“This is what you were texting Ellie about,” Emilia tried to scowl at Cashe, but her eyes were practically glowing with happiness, giving her away, “She told you about my birthday and had you set this up!”
“Actually, Cashe contacted me,” Elise said, “I only told him the date and gave him the restaurant name. He already knew it was coming up.”
“I knew it was a setup,” Emilia grumbled, “As soon as you mentioned Scovillain Eats, I knew something suspicious was going on.” She squinted at Cashe, “Who told you about my birthday? Was it Mom?”
“You did,” Cashe said, “Back on the cruise. You said you were turning twenty-three soon, so I looked into it.”
“I don’t remember that.” Emilia said, “Are you sure nobody told you?”
“Stop pretending that you aren’t overjoyed,” Elise said, sitting down at the booth beside her sister, “Even Bruce can see right through you.”
“Bruce isn’t like that,” Emilia huffed, but only for a moment. Her face split into a relaxed smile and she wrapped her sister in an awkward side hug, “It’s good to see you again, even if we saw each other a month ago.”
“Happy birthday, Emi,” Elise said, returning the hug, “And congratulations on your first win. You too, Cashe, Lindon.”
“It wasn’t very hard,” Lindon said, playing with the menu in his hands and not looking at the pair of adults. He was clearly still not used to interacting with someone of Elise’s standing. “Battling against Apollo and Emilia is way tougher. I probably wouldn’t win against a real trainer.”
“Hey!” Bruce said, pointing a finger across the table at Lindon, “None of that. Gym trainers are gym trainers. Sometimes you get ones that counter your team completely, other times you get ones who are countered by you, but gym trainers are still gym trainers. They are all professionals.”
“But Daddy, Lindon battled a little kid!” Annie said. Lindon looked down at his menu.
Elise and Bruce turned on their daughter simultaneously. Elise had a look in her eye that any mischievous child knew to fear and Bruce crossed his arms over his chest.
“Annie, we do not diminish other’s accomplishments,” Elise said, her voice stern.
“Apologize to Lindon for your rudeness, now,” Bruce matched his wife’s tone, brokering no argument.
“It’s fine!” Lindon shook his head and waved his menu, “I know Annie didn’t mean anything bad. She just doesn’t think kids are professionals.”
“Annabeth Oak, apologize now,” Bruce said, ignoring Lindon’s protests.
Annie bit her lip, her head sinking to her chest under her parent’s scolding. She turned towards Lindon, head still facing the ground, unable to look him in the eyes, “I’m sorry Lindon.”
“For what?” Elise demanded.
Annie glanced at her mother for a second. “For my rudeness.”
“What did you do that was rude?” Elise said.
“I diminned your accomplishment.” Annie said.
“Diminished,” Elise corrected, but her voice was softer now.
“Um, thank you for apologizing, Annie,” Lindon said, “I know you didn’t mean anything bad. I forgive you.” He glanced at Elise, making sure he wasn’t messing up the lesson.
“That was very gracious of you, Lindon,” Bruce said, “Thank you for being so understanding.”
Lindon scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “No problem.”
“Why don’t we talk about something else,” Emilia suggested. Lindon nodded vigorously, desperate to move on from the situation and away from the spotlight. He was to be disappointed however, as Emilia continued, “Like how you and Cashe were sneaking around behind my back- colluding and making plans without me!”
Lindon’s eyes bulged and he sputtered for an excuse. Cashe couldn’t help but grin. He poked Emilia in the side, “Setting up a surprise party is not collusion.”
“Really, Emi, don’t embarrass the poor boy.” Elise said, rolling her eyes.
“Oh, like you have room to talk after what you just did.” Emilia said.
“We are allowed to make sure our child behaves,” Elise said, crossing her arms.
Cashe exchanged a quick glance with Bruce, who held back a grin and nodded at Lindon. The poor boy’s face was blank and drained of all color as Emilia argued with the pokemon champion of the world over who was making him feel more awkward. Annie had scooted up beside him and was poking him in the shoulder trying to get his attention, but he was too mortified to respond. Cashe couldn’t help but laugh.
***
Lunch progressed more smoothly after Emilia and Elise figured out arguing over Lindon was not helping him feel any less awkward, and they moved onto other topics. Emilia caught her family up with their adventure since departing Hau’oli City the first time, regaling them with tales of the new Team, Pheromosa, catching Bagon, and the first gym, with Cashe and Lindon providing details that Emilia forgot, like how she lost a battle to Steven Stone III or how she conveniently forgot to mention how Cashe broke his arm. They knew most of the story already, thanks to frequent texting between the sisters, but lapped up the details, especially those that embarrassed Emilia.
As the conversation continued, it naturally turned to Elise and her family, and they learned all the secrets that came with being the World Champion and Champion of Alola. As it happened, those secrets were mostly meetings. A thousand meetings for a thousand minor things. Since Champions were technically the first line of defense against things like rogue legendary pokemon and new teams, meetings focused mostly on the new Team and the new tree.
Their encounter with Team Starlight was not isolated, according to Elise. The Team was showing up across Alola, often in similar circumstances as they had in the Totem Pokemon’s den. Elise wasn’t able to answer any questions regarding what the League found out from the few members they captured, but she did warn them to be careful while challenging the circuit.
The mysterious tree was the more interesting topic for Cashe, anyway. Reports of pokemon not thought to live in Alola were spreading, including myriad tales of never before seen pokemon, known legendaries, Ultra Beasts, and everything in between. The berry tree was attracting anything with olfactory glands and the power to move, it seemed, with even migration of pokemon all the way from Unova caused by the tree.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
With each mention of rare or legendary pokemon being seen, Emilia frowned, growing visibly distraught. It wasn’t hard to figure out what she was thinking. She should have a Master Ball. Her stolen prize might not ever be useful to most trainers, but with the berry tree on Akala Island, it was an opportunity never before seen in the world. Having a Master Ball guaranteed nothing, of course, but if they did manage to come across a legendary pokemon during their journey on Akala Island, it would be a painful blow to be missing it.
Noticing Emilia’s falling mood, Bruce took over the conversation. As a stay at home dad, the stories he told were of the petty politics of children’s play groups and picking up Annie from school. Cashe did not normally enjoy hearing about other people’s kids, but Bruce spoke with such obvious joy and love that it was hard not to be caught up when he spoke. By the time their food arrived Emilia had perked back up and was teasing her niece about losing a race to her Geodude.
As Cashe already knew from the inverse sign law, the food was delicious, and he spent most of the time eating it, glancing over at Emilia with a smug expression on his face. Lindon’s previous prediction of spiciness was wonderfully correct as well. Cashe had ordered a dish with a name he did not recognize, which turned out to be a curry-like dish filled with thick sauce and tender meat. It was delicious, full of spices that Cashe couldn’t name that made his tongue tingle pleasantly and his head sweat from the heat.
The conversation died down after the food arrived, with everyone at the table distracted by their meal. Even Annie didn’t babble through her normal prattle, instead choosing to snatch things from Lindon’s plate when she thought he wasn’t looking.
The lunch ended after almost three hours of talking, eating and catching up, before Elise and Bruce departed with Annie. Emilia hugged her sister goodbye and Cashe offered handshakes, but was treated with hugs as well, getting a surprisingly tight one from Annie, who told him to keep up the good work, in a confusing, but adorable bit of praise.
The group staggered out of the restaurant, bloated, but sated, to find the morning clouds had all but disappeared, leaving them in the comfortable heat of the afternoon sun.
“What do we do now?” Emilia asked as they left the restaurant, stretching to get her blood flowing again.
“That’s up to you, it’s your birthday.” Cashe said.
Emilia glanced down at Lindon, who was holding his stomach like he was carrying a child and had a sleepy droop to his face.
“Why don’t we head back to our room for now?” Emilia said, “We can watch one of those movies Lindon insisted on renting and figure things out from there.”
“That’s fine with me. You?” Cashe said to Lindon.
Lindon nodded and yawned, “Sounds good to me.”
***
They decided on watching The Natural from the movies that Lindon picked out. Before starting it, Lindon quizzes Cashe extensively on what the plot was ‘supposed to be’ in an attempt to catch him out for making things up, once and for all.
“It’s a movie about a baseball player who joins a bad team and the team starts to do well,” Cashe said, “The owner or manager or someone doesn’t want it to do well though, and so conflict arises there.”
“Uh huh,” Lindon said, taking down notes on a spare sheet of paper.
“But I think you must have rented another movie and not the one I’m talking about,” Cashe continued, “Since the guy in the store said this one was about a pokemon trainer.”
“He also said this was the only movie called The Natural,” Lindon frowned at him, “Which means if this isn’t about baseball, you’re making things up.”
“It just means he hasn’t heard about my movie,” Cashe said, taking a seat on the long couch with Lindon. Emilia settled in beside him and Lindon started the movie.
As predicted, it was not a movie about baseball, but instead a rookie trainer from Johto. It followed his journey across the region through a series of battles, chasing down an obnoxious rival. The movie was geared towards audience’s of all ages, which meant that the pokemon battles were a little tame and the rival was more of a nuisance and trouble maker than he was a challenge, resorting to petty tactics and backstabbing to stay ahead of the hero.
“What’s wrong?” Cashe whispered to Emilia. She was frowning at the screen with a frustrated look on her face.
“You can’t tell because you aren’t from around here,” Emilia said, “But this is a retelling of Gold’s journey.”
“How?” Cashe whispered, “I haven’t seen Team Rocket at all.”
“It’s for kids,” Emilia whispered back, “They replaced Team Rocket with the corrupt league officials and changed some details but it’s Gold’s story the same if you squint.”
“I don’t see it. The rival isn’t Silver, this guy doesn’t steal any pokemon, he just fights dirty.”
“He’s not Silver,” Emilia agreed, “He’s Azure.” She met his eyes with a significant look.
“Oh, they replaced him with your dad,” Cashe realized. It was not a flattering portrayal of Blue. Now that he realized who the movie was trying to depict, he could see why Emilia was not enjoying the film. According to the movie, Blue was a petty, jealous, and small man who stooped to cheating and bribery to come out on top of his battles. “Sorry about that.”
“I’m used to it,” Emilia sighed in a small voice, “The first stories about Red and Blue’s journey chose to depict Red as the protagonist and my dad as the rival. It was the natural choice, because Dad was a bit of a jerk and lost in the end. But since then, people take it a lot further.” She gestured to the screen.
“Shhhh!” Lindon hissed, “I’m trying to watch.”
The movie continued, going on for much longer than Cashe was expecting, culminating in a final showdown between the two rivals. ‘Azure’ had the full advantage, he was in his gym with a desert style stage to benefit his pokemon, the official of the match was bought and paid for, and he even coated the protagonist’s side of the battlefield in Toxic Spikes before the match started, hiding them under the shade of the arena.
The protagonist fought through it all, however, defeating ‘Azure’ in a surprisingly climatic battle. Cashe half expected Lindon to be on his feet cheering, but the kid had gone and fallen asleep.
“Typical,” Emilia snorted.
“Yeah, he goes to all that trouble to rent the movies and then doesn’t even finish the first one.” Cashe agreed.
“What?” Emilia glanced over at Lindon’s passed out form and snorted again, “No, I was talking about the battle. Whoever wrote this trash has obviously never seen what Toxic Spikes can do to a pokemon. They go to all that trouble of setting up Azure as a poisoner and with this dirty tactic, and then it doesn’t even work.” She waved an exasperated hand at the TV screen, ‘This is half the reason you take crap from every other trainer, you know. They’re taught poisoning is a dirty tactic, but also that it doesn’t even work. You would at least get some respect if they bothered to show you winning once in a while.”
“Maybe,” Cashe shrugged noncommittally. He wasn’t overly bothered by the negative perception around poisoning strategies yet, though he was still only starting out. Perhaps it might be a problem in the future.
He stood, turning off the TV and retrieving the rented DVD from the player. He returned to the couch to find Emilia giving him a funny look.
“What?”
Emilia brushed her hair to the side of her head, “It’s nothing.”
“If you say so.”
“Thank you for contacting my sister,” Emilia said, “I really appreciate it.”
“You seemed pretty lonely yesterday,” Cashe said, settling back down on the couch, “I thought inviting her along might be nice, even if we said it would just be the three of us relaxing. I mean it is your birthday.”
“Is that why you’ve been so nice to me?” Emilia said, “Because it’s my birthday?”
Cashe snorted, but Emilia didn’t laugh. She was serious.
“I thought you just said it was nothing.” Cashe said.
“Don’t you know that it’s never nothing?” Emilia gave him a small smile and looked away.
Cashe leaned back on the couch and crossed his arm, “My therapist pointed out that I might have been keeping distant out of convenience despite having made progress,” Cashe said, “So I’ve been trying not to be. Distant, that is.” Cashe swallowed, “It’s not because it’s your birthday.”
“It would have been a nice birthday present, for what it’s worth,” Emilia said, turning back to face Cashe with a smile, “But I’m glad it's not just for a few days.”
“Actually, I think I have a better present for you,” Cashe grinned. He got up and walked over to his jacket, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a pokeball, “It was supposed to be from Lindon and I together, but he fell asleep, so it’s just from me now.”
“Cashe,” Emilia said in a warning tone.
“Just open it,” Cashe said, tossing her the pokeball.
Emilia caught it and did so, cracking open the pokeball with a press of the button on the front. A flash of red light filled the room and a ovaloid object, about six inches tall appeared.
Emilia stared at it for a long moment. “Cashe, where did you get a pokemon egg?”
*****