"Paaaapaaaaa! Where is sheeeeee?!" The serene town ambiance that had lulled the young man into a brief doze was shattered unceremoniously by the whining voice of a very bored young kit. Stretching out his legs, the Glaceon absentmindedly reached his paws up to grip his adoptive child, pulling her down into his chestfur as he stroked over her fur slowly.
"I can't answer that, Sweetpea. You saw how it was in there yesterday. I'm sure she's coming, just give her some more time, ok?" The Eevee whined once again, puffing up her cheeks in a pout as she settled into her fathers arms.
"But Papa, you said that hooooours ago!" The ice type yawned loudly, flicking his ears lazily before looking up towards the belltower.
"Actually, little ray. I can see from the clock I've only been asleep for... about thirty minutes. I understand, you're bored. But we've just got to be a little patient, and-"
"Oh, dear. Is it really that bad without me, Sunshine~?" The Eevee's ears perked up, a big smile covering her face before she sprang off her fathers chest, eliciting and "Oof, watch it!" from the boy as she leapt through the air into the vixen's outstretched paws. "Hiya, trouble! How're you doing today?" The little kit giggled, nuzzling the Vulpix happily as she beamed.
"Hiya, ! What took you so loooooong, we've been here foreeeeeeveeeer!" The kit whined, pouting up at the older girl.
"Awwww, did you really miss me that much you were waiting for me~? Why, Kaguya, I'm flattered~" The vixen giggled at the boys quirked eyebrow. A grin spreading over his face.
"We've been here for roughly an hour and twenty minutes. Of which, 40 of those minutes were late time. Tsk, tsk. I expected better, Luminous Snowdrop." The Glaceon's grin grew wider as he noticed the icy fox's eye twitch. She lurched forward, grabbing the clasp of his cloak, pulling him to eye level.
"You nasty little brat, calling me my full name! You know how busy work gets! It wasn't-"
"And by busy, you mean you were flirting with guys again~?"
"I'll skewer you with icicles, buddy. Don't test me!" The Glaceon laughed, gently gripping her paws in his own with a soft squeeze of reassurance.
"Relax, foxy. I'm messing around. Didn't expect you to take it so bad that I used your full name." The girl puffed her cheeks up, grumbling to herself.
"'Course I would... it sounds dumb..." That caught the boys attention, causing him to meet her gaze again.
"Seriously? Huh... I thought it sounded really pretty..." The fox's cheeks flared slightly, thankfully it was near unnoticeable beneath her pristine fur. "Anyway, I'm not actually mad you're late. Don't worry so much, I like to think I'm a patient guy."
The Eevee glared at her adoptive parent, sticking her tongue out at him. "Liar! Papa fell asleep waiting for you!" The vixen snorted at the young girls outburst, giving the Glaceon and smirk of 'oh really now?' status.
"Patient, lazy. Potato, po-tah-to." The male shrugged with a grin.
"Pfffft, idiot. Anyway, I'll make it up to you both. I've got a great place for us to go grab something to eat. And, then I get to ask you a few questions. Strictly off the record, none of this stuff is need to know by the Guild. This is purely because I wanna know more about you. You can ask me some questions too, deal?" The Vulpix offered her paw out to the boy. Who gripped it with a firm shake.
"Alright. Deal."
"Yikes, talk about fancy... I was expecting something a little less... hoity toity to be honest..." The ice type glanced around, feeling out of place in his cloak and paw guards. He didn't feel confident enough to walk around without them. Even if it looked incredibly awkward for him walking around town with a large, flowing cloak and a set of 4 armoured guards covering each of his paws. He looked even more out of place in the posh restaurant Lumi had brought him to, and clearly, the other guests had noticed it as well.
"Relax, I promise, the foods great. You'll both love it!"
"Yeah, it's not the food I'm worried about..."
"Papa's not very brave! He's scared of large crowds!"
"Yes, thank you Sweetpea. 'Brave' isn't really the right word there, but I guess you're not wrong."
The vixen had placed their order and brought back drinks for the three of them, bringing back some breadsticks for the tiny kit to snack on while she spoke with the young girls father. "So you mentioned you were from Azure Pines. What's it like there? Like I said, just curious."
The Glaceon leaned back, humming thoughtfully. "Well... quiet, to be honest. Not many people used to travel up that way. It was always calm there. The people were kinda reclusive though. They preferred to keep to themselves... far too much, if you ask me."
"I see. And were you close with any of them? Friends? Loooovers~?" The icy vixen smirked, she loved gossip like this.
"Friends? No, not really. Lovers? ...Once..." The fox's ears perked up, smirking to herself.
"Ooooh la la~ Who was the lucky lady and where is she now?"
'You're such a freak, you know that!?'
'How did you- What do you think you're doing!?'
'S-STOP! NO! DON'T!'
'NO! P-PLEASE, I'M SO-!'
The Glaceon scowled, slapping himself on the cheek roughly much to the girls shock. "...HE is none of your concern. That's enough of that line of questions. Sorry."
The Vulpix tilted her head slightly, feeling slightly awkward at the sudden revelation. "He...? You mean you're- I mean, it's not a problem if you are, I just-"
"No, I'm not gay if that's what you want to ask. And no, there would be no issue with it even if I were. If I choose to be in a relationship, gender doesn't matter to me. So long as I feel a connection, so long as there's love? I'm willing to try." The fox perked up slightly at this, though she found herself unsure why.
"O-oh, that's... a really neat outlook. So, um... what happened to make it so, uh... hard to talk about?"
"..." The Glaceon sighed softly. "The love wasn't there. That's all I'm willing to say on the matter..."
"Papa... How come I've never heard of this person? Did they do something wrong? Are they bad?"
"Don't you worry about it, Sunshine. That's Papa's problem, not yours dear. Now I just need a moment, I really need to use the restroom, I'll be right back." With that, the Glaceon stood up, walking away from the table.
The Vulpix found herself feeling incredibly awkward now. They'd only just arrived, and already she'd offended one of her guests and worried the other. And that slap...
"Say, Sunshine?"
"Mmhmm?
"Does your Papa... slap himself like that often? Is that normal, or...?" The kit flattened her ears down, whimpering softly.
"Papa always says "Don't worry, Sweetpea. Papa's just chasing the demonds away!" I don't really get it... but Papa seems better afterwards, so..."
The vixen's stomach flipped. She'd meant "demons". He was suffering from something, and it was really deep rooted. If this was a common occurrence, Kaguya may be far less stable than he was letting on. And that could prove dangerous to both himself, and those around him.
She didn't know what frightened her more. The fact he was so badly hurt, or the fact he could hide it so easily. Almost as though...
He'd had years of time to practice.
"Hey, sorry about that. Just needed to splash some water on my face. I want to apologise. I lost my cool there for a second, and I hope I wasn't too nasty or..." The Glaceon trailed off, retaking his seat across from the icy Vulpix.
Even when clearly hurt by her poking and prodding, and wrestling with something far more dangerous than her words, he still seemed to care for her. Was it an act? Another mask? Or was it genuine? The fox hoped for the latter.
She offered her best smile, shaking her head before gently squeezing the Glaceon's paw. "No, I'm the one that should be apologising. I took my questions too far. Prodded too deeply, of course you'd be upset. I just... hadn't expected it to cause you so much distress. I hope you can forgive me?" Even now, from just her touch she could feel it. His paw, his entire left foreleg had tensed to a dangerous degree. Almost as though he was fighting the urge to lash out, like he was afraid of what that touch meant.
"Hey, it's your job. It's only natural you'd wanna know more, right?" The boy shrugged, letting his muscles relax as he sighed softly. She relaxed too, knowing he'd worked out there was no animosity behind her gesture.
"No, no. It has nothing to do with my job. I just... genuinely wanted to know more about you. About the kind of person you are, the kind of experiences you've had. But if you're not comfortable telling me anything like that, that's completely fine with me. Your feelings are important, and I'm not gonna dredge up bad ones just for a bit of gossip. Really, I'm... seriously sorry, Kaguya. Tell me next time I pry too deep, ok? Don't just snap suddenly from trying to be polite. Just tell me if I'm getting too pushy?" She watched his face closely, trying to discern anything she could from the boy. Her worries melted when she saw his eyes be filled with warmth, and a smile cross his muzzle.
"Jeez, you're really panicky over this. Worried you're gonna lose me or something?" The vixen scoffed, poking the boy on the nose with a grin of her own.
"Worried I'll lose you? What are we, married?"
"You're the one fussing like an old married woman over me."
"Oi, who're you calling old!? We're the same age!"
The Glaceon tilted his head slightly, regarding the fox in confusion. "Really? I could've sworn you were older than I was. You're certainly more responsible, that's for sure."
Another scoff broke past the girls lips, rolling her eyes as she rested her chin upon her paws. "Responsible? Me? Oh, please. Spare me. I want nothing more than to just head home right now, curl up in bed and read a good book until I pass out. I don't wanna go back to that place and deal with all those people. Hopeful families, wannabe heroes, bragging hotshots. Most of the latter two categories spend too much time flirting and not enough time answering the damn questions. I'm so thankful my roles gonna change soon enough..."
"Change? In what sense?" The vixen slapped a paw over her muzzle, her eyes darting up to the Glaceon's as she groaned out loud.
"Oh, dammit! I said that out loud didn't it? Alright, DON'T tell ANYBODY you heard this, alright? The way the Guild works is that following a new teams training and formation, a qualified Guild operative, I.E yours truly, begins to work closely with one of the new teams. To serve as a sort of... informant. They're called "Guild Liaison Officers" and their duty is to serve as a direct go-between from the new Explorers and the Guild officials. It's only supposed to last a few months, just as a way of getting the newbies used to how things work and who to talk to. Then they should be able to manage it all on their own. At that point, the Liaison officer has a choice. Join on with the team as a full time member, becoming part of their team permanently, or return to working as a clerk and become an officer once again later down the line."
The Eeveelution hummed, tapping his paw atop the table as the waiter arrived with their food, serving the dishes to each occupant of the table. Barely aware of it, the boy was brought back from his thoughts by the happy squeak of the kit beside him, who had immediately dug into her fried fish dish. "So lemme get this straight, after the new recruits get trained up, we'll be partnered with one of these... Liaison officers, and they'll act as our... guide, so to speak?"
"Essentially. So I hope you're looking forward to working with me, since I'll be putting myself forward to be yours." It was the males turn to scoff.
"Wow, you really seem to like me huh? If I didn't know better, I'd assume to had a crush on me or somethi- Ow!" The Glaceon rubbed his nose where the girl had flicked him.
"Dream on, Casanova. Now eat your food before it goes cold, I didn't order it for you to let it sit there. And don't worry about the bill, this was my treat, remember~?"
"Man, I can never get used to how stuffy it is in there... but at least the foods good. What do you think?" The Vulpix beamed up at her companion, who was stretching out his legs.
"Well, I'm not a fan of how fancy it was. But I can't deny that the food was nice. Thanks for the nice day out, Sunshine looks a lot happier than when the day started."
"That's cause you woke me up super early Papa!" The Eevee pouted grumpily, folding her paws over her fluffy mane.
"That's cause SOMEBODY asked me to wake her up super early because she 'wanted to explore the town and meet the people!' right, little ray~?" The Eevee blushed and pouted harder, grumbling under her breath to herself.
The vixen smiled. They fought a lot, but it was all good natured. Just teasing, they clearly loved each other a lot. "Say, Kaguya?"
"Mmm?" The Glaceon let out a startled yelp as the Vulpix leaned up, kissing him softly on the cheek.
"Thank you for the nice afternoon. And if you ever feel the need to talk, about anything. No matter how small, please... you know where you can find me. Alright? I'll talk to you again later! I gotta get back to work!" And with that, the fox rushed off towards the Guild hall, leaving a stunned ice type and a giggling fluffball in her wake.
