A/N: When I promise a chapter with lots of Platinum, I deliver a chapter with lots of Platinum. Enjoy :)

"Economics is the social science that studies the choices that individuals, businesses, governments, and entire societies make as they cope with scarcity and the incentives that influence and reconcile those…"

I set the book aside with a sigh. Economics was one of the few subjects for which I simply could not develop a healthy curiosity. I felt obligated to learn about economics now that I had acknowledged that Blue's business was a failure, so I had requested that Sebastian leave me with some of our books on economics while he took a patrol of the grounds. However, I remained unable to fully engage myself in the topic.

"Lopunny," I said, waving a hand at the pile of books beside me, "please take these back to the library. Bring me a romance novel instead."

I shifted on my pillows and closed my eyes. That genre always seemed like contrived fantasy to me, but I still enjoyed reading about an experience I had never had. I loved my parents, and I loved research, but those types of love were different from the type that I had read about in fiction – romantic love, the love of flowers and sweets, of gentleness and generosity, of presence and affection. I did not believe in "love at first sight", however, and I had never had ample time to become acquainted enough with anyone else to experience romantic attraction to them – a natural consequence of secluding myself from the world and rarely attempting to experience it outside of research.

My friend Moon, who studies the natural sciences, had told me many times before that the world could not be truly experienced secondhand. She always advised me to supplement what I had studied with my own experiences. While I did make some attempts to experience the general world beyond books and the Internet, the most I had ever experienced of love in that world was awkward small talk and cliché pick-up lines.

But, I now realized, that had changed after I met the boy Diamond.

At first, I thought nothing of him – he was just another man who was captivated by my appearance and had only a superficial infatuation with me. I expected to thoroughly enjoy flinging his hurriedly-made cake in that awestruck expression on his face. During those fifteen minutes that I had to wait for him to complete the cake, I was internally gloating my victory in giving him an impossible task and imagining to myself how flawed it might look.

However, as soon as I saw the cake, I realized that I had been vastly misjudging Diamond's personality and skill. It was gorgeous and did not appear to have been made even slightly hastily. Even if I had still wanted to throw it in his face, I could find no flaws in it about which to rage. The sincerity with which he spoke combined with the fact that he believed the cake to be for an ill friend of mine magnified the guilt I felt, and I knew that I had to apologize for all the trouble I had put him through.

It was a rather impulsive decision to reveal my name to him at the end of that conversation, but I realized while he was trying to persuade me to stop the sabotage that he really, truly, cared – not just about me, but about his business, too. I found that I trusted him more knowing how much he cared about his bakery, and that he was essentially entrusting me with the future of his bakery by asking me to stop my acquaintance from sabotaging it. It only seemed right to entrust him with something important in return.

Although I promised him that I would stop the sabotage, I very nearly took the cowardly route to avoid a confrontation with Blue. She was a design major at the same university as Moon as well as a talented Pokémon Trainer. I only knew her because Moon had dragged me into their argument about the necessity of economics in running a successful business. Moon had wanted me to tell her that her business would fail if she refused to consider economic principles, but I disagreed and encouraged her to continue. I knew now that we were wrong, as the only thing keeping Blue's bakery from failing was underhanded attacks on her competition, but to admit that would be a harsh blow to my pride.

However, I had to remind myself that Diamond's bakery was how he and Pearl made a living. It would be ridiculously selfish of me to allow my acquaintances to slowly drain their motivation and resources for the sake of keeping my pride intact. Therefore, I met with Blue at the university's recreation center, where I informed her that I would no longer be helping her sabotage operation and requested that she cease it.

Unsurprisingly, she was quite agitated by my request. I offered a compromise: we would have a Pokémon battle, and she would be required to comply with my demands if she lost. She accepted, and added that if I lost, I would have to continue to help sabotage the DP Bakery regardless of whether I wanted to or not.

We had a rather fierce Double Battle – my Empoleon and Lopunny versus her Blastoise and Nidoqueen. Midway through the battle, Blue commanded her Nidoqueen to attack Lopunny with Sludge Bomb. In a slight err in judgement, I instructed Lopunny to jump in order to dodge the attack. As Lopunny was standing directly between Nidoqueen and me, when it dodged Nidoqueen's attack, the attack continued on and hit me instead.

The force of the sludge knocked me backwards and I slammed into a metal bench which was designed to be seating for spectators. I had hit the seat of the bench right in the center of my back, and I could not move without feeling an intense pain in my spine. However, I refused to delay or forfeit the battle simply on account of my injury, so I continued to command my Pokémon from my position sitting on the ground and leaning against the bench.

However, this rashness turned out to be a mistake as well. In the remaining duration of the battle, I had been subconsciously aware of a stinging pain on my left hand, but it was not until the end of the battle that I noticed the pain beginning to spread further up my arm. Once I had defeated Blue's Pokémon, I looked down at myself and discovered that the sludge was corrosive, and it had eaten its way through most of my pink jacket and was working at the skin on my left arm.

I quickly commanded Empoleon to rinse it off using Hydro Pump, and then sent out my Rapidash underneath me to carry me over to Blue. I managed to hold myself erect while I extracted a promise from Blue to never sabotage the DP Bakery again, but as soon as she was out of sight I slumped against Rapidash's neck and exhaustedly told it to return home.

I slept for a few hours while Sebastian treated my injuries; when I awoke, the first thing I did was call the bakery to tell Diamond that I had succeded in protecting it. I wished to speak to him personally – given what I had observed of them in the past, I believed that he would be much more enthusiastic about the news than Pearl would.

However, the act of sitting up to speak to him was rather difficult on my back; when I began to laugh, the pain heightened, and it took a great deal of effort on my part not to cry out in pain. I wrapped up the conversation as expediently as possible so that I could lie down again, and it did not occur to me until after I had hung up that I ought to have informed him that I would be interested in seeing him again after I had recovered.

The fact that I actually desired more interaction with the man was startling to me at first. After all, he was of a lower socioeconomic class, and what benefit did I gain from any sort of relationship with him, friendship or otherwise? But the truth was that I enjoyed talking to him just as much as any of my other friends; he was entertaining, generous, and caring, and he trusted me. He did seem to be a bit simple-minded, but I did not expect perfection from a commoner. Besides, his strengths more than made up for his flaws.

As I laid in my bed, pondering the past two days, the thought crossed my mind for the first time: was this what it felt like to be in love?

My musings were interrupted when Sebastian entered my bedroom. "My young lady," he said, "you have a guest."

"A guest?" I exclaimed, affronted. "Sebastian, I am injured. I cannot entertain any guests today. Inform the guest of that, if you please."

"He is aware of your present state," Sebastian reported. "He gave that to be the reason for his unexpected visit."

I frowned. I had told no one of my injuries aside from Diamond and Pearl, and they could not know the location of my family's estate. The only other possibility that I could fathom was that Blue had shared the story with her own friends and acquaintances, and perhaps she had sent one of them to deliver some sort of message to me. However, I could not be certain whether that message would be conciliatory or confrontational.

"Where is the guest now?" I finally asked.

"He is waiting in the grand foyer," Sebastian answered. "The Chinchou are keeping watch over him."

"Then I will meet him there," I declared. "Sebastian, please assist me in getting there."

"My young lady," he said hesitantly, "I am not so sure that that is a wise idea…"

I did not want to appear weak to whomever was my guest, but my back was protesting the idea as well. "Bring him here, then," I conceded. "But at the least, help me over to that chair."

A few moments after Sebastian had settled me in the plush violet armchair near the bay window, Lopunny returned with the book I had requested. It was quite ideal timing; it might look odd if I were merely sitting in a chair while waiting for my guest. In fact, it provided the perfect way to pass along the message to him that in my house, we operate on my time.

I opened the book and skimmed over the title pages, jumping straight into the story itself. However, after I finished the opening scene and the exposition, I realized that I had retained none of the information that had been shared with me. My focus was directed at my sense of hearing, listening for the telltale sounds of a guest entering my room.

First, there was a soft click and the swish of the door gliding over the carpet. Then, Sebastian's voice: "The lady is over there, sir." It sounded strained; was the guest being difficult? I nearly stole a glance up from my book to see what irritating thing he was doing, but I restrained myself; I wanted to pass along the message that what I was doing was much more important to me than whatever he was doing.

"Have a seat, please, sir," Sebastian said firmly. A quiet rustling told me that my visitor was finally moving towards me. In a moment, I heard the soft squish of him plopping down into the chair.

Then we waited.

He seemed to be waiting for me to speak first, as he should. I decided that I would read the expository paragraphs of the book in my lap until I understood what they were saying before addressing him, which was more difficult to do when I was also acutely aware of every movement he made adjusting himself in the chair and such – the sounds were glaringly obvious in the otherwise silent room. He was shifting frequently; I wondered if that was nerves or something else.

I finally closed the book slowly and deliberately, tucking the inside book flap into the pages to keep my place. "Good evening," I began, carefully setting the book on the arm of my chair.

"Your house is amazing!" the visitor blurted out.

My head jerked up instinctively as soon as I heard his voice. The book I had been trying to balance so delicately on the arm of my chair fell off, but retrieving it was a trivial matter in the face of the guest whom I had been treating so coldly who was not, in fact, an acquaintance of Blue at all.

"D-Diamond!?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Were you expecting someone else?" he asked with a chuckle. While I normally would have been irritated that he was amusing himself at my expense, in that instance my irritation was replaced with mortification that I had given my friend such a callous greeting.

How quickly this man had grown in my esteem…

"I – I simply…did not realize you knew the location of my family's estate," I said, attempting to recover from my gracelessness with some amount of polish.

"Well, I didn't," he admitted cheerfully. "I mean, I had a friend who kinda guided me in the right direction, but it was a total accident that I found the right place."

"You ought to have said something when you came in," I said. "I assumed you were a business acquaintance, and I am…not terribly fond of my business acquaintances."

"Sebastian told me that you'd be reading when I came in, and that I shouldn't interrupt your reading," Diamond explained, looking a little sheepish again. "I figured it was something important."

"Merely something to pass the time," I said dismissively, to explain why I didn't care that my book was lying pages-down on the carpet and I had lost my place in it. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

He smiled widely, but his expression dimmed when his eyes dropped to my bandaged arm. "Um, I wanted to make sure you were okay after what happened this morning," he said. "I'm sorry that you got hurt because of me."

"Because of you?" I asked, tilting my head. "It was my own careless command that resulted in my injury. Why on Earth would you believe it was any fault of yours?"

"Because I was the one who insisted you challenge your friend in the first place!" Diamond exclaimed.

I puzzled over his logic for a moment. I understood how he had come to that conclusion, but I disagreed with the validity of his argument. By that logic, it was my fault that Blue's bakery failed because she ran it as she did as a result of my decision to take her side in her argument with Moon. However, if I had not taken her side, she likely would have still conducted her business without considering economics in an attempt to prove both of us wrong, and it still would have failed. And similarly…

"If you had not insisted that I confront her, I likely would have confronted her anyways because it was the responsible course of action," I replied calmly. "Thus, my injury is certainly not your fault."

Diamond pursed his lips. "Well, I feel bad for you anyways," he said. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Certainly not," I said sharply. But his face fell at my harsh words, and my heart sank. Putting aside my pride for a moment, I added in a softer tone, "Your concern is touching, though. Thank you."

His countenance brightened, and he smiled back at me. We fell back into silence. However, this time it was a little less expectant than before. I noted that there was a certain elegance in the way he sat in the armchair – he held himself in a comfortably relaxed manner, at ease despite his unfamiliarity with the environment. On the contrary, I felt that I was shirking my duty as his host to entertain him. I considered asking Sebastian to bring a chessboard, a Wii, or something – but I could think of no activity that the two of us could do together given my present condition.

Finally, Diamond broke the silence by asking, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened to your arm?"

I wondered for a moment why he would specify my arm, but then I realized that my only visible sign of injury was the wrapping around my left arm and hand. "Ah, that was the result of a corrosive Sludge Bomb," I explained. "Fortunately, I was wearing a jacket, which sustained most of the damage."

"That's good," he said kindly.

Unfortunately, my injured arm was also my dominant arm, which further restricted my motor capabilities. I opted not to inform him of that detail; I was reluctant enough as it was to inform him of the injury to my back, which would be impossible to hide if I were to spend any more time in his company.

"However, that same attack also caused me to sustain an injury to my back," I said with a sigh, "which has severely limited my mobility. Thus, I currently find myself only capable of actions which can be performed sitting back or lying down."

"Oh, no. I'm sorry," he said, brow creasing in worry. "Maybe I should go, then?"

"After you went through all the trouble to get here, I would hate to send you away so soon," I replied matter-of-factly. I was enjoying his company, despite the dully persistent ache in my spine. "Perhaps you could treat me with the story of how you managed to find your way to my family's estate?"

He obliged, and I listened with rapt attention to the story of how he decided to visit me, and how he happened upon the estate in Sandgem Oaks. He told the story quite animatedly and dramatically, like he was acting out a play rather than recounting the events of his day. At one point, as he was describing his encounter with the little boy, I interrupted him and asked him if he had ever thought of pursuing a career in theater.

"Well, no," he said, a little startled by the interruption. "I mean, when me and Pearl were kids, we dreamed about being professional comedians, but…that never really took off. We just weren't funny enough, I guess."

"How did you end up starting a bakery together, then?" I asked.

"Well, it started when we were sixteen," he began, but quickly blinked and quirked his lips at me. "Let me finish the first story first!"

He returned to his tale and his encounter with the little boy. The fact that Sebastian refused to retrieve the little boy's ball did not surprise me; the job of patrolling the estate is very time-consuming, and if he is thrown off his methodical survey of the grounds, he can easily lose track of which areas he has patrolled and which areas he has not. He apparently planned to retrieve the ball after he finished his patrol, although he clearly did not communicate that to the little boy.

"So, Sebastian brought me here," Diamond concluded. "And, while I'm here, I did promise Sun that I'd recommend his services to you, if you're ever in need of a courier."

"I will keep that recommendation in mind. Thank you," I said politely. My parents pay a private courier to handle all their deliveries, so I was doubtful that I would ever be in need of Sun's services. However, in the event that said courier fell ill or was otherwise indisposed, it would be useful to have another reliable courier to call on in his stead.

Sebastian cleared his throat. "Pardon the interruption, my young lady," he said. "However, the hour is growing late, and our guest ought to be leaving soon."

"Sebastian, that judgement is mine to make," I retorted, but I started when I realized that the natural light passing through the window beside me had all but faded. My shoulders slumped slightly, and I sighed. "However, I suppose it would be impertinent to keep you any longer," I said to Diamond. "I should not invite you to stay for dinner when I cannot join you, and you must be starving by now."

As if on cue, Diamond's stomach growled rather loudly. "Yeah, I am," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Plus, I've gotta work tomorrow, so I really shouldn't stay out that late. But," his expression brightened into a huge smile, "I really enjoyed talking with you. We should do it again sometime."

"Likewise, and naturally," I replied, returning his smile. "Besides, you still owe me the story of how you and Pearl decided to open your own bakery."

He nodded and got to his feet.

"Sebastian will arrange transportation for you," I added. "I would hate to force you to walk home in the dark."

"Thank you," he said sincerely. He glanced over at Sebastian, and then back at me, looking a bit more pensive than usual. Before I could comment on it, he took a few quick strides forward and wrapped his arms around me. I relaxed into his embrace for a few moments before he released me, beaming from ear to ear. "Thank you!"

I smiled at him as he headed over to Sebastian, who guided him out the door. "This way, sir," I heard Sebastian say as their footsteps receded down the hall.

For a moment, I was irritated that Sebastian would address Diamond that way, as opposed to "young master" – the equivalent of addressing me as "young lady". However, after a moment, I realized that it made logical sense because he used that form of address only for those of the upper class. I had only expected Sebastian to address Diamond the same way that he would address any of my other friends because in my eyes, he deserved the same amount of respect as them, regardless of the amount of money or property he owned. Diamond simply had an aura of empathy and grace about him that invoked trust and respect, and I loved that about him.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the back of the chair. Yes, something had definitely changed after I met Diamond.

I had fallen in love.

A/N: Definition of economics taken from Microeconomics, 10th edition, by Michael Parkin.

Hope you enjoyed the longest chapter of this story! Unfortunately, it's also the last one. I love these two, but they're surprisingly difficult to write, and there's only so much I can write in this universe before it turns into a slice-of-life story. Plus, I have a bunch of other projects in the works that I'd like to focus on without having this one hanging over my head. Still, I hope you enjoyed this little Commoner love story. If you did, a favorite and a review will be much appreciated. If you didn't, constructive criticism is also welcomed. :)

~ Storm A.