Sure enough, once the sun started to rise, he returned through the balcony, his work finished.

Carmen had grabbed hold of the man's pillow in the night and was holding it close to her. Haydo was curled up near the girl still, ready to protect her if the moment arrived. Haydo woke up when Arceus entered the room. "You did come back," she sighed in relief.

"I said I would," Arceus took his bag of chips, opening it and starting to eat. He sat on a chair nearby, watching over Carmen and Nova as they slept.

"Not everyone comes back when they say they will," Haydo pointed out. "Especially busy Pokémon like you," she hopped up and landed on Carmen's side, getting comfortable and looking at Arceus.

Nova got up, groggily hopping onto the bed, accidentally stepping on Carmen. "Oops... sorry..." she stumbled and fell on the bed, still half asleep. Carmen didn't even notice, she was still so far into dream land, though she did hug the pillow a bit tighter.

"Yeah, I see where you're coming from. But I always keep my promises, and I promise I'll always come back."

"I... I'm sorry for being distrusting, milord," Haydo told him, meeting the man's eyes. "I just care about Carmen and there for don't want to see her hurt. Your conversation with her last night left me a little... worried,"

"I'm sorry I made you worry, Haydo... truth be told, these feelings in my chest have been worrying me, too... I understand you want to protect her, and believe me when I say I don't want to see her hurt either..."

"Then don't," Haydo told him simply.

Carmen groaned slightly and rubbed an eye. "Morning, Haydo," she yawned out immediately, sitting up and looking around until she saw Mason. "Hey... what are you doing over there?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, I woke up earlier," he explained. "How did you sleep? Any good dreams?"

Carmen was still half asleep as she rubbed her eye again. "No," she said sleepily. "I don't have dreams," she explained. "I haven't since I was little."

"That's too bad... at least you didn't have nightmares, right?" Arceus got up, dropping the empty bag in the trash.

Carmen shrugged. "I guess, I never had a nightmare before so I don't know what that is like at all," she stretched her arms above her head. "How are you doing?" she asked. "Did you sleep well, have nightmares or dreams?"

"Yeah, I slept well. No dreams either, unfortunately..." Arceus sighed. "So, what do you say we hit the road today and make for Canalave?"

Carmen nodded. "Yeah, okay," she yawned. "Sounds good. How far away is that again?" she couldn't seem to wake up all the way just yet, it was what happened when she forced sleep on herself, she couldn't find the heart to pull her body from it, due to the usual reasons of forcing it on her.

"Well, if we leave now we should make it to Oreburg by nightfall. From there it would be two more days to Jubilife, then Canalave afterwards. Or, we could take a blimp and be there in twelve hours."

Carmen was feeling more and more awake as he spoke. "Huh? Oh, no, walking is just fine," she smiled, getting out of bed. "I prefer it. I get to see more of the world from my kind of view," she smiled.

"Okay, walking it is. Granted Oreburg isn't known for its hotels, but walking does sounds fun." He got up, organizing the leftovers. "We should try traveling light to make the most of the time we have."

"Um... okay," Carmen nodded, looking at their bags. "I don't know how to travel light, I usually carry food with me until it's all gone, no matter how much I have with me..." she looked at the bags. "Should we go hand some of the things out to the people who can afford it?" she asked. "Until we have a light enough load,"

"I was thinking of eating more, but that works too," Arceus laughed. "Well, perhaps we could save more for lunch..."

"That works too, but I don't eat in the mornings," she said. "So it would all be up to you to lighten the loud," she explained. "Well, you, Nova, and Haydo," she looked up at her little Pokémon that had landed on her head just in time.

"Done," Nova announced. She had gone and cleaned out all the Pokémon food while they were talking, leaving just enough for Haydo to eat for breakfast.

"Well, it looks like Nova solved our problem, mostly..."

The small Eevee then crawled into the bathroom and got sick in the tub.

"I... don't think that's good for her," Carmen said, furrowing her eye brows at the Eevee then hurrying to the bathroom. "Mason..." she said in a worried tone. Arceus hurried after Carmen, gently rubbing Nova's back.

Haydo flew into the bathroom. "That was stupid of you," she told her new friend. "Thank you for leaving some for me though,"

Nova just laughed. "I was hungry..."

Haydo chuckled. "Well, there's a secret to eating, you can't eat too much and you can't eat too little. You just have to find that perfect amount," she said before flying off to go eat her breakfast.

"What do you want me to do?" Carmen asked, feeling a bit useless.

"Pack the food, I guess. I'll clean up in here." Arceus commented, turning on the bath and starting to clean off Nova

"Yeah, but you never know when your next meal is... At least, that's how it was with my old trainer." Nova commented, loving the feel of being cleaned.

"That's not how it is with me," Arceus muttered. "Seriously, who doesn't even feed their Pokémon?"

"Nova, we're traveling with God, there's no need to eat yourself sick," Haydo mumbled through her food.

"Got it," Carmen said, doing as she was told. It only took a few minutes before she had her guitar case on her back and all the food in her hands. "We're ready when ever Nova is," she said with a smile.

Once both Nova and the tub were cleaned, Arceus shrugged back on his jacket and shoes. "I could take a few bags, if you want..." he offered.

Nova shook herself dry, splattering water everywhere. "Aah, it's nice to be clean..." She smiled at Haydo. "Yeah, I know, but old habits die hard."

"Well, I'm going to help you kill your habits," Haydo chuckled. "There's no need for them anymore, silly,"

"I think I got it for now, you can carry the Pokémon when they get tired," she smiled and turned, ramming one of the bags into the table. "Maybe... you should take one or two," she muttered, her cheeks red as she held two bags out to him.

Arceus chuckled lightly, taking one of the bags. "No problem." He motioned for Nova to hop up onto his shoulder, which she did. "So, first things first, we need to check out..."

"Okay!" Nova nodded enthusiastically to Haydo. "Some of them are a little ridicules..."

Carmen's cheeks were still a light red but she nodded. "All right, let's go check out and then on our way Canalave," she smiled, slipping her free hand into Mason's.

Haydo did a shrug with her wings. "It's okay, I'm your friend now. I'm here to help. I want to hear about everything single last habit you have,"

Arceus blushed slightly when she took his hand, but smiled back at her. Together, they headed for the front counter.

"Um, well..." Nova flicked her ears. "I overeat, horde food, take what's not mine, especially if that is food, and eat until I get sick. I can't really think of anymore at this point.. I'm sure they'll crop up eventually"

Carmen brushed her thumb over Mason's hand as they walked, walking a bit closer to him than she had before. She stayed quiet until they were out of the hotel until finally asking what questions she had. "What made you like me so much so fast?" she asked.

Haydo nodded, trying to find a way to break those habits. "Well, you're just going to have to trust Arceus and Carmen to feed you right," she told Nova.

Nova smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. But it's kind of hard... I'm used to not expecting to get regularly fed."

"Try to trust them for about three days, if they don't feed you when you need it, then all of your habits are forgiven and you can do whatever you want," Haydo decided.

Nova nodded, hopping down off Arceus' shoulder and running ahead. Haydo followed suit with Nova, flying above her new friend's head.

Arceus shrugged. "I haven't been around people all that recently. Been shut up in my house for a long while. Before that, my last experience with other people was rather rocky... So I only expected the worst. When I finally got down here and met you, you were so kind and pleasant... I couldn't help but feel like you were something special. And I do believe I was right." he passed his thumb over the back of her hand, smiling down to her.

Carmen smiled up at him. "I'm glad I was a pleasant surprise," she said, resting her head against his shoulder. "So, tell me everything about this Shilo girl, if I ever meet her I want to have some dirt," of course Carmen would never use 'dirt' on or against anyone, it just wasn't her.

"Well, Shilo's a very... um, how to describe... shut-in, I guess? She doesn't like talking much about her past. I know why, but I guess I kind of promised not to talk about it." They had arrived at the counter, and he turned in the card. "Other than that... Well, I really don't know much about her. I think she kills for a living..." he shuddered at the thought. Why had someone like that caught his fancy? Perhaps it was because opposites attract, or something of the sort. "But deep down, she's a very kind person, and goes to great lengths for those she cares about."

Carmen listened in silence until Shilo's career came up. "What?" She asked, her eyes wide. "Mason... what?" she just couldn't wrap her head around it, the other facts about her, the nice ones he had said, all gone, because of that one little detail.

"I know... I vaguely remember her saying something about these people attacking her and she had to kill them..." he shook his head. "Pretty dumb crush, right?"

Carmen laughed. "Yeah, sounds like." Though, on the inside, she was vaguely disturbed. Why would Mason ever like someone like that? She certainly wouldn't be forgetting about this anytime soon. She was yanked out of her thoughts quite literally when Arceus suddenly seized her around her hips and pulled her against him, a protective bubble going up around them.

Initially, Carmen was frightened. Was this man assaulting her? She attempted to fight out of his grasp, but stopped when she heard a loud crash. Turning, she noticed the golden bubble and the bus that had crashed against it. Stunned, she didn't react when Arceus jumped into action, releasing her and the protective bubble to go pry open the bus doors and help everyone off. It didn't look like anyone was badly hurt, thank goodness.

But that bubble… Mason wasn't human. That much, she was sure of.

A/N: Whoo, it's been a while. I was looking through all my old stories, and figured I should start this up again. No, it's not getting re-written, but rather I'm going to continue uploading. Yes, my haitus is sort of over! I'm getting back into the writing mojo! Everyone rejoice! Haha, no I'm joking. But seriously, this is way overdue. Terribly sorry, everyone.

READ ON!

-SA