His knee bounced silently up and down in restless agitation. Amber eyes glanced up at the clock mounted on the wall above the service counter before sliding down to the floor again. He avoided eye contact with the nurse attending the counter, only paying cautious attention to the people who came and went out of his peripherals and the mental timer going on in his head.

It had been a couple hours now.

His jaw was grit tight, and the preoccupied jiggle of his leg belied the indifferent expression on his face. He was greatly uncomfortable.

Wes was most at home in the background, out of direct line of sight. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of mind was the safest place there could be. Perhaps he didn't have the highest regards for personal safety, but one did not become successful in his line of work without some modicum of caution.

He was in the open here. He didn't have a single real ally in this oasis of a city, and he stuck out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of upper-middle-class that Phenac City smacked of. While he was fairly sure that vengeance-hungry Snagem members would not simply run amok through the streets looking for him, the presence of those two mooks from earlier suggested that there was a good chance that there was somewhere in this town that sheltered the less morally upright. That, or they really were just that stupid.

He really hoped it was the latter. Even if no one here knew him, his appearance didn't fit in, and it could be all too easy for someone to recall him if prompted with a description.

Wes really wished he hadn't been persuaded to stick around. While he was concerned for the girl he'd rescued from the burlap bag, usually his self-preservation would have won out in a case like this. Not that this sort of situation had any precedence. All he wanted to do was make sure she was fine, then leave. But her recovery was taking longer than he thought- the nurse had assured him that it was heat exhaustion, but had she suffered much longer, it could have turned into a full-blown case of heat stroke- and he was getting impatient and the thought of leaving was very tempting.

However, apparently the girl had requested that he stay when she had come to not that long ago. And mixed with the strange guilt he received from the nurse's reproachful gaze- she probably thought he was the one responsible for this mess- here he was, about two hours after the impromptu rescue.

Part of him regretted following the two goons to Phenac. With the way they were carrying on, surely someone with half a brain and a working pair of eyes would have picked up on the fact that they were doing some shady-as-shit business. Someone else would have stopped them. Someone who didn't have a league of pissed off grunts after their blood.

He stifled a growl in his throat as his fist tightened. Except, he knew that most of the region was morally-corrupt. There were just lighter shades of grey. Fear of the Snagems and other crime rings ran deep, even in the better-off areas of Orre. And the police force here was a joke at the best of times: understaffed, underfunded, and underwhelming. Something prickling at the back of his mind told him that few here would have had the backbone to confront them alone. It was a common theme here that one looked after one's own self first and foremost. If someone else has it bad, you duck your head and move on because at least it's not you.

His eyes flicked over next to him, where Espeon was lounging. Despite the languid position, the lavender creature had not taken his eyes off the door to the back rooms since the girl had been taken back there shortly after their arrival. The Pokemon did not seem alarmed in the slightest, but something about her seemed to have caught his attention, and though his large ears would twitch in the direction of other sounds, his gaze remained fixed.

The bouncing of the rogue's knee slowed slightly, reassured a bit. If Espeon did not sense danger, then he could focus on other things. Huffing a small sigh of fondness, Wes reached out to pet Espeon's light violet coat. He got a quick glance and the soft flick of a tail as a reply before the creature returned to his vigil.

A handful of minutes later, and one of the other staff members finally exited the back, scribbling on a clipboard. Wes glanced up, and the nurse hardly flicked her eyes in his direction.

"She's up and about now. She said she would come to speak with you," was the brusque explanation.

Espeon's ears twitched as another figure slowly emerged from the back, one hand gripping a sports drink while the other was lightly pressed on the wall for support.

Her bright hair, which previously had been messily plastered across her face, hung limp and damp tucked behind her ears. The cut across her left temple was bandaged in clean white gauze. A wrung-out hand towel was draped around the back of her neck and over her shoulders to help keep her cool. She looked worlds better than she had when he'd first found her, but her face held a level of fatigue and deep-set concern.

However, when her electric blue eyes landed on him, they widened. They darted all across him, as well as- strangely- above him for several seconds before she nodded once to herself. She straightened a bit, fixing him with a nervous, yet sincere smile, and it seemed that some energy had returned to her. He raised an eyebrow at her in return.

She carefully made her way across the lobby. The nurse watched her like a hawk for any signs of unsteadiness. Wes expected her to plop down in a chair, but she surprised him when she came to a halt in front of him. Feet together, hands gripping the sports drink bottle in front, she bowed primly at the waist, mindful of her balance.

Wes' other eyebrow joined the first. If her appearance hadn't already done it, then this etiquette definitely sealed his certainty that she was a foreigner. Orre's customs, like its people, tended to be rough around the edges. What region had this girl come from?

"Thank you so much," she said, finally raising out of her bow to look him earnestly in the eyes. She definitely had an accent that Wes had never heard before. "You're one who rescued me, right? I am greatly in your debt. I…" A shudder ran through her as her voice lowered. "I don't know where I'd be right now if not for you."

He shifted slightly, unsure of how to reply to a statement like that. 'Oh, probably to be used for ransom, or possibly sent to a trafficking ring?' Yeah, that would go over well. He looked away and settled with an indifferent shrug.

An open hand was thrust into the space between them and he retracted a bit. Why were people so keen on shaking his hand today?

"My name is Rui. Rui Mirei," she said firmly, smile back in place as she waited for him to return the gesture.

He stared stonily back at her. He just wanted this to be over so he could skip town and continue to put as many miles between himself and the smoldering wreck that used to be Snagem's hideout. But the open, earnest look on her face made him cave slightly in a way that Willie's cocky extroversion hadn't. He sighed through his nose before finally gripping her outstretched hand, pumping it once.

"Wes."

(~)

Hello. It has been years.
A lot has been happening in my life that I've been struggling with. Depression, anxiety, a new laptop, a full time job, moving to a new place.

It has been a lot to handle, but I'm hoping to get back to writing when I can. I figure this story will be the easiest way to get my bearings again. I've missed it.
I do need to replay Colosseum sometime to refresh myself. Maybe I can figure out a good in-story team for Wes that way. But not being able to save outside of PCs is a bummer...

Thank all of you who have not yet given up on my stories. :')
I greatly appreciate you all.

-Aki