[It was absolutely dangerous. In a way that's, weirdly, a lot harder to admit to Ingo than it ever has been just to think about; looking at Silvally's clawmarks on his sleeves has made him feel proud and sturdy since the first of them, but for all that he's sure Ingo The Mountain Man wouldn't actually wring his hands and fret over it, Gladion's stomach twists a little at the thought of bringing up any of their closest calls, here and now. The discomfort is vague, and hard to pin down, because it's not the familiar burn of shame. It's just...uncomfortable?

Instead:]

Sometimes it was too easy. I might have gotten a little too used to having the strongest Pokemon in the region on my side. [And that's when you start displaying Idiot Behavior.] Definitely dangerous. And it took a little while to actually...understand what was going on, what to do with it. One of the first little breakthroughs was finding somewhere it could show me the absolute upper end of its strength. Then, working back stepwise from there. Cut back on a lot of nasty surprises.

[The number of times before then that Null startled him somehow - and if he got startled, things got messy. He's sure it was after that point that they both got a lot less jumpy, around each other and in general.]