#&threads

After a much needed sabbatical which hadn’t amounted to more than some tomfoolery and drunken nights, Hayden had returned to LA and found that nothing had changed. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but maybe had thought that some time and some space wouldn’t make everything feel so goddamn suffocating all the time. Much to her chagrin, it still very much was. And so she found comfort the only way that she knew how, by blowing her pay check and savings on making things a little warmer and a little number. 

She hadn’t spoken to Mattie since she had stupidly drunk texted her that one night and certainly hadn’t texted her since she’d been back. As it stood, her schedule was work, drink, sleep (barely, repeat. Occasionally, when she woke up not hungover or still drunk, and if she woke up early enough, Hayden would catch the surf. Her performance on those days was less than pleasurable, and it did very little to make her feel much of anything. No, the only thing that seemed to help was when she was too drunk to think, that was when she felt the closest to the Hayden she used to be. 

Unfortunately, explaining to the police that the reason you were intoxicated in public was to be functional didn’t really go as well as one would expect. As such she presently found herself in the drunk tank, the fact that she was in a prison was extremely sobering on a mental level, but the police still weren’t going to release her until she’d fully sobered up. That or if she found an adult that would assume responsibility over her drunk ass. It was as such that, after failing to reach anyone else at the numbers Hayden had provided, she found herself giving them Mattie’s number, unsure as to whether or not the girl was back in LA, and even less sure that she would come and pick up Hayden while they were on the terms they were on. 

      He was only supposed to have been staying at The Cortez for the night of course, fate, and the hotel had different plans for Billy Loomis. It was a horrific display that left much blood spilled, and his body cold on the mattress. “Who fucking killed me?” He questioned, taking note that he wasn’t alone in the room.

     Leilani, like her team, was exhausted. A day of training in the wilds wore them all down to the bone, and the young woman could barely find the energy to make her way back down the trails towards town. Lei wiped her brow, and looked up at the setting sun. It’d been a long day, but they were that much stronger for it, albeit barely in any condition to battle at the moment. 

     As dusk started to slowly set into evening she thought of Unova’s wildlife, how some of the bigger, and stronger, Pokemon came out at night, and reached down into her bag for a repel. When she could not find any, she swore under her breath. 

     “I should hurry before someth-” and before she could finish her thought she was cut off by a low growl, and loud rustling in the brush nearby. Leilani froze, her Pokemon were in no condition to fight, and as a large Ursaring came stomping out of the treeline she knew running was a stupid move. 

     The larger ursine Pokemon’s eyes met hers, and she swallowed, and everything seemed to stand still. This was the worst possible time to have near fainted Pokemon and no Pokeballs whatsoever. 

      In seven and  a half years of training, shed never been in a situation this dangerous because of her own stupidity. No balls, healing items, and no Poke dolls or anything that might ward off the large predator. 

     This was the choice, risk her Pokemon fainting, or die, slowly her hand reached for her first ball, Mudsdale had the most health, though that wasn’t saying too much. Leilani bit her lip, and planted her feet as if to show she wasn't scared. For a moment her mind wandered to the Bewear she caught back in Alola, how she wished it was here now. 

     She never got to call out her Mudsdale, the Ursaring came at her, roaring loudly as it barreled towards her! She had just enough time between herself and the beast for her Fight or Flight instincts to kick in, and she made a break for it! Lei managed some distance before she tripped over a small rock, and fell into small ditch, and pain shot up her ankle! 

How to broach the subject of having a girl (and her PA??) over for Easter Dinner had been on the back of Hayley’s mind for the last week or so. Even though it was still far away, she knew Susie appreciated the most heads up as possible. And now, finding attending a gala this week for said girl, she found it hard to deny the inevitability of where this whole thing was going. Still, it was maybe the lack of certainty as to what either of them were to each other that made Hayley herself unsure as to how she would bring it up to Susie. 

Susie, who thought Hayley had no girl problem and watched a lot of adult films, would surely have a bunch of questions that Hayley herself didn’t have the answer to. Yet with every day drawing closer to Easter, Hayley knew she she had to bite the bullet and give her roommate ample heads up, in the event Easter dinner would no longer be happening to begin with. 

    peter kicks his feet out in front of him, getting more and more impatient by the second. mom’s letting him stay up on a school night for this, which is super cool, and it’s not cloudy, which is also really cool, but so far, there hasn’t even been anything to see.

    he squirms a little in his spot on the blanket they’ve got laid out in the front yard, feels the grass underneath it scratch him a little bit as he does, and lets out a big ol’ sigh. this is taking so long. it’s not that he’s getting tired, okay, because he’s not; he’s six, thank you very much, and because he’s six, he’s the big boy that mom says he is, and big boys don’t get tired. they stay up way past their bedtime, which he’s definitely going to do; halley’s comet isn’t going to come again for another, like, 80 years, which means he’ll be old, older than pops, even, and he probably won’t even be able to see when it comes again, so he’s definitely not gonna miss it now. and --

    in that moment, something flashes across the sky.

There are people whose acquaintances Tei never should’ve made (and wouldn’t have, if he keeps to the straight and narrow), but his life choices are known to vacillate between terrible to the absolute worst. Not that he minds. Or notices, most of the times. It does, however, drag him into unfortunate situations that would either lead to incarceration or death, both of which he’s not too fond of.

There’s still a lot of things he wants to do. Like learn how to fish.

And ride a gondola.

He’s already sliding into the passenger seat as several plain-clothed detectives burst out of the alley behind him, voices cut off as the door slams shut. He shakes out a baseball cap from the back of his jeans and pulls it over his hair, smile unfaltering as he studies the face looking back at him.