(A/N: Just two quick notes. After feedback, I went back to beef up the glossary of the previous chapter. If you're still a bit confused or lost, check that out for more detail. Please let me know if anything else is confusing.
Second thing, FFN for me is glitched. It's told me I have zero views on everything since the sixteenth of, like, September. So, unless you follow, review, or fav, I have no way of knowing that anyone else can even see this. It would mean a lot to me to know that people other than me care about this story. I really appreciate those who already have, thank you.)
"'How 'bout another first kiss?' she said"
Ithos sat in front of a well organized plot of various items atop a blanket, his brand new-used, Rescue Society Issued bag right beside. He had orans and apples up in the top left that he'd counted twice already, yet Max still couldn't remember how many he said there were. Besides that, he had a few rocks and some spikes that he meticulously organized in the opposite corner.
He looked absurdly prepared; some things never change. She hadn't even gone to pick her own bag up after seeing the ratty mess they gave Ithos, preferring to munch on an apple she'd swiped while Ithos wasn't looking. It was their first mission, after all.
Besides, it was too much fun watching Ithos. This whole time, he'd beamed from ear to ear as he pulled together all the assorted items he managed to find. Despite the trepidation the night before, he seemed beyond eager to take on his first mission. Looking over his haul one last time, though, he eyed the berries and apples with a furrowed brow.
"Hey, Max?" Ithos asked. "Have you seen," he started turning to face her and watched her munching on the apple, "—Max!" He hopped up to snatch it out of her paw. He looked over the apple with a frown as he assessed the damage to find she'd eaten about half of it already. "What are we supposed to eat in the Dungeon!?"
"The other," Max said, turning to check the fruit, "three apples." One ear fell. No wonder he'd noticed one apple of four go missing. Standing over her, he crossed his arms as he stared down. "Well, y'know," she mumbled, "gotta have a good breakfast?" Her tail flicked nervously behind her. He'd looked so excited preparing for this. Now, she didn't even want to look up at him.
"Oh, breakfast," Ithos mumbled. "Right, I knew I was forgetting something." He forced out a nervous chuckle and held the apple out, reminding Max's instincts that food was on the line.
With a painful twist in her gut, Max bit the apple out of his paw and scurried a few steps away to tear into it. An aching hole in her stomach made her make up for every second lost ten times in intensity. She barely tasted as she scarfed it down. Within seconds, she found herself hunched over empty paws with the remains of an apple's flavor in her mouth.
"Wh-what happened?" she asked, looking around for the discarded core. Sparks bounced from her cheeks as she couldn't find it. Instead, she caught a glimpse of Ithos counting his fingers. She flopped to the ground, pulling her tail over her head to hide while sparks spewed from her cheeks.
"Hey, are you all right?" Ithos asked, carefully walking over to lay a paw on her back. "Is this that, uh," he paused to look around, "Dungeon Sickness?"
Max nodded her chin into the ground and forced herself to sit up. "I have trouble being normal about food," she grumbled. She reached up to scratch the back of her neck. "Sorry."
"Hey, it's all right!" Ithos said with cheer so sweet it made her teeth hurt (though that may have been the apple's stem). "I'm just glad you're okay!" He sat next to her and rubbed his paw down her back. After she managed to nervously glance up, she caught him on the edge of a chuckle. "Honestly, it's kinda cute."
Max looked away to hide her own chuckle, growling, "Okay! Just get your bag packed." Ithos flinched back a bit until she looked back with a smile. "It's about time you went on your first mission, don't you think?"
"Right!" Ithos cheered. He hopped up like a kid Life Day morning, and it wasn't until he started for his bag that Max realized he had hold of her forepaw. Right as he was about to start dragging her, he paused to look back. Max hopped up as quick as she could while he raised a brow. "Don't you mean 'our first mission'?"
"You know it," Max said with a forced smirk. Ithos side-eyed her, but left it at that and let go of her to head for the bag. Max took a breath of relief. She really needed to be more careful.
Ithos started at the top left, double folding the fruit into a pocket before going over to roll the rocks and spikes up around them. What he thought those would do, Max didn't know, but he was the one carrying it. Watching him get so prepared while she prepared to go in with basically nothing somehow managed to feel nostalgic, even though she couldn't remember the last time this happened.
"All right!" Ithos said, fitting the filled blanket perfectly into his bag. He closed the clasp and tossed it over his shoulder to look proudly at Max, a paw on each hip. "Let's go!"
"And you think I'm the cute one?" Max chuckled under her breath.
"What'd you say?" Ithos asked. A tiniest bit of his confidence faltered, too small to even notice, yet it was far too much for Max's liking.
"I said you look great!" she said. She scurried up beside him and grabbed his arm. "C'mon, let's go!" Before he had a chance to say a word, she'd already started yanking him along. Within a few steps, though, he caught up and passed her. He started tugging her a bit before forcing himself to slow.
"Oh, right!" Ithos said. He slowed his pace to let her catch up while looking around for any eavesdroppers. Once he knew he was in the clear, he leaned down to whisper, "Pikachu are usually more comfortable on all fours."
Max chuckled, letting her paw slip down his arm and wrap around his paw. She may as well make the most of the time she had. "That's all right," she hummed. "I'm pretty comfortable like this." Ithos flushed and turned away while Max considered kicking herself for being so cheesy. Not only that, but she had a bit of doubt creeping into the back of her mind.
She wasn't supposed to be there. She wouldn't be there for long, and they'd definitely never so much as flirted. This Ithos didn't know who she was two days ago, but she'd already spent years with him. Years she forgot, but the more time she spent with him, the more memories returned. If Grovyle showed up tomorrow, she'd have to leave. Would she even get to say goodbye?
"Hey, Max?" Ithos asked. He poked her side with the paw she held. She looked up to see his worried eyes staring down at her. "What's wrong? You look sad all of a sudden."
"Nothing!" Max said, forcing a smile. Ithos twisted his mouth before turning back to the path ahead.
"If you're sure," Ithos said. Max tried not to look, but felt his frequent worried glances her way. When her forced smile started to fade, he squeezed her paw. "Let me know if you need anything, though, all right?" His lips suddenly pulled into a smirk. "I am part of a Rescue Team." He grabbed the flap of his bag to proudly display his 'Junior Rescue Society' badge. "That means I help people, you know."
Max shook her head while a chuckle forced its way past her melancholy. "Wooow, you must be so brave!" she giggled. Without thinking, she started leaning against his arm. Somehow, despite knowing she wasn't supposed to be there, she felt like she belonged.
They were already on the outskirts of the town (which Ithos called Serene Village), so they didn't have to walk far to get out of it. Ithos led the way since Max let him pick the mission, and he was eager to lead them there. The path didn't look remotely familiar to Max, but she was pretty used to not recognizing places. Despite her typing giving her a literal internal compass, she was really bad with directions.
Holding his paw in hers, she was glad she'd stayed so comfortable walking upright.
"Okay," Ithos hummed. He pulled Max around one last right turn and stopped after a few paces. "It should be right through here?" He glanced around, suddenly looking a bit uncertain. "Well, around here, anyway."
"Around here?" Max asked, looking around with him. "What do you mean? Do you know where it is?" She couldn't see any sign of a Dungeon entrance around them. It looked like little more than a path with a dead end that lead to a normal forest.
"Yeah, it's about here," Ithos reiterated. Max wanted to challenge him, but she couldn't come out and say he was wrong about something she wasn't supposed to know anything about yet.
"Well… shouldn't they have these things clearly marked?" she asked. "I mean, Mystery Dungeons are pretty dangerous, right?"
"Oh right, sorry," Ithos said, shaking his head. "You've never even seen one. You must be really confused." He smiled awkwardly down while nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, they can be dangerous. They're constantly shifting, though, so you can't just mark their borders." He looked at Max to see if she was following along and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Max said. She was stuck nodding along as if he had made even the slightest bit of sense. Dungeons didn't work like that at all. He was wrong, and she had years of experience to back that up, yet she couldn't reference even a single day of that. Was she supposed to fall for this with him? Hopefully he'd catch on after they waited around for a bit.
"Oh, I think it's here," Ithos said. Max hadn't felt the slightest shift, though. She started to wonder if he confused a forest he got lost in for a Dungeon. "Hey, I know it can be disorienting, but it's all right." He turned her to face him and grabbed her shoulders, beaming down at her with a smile. "I've got you, all right?"
"Th-thanks," Max stuttered, cheeks sparking as she turned away. Idiot or not, she'd missed hearing him say that. She looked around to humor him and found the path behind them had disappeared. "What?"
The forest around them had shifted all at once. The dead end path turned into a rectangular plot of dirt path surrounded by trees far too thick to even try going through. Ithos let go so she could jerk her head around, but she could feel him on standby. He was right. It had sucked them in, and she hadn't even noticed. She didn't even feel it agitating her instincts like Dungeons always did.
"Hey, hey, it's all right," Ithos said, grabbing her shoulder. "I've still got you."
"Thanks," Max said. She started leaning into him a bit. She wasn't scared like he thought, but feeling his scales against her fur helped anyway. Unlike Eleos, Ithos adapted his balance to her presence and leaned a bit against her as well. It felt more natural, more comforting.
"If you need to take a minute, we can," Ithos said. Max nodded as she brought her paw up to grab the one he had on her shoulder. She had gone nearly years without his touch. Now, she could grab his paw whenever she needed it, wanted it. She wasn't even sure if they'd ever held paws before, but it was hard to let go. It felt like finally being in the right place again.
They only had so much time together. She tried to ignore it, but a constant pit of worry in her gut knew that once Grovyle figured this all out, she'd be gone. She pulled Ithos in to hug his arm while trying to hold back the tears.
His free paw came to her head. Ithos gently brushed her head fur down to the back of her neck with a smile while she melted into him. With every stroke, she felt the timer more. Keeping time right fell to the wayside as their limited time together tortured her. Every second might be her last. She might not have ever told Ithos how she really felt before. This could be her last chance.
"Fuck it," Max whimpered. In panic, in passion, time be damned, she hopped up to wrap her arms around his neck and tackled him to the ground. Before he could even yelp, she pressed her lips against his beak.
Ithos threw her off. "Max!" he yelled, rolling back up at the same time as her. "I-what was that?!" Max froze in place while her cheeks combusted into a storm of sparks and embarrassment. "We—I met you yesterday." Right. She'd known him for years, and he'd known her for hours.
Oh God. He'd known her for less than a day. And she kissed him.
"I-I'm sorry!" Max sputtered. If only time had collapsed around them. Whatever that did, she'd prefer it to that moment. "I just thought, I don't know, it'd be romantic? I'm sorry!" She dropped down to the grass and pulled her tail up to hide under. Why did she think he'd want that—and why did she keep kissing perfectly platonic friends?!
"Look, Max, I'm sorry," Ithos said, not stepping an inch closer. Max felt the distance. "I like you, okay? I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. You're, y'know, sweet!" Max tried to push her head into the dirt with her tail with limited success. "I just don't like you like that." If she'd known how she got there in the first place, she would've loved to zip right out. "Max?"
Unfortunately, Max was stuck there. She turned her muzzle up to say, "Please give me a minute." Message sent, she got right back to hiding under her tail.
"Right, sure," Ithos mumbled. "But, hey! We can still be friends!" Max couldn't help a grumbling whimper at that. Despite wanting to help so bad, Ithos really sucked at it. "Sorry for, y'know, throwing you like that." It hadn't even been half of the minute Max asked for, and already he'd forced her to roll up and sit (keeping her eyes anywhere other than on him).
"Sorry for tackling you," Max said. She tried to stay up, but it was too much. Within seconds, she had her face buried in her paws, grumbling incomprehensible babble she was glad Ithos couldn't understand.
"Hey, don't worry about it!" Ithos mumbled. Even with her eyes in her paws, Max could see his forced cheer. "Besides! You're, y'know, uhh. Soft!" His award winning sweet talk made her want to spontaneously combust permanently. "And… yellow! It looks great on you!" She'd be concerned if it didn't. "And, well, plenty of pokémon like, ah, beefier girls?"
"Beefy?" Max half-whimpered, half-chuckled. She was pretty sure Eleos called her that one before. It was getting hard to stay embarrassed with Ithos humiliating himself like this for her sake.
"Sorry!" Ithos sputtered, throwing his paws up. Max finally built up the courage to look up and watched him look around desperately for a better compliment. "You're… pretty?" He looked up at her with a desperate, forced smile while his tail flickered and flared in embarrassment.
"Ithos," Max mumbled in disbelief. This had to be the most humiliating moment of her life. Yet, seeing him desperately try to recover again and again with compliments ranging from mediocre to insulting had her fighting a chuckle. She couldn't believe he'd be the one coming out of this embarrassed, and yet. Eventually, seeing his horrified face was too much. She burst into giggles, and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Can we just move on?" Max asked. She pushed up to her hindpaws and dusted off her fur. With a few trepidatious steps, she made it by his side without glancing anywhere near him once. "Also," she mumbled, "Pretend this never happened?"
"Yep," Ithos chirped. His paw started to reach out before he caught it, course correcting in a panic to punch her shoulder. "Sure thing, ah, pal." Max tried to covertly look for the nearest rock to crawl under and die. She was pretty small. It shouldn't be too hard for her to find one that fits. She wasn't picky, either. She could always use the mini mountain of pebbles in Ithos' bag.
"I'll take the lead," Ithos said. He readied himself to get moving, but waited for Max's go ahead.
"Good idea," Max said, falling in line behind. Ithos nodded and started heading for the nearest offshoot of the path. Unfortunately, she had to give up on finding a rock. She just kept her eyes trained on his back to follow behind. The thin path he'd found kept unreasonably straight. Max had expected it to wind in and around itself, but it only had ninety degree turns.
It made it impossibly easy to zone out while she followed. She kept her eyes on his back, tracing the subtle twists and flexes it did while he walked. The motion led her eyes down in search of the real action and struck gold. His legs kept a much straighter gait than she could, the subtle suggestion of strength rubbing against the slightest bit of pudge with every step.
Once she found her eyes lingering around the base of his tail, she slapped her cheek.
Ithos jumped around, frantically looking at the minuscule corridor they found themselves in for the source of the sound. "Did you hear that?" he said.
"Yeah, what was it?" Max asked, hopping around to hide her wide eyes. She pretended to look around as well, praying that he'd buy this. As she did, she noticed a speck of white in the corner of her vision. She looked closer and found a white… checker? "What?" She bent down to pick it up. It was just a white disk. "It looks like a board game piece?"
"Oh, good find!" Ithos said. "Here, I'll keep it in my bag." He put out his paw and eagerly waited for her to give it over.
Yet again, Max stared up at him in hopeless confusion. She hesitantly obliged, mumbling, "Okay?" He snatched it up and dropped it into the front left pocket of his bag. "What, do we need to be prepared for a surprise game of checkers?"
Ithos nodded along to the joke as if it was remotely close to the truth. "Almost," he said. "Backgammon." Max was now certain he was messing with her, though she did deserve it. "Every dungeon has one," he mused as he glanced around them. "This one's pretty harmless, at least." Once satisfied looking for whatever he was, he nodded. "Keep an eye out for more of those."
He started forward without noticing Max stuck in place. "What the hell does Backgammon have to do with a Mystery Dungeon?" she whispered. Dungeons were supposed to be full of feral pokémon that wanted you out of their territory. She simply wouldn't believe that had changed—and she certainly wouldn't believe it had changed to fucking Backgammon.
Max realized he'd been walking away this entire time and dropped to all fours to run after him. She hadn't lost sight of him, but she was a bit insulted he hadn't even noticed. On her approach, she watched him scanning the ground as he walked, as if actually looking for those pieces.
Ithos suddenly stopped to grab another piece (this one black) off the ground. When he went to toss it into the front right pocket, Max snatched it out of his paw. She brought it right up to her eyes to examine it. It was a simple wooden piece that fit comfortably in her paw with a coat of black paint that didn't quite cover up the grain of the wood.
"Max?" Ithos prodded, flinching away when Max held the piece up to his face with a glare.
"What is this?" Max asked.
Ithos stared at her for a second and tentatively answered, "A Backgammon piece." Max narrowed her eyes at him, and he looked at her like she was the insane one.
"Ithos," Max said, barely holding back a snarl. This had to be a joke. He was messing with her. "Why is this here?" She brought it back down to reexamine without any idea what she was looking for. "What are you trying to pull?" Despite her best efforts, though, Ithos continued to stare down at her, baffled.
"This Dungeon's Lotus is Backgammon," Ithos repeated, much slower this time. He very carefully reached forward to pluck the piece out of her paw and put it in his bag's right front pocket. "That's how Mystery Dungeons work, okay?" He kept a closer watch on her this time to make sure she followed. "At least, most of them."
Max kept staring up at him, losing her own certainty. He wasn't dropping the act. She couldn't even see him holding back a smirk, or a chuckle. If anything, he looked worried.
"Max?" Ithos said, lightly shaking her shoulder. "Here, it'll be easier to show you. Are you okay to keep going?"
"Sure," Max said. She tried to shake her head out of it. Maybe that attempted kiss had shattered reality already, and this was the result. Ithos gave her a nervous look before nodding and heading forward. This time, he kept better watch to make sure she was following. Max half-expected Grovyle to drop out of time and strangle her for meddling.
Ithos shot out his arm to stop Max as they reached another field. He was already surveying the place, but Max ducked under his arm to take a look for herself.
She was losing her mind.
All around, she saw scattered boards, dice, and pieces for Backgammon. None of the boards had enough pieces, yet the place as a whole had to have twice as many pieces as necessary for a full set. Every inch of the place had some bit of Backgammon.
"All right, the coast is clear," Ithos whispered, turning back to look at her. "You keep an eye out, I'll try to grab what I can."
Max started to ask any question that might help, but none came. He'd already headed over to grab pieces off the nearest board. If this was a prank, she at least appreciated the dedication it took. She genuinely began to question her grasp of reality. This had to be a different universe.
Without anything better to do, Max did as he asked. They'd been in the Dungeon for at least half an hour at that point, so she tried to tune in to her awareness. Despite how long they'd been in, though, it hadn't extended at all without her prompting. In fact, her instincts were barely more than usual, and that could've been from the intense confusion.
It was nice, confusing as it was. They hadn't left her, but the little break from her constant worsening battle with them in Dungeons gave her much needed time to relax. She watched the entrances around them carefully, but no one seemed to come.
"Max," Ithos called, waving her over. She scampered over, keeping her eyes on the lookout along the way. After one last scan, she looked up to Ithos' beaming face. "Here, you wanna pick the board?" He gestured across a scatter of three. Max walked over to each of them, still confused why she was doing this. They all looked like Backgammon boards, albeit of varying wear and tear.
"Is there a wrong answer?" Max asked, pushing up to her hindpaws. She could get a better look at all three at once, but that didn't really help. She looked timidly back at Ithos for help, ears flopped down.
"Oh, no!" Ithos said, rushing to her side. He pat his paw on her back a few times and smiled. "Just whichever one you want!"
Max let out a breath of relief. So long as she didn't get them killed by choosing the secretly evil game board. She didn't know what to expect anymore. "All right, then," she mumbled, scanning the three of them. "This one?" She grabbed the left one and closed it up. "The handle looks the easiest to carry?" Snapping the latch shut, she tried to hold it by her side, and the corner hit the grass. "Oh."
"N-no worries," Ithos chuckled out in the most even tone he could. "Here, let's swap!" He took the game board out of her paw and tossed the bag over her shoulder. The strap hadn't been adjusted, so it hit the ground on her left while the strap slipped right off her side. "O-oh."
"Don't worry," Max mumbled. She bent down with a chuckle, shaking her head slightly. "I'm used to it." She grabbed the strap and tightened it until it could hang off her shoulder without hitting the ground.
"Used to it?" Ithos asked. Max froze. She didn't have anywhere to hide her panic this time. "How?"
"I… adapt fast?" she said with a thin attempt at a smile.
Ithos had a brow raised, but he was smirking, too. She didn't know what he suspected, but she could feel him probing her. "All right, then," Ithos chuckled. He turned and headed off. "Keep your secrets, shortstack." Max let out a breath of relief. When she straightened up, she saw Ithos smirking back at her. He merely shook his head and continued on.
Max scurried up behind him. With the bag, she had to stay upright. It wasn't designed with a quadrupedal posture in mind, but it was surprisingly light. She curved around to his right side and kept her eyes peeled for any potential ferals. Aside from a few amused glances, Ithos didn't acknowledge what happened.
"So, how many floors does this place have?" Max asked. Even if he didn't want to pry, she wanted to put it behind them. It wasn't until he responded that she realized she'd dug herself deeper.
"Dungeons do have floors, don't they?" Ithos mused, tapping his chin. Max flinched away. Yet still, he didn't acknowledge it. "I'm not sure, but our objective's on the third, so at least three." He had no reason to let her keep getting away with this.
"Oh, right," Max said, still failing to stay calm. "What's our mission, anyway?" It had to be something easy, so she hadn't really paid attention to their objective.
"A caterpie got lost," Ithos said. "Her brother thinks she's in here. They'd come in on a dare, but he lost track of her." Max nodded along, making sure not to stare blank in shock that their first mission was a rescue. Ithos lightly pet her back with a quick scratch through her fur, suggesting she hadn't quite succeeded. They went into another tunnel, but it was still wide enough for them to walk side by side.
"Look, it's all right," he said. "You don't have to tell me what you don't want to." Despite the promise, his smirk looked more like he was holding back a laugh. "But if I guess right, you have to tell me. Deal?"
Max brought her paw up to laugh behind it. Somehow, she knew she'd heard those exact words before. The way he tilted his head back to look over his shoulder at her strained against the block in her head, trying to burst free. She felt her lips fighting her cheeks again.
"All right," she finally answered. She stopped to turn, extending her paw. "Deal." Grovyle would kill her if Ithos ever guessed right, but Max was certain that would never happen.
"Perfect," Ithos said. He switched the board to his left paw and snatched her right paw up in his. After one firm up and down, he let go and gave his paw a curious glance. He held it up to his eyes and looked between it and her a few times. Max rolled her eyes at the theatrics until he snapped his fingers to point at her and said, "You used to be a guy."
Max froze in place, her jaw went slack, and Ithos burst into laughs. She yanked her paw back, cheeks spewing sparks while she looked it over with the closest eye she could manage. "D-do I—the shake?" she stammered out.
"Maybe," Ithos sang. He plopped his paw on top of her head and started ruffling her fur. "But the real giveaway was when you screamed at the lake about being a girl."
Max smacked his arm with the back of her paw, barking, "Asshole!" He just laughed harder, switching the board game to his other paw again to rub his smacked arm. "Come on, I already have to worry enough about not…." She trailed off as she glanced back to her perfectly heart-shaped tail. "Right."
While she was distracted, Ithos snuck around to her right and tugged her into a side-hug. He made her yelp, but he graciously kept his reaction to reserved chuckles. "I was trying to figure out why you kept looking so happy when you saw it," he said. He tilted his head to rest it on top of hers. "It was a long shot, but I couldn't really think of anything else."
Max could only shake her head. She had too much focus dedicated to keeping her cheeks from shocking the both of them. It really wasn't that impressive a deduction, all things considered, but it absolutely made her more nervous. She nestled into his hug for the warmth and tried to pull nerve from its comfort.
"Hey," Max started to say. She still needed to find the right words, but Ithos didn't urge her. "Just don't… treat me like it, okay?" She tried to shrink away, only for his head to follow. A few of the nerves bounced away while she had to resist rolling her eyes. "Like I used to be… y'know. That. Can you just treat me like I'm a girl?"
Ithos tugged her into a tighter hug, then suddenly let go. "Yeah, of course!" he said, ruffling her head fur like a little sibling. "I wouldn't dream of treating you differently."
Max let out a sigh of relief. They started to move forward again, and her smile grew wider. Maybe this Ithos was better than she gave him credit for. She wanted to reach her paw out to his again, but shrank away at the thought. She'd pushed her luck as far as it would go already.
They ducked out of another narrow passage into a much smaller field with a shimmering wall on the opposite side. "That must be the next floor," Ithos said. He watched Max staring up at it in barely concealed terror with open curiosity. The only barrier she'd seen this clear collapsed her mind in on itself near instantly. "You all right?"
Max swallowed her trepidation and nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Just give me a second." She tugged the bag a bit forward to stuff her paw in until she felt the badge. "In case," she went feral, "things get hairy." Her paws held it tight.
They only had one. If she blacked out while she had it, Ithos might be stuck in there, but Ithos wouldn't know she needed to leave if she started fading. It usually would've been an easy choice for her—she wouldn't sacrifice Ithos—but she started shaking thinking of last time. It still affected her speech after a few days. She didn't want to lose any of this time.
"Here," Max said, shoving the badge towards him. He slowly brought up a paw to grab it, eyeing her with worry. "You remember what I said about instincts?" He nodded, flipping the badge over in his paw. "If I start to lose it, hit the badge and run, all right?"
"Run from you?" Ithos said. He immediately shook his head at the thought. "No, I can't just leave you behind!"
"You have to!" Max shouted. "I might-" She could remember the last conversation she'd had with Ithos before she left. She attacked him and ran away. He started trying to give the badge back, but she shoved it over to him. She looked up with wet eyes, gritting her teeth. "Don't let me hurt you." She had to bite her cheek to keep from adding, 'again,' to the end.
After some hesitation, Ithos finally took the badge. He tossed it into the Backgammon case to free a paw, then held that paw out to her. Max tilted her head, but slowly put her paw in his.
"If you need to go, but you can't tell me, squeeze three times," he explained, squeezing her paw to demonstrate. "Anywhere I can feel it, all right?" He let her paw go, smiling down, and she cradled the paw he'd squeezed. "First place you can reach. I'm never leaving you behind."
"Ithos," Max growled. He didn't get it, too sweet for his own good. As he looked down on her, though, she knew he'd made up his mind. She wanted to scream at him that he was more important, but she held back. "All right." She took a breath to brace herself for the next floor while a warmth bubbled into her heart. Through the frustration, she glanced up with a hint of relief. "Thank you."
"Of course!" Ithos cheered. He squeezed her shoulder, and she had to force herself not to lean in to the touch. "We're a team!"
Taking another deep breath in, Max sighed, "Thank you." Just that one touch gave her all the confidence she needed to go on. Well, almost all. She started to ask if they could hold paws while they went through before shaking her head. She looked up with a nervous smile and said, "Let's go."
Ithos squeezed her shoulder again and gave her a pat as they both went forward. Max kept her paw on the bag's strap to count the lumps and threads while she could. Before she knew it, they were one step away. She didn't let herself stop, not sure if she'd be able to convince herself to keep going again, and stepped right through.
It didn't feel any different. She barely felt the shimmer itself at all. It felt like they hadn't gone through, but she didn't see any shimmer in sight anymore. All that buildup for nothing.
She slapped her paws against her face and dragged them down. While she tried to shake herself out of it, her ear twitched towards Ithos. She looked over to see his mouth wide open, eyes shut, while he yawned. By the time he finished and glanced over, she was snarling at his little joke.
"Sorry!" Ithos yelped, throwing his free paw up. "It wasn't on purpose! I'm just tired!" Max shook out of her frustration, allowing Ithos to crumple in relief. She rubbed her eyes a bit as a slight chuckle rumbled out. She was a bit tired herself. "Sorry, really." Ithos rubbed some more sleep out of his eyes. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep."
"Right," Max said, turning away. "Guessing that was because of me."
Ithos tilted his head for a second before shaking his head. "Oh, no!" he chuckled. "I was already awake, working on," he turned away and froze, "Stuff." Max looked up at him as her grin grew. Once he saw it, he sighed, shaking his head in defeat. "I don't have a choice, do I?"
"Nope!" Max said. This streamlined the process. She was going to bother him until he told her, anyway.
With an exaggerated sigh, Ithos brought his paw to scratch at the back of his neck. "Cyphers and codes," he mumbled. With a glance, he could tell Max needed more information (she did almost get what he meant, though). "It's, like, writing it in a way only you can understand, then scrambling it so only you can unscramble it."
"Oh, that," Max said with a nod. Ithos tried to hold back childlike glee at her casual, knowing response, and she let him pretend he had. "Yeah, I used to look at stuff like that, too! I kinda preferred starting from scratch, you know… conlangs… oh no."
"What's wrong?" Ithos rushed to ask.
Max held her head in her paws while she shook it. She stopped that train of thought before the memories gave her an aneurysm, but the worst of the information had already come. "I was a dork, wasn't I?" she mumbled.
Ithos slapped his face. "I was worried for nothing," he grumbled, flicking his paw up for emphasis. After that, though, he laughed it off and went over to shake Max's shoulder. "Come on, dork, let's go." Max tried to glare up at him, but she didn't have a chance against his smile. Before she knew it, she was laughing, too.
"Sorry," she chuckled. They started heading deeper, and she watched out for any ferals. The coast was still clear. "You should show me, some time." She'd been looking the opposite direction, but she risked probing her awareness out to feel Ithos practically jump in excitement.
"Sure!" Ithos cheered, panicking as Max started to turn towards him again. He hurried to relax his posture and cleared his throat to much more casually say, "Or, uh, sure. Y'know. If you want."
Max eyed him up and down with a smirk. Completing her examination, she slowly nodded. "Dork," she declared.
"Oh yeah?" Ithos asked, rolling his eyes. "Takes one to know one."
Max rolled her eyes in preparation for her next retort until she heard grass crunching on her periphery. She shoved Ithos behind her and turned to face a brown puff carrying two smaller, beaked brown puffs while trotting up with scrawny legs. The doduo towered far above even Ithos, but it was too dopey to scare her.
Its heads alternated popping up and down with every step. Despite having talons big enough to wrap all the way around her, it didn't look too aggressive. If it weren't for the two heads saying, "Do," in pitches to match their bobbing, she might've not realized it was feral. Behind her, Ithos felt pretty relaxed as well. She lowered the arm guarding him and waited for Doduo to finish its approach.
Massive, sharp talons stole her attention and made it harder to commit to that decision with every step. She started tensing up, but it stopped a respectable distance away before squatting down. Each head chirped as they looked over each side of her. After examination, it tilted its heads at her and watched.
"H-hello?" Max asked.
"Play?"
"Does she want play?"
"Play?"
Max flinched back. That was speech—they were talking! She knew pokéspeech was a language, but she'd never heard Dungeon ferals speak it. Moreover, they were asking her if she wanted to play. She almost asked what they wanted to play before Ithos started nudging the board at her. He looked urgent while he tried to push it into her paws.
"Oh, Backgammon?" she answered. "I'm all right, thanks, but you ca-" The two heads shrieked in unison, and Max quickly joined with a scream of her own. A bolt shot out of her cheeks on instinct and vaporized the doduo like any other Dungeon illusion.
"Max! Why?!" Ithos hissed.
"What?!" Max shouted back. She spun around to see Ithos frantically assembling the board. "I don't know how to play!"
"Figure it out, quick!" Ithos demanded as he dug the last of the pieces out of the bag and tossed them in place. Max felt her awareness creeping out on its own, and more pokémon were on their way. She was about to tell him to stop wasting time with the stupid game when he shoved a die in her paw and shouted, "Roll!"
An entire pack of ferals rushed out from all sides right as dice clattered against the wood. They'd both rolled four. "A tie," Ithos grumbled. He snatched up his die and looked pleadingly for her to do the same. The ferals surrounded them, but they'd stopped their stampede.
She almost didn't want this to work. It had no reason to. They both rolled again, Ithos a two, and Max a five. "Oh, guess it goes to you," Ithos growled. The ferals were watching. It was working. She went to snatch up the die again, but Ithos grabbed her paw and shoved the die he'd rolled into it, mouthing, "This one. You already rolled that one."
"Thanks?" Max muttered. She stared desperately down, trying to make sense of the board as she rolled. Another five. She didn't know what that meant. Was it spaces? The spires seemed to be spaces, pieces aligned parallel and opposing each other. She just needed to move with two fives.
She grabbed the set of five whites in the middle and nudged it over to the two black pieces. Based on how hard Ithos slapped his face, she started to suspect that wasn't a legal move. The swarm of ferals rumbling around her confirmed her suspicions.
"That was wrong wasn't it?" Max asked.
"Well, you moved the pieces in the right direction," Ithos said. That seemed like a good sign. "My pieces. You were black." Not a good sign, then. "Both dice are how far you can move one piece, not how many pieces you can move, and you can't land on the other color's pieces if there's more than one." He stared down at the board in genuine bafflement while the ferals started grumbling about cheating.
"Congratulations," Ithos said. "That's the worst anyone's ever done it." He looked up at her with resigned urgency. "Run." Without clarifying, he reached over to yank her over the board and dragged her until she got up enough to actually run, and the stampede of ferals came right behind. The instant he let go, she started falling behind.
"Wait!" Max shouted. She ripped off the bag and tossed it towards him so she could drop to all fours. Ithos snatched the bag out of the air and snapped it onto his shoulder. Now that she could run properly, she even managed to outpace him. "Follow me!"
Her awareness was already out. There was no way she'd pull it in under duress like this, so she took advantage of it to find the fastest exit. She took a sharp left into a narrow passage. By the time she felt four pokémon rushing into the opposite side of it, there were already plenty more behind them. Luckily, only two of them at most could enter at a time, the others lining up behind.
With a second's focus, she felt two foongus, a seedot and a paras on the opposite side, while two woobats led the charge from behind. "You take the front, I'll take the back!" she shouted and leapt over to a tree and hopped back after Ithos passed her.
Once she landed, she already had the two woobat right above her with a hoothoot right in front of her. She sent a calling charge up with a roaring, "Pika!" and lightning smashed right through both woobats and into her. She tried to circulate some of the charge back into herself, but redirected most of it into the hoothoot in front of her and whatever else took its place until the strike stopped.
She'd taken out three pokémon with one hit.
There were at least thirty more behind.
She was dizzy.
A trio of seedot charged up to her in triangle formation. The front started spewing a hail of bullet seeds at her. The first volley pelted her in the chest, but she yanked her tail forward in time to block the next with iron tail. Before it got its next volley off, she smashed her tail into all three and threw them into the dense wall of trees.
"Go, go!" Ithos cheered from behind. "You got-"
"THE FUNGUS, ITHOS!" Max screamed. She turned to violently point at the two mushrooms following the paras that had already leapt for his back. He jerked around and yelped, barely jumping out of the way of the bug. He reeled back to throw his fist into it, and Max felt a massive claw wrap around her.
"Chu!" she yelped in surprise, flinging some electricity she had on standby into the bird. It squawked and let her go, but didn't disappear. While it stumbled back dazed, Max did the same in fear. Her paw clutched a scratch it left behind and felt the imprint of one of the talons wrapped around her. The dopey creature was so massive it could rip her apart, and it had dozens of other pokémon after her behind it.
Max struggled to steady her breath as the sight suddenly grew a bit distant. The doduo had regained its balance and started charging along four more woobat. Max shot a bolt into the doduo to finish it off, and it barely grazed two of the woobat. Before the doduo had faded all the way, a foongus had already taken its place. Ithos had just taken out the paras.
"Fire!" Max shouted at him. Pika-speak. He couldn't understand her.
"I'm a bit busy!" Ithos called back, slashing his claws through the nearest foongus while the other vomited some purple ooze onto him from afar.
Max loosed an aimless charge behind her to halt their approach for just a second and ran to Ithos' side. She reeled her tail back to smash through the foongus that spat on Ithos while he finally spewed embers onto the one he'd just punched.
Ember. He only knew Ember. Thirteen years of life, and he only knew Ember.
Both pokémon started to fade, so Max yanked him forward and started leading the way again. After the relative peace, she could definitely notice the sudden jabbering of instincts flooding her head. No more than a few of them seemed wary of Ithos for now. If they started, she just hoped she'd still be in run mode.
They made it halfway through the path and came into a set of ninety degree turns that Max had no issue traversing. She hopped up to kick off the wall of trees at the first and landed just in time to build up speed to do the same for the next turn.
"Max!" Ithos shouted. "Wait!"
Max glanced back and saw him just rounding the first corner. She really wasn't used to being faster than anyone. Her instincts wouldn't let her sit still for any longer, though, so she did her best to keep a moderate pace instead of sprinting and hoped that was enough for him to catch up. The rest of this corridor was a straight shot to the next distortion. She could already see it.
Hopefully it was as imperceptible as the last one. It was fast approaching, and they didn't have another option. She'd find out soon.
So would Ithos.
Max picked up the pace without a second thought. The rest of the way was clear. He wanted to save her if she turned, but he could only manage an ember. There was no chance in hell he could handle this swarm of ferals while wrestling her. He shouted for her to wait again, but she ran faster instead.
A breath of preparation shot her out of the passage and right through the distortion. She paused to listen to the chorus of instincts in her mind. They were still pounding against her head, but they didn't seem any louder. Ithos wouldn't be far behind. She took what little time she had to try and quiet them as best she could. Her paw went to her left wrist, but she didn't have that bracelet anymore.
"Max!" Ithos shouted, snatching her by the shoulders to look into her eyes. "Hey, hey! Don't worry. I've got you, okay? I've got you!" Max flinched away and brought her paws up to hide her eyes, but Ithos grabbed one of them in his own. "Here, do we need to go?" He tugged the badge out of the bag.
It was glowing. This was the floor. Max shook her head and yanked him along behind her before dropping down to all fours.
This floor was a lot more drastically different, but not how she'd expected. It had many more paths from every room, but the main difference Max noticed was the life bursting out from the grass. She slowed a bit to appreciate it. The ferals on this floor felt agitated, but they didn't have as much direction.
Flowers and sprouts covered every room and path. She barely had room to step without stepping on one on accident. The smell, too, reeked of life. The flowers were all in full bloom, letting all their fruity goodness out to the world. Even the grass and the trees had this unmistakable tint of it to them. Instead of decaying more with every floor, this one burst with more and more life.
"Max!" Ithos whispered, clamping down on her back. He had a firm grip, but not too much for her to break out of. Still, it made Max flinch. His claws reminded her of those talons. She broke out of his grip to spin around, but stopped retreating after the first few steps.
"You're okay," he said, looking directly into her eyes. She shied away further, trying to hide them with her tail. He started looking simultaneously more distant and closer. "You're still in there." Her ears flicked up, and she stopped her retreat. "I can tell." She timidly looked up to see his soft, comforting smile. "Yeah, see? You know me." He kept his voice low.
Max had a hard time believing him, but he looked so calm. He even flopped back to sit down. "I need a break," he sighed. "Just a minute, okay?" He reached into the bag and closed one eye while he felt around inside.
After a second, his eye shot open, and he tugged out an apple. Max couldn't stop her ears and tail from shooting up at the sight. She tried to shrink away to hide the reaction, but he'd already turned to look at her. Her nose sniffed on its own to bring in that delicious scent, but she kept herself from walking to it.
"Here, you want it?" Ithos asked. He said it softly, but so casually. He was talking to her the same way he always did. Without another word, he set that apple right there on the right of himself and stuck his arm back into the bag. "Go ahead! I've got more."
Max started walking over, eyes glued to the red and yellow speckled treat. Her nervous glances up to him grew less and less frequent as she got closer. With every step, the smell grew stronger and started to overpower the flowers of the Dungeon. Once she could finally grab it, she pounced right on it and curled up next to his leg. Her cheeks sparked a bit in the second she realized what she did before taking a bite.
It soaked her mouth in sweet, tangy tartness when she crunched in. She crunched right in again and squeaked a little in pleasure. Ithos made some noise that she almost recognized as a chuckle until he started running his claws down her back. With his support, she chomped down the rest of the apple and gnawed on its core.
"Better?" Ithos asked. The message scrambled in her head thanks to the pets and the core. She felt too good to listen, but then he shook her by the shoulder. "Don't go to sleep on me, all right?"
Max jerked up and waggled her head out of the trance, the apple core flying out of her mouth and right over Ithos' lap. She jerked around in search of the pack of ferals chasing them while her head drowsily caught up. The memory was a bit of haze, but it all remained. She didn't black out.
She did, however, cuddle right up against Ithos' leg.
"S-sorry!" she stammered out, scrambling back—she didn't even slip from English. When she looked at him, Ithos had one finger up while he chomped through a particularly large bite. He seemed relaxed, but Max's cheeks kept sparking while she flopped down.
"It'sh okay," Ithos muffled behind one paw. Even covering his full mouth, Max saw his smile beaming from his eyes. He swallowed what he still had in there and lowered his paw. "Like I said, it's cute."
"Not that," Max grumbled. She started checking herself for injuries. Beside the scratch from the doduo, she was pretty much fine. Her head still felt a bit full of instincts, but she didn't feel any battle for control. "So much for my plan." She chuckled and smiled up at him. "Thank you."
"Like I said," Ithos said, scarfing down the rest of the apple. "We're a team! I'm not leaving you behind." For how familiar it sounded, it hurt that she couldn't remember him saying it. "You've gotta show me how to fight, though!" He tossed the core aside and hopped up. "You were awesome back there!" He offered her a paw and tugged her up when she took it.
"Thanks," Max said, scratching behind her ear. It flicked against her paw as she pulled it away. "Let's just get out of here first, all right?" This almost had to be backwards—even without memories, she knew he'd been the one to teach her.
"Got it," Ithos said. He took the lead this time, and Max happily let him. Once she started watching him from behind again, though, she hurried up to walk alongside him instead. Ithos pat her on the shoulder for her efforts while keeping his eyes ahead and scanning their surroundings.
They crept into the next pathway at a moderate pace. They kept pretty quiet, but they didn't need to be silent since the place had plenty ferals walking around. As if to mock Max specifically, she could even hear the clacking of pieces on game boards. Just as Ithos promised, they were playing Backgammon. As they came up on a turn, the sound echoed from right around the bend.
Ithos sidled up closer to the trees and motioned Max to do the same. Once they made it to the corner, he peeked around and got a good look before slowly pulling back. "He's in there!" he whispered as quietly as his excitement let him.
"Alone?" Max asked. Ithos shook his head and took another peek while Max kept her ears up for anyone coming. She could hear several games right outside, but no one coming up behind. Ithos kept looking for long enough that she started to worry they'd spot him, but maybe the feral pokémon were too engrossed in Backgammon.
What has become of her life?
"Okay," Ithos whispered. He turned to her and crouched down. Before Max could do the same, she realized he was still taller on his knees. She could see the same realization in his eyes, but he graciously said nothing about it. "We're just gonna run for it. You grab him, throw him to me, then run back."
"We're gonna traumatize the kid," Max whispered. It wasn't an argument as much as an acknowledgment, though. She could tell that place had too many ferals to fight. She could probably take them, but it wasn't worth the risk.
"Ready?" Ithos asked. He'd already gleaned she'd agreed from her expression. She nodded and dropped to all fours. Ithos held up his paw with three fingers. Two. One.
He pointed and they both burst out of their hiding place. Max darted through the field before he'd even made it through the entrance. The caterpie sat at a board, quaking in terror while he faced off against another doduo. He turned to her about the same time the rest of the ferals started noticing her, and his eyes shot open in terror.
"No, please! I'm sorry!" Caterpie shouted, spewing string everywhere in a panic. Max was too close to dodge and had to dash right through.
"Friend, friend!" Max sputtered while the string wrapped and knotted all around her. It was sticky and strong. The worst combination. He at least stopped once she yelled in English, but she still had string all over her. For his efforts, she launched a bolt into the doduo and vaporized it before it could stop her. Caterpie had barely started wriggling towards her when she snatched him off the ground.
"Four!" Max shouted, barely looking before chucking the child at the charmander. Ithos' eyes shot open in surprise as he threw his arms up to catch the caterpie, and she hoped she didn't throw it too hard. The catch landed, though, and she darted back.
The string slowed her down, but Ithos stashed Caterpie in the crook of his arm and helped her close the distance. Max went straight for his bag, yanked out the badge, and slammed the button down right as Ithos grabbed her. The horde of ferals descended upon them and drew closer, closer, and snatched at them right as the badge blinked a third time and flashed.
Max looked at Ithos for a picosecond to determine which side held the caterpie so she could hop on the opposite side, cheering, "We did it!" Ithos stumbled back laughing from the sudden added weight. Max rushed to her senses and quickly hopped off him with sparks bouncing from her cheeks.
"You all right, little buddy?" Ithos asked, kneeling to let Caterpie crawl back down to the ground. "Have fun playing?"
"When I started," Caterpie mumbled. He cringed away. "I just couldn't win." He shook his head and shrank down. "I wished I'd just gotten one more."
"Careful with that," Ithos admonished. "That's how this kind of Dungeon gets you. You've gotta know when to stop, all right?" Caterpie nodded while Max got stuck on him calling it a kind of Dungeon. While Ithos gave him light pats to the head, Max wondered what other tabletop terrors awaited her. "Now, go find your sister! She's worried about you."
Caterpie's eyes shot open with a yelp, and he darted off without another word. It looked pretty fast for a caterpie, though Max wondered if that was just the string all over her talking. She started trying to scrape it out of her fur and noticed Ithos doing the same to the side she'd jumped on.
"Sorry about that," Max said, cheeks sparking again. "I got excited." She kept her eyes firmly away from him despite her awareness letting him know he was jovially shaking his head.
"I am, too!" Ithos cheered. Holding the badge in his paw, he brandished it to the sky with a beaming grin; Max could see him doing it a thousand times before. "First mission, down!" Her own ears burned in embarrassment, yet his exuberance was infectious. She started grinning herself until she felt another pokémon approaching.
"First mission, Ithos?" he asked; Max didn't know where she recognized the voice, but it made her skin crawl. Ithos' eyes shot open in terror as he jumped around to face the nuzleaf at the same time as her. "Is this where you were last night?" Nuzleaf crossed his arms; Max saw him standing in front of Ylveltal with a grin while Ithos turned to stone right in front of her.
"D-Dad!" Ithos stammered. He flung the badge into his bag and plastered on a plastic smile. "Hi! S-sorry! I was just helping her find a place, and it got really late!" He put a bit more distance between him and Max to point at her. "This is Max! She's new in town." It couldn't be the same Nuzleaf—why was he here? How?! Max knew it had to be someone else, but she couldn't call on any memories to verify.
Nuzleaf looked her over with veil of forced amicability. As he glanced her over, though, his brow raised in suspicion that seemed to confirm itself once he glanced back over to Ithos. "Hello, Max," he said. Max flinched and took a step back, nearly shivering. "You've gotten some string shot on my son, it seems."
"No!" Ithos shouted. "It's not—she's just really affectionate!" He forced a chuckle, but Max was still too terrified to be embarrassed. Every time he looked at her, she could feel her paws going numb. "Max, c'mon." Ithos nudged her, looking down with a desperate, terrified smile. "Say hi."
"P-Pi," Max squeaked. She couldn't even force a smile. Doing another mission with Ithos after so long felt like heaven. Now, her own personal hell stood right in front of her.
Nuzleaf raised a brow at her response, then looked back at Ithos, mumbling, "She doesn't seem quite so affectionate to me." That point didn't matter much to him, though, evidently. "What have I said about Rescue Teams, Ithos?"
"W-well, yeah, I know!" Ithos stuttered, his own tail flicking about as it flickered in fear. "But, it was the only way to get her a place to stay." Max was trapped again. She knew what Nuzleaf would do, and she had to let it happen. She had to play along and relive her worst nightmare. It had to be months away, but she could already feel herself turning to stone.
"And why didn't she have a place of her own?" Nuzleaf asked. "Do you know where she's from?" He stared Ithos down, and Ithos shrank away with his paw on his shoulder. "Ithos, she could be a human for all you know!" Nuzleaf shook his head, bringing a paw to his eyes. "This is wh-"
"Dad, that's ridiculous!" Ithos shouted. "A human? Really?" He had his paw clenched, tail still flickering in fear. His face hardened while his legs trembled. Max could tell he was putting all the courage he could muster into lying for her; she was cowering away to the point she couldn't even say hi. "I just forgot the name for a second. She's from Lively Town."
Nuzleaf narrowed his eyes before ultimately shrugging. "Well, if she came here without knowing where to stay, that's not you're responsibility," he said. "You can't keep putting yourself in danger for the sake of a stranger!"
"Bandits!" Ithos blurted out. Nuzleaf glowered at him, but Ithos didn't even flinch. Max watched as the trepidation sloughed off him. His stance grew firmer while his tail flame grew brighter. "She lost everything. She didn't have any way to get home, or anyone to ask for help!" He crossed his arms and mirrored Nuzleaf's posture. "I don't care what you say. I had to help!"
Nuzleaf didn't look shaken at all. Ithos might have just found a spine, but Nuzleaf clearly had much more experience using his. She could already see how this went; he'd stay in control, however limited, just waiting until the time was right. She could already see his sick smile of satisfaction. She could only sit by and let fate happen, forced to watch Ithos' boundless hope die as he turned to stone again.
She couldn't let it happen.
"You're just a boy, Ithos," Nuzleaf said.
He started to go on when Max interrupted to say, "Thirteen." She wouldn't let this monster win again. She wasn't letting him near Ithos. She forced her hindpaws under her and went over to stand by his side. "He's plenty old enough to join a Rescue Team." If Sam could at the age of one, thirteen was well beyond old enough. "He's strong, capable, and smart. I wouldn't have made it out without him."
"I don't need you to tell me about my own son," Nuzleaf said with a snarl. "He's reckless! I won't have him getting hurt!"
"I won't have you controlling his life," Max barked. First Cori, now Ithos (in a chronology that didn't even make sense), she wondered why she kept having to deal with shitty dads. "It's his life, not yours." This level of sheltering, no wonder this Ithos was so stunted. "Be a man and let him become one."
"Excuse me?" Nuzleaf gnarled. "As if some little girl like you knows anything about being a man!" Max and Ithos shared an amused glance that only enraged Nuzleaf further. "I'm not going to let some weak little floozy like you take my son from me!"
"Wh-Dad?!" Ithos balked. Max was just as taken aback. She hadn't heard anything that openly misogynistic since becoming a pokémon. Despite knowing she should probably be insulted, it was almost making her smile. "What in Arceus' Legends are you talking about? Floozy? What's wrong with you?!"
"Oh, just look at her!" Nuzleaf growled, flinging an arm her way. "If you insist on joining a Rescue Team, do it with someone who can do more than hang off your arm!" This must not have been the same Nuzleaf. Even for a father figure planning to eventually petrify the child he's taken custody of, this was bizarrely terrible.
Max had to admit, though, she did enjoy hanging off Ithos' arm.
"Well, I'm more capable than you'd think," Max said. For fun, she sauntered over to Ithos' other side to wrap herself around his arm. "If you'd like, I could fry a sassy grass type right here, right now." She made sure to fawn over Ithos while she sang every word to really drive the point home. She had no other reason to fawn over him, none at all.
Ithos made a valiant effort to keep a straight face while she did. They both watched Nuzleaf try to learn Overheat, if the smoke coming out of his ears was any indication. The rage contorting Nuzleaf's face rivaled even Eleos in its disfigurement.
"Well don't come crying to me when she breaks your heart!" he shouted. Max and Ithos both struggled to keep from devolving into giggles. The fact they were close enough to feel each other facing the same struggle made it that much harder, but they somehow managed to pull through. They shared a glance and nodded.
"Oh, shouldn't we go, darling?" Ithos said with a poorly concealed chuckle. Max pressed her cheek into his arm for an answer. Ithos had to keep from rolling his eyes when he nodded, and they both headed out together.
Even giving the man a wide berth, Max could feel his vitriol. She just let herself lean into Ithos to really drive the point home without even the slightest ulterior motive. None at all. She made sure to stay wrapped around his arm long after they'd left Nuzleaf behind just in case he was watching from afar.
"Okay, Max," Ithos chuckled. "I think you've had your fun." He gently tugged his arm away and Max hopped off.
"O-oh! Did, can he not see us anymore?" Max mumbled. She brought her left arm up to cradle in her right while keeping a keen eye on the ground. "I just, y'know, wanted to get the point across."
"Max," Ithos barely managed behind laughter. "You kinda gave the game away already, remember?" Max yanked her tail around to cover her face with. She was hoping that wouldn't come up again. Unfortunately, the action only made Ithos laugh harder. "Wow, so this is what it looks like when someone has a crush on me." Max whimpered behind her tail; it didn't help Ithos stop laughing any sooner.
Ithos flopped down to sit before his laughing made him fall while Max melted into the ground, belly first. This, of course, got him to laugh even harder, which made her that much more ready to disintegrate. Ithos put his best paw forward by trying with all his might to stop for her sake.
Despite the forces against him (Max's humiliated whimpers), he actually prevailed. It took a while, but he eventually managed to actually sort of stop. Max didn't risk coming out from hiding until she was certain, though.
"Mother Mew," Ithos mumbled after a while. All the laughter had left his voice. Max risked peeking one eye out to see him downcast, shaking his head. "I've never seen him like that." His cheeks flushed when he glanced at her. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know he was like that. Are you all right?" Max pulled her tail back over her face when he tried to look at her.
"Right, sorry," Ithos said with a chuckle. "Well, guess I need a place to stay, too." This cruel world had no end to the torments it had for her. At least she didn't have to agonize about another night alone. She just had to hope Ithos would believe her about the nightmares constantly tormenting her. "If you'll have me?"
Max flicked him a thumbs up and slapped that paw back down on her tail.
For a brief moment, it felt like Grovyle couldn't come soon enough.