Another Time, My Love

A short about cold pizza and lost relationships…

Usually, the bitter cold seeping through his exoskeleton forced him indoors, but his teacher's wisdom shouted in his head. Fight your instincts! The wind will freeze you this badly as you fly! The Gligar summoned his inner strength, remaining sat in the dark snowy forest, squeezing his eyelids tight while his entire being shook with bitter cold. Twenty years separated he and his pizza-slinging master. Twenty years of scars, training, and hot slices of pie.

"You are doing amazing, Pizza Bat," a speedy voice chimed to his right. "Overall, you have sat a whole hour longer than last year!" The Mienfoo tapped repeatedly on a glass screen, signalling the end of their gruelling session. His scent, feta cheese, became an important motif in his student's life, a reminder of strength and devotion.

"Are your sure you're meditating?" P-Bat asked with a lisp.

"Meditation is different for everyone. Some sit, some stew, and some tap on their phone." The student snuck a glance. The light from the screen danced as PW pecked at phone. "I always keep my mind on what we are here to do. There are now 20 orders to deliver!"

"Isn't today Sunday though?"

He snapped. " 'We are never late'! That's the pizza promise and it isn't broken yet! Our customers can preorder pizza on our website! I've triple checked their GPS locations in advance. None are near humans. We are good to go for tomorrow!" He tapped on his phone a couple more times, and then placed it gently on the snow. P-Bat leaned to look at the screen. He rubbed his eyes after; the light plain hurt.

"You got a new one?"

PW nodded quickly. "I made a great investment back in March!"

"How are you even charging that," his voice light and nasally," Same as last time?"

The Mienfoo grinned from cheek to cheek, straightening his back. "Pichu are difficult to find this time of year, but I have my ways..." A mini-claxon sounded from the phone. PW stood up and spun around, walking deeper into the dark woods. "My battery is dying. Come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"The same place as always, our shop!"

"But we're closed!" The student's protest was light and weak.

"Well P-Bat, as you know I need to get our ingredients. Keep the shop warm for me." The Gligar squinted after the mention of that word…ingredients. Wait, he thought, there's no good land to grow anything out here! And his sleeves aren't THAT big. Where does his food come from?

"I'll help you," P-Bat said.

"It is better if someone defends the shop."

"But when you see something, you charge at it like a big mean Tauros! While I can't grab good, I could make sure you don't drag in more dumb stickers!"

PW threw his hands up, annoyed. "Hybreedz's stickers are highly collectable!"

"Their gunking up the handles of our equipment!"

"I WILL get the golden Glam-Meowth!"

P-Bat tilted his head, looking doubtful. "And then what?"

"I'm going to place it in a bag," dragging his gaze to the sky. "And sell it in exactly 50 years for TWICE what I paid!"

'Toni Italian Pizza,' the sign on the front of their shop stated. One half of the squat building was a cozy log home, the other half a dungeon kitchen: cold, dark, and stuffed with appliances and as well as an electric generator. PW raised his head pre-emptively to a chewed up wood beam at the homey end. His friend predictably hooked his tail to the wood and hung upside down.

"I want you to invite some friends of yours while I am away," the weasel said. P-Bat did not move, face blank. "Have some fun, you like sleepovers!"

"I don't have friends."

"Where should I start," PW said, counting off his paws and pacing. "There is, umm…the countless pokemon we've met on deliveries! Uhh...Don't you ever get lonely?"

"Not really." His answer was in complete honesty, but PW narrowed his eyes and pointed accusingly.

"Don't be so edgy, a lonely spirit will wither! I will call some for you!" He reached in his puffy sleeve for his phone, but P-Bat stopped him.

"No, don't do that! If they come over that is ok! Otherwise, I want to let them be."

PW shook his head. "P-Bat, you should come out your shell," he stated.

"It's deep in the winter. I'd prefer to hibernate!"

PW took issue with these words as well but relented. "There is less produce around this time as you know. I will take longer than usual. Goodnight."

"G' night."

His query was at first was only a spot of dust in his mind, but over time his concerns collected into a big ball. Minutes after his teacher left, P-Bat took to the air in the gusty night, thankful for his training. His hunger for an answer only increased with the scents in the wind. PW's scent flew from the thick forests towards tight grids of housings and commercial buildings on the horizon.

P-Bat's head spun with worry. The lights were so immense that the stars were smothered, his ears strained from the hustle and bustle already! He dived down as close as he could. As he surveyed the edge of the city, all he found was a trail of chaos. Broken fences, angered Houndoom, confused police, and a flash of peach-red! P-Bat almost added himself to the mix by crash landing. He was starstruck! That sight! It was too much!

After some hours, the sun gently cast the first blue-grey rays of the morning across the sky. P-Bat sighed deeply, finally smelling the scent of cheese. A heavy load of groceries tied up PW's hands. He kicked the door with so much force that he fell backwards. Fruits and packages spilled everywhere.

"Why is he doing that," he yelled in a foreign tongue. "What is the pizza weasel tripping for!? Tripping is going to make him late!" Having had enough of beating himself up, he picked up his groceries from off the snow. The student stayed attached to his beam, watching his instructor almost ignore him as he placed the groceries into the fridge.

"G'morning. It's Monday."

PW bowed. His motions were sloppy, and his frown revealed worn creases near the corners of his lips. "And he finds himself thanking you again. I'll be honest, it is becoming harder for me to keep steady these days, given what Nurse Joy's Chansey said about my physical health."

P-Bat cleared his throat, eyeing a band around PW's neck closely. "Would you like to talk it out?"

The Mienfoo's lips quivered then morphed into a guilty smile. "You are rather assertive. I suppose you know something." The Gligar nodded slowly. Seeing this, PW locked the door and sat cross-legged on the ground, putting his paws together, and drawing a lungful of air.

He rushed every word. "Iwanttoquit!"

"What?!"

"We can't do anything but pizza, yet if we take a break, you will never develop the stamina to help me go back!" He cast his head down, slamming his phone beside him. "As I am now, I can only fill the hole in my heart with tomato sauce!"

"Anything else you wanna say?!"

The Gligar's swift reply made PW's pupils shrink. "P-Bat, what do you know?!"

"You said never to let a human NEAR us," he exploded. "We aren't supposed to deliver to any of their addresses or even to their pokemon! Why would you double-cross me?!" Exposed, PW remained silent. The tension bloomed like a wretched flower.

"Her name is Lao-Lian. Shan Lao-Lian!"

"That's a funny way of saying STILT WALKER! Did you ever look at their hands?! They're literally TEN sets of claws!"

The teacher's response was light and weak. "Your concerns run through my mind like water every day," he said.

"In one ear and out the other, right?!"

"No! I mean that they are flooding me! But there are exceptions to every rule!"

"So it's alright with you to stab me in the back and leave?!"

PW sat straight; eyes fierce. "Without her family's help, I would not be able to run this shop!"

P-Bat dug into the roof beam, pincers shaking. Not only did he feel betrayed, it stung doubly knowing that he was unaware of it for so long.

"Lay it on me, PW."

Surprised, the Mienfoo sat up, taking the same posture as a grand storyteller. "Since adolescence, New York City enamoured me! It is a peak of human civilization; America's answer to my Taipei. Two years ago, I finally got to explore here...but I was never good at thinking through things! Soon I was very lost and very hurt by all the pokeballs—I was quickly caught and sent to a pokemon rescue centre!" PW swallowed, preparing his next set of words. "Did you know, that in this city, there is an area called Chinatown?"

P-Bat turned his head with extreme disinterest. "No, I didn't."

"Chinatown was also foreign to me, but like a distant relative would be, not a stranger. There's a whole community of pokemon there, too. They welcomed me with open arms. However, my first friend was a human woman from that centre. I decided to dance with the devil, and last night, it became a dance for two!" PW pulled the band off his neck. "Yes, I know," the weasel said, "but it could be worse. This is a collar with a dog tag."

P-Bat reached out for the collar, leaving his wood beam as he did. He was suspicious of the trinket, believing it to be one of the many items that influenced a pokemon's powers. "Ok, what's the writing on this 'dog tag' about?!"

"My my," fighting his guilty smile. "It means she and I are…really good friends." We must be, he thought, she gave me her number AND a phone to call it! His shaky smile eventually wore off, a single tear dropping from his eye. His friend did not seem impressed.

" 'Really good friends.' "

"I go over to visit her and her family, ok?! And we train! That is all!"

P-Bat got a tight grip on the tag and folded it in half. PW's esteem was crushed just as hard. "What about our pizza," the bat shouted.

"That's enough! Incurring more stress on my heart—She pays for enough of my things!"

"So you CAN'T afford the phone!"

"Someday we will have the funds to build a shop in a more ideal place, my friend!"

"And you'll get it in your head that we sell only pizza, right?! You've lost a lot of my respect for mingling with a stilt walker! Don't go back there ever again!" P-Bat thrust open the door. The sunlight became brighter, though not so bright as to stir people from their beds. "It's Monday! We've got a lot of doors to knock on! Where's the first place?"

PW checked his phone. "A spot on the edge of Lake Ontario," he said, looking longingly into the sky.

"Does that stir up some MORE memories, weirdo?!"

"Yes, but of a pokemon. Look at the sign, please."

'Toni Italian Pizza', the same sign P-Bat had known for his whole life. "What's the story with Toni? Was she an ex?"

PW shook his head. "The opposite. I will come back to her…someday."

"And when would that be?"

"When my hair is long and platinum, just like Lao-Lian's."