I took a deep breath and steadied myself before answering him.
"Roark m'boy!"
"Hi, Dad. How are you?" I sighed a little in relief. He didn't sound angry or frustrated, so I guess Riley had stayed quiet.
"I'm fine, son. I wanted to ask you a favour, actually."
He would ask me to go to Canalave, I knew it.
"I was wondering if you had some free time to stop home for a day or two..."
"Dad, I can't. I'm on vacation all week on the opposite side of Sinnnoh." I rubbed my temples, officially getting a headache. I decided to play dumb. "Riley called me too, he sounded upset. Did you guys have a fight?"
"I don't know," Dad replied, and I was shocked to hear him suddenly sounding sad, his voice oozing out like air from a deflated tire. "He seems really mad at me... and he went back to the cabin on Iron Island today. He told me not to follow him."
Now I was flat-out alarmed at how depressed my Dad sounded. "Dad, what do you mean you don't know? What were you doing before he started to act upset?"
"Nothing!! Just what we usually do... he stayed at the house for a really long time, is all, he'd gotten some new Pokemon and was training then in the Gym. About a week ago he started to act really strange, agitated. Outta no where, just... agitated and snapping a lot. Your mom used to get that way too, once a month."
I almost laughed a little despite how worried I was. "Yeah, well, speaking of ... well not my mom, but women. Have you had any dates lately?"
"You know I don't do that kind of stuff, boy," my Dad mumbled.
"Yeah, but why don't you?"
"I'm not interested."
"Not interested in dating, or not interested in women?"
"I'm interested in training Pokemon, boy," he growled, "and we've talked about this before. You know I didn't want to date anymore after your mom left us."
"That was a LONG time ago, Dad."
"Yeah well - hhmph!" He grunted in a very finalized way. "I'm too old now anyway, nobody is interested in me. I've got work to do even if someone was, I've got a Gym to run."
"You aren't that old, Dad." I sighed, walking Volkner's bedroom window. It looked out over the ocean, which was sparkling in the morning sun. I was hit by sudden inspiration. "Dad - why don't YOU come HERE? To Sunyshore."
"You're in Sunyshore?"
"I said I was in the furthest city from Canalave City, didn't I?! Only two cities are that freaking far and do you really think I'd be going to Snowpoint City when my boyfriend is in Sunyshore?" Aaaaaah christ. I started to blush really badly. It was still not really easy to say the word "boyfriend" to my Dad. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Why don't you just come here and have a vacation for a few days? We could... go to the hot springs and then get really drunk, don't you like to do that?" If I had to put up with Flint, Volkner could put up with my Dad.
Not that Flint had actually done anything.
I was just jealous.
And anytime I saw him, the image flash in my head, of the cobble-gobbling, as I'd so eloquently worded it to Riley.
Dad replied with another non-committal grunt. "Maybe. ... you won't... uh... you won't deep...deep kiss Volkner in front of me, will you?"
"What do you think." My face was a tomato again. I wondered if I'd lost any weight from how many calories I had to be burning by blushing so often since getting together with Volkner.
"All right, yeah, I mean, I haven't seen you in a long time, boy."
"So come to Sunyshore. How about in two more days?"
"Yeah... sure. Thanks for talking to me, Roark."
I almost giggled, feeling silly now at what I was going to attempt to do. "Sure, Dad. Hey, Dad - love you!"
"Don't be gay, boy!" And with that, he hung up. I stared at the phone for a long time, then headed downstairs. Eevee was sitting at the foot of them - playing with an Elekid and a Magby. I stared at them, and they all scattered around the room yelping and tumbling all over one another. I smiled as I went into the kitchen.
"Volk, your living room's a baby Pokemon day-care..." My voice trailed off awkwardly as Flint waved to me from the kitchen table. I was relieved to see he'd done his hair into an afro today.
"Morning, Roarkie! Didja see my Magby out there? Is that what you meant?" Flint gestured for me to sit down next to him. Volkner was scraping burned parts off some toast into the sink.
I sat down. "I saw Magby, Elekid, and Eevee. I'd send out my Cranidos to play with them, but he evolved last week and is too big now."
"Yeah - congrats!! Hey, you were on TV, yknow?" Flint looked at me, amazed. "Running into a crazy battle with ancient Pokemon! You're a really brave and crazy guy."
I blushed a little, but I had to wonder if Volkner had suggested to Flint to work on buttering me up. It was working, a little.
Fucking Flint.
"Yeah, well," I shrugged, then glanced at a clock. "Holy - it's noon already?"
"Yup! You slept really late, eh? Really tired out?" Flint thumped me on the back, nearly sending my glasses flying. "Volknard's a big perv, likes to keep people up all night, yknow-"
"Flint," Volkner said warningly. He turned, and glared at his friend. Flint looked sheepish, and again I had the feeling Volkner had suggested not to make any sexual jokes, either. I decided to be a big boy, taking it in stride and shaking my head.
"No, actually, I didn't sleep good because I had a bad dream." Volkner had sat down and slid some toast over to me. I stared at it - it was halfway scraped off and had a little lump of butter in one corner. I smirked at Volkner. "Wow, Volk, you really did a good job making breakfast all by yourself."
Volkner mumbled something incomprehensible, but Flint was devouring his toast and talking to me with crumbs flying everywhere. "Bad dream? What sort of bad dream?"
"Well..." Why bother hiding it? If Flint was going to be around all week, it wouldn't be much of a secret for long. "My best friend... kinda my ex-babysitter... is in love with my Dad, apparently. I had a bad dream that I caught them having sex."
Volkner choked and sputtered, quickly gulping down some water. "Wait - REALLY? That was your - oh, Roark... ewwwww." He made a horribly disgusted face, and I laughed.
"Why do you think I asked you to kick me in the balls?"
Flint looked amazed. "Wow... you guys are kinky."
"No, no, I meant - if I had another dream, I wanted to make sure I was woken up, that's all." I stared down at my toast. The butter was creeping down along the crust. Volkner coughed, and I looked up at him. "Actually, Volk, I wanted to tell you... my Dad called this morning, really upset."
"Oh shi-!! Did Riley-?"
"No, Riley didn't tell him, but he ran away from the house and Dad thinks he's really angry with him." I sighed. "Anyway, I invited Dad to come visit us here in Sunyshore..." I waited for a reaction, but got none, so I continued. "And... well, I thought we could do something together, like, go to a hot springs, or ...something."
"That sounds like a good idea," Volkner replied simply. I gave him a big smile in thanks, but noticed Flint looking downcast out of the corner of my eye.
"Flint, you're invited at well." It just slipped out of me, but I suddenly realized I didn't regret saying it. Was I growing the fuck up?
"YAY!!" Flint fist pumped the air. "Hot springs vacation!!"
Volkner was looking at me with a weird expression, a small little smile visible only in the corner of his mouth. "Tell me, Roark, because I am ever so curious... your next question will be, 'Volkner, should I invite Riley as well?'".
My mouth fell wide open. "Wha... how did you..."
Volkner smirked. Bastard. "Because you're going to try to set up Byron and Riley, aren't you, even after your dream made you gag so hard."
"Byron?" Flint piped up. "Is Byron coming too?"
I gave him a confused look. "Flint, Byron is my Dad. Didn't you know that?"
Now it was Flint's turn to choke and cough. "BYRON - the Canalave City Gym Leader? HE'S your Dad?? Who's coming to Sunyshore?!"
"Yes!" I laughed.
"Flint, you fucking moron," Volkner sighed. "I thought I told you that before."
"You didn't! You did not tell me! So wait... THAT guy is your Father in law?"
Volkner looked grumpy and didn't respond. Flint continued to poke and prod and tease him, so I excused myself and got up to call Riley. He picked up so fast I wasn't even sure it had rung once.
"Roark - how are you this morning?"
"Fine, Riley, hey, look man-" I pushed my hand through my hair. "I was worrying about you, I wanted to cheer you up-"
"Nothing can cheer me up," Riley muttered with a voice full of emo and angst. I sighed, ignoring it and continuing on.
"I'm feeling really bad I can't come to see you in Canalave-"
"I'm on the island right now, actually." Yes, I know, and I am playing dumb with you. My own trickiness made me gulp a little nervously.
"Oh, well... how about you come to Sunyshore, to visit me and Volkner? You could... have another re-match... we could go to the hot springs... have a mini vacation to help you feel better."
Riley was silent for a long time, and I was starting to wonder if he was angry at me, but then- "That sounds lovely, Roark."
I skipped a little with joy. "Great! How about in two days? Is that okay with you?"
"Of course."
"Wonderful!"
That was easy - almost too easy. Flint was excited, but I think Volkner probably understood that this was not going to be a very fun vacation at all. On the contrary, I might end up disowned from the only family I had when Riley and Dad found out I was setting them up.
I heard squeaking by my feet and looked down to see three baby Pokemon staring up at me with wide eyes. Now it sounded like Flint's teasing of Volkner had escalated into wrestling, so I opted to sit down cross legged in the living room and let furballs romp around on my legs and in my lap.
As they played, I pondered. My week away from work was turning out to be more work than work. And my stressful week in Sunyshore was only going to get more stressful.