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P** art Three...**

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It came to be that by the day that I had turned sixteen two years later, myself and Aura had become as inseparable as three Magnemites stuck together to make a Magneton. Truly, wherever I had gone or done anything with Zig-Zag and Fen, Aura had been sure to keep up as best as she could. Whenever I had shown affection, playfulness, love to my pokemon, she had been very eager - maybe even over eager - than the others to return it to me in kind by dancing for me, hugging me, even giggling at me in her chime of a voice.

Yes, although my connection with Aura had begun with much difficulty two years back during quite the stormy night, we had become the best of friends by the time I was sixteen. It was then, seeing as I had finally turned such an age, I reached the arrogant stage in my life where our friendship could have very well been put to question due to some certain circumstances.

For like every teen starting to turn into something of a young adult, I had reached that irritating process called "puberty".

Yeah, you, me, every human being knows about this puberty thing. That progression in life where the guys and girls no longer act so disgusted by the sight of one another but are in fact are interested to see what the other will do? It's no longer, "Ew, girls!" or "Ew, boys!" it's more like... "Are you doing anything later? How about your number?" Ha ha, yep, you know what I'm talking about.

Funnily if not distressingly enough for Aura at that time in our lives though, she did not get why I had suddenly taken to leaving the daycare most days to vanish to who knew where; to vanish where I knew girls wanted to see me. And when I first brought back a girl to let her see what I did at the daycare, when I went about giving her all of my attention and hardly took notice of my curious pokemon, I never did observe how Aura's dances ceased, how her uncertain eyes watched me go everywhere with any girl I brought back, how her body seemed to wilt like a dying rose.

Never fear, however. Although I had been quite stupid to see her growing feelings for me then, Aura's love for me didn't go forever unnoticed. The chance for us to seriously come together gradually arrived. I was just a tad... stupid in the meantime. Try to bear with me here.

One fateful night had come around during my teen days, during my blind roaming for girls. I'd been emailing several of my friends about topics when they had suggested we all team up to take on the Pokemon Gym Challenge together. Of course, such a challenge hadn't been big. My buddies had planned we would simply venture to Rustboro, win our first badges from Roxanne, then return as hot shots to Petalburg where we'd score babes there.

We weren't thinking about the pokemon. We were thinking about the gym badge... and how it'd score us some girls easily.

Yes, it'd been a simple piece of cake for a gym challenge plan. Yet, even where the plain plot to attract cuties had been guaranteed to work, I'd rejected the idea outright. I hadn't ever been the one for battling pokemon but for caring for them. And at that, my group suggested I come along just as a knowledge giver or caretaker of their pokemon if something happened. I could be a voice of wisdom, not a fighter. Girls would still go for that.

Thus, change of plans, my friends would have battled for their badges. I would have been their navigator, medic, advice giver. And that certainly had sounded good enough to me.

When my energetic uncle had gotten wind of the plan, however, he had downright told me to forget going at all if I wasn't planning on taking the Gym Challenge seriously. And even if I hadn't wanted to, he had stated then that the time had come for me to truly understand my Squires blood for battle, that I should do something outside of caring for the daycare pokemon. For if I really did take up training for a bit, I would learn that much more about the world I lived in as well as the pokemon I would come to care for.

And after my uncle's wise lecture, having followed his wisdom then as well as had him train me a bit in the ways of combat with his own seasoned pokemon, with Zig-Zag and Fen and Aura having happily followed my footsteps, I had not only followed my buds to Rustboro City... I had gotten to face the gym's very leader; Roxanne. And she had been a very tough cookie. Like stone hard cookie, I'm not kidding. Her defenses were extreme. And those defenses only seemed to increase her physical offense.

Nevertheless, when I had remembered my uncle's earlier poke logic for battles and I had faced a gym trainer to gain permission to face the gym leader, I had beaten my foe then with astonishing ease. Of course, my victory against my opponent's Geodude then had not come from Zig-Zag's or Fen's physical strength but from Aura's mental power. Physical defense, as I came to learn, offered no resistance to a special attack like my Kirlia's.

Yes, I had hurriedly learned during my earlier training with my uncle before arriving in Rustboro for a gym badge that the gym itself used rock types. Rock, steel, if not ground pokemon altogether were as sturdy, enduring, and tricky as they came. Therefore, after having seen some of my friends fail already in winning their fights, I had learned that Zig-Zag nor Fen's strength wouldn't cope well in any fight with Rustboro's gym trainers.

Thus, although she had not been a durable physical combatant but a fragile one, having had years previously to sharpen her psychic power with her last lame trainer, Aura had been more than happy to jump into battle for me as well as win me permission to face rock master, Roxanne. Even though it would be rocks she would be facing as her dainty self, she would still face them.

IF I had paid enough attention to her during those days... I would have realized she hadn't gone into battle just because she was my pokemon. She'd seen how much I wanted to win the badge. She stepped into battle because I had meant plenty to her; because she wanted to see that smile on my face.

In the end, out of the six of us who had traveled to Rustboro to gain fame, it had turned out that only my formerly reluctant self earned the right to go on to face the Rock Gym Leader. Freaking ironic, eh? Anyway, my defeated friends had been more than eager to watch reclusive me either win or lose my big battle with Roxanne that had built up into an impressive showdown at the end of which... I had actually won. Surprisingly.

Indeed, where I had been allowed to use my three pokemon with me, Roxanne had confidently settled with two. She had first sent out a cunning, cautious, heavy set Graveler that had easily countered my Fen as well as had worn down my Zig-Zag before finally having been knocked out. Of course, I had known that Aura was my best bet to win the fight against Graveler right off. Nevertheless, I had needed her in reserves for Roxanne's last pokemon, Nosepass who had successfully trapped as well as knocked out speedy Zig-Zag with a repeated use of the blasted Rock Tomb move soon enough.

Finally, it had come down to my last along with the gym leader's last pokemon. My friends' had crammed their faces into their hands or had begun biting their nails by that point and when the battle between Nosepass along with Aura had been decided... they all had nearly fainted or had had near heart attacks.

Yet, as I'd said beforehand, at the end of it all, with a combo of her reflect along with confusion, my loyal Kirlia had grandly countered Nosepass's last rock slide attempt against her as well as sent it smashing back into him. The massive rock head's defenses were no match for the little dancer's mental abilities. Size wasn't what mattered at all. It was heart then.

And with that rockslide having been turned against Nosepass who fainted in turn, within the blink of an eye, gentle me had next been surrounded by my cheering friends while I had been presented with the Rustboro's Stone gym badge. Aura, happier than anyone for her own reasons, never stopped hugging my leg afterwards. She was a literal part of me during the day afterward, heh. She wouldn't let me go for anything.

I didn't complain. She had earned the right. I had gotten the badge thanks to her.

Of course, as I had called my uncle to tell him the goods news later which sent him into a victory dance in the daycare's lobby in front of several amused customers, it had taken me some time to realize the actual huge significance of me having won my first battle against a gym leader that day. I had been a caretaker, not a trainer, up to that point. I didn't realize I was a step up from other trainers. Nevertheless, when I did realize, I had been more than eager to grab up all of my pokemon into a rib breaking hug next which they returned as best as they could while I nearly squeezed the life out of them.

Despite the happy meaning behind my hugging them then, maybe I had been a bit rough with my pokemon, hm? Still, they hadn't shown pain on that day. And considering how I had never noticed how very affectionate she had always been towards me then... I do not believe Aura had minded in the slightest my strong embrace at that moment.

If anything, I hadn't noticed her look very disappointed when I'd released her and my other pokemon from my crushing grip.

Zig-Zag, Fen, Aura. They had made me proud in Rustboro. They had won me my first badge. And why would I have stopped there? Sure, I'd wanted to be a caretaker but I'd been so excited then that I'd wanted to go on traveling, to go on getting stronger, to go bonding with my pokemon.

So, when we'd ventured from Rustboro to see how strong we were as a team, my pokemon friends went on to make me proud in Dewford, Mauville, along with Lavaridge. Them plus the new pokemon additions I made to my party along the way also.

I made new additions to my pokemon party while journeying? Of course, I did.

See, when I had defeated Roxanne and was ready for the next gym in Dewford while my humbled friends journeyed back home, my uncle had suggested I visit a certain Mr. Stone in the nearby Devan Company headquarters. When I had indeed visited the said Mr. Stone and he had learned of who I had been as well as what I'd just achieved in getting a badge. He'd been very happy in bestowing upon me a chirpy Beldum in turn who, grumbling to himself, is now my Metagross of today and is entitled "Ironhide".

Then, it had been on my way to Lavaridge that I had had the good fortune of catching another pokemon who is more than caringly loyal to me today; a Sandshrew, "Spines" I came to call him, who very much helped me win the fight against Flannery for the Heat Badge and is my Sandslash now. His dancing about, his cheery attitude, made him an instant friend with Aura. They were very frequent in doing victory dances together, having won double-team battles and the like. Spines today, with actual spines, tends to the garden outside of my daycare.

Nevertheless, during my one year where I had traveled from Rustboro to Dewford to Mauville to Lavaridge and then back to Petalburg to put my journey to an end, I came to have no stronger bond with any of my pokemon then with Aura, naturally. Truly, every time I had taken to setting up camp on the road or getting lodgings somewhere or had just plain walked on the roadside through the night, I had released my pokemon to join me during the later hours if they had wanted.

Sometimes, my other pokemon had popped out to comfort me along the road. Other times, being exhausted, they hadn't. I had understood their reasoning. Always had Aura though, who had danced ahead of me, laughed at my lagging behind her, encouraged me to pick her up every so often so she could ride on my shoulders like the child she was.

Never had I caught on that all of that dancing of hers, that every time she had popped out of her pokeball to be with me, meant something far more to her than it had to me. Never until years later - until tonight where I now stand naked before her - would I catch on that she had wanted on my shoulders to hug my head to her chest, to rub her face in my hair, to be as close to me as possible... because she had enjoyed my company always.

As we are now, Aura and I had been the best of friends then during our pokemon gym challenge journey. Yet, again, as I had never noticed her act so depressed when I had taken a sudden interest in girls rather than her before our adventure's start, never would I catch on until much later why she had been so friendly towards me. Because deep inside herself, when she had seen me get close to girls at the daycare, she had decided she had started to want more than friendship with me. Constantly back at the daycare and then on the road, she had looked at me with something of a longing.

And each time I had given her my attention on the road, each time I had put her on my shoulders, her opportunities to snuggle into my hair - into me - had been too good to resist. She'd watched me hug human girls, cuddle them. She knew what she was doing then. And her cuddling had made me happy each time.

Nevertheless, no matter how charming she had tried to be with me during our days if not nights on the road, with me having been so ignorant then of the obvious yet not so obvious, I had not given Aura what she had clued me in on wanting; me. Only me.

That all changed, however, when she'd helped me win my fifth gym badge from Flannery... and she had evolved in turn.

Indeed, it had been during the resulting excitement of us having won the Flame Badge from Lavaridge that I'd realized Aura had reached level thirty-two. In the white glow that had emanated from her next, her childish form of only two or three feet had grown to be about six feet. Her horns on her head had shifted to protruding from her waist. Her arms along with legs had lengthened. Her mini-skirt of skin had then flowed down into something of a dress while her once immature body had matured into something close to an actual woman's.

Brilliantly, majestically, graciously, when the light of her evolution had dimmed, Aura had evolved from looking small if not delicate to appearing to be attractive along with elegant. And as I had congratulated her on a job well done, as I had looked to give her only my best smile rather than intrude on her personal space with a hug, she had taken that matter right out of my hands next moment.

Yeah, heh, she next did what she had eagerly/subtly wanted to do to me since she'd seen me first bring a girl into the daycare months back. No longer having needed me to put her on my shoulders or kneel down to her level, no longer having been able to hold back her joy at being my size, Aura had hugged me so very passionately if not for a long while before everyone in the fire gym.

My reaction hadn't been passionate like hers. It had been humored. Something she had been happy with, regardless.

For eternity it had seemed, I had experienced my best friend in the world hold me close to her then. During that entire time, ugh, I still hadn't the slightest clue that that embrace had meant very much more than I had thought it. Or maybe a hidden part of myself had realized the significance of the act. For after I had been presented with my fifth gym badge, after I had gotten done partying with my pokemon and had actually found myself dozing off in my hotel room with Aura better pulling the bed sheets over me... that's when I had the, ahem, well, um, dream.