After she received a message on her phone, Sara abruptly ended the stream, then rushed out the door leaving me and Sofie in her wake. The rest of the day was incredibly mind-numbing, without much that we could do in the little Duplex. We considered harassing Ben, but in the end, I somehow ended up, well, like this.

Upon the Holo-TV, a drone flies through the air around a mountain, before diving into a foggy woodland. “There exists a legend, that deep within the Timeless Woods of Kitakami, a monster sits in wait…”

Absent-mindedly I scratch Tinder and Cider on the head, both of the Fire types curled up around the egg. On the other side of the couch, Cappuccino and Eve lay pretty much entwined, devoutly focused on watching the fourth episode of ‘Finding Myths’ we had watched this evening. I personally, was not entirely paying too much attention myself.

“U-Um, Sofie…” I wiggle a bit, feeling her warmth far more than the two flames between my legs.

Sofie chuckles, wrapping her arms around my chest as she pulls me closer, her legs ticking the bottom of my knees as she shifts.

“Quiet you.” Sofie rests her chin on my head. “Submit to cuddles.”

“No, that’s not…” I sigh, doing my best to ignore the weight of my friend’s head on mine. “W-What do you think we should do? For the choice?”

Humming, Sofie runs her hand down my left arm, sending shivers across my skin.

“To be honest,” my friend murmurs in contemplation, “I’m not sure, but at this point I’m leaning towards Sycamore or the ‘Rescue Team’ thing you came up with.”

I groan, leaning my head back against my friend’s collarbone.

“Y’know Sofie,” I mutter after a few seconds, running my hand over the professor’s gift, “This egg seems to have only recently been laid. No movement at all, which suggests the Pokemon inside isn’t grown enough to shake it.”

Sofie lightly moves her chin forward and back just a bit as she hums a wordless affirmative.

“I wonder if he bred it himself or just picked it up on the way. Either way he had to have intentionally brought it.” I close my eyes, enjoying the weight of my friend as I speak. “He says he’s incredibly busy, but he still went out of his way to bring us a gift as a way to bridge us. It… gives me a good feeling about him.”

“It seems like he values us at least,” Sofie quietly responds, tapping her finger against my arm. “It’s kinda vague what we’d be doing for him though.”

I sigh, taking a deep breath as I revel in Sofie’s touch. “Yeah, but it’d probably have something to do with Mega Evolution. I’m honestly kinda fascinated by that subject myself.”

“Cause’ of the bond thing? I noticed it seemed connected in the gym battle,” Sofie responds, moving her thumb in a circle as she does.

“Mhm. I think Eve and I are close to being able to do it ourselves.” I pause for a moment, getting a bit distracted by how I am able to feel the full ring she was drawing at once. “R-Regardless, helping someone who specifically needs us seems like it’d be fulfilling, even if it could potentially be hard. I think. Maybe. I might be guessing on that a bit.”

Sofie shifts her other hand, bringing it up onto my right shoulder. “I gotcha, don’t worry Clumsy. What about your ‘Rescue Team’ though? You seemed pretty enthused about it earlier.”

I begin wringing my hands as I mumble, “Yeah, you’re right about that. It’s just so… Perfect. Too good to be true.”

Sofie taps her chin on my head twice, then replies, “I really like the concept of the organization being a somewhat neutral force that moves around the Region to help people where we can. Brings up mental images of wandering knights.”

I snort, a certain boy popping into my head. “Criminals at night, heroes during the day. We’d be an edgy teenager’s dream.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Sofie giggles, leaning down a bit as she whispers into my ear, “I almost wanna choose it just for that, but there’s more to it for you, right?”

I shiver and open my eyes, then nod before I say, “It sorta reminds me of, well, the daydreams I used to have of being a ranger. Despite the… unfortunate luggage that came with it, I stuck with that path for so long because I truly believed the cause was noble. Being able to reclaim that dream while also recontextualizing something horrifying from the Region’s past…”

Sofie’s breath is hot on my earlobe as she counters, “It could be tedious though, we’d need to do a lot of legwork getting people. Plus we wouldn’t have the immediate reputation boost Sycamore would grant us, so we’d have to build that from the ground up.”

I groan, tilting my head so that it’s leaning against hers. “The rep thing is what makes me hesitate, I don’t care about work. If we choose the ‘Rescue Team’, we’d basically still be in the situation we are now… Worse for those who remember the criminal Teams of the past.”

Sofie and I both immediately go quiet, quite a few unsaid words hanging in the air. I bite my lower lip, the question I want to ask simply not an option. Suddenly, I squeak as the show on the Holo-TV brightly flashes, revealing a man with a cocky smile peeking out from behind a camera. The scene shifts to him sitting with his legs crossed in a large leather chair, grinning as he explains:

“Yeah, the legends we’ve found mostly talk about Ursaluna appearing in either fog or late at night. According to our research however, the latter is from more modern retellings, which leads us to believe it’s just a dramatic element added to keep children inside at night.”

Cappuccino leaps to her feet, angrily cursing at the screen while accusingly stabbing two fingers at the TV. Eve nods, then spreads some frustrated curiosity towards me. I tilt my head, raising an eyebrow.

“What are you…” I freeze, finally understanding what exactly they meant. “Why not… both? Oh.”

I mentally bonk my forehead, then tap my friend on the knee and whisper, “Sooofieeee.”

My friend giggles, squeezing my arm, “Yes, Clumsy?”

“I know what we should do,” I say with a grin, then excitedly continue with:

“We make a Team AND work with sycamore! They’re not mutually exclusive!”

Sofie hums, tapping her fingers one by one on my shoulder. “It’d take a lot of work, and definitely may cause some issues. Still… I think it might be our best option.”

I peek at Sofie, the melancholic smile on her face making my heart drop. I look down at our laps, trying my best to think of anything to say. When I glance back up and open my mouth, her hand moves from my shoulder to block my lips.

“Clumsy…” Sofie’s hands move down, taking my hands into hers, stopping my anxious fidgeting. “Is it okay if I talk for a bit?”

I meekly nod, and the girl begins after a moment of pause.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but back in Floaroma, there was a reason the windmills were quiet that day.” Sofie takes a deep breath, squeezing my hands hard. “Team Galactic took the whole plant hostage, siphoning the power stored there to create a bomb, which they used to blow up a lake.”

I start to open my mouth, but Sofie doesn’t stop talking.

“It was my father who let them in.” Sofie lifts our hands, then hides her face in them as she whispers:

“He joined their ranks at the bar the night before. That-That’s why I’m so caught up even though I should be fine with it. Sorry, I should have said something sooner. I just…”

I gasp, then take a moment to process that information as Sofie sniffles. I take a deep breath, then move the babies over before I flip myself around. Now facing Sofie, I lift her face up a bit, allowing us to lock eyes. Shining with tears, my friend’s crimson pupils pierce into mine, showing an emotion I hadn’t expected.

A deep, messy fear.

My heart does a little flip, the implications not lost on me. An impulsive desire appears in my head, one that I most likely should not indulge. However, when Eve pokes me with her impatience, I realize I had been accidentally broadcasting it to her. I sniffle, then make my choice.

I allow the flames that have been smoldering in my chest to grow into a bonfire.

I silently pull her down to touch our foreheads, never looking away. I inhale, then exhale. I reach out with my heart, enveloping Sofie’s in a deep embrace. My friend gasps, her eyes going wider than I had ever seen them. In an instant, I had done something I could never take back.

“I don’t care what people say about you, nor who your family was,” I declare, slowly rubbing my thumb across her cheekbone. “Nothing will ever change that, so don’t be afraid of me.”

Then as I spread my affection to her, I gently plant a kiss onto her lips. I lean down and hide my face in her neck as I whisper:

“I’m pretty sure I adore you, more than I can possibly imagine.”

“M-Me too!” Sofie loudly sobs, then wraps me in an incredibly tight hug as she begins to cry into my hair. Her voice trembling, Sofie mutters two words as her own incredibly intense love begins to flood over me:

“Thank you.”

She reaches up, running her fingers through my hair as our feelings begin to form a loop. “Thank you.”

I feel her chest trembling against mine, the intense joy she feels from the situation nearly overwhelming. “Thank you.”

I manage to pull my face up, then stop the next repetition with another touch of my lips.

“No, Sofie,” I say with a small smile, feeling a huge weight having been released from my shoulders as I continue with:

“Thank you, for making me fall for you.”