Ok, so I'm updating this today instead of Tuesday because I may not have enough time tomorrow to write. And this one is a chapter that I really don't want to end up rushing, so I'm going to be using today, when I have more time, to get it done. Also the chapter's name is basic, I know, but I was stuck for how to name it. But enough about my hectic schedule and awful chapter naming skills, let's get on with this.

Chapter 37:

Heart to Heart

Max is immediately frantic, wondering what happened with Bonnie. He scours the room for any sign that someone, most likely members of Team Terra, had taken her as a means of getting him to hand over his notebook. Fortunately, there seems to be no signs of a struggle, or forceful entry. Which leaves the only other option. Bonnie left on her own. "But why would she do that?" Max asks himself. "She's supposed to have her rematch with Flannery today?" His next thought is maybe she went and had her rematch early, and didn't want to wake him up. But that one doesn't make any sense either. For one thing, it's only 9 in the morning, and Bonnie wouldn't usually be up at this time. Normally he's awake first. But, it's the only lead he has, so he decides to follow up on it.

First, he goes down to the main room in the Pokémon Centre, to see if maybe she's just gotten breakfast, and brought he bag with her. Unfortunately, she's not there. So, he leaves the Pokémon Centre and heads for Flannery's gym. But when he gets there, he finds that Flannery's only just opening it. As she does, she turns around and spots him. "Hey Max!" she calls. "Is Bonnie coming for our rematch?" Max shakes his head, panting slightly from sprinting all the way from The Pokémon Centre to the Gym. "Boy, I tire out so much easier when my life isn't being threatened," he mutters to himself, before explaining that Bonnie wasn't in their room or the Pokémon Centre this morning when he woke up, so he came to the Gym to see if she was hear already.

When he's finished his explanation, Flannery just shakes her head. "Well, she certainly hasn't come here," she tells him. "I only just opened the Gym, so she can't have come here. Did you try calling her?" Max freezes at this. "In truth," he admits, "I didn't think of that." Flannery laughs. "Well, considering how frantic you look right now, that doesn't surprise me," she tells him. Max chuckles slightly, then pulls out his Rotom Phone and calls Bonnie. The phone rings for a few seconds, before the call gets declined. Confused, Max tries again. Once again, Bonnie declines the call. Now he's really worried about her. "Well, that's not good," Flannery comments, unhelpfully. Max puts his phone back in his pocket and begins looking around. "I'm going to go and look for her," he says. "This isn't like her. Something must be wrong." Flannery nods. "Give me your contact details," she tells him. "I'll let you know if I hear anything." Max nods and does that. Then, he sets off around town looking for her.

He ends up spending most of the morning scouring Lavaridge for his best friend. At first, he tries calling her name, but after almost 20 minutes of doing this, he comes to the conclusion that, since she declined both of his phone calls, she will probably ignore him calling her name, so all he's really doing is drawing attention to himself and looking stupid. So, he abandons that plan, and instead just searches every nook and cranny of the city. After spending almost the entire morning doing this, he has a horrible thought. "What if she left the city?!" He sends a silent prayer to Arceus himself that this isn't the case, but after searching the entire city and not seeing even a whisp of her electric blonde hair, he comes to the conclusion that this is the most likely the case. So, he heads to the nearest route out of Lavaridge.

But, instead of actually leaving, he asks everyone he runs into if they've seen a girl with electric blonde hair roughly his size. no one had. At least, not at first. Eventually, just as he's about to give up hope, he finally finds someone who did see her. According to this elderly couple he asked, they spotted a girl who fit her description sobbing on a log in the forest after the woman chased her Growlithe into the forests on the side of the path. The only reason they didn't ask her if she was alright was because they figured that if she was hiding in the woods while crying, it meant she didn't want people to see her and talk to her. Relief floods through Max like a hot shower on a cold day. Once he gets the directions from the elderly couple, he thanks them profusely and runs off in that direction. He's so quick to leave that he doesn't hear the woman comment, "Ah, young love. Do you remember those days dear?" Her husband chuckles and nods, before the two walk off in the opposite direction.

No longer worried about looking stupid, Max fills his lunges with air and calls for Bonnie at the top of his voice. She still doesn't respond, but he already knew she likely wouldn't. He's doing it mostly to let her know he's looking for her. After hearing that she was sobbing in the forest, he figures he should let her know he's coming. After roughly 15 minutes of running along the road calling Bonnie's name, he finds her sitting on the log, just as the elderly couple said. She doesn't seem to be crying, which means she took advantage of his shouting to compose herself. He still approaches her cautiously, just in case she snaps at him to leave her alone. She doesn't, so he sits next to her on the log. Neither of them say anything for a while, but Max notices that Bonnie's face is still a bit puffy. So, he decides to find out just what's been troubling her.

"Why did you leave?" he asks her, deciding to take an indirect approach. Bonnie doesn't meet his eyes. "Oh, I decided to get some early training done," she says. "I was going to wake you, but you looked so peaceful, so I decided to let you sleep." Max can tell she's lying. "But, why not just use the parks in Lavaridge for that?" he asks. "In fact, why didn't you leave a note. You had me worried sick." Bonnie looks guilty at that. "I forgot to," she lies again. "And I felt that training against wild pokémon would be a good idea. I'm sorry I scared you." Now, Max is just getting frustrated. "Ok," he says, as calmly as he can, "could you stop lying to me please?" Bonnie looks surprised by this. "What do you mean?" she asks. "I called you twice, and you hung up on me both times," he tells her. "And before you try to tell me that you didn't hear your phone ring, my phone tells me when you decline. There's something going on with you, and I want to know what it is."

Bonnie looks away again. "It's stupid," she says, her voice cracking slightly. Max puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "If it's bothering you enough that you needed to leave me to cry alone in the woods, then it's not stupid," he tells her. "Hey, I promise you, I won't laugh." She looks at him, her eyes welling. "Promise?" she asks. "Promise," he repeats. "You're my best friend." She nods, then looks down at her feet. "I've been worried recently," she admits. "Worried that you won't want to travel around with me anymore. You did so well in the Contest by yourself, and then I can't win a Gym Battle without your help! So, I'm worried that you might realise that I'm a burden and leave me!" At that, she started crying slightly. Max looks at her for a minute. "And then," she continues, "I failed to catch that Poliwag, wasted both of our pokéballs, then lost that gym battle!" "So, you felt that I would leave you soon," he guesses, "so you left me before I could do it to you." Bonnie nods sadly.

Max thinks about what to say to this. Of all the things he thought were bothering the confident, borderline cocky Bonnie Citron, this was not one of them. "What brought this on?" he asks. "Because you're normally very sure of yourself." Bonnie shrugs. "My confrontation with Trixie," she admits. Max remembers what she shouted alright. "And it's a miracle Maple there still hangs out with you, when you're this stupid! He's never going to feel the same way to a naïve fool like you, so you may as well give up hoping!" "You're worried she's right," he says. Bonnie nods again. "You didn't need any help with that contest," she says. "But I needed yours with all my Gym Battles. I guess, I was afraid that one day, you'd have to choose between doing them and travelling with me, and you'd choose them. I'd only weigh you down."

Max puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Bonnie," he says, as sincerely as he can, "I'm doing those for fun. I'm not trying to dethrone my sister, or make a name for myself as a Coordinator. If I had to choose between the two, I'd choose your Gym Battles everytime. Nothing will ever make me choose leaving you. We'd have to have a physical fight to make me want to leave you. We're staying together until the very end, no matter what!" Bonnie smiles and hugs him. "Thanks Max," she says. "It's the same for me." They sit there on the log for a little while, watching some wild pokémon pass by. Max sees that that talk seems to have lifted a weight off of Bonnie's shoulders. "You feel better after talking about that?" he asks. Bonnie blushes slightly. "Yeah," she admits, rubbing the back of her head. "I do." "Then why didn't you say anything about it sooner?" he asks. "Why let it get that bad?"

Bonnie doesn't say anything at first. Then, she mutters, "It's stupid." "What did I say about that?" he asks. Bonnie can't help but chuckle at that. Then, she admits, "I've been trying to keep my emotions more in check." At Max's looks of utter bewilderment, she elaborates. "Ash told me that he lost control of his emotions for one second, during which he threw the Aura Sphere that killed that Sub-Admin. I was hoping that if I showed him that I can control my emotions, he'd show me ways to use my Aura." Max wraps his arm around her shoulders. "But all that did was hurt you, right?" he asks. She nods. "It was a bad idea," she admits. "So, I won't be doing that again." Max laughs at this, and Bonnie finds herself joining in. After that, they decide to postpone her rematch until tomorrow, and instead spend the rest of the day just hanging out together and chatting, without a care in the world.

I'll be honest, I was a little tempted to stick their confession in this scene, but I have a plan for that, so I didn't go through with it. But I just figured I should give the two of them a moment together, since they haven't really had one of those in a while. Almost every time they travel somewhere they're joined by someone else, be they friend or foe. But anyway, I just about managed to get this out today, so go me! I won't make any promises whatsoever, but there could be a chance that I'll upload something tomorrow. It's slim but it's there. However, most likely, I shall see you on Thursday with the next chapter.