Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: (Another) First Kiss

by Tanuki1029

Everyone wants a second chance, Max more than most. She thinks it's finally here, until it all goes so terribly wrong. All she can do is watch as a fresh start becomes an ancient catastrophe; a taste, so sweet, turns to ash in the mouth, as the hero who defeated Dark Matter finds out what happened when she didn't. (A Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon Adaptation)

5. Chapter 5: How 'Bout Another?

(A/N: Hello, here's your regularly scheduled Wednesday. I'm gonna be switching the Sunday posts to Saturday, though, so. Mark your calendars? If you have any feedback, let me know, etc.)

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"'How 'bout another first kiss?' he said"

Pokémon sat and shoved about the little café-bar. Some had drinks, some had food, some had both, and some had yet to have either. The crowd had just started to stream out, turning the place from a bit too crowded to almost quaint, and Team Plasma sat at a nice mix of a bench and a table off to the side.

The main attraction for Max, though, and the reason they ever came here, was the little ensemble on the stage. To her dismay, the world had found no music players of any kind yet. She would've taken an Edison Cylinder, but all anyone had found were books and papers. They had the music, but only to play, so she'd scoured the map for some place that consistently had live music before she had a breakdown.

The band was fine. The froakie had fine control of the flute (Max wasn't well versed in woodwinds enough to identify it further), the aggron only seemed to play bass because no one else was large enough, but the drillbur on drums picked up the slack for the rhythm section. The togetic on saxophone was just as good, but had the drawback of clearly knowing they were good and, as a result, playing much worse.

And it was the best thing Max had ever heard in her life.

Ash nudged her, jerking his head forward and a bit to the right. Max looked in the direction, but it took her a second to see the orange fish flopped onto its table, nursing a drink half as tall as it was long. "The tatsugiri?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Ash whispered back. "Any ideas?"

"Ash, what have we talked about?" Max said, shaking her head as she chuckled. She pat the cyndaquil on his back while Ithos shot her a glare. "Your best bet is a good conversation starter. If you can be nice and prove you won't murder her," she snapped her nubbins, "you'll improve your chances with any girl."

"That's what I'm asking!" Ash grumbled. "What's a good conversation starter for her?"

Max lightheartedly rubbed her temple while rolling her eyes. "You'll have to talk to her to figure that out," she chuckled. Giving the fish another glance, though, she had to quirk a brow. "Her, though?" Tatsugiri was a kind of cute. As far as Max could tell in the almost year she'd known him, that was the extent of Ash's type. Cute, somehow.

For no particular reason, Max scanned the crowd for someone who seemed a bit more obviously appealing to a land mammal (would a tatsugiri even be in the right egg group?). It was pretty fun, too, since a part of this bar's gimmick was human stuff. It wasn't required, but a lot of the guests gussied up in human-esque outfits in varying levels of sincerity. She was considering looking for an outfit after this for next time.

She skipped over them for Ash's sake, but there were quite a few spiffy guys in sleek suits that caught her eye (one aggron in particular made her wiggle in her seat a bit). For the most part, though, people wore little accessories. After her first scan, she started to wonder if he had any other choice than the tatsugiri.

This place didn't have many girls, unfortunately common for a bar. Nevertheless, she had enough faith in herself to hum, "What about…," in the hopes that she'd find a nice girl in time to finish the sentence. Halfway through her third pass, she caught another flash of orange coming through with a cup in her hand.

It was a floatzel, sleek but graciously not slim, in a tight black top that was just tight enough to put some of her pudge on display. It must have been custom made, because it shifted to fishnets to go over her yellow floater, and a cutout at the chest mirrored the drop of orange on her yellow belly. Pokémon didn't totally get what clothes were modest, yet this floatzel strut with a confidence that suggested she knew exactly what she was doing with that outfit.

Floatzel wiggled her paw in a playful wave. Max was too busy checking her out a third time to notice for a second. The instant she did, she froze, and her cheeks started sparking. She mouthed, 'hi,' with a wave and as much of an awkward smile as she could manage, cheeks still sparking like mad. Floatzel covered her mouth to chuckle, then shot her a wink before taking her seat.

"Max?" Ash asked. He glanced between her and the floatzel a few times while raising a brow. "I thought you liked guys." Max rested her folded arms on the table and swiftly smashed her face into them. The instant Ash started to chuckle, she slapped the back of his head with her tail, but that didn't stop him.

"I-Ithos, bro," Ash chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "You're dumb—she's a lesbian!" She was going to kill him.

"Please," Ithos said, rolling his eyes. "She likes guys." He shot Max a playful glance that she ostensibly missed, face still smashed in the comforting darkness of her arms. "Trust me." As important (and far along) her plans to murder and dispose of Ash were, she forced herself to pull back up.

"Excuse me?" Max asked. Ithos instantly lost his nerve, face flashing red, and his attention shot to his drink. Max rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out what these two were on about. "I do." She took a deep breath and let her paws drop. Both of them were looking at her confused. "I do, in fact, find guys attractive." Ithos gave Ash a smirk.

"Max, c'mon," Ash chuckled. He went to pat her back, stopping the instant he caught her murderous glare. "Even she could see how you were looking at her." Max wished she had some kind of picture book to explain it to these idiots.

"Yes," Max said. "I do, in fact, also find girls attractive." Ithos gave about the reaction she'd expected, raising a brow for a second before nodding as he went back to his drink.

Ash was staring into the Heart of Creation. Somehow, his permanently squinted eyes looked wide while his jaw hung slack. Air spun in and out of his head while the system desperately tried to cool itself. Both paws went to cover his gaping mouth.

"Both?" Ash asked. Max's tastes were a bit more broad than 'both', but she nodded for the sake of his sanity. As she did, Ash's lips started to tug into a mad approximation of a smile. "You… you can like both?" The stars shined on him for the first time, that night, as he looked like he'd happened upon the hidden knowledge of the Legendaries. "You don't have to choose?!"

Max nodded, and Ash shot up onto his chair, lips in the widest grin she'd ever seen from him. His eyes shot across the bar before lasering in on the nearest male. With all the excitement of an organism with its first taste of life, he squealed, "ITHOS! W-"

"No," Ithos instantly interrupted.

"Dammit," Ash said, but he didn't look the slightest bit deterred. Every bit of that excitement remained on his face. Reinvigorated, he scanned the bar again with all new eyes. It looked remarkably familiar to Max, in that same way any of her obscured human memories were. Looking at his, she could remember feeling some excitement quite the same.

Max grabbed her cup and raised it. Scanning to Ithos with a grin, she said, "To bisexuals?" By the time she finished the sentence, though, Ash had gone, leaving his nachos unattended. "Bisexual?" she amended but saw Ithos' uneasy gaze when she turned to him again. "What?"

"Nothing," Ithos said. He shook his head and finally brought his glass to hers. They clinked and took a sip together. Ithos didn't repeat the toast like he was supposed to, but Max was more worried about that look he gave her. She kept watching him, and it wasn't long before his defenses broke down. "Fine." He looked away while he struggled to find the words. "Why do you help him?"

"Why not?" Max asked. Ithos had never seemed enthused about her doing that, but she'd never noticed this response before. It had been a while, though, so maybe the feelings just boiled over.

"I don't know," Ithos said. He took another sip and started to crumple into the arm resting on the table. He kept vigilant watch of the drink's motion in his glass with careful, infrequent glances over to her. It almost looked like his cheeks had flushed, but Max couldn't get a good look at them. "Isn't it, like, harassment?"

"Oh, no," Max said. She shook her head to accentuate the point while a gleam of understanding started in her eye. "Ash is just… eager." To put it lightly. "But, look, if he can handle me laughing in his face, then still be my friend after he tried with me, I think it's all right."

"You laughed at him?" Ithos asked, starting to chuckle. "Mew, Max, that's a bit harsh." The levity brought his head up again, but a cloud still hung over him.

"Yeah, I felt really bad," Max said, taking her own prolonged examination of her drink. "For a while, honestly." She took another sip and looked over with her confidence back. "But that's what I mean." She sat her drink down and held both of her paws out, parallel to each other. "He takes no for an answer. No matter what." Ithos nodded along, but he didn't look any more confident about it.

"The worst of his approach is his pickup lines, but they're not exactly rude," Max said. "Just, y'know," she chuckled, "laughably awful." Her eyes wandered to the nachos he'd left behind, but she shook her head and looked back to Ithos. "Look, the point is, he's a nice enough guy, and he's proven I can trust him."

"Yeah, I guess," Ithos said, his own eyes wandering over to the abandoned appetizer. Max caught his temptation and dragged the bowl between them. This time, she definitely caught his cheeks flushing as she took a chip. He gave the cheesy chips a pining gaze before nervously looking away. "Still, he's a guy, y'know?" Max stared at him, slowly nodding.

"I'd noticed as much," Max said.

"I know," Ithos grumbled, rolling his eyes. "That's not what I meant." He propped his chin up in his paw while glaring off in the distance. "Guys are just… different, y'know? Or," he slapped his paw to his face, shaking his head as he grumbled, "well, no. You don't."

Max wiggled in her seat a bit. Even a year in, she still got excited about it. The fact Ithos forgot, even, made her grin that much wider. "Ithos," Max chuckled. "You remember who you're talking to?"

Ithos squinted at her in confusion before his eyes shot open. "Right, sorry," he grumbled, burying his face into his arm. "I don't know." He shook his head but didn't lift it, trying very hard to shut out the world. Whatever he wanted to say, it wasn't coming out, and it was really getting to him. Luckily, Max knew just what to do. The fact he was trying to shut the world out made it that much easier.

As quietly as she could manage, she spun around to hop off the bench, struggling to keep in a grunt. The extra two pounds from her incident with the Lotus was a bit more impactful when she only had twenty (twenty-two, now). She didn't really mind, though, kind of preferring how the extra weight made her look (and however else the incident itself made her feel was nobody's business but her own).

It just made sneaking that little bit harder. Luckily, Ithos didn't seem to notice as she crept around the table. It was a loud bar, after all. In one smooth motion, she hopped over the same bench he sat on and slid over to his side.

Ithos jumped, looking around in a panic until he saw her. His cheeks flushed, but he didn't complain. Even after her humiliation of an attempted kiss, they got used to being physically close incredibly quickly. That same night, they'd gone to sleep separately, but he'd wrapped himself around her by the morning. According to him, she was whimpering and shaking from nightmares until he did.

"C'mon," Max said, wrapping an arm around him. "What's up?" Ithos started to slouch into his arm again, so Max started tugging him into a tighter hug. While he reluctantly straightened up, Max used her free paw to get another nice and goopy chip.

"It's hard to explain," Ithos said. At this point, he knew he didn't have a choice, so he was just explaining his silence. "It's just, guys are a lot more dangerous with what we want, you know?" Max kept listening, but not without raising a skeptical brow as she snatched another chip. "We can't just go around telling girls they're pretty. It's rude."

"I mean, kinda," Max said. She took another chip out of the bowl, this time offering it to Ithos. He pushed it away with a longing stare, so Max ate it. It made for good fuel while she thought through what Ithos was smoking. Luckily, she didn't have to think it through from scratch. She could almost remember the underlying logic of what he was saying, it just took careful digging to avoid a migraine.

"There's a time and a place for it," Max said. That wasn't the real issue, though, more a symptom. "But, Ithos." He took a brief break from avoiding her eyes to give her the look of a wounded puppy. "You know it's okay to be attracted to people, right?"

"Wh-what?" Ithos sputtered. "M-Max, well, yeah." His cheeks flushed as he frantically went to hide in his drink. "I mean, obviously. As… active as our drives are, it's not like we can stop that." Max, personally, had found herself exceedingly more active in the past year (which was saying something), but that could've just been the novelty, and it wasn't important, so she let him go on.

"Still, feeling it is way different from, y'know," Ithos mumbled. His whole body started to heat up so much that Max had to scoot an inch away.

"Ithos," Max said. She tried to put a paw on his arm, but it felt too hot before she even touched it. Instead, she continued to munch on the chips. "Being a guy doesn't make you a predator." He shrank down a bit more.

Based on the color of his cheeks, it looked like he was about to evolve from embarrassment alone. Max knew this kind of topic was touchy, but it felt like Ithos had never talked to anyone about it. Still, she was pretty sure she joked and talked openly about this kind of thing with him the first time around. For some reason, though, he seemed way more cagey about it around… her.

Right. She was a girl, this time. Of course he was going to feel more awkward about this. Regardless, she pressed on.

"Y'know, it's really sweet," Max said. She scooted away just a little so he'd have a bit more space, tugging the nachos with her. "Caring about how you might make girls feel is really nice, but look." Now that he had a bit more space, he could breathe easier. He even managed to actually look over like she'd asked. "Don't ever feel bad for feeling how you feel, got it?

"Love, attraction, kisses," she lightly rapped on his shoulder with a wry grin, "sex." Ithos flinched, and Max chuckled as she went on. "It's fun. No one's going to think you're a monster for saying you like how they look." Finally, as she spoke, Ithos started to nod along and calm a bit. "Ash has fun with it, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Ithos mumbled. After a second, he even let out a nervous chuckle. "A bit too much, for how much he gets rejected." Max had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out her most recent chip.

"Exactly," Max said. "Maybe you should give it a shot, some time." Ithos rolled his eyes and started to smirk at her; it's not like her ulterior motive was hidden.

"Oh, maybe I could," Ithos hummed. "Hard to find anyone that catches my eye, though." He made a big show of looking around the bar, then held his head up with his left arm, resting that very elbow on Max's head. "I think I saw a pretty cute floatzel." He smirked down at her a second before she shocked him off. Even while he winced away from the attack, he was laughing. Max was having a few chuckles, herself.

Max went to snatch up another pawful of chips and bumped into Ithos doing the same. She looked over, giving him first dibs since she'd already eaten half of it, and saw he'd settled into a reserved smile. After snagging her own chips, she nestled a bit closer to him again.

"Thanks," Ithos said. He took a drink to wash down the chips and tugged her into a quick side-hug. "I've been nervous about that for a while."

Max, for once, decided not to try talking with a full mouth. Instead, she nestled further into his hold and hugged him back. Feeling him around her was always perfect. She never got over it, never got over finally seeing him again. Sometimes she wished she never had to let go. Even when she wished it could mean something more, the hurt couldn't beat out that soul-mending warmth.

She had another chance to be his friend. Maybe if she hadn't tried something within twenty-four hours of meeting him, they could've been something more, but it was too late. It had been a year. Ithos already knew how she felt, so she told herself she was content being a friend. As long as she didn't let herself hope, it was perfect.

Feeling his warm scales wrapped tight around her fur, though, sometimes, she couldn't help wishing.

"Excuse me, are you Max?" asked a voice from behind. Max turned to look, trying to stay in Ithos' embrace, but he'd already started letting her go. Concealing a whimper, she did the same and saw a familiar decidueye standing over them. Since he was wearing a t-shirt that matched the bar, though, she didn't have trouble remembering where she'd seen him before: he was a bartender.

"Yeah?" she said. An employee coming over didn't exactly bode well. She couldn't think of anything she'd done, though.

"Hey, uh," Decidueye said, glancing down to his left wing. He had a folded up note and kept looking between it and her. After a bit, though, he snapped out of whatever confusion he had and gave the note to her. "Someone wanted me to give this to you."

"Someone?" Max asked. Somehow, Decidueye looked as confused as she did. "Who?"

"Well," Decidueye looked her over again. Every time he did, he seemed to land on her tail. "I don't really know. She said you'd figure it out?" He gave her an apologetic smile before shrugging. As he started to turn away, he suddenly stopped and said, "Oh, and the a package's over there." He pointed off to the side opposite the stage and left before she could ask any more questions.

"What the hell?" Max mumbled. She shared a confused glance with Ithos before they both shrugged.

"I guess you should read the note?" Ithos asked.

"Right," Max said. She'd almost forgotten about it already. As she started to unfold it, though, she caught Ithos looking over her shoulder. She narrowed her eyes at him with a chuckle, and he quickly looked away. Shaking her head, she looked at the note.

Hey girl, go ahead and head over to the package. Alone, and don't read the next part until you're there.
—F.M.

Max rolled her eyes. As if she'd follow some stupid scavenger hunt from someone she didn't even know. The script was… bizarrely familiar, though. She tried to shake it off, though, and read on.

C'mon, what did I just say? I promise it's not a scavenger hunt, ;3. You can trust me, can't you?
—F.M.

Max recoiled a bit at that one. Predicting anyone would read on was easy, that didn't spook her. The fact it mentioned the very thought she'd had, however, definitely did. Whoever this was, though, definitely had her interest now. "Okay, well," she mumbled with a quick nod to Ithos. "Gotta go. See ya later."

"Wh-Max?" Ithos asked, but she was already off and trying to remember where Decidueye had pointed. After making it out of the table area, she caught sight of the couch corner off to the side. 'Corner' was a bit of an understatement, though. It took up about half the length of that wall. Since the main crowd had left, though, everyone was over closer to the stage. This place was for people who wanted a bit of quiet.

Max looked around a few times, tail flicking in agitation behind her. A mysterious note taking her to a secluded side of a restaurant raised almost every red flag in the book. She didn't see anyone, though. She'd find whatever 'package' was there and bounce before someone made her pelt into a hat.

No one else seemed to be around, and after another scan, she saw what had to be the package. It was smaller than her, but once she spotted it, she couldn't take her eyes away. She recognized that shape.

A guitar case.

She tossed the note in her mouth to scurry over in disbelief. She had a feeling she played when she had hands, but considering the whole paw situation she had going on, she'd never even entertained the notion of trying. Once she made it over, though, she started having second thoughts.

Before those thoughts got anywhere, though, she shook herself out of it. It wasn't worth the disappointment. This had to be some cruel joke, but who the hell even knew she used to play? Maybe she'd suggested it to someone without thinking. She started to circle the case like a bomb and noticed another note taped onto the front.

You can read the next part of the note, now. :3
—Guess who~ 3

A shiver ran up Max's spine. She jerked her head around again to see if anyone was watching, but still didn't see anyone. Shaking her head in disbelief, she cautiously looked back down to the note.

Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is. Give it a shot! I don't know how it works, either, but I try not to think about it too hard. All those couches suck, though, so just sit on the case.
—F.M.

"I'm losing my mind," Max said. She didn't believe any part of this for a second. Maybe Grovyle was messing with her. It was too ridiculous to even consider. When she started to turn away, though, she found she'd already started snapping open the clasps. It wouldn't hurt to look, after all. This was elaborate enough for a prank that she may as well see it through.

Gently, she laid the case down, undid the rest of the clasps and tossed the lid open. In the case was exactly what she'd expected. A guitar, semi-acoustic, with a matte wood finish, lightning bolts for f-holes and another note taped above the pickups.

Thanks for seeing it through! Sorry it wasn't a prank. Be sure to close the case before sitting on it, though. If you suddenly need a quick place to hide, the supply closet to your left is unlocked.
—F.M.

"Sure," Max said, rubbing her eyes. She must not have gotten enough sleep last night. Sure enough, she could see a closed supply closet door on the far wall to her left. This person clearly had an uncanny ability to predict her thoughts, wants, and actions. She'd assume it had to be a psychic type, but apparently they couldn't really read minds. Whoever it was, Max was just glad she was being playful instead of murderous.

She set the note down in the case and carefully pulled the guitar out by the neck. The strap easily went over her head and rested on her shoulders without any adjustments. She had to pull the guitar a bit to the right to reach the end of the neck, and it rested there comfortably. It was practically made for her.

Her left paw plucked the pick out of the bottom three strings before even noticing it was there. Muscle memory. She transferred it over to her right paw and did a quick strum to check the tuning. Her nubbins went form an e minor chord on their own, and it played. She couldn't tell if it was actually tuned to E, but the intervals between the strings were right.

"No kidding," Max chuckled. It would've amazed her, but she was afraid to think about it. Like flying by missing the ground, if she acknowledged the absurdity, the universe might have something to say about it. Instead, she went on to play the First Five.

Her paw felt a bit stiff at first, transitioning from one chord to the next, but she could do it. D took a bit of extra effort, but it always had. After a few cycles, she could hop from one chord to the other with familiar ease.

It wasn't an impressive feat, but it was familiar. The basic progression played to her ears like the first sip of water after years in a desert. Her tail flicked the lid of the case down, and she hopped back to sit with a growing smile. She was glad it was semi-hollow. It had just enough resonance to play without an amp without playing to the whole bar like an acoustic would.

Her grin grew wider with every cycle of the progression, tail wagging to an increasingly enthusiastic beat until she couldn't help herself anymore. She slid up the neck to start playing with scales. The basic outline came just like the chords, stiff at first but familiar.

She plucked through old tunes she only remembered once she heard herself playing them. They started as half-baked melodies she was ready to abandon before she finished playing them, but her paws started to fall into familiar motions that had much deeper grooves in her memory. Within a minute, she'd found a little melody that clawed at the edges of her memory.

A slow, reluctant start that suddenly flew up to the third from the tonic before creeping up, half-step by unwilling half-step, from the fourth to the fifth. In an instant, it hopped up to the next octave's home before tumbling back down. It desperately clawed for a foothold somewhere between the fourth and the fifth, only to fall back to the tonic and start again.

A loop, it had variance through every cycle. During play, she'd slow down at parts, syncopate at others, repeat here and there, but it always ended the same. Again and again, every time she played, it came to the same end, just to start it all again. Any reluctance was all part of the dance, doomed by the fifths' dominance to fall back to the tonic dissonance. It happened that resistance was all part of the dance.

She let the melody run its course, ending on the pining fifth without permitting its resolution. One last act of defiance. Remembering a tune felt good, but it's not like she stopped thinking of new music just because she didn't know she could play it. It was how she experienced herself, so she turned to a new melody.

Yes, it took her just a bit to find the rhythm that she'd set. Once it came, she let it play without regard for what notes would play. She knew the notes she had in mind, but first she let them find their time. The tune, it came from somewhere deep that she had not the heart to seek.

Yet, it flowed and, with her, rode a heart that it could but erode. The notes called out for someone else, someone's heart she wished she felt, as they rose and fell again, all to fail and all to sin. In her play, her heart cried out with more than melodies could play, and more than words alone could say. As her heart went to her strings, she opened up her mouth to sing.

"Every time I say your name,
I remember a certain pain
And every time I see your face
I know our time will be in vain.
Outside my time and your place
There's a heart that we've both misplaced,
Born of shame we hide, Dead Flame
With one gone, the other stays.

When I give you the time of day,
I know I'm throwing it away.
Each smile you see on my face
I know is soon to be erased.
And yet, I cannot help my love
Even in flight, the mourning dove
Has brought to me the light of day
With love I'll never throw away

Born of shame, we hide, Dead Flame
With one gone, the other will stay."

Even in the pain of her words, Max couldn't help a wide smile as her tail kept beat behind her. She didn't know how long she'd been humming that tune in her head, and finally being able to sing and play it aloud brought a familiar bit of relief. Crying had its own catharsis, but this meant so much more to her.

For a few measures, she tried to bring the momentum back. She tried to find some more to say, but the song felt complete enough for now. Playing one last reprise of the melody, she let it draw to a close.

"Born of shame, we hide, Dead Flame," she sang one last time. "With one gone-" her ear flicked up. She'd stopped playing, but she heard more than her voice as she sang. Her cheeks started to lightly spark at the suspicion, then spewed out a storm when she heard the melody finish even though she'd stopped singing. She looked up to see who else but Ithos.

She stared at him with wide eyes; he looked back with a nervous smile.

"Uh, hey," Ithos said. His thin smile strained against the awkward silence as he pushed his paw out to give her a thumbs up. "That was really pretty." Max stared at him, motionless, while trying with all of her might to at least pretend to thank him. "I didn't kno-"

"Thanks," Max finally managed. Ithos stopped to let her continue, but she could only think about how much of an idiot she was for waiting too long until it no longer made sense to say thanks. Her cheeks had yet to stop sparking. She'd be worried about the guitar if she wasn't currently in the midst of a panic attack. To express exactly how she was feeling, she continued to stare silently at Ithos.

"I'm guessing you didn't want me to hear that," Ithos said.

"Not really," Max said.

"Do you need a minute?" Ithos asked.

"At least," Max said.

"Cool, no problem," Ithos said. Despite it all, he was still pushing out that awkward smile. She wished he'd just enthusiastically heap empty praise that proved he heard little more than the notes and rhythm. Instead, she could see on his face that he'd actually listened. He heard and comprehended her words. "Do you need the rest of the night?"

"Maybe," Max said.

"No worries, take your time," Ithos said. He started rocking from his left paw to his right. "Would a hug make things better or-"

"Worse," Max said. To her horror, Ithos deflated when she said that. She'd expected him to look relieved to have even less time trapped in this awkward hell. Instead, he looked disappointed.

"All right, no problem," Ithos said. "I'll see you later, then." He didn't move an inch. Even after Max nodded in acknowledgment, he stayed right there, rocking from one side to the other. He had more to say, and Max had no way of stopping him. "I know you didn't mean to, but," his cheeks flushed further, "thanks for sharing."

Max squeaked something incomprehensible to both of them. Ithos gave her one last look, waved, then turned on his heels. Max gently threw the guitar back into its case and sprinted to the promised hiding space the note told her about.

So, whoever wrote the note knew this would happen. In fact, she probably caused this to happen. Max had played exactly to her plan. Based on how well this girl knew her, she already had a pretty good idea who it was. Luckily, it was a pretty spacious supply closet. She had some room to lie on the floor and claw out her fur before the mastermind showed her face.

Max had more time than she'd expected. She had eons of deep breaths to get her cheeks under control, and even more time to come to terms with the facts. It wasn't the end of the world. Ithos didn't seem to hate her, so that was a good sign. He had more reason to believe she had a crush on him, but that wasn't new information to him. This hadn't told him any more than he knew the day of their first mission.

"Okay," Max said. "Fine. It's fine." The affirmations didn't make it so. She still had too much nervous energy that her tail desperately tried to flick out behind her. After another minute of agony, it finally started to slow. Within one second of standing back up, she heard the door knob turn behind her.

"Max Protocol One, S.K.U.X, Operation BootStrap," the newcomer said—eliminating any doubts in Max's head. She knew for a fact who knew about Max Protocol One. By design, she'd thought it all up such that she could trust exactly one person to know about them.

Herself.

"Well, yeah, I'm not fucking in a supply closet," both Maxes said in unison as Past Max turned to face herself.

"Like you wouldn't," F.M. said with a smirk. She leaned against the door to close it, setting the guitar down next to her before crossing her arms. Despite her attempts at nonchalance, her tail (with a healed bite mark) wagged behind her. "Finally! Been wondering how the other side of that felt."

She sported a leather jacket and the earring Eleos gave her (as well as the fully healed, but still clearly damaged tip from that piercing). The jacket had the exact same brown-black of her ears, and she must've died the end of her tail to match, too. That tuft of 'hair' she used to try pulling into bangs actually looked intentional, finally, and it even looked a bit brighter towards the tips.

"Okay, bootstrap, then?" Max confirmed. As exciting as it was to see her style, she didn't want to linger long enough to see what hadn't changed.

"Yep," F.M. said with a nod. She opened up her arms to reach into her jacket and tug out a pretty well worn, leather bound notebook, and tossed it over. Max caught it, but looked up with a skeptical glance. F.M. quickly nodded, obviously prepared for the confusion.

"There's a sort of lag," she explained. "We can't just go off memory because I only remember what happens if nothing changes." She pointed a nubbin at the journal. "That makes sure we don't keep forgetting the same, like, two things." Max nodded, a smirk starting to spread her lips. She couldn't play it cool for any longer, and she could see her future self's same defenses breaking down.

"All right," Max said. She plopped the journal down beside her and wiggled the nerves out of herself, the series of events that brought her to that supply closet all but forgotten. "What kind do we start with?"

"This kind," F.M. said. Having taken a step while Max tossed the journal aside, F.M. was exactly close enough to wrap an arm around her and pull her in. Max briefly noticed both of her bodies were the same height, and then their lips met. She followed her future self's lead, trying not to lose passion to her critical mind. Thankfully, it seemed the progress of the past loops made that quite easy.

Right at the kiss's peak, F.M. pulled back and helped Max back up on her hindpaws. F.M. stared down with a smirk that made Max roll her eyes. "Damn," F.M. said. "Still not quite there yet." She let Max go and nodded to the journal. "At least you looked like you had fun."

"Well, duh," Max chuckled, flicking through the journal to the first blank page. "Who wouldn't have fun doing this? That's the whole point of the Protocols." As she wrote, she shook her head. They were mostly just thought experiments. That, and it felt kind of cool to imagine secret protocols and codes that only she knew.

"All right," Max said as she finished up the last of her notes. She tucked the pen into her current page and held the journal in her paw. "Neutral?"

"Yep," F.M. said.

Together, they started with a quick, easy hug, both tilting to their left. With a quick squeeze, they pulled apart in unison to come back and press their lips together. This meeting was briefer, softer, but no less passionate or involved. Even though they should've been on equal ground, F.M. took a slight plunge forward to press harder and released before Max was ready.

Max stumbled back a bit to see the same self-satisfied smirk on F.M.'s face. This time, though, she couldn't roll her eyes in the same way.

"Great," F.M. said. She tugged her jacket out with a casual flick of her head to stretch her neck. "Still got that one down, then." So, it wasn't even a new achievement. "Mine had that one, too."

"A long legacy to live up to, then," Max mumbled. That was the simplest kiss, though, so it would of course be the first to perfect. At least, perfect in her opinion. She glanced down to the journal with one ear flicking up. "Isn't this just gonna make me the best at what I like?"

"Yeah, kinda," F.M. said with a nod. She leaned back against the wall again in light thought. "But kissing's all about fun. As long as you're having fun, your partner probably will, too." As she looked up in thought, Max wondered if she was considering the question, or remembering the answer. "I didn't really love that explanation at first, but it'll make sense soon." F.M. gave Max a knowing smirk.

"Oh?" Max said, a few sparks bouncing down her cheeks. It didn't sound like F.M. was talking about this encounter. The only other person she could mean, though, sent Max right back to the humiliation from earlier. A knot started to form in her stomach again until she realized—she'd organized this all in the future.

"Wait," Max said. Her crippling fear started to shift to excitement. "Does that mean that Ithos-"

"Spoilers," F.M. interrupted with a smirk. Behind the smirk, though, she cringed with Max in shared frustration. "Yeah. I hated that answer, too." She shrugged her shoulders with an empathetic tilt of her head. "Sorry." She moved to pull her jacket a bit more open and stopped when Max tried to look away. Max flinched, but F.M. kept smirking.

"What?" F.M. chuckled. "Did you really think you'd hide it from you of all pikachu?"

"No," Max said. She still kept her eyes on the tall, bucketless mop to the left. "I just don't want to have to think about that." Her ears fell, and she started to shrink away, shaking her head. "This change has been a relief, well." She had a slight wince from phantom pain down below. "For the most part." She shook her head and winced again, realizing who she was talking to.

Max was lucky. She still had time, but F.M. had already suffered the reversion. Transition might have given her hope, but she could just live happily like this. "How am I supposed to go back?" she whimpered.

"It wasn't easy to accept," F.M. said. "And I didn't believe anything I told myself in here, either." Max glanced up to see her smirk had softened without sacrificing any potency. "Not until she did this." She hadn't moved her paws, so she slipped her jacket back and off, tossing it on top of the guitar case. Max didn't look away, but kept her eyes high, not daring to stray down.

"Come on," F.M. said. "You can trust me, can't you?" She looked back with the same, confident smile, unfettered by Max's refusal to cooperate. She watched with a soft certainty, knowing how this would go. Max remembered the last time she'd seen Eleos, or that other pikachu in the Dungeon, been forced to see her horrid self.

Only the memory of that dread came, though. It didn't make the same return. After all, this was, well, her. That confidence bordering on cockiness could only really mean one thing. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let herself actually look at what would come.

F.M. looked the same as her. Not the same as she remembered herself, but the same. The rough edges had smoothed, the sharp shifts softened considerably. If anything, she looked a bit more heavyset in both senses of the word, with extra muscle joined in equal parts of extra fat. She was still a pikachu, so it's not like either was immediately apparent, but it was there.

After all, for all the time Max had spent staring at her new self, she'd memorized the differences. "I-it," she mumbled as she stepped closer. F.M. raised her arms, turning from one side to the other a tad.

Even under the padding, though, a few differences shone through. The harsh edges had been covered, not replaced. As Max looked her over, though, she shook her head. She actually felt a bit of envy. She'd never admit it out loud, but sometimes she felt too soft. Her tail was cute, but felt too pristine, sterile. The dream had made her into a perfect girl, but she'd never really thought of herself as perfect.

"It works," F.M. finished for her. Max nodded and realized that she'd left her mouth open. Letting out the breath she forgot she'd held, she closed it and let her eyes wander. She took a few steps closer to see F.M.'s tail. Even after a year, she could still remember the pain of that wound.

It had healed. A lot of the jagged edges had filled out, but it was still far from smooth. Fur had returned completely, and she was so relieved to see no bald spots. Just looking, she could feel the shape of her own tail behind her. She loved having a heart-shaped tail, but after the novelty wore off, it felt too cutesy. The bite mark, torn off end was perfect for her.

Instead of dreading it, she started to envy her future self. Max noticed her vision started to blur, so she wiped the tears from one eye while F.M. took care of the other.

"And that," F.M. chuckled, "is what I've been looking forward to seeing for so long." Max's vision cleared to reveal F.M.'s wide grin. The grin faded just a bit into seriousness as she put a paw on Max's shoulder. "It'll still be a while after you get back before you look like this, though." She gave Max a comforting squeeze with a shrug. "Hormones take a while to get working."

This attempt at tempering expectations didn't stop Max's smile in the slightest. After a few seconds, F.M.'s came back, too, piercing the veil of attempted seriousness. "But you don't care," she said. "Because I didn't care. Because I knew for a fact it would work."

She pat Max's shoulder and tugged her jacket back on before leaning against the door again. "Definitely follow Mandy's advice, too," she said.

"Mandy's advice?" Max asked. With a single look from F.M., though, she rolled her eyes. "Spoilers." F.M. gave a halfhearted shrug while nodding her head. "All right." Max took a deep breath in, trying to brush off any evidence of tears. "I'm guessing there's not much time left, is there?" She looked up, but F.M. was still leaned patiently against the door, almost like she was waiting.

"Are you gonna kiss me, or what?" F.M. asked. When Max jumped a bit, F.M. let out some chuckles. They'd only done active and neutral, but Max had yet to see if she was any good receiving a kiss. "Forget why we're here?" She shook her head in jest. "Typical. So did I."

"All right, fine," Max said with a roll of her eyes.

"What happened to your enthusiasm?" F.M. asked. Max answered with a narrowing of her eyes and a silent stare. Once it looked like the message had gone through, she rolled her shoulders and got ready. All the while, F.M. watched with her passive smirk. Of course she needed to take a more passive role to receive, but it made Max want to wipe that self-satisfied smirk off her face.

"All right," Max hummed as she approached. She put her arms around her future self and watched that smirk crack. Before it had a chance to come back, Max pressed their lips together and felt F.M.'s yield to her touch.

Her lips didn't feel cold or warm. They barely felt like touching something at all, with a bit of a fuzz as her mind struggled sense of the non-temperature. Fur encased most of the embrace with the smallest sliver of skin slipping through at the very edges. It was a nice taste of what more could come. F.M. prepared to pull away, but Max held tighter.

She wasn't done yet. She ran her tongue along the ridge of their lips and felt her future self stiffen in surprise. That little break in defenses let her dive further in, lightly playing along her gums. It was strange to feel.

She could recognize every little dip and crevice, but from the wrong side, and all with no taste but the subtle scent of peppermint. As her short expedition went on, she felt F.M. relaxing and even leaning into her hold. Max peeked her eyes open to see that F.M. had closed hers. With one last press, she pulled her lips away, flicking her tongue over F.M.'s lips one last time as she departed.

F.M. stayed just about exactly where Max left her, head tilted slightly up. She opened her eyes to stare up in thought. After a while, she said, "Huh."

Max's power trip shattered. "Huh?" she mumbled. "Really? That's it?" That felt like she'd been doing pretty good. She'd at least tried hard, but apparently it hadn't been more notable than a hum. Maybe she needed those notes more than she thought.

"No, sorry," F.M. said. "Just, uh." Her mouth twisted down. "Not how I remember it." Max blinked. Right, F.M. had been through this before. She might've gotten a bit too involved in the scenario. After a bit, F.M. shook her head. "Well, I guess that's the point and everything." Her smirk quickly returned, and she gave Max a thumbs up while she reached for the guitar. "Changes."

"R-right," Max said.

"All right," F.M. said, looking up and to the side to think (or remember). After a while, though, she shook her head. "Check the first page of the journal for instructions." She turned the knob and opened the door, going halfway out before suddenly stopping. "Oh, and," she pulled back in to reveal a suggestive grin, "good luck with Ithos."

Max didn't even get the chance to want to follow up on that before the door shut and left her alone. "Ithos," Max mumbled. Her paw went to the bridge of her nose, and she crumpled down.

Even with the assurance that she planned that herself, she didn't know if she could face Ithos again. She put her face into her paws and let out a frustrated groan. If this didn't get Ithos to kiss her within an hour, she wasn't gonna put herself through this again.

At least she had some time before she'd see Ithos again. Hopefully, he'd already gone home with Ash… or alone, if Ash finally got lucky for once in his life. With as much enthusiasm as he had, Max was a bit more worried for the guys he might go after than she ever was the girls. A whole new world opened up to the boy, but she hoped he knew that it was also a world with boundaries.

With a chuckle, she managed to pull herself out of her paws. She wasn't ready to head out just yet, though. Instead, she reached over to open up the journal. She wrote a few notes about their last kiss, but she didn't have many. Might as well review the plan ahead of time.

Step one: Pretend to be writing on the fourth page and get really mad when Grovyle takes it. NOW!

The doorknob rattled while Max rushed to flip to the right page and flung open the same instant she realized the pages had stuck together.

"No, sorry, can't let it go," F.M. said. "You-" she looked down at Max panicking over the journal and quirked a brow. "Recovered fast." She stared at Max for a while, tongue teasing the inside of her cheek in thought. "That kiss." Her eyes narrowed as she looked away. "Why did you do that?"

"Why do you think?" Max said, looking exactly as confused. In fact, they even had identical expressions, but she only realized that later. "That's the protocol?"

"Not what I meant," F.M. said, shaking her head. "I don't mean your reasoning. I mean why did it happen." She pulled her paw to her chin and let it drift up to rub her temple. "I didn't do that. I don't remember doing that. When you took the lead, it was supposed to suck." Max started to rise at that, but it did mean she did well. Still, it didn't feel great to learn she'd done well if her prophesy was failure.

"Isn't changing things a little the whole point of Operation Bootstrap?" Max asked. It gave F.M. pause for a second before she shook her head again.

"Yes, but not yet," F.M. said. "Not in that order, come on." She pointed a demonstrative paw that said nothing Max's way. "Think about it." She looked expectantly at Max, who was reeling from her own self condescending to her. Reluctantly, though, Max started to give it a bit more thought.

It should have slightly altered time after itself. She could, in theory, only improve after she had the journal. If she did better before she had it, her timeline had to have already changed.

"Oh, Goddammit," they grumbled in unison. "It just had to be timey-wimey bullshit." They pulled out of their internal thoughts to stare at each other, both heads tilted to their personal right with their left ear raised. "Huh," they said. They started to swear before stopping. "Contingency feedback break."

"One," Max said.

"Zero," F.M. said.

"Two."

"Nine."

Max nodded, and F.M. took a breath of relief, grumbling, "That didn't happen, either." She rubbed at her eyes, trying to think. "Okay, something changed." Her head bobbed in thought while she started counting on her nubbins. She started to say, "Does Ithos still," before shaking her head. "No, that train wreck of a kiss shouldn't be for another month."

Max froze, and F.M. slowly turned to see her reaction with growing fear. "When?" she asked.

"First mission," Max said. "He threw me off."

"Huh," F.M. mumbled. "Okay, well. At least it ended right." Both paws came up to rub at their respective temples. "A year too early." She let her paws drop and leaned back. "All right. I mean, as long as it ends the same, it should be fine. Maybe it's a temporary desync." She nodded to herself, and her ear perked up in thought.

She gradually turned to the door and pointed at it with three nubbins, two, one.

Grovyle burst in, and F.M. sighed in relief as she stepped out of the way. "What the hell are you doing?" Grovyle growled, snatching Max up by the scruff of her neck.

Max rolled her eyes and held her face in her paws, grumbling, "Not this again." She shook her head and glared up at him. "What you told me. What we agreed on? I'm supposed to be here, remember."

"Remember?" Grovyle said. "I've never seen you before tod-"

"Wrong one," F.M. said. Grovyle stopped in his tracks. He glanced briefly down at F.M., then back to Max.

"Sorry about that," Grovyle whispered. With a gentle touch and a quick smile, he carefully set Max down with a polite pat of the head before turning to rip F.M. up off the floor. All the rage in his eyes returned in an instant. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I told you, stabilizing the tremors," F.M. grumbled, rolling her eyes as she held her face in her paws.

"They're still there!" Grovyle hissed.

"Yes," F.M. said. She shook her head and glared up at him. "Like I told you. We can't stop them completely, but we can keep it stable." She grabbed her jacket and pulled it open with her arms up, dropping out and leaving Grovyle holding it. In the commotion, she turned to Max just enough to hide her left eye from Grovyle and wink. "The paradox is in a sustainable state."

Grovyle started to sneer, but couldn't come up with a counter. "They're worse," he said, looking up to rethink the point as he said it. "Or in flux." He brought a claw to his chin in thought. "As long as the effects aren't too outreaching, it's possible."

As he mumbled to himself, he turned to begin pacing; Max and F.M. shared a resigned glance. "It's not good, but that may just be for now." As he turned, his tail thwapped a stray mop to the ground without his notice. "In time, the time might find its own, more stable loop. Until then, it would certainly vary, wouldn't it?"

"Maybe," Max said. "Although, if it's self-contained enough, the unstable loop may persist in lieu of a better one." She gave a quick glance to F.M. who gave her a thumbs up and a wink.

"See?" Grovyle said. Turning to F.M., he gestured to Max with a paw. "You could learn a thing or two from her." F.M. narrowed her eyes while staring politely up. "Instead of just standing around like a mute, she's actually being helpful!" He flicked his paw up in frustration before shaking his head to turn to Max. "What is your name, anyway?"

"Max," Max said. Grovyle paused to turn to F.M., then to Max, then back to F.M., before finally giving Max another glance, then F.M. one last time, and ending on Max for good measure.

"Well, I feel a bit better about mixing the two of you up, then," Grovyle mumbled. Clapping his paws together, he turned to Max and pulled out the overstretched smile she remembered so dearly. "So sorry about the interruption. I'll get you out of your fur."

F.M. started tugging her jacket back on and nodded. Grovyle aggressively turned to her and calmed when he saw her already at the door. "Ah, good girl," he said. All three rolled their eyes for their own reasons, and Grovyle reached for the door. After he turned the handle, the door swung open and sent Grovyle flying into a pile of cleaning supplies with Grovyle standing in the doorway. He started to step in when he saw F.M.

"What are you doing here?" Grovyle asked. At the sound of his own groaning behind him, he turned to see himself hopping up before both pointed a paw at each other. "What are you doing here?" they asked in unison.

"Jesus Christ," F.M. whispered, letting her paw drag down her face. She rolled her eyes and turned to face Max with a smirk. "Imagine not even having protocols."

Max chuckled at her own joke, then turned up to see Grovyle standing off with himself. "What are you doing here?" Max asked the new Grovyle. He glanced her way before eyeing himself suspiciously and turning to Max.

"Simple," Grovyle said. He reached into his bag and pulled out a familiar bottle. "Thought you might need some more of this." With a quick glance to F.M. to double check, he gently gave the bottle of ibuprofen to Max. "Hope you haven't had to go long without."

"Well, I was supposed to," F.M. mumbled. Her paws came up to rub her eyes. "Because you're supposed to miss the first day of it in a week." She gradually looked back up to him while desperately trying to reinvigorate herself. She stared at Grovyle with one ear up in thought for a while before nodding. "Remember the guitar thing? First time we met?"

"First?" Grovyle hummed, then his eyes shot open. "Did—hm." He briefly held a paw up to himself and took a quick peek outside. He pulled his head back in, looked at his past self, and then the ground. "What am I doing here?"

"Fantastic," Past Grovyle spat, slapping his paw to his face. "I'll never figure out how to make it take me where I want to go, will I?"

"No," Future Grovyle said, "because it takes you where you need to go." He crossed his arms and turned his lip down, staring at his past self. He looked up and tapped his chin, reaching back into the recesses of his memory. "You'll figure that out," he popped his head back in sudden realization, "Well. Now, I suppose."

"Fantastic," P.G. grumbled.

F.G. narrowed his eyes at himself before turning back to F.M.. "Was I really that whiny?" he asked.

"Was?" Max chuckled. F.G. snapped his paw before pointing at her without turning away from F.M. (who was chuckling as well). He reluctantly peeked over to Max with a smirk starting to peek out from under his glare.

"Don't look too proud of yourself," F.G. chided. "Anyone can make themself laugh." Max and F.M. shared a quick glance, then crossed their arms and looked up at him in a synchronized challenge. He reluctantly looked over to his past self, opening his mouth with one paw up, but quickly closed it. Unfortunately, he couldn't come up with something funny on the spot.

"Well, anyway, it's been a pleasure," F.G. said as he pulled the door open and gestured for his past self and F.M. to leave. "If Celebi ever finds out I let my timeline knot up this much, she'll probably wipe me out of existence." His past self stiffened at that, and he rushed to leave.

"Oh, already?" F.M. sighed. She put her arms behind her back to stretch with a light grunt. "Do I have to?" As an answer, Grovyle glared at her with a smirk, and she let out an exaggerated huff. "Fine." She headed over to Max before she went to the door, though. The journal Max had forgotten she'd dropped tripped her up, though, and she slowly stumbled over it before continuing on her route.

"See ya, cutie," F.M. said. She pecked her past self on the cheek with a hug, and Grovyle loudly cleared his throat. "On my way." She chuckled with a roll of her eyes, then started to turn while still keeping her eyes on Max. "I guess I do have another Libré to meet." Max's eyes shot open.

"That is quite enough," Grovyle barked. While F.M. chuckled, he snatched her up by the jacket and chucked her through the door. He gently slammed it shut then jabbed a claw at Max. "Don't let me see you doing that again, young lady."

"W-what?" Max mumbled. She tried to ask a few times, but couldn't get past the first word. "W-she, did I say Libré?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Grovyle said. "Just spoilers." He bent down to pet her head with gentle pats and a careful eye on hers. His brow raised as he peeked to the ground next to her. Before Max could see what he was doing, he shot down to snatch up the journal.

"Wh-hey!" Max shouted—angry, she had to act angry. "What the FUC-"

"Oh, calm down," Grovyle said with a chuckle. "Just curious, is all." He scanned over the page it was on with a nod, humming to himself. "She groped the many muscles along his back while he did the same to hers, both of their paws drifting lower and lower. Max continued…." Sparks bounced down her cheeks while Grovyle looked up at her with a wry grin.

"There's the decoy." Max started to shout again, but he held a claw up to shush her as he flipped a few pages back. She started to shrink away, cheeks sparking as his smirk grew wider. "The kissing trick, then? Oh, the wiles of youth." He snapped it shut and looked down at her. "Finished with it, yet?"

"Well, uh, I don't…," Max stammered out, eyes on the floor while she scratched behind her head. She quickly gave up, though, and deflated with a sigh. "Okay, fine. You caught me."

"Yes, I suppose I did," Grovyle said. "But that's not the question I asked." Max peeked up to see him holding the book out to her with one brow raised. "Well? Did you finish taking down your notes?" He quickly lowered his brow to reveal a wry grin. "Doesn't really work unless you're thorough."

"Wh-what?" Max stammered out. Her continued confusion spread his grin wider until he broke out into a few chuckles.

"Please, surely you didn't think you were the first to try that, did you?" Grovyle said. He shook his head and brought a paw to his hip. "I've been at this a long while, you know." Max let out a deep breath of relief, so deep she even flopped back to sit. "Well? Still haven't answered me." He stuck the journal out to her again.

"Yeah," Max said, reaching up to grab it. "I think I took all the notes I wanted to." Right before she grabbed it, he flipped it back and tossed it into his bag. "H-hey, what gives?"

"What?" Grovyle asked. His smirk remained strong. "What, did you expect to send it to yourself a thousand years in the future through the post?" He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Paper won't last that long. Even leather probably wouldn't." Max stopped shifting her reactions at this point and waited for him to finish. "I'll drop this off with you once you get back. How's that sound?"

"All… right?" Max said. She kept one ear up in skepticism, though. With what he'd said about Celebi finding out, this seemed like a drastic shift in attitude. "You're fine with this?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

Grovyle looked down at her with that same smirk. When his eyes met hers, it slipped for an instant into an expression she didn't have time to read, yet filled her with dread. "Spoilers," Grovyle said. He winked, and his expression shot right back to normal. "With that, I suppose I'll leave you to it." He turned to leave, paw on the door, but he didn't open it. The air around him started to grow tense. He couldn't turn the knob.

His shoulders rose as he took a deep breath and turned around. The smile he'd put on had gone. He stared down at her with a look of hardened stone. "I may have fibbed earlier," he said. "Coming here wasn't an accident."

With a deep breath, he shook his head and reached into his bag. "It's probably nothing, but…," he trailed off. His eyes went to her with an ocean of worries but none he could share. "Consider this insurance." After a bit more fishing, he pulled out two streaks of purple. Max's eyes widened as he held them out to her.

"Harmony Scarves?" Max asked. She snatched them up to check, but they weren't quite right. The pattern had exactly inverted, with dark violet encased in light purple instead of light encased in dark. Still, many of the details had shifted slightly from her first go around. She was used to it at this point.

"You really haven't seen them yet," Grovyle said. His frown deepened, brow furrowed in worry, but he quickly shook himself out of it. "Give the other to Ithos tomorrow. If you haven't seen them, he likely hasn't, either." The forced neutral expression didn't fool Max. She watched him with growing fear of her own. "Like I said, probably nothing."

"Grovyle," Max grumbled. "What's going on?" Grovyle started to speak, but from his expression, Max knew he wasn't telling the truth before he made a sound. "I'm going into this blind enough." She dropped the scarf to the side to cross her arms. "Tell me what's wrong."

After some hesitation, Grovyle grumbled, "All right, you have a point." He leaned against the door with a paw running up and down the strap of his bag. "I do mean that it's probably nothing." Before Max could demand more information, he raised his paw. "But, there has been a shift." He lowered his paw while Max heeled. "As far as I can tell, the cause is nothing to do with you.

"However," his gaze hardened as he watched her, "It has brought greater uncertainty to your time here." He paused to give the statement time to process.

Max felt her heart stutter, but not from fear. The sticking point between her and Grovyle this whole time had been Ithos' fate. He was supposed to fail. Max refused to believe it despite Grovyle's repeated attempts to convince her.

"Odd reaction," Grovyle mumbled, though he didn't seem surprised. "I've spoken my peace on that issue, though." They'd had some variant of this conversation every time he dropped in to bug her. He kept a harsh eye on her while he thought, eventually taking a breath and reaching into his bag. He tugged out a bracelet of shimmering teal stones and held it out to her. Max eyed it, looking up curiously.

"A bit more insurance," Grovyle said. "We call it an emergency exit." He knelt down to tie it around her left wrist. "It's shards of a Time Gear bound by thread. If you break the thread, they'll return to their origin, taking you with them." Bracelet secure, he took her paw in two of his.

"How will I know if it's an emergency?" Max asked. The more he stared at her with that worried gaze, the more terrified she became. He seemed reluctant to let go of her paw.

"Trust your instincts," Grovyle said. Max flinched a bit at that but knew he wasn't talking about those. Still, he gave her a sympathetic nod and chuckle. "Apologies." He finally let her paw fall and stood back up. "Don't worry about a false positive. It's easy to deal with you disappearing when you shouldn't." He adjusted his bag, but it seemed more to steady himself. "So long as you're alive."

"Oh," Max said. She pulled her paw up to examine the bracelet. "Well, good to know that's not supposed to happen." The attempt at levity didn't make it any easier on her than the new safety net did.

"See why I didn't want to tell you?" Grovyle said, flicking his paw open to the air. "You were having such a good time. Now look at you." He swung his paw to his hip and rolled his eyes. "All sad and worried." Max glared up at him, only fueling his indignation. "Mad at me, too?" Before she killed him, he dropped the act.

"Keep enjoying yourself," Grovyle said. "I know how much this chance means to you. Have some fun with it." He flicked the journal out a bit with a smirk. "Not that you need my encouragement for that." Taking a breath, he seemed to relax by the second. "If this timeline goes awry, it's just more work for me. You'll end it out fine." His levity cracked for a second when he said, "I promise," with a bit too much gravity.

Max struggled to believe him. Her paw felt her scarf to comfort her, a familiar motion even all this time after. "All right," she said. Hopefully, she'd be able to believe it soon. "Guess I'll see you later?"

"Almost," Grovyle said. He pointed a claw to her neck. "I'd rather you not wear that until tomorrow, though."

"Wear what?" Max asked. Her eyes flicked down, and she saw the scarf. She'd put it on without even noticing. "Oh." She brought her paws up to take it off, but the motion didn't go through at first. Only after a moment to steel herself did she manage to take it off, and she instantly felt her heart's beat more. She tossed it onto the other before she could stop herself.

Grovyle snatched it out of the air and grabbed its twin, tossing both in a little sack. He dropped down to give it to her with a smile. "You'll be all right," he said. "After all, you've handled worse, haven't you?"

"I guess," Max said. She grabbed the sack with her eyes stuck on Grovyle's bag. "How much can that thing carry?"

"Enough," Grovyle said with a wink. "But, enough stalling." He stood up while adjusting the strap of his bag, turning to grab the door knob. "I do hope you've enjoyed your time as much as I have. Alas." He turned the knob and started to open it as he said, "I must bid you, adi-"

"KA pi!" F.M. shouted, tumbling back inside. Grovyle didn't move as he stared down at her with narrow eyes. She stared up with a casual grin. "Yo." His expression remained unchanged, so F.M. twisted her mouth down while raising a brow. "You know, I'm starting to get the feeling that you didn't enjoy your time as much as I did."

"Max, why are you still here?" Grovyle asked. F.M. hopped up to her hindpaws when he started to lean down to offer her a paw. "I should've already taken you back." As he said it, though, his mouth twisted into a sneer. "Just can't rely on him, can I?"

"Not his fault," F.M. said. "I just figured I could kill two birds with one stone going with you instead." Grovyle waited for her to go on, but she nodded her head towards Max. Without another word, Grovyle nodded his head in understanding, and they both looked over to wave at Max and head out before she could complain about it.

Desperate for forbidden knowledge, Max rushed to get through the door, but it closed before she made it. Right on the other side, though, she could just make out their voices. On the edge of her range, she thought she could hear herself say, "-nna see the kids."

"KIDS?!" Max shouted. She hopped up to the knob and kicked the door open, but the room was empty. They must have run when they heard her. She cursed herself for shouting, but it was hard to hold it against herself. "Probably heard wrong," she mumbled to herself. It could've been anyone's kids even if she heard right.

She took a breath, shaking her head. Nothing she had to worry about. Even if Ithos had any interest in her, he was a charmander. Different egg groups.

Once the supply closet door shut behind her, she realized they'd turned the lights in this part of the place off. They'd been dim before, but off was a bit spookier. She dropped to all fours and booked it for the light. Just in case, she pulled out some of her awareness to make sure she didn't trip over anything. It verified her path was clear of obstacles, but not of people.

The border between light and shadow hosted a twilight that dropped the temperature as she approached. She skid to a stop, turning to circle around it. The fur on the back of her neck stood to attention while she kept her eyes glued to the spot.

The feeling was familiar, a dark chill she felt on the back of her neck even though it was right in front of her. Her unease turned to restrained frustration. It could've been anyone. There was no way it was the person she'd meet a millennium from now. She watched the purple blob ooze out of the floor in front of her, spines popping out as it rose. The gengar wasn't looking at her.

"Has to be the place, right?" he asked. It was the same voice, but again, it had to be a coincidence. Even ghost types didn't live forever… did they? If it was, though…

No, she definitely couldn't miss the chance.

"Jake?" Max asked, making her voice light and airy as she could. Gengar froze a second before jumping around to face her.

"Who—do I know you?" he asked. Max kept a far off, pained gaze against his panic.

"Jake," Max whispered again. "Jake, Son of Man, is that really you?"

Gengar looked her over before responding. He clearly didn't recognize her but wanted to figure out if he should. His half-shuffle back suggested he also wasn't sure how much danger he was in. "Yeah?" he said. Max couldn't stop herself from smiling, so she kept it soft, nodding.

"Yes, I see it clearly now," Max said. "Jake, of Team Meanies." Jake flinched back again; it must have been quite a long time since then. "Oh, Jake." She opened her eyes, shaking her head in sorrow. With a raised paw, she walked over to rub it down the side of his face. "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" His 'skin' grew colder.

"Y-you know?!" Jake asked. He went to yank her up but stopped himself just in time. "H-her—can you help me?"

"Shh," Max hushed, a paw over her mouth. "They speak." She stared off, far off, far beyond the stars above and closed her eyes. "I need silence to see." Jake gave her exactly what she'd asked. She couldn't even hear him breathe, though he probably didn't need to anyway. As she pretended to listen to the spirits, she brought a paw to her open mouth, eyes twisted in worry and pain.

"Poor soul," Max whispered, barely more than air came out. She brought her paw back up to trace his face again, shaking her head in sorrow. "Millennium of Solipsism, have you no one to call your friend? Can you show this broken heart to a single soul to mend? All that you may torment others with the hurt of your own soul." As Jake's expression grew more terrified, Max pulled her mouth into a snarl.

"C-Can—does it have to be that way?" Jake plead.

"Fate is yours to defy," Max said. She shook her head with open disdain. "I see only the fate you choose. Pray that God shows you reason." That felt like a bit of a risk, but it struck further fear in his eyes. "Yes, the future is yours." Her dismissive tone dulled the slight hope he could've drawn from that.

"We shall meet again," Max said, dropping her paw from his face to pick up his hand. She brought her other paw over to trace its lines. She didn't know what any of it even could mean, but she tut at the sight all the same, shaking her head.

"You will walk this earth a thousand years more, and we will meet again," she said. She looked up to stare into the stars far behind his eyes. "You will watch me die, and you will watch me rise to end you. You will fail against me, but this will not be your end. Only once I utter your curse shall your fate be sealed." She cupped her paw over his, then gently lowered it to his side.

The terror in his eyes had started waning at this point. Palm reading might have been a bit too obvious. He seemed hesitant, but she was clearly losing him. Time to close it out.

"Your curse," Max said, closing her eyes in thought. "The five words, what will they be?" She breathed in through her nose, letting the action raise her muzzle to the sky. At its peak, her eyes burst open with her mouth, and she looked back down to his eyes. With an expression of utmost seriousness, she popped her mouth open and said, "Fuck ya life, bing bong."

Jake smacked her paw off his face and barked, "Who the fuck are you?"

"You'll see," Max said. She snatched up her sack of scarves and scampered away. He tried to snatch her up, but she effortlessly dodged. Even those portals of his couldn't help him, since she anticipated the technique and leapt out of range when she felt the rush of air.

She ducked around a corner and hopped out the front entrance before he could catch up. The door thunked closed behind her, and she hopped into an alley behind it, heart racing. She wasn't tired, but even stupid chases like this left her a bit panicked. Instincts knew very well what it meant to run from someone, better than she did, so it was hard to hold on when she did.

It didn't help that she'd hidden in the dark alley of a city she barely knew. Neuvos City was pretty enough during the day, but there were so few places lit at night. She didn't like to admit it, but it was a reason she'd never leave without Ash or Ithos with her.

She'd never had to worry about it before, and it felt like such a conceited fear. Did that even happen in the pokémon world? Even now, she was stronger than she used to be, but the fear hung in the back of her head every time they made their way back home. Ithos probably noticed considering he'd always pull her a bit closer and hold her paw. Now, though? The only paw she had to hold was her own.

Her ears shot up; her eyes went wide, but only for a second. She assured herself the incoming pawsteps were nothing. At least, she tried to, but they were running. They were getting closer. She was alone. She shrank against the wall to make herself smaller, hoping they would run right past her.

The steps stopped right outside the alley; she clenched her eyes shut in fear. A flame's whoosh faintly sang while they looked around until she felt the gaze on her. It said something she was too scared to hear and ran over.

Its paws snatched her up by the shoulders and shoved its lips against hers; Max shoved it away and smacked Ithos across the face. She wiped her mouth and dropped down to run. Ithos' whimper, "Ow," stopped her in her tracks. She stared at him for a second, desperately searching for an answer she couldn't make up for the life of her.

"Ithos?!" Max shouted. "What the FUCK?" Her heart still raced from the nightmare she just lived through. She would've loved to extend the benefit of the doubt, but she had absolutely none at the moment. It didn't matter much, though, since he was busy sputtering nonsense and false starts.

"S-sorry!" Ithos finally got out. He scrambled up off the ground and away, paws up in some mix of defense and surrender. "Sorry! I—the song, I thought—then you said that it's okay for—but I just—sorry!"

"Ithos," Max barked. Ithos shot up to stand at attention, and Max rubbed her paw over the bridge of her nose. The terror was almost slightly abating with him there, and she was just barely starting to think that he had, in fact, wanted to kiss her. Finally—FINALLY—he wanted to reciprocate her feelings, and his method of doing so was cornering her in a dark alley and force her to kiss him.

"D-did, sorry," Ithos mumbled. He stood straight up while every muscle he had trembled. "I must've gotten the wrong idea, sorry." Once his eyes grazed the general direction of hers, his stance finally crumpled. "I-I guess you're not interested anymore?"

"Ithos," Max said. She was still so rattled that she had trouble resisting the impulse to go to pika-speak. Ithos might have intermittent understanding, but she didn't want anyone else to hear it. Yet, trying to think of a way to explain the situation to the dumbest idiot she'd ever been stupid enough to fall in love with worked her up enough that it might be hopeless anyway. "I didn't know it was you."

The explanation brought a brief shine to widen his eyes that instantly bounced back to open mouthed terror. He'd thought he was running in desperate pursuit of an interest to finally, beautifully requite their love. That fantasy incinerated right before his eyes as he realized what actually happened.

Max started to worry his eyes might shoot open so wide that they fell out. She wasn't really in any position to help him, instincts still too scared to approach. Luckily, a very reticent gleam started to shine in the very corner of those eyes. The horror very much had the larger presence, but some part of this revelation brought some hope to him. He even recognized how inappropriate the look was and tried to hide it.

They knew each other well by now, though. When the shock stopped holding his mouth open, Max could see the start of a smile he desperately wanted to repress. This dumb tank of lighter fluid couldn't stop hoping for the life of him, and seeing him try brought a teensy bit of ease back to Max.

"So, it's just that you didn't know it was me?" Ithos asked. Max gave a hesitant nod, and the hope started to burst through his lips. The more she looked at it, the more she could finally see what he was trying to do.

He was trying to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her. Her ears shot up with her tail, and then she was the one struggling to move.

"If you did, though," Ithos started to ask. When he saw the sparks bouncing down her cheeks, though, he didn't need to finish the question. "I-I was right about the song!" He cheered with a little skip. "I-I was just, it always felt, I was afraid that I wouldn't know what to do, and I didn't want you to think I was a horny weirdo, but then you said all that stuff, and I just—it made sense! I felt like, I don't know, maybe-"

Max was too flabbergasted to stop his ramblings, so it was nice that he stopped himself. Ithos slapped a paw against his face, shaking his head. When he let his paw fall, he had on an exasperated smile. "I guess I ruined our first kiss, after all," he chuckled.

"F-first?" Max squeaked. Ithos was interested in more kisses after this one. Her paw went to feel for the bracelet that was never there and found the one Grovyle gave her. It might have more use than just an emergency exit. Its varying jagged and smooth beads worked perfectly to let her pull herself back from her own head. When her head cleared a bit more, her ears burned as sparks bounced down her cheeks.

"Well," she mumbled. "No, that was me." Ithos still stood a cautious distance away. She'd appreciated it when she was still panicking. Now, it started to hurt. "Remember? First mission?"

"Yeah?" Ithos said. He looked back with a smirk and a raised brow. "I still ruined the first kiss, though." He gave her a knowing look and waited for the realization to hit her. Once he winced and rubbed the cheek she'd slapped, it finally clicked.

"Oh, b—that doesn't count," Max said, stuck in a mix of guilt and anxiety. It was a miracle he'd still be willing to kiss her considering the occupational hazard. However, the main concern that took over her mind more than any semi-relevant consideration was that he did, indeed, want to. The sparks bouncing from her cheeks turned a giddy purple while she struggled to stand still.

"But—uh-so!" she stammered. She was too excited to form a coherent sentence so quickly. "It, y'know, we don't need a good kiss to be, uh—start! I think—what's a first kiss anyway?" With every half a thought she spouted, Ithos' smile distorted closer to a giggle.

"Yeah," Ithos said, hiding his chuckles for the moment. He closed the distance and brought his paws to hers, bringing them up between them. "How 'bout another one?"

Max started to worry she was smiling too wide to kiss. She wanted to leap up to him but discovered that had been the secret reason he'd snatched her paws up. He held them the perfect balance of gentle and firm. His right held strong as he let his left slide down and hook under her armpit. The gentle strength in his every motion let Max's eagerness melt into ecstasy.

He bent down to hook the rest of his arm under hers and let out a strained grunt when he tried to hoist her up. Max chuckled when her hindpaws barely went an inch above the ground before he stumbled back down. She couldn't wait for him to recover.

She wrapped the arm he'd tried to grab around the back of his neck and tugged him the rest of the way off balance. Her tail flicked far behind to counter the new balance while she shifted the paw in his paw to snatch his wrist for stability. He lay in her hold, nice, secure, and inches above the ground, with room but to breathe between their lips. His cheeks flushed red at the sudden change while she grinned.

She'd swept him off his paws.

Their eyes met. She watched as he fell into hers and let herself do the same. Slight micro-movements they wouldn't even notice themselves doing turned to tectonic shifts beneath their paws. The earth quaked with every twitch, dilation, and wavering as they basked in the moment.

As it went, their eyes began to wander; the earth began to turn beneath. The irises drifted down to the nose, over to the cheek, and finally the lips. That wide smile that warmed Max's heart even before she could remember whose it was sat right beneath her. His silly beak she couldn't for the life of her imagine a purpose for made the vicious teeth behind it a thrill instead of horror.

He pulled up to her; she held him tighter; their eyes closed as their lips met. They touched briefly enough to taste and feigned separation before diving right back in together. Max's had a bit more flexibility, so she wrapped them around his to better feel the scales woven over each other.

Her tongue came to taste the sultry heat of his lips and found his own tongue coming to do much the same. They exchanged greetings and pressed deeper into each other's mouths. Max tried to dive in on her own, but the incredible dexterity of Ithos' tongue forced her to conform to him. He engulfed her tongue in his own as he tasted every inch of her mouth, leaving his own taste behind as a gift.

Max voiced her muffled pleasure and held him tighter as their tongues returned to their resting place. Before she let go, she pressed her lips tighter against his, letting her tongue taste him one last time before they both pulled away.

They stared into each other's eyes again. This time, they both had distant stares of excitement and exhaustion. Despite that, their mouths (still damp with the other's) spread into wide smiles.

"Wh-what do you think?" Ithos asked. His tail flickered nervously behind him. How he could be nervous after a performance like that, Max would never know, so she smiled down to watch him squirm.

"I liked that one way more," Max said. She started to pull him upright before smirking up at him again. "How 'bout another first kiss?" she said.