I wasn't quite sure how it happened, but even after Paul had helped me out of the Glimwood Tangle we ended up traveling to the next gym together. Paul was constantly pestering me with questions and it was SO annoying when he argued with me about the effectiveness of a specific vitamin for a certain typing. Honestly, that boy was bound and determined to prove himself right and it drove me nuts when more often than not he actually was.

How did his parents ever deal with how obnoxious this guy is?! I snarled inwardly after Paul and I had argued for a solid twenty minutes about whether I had put too much iron in Cufant's food blend. Even though Paul was normally stoic and unsociable, he was surprisingly chatty when it came to pokemon training. And his style of training was like nothing I had ever seen before.

I had been aghast the first time I saw one of Paul's training sessions and how hard he worked his pokemon. But I noticed that every single one of his pokemon were willing and ready to lay it all on the line every single practice. They WANTED to get stronger and to push their limits and Paul guided them through their training with a painstakingly crafted set of obstacles that were formulated to improve on their individual weaknesses.

As he caught pokemon while we traveled together I began to notice a pattern. I realized that if a pokemon couldn't keep up with his form of training, he released them immediately. In any other trainer I would have thought this cruel, but, oddly, I saw kindness in this gesture of Paul's and I started to wonder more and more what drove him to focus so much on strength.

Even after we had both beaten the seventh gym, neither of us brought up the fact that my request of Paul staying with me for a day had extended into a month-long excursion. I wasn't sure why I hadn't spoken up yet... he was ornery and rude and my poor pokemon had the toughest time keeping up with his in practice battles... But every morning I waited for him to say he was off to train by himself and every day it didn't come. Even though we argued almost every day, he had actually requested I make his pokemon personalized pokemon food. And no matter how many times we battled, he always wanted another one. We had even spent a week trading our pokemon back and forth from our previous travels to go up against each other. Paul won a good 90% of the matches... but those few victories I got were incredibly sweet and made me feel like I was on top of the world.

"What's your strategy for facing Raihan?" Paul suddenly asked me, pulling me from my thoughts.

"Weren't you saying that he specializes in double battles?" I asked, trying to remember everything Paul had mentioned throughout our time traveling together. It honestly shocked me how much research Paul put into facing each gym. He usually knew the gym leaders' favored pokemon before he even went into a battle and used that to customize the team that he would use to take on the gym.

"That's right. He uses pokemon with weather abilities to boost the power of his dragon type pokemon," he explained to me.

"I haven't met many trainers that focus on double battles. I haven't done one since I tried being a coordinator," I said thoughtfully, wondering what pairings I should use to tackle this next challenge. A small snigger pulled me from my thoughts and I glared warily over at him.

"Now what?" I asked and he flashed me a look filled with superiority.

"Just thinking how fickle you are," he said with obvious mockery and I pouted at him before turning my nose up.

"Not everyone knows what they want to do with their life when they're ten, Mr. Big Shot," I said with a sniff and I was shocked when Paul actually let out a harsh chuckle. I turned and was surprised to see something dark cross his expression as he looked down at the path we were walking on.

"Quitting half-way through your goal is just pathetic," he growled under his breath

Even though when I first met him I would have flown into a rage at a comment like that, surprisingly I felt more concerned than anything. His comment hadn't seemed directed at me, and I wondered why he was harboring so much pent-up anger... and at whom?

An awkward silence stretched between us as I waited for him to elaborate and he stubbornly remained looking at the ground. It felt like Paul's mind had taken a hike and was miles away from me, and surprisingly I felt a little lonely. Wait a second. Do I really want to be closer to this guy? I mean... REALLY?! Him?!

My eyes wandered over once again to the intimidating figure walking beside me and I bit the inside of my lip. Paul was nothing like my past ex. He hated people for one thing, and even though his goal was to become the strongest champion ever, his reasons weren't so he could become famous and have even more adoring fans... But I realized I really didn't understand what was driving him to be such an insane trainer.

"Hey, Paul," I said. When he didn't immediately respond I reached out and poked him in the side. To my utter shock, he jumped nearly a foot in the air and slapped a hand to his side. He glowered down at me angrily, but I thought I saw a slight flush to his cheeks. I could feel a slow grin beginning to creep along my lips and I looked up at his unusually emotional face.

"Are you... ticklish?" I asked, feeling my smile splitting into a wide grin. Paul scowled heavily at me and folded his arms.

"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped, but his defensiveness made my grin even wider. I poked his side once more, and he growled at me, not being able to help a small flinch.

"Seriously?" I said with a laugh. "An ice cube like you is actually ticklish?" I mocked with glee, never having had the upper hand with this guy before and I was almost drunk on the sense of power. My hand inched closer to his side. He reached out and gripped it, opening his mouth to scold me, but I snuck in with my other hand and wiggled my fingers against his side. He jerked away from me automatically and snarled at me, but I was laughing uncontrollably at this point and it didn't even faze me.

A brief chase ensued while I tried to tickle Paul and he kept batting me away, telling me that I was wasting time and energy. I didn't care though, this was too good and I hadn't laughed this hard since before I started dating my jerk of an ex.

Just when I was about to close in on him again though, Paul reached out and grabbed both of my hands in his. I let out a surprised yelp when he spun me around, crossing my arms over my stomach and pulling me close so my back was against his chest before lifting me off the ground. I squirmed in his arms uselessly, still unable to stop my laughter even as I heard Paul growling in my ear.

"Will you stop this pathetic childishness already?" he asked even as I continued to giggle. I leaned my head back so it was resting on his shoulder and I could look over into his eyes with a wide grin.

"Are you kidding? You ALWAYS give me a hard time, this is total payback," I said with a grin, wriggling my arms to try and get closer to his sides. Paul's eyes widened slightly and I yelped when he suddenly let me go, causing me to fall in a heap onto the ground.

"Sheesh, jerk, what was that for?" I asked, clambering back to my feet and dusting myself off. Surprisingly, Paul had turned his back on me with one hand on his hip and another covering his eyes.

"Did I give you a headache?" I asked, all of my mirth disappearing immediately as I walked over to him. "I'm sor.." when I laid a hand on his elbow Paul moved away, turning his back to me once more and cutting off my apology. My hand fell down to my side in shock and I frowned at his broad back.

"I need to sort some things out," Paul suddenly said, lowering his hand from his head and glancing partially over his shoulder at me. "You go on ahead to Hammerlocke." His voice had a hard finality to it and I blinked in shock, but I could feel annoyance bubbling up inside of me, and my hands clenched into fists.

"Seriously? You stick to my side for a month and then just out of the blue decide you're sick of me?" I growled, surprised at the bitterness in my own voice. Paul narrowed his eyes and turned to face me with an imperious expression.

"Me? Stick to you? It's the other way around, Dimwit," Paul said harshly and I glared up at him.

"Yah, right. I asked for your help through Glimwood Tangle, but you're the one that decided to stay with me after that," I said with an accusing finger pointed at his face. Paul sneered mockingly at me and folded his arms.

"Then why didn't you leave? I wasn't stopping you," he said with a cold stare and I could feel my ears burning from anger and a good amount of embarrassment.

"You're the one that said you wanted to battle me, and asking me all those questions about pokemon food and pokemon exercises..." I pointed out angrily and he scoffed.

"I was just trying to straighten out your misguided thoughts about a breeder being a useful profession," he said and I felt a tug in my heart.

Why? Why is this happening? This isn't like our normal arguments. What did I do? I... was just trying to have some fun. Something wet slid down my cheek and I felt my eyes widen in shock at the same time as Paul's. I looked down and touched my cheeks, feeling small rivulets of water going down both of them, and pulled away to see tears sparkling on the tips of my fingers.

Crap. Not again. Once they started I knew there was nothing I could do to make my tears stop. When would I ever learn? I slowly looked up to meet Paul's shocked expression and drank in the sight of his handsome face for the last time.

"Bye." That one syllable hit me like a ton of bricks, but I forced myself to turn on my heels and walk calmly away. I heard nothing coming from behind me, and my legs slowly began to pick up speed until I was running down the path and away from the man who had grown tired of me.

Why do I always fall in love with guys that don't like me back? I asked myself as I ran, my vision blurred from the tears pouring down my face.

* * * * * * *

Two weeks later I had finally plucked up the courage to face the last gym. I was sure that Paul must have already been through by now so I wouldn't have to worry about running into him again. I had tried to focus on nothing but my pokemon and had spent the majority of my two weeks out in the wild area near the outskirts of the city. Cufant had finally evolved into a majestic Copperajah and the Snom I had caught outside of Circhester when I had been with Paul had evolved into a Frosmoth. I was counting on Frosmoth's Ice moves to help against the ground and dragon types Raihan had, but I had been practicing several different combinations of pokemon that I could use in my doubles battle matches I would have to face.

It was impossible not to feel lonely though, after spending nearly every waking moment with Paul. It was idiotic, but I missed arguing with him, and I really missed having a battle partner to push me as he did. But he had made it clear that he was done with me and had apparently not even enjoyed our time together in the first place. I still couldn't quite believe that I was the only one that had wanted to travel together... but it didn't matter now.

When I got to the Hammerlocke stadium I was surprised to find that Raihan's gym challenge was to face three of his disciples in back-to-back double battles. By the third round, my pokemon were exhausted, but I managed to lead us to victory and Raihan gave me his stamp of approval. He allowed me to heal up my pokemon before I came back to face him, which I was grateful for since I knew my pokemon wouldn't have had enough fight left in them to face his specially trained pokemon without a healing session.

People were streaming into Hammerlocke stadium when I made my way back and I could hear them all excitedly discussing the upcoming battle. It was obvious that everyone in the city adored Raihan, and I hoped that when I beat him they wouldn't think badly of me or anything.

IF you beat him, a traitorous voice whispered in my head. I mentally drop-kicked that thought away though and turned my sights to the battle ahead of me. Without thought, I found myself looking over towards the crowd, wishing I could see a familiar purple head among the crowds. Forcing myself to wrench my head away from the audience, I mentally collected my focus as I took my position across the large field from him.

I was a little taken aback when Raihan sent out a massive Gigalith and Flygon as his first set of two, and I was glad that he had gone first since I had been expecting him to send out his Goodra I had seen him battling Paul with months ago. Figuring that the weather condition he would be using was a Sandstorm, I switched my plan and chose two Pokeballs from my belt.

Time to get serious, I thought to myself, then released Drednaw and Alcremie. Drednaw, being a rock type, was able to battle in the sandstorm that Raihan's Gigalith created without any issue, and when his Gigalith used a rock type move on my Alcremie I knew I had made a smart choice in saving my Frosmoth.

Drednaw and Alcremie made quick work of Raihan's pokemon even with the raging sandstorm that impaired my vision. But I had NOT been expecting Raihan to have a steel/dragon type called Duraludon as his ace. Alcremie went down after a hard hit even as Drednaw, with a powerful Waterfall attack, knocked Raihan's Sandicobra out, who had only managed to strengthen the sandstorm before it went down. I hesitated over my choice for my next pokemon. In my moment of indecision, Raihan's Duraludon struck first, landing a devastatingly strong move on my already weakened Drednaw and knocking him out. I returned Drednaw to give myself a moment to think.

If I had stayed with Paul he probably would have told me that Raihan had a Steel/Dragon typing and I could have prepared better. It resists almost everything!

My thoughts were a jumbled mess for a second, but the thought of all of my battles against Paul calmed me down and I looked across the field at Raihan's confident grin. Even though he only had one pokemon left, I knew he felt sure of his win and I wasn't going to let him have that satisfaction.

Choosing Copperajah's Pokeball, I triggered the dynamax ability with my wristband and the Pokeball in my hand grew to the size of a beach ball. Raihan also returned his Duraludon, triggering a gigantamax evolution and I set my lips in a tight line.

We can do this, I thought to Copperajah and myself internally before throwing her enlarged Pokeball with all my might. As she came out, she grew so big her trunk could touch the ceiling of the massive stadium. I also released Frosmoth as backup and turned to face Duraladon, who looked almost like a glittering skyscraper after his gigantamax transformation.

To my shock, a massive trunk swooped down and wrapped around my body, moving me to the edge of the battlefield and out of harm's way. Smiling up at Copperajah, she lifted her trunk and let out a deafening trumpet that shook the entire stadium. The crowd echoed her battle cry with a massive cheer, and I turned toward my last opponent of the Gym Challenge.

Under my direction, Frosmoth barraged the massive Duraludon with Blizzard attacks while it traded steel and dragon type moves against my Copperajah's strategically effective ground type moves. Even though Copperajah was a pure steel type, she had lots of ground type moves in her arsenal. After her second Max Quake attack that had knocked me onto my back from the power of it, Duraludon gave a screeching cry. The fierce pokemon shrunk back to his normal size as he lost his strength before falling on his side, signaling the end of the battle.

Relief and a strange bitterness gripped me and I flopped onto my back, covering my eyes with my arms as I breathed deeply, listening to the roars of the audience surrounding me. If Paul were here I'd go gloat in his face. The thought came before I could stop it and I let out a bitter laugh. Goodness, am I hopeless or what? I chided myself.

A familiar trumpeting sound pulled me from my thoughts and I moved my eyes to see Copperajah and Frosmoth hovering over me with worried expressions. I smiled soothingly at them before propelling myself up and onto my feet. Quickly thanking them for their hard work, I returned my pokemon and walked over to Raihan, who was watching me with a strange expression on his face.

"You're pretty powerful for a chibi," Raihan said when I had come to stand in front of him. My mouth dropped open in shock and I felt my ears burning from embarrassment.

"Excuse you?! I'm 5'3", that's only barely under average, thank you very much," I blustered, and Raihan laughed good-naturedly from his spot in the clouds.

"Sure, sure. Congrats on beating me, that's no easy feat," he said while holding out a hand that was easily twice as big as mine. I took it firmly though and he smiled approvingly as we shook before he handed me my final gym badge.

Raihan suddenly kneeled down, draping one of his long arms around my shoulders and holding up his rotom phone in front of us. "Smile, Chibi!" he said while pressing his face close to mine and making a claw out of the hand that was unoccupied by a phone.

Before I could even think of a pose though, someone grabbed me around the waist and I found myself being hoisted up and deposited on a broad shoulder. Pushing my hands against the muscular back in front of me, I craned myself up so I could look at who had captured me and my mouth dropped open when I saw familiar purple hair.

"Oh hey, Paul. Want to be in the picture with us?" Raihan asked from somewhere beyond Paul's back.

"She is not someone you can touch," Paul said in his iciest snarl. My mind was spinning in so many different directions I was legitimately getting dizzy, but one thought kept coming back to me.

What the heck does this idiot think he is doing in front of a huge crowd of people?!?!?! Balling my hands into fists I banged them against Paul's back and kicked my legs, although I was scared I might accidentally hit Raihan so I tried to keep my kicks low.

"Put me down! What are you doing?" I hissed at Paul as I pounded on his back. I might as well have been a Wishywashy for all the attention he paid my attempts to free myself. Without another word he turned, holding me tightly across his shoulder, and marched towards the gym exit.

My eyes connected with Raihan's as Paul carried me away, and he gave me a slow smirk as his eyebrows wiggled suggestively. I could feel heat rising from my chest, up my neck, into my face, all the way to my ears as my mouth opened and closed in mute horror at Raihan's monumental misunderstanding. But no words made it past my steaming throat and all I could do was hang my head down and hide my expression against Paul's back as he stole me away.

I don't know how long Paul carried me for, but we were outside and far from the stadium before he came to a sudden stop. My brain still hadn't completely accepted this sudden turn of events. I had just been hanging limply across Paul's shoulder, but suddenly Paul bent down, carefully depositing me on my feet, and then took a large step back from me. We stared at each other silently for several long moments and as he remained his normal, stoic self I could feel rage bubbling up from the depth of my soul.

"What in the name of Arceus do you think you are doing?" I snarled up at him and his emotionless mask. "You made it pretty clear you don't want to associate yourself with an ex-breeder, so what was that?" I growled harshly, gesturing aggressively towards the city lights beyond his statuesque figure.

"I didn't mean to offend you," Paul said blandly and my blood boiled even hotter.

"Oh really? I thought that was your specialty: putting people down and making them feel pathetic while you sit on your high horse." To be honest, I said, surprised at how scathing my tone was coming out as. I was breathing heavily and I knew that if I didn't get my emotions under control I was going to say something irreversible and ruin any chance that I might have of figuring out why Paul had decided to barge back into my life.

Wasn't he satisfied with casting me aside once? Why is he even back here? I thought internally as I covered my eyes with both my hands and took a deep, calming breath. When I slowly lowered them I was surprised to see Paul frowning and looking almost... guilty. The rest of the fight that was in me sputtered out and I dropped my hands to my sides in defeat.

"What do you want, Paul?" I asked, my voice coming out tired and defeated and I was surprised when Paul flinched slightly before meeting my gaze with his dark eyes.

"I want to... apologize." The word seemed foreign coming from Paul's mouth and he grimaced as if he could hardly believe he had uttered it himself. I blinked unbelievingly up at him and he looked off to the side before continuing.

"Before, I hated spending time with anyone since they always distracted me from my training. But... you are different, Sayuri. Even though you were a breeder, you used your knowledge to improve your battles, and battling you was almost fun, in a way." Paul was obviously uncomfortable with this whole bearing his soul thing, but even though my hopes had been ignited something was niggling at the back of my mind.

"Why are you so hung up on breeders? Why do you get so angry about it?" I asked with a frown, which Paul mirrored. His gaze kept shifting from me to the side and back again, but he finally let out a sigh and dug his hands into his jacket pockets.

"Breeders remind me of my brother," he muttered, his voice turning dark, and I blinked in surprise. That was not what I had been expecting, but before I could comment on it he had already continued.

"My older brother Reggie was my idol growing up. In every region he traveled to, he beat each gym and competed in the league. Then he would come back and show off his badge collection to me. I thought he was the strongest trainer ever and I bragged about him to all of my classmates." I could hardly imagine a cute mini-Paul eagerly bragging up his big brother to his school friends, and he scowled at me as if he knew that I was trying to envision it.

"But just when I had started my journey, he challenged the Battle Pyramid. I went to watch and of course, I was upset when he lost... but instead of going back to strengthen his pokemon and rechallenge the pyramid, he quit. Like a coward, he quit being a trainer and decided to become a breeder instead." The bitterness and betrayal coming from Paul's voice shocked me. I didn't have any siblings, but I wondered if Janessa might have felt a similar sense of betrayal when I had left her so suddenly without competing in the Unova League.

"I decided that I'd become twice the trainer that Reggie was and show him what you could accomplish with hard work. But even after I had won all the same gym badges as him and beaten that Battle Pyramid he had failed against, and even after I had beaten champions in full battles... he refused to change his mind about being a breeder." I wasn't sure why, but imagining Janessa saying something like that to me made me feel a weird kinship with Paul's brother that I had never met and I found myself being a little irritated.

"That's pretty selfish of you," I said with a hard frown and Paul blinked at me, seeming to pull himself out of his bad memories to focus on me. "I mean, even though he didn't live up to your expectations, he's probably really happy being a breeder. What right do you have to make him give up his new dream?"

Paul looked down at me without reacting for a solid five seconds and I was just gathering my thoughts in case he countered my argument, but all thought was blown away when Paul's lips curved up into a soft, sweet smile. I was so shocked at the out of character expression that I was completely frozen and could do nothing but stare as he chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yah. I realized that myself after spending time with you," he said, giving me a look filled with awkwardness before his face smoothed back into its normal scowl and he narrowed his eyes at me. "You really are the most aggravating woman I have ever met," he said without mercy. My paralysis was instantly lifted by his return to being a jerk and I glared up at him.

"Hey now, that's..." He stepped closer, cutting me off as he advanced towards me and I instinctively backed away from him.

"You are stupidly rash. You don't stop to think before you speak. I never have to wonder what you're thinking because you talk so much there's no way I couldn't know what's on your mind," Paul said as he continued to advance towards me.

My cheeks were heating up with embarrassment and anger and I opened my mouth to tell him that he was no joy to be around either when I suddenly found my back pressed up against the trunk of a tall tree. Paul glared down at me from above, placing a hand against the tree high above me and I wondered if he had always been this tall.

"You are constantly arguing with me and teaching me new things that I didn't even know I didn't know. It drives me crazy. And you make my insides feel weird whenever you laugh or smile at me. I hate not being in control, and the more I stayed next to you the more my thoughts were going in a direction I didn't want them to go down." My eyes widened at this sudden turn in his string of complaints and I felt my cheeks heating up for a different reason.

Wait... does he mean... what I think he means? I thought to myself incredulously as Paul scowled down at me. Annoyance was making his eyes flash, but I found that I couldn't look away from him as he continued to unload his pent up thoughts.

"So I pushed you away. I didn't want to change. I didn't want to give up my goal of proving to my brother he had made a mistake... but..." Paul's face twisted into a look of pure guilt and I flinched when he reached out with a free hand and stroked the back of his finger against the soft flesh under my left eye. "Then you cried. And it felt like someone had punched me in the gut. I tried to go back to my old routine and just focus on the gym challenge... but even after I beat Raihan I was constantly looking around for a short carrot-top that wasn't afraid to put me in my place."

I let out an annoyed huff at that and scowled when Paul grinned haughtily at me.

"You always have to slip in some kind of insult, don't you?" I grumbled, even as my heart was racing a mile a minute. Paul took his finger away from my cheek and leaned down, coming so close that I could see the flecks of purple in his dark eyes.

"I'm sorry I made you cry," he said, his face more serious than I had ever seen it. "I don't care if you were a breeder, or a coordinator, or whatever. I don't even care if you decide not to be a trainer in the future. I just want you to stay with me."

My mouth went dry at this completely unexpected turn of events and I stared up at him numbly. He didn't move an inch from his spot, propping himself against the tree trunk and leaning in close to me, as he waited for my response. We probably would have stayed that way for hours as my brain tried to process what he had just said if a territorial Greedent hadn't decided he was sick of us hanging around his tree.

The roly-poly normal type that looked like a brown Pachirisu after a week of thanksgiving dinner feasts jumped from the tree and landed next to us, chittering his displeasure. I could almost see Paul's composure crack in front of my eye, and he turned around with murder in his gaze. The angry Greedent flinched when Paul released his massive Electivire and I watched mutely as Electivire called down his most powerful Thunder attack that blew the Greedent sky high and sent him sailing far away from us. Paul was breathing heavily from irritation and now that he wasn't looming over me I found that I could finally move.

Pushing myself away from the tree trunk, I walked over quietly to Paul, who seemed to be making sure that the Greedent wasn't coming back. With him distracted, I took my opportunity and poked him in the side. Paul jumped away from me, slapping a hand to his waist and glaring at me with disbelief as I felt a grin slowly fill up my face. Paul blinked as he looked at my silly grin with confusion and this time it was my turn to walk up to him.

"Do you admit that you're the one who wanted to travel with me?" I asked slyly, grinning up into his face. Paul blinked and then an arrogant smirk twisted his lips into a semblance of a grin.

"I just let you follow me around," he said smugly. I narrowed my eyes at him, but I couldn't keep my grin from taking over my face.

"I don't believe you," I said, reaching out and poking him in his unprotected side. Paul jerked away from me and I could see his expression lightening as we chased each other around like school kids.

Without warning, Paul suddenly whirled around and trapped me in his arms, pulling me up against his chest just like he had a few weeks ago before he sent me away. I chuckled and leaned my head back against his shoulder once again, planning to tease him, but my entire body stiffened when Paul leaned over and pressed his lips against mine. Before I could even gather my wits to respond to his kiss, Paul had pulled away and given me a challenging look.

"THAT is what I wanted to do when you smiled at me in this position," Paul said, as he slowly bent down and deposited me on the ground. "Do you have any idea how traumatized I was?" he grumbled.

Annoyance at this irritable man had my hands whipping out faster than lightning. Taking a hold of his face before he could retreat, I laid a kiss of my own on him. I could feel Paul's neck muscles tighten and his lips were hard from surprise, but I gasped slightly when his arms circled me, crushing me against him and he responded like magic to my kiss. My mind was swimming in a fog of bliss and lack of oxygen by the time Paul and I finally parted, breathing heavily. I blinked up at him blearily and I could see him grinning down at me with a devilish look in his eyes.

"There's no way I am letting you go after a kiss like that," Paul said, his voice sounding a little haggard as he was catching his breath. I could feel a silly grin spreading across my lips again and I shook my head.

"I'm not going to get scared away if you freak out on me again. You're stuck with me," I said warningly. Paul looked momentarily alarmed and I whacked him in the chest which made him grin before coming in for another kiss.

"You're still a dimwit," he said between kisses. I let out an annoyed huff but Paul quickly sealed my lips before I could give him an appropriate retort.

"Vire, electivire..." My whole body stiffened and Paul and I looked over to see Electivire giving us a dirty look between the fingers he had mostly covering his eyes.

Paul straightened so he could meet his Electivire in the eye and I was surprised when he pulled me tightly against his chest.

"You're going to have to get used to it if you want to go back to eating her pokefood blend," Paul said in his high-handed way. I glanced over to see Electivire looking slightly sheepish before he scowled and turned around, folding his arms grumpily.

I laughed at his reaction, happy to know that he had missed me even if it was a little. It was going to take some time for this all to sink in... but I was genuinely excited to spend the rest of my pokemon journey right by Paul's side.

And maybe... I couldn't help but think, looking up to see that Paul was smiling quietly down at me. Even longer than that.

A/N Well..... That was an insanely long final chapter :P I am so sorry! I just can't help wanting to have things make sense and Paul falling in love is DIFFICULT with this background! But, I hope you enjoyed it even though it was massive :P