John's POV

"Why did she act like that?" My mom was beside me, and she was staring at the girl on my bed. It took a few minutes of shocked looks, gasps, and explanations, but I eventually made up a good cover story for her. My family didn't have to know she was a player.

"I don't know. I guess that she thought she was asking for money or thought Maria was something she could pawn like a volleyball. Makes sense, she was covered in bandages." I explained to her. I was amazed that I could pull of the lie so well. Just minutes ago, I was dragging the girl to my room. And now, she's fallen asleep on my bed.

"Makes you think why she wanted a half-wrapped volleyball instead of money from you. You didn't have any on you?" my mom asked back, the fear in her voice still somewhat present.

"No, no. I just told her that I didn't have cash on me. But God knows what I would have done if she wanted to fight me. I couldn't fight a girl, at least someone younger than me!" I told her, and she and Maria laughed beside me.

"I guess I'll just leave you two alone. It might scare her if she saw an adult, and I don't need lies from her as explanation. You made sure she's safe, so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to handle her. I'll be downstairs, if I hear any loud noises, I'll be up in a jiffy, okay?" She turned around and headed to the door.

"That sounds good, thanks." She opened the door and left Maria and I alone.

"Man, is she trusting." Maria commented. I smiled at her, and reached for my chair to plant myself in. She hovered over and landed on my head like she always did. Her bandages were taken off before we arrived at my house, to avoid extra questioning. Besides, she was healed enough without them.

"That's why I like mom. But anyways, I'm surprised this girl, Tasha, or whoever she is, didn't threaten me in the least." I continued to stare at her clean face, wondering how such a young girl could act so violent. "She had her Pikachu, and a knife in her pocket, so why didn't she use them?" I looked behind me, staring at the aforementioned knife and Pokeball, careful not to press the button in its middle. I managed to sneak them out of her pockets as I was leading her home, and the knife scared me the most. A simple switchblade, red handle, a small blade about 5 inches long. But ever since Eglington, I've had a slight fear of sharp objects in general, from kitchen knives to razors for shaving. I couldn't help but twinge a little when I saw them. I shivered at the memory of the knife slicing my skin, and I shook the thoughts away.

"Maybe she's just that stupid?" Maria asked above me with a skeptical tone. "Thug or not, she's still an adolescent. Maybe she didn't think the whole plan through? That she found us by sheer luck?"

"That's a nice possibility." I praised her. That was a logical answer, and I was surprised to hear such a response from her usual snarky self. "But maybe she was trying to get friendly with me, just so she could get close enough to take you. Who doesn't want something useless as a ripped-up volleyball like you?"

"Ha ha, very funny." She retorted. She turned around to look at the table, and I followed her eyes back to the knife. "What're you going to do when she wakes up? I doubt she's going to cooperate."

"I'm sure she won't. But I won't force her to talk, if that's what you're thinking." I spat out, disgusted at the idea of threatening a younger girl like that. I couldn't do it if I tried. "But if she's not giving me what I want, I won't give her what she wants." I stared at the Pokeball containing her Pikachu, Bolt if I remember right. I always thought Pikachus were cute, but after what Jess told me with her and Maria, I doubted the thought.

Pokemon are animals, just like me, dogs, cats, but they certainly weren't meant to be pets.

"By the way, I want to ask you something, just about this thing you do." I looked up and saw her red-and-yellow eyes look back, making me blush just the slightest, but not enough to make me turn away.

"About what?"

"About this...thing." I started, and from her frown, I realized I had to correct my words. "I mean, you sitting on my head and all. No offense, but you've been perching on my head whenever you please. Why? Do you like the shampoo or something?"

She looked at the ceiling for a minute, and made some of the weirdest faces I've ever seen her with to come up and think of a reason. I had to resist smiling, or she would just get mad again. "Uhh...I don't know. I just...like your hair?"

"Thanks for the compliment, but I want a definite answer. I searched up that Misdreavus like to pull on people's hair, but you've been resting on mine more than pulling on it." I leaned on the chair, and Maria took off from my head like a plane on a track and into the air. "Remember that dream you had, about the house burning, and I had a similar one? Maybe you got your dream from sitting on my head too much?" I joked out, but this was a serious theory, and I didn't want her to be suspicious of me too much.

She gave a cute giggle, and gave what can only be described as a smug smirk at me. "What, you think I somehow got my dream from absorbing your memories, or something crazy like that?"

"Have you ever heard of Dream Eater?" When she shook her head, I turned back to the table and glared at the switchblade for a while. "A move does exactly what it sounds like. I don't know how, but the Pokemon eat the dreams of sleeping Pokemon. I'm assuming a Pokemon's brain work just like a person's, and people have dreams all the time, even if we can't remember them or see our dreams during sleep. Dream Eater's a Ghost-type move, so it's very possible you're doing something similar, if not the move itself." I picked up the knife, and pressed the trigger, giving off a rather loud CHK!

"Wait, so you're thinking that, every time I've been on your head, I've been using this...Dream Eater and that the nightmare was just a repercussion of it?" She was sounding more and more annoyed, and she looked at me with bored eyes, but her voice was nothing like them.

"Well said, although in this case, it's more of a Memory Eater." I muttered shortly, and tried to see my reflection on the grey stainless steel of the blade. "Nio's from the Pokemon world, and Alex too. I'd like to ask them, but I can't right now. They would know a lot more about actual Pokemon than the games would tell me, that's for sure."

"I don't see what this has to do with the situation. Why do you want to know all this, anyways?" She asked as she landed on a stack of books on the table.

"Why, aren't you curious about how you might have been using a new move all this time?" I teased her, knowing how she wanted to become stronger for both of us during the beginning of the game. "Getting stronger isn't just about training, or getting into fights."

After hearing a sarcastic "Hmph!" I grinned at her attitude. "Okay, it mostly does, but we need to know exactly what you can do before you can get strong properly, and the Internet can only provide so much information on live Pokemon instead of ones in a game. Didn't you say, back in your second day, that you wanted to get stronger so you could protect me?"

Maria opened her mouth, but nothing came out of it. She was gaping and closing it like fish before she gave an irritated "Fine!"

I continued to look at her after her agreement, and she was trying her best to look like she didn't care, but she just kept avoiding eye contact with me, and I kept trying to stare into her eyes.

They really are pretty now that I look at them more closely. I need her more like this, more submissive, obedient, cute.

I smiled at her shyness and saw her face turn a darker shade of purple. I smiled even wider at this, and devised a plot to get a reaction out of her-it's been a while since I've got a laugh from her, and she's been getting a laugh between me and my "girlfriends" it would be nice to get some payback. "How about this idea, about your Dream Eater?"

"Wha, what?" She said nervously.

I poked the prolonged tip of the knife with my finger before closing it back into its handle. "Maybe you used your Dream Eater on me when we're both asleep."

She looked confused, and I added more details as I put the knife down on the table. "Our first night, remember? Together? In the same bed?"

She had a blank face for a few seconds, and all the while I saw her face get brighter as she got my meaning. "Oh...oh!" I could tell she reached my idea's conclusion, because her face was the reddest it could get, which sadly, wasn't saying much, just made her look a shade of purple darker with her skin. It wasn't more about the idea of her using the move, as much as it about reminding her of that first night. Her shock was quickly replaced by anger, but I could see her trying to keep it together. "Oh, you...you...!"

"I...what?" I pressed her, giving her the same smug look she gave me earlier, waiting to see what she was going to do to me. I should have known better, however, that she was fully capable of using damaging moves at this point of growth, but I was laughing too hard to care at the moment.

"You..." Before she would talk, she turned her head to the wall, but I could hear the slightest of sounds from her, coming in the form of "...perv."

I quickly grabbed her and pulled her in. "Oh come on, I'm kidding, I'm kidding." I rubbed her hair to calm her down. She struggled and complained a bit, but she settled in nicely after a few shakes.

But I wasn't satisfied. I was curious to see how Ghost-types like her were like in their sensory department, if you catch my drift. I started to move my hands from her hair and slowly to her sides. It was a nice change from her cold pink bangs to her warm skin. I never had a chance to touch her like this. Just my fingers were enough to get a reaction from her-a soft, quiet sigh. She was shaking in my hands, telling me I was on the right track, and I could hear giggles under her breath. I smirked behind her, and slipped a finger under the hem of her skirt-like torso. This yielded the biggest reaction-she was shaking in my arms and laughing out "Hey that tickles! S-stop!" in a silly way, smiling the biggest smile I've seen her with yet.

Dear God, I don't know if I'm like a parent tickling his child or a voyeur raping a woman into submission. Right now, I'm feeling like the latter.

I stopped my hands, and washed my face of any trace of the smile I sported. That thought was a very effective turn-off (not that I had a turn-on, mind you!) and I tried to sneak my hands into my pockets without letting her know what was up.

"Aww, why'd you stop?" Maria whined below me. I wanted to stare at the walls of the room forever at the moment, but I looked down at her. She was smiling again, and her stare made me tingle on the inside.

"You told me to stop, so I stopped." I admitted hurriedly, wanting to get the issue dropped. I still couldn't look her in the eye. But she wouldn't take that. "What? Does 'stop' means 'go' to you now?"

"Oh, come on." She nudged me, making me squirm on the inside even more. "Jess told me that you were too insecure about stuff like this, and you were doing so well!"

"Doing so well at what?" I asked her, almost disgusted by myself for the implications at the statement.

Maria took a moment, and brightened up in a millisecond. "Well, making you more comfortable around me and, just women in general."

I let out a dry laugh at this explanation, but I was really hoping to drop the conversation as soon as I could. "Jess told you to do that? No thanks. I'm fine with women. I got you, Jess, Kari, Mitsune. My female-related lifestyle's rather successful, in my opinion. It's just that..."

Here's the part I was hesitating to commit to. I hated being subtle, hell, I sucked at it, but looking at those eyes made me want to partly tell the truth and the other part was wanting to run out of the room, so I was stuck with the compromise of remaining seated in the chair.

"He's afraid that he's harassing you."

Maria flew into the air like a jet while I actually jumped in my seat (something I thought impossible without using legs; I somehow managed to gain some air by jumping with my butt, if that made any sense!) in shock. Either way, we were shaking our heads in the air to find the source of whatever made that noise. I was on my feet and it wasn't long before I found the speaker: the girl lying on my bed.

She didn't have a smile as she spoke, but had her head turned to us as she lied on the bed. She looked tired and most of all, bored. "What, am I wrong?"

I gave a defeated sigh as I sat back down, and Maria landed on the table. "How long have you been up?"

"When I heard about the fact that you spent the night with that ghost, you pervert."

"Ouch, that hurts." I tried to be honest, but my voice sounded too sarcastic right now. I decided to see if I could get something out of her instead. "But why should I take advice from someone like you? You attacked a human and a Pokemon out of the blue, if I heard it right. What, you a stalker as well as a player?"

"Shut up!" She practically roared the words out, and I gripped the chair harder, feeling my skin prickle in fear from her outburst. "I did that for a good reason!"

"Let me guess, to win the so-called 'prize' that's offered to the winner?" Maria spoke up suddenly, and I saw her with a strong look. I was surprised she could change emotions like that. That was one of the things I couldn't understand about women. One moment they're nice and friendly, but in a second they yell at you for the minute of details awry. "Sorry, but if it means killing off friends, you're not getting it."

"The hell I'm not!" The girl threw her blanket at me, but with it so thick, and she so thin, it didn't cross the distance between the chair and bed and fell to the ground. I was busy thinking of cleaning the filthy floor and the contaminated blanket to care about the girl-she was standing up on the bed and plunged into her pockets for her Pokeball and knife.

CHK!

"Looking for these?" I held in front of me her Pokeball and the now-open switchblade, and had to try my best not to look smug.

The girl snarled at me, but stood her ground, looking ready to jump at me from the bed. I nervously glance at Maria beside me, and she gave me a short nod. I could only hope that she meant she got my back, because I wouldn't know how to handle a girl this crazy!

"You really are a pervert, stealing from a girl while unconscious!" She growled at me, and I gave the tiniest of smirks to show on my face.

"I ensured myself and Maria's life by doing so, although, now I'm having second thoughts. Is that a bad thing, protecting loved ones?" I sat back, and she couldn't say anything for a while. I've had arguments and debates with people all the time, especially since high school, so I hoped the situation would work out for me. "Besides, even if you doget out of here, kill her, and every Pokemon out there, what could you be wishing for be so worthwhile you would kill to get it?"

"Tch! You think I'm going to tell you!" Damn, the girl was pushy.

"Actually, yeah." I was naturally blunt, and it was impossible for me to sugar-coat words. "Please don't move around too much. Walking around while unconscious like you were must have been tiring. But you should be thankful I gave you a house to rest under, instead of leaving you outside." I was getting more and more irritated as the time passed, and the cause of it was the girl. Why was she so stubborn?

"I'll go back out! Just give me the Pokeball and I'll leave!" She complained, and she thrust out a hand directed at my left hand, the one holding the Pokeball. I was sorely tempted to give her the ball and kick her out the door myself, but I wanted her to keep her in here long enough so that Alex could find us. He said Light could track people down, so why isn't he here yet?

"You sick bitch!"

I stopped breathing and thought at the intensity of the voice thought Alex was at the door. But it was Maria.

And she was pissed.

"What the hell's wrong with you!" Maria was whispering her words, but they left such an impression on both of us that I was scared that her words might actually cut me in half. "We took you in for shelter, and John was caring enough to let you lie on his bed, and you haven't said a single 'thank you'?" I could actually feel heat emanating from her, and was afraid at the thought of her releasing a fire-type move in the room.

"You engaged us first, but we let you live. I let you live after you came up on us to take me away from John! You could have been killed if it weren't for us!" Her voice got louder until the crescendo reached a full-out howl. I remained petrified on my seat as I looked at the girl. She was still standing on the bed, but her face was steeled and pale, as if it was a wax mask instead of skin and flesh.

I was getting anxious. The girl was still a kid, and if she broke down right now, I wouldn't know what to do. And sooner or later, mom will come back up, think I made her cry, and give me the lecture of a lifetime on the treatment of guests as well as girls. "Uh, Mari-"

"John!"

"Yes!" I instantly perked up on my seat, awake more than ever.

"I'm going to Nio's and tell him Tasha's here!" With that, she blazed out of the room out the window, turning invisible while doing so.

Leaving me with the half-broken girl on my bed.

With great effort, I tore my gaze from the window and turned to her. She didn't turn her head at all, and instead, glued her eyes to the air Maria was at just a second ago. After a few seconds however, her legs seemed to give away as she fell to the bed, still upright. She brought up a hand to her mouth and I could see her hand shaking like mad. Not just her hands but her legs, and head.

Oh crap! She's going to snap! "Uh, Tasha?" I used her name, hoping it would calm her down a little.

Her head gave a jolt in my direction, and I saw a tear make a line down her left eye, the one that had a scar above it. She must have noticed its presence, because she immediately darted to the blanket on the ground, making me jump back hugging my chair in fright, and practically constricted her entire body with it, making it look like a cocoon made of cloth.

I took a few shallow breaths, and realized what just happened. I saw the wrapped ball stay perfectly still, and I was afraid she might accidentally suffocate in it. I reached out to pet her like a scared kid petting an intimidating pug, but I couldn't reach.

What am I, nine? I slowly got off of my chair, still supporting myself with it, and took a step forward.

Automatically, I jerked my left foot from the floor, giving out an instinctive "Urhk!" of pain. I gingerly stumbled back and sat on the chair to check what happened to my foot. A small cut about a quarter of a centimeter, surrounded in deep red, was made on the middle of my sole. It was bleeding surprisingly fast, and the stinging pain remained, if not stronger than ever.

I pressed my right thumb on it to keep it from pooling up blood, and I looked down to see what cut me-the switchblade.

What! How did...when did I drop it? It wasn't long before the scene began to replay in my head. Maria left the room, we were paralyzed, and I was so frightened of Maria and at the thought of my mom coming in the room that I didn't notice the knife slipping out of my fingers.

It wasn't me that scared her; it was the knife hitting the floor...

Not too soon, I heard steps outside the room, and the door opened to reveal mom, carrying a plate filled with sliced melon and strawberries. "My God! What happened here?" Her eyes strayed from the curled-up girl and onto the floor. "What's a knife doing here?!"

Shit!

"Uh...oh! Uhh...I just found in on the ground the way here and I just picked it up!" It seemed like a reasonable excuse to harm the guest, so why not? "She wasn't hurt, though, and I just wrapped her in blankets, that's all!" I tried to laugh out the lie to make it look not casual, but the pain from my foot returned. I kept quiet about it though; I couldn't risk her confiscating her knife.

She looked ready to drop the plate out of her hands, but she quickly put it on the bed and took a few gasps of air. "Oh! Well, what you find is what you keep. But put that thing away, or she might get the wrong idea!" She ran out of the room and left us alone as before.

I closed the door shut before taking a few gasps of my own. I walked back to the chair and pulled out some tissue from a nearby box and pressed it against my wound. I looked at the plate of fruit on the bed and put it on the chair, along with the knife on the ground, clicking it back shut before placing it besides the plate. I sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at the ball before me. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. It was just like when I first met Maria. I didn't know what to do, I was afraid. But just like that time, she was completely helpless, wrapped in her shell of cloth.

What do I do? Will talking even make the situation better?

"Please, get up." I said weakly after coming up with nothing good. "Look, I'm...I'm sorry about how Maria acted. I didn't know she would be mad, and...now I'm just pathetic, aren't I?"

No reaction.

"You're not talking? What can I do to get you talking, or hell, a reaction? Screw it. Introductions. Maria said your name's Tasha? I'm John Evans."

No reaction.

"If you want to leave, feel free. I'm not going to stop you. You can take your knife and Pikachu back. What's his name again?"

No reaction.

What's wrong with this girl? Is she really that down? "My mom got you some snacks if you want. You can have those before you leave."

"...lucky."

I froze as I heard the muffled voice, but exhaled afterwards, relieved that she was cooperating. The stinging sensation on my foot prompted me to give a proper answer. "Yes, you're lucky my mom got you something to eat, even with the trouble you made."

"I meant you're mom."

It was a bit louder this time, and I could sense anger behind it. "My mom's lucky? Come on, be more specific."

"You're lucky you have a mom to look after you." The ball squeezed even tighter, and the voice got so quiet I couldn't quite hear that last bit, but I got the meaning.

"Huh? ...Oh, oh..." I connected the dots, and the conclusion wasn't pretty, but expected. Her dirty clothes, paranoia, selfish attitude...

I didn't want to say my thoughts out loud at that point. Besides, it was all just speculation, and I didn't want to make her more depressed by rubbing the truth on her or making her victim to a false accusation. "...I'm sorry. Sorry if I said something wrong."

The air was getting thick with tension, and my clothes felt like they were suffocating me, but I resisted the urge, especially with a stranger girl in the same room. "I'm really sorry. You must have gone through a lot in your life, huh? That scar?"

No reaction.

"Before coming here, I went through hell too." I decided to chip away at her from there, see if I could get something out. This wasn't the most delicate of issues, but it was the first thing that came to mind. "First grade, I got bullied by kids almost every day. One day, I got so tired of it all, but since I couldn't possibly fight them off, and doing it would make things worse, I slashed my wrist." I semiconsciously rubbed the said wrist with my hand, sweaty from the remembrance.

That got something out-the bundle was vibrating slightly, so that I could feel it, but not see it. "I got better, but the bullies kept up the pressure on me. They heard what happened, and they got into some really big trouble. I'm surprised they didn't get expelled." I added a chuckle at the end, to add some humor, but no voice came out and the blanket stopped shaking. "For getting them in so much trouble, they gave me a nice big one on my other arm. It hurt, that was all there was. But I was scared shitless. I thought there were going to kill me. Wouldn't you, if you were in that situation?"

"I went crazy after that, literally. I don't remember much, probably because I was still I kid like you. But I do remember killing one of them. I thought it was perfectly fair at the time. They tried to kill me, so I tried to kill them. Sound fair to me."

"And you know what? It still does. But now, with the game going on, that kind of idea doesn't seem too pleasant, even if it is a right thing. I almost got killed by a man with a Magmortar for just having Maria around. But I was too scared about getting the hell out of there than to think about fighting back like you did."

I paused for effect, and my one-man dialogue paid off. The blanket was shaking again, harder than ever. But I couldn't stop myself, for whatever the reason, whether to get this feeling off my chest and onto a weak girl, or just to drive the point home. Maybe both.

"I don't know if this I'm supposed to say this, but I kind of like that. A younger female standing up to an older male, completely unarmed like you were. Like I was. I wish I could be more like you. Tough, fearless. But I doubt that's ever going to happen. I just want to get out of this alive, and with the public knowing about Pokemon, that's becoming more and more unlikely."

At this point, the bundle was shaking like mad, and if I perked my ears enough, I could hear her breathing through the blanket. It was heavy, frantic, wet. I got off the bed, and kneeled on the floor, and the fear of what I just said was starting to hit me. I laid my elbows on the bed and rubbed my head, tired from my confession.

I could feel my entire face burn, and my eyes were starting to sting. Before I couldn't talk much longer, I decided to try one last time to get something other than sobs.

"Besides, I'm a boy; I could never be a girl. And I doubt I'll ever get one in my life."

Whether she gave a reaction or not, I don't think my last throw of humor did anything. My hands were covering my face from tears of my own, and I buried my head into the bed right afterwards.

Looks like Maria was right. I do need to be around women more.

...

(Edited: Feb. 18, 2013)