May typed something into Sergei and passed him over to me.

“Can we leave yet? This is both boring and terrifying at the same time.” I fought back a chuckle as I read her message.

“You can leave if you want, I want to get a look at this boss of theirs.” I typed and passed the phone back. I knew I was being an idiot. Norman’s probably going to scream at both of us when we pass back through Petalburg, but my curiosity was killing me, and if we really needed an evac, Emilie could probably teleport us out. I’d eat the loss on whatever she threw up on and it’d probably go better if she was prepared for it.

Emilie shot me a glare, probably not appreciating plan b.

“I want you to know that you are completely and totally insane.” May typed back. She still hadn’t moved from her spot though.

‘She doesn’t want to leave you alone,’ Emilie supplied.

Well crap, now I felt like an ass. May kept twirling one of Torchic’s head feathers and biting her lower lip as she looked out at the clearing. Ah, screw it.

“We can call it in,” I typed, but before I could pass the phone back, I saw movement from the door.

Four more grunts flanked a tall man with a full beard and goatee. Unlike the rest of them, he was wearing a blue suit with no undershirt. He still wore the same bandana as the rest of the people present, and a large steel suitcase was at his side. He marched confidently, and a proud smile adorned his face.

“Oi, hurry up. I feel exposed out here, and I want to get this home.” He lifted the briefcase up into the air.

A short, stocky, dark-skinned man in a white lab coat, with black hair and a full beard, slowly started to march out of the temple. His body sagged forward, and I noticed a thin shine to his skin that I was assuming was sweat.

“We’re not all hulking muscle heads like you.” The man in the lab coat complained.

The man in the suit said a few words into what I assumed was a head piece. The group of nine started to glow, and in an instant, the entire contingent just disappeared without a trace.

‘Long range teleport?’ I asked.

‘Most likely,’ Emilie said. ‘Ease up on Sergei.’

I relaxed the iron grip that I didn’t even know I was doing.

“Fuck, sorry Sergei,” I said.

“S’all right. That scared the crap outta me too,” Sergei responded.

I quickly passed the phone back to May.

She didn’t grab it right away.

“May?” I asked, a bit of concern creeped into my voice. She shook her head before grabbing Sergei from my hand.

“Sorry.” Now I felt even worse.

“Don’t be. I fucked up this time. Slap some sense into me next time I suggest we do something this stupid. I'm just glad they left without much fanfare.” Just be cool and confident Lea. Cool, confident, and reassuring. May looked down at the unsent message.

“Hmph, little late, but I appreciate it,” May said, smiling at me as her shoulders relaxed.

“I appreciate you keeping an eye on me.” I very slowly started to stand. My whole body felt tense. “At any rate though, the goons are gone. Want to give the ruins a once over before we go tell your dad about them?”

“You are insane. Completely and totally bonkers. What if they come back? What if there’s still someone in there?” May all but screamed at me.

‘There isn’t anyone in the area.’ Emilie supplied me with something to defend myself.

“Emilie says we’re all clear. Come on, I know you were excited about this last night. Just a quick in and out and we can say we’ve braved our first adventure as Pokémon trainers with our heads held high,” I said.

May looked like she wanted to throttle me.

I waggled my eyebrows up in down in the goofiest manner I could think of and waved towards the door until she cracked and started giggling.

“Fine, but we’re keeping our Pokémon at the ready. I don’t want to get jumped.” May conceded.

I beamed and started making my way towards the massive double doors.

“That’s the spirit.” I re-released Apollo. “All clear, we’re heading into the temple.”

‘If all my days with you are this exciting, lass, I made the right call. I’m a bit aggravated you recalled me though,’ he grumbled.

“Sorry,” I said quickly as May caught up.

May held Sergei up to the door and started snapping photos.

“I have no earthly clue what any of this means, but it looks cool. I’ll have Sergei look it up later tonight. Maybe the internet will know more.” She turned to look inside. “That’s... dark,” she said, looking down into the abyss and backing away slightly.

Pitch black in fact.

“Sergei, light her up, would ya?” I asked.

Sergei nodded before floating forwards. The built in flashlight illuminated a staircase down.

“Oh joy, we get to go down,” May grumbled. “I’ll take lead, and I call dibs if we find a cool Pokémon down here. You already have Apollo.”

“Fine, fine. Emilie, Apollo, just hang out on my shoulders. I don’t want us getting separated.” One landed, and the other teleported. Honestly, having one per shoulder balanced me out and made it a bit easier to walk straight. “Well, into the abyss we go.”

And what an abyss it was. I now realized why the bad guys took so long to clear the ruin. They spent a million years on this stupid staircase.

“The trip back up is going to be fun, isn’t it?” I grumbled.

May ignored me. May had actually stopped completely, and I accidentally ran into her, pushing both of us into a large room.

“Fuck, sorry May,” I said.

“This... this is unreal,” she breathed. Confused on why she didn’t take the opportunity to make fun of my clumsiness, I started to take stock of the room we were in. I gasped.

The staircase we had just left opened into a chamber with a single, large stone chest in the middle. The top had been blasted out, and rubble lined both side walls. As Sergei’s light explored the room, I noticed a ton of ancient writing had been scratched out or completely destroyed.

The ruin had been ruined. Whoever that was had gotten what they wanted, and they didn’t want anyone to know what they took.

“Well, this is a bust.” I sighed. “I really am sorry, May. None of today has gone to plan.” I turned to start heading back up, but before I could get too far, a small chittering sound filled the room.

It echoed off the walls, and the cacophony of sounds started to get louder and louder. The ground started to sink, and I grabbed May as she started to get pulled down and yanked her up to the bottom stair.

“Trapinch!” A small orange Pokémon rushed out of the hole it had dug, snapping its jowls as we backed up and fell up the stairs.

“Ow... that was close. You alright May?” I asked.

May stood up and dusted herself off before glaring at the orange bug that had just attacked us.

“That does it,” she grounded out. “Suzaku! Ember. This thing just volunteered itself for stress relief.”

It took her a second to respond, probably not used to the new name yet, but Suzaku nodded her head once and fired several small flames into the pit. For all that this thing could dig, now that it was out and about, it didn’t look like the most mobile thing in the world. It took every fire ball that came its way.

“Pinch.” Was the angry reply. I glanced up at Emilie.

‘What’s it saying?’ I asked.

Emilie snapped out of her daze and blushed a bit.

‘Right, it’s really hard to understand, but it’s mostly upset we stopped it from getting lunch, apparently it thought Suzaku looked...tasty.’

My left eye twitched.

“Kick its ass, May, but be careful. This thing is looking at Suzaku like he’s an order of spicy chicken nuggies,” I warned.

“Got it, Suzaku, keep your distance and keep up an ember volley.”

And just like that, I was privy to a rather... one sided affair. Suzaku was, apparently, significantly faster than I was expecting. I didn’t think Torchic got fast until they evolved into a Combusken. As scary as this thing looked, none of his charges connected. I was moderately surprised the little guy hadn’t tried something new, yet. Every time he missed, he got pelted with fire.

‘I don’t think it’s all that bright,’ Emilie said.

I nodded once before watching the orange bug dive back underground. Finally, something new. Was he leaving? Did he get tired of chasing us?

‘It’s not giving up,’ Emilie warned.

I opened my mouth to warn May and Suzaku but May beat me to it.

“Suzaku, try and feel for shifts in the ground. Don’t move till the last second,” May ordered.

Suzaku looked about the room randomly before standing still and closing her eyes.

“Tor!” Suzaku jumped backwards.

“Pinch!” The Trapinch exploded from the ground, and while Torchic did get tagged by a bit of the debris, it avoided most of it, and had a premium shot.

“Ember, as strong and as fast as you can.” I’m not even sure May had to give the command.

Torchic had already started pelting the burrower with fire, not giving it a chance to breathe or back off, until finally...

“Pinch...” The Trapinch buckled and fell to the ground with a smokey exhale.

“You’re mine!” May shouted and tossed a poke ball at the downed mon. Wait, this weird orange... thing, was enough to catch May’s interest? Really?

The ball immediately dinged.

She walked over and picked up the ball before shooting me a rather pleased smile.

“Well, at least the trip wasn’t a total wash,” May said.

I nodded slowly, giving her an odd look.

“Congrats. Not sure why you wanted the orange bug thing, but I’m happy for you.” May giggled at my description. “What?”

----------------------------------------

“I hate stairs. I never want to see stairs again. They’re satanic constructs of pain and suffering put here to drain my sanity and reason and I want. Them. GONE!” I half screamed as I finally pushed into the sunlight. I fell forward and hugged the ground.

‘Hey.’

‘You have passengers, you know.’

Both of the weights I had grown accustomed to carrying either flew or teleported away halfway through the fall, but I couldn’t be bothered.

“Oh, real ground, how I've missed you,” I cried.

“You are the biggest drama queen I've ever met,” May bullied. She’s been doing that a lot today. “I’m fine, that means you’re fine too, ya big baby.”

“I’m sorry we can’t all be amazons like you.” I turned and stuck my tongue out at her.

May just sighed.

“You know, you’d probably be handling hikes like that better if you had ventured out from your cave more than once a week,” May prodded.

“Now you’re just being rude for no reason, let’s head back to town and check in at the Oldale center. I’m not sure we’d make it through the route in time to make it back to Petalburg before nightfall, and I don’t want to sleep on the ground until we have too.” My stomach rumbled. “And I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, yeah. Give me a sec.” May pulled up her dex and scanned Trapinch’s poke ball. “Oooh, arena trap, that’s fun. You’re a guy, so I’ll need to keep that in mind when thinking of a name. We’re definitely going to need to work on a lot to get you up to snuff, though.”

“I still don’t understand the appeal. Why on earth are you so happy to have caught that thing?” I asked.

May giggled again.

“Stop laughing at me and let me in on the joke.”

“The ‘thing’ is a Trapinch,” May explained. “It’s a ground type that’s incredibly rare in this part of Hoenn.”

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I nodded.

“Okay, so it’s rare. It’s also... not that bright,” I said.

May muttered something under her breath that I didn’t quite hear before glaring at me.

“It evolves into Vibrava, a Ground and Dragon type.” Any and all confusion I had on why May was happy about this capture died when I heard the type combo. “It evolves again into Flygon, one of the most feared Pokémon in this region.”

Now that was a name I recognized. Dad had one and used it a few times.

“Huh. You’d never think that little guy would turn into a dragon. Also, how does a Ground type get called Flygon?” I asked.

May chuckled.

“He has Levitate as an ability. I honestly don’t understand why he isn’t just classified as a Flying type too, but apparently, he lacks the usual weaknesses of the flying type and lacks an ability, so researchers labeled him as having the levitate ability, even though he has wings.” May giggled. “How they tested that was really funny, actually. They couldn’t do the usual electricity test because Flygon is still a Ground type, so they decided the best course of action was to throw rocks at a wild-”

“This is all incredibly fascinating,” I droned. “I’m hungry, though. Can we hurry up and hustle back to Oldale. You can science talk at me while we eat.”

“How the hell are you two years older than me?” May asked, glaring at me.

I ignored her and started pushing my way through the foliage.

“We need to call your dad once we get to the center, by the way. I want to make sure he knows something’s up and to keep an eye out.” I sighed. “And I still need to catch a Lotad.”

“You do realize there’s such a thing as overpreparing for a gym, right? You already have a good setup for the first two gyms, do you really need another water type?” May needled.

“I did a lot of research last night on what I want and what’s available, and a Lombre in particular would be very helpful for a cool strategy I’m putting together for Emilie,” I explained.

Now May just looked lost.

“How would a Lombre help Emilie? The gym isn’t a doubles battle, Lea,” May said, aggressively shoving a large branch out of the way.

‘I can probably start working on your idea with Apollo. Controlling water is going to be tricky, but I really like your idea,’ Emilie said with a manic grin.

Emilie’s smile scared the crap outta me, but I was a bit worried she’d struggle with what I had in mind.

‘Oh, I will. This is going to be the hardest bit of psychokinesis I've ever done. Doesn’t mean it’s not going to look fucking awesome.’

“Language.” I chastised.

“You and Emilie are having a private conversation again, aren’t you?” May asked before aggressively pushing a rather large branch away. “Fine, keep your secrets. Have the hardest fight against Watson ever. See if I care.”

“Now who’s whining.” And there’s the road.

‘Will helping Emilie be all I'm doing, Cap?’ Apollo asked nervously.

‘Send this to him, I want to keep our strats a surprise for now.’ Emilie nodded. ‘Helping Emilie will give you a good chance to work on your water attacks. I’ll see if I can find anything else in the dex for you later. Just expect a lot of endurance training, I want you to be able to use Aerial Ace as often as possible, preferably without passing out afterwards.’

Apollo winced.

‘Aye, that was a bit embarrassing.’ Apollo blushed.

“Now then.” I stopped as we pushed past the northern gate. “Bring on the grub!” I all but ran to the center.

----------------------------------------

“Is there a reason you waited to do this through a Pokémon center video phone instead of calling him through Sergei?” May asked as I stared at the phone with a sense of existential dread.

“Us calling him from the center shows that we’re fine and I really wasn’t in a hurry to make this call.”

“You forgot about Sergei, didn’t you?”

I didn’t reply and stared straight at the video phone, doing my best to ignore May’s judgmental glare. May sighed before picking up the transceiver.

“Let’s get this over with,” May muttered.

Ring...

Ring...

Click.

“Maple residence, Caroline speaking.” Oh, right, May’s family doesn’t have a video phone at home. Fuck, we were talking with Caroline.

“Hi, mom, is dad around?”

Why did it have to be Caroline? I was positive that this woman disliked me on principal. All the times she yelled at me for my language, legends above I could taste the soap. Ugh, I...

Felt... significantly less terrified than usual. That was odd. I noticed Emilie looking away as I thought that.

“Oh, May. I’m so happy to hear from you. The house wasn’t the same last night. It was so quiet. I think I got used to your snoring and not having it made it harder to go to sleep.”

May just hung her head down and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Your father isn’t home yet; he’s being held up at the gym. Was there something you needed?” Caroline asked.

“Lea and I found something... worrying, by the Oldale ruins. We wanted to tell him about it.” Nice, be vague. That always puts parents at ease, May.

“Is everything alright? You're not hurt, are you?” Damn it, May. Now she’s in helicopter mode.

“There were some shady people guarding the entrance, when they left, the temple was trashed.” There. Band aid successfully ripped off. “We’re fine, our Pokémon are fine, we didn’t even talk to them, and they didn’t see us. May even caught a Trapinch.” As I mentioned him, a bright light enveloped the area and the little orange monster made himself known to the world.

“Pinch?” Only to be very swiftly recalled.

“He’s... not terribly bright. This is the third time he’s let himself out of his Poke Ball. I don’t think he’s grasped that us saying his name isn’t the same as calling him out.” May rambled, a bit embarrassed.

“Can you describe them for me? I can relay this to your father once he gets home.” Huh, I half figured she’d be more upset. I was also surprised, usually she would have insulted me by now.

“Black pants, white shirts, and a blue bandana with a weird skull pattern on it. Like a circle with two lines so that it kind of looks like an A, and I'm not really explaining it well...” How do you describe made up shapes to someone over the phone? “We didn’t really get close to get a good idea otherwise, but the uniform looked the same. There was one guy who wore a loose-fitting suit, but he still had the bandana. He had a goatee.”

“There was also a dark-skinned man that looked like a researcher. He was tall and had dark hair.” May thought for a second. “He had a full beard and moustache,” May finished.

“I’ll let your father know. Now, I heard May caught a Trapinch, any other additions?” Caroline asked excitedly.

I hesitantly started describing Apollo to her and was surprised to see her engage with me like this.

----------------------------------------

‘So, the first step to protecting your mind is organizing it. This will make it easier to protect your thoughts and memories, because you’ll be able to focus on a single mental construct as opposed to a thousand stray thoughts.’ Emilie explained as I sat cross-legged on my bed.

“How exactly do I organize my mind?” Aren’t minds naturally chaotic? I kind of just thought that psychic types found order in the chaos.

‘I want you to think of a place that you know like the back of your hand. A place that you could remember every nook and cranny of without effort. I want you to close your eyes and visualize that place exactly as you remember it.’

Well, that sounded simple enough. I let my brain wander to the bakery, a place I had worked at for years. I remembered the heat from the ovens to the cold frigid air of the freezer. The crisp smell of freshly made pies, the ding of a register. I remembered my sister's chaotic office and my little cubbyhole.

‘Very good, now keep that memory in your head. I’ll help keep you focused through this next bit. I need you to focus on how the things in this bakery link to the other facets of your life and pull them into something familiar,’ Emilie said calmly.

“Huh?” I asked, confused but still half out of it.

‘For example, you met May at the Bakery. Norman brought her when he picked up some donuts, and you ended up talking in the dining area for hours while Norman and Eve talked in the background.’

I nodded along, thinking of that day so long ago.

‘Now focus on May. All the fun times you’ve shared. All the jokes, the tears, the shared moments of joy and everything in between. Every moment from then to now. Hundreds of little memories, scattered across your mind in a sea of random thoughts and emotions. I’ll help find the more obscure ones.’

I nodded as so many random events that I had forgotten about played across my mind. It was like a highlight reel of my entire friendship with May was playing on fast forward.

‘Now, take those memories, and tie them to this place. Tie them to that first moment here, in the bakery.’

I opened my eyes and was somewhat surprised to find myself sitting on my bed still. I felt something on my face and reached up to feel what it was.

I had shed a single tear during that. I didn’t even notice.

‘Well done, and an excellent start. We’ll have sessions like this every night. They’ll be long at first, cause you need to play a bit of catch up, and I have to help you pull the older thoughts out of the chaos, but you’ll have an organized mind in no time.’ Emilie smiled.

“Wait, that’s it, I don’t feel any different,” I complained.

‘What color did May want to dye your hair on your fourteenth birthday?’

“Black.” I respond without thinking.

‘How many times did May ask you to trade siblings when Max put body glitter in her shampoo?’

I froze for a second, before my brain went to the dining room in the bakery. The memory popped up without any effort.

“Twenty-three.” My eyes opened in awe.

‘What did you loan May when she went with her father to Oldale the first time?’ Same place. A different memory popped up.

“My Pokémon Rangers Manga...” I trailed off before sitting up in annoyance. “She never gave it back!”

‘What I'm helping you make is called a mind palace. It’s the first thing a budding psychic will learn. My mother taught me, and now I will teach you.’ She glanced over my shoulder towards my alarm clock. ‘We should get some rest.’

I turned.

An hour and a half had passed in the blink of an eye.

Holy...

“Yeah, that sounds good. I also just realized how incredibly tired I am.” I frowned as I mulled over what Emilie had told me. “So, how many sessions do you think it’ll take for me to fully organize my mind?” I asked.

‘Not that many. Most of your memories revolve around a small group of people that you view as your family. After that, a short meditation session at the end of the day should work to organize your new memories.’ Emilie looked away from me. ‘Earlier today, when I tricked you... I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place...’

“It’s fine. I might’ve come down a little harder on you than I should’ve.” I pulled Emilie into a hug. “I don’t know why telling May about what home was like scared me before. I think I was worried she’d look at me different, like she’d treat me with kid gloves. I hate that.” I smiled. “Nothing’s changed, and now... I just feel lighter. It all worked out, but in the future, just tell me. I don’t like being manipulated.”

‘So...’ Emilie trailed off. ‘If I was doing something else, and it, uh, concerned you. You wouldn’t be mad if I told you.’

My eyes narrowed.

“It would depend on what this something else is.” I felt Emilie tense. “You’re being honest now, so I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise I won’t react if it’s bad. Spill.”

‘Fine. I’m doing this to help, but I'm a bit worried about how it’s affecting you. After my mom... attacked you, do you remember how you felt?’

I frowned. Odd to dredge up this now.

“Well, my head felt like it was going to explode, I couldn’t control my limbs, and-”

‘Emotionally, how did you feel,’ Emilie interrupted. I could faintly see Emilie roll her eyes through her... bangs?

“Scared shitless.” I shivered. “I thought I was going to die.”

‘And yet, you seemed fine once she fixed you up. She just attacked you, and you proceeded to have a normal conversation with her.’ Emilie tilted her head. ‘You didn’t find that odd?’

“Now that you’re pointing it out, I do.” I frowned.

‘Mom manipulated your emotions,’ Emilie explained as plainly as she could.

My eyes went wide.

‘She believed it necessary. To help you fully, she needed you to not act according to your instincts. To flee as soon as you were able. She muted your ability to feel fear, and she put your mind at ease.’ Emilie looked down. ‘When I asked to go with you, she removed those stopgaps. You felt the full scope of your fear for but the briefest of moments when Mother bore down on both of us.’ Emilie shivered.

“I felt like I couldn’t breathe.” I muttered. “It was so intense.”

Emilie nodded.

‘I put in my own solution. Mother can be... cruel, if the situation demands it. So, I gave you back what she took away. I helped you find your courage, by muting your fear.’

“So... it wasn’t just me growing a pair when you needed me.” I felt a bit deflated at that.

‘It was in a sense. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, as accomplished in the mental arts as my mother.’ Emilie smiled at me. ‘Even at my best, I couldn’t entirely suppress the fear you were feeling. You pushed through your fear and stood up to my mother, because you believed it was the right thing to do. I just... helped.’ Emilie tilted her head. ‘Is that not a starter’s job.’

I laughed.

“I suppose it is. I don’t know what you’re worried about, though. You just helped me deal with your mom.” Emilie looked away.

‘I’m still suppressing your fear.’

Huh?

“So... you’ve been, what, blocking my ability to feel fear. All this time.” Emilie nodded. My mind raced to process everything. “Emilie, people need to be able to feel fear. Fear’s kind of an important emotion to have.”

‘After today, I now realize that. You decided to stake out a potentially dangerous group of weirdos that had both a numbers advantage and a skill advantage with no good exit strategy.’

I opened my mouth.

‘Me teleporting us out is not a good exit strategy, considering I barely managed to teleport you and I blacked out afterwards. You then urged May to go down a dark abandoned temple seconds after they left,’ Emilie deadpanned.

‘Okay, when you say it like that...’ I trailed off, feeling heat rush to my face as I looked away.

‘That’s the only way to say it. You’re right, fear serves a very important function.’

“So, just stop suppressing it, and we’ll be good,” I said.

Emilie shook her head.

‘I will not.’

“It’s my head, and I don’t want my actions to put anyone in dan-” I cut myself off as everything rushed in at once. I had almost died. Multiple times I had almost died. Wait, what was that? Nothing, there’s nothing there. Nothing. Nothing.

Would I even know if it was something? I can’t focus.

‘Lea...’ GET OUT OF MY HEAD! OH god I can’t I can’t I can’t I CAN’T-

And then it stops. Emilie shuffled in place and looked away.

‘The attack... it left you with a bit of a phobia. A deep seated fear of anyone or anything being in your head. For any reason.’ Emilie smiled a bitter smile. ‘Makes it rather difficult to protect your head if you have a panic attack while I’m doing it, now doesn’t it. Therefore, I will not undo what I did. Not yet. Once we get your mind up to snuff, when you can not only block but defend yourself against mental attacks, and you feel confident in your own abilities, will I remove what I did.’ Emilie looked down.

“What exactly did you do?” I asked.

‘I basically put a... sponge?’ Sponge? ‘I think that’s the best way to describe it. I put a sponge in your mind. If you feel fear, it will absorb the feeling before it can affect you. It... has its limits. If the fear is powerful enough, the feeling will still shine through, at least a little bit, but... yeah.’

Huh. I had a sponge in my brain. Weird.

‘I can understand if you don’t want to talk to me for a bit. This whole thing is-’

I cut her off with a hug.

“It’s weird... but thank you.’ I pulled back and shot her the most reassuring smile I could muster. Judging by the look on Emilie’s face, it wasn’t doing a very good job. “I’m gonna guess that you... wrung the sponge out, earlier?” This analogy was really fucking weird.

‘I felt that was the best way to get my point across.’ Emilie looked down again. ‘I am sorry.’

“Well, it got my attention, that’s for damn sure.” I stared off into space as I tried to grapple with... whatever the fuck that was. Fear didn’t seem to do it justice. But still... “I need to tell May.”

Just to be able to have her talk me down if I'm about to do something stupid, and that I'm not altogether with it. It was only fair to her.

Emilie nodded.

‘I can do my best to warn you if you do anything too reckless, but having another person to help would probably be wise.’ Now she looked down. ‘You’ll probably also have to tell her about what mom did.’

Yeah. That was going to suck, wasn’t it?

----------------------------------------

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t handcuff you to a bed in Petalburg till Emilie has your brain guarded better then Fort Lumiose.” Honestly, she’s taking this better than I expected.

“Look, it’s not as bad as it sounds.” She shot me a very exasperated look.

“You were mentally violated so bad that your brain can’t defend itself anymore, and the only reason you’re talking to me right now is Emilie is suppressing the impulse of curling up into a ball and having a panic attack.” She deadpanned.

“Okay, it is as bad as it sounds, but I’m functioning. Emilie is protecting my mind while I work on building my mental defenses, and now that I'm aware of it, if I'm getting ready to do something incredibly reckless and stupid, all you need to do is tell me and I'll stop.”

May wasn’t moved.

“Like I’ll believe you’ll actually listen to me.” May said, before sighing. “You are asking me to be the voice of reason. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING!” she yelled.

“I AM THINKING AND THERE’S NO ONE ELSE I WOULD TRUST MORE!” I yelled back before throwing both hands over my mouth. Legends above, I did not just say that.

May opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then groaned.

“You can’t just... Say things like that. How the hell am I supposed to say no now?” May glared at me.

“I meant every word.” And I did. “Emilie won’t let anything bad happen to me, and I’m already making good progress on the first step of protecting my mind, and I trust you. I trust you and Emilie to make sure I don’t do something extra stupid like yesterday.”

May smiled at me. She looked... touched? Happy?

“That still doesn’t answer my question, though.” May stared directly into my eyes. “Why can’t we wait till you’re better? You want me to stop you from doing things that are reckless and stupid, well, here’s the first thing I'm trying to stop.”

I broke eye contact.

“Call me stupid, but I want to travel the region with my best friend, alright,” I said, shifting in place nervously.

May looked insulted.

“If you think for one moment that I’d leave you alone-”

“You’re not putting your journey on hold for me,” I refused. “If we wait, then we’ll probably miss the season. We won’t have time to run the gauntlet. It’d be a full year before we leave.” I shook my head. “I don’t know which thought would piss me off more; that I'm stuck in Petalburg for another year, or that you’d stay put just for me. Please let me travel with you.” I practically begged.

“...that’s not fair.” She pouted.

Score!

“You won’t regret this!” I shouted.

“I already do,” May moaned.

“Err... also, there is something else,” I said nervously.

May glared.

“What on earth could you possibly tell me after this?” she asked.

“Well, as part of the exercise to defend my mind, yesterday Emilie showed me how to organize my mind,” I explained.

May nodded, tilting her head in interest.

“It improved my memory. Like, a lot. And, uh...” I took a deep breath before starting. “You owe me twenty-three lunches, three different manga, a light novel, two pairs of pants, four pairs of shoes, and a bra.” May’s eyes widened as I counted off all the things that had been... misplaced, since the start of our friendship. I never realized how often I paid for lunch until yesterday, and it kind of ticked me off a bit.

“...am I really that bad?” May asked.

I reluctantly nodded.