"Is there anything you want for yourself, Sear?" Rae suddenly asked as she was browsing through a rack of hoodies, currently holding up an identical hoodie to her current one that already seemed a size or two too big.
"Huh? Oh, uh, I'm good, really." The cinderace responded, sticking with the cart of ingredients.
"Oh come on now, don't be so quick to shoot me down!" The bigger rabbit pokemon almost sounded offended, bringing her hands to her hips and putting on a fake pout
"Seriously, I'm good. Not really looking for clothes right now, even if it's getting close to winter."
"Get cold easily?" Rae tilted her head, her ears gently swinging behind her.
"Yeah." The fire type rubbed his head. "It comes with being small. My fire typing doesn't provide that much protection for me."
"If that's the case, let me buy a nice scarf for you then. I think one would look good on you." Sear found himself blushing at the comment. Was it this easy to fluster him these days?
"Honestly, Rae, I'm good, you're already paying for all of this." He gestured to the cart behind him.
"Sure, but, it's not something personal. It's kinda for me too after all. But, if you insist, Fire Butt."
'Is that the nickname she's going with?' "Maybe next time I'll let you buy something for me if that makes you feel better."
"Like you had a choice." Rae smirked, slinging the new hoodie over her shoulder and making her way towards some jeans, but not before nearly kneeing a smaller pokemon she didn't see.
"Goh-!" A soft, feminine voice almost squeaked out as the hooded figure fell to the ground.
"Ah shit- Sorry about that, here let me help-"
"Don't!" Rae was taken aback, flinching backwards. The pokemon had a desperate hold on the hood of her green cloak, her eyes piercing into the pair with a wild look, her other hand held out towards the rabbits. After a moment, however, the hooded pokemon calmed down, loosening her grip on the hood as her face fell. "I- sorry. I'm alright." The girl helped herself to her feet, allowing the pair to see that it was a braixen that Rae had knocked over. Sear, however, noted there seemed to be something off, particularly about her head, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
"Woah, you good there?" Rae asked, casting a scowl, something the braixen picked up on.
"I am. I'm sorry again, you startled me." The fire type said, retrieving her fallen stick from the ground, which had a considerable curve at the top compared to other braixen sticks. As she stood back up, the rabbit pokemon saw that she wasn't much taller than Sear, maybe about a foot taller, give or take an inch. As Sear opened his mouth to say something, an almost degradingly posh voice suddenly called out from behind the two.
"Rae? Rae Lockrin?"
"Oh please don't tell me." The lopunny visibly cringed, turning around to meet the voice. "What do you want, Brimu?" She crossed her arms, venom audible in her voice. The voice belonged to a tall hatterene, almost as tall as Rae herself.
"My, my, it's been some years, hasn't it? And I see you've grown even more grotesquely gangly over the years." Brimu said in such a condescending voice, it would make some dominatrixes weep.
"And I see you've not changed since middle school." The normal type rolled her eyes in return.
"Perfection doesn't need to change, dear." The comparatively shorter girl brushed her hair to the side with her third hand before she took notice of the other two pokemon. "Who's this runt? Your boyfriend?" She scoffed, both offending and flustering Sear. "You always did attract the weak looking pokemon."
"I- er-." The small fire type stuttered, baffled by the behavior of this psychic fairy type.
"And what about this one?" The braixen shied away from the abrasive girl. "Why is she wearing a hood indoors?" She reached for the hood, to which the fire type visibly panicked at. However, her efforts were stopped when Rae stepped between the two, swatting her hand away.
"First off, it's none of your business who is and isn't my boyfriend!"
'What kinda answer-?!' Sear sputtered to himself, his thoughts being made a mess.
"Second, so what if she is wearing her hood? Who are you to say that she can't, bitch?"
"What did you call me?" Brimu's face darkened, in which Rae responded with a smirk.
"Does calling you a bitch still piss you off?"
"Um, Rae?" Sear tried to interject, but he went unheard.
"You still think you're an equal to me, don't you."
"Nah, I think I'm above you in every way."
"Rae, maybe it's best to not-" Sear let out a yelp as both he and the braixen were knocked over by the hatterene rushing down Rae, using play rough on the larger rabbit. Rae yelled out as Brimu attacked her, but held her ground, expecting this from the supposed silent pokemon. As the two fought, Sear looked on with a worried expression, more for the possibility of Rae getting in trouble for this fight rather than getting hurt. His attention was soon drawn to the hooded fire type nearby,
"Are you alright?" The braixen looked up, meeting the fire rabbit's gaze and offered hand. Her eyes softened.
"I am, thank you." She nodded, taking Sear's smaller hand and pulling herself up. "But your girlfriend." She looked over at the two giants fighting, not noticing the pink hue the rabbit had gained.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Sear retorted, maybe a touch too loud. "Um, she's just a friend. One I just recently met. But, I wouldn't worry about her too much, this is… normal it seems."
"I, uh, see…"
. . . . .
"My farms!" Lexia cried out as Blitz desperately struggled to suppress his laughter. "My farms were consumed by your fucking temple!" The three eeveelutions and psychic-fairy type were sitting in the beanbags, playing a tower defense game they all had on their phones.
"I- look, I didn't- I didn't mean-"
"What do you mean you didn't mean to?!" Lexia cut his explanation short. "You have to confirm that you want to upgrade to a temple! There are no accidents here!" The fire type had tears in his eyes at this point, letting out a silent laughter.
"He ate my spactory too!" Aquaria joined in on the yelling.
"Guys, it'- it's fine! Look how powerful it is!" The flareon did his best to reason with his fellow gamers, watching as the tower tore through the blimps on the track.
"I mean, he's not wrong I guess." Ivy chipped in.
"It's about the principle! My bananas!"
"My spikes!"
"My- my lungs!"
"My god." Blaze rolled her eyes as she, Eli and Sandy sat at the table, having been conversing with themselves before the yelling had become more interesting. "Where are those two rabbits? Shouldn't they have been back by now?"
"Rae sometimes gets distracted while buying clothes. Maybe she's buying some for Sear too." Sandy reasoned. "Maybe she's about to outgrow her current clothes."
"It's crazy to think she's still growing." Eli spoke up.
"You know, I was the tallest in our group for some time. Then Rae ended up passing me." The electric type let out a sigh, reminiscing. After a moment, the smaller electric type continued on with their previous conversation.
"So, what were you saying about devil's toothpaste?"
"Oh right! So you know how copperrajah toothpaste is relatively safe, if not really hot? Well, devil's toothpaste isn't that…" As Sandy continued to explain this seemingly dangerous chemical reaction to the smaller electric type, Blaze looked towards the front of the warehouse.
"Hope they get back soon."
. . . . .
Rae crashed into a shoe rack, crushing the shelves under her weight and sending the shoes scattering about.
"I need a new move. Why do I keep using high jump kick?" She rubbed her butt. "Oh! These are cute!" She picked up a nearby shoe, making it look tiny in her grasp. "I wonder if they have any in my size." The lopunny wondered out loud, seemingly angering Brimu more.
"Do you take anything seriously?!"
"Less often than you'd think if I'm being honest." The large rabbit gave her a goofy smile, irritating the hatterene. She swung her hand, shooting a psycho cut and forcing Rae to dodge out of the way.
"Shouldn't we do something?" The hooded braixen turned towards the fire type rabbit, hoping for an answer.
"I mean, unless you're a good fighter, I wouldn't. Rae's really strong, so I'm sure she'll be alright in the end." Sear gave her an unsure look, before turning back to the two fighting. "Plus, I'm not that much of a fighter myself, so I wouldn't be much help."
"So you just, let this happen?"
"I don't have much of a say, so kind of."
"Come on!" Rae shouted, her tail having grown longer and having a metallic sheen to it as she used the move iron tail. She did a front flip, slamming her tail into the ground where Brimu had just stood, the hatterene having used her hand to jump out of the way. The powerful slam shattered the floor, sending tile and rubble flying. "How about you stand still for once so I can get a real nice hit on you?!"
"Just shut up for once!" Brimu seethed.
"Make me for once!" Rae taunted back, gaining an enraged yell from the psychic-fairy type. Fireballs swirled around the hatterene, and Rae realized that things may have gotten out of hand if she was planning on using a fire move in a building. Leaping forward, she toughed out the fire launched at her, spinning around and slamming her iron tail into Brimu's side. The pokemon let out a pained yelp, being thrown to the side as her body suddenly crumpled and folded, her true, smaller body being flung out of the drape-like form.
Rae quickly patted out any fire that was attached to her, before noticing the current state of her opponent.
"I told you she'd be fine." Sear commented, but sounded relieved himself. Before the braixen could respond, Rae was heard bursting out into laughter. The two small fire types looked at the commotion, wondering what was going on.
"That- that can't be what you really look like!" The normal type weezed out, clutching her stomach. Looking further in, they saw Brimu picking herself up, stumbling about the folded form of her fake body. While she had her large hat still, she was now around Sear's height, her body white and stubby. Seeing that her vision didn't reach up as high as it usually did, she patted her body before looking down, shocked to see what had happened. Only then did the sound of Rae's laughter register to Brimu. Her face flushed pink, she hesitantly turned around to face the giant normal type.
Brimu's face grew redder, both from the embarrassment and the fury she felt for the rabbit. Just before she could do anything else, a new voice made itself known.
"Rae, are you serious?" The four pokemon turned towards the source of the voice, being met with Wren once again.
"Oh, hey Wren." Said Rae gave a smile after managing to calm down.
"Don't you 'Oh hey' me." Wren chastised, before pulling out her radio. "10-22, false alarm. It's not a savage, just two pokemon bickering." She spoke into the device, receiving confirmation shortly afterwards.
"Bickering?!" Brimu suddenly raised her voice. "Who do you think you-" Before she could finish her complaint, the absol casted a glare, to which the hatterene quickly withered under the mean look. Suddenly looking nervous, Brimu quickly turned her gaze towards the ground.
"I'll deal with you in a moment." The dark type simply stated, making her way towards her taller friend.
"I get you're upset, Wren, but you know I don't just start fights just to fight. I was-ohohhh…" The lopunny was quickly shut up by a swift punch to the gut. "Got it ma'am, shutting up…" Rae fell to her knees, groaning.
"Wait!" The braixen suddenly spoke up, running up to the two. "She fought with the hatterene to protect me! Please don't punish her for that!" She pleaded. The SCU officer looked over her, before looking back at Rae, who was giving a trembling thumbs up, as if trying to confirm with the fire type. Wren snorted.
"Fine." She turned around, her attention back on the humiliated hatterene. "As for you." She quickly reached down, gaining a yelp as Brimu was lifted by her third arm on her head. "Still a piece of shit I see. You haven't changed a bit from middle school." As Wren confronted the supposed bully, Sear strolled up to Rae, coming in to check on her after that gut punch. "It's time to grow up and stop acting like you're above everyone else. This level of entitlement isn't going to get you anywhere good in life." Before she even let Brimu get a word in, Wren quickly spun around,lobbing the small pokemon deep into the store. Sear watched in shock, the braixen in horror, and Rae watched with a smirk. "Well that's that." The near emotionless absol shrugged.
"Um, Rae, was it?" The fox pokemon spoke up. "Uh, thank you. For standing up for me."
"No need to thank me." Rae nodded, standing up. "It's just what I do. Ask Fire Butt over here." Sear nodded as well, recalling the incident at the coffee shop.
"Been doing it for as long as I've known her." Wren noted. "Didn't matter if it solved or caused problems." At this, the normal type coughed nervously.
"Hey, I'm a fighting type at heart."
"That's stereotyping." The dark retorted.
"I'm technically right though!" The rabbit defended herself, gaining an eye roll from Wren and a head shake from Sear, to which Rae noted. "Hey now, you're supposed to be on my side here!"
"I'm not taking sides! I didn't even say anything!" Hearing a giggle, the three turned towards the small braixen, her hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her amusement.
"I'm being laughed at." The dark type sounded like she attempted to be sad. After managing to calm herself, she looked back at Rae and Sear, a smile on her face.
"I'm Bri, it's nice to meet you all." The now known Bri bowed.
"Formal one, aren't you?" Rae noted. "Well you already know, but I'm Rae, the fire bun here is Sear, and finally, Wren, the SCU chief."
"What are you even doing here?" Said chief inquired.
"Well, the plan was to get some ingredients so I could bake some cheesecake for everyone. But, it seems like we had some other ideas for this trip." Sear side glanced at the taller rabbit, to which Rae let out a fake scoff of offense.
"Tch, figures. Always causing problems." Wren commented, gaining a dramatic gasp from the normal type, holding a hand to her chest.
"Screw both of you!" She crossed her arms, turning away in a mock pout.
"Well," Bri made her presence known once more, "I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Thank you." The braixen bowed once again, before heading off.
"Hey, Sear works at Cafe Silver, we'll be there every now and then if you want to see us!" Rae waved at her, gaining a wave back.
"Think she'll actually come?" Sear asked.
"And why let her know?" Wren cocked her head.
"She seems cool." The giant rabbit shrugged. "But with that being said, let's get out of here before they decide to actually kick us out." Rae motioned, making her way back to the cart.
"I mean, I guess?" Sear looked back at Wren, who only rolled her eyes in response.
"You go and avoid being banned. I'll catch up a bit later, gotta finish up a few more things before I'm done for the day." The absol gave a casual wave, spinning on her heel and heading in the opposite direction of the two rabbits.
"C'mon, Fire Butt! This fight worked up an appetite! And I'm craving your cheesecake even more!"
"Coming! Slow down!"