Sear hopped onto the nearby chair, smiling as he observed his work. Dozens of fresh, still warm,, chocolate chip cookies, all neatly stacked on top of each other. After taking a moment to feel proud about his work, he leaned back on the chair and let out a sigh. Baking was far from easy when smaller than average, especially without any extra hands. But Sear always made it work, even if it left him tired afterwards. The rabbit pokemon was wearing a hoodie and jeans, helping to keep him warmer as the winter season quickly approached.
The fire rabbit's ear perked up at the sound of his doorbell going off, signalling that his friends had finally arrived. After taking a moment to prepare for the noise his friends would bring with them, Sear hopped off the chair and made his way to the living room, jumping onto a stool set off to the side of the front door, allowing him to reach the doorknob.
"Hey Sear!" Ivy announced as she walked into the house, giving Sear a pat on the head as she walked by him, nearly making him topple over in the process. The grass type was soon followed in by Blaze, who gave a casual wave as she passed by the small rabbit still trying to right himself. Then came the other fire type of the group, Blitz, who gave Sear a high five as he passed by.
Next was Aquari, who was now wearing leggings and a blue hoodie, as well as long, black boots. She gave the small rabbit a quick, tight hug, before going to join her siblings in the living room. After taking a moment to fix the fur on top of his head, Sear took a peek outside to see where Rose was, seeing that she was standing at the sidewalk, looking out into the distance. Wondering what she was doing, Sear hopped off the stool and made his way to his taller friend, making sure to avoid any patches of melting snow that still littered the ground.
"Hey Rose, what are you up to?" Sear greeted, getting the attention of the sylveon as he walked up to her. Rose was now wearing a frilly blouse that had lacy sleeve ends and jeans as well as a pair of black flats. She turned away from the street, looking down at the source of the voice.
"Oh, hey Sear. Sorry, I'm just waiting for Eli, she asked me to stand out in the front of the house so she knew where to go." Rose smiled down at her friend before returning her gaze down the sidewalk. She squinted her eyes, spotting something in the distance. "I think… that's her?" Tilting his head, Sear turned his gaze to where Rose was looking. In the distance was a series of quick bursts of light, rapidly closing the distance between it and the two pokemon on the sidewalk.
Eventually, the light reached Rose and Sear, dimming to reveal an exhausted Eli. She hunched over, breathing heavily, desperately trying to catch her breath. She raised a hand in a slight wave to the fairy and fire type, still maintaining eye contact with the ground. Sear and Rose shared a look, not sure what to do except waiting for the electric type to recover.
Once Eli was mostly able to breathe normally, she looked up to Rose and Sear and properly greeted them with a smile, though her exhaustion was still apparent.
"Hi guys." She greeted with the most composure she could muster at the present moment. "Sorry, I got a little lost in the neighborhood while speeding around, using quick for an extra boost. I apologize if I'm late or a bother." Sear waved a hand to dismiss her worries.
"Don't worry about it. You're just on time actually, everyone else just arrived." Sear smiled. "Come on, let's get inside, before there are no cookies left by the others." He said, leading the two towards the house. Eli smiled as she walked beside Rose, who was far too used to walking at a slower pace to stay in line with the two smaller pokemon.
"Oh, your flats are really cute!" Eli commented as she noticed Rose's shoes.
"Thanks. You would not believe how hard it was to find a pair in my size. Your shoes are cute too." Rose noted, taking the moment to take in the outfit the electric type wore, a sweater, jeans and laced up slippers. As the trio made it inside, Sear spotted a troubling sight near what was formerly the cookie pile.
"Guys!" Sear cries out, getting the attention of Aquari and Ivy, both faces stuffed with cookies and cheeks covered in crumbs. They stared back at Sear, wide eyed and stopping mid chew realising that they'd been caught. Blitz, next to the two, was occupied pouting, as he was previously, unable to get his hands on a single cookie. "Seriously you two? That was at least 3 dozen cookies, gone in an instant." Sear crossed his arms, scolding the girls. The two said nothing, instead choosing to look between each other. Eli's ears drooped a tad, sad that she couldn't try one of Sear's cookies but enjoying the scene in front of her nonetheless, while Rose looked disappointed, though impressed that they ate all of the cookies so fast.
"Sear." Blaze called out, who was sitting at the couch with a book in hand. In her other hand, the glaceon held a single cookie wrapped in a napkin. "Managed to snag one before the vultures got to them." She said before tossing over to Sear, who was caught off guard but managed to gently catch it in his hands.
"Thanks!" Sear smiled before turning to Eli, who had a look of wonder. "Here you are Eli." Sear looked up to her, offering the cookie. Eli looked between him and the treat before gently taking it off his hands. She examined it for a short moment, before taking a small bite. As soon as it hit her tongue, the electric type squealed with pure joy, rocking back and forward with a huge smile on her face. She quickly finished the bit in her mouth before going for another bite of the cookie.
"Good, right?" Rose smiled, happy to see Eli happy. She happily nodded, her mouth full at the moment.
"Guess I should make more then." The fire type shrugged. Hearing this, Ivy and Aquari got visibly excited. "Not for you two though. You two have had more than enough."
"Awww, come on!" The two girls groaned in unison, gaining a chuckle from Blitz and an eye roll from Blaze, who had gone back to her book.
. . . . .
As Rose busied herself with helping Searmake another batch of cookies, the other five were scattered around Sear's house and to their own things. Eli was in the kitchen with the two bakers, chatting away. Meanwhile, the living room was occupied by the other four guests. Blaze was on the couch reading her book, or at least trying to. Having trouble concentrating with the mischievous trio in the same room itching for trouble.
"No! You cannot- If you no-hit me right now, and this controller is going through the wall!" Ivy cried out.
"Oh, that's some motivation then! Sear needs to redecorate his walls anyways!" Aquari smirked. The two were fighting each other in a game, and Ivy was badly losing the match. Blitz sat on the side lines, watching and waiting his turn.
"Ooh, surprise!" The grass type exclaimed, managing to pull off a counter attack.
"No!" The water type cried out, disappointed she couldn't completely annihilate Ivy. Even Blitz felt pity for the vaporeon as Ivy managed to get a hit in.
"That's it, I'm going into a different room to read! You three are impossible to focus with!" Blaze announced, standing up from the couch and about to stomp out. Unfortunately for her, Blitz acted fast and dove for her legs, latching onto them. "Hey, let go!"
"Not until you decide to play a round." He gave a mischievous look. The two girls were quickly at her paws too, having paused the game in favor of messing with their sister.
"That's a lose-lose for me then!" Blaze grumbled, starting to attempt to drag her legs and, subsequently, her siblings, across the floor. Despite her efforts, she wasn't making much distance and was quickly tiring out.
"Cookies are ready!" Sear called out. The three shot up from the ground, making their way to the kitchen leaving their previous antics forgotten. With a roll of her eyes, the ice type quickly made her way to the hall.
The three trouble makers popped into the kitchen, where Sear, Rose and Eli were awaiting, the electric type happily munching on a cookie of her own. Seeing the stack of fresh cookies, Aquari and Ivy made a bee-line for the stack. But before they could reach the plate, ribbon like feelers wrapped around their mouths and stomach as they were forcefully pulled away from the stack.
"No more for you two." Rose said, dragging the two out of the room as the girls struggled to get free.
"Is it bad that I'm starting to get used to this?" Eli asked in between bites.
"I don't think so. It happens pretty often, so it would be weird and impressive if you never got used to it." Sear shrugged. Seeing that the cookies were up for grabs, Blitz went ahead and took some cookies for himself making up for his earlier loss.
"Mmm! Still the best cookies I've ever had." The taller fire type complimented in between chews, making Sear a bit bashful.
"I'm going to go see if Blaze wants some real quick." The rabbit pokemon stated, hopping up to the nearby table to grab an extra plate. From there, he jumped up onto the stool to collect three cookies, just as Rose re-entered the kitchen after banishing her two sisters back to the living room. Speaking of who, Aquari was pouting, upset that she was banned from getting anymore cookies. Ivy, on the other hand, was fishing in her pocket.
She pulled out a small, white spray bottle, catching the attention of the nearby water type.
"What is that?" The shorter pokemon asked. Ivy gave her an evil grin before taking off her cardigan.
"Something fun." The grass type stated simply, taking a moment to tie her cardigan around her waist, telling Aquari it was time to start pranking someone. "Here, take a whiff." Ivy said in a hushed voice, moving the bottle closer to her sister's face, allowing her to take a quick smell.
"Oh-!"
"Don't make a scene! Don't make a scene!" Ivy urged as the water type covered her nose while backing away.
"What is that?!" Aquari questioned in a hushed voice as well, trying to keep cool.
"Fart spray. I found some when we were visiting our parents. I've been looking for an opportunity to use it. And I think now would be a great time to do so." The grass type said, watching as Sear walked by, carrying a plate of cookies. "Come." Ivy motioned, sneakily following the small fire type into the hall he disappeared into the hall. Aquari couldn't help but giggle as she followed behind.
"What are those two up to now?" Rose questioned, noticing the two creeping about, gaining a look from the small electric type below.
"Ivy and Aquari?"
"Yeah. That cardigan around her waist is bad news." Rose muttered, rubbing the back of her head, gaining an even more questioning look from Eli.
Sear walked down the hall, locating a single closed door, oblivious to the two larger figures following behind. The small rabbit knocked on the door before letting himself in. Blaze had held up in the guest bedroom, her jacket laying next to her leaving her in a dark gray t-shirt, her legs crossed as she laid across the bed.
"Hey Blaze, I brought some cookies in case you wanted some." Sear announced as he walked over to the night stand closest to the ice type's side.
"Oh, hey. Thanks. I had a feeling you were going to make more after those two inhaled the first batch." Blaze stated, placing a bookmark in her book before closing it.
"Yeah, probably should've made sure they came in last." The smaller pokemon chuckled, pushing the plate of cookies onto the nightstand. "Were those three keeping you from reading?"
"Yup. There was no way I was going to finish the chapter with them screaming." The taller girl said, swinging her legs off the bed, making sure not to kick the fire rabbit in the back. With the snacks in place, Sear hopped up next to Blaze onto the bed as she reached over for a cookie, before noticing someone standing in the door. "Speaking of who." Sear turned to look at what the shiny pokemon was looking at just in time to see Ivy close the door.
"She wasn't wearing her cardigan…" Sear fearfully noted, before his nose picked up on something, just as Blaze's did as well. "Oh god, what is that?" The fire type questioned, putting his hands over his nose.
"Ivy!" Blaze was heard yelling through the door that Ivy was holding shut.
"I might need someone strong to help me hold this." Ivy muttered in between chuckles. She could feel someone, presumably Blaze, pulling on the other side.
"Ivy, I swear!" She yelled, seemingly more muffled than before, followed by a gag.
"Quick, switch out!" Aquari urged. Ivy nodded, allowing the water type to grab hold of the doorknob, before turning around, her leaf tail glowing green before it extended out and wrapped around the doorknob as well.
"Do I even want to know?" Rose asked from the end of the hall, with Eli and Blitz peering in as well.
"Just some harmless fun." Ivy smiled, before nearly losing her balance as the door was pulled in a bit before being shut once again.
"The only thing preventing me from tearing this-*cough*-this door down is that it isn't our house!" Blaze roared, gaining a raised eyebrow from the tall fairy type.
"Girls, open the door." Rose said calmly, gaining looks of disapproval from the two sisters, but they gave in, letting go of the doorknob at the same time quickly fleeing behind the pink and white pokemon. Not soon afterwards, Blaze burst out from the room. She had wrapped her jacket around her neck and mouth, a makeshift mask to try and mitigate the horrible smell. In her right arm was Sear, carrying him by the waist as the fire type held his hoodie over his nose.
"What is wrong with you?!" The ice type questioned, glaring daggers at the two smaller girls cowering behind Rose.
"What even is that?" Sear asked. "It smelled so bad!"
"Fart spray." Aquari quipped, grinning like a schoolgirl who just got asked out by her crush.
"...Ew." Eli gave a look of disgust, catching a whiff of the lingering scent radiating from the bedroom. Even Rose and Blitz could smell the odor.
"Hey, it was Ivy's idea." The water type defended herself, gaining an eye roll from the leafeon.
"You guys used the fart spray without me?!" Blitz complained, holding his flannel over his nose. Ivy just gave her brother a blank stare.
"Uh…" The grass type looked for a response, but after failing to come up with one, she instead decided to spray another puff in the direction of Blitz. "Run!" She yelled at Aquari, who followed behind the fleeing leafeon without question.
"Why does there have to be chemical warfare happening in my house?!" Sear questioned, gagging once more as the fart spray made it's way throughout the hall. Eli and Rose were tugging their own clothing over their face, while Blitz was on the ground, 'dead'.
"I'm going outside!' Blaze announced, moving past the three and exiting the hall with Sear still in tow.
"We should probably get outside too. C'mon Blitz." Rose said, while gently poking her brother in the leg with her paw.
"Mm." Blitz mumbled, pretending to be dazed from waking up. "Alright, alright. Get your big paws out of my fmph-!" The fire type started, but was immediately shut up as Rose elected to instead drag Blitz out with her feelers, wrapping one around his mouth.
"C'mon, Eli."
"Right behind you." The little raichu nodded, desperately following to get away from the stench. Once outside and in Sear's front yard, Rose freed Blitz from her grasp, and dropped her shirt from her face, letting out a sigh of relief and taking in the fresh air. It was quickly followed by a disappointed sigh as she saw a large chunk of ice that had encased both Ivy and Aquari, stuck in what would have been animated and regret-free laughter.
Not far away was Blaze, looking positively satisfied as she laid in the grass next to the smaller Sear, her legs crossed and shaking her paw to a silent rhythm.
"Blaze…" Rose deadpanned, gaining the attention of the similarly tall glaceon, who didn't stop smirking.
"You can't lecture me about this, they both deserved it this time."
"I kind of agree." Sear interjected. "They pretty much gassed both of us. Plus, my house currently smells like… farts." He said, realizing half way through that he didn't have a good comparison for the horrible stench that had made it's residence in his house thanks to the two current poke-cicles. Rose sighed.
"Fine. Fine." The sylveon shook her head. "Well. Seeing as how the house is currently unlivable right now, what about we head over to the cafe?" She suggested.
"I'm not opposed to the idea. If we leave those two to thaw out here." Blaze chimed in.
"Same here." Sear agreed.
"I'm alright with anything." Eli nodded.
"Sounds good." Blitz concurred. Seeing as how the two remaining members of the group couldn't exactly respond, everyone assumed that they agreed to the idea ignoring Blaze's earlier comment.
"Alright. Blitz, Sear, can you two defrost Aquari and Ivy? Everyone else, let's head to my car."
. . . . .
Eventually, the group pulled up into the parking lot, with Eli falling close behind. She had elected to once again travel with the help of quick attack in order to let everyone else ride in the car, with Sear having to ride in Blaze's lap.
The fire rabbit had refused to ride with either Ivy or Aquari after their little stunt, and with Rose driving and Blitz not wanting to hold anyone on his lap, the shiny ice type was the only one willing to hold him.
However, as they were parking, Rose noticed some Pokémon were off to the side of the building. Once she turned off the car, she got out and quickly investigated.
"Rose?" The small Sear called out to her, though he went unheard as the fairy typed briskly walked over, just as Eli showed up.
"...-is why there's a stigma against dark types!" Rose could hear one of them saying. As she rounded the corner, she was shocked to find the shiny gardevoir that was friends with Rae. She was even more surprised to see that she had the same thievul from yesterday in her psychic grasp.
"Oh! Uh, hi." Lexia greeted once she noticed Rose, but not before slamming Ven into the ground.
"Hi… uh, what's going on?" The sylveon asked, putting a hand in her hip. Soon, everyone else had caught up with her.
"Uh, well. I was coming by to drop off my resume, but I didn't know you guys were closed on the weekends. So about to head back home, until I heard some strange sounds coming from the back of the cafe. I went to go see what those sounds were, hoping it was one of you so I could still drop off my resume.
"But I instead found this guy-" Lexia lifted Ven off the ground, who looked rather beat up. "trying to lock-pick his way into the back! He then tried attacking me after I caught him, leading to this situation." The shiny gardevoir explained.
"Wait, isn't that the same thievul that attacked Sear?!" Aquari popped up from the back.
"I wouldn't say atta-." Sear tried to chime in, but was promptly interrupted by Blaze.
"He did what?" She seethed.
"Yup. The same one. I guess he didn't learn his lesson after-." Lexia yelped in surprise as the dark type was shot out of her psychic hold by a large scale hydro pump, slamming him into the side of the building. Shortly after, an ice beam sealed him in an iceberg. The psychic/fairy type looked with a wide eye between the now brutally frozen Ven, and the two attackers.
Aquari, let out a sigh, her shoulders slumped as Blaze shook off some frost from her hands.
"Bastard." The ice type muttered.
"Well, that's certainly one way to solve a problem." Blitz quipped. Rose couldn't help but feel like a proud parent. She cleared her throat, bringing the attention to herself
"With that out of the way. I think we should probably introduce ourselves. I'm Rose, the owner of Cafe Silver. These are my siblings, Blaze, Aquari, Blitz and Ivy. The raichu is Eli, the newest member to our team." She pointed to each respective Pokémon, each greeting Lexia in their own way. "And you of course know Sear." Rose said, looking down to her left, the fire type giving a wave.
"Yup." Lexia smiled, waving back. "My name is Lexia. Oh, and Rae says hi, Sear." She quickly mentioned. The fire type couldn't help but shyly smile. That is, until he noticed four sets of eyes staring at him. Ivy and Blitz had matching looks of shock on their faces, as did Blaze but far more controlled, while Aquari has the widest grin Sear has ever seen. Rose simply rolled her eyes, but was unable to contain her smirk.
Lexia noticed all this, raising her eyebrow, confused. But she decided not to question it.
"Oh, right!" The gardevoir suddenly exclaimed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a neatly folded paper. "This is my resume for the job, if you don't mind taking it." Rose nodded, stepping up to receive the document. Lexia couldn't help deflate a little once she noticed that Rose was in fact taller than her.
"Hm… it looks good. Would you be willing to have the interview right now since you're already here, or are you busy?" Rose questioned, catching the shiny Pokémon off guard.
"Oh, uh, yeah, sure! As long as I'm not interrupting anything."
"Not at all, it shouldn't be too long anyway. Here, follow me, I'll lead you inside." The sylveon motioned for everyone to follow as she headed to the entrance.
"Hey, leaf-head." Blaze called out, getting the attention of the leafeon. "Help me push Mr. Frosty here into traffic." She requested, already having her hands on the large scaled ice cube.
"Aw yis." The grass type chirped, walking over to her taller sister. Ven frozen with a look of pure fear in his eyes.