Hey yall. Sorry it took awhile to get this up, but believe it or not I have good excuses this time. First I had my week long mission trip in Missouri then the week after I helped out with VBS, then I went on vacation to St. Thomas. Virgin Islands baby! It was so beautiful. You wouldn't believe how clear the water is. I mean, the only ocean I've really seen is the Gulf of Mexico and the water there is full of silt from the Mississippi. So anyway, here's chapter three. Hey Zel!
Zel: What?
Rose: Tell 'em
Zel: cheater. Rose doesn't own anything except Aria, her mom, Arashi, and Xryna.
Rose: And you! (hugs her little green winged fox like thing)
Zel: Thanks, but I am not a thing!
(Conversation degenerates from there)

Chapter Three: Sarah

The next morning, Sarah Cullen walked tiredly back to her home, hoping that Aria was up already and had made breakfast herself. However, she highly doubted anything like that had happened, she still hoped it had.

Sarah quietly opened the door in order not to wake her most likely sleeping daughter.

"Aria." She called as she closed the door. "Aria, are you awake?" She carelessly dropped her stuff next to the door and rubbed her temples. She felt a strong headache coming on and she only wanted to get some sleep. She hadn't been able to sleep the Davis's due to her sick Growlithe and the fact that the thunderstorm had kept waking her up every time it boomed and crashed.

"Aria." She called again. "You need to wake up dear." She said as she walked through the living room to Aria's room. Instead, she saw her daughter had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV.

"Aria," She said as she shook Aria's shoulder in order to wake her up. "Time to get up darling."

Aria rolled over after her mother's constant shaking and Mrs. Cullen screamed when she saw that it wasn't her daughter on the couch. It was some strange young man she had never seen before.

Instantly, the stranger woke up and yelped as he fell of the couch. Mrs. Cullen screamed again as a blue haired girl ran into the room

"What is it Kurama?" She cried. She stopped when she saw her mom waking Kurama with her purse, which she had grabbed again when she first started screaming.

She was still smacking him when Aria ran in.

"Mom, what are doing?!" She quickly took her mother's purse away and grabbed her arms so she couldn't hit anyone.

"Mom, it's okay. I know them. They stayed here so they could get out of the rain. They didn't have anywhere else to go. It's okay." Aria told her mother quickly, trying her best to calm her down. Aria was more afraid that her mother would have her first heart attack then she was of Kurama getting a slight concussion.

At her daughter's words, Mrs. Cullen calmed down. She looked again at the two strangers Aria had invited to spend the night. She took a deep calming breath and shakily asked Aria to come talk with her in the kitchen.

Once they were alone, Aria's mother quietly exploded.

"Are you out of your mind?!" She whispered fiercely and shook her daughter by the shoulders.

"Wha-?" Aria managed.

"You don't know them! How could you invite these strangers to spend the night? They might be robbers, or murderers, or something else!"

"Moom," Aria whined. "They're Shiro's owners. Actually, his name is Youko and he's Kurama's pokemon, so relax." Aria gently removed her mom's hands but still held on to them.

Sarah looked at her daughter's smiling face, so trusting and, at the moment, so naïve, and sighed. "Aria," She said in a frustrated voice. "Just because they're Shiro's-"

"Youko's." Aria interrupted.

Her mother sighed again. "Youko's trainers, doesn't mean that they themselves are trustworthy."

"Mom..." Aria started to whine, but her mother quickly cut her off.

"Aria, I just want you to be careful. Okay?" Sarah told her with a worried look on her face.

"Okay Mom, but they were here all night and I'm okay. So please don't worry." Aria smiled again and left before her mom could argue. After she left, Sarah rubbed her temples again.

"I need a nap." She told herself and walked back into the living room where Aria was apologizing to her new friends.

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Cullen apologized to her daughter's guests. "But I'm afraid I don't feel comfortable with the two of you being here. Maybe after I get to know you better, but right now I would just like to take a nap so if you could please..." She motioned towards the door meaningfully.

"Oh yes that's quite understandable." The blue haired girl said cheerfully as she dragged the red haired boy's arm. "Kurama and I will just be on our way now. It was nice meeting you Mrs. Cullen. Bye Aria, hopefully we'll see you soon!"

"B-bye Aria." Kurama said quickly as Botan dragged him out the door.

"Bye guys. Sorry about this." She called from the door as they quickly walked to the forest.

After they disappeared into the trees, Aria turned on her mother.

"How could you do that?!" Aria cried. "Those were my friends and you just shoved them out!" She stormed to her room and slammed the door before her mom could answer. Sarah sighed heavily and rubbed her temples again.

"I'm going to take a nap before I deal with any of this." She muttered to herself then went to her room to sleep for a good long time.

"Well, that went well." Botan commented as she and Kurama walked out to the middle of the forest so they could return to Reiki.

Kurama shrugged his shoulders. "My mother would have probably done the same thing. She likes to know my friends before they stay at the house for any long period of time." Kurama smiled.

Botan smiled and put on her kitty face. "I think I know why you like it here." She teased, pointing a kitty paw at him.

Kurama looked straight ahead and ignored his blue haired friend. "I don't know what you mean Botan."

Botan giggled. "Of course not." Botan said.

They continued in silence for a while.

"You know," Botan started. "Aria was very nice to let us stay in her house."

"Yes she was." Kurama said in almost monotone.

They continued walking for a while longer, not saying anything.

Botan finally exploded. "Oh come on Kurama!" She cried. "Admit that you liked her already." Botan stopped walking.

Kurama, however, didn't stop. "I don't even know her Botan. We just met yesterday."

Botan let out a frustrated sound. "Kurama," She whined. "I know you have a crush on her." Botan ran to catch up with her friend.

Kurama sighed. "Botan," He said firmly.

"Yes." She drew out the word.

"It's none of your business." He kept walking as Botan stopped and dropped her bottom jaw. Once Kurama was far enough ahead not to hear her, Botan threw a mini tantrum, mad that her friend wouldn't tell her anything.

They reached the clearing they had landed in before none too soon for Kurama. He wanted nothing more then for Botan to drop the subject she insisted on pursuing.

"Kurama," Botan said as she caught up.

"Let's go Botan." He said before Botan could keep talking.

She sighed at his insistence on leaving. "Alright, alright, we're going." She said as she summoned her oar. She rather liked this place. The things they called pokemon were just adorable! Like Aria's Skitty, Sweetheart. She was just the sweetest little thing Botan had ever seen. Unfortunately, it was time to leave. Botan sighed as they both climbed on her oar and soared up into the sky. Once they were high enough, Botan prepared to transport them to Reiki. She gathered her spirit energy and focused on Reiki. But they didn't disappear like they should have. She opened her eyes surprised to see that they were still floating above Aria's forest.

"Are we leaving soon Botan?" Kurama asked from behind her.

"Yeah sure!" She said with false cheerfulness, hoping that it would work this time.

But it didn't.

"What is it now Botan?" Kurama asked dejectedly.

"I can't get through." Botan said surprised.

"What?"

"I can't get through to Reiki. We're stuck here." Botan's face like it was permanently stuck in a fake looking smile.

Kurama gently put his hand on Botan's shoulder. "Botan," He said carefully. "Let's land and see if we can figure this out."

Botan felt herself nod. She felt the wind rush past her face as she quickly brought her oar to the ground.

Once they landed, she felt more herself.

"What the heck is going on here?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, scaring all the feathered pokemon from the treetops.

Kurama suddenly knew how anime characters felt when the got one of those sweat drops on their heads.

"Relax Botan. I'm sure that there is a logical explanation as to why we can't get back." Kurama didn't feel very hopeful about that, but he didn't want Botan to freak out more then she already was.

Botan suddenly snapped her fingers in inspiration. "I bet that demon from last night had something to do with this."

Kurama smiled strangely. "Yes, he probably had something to do with it."

Botan got a strange smile too. "How about we go to Aria's and ask her for help." Kurama gave his friend a look that said, 'Shut. Up. Now.'

Botan started to meow.

Kurama sighed and started to walk away. Botan quickly caught up.

"Where are you going?" She asked still in kitty mode.

"No where." Kurama said as he walked on with his eyes closed.

"Are you going to Aria's house?"

"Who else do we know here?" He asked coolly. Botan followed him out of the forest, thankfully, without anymore questions, although she did give him some sneaky looks.

Kurama was about to knock on the door when it burst open.

"You're back!" Aria cried joyfully. "I guess I would too if I had forgotten my pokemon."

"Huh?" Kurama asked, forgetting his usual cultured self for a moment.

Aria motioned towards the floor. "Youko, you left him here." She looked a little surprised that he had forgotten him.

Kurama glared at Youko. "You were supposed to follow us." He said to his 'nine tails', who simply smiled up at his 'trainer'.

Did you want me to mention that a barrier had sprung up overnight preventing us from returning to Reiki? He asked in Kurama's mind a little too innocently.

Kurama glared at his other half. Yes, that would have been helpful. He replied coldly.

He returned to the physical conversation a little too late. Botan had already explained to Aria that they had missed their flight back home and that they didn't have the money to get another ticket.

"So, I was wondering," Botan started to ask bashfully. "If you knew were we can maybe stay for a few days so we could wait for our parents to buy us new plane tickets?"

Aria thought about it for a moment. "Well, no actually, but my mom might." She said thoughtfully.

"Oh I'm sure your mother doesn't want to see us right now." Botan waved her hand, hoping to avoid another explosion.

"Please don't worry about earlier." Aria said apologetically. "She was really tired because she didn't sleep very well last night."

"We understand why she said what she did," Kurama waved away her apology. "She was just worried about you. We understand. Our mother would do the same." Aria looked relieved to know that her mother wasn't the only one to act like that and she smiled, relieved.

For a moment, Botan watched as Kurama and Aria stared at each other. Her kitty face appeared again as she looked back between the two.

Finally she had had enough of staring, so she cleared her throat to get their attention. Botan laughed a little as both her friends jumped and turned red.

"Uh, w-would you like to come in?" Aria stuttered slightly and waved them in and closed the door. "Here let me get you something." She tried to hide her red face as she disappeared into the kitchen to play hostess.

Botan looked sideways at Kurama. She opened her mouth to comment when...

"Don't say a word." Kurama cut her off before she said anything. Botan quickly clamped her mouth shut as Aria came back into the room with some kind of juice.

"If Mom is feeling better later, maybe she'll let you stay here until your parents send you your new plane tickets." Aria said with false causality.

Kurama smiled warmly at her. "We don't want to be any trouble."

Aria gave him a look like he had just told a joke. "Believe me. Compared to my relatives, you guys aren't trouble at all." Kurama and Botan laughed.

Aria sat down in the reclining chair that was next to the sofa where Kurama and Botan were sitting. Once she was comfortable, Youko jumped up into her lap and sat down while Sweetheart leisurely walked up to Botan.

"Mrow." She said.

Botan went gaga over the white Skitty. She immediately started cooing and ahhing as she pet and scratched her sweetly.

"Aria," Kurama said. "Are you sure your mother won't mind us being here?"

Aria looked a little guilty. "Well," She twisted in her seat. "I don't know, but I'm sure-"

"We don't want to get you into trouble." Kurama said softly.

Aria sighed explosively. "She treats me like I'm five!" She put her head in her hands. "And she knows that I can take care of myself! I mean, I am a black belt plus I have all my pokemon with me..."

Kurama's curiosity finally got the better of him. "You have pokemon?"

Aria looked up at him with a slightly confused expression.

"Well yeah, everybody has pokemon. Don't you have any others besides Youko?" She asked, silently wondering what kind of trainer her friend was.

"No actually." Aria felt her jaw drop at his confession.

Seeing her face, Kurama quickly explained. Meaning he made up a lie as quick as he could.

"Where we live," He started. "There aren't any pokemon. Youko was given to me by a relative." He said quickly as a look of confusion crossed Aria's face as she gestured to the silver fox. "That's part of the reason we're here actually, to see our Aunt and Uncle. They're going on a trip however, which is why we were leaving." Kurama added to Botan's lie about visiting.

Aria sat up. "That's cool, all my living relatives are scattered throughout the world it seems, but I don't remember any of them telling me about a place without pokemon." She said, trying to fit the lie into reality. It wasn't fitting to well.

She brushed it off. "Never mind," She said partly to Kurama but mostly to herself, then her face brightened up with an idea. "Hey, would you like to see mine?"

Kurama, not being a mind reader, was lost. "Huh?"

"My pokemon, besides Sweetheart there's Pip, Eve, Vixie, Cici, and Chu. I have quite a few others, but since trainers are only allowed to have six pokemon in a battle, I don't really keep more then that."

"Where do you keep your others?" Kurama asked as Aria started to get up.

"They're with Professor Mabel at her lab. I'll be right back okay?" She left the room and came back a few minutes later holding a small dark blue backpack.

"Here we are." She said as she pulled out a small ball the size of a marble and pressed a button that rested on the line between the red and white halves. Kurama watched, fascinated, as the ball grew from the size of a marble to the size of a baseball. Aria pointed the button away from herself and her guest and then pressed it again. A stream of red energy poured out and quickly took the shape of a small penguin, except, Kurama noticed, that it wasn't really a penguin. Besides being a fine shade of pastel blue and a darker, more watery blue, its head was larger then its body and it had two small whitish circles on its torso just below its head.

"Pip!" It squeaked and shook itself after it solidified into its shape.

Aria reached out her arms for the little misshapen penguin. "Hey Pip, did you have a good nap?" She cooed as Pip jumped into her hug and squeaked again. Youko ducked, trying to avoid the Piplup's feet as he kicked them in the air. Kurama heard him emit a soft humph as he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

Aria set Pip back down on the ground and picked up another red and white ball. She repeated the same process as before, but this time a small brown, four legged creature appeared. It had large brown eyes and long rabbit like ears coming off the side of its head. It also had a large tan ruff around its neck and its brown tail had a tip the same tan color as the ruff. This one was Eve and she gave it a hug just like the first.

Next was Vixie, who was a lovely little creature that resembled a fox. She had reddish brown fur with a darker colored sock on her left front paw. Her six tails were a brighter color with more red in them then brown. She took one look at Kurama and walked away to go play with Sweetheart and, most likely, Botan.

Cici turned out to look more humanoid then his previous fellow pokemon, even with his pinkish tinted skin. He distinctly reminded Kurama of a small clown, which was probably what he was. As soon as he was free of his ball, he began imitating Botan, who didn't realize it until a few minutes later.

Last was Chu, a yellow and black mouse like creature with two pink-red spots on his cheeks. His playful attitude quickly showed itself as he hugged Kurama's leg, shocking him slightly. Before someone could punish him, he quickly ran off to play with someone else.

"Ha ha" Aria laughed as some of Kurama's hair started to stick up with static. "Sorry, he likes to do stuff like that to people."

"Oh, it's fine." Kurama said then poked her arm, shocking her. "I can see why he likes it." He started laughing as Aria started to rub away the sting.

"No fair." She pouted. "I wasn't ready."

Kurama raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Yeah and when will you be ready?"

Aria gave him a mean smile. "Oh Chu!" She called, causing the little creature to poke his head out of the kitchen. As he started bounding across the room on all four paws, Aria said, "You better start running now Kurama."

Kurama took her advice.

It wasn't that the shocks were painful, they tickled more then anything, but for some strange reason, this was fun.

It remained fun too, that is until Mrs. Cullen woke up.

She was just putting her short hair into a small ponytail as she walked into her living room to see Aria shock Botan, who had gotten involved when Kurama accidentally shocked her instead of Aria.

"What in the world is going on?" She demanded in an astonished tone. The three teenagers instantly stopped and stared at her, not quite sure what to do.

"Uhhhh..." Aria stammered. "You see Mom, Botan and Kurama missed their flight and their aunt and uncle have already left for vacation and they needed a place to stay so-"

"You invited them to stay here didn't you?" Her mother asked in a bland voice, not exactly surprised this had happened.

"Nooooo," Aria drew out the word, trying to figure out how to put her new friends' problem without getting them all in trouble. "They asked if I knew of anywhere they could stay for awhile and I don't so I recommended they talk to you because you know everyone in Botany and everybody likes you and-"

"Alright, alright," Her mother cut into her flattery. "I get it, but what were you three doing just now?" She looked pointedly at Aria.

"Nuuuhthing." She answered, looking around her.

"Uh-huh." Mrs. Cullen said. "Well," She sighed. "I suppose I can help you two find somewhere to stay while you wait for aunt and uncle to come back."

"Hopefully our parents will be able to buy us tickets before that." Botan put in.

Mrs. Cullen nodded. "Okay, how long do you think that will be?"

Botan and Kurama looked at each other. "A few days." Botan said shrugging.

Or a few months. Kurama didn't say that part out loud. That wasn't something either Aria or her mother needed to know. Hopefully he and Botan would be out of here before then anyway.

"Okay," Mrs. Cullen said with a sigh. "I suppose for right now the two of you can stay here..."

"Are you sure that that's okay Mrs. Cullen?" Botan asked hesitantly. "I'm sure we can find somewhere else if you really don't feel comfortable with us here."

Mrs. Cullen sighed again. "No its fine. I'm sorry if I offended you earlier. Aria was right, you were here all night and she's fine and nothing's missing," She paused and smiled at them. "At least not as far as I can tell."

Kurama got that anime sweat drop feeling again and he was pretty sure Botan had it too judging by her awkward giggle. Aria was ecstatic and flung her arms around her mom in a tight hug yelling, "Thank you Mom!" Kurama was starting to wonder if Aria had many friends. She barely knew either him or Botan and already she was inviting them to stay at her house for who knew how long. Granted she only thought it would take a few days until their parents bought them new plane tickets, but Kurama didn't think that the barrier would be down by then.

The barrier worried him. The demon from the night before had most likely created it. However the barrier itself didn't feel like it had been made with demon energy. It was puzzling, but Kurama was sure he would figure it out.

Eventually.

Well I hope you're starting to get into the story. I know it's still kinda slow, but please bear with me. It'll pick up. Hey! I got a livejournal account and I've been putting up a Maximum Ride story there. I'll put up some Yu Yu Hakusho ones or something else soon I hope, but if you like Maximum Ride you should go read After Armeggodon. My account name is zellerose and my journal's name is An Angel's Gettaway. Go check it out soon! Please?

Announcment: REVIEW!!!!! Oh please please pretty please review. I don't care if you just tell me that you like it or don't, hoever it would be nice if you told me something that you think I should fix. But please Review!

P.S.- REVIEW!!!

Zel: Now you're just being pushy.
Rose: Hehe Sorry, but no one's reviewed yet at all. It's sad. :(