That's the first thing Larsa hears before rudely being awakened by the girl sitting next to him with a giant grin on her face, like she always does.

"Gnh...Coral, just let me sleep... we're not even in Fritho yet…"

"But it's technically tomorrow now, which means that you're nineteen, and it means that you get to open your present from me, duh!" The girl sticks her tongue out, and Larsa giggles, blushing slightly.

"Alright, alright. I'll open just the one, but then, I get to go back to sleep."

Coral pouts. "You're no fun…"

Larsa chuckles again. "Kidding."

Coral then smiles once more, as she brings out a wrapped gift box from underneath her seat. "Here you go, then! Hurry up and open it!"

Larsa unwraps the gift carefully, making sure to not tear any of the fancy ribbon he knew Coral had spent hours trying to find a few weeks ago. Eventually, he opens the box to find some kind of locket contained within.

"Go on, open it!" Coral grins, waiting for Larsa to look.

Inside of the locket sits...a small portrait of the two of them together, enjoying some Casteliacones, with Coral looking excited as always and Larsa looking more hesitant. Larsa clutches the locket, smiling contently.

"I knew you'd like it. That's a picture of our first date, remember? Your Casteliacone ended up melting, so I bought you another one. Then we had a picnic down near the riverside, and we-"

"I love it, fluturaș*." Larsa interrupts, smiling at Coral happily, before kissing her quickly.

"You're welcome, iubi**. Are you excited to meet my family tomorrow?"

"Uh, well, I guess so. I'm still a little nervous." Larsa admits, looking away, causing Coral to smile reassuringly.

"Hey, iubi, I promise it will be alright. They'll love you. I mean, you've seen my mom and dad already - my uncle and grandparents are pretty much as nice as they are."

"Right. Sorry, Coral, I'm just nervous! You don't exactly have to do this."

"Hey, that's not true. I've met Paul." Coral pouts again, correcting her boyfriend.

"Yeah, but you get what I mean. I just kind of wish my family was as big as yours…" Larsa frowns, causing Coral to put an arm around him in comfort.

"Iubi, come on. You know that doesn't matter to me. I still love you all the same - Paul loves you all the same." 

"Yeah, I know. It's just…" Larsa would sigh, causing Coral to look concerned, "My family...might be larger than I think. I'm not really certain."

"How so?"

"Well, when I was abandoned at the orphanage, I was left with a note from my mother. But there was also another note, left by the person who found me in the first place. 'BP'. I just keep wondering if they're still out there somewhere...and I want to know why they left me in the orphanage to begin with. I dunno."

"Larsa, whatever the reason for that was...it all turned out okay in the end, didn't it? And anyway, I'm...no, we're your family now. Me and my parents. I mean seriously, we've only been dating for a year now and they're already treating you like the son they never had." Coral giggles a little at this, and Larsa smiles slightly, cheering up.

"I love you, fluturaș."

"I love you too, iubi." Coral turns to smile at him, Larsa looking happy.

A few more hours pass, and Larsa and Coral finally unboard the ferry heading towards Flax Town. Coral leads, with Larsa trailling not too far behind, as they head towards a familiar house - the residence of the Palm family. Coral delivers a sharp knock to the door, before being greeted by an older-looking gentleman.

"Hi Papa Doug!"

The old man has a double take, as he stares at the two young adults in front of him.

"Coral?! What are you doing here so early? We weren't expecting you two until tomorrow!"

"Uh, the plane was early, I guess! Can we come in?" Coral awkwardly asks, as her grandfather calms down.

"Alright, alright. And this young man must be…?"

"Larsa Ardelean. Nice to meet you, Professor." Larsa bows quickly.

However, the man laughs jovially, making Larsa blush slightly in embarrassment.

"Ha! It's been a while since somebody has called me that. Sorry, but my son - Basil - is the professor now, not me. I haven't been the professor here for a long while. But thanks for cheering this old man up! Ha!"

"Yeah, speaking of which, is Uncle Basil in? I was hoping I could introduce him and Larsa to one another…" Coral mentions, causing 'Professor' Palm to look lost in thought.

"Hm, well, he should still be in his room. I'll call him down, but why don't you two get comfortable? I'll make you some food and refreshments."

"Thank you, sir." Larsa smiles awkwardly as him and Coral walk by and into the living room. 

The room is decorated lavishly with all sorts of expensive furniture, and also with all sorts of family memorabilia and photographs. As Larsa sits down, he looks over at the closest wall and is able to vaguely make out some kind of framed university certificate, signed away to 'Basil Palm', and next to it, two badge cases filled with gym badges he'd never seen before...besides from one.

"Hey, Coral...isn't that the Cyber Labs logo there? What's up with that?" He casually asks, earning a frown from Coral.

"Didn't I tell you? Wyatt used to be a Gym Leader here at one point. How, I don't know. But that was his Gym Badge." She explains, Larsa smiling back awkwardly. 

The wounds of what him and Elara were able to stop still felt fresh to him. That was the event that made him realise how he truly felt about Coral.

He didn't know what he loved until he nearly had it taken away from him.

"Kids? Coffee or tea? And how many sugars?" The old professor calls out from the other room, and Coral would yell back "Tea, two sugars, and milk for me, and coffee, one sugar, black, for Larsa!"

"So where's Basil? Do you think he's here?" Larsa asks.

"Well if he's not, he'll only be in Rata Town at the lab. He doesn't actually still live here - his house is over there. But I thought we'd visit my Papa Doug."

"Professor Palm." Larsa corrects, earning a giggle from Coral. The two are then interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

"Hey Dillon! Guess who's come to visit?" A voice asks, as a middle-aged man wearing professor attire walks into the room, holding a two-year-old who's the spiriting of himself. The toddler looks up, excited, recognising Coral.

"That's right! Uncle Basil is here to give Aunt Coral a visit from her technical cousin!!!" Basil announces, placing the toddler down in Coral's arms as he goes to sit down across from the two visitors.

"You seem happy today." Coral comments, as Basil grins.

"Yeah, I was actually just visiting my Pops too, so you caught me at the right time. What brings you here? And who's this kid?"

"Uhm, hi. My name's Larsa Ardelean - I'm Coral's boyfriend." Larsa sheepishly replies, causing Basil to look startled, his face immediately falling.

"...Larsa? Really? That's an...interesting name." He frowns, causing Larsa to look confused.

"Hang on, sir, I...are you alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Basil stutters over his words slightly, before looking away.

"I...I'm sorry. Did you say Ardelean? Then it's fine. I just...used to know someone called Larsa. That's all." He replies bitterly, a pang of guilt in his tone.

"Well...my surname was...Latimer." Larsa cringes at the mention of it, causing Basil to look more upset.

"Oh. So then it is you..." He frowns, and sighs.

"Sorry, but I'm confused...how do you know Larsa? You two have just met?" Coral questions, as Basil looks towards Larsa.

"It's a long story, but I'll try to explain. Back when Askos was called Amurg, there was this king...known as Mihai Latimer."

The two Trainers sit through Basil's events of the events that transpired that week - the week he regrets, the week where hope was returned, and the week where he saw two dead bodies in one night.

"For the next week after I found you, I was hiding in Hrinica, hoping that nobody would come looking for you. I wanted you to have as normal of a life as possible. But I knew it was irresponsible for me to try and personally give you that."

"So you sent me to the orphanage...you were the one who wrote that note…" Larsa realised, looking upset and in disbelief at what he was hearing. He wanted it to not be true so badly, but here he was, speaking to the one who saved his life...and abandoned him.

"And for the past nineteen years, I've regretted every second of what happened there. I could have seen the signs sooner and found a more peaceful solution to stop Blake...I could have done more to help you, to take you back with me, to at least give you to my parents…! But I was dumb, and alone, and scared. I couldn't deal with the responsibility of having a child's life in my hands. I couldn't understand how Peter could have his own child so early. And even now, when my own son is two years old, I still don't get it. I...don't exactly expect you to understand my thought process, Larsa, but-"

"Hey, stop it. I don't blame you for what happened. My dad was a bou***. It's him who caused you to have to deal with all of that in the first place. And you're right - I don't really understand it. But you were nineteen - my age. Nobody would have expected you to take of me. You...you did the right thing, Basil, really. I'm not mad at you for any of that." Larsa comforts, causing Basil to smile slightly.

"Really? Because I really believed I royally fucked up back there."

"Language!" Coral scolds, causing Basil and Larsa to laugh a little.

"But I'm glad you turned out okay in the end, Larsa. It at least helps me feel a little bit more confident about Dillon. The only thing I didn't expect is for you to end up being my niece's boyfriend! Small world." Basil jokes, causing Larsa to smile a little.

"Thanks, Basil. I mean it."

"Ha, why are you thanking me?" Basil laughs off the compliment, looking awkward, "You should thank Coral. She's the one who drove us to meet again!"

"I love it when things unintentionally come together like this! I'm telling you guys - Arceus is friends with me. Things always turn out this way whenever I'm around." Coral claims cockily, and Basil laughs.

"You and me both. Although, it's probably not an act of Arceus...more like sheer luck."

"No! You're not listening to me! The universe perfectly lined up so you two could meet up again! There was a ton of things in your lives that led up to this moment! That's definetly an act of Arceus in my eyes!"

"Hey, calm down, fluturaș! You're happy, we get it."

"Flew-too-rash? What the heck does that mean?" Basil questions, causing Larsa and Coral to look at each other.

"Fluturaș. It's Askonian. We can teach you, if you'd like." Larsa offers, causing Basil to look more confused.

"I mean, okay? Sure. Where do I start?" Basil straightens up his sitting position, before looking towards Larsa and Coral attentively.

"Uh, well...I guess we'll start with the basics."

-------- [   The End.  ] --------