A/N: It's weird how this update is still technically sooner than the last one was, but it FEELS like it was a way longer pause. Sorry about that! I have the next part about 50% done already and I'm on spring break so I'm HOPING it'll get done sooner BUT I CAN'T PROMISE ANYTHING. Hey, this was a smaller break between chapters so maybe the gap will just slowly decrease as time goes on? One can hope.
Enjoy! And again, thank you for your faves and reviews, I love you guys. :)
(Quick emetophobia/vomit warning for the endish parts of the chapter, if that grosses you out. Also PERHAPS nsfw implications at the start? I hadn't actually intended it to quite come off that way BUT HEY IT WORKS EITHER WAY.)
000
Silver woke up ready to punch an infant.
Silver woke up ready to punch twelve infants, and then maybe give another one a swift kick in the rear.
No. Nononononono.
Dreams were bad enough without...whatever had just happened in his unconscious mind. He shuddered, laying on his back, somberly watching the ceiling fan with the air of a man resigned to the grave. The sound of a door clicking open roused out of his stupor after a few agonizing minutes. N emerged from the bathroom, unbearably fresh-faced and chipper and just THERE and BEING HIM and Silver really didn't want to look at him at this particular juncture in his life.
"Morning," N said, a smile plastered on his big pale dweeb face.
"Mrnrn," Silver grunted back, which was more than he expected of himself, to be honest. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Crawling, tickling itches spread across his chest.
"Are you still using the bathroom or can I get in there?" He asked, very pointedly looking everywhere in the room but N. "Gotta shower." He swore never to look at N ever again. He could pull it off. Probably. Surely he wouldn't notice.
"It's all yours," N replied. Then he looked confused (Silver had immediately broken his vow in about 5 seconds and now the room was uncomfortably hot again). "Didn't you just shower last night, though?"
"Look I just NEED a SHOWER, okay?" Silver snapped. "It's IMPORTANT."
N didn't protest, but he did raise an eyebrow as Silver rather viciously pushed past him to get to the white-tiled sanctuary of the can. Silver tried to get out an apology as he slammed the door, but all that really came out of his mouth as he locked it was "srntjf".
000
"Are you alright, Silver?" N asked once they were outside. Breakfast had passed in mostly-silence, as N had made faces at the loads of meat at the buffet and Silver had tried to drown his sorrows in orange juice. Now they were en route into the next town, and the forest canopy stretching high overhead and creating eerie silence did little to help the awkward atmosphere (weren't forests usually dick-full of noisy Pokemon? Silver cursed at how even nature was conspiring to embarrass him).
"I'm fine," Silver said to the ground.
"I've never known a human being to shower so much in such a short time span, is all," N pondered. Silver bristled.
"Why does it matter? I like being clean, so what? Is smelling GOOD offensive to you and your Pokemon 'friends' or something?"
"Good thing you haven't had to worry about that before now," Silver heard N just barely mutter. He whipped around. N was pointedly looking at the sky, a ghost of a smile on his face.
"Don't push me," He hissed. N put up his hands.
"Just a humorous observation on the state of pub-"
"Stop. Stop talking."
There was an awkward silence as Silver resumed walking and fell into a troubling quagmire of thoughts involving his hygiene, N, his life, and how to best plan tripping N into another giant mudpile.
"I heard a maid complaining about a tip as we left..." N finally mused after about ten minutes had passed. "What is that, anyway?"
"What do you care? You're not carrying your own weight anyway," Silver crabbed. "Give me shit about the tip when you're actually contributing something to it." He stopped walking when he a good chunk of time passed and he got no response.
"It was just a question," he finally heard. N's voice was uncharacteristically quiet.
Silver scowled, before softening a little. "...okay, you're right. It's just-" He swallowed. "When I'm talking to people I'm...people I know well, sometimes-"
N cut him off with laughter. There was no amusement in it. "What people are those?"
Silver flinched. There was nothing he could say to that. He stared at the ground, trying to will it to open up and either swallow him or N whole. There was silence for a while, but then he started to hear N open his mouth and say something before-
"Hey! We made eye contact!" A foreign voice shouted about three centimeters from his ear. On instinct he threw out an elbow, and heard a loud groan as his elbow made fleshy contact. Something fell to the floor by Silver's boots.
"What the FUCK?" There was an older man on the ground, 30-something and heavyset, probably a hiker, clutching his gut and groaning. N was staring at him, dumbfounded. "What was THAT for?"
"You snuck up on him, what did you expect?" N snapped before Silver had a chance to even open his mouth.
"I just wanted a Pokemon battle..."
Silver glared down at the man, sizing him up. He could see six pokeballs strapped to his belt, but Silver doubted they were anything to be worried about. Especially at the level he was at.
"Alright," he didn't help the man up, but he stepped back so he had room to get to his feet. If there was anything that got his mind off of things, it was Pokemon battles. "If you want a match, you've got it."
000
It took Silver little to no time to whittle the man's army of Geodudes and Onix down to almost nothing using only Weaville. As per usual, her high level made most challengers into a joke.
Which made it all the more surprising when the man's last Pokemon was a Poliwrath. He raised his eyebrows at the trainer.
"Kinda unexpected," He commented. The Hiker smiled good-naturedly.
"Well, he's still pretty weak. It's mostly for this part."
"...what?" Silver glanced at N for some sort of sign, who just shrugged. Who would-
"Hydro pump!"
"Wha-" Silver didn't manage to get anything else out because suddenly a jet of water with about the same force as a wrecking ball slammed into his sternum and knocked him onto his ass. His head hit the forest floor hard.
"Shit," Silver coughed, as the stars cleared from his eyes. He could faintly hear the sound of escaping footsteps and N yelling something he couldn't quite make out (he might have hit his head too hard but he was sure he heard some sort of Pokemon cries mixed in with the usual words). There was a pause, then three N's face eventually swam into view. A few different views of Weaville were right next to him, chirping in worry.
"Are you ok?" He asked. "Can you hear me?"
"Unfortunately," Silver grumbled. N looked relieved, then angry- but not at Silver, for once. He was glaring of into the trees.
"I considered giving chase, but I didn't want to leave you here- can you BELIEVE that man?"
"It happens," Silver grumbled. He was trying to keep N from multiplying any more.
"What do you mean it HAPPENS?" N snapped. Weaville scowled.
"You get shit like this from scumbags during Pokemon battles sometimes; some people don't want to pay up." He refrained from mentioning he used to be one of the people who would use their Pokemon to do the same thing to people.
"But that's not fair!" N protested.
Silver shrugged, scowling. "I'd go fuck him up but I think my ribcage is somewhere in my asshole." He was still on the ground, and the embarrassment of getting duped like that and knocked onto his ass was catching up with him as the adrenaline wore off. "I'm an idiot for letting that happen," Silver muttered. He tried to roll away so he wasn't looking at N, but all that accomplished was sending a bolt of pain through his chest that made him cringe. He settled for glaring at the leaves above him.
"The only idiotic thing was that man using his Pokemon's trust for disgusting reasons," N fumed, glaring down the path where he'd retreated. "Honestly, people like that are the reason my initial beliefs WERE the way they WERE! Humans can be so sickening sometimes, abusing the power of a Pokemon for disgusting petty losses. I assure you if it wasn't an ill-advised idea in such a public place, Reshiram and I would have a few words to say about that, I'll tell you what-"
"N please help me up," Silver finally interrupted crossly, as it became clear N was more set to ramble than get him off the forest floor.
"Oh? OH! Right, I'm sorry," N said sheepishly. He hovered over Silver for a second, seeming unsure how to move the boy without splintering his ribcage into his stomach, but eventually he settled for slinging one of Silver's arms over his back, and with strength that honestly surprised Silver, hefted him to his feet. Weaville fussed at their ankles.
Silver was suddenly very aware of N's hand resting on his side, and how close their faces were. N seemed to have realized, too, as eventually his words trailed off and the two just kind of stared at each other for a while. Silver suddenly became very conscious of the state of his face, and the way his breath was ragged and probably right in N's face.
N screwed up his face, looking away from Silver, rather shamefaced. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier."
Silver blushed.
Then the vertigo and head injury caught up to him and he vomited all over N's shoes and Weaville.
000
"You're lucky you were still within walking distance of the Pokemon center!" Nurse Joy chirped brightly, making Silver wince. "Who knows what might have happened if you'd left this concussion unchecked!"
"He has a concussion?" N squawked indignantly from the corner. "The medical journal I read in my childhood said a concussion can lead to death years down the road, and I'm-!"
"Relax, I think he'll live," Nurse Joy smiled. She shined a light in Silver's eyes. "How old are you?"
"None of your business," Silver snapped. The Nurse made a face.
"It's a memory test. I need to make sure you didn't contract amnesia or cause any short or longterm memory loss." She tilted Silver's head to the side. "Now, can you tell me where you are?"
Silver rolled his eyes, earning a "tsk" from the Nurse. "I'm in a Pokemon center because I was DRAGGED back here."
"Well, I think your friend made the right decision; you can never be too careful with head injuries. Especially where you threw up...speaking of which, are you sure you don't want to step out to change into something more comfortable, sir?" Nurse Joy turned away from Silver for a second to wrinkle her nose at N, whose shoes and khakis were still coated in Silver's breakfast. "I need to give your friend a physical examination anyway, so-"
"No you don't," Silver cut her off. "N IS leaving, though, because I am leaving. Now." Silver ducked under her arm and grabbed his coat N's grasp, stomping past. N hovered uncertainly for a second, before falling into step behind Silver.
"Leaving to go get an exam at a hospital, I'd hope!" Nurse Joy shouted indignantly from behind them. When Silver gave no reply, he could hear her make a sad little noise of resignation. "Well, I certainly hope you'll be staying with us another night, at least! I think it'd be very unwise to take to the road immediately after an unchecked concussion!"
"We will," N assured her. Silver stared up at him.
"Where do you plan on getting the money for that?" He hissed, as Nurse Joy shut the door behind them. Their last lodgings and breakfast had mostly cleaned him out of his funds. N gave him that enigmatic, extra-smug smile he sometimes wore that Silver loathed. Last time he'd worn that, the next day Dragon's Den had been filled with wild Sentret the next day ("They NEEDED shelter!") and Silver had been enlisted to help wrangle them while N was being scolded.
"Don't worry about it." He said. He dug into his backpack. "I'm going to go find somewhere to go change; why don't you go book us another room?"
"You could change in the BATHROOM!" Silver snapped at N's retreating back. Weaville, who had long since been healed and scrubbed by Nurse Joy, looked up at her master and made a face. He sighed.
"Sorry I threw up on you," he mumbled, scooping her up. She nuzzled under his chin and chirruped, gesturing in the direction N had wandered off.
"No, I have no idea. Maybe we'll get lucky and something will eat him or something."
Weaville gave him a look.
"Okay, I don't mean that." He admitted. He flushed as he could see Nurse Joy giving him a look from the back room.
"Mostly."