So Rosetta's tail was in a leaf blade and halfway down to Casten's face and Casten nearly released a thunderbolt when Bei decided to gather her shit and talk.

"Wait. Uh. Guys!"

Casten immediately glanced at her, but Rosetta huffed. "I'm not a guy. Gender equality, Bei, dear."

Bei ignored her. "Casten, we're leaving," she declared, shuffling back to Rosetta's house. "Thanks for the invite, Rose, but we're leaving."

"You're—You're leaving just because your stupid best friend said you had to go! I said the village isn't dangerous at all, Bei!" Rosetta snarled. So much for a pacifist, when she was about to rip Casten apart. "It's just that one logo and we won't hurt you."

"It's not that! If Casten's uncomfortable, then we are leaving." Bei crossed her arms defiantly. "And, it's not because of the logo or anything. I don't care a lot if you capture me or anything but Casten is my first friend and like hell I'm leaving him."

Rosetta still didn't move.

"Fuck off," Bei told her politely.

The leafeon jumped off Casten cautiously, staring at Bei all the while. The robot shifted under her gaze warily as they trotted back to her house. Bei decided it wasn't a very good idea to go into Rosetta's house but they had to grab their belongings.

Rosetta sat at the exit and didn't let them go out, staring at them with calculating eyes.

"Rose. We have to leave."

'Be polite about it.'

"Oh. Um, Rose, thanks for the stay and all and I've certainly been trouble to you. And if you don't mind, we kinda have to leave. We're still friends after this, even though I'm a huge fuckbutt. Sorry."

"You wasted my time. You do know that?"

"Leafeon are pacifistic. So be pacifistic," Casten called haughtily from behind.

"You have absolutely no say in this," Rosetta reminded him. "I don't particularly care what you think, you hollow-skull lizard."

"Hey! While I'm around, no fighting!" Bei folded her arms. "Rose, just move. Seriously. We need to get the fuck out of here and get back into the forest. And I promise I will keep visiting you until you're sick of my presence."

The leafeon finally grunted, and sidestepped. "We're not done talking, Bei. I'm still pretty annoyed at you," she hissed. "So next time I see you in the forest, we'll have a nice long talk."

One that Bei would prefer to avoid.

"Of course, Rosetta. You have my word on that."

If she ever saw Bei again in the forest, that was.

"Now, thank you. And good-fucking-bye."

Rosetta let them off easily, and Bei knew that—and she also knew the next time she met Rosetta, things wouldn't be as easy as this was. So she glanced back at the leafeon one last time before darting back into the forest.

"Bei, you nearly had me killed."

"Casten, shut up. We are so not talking."

"Gladly."

Then a silence followed, only disrupted by the crunching of twigs and fallen leaves under their feet. Casten was pissed at Bei for leading them into a village with a crazy (well, he was convinced Rosetta was crazy) leafeon who nearly killed him. Bei was pissed at Casten for dragging her out of the village (even though she didn't have to; it was obligation) when she had another friend there.

So they just kept walking in silence. Pretty stupid, actually, since prior to the village, Bei was always so full of life and chatting and chatting even more.

'Mistress Bei, about that feeling—'

"I don't particularly care right now."

'...If that suits you better.'

"You know," Casten suddenly said, "if you hate me that much for making you get out of the village, you can always go back."

"Then you'll be alone."

"I lived alone before you came. I don't really care."

Still? No. She didn't say it out loud, nor did she have to.

"You're always in trouble, though. If I had to count how many times I've saved you with my fingers, I couldn't!"

"That's because you don't have any."

"Well, whatever! From now on, Bei's relying on her nose to make sure that we won't make any contact with any pokemon unless we're gonna eat it." She grinned triumphantly. "So that way, we won't have a Rosetta Version two-point-zero!"

Uh. "Bei, there are thousands of pokemon in this forest. I don't think that's even possible..."

"But voicey did it! Voicey did it for thirteen years of my life!"

"Then explain our meeting."

"I dunno. Voicey can't explain it. Malfunction?"

"My point exactly. Your plan can 'malfunction' anytime so it's basically ridiculous. Avoiding potential allies is next to impossible," Casten reasoned. Not that he wanted another Rosetta fiasco again.

Bei only stared at him in confusion. "'Potential allies'? What does that mean? Stop using big words! I don't understand it!"

...It seems she was a lot stupider than Casten had taught her. "Never mind. We simply cannot avoid all pokemon that we're not eating."

"I don't care."

Her plan backfired, of course, because when she was curled up and about to sleep there was a fox staring at her curiously.

...

How many times had she said she'd do something and it didn't work?