Raihan gets some unexpected mail, as well as a phone call with some unexpected news in the same day.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
A surprise delivery and conversation
Raihan startles awake suddenly by the doorbell ringing. He didn't mean to fall asleep, but apparently, he just got too comfortable after laying down to rest a little in the evening. At first, he wonders why it's so dark, briefly thinking it's still night, until he realizes it's just the little Minccino sleeping on his face. And judging by the weight, Flygon is doing the same on his stomach.
The doorbell rings again, rather insistently. Raihan plucks the Minccino off of his face – earning an irritated squeak – and shoves lightly at Flygon to get up. A quick look around reveals it's morning, a little before noon. The sun is shining in through his half-closed blinds, and some Rookidee are chirping outside the window. He accidentally slept through the night, almost thirteen hours. He must have been more tired than he thought.
"Just a moment!" he yells at whoever is at the door. He puts Minccino down on his pillow as he gets up and gives Flygon a pat on the head, before heading towards the door, only stopping briefly to grab his hoodie from the back of a chair and pulling it on and running his fingers through his hair a few times before opening the door.
"Delivery to Raihan," the delivery man on the other side informs him, "Sign here, please," he says, handing him a clipboard to sign. Next to the man is a large package, consisting of several other packages stacked together. The delivery man is a familiar one, and has delivered things to Raihan several times before, and is now completely immune to his celebrity-status. (At least after getting an autographed League Card, that is.)
"Uhm," Raihan has no idea what this is, as he has no memory of ordering anything. At first, he wonders if maybe someone else ordered something for him, but a look at the papers confirm he was the one who made the order. "Sure, thanks." He quickly signs it and the delivery man leaves, probably having other things to do, more deliveries to make.
"Now what the heck have I ordered, and when?" he wonders out loud, as he starts getting the things inside. There's a total of five boxes in varying sizes. At least none of them are very heavy, so they're easy to move around. His Pokémon are also gathering around to see exactly what he's gotten. Looking at the small pile of packages, it almost feels like Christmas arrived early. He has to restrain himself from just tearing the packages open and instead takes them one at the time.
"Alright, let's see what we have here." He starts with the smallest package on top of the pile. It's very light, and there's something rustling inside. When he opens it, it contains some tea. A better look at the paper that came with it shows it's some kind of fancy, and rather expensive, Hoennese tea. "Huh," Raihan says as he puts it aside, well out of reach of his Pokémon. "Maybe Kabu will like it?" he thinks out loud. Maybe that's why he ordered it in the first place. After all, he isn't that fond of tea himself. At least not enough to order something this fancy.
While he's thinking about the tea, Minccino has gotten around to getting out of bed (he's really spoiling her) and is now sitting at his feet, chirping at him to pick her up. He does just that, and she quickly makes herself comfortable in his hood, which has quickly become her favourite place to be. (He still has to get her a Pokéball at some point, though.) After making sure she's comfortable, he goes back to opening boxes.
The second box is larger, flat and rectangular. It contains a painting of some Torkoal in a volcanic-looking area. It's a beautiful painting, with dark smoke in the background contrasting nicely with the flaming lava and the Torkoal themselves.
"What do you think?" he asks his own Torkoal turning the painting to show it. "Looks like you, don't it?" Torkoal looks at the painting, tilts its head in confusion and ultimately decides it leaves a lot to be desired (most likely by not being edible).
Raihan laughs and starts looking around for where he can put the painting. At least he has plenty of free space to choose from, as the walls in his apartment are pretty empty and sorry looking. Oh, well. He puts the painting to the side as he reaches for the next package.
Which turns out to be a doormat. A rather normal, non-special doormat. It has some text on it that, after a few moments of squinting and turning the thing, Raihan notices spells "Welcome" when looked at from one direction and "Go away" when looked at from the other direction.
"Great," he mutters absentmindedly, not entirely sure of his motivation to buy this, and tosses it towards the front door, where it lands in a heap. He'll have to straighten it out at some point later.
The fourth package is the best one so far. It's big and soft, and when Raihan opens it, it contains a large, 5 lbs bag of marshmallows. It's a lot of marshmallows, even for him, and he's already thinking if he'll want to have some kind of movie night with some friends, or a movie night with Kabu.
"No, these are not for you," he tells Minccino and gently shoos her as she tries to get to the marshmallows, probably thinking she can eat them. "There's way too much sugar in them for you to be able to eat them." She makes an irritated noise but relents after he gives her a firm look. As much as he likes spoiling her, he's not going to let her have something that could kill her. The rest of his Pokémon know pretty well what's okay for them to eat, but he'll have to keep an eye on this one until she learns.
He opens the bag and takes a few marshmallows, just to see if they're any good (they are) and puts the rest away in a cupboard for later, pushing aside some curious snouts, making sure to close it well so no Pokémon gets into it. Now there's just the last package left, the largest of the bunch.
He's feeling like a kid on Christmas morning, giving into his impulse, tearing the package open and pulling out the fillings to find the actual item. It turns out to be something that looks like a beanbag crossed with a small couch. He looks at the paper that came with it. Couch for Pokémon, with small den. When he looks at tit closer, it does have an opening that turns into a small den inside the couch.
It's too small for pretty much all his Pokémon, the only one that fits is Minccino, who immediately jumps down from his hood to check out the new couch. She explores it, jumping on it a bit, disappearing into the den for a few moments before sticking her head out and chirping happily at him. He gives her a pat on the head and lets her go back to enjoying the couch.
The rest of his Pokémon are getting rather uninterested once they realize there's nothing for them and start going off to do their own things. The only one to stay is Flygon, who puts lays down next to the couch, making some chatter with Minccino.
Now to figure out what to do with the thing... Raihan takes another look at the description of the item, skimming through all the information about it. Made with durable, Pokémon-safe material. Cold and heat resistant (do not freeze or set on fire). It definitely gives him an idea...
But that can wait for a bit. He takes a look at the receipt to see how much all this came to cost, as well as when he actually placed the order. Wow, he lets out a whistle when he reads the sum. At least he didn't cheap out on things. It's a good thing money isn't a problem for him, or the quite substantial sum staring up at him might actually mean something more than it currently does.
And he did indeed make the order on that night he got drunk with his friends. Which makes him wonder why Gordie didn't stop him. As the sober one, he was supposed to make sure the others didn't do anything stupid. Surely Raihan ordering a bunch of random stuff online would fall into the category of Something Stupid? He already has his phone in hand, ready to call Gordie to ask what the heck happened, but a look at the items makes him reconsider. He looks at the small Pokémon-couch and then back at the tea, and something klicks in his head. Maybe drunk-him wasn't too dumb after all... even if his motivation for getting the doormat is a bit questionable.
The tea will be a nice gift for Kabu, and maybe he can try to bribe the Sizzlipede into liking him, even a little, with the couch. Considering the thing is heat-proof and everything. Unfortunately it's too small for the Centiskorch, but it's still better than nothing. Besides, if he gets the little buggers to warm up to him a little, maybe the big one will join in, just a smidge.
And he did tell Kabu he'd buy him nice things, didn't he? He did say it mostly as a joke, but that doesn't mean he didn't actually mean it. Time to put my money where my mouth is, he thinks as he grabs the small couch and moves it toward the door, so he'll remember to grab it next time he goes to visit Kabu. Or when Kabu visits him, whichever comes first.
Minccino makes her way out of the couch and climbs up his arm. Only this time she settles on top of his head instead of in the hood, holding on to his hair to not fall off. She makes some chirping noises, sounding very demanding for something. The rest of his Pokémon seem to be making their way to the kitchen, reminding Raihan he hasn't fed them breakfast yet.
"All right, all right," he soothes his Pokémon, making his way to the kitchen with them, being mindful to not step on any tails or feet. "I'll get you food, don't worry." As he's picking their food bowls out of a cabinet, his phone starts ringing. A quick look reveals it's Kabu, so he answers right away.
"Hey, Kabu! Good morning!" he enthusiastically greets the older man with a bright smile and a wave. "How's it going? Did you miss me already?" Even if it's only been a couple of days since Raihan returned to Hammerlocke, he at least has found himself missing Kabu.
"It's almost noon, Raihan," Kabu informs him as a greeting, looking on as he unlocks another cabinet close to the floor to take the food out. He had to start locking the cabinet where the food is after his Pokémon started helping themselves to it whenever they felt like it. "Don't tell me you only just now got out of bed."
"Kind of," Raihan admits as he pours the food into the bowls. "I was really tired last night. Slept for almost thirteen hours." Now that his team has been fed, he focuses on the Minccino, that needs to be fed separately since it still eats baby-Pokémon food. He plucks her down from his head and puts her on the kitchen counter to eat, turning his focus back to Kabu.
"Well, at least you make sure to get enough sleep," Kabu decides, apparently not wanting to argue about something like that. And besides, Raihan has time of right now, so who cares how long he sleeps? "And yes, I did."
"Did what?" Raihan asks, absentmindedly petting Minccino as she eats. Maybe I should eat something, too, he thinks as his stomach reminds him that he hasn't eaten since yesterday evening.
"Miss you," Kabu elaborates with a small smile, apparently finding Raihan not paying attention endearing somehow. "I missed you, Raihan."
"Oh," Raihan says, not expecting Kabu to just admit it out loud like that. Judging by Kabu's smug little smile, he knew that too. "I missed you, too," he replays, giving Kabu a soft smile. And he really did. Even after just a couple of days he missed the older man's presence, warmth and their discussions.
"I did have another reason for calling you, though," Kabu continues, now a bit more serious. Not too serious, so Raihan figures it's probably nothing bad, just something he needs to take seriously.
"Sure, what is it?" Raihan asks, looking through his fridge for something to eat, eventually settling for some leftover pizza. "Did someone say something about us again?" It's one of the most common reasons for Kabu to get that tone of voice when having something to talk about with Raihan.
"No," Kabu immediately says. "Well, not really." He looks almost a bit embarrassed, looking down to avoid Raihan's eyes and takes a deep breath. "My sister has taken it on herself to invite us to Hoenn, to visit her and Flannery."
"Seriously?!" Raihan has just managed to make himself comfortable on the couch with his half-eaten pizza when Kabu informs him of this. His Pokémon, who had just settled down around him give him annoyed glares for interrupting their post-breakfast nap, but he's not really paying attention to them right now. "That's awesome!" He's been wanting to visit Hoenn with Kabu for a while now and is already looking forward to it.
"Well, I believe she got tired of me promising I'll visit without actually doing it, so she decided to take matters into her own hands." Kabu's embarrassment probably comes from his sister arranging his life for him, with better results than he managed himself. "She even contacted Leon to make sure we can both be there. Booked tickets and everything. Got it all sorted out beforehand. She knows I wouldn't be able to say no after that." Kabu is not the wasteful type. He would not let his sister's money go to waste. And she clearly knows it, too. Clever girl.
"When are we going?" Raihan asks enthusiastically, ready to pack his bags and leave this very second. He's so excited he doesn't even notice Flygon helping herself to the rest of his leftover pizza until she's already eaten it. Oh, well. He can get something else to eat.
Is pizza bad for Pokémon? Well, it can't be that bad, right? After all, it's Flygon, and it was a pretty small piece of pizza, so it's probably be fine. Worst case scenario, she'll puke it up on his bed later. A bit gross, but he'll deal with it if it comes to it.
"Clam down Raihan," Kabu tells him, looking more amused already as he crosses his arms and looks on calmly. "It's next month."
"Aww, that long," Raihan does not whine. Next month? It's over three weeks away! He's clearly not the patient person in this relationship, something they've both known since the beginning, but there really is something about how he just can't wait that long for something he's looking so forward to, while Kabu is just giving him that half-patient, half-amused smile.
"You'll have plenty of time to handle your paperwork and settle things at the Gym, maybe get in some training before taking a break," Kabu says, of course being the one to think about responsibilities and stuff. Of course, as a Gym Leader, he knows it's important, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. Especially the paperwork. "We're staying for two weeks, so we'll have plenty of time to show you Hoenn."
"Awesome!" That immediately cheers him up, and he gives Kabu his best grin. "Can't wait!" He really can't, too excited by the idea of travelling to Kabu's home region, to see where he grew up, to meet his family and, of course, to see the different Pokémon that live in Hoenn. He knows there are Flygon in Hoenn, as well as Torkoal, but there are also more Pokémon he's only ever read about, but never seen.
And Hoenn is a warm, almost tropical region, isn't it? The idea of seeing Kabu in lighter clothes, maybe a t-shirt and shorts, is a very appealing idea for him. Or maybe no shirt at all? Is it warm enough for that? Hopefully.
Maybe he'll even get the chance to battle a Gym Leader there, too. Would be interesting at least. And since Hoenn is far more lenient with the Pokémon that can be brought there, he'll be able to have his entire team with him if he so wants to.
"Remember you need to have a Pokéball for Minccino before that," Kabu reminds him, breaking him out of his daydream. "Otherwise you won't be able to bring her with you."
"Don't worry, I'll handle it," Raihan promises, relaxing back into the couch and letting Minccino climb up on his stomach. "I'm really looking forward to it."
"It will be nice to see Hoenn again," Kabu agrees, getting a rather wistful look to his eyes, no doubt remembering his home. "It's been a while since I've visited."
"Hmmm..." Raihan hums in response, not really knowing how to answer that one. He pets Minccino for a bit, enjoying the impossibly soft fur just behind her ears. He eyes the items that were delivered earlier today, some of which he plans on gifting Kabu and adds "Speaking of visiting, when can we visit again?"
"Maybe next week," Kabu replies, looking to the side, presumably to check his calendar or something, giving Raihan a lovely view of his pale neck. Yeah, he definitely wants to see him soon. "I have a few meetings and other things to handle this week, but after that I should have some time to come visit you, if you'd like?"
"I'd like that a lot," Raihan says, still not taking his eyes of that delicate neck. "Looking forward to it!" Next week can not arrive soon enough for his taste, but he'll just have to have some patience. It will definitely be rewarded. "I have a present for you, so look forward to it!"
"I actually have something for you as well," Kabu informs him "so I guess we'll both have something to look forward to." He's about to say something else but is interrupted by Arcanine barking somewhere in the distance. He gives Raihan an apologetic look. "Apologies, I have to go now. We can talk more later."
"Sure," Raihan agrees, knowing Kabu somehow manages to have a bunch of stuff to do. "Love you!"
"I love you as well," Kabu replies with a lovely little smile and a loving look in his eyes before disconnecting the call.
"Well, guess that's that," Raihan comments out loud to absolutely no one, setting his phone down on the table in front of the couch. "It'll be nice to see Kabu again." Minccino makes a happy chirping noise in agreement, having grown quite fond of Kabu for the short time she's known him. Flygon also lets out a sound of agreement, before settling down on his legs.
Moments after that, his phone comes to life, letting him know he's got a message. A quick look reveals it's from the Gym. They need him there now, as there's been some kind of training incident.
"Alright," he says, shoving Flygon lightly to get her off him. "Time to go," he tells his Pokémon as he gets up from the couch and stretches a bit before he recalls them all into their balls, before letting Minccino get into his hood. Kabu is not the only Gym Leader with a busy schedule. Duty calls.