A short chapter... though for some this might be a normal length chapter. Hope you enjoy!


Mending a Promise

The happy yellow rays cast by the rising sun early in the morning paints the entire kitchen the same color as a couple eggs sizzle and bubble in a pan being cooked by a luminescent blue flame burning below on the stove it sits on. Jessica stands in front of it, watching it as it travels along the path of being cooked, the half-cooked, scrambled yoke bubbling from underneath due to a pocket of air being trapped and heated to expand and rise up. For her, this is yet another morning that's no different than all the other mornings she's woken up to, especially since Milo doesn't do anything besides sit in his room all day, occasionally leaving to get food and water to sustain himself. While he hasn't come downstairs yet, she knows he's going to appear soon since the food she's making isn't for herself, it's for him, and in about an hour's time, she'll be leaving the house to go to work. Her left hand grabs the pan and shakes it a little to free the egg from any parts of the pan it might've gotten stuck to and with the spatula in her right hand, nestles it underneath it to then lift and flip it over, revealing a fully cooked golden underside indicating that it won't be long until the entire thing is finished. She places the spatula down on the counter to the left of her and grabs a clean plate from the drainboard that also sits on it, preparing to take it off in a few moments from now.

As if she had psychic powers herself with her timing, her ears become attuned to the gentle bangs of footsteps descending the stairs behind her. Milo decided to come out of his room though unlike how he usually comes down, he appears to have just woken up only moments ago. His hair is more of a wreck than it usually his, the bags under his eyes have darkened further than normal, and his left hand gently rubs away at his right eye, brushing away the gook that forms in the tear ducts as he slept. She looks over her right shoulder at him, her eyes widening a little bit in surprise as she's used to seeing him fully awake when he comes down compared to him not being fully awake. Though a small surprise, she smiles. Perhaps his later than usual awakening is tied to something he'll be willing to talk about, and as she grabs the pan once again with her left hand and uses the spatula to scoop the egg off and onto the plate, she talks to him. "Morning sweetie, I see you've slept in."

He simply stays silent but looks at her through his fuzzy, blurry vision that's slowly focusing thanks to waking up only moments ago. He reaches the bottom of the stairs and watches as she extinguishes the flame and puts the pan back down on the stove before grabbing a fork out from one of the drawers in the counter and bringing it and his egg over to the table for him. He raises both of his arms out above his head and stands up on his tippy toes, following this up with a gentle moan during this little stretch of his. His hands drop to his side and he slowly shambles over to the table, pulling the chair out with his right hand for him to sit down in, and sits down. Just like last night, he watches his mother walk over to where he's sitting to set his plate down, and after doing that, she walks to the opposite end of the table and pulls out the chair with her left hand so she can sit in it.

He grabs the fork with his left hand and using the edge, he cuts into the egg and separates a piece of it off, and proceeds to eat it. She, on the other hand, tries to get him to tell her about why he slept later than usual. "Milo, you never wake up this late. Was something up last night?"

"No." he says, the words being slightly muffled due to having food in his mouth. His chocolate brown eyes are barely visible due to them being almost shut and the fact that the window right in front of the stove is casting strong, squint-causing rays doesn't help as it forces his eyes to nearly shut themselves in response.

She's a bit unsatisfied by this answer, though she continues to try. "Alright, but can you at least tell me where you went last night? You simply left without anything to protect yourself with and didn't bother telling me where you were going. I don't want someone trying to rob you or anything like that." her tone is serious as she wants to know what he did as he's done this many times in the past without her asking about it the next day.

"Didn't you hear me last night? It was none of your business." His voice is clear this time as he cuts into the egg once more.

"Why? Is it something that you know I'll punish you for doing?" She sits up slightly in her chair, making herself appear a bit taller in response, trying to assert herself as she wants answers.

"No. Again, it is none of your business. Don't make me say it a third time." His tone shows slight annoyance at her persistence. "Besides, if someone tries to rob me, they'll wake up in a hospital bed." he munches on the piece of egg he cut for himself, about 3/4ths of it remains in his plate.

"That's not the point. I don't want you leaving the house without telling me where you're going or what you're doing since I know that you know the wild Pokemon on Route 19 can be dangerous. I have enough to worry about while at work since I don't know if you're thinking in the back of your mind to do something stupid and…" she stops herself, her allusion should be enough for him to pick up on it.

He simply chuckles and shakes his head back and forth gently. A couple strands of his wild, unruly mess of hair shake along with it. "It hasn't been dangerous enough to hurt me in the past." She stays silent as she doesn't have anything to say about that. "It doesn't even matter anyway if they hurt me like that or not. The world would simply be fine without me, but I don't let that happen because I can't."

This piques her interest. In her eyes, he has absolutely nothing to live for based on what he's done and what he says, but this statement contradicts it for some reason. He doesn't have much of any reason to keep going like this, and without any real purpose to his life, it doesn't make sense that he hasn't allowed it to happen. "What might this reason be for that?" He stays silent and cuts into the egg once more, only this time, a bit more force causes the plate to slightly move and a metallic tink is heard as the fork hits the ceramic plate. She grabs the seat of her chair and pulls it up closer to the table, waiting for him to answer.

He doesn't stick the egg onto the fork this time, and instead, points it at her. "You already know the answer." he then jabs it into the egg, a little bit of water is flung off from the force.

"I can't read your mind to know what that reason is and it doesn't come to your fancy to tell me, so whatever." She taps the fingers from her right hand on the table. "Though all of that aside… remember what I told you last night about having enough money soon to be able to enroll you in an adult Pokemon trainer school? Maybe you should go, you might even-"

He cuts her off, annoyed that she's pushing this onto him again. "Stop. I'm not wasting my time being taught shit I already know. Fuck that."

She breathes in deep and exhales. "Milo, you know you can't keep living like this. Someday you'll have to get up and leave the house to make money or get educated for a career path. I don't want you to be stuck in your room all day being miserable, at least try to do something for yourself."

"I had the chance to become the best and it was taken from me. I don't care about a has-been dream that's long dead, nor do I care to make a new dream. I simply want what I have right now and nothing more." he has only a quarter of the egg left, his eyes are starting to open wider now as he's waking up more and more. His tiny mention of his father's promise and how he wanted him to become the champion of Unova makes her remember what he said to him right before dying.

"I know you're going to become a great Pokemon Trainer… perhaps even the best in all of Unova! Milo the Unova region Pokemon master and Champion… doesn't that sound amazing?"

She knows that directly asking him about going on a journey with Pokemon won't get her very far, let alone get an answer at all, so she thinks carefully on what to say to him. She watches him eat the remainder of his egg that she cooked for him, little bits of it too small to pick up with the fork lie on the ceramic plate while the rest of it is picked up by him. An idea comes to mind and she eagerly asks him about it. "Hey, I just thought of something. Maybe you'll like it, maybe not. Either way, it's an idea nonetheless." this makes him look up at her, his eyes gazing directly into hers, staring into her soul from the other end of the table in an attempt to deter her from sharing her idea. "How much do you like Pokemon? I know you used to love the subject in school, but what about now?"

He averts his gaze to the floor, the thought of Mew comes to mind but if he told her about that, Mew would surely be found and taken away as rumor has it that only one exists in the world. He knows that his mother would probably do something unthinkable if she were to find out on her own that, almost in their backyard, her son has been taking care of a Mew and formed a friendship with them. He nearly chokes as the thought of her being captured and taken away for experimentation comes to mind and he starts coughing violently. His fork drops to the floor, and he pounds his chest with his right hand in an attempt to clear it and after 8 scary seconds, he stops. Even his mother is surprised to see this and stands up from her chair as it happened but since he managed to fix the issue, she sat back down. "What was that all about? Are you alright?" He clears his throat and looks back at her. His entire face has gone red in response to the experience of almost choking but he's okay and simply nods 'yes' in response. She sighs a little in relief to see him okay. "Please be careful, I don't want you choking on anything."

He sucks in the right side of his cheek a little for a moment, then looks her in the eyes and answers her question. "Pokemon are okay. I still like them."

She smiles in response, she might have a small chance here if he's not lying. "You're not saying that just to appease me, are you? I know you've done that in the past and this is something I want your honest view on. Do you REALLY like Pokemon?"

"I do. I hate that you make me repeat things that I say over and over again. Learn to listen." His fork tinks on the plate once more as he places it down in the middle, all the egg eaten and finished. He pushes the plate in front of him away a little with his right hand and scoots his chair back to stand up. "By the way, I thought you'd be getting ready for work. You've got about 40 minutes left and you'll be late. I don't care if you're late, though you should care since it's your job." He turns around to walk upstairs, getting his right foot on the first step and his left hand on the railing, but she stops him before he can get away.

"Wait!" He looks at her and stops in place. She quickly stands up out of her chair and quickly walks to him. "What about doing something related to Pokemon? Like maybe being a Pokemon breeder or someth-" he cuts her off, not wanting to answer more questions.

"Just stop. I already told you that I don't want to do anything. Can't you take it and leave me alone? I'll do whatever I want when I feel like doing it, and nothing in life for me is worth doing so no, I don't want to." He quickly walks up the stairs to prevent her from trying to ask him any questions. At the very least, she's got a small chance even if she sort of blew it here by accident. She simply upset him by asking too many questions, but at least she has an idea of what to do.

Knowing her time is rather short, she quickly runs over to the cordless phone that's sitting on a small coffee table next to the couch in the living room. Lying next to the phone is a phonebook with a whole bunch of numbers in it from people she's worked with over the years. She grabs the phone and phonebook, plops herself onto the couch, and opens the book up to the page containing the letter, "A", and eyes down the name. "Aurea Juniper". "If anyone can help me mend that promise, it's her." and she begins dialing out her phone number. The phone rings for a few seconds before the sound of someone picking up on the other end is heard.

"Hello? Nuvema Town's Pokemon Laboratory Owner, Professor Aurea Juniper speaking, how may I help you?" the voice on the other end, belonging to Juniper herself, comes through and a smile goes across Jessica's face, ready to speak to her old friend about something that she hopes she'll be able to help her with.


Next couple of chapters might be this around this length. Anyway, review, review, and review some more!