Blake continues to bond with Ayame's family, in this chapter we end the introduction of this arc. Will he be able to learn more about them, and connect with them more? Remember to review!

KedharS: Yeah, Ayame's family really tends to be like that.

Grimettz: A flying-type trainer, huh? Might have a use for him…

Aquahaze675: Like father, like daughter. Ayame gets her adorable awkwardness masked by brusqueness from him.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 413

Blake and Hideo sat in a small diner just off the main road through town. It was one of the only places still open on Christmas Eve day.

The two of them were squeezed into a booth, or more accurately, Blake was sitting on one of the table and Hideo was squeezed into the booth across from him. Blake calmly took a sip from a glass of water while Hideo devoured a massive pork sandwich slathered in barbecue sauce that was larger than Blake's head. Blake didn't mind. He was no longer intimidated by the man now that he knew that, like Ayame, he was mostly just loudness and awkwardness.

"You're sure you're not going to get anything to eat?" Hideo demanded. His tone made it sound threatening, but through Blake's Ayame Filter it sounded like "I'm worried for your health, Blake, are you sure you don't want to eat anything?" Something that was very kind, showing how concerned he was.

"No, I'm fine," Blake said, smiling, shaking his head politely. "Actually, I'm trying to preserve my appetite, but don't hold back on my account."

It was politeness, mainly. Hideo was in no way holding back from tearing apart the sandwich in his hands.

"No need for that," Hideo said. "I'm happy to pay."

"Well, actually… Ayame promised to make me a sandwich later," Blake explained, smiling shyly. He still felt a little awkward to talk about his relationship with Ayame with her father, even though the man no longer terrified him. "And I want… you know, I want to try it. Because she looked so happy when she offered to make it, it would mean so much to her. So I don't want to spoil my appetite if it's as good as she says it is."

Blake realized what he was saying and glanced down, embarrassed.

"Also, well… I couldn't go on that picnic with her today, so I thought that I should at least try her food to make up for it…"

Hideo continued to eat his sandwich in silence (well, as much silence as you could devour a juicy meat sandwich in).

He finished off the sandwich and wiped his beard with a napkin, setting it down. Blake was actually starting to feel uncomfortable again; even though the man's words were no longer scary, the silent glare in his eyes was still a little off-putting.

He finally spoke, with a deep rumble from his gut, "you really think quite a lot about my daughter."

Blake relaxed, and smiled. "Yeah, Ayame, she's really just the best. Everything about her, just… err, I mean, I know this probably isn't the right time to talk about it, but, yeah, I do think about her. All the time."

"You called her 'Aya' before," Hideo said, his sharp eyes not missing much. "Now you're calling her Ayame. You don't have to hold back on my account. If she's letting you call her by a nickname like that, well…"

Blake nodded.

Hideo rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward, Blake feeling the table buckle a little under the force.

"I know you're intimidated by me," he said.

"N-No, I'm not," Blake said. It was mostly true. He knew the man probably wasn't going to chop him into pieces with a chainsaw and bury his remains in the woods, but that didn't mean Blake wasn't occasionally intimidated by his massive figure.

"It's okay, you wouldn't be the first," he said, scratching his beard. "If I scared you, I'm sorry if I did. Folks always say that I'm not very good with people. Talking with strangers, I always put 'em off guard, hate it. As for you, well…"

Hideo sighed, and it sounded like the bellow of a Wailord.

"I haven't really done the 'boyfriend' thing before," he explained. To hear this mountain of a man in his 40s or 50s talk like an awkward schoolgirl with that deep voice of his was a little unnerving, in a way that made Blake feel amused.

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"Megu was so obsessed with her athletics that she never dated," Hideo said, shaking his head. "As for Aya, she was always the shy one, not like her sister, and so she didn't have any boyfriends either. You're the first. So this is something that I'm not exactly used to, do you understand? Hiromi told me I should try to spend time with you, get to know you a little better. That was why I invited you. Not for a hunting trip, but, well, you know. Something you would enjoy. Aya said that you liked hair salons and haircuts, so I just figured, well…" He sighed. "I told you, this isn't something that I'm used to. I'm still trying to figure it out for myself."

Blake nodded in agreement, that made a lot of sense. It was clear that Ayame's father was dealing with this for the first time, that explained why he was so awkward around Blake, and why he seemed so quiet at some times and intimidating at others.

"To be honest, Aya is my first girlfriend as well," Blake explained. "That's why we're taking things so slowly and trying to find our way through this ourselves. It's okay if you're not exactly sure how to treat me, either."

"Hiromi said I should take care to try and be more understanding of you, and try to spend more time getting to know you and being nice," Hideo admitted. "I'm not… the best at that. At dinner last night, you seemed rather bothered."

Blake remembered when the man had held the large knife towards him. With the benefit of hindsight he knew that the man was being genuinely kind in trying to slice up Blake's food, but at the time Blake thought he was going to be the one made into dinner.

"It's okay, I was overreacting myself," Blake admitted sheepishly. "I was definitely a little intimidated by you. I actually thought you were taking me out hunting today so that you could kill me in the forest and bury me with no witnesses."

"What?! Why would I do something like that?" Hideo asked, his eyes bugging out in surprise. "I would never kill somebody!"

"Yeah, but, like… you ever see in tv shows and movies where the dad of the girl threatens her boyfriend with bodily harm and the like?" Blake asked. "So, when I saw you glaring at me, I just thought, like… okay, this is where I'm going to die."

"You're Aya's boyfriend," Hideo said. "Why would I want to kill my daughter's boyfriend?"

"Well, maybe not kill, maybe just scare off?" Blake said.

"Why would I want to scare you off? You're my daughter's boyfriend. I've only been around her for half a day and already she's the happiest I've seen her in years, I wouldn't ever want to scare you away from her."

"Well maybe you don't think I'm worthy of her? I don't know," Blake said, shaking his head. It was starting to sound like a really dumb concern.

"Blake, I trust my daughter," Hideo said quietly. "If she thinks you're someone that she can bring into her life, that she can introduce to her mother and I, if she trusts you that much, then I have nothing to say about it. I'll always trust her judgment, and if you're the person she wants to be with, then I'm willing to extend a hand and get to know you better."

"We've only been dating for like a month and a half," Blake said. "You really… you really trust me that much?"

"That doesn't matter," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Do you know how I met Hiromi? It was on that mountain."

He jammed a fat finger at Mt. Silver.

"What, she got lost and you rescued her?" Blake asked.

Hideo snorted.

"Rescue? That's a laugh! My Hiromi, needing someone to rescue her? No, she was a pokemon ranger."

"A pokemon ranger?" Blake asked, surprised. That was interesting.

"When I met her, she was chewing out some pokemon poachers she'd caught in the woods," Hideo explained. "You see, Mt. Silver and the forest around it is a nature preserve. No hunting anywhere on it. When I go hunting I have to drive miles away."

"So she was a ranger, huh?" Blake asked. "My friend Sango is a pokemon ranger, or I mean, she's trying to become one, anyway."

"Sango Akana? Aya talks about her a lot, too. I think she sees a bit of her mother in the girl, I'd like to get a chance to meet her myself, with how much Aya seems to love her. She talks about Sango almost as much as she talks about you and that other friend of hers, the model."

"Olivia?"

Hideo nodded. "Now, where was I…"

Hideo looked off into the distance at Mt. Silver, smiling with whimsical nostalgia. "I had been in the forest looking for a tree to cut down. Seeing such a small woman yelling so passionately at poachers, I fell in love immediately. I helped her take them in, and then asked her out to dinner afterwards. She said yes, and by the time the date was finished I knew she was the one."

He turned his attention back to Blake.

"It doesn't matter how little amount of time you've spent together. When you know, you know. So tell me, Blake, do you know that my Aya is the one?"

Blake swallowed.

"I don't know if I can answer that with certainty, sir," Blake admitted. He winced at the sharp glare he caught in Hideo's eye, but he didn't let himself falter. "I can't say if I know I'll be with Aya for the rest of my life. But I do know that right now, Aya is my entire world. I couldn't imagine spending three weeks apart from her, and that's part of why I came with her."

Blake smiled.

"I can't imagine spending my life without her," Blake admitted. "That's how I feel about her, sir. But as for marriage, I can't say for sure what our future is going to be. We're still just kids, after all. But… she's Aya. That's enough for me."

Hideo considered this for a long time, narrowing his eyes as he stared contemplatively at Blake. But Blake didn't let himself be intimidated. He kept his composure, meeting Hideo's gaze with an equally strong and resolute look of his own. Apparently, whatever the man gleaned from Blake's eyes was enough for him to nod his head.

"I see," he murmured. "I think that is an excellent place to start. To be honest… I believe that more than if you had been saying you were ready to marry her this afternoon. Just looking at the way you two smiled at each other for dinner, I knew right there that you two were real. There was something there between you, and it isn't just some passing thing. It's real."

Blake smiled. He was glad that he wasn't just being some overly romantic teen.

"It is real," he said, nodding his head. "I feel that it's real, I know it's real. I love her."

Hideo smiled, drawing a slash of white through his shaggy beard. "I know that."

Blake and Hideo made it back to the cabin just in time for a late lunch, much to Ayame's shock and delight.

"You're back!" She cheered, throwing her arms around Blake in a big hug, overjoyed to see him. "I thought you guys were going to be out all day!"

"We managed to get back early," Blake said, glancing up at Hideo. "We couldn't find any… pokemon to hunt, I guess… so when I told him how much you were looking forward to the picnic, well, he said it was alright if we could end things early."

"Really?" Ayame gasped. She turned and threw her arms around her father and gave him a hug to show her gratitude.

"Your dad is a pretty awesome guy," Blake said, glancing at him.

"He's the best," Ayame agreed, rubbing her cheek into his scruffy beard.

"You two can get on and go," Hideo said, slapping Blake in the back hard enough to nearly knock him off his feet. "Blake and I, we had a long talk in the woods this morning, and I've gotten a pretty good feel for him, I like him!"

"He's pretty great, too," Ayame said, hugging Blake as well.

"Where's Skorupi?" Blake asked, glancing at Ayame as they separated. "Should we bring him, too? We can bring our pokemon along on the picnic!"

"Megumi took him for the day, they should be in her studio. But… I was hoping it could just be the two of us," Ayame suggested, biting her lip and smiling coyly at him.

Blake smiled, and shrugged. "Yeah, that's okay. Still, I should probably go check on him, just to make sure he's behaving himself."

"Right, you do that!" Ayame said, clapping her hands excitedly. "In the meantime, I'll go make the sandwiches! I've already gotten everything prepared, I'm ready to blow you away! You'll fall for me even harder, I promise."

"I don't believe that's possible," Blake said smiled at her. The two split, but before Blake could ask Hideo where Megumi's studio was, he pulled the boy aside, leaning down so he was eyelevel with him. His intimidating glare was actually making Blake shiver, catching him off-guard.

"One more thing, Blake," Hideo whispered, the tone of his voice filled with harshness. Blake gulped.

"Yeah?"

"I trust you with my daughter. And I don't want you to violate that trust. And if you break her heart, well, then you really WILL end up in the woods. Do you understand?" The glare in his eyes was not something to be misunderstood.

"Yes, sir," Blake said, nodding. That was more like what he had expected from Ayame's father before he met him.

"Well, good then," Hideo said, nodding, clapping him on the shoulder. He stood up straight, and headed into the living room.

"Megumi's studio?"

"Yeah, it's ups- err, third door on the left, right wing of the house," he called over his shoulder. Blake followed his instructions, and headed down the hall, finding the door that he had been indicated towards, in the far corner of the wing. Blake knocked on the door.

"Come in," Megumi called. Blake entered the room, surprised. He had expected an art studio to be more… artistic. This seemed more like a storage shed. There were a lot of paintings, but none of them were hung on the walls, they were all wrapped up tight in cloth for storage. In the center of the room, though, was Megumi, seated in her chair, fingers holding a brush and drawing it over the canvas. A few feet away from her, on a stool, was Blake's Skorupi, sitting peacefully. Blake walked quietly into the room so as not to distract her.

"Oh! Hello there," Megumi said, setting her brush down on the easel and rolling her chair back, turning to look at him. "Back already? Or is it later than I thought?"

"We stopped early," Blake said. "I just came here to check up on my little Skorupi buddy. How's he doing?"

"Skorupi!" Skorupi climbed down the stool and scuttled over to Blake, rubbing his head against his leg cheerfully.

"I was painting him," Megumi said. "Would you like to see? He was quite a calm, sweet little guy who was sitting perfectly content on the stool."

"Sure," Blake agreed, walking over and taking a peek. It was just getting started, but the foundations were very fine, she was doing a good job so far, even if the face was the only part she had started the detail on. "Wow, this is pretty good!"

"It's nowhere near done," Megumi admitted. "Still, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. We don't have any Skorupi in Johto, so I really wanted to try to paint one while I had the opportunity, I love the blend of purples! It'll take me at least a few weeks to get it perfect. Is it okay if he models for me? Aya said I could, and I wanted to get started right away, and since you were already gone, well- Oh, but if you don't want me to, that's fine, too, I understand."

"No, I think it's great," Blake said, nodding. "You can take care of him and paint him if you want! I don't mind at all!"

"Great! Then would you like to stay and watch?" Megumi asked, rolling over to where Skorupi was seated on the ground, reaching down to pick him up. She turned and rolled over to the stool, setting him down. Her eyes were shining as she looked at Blake, inviting him to join her.

"No, sorry, Aya and I are going on that picnic actually," Blake said.

"Oh, really?" Megumi said, smiling coyly. "That sounds rather interesting. You and Aya, playing around in the snow? Off in the wilds, far away from any… prying adult eyes?"

"It's not like that," Blake said, averting his eyes from Megumi's playful gaze. "We're just going to go eat the lunch she made! She made sandwiches, and we're going to walk around the forest! We aren't going to do anything… anything like that!"

"Maybe, or maybe sandwiches are code," Megumi giggled, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Maybe what she really wants is for you to give her your foot long sub with extra meat!"

"For the sake of my relationship with your sister I'm going to forget that you just said that," Blake said, shaking his head in frustration as he left Megumi and her mocking laughter behind him, rubbing his temples to ease the headache building inside. Luckily for him, the sight of Ayame in the foyer carrying a picnic basket blew it away immediately.

"Ready to go?" She said coyly, bouncing over to him.

"Not just ready, I'm excited," Blake said. He held his hand out. Ayame blinked at him.

"What?"

"The picnic basket?"

"I'm carrying it, though," she said. "I don't want you peaking before we get there! It's going to be a surprise!"

"But you're carrying the backpack, too, with the blanket," Blake said. "I don't think that's fair to you."

"Aww, you're sweet…" Ayame pouted. "Okay, fuck it, you can take the picnic basket! But no peeking, got it? You promise?"

Blake took that basket and followed Ayame outside, the two heading off to go get their picnic started.

"So, what did you and my dad talk about when you were hunting?" Ayame asked, her eyes lighting up in excitement.

"Oh, just…" Blake looked at Ayame's excited eyes, and smiled at the brightness on her face. "Just the future."

What awaits the two of them as they move on to the future? The arc really begins now.