“Ack! It’s the last episode and I don’t have any of my material ready!” I scrambled from table to table, trying to organize the explosion I called an office into neat, ready stacks of questions from our viewers.

“Um…SR, I think it’s already time to go.”

“What?!” I stared at the camera behind Reiji in horror as I dropped everything I had picked up.

“Ah…well… Welcome to the final episode of Time’s Up! Our…uh…” I quickly stooped down to pick up the tornado wreckage. “…Our show today includes…what’s this doing in here?...It includes the answers to our final reviews…and…” I started throwing things randomly into a nearby box. “…We get to hear the answer to Shinji’s question that we’ve all been dying to hear.”

“Actually, that’s one of the things I came in to talk to you about,” Reiji stated. He leaned over and whispered something into my ear.

“WHAT?! What do you mean he refuses to answer the question? He has to!” Reiji shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said, sighing. “We might have to take…drastic measures.” Reiji nodded. I picked up my box of slightly crumpled papers and jogged out to the main room.

“Nice to see you finally got here,” Shinji grunted. “Hurry up and do your stupid show thing so we can get out of here.”

“Hello…every…one,” I panted. I flopped down in my hostess chair and grabbed the first thing I saw out of the box. “No time for…formalities. Wasted time…making mess. First question…ryuu-bushi:

“‘wht do Hikari and Shinji think of the fanfiction about them on ? Will they ever come true? XD’”

“…Um…do they mean the fanfictions about us on the internet?” Hikari asked innocently. “I think that some of them are okay, I guess, but they can get quite strange an unrealistic…And some of them are FAR too graphic for my taste!” Hikari added, a look of horror coming over her. “As for coming true…I…I don’t know…”

“So, Shinji,” I said, starting to relax now that everything seemed to be going back on track, “What about you? The question’s for you, as well.” Shinji said nothing.

“Don’t you have anything to say, Shinji?” Takeshi said, smirking.

“…” Shinji glared over at me with a hatred that made even me cringe away. “I think they all live in strange little fantasy worlds where they have nothing better to do than pry into other people’s lives. Just a bunch of nosy people.”

The audience became silent. “Ah…that was…blunt. I would expect nothing less from you, I suppose,” I added, realizing that this was Shinji. “So I assume that you also mean they would never come true.”

“Sure. Whatever will get me out of here quicker.” Shinji obviously was trying to avoid the burning question as much as possible. I, on the other hand, would have none of that. We still had at least a page or two more of building up!

“Our next request,” I continued, “Is from Kittypride16.

“‘Paul should be forced to say one nice thing to Dawn... sincerly... no snide comments as it may be... and Dawn has to take care of Torterra for a day.’

“While I would love to do the last half, we really don’t have the time for it now.” Shinji breathed a sigh of relief. “However, the first part is still fully available.”

Shinji groaned and turned to Hikari. “…I really can’t think of anything ‘nice’ to say.”

“Aw, c’mon, Shinji! Just compliment her!” Reiji encouraged.

“…Your stupid hat really isn’t that stupid.”

“Shinji, that doesn’t count.”

“…Your shirt’s not as ugly as the other things you wear because it’s black.”

“That’s not a real compliment, either.”

“…Your pokemon are strong…for contest participants, anyway.”

“Well…that’s a compliment in Shinji’s world, anyway,” I muttered. “Close enough. Sorry, Kittypride16, I think that’s the best we can get out of him!” I looked at the next review. And another.

“What is it?” Takeshi asked, concern taking over his usually cheerful expression.

“Well…to be perfectly honest…all the rest of these are requests to hear the answer to…well, you know. THE question. The one on everyone’s minds.” I leaned forward. “So, what is it, Shinji?”

“I already told Aniki that I’m not saying a word.”

“You could write it down!”

“You know perfectly well what I meant.”

I bit my lip. How in the heck was I going to get him to tell us what the big secret was?

It was then that I glanced over at Hikari. My lips curled into a smile.

Of course.

“Well, I guess Shinji’s not cracking.” Shinji glanced over at me incredulously. “We’ll just have to quit now.” I stood up. “Shinji, Hikari, please go and…collect your prizes for participating. Reiji will lead you to the back.” Reiji looked at me with total shock. I gave a wink out of Shinji or Hikari’s range of view. Reiji smiled.

“Sure! Come on, guys.” Shinji turned to look at me suspiciously before following after Reiji. I snuck close behind with my camera man and a very curious Takeshi.

We reached our destination: my office. “I’ll be right back to get your gifts,” Reiji said as he turned away. “Please sit down.”

Shinji and Hikari looked around. “If there’s any space left to sit in,” Shinji mumbled. It took everything I had not to run in there and kick his…well, you get the idea. They seemed to decide to just stand around awkwardly until Reiji got back. Little did they know that Reiji would be gone until he decided to stop watching them and actually go find their prizes.

They stood there in silence for a few moments before Hikari spoke. “Shinji…I know I’m being annoying asking you again, but…what was the thing Takeshi was talking about?”

“You’re right. You are being annoying.”

“Well, no one else is around, so I thought…”

“You thought I might tell you alone?” Hikari nodded, blushing slightly. “No.”

“Well…can you at least tell me why you won’t tell me? Or give me a hint? Or something?”

Shinji was silent for a few more minutes. “I don’t want to tell you because it’s something that I don’t want you to know,” he said suddenly. “It’s something that’s a little personal.”

“But what does that have to do with me?”

“All I’ll tell you is that it has to do with you. I won’t tell you why or how.”

“I was afraid of that…” Hikari sighed.

“You mean you’re not going to bug me about it anymore?” Shinji asked with wide eyes.

“No. I’ve bothered you enough.” She looked at the ground.

“Are you referring to when you basically said you had a crush on me?” Hikari flushed deep red.

“I was hoping you’d forgotten that, actually.”

“I didn’t.”

“Why, so you could make fun of me about it later?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Hard to forget something like that.”

“O-oh. Right.”

“Hey, I think time’s almost up,” my camera man whispered to me.

“It’s going to have to wait.” I waved him away. “Just make sure you get all this.”

“I notice that you never asked me how I felt.”

“Why, did you want me to?”

“No, it just seemed like the ‘normal’ thing to do.”

“Why would I ask something like that when I already knew the answer?” Shinji gave her a puzzled look. “You hate my guts. We both know that.”

Shinji turned away and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“…Never assume, stupid girl,” he said very quietly.

“Wh-what?”

“Do you really want to know what it is that the breeder was talking about?”

“A-ah…I thought you didn’t want to tell me…”

Shinji looked at Hikari intensely. I could tell she was almost hypnotized by his gaze. I stuffed my fist in my mouth in order to keep myself from screaming in excitement. I knew this was a brilliant plan.

“I didn’t want you to know before. What you just said makes me think otherwise.” He turned to her and stepped closer. What he said next was so quiet that I had to take the risk of coming closer to the door to hear.

“What happened was actually in relation to the story he told earlier. I sent that stupid penguin to you and watched you cry tears of happiness to find it. I mumbled something about how you were always crying.” Shinji sighed. “I never knew that stupid breeder was there or I would never have said it.”

“Said what?” Hikari whispered.

“…Said that…” Shinji looked angrily at the ground.

“You can tell me,” Hikari said even more softly, stepping even closer to him. Reiji and I involuntarily leaned forward.

“…Said that I almost wished I had given it to you in person. To talk to you again.”

Hikari was silent. I couldn’t see her face, so I wasn’t sure how she was going to react.

“THAT was IT?!” she finally shrieked. “THAT was what you were freaking out about?!” I almost screamed with Hikari. THIS was what the big finale was supposed to be?!

“Think about it, stupid girl,” Shinji snapped. He turned to face the opposite direction. Hikari stood for a moment and thought.

“W-wait…if you…well, knowing you, anyway…if you wanted to talk to me in person that badly…That means you…” Shinji nodded quickly, obviously not wanting her to finish her sentence. His face was twisted into a deep scowl. He was by far the only person I had ever seen in my life who was that disgusted by the idea of being in love with someone.

“I…I can see why you wouldn’t want people to know…” Reiji and I quickly backed up.

She suddenly surprised Shinji with a tight hug from behind. Shinji’s cheeks took on an ever so slightly darker tone.

“Get off me!” he snapped. Hikari merely giggled.

“I suppose that’s my cue,” Reiji whispered, standing up. He walked over to the door casually and opened it completely. “I’m back!” he said cheerfully as Shinji roughly shook the petite girl off his torso and jammed his hands back into his pockets. “Here are your prizes!” He handed a small case to each person.

“…100 Pokeyen?” Shinji said, dumbfounded. “This is all we get for having to go through all this?”

“Oh, I think that should be plenty. The memories you got here will compensate for anything else.” Reiji smiled, playing innocent.

“…Sure,” Shinji said suspiciously. “Do we need to go back for a goodbye or anything?”

“No, no, that’s quite alright. I’m sure everyone will be fine.” Reiji hurried them out of my office (I had hidden in another spot by now where I wouldn’t be seen as they left) and out the door. “See you at home, Shinji!” he shouted as they walked away.

I jogged back out to the main room where the entire thing had been broadcast to our audience.

“Well, that was more of a finale than I had expected!” I said gleefully. Thank you for coming, everyone, and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I have!”