A/N: Here's a new chapter! A bit later than I had wanted, but this chapter gave me a bit of trouble. I hope you'll like it regardless, and thank you all very much!

To cake0108: Yaaay :D Thanks a lot for the review!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover (though I did edit it).

Days

The day a question is asked

Iris

Friday, November 29th

A blue glow surrounded Dragonite before he shot himself to the opposing Emboar, which didn't have enough time to avoid the incoming Dragon Rush. That last attack finally did it, and with a pitiful grunt it went down.

Iris grinned almost ferociously, relishing in the victory, before quickly putting on a more Gym Leader appropriate look when the challenger had recalled her Emboar.

"Your team is strong, but it is unbalanced. You rely too much on your starter Pokémon, you need to train your other Pokémon more." That was definitely sound advice, Iris complimented herself. Her challenger's Emboar had taken out Gabite and Haxorus, and almost Dragonite as well, while Gabite alone had taken on the first five Pokémon.

The young woman laughed sheepishly, though she did seem a bit stricken by her loss. At that, Iris softened her smile a bit.

"Yeah, I've heard that before…" her challenger said. "But so far it had worked for me…"

"There's a reason there are only so few people with eight Unova Badges," Iris couldn't help but say, though she quickly smiled to show the challenger it was a joke.

Even though it was true, Iris thought with no little pride. She was considered the strongest Gym Leader of Unova, and she could allow herself some arrogance at times. And it was only a good thing if her reputation kept some of the weaker-willed challengers away.

"I will be one of those," the woman promised, and Iris nodded in acknowledgement of her words.

"I will be looking forward to it," she said politely, and with that her opponent turned on her heel and left the building.

The building.

That was not how Iris had planned her Gym. She had wanted to do her Gym Battles outside, but that was just not possible at the moment. Well, it was possible, but it would put her at a huge disadvantage as Unova currently seemed to be going through a snow spell. Thus, she had been forced to relocate to the still-under-construction inside, with its rather bare and basic battlefield.

It definitely didn't feel like her own Gym yet.

Iris sighed. The Gym was only a minor worry.

That had been the last challenger of today, but that wasn't because she had worked through them so quickly, but because she had planned a free afternoon.

She wasn't looking forward to it.

Battling meant focusing and not thinking about anything else than the battle, while free time left her with constant thoughts and worries about the predicament she had gotten herself and Cilan in.

She was going to make a doctor's appointment this afternoon. Cilan would be coming over, and even though she had protested that she could do it herself, she was immensely glad that Cilan had insisted.

The whole situation was rather nerve-wracking, after all.

Iris sighed again and shook herself out of her thoughts. She quickly gave her tired Pokémon some medicine and considered cleaning up the battlefield a bit, but Excadrill had already started. She gave her oldest Pokémon a grateful smile and then went back to her new living quarters to make herself some tea.

Cilan would be here soon, she knew, and she hoped that the tea would help her relax. Because as much as she appreciated it that Cilan came over, he was a big part of her stressful situation.

Iris sipped at the still too hot tea, staring blankly ahead of her.

This was absolutely not how she had imagined things to go. In the beginning she had been angry about it, angry that her chance of having a normal relationship with Cilan was ruined, angry that her chance at having a normal life was ruined-

She took a deep breath. Alright, so maybe she hadn't gotten completely over her anger yet. That was- that was normal. And it wasn't that she was unhappy with… with the baby, but it was just-

It was just unfair. Things weren't meant to go this way. She should have gotten the chance to work in her own Gym first, and she and Cilan should have had a normal relationship, they should have gotten engaged and married and then have a family…

Only now that family was coming a bit sooner than expected.

Her heartrate increased and Iris felt some panic bubbling. She took a hasty gulp of tea and then breathed out slowly.

They could deal with this. Life never went as planned, that was life, you couldn't plan life, she knew that… You could only just improvise, adjust your goals and dreams and keep going forward, because regretting the past or what ifs was useless.

They could handle this. Yes, they could handle this, they were in this together, they had agreed on that.

Iris felt the panic subside. Yes, they had talked about this and they could handle this. When she had called Cilan a few days ago with her pregnancy announcement and he had come over, they had immediately agreed that they wanted to keep the baby and raise it together.

Yes, they would be fine. They were in this together.

Despite thinking these and other reassuring thoughts while finishing her tea, an anxious feeling still remained. They had kept in contact via the phone, but this would be the first time seeing each other in person again since the pregnancy conversation. Iris doubted that any amount of reassuring thoughts or tea could dispel her worries.

The doorbell rang and her adrenaline spiked. Iris quickly got up, before forcing herself to calmly walk towards the door. A cold gust of wind blew in when she opened the door, and she quickly closed it after Cilan.

The part of his face that wasn't covered by his hat and scarf was red from the cold, and he fumbled with his gloves. Melting snow dripped on the floor as Cilan took off his winter wear.

Cilan smiled a bit hesitantly. "Hey," he greeted her quietly. "How are you?"

Iris found herself smiling back in the same way. "Hey," she said. "I'm fine." And because that sounded too soft and meek, she tried for a joke. "Not yet throwing up in the mornings or something."

Cilan's smile grew and his shoulders relaxed. Still a bit hesitantly he reached for her hand, and Iris gladly accepted. She grasped his cold hand strongly and squeezed it slightly.

"Good," he said. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Good," she repeated.

For some moments they stood like that, smiling at each other and holding hands. The intimacy felt both comfortable and odd to Iris. But she supposed that they hadn't gotten much of a chance to get used to it before the pregnancy came and made things complicated.

This was not how things should have gone. She held back a sigh, feeling the peace of the moment disappearing.

"Alright, I'll call the doctor," Iris said, pushing her shoulders back and putting on a confident smile. The sooner they got this over with the sooner they could… Well, she didn't really know what she wanted to do after she had made the appointment, but she and Cilan still had enough to talk about.

Cilan squeezed her hand one more time before letting go, still seeming not completely at ease.

But for all their nervousness, the conversation for getting an appointment was short and to the point. Iris surprisingly felt much calmer as she put down the phone.

She was surprised to find that Cilan looked even more nervous than before.

"Iris."

A sense of expectation washed over her at his tone of voice, and her hear rate sped up.

"Iris, I- I know that all this was really unexpected, and that this isn't how we had planned or imagined things would go, but… And I know it's really fast, so I would understand if you would say no, that's- that's okay, that won't change how- how I feel about you. Ah, er, this isn't really coming out right…"

Cilan paused, his face flushed, and he pulled at his collar.

What was he talking about? He wasn't trying to say what she thought he was trying to say, right? Surely he wasn't-

"What are you trying to say, Cilan?" Iris was surprised by how calm she sounded, because her heart pounded in her chest.

"Heh, eh…" He swallowed, smiling nervously. "I had- I had actually prepared a bit of a speech, but I know you prefer to get to the point, so…"

He looked her in the eyes and took a breath. "I love you, Iris. You're my best friend. I know we've only been together for a short time, and that you deserve for things to have gone differently, but still…"

He took one of her suddenly sweaty hands in his and dropped to one knee. "Would you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

He held up a simple silver ring with his other hand.

Her throat went dry and for a moment she could only stare. Cilan looked completely vulnerable, hopeful and happy and worrying at the same time. Her heart hammered in her ears. It was everything she had wanted and nothing she had expected and it was not the right time but it was the most she was going to get and hadn't she just thought that she should just adjust her life's dreams and goals to what life gave you?

Her thoughts were jumbled and messy and she couldn't make sense of it, but then she realized she didn't need to, because she didn't need to answer this question with her brain, but with her heart.

"Yes…" she said, quietly, as if her body wasn't responding completely yet. Slowly, a beaming grin spread over Cilan's face and her heart soared. Her body suddenly kicked into overdrive. "Yes, yes, yes!"

If Cilan had wanted to say something else, he didn't get the chance, because the next moment she had thrown herself in his arms and smashed her lips against his.

A/N: And we have another twist :D I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought about it!

Thank you!

Recommendations:

Pokémon: Lightning Illuminates the Path by Alicia Olivia Mirza. FFN. A long one-shot spinning a realistic beginning to an interesting AU, namely with a smart and strong Ash, but without losing the wonderful friendship between Ash and Pikachu. Also features a nice bit of world building.

Pokémon: Burning Grapevines by ibuberu. FFN. This is a BurningLeaf one-shot which keeps Red well in character, and how Leaf slowly manages to break through his solitude on Mount Silver. With some nice Green cameos ;) Thanks to inklaced for recommending this to me!

Sherlock: Bruises by Kissy Fishy. FFN. A very short but funny story about John's powers of deduction and how he figures out things he'd rather not have known. The ending is brilliant XD No slash, by the way.

If you have any stories you want to recommend, feel free to let me know!