HELLO FRIENDS

A few things. First, I'm soon hitting finals week so it'll be probs 2 or 3 weeks til the next update.

Second, the battle in this chapter is (very) loosely based on my college's most recent men's basketball tournament game. Don't guess my college. That's weird.

Enjoy~

"Courage?"

"Apparently. It didn't occur to me to ask, cause I already knew her as Emmy, but Definite was like, 'By the way, Evelyn, I dunno why you're calling her Emmy but that's not right. Her name is Courage, with 'heart' in front'."

"…what?"

"I'm paraphrasing. He's saying her name is Coeur-age, because he doesn't recognize our pronunciation of the word courage. Coo-hage, to him."

"Interesting. So you're calling her that?"

"I guess so. I mean, I still know her best as Emmy, but Courage is her real name. So."

Megan nodded thoughtfully. It was a Sunday and she was doing nothing today, meaning she was still in a t-shirt and sweats.

"So," she said. "Your birthday plans."

"Uh… I don't really have any. I mean, Lucas and Dawn and I are going to Stark Mountain to fight Galactic, but nothing birthday-specific."

"But how are you getting there?"

"Teleporting with Looker's pokemon."

"Any chance you can teleport here?"

"I don't want to impose that on Looker… he looks more and more frazzled every time I see him," I said, although I felt guilty for not saying yes. "We videocalled with Lucas and Dawn earlier today and he was a mess. I'd be abusing his travel abilities, which he could get in a lot of trouble for. Plus I have to go to Valor – the Professor assigned me Lake Valor – right after getting back from that."

"You already thought about it, then."

"Yeah." I shrugged, although I was a bit sad about it. "If I'm back early enough I can call you to chat. I'll just come back to Hearthome and head to Valor in the morning… Assuming Stark Mountain doesn't take all day."

Megan nodded slowly. "Okay. Message me once you're back and ready to vidcall."

"Will do."

We paused when that topic was dealt with. I breathed. "I think… I think there's a problem with me and Lucas," I said.

"What happened?"

"We called… Twice, actually, once with Looker and Dawn, once with the Professor and Dawn. He just kept ignoring me. Like, Dawn and I would both say something minor… he'd only respond to her."

"You're probably fine. It's hard to communicate fully when you don't even know who the other person is looking at."

I shook my head. "I don't know. I have a gut feeling."

"Well, what could he be mad at you for?"

"Just Veilstone, I think."

"And you already apologized."

"Yeah."

Megan gestured in a "what else can you do?" way. "If he's still mad at you over that, he needs more excitement in his life."

I snorted. "Not too much."

She hesitated for a second, then huffed once she knew what I was saying. "Obviously not that kind of excitement."

I laughed for real. In the back of my mind, I was amazed that I could joke about this with her. The rest of the time, Lucas's death was still too real and recent.

"So. How's the gym?"

"I'm going for it tomorrow. We've been training a heck ton. I even taught Emmy shadow ball, just in case."

"Emmy."

"…Damn it. Coeur. Courage."

And now, an obligatory gym battle scene. You're welcome. Happy Monday.

"This battle is a continuous three-on-three match between the gym leader, Fantina, and the challenger, Evelyn Meyers from Twinleaf Town. Only the challenger may make substitutions. The battle ends when all three of one trainer's pokemon are knocked out. Battlers, are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Mais oui."

She speaks Definite's language, hah.

"Battle… begin!"

"Gengar, allons-y!"

"Definite, it's yours!"

"Begin with confuse ray!"

"Double team twice!"

The gengar's confuse ray twinkled uselessly into one of Definite's copies, eliminating one of the sixteen raltses now circling her.

"You know, you can speak to me in your head, too."

"Oh! Like this?…Can you hear me?"

"Oui."

"Gengar, use poison jab!"

"Confusion." It was easy, like thinking at him.

Definite teleported a meter to the side. Gengar glowed pink for a split second. I shivered a little. I hadn't realized before how close in color Def's psychic attacks were to Azelf's.

"Keep it up."

"Shadow claw!"

Def teleported and attacked, again, with a short pink burst of energy. He got hit once; I conveyed to him the importance of dodging over attacking, because of the type advantage of shadow claw.

"One more time–"

One final confusion attack was all he needed to knock the gengar out. Wow. We were in good shape.

"Gengar, return," said Fantina. "You certainly found a way around the disadvantage."

I shrugged. "The only problem with setting a psychic-type up against ghost-poison is the defensive aspect. Definite dodges well, which clears that up."

Fantina nodded and selected another pokemon. "Drifblim, assiste-moi!"

"Definite, return. Promise, it's yours! Crunch!"

"Minimize!"

The drifblim gained a bit of altitude, evading Promise's jaws. She proceeded to shrink rather considerably.

"Prom, sonic boom!"

He executed the move… which missed. Drifblim shrank a little further.

"Now gust!"

"Protect."

Gust is kind of a wide move, meaning it's very hard to dodge at close range. Promise tried to dodge rather than use protect (Prom why?) and tumbled back.

"Prommm…"

"Bui," he said indignantly, getting up. Whatever. Not time to scold.

"Prom, aqua jet. Head it with ice fang."

"Ominous wind!"

"Be fast!"

Fast he could do. Ominous wind is wide like gust, but Prom was already out of the way, rocketing around with aqua jet. It looked solid but out of control, whizzing here and there.

"Gust!"

It hit Promise, who rolled in the air and lost his water and ice. "Get aqua jet back!" I said. Prom, in his hurry, made a water source too close to his mouth and choked on water before he could take off. Drifblim loaded up for a massive ominous wind.

"You can do it!"

Promise tried once more to make his aqua jet work, and got a slow one going. It was no match for the ominous wind which he barreled head-on into.

At this point I was looking… Was there anything? Drifblim was about a quarter her usual size, and aqua jet was the best physical move that could still plausibly hit. Prom was holding his left paw a little gingerly, like he'd hurt it. When did that happen? …Oh, right, he'd fallen earlier.

"Go with ice fang!"

He lunged and Drifblim backed up; Prom rolled and sprang again, a little lopsidedly because of his paw, but he latched onto one of the ribbony parts of the drifblim.

"Use gust!"

"Hold on tight!"

Prom withstood the wind in his face. Ice crystals started spreading over the drifblim's body. At some point Promise couldn't hold on any longer and let go, but when the wind stopped, Drifblim was grounded by the weight of the ice.

"Now's your chance! Ice fang!"

Prom sprang at the stationary pokemon, who sent a weak gust his way. This time, Prom didn't let go, instead taking the light pokemon in his jaws and shaking his head wildly. The drifblim didn't stand a chance.

I exhaled and withdrew Promise as Fantina withdrew Drifblim. Aqua jet still needed work, but ice fang was all we needed against the half-flying type. Noted.

"My last pokemon – Mismagius!"

It was between Faith and Courage. Faith was ghost-poison with ghost and dark moves, Emmy – dammit, Courage – is normal type with shadow ball. I should have thought this out better.

"Ok. Faith."

"Psybeam!"

"Sucker punch!"

Faith executed the move, letting it ram her into the mismagius. She ducked under the psychic move.

"Nightshade," I said.

"Magical leaf."

The moves hit in midair – some of the magical leaves got through to slice at Faith. "Again!"

"Shadow ball."

We went back and forth like that for a bit, exchanging moves from afar. A few leaves kept getting through, steadily chipping away at Faith while nothing hit the mismagius.

"Get in there with sucker punch!"

"Psybeam!"

Mismagius was ready for her this time. Faith hit, but immediately she was blasted at point-blank range. It propelled her into the ground, where she bounced instead of dematerializing.

It happened so much faster than I thought it would. My heart sank. It's difficult to describe why exactly, but at that moment, when Faith was out of the battle, I knew we were done for.

Which wasn't for lack of trying. We kept at it, even though my gut feeling said it wouldn't go well. It didn't. Def was no match for the mismagius; Promise lasted longer but the whole thing became a mess because of his paw. He was just kind of continually suffering under the magical leaf type disadvantage. When he went down I was almost relieved.

Guess our first gym attempt was over.

"I lost," I said.

"Aw. It's okay, you'll beat her soon enough."

"I know."

"Why are you so down?" Thomas asked.

I didn't deny it. It was the kind of sadness where you stop caring if people know you're down. I could feel it radiating off me like visible waves of heat. "I don't know. I've lost to her before. I don't know why it's such a big deal now."

"Is it… Are you on your period?"

I glared at him.

"I'M SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT I'M JUST TRYING TO HELP I'M SO SORRY."

I looked back at the table of the Pokemon Center's lobby. "I'm not. And I don't really get PMS in the first place."

"So… huh."

The nurse called me up to retrieve my healed pokemon. I stood up and stretched. He stood too.

"Do you know where the Cultural place is, by the way?" he asked.

"The… the Foreign Cultures Building?"

"I think so."

"Why would you want to go there?"

Thomas blinked. "Why not?"

"There's nothing there for trainers."

"I don't mind."

I watched him. His face was perfectly blank, giving the illusion of openness. It was definitely a mask.

"…all right."

The Foreign Cultures Building was close to vacant at this hour. It was lit by sunlight alone, making it dim for now because of the wrong angles between the sun and the stained glass windows. This is why it was more popular in the evening.

Thomas and I sat at the edge of a pew. We weren't really talking or anything. Just sitting there admiring the glass and the architecture and the musty smell of antiquity.

"…April used to talk about this place," he finally said.

I glanced sideways. The mask was fading; his face was tinged with sadness.

"Is that why you wanted to come here?"

"N… well, y… She just made it sound nice."

"Mm."

There was a little trail of light from a hole in the roof somewhere. Dust swirled around it. Drifting. Like it was defying gravity but also adhering to it creatively.

"Where else have you been?"

He hesitated, meaning he knew what I meant. "The bridge in… what is it, metal town?"

"Canalave?"

"Yeah. And the flower fields around Floaroma."

"Glad you're exploring Sinnoh," I said offhandedly, as though I didn't know why he went.

Thomas looked down at his shoes.

"Is April from Sinnoh?" I asked. He nodded.

Light started to filter in through the stained glass windows. Thomas got up. "Sorry, I… This is weird. I must seem so creepy. Sorry you had to see me like this. Let's go now."

"No, it's fine. And we can't leave yet."

"Why not?"

"Sit back down, tourist."

He sat back down, and we waited.

The sun slid into the angle the building was designed for. Panes of glass lit up like hot stones in the walls, illuminating the entire hall with warm colored light.

I think at this moment, I finally related to him. Which isn't to say we had nothing in common – we'd talked before about trainer life and love lives. There was something different about… just two sad people sitting next to each other. Just two people feeling the same pain and being a comforting presence to each other.

The tourists started to trickle in, and we left the building.