She tugged her arm free. He grabbed it again. Keiko's embarrassment was growing, and all that did was make Rex's eyes grow more intense. If she hid her face, this window into her soul would disappear into the ether and who knew when he'd see it again? It could be days. Weeks. Months. Years.

There was a chance he'd never see it ever again, barring this precise moment.

So he capitalized on it by kissing her. Hard. When they broke apart to breathe, he hugged her.

Something flickered in Rex's chest.

"If it's nothing, then I'll just worry about it later, right?" A flicker of change. Even tradition could shift, given enough time. "We can just wait and see, yeah?"

---

keiko mori

His heart burned for a moment, before the embers quickly returned to smoldering. The faint taste of Pinap was still on her lips, and he considered seizing them again. Yet restraint was a virtue, and it was one he would continue practicing on this island.

Even as she loosened up, even as he teased the stargazer from her distant sights down to earth. Those twinkling lights were do far away, but she'd reach them someday. Perhaps she was already up there. Perhaps she was already a star.

The thought was a strange one. Maybe the oxygen deprivation had made him silly. How long had they kissed for?

"Ah, Gallade will be fine. He's a noble soul. I wouldn't be surprised if our camp was a fortress by the time we return. He's always been reliable." Ever since they had huddled in that cellar together during Littleroot, they had trusted one another absolutely. Gallade had his back, and Rex had his. "He's like Pelipper, in that way."

Yet as they made it back to camp, there was a familiar foe awaiting the courier.

---

keiko mori

She stormed off, and Rex couldn't help but smile.

"Don't worry, big guy." He pat the Gogoat on its side and scratched into the foliage that adorned its neck. The sensation reminded Rex of wandering through the tall grass to catch his Ralts when he was younger. The sense of nostalgia made him smile. It was one of the few times he liked to look back. "She'll come around."

Probably.

"You just gotta stop eating cards, but I'm sure she likes you deep down. It's just... super deep down."

Probably.

He nodded to Gallade, who sat in silent vigil as his eternally loyal knight. A sword with the sole purpose of engaging in warfare. Rex returned him to his Pokeball and held the orb against his lips.

After a moment of waiting, he meandered towards the shelter.

---

keiko mori

"Tsk." Rex peered down at Keiko as she sprawled out all over the shelter. "What the hell?"

What was this chick doing? She had laid claim to the entire shelter! What a tyrant. She was the type to purchase a queen sized bed and splay out everywhere, kicking off any nearby stragglers as she laid claim to plush pillows and fluffy comforters. Keiko Mori was an evil woman.

Rex nudged her. She didn't move.

"Hm." He shuffled around to find a corner he could sleep in. He tried to slide in next to her, but he didn't fit. "Hmmmmm..."

He tried another angle. No dice.

This was unfathomably ridiculous. Finding a comfortable sleeping position was harder than wading into saltwater with a dozen cuts. She was making this impossible. She may have dreamed of nothing, but neither did he. Incidentally, that was because Rex couldn't actually get to sleep.

"Fine. Let's try..." He forced Keiko to scoot slightly in order to sleep next to her, using the courier as a makeshift pillow as he did so. "...this."

---

keiko mori

There was, eventually, no Keiko to cuddle. Such a tragedy was exchanged with the fact that there was finally room in the shelter for Rex to spread out. A worthy trade, if not for the fact that the sun was rising.

Dreaming gave way to dozing, and dozing gave way to wakefulness as Rex's eyes shot open.

Gallade, meanwhile, stood vigil over Keiko as she played in the surf. His gaze was sharp, though he often averted his eyes in the same way that a knight would when protecting a princess's modesty. The Gallade had a name, naturally, but Rex rarely used it. A knight from a distant fairy tale had been sealed away and only the name of the species remained to the loyal knight.

That fairy tale had been stripped away by Dialga. Now the knight toiled in the realm of men.

Still, the knight clapped in appreciation as Keiko emerged from her tussle victorious. That sound eventually summoned Gallade's master, who slipped through the trees like a shade. Rex's bedhead had grown even more frazzled. Perhaps a comb was necessary.

"Woah." His eye widened as he saw the courier. "Nice."

Whether he was talking about the Tatsugiri or its captor was up in the air.

---

keiko mori

"Huh?" He asked, clearly distracted by the courier as she prodded at her clothes. "Whazzat?"

Gallade rolled his eyes, and Rex grinned at his knight. The fish halfheartedly dangling from Gallade's blade-arms made Rex want to snicker, though he suspected that Gallade would likely whallop him for it later. They were friends and allies, but Gallade still had feelings, even if he buried them in his attempt to become a blade.

It was a humbling thing, knowing that his Pokémon would never hold things like they once did as a Kirlia.

"That was more of a 'me' thing, honestly. When he was a Kirlia, I tended to cook what he could catch. We can grill it up, no problem." They nodded in remarkable synchronization, before Gallade returned to camp to breath life into the embers that remained in their dead fire pit. "Between you and me, I think he actually misses being a Kirlia."

He averted his eyes so Keiko could change.

---

keiko mori