Gold's mother was stunned. For what seemed like a long while, she did nothing but gaze at the two of us, her mouth drooping open in a shocked gape. Gold's eyes shifted uncomfortably, flashing first between his mom and Elm, then between me and them. An air of awkwardness settled quickly around the room, making the silence unbearable. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so. Elm let out a weak cough, running his fingers through his hair. "Err," He mumbled, "did we interrupt something?"
"No." I scowled, letting my head fall back against the sofa frustratedly. "You should have shown up earlier. That would have been very nice. You know? Just really convenient."
He blinked at me. If he was confused, he showed it well.
Gold's mom gave Elm a soft pat on the shoulder. "Why don't you go sit down, Professor?" He gave her a nod and shuffled over to the sofa, seating himself a good distance from Gold and I. I caught him giving me an evaluating look and returned it with a sharp glance. I must have looked pretty pissed off, because he jumped slightly, quickly turning his head away.
"Gold," his mom said sternly, turning towards her son. "I think you should go wait up in your room."
He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, opening his mouth to say something in his own defense, but seemed to think better of it. "Um, yeah. Okay." He gave me a pining glance, standing slowly. "You want me to go now?"
She nodded and motioned for him to leave with her hand. After a brief sigh and a pleading look, he marched out of the room looking flustered and confused, leaving me grateful for his absence. Elm took the opportunity to speak up, fidgeting with the collar of his shirt.
"When I got the phone call saying someone'd broken into my lab, I didn't realize I'd been... Err, visited by one of Gold's... friends." He said, giving me a wary look.
"We're not friends." I sighed and rolled my eyes, letting my red hair fall in front of my face to cover up my equally red, embarrassed blush. Damn it. Not only was I a potential thief, but I was a potential homo, too. That wasn't going to sit well with me, whether I got away from here or not.
Gold's mom frowned softly, ushering in her Chansey from the hallway. It trotted in gently, carrying a tray of cookies. Cookies, for goodness sake. That must have been what his mom had spent all her time making. Probably to make me a little less threatening. I had to admit, it was working a little. I wasn't sure how to be aggressive to a woman who'd just brought me cookies. The Chansey set the tray down on the table in the middle of the room and stood, waiting patiently for orders.
"I didn't get the impression that you and my son were friends, no." Gold's mom said to me, moving to sit next to Elm. "But that's not the important thing right now, I suppose." She shot a glance at Elm, hinting that he should get down to the point. "Professor, do you have any questions you want to ask him?"
"Yes." he frowned meekly. The way Elm conducted himself made him look like a paranoid acorn. I'd never seen a paranoid acorn before, no. But I can guarantee you that Elm is the spitting image. He twiddled his thumbs in his lap, leaning forward slightly. "If you and Gold aren't friends, then why did you-"
"Elm," Gold's mom interrupted. "I mean about the break in. Questions about that."
Elm's brow creased into a recollecting frown. "Oh, that's a much better idea. Thank you, Elaine." Clearing his throat, he turned his attention back to me. "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?"
"I didn't."
"Ahh. I see. Would you mind-"
"Look." It was my turn to interrupt. "I'm just going to clarify something. I do not know Gold in any way. I met him maybe an hour ago. To answer your question, I'm an unwilling victim of an unfortunate accident brought about by a psychotic egg that gets off by flinging hearts at boys with mirror fetishes. So what you just saw was not my fault."
Elm and Gold's mother blinked at me. Maybe I hadn't phrased that too well. At least that's what I thought, until Gold's mother, Elaine or whatever her name was, let out a grunt of realization. "Togepi," She sighed, rubbing her temples with the palms of her hands, "I should have known it'd do something like this. Not that Gold isn't impulsive enough to kiss a stranger on his own..."
"Togepi?" Elm's eyes widened in understanding. "Did something happen today, Elaine?"
She nodded, stood, and walked over to the tray of cookies, picking one up and offering it to me apologetically. "Do you like chocolate chip?"
I shrugged and gestured with my chin to the Weedle string that was still wound tightly around my arms and feet. Whether I liked cookies or not, there was no way I was eating any like this.
"Oh, we should get you out of those, shouldn't we?" She set the cookie down and reached to pat her Chansey, which was still standing patiently, on the head. "Would you do that for me, Cha-Chan? I don't think I have anything I could use." The Chansey nodded and situated itself next to me, poking and prodding at the grossly hardened string around my feet. "As long as you don't go anywhere," Gold's mom continued, sitting herself back down and bringing the cookie tray with her, "I can have Chansey take a look at your head, too."
I just grunted in reply. That way, I wasn't making any promises, but I wasn't saying no, either.
"Anyways, as for Togepi, something did happen today. Not much, but I guess it was enough for the little guy." She picked up a cookie of her own, breaking off a piece and popping it into her mouth. "It stole one of Gold's pool balls this morning and wouldn't give it back. Gold told it that it wasn't allowed to leave the house until it did, and ended up taking the other Pokemon on a walk without it. Togepi got angry and ran away. Gold's been looking for it since around dinnertime, but I guess it came back on its own."
"Yes, but if it came back, wouldn't that imply that it was fine with what happened?" Elm frowned, looking slightly concerned.
"Not at all. This is Togepi, Professor. We've had problems with it before."
I wasn't too keen on hearing about the other problems it had caused. As long as it wasn't just me, I felt a little bit better. I was starting to get a little pissed off, however, because these people were refusing to address what the real problem was. "Hey," I piped in, "this is a nice conversation and all, but I'd really like to know what the hell happened. Someone want to explain that to me?"
Both of them paused and looked over at me. "Well," Elm furrowed his brow, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "I could try, but I have no idea what Togepi did." He blinked. "Err, what did it do?"
I opened my mouth to speak, but was stopped by the waving hand of Gold's mom. "Let me guess." She frowned, finishing off the last bits of chocolate chip. "Did it use Attract?"
I paused, turning over the possibility in my mind. As I thought about it, I realized that it was the only explanation that made sense. Letting out a bitter sigh, I nodded. "Yellow hearts?"
She nodded. "Yellow hearts."
During the brief silence that followed, the Chansey managed to break off the remaining string around my arms. I stretched them out, feeling the blood rush slowly into my fingers. Damn, those ropes were tighter than I'd thought they were. I paid a quick glance to Professor Elm. He had a confused look on his face and rubbed the bottom of his chin as if he were deep in thought.
"That couldn't have been it." He said finally, waving his finger in a matter-of-fact fashion. "Attract is a move that only works on Pokemon. How could it have affected Gold?"
"Maybe he's just one of those freaks..." I mumbled to myself. Don't doubt me when I say that. He could have been just that bizarre.
Gold's mom, apparently having heard my comment, frowned deeply. "If you're going to make comments like that, then no cookies for you, young man." She promptly ignored me when I rolled my eyes in response. Redirecting her attention to Elm, she attempted to put things into perspective. "Professor, you remember last week when Gold sprained his wrist?"
My mind jumped to when I'd noticed his bandaged arm at the lab. So that's what that was. He'd sprained it.
Elm nodded, pursing his lips as he sighed dramatically. "How could I forget? He spent hours complaining to me about how he couldn't skate again until he was fully healed."
"Well," Gold's mom continued, "You know how impatient he is. He's been taking those new Chansey pills. The ones where they use the healing part of the eggs? So he does, in a way, have some Pokemon DNA, or something similar, running through his system."
The Professor buried his face in his hands. "Oh dear. This may be a bit of a problem to fix."
I gritted my teeth. Great. Just great. "Why's that, huh? Can't he just stop taking the pills?"
"Not anymore." Elm shook his head. "I mean, he could stop taking the pills, but that wouldn't do anything at all." He stood and began to pace around the room. "Now that Eggy's used a stat-changing move, the Chansey DNA is being utilized to its full potential. I'm afraid it's going to be stuck in Gold's system until we can figure out a way to fix this."
"How the hell would you know?" I growled lightly. "What, you go through this a lot?"
He gave me a skittish glance. Man, I thought, this guy was a nut job. It wasn't like I'd said anything scary. After a few stuttering attempts at creating a sentence, he managed to pull himself together enough to answer my question. "No, I don't. But my job- my profession, excuse me- requires that I know these things."
"Oh. Well alright." I sat up, pulling my head off of the cushion of the sofa and resting my elbows on my knees. "So what's going to happen? Is he going to turn pink and start dropping eggs all over the place?"
Gold's mom let out a light chuckle, which confused me a bit. That didn't seem like something a mother should find funny. She caught me staring and quickly shrugged in my direction. "That would be a little funny, you have to admit."
I shrugged back. I didn't know if it would be funny, exactly. Maybe just pathetic.
Professor Elm made a gurgled sound of distress. "I can guarantee you that that is absolutely not going to happen. He's just using the genes, not becoming them!"
"Does that make a difference?" I reached up and rubbed my forehead with the tips of my fingers. I did that a lot when I was stressed. "He's still messed up. And he's still stuck like that. And I still have to deal with the fact that I'm involved."
Elm pressed his lips together tightly. After a moment of deep thought, he adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and let out a deep breath. "I suppose so... But you wouldn't have gotten involved if you hadn't broken into my lab. You... Did do that, right?"
I just scowled in response. At this point, I didn't really care whether I was in trouble or not. I'd take jail time if it got me away from this place.
"Well, I think I have something figured out, then." Elm resumed his pacing, his footsteps sounding loudly on the tile floor. "Normally, to fix a status problem like Attract, one would need to recall either the affected Pokemon or the affecting Pokemon. Since neither of you are Pokemon, that isn't going to work. So instead, you'll need something specific to cure the problem."
"Oh yeah? And what's that?"
"There's an item known as the Red Flute. Now, they're rare, so there's only one place I know of to get them. I could just send a letter to the maker, but I think this situation calls for something different."
Narrowing my eyes, I gazed up at the Professor. "Why wouldn't you just ask for one? I'd sleep better at night knowing I'm not being fantasized about by some loser I barely know."
"No, we're not going to send for one. Instead, you're going to go and get it for us."
My eyes shot wide open. I wasn't sure if I'd heard that right, but I was really hoping I hadn't. "I'm... What?"
"You broke into my lab, right? Instead of getting the police involved, I'll just have you do a favor for me instead." He tapped his fingers against his palm lightly, giving me a sympathetic, yet stern look. "I'll tell you where you need to go and who you'll be meeting. You just need to carry it out."
My jaw dropped open for a brief moment before I collected myself. "No. No way." I snapped. "I have better things to do than run errands for this crap."
"It's this or prison time." Elm sighed. "I'd really prefer we just did this instead."
I sat silently. I know I'd said that I'd take jail time over staying involved, but in reality, that wasn't too appealing. Tugging at my hair lightly, I turned this thought over in my mind. "Is it just going to be me? No company?"
"If we can trust you with that, then yes."
After a long consideration, I let out a soft growl. "Alright, fine. Whatever. I'll get the damn flute."
"So it's settled then?" Gold's mom smiled softly. "You can stay here tonight. We have an extra room for you."
Elm nodded. "Actually, I'm going to require you to stay here tonight. You can head out in the morning."
I buried my face in my hands. Shit. This was the last thing I'd thought I'd ever get involved in. And it had to be now, of all times. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I leaned back against the sofa, pressing my palm against my forehead in an attempt to hold back my ever growing headache. "Fine." I grumbled. Mostly to myself, but I guess the others wanted to hear it too. "I'll stay."
"Perfect!" Gold's mom let out a sigh of relief, brushing down the hem of her skirt as she stood. "We've killed two birds with one stone, then. Anything else, Elm?"
Elm nodded and spent the next few, long minutes detailing exactly what it was I'd have to do, where to go, and who I'd need to meet. In all honesty, I paid very little attention to anything he had to say. I wasn't even sure if I'd be going through with any of it. Actually, chances are I wouldn't be. First opportunity I got, I'd be out of there. It wouldn't be my problem anymore.
After Elms' spiel, Gold's mom led me to the room I'd be staying in for the night. It wasn't much. Just a bed, some end tables, and a tiny bathroom. But at that point, they could have given me a sleeping bag and thrown me in the damn closet, for all I cared. Just as she promised, though, Gold's mom had her Chansey give me a quick checkup. They figured I'd be alright. So with an ice pack, a couple of well needed painkillers, and a furious attitude, I was sent off to get some rest.
I made sure to lock my bedroom door tight. Just in case.
AN: Hey! Back again (finally) with the new chapter! Hope I got a couple of things explained in here. There was a lot of dialogue, I know, but I kind of needed all of that to go through everything. Next time, though, should focus a lot more on Silver and what's going on in his head (I hope. I never know before I start writing).
Quick, random comment though X3. I noticed something about Silver as I was playing my Soul Silver game. Silver doesn't really condense words. Instead of they're, he uses a lot of "They are's" and stuff. That probably has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was kind of funny. ^^ Yeah.
