A semi-long chapter of Alcea and Blake discussing past, pain, and the meaning of love. What will this discussion yield for their future, I wonder?

As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?

Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison

KedharS: I'd expect so.

Pokemonking0924: He's not lying that much, he's just maintaining a polite sense of decorum.

Kunoichi69: Sadly, that's how it is when you're from a well-off family.

Guest: What Richard deserves is questionable.

Hellraiserphoenix: It should hopefully only get better.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 212

"Well? What say you, then?" Alcea smiled. "We could resist the wishes of our parents and struggle in this state… or we could accept and get married for real."

Alcea's eyes were deep and shining in the streetlights.

"…No, is it?" Alcea smiled flirtatiously up at him, stepping close enough to him that her breasts pressed against his chest. Her perfume smelled of roses. Blake's cheek flushed and he took a few steps back, Alcea giggling at him.

"Ah, it appears you may be flustered," Alcea turned and strolled into the garden, looking at the beds of flowers around them. Blake trailed after her reluctantly. He hadn't seen this side of Alcea before. She was always so composed, serious, and dignified, but the Alcea in front of him was pensive, even playful.

"Alcea, can I ask you something?" Blake asked, catching up with her.

"Oui, but you already have, have you not?" Alcea chuckled, turning to flash Blake a glowing smile. Blake rolled his eyes.

"Why are you getting married?" Blake asked. "Richard… my father… he wants me to merge our families together, sure, and benefit from your family's titles, prestige, and wealth, but beyond that… he also wants to have me return home, and drop out of school. Those are his real reasons. But you… you've got a great future ahead of you as a pokemon master, you're beautiful and smart, everyone looks up to you and thinks you're amazing, and your family is so much more well-off than ours. So I can't imagine what your family would have to gain from something like this, you know? Why… why would they just agree to marry you off to a guy like me?"

Alcea raised her eyebrow.

"Quite the chip on your shoulder," she murmured. "Do you really think that someone like you is not worthy of being with someone like me?"

"Well, Kate always says that I'm not worthy of paying attention to you, so I just kind of assumed-"

Blake was cut off by Alcea throwing her head back and laughing, throwing him off more than a little.

"Uh…"

"Kate admires me indeed," Alcea sobered up, shaking her head. "But I am not certain if her objections to our union are entirely out of concern for me, is it?"

"What do you mean?" Blake asked. Alcea smiled.

"That's not for me to say," she replied, shaking her head and walking down one of the garden paths. "Come, Blake, I have something I wish to show you."

"But you never answered my question!" Blake shouted after her.

"I will!" Alcea called over her shoulder, Blake moving to catch up with her once again. Apparently, moving to catch up with Alcea was becoming an all-to-common feature of this evening's events. She led him through the garden, admiring the flowerbeds and berry trees, pointing out the various arrangements to Blake. But she still wasn't answering his question. The walked under a rose-threaded arch, and stopped in a large clearing, glancing back to Blake.

"What do you think?" Alcea asked, sweeping her arm out over the clearing. Blake stepped forward to look at what was in front of him. Lit from below by ground lighting, shining a deep blue, was a wide field of roses sparkling wet in the lit night air.

"What… huh?" Blake blinked as he looked at the arrangement of blue roses in front of him.

"These are my pride and joy," Alcea said, smiling. "A sea of roses, blue as the ocean itself."

"Dyed white roses, huh?" Blake said, taking a step closer and kneeling down next to them.

"Non," Alcea said, shaking her head, crossing her arms under her chest triumphantly. "A natural blue. Normally, yes, one must dye the roots of a white rose to grow such a vibrant blue flower… such a blue does not occur naturally. Until now, is it? Roses typically lack the genes to occur this shade normally… scientists have attempted to rectify this, through genetic modification. I've been keeping up with their studies."

Alcea knelt down next to Blake, taking care that her dress did not touch the wet grass.

"Malva Corp., my family's company, has great stock in botanical research. With my father's permission, I've invested quite a lot of money in funding the development of a true blue rose, a rose that can naturally produce the enzymes for a blue pigmentation. This is one of the first successful batches. Sadly, only one in every several dozen cultivations actually blooms this shade of blue… many are more lavender in color, is it? But with each step we get a little closer."

"Wow, that's amazing," Blake admitted. The wistful look in her eyes as she stared at the flowers in front of her… it was a bewitching expression that made his heart start beating.

Alcea… truly is a beauty. So graceful and elegant… of course Kate would idolize her so much. Anyone would. Blake swallowed. And a woman like her… is going to be my wife?

"Blue roses have not grown naturally until very recently," Alcea continued. "But they have carried great meaning for many years, is it? True love, unreachable love, unattainable love… but the meaning most honest to their nature… is as a symbol of attaining the impossible, is it?"

Alcea turned to Blake, and placed a hand on his cheek. It wasn't a gesture of romance, at least it didn't feel that way to him. It almost… reminded him of Cynthia, and her unconditional kindness towards him when he entered her household. Blake wondered… would this be what it would be like, to have an elder sister? To be comforted like little brother?

"I will answer your question now," Alcea whispered. "You wanted to know what my family hopes to gain from our union? You might already suspect, I'm sure. They hope to gain me."

Blake didn't really understand, and the confusion on his face made Alcea smile.

"Blake… do you know why I wished to bring the blue rose into being?" Alcea asked. Blake shook his head. "No, of course you don't."

Alcea turned away from him and looked out over the field of flowers in front of her.

"When I was younger… for a good many years I lived a life surrounded by flowers. Flowers and grass pokemon of all kinds… a field of beauty. But the favorite of all flowers was the rose. For me, the rose has been a symbol of love, desire, the things that have always been missing from my life. One upon a time, I wanted for nothing. But then… we both know it isn't so easy, is it?"

Alcea chuckled, a sad, mournful laugh.

"I used to look out over the horizon… and see before me a sea of blue, on all sides, as far as the eye could see… A sparkling ocean, so close to me, and yet… not a garden, but a wall, keeping me trapped."

She turned back to Blake, and looked him in the eye.

"You remember of what I speak, do you not?"

Blake nodded his head. He remembered quite well, actually.

"There are a great many flowers the same shade of blue as the ocean that surrounded me. Asters, hydrangeas, delphiniums, bellflowers, forget-me-nots, gentians, lobelia, the love-in-a-mist." Alcea's eyes flashed to Blake's chest, and she cracked a smile. "Even the purplish-blue of the Kantonian Iris. But of all of them, I wanted to create that ocean of blue again… to try and recreate that sight that stood before me each day, a sea of blue as far as the eye could see, but grown by my own hand. Oui, to turn that which bound me into a world of my own making, crafted from that which I love more than any, is it?"

Blake couldn't quite understand. He… he'd never really had anything he'd felt as passionately about as Alcea clearly did with her flowers. Even when he cut his sister's hair… that was always to make her smile, not a love for the act itself.

I suppose… loving another person isn't quite comparable to something like this… Blake decided.

"The time I spent on that island was harsh… but with the pokemon beside me, I was able to overcome those difficult days." As Alcea spoke of her hardship, her hand unconsciously moved to the green stone around her chest, stroking it tenderly as a nostalgic smile crossed her face. But the warmth of her expression belied a hardness that Blake couldn't miss.

"…But for my family, harshness, is it?" Alcea asked. "My father, mother, sister, they all thought I was dead. The pain they had gone through… I can only imagine what it was like. But the joy on their faces, when they saw me again, at the rescue station… unforgettable, is it?"

Alcea's smile had lost its harshness, now filled with nothing but softness and love.

"They were quite protective of me after that. Determined to keep me safe. When I told them I wanted to try becoming a pokemon trainer, challenge the pokemon gyms, they refused me at first. So I continued to press. I begged, pleaded, promised them anything. But… pokemon had stolen me away once. And they were afraid that, if I journeyed out into the world again… they would go through all those things a second time. And… I do not think they could bear that."

Alcea sighed.

"So rather than a gym challenge, they agreed to allow me to enter tournaments, to eventually enter into the pro tour itself. And I showed them just how talented I was, just how strong I had become. But even then… they still would not allow me a journey to explore the world. That… in the end, I suppose, I was okay with that, to a degree. All I needed were my pokemon and my flowers, after all. So then… if not the gym challenge, I asked if it would be possible to enroll here, a controlled environment to hone my skills even further. They agreed, in the end… but it took a long period of negotiation."

Alcea glanced back at Blake, and now he could see only sadness in her eyes.

"Do you see now, what they hope to gain?" Alcea asked. "They want me to marry you, so that you will become a shackle to me. They hope that our marriage will keep me in Kalos, perhaps as a gym leader, to keep me from straying once I become an adult and they no longer have control over my life. Understandable, is it? To not wish to lose a daughter for a second time. But even so… I do not want to become some flower wilting away on the bud. I have just begun to bloom brightly, and to be contained so simply… no."

Blake nodded his head. He could understand where her parents were coming from, he even sympathized with them a little.

"Alcea…"

"Mm?"

"I think… that you parents… while it might not be the right thing, is it… the wrong thing to do? To want to keep someone you care about close to you, to protect them from the harshness of the world? There's someone who I care about, and… if I could keep her safe, shield her from anything, I absolutely would. My sister is-"

Alcea sighed, shaking her head.

"Protect, is it?" She asked, staring up at the moon, now higher in the sky. "Oui… maybe so. It is understandable to keep those you love close, is it? But in the end… the world is cruel. Once upon a time, I lived a perfect life, my parents keeping me safe from anything that might bring me harm. But in the end… what protection they could give me mattered not. The sea still swallowed the ship, I was still washed onto that island. No matter how you try to shield the ones you love from hardship, life still happens, is it?"

Blake winced, nodding his head in agreement. She wasn't wrong, after all. But even so…

"Even so, I still… want to keep the people I care about safe."

Alcea nodded sympathetically.

"In the end, I think… our parents are doing what they think is best for us, is it?" Alcea asked him.

"Yeah, I think so…" Blake was realizing now, thinking things from this new perspective. The way that he wanted to keep his sister safe… it was the same way that Richard wanted to keep him safe. Did he have any more right to impose his own definition of safety than Richard did? Blake was staring his own hypocrisy right in the face, and it was really bumming him out.

"Even if he do not wish to do so… it seems that, in the end, our futures will go as our parents intend. But perhaps it might not be so bad, oui? There may be happiness to be found in one another, is it?"

Well now, that was certainly the question, now wasn't it? Blake didn't know for sure what, exactly, they would end up becoming, but it was entirely clear what laid before them if they danced to the tune of their families' wishes.

"Perhaps we may even grow to love each other," Alcea giggled. "Quite a wonder how such a thing could occur, is it?"

"I… I don't know," Blake admitted. "I haven't… I've been spending all day and all last night thinking about what I could do to fall in love with you. I mean, you deserve to be with someone who loves you, and… it's only fair that I should put in the effort to really fall in love with you for real."

"And what about you?" Alcea asked. "Do you not also deserve to be with someone who loves you?"

"Of course I do."

"Then in that case, perhaps I should make an effort to fall in love with you, as well, is it?" Alcea murmured. The two knelt in front of the flowerbed for a few moments that stretched to eternity, staring into one another's eyes.

"If only love worked in such a way…" Alcea sighed, rising to her feet. "Come. My legs grow sore kneeling in these heels for so long. There is a bench nearby, we can continue our talk there."

Alcea and Blake walked to the bench in silence, letting the weight of the prior conversation sink in. Neither one felt any love for the other, not in any romantic sense. And yet, out of respect for the other's happiness, both were willing to try, at the very least, to give the other the loving partner they deserved. It was comedic, such a farce coming to pass.

"I really… really want to love you," Blake explained, looking desperately at her as she sat down on the wooden bench, wiping away the evening dew with a towel retrieved from her handbag. "But honestly… I've never fallen in love before. I don't even know what it means to love someone, not romantically. So I don't know, I just…"

"Blake."

Alcea looked up at him with her deep, soulful green eyes. The bench she sat on was under one of the many streetlights illuminating the garden, so her beauty was on full display. She patted the seat beside her, bidding him to sit as well. Blake took the towel from her hand and wiped the seat down, sitting next to her. She turned her body to face him once more.

"I have also… never loved someone like that before," Alcea admitted. "To me… romance is a thing from the storybooks, is it?"

Blake recalled Alcea's criteria for a partner. It did seem like the idealistic sort of thing to come from a girl who read fairy tales and romance novels.

"Even if I have never loved… I have loved," Alcea cryptically explained. "Not the right kind of love, perhaps, but I've loved my parents, my sister, my pokemon… Kate, my other friends in the Gardening Club, I have loved a great deal of people. It is the same for you, as well, is it?"

Blake nodded his head.

"But that isn't…"

"Not the right kind of love, is it?" Alcea ruefully agreed. "But in the end, we have what we have, is it?"

Blake had to agree with that, reluctantly at least. He sighed.

"I just wish that it was easier to fall in love with someone, you know? If there was a way to do it… I wouldn't have to feel this guilty about failing. But even if I tried my hardest… I don't know if I ever would be able to love someone else, the way they might love me."

Ayame's face flashed through his mind. Even if she loved him, it wasn't like he could force himself to feel the same.

"Many people fall in love. To some it comes easy. A nice gesture, a hand extended when they need it most. A sense of camaraderie, of understanding. Even if they don't realize, even if they deny it to themselves and others, even if they make a fool of themselves and get embarrassed, they still fall in love, even if they would not like to." Alcea chuckled at her memories of the flustered looks on Kate's face whenever Blake would come up as a topic of conversation. "But for you and I… love comes not so easily. Love isn't something you force. It's something that happens, is it?"

Alcea chuckled.

"Perhaps I shall meet a young gentleman on my walk tomorrow, and fall head over heels for him. Or perhaps I will never meet a person who makes my heart race the way love should be, is it?" She looked into the sky mournfully, and sighed. "All we can do is the best we can, is it?"

Blake nodded in agreement.

"Or maybe we're just too broken and jaded," Blake muttered, shaking his head. Alcea jerked her head to look at him, a frown on her face.

"We have been through hard times, Blake," Alcea replied. Blake blinked in surprised.

"What? You thought I was unaware?" Alcea shook her head. "Do you know why I first called out to you? It was not just because of Kanone Harker, your brother, is it? Nor was it because of your performance against Akira. I wanted… to see the kind of person you were. And when I did… that was when I knew. I saw it in your eyes."

Blake felt a little uncomfortable meeting her eyes, so he averted his gaze down to his lap. Alcea smiled.

"You have seen quite a good many things, Blake, is it?" Alcea asked. "Pain and hardship. One who has gone through such a crucible, they know the look in the eye of another who has shared in hardship."

Blake didn't reply to her words, so Alcea continued.

"I've harbored an interest in you since then, as you and I have both gone through hardships and come out stronger for it. That look in your eye, that conviction… we are not one and the same, but we have similarity of that kind, at the very least."

Blake nodded to that, looking up to meet her piercing eyes again.

"But we can't allow our hardships to break us. If we do, we will become nothing, is it? I took my pain and used it to move forward. What about you? Do you believe… that you will not be capable of love? Not deserving of love?" Alcea's face was hard, and the determination in her eyes made Blake feel much smaller. She'd gone so much. An older girl, stronger than he was by miles, a girl… no, a woman who'd moved on from her past, and set her sights only on the future.

Compared to her… I…

"That flower on your breast," Alcea said. "Why do you have it?"

"What? This?" Blake took the iris Ayame had given him out of his pocket, turning it between his thumb and index finger so the petals spun. "Someone gave it to me… as a memento, since I'm leaving soon."

Alcea smiled.

"Someone?" She asked. "Someone you love, is it?"

Blake shook his head.

"No… she's just a friend. Like I said… for me, love-"

"Do you know what the meaning behind the iris is?" Alcea asked, taking the flower from his fingers and lifting it to her nose, taking a deep scent of the fragrance wafting from within.

Blake shook his head. He had no idea.

"Messages, hope, love, flowers carry many meanings through different cultures," Alcea murmured. "But in truth, my favorite meaning of the iris, the meaning of a true, blue iris like this one… is 'the happiness of the devoted', 'faith and hope', is it?"

Alcea reached out and tucked the flower back into Blake's pocket, patting it lightly.

"Don't be so doubtful, Blake. Whether that girl gave the flower to you knowing of its meaning… the symbol of hope you bear is not something that should be dismissed so lightly."

Blake nodded his head. Faith and hope, huh?

"Perhaps neither you nor I am ready to love another with all our hearts. But I believe that day will come, for both of us. Maybe even someday, with each other. While not romantic… I have certainly felt a realization of my own love before, as I'm certain you have as well."

Alcea looked out across the gardens that she called her home, and then looked back to Blake.

"I spoke before of a crucible, oui?" Alcea asked him. "A hardship… one that breaks you down to your roots, exposes everything you are… a trial to overcome and grow, so that you might one day bloom anew. Flowers, people, they are not so different. A flower blooms its brightest, but without exception the winter comes, and with the winter its petals wilt. But still, it endures the harshness of winter, to blossom anew, is it?"

Alcea's voice had never sounded so loving. It was like a siren's song, drawing in a wary Blake with the promises of comfort and understanding. She truly was an amazing woman.

"I went through my harsh winter on the island, and bloomed brighter than ever before when I emerged from the other side. And when I did… when I saw my parents, my sister… it struck me, like a bolt from the blue. The overwhelming joy I had, to see them again… that is how I knew I loved them. Truly, truly loved them. And perhaps… perhaps that is love, is it?"

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"We humans seek the comfort of others in our weakest times," Alcea explained. "From friends, family, lovers, our pokemon. But when we are at our lowest… who is it that we wish to stand before us and offer a hand of comfort most of all? When you can't go on… when you feel like everything has collapsed around you, and you have nothing ahead but despair… the one you want to see on the other side, the one you want to hold you and tell you everything is okay, the one you want to have before you, to help you move past those dark times… that person would be the one you love most, is it?"

The one you love most…

Blake had faced his crucibles alone until now. The harshness of his past in Laverre City… he could not remember it. But the one who'd come to him, told him everything would be okay… that had been his mother. But when his mother's accident had happened, and the pain that followed… he hadn't wanted to see anyone. And in turn, no one but his pokemon had been there for him.

So I guess she's right… I really don't have anyone I love yet…

"For me, that was my family. I was too young to have a lover, after all. But if I were to go through such hardship again… sitting, weakened and alone in the rescue station, with rangers around me… who is it that I would want to come rushing through that door, tears in their eyes and a smile on their face, overjoyed that I was alright? Who would I want to come greet me at the end of my crucible? Whom would I love most, is it?" Alcea murmured, staring at Blake with tears building in her eyes.

"In the end… I cannot say, is it? But for you, Blake?"

Blake thought long and hard. Of all his friends… if he'd had to go through that pain, all those years ago once again… who would he want to see come to him, and give him a hug to tell him everything was okay? That she cared about him and would be there for him? Flashes of people passed through his head.

The calm, cool look of his sister, blank and vacant to many but filled with love if one looked close enough, not telling him in words but loving him by her presence?

Claire had been there for him a great many times, with her forwardness and flirty attitude. She always made him feel better without even needing to try, didn't she?

The first friend he'd made here, Cynthia's joking face as she picked him up and told him it'd all be fine, she'd just let him touch her boobs and he'd feel better about all of it afterwards?

Or Sango, and her positive attitude, would she come sit at his side and put a hand on his shoulder, to tell him that they'd get through this together, if they tried their hardest and worked as a team?

Julia wasn't the type to laugh it off. She'd force him to move ahead through a combination of harshness and compassion that was uniquely her. She'd helped him before, and would he want that again?

Kitty… although he couldn't ever see her love him that way, she knew him in ways no one else did. She would know, of course. She'd give him a hug with those small arms and try to pat him, wouldn't she?

Serefina was kind, but she also didn't take crap from anyone. She wouldn't snap at him, but would be almost motherly, hugging him tight and telling him it would be alright, he'd move on, right?

One scowling face that popped into his mind somehow was Kate. He certainly wouldn't want comfort from her, and she would probably not give it, just chew him out. Would that be what he needed?

Elaina, someone who had been through even worse than him, who understood his pain, even behind that mask… would he want her to leave Gerard and try to help him, the way he helped her?

And Ayame… she'd started it all, hadn't she? The first girl to offer her love to him. She'd lift him up herself, and help him to where he needed to be in order to move forward on his own, wouldn't she?

Another girl that came to mind was Caelia. Like his sister, she offered no warmth. Someone to look after, not someone to give comfort of her own. But having someone to help, would that help him?

It wouldn't be Sylvia. It would NEVER be Sylvia.

Thinking of all the women in his life, wondering… who was it that he would most want to be there for him, when his world had fallen apart, and he had nothing left to keep him going?

"Well?" Alcea asked, a coy smile on her face. "Is it me?"

"…I don't know," Blake finally admitted. "I just… don't know."

In the end, nothing had changed. His heart was heavier, but it didn't help him find the answer he was looking for.

"That's okay," Alcea told him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. She patted him gently on the back. "That just means you aren't ready yet, is it?"

"…What if I never am? What if I can't?"

"If you can't, then you can't. But I have faith that you will," Alcea said. She rose from her seat and walked in front of him, hugging him caringly. "I can tell there's too much love in you for the idea that you'll never find someone to receive it to hold any weight. Oui. Just give it time, mon ami."

Blake smiled up at her, and took the hand she offered. The two walked arm in arm back towards where their parents waited.

In the end, Blake still, sadly, has not found his love. But at the very least… he's on the right track.