Time to see how things go between Blake and Kate, and how they manage to take care of Blake's Skorupi! Hopefully things won't be too awkward between them.

KedharS: Yeah, they definitely aren't capable of resolving this themselves, they're way too awkward for that.

MikySP: Getting closer though, only a week away.

Rosealine gold: It'll definitely be cute.

Aquahaze675: She definitely does. And she definitely suspects other things. Sylvia knows quite a lot, and her intuition is rather sharp. She's probably figured out more than I've actually thought all the way through yet.

Guest: Interesting I'll consider your character.

Thunder Fire: Well, not THAT bad… probably… I mean, it's definitely going to be awkward, that's for sure.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 371

Ayame was on a full sprint back to the Bulbasaur House, her backpack slung over her shoulder and filled to the brim with herbs of all different kinds. Alcea Vermeil was far more helpful than she had expected, considering the rivalry that existed between her and Olivia. Now, all that was left to do was get back to the room as fast as possible, and have that poison girl Kate whip up a batch of medicine to treat Blake's Skorupi.

That wasn't the only reason she was running exceptionally fast today, though.

That hug…! Ayame didn't want to admit it, because she didn't want to seem petty, but she hadn't liked the fact that Blake had given the girl such a big hug. Certainly she had told him to apologize, but this, well…

It just didn't sit right!

She knew it wasn't really fair of her to hold the hug against him. Blake could hug anyone he wanted, sure. But still… that girl had confessed to him. She was a girl that liked him, and had confessed. He'd turned her down not long before he had realized his feelings for her, so she didn't think for a minute that he actually dump Ayame for her.

But he was still alone in his room with a girl that had a crush on him, one that he had just given a big hug the moment he'd seen her!

So Ayame's footsteps were a little heavier than they might have been otherwise.

Using the card she borrowed from Blake to enter the building, Ayame dashed up the stairs and opened the door, walking into the boys' room.

Evidently there was nothing for her to worry about. Forget something happening between the two, the atmosphere in the room was heavy, like a dense cloud of awkwardness was hanging over everyone there. Kate and Blake looked like they were being crushed by it.

"What the heck happened?! Did you guy get poisoned too?!" Ayame sputtered, staring at the pale, sickly forms of Blake and Kate trembling on the floor.

"Aya…" Blake reached out to her with a shaky hand.

"Our savior…" Kate said, almost sounding cheery.

"Too awkward…" Blake groaned.

"Need… tension… broken…" Kate explained.

"Atmosphere… crushing…"

"Help…"

Ayame slapped her palm against her face in irritation. She stripped her backpack off and set it down on the floor.

"I got the herbs. Kate?"

"Right-o," Kate said, recovering quickly, the crushing atmosphere dispersing with her new sense of purpose. She took the backpack and unzipped it, spreading out a sheet of semi-transparent paper on the floor. She reached into her own bag, and took out a mixing kit.

"Kate, you're sure you know how to do this, right?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, definitely," Kate assured him. "I helped my dad out all the time growing up, mixing together combinations of poison-pokemon pheromones to help design his perfumes. I've gotten really good at mixing! Plus, I've had to mix up antidotes before in the past, because, well…"

She lowered her head sheepishly.

"I was too ashamed to buy antidotes at a mart for when my pokemon poisoned me on accident, since I didn't want to admit that I used poison pokemon…"

She sighed, dividing the herbs and plants into different piles to begin adding the ingredients.

"So don't worry, I'm actually an expert at synthesizing! I'm even taking Professor Luna Lunark's class on potions! So don't worry about it one bit, I can get this down fine! Compared to steeping tea properly for her highness, this is nothing!" Kate reassured them with a semi-sad smile.

She glanced aside.

"Now if only that translated into the ability to cook," she muttered, bemoaning the fact that all instances of cooking she attempted would without fail turn into a status-inflicting item if fed to a pokemon.

"What was that?" Blake asked.

"Nothing, nothing!" Kate replied, turning back to her work and beginning to grind some of the leaves in a mixing bowl.

"What, uh… what should we do?" Ayame asked.

"The formula is heated up now," Kate said. "I heated some water in the kitchen downstairs and put the formula in it, go grab it. Now."

"R-right," Ayame nodded, heading back downstairs.

"And not just the formula, either!" Kate called after her. "Make you bring the water pot, too, we're going to need the water!"

"What should I do?" Blake asked.

"I brought a thermometer," Kate said, tossing Blake the thermometer. "Keep track of Skorupi's temperature, okay?"

"Got it," Blake said, nodding. He took the thermometer out of her bag and went to the poison pokemon's side, sticking the thermometer in his mouth, waiting for it to catch the pokemon's temperature.

"I brought the formula back," Ayame said, entering the room. She was carrying a pot handle, steam rising up out of it. "You wanted the water, too?"

"Yeah, set it down over there, how hot is the formula?" Kate asked.

Ayame picked up the formula bottle.

"Is it body temperature, or-"

"Yeah, it is," Ayame said. "I handled stuff like this before, too. I was in the Caretaking course, remember? I took care of baby pokemon a lot back in the day!"

She grinned at Kate.

"You don't need to handle everything on your own, you know," she reassured the younger girl, patting her on the shoulder and kneeling down next to Blake and the Skorupi.

Kate blinked, and smiled.

"Thanks, I guess I just got carried away."

"No big deal, we're all in this together!" Ayame assured her. She waited for Blake to remove the thermometer.

"The temperature is- holy, 112 degrees?!" Blake exclaimed.

"That's fine, a Skorupi's average body temperature is 105 degrees," Kate assured him. "112 is high but not worryingly so. Go wet some towels in the water to manage the-"

Ayame was already wringing out a towel into the water as Blake placed the lip of the bottle into his Skorupi's mouth.

Kate fell silent, returning to grinding and mixing the medicine.

A few minutes later, the medicine was complete. She had blended it into a fine multi-colored powder prepared to mix.

"Okay, he's not going to like this," Kate said. "It's really bitter. But it's necessary. I'm going to need to administer the proper dosage. Going by his fever, I'll need to dilute this a decent bit. I think about… 2.5 milliliters of medicine diluted with 30 milliliters of water."

Kate took out a set of teaspoons and took out a bit of the powder, scooping it into a small vial, and then scooping out some water as well. She closed the lid and shook it until the water took on a murky greenish-brown consistence.

"That looks like sewer sludge," Blake replied.

"Fitting for a poison type," Ayame added.

Kate glared at the both of them and kept shaking for another minute.

"Okay, that should be enough. Thanks to the wet towels, his fever has stabilized too, so that's good… now, we'll need him to swallow this all at once without spitting it out. That's going to be trickier than you might think. Herbal remedies are very, very bitter, pokemon don't like them very much. But we don't exactly have the proper machinery to synthesize this with flavor enhancements to make it more palatable, so this is the best we can do. Also…"

Kate looked down, a guilty expression on her face.

"…He's probably sting you in response, even if he's asleep."

Ayame and Blake glanced at each other.

"…By all means, then," the two said simultaneously, stepping out of the way and gesturing at the Skorupi. Kate gave them a stare filled with pure loathing.

"Oh go fuck yourselves," she scowled, taking some anti-piercing gloves from her bag to protect from Skorupi's stingers. Ayame removed the formula bottle from the pokemon's mouth, and Kate opened his mouth again, careful of the sharp teeth.

"There you go, there you go," she said soothingly, tilting the vial and letting the medicine fall into the pokemon's mouth in one gulp. She pushed his mouth closed and held it tight as the pokemon sputtered and coughed, swinging his claws to sting her, but the pincers just slid off her gloves. A few seconds later, the pokemon finally settled down. She stood up and wiped her forehead, sighing.

"There we go, he's good," she replied, turning to the two. "I'll get started on the rest."

Blake blinked.

"The rest?"

"This isn't some one-and-done cure like an antidote or a full heal," Kate replied, sitting back down in front of her paper and grinder. "This is going to require extensive treatment for a period of time if you want your pokemon to get through this okay. I had Ayame get me enough materials to prepare multiple doses."

"How many?" Blake asked.

"You'll need to give him that same dose every two hours for the next 48 hours," Kate explained. "So I have enough to mix 23 more doses for you. She went back to grinding, mashing the rest of the plants together, beginning to measure out the medicine into different vials."

"Every two hours?" Blake asked, shocked. "When am I going to sleep?"

Kate blinked, and resisted the urge to laugh, turning back to Blake with a smirk on her face.

"Is this your first time raising a baby pokemon, Blake?" She giggled. "You actually think you're going to get sleep?"

Blake's face went pale as Kate continued to laugh.

Ayame watched the exchange in silence, staring at Kate as she worked at mixing and measuring out the medicine.

"Kate… Nomia, right?" Ayame asked.

"Yeah, what?" Kate asked, scowling back at the girl. It was a defense mechanism. She was more than a little intimidated by the girl. Ayame Toujou was taller than her, and clearly knew damn well how she felt about Blake.

…F-felt in the PAST TENSE! She didn't still have feelings for him! That… that would be insane! She was so totally over him it wasn't even funny!

…Shut up.

"Have you given any thought to joining the Caretaking Course next year?"

Kate blinked, her hands stopping the mixing. She looked at Ayame in confusion.

"What? No, I'm going into the Battling Course!"

"Really? Because the way you're mixing that potion you look like you would be a natural. I saw the way you handled that Skorupi, you must take care of your pokemon really well to have such a practiced hand. I think you'd find it pretty fulfilling work, too."

Kate snorted, shaking her head. She turned away from Ayame and resumed her work, so the girl wouldn't see the redness on her cheeks.

"That's… n-no way!" She laughed. "I'm going to join the Battling Course! I've already signed up for my classes next semester, I'm doing an abroad study at a Poison Type in Unova! I don't want to be, like, a Caretaker or anything like that."

"…Okay then," Ayame said, nodding. "I didn't know you liked battling that much."

"Well, of course," Kate said, her tone burning with pride. "Just like her highness, I'm going to become an excellent battler! Just as she's a master of the grass type, I'll become a master of the poison type!"

"So like a gym leader? Or competing in tournaments?" Ayame asked.

"Sure, probably," Kate shrugged.

Ayame raised an eyebrow and glanced at Blake, who shrugged his shoulders as well.

"You can be a poison type master without necessarily needing to be a gym leader you know," Ayame brought up. "In fact, you can even become a researcher specializing in poison types. But if you're really into battles-"

"I am!"

"…All I'm saying is that it seems like you have a lot of talent for taking care of pokemon. You know a lot about poison types, you synthesized that medicine so easily with just an observation, you must know quite a lot about poison pokemon already."

"Well, when you love something, you put a lot of effort into learning more about it," Kate replied. "For a while… I tried to pretend like I didn't love poison types. Now, I'm making up for lost time. Learning everything I need to take care the pokemon I love the most. Is that so wrong?!"

"No, of course not," Ayame said, shaking her head. "But, well… and I might be totally wrong here, but the way you said you wanted to be like Alcea Vermeil…"

She glanced at Blake, who understood where she was coming from. He'd had similar talks with Kate before.

"Kate, I don't think anyone would question that you like poison types, no, love poison types, but… do you really want to be a battler? You aren't… you aren't trying to enter the Battling Course just because that's Alcea's major, right? You're sure it's what you want to do?"

Kate froze in place.

"Yes, it's what I want to do," she snapped. "Shut up, you don't know anything! I've been doing battles the whole time I've been here! Now what, you see me taking care of one poison type pokemon and it's suddenly 'oh, Kate, you would make a totally excellent member of the caretaking course!' Yeah, no, I'm not interested."

"That's cool, that's cool, just a suggestion, sorry," Ayame said, holding her hands up. "Just saying, if you wanted to, I could give you a recommendation."

"It's fine," Kate replied.

Blake felt really nervous. He didn't like the atmosphere right now, they were all kind of tense.

"Anyway, let's check out this little guy," Ayame said, kneeling down next to the sleeping Skorupi. She placed her hand on his forehead. "Well, his fever seems to be going down, that's a good sign. He looks like he's sleeping a little more peacefully, too."

"That's a relief," Kate sighed. She finished filling the other vials. "Like I said, one every two hours. It's gonna be rough, but, well… it's essential you know?"

"Wait, then… that means…"

A shadow crossed Ayame's face and she looked down.

"You… you're going to miss my birthday party…" she whispered. That thought hit her like a bag of bricks. She wasn't going to cry though. There was no way she was going to say something so selfish like Blake should let his pokemon suffer just to make her happy, that sort of cruelty was absolutely out of the question.

Kate glanced at Ayame, and the pained look on her face. It almost made her feel… happy?

That realization made her miserable.

What the hell is the matter with you, huh?! She angrily demanded of herself. You did NOT just feel happy that Blake won't be able to go to his girlfriend's birthday party, or feel happy that realization made her sad.

Kate was normally a bitter, scornful person. And when she'd first heard that Blake had started going out with Ayame Toujou, "mixed" would probably be the BEST way she could describe her feelings. She was happy he was happier, but the thought that she had been left for that girl, it made her feel… she didn't like it. It had stung, and she had cursed Ayame multiple times over the past few weeks.

But that didn't mean she was taking pleasure in seeing the girl's pain. And the turmoil on Blake's face wasn't much better.

Kate sighed, and turned to fully face the two.

"What if I look after him then?"

Blake blinked.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, well, I am an expert of poison types after all," she reminded them. "So there's no reason that I can't look after this guy for the night and make sure that he's okay, right? I mean, if you have plans, there isn't any reason you need to cancel them. I mean, I know you'd want to look after your brand-new baby pokemon, but this is something that requires an expert's care, after all! If his condition gets worse, then I can adjust appropriately!"

"…You sure?" Blake asked, surprised. "I mean, he just hatched, it isn't right for me to just pass him off onto you, Kate. So no, it's fine, you don't have to."

Kate sighed.

"What about if we all just stay here and take care of him, and then you see how you feel?" She suggested.

"Kate-"

"And that way, we can talk," Kate reminded him quietly. "You said, um… you said you wanted to talk, so… we can talk right now. If… if you want."

Blake frowned, nodding his head.

"Well, I'll take that as my cue to leave," Ayame said, stretching, walking to the door. "You two can work this out, I'll be in the hall." She glanced at Blake, telling him quite clearly to resolve this issue for himself.

"…Do you want to hold him?" Kate asked, crawling over to the sleeping Skorupi. She gently picked up the slumbering pokemon in her hands, and turned back to Blake. "Your Skorupi. Do you want to hold him?"

"Y-yeah," Blake said, nodding. Kate stood up and handed him over to Blake, Blake cradling the small pokemon in his arm. He sat down on his bed, staring at the pokemon with a smile on his face.

"Hey, little guy," Blake murmured, rubbing his Skorupi's belly. His face brightened up in a way that would have brought a smile to Ayame's face, and succeeded in bringing one even to Kate's face.

"You said before, that you were sorry," Kate said quietly, shying away from Blake's gaze. "Is that… because we haven't really talked since… you know?"

"Kate, I… I did something bad," Blake reminded her. "I led you on, and then when I turned you down, I began to avoid you, and-"

"I was avoiding you, too, though," Kate said. "I was going back into my old patterns. I didn't want anything to do with you, because being around you was so painful. And even though I wanted to see you sometimes, I convinced myself not to call, not to text, not to… well, anything."

She glanced at the door, thinking of Ayame.

"And with such an amazing girlfriend, I figured… I figured that you wouldn't want to hear from me anyway, you were too busy with her."

"No, that's my fault," Blake said. "Because I was avoiding you. I thought that after what I had done, well… I was avoiding the issue again. I was too scared to confront the guilt I was feeling, and I told myself that I shouldn't even be around you, but that was me just running away. I didn't have any right to treat you that way, and I'm sorry. I can't… I can't make up for leading you on, or ghosting you, or all the pain I caused you because of that, I just… well, I mean…"

"It did hurt for a while," Kate admitted. "And… yeah. I haven't… I haven't gotten over you yet, Blake. I still… I still have those feelings and they still hurt. But I understand that you… that you can't like me that way. That we're just friends. And… to be honest…"

She resisted the urge to cry before she said her next words.

"I'm… not ready to be your friend again."

Blake winced, that stung.

"But… I will be," Kate assured him. "I just… I just need some space, okay? Not to… not because I can't forgive you or don't want to see you, I just… I think we still need a little more time apart before we can go back… well, I mean, we can't really 'go back to being friends' because we weren't really all that friendly, but Blake, you ARE very important to me. And I don't want that to end. So… can you wait just a little while longer? Just… just until I'm ready for us to start again, okay?"

"Are… are you sure you're okay with that? I mean, after what I did, I-"

"It's fine," Kate said, nodding. "We're… friend-ish right now. And later, who knows? Maybe we'll really be able to be friends. But right now… right now I need to get over you first, okay?"

She smiled at him, and Blake nodded. A real smile from Kate was a rarity, even if it was one tinged with sadness like the one she was wearing now.

"I'm glad you agree," Kate said, smiling in relief.

Blake walked over to the door and stuck his head out. "Aya, we're done. It's all good here."

Ayame walked inside and glanced at the two, and felt herself relaxing. She was glad that Blake wasn't going to be bothered by this anymore. Kate seemed like a nice girl. Well, not really, but she wasn't a bitch all the time and that was good. And she clearly liked Blake. It might be a little more than as a friend, but Ayame knew that she was the one in Blake's eye, and that made her content with Kate. She didn't mind the two of them together anymore.

That's good. Blake and Kate managed to patch things up. It's gonna be a rough road, but hopefully they'll be able to be friends again.