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Disclaimer: All characters, settings and various other things are property of their respective owners, I do not own Pokemon, if I did I probably wouldn't be caught dead here. *tear* On that note I don't really have anything to do with them, but I'd often like to, because frankly it would be fun. Any characters they don't belong to me I'll have gotten permission from their respective owners to use. (aside Pokemon, I'd hate to send the e-mail asking them to use their characters in a story such as this.) No Copyrights lawsuits plz.

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Chapter 2: A Grace with fury.

"Done?" David lowly asked as he saw Grace, the Umbreon he now befriended, finish the fish he had given her. She glanced up at him with her red eyes and didn't bother to say anything for a few moments, focusing on cleaning herself of the fish she just ate.

David patiently waited for her response for a few minutes until she paused from licking her paw and looked at him. "Yes." She answered finally as she continued to clean herself, not really planning moving anytime soon. With those words David got up with those words and stretched out, yawning loudly.

"So! Are we ready to go?" David asked, rather eager to get moving now. She looked up at him and blinked a few times at him.

"No, I'll tell you when I'm ready." Grace bluntly stated as she continued to clean her fur. David looked at her and almost let something loose to try and convince her to hurry up, but figured that it wouldn't be a good idea, given it might rub off on her the wrong way.

David sat himself back down and waited a few more minutes, impatiently tapping his foot against the white sand of the beach. She finally got done cleaning herself and got up. "Alright lets go." She said as she stood up on all four of her legs.

'Wow I'm being told when it's okay to leave by a Pokemon now, am I really a trainer anymore?' David thought to himself, humored slightly by her saying that. "Alright, I'll see you later then." David said as he drew out a Pokeball and attempted to return her into it.

Grace jumped to the side and dodged the red beam of light from the Pokeball, looking back and David with a half annoyed look. David blinked a few times and looked at her, slightly lost as to why she'd do that. "You don't like being kept inside a Pokeball?" He questioned her.

"How would you like to be kept in a space that's less than a fraction of your body size?" Grace bluntly stated as she raised her head up high in defiance of being kept in such a device. "Aside from that, we're traveling together as equals now, I have no intention on you treating me as one of your pets." She continued with a slight growl in her voice.

David blinked at her a few times, caught off guard by that slightly. "Well I'd have to disagree with you on the pet thing but suit yourself..." David murmured as he put the Pokeball away in his pocket. "But are you really willing to be in cities with lots of humans in them?" He questioned her, not really convinced she was ready for that yet.

Grace turned her head away and tilted her ears back slightly. "When it comes to that I'll just manage, I promise I won't attack anyone." She said, although she wasn't completely serious with those words.

David could tell she obviously wasn't being too serious about those words and let out a sigh. "Well I'd really like to honestly ask you to not attack anyone, if you do I'll take the fall for it...but I guess all I can do is have faith in you, just please don't do anything we'll both only regret." He said as he placed a hand on his forehead and shook his head, letting out a distressed sigh.

"I wont." Grace replied simply and firmly. Surprisingly enough that didn't make David feel the slightest bit better about having her around anyone else aside himself.

"Alright then...so tell me, did your previous trainer keep you outside of your Pokeball?" David questioned, curious about her old trainer.

"I don't want to talk about him..." Grace murmured lowly as her tone dropped as did the expression on her face before she lowered her head towards the ground.

"Are you sure? You should really talk to me abo--" David said before being cut off by Grace.

"I said I don't want to fucking talk about him!" Grace shouted as she raised her voice, with the emotion behind those words painfully obvious.

"Okay, okay." David submissively said, knowing now he was poking around a subject he should leave alone. "So anyways I guess that means you wont be fighting for me either?" He questioned, knowing the answer was likely going to be a no.

"Do I have to spell it out? I'm not one of your damn pets! I only have ONE trainer, and he abandoned me, you will never be my trainer, not now, not ever." Grace stated with a growl in her voice, making her point clear on how she felt about that.

"So I guess you'll just be traveling along with me, just using me to look for your long lost trainer then?" David concluded, seeing that she obviously wasn't going to do anything to pull her weight for traveling with him. "Or rather...you're using me just to get around to places you normally couldn't, is that right?" He clarified.

"I suppose if you put it that way, yes I am." Grace answered coldly without any protest to what he just said.

'Damn she's cold.' David thought to himself as he shook his head, slightly spiffed that he was going to intentionally let himself be used like this, but it was for a good cause in the end...he just hoped it would really be worth it.

"Well I guess we better get get going now..." David suggested as he turned himself away from her and started walking down the beach. Grace picked herself up and followed him without a word as she matched his pace, walking several feet behind him. However she soon found herself trailing from him as he steadily picked up his pace, she in turned quickened her walking to match his pace, but soon it started to turn into a jog, then a full out run.

"Why are you running?!" Grace shouted as she trailed him, annoyed that he was running like this when she wanted to walk.

"It's a beautiful day out today! Plus I want to make up for some lost time to the ferry!" David shouted back as he continued to run. "Plus it's great exercise! And it amazingly helps you get to places even faster than you normally would by just walking!" He continued with a small laugh in his voice.

"Stop damn it! I don't want to run!" Grace shouted back, still keeping her pace with David.

"You can walk you know! It shouldn't be hard to track me down and join up with me again later, besides I think you should have some time to yourself!" David explained.

"What do I look like?! An Arcanine? And like hell I'm letting you out of my sight! Stop damn it!" Grace shouted as she quickly got frustrated with him for doing this.

"Well it looks like you'll have to run with me for awhile then! Besides I don't really have much to owe you since you absolutely won't do anything for me, if you did maybe I'd listen!" David teased, knowing this was likely going to enrage her again but he didn't care about that at the moment, he mainly just wanted to make up as much ground as he could for now.

"Stop now damn it or else!" Grace warned as she began to get a little bit closer to David, getting ready to try and attack him if need be.

"Nope! Now quit complaining and work those legs of yours for all they're worth!" David cheerfully replied as he picked up his pace to put a slight bit of distance between him and Grace, not being comfortable with how close she was getting towards him.

"DAMN YOU!" Grace shouted with a growl in her voice, letting David know he pissed her off again. She immediately picked her pace up to match David's, she could run much, much faster than him due to the fact she was a Pokemon and the slim feline build of her. David desperately tried to run faster but he couldn't run much faster without tripping over himself now.

Grace had no trouble matching his pace, the problem now was to get him to stop running. However she had no intention of being gentle with him at the moment. She opened her mouth and charged up a Dark Pulse, catching David's attention with a crackling noise behind him. Not more then a moment later David dug one of his feet into the sand and kicked it up into Grace's face, causing her to loose focus with the attack and fire it off into the air.

She skidded to a stop and shook her head for a few moments, shaking the sand from her face and fur, then looking back at David who was already a good distance away. She growled lowly to herself and dug her claws into the sand in frustration. "He's dead..." She growled to herself before she launched herself from where she was standing at him.

David looked back and saw Grace rocketing at him, closing the ground between them with almost astounding speed. "Ah crap I'm screwed." David laughed to himself nervously as he could only watch her run towards him now. She closed the ground between them quickly and made a jump for David's right leg, missing him completely as he bolted to the left to avoid her.

She quickly recovered from the failed attempt and made another jump for his leg, this time getting a good hold of it with her front paws and mouth, piercing his pants but avoiding his skin. David immediately tripped over due to the added 59 pounds on his right leg, sending him falling down into the sand face first. Grace fell down along with him, falling on top of his leg, but letting go of it as soon as she saw he was down

She rushed up on top of his back before he could get up and growled threateningly. She raised her left paw up into the air and slapped David in the back of his head roughly. "ASSHOLE!" She shouted at him as she hit him once again in the back of his head, now repeating it as she took her anger out on him, getting a muffled "Ow" from him on each blow.

After a dozen or so hits on the back of David's head Grace let out a sigh of relief, feeling better now that she took her anger out on him and showed him who's boss here. However just when she started to catch her breath again she was launched off David's back and onto the sand as he quickly scrambled up to his feet.

"YES! TODAY'S GOING TO BE A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!" David shouted as he continued running down the beach like he completely went insane.

Grace slowly picked herself up and looked him in disbelief. 'What in the hell is his problem?' She thought as she blinked several times before shaking her head and continuing off without any further protest to his "running".

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Several hours later Grace finally caught up with David, who laying on the ground breathing roughly to himself. "Did the blood finally go back up to your brain?" She spitefully asked as she walked near him. David sat up after hearing those words, with his first thought was that she was going to kill him running like that, but after a few moments passed he got the idea she wasn't going to harm him.

"You're not going to hurt me at least?" David asked, blinking a few times at her.

"I think no matter how many times I hit you, I'd fail to break that skull of yours, so no point trying to do the impossible..." Grace murmured as she turned her head away slightly.

"Ouch, that's cold...you sure you're not a Glaceon?" David playfully asked, humored by her cold treatment of him.

"Are you sure all of your bones are as tough as that skull of yours?" Grace spitefully replied as she looked over at David with a slight glare.

David laughed to himself in response to that answer she gave him, rubbing the back of his head where she hit him as he laughed. Right then an idea hit his head randomly as they usually do, but this time it seemed like a fairly good one at least. "Oh Grace, I have someone to introduce you too." David said as he drew a Pokeball from his jacket.

"Well as long as it isn't related to you or half as annoying as you are I think I'll live." Grace sarcastically replied, chuckling to herself slightly.

"How you ever evolved into an Umbreon I'll never know..." David murmured in response, shaking his head. He clicked the button on the Pokeball he was holding and activated it, then tossed it a short distance next to him, it hit the ground and bounced, snapping open with a flash and shooting out a red beam of light, which took form of a near human sized figure.

The red light revealed a Lucario standing there as the ball bounced back over towards David. The Lucario looked around and saw Grace, then he looked over at David sitting over next to him, a slight bit confused about the reason he was sent out. "So is that the Umbreon that made you it's bitch the other day?" Luke questioned David out loud as he pointed over towards Grace with one of his paws.

Grace bursted out laughing, being taken completely off guard by Luke's comment as David in turn slapped his face with one of his hands and shook his head. "You bastard..." David murmured to himself lowly, earning a laugh from Luke, seeing David like this delighted him to no end. "Anyways..." David started as he lowered his hand from his face.

"Luke, Grace, Grace, Luke." David said as he gestured at them both in introduction to each other with his hand.

Luke looked over and nodded at the Umbreon. "Nice to meet someone who's put some fear into the poor bastard." Luke greeted as he gave her another firm nod.

"Nice to meet someone who shares a common view of him with me." Grace replied, catching Luke slightly off guard with the fact she spoke human instead of Pokemon.

"You speak human?" Luke questioned as he pointed at her again, with a surprised expression still upon his face.

Grace turned her head away with her ears pointed back, rather annoyed that she did speak human without any explanation why she did. "Yeah I do." She answered with a sigh before turning her head back towards Luke with a firm look on her face now. "What of it?" She questioned with a blunt tone in her voice.

"It's just unusual is all." Luke replied with a shrug, finding it odd that an Umbreon of all things was speaking human.

"Like you're hardly normal?" Grace pointed out in return, noticing that Luke was speaking human as well.

"Well I've got a good excuse at least...I've learned to speak human by communing with humans through aura, what's your excuse?" Luke inquired in return.

Grace blinked a few times at the response he gave her. "Aura?" She questioned, having never heard of it before.

"You really don't want to get him started Grace." David warned playfully, knowing that Luke could go on for hours about aura.

Luke smirked to himself and figured he should change the subject for now. "So you have no clue how you can talk human?" Luke asked Grace with a smirk on his face.

"No." Grace bluntly answer as she shook her head. "Ever since I evolved into an Umbreon I've been able to talk like this...I don't get why but I can..." She explained.

Luke nodded and brought a paw up to his chin with a thinking look. "Grace, you mind if I check something?" He asked her after he took a moment to think.

Grace perked her ears forward and looked at him inquisitively, wondering what he wanted. "What is it?" She asked.

"You'll see." Luke said as he brought his front paws together and closed his eyes, tilting his head down as he started to focus. Grace had no idea what he was doing right now but as long as he was keeping his distance from her it was alright. After a few short moments Luke opened his two red eyes and looked at Grace again. "I see." He said to himself with a nod, making Grace tilt her heard curiously.

"What?" Grace asked him, wondering what he was going on about now.

Luke returned his paw to his chin and nodded again with a wise look, which made David roll his eyes, knowing this was rather out of character for Luke. "You're aura, it's different. Well not really different, but you have a lot more aura than you should for a Pokemon that can't use it." Luke explained, loosing Grace again on what "aura" meant.

"Aura is--" Luke started before David cut him off with a comment.

"You SERIOUSLY don't want to get him started, you better run very, very fast now while you have the chance." David commented, making Luke sigh to himself and shake his head.

"Fine, I'll just give an example." Luke said as he turned towards the cliff wall which lined the one side of the beach.

"Ah crap I'm out of here, later guys!" David laughed as he started off down the beach, doing a light jog before he went back to a complete sprint down the beach.

As soon as David left Luke gave a small laugh as he shook his head, he walked back to the edge of the water and turned back towards the cliff. "I'll show but one of the uses of aura..." Luke said as he closed his eyes and focused. Grace watched him closely, not really knowing what to he was going to do or even what to expect.

After a few seconds however Grace's attention was quirked when she saw a soft, blue glow starting to emanate from Luke's front paws and hind legs. Luke continued to focus for a few more moments then he knelt forward, bringing one of his front paws in the sand while his other paw as in the air behind him.

Without warning what seemed to be an explosion occurred where he was, with a cloud of sand and dust kicking up into the air, then hardly a second after that happened, another, much larger explosion occurred at the cliff, which was so powerful it made the ground shake violently like an earthquake for a moment before subsiding. The part of the beach they were both on was completely covered by a veil of dust kicked up by whatever just happened, Grace could hardly see anything at the moment, even her front paws.

After a few minutes the wind finally swept the dust away, exposing what just occurred. Grace's jaw almost dropped at the sight before her, with almost a trench of sand leading up to the now ruined cliff, with the part of it in front of where Luke was now just rubble. Finally she saw Luke sanding in front of where the cliff face once was, with his right paw held out as he breathed roughly,

He stood himself up straight and laughed slightly to himself, turning over towards Grace. "That's but one of the many uses of aura." Luke said as he slowly walked from where he was standing over towards Grace. She only slumped down, still in disbelief of what Luke just did, he just punched an entire, thirty foot tall cliff face to where it was just rubble now.

"Every living thing, even the world itself, has aura. To living creatures, the aura they have is unique to them, no two aura's are the same, kind of the same way smell is unique to every Pokemon or human." Luke explained as he walked up towards Grace, breathing roughly still. "Aura is the life force, so to speak, of everything, you can tell a lot of things by it, in a manner of speaking it's basically your soul." He continued to explain.

"Just by closely sensing your aura, I can tell everything there is to know about you, your thoughts, your emotions, your memories." Luke continued as he sat down next to her with his hind legs crossed with each other. "Being a Lucario, I can naturally sense and use aura, not very many kinds of Pokemon can, in fact I can probably count on my paws how many Pokemon are actually even capable of that. Humans, such as David believe it or not, can use aura just the same as I can, however the art of using aura has long been lost by humans, very few humans, if any actually still know how to use it now." Luke continued to explain.

"In fact, David could probably use aura now if he tried for it, granted that idiot can't focus to save his life." Luke laughed, remembering all of the various failed attempts he's made at teaching David how to sense and use aura. Grace simply just nodded to his words with her ears raised high in the air, with an almost giddy smile starting to make itself known upon her face.

"Oh before you get any ideas, you can't use aura, or at least I don't think you can, I've never at least heard about a non aura using Pokemon being able to use aura, it could just be an extremely rare thing or just simply not possible. You're aura is however, almost on par with a fairly skilled aura user, which is honestly very unusual to say the least, it's the first time I've seen such a thing in my entire life." Luke continued, pausing from his explanation of aura as he tried to catch his breath.

"Can you try teaching it to me?" Grace asked him, hopeful that she could, if she could do something remotely close to what Luke just did then she'd be very happy with herself.

"No." Luke firmly answered.

"Why not?" Grace asked in return, a little spiffed by the answer he gave her.

"Suggesting that it is possible to teach you how to use aura, you'd only abuse it. Probably the most important thing for any aura user to know is who to pass on that knowledge too...and you simply just don't fit that image." Luke explained, giving Grace a suspicious look.

"I wouldn't abuse it, honest." Grace replied, coldly lying through her teeth on the subject of course.

"My, my," Luke said as he waved one of his front paws in a tisk tisk motion. "It's rude lying to someone you just met don't you know?" Luke playfully stated, knowing full well the lack of honesty she had behind those words.

"I'm not lying." Grace said in her own defense, thinking she could fool him if she played an innocent act.

"Really now?" Luke laughed, humored by how thick she was in the head. "I just said I can read your thoughts, you think you can fool me if you act innocent don't you?" He asked her, getting a small surprised look from her in response. "If anything I know what you're thinking better than you do, if you could learn aura from me the first thing you'd probably do is try what I did to the cliff over there to David if he pissed you off enough again." He concluded.

Grace turned her head away and pointed her ears back, not even attempting to defend herself now, he had basically caught her now, so there was no point in trying to convince him otherwise. "Anyways...," Luke said as he slowly picked himself up off of the sandy beach. "We better get a move on, knowing that idiot he's probably half way to Johto by now." Luke continued as he shook his head, knowing full well how hyper David is.

Grace nodded in agreement and followed Luke down the beach, both of them keeping a steady pace as they walked down the beach.

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"Whew..." David gasped to himself, laying down on the beach after a good few hours straight of running, thinking he probably wont be seeing Luke and Grace until tonight. He was kind of happy not to have to see either of them as well, with Luke usually teasing him in someway, whether it be reading something off the back of his mind or picking on him for something dumb or silly he's done before.

Despite that they were the best of friends still, almost brothers even, which is probably why they both picked on each other whenever allowed the chance.

After a few moments of resting David jumped up from where he was on the sand onto his feet. "Well I'd better get some more ground between me and that crazy black fuzz ball before they catch up..." David murmured to himself as he turned himself back towards the end of the beach he was supposed to be going down.

"Crazy black fuzz ball?" A feminine voice coldly inquired, David stopped where he was, almost frozen in place at both surprise and slight fear of who he KNEW was right there behind him.

He slowly turned his head around and waved daintily at Grace, with a small nervous smile on his face. "Ah...well I was talking about a different crazy black fuzz ball...definitely not you..." David lied obviously, knowing he isn't even going to convince anyone with that sort of excuse, not even really thinking how she got here that fast. "Anyways...I'll be leaving...ciao!" David said as he made a small wave at her and ran.

However Grace immediately bolted from where she was and tackled David over into the sand, getting herself up on his back and smacking him across the backside of his head again. "Don't you EVER call me a crazy black fuzz ball, got it you idiot?!" Grace yelled as she smacked him, getting a muffled response from him due to his facing being fairly well buried in the sand.

"That BETTER be a yes!" Grace threatened, now putting the paw she used to slap David's head and using it to firmly push his head down further into the sand. David muffled out something and nodded as much as he could, raising his arms up submissively. "Good." She said with a grin on her face, lifting her paw from the back of his head and giving him one final smack on his head. "Remember it." She warned, then getting off of his back with a proud look upon her face.

"Couldn't you give the idiot a break?" Luke laughed as he jumped down from the cliff, kind of feeling sorry for David for having to put up with that sort of treatment.

Grace turned her head around slowly towards Luke with one of her ears tilted to the side. "No, he needs to learn what's right from wrong in this sort of situation, words wont obviously work so the only way to convey any authority is by pain." She coldly stated, making Luke grin at the comment.

"Damn, you ARE cold." Luke commented, knowing he was perfectly safe to do as such unlike David. Grace remained silent to his comment aside from a frustrated growl she gave, knowing that picking a fight with Luke would be a very bad idea on her part. A few seconds later David finally moved from where he was laying, lifting himself up off of the sand and back onto his feet, breathing roughly as he did.

Luke glanced over towards David slightly with a grin still firmly on his face. "Ah, recover from your obedience training I see?" He commented with a small laugh. David looked over towards him with a glare that just screamed "go to hell." as he caught his breath.

"So how in the hell did you two get over here so quickly anyways?" David asked, now having the time to ponder that question.

"We used the short cut over the cliff and through the forest." Luke answered simply with a small shrug. David blinked a few times and registered his answer, now realizing that he was now needlessly taking the long way around now.

"Ah..." David replied lowly, feeling a bit stupid now.

"So shall we continue on our way?" Luke asked, pointing off down the beach with his paw. David and Grace both nodded as they both started down the beach, David however quickly breaking into a fun after doing so.

"Don't you DARE think about it!" Grace threatened David as he started to run, getting him to stop again, knowing that she was likely going to jump him again.

"Damn it, fine." David sighed out as he continued off with a steady walk now. Luke and Grace trailed him by several paces for several minutes before the silence fell to a point where you could cut it with a knife.

"So..." Grace lowly said as she walked along side Luke. "How long have you and dip shit known each other?" She asked as she slightly tilted her head up towards him.

"I'm right HERE you know..." David said as he shook his head, hearing Grace's comment about him quite fully.

"Zip it." Grace coldly snapped back at him with her ears pointed back, with that David gave up arguing with her, it was obvious this was going to be a very long walk.

"You know this lovers quarrel of you both are having really is getting quite distastefully old." Luke commented with a grin and a shrug.

"SHUT UP!" David and Grace both snapped out in response to Luke's comment at almost the same time, getting a surprised look from both of them and a loud laugh from Luke in process.

"Ah...you both have NO idea how perfect that was..." Luke sighed out with a wide grin on his face, really finding that moment funny. "Anyways...I've known David for three cycles...but I've been his Pokemon for just two of them." Luke answered, getting back to the subject Grace started before it got side tracked by hers and David's bickering.

"So you knew each other before he caught you?" Grace asked, kind of finding that fact odd.

"Yeah, me and Luke met awhile before I caught him, he was on the run from some thugs in those lame space suits...ah what was the name..." David said, thinking back to when both him and Luke first met.

"Team Galactic." Luke reminded.

"Ah them, anyways Luke was kind of in a jam with them...and I happened to be passing by at that time...or rather he ran into me while getting away from them, anyways long story short we kicked their tails and that was that, me and Luke went our separate ways after that but we crossed paths several times after that over the following year...until I eventually challenged him and beat him..." David explained.

"Barely I might add." Luke reminded him, remembering it was a close fight.

David turned his head back around and grinned a Luke mischievously. "Oh come now Luke, you know you had you're fuzzy ass handed to you by Napoleon!" David teased, knowing Luke was rather sensitive about losing.

"No I did NOT." Luke growled back, getting a bit frustrated by David's teasing on the subject.

"Suuure." David sarcastically teased, with a grin still upon his face. "Anyways as Luke said, he's been a part of my team for about two years, or wait excuse me, cycles, and I guess over that whole time we've become best friends among other things surprisingly enough." David joked slightly, earning a smug laugh from Luke.

"Anything else you want to know?" David asked, turning his head back towards Grace slightly.

Grace thought for a moment as she continued to walk along with them. "How long have you been a trainer?" She asked him, slightly curious as to how experienced he was as a trainer.

David returned his head back forward and looked up, thinking for a moment. "About four...well almost five years now come to think of it, I started after my tenth birthday...so yeah almost five years now." He answered after a slight bit of thinking.

Grace perked her ears up with a slightly surprised look on her face. "Wow." She muttered out lowly.

David looked back at her curiously, wondering what the "wow" was about. "Wow?" David asked.

Grace grinned at him after he turned his head towards her, with a comment just perfect for this in mind. "You've actually survived that long without any supervision? I'm impressed." She commented, earning a small laugh from Luke.

"Well I was there for the two years you know." Luke shrugged with a grin.

"Oh good point." Grace replied towards Luke's comment. David sighed and shook his head, finding himself yet again being bashed by both of them.

"Are you two quite done insulting me yet?" David asked, shaking his head, frustrated with their comments towards him.

They both looked at him with a grin on their faces. "Well I know I can go on all day..." Luke replied cheerfully. "Oh Grace, want me to tell you about all of the juicy little moments David's had over the past few years that he doesn't really want anyone knowing about?" Luke openly teased, knowing that would get a good reaction from David.

"Oh? Like what?" Grace asked, turning her head over towards Luke with her ears perked up curiously.

"Well there was that one time that David--" Luke started before David cut in.

"LUKE!" David shouted, not wanting Luke to get any further than that.

"What? She's apart of our little group now, she has a right to know you through and through doesn't she?" Luke stated in his defense.

"And I'm sure you remember very clearly that I have the knowledge of several things that you would never want to even see the light of day?" David warned, knowing Luke definitely wouldn't risk making himself looking bad.

"That you do." Luke shrugged, with an unconcerned tone in his voice, knowing that if David said anything he in turn would spill the beans on all of David's darker secrets.

As they spoke Grace turned her head towards them both, curious as to what they both had on each other. "So is anyone going to tell me anything?" Grace asked, wanting to at least know SOMETHING she could use to tease one of them with.

"No." Both David and Luke answered bluntly, not wanting anything spilled out

"Idiots..." Grace mumbled to herself, annoyed that they basically went over that for nothing.

"Oh I'm an idiot too? I guess David is finally rubbing off on me." Luke retorted with another shrug.

David glared back for that comment. "Oh gee, I'm rubbing off on someone who is as immature as you when you are HOW MANY years older than me?" He remarked, pointing out Luke's age.

"Six, but it's good to be a child at heart, all the better to drive you youngin's crazy I say." Luke sarcastically replied, he wasn't quite old in Lucario terms but he was well aged, seeing his fair share of the world in his life time thus far, although most of it before he met David was spent trying to find out more about aura and hone his own skills with it.

"I'm honestly surprised you haven't..." David agreed, shaking his head to Luke's reply.

"No you were insane when I found you." Luke commented again, getting a groan in reply from David and a small snicker from Grace. After that comment things fell silent once more, and remained so for a good portion of their trek for the rest of the day.

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"Well the suns finally set, we'll be stopping here for the night." David said as he slung his backpack from his back, taking it into his arms and walking off to the side of the cliff that lined the beach.

"We can still go for the rest of the night." Grace murmured, not really feeling tired, mainly due to the fact she was normally active during the night time as apposed to the daylight hours.

"Sorry Grace, I have to agree with David." Luke agreed with a nod, earning a slight glare from Grace, with him actually agreeing with David for once. "This will give us enough time to get some food and some shuteye if David can manage to get to sleep, he has trouble staying still for extended periods of time as you've likely noticed." He then swiftly added.

"But we can still keep going, I'm sure you're still anxious about getting to that thing you were traveling too aren't you David?" Grace asked, turning her head towards David, wanting to continue their trek so that they would hurry up and get this blasted trip over with.

"Well...just so you know we'd be closer if you just ran with me..." David pointed out, knowing that they could have made quite a bit more ground up today if she did run.

"Don't you even start..." Grace warned with a small growl, not really wanting to go back into that subject again.

David laughed in return and sat his backpack down at near the base of the cliff. At this point Grace knew she wasn't going to have her way in this argument and growled to herself frustratedly. "Sorry Princess, I'm sure you're used to getting your way with your old trainer but you wont really get your way here without acting nice." Luke shrugged.

At first Grace growled and got ready to cuss him out for that comment, but then she realized that she never told him about her old trainer. "Wait...how do you...?" She questioned, wondering how he knew about that.

"I know you better than even you do." Luke lowly answered as he crossed both his paws together, then quickly swinging them out to the sides of him, with the spikes he had on the back of his paws now glowing brightly and taking the form of three long claws. Without any further word he quickly ran towards the cliff, running straight up it several feet before digging in with his claws and scaling the rest of the cliff.

"Hey wait!" Grace shouted in protest, quickly finding herself ignored however. "Damn it!" She shouted, completely frustrated now.

"Oh don't mind him, he just has a bad habit of reading peoples minds and memories, it's how he gets to know people to tell if their good or bad." David explained as he started unpacking several things from his backpack.

"What, he was reading my mind?!" Grace snapped at David, feeling more angered at the knowledge of that.

"Yeah, again sorry about him, he just does that." David lowly answered.

"Damn him!" Grace shouted, feeling like her personal space had been completely violated by Luke because of that, he seriously had the nerve to read her like some sort of book?

"I wouldn't mess with him though if I were you, he's a lot stronger than me..." David warned, but as soon as he did he received a glare and a growl from Grace.

"And who fucking asked you for your opinion?!" Grace snapped out, feeling slightly insulted by David's warning.

David sighed and shook his head, with that sort of sending his patience with her over the edge. "Nobody I guess." He murmured as he gathered some fishing gear from his backpack, then got up and walked towards the beach, using his staff once again as a makeshift fishing rod. Grace sat down next to where David sat his bag down and watched him fish over the next half hour or so while she vented, with no sign of Luke the whole time.

The dead silence between her and David was interrupted by an awkward growl from her stomach, she was hungry. She noticed David had caught several fish already and had them placed next to him, so she figured she could just go over and take one. She got up and walked towards David quietly, going towards the small pile of fish he had next to him, a few were even still moving slightly. She reached out with her head and tried to take one in her mouth, however the next thing she knew she was hit in the head by that staff David was carrying.

"OW!" Grace shouted, shaking her head then looking at David with a pissed off look. "Do you WANT to be killed?!" She warned him with a growl in her voice.

"Sorry, but if you're going to act like a bitch and not even pull your own weight during this trip, then don't expect me to do anything for you." David said as he turned his head slightly towards her.

"A bitch huh? If that's the case then I'll make you HURT like a bitch as well!" Grace snapped in return, charging up a Dark Pulse in her mouth then shooting it at David, who rolled out the way and kicked up some sand in her face again, blinding her for a few seconds.

David took that time to remove the fishing line from the end of his stave and get ready for her, knowing that she was going to go psycho on him again, but at the same time he sort of wanted to kick her ass straight again because of how she's been treating him all day.

As soon as Grace got the sand cleared from her head she looked at David threateningly, with her eyes filled with hate again, just as they were yesterday. She wasted no time in charging him head on again, which by now she should have known wasn't a good idea but she couldn't think clearly when she was mad, her anger was the only thing governing her actions then.

David twirled his stave around waited for Grace to come within distance, before he made a overhead swing down at her, stopping her in her tracks with a loud thunk as her face went straight down into the sand. Surprisingly after such a brutal hit to the head she managed to try and stand up again, however David just smacked her across the side of the face again, making her fall over to the opposite side of where he hit her.

"I think I've proved my point now, I'm not just some piece of garbage that you can freely pick on, if you're going to continue to make this whole trip of ours miserable, then I suggest you go on your own path, surely you can find your old trainer without having to use me to do it then." David said, walking around Grace as he did so.

"Fuck you!" Grace responded, not really having much else to say in her current state. She got smacked again on the head after saying that, David having no patience for her right now. The last hit finally set her off, her eyes narrowed and she growled deeply, her with her anger finally taking away what contentiousness she had left in her eyes as she quickly got up, with the yellow rings that were across her body now glowing brightly.

"Ah finally." David said as he got ready, knowing that he just brought the caged beast she had inside of her once again. Grace both stared each other down for a few moments before Grace made her move, with the rings on her flashing brightly as she ran towards David again, zigzagging this time as she ran. David read her movements and made a swing, at her, however she jumped over him and landed behind him, then made a lunge at him, which was swiftly countered by the opposite end of David's stave, hitting her across her side and sending her flailing off into the shallow water on the beach.

She quickly got up from the water and shook herself off, not even really realizing she was soaked from landing in the ocean. She started to run back after David, zigzagging once more, knowing it was her best chance to catch him off guard. David was now used to this tactic of hers and waited for her to get close, he made another swing when she was out of reach of his stave intentionally, causing her to react and jump. As soon as she was in mid air David knew that was his chance and quickly twirled his stave around, hitting her on the side and sending her straight back onto the ground. She immediately tried to get up again but David quickly finished their fight, carefully choosing a certain spot on her neck before bringing the stave down and knocking her out efficiently.

David Stared down at the unconscious Umbreon. "It's such a shame you're so uncontrollable," He sighed, replacing the line back on the Long metal rod, converting it from a weapon to a vital tool once more and casting out the line, "I just hope you realize the mistake you're making by doing this..."


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

"Ow..." Grace muttered as she felt her head feeling like it got hit by something really hard again, she slowly started to open her eyes as she remembered what put her there. "Him!" She realized, remember the fight she had with David and quickly scrambling up. She looked around and quickly spotted both David and Luke, sitting at the edge of a camp fire together talking about something, with David eating some of that fish he had caught earlier, which he now had skewered on a stick and cooked.

Without any hesitation she immediately charged at David again, knowing she would catch him off guard like this, however as soon as she got within ten feet of his she immediately got hit by something hard, making her fly backwards violently, causing her to bounce off of the sand several times before sliding to a stop.

She slowly recovered and saw Luke standing between her and David, giving her a firm and serious look. "What the hell?!" Grace shouted, confused at what just happened.

"Sorry Grace, but I'm afraid I can't let you touch that idiot, he's still my friend and trainer you know." Luke calmly answered, which angered Grace even further at how unconcerned he seemed to be about this.

"Oh you wanna fuck with me tough guy?! Lets see how you like this!" She snapped back as the yellow rings on her body flashed again, taking a strong glow as she arched her head back, charging up a ball of black energy within her maw then firing it out at Luke.

Luke stood there and sighed to himself, bring both of his paws together as the ball flew towards him and drew one of his paws back, then as soon as the ball got within a few feet of him he trusted his paw forward, black ball of energy directly with his paw, causing a bunch of purple bolts of electricity to lash out on on the impact, along with some soft blue bolts of energy from his paw.

Within a few moments the Dark Pulse that Grace had shot at Luke at remained there trying to force Luke's paw back, however it was slowly starting to become wrapped by the blue energy that seemed to be seeping from Luke's paw, until finally there was a loud crackling sound as the ball of black energy suddenly turned into a ball of bright ice blue energy, which was quickly absorbed into Luke's paw.

Grace's jaw dropped as soon as she saw her attack not only staved off by Luke, but absorbed by him. "David is one thing, but I'm completely out of your league girl, I wouldn't suggest trying anything further." Luke firmly warned Grace. She looked at him then David then growled to herself, frustrated by how everything just wasn't going her way today.

"DAMN IT!" She yelled out as she quickly ran off down the beach without any further word, unsure on what she was going to do now.

David glanced at her as she marched off, then back at Luke. "Thanks." David lowly said, getting a half surprised reaction from Luke.

"Oh you're actually thanking me for saving your sorry ass for once?" Luke joked with a small laugh.

"No, for going easy on Grace there." David answered.

"Ah, because I could have cratered her fuzzy ass into the ground if she messed with me?" Luke replied, a little bit humored as well about the fact that David just proved his point about never thanking him about saving him.

"Yeah...really thanks..." David murmured as he stared at the fire, very troubled about what he should do about Grace now.

He wasn't the only troubled one, a short distance away Grace had paused from her running and began walking, calmed down now a bit, mainly because of the time of night it was. She glanced off to the side of her and looked off towards the ocean, with the silver moon illuminating the sky and reflecting off of the water.

She never really could explain why, but she always seemed to be a lot more at peace with herself during the night, especially on nights when the moon was out. The yellow rings on her body started to softly glow as she paused and continued to look up at the moon, almost mesmerized by it. She felt almost drawn to the sight of the moon during nights like these, partly because Umbreon's were naturally drawn to the moon, with it being the main reason how they evolve from an Eevee into an Umbreon to start with, and partly because she just loved the moon, ever since she was an Eevee.

She finally sat herself down and let out a relaxed sigh as the rings on her body pulsed along with the sigh she breathed, closing her ruby red eyes for a few moments before gazing back up at the moon. 'Why does he have to be such a jerk...why?' Grace thought to herself, with her mind going over how David has been treating her. As she viewed it, he hasn't been giving her the proper respect she believed she deserved.

As she thought about it for several moments she lowered her head down, with her ears drooping to the sides, realizing this was all really her own fault, David was treating her with no respect because she herself wasn't treating him with any respect, she was inexcusably rude towards him today, insulting him almost constantly with Luke, and on top of all of that she tried to kill him again.

"Damn it..." She muttered to herself, sobbing lightly to herself now with ears forming at the edges of her eyes, feeling horrible about it all now, she was nothing short of a monster. She knew she couldn't help how she acted during the day, it was unexplainable really for her, she felt uncontrollably mad during the daytime usually, with her anger always seeming to burst from her, anger towards the world for everything it's dealt her, anger for what her old trainer put her through.

Yet under all of that, she felt helpless and alone, desperate to get away from it all, desperate to have another connection that was as strong as she had with her old trainer, desperate not to be alone anymore. David was her best shot at that but...she can't get along with him like this, not when he thinks she's a complete emotionless monster that will try to kill him for every little thing he does.

That wasn't her, that wasn't the "real" her, she remembered back when she was with her old trainer that she was polite, kind, well mannered and just overall the opposite of how she is now, cruel, cold and heartless. She was only a shadow of her former self during the night time, when the conflict in her finally died down, when she could be at ease. Still it wasn't the same, she desperately wanted to be just as she was before, but never being able to do just that.

She hoped finding out what happened with her trainer would put her at ease, but would that really be enough? It couldn't be, it was just a lie she always told herself so she would feel better, no, she needed to be near someone, she didn't want to be alone, she never did, and now she was almost forcing it upon herself. She glanced off down the beach, with the camp fire that David lit being almost just a small light, like a star in the sky above.

Dare she? Dare she go back there and apologize? A part of her didn't want too, she didn't want to show David that she was soft like this, but did she have a choice? She wanted to be friends with him, she had to be, if she didn't, it meant she would be alone, just as she feared, just like before, just like now. She swallowed her pride up and looked up at the moon as she thought. 'Should I really do this?' She asked herself, not sure if this was the right thing to do, but also knowing that it was.

She slowly picked herself up and walked back down the beach, having some last minute conflict with herself as she walked, before she knew it however she had returned to the edge of camp, with Luke and David still sitting near the campfire. Luke glanced at her and noticed she seemed a lot different now, almost like it wasn't her, even her aura seemed like it had completely changed.

"Sadistic psycho bitch alert, six o'clock." Luke whispered towards David, making David look back behind himself, seeing Grace slowly walk towards them.

"Oh welcome back..." David greeted, not particularly happy to see her back yet, figuring that she was still mad with him.

Grace slowly walked towards them with her ears low and gulped, it was now or never. "Hey...guys...I'm...really...I just..." She said, trying to pick the words out, but they seemed to escape her no matter how hard she thought about them. David blinked at her a few times, wondering what she was trying to say, Luke however knew full good and well what she was trying to say now, and was quite honestly a bit surprised.

"I want to say I'm sorry." Grace finally blurted out, letting out a deep breath as she did so. David blinked a few times, in half disbelief that she said that, it didn't even sound like her, in more ways than one, her voice was a bit softer now, not like how it was before when she usually had the cold, threatening tone that she always seemed to use, aside from when she first opened up to him.

"Grace?" David questioned, a little bit concerned now for her, was she okay? He didn't want to see her break down and cry again despite the fact it seemed to do her a little bit of good after she did.

"I'm really sorry for how I've been acting, I know it's inexcusable, how I've been treating you today, I know if I keep this up, you'll give up on me...and I just want to say that I'm really sorry, I really don't mean any of it...it's just that...I can't help it..." She tried to explain, turning her head away, not really having any good explanation why she did that aside from the fact she just did.

David blinked a few times at her, thrown off still by her sudden change of behavior. "It's fine...are you alright?" David concernedly questioned, wanting to know if she was really okay.

"I'm fine, really, if anything I should ask you that...I've been the one treating you horribly all day long..." Grace lowly murmured, feeling ashamed of herself.

"It's okay, don't worry about it, but are you really okay? You usually aren't...like this..." David pointed out, making Grace flinch and nod slightly in return.

"Yes...I know...I'm sorry, the me you see during the daytime isn't the real me...I wasn't mean like that before...before my trainer left me...I was a lot nicer and all...I'm only really like that during...the night." She admitted, circling her paw around in the sand as she spoke, half embarrassed that she was acting like this in front of them after they both already had a firm image of what she was like during the day time.

Luke looked over at David and back at Grace. "So you're personality changes sort of depending on if it is day or night so to speak?" Luke asked, finding this rather interesting now.

"Well um...yes...I guess so..." Grace answered lowly with a slight nod.

"Your aura has changed quite a bit from just a little while ago, it seems to be a lot more at ease, before it seemed like it was trashing about, just as violent as you were, which I guess affected your personality..." Luke explained, then taking notice of the various yellow rings she had on her body, which he saw was the main focus points of the aura on her body.

"Those, the rings on your body, they seem to smooth out your aura and keep it in check, they usually light up during the night, yes? And respond to the moon as well?" Luke asked, trying to get to the reason for this.

"Y-yes." Grace answered, noticing that the rings on her body almost always did glow during the night time.

"That's why then." Luke said with a shrug. "Of course that's rough just a guess, but it seems to be it." He shortly added.

David sighed and looked at Grace, kind of feeling happy that he can at least see this side of her now without having to work for it. "Well It's good to see that you're your real self again, that alone just makes putting up with everything today seem worth it to me." He said as he laid back against the sand, feeling a lot of weight being lifted off of his shoulders now.

"But...tomorrow...like it or not...I'll be my usual self..." Grace muttered, knowing that tonight really meant nothing when she was going to just put David down again tomorrow.

"It's fine." David said as he raised a hand of his up from the sand. "I'll put up with it now as much as I have too, I know exactly what I'm working for now, I'm really happy just to see you like this, as I said, it's worth the trouble." He followed, making Grace blush slightly and turn her head away.

"You're...you're too kind..." Grace murmured, finding David's behavior to be uncalled for due to how she treated him earlier, yet at the same time she welcomed it, and honestly wanted nothing more.

"I suppose, but I you need someone that kind to put with you during the day time, don't you?" David laughed slightly.

"I..I suppose..." Grace murmured to herself, looking down at the sand.

"Oh right, I take it you'll be wanting one of these." David said as he sat back up, reaching into his bag and tossing something he had wrapped towards Grace. She looked at it as it fell in front of her and sniffed at it before realizing what it was, fish.

"W-why?" She questioned, caught off guard by David doing this for her out of the blue when he made it clear that he owed her nothing.

"Because I take it you're still hungry obviously, and I don't owe the "other Grace" anything, but you on the other hand, well lets just say I'll do plenty of charity work for." David cheerfully said before laying back down against the soft white sand. Grace remained silent and didn't argue with his hospitality towards her, feeling quite a bit hungry now that she thought about it.

"Well we better get some rest, besides I know you're still probably sore from the rough treatment I had to give you earlier, so please try and catch some rest after you're done eating." David said as he shut his eyes and crossed his arms behind his head.

"B-but...I really want to speak with you like this...it's nice to actually talk to you like this for a change..." Grace protested, kind of wanting to this moment to last.

David glanced back towards Grace with one eye open and smiled. "It's alright, we'll speak again some other night, don't worry, just focus on getting some rest, okay?" He said, closing his eye and moving his head back to where it previously was. Grace slowly nodded and figured that she should just listen to him, knowing full well she'll be her usual self come tomorrow though.

"Just please promise me you won't let me get to you..." Grace pleaded, not wanting David's renewed view of her to be ruined now.

"I promise." David answered, helping to put Grace's personal fears at ease. She started to paw at the wrapped fish that David had gave her, unwrapping it from the cloth that David had kept it in. Eventually she managed to get it unwrapped just enough so that she could get to the fish and dug in, finishing the fish after a several minutes of eating, picking the bones clean.

She glanced over at David and saw that he was soundly already soundly asleep. She sighed to herself and slightly regretted letting her first real chance of speaking with him in a real civil manner slip away from her but knew she always had tomorrow night to look forward too. She slowly picked herself up from where she was sitting and walked over next to David, setting herself down several feet away from him and curling up into a ball, gazing at the fire as she tried to calm herself down enough to try and get to sleep.

As she gazed at the fire she noticed Luke was still wide awake, with his arms folded together as he usually kept them, looking at the fire with ruby red eyes, which were much similar to hers in their shade. "Oh uh...Luke..." She said, remembering that she should probably apologize to him as well for how she's acted up until now, even attacking him just before she left a little bit earlier.

"Apology accepted, don't worry, just get some rest." Luke answered before she could even say the words. Grace nodded slightly and closed her eyes, feeling at peace with herself now as she slowly drifted off to sleep, with a part of her still wishing that tomorrow would never come.

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

The next morning Grace slowly woke up, squinting her eyes as the bright light of the sun was even shining through her eye lids quite brightly. She growled slightly and placed a paw over her head trying to block the sunlight, not wanting feeling like getting up just yet. "Hey sleepy head, don't give us that, we have places to be today." David said, standing several feet from her, ready to set out for the day.

"Damn it...go away...just give me...a few more...minutes..." Grace tiredly complained, shooing him away with the paw she held over her eyes.

"Alright, we'll be off then." David replied, turning away from Grace and starting off down the beach without her, with Luke shortly following him. She quickly fell asleep again, with his words bouncing off her as she slept in for the next several hours until she finally managed to wake up, groggily looking around for David and Luke, who were both long gone now.

That's when David words finally registered to her, he must have left her behind. "Shit!" She said as she quickly bolted up to her feet and looked around, then looking up at the sun which was about half way across the sky now. "Crap, how long did I sleep?!" She said out out loud to herself, not knowing for far behind David and Luke she was, or even that she could even catch up with those two when they had this much of a head start on her.

She quickly ran off in the direction they were all traveling in, running as fast as her four legs could carry her, she definitely wasn't going to let that idiot ditch her. The more she ran the more obvious it was that she must have been asleep a long time, the tracks David and Luke left in the sand seemed to keep going and going, they must have really made a lot of ground while she was asleep, knowing how hyperactive David is when it comes to traveling on foot.

Even an hour into her running she didn't seem to be getting any closer, the tracks she saw in the sand continued to stretch on, without hardly any end to them. She finally gave up and slowed down to a walk, breathing roughly from that long run, surprisingly it seemed David had more energy then even she had. After another few hours she finally reached what seemed to be the end of the beach before it went up hill on an over hanging cliff which looked over the ocean.

"Damn them..." She murmured as she started uphill, once she did how ever she caught the strong scent of David in the air, he must have been close, she slowly continued up the hill with her ears pointed down and lowered her body, at the top of the cliff both Luke and David were taking a break waiting for her, looking off into the distance at something.

Grace slowly stepped toward, trying to be as stealthy as she could to get a good angle at David, she was going to get that idiot back for making her run like that over here. She flattened herself and got ready, then, without any hesitation she immediately bolted towards David, running at full speed to tackle him over.

Luke grinned as he knew what was coming, the best part was that they were all uphill, with a steep slope back downhill on the opposite of where David was standing. However, by some fluke, David looked down at the ground and noticed something that caught his attention. "Oh, sweet! An Everstone! I bet I can get a lot of money for one of these!" David said as he knelt down, catching Grace off guard however as she jumped up, miscalculating her jump and flying over David, missing him completely.

Grace's attention immediately snapped back to what was in front of her as she now noticed, she was hardly getting closer to the ground now as she kept flying through the air down hill. "FUCK!!!" She yelled as she finally returned to the ground, trying to land on her feet but the momentum that was propelling her toward sent her down onto the ground, face first as she bounced up again, rolling through the air again as she barreled down towards the base of the hill.

David's attention was caught by Grace when she cursed, now seeing her helplessly fall down the hill. He looked over at Luke who was covering his mouth, giggling like a school girl at this, trying to keep himself from bursting out from laughter, however it was quickly failing as he continued to watch Grace roll down the hill.

"Ah crap, she tried to attack me didn't she?" David realized now, causing Luke to burst out laughing uncontrollably at how he just suddenly realized what happened. Several seconds later Grace finally skidded to a stop at the base of the hill, slightly dazed at what just happened, she wasn't even sure about what just happened as she stood. As soon as she stopped, David rushed down the hill to check if she was okay, sure she was likely to kill him right now but it didn't give him any reason not to care if she was hurt or not, he had a friend buried beneath that murderous disposition.

"Are you alright?!" David asked as he rushed over towards Grace, who was weakly getting up now from her fall.

"Y-yeah..." Grace answered as she wobbled up to her feet.

"Are you sure? That was a pretty bad fall..." David said as he walked up next to her and knelt down, getting a closer look at her to see if she was really okay.

"Yeah..." Grace again answered, feeling a bit worse for wear from her fall but okay despite that. "Wait..." She murmured as soon as she had a chance to think again. "YOU! You fucking left me behind you asshole!" She snapped as at David, making a swing at his face with her paw only to have it miss due to him pulling his head back quickly.

"Yeah you're definitely fine." David said sarcastically as he got up. Grace almost immediately got ready to jump David again to make him pay for making her run all the way here like she did earlier but before she could jump at him he made a stopping motion with his hand in front of her face. "Now wait just a second, look behind you." David said as he pointed behind her. Grace hesitantly looked behind herself, thinking he was about to pull some half ass trick on her but as soon as she looked she saw a bunch of people and several buildings.

"We were waiting for you to get here." David explained as he walked ahead of her.

"Hey wait!" Grace protested, not really feeling comfortable yet with being around that many people. "Where the hell is here?! And don't go over to them!" She shouted, getting a few looks from several of the people at the small port.

"Shhh! Don't draw attention to yourself!" David said as he rushed over towards her. "We're here to catch a boat to the next town." David explained as he knelt down in front of Grace. "And I take it you aren't quite comfortable with crowds yet?" He asked her, figuring that she must not be used to large numbers of people yet.

"Y-yes, I'm perfectly fine..." Grace denied, turning her head away slightly.

"Good, then I take it you'll follow me to the ship like a well-mannered Umbreon then?" David firmly questioned her.

Grace thought for a moment about it, but that just gave David his answer. "Alright, I can't trust you around people quite yet, so I'll just make it easy for you." David said as he drew out a Pokeball and clicked it, sending out a red beam of light towards Grace and enveloping her completely, bringing her inside the Pokeball where she couldn't cause any trouble.

"You know you should have really put her in that before." Luke commented as he walked past David.

"I would but she'd be pissed at me anyways then, anyways let's get a decent meal here and be on our way, it'll be awhile until the next ferry arrives it seems anyways." David said as he drew out two more Pokeball's, tossing them out and releasing the contained Pokemon from them. "Time to stretch your legs and...uh wings you guys." He said as he returned the Pokeball's to his belt.

"Skrrry!" His Skarmory, Ace, screeched out joyfully, happy to finally have a chance to be able to walk around for once. His Empoleon, Napoleon was less enthused however, just nodding slightly and remaining quiet.

"And while we're here how about we see if we can't get you guys some food as well? I'm sure you guys are hungry by now." David said as he walked off towards the port, following Luke's lead. Ace and Napoleon followed them into the port, feeling a little bit hungry now due to the fact it has been a good day since they've last had a meal.

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

"Alright Grace, coast is clear." David said as Grace was sent out of her Pokeball, looking around to find herself in a room, it wasn't a really big room either, with white painted metal walls on all sides of the room, with only a bunk bed inside of it, a small table which was attached to the wall and a single chair, which Luke was already seated on.

"Where are we?" Grace questioned, not really liking the looks of the room, she had been on ships before they were all a lot better on the inside than this.

"We're on the ferry that's taking us to the next town, it'll take a day or two, so I'd get comfortable if I were you." David said as he returned her Pokeball to his belt.

Grace continued to look around, being increasingly displeased with this room they were staying in. "I've seen homier torture chambers than this..." She sarcastically commented, finding this room to be absolutely uncomfortable for her.

"Only you would know." Luke commented with a small laugh.

"Fuck you." Grace snapped in response, pointing her ears back at him.

"Now, now, don't fight you two, we're inside a ship remember? We can't have you both putting holes in it..." David lowly warned, knowing he couldn't have Grace getting mad in here.

Luke nodded in return and Grace growled frustratedly, heading off towards the door. "Wait, you know if you go out there will be people out there you know!" David warned before Grace opened the door.

Grace looked back at him with a slight glare. "And what is worse than being stuck in a horribly small room with you two idiots?" She commented, tilting her ears to the side.

"Uh..." David said as he tried to think of an answer to that. "Being stuck with a whole LOT of idiots you don't even know?" He shortly answered, laughing slightly.

Grace turned her head and thought about it for a moment. "Valid point..." She admitted lowly. "But I'll take my chances." She answered as she reached up to the door handle with her paws, turning it easily due to how the handle was made.

"Wait, in that case I'll be going with you." David said as he rushed over to the door, holding it open for Grace.

"Why? So you can baby sit me?" Grace snapped, not wanting to have him be with her the whole time she was out of the cabin.

"Well I think it goes without question that your social skills are questionable at best, look I'm only doing this to make sure you don't get us both in a whole mess of trouble, okay?" David explained, as he held the door open for Grace, waiting for her to exit the room.

"I don't need you having holding my paws the whole damn time, can't I be alone?" Grace commented, still not opening up to the idea.

"Well like it or not that's how things have to be, I'm pretty sure you know how you are." David said with a shrug.

"Fine." Grace said as she walked out the door. "Dumb ass..." She lowly muttered as she walked into the hall way, leaving David behind slightly.

"Enjoy holding her paw, maybe you'll pass off as a couple!" Luke commented as he waved, getting frustrated groan from David as he shut the door behind himself.

As Grace reached the end of the hallway she looked to both sides and saw another hallway, going from right to left as almost as far as she could see. "Where in the hell are we?" She questioned, never remembering herself being anywhere quite like this, it was kind of noisy, and definitely cold, with the walls, ceiling, and even the floors being made of steel, she felt like she had been eaten by a Steelix or something.

"We're in a ship, anyways the exit should be around here somewhere..." David said as he stepped up next to her, looking down at each end of the hallway.

"Don't tell me we're lost..." Grace said as she looked up at him with her ears pointed back, definitely not wanting to be lost inside of a hell hole like this with David of all people.

"Well even if we are lost...odds are we'll eventually find the exit, isn't that right?" David joked with a small laugh.

"Oh good idea, maybe we should split up while we're at it?" Grace suggested, trying to get away from David so she could be by herself.

"Nice try but I ain't that stupid you know." David said, rather insulted that she just tried to use that old trick on him.

"I guess you're faster upstairs than I originally gave you credit for..." Grace shrugged as she let out a sigh.

"Har har." David said as he walked to the left hand side of the hallway. Grace followed him without any question, knowing that her guess was just as good as his at this point. They passed several other hallways, with each one looking the same, it was almost as if they were in a maze right now. Eventually they found a map of the living quarters near the end of the long corridor they were traveling.

"Oh finally." David said as he looked at the map. Grace sat down next to his legs and looked up at him, patiently awaiting for him to find the exit. David placed his finger on the map and slid it around, trying to find where their room was as opposed to the exit. "Lets see...our room is here...we should be...here...and the exit should be..." David said as he looked behind himself, seeing a stair well at the end of another corridor which was directly behind them.

"Oh that's just convenient." David murmured, now feeling slightly stupid having to read the map when the exit was right there behind him.

Grace turned her head around to see what David was looking at, finding the stair leading outside there. "Wow...smooth one..." She commented, a little bit humored by the irony of this situation.

"And why didn't you notice it first?" David said as he looked down at her with his arms crossed.

"How was I supposed to notice? I was following your stupid ass!" Grace said in her defense, knowing that she followed David here because she didn't know where the exit was herself.

"You have eyes don't you? Ah forget it, we shouldn't even be arguing about this, lets just go." David sighed as he gave up arguing with Grace any further on the subject.

They both walked to the end of the corridor and up the stairs, into another room with a door in it, the door leading outside. David went to the door and looked out the small porthole in it, finding that it was sunset now. 'Thank god...it's almost night time...' He thought as he opened the door, with Grace rushing out as soon as he opened it.

"Hey don't you go too far!" David shouted in protest as he quickly followed Grace out.

"And?" Grace snapped in response, getting a few stares from some people on deck.

"Shh! What did I say about that!" David said as he made a shushing motion with his hand. Grace looked around and noticed a few humans staring at her oddly, which made her blood kind of boil, being stared at like this.

"What? You haven't seen a talking Umbreon before?" Grace snapped out as she looked at everyone. David slapped his face with his hand, knowing this obviously wasn't what he had in mind when he said "do not draw attention to yourself."

"Grace...seriously..." David murmured as he slid his hand down his face.

"I've seen a talking Umbreon!" One of the passengers said as he raised a hand up. "It belonged to some kid in Lavaridge, it was like yours but uh...different, I think the rings on it were blue...oh and they were also kinda messed up looking like uh...zigzag like..." He said as he paused to think about it.

"That's...interesting..." David said, in half disbelief that someone actually saw ANOTHER talking Umbreon aside from Grace.

"Wait, what? Blue rings that are zigzagged? What in the hell sort of retard Umbreon is that?" Grace commented, with the image of what that would look like just not clicking in her head.

"Oh I know him too, didn't he attack that interviewer that one time? I saw it on television!" A woman said, remembering that being featured on TV.

'Oh god...are all talking Umbreon's homicidal?' David thought, finding that to be something Grace would most likely do.

Grace looked around and saw that everyone was still looking at her. "Well if you've seen one then what the hell are you gawking at me for?!" She snapped out, getting increasingly frustrated with everyone's staring.

The crowd continued to stare, and only grew a bit larger the longer they stood there. Grace growled to herself frustratedly at this, no matter what she said they weren't going to leave her be. "Oh you want to stare at something? I'll give you something to stare at!" She said as she opened her mouth and charged up a dark pulse, getting ready to fire it at the crowd.

"Wait!" David said as he rushed over towards Grace, covering her mouth before she could fire it. "Don't mind her, she uh...just wanted to uh...put on a demonstration for you, you see we're uh...going to win the championships this year and...well she's really proud of how strong she IS!!!" David tried to explain, but being interrupted by Grace as she bit the palm of his hand that was covering her mouth.

David laughed nervously and picked her up with his free arm, taking her back inside to the living quarters, putting on a fake smile to hide the excruciating pain he was having to endure from the painful bite that Grace was now holding. As soon as they got inside David finally let the smile fall off of his face. "OW!!!" He said, finally being able to do so.

Grace only snickered as she continued to bite down on his hand, not quite piercing his skin yet but being very close to doing so now. "You can...let go now..." David said as he started walking back towards their cabin. Grace kept the hold however, looking up at him with a look of pure glee on her face as she bit him.

'I can't fucking believe that she is actually nice under all of this...' David thought to himself as he carried her all the way back to their cabin, with her holding her firm bite on his hand the entire trip. When he finally got to the door he quickly found that he couldn't quite open it due to both of his hands being full, his one hand obviously being placed in Grace's maw and the other one was wrapped around under her belly, holding her up under his arm.

He kicked at the door with his foot, knocking on it. "Luke, a little help here?" He asked, waiting a few moments for Luke to come get the door. "LUKE!" David shouted, not wanting to stand here much longer holding Grace like this.

The door finally opened and Luke looked at Grace, who was almost at eye level with him now and up at David, who was sweating slightly from having to endure the pain in his hand this whole time.

"I see you two had a short yet lovely date, she's even giving your hand love bites now." Luke commented, finding this almost too hilarious.

"Fuck you!" Grace said as she let go of David's hand finally without thinking.

"FINALLY!" David cheered as he pulled his hand away from her, dropping her at almost the same time as well, sending her falling down towards the floor when she wasn't expecting it, making her paws slip out from under he and land chest first.

"Hey you ass!" Grace shouted after she quickly recovered from the fall, growling up at David.

"What?" David said as he blinked, not realizing that he just dropped her like a bag of bricks until a couple moments passed. "OH! Sorry about that Grace!" He apologized after realizing what just happened.

"So I take it Grace's social skills are quite lacking?" Luke commented, snickering to himself still at how funny David and Grace looked together when he was holding her.

"Oh no, she only almost attacked a crowd of people which would have gotten her locked up in a cage for the rest of her life until they finally put her to sleep, yeah she's perfectly friendly and lovable alright." David sarcastically answered, earning another laugh from Luke.

"Fuck you!" Grace snapped at David, pointing her ears back. "They wouldn't fucking stop staring at me!" She followed in her own defense, not really seeing this as her fault but the fault of all the humans who refused to stop looking at her.

"Well I told you not to talk..." David murmured, knowing full well that Grace only brought that upon herself.

"I am not fucking taking any sort of orders from you, reject!" Grace snapped back, turning her head up and away from him with a pout.

"Ouch..." David replied, then taking a quick look at his hand to check it over to see if it was okay. "Well Grace, you aren't allowed out of the room now until tonight, you just proved to me that you aren't safe to have around any people aside from myself." David followed.

"And why in the hell should I listen to you?" Grace snapped out in response, not at all happy with taking any sort of advice from David.

"Because, if you continue to insist on going out when you are obviously unfit for doing such then you will obviously be forbidden from doing so, I'm sure Luke wouldn't mind straightening your priority's out" David said as he pointed over towards Luke, who in return waved at Grace with an innocent smile on his face.

Grace growled to herself frustratedly, knowing that yet again she wasn't going to get her way. "Fine damn it..." She said, accepting her defeat in the argument this time.

"Good..." David said as he walked over and sat himself down on the bottom bunk of the bed.

"Dibs on the top bunk." Luke said as he almost vanished from where he was standing and reappeared on the top bunk of the bed.

Grace looked at them both and quickly found herself out of a bed. "Hey damn it! I'm not sleeping on the floor!" Grace shouted, no way was anyone going to make her sleep on the floor in here, it was horrible enough to just even walk on it. It's not so much that it was dirty or anything, it's just that it was pretty cold to the touch.

David sighed and knew Luke was just trying to give him and Grace a hard time by doing this. "Back in the damn ball with you Luke." David said as he drew a ball from his belt and pointed it up towards Luke.

"Later you two, save me a tape!" Luke sarcastically said as he saluted, then being hit with a red beam of light from the Pokeball, getting returned inside of it. Grace shook her head, not really getting that joke, David did however but shook it off. She jumped up to the top bunk of the bed and laid herself down.

"So what now? Are we supposed to stay in here locked up until we get to that town?" Grace murmured, not pleased with the idea of being stuck in this room.

"Well we can't have you attacking anyone so yeah, but you're free to leave later tonight as you please...until then I guess I'll try to sleep...damn ship is too cramped to do much..." David replied as he laid down with his arms crossed behind his head.

"Fine..." Grace muttered out as she got comfortable curling up in a ball and trying to force herself to sleep, granted she did feel a bit exhausted from running as much as she did today so it was a needed sleep.

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

Later that night Grace found herself up and awake, with the room being lit by the golden glow of the yellow rings that were scattered across her body. She laid there for a couple minutes, blinking and thinking about today, remembering what she's done today, particularly everything she put David through.

She lowered her head in realization of everything she did, how could he put up with that? She didn't understand how he could, was he really going out of his way that much to be nice to her? She didn't understand him, she couldn't, her old trainer probably wouldn't have even put up with how she was acting now.

She slowly got up from where she was laying on the top bunk and jumped down to the floor, turning around towards David. "David...I'm really sor--" She said but then pausing as she noticed that he was already soundly asleep. "Sorry..." She muttered, feeling a bit sorry that she didn't have a chance to apologize to him now. Still she felt like she needed to apologize, to get it off of her chest.

She looked at him, with his sleeping body being lit up softly by the golden glow of her rings that were lighting up the dark room, she thought for a few moments then slowly stepped over towards him, jumping up on his bed. She carefully got over next to him, then carefully lowered her face next to his, then slowly moving her face closer to his.

She paused when her muzzle was right next to his cheek, almost touching. Then she gave him a soft lick on his cheek in apology. "I'm really sorry David...I know everything I've done...it's just inexcusable...I hope...I hope that you forgive me for everything..." She lowly apologized, feeling horrible for everything she put him through.

She slowly turned away and walked off towards the door, with her head hanging fairly low, guilty still of everything she did. She opened the door quietly and made her way out of the room, shutting it behind her as she left. However this roused David slightly from his sleep, he was normally a rather heavy sleeper but he was restless today due to the fact he didn't get to work himself as much as he usually did.

Within several minutes he woke up, rubbing his head and wondering what time it was, there wasn't even a clock inside the room to tell the time, even if there was he probably wouldn't be able to see it due to how dark it was. After stumbling around in the direction of where he remembered the door being he finally managed to find the light switch and turned on the light, finding that Grace wasn't in the room.

"Ah...crap...I hope she isn't causing any trouble..." David said as he went over to the door, walking out and looking around, seeing no sign of her. Getting increasingly worried he walked down the hallway to find the exit again, he only hoped it was night time still, if it wasn't that he's really going to be in a lot of trouble.

He quickly found the exit this time without getting turned around again and made his way up the stairs, going up on deck to find that it was still night time, with the night sky completely filled with stars. He stood there and admired it for a few moments, with the soft sea breeze rolling across the ship, which was very refreshing to say the least.

"David?" A soft, feminine voice asked. David immediately recognized the voice and looked over at where it came from, turning his head to the left and seeing Grace sitting on the safety rail that went over the edge of the ship.

"Oh...hello Grace...I see your up too..." David said, a little bit relieved at the sight of Grace.

Grace nodded in return and looked back up at the sky, with all of the rings on her body glowing softly. "I'm sorry about earlier...I treated you badly again..." Grace apologized, finally having a chance to properly do so now.

"It's fine Grace, I know you don't mean any of it." David answered her as he leaned up next to her on the rail.

"Yeah but...still...what sort of excuse do I have to put you through that? You don't deserve that...nobody does..." Grace murmured, beating her self up over the whole thing.

"As I said it's fine, you can't help what you've been through, I'm just going to try my damndest to help make up for that." David answered with a firmness in his voice, which honestly caught Grace off guard. "I'm going to help you find your trainer, I don't care if we both have to turn the region upside down to do so, we'll find him, I promise you that." David added, stepping forward from the rail.

Grace blushed at those words, this was the first time she's seen him serious like this. "I keep my promises, when we find him, I'll return you to him and you can finally be at rest with what happened in the past, you deserve to be at peace for once after all you've went through." David continued as he let out a sigh.

"T-thank you..." Grace said, not really coming up with any other words to say aside from those.

"Don't mention it." David replied as he turned his head over towards her with a smile. "I mean it, he must have meant a lot too you, when we get to the next town I'll see what I can find about him, okay?" He continued, feeling a small sense of duty on his part to help Grace be like this, her real self, and not the way she was during the daytime anymore.

Grace turned her head away to hide the blush on her face which had slightly grown deeper with those words, he was going to go out of his way to help her find her old trainer now? "Y-you...r-really don't have t-too..." Grace nervously stuttered out in reply, yes she really wanted to find her old trainer, but having David help her despite everything she constantly puts him through, it just seemed wrong.

"Oh it's fine, don't worry, anyways I'll leave you be, night Grace, try not to fall." David warned as he walked back to the door.

"Oh...um...goodnight...and...I-I wont..." Grace replied as she watched him head for the door, half wishing he'd stay with her a little while longer.

"Oh...almost forgot to mention..." David said as he paused at the door leading inside the ship. "Those rings of yours glow really beautifully during the night." He complimented, not really thinking much else on it aside from the fact that the rings really did make her look nice.

Grace blushed brightly as the rings on her body suddenly flickered with David's words, during her head away embarrassed about his compliment, not at all used to getting any compliments such as that. She remained silent and didn't respond for several moments, leaving an awkward moment of silence between the two after David's compliment.

"Well goodnight Grace, try and get back inside before sunrise." David said as he stepped inside, leaving Grace to herself again. She let out a slight relieved sigh after he left and looked up at the stars, the moon wasn't out tonight sadly. As she gazed up she thought about David, wondering if letting him go out of his way to do this for her was such a good idea, but he seemed very determined about it, like he had too.

She remained there for the rest of the night, unmoving until just before sunrise, noticing the sky starting to become less dim and returning inside the ship, knowing she would have her usual daily mood swing as soon as the sun came around. She returned to their cabin and jumped up on the top bunk of the bed, returning to sleep after awhile, still troubled by David's selflessness towards her, despite that however, she was extremely grateful for it, happy that she was actually lucky enough to come across someone like him.

~End Chapter 2