#!ocs

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You don’t know if you got lost on purpose or not this time.  Which one would be worse?  You weigh your options as you squeeze through the crowds, mumbling “‘Scuse me” as you go.  No one says it back to you.

Option one is that you really did get lost.  Violet’s the biggest place you’ve ever been, the furthest from home you’ve ever gone.  You know Mama wouldn’t’ve even considered coming if someone hadn’t made some snide remark about how she couldn’t afford the trip to the festival.  For all she griped about it, she never said who’d told her that.  You wish she had, ‘cause you’d like to shake that person’s hand, maybe ask them if they’d insult her more often.  Not for real–just to get her hackles up enough that she’d take you somewhere new every once in a while.  You tell yourself you can live with the way Mama always reacts if it means you can get lost in places you’ve never been.

Option two is that you did it on purpose.  It turns your stomach to think about it too clearly.  You’ve gotta come at it from the side, out of the corner of your mind’s eye.  You weren’t trying to be disrespectful, ungrateful, any of the other words that find their way into Mama’s mouth faster than they used to.  She’d finally let go of you after the Kimono Girls’ performance, and, well…  Neither of you are all that big.  It’s easy to get separated when an audience is breaking up.  She’ll find you.  She always does.

The feeling of each of her fingertips, pressed bruise-hard into the meat of your upper arm, lingers.  There’s a sign for a police box, just far off enough that you can’t read the rest of what it says.  A lump forms in your throat.  The chatter and the music twist and stretch into Mama’s voice, so vivid that you almost think she’s actually there.  I am so sorry about my fool daughter, Officer, she’d say once she found you at the police box.  She’s just…  She’s always been like this.  Can’t take my eyes off her for a minute.  Like she’s inviting the imaginary cop in on a joke.  Like everyone (especially you) has to know that there’s something not quite right with you, and that’s why she has to keep you so close that it’s hard to tell where she stops and you start.  

You decide then and there that you did get lost on purpose.

From where you’re facing, you can see Sprout Tower, impossibly big even from such a distance.  Your gut instinct tells you to go in the opposite direction, as far away from any landmarks as you can get.  This time, you let the crowd move you along until you’re at a wall of stalls.  They go down a switch-back road, a glowing zig-zag cut through the night.  To your right, there’s a gap between the first stall in the line and the shoulder of the road.  You squeeze through, offering a silent apology to the stall owner for what probably counts as trespassing.  

Past the piles of supplies and a couple of small trucks, a girl is sitting against the guardrail, feet dangling past the edge.  It takes you a sec to place why she looks familiar.  She’s one of the Kimono Girls that was performing–she just took her hair out of its pins.  It curls all the way down her back in loose waves.  With the all the colors of the lights from the festival shining on it, you can’t tell if it’s black, or just a real, real dark brown.

You should probably leave.  She got this spot first, after all.  

“Y’all were–Uh, I really liked your performance,” is what you blurt out instead.  She looks back over her shoulder towards the sound of your voice.  Her makeup’s been scrubbed off.  She missed a spot, right near her temple.

“Oh?  Thanks,” the girl replies.  “Full disclosure, everything I did was a load of Tauros.”

It takes you an embarrassingly long beat to realize she means it was shitty.  

“I was just filling in for my sister.”  A wicked grin turns up the corner of her mouth.  “She got food poisoning, so.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” you say.  You mean it, because you mind your manners more honestly than Mama taught you to.  The girl huffs a little laugh out of her nose, so quiet you barely hear it.

“I’m not.  She deserved it–I told her that konbini sandwich looked like it was growing a new species of fungus.”

“You sure that wasn’t the lettuce or somethin’?” 

She laughs again, louder this time.  A weird mix of shame and pride stirs itself in your chest.  You shouldn’t be poking fun at this girl’s poor sister, but you must be doing something right, if your stupid wise-cracks are getting a positive reaction.  

“I’ll be sure to tell her that when we get back to the inn.  It’ll go over great.”  The girl shuffles around to face you fully.  She rests her shoulders against the guardrail, stretching her long legs out in front of her.  Patting the asphalt next to her–is she seriously asking you to come and sit there?--she continues.  “She hasn’t even started formal training yet, and I knew the routine she was gonna do, but,” and here, a “you-know-how-it-is” kind of shrug.  You nod along even though you don’t know squat about how it is.  “I’m not exactly Kimono Girl material.”

She’s still waiting for you to sit.  You inch towards her, afraid she’s gonna tell you she was just kidding any moment now.  When she doesn’t say anything, you drop down to the ground, just barely remembering to tuck your ugly blue dress under you as you go.  Even this late at night, the gritty heat of the road burns into the backs of your thighs.

“I dunno, you look like the real deal to me.”  You wave your hand in her general direction.  Everything about her is crazy elegant, even when she’s parked on her butt on the side of a street.  Usually, you feel grubby and small and not-quite-right around other girls, like an undersized sweater from a charity shop that you’d throw away if you could afford a better replacement.  The way this girl talks, you wonder if she feels the same.  Maybe her sister’s way better than her at dancing or something?

She must pick up on your train of thought, shaking her head.

“Oh, no, I don’t mean–I’m not getting down on myself or anything.  I meant that I’m not Kimono Girl material because I’m a guy.”  She says it cool and casual as you please, like he didn’t just turn your whole word on its head.

“You can do that?” you ask.  Your voice cracks on the way out.  He raises his perfect eyebrows at you like a challenge, and oh, shit, does he think you’re judging him?  You’re not judging him, you just–you don’t know–you want–  “That’s allowed?”

It must be the right thing to say.  Kimono Boy’s expression relaxes.

“For fun, sure.  My sister who got food poisoning is my twin.  We did the whole ‘twin-switch’ prank a lot when we were little kids.”  He rolls his eyes.  “Not so much, these days–this is all too much of a pain in the ass to put on.”

“That’s–” you’re nodding along like one of those tacky bobble-head Miltank souvenirs you absolutely woud’ve bought earlier today if you had a lick of money to your name.  “That’s cool.  That, uh, folks don’t give you guff.  For wearin’ somethin’ different.”   

“It’s not that deep,” he demurs.  “I’m stuck tagging along whenever we travel, so at least I got to do something besides sit around at the inn tonight.  Mother’s allowed to work me to the bone as an errand boy, but I’m not allowed to go out and die in the wilderness for some reason.  Can’t imagine why.”  His tone is all woe-is-me, too over the top to be sincere.  Under that is a tiny hint of something real, something hungry.  You understand the shape of it, if not the name.

“You wanna be a trainer?  You’ve gotta be old enough already.  It’s, what–ten?”

“Ten,” Kimono Boy agrees.  “I mean, I have my license, and I’ve been working with Pokémon forever.  Someone just got it in my beloved mother’s head that every other kid who goes out at ten drops dead within twenty-four hours.”  The way he says it–”beloved mother”--sounds like he means it.  Like there’s real love beneath the sarcasm and frustration.  “So, here I am, doing chores and being Ecruteak’s best drag queen until we’re fourteen.”

“Wait, how old’re you now?”

“We’re turning thirteen in…”  He counts under his breath, long fingers coming up one by one.  “A week and a half?”

“No shot you’re younger than me!  What the hell’re they feeding you?”  The swear just slips out of the privacy of your head before you can even think to hold it back.  You don’t linger on it when Kimono Boy doesn’t, too busy nursing a liquid-hot flare of envy.  Even sitting down, he’s gotta be at least a full head taller than you.

“Did you see my mother and older sister up there?  We’re all just built like that.”  He’s not talking polite to you at all, now he knows you’re older.  You can’t bring yourself to mind.

“Lucky bastard,” you grumble, all bark and no bite.  He ruffles the top of your head, casual as you please.  

“You’ve got time, little buddy,” he assures you, all fake-sympathetic.  

“Piss off!”  You give him a little shove with your shoulder, like you know each other, like you’re friends.  You suddenly want to be his friend so damn bad.  You kinda hope you already are.

The sounds of the festival fill in the lull before it can get too awkward.  The two of you watch flickers of movement at the stalls, mostly hidden by crates and trucks.  Food is burning somewhere, the smoke-thick smell draped over the humid night air.  You bounce your foot idly to the distant beat of drums.

“What’s your deal?” Kimono Boy eventually asks.  “Are you still in school, or working already, or…?” 

“‘M not that old, sheesh.  Turnin’ fourteen next month.  I’m just kinda posted right now, I guess.  Same as you.”  It’s not the same at all.  He has a future, and you have Mama.  “Not a lotta stuff out where I’m from.”

“You’re not from Violet?”

“Nah, some podunk town no one knows.  It’s kinda near the border?  With Kanto?”  Kimono Boy actually perks up with interest, a reaction nobody in the history of everything has ever had to New Bark.  

“No shit?  Near the Indigo Plateau?”  His dark eyes gleam, and you notice for the first time the faint ring of contact lenses around them.  You make an “ehhh” kind of gesture with your hand to hide the fact that you couldn’t find the Indigo Plateau on a map if your life depended on it.  “Do you guys get a lot of trainers coming through on the Johto side?”

Do you?  Probably, but you see them as little as you see the neighbors Mama also hoards you away from.  She’s real equal-opportunity like that.

“It’s kinda hard to tell,” is what you say instead.  “They’re not runnin’ around with their Pokémon all over the place or anythin’.”

“Do you have one?”  When you stare at him blankly, Kimono Boy clarifies, “Your own Pokémon, I mean.”  You promptly decide not to open that can of Weedle.  

“D’you?”  It feels a little bad, leading him by the nose like this, but he puffs right up with pride at your question.  

“I’ve got two, though the other one’s back at the inn where we’re staying.  You know, for the family brand integrity?”  You have absolutely no clue what half the words he just said are supposed to mean.  “Technically, I’m not supposed to have Suzu out, since I’m playing Tamao tonight, but…”  A ball rolls out of his long sleeve and into his waiting palm.  It’s the kind of party trick he’s for sure had to practice to do it so smooth.  That doesn’t stop it from impressing you, though.

The ball isn’t like the ones you see on posters or stacked up behind the register at the grocery store.  Instead of red on one half, white on the other, the whole capsule is an orangey-red.  The metal ring and clasp around the middle might just be honest-to-goodness gold, flecked with streaks of bright green.  It stares at you, unblinking, daring you to fess up to everything you don’t know enough about to even begin wanting.

Kimono Boy tosses the ball gently into the air.  It lands right back in the center of his palm.  You’d call him a show-off, but you’ve just locked eyes with whatever Pokémon came out in a stream of pale light.  

It’s four-legged, covered in cream-and-pink fur, with big old ears that tilt backwards as it drops into a deep stretch.  Each of its paw-toes splay out, which would be real cute if it weren’t for the well-maintained claws poking out of the tips.  A yawn reveals wicked-sharp little fangs, and its eyes have no whites–just big, blue pupils laser-focused on you.  It makes a series of whistles that slide all over the place in pitch, before petering out into another yawn.  Nothing about it is threatening, but every muscle in your body is suddenly locked up tight.

“It’s okay,” comes Kimono Boy’s voice from your left.  You don’t know which of you he’s talking to.  “She’s not gonna attack or anything.  We must’ve woken her up, that’s all.”  The Pokémon whistles again, softer this time.  She has long ribbons tied around her neck and one of her ears, and one of them suddenly moves, slithering up to brush against your calf.  Your eyeballs near about pop out of their sockets.

“What in the–”

Your reaction cracks Kimono Boy up, and you swear the Pokémon pouts.

“Sorry, I’m–I’m not laughing at you.  Promise.  I just love it when people freak out about her ribbons.  They’re like extra tails, see?”  He reaches out to the Pokémon, and she obligingly wraps one of the neck-tail-ribbon-things around his hand, like she’s shaking it for a business deal.  It’s such a weirdly human thing to do that a strangled chuckle startles its way out of you as well.  Kimono Boy’s tone shifts towards something gentler, more serious.  “Seriously, are you good?  I can return her–she just hates to be balled, and she might actually eat me if I do it to her again tonight.”

“‘S’fine.”  Your voice doesn’t come out as shaky as you thought it would.  “Just never been this close to one before.  My mama, uh.  Doesn’t like ‘em much.”  So much for avoiding that subject.  The can of Weedle is fully open, poured on the ground, and now they’re everywhere.

“Fairy-types?  Or just…all Pokémon?”  Kimono Boy sounds baffled, like he’s never had to put “don’t like” and “Pokémon” together in a sentence before.  

The thing is: you know this is weird.  You’re acutely aware of how damn weird it is, the way Mama won’t let so much as a stray Sentret sit on your doorstep.  You don’t even think she’s afraid of them.  She keeps you away from Pokémon the same way she does your neighbors, or boys, or fast cars, or TV shows, or anything that isn’t the airtight circle of her arms.  You should be grateful to have a mama who loves you.  You really should be.

“The second one?”

Kimono Boy mutters something under his breath that sounds like “How do you not–?”.  The Pokémon bops him with one of her front paws, chirping like she’s scolding him for being rude.

“Ow, you little beast,” he scolds right back, not sounding particularly mad.  Then, to you, “Do you want to let her smell you?  She’s just miffed that you’re not already obsessed with her.  Isn’t that right, Miss Suzu?”  

“Miss Suzu” sticks her nose up in the air, haughty as can be.  Her tail (the actual one, on her butt) starts up a wag that gives her interest away.  You suck in a deep lungful of summer-thick air.

“Yeah, okay.  I can do that.  Sorry for bein’ such a freak about it or whatever.”

“It’s fine–I won’t tell your crazy mother you were petting Pokémon.”  Oh, you should really call him on saying that.  You don’t much want to.  “Just stick your hand out to her like this.”  He holds his hand out to you to demonstrate, palm-down and wrist relaxed.  You copy the movement first, then slowly reach towards Suzu.  Those eerie, all-blue eyes stay fixed on you the whole time.  Just as slowly, like you’re the spooked Pokémon and she’s the human, Suzu stretches out her neck until she can sniff at your fingertips.

The quick, one-two puff of her breath fans over your skin.  There’s a brief touch of something warm and twitching.  It’s her nose-leather, you realize.  When you don’t scream and/or explode, Suzu nuzzles her chops and cheek against you.  The pressure drags her skin taut over her wet gums, and it sounds for all the world like someone blowing a Razz Berry.   Both of you emboldened, Suzu comes closer, until she’s propping her front paws up on your lap.  She purrs at about the same pitch and volume as a tire inflator.  Kimono Boy obligingly pats one of her flanks, then starts up a scratch right over the base of her tail.

“Seriously, I’m real sorry for freakin’ out like that.”  Saying it once didn’t clear up the leaden weight in your stomach.  This guy’s been so nice to you, and you wanna impress him so bad.  More than that–you wanna feel like you don’t have to impress him.  You sneak a look up at him through the flyaway mess of your hair.  He looks deep in thought, scratching that same spot on Suzu’s butt like it’s got the winning lotto numbers on it.

“It’s fine, seriously.  You didn’t scream or call me a no-no word when I told you I was a guy running around in family-sanctioned drag.”  There’s an edge in his voice that speaks to worse experiences.  It scrambles your understanding of this boy all over again.  He seems more world-wise than any twelve year-old oughta be, even one the size of a Girafarig who talks like he eats books for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You’re seized by the urge to land a mean right hook on anyone talking trash to him.  (You’ve never landed a right hook on anything in your whole entire life.)

“‘Course I wouldn’t do that,” you insist, though you get that he couldn’t have known for sure.

Suzu crawls all the way into your lap, like she really will wither away if she’s not the center of attention.  Her trust in a weird human who nearly flipped a lid at the sight of her has you feeling like the damn Pokémon Master.  You’d scoop Suzu up and shove her in Mama’s face if that didn’t mean having to go back to Mama in the first place.  You want to shove Kimono Boy in her face, too.  You’d show her that you can go out and meet folks, that you’re not gonna end up like her, trying to squeeze herself into her baby’s life like it’s clothes she won’t admit don’t fit anymore–

On second thought, you don’t want to share Kimono Boy with Mama.

“Do you have a landline?” Kimono Boy asks out of nowhere.  “We could trade numbers.  I mean, you don’t have to–you can call me collect, I don’t care, it’s just if you want to keep in touch.  Just an offer.  We could be, like, phone pals.  If that’s okay?”  His voice squeaks a little at the end.  “Not in a flirting way, or a straight way or anything.  Just as friends.”  It’s the most awkward you’ve seen him all night.  

“You serious?”

“Only if you want,” he repeats.  He’s fidgeting with one of his long curls, twisting it around itself over and over again.

“I do want!  It’s just that my mama’s…  She wouldn’t take kindly to me talkin’ to a boy.  I don’t wanna get you in trouble.”  Not that you know what Mama could even do to Kimono Boy, just that you’d protect him from it, if you could. 

“Well, what if…” he trails off.  His other hand leaves Suzu to join the first in his hair, despite her squeak of protest.  You give her an apologetic pat on the rump, and one of her haunches starts to jiggle in sheer delight.  Kimono Boy, meanwhile, seems to be trying to tie his own hair into the world’s tightest knot.  You elbow him in the side.  It’s a bit of an affair, trying to do that while still petting Suzu with both hands.  

“Will you stop that?  You’re ruinin’ your hair.” 

“I am thinking,” he insists in a plummy, pompous voice.  “I’m scheming.”

“Gonna have to scheme up a trip to the barber’s if you’re not careful.”

“Let me live!  I have an idea.  Hear me out on this, okay?”

You fix him with the most skeptical face you can muster, for all of five seconds before you start giggling.

“Shut up!”

“I didn’t say anythin’ yet!”

“Neither did I, so just–just listen.  Okay.  Your crazy mother doesn’t want you talking to boys because she thinks you’re gonna get teen pregnant or something, right?”

“Or something,” you agree.  He’s pretty much right on the mark.  The way Mama tells it, breathing the same air as a man will see you pregnant, kidnapped, dead, broke, and socially disgraced, all at the same time.         

“What if you told her I’m my sister?  Nothing like having another nice, respectable young lady from a good family as your bosom buddy, right?”  He bats his long, long eyelashes, all pretend-innocent.  

It’s such a bad idea.  There are so many ways Mama could catch you out, so many reasons she’d say no to you having a girl friend who isn’t her.  You still want to go along with it more than you’ve wanted anything for yourself before.  

“You got a pen or somethin’?  I could write our number on your hand.”  You do at least know your own phone number–Mama made sure you could recite it out if (when) you got lost, so she could come get you right away.  A giddy, awful part of you hopes she never does.  Maybe Kimono Boy’s family came in a car, and they could just chuck you in the back and drive off.  Mama would get over it.  Right?

You’re only half-surprised that Kimono Boy does, in fact, have a pen hidden somewhere in the layers of his outfit.  He passes it over to you with a murmured apology when his arm brushes against one of Suzu’s ears.  You have to let go of her to take it.  His hand is warm and a bit sweaty in between your own, equally warm and sweaty hands.  The ink of the pen traces such bumpy trails over his protruding bones that you’re not even sure the numbers are readable.  He returns the favor, writing noticeably more steady.

“I will never wash this hand again,” he declares, placing it over his heart.  You shove him again.  He shoves back.  Suzu lets out a piercing, grumpy whistle.  Her seat moving and the pets stopping are a bridge too far, apparently.  

“I guess if your mom’s listening when we talk, call me Tamao.  We sound pretty much the same on the phone.  I can even introduce myself to your mom as her, since,” he waves a hand over his clothes.

“Awful convenient,” you say.  I don’t want her anywhere near you, near us, you don’t say.  This is probably a little obsessive for someone you’ve only known a few minutes, a few hours, your whole life–however long it’s been.  Hell, you don’t even know his name.

“I’m always thinking ahead,” he replies sagely.  

“What about if it’s just us?”  Kimono Boy makes a questioning noise in the back of his throat.  “If Mama’s not listening.  Do I just keep callin’ you Tamao or…?”  

---

Lyra is in your bedroom, for some reason. She’s got the door to the courtyard slid open, and damp, chilly spring air has made its presence known in the room. She’s sitting criss-cross on a cushion, watching her Feraligatr stomp about in the rain.

“Papa said I could come in,” Lyra blurts before you can even open your mouth to ask.

“That’s fine,” and you don’t think there’s anything too obscene or upsetting out in the open for her to see. Maybe the notebooks full of your own father’s poetry next to the lamp—but she wouldn’t know the significance of those, now would she? You’re constantly trying to wrap your head around the fact that you’re even allowed to call Lyra your daughter. She reminds you so much of Ches when you were kids that it hurts—so open, so eager to trust you with her love.

“I’m worried about Borrel out there.” From where you’re standing, it doesn’t look like Borrel needs much worrying about. She seems to be having a grand old time out there. When you tell Lyra as much, she insists, “Yeah, but she’s an ectotherm, and it’s real chilly out.”

“Nice vocab,” you tell her, honestly impressed. Borrel continues to play in the rain, noticeably unbothered by the cold.

“Professor Elm made me do a buncha research and write a report on which starter I wanted, back… back home.” She sounds almost apologetic when she mentions her home. Your memories of Ches’ old house are coming up on fifteen years old, but you do recall the place being a bit of a dump. You wonder what Lyra thinks of your family’s giant, sprawling complex, if she sees a place for herself here.

“I think your Forretress is out there, too, Daddy.”

You don’t see anything except Borrel having the time of her scaly life until you come right up to the door. The light hits an edge of Kazuko’s metallic shell, most of her bulk hidden under the awning of Tamao’s room across from yours. Her cannons are retracted for the night.

“As long as Borrel doesn’t try to touch her, it should be fine,” you assure Lyra. You tower over her even when you’re both standing, so you sit your bony ass down at a respectful distance.

“Brrr. Lyra, sweet pea, what’ve you got the door open for? It’s freezin’.” Ches is back from wherever he went, shivering despite wearing socks, long pants, and that giant red sweater that makes him look like a Delibird.

“I’m just watchin’ out for Borrel,” she replies dutifully.

“Borrel’s a big, big girl, baby, she can watch herself. C’mon, let’s let me and your daddy get to sleep.”

---

This raw, vulnerable version of Naoki feels like a stranger and achingly familiar, all at the same time. You don’t wanna spook him back into his cracked shell. You wanna take care of him, so bad that it’s something physical, clenching in your heart and rising up your throat.

“Let’s get you outta that pretty head of yours,” you tell him, and do a stupid little Teddiursa crawl across the bed to straddle his waist. His breath leaves in a rush when you sit.

Already not off to the sexiest start. Still, Naoki stares up at you obediently, dark eyes wide. You can’t even tell where his pupil stops and his iris starts. Yeah, you can do this for him.

Nice and slow, you lean down, your forearms bracketing his head for support. You press a kiss to the bow of his upper lip, and he opens right up for you. The warm puff of his breath against your lips is a surrender you want to devour. You keep the kiss soft, meltingly tender, and Naoki whines into your mouth like he doesn’t even know he’s making the noise. You’re getting some kinda cuteness aggression from it, pulling away just a smidge to pepper the rest of his face with even more kisses.

“Oh, you’re gonna be easy for it, huh?” you murmur against his cheek.

Naoki makes a gormless sound like “mughmph”. You suck at the sweet spot under his earlobe. His fingers tug a tentative question against the hem of your shirt. You entertain the idea for a sec, but—

“Sssh, not now, baby. We’re all about you right now.”

“Ches, you don’t have to—”

You pull away to fix him with a look. He’s flushed and skittish and thinking so many thoughts that they’re practically falling out his ears.

“I don’t ‘have’ to, but I want to,” you say firmly. Fuck, you hope that doesn’t just sound like you’re about to go off on a lecture in your Dad Voice. “And if I wanna suck your soul straight out your dick, you’re just gonna have to be a good boy about it, yeah?”

Naoki’s face goes on a whole journey over the course of that sentence. He’s winding up an eye-roll at “suck your soul straight out your dick”, only for it to fall apart into something thunderstruck at “good boy”. Your mouth blooms into a manic grin as he realizes he’s just been caught out. Oh, you have his number now.

“My good boy,” you repeat, lifting your hips so you can start to pull his yukata open at the chest.

“You sound like a nursery school teacher,” is Naoki’s sad attempt at acting like he’s not into it. You kiss the hollow of his throat, his little moan buzzy against your lips.

---

The bar is stuffed to the gills, to the point you’re surprised people are still being ushered in. Judging by the outfits of the clientele, they’re either running a theme night, or Pewter City is the central hub for nerds who want to turn it the fuck up. A few yards to your left, there’s a comically tall girl sticking out from the crowd like an Alolan Exeggutor trying to blend in with a herd of its Kantonian counterparts. She’s nursing a drink that might not even be alcoholic, shoulders hunched like she’s terrified of her skinny frame taking up space. You’re aware you’re just openly checking her out at this point.

The deciding factor is her outfit. She’s wearing a bolo tie, and you’ve got to know what kind of lesbian wears a fucking bolo tie to the bar.

“Is this another wedding party, or what?”

The girl takes a moment to register you’re talking to her. It might have something to do with the fact that the top of your head barely clears her shoulder, and that’s in heels. She leans down towards you with the obliging air of someone accustomed to talking to short people.

“Is it a what now?” Her voice is only just strong enough for you to hear as the song playing shifts from some light house to thumping bass.

“A wedding party,” you repeat, louder this time.

“Oh, no! It’s, uh, a conference. Librarians’ conference.”

“No shit?” That explains the outfits, then. “You from Pewter U?”

“Ecruteak City Public Libraries,” she says, sounding distracted. “I—I’m sorry, that’s my supervisor up there.”

You follow the line of her pointed finger to watch an unassuming middle-aged woman absolutely busting her ass out on the raised dance floor. The girl smothers the sweetest little giggle into her drink, the sound bouncing around the cup. You make a show of looking away from the dancing supervisor.

“So, um.” She runs a hand through her mop of short curls, a nervous habit. “Are you from Pewter U, then?”

“Nah, went to U of Hulbury. In Galar? I’m over at the FCMBFR—fuck, that’s a mouthful—nowadays, on field research for modern-born fossil Pokemon.”

This is somehow exactly the right thing to say to pop a cute librarian out of her shell. Her big brown eyes light up like a Yamper ready to chase a ball.

“Really? I was gifted a modern-born Kabuto kind of recently, and I’ve read a couple of papers from you all—I’m kind of a nerd about Rock-types, sorry.”

That admission alone makes you want to pull her down by her stupid bolo tie and kiss her.

“Don’t be,” and you’re aware you’re sliding out of flirt-mode and into the nerd-mode you try not to show girls. Something, something, rock blasts in glass houses.

--

You’re having One Of Those Days. You weren’t when Kaito left for work this morning—you always wake up to see him off, and less always go back to bed for a few hours once he’s gone. Somewhere in the space between laying back down and waking back up, a switch has been flipped in you. You’ve been staring at the grooves of the floor for an indeterminate amount of time. If you let your eyes unfocus, the space between two of the boards looks like a mouth curled into a frown.

Your head is the bad kind of empty. You know this because it’s starting to pulse in time with your dry tongue—dehydrated. You make no move to get up.

If you called Kaito, or even texted him, you know he’d drop everything to come take care of you. His workplace knows all about his “sick fiancee” whose condition can take a turn for the worse at any second. You came to the company New Year’s party a few months ago, and all Kaito’s coworkers were so shocked that you were 1) real, and 2) devastatingly hot. The memory doesn’t make you feel a thing.

Reaching your phone is too much effort, and besides, the old compulsion is there again. You have to protect him. You’re the smart one, the oldest one left, so it falls to you to protect him from… What? You?

At that thought, Teke-Teke clatters up your spine, and you hate her for it. You wish she’d shut up and go away and belong only to whoever you were in the days where everything burned smoky and desperate like an oil fire. If I art thou and thou art I, can’t she be happy for you? How come she never scuttles around on your good days?

She doesn’t answer. She hasn’t answered you at all, not since you went back into the Labyrinth (Michiru’s blood was gone from the floors, like he’d never lived and died at all) and forced her back into your veins with what, at the time, seemed like such a deep, dark secret to tell.

So calling Kaito is a no-go. You’ll feel silly about it by evening, you’re sure, but right now, the thought is untenable. You wish you didn’t even know what the word “untenable” meant. Still, your phone gleams judgmentally at you from the floor. The charge light is green, and probably has been for hours. You could totally reach it without having to get up—your arms are long enough.

Like you’re moving through tar, the way Shadows felt against your naginata right before you cut through and they burst into nothing, you raise your hand. Slap it down on the floor nowhere near your phone. Try again. Succeed. There’s a text from your mom:

Mama ❤️ 08:43

Good morning, Mion-chan!