Will woke up as soon as the dawn broke through his window. Cursing Lucy for waking him up so early yesterday, he struggled to his feet. He took out some of the traveller's spray he'd picked up in Fortree and sprayed his clothes to clean them, then left them to try in front of the window¹. He waddled to the shower and washed himself, got out and brushed his teeth. He released Absol from her Pokéball, who stretched and then jumped on top of the bed – and slept some more.
Will put on his now clean clothes and threw his bag over his shoulder; he couldn't be bothered to put it on properly. He threw his hat over the top to hide his wet hair and made his way downstairs for the included breakfast. He filled himself up on sausages, eggs and beans. Best breakfast he'd had in a while. He fed some of the scraps to Absol, who didn't seem content by just eating her own food when there was so much delicious smelling human food around.
With both of them content and satisfyingly stuffed, Absol returned to her capsule and Will made his way to the port. His ferry was a lot bigger than he expected it to be, but he made it there early so there wasn't a lot of queuing to be done. He was on bored within an hour. The receptionist smiled sweetly at him as she assigned him a key card. "Due to the volume of people that have booked on this ferry, I am afraid that you will have to share a room with someone. If this is an inconvenience to you, and If you have any problems with this do not hesitate to let us know. Enjoy your voyage on the SS. Tidal."
Sharing a room. That could be… interesting. He hoped that it was with a guy. He would've felt too uncomfortable sharing with a girl, and she would have completely hogged the bathroom. Still, sharing a room with a complete stranger would be sufficiently awkward in the first place. However, at least he would be able to make a friend, rather than spending three days in solitude.
He was in room 106 on Deck A. At least he was high up, he could get a good view out of the window. Will went to use the escalator, but it was completely filled with people's luggage, so he had to scale 10 floors of stairs. The joys. When he got to the top (huffing and puffing sufficiently) he let Absol have a bit of a stretch. He knocked the door. No reply. He knocked again, asking "Hello?" this time. No reply. Will swiped his card and pushed the door open. Upon scanning the room, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. It was fairly big (It should have been for the price he paid) and he had his own chest of drawers and most importantly – his own bed.
He chucked his bag onto the bed and sat down. The window was situated perfectly. That was when he noticed that his roommate was already there; not physically, but his bag and Pokéballs were on the bed. So they must have been in…
The bathroom door clicked open, and his roommate walked out in nothing but a towel.
"Oh." His roommate was tall and had shoulder length dark hair. His body was well defined and his skin looked smooth. His hair was damp from the shower, as you would expect and his eyes were a sapphire blue. "I didn't hear you come in. My name's Kurt, nice to meet you."
"Hey, I'm Will. So were you already here before the Ferry arrived in Lilycove then?" Will asked spontaneously, trying desperately to bury the awkwardness of the situation.
"Yeah, I got on at Mossdeep." Will nodded; he had no idea where that was. Luckily, Kurt elaborated. "It's an Island to the east of here, its where I come from. So how old are you?"
"I'm sixteen. I've just left an… explosive house hold. Well… escaped. So I'm going to Petalburg… Where're you bound?"
"I'm going to Petalburg too. I live in Mossdeep, so I was just visiting, taking a break. I'm going to Petalburg to get my fifth badge from the Pokémon gym there. What're you there for?" By this point, Kurt had taken some underwear and a t-shirt and gone into the bathroom, but he'd left the door open. "Don't worry, I'm still listening."
"Well, I'm just making a pit stop really. Gonna stock up and make my way to Rustboro from there." Will said. "I'm only just starting my journey, so it seems like a good place to start."
Kurt returned now, in his boxers and the t-shirt he had just grabbed. He must have been at least 6 ft 2, his head was nearly touching the roof of the cabin. "Oh, fair enough. So where do you come from?"
Will liked this; someone who was generally interested. Kurt sat on the bed opposite him and began curling his hair between his thumb and forefinger. Just like Will did. "I'm from Mauville originally, but I've lived in Fortree for as long as I can remember. Do you know how to get from Petalburg to Rustboro? I didn't really do much research on the whole thing, just kinda leapt out of the door blindly…"
"The best way to go is through Petalburg forest. I'd advise spending a day in Petalburg beforehand though. Petalburg forest is like a gigantic maze and it'll take you at least a day to manoeuvre it, so it's best to try and get it done over one day. You could always stick around with me for a bit and I could take you there? I don't mind."
They sat on the beds getting to know each other for quite a few hours. Will quite liked the idea of sharing a room with a guy that was this easy to get along with. They didn't even notice when the ship left port, nor did their minds hadn't even turned to Pokémon for quite a while, and it didn't until there was an announcement made on the speakers.
"Attention all passengers, on the final day of the voyage there will be a Pokémon tournament held to give trainers a chance to show off their Pokémon. Registration is possible at any time between now and tomorrow night. Thank you for listening and we hope to see you competing. Dinner will be served in both restaurants in half an hour. Have a pleasant evening." And with that, the announcement was over.
"We'd better leave now, the restaurants get pretty packed. It's best to grab a table with a nice view straight away." Kurt grabbed a pair of jeans and slid them on, and put on some polka dot slippers. "Hey, gotta have some slippers with you, keep you warm and whatnot! Oh, also it'll be best to bring your Pokémon with you, they all get fed free too." Will nodded. He grabbed a single Pokéball out of his bag and walked towards the door. "Do you have your room key? Because I don't want to locked out and end up sleeping in the hallway…"
"Don't worry!" Will half said, half laughed. "I'm organised, I've got my key right here!" he pulled a shiny silver key out of his pocket. For the price he paid he expected them to be electronic swipe cards, but the old fashioned key was all good too. "So are you ready?"
"Yeah I'm all good." Kurt slipped on a belt that had 4 Pokéballs in; Will was curious as to what they contained, but guessed that he would find out soon enough. They both went down the stairs (As usual, the elevator was in use), but at least it was only down to the eighth floor. They got a nice table on the balcony – Kurt had told Will his Pokémon would need a lot of space. This only intrigued Will more. As soon as they were comfortable, Kurt let his Pokémon out of their capsules.
They were Pokémon that were all new to Will in terms of seeing them in person. He had a Marshtomp that seemed particularly cheeky, a female Snorunt that was quite shy; the exact opposite to the boisterous and outgoing Marshtomp. Part of his odd bunch was also a Vibrava, a Pokémon which the young man had never even heard of before. Kurt explained that it was the pre-evolved form of Flygon however, the Pokémon that had saved him as a small child from being smushed as a result of the shockwave from the gigantic energy wave... His final Pokémon was a one that Will thought was only a legend; it was a Manaphy.
"I thought that they were just a legend, that they had become extinct?" The teen had questioned, but was answered with...
"I have a friend who's a Pokémon ranger in the Fiore region, and they found this egg on the shores. It wouldn't hatch over there, so he sent it to me and voila." was the reply. Manaphy got on particularly well with Absol, as they were both quite sombre yet playful.
They sat in the restaurant with their plates empty for quite a while, just talking about life experiences. Kurt had a lot to say, he'd lead a much more interesting life than Will had. When the topic of his childhood came up however, Will simply dismissed it, saying it was uneventful and uninteresting. He didn't feel ready to talk about it yet, he hadn't spoken to anyone else about it besides his father and Lucy even after all of these years.
Once all of the Pokémon had started to fall asleep on the deck, they decided it was time to go to bed. They returned all of their partners to their Pokéballs and made their way back to the cabin, drearily and uncomfortably full. There was an awkward moment however that confused Will as to the intentions of Kurt. After the door was unlocked, they both reached for the handle at the same time. Their hand's touched but they didn't move straight away, the touched lingered for a few seconds. Then they let go.
Will pushed it to the side of his mind and opened the door, undressed in the bathroom and went to bed in his underwear. He stared at the moon for a few moments before he began to drift away.
The dream that night was a strange one. Will was in the middle of a stadium, battling with a trainer who's face he couldn't make out. It was someone he knew, and yet someone he had never met. It didn't bode very well either; the person he was battling had a Phanpy, and he was using Absol to battle it…
"Absol, use Quick Attack!" He cried. Absol began to charge forward at a blistering pace, but the Phanpy was ready, and so was its trainer.
"Phanpy, use roll out!" The Phanpy curled up and charged forward in a hardened ball. The two Pokémon crashed into each other, sending them both flying.
"Faint attack!" Will ordered. Absol disappeared, invisible. The Phanpy simple closed its eyes and shards of ice appeared around it. She materialised behind it, but it was already waiting for her. It was as if this trainer had spent their entire life studying Absol's battle techniques, because it knew every trick – and how to counter it. As she became visible again, the Ice Shards hit her one at a time, three of them. Since when could Phanpy learn Ice shard!? Those thoughts were futile however, as Phanpy beat Absol into submission with her feeble defences and the sharp shards of ice.
Will ran to his injured Pokémon's side with a potion and sprayed her, then held her in his arm. "You did good Absol, well done." He said as he stroked her head. And that's where the dream ended.
