"Didn't your mother ever teach you how to share?!"

"You wanna get punched?!"

Protector of Silence

Chapter Forty-Three - Graduating

"Are Kellyn and Kate holding hands?"

Keith snorted at that statement, not even looking at Rhythmi as he proceed to continue throwing paper balls at Ponte's head. "Yeah right."

"No, seriously, they're holding hands" Rhythmi was adamant.

"So they're doing something couple-like that they don't think is exactly that" Keith aimed another shot at Ponte's head. He missed. "What's new?"

"Keith, I'd really appreciate it if you stopped throwi—" Ponte stopped mid-sentence as he turned in his chair. His eyes bulged. "What the?! Are Kate and Kellyn holding hands?!"

Now Keith was interested. He craned his neck to look towards the aisle down the centre of the classroom. His jaw actually dropped. Sure enough, Kate and Kellyn were there, holding hands with their connected arms swinging as they walked. Rather reluctantly, they released each others hands to take their seats at either end of the classroom.

Keith was floored. He just stared at Kellyn as the brunet sat down in his seat and raised his eyebrow in a 'well?' motion.

"I don't know whether I should congratulate you or start pinching myself" he admitted.

"Pinch, it'll be more entertaining to see you in pain."

Keith rolled his eyes. "Nope, you haven't changed at all."

Kellyn just grinned smugly.

"When did this happen?" Keith inquired.

"Mid-last month" Kellyn answered "But since it's our last day together, we decided to let you know now."

"Oh aren't you so sneaky!" Keith snorted, a little miffed at the fact his - dare he say it? - best friend had hidden this from him for a whole month! But then curiosity took over, and he asked: "So have you, like, kissed or anything?"

"Keith, we're twelve" was the blunt answer.

Keith was about to answer back, but then saw Kellyn's point. "Er...point taken."

"You and Kate are a couple?" Ponte finally spoke for the first time since Kellyn had sat down.

"You just realised this now?" Keith asked 'And people say I'm slow.'

"No, I was kinda hoping someone would tell me I was hallucinating."

"Well you're not" Kellyn informed him. He however was saved from the rounds of questioning the girls were giving Kate by the arrival of six miscreants.

"The poor souls are here!" Keith spoke up, signalling Kincaid's class had entered the room.

"Not for much longer!" Tamie informed him with a grin as she and Verity decided that Sami and Rhythmi's desks were worthy thrones for them.

"As of today, we never have to suffer the droning of Mr Swirly-Head ever again!" Verity was also grinning.

Becs just grunted, deciding leaning against the back wall with her arms folded made her look cool enough. Isaac stole the extra desk that had been set up for Starlight at the end of the row and had yet to pushed to the side (on the account the teachers were still waiting for Starlight to come back under the belief he'd been kidnapped by Hunter J too - Kellyn though doubted he'd be back any time soon). Nick and Liam had decided to sit on Miss April's desk - Nick tinkering with what Kellyn prayed wasn't explosives and Liam putting on Miss April's reading glasses and impersonating her.

"So, you excited for graduation Isaac?" Rhythmi asked the blond boy, leaning forward in her seat over her desk to look at him.

Isaac frowned a little. "A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success."

Rhythmi could honestly find no way to counter that.

"Well, thankfully there aren't thousands of students at Ranger School" Kate pointed out "But I do hope we get the cool hats."

"Hats?! Yippee!" Liam cheered, giving up his Miss April impersonation. Everyone looked at him a little weirdly. "What? At least now I won't have really short hair on my graduation photo."

"Yeah, third time lucky even getting there" Becs grunted. For Keith and Liam this was their third attempt at graduating. Verity's too - but she was a mechanic and they generally took longer to graduate than rangers and operators. Isaac, Tamie and Kellyn - the so-called "brainy bunch" - were graduating after only one year of schooling hence were a year younger than everyone else.

The weirded-out moment was shattered by a boy reading his book doing something very extraordinary. Translation: Isaac clutched his stomach and started laughing uncontrollably. Everyone stared at him. Isaac laughing uncontrollably? Is that even a sentence?!

"This, ladies and gents, is plainly the eighth wonder of the world" Keith murmured to Kellyn, who stifled laughter of his own.

Unfortunately they never found out what in Isaac's science book was so funny as to make to the normally stoic boy laugh, because at that moment:

"Causing trouble on your last day, Keith?"

Someone had forgotten to shut the door. Either that or Miss April knew how to open it silently.

Everyone scrambled for their seats. Well, except for Mr Kincaid's class. They just stood at the back of the class, looking rather awkward. Miss April walked up to her desk, obviously ready to begin some kind of speech, but then she stopped and glanced across her desk.

"Very funny" she sighed, now looking at the students "Where are my glasses?"

"KEITH HAS THEM!" Liam immediately yelled, pointing accusing at Keith.

Normally, he would get a detention for 'bellowing like a fishmonger' from Mr Kincaid, but as it was the last day he was sure Miss April would let it slide. Instead, he got fixed with a nice glare and a disapproving look that convinced him Miss April wasn't as big a push-over as he thought she was and Keith was sick and tired of being called a thief. So with a sigh he reached into his trouser pockets and handed Sami the glasses belonging to Miss April for her to pass forward to the teacher and then threw Ponte back his sunglasses which he hadn't even noticed were missing off of his head yet.

"In another life, you would've made an adept theif, Liam Nelson" Miss April stated, putting her glasses on top of her head in the event she'd have to read something. "Thankfully you chose to become a ranger, rather than becoming Number 1 on the Union's hit list." And with that note, she turned to both classes. "Well, class, this is it. This will be the last time I speak to you like this in this classroom. Yes, today is the Ranger School's graduation day." This statement was met by lots of cheering and whooping, mainly from Keith and Liam. "I imagine you have lots to talk about before the ceremony, so this is free time. Feel free to go to other rooms to say your goodbyes. But remember, when you hear the bell, be sure to gather in the main hall."

"We will!"

An affirmative nod from the former-mute.

Miss April turned to talk to Ponte, who had risen from his seat to talk to her. Meanwhile everyone else (besides the quartet of girls and Keith and Kellyn) felt compelled to leave.

"So, where were we?" Keith asked. As Miss April was in the room, Kellyn decided to write rather than speak in an effort to keep up mute appearances.

We were discussing your astronomical stupidity

"Oh, right" Keith nodded, then he realised what Kellyn had just wrote. "Hey! Wait a minute! We were not!"

Kellyn underlined the 'stupid' in 'stupidity'.

"Well...well..." Keith's face screwed up as he tried to think of a counter. "Well I'm not as stupider as you!"

You realise you just admitted you were stupid there, don't you

Keith was about to argue back, but then he realised Kellyn's point.

Keith, if you're going to insult someone, make sure you don't insult your own intelligence in the process

"Oh shut up, midget!"

Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

Kellyn had always been stuck in the front row.

Why? Well - simply because he wouldn't be able to see what was going on if he was in anythingbut the front row.

But this time, he'd drug his friends along for the ride - because now the whole of Miss April's class was on the front row. However that did mean poor Nick was straining to see over Ponte's head. So now the whole of Miss April's class had a nice view of the row of teachers, the flowers, the banners, the streamer and Principal Lamont on the stage. The only thing they couldn't see was the rows of parents and siblings and cousins and so forth seated at the back of the courtyard.

Mr Kincaid cleared his throat and announced: "The Ranger School graduations ceremony will commence! First, our principle's congratulatory remarks. Principal Lamont, if you please."

The principal took a step forwards towards the front of the stage, getting everyone's attention instantly. There was a proud smile on the man's face. "Congratulations graduates! I am truly delighted that I can be here to greet this day with all of you! Rangers, operators and mechanics. Though these paths may take you in different directions, what I hope for all of you is but the same. Don't worry, I'm not going to say anything impossibly difficult or challenging." He cleared his throat. "'Please don't forget to smile'. That is all I wish of you. With these simple words, I wish you the very best of luck in all your endeavours."

As the principal finished his speech, he took a step back and allowed Mr Kincaid to continue.

"Thank you Principal Lamont" If Kellyn wasn't mistaken, Kincaid seemed to be enjoying all the attention. It wouldn't surprise him. "Next, let me call upon this graduating class's valedictorian. That would be our best student, Isaac Iori."

With a few supporting claps, Isaac got up from his seat at the end of his row and walked up onto the stage, unfolding a piece of overly-creased paper that had a speech written in it on it in extremely neat handwriting.

"I'm glad I don't have to make a speech" Keith muttered. A few seconds later, he felt a knock against his knee. He looked at Kellyn, who was sitting to his right, and the brunet discreetly passed him a scrunched up piece of paper. Discreetly folding it open, Keith managed to read:

You'd be a terrible speech-maker. But I'd be even worse.

Keith was so busy trying to stop himself laughing he almost missed Isaac's speech.

"Today, we leave the shelter of this place of learning and nurturing. It's a giant step for us in our pursuits of our long-held dreams" he read, shifting his fingers now and again so they didn't cover what he was reading. "To the teachers who inspired us, to Janice who was mother to us all, to all the Pokémon that loved us, and to all the books of the library...we will never forget. Thank you so very, very much from all of us!"

Surrounded by applause from the audience and fellow students, Isaac shook the principal's hand and took his seat again.

Mr Kincaid was obviously the first to speak after his favourite student's speech. "Isaac, thank you for those most moving words. Next, the conferring of the graduation certificates."

Miss April then took over. "I would like to call upon one student as the representative of the graduating class." Her kind gaze swept across the students, before it finally settled on Kellyn. "Kellyn Solluna. Step forward, please."

Kellyn was absolutely floored. He was surprised his eyes didn't pop out of his head or his jaw crack from smashing into the floor.

"Whoa!" Keith elbowed him to get him to look at him "You're the representative! That's wicked cool, Kel!"

Kellyn still couldn't move, too frozen to do anything. He felt a hand come to rest over his own. He turned his head to look at the owner of the hand, only to face-to-face with Kate's encouraging smile.

"Go on" she whispered.

"OH MY GOSH! HE'S THE CLASS REPRESENTATIVE!"

"Wahoo! Good going Kel-lyn!"

"...Hooraay..."

"Sparks, can't you just sound the teensiest bit happy for him?!"

"...hooray?"

That short banter, however faint it sounded, brought a small smile to Kellyn's face. His Pokémon friends were there for him - where, he didn't know - but they were there for him. And so were the rest of his mis-matched family. They were all watching him, from wherever they may be stood.

With a deep breath and multiple smiles of encouragement, he rose from his seat and headed up to the stage. However, he was stopped as a huge boom shook the earth. Everyone jumped up from their seats, whilst everyone already standing jumped back from the stage.

"What was that?!" Keith yelped "An earthquake?!"

"A giant?!" Tamie squeaked.

"A bomb?!" Verity shrieked.

"A nuclear bomb?!" Liam added to that.

Well, you can imagine how that went down.

"Everybody calm down!"

"Settle everyone! Don't panic! We're rangers!"

Kellyn recognised the two voices that yelled out over the screaming crowd. Glancing over his shoulder, he caught a quick glance of Percy and Leilani trying to calm the crowd before his attention was distracted by Rhythmi yelling:

"That noise came from the basement!"

"Everyone keep calm!" Miss April tried to keep the students calm whilst Percy and Leilani dealt with the families.

Suddenly, Mr Kincaid gasped and rushed up onto the stage, but wherever he was going it was apparent Principal Lamont was blocking his path. The principal raised an eyebrow, clearly questioning where the teacher was going.

"I...I'll go see what that was!" Kincaid blurted out before quickly dashing into the basement.

Principal Lamont frowned with deep confusion before stepping off the stage and motioning for Kaplan to approach him. But before he got the chance, everyone froze as they heard Kincaid wail: "Waah! Stop! Stop that!"

As if cued, two Tangrowth burst out of the basement, not looking happy or friendly.

"Eeeeeeep!" one of the girls shrieked.

"It's bad! Run!" someone else yelled. That was advice everyone was willing to stick to. Unfortunately...

"Who locked the door?!" someone wailed, this time an adult. This was followed by multiple frantic bangs on the door to the outside.

"Mr Kincaid has the key!" Kaplan yelled over the crowd.

"Then where's Mr Kimlake?!" another adult shot back.

"Wherever those things came from!" Liam answered in a similar panicky tone. That just brought about more wailing and screaming and banging.

"Eeeeeep! There are evil monsters in there!" This shriek was followed by the thud of someone fainting in the dirt outside the door.

"Stand back! I'll blast it down!"

"Ooh! Let me get a piece of that!"

'Stop!' Kellyn quickly mentally called out to them 'Don't Psybeam or Thunderbolt it! There are people on this side who could get hurt!'

"Awww...' Only Luna would get that disappointed at not being able to blast something with a Psybeam.

"Start looking for a way in! Luna, try and get over the wall! Shadow, wake up and look for holes in the walls! I'll see if we can dig under!"

"Who put you in charge, Thunder Pants?!"

'They'll never get here fast enough' Kellyn couldn't help but think.

The Tangrowth were approaching, and even though they were very slow creatures they could cause some serious damage with their strength alone.

"Split up and take them down!" Percy was suddenly next to him, one hand on Kate's shoulder and the other one Kellyn's. "Katherine, you and I'll take the one of the right, the bigger one! Kellyn and Keith, can you capture the other one?"

"You bet!" Keith gave the ranger a thumbs-up "You ready to capture Kel?"

Inwardly wondering with a slight groan what he'd got himself into again, Kellyn nodded back.

He had just enough time to hear Kate yell: "Good luck, guys!", before they threw themselves into battle.

There were times when Owari was confused by new events, and other times he was just exasperated. This was one of those latter times.

"What are you two doing?" he inquired, folding his arms as he let his portal close behind him and he glanced across the Betwixt and Between.

Some distance away, sitting by the foot of a single bed, Hwita and Reo were watching a viewing portal, a bucket of popcorn between them (literally - a bucket. As in, a plastic bucket usually used to stop leaks rather than a paper one you get at the cinema) and they were both holding paper bags full of sweets, plainly nicked from some poor five-year-old going to see Ice Age or Monsters Inc.

"Yeah! Do a flip!" was the reply.

Owari sighed and strode over so he was standing above them, looking into the viewing portal they had opened without his consent! In it, he could see two Tangrowth squaring off against one big ranger and a trio students. Judging by the courtyard they were in, Owari guessed it was graduation day.

"Ah, that" he nodded "But, why are you guys treating it like a Laurel and Hardy show?"

"Because it's so funny!" Reo cheered, bouncing up and down in his seat, his red hair beating against his head as he did so. Honestly, Palkia's messenger could be so hyper at times.

"I've gotta agree with the kid" Hwita was grinning, shovelling in another mouthful of popcorn "I mean, the ginger one's hilarious!"

"Which one?" Owari asked.

"The guy!" Hwita answered, now going for a block of caramel fudge.

"That doesn't exactly clear things up - there's a heck of a lot of ginger guys down there and they're nearly all Hitomis" Owari informed her.

The only reply he got for this was another gale of hysterical laughter as the one Owari believed was called Keith tripped over his untied shoelaces and then had to roll away to avoid a whack to the head that would've crushed his skull.

'Sadistic sense of humour' Owari couldn't help but think.

He then frowned at Azrael, who was still lying in bed. But now his bed was sitting in the middle of the centre section of the Betwixt and Between at midday - when traffic was normally at it's worse.

Must be a slow day or something.

"Would someone like to explain Azrael?" Owari asked, pointing at the sleeping teenager just to make sure the others got what he was saying. He knew sixteen-year-olds liked their lie-ins, but Azrael had been sixteen for a very long time and had never done this before.

"Well, you see..." Of course Reo would be responsible for this "I couldn't get him outta bed, so..."

"So you brought the whole bed with him" Owari finished, seriously wondering how stupid his colleagues were.

"Oh, and Kellyn's the class representative" Hwita added

That got Owari's attention. "He got the certificate?"

"Well, not yet" Hwita explained "He was about to get it, when the big, the bad and the ugly turned up."

"Hwita, can you please have a word with Dialga and tell her to stop using Kellyn as a source of amusement" Owari sighed, punching the bridge of his nose.

Hwita shrugged, rummaging through her paper bag whilst finishing off a Dolly Mixture. "I dunno if she'll agree - paradoxes are fun to mess with. Ooh! Cola Bottle!"

"Cola Bottle?!" Owari's eyes went wide as his mouth began to water. Nothing in any dimension was better than Cola Bottles - that was a fact! "Gimme! Gimme!"

"No, go away!" Hwita hissed, shoving Owari back as Arceus' messenger dove for the Cola Bottle in her hand.

"C'mon, just gimme a piece!" Owari begged, desperately reaching for the Cola Bottle "Just the neck! Or a piece of the bottle!"

"No way, O-war-ai!" Hwita smirked, making Owari's name rhyme with 'no way' "I'm saving every last bite!"

"Didn't your mother ever teach you how to share?!" Owari complained. But in the process, he accidentally knocked over the bucket full of popcorn.

"My popcorn!" Reo whined "'Wari I'm gonna kill ya!" And with that the small child sprung and join in the struggle.

Azrael groaned with exasperation, rolling over in his bed. "I'm surrounded by idiots."

Kellyn had never admired how good Tangrowth were at climbing. But he was now, whilst watching the two previously captured Pokémon scale the school wall and make their hasty exit.

"Yeah! Take that you party crashers!" That was Keith of course, not Kellyn.

"Yes! Capture successful!" Kate cheered while throwing her fist in the air in celebration; at about the same time her brother headed over to calm the crowd still trying to get out via the locked door.

"You guys are awesome!" Rhythmi cheered, approaching them now the danger had passed.

"Yup, we are!" Keith grinned, performing the same ranger pose as he had back on Nabiki Beach at the time of the one-day internship all those months ago. Kate and Kellyn couldn't help but join in.

"And now you just look like circus performers" Rhythmi then informed them.

"Hey! That was a genuine ranger pose I'll have you know!" Keith complained.

"Seriously, who showed you that?! Crawford the clown?!"

"Like you would know, Miss Operator Know-it-all!"

Any further argument was halted as the teachers got all the students to sit down again (now on the floor since most of their fold-away chairs had been used as deformed missiles during the previous battle) and Percy and Leilani encouraged the families to take their seats - although most of the smaller children insisted on sitting on Mummy's knee now.

Mr Kincaid had been dragged out of the basement and was now stood in front of Principal Lamont, extremely flustered.

"Mr Kincaid, are you alright?" the principal asked, clearly concerned "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I...I think..." the teacher with a truck-load of hair gel on his head looked like he was struggling to find any words at all "Yes, yes. I'm fine. I must admit, even I couldn't tell what an earth was happening..."

"Ah, so even Mr Kincaid is at a loss as to why those Tangrowth rampaged" the principal realised "That is a shame."

'They came from his basement' Kellyn couldn't help but think 'Ought he to know why they were so upset, or why they were even down there in the first place?'

"Still, everyone seems to be safe" the principal went on "That is certainly a great relief. Shall we continue on with our graduation ceremony?"

Whilst many people just wanted to bolt for the exit already, all the students and other members of the crowd wanted the ceremony to end first so indeed the graduation ceremony did continue even after all the chaos.

"I would like to call upon one student as the representative of the graduating class" Miss April repeated in the same tone as last time "Kellyn Solluna. Step forward, please."

This time, Kellyn did make it to the stage and shook hands with Principal Lamont, who still had that proud smile on his fairly-old looking face.

"Kellyn, and Keith and Kate" the principal quickly added on, making the two other students snap their heads up with surprise. "Thank you for coming to the protection of everyone! It was very impressive to see you going about your captures with no panic. You've provided everyone with a good example of taking charge in a crisis. Now, as representative of the graduating class, I confer you this certificate."

After being handed the silver certificate with all twelve of their names written on it, Kellyn headed back to his seat (or, spot on the floor now), his head ducked with embarrassment with the applause he was getting.

"The time has come for you to set sail into the vast horizon that is your future" Principal Lamont began his final speech "In closing, I will once again say this: 'Please don't forget to smile'. Congratulations, grads!"

Party-poppers blew from somewhere and confetti rained down upon the stage. Everyone jumped to their feet and cheered. Only Liam threw a hat in the air though, because only *he* had insisted on wearing a Hard Rock Cafe cap to his graduation.

"We graduated!" Keith cheered, absolutely overjoyed.

He tackle Kellyn to the ground and grabbed him in a friendly headlock. Kellyn struggled to get out of it at first, but eventually just gave in and laughed as quietly as possible. It wasn't long before Kate and Rhythmi joined in on the group hug, cheering slightly less boisterously than Keith.

"Well done Kellyn."

"Alright! Now we're real partners! Oi Shadow, wakey wakey! He graduated!"

"...ugh...yeah..."

'We graduated' the thought kept on running around Kellyn's head, but he could barely believe it 'I'm a ranger. A real ranger. Just like you, Lunick.'

Due to the Tangrowth incident, everyone preferred the idea of holding the after-grad party outside. All the families met up with the graduates and enjoyed the refreshments available.

The Hitomi family was no exception.

"Percy!" Kate squealed with joy, giving her older brother the biggest hug she could.

"My little Katherine, a real ranger" he smiled, holding on to her so tight Kellyn was surprised she could breathe. "Now I can beat you at the Safra Sea Challenge without Cameron blaming a lack of training."

"Per-cy!" Kate complained, wriggling out of his hug and smacking him hard on the arm. "Leilaniiiiii! Percy's being mean!"

"Sorry Kate - you're on your own from here on in" Leilani replied, a smile on her face - a mixture of being proud and getting a chance to tease Kate. "Kids get a different priority to rangers."

Kate sighed and took a step back to stand alongside Kellyn. "You'll stick by me, won't you?"

Kellyn nodded immediately. He couldn't refuse her anything - didn't she know that?

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Are you two holding hands?"

Kellyn and Kate both looked down. Sure enough, they were holding hands.

"Oh, it's hardly a big deal for them - it never has - they do it all the time" Rhythmi blew it off. She'd been standing next to them the whole time, drinking an orange juice. "If you wanna know if they're a couple - you're gonna have to ask them."

And with that she disappeared into the crowd.

Percy and Leilani both look at them with raised eyebrows. "Well?"

"Oh so what?!" Kate complained, setting her arms akimbo but not letting go of Kellyn's hand. "You can't talk!" She gestured to the older peoples' clenched hands. She pouted up at Leilani. "Lei, you promised you would let me know when you two got together!"

Leilani sighed and also blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "I'm sorry Katie. I really wanted to tell you. But we only got together yesterday and this lug here—" with that she elbowed Percy. "wanted it to be a surprise."

Kate also sighed. "It's okay, I understand." She then smirked rather evilly. "Sooooooo~. How did you two finally get together?"

Since Percy had turned all the shades of scarlet, Leilani took it upon herself to explain. "Well we were at the beach in Summerland—"

"Eeeeeeeeh!" Kate squealed, cutting her off "Cameron so owes me!" At the looks she was getting, she laughed. "I'm sorry guys - I'm happy for you. Leilani, if he ever mistreats you, you let me know and I'll kick him in the shin!" At the reassured looks and the tighter grip of the adults' hands, Kate decided to go back to smirking to ask: "So when's the wedding?"

After much spluttering and gasping and staring, the chaos was stopped by a small voice saying:

"You realise they can just throw that back in your face now."

Kate and Kellyn looked down. Sure enough, standing there was a small ginger boy with two toffee apples.

"Who did you steal from to buy those?" Kate asked, feeling a sense to dread well up inside her. She could only pray it wasn't Becs or Verity. Or Mr Kincaid!

Sorrel snorted indignantly, frowning with disgust. "No one! I got the money from Percy! They're for you two!" He held to toffee apples out to them, but then hastily asked: "Kellyn, can I have your apple?"

Kellyn double-blinked to try and unscramble what Kate's kid brother had just blurted out. His face then softened and he flicked his wrist in a motion to show he wasn't bothered.

"Yay!" Sorrel immediately faceplanted one toffee apple, shoving the other at Kate and almost getting it on her jacket.

"Sorrel!"

"Whaaaaat?" Sorrel protested, looking up at her with innocent blue eyes. ...and half his face smeared with liquid toffee.

"You can't offer Kellyn an apple just to steal it again!" Kate looked outraged.

"He said I could have it!" Sorrel complained.

"Only because he's too nice to say no to you!" Kate shot back. Kellyn didn't know whether to be flattered or concerned.

Sorrel folded his arms the best he could whilst holding half a toffee apple. "It was generosity."

"It was stealing!" Kate corrected him.

Sorrel searched for an answer, then shrugged with his arms still folded. "Sometimes they're the same thing."

"The same thing!" Kate roared "You need a better dictionary! And when you look it up, there'll be a picture of me saying: 'OVER MY DEAD BODY!'"

"That can be arranged" Sorrel warned.

Kate opened her mouth to argue back about annoying, cheeky brats, but decided to keep her mouth shut purely because she didn't want to add more fuel to the growing fire in Sorrel's eyes. She knew her brother well - when he got angry, he turned into a wingless phoenix.

"Alright, break it up you two" Percy pushed between them, forcing them away from each other.

That was the end of Kellyn and Kate's talk with the latter's family, because as Percy began lecturing Sorrel himself, Kellyn nearly jumped a mile into the air a second later as someone grabbed his shoulder. He sighed with relief when he discovered it was just the only ginger here who didn'tbelong to the Hitomi family.

"Hey guys, I want you to meet someone" Keith grinned. He grabbed Kellyn's wrist and dragged him through the crowd, henceforth Kate being brought along for the ride.

Keith proceeded to drag them over to the edge of the friend, where a young boy was playing with a wild Pichu who appeared to be enjoying the company he was getting.

"Hey, this is them!" Keith called, and the little boy looked up, pushed a few stray bangs of black hair out of his eyes. "Kel, Kate, meet Lind."

'Wait, this is Lind?' Kellyn blinked at the small boy. But as he stared, it began to make sense.

The boy before them was probably around the nine-years-old benchmark, but was wearing only blue pjyamas with a Sunflora on the shirt, a pair of khaki-coloured crocs and was holding a teddy bear to his chest with one arm. He was small, frail and his skin was completely white except for a pair of black bags under his droopy chocolate-brown eyes.

"Kel? Kate?" Lind asked, the slightest slur of baby-speech hindering his voice. He then turned to Keith and began frantically signing to Keith, his hands shaking slightly as he did so. Kellyn watched with interest, and he got the vague idea of the message conveyed: Lind was asking if they were the friends Keith had wrote a letter to him about.

Keith chuckled and signed back a response Kellyn found he didn't understand (plus he was floored by just how well Keith knew sign-language) and Lind's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He bowed his head to Kate and Kellyn and stuttered: "S-Sarrrey."

'Does he have speech therapy problems, from his coma maybe? Brain damage or something?' a million possibilities ran through Kellyn's head, but in the end he put them aside as he responded: "No, it's alright. You don't have to apologise for anything. "I'm Kellyn, nice to meet you Lind."

Lind became yet another person to go bug-eyed that day and he turned to Keith, signing as if he only had five seconds left to live. Kellyn was getting a headache just from watching him move his hands so fast.

"He always talks these days" Keith informed him, a smirk on his face "Actually it's trying to get him to shut up that's the trick."

Kate and Lind laughed at that, but Kellyn gave Keith the look.

"Hello sweetie" Kate took her turn, bending over to look Lind in the eye, letting go of a disappointed Kellyn's hand to do so.

Lind signed a greeting before quickly correcting himself and saying: "Heeyo."

"Did you come a long way to see your brother graduate?" Kate asked, her sweet sisterly tone perfected from years of practice with Sorrel.

Lind babbled some kind of response that Kellyn couldn't distinguish, but Kate mock-gasped: "All the way from Saffron City?! That's a really long way!"

"Uh-huh" Lind nodded, sticking his thumb in his mouth as he did so, his teddy bear still dangling from his other hand.

"Keith must be really lucky to have you" Kate added.

"Yup! 'e is!" Lind nodded, his thumb still in his mouth but Kellyn could see a satisfied smirk in those devious eyes. Deep inside, he could see a second Keith just waiting to spring out of the box he was buried in.

Then Lind swayed on his feet slightly, and Keith's smile faded for a second before he announced: "Alright buster, time to get you back home to bed."

"But I not tired!" Lind protested, thumb finally out of his mouth, but he ruined it by yawning at the end.

"Oh yes you are" Keith countered, picking Lind up in a very practiced movement and letting the young boy rest his head in his shoulder whilst wrapping his arms around his neck, though this precautionary movement was fairly unnecessary because Kellyn could tell Keith would never drop his precious little brother. "I'll see you at the snack bar, right guys?"

"Sure, see ya" Kate nodded, and Keith took that as his cue to carry Lind off somewhere - probably back to his parents wherever they were.

"You're really good with children" Kellyn told her.

A smile lit up Kate's face - simply because it was Kellyn who said it. "Thank you Kelly." She gave a wistful sigh, her eyes on the sky. "I'd love to have a family like that someday - with siblings who love each other like those two. It must be the dream of so many, but I really hope mine out of all of them will come true."

"I-I hope it comes true too" Kellyn agreed, receiving a thankful smile for his effort.

"Hey! Kate! Kellyn!" The two of them looked towards the main crowd and saw Tamie and Sami waving at them to come over.

Sami yelled something then sounded like: "You wanna get punched?!"

Kate and Kellyn frowned. "Punched?"

"Punch!" Tamie called to them "They're breaking out the punch and eclairs!"

"Oh, punch! Sure, be right there!" Kate called back, beginning to run over to them "Let's go Kellyn!"

Kellyn was just following her, ready to continue with the celebrations until they had to part ways. But he was jerked to a stop as something gripped his arm tightly, pulling him back a step roughly. Startled, Kellyn squeaked with alarm, retaining that habit from his days as a mute, and glanced fearfully up at his captor. He was surprised to see it was only Percy, but there was something strange about the ranger. His green eyes were hard, almost hidden by his ginger hair which had amusingly resembled stringed cheese before - but now looked more like an orange curtain that fenced his emotions from everyone.

Everyone, except Kellyn.

Percy's narrowed eyes were the only things rooting Kellyn to the spot besides the vice grip on his arm. But then he spoke: "If you're ever in trouble, trust in the stars, and let them guide your footsteps forwards."

The baffled Kellyn blinked up at him as Percy's face relaxed into a smile. "Lunick told me that once, said he wanted you to know that when you were old enough to understand it." He released his grip on the child's arm. "See you around, silent child."

And with that aura of mystery hanging over him like a sheep's coat, Percy put his hands in his pockets and headed out of the crowd. And for just a brief second, Kellyn swore he looked just like Lunick.

But it was probably just a coincidence.