[Edited]

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Today was Tuesday, the third day of your journey to Grona and hopefully the last one. Not that you had much to complain about how everything had gone so far, especially yesterday night.

It was a bit later in the morning already and everyone was riding on their Mudsdale, only that this time it was Rouen and Kai who led everyone and Doni remained behind the group. The man with the eyepatch actually seemed like he was being your tour guide as well, explaining where you found yourselves at and the 'attractions' that were close by. He also mentioned this and that about geography while he was at it.

"On your left you can see what is known as the tree of beginning, or more exactly, one of the six main mountains surrounding it. The six main mountains are actually enormous hills that are like a natural fence which keeps people away from the tree." The raven haired man explained as he extended his hand to show you all more precisely. "As you know, it is forbidden for regular citizen and even the knights to enter unless our queen orders us to do so, but this is one of the not so many locations from where one can easily gain access to it."

"The tree of beginning is located in the middle of all four kingdoms in Kanto. One could say that it connects them all together. That also means that every kingdom has equally much access to it." The one-eyed man continued speaking as all the Mudsdale continued trotting. "Even though it's quite popular, we don't know much about this tree of beginning. Many have ventured inside but none have come back to tell us anything about it. Most things we do know are based on legends."

"Speaking of, have you heard about the Legendary titans?" Rouen asked, turning his head around a bit in order to let his gaze travel to every one of you before returning it forward. Some said 'no' in unison while the others remained silent, but that was only the sign for the man to continue. You found what Rouen told quite interesting as well. "It is known as the trio of legendary Pokémon - Regirock, Registeel and Regice - who apart from Mew also protect the tree of beginning."

The one eyed male continued telling you ancient stories, tales and legends on the way. This was a relaxing and nice change of pace; Usually at this time of day you would find yourselves either under attack of wild Pokémon or inside a crumbling cave, so it was nice to pass the time simply listening to a soothing voice and even getting smarter by it. A total win-win situation.

But if you were being honest, you weren't completely focusing on what Rouen was talking about. Being so close to the tree of beginning must be hard on Aaron who yesterday night told you about his father who disappeared in this very place.

You pulled at your Mudsdale's reins slightly, giving it instructions to get closer to the dark blue haired knight and Myron who sat behind him. This time your equine creature followed your orders without hesitation. At least its trust issues were solved now. "Are you alright?" You asked as soon as you were satisfied with your position, feeling Liliana's grip on you tighten a bit.

Aaron flashed you a genuine smile, but was too slow to reply. "Of course my master is alright! Don't make me say stupid things such as 'no, he's all-left', brat!" his Lucario quickly intervened, causing you to snort before erupting in laughter.

You only wished time would pass a little faster, since it was around midday right about now and you were taking your first break. Everyone descended from their Mudsdale and soon received further instructions from the vice captain: "I need to discuss something with the knights, so while we do, please help preparing lunch. Kai can give you a hand since he already knows what I will say to the others."

After that the dark skinned man nodded and turned to the princess candidates and Myron, soon splitting tasks with everyone. Loraine being the stubborn rich girl she is, argued that she didn't want to dirty her hands but had to give in in the end. No one gets into an argument with Kai and comes out victorious. Except if you are Rouen.

You and the rest of the knights were led to a few trees that provided shelter, a bit further from where the others had started a fire in order to cook. "There is something important about the Grona kingdom you should all know before we arrive." Doni started and gestured you and Aaron to sit down. He and the ravenet did the same. Rouen was asked by the leader to continue: "Not everyone knows about this, and it might be better if the princess candidates are unaware of it, too."

"Not too long ago, late king Silvio used to rule Grona. He was a rather selfish man and refused to trade with or befriend other kingdoms. Rumor says that he even attempted to start a war with the Kinola kingdom, so they probably aren't the nicest bunch of people." The one-eyed man spoke, glancing at you occasionally, then at Aaron and at Doni. "We don't know about the situation the kingdom is in right now, since a new prince has been crowned not much after king Silvio's death, but we should proceed with extreme caution once we're inside Grona."

"I hope that won't be the case, but in the worst case scenario, we must be capable of fighting Grona's knights. Not exactly with the intend to kill, but you know where I'm coming from with this." Rouen added before a heavy sigh escaped his lips. He once again let his gaze travel to all of the younger knights before adding one last part: "If I am not mistaken, this is the first time in Grona for you all. You should know that it's much different than our kingdom. In a not so good way."

"Thank you for your attention. I'll go help Kai and the others with cooking now." The golden eyed knight excused himself before leaving, the rest of you soon standing up. Doni stretched his body a bit, groaning after having sat on that equine creature for so long. "Well then, I'll be off too." And just as the blond left, Aaron's Lucario approached you and his master.

You would have gone to join the others too if it weren't for the dark blue haired knight grabbing your wrist. That gesture caused you to turn around and face the male who wore an innocent smile. "There is something I'd like to show you. Bring your Lucario as well."

You nodded before reaching into the pocket of your knight coat, taking a hold of your Old ball before releasing your Pokémon from it. You greeted the female creature and petted her head, apologizing for not having let her out so much lately. She then turned her head to look at the male of her same species and smirked at him, immediately making him raise his guard for whatever reasons.

"This way." Aaron said, leading you three to an unknown location. On the way there he took your hand properly, intertwining his fingers with yours. You passed by some more trees and a few bushes until you were in an area where the ground was a bit drier. The knight then kneed down, you instinctively imitating him before you looked in front of you, only to be greeted by the view of something you had never seen before. "What's this?"

"It's called a time flower. We believe it's a crystalized flower that only grows near the tree of beginning. It has the ability to record events and play them at a later date as a holographic image along with sound, if it's stimulated by aura." Aaron explained, slowly releasing your hand. "We could trigger it to record, and send a message to our future selves or something like that."

"That's a great idea!" You grinned, receiving a chuckle of the knight. His and your Lucario kneed across the two of you, so that the time flower was surrounded. You had heard about these plants, but you had no idea they really existed. "It's the first time I do something like this, so I don't really know what to say though..."

"How about your hopes and dreams? Or perhaps, tell yourself to do something or visit a certain place at a certain time." The dark blue haired knight suggested, making you think for a bit before you nodded. You were still a bit unsure, but you had a rough idea of what to say. "Then let's start."

Aaron held both his hands in front of himself, extremely close to the crystalized flower before he sent his aura coursing through the path he had formed with his arms. The turquoise aura took the form of wind and trapped the time flower before disappearing. The plant shifted, making it seem as if the flower was blooming. That was the sign that it was working. The male Lucario stood up, placing his paw near his chest. "Please let me begin, master."

"I sincerely hope my future self is still protecting Sir Aaron, especially from this brat." The mostly blue Pokémon had a triumphant expression as he pointed at you with his other paw, causing you to pout at him, furrowing your brows lightly. Your Lucario said something next, but Aaron's was the only one who understood her and reacted, leaving you to wonder what she mentioned in her message. "What?! My master with her?! Not on my watch!"

Aaron then glanced at you as if to tell you that it was now your turn. You gulped before exhaling as you stood up. "By the time I- or well, we see this again, I hope that we became a full-fledged knight. Oh, and that our mother is married and we have two older step-brothers." You counted down what you thought were the things that would most probably and hopefully come true. You looked at Aaron from the corner of your eye and blushed at what you had to say next. "And who knows, we might have already confessed something to a certain someone. Honestly, I also hope we can finally get along with Aaron's Lucario."

You giggled at the Pokémon's excited reaction, his master and your Lucario chuckled as well. It was finally the knight's turn and you were a little curious to what he was going to say. He cleared his throat, took your hand in his and spoke. "There is a place I want to take Y/N to, in Puleuna, so we better do that after she officially becomes a knight. We should also take risks some more, and say yes more often."

In the end, what Aaron said wasn't the last thing mentioned in the message, all four of you kept getting new ideas and voiced them until the time flower could take no more and returned to its previous state. Aaron and you laughed at how much you had talked into that flower, even the Lucario grinned - of course without you noticing.

Doni and Camilla had soon spotted your small group and called you to join them, saying lunch was ready.

* * *

After the group had eaten, you continued your journey to Grona. It was slowly but surely getting late and you kind of felt disappointed that you didn't arrive at the kingdom yet. Rouen consoled you though, stating that you were very close to the destination. He only considered it better if you all spent the night in the wild instead of in somewhere in that kingdom.

So here you were, just having finished setting up the tents in a location about thirty minutes away from Grona if you were to ride on Mudsdale. Dinner had already been taken care of; Everyone had already eaten as well. Tonight was the first time you would be on lookout duty with the other knights, so the five of you were discussing the matter while Myron and the princess candidates readied themselves to go to sleep.

"Usually, we would guard in pairs, but since we're five now someone will have to do it alone." Doni explained as everyone sat around the fire Kai had made not too long ago. Or well, his fire-type Pokémon did. He was also the first one to comment: "Alright, then you do it."

"Huh?!" The blond seemed surprised for some reason, but everyone saw this one coming. The dark skinned male sighed, annoyed that he needed to spell it out for the younger properly so that he would understand: "I'm pairing up with Rouen, obviously, and the newbie's got Aaron. That leaves you."

"Wait, why doesn't Lucario just guard with Doni?" You blurted out without thinking too much about it, glancing over at the mostly blue Pokémon who up until now sat quietly behind his master. The creature stood up and glared at you, but before he could complain about anything, he was cut off by everyone agreeing with your suggestion: "That's actually a pretty good idea."

"I suppose I will go along with it, but only because master Aaron asked me to." Lucario growled and stepped over to Doni who would have probably preferred his Heracross or Momo over a Pokémon who wasn't too fond of him. You rolled your eyes at the male Pokémon before the order was discussed: Doni and Lucario were going to be on lookout first, then they would switch shifts with you and Aaron. Rouen and Kai offered to go last and stay the longest which everyone appreciated.

"Why don't you go get some sleep? I'll come call you when it's our turn." Aaron leaned a bit closer to you so that he didn't need to talk too loudly. You weren't too tired, but it was better to get as much rest as possible. After all, you had no idea what was going to await you in Grona. "Alright I will, thank you. You do too though."

The dark blue haired knight ensured you that he will try to as well and with that, the two of you went your own ways to your perspective tents. This time they had set up one more because Loraine requested it. It was more like ordering or forcing them to accept her condition, actually, but that's not so important. The point was that now you and Camilla had a tent to yourselves again.

The caramel haired girl was already lying in her sleeping bag, but didn't seem to be asleep yet. "Did something happen?" She asked once you seated yourself onto your own sleeping bag before shaking your head. You figured there was no need to change clothes yet since you weren't going to stay here for too much, but you at least let your Lucario out of her Old ball again. "No, I just have lookout duty later, so I'll apologise in advance in case I wake you."

"Don't worry, I doubt I'll fall asleep before that." The chestnut brown eyed female reassured you, flashing you a grin. You got into a comfortable position and looked over at your best friend. Your eyes had already gotten used to the lack of light. "Any news with Aaron?"

"Before that, what happened to you last night? I saw you sneak out of the tent." Camilla added before you had a chance to reply to her prior question. The caramel haired girl can easily wake up to the slightest sounds sometimes. You knew that and yet somehow you didn't expect her to have heard you the night before. "Actually..."

* * *

"Y/N? It's our turn now." You could hear Aaron's soothe voice coming from outside your tent. In the end, you stayed up talking with Camilla instead of getting any sleep, so you heard him immediately. You wished your best friend goodnight before getting up and outside, joining the dark blue haired knight.

The male led you to where your post was supposedly. You halted on the way since you ran into a rather exhausted looking Doni and a still high-spirited Lucario. The blond simply groaned and headed straight for his tent. The mostly blue Pokémon on the other hand was being awfully persistent: "Master, are you sure you'll be fine? I can come along as well if that's what you wish-..."

"It's alright, Lucario. Y/N is with me and you need to rest." Aaron said kindly, patting his Pokémon's head who gave up in the end, not wanting to talk back to his master. Aaron and you then proceeded and stopped in your tracks as soon as you found yourselves in front of a not so small tree. "We usually climb somewhere in order to get a better view from higher up. It's usually trees or hills sometimes."

After that short yet informative explanation, the dark haired knight started climbing up the tree. Watching him do it so easily could make anyone believe that it was a piece of cake when in reality it wasn't. He was already in his position on a few strong branches and looked down to you. You gulped and imitated as many movements of Aaron as you could.

The young man held his hand out for you to grab - which you gladly did - and helped you get all the way up to where he was. Both of you seated yourselves more comfortably and exhaled after everything was done. Now all you had to do was to look out for Pokémon or even enemies for an hour or so and that was already it.

You sat with your back against the tree and extremely close to Aaron, so you almost reflexively leaned your head against his shoulder. Silence filled the air and even though it wasn't unpleasant, you didn't feel too much at ease either so you just said the first thing that came to mind when you stared up at the clear night sky. "The stars are really beautiful tonight..."

"They sure are." Aaron whispered in a silent tone, leaning his head against yours slightly. Even though he was satisfied with just having you so close to him, he had learned that you didn't like when it was too silent, so he held out his one arm and pointed to the sky. "Do you happen to know any constellations?"

"Is that a challenge? I know a few." You smirked, glancing at the young man from the corner of your eye before focusing back at the sky. You pointed to a series of stars which you could perfectly see when looking straight while grinning. "See those three stars? If you connect them, you'll get a triangle which is the lower back of the lion Pokémon. That's in my opinion the easiest way to spot the Pyroar constellation."

"Not bad. My turn now.~ The stars that form a smaller triangle to the right of the Pyroar are the main body parts of Litleo." Aaron said, delicately taking a hold of your wrist and moving your hand to the spot in the sky he was referring to. Your cheeks flushed a soft red color as you continued with you little game, pointing at the right and higher from where Aaron had described his constellation. "See the big dipper over there? You can extend the lines to make the Ursaring's mouth and legs."

The dark blue haired knight once again used your hand to point at the sky, he as well more to the right and a bit more above your constellation. "The lines of the Teddiursa are pretty similar to the ones of the big dipper, only that these are smaller."

"Hey, you're not even trying! Only copying mines!" You snorted, removing your head from the young man's shoulder in order to eye him in a suspicious yet playful way. "I guess you caught me." Aaron admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck before both of you erupted in laughter. While doing so, the blue eyed male released your wrist and got quieter, looking at you lovingly. You had recovered and noticed him staring, resulting in you locking eyes with the knight.

It had gotten silent again, the only audible sounds were the ones wild Kricketot and Kricketune emitted and the occasional rustling of leaves. "There's... something I've been meaning to tell you." The male started, not being able to keep the eye contact with you much longer as his gaze drifted to his lap. "Then again, I'm not so good with words, so I'll let my actions speak for me."

After that statement, Aaron tilted his face slightly to the side before slamming his lips against yours in an unexpectedly aggressive manner. Your eyelids flew wide in a matter of seconds and your face got tinted dark scarlet. This was really happening; Aaron was really kissing you.

At first, the knight moved his lips against yours softly, waiting for you to reciprocate the gesture. You didn't need to get told twice about it: You as well now brushed yours against the male's, soon getting in synchronisation. A good amount of seconds passed before the dark haired young man pulled away, his eyes slowly opening again. The pace of both of your breathings had gotten faster, and so had your heartbeats.

You were almost afraid that it was already over, but Aaron soon proved you wrong when he kissed you again. This time you closed your eyes immediately and wrapped your arms around the knight's neck. The kiss didn't stay innocent for too long: The dark haired male started nibbling your lip before he started sucking on it lightly. Your mind went all fuzzy and you felt so weak in his embrace, as if you could melt in his arms at the spot.

Feeling as if he was already being the dominant one, you slid your tongue outside your mouth, causing it to collide with Aaron's bottom lip. The male parted his lips almost right away in order to let your wet muscle inside, greeting it with his own. They engaged in the battle over dominance which you at first stood a chance at but later lost. Aaron was simply to good at this.

His tongue forced its way into your wet cavern and explored every inch of it. You ended up occasionally moaning when the young man hit your good spots. Both of you slowly running out of air, you pulled away. A thin string of saliva was the last thing connecting your mouths, but that as well snapped soon enough. Aaron and you started breathing heavily, in- and exhaling rather quickly as your eyes locked. The young man brought the palm of his hand to your cheek, gently caressing it as he stared at you with somewhat lustful eyes.

"Do you understand now?"

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A/N: You wanted a kiss-scene? And a kiss-scene you got~ :3

Sooo what do you think of this book so far? Feedbacks would be really helpful~^^

Thank you for Reading!