A/N : Omg, I was going to post this tomorrow, because I mainly wanted to be lazy and take some extra time to make this chapter huge. I decided that I wanted to post a Chapter on Wedensday shortly after I posted Chapter Six. What was that… Sunday? Saturday? One of those days. Anyway. I wanted to do that, but then I got sick, sick like whoa yesterday and then the whole glitch thing and I was just not sure if I was ever going to get this written. But I did! A day early! Huzzah. Look for the next chapter really soon. On to reviews!

Some of you guys aren't with me anymore. That makes me sad. PLEASE COME BACK. THE JOURNEY ISN'T OVER.

So. Rust Tea. VERY glad you could stop by. Holy cow, I really am a huge fan. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the review, and I sent you a more detailed response so I won't repeat all of that here, but thanks again for reading and reviewing. Your thoughts really mean a lot to me. So, yes, again thanks.

Glacial Eidolon : Okay. SERIOUSLY, YOU MADE MY DAY. YAY. I read your review and did a little squee-dance in my head because I try very hard to make characters who are multi-dimensional and aren't just one-note. And it's a real validation of that effort when someone points that out about your work SO THANK YOU SO MUCH. I think I may propose marriage to you or something. Yeah. The pacing is a bit slow, I think it might pick up a little bit, but knowing my writing, it's probably not going to go too fast just yet. Mainly because this is three chapters AND STILL the first day that Abe's out on a journey AWAY from home and I think that that sort of thing needs to be treated carefully and developed. So, the first chapters are definitely going to be a bit slower than some of the six days in one chapter stories out there mainly because this day has special significance to the character and to the realism of the story. Still, later on, I don't think I'll have seven chapters for one day. Just really depends on the circumstances. And for sure, I agree with you that it's been a lot of character being thrown about and not so much STUFF happening. I've been hitting myself daily going, "OKAY, BRANDON. STUFF NEEDS TO HAPPEN." But I wanted to make sure that I had worked my way into some sort of understanding of Abe and Dominic and their dynamic and more importantly, I wanted the readers to REALLY get it. And now that I think that's happened, I can get some actual plot going on. And maybe uncover some of the sketchy background info that I didn't even know until now. So, yay. Glad you liked it though! And I hope you do stick around. Your comments make this all worthwhile and remind me why I'm doing this!

As for this chapter. Well, THE PLOT STARTS MOVING AHEAD. I had intended for this to be a chapter of EPIC LENGTH. But then I wrote what then would have been the first half and took a break. Then I got back on this about 7:30 and decided that, no, I was going to save the then back half for Chapter 8 and so on and so forth. So. This Chapter ended up being a bit shorter than the one before it, but that's mainly because the end of this chapter felt so appropriate and natural. And anything else would have been a chore to read, not to mention irrelevant to the front half of the chapter. SO. CHAPTER EIGHT. YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THAT ONE. But you also don't want to miss this one so read it all, really. Gets rather interesting. Chapter Eight, there be battles, yo, for sure, so look forward to that. When this story gets Pokemon-y again. A little bit. Again, apologies for the crappy ending. WORKING ON THAT, HONEST.

Okay. That's the end of that heinously long Author's note. Sorry about that.

Read. Enjoy. Review, if you like. PLEASE?

Also : I don't own Pokemon. Honest.


"So, when my Grandma told you to take me with you…"

They had been eating in strained, polite silence for five minutes before Abe had finally dared to break it. And after he'd formed the words with his lips, he had felt both a whooshing sense of relief and a sense of sinking dread; silence, once broken, was irreparably altered into something grotesquely different. In the seconds immediately following the question, he felt oddly lightheaded and still yet curious. Both to the answer to the question itself, but also why he'd randomly asked it. His eyes tilted down and he did not see Dominic swallow back his cold ham and cheese thickly; Abe's stomach tightened up and he hated himself for that moment of weakness as his mind gave rise to multitudes of consequences, things that he would he more than likely find himself stumbling over in the dark unknown of the very near future. The quiet between them, which before then had been stiff and rigid became brittle and vulnerable. He wished he hadn't asked that question. An echo of his voice began to whisper in the back of his mind, high-pitched, whiney, annoying. Why? Why? Why? That word smacked dull and clunking into his other thoughts and there was a lot of fuss in his mind. Why was he such an idiot, why was he such a foolish, dumb, helpless, idiot?

"She failed to mention what a pain in the ass you are, but that's a very accurate depiction of it." What? A depiction of what? His brow arched and Dominic simply shrugged. His voice had sounded ominously bitter beneath its casual, fluid drawl. He was sitting, but more leaning back on his hands, with a face full of sun and a mouth full of white bread and cheap ham, the only ham his mother could afford--Abe felt ashamed of that ham. "She did -tell- me to take you. There wasn't really much room for discussion," he clarified when he saw Abe's expression. It did not do much in the way of clarifying, but it did give Abe a cheap, dirty feeling inside of his stomach. So, he'd been handed off just like that? And where did Dominic get off calling him in a pain in the ass? If anyone was a pain in the ass, it was definitely Dominic. Still. And at this he had to hide his smile behind a guise of chewing and squinting beneath the slanted sun rays at the distant bend of the hill dipping back into the dark, shady woods. It did sound like his Grandmother. Exactly like her.

"I'm not a pain in the ass." Finally able to muster up a look of annoyance, he turned that expression on to Dominic, who laughed. It wasn't the same chuckle that Abe had quickly learned to hate. Instead, it was a hollow, insulting laugh that wasn't really a laugh so much as it was a slap in the face. Maybe that stupid chuckle wasn't so bad after all. This was Dominic's way of showing that he was still annoyed. Abe's mouth pulled back into a line, as much of a line as his lips could make, they'd always been slightly oversized and puffy. Not fleshy, like Dominic's, but pouty. One of the things that made him look and feel far younger than he intended or wanted to look or feel. But why Dominic should have been annoyed, he didn't know and told himself that he didn't care. He had spent far too much time already being concerned about Dominic and the space between them and the annoyance that they seemed to pass back and forth as easily as the air they breathed; actually, Abe realized, he much preferred to swap annoyance than to share the air he had to breathe with Dominic.

"How can you say that and believe it? And that's the sad part," Dominic leaned forward, put his forearms on his knees and grinned. "You do believe it. That you're not a pain in the ass." Ironic awe filled his voice and his eyes became wide and large as if he was admiring some natural configuration of impressive magnitude. Abe grunted and took another mouthful of sandwich which emptied his hands of everything but the crumbs. Pointedly, as pointedly as he could, he ignored the snickering. He'd only wanted to ask a question. The hate he'd started to feel for himself deepened and spilled a little on to Dominic; he hated Dominic. "Come on now, stop pouting."

"I'm not pouting." Which was something children did and he was definitely not a child anymore. His eyes cast blue and daring at Dominic, daring him to question that hidden message. However, Dominic's eyes showed no sign that the flickering connotation had been communicated to them as they met the impassiveness of Abe's own eyes and dropped their temperature into a cool, indifferent stare. Dominic's mouth, however, was fixed into a bright smile, teeth white and catching the sun, hair dark and soft about his face, and skin tan and full of sunshine; he had the peculiar aura of ten pounds of sun stuffed into a three pound sack shaped like a hick. Abe wanted to punch that smile right off of Dominic's face, but instead he reached for another sandwich.

"I'm not pouting, I'm not an asshole; you're getting to be kind of dull, Abe," he said with mock concern as he watched Abe go for the sandwich. His smile, in the context of what he'd said, turned sour and cold in Abe's eyes and for a few seconds, Abe didn't say anything and dedicated his focus to the mechanical process of opening up the lunch pail and pulling out a sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap. The plastic wrap came loose noisily as he undid it; he could feel Dominic's eyes on him, watching him, expecting some incredibly witty reply (what other sort of reply could be expected from him, after all), and taking measure of this momentary lull in combat. And then he raised the sandwich to his lips, and studied Dominic over the brown fringe of its crust.
"So, when my Grandma forced me on to you, why didn't you just say no? After all, you didn't know her. You didn't know me. You didn't owe us a thing." Calmly delivered, the opposite of every other word he'd said all day which in no small way was a victory on to itself. He had risen above the occasion. A warm smugness built up inside, he was proud. But more importantly, he wanted to know.

But, typically, Dominic was nonchalant about the whole thing. But at least he wasn't on to anything, he didn't suspect sincerity in the curiosity Abe seemed to be showing and for that Abe was thankful. He hated to think what would have happened if Dominic had actually known that there was information he had that Abe did not. It would have been a catastrophe, utter humiliation. Though, that wasn't the case and Dominic simply lay full back into the grass and folded his hands behind his head. So what if there was a question put to him. So what if Abe was waiting for an answer. So what if it was rude to just lie down when there was someone else present. So what if it was the middle of the day and they were in the middle of the woods and there was still a lot of walking left to do in the day. Abe was starting to suspect that there was a lot of "so what" in Dominic's life and now that he had become a part of it (and so what if it was only in a temporary way)there would become a lot of so what in his own life and he didn't like that. The sun broke over the hillside in white-yellow beams and then worked downward through the swaying long-tipped grass, rippling out over the breeze-stroked diagonal of the hill until it vanished down into the crackling bramble below. And Dominic lay in the direct path of this light, his body full of the collisions of light beams and surrounded by hissing, rasping grass. Long and lean and muscular. Carefree and chewing at what was left of his sandwich in his mouth. Here they were again. Waiting on an answer.

"Come on, Abe," he yawned out after almost a minute of protracted peace. He didn't open his eyes to address this at Abe and spoke lazily, as if it were either too obvious or too unimportant to matter anything, maybe a bit of both. "She'd just fed me and given me a place to sleep. Plus, it seemed like a good idea at the time." He shrugged in the grass, and Abe wanted to say something, but he said nothing. "I mean, I guess I've always liked traveling around in groups. And I had this picture, I guess. You. And me. Walking all the way to Pastoria or hitchhiking on the backs of trucks." His voice was warmer now, nearly affectionate. Abe snorted quietly. But Dominic eyes opened and there was again derisive connotation to everything that Abe did and said and thought. He stared at Abe, his eyes hardening, his jaw tightening. "And I'd thought that maybe since she was so adamant about you being a good kid and just needing to get out there, you know, to see it all, make some sense of yourself and all. That I'd give you the benefit of the doubt." Abe flinched inwardly, but his tongue and met Dominic's cold, level stare. "But I see I was right about you the first time. You're just a Poliwag beater." Casual again, but he didn't look away and he didn't shrug. He remained, very much, attentive to Abe's face.

He wanted to see what damage he'd done, didn't he? But Abe showed him noting. He concealed the hurt of it and clung to the anger swelling up inside of him and to the indignation that came with it. How dare Dominic! He didn't know anything! Nothing! Abe clenched his fist against his knee then thumped it into the grass, feeling it dry against his fist. "You don't know the first thing about me, Dominic!" His voice shook with his anger and he felt his arguments grow weak and wilt in the haze of his anger. He'd lost. He knew it before he made another sound, but it didn't matter anymore. "You don't know anything about me or my family and you can't just… can't just…"

"Can't just what?" Bored, insultingly carefree. Dominic was lying back again, with his eyes closed. As if he didn't have to worry about Abe, at all. And Abe knew that he couldn't hurt Dominic but he'd felt comfort in the idea that maybe Dominic hadn't known that.

"Can't just make insinuations like that!" Abe threw his ahnds high then pointed his finger at Dominic. "You can't just make insinuations about me and my family. You're the asshole! You're the one who doesn't know anything!" His finger quivered and its tip deviated from its target once or twice from the spasms running down to his shoulder.

"I didn't… I… wait…what?" Dominic sat up, blinking, mouth slightly ajar.

"You know what!" His hand was flung out to the side in a violent exaggeration of a gesticulating motion that had nothing to do with what it was that he was trying to say. But in some ways, it said exactly what he couldn't with words. "You know just what I'm talking about!"

"No… I don't." The bored tone ventured near Dominic's voice, just enough to stain it with coming frustration. "I don't have the first clue as to what you're talking about, man. Why don't you just calm down, huh?" His blinking was what betrayed that he was genuinely starting to worry. But Abe didn't care anymore. His fire was lit and he was going to have his say.

"You don't get to tell me to calm down after you've just insulted my family and me! You don't!" He breathed deeply, his chest rising and falling in wide waves of agitated movement. There was a clanging staccato to his words and his volume began to soak through the grass so that even it felt as if it'd break from the noise of it. His face was red now, the prominent ridges of his cheeks clear due to his snapping jaws pulling tight and down in a scowling grimace. Where did Dominic get off? What made him so special? What exactly?

"I didn't just insult your family, you…" Abe's mouth moved to counter that, but Dominic raised a hand and closed his eyes to take a long breath in. "Let me finish, jeesh." He made a sucking sound with the right side of his jaw and Abe fisted some grass. "You're hysterical." Abe snorted and made another exaggerated sound that sounded something like a sigh, as if he'd expected it, as if he'd counted on Dominic "trying to change the script on him." Oh, yes. Try and divert guilt. His eyes rolled. "Really, Abe." He spoke calmly, patiently, quietly. "You're being hysterical and I think you might just be losing your mind."

Abe stared. And Dominic stared back. Was that sarcasm or was he being serious? Abe had thought until that moment that Dominic's expressions were crude and easily discernable. Angry. Sad. Happy. Glad. Things that were clear-cut and easily told one from the other. But this. This subtly of expression, this mixing and matching tones with irony with whatever else threw him. His head tilted to the side and his brows knit together. But Dominic's expression remained implacably serene and serious.

"Now, I'm willing to overlook your obvious psychotic tendencies, but you're going to have to tone them down a little." And then he snickered. He snickered and laughed and slapped his knee because it was oh so funny to get Abe so worked up and then to suddenly make it like you hadn't done a thing. Yes. That really was the best sort of joke, wasn't it?

"Asshole!" Abe reached through the cold space between them and punched Dominic. And because that felt good, he then went to smear the sandwich across his shirt.

"No, no! We're going to need that!"

The tone, half-joking, half-serious gave Abe pause. Dominic's strangled laughter finally did subside and Abe managed to tuck his aggression back into himself. But in the meantime, something strange had happened. The somber dedication to eating had been replaced by something far more lighthearted. When had that happened? When had they come to any sort of peace treaty? Especially after Dominic had called him psychotic too. Abe's face hurt from his violent diatribe, but Dominic seemed far worse off than he did. He sat there holding his sides, puffing hard, trying to calm down, and eyes moist. His face remained very red beneath its tan complexion, making him look like a tomato left out in the sun too long and a loose strand of saliva dribbled at the corner of his mouth.

He looked like a fool.

"You're an idiot," Abe said gruffly, biting into the sandwich for lack of anything else to do. He watched Dominic's knee and the grass that jutted up on either side of it, at the edge of his sight, out of focus and blurry. Again, he was staring without staring, chewing in silence. Dominic must have agreed because he didn't disagree. Or maybe he was just sick of fighting, tired of being so contrary. Maybe he too was tired of the bickering. Abe swallowed and then took another bite, trying to stuff his mouth so that there wouldn't be time for talking. He was tired of the bickering, he knew. He couldn't take anymore of it. Every inch of his body, inside and out, tingled and hummed, as if it had been stretched beyond its limits and then left to slowly pull itself back together again. He felt lightheaded and off-balance; the cool quiet was a welcome relief.

He coughed when he saw Dominic rolling his pants back to his knees. Already, he'd chewed through half of his sandwich, and noticing this, he began to chew slowly. Watching Dominic pull the dark denim up the lengths of his legs, turning their light undersides outward into a tight cuff just below where the knee was. Dominic whistled as he did this, fingers worked quickly and nimbly. They were coarse and rough, Dominic's hands, and tan just like the rest of him. Large. Clumsy-looking, but they did small work so well that they seemed to fit Dominic in the way that they shouldn't really have fit him at all. Strange. Very strange.

"Hey, Abe," he said and Abe stopped chewing to look and to wait. "Do you hear that?" Did he hear what? Abe blinked then began to listen. Dominic puffed out his cheeks, and turned outward from their contained place on the hillside and toward the shimmering sea of faded green grass that was drying and wilting under the sun's heat. And sure enough, the faint sounds of voices began to rise just above the sound of the wind in the trees and in the grass. Abe's brows pulled together and rolled the rest of the sandwhich together and stuck it into his mouth. The voices were too distorted by distance and by the trees to really make out, but they were definitely voices. Loud and muffled. They shared a look and for the first time, it wasn't a look to convey an insult or communicate some dark, thunderous warning. It was a look of curiosity and Abe felt as if he could read Dominic's mind. Silently, wordlessly, obeying the unspoken agreement between them, they stood up and began walking toward the sound. Then, about half way, they broke out into a laughing run, bumping into each other, shoving off with shoulders and throwing elbows. There was the sound of groaning and grunting and Abe made a threat. Dominic laughed and Abe laughed and their laughter rose up through the trees. They crashed down through the dark fringe of low bushes and back on to the shady path, and then they ran on it, kicking dust up through the shadows as they sprinted. Long, graceful strides. A fluid run. And Dominic moved faster than his build suggested he could.

He was pressed up against Dominic's side when they came at a tree that made a fork in the road and they had to split up then but came together again, sliding, slipping, bouncing against each other, snatching limbs out of their way as they pushed steadily ahead and then down a sudden slope. They were sliding, rolling, laughing. And, finally, they ended in a heaving, sweating pile of limbs at the end of the slope, at the feet of a group of boys whose faces were distorted by the glare of the sun.

"Well, well," one of the voices said, distant and faraway to Abe's blood-filled ears, "look what we have here."