After twelve years of living in the suburbs, I was finally able to secure a place in Jubilife City. Since I was very young, the city life has always sounded so attractive, the bright lights, the bustling streets, and something interesting in every corner, but most importantly, I was finally going to have independence. I was staring out the window of my taxi en route to my complex, making a mental note of all the places I was going to scout after I was done settling in…which wouldn't take long since my luggage consisted of two large travel bags and a briefcase.
A few moments later, my taxi arrived at the apartment complex. It was a large gray building with several stories reaching high into the skyline. If it weren't for the graffiti on the nearby alleys and miscellaneous trash sprinkled about the premises, I would've thought this place looked like a hotel. Though this place was still a couple miles from the real ghetto, crime wasn't high and going out at night wasn't too dangerous. I am an ex-trainer after all, it's not like I need protection.
The lobby itself was fairly spacious, only providing what was required; a mailroom on the right, front desk, elevator on the left, and stairs leading up to the other floors on either side of the front desk. Speaking of…I was told to pick up my key from the front desk, which was being held by an older woman, probably in her 50s with a Luxio by her side, sleeping, which I could only assume would be a guard dog of some kind. As I approached the desk, her Luxio grew aware of me, but didn't seem to take me as a threat so it returned to its slumber. The woman was reading the newspaper with her right hand while holding a cup of coffee on her left. She looked intimidating but if I wanted to proceed, I needed to confront her.
"Ahem…uh hi, I just moved here and was told you'd have my key?" I asked nervously.
"Sure, what's your name?" She said without even looking away from her reading.
"Uhh, Alan Cortes."
The older woman put down her newspaper and turned to look at her desk and opened a cabinet full of files, flipping through each one at a time.
"Mmm…Aaron…Abel…" she mumbled to herself. After a few moments of her mumbling a few more names of what I think are residents also living here, she pulls out a large thick orange envelope. "Alan Cortes, here you go, you're room 509, you're on the fifth floor you can either take the stairs or the elevator, there's some documents you gotta fill out in that envelope and stuff you gotta do if you're gonna live here, stuff about trash, rules, etcetera and your key is also in there alright? If you have any questions let me know." Her voice was raspy and imposing but I don't think she'd hurt me…
Once she finished and handed me my package she snapped back to reading. Thankfully I had my stuff now, so I proceeded towards the elevator and took it to the fifth floor. The red and yellow patterned carpet was surprisingly clean, and the halls were empty, it was late so people were either out or sleeping. I walked down the hall on the right and at the end of the first bend was my apartment, Room 509. I placed my luggage down and opened the envelope, which did indeed hold my key! As I opened the room the door creaked as if it weren't oiled in years. The apartment itself wasn't too bad either, only about three rooms: a kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom. It was a lot more spacious than I was expecting, but anything was bigger than the room I had back home which just barely held my desk and bed. I was really excited to start unpacking but I felt like I needed a special someone out here to enjoy this moment with. Out of my back pocket I took out a small Premier Ball and threw it towards the corner of the room which allowed the Pokemon inside to be free. From the light formed a slender figure whom I shared most of my life with, it was my Gardevoir, Lucía.
When the light dissipated, she stretched herself upright and raised her arms into the air.
"Sigh. Must you really insist on keeping me in there for so long." She scolded, twisting her back side to side.
"Sorry, Lu, but there was just not enough room for you on the way here, besides it's only been about 3 hours. The road here was pretty boring." I said lying, trying not to upset her.
"Hmph." She said, looking around.
"Wow…is this all really for us? This is so much bigger than your room, Alan!"
"Oh yeah, and with a bit of work, it could look really great!"
"Hehe this is so great! Mm..hm…" her demeanor suddenly changed. She looked at me as if she hadn't seen me in months.
"Alan…does this mean we're going to be on our own now?"
I laughed. "Yeah Lu, it's just us now, no one else to bother us." I said, reassuringly.
Lucia grew a smile so large I think it added a few months to my lifespan. She then jumped into my arms and planted a kiss onto my mouth, a kiss I reciprocated lovingly. Her lips felt softer than the finest silk as they rode and rolled over mine. This kiss felt especially fantastic because we didn't need to hide it or hold back anymore. If my parents found out about my relationship with my Gardevoir…well, let's just say I'm glad I found a place to live before they could. It's been about six years of hiding our relationship, ever since she evolved into a Gardevoir she developed the ability to talk, and we've been able to connect so well together due to it. It was difficult at first, especially when it came to learning about how we expressed romantic feelings towards each other. She was a Pokemon after all, she wouldn't know about the things humans couples do. That being said, our thing going on was illegal, but who would find out? Especially now, in our own little space.
After a few more moments, we parted and began rubbing my shoulders.
"Well then, amor…" she said in a soft low voice and began walking backwards in the direction of the apartment's bed. "How about we do some catching up-". Suddenly, as she sat down, the bed released a wave of dust and dirt onto the surrounding areas, causing Lucia to cough and distance herself from the bed.
"Well, I suppose that's one way to kill a mood." She continued to cough angrily in the direction of the bed. All I could really do was laugh.
"As much as I'd love to, we have a lot of work to do before we can relax, Lu. I gotta sign these papers and, as you can see, lots of cleaning to do here too."
"What an unfortunate time for you to be correct, querido. I will help bring in the luggage." She curtseyed and grabbed my bags from the doorstep and began to place their contents onto the kitchen counter.
I sat down at the dining table and took out the rest of the contents of the envelope. Inside was a stapled packet of papers which detailed the business side of moving in, a bunch of legal stuff, my rights, blah blah. Some laminated paper detailing when trash comes around and when mail arrives. Though my main concern was all the reading and signing I had to do on the packet, it looked about 20 pages long and I was not excited to go through it. I wasn't sure if Lucia had the better end of the stick, she was already done unloading and began brooming the floors, but I can't say I'd be excited to clean up this place either. I think it's going to be a long night…