Morning came, and Brennan was the first of the newly formed couple to stir awake. He slowly opened his eyes, immediately taking notice of the lack of his friend turned lover, Gardevoir, in his arms. He looked over spotting her still sound asleep with her bare back facing him. He figured she must have rolled away from him as she slept. A smile crept its way onto his face as he thought back to the amazing time the two of them had the previous night. It definitely was a night he was never going to forget.

He rolled over onto his side, wrapped his arms around her, gently pulling her against him, and pressed his lips against her shoulder. He had disturbed her just enough for her to wake up. A smile curled onto her lips as she reached a hand around his head, gently clutched his hair.

"Good morning..." Brennan spoke when he realized his new lover was awake. "Sorry for waking you. But I just couldn't resist."

"Gardevoir. Garde." She replied, the tiredness still present in her otherwise rather relaxed voice. She wasn't mad. Not at all. She was happy. Happy with how much love he was actually giving her. She pressed herself as close against him as she possibly could, before once again settling, letting out a relaxed sigh as she did.

"*Chuckle* Comfortable?" Brennan asked. Gardevoir nodded.

"Voir." He was so warm to her. This was the most comfortable she had ever felt, and probably the most comfortable she was ever going to feel.

As they lay there cuddled together, sharing the warmth of their own bodies with one another, Brennan felt the urge to once again tell the women in his arms the thing that he had held back for so long. "I love you, Gardevoir." He spoke softly, slightly tightening his hold on her. Gardevoir felt the same butterflies in her stomach that she had felt the previous night when he first said it. It seemed rather surreal to her that this was actually reality. The fact that the man she loved, a human nonetheless, returned a mutual feeling of love and admiration for her. She never thought of herself as "perfect." But Brennan— Brennan made her feel otherwise.

She began trying to roll over to face him, forcing him to loosen his hold on her. When she finally managed to, Brennan immediately locked eyes with her beautiful large, magenta ones that he could just make out with the little bit of light shining through the cracks in the blinds. "Gardevoir." She spoke, before pressing her lips against his. Brennan smiled into the kiss as he once again tightened his hold on her.

"That will NEVER get old." He said as their lips parted ever so slightly. Gardevoir let out a cute little giggle before nuzzling her head into him. Nothing could wipe the smile off of either of their faces at that moment.

Except the loud growl of Brennan's stomach...

His stomach growled loudly causing him to blush in embarrassment. Gardevoir looked up at him before letting out another giggle.

"So... hey, maybe I'm a bit hungry. Who knew?" He responded to his stomach's loud interruption, slightly shrugging as he did. "Tell you what, I'll go get breakfast started. You just come on out when you're ready."

"Voir." Gardevoir responded. Brennan smiled before pressing his lips against hers once again. Once they broke away again, Gardevoir dreaded what was coming next. Brennan broke his hold on her, and threw the blanket off of himself, before maneuvering himself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, leaving Gardevoir quite disappointed. He suddenly felt her disappointment as he stood up, his nude form from their previous night's escaped just visible from the sunlight shining into the room.

He looked back towards her before speaking. "Awe, c'mon, it's not like it's not for a good cause." She let out a disappointed sigh, causing Brennan to chuckle. "You'll be okay." He leaned in and gave her another quick peck before standing back up and going back to what he was doing. Gardevoir watched as he bent down to pull his pants up. He walked over to the dresser and pulled open one of the drawers, pulling out a white wife-beater shortly thereafter. He threw it on before turning back to the bed. "I'm going to make it up to you with a nice, hot breakfast. It'll totally be worth it." He smiled widely as he did. This caused Gardevoir's over exaggerated poutyness to turn into a small smile of her own. His breakfasts were pretty good. "There's that amazing smile." He said, causing Gardevoir's cheeks to burn in slight embarrassment.

Brennan chuckled before finally turning to exit the room. He opened the door ready to walk out of the room, but managed to force himself to stop before stepping on the sleeping Mightyena laying in the hallway floor. His wide smile from before slowly formed into a more sympathetic one. He and Gardevoir both fell asleep after they finished. They were exhausted. And in doing so, they locked Mightyena, who always slept at the foot of Brennan's bed, out of the room. He knelt down and gently stroked the sleeping Pokémon's head. Mightyena stirred a little at the touch.

"I'm sorry buddy." He apologized even though he knew the Pokémon couldn't hear him. He also knew he was going to have to make it up to him somehow. Eventually he stood, leaving the Pokémon to his slumber, before continuing his way down the hallway. And to his surprise, Machamp sat in his recliner with all four of his arms crossed. He definitely had an expression on his face that meant "I want answers."

"Morning, Champ." He spoke. His Pokémon remained silent. This caused him to slow to a stop. "What's wrong?"

"Machamp. Champ." The Pokemon finally broke his silence. He had heard his trainer and Gardevoir the previous night on his way to the bathroom. Luckily, the others hadn't. Surprisingly. A slight embarrassed flush heated Brennan's cheeks as his Pokémon began.

"W-what do you mean? We were, Uh, talking..." he lied. He could easily tell his Pokémon didn't believe him. He was too smart to. He didn't look too thrilled with the lie, either.

"Champ. Champ. Machamp." He spoke once again. Brennan grew a shade redder at his Pokémon calling it "mating". Realistically that's what it was. But it was still embarrassing to hear out loud.

"C-Champ, that's-thats not what-" he began to stutter, but stopped knowing he was just going to be wasting his breath. "Okay, look. We'll... discuss this later. For now, I'm going to get breakfast started." He left the room in quite the hurry afterwords, taking another glance at the empty couch before doing so. His smile had been almost completely wiped off his face at that point. It had been replaced with a mixture of sadness and embarrassment for being called out by his own Pokémon.

He rushed into the kitchen and towards the counter farthest away from the entrance. He placed his hands on it taking a few deep breaths as he did. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He was glad that was over... for the time being at least. In reality he knew it was just getting started. But that did also beg the question: if Machamp had overheard them, did his other Pokémon? I mean, he knew Gardevoir had been pretty loud the night before, but even so, he was hoping they hadn't heard anything.

He shook his head trying to shake what just happened out of it. He was determined to live up to his promise and make his new lover's breakfast a good one. He began quickly moving about the kitchen, trying to do just that.

After lying in bed for several more minutes, Gardevoir finally decided to get up. As comfortable as Brennan's bed was, nothing compared to sleeping in it while wrapped in his arms. She pushed the covers off of her exposing her nude body to the sunlight peaking through the blinds and whomever was to walk into the room at that moment. She slid over to the side of the bed, dangling her thin legs over the side before stretching and letting out a yawn.

She looked down at the clothes scattered around the floor of the room. Her cheeks began to heat up as she thought back to the rather hot night her and Brennan had had. She shook the thoughts away deciding that if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it. After, she stood up, her pointed legs digging into the carpet below. She began to lean down to pull her dress up, but that's when Brennan's shirt from the previous night caught her eyes. Instead of putting her dress back on, she left it lying in the floor. She pulled her panties back on before using her now much weaker psychic move to lift Brennan's shirt up and bring it to her. She stared at it for several seconds before deciding to put it on. It was just as big as the shirt she usually wore to bed, so it dropped down far enough to cover her panties.

She looked down at herself slightly embarrassed by what she was doing. Her wearing Brennan's clothes was nothing new. But it was almost as if she was wearing this shirt as a prize of sorts. She was the one that pulled it off of him in her desperate attempt to remove the thin barrier that had separated them. She wanted to wear it. She was going to. As her embarrassment slowly diminished, she finally headed for the door. She opened it, ready to head down the hallway, but quickly stopped just as Brennan had to do earlier. She hadn't noticed Mightyena until it was almost too late. She stared down at him for several seconds before gently stepping over him, trying to do her best not to wake him.

She wasn't as quick to realize why he was sleeping on the hallway floor, but when she finally did, she did feel a little remorseful about it. But she knew his sweet spot where he liked being rubbed, she would make it up to him just like Brennan was going to. She continued on her way down the hallway headed towards the bathroom. But when she got to the door and realized someone had beat her to it, she decided to just head to the kitchen. She wanted to clean herself up a little for Brennan before she did, but it didn't look like she was going to be able to. She already knew that he would have told her she didn't have to do stuff like that for him, but she wanted to.

She reached the end of the hallway before stopping and staring into the empty living room. It was silent. It was weird. No matter how many times Brennan told her it wasn't her fault, she still blamed herself for what happened to Blaziken. And staring at the empty couch made her feel even worse. She let out a sad sigh before finally continuing her way to the kitchen.

Once she reached the doorway of the kitchen, she saw Brennan with his back turned to her, facing the stove. The smell that filled the room was mouth watering. It's as if she could already taste his amazing cooking dancing around on her tastebuds. She smiled before quickly floating towards him, pressing her front into his back as she wrapped her arms around her waste.

"Gardevoir." She crooned happily before letting out a sigh. Brennan let out a little chuckle in response.

"Glad you're finally up. Breakfast will be done in just a—" he began before stopping as he turned around to face her, still locked in her tight embrace. He stopped when he saw what she was wearing. "Hmm... that shirt looks awfully familiar." The obvious jokingness of his voice made Gardevoir blush in embarrassment once again. He let out another chuckle before wrapping his arms around her. He leaned in real close before continuing. "Don't worry, a combination of my shirt and a pair of panties, if you're wearing any, is actually pretty sexy."

His comment caused her cheeks to burn even brighter. Brennan took amusement out of this. To calm her down some, he slowly leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. They only held the kiss for a few seconds before pulling away. After they locked eyes, just staring at each other. Brennan had somewhat of a smirk on his face to rival the cute, embarrassed smile that remained on Gardevoir's. They were so far lost in each other's eyes that they didn't notice the Pokémon who had been standing in the doorway watching. He eventually cleared his throat, getting both of their attention.

Machamp stood in the doorway staring at the two. Gardevoir's deep, embarrassed blush once again returned as she tried to hide herself in Brennan's chest. Brennan's arms remained around his girlfriend as he let out a sigh. Machamp stood still with his mouth curved and his non-existent eyebrows raised.

"Look, I'll tell the others soon. Okay?" He said curiously, hoping his Pokémon would accept that as an answer. He slowly shook his head in response as if he was an uninterested parent.

"Machamp." He finally said, motioning his top right hand thumb back towards the living room.

"Someone's at the door?" Brennan said curiously. Machamp nodded, before looking back towards Gardevoir.

"Champ. Machamp." He had taken notice to her lack of pants. Although she was wearing panties, and Brennan's oversized shirt looked like a dress on her, he still suggested that she may want to put some on if they were going to have company. Gardevoir was so embarrassed at that point she didn't want to remove her head from the crevice she had made in Brennan's shirt. He smiled down at her before rubbing his fingers through her soft, green locks.

"Thanks Machamp, I'll be there in a second." He said as he looked back towards the larger Pokémon.

"Champ." He replied. His tone sounding pretty plain. Brennan continued to stare at the doorway for a few seconds before finally looking back down towards Gardevoir.

"Okay, So, breakfast is just about done. You can go change... if you want to. I'll go see who's at the door. Then... then we can eat." His words finally got Gardevoir to look back up at him.

"Voir." She replied. Her tone was somewhat sheepish. Brennan could tell she was still pretty embarrassed about what had just happened. A small smile returned to his face as his softly kissed her forehead.

"No need to be embarrassed. He's just trying to help. At least I think he is." Brennan began to jokingly question his Pokémon's motives. Machamp was laid back. He knew he was just trying to help.

Brennan finally broke his hold on his girlfriend before turning back towards the stove. He turned the burners off, letting his freshly looked bacon cool down for them to eat. After, he turned back towards Gardevoir, who had remained in the same spot.

"Bacon, toast with your favorite berry flavored jams, and some scrambled eggs. That sound good?" He asked. Gardevoir smiled and nodded, not wanting to wait for her delicious breakfast. Brennan returned the nod with a smile. "Okay. Now let's go see who's at the door." Gardevoir once again nodded in response. Brennan took the lead out of the kitchen with Gardevoir following behind him. As they reached the living room, she took a sharp turn down the hallway to the bedroom. She was going to change into her dress to save herself from even more embarrassment. Brennan glanced back for split second and noticed she was gone. He knew where she was going. His theory was confirmed when he heard his bedroom door close.

He kept on to the door until he finally reached it. Once he did, he unlocked it and pulled it open to see who had decided to stop by this early in the morning.

"Luna, Lane? Hey. What's up?" Brennan greeted. He was curious. Luna had come over this early before, but she called him first before she did. And besides that, she clearly wasn't as happy and cheery as she usually was. She looked somewhat upset.

"Can we come in? I have to talk to you about something." She said. Brennan was quick to step aside, motioning for her, Lane, and Delphox to enter.

"Thank you." She thanked before entering. Brennan was seriously wondering what was up. Had something happened? She never sounded THIS upset. Besides that, Delphox looked the same. Her seeing what Brennan had began calling "Blaziken's Couch" didn't help either. It only seemed to make her even sadder.

"Luna, what's wrong?" Brennan asked, pushing the door closed as he turned to face her. Machamp had leaned forward in his chair, wanting an answer just as bad as Brennan did.

"Uh, Brennan... Police Chief Harrison called me this morning..." Luna began. Brennan's heart sunk down into his stomach when she told him that. But it still made him question why she got a call but he didn't. "He told me they've decided to not continue their search of what's left of the cave." This made Brennan's jaw drop.

"They're-they're giving up the search? W-why?" He asked, a mixture of anger and sadness apparent in his voice. Gardevoir had reemerged just as he finished. She saw Luna, Lane, and Delphox and didn't know what to think.

"Brennan, I don't know. The only thing he told me was they had done everything they could, and found everyone they could." Luna replied. She hated being the one to have to break the news to Brennan. But she figured it would be better for him to hear it from her than the police Chief.

"But Blaziken. They didn't find Blaziken. They didn't find him and—and they're giving up before they do?!" The frustration was beginning to take over as tears fought to escape his eyes. His other Pokémon had heard his fit of frustration and raced to the scene to see if they're Trainer was alright. They were just as lost as Gardevoir was.

"I can't even begin to imagine how upset you are right now. But—" Luna began, before being cut off.

"I know what you're going to say. You're going to ask me to calm down. I really don't see how you expect me to calm down when the police, the people who I thought were going to help, are giving up the search. He's still in there! He is! And I'll be damned if that's going to be where he stays. He deserves better than that! He—he..." His fit of anger had finally started to diminish. He couldn't hold back the tears anymore. The sniffles cut him off, as the tears started to pour from his eyes. He couldn't believe that this was happening. He couldn't. He didn't want to. Blaziken was gone and the police were giving up their search. Now Brennan was supposed to just let him wither away in a place like that. Alone. He refused to.

Gardevoir quickly made her way to Brennan and wrapped her arms around him. Luna watched as her own tears made their way down her cheeks. This whole situation was just so awful.

Delphox stood by her trainer with her eyes closed tight. She hadn't stopped crying since Luna told her what the call was about.

"I-it's not fair! It's not... fair." Brennan managed to say through his tears. This was destroying him. Gardevoir held him tightly, gently rubbing his back the same way he had done to her. She could feel his pain, and she didn't like it.

As Delphox's sniffles picked up, Brennan looked up at her. Luna had placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, ready to give her distraught Pokémon a hug if she wanted one. But Brennan he looked at Gardevoir, who even through his teary eyed face, understood what he wanted to do. She reluctantly let him go. He walked toward Delphox, glancing towards Luna, who backed off. Delphox looked at him, before the two embraced. They're crying continued as they tried to comfort each other. Everyone else stood around in a very sad silence.

"I'm—sorry." Brennan apologized quietly to the Pokémon. Delphox shook her head, deciding not to speak. She couldn't. She was too upset to. "H-he loved you. You know that? H-he wouldn't admit it, but he did." He continued. Delphox's tears were heavy already, but hearing that somehow made them heavier.

This had to have been the most heartbreaking thing Luna had ever seen. She looked over to Lane, who had remained silent, and his eyes were just as red as everyone else's from the tears that had escaped.

Knock Knock Knock*

Another knock on the door threatened to break up Brennan and Delphox's moment, but Luna wasn't going to let that happen. Brennan looked at her ready to go and answer it, but she waved him off before he could. She walked towards the door, wiping her eyes as she did. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself down a little bit before opening it.

And what stood in front of her made her cover her mouth in shock, as a loud gasp escaped...

"B-Blaziken..."

Yep, I'm going to have to leave you on a Post-Christmas Cliffhanger. Usually I write some sort of Christmas themed story, or chapter every year, but I wasn't able to this year. So I figured this would make up for it. Maybe. Haha. Either way, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone reading!