PLEASE NOTE: I do not own Pokémon, and I have to say that I'm kind of proud of it, because the idea of capturing animal-like creatures to make them fight each other is pretty sick, actually. Whatever, every species of Pokémon referred to in the following text is the property of their rightful owner, however, the actual story belongs to me. No copyright infringement is intended.




A Mansion made of Dreams




Chapter six: The Meeting





Niani chuckled to herself as she was walking down the corridor, heading back towards the room that she shared with Kara and Ral?re. She had spent all morning with Chria and her children. Niani just loved to play with them and to listen to their stories about what kind of exciting things happened to them in the mansion nearly every day. For example Fiador, the young Growlithe, always seemed to be very intent on boasting in front of her with his tales of how many battles he had already won in the in-house arena. The Jolteon knew, of course, that none of those stories were true, as Chria did not allow any of her children to enter the battle area. However, she admired the child's self-confidence and blooming fantasy, so she always acted like she believed him. But since most of Chria's other children didn't like listening to Fiador's lies all the time they often either drew Niani's attention away from him or brought the Growlithe back into reality; one of their methods, which was especially preferred by Sherea, who was a Poochyena and just a little younger than Fiador, was to challenge him to some playful fighting. This was allowed by Chria under the condition that both of the participants promised to be very careful not to actually hurt each other, and within less than two minutes Sherea always managed to pin down the Growlithe on his back, which was usually accompanied by laughter from the spectators.
However, Niani always tried her best to focus on all of the children without excluding anyone, which often proved to be a hard thing to accomplish when it came to someone as fearful as the Chikorita Rantha or someone as unapproachable as the young Absol named Varol. While Rantha usually stayed close to his foster-mother and was thus taken care of very well, Varol stayed out of every kind of game or activity and usually just lay around with his back turned towards the other children. Niani had talked about him with Chria, and she had said this would change soon enough and that the Absol just needed some more time. Thinking about this always reminded the Jolteon again that all these young Pokémon had lost their parents in some way, which made her sad and happy at the same time; it was terrible that they were orphans, but the fact that there was someone like Chria, who cared about them and was not willing to give up any of their children always managed to make her feel better again.

It was incredible how quickly those children had come to trust Niani, and this even in spite of their cruel fates. When she had left, they had all made it very clear that they were looking forward to her next visit, since everything was much more fun together with her. Especially the two Pichus and the Eevee called Ialee had taken a liking to her, which, as the Jolteon assumed, was because of how she had rescued them from the Nidorino some time ago.

Niani had almost lost herself in the memories of being with the children, and thus she was a little surprised when she noticed that she was already standing in front of the door to her room. The hallways had been almost completely empty, but the Jolteon knew they'd be full of Pokémon in about half an hour. The meeting had been scheduled for this day at two o' clock PM in the hall and nearly every inhabitant of the mansion would go there. Niani raised one of her front paws and carefully scratched at the door; she wasn't sure if Ral?re was sleeping and she didn't want to wake her.

"Come inside!" she heard Kara's voice shout from the other side of the door. The Jolteon opened it and stepped through, frowning slightly at the sight displayed in front of her. Ral?re was lying on her back in her bed on the left side of the room with her legs crossed, holding an open book above her face. However, she didn't seem to be able to really focus on reading, as there was a steady low murmuring to be heard, which came from the Totodile in the middle of the room. She was lying on her belly with three sheets of paper outspread in front of her and a ballpoint pen in her right front paw. Kara looked up at Niani as the Jolteon slowly closed the door behind her with one of her hind paws, not taking her eyes off of the sheets of paper. There were a lot of words on them, and some of them were crossed out. Niani couldn't read well enough yet to instantly understand them; she usually had to take some time in order to really get the meaning of anything written.

"Did you have fun?" Kara asked with a small smile. Niani nodded absentmindedly and stepped closer towards the Totodile.

"Yeah..." she replied, then narrowed her eyes, staring at the sheets of paper. After examining the words for a moment she noticed that all of them seemed to be names of Pokémon living at the mansion. Niani frowned. "What are you doing?" she asked. Kara blinked as she seemingly tried thinking of how to properly phrase her thoughts. Her paw was keeping the tip of the ballpoint pen directly left to the word "Layanu".

"That's a little hard to explain..." she began slowly.

"She's trying to find a mate," Ral?re said with a sigh. Niani's eyes went wide in surprise and she turned her head to look at the Zangoose lying on the bed.

"Excuse me?" she said, believing to have misheard. Ral?re didn't appear like she wanted to repeat her words, and so the Jolteon turned towards Kara again. The Totodile rolled her eyes.

"I know this sounds ridiculous, alright?" She quickly looked down at her paper and then shook her head. "No..." she mumbled. "He's been with Sugar..." She crossed out the name and then raised her head again. Niani was staring at her with an unbelieving expression. Kara sighed.

"Look, it's going to be mating season soon," she said. "I'm just trying to make this easier for all of us."

"I hardly think Niani wants to be involved in your nonsense," Ral?re made herself heard, not even bothering to look at Kara. The Totodile grunted lowly.

"Just because you're so uptight about this doesn't mean Niani couldn't see the impeccability of my method," she replied in a slightly annoyed tone. Kara looked up at the Jolteon again. "She just says that because of her prejudices concerning males," she whispered. Niani blinked. She didn't know whether this scene was ridiculous, serious or just silly.

"I still don't know what you're actually doing," she reminded the Totodile, now sitting down next to her with her gaze on the sheets of paper. Kara pointed at the names with her free paw.

"I've compiled a list of all the males living in this mansion," she explained with a certain hint of pride in her voice. "Now I just have to cross out everyone with whom I would definitely never want to be with, and then I'll choose a mate from the remaining names."

At first Niani didn't know what to say. She looked at Ral?re for a moment, but the Zangoose seemed not to be interested in what Kara was doing; she just kept staring at her book. Upon hearing the Totodile mumble something that sounded like "almost five times my size" she turned her head back towards her, seeing her cross out another name.

"You choose a mate from the remaining names," she repeated. Kara looked up at her again and nodded.

"Yes," she agreed. The Totodile then grinned in her familiar way, exposing all of her teeth. "That way we can all find mates for the season." Niani slowly shook her head. It was like one half of her mind was just confused, while the other one wanted to laugh at Kara.

"I don't think you really thought this through," she spoke carefully, trying not to sound like the Totodile's idea was one of the dumbest things she ever heard. Kara shrugged.

"I can't see what should be wrong with my plan," she replied. Niani sighed loudly.

"You do know that being mates with someone requires first being in love with that someone, don't you?" The Totodile rolled her eyes.

"Fine, if you want it that way, I'll rephrase it," she spoke in a somewhat exhausted tone. "I'll choose the one I will fall in love with from the remaining names. Is that alright?" The Jolteon almost had to chuckle. Kara sometimes reminded her of Chria's children.

"Love doesn't work that way, Kara," she lectured. Kara just looked at her for a moment and then turned to look at her papers again.

"Then I'll make it work that way," she replied. Niani wanted to say something in return, but the Totodile quickly went on: "Niani, it's going to be mating season soon, and I don't want to endure this again for a whole month. I'm going to force myself to fall in love with someone if I have to, I just don't want to be alone again during this time." The Jolteon blinked and then shook her head.

"Kara," she spoke in a very calm tone, "I'm your friend, and thus I think I should tell you that this is really not a good idea." The Totodile turned her head once more, looking up at Niani; she looked like she really was not interested in being lectured about this. "Just think back," the Jolteon tried, "when you were younger, did you picture yourself finding a mate like this?" Kara rolled her eyes once more.

"Well, of course not," she agreed and raised one of her paws in order to prevent Niani, who had been about to continue talking, from going on. "But I also didn't picture myself living in a mansion with almost a hundred other Pokémon who go completely crazy every mating season." She kept her gaze locked with Niani's, who obviously wasn't going to take this answer as a justification for Kara's odd idea. The Totodile shrugged. "That's life, Niani," she said. "Things don't always go as we expect them to, but as long as we know how to adapt, everything will turn out alright." The Jolteon blinked, but didn't say anything. Kara seemingly interpreted this as a signal that she had won this argument, and she turned back towards her papers with a small, yet very satisfied smile on her face. Just a moment later she was completely focused on her task again, crossing out another name while supporting her head with her left paw and mumbling "already has a mate..." Niani shook her head.

"You don't need to worry, Niani," Ral?re said, which made the Jolteon turn her head towards the red and white Pokémon again, who was still lying motionless, staring at her book. "Kara is way too picky to ever find a mate that way. You'll see, she'll have them all crossed out in a few minutes." There came a noise of disapproval from the Totodile, but other than that Kara did nothing that could eventually lead to an argument between her and the Zangoose. Niani grinned slightly.

"Has this happened before?" she asked. Ral?re looked at her from the corner of her eyes, and the Jolteon was sure to recognize a hint of amusement within her gaze.

"It hasn't," Ral?re said, now slowly lowering her book and finally turning her head towards Niani. "But judging from the way she sorts them out I doubt there'll be anyone left after she'll have gone through the entire list." Once more a low grumbling sound came from Kara, and this time she even turned her head towards Ral?re and rolled her eyes.

"I just couldn't be mates with anyone who's been with Sugar, alright?" The Zangoose slowly sat up in her bed, looking at the Totodile with an almost compassionate smile. However, she didn't say anything. Kara returned the gaze, seemingly getting very annoyed by it.

"What is it?" she asked enervatedly after a moment, gesturing with her right paw. "This entire thing has to be based on trust, right?" The Zangoose chuckled a little and nodded.

"Sure, Kara," she spoke in a fake tone of agreement. "You're absolutely right." The Totodile seemed to realize at this moment that her roommate was just trying to annoy her, so she decided not to reply and instead made a dismissive gesture with her paw, before concentrating on her papers once again. Niani kept watching Ral?re as she stretched her neck and her front paws, then stood up from the bed and walked over towards Kara, sitting down on the ground next to the Jolteon. "Would you mind if I took a look at these?" she asked, taking a sheet of paper on which all the names were already crossed out. Kara simply grunted in response. Niani looked over Ral?re's shoulder as the Zangoose read the names.

"Kara," the Jolteon began after a while of deciphering the letters, which was still not exactly an easy task to her, in a confused tone. She turned towards the Totodile who looked up from her sheet of paper. "How come you put Richard on the list?" Kara sighed softly.

"I told you it's a list of all the males living in this mansion. That includes Richard, doesn't it?" Niani kept staring at her with an unbelieving expression. The Totodile shook her head. "Look, I don't know what you want," she went on in a slightly annoyed tone. "His name is crossed out, isn't it?" The Jolteon blinked.

"Yes, but why did you even put him on the list when you already knew you'd never even think of choosing him?" she wanted to know.

"Because..." There was a helpless expression in Kara's eyes, which Niani could see before she quickly looked to the side. "It's just more... scientific this way, alright? I wanted a complete list, so I could be absolutely sure I wouldn't miss anyone." Niani had to giggle slightly.

"Scientific?" she repeated. Ral?re dropped the sheet of paper she had still been holding and grinned.

"Let's just leave her be, Niani," she spoke in an amused tone. "Maybe she'll learn a lesson." Her gaze wandered around the room and finally came to a halt on the alarm clock that was sitting on a cupboard next to Kara's bed. It read 1: 41 PM. "We don't have time to bother with such childishness anyway. The meeting is going to begin soon, and I'd like to get something to drink before it starts." Niani nodded in agreement and cleared her throat, now getting to a serious topic again.

"Alright then, I'm ready to go." She looked at the Totodile who seemed to be a little disgruntled. Niani suddenly felt bad about her reaction from just a few seconds ago; this list appeared to have a rather high significance to Kara and she probably should have been nicer to her. But still, even after having thought about it again, she just couldn't get over the fact that it was a really stupid idea. Nevertheless, she tried to make her voice sound as friendly and serious as she could. "Are you coming, Kara?" The Totodile looked up from her papers and apparently decided after a moment that there were better things she could do than pouting. The usual broad, toothy grin appeared on her face.

"Sure I am," she declared cheerfully. Kara rose to her hind paws and then picked up the sheets of paper and her ballpoint pen. "But I'll be taking these with me." Niani could hear Ral?re sigh, but as she turned to look the Zangoose was already heading for the door, so all she could see was her back. Kara, however, seemed to be very satisfied with herself as she passed Niani. The Jolteon simply shook her head and decided to focus her thoughts on the impending meeting.








Lejfea kept her gaze on her mate, who was walking in front of her as they were both making their way downstairs. Thinking about the mating season that was going to begin in about two weeks made her sigh inwardly. Just a few days before she had still been looking forward to this time of the year; for a female with a mate who cared about her as much as Rax did going into heat could be a very pleasant experience, even when they were not planning on having offspring yet, as humans had found a way to stop these occurrences from happening when they were not wished-for. With these requirements being met, the mating season was basically nothing else than a long period of constant snuggling and passionate mating without having to worry about anything. But ever since that Saturday night when Rax had returned from helping Thunder to keep an eye on Sugar's visitors something in their relationship seemed to have changed. Rax had apparently lost all desire to mate with her, and even when it came to cuddling he was unusually reluctant. Whenever Lejfea had tried to address him about this situation he had either tried to change the topic as quickly as possible or he had tried to avoid answering her questions in a different kind of way. The Larvitar stopped walking for a moment, and thus remained standing on one of the steps. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, mentally telling herself what she always did whenever her thoughts seemed to drift off like that. There was no need to worry. Rax was acting a little unusual, but that didn't have to mean anything. Everything would return to normality again in a short time.

"Aren't you feeling well, dear?" she heard her mate's voice come up from a few steps below her. Lejfea opened her eyes and looked at the Linoone's concerned face. Her sudden immobility combined with her strained expression had to have worried him. The Larvitar smiled a little and shook her head.

"I'm fine, please don't worry," she replied. Rax nodded slowly, then turned around again and began climbing downstairs once more, which he had to do rather carefully as he was too small to comfortably use the stairs. Lejfea bit her lip and tried her best not to think about any of this again. She quietly followed her mate and eventually caught up with him.
When they had reached the last step they could hear the sounds of Pokémon approaching from the right, so they both turned to see who was coming. Had Lejfea been paying attention to Rax she might have gotten suspicious at his facial expression freezing completely, but her attention was taken entirely by the Sneasel who was strutting through the corridor on all fours, her hindquarters moving unnecessarily far to the right and to the left, alternatingly, with each step. A Wartortle, who did not move nearly as graceful or as flashily, was accompanying her, and Lejfea couldn't help but feel sorry for him, as Sugar obviously wasn't paying the least bit attention to her companion, in spite of the fact that it was quite clear that this was what the Wartortle needed her to do the most. The Larvitar felt slightly uncomfortable as Sugar's gaze first wandered across Rax and then came to rest on her. Still, even though she certainly did not like that particular female, she was certain that the Sneasel could help solve this mystery that was troubling her so much. Lejfea quickly headed for the large wooden door that led to the hall, reaching it before Sugar who continued walking at her regular pace. Rax caught up to his mate, his eyes fixated on the Sneasel until he shook his head and looked up at the Larvitar instead.

"Shouldn't we go inside?" he asked, his voice shivering slightly. Lejfea shook her head.

"There's something I've got to ask her," she replied calmly. One of Sugar's ears twitched, as she had obviously come close enough to overhear what the Larvitar had said.

"Are you talking about me?" she wanted to know, slowing down her movements and finally sitting down in front of Lejfea. She then turned her head to look at Rax for a moment, but seemingly decided to focus on the Larvitar instead. Lejfea found it difficult to read her expression. Sugar basically looked like she always did, a small smile on her face and just a hint of smugness in her eyes; the only noticeable thing about her was that her fur seemed to be darker than usual, but that wasn't all too surprising, either, as it was no secret that the Sneasel enjoyed dyeing it from time to time. It was impossible for Lejfea to tell whether she recognized the Linoone from that evening three days ago or not. The Wartortle remained standing at Sugar's side, apparently curious about what was going to happen now.

"That's correct," the Larvitar said. Sugar nodded in anticipation of what she was going to ask. Lejfea took a deep breath. "It's... It's about that Saturday evening, you know, I..."

"I'm getting really thirsty," Rax suddenly declared, which made Lejfea look down at him. He had already turned around and was now opening the door to the hall. "I'll be waiting for you inside, love!" He quickly slipped through the small gap between the wall and the door, which almost immediately fell shut behind him, leaving behind a very puzzled Larvitar. There came a soft giggle from Sugar.

"He seems to be a bit jumpy, doesn't he?" Lejfea simply shrugged and looked back at the Sneasel. She wanted to open her mouth to finally ask her question, but Sugar had already turned towards the Wartortle to her side and now said: "That reminds me of something, sweetie... Would you be so nice and get something to eat for me?" She rose to her hind legs and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek, which instantly made him blush. "I'll come and join you as soon as we're finished here, alright?" The Wartortle nodded with a dreamy smile.

"Sure, I'll... it'll be my pleasure..." He cleared his throat and then quickly entered the hall as well. Sugar kept looking at him until he had closed the door, then lowered herself on all fours again and sat down. She looked at Lejfea with an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry for that interruption," she said. "Now, what was it again you wanted to ask? It had something to do with last Saturday, right?" The Larvitar nodded and, once again, took a deep breath.

"Something must have happened on that day," she spoke cautiously, trying her best to conceal the worried tone in her voice. Her mate's strange reaction to this conversation had not served to make her feel more certain about all this. Sugar smiled amusedly in response.

"Well, I can assure you that there has, indeed, a lot happened that evening," she chuckled. Lejfea shook her head.

"That's not what I meant," she answered in a slightly annoyed tone. "I was talking about Rax. He was there to help Thunder keep an eye on things, and when he returned to me, there was something... strange about him." The Larvitar definitely didn't want to go into detail about what exactly was strange about her mate's behaviour, so she simply concluded: "That's why I assume something must have happened there. I thought maybe you'd know something about that." The Sneasel blinked in a confused manner.

"Rax?" she repeated, obviously not quite sure about whom Lejfea was talking. Then her gaze came to rest on the empty space next to the Larvitar and she blinked. "Oh, is that the name of that Linoone?" Lejfea simply nodded in response. The Sneasel frowned and apparently had to think for a few moments before she said: "I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever seen him before... And if I have, then there can't have been anything special that would help me remembering his face..." She shrugged. "I'm sorry I can't help you," she closed. "I'm not sure whether he was there that Saturday evening or not."
Lejfea had been staring at the Sneasel's face while she had been talking, with the intention not to miss anything that maybe would have given away that she was lying. However, everything had seemed completely normal to her; now that she thought about it again, her question had been somewhat ridiculous. Sugar definitely hadn't been focusing very much on what had been going on outside of her room that evening. The Larvitar saw no reason not to believe her words.

"Alright then, thank you," she spoke, her mind already busy with thinking about how else she could maybe solve this riddle. She turned her head towards the door behind which her mate had disappeared, noticing from the corner of her eyes that Sugar now stood up again and also made her way over to the hall's entrance. Lejfea sighed softly when the Sneasel had left her behind in the corridor as well. The Larvitar shook her head and then decided to just try and forget about all this and focus on the meeting that was going to take place.









The curtains were closed as usual, changing the sunlight coming in from outside from a hard, bright, relentlessly burning flame into the soft, warm, golden glow that could normally only be seen when the sun was setting. However, Richard hardly noticed the beauty of this artificially created dusk, as all his senses were focused on the female Raichu that was sitting in his lap, clinging to him with her front paws, which were not quite long enough to reach each other on his back, and her cheek resting on his bare chest. Richard was holding her embraced; he was sitting on their bed, leaning against the wall with his shoulders touching the cold stone, wearing nothing but a pair of black pants and the bandages that were wrapped around his right arm, stained with dried blood from the evening before. His left arm was holding her around her shoulders, while his right hand was currently placed on her hindquarters near the base of her tail. He slowly let his fingers trail upwards and closed his eyes, relying only on his sense of touch; when he paid such close attention, Richard could easily feel where the color of Light's fur changed.

"One..." he whispered lowly as his finger tips brushed across the lower brown stripe on the Raichu's back. While the golden orange parts of her fur felt silky and very soft to the touch, the brown parts were noticeably rougher and slightly shorter, but this only seemed to further intensify the way in which her fur responded to the caressing done by his fingers, tickling them a little as if Light's body itself was telling him to continue. He sighed delightfully when, just a short moment later, his fingers travelled across a bit of Light's longer, yellowish orange hair again, just to be greeted once more by another brown stripe.

"Two..." His fingers started moving a little more, gently fondling his mate's backside, as they moved across her short neck and then came to rest on her cheek. Richard slowly opened his eyes again and looked down at her. She moved her head slightly, rubbing her soft fur against his chest. Her eyes remained closed.
From the very corner of his eyes Richard could see the alarm clock that sat on the side table standing next to the bed. It was 1:53 PM. The meeting was going to be today and he had to attend it.

"Light...?" he whispered loud enough for the Raichu to hear. His mate didn't show any kind of reaction. Judging from the small, rhythmic movements of her belly that was touching his he figured that she had fallen asleep. He smiled a little and his right hand began to caress the back of her head, his fingers moving back and forth, gently rubbing the soft skin beneath her fur.

"You know I can't wake you up..." His hand moved from the back of her head towards her right ear, his finger tips sliding along its slight curves. The brown fur on her ears seemed to be the same as that on her back, as it was shorter and didn't feel quite as soft; however, this didn't matter to Richard as he carefully took the very tip of Light's ear between his index and middle finger, starting to rub it very softly, taking care not to apply too much pressure as this would hurt his mate. It didn't take long and the Raichu gave a soft groan, moving slightly in her sleep in an attempt to snuggle even closer to Richard and flicking her other ear as well as her elegant tail just a little. Richard kept looking at her face, happily noticing the blissful smile that was now standing on it. He lowered his head a little in order to bring it closer to her ear and whispered:

"You must be having such nice dreams..." His hand let go of her ear and slowly began sliding down her back again, passing both of her brown stripes. "Sometimes I wish you could sleep forever, my love," he continued, now tracing along her thin, slender tail with one of his fingers, to which the Raichu responded with a low, satisfied purr. "The beauty of your dreams must be indescribable, since you are a goddess, a being of pure perfection... And naturally, a perfect being will dream of a perfect world..." He had reached the large, lightning shaped tip of her tail, which was covered in that wonderfully soft, yellow fur. He started tracing circles on its surface with only his index finger, watching Light's ears slightly flick back and forth in response. "This world does not deserve you, Light," he spoke lowly. "You should be able to forever remain in your dreams, in those nice, beautiful dreams that make you smile... You should never have to wake up again and face this imperfect reality, you should be allowed to be happy all the time..."

He stopped talking as a familiar sound reached his ears. Richard raised his head and looked at the door, where the noise had come from. He waited for a few seconds, hoping that this wouldn't turn out to be what he feared it was, but when he heard it again he had to accept that someone was standing on the other side of the door, scratching at it. There were only two individuals who would ever do this, and Richard wasn't thrilled about seeing either of them. His gaze went back to the sleeping Raichu in his embrace and he sighed softly. The scratching went on for about half a minute, and then began to be accompanied by a very annoying voice.

"Ninetales Nine Ninetales!" was all Richard could hear; having to listen to this was truly enraging, and it didn't help at all that the Pokémon's barking proceeded to become louder and more impatient with each passing moment.
It didn't take long for Light to slowly open her eyes and blink. She looked up at Richard with a happy smile and almost appeared like she would simply go back to sleep in an instant, but then her ears twitched and the smile disappeared from her face. Her head turned towards the door and she mumbled something in her own language, which Richard couldn't understand. He quickly reached out for her writing utensils, which lay on the side table, and handed them to her.

"Let me take care of this," she scribbled quickly. Richard simply nodded and released her from his embrace. She wanted to jump off of the bed, but stopped her motions as her mate had gotten a hold of her tail and gave her a kiss right on its tip. She giggled softly and looked up at him again with a loving expression in her eyes, silently telling him that everything would be alright. He let go of her tail and gently patted her head, watching as she left the bed and walked across the room in the direction of the door.







"Richard! Light! Can you hear me? The meeting is going to be in a few minutes, we need you for this! Can't you at least give me some kind of answer?" The Ninetales' barking was such a noisy, enraging sound that Light wished she'd have some kind of earplugs. The fact that it just woke her up wasn't what made her so angry, though, as she couldn't care any less about herself and what happened to her. But she was fully aware of what this meeting that was going to begin soon would do to her beloved Richard, and it would all be the fire Pokémon's fault. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath in order to keep herself from screaming at the unwanted visitor, then reached for the door knob and opened the door just a little so that Thunder, who was standing on the other side, wouldn't be able to come in or even look at Richard. The Ninetales had obviously wanted to shout something again, but he quickly closed his mouth when he saw Light's face through the door crack.

"Go away," she said in a calm tone. Thunder slowly sat down on the floor, directly looking at the Raichu who was obviously a lot more than just displeased.

"I will," he replied in an equally calm voice. "I will go as soon as Richard tells me that he'll get ready for the meeting in a minute." Light carefully opened the door a bit further. From the corner of her eyes she could see that her mate had stood up from the bed and was now putting on one of his dark shirts so that Thunder wouldn't be able to see all the cuts on his torso; however, the Raichu had no intention to let the Ninetales lay eyes on Richard at all, whether he was fully dressed or not. She stepped forwards, not quite leaving the room yet, but standing in the doorway, symbolically blocking Thunder from coming inside. There was a cold expression in her eyes, but in spite of the burning hatred towards the Ninetales she was feeling at the moment her voice still remained quiet and serene.

"Maybe Richard doesn't want to attend this meeting of yours," she spoke. Thunder simply shook his head.

"He does. And besides, if there was any reason he wouldn't, then I'd like to hear it from him." Light's eyes narrowed. She didn't know what Thunder was heading for; it seemed to her like he was directly asking for a battle with her. Not only did he claim to know what Richard wants better than she does, he also demanded to see him personally, even though, whenever one of the Ninetales twins spoke to her mate, Richard felt worse afterwards, which had been especially noticeable ever since the mansion had been attacked.

"You," she said in a low, unmistakeably angered tone, "and your brother are two of the worst things that ever happened to Richard. I will never let you talk to him again." Thunder blinked, and each of his nine tails seemed to twitch a little. 

"Light, I don't have time for your petty games. The hall is filled with Pokémon who are waiting for the meeting to begin, and we need Richard for that. I don't care what you think of me, I only want what's best for everyone living here. Please, just get Richard now, this has really gone on for long enough." Light gritted her teeth. She felt her body heating up slowly, the unbridled rage burning deep within her.

"I don't care about everyone living here," she replied, not even noticing that the hairs on all parts of her body now began standing up. "I care about Richard, though. Nothing else matters to me. He doesn't like seeing you, you know, nor does he like seeing anyone else for that matter. We want you to leave us alone."

Thunder slowly stood up and took a step back. The Raichu was clenching her fists, staring at him with an expression that basically told him there was nothing else in the world she despised as much as him, and, what was worst of all, she seemed to be losing control over the electricity in her body. Not only had her fur become spiky and both her ears and her tail stiff, but there were low sparks coming from the circles of yellow fur on her cheeks. The Ninetales knew that, when electric types became very, very angry, they might subconsciously discharge their entire electricity, which could be life-threatening to everyone standing too close to them. She didn't even seem to notice her own condition as she didn't attempt anything to prevent this from happening; then again, maybe she wanted it that way. Maybe she wanted to kill him.

"Stay calm, Light," he tried to appease her. "I'll go. Just try to relax." He slowly walked backwards a few more steps, thankful that the Raichu didn't jump at him in an attempt to rip him apart. The expression in her eyes reminded him of Sugar's. This Pokémon truly hated him, and he didn't even know why. She kept staring at him as he walked down the corridor, never turning his back on her; however, then something strange happened. At first Thunder thought the Raichu simply flew away, but then he noticed that two hands, presumably Richard's, had picked her up and pulled her back into the room. Just a tiny moment later the door slammed shut. The Ninetales blinked, trying to understand how Richard could have touched the electrically charged Raichu without getting hurt, but then he simply dismissed the thought as unimportant. He decided to just return to the hall; after all there was nothing he could do here, as the scene would most probably just repeat itself if he should try it again. Thunder shook his head and decided to come up with a way to manage the meeting without Richard's help, even though he had no idea how this was supposed to work.









Light didn't struggle against Richard holding her in the air with his hands, which were protected by rubber gloves that he had most probably found in the medicine chest in their bathroom, on her sides as he lifted her up on the bed. The Raichu was looking at the ground, ashamed of her own behavior, knowing that her mate had, for some reason, always regarded her as a flawless, peaceful being. She was feeling herself rapidly calming down, so she also got in control over her own electric powers again; however, her fur remained scruffy and somewhat spiked, making her look like she had been bathed and then dried with a blower. Her tail became flexible once more, and her ears drooped slightly.

"You shouldn't get too worked up," Richard spoke in a soft tone. Light closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She almost felt like crying.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Then she could feel Richard touch her cheek; however, his touch lacked its usual affectionate warmth, as his hand was still protected by the rubber glove. He carefully raised her head and she opened her eyes again. Richard was crouching in front of her so that their gazes met when she simply looked forward. He didn't seem to be angry at her at all; instead he only appeared to be very worried.

"Can I touch you again?" he asked lowly. Light nodded without saying anything. She felt like she didn't have any right to talk to him, after how furious she had just become. The fact that he wouldn't be able to understand her if she did say anything didn't even come to her mind. Richard quickly took off his gloves after having seen her confirmation and simply tossed them onto the floor. His left hand then wandered to the top of her head, beginning to gently fondle her behind her right ear. Light closed her eyes again; however, this time not because she was ashamed, but because she was enjoying her mate's caresses so much.

"Everything will be fine now, love," she heard him say. "I'm sorry, this is really my fault, I shouldn't have let you talk to him, he just makes everyone mad... Are you feeling a little better now?" Once again, Light simply nodded without saying anything. Richard moved his hand a little to start rubbing her ear.

"That's good..." She could hear him stand up, even though his hand didn't leave her ear. Light opened her eyes again and watched as Richard sat down on the bed next to her. Now he moved his hand to her side again, embracing her with one arm and gently pulling her a little closer to him. She blushed slightly as she noticed herself getting the desire of tightly pressing her body to his, clinging to him with her paws and feeling him hold her close to him, but she wasn't going to do anything that would go in this direction. Her guilty conscience wouldn't let her.
Her mate reached out with his right hand and picked up her notepad and ballpoint pen.

"Light, I may not have been able to understand it, but I know what Thunder and you were talking about," he said. The Raichu looked up at him for a moment, but then quickly turned away again. His hand began to gently caress her side.
"You only want to protect me," he went on. "You know that I can't stand having to deal with Thunder's or Lightning's ignorance. It's very sweet of you that you want to keep me safe, and I don't think I could ever thank you enough for this." Once again Light looked up at him. He was showing her a very warm smile, and she couldn't help but return it. The Raichu never doubted her mate's words. She knew he didn't say this just to make her feel better. He really meant it.
"You probably told Thunder I wouldn't go to the meeting," he continued. She nodded slightly. He sighed. "I'm sorry, my love, I really am. But I have to." The Raichu blinked in surprise. She then shook her head and quickly grabbed her writing utensils. For a moment she thought about what to write; there were so many reasons for Richard not to attend that meeting, and it would take her way too long to write them all down.

"It won't be good for you," was what she finally went with. She didn't have to hand Richard the note, as he could easily watch her write. He nodded.

"You're right, it won't." Light looked up at him with a puzzled expression. He lowered his gaze a little. "I said I would go there, Light," he answered her unspoken question. "I can't go against my word." It was obvious to him that she wasn't satisfied with that answer. He took a deep breath. "What good is the ability to talk when you don't tell the truth?" he asked rhetorically. "What good is giving your word if you're just going to go and break it?" His gaze met up with hers again. He looked very serious. "Light, would you still love me if I broke a promise I gave you?" The Raichu immediately wrote down her answer. The note read:

"No matter what happens, no matter what you do, I will always love you." Richard pulled her a little closer to him, rubbing her side with his fingers.

"Yes," he spoke in a heavy tone. "Yes, you will. But you shouldn't."










Never before had Niani realized how many Pokémon really lived at the mansion. Of course, she had heard their numbers being estimated a lot of times, but it just hadn't been the same as seeing nearly all of them accumulated in one place, like they were now. The hall had always been a rather busy place; however, this was the first time the Jolteon saw more than about sixty Pokémon in the large room. The only ones missing seemed to be Larryn, the overly anxious Rattata who always wanted to have at least one solid door between himself and everyone else, and Chria's children, who, as the Lapras had claimed, were simply too young to understand what this meeting was going to be about, except for Demorho, the oldest in the family. But the Vulpix had volunteered to keep watch over his foster brothers and sisters, so there was no one sitting at the edge of the artificial pool in which Chria was swimming.
All of the tables in the hall were occupied by two-legged Pokémon, except for the one that stood the closest to the middle of the room. It seemed to Niani like everyone had distinctly avoided it; even those who were sitting on the floor in random places appeared to keep their distance from that table. Most of the attendants were currently eating, and the Jolteon had a feeding dish full of meat sitting in front of her, too; however, she was far too busy getting used to how full the hall was, so she hadn't even touched it yet. What was bothering her the most was the steady noise, which was a lot louder than usual and almost hurt her sensitive ears. She kept shaking her head, wondering how her friends could handle this so easily; then again, their sense of hearing wasn't as keen as hers and they were probably already used to such a high volume. Niani just kept overhearing bits of conversations of which she knew that they were none of her business, and in spite of how much she tried not to listen she couldn't help but notice that the name "Sugar" seemed to be uttered awfully often. She shook her head once more and simply tried focusing on her visual sense instead. Kara was sitting on the ground, her ballpoint pen hovering above her list that she had indeed brought with her, but her attention was fixated on some spot far behind Niani. The Jolteon didn't need to see for herself what she was looking at, as after a moment she could hear her mutter:

"At least she didn't ride in on his shell again." These words seemed to catch Ral?re's attention. The Zangoose looked up from her food and, after thinking for a second, apparently came to the conclusion that she really didn't want to start up this whole discussion again. Niani shared this feeling with her. In search of some kind of distraction she looked up at the branches of the artificial trees. As usual, Netho was perched almost directly above them. However, now that such an important event was going to happen, the three other flying types that lived at the mansion had found a place in the branches as well. There were a Fearow with a sharp, long beak, a Farfetch'd that had placed its leek in the feeding bowl that was hanging from the branch it was sitting on, and a Golbat that had its eyes closed. Niani had to admit that the latter frightened her a little, as she had never laid eyes on one of those Pokémon before, and because she had a clear view on its dangerous looking teeth, with which it could suck blood from its victims. But she knew there was no need to worry; she was perfectly safe in the mansion.
She looked around for a bit longer, her gaze drifting across all kinds of different Pokémon. In order to pass the time she paid attention to how many names she was able to recall, but she always had to stop and wonder about some of them, of whom she could swear that she had never even seen them before. It was a little confusing to her; of course she had always known that the mansion was a really big place, but she still found it surprising that it was obviously even big enough for her not to be able to meet everyone living here.
Niani stopped turning her head as she spotted Ryakee. Not only was the Dragonite the strongest inhabitant of the mansion, but she seemed to be the largest as well; she had to be taller by at least one head than the male Charizard who was currently standing next to one of the tables where a Hitmonchan and a Sceptile were sitting, obviously engaged in a conversation with the two Pokémon. Ryakee stood a little closer to the table in the center than everyone else; she was bent over slightly, and as Niani looked a little more thoroughly she recognized the tips of many yellowish orange-colored tails, which were the only parts of the Ninetales twins that she could make out from her point of view, since the immense mass of Pokémon in the hall simply obscured the rest of their bodies. Niani blinked before turning her head back towards Kara and Ral?re.

"When is it going to start?" she asked, speaking considerably louder than usual. Both the Totodile and the Zangoose looked at her and then turned their gazes towards the closed entrance door. Ral?re shrugged.

"That depends on when Richard decides to show up," she replied. The Jolteon frowned slightly.

"Why do we need him for this?" Ral?re turned to look at Kara, but the Totodile simply shrugged. Judging from the expressions on their faces, none of them seemed to know the answer to Niani's question.

"Richard is a person of certain authority, Miss Niani," a voice came from above. The Jolteon looked up at Netho, who was staring at her seemingly right from the bottom of his deep, dark eyes. "He is respected by everyone in this room, which helps keeping everybody in order, so that no troubling incidents should occur." After a small moment he turned his head a little so that he wasn't directly looking at Niani anymore. "I apologize, Miss Niani," he added. "You probably did not intend to address me with this question." The Jolteon quickly shook her head and smiled reassuringly.

"Please don't worry," she said. "I'm glad you could give me an answer." The Pidgeotto bowed deeply in response, but didn't say anything. Niani lowered her gaze to look at Ral?re and Kara again.

"This is a little ridiculous," she found. "We're all adults here, right? And besides, Thunder and Lightning are with us, so I don't understand why we can't just do this ourselves." The Zangoose shook her head and sighed softly.

"You've got a point there," she admitted, "but that only works in theory. Look at all those Pokémon." She made a gesture with her paw, moving it in a large semicircle. "Look at how big this crowd is. This would become way too hard for only Thunder and Lightning to control, even with Ryakee's help." Once more, Niani looked around the hall. Ral?re certainly had a point, and it was further supported by the incredibly loud, steady noises that filled the room. It wouldn't be an easy task to make all of these Pokémon calm down.

"Miss Kara, it may be none of my business," Netho suddenly made himself heard, "but, if you are willing to tell me, I would like to know about the purpose of that list you seem to be working on." The Totodile looked up from her papers and smiled, apparently pleased that someone was interested in what she was doing.

"It'll help me endure the mating season," she replied. Ral?re quickly turned her head away, but Niani kept her gaze on Netho's face, interested in how the Pidgeotto would react to this. "It's a list of all the males in the mansion," she explained. "By crossing out everyone I don't want to be with I'll be able to find a good mate." Netho kept looking at Kara for a moment; his eyes were as inexpressive as they were nearly all the time.

"I see," he said and then did his usual bow. "Thank you for filling me in, Miss Kara." He then began to focus once more on pecking his food out of the bowl hanging from the branch he was sitting on. The Totodile blinked, but then simply shrugged and crossed out another name on her list, absentmindedly lifting a carrot from the plate that was standing next to her on the ground and starting to chew on it. However, Niani knew exactly why Netho had been so reticent; he had the same opinion as the Zangoose and her.

"Is that all you have to say about that?" she asked him with an amused smile. The Pidgeotto stopped eating again and looked down at her.

"I assume it is, Miss Niani," he replied without hesitating. "After all I was not asked about my opinion concerning this project." The Jolteon grinned.

"Well, then I'm asking you now," she said. "What's your opinion on this list?" Netho remained unmoving, but since his gaze was still locked with hers, Niani could easily make out a shimmer of uneasiness within his dark eyes. He placed his wing on his chest, and the Jolteon assumed that he did this in order to conceal a soft sigh.

"In all honesty, Miss Niani," now he turned towards Kara, who was looking up at him again, and bowed deeply, "and without any intention to insult you, Miss Kara, but I have to say that this will most likely not result in anything good." The Totodile blinked, then narrowed her eyes a little.

"Alright then," she said, looked down at her papers and, after a moment of searching, crossed out another name. "You're off the list." Niani couldn't help but chuckle a little and when she turned her head to exchange a glance with Ral?re she saw that it was the same with the Zangoose. Netho simply went back to eating without saying anything else, and the Jolteon decided that it'd be best for her to get something into her stomach as well.
All four of them were eating quietly for a few moments; however, they were interrupted when there was a loud, pounding sound to be heard, which seemed to have come from somewhere close to the middle of the room. Niani quickly swallowed the piece of meat she had in her mouth and turned her head to look where the noise had come from; it was the table that stood the closest to the center. Ryakee had apparently hit its surface with her fist, a motion she was now repeating. The pounding sound filled the hall once more, and, from what Niani could see, almost everyone turned to look at the Dragonite who was flanked by Thunder and Lightning. The eating noises and conversations were lowered in volume a little but there was still a certain steady sound in the room. Niani sighed in relief as this took quite a bit of pressure off her ears. She watched as the two Ninetales' jumped up on the table top, one after another.

"We are almost certain that Richard won't come," shouted Thunder, whom the Jolteon could identify because his voice was slightly deeper than his brother's, "so we'll have to hold this meeting without him! This means that we have to..." His next words were drowned out as almost every Pokémon in the hall seemed to yell something like "He won't come?!" or "Are you serious?!" at the same time, which more than doubled the steady volume in the hall and made Niani clench her eyes shut in discomfort. When she opened them again she saw Ryakee raise her fist to pound the table once more, but this time it didn't seem to do anything; everyone simply kept shouting at each other, and the voices, which had sounded simply surprised at first, now seemed to become angry fairly quickly. Niani turned her head back towards Kara and Ral?re; the Zangoose was trying to cover her ears with her paws, while the Totodile apparently took part in the general yelling.

"That's ridiculous!" she heard her shout, probably at Thunder and Lightning, but maybe also just at nobody in particular. "He said he'd come, didn't he?!" Niani growled lowly and looked up at Netho who was sitting on his branch like a statue of himself, absolutely motionless. The Jolteon decided that there was nothing she could do, so she would simply wait for everyone to calm down again; her gaze wandered across the room and found its way towards Thunder and Lightning once more, who were visibly displeased with how things were going. They also didn't intend to do anything else than wait.
After one or two minutes everyone seemed to have understood that nothing would be accomplished by shouting; however, some displeased grunts and low snarling could still be heard.

"We're aware that these are not good news!" Lightning was talking this time. His tails were swaying back and forth uneasily. "But remember, everyone, we don't necessarily need him. I propose that my brother Thunder and I will keep an eye on things from here, so that we can see everyone and make sure that everything remains in order, and when someone tries to disturb the way this discussion goes, they'll..."

"You'll just throw them out, right?!" A voice came from somewhere in the room. Niani quickly looked around, trying to locate its owner. "Who gives you the right to do that?!" The Jolteon managed to recognize the large Charizard; the two Pokémon at the table next to him nodded in approval. Thunder quickly shook his head.

"We're just trying to keep everything in order," he argued. "After all, we want to accomplish something, so what we need first is some organization."

"Yeah, but why are you the ones who get to do this?!" a female voice shouted. Once more, Niani looked around, but this time she wasn't able to spot its owner quickly enough, as other comments soon followed from basically everywhere in the hall.

"Why should we obey your decisions?!"

"You're not our leaders!"

"Richard wouldn't approve of this!"

More and more Pokémon started to shout again, and within a matter of seconds the noise had risen to its former nearly deafening volume once more. Niani could see Thunder, Lightning and Ryakee talking amongst themselves, seemingly not sure how they should keep the crowd under control. She turned her head to look at the Zangoose next to her, but she simply made a dismissive gesture with her paw and then covered her ears again, looking slightly annoyed. Kara wasn't shouting this time; she just stared back at Niani with a helpless expression and shrugged. The Jolteon shook her head. Maybe she should go to Thunder and Lightning and try to help them somehow, but she doubted that anyone would listen to her. The only thing that made her feel a little better was that she could be completely sure that there wasn't a fight going to break out, as Ryakee was on Thunder's and Lightning's side, and nobody in their right minds would ever even consider attacking the Dragonite that was probably able to make the entire mansion collapse by stomping on the floor as hard as she could. As Niani was thinking about this, she could hear Ryakee growl loudly; it made most of the attendants stop yelling, but the atmosphere remained tense, even more than a few moments ago. There were grunts and snarls coming from everywhere; however, Thunder and Lightning remained sitting on the table, signaling that they wouldn't give up.

"We are not trying to control anyone!" Lightning shouted. "We only want everyone to be safe and this meeting to be efficient."

"We don't want you to obey us!" Thunder added.

"Then why do you have that large thing standing next to you?!" a male voice came from somewhere in the room.

"Large Thing!?" Ryakee repeated angrily, looking around, trying to identify the one who had insulted her while clenching her fists. Lightning said something to her so quietly that Niani couldn't hear it; Thunder breathed deeply.

"As Lightning already said," he answered loudly, "we want everyone to be safe!"

"Safe from what?!"

"If anything, we'd need someone to protect us from you!"

Once more, the hall was close to succumbing to chaos. However, just before Thunder wanted to retort something in a presumably agitated tone, a familiar clicking sound could be heard in the room. Everyone turned their heads towards the entrance door, where it had come from, and stopped talking at once. There was dead silence as the door opened slowly and Richard entered the hall; he let Light, who had brought her usual writing materials and certainly did not look happy, follow after him and then closed the door behind him again. Everyone's eyes were on him, nobody said a word and all the Pokémon that stood between him and the table close to the middle of the room quickly stepped backwards, so that a passageway formed that allowed him to go to his place without any diversion. He didn't seem to look at anyone in particular and there was the usual indifferent expression in his eyes as he walked through the room in a normal, not even slightly hasty pace. Light, however, repeatedly looked to the left and the right as she followed him, her tail raised and its tip tracing circles in the air, ready to swat anyone that would do or say anything inappropriate, which didn't happen, as all the Pokémon were doing nothing but stare at Richard and Light.
Thunder and Lightning both jumped down from the table and, together with Ryakee, took a few steps back. Richard nodded at them and then stopped walking. He bent over and carefully picked up his Raichu, lifting her up on the table top. She smiled at him and he returned it, but when he looked up at the other Pokémon again it immediately disappeared from his face. He pulled back his chair a little but remained standing, supporting himself with his hands on the table top. He looked at the ground for a moment and his long hair made it difficult to see his face. Then he raised his gaze again and shook his head, his eyes fixated on the entrance door, so that it seemed strangely detached from the whole scene when he finally began talking.

"Every kind of administration, no matter if elected or not, must sooner or later face the pure injustice of its own existence." He didn't shout. His voice was calm and quiet, so that really everyone had to be completely silent in order to understand what he said. "This mansion was built so that there would exist at least one place in the world where there would not be such an injustice. I have to say, it doesn't work the way I imagined it yet, but it's better than how things are organized at most other places." He slowly sat down on the chair and interlocked his fingers on the table top. "We do not have leaders here. And if there exists any common sense in the world, then soon we will not have leaders anywhere." He lowered his gaze a little and a small, slightly ironic smile appeared on his face. "However, I certainly don't count on it." When he raised his head again his expression was as indifferent as usual. After a short pause he went on: "Nothing will be accomplished by shouting. Nobody will listen to you if you insult them. So please, for the sake of whatever it might be you have to say, try not to make my head hurt too much. Behave like the adults you are."
Richard fell silent after these words. He looked down at his hands that were still placed on the table top and didn't say anything else. Light looked over her shoulder and across the room for a moment, then concentrated on her mate again and raised her notepad and ballpoint pen, so that she would be ready if anyone would talk. However, this didn't happen too soon as everyone seemingly expected Richard to continue. After some time of absolute silence the sound of Thunder clearing his throat could be heard.
The Ninetales stepped forwards and took a deep breath.

"Whoever has a proposal to solve the issue at question is more than welcome to speak," he said, looking up at Richard from the corner of his eyes, as the human had turned his head a little and was now staring at him. Light was too busy writing down what Thunder said to express her opinion of him talking in any way. "But please mind Richard's words and be nice to each other." He hesitated for a moment, and it was clear that he actually wanted to keep on talking; however, he then turned his head towards Richard and decided to keep quiet.
It took another short while of silence for this encouragement to work.

"Well... the problem are the females, right?" Within less than a second, everyone had turned their heads towards the male Flaaffy sitting close to the wall who had said these words. It was obvious that he didn't like all this attention too much, as he quickly shook his head and apparently blushed under his fur. Still, his words had taken effect already.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Ryakee demanded to know in an unmistakably aggressive tone of voice. A quick look around the hall showed Niani that a lot of Pokémon, especially females, appeared to feel offended. The Flaaffy kept shaking his head.

"I didn't mean... I'm sorry, that came out wrong, please don't misunderstand me..."

"What's there to misunderstand?!" a voice shouted; Niani could easily identify it as Ral?re's. She turned her head and saw that the Zangoose had stood up, shaking her paw in the direction of the intimidated Flaaffy. "You're a misogynic bastard, we all got that!" Niani frowned at Ral?re in a disapproving way and saw that Kara rolled her eyes in her usual manner. However, a few more female voices arose from the hall, obviously in order to support the Zangoose's opinion.

"So you're making us responsible for this?!"

"It's all the same with you males, really!" Niani quickly turned her head back towards the Flaaffy who had raised his front paws in a protective manner and was still shaking his head; she could see his mouth move, but whatever he was trying to say was drowned out by the steady sound that was now getting louder again. She sighed inwardly. How should there ever be any progress made as long as everyone was so easily offended?

"That's right, actually!" another voice, which was louder than all the others, sounded through the room. It made everyone else quiet down a little and direct their attention towards a male Dragonite that had climbed up on one of the tables close to the wall with the windows in order to make it easier for the attendants to see him. Niani noticed, however, that even now he was still recognizably smaller than the one female of his kind that inhabited the mansion. "The problem really are the females! They go into heat and make everyone go crazy! So all we have to do is throw them out of the house for the duration of the mating season and we'll be fine!"
There was absolute silence for a moment. Niani blinked. She had just revised her former opinion of Kara's list of males being the very stupidest thing she had ever encountered in her life. It only took a moment, however, for the storm to break loose. The first thing the Jolteon heard was a choir of shrill female voices yelling at the Dragonite; less than a second later the males seemed to join in, either supporting his opinion or speaking up against him together with the females. Niani was about to turn her head again and see how Ral?re reacted to this, but suddenly, the whole ground began to shake and some of the angry yells turned into frightened shrieks. The Jolteon herself wasn't sure what had happened, so she quickly rose to her legs, just so that she could be ready for whatever it was that would come. There was no threat, however, as it quickly became clear that Ryakee had been responsible for this short earthquake.

"How dare you suggest something like this?!" the large Dragonite screamed in rage at her male counterpart. The way she positioned herself made it clear that she would attack him if he tried to talk back at her, and her eyes were full of a fiery, burning anger. Thunder and Lightning quickly stepped back, obviously fearing she could accidentally hurt them in some way. "We go into heat, that's right! Do you think that's what we want?! You can't even imagine the pain we have to go through every year, and you just want to throw us out?!" Everyone else had fallen silent at the enraged female's voice bellowing through the entire hall. The male Dragonite quickly climbed off the table again as Ryakee raised her hind paw once more, apparently wanting to repeat the stomp.

"Please try not to demolish the house," Richard's voice came from the center of the room. Even though he wasn't shouting it was clearly audible; Ryakee blinked and turned her head towards him. Richard was looking at her, or rather through her; it was difficult to tell. Light had directed her attention towards the female Dragonite as well, but her expression was obviously not as indifferent as her mate's. Her glance was hateful and enervated. The Dragonite slowly lowered her paw to the ground again, yet she kept staring at the male Pokémon in a threatening way.
Now that Richard had spoken everyone suddenly seemed to remember that he was there, and that he had asked them not to start shouting again. A moment of silence followed as all the Pokémon in the hall seemingly waited for him to keep on talking. He slowly turned his head from Ryakee towards his mate again and made a small gesture with his hand; she seemed to know what he wanted as she immediately placed her notebook and ballpoint pen on the table in front of him. Just as she wanted to retract her paws again Richard took hold of her right one, lowered his head and kissed it. Light reacted with a happy smile and a small, excited twitch of her long tail. Her mate kept holding her paw and then picked up the ballpoint pen, beginning to scribble something on the notepad.

"Why do you all hate each other?" he asked lowly and without looking up. "Why do you always need someone to blame? Does it make you happy? Does it benefit you, or anyone else in any way?" Light was softly patting his hand with her paw, looking at him with a worried expression. It was impossible for anyone in the hall other than the Raichu to see his face, and Niani knew that Richard wanted it this way.
"I don't know what your parents taught you," he went on in the same low tone. "I have no idea how they raised you, I cannot say what they did right and what they did wrong; I couldn't even do that if I had been with all of you back then. All I can do is assume that they wanted you to become strong, that they wanted you to be more powerful than everyone else in the world so that you'd be able to assert yourselves. But why would you even want to do that?" He shook his head, and as he spoke his next words he began trailing off slightly. "You shouldn't be proud of yourselves for being strong. You shouldn't be proud of yourselves for wanting to dominate. I'm weak, and I have no trouble admitting it. There are a lot of enemies that I can see in front of my eyes whenever I look out the window, and they're all stronger than me. But I don't want to defeat them, I don't want to rule over them, I never wanted anything like that. All I ever wanted was... and still is..." He had almost gone to whispering, so Niani couldn't hear if he spoke any further. Richard simply raised his head a little and looked up at Light. The Raichu returned his gaze, and then turned away from him so that she could face the Pokémon in the hall. There stood a deep sadness in her eyes, and her tail lay on the table weakly; however, she was still holding his hand.

"Why are you doing this to him?" Had it not been absolutely silent already when Richard had spoken, then everyone would have stopped talking immediately now. Light never spoke to any Pokémon, and even if someone directly asked her anything, she replied only very rarely. The fact that she was talking now made everyone realize that she considered this to be a very serious matter.
"You hurt him," she went on without even the slightest hint of anger in her voice. She just sounded sad. "You remind him of things he doesn't want to be reminded of. I knew this would happen." The Raichu nodded to herself, seemingly affirming this thought once more. "That's why I said to him it'd be better not to come here today. However, it seems he had given his word to someone..." and speaking these words, she turned her head to look at the two Ninetales' sitting next to Ryakee, with an unambiguous expression, "... so he didn't have a choice. However, now that he's here, you all..." she began raising her voice, now speaking louder and in a rather angry tone, "... could at least try not to behave like the bunch of idiots you are and instead be a little more sociable!" Her tail twitched a little and her ears shivered, making it obvious that she had to spend a lot of effort on containing herself so that she wouldn't randomly shoot thunderbolts at Pokémon in the crowd; however, this tension seemed to leave her body almost immediately when Richard raised his hand and put it on her cheek, building up eye contact with her again and saying something in a very low tone, which Niani couldn't hear over the quiet mumbling that now filled the hall. Looking around, she saw that almost all of the attendants had lowered their heads, muttering words of apology. She shook her head, realizing once more that she still hadn't completely adapted to this place, as she had found this development to be very melodramatic as best. The Jolteon noticed that both Ral?re and Kara had joined in on this collective activity of staring at the ground; frowning, she moved closer to the Zangoose.

"Isn't that a bit exaggerated?" she asked carefully. Ral?re cleared her throat, trying to keep it low so it wouldn't get noticed.

"That doesn't really matter," the Zangoose whispered back. "The main point here is that nobody wants to enrage Light." She looked at Niani with a very serious expression. "She would kill you." The Jolteon blinked. Of course, she had noticed that the Raichu could be spontaneously aggressive at times, but this was ridiculous. Ral?re appeared to notice that she didn't completely believe what she had said and sighed.

"Look, you need to understand how this works. If Light is angry and Richard notices that it's not going to change anytime soon, then they'll leave immediately. And you know what'll happen to this gathering in such a case." She made a gesture with her paws that somewhat reminded Niani of an explosion. The Jolteon rolled her eyes.

"Yes, fine, but what you said about not enraging Light..."

"... is absolutely true," Kara finished the sentence for her. Niani turned around to focus on the Totodile. "You see, I reckon that, if Light saw Ryakee as a threat to Richard for some reason, she would find a way to destroy her. And I mean "destroy"." The familiar toothy grin appeared on the Totodile's face again. "She'd probably somehow charge her with so much electricity that she'd just burst into pieces! Or maybe she..."

"Kara," Ral?re spoke in an enervated tone, holding her forehead with one paw. "You're making my head hurt again." Kara closed her mouth and crossed her arms in front of her chest, but Niani knew she wasn't really feeling insulted. Anyway, this usual squabbling between her two friends always managed to amuse her and make her smile.
It was now that the low sounds in the hall slowly died off again. Both Light and Richard seemed to have eyes only for each other, and it was clear to everyone that no kind of initiative should be expected from them. Niani wondered how the meeting would proceed now, hoping that someone with a higher degree of intelligence than the male Dragonite would come to make some sort of suggestion.
Her wish apparently came true when she heard a low fluttering sound from above.

"Excuse me, everyone," a familiar, very calm and serious voice said, "I certainly hope none of you will think of the proposal I am going to make as too bold. I swear it is not my intention to offend or insult anyone, however, in case anything like this might happen by accident, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies in advance." Just as Niani had suspected, Netho did his usual bow at the end of this sentence. A quick look at the crowd confirmed her first thought; everyone was listening attentively, except for Richard, of course, who was concentrating on the Raichu in front of him, and Light, although she still seemed to be writing something down on her notepad, translating the Pidgeotto's words. It certainly was well known that Netho was a very reasonable Pokémon, so a serious suggestion could be expected from him.
"It is not my attention to accuse anyone," he went on, his wing placed on his chest and his gaze lowered slightly in a humble gesture. "It cannot be denied that, without the presence of females, this problem would not exist to begin with..." his voice sped up a little at this point, as he obviously suspected another angry reaction to follow, "...however, the exact same thing can be said about the males' reaction to this natural cycle that we all have to learn how to handle every year." Some of the attendants nodded quietly. Niani saw that Ryakee, after having initially frowned about Netho's first few words, seemed to have been appeased as well.
"I believe many will agree with me when I say that it cannot be expected of everyone to successfully control one of their strongest natural desires for an entire month, especially under such complicated conditions. Now, since it would not only be unfair, but also barbaric, to completely banish one side, be it the males or the females, from the building for the duration of the mating season, it is important to find a way for us all to live together in this mansion without conflicts or unpleasant occurrences. As I see it, the easiest solution would thus be to simply prevent the two genders from coming in contact with each other, which could be reached by relocating them to different parts of the building."

A moment of silence followed, as nobody seemed to be completely sure whether the Pidgeotto would continue talking or not. As it became increasingly clear that Netho had said everything he had wanted to say, the Pokémon in the crowd began to lowly talk among themselves, apparently discussing his proposal.

"So you're saying," a large Nidoking, who was standing on the other side of the room and of whom Niani knew that he was called Zanner, began, "that the mansion should be divided into two large areas, of which there's one only for the males and the other one only for the females?"

"That is the essence of my words," Netho replied with a courteous bow. Zanner raised his large paw to his chin and, after a moment, nodded slowly.

"I'm in favor of this proposal," he spoke in a thoughtful tone, "But there might be something you've missed..."

"Yeah!" a higher, female voice agreed from somewhere within the crowd; Niani raised her head as far as she could and recognized its owner as a small Larvitar. "What about us? You can't separate my mate and me for an entire month!" Now that Niani paid closer attention she saw that the Larvitar had her right paw around the Linoone who was sitting at her side. The low mumbling started again, and a few other Pokémon were making themselves heard now. 

"That's true! We don't want to spend the most wonderful time of the year away from each other!" As more and more attendants gave shouts of agreement to this objection, Niani already began to fear that it all might spiral out of control again, but the Nidoking quickly raised his paws in a protective manner.

"Please, everyone, keep calm! There really isn't any problem to argue over, after all this house is big enough to be divided into three separate areas as well! That way the couples can stay together, and those without mates can still be kept from coming in contact with each other." 
It seemed like this solution really appealed to all the Pokémon in the hall. The shouting stopped and was replaced with the sounds of low mumbling coming from everywhere again, but the overall tenor appeared to be an agreeing one. Niani looked up at Netho, who, after noticing her gaze, returned it. She couldn't say if he was proud of himself for having made a useful suggestion; his eyes were as inexpressive as nearly always.

"You all seem to be in favor of this suggestion," Thunder made himself heard after it had gotten a little quieter again, "but this is still only a rough concept, of course. What we need to do now is work out the details. We have to decide which areas are off limits for whom, and we should also talk about what's supposed to happen to the bigger places, like the hall, the fighting range and the library. Maybe it'd be useful if someone could draw a map, then..."

"I'm really sorry, but I have to interrupt you there." The female voice with that familiar dangerously smooth tone to it that almost every inhabitant of the mansion knew and recognized managed to catch everybody's attention immediately. Within less than a second they were all looking at the Sneasel who had jumped up on one of the tables. Through the sudden silence in the room Niani could have sworn she had heard the gritting of Kara's teeth. Sugar blinked two times and then smiled bashfully, lowering her gaze a little.

"I'm sure you all know that I like to hold, well... special activities each Sunday." She giggled innocently and winked at someone in the crowd; Niani couldn't see who it was and after all it didn't really matter. The Jolteon quickly turned her head to see how Thunder and Lightning reacted to this sudden interruption; the Ninetales twins had lowered their tails and were staring at the Sneasel with a very annoyed expression.

"I'd be most disappointed if I had to stop with this during the mating season and so would be many of you," Sugar went on. "That's why I see a problem with separating the males from the females and keeping them from coming in contact with each other." She fell silent for a moment, looking from the left to the right and then back again, making her gaze rest on Thunder and Lightning.

"I ask every one of you to consider all the consequences that may possible occur because of the decisions you make," she went on with an expression that made it seem like she really cared about what might happen to all the other Pokémon in the hall. "I don't want to say this proposal was all bad, but do you honestly want to deprive yourselves from..."

"I believe this is enough, Sugar," Thunder spoke through clenched teeth. His brother nodded in agreement. "We all understood what you want to say. However, I fear that your personal preferences are not as important as the collective desire of the rest of us, which is to safely get through this mating season without having to deal with any kind of unfortunate incidents." While saying these words, his expression slowly changed from angry to confident and there even seemed to be a hint of smugness in the way he was looking at the Sneasel. Sugar kept up eye contact with him for a moment, then turned her head to the side.

"Why do you have to be so rude?" she asked in a lower tone, sounding somewhat hurt. "I just wanted to help, you know. A lot of males have grown used to those weekly invitations into my room, and I just wasn't sure if they'd really be alright with not being allowed to be with me for a whole, long month." This comment was accompanied by the sound of low mumbling; Niani was sure she only heard male voices, and she knew it was a good idea not to turn around to see what Kara and Ral?re thought of this.
An unambiguous growl came from the direction in which Thunder and Lightning were standing.

"Sugar, we all know you don't care about anyone but yourself, so you don't have to try making it seem any different." Lightning was speaking this time; Thunder confined himself to hatefully stare at the Sneasel. "Everyone except you is in favor of the restrictions we're about to make, so you just have to adapt yourself for once whether you like it or not. You either follow the rules we all establish together or you'll be punished, and if you can't even understand that sometimes you have to accept uncomfortable situations in order to make things easier for everyone, then..." Another sound that seemed like a growl was heard, however, this time it wasn't quite as deep, but at least just as displeased. Niani knew that Lightning probably wouldn't have let himself be interrupted by anyone else than this one person that was sitting in the middle of the room. Once again, everybody turned their heads to focus entirely on Richard; the human as well as his Raichu were facing the Ninetales twins. Niani could only see the backs of their heads and came to the conclusion that she probably should be thankful for that.

"What did you say about punishing someone?" Richard asked in a very cold tone. It sent a shiver down Niani's spine as she had never heard him like this before. His voice was usually either full of affection when he was talking to Light or completely indifferent in any other situation.
Lightning shook his head and quickly exchanged a glance with his brother. He then said in a very calm tone:

"I was merely pointing out that, if we agree on a rule, then everyone must obey it and to ensure this there has to be some kind of punishment in case this doesn't happen." Richard quickly read his mate's note.

"Oh." He nodded and then turned his head to look at Sugar, who was still sitting on her table. "I hope you won't mind me pointing out that certainly not everybody agreed on that rule that you were about to set up, then." Niani took a short glance at the Sneasel as well. Sugar seemed to be equally surprised and pleased that Richard had apparently taken her side.

"Please, Richard, you can't be serious," Thunder spoke in a somewhat tired tone, replacing his twin brother. "Of course we can't come up with something that completely satisfies everybody, some sort of compromise has to be made. In other words, as long as a vast majority is in favor of an idea, then there's nothing wrong with ignoring a lone protestor, especially if that protestor is someone like Sugar, who spends most of her time coming up with new ways to ruin everybody's lives."

"That's a malicious imputation!" Niani heard a male shout loudly. She wasn't exactly interested in finding out who it was, though, as the dispute between Richard and the Ninetales', who didn't even seem to hear the objection, appeared to be much worthier of her attention.

"First of all, it doesn't matter who it is," Richard began, now turning his head back towards Thunder again. "And to clear this up once and for all, I am not willing to accept a majority dominating a minority at this place. As long as I can do anything to stop this from happening, I will." There was a certain tension in his voice now. He wasn't speaking in an exactly threatening tone, he just sounded very serious. "Nobody will be forced to do anything against their will, and nobody will be punished for breaking a rule they did not agree with in the first place." The Ninetales' exchanged another glance. Thunder sighed.

"That's all very nice in theory, Richard," he said, his voice still sounding exhausted, making it clear that he really didn't want to discuss this. "Look, the problem is that we'd never be able to get anywhere if even the tiniest minority still had the right to slow down everyone's progress. I know you have trouble accepting this, but things can't always work out as you want them to, so a compromise is the only possible..." He slowed down as he spoke the last words and completely stopped talking after a moment. It took Niani only a moment to see why; Light had ceased to write down what he said. Thunder blinked. "Light, would you please keep translating, I..."

"It'd be better if you just stopped talking," she interrupted, and the coldness that had been in Richard voice suddenly seemed like nothing against her tone. Thunder looked at her with an expression that quickly changed from angry to enervated.

"Light, I really don't want to have this conversation with you again." There was a large amount of tension in his voice, which made it clear to everyone in the hall that the relations between the two Pokémon were more than just strained. "If you don't let me get through to Richard, then he'll never..."

"...have to deal with your idiocy again!" Light finished the sentence for him. She raised her tail a little, and its lightning shaped tip suddenly seemed to look more like a scythe than like anything else. Niani saw that both Thunder and Lightning rose to all fours again, their tails swaying back and forth slowly, and even Ryakee shifted her hind legs a little, getting into a position that made her ready to join in on an eventual battle.
All of the attendants held their breaths.

"I don't want to have this conversation, either, Thunder," she spoke slowly, now bringing her front paws together. When she pulled them apart again even Niani, in spite of her position being rather adverse, could see that an arc of controlled electricity had appeared in between, glowing dangerously and making an irritating buzzing noise. "We can get right to the part where I show you how angry I can become, if you'd prefer that."
The situation was about to escalate. The Ninetales twins answered with nothing but a low growl and slightly lowered their heads, making it clear that they would defend themselves if necessary, but not start an attack on their own. Light was apparently ready to attack any moment and her front paws shivered a little as the amount of electrical energy she was holding under control increased.
That was until Richard touched her shoulder. The Raichu immediately lowered both her tail and her paws, aborting the attack, and looked at the ground, her ears drooping.

"Why do you keep making her angry?" Richard had directed this question at Thunder. The Ninetales slowly sat down again and took another short glance at Light, who seemed to be very busy picking up her notepad and ballpoint pen again.

"It's not my fault," Thunder claimed. Richard's hand remained on Light's shoulder as she wrote down his words.

"What are you implying?" the human wanted to know. His questions were short and to the point, which didn't serve to make the atmosphere any less tense. Thunder didn't seem to be entirely comfortable with where this was going. He just turned his head to the side, so instead of him his brother said:

"Light sometimes overreacts a little." Everyone knew, of course, that this was still a euphemism for the truth; however, nobody had ever dared saying something like this to Richard's face before. However, the mansion's owner still seemed to remain calm after having read Light's note.

"She wants to protect me," he spoke. "Is that wrong?" Lightning apparently didn't have a direct answer to this. He took a deep breath.

"I doubt that you need such protection while talking to my brother and me." Richard took some time with his reply. Before he said anything he moved his hand from Light's shoulder towards her back, gently petting her. He exchanged a glance with his mate and then turned his head back towards Lightning.

"You're wrong," he said calmly. "That's when I need it the most. Besides, I know I can trust her judgments. If she thinks I should rather not understand what you say, then that's the way it is." Once again Lightning exchanged a glance with his brother. Niani didn't really understand what was going on, but she guessed from their facial expressions that they had just decided to not further continue this apparently pointless discussion.
A moment of silence followed. Then Sugar, who was still sitting on her table, cleared her throat, making everyone direct their attention towards her again. She smiled, obviously very satisfied to have so many eyes resting on her.

"It seems like we've digressed a little from the original topic," she spoke in a careful, yet determined tone. "If I recall correctly, we were trying to find a solution that..."

"We might as well give up," Thunder interrupted, sounding very annoyed and looking at Richard from the corner of his eyes. "We'll never be able to find a common ground with so many Pokémon in this mansion, so as long as we're not allowed to make any kind of compromise, there's no way we could find a solution." 
There came a soft sigh from Richard. He shook his head and then slowly stood up from his chair, supporting his body with his arms, his hands placed on the table top.

"I can't see why there should be any difficulties," he said, now speaking a little louder than before so that everyone could hear him without problems. "This house has way too many inhabitants to ignore all their differences and come up with something universal that everyone would have to obey, so the easiest way to make this work would be to have a rule only those who agree with have to follow." Thunder stared at him with an unbelieving expression.

"What would be the point of that?" he wanted to know. "A rule that can be broken by anyone at any time doesn't even have to exist in the first place!" After having read Light's translation, Richard's gaze slowly wandered from Thunder towards the large Dragonite behind him.

"The point would be that we can have an agreement without anyone being scared into obeying it," he replied. Ryakee clenched her fists and her eyes tightened a little, but she didn't say anything in return. Both Thunder and Lightning shook their heads.

"Just to make sure I've understood this correctly," Sugar suddenly made herself again, with a sparkle of happiness in her eyes, "if I personally don't agree to the mansion being divided into three separate areas, then I also won't have to follow these constraints?" Richard slowly turned his head to look at her.

"That is correct," he replied. A sly grin began to spread on the Sneasel's face. "However," Richard went on, "I think you should also know that for your safety cannot be guaranteed in such a case. Everyone who agrees to the rule does so because they are unsure as to whether or not they're capable of properly controlling their actions once the time arrives, so maybe you should try not to provoke any kind of unwanted reaction." Sugar blinked, then placed her front paw on her chest, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Am I one to "provoke reactions"?" she asked, sounding as if she had just been insulted. Niani heard Kara cough loudly. "Besides," the Sneasel continued, now shifting her gaze from Richard to Thunder and Lightning, "isn't it someone's job to make sure things like that don't occur?" This time Richard was the one to smile, which was a rare enough expression to see on his face. It was an ironic smile, though.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," he spoke, "but I can't force Thunder or Lightning to do anything against their will, and if they should decide to not keep an eye on things anymore, then everyone will have to face the consequences of their actions by themselves." Sugar's expression froze.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked slowly, now fixating Richard again with a hard stare. The mansion's owner shrugged.

"I just got the impression that Thunder and Lightning don't particularly like you," he replied nonchalantly. "It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't exactly keen on making sure nothing will happen to you." Sugar gasped slightly. She remained completely immobile, except for her eyelids, which tightened a little more. Niani breathed deeply and she was sure that everyone else was just as much on edge as she was. It was obvious that Sugar wouldn't take this as a final answer, even though it was clear that, for many reasons, one should disregard from provoking Richard.
One of those reasons was, of course, Light, who was firmly clasping her notepad and apparently trying to kill the Sneasel just by looking at her. Seeing her expression, Niani didn't feel entirely sure about whether or not this was actually possible. However, Sugar managed to somehow completely ignore the Raichu.

"It appears to me," she spoke in a slightly threatening tone, "that, as long as I am living in your house," she raised one of her front paws to point at Richard, "it is your task to make sure we're safe, as it would otherwise be rather irresponsible of you to let so many of us live here." Richard blinked. He then sat down on his chair again, still keeping his eyes on Sugar.

"I won't argue with that," he replied with a shrug. The Sneasel was apparently very surprised by this answer, but most of the attendants shared this sentiment.

"You... You mean you agree with me," she said, obviously still trying to make this fact clear to herself. Richard, after having read Light's note, took the notepad from her and began writing something on it, which he did, as Niani suspected, just to show how little he cared about the Sneasel.

"No, I don't agree with you," he spoke after a few moments, sounding a little absentminded, while ripping the sheet of paper out of the notepad, folding it and letting it slide into one of the pockets on his shirt. "I've just decided that your objection was too stupid for me to dignify it with any kind of real answer. Besides, I hardly think you're ever going to change your opinion, no matter what I say, so any continuation of this discussion would be a waste of time. Now..." He turned his head to look at Thunder and Lightning again, who seemed to be both surprised and pleased at the same time, "...did you still have any questions?"





During the further process of the meeting Niani took a glance in Sugar's direction a few more times. She wasn't sure why the Sneasel apparently had decided to stop getting everyone's attention for now, but she guessed that Sugar was so very enraged that she had simply gone mute for the time being. The fact that the Sneasel was staring at Richard just like Light had stared at her before certainly supported this theory. Except for a few male Pokémon in her close proximity, nobody seemed to focus on her anymore, which made it possible to have a rather smooth and uninterrupted discussion. Richard kept quiet for most of the time, but Niani noticed he always seemed to pay very much attention whenever Thunder or Lightning said something and sometimes he exchanged a glance with the Ninetales'.

The Jolteon didn't even notice the time passing by as the details of this new rule were worked out. Light's notepad had to be borrowed many times in order to make crude sketches of the mansion's layout; the Raichu apparently wasn't exactly in favor of this, yet she didn't protest. The main changes affected the first floor of the building. After many different concepts had been dismissed there was finally a solution everyone could agree on. The hall would remain easily accessible for everybody, which was considered to be most important by many. However, there were set times in the morning, the noon and the evening of the day during which it would be allowed to be used, as either Thunder, Lightning or Ryakee would have to keep an eye on the things happening there and neither of them wanted to be there all day long. The hall thus stayed a neutral zone, together with the part of the hallway that lay between its entrance and the stairway to the second floor. When leaving the hall, everything to the left of the door would be the females' and everything to the right of the stairs would be the males' territory; the couples would be relocated to the second floor. Since the battle arena was, according to this arrangement, in the females' and the library in the couples' area, everyone heading there would have to be guided by Thunder, Lightning, Ryakee or a Pokémon one of those three had appointed as one of their helpers, as it was clear to them that they'd have trouble handling all this on their own.

After it had all been worked out and seemingly nobody wanted to add anything, Richard slowly rose from his chair again. The noise of low conversations coming from basically everywhere in the hall quickly faded. The mansion's owner took a long look at the proposed solution, which was sketched out onto Light's notepad. He nodded slowly.

"If there's still someone in this room who doesn't feel properly informed about how this house will be divided, then they should speak now." Nobody said anything. It had taken a lot of time for everyone to get a good look at the sketch, but it seemed to have been worth it, as they all apparently knew what they were in for. Niani's gaze wandered from Richard towards the windows, of which some were opened. The meeting had begun at two o' clock PM, and now it was already late evening. The sunlight had gotten much too weak to illuminate the entire hall, so the lamps had been turned on some time ago.

"Well, that'll have to be enough, then," Richard continued. "I will now make a list of those who do not agree to the rule; they will remain free to go wherever they want." He looked at Light for a moment, then flipped the page on the notepad and began writing. "Light and I won't move out of our room just because of that mating season," he said and then looked at the crowd of Pokémon all around him. "Please make yourselves recognizable somehow, otherwise I can't put you on the list." Sugar raised her paw immediately.

"I don't want to make this more difficult than it already is," she spoke in an apologetic, yet obviously repressed angry tone, "but I would like to keep up my tradition of inviting others into my room, so would it be asking too much if that could be made possible?" Richard looked at her with a slightly exhausted expression. After Light had translated Sugar's words, he shrugged.

"That's alright, I guess," he said. "I'll just put a note down here so that others may accompany you to your room..." He wrote a few words down, then stopped and looked up once more. "What was your name again?" It certainly didn't make the Sneasel any happier to hear that Richard apparently wasn't able to memorize her name.

"Sugar," she replied, now noticeably angry. Richard nodded and wrote it down while muttering something under his breath, which Niani couldn't understand.






Other than the Sneasel, almost everyone else seemed to agree to this new rule, except for Shane, the chronically depressed Sandslash, who simply raised his claw without explaining at all why he wanted to be on the list. Further exceptions included Larryn, the Rattata who never left his room, Chria and her children, who couldn't be separated from each other, and Doc, who would be relocated to a room in the neutral area, which he could turn into an infirmary if such a need would arise. Lightning, Thunder and Ryakee were put down on the list as well, as they needed to move freely through the whole mansion.

"Did we miss anyone, now?" Richard slowly turned around in a full circle, letting his gaze wander across all the Pokémon in the hall. Nobody made themselves noticeable. "In that case the relocation will begin in about one week, so that everything will be finished before the mating season begins." Nobody objected. Richard ripped the list out of the notepad and, after having given Light her writing utensils, carefully lifted her up and set her down on the floor. He then headed towards the pin board, which, until now, had only had the piece of paper with the Pokémon's names who had been killed during the attack on the mansion on it, closely followed by the Raichu, barely even noticing all the Pokémon who stepped aside to let him through. Richard pinned the list on the board, then reached into his shirt's pocket and pulled out the sheet of paper from before. He carefully unfolded it and then pinned it right next to the list. Without any further explanation he turned around and walked towards the door, once more followed by Light.

Right after the door had closed behind them it was like everyone in the hall suddenly awoke from a deep sleep. Within less than a second everybody was talking amongst themselves again and there was a lot of movement in the crowd, as many Pokémon wanted to see what Richard had written. Niani, who was just as curious as everybody else, quickly nodded at Ral?re and Kara, silently telling them she would go to check it out as well. She then skillfully wormed her way through the mass of moving bodies, of which many were heavier than her. As she was fast and not exactly big, it didn't take her long to reach the pin board. The Jolteon had to squint in order to read what it said, as Richard had apparently written it very quickly and maybe even with a shivering hand. 
However, above the words there was something more easily recognizable; a capital A within a circle. After a moment of focusing on the letters, Niani was able to read what was written underneath:

Remember, everyone,
No matter what happens,
No matter who denies it,
This is still an anarchy
Until everyone agrees that it is not,
Which will not happen for as long as I live here.
-- Richard








Sugar wasn't sure if she should be happy or angry about the meeting's outcomes. On the one side she was glad that she would be able to continue with inviting males to her room, especially since they'd certainly compete for her even more than usual because of the mating season; on the other side she'd had to take a serious insult from Richard, which certainly wasn't anything she was used to. Whenever males talked to her all she normally heard were all manner of different compliments, with the exception of Thunder and Lightning, but the Ninetales twins were never a problem to argue with. It was fun making them angry and there weren't any serious consequences to be expected, no matter what she said to them. However, she knew that it was wiser to watch her words around the mansion's owner. Not only wasn't she sure how much he would take before he'd simply throw her out, but she was also scared of Light. There were only very few things she was afraid of, as she deemed herself smarter than basically everyone else and knew that she was able to gain power over whomever she pleased, and still she didn't even want to think about what the Raichu would do to her if she ever thought that Sugar would even consider to come anywhere near her mate. Now, this wouldn't have been such a big problem, had Richard not always been on the very top of Sugar's list ever since she had moved into the mansion. There wasn't anything about him that she was attracted to, of course, just as it was with any other male, but the simple unimaginable power that would undoubtedly come from making him hers was what she truly desired. The Sneasel sometimes spent entire afternoons just thinking about how everyone would have to obey her will, or else leave the mansion, without anyone being able to do anything about it. Richard was the only human in the house. He was the only one who could order food and everything else they needed. If she managed to control him, she would rule over the building and everyone living inside of it.

It was all quite easy in theory. Sugar would just have to drive a wedge between Richard and Light somehow and then present herself as his new mate that would do for him whatever he needed and as soon as he was as sexually dependent on her as most of the other males were, he'd do everything she told him to just to keep her. However, this plan failed in its first step already, as she had yet to think of a way to somehow separate Light and Richard, who were so ridiculously attached to each other that neither of them was ever seen alone for just one second. Still, even if she managed to come up with something, the Raichu would instantly kill her if she noticed what she was trying to do, and the chances of this happening were very high as Light was paranoidal suspicious of any female creature in the house anyway. So far Sugar had always shied away from her plan as it was just too risky, but now that Richard had treated her with such a large amount of disrespect she knew she'd have to execute it as soon as possible, if just to show the human that it was better for everyone not to ignore her. It was as if she could already feel the satisfaction of kicking Light out of the house along with Thunder and Lightning, although she'd probably miss their usual fights a little; then again, she imagined that having absolute control over everyone would compensate her for that. Maybe she would even continue with her weekly activity each Sunday, just to see her males actually killing each other over her for once without any bothersome Ninetales stepping between them. Even Richard would try his best to impress her and she'd probably have access to all manner of different things that humans produced, even though she didn't know yet what most of them were for, but she was sure she would find out. Perhaps she would even decide to simply throw out all the females, then she'd be the only one left and everyone would compete for her affection even more...

"Sugar?" The Sneasel blinked and shook her head. She hadn't even noticed that at some point she had simply stopped walking, so now she was standing in the middle of the hallway, just staring at the empty space in front of her. She gritted her teeth as it had originally been her intention to get back into her room as fast as possible. Now she had gotten sidetracked again and, since she had recognized the voice, knew that it could take quite a while until she would be able to go there again. Sugar turned around very slowly, trying her best to make a happy smile appear and stay on her face. 

It was, of course, the Wartortle who had called her. Now that she had turned he was standing in front of her, his eyes showing a worried expression while he was fiddling around with his front paws.

"Lyrtes!" she exclaimed excitedly, moving a little closer towards him and then sitting down. "I'm so glad to see you!" Her tone sounded a little more artificial than usual, but she just couldn't do any better in this situation. She simply didn't want to speak with Lyrtes at the moment. The Wartortle took a deep breath.

"There's something I'd like to talk about with you," he spoke, his voice being strangely calm and serious. Lyrtes then turned his head a little in order to look behind them. Sugar stretched her neck a bit and saw that, near the entrance to the hall, there was still a crowd of Pokémon. Some of them were heading in their direction. The Wartortle looked back at her. "Maybe we shouldn't stand out here in the corridor like this," he added. Sugar nodded.

"You're certainly right about that." She would have loved to tell Lyrtes to just go to his own room if he didn't want to keep standing in the hallway, but instead she rose to all fours again and turned around, flicking her tails in an elegant manner. "Follow me."

While walking to her room, Sugar paid attention not to move too quickly or to appear tense, as she didn't want Lyrtes to notice that his presence was all but asked for. She feared he wasn't as attached to her as the others were, and if she did something wrong now, she might even scare him off. For now the most important thing was to completely make him her own and then she could treat him in whatever way she wanted.
Sugar opened the door and let her guest enter her room, then quickly followed after him. As soon as she had closed it again Lyrtes faced her and sighed.

"Look, Sugar," he began, and it was clear that he was spending a lot of effort on thinking about how he should phrase his thoughts, "I'm not exactly sure I really understood the nature of the relationship we have." Sugar slowly sat down in front of the door, only responding to this statement with an innocent blink. Lyrtes cleared his throat.

"I... I thought we were going to be mates from now on..."

"Mates?" The word had left her mouth before Sugar could remind herself that she was supposed to keep her posture. It had simply surprised her too much to hear this sentence. Lyrtes frowned slightly, now looking at her with a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

"You said you loved me," he reminded her. Sugar quickly nodded.

"Yes, I did," she replied, making sure her voice sounded a bit surprised and worried. Lyrtes blinked.

"Well, and I love you, too," he spoke, "so why can't we be...?" Sugar interrupted him with a sigh. He stopped talking immediately, watching her closely as she turned her head to the side. The Sneasel rose to all fours again, slowly walking past her guest without looking at him.

"I'd never have thought you were that selfish," she said in a low tone while slightly shaking her head. Lyrtes turned around to face her again. From the corner of her eyes she could see that he was more than just a little surprised to hear these words from her.

"Selfish?" he repeated in an unbelieving tone. The Wartortle stepped towards Sugar only to see that she shied away a little, making him stop in his tracks immediately. He frowned. "I... I'm sorry... I don't think I really understand..." Sugar raised her head, looking at him with an expression that quietly told him to be silent. He closed his mouth.

"You want to have me all for yourself," she stated, her gaze now locked with his. He didn't turn away, but there was a hint of insecurity in his eyes.

"That's not true," he claimed, not raising his voice even though Sugar's accusation had obviously thrown him off track a little. "I just want to make you happy. You said you didn't like it that everyone treated you like..." He quickly stopped talking as he realized that it was probably better not to speak those next words. After clearing his throat once, the Wartortle continued: "Anyway, if... if you were my mate, I promise I'd never..." Sugar blinked and then lowered her gaze a little.

"I see," she spoke in a heavy tone. "However, I fear it's not that easy." She turned away from Lyrtes again and then jumped up on her bed, where she lay down, seemingly very tired. The Wartortle apparently wasn't sure whether or not he should follow her, so he just stepped up to the side of the bed but decided to stay on the ground for now. "I have responsibilities, Lyrtes," Sugar went on, sounding a bit regretful. "There are so many males in this house who all want to spend time with me. If we became mates, then what about them?" Lyrtes blinked, looking up at her with an unbelieving expression.

"Why would you care about them?" he asked. "They don't care about you, either!" Sugar turned over on her back with an exhausted sigh.

"No, they don't," she agreed, "but the fact that they treat me badly doesn't give me the right to do the same." She paused for a moment, then continued: "They all desire me. It would be devastating for them to know that none of them could ever have me anymore. I don't think I could do such a thing to anyone, no matter who it is." There was a moment of silence. Lyrtes shook his head; his expression was very serious.

"You were not born to be a toy," he stated. Sugar shifted her body a little and raised her head in order to be able to look at him.

"Well, but I wasn't born to care only about me, either," she replied. When it seemed like Lyrtes wanted to say something else, she quickly added: "Besides, it would certainly not go by unnoticed if you were the only one allowed to be with me. I can imagine the other males wouldn't be pleased to see this. They might even attack you." Sugar rolled over again and sat up on the bed. "I won't let that happen," she spoke, her gaze fastened on the Wartortle. "I'm not worth putting you in danger." He could only look at her for a short time, then he turned away slightly.

"I'm sure it wouldn't be all that bad," he tried to argue. "Remember, we always have Thunder and Lightning to protect us if..." He flicked his bright, curved ears as he could hear Sugar grit her teeth. For a moment Lyrtes almost could have sworn to have seen a hateful glimmer in her eyes, but after he blinked once he was sure he had been mistaken. The Sneasel appeared to be just sad and nothing else.

"I don't think we can count on that," she spoke, lowering her gaze a little. "They hate me."

"They hate you?" Lyrtes repeated in a surprised tone. He shook his head. "Why..." The Wartortle quickly stopped talking and blinked as he had trouble believing his eyes. "Sugar, are you... are you crying?" The Sneasel quickly turned her head to the side so she wouldn't have to face him anymore.

"I'm sorry." She breathed deeply but wasn't able to eradicate the insecure shiver that was in her tone of voice. "It's just... I don't even know why they hate me so much, but they do, for some reason, and... I don't know what to do..." If she'd had the intention to keep on talking, then this was now impossible for her to do, as she already had to spend a lot of effort on keeping herself from sobbing loudly after each word. Lyrtes just stared at her for a moment until he realized that the Sneasel needed his help. He quickly got up on the bed, almost pulling the blanket down to the ground, which he didn't notice at all.

"Sugar, please..." He reached out with a shivering paw, carefully placing it on the Sneasel's shoulder. She wasn't looking at him, but her whole body seemed to be shaking. "I know that things aren't looking good right now, but that'll change again, I swear..." He swallowed, trying to make his voice sound calm and comforting. "I'm here to help you. I can protect you if there are things you need to be protected from, I can stay with you and make sure you don't feel lonely..." Lyrtes carefully placed his paw on the Sneasel's cheek, gently turning her head towards him. The fur under her eyes was a little darker than usual, as it was wet with her tears.
"I only want to make you happy, Sugar," Lyrtes continued lowly. "If you just let me stay here with you, then we could..." He couldn't speak further as the Sneasel had practically thrown herself against his chest, now clinging to him with her front paws, her claws slightly scratching across his shell. Lyrtes reacted by hugging her tightly, not really knowing if he should continue talking.

"We can't!" she sobbed, pushing her body as close to the Wartortle's as possible. "We can't be mates!" She retracted her head so that she could look at Lyrtes' face. Although there were still tears leaving her eyes she apparently managed to think and speak clearly. "You are all I have, Lyrtes. You are the only one who ever loved me. I just can't stop what I'm doing and be your mate from now on, everyone would hate you! I could never live, knowing I'm the reason you were in danger, knowing I had ruined your life..."

"But it just can't go on like this, Sugar." Lyrtes' paws were gently caressing the Sneasel's back. She shook her head.

"It has to," she whispered, lowering her gaze again. "I should never have started it. It was the worst thing I ever did, and if I could go back and change it..." Sugar breathed deeply, not finishing her sentence. "However, now that it has gone so far, I can't just end it. I was a fool, and now I have to face the consequences of my..."

"I don't want you to say things like that," Lyrtes interrupted. Sugar's ears twitched slightly, but she kept her head lowered. "You don't have to do anything you don't want, and nobody would ever accuse you of having made a wrong decision if you just stopped. Please, Sugar, you need to think of yourself." The Sneasel just stared at him for a moment, then slowly shook her head.

"I need to think of you first," she said. Looking into the Wartortle's eyes she had trouble keeping her own facial expression straight. It was ridiculous how much he worried about her. She could take a lot better care of herself than he would ever be able to, and still he apparently thought she wanted his help. Then again, Sugar had to silently admit that she had certainly not made him more secure of her independence when she had thrown herself at him, weeping like a little child that had just been left by its parents. What had been much more important at that moment than her own appearance had been to make him think she actually wanted to be with him, as he had not yet been worked on enough for her to simply ignore him completely without risking losing him. However, this didn't change the fact that Sugar was wishing he'd just leave her alone for now. She just didn't want that Wartortle around her all day long.

"This is my final decision," the Sneasel continued in a regretful tone. "I really wish it wasn't this way, but we just can't be mates." Sugar had actually expected Lyrtes to slowly let go of her now and finally leave in disappointment, or maybe ask one more time for her to change her mind. Instead, he tightened his embrace a little, looking deep into Sugar's eyes with an insecure expression.

"But we're supposed to be mates," he spoke, now sounding slightly desperate. "We love each other... We must be together!" The Sneasel frowned a little before reminding herself again that she still had to keep up her saddened expression. It was hard for her to believe just how slow Lyrtes seemed to be. More than once she had made it very clear now that his wish wouldn't come true and still he apparently wasn't willing to just drop the subject. Very carefully Sugar placed her front paws on his chest and pushed herself away from him just a little, and fortunately he made the right decision by letting his arms give way.

"I didn't say we couldn't be together," she pointed out, now slowly freeing herself from his embrace. As soon as she could, she turned around and sat down so that she didn't have to keep looking at him. "I just don't think it'd be good if you were the only male allowed to see me. You need to understand that this would be much too dangerous." She lowered her head a little as she spoke these words, and, after maybe two seconds had passed, added: "Please understand."
She heard Lyrtes sigh.

"I see." There was a moment of silence. Since Sugar wasn't looking in the Wartortle's direction she couldn't see what he was doing or if he was doing anything at all, but as long as he didn't touch her again, she didn't mind. "It's just... You always say you only allow visitors on Sundays, and..." He stopped talking. Sugar kept her body entirely still, but narrowed her eyes a little. She wasn't entirely sure why, but Lyrtes was a lot more difficult than other males. He seemed to need a lot more attention than just the usual hopes of getting to be with her once a week. The Sneasel had, in some way, expected something like this, but had, until this moment, hoped that maybe she wouldn't have to deal with such a problem after all. However, now that the whole situation was clear to her, she had to act accordingly. She raised her head a little again, waited for one more second and then spoke, in a very reluctant tone:

"You know... Maybe I could make an exception for you..." Sugar was sure that Lyrtes was holding his breath. She turned around to face him, seeing that he was tense with anticipation of what she was going to say next. "Since you mean so much to me, you'll be allowed to come and see me anytime you want." The Wartortle's expression lit up, but before he could say anything, she quickly continued: "But you must promise me to make sure nobody ever sees you, or else you might get in danger after all." Her gaze had become as worried as it had been just a few moments ago. "I need you to be safe. That's much more important than anything else." Lyrtes nodded slowly. However, there still seemed to be a hint of insecurity in his eyes.

"I'm not really..." he began, but Sugar made him stop talking with a single glance that silently told him that she knew what he was going to say. She took his front paws with hers and smiled a little, although she made sure to also look a bit regretful at the same time.

"I know this isn't really what you imagined," she said, gently rubbing his paws with hers. "You can believe me, I really wish this would all be easier, but..." She shook her head and breathed deeply, not finishing the sentence. "It's the only solution I can think of," she continued. "I understand you'll need some time to think about it, and you should do this alone." Very slowly she let go of his paws again, not turning her head away this time. "You can come here whenever you want, just... please be careful." Lyrtes simply nodded again. Sugar could easily see in his eyes that he was a little confused, but apparently he had finally understood that he should better leave now.

"I..." His voice was of a slightly higher pitch than usual, so he quickly cleared his throat and started over: "I'll be back soon." As he turned around and jumped off of the bed, Sugar showed him a warm smile in order to tell him that he was doing the right thing. His movements were a little reluctant and he seemed to slow down even more as he had reached the door.

"I'll be waiting for you," the Sneasel said. Lyrtes looked back at her once more and Sugar knew there were still a lot of things he would have wanted to tell her, but he decided to remain silent and simply leave the room.
As soon as the door was closed Sugar sighed deeply and let herself fall over on her side. She closed her eyes and began thinking about what she had just agreed to. It had been clear that Lyrtes would never have kept believing that she loved him had she not granted him these special privileges, so she hadn't really had any choice. However, there was a chance that the whole situation might develop in a way that was favorable for her, after all. The mating season was approaching rapidly, and it would certainly be nice that she wouldn't have to wait for the end of the week to still her natural desires; however, saying that the Wartortle didn't know how to please her seemed to her like the greatest understatement of the century. Maybe she would be able to teach him a thing or two before the season started, but once that time arrived she knew she would need much more than he could give her. All in all, she was certain that the Lyrtes' fixation on her was a lot more annoying than useful. She decided that, for the time being, she should just relax a little and try to forget about everything that went on her nerves. 
However, this plan was destroyed within less than a second by an all too familiar voice, which, although it was that of a child, sounded enervatingly mature.

"Is it fate, or is it maybe a desire you would never admit to have?" Sugar kept her eyes closed and didn't move. "Or might these two things, by any chance, be essentially the same?" The Sneasel grunted lowly.

"I'd call it bad luck," she replied halfheartedly. The child remained quiet for a moment, then spoke up again:

"You might learn something from him." Sugar shook her head.

"I just want to sleep."

The child didn't say anything else.








Shane closed the door behind him by leaning against it until it clicked shut, the many spikes on his back scratching across its wooden surface. Since he did this quite often, the door already had a lot of thin lines carved into it but the Sandslash didn't care about that. As long as the wooden plate kept all possible nuisances out of his room it really didn't matter what it looked like.
Shane breathed deeply. There was complete silence, just as always. It was good to finally be away from the mass of Pokémon that had gathered in the hall. Crowds were such irritating things, but what he liked even less were voices. As soon as anyone spoke he always felt the desire to cover his ears up with his paws, but that would be way too much effort. If he just waited for a few moments then every voice, no matter to whom it belonged and no matter how enervating it was, turned into nothing but an easily ignored humming sound, which was the only reason why the Sandslash could stand eating in the hall among all the other Pokémon. However, as what had been said during the meeting had been very important even for him, he had listened to all of it, which had reminded him over and over again why he didn't want to talk to anyone. He was feeling very exhausted now and he blinked at the evening sun glimmering through the window. It was late enough to go to bed without having to worry about possibly being awoken by bright sunlight, which didn't make him happy, but at least he felt slightly better than during the day. Sleeping was the only thing he could still look forward to and yet it still couldn't distract him from the painful emptiness that had taken over his body ever since he had lost both his mate and his unborn child. When he looked at the ruffled bed he sighed deeply. There was no one to share his sleeping-place with at night, just like there was no one he could talk to about his thoughts and his feelings, no one for him to hug, to laugh with or to comfort, just no one at all. He was alone. However, being alone certainly was better than being with anyone other than Tahlanée.

Not counting the bed, Shane's small room contained only two pieces of furniture, which were a cupboard that was entirely covered in a thick layer of dust and had apparently never been opened even once, and a table that was standing close to the window. It had a small, rectangular cloth on it, which was of a grayish white, and a vase with a spray of artificial flowers in it. Their once intense colorings had long ago turned pale. The room's corners looked a little dirty as the dust had gathered there as well, but Shane had just never felt motivated to clean them. All he needed was the bed and the current situation wasn't different from any other. He placed his front paws on the mattress and heaved himself up on it, noticing from the corner of his eyes that the bed sheets were looking rather frazzled as they always had to endure his spikes moving back and forth across them. Shane lay down with his cheek on the pillow and tugged at the blanket so that it came to cover up most of his body. He slowly closed his eyes, now banishing the dying sunlight from his mind, waiting to fall asleep. It didn't take him long to finally become free from his body and allowed to leave this world as it happened every night.

"Tahly," he whispered lowly.


He felt he was sitting on soft, fresh grass and a gentle wind caressed his body. The Sandslash was leaning against a tree, his spikes not quite piercing its bark. However, it was much more important to him that his front paws were wrapped around a warm body that was, in terms of its physique, almost completely similar to his, just maybe a little taller, slightly more flexible, but still with a noticeably larger belly. It was hard for other species to imagine how Sandslashs snuggled with each other, but Shane knew just where to keep his paws so that they lay right between his partner's spikes without getting hurt at all.

Shane breathed, deeply inhaling both the sensation of the fresh meadow they were on, and the very familiar scent that he missed so much when he was awake. And then he did something he absolutely never did when he wasn't dreaming.

He smiled.

"Tahly," he repeated, tightening his embrace around his mate a little. Her cheek was resting on his chest just below his left shoulder and her belly touched his side. She was holding herself close to him, her front paws lying between his spikes just like his lay between hers.

"Won't you open your eyes?" Her voice was as soft as a lullaby and it almost hurt him to hear it. It was so wonderful to know that his mate was talking to him, and the constant realization that he would never be able to listen to this melody of a voice in the real world ever again certainly was painful enough to suffer for all of his life.
Shane reclined his head and slowly opened his eyes. He was greeted by what seemed to be a million stars shining through between the many leaves of the lone, tall tree standing in the middle of the meadow. It had been years since the Sandslash had last really witnessed such a clear night. The sky was black with only the faintest hint of a dark blue, and, of course, all those little lights that shone in the night. However, there was not very much to see of the sky as the tree's leaves were constantly moving around slightly in the gentle breeze, letting stars disappear just to show them again only a moment later.

Shane lowered his gaze a little. In spite of all the little beacons in the sky it was still too dark to see further than maybe two hundred meters, which made it appear as if the meadow was a small, almost perfectly round island floating in a black ocean. The Sandslash nodded to himself as he found this description to be the most fitting. He then finally looked at Tahlanée, who was holding on to him seemingly just as much as he was holding on to her. She was clearly visible in the darkness of the night, as if she was giving off a soft light of her own. Tahlanée was a rather strong Sandslash, judging from her outer appearance, but when looking into her deep, dark eyes, which reflected the light of the stars, Shane saw the true fragility of his mate. Nothing characterized her more precisely than this worried shimmer, which, as Shane knew exactly, had been in his eyes as well before he had lost both his mate and his child. He was sure he regained it during nights like this one, but as soon as he woke up he always lost it again.

She was looking up at him with a soft smile, which he tried to genuinely return; however, in spite of his happiness about being with his mate it was apparently still easily visible for Tahlanée that he was having a problem. The worried shimmer in her eyes became more prominent than it had been before.

"There's something on your mind," she stated in her usual soft, slightly timid tone. Instead of directly giving her an answer he just lowered his gaze a little more. "Is it about me?" She was sounding rather anxious now. Shane knew that his mate always feared she could maybe cause some kind of problems, which got her worked up quite often.

"It's not," he said quickly. She nodded slightly, but it was clear that she still wanted to know what was weighing down the male's mind. He breathed deeply. "Mating season is approaching again," he murmured, trying his best not to sound like it bothered him too much.

"Oh, I see." Tahlanée purred happily and rubbed her cheek against her mate's chest in an affectionate manner. "I'll always remember ours." Shane closed his eyes for a small moment. When he opened them again he saw that the female seemed to be shocked about her own words.

"I'm so sorry," she breathed while shaking her head. "I didn't mean to say that... I know this has to be very painful for you, I just..." Shane retracted one of his paws from her back and carefully placed it on her cheek. Her eyes were shivering a little.

"It's alright," he spoke softly. "Please don't worry so much." Her expression didn't change. While his paw began to gently caress her cheek he showed her a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine, I promise. Besides, it's just the memory of those days that keeps me going." Thalanée slowly let her cheek sink back onto his chest and sighed deeply.

"I wish I could help you." A moment of silence followed, during which Shane embraced his mate again. "I'm sorry that I left you," she said. "I'm sorry I died." The male shook his head.

"You know this wasn't your fault," he argued. "You've always been too hard on yourself." He lowered his head a little and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead. "I will always love you, Tahly, and I don't want you to feel bad about anything. Please don't worry too much about me. As long as we can still be together..." He stopped talking as he was painfully reminded of the fact that he was dreaming. Thalanée noticed his sudden reluctance. She quickly built up eye contact with him again, now looking a lot more secure than before.

"I'll always be with you," she spoke in a steady tone. "I love you, Shane, and that means that I became yours a long time ago. There is a part of me that you will never lose, so not even death could do anything against us being together for all eternity." It made Shane smile to hear those words. It had always been this way; whenever he needed to be comforted, Tahlanée forgot about her usual uncertainty and focused completely on making her mate feel better.

"For all eternity?" he repeated while lowering his head a little further. The female nodded.

"I promise." As soon as these whispered words had left her mouth her lips met up with Shane's.

While he kissed his mate with all his love, the Sandslash concentrated as much as he could on wishing that he would never wake up again. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, it might finally come true this night.




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