Alex's eyes shot open. He had felt a change from the second he had woken up. He sat up immediately and took a good deep breath. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, illuminating the empty room. Glancing at his watch, Alex took note of the fact that he had overslept by only four hours. Keeping his excitement contained for a short while, he got up and dressed before entering the common room, looking for his friends.

"Hey guys!" he said, grinning at a group of teens lounging around one of the sofas.

"Morning Alex," Lenny replied, "Or should I say afternoon?"

"Time's not important." Alex said, brushing off the comment. "What's important is the weather. It's sunny!"

"What's your point?"

"My point is Lenny," Alex sighed, "It's sunny, it's warm and we have a beach outside our front door. How are we not already taking advantage of this?"

"You're not serious are you?" Bella scoffed. Unlike the others, she appeared to be doing homework. "After what Professor Williams told us the other day?"

"What did he tell us?"

"That our exams are close and if we don't start revising now, we'll fail and get kicked out of the school." She explained.

"A most compelling argument." Alex paused. "So who's up for the beach?"

"I dunno Alex, I think Bella's right on this one." Lenny conceded.

"She's always right. But that doesn't mean you should actually follow her advice!" Alex waited for a few seconds. Unbelievably, nobody seemed to be interested except one person.

"I'm up for it." Megan smiled.

"That's why you're my girlfriend." Alex grinned. "Race to get ready?"

"You're on."

*

Alex let Megan win the race but for some reason, she wouldn't stop rubbing in the fact that he'd lost. In any case, it didn't matter. It was a silly game that Alex had kindly allowed his girlfriend to emerge as victorious only to make her feel just a little bit better about herself. It hadn't been that serious.

When they felt far enough from the Azelf dorm, they set down their towels on the warm silky sand and stopped bickering. Alex dropped his bag on the floor and flung off his t-shirt and sandals, leaving him just in his orange swimming shorts that were covered in tropical decorations such as palm trees.

"Nice shorts." Megan laughed. She was wearing a light blue bikini that accentuated her... features nicely.

"Nice ti- I mean bikini." Alex replied, catching himself just in time.

"Good save."

"Thanks." He grinned. "Let's go for a swim!"

"I dunno, what if the water's too cold?" Megan pointed out.

"Only one way to find out." Alex shrugged, sprinting towards the vast blue ocean and jumping in straight away, causing a large splash that sprayed water up into the air. The water was of perfect temperature to swim in but Alex had other ideas. Rather than resurfacing immediately, he held his breath and remained submerged. The water was obviously shallow but he'd jumped far enough out to where he could stay underneath the surface. When he heard Megan calling out, he sprang back up, flicking his arms through the water, splashing her completely.

"You are such a child!" She laughed, trying to look annoyed but it didn't work. Instead, she joined Alex in the water and splashed him right back.

"And you're not?" Alex grinned, wiping the salty water from his eyes. One of the interesting things about their relationship was that if one of them played a joke on the other, it would start an almost never ending war between the pair and this looked like no exception. Kicking his feet, Alex propelled himself forwards, unexpectedly grabbing the redhead and pulling her underwater for a brief moment. She wriggled about and kicked around until she struck his leg, causing him to release his grasp.

"I'll have you know, I'm highly mature." She defended when she surfaced, her face burning bright red. Alex had foolishly allowed himself to get to close to Megan who swiftly brought her hands out of the sea, revealing a purple shell that she thrust towards him. It turned out the inside of the shell was an all black face with two large circular eyes and a flailing pinkish tongue. Caught completely off guard by Megan's manoeuvre, the terrified Shellder clamped its mouth down on the nearest thing it could find which just so happened to be Alex's hand.

"Ow!" Alex yelped in pain shaking his hand around furiously to escape the small Pokémon's grasp. Eventually, he managed to fling it off, sending the little bivalve monster flying onto the beach. "That one actually hurt Megan."

"Oh I'm sorry do you want me to kiss it better?" She mocked.

"Yes actually." Alex said. Megan obliged, taking hold of his hand and lightly kissing it. Not being able to resist the urge, Alex pulled her body in close, so that the bare skin on their bellies touched and in one swift movement, he wrapped his arms around her and planted a passionate kiss on her lips. After a few seconds he broke away and smiled. It was funny to think how this whole relationship had been born out of Megan plucking up the courage to tell him her feelings and now almost six months later here they were enjoying time together. It felt like this could genuinely be a serious relationship that might last for quite some time to come. For a couple of minutes they just stared into each other's eyes.

"Hey, what is that?" Megan asked, pointing towards their stuff on the sand. Alex hadn't noticed it before but all of their Pokémon were playing on the beach. Butterfree and Tangrowth were having fun playing Tepiggy in the middle with Marowak's bone whilst Marowak desperately tried to get it back. Litwick clearly wasn't a fan of the beach and was hiding in Alex's bag. Megan's Pokémon, Quagsire and Larvesta were just relaxing on the beach, having a well deserved nap. The colourful scene was dampened only by Garchomp, looking grumpy, sitting away from the rest of the group, wearing what appeared to be Alex's Ray-Bans. It was then that Alex noticed what Megan was talking about.

"Let's go and investigate." he said, taking hold of Megan's hand and practically dragging her out of the water and back up to their towels where an odd kerfuffle was taking place. Alex's towel was occupied by a Pokémon that he didn't recognise and it appeared to be being attacked by the Shellder from before. "Stop that!" Alex said, picking the Shellder up. However, when it attempted to bite him, he panicked, dropping it back onto the unknown Pokémon's head. The Shellder clamped its mouth down on the poor, defenceless Pokémon's head when something very strange happened.

The small pink Pokémon and the Shellder began to simultaneously glow and they then appeared to merge together into one Pokémon. The result was now standing before Alex and Megan. It was mostly a salmon pink with a tan coloured mouth and belly. It's face was calm and peaceful but the two new features sported by the Pokémon that really stood out were the red and white collar and the large spiky crown atop its head with a little jewel in the centre. This must have been some kind of evolution.

"I think Professor Khan taught us this in Biology." Megan said. "It's too confusing for me to remember the specifics but I think this is a Slowking."

"Awesome!" Alex grinned, his eyes lighting up. "I'm gonna catch it!"

"Slow?"

"No, I noticed it so I get to catch it." Megan argued.

"Slow?"

"But you don't even like battling so what use is it to you?"

"Slow?"

"Alex, relationships are all about compromise." Megan explained.

"Slow?"

"True, they are about compromise. They are about compromise and giving your partner the Slowking he wants."

"That is just stupi-" Megan's latest argument was cut off by the Pokémon in question.

"Slow!" Whilst the couple had been busy arguing over who should get to catch the Slowking, it seemed to have decided for itself, reaching into Alex's bag, curiously tapping an empty Pokéball before being sucked inside. After a few seconds, the Pokémon was officially Alex's.

"Well that settles that I guess." Alex grinned. Before he had time to check out the final instalment to his team, Megan tackled him down onto the towels, their bodies pressing together.

"You can be such a nightmare." She smiled, shaking her head.

"I know." He grinned back.

Well here is another chapter! I've been doing pretty well recently with regular-ish uploads and hopefully that can continue now that the story is getting closer to ending. However I do have exams coming up soon so I may get a little busy. In any case, if you enjoyed please hit that vote button and as always please leave a comment, it really motivates me to write more. Also #Alan