Their rented room turns out to be much nicer than was thought. For one, it has its own door to the outside which turns out to be a good thing.
(The family they meet are wonderful people, but the teenage daughter won't stop staring at the two of them and smiling. It's creepy.)
It's also bigger than was expected; they have space for two small beds. Chansey and Noctowl, though they won't be able to move much, will have no problems being outside their pokeballs.
A small bathroom's attached, and there's a mini refrigerator with a microwave.
Things are looking up, he thinks, and then he accidentally steps on Kyle's photo that belongs to the Ace trainer's secret shrine they both pretend doesn't exist. The glass cover cracks, and he lets out a swear.
He reevaluates how much room is actually needed to accommodate two people before rushing out to buy a new picture frame.
Kyle's off somewhere for the day, most likely scamming confident trainers out of their money, and probably won't be back until dark. He decides to take a look at the shops before heading home once he acquires a replacement.
The salon catches his eye when a girl with shiny pink hair and rather unusual clothing barges out.
"I ain't got time for no split ends!" the girl screeches, stomping away.
He blinks and looks at his Xtransceiver. Plenty of time until it gets dark, he muses. With an insatiable curiosity gained in self-defense from traumatic experience, he strides over to the innocent-looking salon.
The hairdresser that greets him also has pink hair. Dyes are something of a specialty, she tells him. He asks about the girl from earlier and gets a crash course on Team Skull.
Talking about Team Skull eventually leads to discussing his recent arrival to the region, his new job, and other similar topics. It's a slow day for her, and he doesn't have anywhere to be; they chat all the way to closing time.
Her name's Myna. She's blunt, funny, and somewhat sweet.
She's probably a decade older than him, but that doesn't make her any less cute. He asks if she's too tired for coffee, and she says she'd love some.
He practically dances back to his temporary abode afterwards. He manages to get Kyle's broken frame replaced minutes before the Ace trainer kicks open the door.
Two weeks later, and a few evenings of coffee dates, he figures it's better to let Kyle meet her before fate decides to step in. Too many times he's tried hiding his potential girlfriends only to have it blow up spectacularly.
He decides to cross his fingers and introduce the two on his next day off.
...
"Myna, huh? Sounds familiar in a bad way," Kyle muses.
"Myna's a good person! You probably met someone else," he denies.
"Doubt it."
"She's really nice," he argues, opening the door. "You'll see."
Kyle makes a disbelieving sound.
"Welcome to—" Myna cuts off.
Her mouth hangs open as her gaze rests over his shoulder. In response, Kyle tilts his head thoughtfully.
"Don't I know you?" The Ace trainer asks.
Myna makes an enraged noise. Before he knows it, he's being shoved to the floor, and a pair of scissors sails overhead.
"Yep," Kyle says wryly, "definitely know you."
"You have some nerve," Myna seethes.
Her hand is reaching for a pokeball, and he knows this is about to get ugly fast. He resolutely does not start crying at the unfairness of it all.
"Kyle, what did you do?" He asks despairingly.
"It's not so much what I did, than what I didn't do," the Ace trainer tells him.
"You traitor!" Myna cries, jumping over the counter. "It was a commitment! You ran out on me!"
He whips his head towards the man he thought he knew.
"You left her at the altar?" He gapes.
There are two other customers who gasp dramatically.
Myna holds out a pokeball challengingly, and she appears to be in pain. He looks over at Kyle and narrows his eyes.
"The irony of everyone thinking I'm the bad guy," Kyle sighs to himself.
"You don't know the meaning of loyalty," Myna sneers.
His teeth clench, and he feels his hand twitch to his own pokeball. Here he is trying his best and then this guy!
"So, you did leave her?" He questions sharply.
"Look," Kyle huffs, scratching his head irritably, "it's not like that. It's—"
He cuts himself off as he looks warily at the two customers listening intently.
"She's a member of Team Rocket," the Ace trainer says lowly.
He blinks in shock.
"Oh, don't give me that. You were too!" Myna hisses, stomping her foot.
He opens his mouth and only a noise resembling a question comes out.
"Nope, not officially anyways. Never got my hat," Kyle refutes.
"You were a member in all but name," Myna spits.
"I seem to recall you saying something along the lines of, 'you're never going to be one of us, you stupid brat' but that may just be bad memory," the Ace trainer states dryly.
"You know I never meant it—" Myna begins.
"Just like how you guys used to gang up on me with your Zubats, but you 'never meant it?' " Kyle spits.
"You literally asked for it!" Myna throws her arms up.
"Alright, enough!" He shouts.
He's confused and more than a little miffed that Kyle has, yet again, ruined his chance with a girl he liked.
"What is going on and should it concern me?" He asks, Chansey's pokeball rolling dangerously in his palm.
The Ace trainer is scrubbing a hand through his hair irritably, and the apparently criminal hairdresser is scowling at the wall behind him.
"Look," Kyle begins tersely, "it's in the past, and—"
"Oh, sure, now that the Boss can't scare you—" Myna interrupts snidely.
"Let me finish speaking!" Kyle orders. "I'm not ten anymore. You can't act like we never grew up!"
Myna snaps her teeth together, visibly angry.
"Now, Jace," Kyle huffs, "what happened was that I was a dumb little kid who thought he had it all figured out. At that age, I was angry, and the only thing I understood was that being good got you nowhere."
The Ace trainer pauses.
"I was living in Kanto at the time, and Team Rocket was getting into full swing. No matter which town my parents moved me to, they were there. Every single city had guys running around in black after dark."
"I tried to join up, and got beat up a lot," the man continues with a nostalgic expression, "but it always came down to 'you're too young.' Gangsters with morals, who knew?"
"I learned things though," Kyle looks Myna straight in the eyes, "not just your typical thuggery, but things said without thought. Confidential information just lying out in the open. Unguarded computers with weak passwords."
Myna hisses through her teeth.
"The only thing that stopped me from getting in over my head was my reasonable fear of Giovanni," the Ace trainer tells him. "Eventually though, my parents forced me to go to Hoenn, so it's not like I left on purpose."
"You could have stayed with us! We would have sheltered you," the woman shouts desperately.
"I know you would have, but I had already started changing," Kyle says gently. "Met this Growlithe with the saddest eyes behind the prize counter, you know?"
Myna looks away, and he can't stop the stab of sympathy. He knows exactly how it feels to see people you love walk away from you.
"We went down different paths, it's just how it is," Kyle says softly.
There's an awkward silence as the woman plays with her pokeball, not looking at anyone.
"Yeah, well, never thought I'd go from thug to thug's hairdresser," Myna gripes.
"And I'm a professional pokemon trainer that can buy a house in every region!" Kyle chirps.
"Now I want to kill you for another reason," Myna says ominously.
"So how about it? Friends? Friends with my friends?" Kyle grabs him by the shoulder, forcing him into a side-hug.
He slides on the familiar put-upon expression that comes with being best friends with a crazy man, and he watches Myna's give in to the inevitable.
"Ugh, fine. I'll give you my number, but if you even think about calling me at midnight!" She threatens.
"Don't worry, friends don't purposely irritate friends!" Kyle says cheerfully. "At the cost of sleep anyways," he adds quietly.
Kyle grins at Myna whose mouth is curling up even through her scowl. The Ace trainer's hand is gripping his shoulder tight, and he knows the man is genuinely pleased.
He feels kind of warm to be included in this fuzzy atmosphere even if he is still irritated about his non-existent love life.
The three of them jump as the two forgotten customers clap wildly.
Kyle lets him go to run a hand through his hair sheepishly, and Myna turns bright red. He decides to give an awkward bow.
Because this right here is his life, full of drama and insanity.