pro·pi·tious adjective
giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorably disposed toward someone
Chapter 4
Bianca is late, which is nothing new, but Cheren worries just the same. He taps his foot impatiently, and Alder gives him a look from the kitchen.
"I'm sure she's fine," he says.
"Maybe. Or maybe she's not, and-" Cheren's cut off by a light knock at the door, and he jumps up and throws it open so hard the hinges squeak. Relief washes over him as he sees her standing there.
Bianca is in his arms immediately, and he hugs her tightly.
"I missed you," she mumbles into his shoulder.
"I missed you too," he says, and she pulls back. He notices she's changed her hair again since the last time he saw her. It's longer now, but otherwise she looks the same as he remembers. "Come in," he tells her, closing the door and tugging her into the living room.
He leads Bianca to the sofa and hovers around her as she makes herself comfortable. "Do you need anything?"
"I'm good!" she says, shaking her head. "You're wearing your glasses again!" she points out excitedly. "We match!"
"Oh. Yeah." Cheren reaches to push them up, shrugging. "The contacts got annoying," he explains. He only started wearing them because his glasses got in the way during battles. It's not exactly an issue any more.
Alder comes out from the kitchen to greet her. "Bianca!" he smiles. "It's been awhile."
"It has! Thank you for taking care of Cheren."
Cheren makes a face at that, and Alder laughs. "Don't say that in front of him. Besides, he does quite a bit of taking care of me too. You should see him when he starts cleaning."
Bianca grins. "I believe it. He's always been a neat freak."
"I am not," he grumbles, sitting down next to her.
She pats his arm. "You are, but I love you anyway. I remember when we were kids, you used to come over to my house and start cleaning my room."
He flushes. "Well, it was very messy. Your father was always yelling at you."
Bianca shakes her head at him fondly, pulling off her hat and gloves and placing them over the arm of the couch. "So when is Black coming, did he say?"
Cheren looks down at his watch. "He said late afternoon, so it'll probably be a while." Black isn't exactly great at being on time either, although he's a lot better than Bianca.
Alder heads off down the hallway as they talk, reappearing a few minutes later with his coat on. "I've gotta go out for a little bit. What do you guys think about pizza for dinner?"
"Fine with me," Cheren shrugs. He looks to Bianca questioningly.
"That would be great, thank you!"
He nods, heading out and shutting the door quietly behind him. Cheren suspects he doesn't actually have anything to do and just wants to give them time to hang out. It's nice of him, but he would expect nothing else of Alder. He's always nice.
"So, what do you want to do?" he asks Bianca. "We probably shouldn't leave in case Black shows up early."
"Show me around! This place is nice. I can't believe you're actually living with someone though… I never thought I'd see the day."
Cheren wonders if he should be insulted by that as he stands up, offering her his hand to pull her up. "I'll give you a tour then."
They hang out in his room catching up until Black arrives.
Cheren can't even remember the last time they were all together. It feels like old times again. He reminds himself to thank Alder later. He definitely wouldn't have arranged this on his own, but he's really glad he did.
The three of them end up squished together on Cheren's bed with Black telling them about what he's been doing over the last year.
"So, how's N?" Cheren asks carefully. He initially disapproved of Black running off after him, but over time he's accepted it. He's not sure how he feels about N still, but Cheren's accepted that he makes Black happy. That's good enough for him.
Black practically lights up at his mention. "He's doing really well!" He looks like he wants to say more but changes the subject instead, apparently thinking better of it. Maybe he's worried Cheren doesn't want to hear it. "So, living with Alder? How did that happen?"
Cheren shrugs. "I ran into him one day, and he conned me into helping him. And here we are."
"Huh," Black says, raising his eyebrows. "Hey, remember when you used to have a gigantic crush on him?" He grins obnoxiously.
"I did not!" Cheren argues, turning bright red. He was young. And wouldn't call it a "crush." He hears Bianca giggling beside him and nudges her with his elbow. "Don't agree with him." She laughs anyway.
A knock on his door frame makes him freeze and turn around in horror.
"I'm back. With pizza," Alder announces.
He looks normal, and Cheren prays to God that he didn't hear any of that conversation. He disappears down the hallway, and Cheren turns back around to shoot a murderous look at Black.
Black just shrugs, looking amused. "Sorry," he says, not actually sounding sorry at all.
Bianca continues laughing.
"I hate both of you," Cheren tells them as he climbs off his bed.
They all sleep in the next morning, having stayed up half the night talking and playing games.
Cheren wakes up first, carefully crawling out of bed so he doesn't wake up Bianca, who's sound asleep beside him. He grabs his phone off the nightstand and tip toes over Black on the floor.
He rubs his eyes as he walks into the kitchen. Alder's already at the bar reading the newspaper. He looks up when Cheren makes his way over.
"Morning," Cheren mumbles. "I need coffee." He pours a cup into his favorite mug and sits down next to him.
"Merry Christmas Eve," Alder greets.
"... Huh. I guess it is," he realizes. "You too."
They're both silent for a while as Cheren drinks his coffee and attempts to wake up.
Alder finally breaks the silence. "So, I heard you had a crush on me," he says, not even looking up from his newspaper and casually turning the page.
Cheren almost spits his coffee out. "Excuse me?" he manages, already feeling himself turn red.
"Just what I heard," Alder says, finally glancing up and looking outrageously amused.
He glares at him, deciding he's definitely going to hit Black later. "You know, it's generally common courtesy to pretend you didn't hear embarrassing things."
"Oh, is it?"
Cheren is in the midst of coming up with his retort when he hears a noise behind him. He turns slightly and sees Bianca has woken up. He's never been so thankful for a distraction.
"Morning Cheren," she says, looking hesitant and glancing between the two of them.
He jumps up. "Bianca. I'll make you breakfast."
She starts to protest, but he pushes her towards his now unoccupied seat and busies himself with getting the frying pan out. He can feel Alder's eyes on him, and he studiously ignores him.
"What kind of eggs do you want?" he asks her.
"Scrambled, please!"
Cheren makes her eggs and toast as quickly as possible and slides the plate in front of her, still refusing to look at Alder. He retreats to his room with the excuse of going to wake Black up.
Black turns out to already be awake, sitting up in his bed of blankets on the floor and texting someone. N, Cheren guesses.
"Hey," Black says, putting his phone away and looking up at Cheren.
Cheren glares at him. This is entirely his fault. Black just seems confused.
They spend most of the day wandering around the city. Cheren shows them the school, and they look impressed.
"... What's up with that sign though?" Black asks. "It's very… pink."
"Don't ask," is all Cheren can say.
Neither of them have been to Castelia in years, and Bianca in particular practically bounces in excitement. She takes ten thousand pictures, forcing Cheren into most of them. He grumbles complaints but can't really bring himself to refuse.
He takes them to the diner he met Alder at that night. He hasn't been in a while. The same waitress is there and smiles when she sees him.
"I haven't seen you in a long time!" she says when she comes over to their table. "Let me know when you guys are ready."
Cheren thanks her and feels bad about not coming back sooner. It's out of the way now, but it's worth the trip. He still likes this place the most out of everywhere they go.
After they order, he pulls his phone out to look up the address to a store Bianca wants to go to. "What's it called again?" he asks.
As he's typing in the name, he gets a text message from Alder and sighs. He's half tempted to ignore it but decides not to just in case it's something important.
FROM: Alder
SUBJECT: -
Hey. Sorry about this morning. I was just teasing you.
Cheren doesn't know what to say to that, so he chooses not to answer. He goes back to looking the place up and finds it's not too hard to get to. "It's pretty close, so we can go after this," he tells her.
"Yay!"
They spend the rest of Christmas Eve in front of the tv watching bad Christmas movies and eating popcorn. Alder ends up joining them, although Cheren's not sure if he actually wants to or if he just has nothing else to do with his living room having been invaded.
Belatedly Cheren realizes he never replied to his text. Well, it's too late now. He ends up watching him instead of the tv. Alder notices after a few minutes and gives him a curious look. Cheren just shrugs and turns back to the movie.
Eventually he feels Bianca's head fall onto his shoulder and realizes she's fallen asleep. Cheren gently shakes her awake. "Go to bed," he says.
"Okay…" she mumbles, stumbling off to his room. Black follows after her a few minutes later.
Cheren figures he may as well finish the movie, as bad as it may be. He and Alder watch in silence until it's finally over. When the credits start, Cheren gets up and stretches.
"Night."
Alder glances up at him. "Goodnight."
He hesitates for a second on his way out, but Alder has already looked away, so Cheren just frowns and goes to his room. He crawls into his bed next to Bianca, who's already asleep again, and puts his phone on the nightstand next to his glasses. He lays in bed for a minute before sighing and picking it back up, answering Alder's text from hours ago. "It's okay," he types.
He notices the time before he turns the screen off and realizes it's already Christmas.
It ends up being the best Christmas Cheren's had in years. To be fair, that isn't saying a whole lot, but it's true none the less. He wishes they could do this every year, but he knows that isn't very likely. They're all busy.
For maybe the first time in their friendship, he's the last one up, and he wakes to Bianca poking him on the cheek.
"Noo," he mumbles, turning over to try to escape. He pulls the blankets over his face, but she just tugs them back down.
"It's Christmas! Get up!"
He feels Black climb up onto the bed, mattress dipping under his weight. He joins Bianca in poking him, and Cheren groans.
"Fine," he says, forcing himself to sit up. He slides his glasses on, and Bianca and Black tug him out of bed, each taking an arm.
Alder is up and sitting in his chair when they drag him out into the living room. He looks at them and laughs at the sight. "Morning."
"Morning," Bianca and Black chorus.
Cheren just groans again. He's glad everyone finds this so funny. Where did their sudden energy come from? It sure wasn't there yesterday.
Bianca hands out all the gifts from under the tree as he slumps down on the couch, barely awake. This should probably be his job, he realizes, as he's the one who actually lives here, but he can't bring himself to care at the moment. She appears to be enjoying herself anyway.
They make Cheren open his presents first. He ends up getting a bunch of books, which is fine with him. Bianca also gives him a Pokedoll. He rolls his eyes at that but secretly thinks it's pretty cute.
Bianca puts on the scarf he got her as soon as she opens it. "It's so cute!" she says, hugging him. "Thank you, Cheren!"
Alder goes last, and Cheren swallows as he opens the box. It took him forever to find something, and he's still not too sure about it. He pulls the book out and gives Cheren a questioning look.
"It's a schedule book. Since you'll be a teacher now, you know," he explains, uncomfortably.
Alder smiles, which Cheren takes as a good sign. "Thanks, Cheren."
"You're welcome."
On Christmas afternoon, they all go to the nearby park to let their Pokemon out. Cheren's been here a few times since he got to Castelia but admittedly probably not enough. He feels guilty about it and silently promises himself to come by more often. Unfortunately the city isn't very Pokemon friendly with all the crowds.
They sit on some park benches facing the lake and watch as their Pokemon run around. Cheren's Herdier comes back and sits next to him after a while. He pats his head fondly.
"This is one of the few things I hate about living here," Alder says from his other side.
Cheren nods in agreement. "What made you pick Castelia in particular?" he asks after a moment, realizing he still doesn't know.
Alder shrugs. "For one, there wasn't an active school here yet. That seemed crazy to me considering how many people live in the city. Two, Burgh was really interested in the idea when I mentioned it to him, but there's no way he could've been involved if it was anywhere else. He's too busy to fly all over the place."
"Makes sense."
"I do like it here though. Most of the time." He turns to Cheren. "What about you?"
Cheren chews on his lip thoughtfully. "At first I came here because I knew I could stay anonymous. I hated it initially… but it's grown on me," he admits.
"Good."
When the sun sets, they go back to the apartment.
"I was going to make something for dinner," Alder says. "But on second thought, how about Chinese food?"
"Festive," Cheren comments. "Why not?"
Everyone decides on what they want, and Cheren calls it in. He spends the rest of Christmas eating noodles in his pajamas.
It's pretty great.
Bianca and Black have to leave the next day. Cheren wakes up dreading it. He wonders if they'll ever get the chance to do this again and figures probably not.
Bianca stirs beside him and opens her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
When they're finally gone, he shuts the front door and throws himself onto the couch dejectedly. Cheren picks up the Snivy Pokedoll that Bianca gave him and sighs.
"You know, they can come back whenever you want," Alder tells him from the kitchen.
"I guess."
He stands up, taking the Pokedoll with him, and goes to his room. He ends up putting it on his dresser and pauses for a moment to look at it. It reminds him of the day they first got their Pokemon and left Nuvema Town. It didn't occur to him then that it would be for good.
It seems like an eternity ago.
His phone vibrates in his pocket, and he pulls it out.
FROM: Bianca
SUBJECT: wah!
I miss you already! xo
She's attached a couple pictures she took when they were exploring the city, and he smiles, deciding to print them out when he can. He looks terrible in them, but who cares.
Notes: Merry Christmas! Will try to have another chapter out by then, but we'll see.