A/N: I had a few more chapters written but totally forgot. My bad.
Eggxactly as Planned
4. News
It had been three days, and while Ryouga found his mind drifting from time to time to that Magby, he didn't go back. He didn't speak about the incident either.
It was a small village and word travelled fast. A few people did stop him and ask; he gave them clipped answers. No-one thought anything strange of it; it was the manner in which he often spoke, if he didn't feel like talking. When he did, for orals or debates or something else, he could manage: clear, short and succinct. Some simply said he didn't wish to waste his words; others accepted it was the interaction he didn't wasn't.
His grandparents hadn't heard though, so they couldn't ask him at the dining table. And he didn't tell them: he didn't want to talk about it. It was a small thing, like helping a kid that had tripped over their bike. Taking a sick Pokemon to the Pokemon Centre was no different. He should have been able to forget about it, now that it was done.
Except he hadn't managed to forget, and the other villagers were under the impression that he had picked up a partner Pokemon. He hadn't – he hadn't even seen the Magby since that day at the Pokemon Centre – but there was no convincing the others of that.