Living on the beach, there were risks Kukui knew he was taking, and he was always prepared. Heavy rain, strong tides, crumbling sandstone – he had plans to cope with anything.

But a giant palossand collapsing over his house and burying it in sand… not so high on his list of anticipated risks.

And yet, somehow, that was exactly what had just happened.

It had taken him a long time to get over his shock, which Ash had quietly spent starting clean up and trying to make himself and Rockruff look as innocent as possible. Kukui spent a few more minutes debating whether this would be the thing that made him snap (because while there was no way anyone could have guessed this would happen, it was Ash's fault, and most people would be angry about it), but he knew it was mostly a subconscious procrastination tactic to avoid actually cleaning up.

A tactic that was almost immediately followed by another one – this one about how he just could not deal with this without food, and since their kitchen was currently under two feet of sand, that meant another night out. Ash agreed but refused to let him pay, which certainly helped smooth over Kukui's still quietly boiling temper.

They swung by the lab on the way home, since Kukui was pretty sure they would probably need at least a second vacuum and there was an industrial one in the lab closet.

"So this is where you work when you're not teaching?" Ash asked as they stepped out of the elevator. In typical fashion, the lights were all still on and several members of his team were present – most of them staring blindly at their computer screens. Ash still looked around in genuine interest.

"Yeah. It's a good place to collect data in a controlled environment. And it's good to get some feedback from other professors sometimes," he added absently. He noticed Artocarpus watching from the corner of his eye and smiled, taking Ash's shoulder to guide him over. "Hey, Arty. Working late?"

"As ever. What are you doing here?" he asked, swinging his chair around to face them.

"It's a long story, but mostly I just need to borrow a vacuum. Let me introduce you two," he began, but Artocarpus cut him off by extending a hand to Ash.

"Professor Artocarpus. You must be Ash Ketchum."

"Uh, yeah," he said, and stared at the offer in typical Kantonese fashion before awkwardly taking it to shake. He used the other hand to point at Pikachu on his shoulder. "And this is my partner, Pikachu."

"Pi-kachu!" it greeted happily, while Rotom flew around to get in the way.

"And I am RotomDex!"

"I know," Artocarpus said lazily. "I was there when Kukui picked up your casing. How are you finding it?"

"It is most excellent!"

At Ash's still slightly awkward look, Kukui explained, "Professor Artocarpus studies pokemon that don't learn moves, or those that sacrifice moves for other abilities."

"Oh, like Meowth," Ash said, and Kukui raised an eyebrow. Most meowths had full move-sets, so presumably he was talking about Team Rocket's Meowth specifically. It could talk, after all… had that stunted its moves? He opened his mouth to ask, but Ash had already turned back to Artocarpus. "That's kind of like what Professor Kukui is looking into, with how pokemon can only learn four moves at a time."

"It's a related question," Artocarpus confirmed. "All of the professors here work toward a similar goal – it's what makes us a research team."

"That's really cool," he said warmly. "So what do you count as a move? Like, does Scratch count if all they're doing is actually scratching? My Litten knows Scratch but it doesn't cut very deep, so I'm not sure if it counts as a move."

"That's one of the parameters I'm trying to define," Artocarpus said, and Kukui closed his mouth. Obviously he would just be interrupting if he asked now. So he turned away, mildly annoyed when neither of the other two noticed.

"I… guess I'll go get that vacuum," he said, for apparently no reason in particular, and headed off. He hadn't even made it to her workstation before Cassia jumped up and fell into step beside him.

"So that's your kid, huh?"

"My boarder," he corrected. He was not encouraging the Papa Kukui thing that had already spread throughout most of the team.

"He's younger than I expected. Cute, too. Like a rockruff."

He smirked but didn't bother responding to that. He wondered what Cassia would think of how Ash had trained said puppy.

"So, anyway," she said, as if she were changing the subject they weren't really talking about, "Do you mind if I ask him something?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Ash? Of course not, but what do you have to ask?"

"Well, he was at the Kalos Conference the other month, right?"

He blinked, then nodded awkwardly. Honestly, he'd kind of forgotten – he kept meaning to ask about Ash's experiences with the League and never got around to it. But Cassia was the one who usually tracked down conference footage for them to study, so it probably wasn't surprising that was her first concern.

"Since the League claims all their footage was lost in the Crisis, I've been trying to find amateur videos or accounts instead," she said. "I've even been trawling through pokevision, so please appreciate my sacrifice."

Kukui snickered. Pokevision was home to far too few battle footage videos and far too many battle-review vlogs, with inexperienced trainers offering highly flawed opinions of the work done by professionals. And the few battle footage videos you could find were usually pretty shaky and often at bad angles. But when desperate, researchers made do. And Cassia was pretty desperate.

"Maybe I'm getting paranoid, but every time I check my search results, I swear there are less of them. I'm not getting anywhere," she said. "So I thought, since the website says Ash Ketchum was there, he might be able to give me a personal account. It's better than nothing, right?"

He paused, an admittedly bitter part of him inclined to wish her good luck getting a straight answer out of the kid. But when it came to battle, he thought she'd probably encounter a different problem. "Well, you can ask," he said slowly, "but Ash isn't exactly the best at explaining things. You will likely get a lot of enthusiasm and onomatopoeia and not much else."

"Onomatopoeia…? What do you mean?"

"What it sounds like. But by all means, give it a shot."

She gave him a look but didn't press, and Kukui was allowed to get to the storage cupboard and its industrial vacuum cleaner in peace. By the time they got back to Artocarpus's desk, it was to find him and Rotom looking aggravated, Ash staring blankly, and both Pikachu and Artocarpus's delibird happily circling Ash's feet like he was a maypole.

"But things don't 'just happen'. There needs to be some evolutionary causation," Artocarpus was trying to explain as they came close.

"Uhh…" Ash only looked blanker at the terminology, so Rotom translated.

"A scientific reason."

"Oh. Well… growing up's a scientific thing, right? So maybe that's what it is. They're focussed on growing more than battling."

"That's not how pokemon work," Artocarpus snapped. "If that was the case, then every pokemon with a non-mineral evolution remaining would retain an empty move-slot."

"Uhh…"

"When you don't use an external source to evolve," Kukui interjected to explain. "Like an evolution stone or the energies of specific areas. Arty is saying that if whatever you were saying is true, then Rockruff, for example, would never know more than three moves until it becomes Lycanroc."

"Oh! Yeah, I guess that does make sense," Ash said blankly, and then did a double-take as he noticed the vacuum. "Whoa! That thing is huge!"

"Pikaaa!" Pikachu agreed, stumbling to a stop in order to stare, and Delibird nearly tripped over it, both of them wobbling into Ash and forcing him to grab the desk to stay upright.

Kukui paused to make sure he was okay before responding. "Well, we often have a lot of feathers and fur to clean up in here. It should handle the sand alright though."

He hesitated again, noticing Artocarpus was still frowning. But Kukui could recognise the look – he often felt the same way after one of Ash's overly simple explanations hit a chord of scientific logic. It could be incredibly frustrating, especially when you woke up the next day with a new and tangible hypothesis to test.

"Hi there," Cassia said, interrupting the moment with her usual welcoming smile. "You must be Ash. I'm Professor Cassia."

"Oh. Hi," he said. "Nice to meet you."

"You were in the Kalos League, weren't you?" she asked. "I was wondering if you might be interested in telling me about it."

It was mildly curious, the way Ash's polite smile faded very slightly at the request. But he sounded as cheerful as ever as he said, "Um, sure! What did you want to know?"

"Well, as much as you can tell me, really," she said. "Do you have a free afternoon this week? I'd really love to be able to interview you properly."

"This week isn't so great," Kukui interjected. "The school's open house is coming up, so we'll both be pretty busy."

"Both?" Ash repeated, looking all the more concerned. "Do you need to be there too, Professor?"

He blinked, then frowned as both Cassia and Artocarpus looked at him sideways with matching smiles that… usually preceded another 'Papa Kukui' comment. Because his assumption that he needed to be there had probably sounded more like something a guardian would do than a researcher. He lifted a hand in a move that was perhaps more flail than defence.

"Hey, I study battle too, y'know! In fact, as the Pokemon Professor here, if anyone should be investigating League events, it's me! Of course I should be there!"

"Uh huh," Artocarpus drawled, while Ash stared.

"Investigating? Officer Jenny said that was all finished," he said blankly. "Why are you doing more? Did something happen?"

They stared back at him, suddenly lost, but Ash just gazed back in equal confusion. What did Officer Jenny have to do with the Kalos League Conference? Maybe he was talking about something else. They'd apparently passed each other by somewhere in this conversation.

"Well… uh… I guess we should get going," Kukui said, deciding to take advantage of the confusion and avoid any more opportunities for him to make a fool of himself. "Lots of cleaning to do after all."

"Right," Ash agreed, and Pikachu scrambled up his back in an apparent rush to get them all out of the lab as quickly as possible.

While it may have been an excuse, Kukui soon realised just how honest he'd been in claiming they had lots of cleaning to do. They spent a solid two hours just on the loft, making sure Ash had somewhere to sleep. Luckily, Kukui's own bedroom and the bathroom had been shielded by closed doors, so aside from what had crept under the gap they were completely sand-free.

But most of the house was still in shambles the next day, so Kukui called in to the school to report he and Ash weren't coming in. They instead spent the day digging themselves out and vacuuming until they were finally free of sand – or, at least, as much as they usually were, given the location of the house.

"Oh, man," Ash announced as he turned off the vacuum cleaner one last time. "And to think, I used to complain when Mom and Mr Mime yelled at me for tracking dirt in the house."

"It certainly puts things in perspective," agreed Kukui. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to make another Sand Attack pun without thinking of all this."

"No way, I can't believe it," he said, throwing a cheeky glance over his shoulder. "I've heard you on a pun Sandstorm professor! No little Sand Tombcan Sand Force your puns down!"

Pikachu groaned loudly, while Kukui smiled approvingly. "Nice."

He grinned and went back to the vacuum, unplugging it and preparing to empty the bag in what had become a very practised movement. "But seriously, I am never complaining about having to wipe my feet again. Remind me to apologise to Mr Mime when we get home."

"Pikachu," Pikachu sighed, and Kukui slanted a look at it. It and Rockruff had begun the day digging alongside he and Ash, but hadn't really been doing much more than playing around, and while Rockruff had been returned after most of the sand was dumped outside, Pikachu had perched on the couch to join Rotom in 'supervising'.

Still, Kukui could empathise. He'd been using a hand-vacuum on the basement stairs and he was so far beyond done that it wasn't funny anymore. But at least the house was clean, they'd moved most of the sand back down to the beach, and they hadn't overfilled the rubbish bin with vacuumed waste. He considered this a success, pokemon supervisors or no.

He collapsed on the couch next to Pikachu, both of them watching wearily as Ash poured his final bag-full into the rubbish bin. "Mr Mime… that's a psychic pokemon, isn't it?"

"And fairy-type. But we didn't know that for ages – I didn't even know fairy was a type until last year," he said, and Kukui grunted.

"That's right. Most regions didn't acknowledge the fairy-type until recently. It's a little sad, since it implies none of them ever saw a sylveon."

"I still don't get what makes Eevee evolve into Sylveon," he said as he wandered over to join them on the couch. "I get that Umbreon and Espeon have something to do with love and the time of day, but how is Sylveon any different?"

"It is a different cause entirely!" Rotom objected. "Umbreon and Espeon are related to friendship, while Sylveon is evolved from affection!"

Ash didn't look any more enlightened by this information, so Kukui shook his head and tried to explain.

"Those are the scientific terms," he said, waving Rotom off to leave him to this one – he doubted Ash would be able to follow Rotom's analysis on this topic. "What we call 'friendship' in pokemon science is a technical term used to qua- uh, measure something similar to trust. Affection is a little more like 'happiness' or simply satisfaction with how a pokemon is treated by their trainer."

Ash scratched the back of his neck, still confused. "But shouldn't all pokemon that trust their trainers be happy with them, too?"

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?" he asked, once again struck by how different Ash was from the trainers he'd once met in Kanto. "But think about it, Ash. In your travels, you must have seen a lot of very well trained, powerful pokemon. And you've probably seen some very pampered and spoiled pokemon. Do you really think they all have the same kind of relationship with their trainers?"

Ash paused, then lowered his eyes to the table, obviously thinking it through. "Now you mention it, I've seen some pokemon that would do anything for their trainers, even when their trainers are really horrible to them. From what you're saying, in pokemon science that'd be called friendship?"

"That's right," he admitted, and then grimaced. "It does put a slightly darker twist on the word, doesn't it?"

He frowned but didn't comment, and Pikachu scampered over to crawl into his lap. He scratched behind its ear to make it chirrup happily, and then looked back up at Kukui. "And there are some people who pretend to love someone, but don't actually respect them or trust them. But the other person likes the attention anyway, so… that'd be affection?"

Kukui winced again. It was the scientific definition, but Ash was making it sound a lot more toxic than it should have been. "That's… one way to look at it. It's usually less insidious than that."

"Insid…?"

"Sinister… uh, cruel," he translated. "The love is usually more genuine – it's just less based in trust than what a pokemon scientist would call 'friendship'."

Ash still didn't look entirely happy with the explanation, but left it there, instead focussing his attention on Pikachu, who leaned a little harder into his hands and hummed happily. Eventually, Ash smiled too, and looked up at Kukui again with easy eyes. "Figuring out all this stuff must've been super hard, huh? I always just figured pokemon evolve when they're ready!"

"It can be a difficult area to study," Kukui admitted. "But it's a big field, currently spearheaded by Professors Rowan and Sycamore. Rowan actually accepts assistants based on their ability to present theories or new analyses on evolutionary patterns."

"Their what?"

He chuckled. Ash didn't seem tired physically, but given how poorly he was following language he usually coped with, the kid must have been exhausted. "He'll take someone as a new assistant if they can tell him something interesting about pokemon evolution."

"Really?" Ash asked curiously. "I wonder what Gary did."

"Gary?" he repeated, before the name registered. "Oh, that's right. You know Gary Oak, don't you?"

"Yeah. He was my best friend growing up," he explained. "But he studies fossils and stuff. I always thought it was weird that he signed on to help Professor Rowan."

"Well, if you look into the past, you can sometimes understand the future," he said diplomatically. He'd never really understood the appeal of archaeology, even when it led to the reanimation of extinct pokemon. Let the poor things rest and focus on the now, in his opinion. "And those old pokemon often lived before we really had 'trainers', so it probably gives an excellent insight into how pokemon live without humans."

"You think? I dunno, every time I see stuff from the past, humans and pokemon seem pretty close, no matter how far back you go."

He shrugged. Unlike some professors, he didn't really care about history. Unless it was related to moves or battle, he wasn't all that interested.

Besides, this was all getting a bit too detailed for him. He had just spent seven straight hours cleaning. He was mostly interested in how long it would take for his body to physically meld with the couch cushions. And also whether he could justify getting take-out twice in two days just so he didn't have to cook dinner. Maybe he'd send Ash to Mallow's family's cafe – they at least had something resembling healthy food on the menu.

Days later, he berated himself for it, but for now, he just let the conversation sink into tired silence, unconcerned with definitions of friendship, affection, or even what Ash knew about pokemon from ancient history. It was just another mystery to add to the pile.

Meeting Ash's mother in person was an… interesting experience. And kind of hilarious.

"Mom, seriously, you don't need to tell this story," Ash groaned, burying his face in his palm. It had spent a lot of time there so far, and Delia seemed to take a kind of pride in getting it that way.

"It shows how much you've grown!" she said cheerfully, before clapping her hands and turning back to Kukui. "He ran all the way to Professor Oak's laboratory in his pyjamas! And of course the whole town was there to see the new trainers off. Thinking about it, it's lucky he was that dressed – he used to just sleep in his underwear on hot nights—"

"Mom!"

Kukui bit his lip. It would not help to laugh. It would not help at all.

"—so I had to gather everything together and follow after him. He and Pikachu were such a mess when I found them. He must have made Pikachu very cross. It only knew thundershock at that point, but it hit him quite a bit, he was looking very burned."

"Pikachu…" Pikachu mumbled, looking almost as embarrassed as its trainer, who was starting to look in real danger of bursting a blood vessel.

"Oh, and then when he tried to put Pikachu in its pokeball! It was adorable! Pikachu kept batting it away with its tail, like they were playing catch!" she continued cheerfully. "Until Pikachu hit him in the head with it! Served him right, of course, not listening to his pokemon! And you should have seen the way they left town. Ash had to take my rubber gloves and he had a rope around Pikachu since it refused to walk on its own!"

Pikachu curled into Ash's hip, obviously humiliated by the memory, while Ash sighed loudly. "Yeah, okay, Mom, I was a lousy trainer on my first day, we get it –"

"But then he called me from Viridian City that night!" she said. "I was so proud of my little boy! Though you were even more of a mess then than you were when you left. You never did tell me what happened. I should ask Misty…"

"No!" he yelped. "No, that's okay Mom. We just met Misty and there was that little accident with her bike and it was no big deal!"

It was absolutely a big deal, Kukui could tell. But he kept that thought to himself with a sneaky grin. He would let Ash have what little dignity he could around his mother.

"Oh, that's right! Pikachu used to have such a bad habit with bikes," Delia said, before smiling pleasantly. "It's just as well that's all behind it, isn't it?"

Ash rolled his eyes, only to catch sight of Rotom in the movement and jerk slightly. He immediately grinned and snatched up his notes. "You know, as much fun as this is, I really should get back to work on my presentation for tomorrow."

"Pika?" Pikachu stared at him blankly for a few seconds, looked at Delia, and then hurriedly jumped up and onto Ash's shoulder. "Pika! Pika pi pikachu, Pikapi!"

"Right! So uh, we'll just, you know, go do that," he said, and forcefully grabbed Rotom out of the air before hightailing it for the loft.

Kukui snickered. "So it's true – even the nicest kids can't handle their parents' embarrassing stories."

"It's a handy trick for getting rid of them," Delia confided, and when he looked at her, she winked. "Now he's gone, I can really ask you how he's doing. He's been a little preoccupied for a while now, but he really perked up while we were here on vacation. I wanted to see if he was still doing well."

"Ash?" Kukui glanced up at loft before going back to her. "I think so. He's a good kid, and usually really happy and energetic. But I think there's a lot he doesn't tell me."

"Mm… he used to have a friend that travelled with him most places. It seems like ever since Brock went off to study, Ash has been keeping more and more to himself," she said, and then sighed. "Oh well, all things considered, I suppose it's only to be expected."

"Puberty is never a fun time for anyone," Kukui said slowly, but Delia's blink and following awkward laugh didn't reassure him much.

"That either. How's he doing at school? I was a little worried – he's never really been much for academics."

"No, and he does struggle a little," he admitted. "But he really excels in practical lessons, and he's really become a big part of the class. He's even been helping my colleagues and me with our research, in his own way."

"Oh, good. I much prefer it when he's doing work for a professor," she said. "You don't get him into nearly as much trouble."

"I don't know about that. Ash sure seems to find it anyway," he said, and frowned. "Speaking of which, are you at all familiar with Team Rocket?"

"Team Rocket?" she repeated, then huffed and turned to call up at the loft. "Ash Ketchum! You and Team Rocket aren't making trouble for the professor, are you?"

"No, Mom!" he called back, sounding very much like a teenager insisting he wasn't throwing wild parties. "I barely even see them here!"

"Because I heard about what you did to Professor Sycamore's lab!"

He poked his head up over the railing, offended. "That was so not my fault! Any of it!" he cried, then pulled back with a disgruntled look. "How did you hear about that?"

"Well, the professors do talk to each other, dear," she pointed out. "And you know I have Professor Oak over for dinner once a week."

Kukui pushed down a wave of envy over the idea of having so many chances to talk to the Pokemon Professor, and then had to make his mental way past the realisation that Ash also apparently knew Professor Sycamore (did the kid collect renowned Pokemon Professors, or what?), to instead focus on the point, "Wait, so you do know about Team Rocket?"

"Of course. But don't worry, my Ash is very good at handling them," she said cheerfully, before shooting another sharp look at Ash. "I hope you're not letting them interrupt everyone's schoolwork, either."

"Like I said, I barely even see them here," he said. "Besides, there's a bewear that seems to have caught them. I don't think they've got time for me lately."

"Well, that's alright then," she said, before going back to Kukui. "They can be very annoying. And Ashy-boy always falls for their tricks! The amount of times they've been wearing disguises and he doesn't even notice –"

"You don't notice either!" Ash cried, but she didn't even look at him.

"Yes, but dear, I don't battle them nearly every day."

He groaned and moved back out of view, while Delia smiled like this was the intended outcome. Kukui tried not to gape, not sure whether to be more concerned that she thought Ash dealt with Team Rocket all the time, or that she didn't seem to think it was a problem.

In fact, it was apparently so minor a problem that she didn't feel the need to discuss it any further, instead changing the subject. "So, what kind of research does Ash help you with? He tells me you study pokemon moves. That must be a very exciting field!"

He looked down and around at the pokemon surrounding them, but didn't find any equally perplexed expressions. So he could only look at Delia, begin to realise just where some of Ash's more concerning habits came from, and try to move on.

Maybe he was just missing something.

The three of them went out for dinner, Ash energetically telling his mother all about the pokemon school and his friends. She seemed happy to hear about it, though she did interrupt at one point to ask if he missed the road.

"Yeah, a little. It gets a little boring seeing the same skyline every day," he said, before wincing apologetically. "Uh, no offence, Professor."

"None taken," he said with a grin. He remembered the lure of the horizon all too well. "Travel gets into your blood."

"Yeah, kinda," he said, and went back to his mother. "But I'm learning a lot, and I'm really loving it here. The people are so nice and warm, and everyone lives and works with pokemon so well…" He took another mouthful of food, chewed and swallowed, and then said, "I mean, I really miss battling. You don't see a lot of battle trainers here, and so I don't feel like I'm pushing myself a lot. But this region is so great, and I wake up every day just waiting to see what new thing I'll find out about it!"

"That's wonderful, honey," she said warmly. "It sounds like just what you needed."

Kukui glanced at her, but Ash just grinned and carried on. He wondered if it had anything to do with what she'd alluded to before – whatever it was Ash apparently kept to himself. As dinner continued and turned into the evening, and then breakfast, he debated talking to her about it. She didn't seem that worried, and she and Ash appeared pretty close for people that apparently didn't see each other more than a few times a year. So it wasn't like she was likely to be just shrugging off something she should have been upset about.

But at the same time, she did seem to know there was something going on. Something more than Team Rocket. As paranoid as it made him feel, he was beginning to think she and Ash were purposefully keeping him in the dark about whatever it was.

He was still worrying about it after the Open House had officially come to a close and they were back home, when Ash's mother went out to watch the sunset with Mr Mime. Ash and Pikachu eventually followed her, and Kukui stepped out to lean in the doorway. He didn't normally bother with the sunset he could see every day, but it was a nice way to distract himself from his thoughts for a moment.

Everything was silent beyond the wind and waves for a few minutes, until Delia's soft voice broke the quiet.

"I really am glad you're doing so well. I was worried about you."

"About me?" Ash asked curiously, and she nodded without looking at him.

"You left so quickly to get to Kalos, and then you came home so soon after the league there," she said. "And then it was like you didn't want to go anywhere at all. You didn't have any plans, or seem interested in any of the leagues… it seemed so unlike you."

Pikachu had been watching her, but as Ash turned his head back toward the sunset, it instead shifted its attention to him. Neither of them said anything.

"And with how little you told me about the conference, even though you had that gold medal…" she said softly, and Kukui raised an eyebrow. Gold medals were usually only given out to winners, and he was almost positive Ash had said he'd lost the final. But Delia was already continuing on. "I know you're always fine, Ash, and you know I don't mean to pry. But a mother is allowed to worry."

"Mime-mime, mister mime!" Mr Mime added pointedly, but Ash barely shifted to look at it, and Delia's shoulders rose and fell in a sigh.

"You know I'm proud of you, and everything you do," she said, "but it's just so nice that you're getting the chance to have some fun. I hope it stays like this for you."

Ash shifted awkwardly for a second. "We always have fun. Right, Pikachu?"

"Pika," it said quietly.

"You know what I mean," she chided them gently, and then reached out, curling her arm around Pikachu so she could grab Ash's shoulder and pull him into a sideways hug. "Is it really so much to ask that the world take care of itself for a few months, so my boy can relax and enjoy himself?"

"Mo-om," he whined, practically dripping wounded dignity, but he didn't pull away. After a moment, he even lifted his own arm to wrap around her waist too. "Thanks. Sorry I always make you worry."

"Miss-mister mime!" Mr Mime objected, and both Ash and Delia's shoulders lifted with their grins.

"Sorry to you too, Mr Mime," he said playfully. "Thanks for looking after my mom."

The small family fell silent again, and Kukui folded his arms over his chest, quietly deciding there was definitely something he hadn't been told, and almost definitely something he was being kept out of.

But for the first time, he wondered if maybe it would be better for Ash if he let it stay that way.

Generally speaking, Kukui preferred to take his breaks out of the classroom, even when he was working through them. But his whole class had been acting strangely this past week, so he had decided to spend lunch grading papers at his desk while the kids ate their lunch. Ash had been pretty closed-mouthed about the whole thing at home, so spying seemed like the best option.

But nothing seemed out of the ordinary. They'd pushed their desks together so they were eating in a quasi-circle, and were all acting perfectly normal, though Sophocles still looked embarrassed about something.

Ah, who knew? Maybe it was some pre-teen hormonal thing. It was about time they had some emotional drama, after all.

"I don't think it's lying," Ash was saying confidently, when he tuned back into the conversation. "Lying means you're actually saying something different to what the actual truth is."

"Yeah. This is just not saying something," added Lillie. "It's not your fault if people don't ask directly."

"No way, it counts," Mallow insisted. "Because you're letting someone believe something that's not true."

"And we did ask," Kiawe added with a playful jab at Sophocles' shoulder.

He jerked, his lunch nearly going everywhere in his overreaction, before he winced. "Hey, come on…!"

"But if you think that's lying, then how far does it go?" asked Ash. "I mean, what about the first couple of days? When we didn't know what was wrong? I really don't think that was lying."

"That was absolutely lying!" Mallow cried. "Because we kept asking what was wrong and he said nothing was!"

"I don't think that was what Ash meant," Lillie pointed out. "You mean before then, right? When he knew but didn't tell us?"

"It was kind of lying," Sophocles admitted awkwardly. "I felt pretty bad about it."

"So is that the difference?" asked Ash. "Whether you feel bad about it or not?"

Mallow scrunched up her face. "I don't think so. After all, Lana's the biggest liar I know and she never feels bad."

Having been quietly eating her lunch, Lana winked and stuck out her tongue in silent agreement before going back to her food.

"Ughh, this is too complicated," Ash groaned, pushing away his lunch box so he could bury his head in his desk. "I give up."

"It's not complicated. You just don't get it because you're an honest person!" Mallow teased, reaching over to shove at his head. "You couldn't keep a secret if your life depended on it."

Considering everything he knew about the kid, Kukui looked up from under his hat to check Ash's reaction. As expected, he only shifted his head so he could see, no guilt or even a hint of a shameful grin on his face.

"You think?"

"Yeah! It's no wonder Lillie doesn't get it either, because she's too sweet to lie," Mallow continued, before raising her eyebrows at Kiawe. "I'm kind of surprised you get it. You're the most honest person I know!"

"I can lie!" he insisted, and there was a long beat as even Ash stared at him in silent disbelief. He frowned, pulling back in offended dignity. "I can absolutely lie! Like, uh… well, listen to this: my little sister is not the cutest little girl in all of Alola."

The silence stretched, though some of their expressions had gone from disbelief to mild disgust. Especially when Kiawe broke into a goofy smile and added, "She's the cutest little girl in the whole world!"

Ash and Lillie laughed awkwardly, while Mallow and Sophocles groaned and Lana continued chewing her sandwich in judgemental silence.

"I think Ash and Kiawe can totally lie," Sophocles said, lifting a finger, "They do it all the time in pokemon battles. It's like when you play card games, right? So your opponent doesn't know when you're planning something."

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked as he pushed himself upright and picked up an apple slice to munch on. "That's not about lying or telling the truth. It's just how it is. It'd make for a pretty weird battle if opponents kept yelling strategies across the field at each other."

"You mean that's not what you're doing when you call out attack names?" asked Lillie, making Lana snicker.

"Besides, near as I can tell Ash doesn't have strategies," Kiawe added in a deadpan. "If he told everyone his plans, it'd constantly be something like 'thunderbolt and then I don't know yet'."

Lana kept snickering. Ash ignored them both. "If that's lying then people are lying all the time. I mean, it's not like people do stuff for no reason. Just because they don't tell you why they do everything they do, that doesn't mean they're lying about it."

"That's right!" Lillie agreed, a little more emphatically than the situation really called for. "Just because you have secrets, that doesn't mean not telling them is the same as a lie."

It was an interesting way to phrase it, and the kids all noticed, causing them to stare a little. She blushed, and then ducked her head, fiddling awkwardly with her fingers. "I mean… you know… in theory."

As the silence stretched, Kukui pursed his lips, debating whether he should intervene. The conversation might have started innocently enough, but it was clearly hitting a bit too close to Lillie's coping mechanism of pretending things were fine when they weren't. But before he could decide what he'd do about that, Ash groaned loudly again, distracting everyone by throwing up his hands.

"Argh, seriously, this is too complicated! At this rate I'm gonna spend my whole life wondering whether I'm lying or not! Why does it matter, anyway?"

"Exactly," Lana piped up, closing her eyes imperiously. "Not knowing what's real or not makes life a lot more fun, anyway."

"That's true, isn't it?" Mallow admitted. "Knowing everything can really take the magic out of things, can't it?"

"Yeah," Kiawe agreed. "Like that pool I showed you the other day, Sophocles. You might like to know the chemicals and stuff, but I'm just happy knowing that such a beautiful thing exists. I don't need to know why."

"I guess so," he said, and then grinned at Lillie. "I might like to know stuff, but it's a lot more fun learning about cool things than it is just getting the information straight out."

"Like getting to know a friend," Mallow added. "It's not the information you find out, it's the journey you take to get there, and the memories you have after that count."

Lillie pulled her fists up to her chest, staring around at everyone with shining eyes, and then smiled broadly and bounced her head in an emphatic nod. "Right! Thank you, everyone!"

The group all grinned at each other, basking in the glow of a reaffirmed friendship, before Sophocles happily changed the subject onto the house he was staying in this week. Still watching from beneath his hat, Kukui looked over his students one by one, before finally ending up on Ash.

Lying or hiding something… Maybe the kids were onto something.

He hadn't been lying when he told Delia he enjoyed having Ash stay with him. The kid was like a breath of fresh air; even when his misadventures complicated life more than any sane person could put up with, it was so incredibly fun that Kukui actually found himself looking forward to the next one. And those harder moments… the times when Ash would go quiet, or screw himself up in knots, or look so very shocked that someone was actually concerned about his feelings… Kukui wouldn't give them up either. He wasn't sure what, but even as Ash kept his secrets, Kukui still felt like he was learning something invaluable with each and every moment.

He'd spent so much time lately trying to figure Ash out. Trying to work out what made him tick – what he wasn't telling people. And it was so frustrating, because every time he tried, no matter who he asked or how, he just ran into a brick wall.

Maybe it was frustration he didn't need. Maybe he should just accept it all for what it was.

Life had certainly been a lot more fun lately.