Chapter 7 - Drizzle

"I'm grateful that you think of me that way. I really do." I said calmly. "But I'm… I'm not-"

"Stop." The Leafeon turned away suddenly, her voice quivering. "I know you hate me, so you don't have to say it."

"... What?"

"I'm sorry for ignoring you. I just couldn't bear to see you after all the things I said. I never stopped to think about how you felt when I forced you to listen to all the things I wanted to do to you, and now you hate me!" She cried.

"Mabel, I would never..." I tried to hug her, but she pushed me away.

"No! Stop! I know I'm awful! I know, okay?!" Tears streamed down her face. "You think I'm disgusting! I only dragged you here because I was selfish. I just wanted to tell you how I feel. It hurts that I can't stop thinking about you, even though I know you hate me. So please, don't say it!"

I grabbed her by the shoulders this time, "Snap out of it! I would never think or say any of that to you!" I gently shook her. "You couldn't have known that it was me that rescued you. It was supposed to be a secret."

"So what?! That doesn't mean I can take back all the lewd things I said!"

"It's fine, you were just all excited and caught up in the moment."

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"Look, no matter how you look at it, it's not your fault." I pulled her into a hug before she could push me away again. "I forgive you."

Her body stopped trembling. "But-"

"No 'buts', I'm serious Mabel. If anything, I was worried about you. I thought you hated me. I should be the one apologizing for not telling you sooner."

She still looked guilty when we separated. "Do you mean it?" She sniffled.

I waited for her to wipe her tears away. "Of course I do. You're my best friend. I could never be mad at you. I know you more than anybody else that you're always like this when you're chasing after someone... well, maybe aside from your parents… and probably your other friends." I tried to humor.

She chuckled, but then her ears drooped slightly. "Yeah, you're right… we're just friends."

"W-Wait! That's not what I meant!" I said quickly. "I'm… I'm not rejecting you." This time it was my turn to look away. "I'm the one who's being selfish. It's just that I'm not ready for a relationship. I have too many things to worry about right now."

She perked back up. "What things? You're always dozing off whenever I see you. In fact, I bet you thought how nice this place would be to relax when we first came here."

I slanted backwards in surprise. "Hey! How did you-"

"See?" She stuck her tongue out cutely, trying to act like herself again. "I know you just as well as you know me."

"Then you understand that I'm not like who I was back then, right?"

"Of course I do."

"You do? But I'm not who you thought I was..." I said confusingly.

"So naive..." She sighed. "I had a lot of time to think while I was away from you. And I've realized..." She abruptly leaned in with a wink. "There are other things about you that I've always liked~. "

Suddenly I began to feel hot. "Uhh…"

"I only wished I could've told you sooner…" She placed a paw on my lap. "Is it really that hard to believe when I say that I have feelings for you?"

"B-But I'm not even your type! I'm not like the brave and buff guys you're always going on about! I'm a coward Mabel, and that's never going to change!"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a pessimist. Sure, I might've said those things..." She looked at me slyly. "But that doesn't mean it's a necessity, and everyone I've gone out with never really liked me for who I was on the inside."

"That's because you-"

She landed a soft karate chop onto my head. "Oh, be quiet. All I'm saying is that you're different." She ridiculed. "You're the only one that saw me for who I am. Not once did you try to take advantage of me, even when I was at my worst. You didn't have to, but you stuck by me all this time. Did you really think doing something as thoughtful as that wouldn't tug on my heartstrings?"

"Mabel…"

"Please, won't you at least give me a chance?"

"I… I…" My head felt like it was spinning as she moved closer. "N-No! I can't!" I shook my head feverishly to clear my mind. "I'm not ready for a girlfriend! I said I have too many things I'm worried about!"

"But that's why we should be together, I can help you through them." She cooed.

"We are together!.. Just not in that way." I nervously scratched my arm again, "I have you and Flynn, and I'm so happy to have you two as friends that I'm afraid to lose you guys, but both of you don't understand what it's like. You don't know how bad it's been ever since everyone found out I was the geek who decided to play dress-up!"

"Bad? Everyone won't stop saying good things about you!"

"That's what you all think! It's been horrible for me!" I sighed when I caught my voice rising. "I'm just trying to help you. How will everyone else react when they find out I'm going out with you?" I waited briefly for Mabel to retort, but she never did. "Please, I can't do this right now. I don't want to rush anything. I'm not saying 'no' to you, but right now I just want you to be like you've always been. I'll only be dragging you down otherwise."

"... Okay..." She murmured. "I guess you're right." She, sat silently on the stump for a while before turning tail and padding off. "Good night Milo, see you tomorrow... and... thank you."

I nodded before looking back up at the night sky. I stayed for a little while longer before heading home.

It pained me to see her looking glum when she left, and even more so knowing that it's because of me, but this is for the best. I'd do anything to see her smile again, it's my duty to her as a friend afterall. At the same time, a small part of me regretted giving her hope that we'd be a couple. She deserves someone better. I might've crushed on her before, but now that I've gotten to know her over the course of four semesters, the thought of taking things further feels weird to me. It like she's been at my side since childhood, just like my Wailmer pail that my mother gave me.

And who on Earth would try to date their watering can?


Weeks went by, and as Mabel promised, she returned her old self again. It was an immense relief to me that we could have our light-hearted chats again in between lectures at school. Her peppy and excitable nature did a lot to get me through my predicament, though there was one thing that could certainly change for the better. She has also started flirting with me whenever the chance presented itself, even on campus. The teases were particularly worse whenever Joy was around to hear it, for obvious reasons. I've told Mabel several times to knock it off, but she would always defend herself simply by saying she's going along with what everyone else has been doing lately. I couldn't argue with her there, as just everyone at school has been giving me special treatment, whether I liked it or not.

Lots of students, consisting of my peers, seniors, and underclassmen, have come to me to ask if I could demonstrate my old habits again, like showing off my tree climbing and hopping abilities. I'd always decline no matter who asked, including Flynn. Sometimes I felt like they were doing it to mock me, no matter how much they may actually want to get a close-up of my past heroics. Letting them gawk at my dexterity, which has definitely gotten rusty over the past few months, will only egg them on. I kept telling them to try it themselves rather than bug me about it. Some have, in fact, but I also made sure to say that I wasn't responsible for any injuries that they were bound to get.

As the days went on, the scrutiny died down, bit by bit. It went down even further when finals began to draw near, which was good, since I still haven't gotten completely used to all the flattery, and I probably never will. I'm tired of my face having a constant shade of red whenever I'm near somebody.

When I'm not in my backyard, I take refuge from all the attention in Flynn, although his incessant badgering on why I haven't courted anybody yet isn't that much of an improvement.

"The apprentice has surpassed the master, and the first thing you do as a walking chick magnet is brush them all off? Have you lost your mind?"

When I told him that I also turned down Mabel recently, I realized right after I said it that I was never going to hear the end of it.

"Are you retarded? She's hot, her friends are hot, fuck man, the entire school is hot. They're all giving you googly eyes. The last thing I'd do is give them the cold shoulder."

"So you want me to just... degrade myself now that everyone knows my name, is that it? Then what? Have you ever thought about the consequences?"

"Newsflash, dumbass. Ever heard of a condom?"

"Of course I have. But the point is that-"

"Hey man, there's no shame in having a little fun out there. I'll even lend you some of mine. What size you packin'?"

"Flynn!"

It's times like these that he reminds me of my older cousins, but unlike them, there are some occasions where he isn't thinking with his crouch. I've learned that there is a key phrase to get him to act serious, which will come in handy soon, since a new pressing matter has arisen, no doubt from all my publicity. It had started a while ago, and I've been keeping the problem to myself for too long now, and I'm getting fed up with sleeping with one eye open again. I need to confide in someone I trust.

When I finished up my chores, I crashed by Flynn's place. The front door, which Flynn still refuses to keep locked, creaked open when I knocked on it. Behind it revealed an ordinary spectacle of a Flareon munching on some berries I gave him a few days ago. I refilled his pantry a while ago so he'd keep his mouth shut when he threatened to forge love letters under my name to some of the popular girls in our grade, saying that he was just giving me a push in the right direction. He laid on his couch while looking over some notes we took in our morning lecture. It was one of the few times I ever saw him being studious, as for some reason he doesn't like others knowing about his intelligence. The sophisticated scene was a stark contrast to the faint smell of alcohol that constantly filled his living room. He quickly put away his notebook when he noticed me walk in. I made sure to greet him with the words that would ensure he wouldn't begin with a snide remark.

"Hey uhh… Flynn? Can I talk to you for a sec? Like… real talk?"

He closed his notebook and placed it on the sofa's armrest. "What's going on man? Finally decided to stop being a turbo virgin?"

I sighed, guess those words don't always work. "No…"

He crossed his arms. "Shoot."

"Do you remember that creepy letter I got about a month ago? The one with just a few sentences on it, challenging me to a duel?"

"What? You still think it was me?"

"No." I said quickly. I reached into my messenger bag that I was wearing and pulled out a bunch of previously opened letters, held together with twine. I compressed it as much as I could, but it was still as thick as an entire English dictionary. "It's just that I've gotten tons more of them." I threw them onto the coffee table in front of Flynn with a loud thud. "See for yourself."

He whistled after he untied the thin cord, releasing all the built up tension and causing the bundle to explode into more letters, "Damn dude, you sure this guy's not a fan?" He selected a few from the pile and read them aloud. "'Come fight me you pussy.', 'Why aren't you here?', 'Stop hiding'?" He smirked. "I think he likes you."

"He sure does." I said unsteadily. "Or she."

The fire-type scoffed. "Why are you so quiet? Don't tell me you're actually scared?" He looked back at the paper he was holding and squinted at the tiny signature at the bottom. "Tch. This guy calls himself Beta Leaf?" He laughed. "That's the dumbest name I've ever heard!"

"Who cares what this Pokémon calls themselves! Can I not be at least a little concerned?" I picked up a more recent letter and tossed it to him. "Look at this one. What if they're actually being serious?"

"'If you don't come, then I'll come to you. I know where you live.'" The Flareon read with genuine confusion, "C'mon, so what if he does come? I can mess him up for you. He's probably jealous, is all."

"Jealous? Would you send threats like these if you were jealous?"

"I dunno, it's not that unusual. If it bothers you so much, why don't you just block all the mail coming from this dude?"

"You can't do that without knowing their address!"

Flynn flipped and scanned through dozens of letters , but found nothing. "Oh… right." He leaned backwards on his couch and placed his legs, one over the other, on the table. "Welp, I guess you're screwed then."

My heart sank when he said that. "This isn't a joke! They could be out to get me!"

"Relax, don't you think you're overreacting a bit too much?"

"I wasn't at first, but now I'm convinced that they actually want to kill me!"

"Don't be ridiculous. What happened to the brave hero that saved all those Pokémon from harm?" He made air quotes with his paws.

I groaned. "That was a long time ago! I never would've done it if I knew this would happen."

"Fine. I'll try to watch your back if you really that uptight about it." He shook his head and changed the subject. "Say, since you and Mabel are pals again, when's the next time she and Joy are coming over? Been ages since they last came. I think I might've jinxed us when I said I wanted to come to the next one."

"Oh, uhh… I don't know yet. I'll ask her."

"Yeah, you do that." He held up another berry from the basket beside him and took a bite out of it. "Give me a shout if you see that big, scaaaaary assassin." He chuckled with his mouth full.


Having a heart-to-heart with Flynn had the opposite effect of what I wanted. By the he next day, I was looking over my shoulder more than I already have, and I stuttered more when I talked to others. I was jumpy and jittery whenever someone tried to speak to me in between classes, and I had a hard time listening to my teachers. Flynn was right, it's like I never went and helped all those Pokémon in danger back then. I was foolhardy, but now I'm in such distress that I keep tripping over nothing. I hated it. The first time I got those scary letters, I thought that there was no way I could've angered someone so much when I was just trying to do some good, but then they just kept coming. What could I have done to spite someone so much?

I was too preoccupied on wondering who could be sending the hateful notes that I almost forgot that I was supposed to ask Mabel if she wanted to come over. Having idle chatter with her is always a nice change of pace, considering the next best thing on my to-do list was to crawl into a hole and never come out.

I went over to her dorm complex at the edge of the campus grounds, and I had to wait a few minutes for her to answer. When the door opened, a drowsy-looking Leafeon wearing black-rimmed nerd glasses emerged from the dimly lit interior.

"Ughh, Joy, what is it?" She said disgruntledly.

"Oh umm, did I wake you?" I asked warily. My first instinct told me that I must've knocked on someone else's door, but upon closer inspection, I found that I was right where I wanted to be. "Whoa, Mabel, you wear glasses?"

"Huh?" She yawned as she lifted her optics up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. The tan-colored creature blinked a few times at me, then shrieked upon realizing that I was not her roommate, and slammed the door in my face. I stood there with slight bewilderment as I heard sounds of a running faucet and hasty shuffling behind the door before she opened it once more. This time her eyeglasses were nowhere to be found. "Heeeeey Milo, sorry about that." She tried to say nonchalantly. "What are you doing here after school?"

"Wait, how come you never told me you wear contacts?"

Suddenly she grew flustered, and puffed out her cheeks. "Hey, don't tell anyone okay? I don't want anybody to know that!"

"Why? What's wrong with them? I think glasses are pretty cute." I replied casually, but then I bit my tongue, for some reason I was subconsciously thinking I was talking to Flynn.

Would Dialga rewind time back a few seconds back if I asked him nicely?

My innocent comment made her squeak as she scrambled to hide behind her door, then she poked her bright red face out. "Pervert! Just you wait 'til I tell everyone that you have a glasses fetish!"

"What? No I don't!"

"Yes you do! You just said you did! Now look at what you've done to me!" She looked so embarrassed that I was afraid she might scream again.

I took a few steps back. "Look, I'm sorry for waking you up. Should I come back later or...?"

"N-No! Wait!" Suddenly she was back in front of me and grabbed hold of my paw. "It's fine, really. You're... you're welcome to stay a while." She muttered as she gently tugged on my arm.

"Oh… okay…" I accepted her invitation into her two-room apartment, though I was still unsure if I had the right to be here. "I won't tell anyone, I swear."

She crossed her arms as she sat on her bed. "Hmph, you better not." She said sassily, but then exhaled. "Sorry you had to see me like that."

"Nah, it's my fault for barging in on you like that." I shook my head as I sat on Joy's mattress on the opposite side of the room. I trust that Mabel won't tell her I even dared to step foot onto her side of the room. "I just came by to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"Well I…" My voice trailed off as I began to feel shy, but remembering that I was just doing a favor for Flynn gave me the courage to keep going. "I just wanted to know how things are going between us." I started scratching the back of my head. "You said you'd go back to the way things were, but you haven't come by to visit me at all lately."

"Wait, really? I thought it'd be weird to come over now since… you know…" Her eyes began to sparkle, it was warming to see her mood already improving. "Are you saying you missed me?"

"Umm… yeah I guess. I didn't want you to be sad about what I said that night."

"Aww, that's sweet of you~." She hummed. "I never thought you'd go out of the way to invite me to your place... unless..." Suddenly she gasped and grabbed her pillow to cover her lower face. She eyed me suspiciously. "Milo, you naughty boy! Don't think you can act all innocent, inviting a pure maiden like me to dark depths of your home!" She playfully accused.

"Pure? You?" I cracked a smile and raised a brow. "Don't act like you haven't been fooling around with the guys you've gone out with!"

She responded by throwing her pillow at me. It was aimed towards my face, and the repulsive aftertaste of cloth and cotton riddled my taste buds as part of it went into my mouth. It almost made me gag.

"Don't you ever bring that up!" She shouted, blushing again. "Rule number one when talking to a lady is to never mention things like that!"

"Alright, alright, geez." I got up to leave. "So, you coming over someday or not?"

"... Fine… but it's not because I want to." She puffed her cheeks again.

"Great, thanks Mabel." I put grinned as I opened the door and took a stride out of the dim room.

"Yeah yeah…"

I stopped just before I disappeared from her sight. "Oh, and bring Joy along too. Flynn wants to see her."

Then I closed the door behind me before she could object.


The following weekend, specifically on the day when Mabel and Joy arranged to hang out, I started off my morning by watering my garden. What I ended up doing instead was turn paler than the moon when I found that someone had chopped down one of my berry trees. I dropped my Wailmer pail in horror once I noticed a note nailed onto the thin stump. I didn't have to read it to know who it was from.

"Yo."

My fur stood on end, and a cold shiver was sent down my spine, paralyzing me from the waist-down. The relief that surged through me when a friendly face walked into my line of sight instead of a vicious killer was indescribable.

"Oh my god, Flynn, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"My bad." He jumped over my fence and noticed how white I looked. He followed my gaze and walked over to observe the vandal's handiwork. "'You can't hide from me.'" He read the note aloud. "Yeesh, that's a good way to start the day."

"Now do you see what I mean?"

"Hmm, maybe… so, need help cleaning this mess up?"

"Clean it up? Shouldn't we report this?"

"Why would we? We can handle this weirdo edgelord ourselves." He waved a dismissive paw at me.

"The evidence is right in your face! This Pokémon's insane!"

"What evidence?" He said sarcastically as he effortlessly uprooted the tall and slender stump and threw it into my compost bin. Usually it would take me hours to do that, even with a shovel. "Besides, we've got better things to worry about. Joy's coming over today, right?"

I watched with awe as he wiped the dirt off his paws, "Yeah…"

"Cool, now help me cover up this hole that I just made."


The expected guests arrived at noon, and I welcomed the distraction to my growing paranoia. Flynn gave me a mission debrief on what was to go down - I was basically tasked with leading Joy to be alone in my backyard, where, just like his original plan, he would show up by "coincidence" and start chatting her up. It didn't sound too hard, since she usually does that herself.

As I predicted, Joy ended up doing the work for me by waltzing through my backdoor the moment I let her and Mabel into my abode. She did stop to give me a look when the first thing she took notice of was the odd patch of dirt in the middle of my green garden, but thankfully it was only for a moment.

Hey, what's with that weird empty spot over there?

Uhh... don't worry about it.

Didn't you have a nice little tree that was there?

Yeah but... it was... wilting, I guess, so I had to get rid of it.

Aww, that's a shame.

Joy never came back inside, so I assumed she was going to lie and wait for the best time to turn a harmless conversation between me and Mabel into a troublesome one - typically, it's only troublesome for me. She'll be glad to know that I have an ace up my sleeve to counter her transgressions, in the form of a Flareon whose motives are definitely not because he simply wants to keep her off my back. I'm happy, and Flynn's happy, now that's what I call definition of killing two birds with one stone.

I chose my words carefully as Mabel and I hung out like we always do in the living room. Behind me, through the back windows, I could see Flynn leaning on my fence as he introduced himself to his secret source of inspiration. I saw his jarred expression as he experienced Joy's preferred way of speech for the first time. I wanted to give him a few pointers, but it'd be impossible to do unless I was also an Espeon, since I had no way of knowing what they were talking about. All I could do was silently root for Flynn as I watched him try to figure out how telepathy works.

I kept Mabel occupied by holding a one-on-one study session with her. We were alone together in a cozy, indoor space. The last thing I needed was her teasing to get out of hand. Along with her notebooks, she also pulled out a familiar accessory of hers, one that she had kept hidden quite well over the years that I've known her, at least until recently.

"Mabel, why did you bring your glasses? Did you forget to put on your contacts?"

Her face beamed. "You could say that's of the one reasons~..."


Summer has begun, and that meant Joy would be leaving soon to study abroad. I asked Flynn if he was going to be alright, and he said he was fine. He claimed that his plan to at least be on friendly terms with her was a success, but he still seemed off. On the day of Joy's departure, he was walking around like a mummy. Obviously, there was something he was not telling me, so I took him out to the clearing across the river that Mabel showed me. I thought maybe a good talk would knock him back into his senses.

Total silence filled the atmosphere as we sat on our haunches on the rugged stump, our backs facing each other. Unfortunately, there were no glistening stars above to help ward off the awkwardness. Not only because it was still in the afternoon, but there were gray clouds above that covered the whole sky. The weather was pretty gloomy.

"You know… I kinda lied when I said things went well with me and Joy." The orange Eeveelution spoke suddenly.

"Yeah, I figured." I shrugged. "What happened?"

"Nothing terrible I guess, but she's pretty... how should I say this... coarse?"

"Sounds like her." I said in a pathetic attempt to sound uplifting. "You'll get used to it. Trust me."

"I mean... maybe." He tapped me on the shoulder to signal that he was going to lie down, so I scooched to one side. He sprawled out onto the stump, nearly taking up half of the surface area.

"Did you say you liked her?"

"Nah, I'm not that straightforward."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't even know man... it's like she could see right through me."

"What do you mean?"

"It was like she knew exactly what I was going to say, and she seemed so… disinterested. I was at a loss of words the entire time."

"Is that why you're being so mopey? You think you could've done better?"

"I don't know." He said again. He covered his forehead with an arm and sighed heavily. "But man was she beautiful. I want to see her again."

A gentle wind ruffled our fur. "She's coming back though, right?"

"Yeah, in a month or two." He extended his arms towards the clouds. "But damn, I'm going to have to spend all time thinking how much I was to squeeze her, cuddle her, love her."

"... Okay." I replied slowly, debating if he meant to say that in his head. "I think once you really get to know her, she'll show a soft side that I bet you'll really like."

"You think so? Have you seen it?"

I winced involuntarily at his words. "I'm... not too sure to be honest."

"Oh." He replied spacily. "I think…"

"..."

"I think…"

"You think what?"

"I… I think I'm just bummed that I'm not gonna see her for a while."

What gave you that idea?

"If you know why you're sad, why don't you do something about it?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know when she's leaving today?"

"She's leaving right now, or soon."

"Then why not wish her farewell?"

"Nah, it's not worth it. I don't think she'll like me back in the end. I don't want to bother her."

I gave him a questionable stare. "You sure you don't wanna say anything?"

"... Yeah, yeah I'm sure."

He returned a satisfied smile as he stared at the gray sky, so I decided not to press him anymore. I laid down beside him as another period of silence ensued. I chose to listen to the gentle rustling of the trees and grass to faze out the discomfort. A tiny rain droplet hit my nose - a drizzle is coming. Flynn suddenly stood up on his hind legs, eyes still looking skyward. I thought the rain had prompted him to go home, but all he did was stand still for several minutes, not moving a muscle.

"Milo, do me a solid, will ya?" He spoke after taking a deep breath.

I sat up. "Of course, anything."

"Give me one hell of a push."

The weight of the sincerity in his voice shocked me. For so long I've had this feeling that I would be indebted to him his friendship, but right now, it felt like I could repay it all back in one clean motion. I would always remember the day I first met him… well, maybe the second day. Despite his quirks, he was the first Pokémon whom I could truly call a friend. I lacked any real company back home with my parents, but after meeting Flynn, I finally attained what I had always dreamed of having.

And I'll be damned if I ever stop him from achieving his.

Without a moment of hesitation, I squeezed my eyes shut, planted two paws on his back, and thrusted him forward with all the strength I could muster.

"Go! Go Flynn! Go and do what you have to do!" I roared so hard that my throat was already strained.

He took off into the woods. By the time I looked up, he had already covered the distance between me and the edge of the clearing, and then he was gone.


Thanks for reading! Remember to review if you'd like, they serve as an excellent source of encouragement for me, whether they're good or bad!