Now that Maddi's finished torpedoing Olivia's attempts to get Blake and Ayame back together, I think we should switch our focus to another couple and see how THEY'RE doing. The couple in question? Well, the only couple who's still able to do couple things at the moment, Nikita and Reiner. They've finally reunited, so what are they going to get up to now? Remember to review!

Arbiter8991: Maddi is very good at destroying people's plans.

KedharS: Yep, Maddi's very insightful.

Hyphenman: The only issue with the natural love plan is that they don't have much time. Only a couple months. Hence why Olivia's going all-in on this.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1263

While Cynthia was running all around campus getting recommendations, other students were busy getting settled back in. Particularly the students who'd gone with Cynthia on her trip to the Hoenn Region. They had only been gone for a few weeks, but it felt like it had been years since they were last at the Pokemon Academy.

Reiner and Nikita were particularly thrilled to be reunited. Reiner may not have been all that enthused about reviewing Nikita's paper, but once that was settled the two of them had plenty of time to enjoy each other's company.

The only problem was the third wheel in the room.

"Hah…" Nick sighed, staring at his phone.

Not everyone was feeling the love of the Pokemon Academy apparently. Nick in particular felt uncomfortable as Nikita and Reiner chatted on Reiner's bed, and while he couldn't just kick them out (it was Reiner's room too, after all) he didn't have the energy to leave and go somewhere, either.

Frankly, he was pretty depressed. And the cause of that depression? Callie Crawford.

Nick's girlfriend Callie hadn't been among the students to return from the Orre Region, a fact that had at first confused him, but when Alcea told him the reason why that confusion quickly turned into panic, then worry, and now, finally, depressed resignation.

She'd gotten injured. Alcea hadn't gone into detail about it, but apparently Callie had gotten hurt, and wouldn't be able to make the trip back for at least another week.

Nick had stayed up that entire night trying to call her, but he couldn't get any cell reception. Apparently, Agate Village was pretty far outside the cell tower's reach.

So now here he was, on no sleep, still shaking off the effects of jet lag, unable to get in contact with his wounded girlfriend while another loving couple was all but making out on the bed behind him. He sighed again.

"Is everything alright?" Nikita whispered to Reiner. In a surprising display of intimacy from her she was lying down with her head in his lap while reading a book, allowing her boyfriend to lazily stroke her hair. "Did something happen in Hoenn?" She'd been so focused on her paper that she had no clue what was going on. Reiner shook his head.

"No, it's worse than that," he confided. He didn't want to make too much noise in case Nick heard them. So instead, he dug out his phone and texted a pretty long explanation of the Callie situation to her, hoping that would be the end of it.

"What?! You're kidding!"

No such luck.

Nikita sprang up out of his lap as she stared at her phone, nearly falling off the bed. She scrambled down over to Nick and hugged him from behind, startling him.

"H-Hey!" Nick exclaimed, flailing his arms at the feeling of his friend's girlfriend nearly cutting off his oxygen.

"I'm so sorry!" Nikita wailed. "I had no idea that happened! Are you okay?"

"No… can't… breathe…"

"Nikita, you shouldn't hug people around their neck," Reiner called from the bed. She gasped in realization and let him go.

After Nick took a few seconds to catch his breath he turned his chair around. "So Reiner told you what happened finally?"

"Y-Yeah, was he not supposed to?" She winced.

"No, no, it's fine," Nick sighed, waving his hand. "I just didn't expect it. I mean, that guy isn't usually all that big in talking about relationship stuff, and you don't really seem like the type either, so I guess it came as a surprise…"

Reiner thought that Nick's girlfriend getting hospitalized was a bit more serious than just being dismissed as "relationship stuff" but he didn't say anything.

"Sorry dude," he called over to his roommate. "Only reason she asked in the first place was because you were making a lot of noise with your sighing."

Nikita scowled. "Hey, that's not fair!" She puffed up her cheeks. "Nick has a right to feel depressed that his girlfriend got sent to the hospital."

"Um, I'm not that depressed…"

"Oh, please, you're basically a walking broken heart," Nikita snippily rebuked him.

He really wasn't. "Look, the reason I'm so glum is because when I heard that Callie was coming back from her trip early, I was really excited. It's been so long since I had the chance to talk with her for real, so I guess I just… I felt down when I learned that she wasn't here."

"Aww," Nikita swooned.

Reiner was less touched. "So… you're not worried about your girlfriend's health, you're just upset because you wanted to see her?"

Nick winced and Nikita's mouth twisted into an o-shape filled with shock.

"Reiner!" She walked over and swatted him on the leg, because his head was too high for her to reach on the top bunk.

"I'm worried about her too!" Nick protested. "It's just, well… it's Callie. So knowing her, she's going to be fine."

"…Okay, fair point," Reiner admitted. He might not have been particularly close with the blonde, but he knew that she wasn't the type of girl to get too down about some injuries. She had the kind of vibe where he was shocked she could be injured at all.

"Ignore the big dumb dummy," Nikita grinned. "I think it's really sweet."

She turned to Reiner with a scowl. "I don't seem to recall you being that excited when you came back to see me. The least you could have done was give me a hug or something."

Reiner scowled back. He HAD wanted to hug Nikita the second he saw her, but something had gotten in the way.

"I would have, but what kind of girlfriend gives her boyfriend homework the second she sees him?" Reiner asked. "Those 32 pages didn't trim THEMSELVES down."

"This kind," Nikita said bluntly, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Nick glanced back and forth between the two of them and wondered if he may have caused some problems he hadn't intended to.

But seeing the way they were joking around together actually made him laugh.

"Ah, see? You broke him with your crazy girlfriend policies," Reiner said, pointing to Nick's laughing face as evidence.

"Uh… you okay?" Nikita asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nick said, yawning. "I just… well, seeing you two joke around like this, it really makes me remember why you're such a great couple."

Reiner and Nikita glanced at each other, slightly confused.

"Well, I wouldn't say we're a great couple," Reiner said, and Nikita stared at him in shock.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" She demanded.

"Well…"

"Reiner?!"

"I'm teasing you," he laughed.

Nikita puffed up her cheeks in frustration. "Hmph!"

Because their little lovers spat had broken the tension in the room, Nick suddenly found himself completely drained of energy. He let out a yawn and slumped back, rubbing his eyes.

"Damn, I… I feel pretty darn sleepy…" He mumbled. Now that he'd been out of the "where's Callie? I'm worried about her" state of mind he'd been trapped in, his body was urging him to catch up on the sleep he'd missed.

"Maybe you should go to bed," Reiner suggested. "Nikita and I'll get out of your hair."

Nikita nodded obediently. "Hey Reiner?" She whispered as they headed for the door, "why is it we only ever hang out in here? Why don't we ever hang out in my room?"

Reiner paused. She raised a good point.

They just stepped into the hallway when a surprising figure nearly crashed into them.

"Will?!" Reiner gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you lived in a different dorm?" Nikita asked.

"I could say the same to you," Will said, glancing at her. "No, actually, um… I was looking for the two of you. I need your help with something."

The couple looked at each other, wondering what Will needed from them of all people.

"A present?" Nikita asked, gawking at Will as they walked towards the shopping mall. "You want to buy a present for Misato Daisan?"

Will winced. "'Want' is a strong word," he replied. "More like Misato demanded that I give her a present to commemorate our reunion."

"Demand? Dude, she's a robot," Reiner said. "Don't accept orders from machines. That's how the apocalypse starts."

Will glared at Reiner and swatted him. "She's not a machine. Or a robot. She's… it's complicated."

Reiner really didn't want to get into what he thought about Will's relationship with the Mechadoll, so he decided to shut up.

"Well, I think it's sweet," Nikita grinned. "You buying a little 'I'm home' gift for your girlfriend." She turned to Reiner. "I don't recall YOU buying me a return home gift."

"I got you those souvenirs, didn't I?" Reiner protested. "Lava cookies are a bitch to get ahold of!"

"Okay, fair enough, but still, something more… I don't know, sentimental than a bunch of cookies would have been nice," Nikita pouted.

"Ah yes, like your present, the sentimental 32 page report I had to help you edit," Reiner smirked. Nikita stuck out her tongue in response.

Will stared at the two of them and sighed. This might be more trouble than it was worth. But first he had to clarify something.

"Listen, Nikita, I just want to make this clear, Misato is not my girlfriend," he insisted.

"Okay, then what is she?" Nikita asked. Normally a question like that would have made Will shut up and glare, since he'd expect it from someone like Reiner, and expect it to be a teasing joke. But Nikita was genuinely curious, and that somehow made him more uncomfortable.

"…I don't know," he truthfully admitted. They'd been on a few dates, and Misato was using him as practice to experience what "being in a couple" was like, but from his perspective it was hard to understand the nature of their relationship.

He just knew it was special. And while he might not have thought to get her a gift (no lava cookies for the Mechadoll, of course) he still cared about her feelings… kind of.

If she had feelings. He still wasn't 100% on that.

"So why did you want our help with this?" Reiner asked curiously. "I mean, I know we're your only friends here-"

Nikita swatted him.

"…Sorry. What I meant to say was 'we're not exactly the best equipped to help pick out a gift for someone we don't know'," Reiner corrected himself.

Nikita nodded. Much better.

She shared his concern though.

"I think Reiner's right," she agreed. "I mean, you're the one who knows Misato best, Will, so if anyone's going to know what sort of gift she'd like, I think it would be you."

Assuming Misato was even capable of liking things. While Nikita was willing to humor Will on his "relationship" with the Mechadoll because she was a good friend, as far as she was concerned, Reiner wasn't wrong to call her a machine. Nikita was a scientist first and foremost, and in her eyes a scientist believed in the tangible and the physical. Vague concepts like a "soul" were nebulous territory, and even if they existed she highly doubted that a Mechadoll would have one.

But Will was her friend, so she wouldn't say any of that out loud. It didn't stop her from thinking privately that buying a gift for a robot wasn't the best use of her time, though.

Will sighed. "Well, I mean… you two are such a great couple, so I could really use your help figuring out what she might want. Since she seems to be really acting like we're a couple, I thought I should give her something that fits," he said, giving an answer that surprised both of them.

"…A great couple?" Reiner's jaw dropped.

"…Us?!" Nikita's eyes widened with disbelief.

Then they glanced at each other.

"…So we're not a great couple then?" Nikita asked, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow.

"I didn't say that!" Reiner protested.

"You certainly implied it."

"I was just surprised that Will would think of us when he thought of couples that worked well together, since we don't do 'couple' stuff around him!" Reiner hastily tried to defend himself.

Nikita judged this answer as unsatisfactory but didn't want to make a scene in front of the guy they were trying to help.

"Well, um…" Will glanced away, drawing the attention of both Reiner and Nikita.

"…What's up?" Reiner asked suspiciously.

"Well, I actually wanted to go to Blake for this," he admitted. "But since his relationship with Ayame is, well… you know… I didn't think he'd be much help, and I really wanted to get the perspective of the girl side. And the other girls on the trip are, well…"

Reiner and Nikita nodded in agreement. Neither Cynthia nor Sango were in a relationship, and the sort of things they might want as a gift from a potential boyfriend were not exactly congruous with a normal relationship, either, given Sango's tomboyish nature and lack of romantic drive, and Cynthia's… well… interests.

Misato had made it clear to Will at several points that she was "fully functional" when it came to sexual acts. He had not confirmed that statement, nor did he intend to any time soon.

"Well, it's hard to be as cute as Blake and Ayame, I'll give you that," Nikita nodded, even if, in her heart, she still supported Sango's love.

"I guess it's fine that we came in second to them," Reiner agreed.

Will glanced away again.

"Well…"

"Oh, come on!" Reiner groaned.

"Seriously?!" Nikita's jaw dropped.

"What?! Nick and Callie are over the moon for each other!" Will protested. "…But she didn't come back from the Orre Region, so…"

"So we're the third best couple, out of all the couples you know?!" Reiner demanded.

"And it's only three of 'em, too," Nikita sulked, giving Will the stink-eye.

"Hey, come on, you guys are cute, too!" Will said, holding his hands up defensively. "It's just, well… the other couples are…"

"For the record," Nikita sniffed, "this is NOT how you ask people for a favor."

"Kind of a jerk thing to do considering we're your best friends, Will," Reiner agreed, crossing his arms in front of his chest in frustration.

"You two practically dragged it out of me, don't give me that! And hey, it's not like I think you guys are a bad couple or anything!" Will protested.

That caught Nikita's attention.

"…Oh?" She asked, perking up.

"Yeah, for real," Will said. "Nikita, you're always helping Reiner out when he needs it, right? Picking him up when he's down."

"That's right," Nikita nodded.

"And Reiner seems to be pretty good at getting you to be more social, too," Will continued. "Which, frankly, is a bit of a surprise."

"Oh, like you're one to talk," Reiner glared at him. "Personally, I think she just keeps me around so I can help her edit her essays."

"Hah!" Nikita laughed out loud. "Like YOU'RE any help. If anything you need ME to help YOU on YOUR homework!"

"Hey, that was one time!" Reiner said, his face turning red.

"One assignment, sure, but HOW many questions?"

Reiner seethed at her and she giggled. Her laughter was quickly infectious, though, turning his entire mood around.

"…See, it's stuff like that," Will said. "You two were just fighting, but then you patched it up so quickly, how?"

"Oh, that's easy, repressed resentment," Reiner said immediately, earning him another swat from Nikita.

"Cheeky boy," she huffed.

Will was just glad he wasn't at the "playful banter" stage of his fake relationship with Misato yet. Seeing her try to make jokes would have been agony.

"I just find it impressive," he said. "That you two still haven't broken up. Since it seems like you're so incompatible, a lot of people were saying that you two definitely wouldn't make it to the end of the semester."

"What?!" Nikita asked, her jaw dropping. "Who said that!?"

This wasn't like her playful anger a second ago. She seemed genuinely upset. Will began to pick up the pace, hoping to get to the mall faster and change the subject, but Nikita wouldn't let him. She was in hot pursuit, and grabbed his shoulder to spin him around.

"Why do people think we're going to break up?" She demanded. She turned to her boyfriend. "Reiner, can you believe this?! People are actually saying that we're falling apart as a couple!"

Reiner blinked.

"Well…"

"REINER?!"

"I'm kidding," he laughed. "Come on, Nikita, it's a joke."

Nikita sulked. "Well, I'm glad that YOU think people gossiping about our relationship is funny," she mumbled.

"I think you guys are blowing this way out of proportion," Will said, shaking his head. "This stuff was from months ago, right before Valentine's Day. Besides, they're just rumors."

"Well, rumors are often based in fact," Nikita said. She knew that wasn't true; she was aspiring to be a scientist, after all, and that entire FIELD was about disproving "rumors" using facts.

But even before being a student of science she was a teenage girl, and one with rather low self-esteem. So hearing a rumor that maybe her boyfriend was going to break up with her still hit her pretty hard, and his jokes weren't helping.

Will sighed. Nikita really looked disheartened, and Reiner seemed frustrated.

He couldn't help but feel a little guilty about putting the two of them in such a bad mood, when he'd asked them here to help him pick out a present, so he tried to play it off as not as big of a story as it actually was, hoping that would do the trick. "Look, it's just a few people, okay, and the source was Dakota Evans, so-"

"Why didn't you say that to begin with?!" Nikita groaned, slapping her face. Reiner sighed in relief.

"…Huh?"

Nikita rolled her eyes. "If Dakota's involved in it then it's complete bullshit. You got us all worked up for nothing."

"For sure," Reiner nodded in agreement.

"So you guys don't even care?" Will recognized once more that he had absolutely no experience with an actual relationship.

"Yeah, well, it was bullshit to begin with," Nikita said. She flashed Reiner a grin and hugged his arm, rubbing up against him. "I know my guy isn't going to just dump me."

"…Weeeeell…"

"REINER?!"

Reiner, stop trolling, please, for the love of god, STOP TROLLING. There's only so much more of this Nikita can take, I'm begging you. But still, it's nice to have sweet little moments like this in my opinion. Focus a bit more on the other couples. Or, well, the only couple still around, I guess, at least for the first-years, considering the issues with Blake and Ayame and the fact that Callie is still trapped in the Orre Region. And Will's relationship with Misato, well… yeah.