Caleb fell asleep in his chair near Torracat's bed allowing me a moment to get up and leave. It's a little past 1 and I'm just really tired. When I get to the waiting room of the Pokemon Center I see Lana sitting by the cafe.

Gladion is also there with his Silvally.

"How is Torracat?" Lana asks.

"Fine. Still unconscious but is expected to make a full recovery."

I walk over to the table where Gladion is sitting which is one over from Lana. I eat one of the biscuits that is in the bowl in front of me.

"I thought you would be gone by now," I said to Gladion.

He shook his head. "I can't do that. This is my fault. I let Team Skull run amok."

"Gladion, you couldn't have known they'd go this far."

"I shouldn't have assumed they wouldn't either," he said sharply.

I didn't respond back. In fact nobody said anything else. We just sat there in silence for a few moments.

"So how did Faba get a Nihilego?" I ask still not quite sure what it was.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself. No portals have been opened publicly in the last 4 years. Makes me think Faba has had this one since then."

"Portals?" I ask confused. I look over to Lana who looks at Gladion with opened eyes as if she doesn't want him to answer. Gladion doesn't look at her.

"4 years ago portals opened all over Alola. They were inter-demensional portals. Thankfully, the Kahunas, with the Guardians, were able to handle the Beasts that came out of them without the populace knowing."

"So wait, these Beasts came out of portals and the common people had no clue?" I'm baffled at how that is possible.

He nodded his head and went onto say that the portals opened in the sacred grounds of the Guardian Deities. Common people just aren't allowed on those grounds so they never saw them. Eventually, they beasts went back where they came from due to the Legendary Pokemon of Solgaleo and Lunala.

Then Gladion mention Sol. His voice dropped and his usual straight-eyed look meandered. "He helped the Legendary Pokemon."

"How did you know him?" I asked. Gladion looked up and glared at me.

"He was my friend," he said plainly.

"Do you know where he is?" I asked.

"Cameron." Lana said with a pierced look on her face.

"No," Gladion answered. He got up from the table and took a deep breath. He motioned to Silvally and left us. I looked over at Lana and shrugged. I watched as Gladion walked towards the beach where his boat was and decided to get up and chase after him.

When I finally catch up to him I apologize for bringing him up and explain how I hadn't heard about him until just recently and I'm confused.

"I don't like to talk about him, Cameron. He was the only friend I ever had. His determination to be good and do good no matter what always bothered me. Then all he did was succeed. After what happened 4 years ago, he became someone I trusted. He saved me from myself."

"And then he left?"

Gladion nodded. "He told the Kahunas that he wanted to be erased from our history. He felt weighed down by not being able to be himself. Plus, his best friend was Hau. People knew Hau. Sol wanted to help Hau and he did. He never told me where he was going and I haven't seen or talked to him in 3 years."

I apologized.

"He doesn't see his mom either. His mom lives a perfectly good life back in Kanto. Lillie lives with her and keeps me in the loop as I look to expand there."

"Lillie?"

"Oh, my sister. She was friends with Sol too. She left after the events 4 years ago too."

I began to really feel bad for Gladion. Everything he has told me suggests that Sol was his only really friend and he left. Then his sister left and this was all while his mom went a little crazy and apparently she is still sick. Looking at his face I can see the scars on them. Not physical ones, but the emotional and mental ones. The straight-face and glares are just facades. They are masks to the pain-filled face I see now. His eyes wander off as if he is unsure where he is, and his voice trails up and down with ragged breaths in between.

I reach into my bag and pull out a necklace. It is the necklace that Gladion gave me back in Heahea City. I traced my finger over the engraving, which says Hoalola. I held out my hand towards Gladion with the necklace in it.

"Cameron, I told you to give it to someone. Someone who was a true friend. Hoalola means friend or true friend."

"I know."

He looked at me with a shocked look on his face when Silvally bowed his head under my hand and lifted it a little higher. Gladion looked at Silvally and then at me.

"W-why?" he stuttered.

"Cause being alone sucks, Gladion."

A brief smile appeared on his face as he took the necklace and placed it around his neck.

"Thank you," he said graciously. "Why don't you come to Aether Paradise tomorrow? I'll send a boat for you, Caleb and Lana. That is if Torracat is okay by then."

"That sounds good to me."

We shake hands and depart from the beach. Gladion is going back home to the Aether Paradise and I am going back to the Pokemon Center where Caleb is still asleep.

...

The next morning I was a woken by an overly excited Caleb. Torracat had woken up and was being checked on by the nurses.

I looked down at my watch and saw that it was 9 AM. Definitely too early to be up. Sleeping in a chair didn't help either.

When Torracat came back she seemed to be perfectly healthy, absent the 8 stitches on her head. The nurse said that she won't be able to battle for a couple days. The wound should heal within 48 hours if we keep applying some gel. The stitches themselves will dissolve on their own. As for Torracat being discharged today, the nurses says she can go right now.

Caleb was definitely excited about that.

Dartrix was hanging off the ceiling sleeping. He had been on the table near Torracat's bed last night but I guess it wasn't comfortable. Although, I didn't think hanging like a zubat would be comfortable for him but alas there he is.

"Dartrix, get up! We're leaving."

It peaked one eye at me and glided down to the bed near Torracat. As Dartrix placed a wing over Torracat I placed my hand inside Caleb's. We looked at each other and smiled.

Then Lana came.

"Are we leaving or what?" She had her arms crossed and her brow raised.

We both nodded and followed her outside with our Pokemon.

It was still early and we were still really tired so we decided to go to our hotel rooms. I sent a message to Gladion saying that we can come to his island today, but not until after 2PM. We were going to shower and sleep for the rest of the morning and early afternoon.

Before we got to the hotel, Nanu stopped us.

"Well look at you two. Good to see you are okay."

"Thank you," Caleb said.

Nanu reach into his pocket and pulled out two emblems. "Here. You earned this."

"But we didn't beat you to earn this," I argued.

"Please, boy. I have no desire to waste my time and lose. Plus, the bravery you two showed was enough for me. Anyways, I'm too old for this shit. If it makes you feel better, Hala agreed this was fine."

I looked at Caleb who shrugged and took his emblem. Nanu didn't wait for me to grab mine. Instead he chucked at me and left.

"Well that's one way to get this emblem," I say.

"Yeah, all I had to do was get cracked upside the head and kidnapped," Caleb joked.

...

After Caleb and I showered we laid in our respective beds in silence for the most part. But in a way it was kind of loud. A lot had happened, specifically between us, and we hadn't quite talked it out. Laying in silence kind of seemed like we were talking to ourselves, like I could hear him thinking.

So I decided to break the silence. "So what are we?"

He looked over at me and lightly shrugged. "I don't know. This is new territory for me, Cam. I didn't even know you were gay."

"I don't know if I am. I mean I've had a suspicion I was different but only you put a name to it when you came out to me."

"I see," he says as he faces the ceiling.

"I like you Caleb. I know that."

He smiles but keeps his eyes up at the ceiling. "That's fine by me."

I look at him as he closes his eyes and wonder to myself. I'm not quite sure if he's my boyfriend of if I'm gay, and he knows that. He's okay with that. For me, I've learned to accept my inability to force a label onto myself, so I'm not going to do that. My feelings for Caleb were always there but I didn't understand them. Not until I kissed him last night. So for these other things that I'm sure about, I'll just wait for the answer to come when they do. Just like that kiss. It's going to be natural and I'm not going to force a label on it.

I like Caleb very much and will continue down this path with him. If that means he's my boyfriend, then that's what he is. I don't think it's crucial or necessary to label him that right now, and I think Caleb gets that.