Chapter Ten - Trips and Falls
Noelani came to with a plugged up nose and ringing ears. She immediately began to whine in pain, coughing and sneezing. This only caused more pain, but seeing as she didn't know what else she could do, she kept at it until she felt something not like snot and more like blood (and she was familiar with it at this point) came up her throat. She hurried to swallow the gross metal taste but ended up spitting it out anyway.
Then a cool cloth pressed over her forehead and down her face and beneath her chin and everything felt better immediately. It must have been daddy's hand. Grandma had once told her, over the phone, that love made even the worst things feel better even when they were too much. And even her worse stomach aches always became better when he helped.
Noelani had never been sure what too much felt like until very recently, so the statement always rang true.
"Daddy," she mumbled, unable to stop herself from guessing.
"Yes, little tree." His voice was hoarse. He'd probably yelled at her pokemon, or at something or someone. They never deserved it…. Well okay no, some people did. She knew some people did. "We're here."
Mama's here? She felt the surprise tickle her fingers and nose. "I'm… I'm okay, Daddy… just tingly…" She didn't mean to lie, just he sounded hurt too. She couldn't hurt him more.
"A chingling hit you on the head," he said in that still soft voice full of warmth and joy and love, so much like the one his own daddy had. "And a buizel swam you back to shore. It's lucky that all you are is tingly."
Well, no wonder everything hurt a bit. "Head does hurt," she admitted, still not opening her eyes. Something told her doing that would make it all a lot worse. "A little less everywhere."
"Mm." He smoothed her hair. "You don't have a concussion, so it's okay for you to go back to sleep."
"How do you know?"
"Kane made sure of it."
"Oh…" Well if her daddy's lucario said it was okay, then it really was okay. She relaxed into what she thought was a bed and soon forgot that she'd been awake at all.
Meanwhile, Nikolai let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Then he wiped his daughter's nose free of blood. A fit while unconscious was still a fit, but for all things she seemed perfectly healthy. Well, healthier. The outside air and adventure was doing something.
Not enough, but something.
"Back to sleep?"
Cynthia had been staring at the emails on his computer, looking fully prepared to glare holes into the dim screen of his feeble computer. "Peacefully," he replied, stroking the sweaty hair. "It really must have been the chingling then. Find any evidence of psychic energy affecting reversal fever?"
"Not anywhere except the tabloids so far."
"And you really can't convince Dawn to let us borrow and release Giratina?" Nikolai heard the whine in his voice and scoffed at it on the inside.
"If only." There was a note of disdain in Cynthia's voice so palpable and painful there was no way anyone could miss it. "Why did I think that was a good idea again?"
"Youthful optimism?" Nikolai offered. "Multitudes of legends? Red?"
"It was definitely Red and his Birds."
They laughed, quietly, so quietly.
"We'll go back through the cave and release the chingling tomorrow if she doesn't want it." Nikolai decided, finally taking pity on Cynthia and snatching his computer back. Just as he did, however, a voice call notification flickered on screen.
The name read, quite flatly, Amber Fuji.
"That's Jen's friend." Cynthia failed to disguise the mix of interest and baffled disgust. "The mercenary?"
"He's in the same group, to be fair," Nikolai offered as he turned on the call.
"He's also international police with Anabel."
"Formerly."
"Still."
There as a cough from Nikolai's crackling phone speakers, high and somewhat giddy. "If the turtledoves are done vocally copulating now, I'd like to make a quick addition to my notes."
Nikolai didn't even try to speak, only let his face flush a terrible red all the way to the roots of his hair.
Cynthia, damn her, laughed. She was always appeased by good humor. "Go on then, if you don't mind. Since we're not introducing ourselves?"
"It's better that we don't," the voice said with good cheer and the unseeing avatar of two dancing meowstic on screen. "I don't want to get you all in the things I'm mixed up in. Well, not too far anyway." She giggled this time and the sound was just sharp enough to cut. "Anyway, I wanted to add quickly to my notes about spiritomb. There's a legend in Kalos, of all places, that I thought someone might find interesting."
Both of them looked at each other. Cynthia's face contorted with discomfort. She had never been fond of Kalos, and he'd yet to figure out why.
Still, he'd take anything at this point. "All right," he said, forcing his voice not to waver. "Let's hear what you've got."
If either of them heard the sheets rustle, they did not react. They definitely didn't notice Noel's eyes opening, watery blue and fixated on them.
When they looked back however, her eyes were painlessly shut and she was breathing deep and slow.
Nikolai, replaying Amber's last words over and over in his head, forgot how well she could pretend to sleep.
"I want to fight a Gym!"
Voice loud and crisp and clear, it was almost too loud and definitely way too early in the morning for Noel to be shouting like this. Or maybe Nikolai thought it was shouting because she was sitting on his chest with her bony knees mercilessly dug into his stomach. He squinted at her with bleary eyes and grumbled, "What?"
"I wanna go to a Gym!" Noelani said again, just as loud, just as piercing. "I wanna fight a leader! Please daddy!"
Cynthia snored and Nikolai briefly reflected on his lot in life. "Why?" he decided to ask. The least he could do is hear her out.
She sat up straight ,nose as high in the air as she could get it. "Because I am a Pokemon trainer. And Pokemon trainers go to gyms! And win! You did it, mommy did it, of course I can do it."
Nikolai almost laughed. Instead, he pulled her down into a hug. "Can we get more sleep first?"
She squirmed as if to defy him, but Laika leaped onto the bed and mewed in her ear. He still felt her pout against his neck. "I guess."
Nikolai snored his approval of this idea.
