By the time Kyra came round from her rest, Willow was just about waking up too. She was still annoyed at herself for having got so annoyed at Nate and Willow yesterday and wanted to apologise for how she had acted.
"Morning, how are you feeling?" Willow asked as she looked over to see Kyra was now awake.
Kyra felt much better than she had done last night, but she still wasn't one hundred percent back to herself. "I'm ok I guess, my arm feels weird, but I'll explain why later. Also, I'm sorry for losing my temper yesterday, I was just so worried about Gliscor," she replied, stroking Gliscor's head.
Glaceon and Lucario were in need of attention too, so Kyra gave them what they were looking for. The silence after her apology had put her on edge, worried that Willow wouldn't forgive her.
"Normally I'd say don't bother with an apology, but not this time. You went too far yesterday, Nate and I were worried about you and you completely pushed us aside as if you didn't care. I know that's not how you truly feel about us, but sometimes we can't help but think that you big yourself up too much. We know you work better under pressure because it gives you more reason to prove yourself, doing everything yourself when Nate and I are with you on this journey isn't going to be a regular occurrence. Nate doesn't have the guts to say this, but I do, what happened yesterday really upset us. It wasn't Nate's fault that Saturn stole Gliscor, and he definitely didn't betray your trust. You need to learn how to control your temper, only then will we properly be able to enjoy our journey." Willow explained, it hurt having to be so honest with Kyra, but she knew it was for Kyra's good.
Kyra knew Willow was right, granted it hurt hearing it, but she wasn't going to deny it. "It's not as easy as just controlling it, you're not the one who belongs to a family of high running tempers," she said in an attempt to defend herself.
"I'm not saying it will be easy, what I am saying is that you need to at least try. There's no need to get so defensive Kyra, I'm giving you advice, not attacking you," Willow replied, not willing to let Kyra just ignore what she had been saying.
Kyra broke eye contact as she grabbed a change of clothes from her bag and walked towards the bathroom. "I never said you were attacking me, I was just stating a fact. Us Fuladari's have a short patience, Mum's family is the exact same. If it's really that bad and you're struggling to cope, maybe we'd be better off travelling separately, if that's what you want."
Willow was even more annoyed at Kyra going into the bathroom so she could force a break into the conversation. Kyra's pokémon were both glad and annoyed at the fact Willow couldn't understand them, they certainly would have had their say if they could be understood.
"Of course you three are on Kyra's side here, I'm not surprised. She seems to get on better with you than she does the people she's known practically all her life," Willow muttered, messaging Nate to tell him to come and talk to Kyra.
Kyra slumped down against the door, upset at both what she had said and what Willow had said. She hated feeling as if she were a burden to her friends, it made her feel as if she were better off digging herself a hole and never coming out. A few tears fell to the floor, only making Kyra's temper flare up at how weak she felt.
Nate got himself ready after reading Willow's message, he had guessed Kyra's reaction to be something along the lines of what Willow had explained. He felt just as guilty as Kyra now did, the last thing he wanted was to have caused Kyra to become upset, that had been exactly what had happened.
Willow was still annoyed at how Kyra had reacted by the time Nate got there, she had no intentions of apologising to Kyra until she apologised first. She saw Nate come in and hoped that he would agree that Kyra was the one being unreasonable.
"She's still sulking. There's no point in trying to talk to her, she's probably just going to push you away again," Willow commented, rolling her eyes as Lucario growled.
Nate ignored what Willow said and knocked on the door to the bathroom anyway, hoping Kyra would at least be willing to listen to him.
Kyra had decided to take as long in the bathroom as possible so she could calm down, having run herself a bath to further help her relax. "Sorry, I didn't realise it was a crime to take a bath. If you need to get changed then use Nate's room, I'm sure you'd much prefer his company anyway." Making her annoyance towards Willow obvious.
"I just wanted to apologise, how Willow worded what she said to you wasn't how it was meant at all. Kyra, please, don't let this ruin our friendship. Willow may not seem it right now, but she's really worried about you and wants to help, I do too," Nate replied, giving Kyra some privacy whilst still telling her that he didn't want to have caused such a fuss.
Kyra was surprised by Nate having forgiven her. Willow had made it out that Nate hated her, or at least that was how Kyra had interpreted it. "I'll be out in a bit, just let me finish here and we can talk."
Willow was clearly disproving of Nate having forgiven Kyra so quickly, this wasn't what they had agreed to last night. "This is just going to happen again the next time Team Galactic do anything. You know you hate it, so why are encouraging it?" she asked.
Nate went over to sit beside Willow, not expecting her to turn her back on him as she did. "Willow, this is silly. You're acting like a child, and so is Kyra to be honest. You two are best friends, you have been all along, are you really willing to lose that?" he asked in reply, trying to get Willow to see sense.
Willow fell quiet, it was no secret one of her worst fears was losing Kyra as her best friend after all they had been through together. She began to cry as her fondest memories with Kyra came flooding back to her, she and Kyra had been inseparable ever since their parents introduced them to each other.
"I'm an idiot! Why did you let me apologise for you?! Kyra now hates me and you're trying to blame me for that?!" Willow shouted, her emotions getting the better of her as Kyra's had done yesterday.
Nate, despite having tried to make matters better, had made matters much worse. He had come into the room with Kyra thinking he hated her and had caused Willow to start hating him too. He got up to leave so as not to cause anymore upset to his two childhood friends, but that was when Kyra came out from the bathroom.
"Just stop, both of you. Please. I don't need this, not today, not ever. We're supposed to be friends, that was the promise we made to each other as children. I know it's a silly thing to bring up, but we promised each other we'd be there for our journey around the Sinnoh Region, even if that was the only Region we travelled together. We've already so far into the journey, I don't want it to go to waste now. Please, can we just forget this all happened and make up. I don't want to lose either of you, you mean the world to me even if I make it seem like that's not the case sometimes. You've always been there for me when I needed you, you stayed back at the Trainer's School so we could journey together once we had graduated if I was confident enough to. Even if we decide not to continue travelling together after taking on the Sinnoh League, at least let's finish travelling Sinnoh together. I'll try harder to control my temper, anything, please just let this work."
Willow ran to Kyra to hug her, the two breaking down in each other's hug. The two clearly cared for one another deeply, they had barely been up for half an hour and had almost ruined everything that had ever happened between them.
"I'm so sorry for what I said, I shouldn't have been so harsh on you," Willow apologised.
"I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have taken what you said the wrong way. You were just giving me advise and I couldn't lower my ego enough to take it," Kyra apologised in return.
Nate was relieved to see the girls getting along again, joining the hug himself after a couple of minutes. The trio's bond with one another wasn't something that could be broken easily, yes it could be weakened, but it would grow stronger again every time something like this happened.
The original plan to take on the Snowpoint City Gym had gone completely out of the window. Instead the trio decided to have a relaxing day on Route 217 with some training on the side. They headed down to have breakfast, sending out their pokémon as they usually did so they could eat too.
"Didn't you say something about your arm feeling weird earlier? Is everything alright?" Willow asked, suddenly remembering what Kyra had said before their argument.
Kyra nodded, "It's part of the reason I was asleep when you and Nate got here last night. Saturn tried controlling my aura again, although this time it went really badly. My aura took full control of me, still taking control when the dark aura was returned to the device. Glaceon had the idea of using Ice Fang and Iron Tail to put me in pain so I could regain control of myself. Iron Tail only resulted in a bruise, but the Ice Fang cut the skin slightly and it's still sort of numb from where my arm was frozen. It's nothing to worry about, I just need to keep my arm warm. This is why I carry handwarmers around, it's really helping out since it's just the right size," she explained.
Nate and Willow were both worried to hear that Kyra's aura had enough power to take control of her, the pokémon expressing their concerns too. Kyra reassured them once more that she would be fine, agreeing that she would tell them if she went downhill in any way.
The group finished eating breakfast and headed outside once they were ready, admiring the few flakes of snow still falling down to the sheet of crisp white snow that had fallen overnight.
Glaceon jumped down from Kyra's shoulder and into the snow below, surprised by how deep it was. She was practically fully submerged in the snow, but she wasn't going to complain. The snow was her favourite place besides Kyra's shoulder, she had only been a Glaceon for a day and was loving the perks of no longer feeling the cold.
Lucario on the otherhand was much more weary, she hated the feel of the cold beneath her paws as she stepped into the snow, growling in an attempt to somehow get the snow away.
"Lucario, come one. The snow is fun!" Glaceon encouraged, trying to tempt Lucario into the snow to join her.
Lucario shook her head, "I'm not going, you can't make me. It's cold, we're all going to get ill."
The rest of the pokémon had joined Glaceon in the snow, even the pokémon who the trio wouldn't have expected to like the snow were enjoying it. Lucario was seemingly the only one of the group who didn't like the snow.
"I'm not leaving you here on your own Lucario, not when there's a chance Team Galactic might be in the area. Either you can come with us, or you go in your pokéball, those are your two options," Kyra explained, trying to get her partner to brave her worries of the snow since Nate and Willow had gone on ahead with the pokémon to find somewhere to play in the snow.
Lucario didn't want to step foot in the snow again, nor did she want to go in her pokéball either. She was worried for not only herself, but Kyra more so. "Can we at least take this slowly? I don't like the cold, there's just something about it that worries me."
Kyra nodded, "You know I'm here for you Lucario, you don't need to ask. I'm keeping my bag here since everyone's already out of their pokéballs, so you can get on my back for a bit if that'd help. When you're ready, you can try going in the snow again. If you don't manage it today, that's fine, I'll be here for you either way," she replied.
Lucario agreed to Kyra's suggestion and jumped carefully onto her back. Kyra was happy to have Lucario on her back and she headed to find the others with Lucario's help of aura.