Chapter 6
Onwards and Upwards
Without even a moment's hesitation, Jack threw back the bedclothes and flew out of bed. He stopped only momentarily to pull on last night's t-shirt to cover his bare chest, before yanking open the door and emerging into the deserted hallway of the residential dorms of the Pokemon Centre. He sprinted down the hallway, his thick locks of blonde hair bouncing madly, not even caring about the state he no doubt looked. All the time his mind was flooded with horrible scenarios and one word was being screamed relentlessly over and over again. "Ivy! Ivy! Ivy!"
His first port of call was the kindly Nurse Joy on duty at the front desk. She gasped in concern when the young man dashed up to her; only half dressed, and visibly panicked. Jack quickly demanded to know if she or anyone else had seen a young woman matching Ivy's description at all during the night. The Nurse Joy regretted that she hadn't as she hadn't been covering the night shift, but she would let him know at once if she did, or if anyone else mentioned her.
With his searches proving fruitless, another jab of fear very quickly set in for Jack. Even as a person who favoured rational thought and level-headedness above anything and everything else, the knowledge that his best friend had likely been missing all night, even in her hometown, had sent him into a blind and uncharacteristic panic.
With little other option than to start searching, he charged back to his room to get properly dressed, his intention to begin a thorough combing of the city as soon as possible. However, before he could get back to his room, he met Robert and Sebastian as they sleepily left their room, no doubt on the way down to breakfast. Neither of the Rhodes cousins had a chance to even offer Jack a greeting before he juddered to a stop in front of them, breathless, wide-eyed and thoroughly panicked.
"Ivy's missing!" he cried out, before either cousin had a chance to even open their mouths to inquire as to what was wrong.
Sebastian's eyes noticeably widened behind the curtain of his long red hair. "Missing?" he repeated, sounding concerned. "How? Why? Since when?"
"All night, I think!" Jack said, desperately trying to regain control of himself. He knew panic wouldn't help, but he was still struggling to keep himself composed. Very few things panicked Jack, but the welfare of his friends and family was one of those rare things that would. "She wasn't there when I went to bed last night, and her bed wasn't slept in this morning!"
"Who was the last person to see her?" Sebastian asked in a calm voice, knowing he had to be the rational one in the face of Jack's fright.
Jack thought about it, his mind racing. He hadn't seen her since the time he had been training with Sebastian. Ivy had been sitting with Robert during that time, if he remembered rightly. "R-Robert, I think…"
Two pairs of eyes then immediately fell on Robert, who frowned deeply. "Yeah, I might have seen her last. What of it?"
"Was she upset about anything when you saw her?" Jack asked immediately.
Robert didn't even flinch at the question. "You could say that," he said, in an almost airy manner, crossing his arms lightly.
"What about?" Jack pressed him.
"… stuff." Robert said evasively.
Sebastian, immediately knowing what his cousin was alluding to, quickly stepped in. He knew it wouldn't help Jack's panic by knowing it was Robert that had caused Ivy's upset, and it certainly wouldn't help them find her. He cleared his throat and took charge, knowing immediately the most effective and quickest way to locate the missing girl.
"Do you have any of her items of clothing?"
Jack blinked. "What?" he asked, sounding horrified and embarrassed at the same time.
Sebastian pulled a Pokeball from his belt and tossed it to the ground. From it, came a powerful, well groomed and intimidating figure of an Arcanine that barked loudly as soon as it was released. Jack almost fell over in his fright as the giant red dog Pokemon began growling at him, hackles raised, but Sebastian put a commanding hand on his Pokemon's side, silencing it immediately.
"My Arcanine has the keenest sense of smell you could ever hope for," he explained, regarding the giant Pokemon with a fond look. "Bring me something that has her scent on it, and I can guarantee you he'll find her."
Jack looked momentarily stunned at the request, but quickly pulled himself together. With a quick nod, he disappeared into his and Ivy's shared room.
A few moments passed, and an ominous crash sounded from somewhere inside Jack and Ivy's room that made Sebastian wince a little. He let out a sigh, before glaring at his cousin.. "I hope you're happy," he said darkly.
"I didn't expect her to react like this," Robert didn't sound guilty in the slightest. In fact, he spoke flatly, almost disinterested, like the whole situation didn't apply to him.
"No, you just didn't think," Sebastian said icily. "You really need to learn to—"
He was cut off by Jack suddenly bursting out from the room again, somehow now fully dressed, clutching a soft cardigan in his hands. He had found it on the desk in the room. Ivy had obviously just chucked it down when they first took their bags up to get rid of them before they had eaten dinner the previous night, and Jack was immensely glad of that rare stroke of luck. He shoved it in Sebastian's direction. He took it reluctantly, looking strangely nervous and slightly embarrassed to be holding the pink fluffy garment. He quickly pushed his embarrassment aside as soon as he saw the desperate look in Jack's eyes. "Arcanine, can you find her?" Sebastian asked his loyal Pokemon as he put the cardigan under the dog Pokemon's nose.
After a quick sniff, Arcanine began to bark and ran off down the hallway, immediately picking up a scent. Jack was on him like a shot, and Sebastian chased after them. It was only Robert that took the time to close both doors that had been left wide open and then nonchalantly followed in Jack and his cousin's wake.
"Arcanine, slow down!" Sebastian called, as the Arcanine broke out of the Pokemon Centre, almost mowing down an unsuspecting trainer in its path, and tore across the, mercifully almost empty, streets of Pewter City. The dog obediently slowed down to a brisk trot at its master's command, then stopped altogether and put its nose to the ground, sniffing, allowing the three young men to eventually catch up to it.
"Has he found her?" Jack asked, his heart thudding against his chest. He wasn't sure anymore if it was from the running, the adrenaline, the panic or a combination of all three.
Arcanine whined nervously, pawing at the ground. He sniffed the air again, before turning on his heel and trotted off in a completely different direction, towards a large housing estate just nestled in the east of the city. Robert and Sebastian looked at each other in a confused manner, wondering what on earth Arcanine was doing, but Jack suddenly understood. He let out a sigh of relief as the solution presented itself to him, and then mentally kicked himself for not realising the obvious sooner.
They followed the Fire Pokemon down a small cul-de-sac, until the Arcanine stopped outside a relatively normal-looking two-storey house, mostly a dull grey in colour. The curtains were still firmly drawn across all the visible windows, but Jack could make out a slight golden hue behind one of the top storey windows.
"Ivy," he murmured.
No sooner had Arcanine began to whine outside the house, Jack was off like a shot. However, instead of running up to the front door like most people would, he dodged around to stand underneath the window that returned a faint glow. He picked up a small pebble, which he then hurled at the window with as much force as he could muster. Sebastian and Robert exchanged confused looks as Jack repeated this process a few times, the pebbles rapping loudly against the paned glass, before the curtains were suddenly drawn, the window was pushed open and a head poked out.
A shocked voice reached their ears before they could even identify the face. "Jack! What the hell! How did you find me?"
"This is embarrassing…" Robert muttered darkly to his cousin, as they sat in a bright and cheerful kitchen, around a crowded and cheerful breakfast table. The McKenzie family breakfast table.
"Just shut up and keep smiling," Sebastian said through fiercely gritted teeth, while somehow still managing to maintain a pleasant smile as Hollie McKenzie refilled his cup of tea. "Thank you, Mrs McKenzie,"
"Are you sure you wouldn't like anything else to eat, dears?" Hollie asked sweetly.
"Oh, no, thank you," Sebastian said, waving his hands. "I'm stuffed, thank you." He indicated the practically licked clean plate that had not long ago held a thick stack of Hollie McKenzie's famous, and almost criminally delicious, pancakes.
"I'll have another one, if there's any going?" Jack asked politely, his mouth practically watering in anticipation.
"Me too! Me too!" Lewis McKenzie squealed excitedly, bashing his fork off the side of his plate in his eagerness, which then almost bounced off the table.
Lily-Mae McKenzie rolled her eyes at her little brother's antics, and continued sipping at her coffee. She had denied breakfast, claiming she was "watching her figure", but it was widely considered in the family that the painfully skinny Lily-Mae was too thin to have a figure to watch, but the McKenzies had long grown tired of arguing with her over this matter. Instead of eating, Lily-Mae was busying herself by intently watching Sebastian, whom she privately considered very cute. She was pointedly making eyes at the young man, hoping to attract his attention, and Sebastian thankfully either hadn't noticed or was doing an excellent job of pretending he hadn't.
Jack was glad that Ivy's father Callum had already left for work that morning. He wasn't sure how the overprotective father would react to three men turning up on his doorstep inquiring after his daughter. He found himself cringing a little at this, and hid it by taking a long draught of his tea. Now, while Jack doubted Ivy's father would have taken to the matter well, Ivy's mother Hollie was a completely different matter. While she had been shocked to discover that her daughter had somehow snuck back into the family home late at night, she had also been overly enthusiastic at the appearance of the three young men at her home that morning, and had invited all three of Ivy's "nice young friends" in for breakfast while a highly embarrassed Ivy washed and dressed upstairs.
"I had to admit I was quite surprised when I found Ivy in her bed this morning," Hollie chatted away to no-one in particular as she served up some more pancakes to both Lewis and Jack. "She didn't even tell me she was home. I had quite the shock!"
"So did I," Jack said with a humourless laugh.
"Poor Ivy," Hollie said with a sigh, setting her frying pan down. "She must not be handling this as well as I thought…"
At this point, Robert coughed loudly and Sebastian, quick as anything, elbowed his cousin firmly in the ribs to shut him up. "Don't say a word!" he mouthed fiercely.
"Shut up!" Robert hissed, elbowing his cousin back.
The two cousins began to bicker loudly, but thankfully an all out war was avoided when the perpetually curious Lewis McKenzie suddenly thought of a question he would quite like to have answered. "So, you two are Pokemon trainers?" he asked the cousins, his mouth full of pancake and syrup. "Proper Pokemon trainers? Not pretend ones like Jack and Ivy?"
Jack grimaced at the obvious jibe at his and Ivy's expense, but Sebastian smiled at the young boy. "Yeah, we're proper Pokemon trainers."
"How many Pokemon do you have?"
"Hundreds." Robert deadpanned before Sebastian got a chance to answer.
"Wow, really? Hundreds?" Lewis asked in awe, eyes shining.
"Not really hundreds, no," Sebastian corrected him, eyeing his cousin darkly. "But we have quite a lot,"
"Do you have a Salamence?"
Sebastian blinked at the odd question. "A… A Salamence?"
"Yeah! They're my favourite Pokemon ever!" Lewis cried excitedly, taking another massive chomp out of his pancake. "Do you have one?"
"N-no, I don't." Sebastian was still a little perplexed at the young boy's strange request. "I don't really have that many Pokemon from places other than Kanto,"
"Awww…" Lewis said, looking dejected. He speared his pancake moodily with his fork. "I'm never going to get to see one,"
"Maybe your sister Ivy will bring you one back to see one day?" Jack asked the young boy, smiling reassuringly at him.
Lewis frowned, obviously not too hopeful at that idea, and opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by another voice from the doorway. "Are you mad? Your sister Ivy hasn't even caught one Pokemon yet."
"Ivy!" Jack said in surprise.
Indeed, it was Ivy standing at the door. She looked very girly and sweet, swathed in folds of a knee-length purple dress decorated with tiny flowers, her favourite brown boots on her feet, and a thin black cardigan. Very nice, Sebastian found himself thinking privately, but wholly unpractical for trekking through Viridian Forest, if that's what they were still aiming to do that day. As Jack looked Ivy up and down, he noticed that she was wearing a heavy coating of foundation and blusher, much thicker than she normally wore. When he squinted further, he noticed a tell-tale reddening around her eyes. His heart sunk a little. She had obviously been crying all night.
"Not even one Pokemon?" Lewis sounded disappointed. "Ivy, you're terrible at this!"
"Lewis!" Jack scolded, immediately noticing the flinch that Ivy gave at her brother's words. "You shouldn't say that to your sister,"
Lewis frowned at the scolding, but the knowledge that Jack was, in his ten year old eyes and logic, a teacher, shut him up and he continued eating his pancake in moody silence.
"Breakfast, Ivy?" Hollie asked at once.
"Not for me, just tea." She said, taking a seat nervously between Jack and Lily-Mae. Lily-Mae didn't even look up at her younger sister as she sat down, but Jack immediately found his best friend's hand and squeezed it. Ivy glanced at Jack in shock at his rare display of affection, and Jack smiled. He mouthed "are you okay?" to her, to which she managed to smile and nod in reply.
She didn't even notice an irate Sebastian elbow his cousin repeatedly in the ribs and mutter "Apologise! Apologise!" in an angry hiss. Robert of course, pretended nothing was going on.
As Hollie set a cup of steaming hot tea in front of her daughter and sat down herself, she turned to Ivy and Jack. "So, where are you guys headed?"
"Viridian Forest hopefully, Mrs McKenzie," Jack explained. "There's a lot of Pokemon there, we're hoping we can catch Ivy something,"
"That sounds like a good plan," Hollie smiled, and then turning to Sebastian and Robert. "And what about you boys? Are you going there too?"
"A little bit further," Sebastian said politely. "Viridian City."
"That's a lovely city," Hollie said with a smile. "One of my favourites actually. I used to love going down there to visit my cousins when I was a little girl," she smiled at something obviously nostalgic, before speaking again. "Ivy, Jack? Are you going to Viridian City too?"
At this question, Robert grimaced and slumped down in his chair a little.
"Well, we can't really keep bothering them…" Ivy said, casting a nervous glance in their direction. "I don't even know if any of my list Pokemon are in Viridian."
"List Pokemon?" Sebastian inquired.
"Oh yeah… you don't know…" Ivy suddenly remembered with a deep blush. She quickly explained the whole sorry situation, realising that there was no point in keeping it secret anymore, considering Robert already knew. She also had a suspicion that either Lily-Mae or Lewis would be all too happy to fill Sebastian in with a much more fabricated version of the events, should she hesitate or refuse to explain. She did however tell it as briefly and as painlessly as possible, skimming over some of the more embarrassing details and glaring at Lewis every time he opened his mouth to "help" his sister tell the story. She finally concluded by telling Sebastian the list of Pokemon she needed to capture, feeling a stab of depression hit her with every Pokemon she named.
"You do realise that some of those Pokemon are pretty rare, right?" Sebastian said in a slightly sceptical tone after Ivy had filled him in.
"Of course, that's the problem."
"Hmmm," Sebastian said, leaning back in his chair thoughtfully and crossing his legs. "Well, Pidgeotto can evolve from a Pidgey, which you'll find anywhere," he said. "Nidoran you can get around Route 22, if I remember rightly. Venonat can be found in the Safari Zone or Route 12, 13 and 14 I think. As for Cubone, you're likely to only find them in Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town. Vulpix are rare too, but there's a few places you might find them. Apparently they breed somewhere on Cinnabar Island. As for Shellder, well… anywhere there's deep sea, there'll be Shellder."
Jack was scribbling all this down on a piece of paper he had frantically requested from Hollie as soon as Sebastian had started speaking, but an idea had struck the experienced Pokemon trainer, and he quickly told Jack to stop writing.
"Listen." He said slowly, as a confused Ivy and Jack looked in his direction. "You guys still are a bit… inexperienced to be going around Kanto on your own in search of all these really rare Pokemon. I'd feel bad leaving you to do it yourselves, especially since you don't know Kanto that well and you've got so little time,"
"Sebastian…" Robert said warningly, knowing what his cousin was getting at immediately.
Sebastian deftly ignored his cousin. "So, why don't we stick around?" he suggested lightly. "Help you catch all those Pokemon you need?"
Ivy gasped, her eyes widening, and her heart momentarily stopping. "You… you would do that?"
"Of course," Sebastian said with a warm smile. "It's the least we could do. To apologise," he added, pointedly shooting Robert a dirty look.
Jack didn't get it. "Apologise?" he asked, confused.
Ivy however immediately realised what Sebastian was getting at, and she nodded. "Yeah…" she said softly, not really able to look at either young man in the eye. "That would work out pretty well then. Especially since you know where all the Pokemon are."
Sebastian smiled. "Is it a deal then?" he held out his hand.
Ivy found that she didn't even have to hesitate. Even after what Robert had said to her the previous night, she found that she didn't want the Rhodes cousins to leave. As much as she hated to admit it, Robert had been right in a lot of the things he said. She was a bit of a crybaby, she was the first to admit that, and she was the kind of person who would whine about something first instead of actually getting up and doing it, but hearing it stated so bluntly to her had scared her and had upset her more than she had cared to admit. She knew that was the reason she had run off without even telling Jack. She couldn't bear having to explain to him why she was so upset. What Robert had said to her had struck a terrifying chord with her. She knew she needed to change her attitude a little. And incidentally enough, what Robert has said had even given her a little bit of motivation. Motivation to take the Tauros by the horns and start working. She had been given an opportunity. What use was there in wasting it? And now, realising that Sebastian knew roughly where to find all the Pokemon she needed, she most certainly wanted these boys to stick around.
She reached her hand out and grasped Sebastian's. "Deal," she said, with a firm handshake.
The odd little party left Ivy's home around an hour or so later, not long after Lily-Mae went to work and Lewis left for school. They didn't leave empty handed as Hollie provided them with a further stack of her homemade pancakes wrapped up in tin-foil, and various containers of food they could re-heat and use for lunch and dinners. As they were leaving out the door, Hollie called her daughter back and slipped her a wad of money, knowing full well her daughter was, for lack of a better word, broke. She refused to take it back, despite the amount of protesting Ivy made about the fact her mother struggled for money anyway without giving it to her. Ivy was inherently touched by her mother's gesture, and left the house with a lump the size of a walnut wedged in her throat.
So, with a decent supply of food and a bit of money in her pocket, Ivy and the others left the McKenzie household and departed first for the Pokemon Centre to gather their things, then for the short walk across Pewter City that would lead them to the edge of Viridian Forest. Along the walk across the cobbled and paved streets of Pewter, Jack, despite himself, kept shooting Ivy wary glances. He was more curious about what had caused Ivy's upset than he cared to admit, but there hadn't been a good opportunity yet to ask her about it. He seriously doubted she would be willing to talk about it. All he knew was that it most likely concerned the Rhodes cousins, considering the nervous glances she kept shooting them.
"So, this is Viridian Forest, huh?" Jack asked, as soon as they arrived at the cusp of the giant expanse of forestry. For Jack, who had never once set foot into a place like Viridian Forest, it was a novel, and intimidating, experience.
"This is it," Sebastian said with a nod. He turned to Ivy. "You'll find a lot of weak Pokemon there. Caterpie, Weedle, Pidgey… maybe even a Pikachu. And if we're really lucky, we'll find you that Venonat."
Ivy nodded; feeling a stab of apprehension hit her all of a sudden. Her hands clenched into fists of their own accord. Suddenly the idea of catching her very own Pokemon for the first time had left her inexplicably paralysed with fear and doubt, instead of brimming with excitement and giddy nervousness like she had been experiencing beforehand.
Something Sebastian had said suddenly resonated with Robert, and he turned a confused face to his cousin. "Wait, did you say a Venonat?"
"Yeah…?"
"Are you kidding? We'll never find a Venonat in there," Robert said with a haughty sigh. "They're not native to Viridian Forest."
"Oh come on, they're Venonats. Bug Pokemon! Bug Pokemon live in forests, right? I can guarantee you we'll find one in there." Sebastian rebuked.
"Whether or not Bug Pokemon live in forests or not is irrelevant! I'm telling you, Sebastian, you don't get Venonat in Viridian Forest." Robert said through fiercely gritted teeth. He then turned to look at Ivy, who flinched a little as his eyes fell on her. "Sebastian is being an idiot. You won't find a Venonat in there. Your best bet for one of them is the Safari Zone."
"No, Robert, I'm telling you—"
Both Ivy and Jack zoned out at this point, letting the argument simply wash over them. Truth be told, Ivy had no clue if Venonat could be found in Viridian Forest, but she found herself inexplicably not caring. She was too nervous to care. The thought of catching a Pokemon, any Pokemon, was scaring her enough as it was. The more sensible and rational, and rarely seen, part of her brain was telling her that it didn't really matter if she found an elusive Venonat right now, she just needed to catch something, whether it was one of the ones she needed or not. She just needed something to start off with. Besides, deep down, she knew that starting off with a Venonat would be difficult. She was better to start off with something small, like a Pidgey, just like Jack had done.
As if reading her mind, Jack crossed to his friend and offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. We'll get you a Pokemon,"
"Thanks, Jack." Ivy said, managing to summon up a genuine smile.
"No problem, love," he said with an airy grace.
After Robert and Sebastian finally agreed to disagree (alongside a fierce wager of lunch to be bought on the one that was proved wrong), the four young adults embarked into Viridian Forest. Neither Jack, who had lived in the bustling suburbs of Saffron all his life, nor Ivy, who had forever been forbidden from entering the forest without the protection of Pokemon, had ever set foot in Viridian Forest. Both were slightly intimidated by the sweeping darkness that encompassed them as they stepped into the thick expanse of trees, teeming with the sounds of rustling leaves, creaking branches and the occasional far-away calls of unseen Pokemon, probably high in the trees or hidden deep in the undergrowth.
Robert and Sebastian seemed totally at their ease, picking their way expertly across the rather treacherous terrain as if it was nothing more than flat pavement. Ivy and Jack followed in their footsteps far more apprehensively, slipping over the thick layer of leaves carpeted on the ground, falling over badly-hidden branches, and jumping at anything that moved or made a sound.
"I was thinking, Jack," Sebastian suddenly ventured, his voice echoing eerily around their empty, dark surroundings. "If we can find some Caterpie or Weedle here, they would be excellent for you to train Phoenix against."
"Oh yeah!" Jack said, thinking that the weak Bug types would be excellent training for his still inexperienced baby Pidgey. "That'd be really good,"
"Excuse me!" Ivy said in mild irritation. "What about me? I still need to catch a Pokemon,"
"You will," Sebastian said with a trace of amusement in his voice. "You can take your pick from hundreds in here,"
"Yeah, all Caterpie and Weedle…" Ivy murmured traitorously to herself. Privately she didn't want to get saddled with something like Caterpie and Weedle. She wasn't particularly fond of bugs, and she wasn't even that impressed by the idea of having a Butterfree or a Beedrill. She wasn't an expert, she was the first to admit that, but she had a suspicion that Pokemon like Caterpie and Weedle wouldn't even become that strong, even when they reached their final evolutions. She was painfully aware that the condition and strength of the Pokemon she presented at the end of the three months would hold a lot of weight as to whether she passed or failed. The stronger, and rarer, the extra Pokemon she presented, the more chance she had of passing comfortably.
"All Pokemon have their worth, Ivy," Sebastian said philosophically as he swept aside a low hanging branch to allow the others to pass. "It's all about unleashing their potential,"
Ivy muttered something about "not having the time to unleash potential", but a quick glare from Robert made her bite her tongue and stop complaining. She tried to reassess her situation and get her priorities in order. She needed a Pokemon, any Pokemon. She only needed one, just to help her catch others. It didn't really matter which one it was, so long as it helped her catch the ones she did need.
All the same, she still didn't want a Caterpie or a Weedle.
Unfortunately, while Ivy McKenzie didn't necessarily have a talent for remembering names, dates and faces, she did however have a talent for tempting fate…
No sooner had she taken another few steps forward, she was suddenly aware of what felt like something crawling up her back.
With a horrified scream at the presence of something on her back, she rooted herself to the spot completely; arms stiffly by her side and hands clenched, and then continued to scream. The three boys rounded on her immediately.
"What! What's the matter?" Sebastian cried.
"Th-the-there's- there's something on my back!" she squealed, still frozen to the spot and her eyes squeezed firmly shut.
And at that moment, the tiny face of a particularly happy looking Weedle popped up from behind Ivy's shoulder. "Weedle! Weedle!"
Ivy paled, her face turning sickly white. For a second, it almost looked like she was going to faint, but instead, she screamed again. This time, the scream echoed far across the forest, causing a flock of Pidgey to take flight, but the loud, high-pitched noise didn't even seem to bother the Weedle still happily clinging onto her shoulder.
"Well, well, well," Robert said with a slightly sadistic smile while Jack and Sebastian rushed to Ivy's aid. "Looks like we've found Ivy her first Pokemon, huh?"
Author's Note
Well, this update officially ends my January hiatus :) A Free Spirits update will follow either tomorrow, or Monday, depending on how long the proof-reading takes.
Thanks to everyone who's been patient and who's waited for this update (if anyone O.o), and I would like to apologise for the hiatus again... Updates will be slow, but steady, henceforth.
Well, some good news! Ivy catches her first Pokemon next chapter :) I have so much fun torturing that girl :)
Thanks to all my readers for last chapter, and to my lovely reviewers. Special thanks go to WildCroconaw, Sniper Mudkip, MasterFreezeman, Shadow Serenity 57, FindMe215, TCoBlackRoses, and Kopycat101.
I really hope this update is all right... I've been really panicked about not being able to get back into writing properly, so I really hope it's all right...
Thanks guys, for your continued patience :) OceanSpiral out.
