-Angel's POV, FP-

Ahh. The food here is great. Alex, Callen, Terry and I went out for dinner after I woke from my two day slumber. Thankfully, Terry's parents taught me how to use a fork with my hands, otherwise it would have been rather embarrassing…

Terry leans back slightly, having finally finished. "That was excellent. How was yours, Alex?" The younger boy smiles slightly, having inhaled his meal rather quickly.

"It was wonderful, thanks Terry." He responds. Callen repeats the praise as one of the waiters walks by, dropping the bill on the table with a smile. As she was walking away, however, she cast a rather distrusting look at me. Not wanting this to ruin my evening, however, I smile as we start to get up. Terry walks off for a moment to pay the bill, Alex and Callen grab their bags.

Terry returns, planting a light kiss on my cheek as he does so. Our group talks softly to each other, heading towards the door. As we do, though, the waitress that looked at me earlier returned. Trailing behind her was a man in a fancy looking suit, a gold name tag with the title "Manager," written across it in cursive. The man walks casually in front of us, and Terry stops, politely letting him pass. Except he doesn't. He stands rather close to Terry, crossing his arms in an annoyed fashion. Terry's eyes narrow just slightly.

"Is something wrong, Sir?" He asks, keeping a polite but firm, clear voice. The question carries over the restaurant, and other conversations stutter to a halt. The man backs up slightly, knowing he can't try anything now that the attention is on him. He clears his throat loudly and speaks in an authoritative but snooty voice.

"Did I just see you kiss your pokemon, kid? Pokephilia is against the law, buddy." He says, sounding confident. Terry just sighs slightly, shaking his head.

"If you knew the law, than you would know that Angel and I are completely allowed to do so, according to the exceptions. And by the way," he adds, sounding rather angry. "Don't you dare talk about her, or my other friends, as if they are below you. When I look at Angel, I see a partner, an equal, not a pet. Now unless you have anything else to say, I would like to ask that you move, and allow my friends and I to leave," he finishes coolly.

The man seems dumbfounded at being told off by a 15 year old, but moves nonetheless. Terry and I, with Alex and Callen in our wake, pass by and head to the doors. As we are heading out, though, he speaks up again.

"Don't you come back, you slutty excuse for a trainer." I hear the words and turn, a small, dark sphere of energy appearing in my palm. The man backs up half a step, knowing he took it too far. As I'm about to toss, however, Terry puts his arm across my front, halting me. He shakes his head.

"He's not worth it, Angel. Besides, you know the truth about me. If I was slutty, it would have been rude, yes. But I'm not, and all he is doing is making himself look stupider. Now, let's go. By the way," he adds, turning his attention to the manager. "If you insult either Angel or myself again before we're out of earshot, I'll be the one to slap the seven shades of shit out of you, not her." He finishes, his voice harsh and full of menace, but still keeping a calm tone. Without another word, he turns on heel and marches out the doors. I hesitate for a moment before allowing the Shadow Ball to dissipate as I start levitating and follow him, Alex and Callen on my heels.

-Terry POV-

I'm walking slightly ahead of our group, feet falling rather hard on the sidewalk, taking deep breaths. That bastard for a manager. What an ass.

I realize I'm doing a rather bad job at calming down, and try to focus a little more. I feel a soft hand on my shoulder and turn to see Angel, a sad smile on her face. I sigh, letting go of my troubled emotions. Angel looks at me with her shockingly orange eyes.

"What exactly is 'pokephilia?'" She asks, her voice sounding in the back of my head like a soft bell.

I rub the back of my neck slightly, glad that it's dark, because I was probably blushing. I always forget that as much as I do consider Angel my equal, she IS still a pokemon and doesn't know all the terms humans use.

"It's a term humans use that refers to a Human-Pokemon Relationship, usually the physical aspect, not emotional." When she continued to look confused, I sighed. "He was referring to you and me kissing, and the possibility that we have had sex before. 'Slutty' is a term that stands for someone who has sex with anyone, person or pokemon, he or she can, regardless of the relationship with the person." I finish, sadly.

I sense her emotions recoil at the explanation, and quickly add "That doesn't mean we do it! He was just trying to get the last word in, Angel. He's probably going to be reported by his security and get fired, anyway, alright? Don't worry about it." I finish.

She nods, relaxing. Thankfully, before the situation can become more somber than it already is, we arrive at the Pokemon Center. Alex grabs our room key and we head up the stairs, ignoring the looks from the other people in the room. Our suite consists of two rooms, with a door separating them, which I'm thankful for. We take the farther room from the exit.

I unpack a change of clothes, before turning to the bathroom. Angel is already at the door, but glances at me. I nod, motioning for her to go ahead. She smiles happily, entering the small area and closing the door behind her. I lay on the bed, hands behind my head, sighing as I relax. After a few minutes, a soft knock sounds on the door that separates Callen and Alex from us. Furrowing my eyebrows in concern, I hop off the bed and open the door. Alex stands there in his pajamas, an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry for bothering you, Terry, but you have a visitor." He says softly. I glance at the clock, which reads 10:45 PM. Now who the hell would visit us at this time of night…

I thank Alex and walk past him and Callen, poking my head out into the hallway. A woman in her late 30s, with black, shoulder length hair and a content look stares back, eyes gleaming silver.

"Oh, Katie. It's nice to see you again," I state in greeting, holding out my hand. She smiles slightly, shaking it.

"Same to you, Terry," she responds softly. "I've got a rather important subject to talk to you about, if you wouldn't mind walking with me." She continues. Without waiting for a response, she walks off, pointing a 'follow me' gesture over her back. Not sure what to think, but knowing it wouldn't be hostile either, I trail behind her.

We walk down a couple of hallways, past endless doors, some of which muffle tired snores. A moment later, we arrive at a set of steps, which are quickly climbed. At the top, a sliding glass door is found, which Katie walks through, and I follow. The pair of us end up on a small balcony overlooking the dusty battle arena that is spread out behind the Center. Katie pulls up a couple of chairs and sits, gesturing for me to do so as well. I comply.

She sighs for a moment, enjoying the peace. Then she speaks. "I'm sorry for springing this on you with all the events that have happened recently, but the sooner the better. Congrats on coupling with Angel, by the way," She adds, smiling. I just nod, waving a hand for her to continue.

"Angel evolved about five days ago, right?" She asks. After I nod slightly, she continues. "Alright. You know the general pokedex entry for Gardevoir, right?"

I nod once again. "Yes, but I'll refresh myself just in case." I respond, taking out my pokedex from my back pocket. I tap a couple times, bringing up a list of basic entries from over the years of research and select the one I like most. The device begins speaking in a robotic, manufactured voice.

Gardevoir, the Embrace Pokemon. It apparently does not feel the pull of gravity because it supports itself with psychic power. It will give it's life to protect its trainer, without hesitation.

"And that's the topic." Katie says. "Well, not necessarily. More along the lines of protecting their trainer in general. In Angel's case, that's you. At this stage in your bond, Angel is becoming much more independent. Because you have displayed positive emotions and welcomed her into your life, as well as protected her, she knows that, now that she can, she will start defending you as well. Now, a lot of people know about that." She says, before growing extremely serious. "But what most people DON'T know is that there is a small part of their brain, plans literally coded into their DNA, that forces this upon them. Now don't get me wrong, she IS protecting you because she wants to. But, the main thing I wanted to talk to you about is what happens if they fail to uphold this… Promise to themselves." She trails off, sounding rather scared.

I lean forward, suddenly nervous. "What are you talking about?"

She furrows her eyebrows, sounding hesitant. "I don't know exactly how to explain it… Let me use you as an example. Say Angel was a Kirlia still, she hadn't evolved quite yet. If I were to slap you across the face as hard as I possibly could, Angel wouldn't be affected at all, because this instinct does not start developing until evolution. So now it's been about five days. If I were to do that, I could literally count to three and you would see Angel visibly wince." She pauses for a moment to let that sink in. When it does, my eyes widen slightly. Katie just nods sadly.

"Any pain you feel will be reflected upon her, in the form of a headache or similar. It's as if her mind and emotions are telling her 'You failed to protect Terry, and he got hurt. This is your punishment.' It gets worse, too. The development takes a little over two months to completely develop, on average. Since your a couple, it might develop faster, I don't know. My point is, when it's completely developed, if I slapped you it would be similar to hitting Angel in the face with a truck at 100 miles an hour." She finishes, folding her hands in her lap, looking somber.

I'm stunned. Trying to focus a little, I respond. "So you're saying if I so much as fell down the stairs I could hurt her?" Katie shakes her head.

"No, in the 18ish years I've studied this kind of thing, it seems that the injury had to be received from someone or something that intended to do harm. So if you fell on your own accord, then no it wouldn't hurt her. If someone pushed you, on the other hand, yes. Luckily, I'm not here with all bad news." She adds as I shake my head, shocked. She pulls out a book from her purse. It's small, travel sized.

"This is a copy of my notes from studying and developing ways to combat that instinct. Try to learn these techniques by heart, and drill enough to do them on instinct. That way, if you ever get hurt, you can protect Angel from sharing your pain." Katie finishes. She rises from my chair, as do I. I shake my head slightly and embrace the older woman. She seems slightly shocked by the show of affection, but returns it nonetheless.

We break apart and she smiles slightly. "I'm glad I was able to catch you. This is one of the many things I do for a living; make sure trainers and their partners have the tools needed to continue on with life without worry. Good luck, Terry." She finishes, before taking a pokeball from her necklace. In a flash of light, an Alakazam appears. We exchange nods before Katie puts a hand on Charlie's shoulder. In a flash of purplish white light, the pair vanish into the night.

I reenter our allowed room a few minutes later, extremely deep in thought. I wave distractedly to Alex and Callen, heading straight through to my room and shutting the door behind me. I pull out a pair of pajamas from my bag at random, sighing slightly as I open the door the bathroom. What follows is Angel staring at me, completely naked for about half a second, before she screams and sends a telekinetic blast at me, pushing me out and slamming the door. Moaning slightly, I hold my forehead in my hands, laying there on the floor. I try my best to burn the image from my mind, but unfortunately it's already stuck itself there extremely well.

Well... Shit.

I suppose I earned it, I should have knocked.

...That's going to be a hard one to explain to dad…

Author's Note: Again, I feel like I butchered this chapter slightly, but I felt it important to point out this development, as it plays a key role in the rest of the story (sorry for the spoiler but it's true…) Big Thanks to Zenxolu for pointing out an issue with then/than, I'll do my best to keep that from coming up again. Thanks for all the support, Enjoy, and Happy Reading! -Orthros