CHAPTER 321

No matter how much food you made, a Tyranitar would make it look like a small portion. It had taken me all morning, but I'd baked a hazardous berry-based cake (as it turned out, baking was in a whole other ballpark than cooking, and I was not great at it), bought out a crap ton of raw meat south of the city that Buddy had carried for me with Extrasensory, and a bunch of random Pokemon-friendly sweets— or at least the label said it was friendly for all Pokemon regardless of species.

Sweetheart had finished it all in a minute and a half. She'd eaten so much of it that I'd needed to slow her down so Honey could get some. Luckily, he ate nowhere as much as her. The rest of my Pokemon with me either couldn't or didn't need to eat, though not for lack of trying. Once Meltan saw Sweetheart and Honey eating, they got jealous and tried to have a piece of Cheri berry that they quickly spat back out ruined and full of rusted metal. I did learn that they could do little shocks through their tail, though it had been an accident; they'd released a tiny spark from the sheer amount of disgust they'd felt, barely enough to feel a jolt up my arm.

That had been thirty minutes ago. We were out of the city up north close to where Jasmine took me to talk and recount the stories about her colleagues, where the sea met steep, jagged knife-like cliffs and waves battered the island day in and day out. You could smell the salt in the air, hear the ocean constantly to the point that the occasional stretch of silence without a wave to crash into the bluffs was odder than not. Jellicent was flattened into a disc above the picnic blanket, shielding me from the sun and ejecting cold air down so the heat wouldn't affect me too much. Cassianus hovered next to us with two of their eyes on a certain battle and the rest focused on analyzing each fiber on the straw hat they currently levitated in front of their face. Oh, that hat was mine; it was the one Mira had bought me for my birthday that I'd worn today. They'd wanted to 'study its structural integrity' to see if it could be worn in fights, somehow, and I'd answered that I could probably find a steel cap for them if they wanted one so bad.

As for the rest of the team? Sweetie and Honey were playing tag in the distance, hence the 'fight'. The rock type was always the hunter due to Honey's agility making things unfair for her otherwise.

Another rumble beneath me. Tyranitar let out a guttural roar and stomped a foot against the ground. It rose, rose, rose until it looked like it would burst open and spew the world's innards out into the world; instead she sent the protrusion forward as if it was a wave of solid earth. Mimi rode atop her head and cheered, though they made sure to hide behind one of the spikes on her back whenever they got scared. Electivire was not idle— he never was. With a teasing grin, he hopped left and right before blurring into golden lightning, easily avoiding the wave which exploded behind him with heated mud and shards of pointed stones. He was speed incarnate, and he was growing faster by the second as he got going.

But! She'd laid a trap for him. The earthen wall had obstructed his vision, and she'd begun to wrap rock from the ground around her tail. With a swift movement, she turned and swept her tail toward Electivire. The rock around it shattered into a thousand pieces of shrapnel that would have torn through me like paper, and it exploded in Electivire's general direction. Fast or not, Sweetheart had sent the rocks in an arc too wide for him to dodge through movement alone. He slid on the grass until he came to a stop, leaving scorched plants behind him, and held up his hands with a hefty grunt.

The rocks never touched him. Through magnetism, he held them back as if he had a psychic barrier to pull on, and a ring of electricity burst through his fur, throwing them back at Sweetheart. The dark type snorted when they helplessly bounced against her and tapped the ground below her with another foot. With a rumble, pillars of rugged stone answered her command, already sharp and ready to cut and crush whatever was in her way—

"She's getting too into it," I complained. "Tell her off."

Claydol looked smoother now that they were out of the Pokemon Center, their crags and dents having disappeared under a new layer of clay. One of Cass' pink eyes swiveled my way. But my King, the Jester looks like he's having the time of his life. It would not be efficient to stop their battle now, according to my many calculations. The hat rotated under their careful gaze and their turret-like hands levitated to touch the straw. Such wonderful material… I wish to dissolve and study it. No, I wish to wear it on my head forever. And the ground type did so, placing the hat on their head and spinning it around with pleased eyes and a cheer from their soundboard.

Cute. I was—

My heart dropped when Honey laughed as he ducked under a slab of rock that might have sent him straight back to a Nurse Joy, and then he weaved around another, and another, and another. They all buried themselves behind him and made the earth shake, sending plumes of dirt high into the sky— some even went and fell into the ocean.

"You just don't want to be distracted from your fun," I said, rolling my eyes. Still, I was glad they'd come out of their shell and actually refused things now. "It's okay. We might have to fix this up before we leave, though. Trainer étiquette and all of that." Glancing at the state of their playground, Sweetheart kept upturning more and more earth while Honey's electricity burned some of the grassland when he got too carried away.

Case in point, the electric type placed a hand on one of the massive slabs buried in the earth and sliced through it like butter with another electrical barrage. He gathered the debris around his fist as if it was covered in glue and started punching the rocks Sweetheart kept sending. Each strike brought with it a brilliant, blinding explosion of energy that rendered the smaller rocks red with heat and the larger ones broken by his side. Sweetheart argued that counted as contact. Of course, never to be outdone by his baby sister, Honey cackled and said he'd give her the win if she was so desperate for one, targeting her competitiveness as he beckoned her with a hand encased in cracking electrified stone.

It obviously worked, and rules were adjusted.

"These kids have so much energy, it's like nothing happened at all," I said. We were really kicking nature around here, with how the place was starting to smell like cut and burned grass.

Buddy sighed, saying that just looking at them was making him tired.

"Kinda," I agreed. "Well, better Sweetie tire herself out now so she naps later in the day."

The game of tag continued in earnest, with Honey having to work for his buck. In a straight fight, I imagined Sweetheart would handily win, but this was a game to both. Or at least I thought so until Honey, close to losing through a surprise patch of liquified earth which bogged him down and spread far enough to stop him from quickly escaping, began gathering up energy around his fist as the stone around it crumbled.

Huh, that was interesting. She hadn't rendered the solid dirt to mud through TE manipulation, but used ground water instead with Surf for a slower and more discrete trap. She was really getting into this ambush predator thing we'd pushed for in the fight with Byron.

…

Argh, this was annoying. There was so much potential there, potential that I didn't have the energy to think about at the moment. My Pokemon might have recovered well from Coronet thanks to not having gone through the Distortion World, but it was me who was holding them back, now. Even after the meeting with Mallory and Rood, the spark was still missing. Something was still missing. Was it because I wasn't involved in the actual fight? If I was out there, giving out directions and actually battling, would I find the motivation that had made me go through countless sleepless nights to study each and every single tactic employed by my opponent?

While I was deep in thought, in order not to lose, Honey snapped a finger from which electricity coalesced, and with a harsh motion, he sent it flying. It was a weak blast, barely thicker than a Thundershock and dimmer than even that, but the goal wasn't to harm.

Sweetheart's left leg jerked back as soon as the electricity hit her, and she tripped before she could send another set of rocks barrelling toward Honey. With a loud crash, she tripped and fell back, carving a Tyranitar-shaped hole into the earth. The rock type screamed in anger in frustration and called for my name, which made a bunch of wild Pokemon which had gathered a few hundred feet away to watch the fight run off. Starly, Furret, Sunkern and the like. Honey was still panting from how he'd exerted himself near the end of that training session.

I jogged my way toward the two, carefully avoiding craters, ravines or even small hills created by the earth-waves Sweetheart had made. Once I reached her, she was still thrashing around and whining about how it was unfair how she'd lost. It was so cute my lips nearly involuntarily smiled, really. I crouched next to her and ran a hand over her hardened plate after motioning for Honey to come over.

"C'mon, I know you can get up on your own," I gently said. "Don't be a crybaby, now."

She clamored that he cheated, that he sucked, that he deserved to fall off the cliffs and a million other things. That was good news. When she was actually mad at someone, there was rarely any meaning to her screams. I kept soothing her and waited for Honey to get here, even if he was obviously taking longer than needed. He could have been here within a second if he wanted to, but he was dragging it out because he was nervous.

"Where did Mimi go?"

The metallic blob squealed from somewhere in Sweetheart's vents.

"Ugh, get out of there! That's— that's not meant for you!" I put my head near one of the vents on Sweetheart legs and called out for the steel type. "She's going to forcefully kick you out if you don't get out of there. Right?" I waited for an answer from Sweetie, but she was too busy whining to care. Mimi squeaked and I saw a glimpse of metal at the edge of the hole. I quickly snatched the Meltan with a victorious grin and watched them squirm in my hand.

"Don't go in there, alright?" I scolded.

Mimi echoed a sad mewl with something akin to tasty.

"Were you munching on the grains of sand in there?" I asked. There were minerals in them. Upon closer look, the blob was covered in a little sand. My answer was a metallic burp that smelled like iron and rust. "Well that explains everything. Using the fight as a distraction? You little devil! I thought you were scared!"

Sweetheart slowly got up and patted herself down, having finished her tantrum. Mud, grass and dirt slid off her armored plating and she asked for Mimi to get back on her head as her cheerleader, which the steel type hastily obliged after I warned them not to sneak into her vents again.

I'd missed this. The chaos, the personalities clashing. We'd all had a heartfelt reunion when I'd released them for the first time out of the Center, of course, but now it was like everything was back to how it usually was, and for once it did not feel like the world was leaving me behind, but I was being dragged along with it.

Not fully, however. As soon as she'd been done eating, Sweetheart had asked me when we'd start training again because she was eager to fight and keep growing. Despite Buddy calling it mildly insensitive, Honey trying to silence her by putting a hand over her mouth, Cass calculating the best way to respond to this was silence (they just didn't want to step on anyone's toes) and me dodging the question by saying we'd have that conversation when everyone was back from the Center, it left the question turning over in my mind like a seed had been planted.

An annoying one, not that I'd ever tell her that. The real answer was that I didn't know. I would fight Byron again because I had a fiduciary duty to Poketch to give the Conference my best shot, but I truly didn't know.

"Took your time there," I told Honey.

The electric type scratched the back of his head, not bothering to find an excuse. Instead, he shied away from Sweetheart's glare.

"So, were the rules of this game of tag actually established before you started, or were you just bs'ing it?"

The two agreed that they agreed on a framework of rules mostly based on Honey's fight with Volkner's Electivire. That was what I'd figured, but they added that they both had to hold back, relying on simple attacks because it would make the game unfair.

I crossed my arms, ignoring the vibrating phone in my pocket. "So what constitutes a simple attack?"

Honey shrugged, and Sweetheart called him stupid. I thought they'd start bickering, but the rock type added that him forcing her to move with his electricity obviously went against the spirit of the game, which was something I could agree with. Honey countered by arguing that using the water underground wasn't simple either, but she said he'd upped the ante with that electrified stone fist thing he'd done. He grunted noncommittally and whispered with twisting tails that if he hadn't done anything, he would have lost.

"Hon, it's a game. You could have let it reach its natural conclusion," I gently scolded with my hands on my hips. "Would you have liked it if she just created an earthquake under your feet and opened a rift there to trap you so you couldn't win? And let's be honest here, she would have won if this wasn't a for fun thing. You can't fly just yet, kiddo."

The electric type nervously shuffled toward her, head hung low in shame, and he offered her a genuine apology for breaking the terms of the game without warning. When he was done, he kicked some dirt and looked away. Sweetheart huffed and blew some darkened grains of sand in his face, which made him cough and shake his hand to clear the air. That reaction had her grin, but I had to intervene again to tell her not to do that when he'd just apologized. Really, it was all in good fun given that Honey gave her the win and asked for a rematch— a best of three.

"Yeah, and when you lose the best of three, you'll ask for a best of five," I teased.

Sweetheart stuck out her scaly tongue at him and snorted, and he gave her a thumbs down while he complained that she was getting too cocky; he would prove her wrong very soon. She grinned, all sharp and menacing, ready to rise up to the challenge. As a final jab, she brought up that there was a reason Mimi was on her shoulder and not his, which the steel type gasped at. They loved being the center of attention while acting all innocent. While they went back to take their place, I finally checked my phone. It had vibrated three times while I'd been mediating this 'conflict'. What greeted me were three notifications from a panicked Maylene.

Maylene - Im so sry

Maylene - I messed up with Cecilia

Maylene - I interrupted her conversation with Hydreigon and now shes super pissed at me im sry i rly fucked up

Maylene - It was an accident i thought she was gonna get hurt

I winced and bit my lip. With how Cece spoke with Zolst, it was easy to see how someone could get the wrong idea. After what she'd done against Jupiter, that dragon was going to be a lot. I stared at my phone for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. Already, I could see Cece had left the group chat, which was whatever. So long as she wasn't going to run away somewhere so she could be alone…

You - Is she back?

Maylene - I teleported her w Kadabra. She didnt want to talk to me and i knew trying to mend things right now would make things worse so idk if i should have intervened i didnt

You - Alright, thanks. Talk to you later.

You - Don't beat yourself up over it. It's not really your fault.

I called out to my Pokemon and told them playtime was over for now, something that both were annoyed by but understood when I explained the big picture. While Cass was fixing up the terrain as best they could and teaching Sweetheart in the process for a change, I gathered our supplies and made sure we wouldn't forget anything. This morning and afternoon had been fun, but my girlfriend needed me.

If only I'd had Princess, the trip back would have been so much faster.

I missed her. And I missed Sunshine and Angel, too.

—

I'd recalled Cass only when I'd made it inside the hotel. Cecilia's flats were in the entryway to our condo when I came back, hurriedly thrown off and not placed orderly to the side as usual. The place itself looked normal without an object out of place, which was good news. I figured maybe she would have trashed it again like she had at Lake Valor, but that appeared to have been a one off. Calling out for her, I made my way deeper into the apartment. Usually, Cece would have been sitting at the dinner table typing away at her laptop doing research, or maybe browsing the forums on her phone while watching the news.

"I'm in the bedroom," her voice called back as loud as it could be, which wasn't very much outside of specific circumstances.

It was hesitant, and most of all it sounded defeated. Almost as defeated as it had been shortly after she'd died, but not as bad. The way my legs immediately started running her way without my conscious doing was no longer a surprise; Cece was just that important to me. I nearly tripped on the little ledge up the corridor leading to our bedroom, scrambling my way forward until I found myself facing her. She didn't just sound defeated, she looked like it, too. Not on her face, for it looked like she would nearly always vacillate between pissed or pissed outside of the little rays of happiness that occasionally shone through, but in the way she carried herself. Her head hung low, eyes avoiding contact and staring blankly at the ground. Her shoulders were tightly wound inward, and while there were no traces of it left on her face or in her eyes, there were dried tears on her cheeks. Hydreigon's Pokeball sat alone on the bedside table, dents and all.

Talonflame was with her, a wing carefully laid on her foreleg. I gave the flying type an appreciative look— Arceus knew that her presence had been needed.

"I was gonna call you," Cece quietly said, her hands sinking against the mattress. "But then I remembered you must have been having a good time out, and I didn't want to get in the way of that, so—"

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She was in my arms before she could finish that sentence. "Stupid," I berated her, carefully running a hand through her hair behind her head. After a few seconds, our foreheads touched and her trembling breath brushed against my face. "I will always be here for you, okay? Always, no matter what happens. Understand?"

Her lips thinned; for a moment, I thought I'd have to fight her on this, but she nodded. "Yes. The truth is…" she trailed off and quietly gasped when my thumb caressed her cheek, just enjoying the moment. There was a certain harshness when it passed over one of her stitched up scars. "That— feels nice. Your hands are so soft."

"Mhm. Perks of having new skin, I guess."

"The truth is," Cece repeated herself, "I probably would have ended up calling you anyway. Chase is busy, Denzel is asleep, Mira and Maeve are… gone, but they've got issues of their own and we aren't close enough. Pauline and Emi… they wouldn't work. Louis, maybe." After a short sigh, her eyes widened a smidge. "Oh. I assume you know what happened, then."

"The big picture," I confirmed. "Maylene messaged me— she feels horrible for what happened, okay?" Maylene was probably still kicking herself despite my message; I'd have to call her about it later and try to mend things between these two. It'd be a shame to have gone through such a story and let something like this get in-between our friendships. Coronet and beyond had linked us for life. "It's fully within your right to be angry, but you have to understand. Maylene's a good kid, sometimes to her detriment, even. The world wounds her again and again, yet she tries her best to do right by it, still. So of course if she thinks you might be in danger she'll do something about it." Cecilia's mouth twitched, and her jaw clenched. "It's okay to depend on her, too, like she's been depending on us. She's seen what you've seen."

It was difficult to tell when her eyes moved, but an attentive person could do it, still. When Cecilia glanced away, I kissed her forehead, then gently dragged her to lay down on the bed with me, our faces still close. She was clearly still vexed at what had happened, and that was okay. Talonflame hopped on as well, quiet and well-mannered. You'd almost think she'd been raised to be a 'proper' lady. Meltan had already crawled away from my wrist, intrigued by Talonflame's natural bodily warmth. Their little tail wagged as they approached the flying type, who seemed unsettled at their constantly changing body. Cecilia looked up at me, and a wordless agreement passed between us; she wiggled closer and put her hands around me, taking a deep breath against my chest.

"Want to eat something? I can cook you some food," I whispered.

There was a beat of silence before she answered. "I'm okay. I'd like to stay like this for a while."

Cute enough to make me melt. "Okay; if you're sure. Tell me what went wrong today, then."

We stayed like this while she told me not only about the incident with Zolst, but everything that went on today from start to finish so I could get all the facts. Admittedly, Cece describing Maylene as flustered at her for nearly pinning her against the wall while she demanded to see her aura was hilarious, though I got it and kind of wished that had been me. Still, I'd already known she was gay or bi with how she fell in love with Virtuous me— here she just didn't know it yet, it seemed. Hopefully this wasn't anything like an unrequited crush and she'd just gotten caught off-guard, because that'd just be so messy; Cece having to break her heart would suck and I'd miss our friendship too much. It'd be smothered, extinguished before it could even properly bloom.

If it was a crush, maybe it'd be better to just say nothing, wait and let it fade when we went to Unova so we wouldn't have to mess things up. The distance would be of great help.

But then, things got serious. It was easy to see where the misunderstanding had taken place— Cecilia had asked for privacy, but not gone into much detail as to why, which was entirely within her rights; Maylene, who was still admittedly pretty normal, freaked out when her Lucario told her about how Zolst was feeling such rage toward his trainer, and she acted accordingly to prevent a potential accident.

No one was at fault.

"What if you…" it was difficult to find the right words. "And you think he won't let you speak to him one-on-one again?"

Cecilia's fingers clenched my shirt behind my back, her nails digging slightly through the fabric and sending tingles down my spine. "I don't know, I can't do anything right," she sighed. Talonflame protested by scolding her for giving up too quickly. "I know, I know. I can't let defeat cloud my reasoning, I'll have to try again. It's not like it'd be good to keep him in his Pokeball for too long anyhow, and he needs to eat, and—" Cecilia cut herself off, squeezing me tighter. "He'll think I had a protector there and it's set me back weeks. Possibly more than that." Her voice was muffled in my chest. She sniffled. "I considered just ripping off the band-aid and trying again immediately, but it's best to give him some time to cool off or it might actually be dangerous, especially without Slowking here."

My hand streaked through her hair. "You're right. Better safe than sorry, we don't want you in the hospital again." A flicker of doubt flashed on her face, and I could immediately tell what she was thinking. That a trip through the hospital would be worth a repaired relationship with her starter. "Baby, look at me." I gently grabbed her face with my hands and looked into her pale eyes. "What you need is to talk to him, not let him hit you until he's satisfied— and he wouldn't like that anyway, Zolst loves you! No matter how long it takes, I'm sure you'll have him back to his silly antics in no time."

"I hope so." Her heart was in it, this time.

"Hope is good," I said. "Hope is what keeps you alive when the chips fall and the knives are out."

"Ugh. I love you."

I snorted, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. "What was that groan?"

"Nothing," she said with a hint of a smile. "Anyway, how was your day?"

Beaming, I launched into everything I'd done today, and she was happy to listen. Eventually, when all was said and done and we continued talking about anything that came to mind, we must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, the sky was filled with the orange hues of sunset. The fact that I'd actually had an interrupted streak of sleep took a few moments to sink in, even if that had only been for… three hours according to my phone. Talonflame had fallen off the bed with her back to the floor and her talons up in the air—

Arceus, where was Mimi? They must have sneaked off somewhere while we'd been asleep. Rubbing my eyes, I turned toward my girlfriend. Cecilia's body was twitching and she was mumbling in her sleep, as if distressed by something.

She must have been in a nightmare.

I poked her in the cheek, and when that didn't work I lightly shook her shoulder until she woke up with a deep, raspy gasp of air that woke up Talonflame. The fire type's sudden scramble to her feet bumped her wing into the bedside table, knocking the lamp over and shattering the bulb. There was a familiar squeal, and Meltan crawled from under the bed, intrigued by the shards of glass that I'd have to clean up later.

"It's me," I softly said, clasping at her shoulder. "It's just me, baby. We're okay."

Her face slowly scrunched up, as if she remembered what she'd just seen. "Thank you for waking me. Were you—"

"I was fine, no worries. Hungry?" Her head tilted to the side, then nodded. "I still got some groceries leftover from earlier. 'Guess I'll make some food and let my team out." I slid away from the bed. "Falling asleep wasn't the plan."

Sweetheart was too big and heavy to be out in the condo, but I released the rest of my team and got started on something simple. There was still enough rice to last us days, and the raw meat I'd bought included chicken. While Buddy took over in Mimi-watching duties and was having what looked like a good time talking to Talonflame about her favorite sights when she went off flying who-knows-where, Honey and Cass helped me around the kitchen. The psychic liked giving me utensils or spices whenever I asked for them like a sous-chef, and they were very curious about them, too. Supposedly all Lakhutia had was salt from their cavern; they were an isolationist bunch that didn't let many traders in.

When they asked what cumin was made of exactly, though, I came up empty other than the fact that it was a plant of some kind.

The kitchen was pretty wide open to the entire condo, so I could see Cecilia sitting on the couch in the living room, her laptop on her knees. The fact that she was working again was good; I'd need to keep an eye on her in case she went into a self-depressive spiral again. Having this Role was enjoyable and it was important to not get hyper focused on my conversation with Rood and Mallory. It'd be a while until I'd get another one of those, and while I'd learned a whole lot about systematic failures and Team Plasma's endeavors, I hadn't actually gotten anyone's numbers or names for the original goal of the conversation: connections.

Speaking of, I needed to go to a Unovan embassy to get started on my Trainer Visa soon. Better early to get it out of the way. I'd go get the process started when Princess was out of the Center. She was the next one supposed to be out.

"Grace," Cece called from the living room. "Sarah Newman is in Sinnoh again."

Unconsciously, I stopped lathering the chicken in spices. "Oh. Oh, shit. She must have heard. Has she… spoken out to anyone yet?"

"She was never one for publicity, apparently," she said. "She's in Jubilife and has demanded to speak at the ceremony to celebrate Craig's life."

It was rather morbid, that this ceremony was now stated to be the day after Justin's funeral; we'd have to go through this sorrowful process back to back. Craig's funeral would be later, and as we weren't close, we wouldn't be allowed to come in.

Time was ticking… hopefully Mira would find Lauren before next week; I wanted to believe she wouldn't miss her brother's state-mandated ceremony and funeral, but—

I shook my head, chasing those thoughts away. If anyone was capable of finding her, it was Mira, and maybe Newman would try as well. They must have known each other.

When dinner was finished, Cece and I ate face to face in a comfortable silence often broken by bursts of chatter. Honey was eating by the TV to watch one of his cartoons with Mimi on his shoulder, Cass was still on their research binge about spices using my laptop, and Buddy was hovering behind me, nearly finished with his newest book that he sometimes told me about if he came across an interesting history tidbit. His latest obsession was a series of wars between the petty kings and queens of Kalos shortly after the collapse of the Chivalric Age: a stretch of a century and a half from the 1100s onward where conflicts were decided with Pokemon battles between chosen fighters instead of the bloodshed of war. Honestly, it was a wonder it had lasted that long, but honor was everything, back then. Eventually, the region would unify under one kingdom, creating a dynasty which lasted until the Great War.

Charles III Montreuil was the last of his line. His children and family were killed along with him. History was crazy like that, and I was learning a lot just through osmosis from Buddy's rants.

My feet poked at my girlfriend's legs under the table, and it felt good to see her body-language soften at each instance of contact. Eventually, when we were close to finished, Cecilia took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

She let go of her fork, which clinked on the side of the plate. "I was thinking… if I'm going to take my time to fix what I've done to my Pokemon," On the floor at the side of the table, Talonflame's eyes flickered my way cautiously, "I might need to leave. For a while."

It took a—

It took a bit to make sense of the words in my head. My body suddenly felt like it had been trapped or squeezed in a tight space. Somehow, it was like when you woke up after falling in a dream.

"Leaving. Like…" I probed for more information, trying to keep my voice still.

"I don't know where exactly," she continued. "Probably on one of the wilder routes like 220 or 211."

I tried to scrounge up memories of those routes from the maps Denzel used to buy, remembering I'd never actually been there. These were rarely sought after because they lay south of Twinleaf, one of them being composed mainly of ocean and islands in the strait between Johto and Sinnoh down south. There would be no reception, meaning I wouldn't be able to contact her for however long she stayed either by text or call.

I wouldn't be able to see her.

To touch her.

To hear her voice.

To talk to her.

She must have seen how morbid I looked, because she added, "only when all of my Pokemon are all out of the Pokemon Center, and I wouldn't miss Justin's funeral, either. We still have time." She leaned forward and reached toward me.

I flinched away. "Did— did I do something wrong?" My voice came as a stammer with a nervous, incredulous laugh, and my hands clenched below the table.

Pain flickered across her face. "That's not—"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." A sigh left my lips, and I realized my hands were beginning to sweat. "I shouldn't have said that."

"But you said it."

"I did."

"And now doubt is creeping in." Cecilia touched her heart and closed her eyes. "Now I don't want to leave. My heart. It aches. This wasn't… the goal, but maybe this will do us some good. To help return to normal again, like the last time we had to deal with this—"

"The last time was never this pronounced." I cut her off. Why did I cut her off I didn't want to cut her off I should shut up I should shut up. "I don't even know what normal is! I've never had that! We've never had that." My eyes felt wet. "At least let me come with you. I won't get in your way, just… please."

At this point, the commotion had reached the ears of even our Pokemon in the living room, who were all watching us with bated breaths.

"Maybe not normal, but just unable to live without seeing you for twenty-four hours is—" her defiance evaporated from one second to the next. I could see it written in the way her body lay about. "Fine. Maybe you can come with me. Maybe it's fine."

Talonflame chirped worryingly at her side before shooting me an unappreciative stare.

I realized what I'd done immediately. I was taking away her freedom to act; her need to be a trainer; her independence. The three things which she had internalized and desired since she had been a young child yearning to escape from the dark clutches of her father.

"I gotta— wait, I have to just go in the bathroom and clear my head. Don't leave, okay. Please," I spoke at a rapid pace as I shot up from the table.

When I passed by Honey, I asked him to shout for me if she left. I locked myself into the bathroom and ran the tap to wash the tears off my face. When I cut it off, it continued to drip into the sink, each drop a hollow echo that had reverberated in the silence of the room.

"Get a hold of yourself," I muttered, staring at my tired face in the mirror. "You're better. Be better. Don't twist yourself into the Role of a villain."

Cecilia was right. This wasn't even about being normal, this was about being healthy. No person with a healthy mindset would have reacted the way I have. She wasn't even leaving yet, but what about the future? What about Unova, where she would most likely have to spend days or weeks away from me on jobs with Professor Juniper or talking to whatever politicians or Gym Leaders she needed to? What about my own goals? We wouldn't be joined at the hip twenty-four seven like we could be these days.

"Legendaries, I'm pathetic."

I loved her. I loved her so much that I hurt her, because it felt like she'd been abandoning me.

The door swung open, and I barged through back into the living room, then into the kitchen. She was still here, staring at me with a blank look on her face. Electivire gave me a discreet thumbs up, meaning that she hadn't even tried to leave.

"I'm sorry; I was completely wrong and I hurt you." It was difficult to look into her eyes for too long without feeling like shame was dragging my head down like an anchor around my neck. "You should leave whenever your team is ready and rekindle your relationship. I'll be…" I swallowed. "I'll be fine. Don't hold yourself back because of me."

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"I—" her breath caught in her throat. "If you're sure."

"I am." I wanted to tell her that I was happy she wasn't leaving yet, that we didn't need to speak like she was going to slip away any day now, but I didn't. It might influence her decision, and I'd now learned that my words had more power over her than they ever had.

I just didn't know how she could be so strong, still.

"So, um." I awkwardly shuffled in place. "Can we— go back to normal, or do you want me to leave for the night? I can stay at a Center or something; I'll basically have the entire place for myself." Deep inside, I was praying she'd say no.

"Stay. Of course, stay," she said, and I couldn't help but breathe in an immense sigh of relief.

I hadn't fucked up to catastrophic levels.

—

It was the next day now; the thirteenth of May. While Cecilia and the others had gone to visit Chase in the hospital, I'd left his room early to go see someone else. Denzel looked peacefully asleep, even with a mask keeping him asleep on his face. His chest rose up and down slowly, and his body was nearly sinking into the mattress below him. According to the nurses it was made of specialized material— an air-fluidized bed, one of them had called it— to minimize the pressure on his back as much as possible. He'd already had all of the dead skin removed and gotten a skin graft two days ago across his entire back, but it was still healing. His arm was hooked into an IV from which fluids continuously pumped into his body.

If he'd been awake right now, he'd be in agony, but he'd be up within the next few days, or so the doctor said. I smiled as I held onto his hand and brought it up to my cheek. It was warm. He'd done so much for us; without him the world might have ended. He was just as much of a hero as the rest of us, and he would get none of the credit he deserved.

The reason I hadn't come here as often as I should have was…

Well, his parents were allowed on the island by the League, even through the lockdown, and they visited often. The last thing I wanted was to come face to face with his mother. Emilia had warned me of her ire, and to be honest, I understood. All of the warnings she'd heeded Denzel, everything she'd said, her holding him back from journeying for a year— all of that was now vindicated within her mind. She might have thought that maybe if I hadn't come to Twinleaf at the start of the Circuit, she could have convinced him to stay.

God, I needed to see my dad again, or at least talk to him beyond a good morning and good night every day. My mom, too.

Hm. I wondered if they'd find Froslass by the end of the week in Coronet. Recovery operations were still going on there.

After gently lowering my best friend's hand back on the bed, I grabbed my phone and dialed Maylene's number.

"Hey. Sorry I took so long to call." The truth was, I'd gotten distracted yesterday trying to salvage my relationship from a pivot toward disaster. "Yesterday got busy. Oh, I hope I'm not bothering you, I know you're working hard."

"No, it's okay," she said, clearly nervous. "I'm sorry, I must have ruined your night with this stuff."

"No, actually. Um, it was me who fucked up, completely unrelated. I think I salvaged it, though. Barely." It had been awkward after. Very awkward, but at least she'd stayed and Talonflame had forgiven me already. Awkward was better than cold.

I must have been quiet longer than I thought, because Maylene spoke up again. "So, what's the— the verdict?"

"She's spiteful," I explained. "But give her a few days and she'll be back to normal. Plus, she's still willing to help with your dad and stuff, and you know, your aura was apparently better than your Lucario's, so we'll see what she thinks about Chase's. If it's the same she'll probably want to see you again. It's sort of therapeutic for her. Reminds her of what she's lost, but in a good way."

Maylene exhaled on the other end of the line as if a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Thank the Legendaries. I thought I'd ruined things. It's good that she still wants my help; I can't be the one always taking from you both. I need to give back." I heard a bump of some sort on the end of the line, and then a soft scrape, as if she'd laid her head on the table. "Should I message her another apology or should I give her some space?"

"I'd say give her some space for now and message in a few days when she thinks better of you— I'll keep you up to date on the vibes." A moment of silence passed, and I leaned against the backrest of my chair with an analytical frown. "You really care about her, huh?"

Carefully, I listened to see if there would be any sudden movements. Instead, all I caught was the pausing of a breath; one held half a second longer than usual.

"Yeah, she's nice in her own way. Like, an 'it can't be helped, I'll help you' kind of way, but obviously I didn't know her before she died," she slowly spoke, attentively choosing each word. "I didn't ask before, but why're you so quiet?"

A hasty change of topic.

Man, I could read her like a book. This was going to suck.

"Oh, I'm just in Denzel's room right now." I smiled at his sleeping face. "I guess I unconsciously get quiet even if he can't wake up. Plus, my friends have been saying I speak too loudly sometimes 'cause I'm still not used to not hearing properly, so I'm tempering it. Anyway! How's work?"

"It's going pretty well! I got a really needed boost in my confidence and it looks like my Gym Trainers are coming to the idea that I'm in charge, so I won't have to do anything radical like fire people," Maylene said. "No news from my dad yet, but he's lost a lot of his leverage. Anyway, uh, if you want I—I should have the time to ha—hang out pretty soon this week-end for a few hours." Now she was the one who'd gotten all quiet. Maybe what I'd said had gotten to her and she was self-conscious.

"Sure, why not." If I was supposed to survive without Cece, I might as well give it a try soon and use the opportunity to go check on Bella and Night and spend the entire day away. "I was actually in need of someone to get me into shape again, so maybe we can make it a semi-regular thing." I was actually planning on going on a run with Honey after I was done here, just to get started on my own like old times. I silently chuckled and stared at my unconscious friend. He was the one who'd gotten me into it all those months ago north of Jubilife. "Though I doubt you'd have the time—"

"I'll make time!" she screamed. "I—I mean it should be fine, haha…"

"Woah, so passionate," I said with a teasing laugh. "Chase is like that! He'd get excited at any opportunity to get me to work out with him; I bet he'll be pissed I'm doing it with you now after I ignored him for so long."

"Okay— Arceus, I need to ask so many questions! But first if you want to get into shape we need to talk about your diet." Holy crap, I'd never heard her speak to quickly. "Then we can move on into what kind of muscles you want to develop— I'm assuming legs, 'cause trainer, duh! We actually have an indoor gym for people and Pokemon we can use underground, so we won't need to go somewhere else…"

Oh, boy. She was even more into this than Chase was, wasn't she?

—

Perhaps it was thinking of Denzel's own parents, which had me contact mine as soon as I was out of the hospital, or maybe it was getting a figurative cold splash of water on my face yesterday evening when I'd nearly done something I regret— manipulating the girl I love into doing what I wanted to her detriment. Maybe, more simply put, I just missed them and decided I'd had enough of avoiding them.

They'd been staying in a hotel a twenty-minute walk away from mine, this one a lot more humble and affordable. You could still see traces of the old architecture much of the actual, official League Building was made of. Cecilia had called it gothic, a style much more prevalent in Solante, the continent with Kalos, Paldea and Galar. They probably would have met me anywhere and gone out themselves, but I'd only messaged them once being in front of the place. Honey was with me, a boon of reassurance and kindness in case I blew up at them again, and as always, Mimi was there, around my neck this time. Honey also served to soothe my endless worries of a sudden, lethal attack: he would always react faster than them with Protect. Cassianus and he worked in shifts.

I winced when I saw them step out of the empty establishment, already prepared for the worst, but relaxation came easier than I thought when Electivire placed a hand on my shoulder and I saw something else—

My parents weren't angry about me blowing them off; they were genuinely happy to see me again.