Welcome back, readers! Now, I know that this isn't the new chapter you've been waiting for, and I know that it's been a very long time since I've updated. It's been a while since since I even typed anything for you guys. All I can pin it on is laziness and writer's block. No fancy excuses, no huge reasons why I haven't been here. You all deserve honesty, and with that, I'm also compelled to tell you it'll probably be a while before I update this again. Sorry for the long time away, and for any long waits in the future.

Anyway, for those of you considerate enough to respect my time away, this is for you. Thank you to everyone who asked a question, and now for what you came for: the answers.

Firstly, Akira_Playz asks 'What inspired you to write this story?'

The answer to this goes back a while. For those of you who don't know, when I first started writing, I had a 10 part series called 'Riolu's adventures', which included a Febnekin and Riolu ship that turned into and Lucario and Braixen ship when they evolved. The stories weren't very popular as I was still a very small profile at the time (shoutout to anyone who did read those stories!). After a few months, I deemed the stories as inferior to my new standard of stories and deleted them, not happy with the 1000 word long (no exaggeration, they were that short), poorly written pieces. I still wanted to write a Lucario and Braixen ship though, one that was longer and just better written in general. And so, 'A fiery love story' was born, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

The next question, from Foxman237, reads 'How close do you feel to your characters? I NEED SPECIFICS!'

Then specifics you will get! Overall, of it wasn't obvious, there are four 'main characters', if you like. They are Ryan, Blaze, Ricky and Vincent. Charles and Rachel kind of faded from the foreground for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don't find their species all that interesting, and I had a bit more of a connection to the four main characters' species at the time of writing this. Ruby is a character I'm yet to develop a deep or not so deep connection with, depending on her significance to the storyline. The main four are really my main focus and I enjoy implementing them into every new chapter I make. On an individual level, Ricky is an interesting character for me. He's normally quite calm, albeit he did that brief stint of anger, but that was only because he thought Blaze was being mistreated. His compassion for friends along with his love for Blaze make him very likeable in my opinion. Blaze seems very driven by her emotions, and that's undoubtedly fuelled by her love for Ricky. I think she's a very cute and caring character, and her occasional outbursts at Ryan are often meant to be comical. Ryan himself is like the comic relief of the story, coming across as trying to be funny 99% of the time and messing up the other 1%. He can be slightly obnoxious, but often serves as the one who gets joked about. I like him for that reason. And Vincent... I really like him. He's often more successful at being funny than Ryan, and he's very kind like Ricky. I also have a bit of a weak spot for Zoroark, helping him out. All four are nice to keep up with, and I hope you can all agree.

Tamper-Folf asks the next question, saying 'How long did it take for you to develop a writing style that was right for you?'

A very complex question again, but I won't bore you with a really long answer. It ties in with the first question in a sense, as like I said, my first ten stories, as I saw them, were poorly written as I wrote longer stories with more detail. Back then, I was nowhere near as focused as I am now (when I'm not being obscenely lazy, that is). The way I write now... it's very similar to how I used to. The things that changed are the length and description of the stories I write. It works at the moment, but I have no doubt it'll change further as time goes on. I think my writing is at least half decent now. It means a lot to even have an engaged audience.

We now move on to user18637380's question, 'How do you feel about shipping your characters?'

This is a slightly interesting one as I'm obviously in favour of it, but only to a certain extent. I'm going to address this here for all of you, and try not to roast me too hard. I'm not writing a lemon for this story. I'm sorry if you were expecting one, but I decided against it. I don't think it would help the story in any way, and I won't consider doing one. With that out of the way, back to the answer. Before I wrote stories, I read the story 'fulfillment' on fanfiction.net, starring the famous duo, Riky and Fiona. My innocent mind wasn't expecting the 15-20k words of lemon at the time, but getting past that, I loved it and drew big inspiration from it. I've loved the idea of a Braixen and Lucario ship for years, and getting to create a story our of it with people generally taking an interest... that's phenomenal. I know I'm only a small profile, but I don't really care. Getting to show my passion for a ship I've developed over a long period of time is enough for me, and I'm thrilled most of you at least have enjoyed it thus far.

Nearing the end, we get to BrandonBurbank's question, 'Who is your favourite character out of this story so far?'

When I created the story, I didn't initially mean to have a favourite. I guess it happens inevitably, though. As for the main four... it's hard to choose, but I'd be tempted to say I like Vincent the best. That may or may not surprise some of you, but there is reasoning behind it. Beside that emotional breakdown over Ruby, he's funny, relaxed, and just friendly to be around. He practically helped save the main relationship in chapter 11, and to top it all off, as I said, I have a weak spot for Zoroark. I like the other three equally in second as although the story just seems to follow a problem and solution pattern, the characters make it work for me. Hopefully it works for all of you, too.

Finally, the question from blitzenstrike, 'Is there more chapters?'

Questions like these are the reason why I apologise for making you wait. I'm aware that you want more, and it's upsetting not being able to update more frequently. But to answer your question, yes, there will be more. You may be interested to know that this story is almost over, unless I stated it in one of my other chapters, in which case you already know. I'm too lazy to go back and check.

And there you have it! The Q&A is now finished! Thank you so much to everyone who asked a question and for your continuous support for this story. I'll make another milestone chapter every 10k reads, so this was fun, but I'll probably never do it again. 😝

Apologies for the short outro, but I honestly haven't got much more to say. It's probably about time I shut my mouth anyway. Thanks for reading guys, and until next time, stay awesome.