AN: Kindly don't spam my reviews with unrelated things, I don't have all the time in the day to read through spam nonsense that is a sockpuppet or bot or something that looks to be copypasted when I have better things to do. Like writing this story! :D
The fog was as thick as ever, making navigation difficult but that didn't stop Alira or Hop. They kept going, minding their feet and yanking each other out of the way of any trees they almost walked into.
Though as it was nighttime when they set out, it wasn't long before they began to feel the adrenaline wearing off, so they searched for a clearing to rest in.
Soon they found one large enough to accommodate both of their tents and began setting camp. Hop got his tent set up rather quickly, coming out of his tent to hear a "oh are you kidding me" from where Alira was to see while the entrance to her tent was already set up, the rest was sort of caved in on top of her if the lump of moving fabric was any sign.
"You alright Alira?" He fought back chuckles as he walked over and knelt down, peering past the flaps with a hand to see her on her rear, holding up the wire mesh and fabric with an arm. He couldn't help but quip. "Having fun in there mate?"
"Not really no." She remarked sarcastically with a chuckle, shaking her head. "I must look ridiculous."
"Here, let me help." he crawled in alongside her, and quickly got the wire mesh and metal parts set up. Soon the tent was quickly set up and off of Alira's head.
"Thank you." She smiled as she sat up properly, no longer leaning back on her bag awkwardly now.
"Not a problem mate." he smiled back before crawling out of the tent, Alira soon following him and helping him set up the foldable tables next to each other and fire firepits, soon putting their pots over the currently unlit bundles of wood.
"Okay, now to just.." Alira trailed off as she reached up and grabbed Nova's pokeball, releasing Nova soon after and the fire type trilled in greeting to her trainer and waved at Hop when she saw him while he laid out a blanket to sit on.
"Nove, you mind helping us with the fire?" Alira asked and Nova shook her head, the rabbit pokemon walking over and lightly tapping on the first firepit with a foot, a small fire lighting up within moments as Alira and Hop sat on the blanket.
"Those little yellow dots of yellow fur on the bottom of her feet can actually fire, well, fire from them if she wants, I think that's how she does her pryo soccer ball." Alira explained to a starstruck Hop as Nova lit the other fire then went and sat near her trainer.
"That's so cool!" Hop gushed as he and his best friend released their pokemon from their balls so they could stretch their legs.
"Just a little thing I noticed about her." Alira smiled sheepishly, watching as her pokemon mingled with Hop's without a second thought.
"But you've always been good at noticing the little things like that," He continued, noticing with amusement in the background that his Corviknight picked up Alira's Alrcremie, Willowya, by the scruff of her neck and put her on the back of Dubwool. Presumably to keep her out of trouble or out from underfoot. "I don't know how you do it."
"Neither do I to be perfectly honest?" Her half-smile pulled at her expression as her brow furrowed. "I just do it without thinking." She reached up and scratched at her very short hair, soon continuing with. "You always know what do to calm down an upset pokemon, I never would've been able to calm Shiro so we could heal him if it weren't for you."
"Heheh." Hop scratched at his warming cheek with his index finger. "I just have a way with pokemon. I mean I got Dubwool as a wooloo when I was five because I managed to sneak out of the house and Leon later found me surrounded by a lot of cuddly wooloos, five year old me being on top of mine fast asleep. Leon caught wooloo for me after that."
"Awww." She beamed at him, smiling fully now. "Imagining a itty bitty adorable Hop ontop of Wooloo-"
"Alira-!" He choked out a flustered laugh as she kept going, turning his face redder by the second.
"-Surrounded by hundreds of wooloos, it's adorable~!" She giggled, grinning teasingly at him. "That is such an adorable image, thank you Hop." She then got a little gleam in her eyes he recognized as playful as she then pointed at him. "You are too adorable sometimes Hops!"
"And you are too humble sometimes Alli!" He pointed back at her, laughter bubbling in his chest as she gained a mock offended look, and before he knew it she lunged at him, smacking into him with a laugh as she tackle-hugged him in the chest.
He laughed back and tightly held her close as she snuggled into his chest, both idly noting their pokemon's chuckling in the background as he placed his chin on top of her head while she giggled.
"...Gods, I missed this." Alira softly mumbled once her and Hop's laughter subsided, tightening her grip on him.
"Missed what?" Hop shifted slightly, still holding her close.
"Being able to act like this, and not mind what I say or do when out and about or worry about people swarming my camp." She mumbled into his shirt, honesty ringing in her words.
"Is being a champion that restrictive?" He wondered, Leon always seemed to act however he wished from what he saw, so he wondered if it was different for her.
"Well, it is right now when everything about me is just, being broadcasted everywhere in Galar due to still recently becoming champion. Leon says it'll lessen and I'll get more freedom once it dies down, but..." She refused to look up at him, keeping her face buried in his chest. "It's... weird and uncomfortable. I'm not..." Her grip on him tightened.
He brought a hand up and rested it on the back of her head, hearing a worried "Gal, gallade?" from across the camp before looking over and seeing her Gallade, Calethorne, looking over at them with concern. Hop waved a hand slightly, making the Blade pokemon narrow his eyes slightly before nodding.
"It's all the people bugging you, right?" Hop responded, carding his fingers through her hair as she nestled deeper against his chest.
"Yes." She responded, her hands digging into the back of his jacket. "I'm lucky Cale and Nova tend to fend off the reporters and anyone wanting to swarm me when I'm just trying to get something from a cafe. It's weird and strange I don't get it and I don't do well in crowds, I get overloaded there's also so much noise and my so-called manager-" She cut herself off with a huff. "He's ticked I won't let him have access to my Fletchtter and Pokegram and Monbook, he wants to take over posting things for me and-UGH."
She groaned. "It wouldn't be me posting if he took over and that bugs me but he doesn't get it-" The rate she was speaking increased until she was speaking rapid-fire, a trait Hop knew meant she had been worked up over this for a while.
"Hey hey." He spoke softly, halting her rapid speech and he made sure to gently pet her hair to help her untense. He knew her long enough to know how to calm her down when she got worked up, and knew why it bugged her. "I get that, you don't need to explain it to me."
It worked, she relaxed and she sighed. "You're the only one who does..."
"Well, you're my best friend, if I didn't know you better than them or get you that'd be a shock." He felt her smile against his shirt and grinned in response.
"And you're my very best friend~" She giggled warmly and he snuggled her closer, chuckling and enjoying the light squeak she let out. They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying being close to each other, until a light yawn escaped Alira.
"We should probably make some dinner for everyone then head off for the night." Hop noted and Alira nodded, untangling from each over and reaching over to their bags.
Within ten minutes they both were at their respective pots, cooking curry for their teams, and in around ten more minutes they finished cooking and soon plated enough servings for their teams and themselves.
After everyone ate and the trainers put their teams to bed, the two decided to do something they often did while growing up. They laid down on the blanket and stared up at the murky sky above, only faintly able to see the moon through the fog.
"...Too bad the fog prevents us from being able to see the stars." Alira mused idly, holding a hand up to the sky. "We'd probably be able to see more constellations out here than in town."
"Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there." He smiled, holding a hand up to the sky as well. "Plus we've looked at the sky so much we can just imagine we're seeing them."
"True!" She smiled, noticing then that the hand she was holding up, her left one, had the gym challenger glove she still never took off even after becoming champion, while Hop's had no such glove.
Before she could comment on it, Hop asked. " Hey, out of curiosity, why is your glove on your league card on your right instead of your left if you always wear it on the left?"
"Oh? Well. Bit of my manager being a prude." She shrugged. "He threw a right fit when he found out I was left handed for some reason, I don't know what mind you, and had me reshoot my card to have it on the right hand. It was irritating as my left 'handy-ness' is going to show up in battles anyway, but thankfully I got in contact with the card producers and the next run they'll have the correct, if a little older, picture with it on my left hand."
"...That's weird." Hop commented and Alira laughed. "Like, really weird."
"I know! I don't get my so-called manager at all." She grinned light-heartedly. "He reminds me of a teacher my mom mentioned having when she was young, smacked her with a ruler if she wrote with her left hand. Weeird people."
"With an apparent dislike for lefties." Hop snorted, shaking his head. "I mean, you and your mum are from Sinnoh which is practically half the world away from 'ere, but that's just strange."
"Strange is as strange does." She hummed back, eyes squinting up at the sky. "Hey, look!"
"What the…?" The fog was parting just the slightest, allowing the night sky to peer through and letting the duo see the countless stars scattered across the endless midnight blue sky.
"Wow…" Alira breathed out. "There's so many…"
"Yeah…" He agreed, starstruck, no pun intended, as he whispered. "You think it was the wind moving the fog or…?"
"...Dunno, I'm not gonna look a gift ponyta in the mouth." She smiled and put a hand under her head, pointing with the other hand. "Look, there's rapiddastarios!"
"There's zappio!" He pointed as well to another constellation in the sky. "And Lucarius!"
They spent a fair amount of time picking out and finding constellations they both knew or didn't, though that leads to the two forgetting to join their pokemon in their tents and eventually falling asleep right there on the blanket.
Their respective partner pokemon came out their tents after some time, wondering where their trainers were and came face to face with the sight of their trainers fast asleep on the blanket.
Nova facepawed while Rillaboom merely shook his head in amusement, the two humans had even curled up next to each other in slumber. Alira had curled up against Hop's side, her ear resting on the side of his jacket while her arm was thrown over him, and Hop loosely had his arms around her shoulders. The boy was laying slightly above her on the blanket so their height difference wasn't notable, otherwise the pokemon were sure their positions would be swapped.
The adorable cuddling was probably out of need for warmth, Nova reasoned in her head, though she did shoot her trainer a deadpan look as another thought crossed her mind. If not, are you really that dense even to yourself my friend?
With that, Nova stepped up, bent over and wrapped her arms around her trainer's waist before she began to carefully pull the girl away. What the fire type did not expect was for Alira to groan minutely in sleep and tighten her grip on Hop.
Nova shot Rillaboom a "freaking HELP ME PLEASE" look and the grass type restrained chuckling at the rabbit's expense before moving close and grabbing his trainer. With that they began to try to pull their trainers apart, which was made difficult when Hop tightened his grip on Alira and dug his hands into her jacket.
Nova huffed, narrowing her eyes at the offending hands and removed one paw from Alira's waist and tried to pry one of his hands off her jacket.
The rabbit and gorilla pokemon froze as the two humans shifted, still thankfully asleep but they shifted closer to each other. The pokemon shared a deadpan look and silently sighed. This was going to take some doing.
Almost twenty minutes later, after a lot of panicked freezings and panic induced heart pounding when the humans made noses or so much as twitched, they managed to finally separate the two trainers. With a relieved breath, Nova picked up her trainer, Rillaboom doing the same with Hop, and the two returned to their respective tents.
Nova set Alira on her sleeping bag before settling beside her trainer, sleep soon claiming the pokemon after the ordeal that was prying her trainer from Hop.
Alira dreamed she was walking through the slumbering weald, fog nowhere in sight, revealing how magical it truly was with little colorful fairy lights flickering in and out of sight, but something was different about her.
Her hair was longer for one, reaching her waist, and at the ends curled into ringlets, and she wore a dress with long, large sleeves that covered her hands and arms with boots that reached her thighs.
"I dare say Heather," A familiar voice began to her left and she turned her head, meeting the golden amber gaze of Hop, but it was different with him too. His hair was so much longer at the base of his hairline, having a medium length ponytail while the rest of his hair was short, and he wore attire fitting of a noble.
"I have NEVER seen so many nobles turn green than when you introduced yourself to the other lords and ladies and rulers of this land and continent." 'Hop' continued, laughing freely while she felt a weak smile tug at her expression. "It was the most amusement I've had for ages!"
"Well…" Her voice was whisper-like, so very quiet and soft. "When you're the bastard daughter of king Ulric of Kanto, one who's not known for letting any bastards live and is ruthless to his enemies, I surely garnered some fearful stares if my father couldn't put a bastard like me out of living as it is."
"Now, none of that 'bastard' nonsense my dear Heather." He placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her close, still walking as she felt her shoulders stiffen, expecting pain but why- "You are a very lovely young lady, and a clever one too, for you figured out where to find that wizard so we could stop the darkness long before I did, and we found Zen and Zacia again in his care as well!"
"Lord Acaeus-" She began, feeling red creeping up her neck at his praise as her shoulders relaxed.
"Nope! Not lord, just Acaeus or Ace." He smiled gently at her. "We are the saviors and king and queen of this land after our actions several moons ago my dear, formalities you can forget."
"...You are the strangest prince I've ever met, and I served quite a few lords as a maid before I found Zacia." She shook her head, smiling softly. "Very well my friend. It shall take me a long while to get accustomed to these strange circumstances, but I shall do my best to forgo formalities with you, Lor-,erm...Ace."
"That's the spirit!" He beamed at her before grabbing her hand and bolting ahead, pulling her along as he continued. "Now let's go get Zen and Zacia, I heard from queen Milisandia of Unova that some strange black and white dragons are causing her kingdom a mighty deal of havoc, and they aren't alone either, they have human partners like Zen and Zacia with us!"
"Oh my gods!" Heather gasped. "We need to go and help her so her newborn kingdom isn't razed to the ground and the other kingdoms don't catch wind of this then!"
Alira woke up to being cuddled into something fuzzy and furry, with a groan she pushed off who she soon found to be Nova, still 'dead to the world' as her mother would call it asleep. The fire type had clearly been cuddling her and Alira had to push and shift out of the cinderace's hold to sit up.
"Ugh…" She scratched at her hair, idly noting it was sticking up in places, the dream she had lingering in her mind, and she stretched, mumbling. "What on earth was that strange dream all about..?"
She sighed, reaching over to her bag as she let her mind wander and think about the dream she had. She was a girl named Heather, and there was a guy who looked like Hop, but wasn't him? And the pokemon they mentioned… Zen and Zacia? Were they talking about Zamazenta and Zacian?
Ugh, her head twinged, she was not awake enough to properly figure the weird dream out, and then she noticed she had pulled the sword from her bag. She furrowed her brow, that had happened far too many times in the months since she got it for her to brush off.
She could recall the feeling she got the first time she laid eyes on it, nerves having been set on fire due to the disaster at the league thanks to Chairman Rose and panic lit in her veins, something clicked in her soul and beckoned her to pick it up.
When she picked it up and held it in her grip, a strange wave of calm ran over her and her nerves settled almost instantly. That feeling and calm persisted every time she held it, heck, she even held it shortly before her match with Leon several days later because she simply couldn't calm down her nerves and needed to be able to think clearly.
She wouldn't say she was dependant on it per se, she didn't constantly have it out in her grip before a battle, but she also didn't ever leave home without it.
She studied the runes on it's blade, trying to figure out what they said once again, but considering it was missing around over half the sword's original length according to people she talked to online regarding it(With a false identity, of course, she did not want to be swarmed with replies if it was found out who she was), that would be next to impossible.
She ran her fingers along the guard, feeling the dirt and grime that built up over the centuries it surely sat in the ruined shrine, and absent-mindedly reached into her bag with her other hand and grabbed the cloth and special cleaner she had ordered a while ago.
She dabbed the cloth with the cleaner and then carefully began to clean the one side of the broken blade first, she had taken great pains and efforts to get advice from actual blacksmiths and historians on how to restore or at least clean an ancient blade(and shield, as she knew Hop might want to clean his shield up) like this and got recommended this certain cleaner that wouldn't damage it or Hop's shield.
Her movements stalled for a second, eyes narrowing at what she called that rusted shield Hop had. She just referred to it as his in her head, not the rusted shield or Zamazenta's shield, his shield. She'd been doing that with the sword as well, more often than not she had to catch herself when thinking or talking about it from referring to it as hers.
It was Zacian's, not hers, so what on earth was her problem?
Lost in her thoughts as it were, she almost didn't notice she had nearly completely cleaned this side of the blade and had instinctively moved on to cleaning up the guard, the cloth being quite dirty now from cleaning the blade up.
She peered at the runes now, letting her hand continue to clean the guard while she tried to figure out what they said now that it was cleaned up. She had managed to get an answer at least regarding what language it was in when she posted it online, ancient royal Galarian, but due to it still being dirty she didn't get a translation, though now she had cleaned it up she could make out what it said.
Her mind ran through the alphabet she had looked up and memorized and after a moment, she squinted and mumbled. "...Of our legacy…?"
Yeah, that's what they said, something "of our legacy", what came before that she had no clue, she didn't have the missing half of the blade.
She softly groaned and finished cleaning the guard before putting it back in her bag. She had to get up and make breakfast for everyone and grabbed her bag before crawling out of her tent.
Hop dreamed he was training with the sword in some field, sword clashing and slashing at his opponent without much room for error as he stared a man with golden hair and green eyes down.
"Roderick, don't you think you're being paranoid?!" He managed to shout over the clanging of swords, bringing his shield up to block a particularly strong attack from his retainer.
"Not at all my prince! With the number of enemies we have, and the new land we are standing on, you need to defend yourself if you want to survive!" Roderick replied back, arming to knock Hop's sword out of his hand as he struck his sword forward, but Hop rushed forward with a yell, shield tilted just so and he pushed up with a jolt, knocking the sword out of his retainer's hand with the edge of his shield.
"I.. already… know… how to defend myself!" He gasped for air as he put his sword at Roderick's throat, gritting his teeth. "Need I prove my point more? I'm not helpless like my parents think I am."
"No, no need for that." Roderick backed up and once it was clear the training fight was over, Hop dropped the sword as if it burned him and kicked it away.
"You're going to need to get over that if you're going to be a proper prince Acaeus." Roderick noted as the prince adjusted how his shield was on his arm.
"What? My dislike for weapons I've seen used for
murder?" Hop-Acaeus' gaze and tone were flat and borderline venomous. "I don't see the point of being a prince if one uses violence to get things done."
Roderick sighed and began to speak, but Hop-Acaeus ignored him and began walking off, shouting over his shoulder. "Don't bother following me! I'm going for a walk and I desire to be alone with my thoughts!"
He walked, regardless of what his retainer was shouting, and eventually, the shouts died down as he entered the forest.
Fairy lights and lightning bugs lit the air of the woods as he walked, shifting his shield onto his back as he kept moving. Deeper and deeper into the woods, as he saw pokemon he had never seen before walking around. Some ran from him, but most saw he had no visible weapon and seemed just confused.
Soon he came across a clearing with a pond, it was dazzling really, but his ears caught the sounds of whimpering and his gaze snapped around before finding what was the cause of the whimpering and rushing over.
It was a dog pokemon, it's fur was mainly red and blue with cream accents, but it was clearly very young, it looked to be mildly smaller than those yellow lightning dogs, the bolt hounds, running around elsewhere in this land. It's red and yellow eyes were glazed over in pain, largely due to the wound it had in it's side as it lay on the ground and kept it from moving.
"You poor thing…!" He knelt down, the wound was serious and already a small pool of blood was on the ground, thankfully it seemed to be a mere flesh wound as no bones could be seen but it had to have hurt, it looked like a small dragon had taken a chunk out of this poor thing's side.
He couldn't risk moving it, not with it in that condition, so he took a deep breath and prepared to attempt a healing spell he had one of the healers in the camp teach him. He put his hands over the wound and began to chant softly. "Spirits of life and gods of the world, heed my words and let me heal this poor creature, mend this wound!"
A green glow came from his hands at his words, and soon the wound was healed like it was never there and it definitely took a weight off this poor pokemon as it looked at him blearily.
"It's alright my friend, you're safe now." He smiled at it, stroking it's back fur gently and he swore he heard a "Thank you…" in his head before the pokemon's head dropped and it fell asleep.
Hop jolted awake, sitting up so fast he sent the weight on his chest flying with a startled "vee!" and he realized he sent his poor Eevee tumbling from his chest.
"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Eve!" He reached over and picked up the silver eevee, petting her apologetically as she huffed and trilled as she settled against his chest, flicking his chin with a ear briefly.
Now that he had calmed his racing heart and let his mind settle, he reflected on the very bizarre dream he had just woken up from.
He was a prince in it? And he healed Zamazenta with magic? Well, there were fairy type pokemon so magic really wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but that dream was strange. Really strange.
He scritched Eve behind the ear, surprisingly he hadn't woken the rest of his pokemon, Sparky the boltund and Corviknight laying against Dubwool while Swanna laid close to Corviknight and Rillaboom.
He sighed, letting Eve down and stretched out, eying the shield sticking out of his bag from the corner of his eye.
That strange shield, he had hardly been able to get it out of his head since he got it and it hardly ever left his bag, he was just drawn to it and he didn't know why. He also had to fight the strange urges to always have it on his arm, cause frankly, the urge at times was downright nonsensical and out of left field. He noticed the weird writing on the back of it at some point to be in some weird runic language he knew from school to be ancient Galarian, but he didn't know how to read it.
It being so dirty and rusted also bugged the heck out of him, but he was scared of possibly breaking or ruining it if he used regular cleaners on it. Maybe he could ask Alira to help him find a cleaner that won't damage it.
He brought his hands to his hair, tugging on it a little roughly as he groaned quietly. All these questions with no answers bugged him, so he hoped that when they found the castle they'd get some answers.
He then sharply noticed the smell of what seemed to be food cooking and carefully crawled out of his tent, Eve following him, and saw Alira was cooking at her firepit.
She had her back to him, but her jacket was tied around her waist, revealing her black long sleeves were ripped on the top and tattered on the ends, and she was humming softly to herself.
He stood and stretched up, making some noises that had her turning her head and her gaze locked onto him over her shoulder.
"Morning 'borning Hop!" She smiled at him, stirring what she was cooking once before setting the spoon against the edge and turning around to face him.
"That's a new one." He chuckled as he approached her, not quite expecting but wasn't startled when she sprung forward and hugged him, Hop laughing as he returned the gesture. "Good morning to you too Alli!"
She giggled as she let go of him and stepped back, rocking on her heels briefly. "You sleep well?"
"For the most part, sent poor Eve flying from my chest with how abruptly I woke up though." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, Eve yipping from his heels with playful accusation in her voice.
"Aww, poor little Evey~!" Alira chuckled, smiling. "Ah, but it's good for her, keeps her on her toes~"
The trainers laughed when Eve started yipping and hopping around their feet, pretty much sounding like she was going off on them and, as Alira would put it, 'reading them the riot act'.
The commotion from Eve woke the rest of the pokemon, and so their teams left their respective tents, yawning and grumbling while Alira went back to cooking and Hop went and sat at the table.
"How did you sleep Alira?" Hop asked, watching as she got ready to start putting the curry onto plates.
He noticed she hesitated for a second before answering. "Fine, I suppose…" She mumbled, tone a bit distant.
He picked up on it immediately and asked. "Alli, did you have a nightmare?"
"Wha-No." She shook her head and got to plating the curry and rice. "Hang on, let me get this all plated so I don't burn myself."
"Okay." he let her get everyone their food as well as his and hers and waited for her to sit down before he asked again. "Did you have a nightmare?"
"Not... quite." She fidgeted with her hands, shuffling her rice around on her plate absently. "Had a really weird dream, like EXTREMELY weird."
"Go on." He encouraged her to continue when she hesitated and after a moment she did.
"I was a girl named Heather, I was walking with this guy who looked a lot like you.." Her expression scrunched slightly as she still moved her food around her plate and leaned her cheek on her other hand. "They were talking about things I didn't really get honestly and it was weird to not… be myself."
"Sounds a bit like my dream Alli." He responded, making her tilt her head at him questioningly as she finally began eating her food. "I had a dream that was weird as well, I was some prince guy named Acaecus and-"
He jumped when she suddenly coughed, fighting to not choke on her food as he reached a hand over, worriedly asking as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh gosh Alira are you alright?!"
"I'm fine I'm fine-" She coughed, smacking her hand onto the table and finally cleared her throat, looking up at him with wide eyes. "Acaeus was the guy Heather was walking with in my dream."
"What?" Safe to say, Hop was gobsmacked and his jaw dropped.
"Is this another weird case of us having visions of the same thing?" Her expression was wide and a mix of exasperation and worry.
"I don't think so." Hop shook his head, pulling his hand back and pausing to eat before continuing. "There was no girl named Heather in my dream, I was just training with some guy, then I wandered into the woods and found what looked to be a very young and injured Zamazenta. Then it got weirder-I healed him with some sort of magic chant."
"What?" Now it was her turn to be surprised, eyebrows shooting up to almost hide behind her bangs.
"Yeah, it was weird." He finished his food after he finished talking and leaned his chin on his palm. "And the weirdest thing is, I can still recall it all very vividly, it's not like any other dream I had."
"Like a memory? That's, that's what it feels like right?" Alira stumbled over her words, stammering briefly, and she knit her fingers together over her half-finished plate with a sense of frustration at her stammer. "Same for me, it's, it's not like a dream, like a memory."
"Like a memory?" That... was accurate to how it felt actually. "That makes a load of sense actually."
She nodded, then looked over at their teams and hummed. "I should finish my food before Eve decides it's her next target."
Hop turned his head and almost laughed when he saw the shiny eevee eying Alira's unfinished plate like prey, petting the eevee as Alira began eating her food.
"I still can't believe you spent so long finding Eve." Hop commented as he brought the eevee to his lap so he could make sure she didn't jump across the table at his friend's food.
"Hm? I wanted to." She mumbled, smiling a little bashfully and keeping her gaze on her plate. "You've been my friend since I was young, I wanted to be nice."
"You didn't need to do that for me." He reached across the table and put his hand on her free one.
Automatically, she shifted her hand and laced her fingers with his, her gaze shifting up to meet his. "I wanted to." She repeated, having difficulty with getting her words out like she sometimes did. "N...Needed to." Her mouth shut with a click and her gaze drift down, she didn't always get like this but when she did, it was better to wait for a proper answer.
"Just... don't go disappearing for a week without telling anyone again." He still remembered that terrifying week, after he got the fairy badge he made his way to Circhester and began trying to get the ice badge, it took him two days of attempts to realize that she hadn't shown up yet. He asked around the remaining challengers and turned out no one had seen her for at least two to three days, she had just vanished, sending him into a panic trying to find her, ending up roping Sonia and even Leon into helping him find his best friend.
He ended up finding her with Leon when they were making their way back to Circhester and were in the cold part of route eight. They literally stumbled across her camp, having to duck a pryo ball Nova almost beaned the both of them with and finding out the raboot evolved, the rest of her team milling around the camp normally. Hop had rushed into her tent, finding her passed out with a dream ball clenched tightly in a hand.
When she had woken up, she immediately hugged Hop when she saw him, about squeezing the daylights out of him before giving him the pokeball with a simple "For you!" Said pokeball had Eve in it and even now he didn't know why she went and got Eve for him.
"To be fair, I didn't plan on being absent for so long, but I don't plan on doing that again." She replied, finishing her food not long after and stretching her arms above her head. "We should pack up and get going when our food settles enough."
"Yeah, that sounds good to me." He nodded, stretching as well and laughing when Eve took that opportunity to leap across the table to get at Alira's plate. "H-Hey Eve!"
"Go ahead, there's not much left." Alira laughed as well as the eevee started basically cleaning the plate. "Little starving marvin~ You-"
"-You'd swear I never feed her~" He quipped, watching as she about lost it laughing due to him finishing her sentence.
He might not have admitted it the previous night, but he missed hanging out with her like this too.
