Tao didn't sleep much that night. Her mind was running into overdrive, trying to figure out all the questions running in her head that circled around a mysterious Luxray. She tossed and turned in her bed, screwing up the thick blankets in her turmoil as she tried to get just a few hours of sleep. But every time she closed her eyes, thoughts of the strange Cenn Blackbolt came to her mind.

After another few hours later, with it being around 3 in the morning now, she gave up on her quest for sleep and got up, glancing at the card that rested on her desk in the far corner. She wondered if someone like him saves girls on a whim and randomly gives them his card, maybe just for booty calls. She grunted in frustration and picked up the card, reading it over and over, though never really registering the words. It all just seemed a little strange for her, a handsome guy like that, swooping in to...

"Gah! Stop that!" She scolded herself, not wanting to think those thoughts for a guy she just met hours ago. She put the card in her Skyrim-themed wallet that rested on the desk and crawled back onto her simple bed covered in comforting blankets and pillows, practically burying herself beneath it all.

This was her safety issue. She always hated sleeping alone, so she tried to cover herself with blankets and pillows as a way to just hide from the darkness of night, and the loneliness that crept up on her at times. When she was younger, she would do the same with blankets and tons of stuffed animals, as if they were there to protect her from anything that had any interest in harming her. She would usually stay with Kane, but she figured their relationship was already all over. She felt too embarrassed to show up at his place, asking just for a sleeping buddy. That would feel too awkward for her.

She groaned and tried to bury herself in the blankets even farther, having pillows on three sides of her head and along the edges of the bed itself, almost making it like a comfort fort in a way. She just wanted to sleep, and she felt like a little kid again that felt like crying at every noise and movement in the dark. Her mind kept wandering to more scary things that would happen, or would've happened, to her if she was completely alone.

But along with those thoughts, they were chased away with thoughts of Cenn, this strange Pokemon that just seemed to come out of nowhere, to rescue her from a seemingly harmless mugger that proved to be a dangerous one. The more she thought about it, the more she really wanted to know this Cenn Blackbolt, and how he knew her before she even told him who she was.

And with those thoughts going through her head, she slowly fell into a comfortable sleep, the thoughts of a Luxray chasing away any nightmares.

---

She slept in. Three hours past the time she was supposed to wake up. This would make the third time in a week she slept in, but she kinda needed the restful sleep that made her feel as if she could run for miles.

She was off tonight, so she usually spent her free time either working anyways, or shopping with what little spare money she could spend on herself. It was already 11 in the morning, so she had plenty of time to get ready and do some exploring of her own. She got up from her mess of blankets that was her bed and got dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans and a light blue tank top, leaving her feet paws bare, never really wanting to wear shoes anyways. She grabbed a granola bar for breakfast, or maybe lunch already, and made sure she had her wallet chained to her hip, and her phone and car keys tucked safely in her pocket. She left her apartment, making sure the door was locked behind her, and descended the stairs that led to the garage.

She was glad to live in an apartment complex where they had a private garage, as she was always scared her baby was either going to get stolen or trashed if she left it on the streets. She saved up for her car for too long for it to be stolen from her. Among only three or four other cars in the secure garage, her neon green and blue Mustang stood out like a sore thumb, but she liked to be different. She unlocked it, patting the hood for a minute before climbing in, the interior mostly black with neon green trimming. She settled in and cranked her up, hooking up her iPod to the auxiliary port and turning the volume up.

Sleeping With Sirens blared from the speakers, and she smiled in content when the deep bass and screaming vocals hit her ears. She backed up from the parking space, pulling up to the metal gate that kept the cars safe from the outside world. A box with a keypad stood off to the side, and she quickly put in her six digit pin to watch the gate creak open for her. She floored the gas petal, taking off in a rush of speed that always excited her, but she knew how to drive well.

As she drove down the busy streets of this downtown city, she became lost in thought as the questions of Cenn came back for the first time since she woke up. She frowned in a way, thinking for a minute as to why these thoughts of this Luxray keep coming to her mind. She hoped he didn't do some kind of mind manipulation to her to where she couldn't stop thinking about him, maybe even to make her go see him. In a situation like that, she would try to be smarter than that.

With those thoughts in mind, she pulled out her wallet and found the card he had given her, reading over the typed grunge script that had an address and phone number on it. She felt like her mind has been running all night on this, so she finally made her choice.

---

Storage units. The address lead her to a storage unit lot in the middle of nowhere, where the surrounding area is nothing but fields and a few tree lines. At this, she felt stupid, and humiliated. Luckily there was no one there to witness her embarrassment, but she glanced back at the card again. It was the correct address, and even had a storage unit number on it. She frowned at this, but parked her car at the gates, climbing out while her face continued to flare up in embarrassment. The gates were left unlocked, so she opened one side slightly so she could easily walk through.

The place was deserted and quiet, seeing that she was the only source of life in this area. But her sensitive ears picked up something... A dull booming sound? As she walked deeper amongst the metal buildings, she noticed she was reaching the larger units, two put together to make one big one. She glanced at the numbers on the units close to her, then back to the card in her paw, noticing she has a good ways to go.

The farther she walked, the booming sound became louder to her ears, and it almost sounded like the comforting bass that she liked so much. Soon she reached one single, large unit at the very end of the lot, the booming louder than ever and she could hear the muffled sound of music on the inside. Her ears perked up, and before she could lose the courage to, she took hold of the unlocked sliding door handle and threw it open.

The first thing that hit her was the vibrations of the bass that resonated now through the whole lot. The next thing that reached her ears were the guitar, bass guitar, and vocals that worked perfectly in harmony for a very metal/screamo song. It seemed the occupants that were creating this amazing music didn't seemed phased by the door opening as they continued.

The guy at the drums was a tall, bulky brown bear, his hair long but tied up to keep it out of his face. Next guy at the bass guitar was a lanky, but slightly muscular brown squirrel, his hair cut short but was a bit unkempt. Then there was the guy at the electric guitar, a thin, but well built black werewolf, his hair spiked up and many piercings adorned his ears. Then there was Cenn on vocals, his voice in the music chilled her to the bones. His hair was disheveled, and they all looked as if they were there for a while, practicing. Tao just stood there, stunned and surprised as she just watched and listened.

"I'll never be the one, that you want me to be!" Cenn finished, the rest of the music fading into the background as Tao watched him pant from exhaustion. His red/yellow eyes met hers, a slight bit of surprise also on his face. Before he could say anything, a voice spoke up behind him.

"Oh look, we got our first fan!" Tao looked up, breaking the awkward eye contact first to see that it was the squirrel guy that spoke up. "Maybe she wants our autograph." He snickered, elbowing the bear next to him.

The bear grunted before whacking the guy with one of his drumsticks. "You know what Ring? Go climb a tree and stay there." The bear replied, his voice deep. He set the drumsticks down to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"Quit it you two. You can fool around later." The werewolf growled, causing both of them to fall silent. He turned back towards Tao and Cenn, wrapping an arm around the Luxray's shoulders. "So Cenn, who's the pretty lady?" He asked, curious as he winked at her, causing her to stiffen and frown.

Cenn finally unfroze, shrugging off the werewolf. His cheek was still slightly red and a bit swollen from the slap she gave him that night. "She's the girl I saved last night, the one who gave me this." He answered, pointing to his cheek that caused Tao's face to flush slightly in embarrassment. She would have to apologize for that later.

"Ooh! So you're the feisty one!" Ring snickered, causing Tao's face change from embarrassment to slight anger. She would definitely show him feisty with a slap for his own. But before she could even step forward, Cenn took hold of her wrist, averting her blazing eyes from Ring to him.

"Big B, take care of Ring for me." Cenn sighed, the bear behind him nodding before he picked up Ring with great ease, holding him beneath his arm.

"Hey! I didn't really mean it! Honest!" Ring complained, squirming beneath Big B's arm but it looked like he wasn't going anywhere as the bear walked past them out of the storage unit. With the werewolf laughing in tow.

"Make sure they don't get into any trouble Shade!" Cenn called to the werewolf, seeing him turn and nod in understanding before continuing to follow the other two.

"Uhm..." Tao returned her attention back to Cenn, her mind seemingly had went blank as to why she was here, feeling confused by everything.

"You're confused." Cenn stated, as if he had honed in on her thoughts that it caught her off guard for a few seconds. With his hold still on her wrist, he walked her back into the air conditioned storage room, gently setting her down at a small, yet cluttered table with 4 chairs shoved into the far corner. There were notebooks, pencils, stray bits of paper, a few guitar picks that were among the clutter on the table, a few words she could make out as song titles and lyrics.

The Luxray sat down across the table from her, leaning back in the chair. Tao frowned at him a bit, just waiting and staring right back at him. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Cenn spoke up.

"Your thoughts are very loud, but are sometimes sudden, and something I don't expect." He explained simply to her, a small smirk appearing on his face. "You're a very unexpected person in general." He commented once more, causing Tao's cheeks to suddenly heat up.

"And you're someone I wouldn't expect to come to a girl's rescue in the middle of the night." She answered him back, crossing her arms over her chest as he chuckled lightly.

"Yeah, well, if I didn't, you would have been laying dead in the street, even though you said you could take care of yourself." He continued, lounging back in the chair while propping his feet on the cluttered table. She stared at him, a bit confused but shocked at how he said it so casually, as if it was nothing.

"And how would you know what would happen if you didn't come to stop that guy from mugging me?" She asked him, the shock fading away into slight anger as she though he was trying to scare her on purpose, though she didn't know why.

His smirk faded to a slight frown as he stared at her with his red and yellow eyes, putting his legs back down and straightening in his chair. "Because I saw it happen."