Jirachi's Twin Bonus Stories (btyu and others ♥)

Loving a Little Too Much

Bede's eyelids fluttered repeatedly, his view of the television blurring in and out. Today was a demonstration—a friendly battle royale between the gym leaders and the champion, but he had lost earlier than he usually did. Unfortunately, the night before had been horribly uncomfortable—a frustrating queasiness had kept him up all night. Luckily it was gone with a bit of sleep, but a bit of sleep was all he'd managed to obtain. Three hours, to be exact.

This extreme exhaustion plagued him the entire afternoon. Walking into the stadium, he bumped into a bench and apologized profusely to it before realizing he was making a fool of himself. Later, he realized he'd forgotten to brush his hair that morning, and thus was nearly late for his first match as he desperately untangled his mess of white curls.

Along with these screw ups, he wandered around the locker room in a daze rather frequently—often not processing other people's speech as they tried to direct him to the pitch. Then of course, in his match against Kabu, Bede lost his focus and nearly fainted from the weight of sleep sitting on his shoulders. This resulted in many foolish and flawed decisions throughout the battle, and he lost horribly in the second bracket.

Now, leaning against a wall in the prep lobby, his legs stretched out carelessly as he sat on a bench, he found himself starting to doze. He wanted to see Gloria's matches—he enjoyed them, and swore he would never miss a single one; especially after he realized his long-standing crush on her. However, Bede's mind wasn't in a state where he could easily control it.

There was an invisible, bouncing anvil tied to his forehead that kept pulling his chin down every few seconds. With each yank, it became harder and harder for him to keep awake. He shook his head desperately, feeling the blood rush in his ears as he tried to recuperate his drifting consciousness.

"Beeede."

His eyes lolled for a moment, turning wildly as he tried to stare through his half-closed eyelids, before they finally drifted up to the sound of the voice. He tried to focus. He really did. But it was just impossible to control the fogging of his vision as he strained to identify the speaker before him.

"Are you falling asleep, Bede?" the voice asked sweetly.

The cute femininity of the voice made it clear to Bede he was listening to Gloria, and as if she were a shot of caffeine, his eyes flew open wide. He blinked twice, still sleepy, but far more awake now that he was aware of her curious gaze resting on him.

"No," he lied.

She giggled lightly, "You're not, huh? But you look like you're about to tip over. That, and you've got some of the darkest circles under your eyes I've ever seen. How did you sleep last night?"

"Just brilliantly," he lied again, "I'm raring to go—just a little puckered out from the last match."

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he corrected himself.

"Tuckered. I meant uh... yeah. You know what I meant."

She shook her head, an annoyed smile on her face as she knitted her eyebrows in concern.

"Right... how many hours did you get, exactly?"

He glared mildly at her and waved his hand, "I'm fine, Gloria! Fine! Just leave me be, and I'll—"

"Five? Well that would do it, I suppose. You looked like you were about to tip over during Kabu's match, after all."

"What?" he blinked, and shook his head, "No... I got way less than that. I fell asleep around four, and woke up at seven, so—"

"You fell asleep at four in the morning!? That's only three hours of sleep!" she gawked at him, "Bede! Oh my gosh—what are you even doing here!? You need to get some rest or you'll faint!"