Dixie approached Stanislaus' cabin—that secluded little place in the mountains. He'd been there a few times after things went sour between them and Stanislaus had left for Johto, but going there alone mostly just made him lonely. He found himself, whenever he visited it, mostly moping around and fighting back tears as he stared at the cold, empty bed.

As Dixie neared the cabin, Adalhelm stuck his head out from around the side of the building. His distrustful, mean-spirited eyes followed Dixie's steps, and the Rocket couldn't help but feel nervous. As Dixie got closer, the stantler slunk around the corner and with slow, careful steps, made as though to intercept him. As Dixie raised his hand to knock on the door, the pokemon barked loudly. "Stantler!"

Before Dixie could knock, the door opened, and he was face to face with a very disgruntled seeming Stanislaus. He had bandages over his eye, from which the tail end of a laceration and the stitches closing it were peaking. Silently, Stanislaus stepped inside, out of the door way. Dixie hesitated, glancing at the stantler, who was still watching him intently, before entering the cabin. "How's your eye?" Dixie asked as the older Rocket shut the door behind him.

Stanislaus' lip curled into a snarl. "How do you think it is?" he said. "That goddamned kid—it's all sliced to hell. It's going to scar all around it and I'm not going to be able to see with it again."

"I'm sorry, Stanislaus," said Dixie. He kept his distance from the other man, who was now leaning against the door.

"Apologies won't put the sight back into my eye," growled Stanislaus. Dixie turned his face toward the ground. "You didn't even try to help."

Dixie bit his lip and said nothing, though he wanted to apologize and beg Stanislaus' forgiveness. However, if Stanislaus didn't want apologies, he wouldn't give him any.

Stanislaus straightened up and strode toward Dixie, pinning him against the wall. "I want you to tell me everything you know about that kid," he said, his face only inches away from Dixie's. The younger boy determinedly kept his eyes down. "I'm gonna pay that little bastard back a hundred fold for this."

Dixie couldn't help but look up at this. "Y-you're going to hurt him?"

"I'm going to kill him," said Stanislaus, narrowing his eye.

"St-stanislaus, he's just a—just a kid…"

"He ruined my face and my eyeball," said Stanislaus, snarling and leaning in closer. Dixie suddenly felt very small and weak.

"It's not so bad," said Dixie as he smiled weakly. "You—you could get an eye patch and start smoking cigarettes from a long holder. They might promote you."

Stanislaus grabbed onto Dixie's shoulder hard. "I have always hated your sense of humor," he said flatly. "But I've always loved your smile. It's a paradox." Dixie relaxed a little as Stanislaus leaned his face in a little closer. "Do you know where that kid is now, hm?"

Dixie shook his head. "He flew away," he said. "I have no way of knowing to where."

"Is that the whole truth?" asked Stanislaus softly, lifting Dixie's chin with one hand so that he had to look him in the face. Dixie looked away from Stanislaus' deep blue eye. "You spent a while with him, didn't you? You have some thought where he might be, isn't that right?"

"I don't want him to get hurt," mumbled Dixie.

"Just tell me, hm?" Stanislaus asked, leaning his forehead against Dixie's. "Come on—don't you love me, Dixie?"

"I d-d…"

Stanislaus kissed him gently. Dixie put one hand against the other man's chest in a feeble attempt to push him away. However, he quickly gave into the kiss, and when they parted it was with Dixie's reluctance.

"So just tell me," said Stanislaus. "What do you owe him?"

"I l-like him…"

"More than me?"

"That's not—not the same. I can't say…"

"You're too nice to people. I'm sure you tried to help that kid out, help him along," said Stanislaus. "But do you think he cares about you at all beyond your usefulness? That's just naive."

"Y-yes, I suppose it is," mumbled Dixie, looking down.

"I care about you though; you know that. I'm always going to be here…" He kissed Dixie's cheek softly. "Now, you must have some idea where he is, yeah?"

"V-very vaguely," said Dixie. "He's a trainer so I think…"

"What do you think, love?"

"I think," said Dixie uncertainly. "That he… he probably came back to Kanto."

"To get more badges?"

Dixie nodded. "I-I think so…"

"And which badges did he have?" asked Stanislaus, gently taking Gaius' coat off Dixie's shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. "Do you know?"

Dixie nodded again. "Boulder, cascade, thunder, rainbow… I think those are what he had. I don't know…"

Stanislaus wrapped his arms around Dixie's waist and kissed him on the lips again. When they parted, Stanislaus whispered, "We can go into the bedroom, if you'd like." Dixie smiled and nodded, and so they went.

When they were finished, Dixie fell asleep in Stanislaus' arms. For a while, Stanislaus laid very still, his arms wrapped around Dixie, feeling the soothing rise and fall of the younger man's chest as he slept. Slowly and carefully, Stanislaus slid his arm out from under Dixie. The younger Rocket frowned and turned over, but didn't wake. Stanislaus slid out of the bed, before turning back and kissing Dixie's forehead and pulling the blanket up around him. "Sleep well," he whispered, brushing back Dixie hair softly.

As silently as he could, Stanislaus got dressed and left the room. He paused outside of the bedroom door, his hand resting on the single pokeball on his belt. After a moment, he turned and walked to a short set of drawers against the wall and pulled one open. Within, all kinds of pokeballs rolled back and forth. He selected a couple of them and hooked them to his belt before leaving the cabin. His stantler came trotting up to meet him, and they started away from the building.

Adalhelm glanced back at the cabin as they walked.

"He's sleeping," said Stanislaus. "He's not coming along. He'd only hesitate or get in the way."

The pokemon nodded silently, his gaze moving to Stanislaus' belt. He flattened his ears a bit to see that his trainer was bringing more pokemon along, but made no comment of it.

"There are four locations we'll be most likely to find that little bastard," said Stanislaus. "We could try Viridian, Cinnabar, Saffron or Fuchsia. Those were the places that Dixie said he didn't have badges from. I don't think the boss has returned to Viridian yet, so we can probably ignore that one, even though it's closest."

"Stantler."

"He had that wartortle, didn't he?" said Stanislaus. "The easiest gym would probably be Cinnabar, then. Or, at the least, it's as good a shot as any. We'll check there first."