It's night time and our heroes are ready to rest for the day.
Do they talk about their day? Have a little ritual they do? Do they drift off into pleasant dreams or horrid nightmares? Hide under a roof or gaze on the starry sky?
"Ug Fiiiiiinally," Horizon groaned shaking his head, "We're done."
Amber simply smiled at her friend and their client just, ignoring her teammate, "And ready to do it again tomorrow!" She said with enthusiasm as she handed the missing bag back to it's rightful owner.
"Thanks so much!!" The Buneary chirped back, bounding up and down, "I tend to be a klutz and drop my bag, like aaaallll the time, you know better than anyone Amber," The Buneary explained hugging her childhood friend. She quickly turned her attention to Horizon, "And H-Horizon I'm-er open tomorrow evening, m-maybe we could… grab a bite? If y-you want to of course!" The Buneary hid behind her fluffy paws awaiting a response.
Amber giggled at the bunny, as Horizon, who wasn't really paying attention, seemed taken aback at her offer, even backing away a bit.
"Well, I am really busy tomorrow," Horizon said after a moment of collecting his thoughts. He glanced away putting his head down slightly. He placed a paw to his chin, "Erm_ well…?" He trailed off lowering his paw, "Maybe not?"
Amber roller her eyes at Horizon, who was clearly trying to avoid Cream's offer without blatantly saying, "no," which he would've done if Amber wasn't around, and was doing a horrible job at it.
"He'll be there!" Amber cut in sharply raising her paw on front of Horizon's face. Amber's jump in, promptly shut Horizon up who glared at her, "We're gonna be busy tonight, working and stuff." Amber explained walking in between the bunny and fox.
Cream's face was immediately was showered with joy, her eyes sparkled as she stared at Amber. The exact opposite of Horizon's face. Her face then changed to a confused look after a moment of recollection and realizing what Amber said.
"What else would two explorer, rescuers be doing tonight?" Cream asked curiously, tilting her head to the side.
"Heh, secret!" Amber replied with a wink, "I'll be sure to remind Horizon of the get together tomorrow." The two friends giddily laughed in excitement before Cream decided to take off.
"Thanks Amber!!" Cream squealed blushing madly as she bounced away from the team. Amber watched her go with a smile, while Horizon focused his glare into his teammate.
"I hate you," Horizon stated bluntly holding his head high, "I am nooot going on a date with your 'Childhood bestie'," he stated mockingly before looking away. He sighed lowering his voice to one that was on the edge of complaining, "Worst of all we have to work tonights shift at the cafe don't we?"
"Yep!" Amber replied patting Horizon's shoulder, "And working the floor isn't horrible, at least we get tips!" Amber insisted with a huff and eyeroll.
"You get tips," Horizon corrected as they began their walk. Horizon grumbled curses to himself, yammering about not having a choice, or how Amber always speaks for him.
Amber continued ignoring him. She caught herself rolling her eyes and commented, "Look at me you've got my eyes rolling as much as yours," Amber said teasingly her tone cheering up.
Horizon replied with only a roll of his eyes. Proving his teammate's point
The "Cafe" they had refered to was a popular spot in Arcadian city. One of Amber's parent's, friends ran the place. Amber had offered to help out as often as possible, to get to know the owner a little better and to make sure she didn't get lonely. This "owner" was a white Zoroark, who had traveled with Amber's parents during their start and throughout their time as explorers.
Amber didn't remember much about her parents, they disappeared when she was six, she took this time with Zoroark as a way to maybe gain info about her parents start to exploring and maybe what happened to them.
Apparently after a few years of helping Amber's parents Zoroark eventually settled down, prefering the quiet life, owning a small cafe/restaurant at the edge of the city.
Usually Amber, and recently Horizon had been going down two-three times a week to help out, and make sure Zoroark wasn't overworked. "Am I forgetting something? Oh yeah her name is Yurei." Horizon inturrupted his own inner monolog remember he almost glossed over probably the most important detail of who she was. Anyway business had started to pick up lately and now Amber and Horizon were pretty much full time employees working multiple hour shifts after doing missions for the day. It was extremely tiring.
Horizon felt as though it was overwhelming, and was messing with his sleep schedule, which granted was true, but it could always be worse.
lAmber didn't care how long she was up helping, as long as she helped out enough, she was fine. She could hang with Yurei, the Pokémon who pretty much raised her after her parents disappearance.
Horizon grumbled as they approached the quaint little cafe. The roof was a grey and was slanted going up as the building went back, ending against the wall of an extension to the building. The rest of the building was white with a mix of red and a playful yellow. The interior was a bit calmer, toning back much of the bright stand-alone colours on the outside, and mostly mix of grey and white as well as red trims on the tables really tied the place together.
Most Pokemon wouldn't expect a cafe to be quite full at dinner time, but here Yurei served anyone at anytime as long as it fit within her hours. Tonight was one of those nights. Being honest it was more of a restaurant than a cafe. Horizon considered it the prior anyhow.
There were a plethora of Pokemon around, grass, fairy, fire, dark even a ghost type mixed in. Despite the title of the town there weren't many Pokémon willing to live the quiet life around. A small village turned large city. Amber noticed a family of Pyroar upon entering, watching them laugh and talk to one anothe made her smile
Horizon on the other paw groaned upon seeing the state of the place. To his dismay the place was nearly packed, which meant it was going to be a long night, a really long night.
"Oh great," Horizon muttered with annoyance. He shook his head and slumped back, "Here we go again."
Amber sighed and silently glared at her teammate. She closed her eyes with a deep breath and walked farther inside, ignoring Horizon.
"Oi Amber!" Yurei called loudly from the back, "You here?"
Amber's face lit up, "Yep! Horizon too," Amber called back, aproaching the door to the back. The Rockruff hopped to her twos and leaned on the large order window. Horizon said behind the Rockruff with a huff.
The Zoroark peeked her head out and grinned with her sharp teeth at the two. Yurei was a bit larger than the average Zoroark, her teeth were much sharper as well. Her eyes were a bright yellow, which really stood out compared to the red white and pink. Her "mane" or hair at the top of her head was tied back, out of her face and, sorta mimicked a normal Zoroarks, minus the waviness and the amount of it. Her hair was much loser compared to that of a Dark type Zoroark. Each individual strand if her mane faded from white, to pink then red at the end.
"Hey Yurei," Amber greeted waving with her right paw, "How have you been?"
Yurei only smiled before responding, "Come to the kitchen, we'll catch up a bit there." The Zoroark waved her claws, gesturing into the back.
Amber nodded following the Zoroark's notion to go inside, hopping off the windowsill and pushing the door open, Horizon followed despite not being mentioned by Yurei. He stayed silent almost not wanting to be noticed by the ghostly Zoroark.
"Welcome back Vulpix," Greeted Yurei with a wave as they entered the kitchen. This immediately ruined any semblance of invisibility Horizon hoped he had.
"Hmph," Horizon snorted in reply not looking at her. He did give a lazy wave, which was almost just as bad as no response.
Yurei frowned at him before shrugging. She approached the closet, opening it and tossing out two of her uniforms.
Amber grinned and Horizon just stared glumly at them, holding in a whine. One was white matching Yurei's fur and pink 'waves' along the edges, while the other was the same white but with red instead of pink. They were both a sorta suit with room for tails the pretrude through. We also had little hats (well for Amber) that was a little Zorua fluff that was usually on their head. Yurei usually just styled Horizons to match a Zorua's.
Horizon sighed as Amber dove for the pink outfit gleefully. Horizon muttered a curse and stomped to Yurei. He glared at her and muttered, "You know what to do."
Yurei nodded holding back a smile as Amber put her outfit on. The Zoroark tapped his tuff of fur, wetting her claws in the sink afterwards.
"Amber please begin taking orders from our new customers," Yurei ordered happily, as she began to style Horizon's fur atop his head.
"Yes ma'am!" Amber chirped, raising a paw to her eyebrow, in a solute gesture, before rushing back to the seating area.
"How have things been Horizon?" Yurei asked, tugging his fur back as gently as she could, wetting it so it remained where it was.
"Could be better," he retorted sourly, Trying to look up at the Zoroark, "What's your connection to Amber anyhow? She never tells me anything 'bout her past." Horizon asked his head falling to the side slightly
Yurei blinked surprised, "She doesn't?" Yurei asked confused forcing his head straight again.
Horizon attempted to shake his head, Yurei just held it in place, her claw still there from the adjustment she made earlier, "No, She doesn't, hardly brings it up," He said instead, he frowned, "Any reason or ideas?"
Well…" Yurei started slowly, finishing Horizon's fur which was styled like an ice cream cone, with a swerve at the top, "I used to work with her parents when they were just starting out as explorers," Yurei explained, "I'm her only real way to remember them."
"They... died?" Horizon replied curiously, as he began to put his outfit on. Lifting a paw and nearly stumbling head over heels.
"They disappeared, no one really knew what happened to them," She explained rubbing her head nervously, "Except we know where they went, some mission regarding the royals, about a year ago, when we found out they pobabbly had passed from injuries protecting our continent from outworld invaders," Yurei sighed pitifully she quickly wiped her eyes and rubbed her head nervously, "I wish I could see them again…"
"Outworld… invaders?" Horizon asked confused blinking several times, "Like Aliens?"
Yurei shrugged in response, walking back over to her stove, "That's all the guild and HAPPI told me. Which is a major reason to why Amber joined the guild, to find out the real reason to how her parents died in the first place," Yurei shook her head, "it's just a bad scenario, secrets everywhere, it's hard to know what to trust. Hell Amber thinks this goes all the way to the king and queen because of the mission details." Yurei sighed checking inside the oven quickly.
Taking out a steaming mix of brown and green, she quickly dumped it onto a tortilla roll to her right, on the counter beside the stove. She sprinkled in a few seasonings and a few orange and red sauces. before rolling it up and setting it up on the windowsill leading to the main area, "Order up!" She called to Amber taking a piece of paper off a small string and placing it beside the meal.
Horizon watched her in awe, before frowning at her response before she finished cooking the meal. He already knew the guild was sketchy as hell so he opted to avoid the last part of that conversation, "My parents died before i was bor- er before i was forced into my body." He said rolling his eyes, "I got to meet them thanks to Amber and Celebi, they were nice… only made me feel worse about my life."
Yurei smirked, "Why don't you help me cook, while Amber gets the orders and cleans up, we can get to know each other a bit more, we could use that sorta relationship."
Horizon nodded, finally putting on his uniform, "I wouldn't mind that."
"We're doooone!!" Amber sang gleefully, skipping back into the kitchen, "Tables are cleared sign shows we're closed, we are all set!"
"Great," Horizon said floating a plate onto the drying rack with Extrasensory. The Vulpix had spent much of his time washing the dishes, while he and Yurei talked. The Zoroark was actually quite relatable.
"Awesome!" Yurei said happily turning the corner leading from the rest of the house, towel in her hand, "Sorry about keeping you late, i wasn't expecting so many to get dinner this late."
"Its fine," Amber replied nodding at her, "We just have to hope the guild let's us in this late." Amber shuddered, last time, they were lucky they were even allowed in, Strife had made it clear that they had a curfew and they would have to stick to it.
"We're spending the night," Horizon interjected forcefully. He caught the towel Yurei had thrown and glanced at his partner.
Amber blinked at him, "b-but the guild!" She yelped, "We can't-"
"I don't care," Horizon retorted drowsily interrupting her, "If they care so much they can come get us." He shrugged carelessly.
Amber winced shaking her head, "We can't, Strife sa-"
"It's fine Amber," Yurei interrupted following suit, "I have a guest room upstairs, and if the guild wishes to complain, they will have to talk with me," The Zoroark leaned down to their level, "And believe me, they don't want to do that."
Amber gulped getting what the Zoroark was putting down, "Kay… Thanks Yurei." The Rockruff quickly turned to her partner.
The Zoroark smiled, "You're welcome, now off with your uniforms and off to bed." Yurei instructed pointing to where she had came from with the towel.
"Will do," Horizon yawned tossing his back into the closet they got theirs from, "Which room is it?" He asked.
"Last room on the right, up the stairs into the hallway." Yurei told him sliding aside letting the Vulpix around her.
"Thanks." Horizon sighed walking away from them. They could hear his steps as he went up the stairs.
As Amber took her uniform off Yurei crouched down In front of her, "Amber, your parents would be proud."
Amber blinked again before smiling at Yurei, "Th-Thank you Yurei … for everything."
"Horizon is great," Yurei said smirking, "Quite the dashing fellow, how is he as a teammate?"
Amber's face flushed red, "He's... unruly and grumpy most of the time." She yelped flustered, "I try to help him loosen up, I even set up a date tomorrow, with a friend."
"Take your shot and mean it alright?" Yurei hummed scratching her head, "Even if that means attrraaacct." The Zoroark winked in her direction
"I'm going to bed!!" Amber yipped face bright red, she bolted up the stairs heading after Horizon.
Yurei sighed smiling, "Heh, just like her parents and me when I was younger." The Zoroark was left to reminisce as the moon reached its peak in the sky.
