[Part 1]

Lake Biwa was one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, and stretched for over 60 kilometres at its widest, with the lakebed at over 100 metres at its deepest. You would THINK that it would mean that this lake was a home to an enormous variety of different fishes, coexisting in some sort of an impressively flexible balance.

And yet, all Inabayama could see were the same rotund fishies with long whiskers, bulging eyes, comically large lips and dull golden scales. Also, the lake itself was kind of a dump - barely any vegetation peeking out of the dusty-looking lakebed, where occasional stir of the currents filled the area with murky, ill-looking clouds of dirt. At least, the dragon ASSUMED it was dirt. Admittedly, she was not that well-versed in what watery places were supposed to look like, but neither the scenery at the bottom, nor the thick layer of green film covering the surface looked, you know, RIGHT.

Occasionally, some sort of a growling water car made its way across the lake, sometimes specifically removing parts of the green film as it went, but good luck with that - for every pace they cleared, there were twenty more still covered in that sickly film.

After an agonisingly long stretch of time of Hiei and Inabayama floating in a bubble under the water surface (the Goodra certainly wouldn't even think of assuming how long THAT lasted), they came to a gradual stop, and burrowed straight into the lakebed, traveling some distance down, and then slowly course correcting to the side and slightly upward. Then the bubble stopped again, made some way to the side, and expanded for a few seconds before seemingly disappearing, leaving the two in a relatively small underwater cave.

Inabayama was just about to start a conversation, now that the Gardevoir was not busy keeping them alive, but one look at the former King of the Mountain made her realise, that it was a futile idea. Hiei was clearly too tired for any of that nonsense.

Also, she was apparently busy charging up her chest spike with energy, causing it to glow softly?..

"Uhh?.."

"Air battery. For while I sleep," a brisk, exhausted explanation without even looking in the dragon's direction. Inabayama would probably need to ask for further clarification later, "Go to sleep."

"Want to hug while we sleep?"

"…" at that, Hiei looked at her briefly, before shrugging, "Sure."

[Part 2]

Waking up had always been a struggle. It always felt like doing so tapped into practically depleted energy reserves, with every waking moment draining the last remnants of that energy, until there was nothing left.

This time, the process was slightly easier. That could partially be attributed to the constant workload of holding the entire mountaintop AND the black hole together finally being lifted off her mind. Though she was fairly certain that another factor in that particular mystery was the fact that she was pleasantly warm. Moreso than when she was sleeping under her blanket, with the sun hitting her just right.

Oh, she supposed that the blanket was still present, draped over the shoulders of Inabayama, who was snuggling to her in her sleep. And yes, they were still in that freshly made underwater cave, its shell hardened to being virtually impenetrable under pressure of an expanded, three-layered gravitational bubble, the inner layer allowing for normal gravity inside, the middle layer pushing outwards with the pull equal to the Earth's core, and the outer layer pushing inwards with enough force to neutralise the effect against its surroundings. Basically, she was so tired yesterday that she did not realise just how much of an overkill this protective setup was. And now, she had to be extra careful while moving, not to mention cancelling these forces, so that she didn't attract humans with a blast that could instantly level the entire lake and everything around it. Good to know.

The Goodra seemed to still not be awake - did she have troubles falling asleep? - so Hiei had some time to her own thoughts. But first, she had to catch some food - not that she needed to move from this spot to do so.

Without a sound nor a twitch, the Gardevoir expanded a tactile gravitational field, with a comfortably simple radius of 50 metres. It was a technique similar to the one she used to monitor the entire mountain, just on a far lesser and far less taxing scale. Said field allowed her to 'sense' every gravitational force within its radius - a sensation akin to being able to hear or smell something, except marking its precise position, weight, and even general shape if she bothered to peer into the inner forces that held its matter together - and could not be fooled by walls of matter or illusory disguises.

Finding her mark was easy - three separate living things were slowly swimming through the waters surrounding the cave entrance, with the rest of the radius being clear of anything but vegetation, rocks and muck. Making a conscious effort to determine their shape just to be sure, and noting that all three were fishes of relatively similar shape, Hiei snapped their necks with a mental gesture, and dragged the corpses through the entrance and into the cave, before depositing her catch in the corner. Wait-

All three had a golden glint to them.

All.

THREE.

Hiei had to pull her attention away from her catch before she got too angry at the revelation. She still didn't want to wake Inabayama up. Speaking of, THAT was a good enough distraction from the fury. Inabayama, that is.

To be honest, Hiei had spent centuries feeling like she was the only rational being in entire world. Either that, or a madwoman. Not a single Pokemon she met could come even close to her in terms of actual intelligence - the triple damned mental blocks ensured that even the so-called Psychic types with all of their processing power would fall short in anything that did not require them to lift a rock with their minds. And mingling with humans was out of question as well. So she was… Lonely?.. That… That probably was the right word for it.

And then, Inabayama barged into her life like it was nobody's business. And Inabayama was smart. Not in terms of processing power, nor in terms of the sheer amount of knowledge she possessed. No, she actually UNDERSTOOD what Hiei talked to her about - and when she didn't, she made a genuine ATTEMPT to properly understand. That? That was a first.

Also, that mountain-disappearing plan the dragon concocted after being given brief, limited and quite simplified explanations of Hiei's capabilities? Yes, it was something that the Gardevoir was not sure she'd be able to come up with if she TRIED. To be honest, she was never really one for subtlety, as her overwhelming power and mastery over Universal Forces made it feel quite unnecessary.

So, Inabayama was understanding AND she was smart, her raw intelligence rivalling, if not outstripping Hiei's, at least in SOME aspects. And THAT was quite a thought of itself.

To be honest, the Gardevoir was not sure why she didn't find this notion frustrating. She was used to being unrivalled by anyone else, the knowledge of her own superiority feeling like one of those truths of the Universe, if not the fifth Universal Force of itself. And now that someone was possibly challenging that superiority in at least one of its aspects, she felt… Relief?.. No, that was not the word… At least, not in its entirety.

What else was there?..

Hm…

Maybe she needed to change the perspective from which she looked at this conundrum. Maybe the issue was not with what she was feeling about it. Maybe the issue was with her feelings about Inabayama.

The dragon was… Smart. Cunning. Understanding. Optimistic. Empathetic. Sociable. Hesitant to push her boundaries too far. Relatively strong. Not deathly afraid of her, despite her ability to inflict great violence. Those were all objective facts. And… She found all of them… Endearing?.. Hm, that's still not the right word, not in its entirety.

She still missed SOMETHING. Something crucial.

Something that made her want to… To do what?.. Hmm… To ensure that no harm, physical or otherwise, came to Inabayama?.. To stay as close to her as possible?.. To… Be there for her, just like the dragon was there for Hiei when it mattered the most?.. To hold her hand again?..

Hm…

Wait.

Was she in love?..

The realisation stabbed into her mind, getting past all the mental defences, and nearly causing her to flinch at the sheer… EVERYTHING of the solution. Oh, bloody hell, now that she thought about it, this was THE issue all along. How did it take her this long to realise it? And for that matter, for how long was this the case?

Was it since the Grand Illusion plan that impressed her so much? Or since she showed Inabayama the mountaintop? Or since the dragon held her in an embrace for an entire night after that last human invasion? Or earlier? It couldn't had been since their very first meeting, right?

However long it was, it was a fact that the Gardevoir had to come to terms sooner rather than later.

More importantly, what was she supposed to do with that knowledge?

Hm… At least, Hiei knew the answer to that last question - and oh, it appeared that the Goodra was finally awake. Fantastic.

"Uh… Morning, Hiei…" the dragon managed, suppressing a yawn, all while looking absolutely... Adorable? Yeah, that was a close enough word, "Oh, did you catch us a breakfast?.."

"Indeed," the Gardevoir nodded, "Also, this might come as a surprise, but I believe that I'm in love with you."