B.B. POV

I felt bad for misleading Bullet and my pride stung from making myself out to be weak in order to get away from the base, but it was necessary. After all that had happened over the past few days, I had yet to get a moment alone with Blade to talk to him. Between needing to apologize for blowing him off, thank him for saving my life, assure him of how much I valued him as a friend and teammate, and explain the situation with Bullet, which he had proven himself to be more than deserving to know about, a few whispered words in passing simply wasn't going to cut it. We needed to have a real talk.

As Blade and I turned the corner on the path that wrapped itself around the plateau that the town was built on and headed out towards the plains to the north, leaving the presence of Bullet and the base behind us, the comfortable silence that had reigned over our party quickly grew stale and became tense and awkward. What was I supposed to say? I knew Blade and I needed to talk, but hell, where was I even supposed to begin?

My eyes kept darting back and forth from Blade, to my feet, to the path ahead of me, and back. I was quickly growing exasperated with myself, but my leaden tongue seemed utterly determined to take the rest of the night off. I was getting nowhere like this.

"So… are you ready to talk, now?"

I stumbled at the unexpected question and turned my head to stare openly at Blade, only to see him looking straight ahead with his normal disinterested expression on his face.

As we strayed from the path and set out walking across the plains, following the guiding sparkle of the river as we made our way northeast towards our homes, I heaved a sigh and began, "Thank you… for saving my life… and for keeping an eye out for Bullet, when I couldn't."

Blade just nodded his head, "Of course, you're my friends."

"I know. I heard what you said before, when you were talking to Bullet and I was… out to lunch."

Blade gave a small amused huff, which was the closest thing to a laugh I had ever seen from him, "I figured. Even though you were… out to lunch, how you wanted to respond was there on your face; barely, but it was there."

Feeling relieved that Blade clearly didn't doubt our friendship, I pressed forward down the list, "Also, I'm sorry for the way I acted… when we talk before. You didn't deserve that. I guess I just… wasn't expecting that conversation to come up, and when it did… I just wasn't ready to deal with it."

"Apology accepted, and don't worry, I was never upset over that. I could tell that I had struck a raw nerve, but I felt it would be better for you know that there was someone willing to listen, when you were ready to ask for help."

"Thanks, Blade."

With that, a moment of calm quiet settled over us. The soft glow of the moonlight danced gently over the swaying grasses of the plains coupled with the laughing babble of the crystal clear water flowing back south towards the town. The grass parted around us with a whisper, as we made our way from the plains into the forest, the first trees casting their towering shadows over our path. As the last of the moonlight was separated from us and we passed into the deep shade where the river bubbled up from underground, I steeled myself and turned to face Blade with a resolute gleam in my eye.

"Blade, you were right. There is something going on between me and Bullet, and if I'm going to trust anyone to talk about it with, I'm going to trust you. You see, the truth is…"

Blade cut me off, "Don't force yourself, B.B.. It's clear this has been bothering you greatly, and I'm glad you're ready to talk… However, you are exhausted, and so am I. Since we have tomorrow off, let's wait until then for a conversation that is sure to be intense and emotional draining. Get a good night's sleep, and then come meet me at my home in Darkness Ridge. We will be able to speak freely there for as long as is necessary."

I didn't know what to say in response, but unable to argue against any angle of his logic, I heaved a sigh that was a strange mix of relief and frustration and nodded my agreement. With the plans for the following day set, we parted ways at the gurgling spring, Blade heading north into the mountains and I heading east into the deepest part of the Eastern Forest. As the forest became steadily denser as I went, I eventually abandoned the ground in favor of leaping from branch to branch and moving through the trees that way. The instinctual ease of the action helped to set my frazzled nerves at ease, and the familiar lullaby of the many leaves dancing together as I passed them drew me towards home and my waiting bed.

Once I had finally reached the heart of the Overgrown Forest, where I had chosen to make my home, I only took a moment to cast an affectionate smile towards the mother tree, whose roots and branches surrounded the clearing, before proceeding into my tree house. The strain of the past few days had become glaringly obvious as I made my way home, and it was all that I could do to pull the screens away from the skylight above the hammock where I slept.

I fell with a flop into the strong, rocking embrace of the mother tree's vines and stared up through the skylight at the myriad of stars that seemed to have all convened to the one small scrap of night sky that was visible through the tightly woven branches above. In that moment, I was too tired to worry over what might happen during my visit with Blade in the morning. Surrounded by branches and stars, I felt a numbing sense of peace settle over me as I drifted off to sleep. As my vision faded into the dream that had already begun, the last thing I saw was the stars start to shine red and rearrange themselves, until I was staring into a warm smiling face with sparkling red eyes. Bullet. With a goofy grin on my face, I finally succumbed to my fatigue and fell into much needed slumber.

When morning came and I was awoken by the first sharp beams of sunlight pouring their way through the window overhead, I pulled myself from my bed and stretched the mild stiffness from my muscles. I had slept well, and the soreness from days of fighting our way through the Stormy Sea had all but vanished. After having my breakfast, nestled up in the mother tree's highest branches, while watching the morning sun paint its way over the rest of the forest, I took a roundabout path towards the mountains, enjoying the feeling of my muscles working gently beneath my skin as I flew from tree to tree. Once the trees had thinned out and the ground had begun to slope upwards, I kept up my pace by leaping to the earth and jogging along the familiar mountain path that would lead me to the cave I was looking for. The path lead me deep into the mountain range, before branching west down into a barren rift between the towering peaks and straight into the dimness of the cave at the end of the trail.

The gaping mouth that split the side of the mountain stretched deeper and deeper into the underground shadows, until the cave was exposed for what it truly was, the entrance of a tunnel. Darkness Ridge, where Blade had built his home, was located on a massive shelf of rock within an enormous cavern in the heart of the mountain range, connected to the outside world by a series of dozens of naturally occurring tunnels scattered all over the range. A steep drop-off below the ridge was hidden completely in darkness, only being broken by an array of mysterious lights, like ghostly fireflies, rising up out of the dark and light the ridge above with their eerie glow. That light was increased by the glow being reflected off of a series of tiny creeks and waterfalls moving down from smaller rock shelves above the ridge. The reflections of the floating lights coated the water so thoroughly, that it seemed more like the streams were shining from their own inner light. The rock shelves were also decorated with half petrified trees, some nothing but bones and others frozen in time with leaves like stained glass still in place on their branches. How the ancient trees had ever gotten into the cave and managed to grow there was anyone's guess.

As I made my way out of the tunnel and into the greater cavern, I was once again struck by the well-known sense of awe that I couldn't help but feel whenever I visited this place. The place was beautiful and macabre at the same time, and the balanced never ceased to puzzle me. Not wasting another moment on pointless daydreaming, I headed out along the ridge, calling out for Blade.

"Yo, Blade! You around? Hey, Blade!" The guy had always been such a recluse; I actually had no idea exactly where on the ridge Blade lived.

"Good morning, B.B.. It seems you slept well."

I looked up to see Blade looking down at me from atop a ledge protruding from the shelf directly above, and couldn't help myself as a grin stretched across my face, "How can you even tell it's morning, living in here? For all you know, I could have slept the day away and waited 'til midnight to come over."

"No, you wouldn't have the patience for that. Regardless, I still know what time of day it is, even living in a cave."

"How?" I looked at him skeptically.

Blade leapt down from his perch and landed beside me, "I just do. Shall we go, then?"

Letting the teasing conversation drop, I followed Blade along the ridge, "So where are we going?"

"The best place for a private conversation, my tree."

Within a few minutes, I had followed Blade to the base of the largest skeleton tree on the ridge. He glanced at me for a moment, making sure I was still following him, and leapt through a hole in the trunk of the hollow tree and disappeared. I quickly followed him inside, only to be pleasantly surprised by what I saw. While the tree had been hard as stone on the outside, the inner walls were still strong, supple wood, which Blade had carved a series of indentations into, making a bed and several storage shelves. The tall circular chamber was lit by a pair of lanterns that each held one of the floating lights inside of it. Something about that felt really creepy to me.

I gestured to the lanterns, "Are you sure it's okay to catch those things like that?"

Blade nodded, "It's fine. I never keep them locked up for longer than a day, and then I release them and catch two new ones."

"So… they are alive, then?"

"Not sure, but they help alleviate the silence a bit. If you are really quiet, you can hear them sing."

"Really?" He had to be pulling my leg.

"Try it."

I stopped talking for a moment and listened closely for any sound. The thick walls of the tree muffled all the noises from outside, and it was momentarily dead silent inside. Then, I heard two faint whispering voices singing a tune that almost made me want to dance… or get drunk… or both.

"Wow, okay then. That's a little odd."

"Maybe, but it's normal for in here."

"You live in a strange place, my friend. Speaking of which, where were you before?"

Blade settled himself down onto his bed, answering my question absently, "I was washing all of the dried sea water out of my fur in one of the nearby streams. Putting that aside, let's get to the reason you came here, since I know it wasn't simply to make jokes about choices in real estate."

My humor cooled instantly and I sat down into an empty groove across from blade with a sigh, "Always straight to the point, aren't you Blade?"

"Someone has to be."

"Touché," I took a deep breath, trying to keep my heartbeat under control, "So… about me and Bullet…"

"Let me guess, you're in love with him, right?"

My jaw dropped open with a pop and my eyes felt like they would drop out and roll across the floor, and after nearly a minute of gasping like a magikarp, I managed to splutter out, "What? But how? How did you..?"

"How did I know? Well, I had suspected as much for awhile, but I wasn't positive about it until a few nights ago in the Stormy Sea, right after you almost drowned. You weren't the only one who woke up in the middle of the night that night. I saw the way you held Bullet; the way you looked at him. I may be fairly new this whole "friendship" thing, but I do know that that wasn't a way someone would act towards a friend."

I blushed red and stared at my feet, not knowing what to say. Blade had seen right through me from the get go, and then he caught me with my hand in the cookie jar on top of everything else!

"…B.B.," Blade's change in tone pulled my eyes back up to his, as he stared me down from across the small room, "B.B., you are my friend, and that is all that matters to me. I can see what you're thinking written all over your face. You're afraid I'll hate you, right? That I'll lose trust in you? That I'll be disgusted with you? Well you can just forget about all of that, because none of it is going to happen."

I blinked at Blade, completely dumbfounded. What had he just said?

"You're gay. I don't care. You're still my friend. You're in love with Bullet. You two are my closest friends. What I want is whatever will make you two happy. That's what it means to be best friends, right?"

I fought down the lump in my throat and tried to discreetly wipe the not tears from my eyes, "Thank you, Blade. I can't tell you what it means to me to hear you say that, and to know that you've still got my back, no matter what."

Blade nodded his head and gave a small smile, and the warmest expression I had ever seen grace the absol's face.

I choked out a bittersweet laugh, "Thanks for the support, but as far as the whole Bullet and I being together thing goes, that's never gonna happen?"

Blade seemed confused, "Why not?"

I scoffed, "Well first of all, Bullet isn't gay. He doesn't even know that I'm gay, and he has absolutely no idea that I am truly, madly, head over heels in love with him!"

Blade was silent, with a clearly contemplative look on his face.

"What is it, Blade?"

"I'm trying to decide if I should tell you something, or if it would be better to let it play itself out. However, knowing you two, if I don't say something now, it may never come out into the open."

"Tell me what?!"

"That I think you may be wrong about Bullet."

…What? What was Blade talking about? Wrong about Bullet? About what?

"B.B., that same night that I saw you holding on to Bullet, I saw Bullet laying awake and watching you. The way he looked at you was the exact same way as how you looked at him, and he was crying. He had cried earlier that day, but those tears were different. The tears he cried over you while you were sleeping weren't tears of relief that you were alive, or anger that he hadn't been able to protect you. Those tears looked like the tears of a desperate heart that had finally found everything that it had ever wanted, only to realize that it was just outside of its grasp. A heartbroken Bullet cried for you while you slept that night, B.B.."

"But Blade… no, that's… Blade, that's just not possible. You must be wrong." I couldn't believe what he was saying. It just couldn't be true. I couldn't allow myself to hope for that. It would kill me if I allowed myself to hope and it all came to naught.

"B.B., as a friend, as a best friend, as a teammate, as someone who saved your life, I'm asking, no, begging you to believe me. Bullet feels the same way about you as you do about him, but there is no way Bullet would ever work up the nerve to say anything. When it comes to things like this, Bullet is completely clueless. I'm willing to bet that he has been in love with you since the day you two met, but only recently figured it out himself. B.B., if you two are ever going move past this and be happy, then you have to be the one to tell him how you feel."

"It's not that simple, Blade! What if you're wrong? What if I tell him and he doesn't feel the same way? What if he hates me? What if it completely destroys our friendship? I can't take that chance, Blade! I can't lose him!"

Blade lifted himself from his bed and moved to stand beside me, "Do you really believe that? Do you really have so little faith in your partner that you really believe that he would disown you if he ever found out how you felt? What about the time when everyone in town was convinced that you were the terrible human from the Ninetails Legend, who provoked the wrath of Ninetails and left Gardevoir to die in order to save your own skin? Did Bullet abandon you then? No, he ran away with you, sacrificing everything he had and putting his life on the line in order to clear your name and protect you from the bounty hunters. Even if you had turned out to be the one from the legend, do you think Bullet would have turned you in? No, I'd bet my life that Bullet still would have done anything in order to protect you, regardless of what you were guilty of, because that's just how Bullet has always been when it comes to you."

"…You're right, Blade. You're right." It was all true. Everything Blade had said was completely true! Bullet had always been my rock, and he would never abandon me, no matter what. I had never had that level of belief in anyone, and I knew that Bullet deserved every bit of it. …And if what Blade had said was true, I couldn't allow myself to hope, then my cowardice was causing pain to the one I loved most. That was unacceptable!

I was gonna do it. It was time. I would find Bullet, and with my heart in my hand, I would tell him everything. The time for lies was over, and lives or die trying, I was going to fight for the one I loved. After trading brief goodbyes with Blade, I took off running at a dead sprint, away from Darkness Ridge, out of the mountains, and south towards the base and where Bullet was.

I spoke my thoughts out loud as I charged through the murky tunnel, "Bullet. Bullet. Please, don't let this be the biggest mistake of my life."