Chapter 1: Train Ride and Arrival
You ever have a day where you don't want to do nothing, like absolutely nothing, yeah, today has turned into one of those days, despite the fact that I'm returning from 11 years of hell within the military, as an illegal soldier no less. Basically so…
(Flashback)
A simple Saturday morning, my 7 year-old eyes glued to our television, the usual saturday morning cartoons keeping my full attention. My family had a knack for moving place to place quite frequently so friends weren't something I had many of, so I was used to sitting by myself watching television when I'm not at school.
The doorbell rang throughout the house, a series of 2 loud notes, my Mother had been getting ready, brushing her long, black and red hair, and putting on the large blue orb that holds it in a sort of pony tail, she was a Zoroark. My Father was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast, he was a human, fairly gruff in his demeanor, despite only being in his late 20s, but was a good father nonetheless.
"Hey, Calvin, can you get the door?" I heard my Father say from the kitchen.
"Yep." I replied, jumping off the couch, almost not taking my eyes off the entrancing colors of the show i watched, as I blindly found my way to the door, opening it, just to look up and seeing a man in a deep blue suit, standing with his back straight. He looked down at me, before kneeling to match my height.
"Well aren't you cute, you're a zoroark, right?" His voice, scarily calm, and soft, his stature was intimidating, and there was dark intent behind his eyes. Despite all this I simply nodded. "But you're so little, why aren't you an adorable Zorua?"
"I don't know." I just said, trying to keep what little composure I could. As I said this, my Mother came from around the corner, finishing up tying her hair, before seeing the man, and her eyes widened, grabbing my quickly and pulling me back. Startled by her movements I looked at her distraught expression. "Who is that man?"
"A very bad man." Is all she said, holding me tight to her chest. I could feel her heart racing, her body trembling.
"That's rude to say to a guest, isn't it?" The man simply said, voice retaining his calm and soft voice, and standing back up.
My father came around, apron on while taking off an oven mit, having come to see what was going, coming from the adjacent kitchen, he couldn't see the fear from my Mother or her holding me. He turned to front door, where a resounding bang rang out, a gunshot, fired straight at my Father's chest. I knew what that meant, I knew exactly what that meant, My mother yelled out, and began charging up a move, opening her mouth as darkness channeled into a sphere in front of it. A second bang rang out and the Shadow Ball exploded in my Mother's mouth, along with a bullet wound through her head. Her body collapsing, and slipping around me.
I turned towards the man, who pointed his gun back at my Father, firing again, cutting his pain short. "Why?" Is all I could muster in this moment of [anic, shock, and sadness.
"They were bad people." Voice, calm as ever, he quickly stepped over my Father and grabbed my fear paralyzed body, dragging me outside, to a simple dark blue car, almost matching his suit, he threw me into the back, and drove me to an airport.
Speaking to the receptionist, and showing a badge of sorts, he was allowed through, along with me, taking me to a sleek, black jet. We threw me into one of the seats on board, and went to the front, speaking something inaudible to the pilot, before the jet's engines fired up.
He came back and sat across from me, during this time, I didn't shed a tear nor did I speak. He stared at me, crossed his legs and placed a hand on his chin. "My my, dear boy, you're handling this well, keeping your little emotions in check." I remained silent as a menacing smirk drew it's way across his face. "They were right, you are perfect for this."
*End of flashback)
And that was the beginning of that whole ordeal, quite something huh? I hear the door to my little cabin open, as a female voice spoke to me.
"Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit with you, there aren't any other seats?" I turned to see an absol pokemorph, she was wearing a simple white hoodie and dark blue skinny jeans that hugged her body, an odd pairing of clothes, from loose fitting to tight, she wore black and white shoes that aren't too high fashion, just simple sneakers. But not like I'm dressed that much better.
"Sure." I simply said, expression flat, and my voice monotone. I moved my large rucksack from the opposing seat which held practically everything I have, and weighed a good 80 pounds, but fairly easy to move. I was dressed in a simple gray sweater myself, and fairly baggy blue jeans. My shoes were simple brown work shoes, with a protective guard around the toes inside.
"You don't sound very fun." She said, rolling a large black suitcase into the cabin, and sitting with a just as large duffel bag on her lap, it encompassed the near entirety of her side.
"I do my best." I said, holding my expression and voice.
"Please don't be like this the whole ride."
"I will be."
"Damn"
"Wish you sat with someone else?" She nodded. "Pfft, too bad I guess. Kinda funny when I do that though." I said, chuckling to myself, breaking my façade halfway through.
"You are kind of an ass, you know that?" She said, partially annoyed with my joke.
"Oh yeah, I'm aware." I said, chuckling to myself some more. Shortly after this, we heard over the intercom.
"Arriving at Cascade City, now arriving at Cascade City, please be prepared to leave." It said, shutting off.
"Seems I'm getting off, you?" She said, grabbing her stuff, struggling with the sheer size of her luggage.
"Yep." I said standing and throwing my massive bag on my back effortlessly.
"Huh, neat."
After a few moments, and another message over the intercom, the train came to a slow stop, not to be jarring for the soon to leave passengers. Once the train stopped we both stepped off, the Absol struggling slightly to get her bag through the door but managed well enough. We stood for a moment.
"Well, I was told to meet a couple of Eevee-morphs." I said mindlessly.
"Huh, same, also neat." She said somehow equally mindlessly.
Eventually after standing for a moment, looking fairly lost, we heard someone callout to us, a male's voice. We both turned to see an Eevee pokemorph waving at us, he was wearing a loose black t-shirt that had a white swirl design on it, reminiscent of the stomach patterns of the poliwag line, and cargo shorts with sandals. A female Eevee that was standing next to him was wearing similarly casual clothes, but a light blue tank top, with a matching pair of skinny jeans that hugged her body, she was also wearing sandals that were more like flip flops than the male's. They gestured for us to approach, so following suit, both me and the Absol did so.
Only noticing our height difference, I stood at a good 6 and a half feet, while she seemed to be a full foot shorter than me, her hair was cut short, and seemed to hold the natural eye covering that Absol's tend to have. Regardless, it's kinda cute.
We got closer to the couple, and they had beaming smiles at us, seemingly having been expecting us for some time now. "Ah, it is so good to finally meet you two, Calvin, haven't seen you since you were just a small baby." The male said.
"Heh, you have such a nerdy sounding name." The Absol says, chuckling.
"Oh and Amy, it's the same story, it's been so long." He continued.
"Heh, so do you." I said, mocking her chuckle.
"You two seem to have already gotten to know each other." The woman finally said, after watching her husband excitedly speak about us. "Well, I'm Charlot, and this is my husband, 'll introduce to everyone else at the house, good? Alright, and away we go." She finished spinning herself a full 180 and getting into a black car, SUV more like. Noah simply bowed and ran around the car to the driver's seat.
"He is quite the character." I mumbled to myself before moving towards the far side, passing by the back to see the trunk is open, I threw my bag in.
"Mmhmm." Amy said before throwing her stuff in the trunk as well, still putting decent effort, before I helped, simply lifting it in. "Thanks." She huffed slightly from the exertion. I just gave a thumbs up before hopping into the back seat, followed by Amy on the other side.
The ride was relatively silent, but wasn't overly long, lasting maybe 15 minutes. We pulled up to a large gate, attached to a brick wall that stood a good 15-20 feet in height. A human guard was stationed by the gate, Noah and him shared a laugh before he opened the gate… somehow. Driving in, we went up a long path, leading to a garage, massive in scale, with a similar brick wall, with the inside holding a white brick, almost blinding as the room was bright with the many lights that dotted the ceiling. The space itself was comparable to that of a theater, with rows upon rows of expensive vehicles, some short and sleek, others, trucks that stood over my head.
"Huh, impressive." I simply muttered. Before we stopped at an empty spot within and leaving the SUV, leaving the building behind, with the garage door closing.
We walked towards the massive building that I assumed would be our new home. Windows sat symmetrical on both sides, each being a good 5 by 5 feet in size, the building itself being made out of a slightly brown toned brick, with patterns of red brick thrown in, creating an interesting design. The front door was also admirably large, being a double door, standing at about 7 and half feet in height. They were stark white, with brass knobs. Noah reached for it and opened the door, doing a grandiose bow with a wave of his hand gesturing inside, Charlot bowed to him slightly, mimicking as though she wore a dress, before entering.
Following suit, Amy and myself entered the building, with Noah coming behind us, closing it. The foyer was impressive in scale, hallways leading left and right, a door was close to the entrance on the right side, unlabeled, it seemed to be made of wood. The area itself followed a strangely cottage-like interior with wooden floor boards and ornamental red and gold carpets trailing down the one on the left reaching stairs and going up them as well. The right seemed to lead into a very large living room, the way forward led into the kitchen and adjacent dining room, which also seemed to have the glass paned back door based form the amount of natural light coming through. The ceiling was lined with lights, the foyer having a large and beautiful clear glass chandelier.
"Everyone! The new arrivals are here!" Charlot yelled towards the stairs, after a few moments and some noise from above, chatter could be heard coming from the stairs as a series of people came down, each of them pokemorphs.
A Salamence, dressed in a simple blue t-shirt and shorts to match, he wasn't wearing shoes, but basic white socks. A Staraptor who was wearing a black muscle shirt, exposing his toned, feathered arms, black shorts matching his shirt. There was a Victini wearing a bright orange tank top and blue leggings, with matching runners. Okay cool, I can wear my shoes inside. The Victini seemed to lose her cheery expression as she saw me, which I didn't understand but ignored shortly after. And finally, there was a glaceon dressed in clothes very similar to Charlot, but her clothes were an even lighter blue, she seemed oddly fidgety.
The Staraptor approached me, getting incredibly close, his beak nearly touching my snout. "If you hurt anyone here, you're gonna be in for a bad ride."
"I thought you were coming in for a kiss, but alright, never planned on it." I simply said, deadpan to him. He seemed to blush slightly through his white feathers, before backing off. Me saying this awarded a chuckle from Amy and the Salamence.
"Heh, hey there, the name's Nicholas, but Nick works too, and that's Jason." Nick, the Salamence says, while also gesturing towards Jason, the Staraptor, who turned around to rejoin his housemates, somewhat flustered from my comment.
"I'm Victoria, nice to meet you." The Victini said. Her parents were quite creative on that one, huh? She seemed quite cheery despite the look she gave me earlier, but that's still whatever.
"I-I'm Eliza, h-hi." The glaceon spoke up, quietly from behind Nick, who was quite broad, but he didn't seem to have wings, neither did Jason, interesting.
"Yo, I'm Calvin, or Cal works too." I said flatly, waving my hand.
"And I'm Amy." More energy in her voice, and waving as well.
"Well, now that introductions are outta the way, shove off and unpack, I'm gonna be cooking soon."Charlot spoke up, doing a shooing motion towards all of us.
"Ah yes, uhh, Calvin, your room is right there." Noah spoke as well, gesturing to the brown door that was near the entrance. "We understand your strength and your, uhh, experience, so we decided that it'd best be fitting that you remain downstairs, cuz despite the walls and security, robbers and thieves enjoy letting themselves in." He said, scratching the back of his neck.
"So, I'm just a guard growlithe basically." I said flatly, as everyone began filtering back upstairs.
"Yeaaahhh?" Noah said in response.
"Alright, whatever." I said throwing down my hefty bag by the door with a loud thud, earning a concerned look from everyone left in the room. I went over to Amy who heaved her duffel bag onto her shoulder as she stared at the stairs, from what I could guess, internally complaining to herself. "I'm helping you." I said to her picking up her suitcase, and pulling off her duffel bag off her shoulder, she didn't resist, but stared at me baffled as I began working my way up the stairs without much issue.
"Hey! Wait, you couldn't have done this sooner?" I heard her say behind me as she began up the stairs behind me.
"Stairs weren't involved, so I thought you could manage."
"That's a bit dickish."
"I mean, you made it into the house, no?" I looked back at her, seeing her face scrunch up in annoyance."Heh, alright which room is yours?" I said, my head breaching the top of the stairs, which lead into a hallway, facing the wall, but gave a generous 8 feet of space between.
The hallway stretched down the near entirety of the building, with approximately 6 doors, with a seventh at the very end, which was simply labeled as 'Master Bedroom'. Good to know. The hallway itself nearly perfectly mirrored the appearance of the first floors in terms of carpeting, and lighting. I saw Victoria was the only one left in the hall, clearly something on her mind, but seeing me progressively become more visible as I stepped my way up, Amy in tow, she piped back into a cheery smile.
"This room right here is yours, Amy!" She gestured to one of the 2 rooms closest to the master bedroom.
"Ah cool, look at that." I stepped up onto the second floor and turned my way down. As I got closer, I could hear heavy rock coming from one of the rooms, looking, it was simply labeled with the letter 'J', Yeah, that kinda checks out. Alternatively, from a door across and beside, I could hear a violin softly being played, the door was labeled with an 'E' So does that, strangely enough. The rest of the rooms were silent, including the one labeled with an 'N'. As I made my way down to the one with an 'A' on it, I passed by Victoria who seemed to make her way back to her room, which was beside Amy's, and was respectfully labeled with a 'V'. As she passed though, she had a large amount of heat radiating around her, but I attempted to pay no mind to it.
"Thanks, I appreciate the assistance, despite how late it came." Amy said to me as she opened the door. I just nodded and walked in, dropping her stuff on the floor.
The room itself was quite large, a king size bed held itself underneath the large windows that I had seen before. The sheets themselves were a simple black and white combination, not really much to describe. The room held 2 doors, a desk with a high grade PC setup on it. A dresser with a mirror that almost encompassed the wall it sat upon. The desk and dresser sat across from each other in the room.
"Alright, there ya go, catch ya later." I simply said waving and leaving.
"See ya." She said, sighing afterwards as she began to open her things, and me closing the door behind me.
Walking down, and passing Victoria's room, I heard a sharp gasp, and a… moan? Huh, not what I expected on day one. A devious thought came into my head. I stopped in front of the door, stared at it, listened for a moment, awaited her breathing to become even heavier, and her moans coming out sharper. Perfect..
"Hey, you good in there?" I said out loud, awarding me a gasp in surprise and a thud, a groan, followed by the shifting of a drawer, thunk and some steps to the door. The door cracked open, I stifled my emotions and placed a face of concern. Through the small gap in the door, I could feel a wave of heat leave the room along with the sight of one of her large blue eyes, ear pressed against the door frame.
"Yes, I'm fine, why do you ask?" She said, failing to keep her breathing under control as she pants slightly.
"Just sounded as though you were breathing quite heavily, so I got a little concerned."
"No, yeah, I'm fine, I'm good." She said, her form seemingly fidgeting behind the door. A smirk seemed to break its way through my façade, which she caught, opening the door quickly revealing her whole body, while not nude, her clothes seemed to stick to her form. The wave of heat fully hit me, along with a strong scent. "You're fucking with me aren't you?"
"Maybe." I said, the smirk slowly broadening into a smile of amusement. Heheh, I know full well what you were doing.
"You're kind of a jerk." She said, crossing her arms, covering her chest. Face clearly expressing annoyance as I had basically blue balled her.
"Yep, you know it." Smile remained on my face. She groaned at this.
"You owe me for this."
"And how would I do that?" Leaning down to clear the height difference of close to a foot and a half, she was maybe 5' 2", in the process I got very close to her face. This is actually really fun, I need to mess with people more often. But this movement seemed to really catch her off guard and made her nervous.
"Uh, you, well… you… just somehow alright, geez, now go away." She said, starting to close the door before I placed my boot in front of it, stopping it. She seemed to stop and stare at me, concern washing over her frustration.
"One question, why did you seem so unhappy when you saw me?" I blatantly said, the smile dropping from my face.
"Oh, uh… Well, just, y'know, just, means I have to deal with another male in the house."
"That's strangely sexist."
"I mean, like listen, I have a problem, more men doesn't help with it, alright, so, there, now leave me alone." She said, her voice switching from nervousness to frustration.
"Alright, good enough., let me know if you need to talk, despite said problem." I said removing my foot from her door. "See ya." And began my way down the hall to the stairs.
"See…ya." She said, before closing the door.
Author's Note: Okay yeah, Hello, It's been, whooo boy, like 5…6 years maybe since I've done anything with this story, but hey yeah. This is a rewrite of Life can be Luxury, which you would have already been able to tell from the title, but hey. I crammed like, 2-3 chapters into one. While much harder to write an extended thing like this, It works out pretty well, being able to cover a lot of ground in terms of story. Honestly, unsure what I plan on taking this, we'll just have to see, so adios, until next time.