A/N: this was actually written up since a couple months, but always sat there collecting dust because I wasn't happy with it. I decided to proof-read it one last time and just go with it, if it's not my best chapter, whatever, I'll deal with it xD Original chapter notes can be found at the end! Thanks for reading!

Initially, she thought her change of attitude was the right thing, and that because of it she would have been able to endure her confinement to the strange mansion in Distortion World.

But she was wrong.

Cynthia had always been such a bright person, and always loved socializing. And now, after almost two months, the loneliness was starting to break her in. She was developing a friendly bond with the inhabitants of the mansion, for as strange as that was, but she terribly missed her home, her family, her friends, her Pokémon. Heck, she even missed the loud screeches her Garchomp gave everytime, despite the blonde telling her to tone down her voice, or the way Aaron gave almost choking-sounding laughs at Flint's stupid jokes..
It was almost funny how everything seemed faded, yet little things remained vivid in her mind.

Apparentely Cyrus wasn't lying when he said he could slightly read her from her blood, because at one point he must have tasted her sadness and homesickness, and stopped the bite to look at her. She couldn't exactly understand how he was looking at her, as she couldn't see any concern, or curiosity, or anything at all, but she broke down in tears anyways, loathing herself for losing her last shreds of dignity and sobbing so pathethically about oh please letting her back home.

However, it must have struck a chord, because the very day after Cyrus asked to talk with her.

"I wasn't expecting to keep you this long."
"Is that an apology?" inquired Cynthia, a smug smile on her face.
"No, it's not. Just a personal thought on how this situation wasn't planned, or poorly so. I am not acquainted to act after my impulses; if anything, the outcome of this just proves how useless they are." was his mechanical reply, to which the woman laughed.
"Oh really? But I thought you did get what you wanted, isn't it? If you didn't, you wouldn't have my blood so freely."
"I fail to understand you sometimes. You speak as if you're approving of how things went. Should I keep you here some more, then?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant…!"

Cyrus sighed at her reaction. He could understand feeling uncomfortable in a forced situation, in an unknown place with equally unknown people. But how she desperately clinged to other human beings in order to feel any sort of self-fulfillment, of...happiness, was beyond himself. Most of the things she lamented of the night before, he couldn't understand at all.

He locked eyes with her, dead serious: "I need you to promise to not tell a soul about this. And to keep cooperating the next times I'll visit you. Or else, I will have to take other measures to ensure that."

Cynthia's eyes widened; was he really going to let her go?
"Of course! I promise!"

The vampire suddenly grabbed her, biting her more intensely than usual: "Say it again."

Cynthia gasped, not used to Cyrus using force when it came down to feeding, but promised again. Sensing her sincerity from the blood -and her panic, was she afraid of him?-, he looked enough satisfied and let go of her. The look of shock on her face made him step back, and she silently pressed her fingers on her neck, the bite marks having left more blood pouring out than usual.

"I promise," she quietly repeated: "but don't you ever act like this again."

Cyrus slowly nodded, and the two remained in a quite awkward silence for a while.
"Go pack up your things, we're leaving in a couple hours." he finally said, disappearing in the darkness of an hallway.

Packing up was way more bittersweet than Cynthia had imagined, especially with Mars and Saturn helping -the redhead begrudgingly so- and trying to act as if they didn't care at all...while sniffling the whole time. Jupiter mostly stayed on her own, as usual, but she did remind them here and there things to take or do.

"Come on, it's not the end of the world," cooed Cynthia as she wiped away the tears from Mars' cheeks as stealthily as she could: "you all know you can come and visit me when you want. Just no more "bloody assaults" ok? I already had to repair three windows because of that."

"Umphf, you talk like we actually want to come and visit!" stubbornly replied Mars crossing her arms.
"Suit yourselves~" replied Cynthia in a sing-a-song tone while putting her last shirt away.

There was a knock on the door, followed by Cyrus announcing himself.
"Well, is everything ready here? Jupiter will take your things home later, but the portal won't wait for us forever."
Cynthia nodded, absent-mindedly handing her travel bag to Jupiter. So it was a portal! She wondered what were the requirements to have it show up, or how it looked…

But she could only blink, and then her head was spinning, the next thing she saw suddenly Sendoff Spring.

Cyrus was starting to explain how he didn't want her to see the process and put her to sleep, when he was interrupted by a loud, yet somehow gentle, male voice.

"Cynthia! CYNTHIA!"

Still dizzy from the sleeping spell, Cynthia didn't even have a chanche to react that suddenly Steven was glomping her, hugging her so tightly she could barely breathe.
"I knew that this place had something to do, I kept checking every two weeks and god, you have been missing for nearly two months, we were all so worried…!"
"Wait, S-Steven? What?"

Steven finally loosened the hug, still firmly holding her though, and now that he was facing her Cynthia could see he was crying, but smiling. That only lasted a few moments though, as Steven's smile broke down and he held her again, even tighter than before.

"Almost two months and no news, not even a ransom or threat or anything, and there was blood, and signs of commotion in your house...people were starting to think you were dead, Cynthia!" wailed the man between his choked sobs, and Cynthia, now getting her lucidity back, hesitantly hugged him back.

They thought she was dead? How many people were hurt because of this? She knew it wasn't her fault -she'd been kidnapped for Arceus' sake- but she couldn't help but feeling guilty all the same. Maybe because she had sympathized with her captors, which she mentally slapped herself for, and chalked the whole thing up to Stockholm Syndrome.

While she was amiably conversing with Cyrus and laughing with the bats, people were searching for her, feeling hope leaving as each day passed by…

Internally screaming at herself, her only outlet was to cry.

Steven probably mistook those tears as post-trauma ones, relief maybe, as he softened his embrace and gently caressed her hair, whispering that everything was going to be alright now, that she was safe. That made the self-loathing only intensify, as it became almost tangible in her chest, clawing so intensely that it hurt.

Afterwards, she couldn't tell if she passed out or was simply too slow to follow the swirl of events; she just knew that, when she either got her consciousness or ability to focus back, she was in the hospital. The woman could hear voices from outside the room she was resting in, and just quietly waited.

Finally, a doctor, officer Jenny, and her family -grandparents and younger sister- walked in, but she could briefly see Steven and her E4 friends waiting outside before the door closed.

Her grandma, Carolina, was the first to take her hand, gently but firmly enveloping it in her own wrinkled ones. She was smiling, but Cynthia could see in her eyes other than love, relief, and the strenght that characterized everyone in her family, also fear and concern.

The young woman felt like breaking down in tears again just at that, but held on. She decided to just stop her turmoil of emotions, if for just a while, and simply lull herself in the happiness of being able to see, to touch, her beloved ones again.

Of course, she didn't have time to indulge in that, because the questions rained down like the Great Flood.

Cynthia didn't have the time to think of a cover-up excuse right then, so she just said she didn't have a single memory about her kidnapping. That made the others worry even more, afraid whoever the kidnapper was they may have played with Cynthia's memories, maybe through a psychic-type Pokémon. What baffled everyone, though, was the fact that the young woman seemed to be in perfect condition, without a sign of any type of abuse. She wasn't wounded, or emanciated, or anything; it was almost as if she had never disappeared in the first place.

Lying like that only made Cynthia hate even more herself, but she didn't dare do otherwise...she still didn't trust Cyrus much, and she wouldn't want him to have an excuse to hurt her beloved ones, or even just wipe away their memories. She had to hold on.

Very stressful and heart-wrenching days followed for her. It killed her seeing how much people were worried for her, and she tried to make that up by spending as much time with her beloved ones as possible. Many of her friends also offered to stay at her house for a few days, if that could make her feel better, to which she happily obliged. Even Flint, who always had a joke for every situation, was somber as opposed to his light-hearted self.

Even though most people understood she needed some quiet time to "recover", she still was very stressed by the pushing of doctors, policemen and the press. There were days she just wanted to shut herself at home and pretend she didn't exist.

It was roughly two weeks later that she saw him again. And subconsciously, Cynthia was grateful, because even though the first days were a complete chaos and she couldn't focus on that, the persistent feeling, need to be bitten was nagging at her since a few days.

She had been snuggling up on her sofa with Garchomp, annoyingly changing channel as she saw yet another tv program talking about her, when she felt a light breeze in the room.

Garchomp immediately shot up, a low growling noise rolling from her throat, and Cynthia was quick to pat her into relaxion...without much success, however.

When she recognized the silhouette in the room to be Cyrus, the woman promptly recalled her Pokémon in her Pokeball, right as the dragon was leaping towards the intruder.

"Well, it's good to see you seemingly are keeping your word." was Cyrus' greeting, dusting off his jacket as he looked at the Pokeball containing Garchomp.

Cynthia didn't say or do anything, holding with all herself onto her Ego, hoping it would calm down both her Id who wanted to tackle Cyrus down, pushing herself onto him so that he could relieve her of that painful yet pleasuring need, and her Super-Ego, who wanted to punish him for having hurt her beloved ones through feeding-denial and a very, very long rant. And maybe a slap or two.

"Jupiter kept an eye on things for me," continued the vampire, slowly making his way towards the blonde: "it's just a matter of time before things die out. They always do."
"People will want answers." hissed Cynthia: "Especially those who care."

Cyrus started toying with her hair, causing her to shiver -and she didn't know if in repugnance or anticipation: "We can think on a cover-up later. It's been so long since I tasted your blood...the difference with the others is so blatant, now that I had to momentarily go back to them."

"I-I still don't know what's so special about my blood," murmured Cynthia, her voice weakening as she could feel the man's breath on her neck.

"Nor do I." was his reply as he sank his fangs into her.

She tried very hard to resist the bite, she did. She tried being repulsed, or at least indifferent. But truth was, may Arceus forgive her, that she had missed the feeling so much, she practically melted into Cyrus' arms. Even he was almost surprised not only at her loss of resistance, but at her needy compliance, even though he already knew from Jupiter that it was only natural. And he also found that he had missed the taste of her blood so much, he never wanted to take any other again, and instictively deepened the bite.

He briefly wondered if it was him the one getting addicted, instead of the other way around.

With the sudden intensity of the bite Cynthia stepped back, and almost fell back on the sofa was it not for Cyrus who held firmly onto her, lowering her body on the cushions more slowly as to not hurt her neck.

The woman found that it was the first time that the "feeding" occured in a laying down position, and for some reason her body felt thrilled by it. Without thinking, she threw her arms around him to push him further onto her. She at least tried to stifle her moans by biting her lips, but Cyrus could still hear her, and the whole thing was making him both uneasy and almost excited at the same time. He didn't even manage to get angry at himself for feeling for, enjoying such things, enthralled in the bite as he was.

The only mental note he managed to take was to pin down again Cynthia to some surface the next times -be it the sofa, bed, table, wall or whatever- since she seemed to enjoy that more, as he felt said enjoyment rippling from her blood.

The whole thing lasted a bit more than usual, and when the two separated, panting, Cynthia was already in a drowsy state from the blood loss. She instictively nuzzled against his chest, closing her eyes as she seeked warmth, and Cyrus backed away at the touch.

Her look was one of puzzlement but also disappointment, as she looked at the vampire retreating and muttering -again- to himself. His face was almost confused, for as much as she could pick up in the darkness, lit only by the tv screen.

"I'll see you soon." he dryly stated, and blended away in the shadows.

"I thought you didn't want to come visit me."
"Don't take it wrong! It's just a check-up on Master Cyrus' behalf!"

Cynthia chuckled at the stubborness of Mars. She could be such a tsundere, it made her actually endearing once you got used it.
"I'm sure it is, he must be very concerned considering he was here just last night~"
...still, the temptation to mock her was often too great to pass up.

Their discussion was interrupted by Saturn's screeches from the kitchen.

"W-what happened, Sa…?" Cynthia rushed to the kitchen and wasn't even able to fully finish the question, that upon seeing a very startled Saturn, with popcorn on his hair -well, everywhere, to be exact- she bursted out laughing.

"D-d-don't deride me, human! This machine is obsolete, it's its fault…!" snapped the blue-haired young man, trying to stop with his hands the flow of popcorn flying off from Cynthia's popcorn maker.

Mars put her hands on her hips, scowling: "Geez, Satty, why didn't you just use the microwave?"
"Because this woman here doesn't have any microwavable popcorn!" protested Saturn, desperately unplugging the machine, but the kernels still popping from the leftover heat.

Cynthia wiped away a little tear caused by the excessive laughs, and started helping out to clean up the mess. "It's ok, it's ok, you two can go pick the movies, I will take care of this." she said, smiling in an almost motherly way. She followed with her gaze the two laughing and quarreling as they headed for the living room, still smiling to herself. The woman was starting to consider the two as some sort of younger siblings, and she didn't mind that at all for the time being.

Things were actually going pretty well; a little over a month had gone by since her return, she had resumed her job as the Sinnoh Champion, and the concern from people was slowly fading away as she was perfectly in health and with nothing to worry about. She was hanging out with her friends again, and having fun.

Sure, all of this made some people wonder if she hadn't staged up everything -for a vacation? For attention-whoring? Who knows?- and gossip on her was still abundant, but as much as that irritated her it was the price to pay for being a public figure.

In the end, she didn't care about what others said and didn't even bother to make a fuss over a reply; she knew the ones who truly loved her were going to stick by her side and believe her no matter what, and that was what mattered.

She plopped on the sofa, careful not to sit in-between the young adults so that Mars could have some snuggling time with Saturn, and handed to each of them a bag of freshly made popcorn. "So, what are we watching?" inquired the older woman, grabbing the tv remote.

Mars pouted, crossing her arms: "I wanted to see an actual movie, but the nerd here wants to see anime!"
Saturn made an offended face: "Well, it's just that of course there's no signal in Distortion World, I'm stuck to see the same DVDs over and over! I want new episodes!"

Cynthia sighed, getting up to rummage through her own DVDs: "Well, how about a mix then? An anime movie? I should still have some Studio Ghibli movies from when I was younger…"

The two nodded, immediately getting up as well to snoop through the various movies.
Cynthia smiled; it was going to be an enjoyable night.

She briefly wondered if she could spend some casual quality time with Cyrus, too.

Despite how many times she may have considered it, it never really occurred to her that she would get out in the streets with a vampire.

Cynthia had insisted much to spend some "normal" time together, and now she was clueless on what to do. She wondered if she really wanted this, and arrived to the conclusion that she probably needed a reason to justify why she craved so much the vampire's bites. She was a woman of emotion, and if she had to see Cyrus almost everyday -the need was becoming insatiable- and have such intimate contact with him, they should have at least some sort of friendly relationship.

And then she had to admit, he was mainly irritating and probably nuts, but he was also so mature, clever, and interesting….NO, such thoughts shouldn't cross her mind. Or maybe yes. She did have to like something in him if she was to befriend him, right? Oh, the struggle.

Since sunlight seemed to hurt Cyrus, the two ended up going out in the evening. And since Cynthia didn't really know what to do, she went for the first thing that popped in her mind.

"Ice-cream."

Cyrus flatly said the word, as he observed Cynthia scanning over the various flavors the ice-cream shop had.

"You insisted so much on me going out with you, for ice-cream."

"It's just the beginning, you dork. Have some patience and pick one of your own." she replied, not detaching her gaze from the colorful array before her. Maybe she should go with mango this time, fruit was healthier and mango had a sweet taste she enjoyed. Or maybe she should screw health and just go with that good-looking Nutella-filled one over there….but, on the other side, vanilla and strawberry was a timeless classic. Maybe she could try and take all four...

"I think I'll pass," replied the vampire sighing, and impatiently started to tap his foot: "but if we really have to do this, you could at least speed up."
Cynthia just shot him an annoyed glance: "It's a serious matter!"
Cyrus rolled his eyes, trying to keep his voice low yet intimidating enough: "Serious? Just pick what you want already, this is becoming ridiculous."

"If you're in such a hurry, why don't you make yourself useful and help me choose?" was the woman's reply as she lightly pushed him towards the ice-cream filled display cabinet.

Ok, he had to reiterate; this was becoming beyond ridiculous.

It had been years since the last time he dared walking among humans, he never liked it even when he was one of them. And now, the first thing he was doing after all that time was...picking an ice-cream flavor?

Begrudgingly, he pointed at the first two flavors he noticed, and a few minutes later Cynthia finally had a cone in her hands, happily strolling in the streets.

"Chocolate and pistachio..? You're so old fashioned." giggled the woman, playfully elbowing his arm. She was met with Cyrus' trademark impassivity, so she decided to gently grab his arm instead, locking it with hers. This did get a reaction out of him, as he gave her a quick glance and tried backing away, but her grip was firm.

"Does this make you uncomfortable?" she asked lowering her voice, slowly caressing his arm instead of gripping onto it.
"It's fine," was his reply, and he sharply inhaled, still staring ahead as they kept on walking: "It's just not something I'm used to. As a whole."
"We can go somewhere quiet, if you wish."

Cyrus merely nodded, and Cynthia couldn't help but notice that, despite keeping his stoic facade for the most time, occasionally his eyes would dart back and forth as if he was nervous. She instictively held him closer.

The quiet place ended up being a secluded spot in a park. Cynthia briefly commented on how it was her go-to place when she wanted to be outside, but alone, to seek some tranquility.
The two sat on a bench, Cynthia's cone long gone, and just stayed silent for a while.

The Champion suddenly sighed, and reclined her head back against the bench, staring up at the sky that was by now glittering with stars.
Cyrus gave her a glance as he sensed her movement, and followed her gaze. His face contorted a bit, but he too stared at the starry sky.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? And now we're in spring, the sky's not even at its best. You should see it during win-"

"I know."

Cynthia broke her gaze to the sky to look at Cyrus, not expecting to be interrupted, but he didn't spare her even a glance, immersed in the sea of stars above.

"It's been so long."

It was then that the woman remembered the multiple astronomy books in Cyrus' library, which she glossed over just because she was interested in the various myths behind the constellations (and admittedly, as her batty friends said, for the pretty photos). It was fascinating, but not enough to really catch her interest. Probably, for Cyrus it was one of the topics of main interest, perhaps even as much as mythology was to her. The thought made her pose her hand atop Cyrus'.

"You haven't stargazed ever since your...confinement, did you?"
"I haven't in a long time. Even since before that. It was a...childish pastime."
"I don't think it's childish at all! Some people even do it as a profession, I don't see why you couldn't be able to enjoy that."

Cyrus stayed silent, and Cynthia pressed on: "Listen, I don't know what happened to you as a human, or what others told you, but you should always listen only to yourself when it comes to you. When I'm afraid I shouldn't be doing something, I ask myself two questions: is it something that makes me happy? It is something that may hurt anything or anyone, in any way? If the answers are respectively yes and no, then there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't do it."

This time, Cyrus looked down to face her. She couldn't read his non-existant expression, as usual, but she felt like what she said caught his interest. He mumbled something to himself -of which she only caught "maybe that's why", "failure", "not understand" and "sacrifices"-, and Cynthia decided to lean in and rest her head on his shoulder.
He was lightly startled by that, but let her lean on him.

"So," started Cynthia, pointing at the stars above: "mind telling me some about the constellations visible right now? Because I can only recognize that as Ursaring, and the Teddiursa there!"
"Those would be the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Cynthia."
"But Ursaring and Teddiursa it's easier to remember."
"If you want me to tell you about constellations, we're going to use their proper names."
"Whatever, professor."

Cyrus ignored her last remark, and scanned the sky: "It is a constellation mostly made of faint stars, with no one brighter than third magnitude, but if you look that way you can make out Crater. Since its stars aren't impressive, they have no specific names and merely go by Alpha Crateris, Beta Crateris, and so on. The Alpha is referred to also as Alkes, though."

He took a quick glance at Cynthia, and decided to not go into further details which she probably wouldn't understand: "Not too far you can see also the constellation known as Hydra, probably better for its greater brilliance, which-" "Wait, wait!" interrupted Cynthia: "Crater and Hydra? Corvus must be nearby too then, right?"

The vampire was taken aback, not expecting her to know about it.
"Yes, that would be correct. April is not the best time to observe it, however."

"I knew it! I can't recognize the constellations by myself in the sky, but I remember from the myth they're supposed to be close." she smiled, her eyes lost in the stars: "According to the myth, the god Solgaleo needed water to perform a ritual, and asked a Murkrow to fetch him some with a cup. The Murkrow got distracted though, and arrived with several days of delay, bringing with himself also a Dragonair to justify him. Solgaleo saw through the lies, and sent all of them in the sky: the Murkrow is Corvus, the cup Crater, and the Dragonair Hydra.
The myth also says Solgaleo casted a curse on the Murkrow's kin, scorching its feathers and making the bird eternally thirsty and unable to do anything about it. This, according to the myth, is how Murkrows came to have black feathers and why they have such raspy voices.
The Crater constellation is actually part of the Vermillion Bird of the South in another country...it's fascinating how the stars above are always the same, yet different people can see different things and give them different stories."

Finished her little tale, she looked at Cyrus, eyes widening: "I'm so sorry! I interrupted you and got carried away…!"
"It's alright. It was quite entertaining."

She smiled at him: "Will you tell me more about Hydra, then?"

He was almost tempted to curl his lips upwards as well: "Of course."

A/N: probably one of the hardest chapters to write to date...I had no clue on how to decently write all the confusion, worry and consequences that Cynthia's return would have brought, so I kinda just breezed over it, trying not to get too lenghty-write an unbeliavable mess. Also, I was afraid things with Cyrus were getting too mushy (or -coughs- "steamy")...but the mythology/astrology part was fun to write about, especially mixing it up with the Pokeworld! Anyways, this was the last old chapter I wrote during my break that I finally decided to post, I have no clue when I'll be able to write more but hopefully soon! Thanks a lot to anyone reading!