It's almost two in the morning. Staying up until dawn is nothing new to me but usually I'm in my office keeping nightmares at bay with paperwork, not standing in my apartment's living space. Rika, Poppy and Hassel are all staying in a nearby inn. It took a good half hour to get Hassel to stop crying and attempting to hug me after Poppy told him I almost died. I do appreciate their concern for me even if it makes me uncomfortable sometimes.

"You know you can't just go darting off into Johto like a nobody." My boss addresses me flippantly with a smile that contrasts with the sternness of her words. "You're a member of the Elite Four, you could be seen as a threat. I'll have to engage their Champion, it's only proper, sensible too since he can perhaps tell us about this Team Rocket and maybe something of this Looker."

"No." My defiance surprises me, I've stopped caring for so long I can't remember when I last refused this woman. "I don't want this Team Rocket tipped off and I'm not waiting for negotiations, I'm visiting not invading."
Geeta folds her slender arms and raises a dark eyebrow at me, I genuinely cannot tell if she is impressed with me or mad at me, probably both.

"Larry, isn't it a rather large coincidence that you hear about this ten years to the day? I understand your grief but you're a practical man, think this through. The letter implied this Looker person knows this Team Rocket are searching for a psychic girl but not that either they or he actually knows where she is. You may never find her."

"If they're looking, they have a lead," I counter. I know I sound desperate, I am.

Geeta shakes her head, causing her voluminous midnight blue locks to spill about her shoulders and the glints of gold in it to wink at me like stars. I am not immune to her beauty but the intensity of it alarms me sometimes.

"And what about your Gym and the trainers of Paldea, do they just pause on their quests to rise to the League? How long for?"

I shrug and realise that for the first time in a long time I do not care about work. It has been my one constant for a decade, my distraction, and my reason for living but now I have another.

"I have to go."

Geeta nods this time, she's testing me I realise, seeing if I actually believe in this letter or if my hope is flimsy and can be broken with logic.

She drops her arms by her sides and steps forward, closing the gap between us. "Very well then but if you're not going to give me notice, you're going to have to give me something."

Geeta's hand grasps at my tie without warning and she tugs it hard and fast, pulling at the neat knot and yanking my head forward with it. Her mouth is hot as it presses against mine and her hands move fast to tug my shirt up and out of my trousers.

I know I have to give her something back or she'll make leaving Paldea for Johto difficult for me. She might fire me and whilst I'm brave now about not wanting my job that will fade in time and my sensibilities will return and remind me of my need to make a living. I have to keep my home supported for when I can bring Mia back to it.

I kiss Geeta back as the scent of her perfume drifts up my nostrils. It's got hints of desert plants to it- tough and stubborn just like Geeta. If this is the trade off she wants it's fine. Bedding her is just another job, it always has been. She's a busy woman, too busy for relationships but she has her needs as she's told me before. I suppose I have them too although I'd prefer to satisfy them with someone less complicated.

Geeta's hands slide up to unbuckle my belt. She undoes the button at my trousers and thrusts her hips against me commandingly.

"Should we move to the bedroom?" I ask reluctantly. I'm still fatigued from the Greavard, really I'm exhausted from years of working to forget my past.

"Always predictable Larry," she chides in my right ear. I wince as she bites lightly at my ear lobe in an attempt to arouse. "You know it will takes weeks if not longer to find in a stand-in for your Gym and I'll have to say something to Johto's Champion as a common courtesy."

For Geeta threats are foreplay, I can feel her pushing against me as she arouses herself with her desire to control me. I suppress an undignified sigh as I realise as I'm going to have to give in to this if I want to go to Johto without delay.

I grab Geeta about her waist and push her hard to fall down on the couch. She laughs with an excited anticipation as I crouch down to pull at her tight trousers. I know my position of kneeling before her can only be helping with her arousal. I dip my head to avoid seeing her smug smile. I might be making it fun for her but it's still a chore to me.

"You can't have the others Larry," she murmurs, "you're going alone."

Alone. Why does she think that would be a problem for me? I've spent ten years alone.

Breakfast is a sombre affair. It feels like everyone is in mourning and it sets an apprehensive tone to the long journey I have planned ahead. I am conscious of the fact that the sweat-stained odour of sex still lingers on me. Geeta had a shower this morning and took so long with her hair there was no time for me to shower. Rika's small, teasing smile lets me know that despite changing my suit, throwing water about my face and combing my hair there is still a tell to my actions earlier this morning.

"Do you have to go today?" Poppy quips sorrowfully.

I still cannot face her properly, instead I look to her plate and nod.

"Don't you need to pack and plan?" Rika demands. Her tone is heated but I know it's for Geeta not me.

Before we even ordered food Geeta announced quite clearly and plainly that she had permitted me to travel to Johto to enquire into my letter. She had referred to it as taking leave for a personal affair and emphasised the personal so firmly that the others knew a suggestion of them coming too would be out of the question.

"I'll pack after this," I answer. Packing won't take long, my suits are all the same and I couldn't care what I wear.

I just want to be in Johto, specifically in Goldenrod City as I learned at sunrise when I did some research on my laptop. Goldenrod City is known for its extravagant department store and radio tower, it has to be the place this Looker person is in. He said two weeks but I don't know if that is from the date he sent the letter, it did take a number of days to reach me and I would like time to scout out the area. It's a good thing I'm an ordinary looking man, I'll be able to blend in over there. No one would ever look at me and think I had a psychic for a daughter.

"Uh huh." Rika tugs at her braces lightly as she leans back in her chair. "And you'll call if you need help?"

I glance past her to the rest of the restaurant. It's a quiet morning here but it's getting busier by the minute, word has evidently spread around town that the Champion and Elite Four members are all here. I can see a few phones and Rotoms rising up to take sneaky photos from behind raised menus. Thank Arceus no one in Johto will know me to take photos, I need to be incognito over there.

"Sure."

"Liar," Rika accuses as she snaps her braces to emphasise her slander.

The sweet scents of pastries fills the air as a fresh batch is brought out from the ovens and put on the buffet trays. I can't remember my last breakfast like this, normally that meal consists of coffee at my desk until I have time to take a break and get a snack from one of the stands outside.

I feel a tugging on my jacket sleeve and glance down instinctively. Poppy looks up at me from under the shade of her hood with wide eyes.

"She's very special isn't she for you to go all the way across the world?"

I stare at Poppy's wide, inquisitive eyes for a moment. I long for the grey pair that use to stare up at me with delight every time I returned home from work. I nod in answer as I realise how unlike me this all is. I am a normal man without surprise, to drop everything and dart off to a country I know nothing about is entirely out of character but if there's even the slightest chance Mia is out there somewhere I'm willing to abandon my comfort zone to find her.

"What's she like? What's her Pokemon type? Does she like Steel?" Poppy fidgets with the large key hanging about her chest, ignorant to the pain her innocent questions have caused me.

I can't answer. I don't know these things about Mia. Her mother used to ask her when she came home from playschool what Pokemon she had learned about and if she had any new favourites yet. Mia's answer would always stay the same- 'my favourite are daddy's'. My wife used to laugh and shake her head mockingly at this before turning to me with a fake scorn and saying 'my Pokemon can levitate, move objects, and read minds but yours stay the favourite, you really have this kid of ours impressed Larry'.

"She liked art," I murmur as I think about the drawings hanging back at home.

"She had a talent for it," Hassel says kindly.

I glance across the table to him and he gives me an empathetic smile in answer. He knew Mia from birth, he could always make her bashful with praise for her pictures.

"She liked drawing best." I sound unsure and I realise I'm looking to Hassel for confirmation.

I've kept Mia from my mind for so long that even as she is engraved in my memory so much of her is lost to it.

Hassel nods reassuringly. "Yes, you were her favourite subject Larry."
"A daddy's girl."

A chill runs through me despite the heat of the restaurant. I tilt my head slightly in Geeta's direction and she offers up a harmless smile. I don't know why but there is something in the way she said 'daddy's girl' that makes me think she is taunting me a little. Why? Because Mia was psychic and more like her mother than me? Because I am the one who failed her while her mother sacrificed herself for her?

"She'll be almost grown now if it is her," Geeta continues to sink the knife in. "Sixteen now."

I feel my chest tighten and realise I have not contemplated this before. Mia has stayed six in my mind and I cannot envision her any other way. I've missed out on her entire childhood. Even if against all the odds she is alive, part of her is still dead to me because we can't get those years back.

I clench the edge of the table with both hands and stare at my empty plate. What have I been thinking? That I would go to Johto and be reunited with Mia at six years old? Does she remember me? Does she resent me for never showing up after all this time? Will she want me in her life now that she is almost grown? Doubt starts to consume me.

"That's still young," Hassel speaks up kindly. "A good age for enrolling at school."

"I remember sixteen," Rika muses. I glance up to see her twisting a spoon about carelessly in her hand as she views her reflection in it. "So many late nights partying, drinking and sharing kisses as prizes for naughty girls who lost Pokemon battles." She flashes a smile at me. "Girls need their fathers more at that age, someone to guide them, to pick them up from the house they shouldn't have been at..." She lets out a mournful sigh. "To support them when they're not sure about things."

"Oh wow, I can't wait to be sixteen!" Poppy exclaims excitedly.

I catch Geeta shaking her head but see she is smiling. She gestures with one open palm to Rika and with the other to Hassel. "The paths of a teenager- rebellion or studies."

I shake my head with mild disapproval. Poppy's presence jars me not just because of its persistent reminder of Mia but because she is too young to be at this table. It's not right for one so young to be so powerful already, if she keeps excelling at this rate where will Poppy be at sixteen? Certainly she will have surpassed us all, Geeta included, and yet I can't envision Geeta being okay with that. I wonder if Poppy might become exploited, she is so innocent and easily led. That's why she's here, Geeta wants her under watchful eyes for her own good but for Paldea's good as well. What would happen if some villain promised her the moon and the stars if she battled for them instead?

"You're spacing out again Larry," Rika's scorn pulls me back to reality.

I glance across the table to her. She is leaning back in her chair fidgeting with her braces again, snapping them back against her shoulders lightly. It's interesting to think considering how mundane my existence is that Rika is probably the most grounded of our group.

Hassel's flair for emotions make him as fit for drama teaching as for art. His complex history of dragon tamer heritage suggests he comes from the type of ancient aristocratic family that tend to have a blend of eccentricity in their gene pool. Poppy is odd simply for being so powerful a trainer so young, it's unnerving to see her refer to Pokemon that have the strength to snuff out a team of trainers with such cute nicknames. Geeta is a striking presence with a streak of danger that makes one wary of her appeal. She lives in a world of order and control, cutting off half-raised protests with smiles whilst maintaining a role so busy one wonders if she ever sleeps and if maybe such a demanding job could possibly be pushing her to insanity. Rika is calm, charming and confident, the clerk of the group who greets challengers with the formalities of questions and paperwork. It's a role that would suit me if I was more outgoing. She likes her role in the Elite and I view it as another pay check.

"You call when you've arrived," Rika orders me. "Then I want daily reports."

"Shouldn't I be asking for that?" Geeta queries lightly. Her tone might be merry but there is a faint whisper of scorn to it too.

Rika is unconcerned with Geeta's quip. "I'm not looking intel, I want proof of life." She points at me warningly with one finger. "If we don't hear from you Larry we're coming over, got it?"

I don't need to look to Geeta to know there is anger in her eyes. I almost want to smile at Rika's defiance and her concern for me.

"I can't contact you daily, I don't want to create patterns or anything that might arouse suspicion. Besides, what could I say every day?"

"I want to know about Johto!" Poppy exclaims.

"Me too," Hassel says excitedly. "You know the Champion there is a Dragon Tamer?"

"I'm not sightseeing."

Hassel nods solemnly. "Quite right. You will contact us when you find her, won't you?"

I nod at this although I'm realising I have no real plan for what will follow after. I want Mia home of course but will she want that? Where has she been all this time and who with? Has she ever tried to come home?

There is a clatter as Hassel knocks over the salt and pepper shakers in his effort to stretch his hand across the table to me. He pats my right hand and smiles. "She will be glad to see you."

"Sure will," Rika agrees, "and we will be glad to see her, so bring her home Larry."

Home, there is that word that has for so long been a foreign notion to me.

I nod agreeably before pushing back my chair. I excuse myself from the table and go to settle the bill discretely. I have much to do today and a lot of travel arrangements to make. I do not have any more time to spare on the frivolities of conversing with colleagues.

I return to the table but not to my seat. "I have to go and start preparing," I advise our group. "Thank you all for understanding."
Rika's long arm swings up to offer me her hand. I accept and she gives a firm shake. "Good luck Larry."

"Will you bring me something from the zoo?"

I stare in Poppy's direction in confusion and glimpse her hopeful smile. "Um...if they have one?" I have no idea what she's talking about.

"Why something from a zoo?" Rika pries.

"That's what people get from a traveller," Poppy insists, "something from a zoo, a zoo-fen-near."

Rika laughs. "A souvenir Poppy, it's like a trinket from somewhere abroad, a fridge magnet or something like that, it doesn't have to be from a zoo!"

"Huh?" Poppy's smile dims and she folds her arms. "I wanted a plushie of an exotic Pokemon."

"I'll do my best," I offer. I think of Mia's forgotten, half-destroyed plushie collection and promise I'll renew it for her when I find her. Maybe she's too old for them now but if she collects them I'm going to get her every plushie I can find.

There is a screech as Hassel pushes his chair back too hard across the floor. He gets to his feet and comes charging behind Rika to me. I do not move quick enough to evade his large arms enveloping me.

"Take care Larry!" he exclaims as he squeezes my arms against my sides and almost crunches the bones. "We will take good care of your gym for you, promise, and water any plants you have. Do you have plants? Brassisus will help look after them! You do look like you have one or two potted friends."

"I don't." I did once in my apartment in an attempt to brighten the place for my Pokemon but my Flamingo took an aversion to them and knocked them over.

I gasp as Hassel knocks the air from me with a firm pat to my back before releasing me.

Geeta stands to regard me with one of her professional smiles. "Remember you are representing us on your travels Larry, take care to keep that in mind." She makes it sound like I'm heading over as a salesman.

There is only one thing I will keep on my mind while I am there, my single goal- finding Mia.