want to be the girl who could see people's real intentions, the girl who could never stay mad and always saw the best in people. She punched "delete" on the two-word message and instead stormed back to her room and flopped on her bed, staring at her screen. She didn't know what she was waiting for, but after a few minutes of browsing aimlessly through her applications, she realized it.

She was waiting for Blake to write back.

He didn't.

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who still reads this. And I apologize for the sporadic update schedule. I'm trying to set up some good writing routines, but I've been going through a sort of a rough period these past few months. Chapter 26 is in the works as I write this, though.