NaNoWriMo Day: Thursday, November 17th, 2016
Title: Punk's Not Dead
Words: 517
I'm getting too old for this, Looker thought, shaking himself out of a doze as Lumiose Station appeared out of the train window. Napping in the middle of the day like an old man…
"Dans quelques instants nous arriverons en gare d'Illumis, terminus de ce train," a voice said over the train PA. "Veuillez verifier vos sièges et assurez-vous de n'avoir rien oublié avant de descendre. Nous espérons que votre voyage avec nous a été agréable."
Looker stretched, tried not to count how many bones popped and creaked, and stood up as the train slid smoothly to a halt, checking his pockets to make sure that all of his equipment was still in place and looking over his seat before filing into the aisle and out onto the platform with the rest of the train's passengers. The sun was setting, but the evening was still pleasantly warm, and he took his time meandering down the streets and boulevards of Lumiose towards his Bureau.
The street lights were just turning on for the evening when he reached his front door. He reached into his left pocket to check the souvenir that he'd gotten for Emma one last time, then pulled off his glove so the print reader on the door handle to recognize him and let him in.
"Je-" he began calling as he stepped inside, stopping short as his Dad Senses started tingling. He dropped his register and whispered, "... suis rentré?"
The Bureau was full of what looked like the entirety of the Lumiose Gang, all fast asleep, some snoring softly.
He counted the sleeping punks softly as he crept towards the stairs that led up to the private residence part of the building. They were sprawled out his couches, some of them sprawled across each other, and Nix was even sleeping on Looker's desk, his head pillowed on an empty satchel and his boots very thoughtfully removed and sitting nearby the desk so that only his socked feet were dangling against the polished wood. It looked to be the entire gang.
Looker tiptoed past them as quietly as possible and started climbing the stairs, carefully avoiding the squeaky stairs (he could have them fixed, but after a lifetime in various law enforcement professions, silent stairs seemed like an unconscionable gap in basic home security). He found Emma in her room, lying on her bed and watching a cartoon on her Holocaster with her headphones in, and waved until Mimi noticed him and patted her trainer in the leg until Emma looked up, grinning brightly at the sight of her adoptive father.
"Papa!" she whispered, pausing her show and setting her Holocaster and headphones aside and launching herself off the bed to hug him. "Contente de te revoir!"
"Contente de te revoir, Emma," he whispered, hugging her back, before pointing downstairs with a raised eyebrow.
"Punk est pas mort, just en train de dormir," Emma whispered with a serious expression before launching into a quiet but enthusiastic story about the gang going to a garage concert and winding up chasing a bag thief across half of Lumiose.
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Okay, this one's hella short but seeing as I'm 1400 words ahead on wordcount, I figure I'm safe to keep this one short, since it feels like it needs to be to preserve the light tone anyway. The whole thing's for Bri, because we were talking about headcanons for the Lumiose Gang and we came to the "punk's not dead, just sleeping" photosets XD
All the French provided by the Fabulous Key-chan, and it's all there more to confirm the setting as Kalos than anything else, but hopefully it's not too obstructive or confusing in context. For reference:
-The first paragraph is just a standard train announcement proclaiming their arrival at Lumiose City and asking passengers to check their seats and possessions etc
-When Looker walks in the door, he says "I've returned"
-Emma and Looker say "nice to see you again!" (literally "happy to see you again") to each other
-and Emma says "Punk's not dead, just sleeping" before starting on her explanation of why there is a gaggle of exhausted punks in Looker's office XD
