Chapter 7: Saturday Night Outing (Part 1)

Andrei fell through the alternating black and white rectangles, and landed onto the floor of the electronics department found in the Junes Department Store. He managed to move just in time to not get squashed by Daniela, when she entered The Real World herself. The Eevee regretted moving, as he wished to be squashed by his crush. A regret that also came because he overestimated his chances of surviving such a situation. Well, the normal type maybe could have survived it if he was faring better, but in his current condition, even a performance of the move Tackle could have knocked him out.

Daniela also moved further away from the TV, and Joina gracefully landed onto the floor. Her excessive amount of jewellery rattled as she landed, before the Nickit winked at her audience. Thankfully for The Truth Seekers, that audience was only formed by Andrei and Daniela.

The Queen of Battles landed next to the dark-type. The two girls then moved away, as to not get struck by the body of a certain Absol in case he didn't land next to them.

Sashir Avci clumsily landed onto the floor. He tried to not fall, but he was doomed to do so from the moment he landed. Obviously embarrassed, the male dark-type stood up as quickly as possible. Before his new acquaintances could get the chance to laugh at him. Yet none wished to laugh. Not even Joina. The Nickit thought it would have been too cruel to take a jab at someone falling after not having used their own legs for nine years.

"…You good?" Andrei asked the Absol, concern present in his voice.

"Yes, my status is good" Sashir answered the Eevee. "My body simply is not used to travelling between worlds like this…Yet."

"You'll get used to it, if you get into this fuckery." The Queen of Battles told the Absol.

"…That shall be seen by me." Avci responded, before glancing around. "Well, except for the obviously newer technology, this store doesn't seem to have changed much since its opening day." He then commented.

"And the TV that connects two worlds between each other." Daniela remarked, as she fetched her smartphone from her bag. She smacked her lips at the time displayed on its screen: 22:07. Yet her parents didn't send her a single worried message or called her. The only notification floating underneath the displayed time being an email announcing that a new chapter of one of the online books she reads has been published.

Seeing the Dragonite check her phone, the Eevee wished to check his. So, he did. Andrei was met with worried messages from his father, as the normal-type was unable to reply to them in a world where phones do not receive any signal. They started with a simple 'Hey, how are you doing?', but degenerated into a thread of worried messages sparked by the lack of an answer to that question. In which the Leafeon was first angry at this happening twice in a row, before going into a sorrowful tirade apologising to his son about his weird job and even promising to quit it if Andrei simply responded.

Joina and The Queen of Battles quickly checked their phone for the time, but had no notifications to check on. Each one only had a mother, and both of those mothers simply didn't wish to check on their children all of the time. The mother of Joina because she wholeheartedly trusted the Nickit, and the mother of The Queen of Battles because she was too scared of how the Riolu might react. The fighting-type also had no friends that could wish to send her messages through the internet, and none of Joina's friends and 'friends' had wished to send her any messages. The same was also true for Daniela's lack of notifications besides an automated email, and Andrei's lack of messages from his friends. Not like the two of them had that many Pokemon to call friends, in the first place.

The four Pokemon without any messages to check on watched Andrei scroll and read through his, after three of them checked their phones. The one that didn't, a certain Absol, didn't check any messages sent to him because he couldn't receive any. As Avci did not possess a smartphone.

"I need to make a phone call." The Eevee informed the group, after raising his gaze to meet theirs. "Privately."

"Alright, how about we wait for you in front of the store?" The Nickit of the group proposed.

"That's a good idea, yeah. Can you please do that?" The boy asked in response to that proposal.

"Once again, I find myself agreeing with Joina." The Queen of Battles made known to the group. "We'll wait for you outside, perv." The Riolu then stated, before starting to make her way towards the entrance/exit of the Junes Department Store.

Daniela found that use of the word 'perv' suspicious. Why was The Queen of Battles calling Andrei that? The Riolu only spoke of Pokemon that she saw doing something that could label them as perverts in that way. And like, sure, she could see the Eevee not being the purest boy. He was a hormonal teenagers like many other, including herself. But nobody labelled the Dragonite as a pervert because she kept all of her horniness in private. So, what did Andrei do in front of the fighting-type to get himself labelled as such by her?

The dragon-type decided to ask either her friend, or The Queen of Battles, about that label after the Eevee was done with his phone call. Therefore, she followed the Riolu headed towards the entrance/exit of the Junes Department Store. And following suit were Sashir and Joina. Well, the Nickit abandoned the group after her big tail was out of Andrei's sight. Doing as such to go around the store in such a way that she ended up back in the electronics department. Hiding herself from the Eevee's view and sense of smell, behind one of the shelves present in the store. As she was curious to see what the boy could discuss in a private phone call. And unlike others, Arni had no issues with eavesdropping on purpose.

After seeing everyone leave, Andrei let out a sigh. Mentally preparing himself for what was to come, before he grabbed his phone. Which he set onto the floor, previously to fishing out his Bluetooth headphones from his bag. That he stuck into his ears, after making sure that they were turned on and paired to his phone. The normal-type then called his father.

The Leafeon picked up almost instantly, sniffed, then said: "Son?"

"Dad, what made you think I hated you? I was just having too much fun to consider checking my silenced phone." The Eevee deployed his cover up story.

"Ah, that makes sense…Sorry for worrying you, you know how I am: I always jump head first into conclusions…" The grass-type apologised. "And considering what happened yesterday…"

"I don't hate you for that, truly. And I told you this morning that I'll be busy." Andrei replied to his father's apologies.

"Yes, you did. But it is already ten in the night, boy." The Leafeon remarked, his voice sounding less sad. "You're coming back soon, aren't you?"

"Actually…Daniela wants to eat dinner with me in a restaurant, so I'll be home later…Sorry…" The Eevee informed his father, and apologised because of the information he gave.

"No need to apologise! I won't get in the way of you and her!" The grass-type vocally sprung up. Of course he did. Andrei's father really wanted for the Eevee and Dragonite to become an item. "But please do be home on Sunday."

"I will. Thanks for the understanding, dad. Goodbye." The boy responded to his father's statements.

"Bye, son. Have fun." The Leafeon replied, before ending the call.

Andrei let out a sigh the moment after the call ended. Well, that went way better than he had expected. As the Eevee picked up the things he used during the call, Joina skittered away and caught up with the others, before they realised that she was gone. The Nickit wasn't really satisfied by the information she received from her short spying session.

"Welcome back, Andrei." Daniela told the boy, when she spotted him walking up to the group. "You were gone for barely any minutes. We didn't even get a chance to discuss at what restaurants we could eat."

"Well, maybe we should go somewhere that serves food that Sashir likes." The normal-type suggested. "After all, he went through more than enough to deserve at least that courtesy."

"Those nine years only felt like a dream to me. A dream in which my body fell through memories of my life in a haphazard order. My only thoughts being of what could have been done better by me, what else could have happened, and how those events felt like to me both when they were the present, and also, when they became memories of mine." The Absol felt the need to tell the rest of the group that, in response to the suggestion of Andrei. "That is also an excellent suggestion. Although home cooked sarmale are the best, what is the best commercial place that serves sarmale?"

"W-well-" The Eevee started his response, a bit taken aback by the statements Avci made before asking a question. "That would be At the cauldron."

"At the cauldron is still the best one?" Sashir asked, his eyes widening. "Some things really don't change in almost a decade, huh…"

"But other things did." Daniela intervened into the discussion. "Anyways. Unless anyone else has any objections, I also think that we should eat At the cauldron."

"No objections here, that place is nice." Joina stated her lack of an objection to the group.

"As long as I don't have to pay, I'm coming." The Riolu stated her wish to consume food for free, no matter the place she ate at.

"And I suggested the place, so of course I won't object to it." Andrei remarked, before stating: "So, let's go there already!"

Having decided of a place to eat at, The Truth Seekers and Sashir started to walk towards that place. Giving Daniela the perfect opportunity to talk with the Eevee about something she wished to talk with him about.

"Andrei, can I ask you something?" The Dragonite asked the boy, beginning the talk with that question.

"Sure, what is it?" Andrei replied with a question.

"Why did The Queen of Battles call you a pervert, earlier?" The dragon-type inquired, making dread fill the Eevee. He really didn't want to truthfully answer to that question. But the boy had to give an answer. But what answer?

"She saw him staring at my ass!" Joina intervened into the conversation, simultaneously saving and bleaching the hide of the Eevee.

"Ah. That's understandable." Daniela replied to the Nickit's intervention. That made sense. Many things could be said about the jewellery wearer, but nothing bad could be said about her appearance in a truthful manner.

Andrei remained quiet. He wanted to object, for the sake of his pride, but objecting could have led to the Dragonite finding the real reason as to why the Riolu called him a perv. And considering that Daniela took the idea of him staring at someone's ass so well, why would he risk her finding out about the real reason?

The Queen of Battles remained silent because she simply couldn't be bothered to object, and explain why she called Andrei a perv. The Riolu also believed that the Eevee did stare at Joina's ass, although the fighting-type never saw him do that.

Eventually, the group arrived At the cauldron. A place that obviously wished to hammer in the idea suggested by its name, as its outside was designed to look exactly like the outside of a cauldron. The inside was of a wooden-tavern type restaurant, but instead of a restaurant it was a cafeteria. All of the food was served on wooden trays, while those trays were slid from a pile on the left side of the serving area to the end of the serving area. The food was served by an old-looking Nidoqueen. Her saggy but massive breasts sloped onto her stomach, blanketed by the black apron she was wearing. A pair of granny glasses rested on her eyes, helping her see better while a red string tied to both arms of her pair of glasses made sure that the pair of glasses didn't fall off her face. Behind this Nidoqueen, a cauldron was set above a flame contained within short stone walls. In that cauldron being sarmale prepared earlier, now being boiled in water. Sarmale were cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and wild Pokemon minced meat, known for their delicious, varied tastes. After all, there were so many different kinds of wild Pokemon meat to choose from, and more than one sort could be stuffed within a sarma (a single cabbage roll, the word sarmale is always used for multiple).

"The appearance of this place really hasn't changed since the last time my presence was within this place." Sashir remarked, as he looked around the interior of At the cauldron.

"Well, it didn't have to." Andrei said, while leading the group towards one of the empty, and obviously meant for a larger group of Pokemon, tables of the cafeteria. Instead of chairs, this and all of the other tables of At the cauldron were surrounded by red pillows. The surrounded by pillows part being easy to implement because all of the tables of At the cauldron were circular. To compensate for the lack of an elevation provided by chairs, the surfaces of these circular tables were closer to the floor beneath them. "This place was designed to last, and only almost a decade has passed since its opening."

"Yeah, the opening day was really nice…" The Absol started to reminiscence, as the group sat around the round table. Daniela, seeing that a singular pillow could not suffice the need of her big rear to sit comfortably onto a pillow, departed from the group to grab some more pillows from the pile of pillows found in a corner of the cafeteria, from which any customer that needed more pillows could take pillows out of. "The first business to not be opened by the government, right after the end of the tyrannical rule of The Social State of Ruinelia."

"And did you get to experience the opening day?" Andrei asked, curious to find out more about the past of this mysterious Absol. After all, that was the sole reason the Eevee wasn't spending time with his father currently.

"Of course. That was the proper thing to do as someone from the Avci family, although attending the opening of a business isn't a philanthropic act. My parents made up for that by raising funds for the restoration of another residential building." Sashir replied to the Eevee's question.

"So, I get that you come from one of the philanthropic families that moved into Orbaj Town?" Andrei asked another question. In the meantime, Daniela created a pile of pillows wide enough to comfortably host the entirety of her lower side, when it was sat onto the pile of pillows.

"Well, Sashir and Avci aren't traditional names of this region, are they?" The Absol answered with a question.

"No, but names like those still existed within the borders of Ruinelia." The Eevee responded, as the Dragonite sat herself onto the fruits of her labour. "Because foreigners moved within Ruinelia before it became a dictatorship with closed borders."

"Are we really going to spend the rest of this day speaking about stuff that isn't what we came here to discuss?" The Queen of Battles suddenly intervened into the conversation, after she spotted the dragon-type sit at the table.

"Of course not. The conversation that happened until now was merely chit-chat made in the wait of the Dragonite." The Absol responded to the sudden, and rude, intervention of the Riolu into the conversation he was having with the Eevee.

"Good, then let's discuss about the food we are consuming." The Riolu continued her intervention. "Because just like you, I'm also starving."

"Then let's go get some." Joina plainly stated, as she stood up. Prompting everyone else to do the same.

The group of five Pokemon then made its way to the serving area. The Nidoqueen, due to her poor memory, didn't recognise the Absol within the group of five that ordered the sarmale she placed onto plates that went onto the trays of the five. But she successfully managed to get all of the orders right.

Andrei received 10 sarmale in which the minced meats of both wild Lechonk and wild Tauros were found. Daniela received 40 sarmale of the same variety. The Queen of Battles received 20 in which the minced meat of wild Pidgey was found. Sashir and Joina got themselves sarmale of the same variety that the Riolu ordered. The Absol received 15 and the Nickit received 10. And just like she promised, Joina paid for all of the 95 sarmale, as well as for the drinks. The drinks being overpriced potable water found in glass bowls covered by reusable silicon lids. Each bowl held 500ml of water. The group grabbed these drinks from a self-serve fridge, then the Nickit paid for them alongside the sarmale. As a show of gratitude for buying everyone food, the jewellery wearer didn't have to carry any of the food or drinks to the circular table. At which the group sat once again, now in the presence of food.

"Well then." Sashier said, as he looked at the rest of the group. "Let me please your curiosity to the best of my abilities, while we feast."

End of chapter 7: Saturday Night Outing (Part 1)