Time to conclude Blake's "date" with Ayame! Will Blake be able to melt this ice queen's heart? Or will she just kick him to the curb? Who can say?

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Maybe not fall for him, let's settle for "not hating his guts".

Hellraiserphoenix: With The Empress on your side, any date is a walk in the park with the resources she can bring to the table.

Draisen: I almost always write all my chapters the same day I post them. Sometimes a particularly difficult chapter will take multiple days to complete. I've got everything planned out in my head, though, I just need to get it onto the page.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 97

"Cynthia, wake up!"

"…Snsssnork…" Cynthia snorted, blinking. She sat up in her chair, yawning. "Sango? What…"

"The movie's over. Come on, let's go!" Sango pulled her out of her seat, Cynthia shaking herself fully awake.

"Geez, two hours about a track team, that's what passes for good drama these days?"

"No one's asking for a film critique, they're on the move!" Sango snapped.

"Movie was that bad, huh?"

"Oh, man!" Ayame left the theater bursting with energy. "That was great!"

"I know, right?" Blake said. "I had my doubts at first, but it really won me over!"

"Oh, you remember that one scene, where Mia is standing out in the rain in from of Jay's apartment, just staring up into his window?"

"Oh, man, that scene made me want to cry," Blake agreed.

"And then when even after everything they'd gone through together, he still showed up to wish her the best…" Ayame's voice was low and mournful as she remembered the heart-wrenching glance the two main characters had shared.

"I know, I was screaming 'kiss her you fool!' in my head the entire time," Blake nodded. "But then when they both realized that they didn't really feel that way… that there was no chance they could go back to when they were together…"

"Oh, god, talk about heartbreak?!" Ayame exclaimed, turning to Blake with a look of frustration. "What was up with that?! Jay was a fucking wuss! Dude, she's so totally into you! Why the heck did you choose Wendy over her? Mia's been there for you the whole time!"

"Well, yeah, but Wendy was his childhood friend," Blake replied. "I think that it was nice that the two of them got together in the end, don't you?"

"Well, I guess, but… like… I didn't want Mia to cry like that!" Ayame sighed. "And then when she finally wins, and Wendy goes over to congratulate her, that… that…"

"…"

"WAIT A MINUTE! What the hell am I doing talking about the movie with you like it's so fucking natural?!" Ayame exclaimed, remembering where they were and what they'd been doing.

"You seemed to be enjoying it," Blake shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I didn't!" Ayame lied, crossing her arms indignantly. "That was just terrible! Though, I shouldn't have expected any less!"

Blake shrugged as Ayame stormed off, rolling his eyes. It was a good mood they had going while it lasted, at any rate.

"Yo, where are you going?" Blake asked, walking up beside her.

"I'm hungry," she snapped. "It's lunch time."

"Well, mind if I pick the place?"

Ayame snorted, turning to look at him with a smirk.

"What, next you're gonna tell me you know where my favorite restaurant on campus is and take me there, is that it?"

This fucker!

Giorno's wasn't the fanciest catered restaurant located on campus, but Ayame had been eating there since her first year, and their whole-grain pasta was delicious. Which made the fact that Blake had led her right to it without a single misstep all the more infuriating.

"How?" She snarled, as the two sat down across from one another.

"How what?" Blake asked, taking a blue crayon out of the stand in the center of the table, beginning some doodles on the large sheet of white paper that covered the cloth.

"How did you know I love eating Giorno's [Pokemon, make an Italian region equivalent for the Pokemon World, it would be awesome] Experience?"

"Oh! You like eating here?" Blake asked, giving her a cool smile. "This just happens to be my favorite restaurant on campus. I had no idea you liked it?"

"Liar. I haven't seen you here once."

"Oh, you've been looking for me? Exciting."

"Blake…"

"I asked Olivia last night where would be a nice place to take you on our date. She recommended this place."

"I knew it! That woman…"

"She really cares for you, you know. It's sweet."

"She could do to care a little less. I don't need her interfering in my dating life."

Blake shrugged.

"Well, the important thing is you have a dating life, right?"

"Under duress," she dryly responded.

"Sure, sure," Blake said, leaning back and glancing at her. "Kay, I'm done. Pick a letter."

"Huh?" Ayame glanced down at what he had been doodling. It was a mock gallows with a line drawn down to represent a rope, and eight horizontal dashes on a line underneath it.

"Hangman. You know, hangman. Pick a letter."

"F," Ayame said, narrowing her eyes. "U."

"That's two letters. And they're both wrong."

"I'm not interested in playing."

"Ah, and here I thought you'd want the chance to show me up?" Blake said. "Come on, admit it. You're having a little bit of fun."

"Nope. Not a bit."

"Liar. You were having a blast during the movie."

Ayame didn't have a reply to that.

"I don't want to play," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Okay, then," Blake shrugged, spelling out in letters the word A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. Ayame rolled her eyes.

Their food arrived shortly after. Ayame had gotten a plate of whole-grain spaghetti with sauce and a mountain of meatballs on the side, and Blake had a plate of penne pasta slathered in a pinkish cream sauce.

"You get your meatballs on the side?" Blake asked.

"Yeah? So?"

"It's just interesting, that's all."

"I like it better this way," Ayame said, piercing one of the large chunks of meat with her fork and slipping it into her mouth. "I get to choose what I want to eat, don't need to have to go digging through my pasta to find 'em."

Ayame smiled in spite of herself as the familiar flavor burst into her tongue. Giorno's really was the best, damn it!

They finished their meal in silence, and then faced the next obstacle of the date. The bill.

"I'm paying my share," Ayame snarled.

"Come on, you don't even want to be here," Blake insisted, snatching up the check. "It's only fair if I pay for your portion. Please, I want to."

"Yeah, well, I ain't interested in what you want," Ayame frowned. "If I let you pay for me, then I'll feel indebted to you, and the thought of that makes me want to vomit."

She took the check out of his hands.

"'Sides, eating here ain't cheap and you're just freshman. Least we can do is split up our points."

"Well, if you insist," Blake shrugged.

Their bill settled, the two left the restaurant, on speaking terms at the very least.

"So, what do you have next on our grand date?" Ayame asked. "Gonna visit my childhood home next?"

"Just one last place," Blake said.

"Oh?" Ayame's interest was piqued. "You know you have me for the day, right? Only one last place?"

"I got what I wanted," Blake said, smiling. "Whether you'll admit to it or not, you had fun. So since I got to see your smiling face, that's good enough for me."

"…" Ayame frowned. "Sure, one last place if you want."

"Then follow me," Blake grinned. "It's gonna be a surprise."

"Where's he going?" Cynthia asked, she and Sango still trailing after the two of them. "There's nothing past here but the dorms and the wild areas…"

Sango paled, suddenly having a sinking suspicion about where Blake was taking her.

"Let's go back, Cynthia," she said quietly.

"Eh? Why?" Cynthia asked.

"We've seen enough, right? It's been juicy enough, right? So we should probably just go back to the room."

"Wait, you don't think he's planning to… oh, Blake! You dog! I had no idea you could move so fast! Mad props, my dude!" Cynthia laughed.

"He's not taking her back to his room," Sango said, shaking her head. "Can we just go?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Cynthia said, nodding. "Whatever you want."

What Sango wanted was to be anywhere but here right now. She knew where Blake was taking that girl, and it wasn't back to his room. The only place in the direction that they were heading would be the Floette Fields. She didn't know why he was taking her there, but he almost certainly was. And that place was too special for her. It was where she got to hang out with Blake two mornings out of the week. A special time for the two of them, where she could be alone with him. And to see him there with another woman… she was afraid it would break her heart into too many pieces to put back together.

"So this is your one last date location?" Ayame asked, looking around disinterestedly. "It's a field. It's a nice field, but-."

"You're in the Caretaker Course, right?" Blake asked, pointing at her sleeve, where her green armband would normally be.

"Yeah, why?"

"That means you've spent a lot of time out here. Taking care of the pokemon."

Ayame shrugged, leaning back. "A little."

"Just a little?"

"My major's dedicated to training Pokemon for the Pokeathlon," Ayame clarified. "I don't spend a lot of time here in the fields looking after the normal ones."

"You miss it?"

"Do I miss what?" Ayame asked.

"Taking care of other people's pokemon? I mean, with the time you've got to spend training yours up for meets, and your duties as captain of the track team, not to mention your coursework… can't imagine you've got a lot of time to just hang around and play with pokemon, you know?"

"Well, is this where you tell me about your nice little insights, and how you 'know me' and what I'm going through?" Ayame snorted. "You don't know shit."

"Nope," Blake admitted, shaking his head. He sat down on the grassy hill, looking out over the pokemon of various trainers playing out in the wild. "I talked to a friend of mine applying for the Caretaker Course. Name's Serefina. She had nothing but praise for you. Said that back in your junior year you used to keep pace with the other pokemon with a big smile on your face."

"That girl talks too much," Ayame muttered, flopping down in the grass next to him. "Yeah, I haven't come out here as often, so what?"

"Like I said, I just thought you'd miss it. When we caught your club practice yesterday… it didn't seem like you were enjoying yourself the way Serefina described it. I'm just curious about why."

"None of your goddamn business is why," Ayame snapped. "My problems ain't your problems. That what this is? You ask me on some grand date just so you can give me some therapy?"

"Something like that," Blake admitted. "I already told you. I wanted to see you relax and have a good time."

"Well… this isn't so bad," Ayame shrugged, staring up at the sky.

"Oh? Really?" Blake grinned.

"Yeah, I mean… I got no interest in any sorta dating stuff… but out here, looking at the sky… it's nice. …Even if you gotta be here."

"Well, I think that's as close to a positive as I'm gonna get."

"You're damn right."

Ayame sat up, and stretched.

"Think I'm going to let the others out for a little bit," she decided.

"Oh? Your pokemon?" Blake asked. "Is this one of those 'you show me yours I'll show you mine' quid pro quo type of things? Because I gotta say, I-"

"Stuff it," Ayame growled, leaping to her feet. She reached into her purse, and withdrew six pokeballs.

"Come on out, team! Huddle up!"

Ayame's pokemon emerged in a rainbow of shining lights, six pokemon in all. The largest was her Golem, the large rock pokemon flexing his muscles. A Glalie floated overhead, a broad smile on his face. Another floating pokemon was a grass type, an Eldegoss, lifted by the puffs growing out of her head. On the ground were a Voltorb and a group of six small Falinks in formation like a caterpillar. And, of course, her last pokemon, a Wooloo.

"So, what do you think?" Ayame said, standing confidently with a smug, proud smile. "Isn't my team just the most adorable group of pokemon in the world?"

"Well, it's certainly a… well-rounded team," Blake said, trying not to laugh.

"Shut up!" Ayame said, her face bright red. "Don't make fun! They're all adorable!"

She pushed past him and walked up to her pokemon, leaning down and giving her fluffy Wooloo a big hug.

"Woo!" Her Wooloo bleated, Ayame stroking her head.

"That's right, Foof, he's just a big ol' meanie."

"Fal! Fal!" Her Falinks crowded around her, and she patted each of them on the head.

"This is Foof, my Wooloo, and the big Golem is Rhox. The cute floating ones are Dana, my Eldegoss, and Snows, my Glalie. Roll is my Voltorb, and all these little ones are Troops!"

As Ayame listed off her pokemon with a big smile, Blake was just happy that her mood had improved.

"So you really like round pokemon, huh?" Blake asked.

"Well duh, who wouldn't?" Ayame snapped. "They're just the most precious, adorable things in the whole entire world, is all!"

"Well, in that case…" Blake smirked, reaching down to his belt. "Let me introduce you to one of my friends."

"Sol!" Uni peeked out behind Blake's leg, looking up at Ayame's stunned face.

"Oh my gosh!" She gushed, reaching toward the green pokemon. Uni floated back, wary of the girl's aggressive approach.

"Oh, don't come on too strong, she's really shy," Blake warned.

"…F-fine," Ayame said, standing back up and crossing her arms, turning away from Blake with a pout. "Sh-she's not so cute, anyway. How cute could she be if she was one of your pokemon?"

"Sol…" Uni looked down, her face making an expression like she was about to cry.

"Rrrgh…" Ayame shook, torn between whether or not she should reach out and hug the cute pokemon, and not wanting to acknowledge a pokemon owned by Blake was as adorable as any of hers."

Blake, meanwhile, was relishing the turmoil of emotions on Ayame's face.

"Want to hug her?" Blake asked.

"Of-of course not!" Ayame exclaimed. "That would be like… like second-hand hugging you! Gross!"

"What are you, a third grader? Do you want to hug her or not?"

"Urr…" Ayame balked, glancing at Uni's bright face, before nodding reluctantly.

"Go ahead, Uni," Blake said, patting her on the side.

"Solosis," Uni said, bobbing up and down. Uni floated toward Ayame, the tall girl reaching out hopefully. She wrapped Uni up into a bear hug, rubbing the squishy green pokemon against her cheek.

"Hewwo, Uni," Ayame gushed, "you're just the cutest thing! You wanna play with us, right?"

"Sol!" Uni chirped.

"Okay, welcome to the team!" Ayame cheered.

Ayame played with pokemon, both hers and those being looked after, long past the setting sun. She finally returned to Blake, panting, flopping down on the hill beside him in the evening darkness. Blake recalled Uni, and Ayame had already returned her team to their balls.

"It's past 9, you know," Blake said. "You're free to go."

"Yeah, I know," Ayame nodded, checking her phone. "Still… the night's young, and there's one last place I want to check out."

"Are you inviting me?"

"No!" She said, thankful her embarrassed face wasn't seen in the darkness. "I'm going there either way. But I could use an extra pair of hands, if you're in the mood."

"Well, since you stuck with me the whole day, it's the least I could do," Blake said. "Lead the way."

Blake should not have been as surprised as he was that the place Ayame had wanted to go was the track.

"Seriously?" Blake asked, the lights flooding the long circle. "The whole point of this date was to give you a day off!"

"It's fine," Ayame said, walking toward the changing room. "No such thing as a 'day off' for us superstars." Her rueful laugh echoed through the silent stadium.

Stripping her clothes off, Ayame opened her locker to find her running clothes, and found something else in their place.

"Ayame. I knew you were going to try running on your date. That's no good! If you must, then you'll be wearing this instead! Love and luck, Olivia"

She crumpled the note in her hands, looking at what Olivia had left in place of her track outfit with a scowl.

"Damn it…"

Blake's jaw dropped when Ayame stepped out onto the track, her face hot as fire. She was as red as the bloomers she was wearing.

"Uh, Ayame…"

"Not a word," she hissed, pulling her shirt down. "Not a fucking word."

She slammed a starting gun and a stopwatch in his hands, and walked down to the track to set up her starting point.

"I'm gonna do some warm ups," she called to him. "When I'm done, then we'll get started. And if I see you look in my direction, you aren't walking off this field in one piece."

"Might be worth it."

She opened her mouth and hissed at him, Blake chuckling and turning the other way.

"Okay, I'm ready," she said, getting into a starting position. Blake pulled the starting pistol and pressed the timer, and Ayame was off like a rocket.

"Time!" She called a few seconds later, turning to a stop.

"12:19," Blake reported.

"Damn it!" Ayame cursed, kicking the dirt in frustration. "Again!"

She repeated the process a few more times, but never broke below 12:00. And each failure, she grew more and more incensed.

"Damn it, damn it!" She cursed, slamming her palms against the dirt until her palms were cut open. Tears fell from her eyes. "Again!"

"Ayame…" Blake walked over to her, and reached down to help her up.

"Again!" She shouted, swiping his hand away. All the good will he'd built up during the day was nowhere to be seen on her frustrated face.

"It's not going to make a difference," he said, sitting down next to her. "You're making good time. So why…"

"Fuck your 'good time'," Ayame spat, kicking her dirt and sitting down beside him. "Good times won't win track meets!"

Blake resisted the urge to tell her that yes, they would, in fact that's all that won them.

"This is your fault," she muttered. "All your fault. If you hadn't dragged me on this stupid date, then I could have been running all day! Don't you fucking get that?! I need… I need time! I need to work, to get better! Otherwise, I… I…"

She crumpled in on herself, crying.

"Ayame…" Blake placed a hand on her back. It was trembling. She shook him off.

"You don't understand… you like to pretend like you fucking get me, but you don't," she chuckled, turning bitter in a way that Blake found all to reminiscent of his own past. "If you knew the responsibility I had, you never would have done shit like this. But don't worry, it's not your fault all the way. It's my fucking fault too, for letting you get the lead on me. Letting me actually think I was enjoying myself. I slacked, and now I can't even break 12 seconds, you bastard!"

She inhaled, regaining her composure, staring down into the dirt.

"A few years ago…" she mused, shaking her head, "a few years ago, my standard time was 12:6. Real good. Great for a competitive sprinter. I was just running like I always did. And somehow… I ran an 11:62."

"That… wow, that's…"

"Great, I know. Real fucking great…" She shook her head. "Problem is, I couldn't do it again."

"Well, of course not…"

"Everyone was looking up to me like I was some superhuman track star, when all I did was just run like I always do," Ayame sighed. "Now here I am, a fucking captain. Everyone's expecting me to be some big superstar and lead them all to victory, but no matter how fast I run, I just… I can't even get close to that time. No matter how hard I try, I'm just… it's just fucking useless. So just stop. No more of this date crap. I don't have the time. If my hard work can get even one millisecond closer toward winning, then I've got to do whatever it takes."

"…Have you ever tried not trying?" Blake asked.

"The fuck does that mean?"

"You're acting like you've got to live up to everyone's expectations of you," Blake explained. "But… what do you want?"

He leaned back and looked up at the starry sky.

"For me, running was something that I started doing as part of physical therapy," Blake explained. "And for a while… I couldn't get my body to move in the way I wanted it to. Everything would hurt, and I wanted to give up more times than I could count. But I pushed through it, and my body healed. Now, for me at least, it's a way to release tension and clear my mind. What about you? Has it ever been like that for you? Or were you always just obsessed with how fast you could run?"

"Blake…" Ayame glanced at him. "…Don't get so cocky. What kind of shit are you spewing? It's real easy to sit on your high horse and talk about how running is something you love for the sport of it, but that's a luxury you get to have since you don't have any expectations or anyone relying on you! I… If I was going to make things difficult on my underclassmates… if I was going to be selfish and think about stuff like boys or dating… then all this effort I did for their sakes would be wasted. Everyone's looking up to me, everyone's counting on me! I need to do better than I've been doing, because if I don't, then I'll never be able to live up to the Ayame Toujou that everyone knows as a genius!"

"So what?" Blake asked, shrugging. "That's all a big lie anyway."

"A lie?!" She snarled, grabbing him by the collar.

"Of course it's a lie," Blake said. "Genius? What genius is that? All I see is a girl doing her best to win. No genius I ever met tries this hard. Why not come off that pedestal everyone's put you on and come run a few laps with us commonfolk for a while?"

"It's not that simple! I've got responsibilities, I can't just-"

"Ayame, you're right. I don't know what you're dealing with. I've only known you for a couple of weeks, so I can't really speak much for your circumstances. And I don't know about track meets or that. But what I can tell you is what I've learned for myself. And that's that trying to live up to the expectations that other people selfishly set on you will only end up dragging you down."

"That's…"

"Look, Ayame, it's this simple. Why not go talk to your club members and tell them how you feel? Explain to them the pressure you're under. Maybe not spend so much time thinking about how fast you can run, and just enjoy running for what it is?" Blake gently broke free from her grasp, and stood up. "Oh, one more thing…"

"Huh?" Ayame felt a light tug on her head, and her hair slipped out of place. Blake waved her bright blue ribbon right in her face, smirking down on her. "That's-!"

Ayame leapt to her feet, lunging for the ribbon, but Blake stepped out of the way.

"Give that back!" She shouted, Blake turning on his heel and running down the track. She shot after him, focusing in on her ribbon. She reached forward, the distance between them closing faster and faster as she wrapped her fingers around the end.

"Got it!" Ayame crowed, the two collapsing into the dirt. She held her ribbon up triumphantly, her hair flailing loosely around her like a crown. "Got it…"

"Wow, you managed to catch me this time," Blake panted. "You really are fast."

"You let me win, didn't you?" She asked, panting. "Is this some self-confidence trick?"

"No, no," Blake said, shaking his head. "You caught me fair and square."

He laughed.

"See? When you're not focusing on your times or the competition or what everyone thinks of you, you can even outrun me."

"Blake…" she panted, sitting up and rising to her feet. "Can you take my time one more time?"

"You sure?" Blake asked.

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "I want to give it one more shot, now that my mind's clear."

"If you're sure," Blake nodded. "But forget about the timer. Just run because you want to. Sound good?"

Ayame frowned, but nodded her head.

"Yeah, if you think so. Couldn't hurt."

The two walked back to the starting line, Ayame tying her hair up with her ribbon again, getting into position.

Ayame closed her eyes, feeling the night wind blow across her exposed skin. She inhaled, the scent of the track familiar. Don't think about how fast you're gonna run. Just run. Run because you love it! She smiled. The starting gun firing off was like a call to action, and she leapt forward, sprinting across the dirt. She passed the line with a whirl of exhilaration, shouting into the night sky.

"Whoo!" She shouted. "Amazing!" She wiped her brow, ecstatic. It had been a while since running had felt that good.

"How was that?" Blake asked. "Fun enough?"

"I haven't run like that in years," Ayame admitted. "Maybe you had a point about that whole 'forget about the time' thing."

"Speaking of, I lied earlier," Blake said, taking his hand out of his pocket to reveal the stopwatch. "I was actually timing you anyway."

"For real?" Ayame asked, surprised.

"Take a look." Blake handed her over the stopwatch.

"11:87?!" Ayame sputtered. "Seriously?! I haven't run that good in… I mean…"

"Looks like I was right," Blake said. "All that worry about how fast you were running, or trying to beat your old time, or living up to everyone's expectations, all that was just weighing you down with a whole lot of nothing. But once you're just doing it because you love it, looks like that's what you're capable of."

Ayame nodded, staring at Blake. She'd begun seeing him in a whole new light.

"You've been there too, haven't you? You said so before. That a bunch of people made their own expectations about you. That's how you knew."

Blake shrugged.

"I just know what it's like to feel burdened by other people. I was just trying to help."

"It was all a plan from the start, wasn't it? You weren't actually serious about the date. You were just trying to get me an excuse to relax, so you could explain to me about all this when we were alone."

Blake shrugged, a knowing smile on his face.

"You think I'm so cunning that I noticed the pressure you appeared to be under during your little club practice, then set up a little date just to get you to see things my way? Maybe get you to have a little change of heart, and stop living up to everyone's expectations? You were the one who wanted to come here, not me. I'd have to be a pretty sneaky guy to plan out something like that."

Ayame grinned back at him.

"You're a conniving prick, you know that?"

"It was worth it though, wasn't it?" Blake smiled. "And just because I had an ulterior motive doesn't mean I didn't thoroughly enjoy the experience for what it was, Ayame."

She rolled her eyes with a scoff.

"Well, it certainly could have been worse."

"Well, I guess I'll take your compliment and thank you for it, but it really is getting late," Blake said, checking his phone. "And I think we both have places to be. So I guess we'll have to call it a night."

He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Unless?"

Ayame burst out laughing and turned her head away from him, grabbing the starting pistol out of his hand. "On the first date? What sort of girl do you think I am?"

"So does that mean a second date is still on the table?" Blake called after her. Not even bothering to turn around, she flipped him off as she walked away, laughing to herself.

Well, at least Ayame's not totally hostile anymore. That's got to count for something. Don't forget to review and vote!