We stayed up playing Jenga. It was checkers at first, but he was no good at that and I could barely play chess, so we went for something more universal.

"How'd the gym go?" Thomas asked me as I searched for a piece.

"It went fine." I pulled out a loose edge and stacked it on top. "Trust swept through two of them, and Promise beat her last one."

"Promise?"

"Yep."

He looked appreciatively at my buizel, who was lying on an unused bunk playing with a ball of water energy. "Nice."

"Your move. How was your battle?"

"Not too bad," he said, scanning the tower. "Cassie got by with flame wheel pretty well. Marcassin set up a double team-based round for the fourth one."

Thomas wiggled a middle piece out of its position. "Are you heading on to Veilstone next?"

I shook my head. "I'm backtracking a bit. There's this shinx I'm looking for around Jubilife City."

"You didn't see any? I should have rounded them up for you," he joked, stacking it on top.

"No, one in particular," I said, testing an edge piece.

He looked puzzled.

I hunted for a looser block. "I met this–"

"You're supposed to take that."

I stopped. "Huh?"

"The piece. You touch it, it's yours."

"What kind of trash rule is that?"

"That's how you play it."

"That makes it a guesswork game instead of skill."

"No, it takes skill to get a piece out if it's stuck."

"Trash. Johto plays with garbage rules."

It was a while before anything of significance came up again. "So how's things? With whatever you're hiding?" he said.

"What."

"How's it going with the things you won't tell me?"

I thought about it. "Decently? Or, no. You just rescued me again, so that bit went badly. And I just lost another spot on my team. And Lucas is gone." Damn, things weren't going well.

Which somehow reminded me...

"Oh, Arceus, I haven't called Megan in ages." Before the concussion.

"Do you need to do that now?"

"Yeah– well, I mean, we could finish the game…"

Thomas pulled out the edge of a row with the middle missing, sending the pieces toppling everywhere. "Oh, whoops, I lost."

Laughing – laughing, actually laughing – I stood and raced out the door.

"Megan."

"What happened? I heard from your mom that you're okay but dammit Evelyn."

"Dawn and Lucas and I went into Galactic's headquarters in Eterna," I said in a lower voice. "It went well, except that Trust and I got knocked out. Unconscious for a few days."

"What was it for?"

"Bike shop owner got abducted," I said, omitting the other purpose just in case. "Oh, he gave me an egg – I left it upstairs."

"Oh, nice. Any of your old team back?"

I grimaced. It's like she was psychic. "None yet. Dawn found my growlithe in Eterna. I'm heading back to Jubilife tomorrow to look for my shinx."

"Isn't that kind of far…?"

"It's like three days, max. I'll be training them on the way, so we won't lose too much time." Obviously we'd lost no time at all with my stupid concussion.

I should have made the promise to her. But if I made it now, told her I'd promise to stay safe, wouldn't that be a lie? Would it make her feel better after all the times I'd almost gotten myself killed already? Would it do anything at all? Flipping heck.

The sliding door behind me opened. Thomas poked his head in. "They said your monferno's better."

Promise loped in past his feet, jumping up on my lap. "Whoa there. Oh, Megan, this is Promise."

"Okay, that's cool, you don't have to introduce me…"

"...And the guy behind me is Thomas. He has an annoying habit of rescuing me."

"Hello," Thomas said to the screen.

Megan said seriously, "Thank you for keeping her safe."

Thomas nodded with equivalent seriousness. "It's no problem."

"Okay, now get out of here so I can talk to my friend," I told him. He saluted cheerfully and shut the door behind him, walking off to someplace in the lobby.

"Is he the guy you met in Eterna Forest?"

I made a face. "Technically in Jubilife. But I traveled with him through Eterna, yeah."

Megan wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"Don't be like that. I just stopped hating him."

"What? How come?"

"Cause he was being too nice."

"No, why did you hate him in the first place?"

"Oh. He… Well, he kept rescuing me."

Megan narrowed her eyes. She clearly knew there was more to it than that.

"Well, the first time he helped me out, I'd been a 7-badge trainer the day before. It just kept reminding me that I used to be able to take care of myself."

My tone was bitter by the end of that.

"Evelyn, you're going to be great. You're a strong, determined person, and even if you hadn't gotten there before, I know you'd be able to get there again."

I grinned sheepishly, feeling more reassured than I would have expected. "Thanks."

She smiled, then looked above the top of her computer screen and said, "What?"

"I thought you were asleep," I heard offscreen.

"Hi Mrs. Talbot," I said, a little louder. "Sorry, I forgot to call Megan sooner and didn't want to wait longer."

"That's all right. Your mom just got back. Are you doing any better?"

"Much better, thanks."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Megan was making a Mom. Stop. face. "All right, all right…" Her mom's voice faded away.

"I guess you should go to sleep," I said to Megan.

"You should, too."

"Sure, sure. Goodnight then."

"Goodnight," said Megan. "Stay safe."

I smiled and ended the call. Promise hadn't moved or said anything since jumping onto my lap. "We should go get Trust now," I said to him.

Quasar lowered me to the ground in his talons. I hit the ground running, recalled him and quickly spotted Lucas running in the same direction.

"Where to? I yelled, pulling myself alongside him.

"Island in the middle," he called back. "A cave."

The slope of the lake floor curved upwards towards the island, making it reachable on foot in the bombed-dry lake. We dodged defeated grunts and pools of magikarp, slipping in the mud a bit, sprinting to the cave hoping Saturn wasn't done yet, hoping for enough time–

Azelf swooped out of the cave entrance, eyes glowing savage red. We didn't even make it in. Without a moment to spare, Azelf picked Lucas

–I don't want to see this make it stop–

up with magenta-red psychic

–get me out of here I don't want to–

energy, lifting him ten feet, too high to reach but low enough to see his face clearly

–not again not again no–

The pink grip flared up, he tried to shout, blood ran from his mouth

–stop it–

I heard banging

–stop it–

Lucas clenched his fists and eyes

–stop it!–

and eyes

"Evelyn, stop!"

It stopped just in time. Why was my hand hurting?

"Evelyn, what's going on?"

Thomas was standing over me, looking bewildered. He had a hand out, like he was trying to block me from doing something. I looked down at the hand he was hovering over. Even in the darkness I could tell it was turning red and black and blue, and it was starting to burn.

"Evelyn?"

"Nightmare." My throat was hoarse. I cleared it and said, "I had a nightmare I didn't want to go through again."

"So you decided to beat up a nightstand?"

"I think," I said slowly, "I was trying to get out."

Thomas looked at me for a minute. He shook his head. "Let's go."

"Where?"

"We'll get you patched up."

"No, I'm fine. They'll make me stay longer if they think I can't even patch myself up. I'll do it myself."

Which led, instead, to Thomas bandaging my hand, as it is fairly difficult to do something like that one-handed. His hands were very average; rough and barely warmer than mine. Not Lucas's feverish heat, but not clammy, fortunately.

"What was so bad you had to escape like that?" he asked. I said nothing, hoping he'd just let it pass as usual.

"You were mumbling something about Lucas," he said.

Flipping hell.

"What exactly was I saying?"

"Something like… 'I don't want to watch you die again.'"

Flipping hell.

"There was… an incident," I said. "It was a close call. I've been having recurring nightmares since then – this one was a variation of it."

"Ah."

Thomas rewrapped a section of the bandage.

"Does he… Do you like him?"

I cringed. If someone who'd known me for like two weeks could tell already, then it was way too obvious.

"Hey, I'm only guessing. He's the only guy friend of yours I know," said Thomas.

"Mm." I hesitated. "The easy answer is no."

"What's the hard answer?"

"The complicated answer is no, it's become something that's definitely love."

"You're very certain."

"Have you read A Wind in the Door?"

"No."

"You've missed out. There's a line in it where Proginoskes – he's, uh, a cherubim, but he's really a ball of feathers with lots of eyes and wings – he says, 'Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do.' I didn't get it for a while, but if this is the case, then I'm more sure that I love him than I've ever been for anyone."

"Why're you telling me this?"

"…you seemed interested."

"Oh, I don't mind. I was just… I mean, it's a lot to trust someone with. Cause people are often skeptical of claims of love, so if they don't believe you then you lose credibility."

"Do you love anyone?"

"I thought I told you I had a girlfriend?"

"Had, yeah. Do you love her still?"

He was quiet this time. Holding my hand's wrappings together with one hand, he reached into his bag with the other and pulled out a square of paper. He placed it on the table: it was a photo of him and a girl – short, dark haired, wearing a mint green sundress – laughing, side by side. His arm was around her.

"Yeah," he said softly.

"It was because of circumstance though, right? Because she only did it so you wouldn't keep coming home and limiting your journey. So you still stand a cha–"

"She–" He interrupted me, shaking his head. "No. That was her cover story. She stopped liking me a few months before that. Things felt different between us. It wasn't just circumstance."

Oh.

I contemplated the new details. "She was thinking of you, if she came up with a cover story to try not to hurt you."

"I guess." Thomas latched the metal fastener to the end of the bandage. "There you go. Good night."

"Thomas?" I said a few minutes later, before falling asleep.

"Hm?"

"What's her name?"

He didn't reply. I let myself sink closer to sleep, and I was almost gone when he responded.

"April."

I got officially cleared from the hospital in the morning. They didn't look too hard at my hand, probably cause it was already taken care of anyways.

Even though Thomas and I hadn't done sketchy and/or adult things during the night, there was a sense of sheepish morning-after guilt between us in the morning.

"Hey." I coughed. "Sorry about last night."

"No, don't worry about it. All kinds of things come out when you talk late at night."

"I meant sorry for waking you… Well, I guess I kinda meant that too."

Thomas shrugged. "I let things out I didn't plan to tell you, too. It's okay."

So by the time we were downstairs attempting to eat breakfast (I wasn't hungry, but I tore apart a bagel and ate it slowly), the shifty cloud between us had dissipated. And thus Thomas had no qualms about asking me questions I hadn't intended to answer.

"Did you ever go back for the growlithe?"

My bagel lost appeal entirely. "No."

"Why not?"

I tried to think up an explanation that was close to the "Dawn took the growlithe I had in another timeline" truth as possible.

"I met a growlithe a few months ago while visiting Eterna Forest," I began. "I befriended him, and when I became a trainer I knew I wanted to find him for my team. I was gonna go back, but when I battled Dawn earlier this week, it turned she caught the growlithe. He doesn't even remember me."

"Is that why you want to go back to Jubilife still?"

I nodded, glad for some reason that he'd caught on. "Yeah. It doesn't matter anymore that Jubilife is a bit far; the growlithe was taken basically right under my nose. I'm done waiting to go back and get my shinx."

Thomas brushed crumbs off his face. "How are you with heights?"

This was sudden. "…terrible?"

"So you've never flown?"

"Oh, flying. No, I've flown on a staraptor before."

"How was that?"

"It accomplished what I needed it to." It was also terrifying. "And if you're trying to get me to fly on Silver, you can give that up now."

"What? Why?"

Caught him. "Silver's not big enough to take us both."

"Sure he is."

"No way."

"You're short."

"…but I'm not small."

"All right, all right. I was about to head back to Jubilife anyways, mind if I go with you?"

I thought about it, then shrugged. "Sure."

The fastest way without flying was through the bike route. Having fallen off of it before, I was a little wary of it now. But hey. Speed.

While waiting in the lobby for Thomas to be ready – he hadn't packed that morning – I took another look at Looker's diary. I'd remembered that morning that I was in Veilstone until early October. I spent a few days training my new starly; we went and battled the gym once Quasar had evolved into a staravia.

I was zoning out, thinking about Quasar – he and Liana were my battle lovers, sparring whenever we had a spare moment. Liana was always careful not to use too much electricity around him, which was why she fought with claws and teeth more than electric moves. They were close friends. Arceus, they didn't even know each other now. If there were more reasons of why I needed my old team members back than "Um hello how would you feel if you lost six of your best friends within what felt like sixty seconds?" then this was it, the fact that they were missing their best friends too.

Like I said, I was zoning out, thinking about Quasar, when Thomas came back downstairs. "Ready?" he said.

"I'm waiting for you."

"Well, still."

We left the lobby, me feeling absolutely ready to get my Liana back.

I wrote a lot of this the night before prom at 1 am. It literally is something that came out at night.

A Wind in the Door is by Madeleine L'Engle, and it's lovely.