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Pretending to hate someone isn't easy. Pretending you hate the person you love most, is soul-destroying. And if it's bad for Ashley Shepard, who made the executive decision to be a traitor, and was still recovering even during VCT...[break][break]

It was clear that this was only the beginning for kepler brueshaber . His fiancé. Well. Whatever he could still have of that.[break][break]

But believe it or not, despite still being a criminal, Ashley was doing better, mentally. He cleared his head, he was out of the limelight with Rocket, he was finally able to recover. He even therapy again, to get his head on straight. And the therapy was working this time.[break][break]

He may never be okay, but... he was getting better.[break][break]

Admittedly, by the time he was released, he had thought himself immortal, but he was nothing of the sort. He could bleed, he could die.[break][break]

Today, he walks on the beach with his Hisuian Sliggoo, and look out to the waters. Dangerous, precarious, liberating, freedom. He felt he could smile for the first time in months.[break][break]

On his burn phone, he holds out for himself to read. A secret.[break][break]

I'm on the beach. Come find me.[break][break]

He pockets it.[break][break]

He wanted to show him the fruits of labor of staying out of Hoenn's business for once did for him. "Laguna?" the Sliggoo stares upwards at his Trainer.[break][break]

"Here."[break][break]

He holds his jacket out, now in a white v-neck, unassuming jogging pants, and sandals now kicked off of himself. He lets himself fall onto the sand.[break][break]

He closes his eyes. Finally. Some goddamn rest would do those black bags under his eyes some good, not that they'd ever go away.

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