FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alright, here's the next chapter. Again, I'm sorry. I had a 4-day writter's block near the end and my computer has finally stopped being an asshole long enough for me upload this. I swear, as soon as I get a job, I'm saving up to replace this 10-year old piece of junk. But until then, I'll have to keep putting up with it and its mood swings. I'm on break from school, so that gives me some time to write... or play SSBB all day. Anyway, I'll let you start reading, if you haven't done so already. Just remember that Comments and Votes are always welcome and appreciated.

**********8**********

It was well into the afternoon when he arrived at the designated house. Chad double-checked the address before stuffing it back into his pocket. He stood directly across the street from the house. It was a simple two-story house with a small front lawn. It was made of brick and had three ways of getting in from what he can tell: the front and back doors and the garage. There was a car parked in the driveway, which was good because he doesn't have to wait. Since luck wasn't really on his side today, he wanted to get this done as quickly as possible. Digging into one of his back pockets, he pulled out a pair of leather gloves and put them on. Checking his left pocket, he felt the outline of the cold metal he'd have to use to get the job done.

"Here goes nothing," he thought to himself. Chad crossed the street and made his way to the front door. He noticed there was a peephole and covered it with his finger before ringing the doorbell. After a few moments, he heard some footsteps approaching the door.

"Hello? Who's there?" asked a man inside.

"All that you need to know is that I'm here to collect, Mr. Thomas," Chad replied. "If you don't have it, then you know what might happen." He heard the man swear and loud footsteps running from the door. "Why do they always run?" he thought. Not missing a beat, he turned around and gave a hard kick to the door just beside the knob. The door flew open just in time for Chad to see the man turning a corner up the stairs. Chad ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He burst into the room at the end of the hall just in time to see the middle-aged man trying to fit through a window with only one leg out. "Now you're just being stupid," Chad said as he made his way to the window and pulled the man back inside. "You could've just run through the back door, you damn retard." The middle-aged man fought with Chad for a minute before he was suddenly looking down the barrel of a gun. He instantly froze. "Now that I have your attention, answer me this: Do you have the money?"

"I-I'm trying to get it, I swear!" Mr. Thomas shouted, clearly terrified. "Just give me a couple more days to let my check clear! I'll have by then!"

"I'll take that as a 'no' then," Chad replied. "You're really putting me in a tough spot. I could leave here and tell that fat bastard to give you a couple more days and have him chew me out while his blacken is fucking up one of my pokémon, or..." He pulled the hammer back on the pistol. "We could end this right now with you six feet under and me walking out of here with one less thing the old man can get on me about." Mr. Thomas was trembling. There was nothing he could think of that wouldn't end up with him on the floor with a hole in his head. Besides that, he was sure there was no way he could talk his way out of this.

"Please, just a couple more days," he pleaded.

"Sorry, that's not my problem. How about we go for a walk?"

"But I-"

"Dad? What's going on?" Both Chad and Mr. Thomas turned to the doorway to see a little boy with black hair. He looked barely over eight years old. The boy stared at the scene before him and couldn't really piece together what was going on. He came because he heard some shouting and loud noises. Chad looked between the boy and Mr. Thomas and mentally cursed his luck again.

Just outside the house, across the street from it to be precise, a woman was resting from her afternoon jog. She helped herself to some refreshing water from her water bottle.

"Ah, that hit the spot," she said, a bit winded from her exercise. She took a couple minutes to rest a bit more before heading off again. Suddenly, she heard two gunshots coming from the house across the street and nearly jumped out of her skin. As if that wasn't enough, a pillar of fire erupted from the roof of the house and a young man riding on a charizard flew out the hole. It took her a couple moments to register what just happened in her mind and quickly took out her phone to call the police.

*****8*****

Back in the Sinnoh region, the psychic cat, Aaron, brought the other two lake guardians, Azelf and Mesprite, to meet Chris, Lani, and Tora. To his relief, Mesprite and Azelf behaved somewhat around company, keeping their jokes a little behind a certain line. Everyone laughed and joked as they got to know one another. Before they knew it, it was lunchtime and they were getting hungry.

"Say, why don't we get out of here and get something to eat?" Uxie suggested. "It's bad manners to let company starve."

"Okay, where should we go?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, let's go by my lake! The berries and fish over there are so good right now, they'll make you wanna slap your mama," Azelf said excitedly.

"Why would we do that?" Lani asked, making it very obvious that she's never heard that before. After a quick laugh at her expense, the group was teleported to the edge of Lake Valor.

"Okay, here's how we're going to do this," Uxie began. "I'm going to divide the work up so we can get to eating faster. Mesprite, you and Lani are on fishing duty. Aaron, Azelf, and Tora will be gathering berries, and Chris and I will start a fire and be on cooking duty."

"Why do you two get the easy job?" Mesprite whined.

"The last time I let you cook, you burned the food. Besides, it was my idea, so there." Uxie stuck her tongue and giggled. On that note, everyone attended to their assigned duties. The fishing went smoothly with Lani's help. Together with Mesprite, they caught plenty of small salmon and other small fish. They brought them onto shore, where Chris cleaned them off. Uxie took care of the small bones inside the fish, skewered them with sticks and placed them by the fire to cook.

The smell of cooking fish was heavy in the air. It attracted the attention of some nearby hungry pokémon, mostly small ones like shix, staravia, and zigzagoon. The bigger ones, like luxio, zangoose, and mightyena came soon after. Uxie and Mesprite didn't mind sharing food with the pokémon, since they were also hungry, but Lani had a feeling that things were going to get out of hand. It wasn't too long before the small lunch was turned into something like a party. Word spread by air that the Lake guardians were having a sort of gathering with lots of food and that attracted the attention of even more pokémon. Chris had never seen so many pokémon at one time before in his life. He got to pet a few shix and played with some pachirisu. Though the older pokémon were cautious of him at first, but they eventually grew comfortable with him since he wasn't going to capture them.

While this was going on, Azelf, Aaron and Tora were gathering berries and were oblivious to things going on at the lake. Azelf had left them to get his favorite berries and do something else, but he failed to mention what it was. As the two searched for food, Aaron was having trouble trying to strike up a conversation with the chu. Every time he opened his mouth to speak, he froze up and thought what he wanted to say was stupid. He felt frustrated and knew that he was given this golden opportunity to at least get her to see him in a new light, but his nerves were getting the better of him. Tora noticed that the usually cheerful mew was quiet and seemed nervous about something.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked. "You seem a little quiet."

"Huh? Oh, yeah I'm fine. I'm just thinking," Aaron replied.

"About what?"

"How to talk to you without sounding like an idiot." "About... stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" she asked.

"Just... stuff..." "Oh, Arceas, why can't I say anything that makes sense?" Tora giggled at his response.

"If you don't want to tell me, then-"

"No!" Aaron accidently shouted, making her jump. "I mean, I... want to...talk..."

"Then talk, silly. It's not like I'm gonna bite you or anything if you don't." Aaron calmed down a bit after hearing that.

"Well... I was thinking about... this girl..." he said blushing a bit.

"A girl?" Tora asked, with her curiosity peaked. "Is she pretty?"

"What?!"

"Well, she must be if you're thinking about her so much that you're not even talking to me."

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, she's pretty. She's actually... very beautiful..." Tora was surprised to hear that he thought a girl he knows is beautiful. For some reason, it made her feel a bit... jealous. Maybe it was because she didn't know the female he was thinking about or the fact that he was thinking of another girl when there was one right next to him, but she suddenly felt the jealously building in the pit of her stomach.

"So, what's she like?" Aaron felt her eyes on him, but this wasn't just a normal look. She had that look that said 'tell me what she looks like and I'll find her'. He could almost swear that he felt her jealousy. He held back the urge to laugh and suddenly felt like he had something to go on that would make expressing his feelings for her easier.

"Well, I haven't known her for a long time, but she's nice and real easy to talk to if you have something on your mind. She's bigger than me, though that's not saying much since pretty much everyone is," he said with a little laugh. "She's curvy... in all the right places." Tora almost fell over when he said that.

"Curvy in the right places?!" she thought. "I-I see. So, do you like her?" Aaron didn't answer right away. He lazily flew down in front of the large chu, stopping her from walking any further.

"I like her a lot. I think that she's the most beautiful pokémon in the entire world. I want to get to know her better and share things with her I can't share with anyone else. Even if it's a little early in our relationship, I consider her someone I hold very dear to me and wouldn't want any pain to befall her. You can say that I-"

"Love her?" Tora finished. Aaron smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I love her, but she doesn't feel the same way about me as I feel about her."

"Why not?"

"She... doesn't see me in that light yet, so I have to take my time and show her that I have what it takes to make her heart sing. If I tell her now, I'm sure she won't be able to return my feelings for her.

"Wow," _Tora thought. Looking back into his big blue eyes, she saw the sincerity he meant in every word. _"I can't believe he feels that strongly for someone he hasn't known for that long. She must be some girl if he feels this way. She's lucky to have someone like him wanting to be with her." It made her feel good that he has so much passion for someone, but at the same time, it made her jealousy grow. "You think I can meet her sometime?" The psychic cat laughed at her and kissed her cheek, causing her to freeze up and get warm in the face.

"Silly chu. Let's go get those berries." And on that note, Aaron flew away, still laughing at her. Tora recovered from the sudden affection and chased after the small psychic.

"W-wait, you didn't answer my question!"

From atop one of the trees, Azelf watched everything go down while munching on a pecha berry. The blue psychic had finished his berry hunt a while ago and decided to spy on the cat and mouse. He sighed as he finished the last bit. "Both of them are idiots," he said to himself.

"Azelf, where are you guys?" Mesprite asked telepathically, startling the spying psychic.

"Who wants to know?"

"I do. Things sort of gotten put of hand here and it seems like every pokémon within a mile are here for food. We could use a little help over here."

"Alright, I'll get there as soon as I finish watching Aaron fail at trying to win this girl over," he said with a laugh. He heard Mesprite laugh as well.

"Oh, wow. How bad is he doing?"

"He managed to get her jealous because she thinks he's talking about another girl he likes. Though I gotta say, this approach isn't all that bad, but I don't think he can pull it off that well."

"So, what now?"

"Don't know, but I'll tell you all about it once I get back." Deciding that he wasted enough time watching them, he felt the need to give Aaron that little extra push to help him out. Even though Azelf still wanted the psychic all to himself, he wanted Aaron to be happy at the same time. If it means that he'll have to share him with a member of the opposite sex, he'll just have to put up with it. Using his psychic powers to gather the rest of the berries, he flew down to the pair. "Hey, you guys aren't yet?" he yelled down. Both Tora and Aaron looked up at Azelf flying toward them with a good amount of berries floating beside him. "Man, you two are slow. I already have enough for lunch and dinner"

"If you have so much, then we don't need to look anymore," Aaron said.

"Besides, I think there's a-" Suddenly, a low rumbling sound interrupted him. Both he and Azelf looked over at Tora to see her blushing a bit.

"Heh, sorry..." Both psychics laughed at her.

"Since I'm a nice guy, I'll let you two have a couple of my... delicious berries," Azelf said with a wink as he passed them two berries each. Although Tora had missed the wink, Aaron caught it and blushed.

"These are good," Tora said munching on a shuca berry.

"They sure are," Azelf replied, not making an effort to hide a very big grin. "Plump and juicy, huh?" Tora nodded. "You got yourself a keeper, Aaron. She really likes-"

"Ah, that's enough," Aaron interrupted before he could finish. "Don't you have to take those to back to the others?"

"Yeah, but I'm sure they can wait a couple more minutes. Besides, Mesprite just told me they're having a sort of party or something back there. I'm sure they won't miss us." Azelf turned himself upside-down and made to look like he was sitting in a chair with one leg crossed over the other.

"A party? Sounds like fun!" Tora said excitedly.

"It is, but Aaron isn't much of a party guy. He tends to stay in the back where no one can fawn over him like a bunch of, how the humans say, schoolgirls."

"I just don't like having that much attention," Aaron said defensively.

"Sure you don't. That's why I'm suggesting you two go someplace else for a while, at least until the party's over." Aaron went over the offer in his head and honestly thought it was a good idea. He could be alone with the raichu for hours and no one would bother them. He could take her someplace romantic or somewhere visually amazing. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that idea, but there was something off about the offer; Azelf was the one who offered to send him off.

"Okay, what's the catch?" Azelf flipped right-side-up.

"Why, Aaron," he said with a mock sad face. "What makes you think there's a catch, other than me? I'm just looking out for... One of your best interests." The innocent act wasn't fooling the pink cat and it was only making him more skeptical. Seeing that he wasn't biting, Azelf reassured him that he had no ulterior motive for the suggestion.

"Alright, we'll go," Aaron said, finally having been convinced. "You ready to go Tora?" She was finishing off the last of her lunch and nodded. "I guess we'll see you guys later on this evening."

"Okay, just make sure you tie your shoes before you go." Completely driven by instinct, Aaron looked down at his rabbit-like feet to discover he doesn't wear shoes. Feeling like an idiot, he smirked a bit for falling for such an obvious trick. As soon as he brought his head back up, he found himself lip locked with Azelf in a passionate kiss. Tora was so surprised by this that she accidentally swallowed a big piece of the berry she was eating and started to choke on it. Aaron was just as surprised and felt his face get hot, but realizing that Tora was there made his face heat up even more. He didn't know whether to feel more embarrassed that she saw or upset with Azelf for pulling a stunt like this. Both of these emotions weighed equally on his mind. Azelf broke the kiss after nearly 15 seconds. "See you kids later," he said right before vanishing.

Aaron wanted to chase him and give him a piece of his mind, but the sound of Tora choking forced him to put that aside for later. After helped her cough up the chunk of food and calm down, Aaron figured out the perfect place for them to spend the day and, hopefully, forget that kiss ever happened. He was taking her to one of the few places where he can relax and be himself. Tora in the meantime was trying to piece together why exactly Azelf kissed Aaron. It didn't make sense to her since she knew that Aaron likes girls... or at least she thought she knew. Now, she wasn't so sure anymore. Before she could think into it more, she felt Aaron paw on her shoulder. "Let's...get going," he sighed.

*****8*****

Back at the lake, Chris was enjoying the time spent with the pokémon, but it could've gone better if there was one thing he could do and Uxie saw it. She casually flew over to him while he was playing with a shinx cub.

"Need some help with the little one?" she asked.

"Nah, this little guy's no trouble," Chris replied. As soon as he said that however, the miniature lion barked at him a couple times and began to pout. He was, and looked, confused as to what he did wrong and Uxie laughed at him. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Yes, you did. If I were that cub, I probably would've bitten you for that. Here, let me help you a bit." Uxie placed her hands on Chris' head. Chris felt a strong, but brief tug on his mind and flinched a little.

"Sorry, been out of practice for a while," Uxie said as she removed her hands. Chris felt a bit lightheaded, but nothing he couldn't stand.

"That's... Okay. What did you do?"

"Tell the boy what he did wrong, little one."

"You called me a boy..." the shinx whined. Chris almost dropped the cub in shock.

"You can talk?!"

"You weren't listening to me?"

"No, I mean, I couldn't understand you until now."

"Oh. How come you called me a boy? I don't look like one." Indeed, she was right. Unlike male shinx, females have blue hind paws instead of black ones and the bit of hair on their heads didn't stick up as much. How he could've missed that, with all the reading he's done, was anyone's guess.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention."

"Maybe you should start before you offend someone else," Uxie said jokingly. Chris looked about the crowd of pokémon in amazement. He could hear them conversing among each other as if they were speaking plain English. He could hear a pair of stantler talking about what fields were best for grazing, three pachirisu fighting over a single fish, even a luxray flirting with a floatzel. It amazed him to no end that he could understand pokémon now. Out of all the voices surrounding him, he picked up on one that sounded familiar. Putting the cub down and thanking Uxie, he made his way over toward it.

He found his one and only pink dragon, Lani, laughing with a group of quagsire and poliwhirl at the edge of the lake. Hearing her for the first time, she sounded like a girl that would be a couple years younger than he was.

"Hey, Lani; enjoying yourself?" The young dragon turned to him and smiled.

"Yeah, this is great! I'm meeting lots of other pokémon," she said cheerfully.

"That's great. I take it you're done fishing for today?"

"Yeah, the other water pokémon told me and Mesprite to take it easy and offered to fish for us. Are you still cooking more fish?"

"No, I was just playing with a shinx, but I wanted to see how you were doing. I'm going to go see if I can find Tora anywhere. I haven't seen her in a while and they should've been back by now." Chris walked off into the crowd of pokémon in search of his partner. Lani tuned back to her new friends when it suddenly dawned on her that she just had a conversation with Chris.

Chris searched for his partner everywhere, but couldn't find any sign of her. He asked a few pokémon if any of them have seen her, but none of them have seen her. He was starting to get a little worried by this point. It wasn't like her to go out for a simple task and just disappear. "She can't still be out looking for lunch, can she?" he thought. Then again, he knew she was with Aaron and Azelf. They would protect her if something were to go wrong. Keeping that thought in mind calmed him down somewhat. It was about this time that he saw Azelf appear out of nowhere. He didn't see the other two with him and grew worried again.

"Hey, Azelf!" The blue psychic turned to his direction and waved.

"Hey, Chris, what's going on?" Azelf asked cheerfully. "Where's Tora? I thought she was with you and Aaron."

"They were, but this kind of scene isn't Aaron's thing, so I suggested they spend the day somewhere else until everything dies down."

"Oh," Chris sighed disappointedly. He wanted to tell her what Uxie did for him. "I guess I'll have to tell her later then." He then noticed the batch of berries hovering behind the psychic and asked for one. Azelf gladly gave one to him and flew off to meet with Mesprite. Not being one to sulk for very long, Chris found something else to do in the meantime. Since he could understand pokémon now, he might as well put his new ability to use.

*****8*****

Aaron and Tora appeared in the middle of an alley between two buildings. The sun was hanging high in the sky and it felt a bit warmer than it was in the forest.

"Where are we?" Tora asked.

"We're in Sunyshore City," Aaron replied. "I'm taking you on a tour of this place. This is probably the coolest city in Sinnoh. I come here sometimes just to take in the sights."

"Aren't you worried about people seeing you in the city?"

"Not if they don't know I'm here," he said with a wink. His body suddenly light up and grew in size, becoming rounder and bulkier. His ears fanned out some and ended with a little swirl at the bottom. His tail became slightly thicker and the small bulb on the end grew and transformed into a lightning bolt. His face lost its cat-like appearance and became more rounded. Once the glow faded, Tora was looking at another raichu.

"Wow..." Tora gasped. She had never seen him transform before and was stunned at how handsome he looked as a raichu. He seemed to be more muscular than she was, a couple inches taller as well. The lightning bolt-shaped tip on his tail was larger and sharper than hers. He seemed to radiate confidence and power. The look in his eyes made her feel small, as if he were the authority. In short, she was very impressed with his new form, so much so that she was staring.

"Hello, are the lights on in there?" Aaron said jokingly as he waved his paw in front of Tora's face. She snapped out of her trance and blushed as she realized what she was doing. "Haha, I don't look that good, do I?"

"Yeah," she responded without thinking, causing her face to practically burn when she realized what she said. "I mean, you look good..." Aaron laughed at her.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you look good too." Of course, him saying that didn't make her feel any better at all, only more flustered. "C-can we g-go on that t-tour now?" she asked knowing that she couldn't stay here any longer without doing something dumb again. Sparing her from further embarrassment, he agreed to get on with the tour.

Once they walked out of the alley, they stopped in front of a moving sidewalk. It was a black strip with arrows painted on it to indicate which way it going. There was another one next to it that was moving faster than the one they were standing in front of.

"Well, shall we get started?" Aaron asked. He then pushed her onto the platform, causing her to immediately lose her balance and fall over. Laughing, he got on right behind her. Tora got up and glared at him.

"That wasn't funny," she said with a pout.

"Aww, don't be like that. We're in a great city and about to have the time of our lives." He took her paw into his and smiled at her. What little anger she had for him vanished and it was replaced by nervousness. There were a couple people around them that noticed they were holding paws and "awed" at them. Even though she felt compelled to snatch her paw away to stop them from staring at them, she... honestly didn't want to. She couldn't really explain it herself at the moment, but she didn't want to let go of his paw. Maybe it was because that she found his chu form attractive that she didn't want to, which would explain why she feels nervous around him now. She could ask him to change into something else, but they were surrounded by people and would have to wait when they were alone again.

Tora ignored the stares as best she could to enjoy the sights around her. She was awestruck at the city around her. Even though it looked like any other city, with a few large buildings and small shops, there was something special about this one. Everything looked so clean and refreshing. It had a futuristic feel to it. Even the air had a different feel to it. In fact, she could pick up the faint scent of saltwater. She gasped as that could only mean one thing. There was a beach nearby.

"Can we go to the beach?!" she asked excitedly.

"Sure. I wanted to show you the beach anyway." Tora squealed in excitement and hugged Aaron, earning more attention from the surrounding people. Realizing this, she quickly let him go, but grabbed his paw again.

"Ugh, I can't believe I'm acting this way," she thought. "He's still the same Aaron, just... A little different... Sexy. Oh, Arceaus, am I really this shallow? I mean c'mon, he looks like the male of anyone's dream. He's tall, muscular, and pretty much reeks of power. He's like the Buck Norris of chus! I wonder if he made himself like that on purpose. Can he change his body anyway he wants? I'll have to ask him later... Along with something else".

Aaron couldn't believe how well things were going for him. If all he needed to do was transform into a raichu, he would've done that a long time ago, but that's not what he wanted her to fall in love with. He wanted her to fall in love with him , not what he could turn into. He knows that she likes the way he looks now, but he won't use it as a crutch to gain her love, no matter how tempting it was. He'll actually have to thank Azelf for this.

*****8*****

They arrived at the sandy shores of the beach in half an hour. Despite the mass of people, it was just as breathtaking as the city. The water sparkled in the afternoon sun, the sand was white, and the feel of the place was amazing. It's the first time Tora has ever been to a beach and she was pretty excited.

"What should do first?"

"Whatever you want. This is pretty much your day," Aaron replied.

"But I don't know what I want to do yet. I've never been to a beach before."

"How about we go for a swim then? A quick lap along the shoreline would be nice."

"Sounds like a plan." With that, the two chus raced across the sand, laughing all the way and leaping into the salty waters. They swam out a good distance from the shore, just far enough away so that no one was paying them any attention. Once Aaron decided that they swam far enough, he splashed Tora in the face. She of course retaliated with her own splash and before long it was a full-on splash fight. "You're not going to win!" Tora said as she blocked another shot from Aaron. "I used to do this all time when I was still a pikachu!"

"Then I guess I'll have to step my game up," Aaron replied. He took in a bit of air sank below the surface.

"Hiding won't help you from a butt-kicking." She looked for any sign of where he'll pop up next, knowing that he couldn't hold his breath forever. She planned to get him as soon he came up for air. She heard something come up to her right and grinned. "Gotcha!" she shouted as sent a wave of water at him, but what she hit wasn't another raichu.

It was well over twice her size with a blue turtle-like face and a huge brown shell with twin cannons in it. The blastiose was only half submerged in the water, but that was enough to intimidate her. The turtle grinned and aimed his cannons at her.

"Last chance to surrender," Aaron said.

"You know that is so unfair."

"You gotta do what you have to against a professional."

"I suppose... So are you my ride across the water?"

"All aboard, my lovely chu."

"Just because you called me lovely, doesn't mean I'll forgive you for pointing loaded cannons at me," Tora said half-serious. She swam over to his side and climb onto his back. Once she got comfortable, Aaron started swimming. He started off slow so she could get used to riding on his back, but soon used full speed. Tora was feeling a little adventurous and wanted to try standing. It was a slow process, due to her lack of balance and being new to this, but she eventually got the hang of it and shouted in joy at her accomplishment. She was excited, to say the least. She was surfing on her first trip to the beach. She waved to all the other surfers as they passed by, who waved back at her. Some of them even cheered at the sight of her.

The two rode wave after wave for a little more than an hour before Aaron started to get tired, but they didn't head to the shore where everyone was. The psychic was feeling a little too tired to keep up his transformation and wanted to go somewhere secluded to recover his strength. He found an isolated part of the shore where no one ever goes, mostly because it was pretty out of anyone's way if they wanted to have some "fun in the sun." Not only that, but there were too many large rocks around at least four feet tall.

Once they made it to shore, Tora jumped off of Aaron's back and transformed back into his regular mew form. He didn't get a chance to fall on the sand before Tora pulled him into a hug.

"That was so much fun!" she said excitedly. "I can't believe we just did that!" Now it was Aaron's turn to blush.

"Y-yeah, that was fun," he replied sheepishly. The embrace made him feel like it was really worth it to bring her here. It was a shame that he was too tired to enjoy it more. "Think we could sit down for a sec? I need to take a break."

"Oh, sure thing." Tora walked a few feet away from the water and gently laid the psychic down. She lay next to him and wondered what they would be doing for the rest of the day, but before that, she needed to know something. "Say, Aaron."

"Yeah?"

"Why did Azelf kiss you like that before he left?" Aaron's face turned red and wished that she had forgotten about that. "I don't have anything against it, but are you two-"

"No!" Aaron said quickly. "He just has a crush on me."

"That looked like more than a crush to me. It looked like you guys have done it before," she said teasingly "Who told you we've mated?!" It was obvious that Aaron misunderstood what Tora meant by "it" because she looked at him in confusion, then shock.

"You mated with him?!" Aaron turned a darker shade of red. He knew there was no turning back now.

"Y-yes. I felt bad after he threw a fit because I rejected his advances on me, so I went to apologize to him. I... Intended to kiss him for a second to show him that even though I couldn't return what feelings he had for me that I still cared for him, but I got into it and things sort of... happened." Tora was surprised at this new information. Even though she hadn't known him for very long, she didn't think he'd ever have sex with another male. She wondered how they did it, which put what in where, and, probably the most important thought, how it felt. She imagined that it would hurt if anything were to be inserted in her rear, but if doing that was enough to get at least one of them off...

"Did it feel good?" she asked. Just asking that made her cheeks burn. Aaron was caught off-guard by her question, but answered anyway.

"Yeah, it was a pretty good for my first time with a guy..."

"Who was your first girl?" Aaron sat up and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why the sudden interest in my sex life?"

"I-I don't know," she stuttered. "I guess I'm... Just curious..." She looked up at the sky to avoid looking at him, a bit embarrassed from being so intrusive. Aaron simply shrugged.

"There's a story behind that one. My first girl is an old friend of mine. Her name was Ori. Remember when I told you that I was raised by my adoptive parents?" Tora nodded. "We lived close-by to a family of donphan and we just happen to meet one day. She was a phanpy at the time and we were really close growing up together. We only knew each other for a little over a year and were practically mates because we were so close. The first time we mated was sort of... an accident."

"How was it an accident?" Tora was confused at how anyone could "accidently" have sex with each other.

"Well, I was real young at the time, we both were, but the night before our first time, I witnessed my parents mating."

"What?!"

"I know, right?" Aaron said chuckling. "I didn't know what they were doing at the time, so asked her when we got to our secret spot. She thought it was hilarious that my dad would keep sticking a 'red thing' in my mom's butt." They both laughed at that. "When my childish explanation didn't work, she told me to show her. I got behind her and tried to mimic what I saw my dad doing. Nothing happened for a little while since we were so young, but once we were ready... It was amazing." Aaron sighed as he thought back to the days of his childhood. Those were the best days of his young life. "It was only recently that we found each other again after ten years. She looks so different now that she's a donphan, but she still acts like the same phanpy I know and love." As soon as he said that, the gears in Tora's head started cranking.

"A donphan, huh? Wait... a donphan!" "She's the girl you like isn't she?!"

"Say what?"

"You said the girl he likes is curvy... And donphan are pretty much all curves, right? And since you're so close, it'd be real easy for you to talk to each other about... anything and... What's so funny?" Aaron was laughing uncontrollably while holding his stomach.

"You... You couldn't be more wrong!" he gasped out. It took him a couple minutes to calm down enough to catch his breath and talk properly. "I'm sorry, but that was just too funny. No, she's not the girl I like. I can see how you could come up with that from what I said, but we're nothing more than really close friends."

"Oh..."

"But you know, since you're interested, I'll... tell you who it is." Aaron was feeling extremely nervous. His heart was pounding so hard and fast that he thought it was going to jump out onto the sand. he could hear it beating so loudly in his ears and his whole body suddenly felt hot and uncomfortable. He looked over to see her staring at him with curiosity that he wanted to sate, but was afraid of what might happen if he did. Despite that, he mustered up what little courage he had left and told her "It's you." Tora blinked a couple times as those two words sank in.

"W-What?"

"You're the one I like, Tora. Ever since that day when I kissed you in front of the door, I've had these strong feelings for you. I don't understand how it happened, or how it happened so fast, but whenever I see you; my heart does little back flips. You're beautiful, smart, strong, and I've never felt this way about anyone before. There are so many things I like about you, yet there's a lot I don't know. I want to become closer to you... If you'll let me..."

Tora didn't know what to say. She knew he considered her special, but to actually love her as much as he says was a bit overwhelming. Thinking over everything he's done and said to her, it only made sense that he'd feel this way about her. True, she's grown fond of the psychic. If she were honest with herself, she feels close enough to consider dating him. The thing was; she's never been in a relationship before.

"Aaron, I-"

"It's okay. I know saying all that was too much for you to hear. I'll understand if you don't want to see me anymore," he said sadly.

"No, Aaron, that's not it!" she shouted before he got the wrong idea. "Listen, I do like you. It's just that... This is new to me. I've never been together with anyone before. I won't even know what I'm supposed to be doing."

"You don't have to do anything. We don't have to do anything. Things don't have to change between us, at least not right away. We can take it slow. I just want a chance at you." Tora thought over his proposal. She didn't want to hurt his feelings because she wasn't one hundred percent ready to try and take their relationship to the "next level", but then she thought,

"What do I really have to lose? I guess it's okay since we're already friends." "Okay." Aaron almost couldn't believe what he heard.

"You mean it?"

"Of course," she replied smiling. "You've already done so much for me because you love me. I don't see a reason not to give you a shot at me." The small psychic practically threw himself at her and hugged the best he could with his little arms, looking up at her with the biggest, cutest eyes in the world. Tora wrapped her arms around him as well.

"You don't know how happy this makes me! I want to know everything about you. What's your favorite color? Your favorite food? Your greatest fears? Your dreams? Can you play an instrument? Do you ever want a family of your own? How many kids do you want?"

"Whoa, slow down," Tora said a little nervously at the mention of kids. "You're getting way ahead of yourself. Pull it back, chief." Aaron blushed and broke away from their hug, but still keeping a huge grin.

"Sorry about that. I'm just so excited! This is the happiest I've been in a long time! Please, tell me everything about yourself."

"Okay, where should I start?"

"At the beginning. Start with your childhood." He plopped himself on the sand in front of her looking very eager to hear her life story.

Tora started as far back as she could remember. She went over every milestone in her life; from her first bath to her first trip outside. She told him about her first birthday and the day she evolved from a pichu. From there, it went from her adventures with Chris in Viridian Forest and the Pokémon Academy, to, embarrassingly enough, her first heat cycle and "the talk" from her parents. She shared her dreams of being a strong raichu for Chris so that they could be champions one day. Everything that was her was shared with the psychic. Aaron absorbed every detail about her life and personality she was willing to share or remember. It thrilled him to no end to be getting to know his love like never before. Before either of them knew it, the sun was starting to set on the horizon.

"I can't believe how late it's getting already," Aaron said as he stretched on the sand. Tora stretched as well.

"I know. It just seems like we just got here not too long ago. I hope I didn't bore you."

"Not at all. I loved hearing about your life. You helped me to understand you a little better. Thanks for everything."

"No need to thank me. You've done more things for me than anyone else ever has. I should be thanking you." The two new lovers stared awkwardly at each other before shyly looking away. "We should probably get back to the others," she said as she played with her tail.

"You're right. Can I... Hold your paw?" he asked nervously. Tora nodded and held out her paw for him. When he grabbed it, she felt something swell in her chest and she couldn't help but smile. Something told her that everything was going to be alright from now on. Needless to say, Aaron couldn't be happier than he already was. He felt giddy all over now that he's "gotten the girl". He knew that Uxie will be proud of him once they get back.

*****8*****

"Where the heck did they go?" Uxie asked out loud. She, along with her siblings, Chris, and Lani, were wondering where Aaron and Tora were. The little party they unintentionally had was over a couple hours ago and they have yet to see them return. "Are you sure you told them to come back after the party?"

"Of course I did," Azelf replied. "It's not my fault if they decided to take their time."

"I hope nothing happened to them," Mesprite added.

"I'm sure they're fine," Chris said. Even though he said that, he was growing a little worried. Lani wasn't so much worried as she was curious. She had her own ideas as to why they haven't shown yet, but she kept them to herself. Just then, everyone heard laughing just outside the cave and, shortly after, saw Tora and Aaron stroll inside.

"We're back," Aaron shouted.

"Miss us much?" Tora added. Everyone sighed in relief as their worries were put to rest. It wasn't until they got closer did the lake trio notice something... different about them. First off, Aaron was flying pretty low to the ground. The second thing was that they were holding paws and were grinning ear to ear. They put two and two together and gasped.

"Aaron, did you..." Uxie asked.

"Yep!" he replied happily.

"And..." Mesprite asked looking at Tora.

"Y-yeah," she replied shyly. All at once they squealed in excitement, even Azelf. They rushed toward the new couple, congratulating them and overall being supportive. Chris and Lani, clearly left out of the loop, were curious as to what they were excited about.

"What's going on?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," Lani added. "What did they do?" Uxie managed to hear them in her excitement.

"He confessed to her!"

"Confessed?!" They shouted in surprise, knowing there was only one thing she could've meant by that.

"They're officially a couple now!" The news seemed to shock them both, but Chris was able to recover and congratulate the two, even poking fun at Tora while he was at it. While everyone was doing that, Lani wasn't exactly sure how to feel about the news. She knows that she should feel happy for them, but she wasn't feeling like that. If anything, seeing everyone so excited about Tora and Aaron together as a couple made her feel... lonely.

**********8**********

Well, they're officially together now. I honestly struggled with this chapter after my block and started second-guessing myself during my editing. I don't feel like I did the best I could with this one, but that's for you, the readers, to decide on how well I did. Granted, I think I got a little creative with the trip to Sunyshore. I feel like I dug myself a hole earlier and feel really hesitant about going back there. I'm pretty much crossing and burning at bridges at this point and I finally settled on what I'm doing. What those bridges are, I only know a few. How this will affect later on, I have no idea, but I'm not turning back now. I have a very clear plan on how this will work.

On a side note, I realize I didn't specifically mention this earlier when I should have, but just in case no one figured it out (and I'm pretty sure some of you didn't) Lani knows the move Extreme speed. She used it to run away from the Welby's home and during her fight with Tora. Really late to be saying this, I know, but I didn't want to surprise anyone when Chris tells her to use it and you're all like "Wait, she knows that?"

I think that's everything. If there's anything else I missed, I'll be sure to cover it.