There was no answer that would truly satisfy the question. There were multitudes surrounding them both that complicated things over and over. [break][break]

"We are two people lying in bed after a successful night." True. "We are betraying our respective allegiances by fraternizing with the enemy and rendering ourselves vulnerable without making an attempt to take down the other." True. "You took someone sort of in custody to your home for carnal pleasures." True. "You took someone you should not trust because of her allegiance and because of her capacity to put ethical codes beneath scientific endeavors, and you brought her somewhere sacred." True. [break][break]

She reached for his hand, seeking to hold him. "We are two people perpetually making mistakes because compromise is impossible." False. [break][break]

"You want this story to have a different end, but it does not. We can keep playing a dangerous game, this game, but it will only grow more dangerous, and it cannot ever be more than a game." Neither of them could have a real, satisfactory happy ending with the other on the opposite side of the aisle. It was not possible. [break][break]

One of them had to make a choice sooner or later. Softly, she added, "What are you doing?"

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Serenity was a good launching pad for their search, but Ameena nearly scoffed at the prompting from her ally. Where could anyone feel peace these days? Where could anyone feel so much as safe now? [break][break]

But she took a deep breath and centered herself. She used to feel something when she spent time with Amor, but it was largely a curiosity towards the region of Hoenn and his mastery of its faults. She enjoyed being at Rocket HQ more than she could've ever predicted, the melting pot of criminals and researchers and politicians creating an environment flush with new perspectives. Her own laboratory made her feel good just as much as it felt like a spiked wall she kept running into of her own volition. [break][break]

On her exhale, she surrendered to where the feeling left her. [break][break]

They stood in the streets of Mauville in night time. But they were not standing in front of her company. They were under a streetlight, and in her hands was Montgomery James's hat. "This is as good a starting place as any," she insisted with as neutral a tone she could manage.[break][break]

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

"Could do this more often," she said as she caressed his jaw. "My offer still stands." She knows it's going to be a sore point before she says it, but she has to float the invitation. She is water and he is stone. With time, she'll wear him down. [break][break]

She hoped she could manage it before anything happened to either of them. [break][break]

"And my bed," she said, sweetening the pot, "is very big and very much filled with million-thread count sheets." She would do anything to her personal space, her little sanctuary, to make him want it, too. Anything he asked, she could accommodate, except changing allegiance. She couldn't sacrifice her research. She pointedly didn't think about how her frivolous escapades with Montgomery were explicitly in the way of her studies. [break][break]

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Power in the region had shifted with the recent battles, but it was unclear who truly had the upper hand until the dust settled. The strangest part was that everyone was to return to business as usual. [break][break]

Ameena sat in her office, annoyed. She had projects to initiate. But she was stuck managing her technology company because the upset had disturbed her employees and they needed reassurance. Thankfully, the monotony of constructing a company-wide memo was interrupted with her secretary's knock, alerting her to the presence of her guest. [break][break]

A Rocket she'd yet to meet personally, but more importantly, someone who had reached out for dream-related business. Her favorite, of course. "Please, come in." In the corner of the room behind her was her Gardevoir, slumped against a wall and fainted, though Ameena didn't realize the unsettling image of it until she'd already permitted her guest to enter.

TAGS – MAKI YUKIMURA [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Rhea's question plastered a smile on her face. "People will buy anything." Gods knew, her company had sold so many silly upgrades and accessories for their devices. People didn't care what the cutting edge of technology actually was so long as it was new and something they could acquire. [break][break]

Ameena bowed at the stage as the last notes finished. She pocketed the striking instrument for her cowbell, a little souvenir, and turned to leave the stage. This would show the League for trying propaganda so close to their home turf. She considers the commentary from Fenelle, and honestly, der right about the aesthetics. "I think we should pocket a shirt or two for our hard work." It was very silly, and she'd never be caught dead in it, but it would amuse her nevertheless.

TAGS – Fenelle Miller kasper thaler Rhea Armistead [break]

NOTES – [break][break]T55kKgag

The battle of Sootopolis made it clear that Rocket could afford no half measures. They needed to full send on any given plan of action or they'd be better off waving the white flag. [break][break]

Her part was largely research-based, but she took breaks from her dream research to help acclimate those coming in from other regions and those just finally getting to the front lines. Today, she was paired with Shion, though she didn't know how familiar he was with the tera crystals that freckled the walls of the seafloor cavern. [break][break]

"Have you seen them before?" The crystals were small up here, but the deeper they went, the larger they would get.

TAGS – Shion Murasaki [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

She hadn't intended to actually fall asleep, but she'd been lulled by his heart rate, by his breathing. [break][break]

For the first time in thirty years, her sleep is dreamless. [break][break]

She had closed her eyes and entered an abyss without fear or worry or burden. It was a floating feeling, except she was simultaneously grounded, and she felt neither that it was too short nor too long. Simple unconsciousness. It was a negative space, an absence of creative constructions from her subconscious, but she felt like she was looking at something. It was not truly a lack of something but a gift of it, a gift of dreamless sleep. [break][break]

She wakes to Montgomery wrapped around her. She has a million questions and a need to examine herself in her lab to explore the dreamlessness, but the importance of it melts away instantly. She presses a hand to his neck and jaw, feeling his pulse. He's real. This is real. She moves in to leave him a syrupy sweet kiss, slow and unhurried. When she finds the strength to pull back from him, she offers him an easy smile. [break][break]

Then, a bit cheeky, she asks, "Sleep well?"

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

The Border was not her area of interest as a researcher given that the Megalopolans had tech and knowledge that the rest of the world had failed to completely archive. Still, her trips to Lesser Megalopolis had prepared her for the treacherous environments that ultra space held, so she kept her head on a swivel for threats and stuck close to Tempest. [break][break]

"The Harbinger of death and chaos and destruction," she mused as they walked. "Such a funny thing to seek rather than run from." She watched as her shadow moved separate from her body. It contorted with aborted movements as if forced to crumple and stretch by a psychic force, but she knew better. It was something darker. [break][break]

She was grateful for the opportunity to visit the Border with him. The invite reinforced a sense of value to Rocket, which made her feel safe, but it also intrigued her about the nature of the hunt. [break][break]

What did he think she could offer besides some scientific advice and some combat value when the former was focused on few disciplines and the latter was lesser than his own? "How many times have you been here looking for it?"

TAGS – Tempest Quinn [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

She's never felt reality could live up to a dream, that the soft edges of the dream realm gave everything a divine energy. Time and all things felt fluid in a dream. The ones she had were not abstract nor snapshots of phobias or memories like others had; her dreams were like movies where she revisited experiences in a new light, with a new angle, with a new twist. Slightly different, as if from an alternate reality. [break][break]

This? This transcended dreams. Exceeded that that they had shared in Mossdeep. It was heavenly. [break][break]

She hadn't realized just how many emotions she had invested in this man - and how many she had suppressed for well over a decade in order to maintain focus on her sole objective - until her release. In the immediate aftermath, she tucked against him like a puzzle piece finally joining the whole. Her exhale against his skin felt like it came from the depths of her ribs, and oddly, felt like a surrender. A deep satisfaction rested over her like a heavy blanket, and she found herself betrayed by the sense of safety he had crafted here as the urge to sleep crept up. [break][break]

She traced designs on his chest with her fingers, blissfully thoughtless. In a word, she was freed... from the forces that kept her constantly moving and constantly upright and constantly walking the tightrope of Rocket work.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

Truthfully, she'd wanted to spoil him since their first meeting. The warehouse had only heightened that need, and even their fight in Sootopolis had failed to fully extinguish it. He'd make such a wonderful kept man, a trophy, a wild thing tamed only for her. [break][break]

It felt only natural, then, to drape herself over him and lavish every inch, sure to follow her lips with a bit of teeth when he seemed impatient. "So good for me," she cooed against his hip bone. "Just relax. I have you." And she meant it. Every muscle that relaxed under her touch was a testament to trust - which she still had not earned, might never earn so long as there would be a price on his head from the higher ups in Rocket. [break][break]

Her kisses were apologies, though he wouldn't interpret them as such. She drew out each movement, tasting slowly and committing it all to memory. She wouldn't stop until his mind was reduced to only her.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]

She chased him, but it wasn't necessary. He pushed her against the wall and, with nowhere to go, it was easy to surrender. She roped an arm around his neck and kept him close, until he was trailing his mouth down her and she found herself preoccupied with getting his clothes off. She laughed breathlessly as he tried to direct them to his room. [break][break]

"Might not make it there," she confessed, but she stepped that way slowly, mindful of his mouth latched onto her. Without the worries of the public eye and of war machines, it was only the two of them. How odd to finally have him without limits. [break][break]

She tugged him into his bedroom, shedding her coat. He'd said they didn't have much time. She felt like time stopped when she stepped inside his room. For what it's worth, she rushed through further undressing, uncaring of wrinkles. She forced him to walk backwards to the bed, demanding. "You want me to put up a fight, or are you needing a little tender love and care?" She traced a finger from his collarbone to his waist; for as teasing as the question was, she was willing to let him pick the playbook just this once. There would be more time for handcuffs if he wanted to savor this night, and more time for patience if he wanted to work things out the fun way.

TAGS – Montgomery James [break]

NOTES – [break][break]