I jerked awake to the sound of a closing door, knocking Emilie off my stomach as the world slowly came into focus.
May sauntered over to the bed with a smile. “You two look cozy. Watching anything good?”
Emilie groaned before turning and glaring at me. “We were supposedly watching the newest episode of Pokémon Ranger together, but Lea conked out on me.”
“I, uh... was tired?” I looked up from Emilie to May for help.
She just laughed at me.
Emilie sighed before glancing forlornly at Sergei. “I suppose it was probably for the best. Tonight’s going to suck, it’s better that you’re well rested for this crap.”
May tilted her head at me and I bit back a curse. Right. I hadn’t actually... told her about tonight.
“What’s tonight?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
“...okay, in my defense I did just, kind of forget to tell you. We’re removing the fear block tonight.” Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t-
“How do you forget to tell someone something like that?” May’s voice rose in pitch as she glared at me.
Dammit all. “I-”
“She got distracted by Jasmine’s psychotic Misdreavus, your psychotic Absol, and how cute Ogier and Nimue are as a couple.” Emilie grinned up at May before teleporting to my shoulder. “Mostly that last one, though. It’s...” Emilie paused, like she did when she was tripping over a lie. “Going to be fine.”
I grinned at her. “I’m happy you believe that. You had me worried for a bit.”
May glanced up at Emilie, biting her lip. “You’re not leaving yourself a lot of room to... adapt for Brawly. Are you sure now’s the best time to do this?”
“We either do this in a controlled setting tonight, or it happens on its own tomorrow.” Emilie winced as the words left her mouth. “I know it’s shit timing, but-”
“It’s not going to matter because I’m going to be fine, and you’re making a big deal over nothing. We go in, break the block, and go about our business.” I glanced over at Emilie with a wide smile.
She sighed. “I really wish I had your optimism.”
I ruffled her hair...dome.... thing, and she clawed at my arm with her tiny little hands.
“Is there... anything I can do?” May asked.
I turned and felt a pit open in my stomach at May’s look. “I don’t-”
“Actually, yes. Call out the grump. Leshy can use his vines to make sure Lea doesn’t hurt herself or others.” Emilie cut off my reply with a glare. “I don’t care how well put together you think you’ll be after this. The process is going to be ass and you’re going to want to thrash around like a crazy person having a seizure. I’d rather you not beam yourself in the head. Legends know you need all the braincells you can get.”
I opened my mouth to complain but was cut off as a bright light filled the room. Leshy stared flatly at my still form on the bed. ‘What exactly will I be doing?’ His tone sounded less than impressed.
“Yes, Emilie, what exactly will he be doing?” I asked with an equal amount of enthusiasm.
“Restraining you to the bed, so you don’t hurt yourself,” Emilie said.
As soon as the words left Emilie’s mouth, multiple vines pushed out from Leshy’s flower.
I blanched, before leaning away from the angry appendages, my back hitting the baseboard of the bed. “Please-”
“Gently restrain her.” May smiled cheekily at me. “Please stop acting so excited.”
The vines lashed out quick as lightning and tied me to the bed.
“Not into this, at all.” I bit out.
May blushed lightly before flicking my forehead. “Stop being weird. This is for your own good. Hurry up and do your weird meditation thing.”
Leshy just grinned smugly at me from his spot by May’s side.
I sighed. “Fine, just-”
The world around me faded before remaking itself in the image of Petalburg. I stood on a dirt pathway directly in front of my house.
Wait, not quite my house. Where was the- ah, there’s the broken planter.
I just imagined that into existence, didn’t I?
“You did,” Emilie said, her voice trailing upwards from the ground below me. “I’m glad. That’ll make this a bit easier, honestly. You really are a natural at this.”
“Is there a reason you just hijacked my mind and dragged us here? I’m more than-”
My words died on my tongue as I felt it. A whirlwind of dread lashed out against my very being, seeping into my every pore as the world around me became darker. An overwhelming pressure bared down on me, bringing me to my knees as my eyes widened. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. I... what was this.
“Me being in here is... more or less pushing the block past it’s breaking point.” Emilie smiled up at me sadly. “It’s why I put off our meditation sessions the last few nights.”
I hung on every word, her voice calming in the sea of dark thoughts and horrifying images. My heart pounded in my chest as the taste of copper filled my mouth. Emilie froze for a moment, her body half phasing out of existence as a dull pain made itself known in my mouth.
“Sorry, I needed to tell May to gag you.” Emilie chuckled lightly before looking away. “Probably not one for conversation right now. Sorry. I just... need to tell you a few things before we really get started. You already know about the barrier trick, but I never got the chance to show you the other way to protect yourself. To hide it.
My wide eyes followed her every move as she paced forward, guiding my gaze towards my house. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.
“Don’t try to talk,” Emilie ordered.
My mouth snapped shut.
“Just focus on me and what I’m telling you.” Emilie smiled at me. “I know it doesn’t feel like it but you’re doing great. Your mental palace is the physical representation of your mind. Where it is,” Emilie raised her hand out towards the house. “Is entirely up to you. Your house, the gym, May’s house, fuck, it could be in a trash can in the middle of the park. It doesn’t matter where you put it, just so long as it’s hard to find. At the end of the day, intruders don’t know what they’re looking for.”
My heartbeat started to pick up again.
“Fuck, okay, uh... If it wasn’t abundantly obvious, this entire world is yours to change. These houses can have anything in them, random video game puzzles with spike traps, the scariest rpg bosses you can think of, random horror shows you found on the internet while you were bored... A psychic type could spend hours in here if you build it right, and not find a damn thing.”
I kept clenching and unclenching my fists as whispers I didn’t recognize started flitting around my ears. The world started to swim.
“Focus on my voice, and nothing else,” Emilie ordered, her voice loud in the swirling chaos. Black wisps entered my peripheries, and I swallowed down a lump in my throat.
“I doubt you’ll be able to stop yourself from just throwing up a wall, but I needed to tell you about this. It doesn’t feel like you’re safe. It feels like you're walking around with nothing between you and a world that wants to hurt you, but... It works. And it lets you do all the things you can now.” Emilie teleported.
It felt like my heart leapt into my throat when she disappeared. I leaned away as a familiar weight formed on my shoulder. Why the fuck did I lean away?
Emilie stared at me with a bitter smile before turning. “I’ll stay with you for as long as I can. Thank you for... so much.” Emilie nodded once before guiding my gaze towards the chaos in my own mind. “I look forward to the day when I can walk through this world with you again.”
I froze as the storm in my own mind surged. That same feeling of dread rocked into me harder than May’s first attempts at cooking, and I opened my mouth in a silent scream as ice filled my veins. A creature stalked out from the bakery, it’s form constantly shifting and writhing as it moved. I couldn’t comprehend what I was looking at. Every step this beast took blackened the grass it stood on. Every move it made pushed out another black cloud that corrupted the air I breathed. The smell of burnt sugar and bile made me turn my nose up and hold my mouth as I backed away.
Fear.
True, primal fear rose up from my very being and loomed over me, it’s presence larger than the town I stood in. For a single clarifying moment, I stared back at this abyssal entity. I witnessed it well and truly, and the being dissolved under my gaze. An otherworldly howl that grated upon my senses sounded out into the void as a massive wave of darkness pushed outward from its origin.
The shadows took me, and I blacked out.
----------------------------------------
May’s POV
----------------------------------------
May rubbed her thumb along her girlfriend’s tensed scarred hands. She stared down at them and smiled, happy to feel her girl’s actual skin as opposed to those damned cloth gloves.
She wondered if the feelings of terror were being transferred out into the world, or if her own pounding heart was the result of her own worry. Lea had been so confident. So unbelievably sure that things were going to be alright that May somehow managed to believe that herself.
That confidence died the second Emilie popped out of whatever the hell she was doing and helped her gag her girl so she wouldn’t bite through her cheek or tongue during this.
Leshy’s vines strained as Lea shifted against his hold. “Ivy.”
“Yeah, not really what we were expecting to do tonight, huh?” May glared down at her girlfriend for a brief moment before sighing. “I know she doesn’t like to worry me, but... I’d like to know about these things sooner than right before they happen, you know?”
Leshy extended another vine out from his flower and wrapped it around May’s arm. He gave her arm a light squeeze. “Saur.”
“Yeah, I suppose I’m not that much better, huh?” May frowned. “I... It’s weird. I can’t understand you, but I have a general idea of what you’re saying.”
Sergei floated up to eye level. Next to Leshy’s name, two messages popped up. The first one was rather simple. Leshy called Lea an idiot.
The second one was telling May that she worried too much.
“Well, I got one of two right. I agree, she is an idiot.” May sighed. “But she’s our idiot.”
“Saur!” Leshy rolled his eyes and went back to focusing on Lea. “I suppose.” Appeared in Leshy’s chat box.
Emilie’s body jerked. May whipped her head up to look and leaned backwards, narrowly getting out of the way as Emilie’s body shot across the room and into the wall with a thud. She cried out on contact before falling down into a pair of Leshy’s vines.
“Ow...” Emilie groaned before pulling herself up. “That was a more... violent ejection than what I was-”
Emilie’s words died as objects started to float around Lea. Sheets and covers lifted up from the bed of their own accord as Leshy desperately tried to keep things stationary.
“Emilie-”
“I’m not doing anything!” Emilie shouted, cutting May off as the covers started to form a cocoon around Lea. A faint blue glow emanated from underneath the sheets about where Lea’s eyes were. May backed away and in that moment, the covers blew out towards Leshy.
May’s grumpy grass type was pushed back lightly as the bedspread slammed into him. He sputtered to get the sheets out of his mouth as the bed started to levitate slightly off of the ground.
“Emilie, when you talked about this, you failed to mention this was going to be a scene from the exorcist!” May said, her voice shaking.
“Don’t you think I would’ve told you if I thought something like this might happen!” Emilie ducked under a floating glass that broke against the wall. “I’ve never seen a human do stuff like this before!”
‘Less... talking. More... helping,’ Leshy said as he dug his feet into the ground.
May ducked down and ran towards the bed. A thud sounded through the room as she hopped on. Unintelligible mutterings filled May’s ears as she slowly lifted her head up, and she felt Lea strain against her binds. Things started to float up from the nightstand.
“Emilie.” May said.
The small psychic type lifted her hands up and the aura surrounding the alarm clock and Poke Balls glowed more intensely. May noticed the balls start to shake. Emilie frowned before letting her control wane, and the balls opened instantly.
Light engulfed the room as Lucas and Apollo moved to Leshy and started pulling the covers off him.
‘Your ghost type cosplay sucked. I want you to know that,’ Lucas chimed as he phased through his ball.
Leshy just glared.
May looked down at her girlfriend and frowned. She wasn’t...
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“Leshy, go ahead and pull back your vines,” May said.
Leshy shifted his glare over to May. ‘Are you in-’
“Just do it, please. I’ve got a hold of her just in case she starts jerking around.” May glared back at her grass type.
Leshy hesitated for a brief second before sighing. The vines slowly slid out from under her, and May leaned back as Lea shot up in her bed. The muttering stopped and Lea started panting heavily. Her clothes were slick with sweat as the blue light started to fade, showing dilated eyes below.
“Lea?” May asked slowly.
Lea didn’t respond. She instead whipped her head around and stared, intently, at Emilie. She froze, before scrambling backwards. Pulling May back as she put as much distance between herself and Emilie as possible.
“Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop-” The gibberish from earlier formed into a single, repeated phrase as Lea brought her arms up to shield herself from something that wasn’t there.
“Make what stop?” May asked.
Lea didn’t respond. She just continued rocking back and forth and repeating the phrase.
“Emilie?” May turned to the psychic type with wide eyes.
“I... don’t think she’s actually conscious. She literally threw me out of her mind, so I can’t exactly help her right now.” Emilie looked down at the floor. “She has to push through this on her own.”
May sighed before slowly wrapping her arms around Lea and rocking back and forth with her. The chanting slowly faded to a low hum before Lea went silent completely. Apollo flew over and roosted on Lea’s shoulder. Nipping her hair a bit with a frown.
‘Cap?’ he asked. ‘You in there?’
Still no response. Lea slowly closed her eyes, and her whole body tensed. May prepared for another rocking session, but nothing came. She remained sitting, her back ramrod straight against the base board.
Emilie teleported up to the bed, and May instantly realized how big of a mistake that was as Lea’s eyes snapped open and instantly homed in on the small psychic type. Lea’s breathing picked back up as objects started to rise up around the bed again.
Emilie lifted up her own hands and halted them midflight. “I’m... really glad... she’s not that strong...”
‘Emilie.’ Joern walked over from his spot next to Leshy. ‘I know you don’t want to, but...’
‘I should leave.’ Emilie’s voice broke a bit on the final word. ‘I know. I just... really thought...’ Emilie disappeared before she could finish her thought.
Lea whipped her head around the room a few times before tensing again.
“Well, there goes the only person that might have a clue on what’s going on right now.” May sighed before glancing back at her girlfriend.
She sat in silence for a while, just glancing nervously at Lea, until finally, Lea’s entire body went limp, her head lulling to the side as she fully passed out. May laid Lea down, careful not to bump her head on the hardwood bedframe, before slowly getting up.
She looked around the room and frowned. Joern was nowhere to be seen.
“Leshy-”
“Saur.” Leshy nodded once before pointing his head out towards the hallway.
May nodded back before walking out to the hallway. She almost tripped over Joern as she turned and found Lea’s wayward members almost instantly.
Emilie had both of her legs pulled up to her chest in a crouched position, and her eyes locked on the floor.
Joern poked her once. “Lom. Lombre.”
Emilie just grunted and Joern sighed. The brooding psychic glanced up at May as she slowly moved around the lily pad Pokémon before relocking her gaze to the floor.
May opened her mouth, then snapped it shut as a white light exploded outwards from her waist. Suzy instantly formed in front of her.
“Combusken.” Suzy reached down and plucked Emilie up by the back of the neck, before bringing her up to eye level. “Busk!”
“I don’t want to talk right now, so fuck off,” Emilie snarled.
May and Suzy both leaned back at that.
“Emilie, I-”
“BUSKEN!” Suzy clucked out, her face pulling down into a glare. Sergei floated in from the room and May grabbed him instantly, happy to have a willing translator.
“Stop being a moody teenager for like, five minutes and listen the fuck up. I get that you’re sad. For what, I don’t know. It was abundantly obvious that Lea was fucking out of it, so calm your ass down about that shit till she wakes up, ya hear?” Suzy shook Emilie a few times. “And don’t think I’m going to let that weak ass banter slide, midget. I don’t care if you are depressed. The least you can manage is-”
Emilie teleported out of Suzy’s grip and wrapped herself around the back of Suzy’s neck. “You are the most annoying, insufferable, aggravating featherhead on the planet.”
“Better,” Suzy choked out as she tried to reach behind her and grab the angry psychic type. Her entire body glowed blue.
“Emilie-” May snapped her mouth shut as Emilie whipped around and glared at her.
Joern walked up and grabbed Emilie, ignoring the angry glare sent his way. “If you attack me, I’m telling Lea, and she’ll cut off your cookie supply.”
The glare instantly disappeared.
“That’s better,” Joern said.
“Impromptu” Cough. “Piggy back rides” Cough. Sputter. “Are neither wanted” Hack. Cough. “Nor appreciated.” Suzy finished with an angry glare.
Emilie just stuck her tongue out at her.
“Emilie.” May cut through the chaos and smiled at Emilie. “I know you’re sad that you couldn’t stay with Lea, but Suzy’s right. No part about that was my girlfriend. I don’t know what that was, but it was she was... not altogether with it. Let her wake up on her own and see how bad it is, okay? You might be freaking out over nothing.”
“I...” Emilie trailed off before glaring up at Joern. “If you’re going to carry someone, could you at least do a good job of it? I can feel myself slipping.”
Joern promptly let go and Emilie slammed into the hardwood floor. “You’re right, you are hard to carry.” He grinned smugly at Emilie’s glare.
Emilie sighed before pushing herself up off hallway floor. “You’re right, I guess. It just... didn’t feel good to be looked at like that. Thank you, May.”
Both Joern and Suzy stared at Emilie expectantly, and her gaze remained squarely locked on May as she ignored them completely.
“You're welcome, now then.” The smile took on a more strained look as May pointed into her room. “What the fuck was that?”
Emilie winced. “Uh... an exorcism?”
May’s smile cracked.
“Look, I don’t know, okay? The block more or less broke the second I hopped into her head, like I was expecting it to. Everything else?” Emilie shrugged her shoulders. “Not a damn clue. A giant... thing, crawled out of Lea’s mindscape and exploded, and then Lea kind of lost her marbles.”
May opened her mouth-
“No, I also didn’t know she was capable of moving crap with her mind. I didn’t know humans COULD do that,” Emilie said.
“I uh... hold up.” May grabbed Sergei and pulled up a search bar.
Sergei filled it in before May could get a chance to, and webpage displaying human psychics popped up. May glared down at her phone for a brief moment before sighing and scrolling through. “There are a few documented cases of human psychics with very basic telekinesis. Sabrina’s the most famous, because she’s the most powerful, but she also has an entire school in Saffron dedicated to helping people control their abilities.”
“Did any of them pick it up secondhand?” Emilie asked.
May frowned. “I can’t tell. Psychics naturally gravitate towards the psychic type, for somewhat obvious reasons.”
She paused before seeing the written logs of an interview with a member of the Johto elite four. May clicked on the link and started scrolling. “Will’s mostly self-taught, according to this. He’s-”
“A member of the Johto Elite Four, specializing in the psychic type.” Emilie frowned. “I guess it’s... doable, I just.” Emilie sighed. “Lea HAS to have some kind of natural psychic abilities. There’s no way a normal human should be progressing this fast with her abilities.”
May leaned back and stared at Emilie for a moment. “I... it’s possible? None of us really... know much of anything about Lea’s parents. Eve never shared much. We could have Lea ask Eve-”
“We’re not talking about this with her at all!” Emilie’s pupil’s contracted to pinpricks as the world around them shook. “Lea nearly blew up the room we were all just in. Do you really-”
‘Have more faith in the captain, ye barnacle brained halfwit.’ Apollo complained as he flew down and around the door. ‘She’s not some porcelain doll that needs to be protected from every little thing. The cap’s made of sterner stuff than that.’
Emilie winced before looking away. May half wondered why THAT was what brought Emilie up short. She’d been powering through everything else.
“We should still wait till she’s got a better handle on things, okay?” Emilie argued. “I don’t want to overwhelm her.”
Apollo tilted his head, sighed, and nodded. ‘Aye, I suppose.’
They both turned their heads to May, and she froze.
“I...” May didn’t know what the right thing to say here was. She didn’t want to hide stuff from her girlfriend, but... “I, suppose I can agree to that.”
Lea probably needed consistency more than a shiny new toy right now.
“Good, so... Now what do we do?” Emilie asked.
May looked around the hallway before wincing as she looked up at the clock on the wall. “Probably go to bed. Not much we can do, and it’s getting late. We can figure more stuff out in the morning. Hopefully.”
Assuming Lea woke up by then and wasn’t a jittering mess of nerves, phobias, and panic attacks.
May lifted up Suzy’s poke ball and returned her. She gave Emilie a wave before fading away in a flash of red. Joern and Apollo both walked into the room, but Emilie stayed rooted to her spot.
“I... is it alright for me to go back in there?” Emilie asked.
May smiled sadly at the brooding psychic. “I don’t know. She was out of it when I left, so I think you’ll be fine.”
Emilie nodded before tiptoeing into the room, making as little noise as possible as she scrunched her body down even smaller than it usually was. Joern and Apollo had already returned themselves, and Lucas was nowhere to be seen.
“Any movement?” May asked Leshy.
‘She’s out cold,’ Leshy replied. 'Only thing I heard is some light snoring. She’s probably sleeping it off.'
“That’s good.” May and Emilie said at the same time. “Jinx.” Same time again.
May giggled before turning back to Leshy. “Ready for bed?”
‘Just recall me. This grumpy old man needs his sleep.’ Leshy glared pointedly at Emilie.
Emilie stared at Lea, ignoring him completely. “I can’t read her at all.”
“Isn’t that... a good thing?” May recalled Leshy after he huffed at being ignored. “That means her mind’s protected, right?”
“...yeah.” Emilie sighed before looking down. “I’m just not used to it.”
May walked over to Emilie before crouching down. She winced slightly as her knees contacted the freezing hardwood floors. “I know this is hard, but...”
“Give it till morning, I know.” Emilie sighed before smiling up at May. “Thanks for helping. It... means a lot.”
“Anytime.” May returned the smile.
Emilie turned away from May before teleporting up to the nightstand. She briefly glanced at the bed before groaning and turning her attention to the Poke Balls. She stared for a moment, sighed, and lifted her arms up.
A single, mono white ball shot up from Lea’s bag, before floating over to join the rest of them on the nightstand. Emilie looked at the ball with a grimace, before slowly extending her hand down and pressing the middle button. She was sucked inside instantly.
May frowned. Before looking back at the bed. “Guess we’re down a sleeping buddy, huh?”
“Honedge,” Lucas agreed.
May shouted at the sudden inclusion, her heartrate spiking as she raised her arms up and leaned away from the ghostly Pokémon. “Don’t do that!”
“Hon hon hon hon hon hon.” Lucas’s laughter echoed off the walls, his smile remaining firmly in place as Sergei floated back into the room.
Sergei characterized the whole thing as a simple lol.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up at the easily spooked human,” May muttered.
Lucas leaned forward slightly. “Don’t worry so much. Unlike me, you have to worry about wrinkles.”
May’s glare froze Lucas in place.
“Never heard... of a human... having a Pokémon move,” Lucas gritted out.
May quirked an eyebrow. “We don’t? And how would you know?”
Lucas smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I just felt like giving you the same pep talk you gave the yandere. Lea’s going to be fine, you have nothing to worry about, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.”
“Is that you being an ass or Sergei?” May asked, a grin pulling at her cheeks.
“Yes.” Was the only reply that appeared on the screen, with no inclination as to who sent the message.
“Great. There’s two of them.” May sighed before plucking Sergei out of the air. “And don’t call Emilie a yandere. She’s a wonderful, friendly part of our team.”
Lucas leaned back. “Uh... sorry? To be honest, I only half know what that phrase means from Lea’s memories. So-”
“Tsundere works better, at least with everyone who isn’t Lea.” May looked up to the ceiling in thought. “Actually, with how much they bicker, maybe even with Lea.”
Lucas perked right up. “Ah, good to know, I’ll be sure to call her that when-”
Sergei stopped translating and a terrified face popped up on screen. “Do you have a death wish?”
Lucas grinned. “How can I? I’m already dead.” He capped off the line with another round of echoed laughter.
“I’m not, so please don’t tell her I said that.” May looked nervously towards the balls on the nightstand. The white ball shook once, and May’s heart seized in her chest. “I’m so sorry, please don’t kill me.”
Nothing happened and May sagged in place. “Oh thank-”
The white ball opened, and Emilie burst out, her arms over her head as her eyes glowed with promised power. May jumped up and landed flat on her ass on the cold floor. She scrambled back from the menacing psychic type before groaning as Sergei, Honedge, and Emilie all broke down into laughter.
“You all fucking suck!” May shouted.
“Oh, Sergei, please tell me you got a photo of her face,” Emilie said.
Sergei floated up and started playing a video of May’s reaction.
“Sergei!” May shouted, reaching for the phone that floated just out of reach.
‘We’re showing that to Lea when she wakes up, right?’ Lucas floated next to Emilie.
“This, and the video that Sergei is probably taking now, because this is almost as good.” Emilie grinned as May leapt up again, her hands grasping air. “And Lucas. If you ever call me either of those things, I’m taking you back to the cave and letting Absol have her way with you.”
‘...how very Tsun of you.” Lucas laughed and beelined it straight for his poke ball as Emilie lifted up the blanket that was still on the floor.
“You better run,” Emilie muttered as Lucas returned himself. She teleported back up to the top of the nightstand before smiling back down at the Poke Balls. “Thanks, though. I think I... we needed that.”
Lucas’s ball shook once.
“Yeah, yeah. You're alright for spook, I guess. See you in the morning.” Emilie returned herself once again.
“Hah, got you!” May pumped her fist in triumph as she came down from a jump, Sergei in hand. “Now, give me the goods.”
Sergei just posted a gif of a Buneary pushing their paws together and looking cute.
“Yeah, I know better. Emilie help...” May trailed off as she took in the empty room. “Or not.”
Three dots appeared next to Sergei’s name. “Do you really think she, of all Pokémon, would help you get rid of funny videos like that?”
“I, well... shut up.” May pouted.
“Look, it’s just something fun for when Lea wakes up. It’s fine. I won’t share this with world, don’t worry,” Sergei messaged.
“You better not.” May slowly walked over to the bed and laid down next to Lea. “Guess she was serious about not needing the covers, huh?”
“Seems like,” Sergei replied. “You doing okay?”
May took a moment to listen to Lea’s breathing before looking down at Sergei. “I’m fine.”
Lea shivered, and May took that as her cue to wrap her arm around her shoulders and pull her into a sideways hug. Lea turned and wrapped her arms around May in her sleep.
“Yeah, I’m definitely fine.” May smiled. “I think Leshy was right. She’s just sleeping now. Good thing she’s a heavy sleeper, with how much noise we were making.”
“Didn’t want to wake her up to see how she’d deal with... everything?” Sergei asked.
May scrunched up her nose. “She only falls out like this when she’s exhausted, and I didn’t want to put Emilie through that right now if it went bad. I... think this is better.”
“Fair.”
May frowned at the lack of further response. The silence felt stifling as she glanced worriedly at Lea. That was only half of it, really. Worry pooled at the back of her mind as she thought of what tomorrow might bring.
Was it wrong of her to want to put that off for a bit? To just rest for a bit before the next big thing? There had been so many big things recently... she was so tired.
Odd that she couldn’t bring herself to close her eyes.
She glanced over at Lea again, and this time, the sight made her giggle. She hadn’t changed before doing... whatever that was. May could still see a few flour spots on her shirt. May supposed she should just be happy it was something they had picked out for everyday wear, though the thought of Lea’s tantrum if she had screwed up-
Wait.
“Sergei,” May ordered quietly. “Please bring up the Rustboro online shopping page. I think I need to make a purchase.”
Sergei sent a salute before complying, and May started thumbing through catalogues.
She passed out just after buying the cart.