Chapter 42: Long Day

Emma

"I love you." His words kept repeating in my head over and over. I knew how he would say it without the suit. That exact look he would have had. The one he used on a daily basis and I always pretended not to notice. That I ignored on purpose because I was too scared to lose my best friend if we ended up not working out. Because I was too scared of change.

But life was change, I realized. This whole trip, I'd changed. My parents had changed. They hadn't always been a perfect couple. They still weren't. A perfect couple didn't exist. But they went through everything together, no matter what. And my friends and I, we didn't give up on each other. We protected each other. Silly fights weren't going to get in our way.

"I love you" he'd said. I'd known, but this was different. This was hearing it. This was me almost getting choked to death and fearing the worst for all of us and hearing that just in case it happened.

This was me being too late to say it back as Daniel stormed off to save the day. But I knew I wouldn't have said it. Because I was scared that if I said the words out loud, something bad would happen, like my confession was a curse. And I couldn't let him get hurt like that because of me.

Zuko was next to me as soon as he left, asking me if I was ok. But none of that registered.

"Help him," I said. "Go help."

He obeyed instantly, leaving me alone as I forced myself to stand up and breathe. My throat burned. My vision flickered. My back ached from earlier. But it didn't matter. Because I needed to make sure he was ok. That he would be safe.

And then everything went back to normal speed as I realized how quickly Daniel and my attacker were fighting. Crikey would use Hydro Pump every once and awhile, the attack least likely to hit his Trainer on accident.

Another red burst of energy hit Crikey, knocking him onto his back. Daniel rushed forward just to get thrown to the ground.

"No," I croaked out.

Zuko used Flamethrower, but a force field came up. He stepped over Daniel, but Daniel brought his right arm over and hit behind his knee as hard as he could, making the guy trip to his knee. Zuko tackled him the rest of the way, breaking the shield.

Daniel got up quickly. "Out of the way, Zuko."

Zuko got up quickly. Daniel pointed the gun at the man, holding it steady.

"So that's it then." The man didn't get up.

"That's it," Daniel said simply.

"I always did what was best for you."

Daniel didn't say anything. I was confused by the wording. Who was this guy?

"Don't mess with my life anymore," Daniel said, sounding faraway.

If the man in the red suit had anything more to say, we didn't have the chance to hear. Daniel pulled the trigger. A wispy bright light shot out at the man, sucking him in. It expanded into a circle momentarily before shrinking into nonexistence.

Daniel lowered the gun, then dropped it. He held his right arm out, palm facing the ground. The suit started shrinking in one itself until it was just an arm guard. He slid it off robotically.

"Daniel?" I said uncertainly, taking a step forward.

He seemed to realize I was there for the first time. His eyes were tired, but instantly showed concern for me. "Emma. Are you alright?"

I looked at his left arm, which was forming a pretty nasty bruise. His face was all cut up. "Yeah, I'm better than you are."

"Didn't know it was a competition."

"Did you...?" I gestured to where the guy had disappeared, too scared to ask if he was dead.

He held the gun for me to look at. "It's a time and dimension portal."

"So that was a portal he got sucked into?"

"Yeah."

"Where to?"

"The time he was originally from."

"When exactly is that?"

Daniel slid back a hidden compartment along the side, finding a tiny control panel with the year number 2035.

"That's not too long from now."

"We'd be, what, twenty-five by then?" Daniel guessed.

I nodded.        

And then I remembered the last thing he'd said to me. And how it seemed like we weren't going to die anymore. And how he looked at me expectantly, whatever dark thoughts he'd had moments before forgotten.

And I had to say something. But I still felt like I couldn't say it. Even if it was true.

Daniel clearing his throat interrupted my conflicted thoughts. "Em, it's been a very, very long day. And you heard what I said. I'm not giving up on you. Even if you're stubborn and won't tell me what we all know is true."

If I knew how to use Minimize, that's what I would have done right then.

I'm surprised a small yelp didn't come out of me when he took a step closer. "I'm not going to do any more pretending. Not when life is so short. We're not doing ourselves any favors that way."

Daniel traced my hand softly. I had to force myself not to pull away. He continued, "You don't have to say anything right now. I guess your throat is a bit raw anyway."

"It'll be ok," I said, wishing my voice didn't betray how it hurt.

His lips puckered in that way they always did when he wanted to argue with me. I couldn't help but smile. I was too lucky to have him in my life, much less have him care for me like this.

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked quietly.

His eyebrows came down in confusion. "What?"

"I want you to close your eyes and not ask any questions."

His mouth opened as he tried to figure me out, then shut and opened again. "But I like asking questions."

"Don't make this harder than it already is," I said, feeling impatient and ready to bolt.

"You are the strangest girl," he mumbled to himself, but closed his eyes.

No. I was just a coward. Despite what everyone thought about the Ketchum family, we were really bad at being brave emotionally. Sure, risking our lives. Easy. But this...

I had to ignore all my instincts to get closer, which I don't think any other girl would have a problem with when it came to Daniel. Even when he was out of it, whether dead tired or an absolute sweaty, bruised mess, he was good looking. Not that I ever told him that. I tried to focus on those kinds of thoughts and not the thought of rejection as I closed my eyes and pressed my lips to his.

I felt him freeze and cringed mentally. If he pulled away I didn't know what I'd do. But he didn't. Instead, he kissed me back, which seemed like more of a miracle than not dying twice today. Even if he loved me. This was all new to me. And really, I didn't trust him when he said he loved me. I knew he loved me like a friend. That he would seriously die for me. Sure. But did he really want to get closer to me, even like this, even when I had no experience and had only proven that I was really bad at all these emotional talks?

If kisses were answers, his was a very definite yes as he pulled me closer. I let my hands awkwardly come up to his hair, running through it. I didn't care that he was a mess. He was still amazing to me.

We broke away pretty shortly after. I was blushing the second he looked at me like I'd just grown wings. Like really cool ones.

"That was..." he trailed off. I didn't really have any words. And my instant desire was to change the subject to the weather. Or ninjas. Anything else. He restarted, "Can we do that again?"

"What? No," I said in surprise, taking a step back. "Wow. I haven't ever done that before and instantly you're all..."

"Well there's the whole making up for lost time..."

"Daniel."

"Right. Well. It's a compliment." He rubbed the back of his neck.

So ninjas. They're pretty awesome. "The others are still..."

"Right. Other people," Daniel agreed. "Who?"

"Um, Anthony, Amanda, Ash-"

"Right! Right." He nodded, his eyes still a bit bugged out as they darted from me to the surrounding area. "We should see them."

"If I had known you were capable of being awkward I would have kissed you years ago," I said.

His face got a little red, but stayed serious. "No you wouldn't have."

I grinned. "Ok, maybe not."

"So. The others."

"Right," I said, starting to feel awkward again.

"Score." I heard from the nearest trees.

My eyes widened as I saw Crikey and Zuko standing next to each other, smiling way too smugly. The band was on Crikey's arm again.

"Oh. You guys. Have been watching this whole time," Daniel said slowly as the pieces came together, then grabbed my arm and started dragging me off without looking back at our Pokemon. "Let's find the others."

We kept hearing fake kiss noises behind us as we walked as quickly as possible.

"You invented that thing!?" I whisper yelled at him. "Why did you program the sound effects?"

"I didn't program it. I just had the idea," Daniel retorted, wincing as he heard another cackle of laughter. "Oh, they're going to tell everyone..."

I shot a glare over my shoulder at Zuko. "If they do, they won't ever be able to talk again."

His ears drooped and the grin slid off his face.

"Nice, Em." Daniel looked over his shoulder. "And no donuts for you."

"Mum is the word," Crikey said nonchalantly, indicating that his toothy mouth was sealed shut.

"And what's the word between us?" Daniel murmured to me.

"Give me time to figure it out. It's been a very, very long day," I said, squeezing his hand once before dropping it.

Could you think of anything worse than Pokemon teasing you like that in their first hour of being able to talk? I'm sure you could, but really.

You guys HAVE to tell me what you think. Come on. Fan girl or boy out in the comments. So glad I'm ending the note on this chapter... Arceus. Sharing them is something else, I'm telling you. Daniel has the biggest head.

Pokemon Question of the Day: Who do you think the guy in the suit is? (I'm also being told this is a bad question. But I ignore HIM and he can't come onto MY account and steal my end note)

I hope you're enjoying it! Thanks for all of your support!

-Flips