Chapter 5: Recovery

Point of view: Flare

I glared at Grayson with anger built up inside of me as the absol slept on the couch as if he did nothing immoral to Black. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. Gray was always quiet, but I have never seen him act so violently before.

"Why did you do that to him!" I screamed towards Gray at the top of my lungs. Gray's eyes slowly opened, and he gave out a tired yawn as if everything was normal.

"What did Black do to you?!" I questioned Gray.

"That umbreon attacked me first. I was just giving him what he deserved for being an insolent fool," Gray replied in a calm voice.

"Yeah, and I wouldn't blame him for attacking you! You were being a complete jerk towards him, and you had it coming!" My words thundered through the silent room, but Gray just remained in his calm state as if we were having a normal conversation.

"Gray, I don't even know if you can make this right even you tried to," I told gray. Gray then chuckled at what I said as if I just told a funny joke. To this point I have always respected Gray, but now I didn't even know what to think of him.

"I don't understand what he did to you? I get that he's a bit snarky, but I still feel that he's a good person," I told Gray.

Gray just stared at me for a moment and thought until he took in a deep breath. "Did you know at one point absols where one of the most hated creatures on this planet? Absols can sense natural disasters, so whenever a natural disaster was going to occur we would always try and warn everybody. But the humans always thought we brought the calamities upon them ourselves. We absol's were victims of their misguided hatred, later though it was discovered that we were not the problem, and that we were just trying to help warn everybody. But Umbreons have caused nothing but trouble in the past. I'm telling you to listen to me, and accept that that umbreon will only cause us trouble. I can sense these things, and I know he will bring calamity upon us, just you wait. Trust me when I say that absols have a keen sense of danger, and that umbreon does nothing but creep me out," Gray warned me.

"That still doesn't answer why you hate umbreons."

Gray looked me directly in the eyes, "Long ago before I even knew Alex or you, I had a friend who I was very close with. We both wanted to make a difference in the world, and we had many other friends who supported what we wanted. Well one day an umbreon we all trusted backstabbed us, and now everything I held dear is gone. Over the course of my whole life I have not met one umbreon that wasn't selfish, greedy, and a sneaky leech just waiting to stab you in the back for their gain," Gray told me with melancholy.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, but you can't take this out on Black. He isn't like that. He is a good person, I can tell. Now I'm going to the pokecenter to check on him, you should come and apologize to him, but I already know you aren't. Instead you will probably just lay there laughing at me once I leave." I said as I headed towards the exit to the hotel room.

I eventually did make my way to the pokecenter. Luckily they had doors that I could push open, so it wasn't too hard to get inside without any help. Inside, I saw Alex sitting on a bench with a worried look on his face. Alex almost noticed me right away, and he gave me a small wave that lacked enthusiasm. I nodded at Alex, and I jumped up on the bench and sat right next to him.

"Do you know who did this Flare?" Alex asked with a concerned tone. I know Alex really did care about all of us equally, and I really wanted to tell Alex the truth. But, if I told him it was Gray, I would risk him being put to sleep, since vicious pokemon are put down. I could just hope that Black and Gray find a way to work this out later on. So as my answer, I nodded in a no gesture to Alex.

Time went by, and Alex and I continued to sit on the bench in a deep thought. Then, the lady at the front desk finally called us. "Sir, your pokemon is now out of surgery and stable. You may see him now if you are careful, but he is still asleep." Alex and I both jumped up anxiously to see Black after what felt like forever. The lady at the desk had an assistant guide us down to where they were keeping Black. The walk down the hall felt like it was never ending, I was pretty nervous honestly. Black tended to be a grumpy person most of the time, so I'd imagine when he wakes up, it will be the beginning of the end. After the assistant guided us down the hall, we finally reached the room Black was being kept in. Alex stood in front of the door, took a deep breath, and walked in the room as I followed his footsteps.

Alex and I both looked at Black as he snoozed peacefully on the bed almost as if he was never attacked in the first place. Black had bandages wrapped all around his upper torso, and the bandages went down to his stomach. Seeing Black in this condition, I couldn't help but feel slightly responsible, since I did stop Black in the fight, which resulted in Gray hurting him even more. Everything just got way too out of control, and no matter what I did someone got injured.

Alex and I waited patiently for about thirty minutes, and we soon realized that he wasn't waking up anytime tonight. "Flare we should probably head back. It's pretty late, and we need to get some sleep so we can be in our best shape when Black is awake." Alex said, and I had to agree with his statement. I gave Alex a nod of approval, and he led the way towards the exit and I followed.

After a small walk, Alex and I eventually made it back to the hotel so we could get some sleep. Alex seemed to fell asleep really fast, but I tossed and turned as I continued to be haunted by thoughts of what to do with Black and Gray. I still couldn't understand where Gray was coming from. He's never told me anything, and over the years I have known him, he has mostly been quiet.

After a long night of tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep, and awoke again when dawn broke. With my groggy vision, I saw Alex still sleeping and Gray was passed out on the couch. Then last night came flooding back into my head. With the memories of last night now stuck in my head again, it felt like forever, until Alex finally woke up.

As Alex slowly got out of bed, he noticed that I was awake as well and gave me a smile, "Morning Flare, how'd you sleep?"

"Alright I guess," I replied in an empty voice that was to tired to show any emotions. Despite the fact that we couldn't understand each other, Alex still usually managed to get a good idea of what I said based off my tone.

"What's the matter, you want to go see Black?" Alex asked me.

I nodded up and down. I lost a lot of sleep last night due to me being worried about Black, and I was anxious to see how he was going to take this whole situation. After Alex grabbed some things, we set off towards the pokecenter and left Gray since he was still asleep. Once we arrived at the pokecenter Alex checked in, and we went to Black's room.

Once we finally did make it to Black's room, I was quickly disappointed to find the umbreon still asleep. I could only guess that with the painkillers they gave him, and with him being off his regular sleep schedule, would result in one sleepy umbreon. Then again, Black was always sleeping, or at least sleepy, ever since I met the guy. Sadly, Alex was only able to stay for about an hour or so before he had to leave to run a few errands.

So, I sat in the room with the unconscious Black for about thirty minutes, and right when I was about to fall asleep, Black began to move. I slowly walked up next to his bed and jumped up onto the stool that was right next to his bed and stared at his face to see if he was waking up finally. His eyes slowly cracked open, he struggled to open his eyes at first but they did eventually open. It was a relief to finally see Black waking up. I was actually starting to think he was in a coma or something, and Alex was going to go bankrupt just to keep Black alive.

"Where am I?" His voice was very weak and quiet.

"You're in the pokemon center, don't you remember anything?" I asked Black.

"Where?" He asked me again in a confused voice.

"I said the pokemon center" I said with emphasis on pokecenter.

"Oh." He replied quietly. Black then began to slowly stand up and he jumped off the bed and headed towards the door as he swerved left and right, failing to walk in a straight line.

"Hey, where are you going, you can't leave, you're still recovering!" I yelled to the umbreon.

He awkwardly turned back at me, "I'm leaving, we got to go to that battle thingy today," Black said as I noticed the droopy look on his face. Many things seemed off about Black right now: one his ears were drooping down to the side, two his eyes blinked at separate times and freaked me out, and three he was never originally in a hurry for the gym battle, so why did he care now? Black was kind of creeping me out right now, he was very out of character, and I was one-hundred percent sure he was high on the medicine he received from the pokecenter...

Black then turned around and continued to walk until he walked directly into the door and fell over. I just stood in place with my jaw wide open, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The drugs they gave him must have made him completely loopy. I walked up to Black and I assisted him back up and tried to guide him back to his bed, but the umbreon began resisting me.

"I don't wanna go back to bed," He stubbornly said in a droopy voice.

"You have to, you're not well! And are you even listening to yourself? You are completely out of character, just please go back to being grouchy!" I yelled at him, but he just kept resisting me as I tugged on his fur with my teeth. I was attempting to drag him towards the bed, but he kept trying to fight toward the door. Then he got the smart idea to stop pulling me toward the door and since I was pulling him as hard as I could, physics caused him to fall on top of me. I gasped for air as I was crushed by the umbreon who was three times my size.

After a minute of dying beneath Black, he finally got up off of me, and began to head towards the door again. Black pushed his head against the door in an attempt to open it, but he failed to realize that these doors had nob's on them and they couldn't be pushed open. So, the end result of Black's actions was him sliding back down to the ground.

"My Mew Black! You are completely high!" I yelled at Black as he claws at the door from the ground.

Black eventually did give up on opening the door, and he just looked at me with his droopy tilted head, "Why won't you let me leave?" the umbreon questioned in his tired voice.

Black stared at me for a second, and then out of nowhere the door slammed open and crushed Black between the door and wall, a young blonde nurse was pushing a medicine cart through the door and got it stuck. Black just sat there looking as if he was suffocating. The nurse continued to try and force the cart through the door, and the more force she used, them more Black began to look like he was going to pass out. Finally, the nurse finally got the cart through the door. As the nurse walked in she noticed Black crushed against the door, and she gasped in reply.

"Ugh… whoops," she said nervously as she walked over to Black and picked him up carefully. Black didn't even resist her, at this point he was too close to passing out to even be aware of what was going on. After the doctor checked up on Black, she left Black and I to ourselves. Black was given more medications, and the poor guy passed out again.

Around another hour later, Black finally woke back up. "Uhh… Why does my neck hurt so freaking bad," the umbreon complained.

"Black, are you feeling alright now?" I asked the umbreon.

"No, my neck feels like it got stepped on by a snorlax," he complained. "How long was I out?" Black asked me.

"You mean… you don't remember anything?"

"I remember an asshole I'm going to get back at for attacking me," Black bitterly replied to me. A small smirk formed on my face as I realized that he had no memory of him being high on the pokecenters drugs, this was possibly the best blackmailing material I have ever had in my life, but I wasn't sure if I could morally use it.

"Anyways..." I awkwardly said, "I think if you don't move around a lot you will probably be able to leave tomorrow," I told Black.

For once in Black's life, a smile crept onto his face, "Really, I can't wait to get out of this place," Black told me.

Chapter End

Thank you genericgamer207 for helping with editing this chapter.