Even as Aeon Town grew and evolved in ways Nero hadn't expected, the gorebyss fountain stayed the same. The stone gorebyss was still cracked and chipped in places, but it dutifully spat water from its mouth, leaving tiny ripples in the pool surrounding it.

Still, it was clear enough for Nero to make out his metal beak and cheek bolts. His irises had their usual silver, electronic glow. The silvally then looked past the fountain, where the usual rows of stone buildings and shops shaped like assorted pokémon gave way to metal tubes and scaffolding. Even the observatory had tubes and platforms jutting out from it. Assorted pokémon moved across them. Some wheeled cinderblocks and cement. A pangoro held up some large piece of parchment.

Nero would've stared longer, but some feathers on his neck prickled. He caught a glimpse of pink and salmon swirling in his eyes and head crest before turning toward familiar rainbow antlers twinkling under the midmorning sun.

"Why the long face?" Celeste wondered. She stopped a half a meter away from him and crossed her left foreleg in front of her right. Dainty as always, even if she didn't have to be.

"I wouldn't say long." Nero glanced at his reflection again. "More like… pensive."

He waited for a response, but was surprised to find a slight smile on the xerneas' muzzle. "Was it something I said?"

"Yes and no." Celeste chuckled briefly, then traced a bladed hoof through the dirt. "It's refreshing to not have some quip like 'Unless you're talking about my snout, because that's pretty long,' follow an honest answer."

It didn't take a genius to know what Celeste referred to. "Shane's spirit training going that well, huh?" Nero's beak shifted to a slight smirk.

"It's slow going." Celeste looked over to Crabrawler's Café. A small wooden sign advertised an open mic comedy contest later in the week. "I suspect he's using humor to cope. Which is, uh, good, I think?"

"Better than some of the alternatives," Nero offered. He glanced at his chitinous forelegs. "Did you want my help or something? I'm still a work in progress myself."

"That's an understatement."

Nero focused his mind, shoving the mental image of Zekrom back into his psyche's recesses.

Celeste shook her head. "I was merely out for a stroll. Saw you deep in thought. Figured I'd be the good teammate and ask how you're doing."

"Ah." He couldn't stop his tail from wagging a bit. "Appreciated. I guess I got a bit lost in though. Ruminating about our home." Nero turned to the observatory. "It makes me think of… well, me."

There was no response. Best to elaborate, then. "It's turning into a mishmash of sorts. Wildly different things being smushed together into one area." Nero pressed his right foreleg into the ground, squishing dirt together with his claws. "Old meeting new. Sleek metal meeting aged stone."

"Like electronics meeting flesh?"

Nero flinched. Celeste had him there.

"Does it bother you?" the xerneas wondered.

"Nah." Nero uncurl his talons and did his best to knead the dirt back into place. Blue overtook his membranes while he channeled a small amount of water through his claws to refresh the dirt. "I'm just being… overly metaphorical."

Celeste smirked. "Why not ask your girlfriend to recommend some poetry?"

The blue gave way to red. Nero tried centering himself and his normal typing hastily returned. Curse his RKS System. Betraying his embarrassment once again.

"I, uh… can do that. Sure." He shuffled back from Celeste. "Enjoy the rest of your stroll."

Nero bobbed his head, then trotted off.

"I brought you lunch if you're free."

The Aeon Library was one of the town's two-story buildings. A mix of brown bricks and large glass windows to let in plenty of light, its wooden sign used a klefki to underscore its slogan: "Unlock the joys of reading!"

Sitting on some grass near the front entrance, Nero was pretty sure Selene was close enough to pick up his telepathy. He would've brought the picnic basket into her directly, but he'd already gotten barked at before for bringing packaged food into the library. So, the silvally had to settle for waiting.

… Which he didn't need to do for long, because the door opened and an espeon walked out. Selene straightened her navy scarf and quickened her pace.

"Hey, Silvy." Her pink nose twitched. "Butternut squash?"

"Soup made with love." The grass beneath Nero swished with his wagging tail. "And cinnamon."

"Ooh, cinnamon." Selene smirked at the picnic basket. "Someone's feeling bold today." She craned her neck up to kiss Nero's shoulder. Again, red filled his white areas. The silvally giggled until the fire faded to normal.

The basket glowed pink. Selene levitated a ceramic bowl out and set it on the blanket. Steam drifted over her face when she removed the ceramic cover. "Wow, piping hot." The espeon blinked several times.

"Ah, sorry. Wasn't sure how long I should let it sit." Nero levitated his own bowl out, but didn't set it down. It floated next to him.

"It's fine." Selene brushed her foreleg against his. After blowing a few times on the bowl, she lapped at the soup. "So, one of the outworlders dropped by the library today. A smeargle with a polka dot pelt."

Nero wracked his brain, but he didn't know any smeargle matching that description. "Were they looking for me?"

"Hmm?" Selene picked her head up. "Oh, no. Nothing like that." She sipped more of the soup before continuing, "But we did have a chat about a funny custom in the Ultra Recon Network."

"What sort of custom?"

"Pokémon art days."

Nero raised a brow. He took a large gulp of soup. Red and blue mixed in his tail and electronics. "I don't follow."

"So, like, they have this thing on the ultranet where artists will draw pictures of pokémon," Selene explained. She paused to lap up more soup. "And different days are given to different pokémon."

Even if Nero hadn't committed the Network's calendar system to memory, he was confident there were more pokémon species than days in a year. "Does a certain pokémon only get a day every few years?"

The espeon shook her head. "No, some pokémon species share days. Like today."

"What's today?" Nero levitated his bowl to his beak, sipping more soup.

"Reshiram and silvally."

He promptly spat out the soup, dousing the grass ahead of him. "What? Me?" Sure, Nero remembered Sticky saying there were other Beast Killers out there.

"Well, he called you a type: full." Selene finished off her soup with a satisfied grunt. "I think it'll take awhile for the whole 'silvally' thing to catch on."

"Right." Nero set his bowl down. "I just… figured Beast Killers were a bit too, y'know, terrifying. Certainly not art worthy."

"We don't have ultranet fully set up yet, so I couldn't tell you for certain." The espeon stood up. "Still, I can fix that!"

"You can?"

Selene grinned. "Of course! Do you trust me?"

The look in her eyes reminded Nero of Shane, which should've been a red flag. But how could he say no to Selene?

"Sure. What's the plan?"

Never had Nero needed to scratch himself so badly as in this particular moment, when he was stuck sitting as still as could be in the middle of the observatory's main room. His belly tingled. The scales begged— no, pleaded to be scratched.

All the while, Selene sat behind a canvas. White and black paint splotches spread from her oversized gray apron — or smock, according to the smeargle on Selene's left — to her velvety fur. If it bothered the espeon, she didn't show it. Selene happily hummed to herself.

"Um, my belly itches." Nero whimpered. "Can I scratch it?"

"Shh! No talking!" Smeargle peeked out from his canvas, gray paint dribbling from the tip of his tail. "I'm finishing up your face. You must be still."

Nero regretted agreeing to this. Being painted was incredibly boring. And he had watched ice melt in some past lives, so he knew boring.

At least Selene was happy. That thought could keep him goi—

"Finished," Smeargle declared, stepping back from the canvas and wiping his hands on his smock.

"Me too," Selene chirped.

"C… can I move?"

Smeargle nodded.

Nero flopped onto his belly and rubbed himself against the floor, groaning in relief. "Oh, thank gods! That was terrible!"

"Art modeling isn't for everyone." Chuckling, Smeargle bent down and turned the canvas around. "What do you think?"

Nero sat back up. The painting captured him pretty well. Replicating fur and feather textures sounded crazy to him. Instead, Smeargle used vertical brushstrokes for his feathers and circular black swirls to depict his pelt. The forelegs had little visible brushstrokes. Smeargle even managed to draw Nero's green scarf and add blue splotches for the patches of scales on his hind legs.

"It's nice." The silvally bobbed his head respectfully.

"Glad you like it." Smeargle smiled. "I've never drawn a pokémon like you before." He turned to Selene. "Thank you both for offering me the opportunity."

"You're, ah, welcome." Nero didn't think it was that big of a deal, even if serving as the model was tedious. He looked at Selene, whose forehead ruby glowing with pink energy.

"Try not to judge it too harshly. I'm a novice, after all."

Nero stiffened, unsure what to expect. When the canvas turned around, he found messy blobs of white, black, and green paint. The outline vaguely matched up to his body shade, but the energy blades in his head crest were clumped together into one large block and his tail looked more like an off-color electrode was stuck to his butt.

"It's… uh…"

His voice trailed off. Nero was so focused on his appearance, he missed all the pink hearts Selene had painted around him. Selene's ears were drooping, so he stepped to her side and nuzzled her forehead.

"I love it," he cooed.

Selene's tail scrunched up. "Y… you're just saying that to avoid hurting my feelings."

Nero shook his head. "Nope. It may not be perfect, but neither are we." He bent over, nudging the espeon's chin with his beak. "What matters is it's authentic." Nero poked her chest, getting some white paint on his claw from the smock. "From the heart."

A smile crept onto Selene's face. Her ears perked back up. "Thanks, Silvy." She leaned over and pecked the tip of his beak. Jubilant grass and electric coursed to the surface, bathing them both in a green and yellow glow.

Nero noticed Celeste emerging from the stairwell. She silently nodded to him, then headed off down the west hallway.

Even as Aeon Town continued to change, some things, Nero hoped, would stay the same.

I know most readers aren't as interested in Path of Valor, so I did a fluff piece for Silvally Day instead. Hope you enjoyed it.