It felt like it'd been hours since Touko fell asleep, but now her mind was at least a little more clear. The first thing she noticed was that both her Fennekin and her Bulbasaur were out of their pokeballs. She didn't remember releasing them, but then again, in her sleepy daze she didn't remember much of anything she'd done beforehand.
It took a few moments to realize that there was a pokemon with the other two, one that was not hers. Upon rubbing her eyes and getting a good look, she saw that it was tiny, and black—or maybe just dark gray—with little red markings about it. Once the tiny creature noticed she was awake, it made a point to jump to her, so they were nose-to-nose.
"Well, you don't seem to want to fight, at least . . . what's this?" Touko made a bad habit of talking to pokemon she knew could never respond. Though it did help her notice things about them, like their reactions, or in this case, the small collar the pokemon had around it's neck.
Attached to it, in the front, was a tiny pokeball-shaped capsule, with a folded up paper inside. With careful movements, she removed the collar from the pokemon, just to make sure it would not protest. With much less care, she unfolded the paper to read it.
His handwriting was sloppy, yet he spoke pretty well on paper.
"Touko,
I know you're mad. I know you didn't want me to be here. But that does not change that I want to speak to you and become your friend. I want to know about your dream. Then I want you to help me realize mine. You have beaten me, but that does not have to make us enemies. I've accepted that you've beaten me, and that pokemon deserve to live with humans. I like to think, however, that you agree with me as well, that they should never be abused. I only want help trying to help those who need help. I will visit you again. I will find you again. But before I do, I will give you time to sort yourself out. Take Zoura. He will be a nice addition to your team.
-N."
Touko didn't know how to feel anymore. Part of her was enraged at herself, part of her felt like she should still be mad at him. Why, though? He was trying to be nice. He just . . . simply was not going about it in the right way. What now? She had no idea where to even go at this point, but she did know she had a new friend.
"I name you . . . Harmony. Sound good?" she asked, and the tiny Zoura yipped in approval. A sigh escaped her when she stood and began making her way out of Parfum Palace. Half out of content, and half out of irriation.
It took her a few times of traveling down the same hallway to navigate her way out, but once she had, she noticed something rather strange overhead. A large, orange figure flew in the sky, while the trainers she'd beaten hours before gaped at the creature, muttering under their breath things like, 'Look at that,' and 'Oooooh, pretty! Nothing like I've ever seen before!'. Touko sighed, and half-shouted to her persuer.
"If you're going to stalk me, you could at least make it a little less obvious!" and once she had, it was made clear the creature was traveling at a high speed, down to meet her. She only made a few strides in order to try and avoid it, before she was caught by the arms of the white dragon, who carried her off, leaving her pokemon behind. As she was flown, Touko could only scream and kick her legs, completely taken by surprise.
After a rather short ride, she was released. Soon after, she saw N's figure in what appeared to be . . . a tent? He was leaned against a large pokemon in which she'd never seen, and before she could question what could have possibly have been going on, her consciousness began to drift. She had been dragged through the sky for a bit too long, and it did a small toll on her mind; which decided now would be the time for a nap.
"Touko . . . it's well past time . . . you have to . . . it's been two hours . . . I need to talk to you," a voice rang in Touko's ears, and while she knew who it was, only little bits of information rang through.
"Just . . . five more minutes . . . please."
"Could you at least get off my arm then, please?"
"But you're so . . . warm. Like a . . . heater, kinda." Touko'd been mumbling a conversation in half-consciousness. She drifted like this, in and out, for what seemed to N to be like hour upon hour. It dawned on her eventually, though, and it did cause her to cause quite a stir.
She scrambled to get away from the man she was cuddling up to, but she only managed a half-roll away from him. It left not much more then three feet between them. She looked all around, distressed and confused as to where she was. First she saw the small yellow flowers. Then, a purple cat-like pokemon running through them, quite like the one she saw in Lumiose. Then, her gaze reverted to N and his Reshiram, curled in with his pokemon as well as her own. There was a gap where she had been, and N leaned somewhat slumped into the now unoccupied space.
"Finally awake, are we? I thought you were finally warming up to me. You even called me your heater!"
Touko cringed.
"Where have you taken me . . ." she murmered, trying to gather her surroundings.
"Well, I needed to talk to you aga-"
"Kidnapping someone is not a good way to start a conversation!"
"What? This isn't kidnapping! I just took you away from a place with so many people, and so many places you can refuse to talk to me in!"
"N, you know that isn't right."
"How else am I supposed to get you to look at me again?"
N's words made Touko pause. She shivered a little, looked down, looked back up, back down. For the first time she realized she wouldn't look him in the eyes.
"Why does it matter if I look at you?" her words were harsh, but yet, she still only looked at everything except his eyes. She had a habit of looking at his mouth when he talked. His arms. His hair. Anything but the eye contact.
"Because you looked at me before everything happened."
"So what?" she snapped, and crossed her arms around her chest.
"So, I want you back! I want to be friends with you. I want to know who you are when you aren't trying to tear apart my dreams, Touko!" he snapped right back at her, disrupting the tranquility of the area. Pokemon around them stirred, uncomfortable with the yelling.
N took notice of this almost immediately, and softened his angered tone. Touko saw it in the way his arm muscle relaxed.
"You're being ridiculous . . ."
"You're being stubborn. But if you still won't look at me, at least let me show you this place" he said with a small grunt as he stood, offering a hand to help her up. She refused it, and got up on her own.
"These pokemon . . . they come here once bad trainers have abused them, and when they're here, they have shelter and food, and no one can harm them because it's near impossible to find this place. I want you to—Touko?" Now, if you'd follow me . . ."
"What's over here?" she asked, and immediately went in the opposite direction. She touched the rim of what seemed to be a garbage can, but was surprised when it moved and attacked her. She reached for a pokeball, realizing quickly her own pokemon were half the level of this Garbodor, and promptly wince and waited for a brutal strike from the pokemon. It surprised her to hear N shout 'No' from a distance away, then something to the tune of 'Garbodor, she's the one we talked about, please!'
It surprised her more when she opened her eyes to see the smelly pokemon up close to her. It examined her, sniffed her even, and withdrew back into it's can.
"Now, if you'd kindly follow me . . ." N put emphasis on the word kindly, hoping she had new understanding of why she needed to follow the leader in this once instance.
"Oh! That pokemon . . . it's the big one from earlier, right?" as she asked, she glanced around her to see if she could spot it.
"Mhmm. I'm glad you remember. Snorlax was glad to finally have cuddle buddies. I usually leave pokemon to nap with him, but he never quite seems as happy as when a human cuddles up to him. I think I understand why, now. If I were a bit more selfish I'd have kept you to myself." he teased, but he noticed Touko was attempting to ignore him. A sigh escaped him, and for the first time, Touko looked up at him.
"Sucks having someone ignore you, doesn't it, my dear?" she said with a huge grin, and examined his face for a reaction. She was expecting anger, irritation, or down-right sadness, but instead he returned her smile. She furrowed her brow, and went back to avoiding eye contact. Her attention drifted to his hat, instead, which she noticed for the first time looked strikingly like the one she'd bought recently. His green hair stuck out of it differently now, it seemed, somewhat more neat, and it caused her to worry if her own hair was messy. She took off the hat she'd been wearing, and upon looking at it, she found that it did not look strikingly similar to the hat she'd recently bought.
"N! You switched our hats!"
"Oh, did I? Sucks to have someone take something you like." he said with a grin that resembled hers.
"This is so stupid! Why did you even bring me here?"
"To talk to you, somewhere where you wouldn't be able to just run away from."
"That's not very legal, you know!"
"If you've noticed, I don't really abide by many laws. I'm sure they'll lock me away forever for wanting to talk to a girl, and just forget about the criminal organization I was placed at the head of," as he was speaking he had been taking steps closer to Touko, to try and get her to listen. At this point, he was standing directly above her, and she was being forced to glare up at his eyes.
"I suppose if you're going to talk, you should get it done," she spit out with as much venom as she could, despite feeling nervous with him hovering above her. She'd shown him her fearlessness time and time again.
"Did you read my letter?"
"I read your stupid letter."
"Have you considered the offer?"
"I don't know what you want me to do," she spun around to throw her arm up, gesturing to all the pokemon around the area, "these pokemon are already here, already safe! What more do you want from me, N?"
"Touko, listen . . ." he sighed between his words, clearly trying to collect himself. "I need help saving pokemon to bring them here. I can only think of one person to help me do this." he spoke, and looked for her eyes. They showed rage instead of the understand he was looking for.
"Last time you 'saved' pokemon, you stole them!"
"Touko, I know that. We both do. That's why I need you! To show me how to help, instead of hurt! To tell me when there is hurt, instead of the love some people have for their pokemon!" he said, and as he spoke, a small Fletchling flew up to Touko. It hovered for a moment until she held out her hand for the bird to land. Upon inspection, she noticed the tiny pokemon had been beaten, it's eye was badly injured and it's feathers looked as though they shouldn't have even been on this pokemon. N looked a tad surprised.
"You see, Touko. You're special. That fletchling wouldn't even approach me . . ." he murmured his last few words, but looked down at her again. The bird tweeted out a few notes, and for the first time since N had met the tiny creature, it seemed happy instead of miserable.
"Ah . . . that makes sense, Touko. Do you have any idea what she might have said?"
"Well . . . I um, she seems happy. And it seems she hasn't been happy for a very long time. I'm guessing I reminded her of something happy, and that's why she came to me instead," as she spoke, N's eyes widened with surprise, then softened with understanding.
"Touko, you're perfect . . . she told us that you reminded her of her old trainer's child. The child would always care for her once the trainer had abused her, until eventually the trainer left on her own journey, without her . . ." he seemed to be almost in tears at this point, "you have something I don't. You understand the emotions of pokemon, when I can merely understand what they say. You've a gift, Touko."
"I guess so . . ." she had to admit that the tiny bird had diffused the situation quite a bit. She couldn't feel angry with such a delicate creature at her hand. How could anyone?
"Will you consider helping me, Touko?" he asked on last time, and with no words, he finally got the answer he wanted with her small and delicate nod.
"I want to keep this pokemon. She's about the same level as my team, and I refuse to leave her without someone any longer," as she spoke, N nodded in agreement, "now, I need you to take me back where you found me . . ." and then, N stopped nodding.
