"Thea! Magical Leaf! One more time!"

"Right!"

John pointed forward enthusiastically as Thea looked back at him and nodded. The slaking she was facing off against gave a loud sigh in response, showing little interest in the battle that was happening in front of him. Thea glared at her opponent with glowing blue eyes. Her 'calm mind' state was in full effect, providing her with the power spike that she needed to face off against such a powerful foe.

"Come on Slaking! Get your head in the game!" Norman yelled. The man was less than impressed with his pokemon's performance. Slaking were known for being almost unmatched in two categories: Sheer physical strength and unbelievable laziness. The gym leader was currently having to deal with the second part of this reputation. It was common for Slaking to simply disobey orders out of sheer laziness.

The bulky ape-like Pokemon regarded Thea with a half-lidded and mostly uncaring gaze. She gave a little growl and summoned a cluster of sharp, growing leaves in front of her in preparation for another attack. Hopefully, she could finish this battle quickly. This was the final foe they would have to defeat in order to obtain the balance badge.

Thea, John, and the rest of their team had awoken within the Oldale inn that Chase had recommended they stay in after their battle with him the previous night. After breakfast and a pleasantly uneventful trek across Route 102, they arrived at Petalburg City. The group wasted no time in heading straight to the gym, deciding they would enjoy the city after they succeeded in defeating the local gym leader. Norman was an intense man with a love of Pokemon battles who specialized in normal-type Pokemon. The interior of his gym was incredibly simple, lacking even the dirt floor that had been in Wattson's. His battleground of choice was a simple bare room, with plenty of windows to supply light.

The battle had been fierce, but John was now poised to deal the final blow.

"Kirlia!" Thea exclaimed out loud, thrusting her hand forward as the leaves flew forward with incredible speed. Her opponent simply closed his eyes as the barrage struck its mark, defeating him and securing the victory.

Norman threw his hands up in frustration as Thea leapt into John's arms. Both Earl and Oddball had been defeated earlier in the battle, so only the two of them were left to celebrate. Not that those circumstances seemed to diminish how excited the pair seemed.

"Well played." Norman said, extending a hand.

Putting Thea down, John took the gym leader's hand and shook it. When he released him, Norman handed him the badge.

"The balance badge. You earned it. Come back and battle me anytime. I'm always ready for a rematch."

"Sounds good!" John chuckled, but he knew that he likely would have lost if the Slaking hadn't been loafing around at the right moments. It was an interesting change of pace to battle someone who's outcome seemed to depend largely on luck.

As the gym doors slid shut behind John, he drew in a long, content breath as he smiled up at the clear blue sky. It was a beautiful summer day outside. He exhaled slowly as he looked down at Thea, who gazed back up at him with a happy little smile on her face.

"You did great." He said to her as he took the badge case from his bag. He admired his prize one more time before placing it inside the case. It's silver sheen contrasted nicely with the yellow hue of the dynamo badge.

"We've got two now, right?" Thea asked as he closed the case, "How many gym leaders are left?"

"There's eight gyms, so we still have six more to beat. I'd say we're making good progress, though." John straightened his hat as he spoke. Afterwards, he tightened the straps on his backpack and adjusted the collar of his jacket

"I concur!" Thea exclaimed, closing her eyes and giving him a flashy grin. Her blue hair flowed slightly in the gentle breeze.

After the two shared a bit of laughter, Thea and John gazed blankly out at the city for a moment, realizing only now that they had failed to plan the rest of their day at all.

"Well." John sighed.

"Why don't we head to a Pokemon center to heal the other two, then decide what we're going to do for the rest of the day?"

"Sounds good." John agreed, "I'm thinking we should do lunch after."

"Yeah, let's do lunch." The confirmed as the pair began walking, Thea sticking close to John's side, eclipsed by the height difference.

With that, the two began their journey across the city. Thea quickly realized that this place existed in stark contrast to Mauville City. Mauville had been a seemingly unending landscape of gray punctuated by neon signs. But where Mauville had concrete and skyscrapers, Petalburg had grass and trees. This place seemed more like a small town than a city, as there was vegetation everywhere they looked. The people of this city mostly lived in cute little houses as opposed to imposing apartment buildings. Thea could sense that the people who lived in this city did so in almost perfect harmony with the world around them. While she was not a grass-type, her species were still quite in tune with nature.

The Kirlia smiled at a passing Zigzagoon that grinned at her as it's trainer walked past John. Looking around, she realized that nearly everyone on the street had a Pokemon of some kind walking with them. Some even had more than one. It wasn't an unusual thing to see people with pokemon as companions, but it certainly wasn't this common in other cities.

"John, everyone here has Pokemon with them! Even the old people!" Thea exclaimed, glancing around excitedly.

"My dad told me about this place." John said, looking around the city with a pleasant look on his face, "It's pretty great, huh?"

"Sure is." Thea agreed, happy to see all the varieties of Pokemon around her. The people here seemed to treat Pokemon differently than those of other regions of Hoenn, and it left her with a feeling of hope in regard to how she felt about John.

The gym and Pokemon center were unfortunately on different sides of town, and there was a substantial distance between the two places. The pair continued to traverse the pleasant city, taking in the sights around them. It was a fantastic feeling to have the rest of the day free with no plans.

John's ears perked up as he heard Thea stumble behind him, her feet kicking up a small burst of dust as she slid on one foot. He turned around to see her quickening her pace to keep up with him. Why had she fallen behind?

"Hey Thea, you feeling okay?" He asked, feeling a little concerned. Kirlia were a species known for moving with inhuman grace. They never stumbled, even in difficult terrain.

"Yeah no, I'm- I'm good John. Thanks for asking." She replied. Her telepathic voice sounded a little sluggish, the words taking longer than usual to form in his mind.

"You don't sound okay." John replied as he stopped walking.

"I dunno... my body just feels kinda hot. I don't know why." John felt like he almost had to strain to hear her, as if she was whispering or talking to him from a great distance away.

"Okay, we're almost there. Can you make the rest of the walk to the Pokemon center? It's like five minutes. I can just carry you if you want."

Thea shook her head and began walking forwards on her own. John couldn't understand why she was being stubborn. He swore he could feel the heat coming off her body from a foot away as she passed him.

"I feel weird." She said as she walked slowly in front of him, "Like I've got a ton of energy but I don't know how to use it. My thoughts are… clouded. I don't understand where this hotness is coming from."

John sighed uneasily. He did not understand what was going on in the slightest. All the trainer knew was that he was incredibly relieved when he recognized the familiar red roof of a Pokemon center in the distance.

"Thea, look." John said, pointing out the building. He looked down and saw Thea stumble again, nearly falling to the ground. She was squinting, and her mouth was open slightly. Her face was flush with heat and her arms hung down by her sides.

"Good." She replied simply.

"Thea, c'mon. Let me carry you the rest of the way. There's no shame in-"

"No." She said, interrupting him. Was it possible that she was losing her telepathic voice? Was something like that even possible? John sighed in frustration but still obliged her.

The doors to the Pokemon center opened and Thea took three steps into the building before falling to her hands and knees, panting. John rushed to her side and knelt beside her.

"Thea!" He exclaimed, putting his hand on her back. He looked around hurriedly at the people in the room. There were several other trainers and their Pokemon as well as the nurse behind the counter. For the most part nobody had even noticed when they had entered the building.

Suddenly John lurched back in surprise and fell on his haunches as his hand was hit by what felt like an electric shock. He looked at Thea with a look of shock and confusion as blue electricity danced all over her body, arcing out and indiscriminately shocking the ground around her. He clutched his hand close to his chest as a bit of smoke trailed off it.

"Stay... back... please." John felt the words pound through his skull like they had come out of a loudspeaker. It felt like the wind had suddenly picked up inside the Pokemon center as papers and other light objects were blown into the air. The small crowd of people in the building were hugging the walls with their Pokemon, attempting to stay as far away from Thea as possible. John glanced around in panic and began to notice that heavier objects like tables and chairs had begun to shake violently and levitate off the ground.

John stood up again, staring at his kirlia with a determined face.

"Thea! You gotta get a hold of yourself! You're gonna hurt somebody!" John yelled, gesturing to the room around them with his hands. One of them had been charred slightly when Thea had previously shocked him.

His Pokemon gave an angry yell in response but did not say anything telepathically. A bolt of electricity leapt off her and struck a newspaper in midair, instantly burning it to cinders. Her body had begun to give off a blue glow, brighter than her calm mind state. John couldn't tell if she was screaming in pain or in fear, but he knew that if this went on much longer it would end badly for everyone.

The wind threatened to blow John off his feet. The air was a maelstrom of paper and trash that were constantly being lit on fire by electricity as they blew around. Every table and chair in the building was four feet off the ground, and some were even spinning violently in the air. Nurse Joy hid behind the counter of the Pokemon Center, afraid to look out. The other trainers took cover behind whatever they could. It was like their own private apocalypse.

Suddenly, the glow around Thea's body became a blinding white and greatly intensified. John shielded his eyes from the light with his good hand as his mind raced, trying desperately to come up with something, anything to resolve this situation. He heard Thea give an earsplitting cry of pain as his heart pounded in his chest.

Then without warning, everything stopped.

There was a loud crash as every piece of furniture in the building fell to the ground at the same time. Anything lighter fell more slowly as something extinguished the fires before they could reach the floor and cause any real damage. The air became as calm as it had been when they walked in.

John lowered his hand from his face and quickly glanced around the room. Nobody seemed to be hurt. His eyes then moved to Thea.

Or, what had been Thea.

A Gardevoir knelt on the floor where his Kirlia had been. Her color scheme had remained mostly the same, but her body had changed drastically. She looked as though she had gained about three feet in height. The orange horn-like protrusions that she had previously on her head were gone, replaced by a single horn-like protrusion in her chest that appeared to come from both the front and back of her upper body. It looked like it was sticking through her. Her hair had gotten considerable shorter, curling neatly around the sides of her face instead of hanging beside her head as it had before. Her actual body had become far more feminine than it had been previously, sporting long, slender legs. The ballerina-like outfit she used to wear was replaced was a long, elegant dress the flowed around her lower body and obscured her feet.

"Thea..." John breathed.

His next words caught in his throat as she turned her face to look at him. The first thing he noticed was how beautiful she had become. The second thing he noticed was the tears streaming down her face. Her eyes were open wide with an emotion he couldn't read, and her mouth was a line of gritted teeth. Her cheeks were flushed bright red as she quickly looked around at the humans and Pokemon that surrounded her. John was the only one looking at her with something that wasn't primal fear.

The Gardevoir stood up shakily, clearly not at all used to her new form. She turned to run out the doors but fell after her first step, landing on her hands and knees. John moved to help her instinctively, but she quickly got back up and clumsily ran out the door of the Pokemon center. John glanced around, realized that nobody had been hurt, and quickly turned to run after her. As he made his way outside the building, he saw her a couple feet away on the sidewalk.

"Thea! Stop!" He yelled, as he sped up his run to catch her.

She turned her head to look at him with a tear-filled gaze before turning away and quickening her pace. John was still far more coordinated than she was, and he gained on her fast. When he was about a foot away from her, he noticed that she was flickering slightly, disappearing and reappearing very quickly. Her body seemed to phase in and out of existence several times a second.

John blinked, and when he opened his eyes she had somehow moved five feet away from him. Startled, he slowed down slightly. Had she just teleported? She had never been able to do it as a Kirlia, but the power spike could have possibly advanced her psychic abilities to the point where she was able to perform new moves. The teleport seemed to be kind of inept, not like Elysium, who had teleported instantly without flickering. John decided that she had probably done it by accident.

Despite the small lead she had gained, her speed was still vastly less than her trainer's. He soon caught up to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, attempting to pacify her.

"Gardevoir!" She cried out loud in anger, closing her eyes and shaking her head furiously as she struggled against him. Her voice had deepened considerably since her evolution. As a Kirlia, she had sounded much like a human girl, but her voice was more akin to a woman's. It was familiar yet different to John.

"Thea, you need to calm down!" John said, attempting to maintain his grip on her. The other people and Pokemon on the street had stopped what they were doing and were staring at them, unsure of what to do to help the situation. Most of the people from inside the Pokemon center were outside its doors now as well, watching the spectacle unfold.

"...Voir!" She sobbed. John couldn't imagine her embarrassment. It wasn't hard to imagine why she had reacted how she did. If their positions were reversed, it would be more than likely that he would have-

Suddenly, John felt like he was flying. He felt like his entire being was being thrown at a velocity that his mind couldn't comprehend. He couldn't tell which direction was up or down, left or right. There was nothing but an overwhelming feeling of speed.

John probably felt this way for one one-hundredth of a second, and then he was holding his Pokemon in a forest. He released her, turned around, and proceeded to lose his lunch all over a nearby bush. Then he collapsed onto his hands and knees, closing his eyes as he tried to make the world stop spinning. She had teleported the two of them, that much he was sure of. He wiped his mouth and sat back on his haunches as he considered that he hadn't given teleportation much thought and he'd never considered that motion sickness may have been a factor. Perhaps teleportation sickness would be a better name. Thea seemed to be unaffected by this as he turned to look at her.

The Gardevoir was sitting back, hiding her face behind a pair of big, three fingered hands. She didn't seem to be actively crying anymore, but her breathing was still shaky. John decided that the best course of action was to let her calm herself down. She may have become something completely different, but this Pokemon was still his partner, and he had known her long enough to trust her and to give her the space she needed. The two sat in silence for several minutes as John listened to his Gardevoir's breathing slowly relax and return to normal. Her posture changed as well. She stopped covering her face with her hands and instead used her arms to pull her knees close to her chest, hiding her face behind them, allowing her eyes to peer over top. Her face was stained with tears, but she had stopped crying.

Glancing around the area, John couldn't see anything but trees and vegetation, but he could hear the city from where they were, so it was safe to assume that they were somewhere in the forest that surrounded Petalburg City. They had moved a considerable distance, that much was for sure.

"Thea." John simply said, wanting to get her attention.

She quickly glanced at him as he spoke before her eyes flitted away and went back to looking at something to the left of him. John could tell her face was still red even though most of it was hidden.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

She nodded, still not looking at him.

"I'm really sorry for what happened in the Pokemon center." John sighed, "It wasn't you fault Thea, really."

Her eyes widened briefly before returning to normal.

"Neither of us could have known that was going to happen. There was nothing we could have done about it."

She gave a quick nod. Something was clearly still bothering her.

"What's wrong?" He asked, moving a little closer to her. The two were only a few feet away from each other now.

She lifted her head from behind her knees and look at him genuinely for the first time since she had evolved. Her cheeks were slightly blushed, and she held his gaze with a pair of orange eyes. They were the same eyes, almost. The shape of them had changed somewhat, but they still looked at him the same way they always had. John felt his face flush a little from having her stare at him like this. Despite the pieces of familiarity, she almost seemed like a completely different person now. Her expression was one of slight frustration and concentration, like she was thinking about something.

"Are you having trouble talking?" He asked, realizing once again how little he knew about her and the way her powers worked.

She held up a hand with a single finger extended upwards, in a gesture that meant 'give me a minute.'

After a few more seconds, John briefly felt a dull pain in both his temples. He rubbed the side of his head, grimacing as he developed a minor migraine.

"Hello? John? Can you hear me?"

He was startled as he heard and unfamiliar voice inside his head.

"Thea? Is that you?" He asked, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Yes, it's me." She replied.

John was amazed. This was completely different from how Thea had spoken to him before. Previously, she had only been able to relay a message to him telepathically. It was as if he had read a text message or a sentence from a book. He knew that the words existed, but there was no sounds to go along with them. This was totally different. Thea was actually speaking to him now. He could actually hear her voice within his thoughts.

"This is incredible!" John exclaimed as he beamed at his partner, "I can actually hear you!"

She seemed to brighten up a little upon hearing this praise. She wiped her face with one hand.

"I'm sorry about the headache. I had to recreate our psychic link after my body changed. Kinda like making a new road for a new kind of car."

"Don't worry." He replied, "Totally worth it." Her telepathic voice sounded identical to her verbal one, a slightly high pitched but very attractive tone.

"Oh, and I'm sorry for making you sick." Thea added as she looked down at the ground again, "I honestly didn't even realize that I was teleporting until after I'd done it."

"Hey, no problem! A little teleportation sickness never hurt anyone, right?" John chuckled.

Thea looked at him with a blank expression and blinked.

"I don't understand how you can be joking about this. This doesn't freak you out?"

John blinked back.

"What doesn't freak me out?"

Thea's mouth hung open slightly. She quickly stood up.

"What do you mean, 'what'?" She asked, gesturing to herself with her hands. "look at me!"

John stood up as well. He was only about half a foot taller than her now.

"Are you asking what I think of your new form?" He started, "Because I think it's great. Honestly, I'm blown away by how great you look now."

Thea looked away from him, flustered.

"Plus you can do all kinds of new stuff!" He exclaimed, widening his arms. "We found out that you can teleport and communicate super well now."

"...That's true."

"I'm sure what happened in the Pokemon center was scary, but we could go apologize for that if you wanted. I'm sure it would make you feel better."

Thea responded with silence, talking a few steps away from him. John could tell that he'd missed the mark on what the actual problem was.

"Look Thea, I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

She stayed quiet.

"Please?"

Suddenly she whipped around to face him, eyes narrowed.

"I'm scared, John!" She exclaimed.

"...Scared of what?" He asked. He hadn't been expecting an answer like this.

She hesitated and glanced around the area they were in before fixing her gaze on a tall oak tree that stood behind him.

"I'll show you."

Thea walked past him gazed intensely at a nearby tree. Slowly, she lifted one arm with her fingers outstretched, pointed towards the tree's trunk. Her eyes took on a familiar blue glow that quickly enveloped her target as well.

Then, she closed her hand into a fist. John took a step back in panic as the oak suddenly collapsed in on itself. With a loud crunch, splinters were thrown into the air as nearly every branch broke at once and pushed themselves into the trunk before the entire tree buckled in half and fell to the earth with a resounding crash. This was a level of telekinesis that Thea had been incapable of before, but that wasn't all that John noticed. Her powers had a very different tone now. Before her evolution, abilities like this seemed to have a level of finesse to them, as if she was simply using her mind to move an object. But now, those same abilities seemed far more violent than they had ever been before.

John turned away from the mangled tree and looked at Thea with concern.

"I'm strong now." She sighed, "I'm so strong that it's scaring me."

He walked over to his partner and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, not sure what he was going to say.

"Thea, I'm not going to act like I can really know how you feel." He started, "But I want you to know that I'm not going anywhere. You and I are going to work together until you can control your powers, okay? We aren't going to give up because of something like this."

The Gardevoir gave a small sniff.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

John pulled her into a tight embrace. The orange protrusion in her chest poked him slightly, but he didn't mind. She hesitated for a moment before wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder.

"You're still you." He said simply.

She started crying again after he said that, but more gently than she had been before. He held her for a long time like that. After Thea eventually composed herself again, the two broke apart.

"Thanks, really." She said, giving him the first genuine smile he'd seen since she had evolved.

He looked at her again. He still couldn't believe that someone like this was his partner. It seemed too incredible to be real. John decided it would be a while before he got over the shock.

"What do you say we head back into town?" John asked, "We can't be that far away."

"That's a good idea." Thea replied, "I'd like to stop by that Pokemon center again, if that's alright."

"Sure."

She offered him a hand and a small, expectant smile.

"Want me to teleport us?"

John considered this for about half a second.

"Maybe we ought to stick to walking for a bit. I don't think my stomach can take another beating right now."

"Oh. Right." Thea said sheepishly, "Sorry again, by the way."

And with that, the two made their way through the forest back to Petalburg City. The journey only took about five minutes, but it gave Thea a chance to adjust to her new body. John watched in awe as her movements became more confident over time. By the time they emerged from the brush, she had completely lost the awkward manner she had moved in before.

"I'm still blown away that you were able to teleport us that far." John said as they got back on the sidewalk, "How did you do it?"

"I just kinda... think really hard about being somewhere, and then I guess I'm there. It's hard to explain."

"Well then show me." He said, grinning at her.

She looked at him in surprise before scrunching her mouth in thought.

"Um, okay. I'll try." She said, "I... think if i just-"

Thea's body flickered very briefly before reappearing a couple feet away from John. He applauded in response.

"That is so cool!" He exclaimed, running over to her.

"You think?" She responded in a coy manner, giving a shy little smile and clasping her hands.

"Totally!" He continued, "How often can you do it?"

"I think I could probably do it once every couple seconds. I'd say that my teleport has a cool-down of a little less than ten seconds. Maybe like seven or eight."

"That's still great." He said, "I think that if me and you did it a couple more times I could probably build up a tolerance to it, and we could use it to get around! Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Definitely."

It wasn't long before they had reached the Pokemon Center. Upon arrival, Thea apologized to the nurse and any trainer who was still inside from when she had been there previously. They were all understanding, and agreed that while the experience was certainly scary, nobody had been injured during it. Even the building itself was pretty much totally undamaged, aside from a little bit of mess that had been cleaned up by the time the pair had returned.

They both exited the center, and John could tell that Thea was feeling much better now.

"Hey. What do you say we get a coffee?" He asked as they got a short distance from where they had been.

"Coffee?" Thea asked as she turned to look at him. She and John had never done something like this before.

"Sure." John laughed, "I mean, we're here aren't we?"

"That actually sounds good. I could use a little relaxing. Although I've never had coffee."

"You'll love it, don't worry." John assured.

The pair spent a little while looking around before finding a small coffee shop tucked away in the city's small mall. Today must have been a slow day, as there was only a few other people in the cafe.

John sat across from Thea at a small booth in the corner of the room. It was warm inside the cafe, and the place carried the pleasant aroma of freshly brewed coffee and baking. John sipped his cappuccino as he watched the Gardevoir across from him lift her latte with both hands and blow on the surface to cool the drink down a little. He chuckled under his breath. She might have changed a lot, but it seemed that being adorable was not a skill she'd lost along the way.

The pair sat in silence for a little while, simply enjoying the drinks, the pleasant atmosphere of the cafe, and each other's company.

"So." John started, deciding to initiate some conversation.

"So?" Thea asked, putting down her drink and giving him an expectant look.

"I haven't asked you what you actually think of-" He gestured to her new body with a hand, "-This. Y'know, since you evolved."

Thea took a sip of her latte, lost in thought for a second.

"I guess you could say I'm starting to warm up to it." She eventually said, "I liked my old body a lot, but this one certainly has its perks. I don't feel like as much of a child, you could say. I kinda feel like I'm on somewhat equal ground to humans now since I'm pretty much their height. It doesn't feel nearly as weird to be in a cafe like this, for example. I think I would've felt a lot more out of place in here before today."

"I'm glad." John said happily, leaning back in his chair. He looked at Thea again, but this time his gaze was drawn to whatever the orange thing was that poked out of her chest. He decided now was as good a time as any to ask about it.

"I've gotta ask, what is that thing coming out of your chest? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Thea's cheeks reddened almost immediately.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" John quickly, afraid that he had offended her. "Forget I said anything."

"It's fine, don't worry." She said, looking down at it herself.

"To be completely honest, I'm not completely sure myself. It's different from the horns I had on my head in my previous form."

"Those horns were what you used to do your magic, right?"

"Kinda. They were for amplifying my psychic powers. I would push my abilities through them, and it would make them stronger."

"But this is different?" John asked.

"Well, I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that this is my heart. Or the closest thing I have to one now."

John's eyes widened.

"Really?" He asked, a little taken aback.

"I know, it's pretty weird, isn't it?"

Suddenly, John felt an incredibly strong feeling. It was like something was drawing him towards her heart. A sense of desire that he found himself unable to fight, almost as if someone was pushing him to speak the words that were about to leave his lips.

"...Can I touch it?"

The redness that had dissipated from Thea's face while she had been speaking came back stronger than before. John looked at her with genuine curiosity. There wasn't any harm in it, right? There was a strange feeling inside her that she couldn't place. Like a part of her wanted him to do it more than anything.

"S-sure." She responded, puffing her chest out slightly and still blushing furiously. She looked to the side, not meeting her trainer's gaze.

John was incredibly curious, that much was true. But to be so bold was very unlike him. It was strange, like the words had come out of his mouth without him even thinking them. He reached out tentatively with his hand across the table. Slowly, he placed three of his fingers on the flat side of her horn.

She let out a small exhale when his fingers made contact.

"Are you okay?" He asked, "This doesn't hurt, does it?"

"No! It's just... your hands are warm from holding your coffee. I just wasn't expecting it. I wasn't expecting it... to feel good."

She looked into his eyes as he slowly placed more of his hand on her heart. He didn't want to go too fast and hurt her. He had no idea if it was fragile or not. Her cheeks were flushed red, but she didn't look embarrassed anymore. Her mouth as open slightly.

The air was heavy.

Thea's heart wasn't soft at all. It felt smooth, like a marble countertop. But it was warm. Warmer than a person's skin was. It didn't feel the least bit fragile. John had a feeling he could hit it with a hammer and not damage it at all. If he really concentrated, he could feel faintly feel what he assumed was a heartbeat deep within it.

That heartbeat was fluttering.

John withdrew his hand and sat back in his chair.

"Um." He started, hesitating.

She hadn't taken her eyes off him. Her tangerine gaze carried an intensity he'd never seen from her before. He wasn't sure if touching her heart had somehow affected her or if this was something different altogether.

"...Thanks?" He said, the sheer level of how bizarre this whole situation was only dawning on him now. Why had he done that? And in public, no less!

Thea blinked twice, seeming to snap out of whatever trance she had been in previously.

"Y-yeah." She said shakily.

John cleared his throat. Thea drank deeply from a glass of water, attempting to cool herself down and return to a calm state of mind. John glanced around the room. The place hadn't looked very busy, and thankfully he hadn't grabbed anyone's attention by doing that. He had no idea what someone might think if they had seen him.

Suddenly, John remembered something important.

"Thea! We forgot to heal Earl and Oddball!"

"Oh no!" She exclaimed. The two of them had completely forgotten. Not in all his time training Pokemon had John ever forgotten something like this.

And so the pair made their third visit to Petalburg City's Pokemon center that day. Soon John's team was back to full strength. He made sure that they were all fed, and the group decided that the best course of action was to spend the night there, and head for Rustboro City the following day.

It had become dark outside, and the trainer sat alone on the only bed in their hotel room, watching a sitcom on TV. He turned to look as Thea made her way out of the bathroom. He held a finger to his lips. The other two members of their party were already asleep.

"...So. Only one bed." Thea said.

John nodded slowly.

"I'm, um, assuming our previous arrangement still stands?"

John nodded quickly. She gave him a small smile and made her way over, quickly burrowing under the covers on the other side of the bed. Tired from the day, they said very little and were content to simply kill a half hour before bed.

John felt himself thinking back on the day's events. He had never heard of a Pokemon evolving in such a violent manner before. There had to be a reason why that had happened. He was determined to unravel that mystery. Then there was what had happened at the coffee shop. Thinking hard about it, John realized that they had basically gone out on a date together. The thought made him uneasy. He couldn't explain why he had done what he did. There was a part of him that believed that at least a part of those emotions had not been his own. He considered the possibility that Thea had somehow influenced him with her psychic abilities, which was certainly plausible. The question seemed to be whether or not she had done it on purpose.

"John?" She asked, turning to him.

"What's up?" He asked quietly, not wanting to disturb his other two Pokemon slumbering in the armchair across the room.

"Today was scary in a lot of ways, so I just wanted to thank you for having my back. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime." John said in return as the pair smiled earnestly at each other.

Soon they were both asleep on opposite sides of the bed. John's head was filled with thoughts of his Gardevoir's evolution and her incredible potential, but also of their adventure tomorrow, which would take them through Petalburg Woods. Thea's was filled with many conflicting emotions regarding her new body and a renewed set of equally conflicting emotions about how she felt about her trainer.

But while they were sleeping, none of that mattered.