Pain and the smell of disinfectant were the first things I noticed as I became aware of the world again. My skull felt like someone had used it for batting practice, legends above, it hurt so bad. Slowly, very slowly, I opened my eyes. It was dark, thank fuck. Oh, light would probably kill me right now, I can only imagine. My vision was a bit blurry, but I could make out a few shapes. A blue curtain was pulled around us, held by small rings around my bed. A bed that had grey railings on the side.
Hospital, then. Definitely hospital. That was good, I think.
As the pain started to recede, I was able to take in more of the room. There were a few wires attached to my skull, and a clip fastened to my finger. All of them were fed into a device behind me that beeped to a constant rhythm. Feelings other than pain started to make themselves known, and I could feel pressure on my other hand. I turned to my left and grinned.
May was out cold, her body hunched forward in her chair as her hand held onto mine in a relaxed grip.
“That can’t be good for your back.” I muttered to myself, and winced as May’s grip suddenly became a lot more solid. She shot up in her chair and her eyes locked with mine for a brief moment.
“Lea!” May yelled before pulling me into a hug. “You’re awake.”
I heard my heart monitor pick up the pace a bit and cursed under my breath. The hospital equipment was betraying me.
“Wuzzat?” That sounded like Wayne, where is he? A shadow shifted beyond the curtain as a hulking figure slowly got up. The curtain was pulled open and Wayne’s haggard, exhausted looking face greeted me. He had traded in his formal ware for a T-shirt and jeans. Good lord, how long I was out for. “Oh, good. Sleeping beauty is awake. Did your princess finally kiss you?”
“Don’t make jokes like that,” May stammered.
Jasmine slowly rose from a chair and stretched her arms out above her head before smiling at me.
“Lea. You really are going to give me a heart attack one of these days.” May muttered that so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
“Wasn’t my fault this time. I was attacked,” I complained. “How long have I been out?”
“Since yesterday,” Jasmine answered.
I leaned back in shock. “Yesterday...” I whispered.
A loud roar cut through the silence of our room. A snarling beast made itself known in the dimly lit hospital room and everyone froze.
I blushed bright red when I realized that the beast was my stomach.
“We have some ration bars if-”
May cut Jasmine off by holding out a bag of my cookies.
“Or that. That works too,” Jasmine said.
I pounced on the bag; terrified May would realize what she was doing and grabbed a handful. I ate half the bag in less than ten seconds. Wayne hesitantly put a bottle of water in my general area, and I snatched it from his hand and chugged.
“Ah. Thanks for that.”
Wayne and Jasmine both looked at me in mild disgust.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” They both said at once.
I looked at them suspiciously before turning to look at May again. I faintly caught the visage of death personified before a happy smile reasserted itself on my friend’s face.
“How are you feeling?” May asked.
Don’t question it, Lea. Just roll with it.
“I’ve got a headache, but it’s getting better. It was horrible when I first woke up.” Wait. “Where’s Emilie?” I asked.
“The center,” May answered. “She exhausted herself pushing Solrock and Lunatone out of your head.”
I started to get up off the bed.
May pushed me back down. “She’s fine. Our whole teams probably are at this point. Wayne dropped them off for us, and I... haven’t really left this room.” May blushed and looked away.
I smiled. "I can kind of tell, you stink.”
May glared at me before chuckling.
“Yeah, I probably do.” she muttered before reaching into my bag. I looked at her worriedly. She had dark circles under her eyes. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’m just... really happy you’re okay.” May’s eyes widened before she reached down and grabbed a small little remote with a single button on it. “Sorry, we were supposed to call a nurse when you woke up.”
I nodded before turning to Wayne and Jasmine.
“I’m guessing you had more contact with the outside world than May. Do you know what happened?” I asked.
Jasmine shook her head.
“No one knows how they got out. I talked to the captain while Wayne and May took you to the hospital. Their Balls were broken from the outside.” Somebody sprung them, then. Wait. They were-
“Ala.”
I heard. I did my best to look behind me, but the bed and everything else was in the way. ‘You are safe, child.’ A motherly voice echoed in my head.
“She’s here to protect you from the scary space rocks,” Wayne explained.
May grabbed my hand again and squeezed.
“I’m here, and I’m fine,” I said reassuringly. “I don’t think a pair of space rocks are gonna get past our friend here.”
Wayne pressed the call button again. “Taking their sweet ass time, huh?” Wayne asked.
A man in white scrubs came in almost as soon as Wayne finished complaining. He was staring down at a clipboard.
“Lea?” he asked without looking up. I nodded. He set his clipboard down and pulled out a long metal tube. He pressed one end and-
“Hey!” Blinded me.
“Hold still.” Rude. This guy’s bedside manner could use some work. He marked a few things down. “Pupils react fine. Has she had any trouble speaking?” he asked, looking at May.
“Uh- no. No, she’s been good.” More marks on a clipboard. “Are... You alright?”
“Could you sit so that your legs are dangling?” he asked, ignoring May. “This side, facing me, please.”
“Uh... okay.” I complied and he pulled out a small rubber mallet. “Kick when you feel the hit, please.”
“Eh?” Whack. I kick. “Oi.”
“Reflexes are good.” He marked a few more things down on the clipboard. “It would appear that you’re quite lucky, Ms. Lea. The attack didn’t leave you mentally impaired in any way. Sign here, please.”
He handed me the form he had been writing on and I scanned it. Mostly, it was doctor speech that I couldn’t make heads or tails of, with a bunch of numbers that didn’t make sense, but at the bottom, there was a line with an x next to it that asked for a patient's signature.
“What exactly am I signing?” I asked.
“Your release forms,” he said.
I hesitantly reached out and grabbed the pen before signing.
“Excellent.” He retrieved the form before handing me some papers. “Now, I must ask you all to leave.” He bowed. “Have a nice day.” He turned and left.
I blinked.
“The fuck just happened?” I asked.
May glared murderously after the doctor.
“Are you on the public plan for healthcare?” Wayne asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Then that, that’s what happened,” Wayne explained.
----------------------------------------
The world around me came into focus in an instant as Alakazam let go of my hand. The Dewford Center felt nothing like the one in Rustboro. The room we were in felt more like a beach house than a clinic and the window to the left had a fantastic view of beach. Palm trees waved in the salty breeze of the ocean, and a surf board stand was visible just beyond the deck outside.
“This might actually be the latest we’ve checked in to a center,” May complained, her eye’s drooping.
“Blame Dewford’s shit ass clinic,” I grouched as I walked through the sliding doors. “This is the center Emilie’s at, right?” I asked.
“I think so, it should be,” May said. “I still don’t understand why Wayne and Jasmine wanted to go to the other center. We could have been roomies!” Well, all things considered, they probably looked at the last few days and are firmly back in the ‘We’re a couple’ camp and wanted to give us some time alone together.
“They probably just wanted some alone time on an island paradise,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. Legends I am so tired,” May said as her head started to droop.
‘I will tell Joy we’re here.’ The Alakazam explained before walking behind the counter.
May started leaning on me.
“Hey, what gives?” I asked, only to be met with snoring. “Oh, not again.” I threw an arm under her and lifted a bit. “You’re lucky I'm strong, May.”
The door behind the counter shifted open, and a pajama clad Nurse Joy walked behind the counter rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
“Hello, I’m assuming you’re the girls that were attacked on the ship?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Room key, right?”
“If you have one available,” I replied.
The nurse laughed. “There are plenty of vacancies, don’t worry.” She pulled out a key and set it down on the table. I don’t move to grab it. “Oh, uh sorry. I guess that would be hard at the moment. I’ll take you to your room.” She picked the key back up and led me through the hallway. I slowly followed, careful not to bump May into the wall.
“Hey, uh... I don’t suppose you could give me an update on Emilie, could you?” I asked. The nurse looked confused for a moment. “My Ralts?”
“Oh, right.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m not quite fully awake. Emilie is doing fine, and she’ll be ready to go by tomorrow morning.” We stopped.
“Good. That’s good. Thanks.” I sighed in relief.
“No thanks are necessary. It’s what I'm here for,” she explained.
I smiled. “Well, I’m thanking you anyway, so deal with it.”
“I appreciate it, this will be your room.” She unlocked the door and opened it for me. “Did you need help with anything? Your friend looks to be a bit of a handful.”
“Nah, I got her. Thanks though.” I walked in and took in the room.
Two beds. Good. The far wall was glass, and we had a beautiful view of the shoreline. I was looking forward to hitting the beach. I gently guided May to her bed, where she promptly laid down on her side and crashed, not even bothering to take off her backpack. I smiled. She needed the sleep. Unfortunately, there was a rather annoying perk of being knocked out for the better part of a day.
That being that I wasn’t tired. At all.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The digital clock stared back at me from my bedside table, and I groaned. It was two in the morning. My sleep schedule was going to be fucked beyond reason because of this, wasn’t it?
“Sergei?” I saw May’s backpack shake a bit before a spectral image of a phone slowly rose and levitated over to me. I reached up and grabbed him before opening the new message he sent me.
"Burning the midnight oil again? You’re lucky I don’t need to sleep," Sergei messaged.
“Not quite. Are you... aware of what happened?” I asked. I received a thumbs up before getting another message.
“Are you okay?” Followed by a frowny face emoji.
“I’m fine,” I responded firmly. “Thanks, though. Sorry. I’ve been asked that question a lot in the last hour or so.” Another thumbs up. “Regardless, I've been unconscious since yesterday, and I'm not tired. You down to hang for a bit?”
“I’m down. Wanna watch some Poketube videos?” he asked.
I thought about it for a second.
“Could you pull up my video?” I asked.
“Sure.” My video loaded, and the big arrow popped up.
“Mute please.” The speaker icon dimmed. I pressed play.
The setting panned out and I took in the field from on high as Joern and Onix both formed on the battlefield. Legends above, the size difference looked even more ridiculous from this angle. I watched the fight progress. We did fantastic, but I'd need to be even better here. This gym battle would be even harder. I needed to find mistakes.
I definitely needed to research abilities more. I doubted I'd ever hit the levels of brainiacs like May and Brendan, but I needed to know more than what I currently do.
I could probably do some homework before the gym battle on abilities common to Pokémon in the gym rotation. That would be doable.
That was the easiest issue to fix.
The other much harder to fix issue was that I would get flustered if things didn’t go how I expected them too. I started counting seconds of inaction. It felt like the explosion happened instantly, but there was a two second delay from when she gave the order and when the explosion happened and a five second delay from Joern’s attack getting slurped up to him getting tagged with Ancient Power. It took two seconds for me to order Apollo to pull up when she used her rock tomb fortress idea with Lileep.
Almost no delays with Emilie.
It was exceedingly hard to tell, because I wasn’t giving verbal orders, but I noticed that giving commands at the speed of thought really was a bit busted. Roxanne ordered Nosepass faster than she had Lileep or Onix, and I kept up.
Wait...
“Did that mean she was going easy on me with Onix and Lileep?” I thought aloud.
Sergei sent me a question mark through messenger.
“Nothing, I’m just breaking down the fight, sorry.” It made sense.
If the whole gym trainer debacle made me realize one thing, it’s that the leaders are on another level when it comes to skill. I’d be willing to bet that Roxanne would have at least managed to knock out Joern in that gym trainer’s spot. Emilie and I made her take us seriously. At least a little bit.
Why couldn’t I do that with Joern and Apollo too? I was getting better at pushing thoughts out to others. If I worked with Emilie more, I could probably do those things more consciously and not need verbal commands AT ALL.
Legends above that would be stupid.
Aerial Ace with no warning. No heads up. Just a split-second aerial assault that left opponents reeling.
A single seed hidden in the Razor Leaves.
The potential for sneakiness was limitless, and I could get my orders to them faster.
“Sergei, remind me that my training with Emilie is just as, if not more, important than her training with me. Every training session,” I ordered, before wincing. “Please.” I realized how rude that sounded. Remember, this is a living... undead creature, not a phone.
Thumbs up emoji.
“Thanks,” I replied. “I...”
“You alright?” Sergei asked. “Sentences forming correctly up there, Lea?”
“Yes, I just...” I sighed. “I push off mental training. A lot. I know I shouldn’t. Today highlighted that, it’s just. When I learn to shield my mind, all the cool stuff I can do will probably go away, or at least become much harder to do.” I looked away. “Emilie already warned me, that we won’t be able to talk like we do now. I’m... really not looking forward to that.”
“I offer my services,” Sergei suggested. A weird salute emoji popped up that I had never seen before showed up after the message.
“I won’t have you all the time.” I chuckled a bit. “You’re technically May’s remember, even if you probably see me more.”
“You’re my favorite,” Sergei replied with a paranoid emoji. “Don’t tell May I said that.”
“Mum’s the word, but you’ll probably want to clear the history for this chat,” I suggested. “Back to Emilie, we’re already working on work arounds. She can say a few words now if you can believe it.”
An exclamation point was the response.
“I know right, surprised the hell out of me. The first word was an accident, and we’ve been expanding her vocabulary ever since. We’d probably be making more progress if I just taught her how to make sounds, but going ah, oh, th, ch, and sh at each other sounds ridiculous.”
“Tape that please,” Sergei begged.
“Yeah, yeah. Might as well. It’d be funny to go back and watch late and you already have enough blackmail to turn us all into servants.” I joked. I got a thinking face emoji in response. “Please don’t.”
“Meh, it’d lose its charm pretty quick.” Sergei responded.
“Fair enough.” I scrolled down a bit on the video and started skimming comments. “Hey Sergei, could you log me in under my PokeTube account?”
“Which would be...?”
Oh, right. Duh.
“UnderappreciatedProtaganist. The password is MaySnores.” I replied. I heard a buzzsaw sound off from the bed next to me. “How on earth do I sleep through that? That’s been right in my ear multiple times on this journey, and I just ignored it.”
“Practice,” Sergei messaged.
“Probably.”
The webpage shifted a few times before I returned to the same video from a darker screen. How May tolerated light mode I will never know. The most liked comment chain was a byplay between PokeTube_Enjoyer and Mudkip_Supremacist just commenting about different points in the battle. There were at least fifty replies keeping the chain going. I doubted I’d get a response from either of them if I just added my reply to the chain.
“PokeTube_Enjoyer is me, by the way.” My eyes widened as I read the message. “I figured having an online presence independent from May would be helpful. Especially after the... incident. Mudkip_Supremacist was one of the first people to comment on your video. I’ve been chatting with him for a bit through IM and I think you’d probably like him.”
“Any particular reason why?” I asked.
“You’re both dorks, anime nuts, and members of the dramatist royalty,” Sergei typed.
I felt my left eye twitch at the insult, and a small amount of indignation on Mudkip_Supremacist’s behalf.
“Just because you’re in an almost indestructible titanium case, doesn’t mean I can’t get creative. I can and will find the most annoying videos and play them on loop.” I threatened.
“Promises, promises. You want me to introduce you to him or not?” Sergei asked.
“You can shoot him a PM on my behalf, I need more friends to talk shop with. May’s a closet dork and refuses to indulge my rants and Emilie’s...” I trailed off.
“Bit of a know it all that picks apart your arguments without mercy?” Sergei messaged with a smug emoji.
“Yes...” I complained. “Every time I try, she pats me on the head. It's the most condescending thing ever and I hate it.”
“Sent, by the way. I doubt he’s on- never mind, I just got a reply. He’s up late.” Sergei pulled up an IM room, added me, and invited Mudkip_Supremacist.
“Sup. Nice to meet you,” he greeted.
I shifted around so I could use the keyboard a bit better. “Hello. Thanks for being nice to Sergei, I know he can be a bit of a handful.” I pressed send before slapping my hand to my forehead. “And I just told you his real name like an idiot.”
Sergei posted a gif of a Chansey shaking its head at me like a disappointed parent.
"Sergei? What kind of name is that?” he asked. Rude.
“A fantastic name, thank you very much,” I replied.
“She’s just angry because she’s the one that named me. I like it though.” Sergei tacked on.
“Wait, what do you mean she named you? Did you seriously bring me in here to hang out with your mom?” he asked.
Extra rude. I don’t know why Sergei liked this guy, he was an ass hat.
“No, I’m just her best friend’s Rotom,” Sergei explained, much to my surprise.
“My new internet friend is a Rotom,” he messaged. “That is so fucking cool.” Sergei smiled. Well, he reacted with a smile at least.
“Yeah, my girl here got hurt. She was out for the whole day, and now that she’s awake, she doesn’t wanna go back to sleep,” Sergei explained. “We were watching some videos and saw my recent comments. She wanted to say hi. To be honest, I’m a little shocked to see you online this late.”
“Yeah, Slateport’s a mess right now, and it’s keeping me up. Are you doing better now?” he asked.
“Yeah, I'm good.” I think I judged this guy too quickly. “What’s going on in Slateport?” I asked, curious about the place we were going to next.
“Ugh, there’s a protest out in front of the museum of all places. A bunch of guys in blue bandanas are pissed about the most recent deep sea exploration mission, something about it disturbing the natural habitats down there,” he said.
My eyes went wide at the description.
“I don’t care about either side of this, I just want them to keep it down.”
“Did the bandana have a weird symbol on it? Like an A with a circle in the middle?” I asked.
“Yeah, actually,” he replied. Fuck. “Friends of yours?”
“They’re bad news,” I answered. “My friend and I ran into a group of those nuts on 103. They trashed and looted an old ruin there.”
“Damn, they blew up the wall?” he asked. “I liked that wall. It was cool.”
I leaned back from the phone a bit. “You know the area?” I asked.
“Born and raised in Littleroot town,” he replied.
“Petalburg for me,” I shared back.
“Damn, we’re breaking all the internet rules tonight. You leaked your Rotom’s real name, and we both just doxed ourselves,” he messaged.
I winced.
“Back to the guys in blue bandanas,” Sergei interjected. “Please don’t try to mess with them. They’re bad news, and I want to keep my new internet friend.”
“I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll just invest in a pair of ear plugs tomorrow,” he messaged.
“At any rate. Sergei said you’re an anime fan,” I typed. “Give me your list, I need to judge you.”
“You first.”
----------------------------------------
I blearily opened my eyes and groaned, Sergei resting on my stomach. At some point during our IM session, I had in fact managed to fall asleep. I don’t know when it was, but the position I had slept in was enough to make my neck hate me something fierce. I winced as I slowly shifted and pulled myself up. May wasn’t in her bed.
“She better not have left to explore the town without me,” I grumbled. “Emilie, wake...” I trailed off as I realized that particular step of my morning routine could be skipped.
I needed to get her back from Nurse Joy. Not having her with me was too weird for words, to say nothing of how exposed I felt.
I quickly shifted myself off of the bed and ruffled through my bag for a change of clothes. I wanted to get my shower in and get my partner back pronto.
I idly wondered how the center shower compared to the luxury bath we had on the cruise liner.
Probably not well.
I wouldn’t know, the bathroom door was locked.
“Dammit, May.” She had beaten me to the shower, which probably meant she was going to hoard all the hot water. Again.
“I’m almost done, calm down.” I heard her shout from the other side. “I had to wash the hospital stink off.”
“Yeah, well. Hurry. I want to get my Pokémon back ASAP. I don’t feel right without Emilie on my shoulder, and I know Apollo and Joern are probably worrying,” I shouted.
The door opened and a freshly pressed May walked out, her hair still a bit wet. “I can grab your Poke Balls for you, if you want,” she offered softly. “How are you feeling?”
Huh, I was expecting banter back, not... this.
“Good, just... slightly exposed,” I replied.
May nodded. “Right, sorry. I’ll grab our teams and come back right away, you go-” May’s words died on her lips as she stared past my head towards the coast line.
“What?” I asked, before turning to see just what had caught her eye.
A single, white furred, dog like Pokémon stood proud just outside our glass door. A black, sickle like appendage extended out from their head as well as their tail, and his eyes bore into mine, glimmering crimson in the morning sun.
In that single instance, I saw horrible things. Death, pain, grief, fire, blood... It all flashed by in an instant.
I blinked once, and in that single moment, the Pokémon disappeared. I quickly walked up to the sliding glass door and pulled it open, taking a moment to thoroughly look around the area. Somehow, whatever the hell that thing was vanished without a sound or trace.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked my resident brainiac.
Her face looked pale.
“An Absol.” she replied, worry creeping into her voice as she reached out and grabbed my arm. “Let’s just... go and get your Pokémon now. Right now.” She pulled on my arm as she frantically looked around the room.
“Damn, that thing’s got you spooked. Are they strong?” I asked. May nodded.
“They are, but that’s not why I'm worried. Walk and talk please. You can take a shower when we get back.” She pulled my arm again. Fuck she was terrified.
“Alright.” I followed her out the door as we very quickly walked down the hallway.
“Absol are generally very peaceful Pokémon, but they have a terrible reputation,” May explained. “Everywhere they go, disaster follows.”
“That sounds like superstitious hoopla,” I complained.
May shook her head. “It’s scientifically proven. They have a danger sense that’s almost prophetic.”
We turned and walked toward the front desk. Nurse Joy was already up and about, good.
“Hi, I’m here to pick up my Pokémon. Lea and May. They were brough in by a tall man, goes by the name of Wayne,” I explained.
“Of course, nice to see your friend’s a bit more awake this time,” she joked. “I’ll be right back.” She went into the backroom.
“So, prophetic danger sense?” I asked.
“They don’t cause the disaster. They appear as a warning. They’re trying to help,” May said quickly. Her gaze shifting wildly around every corner.
“Keep Emilie on me at all times and have Apollo and Joern out for good measure. Got it,” I replied. “If it wasn’t already obvious, we’re sticking together like glue and watching each other’s backs. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” May responded. “Though, considering how reckless you are, she probably just homed in on you.”
“How do you know it’s a girl?” I asked.
“The horn wasn’t as long. Male Absol have a much longer horn and their tail piece is more pronounced.” May belted out on reflex.
“What the hell do you need a Pokedex for? You already regurgitate facts like you’re getting paid for it,” I jeered.
May elbowed me. “Technically speaking, I am. Focus,” May ordered.
Nurse Joy returned from the back room with my poke balls in tow. I eagerly snatched Emilie’s ball and let my favorite psychic type reclaim her rightful place on my shoulder. I wasn’t going to know what to do with myself once she evolved.
‘You’re alright.’ Emilie sighed before hugging my head. An action that made it fairly hard to see as I snatched the other two Poke Balls. Thinking on it for a second, I also let them out. Apollo quickly flew up to my other shoulder.
‘Bah, have some faith, Emilie. Our captain is made of sterner stuff, it’ll take more than a couple of overly cryptic space stones to take her out,’ Apollo said jovially.
‘You two look tense,’ Joern noted. ‘Is something up.’
“We saw an Absol,” I explained. All three of them froze, before taking a defensive formation around me. “Why does everyone just assume it’s me!”
‘Ill omens from an Absol aren’t something to take lightly, cap.’ Apollo explained.
“Look. We don’t know anything. All we know is that, at some point, at some place, something bad is going to happen. You see the issue I'm having with this?” I explained. The three of them deflated a bit, and May looked a bit embarrassed. “Look, we’ll stay alert, and we’ll stay together. That’s really all we can do.” Apollo and Joern nodded once. Emilie remained quiet. ‘Emilie?’
‘If those rocks took me down before going after your head...’ Emilie trailed off, her face ashen. ‘That attack was so strong... I could barely stop them from hurting you.’
‘You did, though,’ I said.
‘Mom was right.’ Emilie said. That sounded ominous as fuck. ‘I can’t be with you ever second of every day.’ Emilie looked away. ‘And I'm not strong enough to stop everyone that attacks us. What happened could have been so much worse.’ Emilie stared at me again, her eyes determined. ‘We need to be ready.’
‘Emilie?’ I asked, wondering where this was going.
‘I’ve been putting off teaching you how to protect yourself,’ Emilie said. I felt shame through the bond.
‘We’ve both been doing that,’ I corrected. ‘I haven’t exactly been eager to learn.’
‘That stops today,’ Emilie said. ‘By the end of the week, you’ll be telling psychics to fuck off.’
I sighed. So much for my idea about psychic communication with Joern and Apollo.
‘We’ll figure it out,’ Emilie promised.
‘Huh?’ I asked. ‘I thought half the reason I could do what I do is that I'm so open.’
‘That’s making it easier,’ Emilie said. ‘Anything worth having is worth working hard for.’
‘You’re the last Pokémon I want to hear say that,’ I complained.
Emilie blushed. ‘I’ll be better if you will,’ Emilie said. ‘This is important.’
‘Yeah...’ I thought about all of our late night conversations. About Apollo’s goofy pirate speak and Joern’s lazy drawl. ‘It is.’ Emilie met my gaze and thought for a moment. She smiled suddenly. ‘What-’
“Work.”
I froze as Emilie managed to utter a word I had never heard her say before.
“Hard. Play. Hard. Eat. And. Sleep. Often.”
A grin stretched across my face at the reference as Emilie offered her fist. She was a far cry from a Turtonator, but I suppose she had the island paradise down.
“Deal?” she asked.
I bumped her fist with mine.
“Deal,” I said. Emilie smiled back. ‘Weeb.’