It had been about an hour of silence by Costello’s estimate. An hour of sitting in silence with Alzbell and stonewalling his questioning. Deep down in the Castle’s lower rooms for another handicapped excuse of therapy. At first, it was the usual inquiries of “How are you” or “How’s the shoulder doing?” The simple things he had heard for about the past 3 weeks he’d been on the shelf. The same thing Caspian asked, the same thing Braviary asked. Every single one of them.

In all honesty, he was getting sick of it but he couldn’t fault them for asking. Alzbell asked about it a few minutes ago during the session, but he wasn’t going to give an answer on that. Wasn’t his to know about. Like all of their recent therapeutic ventures, there was the physical and the mental and then there was the lack of-

“What are some things you like?”

There was a sudden break in Costello’s train of thought. The question by Alzbell was a lot less… out of the box than usual.

“Why?”

“Just indulge me with this.” The Meowstic absentmindedly fiddled with his puzzle cube. “Maybe I have been a bit more abstract than I should have been with your development. Acting more like a ‘therapest’ instead of a ‘therapal’.”

Costello didn’t respond to the wordplay. The only sign the feline could get that he had heard him was the glare he got staring deep into his eyes. Alzbell had to know what he did. Undeterred, Alzbell continued on.

“ For now, just let me know what some things you like. Maybe you'll find an experience that triggers something within you. Flavors, experiences, friends. Things of that nature.”

That was easy. There were tons of things that Costello liked. Costello was a lizard of multitudes. A Pokemon of depth.

“I like the grass.”

“Most Grass types do. What about the grass?”

This is meaningless.

Costello didn’t disagree with the sentiment but he wasn’t going to sit in this damned room for any longer. Constantly sitting on his ass doing nothing all day was starting to fray at what was left of his mind. If all he had to do was answer some stupid questions about his likes and dislikes, so be it. The sooner he could pull his weight the better.

The verdant lizard breathed in. Then he breathed out. “It calms me, it doesn’t really feel bad to lay in it for a while. Grounded and secure. It makes sense and it doesn’t change drastically. It's solid ground.”

“There’s nothing wrong with rolling around in a fresh bit of grass. Many grass types prefer having something like that close to their homes. Even a plant to raise can help all sorts of Pokemon through their roughest times. I’ve heard your current living situation has a nice bit of wild grass on the premises. Maybe you could-”

Costello snapped his head to face the cat. “What are you doing near the house?”

Alzbell continued on as though nothing happened. “Oh every so often, Soren will invite me over to ask for updates. Nothing personal mind you, though you haven’t been giving me enough to share in the first place.”

There was some sort of polite chuckle as though some kind of a joke was made. Costello didn’t find it funny. “The old bird really cares about you y’know. Maybe he hasn’t known you for the same amount of time as he has Liam but you still hold a place in his heart.”

“Sure.”

“You know that right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

The answer was accurate but the look on the cat’s face made Costello uneasy. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. The look of displeasure faded as quickly as it appeared as the cat moved on.

“So what else do you like? Your friends for example?”

“Like Liam?”

----------------------------------------

A simple run from the top of the hill downward. The smell of sweetness grew ever fainter as Liam left his house. Mr.Braviary wasn’t there to say goodbye but he’d be there when he got back. There wasn’t enough time in the day to focus on whatever business Mr.Braviary had when he had his own plan to set in motion. Well, not so much a plan as much as hoping nobody he knew was going to shut down his dreams as soon as he got ready for action. A grand ol celebration for Costello getting healed enough to get out of the infirmary.

“Look, Cos is bound to get out sooner or later. So why not do something big for his return?”

Zata’s place of living was one of the few shared living spaces in Seva. While it wasn’t uncommon for the Pokemon in town to live two by two, in nests or hammocks or the like, Seva in particular was less of a place to rent and more of a place to live. Either with an inn or with a proper house for the future. For whatever reason, Zata had chosen to live with others. And as she sat in her side of the room, a simple nest with her luggage in a knapsack, and a visitor that snuck his way in. All she could respond with was

“No.”

To Liam, this was expected but there was still a need for “Whadda you mean no?”

Zata shrugged. “I don’t know him like that. “

“We went through a dungeon together! All that training!”

“We’re coworkers. When have you ever seen him choose to talk to me outside of work?” Zata yawned. “He’s an annoying, dead-in-the-eyes novice, and I am sure he has plenty of similar but untrue words to say about me. What he is is a teammate, not a friend. Glad he’s ok but I’m not showing up for his birthday or whatever.”

“But we’re a team! Sure, we don’t have a big team name but we’re going places! Besides, are you just gonna train till you drop like you always do?”

Zata suddenly faced Liam. “What did you say?”

“I go for runs. You go to the training fields while no one’s looking. Things line up. You’re doing good work by the way.”

Zata could only look at the figure of audacity sitting across from her. Some dope’s expression of friendliness. There was a feeling of discontent with how comfortable he was, especially with no real group dynamic sorted out. Yet here he was, sitting feet from her with no care.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He was mocking her.

No… he wanted something.

But what was-

“I know you’re doing your best, but I think you could do better. If you think about coming, I could get you something special!”

“What could you even offer?”

“One-on-one training, mate!”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Of course not! Have you been in a dungeon guided by someone with prior experience as well as the ward of a former full-fledged member of the Almas guild!”

“So you’ll get Braviary to train with me?. “

“Wel,l not him. He’s been really busy lately. Buttt I also know Clove, Schrund, and Ardor. You talked to them at the party.”

“Wait, how do you know that?”

“Cause I talked to them too. By the way, Ardor would want you to ask him for advice next time. Not my place, but you come off a bit too nosy according to him.”

“I-” There was an attempt for Zata to respond. To snipe back. Yet.. there was nothing. Sure, he was an idiot about it but the feeling wasn’t there. The usual spite and bile that came with the words of her denmates. As she looked over the rabbit for any sign of deceit, she couldn’t see any obvious ones.

Admittingly, Liam didn’t know Zata. Not really.

But he knew her.

Before Autumn Embers emptied out, there were a few old adventuring folks who were on the back end of their careers. The ones that used to go with him down in the depths of the dungeons back in the day with Mr.Braviary. The one thing they had in common was being over-eager and (even though he would hate to admit it) in over their heads if they thought a second beyond the future. No matter what, they would succeed. Wasn’t a matter of luck or good fortune. As long as fate was in their hands, they would make it happen.

“So? What do you say?”

“...Fine.”

----------------------------------------

“Liam is my friend.”

Alzbell raised an eyebrow. “Like Zata?”

“Zata is a coworker.”

“What’s the difference?”

Costello rolled his head around. “The difference is that Zata’s only with the team for her own ends. She’ll do the job but she won’t do much else.”

“Is that bad?”

“No. It lines up right. Wouldn’t blame her for it. Just a fact.”

“So the problem is…”

“I’m not going to depend on her for anything personal.”

“Like you do Liam”

“If it came down to it, yeah.”

“Ohh. If it came down to it? Let’s unpack that then.”

Costello cut off any thought to the contrary. “There’s nothing to unpack.”

“I would say otherwise. Do you feel that your relationships are mostly transactional? Customary?”

Something about that statement made the side of Costello’s head burn. Whatever the reason, he didn’t want to think about it and he wasn’t going to validate it with an answer.

“Ok. What about Floe?”

“What about them?”

“Do you regard them on the same level as Zata?”

----------------------------------------

Floe’s place was less of a place and more of a manor of some sort. A lot of it was extremely detailed stuff. Carvings on the columns and a mural on the side where a mon could sunbathe. The property itself wasn’t a house, however. Floe had gotten their hands on an estate. The house was simply the centerpiece of a much larger land underneath.

While it was much closer to Liam’s place than Zata's, it was a tad larger than the place where Cos and he resided but that was more in the sense that whatever funds she had were more than enough for the sheer upkeep needed to keep the place looking nice. For someone more perceptive, this may have been a moment to take in the sights. However, a house tour wasn’t what Liam had come. With a hop up to a door and a quick series of knocks, Floe opened the door. The minute they did, the cold hit Liam’s face and seemed to turn the fall season even colder.

“Ah, Liam. How are you?”

“Fine Floe, how are you?”

“Ah, I’m well. A bit tired of the running around with no purpose but that’s why we’re still lower ranked then.”

Liam had to agree there. While the constant training and conditioning was nothing new, there was still the issue of not actually getting to do much. Even with the excitement of the Salazzle incident, there wasn’t much left to do.

“I’m sure something exciting will happen eventually. Maybe we’ll be able to take actual missions!”

“That would be something interesting. Though getting an actual chance at the job board seems to be a hassle unless you want to fight for it.”

“Heh! Easy peasy.” A small bit of jabs were showcased by the rabbit in order to prove his hand-to-hand superiority. “We did it before, we’ll do it again.”

“Oh, of course. By the way, do you want me to call the transport back? I know it must be a strain on the funds to get it to and fro.”

Liam snapped himself out of his shadow boxing. “What do you mean?”

“The Mudsdale.”

“I didn’t take the Mudsdale.”

Floe tilted their head. “But this is miles away from Seva, how did you-”

“I ran.”

“Oh,” Floe said, caught wholly by surprise. “Would you like some water then?”

“Yes please.”

----------------------------------------

“No. I don’t.”

A pause as the feline looked at his subject.

“Because they don’t seem as single-minded. They have their own goals, their own life but it's not the same with Zata. Floe could quit this now. Zata wouldn’t. Or Couldn’t”

“Interesting. Would you quit this if you could?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you could walk away from this; go back to your family, or to your kingdom, or whatever awaits you on the end of your rainbow. Would you leave?”

Would he be there?

“No.”

----------------------------------------

Once Zata and Floe were on board, the rest were a cinch. Running back and forth to find everyone he knew was also not much of an issue. Caspian and Ion didn’t really have anywhere else to be though Cas seemed concerned about whether or not Costelloe even wanted him around.

“You’re fineee. Cos is a plush. A stuffed Ursa.”

While the nervous energy was still in the air, Ion assured Liam that they would come.

MEANWHILE...

The Chansey looked over Costello for a final time. “Well, it sounds like your ward is free to go, Soren.”

Soren nodded as Costello stood wordlessly at his side.

“We can’t advise him to go straight into the more physical training sessions as long as he doesn’t overextend that arm for a few weeks, he should be ok. Just make sure he keeps on resting and gets plenty of sunlight. “

“We’ll be sure to follow your advice”

With a smile from the nurse, the two went on their walk upwards back to the domicile. For Soren, while walking wasn’t usually his style, he didn’t find the strides boring. Indeed it was nothing but walk up to their homestead.

“So how was your vacation?”

“All I did was wait around and heal. I did what the nurses asked.”

“Ok, ok. Wasn’t it fun to not have to have to fight Drestal again? I had one of those myself back in the day.”

Again, Costello’s focus kept on the path.

“It was a Mon by the name of Adebajo. Strong Slacking. It was me, Thea, Yao, Ada, and a Dragonite by the name of Lea. Well, she was a Dragonair at the time. It was a good time. Horrible in the moment though.”

“... how come.”

An internal smile grew on Soren but he couldn’t give away the aura.

“We spent weeks on months trying to take him down. You’d think with Yao and Ada having fighting-type moves, it’d be easier to take him down. First lesson I’ll teach you Cos, it doesn’t matter how much the deck is stacked in your favor, a bad draw ruins it all.”

Costello didn’t know how to play cards but he went along with it.

“So it's been long. We’d missed some major expeditions 'cause we didn’t pass the test.”

“The test?”

“You can piece it together. We didn’t pass the test and we were getting fed up. Ada and Lea were suggesting that we smother him in his sleep. Yao wasn’t having it but he also wasn’t stopping them. Thea of course was too frustrated to even think so it fell on me to actually think up something. “

“What did you do?’

“I suggested we sneak off into a dungeon, go through it a thousand times, and then overwhelm Adebajo.”

“Was that allowed? Are there even enough Pokemon for that?”

“As long as a dungeon isn’t a dead run, there will always be enough Pokemon. It’ll make it so.”

“Weird.”

“Wouldn’t be a Mystery Dungeon if it wasn’t.”

“So instead of entertaining the idea of going on the lamb for murder, we decided that we’d follow my plan. Even if we weren’t officially cleared, for the next week we snuck off at night and ran the Mossy Cavern. “

“How was it?”

Soren closed his eyes. A shiver came through his body.

“It was awful.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“Heh.” Soren had thought he was. “You’ll learn as you get older that sometimes… the worst parts of your life as you live them; they become some of your most valuable memories.”

They were feet away from the door and Costello’s head was still a bit confused over that whole story but he wasn’t going to think too hard about it. Mr.Braviary pushed open the door-

*Welcome Home Costello!*

There were Pokemon. All the Pokemon from the last outing. A few he didn’t recognize.

The Lucario.

There were a lot of things and noises that caught Costello off guard but the quick hop over the crowd let him know who was behind all this.

A damned smile directed his way. “Welcome Home, mate!”

“You did this?”

“Liam dragged a lot of us into it,” Zata shouted from halfway across the room. She didn’t keep eye contact once Costello found where she was. “But since you got hurt, we came to celebrate your homecoming. In the spirit of ‘team morale’.”

Floe’s chill could be felt a bit away from “Yes, we couldn’t in good spirit not celebrate the occasion. I’m happy to spend the day with -”

Sera pushed through and cut her off. “Trust me, Cosplay.”

What the hell did she just call you/me?

“I had to drag lion boy over here from sleeping in and Caspian was way too nervous about the whole sitch. Something about ‘But I don’t think he likes me. What if he stares me down again?’ All sorts of- Ow!”

“Thank you, Sera.” Ion’s sparks could still be seen radiating off her. “But yeah. On behalf of everyone. We went through the same pain. Wouldn’t be right to leave you behind. Of course, we want to be here for your healing.

“Had to!” The smile dimmed on his face. “Well, I wanted to. I’ve been caught up with life. Caught up with filling other roles and training that I haven’t had time to really take it all in and thank you. Don’t think I forgot. You weren’t here for a day and you supported me. You could’ve just waited for someone to find you but you chose to chase this dream with me. I don’t know if I could ever repay that but as my friend…” Liam put a paw on his shoulder. “I’ll try my best to. Everyday.”

…

…

…

“Oi, are you ok? Did I do something wrong?”

Costello was sure his face didn’t move. He was sure that he kept it together. Something in him knew that this wasn’t meant to last and he was selfish for even considering it so. One half of him accepted this. Yet the other half.

The one that wouldn’t remember anything specific about this celebration other than tastes and quotes.

The one that felt a warmness that filled an absence Costello was sure he didn’t have.

The one that made the idea that if the world ended tomorrow, if it turned out that he was a lie and this whole thing was a dream, the one that would kill to keep this embrace going.

It was that half that was shedding tears on the right side.