Chapter Seven - Something Nostalgic

If Nikolai had been famous, the battle between him and Cynthia would have been one to remember.

It wasn't like Dawn, who specifically had sought out every way she could sweep the Elite Four and Champion with ease, with the team that had taken out and captured Giratina no less. He had seen her do it from the arena stands, seen the way that the Elite Four matches were nothing more than sweeps, violent gestures of calculated destruction to Cynthia, the real test of the trade. Not that Cynthia hadn't put up a good fight against Dawn, even he wasn't so conceited as to deny that. Dawn, however, had looked bored. Like there was something else waiting for her after this, something more valuable.

She had been kind to her pokemon, of course, showering them with items and making them feel loved. But her pokemon were still meant to make it an easy fight,a shattering of everything Cynthia stood for. That was the only way to really beat an opponent, violence or not.

She had managed to succeed, but only in body. Cynthia's pride was only cracked, not ground to dust. She respected Dawn today, but would have respected her more if she had listened later on.

He after all, had been champion for a few days, not her. But no one had listened to it, not even Dawn.

Was Nikolai bitter about that? Maybe a little. He hadn't seen Dawn since she had left to go adventure, leaving the burden on her senior authority. No closure was offered to him.

But that was irrelevant. He could still remember his challenge underneath his fingertips, the way his pokeballs had trembled in his hands. He remembered the way she had laughed, the way she had smiled.

He hoped Noelani could live to experience that herself someday.


"Well I guess we can't go back there anymore."

Cynthia smiled as she spoke, feeding her togekiss pieces of grepa from her salad. Noel nodded eagerly, bouncing after her and probably not even understanding what she was considering. Still, Nikolai couldn't help his own smile.

"More like the other way around," he said, sliding his fingers under his sandwich. "I don't think that diner's been that packed since my dad took a crack at pokemon training."

Cynthia giggled. Aesthetically, it was a pleasing sound. "And never was it that exciting yes." She looked at their Noel, who stared right back, watery eyes and brilliant hope resting there. Maybe Cyn's reignited her, he thought, smile threatening to crack.

"Hey, christmas tree, show her your mates," Nikolai said before he could stop himself. It was twice as worth it because his daughter pouted so deep there were crevices in her ears.

"I'm not a tree!" she protested, but released her pokemon anyway.

It was good, NIkolai knew. It was a good day, after a good morning. But his shoulders couldn't slump down fast enough, he could not relax enough.

Cynthia smiled wide and gestured to her togekiss to dance tantalizingly through the air ahead of Skylar. The bat screeched irritably but followed, if only to spare himself from Kaylee's dancing paws. "What a wonderful team," she exclaimed, leaning down to look at quiet, curious Percy. Said turtwig was trying to look at Cynthia from behind his master's spindly legs. Cynthia giggled again. "Don't worry, little one. That's my daughter you're shielding yourself with."

Percy blinked up at Cynthia, then at Noel. Nervously, he shuffled over to her, only to chuff and churr at the affectionate touches from her long, slender, well-practiced fingers.

Noel knelt. "How'd ya do that, mama?"

Cynthia demonstrated and Noel's watery eyes squinted, careful to imitate. NIkolai watched his family, his unconventional family. Nausea roiled in his gut at the sight of both of those smiles, public and carefree. He resisted the urge to look for a camera, for something other than him to ruin this.

"I thought you were gay," whispered thoughtfully in his brain.

Nikolai ignored the thought and reached for a cigarette he didn't carry around anymore. Awkwardly, he patted his pockets and felt his Holo Caster vibrating beneath his palm.

Giving the two of them one last look to make sure they were fine, Nikolai retreated behind a building a little and turned the annoying device on. "Hello?"

"Well, that's not the greeting I expected from you.." The dry, amused voice took on a laugh as a young man rose into view of the hologram screen, a rockruff in his arms, primly dressed and tweezed eyebrow raised. "I expected at least one swear word from you. Or five. Or a complaint that I was interrupting something."

Nikolai resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Good to see you're still you, Jen. You were interrupting my time with my child and pseudo-girlfriend."

Jen snorted. "Oh behave. I'm here to help, you know."

"Is that what you say to your coworkers before you slap them upside the head with a syringe?" Jen Fondaw, his one unfortunate contact with medical training and a lot of friends in high places, was also very much a jerk. And an ex, but that one was besides the point. He was currently in something barely skirting the edges of legal too and it was nothing less than exasperating to keep in contact with him. It was also very necessary.

"I don't say anything to them other than 'sit still, shut up, do what you're told, and stop grimacing, it makes it worse, when I'm at that part of the job." Jen glanced at something out of sight. "Anyway, I was looking into the samples of Noel's blood you sent again."

"Last time, you said there was nothing." Nikolai bit his lip. "What changed?"

"A friend of mine let me do a comparison. Look, I'm not a scientist, which is actually what you need, but I know someone who might as well be and she's been taking a look."

"Is that that one girl you swear you will never date ever in life?" He was bantering, containing, controlling.

"If I'm going to date someone who can kill me, I'd at least let them be someone I haven't actually seen kill people," Jen replied, petting the pup in his arms. "I'm going to send you her number and what her guesses are. You're on the road still right?"

"We're looking for Arceus, Jen, not going backpacking through the Snowpoint hellholes."

"Right, right." He waved dismissively, setting down the rockruff. "She's doing fine for everything?"

"Aside from always tired, getting dizzy and some coughing fits, yeah, she's doing well."

"Good."

The sad part was that Jen meant it when he said that. It made it so difficult to be annoyed with him. The rest of him made up for it though, in spades. "Thanks Jen, means a lot."

It meant hope.