Chapter Eleven
Small Fry, Small Talk

Paul did not move for a few moments but Annabelle could feel his shoulder trembling under her hand, his anger bubbling and fermenting at her touch. Praying for an easy resolution, for his fury to ease off, she didn't want to speak again for fear of him blowing up completely.

Emily was in her element. Picking up her Azurill and dancing around, she was cackling and smirking in a way that was quite unbecoming of a girl her age. Paul was stiff with rage.

"…Paul?" Annabelle dared to ask, flinching even as she spoke. "Are you…alright?"

Then he snapped.

He kicked. He yelled. He screamed. He stomped around like every footfall was crushing a particularly nasty bug underneath. Annabelle could only watch helplessly, cradling the injured Ledyba against her chest, while his trainer rampaged around like an angry Tauros. There was no point in trying to intervene – like a toddler in a tantrum he would just have to work himself through it.

When it eventually looked like he had run through most of his energy and was calming down, Emily danced up to him and held out her hand.

Paul glowered down at her. "What do you want? You already won. Isn't that enough?"

"Prize money!"

A deep frown creased Paul's face. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Prize money! Me and my 'Zurill beat you, so you have to give me money!"

Paul looked back at Annabelle who only had to nod for Paul to lose his grip on his temper again.

"Are you kidding me? I have to hand over all my money to this runt?!"

"It's the law!" Emily giggled, stretching out her hand further.

Paul swore. Many times. Harsh, crass words that even Annabelle had never heard in conjunction with each other. Yet Emily did not blink, simply continued to hold out an expectant hand until Paul finally relented.

Annabelle felt her heart constrict painfully as Paul handed the little girl a fistful of crisp, clean notes. She squeezed Paul's Ledyba a little too tightly and it moaned in pain. She shushed it, somewhat impatiently, her eyes firmly fixed on the exchange between Paul and Emily.

The little girl counted her prize money out with wide, greedy eyes. "Whoa… there's so many. I can buy so much candy with this!"

"WHAT!?" Paul bellowed.

"Just kidding!" Emily bobbed up and down on her tip-toes, her Azurill copying her. "I don't even like candy much."

Paul growled. "You are really pushing it, kid."

Emily grinned smugly, showing off a gap in her teeth. "Thanks for the battle, butt-face! You were really easy to beat!"

"Say what?!"

Emily stuck her tongue out and flounced away, leaving Paul shaking furiously. Annabelle allowed him a moment before approaching him

"Did you see that? Did you see that?!" he demanded of her, waving his hand at Emily's rapidly retreating back.

"Of course I did."

"What a little brat! What kid acts like that?"

"A lot of Pokemon trainer kids do behave like that, unfortunately. I get the feeling she knew what she was doing."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I've seen it before. Gangs of kids who act like they're really weak and then destroy any opponent who gets taken in by the façade. I don't know, maybe I'm just being too suspicious. Something about her just seemed…off."

"You're being ridiculous."

"Then explain how she beat you like it was nothing?"

"She didn't. I nearly won." Paul muttered traitorously.

"Well… despite it all, Ledyba did really good for his first proper battle."

"Hey, what about me?" Paul asked, incensed. "It was my first battle too!"

"You weren't the one slamming into everything with your head." Annabelle replied sternly. "Ledyba did really good. I'd like to think he surprised you. He certainly surprised me. And instead of you behaving like a proper Pokemon trainer and taking care of your injured Pokemon – you know, he got injured because of you – you're sitting there bitching and moaning about it being unfair!"

She had progressed to shouting without even realising. When her anger slipped away, she half-expected Paul to launch into another tirade of moans, groans and criticisms. But he stood there, his head bowed slightly, looking like a naughty schoolboy pulled up in front of the headmaster.

"I know," was all he could manage.

Annabelle pushed the injured Ledyba into Paul's arms. "You've got to start taking a bit more responsibility! This Pokemon is yours! And if you don't appreciate what he did for you, he'll end up hating you, and then what are you gonna do?"

"I know."

"He did well! Really well! Considering he never battled properly before and it looked like quite a tough opponent!"

"I know, Annabelle."

"Well start acting like you know, then!" she snapped, before turning her back on him. "Come on." She said thickly. "Let's just go to the Pokemon Centre and get him healed up."

"You go ahead. I'll catch you up."

"Fine."

He waited until she disappeared from sight before shifting the Ledyba into a better position in his arms. The Pokemon had fallen asleep. Bruises had formed across the tiny Pokemon's wings and back and a thin trickle of blood dripped from its mouth. Paul wiped the blood away with his thumb.

"Sorry, dude. Sorry you got hurt. You did good though."

The words were clumsy and probably fell on deaf ears. But they were all Paul had to offer. He felt a stab of shame. This Pokemon, battered and bruised, had fought without question under his command, and now as it lay snoring in Paul's arms, he couldn't even find the words to articulate a proper apology. Or gratitude.

Rest. That was the only thing for it. For both him and the Ledyba. He tapped the slumbering Pokemon with its Pokeball and it disappeared in bright red light, leaving his arms empty and missing the heavy warmth it had just held.

.-.-.

"Hey. You awake?"

A groan. "I am now."

It was nearing midnight. Annabelle had been lying awake for the past hour and Paul, as she had discovered, was a surprisingly light sleeper.

"Sorry." Annabelle rolled over on her side and shut her eyes. "I'll let you sleep."

"…what do you want?"

She popped her eyes open again. "But I thought you wanted to sleep?"

"I do."

"Then why—?"

"Just tell me what you want, woman!"

"Okay, okay, okay…" Annabelle pulled the covers underneath her chin. "I just… Well… I don't know, it's silly."

"Annabelle…" Paul's voice sounded muffled. Did he have his head under the covers? "Can you please just say what you want?"

"I just wanted to talk." She twitched her shoulders in the tiniest of shrugs.

"Talk?" He sounded confused. Like it was a completely foreign concept to him.

"Yeah. You know, that thing every normal human being ever does."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything."

Paul growled. "Can't you be any more specific?"

"Not really. I just wanna talk."

"Seriously, what about?"

"Anything."

"Oh God, Annabelle!" Paul sat up in a manic rustling of covers and blankets. He snapped on the light and the room was filled with a harsh orange glow. Blinking in the sudden brightness, Annabelle could barely even register him snapping "If you want to talk, fine! But pick a subject!" He lay back with a thump on the pillows, slamming the light off again in the process.

"O…kay." Annabelle stared up at the ceiling, letting her eyes readjust to the darkness. "Hm… subject. Subject. Oh! So, what was it that made you start this whole thing again?"

Paul frowned. "I already told you. Got in a competition with my friend."

"Mm. That much I know. What was the competition?"

"First person to find four 'ideal' Pokemon wins. We're supposed to meet at the Lake of Rage in just under a month."

"And who is this friend?"

"Guy I know online. Goes by the name of Dest."

Annabelle wrinkled her nose. "What kind of a name is Dest?"

"Short for DestinationOverload."

"That doesn't clear up anything." She giggled. "What's their actual name?"

"Don't know."

"You don't know? You don't know your own friend's name?"

"Don't need to. Everyone on there goes by screen names."

"Have you ever talked to him?"

"Course. Loads of times. He texts me a lot."

"No, I mean properly. Like, on the phone."

"Nah. Don't like phones much."

"Then how do you know he's not like twelve or something? Or even worse, some fifty something creepy guy."

Despite himself, Paul laughed. "You wouldn't say that if you knew the guy."

"Fair enough." Annabelle smoothed her wrinkled covers down. "So, why a Riolu?"

"Huh?" It took Paul a moment to register where she had moved the conversation to. "Oh, the Riolu…" he murmured, remembering with a jolt of apprehension the Riolu egg supposedly waiting for him in Blackthorn. "I dunno. I always liked Lucario, I guess. If I really had to become a Pokemon trainer, I figured I'd take a Pokemon I actually would like to train IRL."

Annabelle frowned. "Eye… rar el?"

"IRL." Paul spelled out. "Means 'in real life'."

"Oh." Annabelle chuckled. "Sorry. I'm not really

"S'alright." Paul shrugged. "Anything else you wanna know?"

"Are you worried?"

The question came from Annabelle before she was even aware she was asking it. It hung heavy in the air for a few moments.

"Worried? What about, exactly?"

"Anything? Everything?"

"I guess just worried I won't get the Riolu egg in time." He said after some thought. "The lady you called up said three to four weeks. But I'm supposed to be meeting Dest in a month. And by the way we're going, we'll hardly be in Cianwood by that time. It's not looking likely I'll get the Riolu by the time I need to meet Dest."

"Well…" Annabelle shifted around in bed for a few moments. "The breeders will hold your egg for you as long as they need to. So there's no problem there. As for Dest, why don't you just ask to reschedule if you think you won't be ready in time?"

"I don't know…" Paul murmured. It was a thought that had graced his mind, wholly unpleasant and uninvited, a few times before now. "I don't think he'd be cool with that."

"Well, you don't know for sure. It's just a suggestion?"

"I know. I think I'll cross that bridge if I have to come to it."

There was a silence between them, broken only by the soft hum of their breathing and a door opening and slamming shut down the corridor.

"I thought you'd be worried about Ledyba." Annabelle eventually found the courage to say what had been bothering her for some time. "And y'know… still angry that you lost."

Paul grunted. "I'm angry that I lost in such a bullshit way. Hax. Hax all the way. If that had been in-game, I would have won. There's no doubt about that. But…" he added, with a deep sigh. "It's all experience at the end of the day. Soon as Ledyba gets a little tougher and I catch more Pokemon, it'll all be great."

Annabelle wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her, or himself, of that.

"Do you want to head straight out of Violet tomorrow? Or stay another day?"

While the thought of another day with access to showers, beds and electricity was devilishly attractive to Paul, he forced himself to think logically. "We'll need to keep going. Won't we?"

"Yeah. Head down Route 36 and—"

"I know. Take the next route up to Ecruteak. I know."

"Really? You'd go the Ecruteak way?"

"…yeah?"

"Why not go straight to Goldenrod? They do ferry sailings every few days."

"Ferry crossings? But that's—"

"Not in the games?" Annabelle chimed in unison.

Paul glared at her through the darkness of the room. "I hate when you do that."

"It's not my fault you're so predictable." She said with a secret grin.

"Ugh, whatever. If a ferry gets us there quicker, I'm all for it. God knows I just want that part of this whole stupid thing over with as quickly as possible."

"Arceus, you're grumpy." She laughed. Then she softened, lowering her voice so much that Paul had to strain to hear her. "But… you know, it does mean a lot to me you're going to… y'know, set things right."

"You barely gave me an option."

"Heh. I guess I didn't." She stared up at the ceiling. "I'm glad we're doing this. It's been fun. In a sort of a weird way. Reminds me a lot of the first time I did this."

She was baiting him. He could tell she was itching for him to question "Really? Why?" and open up the conversation to be about her. That was a woman thing after all. Small talk was awkward, and difficult enough, let alone when it was focused on someone else.

Yet Annabelle carried on blithely even when he didn't take the bait. "I tried a journey once. When I was about, maybe twelve or thirteen? I didn't get too far, I'll be honest. Got four months in and I rang my Dad crying and demanding to be brought home."

This time, he couldn't help himself. "What happened?"

"Let's just say, don't get in the way of an angry Mama Miltank and her babies." She giggled. "Man, when Dad finally found me he was so mad. Paying for all the licensing and my first Pokemon then I just packed it all in, especially when I spent so long bugging him for one in the first place. I think he was quite glad when I went back to school and got a normal-person-job."

"And then you went and opened a Breeders after all that anyway?"

"What can I say? It's what I love to do. Besides, by that point, I was paying for it myself. I wasn't using my Dad's money anymore."

"He must have had quite a pretty penny to get Dusty all the way over from Hoenn."

Annabelle had gone strangely quiet. For a moment, he wondered if she had fallen asleep. He debated leaving her be. Any opportunity to not talk, after all. But he knew better – nobody could fall asleep quite that fast.

"Annabelle?"

"Hm? Oh, s-sorry… What did you say?"

"Dusty. It must have cost a shitton to get a Hoenn Pokemon all the way to Johto."

"Dusty… wasn't my first Pokemon."

"He wasn't?"

"No. I had a Stantler."

"A Stantler? That's unusual for a starter." Paul's mind began ticking over at the mention of such an obscure Pokemon. "Sure, I mean, between Sawsbuck and Girafarig, it's pretty much outclassed, but still pretty good. Especially for a starter Pokemon. Where the hell is it? Back with your parents?"

"No." Annabelle's voice sounded thick. "I… I lost it."

"You lost a Stantler? Did it run away?"

"Oh, Arceus, Paul!" she cried out. "Do I have to spell it out for you? She died."

"…oh. Oh, shit…"

"Yeah…" Annabelle sniffed, furiously wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. "Must be… what? Four years ago?"

"How did it…?"

"She got poisoned. Some assholes laced some Pokemon food with venom extracted from an Arbok fang. No-one knew why. And by the time the nurses got to her… it was just too late…"

"Shit, Annabelle…"

"Sorry…" she was sniffing furiously now, like it was the last line of defence against a complete outpour of emotion.

"Shit, no, don't be sorry. It's a horrible thing. Can… can I do anything?"

"It was four years ago. There's nothing you can do about it now."

"I know, but… Ugh, God, I'm a man, Annabelle. I don't know how to deal with this shit."

She made a noise that Paul couldn't tell whether it was a laugh or a cry.

"A bad thing happened and it's upsetting. So you can cry if you need to. Hell, cry all night if you want. It's not like I'm gonna care." Shit. That came out wrong. "Ugh, I mean, I don't mind. Mind. I won't exactly like not getting asleep because of you crying but…"

He had to stop. He was making it worse. But on the plus side, Annabelle was laughing now. "It's alright. I don't need to cry all night. I'm okay now."

"Yeah… well, good. That's… good." Paul said gruffly.

"We should get to sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us."

"Yeah. That would probably be wise."

Both of them lay back into their pillows and were still. Just as Annabelle's eyes closed, Paul spoke up again.

"Did they ever catch the bastards who did it?"

"…no. They never did. There was never enough evidence to pin it down. But I'll tell you something…"

"What?"

"If I ever find the people responsible, they will have a lot to answer for." Her voice was laced with an ominous finality that made Paul wonder exactly what she could do to them.

Faced with nothing else to say or do, he uttered "Goodnight Annabelle" into the darkness.

"Goodnight, Paul."

And silence fell.

Author's Note

Hey everyone! Me again!

A shorter chapter once again, apologies for the dialogue heavy section at the end. I'll be honest, that part happened very organically and yeah, I enjoyed it, so it stayed in.

I am very excited for the next little arc I'll be introducing - which involves several Pokemon eggs - on the journey onwards to Goldenrod City.

I am ALSO very excited to announce I'm going to be working on a new Pokemon fanfiction. This is going to be a collaboration with my lovely best friend The Neverending Meep, which will be published under my screen name. As of now, the project is untitled and only has the beginning of the first chapter written but I'll be putting more information on the "My Stories" section of my profile within the next few days.

Massive thanks, as always, to everyone who has taken the time to read and review.

Stay lovely, everyone. Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint and I'll see you on the next one.