The first thing he noticed when he woke up was something poking his back, and leaving a sore streak against it. The culprit in question felt like it could have been a frisbee, perhaps flimsier, and less rounded. He was about to move, when he realized the thing he was holding to his chest, draped under his arm from behind, wasn't his pillow, nor his sleeping bag. It was slender, and white.
His brow furrowed for a moment, morning mind trying to rationalize what he was looking at. It didn't take long for recognition to hit him. With a soft grunt, he lifted his arm and pulled the gardevoir's limb off of him, turning his body to find one of his prized Pokémon facing back toward him. Her eyes were closed. He had to pull his head back from how close hers was.
It wasn't uncommon for one of his Pokémon to join him as he slept. Maybe they had a bad dream, or were feeling particularly clingy that night, but Atena? This wasn't behavior she'd ever used before. Everyone else had done so at least once, but never her. This was a first. She was probably still adjusting to Karon's absence, and the new teammate in Ade.
She was sound asleep, even as he moved her arm to rest back on her. How long had she been there? Unlike him, she hadn't had a sleeping bag, so she wasn't as protected from the cold as he'd been. It didn't matter too much now, though. The sunlight beating down on the tent was capturing a lot of the heat, warming up the inside, which was barely escaping through the open flap.
He slid out of his sleeping bag, and got to his feet. Grabbing his hiking bag, the trainer made his way outside. Years ago, he'd have winced at being barefoot in the outdoors, but you do it enough and you stop caring about it. As the morning sun greeted him, he found Ares standing watch nearby, his arms folded over his chest, his serious gaze drifting over their surroundings.
"Mornin', Ares," the trainer waved to his starter Pokémon, who glanced back at him, then gave a nod, but his eyes betrayed he was giving a smile. The blaziken had been there from the beginning. At ten years old, he'd set out to have the greatest adventure he could, with a feisty little torchic at his side. Fourteen years later, they were closer to that goal than ever before. Ares had been a gift from his father, rather than from a professor, as most kids got.
It was usual for Ares to be standing vigilant like this. He was a serious soul, and a protector at heart. Despite Atena having recently surpassed him in terms of raw power and potential, he was still the trainer's signature Pokémon, and second-in-command. When the man wasn't around, it was Ares who kept the others in-line and organized. Despite not being able to communicate verbally, or telepathically, the trainer felt he had a very deep understanding of what went through the blaziken's mind. But he'd never know what the Pokémon was truly thinking. The only person he could actually hold a conversation with was Atena, one of the perks of having a telepath on the team. She could handle a lot of barriers of communication between anyone, since she could read both minds and emotions. When he'd first captured her, eleven years ago, he'd never actually considered how useful she'd be. He'd just been excited to have a psychic-type on the team.
Apart from Ares, most of the others had since gotten up, and were doing their morning routines. Sui the swellow had perched herself on a sturdy branch above and was in the process of cleaning under her wings, pulling out a few feathers every now and again. Seidon the garchomp was a ways away from the campsite in a large patch of dirt, rolling around in it, loosening the earth and burying himself in it, all while Ade the greavard bounded happily around the dirt patch, making his spooky little barks as he excitedly watched Seidon bury himself. Runa the purugly simply laid outside the entrance to the Pokémon tent, staring back up at her trainer with what he could only interpret as a judgemental gaze—but of course, Runa judged everybody. She was fairly high-strung.
The trainer zipped open his bag, and dug inside for a moment. before he pulled out a bag of poké puffs. Obviously they weren't a meal for his team, but it was a ritualistic morning treat he'd been doing for years. The sound of the bag turned every head (except Ares) toward the trainer. Sui glided down to land beside him as Seidon burst out of the dirt, and stomped his way over, Ade happily trotting at his heels. Runa stayed where she was, simply waiting to be tossed a treat.
"Good morning to you guys, too!" The man chuckled as he reached into the bag, and began selecting out the treats he knew each member would prefer. A blue puff went to Sui, who gulped it down, then chriped her thanks. A yellow puff went to Runa, who caught it in her mouth as it was tossed to her, before she stood and stalked back into the Pokémon tent to eat it. A green puff was gobbled down by Seidon, and Ade wanted a green one, too. Grabbing a red puff, the trainer approached Ares and handed him one. The stoic Blaze Pokémon glanced down on it, before his eyes darted toward the trainer's tent, where Atena was still inside.
"You had her on watch for the evening, right?"
Ares gave a slight nod. The trainer shrugged. "I'll let her sleep in a little bit."
The blaziken hesitated, before he accepted the puff and took a bite from it. He wasn't usually comfortable with eating before anyone else, even accepting treats. He preferred to get anything once everyone else had gone before. This was a rare instance where he didn't do that.
However, at that moment, Atena slowly emerged from the tent just as the trainer was headed back to his pack. "Good mornin', Atena," he greeted her. "Sleep well?"
She seemed to become shy at that, and rubbed a hand across the side of her face, as though tucking hair behind the spikes jutting back on either side of her face. While she could telepathically communicate to him just fine, she didn't always speak unless necessary. This was one of those instances where she didn't feel the need to reply back in his mind.
Pulling out a white puff, he held it out to her. She gave him a smile, yet again shy, before she accepted it, staring at him. When he didn't say anything else, instead zipping up the bag and putting it into his pack, did he hear her voice in his head.
[Sorry.]
It was always slightly jarring when a voice appeared in your thoughts, even after all these years of communicating like this. He'd had to learn how to properly communicate telepathically back. People's minds were always working, so just thinking a response back didn't work, as it could get buried under all the traffic, not to mention the work the subconscious mind was up to. You had to really think about and focus on every syllable you wanted to enunciate in your mind in order to communicate properly back, but that also only worked if the telepath you were speaking to was actively peering into your mind. It was easy to do now, like a second language, but he'd actually had his share of nosebleeds when he'd first been learning how.
[Sorry for what?]
[I should have asked to accompany you.]
The trainer smirked as he moved the pack aside, and motioned for Ares to join him so they could begin disassembling camp. They had to cover a lot of ground today. Atena had always been self-conscious and a bit socially awkward. He wasn't surprised she was apologizing for something he had no problem with.
[Don't worry about it, Atena. Sometimes I need company, too.]
There was a pause on her end as he and Ares pulled up stakes and wrapped up rope. Having communicated with her like this for so many years, he knew when she was hesitating to speak, so he continued. [What was it that brought you in?]
[Bad dream.]
[I thought that might have been it.]
Once he had all the ropes together, he turned and gave Atena a nod. Her crimson eyes flashed violet as she raised her arms, and the two tents rose into the air, before neatly compacting down by folding and rolling up. The ropes were pulled from his hands to join, and the end result was all that material being packed neatly into two small bags, which the trainer took and put into his pack. The three of them had followed this routine of breaking down camp for ages now, and they'd become fairly skilled at it. He simply left any sleeping bags in the tents inside, since Atena could easily squash them down, too, her psychic abilities better at making them fit than any physical force would do.
Slinging the hiking bag over his shoulders, the trainer pulled out his Pokédex and opened up the map. It pinged his location for him, so all he had to do was zoom in to see how far it was until the next town. They were almost to Blackthorn City, at long last. There were, of course, new and faster modes of travel through route 44, and the rest of Johto for that matter, but he'd grown up seeing trainers actually struggle alongside their Pokémon. He wanted to do this traditionally. It was, however, taking a lot, lot longer than was typical. It wasn't that he sucked as a trainer, or took too long to collect a gym badge, but the underlying truth of the matter was that he liked living out in the wild. He loved living day to day with his team at his side, waking up to train, explore, and fight, and going to bed by the side of a fire. Perhaps some would call him dumb. Some might call him naive. Some might even call him immature. It didn't change the fact that he was living how he wanted to live, not how he was expected to. And that sat right with him.
"Alright, guys," the trainer sighed, stowing away his Pokédex, ignoring the plethora of messages from others he still hadn't opened. "If we don't take too many rest stops, we should reach Blackthorn City before dinner time!"
Sui cooed at that, before she flapped her wings and took off into the air. With that, they were off, drifting through the trails of route 44, stopping an hour later to eat breakfast, then a few more hours later to eat lunch. They weren't about to go charging in to challenge the Blackthorn Gym just yet, Ade still needed to be trained, and the rest of the team had to be rounded to their trainer's specifications. Only once he was satisfied they would be sturdy and solid, would they challenge Clair. They only needed to stock up on supplies in the city before heading back out to continue their training.
It was when the city could be seen in the distance, maybe an hour away, that they stopped for a third break beside a small lake, in the shade of the trees. After taking a deep drink of water, the trainer sat down at a nearby tree and rested his back against it. They'd been walking for a little over half of the day, so everyone was getting fairly exhausted. Except Ade, who seemed full of boundless energy. He still continued to frolick about, tongue lolling out of his mouth, panting as he bounced about in the shallows of the lake. Seidon kept his distance to the water, instead taking a break on the path by lying down on the hot earth. Sui rested her wings on the tree limbs above, and Ares watched the playful greavard carefully, making sure no water Pokémon would come out to attack Ade. Runa purred as she settled on the ground beside her trainer, and he scratched behind her ears. On his right, Atena took a seat, also resting up against the tree.
His eyes were closed as he soaked in the sounds of nature nearby, the purring of a purugly, and the splashing of water from a playful pup. This was one of his favorite parts of his life. Other trainers his age had all retired from this lifestyle, were all now living mediocre lives with a 9 to 5 job, worrying and stressing about everything, but not him. His only responsibility was his Pokémon, and that was the way he liked it. They were all he cared about. Plus, he could make bank by kicking ass in Pokémon battles.
[Gray?]
He almost winced. Not at the "sound" of the voice in his mind, but at the reminder of his name. Sometimes he almost forgot he had one of those. Sometimes he also forgot the only person around him who could use it was Atena.
[Yeah?]
[Have you ever loved someone? Romantically? Maybe more?]
His annoyance at his name was quelled by the curiosity of the question. He'd always known Atena was interested in romance, she'd always stuff her nose in a steamy novel when she'd get the chance. She didn't usually ask him questions like this, though.
[Does that girl in Goldenrod count?]
He could hear the gardevoir beside him audibly giggle.
[No,] her tone was humored. [That was a crush that you totally messed up any chance with. Not love.]
[That's fair. What counts as love?]
There was a pause again on her end. Runa meowed at him. He'd stopped scratching behind her ears, and so continued again.
[Love is a strong word,] Atena replied. [It's a tricky thing. You'll never know it until it's there. But when it IS there, you'll know.]
[Well that was undeniably vague lol]
[Did you just "lol" me in telepathy?]
[Maybe.]
[Maybe that girl in Goldenrod got lucky, not having to hear that.]
Gray almost snorted. [I guess I've never been in love. Why are you asking? You see a neat gallade somewhere?]
It was her turn to keep from snorting. [As if. Not my type.]
[Not your type? It's literally your male-themed counterpart.]
[There can be male gardevoir.]
[Not my point.]
[...I guess I just like something else.]
[Now I'm curious.]
[It's not Ares, or any other blaziken, I know you were about to ask.]
[Not even a Dit-]
[Don't go there.]
[Yes ma'am.]
His thoughts became somewhat troubled as he thought about their conversation. The prospect of her leaving the team for whatever romance she'd attached to crossed his mind. It wasn't something he'd expect her to do, but he'd seen people act out of character in the name of love before.
[You wouldn't... leave us over this, would you?]
She didn't answer. A pit started to gnaw at his stomach, but he suddenly felt a hand grasping his shoulder. It was enough to make him open his eyes and turn his head, staring right back into the scarlet eyes of a gardevoir. She simply shook her head to answer him.
[My life belongs here. I chose that a long time ago.]
In Gray's opinion? That was undeniably sweet. He couldn't help but blush a little bit at her confirmation, both out of embarrassment of thinking she'd leave, but also at how sweet her statement had been. But then he thought about how sad it would be, if she did love someone else that she couldn't be with.
[I'd let you, if you asked.] He decided to say.
[What?] She questioned.
[If you asked to leave, to be with someone you loved? I wouldn't want to keep you away from them.]
For the third time that day, there was a pause on her end. Her eyes broke away from his, and a noticeable hint of pink appeared around her cheeks, before she turned her head away and leaned back against the tree.
[What if I loved...] she didn't complete her sentence, instead following up with a [Nevermind.]
Normally he'd pry at her with jokes and jabs, but he got the feeling that he'd already done that enough for the day. She clearly wanted to talk with him about this stuff, but it needed to be on her terms. She'd come around eventually, she always did. To reassure her, he returned the shoulder squeeze she'd given him. Her eyes found his, and he gave her a big grin.
[You can tell me later. Let's get going now, we're almost there!]
She returned his smile, though hers were of a more timid nature, before he stood up and called to the others that they were leaving. Even as he occupied his thoughts with their shopping list from Blackthorn City, a part of his mind kept replaying Atena's face. The way her eyes had seemed, paired with that faintest blush. Gray had always been better at understanding Pokémon over humans, but his gardevoir had always had expressions more human than Pokémon, ironically making her more difficult to read than the others. For a time, he thought that maybe her expression had been... longing? Hope? It was difficult to give a description to, but it almost made him think that...
Nah, that was an absurd idea. He was quick to cast it to the back of his mind. They had too much ahead of them to be worrying over silly things like that. The sounds and the smell of the city were already reaching him. Hopefully they could get their shopping finished before anywhere closed.