writers note
Late update. Sorry, guys! I've had the craziest schedule at university lately, and then as soon as spring break arrived, so did my sister. It's been massively fun, of course, but I'm glad to be writing again in earnest. If this chapter is a little short, it's only to try and get it out sooner, so I can work on posting the next one by mid-April at least. While I admit the plot doesn't thicken much in this episode, I figured that it was about time for a break in the angst. OR IS IT?

Great news!! I have aquired a beta! Her name is GreenFlower and she is utterly amazing in every way. She has even made me some fan-art, which I'll link to in my profile as soon as it's finished. So please enjoy our combined efforts for this chapter!

chapter six

When Haruka and Masato came in after breakfast, Satoshi made no effort to hide his relief. It had been uncomfortable with Shigeru - which, Satoshi knew, should have been expected in their situation. Even though they had smiled at each other last night, it probably didn't count of anything; after all, they were in some sort of bizarre reality that was not their own. He sincerely doubted that Shigeru would've stayed in the same room as him had they still been in their time, in Johto. So, considering all of the weirdness that they had just gone through, it made Shigeru's behavior seem almost graceful.

Almost.

Satoshi was actually just a bit sick of being ignored, or replied to with non-committal grunts or a shrug of the shoulders. He wanted to shake Shigeru's shoulders or steal his breakfast or something, and it was a good thing that company had come to interrupt or he would've gone through with his imaginings, no question.

"Haruka!" Satoshi enthused, jumping up from his place at the table. From the edge of his eye, he could see a rather indifferent Shigeru pause in folding up their bed-linens, just long enough to raise an eyebrow unpleasantly.

"Good morning, Satoshi. Shigeru," said Haruka, respectfully inclining her head to both of the guests. Satoshi watched curiously as Masato folded his arms and made an arrogant huff rather than a greeting.

Shigeru brushed his hand over the top of the now completely folded linens, and cleared his voice. "Masato, may we ask you a question?"

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't answer, but go ahead, ask away," said Masato. Haruka gave him a pointed look, which Shigeru seemed to be struggling to keep off of his own face.

"Should I give you a minute?" asked Haruka, her eyes not leaving Masato's.

"Yeah, that's great," said Satoshi. He watched Masato walk haughtily across the room and muttered "What's his problem?" under his breath, sourly.

"What's the problem?" Masato asked Shigeru.

Shigeru stood up from his place on the floor, and now stood easily half a foot taller than Masato. Ha, thought Satoshi, Try to be condescending to us now! Of course, Satoshi conveniently left out the fact that Shigeru was easily half a foot taller than him, too. He'd always been told that he was short for his age.

"Masato, I imagine you're both here to take us to your chiefs man, and while Satoshi and I have no qualms about this meeting, I (at least) have something urgent I need to attend to first."

"A change of clothes?" asked Masato, eying up the rather anachronistic jeans, purple shirt, and lab coat that Shigeru wore. Satoshi kind of noticed that he wasn't dressed too differently.

"Actually, I need to relieve myself," Shigeru dead-panned.

The expression on Masato's face was so shocked that Satoshi had to bit the inside of his mouth to keep himself from bursting with laughter. Shigeru continued, as if entirely nonplussed: "It's been almost eighteen hours and I'm getting rather uncomfortable. I was worrying that I might have to adopt some pre-existing space in the room as a facility. I also feared that this might interfere with our meeting with the chiefs man today."

"Why didn't you just use the toilet?" Masato asked, looking rather pale.

Satoshi, however, quickly brushed off this observation of Masato's expression the moment he heard Masato say toilet. He interrupted, "Wait. You guys have toilets? Really? Where?"

"Of course we do," said Masato. He then paused, and looked at Satoshi sharply. "Which forces me to ask, where did you go to relieve yourself when you excused herself to the restroom yesterday?"

A blush overtook Satoshi and he stared at the ground intently.

"...There was a bush..." he mumbled guiltily.

Shigeru snickered, and Satoshi at least wasn't embarrassed enough not to throw him a rude look for it.

"Well, look, don't use people's gardens anymore,and use the toilet over here." Masato gestured behind Satoshi's shoulder, and Satoshi whipped his head to look, half-way expecting a magical portal to have revealed a fully equipped room with an electric toilet, but he only saw the white-stoned wall, standing exactly the same as Satoshi had remembered it from the night before. It was vaguely disappointing.

"I'm sorry, do you mean to imply that we go to the bathroom on the fireplace, or on the wall?" asked Shigeru said, rubbing his nose.

"What are you..." began Masato; then, he shook his head and walked towards the large, multi-colored braided rug on the wall.

"Um... So wait, does he really expect us to take a leak on a rug?" asked Satoshi, turning to Shigeru.

"Satoshi, shut up for a second and look," Shigeru said, motioning for Satoshi to look at Masato. Satoshi watched as Masato lifted the edge of the thick rug and revealed a wood-framed doorway and a dimly lit room beyond.

"That makes so much sense. I hadn't recalled that there were any structures built with only one room of living space," said Shigeru aloud.

"Ew, gross! My head was near that rug last night!" exclaimed Satoshi, "So that explains my dream about dodge-pokeball last night."

"Excuse me," interrupted Masato, placing his hands on his hips and letting the rug slide back into place. "Will that be all? Or do you need help with the act, too?"

"I was potty trained successfully at a young age!" defended Satoshi, curling his fists.

Shigeru just nodded once. "Thank you, Masato. We'll be out in a moment. "

After Masato left, Satoshi turned to Shigeru. "We?" he asked.

"I'll be going first, and you can wait here. You know what? How about you don't move at all and just do what I tell you to do. Does that sound good to you?"

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" replied Satoshi. Of course, Shigeru had already flipped back the edge of the rug and gone inside the hidden bathroom. Satoshi stretched out his arms, yawned, and waited.

He hadn't even had time to get truly bored before he heard a muffled curse come out from behind the rug. Then:

"...Satoshi."

"Yeah, Shigeru?"

"Can you call Masato back in?"

"Sure. What for?" asked Satoshi.

"I still don't see a toilet."

Outside of the hut, Satoshi bounced back on forth from the balls of his toes to his heels, as he waited for Masato to finish explaining the bathroom to Shigeru. Satoshi had to admit, that after he'd peeked behind the rug curtain, the room hadn't looked anything like a toilet at all. The fact that a good portion of the room was charred from fire made him think that it was an oven, actually. Apparently, that wasn't the case; it just seemed that this village liked to have warm bathrooms. Of course, where he was from, there tended to be warm toilet seats and bidets, so maybe it wasn't that strange after all. He really wished that they used house slippers, though. Wearing his shoes inside Haruka and Masato's hut was getting him kind of nervous. He didn't want to imagine how Shigeru felt without bath slippers either.

"So-" Satoshi drawled out the word, and looked over at Haruka curiously, and maybe a little boredly, "What are we going to do exactly when we meet the village leader?"

With a far kinder voice than her younger counterpart, Haruka still managed to sound a bit ominous.

"Our chiefsman will explain things when you arrive," she said. "Sorry, I'm not supposed to give anything away..."

"Give things away?" asked Satoshi, furrowing his brow a little. "You make it sound like a game."

"A game? A game? What a silly idea," said Haruka, laughing behind her hand. "Oh, one moment, I forgot to pick up the food trays inside."

Haruka disappeared inside the door frame with a flash of gold. When she came out, Satoshi could only focus on the mesmerizing sight of what had once been a meal, and he gazed at the plates and platters longingly. His stomach rumbled with the shared sentiment.

"Will we be eating again soon?"

"But I'm really, really hungry, and we didn't exactly get to eat consistently, and then my breakfast fell in the fire!" Satoshi crossed an arm over his stomach. "Is there anything we could eat?"

"Try these," offered Haruka, digging her hand out of a pocket in her tunic and revealing some rice snacks.

"Is that okay? It's not like your lunch or anything, is it?" asked Satoshi.

"No, don't worry," Haruka affirmed him, "I have plenty more food that I made for today."

"Oh," said Satoshi, popping one of the rice cakes into his mouth. Not even several full moments had passed before Satoshi had to stagger to maintain his balance.

"Haru-ka," he managed, mid-chew,"Thesh are-- a-mey-hing!"

"I'm glad, but they're really nothing special," said Haruka, wringing her hands in her tunic, and blushing slightly.

Not like Haruka could even know, but those rice cakes tasted worlds better than the sandwiches and the grits that Satoshi had become accustomed to at the archaeological camp. In a way, they were almost like something that his own mother would've made him in the past. Of course, the spices in these rice cakes reminded him of nutmeg and curry and that was a far cry from the soy sauce of his childhood. It still tasted better than the charcoal remnants of the breakfast that he'd tried to salvage earlier, so maybe that was the real source of his enthusiasm. A bit of tea with the rice cakes would've been nice, but Satoshi was as ready to go as could be expected in the situation, and perhaps, more ready than would be expected (he really wasn't sure where or why he was going to see the village chief, or what he would do there, but mysteries and adventures had always been exciting to Satoshi). He felt as if Shigeru couldn't have finished up quickly enough.

Finally, Masato and Shigeru returned, Masato bewildered by all of Shigeru's questions, and Shigeru somewhat lost in thought and analysis. "This changes so much of what we'd assumed," Satoshi caught him mumbling to himself. He decided not to comment on it and maintain Shigeru's seemingly more friendly mood.

"Well, are we ready to go?" asked Haruka, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, been ready," said Masato.

"I'm ready!" Satoshi shouted. "But I don't know where we're going or I'd be running ahead right now!"

Moving through the village on this morning was a little better than the last two times that Satoshi had done it. Before, he'd been in too much of a shock to really process anything; his first looks around, he'd been lost in a crowd and still somewhat dazed - like in a dream; he'd been flying on the back of a giant pokemon - which, combined with the surprise of finding Shigeru - had completely stolen his concentration; and then the last evening, he'd really not been able to see much beyond his own tears, and it was certainly embarassing enough to cry twice in one day.

The sun was bright overhead - another clear day, the kind that Satoshi honestly lived for. In the cities, there was always something of a haze that came from the pollution of cars or the warmth from all the buildings escaping the insulation. Cities made the edges of the horizon gray and bland. But here, even though it was a city, the sky was perfect blue as far as the desert ran.

So now, with that sun hitting the bricks of the street so brightly that they shone like dusty white gold, and a mass of gathered people in ancient garb, all that Satoshi could say was, "Wow."

And he could feel that same radiant energy from yesterday coming from Shigeru again. Satoshi grinned, knowing it was that part of him that really loved research and archeology. It made Satoshi think that he wasn't so upset about being here as he pretended to be, not if he got such an incredible chance to learn.

"Excuse me, but, Satoshi..."

Haruka's hand had found his shoulder, so Satoshi turned to look at her. Masato glared at him from behind Haruka's shoulder and Satoshi honestly wondered why he hadn't noticed the inherent evil in Haruka's younger brother during all of the year they'd traveled together.

"Once I take you to our village leader," explained Haruka, "I won't be able to speak to you. This is our ritual. So... I will wish you good luck, now, that your good intentions will be revealed."

Satoshi nodded dumbly.

Haruka walked past him and towards Shigeru, but when she reached for his shoulder, apparently she sensed his discomfort and withdrew her hand without a word. She still gave him a sort of 'blessing', though, which was nice enough, Satoshi thought.

"Good luck to you as well, Shigeru. It is my wish that your intentions, also, will not be misunderstood." Haruka finally addressed them both with a smile, which was quite nicely followed by Masato's perfectly matching frown. "I hope I will be able to talk to both of you again. Now, follow me."

Haruka set off at a brisk pace, Masato pausing only to cast a brief, final glare at the two foreigners before following right on his sister's heels. Satoshi fell into place behind Shigeru, who he caught muttering under his breath, "'I hope I will be able to talk to you again', she says. Well, what does that mean, are they going to drown us or something if it goes badly?"

Suddenly panicked, Satoshi leaned in towards Shigeru and asked shakily, "You don't really think that we could be killed, do you?"

"It's an ancient tribe, Satoshi, who knows what they do?" Shigeru sneered.

Satoshi paled. "I, uh... You're kidding, right?"

And Shigeru, for some reason, appeared to relent; the frown on his face softened into a different expression that, suffice to say, Satoshi could not recognize.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Satoshi. You're like a Magikarp. You may be useless, but I doubt you could be killed, even if someone wanted to."

"Hey!" Satoshi bristled. "Was that a compliment or an insult?"

Shigeru smirked. "What do you think?"

"I think that you're a jerk," said Satoshi, honestly.

Shigeru shrugged and looked past Satoshi, his eyes catching on the people and their dwellings as he passed.

Satoshi's eyes fixed on him, pondering what had just been said. And what had been unsaid. Satoshi had never been good at understanding those things. But, Shigeru's face, at that moment-

He almost looks happy, Satoshi mused.

And it made him happy, too, which was strange because he knew he shouldn't care so much about a jerk's opinion, but he did.

A few minutes passed; a few streets passed. Their parade of four had just walked down a gentle, winding staircase of stone, the steps wide and so close in height that it imitated the very water that trickled alongside, falling through white molded half-pipes and waterfalls and open, pooling, moving water of the irrigation canals. The ground at the bottom of the staircase was a rusty tan, more chalky and more settled than the kind that Satoshi was used to in this place, and it was in the midst of this unfocused observation that Satoshi noticed, looking up from countless pairs of sandaled feet, someone with a bulging mid-section. It wasn't abnormal, but it was unexpected enough to see a pregnant woman, so Satoshi's eyes shifted from her stomach to her face. And he froze as recognition took him over.

From the bottom to the top; the first feature he distinguished was the braided ends of brassy orange hair. Then a sharp chin, a wide mouth, a small nose, and blue eyes that were surprisingly clear in such a harsh setting.

There was only one person in Satoshi's world who it could be, and now he knew that she was in this new world, too: Kasumi.

It was weird, it was impossible, to see Kasumi there, looking like that... looking changed. Haruka had been easy enough to spot, with her lilting voice intact and her eyes so much the same and soft. But Kasumi was different. She looked older than Satoshi remembered her, and her hair was dressed in a way that was barely recognizable, and her clothing was demure and shapeless, and she actually shone with happiness. But even more than those things, the most stunning change Satoshi felt was in seeing her pregnant.

Kasumi... well, to be kind, Satoshi had rarely seen her as a nurturing figure. She was generally too violent or self-absorbed for that. True, she had her sweeter moments, but those tended to come when she was with her water pokemon, or giant Tentacruel. But if he thought about it, maybe he could see it. Ever since she'd had Togepi (it was still hard to think of Misty's egg pokemon as its evolved form, Togetic), she had settled down more in her temperament. So maybe she wouldn't be such a bad mother. But to carry a life inside of her... It just seemed strange.

Satoshi blinked. He realized that next to her, leaning supportively, was a tall, tanned, spiky-haired profile that Satoshi found just as familiar. Kasumi and her - yes, definitely - husband both weren't part of the throng that was staring at he and Shigeru in wonder. They were dipping jugs of water into the irrigation stream at the edge of the plaza, laughing and smiling at each other.

He only saw them for a moment before they'd moved too far down the staircase, and the crowds had enclosed them and hidden them from sight.

And he, too, continued to walk even though he felt shocked. He wasn't sure what it was that the scene had made him feel; surprise, certainly, at seeing his friends together in marriage - though they were dating, after all, so it really could lead to that someday. And besides that, seeing a familiar face in such a strange context was panicking. He wondered who he would be seeing next.

And it made him feel strange, the knowledge that in this world, inside Kasumi's stomach was Takeshi's child. Maybe all of these feelings about it being 'wrong' didn't have to do with Kasumi, really. Satoshi felt his stomach drop as he realized the only part of the situation that truly felt out of place to him.

In this world, Kasumi and Takeshi had never known him and yet had found each other. A cold wave of energy rushed through Satoshi's blood, just like it had that time after he won the title of Pokemon Champion, but not so strong. Even so, he felt suddenly lonely and had to look away.

Shigeru caught his eye. And for some reason, although he expected that it would only make him feel worse, it didn't.

So maybe Shigeru was a jerk. Well, so what? At least Satoshi wasn't alone.

a/n: Would you believe this? The berber people group in North Africa have bathrooms that really look like miniature kitchens. I don't know how anyone would use them, either.