"I never thought I'd end up as a babysitter."

"PDA Alert."

Protector of Silence

Chapter Seventeen – Time to party!

Luna sighed with exasperation as she curled her forked tail over her eyes, her head resting on her white paws. Her human was kneeling on his bunk, acting like a total Gardevior and debating on what shirt to wear to the Christmas party. Luna wouldn't be going - she and Shadow were going to celebrate the holiday with some other Pokémon near Ranger School in a massive snowball fight down by the beach, inspired by Keith and Liam's game the other week. But Kellyn was, and he was having a panic attack over something as trivial as deciding what shirt to wear.

'And I'm supposed to make a hero out of this guy?' she thought 'Lunick, what in Arceus' name have you asked me to do?'

'Okay Luna' Kellyn held up two shirts 'Take your pick, red or blue.'

Luna gave another exasperated sigh and rolled her indigo eyes. She knew exactly why Kellyn was being so antsy about his clothing choice and was very well aware of the fact Kate Hitomi would compliment him if he walked in wearing a lace dress let alone a certain colour shirt.

"Blue" she told him.

'Are you sure? I was thinking the red may look better...'

"So why are you asking me if you've already made up your mind?"

'But I don't know if I should wear the red one. That's why I'm asking you.'

Luna put her paw to her forehead. This human was really giving her a real headache with his fashion worries! And he was a guy! The only time Lunick acted this vain was when he was preparing for Solana's thirteenth birthday party - now that was a nightmare!

"If you're so determined on wearing the red, wear it!" she told him bluntly "Stop having a panic attack over it!"

'But I don't know if I should wear the red one since...'

"Cut it out already!" Luna leapt to her feet "Stop acting like a crazed schoolgirl who's been asked out on a date!" Kellyn folded his arms.

'I am not acting like a crazed schoolgirl!' he protested.

Luna sighed. "Alright, who are you dressing for?"

The only time someone had ever acted like this was when Plusle desperately wanted to impress Minun at Murph's birthday party and spent all day grooming herself. Of course Luna knew the answer to her question - she just wanted to hear Lunick say it.

'What do you mean?' Kellyn protested 'I'm not dressing for anyone!'

"Really, well why do you suddenly care about what you're wearing now?" Luna asked, determined to get some answers out of Kellyn.

'Well I...er...I didn't need to care before' he answered.

"Excuses, excuses" Luna shook her head in exasperation.

'Look, I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this Luna. I'm just asking you what T-shirt I should wear.'

Luna gave a yowl of frustration and began yanking on her lower ears.

"The blue one!" she told him, Kellyn repeated her choice "Yes! Now wear it!"

'Are you sure? Because I...'

"WILL YOU STOP IT!"

Luna lost total control and a blue line of electricity zipped out of her jewel. Kellyn gave a squeak of fear and rolled to the side of it. He was then stunned speechless. Luna had never attacked him before, no matter how annoyed she got. He stared out of the window and blinked as he saw the sun had already set.

'Ah! I'm gonna be late to the party!' Hastily, he slipped the blue T-shirt on and leapt down from the top bunk-bed. As he flung himself out the door, he called back 'Thanks Luna!' before running towards the cafeteria.

Rolling her eyes, Luna collapsed from relief and exhaustion.

"When I promised him this, I never thought I'd end up as a baby-sitter! Or a counsellor!"

Kellyn, to his luck, had found that he wasn't the only one late to the party. Nick and Liam had apparently gotten themselves lost on the way back to Ranger School - how Kellyn would never know - and they had arrived only a second before him, so his late arrival wasn't all that conspicuous.

Everyone was just milling around at the moment whilst someone was starting to turn on the DJ box. Kellyn found Kate with Keith who was, predictably, at the food table. He was leaning over an enormous cake that Cook and Janice had made for the party.

Hi guys. Where's Starlight?

"Hi Kellyn" Kate smiled, since Keith was too delusionised by the cake "Starlight? I think he said something about going to the toilet. He'll be back in a minutes and... Keith no!" Kate saw the saliva starting to pour from her friend's mouth and she instinctively pulled her companion away before any saliva could get on the delicious baked specialty. "Keith!"

"What?"

"You're drooling! Right above the cake!"

"Oh, sorry" Keith mumbled and wiped the corner of his mouth with his red sleeve.

"Keith no!" Kate grabbed his shoulders and shook them before holding a napkin out to him "That's disgusting! Use a napkin!"

"Alright Neat Freak" Keith did so and threw the napkin away in the bin that was already piling up with used napkins and sweet wrappers. Automatically he went back to boggling at the cake.

"Keith, you're really starting to scare me now" Kate commented.

Yeah, if it wasn't for Kate that cake would be long gone by now

"Oh, hi Kellyn, when did you get here?" Keith finally noticed his friend.

Kellyn rolled his eyes, pointedly deciding not to answer.

"Keith, step away from the cake" Kate told him sternly.

"But it looks so good!" Keith whined "It's so big and white and creamy and—"

Keith would have probably have gone on about thus wonderful cake until the middle ofnext Christmas, but thankfully Principle Lamont had chosen then to tap the microphone on the some-what stage the DJ box was on to get everyone's attention.

"Students, teachers, operators, rangers and mechanics" he said "I'm sure all of you are excited for Christmas tomorrow—" He was cut off by students cheering wildly, lead by Liam. "I'll take that as a definite yes. I wish to remind you that all Pokémon projects will be presented on Boxing Day." Kate and Kellyn winked at each other as the Principle continued. "So, for all your hard work this term, I give you this night to enjoy yourselves—"

"SO LET'S PARTY!"

Everyone diverted their attention to the DJ box where Kaplan had begun playing excruciatingly loud, upbeat music.

"Kaplan! That's too loud!" Principle Lamont was among those, mainly teachers, who covered their ears.

"What Boss?" Kaplan asked, yelling over the music that was probably loud enough to bring Almia Castle crashing down in the Hia Mountains miles away from here.

"That's too loud!"

"Whaaaat?"

"Great Arceus Kaplan, he said it's too loud!" Claire now yelled at her idiot husband.

"I can't hear you guys, the music's up too loud! Lemme turn it down for ya'!" Kalpan called, turning the music down to a bearable pitch "What was it you were saying Boss?"

Miss April face-palmed, Claire rolled her eyes, Kincaid was seething with anger but had been doing so since the beginning of the party, and Principle Lamont sweat-dropped.

"Never mind Kaplan, just keep the volume down low" he sighed.

"Oh Boss! Don't ruin all the fun!" Kaplan pouted, but agreed to keeping the volume on that level eventually.

"Ha! Mr Kaplan never changes!" Keith laughed.

"Look who this is coming from" put in Kate, causing Keith to pout and Kellyn to snort with silent laughter.

"Oh you think you're so clever!" he snorted, slamming his newly collected cup of orange juice down onto the table "You wanna take this up in a dance battle?"

Kellyn smiled. He knew Kate was a terrific dancer and could no doubt beat Keith even if she was blindfolded.

"I can beat you any time any day" the female ranger-trainee grinned "Wanna join in Kellyn?"

Kellyn poured himself a glass of lemonade and shook his head. He couldn't dance, and the last time he had tried Clio had laughed her head off at it. He wasn't going through that again, and he didn't want to ruin Kate's fun.

"Oh come on, the more the merrier" Kate begged and he shook his head again "Do you not like dancing?" He didn't answer, just took a sip of lemonade "Or is that that you can't dance?"

Kellyn gave her a meek nod. Kate smiled, grabbed his wrist and dragged him towards the dance floor where the majority of the school was dancing. Kellyn had to put down his cup to stop him from dropping it. He frantically shook his head.

"Oh come on!" Kate smiled "I'll show you!" Kellyn shook his head again "It's easy!" And again "Oh don't be a meanie!" You get the idea by now " Please Kelly!"

Now that spurred a reaction. Kellyn's blue-green eyes blazed as he emitted a low growl. Kate raised an eyebrow, letting go of his wrist.

"What's with the Houndoom face?" she asked "When since did you get angry?"

"Um...Kate" Keith's smile had faded slightly "I think it's the nickname."

"What, Kelly?" Kate asked. Kellyn gave off another low growl and clenched his fists.

"Yup, that's the trigger" Keith nodded.

"What's wrong with Kelly?" Kate inquired.

Seeing that Kellyn was about to explode with anger, Keith quickly tried to get Kate to see sense. "Well, it's a bit...patronising."

"You said that about Starlight too."

"Yes, for the same reason."

"What's so patronising about Kelly?" Kate waved her arms in the air to emphasise her frustrated point.

"Well, it's a girl's name for a start."

Kellyn nodded vigorously, agreeing with Keith full-heartedly.

"So? You call him Kel. That's not exactly a full-on masculine name."

"It's not as bad as Kelly."

Kellyn rolled his eyes at the argument and cleared his throat, wincing slightly at the clenching pain as he did. They both looked at him. He folded his arms and gave them an 'Um...feel like asking my opinion on the matter?' look.

"Oh fine...Kellyn" Kate emphasised his name, then smiled sweetly "Do you want me to teach you how to dance?"

Kellyn considered the offer, then nodded his head. Keith yipped with joy and threw his arms into the air.

"Alright! Three-way dance battle!" he cheered.

At the mention of the words 'dance battle', people began to clear out a square in the middle of the dance floor for the two competitors. Kaplan busied himself doing...something with the DJ box. Kellyn shrugged, looks like his dance lessons would have to wait. But hey, he was looking forward to seeing the look on Keith's face when he was beaten by Kate.

He took one last drink from his lemonade before following the gingers towards the dance floor.

Unbeknownst to Kellyn, two Pokémon were watching through the window of the cafeteria. A certain Umbreon and Espeon. See, Luna and Shadow had been on the way to their epic Christmas snowball fight, but wanted to check what their humans were up to first. They had been watching all those with a K at the beginning of their name. Currently, loud music was exploding from the cafeteria. Keith was break dancing, and at this current moment was spinning on his head. Kate and Kellyn were standing at the front of the crowd next to each other. Kate whispered something to Kellyn that no one but him in the room could hear, but Luna's psychic abilities picked it up as:

"Nice shirt."

"Ha! Take that Kellyn!" Luna laughed, making Shadow jump, although this was a normal occurrence so Luna didn't apologise for it, however she did explain why she was laughing. "That'll teach him to argue with me!"

As she spoke, both Pokémon noticed Kellyn turned his head away from Kate so she wouldn't see an unmistakable blush.

"Do you see that?" Luna gasped, smiling.

"Yup" Shadow nodded "PDA Alert."

"PD-what?" Luna cocked her head to the side.

"PDA, Public Display of Affection?" Shadow asked, getting a wide-eyed look from Luna "What? Starlight comes up with some weird things."

"Ah" Luna nodded and turned her attention to the window.

"Eclipse?" Shadow asked.

"Yes Shadow?"

"Has Kellyn been acting strange lately?"

"A bit yeah. Like, he spent half-an-hour trying to decide what to wear for this party. I had to almost zap him to get him out of it."

"You're joking."

"Nope, and he's been acting all spaced-out and jumpy ever since he caught her from falling off that stepladder."

"Strange. You see, I've been watching Kate. After the whole decorations thing, she spent, like, an hour trying to find an outfit that she thought 'he would like'. It was ridiculous."

"Hmm" Luna swished her white forked tail in thought. Then her indigo eyes widened with realisation "Shadow?"

"Yeah Eclipse?"

"You don't suppose they like each other, do you?"

"What!" Shadow leapt back in shock, his red eyes wide "Kellyn and Katherine! Don't be silly!"

"I'm serious Shadow!"

The Umbreon looked at the defiant glare in the Espeon's eyes as she spoke these words, and started to ponder over them.

"I-I...I don't know" he sighed "Hey, we'd better get a move on. Staraptor and Blastoise will want to start the snowball fight ASAP. And if we're late again, Blastoise..." He broke off and shivered.

"ASAP? " Luna asked, her slight violent moment behind her "Where does Starlight get all this stuff?"

"Dunno, books and Keith probably" Shadow let a ripple run from his shoulders down to his flanks, a way of four-legged shrugging "Wanna get a move on?"

Luna spared her human one last glance through the window as Keith vacated the dance floor and Kate stepped up to the plate.

"Yeah, let's" she nodded.

The two Pokémon jumped off the crates they'd been standing on to look through the window and disappeared into a mixture of snow, woods and darkness.

Starlight came out of the kitchen where he'd been helping Janice cook some extra snacks to be met with a very odd sight. Make that Keith running towards him in tears, waving his arms in the air above his head as he ran.

"Starlight!" he cried "It's terrible! Horrible! The worst thing that's ever happened to me!"

He latched himself onto the older boy, burying his face in his blue jacket, bawling his eyes out.

"Let me guess, the buffet table ran out of chocolate flapjacks? Or was it éclairs?" Starlight sighed.

Keith wiped the tears from his brown eyes as he stood up by himself again, allowing Starlight to wring out his jacket.

"No! I mean, yes, the buffet table has run out of chocolate, but that's not the point!" Keith cried "Why didn't someone tell me Kate could smash my unbeatable record in a dance battle?!"

"Because somebody charged off into a dance battle without listening to Kellyn or I" Starlight answered, folding his arms "We tried to warn you we saw Kate dancing when we were checking that the DJ box was working before the party, but who wouldn't listen?"

Keith bit his lip and then pouted. "Do I at least get the chocolate for effort?"

The rest of the party went reasonably well. After she had finished smashing Keith's Wailord-sized ego down to size, Kate went back to her promised task of teaching Kellyn how to dance. Most of the songs were crazy and upbeat, but after about a hour of this, Claire had enough and physically kicked Kaplan out of the cafeteria to make way for a few slow songs. It didn't last long though because Kaplan was quickly back in action and booming the Black-Eyed Peas across the cafeteria.

"Hey Kellyn" Kellyn turned around from where he'd been leaning again a table watching Nick and Liam performing a break dancing routine and saw Kate. "I'm going outside. Wanna come?"

Kellyn shrugged and agreed.

However, on the other side of the cafeteria, a certain trio were planning something a bit more sinister than Musical Bumps. Starlight leant against the buffet table and took a sip from his plastic cup which contained an orange mixture which he guessed was orange squash. As he continued watching Nick and Liam's stupidity (he was a little disappointed with Nick because he thought the younger of the two would know better), Rhythmi walked over to him.

"Enjoying the party?" she asked. Starlight shrugged.

It's okay, is guess I'm not a party person" he said.

Rhythmi poured herself a glass of Ribena and ate a slice of cold pizza before also turning to watch the show. About half a minute later, Keith pushed through the crowd, a large grin on his face. Starlight was a little worried he may be on a sugar-high.

"Hey Star!" he grinned "You were right! Kellyn and Kate have just left!"

The silver-haired boy suddenly perked up and looked pleased, grinning: "The second step is complete!"

"Second step of what?" asked Rhythmi.

Keith turned to the blonde and cheered: "Operation You-Know-What!"

Rhythmi blinked. "No, I don't know what." She sounded like she was answering a question.

"No, he didn't mean..." Starlight put down his cup and face-palmed "He meant the quest is called Operation You-Know-What."

"It has a better name, but Kellyn and Kate would guess what the quest was if we used it" Keith added.

"Oh" Rhythmi blinked again "And, er, why can't Kellyn and Kate find out?"

"That would ruin the surprise silly!" Keith laughed "Come on! Everything in place! I want to see the looks on their faces!"

The booming sounds of the pop music were slowly being washed away. The rhythmic slapping sounds of the waves impaling themselves on the cliffs could be heard in the darkness below them. Close to the edge of the cliff behind Kaplan and Claire's lab, Kate and Kellyn took shelter under a snow-laden pine tree on the fringe of the forest. Kate had picked up a bag as she left the cafeteria and was just adjusting the strap on her left shoulder.

"I take it you're not one for parties either, huh?" Kate asked. Kellyn shook his head "All the noise, the music, the flashing lights...nah, not my type of thing."

Yeah, not my type of thing either

Kate blinked as she found a piece of paper with a message on it shoved in her face. She blinked.

"Where do you find room to keep paper and a pencil?" she asked.

Kellyn pulled the paper away from her face so she could see it was on a possible A7 sized notebook. He then held up one of those tiny yellow pencils that were often used by builders and slipped both them inside the left pocket of his trousers.

"I see, space conserving" Kate commented.

Kellyn nodded. His hand tightened around the paper bag inside his right pocket. He then removed the notebook.

Are you and the other girls doing this Secret Santa thing?

"Yeah" Kate nodded "I got Tamie, and she's pretty easy. Get her anything with Lillipup on them." Kellyn blinked and cocked his head to the side. "Tamie's from Unova." Kellyn's blue-green eyes widened ever so slightly and he nodded with understanding. "Who have you got?"

Ponte

"Ah, I take it he was pretty easy then?" Kate asked.

Kellyn flicked over a new page of the tiny notebook.

Yeah, I just got him a big tin of marshmallows and stuff like that

"Cool, so I take it you don't have a clue who your own secret Santa is?" Kate asked.

Kellyn turned onto another new page.

Nope, but that's the point of the game isn't it?

"Probably, you wouldn't know with our lot" Kate shrugged "We already know Sami has Becs, Becs has Rhythmi and Rhythmi...well we're not certain about her but we think she has Verity. It's one big game of Chinese Whispers with our lot."

Kellyn just nodded again, his way of saying something along the lines of 'Yeah'. Kate exhaled and looked at him rather than staring at the stars above.

"Kellyn, I know it's not Christmas until tomorrow, but, here." She opened her bag and removed what looked like a folded piece of fabric "I made it myself."

Cautiously, in case it was fragile, Kellyn took the top of the fabric and held it up. It was a cloak, an emerald-green cloak with sleeves. The neck piece was slightly taught with a silver press-stud on the underside to keep the cloak in place.

"Go on, try it on" Kate encouraged him.

He slid his arms into the sleeves, hauled it over his shoulders and clasped the press-stud in place. He looked down at his hands and saw his fingers poking out from under the sleeves that were a little too long for him. The cloak stopped an inch above his ankles so his brown boots that his trousers were tucked into could be seen.

"Not a bad fit" Kate commented with a smile "You'll grow into the sleeves in time. Do you like the colour? Keith said it was your favourite, but you can never be too sure with Keith."

Kellyn nodded, too stunned to do much else. Finally, with a trembling hand, he wrote:

You made this?

"Yeah" Kate rubbed the back of her neck "See, being from Summerland, I found Almia really cold. I bought some material and made myself a scarf. But I had quite a bit left over so, instead of just throwing it away, I made this for you."

Kellyn tried to say thank you, but he knew no words on paper could express how he was feeling. But the look on Kate's face told him she understood how he was feeling.

'Thank you Kate' he thought.

Kate's blue eyes widened for a second and he knew what had just happened. He swallowed and she smiled again.

"You're welcome Kellyn" she replied.

Kellyn felt his hand moving to his right pocket again and decided it was now or never. He removed the small plastic bag from his pocket and then trailed his gaze for it to Kate.

"For me?" Kate asked, looking delighted.

Kellyn nodded and motioned for her to turn around, which she did. A little part of his mind made him wonder how much she trusted him, for she to turn her back on him like this. He then shook his head and removed the gift from the bag. Undoing the clasp, he slid the chain over her head and let it settle on her neck. After fixing the clasp again, he took a step back and let Kate look down at her new gift. A silver necklace with a shiny Mew on it.

"I love Mews!" Kate gasped, then looking up at Kellyn "How did you know?"

Kellyn smiled and tapped the side of his nose twice. He wasn't going to tell Kate it was Keith who suggested it. As mean as that sounded, he knew no one else would fess up to Keith giving them ideas either. Giving Keith satisfaction was the worst idea ever.

"T-Thank you" she stammered "You know, we match now. We both have something to remember each other by."

Kellyn just grinned. They just stared into each other's eyes, blue-green on pure blue.

"Oi! You two love birds!"

The pair of them jumped and saw a trio of people they did not want to see walking towards them. Make that Starlight, Rhythmi and Keith. It was the ginger who had called them out.

"Look up!" he now called to them.

The two looked up and almost died of embarrassment. Hanging above them was an olive-green branch with white berries attached to a branch by some faded red rope.

'Mistletoe?' he thought 'But that's impossible. Mistletoe doesn't grow in this area of Almia...' Something from earlier that day dawned on him 'Starlight...' He remembered the silver-haired boy had been hiding something behind his back '...You. Are. So. Dead!'

He glared at the older boy. Kate must have been on the same train of thought because she did the exact same thing at the exact same time.

"Go on you two!" Keith called again as the two causer of this trouble and Rhythmi approached "Are you gonna kiss or what?"

Kellyn and Kate looked at each other awkwardly. Kate rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

"W-We don't have to if you don't want to" she stuttered "I-It's just a silly tradition."

She laughed nervously. Kellyn nodded, not quite sure of how to reply. Subconscious, they took a step towards each other and their heads leant in...

Kellyn's heart nearly burst out of his chest in shock as he felt Kate's lips brush against his own. His heart racing at 100 miles an hour, he leapt back. Thankfully, Kate had done the same things at the same time. The pair of them were redder than tomatoes, staring at each other in another awkward silence. Rhythmi clapped happily, Starlight folded his arms and smiled whilst Keith practically jumped into the air as he cheered.

"Wah-hoo!" he cheered "First kiss under the mistletoe! Your plans are awesome Star! Operation Mistletoe, complete!"

That reminded Kate why she had just done what she had done. She turned and glared at Starlight. The silver-haired teen backed away nervously, then Kate took a threatening step towards him and he turned and legged it.

"You're dead Starlight!" Kate yelled, racing after him "Get back here so I can kick your sorry butt into next week!"

Whilst Rhythmi quickly followed them to make sure Kate's didn't cause any catastrophic damage to Starlight, Keith approached Kellyn, his arms folded and smirking.

"You enjoyed that far too much" he smirked.

A second later, Keith found himself lying in the snow on his back, sporting a very dark black eye.