It's been three days and the Plasma Castle has been demolished a while ago (it really helps to have strong people and legendary Pokemon – thank you, Terrakion – that are really good at breaking shit). In the meantime, the ex-Gym leaders (though we have plans to reinstate them once the Gyms have been rebuilt) have been in charge of constructing a memorial for all the people who died, as well as those in the prostitution system.

It's not exactly finished yet, but there is a foundation, and that's where I'm sitting. On the wall, with my feet dangling over the edge, watching the stars. I say stars because it's actually night (so more like two days and three quarters since we destroyed Team Plasma).

"Hey," says a familiar voice – Touya. "If you fall off that, you'll die, you know. It would be all ironic considering how nobody killed you during the rebellion and then you fell off a wall."

"Ha ha," I say. "Come sit."

He does.

"It's, like, not even 3:00 a.m yet," Touya points out. "Why are you awake?"

"Why are you awake?" I shoot back.

"Because I have a sixth sense when it comes to you," Touya teases me. "And I knew you were gonna fall off this wall if I wasn't around to heroically rescue you."

"If you don't shut up about the wall, I will call Zekrom to blast you into pieces," I threaten him, but with a smile.

"Nah, you'd miss me too much," Touya laughs, and then pulls out a pack of berries. "Look what I brought for you! Leppa berries!"

"Excuse me?" I say, raising my eyebrows. There is no way that after all this, Touya still can't even remember my favorite kind of -

"Kidding!" he exclaims, interrupting my train of thought. I probably had my angry face on. "They're pecha berries." He hands them to me.

We sit there in silence, except for the occasional sound of me munching on my berries. Touya knows I'm not going to share, so he stays quiet, and I really can't focus when the beautiful, exotic tase of pecha berries are exploding in my mouth. But the moment I'm finished, and I look at Touya, I ask the very first thing that comes to mind.

"Are we dating?" I blurt out, because I honestly don't know and it's been bugging me. And it's not like I've ever been very subtle anyway.

"Um …" says Touya. "Yes?"

"Oh, yeah, phrase it as a question," I scoff. "Aren't you confident!"

"Shut up," Touya mutters.

"But are we?" I press. "Because Skyla and Iris AND Bianca keep giggling about it and it's annoying and Shauntal and Grimsley got together in a freaking prison and I strongly believe that Cheren has a thing for Bianca but he's too busy reading to notice, which is just plain stupid and therefore unlike Cheren, but the point is I feel like everyone is pairing up and then there's us and we've kissed – twice! - but I don't even know what we are anymore because I thought we were best friends but we sure as hell aren't -"

"What?" replies Touya, cutting me off with his brow furrowed worryingly. "What do you mean we aren't best friends anymore? And do me a favor and try to breathe between sentences, would you, Touko?"

"Sorry," I say, gulping for air. I always start babbling when I feel like there's an awkward silence I need to fill. Then I glower at Touya. "You didn't let me finish."

"Go ahead," he replies, looking amused.

"As I was saying," I scowl at him, "we kissed twice and I used to think we were best friends but now I don't because I think of you as more than a friend but I'm not really sure if you do, too, because you're a guy and they're SO FUCKING COMPLICATED!"

Instead of the heartfelt Touko-of-course-I-love-you-you're-smart-and-gorgeous-and-blah-blah-blah-more-cheesy-shit, Touya laughs.

And then he leans in. Really close. Like really close. Can you picture the closeness? Okay, awesome.

But right before he closes the gap between us, he whispers, "I've always thought of you as more than a friend." And the we're kissing again.

Which is great because now I think we're officially dating and I can kiss him whenever I want. And Touya's a really good kisser.

Of course, I have to pull away eventually because of my need to breathe air (sometimes it sucks being a mammal). Apparently, I don't have the kissing stamina Touya does, but only because I've been too busy freeing my region from Grunts with bad haircuts, leading a rebellion, and summoning legendary Pokemon from stones.

Which, you know, at the time seemed more important than kissing, but now that I've gone out and gotten some done … what was I thinking, wasting time being the heroine of Unova?

"Hey, look," I say, because I haven't properly caught my breath yet and Touya looks like he wants to start make-out session 2.0. "The sun is rising. Isn't the dawn pretty?"

"Um, yeah," Touya says distractedly, and I feel like he's still obsessively looking at my lips.

"I like the dawn," I continue conversationally, "because it symbolizes a new day, you know?"

"Not this one," Touya replies. "This one symbolizes a lot more. It's not just a new day, it's a new era. One of peace and harmony with Pokemon instead of Grunts and unattractive people like Ghetsis … and N."

"You just had to throw that in there, didn't you?" I laugh, but I know he's right. Not about N being unattractive (the Ghetsis bit I can agree on, though) but the thing about this dawn and the peace and harmony. Before the dawn was a terrible time, full of violence and hatred and separation from Pokemon.

But 'before the dawn' is over.

Thanks to me. But I'm modest, so whatever. No big deal.

And since everything is done and Unova is safe, I can resume kissing Touya without any guilt. So I do.