Dixie trudged along, hands in his pockets, dragging his feet. The sun was sinking beyond the mountains, turning the sky a dazzling orange. He had tried to return to Kanto the way he'd came but, remembered the water which blocked the path, was forced to continue along the path, toward a destination that was so uncertain. His head and his heart felt heavy, as if they'd both been filled with wet sand. Beside him trotted Zahur to keep him company, but it didn't really help.

"I would've liked to have gone to see those dancers with him," Dixie mumbled to his chikorita. "That would've been nice…"

He paused in the road and turned his face back the way he had come. "Chiiiko?" asked Zahur, looking up at him.

"I wonder if…" said Dixie. "I wonder if Stanislaus is alright… We should—we should go back, maybe. I know he told me to go, but…" He bit his lip gently, staring off down the path. "He was just mad, then. I'm sure he'd be happy if I came back to check on him. I'm sure… He doesn't—he doesn't mean it when he yells like that…"

"Chiiko," said Zahur quietly. Placing one tiny paw on Dixie's foot, he looked up at the young man.

Dixie knelt and picked him up. "What is it?" he asked. "Are you tired?"

The chikorita frowned and shook his little head. "Chikaa."

"What's wrong then?" asked Dixie. Zahur opened his tiny mouth to respond, but closed it again without saying a word. The leaf on his head perked up as he looked around. Frowning, Dixie looked around as well, listening hard. He could faintly hear a boisterous voice singing in the distance.

"Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda," the voice sung, as it drew closer. "You'll come waltzing Matilda with me…"

Dixie blinked and turned his face toward the noise. "That's not…" he mumbled, fading off as a swaggering figure mounted on a tauros became visible down the path. "…Gaius."

His stomach clenched up. Gaius hadn't spotted him yet. Dixie didn't know where Arden had gone after he'd gotten away from Mahogany; if his first stop was to find his older brother and tell him what had happened, it would've been very bad news for him, indeed. It would've been a smart move… However, Dixie didn't feel convinced it would've been Arden's first thought to do so. He froze up, trying to decide whether it would be better to take a chance that Arden hadn't gone to see Gaius, and that maybe he could get help from the older boy getting across the water, or whether it'd be best to hide. All the while, Gaius and his pokemon mount drew nearer.

"Up rode the squatter mounted on his rapidash," sang Gaius. Quenelle snorted and tossed his head, prompting his trainer to cut short his song. "Eh? What's that now…?"

His gaze locked on Dixie, and the Rocket felt his gut twisting again. For a moment, they stared at each other, and then Gaius smiled. "Dixie!" he said. "That's right, isn't it? It is Dixie, right?"

Dixie nodded. "Y-yes, that's right."

Gaius looked around. "Where's baby brother?" he asked.

"Ah, I was visiting an old friend and it took a while," Dixie said. "He decided to go on ahead of me."

Gaius smiled. "That sounds like him," he said, and Dixie's stomach unknotted itself. "So, what're you doing hanging out here at dark? Dangerous pokemon come out at night you know."

"Well, truth be told, I forgot that I didn't have any pokemon that could get me across those lakes and back to Ecruteak," he said. "I decided to see if I could get back to Kanto going this way."

"Oh, yeah—you can," said Gaius. "It curves up through Blackthorne and then lets down around New Bark. 'Course, it's an awful long way if you're walking… Would you like a ride there?"

Holding up his hands, Dixie smiled meekly. "I don't want to be a bother," he said.

"Nah, no bother," said Gaius, leaning down and extending a hand to the Rocket grunt. "I've been meaning to get down to New Bark town, anyway, to go see the professor there. He gave me a cyndaquil a long time ago, when I was starting out as a trainer, and I like to keep in touch."

"I'd really rather not burden you," said Dixie, trying to hide his nervousness at the prospect of Gaius finding out he'd broken into the New Bark Town lab. "Th-thank you, though."

"I insist," Gaius said, narrowing his eyes. "It's rude to keep refusing, kiddo."

Dixie swallowed hard. "R-right," he said. Returning Zahur to his pokeball, Dixie scrambled up onto Quenelle's back, behind Gaius, with plenty of help from the older boy. Uncomfortably, Dixie shifted his weight around on the pokemon's back. "It's all slumped… how do you sit back here?"

"Hold on tight," Gaius said. "We're gonna go faster than we did over the water earlier."

"Faster…?" said Dixie, grabbing hold of Gaius' coat. "How much faster…?"

"Taur-aur-auros," said Quenelle, lurching into a trot. Dixie yelped and slid sideways, almost falling off the tauros completely. Gaius caught him and, urging Quenelle into a stop, pulled him back up.

"We were barely moving at all," Gaius said, frowning. "You can't keep your balance at all, can you?"

"I'm not used to riding a pokemon," Dixie said, apologetically.

"Here, climb in front of me," Gaius said. He pulled Dixie over his leg, sliding himself back. "If you're in front of me I can keep you from falling off Quen easier."

"But… don't you need to be up here to steer him?" asked Dixie as he settled himself in front of Gaius.

"He's a pokemon, not a motorcycle," said Gaius flatly. "Quen knows where we're going. Right, Quen?"

"Aur-aur-aur!"

The tauros started off again, and Dixie jerked to one side again, but Gaius put his muscular arms around him and kept him from falling. Dixie blushed and lowered his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm… not very good at this."

"I'll say. That's alright though," said Gaius. "I've been riding Quen since I was a little kid. Arden and I would ride him with our mom out to the coast."

"Taur-aur-auros!" said Quenelle, tossing his head happily.

"Why does he talk like that?" Dixie asked. "Always with the 'ar-ar-ar' thing?"

"Quen's got a bit of a stutter," said Gaius. "But he gets his point across just fine. He was tellin' me earlier, y'know, he was tellin' me about goin' 'round Kanto with baby brother."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," said Gaius, leaning forward to rub Quenelle's neck. "He told me some interesting things. 'Bout you and baby brother…"

"O-oh?"

"Yeah. Some people don't think of tauros as being a very smart pokemon, but I've found that, at least in Quen's case, they're very perceptive. Especially when it comes to people," said Gaius. He leaned his face down so that his chin rested on Dixie's shoulder, and his lips were right next to Dixie's ear. With Gaius hunched around him and the massive tauros beneath him, Dixie suddenly felt very, very small. "Arden's just a kid, you know…"

"It… wasn't like that."

"Right," said Gaius, pulling back slightly. "Y'know, if you break Arden's heart, I'm gonna break your spine."

Dixie glanced down at Gaius' huge arm around his waist. It looked like he could do it, too—like he could snap Dixie straight in half right there without missing a beat. "I… I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "Arden and I are… friends."

"Friends can break each others hearts, too," said Gaius. "You hurt him, I hurt you ten fold. That's all I'm sayin', here."

"Aur-auros," said Quenelle as he trotted along.

"Quen doesn't think that you just wanted to be friends with baby brother," Gaius said. Dixie slumped his shoulders, and looked at the passing country side.

"Can we stop?" Dixie said weakly. "This bobbing around is starting to make me feel a little bit sick…"

"It's a shame, though," said Gaius, paying him no mind. "Quen—speed up a bit. We're not going to reach New Bark until morning at this pace… Anyway, like I was saying, I was talking to Felicia—"

"I don't recall that being what you were saying…"

"—and she said she liked you," Gaius said. "She said she liked your nose. I can see why; it's very symmetrical."

"C-can we slow down? I'm really beginning to feel sick," said Dixie. "I think I might fall off, too…"

"You're not gonna fall—I've got you, don't worry 'bout it," Gaius said. "I just think it's kinda a silly thing to like 'bout someone, y'know? Their nose? You get in a fight, or trip one day, or stand too close to a door the exact moment someone decides to come through and then… Well, then, if you're lucky, nothing. But most people aren't lucky. Then after that your relationship crumbles 'cause it was based on having an attractive nose."

Dixie leaned forward. "Can we stop?" he asked. "I think I might get sick…"

"Woah, don't lean like that," said Gaius, pulling the Rocket toward himself. "You listening to me at all? I was just saying, it's ways like that that get you landed with a broken nose."

"S-sorry… I'm not… not feeling very well."

"You should go to sleep," Gaius said. "It's good for motion sickness. Don't worry 'bout it—I gotcha. You ain't gonna fall or nothin'."

Dixie leaned against him, closing his eyes, and found that it did help. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Gaius. "You looked kinda sickly anyway—I shoulda guessed you might get sick riding Quen like this."

"I'm sorry," Dixie said again, because that hadn't been the reason he was apologizing. He drifted quickly into sleep as Gaius held him still upon the now-galloping tauros' back.

"It's still a shame, though," said Gaius softly. "That you're in love with baby brother…"