Chapter 48

With tomorrow being the start of the fair; Aura, Diamond, and the rest of the group decided on a morning walk past the beach to see all the booths and such being set up.

"This is kind of exciting," Lilly tittered, hopping up on the railing and looking over the fenced off area of the beach, "I've never seen anything like this except on TV."

"It is pretty impressive how fast they got the rides set up."

Diamond pressed her shoulder into Aura's, "They actually started setting them up while you and Prince were away."

Aura blinked, "Huh, although I guess I wouldn't have noticed since we've just been training since we got back."

She hugged onto his arm and sighed, "You should start relaxing for a few days. The tournament isn't until the end of next month, so after training today can we just spend some time together?"

The feeling of his hand brushing over her forehead made her look up at him, "Saying it out loud, I'm going to just assume you've been feeling ignored, huh?"

Diamond glanced away and pouted, "Maybe a little bit. It's not that bad because I know how important training is, but I'd still like to spend some more time with you."

"God, I'm an idiot." He muttered under his breath, "Okay, after today I'll take a break from training for a few days. And during that time we'll do whatever you want."

"That sounds lovely-" Diamond paused for a moment, "what do you mean by 'after today'?"

Aura scratched his arm, "Sorry, but while you were busy with your fur this morning, Stan, Prince and I made plans to do some special training like Tia and Lilly did yesterday." His eyes shot open, "W-we can just do the training next week though if this is that important to you." He hastily stammered, feeling the blood rush to his face.

A defeated sigh escaped the vixen's lips whilst silently squeezing her mate's arm much tighter, Aura hissed as he felt her claws suddenly stab into his skin. A twitch of her ear had shown she heard him, quickly looking at where she gripped his arm and abruptly let go, accidentally pushing him back a bit in the process. "S-sorry! I didn't notice my…" Overwhelmed by an unexplainable sense of sadness and guilt, Diamond turned back the way they came and started hurrying off on her own, only choking out a quick "I'm going back to the suite" before retreating back towards the city.

Completely paralyzed in bewilderment from Diamond's sudden outburst, it took a rough nudge from Stan for Aura to finally snap out of his stupor. "Uhh, shouldn't we go after her?" The Luxio asked.

"R-right. Yeah… I… I should see if she's okay." Aura didn't even acknowledge the others as he began to hastily follow Diamond's tracks back to the Pokemon Center.


Returning to their suite, Aura froze at his and Diamond's bedroom door with his knuckles inches from the wooden surface. Swallowing hard, the trainer lightly knocked before calling out, "Diamond?"

No response.

He took a deep breath and sighed, grabbing the doorknob and calling out once more, "I'm coming in."

Still no response. So, taking care to be as calm as possible, Aura slowly opened the door and peered into the dimly lit room, the first thing he noticed was Diamond sitting on the edge of the bed with a pillow held firmly against her face. He couldn't hear any crying coming from the fox, but she was still very clearly upset and might break out in tears at any moment, so he continued to move slowly as he shut the door behind him and walked up to her side.

"Diamond?" She didn't move. He let out another sigh and sat on the bed as well, "I… I just wanted to say I'm sorry for neglecting you for so long. I should have realized it from the start but I didn't, and if there's anything I can do to make up for being so damn stupid," he paused to look at her, "please...tell me what it is."

A full minute of deafening silence remained between the two before Diamond finally lowered the pillow, her expression showing intense hurt, guilt and...anger?

She suddenly glared at Aura with teary eyes and tossed the pillow to the floor. "Do you really think this can all be fixed just like that? The whole time you've been gone I was worried sick that I'd never fucking see you again, that our child might never have a dad growing up!" Diamond stood and aggresively scowled at her partner, "We've barely even spent much time together since we got here, and it feels like even less since we heard about the tournament, so when you finally came back I was so happy thinking we could finally spend some quality time with each other, but of course all you ended up caring about was this stupid tournament!" She screamed.

Aura's whole body began to heat up as a flurry of emotions raged within: guilt, worry, sadness, fear, he was absolutely paralyzed. What could he even say to help the situation? Did he even want to do anything about it? Maybe he just deserved this, after all, Diamond was right.

"I...I'm sorry, Diamond."

She stood there silently, her eye twitching as she snarled at him, "Sorry?! Is that all you can fucking say about this?! Like it will make everything better all of a sudden?!"

He couldn't speak, his mouth dry as a desert.

Diamond suddenly let out a shriek of anger and lashed out at Aura, the sudden movements startling the trainer and triggering a defensive instinct to lift his arm to block the strike, this all leading to Diamond's heated claws slashing into Aura's forearm and leaving three large gashes through his flesh.

Both of them froze, neither able to fully process what just happened for a short while. Diamond stuck ferociously scowling at her mate while Aura stared back with a look of terrorized shock. Time itself seemed to have slowed for the pair as a drop of blood fell from both Aura's wound and Diamond's claws, the two droplets splashing on the floor at the exact same time.

Their perceptions of time immediately returned to normal as they only now realized what had occurred.

Diamond's expression turned to one of absolute horror as she finally took in what she had done, slowly looking at her blood coated claws and shivering violently. Her stomach churned from the thought of what she just did and could feel her body wanting to throw up in disgust at herself.

"I...I…" Words couldn't escape Diamond's lips as she couldn't stop shivering in terror. She felt as if she were living her worst nightmare, a nightmare that could only compare to the day she watched her parents murdered right before her eyes. No. This was even worse than that. She had betrayed the one who saved her from that nightmare, the one person she loved.

During this, Aura couldn't even care less for the massive injury he was given, the only pain he felt was that of betraying the one being he loved. He deserved this. No. He deserved worse for neglecting not only his mate, but their unborn child too.

Tears welled up in Diamond's eyes as she limply dropped her arms to her sides, "I'm so sorry!" She cried, hastily rushing past Aura and throwing the door open before running out, leaving Aura to slowly drop to his knees and stare at the wound left by his love.

Ensuing what had occurred between Aura and Diamond a few minutes earlier, the rest of the crew figured it best to follow Aura at a slower pace to allow them some privacy to resolve their issue. However, they would only find themselves shocked at the scene that awaited their return.

A quiet ding sounded off in the elevator as it stopped at their floor. "You think they made up yet? It feels so awkward to even think of those two ever arguing." Stan noted.

"Actually," Prince interrupted, "I do recall them having a few disagreements in the beginning; although, it was always the result of them worrying about the other." He explained, briefly noting how the first argument he was present for had sprouted from the three scars across their trainer's chest.

Soon enough, Kibbs spoke up in her lecturing tone of voice, "Despite how perfect their relationship may have seemed up until now, no relationship will ever be without a few flaws. It was only a matter of time before Aura and Diamond had a serious argument, but considering what they've been through for each other, I doubt they won't make up eventually."

As Alice unlocked the door, they all walked in to complete silence. "Huh. Guess you were right, Kibbs. I don't hear any crying or yelling so maybe they did make up."

Taking notice of the open door to Aura's bedroom, Darlene walked over and peered inside. "Aura? You in he-Oh my god!" She suddenly screamed, rushing into the room to her son's side; everyone else instantly at the door too.

"What the hell?! Aura?!" Kibbs cried as she too ran to the injured boy. "Aura?! Aura, what the hell happened?! Where's Diamond?!"

The mention of Diamond's name made him slowly look up. "I...I don't know…" He muttered, starting to lose consciousness from the minor blood loss and overwhelming stress; however, despite this fact Aura tried to push himself up from the small puddle of blood. "I need to go find her."

All of a sudden, Aura's body froze in place as if he was being constricted by a mysterious force. In reality, he was being held in place by the light green energy of Alice's aura. "I'm not letting you go anywhere until I patch up those cuts!" She scolded, manipulating her energy to force Aura's arm towards her. Producing a green light from her palms, Alice began to hover her hands above the gashes and proceeded to use her healing abilities to accelerate the recovering process. "This is probably going to take a little bit, judging from the amount of blood there is he must have been like this for around ten minutes."

"Aura," Darlene began, "Who did this to you?"

He choked back tears. "Diamond… But I-"

"Why the fucking hell would Diamond do something like this?!" Lee violently barked.

"Calm the hell down, Lee! I need to focus on healing, and Aura wasn't even finished!" She looked at Aura and nodded. "Please continue."

A sharp inhale, "I deserved this for a while. I was a horrible person to her, practically ignoring her ever since we heard about the tournament. She's been dealing with carrying our child all by herself, which I can only imagine how much stress it caused her… I guess all that stress was too much, and it's all because of me."

"I wouldn't doubt her outburst was due to stress," Darlene told him, "her hormones must be going crazy and messing with her emotions pretty badly for her to actually attack you. But if you think about it, how often would you two even get into fights with each other? Because I heard the worst that happens would be when either of you are just worried."

"That's a fair point," Alice interjected whilst she finished restoring Aura's tissues, "I would think that, if anything, she might have always been suppressing any negative emotions towards Aura, probably either because she was scared it could cause issues between them, or maybe it has something to do with how she views Aura?"

"Like, she sees him as someone way more important than herself? Kind of like he's a sort of master or god to her?" Lilly guessed.

"I don't want anyone to see me as their master!" Aura spat, "Especially not Diamond!" With his arm fully restored to normal save for the lost blood, Aura stood with a slight wobble. "That's one of the reasons I'm not upset at her for lashing out, I want her to be able to have her own oppinion instead of thinking she has to follow my every wish like some stupid religion. Now, it's about time I find her." Ending on that note of determination, Aura stormed out of the bedroom to search for his missing love before anyone could stop him.

Aura hurried to the front door and threw it open, but he was stopped at the doorway by an invisible barrier. "Aura." Alice began, "You still need a little bit longer to restore your energy, you lost quite a bit of blood and your essence needs a few minutes to recover from the shock." She looked at the Pokemon around them, "You all go look around for Diamond, I'll see if I can direct some life energy back into Aura to soothe his essence enough to at least think straight."

Stan quickly stood upright and saluted with his paw, "We're on it!" Thanking them, the Pokemon all rushed out of the room and split up to search throughout the large building.


Shortly after rushing out of their suite with guilt flooding her thoughts and blood on her paws, Diamond hurried down the stairs to the lobby and frantically scoured around for a sign leading to the washrooms. Spotting the sign down the hall, she stumbled inside as quickly as she could, momentarily thankful that Pokemon had less problems with pregnancy if carrying an egg rather than live young, allowing her to keep moving on without getting winded.

Practically lunging for the sinks, she blasted the water and began to violently scrub her dirtied paws. There may not have actually been that much blood on her, but even so she just wanted every last bit of it off as soon as physically possible, hoping if her paws were no longer tainted by it, she may be able to actually calm down.

Over five minutes of constant scrubbing was finally when Diamond started to feel better, scarcely caring about the bits of black fur she left in the sink; so long as her paws were clean, she could care less at the moment. Staring at her paws once again, Diamond once again started to sob as the image of her tearing into Aura's arm remained in her thoughts, subconsciously not allowing herself to forget as punishment. "What the hell is wrong with me?" She wept, looking into the mirror at the Delphox staring back at her, her eyes had become bloodshot and her nose running and clogged with snot.

Suddenly, her reflection seemed to scowl back at her, "Nothing is wrong with you! It's all because Aura would rather train for the stupid tournament than be there for his pregnant mate!"

"N-no! I know Aura loves me very much, and even if he's my mate, he's also still a trainer."

"A trainer who can barely think about anything else than fucking battles!"

"That's not true! Aura cares about all of us, and we care enough to support him as our trainer just as well!"

"But that's still no excuse for not even talking about it with his mate first!"

"God damnit!" Diamond screamed, suddenly punching the mirror in anger as her emotions raged war within her own mind, she didn't even realize she had shattered the glass by mistake and left some cuts across her knuckles. She planted both paws on either side of the sink and cried. "What am I supposed to even do?"

"Diamond?" The faint voice of Tia and Stan came from the hallway, and they were drawing closer.

Panic rose in her throat and made it harder to breath, without thinking, she impulsively looked for a place to hide, turning around and clambering into one of the stalls and locking it behind her.

"I'll check the women's bathroom, you wait outside in case there's people in there." Tia's voice echoed as she opened the bathroom door. "Hello?" She called. Hearing the clicking of Tia's claws on the tiled floor, she could feel a lump in her throat as she sat on the toilet and listened for the footsteps to get closer. To her surprise, she barely heard them reach the middle of the floor before turning and getting farther away.

"So was she in there?"

"It's completely empty, I couldn't even hear anyone breathing."

Once the door closed, Diamond let out a long breath she had no idea she was even holding. Giving it a few minutes just to be safe, Diamond eventually left the stall and went to peek outside the bathroom. Seeing the hallway clear of anyone else ushered a sigh of relief before Diamond slinked her way out and started down in the opposite direction of the lobby.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Diamond nearly walked right into the back of a woman standing next to a large man, just barely catching herself in time. "Oh, s-sorry about that." She panicked. As the woman turned to face Diamond with a scowl, the two of them immediately recognized one another. "You?!" Diamond snarled as she had come face to face with none other than the same woman who'd insulted her at the spa, Cassidy.

"If it isn't the sex slave." Cassidy spat.

The man beside her raised his brow, "So this is the Delphox you mentioned, Cass?"

Cassidy crossed her arms, "The bitch that got me fired? Yes."

Diamond balled her fists, "I don't have time to deal with you again!"

A smirk crossed Cassidy's lips as she reached for a Pokeball in her pocket, "Well then I guess we'll just have to make some time!" With a flick of her wrist, the ball popped open and unleashed the Pokemon within. "Roserade, Stun Spore please." The grass type lifted its bouquet-like arms and sprayed a cloud of yellow powder over Diamond. "Benny, be a dear and take her with us."

The man, Benny, cracked his knuckles, "N-no problem, Cassy." Putting his arms behind her knees and shoulders, Benny hoisted the pregnant Pokemon up and followed Cassidy to one of the back halls of the Center.

Just as the two were out of sight from the lobby, Aura had arrived downstairs looking about frantically, hurrying to the receptionist and asking if they'd seen a pregnant Delphox recently.


The door to the roof slammed open as Cassidy walked out followed by Benny, who was still carrying Diamond. "Oh, what a coincidence, someone left some old, broken wood chairs up here, perfect for our guest to sit on. If we're lucky, some might have some rusty nails!" She cackled.

A knot tied in Diamond's stomach as Cassidy searched the pile of chairs, thankfully none of them had any rusted nails, but as she pulled one out to the middle of the roof and ordered Benny to set her down, Diamond winced as she felt splinters prod at her backside.

"Why are you doing this?" Diamond asked. "Just leave me alone."

Cassidy snarled back, "Because you got me fired, and now my parents think it was my fault and won't fucking do anything about it!"

"Because it was your fault! You didn't have to bitch about my relationship, but you did anyway!"

"It's wrong!"

"Who are you to say what's right and wrong?! What gives you the right to judge who I love?!"

"Listen here, you fucking bitch! You're just a stupid Pokemon and I'm a human! I will always be above you in this world!" Cassidy lifted her hand, "so learn your fucking place!"

Diamond shut her eyes as Cassidy's hand swung down. When Diamond felt no strike against her, she slowly opened one eye and jumped upon noticing a blue barrier between her and the woman.

"You're not going to lay a fucking hand on her!" Aura shouted from the roof's entrance. He walked closer while Cassidy stepped back.

"Who are you?" She spat.

"You don't deserve to know my name, but I am Diamond's trainer and her mate." Aura said. Cassidy continued to scream at him, but he ignored it all as he walked closer to Diamond. He looked into her eyes, his own turning into a deep shade of purple, "Are you hurt?" His voice almost sounded distant, but Diamond muttered out "no". Straightening up, Aura held his hand over Diamond, producing an eerie purple energy that seemed to cure Diamond's paralysis.

Finally, Aura snapped his gaze towards the duo, a flash of purple from his eyes seemed to lift the two from the ground before throwing them into a ventilation unit, dark rings binding their wrists to the metal as they desperately struggled against it.

"What the fuck is this?!" Cassidy barked, shrieking as Aura seemingly appeared a few feet away from them, the anger in his eyes flaring.

"If I ever see you trying to hurt Diamond, or anyone else again, I swear that next time I will not be so merciful!" Aura growled, his eyes flashing once more as the rings vanished, dropping the two to the ground. "Now leave!"

Afraid for their lives, Cassidy and Benny rushed to the door, the woman turning around one last time and shouting, "I swear you'll regret this you freak!" With that, Cassidy slammed the door shut.

Aura's eyes finally returned to their normal shade of blue as he ran to his mate. He quickly pulled her into an embrace with Diamond hesitantly returning the affection. "Oh god I was so worried about you! I'm so sorry for causing all of this!"

Diamond sniffled, "B-but I...I attacked you?!" Just as she said this, Diamond noticed no evidence of injury on his arm. She never even got the chance to ask as Aura quickly objected.

"No, Diamond. I deserved it. You had every right to be pissed at me! I've been a horrible mate for not spending enough time with you. I can only imagine the kind of stress you're dealing with, all because I was stupid and couldn't even take the time to be with you when you need me the most. You're carrying our kit for fuck sakes! And I've been making you do it alone all this time… So it IS my fault!"

He took her paws and held them, "Even after the fair is over, I promise to think of you before anything else again, this tournament means nothing compared to you and our family." Aura and Diamond stood in silence, tears welling in their eyes as they held each other close. "Before we head back down, I just want to say one more thing."

Diamond looked at him curiously, "What is it?"

"All I want is for you to let me know when something is bothering you, communication is a huge thing in a relationship, so from now on, please don't be scared to speak your mind."

She happily nodded, "I'll try my best."