Thank you to Viroro-kun for beta reading this for me.
"Could you pass the pepper flakes, please?"
"Heh… I never thought you'd like something that spicy."
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me."
Goh sat there, silently chewing on a piece of garlic bread. Unhappy and feeling, internally at least, more than a little alone.
Not that he was lacking company, as the conversation at the table proved.
He was joined at the table by his fellow research fellow partner and friend Ash, and his long-time childhood friend, Chloe. And the evening seemed to start off well enough, considering that Chloe's father, Professor Cerise, had left all of them at the lab this evening to go learn something about the Sinnoh Region's gastropod Pokémon, Shellos and it's evolution Gastrodon. With no simple way home and with her family likewise busy, Chloe decided to spend the night at the lab once again, and planned to leave the next morning to go to school.
This all led to Mr. Mime making a huge bowl of spaghetti for dinner with garlic bread on the side. For the humans, anyway. The Pokémon with the humans, being Pikachu, Grookey, and Eevee, all ate Pokémon food mixed with berries.
The three of them sat at the kitchen table, eating, when Chloe asked Ash to pass the red pepper flakes over to her.
"Spicy food is the best kind of food," Chloe said, wagging her fork in the air. "Just after sweet food, I mean."
Ash nodded. "I know what you mean. Spicy-sweet is really good!"
"Ah, I've never had a chance to eat anything spicy-sweet!" Chloe said. "Now I'm jealous."
Ash chuckled. "I'm not even sure where you'd find 'em. It was ice cream with a Tamato Berry filling!"
Goh silently crunched on the garlic bread, listening to the conversation, but not contributing. He kept his eyes on his food and off of his friends having a happy conversation around him. Thinking at the current moment felt like a chore, like a dense fog was sitting right between his ears, making it hard for him to see his brain.
"Tamato Berries?" Chloe responded, surprised. "That's REALLY spicy! They use those in this incredibly delicious ramen they serve at this ramen place that's in one of the subway stations downtown," she explained. "The broth turns a reddish orange from the berries and it's so spicy and rich!"
"You know about Tamato berries?" Ash asked.
Chloe looked over at Goh, and he caught her green eyes in his. There was a mischievous flicker in them, reflecting the lights in the kitchen. "Oh, Goh and I know all about Tamato Berries."
Goh looked up at her, thinking for a moment, his mind moving at the pace of a Shellos as the memory came back to him. "Oh yeah, we do, don't we?" he said.
Ash slurped down another forkful of pasta. "Oh, c'mon! Ya gotta tell me about it if you go THAT far, you know?"
Chloe giggled and looked back at Goh. "Well, should you start, or should I start?"
Grumbling a little under his breath, Goh sat up and went through the story in his head. "Okay, so this one time, me, Chloe, and some of our school friends were staying after school waiting for our parents to come pick us up. Mine were busy with work and Chloe's Dad was out of town, so we were mostly waiting for mine to get finished or for Mika's dad to come by and pick us up in his truck."
"Mika is a friend of ours from school, and one of the ones with us," Chloe explained as she continued to dig into her own pasta.
"Anyway, you know how our school has that big garden, right?"
Ash nodded.
"Well, it so happens that some of the classes that worked the garden were growing berries that they could cook with. And some of them were Tamato Berries."
Goh closed his mind, their young forms appearing in his mind.
"Yeardley was the one who discovered them," Chloe said, filling in another gap.
He nodded. "Yeah, Yeardley found them and then we all followed him since we figured we had some time before Mika's dad arrived, and when we got there, the Tamato Berries were ripe and ready for picking. And then Yeardley picked one and held it out to me and said-"
"'I bet you're not tough enough to take a bite out of this!'" Chloe said, mimicking Yeardley's voice. "He held the berry out to Goh because…" she went quiet, thinking to choose her words.
"You can say it," Goh said, shrugging. "I was a pretty easy target for bullies."
"Sorry."
Ash chuckled. "Well, same here, y'know?" he said. "I wasn't exactly popular back in Pallet Town for more than anything but my pitching arm and even then not really. Some kids are just… y'know, mean."
Goh smiled at Ash, still somewhat discouraged and fighting through the fog in his mind that seemed to be pressing down on him. That lonely feeling disappeared just a little bit at that moment.
Chloe continued telling the story. "Well, Goh was scared, since he knew enough about Tamato Berries to know how hot they were."
"Yeah, but I was worried that if I didn't take a bite of it, they'd call me even more names and make school that much less fun to go to…" he said, sighing.
Chloe smiled gently at him. "Well, school is never really that fun, but I'm glad you still came back in those days," she said.
He chuckled, shrugging. "Basically the only reason I ever actually wanted to go was to hang out with you. It was pretty miserable otherwise."
Chloe giggled along with him, and the conversation died for a moment, and Goh felt quite a bit better about how the evening was going.
If the conversations could go more like this and less like they were going earlier, maybe it would be a good evening after all.
Ash slapped a hand against the table. "Well… what happened after that?"
"Oh," Chloe said, shaken from where her thoughts were wandering. "Since Goh was hesitating, and I didn't want him to get teased, I took the berry out of Yeardley's hand myself and took a bite right there."
Ash gasped. "You did what!?" The look on his face was one of astonishment.
"Bit right into it. It was really juicy, but then I felt the heat of it." As she explained this part, she was continuing to shake red pepper flakes onto her spaghetti. "But I didn't flinch. I just smiled, the spicy Tamato juices dripping down my face and I handed the berry back to Yeardley and said 'your turn'."
Goh slouched back into his chair as Chloe continued telling the story. He remembered the image vividly, as well as what Yeardley said in response.
"Yeardley said I looked like a vampire who just bit into someone's neck and ran away from me screaming," Chloe continued, laughing at the memory.
Goh twirled some pasta on the end of his fork. He remembered the red juices dripping down Chloe's cheeks and the terrified look on Yeardley's face, but he remembered thinking that Chloe was very brave and cool, standing up for him like that. He felt his face warm up as he continued to slouch. It wasn't an incredibly unpleasant memory, but it was at least a little embarrassing that Chloe was the one looking cool in front of him instead of the other way around.
"That's so cool!" Ash said, his eyes sparkling. "I guess Yeardley picked up the wrong sort of berry, right? If you're able to bite into it without flinching like that."
"Oh no, it was really spicy," Chloe said, shaking her head. "And it did kinda hurt after a little bit. But it wasn't awful, you know? It was really delicious, and ever since then, I've always tried to lean more towards spicy options for food when it's available." She took a spiral of spaghetti, speckled with the red pepper flakes and popped it into her mouth. After chewing for a few moments, she swallowed and shook her fork at Ash again. "You know, when sweets aren't available."
"Man, that's actually pretty amazing…" Ash said. "I can't handle Tamato Berries at all."
She laughed. "Ha, neither can Goh. You've got that in common, at least."
"H-Hey, I can now, sort of…" Goh said, his confidence waning the longer he spoke. "But it can be really intense, you know? Even the one you bit into wasn't totally ripened on the inside, so it wasn't that bad!"
She smirked at him. "Aw, it's okay, Goh. It's not like me being able to handle the hot stuff makes me tougher or cooler than you."
Her tone of voice told him that's exactly what she meant. Of course, he knew exactly what buttons to press on her to get her to double back.
"Maybe you'd be cooler if you weren't constantly pushing carrots and peppers off your plate to Yamper when we were little."
Chloe's eyes shot open at the counter attack, the uncomfortable look of embarrassment on her own face now. She shrugged, continuing to eat her spaghetti.
"H-Hey, they were bitter, you know? I hated the taste and Yamper was more than happy to take them from me."
Chloe explained this all to Ash, clearly trying to play to a more sympathetic audience than the boy she was teasing just a moment ago. Goh frowned at the obvious evasive play, but said nothing to interrupt.
Ash nodded. "I'm guilty of the same thing," he said. "I've given my table scraps to my Pokémon more times than I can count!"
From the ground where the Pokémon were seated, Pikachu raised a tiny fist. "Pikapika pikachu!" he cheered in confirmation to Ash, who only laughed in response.
The lonely feeling in Goh's chest returned, watching Chloe and Ash close ranks about their own misbehavior. He didn't have a Pokémon of his own before he came to live in the Cerise Laboratory, so he didn't have any experiences like the two of them were sharing. His face bunched up, and he scowled at his now empty plate, his head feeling even foggier than ever.
He stood up to leave. "I think I'm gonna call it a night," he attempted to say, but he didn't get more than two words into it before he stumbled over.
Chloe, who was seated next to him, rose immediately and caught him by the arm, preventing him from falling to the ground completely. "Goh?! What's the matter?"
Goh's eyes looked over at her, and any hints that she had been teasing him only a few moments ago had evaporated. Her bright green eyes, like emerald gemstones, were searching his face for a clue to his condition.
She placed a hand on his cheek and then his forehead. Her fingers felt very cool, like she had been holding her hands in ice water before touching him.
She retracted her hand. "Goh, you've got a crazy fever."
Through the fog in his head, he raised an eyebrow at him. "Fever…?" he repeated dully, putting a hand on his own forehead to feel exactly how warm it was. And it was warm enough to surprise even him, and he had been told that you can't feel your own fevers before.
"Oh, that's not good," Ash said, standing up from his seat. "Chloe, you should get Goh into bed."
She nodded. "Got it. I guess cleaning up dinner is your job?"
He gave them both a thumbs up. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Just get Goh upstairs, alright?"
Chloe gave him a thumbs up back and began walking with Goh, supporting his weight by throwing his arm over her shoulders. "C'mon, Goh. Let's get you to bed, okay?"
"A-alright…" he stammered, standing taking more energy than he had originally bargained for.
Chloe took her steps slowly and deliberately, and Goh did his best to match her, though he wasn't even half as quick as she was. This meant Chloe was still waiting a few moments for Goh to take his next step before she could move forward.
Goh's consciousness felt lost in the fog that his mind seemed to be lost in. It was receiving several sensory inputs, he could tell, but connecting them to his environment felt beyond him for a moment. He felt the smallness of Chloe's shoulders, and the softness of the hand that kept his arm pulled around her so that he wouldn't fall over onto the ground.
There was a sweet smell in the air, stuck to Chloe that mingled with the dinner's garlic bread and the spiciness on her breath from the red pepper flakes. It was a floral, perfume-like fragrance that reminded Goh of the flower field in Cerise Park, or perhaps of the garden at school on a bright spring day.
Goh smiled calmly to himself, feeling how close Chloe was, even though an outsider might think he was pathetic looking, having a girl struggling to walk him through the lobby of the laboratory and to the stairs.
"Are you ready?" she asked him.
He didn't speak, only nodded.
His mind seemed stuck on the sweet scent of flowers.
Chloe took the steps up the stairs very slowly, one at a time, and Goh could only barely perceive the creaking wooden stairs beneath them as he and Chloe climbed up.
Once they were at the top of the stairs, he felt Chloe give a relieved sigh. "We're almost there, Goh," she said.
"Thanks, Chloe…" he said, the words coming out of his mouth without passing through his clouded mind. It was very much like he was an observer in his own body, not quite able to control what was happening.
Chloe opened the door to the room he shared with Ash and continued to slowly walk him in. "C'mon, you're taking the bottom bunk tonight," she said, setting him down on the mattress. "Ash'll understand."
"Right," he said, not fully grasping just what it was he was agreeing to, but he found himself lying on the bed for a few moments as Chloe pulled off his shoes and pulled the covers over him., tucking them into his side.
He felt a weight on the bed next to him, and then felt Chloe's cool hands against his face again. "You just rest, okay, Goh?" she said. She sounded a little worried, but Goh wasn't sure what she was worried about. His body suddenly felt very heavy.
"I'll be back with a glass of water so you have something to drink if you get thirsty during the night," she said.
"Got it…"
His response was half-hearted, or more accurately, he wasn't capable of anything other than a disinterested sounding response in his current condition. He felt Chloe's cool hand leave his face, and he felt the weight on the mattress next to him leave, only for a smaller weight to take its place next to him.
When Chloe returned momentarily with a glass of water and a bottle of fever reducing medication, she discovered Goh already asleep, with Grookey curled up next to him, a look of worry on the Pokémon's face and a pained look on Goh's as he attempted to sleep off this illness.
"Sweet dreams, Goh," she said in the darkness before she and Eevee returned downstairs to help Ash finish putting everything away after dinner.
Goh's sleep was dreamless, but hardly restful. He found himself tossing and turning more than he usually did. The flashes of awareness were often brief, except the moment he felt too thirsty and began to venture to the kitchen before seeing the cup Chloe had left for him on his dresser. Drinking the now room-temperature water and downing two of the pills, he returned to bed, peaceful sleep finding him soon thereafter, as well as Grookey rolling over onto his chest to pin him down somewhat.
The next time that consciousness intruded on sleep, he found that he needed to clench his eyes shut tight, which could only mean the morning sun was pouring it's inconvenient rays all over his face.
Goh twisted in bed, rolling Grookey onto the mattress next to him. Quietly asking himself what time it was, he began reaching for his phone, which he usually sat next to his pillow, but his hand only groped the sheet that covered the mattress.
Turning onto his side, he saw his phone sitting next to the medicine bottle on his dresser, but the glass he had drank from the night before was already gone.
He laid there in bed, the events of the past evening slowly becoming clearer and clearer in his head, though the thick fog remained. He wasn't really jealous of Chloe having a close conversation with Ash, was he? Of course not.
He thought the words, but the weight in his stomach seemed to be telling him otherwise.
Goh kept his face turned away from the bright sun, not able to look at it without the throbbing in his head continuing to get any worse. The throbbing was so bad, it almost sounded like someone was stomping the wooden floor nearby.
It wasn't until he heard the squeaky hinge on the door to his room that he thought that the pounding was footsteps.
"Good morning," came the faintest whisper of his childhood friend's voice. "Are you awake…?"
The door was barely cracked, and Chloe's intelligent emerald eye scanned what little she could see, but Goh lifted up his head, and that told her that he was indeed awake, so she bumped the door the rest of the way open with her foot.
She was dressed in her school uniform, and in her hands there was a tray with a few bowls of various sizes, a tea cup and a teapot.
"Chloe, what are you doing?" he asked, sitting himself up.
The look on her face was calm and generally happy, but he had known her long enough to see the crack in her pleasant facade. Chloe always had a way of carrying herself when she was thinking about something else, and he had only known himself and her parents to be able to call her on it. But he wasn't going to ask what she was thinking unless her actions made it important for him to dig into. He didn't want to accidentally push her away.
"I thought I'd bring you breakfast since you never came down," she said, holding up the tray. "It's not much, but you have to eat if you're ever gonna feel better, right?"
"Breakfast…?" His sense of time seemed to be dulled much like his ability to think clearly. "What time is it?" he asked.
"It's… you know… a bit after school starts."
She said it somewhat nervously, bringing the desk chair over to the side of Goh's (really Ash's) bed.
He scratched his head. "But that means you didn't go to school today, right?"
"Well someone has to be here to help take care of you," she said, setting the tray on his bed in front of him.
Now that he had a better look at them, he could identify what was in the bowls. The largest one looked like it contained a thin rice porridge, and the smaller bowls beside it contained a few pickled plums, some white sesame seeds, and shredded nori respectfully. It was a pretty standard breakfast for someone who was feeling under the weather, the rice porridge. The sides were probably more for him if he was feeling up to it, to add some flavor to the rather plain tasting dish.
But Chloe's words were what hung in his mind. "You're staying here because of me…?"
"Ash already has his hands full with all the Pokémon in the park," she said, picking up the teapot and carefully pouring him a hot cup of ginger tea. He could smell the ginger keenly pierce his sinuses. "And I can just have Mika bring the homework so I won't fall behind."
"I see…"
Goh took the cup in both of his hands and began raising it to his mouth, but the weight of the cup in his hands caught him by surprise. The cup shook in his hands, like he was holding onto a small Pokémon that squirmed in his grip.
Chloe took the cup from his hands, causing him to look up at her.
She put her hand on his forehead and then his cheek again, as he faintly recalled her doing the night before. "I guess your fever's just as bad as it was last night," she said, disappointment and worry combining in her voice. "I guess I was being optimistic when I brought the plums and stuff."
"Sorry…"
He looked down towards the tray, but not really at it. He felt somewhat embarrassed for Chloe to be taking things out of his hands to prevent him from hurting himself.
"I… I'm still thirsty, though," he said, reaching for the cup again.
Chloe lifted it out of his weak grasp. "No, this won't do." she said, humming to herself. "Wait, I think I've got it."
Holding the cup, she leaned over and held it in front of Goh. "Put your hands on mine."
"You're not serious."
"I am," she said, pursing her lips into a pout. "I'll hold the cup steady and you just guide it to your mouth and drink."
He wanted to grumble and complain about being treated like a baby, but the heat of the fever seemed to grow even stronger on his face, so he sighed and relented. "Fine," he said, looking away from her.
And so he put his hands on hers. Even with his senses dulled by the fever, he could feel how soft her hands felt as he lifted them. Chloe did all the heavy lifting, so when Goh pressed his palms against the backs of her hands, she lifted the cup away and towards his mouth.
Eventually, the ginger tea was close enough for him to drink, and he did sip from the cup. It tasted somewhat bitter and smooth as he expected, though it was also somewhat tamer than ginger tea typically was in his experience. He figured that it was another thing planned to accommodate his illness and any potential nausea. Goh slowly lowered his hands, at which point Chloe took the cup back and sat it on the tray.
Now she was picking up the spoon and scooping some of the rice porridge.
"Nuh-uh. No way."
Goh had his pride to think about. He couldn't allow Chloe to feed him like that. What would his Pokémon think? What thoughtless thing would Ash say?
But sitting up, he saw that Ash was nowhere to be seen. Chloe must have been correct that he would be busy with other things. And as for his Pokémon, Grookey and Eevee were running around in circles on the floor behind Chloe, playing some game that he didn't recognize.
Chloe, frowning, reached to his side and took his hand in hers before lifting his hand into his view.
Goh's eyes widened as he saw what she had already seen.
"Your hands are too shaky to try to feed yourself. Let me do this for you." she said, and he felt his hands shaking. Was he cold? He felt even hotter than ever.
Perhaps his fever was intensifying rather than breaking.
"F-fine…" he said, giving up as he sat higher, his back now against the wall that separated the bottom bunch from the ladder. "Just… don't talk to Ash about this, okay?"
A sly grin crept on Chloe's face, her teeth peeking from between her lips. If he didn't know better, he'd have sworn she had the very vampiric fangs Yeardley had accused her of having. "This'll be our little secret."
He cleared his throat, closed his eyes and opened his mouth. "A-Ah…"
Chloe carefully put the spoon of porridge in his mouth, and he felt the warm spoon tap against his tongue, causing him to close his mouth and swallow the bland meal.
As Chloe pulled the spoon from his mouth he looked at her with pleading eyes. "Can you at least put the nori on it?" he asked.
The amusement that grew on her face simultaneously relaxed him and made him feel nervous. "Alright."
The nori made the porridge go down easier, and about halfway through, he did ask for one of those pickled plums, which Chloe fed him, as well as helping him take a few more drinks of the ginger tea.
His breakfast finished, he relaxed and looked at her, feeling more embarrassed than anything by the experience. "S-Sorry, Chloe…"
Chloe looked up from her organization of the spoon and bowls on the tray. She furrowed her brow, looking like she had a mouthful of bland porridge sitting on her tongue herself. "What do you have to be sorry for?" she aked.
Goh chuckled darkly, looking at his weak arms and body in open rebellion against his health. "...because I look so uncool, you know?"
She leaned in and flicked his forehead. "You're a huge dork, Goh. You never have to worry about looking cool."
He winced at the flick, flinching from looking at her for a moment, but the warmth and kindness in her eyes disarmed any complaints he might have had.
The distance between their faces was also small, and Goh smelled the same sweet fragrance of flowers that he had noticed the night prior. He felt his fever burn hot again, but it cooled as soon as Chloe backed off.
"Maybe not totally uncool, though," she said, quietly giggling like she had just told herself a joke.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked the question and startled himself, not even considering what the answers could potentially be.
"Well, I'm always already doing stuff for you, like bringing you your homework from school, or helping out with things that are more my expertise than yours." Mischief flickered in her eyes once more. "You should just admit that you'd be lost without me."
"What's something you can do that I can't?" he asked, somewhat indignantly.
She lifted the tray. "Well, cooking for one."
He went quiet, his pride once again wounded in an encounter with her.
"But that's okay. You're good at stuff I'm not. Like Pokémon."
Her granting that did ease his wounded ego a bit, but it was hard for a wounded ego to rise back from the depths it was at before.
Goh was suddenly reminded of his seemingly inconsistent mood the night before, and Chloe's familiar talk with Ash. He felt his face twist into a frown, though he wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to say about it.
Chloe watched him closely, her eyes watching him think. She would probably be able to determine what he was thinking pretty quickly, so he decided to strike first.
"What do you think of Ash?"
He wasn't quite sure why he wanted to ask that question. It felt like the reason was one of the many things obscured by the fog in his mind. It was almost as though he could see its shape, but not it's details.
Chloe leaned back into her seat, crossing her arms before looking around the room. Goh followed her gaze until he realized what she was looking for wasn't there.
"Eevee and Grookey must have run out…" she whispered, though the quiet in this part of the building only amplified her words.
Turning back to Goh, she shrugged. "He's alright," she said. "He's surprisingly thoughtful and kind-hearted for someone I met lying shocked on the stairs to the lab."
The words 'thoughtful' and 'kind-hearted' felt like sucker punches to his already tender and somewhat queasy stomach. He knew he didn't have the skills to hide his displeasure, so he made no attempt at doing so, only sitting with much less appetite than before.
Chloe laughed at his twisted expression. When Goh looked up to try to see what was so funny in her face, he saw that she had once more drawn close to him, her face dangerously close to his.
His fever returned, burning his cheeks. If his thoughts weren't absorbed into the deep green of her bewitching eyes, he might worry that she could catch his cold from that distance.
"You're worried over nothing if you think Ash could replace you in my heart."
The words came out calm, quiet, and confident.
The self-assured smile on Chloe's face caught Goh completely off-guard. He wasn't sure what the reason he was searching for was, but he was mostly sure that it wasn't that.
His face felt so hot, he felt like he had to lay down, so he did, drawing the blanket back over his face.
Chloe slipped back off the bed. "You should get some rest. Your face is incredibly red, Goh."
Underneath the covers, he nodded, but as Chloe turned to walk away, he reached out his hand and caught hers.
It felt warm and soft in his own; very different from how cool it felt against his face.
"Thank you."
He gave her hand a squeeze, and she squeezed his back.
"I'll bring you something nice and light for lunch," she said. "Hopefully your appetite has come back by that time."
He heard her small, quick steps head to the door and close it behind her.
He pulled the covers off his face and stared upwards at the bottom of the top bunk. When he closed his eyes, he saw Chloe's face just as close to his as it was before, and her smile drew him into slumber.
The afternoon sun cast everything in the room under a golden-yellow tint. Goh sat on the covers, feeling refreshed from spending most of the day asleep. He was still staying close to the bed, just in case his newly returned vigor slipped out like a Pokémon evading capture, but he had just spent the time taking a shower and changing into a fresh set of clothes from last evening. He felt like he was back on his game.
There was only one thing that he wasn't sure of.
His mind felt clear and sharp once more, the fog of the previous evening completely dispelled. But now, without the fog, it felt like he was trying to navigate without landmarks.
Was he really that upset about her talking with Ash in such a friendly, familiar way? He couldn't fathom why that was.
He was Ash's friend, he reasoned. And he speaks with Ash in a friendly, familiar way daily. As well, when thinking about what they talked about, he couldn't figure out exactly why he would have gotten as upset as he did.
It was a mystery to him, lost to the mental fog as the bright rays of health evaporated it.
The door began creaking open on it's squeaky hinge again. "Goh? Are you up?"
"Hey, Chloe. Yeah, I am."
She opened the door, standing by it with her arms neatly folded behind her back. "I came to tell you dinner's ready. Ash was so busy he's already thrown himself into it. Said he was starving."
Goh nodded. "Well, if I get a little less to eat, it's only fair since he did all the work today."
Chloe giggled at the notion, leaning on the doorframe now. "I guess so. I hope he leaves some for me, though. And speaking of work, Mika stopped by earlier and brought both of our homework. I know you don't necessarily bother yourself with it very much, but I've gotta have it done before I go to school tomorrow."
"Good luck with that," he said, chuckling to himself. As he closed his eyes to laugh, the image of Chloe's face so close to his came back to him.
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Hm?" Her tone said 'sure', but she only gave him the intonation.
"Earlier, during breakfast," he explained, his hands making gestures that indicated that the past was somehow very, very far away. "You said something. You said that… I wouldn't be replaced. What did you mean by that?"
He looked at her, and while she continued to lean on the doorframe, her expression changed to one of teasing mischief once more. "If you really want to know, maybe I'll tell you. If you help me with my homework, that is."
He laughed. "H-Hey, it's my homework, too!" As he twisted and slipped out of the bed, she turned and ran.
He bolted ahead to catch up to her, and he saw her waiting for him at the top of the stairs. As Mew's Chaser continued his pursuit, the girl in his gaze continued to tease him, staying just out of arm's reach for now.