A/N : Woo. It's only been… SEVERAL months since my last update. Uh. I could tell you that I was super busy and make tons of excuses, but that would be garbage and stupid and lame and bad. So I won't. I'm sorry, guys. I let you down, I'll try not to again. Now that I've groveled and beg for forgiveness (PLEASE FORGIVE ME, PLEASE), I'll talk a bit about the story.

SO. SO. SO. I was going to take down Chapter 5 and redo it and just try make things better because I hated it so. Because I wrote this a while back, when I was relearning how to write and trying to find my range with this story and its characters, and my style has improved so much. BUT. WELL. I decided that I wasn't going to do it and that I was instead going to post up Chapter 6 and do everything else from now on in the new style. You'll note that there isn't AS MUCH overwriting here. There is a much more relaxed flow to the writing and it's not so overwrought. I can't believe I used "sensitive pink flesh" in one of the earlier chapters. Just… no. Boo me, sadface, yo. So. Not as much overwriting. The flow is better, the feel is better, and more importantly, I think I can sustain my creativity and voice now. Still, looking for tips and idea so hit me with your best shot, I'll love you for days.

A lot of stuff happened in this chapter… without stuff happening? I mean, there was a lot of walking here. A lot of development… in the mind. Sort of. OH. AND BICKERING. OMG. LIKE CHILDREN. But I personally think it's adorable when the bicker. Yay Dominic. But yes, hold on tight. I DO have things in mind for the later chapters and I have a rough idea for the next chapter and expect to see some more Pokemon. Just not in this Chapter, sorry. I mean. There ARE Pokemon, this is a Pokemon fanfic, but they aren't, "OMG, I WANT 2 BTTLE U, CUZ, DO IT." But yes. Next Chapter, there might be a battle. Maybe.

Also. And maybe this should have been at the top, but I noticed in Chapter Five, I mentioned Route 203 and I went over the map again, just looking, and noticed that 203 connects Jubilife to Oreburgh, and it's Route 202 that runs between Sandgem and Jubilife, which is where Abe and Dominic really are. SO. I'll probably go back and correct that... I just don't know though, because Abra don't really appear on that route in the game... Still, this is my fanfiction so I guess if I wanted to put an Abra there, I could. Hm. Yeah. CHANGING IT. Anyhoo. Enough of my notes, get on over to the story, you crazy cats.

Warnings : I don't own Pokemon… I might stop adding this in… But for now I DON'T OWN POKEMON. The characters Abe and Dominic are mine though. There are one or two bad words lurking around in this chapter so you're warned. Nothing sexual, nothing gore-y.

The bramble crackled as it admitted them into itself, underscoring the fact that they were foreign additions to the landscape, incongruous parts of a green and brown whole. The scenery was the familiar array of trees and rocks and worn-down dirt routes and hills rising in the distance. Familiar to Abe at least, but Dominic had very little trouble adjusting, being the hardy, outdoors-loving type. As a matter of fact, it was one of few intersections between the two of them and it should have brought them to some sort of truce, a mutual appreciation for nature. But it only accentuated their differences with the increased pressure of commonality. It thickened the silence, made it into tense, terse minutes of protracted quiet that was interspersed with the aforementioned crackling as they walked, and walked, and walked. It had been almost two hours since Abe had captured the Abra which meant that it had been two hours since the last spoken word between the two of them. Two hours of not speaking and of walking into the heart of the wilderness with just the sound of walking--shoes rolling pebbles and breaking twigs and of fingers straying just beyond the edge of the path to tousle the leaves of especially large shrubs--to show that they were in fact moving and not just mulling about in the breathings vacuum of wordlessness.

There were so many questions Abe wanted to ask now that he had an Abra. How to feed it, how to talk to it, how to make sure that it was okay after capturing it. Would it be too dark in the Pokeball, should he let it out? Was it big enough, did he need to check it for insects and sickness? And there were many emotions that came along with the added pressure of raising -two- Pokemon now; he felt both uneasy and excited about the whole thing, but they were so far ingrained in each other that he didn't know which was which anymore. But these things, all of these things, just built up in his chest like gathering steam with no way out because he was not going to ask Dominic the first thing about anything but where they were going and how long it would take. The back of his tongue was raw from chewing, and the flat taste of that chewing filled up his mouth in like the ghost of all of those unasked questions and unaired emotions. There was still the issue of Dominic's domineering entrance into his life too. He felt a little silly to be holding a grudge, but all he had to do to get rid of that silly little notion was think about how it had felt to be pushed backward into the stream. And just like that, poof! Gone was his fleeting desire to drop what it was he held against Dominic.

Maybe that was why he felt so tense being around Dominic. All of those unresolved questions and fears and emotions. What he needed to do was make sure that they were on the right page. He needed to make sure that Dominic was there to provide him with answers to his questions or this whole thing was going to turn into one substantial waste of time. At the moment, Dominic was simply a blur on the periphery of Abe's vision. He hovered there like a dark specter smeared around the edge of a drinking glass. With the sun breaking in shimmering beads through the occasional openings in the treetop canopies, Dominic's presence glittered in the shapelessness of his current side-glance containment. But even blurry and out of focus, he made Abe's stomach tighten. Disgruntled, he kicked at a rock in front of him and watched it skim over the dusty ground, rolling through the smaller, smoother pebbles in a big hunk of hardened orange clay. And then, when the pace of their walking brought him closer to it, he kicked it yet again and watched as it sailed, this time bounding and hopping whenever its irregular edges caught the ground. Dominic was humming again, humming and being smug and being annoying. The sound of it worked through his mind and draped all of his thoughts in the lazy torpor of a summer afternoon. Then he sighed and dug his fingers further down into his pants, scratching at imaginary itches and trying to keep his eyes still and steady on the road ahead.

But it wasn't easy walking with your head so straight and focused. It just wasn't. Partly because there wasn't much to see out in front except for the overhanging branches loaded in green that cast shadowy footfalls across their path. And partly because the more he didn't want to look at Dominic, he found that he did want to look at him, to really address him and get to the matter of clearing things up between them. And the more he did want to, the more he chewed on his tongue and made a cud out of his chewed up thoughts and whims that tasted bittersweet like the half-remembered dreams of childhood. Which always left a foul taste in his mouth and made him want to turn his head and spit it out. But he didn't dare do that because all it took was one movement to make it suddenly okay to turn and look at Dominic. To speak freely to him, to break the strained, tenuous calm between them. So his gaze stayed the course, and he didn't even blink for fear of catching Dominic's reflection on an eyelash or an eyelid. His eyes burned from the strain, burned from dryness, and whenever the burst white and abruptly overhead, he always winced and sucked hissing air in through his teeth. And the one thing that could have been comforting--that Dominic felt as tightly wound and frustrated as he did--was just not so; Dominic seemed to be the opposite of those things. Even in his mind, Abe had a hard time imagining Dominic as ever looking uptight, tense, or worried. Because that involved being able to think, and Dominic probably found thinking to be extremely difficult.

That thought made Abe smile. Yes. He may have been a little tense at the moment, but at least he wasn't a meathead. At least he wasn't some musclebound hick. He'd always been refined for his age and better for his circumstances, his mother had said to him again and again. He was special. Special. Better than those others, and they were just jealous. Jealous! So what. Let them have their money and their whatevers. He'd grown out of being overweight and out of caring what other people felt and thought about him! As the words and their accompanying pictures formed in his mind, Abe's chest pushed out and his shoulders rose with pride. His faint smile deepened again into a cocksure smirk and his steps became permeated by a haughty swagger, the one he'd been practicing. The entirety of his presence was restructuring itself, lengthing, thickening, becoming stronger, bigger than it was. He was swelling beyond his bounds and expanding beyond the childishness of Dominic's games. He wouldn't play along anymore, of course not. No. Certainly not. He was better than all of that now. He didn't even have to -not- look at Dominic anymore. Just to prove it to himself and to the rest of the universe which had always seemed to doubt him, he glanced at Dominic and found that Dominic was watching him with a cocked brow and a slightly curious expression. Some part of him faltered and retreated, but Abe held on to his bravado and pushed it in Dominic's direction with a raised brow of his own.

"What?" Abe asked this without losing his smirk, said it around the smirk actually in an artificially deep voice.

Dominic shrugged and responded with a placid, "Nothing." Oh, of course, nothing. Abe was going to respond to that but found that Dominic was not done speaking, "I was just wondering if you always broke out into diabolical smiles. Planning my murder so soon?" Laughter crept in at the edges of Dominic's voice and Abe didn't have to have to look far for something offending in the tone. The words felt like a slap in the face thought they had been delivered in an amused, humorous way. Just like that, Dominic had turned him into a joke.

Abe frowned then turned back to watching the trees, burning up on the inside from humiliation while Dominic looked on with that stupid chuckle of his. Already, Abe had begun to associate Dominic's chuckle with hurtful things and hurt feelings, with feeling inferior and infinitely little. It made him feel small and insubstantial and it was the stupidest sound he'd ever heard, ever heard! He listened to it wind itself up in the creaking branch sways and the tilting lilt of pine trees further off, and rolled his right hand into a knuckle-cracking fist. He would have liked nothing more at that moment than to tell Dominic to shut up and to ask him just what was so funny, because he certainly didn't find that joke funny. And if he found the thought of his own murder to be funny, which he probably did. Morbid, stupid, idiotic, unsophisticated… He was so entrenched in his hate that he did not hear the end to the laughter when it finally came. And he had become so accustomed to the quiet that when it broke gently over his shoulders, he didn't even flinch.

His footsteps grew wider apart and he pulled ahead of Dominic, almost stomping into a small lead. His hands were sweating in his pockets and beads of sweat went down the contours of his neck in cool rivers. The sun kissed prickling kisses up the back of his neck to his nape, reminding him that it was afternoon which meant more time with Dominic, alone in the forest. And speaking of Dominic, he heard the sound of his casual footsteps which themselves seemed to be laughing. And the humming returned. If this was adventure, this walking business, he wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted to turn around and go… and go… he could not commit to the completion of that thought. He glanced over his shoulder, trying to see if Dominic had read his mind, if he was smug in his correct assumption that Little Aberley wanted to go… to go… Abe narrowed his eyes at Dominic, who had his hands folded behind his head, his eyes closed, and his lips spread in a smile. What did he have to smile about anyway?

"You can stop staring at me now, Abe," Dominic said, and Abe did just that, he turned around abruptly and sniffed, trying to distance himself from the shame of being caught.

"I wasn't staring," Abe countered after a few seconds, obviously not amused. Dominic snorted, but Abe persisted, "Someone has a mighty big opinion of himself." There was a sneer in his voice though he made an attempt to keep his tone casual if somewhat overly accusing.

"Yes," Dominic agreed nonchalantly. Then, with a yawn, "Someone sure does."

The implication wasn't lost on Abe who grunted, stepped on a dirt cloud harder than he needed to, and settled into another stony silence.

"When do you want to stop for lunch." Dominic's voice drifted over Abe's shoulder, but he didn't acknowledge it, just left it to hang there. It was obviously a trap to try and lure him into a state of defenselessness. If he said he wanted to stop then and there, Dominic would simply push aside his wish, maybe later, he could already hear it. Or if he said later, Dominic would probably sneer and call his bluff and say that it was stupid to go for so long without eating. Dominic thought he was so smart. "Well?" Abe bit down, felt the flexing of his jaws and he ground into silence. "Well?" Dominic was walking right next to him now, smelling like the ocean and like the land and like the trees. Abe gave him a pointed look or tried to, his expression was displeased, but Dominic just stared at him expectantly, as if he had lost his right mind.

"Well?"

"What are you, a broken record? Shut up and let me think!" Abe spat this out, and feeling his throat lock up and turn hot.

Dominic snickered, wiped at the corner of his mouth said that it was better to say it, not spray it. Abe snorted then grunted and stopped. He raised his hands and motioned at the surroundings. "What about right now, then?" He was hungry, but he more wanted Dominic to just stop talking and to crawl back into whatever hole he'd crawled out of.

They stood there in the middle of the road, just looking at each other, just standing there. Abe didn't even think to breath, he didn't trust himself to breath. But Dominic had his lips pursed and his eyes moving over the scenery. He was kicking rhythmically at the ground, emitting regular tufts of loose grit and dust upward which were swept into nothing by the passing breeze. He seemed to move, everything about him seemed to move. Abe's hands twitched in his pockets. Why couldn't he just answer? Either yes or no, was it so hard? Was it? Nervousness touched every part of his mind and it was getting to be a little unbearable, all of this standing around and waiting.

"Maybe a little further, huh?" Dominic motioned to the next hill. "We can get up there in about five minutes and we'll eat there. Unless you want to eat and walk," he gave a shrug at this and Abe's shoulders slumped as he dumbly followed the line of Dominic's finger," but I don't suggest it. Bad for digestion." Abe blinked stupidly and began walking in that direction, dragging his feet as he went, leaving Dominic to whatever it was that Dominic wanted to do. Bullshit. Walking and eating was probably great for your digestion. It was probably better than sitting and eating! The path Dominic wanted to go took them off the main route and on to one that was more grass than dirt. It meandered under shady trees, for which he was grateful, and it ended not too far from where the creek flowed out and eastward. A grassy hill top rose to block out their previous route from site and suddenly it was just that hill and the thick stand of trees at their sides. But oh well, he could deal with this. Dominic seemed to be enjoying it, though, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

There were Pokemon on this part of the route. Abe could hear their calls and cries passing as reverberating echoes through the treetops. There was so much more active noise here! The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he started once or twice at an oddly shaped root hidden by shadow and sticky with black dirt, the ones that looked like Pokemon, but really weren't anything but oddly constructed nature. Dominic laughed at these incidents and Abe sent him foul looks for his trouble. When he nearly jumped out of his skin because cool leaves tickled at his skin, he stopped dead-still and folded his arms over his chest. It was dark and creepy and strange and Dominic was probably trying to lure him out of the normal way so that he could murder him with little trouble.

"That's it! That's it! I'm done! Not going another inch until you tell me exactly where it is we're going." Breath quivered at the back of this throat and he tried and failed to swallow the trembling half-sigh. It came out instead as a malformed whimper. His eyes were wide and glossy, his mouth small and kittenish; he felt, again, small.

But Dominic just shook his head and smiled, motioned with a wide palm further along the path. "Just a little bit more, Abe. We're almost there." He was disgustingly casual about this whole thing.

"Oh no. No, no, no. 'Just a little bit more, Abe' someone who believes that, Dominic. Where are we going?" His voice filled up the shadows on that last part, the question expanded out into the distance that was beyond him and beyond Dominic.

And Dominic again, just shook his head and smiled. "I told you, I showed you. We're going over there, for lunch. Unless you're not hungry…" He phrased the last part like a challenge, a dare. Abe could tell.

"You know I'm hungry, Dominic. You know it! You're just… just… taking advantage of me!" Of course he was! Oh, it was so painfully clear now!

"Taking…" Dominic blinked. And blinked. And blinked again. He seemed lost, or was just playing coy, which seemed infinitely more likely.

"Taking ADVANTAGE. What, are you dumb as well as sneaky? The two seem mutually exclusive."

Something seemed to snap between them then and Abe saw a dark shadow fall across Dominic's face. His mouth pursed, and his eyes darkened. His broad shoulders and muscular arms seemed then, in that terrifying moment, to grow larger and Abe became aware again of just how much larger, how much stronger than himself Dominic was. He swallowed, but Dominic didn't advance.

"Right. Well, enjoy being the dinner of every Pokemon within the next five miles. See you around, Abe." And just like that, he turned around and took three steps. But then, he paused and seemed to fight with himself. The quarrel, whatever it was, didn't last long enough for Abe to say much because just like that, it was over and Dominic was walking away from him again.

"Dominic. Dominic. Dominic!" Cold fear splashed upward through his stomach and before panic could settle down into him, he was walking briskly after Dominic into the shady, leafy bush. A twig snapped and gave way beneath his foot and Dominic glanced over his shoulder. Even at a distance, it was disconcerting.

"Oh, so you believe me now, do you?" Cold, distant, tired. Abe walked at a respectfully slow pace, trying to preserve his dignity like he hadn't just shrieked like a frightened little child.

He gave a shrug that Dominic couldn't see and swaggered nearer, "I didn't say that… but I don't think it's a good idea to get separated. You don't know the area and I'd hate for something -terrible- to happen to you." He nodded to emphasize his point and when the word 'terrible' came up, he said it with as much gravity as he could muster, forgetting or maybe not caring to be sincere.

"Yes. We wouldn't want anything terrible to happen to the person with the map," was Dominic's dry response. But he did stop walking long enough for Abe to catch up. He sighed. Frowned. Then sighed again. "Look, Abe--"

Abe's eyes remained glossy and large. Childlike and clear. Windows to his fear, to his naivety.

Dominic grunted, returned to walking. "Never mind, we're almost there, just up this hill."

Relief unfurled icy and damp in his stomach. Carefully, quietly, gratefully, he followed Dominic under a low branch then up the side of the massive hill whose curve they had been following. And up into the sun. They sat on the hillside, listening to the voice of the creek gurgling as it wound out through the forest, beneath the shadowy limbs. They listened to the sounds of clouds passing by and the sound of wind scraping the blades of grass low. But mainly, they listened to the sound of unsaid things dripping to the space between them.

Quietly, they dedicated themselves to a cold lunch and to getting on the road again.