Chapter Ten:
Bed Time
Night (8:57 P.M.), BraveStar Guild
"Mhmm! Good grub!" Romsca rubbed her stomach, grinning while following Victor with Lloyd and Stream.
Lloyd looked down, flushing. I'm going to have to get used to not using utensils. At least the food here generally doesn't require those.
"Well, here we are!" the Emboar led them down a passage on the top floor until they came upon a door, "As you can see-" he grabbed the handle on the door, the handle itself set on a metal circle on the door, and slid it down to their height, "-the handle is adjustable, slides up and down. Same for the lock, hahaha!" he laughed, "Helps that the Police Chief helped design a lot of our security," he twisted the handle, which also twisted the metal circle it was attached to on the door, and then pushed it, pushing open the door with it, "And that's how you get inside, same for out, except you pull on the inside. Understood?"
"Aye!" Romsca nodded, Stream doing the same.
Lloyd blinked. Hmm? That's more complex than I thought it would be. The Pokémon of this world are more advanced than I originally gave them credit for.
Team Rainy Days walked inside, running into a second entrance to the room, which was similar to the one that was the first entrance to the building, a series of long strings of beads trailing down from the roof of the doorway.
On the passage wall in front of the room's second entrance was what looked like a basket, built into the wall with the side opposite them missing, instead there was a panel of sorts.
"Consider that your mail box. The panel slides open to the left so that a mail carrier can deposit your mail into the box. Don't expect to get a lot of mail everyday, but you should get a newspaper from town more often than not, and possibly a mission or two if someone makes a personal request for you. Oh, and you'll find a few sheets of paper in there that can connect to the handle on your door. Most of them are 'do not disturb' notices, but for different reasons. One's for when you're all out of the guild, another's for, ahem, when someone wants some 'private time' with a, ahem, special partner, and yet another's for if one of you is sick with something. Using them isn't mandatory, it's completely optional, but they're there if you want. As a guild, we like to have options. That's about it, so I'll leave you to get acquainted with your new room. Oh, and by the way, each room only comes with two straw beds, so two of you are going to have to share. Bye!" he waved, walking back out through the door, which he closed behind him, leaving the door handle low enough for them to reach.
Nodding, the trio went through the beaded doorway into their new residence.
There wasn't really much to see, as the room was rather plain. The two straw beds were in the center of the room as they were told, and there was a series of shelves on the left wall, covering all but the circular window, which each of the walls besides the one with the entrance had one of. These shelves were for anything special they collected in their career as explorers, be they books, trinkets, trophies, or treasures.
"So..." Lloyd rubbed a forepaw to his face while flushing in embarrassment, "What a-are we going to d-do since there are only t-two b-beds?"
"You can have one, and we will share the other," Stream explained, smiling as she nestled into the bed.
"Huh?" Lloyd blinked.
"Aye," the Helioptile rested beside her, putting an arm around her neck, "Me and me mate share everything, so we'll share this too!"
"Oh..." he looked down, flushing redder. That was easier than expected. I'm a little disappointed... But I don't really know why. He paused, "Hey, uhh... when you say 'mate', do you mean-"
"-friend, ally, comrade?" Romsca cut him off with a bored yet irate glare, to which he responded with a gulp and a nod, "Then yes, yes I do. It's how I talk, ya got a problem with it?"
"Ah, hahaha, no, no..." he laughed nervously, "...just... just making sure..." he sat down and curled up in his bed. They're both Pokémon, Lloyd, you don't need to feel embarrassed, nervous, or anything of the kind, even if they're both girls, because you are, err, were, a human, and they're not.
"!" just as he was about to nod off, he nearly jumped at the loud roar of thunder in the distance.
"Ugh," with a grunt, Romsca turned to look out the left window, from which they could see the heavy rain pelting the glass, "Okay, rain, you saved us earlier, now could you let us sleep?" the booming of the thunder answered her, "Ah, thought so," she sat down, rolling onto her back, "Well, one option," she grabbed her frills and tied them together under her chin, "There, can't hear a thing," she closed her eyes and fell back asleep.
The thunder boomed again, and Romsca didn't wake up, while Lloyd and Stream merely sighed.
"Yaaaaaaw~!" the Ducklett yawned, stretching her wings, "I guess we'll just have to ignore it then," she hunkered down, bringing her wings, legs, and head closer to her body, "Goodnight, Romsca, goodnight, Lloyd,"
"Goodnight, guys," the Mudkip yawned back, pawing at a piece of straw sticking out of the bed, "By the way, thanks for letting me join your team," he thanked them earnestly, acknowledging that he most likely wouldn't have survived outside on his own. While the guild wasn't exactly up to human standards, Lloyd found that his Pokémon body had all its needs met, and then some.
"You're welcome, Lloyd," Stream smiled, "And we're thankful that you joined us. You were a big help today,"
"Hmhmhm," he chuckled, "I'm glad to hear that," He closed his eyes, frowning. Back to the embarrassment thing, it's probably just my Pokémon body causing that. However, that brings another issue to mind: should I tell them about me being human? They would probably think that I'm crazy if I told them that, but someone needs to know. If I'm going to find out how I got here, and why I'm here, I'll need help, because I doubt I can find out on my own. And since we're a team, we will be doing things together often, and I doubt I can do things relating to finding out about my being here without them becoming suspicious. Should I tell them I'm human then? He shifted in discomfort. No, I still think I shouldn't. At least the way things are now, with me knowing almost nothing about my being here, it wouldn't be worth it to risk losing our camaraderie, or my place at the guild. I probably wouldn't survive the night if I had to live outside the guild. Besides... He rolled over onto his side, opening his eyes slightly to glance at his teammates, both of whom were sleeping soundly. He smiled, falling asleep. ...I don't want to lose my new friends...