A/N: Thank you very much for clicking on this story! This is the sequel to Leave It To Brocko, so I would suggest reading that one first before starting on this story, otherwise you'll probably be confused.

I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or the picture used as cover (though I did edit it).

Leave Brocko Alone!

Chapter 1

My hand hovered over the green button, ready to push it and call the number displayed on the screen. Breathe in, breathe out. Hand was lowered an inch. Eyes closed. Breathed in through my nose, opened my eyes-

Pressed the red button.

The number disappeared from the screen, and my hand went up and hit my forehead with full force.

Coward, coward, coward. I shook my head, dragging my hand over my face.

I was going to ask Lucy out. I was. I really, really was. It just… took a while.

This had been the third time I had chickened out. I wasn't proud to admit it, but it was freaking scary to call her.

So, you know, I wasn't going to admit it. I was just going to keep making up excuses to postpone my call with Lucy. Because I was totally going to call Lucy. I just wasn't going to call her now. That's a difference.

Before dinner. Yes, that was a good decision. I was going to ask Lucy out before dinnertime. Because I didn't have time now. After all, I still had to call Dawn, and Dawn would undoubtedly have a whole story to tell-

Yes, it was better if I called Dawn first, I reasoned with myself. I'd still have called Lucy before dinner. Yes, that's what I was going to do.

"Hey Dawn!"

"Brock! It's so good to see you again, so much has happened-"

Leaning back into my chair, I pushed my thoughts of Lucy away, and allowed Dawn's waterfall of stories to rush over me.

Or well, that had been my intention. In the end, it appeared that I couldn't hide from my love troubles, for Dawn seemed to be having the exact same problems. Well, maybe not exact, because I doubted that Dawn was trying to gather the courage to ask the most beautiful girl out on a date, but you get what I mean.

It was apparent from the very beginning of our conversation that Dawn had something on her mind, despite several of her attempts to distract both me and her from it. Some of them were very successful – the little Buneary's progress easily caught my attention as a former Breeder, for example – but in the end, I wasn't able to not notice, and Dawn only needed a little push (well, perhaps a bit more) to tell me her troubles.

Well, troubles… It was more like one thing. Or even more specific, one person.

"I'm sure it'll be alright, Dawn," I said when Dawn had told me her tale of woe, and she smiled back at me, though still with a frown of annoyance around her eyes.

"I knooow." She rolled her eyes in exasperation, letting out a sigh. "It's just…" She half-threw her hands in the air, listlessly. "I keep giving these hints, saying these things, and he's just like a huge block of ice!" Another gesture with her hands, this time with more force and frustration behind it. "He's completely unresponsive to anything I do- I could walk around naked and he wouldn't care!"

Despite Dawn's fury, I could hear the uncertain undertone in her voice. Because what if Paul's lack of reaction wasn't due to him being oblivious, but because he had simply no interest in her?

"Nope, I'm quitting this thing," Dawn continued talking, her voice lower now. She seemed to be more talking to herself than to me, with her arms crossed and shaking her head like that. "The ball is on his side, I kicked it as hard as I could and if he won't do anything about it he can have it, stupid..." she trailed off, muttering.

"Stay positive, Dawn," I tried to reassure her. "I'm sure everything will work out."

I couldn't give her any empty promises that Paul would indeed notice her, that he would finally do something about it, because, well, I didn't know if he would. But even if the two of them wouldn't work out, even if it wouldn't work out that way, I was still sure that everything would be okay, in the end. Because Dawn was Dawn, and she would get over it and come out stronger.

I had to admit, though, that those two did make a really cute couple. But hey, even I, the most amazing matchmaker ever, couldn't force love.

She looked at me with a mixture of both hope and disbelief, before sighing again. "You're probably right." Dawn appeared to want to say something (probably something that would disregard this topic and would turn the tables, making me the victim of a cross examination) but then she noticed something which caused her eyes to widen.

"Oh no!" She quickly looked at her watch, then back at me. "I'm so sorry, Brock, but I really have to go! Zoey is coming over and I'm going to cook, but I still have to do the groceries and prepare everything, and-"

I was already making a dismissing gesture, and she gave me a grateful grin.

"We'll talk later, I promise," she said, before her eyes narrowed playfully. "Don't think you escaped me, I still want to hear whatever's on your mind later."

I pulled a face, and Dawn smirked momentarily, before quickly waving goodbye. "See you later!"

"Have fun tonight," I said, and then quickly added, "And if you need any tips on the cooking let me know!"

Dawn quickly shot me a smile. "Thanks, Brock. Bye!"

"Bye!" And with that, the screen turned black, and I slowly placed the receiver back. Then I straightened from the slumped position I had been sitting in, feeling something crack, and rolled my shoulders, stretching my arms in the same movement. Ouch, I sure felt that this had been a long conversation.

And that had mostly been caused by Dawn's constant evasions. Whenever the topic had gotten close to Paul, and I had just been about to ask, Dawn quickly and enthusiastically started on something else.

Poor Dawn. I only knew too well what it was like to be in her shoes- well, that wasn't quite true, most women outright rejected me instead of keeping me in doubt. And it was obvious that Paul's lack of a response was eating away at Dawn.

I let out a sigh and rubbed my forehead. Thinking about it wasn't going to help any, as I was unable to help her anyway. I couldn't contact Paul – well, I could, of course, but Dawn hadn't asked for my help and I was not going to meddle in other people's lives anymore. I had done that more than enough, and even I had to admit there was a limit.

No one could force love, after all.

Still, despite my own admittance that it was not going to help anyone, I stayed seated in front of the phone, pondering Dawn's story. They had travelled together for several weeks, and according to Dawn it had gone well, and she had enjoyed it (surprisingly enough, as she put it herself).

They had kept in contact after that, but it was mostly under the guise of keeping father and child in contact with each other, and it was all initiated by Dawn. I wasn't surprised that she had had enough of Paul's passive attitude, and with Bun-Bun growing so fast, she didn't really have a reason to keep in touch anyway.

That was surprising, actually, how fast the Buneary had matured. Buneary were always known for their fast development, but this was extraordinary. In my experience as a Breeder and during my studies as a Pokémon doctor I had never come across anything like this; was this just a coincidence or did having both a maternal and a paternal figure in their life really have positive effects on the development of baby Pokémon? It was a very interesting thought, one I had considered more often and had actually done some literally research on, but there were very little results. It would be a very interesting and revolutionary research to do, and I was seriously-

Seriously getting distracted. I shook my head. It was stupid to consider actually conducting a big experiment like that, I didn't have the means, the money, the time…

But perhaps someone else did… I couldn't help but think about it, despite my own mind throwing sound reasoning at me, arguments to not waste my time on this… And yet, resting my head in my hands, elbows leaning on the table of videophone, I couldn't stop thinking about it, plans and ideas and questions and answers and more questions running around in my head.

I should at least share the idea, I decided after some time. It was not a bad idea, though of course I still needed to work out the details. I couldn't very well call someone with only a half-formed plan, after all. I knew that I probably shouldn't do that right now, but I couldn't help myself, and a few minutes wouldn't do much harm…

After the promised few minutes – though the crick in my neck told me it had probably been a bit longer than that – I pulled myself out of the deep thoughts that had sucked me in, and my eyes refocused on the screen in front of me. I blinked, everything was blurry. It was unusual for inspiration to hit me like that, just dragging me along despite that my reluctance to get further involved.

Mew- My eyes widened when they caught the clock in the corner of the screen. An hour had passed! Had I really been sitting here and doing nothing but staring off in space and thinking about a suitable research method? I shook my head to clear the remaining fuzz. I needed to start on dinner, I still needed to call Lucy, and I really needed to stop thinking about that stupid research which I couldn't do alone and I would need help-

Alright, that was it, I decided. Time to check things off my list. Dinner, Lucy, research- I swallowed. Lucy… I really should… It was almost dinnertime, I really should…

I really should start on dinner before the kids started complaining. Yes. It was Dad's day to take care of the Gym, so I should take my responsibility as well and make some food.

Yes. I nodded to myself, getting up from the chair, my body stiff from sitting in the same position for an extended period of time. I should start on dinner, but… I couldn't focus with all those ideas jumping around in my head.

Well, I considered, lowering myself on the chair again. I could at least ask if he was interested… And if he was, we could talk later in the evening about the details. Yes, I nodded to myself, yes, that was a good idea. That was planning for the future. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes, dinner could wait just a bit longer…

And so I scrolled through my list of contacts, until I found the only one from Veilstone City that I had. The Breeding Center.

The water was a bit too hot, but I managed, quickly pulling my hands out of the water as soon as I took a dish out, before scrubbing it habitually, and then handing it to Dad for drying.

Surprisingly, Dad was silent, and if I hadn't been so preoccupied with myself and my own thoughts at the moment, I might have asked him why. Now I just enjoyed the quiet while I could, organizing my thoughts about what exactly I was going to say to Reggie.

I actually hadn't been able to reach the breeder yet, no one picking up – probably too busy with the Pokémon, I had called around dinner time, I reasoned.

I gave Dad the last knife, then pulled out the plug and let the water flush away as I went to dry my hands.

Dad turned to me, blinking. "Are we done already?"

"Hm?" I put the towel back, then wiped my hands on my pants out of habit. "Yes, that was it."

"Huh." He smiled distractedly, giving me the now rather moist towel to put on the heating radiator as he turned to put away the knives.

"Brock…" Dad hesitated, a faraway look on his face, still holding the knives. I stopped in my hasty exit of the kitchen – I wanted to call Reggie, and if I stopped to think I would realize- so I didn't and impatiently looked at my father.

He noticed the look on my face and then shook his head. "Never mind." He tried for a smile and waved me away. "Go do whatever you were planning to do."

I hesitated, one moment, then gave him a smile and was off to the video phone room. Whatever that had been, I would deal with it later. With a bit of luck no one else would be making a call… And luck was indeed on my side.

With a content sigh, I sat down in front of the device, feeling the constant rush that had been plaguing me all evening leave me. Another sigh escaped me, this time one out of frustration.

I was such a coward. I had, again, found a way to avoid calling Lucy. Because it was past dinnertime, and I still hadn't called her.

Because, obviously, it was now too late to call her. Yes, yes, it was, it was too late, it was past dinnertime so it was too late to call her now. I would just have to call her tomorrow.

Yes, I would do that, I would just call her tomorrow. I nodded to myself-

RING RING, PHONE CALL, PHONE CALL!

-before almost falling off my chair in alarm. I quickly gripped the table to keep my balance, breathing heavily as the familiar ringtone rang loudly in my ears, before quickly pressing the 'accept call' button.

"Pewter City Gym, how may I help you?" I spoke, quickly straightening up and looking as professional as possible as I could after my embarrassing almost fall. Unneeded adrenaline was still racing through my body, and it left my legs feeling shaky.

The screen flickered on, revealing a familiar figure, but not someone I had expected.

"Paul?" I blurted out, before the boy on the other side was even able to say anything. He blinked, seeming to swallow whatever he had been planning to say, and instead only nodded in greeting.

"Uh, hi," I finally said, forcing myself back to the present. Why was Paul, of all people, calling me?

Even as I was posing that question to myself, I already realized the answer, and I quickly hid the smirk that was creeping up my face. Now don't scare him away…

Quickly plastering on a friendly, open smile, I adjusted my position on the chair, leaning the slightest bit forward and expectantly folding my hands together. "How may I help you?"

Paul's expression barely changed, his eyebrows raising perhaps the slightest bit.

"You called," he said.

"I called," I echoed, a question in my voice. What was he getting at? He was calling for advice on Dawn, and I hadn't- "Oh, yes!" My eyes widened in realization. "That's right, I did call. Heh, sorry, almost forgot." I smiled sheepishly.

He was still staring at me expectantly, probably waiting for an explanation as to why I had called, and I quickly caught on and explained, "Ah, I called for Reggie, actually, I wanted to talk with him about a new research project."

Surprisingly enough, as I was speaking, I thought I saw disappointment flit across Paul's face, before it was back to his usual mask.

"Alright," he said, nodding and already getting up. "I will see if he has time."

"No, no," I quickly spoke, acting on instinct. I thought Paul had looked disappointed, and with others I might have disregarded it as my imagination, but with Paul I knew from experience that any emotions would only be shown as small hints and that I would have to latch onto those and pull and pull until I finally had the story.

Paul stopped, his eyebrows now raised noticeably at my almost panicked response, and I forced my next words to sound more relaxed. "No, no, I mean, there's no need… I'll talk to him later." I gave him a hopefully convincing smile.

Slowly, very slowly, Paul lowered himself back on the chair, his face still showing signs of surprise.

"How have you been?" I asked, more jovially than usual. He frowned, and I mentally scolded myself. Act natural, normal, patient…

"I have been well, thank you," he responded, and a moment later, "How have you been?"

"Just great, thank you," I answered, and I was glad to hear that my voice sounded much more normal now. And because I knew Paul wasn't one to talk much himself, I continued, "Not doing much special, really. Taking care of the Gym, studying, keeping in contact with friends…"

Perhaps this was a nice position to try and figure out what… Well, I wasn't sure what exactly I was trying to figure out. But it was just a feeling… Paul had called with the expectation that I had called to speak with him, and when it turned out that I hadn't, he had seemed disappointed…

So didn't that mean that he had something he wanted to talk about?

For a moment, I considered patiently setting up a conversation with subtle hints and careful prodding, but then I recalled that the only proper conversation I had had with Paul had been blunt and to the point.

Perhaps a similar approach was needed again.

And with that, I let the smile slip off my face. Paul's reaction was immediate, his mask hardening and closing himself off even further.

"Paul, let's be totally honest and open here. We both know that you have something you want to say to me. So let's not make this more difficult than it needs to be." With a completely straight face, I looked him in the eyes, and let the implication of what the easy way was hang in the air.

Surprise was now obvious on his face – well, obvious to Paul's standards, anyway – and it took him several moments to gather himself again. Those moments I feared that he would end the call, emotion flashing in his eyes, but then he seemed to stop himself, before letting out an almost unnoticeable sigh of resignation.

His face was still hard, still unreadable, and his eyes searched my face for whatever he was looking for. I stared back as serious as I could.

He blinked, a flash of frustration visible, and then determination hardened his features.

"Could I ask you for advice?" The unexpected question had been spoken without any stutter, and Paul's face didn't betray any emotion. Mine definitely did as I stared at him with the not very flattering expression of wide eyes and a half-open mouth. But, with my exquisite skills, honed from many months of constantly working with hormonally charged teenagers, I fought off my surprise and gave him a gentle smile.

Don't scare him off, now. Approach slowly, no sudden movements...

"Of course. What can I help you with?"

His eyes narrowed a just a bit, his expression tensing up, perhaps wary at my obvious willingness to help while I had been so serious before. I lowered the intensity of my smile a bit, hoping to convey both my sincerity and my seriousness.

Now Paul was hesitant, and it seemed like he wanted to say something multiple times, but always stopping just before he opened his mouth. It was a very… odd experience to see Paul like this.

"If I have interpreted the signs right, Dawn has been hinting that she would like to go on a date with me," he finally said, speaking perhaps a bit faster than normal.

I nodded slowly and thoughtfully, buying myself time. His request was implicit, hidden, and I would need something more concrete to work with. I had to phrase my question carefully, to make this as easy as possible for Paul…

Heh, I sure was happy that it wasn't me who would be in a relationship with someone this reserved – hopefully Dawn would be able to handle Paul. Despite the situation, I almost smiled; if there was anyone who would be able to handle Paul, it was Dawn.

"Do you want advice on how to ask her out?" I asked, slowly. Don't ask about his feelings, just ask about his actions. "Or on how to hint that you're not interested?"

This time, Paul's response took a lot less time than before. "The first one."

That answer caused me to feel an unexpected amount of relief, but I was careful not to show it in my expression. Instead, I nodded, humming an answer and patting my chin in thought.

This was good, this was really good. Dawn liked Paul, Paul liked Dawn, and now I had the opportunity to convince Paul to ask her out. I hadn't really expected that fate would practically hand me the answer to Dawn's dilemma just a few hours after her call, but I wasn't about look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.

"Did you…" I started, then hesitated. I needed to get a view of how things had been between them, but I needed to phrase it carefully. "Did you show any hints that you would be interested in that as well?" Did you flirt with her?

"I... tried."

I hid a grimace at that response. Since Dawn hadn't noticed, I could only assume that his attempts had ended up in a painful failure. I looked at the screen again, taking in Paul's unresponsive expression, with only the slightest hint of discomfort showing. It confirmed what I already knew from this conversation and previous ones.

He was as charming as a brick.

Perhaps even less. With a brick, you could at least draw a smiley face on it – it sure took a lot more effort to get Paul to smile.

My tapping finger moved further up my face, my hand covering my mouth in an attempt to hide my sigh. This was going to be difficult to work with. With the whole less-charming-than-a-brick thing, it was clear that he had no natural talent when it came to things like this, so a crash-course dates it was.

"Don't scare a girl off, so don't make the date too long or extensive," I started, and Paul's attention now seemed to be fully on me. "Maybe something to drink, a picnic, watching a movie, going out to dinner- but no full days of hiking or things like that. And no Pokémon training." I gave him a look. "Your attention should be on her."

He stared at me, first blankly, then his eyebrows furrowed together and his eyes narrowed. "To do that, I'd first have to have her attention," he pointed out, sharply.

"I'm getting to that, I'm getting to that," I quickly said. Impatient… I shifted in my chair, slightly uncomfortable. This topic pointed painfully to the fact that I still hadn't asked Lucy out. Still, I had asked so many girls, surely I would be able to give him somewhat useful advise?

"Just ask her." As soon as I had spoken the words, I knew that it was not the advice he had been hoping for.

A dark look passed in his eyes, and his tone was somewhat disbelieving as he asked. "That's it?" When I didn't respond, he scoffed, "That's the most useless advice I've ever heard."

Yeah. Yeah, it kind was useless. But...

"It's still true." I shrugged. After all, it was still what it came down to. Just asking, no more, no less. It really wasn't that difficult- somewhere in the back of my mind a voice called me a hypocrite, but I handily ignored it.

"Ask her," I repeated, and because that obviously wasn't the advice he had been expecting, I found myself making up more as I went. "Make it clear that you're asking her on a date, make sure that she can't misunderstand it because that'll only lead to awkward situations and painful emotions." Well, that should be a bit more useful. My own painful experiences were finally finding a good use. "Have something in mind to do, so that when she asks if you have something planned, you'll have an answer."

Paul's frown had lessened, which must mean that some of my words were hitting their mark. But I wasn't done yet, though I sincerely hoped he wouldn't have any use for this particular piece of advice. "If she says no, don't push, just leave and nurse your wounded pride."

I really shouldn't meddle… but this opportunity was just too good to let it go to waste. It was just a push in the right direction...

"Of course there's still the other possibility…" I trailed off, putting on my best thinking face.

"What other possibility?" he pressed on when I didn't continue.

"Well," I said, purposefully talking slow to build up the tension. "Asking a girl out is really the more difficult path, and it's obvious that you're not comfortable with it." At that, Paul's eyes narrowed, and I quickly continued on, "The other possibility is much easier…" I shrugged, quasi disinterested, but actually carefully watching Paul's reaction. "Just hint until she asks you out."

Gotcha. I bit back a smirk at Paul's reaction, emotions quickly flashing over his face at the mere mention of taking the easy way out like that. Offence, determination, and maybe even a bit of hurt male ego- huh, who would have expected that?

Paul never backed down from a challenge, and this was definitely one.

"Thank you for your advice," he bit out the gratitude in a way that suggested he was not at all grateful. I didn't mind – if that was the price to pay for Paul and Dawn to go out, then I would gladly take it. Maybe I shouldn't have taunted him like that, but with Paul it was just incredibly difficult to get my point across.

"No problem," I said, pretending to be oblivious to the sentiment behind his reaction. "And don't forget to let me know how it went, m'kay?" Okay, now I couldn't help but smirk a bit, and I hoped that Paul wouldn't see it, or else he wouldn't call me back.

On second thought, he probably wouldn't, anyway.

"Hmph," was Paul's very non-committal answer to my question. He raised his hand in a meager goodbye. "I'll get Reggie."

"Thank you." I grinned at him, waving perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. "See you later!"

The goodbye had been somewhat abrupt, but then again, this was Paul, and I was already happy with the progress we had made. I would allow him an easy escape, for now.

Compared to the conversation with his younger brother, talking to Reggie was a breeze, even though I was unexpectedly hit by some slight nervousness in explaining my research plans. Fortunately, Reggie was very enthusiastic about my plan, and with eased up nerves the discussion flowed.

I knew that time had passed, because one by one, my siblings from young to old came to tell me goodnight, and somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that I had missed this, just doing my own thing while Dad took care of everything else.

Cindy – now the eldest of my siblings still at home, with Forrest, Salvadore, Yolanda and Tommy on their journeys – had gone to bed a bit less than half an hour ago, and I knew that if all of them had been silent for this long, then the odds of a calm evening were in my favor.

Of course, I had to admit that it had been a while since any of the children had had any difficulties sleeping, and I wasn't sure whether it was due to Dad's help or just to their age. But whatever the reason, I was now practically assured a calm evening, which was a good thing as Reggie and I had just reached the iffy topic of finding the finances to actually conduct the research.

"We can't expect the trainers to pay," Reggie said, shaking his head. "In fact, maybe we should be paying them, keeping the parents together will highly inconvenience them if they're from different-"

I jumped up, just managing to keep in a surprised yelp at the sudden vibrating of my phone. Now that would have been unmanly. Who would be calling me now? Hardly anyone used my private phone when I was at the Gym, and it was nine in the evening- Was something wrong?

Making a quick, apologizing gesture to Reggie, I hastily pulled out my phone and without looking at the caller ID, I accepted the call. Adrenaline was racing through my body, feeding my feeling of panic- it must be something significant and alarming.

And whatever it was, it certainly sounded alarming enough. A high-pitched shriek made me quickly pull the phone away from my ear, and from the corner of my eyes I could see Reggie staring at the phone in surprise.

Finally I could make out my name in the squealing sound, which, on second thought, sounded more happy than scared.

"Brock! Brock, Brock, Brock!"

"Dawn-?" I had barely said her name or she had already interrupted me.

"Paul asked me out!" Another high-pitched happy squeal.

I stared at the phone, shared a look with a wide-eyed Reggie, and then finally managed to stutter out, "Wow… Wow, that's great!"

And so fast… Paul sure didn't do hesitation, I guessed.

"I know!" Dawn happily responded, before she continued excitedly, "I never expected it, it was such a surprise, it was almost like he had heard what I told you!"

"Heh-heh." I sweat-dropped, and I was glad for the lack of a visual connection. "Such a coincidence…"

"I know, right?" There was no suspicion in her (still very loud) voice, which meant that she was probably too distracted to pick up on my bad acting. I could just imagine her beaming right now, and when another giggle followed, I was pretty sure I was picturing her right. "Anyway, I gotta go, Zoey is still over, and I just called to let you know, so I'll speak to you later, okay?"

Her words were rushed, and I smiled fondly. "Of course, see you later! Enjoy the rest of your evening!"

"Thank you, bye bye!"

"Bye!"

There was the click that told me Dawn had ended the conversation, and I let out a long breath, before turning back to a grinning Reggie. He didn't say anything for a few moments, just grinning widely at me until I felt a grin slowly creep up my face as well.

"Now that's what I call an interesting turn of the conversation," Reggie said, still grinning and leaning back in the chair. "I'm assuming that the Paul Dawn was talking about is the same Paul as the one who's currently upstairs in his room?"

"I'd assume so," I said, amusedly.

Reggie leaned forward again and gave me a quasi-suspicious look. "And would I be correct in assuming that you would have something to do with that as well?"

"It would be a possibility," I replied smoothly, my grin widening even more as the situation started to sink in. It had actually worked! My little push had had effect! Man, Brocko, I still had it!

"Amazing," he breathed, leaning back again, staring at the ceiling and then letting out a short laugh. "Amazing!" He looked back at me again, shaking his head with a wide smile on his face. "I don't know how you did it, I don't know what you said, but finally! Arceus knows how many times I've tried." The grin slowly made place for a curious expression, and he gave me a look. "What did you say, anyway?"

"Nothing special, really," I said with a shrug, pretending to act cool and nonchalant while on the inside I wanted to squeal like a teenage girl when reading a bad romance novel. "Just that he should ask her, that's all."

Reggie shook his head, his smile a bit disbelieving. "I kept telling him that as well, because after all, it's just that easy, just ask her that one question."

I shifted a bit in my chair. It was that easy, just as I had told Paul, just as Reggie was telling me now – just one question I needed to ask.

Wasn't it time for me to follow my own advice?

"You know, Reggie," I interrupted whatever he was going to say next, "It's getting kind of late and I still have a call to make, so would you be okay with continuing this conversation another time?"

The man seemed a bit thrown off by the abruptness of my request, but after a moment gave me a smile and nodded. "Sure! You're right, you're absolutely right, finances aren't really the most fun way to spend the evening, after all."

I smiled gratefully. "Great, then I'll speak to you soon."

"Absolutely. This project should definitely be given a shot." Reggie nodded, looking more serious for a moment, before adding with a conspiring smile, "And thanks for helping my little brother."

Giving him a last grin, I ended the conversation. I stared at the black screen for a moment, at my own face being reflected in it, the grin slowly slipping off my face.

Reggie was right. Paul was right. I was right: I just needed to ask. The fact that she had given me her number already indicated that she was interested, she had pretty much said yes already- Arceus, I had already asked her back at the airport, she had said yes, she had given me her number, this was just a formality, what was I being a wimp about?

Yes. That was the spirit. No more excuses. I could do this.

With renewed determination, I quickly dialed the number I had memorized from the many times I had been staring at it, and adrenaline was racing through my body as the moment seemed to stretch on and on and on-

And then Lucy's lovely face appeared on the screen. Upon seeing my face – or I'd like to think so, anyway – a bright smile appeared on her face, pink immediately rising to her cheeks.

"Brock! H-hey!"

"Hi, Lucy," I breathed, feeling a grin taking over my face. I stared at her in wonder, and she stared back, until I finally realized that she was expectantly staring at me, and then words quickly fell from my mouth without further thought. "So I know this is really late and I'm sorry about that but I was busy trying to gain the courage to call you-"

Man, what are you blabbering about?! Just ask the question!

"Would you like to go out on a date with me?"

My head felt light, and I felt breathless, sweating all over. And then Lucy beamed, nodding her head – yes yes yes yes. Her lips were moving, but I wasn't hearing anything, just a loud static buzz, and I had a moment to consider that that was strange but she had said yes so what did it matter everything was perfect and why was Lucy frowning now-

And then I fainted.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed it, I'm really excited for this story. It definitely won't be as long the first story, no more than ten chapters, I think (I'm saying that now, but we'll see how it goes :P), though I do think they will be longer than most of the chapters of Leave It To Brocko. I'm still trying to get into a rhythm with this story, so I hope to have the next chapter up within two weeks, but no promises just yet. Anyway, feedback would be very appreciated and loved, so please let me know what you thought of it!

Thank you, and happy holidays!

Recommendations:

Pokémon: Bedeviled by Bunnies by The Light's Refrain. A really short story, more of a drabble really, about Chili, Buneary and slippers. Yes, that's about as logical as it's going to get. A funny and short parody :D

Pokémon: Red Riding Hood by KateRayearth. A short multi-chaptered AU story about Ash and Misty. It's quite dark and its secondary genre is horror, but it's definitely worth to face your fears for this story. A really cool AU (the title will perhaps tell you something already) and PokeShipping!

Harry Potter: Lycanthropy by KitKat-Pyrophobia. A Rose and Scorpius story with a dark undertone, as besides dealing with their developing relationship, Scorpius also has to come to terms with himself and his new condition (see title :P). So if you want to read something more serious, give this a read!

Any recommendations are of course very welcome!