"Attention passengers," their pilot's voice rang through the intercom, "We'll be beginning our descent into Harmonia City. Expected arrival in five to ten minutes."
Crystal began to stir against Emizella's shoulder, her head nestled deep in the nook of her neck between her head and body. She wondered when they fell asleep and for how long they had been sitting in this metal box. She reached to the drawn, black curtains, pulling it open just a smidge to take a peek at the sky. Her eyes squinted against the bright blue and fluffy white, adjusting themselves to the light of the sun already beginning its climb back down to the opposite horizon.
Just a couple of hours, Crystal guessed, letting the curtain fall back before moving away carefully from Emizella's drooped position. She only slid even further against Crystal's body. "Emi, wake up." Crystal nudged her, pushing her towards her side.
Emizella groaned, sliding towards the other side. But that side was too cold for her and she ended up redirecting her limp, groggy body back onto Crystal's again.
Crystal pushed her just a bit harder, "C'mon, Emi, we're here."
"…where?" Emizella murmured under her protesting groans.
"Here. You know, capital city. ALG headquarters. Big, life-changing exam. Here."
Emizella groaned against, a whining pitch coloring the rumble in her throat. "Just five more minutes…" she pleaded before falling back into her soft snores.
Crystal shook her head slowly, a soft, endearing smile dusting her lips. There was no real harm in letting her sleep until they landed, Crystal just hoped she wouldn't end up having to drag Emizella out of their sky carriage once they did. She could continue engrossing herself in her dreams, but Crystal was going to have a peek at the city she knew in name only.
A paw carefully pulled back the curtains, the sliver of afternoon light dripping in and laying over Emizella's eyelids. She rolled her face against Crystal's head. She asked for five more minutes and she was going to get five minutes. Crystal glanced back at the riolu, feeling her settle with her gentle nudging before turning back to look at the city landscape.
From this height, with this light, the capital city looked breathtaking and intimidatingly gorgeous. She could barely catch all of the city with the one window, its domain spreading wide along the shore of the ocean and resting on the rising hills. Its size must have been three- no, five of their home village stuck together and shaped into one. Perhaps even twice as high, too.
Did pokémon really build this city? Did they shape every shop and every home; every cobblestone alleyway and bustling street? Maybe, but Crystal wondered if there was maybe something more. Consuming the large clocktower that stood up on the hill were patches of green that crept and crawled over the white, peaking above its neighbors.
Actually, when they got even closer to the city's landing station, Crystal could see patches on nearly all of the built structures. Snaking ivy and clinging roots and coats of moss scaling high along the walls erased the initial pristine impression and replaced it with an ancient atmosphere. Crystal couldn't say she preferred one or the other but she did feel just a bit curious about which parties played a part in piling on the fresh bricks and paving the first streets. Was it all pokémon hands or did an old, extinct race of creature put up the initial framework and foundations?
The buildings grew larger and the landing platform got closer to the bottom of their carriage. Their pilot was quite gentle with lowering her passengers, the only indication that they landed being a soft thump that rocked them gently before settling under the final flaps of her wings.
"We have now landed in Harmonia City. Please remember to take all personal belongings with you and thank you again for flying with Corvi-Flights."
Okay, now there was no more delaying the inevitable. With their pilot flying off her perch to the rest station with a few of her feathered coworkers, there was no space left to milk out any more seconds of sleep.
Crystal began to shake Emizella harder, "C'mon, Emi, five minutes are up." she told her and felt her groan against her fur. "I can't carry you, Emi. You're too big! Just wake up!" she spoke just a bit louder, just enough to cover the space of the carriage with her voice, but nothing happened. Well, Emizella turned just a bit against Crystal's head, smacking her eye with one of the feelers decorating her head, but that was just about it.
Crystal clenched the eye shut against the meaty appendage. Her paw started to move it out of her face before realizing that she never actually touched the thing before. And with Emizella having so much fun petting her own body, why couldn't she get a bit of petting in herself? It's only fair, right? Especially since she was still refusing to get up so they could unpack the cargo hold.
She felt its weight push back against her paw, soft velvet tickling her pads and trickling between her toes. There was definitely more substance than fur in there, soft, malleable flesh that was way more entertaining to play with than Crystal first expected. If her eye wasn't a target, she could see herself smacking it a few times just to see how it would swing and sway.
Her paw moved up to the base closer to her skull and felt it twitch just a little under her testing touch. She stared at the narrowed end and touched it again. It twitched again, a soft rumble going through Emizella's throat as she rubbed and nuzzled further into Crystal's fur.
Could this be… Crystal gave the best pinch she could with tiny toes, earning herself a soft whimper that dusted her whiskers. It is! Payback, delicious payback!
Emizella's slowly began to rouse out of sleep, the sensation penetrating too deeply in her dreams to ignore. Before her lids opened to find Crystal playing with things she shouldn't, she retreated her paws back down to the cushioned seat, instantly feeling the appendage slap her eye once again.
"Did we land?" Emizella asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
Fortunately for Crystal, it seemed her little investigation would go unnoticed, attributed to nothing but a forgettable dream. "Yeah, we touched down just a little while ago," she answered, jumping off the seat to stretch out her spine.
Emizella began doing the same, giving a mighty grunted while the tips of her digits brushed along the ceiling. "Awesome…" she yawned, "We better get started with getting our stuff out… Oh," her pitch sank when a troubling thought hit her.
Crystal looked up at her, "What is it?"
"Now that we're actually here…I just realized how troublesome all those gifts are going to be to carry around."
"How troublesome are a few gifts?"
Crystal wished she hadn't asked. As Emizella piled out sack after sack of fruits, elixirs, potions, seeds and whatever else Tim thought would be too expensive bought at city prices, she wished she never asked such a ridiculous question.
"Why is there so much?" Crystal exclaimed, her ears lowering on her head at the sheer volume they were expected to split and backpack down the streets until they reached someplace to put it all down.
"A very excellent question." Emizella sighed, patting her hands clean before standing next to Crystal and eyeing the pile. "I'd say we split it seventy-five/twenty-five."
"I can handle forty." Crystal corrected with a turn of her head.
"You'll get exhausted at forty."
"You'll get exhausted at seventy-five."
"Excuse me, ladies." A refined rapidash broke their bickering, pastel lavender and fine mint green locks radiating in the midday city sun. His white coat seemed to shimmer against the light, reflecting brilliantly into Crystal's eyes. "I couldn't help but noticed you two and your little dilemma here. That's quite the pile to drag around for a couple of fresh tourists just off the sky carriage. Lucky for you, I happen to run a bit of a taxi service. Just five coins and I'll take you wherever you need to go."
"Ha! So much for not spending a single cent." Emizella blurted out, laughing at the futility of so much stuff. Even with their bags fully packed, there was no packing pokémon driven services. "Crystal, help me load this stuff up, okay? I'll even let you do forty," she said with a smirk, nudging her gently with a soft bump.
Crystal took her tease with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, letting a soft chuckle blow out through her nose. At least neither of them would be dragging around their cut for longer than they thought.
~uwu~
As the rapidash trotted along down the street with a proud head held high and a sharp, rhythmic clapping sounding with each step of his hooves, Crystal couldn't stop her curiosity from peeking over the wagon's edge to the rolling street below. The wheels jostled over each patch of overgrowth in their way, making for a bumpy ride but their driver pulled past it without much mind. Just as she thought, the green takeover was much more intense down on the ground than what she could pick out from the sky. Trees burst from paved streets like the brickwork was nothing but paper in their way, their roots jutting from the cracks to take back the space that was once theirs.
Tall grasses and trickling vines hugged the sunniest sides of the buildings, merging together into one mutually beneficial entity. Crystal was by no means an architectural expert, but she could imagine that the only reason these buildings were still standing as tall as they did was in part thanks to the vine works and root network holding things together. Perhaps some of the pokémon helped to keep their home alive and stable, but it was all a group effort. Everything working together in harmony.
Oh, so that's where the name comes from…
"So, where are you girls from?" their driver asked with a slight turn of his head.
"Ippona Village," Emizella answered back quickly.
Crystal felt it might have been in bad form, but she never did catch the name of their village back when they lived right next door. Should she have asked? She felt like she should have asked a long time ago.
"It has one of Xerneas's trees growing in the center of it." Emizella further elaborated without needing to be prompted.
"Oh, I think I've heard of that place from one of my patrons before. You're both quite the long ways away from home, aren't you? What brings you to the capital? Taking a little vacation? Seeing the sights?"
Emizella's chest fur puffed up, pluming in her achievement and smirking in her pride. "Actually, we're here for the adventurers league internship exam."
"Really?" his head turned back a bit further, "Is it that time of year already? Huh… so that's the both of you? Even her?" he asked pointedly to Crystal with a slight gesture of his horn.
"Hey, don't go underestimating her. She may look like she's all fluff and no bite but she can be tough when she wants."
The rapidash just laughed, "If you say so," he shrugged. It wasn't like he had any stance to argue, he just carted his passengers around to the places they needed to be. Obviously, they must have seen something in the small fennekin if she was here now. "Just make sure you two get really big and famous so I can say I've had celebrities in my wagon."
"That's the plan!" Emizella grinned before turning to Crystal, "Right?"
"Well…" Crystal thought about it for a moment, resting her chin against the wagon's edge while her eyes peered up to the cloudy sky, "We should see where we go from here. I think fame should naturally follow in its own time."
"Oh, I get it," her partner's lips turned mischievous, an arm wrapping around Crystal's neck and pulling her in closer, "So you're saying we're so naturally gifted that it's inevitable we become major hotshots, right? I see what you're saying."
"That's-" Crystal stopped herself before she could play into her hands. She breathed out a short chuckle and relaxed against Emizella's body amidst the soft bumping of their wagon, "Yeah, let's go with that," she conceded with a wistful smile on her lips.
Maybe that was their destiny after all: to grow into something big and extraordinary. That had to be the reason why they met the way that they did. Why she was sent to this seemingly peaceful place without any preamble to her purpose. Maybe it was best to be content with just learning and growing in this time they had together.
~uwu~
Emizella heaved out a sigh as she finally cleared out the wagon, leaving it as clean and empty as when they stepped on board. "That was the last of it," she announced, leaping over the wagon's edge to land beside their piled load. She glanced up at the rapidash, "Thanks for the lift. We can take it from here," she said, reaching into her own personal carry-on back and pulling out his payment and a bit extra for his good service. She paid him his fee plus the tip before watching the rapidash trot off to find a new set of patrons to pull around in his wagon.
"So this is Jasmine's place, right?" Emizella asked, turning her attention up at the painted sign that hung over the door.
Crystal looked between the business card Janice had given her and the establishment's logo, looking between the two p's in Plush that were replaced with the silhouetted head of a furfrou. Long, drooping ears, an untrimmed mane of thick fur in the back and a fine, sleek muzzle in the front. Definitely a match, "Yep, this is it. I hope we're not intruding too much popping in like this…"
"I'm sure it'll be fine. Besides, this is Janice and Damien's kid we're talking about. I'm sure she can manage one surprise visit." Emizella waved off the concern, scooping up as much of their belongings in her arms and leaving the rest for Crystal to carry in herself.
She pushed the door for the two of them with her shoulder. Beyond the ringing chime of the hanging door bell was the bellowing voice of an immensely fuming and frustrated furfrou that was one hundred percent done with whatever nonsense she was dealing with over at her counter.
"I don't give a single rattata's tookus how much more you pay me, the deal was for three weeks, not two!" she slammed away at the countertop with her paw, a single teacup sitting on a porcelain saucer being saved by the swift thinking of a houndoom remaining close on standby. "Well, whose fault do you think it is that your buffoon of an agent got the dates wrong? Mine?!" she growled away into a glowing blue orb that flickered with every exchange. "Look," she took a deep breath, raking her paw over her frazzled mane, "You want the Plush Brand quality, right? That's why you came to me, right? Well, I can't give that to you unless I have enough time to work my magic. Now, either get your shit together or find someone else." she muttered low into the glowing sphere, letting it fade away into its dim shade before letting out a long sigh.
She turned a mirror sitting on her counter to face her, taking a good, long look her herself with a despairing shadow in her eyes. "Val, honey, look at me!" she cried, dragging her paws down her face and stretching the bags that hung under her eyes, "I'm an utter mess. When was the last time I even went to the spa for a proper trim?" she asked.
The houndoom set the tea saucer down with a gentle clink, "You don't want the answer to that."
The furfrou gave another long, drawn-out sigh mixed with a heavy groan that pulled her forehead to her countertop.
"I told you not to take that job. The same thing happened last time. And the time before that. And the time before that," the houndoom counted off with each tick of her head.
"It's not that poor girl's fault she's represented by a bunch of brainless, incompetent idiots. This dress is like a fairy tale's dream come true for her; how could I say no?"
"Quite easily, actually," she answered, reaching a paw up and pushing it carefully towards her sulking companion.
The furfrou eyed it for a moment before pulling it closer and taking a few savoring sips from the fragrant tea waiting for her inside. She breathed out slowly, "Hopefully they figure something out before they break her heart."
"If they know what's good for them,"
"Um, excuse me?" Emizella's voice struck in the calm of this storm.
The furfrou choked into the steaming liquid, blowing it across her muzzle and stumbling at the mess she was making of her face. "Who-" she barely got out, taking up a cloth sheet to clean herself and cover her less than dignified response. She cleared her throat, "H-how long have you two been standing there?"
"We just got here, actually." Crystal answered first to sprinkle on the little white lie.
"Is that so… I see," she muttered, finishing up patting herself down before setting the cloth aside. "And what might I do for you? Either of you looking for anything in particular?"
"Actually, we're here to see you," Crystal said with her kind, polite smile.
"Me?"
"You're Jasmine, right? Janice and Damien suggested we see you first when we arrived in Harmonia."
"Mama and Papa did? Oh!" Recollection spread in her eyes like how the northern lights take up the night sky. It put the color back into her worn-out expression, exhaustion shifting to excitement in a heartbeat. She bounded over to the pair, tail wagging at a hundred beats per second. "I remember now! You're the two who saved my precious little Lilac and all the other children in Ippona, right?! Yes, yes, I've heard all about it in their letters. Oh, how could I have been so rude? And looking so dreadful, too. This first meeting is turning into an utter failure. Oh! And we haven't even gone through the proper introductions, yet. Val, honey! Come meet our guests."
Jasmine had a second to breathe as she waited for the houndoom to make her way over to them, taking her sweet time to make sure the fashionista wouldn't pass out from the lack of oxygen. An arm wrapped around her, closing the last remaining inches between them while another paw pressed firmly against her chest.
"This is my one and only sweetheart, Valerie. Val, these are the two I was telling you about: Emizella and Crystal." Jasmine gestured a paw to the both of them. "Last time I properly saw Emi, she was still just a bitty little thing. And now here you are, in Harmonia City! Always so nice to have a fellow Ipponian finding herself in the capital. Oh, and congratulations to you both as well. I'm guessing you both got some really good news from HQ if you're both here. Absolutely lovely. You're shaping up to be just like your big brother!"
Emizella's arms clenched close to her side, her lips tightening and pinning the smile into her face. "Y-yeah," she answered.
Crystal looked up to Emizella's tensed profile and glanced down to the balled fists she hid behind her back. Emi…?
"And Crystal, I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of meeting you. I've been so busy since you made your golden debut in Ippona. But I wish I did, then I could have been prepared for this heart-melting adorableness. Oh, fennekins are such a cuddly bunch, wouldn't you say, Val?" Jasmine asked, her paws starting to play with the tufts of fur growing from her ears.
Always with the ears… Crystal held down the thought, learning to accept her fate. She was wrong. Her destiny wasn't to become a famously strong and dependable adventurer by Emizella's side. It was to constantly have her ears being petted and her fur being stroked by all kinds of hands and paws and flippers for some.
"I dunno, eevees are pretty cuddly too," Valeria answered, saving Crystal's flickering ears from being tickled anymore.
"Well, we're not in the presence of an eevee, now are we? Oh, speaking of cuddly, why don't we all take a trip to the spa? My treat, of course." Jasmine's eyes glittered at the prospect of receiving the pampering she so righteously deserved, her paws clapping together in glee.
"You can go. I'll hang back here," Valerie refused with a turn of her head.
"Aw, why not? We can get your horns filed nice and smooth, just the way you like them." Jasmine reached a paw up to feel at the boney protrusions sticking out of Valerie's skull, giving them a gentle rub to feel how rough they had gotten, "After all, you've had to deal with me this whole time. The least I can do is thank you for not losing it with me."
Valerie kept her gaze away from the gentle smile gracing the furfrou's lips, trying and failing to hide the rosy tint radiating over her face. "Alright… but don't think you have to spend so much for me. Just the filing is fine."
"Of course. And what about you two? You must be exhausted after that long flight. It'll be a good chance to unwind a bit after your trip."
Crystal and Emizella looked between one another, a soft smile being shared from Crystal to Emizella with eyes that asked, "Why not?"
Emizella breathed out a chuckle that relaxed her shoulders and soothed her tension away. "Sure. Gotta try it at least once, right?"
"Exactly! You're already getting into the swing of the capital city. Now then, let's put your belongings in the back first and then we'll be off for some much-deserved r n' r."