More responses to Blake's return! How will Sango feel about the fact that the guy she likes has made it back to this world? She'll probably be pretty happy, I imagine, and the rest of Blake's friends are happy too. Hopefully, Blake can get some rest and relaxation now that he's back with his friends. Remember to review!

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile!

The votes for the Elimination Round have begun to pick up, that's pretty good! Hope we can start getting them to role in! I've been very surprised by the results of this poll so far, some people are leading that I never would have expected, and some people are trailing behind who I thought would be frontrunners. Just goes to show how much things have changed since last year!

Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Darla, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Lila, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

KedharS: Nope, Ayame's long-since given up on that.

Thunder Fire: Omastar Wars: The Domepire Strikes Back!

Tambry96bj: Definitely many touching moments.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Lol, I already had a bonus chapter on exactly this topic, Bonus Chapter 2.

JoshGamerV: It was definitely a heartwarming moment for everyone. Thankfully they had a bunch of pleasant reunions with each other, let's keep the positive vibes going.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 649

Seeing Blake sitting on his bed, Ayame wrapped tightly around him, sent Sango's brain into a state of pause. She wasn't quite registering what she saw. She knew more than anyone else what was going on, what had happened to Blake, and how impossible it was for him to be here. He had been absorbed by the shadows of that cursed tablet, after all, so the idea that he was sitting in front of her was simply not possible.

But there he was.

Once Sango's brain finished rebooting, she was capable of drawing only two conclusions from the mess of thoughts swirling in her head. There were two specific facts that she now knew were unquestionable truths.

The first was that Blake had made it back, of course.

The second was a much more difficult truth to swallow, but one that she couldn't deny any longer. She was in love with Blake. With all the grief she had gone through in his absence, all her work to not think about him, to try to move past the idea that she'd lost him and she would never be able to see him again, seeing him right now made her heart sing in a way that was impossible to deny any longer. This wasn't like when she had broken down into tears with Nikita in privacy, an act she had tried to spend the last two weeks suppressing.

No, she was overflowing with joy and relief. She had the urge to push Ayame aside and take Blake in her arms, to hug him tightly and never let him go while planting kisses all over his-

Sango felt her face grow red and tears fell down her cheeks.

Blake was alive. He was back. It was just now sinking in.

The strength left her legs and she fell to her knees, sobbing. Everyone reacted with surprise at that, except for Cynthia. She and Julia had come into the room to see what the commotion was about, Sango's scream having startled the entire floor. And the minute she saw the blonde curled up into a ball, she knew what she had to do.

Sango had been putting on a strong exterior, trying to make it seem like she was moving forward, and had been forcing herself to smile. But Cynthia knew most of all how hard it had been for Sango to keep her positive attitude, because she'd been trying so hard to do it herself. The only other person who wouldn't have been surprised to see Sango break down like this was Nikita, but since she wasn't here at the moment that left it up to Cynthia to kneel down next to her friend and give her a warm, reassuring hug to let her know that everything was okay.

"Shhh, shhh," Cynthia soothed her. "It's okay, Sango, he's back. You don't need to make a fuss and get us a noise complaint."

Sango glanced up and shot her a dirty look. Cynthia had an amazing talent of flubbing being a nice person at the last second, much to Sango's irritation. "…Thanks for being so comforting," she dryly replied, rising to her feet.

Sango turned to Blake and took a deep breath, wiping her face clean of tears. She looked up at Silver, who was also crying a little himself. They both smiled. "Okay, Blake. We're good now. But before we can be all cool and friends and stuff again, Silver and I need to know. We know that you got sucked into that tablet, so please, can you tell us what happened to you? Where were you? Because Elizabeth said that… well…"

She swallowed, her voice cracking in her throat. "She said that no one who ever got absorbed into that tablet had ever come back. So how… how did you?" She asked. "Because we were so worried that you might be gone for good…"

Blake looked up at her, and couldn't help but let out a sigh. "You know, Sango, I've explained this a lot today," he griped. But the tone of his voice was jovial, so Sango didn't feel wounded by his declaration. She sat down on the floor in front of him and crossed her legs, staring up at him with the best approximation of a coy smile she could make with her eyes as red and puffy as they were, and the occasional urge to burst into tears.

"Well, we've got all night," she laughed. All the fatigue and exhaustion she'd accumulated over the days and weeks spent working on the Luvdisc Fishing Day Event had been completely blown away by the realization that Blake was still alive, and now she felt like she could go another two weeks without even sleeping, easy.

So Blake sighed in relaxed exasperation and explained, once again, a cliffnotes version of what he had gone through and what the world was like, and how he got back to the real world. He even explained Sylvia's role in all this.

By the time Blake finished his explanation, it was pretty much time for bed. Sango sat in quiet contemplation for a little, and then she stood up. Sango walked forward and hugged Blake (which meant that she was hugging Ayame as well, and that was just fine with her). He was so warm in her arms, just feeling him there made her feel so happy and comforted.

"I'm glad you're back," she murmured. "I was so worried about you."

Blake smiled as he felt her comforting touch, and hugged her back. "I'm glad to be back, too, Sango. I really missed you guys."

"You guys" he had said. "I really missed 'you guys'." That thought stung Sango a little, knowing that in Blake's mind she was just one of his friends, he hadn't necessarily missed Sango in particular. She quickly shook her head as she pulled away from him for a moment, before leaning in again and hugging him tightly, her doubts lifted away. No, she shouldn't think like that. Of course Blake had missed her specifically, he had missed all of them for who they were, she was certain of that. This was just her jealousy talking.

Of course Blake hadn't missed her the same way he had missed Ayame. But she also knew that he hadn't missed Ayame the same way he had missed Sango. They were special in different ways, and she shouldn't be concerned with the fact that Blake didn't care for her that way, because they were different people and Blake knew that.

He didn't love her like he loved Ayame, but he still treasured her as an important friend. And that should have been enough for her.

So why wasn't it? Sango was hugging him tightly, feeling his warmth flooding into her, and every second she felt that, she was feeling more and more that it wasn't fair. She wanted what Ayame had. She wanted Blake to love her. She wanted him to have missed her the most, to have been struggling so hard to get to her, not Ayame.

Then she realized how horrible of a thought that was. She pulled back, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry," she said, faking a yawn to disguise her shame. "I'm really tired… um, it's been a long day, and you've given me a lot to think about. Plus, I have a pretty busy day tomorrow, too… and I know that you guys do, so… um, bye."

With that, Sango dashed out of the room, Silver following quickly after her. She passed Reiner on his way back from the library, and ran into her room, burying herself under her blankets as she felt a shiver of guilt roll over her.

It was wrong. She knew it was wrong, so, so wrong to think that way. Losing Blake had dealt her some serious damage, and now that he was back, all the negative emotions she'd been suppressing towards his relationship with Ayame were starting to bleed through the mental walls she'd set up around her heart.

Her feelings of jealousy were threatening to overcome her, and they were frightening her. The last time she'd felt this way was towards Elizabeth, jealous over her father's love and thinking he had abandoned her. And she knew that it had been wrong to feel that way. She regretted it immensely, but she couldn't stop those feelings from welling up then, and she couldn't stop them from welling up insider her now, either.

"I don't want this," she whispered to herself, crying into her pillow. They were tears of joy at Blake's return, but there was regret and fear mixed into them as well. She didn't want to hurt Blake or Ayame. But she was afraid that now that she had all these new feelings clouding her heart, she wouldn't be able to happily support their relationship anymore.

In hindsight, she wondered if she ever really had in the first place. And that thought made her feel even more miserable.

Calm down, she urged herself, closing her eyes and remembering how much work she'd gone through these past weeks, how tired she had been from her constant efforts. She was trying to force herself to sleep, anything to move onto tomorrow. She hoped that things would be more refreshing in the morning, and she could just focus on the positive emotions she felt about Blake being back. Eventually, her feelings of fatigue began to take over, and she let the exhaustion flood back through her body as she drifted off to a restless sleep, Silver nestling down beside her.

"I think Sango has the right idea," Cynthia said, stretching and yawning. "It's time we get to bed, don't you guys think?"

"I think that's a good idea," Reiner said, walking into his room. "Nikita's turned in for the night, and I'm rather tired myself. Got a long day planned tomorrow, after all." He glanced at his bunk, the crowd of people in the room making it difficult for him to maneuver across the floor to get to the ladder. He glanced at Blake. "Hey dude. Welcome back."

"You don't seem particularly surprised," Blake ruefully noted. Reiner cracked a smile.

"I take things easy now," Reiner joked. "I've learned my lesson about getting worked up over every little thing."

"Says the guy who was spending the last two weeks in the library with his girlfriend trying to find a way to bring Blake back to the real world," Julia snidely noted, shooting him a look. Reiner turned to look down at her, a scowl crossing her face as she stared back at him.

"You're not really one to talk, considering you burst into tears when you saw that Blake made it back safely," Reiner smirked. Julia's scowl shifted into a look of horror. She turned to Blake, her jaw dropping in shock.

"What?!" Julia exclaimed. "You… you told him!?"

"No, I didn't!" Blake said, shaking his head. "I just saw him, how could I-"

"Then Cynthia?!" Julia demanded, turning to her roommate, betrayal crossing her face.

"No, I didn't!" Cynthia said, shaking her head frantically. "Why would I go around telling people about that when I could hold that information over your head for the rest of our time here and torture you with it?!"

"WHAT?!" Julia exclaimed, jumping to her feet and glaring down at the redhead. Cynthia rolled around on the ground in hysterics as Reiner suppressed his snickers himself.

"Calm down, Julia, it's okay," Kitty urged her, trying not to let on the fact that she'd heard about it from Blake herself.

"Nobody told me, actually," Reiner volunteered, leaning back against the doorframe and crossing his arms in triumph. "I just guessed for myself. Considering how frantic you were when you thought he was dead. I thought I was just messing with you, but seriously? You really did panic like that? Wow, I would have paid money to see that."

Julia glared venomously at him, quaking with rage at the knowledge that she'd been so easily baited. She wanted to strangle Reiner, but she managed to stop herself before Callie had to step in stop them both.

"Don't make me come down there," Callie warned, glaring at Julia from where she sat on Nick's bed, nuzzling up next to him.

"Anyway, it's fine, don't worry," Cynthia laughed, standing up and stretching. "But as I was saying, it's time to get to bed!"

She skipped over to Blake's bunk and sidled in next to him, curling up in the sheets, much to the confusion of Blake and Ayame, and everyone else in the room for that matter. Cynthia pulled her blanket over herself and nestled down onto his pillow, before opening her eyes and flashing the couple a coy smile.

"Care to join me?" She purred.

"Cynthia, what are you doing?" Blake sighed in exasperation.

"Getting ready for bed," she hummed.

"Oh, no, you are not sleeping here!" Blake exclaimed. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone else, but he had actually been looking forward to sleeping for the first time since he had come back, it had been way too long since he'd felt an honest, relaxing sleep. And on a real bed? No way was he about to let Cynthia come in and ruin that, no matter HOW happy he was to see her back.

"Three people in a bed is too much!" Ayame agreed angrily. She narrowed her eyes. "And I'm not exactly sure I can trust you to keep your hands to yourself, either."

"Yeah, Aya's- wait, what? Two?" Blake asked, glancing at her. Ayame turned away from him, her cheeks flushing.

"Well, I just thought, well…" Ayame murmured, refusing to meet his eyes. She wasn't giving him a straight answer, but how strongly she hugged his chest, growing even tighter as she squeezed him harder, was all the answer he needed.

"Aya, I promise that I'm not going to disappear just because you let go of me and let me sleep in my own bed for the night," Blake promised.

"That's what I'm worried about too!" Cynthia pouted, sitting up. "If I go back to my room, when I come back you might be gone again! And that's absolutely not going to happen, so you just have to buck up and let me stay here, got it?!"

"I… also think it would be for the best if we stayed the night," Julia said quietly. Her face was calm and composed as usual, but Blake wondered if there was more to it, considering how she had cried earlier that day.

"If Julia's staying, then I'm staying!" Kitty said, scooting over to Julia and hugging her leg possessively. She was surprised by how aggressive of an action she'd just made, but it was the only thing she could think to do. She really didn't like how attached Julia seemed to be to Blake now that he was back! First hugging him in tears, and now wanting to spend the night in his room?! Didn't she know that he already had a girlfriend?! If Julia wanted to be with someone, maybe she should be looking closer to home, someone like-

Okay, Kitty, tamp down on the jealousy, Kitty urged herself, letting go of her friend's leg. The last time she'd had negative emotions involving Julia it had ended messily. "I-I think it's for the best if we stay, too, is what I mean."

Reiner was doubled over with laughter by this point.

"Well, as tempting of an offer as that is, I'm going to have to pass, myself," Callie said, reluctantly pulling away from Nick. She flashed him a smile. "Don't get me wrong, Nicky, I would love to spend the night here with you, but tomorrow's a special day. I want to be prepared. And waking up next to you will ruin the surprise when we meet up for our date tomorrow," she giggled, her voice taking on a throaty quality that made Nick's face turn bright red.

Before Nick could say anything, Callie hopped off the bed and gave him a wink, skipping out of the room with a quick goodbye.

"Well, looks like someone might be getting lucky tonight," Reiner laughed, clapping an embarrassed Nick on the back as he passed by, climbing up onto his bunk. "Personally, I don't really care what you girls get up to, just keep the volume down. Been doing a lot of all-nighters these past few weeks, and I need to get some rest."

Reiner notably made no comment on what HIS plans for the next day would be.

Blake sighed, and as he did, the sigh morphed into a massive yawn that surprised him. He really was tired! Well, I suppose it's been a few years since the last time I got a good night's sleep, he ruefully noted.

Speaking of which, he felt a gnawing sensation in his gut. He realized now that he was extraordinarily hungry.

"Um, hey, guys, I just realized that it's been quite a while since I've had anything to eat," Blake admitted. "As in 'two years', so…"

Cynthia immediately sprung out of bed, her eyes shining. "Sounds like a plan, Blake! Don't worry about a thing, I'm going to go cook up some breakfast!"

She turned and dashed out of the room, Blake sighing in relief. That was a bit of a comfort, and Cynthia was an amazing cook, so-

"No way!" Ayame growled, letting go of Blake and getting up out of bed herself. "There's no way I'm letting her make you your first meal back!" She turned to Blake. "I'm going to make you my special sandwiches and they're going to completely blow you away, got it?!"

Blake opened his mouth to reply, but she had already fled the room before he could say a word.

"Lucky dog," Reiner called down from above him.

Ayame ran down the hall, her heart pounding in her chest. This was the first time she had been separated from Blake since he'd gotten back, she realized, not counting the brief period in the shower. And even then she had fought that decision tooth and nail, to her retroactively increasing shame. But making him happy was more important!

Dashing down the stairs, she caught up to Cynthia in the dormitory kitchen, Cynthia shooting her a glance as she entered. Cynthia came back at her with a smile.

"Well, looks like the girlfriend has come to enter the fray," she giggled, her eyes flashing in a challenge. "That's adorable."

"I'm just making Blake the best food he's ever tasted," Ayame snidely remarked, narrowing her eyes into a glare.

"Ooh, are we doing a 'Food Wars'?" Cynthia asked, glaring back at Ayame and shooting her a cunning smile. "Do you really want to 'Food Wars' me right now?"

"What is your problem?" Ayame demanded, finally losing her patience. "You've been pushing yourself in on Blake ever since he got back. Don't you remember what you promised? That you wouldn't do that sort of thing anymore?!"

Cynthia stared at her for a moment, and sighed, her expression softening.

"…Yeah, you're right. I know," she admitted, shaking her head. "I know that this isn't exactly the right thing to do, that I'm being way too clingy. And I don't want to, trust me, it's just… thinking Blake was gone, and then seeing he was back… all those emotions just sort of came flowing out, you know what I mean?"

Ayame did, of course, know what she meant. That didn't mean that she had to be happy with it.

"Blake's still my boyfriend," Ayame said quietly. "I know that you have feelings for him, and I know that having him back… it must feel overwhelming. But… I want you to respect our relationship, Cynthia, don't let this-"

"I won't," Cynthia interrupted her. She looked past the boiling water of the stove and met Ayame's eyes. "I won't do anything, Ayame, I promise. I like Blake, you know that. But I also know where the line is, and I won't cross it. Even though every bone in my body is telling me to strip naked and climb into bed with him."

"If that's you trying to make me feel better, maybe try again," Ayame said, scowling. Cynthia burst out laughing. Ayame responded to the laugh with a sigh. "Look, you're not the only one with… urges, you know."

Cynthia's eyes were shining with excitement. "Ooooh! Urges?! Do tell!"

"Not… not like that!" Ayame exclaimed, her face turning red as she glared fiercely back at her. "When I'm around Blake, thinking about how happy I am that he's back, it makes me feel like… like I don't want to lose him again, like I want to do whatever I can with him to make him happy… even… even those things…"

Cynthia smirked, wiggling her eyebrows. "Like I said, urges. You're so-"

"But," Ayame harshly interrupted, "when I think about those kinds of thoughts… I get all nervous and anxious, and I… uurrp." Ayame's nausea flared up a little and she burped, turning bright red. She looked away from Cynthia and turned back to the counter, beginning to prepare her sandwiches. "I don't know why I'm even talking about this stuff with you."

"Don't worry about it," Cynthia laughed. "You're just nervous. It's totally understandable."

"I'm just glad he's back," Ayame said, smiling softly. She was happy that she had faced away from Cynthia, so she couldn't see the look of glee on her face. She was going to make Blake the best sandwich he'd ever had.

Nothing but heartwarming moments here, that's for sure! How adorable!