Author's note: Hi again!

You know, it only occurred to me last chapter how similar I've made this version of Pikachu and Buneary to Syaoran and Sakura of Cardcaptor Sakura. XD Totally unintentional, I assure you.

Also, yes, this will be a four-parter. Probably. Most likely.

Anyway, please enjoy!

Chapter Three: Determination

After playing with Oddish – and waving her off, as she headed in the other direction – Pikachu and Buneary had decided to grab a few berries from a nearby tree and sit on the grass while they ate them.

Pikachu had gotten very used to the strange berries in the PokePark. Unlike the ones from his old world, which were all different in size, shape, colour and flavour, the PokePark berries were all spherical and only came in three colours. The green ones were a perfect balance of every flavour imaginable, to suit the tastes of every Pokemon, and the red ones were slightly sweeter. The gold ones, which were the rarest and hardest to find, were incredibly sweet. Some Pokemon would kill for them, but they weren't really to Pikachu's taste. As for the Big Berries, he'd never actually tasted them, but they were red, so he assumed that they tasted just like the red berries.

He bit into the green berry in his paws and chewed, looking at Buneary. She was happily munching away on her own green berry, once again completely oblivious to his plight. Just what was he going to do? Would he ever be able to work up the nerve to ask her out?

She swallowed her food and smiled at him. "So!" she said. "Lightning Strike!"

"Hmm?" he replied.

"You've been all around the PokePark, right?"

"Yeah."

"It's rare for me to leave the Meadow Zone, unless I'm visiting my sisters." She giggled. "Why Lopunny chose to live in the Granite Zone, I'll never know."

"Heh. Well, it's kinda cool over there. A bit miserable, but still kinda cool."

"I guess." She paused. "Ooh! Maybe you could tell me a bit more about the other zones? I really should explore more, but..." She smiled bashfully. "I get kinda scared by new things."

"Yeah? Well, there's nothing to be scared of!" He paused. "Well, unless you're visiting the Haunted Zone." He shuddered.

"I heard that place was really scary."

"It is. It's always dark over there, even in the daytime... and the mansion is full of ghost-types."

Her eyes widened. "Ghost-types?"

"Yeah, they can be pretty scary. I mean, I'm friends with them all now, but they can still be scary... especially the Gastly and Haunter, since they love appearing out of nowhere and spooking me."

She gave a nervous chuckle. "Wow."

"That reminds me. I haven't seen Duskull and Dusknoir lately." He paused. "Or the Burmy I used to share my treehouse with. I think they said they were moving elsewhere."

"Oh, that's a shame."

"Yeah. I'll miss 'em, but we'll always stay friends, no matter where they go."

She smiled. "Aww. Yeah, of course you will."

"Anyway... the Cavern Zone is also pretty miserable. The entire zone is underground and everywhere's grey."

She laughed. "Wow, sounds just like the Granite Zone!"

He also laughed. "Yeah. The Lava Zone's pretty cool, but that place is sweltering. It's lucky I don't melt over there, honestly!"

She giggled. "I'll bet!"

"I really like the Beach Zone. It's so pretty and peaceful over there and the Pokemon are super friendly."

"Sounds nice."

"And the Iceberg Zone is also really pretty, but super freezing. I'm just lucky I've got fur... though that makes me wonder how the Primeape survive over there."

She giggled. "There are Primeape over there?"

"Yeah and they're always really angry." He put on a gruff voice. "Outta mah way, ya jerk!"

She laughed. He glowed with a mixture of pride and joy at the sight. "Wow, that'd be really scary for me."

"Well, I'm used to them." He chuckled nervously. "Just gotta make sure I don't run into them by accident. That always ends badly."

"You must have had a lot of battles over the time you've been in the PokePark." She paused. "Have you ever been seriously hurt?"

He blushed slightly at the caring tone in her voice. "Nahhhh! I mean, I've been roughed up a fair bit, but I've never been out cold, or anything!"

She breathed a happy sigh. "That's a relief." She beamed. "Can't have our little Lightning Strike out of action, now, can we?"

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, which seemed to be becoming a habit. "Aheh."

"Seriously, though, I'm glad. It would tear the PokePark apart if you ever got really hurt."

He lowered his arm and blinked. "Yeah?"

"Of course!"

He smiled bashfully down at his half-eaten berry. "Thanks."

"No problem! So, do you have a favourite zone? I'm kinda liking the sound of the Beach Zone!"

He looked back up at her. "Yeah, my favourite might be the Beach Zone... although I also like the Flower Zone."

She blinked. "The Flower Zone?"

"Yeah, it's just past the Granite Zone. It's grassy like the Meadow Zone, but full of beautiful flowers."

Her eyes shone in delight. "Flowers? Really?"

"Yeah, I think you'd really like it. A Shaymin lives there and she looks after the flowers... and you get a really beautiful view of the sun and clouds from up there."

"Wow, that place sounds amazing! I'm surprised Lopunny's never told me about it!"

He chuckled nervously. "Well, maybe she's never been there? I dunno. I needed three passwords before the Granite Zone Pokemon would even let me in the Flower Zone."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah." He paused. "Or maybe the zone isn't to her taste? Or maybe she didn't know how much you'd like it?" He looked down and fidgeted awkwardly with his berry. "I dunno."

"Ah well." He looked up to see her beaming again. "You've told me and that's all that matters!" She giggled. "I'll just have to scold her the next time I see her!"

He chuckled again. It wasn't often that he bonded with Buneary, so this little time alone that they'd been having was nice. He was learning more about her and she was learning more about him. If only he could work up the nerve to ask that one little question.

"Hey, Buneary?"

She paused on the way to taking a bite from her berry. "Yeah?"

"Um..." He blushed. Why was this so hard?

She blinked. "What's wrong?"

"Would you... um... I mean... would you...?" Gosh, he was so bad at this.

"Would I what?"

"Well..."

"Dude!" Mankey called out. "Lightning Strike!"

Pikachu sighed and looked up at him. "Hi, Mankey."

"I wanna battle! Let's battle! Come on, let's go!"

"Hey!" Shroomish called out, waddling over. "I was just about to ask him to play chase!"

Mankey turned to her. "I was here first! And I wanna battle!"

"But I've been waiting all day to play chase!"

"You wanna fight about it? Huh?"

"Guys!" Pikachu cried in exasperation. When they looked at him expectantly, he gave a sheepish smile. "Uh, how about I battle Mankey first, then play chase with Shroomish?"

Mankey did a back-flip. "Ha ha, yes!"

Shroomish pouted. "Alright, then," she replied.

Pikachu didn't really want to do this, but, if it would stop the two of them from fighting, then so be it.

Eventually, Mankey and Shroomish departed and Pikachu sat back down to finish his food.

"Good work avoiding that Stun Spore from Shroomish!" Buneary said with a bright smile. She giggled. "And I can't believe you knocked Mankey into the river! I'm surprised he wasn't really mad at you for that!"

"Heh, yeah."

"Oh, that's right. You've been trying to ask me something all day, haven't you?" She giggled and tapped her head with a paw. "Silly me and my sieve brain." She put the paw down. "What is it you wanted to ask?"

Pikachu paused, blushing once more. He really hadn't expected her to ask him this. It was rather sudden. "Well..."

He paused again, noticing that Magikarp was bouncing his way towards them. He turned and saw Weedle slowly sliding towards them on another side. He turned again and caught the eye of Ambipom, who waved at him.

It was no use! No matter what, he'd only get interrupted to play more skill games! What was he going to do? He needed to take Buneary somewhere where no one would interrupt, but where? Where in the PokePark could he possibly go?

"My advice is to not just tell her how you feel, but show her how you feel! Take her places she's never been!"

"And I heard you defeated Mew in battle!"

His eyes widened in realisation. Mew! That was the absolute perfect place for them to go to be alone!

"Lightning Strike?"

"Hey, Buneary?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever wanted to see the Sky Pavilion?"

Her eyes widened. "The Sky Pavilion?"

"Yeah, it's where Mew lives! It's really pretty up there and I think you'd love it!"

There went her eyes, shining like the Northern Lights again. "Really? You'd take me to the Sky Pavilion?"

He chuckled nervously. "Sure! After we eat, you wanna go there?"

"Sure! I'd love to!"

Pikachu and Buneary headed into the Meeting Place, Pikachu making sure not to run too fast, so that Buneary could keep up with him. Soon enough, they reached his three childhood friends.

"Hey, Piplup!" he said.

"Hey, Pikachu!" Piplup replied.

Charmander and Chikorita walked over. "So, you finally did it, huh?" Charmander asked.

"I'm so proud of you, Pikachu!" Chikorita cried.

"Huh?" Buneary asked. "Did what?"

The blood surged to Pikachu's face. He ran over and slapped a paw over Charmander's mouth, laughing nervously. "Nothing, nothing!" he said rather loudly. "Piplup, can we take a ride up to the Sky Pavilion?"

"Huh?" Piplup asked. "Sure! You need to see Mew about something?"

"Kinda! Hop in the balloon, Buneary!" He felt Charmander smirk at him through his paw.

"Okay!" she replied, hopping into the Pikachu balloon. Letting go of Charmander's mouth, he quickly followed.

Piplup looked surprised. "Oh, Buneary's going?" he asked. "Well, I guess that means there's only room for one more."

"Oh dear..." Charmander said, still wearing the smirk, "guess we're sitting this one out."

"Aww!" Chikorita said with a bright smile. "Oh well! Have fun!"

"So..." Buneary said as they soared above the clouds. She was sitting on the floor of the basket, with her paws around her knees, for some reason. "Why is this balloon shaped like a Pikachu's head, anyway?"

"Believe it or not," Piplup replied, "we found it like this! Who knows where it came from!"

"Really? How strange."

Pikachu would have preferred not to bring Piplup along – no offense to the penguin – but he was the only one who could effectively steer the balloon. If he'd tried to steer it himself, who knows what would have happened. It would have probably crashed.

Eventually, the balloon landed. "Alright, we're here!" Piplup stated.

"Wow..." Buneary said, hopping out and looking around her.

Suddenly, Mew floated over to them. "Pikachu!" he said. "Hi! I'm so glad you came again! Did you come to play with me?"

Pikachu shuffled awkwardly. Mew got so little company up here and he hadn't come up here for him. "Well, actually," he replied, "I was showing my friend around..."

Mew looked up. "Oh! Hi there, miss! Welcome to my humble home!"

"Oh... my... gosh..." Buneary said. She hopped over so fast, she nearly knocked Pikachu over. "It's Mew! I can't believe I'm talking to Mew!"

Mew giggled. "Thank you, miss, but I'm nothing special. Just living up here and protecting the Sky Prism!"

"So cool..."

Pikachu felt a sudden pang of anger towards Mew. "Hey, Buneary?" he said. "Lemme show you the rest of the place!"

Buneary beamed at him. "Okay!"

"Mew, could you keep Piplup company for me?"

Mew blinked at him for a few moments, then smiled. "Okay, sure!" He flew over to where the balloon was.

"Let's go, Buneary!"

The two of them walked through the area, Buneary marvelling at everything she saw. "Wow, look at these pillars!" she said. "They look so ancient... and... oh, my gosh, is that a fountain?"

"Yeah, but that's not the best part. Follow me." He led her around the pillars and up a slope.

"I wonder how this place stays in the air... Oh, wow! I can see the fountain better from here! It's beautiful!"

"Yeah, it is. Oh, careful where you step."

He jumped over a gap in the slope, wondering why Mew still hadn't fixed that. Buneary hopped over it and followed him. They jumped over one more of these gaps when Buneary gasped.

"Oh, wow. Oh, wow!" She hopped over to the small stone wall nearby and gazed out at the four rainbows that were decorating the sky. Pikachu hurried over to stand next to her, noticing that she was blushing. The sight made him blush, too. "This is incredible... You have such an amazing view of the rainbows from here..." She turned around and gasped again. "And... is that the Sky Prism?"

He turned and looked up at the glowing rock that was floating above the fountain. "Yeah, it is."

"Wow..." He turned to her to see that she was positively glowing with happiness. "Thank you, Pikachu... this place is amazing..."

His eyes widened. She'd called him 'Pikachu'. It was rare that she did that these days. The mere sound of it made him feel warm and happy inside.

Well, now was his best chance, so he might as well take it. His heart hammered inside his ribcage. "B-Buneary?"

"Yeah?"

"Will... will you...?" He took a deep breath. Time to stop being a coward. It was now or never. "Will you go out with me?"