Chapter 14: Nothing in Particular

There were three stages to 'the end of school'. First, there was the end of all the standardized testing. Sure, a few weeks of school were still left, but the students were checked out, the teachers were even more checked out, and everyone was just waiting for the final day to tick over. Second, there was the day school actually ended. Anyone who didn't care enough to stick around, especially if their grade and attendance would ultimately be the same, had already left, and those that had stayed were either the kids at the top of their class, those who didn't mind idle chatter and watching movies for most of the day, or students who couldn't manage to convince their parents that there was no more reason to go to school.

As of today, however, the final phase was in effect: the day that it truly felt like summer was here. It wasn't because of the weather, though most would probably say so. No, it was the feeling that there was truly nothing to do aside from taking care of oneself–nothing the day before, nothing the day after, and nothing today. Proper relaxation. Perhaps part of the reason it had taken Bryce longer than the average student to reach this point was because of all the work being done around the house–cleaning up the guest room and garage, along with all the other housework–kept him busy. It didn't matter much to him mentally, but despite having nothing to do, he wasn't finding himself as bored as normal.

One thing he'd definitely found, now that the last day of May had arrived, was that meditation was starting to actually do him some good. Bryce had been told it was a good thing to do before bed, to try and get his body to loosen up and wind down. Rather than using it to cope with insomnia, however, he'd been doing so as…well…truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure. But it definitely felt better to do in the early morning. Strangely enough, time seemed to just vanish as a concept while he was meditating. That was supposed to be part of the idea, wasn't it? To just let everything in the mind disappear and focus on simply being.

"You're getting a lot better at this."

Bryce opened his eyes, being met by looking at a pair of black legs before his came up to look at Violet proper.

"Mm?"

Like she usually did after finishing her own meditation, Violet had that same far-off look in her eyes that she always had. More and more, Bryce had tried to pin down what she'd often look like, and eventually, the proper word had come to mind: free.

"You're getting better at meditating." The Lucario repeated, giving a soft smile. "Not thinking about things while sitting there. Not letting your mind wander as much."

"Yeah, I guess so." He mused, less of a cynical tone and more of a pondering one.

Maybe someday, he'd get that feeling of freedom that Violet had in these moments. She almost seemed invincible in those moments, at least to any negative thoughts or words sent her way. With Bryce being the only one she could talk to, of course he wouldn't intentionally say anything to put her down. She could send him through a building if she wanted to, probably. More importantly, though, Violet hardly deserved anything bad to come her way. Just the opposite, really.

She gently offered a paw. Bryce took it, noting how easy it was for her to simply pull him to his feet. He was about average weight, sure, but he still weighed more than Violet did.

"Feel like swimming?" He mused. It was still before noon, but the temperature hadn't fallen much overnight, and it was still quite warm now.

Violet nodded, the pair walking towards the door. Bryce let go of her paw, turning the handle to let them inside, each to their own destination: Violet to grab a pair of towels from the hall closet, and Bryce to his room to change into his swimsuit. Neither of them would have to worry about being too loud today–some big game was going on in a neighboring town, which meant any residential areas like this would be totally deserted. The closest person near either of them would be the indoor people, gaming away or reading a book with music on. And, as Violet was coming to understand, when Bryce said he didn't see his parents much, he meant it. Unless there was a plan for either of them to drive back from another state without warning, it was just the two of them, all day long.

Though it hadn't taken long for Bryce to change, Violet was already stepping into the water as he walked into the backyard once again. She definitely wasn't ready to just plunge right in, but even having the courage to go in by herself was a huge step. Being a quick study was also a plus, too.

Mulling an idea over, Bryce walked over, standing towards the edge of the deep end. The idea of feeling invincible or free, even if one wasn't actually so, had gotten him thinking. He was definitely less invincible than she was, but at least feeling that way may not be so bad, within reason. It had been a while since Bryce had practiced any sort of dives, but with smaller ones from the edge of a pool, one hardly forgot how to do so. He plunged in with ease, cutting through the water. His forward momentum was far greater than his downward, coming short of the bottom of the pool by a few feet. Feeling sealed slightly by the pocket of air he'd created, Bryce paused just long enough to enjoy that brief moment of being in the water but not wet himself. He then started to instinctively swim forward, arms and legs doing what little work was necessary to push his body all the way to the end of the pool. Though he wasn't one for doing somersaults, he still could remain underwater while twisting around, kicking back off and swimming back to the other end before finally coming up for air.

No sooner had his eyes opened did he get a response. "What was that?"

A curious question, not a patronizing one. Still, Bryce had forgotten Violet was there for a moment.

"What was what?" He asked, looking for more specific detail.

She may be an alien to this world, but playing dumb was something he was very convinced wouldn't work on Violet, aura reading or not.

"That jump in…I've never seen anything like that."

He'd wiped his eyes completely clear of water as she'd responded, but looking over at him, Bryce was getting a look of what he could only imagine as awe. Although Violet had seen plenty of new things more impressive in her time here, almost all of that was from the internet. Seeing it in person by someone she knew, that experience was different.

"Oh, it was just a dive. It's a way to move quickly in the water, specifically down." Teacher mode, activate. "You put your arms over your head and then jump in headfirst. The idea is to cut down on the resistance of the water as much as possible." He shrugged. "A dive like that was hardly anything special though. Olympic swimmers can easily go farther than that. They actually shave their entire bodies to get rid of the resistance caused by their hair."

If Violet hadn't already been out of her trance-like state beforehand, she sure was now. Her eyes shrank. Bryce chuckled, realizing that shaving one's entire body free of hair, if they had hair from head to toe…

"...yeah, it's not quite the same for a human. Most people don't typically notice missing body hair unless it's the hair on top of their head." For a moment, he idly thought about the dog a few blocks down that would go crazy if it saw anyone bald walk by. "I take it that having a Lucario fully shaved–"

"–out of the question." She finished quickly, shuddering a bit at the thought.

"...yeah, that's fair." Bryce paused. "Remind me to show you a Sphynx later."

As it turned out, that may not have been the wisest idea. Seeing a hairless cat may have been something Violet could take home along with all the other information, but the cost of her sanity may have meant it was best to just forget it altogether.

On the upside, it did mean that the rest of the morning, and a good portion of the afternoon as well, was spent watching more enjoyable entertainment. They'd watched an animated movie or two together–an unspoken mutual agreement to a nightly movie–but now Bryce may have accidentally gotten Violet addicted to cartoons. At the very least, she was addicted enough to not want to go to bed and watch another episode with him instead. It was rather silly to watch her explain that she loved all the bright, colorful patterns of characters, considering her various shades of yellow, blue, black and purple. But it did cheer her up, and that was the important thing.

It was all fun and games, however, until the inevitable happened: the rumbling of a pair of stomachs that had skipped out on lunch.

"Well, if that's not a cue to get dinner ready, I don't know what is." Bryce stood from his office chair, offering a hand to Violet. "And this time, I'm going to teach you how to cook, at least a little."

"Can I?" Her eyes quickly lit up, any attention focused on the paused screen of the cartoon long gone.

"Of course. After all, if you get hungry and I'm at the store or something, you should be able to take care of yourself." Raw meat wasn't exactly a recommended thing to eat, and with that being her preferred food thanks to a mostly carnivorous nature, it was high time she at least learned how an oven worked.

The two made their way into the kitchen, where Bryce had already thought one step ahead on something meat…well, at least, masquerading as meat…that would be relatively easy for Violet to cook. Opening the freezer, he set down a red bag onto the kitchen counter, grabbing a tray as his plus one inspected the bag.

"These look kinda…fake."

Well, moreso processed, but understandably so. "They're real in a sense, but they're also full of fat, sugar…a fair bit of stuff you can't see unless you make something yourself. But it's your first lesson, so there's no need for us to do something complicated. And an unhealthy meal every once in a while isn't the worst thing in the world."

Violet nodded, looking over towards the oven. Bryce knew she'd seen him use it a fair bit, but he was admittedly a little surprised that she pushed in the knob to turn it on, turning the dial to the appropriate temperature. It wasn't a secret that she could also read the instructions on the bag, either, but…he really shouldn't underestimate this girl.

"Hmm, maybe I should just let you work, see how well you do." He mused.

"I-If you want…" Even without looking, her voice certainly felt embarrassed about being the star of the show, so to speak.

"I'll be right here if you need me." He responded, more sure with his decision than Violet seemed to be with hers.

So, leaning back against the side of the fridge, he watched the Lucario do her work. Honestly, he was pretty sure he could have left the house entirely. Freezer food had pretty clear instructions on what to do. Violet continued to follow the instructions without any issue, knowing exactly where the pan was, placing the individual pieces so they were spaced out enough, waiting the extra minute for the oven to finish preheating, and then opening the oven door to slide the food inside. She didn't even hesitate in grabbing the handle from the outside, not foolish enough to burn herself as she pushed the oven closed.

"And now we wait." She smiled, looking down at an area around Bryce's knees as he grinned back at him.

"Yeah, you'll be fine if I have to leave for something." He concluded, grabbing the empty bag and tossing it into the trash can.

Fifteen to twenty minutes was usually a safe bet for this kind of thing, and that was as simple as checking his computer clock when they got back to his room. Before he could get there however…

"You, uh…I may have forgotten to mention this, but…" Violet gave him the briefest of glances, looking away sheepishly, "...cooking of any kind is kind of a big deal for Pokemon. Being able to do it, I mean."

"Yeah?"

She nodded, continuing. "For Pokemon living in groups, any kind of food preparation is done without an audience, usually with one or two others guarding the Pokemon preparing any food. Because it's an important job and also requires attention, it's done so that any potential ambushes by those not in the group are prevented."

That made sense. No creature wanted to be caught off-guard while their focus was elsewhere. For a Lucario especially, Bryce could imagine that being pretty shameful.

"But learning how to prepare food is something rarely passed from one Pokemon to another. We either just find a way to do it ourselves or it's done between two Pokemon that are…close." She was definitely getting warm, and it had nothing to do with being next to the oven. "And the meaning of 'teaching another cooking' is…well, more of a guise to…spend time alone."

That, however, was a bit less expected. Although, it did make Bryce wonder if there was any correlation to that and a few human idioms. Thankfully, he was spared from further thought as Violet clarified.

"N-Not in an intimate way, but, you know…sort of the beginning stages of showing interest in another."

"So what you're saying is that I asked you out on a date?" He paused, clarifying his own statement. "Which is something someone does when they want to spend alone time with another to see if they're compatible emotionally and mentally?"

Her paws were now covering her eyes. "I-I just forgot, I swear! You mentioned showing me how to make food for myself and I was hungry and I just thought–"

Bryce knelt down, grinning. "V…you're just messing with me, aren't you?"

He didn't actually think that, but it did get her to lower her paws. "N-No, I'm–"

Chuckling, Bryce gently gave her a soft hug. "Violet, seriously, don't worry about it, alright?" Before she could even respond, he stood, rolling his eyes. "Besides, you can do so, so, so much better than me."

Self-deprecation quota met for the day, he turned, leaving a very flustered Pokemon amidst the steam in the kitchen, and at the tips of her ears. No wonder all the humans in the Pokemon world liked spending time with all the different creatures. They were adorable, and nothing short of silly. And the small squeak he barely heard as he walked away all but confirmed it.

Author's Notes: Well, let's start with the good of me taking so long. It seemed fitting to release a chapter set at the start of summer with the start of summer just now beginning. Sure, I could have lined it up exactly, but Sunday seems like a good day for readers to get a chance to do what they do best and read away. Also, congratulations to anyone who's graduated or finished another year, be it a teacher or student of any level. Secondly, one of the good reasons that this took so long was because of a very, very long commission that I worked on between this and the last chapter. Seriously, I'm at 107 pages here and that commission was 70, so that should give you an idea why it took a while.

The downside of things, well…if you'll look back at my last chapter, I mentioned how we had a new scheduler and how the old one left. And how things were getting better. Yeah, they got worse than they were before. Currently I'm in a stint of working for just over three weeks straight, no days off. I also got four separate days of my boss calling me less than two hours before my shift, changing things last minute. And one day where he couldn't understand why one of his overnights didn't pick up the phone to answer at two o'clock in the afternoon. (Here's a hint: when you work overnights, 2PM is the equivalent of 2AM.) THANKFULLY, he's ALSO getting replaced in the near future, so there's some good news there.

Back to the story: of course, I hadn't forgotten about it. Honestly, after taking a day or two once that commission was finished, I busted this entire chapter out during a single shift, with about forty-five minutes to spare. I've had plenty of thoughts rolling around on what all I wanted to do, so I decided–befitting of the title of this chapter–to make it about nothing in particular. Just things that Bryce and Violet would do over the summer. Of course, just because it's not important to the goal of Violet learning about the world around her and not important to Bryce having to work on something around the house doesn't mean it's not important for other things.

Needless to say, swimming is one of my favorite things to do (I actually learned how to swim before I learned how to walk) and I've always found being able to do things like staying underwater after those few moments of diving in to be one of the most zen states I can easily put myself into. I've always loved the irony of having water typically serving, metaphorically, as a cleansing tool (washing away fear, regret, etc.) and how it's often designed to have people be more open. So to have someone more closed off (Bryce) feel at home in the water and someone typically more open (Violet) initially hesitant before coming around as a nice way to subvert the expectation.

I'm well aware the phrasing I'm about to use has been both said and typed many times, but it is fitting for this point in time where things are slowly starting to shift into a better worldview for Bryce, even if he's still not acutely aware of it. He's seeing things differently, of course, but what's important is that he's seeing the same things that he's always done differently. For many, many years, Bryce wasted time doing things like playing video games, reading, watching tv, even being stuck at school, time that is supposed to be considered valuable. But now, doing those exact same things alongside Violet or not, it no longer feels to him as if it were time wasted. It was time that was spent towards something he now enjoyed doing. It was time that was given, and in exchange, he received the happiness that he was never able to get when doing those same things alone. When you use time with someone who brings you happiness, and you can bring happiness to them in return, it is never, EVER time that is wasted. Those moments are some of the most valuable in all of our lives.

Comments are always appreciated, and remember that the people who feel as if they deserve love the least are often the ones who need it the most. -Delta