Here's another chapter, we get more of the relationship between Blake and Guinevere! How will their interactions lead them to who they are today? We'll have to see how they act around each other. Sad when we see how it all ended up between them.

We've got a decent amount of votes in the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Semi-Finals! The current lead runners in the polls may surprise you! The shakeup really makes me realize how a girl may be in many people's top 5, but not necessarily in their top 3. So I'm certainly feeling more than a little surprised Looks like the girl I'm pulling for isn't going to win, but that's fine. They're all wonderful girls! There have still only been a few votes, I'm sure there are more of you that want to vote! If you want your best girls to make it to the final round and beyond, then make sure to get your votes in! You have 3 votes, make them count!

Semi-Finalists: Cynthia, Ayame, Sango, Kate, Marion, Alcea

Thunder Fire: Ayame isn't the rebound type.

ConfusedCradily: We'll see him soon enough. For now, I want to focus on Guinevere and Blake.

Tambry96bj: It's an important part of their relationship.

Aquahaze675: To be fair, Elaina, Kate, Caelia, and Alcea (though she doesn't really count) were all created by me, as well. So really only Sango and Cynthia were love interests that were made by other people. And Guinevere isn't THAT normal, as we'll see. Much of her original developmental problems are still present, she just has a better grip on her sanity than after her harmonia developed.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 280

Blake looked at the blonde girl with something akin to awe. She looked just like a doll. She was so pretty and delicate, and sat perfectly still. The only sign of imperfection in the small girl was her hair. It was a beautiful pale blonde, but it was a mess of tangles and knots, as though it had never been brushed before. Even seeing that, it didn't distract from her allure. She was so cute, like a small animal. He wanted to speak to her.

"Um, excuse me…"

Blake spoke up, but the girl did not seem to hear him. She hadn't looked up from his book. He cleared his throat and raised his voice a little louder so that she could hear him.

"Excuse me?" Blake asked again. He'd been trying to keep his voice down, but this one was closer to his normal tone of voice.

She still didn't answer. She didn't even blink.

Sephiria cleared his throat.

"Guinevere."

Guinevere raised her head immediately, looking at the tall woman with those dull, slate-colored eyes. Blake flinched in surprise.

"If you don't use her name, she won't know you're talking to her," Sephiria explained.

"Oh, okay," Blake said, nodding. "Can… can you bring me closer to her?"

Sephiria nodded her head. She pushed Blake up to the windowsill, where Guinevere was still perched, staring at Sephiria. The woman had used her name. Did she have something to say?

"Guinevere," Sephiria repeated, "this boy here is Blake."

Guinevere's eyes dropped to Blake, and then looked back at Sephiria as if she were asking her "so what?"

"Guinevere, Blake is your brother."

"Kanone is my brother."

"So is Blake."

Guinevere tilted her head to the side.

"I don't understand, so is Blake what?"

"Just like Kanone, Blake is also your brother, Guinevere."

Guinevere blinked.

"Oh."

"Um… what are you reading?" Blake interjected.

Guinevere didn't respond.

"If you don't use her name, she won't know you're talking to her," Sephiria repeated herself. Blake's cheeks flushed, and he nodded.

"G-gwe… Gwennyveer, can you show me what you're reading?" Blake tried again. Guinevere turned her head and looked at him for the first time. She tilted the book up so Blake could see the title. That wasn't very helpful, since he couldn't read. If he could, he would know the title said "My Little Sister Can't Be This Okay With a Creepy Incestual Relationship."

"Guinevere, your brother can't read," Sephiria informed her.

"Oh."

Guinevere did not take this as a hint to vocalize the title for Blake's sake. She just sat there and let the conversation die.

The three sat there in silence for a little while.

"Shall we get started, young master?" Sephiria asked, glancing down at Blake.

"S-sure," Blake said, nodding. Sephiria walked over to one of the shelves, and searched for one of the series designed for younger children.

Blake quickly grew to regret asking Sephiria to teach him how to read in the coming days. She was strict as hell. He quickly grew to hate learning to read, hate the letters, the grammar, everything about it. It didn't help that she was teaching him two languages at the same time, either. Kalosian was easier to learn, since he already spoke it, but she was also forcing him to learn to read, and thus speak, English, as well. He asked her why, once, and she explained that it was necessary as much as learning Kalosian. He was a member of the upper crust, now. Richard Harker, the father whom Blake still had yet to meet, had insisted that he learn.

Throughout this period, Blake would catch his sister, Guinevere, coming into the same room to read. It was part of why he wanted to continue his lessons here, when Sephiria suggested she could bring the books to his room. He wanted to spend time with Guinevere, even if she ignored him the whole time. He'd never had a sister before.

Sephiria had noted this, and after a conversation with Cynthia, the two came up with an idea.

"Guinevere," Sephiria said, getting the girl's attention. "Come here."

Guinevere set her book down and hopped out of the alcove, padding over to the table.

"Your brother is learning English, can you help?"

No response.

"Guinevere, I want you to do something for me," Sephiria corrected. "Guinevere, please watch an anime in English with Blake."

Blake looked at her in confusion.

"It will help you learn the words better," Sephiria explained. "You deserve a break, young master, you look rather overwhelmed."

"…Okay," Blake said, nodding his head. He glanced at Guinevere, who was staring off in the distance. He was getting better at pronouncing her name, which was something good, he reasoned.

Sephiria pulled Blake's chair back from the table, and glanced at Guinevere.

"Guinevere, we're going now."

Guinevere didn't move.

"Guinevere, please come with us."

Guinevere nodded her head and obediently followed Sephiria and Blake. The way she acted was so strange to Blake. He had noted this several times over the past few weeks as he'd gotten to know more about Guinevere (he couldn't really say he'd gotten to know her "better" since the two hadn't really even talked) that she didn't act how he would expect a girl from a wealthy family to act. She didn't seem particularly selfish or spoiled, she was obedient and quiet. It was just another notable thing about her that made Blake want to get to know her a little better.

At first, Blake thought Sephiria was taking him back to his room. But no, in fact, they walked past his room, and took him to another door. It was a sturdy, oak door colored white, identical to his own. Sephiria withdrew a keyring from her jacket, and inserted the key, looking at Guinevere. The blonde girl said nothing to affirm or decline the request, not even a nod or shake of the head. Sephiria nodded herself, and turned the doorknob, pushing the door open.

Blake realized that this must be Guinevere's room, as Sephiria stepped behind him again and pushed him in. It looked similar to his. Apparently, Guinevere did not have a lot of things, either. There was a pile of stuffed pokemon dolls stacked in a corner, covered in dust, displaying clear signs of disuse. There was nothing on her dresser, but there was a table on the opposite wall of her bed, with a large TV on it. So it at least had a little more in it than his room did.

"Guinevere, put on your favorite dubbed anime for Blake to watch," Sephiria instructed. Guinevere nodded her head and walked over to the television.

Sephiria gave Blake a meaningful glance. She escorted him over to the bed and helped him out of his chair, setting him down on the fluffy bed.

"Remember what I told you," she said, Blake nodding his head obediently. Sephiria bowed, and headed for the door. "If you need me, just call."

Blake felt the buzzer in the pocket of his shorts. He nodded back to her again. Blake felt a shifting of weight in the bed, and turned to see Guinevere climbing into it beside him. If she cared that he was there, she didn't say anything about it.

Blake remembered what Sephiria had told him before. It had been a warning to him, about his sister. Apparently, she wasn't… normal.

"Your younger sister, the young miss, her brain works differently than yours or mine," Sephiria had explained. "Because of that, she doesn't respond to things in the same way that you do."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"If you want to get to know her better, then you need to understand the way that she interacts with others," Sephiria explained. "If she doesn't know that you are talking to her, she won't answer. She can't understand subtext."

"What's 'subtext'?" Blake asked. Sephiria sighed. Blake may have been unusually smart for an 8 year old, but he was still an 8 year old.

"I'll explain it like this," Sephiria said. "Imagine that you are the only one in the room. If I walk into the room, and ask you 'what are you doing?' you would understand that I am talking to you, and respond to my question, right?"

That made sense to Blake, so he nodded in agreement.

"Guinevere doesn't understand that. For her, unless you make it clear that you are talking TO her, she will assume that you are not, and will not listen. You could be asking her questions for hours and she would assume that you are talking to someone else, or even talking to yourself. She won't know you're talking to her, unless you use her name or get her attention some other way. So whenever you want to talk with her about something, make sure to use her name, got it?"

Blake nodded.

"Also, you need to make sure you talk with her clearly," Sephiria continued. "If you ask her 'Guinevere, would you like something to eat?' and she says yes, you can't follow it with a 'what?' She won't understand. She can't tell that you're asking her 'what would you like to eat?' as a follow-up to your first question. You will need to directly follow with 'what would you like to eat?' so she knows you are still talking about food."

That sounded pretty hard. Blake expected to slip up a lot.

"Right now, the master and miss are trying to get her to adapt to others," Sephiria said. "But she is still having difficulty. If possible, they would like for the two of you to spend more time together. Guinevere… she very much needs a friend, someone who can be patient with her… quirks. It doesn't help that there is such an age difference between her and her brother. Can you do that?"

Blake nodded his head.

"I already like her," he replied. "She's my sister, after all."

Sephiria paused for a moment, stunned. She nodded.

"Then remember what I told you about speaking with her, and things shall be fine. Also, one other thing. Guinevere is very sensitive to contact with others. She doesn't like to be touched, not even by her parents. Unless she touches you first, you should not touch her. Understand?"

Blake flinched a little. He knew what it was like to not like being touched. He nodded his head.

Back to Guinevere's room, Blake was trying to watch the anime that Guinevere had put on, but it wasn't making a lot of sense. From what he could tell, it was about a guy who had to go around kissing girls in order to make these ghosts inside of them come out. It was all in English, so he couldn't follow every word. He glanced at his sister, who seemed thoroughly entranced by it. He wasn't too far off.

Guinevere had a fascination with romance, and series about people interacting with one another. She didn't quite understand them. The way the people were acting, the way they spoke to one another, none of it was getting through. And yet she still liked watching it, if only to try and figure out why. Why did these girls seem to know things at a glance? It was all so confusing.

Both kids were watching the show without fully being able to understand it. It was as though it were in a language foreign to both of them, and they studied it vigorously to make sense of what they were watching.

Cynthia arrived home late in the evening, greeting the servants. Sephiria was preparing a late dinner for the lady of the house as she entered the kitchen. A nice-smelling roast. Cynthia smiled. Sephiria had only been with their family for a few years, but she was quite a skilled attendant already.

"How are Blake's lessons coming along?" Cynthia asked.

"He is doing well. He's learning at an acceptable rate. By the time the next school year will begin, he should be capable of enrollment. But I would not expect him to be at the top of his class any time soon," Sephiria answered her. Cynthia chuckled.

"My, that's fine," she laughed. "As long as he's trying his best. And what about that… other issue we discussed? Are they getting along okay?"

Sephiria smiled, a rarity for her.

"Would you like to see for yourself, milady? They are in the young miss's room."

Cynthia raised an eyebrow and smiled, nodding. She turned on her heel and headed upstairs to check on the kids.

Cynthia peeked into Guinevere's room, her eyes widening. The anime was still playing on the television, but neither child was watching it. Instead, they were both fast asleep in the bed, having worn themselves out, getting some nice, peaceful rest. Blake was snoring, while Guinevere was snuggled up next to him, hugging him tightly like a pillow.

Cynthia smiled and closed the door. The two were getting along just fine.

Blake was able to walk by the summer. He had learned enough Kalosian and English to be seen as adequate in Sephiria's eyes, although he wasn't fluent in English just yet. He'd learned to read well, and had managed to understand a lot more of the shows that he had watched with Guinevere. Sephiria remained his attendant, but she no longer needed to escort him around any longer. Now, he could go over to his sister's room by himself, where they could watch all the anime they liked.

Another benefit of this, was that Blake now understood what was happening much better than he had in the previous months. He could explain it all so much more directly to her, and Guinevere ate the explanations up eagerly. She loved spending time with him. He was the only one in their house who wanted to spend time with her. Her other brother was never home, and when her mother was with them, she would try, certainly, but… it wasn't like with Blake. She barely even saw her father.

A knock on the bedroom door distracted them. This was one of the things that Blake had taught her. When someone knocks on the door, that means that they wanted to come inside. Guinevere didn't understand why, but Blake had explained that that was just how it was. If she heard a knock on the door, then she would say "come in" if she wanted them to come in, and "I'm busy" if she didn't.

That part was a little trickier. How did she know if she wanted them to come in or not if she didn't know what they wanted? So whenever she heard a knock, she would just say one of them at random, because that was what was expected of her. This time, she said "come in".

Sephiria stepped into the room, placing a hand over her heart and bowing her head to the two.

"Young master, young miss, the master of the house requests your presence in the dining hall," Sephiria reported. "Your elder brother has returned home. In celebration, he has decided to hold a family dinner."

Guinevere wasn't really sure what that meant, but Blake understood. Sephiria left the finer explanation to him, as he was getting much better at it.

A few moments after Sephiria's departure, Cynthia entered the room.

"Mother," Blake said, greeting Cynthia. Cynthia smiled at him and sat down on the bed beside the two kids.

"Be careful, Blake, don't use that sort of language around Richard," Cynthia warned him. Her voice was sad. Blake hung his head. He had only met the stern Richard Harker a few times in the months he was here, and in that time it had been made clear that while Blake was a member of the family and was allowed to use their name, he was not to refer to Richard as his father, or Cynthia as his mother. But Richard did not seem to mind Blake referring to Guinevere as his sister, interestingly enough. In private, Cynthia had told him that his father was very strict about definitions, and that Blake should not take it personally. She also winked at him and said he could "slip up" around her as much as he liked.

"Is everything okay, mother?" Blake asked, not sure why Cynthia had come to see them. "We were just told to prepare for dinner."

"Oh, I know, I just wanted to make sure you were making the proper preparations," Cynthia said, her eyes glancing to her daughter, more specifically, the girl's hair. Guinevere's hair had started growing a little long, and was as tangled as it ever was, since the girl didn't really give any thought to her appearance. She took baths because they were relaxing, and she put on the clothes her mother gave her, but when it came to hair she didn't even bother looking in the mirror. "Guinevere, we don't want you going downstairs looking like a Tangela, now do we?"

"I don't understand," Guinevere said, giving her mother a strange look. Cynthia sighed. She presented a hairbrush to the girl.

"May I?" Cynthia asked. She reached out to Guinevere and a look of panic crossed the girl's face. She swatted away her mother's hand, and scurried behind Blake for protection.

"No touching," Guinevere said. Cynthia sighed, lowering her hand. Her daughter barely spoke to her, she didn't even like to be touched. Ever since Guinevere had grown old enough to walk on her own, she would avoid hugs that Cynthia tried to give her. As for talking… no matter how many times she tried, Guinevere never seemed to understand what Cynthia was saying. There was a wall between her and her daughter. She knew why, of course, she had been the one to take the girl to the doctors, but she still wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.

Cynthia glanced at Blake. Guinevere was hiding behind the boy, and from what she'd noted in the time they'd spent together, he seemed to be the only person she actually enjoyed spending time with. Cynthia felt a little lonely with that revelation. She nodded her head, assenting to Guinevere's inadvertent request.

"Well, what about if Blake were to do it?" She offered.

"Do what?" Guinevere didn't understand what she was asking, but Blake did.

"Guinevere, is it okay if I brush your hair?" Blake asked.

Guinevere blinked.

"…Okay…" she said quietly. She calmed down and lowered her hands, sitting peacefully like a doll. Cynthia handed Blake the brush and got off the bed, leaving the two to themselves as she watched from a distance.

Blake wasn't very good. He was tugging her hair in all sorts of ways trying to get the knots and tangles loose. But if it hurt, Guinevere didn't say anything. It took a lot longer than Cynthia had expected. When he was finally finished, it was already time for dinner.

Cynthia was stunned. It had been worth it. When was the last time she'd seen her daughter with hair this straight? It was impossible to completely straighten it, apparently, as much like her own, Guinevere's hair curled up at the ends. But it was beautiful, hair suited to frame her adorable daughter's pale face. Blake had done a lovely job, and for a moment Cynthia considered letting him brush he own hair, as well.

"I-I think I'm done," Blake said. "Is… is it okay?"

"I think you're definitely done," Cynthia smiled. She walked over to Guinevere's dresser and picked up a hand mirror, one that had gone unused since she'd bought it for her daughter. She walked back to the bed, and showed Guinevere's new hairstyle to her.

Much to the surprise of both Blake and Cynthia, Guinevere's pale lips broke out into the faintest of smiles.

Blake felt himself smiling, too. Seeing that look on Guinevere's face made him all warm inside.

So it looks like I might be stretching things out for another two chapters or so. There are nice little moments that I want to get to, and I want a chance to show these scenes between them all. So it'll take a little longer than I anticipated.