cool training.

tagged by: nobody :( tagging: nobody :(

INDIGO

“Ah! Kalosian tea! When was the last time I had a taste of such divine flavors? Hmm.. oh, sorry to keep you waiting Cal. I would enjoy a cup, please and thank you!” He couldn’t wait to taste this specialized blend, but more than anything else, Professor Elm was eager to hear about his former assistant’s experiences since they last met.

“Well,” the professor craned his neck eagerly, “don’t keep me in suspense now! Tell me about all of your latest adventures!”

Cal lifted the flask of tea he was holding. Adventures could wait!

     “Have some tea first -- I’ll update you in a bit.”

Grinning, Cal poured the good professor a steaming-hot cup of tea. Camphrier’s berry fields really were something else. They rivalled Hoenn’s in scale, and Cal did not once doubt that they would make sure their tea reflected their name.

The fragrance of berries blended with tea leaves lingered in the air as Cal gently placed the cup before Elm.

     “Which part of it? The part where I could dig up fossils, or the part where I got a brand new bike, or the part where I got lost in Lumiose? Oh, let’s start with Lumiose, things got exciting there,” Cal chattered on as he poured himself some tea, and at the same time, mentally reorganised the chain of events.

His eyes sparkled when he started to speak again.

     “Prof, you know how huge Lumiose is? It seems like it’s got everything under control, but while I was there... There was this warning, I think, about not taking a nap while out on the streets - in truth, I’m not sure - but... I’d dozed off on a bench, and the next thing I knew?”

Cal paused for dramatic effect.

   “What kind of person would I be if I only helped you half-way?” Red smiles when Cal finally starts following him. It was a success!

   It’s not very often that he’s told to slow down for others, so it’s a little humorous– but it probably has to do with the injury. There’s nothing to gain from making Cal feel like he has to rush.

   “Sorry!” To shorten the gap between them he slows down until they’re walking side by side. “… So, what happened that made you get hurt?” 

     “Uh...”

Cal’s voice trailed off. It was a difficult question to answer. Just how did he get into that situation with some wild pokémon, anyway? Wait, was it because of the wild pokémon, or...?

Shit. He didn’t remember, and truthfully, he replied,

     “... I swear I’m not lying, but I don’t recall...        It might or might not have been an encounter with a wild pokémon.       No, it couldn’t have been?”

Realising that wasn’t much of an answer, Cal racked his mind, and out of habit, folded his ar --

Ow. Bad idea. This was why he kept getting into (bloody) trouble, wasn’t it?

He was one hurdle away from facing the gym leader. One more step, and he would have a shot at Ecruteak’s badge. Between his eevee and his rhydon, he was confident in his own skills. He’d just added a scyther to his team from the Thursday bug-catching contest -- but at the moment, it was resting in the pokécentre.

So that left him with an unknown factor he’d received shortly before catching his scyther: A sneasel. Between that three pokémon, and not knowing what the last gym trainer carried upon him, Cal made an intentional misstep on the special flooring of the gym, waited for the teleportation system to kick in, and as expected, found himself booted to the start of the maze.

Convenient, that was.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” he told the gym officer, and left for the pokécentre. 

In under a quarter of an hour, Cal had his pokémon healed, and was back in the gym. Without making any mistakes (of course not, he’d already figured out the pattern some time ago), he soon found himself a single step away from the last trainer’s line of sight.

“Did I not just say you could?”

It wasn’t even close to the holiday season, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be generous to people, right? Right! Even if it was just stuffed with Sinnohan candies and some Ultra Balls.

“No big. Hope you enjoy them!”

     “It’s just a figure of speech. Anyway...”

He had no need for the ultraballs, but the candies! The candies he definitely could use more of. They were so expensive to buy in Celadon, and there were copycat versions of it (courtesy of an enterprising business from Johto), but those just weren’t the same, even if the ingredients were.

Cal smiled,

     “I owe you one, friend.       Oh, by the way -- they call me Cal.”

Eagerly, he unwrapped one of them and popped them into his mouth.

     “Thanks for the treat!”

His message and email inboxes are filled with more than a thousand unread messages. Only one or two are opened, by a slip of the hand. They are not read even if the program may say otherwise. 

“Hey, did you know? The best time to open a gift is the present.” And he’s handing out a small bag.

     “Don’t mind if I help myself, then?”

Someone was happy about gifts. Even if it might explode in his face. There was a band-aid over his nose from a cut he’d somehow sustained without even trying to.

Cal peered into the bag.

For a good while up until he turned seven, Cal was under the impression that he was the youngest of two siblings, but that soon changed when he learnt that he was going to have a younger sister.

   “Definitely! You could put it on your face for decoration or something.” He wouldn’t try to take it back after offering it. He has so many it’s really no skin off his nose.

   Red continues to study the gash from afar and hums to himself.

   “Yeah, it’ll be fine if you cover it.” Cal seems to be trying to shrug off his offer but once something like this has been brought to his attention, he’s not going to turn a blind eye just because he doesn’t have what he needs on hand. If a gash doesn’t get covered by anything it’ll just get gross and infected. He gestures for Cal to follow and starts walking backwards towards the nearest PokeMart. “Come on, it’s not that far.” Red speaks encouragingly.

Cal pocketed the band-aid with a grin. It would most likely come in handy in the near future. He had an inkling that he wouldn’t live scrape-free for long, anyway.

He glanced at his wound. Most definitely not. He could afford to be more careful next time. There was always a next time. Cal often told himself that.

     “Oh. Alright, Red.       You win this round, and I get to live to fight another day.”

As if he weren’t struggling with a gash of his own, Cal started ambling towards the PokéMart. 

A trip to get medical supplies was normal, and yet -- Cal couldn’t shake a strange feeling that pooled in his gut. What was at the Mart, and why was it making him not want to go?

At any rate, he quickened his pace, and called after Red,

Cal wears prescription glasses. When on duty or out training, he puts on contact lenses. Without them, he can’t see clearly -- but is less blind than most people automatically assume him to be.

He got his first pair of glasses during his mid-teens after his poor vision was starting to hinder his expeditions on Mt Silver. They broke a week later, and since then, Cal has gone through quite a number of them.

   “No problem—…” He gets a look at the wound finally and immediately furrows his brows. “Uh. I don’t think band-aids are gonna work for that. Especially small ones.” Out of concern, he reaches out to discourage him from unwrapping the band-aid he chose.

   “They’ll probably just fall off. Maybe we should buy some supplies for it?” If it was Red’s own wound or an emergency he’d wrap it in some old cloth, but in this case? It might be worth taking the longer route to do it neatly.

     “... Well then. I did really like the pattern, though.       May I have it, regardless?”

Cal smiled, apologetically. He’d made yet another bad decision, hadn’t he? 

Still holding his arm, he glanced down at it, then back at Red. It wasn’t bleeding out anymore, but it wasn’t one of those scrapes that he could let be. Perhaps Red’s advice was sound.

     "It doesn’t hurt as much, so I’ll probably be fine.       ... I think. Maybe.”

Softly, he laughed, but it wasn’t worth much.