Shoutout to Porter's new single! "Don't look for me – I'm just a story you've been told"? Are you KIDDING me?! SHIT! It's so good! I haven't even followed League in a while but I'm so excited for their collab and the song is all I've been listening to on my commute.

Anyway here have some content.

In addition to being the first day of the future, the 22nd of February marked exactly one month since I'd arrived in Sunyshore. One month since I'd last seen Thomas.

And it had been a surprisingly successful month, all things considered. I'd gotten out of bed every morning. I'd trained with my pokemon every day, except when they made me take breaks for my own good. The first week had been rough, but all in all, I'd been on an absolute rampage of productivity, which left little time to think about Thomas.

On the morning of the 22nd, Dawn and Lucas arrived.

I expected to… well, I guess I expected to feel guilty for having left them the way I did. I wasn't super sure what Thomas had or hadn't told them, but whatever his reasons for cutting me off, I couldn't imagine them choosing to do the same. At least, Dawn I couldn't. Lucas pretty much had done so before.

But I hadn't foreseen at all the instant jolt in my stomach when I saw them. It happened almost before I registered who I was looking at. Specifically, a spear of something familiar and sweet shot through my stomach at the sight of Lucas.

Fuck.

Dawn waved and came over, Lucas beside her. I waved, feeling my skin turn warm and cool at once. Oh good! I was already sweating.

"Hey! How's it going?" she said.

"Good, how are you? It's been a minute," I said, trying to will my armpits not to sweat through my shirt. (that's a feasible thing to do, right?)

"I'm good, got the badge in Canalave." Dawn nodded to Lucas. "How are you, Lucas?" she said, bouncing my question to the boy who wouldn't have answered if he could get away with it. Just as a character thing, not even as a trying-not-to-talk-to-Evelyn thing.

I suddenly realized – Thomas wasn't the first time a boy had opted to avoid me. Megan and Tricia and I all thought it was weird and that he had no real reason for it, but if Lucas had done the same thing, were we just missing something? Was there something wrong with me?

"I'm good," Lucas said, a twinge of amusement in his eye. My heart swooped at the thrill of making eye contact through a window that had been shut for months.

"Anyway, how's Sunyshore been? Have you challenged Volkner yet?" Dawn wanted to know.

"Not yet. I've just been training nonstop," I said.

"Wow, for a full month?" Dawn asked, surprised.

"I mean, you've heard the gossip about him being impossible to beat. I want to be ready."

"Mm, that's fair." She nodded.

"Well, I don't wanna keep you from getting settled. Do you guys wanna do dinner later?" I asked, trying to speed the conversation along. I didn't like the festering feeling in my chest.

"I'm down! Lucas?"

Lucas nodded. I was still entranced by the way he was looking at me (neutrally, but kindly). There was something different about it that I couldn't figure out.

"Cool, anywhere you recommend?" Dawn asked me.

We worked out the details and parted ways. Or, we started parting ways, and then I heard a voice.

"Evelyn."

My heart tripped over itself. I turned around.

"Are you busy this afternoon?" Lucas asked.

I'm! gonna fucking faint.

"Uh, why do you ask?" I asked, cold breaking out along my scalp and neck.

"I was wondering if you'd wanna battle sometime?" he said.

"Oh, yeah, for sure," I said, and I don't know if I was disappointed or relieved that that's all he wanted. "Does 1:30 work? Battlefields outside the Pokemon Center?"

Lucas nodded. "See you then," he said.

"See you."

He turned and left. I realized what was different about him: Lucas, who had died a month ago in the former timeline and therefore never made it to today, had grown. I had to look up slightly to meet his eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" I heard Coeur ask me.

I felt my hands shaking. "I don't… I need to…"

"Do you wanna talk?"

"I'm gonna call Megan," I said.

"Oh. Okay."

As it turned out, I'd forgotten it was a Monday morning, and Megan was at school. Tricia, who I dialed out of sheer desperation, surprisingly was not.

"I'm on a field trip," she explained, framed by the blue sky and the sound of starlies chirping. "We finally regained access to the river near the Ironworks. The professor wanted to go immediately."

"How is the river?" I asked. "Also, sorry if I'm bothering you, I can let you go."

"No, you're good! I'm waiting on some test results right now anyways. So far it's pretty much looking like a tributary that was purified and then stopped being purified, with the occasional chemicals from an exploded factory. So, exactly what it should be."

I cringed. "Yeah, sorry again about your river."

Tricia laughed out loud. "Don't worry about it. There was enough of an active cleanup of the site that the water pollution was not only kept to a minimum, but ultimately will decrease sooner than it would have if the factory didn't explode and get cleaned up."

I smiled at the good news. Then I realized something and frowned. "Who cleaned it up?"

"They're an environmental group that specializes in this kind of thing. Don't worry, I checked their work. They're legit, they've been active for a decade, and they take part in enough projects around Sinnoh that I don't think they'd have time to also be part of a criminal organization."

I nodded. "I guess it makes sense that a group trying to create an all-new world wouldn't really care about the environment in this one."

"Exactly," Tricia agreed. "How'd it going in Sunyshore?"

"Mm." I shifted. "Not sure. Dawn and Lucas arrived today."

"Ooh… that sounds tense."

"Honestly, it's… I think the problem is that it's not."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, Lucas is okay around me now for some reason? And Dawn doesn't know I ever liked him, so on their side it's like nothing is happening and everything's fine. And then for me… I'm still nervous around the two of them, now that I know they're together. And Lucas… I might… I might be falling for him again."

"Oh no, what happened?"

"I don't… I just remembered what it felt like to love him. I caught flashes of it." And now he and Dawn were official, and any chance that his newfound agreeableness around me could have given was completely nullified. And my mom had said it was a bad thing, to have these feelings, and I'd only just gotten over him–

"Hmm…" said Tricia, deep in thought. "I think… did he do anything in particular?"

I shook my head. "Just… acted the way he used to. Friendly."

"But that's different, right? It's not how he's been in the last few months?

I nodded. "For the most part. Yeah."

"Yeah. And it sounds like that's what caused it, yeah?"

"I think so."

Tricia nodded. "Here's the thing. The things you liked about him – the reasons you fell for him in the first place – they're not gonna go away. But there's also reasons you got over him, yeah? So now you gotta hold on to those so that the older things don't get the better of you."

I nodded slowly. This made a lot of sense. Lucas hadn't changed as a person over the last few months – he'd just been showing me a different side of him, one that was cold and distant. Now, I was once again seeing the part of him I'd fallen for, the part that held my eyes in his when I spoke and glowed through the warm brown of his irises, but it… it didn't negate the past. Lucas being friendly in the present didn't erase how he'd acted around me before. I just had to remember that.

"When did you get so wise?" I asked Tricia, grinning.

She responded with a goofy smile and we both burst into giggles.

"This will be a 2-on-2 battle between Evelyn Meyers and Lucas Tristan!" Dawn yelled cheerfully. Her pokemon wrestled and played around on the practice field behind her. "No substitutions will be allowed, last team standing wins! Battlers, are you ready?"

"Is it a single battle or a double battle?" I asked.

"Yeah, and where are we from?" Lucas added.

Dawn rolled her eyes at us. "Single battle, Evelyn is from Nuvema Town in Unova, Lucas is from Mars. Battlers, are you ready?"

"Yeah, I guess," I said, shrugging performatively.

Lucas gave a thumbs-up.

"Battle, begin!"

Lucas and I both threw pokeballs silently (although I also said, "Trust, it's yours!" through aura). It was his alakazam versus Trust. This hadn't gone well during the tournament.

"Psychic!" Lucas said, confirming that this would go like last time.

"Uh–" I conveyed what I wanted through images, unable to find the right words in time.

Trust blasted fire, shielding himself from view. Alakazam – Magic, I thought, but Alakazam to the rest of the world – gestured with his spoons and took the fire in his psychic gaze, unable to get Trust in his line of sight. He moved the fire to the side, but Trust was still going, releasing more fire in a continuous stream. Alakazam kept shoving flames to the side, and in the corner of my vision I could see Kenna, Dawn's empoleon, absorbing them with some wide water move.

Trust – who had been moving forward as he blasted flame, threw a punch of fire and fighting energy. Alakazam, caught off guard, dropped one of his spoons as the fist hit the side of his face. He scrambled to pick it up.

Those focus psychic energy, I remembered vaguely.

"Go for the spoons!"

Trust lunged at Alakazam. Alakazam tried to dodge, but Trust grabbed a spoon and pulled. Alakazam pulled back, apparently too stunned by the audacity to remember that he had psychic powers?

Trust spat a little fire in Alakazam's face, which was enough to loosen his grip on the spoon. It slipped from his hand and Trust pulled it away, victorious.

Lucas looked shocked. "Psychic it back!"

Alakazam reached out, eyes glowing pink. The spoon in Trust's hand glowed, but Trust held tight. I don't think he could've held on, usually.

"See if you can get the other one."

Trust shot random flames at Alakazam, who redirected them away in random directions (Kenna shot correspondingly random bursts of water around the field). Trust swiped out, but Alakazam pulled back in time.

"Teleport!"

Alakazam vanished and reappeared behind Trust. He caught him in his psychic grip. I clenched my teeth, determined not to lose focus like last time.

"Try and… Try and damage the spoon?"

Within the pink glow – which was fainter than last time – the hand clutching Alakazam's spoon glowed white with fighting energy. Alakazam grunted out loud – I don't think I'd ever heard the abra evolution line verbally speak before – and the psychic glow around Trust dropped.

"Finish him off!"

"Alakazam, psychic!"

Alakazam tried to pull himself together, but Trust kept his mach-punch hold on the spoon as he charged up and shot forth a full blast burn. Kenna dove in front of Lucas with aquajet to stop the residual flames from getting too close. Alakazam, singed and battered, fell over backwards. Trust walked over and placed the warped spoon on top of him. Now that I knew it was a part of Alakazam just as much as Trust's arm was a part of him, I knew the spoon should look good as new after the heal machine.

"Alakazam is unable to battle!" Dawn announced. "The round goes to– wait, did we say this was individual matchups or continuous?"

"I don't know, you're the ref–"

"Isn't that your jo–"

"Okay, we're gonna say it's continuous. Lucas, if you could let out your next pokemon."

Lucas recalled Alakazam and sent out Torterra. "You know what to do," he said to her.

I grimaced. I didn't know what that meant. "Go up and punch her?" I guessed.

Trust ran forward. He slowed as he got near, and I realized right before the ground gave out under him that it was turning to sand. Trust sank chest-deep suddenly, trapped in a sand tomb.

"Flamethrower!"

"Rock polish!"

The stones atop Torterra's back glinted with rock energy, imbuing her with the speed to evade Trust's fire. He tried to move his flamethrower to catch her, but she fled– shit that was a speedy giant.

"Stone edge!"

Torterra ran until she was behind Trust, where he couldn't turn his head enough to see her. Sharp stones flew at him, slicing across his head and shoulders and arms. I tried to think – heating the sand around him would just turn it to molten glass, which didn't seem great. Everything else he knew was forward-directional or a fighting move.

"Try using fighting energy to dig underground?"

Trust struggled against the sand – he didn't have enough space to move.

"Wait, you know aura. Could you try…?"

"Aura sphere?"

Trust concentrated. Stones hit him in the head. Nothing was happening.

"I don't think I can–"

"Earthquake!"

The ground shook. Most of Dawn's pokemon fell over. Trust was yanked one way, then another, and when the shaking stopped he had gone limp.

"Trust is unable to battle!" Dawn shouted.

"Return." Trust vanished into his fast ball. "Faith, it's yours."

Faith sprang from her pokeball. "Confuse ray," I said.

Faith tried her seemingly-aimless-but-then-quick confuse ray tactic, but Torterra evaded it completely by running away before it even looked like it would hit.

"Catch her!" Lucas called.

"Dodge?" I said, confused.

Faith moon-jumped around the field, bouncing periodically, until on one bounce she was sucked into the ground. Another sand tomb.

"Phase through that," I advised. Faith disappeared.

"Earthquake!" Lucas shouted triumphantly.

The ground yanked itself out from under us again. I fell over backwards. The shaking went on for a small eternity – if Faith was below, we were screwed.

However, she was neither of those things.

A confuse ray popped up directly in front of Torterra's face. I don't think Lucas even saw it, because what he did next was… well, it sure wasn't cautious.

"Frenzy plant!"

Spiked roots shot up from the ground. They twisted and tangled and bashed Torterra's tree and back and head in the process. A tree branch flew off to the side (Kenna sliced it in half before it could crash into Dawn's other pokemon). I was way on the far side of the field, but I had to duck to avoid some stray swings. I had no idea where Faith was; I could only hope she was out of range.

The frenzy plant died out and sank back underground. I looked back at Torterra – I thought I'd seen a little bit of ghost or dark energy over there, but honestly, I think she had primarily knocked herself out.

"Torterra's unable to battle… is Faith still around?" Dawn asked.

My gengar popped out of the ground right in front of Dawn. Dawn yelped. "Evelyn wins!"

Lucas nodded as he recalled his torterra. I called back Faith. We met in the middle – he wore the smallest rueful smile, like he was a little disappointed but had expected this outcome.

"Good match," he said, extending his hand to shake.

I took Lucas's hand. It was warm as ever.

I looked at his open expression. "What happened?" I asked. "Why were you mad? Why aren't you mad anymore?"

His face didn't really change, but he broke eye contact with me to think about it.

"It's… I had to figure some things out," he said slowly. "But I'm doing better now."

What the shit does that mean?

"I gotta go heal my pokemon," he said, letting go of my hand. Lucas turned and walked toward the Pokemon Center.

"He's heading off so soon?" Dawn wondered, coming over.

"Do you know?" I asked her. I'd never wanted to before, for fear of her knowing the answer and proving herself closer to him. Now, it didn't matter. "Why he was mad at me."

She frowned thoughtfully. "I wouldn't call it mad exactly… but I do, yeah. I don't think it's my place to tell you, though."

I nodded, avoiding eye contact, feeling ashamed to have put her in this position. Pitting trust in a friend against a boyfriend.

Boyfriend, ew. I hadn't thought of it that way. That's what they were now, weren't they? Boyfriend. Girlfriend.

"I think what I can say," Dawn mentioned, pulling my gaze back up, "is that it was mostly a him thing. It wasn't your fault, really."

Then why did it happen? I wanted to know. What do you mean he wasn't mad exactly? How could I have stopped it? Which part was a me thing? How do I know it won't happen again?

I didn't ask, because I didn't want to push her to tell me a story that wasn't hers to tell.

Later, though, when Dawn and Lucas and I were at dinner and a song came on over the speakers – some pop song or other, I don't know – they looked at each other with eyes full of meaning that I had no part in. They knew this song. It was theirs. And I was surprised at the jealousy that stung my guts over a boy I no longer had feelings for.

I made up my mind. I'd spent the day feeling like my world was something I couldn't control, and I needed a way to prove that I knew what I was doing, and I was doing well, and I was in control of things.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow I would challenge Volkner.

Here we fuckin GO