Eddie’s freshman year had not gone nearly how she’d pictured it. Sure things were going well, her grades were up and she’d made new friends which was good. She’d even found a team that worked for her pretty well and gave her a chance to keep an eye on her best friend Jeffery. Her battle record wasn’t the best on the team but she still held her own pretty well and was keeping herself in amazing shape, something she’d rarely had to worry about but again, it definitely didn’t hurt. Even her relationship with her dad was doing quite a bit better than it had in some cases which was good for her and her father. No, life was going quite well for Edna “Eddie” Nochtmon. The last thing she’d expected would happen to her, though, was she wound up dating a junior.

The Umbreon arrived at the home of her boyfriend, Vincent Tellamapolou, via being dropped off and just a little confused at why he hadn’t come to get her like he normally did. He’d promised her something special and figured she’d go along with it for now. She hadn’t seen him for over a week while he spent time in Hoenn with a couple of his friends and he’d promised to tell her everything that had gone on the next time he saw her. After she waved good-bye to her father Eddie stood in front of the rather nice two story home and took in a deep breath. She wasn’t nervous, in face the opposite was the truth.

Eddie had come over to the house many times and been invited along on several excursions with Vince’s family. At first she’d been a little disturbed at just how readily they accepted her and treated her like she was already family, she wasn’t the kind to go quickly in anything if she didn’t have to. It became easier for her after the first couple of months as they’d also gotten her father involved; the whole thing had become more natural. Once she’d finished her reflection Eddie adjusted her suit a bit and walked to the door, only to stop when she noticed a note on it with her name. She took it curiously and read the instructions to head around the back which she followed with a shrug. After going through the side gate she stopped short as she saw just what Vincent had done.

“Hey, Eddie!” The Poli in question waved to her as he stood behind the grill where he cooked away. The backyard had been decorated to look like something from the Island that Vince’s family called home. Colorful streamers hung around bushes as faux palm trees had been set up and a handful of tiki torches were thrust into the ground. Eddie blinked a few times in surprise before she started laughing and walked towards the bigger ‘mon. He smiled to her and leaned down to kiss her firmly which she returned happily.

“Looks like you’ve been busy,” She said as she looked around and took it all in, “All this because you haven’t seen me in a week?”

“Well that’s not the only reason,” He chuckled and motioned to a nearby ice chest full of drinks. She nodded and walked over to get herself a soda.

“Am I forgetting something then?” She asked and popped the tab on the can to take a drink of it. He chuckled and nodded a bit.

“Yesterday marked six months of us being together,” He explained as he played a bit with the spoink on the grill that he was cooking. Eddie stopped at that and blinked a few times again in surprise as her soda can lowered from her lips.

“Really?” She asked a bit meekly and hoped he wasn’t upset with her now for not remembering something like that. Eddie was practical if nothing else and the idea of something like a month mark anniversary seemed a bit silly to her; but here Vince was making a big deal out of it. The Poli just laughed and set his spatula down to pull her into a big hug.

“Don’t worry about it, hun,” He consoled her, “I know it seems cheesy to make a big deal about something like the six month mark of a relationship but…this is the first one I’ve had go this long and this well so I wanted to do something special for you,”

“Should I be worried I’m your longest relationship?” She asked with a chuckle and returned the hug tightly. The big ‘mon just laughed and pulled back from Eddie to look into her eyes.

“Nah. Just be amused,” He leaned down to kiss her again and headed back to the grill. The Umbreon returned the kiss again and took another drink of her soda.

“So how was Hoenn anyway?” She soon asked, “You barely told me anything about the trip on the phone,” He nodded and worked some veggies over in the corner that were grilling slowly.

“It was…something else,” He started with a chuckle, “Gonna take me a while to go through it all so you might as well settle in,” Vince suggested. Eddie nodded and found a seat nearby before she lounged and made herself comfy.

“Flight over was pretty boring,” He started, “Like most are. We’re pretty much sat around listening to music, reading or chatting a bit with one another. I slept most of it away since that was the easiest thing to do, though they put me in the middle seat the jerks,” Eddie giggled at the thought of Vince in a middle seat with some of the much smaller guys on either side of him.

“That was until we ran into one of the board members on the flight headed home. A Mr. Dasn,” He continued.

“Dasn?” She asked curiously.

“The lawyer,” Vince explained, “he’s the guy that handles a lot of legal stuff for the school as well as some of the students.”

“What’d he have to say for himself?”

“Not a whole lot,” Vince admitted, “Our chat was pretty short even if he seemed to know Nigel and Josh already. Apparently there were some issues with Nigel being enrolled into the school or something and Mr. Dasn helped straighten them out.”

“Did Nigel tell you about it at all?” She asked curiously but drew a shake of a head from the Poli.

“Nigel’s not one who’s quick to share, even to the ‘mon he is close to,” Vince chuckled, “But we forgive him for it. Either way we chatted with him for a bit about the principal and everything. Apparently they’re getting a few lawsuit threats over some of the things. Like the dress code,”

“Wait…parents are threatening to sue because their kids can’t show off their stomachs?” Eddie asked in shock.

“Apparently,” Vince said with another shrug, “But really the flight over was pretty uneventful other than that. We got into Lillycove and headed over for the hotel shortly after that. We had a few days before we headed for the Garkirl villa itself. Again, pretty boring stuff though the amusing thing was two of us were going to have to share a bed given the set up and since we had five guys in a room built for four.” Eddie giggled at the thought.

“Let me guess, somehow you got that distinction. Who was the lucky guy?” She teased him and drew a smirk from Vince.

“Riou and I volunteered to do it,” Vince said as Eddie giggled some more, “I figured since we were brothers it wouldn’t be anything weird anyway and Riou didn’t seem bothered by it. He is dating Tam after all. Anyway, after that the lot of us went to go with Riou to collect something for Elizabeth,” He continued, “Some collector in Lillycove by name of Hanuman who had some stuff for us to pick up. He was an…interesting guy. Played the old ‘mon for a while till he showed us his storehouse. Don’t think I’d ever seen that many old artifacts in one place before outside of a museum.”

“And he just kept them in the back of his shop?” Eddie asked a bit confused.

“Yeah,” Vince shrugs, “said that since he was the one who went out and got all of them that he deserved to keep ahold of ‘em. Figured that by putting them into a museum or if he sold them to private collectors that they wouldn’t appreciate it like he would,”

“I take it you didn’t agree with him,” She said as she commented on his body language.

“Not really,” Vince shrugged as he pulled the spoink off the grill, “Saw something I thought looked like an old artifact of my tribe but…was afraid of getting it confirmed. If it was it would’ve meant a lot to my people to get it returned,” Eddie just nodded and let it go as Vince continued, “Apparently though…this guy knew Nigel and Josh’s dad.”

“You know I’ve never heard about their dad,” Eddie commented as she got herself another soda.

“No one has,” Vince explained, “Didn’t catch much but Josh seemed desperate to find any information he could about their dad but Nigel seemed ready to leave him to rot. Not completely sure why and I didn’t bother to push the matter none,”

“Think that maybe he left them when they were young?” Eddie asked as she rubbed her arm quietly as she thought of her own mother for a moment.

“Good possibility of it,” Vince admitted as he pulled the rest of the food off the grill, “But I’ll leave it at that. Nigel’s already shown me more trust that he has a lot of other folks and I’m not going to try to do something to break that.” Eddie nodded as she moved over to the table where Vince was setting everything up, “Nigel was in a really bad mood after that so we just went back to the hotel for a while to hang out. Josh on the other hand went back in and talked to Hanuman to see if there was any more info and came out rather deflated. He, Penny and Seiglinde went to have a talk that hopefully helped matters.”

“I hope you guys didn’t spend all your time in the hotel while you were there,” Eddie commented as she got herself some food.

“Oh no no,” He assured her, “After that we took a trip to the jewelry store nearby where Nigel got Charla a promise ring,” The Umbreon blinked at that news.

“Really? That is so sweet!” She said with a smile.

“I thought so and it gave me an idea,” Vince’s comment left the smile off her face to be replaced with guarded curiosity. The Poli didn’t leave her to wonder long as he stood up and walked around the table to her. Eddie watched unsure as he brought out a jewelry case and held it out to her.

“Found this at the store and thought it was perfect,” Vince opened it up to reveal a heart shaped locket that bore two stones on it: one aquamarine and one onyx. Eddie’s breath caught in her throat as her fear he was moving to fast left and the touching nature of the act took over. Reaching for the locket she pulled it out of the box and looked it over.

“It’s beautiful, Vince,” She said quietly. The Poli smiled and reached down to kiss her again.

“I’m glad you like it. I wanted to get you something special but didn’t want to freak you out either,” Vince chuckled as Eddie smirked in response but put the locket on anyway.

“I wasn’t going to freak out,” She protested.

“I know, but I also know you would’ve asked me if I was crazy if I’d gotten a promise ring,” She just shrugged in response because he was right. Vince just grinned and retook his seat across from her.

“So after that we were looking for something to do and decided to head down to the Contest Hall in Lillycove since we’d heard it was one of the bigger ones,” He continued. This drew something of a surprised look from the Umbreon.

“What made you guys decide to do that?” She asked between bites.

“Well a couple days before we left I invited the guys over for a bonding ritual from my tribe. The details aren’t necessary but while we were hanging out we talked about things to do and the contests came up. I asked them if they’d enter into the contests and universally said no,” He continued and took a long drink from his cup.

“Details?” Eddie brought him back to the earlier bonding ritual which drew a shrug from Vince.

“Whenever a group of warriors from my tribe undergo a duty together they all drink a special coconut wine as a means of bonding,” He chuckled and thought back to the day, “The wine itself has the consistency of motor oil and is eighty percent alcohol,” Eddie nearly choked on her spoink at that.

“Eighty percent? How much did you drink!” It was obvious she wasn’t exactly thrilled considering Vince’s heart condition.

“Just a shot glass,” He quickly told her, “Not enough to do anything but it did get us pretty tipsy. Riou even passed out for a little while,” He grinned. Eddie couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of the Lucario passed out from drinking too much.

“So anyway, we all talked about it then and figured it’d be a good idea. So to the contest hall we went to watch some Tough contests,” Vince quickly took another bite of his meal.

“How was it?” She asked for him to continue.

“It was fun to enter, even if my heart was pounding in my throat I was so nervous,” He eyed her for a reaction; though this time he didn’t get the one he’d expected. Eddie finished chewing her food and nodded.

“So you’re saying you not only went to the contest, you entered it?” It had caught her off guard but she was done giving him any more surprise looks for now and figured she’d tease him back a bit.

“Sure did,” Vince nodded and just chuckled, “Even took third place in the normal rank,” Eddie did finally smile brightly at that.

“Oh Vince! Congratulations!” She said as she got up and hugged the big ‘mon, “You brought a tape back for me to giggle at right?” Vince smirked in response but nodded.

“I’ll show it to you after dinner,” She assured her as she sat back down, “Surprised the hell out of the guys though. They couldn’t believe I’d be willing to do something like that. Though amusingly they all regretted not entering a contest of their own,”

“That’s my frogmon, always leading the way,” She grinned at him which drew a chuckle.

“After the contests were over we went to get some ice cream with the money I’d won from the contest. We were teasing each other back and forth, though unfortunately we seemed to hit a weird nerve on Ryuen while we were going along,”

“Really?” She asked curiously, “What’d you guys do to the poor Fui?”

“I honestly don’t know. But he was rolling around laughing and when I picked him up to carry him he got defensive and moody,” Vince shrugged, still not sure what had happened, “Didn’t help that when we’d gotten the ice cream Nigel stuck his tail into one of the pints and told him to chill out,” Eddie couldn’t help but giggle at the thought, “Yeah, it was funny and all but he took it pretty bad. Didn’t really talk to us much until we got to LaRousse the next day,”

“Sounds like a real up and down kind of day,” She commented as she munched on a veggie.

“Yeah, after we got back to the hotel Penny, Josh and Seiglinde joined us in the room and brought in the food they’d ordered,” He continued, “We talked a bit about the day and what was coming up, but otherwise rest of the night was pretty quiet. Josh seemed to be doing better though,”

“Well that’s good at least,” Eddie nodded.

“It was something,” He smiled in return, “Next day we went to LaRousse and split up into two groups. Penny, Josh and Seiglinde went to some inventor fair where they decided to play a mean joke on us. While we were there she sent us all a text of her in a bed and holding an egg while smiling and looking tired. Josh was standing next to her and looking pretty nervous himself so she had us going for a while,”

“So was she?” Eddie asked.

“Nah,” He answered, “When we met up with them later she showed off her eggs…ends up they bought a couple of mini block bots and borrowed an egg to make it seem like their new ‘babies’ were something other than new tech toys. Still had us going for a second and I’m pretty sure I heard some squealing from back here in Viridian since she sent the picture to a lot of people.” Eddie just smirked at the answer and sipped her drink.

“Anyway, so I went with the other three to the Battle Tower there in order to check out the technology they had and so Ryuen and Riou could run the training course there. Thankfully by that point the Fui was in a much better mood since we’d worked everything out and even helped get Nigel out of a tree he’d gotten stuck in,”

“How did Nigel get stuck in a tree?” She asked as a brow raised.

“He was riding along on a block bot when it dumped him over a tree,” Vince chuckled as he remembered the scene, “So Ryuen hopped up and cut him down,” She giggled again at the thought and felt bad for poor Nigel.

“After that we went to the Tower where I ran them through some training,” Vince continued.

“Oh Vince…not training while on vacation!” She admonished him slightly.

“What? They seemed to enjoy it,” He shrugged and grinned, the coaching instinct in him never seemed to leave, “Had them play a game where there was a ball they couldn’t touch but had to move along using moves, preferably psychic ones. If they got hit they were out. Eventually it was down to Riou and Ryuen and Riou managed to plant it in his back after about ten minutes of going back and forth. It was actually a pretty awesome thing to watch between the three of them,

“After that we met up with Josh and the others as Penny explained the truth behind the egg. Riou and Josh then ran through the floors of the Battle Tower to see how far they could get and did pretty damn good. Neither of them finished but they both got further than ‘mon twice their experience,”

“Sounds like that was your favorite part of the trip,” She commented between drinks and drew a nod from the Poli.

“You know me and battle training,” He chuckled.

“You love to inflict it on other people?” Eddie teased him.

“Exactly!” Vince laughed in response and drew a smirk from the Umbreon. As the two finished their meals they left the plates where they were and wandered over to some seats by the pool. Even if it was a July evening the wind had kept the air cool enough to be comfortable as the pair settled into a love seat. Vince wrapped his arm around Eddie and pulled her in close against him.

“So after that we rested up and the next day headed for the Villa,” He chuckled as his story went on, “Poor Penny and Nigel hated being on the boat. I’ll admit it felt good to be out near the ocean again, even if it was just a boat ride for a few hours,”

“Didn’t hop in and swim after the boat?” She teased him and drew another chuckle.

“Nah, there was a pod of wailords in the area and I didn’t want to get eaten by one on accident,” The thought amused her and caused the Umbreon to laugh, “So instead I stayed on the boat. I’ll show you the picture that Panthercap got of us later,”

“Good one, eh?” She asked and rested a hand on his chest.

“Was great! And right before we got soaked by a wailord spouting water all over us!” The two laughed again.

“So anyway, we got to the island and were met by some of the maids of the villa who picked our stuff up,” He continued, “It was a bit…weird seeing who it was but they were all very nice.”

“Weird how?” Eddie asked curiously. Vince bobbed his head back and forth a few times as if to figure out the best way to put it.

“Well there was Belle, who was Panthercap’s niece, and a Granbull. But the rest were all Fight types,” He just laid it out.

“What’s wrong with that?” She asked, not quite sure what the issue was.

“I know it might seem silly,” He said with a sigh as he remembered the sight, “But it felt like they were all picked because they were Fight types. That because they weren’t Gallades they were viewed as secondary, beneath all the Psychics and Ghosts who were running around the Island,” Eddie began to see his issue.

“And considering what your dad and his partner did trying to bust the stereotype that Fight types can’t get it done regularly…” Eddie figured it out.

“Exactly,” Vince sighed, “I mean they seemed well treated for the most part and happy to be working there but still…I could tell it was bothering Riou too. And I know Nigel felt bad for us seeing it since on some level it did feel like the two of us were being judged for not being Psychics or Ghosts, even if there were some other species like Slugma and Gastradons there too,”

“I’m sorry, hun,” Eddie consoled him and gave him a tight hug. The Poli returned it gratefully.

“It’s all right, nothing I can really do about it,” He said back, “But…I should admit that when I got there Belle, the Granbull I mentioned, hit on me.”

“You’re admitting to your girlfriend that someone else tried to flirt with you?” She asked in a surprised tone.

“Yup,” Vince said with a nod, “Got a feeling the world’s small enough it might come back to haunt me if I don’t tell you up front that you were dating the sexiest ‘mon at the villa,” She smirked at that.

“Had a few of them hit on you while you were there?” She asked, more amused than anything.

“There were a couple that thought I was the pool boy and tried to treat me like it in the late night TV sense,” Eddie tried to stay upset with the situation and instead found herself laughing, “And no, nothing happened! I wouldn’t bring it up if I did!”

“Oh I’m sure you didn’t,” She poked him in the stomach, “Still funny to hear you even say anything,”

“Like I said. I care about you too much to hide anything from you,” The both smiled at each other shared a kiss.

“Back atcha, big ‘mon,” She said and leans back against him.

“The next day was pretty quiet over all really,” He continued, “Though it was nice getting in a few laps around the island,”

“The island?” She looked up again, concerned about his heart condition.

“Don’t worry,” He assured her, “I got doctor’s permission to do it,”

“All right,” She said, though there was still some concern on her voice.

“Anyway, so that night we go to the first party. Big get together of the entire family and I don’t mind saying I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. At least Riou and Ryuen come from extremely wealthy families where I’m…well, my family is doing well but not like we’re in high society,”

“Doesn’t mean you aren’t classy, hun,” She smiled at him and received a nuzzle in response.

“So we get there and the Garkirls along with Penny and Seiglinde go to check in with the family’s ruling council of sorts and say hi. The rest of us went to go eat since we figured it wasn’t out place to step in yet. After a bit Josh introduced Penny to them and then did the most shocking thing I think he could have. He asked permission to marry her,”

“He what?!” Eddie all but yelled in surprise. For a moment the Umbreon asked herself why all the couples around them were trying to rush into marriage but decided against vocalizing it.

“Yeah,” Vince said to back up his claim, “Just right there in front of everyone. Even Penny wasn’t expecting it. I think the rest of us almost choked on what we were eating when we heard it because we were all so shocked,”

“So what’d the council do?” Eddie just sat there surprised.

“Well they asked Penny to talk about herself and why she’d be a plausible addition to the family. So she got in and started talking about all the things she was and did and what her family was doing and how they’d saved an entire ecology on one of the Orange Islands. Pretty good defense if you ask me, but unfortunately they saw it otherwise. Said that Josh was to promising a Gallade not to get him in a position to have lots and lots of babies,”

“They wanted to treat him like breeding stock?” Eddie found herself even more confused at the thought process of the Garkirl family council.

“Apparently,” Vince said, “That and they liked the fact he’s planning on becoming a lawyer. So they told Penny as a token thing that she’d have a year to prove herself, and they recommended that Seiglinde work on doing the same,”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Eddie cut him off, “You mean they not only told Penny effectively no, but they also gave her a rival? I don’t normally curse but what the hell?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Vince sighed, “Penny was understandably broken up and I think Josh was almost on the verge of rebelling but was cool enough to keep his temper in check for now. Nigel left because he was upset about something else and Seiglinde looked like a cross between being given a puppy and then telling her it was going to die in a week. Ryuen at least seemed to be doing pretty well for himself since he was so afraid they’d reject him because of his background even though he’d been adopted into a wealthy and influential family. Didn’t help I also had to try and keep Riou from saying anything,”

“What do you mean?” Eddie asked.

“The more Riou heard the more upset he was getting,” Vince explained, “he’d seen a lot of that with his own family so he was wanting to step in and yell at the council for being narrow minded twits,”

“Why didn’t you let him?”

“Riou’s family is allies with the Garkirls,” He shook his head, “Last thing he needed was to get in more trouble by yelling at them and having it get back to his dad. Riou’s already dodged a few bullets in being pulled out of school and last thing I want to do is lose my brother to a social faux pas,” Eddie nodded then in understanding, “Not that it helped much,”

“He still went off on them?” Eddie moved herself to get more comfortable.

“Not quite,” Vince stopped and looked around for a moment to make sure no one else was around, “Promise you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you?” Eddie nodded her promise.

“Riou got up to go and try to calm down so I went with him because I wanted to make sure he was going to be okay. Turns out it was a good thing I did,” Vince let out another breath, “As we were talking he turned to me and just started yelling at me. Told me he was sick and tired of me being so calm and never seeming to stand up for anything or anyone and that I never took stands,” Eddie blinked in shock she was hearing this about the normally calm Lucario.

“What’d you do in response?” She asked quietly.

“Something I’m not proud of…but I yelled back at him. Told him that it was a laugh he was accusing me of never standing up for anything when he knew that’s what I’d done for him quite a few times,” Eddie stayed silent as Vince talked. The Umbreon quietly rested her hand on his in silent support, “He started to really twitch and growl so I did the same thing the first time I’d ever seen him get even remotely like this. I grabbed him and tried to get him to calm down,”

“Did it work?”

“Well, not exactly,” He admitted, “Shortly after I did that he exploded…literally. Not like a normal explosion but his Aura exploded outwards and took out half the island as it ransacked all the psychics,”

“Oh no!” Eddie gasped, “Is he all right?”

“Well, I don’t think he’s going to do that again but…” He trailed off, “Thankfully through sheer stubbornness my heart didn’t stop and I was able to hold him up when he finally collapsed. Poor guy broke into sobs after that and was about as guilty as I’d ever seen him. So I picked him up and carried him back to where we were staying and just let him sob against me,” Vince’s voice slowly got quieter as he talked about the experience, a few tears came to his eyes as he remembered what’d happened.

“What’d you do after that?”

“Only thing I could do,” He responded, “brought him back and put him in bed. Pulled off my jacket and crawled in with him so he didn’t feel alone and felt protected. Riou’s my brother in everything but blood, and I wasn’t about to leave him alone right then. After a while he calmed down enough to sleep which gave me a chance to get a bit more comfy and then…we both just passed out and laid there. It’d have been the most adorable picture ever if the circumstances had be different,” Eddie was quiet and the thought of the two curled up was amusing on some level. She understood the severity of what he was telling her.

“Next morning I found Elizabeth in the room watching over us,” He continued, “And we chatted for a while. I knew that she was trying to help Riou get the anger he’d been bottling up inside of him for years and, well…she didn’t think he needed guidance on how to actually channel that anger,”

“You’re kidding, right?” Eddie looked shocked that a Mewtwo of all things could be so wrong about a situation.

“Well just shows she’s not all seeing I suppose,” He smiled quietly to her, “So we chatted about what to do and how to help Riou and we’re working on some things but…he was still pretty shaken up and tired when he did finally wake up. I made sure we were cool afterwards and assured him I still loved him as my brother which I think helped a bit too,” He smiled again.

“Anyway, in the morning things went bad to worse when I was getting some food and a bunch of ghosts from the family showed up to talk to Nigel’s mom. Seiglinde looked concerned by it and didn’t really explain why until we started hearing shouting from Mrs. Garkirl’s room and boy did she sound upset. The ghosts ended up leaving her room and then she came out to apologize for how we’d been treated to that point and assured Seiglinde she’d be okay. Apparently the group of ghosties wanted them to get rid of Seig who was acting like she wanted to go because there was some danger involved. But of course Nigel’s mom wouldn’t have any of it.”

“So how’d things settle?” She asked, “Did they figure it out what happened with Riou?”

“Well after breakfast I went to go take a nap since I didn’t exactly sleep well with a steel spike digging into my arm, not sure how Tam does it,” He said with a slight shudder, “When I woke up I came back to the common area to find a couple of investigators asking questions and Nigel trying to take the blame for it,”

“Wait, was Nigel even involved?” She looked confused, though Vince shook his head to her.

“Not at all, but at that point I think he just wanted to get to the council. I’ll explain that one in a moment,” He said to cut off the question, “Riou of course was trying to take blame so Nigel wouldn’t have to worry. I stepped in and did the same thing,”

“Now I’m really curious why you’d go and do that,” She furrowed her brow as the story got weirder and weirder.

“I had the least to lose,” He explained, “Nigel could get in serious trouble and lose his funding for the school. Riou could have it get back to his family where as the worst they could do to me was kick me off. So they took all three of us into custody and held us for questioning until the next day when the council was recovered from the Aura blast,”

“So the three of you spent the night in prison together?” Eddie wasn’t quite sure how to take that.

“Horrible thing!” Vince exclaimed, “Yeah we got our own soft beds but we had to share a room instead of having our own. Had to even butter our own bread while we were in there and didn’t have the sports package on the TV. I tell ya, them Garkirls sure know how to make a ‘mon hardened in the slammer,” The Umbreon just smirked and poked the Poli in the ribs which caused him to laugh, “But yeah, we were held for the night but I’d barely call it prison. I tried to talk them into letting me take the fall but they wouldn’t have it so…we went in doing the only thing we could. Each of us claiming our story was the truth,”

“How’d that work out for you?” She was still not quite sure what she should feel about it all.

“Damndest thing,” He chuckled, “We all told our sides of the story and they did their usual psychic check thing and figured that since Riou and I were telling similar stories it must have been something along those lines. But given that they couldn’t really enforce anything the best they could do was ban us from Garkirl owned properties for a year and strongly encouraged us to help out Nigel’s mom around their manor to make up for the duress we’d caused her. They only admonished Nigel for wasting their time even if what he did was to try and defend his friends,”

“Sounds kinda harsh,” She said.

“It was. But it also lead to something I never expected,” He responded and drew a curious look from Eddie, “Nigel asked for a moment to speak to the council and say his piece which they granted. He told them that if they were so mindful of the idea of defending ones loved ones since a lot of them were Gardes then they should grant him the same in a special case. Charla,”

“How was Charla a special case?” She asked curiously.

“Back when Nigel evolved into a Garde, Charla’s family was working for the Garkirls as documentary makers,” He explained, “Nigel didn’t want to evolve into a Gallade so he hid out at Charla’s house for a week. When the family found out they were all fired and banished from the villa. Nigel didn’t see her again until this year at school. So presented with a chance he defended her and said that out of love he had to fight for her reinstatement at the island that her family should be pardoned,”

“Okay, that’s incredibly sweet of him to do,” She admitted.

“It was,” Vince said as he nodded, “They agreed to at least grant amnesty to Charla but not her mom since her mom’s a tabloid journalist and they were afraid of her getting to close. But unlike before, Charla is now allowed to visit the island next time Nigel goes,”

“He must have been happy at that news,” Eddie said as she snuggled a bit closer to the Poli.

“He was, even gave me and Riou a hug,” Vince laughed, “First time I’d ever seen him do that willingly to anyone but Charla. After that we all went back to the guest quarters and prepared for one last night of parties and really lived it up that night. Thankfully everything was calm after that and the next day we were able to head home and here we are!”

“Sounds like you had your hands full on the trip, hun,” She declared with a laugh. Vince just nodded and smiled.

“Yeah, it was an experience all right,” He said and looked to her, “Went through a lot with those guys and gals and glad to say we all came out better for it. The trip itself helped me to realize something else,”

“What’s that?” She asked and tilted her head a bit.

“I love you,” He stated simply and left her in a bit of stunned silence, “We’ve been dating for six months now and while I’m not ready to go and get you a promise ring I do know that I love you. That I love being with you, knowing I can trust you, that I don’t have to worry about you ever. And that watching the twins do everything they did this last week for love, the least I can do is tell you how I feel,” Eddie didn’t respond at first, not really sure what to say. She’d never thought about it before, hadn’t really even had it come into her mind. Sure she cared about him and spending time with the big ‘mon was a highlight of her week. As he said those words something started to make sense in her mind.

“Vince,” She started slowly, “I love you too,” She didn’t know where to go from there as she wasn’t much one for speeches. Instead she seized the initiative and leaned up to kiss him firmly. The two sat there for a long time in their embrace, eyes closed as they enjoyed it. Neither of them was ready to take it to the next level yet, but for now they could be secure in their knowledge their feelings were returned and that they had someone who loved them.

They are so schmoopy. :P

I don't normally comment on your writing itself, but I feel the need to. I think you employed some great storytelling techniques in this, what with starting with Eddie and having her listen to the story. That scenario definitely turned out a little better than I had thought, but then Nigel doesn't like to share. :P

Well thank you for the kind words. You have influenced my writing in the past especially with my concern on tense so don't think I don't appreciate it.

And no, no Nigel isn't.

I have? :O

Indeed.

zomg c.c And you really liked my crappy hero worship prompt thing?

You're another writer. I do look at your suggestions.

Dogs and frogs in love! <3

And it's not even a sign of the end times!

You're thinking of the four tapirs of the apocalypse. o.o

<Shudders> I'd rather not. I like my reality still in one piece!

Angst! Apathy! Indolence! Petulance! Tonight we ride!!