"Maybe this was a mistake." In truth, "maybe" had been crossed when Jasmine had first accepted Whitney's offer to help her get ready. Now, with every inch of her room covered in her clothes, Jasmine should have come clean, if only to herself, and admit that this was a mistake.

Only, it was hard to say no to Whitney. Jasmine's fellow gym leader was so bubbly and eager to help that turning down her help would have required more fortitude than Jasmine possessed. That was how Jasmine had found herself a spectator to the sight of Whitney laying out every piece of clothing Jasmine owned so that nothing else could be seen.

"He's going to think he's died and gone to heaven when I'm done with you!" Whitney said without looking at Jasmine. Her eyes were instead roaming over the collection of tops, pants, skirts, and dresses laid out in front of her. Whitney wasn't known for being book smart, but any doubts about her intelligence would have been quickly quashed by the way that her brain worked through the dizzying equation of how to mix and match the many pieces in front of her to create the best outfit for her friend's date.

"It's not a date, though," Jasmine said, more to herself than to Whitney, but the other girl's ears perked up and she made a mental note of where she was in her calculations before replying, "What do you mean, Jasmine?"

Jasmine smiled shyly and brushed her brown hair behind her ear. "I mean, it's just a lunch with a colleague. Brock's more like a coworker, and he's my mentor. It's just a friendly lunch."

Whitney snorted. "A friendly lunch with a bonafide hunk. Honestly, Jasmine, you really lucked out. My mentor when I joined the league was Chuck." She made a face. "Married, and a dad bod? No thanks! But you hit the jackpot, girl! You get to meet with your dream guy on the regular."

"He's not my, you know, 'dream guy'," Jasmine insisted with a forced laugh.

"Well, is there anything that you'd change about him?"

"Of course not!" Jasmine replied quickly.

Whitney winked at her friend and said, "That's what I'm talking about: dream guy."

Jasmine blushed and said, "Are you done going through my clothes yet? I didn't think it would take this long."

"Don't worry, you won't be late," Whitney said without any trace of apology in her voice, "but your wardrobe is giving me some problems. You've got a few cute pieces, but it's hard to put together the kind of knockout outfit that you asked for."

"I didn't ask for that," Jasmine insisted lamely. Then, her eyes lit up and she asked, "So, are you saying that I should just go in what I'm wearing now?"

"Definitely not," said Whitney at once. She deigned to give Jasmine a quick onceover before saying dismissively, "That dress is cute in a girl next door way, but it's not going to turn heads."

Jasmine sighed. "I don't need to turn heads. We're going to be sitting across the table from each other."

Whitney waved Jasmine's words away like a bothersome insect. "You know what I mean. No, you're going to have to step up your game, Jasmine. Brock's been taking his shirt off to battle trainers for years. He's had girls throwing themselves at him that whole time, and you know they're all a little crazy out there in Kanto. What you need is something that is going to make him sit up and realize that you're not just a sweet little mentee, but a beautiful woman who he'd be an absolute moron to let slip past him."

"Do you really think that you can do that?"

"We can do it," insisted Whitney. "You just have to trust me." She stood back and scanned the layer of clothing blanketing Jasmine's room before deftly picking out a few pieces with exacting precision. "Here, try these on and let me see how they look."

Jasmine accepted the armful of clothes with a murmured thank you and then fled to the bathroom to see what Whitney had picked out for her. As Whitney idly picked through the articles of clothing which she had rejected, Jasmine's voice echoed from down the hallway, "Are you kidding me, Whitney? I can't go out wearing this!"

"Just trust me!" Whitney hollered back, then she shook her head and murmured to herself, "I should've done this a long time ago."

When Jasmine returned, her face was nearly as red as the top she was wearing, even as she did her best to cover her chest with her arms. "I can't wear this!" she said just as Whitney was saying, "Come on, let me see how you look!"

There was a brief standoff between the two girls, but then, slowly, Jasmine forced her arms down and held them stiffly at her sides. Whitney looked Jasmine up and down and said, "What are you talking about? I think you look pretty hot, Jasmine!"

"I think I'm going to be too cold!" Jasmine shot back. "I didn't know I even had something like this in my closet! And this skirt! I think I've grown a bit since I last wore this!"

"Gotta show off those legs, girl," Whitney said easily. "And we can throw a light sweater or something over the top if you're worried about getting cold."

"It's not my shoulders I'm worried about!" Jasmine laughed. "Maybe if I wore some tights under the skirt?"

Whitney only shook her head and said, "Fine, try on the blouse I picked out for you. But keep the skirt. I'll take it personally if you don't."

From her tone, it was possible that Whitney was joking, but Jasmine didn't want to risk it so she meekly returned to her bathroom for another change of clothes. When she came back, Whitney was flipping through a magazine she had found on Jasmine's nightstand. "Why do you have an old issue of Pokémon Journal? Could it be research for your upcoming date?"

"It's not a date," Jasmine said lamely. "And I was just having trouble sleeping last night is all."

"'Brock rarely laughs, but is said to be unable to stop if he starts,'" Whitney read aloud. "Wow, I never would have guessed that." She turned the page without looking up at Jasmine and said, "Oh, wow, look at that. A shirtless pic in Pokémon Journal. That guy really can't keep his shirt on, can he?"

"Can we please go back to my outfit," pleaded Jasmine. "That'd be less painful than this."

Whitney shrugged and set the magazine aside. "Suit yourself."

As she smoothed out her short skirt, Jasmine insisted, "And for your information, I was just trying to get some ideas for conversation, okay?"

"What is there to say? 'You're hot, I'm cute.' 'You have an onix, I have a steelix, we should date.'"

"Oh, be quiet."

"Let me look at you," Whitney said, and she studied Jasmine critically. "Turn around. Okay, what do you think?"

Jasmine did as Whitney instructed and then said, "Well, the back feels a little open. I like how breathable it is, but I don't think I have the tan to pull it off."

Whitney nodded sagely. "That's true, too bad you didn't tell me about your date sooner or I would have taken you to the beach to get some sun. How someone who lives in a lighthouse has a worse tan than I do is just baffling. But we can put a sweater or a jacket over it."

"So, it looks okay?" asked Jasmine.

"It looks good," Whitney said. "It's not quite the knockout that I was hoping for, but I did the best that I could with what you gave me to work with." The comment was delivered without any cruelty, just honesty, and it was quickly brushed past as Whitney added, "We really should go shopping after this. Maybe we can pick a day after your date, and you can give by the blow-by-blow."

Jasmine said, "It's not a date," again, but she was smiling as she said it. "Be honest, Whitney, do you think he'll like it?"

Whitney stood up and wrapped her friend in a hug. "If Brock has a pulse, I guarantee it. Now, let's finish this outfit. I think a jean jacket will look good, and then we have to talk about accessorizing."

"Whitney," Jasmine pleaded, "do we really have time for that?"

In the end, they made time, but it did mean that Jasmine was running late for her lunch with Brock. Her sandals slapped loudly on the sidewalk as she ran the route from her apartment over her gym to the deli overlooking the sea where she was meeting her mentor. It was a route that she had walked countless times, so Jasmine's body was on autopilot as her mind whirled with hopes and fears about what would happen. As the restaurant came into view, she slowed her pace to a walk and tried to catch her breath. Jasmine was still out of breath, however, and breathing heavily when Brock saw her and stood up to greet her.

"Um, hi, Brock," Jasmine said shyly. She was too busy looking at the ground to see how Brock was looking at her. "I'm sorry that I'm late."

"Don't worry about it," the older gym leader said with a small smile. "I'm glad you could make it. Have a seat." Brock pulled out Jasmine's chair, and she blushed at the gentlemanly gesture. After he sat down himself, Brock asked, "So, how are things going, Jasmine? It's been six months since you became a gym leader now, how are you liking it?"

Jasmine made herself look up at Brock's handsome face and kept her eyes on him for as long as she could without wilting. "It's great! I mean, it still feels outside of comfort zone, but I think I'm getting better at handling challengers. I'm just glad that my steelix has enough of a reputation that a lot of newer trainers challenge other gyms first!" As she realized that she had made a joke, Jasmine rededicated herself to studying Brock's face, hoping for the laugh that Pokémon Journal had described.

But Brock did not laugh, he only nodded his head solemnly and said, "Well, I'm glad that you've settled into your role. You're lucky that your reputation and geography work together for you. My onix is the scariest pokémon a lot of new trainers have seen, but since I'm so close to Pallet Town I have a lot of the new challengers who might have otherwise avoided me." Brock's brow knit together in thought and then he said, "And your work with the lighthouse? Are you still able to balance that with your duties as a gym leader?"

"Oh, yes!" Jasmine answered with a vigorous bobbing of her head. "Just like I said last month, Amphy's gotten pretty comfortable with working on its own more and more, and the league official assigned to my gym has been very helpful in encouraging challengers to make appointments instead of simply arriving out of the blue in hopes of a challenge."

"Have you thought about having some trainers study at your gym? That might help make things easier."

Jasmine's answer had to wait as their waitress came to the table and took the two gym leaders' drink orders. Brock ordered a smoothie chockfull of healthy superfoods while Jasmine stuck with a plain glass of sparkling water. Then, when it was just the two of them again, Jasmine admitted, "Well, I don't think so. It still feels like I don't have that much to teach new trainers. I'm still so new at being a gym leader, after all. I figure that as long as I'm still learning from you, I shouldn't presume to teach others."

"Then I have some news for you," Brock said. "This is our last meeting as mentor and mentee. I've told the League, and Lance agrees, that you're doing a fine job as a gym leader and you won't need to check in with me regularly anymore."

The waitress returned to take their orders. They had been meeting here every month for half of the year, so both Brock and Jasmine's orders came readily to mind. The interruption derailed Jasmine's train of thought, and was too short to give her time to recover gracefully. "So, I won't see you anymore?" she blurted out to Brock.

"You'll still see me," Brock said. He smiled, but he didn't laugh at her, thankfully. "I'll be at Pokémon League functions and there are plenty of those throughout the year, and if you ever need my help with anything, I'm always going to be happy to help."

It was a perfectly nice answer, but Jasmine still felt a sense of mounting panic. She didn't want nice right now. To say goodbye to Brock with a measly handshake seemed unfair somehow. Grasping for straws, Jasmine asked, "But maybe you have other reasons to come to Johto? I mean, do you have family here, or friends, or anything like that?"

Brock raised an eyebrow and answered, "No, not really. That's one of the reasons why I was happy when I was assigned to be your mentor. I haven't seen much of your region before."

"But you've hardly seen anything!" Jasmine insisted. "A lighthouse and a few fishing boats, that's all! If you want to see Johto you should, I don't know, go shopping in Goldenrod City or take in a play in Ecruteak City! Tour some of the historical sites in Violet City or take a hike around the Lake of Rage! There's still so much for you to do here!"

"Hey, it's all right," Brock said soothingly. He put one of his strong hands over Jasmine's, and she felt her pulse quicken at his touch. His words were merely friendly, however, as the older gym leader said, "It's going to be okay. You're doing a great job as a gym leader, Jasmine, and just because I won't be around as often doesn't mean that you won't keep it up."

Jasmine felt herself wilt in her chair. She made some noise that might have been an actual word, and then she excused herself to go to the restroom. Brock made no move to stop her, which was somewhat frustrating.

Once inside the deli's single occupancy restroom, Jasmine pulled out her phone and was both annoyed and relieved to see Whitney had sent her several messages asking for updates on her lunch with Brock. Jasmine didn't read any of them, and instead called her friend.

"Hey, girlfriend!" Whitney's voice rang out through the phone's speaker. "How's the date going?"

"Well, it's definitely not a date now," answered Jasmine a little bitterly. "It's our last meeting together as mentor and mentee."

"Ah, and your first one as boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Jasmine's hand found her forehead. "No, I mean, it's his last time coming for Johto and seeing me. He told the League that I don't need a mentor anymore, so it's 'So long, Jasmine!'" There was a silence on the other end of the line until Jasmine asked, "Whitney? Are you still there?

"Then you need to tell him." The other girl's tone was serious, not at all like the peppy cheerleader that had been pestering Jasmine up to this point. "Jasmine, if you want this, it's up to you to make it happen. Brock's a nice guy, but at the end of the day he's still a guy. It sounds like he's not picking up on your cute little hints, so you better just go out there and kick him in the groin."

"Um, literally?"

"No, not literally!" Whitney screamed over the phone. "How did you get this far in life without me?"

Jasmine tried to muffle her phone to keep the sound of her friend's outrage from being heard outside of the cramped restroom. "Calm down! Okay, so I got out and tell him. But, uh, tell him what, exactly?"

Though Whitney managed to keep her voice down, her voice was still dripping with exasperation. "Tell him how you feel, of course! Tell him you think he's awesome! Tell him he's a hunk! Wait, he probably knows that already. Oh, tell him that you keep a magazine with shirtless pictures of him in it next to your bed, that'll get his attention!"

"Whitney!" Now it was Jasmine who needed to keep her voice down.

"Sorry, Jasmine, just brainstorming!" Whitney was quiet as she thought it over some more and then she suggested, "How about a big romantic gesture? I mean, I know it's kind of short notice but I could bring over a confetti cannon if you want it."

Jasmine was struggling to pick from among several responses to that outrageous suggestion when there was a polite rap of knuckles against the restroom's door. "Finishing up!" Jasmine said, and then to Whitney she said, "I'm sorry, Whitney, I've got to go. I'll call you later."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" asked Whitney, but Jasmine ended the call.

"I wish I knew," Jasmine muttered to herself as she put her phone back in her purse.

Their waitress had delivered their food while Jasmine was inside the restaurant proper, but the young woman had chosen to linger at their table to chat with Brock. "My brother's doing Kanto this year," the woman said smoothly to Brock. "I'll have to tell him I ran into you."

"What's his name?" Brock asked. "Maybe he's already challenged my gym." As Jasmine sat back down in her chair, Brock nodded at her.

"Well, I'll leave you two to it," the waitress said flippantly and then, with a waggling wave of her fingers to Brock, she went back to work. Jasmine glared daggers at the other woman's back.

Brock showed no signs of picking up Jasmine's mood. Instead, he simply started eating his sandwich. For her part, Jasmine rested her cheek on her propped-up hand and picked at her salad. "Do you ever get annoyed by that?" she asked finally. When Brock's initial answer was only a tilt of his head to one side, Jasmine went on, "Being recognized by total strangers? Doesn't it ever bother you? I mean, you're a gym leader because you wanted to help trainers, right? Some people are in it for the money or the attention, but not you."

"And how do you know that?"

Jasmine swallowed down her mouthful of food before answering, "That's what you said in your interview with Pokémon Journal, right?" Jasmine's face blanched and she hastened to add, "I mean, I just read excerpts online. When I was bored, I mean."

"The attention isn't my favorite thing about being a gym leader, but I don't mind it." Brock's words were careful. "How about you, Jasmine? Has it gotten any easier for you?"

"If I say yes, will that mean I'm not ready to lose my mentor?" Jasmine asked hopefully. When Brock shook his head, she said, "I don't do that much of the public stuff of being a gym leader. We've talked about it before, but I really don't like putting myself out there. Running the lighthouse is just right for me. I have an important job there and I can help people, but I'm hidden away from them."

Brock drained the rest of his smoothie before saying, "If you don't mind me saying, Jasmine, I don't know if that's the right attitude for a gym leader to have. Some gym leaders cultivate a reputation for being remote and even intimidating so that they don't have to deal with the hassles of the job. They're the kind of people who find any excuse not to be in their gym when a challenger comes knocking." Brock put up his hands, palms up, and said, "I'm not talking about something important like running a lighthouse, either." One side of his mouth curved into a smile as Brock added, "Besides, Jasmine, I think there's a lot about you that people would love to see more of if you only let them. Your papers on steel-type pokémon show some serious intellectual chops, for example."

Jasmine giggled girlishly and said, "I wondered if anyone actually read those. You really liked them?"

"I liked the parts that I could understand," Brock admitted. For a second it looked as though he might deliver one of his elusive laughs, but Jasmine was disappointed again.

Brock invited Jasmine to explain some of the higher concepts that she explored in her paper while he finished his food. Then, once his meal was done, he waited until Jasmine had eaten as much of her salad as her nervous stomach could handle and then beckoned their waitress for their bill.

"Separate checks?" the other woman asked with a sidelong glance at Jasmine.

"Together, actually," said Brock. To Jasmine, he said, "My treat, okay?"

Jasmine smiled at Brock and, as he pulled out his wallet, shot a gloating look at their disgruntled waitress. After the bill was paid, Brock stood up and Jasmine felt a surge of panic. "Do you have to go?" she asked. "I mean, what time does your ship leave?"

Brock looked out at the sea as if he was drawing his answer out of the waves instead of out of his own head. "I have a little bit of time, but I thought that I would get settled in my cabin early. It helps me to travel when I'm more settled and used to my surroundings." Brock's attention flickered back to Jasmine. "I can stay for a little while, though, if you have something I can still help you with."

This was it: Jasmine's moment and she couldn't make herself say anything besides a banal, "I'll walk with you to the docks." Mentally kicking herself, she strolled with Brock in silence. Each footstep they took made Jasmine more aware of her window of opportunity growing narrower. Instead of talking, Jasmine ran through a mental inventory of everything that she had done to prepare for this moment. She had asked for Whitney's help picking out an outfit, learned everything she could about Brock, and spent the past six months getting to know him as her mentor, but none of that groundwork meant anything if she couldn't force herself to take the plunge.

The pressure Jasmine was feeling was almost a physical thing. She could see the gleaming white side of the S.S. Aqua looming ahead now, as if she didn't need any more reminders of how little time there was for her to make her move. If only Brock would say something! If only he would do what she couldn't and tell her what he was thinking, and how he felt about her! But he was maddeningly comfortable with the silence and lived in it with all of the patience of one of his rock-type pokémon.

They stood in front of the building which screened passengers for voyages and the S.S. Aqua's horn blew loud enough to shake Jasmine out of her musings. Without warning, Brock wrapped his strong arms around her in a hug and she let her face rest against his chest to try and savor every second of that all-too-brief embrace. Then, Brock let go of her and said, "So."

Before the other gym leader could utter another syllable, the dam of emotions Jasmine had been building up burst. "Can I be your girlfriend?" Jasmine asked so quickly that the question came out as a single word. Still, she didn't dare repeat it. Even if Brock didn't understand her, she could still truthfully tell Whitney that she had asked.

When Brock's laughter came, it seemed to be as much of a shock to him as it was to Jasmine. His body was wracked with mirth and he tried to stifle his resonant laughs by biting down on his knuckle, but soon enough gave up on that technique. He almost started laughing again when he saw the serious expression on Jasmine's face, but Brock instead struggled to master himself and gasped, "Would you like that?" Jasmine nodded her head vigorously, and Brock held off his laughter to say, "Okay then," and he hugged her again so that they could laugh together.