Chapter 12: Hide and Seek

I ate dinner alone, yet again avoiding Dawn. I'd needed some time to clear my mind more, to let my emotional attachments not hold me back, before I talked to her. I'd promised to do better. I would open up, even if it was just a fraction.

The second I stepped into our room, Dawn stood up from her chair, her blue eyes worried. I walked over and gave her a hug, burying my face into her hair, closing my eyes as I memorized the feeling of her body against mine.

"I missed you." I said, meaning it. I felt much more complete around her, even if she didn't know everything that was going on. Things became a bit more bearable.

"I missed you too." She said softly, pulling away to study my face.

A snore caught my attention and I glanced at the chair Dawn was just sitting on, noticing that Piplup was fast asleep. Good. He wouldn't bother us during my emotional outpour.

"I'm ready to talk a little so you don't go insane." I leaned my forehead down to touch hers.

I could hear the smile in her voice, "That'd be nice."

We sat down on the bed and I held her hand, tracing her fingers as I explained how I had used to be afraid of Ghost types, which confused her.

"Then why do you own a Froslass?" She asked.

"I was trying to prove to myself that I was over it." I said softly.

"And were you?"

"I hardly ever use Froslass, though she's an excellent Pokemon. I'm not exactly afraid, but very wary." I slowly stated.

Dawn's eyes studied me thoughtfully, "Why were you afraid?"

"I thought they were dead."

Dawn put her other hand over my own, "Dead things come back to life if we let them, good or bad."

I nodded stiffly and gripped her hand tighter, "That's the problem."

Dawn was quiet for a moment before I felt her body move. She put her head against my chest and wrapped her arm around my back. I rested my head against hers.

"What nightmare keeps coming back to life for you, Paul?" Dawn asked in a small, muffled voice.

I stared off into space numbly, imagining the blue eyes of the only relative who had ever cared for me, "Losing the only thing that made me feel like I mattered."

Dawn pulled away and gripped my hand harder, her eyes determined, "You matter to me, Paul."

I could feel the intensity of her grip, but I felt too far away to really take in her stare.

"I'll always be here for you, no matter what. You're important to me."

Her words sparked something I couldn't name. My eyes drifted to hers and I could tell she meant them. She gripped my hand tighter, "Even if you don't tell me what's wrong, which you should eventually, I'm going to be here for you. I love you and there's no pain in the world that could change that."

My eyes widened a bit before she practically tackled me into a hug. I could tell she was crying as she whispered that she loved me. I hugged her back, murmuring words of comfort and thanks as I mentally acknowledged that she was right- pain could not stop love. But what I learned from experience was that it caused pain to increase dramatically. I wasn't sure if I could handle that again. I held Dawn all the closer, ignoring my judgment as she cried.

I woke up curled against Dawn, her silky hair blanketing the pillow. I squeezed her stomach softly. She stirred and roll over to lay her head against my chest. After a few minutes of playing with her hair, she opened her eyes.

"I wanted to thank you for talking to me last night." I whispered, kissing her forehead.

"Thanks for opening up a little." She said, staring down at my chest, "I know there's a lot more you haven't told me. Please take your time, but also don't take too long."

"As you wish." I murmured.

"What are you going to do today?" Dawn asked.

I sighed, not liking my options.

"I think you should go visit Demi."

"Why?" I tried to hold back my displeasure.

Dawn shrugged, "You seem to get along with her."

"You and I have very different definitions of getting along with people." I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, you didn't always get along with me, right?"

I frowned at her.

"So give her a chance."

"She was a formidable opponent." I said, annoyed, "No one else in this town seems capable of a real battle."

"Then go see if you can battle her. Ask her about her journey. Maybe see if you can meet her brother-"

"Have you met him?" I asked suddenly.

"No, why?"

"Just making sure."

"Don't tell me you're being all protective." Dawn laughed, hitting my chest.

"No."

"He's Christian."

"So does that make him incapable of noticing your beauty?" I asked in a polite voice.

Dawn sighed, "No, but it makes him more of a gentleman."

"Unless he's a Zoroark in Mareep's clothing."

"Not the way Demi talks about him. And she can read auras." Dawn got up and stretched, "Plus, does she seem like the kind of girl who would let him get away with things like that?"

"No." I was beaten into admitting, "Fine. But be careful if you do meet him."

She rolled her eyes, "Fine."

"What are you doing today?"

"Training for my next Contest. Alone."

"Since when do you go off by yourself?"

"Since you've been busy wandering off on your own and needing time to think."

I sat up, feeling a bit of a sting from her words, even if they weren't supposed to cause me any harm. It still left me grimacing. I was supposed to be strong, yet I couldn't even handle walking into a church or making it through a full conversation with a nine year old without storming off in emotional turmoil. I needed to learn how to better handle myself and, to do that, I had to face the things that would most likely cause me to react similarly.

"I'll go see Demi." I said firmly.

Dawn and I parted after a long visit with Salamence, who was just as grumbly, and breakfast. I walked back up the very giant hill to the church, breathing quickly, wondering how I was going to talk to this little nosy kid who seemed to read my mind with perfect clarity despite being an aura reader, not a mind reader.

Laughter cut off my thoughts. To the right of the church in the large grass field, Demi was running towards a white blur, her hand outstretched. She jumped up as high as she could and barely missed the Pokemon, her body flailing through the air as she began falling. Her petite form was about to crash to the ground when she disappeared. I blinked in shock, looking around wildly. A split second later, I spotted Demi on the back of the white blur twenty feet in the sky, which had slowed down for me to identify it as a Togekiss.

Just as I was wondering how she'd disappeared, Demi saw me and waved, asking Togekiss to fly down. They landed gracefully in front of me and Demi slipped off, looking happy as possible.

"How did you...?" I then spotted another Pokemon on top of Togekiss. A small Ralts which large eyes, looking at me curiously with its hand over its mouth, reminding me of a child that sucked on their hand.

"Oh, yeah. That's Grace, my Ralts. She's really good at teleporting. She made sure I didn't fall." Demi explained, "And that's Blessing."

"Grace and Blessing." I repeated.

"Yeah. Ralts are known to be really graceful, especially when they evolve, and Togekiss are known for sharing blessings, so why not call her Blessing?"

Blessing hovered and began singing, which relaxed me a bit without my permission, my guard dropping momentarily. The fact that its voice was so calming almost put my on edge considering Dawn's Togekiss didn't have that same skill of being able to soothe people. I hadn't even known Togekiss were capable of that sort of power. Sure, the Pokedex said that, but I thought it was a myth.

"So what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see if you would battle me."

"I already told you no. You're not ready. Your aura has improved the tiniest teeniest bit," Demi held up her fingers pinched together to indicate how teeniest the tiny bit was, "but you're still not ready. Plus I'm busy."

"Busy with what exactly?" I asked tiredly.

"We were playing tag. My other Pokemon are around here somewhere." Demi looked up in search and frowned, "But maybe they went to go play hide and seek without us. Oh! I know! Let's all play hide and seek together. It's you and your Pokemon versus mine. And we call hiding."

I appraised this little girl, who then added a quick please before setting her face with determination.

"I don't play hide and seek." I stated.

"Oh, come on. Hey, I know." Her eyes lit up, "You can battle me if you can find me and all my Pokemon within half an hour."

"Is that seriously all we have to do?" I asked.

"Yeah, but there are rules. All of your Pokemon need to work together as a team and I'm not telling you what kinds of Pokemon I have. Just know that you'll know them when you see them."

I glanced at her Ralts, which was still watching me curiously. Its gleaming red eyes were full of intelligence, reminding me of Demi's eyes. I also noticed how her Togekiss seemed much different than Dawn's not only in presence, but with its appearance. Togekiss shifted in her hovering, making me squint as light glinted off her white body, speckling gold. I glanced at Demi, who was watching my reaction.

"Yeah. Blessing is special. When she's happy, making other people happy, and when good things are happening, she glows like that." Demi said matter-of-factly.

"Where did you-"

"Ok so are you going to play or not?" She held out her hand.

I looked at the Togekiss again, desiring to battle these Pokemon that seemed very unique. I shook Demi's hand, "Deal."

"Then let the games begin! Let your Pokemon out, no peeking, and count to a hundred. I'll tell the others what's going on. Blessing, come on!" Demi began running towards the woods as fast as she could, Blessing dancing in the wind, Grace hanging on tightly.

With a sigh, I released all my Pokemon, explained in a bored voice why we were playing hide and seek (adding in that it was good training for our ears and eyes to make it sound a bit less tedious) and ordered everyone to close their eyes while I counted.

Truthfully, it felt like I was at one of the "mommy and me" type classes for babies, except my Pokemon and I didn't want to be there because we were all teenagers. Perhaps that was because I was a teenager. Regardless, battling Demi was the prize, so I counted.

"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred." I finished what seemed like an eon later. Torterra began to move forward, as did Weavile and Gastrodon, but Honchkrow and Electivire let out exasperated sighs.

"Don't be like that. The one who finds the most Pokemon gets to battle against Demi." I said, then nodded to Electivire, "And I think one of you would like to get even with a scrawny Fighting type."

Electivire growled, harsher than I had heard him in a while, and rushed into the trees. I frowned, wondering what was wrong. The others followed just as quickly, except Torterra, who stayed by my side in reassurance. I place my hand on his side for a moment in thanks before striding through the brush, my senses ready to catch anything.

Electivire quickly discovered an Electric type snoozing in the top branches of a tree, too small and too high up for us to have found without his ability to sense electricity. Electivire climbed the tree and grabbed its orange body, which squirmed in displeasure. I shriveled my nose at the sight of it- a small hamster-like Pokemon with big sappy eyes, even a bigger tooth, and a chubby body. Electivire handed him to me and he stopped moving as his eyes narrowed.

"You're Demi's?" I asked, trying to hide my revulsion for mouse-like Pokemon. At least it wasn't a Pikachu. I recognized it as a Dedenne, a Pokemon that seemed even weaker than a Pikachu.

It shocked me and scurried off into the forest, causing me to hold back a swear before saying, "One down. Move out. Electivire is in the lead."

Soon after, Blessing was found by Honchkrow, who was awed by her shiny quality. I had to remind him repetitively of the competition before he snapped out of his fixation, somehow going back into old habits of collecting treasure-like objects. Gladly, Blessing hadn't attacked him despite his nearness. I didn't put it past any of Demi's Pokemon to be just as vicious as they were adorable.

A minute later, Torterra accidentally stumbled upon a small Flying type that decided to use his tree as a hiding place. It was a pipsqueak Kalos Pokemon, a Fletchling, that had sneezed and given itself away. It sneezed continuously as we searched, but after I noticed that each sneeze made the Fletchling's beak produce flames, I made the bird Pokemon rest on Torterra's head, away from his flammable body.

Gastrodon found Riley, Demi's Riolu, but only after setting a muddy trap, which I approved of. Weavile attempted the same strategy after hearing Demi close by, trapping her between a set of trees with Ice Shard as she tried to run away. She pouted, but cheered up after realizing we hadn't found her last Pokemon, "Hah! You only have fifteen minutes left. Good luck finding our best hider."

This sparked a new wave of determination. Torterra was the only Pokemon who didn't try desperately to win, but just walked next to me, amused as the others fought to get through the trees, which was only halted after several barks of orders from me.

After five minutes of fruitless searching, I realized we weren't doing well despite how easy it had been to find the others.

"Spread out. This shouldn't be so difficult. It's just one Pokemon. We've searched most of the forest already. There isn't much ground left to cover."

We all began running. I followed Electivire, searching frantically, listening openly. We even rechecked by the pond on the outskirts of the forest.

"Elec!" Electivire grunted, halting at the water and pointing. The water was rippling.

We stood frozen on the bank. The water was clear and we couldn't see anything in the shallow pool. After a few seconds, I shook my head at him, motioning him to continue the search elsewhere. He growled in frustration, but followed.

Time's up! I heard in my head, almost causing me to fall over. Judging by Electivire's reaction, he'd also heard Demi in his mind, Come back to the pond and I'll show you where my last friend is.

All of my Pokemon showed up, scowling, except for Torterra, who was chatting to the little Fletchling still using his head as a perch.

"Well, I guess we win." Demi started off saying, grinning sheepishly.

We just stared at her.

She crossed her arms, "You didn't work together, did you?"

I crossed mine, "Where's your last one?"

"Right next to me." Demi said matter-of-factly.

We continued staring at her.

"You can show yourself now, Ariel."

Within seconds, a sleek blue body began appearing. A Vaporeon stood by her side.

I raised my eyebrows, "She wasn't even in the water when she was standing next to you."

"Yeah. Ariel learned how to turn invisible as long as her body is wet. Pretty cool, right?"

I controlled myself so my mouth wouldn't fall open as I asked slowly, "And how did you train your Vaporeon to do that?"

"I just knew she could. I've had her ever since she was an Eevee. She picked becoming a Vaporeon herself. I think when people and Pokemon have the right to choose, they can accomplish a lot more. That's why Eevee are such great Pokemon. Though all my other Pokemon are so special and lovely too. Right guys?"

Her Pokemon gave a cheer while mine looked at them sourly. Especially Electivire, who had easily wanted to battle the most.

Demi smiled slyly and patted Electivire's giant hand, "It's ok. We'll get to battle you again. Just help Paul out with things when he needs you. Like Torterra does. You see how Torterra was with Paul and he didn't care about the competition? He just wanted to spend time with his Trainer. That's how we all get better. When it's not about ourselves."

Electivire glared at her and I shifted a bit uncomfortably, placing my hand on Torterra. I hadn't realized Torterra was so dedicated towards me. I'd always thought our goals were similar, even if we valued different methods. Electivire and I shared the same attitude and personality, and yet Torterra and I had always had a bond I couldn't describe, and usually didn't want to because I was so focused on winning.

Perhaps this girl was very intelligent and I had to give her more credit.

"Ok, so let's play another game."

Or perhaps she wanted to torture me and nothing she could say after that could convince me otherwise.

"No."

Demi's face scrunched up in a pout, "Why not?"

"What do I get out of it?"

She crossed her arms, "You have fun, silly. Now let's play."

"I didn't come visit you to have fun." I said, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

"Well then what did you come here for."

"To see if you'd battle me."

She rolled her eyes and bent down to pet her Vaporeon, "Is that all you think about?"

My mind flickered to Dawn and Demi stood up, smiling.

"I knew there was more to your life than that." She said quietly in approval.

"That wasn't for you to hear." I said in annoyance.

"Your thoughts opened up to me when you did that. I wasn't trying to read them." Demi stood up, "If you beat us in this game, I'll battle you."

I was about to argue, but Electivire's tails sparked electricity and he growled, approving the terms. I sighed, "Fine."

"Yay! This will be fun." Demi exclaimed. Her Pokemon cheered and her eyes landed on me. Why did they look so mischievous?

Hey Readers!

This was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you enjoyed it :) Demi is adorable and Paul interacting with kids is just hilarious. And it continues in the next chapter! Muahaha!

Pokemon Question of the Day: What's the most fun game you can think of to play with Pokemon?

Have an awesome day!

God bless!

-Flips