Epilogue

"So are you going to go get your next badge now, Anthony?" I asked as we walked through Ilex Forest, picking berries with Celebi. My mom had insisted on Daniel staying back at the cabin to clean up his scrapes. He'd thrown a fit, but Amanda had stayed with him. Which gave me and Anthony some special bonding time with a, wait for it, Legendary Pokemon. Who was currently wriggling in delight as he ate berries. Pikachu was having a blast throwing them to see if Celebi could catch them. But really, if we're being honest, he cheated with Psychic sometimes.

"I would love to join all of you in the Johto League. Where were you planning on going after the League ends?"

"Hoenn."

"I'm tired of traveling on my own."

"We've always wanted you to come with us," I said, feeling a lot less awkward than I had before time traveling with him. He seemed a lot easier to talk to too. "You're a really cool guy. And a good friend. Thanks for looking after all of us. I know we're not always the easiest to be around."

"We?" Anthony repeated. "Speak for yourself."

I threw a handful of berries at him and he grinned. It was nice to see. He looked more his age when he was goofing off. And I was glad he felt comfortable enough to tease me.

I looked down at my full bucket. "Ready to go back?"

"Only if Celebi has had enough."

We looked up to find a berry stained Celebi hurling berries at Pikachu.

"Done?" I asked him.

He threw one at me. It bounced off my forehead.

"Done now?"

He laughed and sped back towards the cabin. Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder.

I put the bucket of berries down on the counter and rushed over to the living room couch where my mom was studying Daniel's arm. He seemed too preoccupied to notice me. "Misty, I'm fine. It's just a bruise."

"Let me at least put some of this cream on it. I packed first aid because I knew you'd come back a mess."

"I'm a growing boy. What did you expect?" he joked, then dropped his gaze to the backpack on the floor, frowning. I'd forgotten all about him having it. I still had no idea where it'd come from.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Misty asked quietly. "I don't think you told us everything before. And I was busy talking to Emma."

"No," he murmured. "I'm fine."

My mom touched his bruise one last time. He winced.

"Sorry." My mom stood up and smoothed his hair. Just like she did to me. She went down the hallway towards the bedrooms.

Daniel's face was sad until he noticed me standing behind the wall at the edge of the room. "Hey."

"Hey," I said shyly, opting to go sit next to him. I tried to ignore the backpack, which I had a lot of questions about. "How are you doing?"

"Fine. How's your throat?" he asked.

I put a finger over my mouth. "I didn't tell them."

"Yeah?" Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You have a giant bruise. How did you get away with your parents not knowing?"

"I told them I got it from something else." I waved it off. "Come on, Daniel. How are you?"

"I'm ok."

"You're a crumby liar."

"I wonder where I get that from." He smiled and gave me a knowing look.

I crossed my arms.

"It's a lot to take in," he said slowly. "My dad and all. What he did."

"It wasn't him though."

"I know." He stared at the bruise on his arm. "It's going to take some time."

"He did it for you, you know. Making that suit. He wanted to make you happy."

"Yeah, that would be a first." Daniel rolled his shoulders back in agitation.

"The older you seemed to forgive him."

"I don't know how." His face darkened.

"I guess you get more mature."

He studied his hands, changing the subject. "Future you was pretty different."

"You didn't really get a chance to talk to her, did you?" I said, relieved.

"Actually I did. You were sleeping like a Snorlax, as usual."

I straightened. "What?"

"She gave me some advice." Daniel leaned back, so sure of himself.

"What advice?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Maybe she told me things too." I scowled, wanting to one up him.

"Like what?"

Well I wasn't going to tell him that she basically confirmed us being together eventually so that backfired. "I'm not telling."

"Ouch. Burn. My attack is halved," Daniel said sarcastically.

"Fine. Be immature. I'll wait till the future when you learn to be awesome."

"I'm awesome now."

"Oh yeah?"

"Either way you just complimented me by calling the future me awesome, so really it doesn't matter." Daniel turned the tables. I scowled.

A green blur whirled into the room, landing besides the couch. Daniel and I turned to see what Celebi was doing.

"Hey, careful with that." Daniel warned as Celebi bounced on top of the backpack. Daniel pulled the backpack away, setting it next to him on the couch.

"What is that anyway?"

"Future tech mostly," he said, not looking me in the eyes.

"What else?"

He paused. Daniel never paused.

"Daniel, what?"

"I can't really show you all of it. It's future stuff," he said.

"Why?"

"Because you in the future told me not to."

"How would I know not to show me that?" I sighed.

"I have no idea."

"Have you seen it?"

"Maybe..."

"That's so not fair."

"I can show you eventually," he promised.

Even though it was really annoying, I knew Daniel was trustworthy. He'd always told me everything, even when I held things back. He was a straight forward guy who made his intentions clear. And I also knew he wanted what was best for me and would show me whatever it was at the right time.

"I won't hate you when you show me, right?" I asked.

"I don't think so. I'm used to you hitting me if I do or say something you don't like, so I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even think to smack me upside the head."

"Good. Then that's settled."

"So what now?" he asked.

"Well I was thinking lunch."

"No, I mean. That does sound good, but," he turned so he was facing me more, "I meant about that conversation we had."

I stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"I got more of a nonverbal answer last time," he hinted.

Oh. The kiss. Him saying he loved me. I tried not to react like an idiot as I thought of something to say. "Right. I'm still... the thing is... you know how I feel but the whole saying of words or even displaying it again is just really... basically the most terrifying thing ever."

He studied me in surprise. "Telling me you love me is scary?"

I cringed. "I didn't say that."

"Wait, you didn't say you love me or you didn't say it was scary?"

My eyes were huge. "No, it's. I do. But it is. And this is weird."

I wasn't even sure if he could follow my line of thinking.

"How?"

My eye twitched. I didn't like these questions.

"Why are you always so ready to bolt?" Daniel asked. "Look at me. I'm sitting here and I don't think you're weird, or weirder than normal. Em, we'd be friends no matter what. I don't think you're hiding any secrets from me that I don't know about. And the only thing I'm not telling you is about the thing I told future you I wouldn't tell you. But I told you I'm not telling you, and you don't see that as an issue, which is crazy for someone to have that much trust. But saying those three words is making you want to run out of the room."

"I've never been good at this stuff." I sunk into the couch.

"I don't have any practice either."

I scoffed.

"What?"

"You don't need practice. You're good at everything." I brought my legs up and rested my chin on my knees.

"You know that's not true. I can't draw. I couldn't write till you taught me how."

"Two faults," I quipped.

"This isn't about me. We're talking about you," Daniel reminded me.

"That's the thing, Daniel." I looked straight ahead. "I have a lot of faults and you have so few."

"I have more than that. And you know it." He touched my arm gently. "So you think I'm some sort of perfect guy and you're a mess?"

"Mind reader," I added onto the list of extraordinary things about him.

He leaned back, stunned. "How could you think that?"

We sat in silence while he thought. It was kind of nice to watch him not know what to do truthfully. That's how I felt most of the time.

"Well, we're going to fix that," Daniel said finally, giving me a smile.

"Come again?"

"You don't have to declare your undying love for me-"

"I didn't say undying-" 

"Not right away at least. I'm going to get you to see how great you are. And in your own timing, you are going to be able to open up to me about everything." He almost sounded like a dictator, which I mean in the sweetest way possible.

I gave him a cynical look. "You sure are confident."

"I told you I'm not giving up."

"So how are we supposed to act around each other?"

"I'm going to be your friend till you come crawling back to me." Daniel grinned. Or not so sweet dictator. "And then we'll see how I act from there on out. But for now you decide how you're going to act."

I pushed his chest. "Yeah, this is going to be annoying."

"You know I'm kidding."

"No you're not."

"About the extreme parts, yes."

I sighed, removing myself from the vicinity of the obnoxious optimist.

"You love me," ,e teased.

"Yeah, I'm not admitting it anytime soon."

"I did tell you I'm never giving up."

I heard Celebi give a tinkling laugh from the other side of the couch.

"Yes. Yes you did," I said, rushing out of the room and onto the back porch facing the lake. Anthony and Amanda were there, sitting pretty close together. They pulled away when they saw me.

"What's up?" Amanda asked.

Celebi floated in front of me, too close to my face yet again. I caught him in my arms and smiled. "I was wondering if you wanted to get back on the road tomorrow. We can't be the best if we're sitting around here all day."

"We just got back to the present and you want to start moving already?" Anthony frowned.

"That's not the way a Trainer should talk!" I pepped him up.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and found Daniel at my side. I tried to suppress my reaction to his touch.

"You guys are leaving already?" I heard my dad ask. He had been sitting on a rocking chair, holding my mom's hand in the shade. Pikachu was snoozing in his lap. I hadn't even noticed them in my hurry.

"Tomorrow sounds good," Daniel agreed.

"You guys seem really excited about tomorrow," Amanda said dryly.

"It's a brand new day," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm ready to stop taking each day for granted."

"Same."

"You guys are really inspirational," my dad said with a hint of sarcasm. I heard him say "ow" as my mom smacked his arm.

"Don't listen to him, kids. Make the best of every day."

Celebi looked up at me with giant blue eyes full of so much potential. "I think we'll do just that."

The End

Pokémon Question of the Day: What did you like most about this story?

Wooow it's done. This is such a good feeling. I've been working on this story for years. Or procrastinating it for years. Either way, I'm really proud of how far I've come as a writer since then. And of course, a big thank you goes to Daniel for writing those chapters in his POV. Because yes, he did write them and come up with the more intense ideas that made this book way more epic than I intended. I'm glad he's an "idea guy". And that he puts up with all my writing.

Also, shout out to CoordinatorIza for always reading through my stories and helping me edit them to perfection. As well as to all my wonderful friends who put up with me writing all the time and inspire me to always do my best. Ketchums don't give up and neither do they. Thanks guys!

And lastly, thank you. I'm so glad you read this till the end. I had such a good time and am so happy to have so many people reading this book. I hope that you also never give up and don't take today, the present, for granted. Make the most of it.

Thanks again. Love to all of you.

-Flips