Long shadows preceded Ethan, Fennekin, and Houndoom as they walked through the emptying streets of Pokéopolis, sun low in the sky behind them and dark gray in front of them. It had cooled down considerably despite the heat of earlier, causing Ethan to shiver slightly.
For some reason, Fennekin seemed unbothered by the cold, strolling down the street looking as happy as could be. At first he had thought that fire types were unbothered by both cold and heat, but when Houndoom looked as if he were even colder than Ethan was, he began rethinking that. Fennekin did say she was from outside the city, so wherever she was from was probably just a lot colder than Pokéopolis was. He had no clue what weather around the world was like, but from the past few days he felt as if that wasn't a very hard thing to do.
Before long they came to Polteageist's Café, warm light spilling out from its streetside windows. Even out on the street they could hear bits of chatter and gentle music coming from inside, and once he opened the door, smooth melodies and the smell of hot tea and freshly-baked donuts washed over him. Combined with the physical warmth of the building, his muscles instantly softened, and he felt he would collapse on the ground if he was not careful.
He looked to the source of the music as he walked in to allow Fennekin and Houndoom entrance, and saw three Pokémon up on stage; a Kricketune slowly rubbing its arms together to produce a captivating tune, a Chimecho gentle swaying back and forth to add in small but soothing bell chimes, and a Primarina in center stage, singing a tale in a rich, deep voice.
"Wow…" Fennekin whispered behind him.
"Guess you haven't been here on a good night," Houndoom chuckled as he started looking over the crowded room, not an open table in sight.
"His voice is really beautiful." Fennekin smiled warmly at the stage before looking to Houndoom. "Are there always performers here at night?"
"Found them," Houndoom said to himself before walking through the maze of tables, causing Fennekin and eventually Ethan to follow him. "And yeah, sometimes. Primarina likes this place a lot so he performs when he can, but he's a traveling singer so it's not often."
"Good evening, Houndoom!" Ethan heard Leafeon exclaim from a table nestled in the corner, a deep blue Meowstic with bright green eyes beside him. A pot of tea was on the table, some steam still coming out of its spout, along with three empty mugs in addition to the two already in use.
The Meowstic smiled and waved slightly as Houndoom sat down at the table. "You two must be Team Stargazers. Sorry for not being able to meet you two this morning, but hopefully you don't have to rush back to the Academy and we can get to know each other here?"
Ethan looked to Fennekin, who seemed to be starstruck. "I think we can stay a while," he responded while taking a seat of his own. "I'm Ethan, by the way. You're Meowstic, right?"
"That I am." He started pouring tea into one of the empty mugs, then looked to Fennekin. "You're Fennekin, correct?"
"Y-Yeah…"
Meowstic chuckled, then put the now-full mug in front of Houndoom. "No need to be nervous, Fennekin; just some evening tea with friends. We aren't going to test you or anything."
"Right!" She cleared her throat loudly, then stood still for a few seconds before scrambling to sit down. "Sorry."
Ethan sat down, then grabbed a mug and started filling it up for himself. "She's just nervous, she's wanted to be an explorer for a really long time." Almost as soon as he had finished speaking, he felt a quick jab to his ribs coming from his left where Fennekin was. Should he not have said that? Right, she had seemed embarrassed when she told him about it before…
Leafeon turned to her and smiled, a warm smile on his face. "No need to feel nervous, we're here to help you! And Roserade told us you were making some quick progress, and it looks like you came back from Sandy Point okay."
"Show 'em," Houndoom said, looking at both Ethan and Fennekin. Their bag rattled as Ethan hauled it up onto the table, a few Pokémon at other tables looking over but quickly going back to their own conversations. Upon opening it up, revealing the seastones, Meowstic picked one up and examined it.
"Not bad for a first exploration. Probably a few thousand Poké worth, assuming you don't have any exceptionally rare finds in there. How was the expedition?"
"It didn't go too bad," Ethan responded before picking up a seastone himself and looking at it. He hadn't gotten a chance to examine them closely before, and they were interesting, to say the least; they weren't quite see-through but not totally opaque, and their color was rather cloudy. They were definitely interesting and unlike anything he had seen before, even though that statement didn't mean much.
"We ran into Meowstic and the Moondancers at the end," Houndoom spoke up. "Meowstic was...kinda Meowstic about everything, but she let them take half of the treasure before taking what was left. I don't think she realized I was with two newbies, she seemed kinda embarrassed when she found out after trying to claim it all for themselves."
"That sounds like her," he laughed before turning to Ethan and Fennekin. "Hopefully you'll get to meet her in better circumstances; she's a good Pokémon, just kind of competitive."
"They're even Fennekin's heroes," Houndoom added. "That would make Meowstic as red as a tamato berry if she found out, but she'd definitely try even harder to make it up to her."
"I just thought they were really cool when I was a kid." Fennekin's voice started out confident, but quickly wavered and ended in little more than a mumble.
Leafeon took a big sip of his tea, then began filling up his mug again. "They're not a bad team to look up to by any means. Meowstic disparages herself a lot by saying they're 'only two stars', but it's still higher than most teams go. We do things in town together sometimes when we're not busy, we'll have to invite you along sometime."
"Oh, you don't need to do that. I wouldn't want to feel like I'm intruding on your fun."
"Well, you just moved to Pokéopolis, didn't you? It could be a fun way to get out and meet some new people outside the Academy. And I'm sure they'd be willing to give you any advice if something comes up and we're not around, so it could be good to meet them first."
Silence fell over the table as they all looked to Fennekin, who laughed nervously before grabbing the last empty mug and hastily pouring herself some tea. "Well, if you really, really want me too, I guess I could come for a little bit. You know, if it wouldn't be imposing on you."
"Sounds like a plan!" he beamed. "We're probably going on an exploration soon so it might be a while, but we'll see if we can tell them before we leave. Who knows? They could even become additional mentors for you, maybe."
"Additi…" Fennekin's speech slowed down before stopping completely, her face almost frozen in place.
"I think she'd like that," Ethan softly spoke up to break the silence. "And doing something with all of you sounds fun. I've heard Pokéopolis is a really big city, but we haven't gotten any time to really see anything."
A soft blue light enveloped the teapot as it floated over to Meowstic, eyes aglow with the same psychic power. "I've lived here my whole life, and I haven't even gone and seen everything there is to do here yet. Funny, huh? Three star explorer hasn't been everywhere in his hometown."
"Even I've done more than you have," Leafeon giggled. "I was so excited to do everything when I moved here, and always try to get out when we have an off day. Did you even go to the cherry trail this year?"
"I was busy! Besides, there's cherry trees everywhere in the city, why should I go to the river just to see some?"
"It's so beautiful down there! Water on one side of you, a canopy of cherry blossoms above your head, the gentle breeze coming in from the bay...it's really nice! We need to do it next spring, you're missing out so much!"
"Grass types" he chuckled to himself. "Fine, I'll go with you."
"Hey," Houndoom spoke up, "not just grass types! I went with Leafeon this year, and he's right; it's great! We're bringing you this year."
Fennekin gently tapped Ethan's leg as Team Sunstriders continued quipping amongst themselves. "They seem so normal," she whispered.
He looked at them briefly, then back to Fennekin. "Why would they not be? They're just Pokémon like us. Well...like you. Probably nobody else is a Pokémon like me." For the first time since entering the Café, Fennekin seemed to relax as the joke curled her mouth upwards and brought a little light to her eyes.
"I don't know, they always sound so larger than life in stories. They've explored places nobody else has gotten to the end of before or since, and fought legendary Pokémon! I've been reading about their adventures as long as I can remember, and now I'm sitting in a café listening to them argue with each other about cherry blossoms. It's just weird."
"I like it. They seem like real people, you know? I don't think I'd be able to be friends with someone who's just an explorer and not a person."
Fennekin's face fell, the light in her eyes dulling. "Do you not want to be an explorer anymore?"
"No!" He looked straight into her eyes, and almost as soon as they met she tilted her head slightly to the side to avoid eye contact. "I mean, no, I don't not want to be an — look, I still want to be an explorer. I've had a lot of fun on our missions and learning everything there is to know at the Academy. But at the end of the day, I'm a Pokémon. Or a human. Or both. Look, I'm a person. Things like this, being with friends in a café listening to music and talking about something so unimportant like cherry blossoms while drinking tea…" He trailed off, unsure where to continue.
"I think I understand. You just want to make sure we don't get too caught up in exploring that we forget to have fun, right?"
"Exactly! I like exploring, what we've done of it at least." Her only response was a smile, so he smiled back and took a sip of his tea.
Now that Team Sunstriders was still caught up in the argument of the best place to see cherry blossoms around the city and Fennekin had some tea to savor, Ethan turned around and took in the ambiance of the Café. Despite the dull roar of various conversations and the music that was coming from the stage, it was oddly calming. Judging from the scarves, some of the other tables were occupied by other exploration teams, but the majority seemed to be regular Pokémon out for the evening. He wasn't sure why, but the crowded chaos was comforting. Maybe it was being around lots of other Pokémon? It sounded like humans were pretty rare, so he probably just never had a lot of other people to be around. He wasn't sure how many humans were out there, but it seemed like a lonely existence for them. Us? He wasn't sure which word applied.
"Hey, Fennekin?"
Mid-sip, she turned around to face the Café as well. "Hm?"
"You know how you and a ton of other people had been asking me about what I want to do since I had no memories and no real way forward?"
"Yeah. How come?"
"I…" He laughed. "I know it sounds like a cop out, but I just want to be happy. But like...yeah, I enjoy exploring and I'm glad we're doing it because it's also your dream, but when I think about where I want to be in the future, I don't really see whether or not I'm an explorer. I just see that I'm enjoying myself. I'm not saying I don't want to be an explorer, just that's not my focus. But that doesn't mean I don't want to help you succeed." With a smile, he shook his head. "Man, that sounded way better in my head. But do you get what I mean?"
"Yeah…" She looked into her tea, seemingly in thought. "That actually does make a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing it with me."
"Only fair since you've shared your dreams with me, right"
"Yeah…" She looked up from her tea, when looked at him, this time not avoiding eye contact. "Thanks for being willing to support me, by the way. Nobody back home I told my dreams to ever took me seriously."
"I'm having fun." He put his mug out for a toast, and she happily reciprocated before both taking big gulps.