Ash's PoV.

As I'm running through the streets of Lumious City, all I can hear are echoes of Lillie's voice running through my head. Good Luck... yeah - hopefully I don't need it! I get to my house and run through the door and into the basement, down to my precious Clemont. Shit - there's blood on the floor from a nosebleed and he's looking a little bit drowsy. As he makes to close his eyes, I rush to him and shake him vigorously, yelling loudly: "DON'T GO TO SLEEP!"

"Ash?! Why not - I'm tired!" Clemont says quietly as he tried to fall asleep again - I hit him and he jolts awake with a start.

"I... erm... want to show you something really cute!" I lie nervously; thankfully he's still under the spell and agrees without hesitation.

"Alright!" He says quietly, trying not to fall asleep. I take him upstairs and lead him into my kitchen - he looks rather debilitated so I hastily pass him a glass of water. My senpai takes it thankfully and we sit there in silence as he drinks.

"Wh-What did you want to... to show me?!" He queries; I think on my feet and exclaim; "Um... well... I wanted you to help me make food and maybe you'd like to see me shirtless?!" Cooking... that'll keep him awake... right? I apprehensively give him a cook book from my mother and we start to bake some shortbreads while he complements my now visable physique. He's really good at cooking, but now he looks drained, and even unnerved in my presence! I ask him what the matter is and his response is confounding to me;

"You're acting... aberrant! I'm scared Ash - you're scaring me!" He backs off in fear and I try to comfort him. The routine seems strangely familiar - it's almost like he never took the potion at all!

"Clemont: I love you! I'd never hurt you - you know that!"

He peers at me, contemplating what to do now. After a moment, he returns his gaze to me and whispers;

"The only thing I know about you is that you're a liar, a psychopath and a murderer. You used me and now I'm a hostage in you're house. If I'm going to be here, let me sleep!"

"NO!" I yell without thinking as he starts to close his eyes - I grab a spoon and turn the tap on, using the rounded cutlery to direct the water flow into his face and waking him up with a shock.

"AAAAAASH!" He whines, ignoring the fact that he's drenched now and just looks at me with his gorgeous, deep, hypnotic ocean blue eyes and smiled sheepishly, saying: "Come on baby! What's the worst that could possibly happen?! Just a small nap... please? I've been awake for ages thinking of you, and now I want to dream about you! You know it's a good idea, so just let me dream! It makes me love you more, when I dream..."

Damn.

He's smart! He knows exactly what to say, and exactly how to say it to make me feel guilty! He's playing me! How do I know? It's the same kind of technique I use on him when getting information. Start with a 'hello' and then a compliment, like 'looking good' or 'you're so smart!' The last one in particular makes him smile more - he prides himself on his intellectual strength! Then you move in with the attack, and retreat before a fight. If the situation weren't so dire, I'd compliment him on his style and we'd nap together as he wants. But... I can't let him die - it's not worth it! The affects of this potion are bloody string - he's completely suicidal like Lillie said he would be!

"Clemont - I know! Let's have a run!" I yell, knowing that running wakes you up! I drag him by the shoulder outside and as we run around the estate, all I can think of is;

Never use magic again! NEVER!

As we finish up, I sit Clemont on a bench where I can keep an eye on him before taking my phone out of my pocket and calling Lille again.

"Hello? Ash - is something wrong?" She asks in concern - I sigh and say; "How long will he be like this for?"

"Presumably only until the effects wear off but I can't be sure. How long do you have left?"

"Um... about 2 hours..." I reply uncertainly; she says nervously: "Can you keep him awake untill then?"

"Yeah - of course!" I say dauntlessly - oh no: Clemont's really not looking that good!

"I can tell you're struggling Ash - you sound exhausted! Do you want my older brother to come over? He's good at keeping people awake." Lillie offers: I consider the option before replying; "That would be amazing! Thanks - when will he come? I took Clemont out for a run to wake him up..."

"Tell you what," she says thoughtfully; "Gladion - my brother - will meet you both at the coffee shop we met in - ok?"

"Sure! Thanks for everything Lillie." I say gratefully: she giggles lightly and says, "No problem Ash! I'll send him over now and then the three of you can go home." She hangs up and I grin - only to yell as I see Clemont closing his eyes.

i

"COFFEE!" I yell as I shake him awake: he looked immensely discombobulated at the rude awakening and my choice of words. "LET'S GET COFFEE!" I yell as I drag him down the streets again and to the place all this madness began...

When we arrive there about 10 minutes later, I'm met with a tall, muscular, light blond haired boy grinning at me, saying; "Ash and Clemont I presume? Lillie's told me all about you and your... predicament. Let's go, shall we?" He hands us both coffees and we walk down the street back to my house.

"Who's that Ash?" Clemont asks nervously as I look at Gladion in thankfulness.

"He's... a friend. Hopefully, he's going to help take care of you Clemont - you're actually quite sick!" I say - the darker blond satres at me and holds my hand, saying in disbelief; "I'm sick?! And... and you knew? Why didn't you say?!"

"I didn't want to frighten you..." I confess: he smiles shyly and says quietly: "It's fine Ash! We all make mistakes."

Indeed we do Clemont... indeed we do.

When we return to my house, I look at the clock again. Only 1 hour and 15 minutes until the spell ends and my senpai is safe! Gladion sighs and says quietly; "Ash - you need to sleep. I'll take care of him from here." He nods at the stairs and I go up to my room, laying on my bed. It feels good to breath and relax, not having to worry about my senpai. After around 50 minutes of napping, I awake and go to get a drink befire stopping dead on the stairs and listening to a terrifying sound coming from the basement.

"Right - I'm gonna give you one last chance. Why didn't it work?!"

"Please... no! I'm sorry - I don't know what happened - ARGH! No stop; please! I'm begging you... no, no, NO - NOOOOOOO!"

...

It's my senpai. Gladion is torturing my senpai!

At this, I gasp as I run into the basement and see Gladion standing dominantly over a crying Clemont who's tied to a chair. He looks at me with fear in his voice and yelled: "Ash?! Why are you letting him hurt me like this - Ash please!"

"GLADION?! What's going on?!" I yell furiously as the older man laughs evilly, saying: "Let me explain - when Lillie sent me to you, you thought I was here to help you keep him awake. And I am! He's still awake, isn't he?! I doubt he's going to be able to sleep for a while now, so I figured I may as well do something useful with him, like use his brain to figure out what went wrong with the potion! He says he doesn't know, but I can tell he's lying. He knows exactly how to make the potion work and he's not telling me! So sorry you were disturbed but everything's under control. Let me figure out why the potion went wrong, and then I'll fix it for you and he'll love you unconditionally forever! Just leave me alone with him for a bit and everything will be fine." Clemont stares at me with hurt and betrayal in his eyes. "You said he was a friend Ash - he's not! He's cruel, and evil, and it hurts so much! Please: rescue me! Or don't you love me?" That stings more than he'll ever know, but I say calmly;

"I do love you." Clemont smiles in relief as Gladion looks confused. I sigh before I continue;

"I love you more than anything else in this world, but I know that if the potion isn't fixed, then you won't love me back. I need you to love me Clemont because without you I'm... empty! I'm... well, here, let me explain. Without you I'm lost... confused... and alone! I'm sorry, but we need that potion! Even if I don't actually use it on you, I need it to repay them for their services. Gladion - just make it quick, and know that me letting you hurt him is instead of the favour I owe your sister!" I make to walk out and hear Gladion laugh at my poor little senpai as the young scientist says fearfully;

"ASH NO! Please please don't leave me alone with him; Ash please! Help me Ash... no... why are you leaving? Don't you love me Ash?! Please?! NO: PLEASE STOP! GET OFF ME - GET OFF ME GLADION; NO STOP! NO! AAARRRRGGGGHHH!"

I make a hasty exit as his screams of pain ring in my ear. Cruel, but essential for us to live a happy life together - his pain will only last a little while and then I'll give him all the love, happiness and care he could ever dream of! I feel insecure and guilty and as I go to my room, even more so as I think of Bonnie! The poor girl, scared, alone and even brother-less! Although, I don't think she'd want to see her brother at this moment in time... he's screaming quite loudly right now, but I take away some of my pain by thinking that it'll be over soon, and then our lives will be better. I wait in my room for what seems like ages, listening intently to what's going on in my basement with Clemont and Gladion - it doesn't sound good! Although in all my time knowing him and doing what I do, I've heard worse. Much worse. As the screams temporarily stop, I creep downstairs and back into the basement to get in on all of the action.

"How are you coping now hmm? Ready to give up and talk?" I see Gladion ask sweetly; Clemont glares at him and shakes his head, remaining silent. "Tough cookie, hmm? Well - I think your Ashy prefers you when you're all weak, and in need of protecting, ready to be the hero. So you just be like that for him, because that's what he wants." It's true... he is certainly cuter like that, with his deep, pleasing eyes, and his long blond hair hiding his face shyly, and his adorable voice when he whispers... Although, I really feel mean for thinking that! I sigh as Clemont responds furiously;

"Well then he can go stuff it. He let me be tortured by you so no; I'm not going to bow down to you and plead for my life. If you kill me, then you kil me. Nothing you or Ash say can scare or hurt me anymore." He growls, refusing to crack. It's so honourable... and useless. I sigh, knowing that I have something that will make him go pale of I tell him even the smallest part of it... but no. He doesn't deserve that right now. Maybe later... Gladion smacks him hard across the face and I wince at the sharp sound. "I don't care right now. Just tell me how to fix the spell or else I make you wish you were dead!" At this, I glance at my watch. 7 minutes left until the spell wears off. Taking a deep breath, I stand up, knowing that the time to make him talk is now or never.

"Hi Clemmy!" I say quietly, pushing Gladion aside and walking over slowly to him. The darker blond looks at me with fire in his eyes and mutters darkly; "What's up with you? Come back to gloat?"

"Oh no... no, I just want to help you! I hate seeing you in pain you know - you're too cute to be suffering like this you know!" He goes pink but still looks angry. "Why would you care about me? You abandoned me to be tortured by this lunatic without giving a damn! I'm starting to wonder what I'm the world possessed me to ever love you in the first place!" I sigh, knowing the effects are definitely wearing off. Maybe I can attemp to sweet-talk him...?

"Awww babe; don't say that! You know it's for the best, and I'll keep on loving you no matter what." Clemont sighs before suddenly starting to cry, saying desperately: "Why me?! Why do I have to be the center of what you do?! I'm just a normal kid with a low self esteem so why should you have to do all of this Ash? If you'd just told me that you liked me and that you were feeling jealous then I'd have gone out with you ages ago, and nobody would be dead. But now - you're a murderer, and you've killed so many people I care about! It's hard for me to say because at school, I was genuinely falling for you. You're athletic, smart; you hung out with me and actually took an interest in me. But now I know that the only reason you asked me questions was to use me as a kind of person reader, and I can never forgive you for that. And I'll never forgive myself for giving you the information you needed to kill all those people. I can't live someone that commits such heinous crimes and is a bloodthirsty psycho! You'll have to kill me before I tell you anything you need to know - I swear."

Right. A shame to pull out this card, but he asked for it.

"I don't need to kill you! Not when I have your sister Bonnie and your father doing whatever I say so that I won't kill you! I'll just kill them." I sneer, holding my hand on his cheek. As his eyes widen in shock, I force him to look at me before saying quietly:

"Clemont... don't make this hard. Just tell us how to fix the spell, and I'll never bother you or Bonnie again. I promise." He doesn't see my crossed fingers behind my back, and nods, saying quietly in sadness:

"The... the spell was... it was made at the wrong temperature. For the effects to work properly, you should keep it at a lower temperature than you were doing. About 20 degrees lower should fix it. Now please - let me go. And please - don't hurt my sister. She's only 10, and the most innocent person ever. Please? For me Ashy?"

I can't resist him when he's like this. And after all - he did just help us by telling me what went wrong with the spell. I guess it wouldn't be so bad... so I nod. He smiles at me with clear sadness is his eyes but says happily and almost inaudibly;

"Thank you Ash."

I smile and kiss him on the cheek - he flinched a bit but when he realises I'm not going to hurt him, he relaxes. I smile at him and say;

"Maybe we can go for a walk?"

I really feel bad for everything I've done. Truly I am. All that blood spilled; all those lives lost; all those useless plans and waste of money on equipment for torture. But as I'm walking down the street with my senpai, I don't regret one second of it! Until we get to where our school is on our walk, and I begin to notice his facial expression a bit more. He looks scared constantly, but whenever he sees me looking at me he forces his face onto a smile, trying to conceal the truth - that he's truly upset and hurt. It breaks me to see him like this, so I ask quietly;

"Will you ever truly love me?"

Clemont stared at me with eyes bearing pain and whispered softly; "No... not after all of this. I can try my hardest, and I'll do whatever you say. But I don't think I'll ever be able to get to that state of mind, no matter how hard I try. I can love you, but I don't think it would be true love Ash. I'm so sorry..."

My suspicions are confirmed: it's hard, but I know what I need to do. He looks at me as I let go of his hand and say gently;

"Go. Go home to your dad and sister. I don't want you to be unhappy Clem, I just want you to be happy. I also wanted that to be with me, but I can't force myself upon you. As you said a few days ago, me doing all of the ghastly things I've done like murder and kidnap only makes you love me less. You don't want to be with me and I get it. I'm a murderer and a psychopath, but I'm going to redeem myself. I'm going to find remorse and change myself for the better - so go home to the people you do love. I'll never bother you again, but I will go to the police, only to turn myself in. I'll tell them everything, but they'll need to know why. So they'll probably just ask you a few questions before locking me up, but you'll be free from me, and I'll have the memory of the time we spent together, even if it was one sided. I love you, but I can't force you to love me back. I'm so sorry Clemont. You can go now. I won't follow you anymore - I won't hurt you or anyone else again. I promise."

He stares at me for a minute or so before whispering, "You spent nearly half a day trying to save my life, only to see that you were wrong." Clemont blushes and kisses me gently on the lips - I stare in shock as he smiles shyly and says,

"So... what I'm trying to say is thank you. For looking after me, and... well... loving me. You went about it the wrong way, but you realised that and now you're planning on making amends. That means more to me than anything you've done for me so for - even more than saving my life."

We stand there in silence until he retakes my hand and asks quietly: "One last thing... will you please walk me home? Only I'm a bit scared of walking home alone - especially after... you know." I nod and we walk down the street together - nothing forced, and no struggle. He's just happy to be with me... even after everything I've done!

Maybe... maybe it's crazy...

...but maybe I still have a chance!