I was glad to see that Dedenne had begun the process of settling in on the pasture. After all, the whole thing had been arranged on little more than an impulse after seeing that he had been in a less-than-stellar state back in the city. Once he had finished showing off his little sleeping spot in the storage room, I gave him a wave goodbye, telling him that I wanted to go out and walk around for a bit to do some thinking.
"Oh, no problem. Go ahead and relax or whatever you need to do! You were hardly out for a relaxing trip the past couple of days, right?" Dedenne didn't seem bothered by the fact I was brushing him off, and hopped over to crawl into his bedding with a large, exaggerated yawn. "Now that I have a place I don't have to try and sleep with one eye open, I might get used to settling in for some proper napping more often." The remark was followed by a brief laugh, before the electric mouse closed his eyes and wriggled deeper into the blanket.
Honestly, it was adorable, and I couldn't help but watch as he got all comfortable. "Enjoy, then. See you later!" I wandered back outside, the rain having faded to a drizzle more than a proper downpour. I was still maintaining the Bellossom form I had been in. This kept the rain feeling rather refreshing, and it soothed my mind as I let it wander to consider everything that happened the past few days.
The first thing on my mind was wondering how I was going to break the subject to Pidgey. After all, I all but made an abrupt, complete one-eighty from when we had discussed travelling with each other and having an adventure. I still wanted that, honestly. Very much so! She was probably my best, closest friend that I had made since I came to the pasture. Not that I didn't get along with everyone else, too, but we had spent the most time together. Sparring, joking around, getting into stupid, dangerous situations... it wasn't the same as the casual friendliness that I felt around, say, Bibarel.
A guilty feeling gnawed away at me, wondering what she would think about the whole situation. If I could convince her to join up with Mable's team, too, I think that would be the best way things could work out. She didn't seem to object to working with a trainer back when the kids showed up for that tournament, but she also seemed to be really independent. Of course, I should just go find her and spill the whole story out to her openly, and simply get her honest opinion.
The obvious move wasn't always so easy to put into practice, though, and I was stalling. I didn't want to hear her get upset with me for my decision I had made on a whim. Looking back on it, almost all my decisions seem to be made in the heat of the moment, changing as rapidly as the direction of the wind. I was just doing what I wanted at any given moment, without really, properly sitting down and planning for the future.
I sighed heavily, dropping my transformation and easing back into my natural form. The chilly rain was now outright cold, rather than refreshing as it had been in a grass form, but I wanted that. The sudden jolt of temperature drop to try and give myself a wake-up call. I can't just drift around aimlessly, I need to sit down and really plan out how I'm going to move forward from here on out. I had some ideas on the matter, but it was going to mean that I need to do some research before I really had the details pinned down.
No matter what, though, I was going to be a battler. Sure, I could tell myself that I held my own and did my part against the rampaging Galvantula all I wanted... but I honestly didn't believe the words. If I hadn't had the support from the other trainers present at the time, I couldn't have dealt with it on my own. What was I going to do if something like that happened in the wild? What if there was a whole group of hostile Pokémon who all appeared at once? If I want to live carefree, I have to be strong enough to handle anything that wants to get in the way of it.
The cold water trickling down across my body was growing less and less, the dark hue of the clouds overhead lightening as the drizzle slowly came to a halt. I felt the beginnings of a grin forming as I noticed that the cloud cover seemed to be progressing away, the winds high in the sky ferrying the clouds further past the pasture. In the distance, I could see the clouds breaking up and starting to show sunlight filtering through from above. "If that's not a sign that it's my time to shine, I don't know what is. Now if only I could get stronger in a quick montage of jabbing a punching bag and jogging up and down some stairs like a certain boxing movie..." I muttered to myself, feeling the rising excitement.
Alright, time to seize the momentum and push through on speaking with Pidgey. Hopefully, things don't go too poorly.
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"You big idiot!" A shrill, squawking outcry reverberated through the trees in the wooded area of the pasture, and I covered the sides of my head with my nubby hands. I wasn't honestly entirely sure if I had ears, but applying pressure with my hands seemed to lessen the ache in my head from the scolding aimed my way. Pidgey stood in front of me, eyes narrowed in a glare, and she jabbed forward to land a Peck right on my forehead. I winced and shifted my hands around to cover the affected spot, despite the fact it had been a half-hearted attempt.
"You didn't so much as say a word to me! We got back from the forest and things settled down, or so I thought, but then without so much as a word you're getting yourself whisked off to town to get in a fight with a giant electric spider, because of course you can't manage a single trip anywhere without winding up in a life or death fight with something!" Pidgey's feathers puffed out as she drew a deep breath, and I wasn't sure if she was trying to calm herself down or merely renewing her breath to continue her tirade. At least we had progressed past the point of her battering me with her wings in frustration for my sudden, abrupt disappearance. I'll take getting yelled at instead any day.
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"Do you have any idea how much I freaked out when I didn't know where you went? Admittedly, I expected you were doing something profoundly stupid, but I expected you to be out exploring on your own like a ninny, or something! Do I have to sit on you like a hatchling in a nest to keep you from risking yourself for longer than the time it takes you to sleep and get your energy back for the next tremendously idiotic thing you come up with!?" Pidgey seemed to be winding down, or she had simply run out of ways to emphasize that I was taking too many risks.
I lowered my hands from my defensive posture, and peeked upward at her, "It's not like I've gone out to pick any of these fights!" I insisted, trying to defend myself, but I stopped that argument almost immediately. The positively scathing glare Pidgey aimed my way ensured that, and I put my hands back up again, as if preparing to ward off another attack. "Right, my mistake, I apologize. I won't do anything as silly as bringing logic up in the argument again." I tried to make the remark light-hearted, as if I was joking, but was met with a firm wing-slap across the head for my trouble. "Can you be a little less violent? I said I was sorry!"
A haughty, irate sigh escaped her, and Pidgey shook her head in a slow gesture. At least the angry, narrowed stare she had been pinning me in place with lessened to a more neutral expression. "And you're really okay? You're not just saying that?"
The concern in her tone slipped through, and I flashed a bright smile. "Absolutely! I'm at a hundred percent right now, I couldn't feel better! After some medicine and some rest, I feel great!"
"Oh, that's perfect, then." Pidgey chirped, and her voice was a little too neutral, too carefully controlled, and I felt my blobby posture stiffen. The smile she was wearing was decidedly intimidating, and the glint in her eyes was bright and earnest. "In that case... I won't hold back teaching you a lesson!" Her wings flared out and a strong Gust of wind blasted into me from a near point-blank range, and I discovered how a soccer ball must feel as I was sent tumbling and bouncing across the grassy terrain until I rebounded off the base of a tree with a grunt.
Hurriedly bounding up, I shifted into my own Pidgey form, since it seemed like it was time for a good sparring session. It didn't seem like she was willing to take 'no' for an answer. "Man... why aren't any of the girls I run into normal...?" I muttered out, seemingly to myself, but loud enough it was clearly meant to be overheard. The smirk I aimed toward my sparring partner certainly didn't help.
"Why you...!" The fire in Pidgey's eyes seemed to redouble in intensity, and she swooped forward with her wings shining with the gentle blue of flying-type energy. I darted forward, mirroring the same maneuver, letting myself be swept up into the rhythm of the moment. There were things to discuss still, later, but for now it was enough to just enjoy messing with Pidgey and getting back into a spar with her again.
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Later, with the sun properly overhead and the clouds dispersed entirely, Pidgey and I lay slumped atop the grass alongside each other, wings sprawled out like we were going to make snow-angels in the soft greenery. Both of us were catching our breath, as despite her irritated fury, I still managed to hold my own through the battling.
"So. You're not mad at me for joining Mable's team?" I finally asked, as we had managed to work out some of the details of the time we had been apart through our mid-fight banter. Something about the adrenaline running through me from the battling made it easier to just spill my guts... and it wasn't that weird for our sparring to basically devolve into a physical altercation mixed with a heart-to-heart discussion. We honestly seemed to bond more over sparring than anything else in the past, after all.
I heard a vague rustling sound in the grass beside me, which I assumed was Pidgey shaking her head. "Of course not. Mable's great, you tremendous dummy. Did you really think I would be upset over you wanting to join her team?"
A tightness I hadn't realized I had in my chest loosened a bit at that remark. "Well, I just thought... you know, it might affect our whole plan to travel around together." I confessed, and it was met with a dismissive laugh.
"It's not like you're going to up and vanish. Sure, we might not travel as far, but we can still have our excursions into the forest, or go on some trips out for a while. Mable isn't going to demand you act like her shadow or anything. I know Bibarel does that, but that's his choice, not something she makes him do." Pidgey explained, and I nodded along. Bibarel really was like a puppy who couldn't bear to be apart.
"Or... you could join her team, too, and we could really battle together. Be part of the same team? I know it's not really my place to offer, but I doubt that Mable would turn you down if you wanted to join!" This was what had kept the tightness in my chest from vanishing completely after the first admission. Her being okay with my situation was part of it, but I still wanted to travel with her. Battle with her.
Pidgey lay there in silence alongside me for a while, and I didn't want to push her to speak up. When she did, though, I felt as if I was sinking into the ground a little deeper. "No." She replied, simply, the word just dropping out and landing between us. "If that's what you want to do, then that's fine. I just want to do more on my own, I want to evolve without a trainer, like my Mom. I want to prove to myself that I can do anything she can do, that I can match up to her."
That seemed to leave an opening, and I reached for it, "What about after you evolve?"
The silence returned, lingering even longer than the first time. "Maybe. Ask me again after it happens." Pidgey replied, and I flashed a small grin.
"I can accept that."