"No... no, no, no..." I whispered, holding back hot tears of frustration. I pressed my eyelids together, squeezing stinging tears out of my eyes and letting them roll down the side of my face and seep into the hard floor. My eyes opened and I pressed my knees closer to my chest when I once again saw the glass-looking rock laying before me.

A Dawn Stone.

It was amazing how something I had wanted for so long, trained long hours to get, would terrorize me now, make me feel so shamed. It had been my dream, my destiny, to become a Gallade. I would have made my parents so proud... but I guess it wasn't fate.

I sighed as I realized there was no way to change what I had evolved into; I was a Gardevoir, plain and true, an elegant beauty instead of a honed fighter. Picking myself off the ground, I grabbed the Dawn Stone and sat down on my bed, staring wistfully at the jewel-looking object. Why, why couldn't I have gotten you sooner? I thought, though, of course, the stone didn't answer. I threw it on the ground, internally hoping it would break. Why couldn't I just have waited until Mom got back to train more... this is my fault. Staring at the rock, I stood up and grabbed the Dawn Stone, cradling it close to me with the slight hope that I would some how trigger a now-dormant gene within me that would react and morph me into the form I had always wanted... but it was clear that nothing was going to change. A thought struck me as I sorrowfully turned to sit back on my bed, causing me to freeze in horror.

What would my father think?

"No, no, no... no, no, no, no! Dad's gonna kill me... and I didn't even want this! How am I supposed to tell him?" My mind whirred, trying to find some way to make him understand that I was stupid and didn't want this. I came up with nothing, and was left floundering.

When my window came into my vision, I knew I could only do one thing: run away for now and tell him later. And so I jumped, taking my Dawn Stone with me. I hit the ground running, trying my best to get away from my house as quickly as possible. Immediately the trees were flying behind me, and soon the forest faded back as I headed into town. My pace only slowed a little bit as I dodged through the crowd, finally looking back to see how far I'd come. I turned forward just in time to see myself slam into someone before falling to the ground.

"O-oh, I'm sorry, miss. Are you alright?" The Pokémon I had run into asked, concerned. I felt my mood sour, not only from the fact of being mistaken for a girl, but also from how fate had decided to mock me: out of all the Pokemon I could have run into, it had to be a Fighting Type, but not just any Fighting Type, no, it had to be the manliest of them all, a Machamp.

"Yes, I am alright," I spat, pushing away the hand offering to help me up as I did so myself, brushing off my petals. "And that's mister to you, sir." I turned to walk away.

"Well, I guess it's ma'am to you."

"What?" I couldn't help but be stopped in my tracks at that. A small blush threatened to creep up my face, but I fought it down. Had I really just made the mistake I had just been scolding about? I felt so... hypocritical.

"I'm a woman, so I guess you should call me ma'am or miss, or something along those lines."

"I... I'm really sorry about that, especially since I just got after you for thinking I was a girl and all, I mean, you're just so... masculine." My words ended up tumbling from my mouth as I gazed at her enormous, muscular figure, which simply seemed to shout manliness... and she was stuck with it. At least I had a chance to become a Gallade, I just screwed up, but she, she was stuck looking like a boy or a man, even if she was still a Machop or a Machoke. Fate seemed cruel that way.

I found myself eventually sitting by a river a little ways from town talking with her, first with her introducing herself--her name was Elda--and then about other things, like what it was like to always be mistaken as a guy for her whole life. 

The moments I spent with her turned to hours, and eventually days. I had almost spent a week without speaking to or even seeing my parents, but I enjoyed them much more that I thought I would have when I first evolved. Elda had helped me cope much better than I had first planned to with sulking, and she helped me learn the moves I had been so excited to learn, like Fire Punch and Thunder Punch. And so I spent that week training and learning from my new friend.

But aside from moves, I also learned more about myself. When I finally was able to reduce a bush to ashes with a Fire Punch, I found myself ecstatic, and suddenly I was hanging my arms around Elda's neck, and a set of her hands was holding my waist with the other two holding my shoulders steady as she twirled me around, and I laughed, sincerely and deeply for the first time in a while.

Finally, she placed me gently on the ground, though I couldn't come to take my hands off her shoulders as I looked into her eyes

"You did it!" She exclaimed, her hands also not moving from where she placed them.

"Yeah," I replied. "All thanks to you." I laid my head into the crook between her head and her neck and relished the warmth of her standing with her arms around me. When my hands slipped around her waist, her hands wrapped around mine. And then my brain realized what my body already had.

"Elda, I just... I just realized something,"I began, picking my face up to look at her clearly. "I realized that... that I, um, that I..." I adverted my gaze as I was suddenly at a loss for words. But I still saw her smile.

"Yeah, me, too."

And then I was gripping her so tightly it was like I was trying to make us one being.

"I'm glad. But... I guess that means you should go meet my family, and... I should really let them know I'm okay."

Which brings me to where I am now, standing before my house with Elda holding my hand to give me courage.

"Just do it, Curry. Just knock." She encouraged, and I took in a deep breath before doing so. An older Gallade answered the door, and I immediately recognized him as my father.

"Hi, Dad," I began awkwardly before getting a grip on my words. "As you can see, I'm a Gardevoir, and I also what you to meet Elda... my girlfriend."

"You have a lot of explaining to do, young man."

He didn't seem as mad as I had expected.