"So what do you think this means?" Leita asked Loki as they pushed past the revolving glass doors of the Pokécenter. "What if I'm a psychic?"

Loki tilted an ear. "Like the ones in Saffron city?"

"No, like a gardevoir or something," she corrected, and her dark type companion gave her an odd look. "Hey, you never know. My father might've been a gardevoir. It's a thing, apparently, and I've been reading up on it lately."

"You've been reading up on the science behind interspecies reproduction?"

"You don't get to judge me," Leita said playfully.

The zoroark looked away slightly. "Don't worry, I'm definitely not." At a normal volume, he asked, "Why a gardevoir in particular?"

"Easy," Leita said. "Gardevoir have the abilities Trace and Synchronize. Both involve linking through contact, physical or otherwise, and I don't know about you but I think I can bump up against a few conclusions about where the linking part came from." The pair temporarily split apart to dodge a trainer riding his sawsbuck down the middle of the sidewalk.

"That was way too many dumb puns in one sentence for me to respect," Loki chided with a hidden grin. "Plus, don't you think there's a bit of a, uh… hole in your theory?"

"No, why?" Then she paused. "I'd make a dirty joke there, but you're only recently de-innocentified. Wouldn't want to scare you."

"I'd be insulted, but you're probably right." Now several yards away from the pokécenter, they turned a corner, and Loki tilted his nose to the air and caught the scent of someone familiar. "Uh-oh. Looks like quiet time is over."

"'Quiet' isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe this past hour," Leita pointed out lecherously.

Loki's face burned beneath his dark fur, and he was saved from having to embarrass himself with a response by his teammates turning out of an alleyway up ahead. At least, two of his teammates and some serious-looking bipedal chicken. They were close enough for Loki to make out the stranger's scent; a smidgen of burning feathers and a familiar twinge of bitter musk that all mature males secreted, including himself. So, a random male.

Ven looked rather annoyed, and Loki could tell he was directing his ire at Shiro, who expertly ignored his friend's verbal assault. Well, were they friends? Loki certainly recalled a time where they weren't, not even close, and he realized that that time hadn't been very long ago at all. Something had changed between them, sure, and there was far less genuine venom in their interactions than when Loki had first joined the team, but the way they acted towards each other left a confused taste in the zoroark's mouth. Sharing secrets like cult members one minute, then pissing each other off like it gave them energy the next.

Loki was snapped out of his thoughts by Leita stepping out ahead of him to meet her pokémon halfway, wrapping Shiro in a one-armed hug and rubbing Ven's head with her free hand. "So," she said, peering down at the new addition. "You found the little runaway, huh?"

The combusken stood back several feet, arms crossed with a resolute set to his expression. "I wouldn't exactly put it like that."Ven rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't, but I would."

"Of course you would," the combusken replied with tangible distaste. "Immaturity often takes delusion as fair company."

"Keep it up and a casket'll be taking you as fair company!"

"You seem pretty willing to be here for a runaway," Leita interrupted, addressing the combusken. Volcan, Loki recalled. "We were told you're not supposed to leave the PokéAthlon."

"I'll bet you were told a lot of things," Volcan replied neutrally. He turned to Shiro. "Tell her I want to strike a deal."

"Tell her yourself, Shiro's not her travelling agent," Ven spat before the lucario could respond.

"Ven, I think you need to take a walk," Leita said, voice friendly but holding nothing kind. It was a tone Loki had heard her use before- never on him, only ever on Ven when he got too out of line. Whenever he'd heard it used Loki imagined himself breaking down into a heap of sensitivity if he were to ever be on the receiving end, but the absol always responded as if it were a gentle suggestion and not the sharp command it was.

"Pfft," the disaster pokémon muttered, looking away.

Volcan's brow raised in an impressed arch. "I take it you can understand what I'm saying just fine, then?" He hid his surprise well, but Loki could smell the subtle shift in his emotions.

"More or less." Leita smiled. "It's like hearing two layers of speech at once- you're still saying your species' name, but I can hear the direct translation right underneath that."

"Fascinating," the fire type said, and the monotony of his normal speaking voice made Loki wonder if he was being sarcastic, but the smell of his emotions dashed that theory before it took form. "That'll make this a hell of a lot easier, then. I'll cut to the chase: I don't want to stay here."

Now Leita's brow raised in surprise. "Is that why you keep running away?"

"Correct."

"So what does this have to do with me?" She had an idea, Loki knew, but she most likely wanted to hear her thoughts confirmed by the source itself.

"Well, you are a trainer, I assume?" Volcan hedged.

"I got my official license from this region's professor last week, yes."

"And you travel often?"

"As often as someone with no attachments to one place does."

"I want to come with you," Volcan said instantly. "But I'm unsure of whether or not I would be wasting my time with you."

"Blunt, I like that," Leita approved. "Well, you could just ask me questions. See if this team is compatible. Y'know, interview style."

"I'm a fire breathing bird, I've never witnessed an interview in my life."

Leita simply turned and started walking, not bothering to give a single command and yet still being closely followed by her three pokémon. Volcan hesitated a moment, surprised at the action, before following as well. He hopped up beside her and kept pace easily. "So… how do these interview things work?"

"Fuck if I know," the human replied cheerfully. Volcan sweatdropped. "Just ask what you want to ask. I'm a very raw person, you'll get nothing but honesty on my behalf."

Ven let out a snort, earning a swat to the side of the head courtesy of Shiro. Leita paused, eyeing her pokémon as if she had only just realized they were still there, and seemed to consider something a moment. "Actually… I think this conversation would go a lot smoother if we could take our time. With no distractions."

"The park just out of town is pretty empty this time of day," Volcan suggested. "Not trainer central nor the wilds. The perfect neutral territory."

"Great idea." Leita looked at her partners, and Loki's gut sank. "Meet you in our room at the center?" She shoved a key into Loki's paws- probably a spare to get into the room, he realized.

It clearly wasn't a question or even a request, but Ven insisted anyway. "You think I'd just leave you alone with a strange male?" He said incredulously, looking back and forth between his trainer and Shiro, who rubbed his temples with a blank expression on his face.

"Ven..." The fighting type sighed. "What's he going to do? Bludgeon her to death with a rock in the middle of the park?"

"Maybe," the absol replied sullenly. Leita laughed and gestured with a hand.

"Go take a hike, boys," she said, dropping the pretense of suggestion in favor of a straight up order. Loki gave her a hug and stepped back in spite of his lack of enthusiasm about leaving her behind so soon after consummating their matehood.

Shiro did, too, clearly wanting to do more but acutely aware of being in the middle of the sidewalk. He then grabbed Ven by the horn again and started dragging him away, much to the absol's chagrin. "Fucking hell, mutt," he yelped, claws scrambling at the pavement. "That's sensitive! Sens! It! Ive!"

Before he followed, Loki glanced back at Leita and Volcan and was greeted by their rapidly shrinking backs as they made their way towards the edge of town. "Just talking," the zoroark repeated to himself, then turned to catch up with his teammates.

There was quite a bit to talk about while their trainer was absent, after all.

The national park was decently quiet, with the only sounds being the scuffling of wild nidoran in the brush and the buzzing of illumise high above the neatly trimmed treetops. There was also the faint pitch of a conversation near a simmering campfire off to the east, but if Leita focused on her new guest then she could easily pretend there was no one else around.

The two sat on a bench facing a patch of tall grass and watched the brilliant emerald blades sway in the breeze of the dying day. Or at least Volcan watched the grass; Leita watched Volcan, an overall far more interesting specimen compared to the well-maintained greenery she'd seen a million times before. She'd never seen a combusken before in real life, and he was oddly cute with his ruffled golden feathers and the three-peaked brazen orange plumage atop his skull. Intense ruby eyes bored into the sky, as if waiting for something that was overdue to arrive.

Leita didn't want to break the comforting silence so soon, but she knew that if she drew this out any longer than it needed to be her pokémon would pitch a collective fit. Stretching her legs to shake out the tension, Leita began, "Fire away."

Volcan looked up, and disappointingly ignored her obvious pun. "How many badges have you collected?"

Right to it, then. Leita smiled apologetically. "Zero."

"What are your goals, then?" Volcan asked, brows furrowed. His expression was unreadable in itself but Leita was able to assume she was not off to a good start in convincing him. "What motivates you?"

"Can I be honest with you?" The question was clearly rhetorical, but the combusken tilted his head in agreement. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing with my life right now. I'm originally from Kanto, you know, and I've only just started travelling about month ago."

There was more she wanted to add, but she waited for him to process what had already been said before continuing. "I don't… let's just say I'm not on the best terms with my parents. I practically raised myself for the past eight years. I say 'practically' because Shiro was there with me, so I wasn't completely left to the sharpedo."

Volcan clearly wanted to know where Leita was going with all of this but was too invested in her little tale to inquire. She appreciated the silence and the opportunity to collect her thoughts. "I saved his life, you know. He won't admit it if you ask him directly but without me, he'd be fearow food. I'm not saying this to sound like a douche," Leita added at Volcan's subtle eye squint. "He saved me, too. At the exact same moment I saved him, he saved me, and he continues to save me every single time I wake up next to him."

"He doesn't say it but I think he wants more- needs more. More than I think I'm capable of giving," Leita concluded with a soft sigh. "He wants to be the best of the best. He wants to be strong enough so we never have to struggle like we did in Pewter ever again. It's a noble cause, but…" She looked away, not wanting to see the judgement in the combusken's eyes. "I don't know. I'm weak. He needs a real trainer, and I don't think that's me."

There was a long period of silence in which Leita's anxiety skyrocketed. This was it. She'd just scared off a potential teammate by spilling her own irrational fears onto his lap like a loose cannon.

"I think you're wrong," Volcan said slowly, and Leita glanced over at him and attempted to read his expression. "I don't know you well enough to judge the accuracy of your fears, but I do know that only a half decent trainer can be so in touch with their pokémon like you clearly are. Your team is fully evolved," he said. "I assume you didn't just find them like that?" At Leita's negative headshake, Volcan gave a decisive nod. "Right. Lucario evolve by a strong bond and zoroark evolve through battles. Absol are notoriously independent pokémon, and yet you control yours like he's an extension of yourself."

Leita wanted to make a comment about the power of pussy always prevailing, but decided against ruining the moment. "Ven certainly is… willful. I found him terrorizing an entire forest, if you can believe it."

"If someone had told me an absol was terrorizing anything, I wouldn't have believed them," Volcan said. "They're supposed to be savants. Now that I've met your friendly neighborhood bladester, it's become apparent that anything is possible." He gave Leita a pointed look. "Even becoming a good trainer after losing confidence in your abilities. Judging by the way you're capable of adding enough bass to your voice to command evolved pokémon with no badges, I think it's fair to say you're capable of helping pokémon become strong. You just need a little training yourself."

Sure, Leita thought. Or maybe the only reason they listen to me is because we're mated. She wondered how things would go with a pokémon immune to her feminine guiles. "Maybe." She eyed the darkening sky, searching for the moon. "This was supposed to be an interview and yet, here you are, reassuring me."

Volcan chuckled. "I guess it doesn't matter. I've already made my decision."

Leita perked up like a dog. "You have?"

"Mmhmm." Volcan's head bobbed in an absent nod. Illumise flitted overhead, casting an ominous shadow over the sharp planes of his face. "Going with you would be better than not going, and who knows how long it would be before a better candidate came along if I decide not to? No, I'll just mold you to my liking over time," the fire type said decisively.

"...Do I get a say in this, or…?"

"Sorry, but no," Volcan replied with a playful edge. "Don't forget you agreed to talking this out with me. Now you deal with the consequences for the rest of your life."

Leita smiled despite herself. "Okay. What exactly does life with Volcan entail?"

"Actual training, for one," the combusken listed. "We're fighting gyms, that's for sure. Which gyms we fight is up to you, but we're going to be kicking ass and taking names. I won't have any objections."

"Right." Leita's tone was amused. "Anything else?"

"Obviously," he said. "In fact, I have a list right here-"

"Okay, now you're just getting greedy!"

They'd only been gone thirty minutes.

That was still thirty minutes Ven remained completely unaware of his mate's wellbeing. He never thought he'd get to the point in life where he would be pacing a hole in the floor of a pokémon center over a female, and yet there he was. It was an oddly fitting turn of events, he figured.

Loki sat cross legged on the floor, back to the wall, head tilted up with his muzzle pointed at Shiro, who was perched on the window seat as he always did when they stayed in a pokécenter. Ven scoffed internally at the thought; what a poser. His teammate was always so annoyingly serious at the worst of times, like he thought he was the star of a black-and-white mystery film. His other teammate was almost as annoying, clearly wanting to say something but being too polite to attempt breaching the brick wall of silence that filled the space between them. Ven couldn't decide which he hated most; quiet people who were quiet because they wanted to generate suspense, or quiet people who were quiet because they were too scared to be loud.

Of course, there was a third type, but Ven identified too closely with that one in particular, so the idea of dissing it never made it into consideration. The absol kept the peace by not voicing his thoughts. That was his good deed of the day, he figured, and after a certain point it had evolved into simply being too conflicted with deciding which doofus to address first.

It was then that Loki had the misfortune of being the one to shift in place, seeking comfort, the movement serving to attract the narrowed glare of a preying absol.

Doofus #2 it was, then.

"You look troubled, Loki," Ven said with faux concern. "Something on your mind?"

The zoroark's head snapped over to stare at Ven with shock, looking particularly deer-in-headlights like as he responded with a compulsory "Huh?" Then he shook his head lightly, as if to shake off unwanted thoughts. "You're right. We should talk."

Ven squinted. "That seems to be what we're doing right now."

"All three of us."

Ven peered up at Shiro, who was hardly invested in their budding conversation if his closed eyes were any indicator. "Good luck with that, then."

Then Loki surprised even the combee buzzing outside the window by spitting a compact ball of deep purple smoke at Shiro's head. It was fast but accurate enough to nail the lucario directly in the ear, and Shiro told them both exactly what he thought of that performance by way of yelps and expletives.

"Okay, dickhead," the lucario growled after a long minute of recovery, holding a paw over his smarting ear. "Ever hear of using your words? Were your vocal chords not functioning properly?"

"Sorry," Loki replied, not sounding particularly contrite.

"You were being an edgelord again," Ven supplied, rather unhelpfully he knew.

Shiro gave the absol a long look. "Irony really is lost on you, huh?"

"Guess you'd better call the wilderness rescue helpline, then, because a lot of things get lost on this beautiful white coat."

A tense silence followed as the pair remained locked in eye-combat. Then Loki cracked up.

"Sorry," he said again, through uncontrollable snickering. He waved a paw as if to sweep the terse humor from the atmosphere. "This is just- so ridiculous."

Shiro couldn't resist cracking a smile, and Ven sat, proud of a job well done but unwilling to show it. Loki continued. "I mean, we're just sitting here, shooting the shit, while our mate is hanging out Arceus-knows-where with a strange pokémon in the middle of the night." The fox eyed the ticking wall mounted clock. "Don't even get me started on the fact that I just said our mate and didn't feel an ounce of jealousy about it."

It was then that Ven remembered the entire reason he and Shiro had left Loki alone with Leita to go pursue the combusken, and the sudden recollection hit him much harder than he'd expected it to. "Huh," was all he said, staring down at his paws with what he hoped was an unreadable expression on his face. Loki was right, oddly enough. He should've been feeling something, even a tiny bit of a negative emotion over the situation, and yet…

"Why would you feel jealous about it?" Shiro asked, taking his teammates by surprise. "We all just so happen to desire the same female. All it means is that she is exceptionally desirable and that we must learn to be individually worthy of her attentions."

The two dark types exchanged a look.

"Shiro," Loki said carefully, but words that could shut him down failed to escape.

The lucario rolled his eyes. "You can't exactly offer much of a rebuttal, right?" The question was clearly rhetorical. "Jealousy is a human concept. We, as pokémon, rise well above petty adaptations of how a mateship should look."

He did have a point, Ven realized. It wasn't exactly legal for them to be mated to Leita in the first place; there was no room for competition. Although there was still something bugging him. "Emotions aren't rational, Shiro," he said. "There should be at least some sort of jealousy, or desire to conquer."

"Sure. But there isn't, is there?" The lucario challenged.

More looks were exchanged, this time unsure.

Shiro nodded, smug. "Exactly. So why bother trying to force a problem that doesn't exist into existence to appease some arbitrary rule of the heart? Let's leave that to the humans."

With nothing more to add to the discussion, Shiro turned back to the windowsill and closed his eyes. Loki looked deep in thought as he stared down between his knees, and Ven decided to leave well enough alone for the night as he hopped up onto the small, cheap-textured bed and curled up.

He couldn't let Shiro be the voice of reason ever again. Ven could tell it just wasn't healthy for his ego.