Chapter 18: Freedom

From a smirking face the night before to a very unamused one now, Bryce honestly thought that Violet was joking when she said she wanted to sing with him. Dancing was one thing; that was something both of them figured they were bad at…even if it had been fun. Singing, however, that was something Bryce knew he was nothing short of terrible at doing…and while Violet had been known to sing in the shower every so often, she was actually quite good.

If only it was a good enough argument for Bryce not getting involved.

"And why do you need me butchering a song you like? Even if I know the lyrics, it won't make me sound any better."

"Because you said 'anything'." Violet answered. "And besides, it's something I want to do with you, not around you while you watch."

Continuing to sit in his computer chair with his arms crossed as Violet stood across from him. She wasn't relenting, but deep down, she'd probably let him off the hook if it really did make him that uncomfortable. He looked away, mulling it over. It wasn't as if she'd make fun of him…and besides, who was she going to tell, anyway?

"You get one song. One." He finally answered, holding up a single index finger to make the deal clear.

The Lucario merely gave him an amused, if slightly cynical look.

"And…I will try." Bryce finished. "Then we'll forget this ever happened."

Turning to his computer to type in a karaoke version of the song, a thought came to his mind. "And for the love of everything you hold dear, if anyone is even thinking about coming inside this house, tell me to cut the song." He paused. "Or just kill me."

Honestly, either would be preferable to being caught singing a duet, seemingly by himself. Still, the declaration was a bit ironic, given yesterday night's events…and for her part, Violet nodded earnestly.

"I won't tell a soul, and if someone comes, I'll stop it as fast as I can."

"Good." Was the human's flat response.

He was doing a good job of hiding it, externally, but Bryce was also aware that Ms. Aura over there could easily tell this was well out of his comfort zone. She'd flustered him a time or two, but despite all the things he'd done with that involved interacting with an alien…this moment was the first time she'd actually felt him being well and truly nervous.

Bryce could tell that she was tempted to offer a paw, but decided against it. Probably the right call, considering he hardly wanted to be pitied. Plenty of people didn't like singing in front of others. Heck, there was one kid in his class that didn't even like music at all. Somehow. He watched Violet walk over to the computer, searching up the song for a few moments before it started to play. Glancing over his shoulder…well, it could be worse. At least he wouldn't be singing as much as she. Violet was right, though; he did know the lyrics and tune of this one quite well–which would have been good if it didn't mean that he now had no excuses.

Just a few minutes of embarrassment–which, worst of all, he had to start–and then it would be over. If he couldn't look the jackal in the eyes most of the time, he certainly couldn't while singing. When the song got to her first part, however…well, now Bryce was just staring at her. She could sing…like, really sing. It wasn't just the echoing of the shower making her sound good. That mezzo-soprano voice practically had stardust sprinkling through the air as her voice sprang out. Violet hit every note, every line with ease, even with minimal practice–if it weren't for the fact he didn't want to give any potential leads to a Pokemon existing here away, he'd be tempted to see if she'd sing in a recording and post it online to share it with others. Yet…he also felt like it was something that was meant to be kept secret for the time being, as if she were sharing a hidden talent that would be spoiled if anyone else knew other than her confidant.

Rather than being lost in his own thoughts, Bryce found himself lost in the beauty of her voice, collecting himself seconds before his part resumed. At least he could recover quickly when needed. While he'd been trying before, hearing what Violet was capable of did make him try that little bit harder–partially because he didn't want to completely massacre the beauty of her craft with his by contrast, and partially…well, he'd already known why. Violet brought out a better side of him.

The song must have ended at some point, considering that Violet's voice was fading out, followed soon after by the last few notes. Okay, time to get that brain back in gear, because Bryce was very sure he was at least a little red in the face. She was going to stop the music from loading something else, good…uh…water, of course. That would do. He turned away, stifling a cough as he went to the nightstand to grab his half-empty bottle of water, unscrewing the lid and drinking slowly to try and not think about the voice of someone fit to be a singer.

No sooner did he manage to dull the mental sound, though not mute it completely, than Violet gave him a gentle hug from behind. To think a voice could be reinstated through touch…that'd give psychologists something to study.

"Mmm…thank you…"

Bryce had always considered himself an observer: someone capable of being near, but not part of, a group. It meant that he didn't have to live up to the expectations of friends or enemies keeping their eyes on him, and he also kept a very low profile in any sort of public setting. It was thanks to that observational skill that he could tell, even despite himself, that Violet was being sincere. Not a tone of playfulness that would say 'I'll remember this to mess with you later', but rather a soft, content melody–not unlike her singing voice–that let him know: 'I'll remember this moment because it was like nothing else'.

And that just made him blush even harder than before.

The moment that her paws gently spun him around, Bryce thought for sure he was absolutely dead…but somehow, someway, he was fortunate enough that Violet's eyes were closed as she pressed her forehead against his. It took a few moments, but his tension faded, letting his eyes slide shut as well.

'What are we doing…?'

It took a moment, but the human got a response.

'Just…trying…again…'

It still took a bit for the words to get through whatever fog was there, but…the words actually did sound clearer.

'Okay…'

Bryce waited for her voice to return in his head. He waited…waited longer…and nothing. He couldn't hear anything, but he was definitely feeling something. It was as if there was a little glowing ball in his stomach that was radiating heat–not a painful burn, but a soft, gentle glow of warmth. Just when it seemed like he could pinpoint its location, size, everything about it, that glow began rising towards his chest, but the moment it moved, Violet pulled herself back, eyes opening at the same time as his own. She looked at him curiously, cocking her head to the side.

"...did you…feel that?"

Normally, Bryce would have asked for clarification, but this time, he had a feeling Violet was talking about the same thing he'd just felt.

"Yeah…"

That warm glow had dissipated, but it had felt nice, while it was there.

"Should we try that again?" He mused, wondering if it was something he should even suggest.

Still, Violet pressed her forehead to his own, not thinking twice about it.

'...are you there?'

'I am…'

A slightly faster reply, and just as clear.

'Hmm…maybe it just takes practice?' He offered.

'That could be…seems easier…' Was her response.

She was right; it did seem easier. Did it have anything to do with whatever happened before? That glowing feeling hadn't returned, but maybe trying to force it wasn't the best of ideas. Rather than respond, Bryce tried picturing Violet in his mind, exactly as she would be pictured if he opened his eyes.

Come to think of it…

'I have an idea.'

'Yeah?'

Bryce was the one to return to a normal position, eyes opening slowly. "I know we can't use anything that would connect anything to the internet, for obvious reasons…and maybe it's not a good idea to leave any evidence around, but…I don't have any pictures of us."

Violet blinked. She could probably tell it was a bit out of character for Bryce to do something that risky. At the same time, he was willing to risk it, for her–and she was willing to do the same. Nodding, she gave him a wide grin. A camera would never be able to capture how amazing Violet was, but that didn't stop Bryce from looking through a box of old junk, knowing full well one of his folks had kept an old camera, still intact and usable.

"Looks like something else good came out of doing all that cleaning." He smirked, lifting the camera free.

The two returned to Bryce's room, along with Shadow, who'd followed around the only commotion in the house. With no sort of timer feature, Bryce decided on holding the camera out as far as he could, pointing it at the pair of them. Violet rested her head on his shoulder, smiling warmly as Bryce pressed the button down. The image slowly printed out of the bottom of the camera. It wasn't quick, but it was effective. Both of them looked at it, and then sheepishly looked away.

"Maybe we should, uh, take another one." He offered.

At least now they knew they didn't have to be standing that close together. Before he could press the button again, however–

"Aaah, claws!"

–Shadow found her way onto Bryce's shoulder, seemingly unimpressed that she was being left out of their weird family photo op. It did, however, get him to click the button as he winced and Violet laughed.

"I-I w-want tha-that one…" She wheezed out, watching the photo print.

After giving his cat a look, the sound of the photo spilling out was anything but music to his ears. "Nope, no way, that's getting destroyed."

"Aw, come on." She smirked, pulling Shadow off of Bryce's shoulder, holding the feline in her paws.

Bryce rolled his eyes at the pair of him as Violet smiled back. Shadow purred, looking up with a satisfied, half-lidded gaze of satisfaction.

'Click'

"There, you get that one." He offered, letting the final of the pictures print.

Lifting the second and third one into view as the latter came into focus, Bryce blinked. That second photo looked nothing short of silly, stupid, and…

"See? It's perfect."

Bryce gave a defeated sigh. "Yeah…it is."

All three of them were perfect photos, really. One silly, one sweet, and one that they'd never speak of again: some sort of weird conglomeration that somehow, despite having no business existing in the same time and space…they did. Perfectly.

"Okay, we'll keep it." He conceded. "But only because it's the two of you."

Anyone else and that picture wouldn't have existed–and if it did, it certainly wouldn't have existed for very long. He glanced back to Violet, who was staring at him with a wide-eyed expression.

"What? Something on my face?" He joked.

"Y…you're smiling…" She whispered out, then again, much louder, "Oh my gosh! You're actually smiling!"

He might have felt a bit embarrassed by that if he wasn't paying attention to what she said next.

"Give me that camera! I want a picture–"

Nope.

"Nope."

Bryce held the camera above his head, seemingly forgetting that he was dealing with a Pokemon far stronger than he was. Shadow quickly left Violet's arms, heading for the door to anywhere else as Violet attempted to climb up the human in an attempt to get the camera. It wasn't until well after the two continued 'fighting' to grab the camera that it occurred to the human that he was just being messed with. Maybe she was more human than he was. Still, the two spent the next five minutes 'fighting' and laughing before Bryce tossed her the camera.

"Fine, but I pick the movie tonight, and you only get one picture."

"Deal." Violet agreed, lining up the guide and clicking the button– "Hey!"

"Nope, I said one and you get one!" He laughed, "Welp, gotta get dinner started bye!"

"You stuck your tongue out!"

He was already very much out the door, leaving a half frustrated, half amused Lucario gal. In truth, ordering a pizza seemed like a better idea tonight. With that idea in mind, Bryce grabbed a few soft drinks from the refrigerator, returning to the room and getting met with a squinted, unamused expression from his Lucario housemate.

"Now all we need is to order pizza."

Even less amused by the realization that she got played not once, but twice within seconds, Violet huffed. "If this doesn't end with us snuggled up on the bed under a blanket with that pizza and drinks…"

She may have been teasing before, but something in her tone made Bryce realize she was very serious. And very strong.

"Yes, ma'am."

Human or Pokemon, every creature had their limits. Once pizza was in hand and the movie started, Bryce wouldn't dare to get out from under the large blanket covering the pair of them. The movie itself wasn't too terribly long, but it was something nice and sweet. Part of it was to make up for messing with her, but at the same time, it just felt right to watch something outside of his usual choices. About halfway through the film, Violet gave him a slight nudge with her elbow.

"Your mother is home."

Bryce nodded. Still, it wouldn't stop him from leaving this spot unless they had no choice. They continued to watch the movie, their eating slowed now that the pair had full bellies. About an hour went by before the sound of the garage door opening caught their ears in a quiet segment of the film.

Again, not important.

Or rather, it wouldn't have been, if Violet hadn't suddenly sat up a few moments later.

"The guest room isn't clean." She whispered out quickly.

Bryce remained unconcerned. "Hmm?"

"He's coming this way. Now."

Oh, that was why. Bryce sat up as well, tossing the cover off of them. "I'll stall him, just get that room clean as soon as it's clear."

She nodded, and the human left the room. Another upside to Bryce's outlook on life–since he didn't tend to find all that much exciting, he could remain calm under fire where others would panic. However, he could also definitely feel Violet growing more and more worried as he intercepted his father, mentioning to him that there was some important letter that he'd left out for him, then asking if he'd gotten it. Rather than watch him look for it, Bryce joined his father.

Come to find out, Bryce's dad had noticed the room had been cleaned out properly one day in passing. Well, his parents were bound to find out eventually, when they were actually home to notice any changes. Now the issue would be making sure they didn't try and use it every chance they got. 'I didn't want to wake your mom up' indeed. Even when they were in the same house, they were looking for a reason to not be near each other. Both of them slept soundly just fine. Unless he was going to start a podcast in their bedroom, no way would Bryce's dad wake his mom up.

Convinced that the mail must have been gone through by his spouse, and that it must have just been some junk, Bryce's dad finally went back to the guest room, barely awake. Surely Violet had managed to clean the place enough to look normal to someone who wouldn't pay much attention. Bryce made a mental note to wash those bedsheets the next time he could. Opening the door, the human looked to Violet, who gave a nervous smile. He nodded back. Mission complete, though it may have been a bit of a close call.

It was then he realized–and ultimately found himself annoyed by–sure, his folks paid the bills, but this was every bit as much her home as it was theirs. They waited a bit before hearing a soft snoring coming from the guest room before daring to speak again.

"You okay?" He asked, softly.

"Y-Yeah…just…yeah."

Not much of a response, but Bryce slid back into bed, tossing the blanket across them both once more. Sometimes the best way to forget about a near-miss was to just act like it never happened. It might have worked for him, but he could feel the Lucario pressing against him. He wrapped an arm around Violet, pulling her closer.

"Guess you're stuck with me tonight." He teased, gently.

It helped her lighten up, if only a little.

If teasing didn't work, maybe reassurance was better. "Hey…you didn't mess up, okay? We took care of it like we always do."

"...but–" She started, clearly about to give the 'I could have gotten us caught and lost you' speech.

"–come on, now. It'll take more than that to get rid of me." He smiled, relaxing a bit more himself. "Yeah, there's some things you can't take care of, and I've got to…but you've taken care of a lot of stuff I couldn't do on my own."

It was the first time that he'd ever addressed it externally, but not only did she make his life better, Bryce definitely hadn't been okay when they'd first met. He glanced over to the videogame case on the top of his pile on the shelf–the last thing Violet had played, and also where they'd hidden the pictures–then back at her.

"You, me and Shadow. Okay?"

She buried her face into his chest a bit, Bryce feeling his shirt getting slightly dampened.

"...okay." Violet finally responded.

It was a quiet response, but a happy one. Good, he'd made up for it. Reaching carefully for the remote, he turned off the screen, settling in to sleep.

…he did miss the snuggling, too. A little.

Author's Notes:

Well, another year, and another birthday earlier this month. It's been a weird last couple of months. Things were definitely rough there for a while (the holidays are always especially rough for me–no time off and not a lot of family left to celebrate with–but luckily I've got some good friends to cheer me up, and the last two weeks have been much better. One friend in particular was instrumental in getting my mood to improve, and I've got no doubt he'll go far in life.

As for Fantasy's Reality notes: introverts and karaoke. Otherwise known as our worst nightmare, at least if it's in front of someone else. You'd have to throw a good amount of money at me to do that in front of an audience. That said, music as a whole will play a large part in the story. It will also be something that I'll get to learn about as a result, which I'm honestly quite excited about. The humanities side of life–music in particular–was discouraged, growing up, and while I never wanted to be a musician, I always wanted to learn about it and never really got the chance between elementary school only teaching very, very simple things, middle/high school not having any electives other than sports or drama (which was more acting than anything else, still loved those classes and what I learned there, though), and not needing any musical classes in university. Not to worry, we're not having a musical interlude or anything like that. At most, I might put something to recommend listening to while reading…

And it might look something like this for the Artist – and then the Song here…

…but I don't have anything like that set in stone. I could see it being potentially a way to add more, but potentially a way to break the immersion as well. Regardless, one character in particular (one in the future) has music as an important role in their character. Also, just because it's easy for Bryce to potentially save the life of and keep secret about an alien without any real fear doesn't mean that he can't get nervous about something else. Some things are easy for one group and hard for another, and vice versa.

I went back and forth for a bit on deciding if Bryce and Violet would be a little more or a little less careful on being risky after getting caught, and ultimately I settled on a bit of a mix. Bryce is the one who's a bit more risky–not only because he doesn't really care about his ultimate fate as long as Violet is kept safe, but because he recognizes that Violet should have as much freedom as she possibly can. Violet, by contrast, wants to keep both of them from getting into any trouble–mostly Bryce. It's almost like they're more concerned about each other than themselves. Who would have thought? Still, they have the capacity to be more risky than they have been because they're most capable as a team with Bryce's knowledge and logic, and Violet's strength and kindness.

Psychologically, we can also talk about what some call 'found family'-basically, the group you're close to that you aren't related to by blood. Friends, adopted family members, that kind of thing. It's hard to say, living where I do, that family isn't considered a big deal–it certainly can be–but I can also say confidently that blood doesn't mean anything when it comes to those you are close (or not close) with. So ultimately I'll settle on this: blood family, found family, or anywhere in between–a relationship has give and take, and you put into that relationship and get things out of it. And there are relationships–blood family, found family, or anywhere in between–that you can put much into and get little in return. There's nothing wrong with evaluating relationships and seeing if both you and the other person are giving and taking appropriately.

Lastly, speaking of moving the story along, there were a few things used from previous chapters (as in, not just the last chapter) in this one, such as the remnants of the things cleaned in the guest room/Violet's room–things might start getting used in reference to make a more cohesive story. I'll also be using some things from this chapter for chapters in the very distant future. If you're rereading this around that time, perhaps you'll realize what those things are.

Comments are always appreciated, and remember that you don't find happiness. You make it. -Delta