This chapter, we continue to explore the turmoil of Dakota and Akira's relationship. Hopefully, things aren't going too badly with them. Remember to review!

KedharS: Hope not, though.

Rosealine gold: Maybe.

Thunder Fire: Maybe it's a misunderstanding.

JoshGamerV: Same.

Aquahaze675: Hopefully she's wrong for once.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 465

Serefina hummed a tune as she walked through the underground chambers below Kangaskhan Hall, where the pokemon that the students of the Caretaking Course were being housed for the winter. It had been weeks since she had seen them, and she was overjoyed to get the chance to look after her beloved little pokemon again.

"It's been too long, my darlings," Serefina said, setting down bowls and filling them with feed. It was a very precise process, she needed to make sure the right pokemon were getting the right food, and was dividing them among the bowls and setting them out for the pokemon to come play. She had just blown her whistle to signal that it was feeding time when she heard the shuffle of shoes on the ladder behind her, signaling someone was coming.

Serefina paused and turned her head, perplexed. She was the only person on schedule at this time, since the students hadn't begun putting in their required caretaking hours yet. So who was coming? It might have been Leanne, she would come down occasionally when she wasn't teaching.

When the girl reached the ground, however, it was quickly apparent that it wasn't Leanne, in fact, it wasn't anyone in the Caretaking Course at all.

"Serriiii!"

Serefina resisted the urge to grimace. The second Dakota's feet touched down, she dashed towards Serefina so fast Serefina could barely make out the pained expression on her face. Dakota threw herself into her friend's arms, the momentum nearly knocking them both over.

"Dakota, what are you doing?!" Serefina sputtered. She had been concerned about her friend, because this was the first time she had seen her since the semester began. She was Dakota's roommate, so she SHOULD have seen the redhead days before now. But no, when Serefina got in a few nights back, Dakota's stuff had already been unpacked, and she was nowhere to be seen. That right there had been concerning, since she didn't know where her roommate was, or what she was doing. She had been about a day away from calling the faculty considering that classes had started and she had STILL not seen hide nor hair of Dakota, and what, now she was back, coming to her work out of the blue with no explanation?

"S-Sorry…" Dakota mumbled, pulling back. She wiped the tears from her eyes and forced a smile to her face. "I just wanted to seek the comfort of your bounteous bosom."

"What's wrong? Where have you been?" Serefina asked.

"I've been everywhere," Dakota sighed. Serefina narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Not good enough.

Dakota sighed again. Serefina wasn't letting her off the hook.

"…I was staking someone out," she admitted.

"Stalking," Serefina corrected her. Dakota gave her a dirty look.

"Staking someone out!"

"Stalking."

"Stop being so obtuse!"

"Stop stalking."

Dakota grumbled something in frustration. Serefina sighed, reaching up to massage her temples. Dakota had been back for less than five minutes and she was already feeling the migraines. She couldn't believe she had actually missed her the last few days.

"Look, that isn't the point!" Dakota groaned. "Seri, you just don't get it! This is important! There's some stuff going on! Super-major-Pulitzer-prize-winning stuff! Don't you get that? This isn't the time to worry about personal privacy!"

"When is it ever the time to worry about personal privacy?" Serefina coolly replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest again. Dakota's eyes sunk down, suddenly finding herself unable to respond to the girl's questioning.

"That's… not important!" Dakota said, dismissing Serefina's concerns with a wave of her hand. "Look! Think about it like this, Seri! You saw the same thing I saw!"

Serefina had no idea what Dakota was talking about, and said so.

"That Chandelure, duh!" Dakota rolled her eyes and slapped her palm against her forehead like Serefina was an idiot for not understanding what she was talking about. "You remember? The one that Caelia Auburne used in her battle against Elaina Bishop and Blake Harker!"

Serefina remembered.

"Yeah, but that-"

"There's something up with it," Dakota said, narrowing her eyes. She reached into her shirt pocket and withdrew her glasses, sliding them up her nose the way she always did when wanted to look intelligent. "I can just feel it."

Dakota continued to explain, "look, you remember what happened when that girl sent out the Chandelure? Elaina Bishop COLLAPSED."

Serefina nodded, she did remember that. But still, that didn't mean-

"I know what you're thinking," Dakota interrupted her thoughts, "'that doesn't mean that there's anything particularly weird with that Chandelure' right?"

Serefina nodded, knowing full well that Dakota's insight on stuff like this was annoyingly precise, so there was no point in lying out of spite.

"Okay, yeah, I totally get that," Dakota shrugged. She jammed an accusatory finger in Serefina's face with one hand, adjusting her glasses with the other. "HOWEVER!"

Serefina stared at Dakota, not giving a reaction to her theatrics. Dakota blushed a little, dropping her hand sheepishly.

"However?" Serefina then asked, not going to play Dakota's games.

"However, I have it on good authority that Elaina Bishop wasn't the only student to have a bad reaction at that time," Dakota smirked. "A few students were reported to react negatively, a few students with quite particular characteristics, let's say."

"Huh?" Serefina looked at Dakota, confused. "What are you talking about?"

The smug look on Dakota's face only grew as her smirk widened, adjusting her glasses again.

"I'm sorry, but my source wished for confidentiality," she replied. "You'll have to read about it when I've finished gathering information and the article is finished…"

She added hotly under her breath, "if that stupid fire girl would actually do something interesting with her life and leave her fucking dorm…"

Serefina had had about enough of this.

"So that's what made you come running into my arms crying?" She sighed in exasperation, rubbing her temples. "Irritation that your target wasn't doing anything newsworthy?"

"…Oh!" Dakota flinched, realizing what had just been going on, snapping out of her reporter-mode as she remembered the reason why she had come to Serefina in the first place. Then, she began to tremble.

"…UWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Dakota tilted here head back and began crying so loudly it startled the pokemon, who looked up from their meals in alarm. Dakota continued to sob, reaching up and removing her glasses as she wiped the tears from her eyes and sobbed.

"Dakota! Geez, what's the matter?" Serefina asked, rushing over to her friend's side. She was really bawling, this had nothing to do with some conspiracy.

"It'sh… it'sh!" Dakota blubbered, slumping over and wiping her tears, but her hands weren't able to keep up with the rate her big brown eyes were pumping them out. She fell to her knees, unable to keep up the strength to remain standing, as clearly broken as she was. She hiccupped, and then swallowed, and finally managed to spit out, "it's Akiiiii!"

Serefina wanted to die.

No. Fucking NO.

She was NOT dealing with this bullshit couple. Not on her first week back at school. Whatever garbage they were going through this week, it was not up to her to take care of it. Her job was taking care of pokemon, not two idiots who couldn't just suck it up and be happy.

All sympathy remaining in her had drained away, and now she was going to get back to work and let this idiot of a roommate wallow in her own stupidity. She was just too tired. She'd had so much sympathy for those two, once upon a time. But some point between the fight where Dakota hid all of Akira's left socks (yes, there WAS a difference, and no, it WAS a big deal) and the fight where Akira wouldn't take Dakota to one of the mall's fancier (and more expensive) restaurants for their weekend date (not because he was too cheap, no, that would be an easy issue; no, because Dakota only wanted to go so she could spend the evening eavesdropping on another couple who she'd overheard) she had lost all trace of interest in this couple turning out successful.

"…Yeah, sorry to hear about that," she sighed, turning and looking over at the pokemon. They were still digging into their meals, and some were almost done. It was about time to start cleaning up, and then the pokemon would get another hour of playtime to work off their food before being sent to their pens to make room for the next group.

While Serefina was considering how she was going to juggle the difficult tasks of ushering rowdy pokemon back into their pens and ushering the hopeless sad-sack that was Dakota Evans out of her workspace, Dakota said something that caught her ear and FINALLY had her redirect her attention back to the girl, not sure she had heard right.

"What was that?" Serefina asked. She couldn't make anything out clearly through Dakota's blubbering. "I didn't hear you."

Dakota sniffled, blowing out snot into the dirt, much to Serefina's disgust. She peered up at Serefina with we eyes, sniffling again.

"Aki… I think he's going to dump meeee…" She couldn't keep her strength up, already breaking down into tears as she explained things to Serefina.

Serefina gasped, she had heard right after all. She rushed over to Dakota and knelt down next to her, the pokemon temporarily forgotten.

"What, what was that?" Serefina gasped. "Are you serious? You aren't joking around, are you? Because I swear to god, if you're messing with me for sympathy-"

"You think I would joke about this?!" Dakota hissed, turning and shooting Serefina a venomous glare that startled her, nearly knocking her out of her crouching position in surprise. Dakota wasn't joking around, that was real pain in her eyes.

Serefina had thought she wasn't invested in their relationship anymore, because they always fought over the dumbest things imaginable. But in all their fights, they always made up. And the notion of a breakup had never even been FLOATED, not even when Akira was at his most fed up, or Dakota was at her most nasty.

They, well…

They had gone through so much just to be together! They had tried so hard to end up together, even when their contrasting personalities resulted in so much drama and irritation! And even when they FINALLY got together they were STILL fighting, but it had never changed the fact that they loved each other.

Hell, even at their worst, after that whole misunderstanding that had led to them not being on speaking terms for almost a year, they hadn't stopped loving each other, even as they appeared to hate and loathe each other, their feelings hadn't waned.

So the thought that the two of them would break up… Serefina couldn't believe that. She didn't want to believe it. But the pain in her eyes was real.

"So you guys… you're really breaking up?" While they had been together, Akira and Dakota had been nothing but a pain in Serefina's ass. But now that it looked like they were breaking up, she couldn't help but feel like she had lost a little something herself.

"I… I don't wanna," Dakota whimpered, shaking her head. "Of course I don't… but… but it's not up to me… if Aki wants to, then that means I would… Seri, what should I do?!"

"What happened?" Serefina asked, keeping her voice gentle. "Did you guys have some fight or something?"

Dakota shook her head.

"N-No, not… not exactly…"

"Then did he say he was breaking up with you?" She pressed, not sure what she was supposed to think about the situation if Dakota wasn't explaining to her what happened.

Dakota shook her head again.

Now Serefina was just confused.

So they hadn't had some big fight or something, and he hadn't said anything about breaking things off. So why was she so worried that she was actually in tears?

Serefina didn't want to pull the "Dakota might be making a big deal out of nothing" card because in all their prior fights she'd never seen her friend this desolate. Dakota hadn't been this broken-hearted since before she and Akira got together.

She sighed, and took a look over her shoulder at the pokemon. They were pretty much all finished up with their meals, and many were heading back out to play. Serefina checked her phone, right on schedule. Still, she had work to do.

Serefina glanced back at Dakota, the girl's face ashen and her eyes red and puffy. She didn't feel right abandoning her to get back to working with the pokemon, but at the same time, her job was important, too.

Dakota and work, she couldn't do both, could she?

Serefina sighed. She reached out and patted Dakota on the shoulder.

"Would you like to talk about it?" She asked. She rose to her feet, gesturing over to the empty bowls of pokemon food. "I… I still have some cleanup to do, but if you're up for it, can you help? It would really be a lot of help. We can talk while we work."

Dakota sighed. She wasn't much one for unnecessary work under the best of circumstances, and her energy was drained from her body due to her frazzled emotional state. She didn't want to do work, but at the same time…

She glanced up at Serefina, who was looking back at her with deep, concerned eyes that did a lot to ease the burden she was feeling.

Dakota smiled. With Serefina's bright eyes, and the encouraging gleam in her smile, it felt like the weight of her issues and pain were being lifted off of her. She felt like just maybe she could stand up and help out, at least for her friend's sake.

Dakota stood up, and followed Serefina over to the bowls, helping her pick them up.

"So… what happened?" Serefina asked quietly, trying hard not to push her with too much strength, in case she broke down again. She knew Dakota quite well, and she could tell when the girl was putting on a strong face.

Dakota took a deep breath, and let it out. She could feel her eyes watering. She wiped her tears away, and headed to pick up some more bowls over by the water.

The water, it was always the water. She turned back to Serefina, and smiled as brightly as she could muster.

"When we were preparing for Winter Break… I asked Akira if he wanted to come spend it with me," Dakota said. Her smile took on a shy tint as she thought momentarily about the idea, before it turned sad.

"And?" Serefina encouraged her.

"And he said he wasn't ready for that yet," Dakota said glumly, setting the bowls down. "That meeting my family was too much of a big step for him right now, that he thought we were moving too fast already."

"And that's why you think he's going to dump you?" Serefina asked sadly. She walked over and placed a hand on Dakota's shoulder. Well, that wasn't so bad. Dakota was certainly overreacting, that didn't seem like something that she couldn't move past and fix with a nice discussion.

"That's not all," Dakota said, shaking her head. "When he said he didn't think he was ready to meet my parents, like an idiot, well… I asked him if it was okay if I went to meet his."

Serefina blinked. "That's it? That's not a big deal."

"I didn't think so, either," Dakota said, shaking her head. Her face fell. "But… he blew up at me. He said he wasn't taking me with him to his hometown, and he couldn't believe I would ask for something like that."

"…So you did have a fight," Serefina said.

"Yes and no," Dakota admitted. "I don't, I mean… I don't know what to call it. It wasn't, like, a blow-up or something. And then we just sort of dropped it. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but when I tried to reach out to him over the break, he never replied.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Serefina asked.

"I texted him, like, literally dozens of times," Dakota explained. "But he never texted me back. Weeks, WEEKS I tell you!"

She sighed.

"He's ghosting me, I just know he is. That's why I'm afraid he's going to break up with me. That, and, well…" She knelt down curled up into a tiny ball, glancing up at Serefina. She looked like a lost little pokemon.

"He's taking that Pokemon Type Specialization Class," Dakota continued. "Which means he's going to be in his practicum off campus in the spring."

Serefina gasped, wincing at what her friend had just insinuated.

"Your birthday…" she said. Dakota nodded sadly.

"I was hoping I'd get the chance to spend it with him this year," Dakota said. "After last year, when, well… you know how LAST year's birthday went."

Serefina did, and it wasn't a memory she liked to revisit.

"He's ghosting me, and he's not going to be there on my birthday," Dakota said, her voice trembling as she tried to maintain her strong attitude, something that she was failing miserably at, much to Serefina's sympathy.

"I see…" Serefina nodded, walking up to Dakota and reaching down to pat her on the head. "You grew your hair out…"

Dakota looked up at her and blinked, taken aback. "What? …Oh, yeah, this."

She reached back and played with her hair. It was longer than it had been, down to just past her shoulders now.

"I grew it out, thinking it would help me look more feminine," Dakota said. "You know, to see if he would like it. Kind of a dumb thing, right? I don't even have the courage to go see him. I'm just a coward. No wonder he's ghosting me. The thought of a girl like me, well…"

"…Well, I think it looks cute," Serefina reassured her.

Dakota smiled gratefully up at her friend, and thanked her.

"But… I'm too afraid to do anything," she sighed. "We just, you know, had our issues, and I was hoping we'd resolve the problem, but I just… I just can't bring myself to go see him. If… if he doesn't want to see me, if we're really over…"

Dakota began to sniffle, and nearly burst into tears before Serefina stepped in.

"Don't worry. I don't know why Akira is ghosting you, but…" Serefina helped Dakota to her feet. "I'll help you out, don't worry."

"R-Really?" Dakota asked, her face brightening.

"We're friends, aren't we?" Serefina laughed. "Don't worry, Akira won't know what hit him."

Dakota smiled, and the two girls began to plan.

So it seems like they aren't broken up after all! Hopefully they can fix the issue, whatever it is.