GUESS WHO'S BACKK? Anyways, for real, Kai the Raichu here! Here's my newest chapter! It's around the length of my last one. Most of my chapters are clocking in around the 1.9k-2k word range, so that's pretty much where most of them will end up being around length-wise. As usual, thank you to Swifteagle313 for favoriting my story! You're what keeps me motivated to keep writing! Now i'll stop rambling and let you get into this dialogue-packed chapter!

- Chapter Begin -

"..Nice to meet you too.." I said nervously, as the Rockruff's curious eyes looked at me. Though his intentions were likely completely innocent, it felt like he was staring into my soul; like he knew something. Kai's words that 'something about me had made him very curious' just made me anxious. I tried to hold back my nervousness, a bit of sweat dripping down my fluffy face.

"Something wrong? You seem really nervous.." Damn it! He had already caught on!

"No, everything's quite alright.."

"Oh, okay then. Well, uhh.. what do you like to do?" The conversation was getting more awkward by the minute. He didn't know what to say to me. I assumed that Kai, Art, and Dennis had pushed the conversation along when he talked to them; the three were just those type of people. But me and Andy both weren't. Even if I was acting normally, i'd likely screw up in some way.

"Well, i'm an inventor. I make a bunch of items, such as this. I call it a flashlight." I pulled it out from my bag, showing how the device worked to him. He didn't seem too impressed, unlike my friends who were in complete awe when it was shown to them. "Huh. Cool, I guess." He smiled a bit, clearly trying to be polite. I put the flashlight away, just desperately looking around the room and trying to figure out what to do to get out of this awkward conversation before I say something I might regret.. then it hit me.

"Why don't we get some lunch?" This was absolutely the perfect solution. It didn't seem too suspicious like I was trying to get out of the situation, but I wouldn't have to sit here talking to him any longer on my own. There would be other people that could actively carry on the conversation, and i'd be able to add my own input when I saw fit. "Totally!" He said without any hesitation; it seemed that he didn't like the awkward atmosphere any more than I did. We both walked towards the door, with me opening the door and stepping out with him. From what I could gather, we had been in there for about five minutes at the absolute maximum. As I walked to the cafeteria with him, I kept wondering to myself; how much longer could I keep this up? How long could I hide this secret from Andy? I had hidden it from my friends for 4 years, so hiding it from him may be more difficult, but still very possible. But was it really?

It seemed that Kai, Art, and Dennis weren't around. Definitely isn't great. They probably went off to go do something else, and just sent Andy over to me. Annoying, and made my predicament a bit more troubling. As me and the Rockruff waited in line, I scanned the room for anyone or a group to sit with. I didn't just come over here for a chance of scenery, damn it! My eyes eventually landed on a Lucario. I recognized him, and he seemed nice enough. Pretty sure his name was.. Florence? Strange, but yeah, that had to be it. We got our food, and sat down at the table with him. Though he seemed rather surprised by our arrival, he waved as he began to speak. "Hey, Otto. Been a while since we last talked, yeah? And who's this? Haven't seen him around before." The Lucario's gaze turned to Andy.

"His name's Andy. Andy, this is Florence." The Rockruff looked at me with a relieved expression. Seemed that he wasn't the best with social interactions. I would get it; when you're talking to massive and completely foreign creatures and you learn that you have to live among them for pretty much the rest of your life, it's very intimidating and scary to talk to them at first. But overtime, I learned that almost all of them are incredibly kind, thoughtful, and hard-working. It was a pleasant surprise if I do say so myself.

"Well, nice to meet you! How'd you make your way over here, anyways?" If there was one thing that I remembered about Florence, it was that he was very curious. He always liked to ask a lot of questions. If you gave an answer to one of them, it'd likely end up with him asking three more. Though his curiosity helped me out immensely in this situation, it got annoying at times; there was also the risk of it just as easily backfiring. One wrong move and BAM! I was answering all of the questions.

"I just.. woke up on the beach a day or two ago, and everything was sore. I got found by some people and they took me to the infirmary here. I've been staying here since."

"Ooh, that's definitely interesting! I remember the day Otto showed up. I was just a Riolu back then. He definitely acted a lot differently all that time ago.. somewhat like you. Rather shy, no offense. After a while, he did open up though. Hopefully you do too!" I cringed when he compared Andy to me. The more I was associated with the Rockruff, the more likely it would snowball into more situations like this.

"Huh. Alright." He turned to me, seeming alot more calm. Andy knowing that I was in a similar situation as him all that time ago likely made the Rockruff trust me more.

"Anyways.. i'm wondering! Otto, how's everything going for you? I heard that you, Dennis, Art, and Kai went on some volcano mission! Nice job on that, by the way!" Now both of them were looking at me. Though I obviously didn't like having the spotlight on me, I was fine with it. I'd practiced building up my social skills for nearly half a decade. One 'mon wouldn't stop me from socializing!

"It's going alright! Hanging out with the group alot as usual. The volcano mission was tough! Kai even got scratched up a little, but i'm sure it's pretty much healed by now."

"Ouch! Anyways, could you remind Art about our training session tomorrow if you get the chance? I just wanted to make sure he remembers," Florence said as he pretty finished his meal. "I'd be happy to," I replied, pretty much done my food as well. Andy seemed to take longer than both of us, only about halfway done. I wasn't one to judge, though. I didn't know what it was like not having proper arms regardless.

"See you guys around, then?" The Lucario said as he stood up, taking his tray with him. We both nodded, as me and Andy sat there in absolute silence before he finished his food. I took the tray for him, heading over to place both the trays in a dirty pile along with the rest of them. He silently thanked me, and as I returned to the table, Kai and Art walked into the cafeteria. It wasn't unusual for Dennis to not be around at this time; chances are he was napping. The two walked over to us, with Kai quickly beginning to speak.

"Sorry for just dumping Andy on you, heh.. me and Art just had a deep conversation about some stuff. Anyways, I see you two ate lunch!" He laughed a little, referring to whatever food residue was all over our faces that we hadn't gotten the opportunity to wash off. Eating neatly was near impossible with paws. I then turned to Art.

"Me and Andy talked to Florence; he just wanted to remind you about your training session tomorrow." Art quickly seemed to remember the event as I brought it up. "Thanks! I actually totally forgot about it.. we haven't done that in a while." The four of us sat down at the table Florence along with me and Andy were sitting at earlier.

"Anywaysss.. how did bonding go? Did you two grow any closer?" Kai asked, wanting to know. "Well, I feel like I can trust him a lot more. Knowing that he was in my position a long time ago just makes me a lot more relaxed around him.." He smiled warmly. I wasn't sure anymore if him feeling a bond with me was a good or bad thing; it was good in the way that I could help him as I planned, but bad as I would have to find a way to make our conversations less awkward without revealing my secret.

"Well, i'm glad that you two are trusting eachother already like that! Anyways, I was thinking that we could take Andy out to the training grounds and try to teach him how to use a few moves, just like we did all that time ago with Otto! Crazy to think that you were just a Pikachu and Dennis was still a Dragonair then, Kai.. it feels like it was just yesterday.." Kai nodded in agreement. It really did feel like time had flew by. "After we clean up a bit, yeah, that would be nice," the Rockruff once again turning his gaze to me as I spoke. "Yeah, let's do it then," Andy said. It seemed that he was looking to me for some kind of guidance, maybe he thought it was a 'following in my footsteps' kind of thing? But clearly I had messed up somewhere based on the information I had so far, so the path's gotta differ somehow..

"Hold on. Before we go, I think we should grab a few potions from the marketplace. Last time we trained, you got injured and then we realized there was no potions left in our supplies. You were complaining for an hour before you finally got healed by Nurse Clefairy! Even I can't take that again, Kai." Art stared at the Raichu with annoyance, as the mouse seemed rather embarrased. "I- I guess you're right.. we should get a few before we train," he squeaked out in agreement. I managed to hold back my laughter, as I felt it would be rude. We all got up, Andy stating close to my side as we exited the guild's front doors and headed towards a small building close to the guild. It was the closest place that sold potions to the guild, and the Decidueye who ran the stand was quite nice. Apparently he used to work for the guild, but got smart and started up a marketplace instead, making some serious money. It was an impressive feat. We eventually reached it, the Decidueye warmly greeting us. "Welcome, Kai, Art, and Otto. Nice to see you back. And a newcomer, I see? What's the Rockruff's name?"

"Andy." I replied, letting him know. "What a pleasant name," he replied, his words feeling genuine. The Decidueye was always kind to everyone he interacted with, and it never felt like he was just a guy trying to sell you stuff for some money. He felt like he was your friend, someone you were close with and knew well. "Anyways, what would you like?" He asked. "We'll take 3 potions, please." Art said, handing some Poke to the market owner. The Dewott took the potions, placing them into the bag and thanking the Decidueye as we walked back to the guild. I wondered if Andy would have better luck than I did when I was training for the first time.. it seriously sucked.

Probably not.

- Chapter End -

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review and let me know about how you feel about Andy and Otto's interactions. I'm thinking of making Chapter 5 completely a flashback chapter, but i'm not entirely sure. Probably just gonna be part of it.. i'll figure it out. Anyways, favorite and follow, DM me on Discord, whatever you wanna do, and peace out!