After I heard that I was the most wanted person by Team Miasma, I started worrying about everything. The worst part was that they didn't even want me. All they were after was Swanna Girl, which I guess was who I was, but that's not who I am. I kept the door of my room opened for nights, keeping the lights on, and let Audino and Swanna outside their Poké Balls at all times. At least they made me feel safe.

Well, they didn't make me feel as safe as the person who I ran into in the training room one night. It's been four days since I've talked to anyone in the Rhea family. I think Rena and Rudi must've told them how much I liked my alone time. I usually could think clearer when I am on my own.

Yet, after four days of finding out, I kept to myself, avoiding everyone when I could. My stomach still twist and turned knowing their hideout could be destroyed because of me. If anyone figured out who I was, where I was, anyone near me would be in grave danger.

I felt like a ticking time bomb.

Which is why I made one phone call to Nurse Joy, to make sure she was alright. I was relieved when she asked my how my journey was going, but torn as I had to lie to her. There has never been a time I've ever lied to her, but I had to for her safety. That's what I had to keep reminding myself at least.

Nurse Joy was the only person I talked to. Other than that, I stayed away from everyone. I still kept my door open, lights on, Pokémon out. No one ever checked on me.

Except for today.

It was the first time since the attack that I decided to go into the training room and outside my room. If I wanted to survive this, I would have to be ready, but instead of training, I just stood in the room, staring at the wall, alone with my thoughts. Of course, Swanna and Audino were brawling it out, preparing, but I just couldn't bring myself to join them.

That was when I heard someone knock. There were no doors in the training room, but I still instinctually turned to see who it was. Rudi leaned against the open door frame, looking a bit concerned. I guess he had all right to do that though since I refused to talk to anyone. Seeing that I didn't say anything, he took it as his way of me giving him the okay. He walked in, without Braviary, holding a plate of cookies.

"You can have Lava Cookies, right?" he asked as he stood beside me, offering the plate, which had about ten cookies on it.

Not that I counted them or anything.

I nodded. "Oddly enough, yes."

Rudi sighed. "Good, cuz I bought five boxes of them."

"Wow," I said, "that's a lot."

The blond haired boy shrugged as I took a cookie, taking a bite of the rich cookie. My eyes closed, remembering the first time I ever tasted these cookies. It was after I found out I couldn't have Miltank milk. Nurse Joy was afraid I would never be able to eat sweets again because after drinking Moomoo milk, it was too risky to have anything with Miltank milk.

A Trainer came in, with unusual gold eyes and dark hair, offering me the treat. I had to ask what was in it, and found out there was absolutely no milk inside them. Had he not come in and offered me one, I would've never tasted the sweet goodness of a Lava Cookie.

"There it is," Rudi smiled.

My eyes widened, as I looked at him, swallowing the sweet treat before asking. "What?"

"Your smile, I missed it," he told me. "It's been since the Ferris Wheel since I've seen it."

The Ferris wheel. My face grew red when he mentioned it. When I realized what was happening, I looked down at my cookie. I had never felt so afraid while in there, trapped, but at the same time, I've never felt happier, knowing Rudi walked me through it. He made me feel safe.

Of course, then there was the kiss, or the almost kiss. If only Team Miasma didn't have to get in the way of everything. I could've had my first kiss. We were less than inches apart from each other.

I took another bite out of the cookie, smiling. Rudi chuckled at the sight.

"What are you thinking about right now?" he asked.

My face grew even redder. Do I tell him? I didn't know how to even start. To think, over a month ago, before I met this guy, I hated his guts. Even when I did meet him, all I could think about was how cocky he was.

Then I got to know him. He still had that arrogant attitude, but it was the little things he did that—I don't know, am I really falling hard for this guy? After finding out my past, he was kind enough to have lunch with me every now and then, putting up with Patrat's Pizza every time. Who does that? He was just always there for me, and helped me get stronger with Swanna. While he had a funny way of helping out, he didn't hesitate to do so.

But the Ferris wheel, that's when I knew something inside me had changed. He could've cracked jokes, been his cocky self. Instead, he didn't make me feel alone. I don't know one guy in Nacrene City that would do that. Rudi was definitely one of a kind.

Just, don't tell him I said that.

"The Ferris wheel," was all I could say before I took another bite of my cookie. I could've probably eaten the entire thing, but there was a problem. I'd have to look at him seeing as he had a whole plate full of cookies.

I didn't want to look at him without my face growing any more red than it already did. At this point, I probably looked as red as a shiny red Poké Ball.

"What about the Ferris Wheel?" Rudi asked.

I hesitated. Words didn't come out of my mouth. Ponyta crap, I couldn't get out of this one.

"Before Team Miasma got there," I said. "You know, after I—" what's a good word for what I was going through, "panicked."

"Oh, that," Rudi said, "guess they did ruin the moment, didn't they?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My head turned to look at Rudi, who placed the plate of cookies on a chair that I had earlier pulled from another room in case I wanted to sit (which didn't happen). Before he could turn around to face me, Swanna started pushing me away from the guy, as if disapproving of him in some way.

Since when did Swanna replace Rudi's Braviary?

Rudi looked over, wide eyed. Not wanting another moment to be ruined, I took her Poké Ball from my pocket and returned her. I looked over Rudi's shoulder, seeing Audino grabbing the plate of cookies from the chair for him to eat them all himself. When he saw me with his Poké Ball out, he threw his arms in the air, surrendering.

His actions would've made me laugh, but it was his timing that made it all wrong. Not only that, but the plate Lava cookies dropped all over the floor. Once in his Poké Ball, I tucked it away in my pocket and looked over at Rudi.

"Guess your not taking any other chances there, are you?" Rudi observed.

I raised my eyebrow. "What are you talking about."

Rudi shook his head. "How am I supposed to know, you're the one who was thinking about it."

"Thinking about what?" I asked, innocently.

With a sigh, Rudi took a step closer to me, standing just as far as we were when we were in the Ferris wheel car. The cookie in my hand dropped, but Rudi didn't notice. His left hand brushed a few strands of my dark hair out of the way before gently placing it behind my head.

"This," he said.

Just like that, Rudi swooped in, closing his eyes, and brushed his lips against mine. My eyes widened for a moment, not expecting it. I mean, I should've, but I wasn't expecting the kiss to be like this.

Slowly, my eyes closed and my lips melted into the kiss.

Any fear I had—of the dark, of the closed space, of Team Miasma—it was all forgotten. The only thing I could of was being with Rudi in this moment, in the kiss. I didn't want it to ever end, but soon, I felt him pull away.

My eyes peeled open, seeing the boy smile. "If you ever feel scared, I want you to remember something."

I nodded my head, ready to hear whatever he had to say. Rudi smiled in response.

"Sylvia, when this is all over, I want to take you out on a real date. I'm not going to let Team Miasma take you, more or less kill you, not now, not ever," he said as his hand brushed softly against my cheek.

There was a warm fuzzy feeling that wrapped around me knowing I wasn't the only one that felt this way. I have never felt this way before, then again, I always tucked away my feelings. I always thought if I wanted to be a good Pokémon nurse, I would have to devote my time to Pokémon.

My arms wrapped around him pulling him into a hug. I know Team Miasma wanted to create fear, but I didn't need to be afraid anymore because I wasn't alone. At least when I was in his arms I felt safe.

(-o-)

That morning, after breakfast, Rena pulled me out into the battle field. In the meantime, Rudi was out to do some rounds as Braviary Man. We decided after what happened, I needed to stay low for the next couple of days. It was fine. Surprisingly, the news didn't really say much about Nimbasa anyways.

At least, from what I could hear or watch on the news, I think not many people knew what happened. Then again, the only people that knew Team Miasma wanted me dead were Team Miasma themselves and the Rhea family.

While Rudi was gone, Mr. and Mrs. Rhea cleaned up after breakfast. That left Rena and me to what we wanted for a bit, but the girl grabbed my arm and dragged me away into the battle field. Inside the battle field stood three Pokémon.

Two of the three were Pokémon I would've guessed Rena to have. They were grass type Pokémon called Lilligant and Cottonee. I'd expect her to have these Pokémon out of all the Pokémon in Unova because of what she did behind the scenes. While she trained with her brother—never while I was here—she's a skilled inventor who helped with our suits.

It wasn't until I came back from Nimbasa I realized this. She checked my mask to make sure everything was alright and had fixed up Rudi's suit. Apparently, she was the one who made that modification to my mask.

Because of this, it made sense she had a Liligant and a Cottonee. Liligant resembled a flower, even having a pink flower on her head. Her body was green with two leaves sprouting from the side to act as arms. As for Cottonee, that Pokémon looked like a ball of cotton with round orange eyes and—like Liligant—had two leaves sprouting out. Unlike Liligant, Cottonee had a bit of trouble using It's leaves as arms, but they were there.

It was the third Pokémon that surprised me. It was a dark type Pokémon with black fur covering its whole body. Underneath the black fur, it was easy to see blue scales of this Pokémon, but there were also two pairs of eyes were hidden under the black fur, one pair on each head.

"A Zweilous," I gasped, as I've only see this particular Pokémon in the books.

Rena looked over at her Pokémon. "Yah, but that's besides the point," She snapped her head at me, crossing her arms. "I saw you and Rudi last night. Next time you make out with my brother, do it behind closed doors, please."

My eyes widened as she said that, but Rena kept talking.

"I feel like you're going to end up taking advantage of him," She told me. "If another girl breaks his heart, I have to be the one to clean up the mess. I like you, Sylvia. You're cool, but I will hunt you down with Zweillous here if you break his heart. Understand?"

I bobbed my head up and down, looking at the rare Pokémon. Zweillous wasn't just a dark type Pokémon. This was a dual dark and dragon type. Dragon Pokémon are hard to tame, and seeing this one standing there with both its head turned towards me, I could tell Rena did a good job at raising this one.

"Good," she cheered, going back to her peppy self. "Now, about that battle we talked about a while ago. Three-on-one. How does that sound?"

My voice was gone, but I nodded my head. Looks like I didn't have much of a choice. Rena was going to have me battle them eventually. I wished it just wasn't after seeing her school me about her brother.

That's only if I broke his heart. I had no intensions of breaking his heart, but Rena said she have to be the one to clean up the mess. Again. Just who broke his heart before?