03 - 01
As consciousness returns to him, the Eevee lets out a frustrated sigh as he slowly opens his eyes, glaring at the familiar white ceiling of the recovery room.
"...shit," he grumbles.
A laugh resonates in the room, coming from the Pangoro who is seated on a small chair beside the bed. "Things went south, huh?"
He turns his gaze towards the window, staring at the city under the late afternoon sunlight. "...thanks for the rescue, I guess..."
"You're thanking the wrong Pokémon, kid," the Pangoro says. "A Shinx came by the restaurant this morning and told me his team will be rescuing you, so here I am, just to make sure it really was you." He scratches his neck. "Word of advice, kid... A dungeon's difficulty is measured with a team of three in mind, so you should accept missions below Bronze rank if you continue being a 'one 'mon team'."
The Eevee says nothing.
The Pangoro shakes his head and stands up. "Well, I'm heading back to the restaurant. You still have the rest of the day off, so do whatever you want. Which reminds me..." He fishes out a key and hands it to the curious Eevee. "I got the key of the front door duplicated in case you want to return late at night." He smirks at him. "I don't want to be up all night just to wait for you."
The Eevee sighs as he pushes himself into a sitting position. "Thanks."
With a nod, the Pangoro turns around and heads toward the open doorway of the room.
A frown graces the Eevee's features as he slowly lifts up his bandaged paw, and mentally thanks the stars that he's not amputated anymore. That would've sucked. His frown goes further down as he slowly comes to terms that, perhaps, wilds can't be reasoned with.
A blink.
"Wait."
"Hm?" the Pangoro stops just as he exits the room. He turns back and blinks a curious blink at the Eevee. "What's up, kid?" He smirks at him. "Don't tell me you want me to give you a goodbye kiss on the head."
He glares at him. "Hell no."
The Pangoro laughs as he enters the room once again and approaches the bed where the normal-type is lying on. "What is it then?"
How does he ask this without sounding so invasive? Wait. Why does he care? He looks up at him and asks, "Where did Plu come from?" He quickly glares at him as a grin slowly forms on the tall Pokémon's face. "And don't give me that bullshit."
The Pangoro lets out a chuckle as he scratches his head. "Well, we adopted her." He blinks at him. "Why the sudden question, kid?"
"I just suddenly remembered what your wife had said."
The Pangoro says nothing.
The Eevee sighs, his ears drooping. "Slip of the tongue, maybe?" He turns his gaze to the outside world through the windows. "But you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He shrugs. "It's honestly not my business anyway."
The Pangoro takes a deep breath and sighs, carefully sitting back down on the small chair beside the bed. "It's...not really a story I like sharing, kid." He looks around, and sees that the only other soul in the room is the Chimecho who is busy reading a book behind her desk. Another sigh escapes him as he looks back at the Eevee. "But, well, I guess I can tell you the short version."
He frowns at him. "Again, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
He dismisses it with a wave of a hand. "Nah, it's fine, kid." He smiles at him. "I feel like you deserve to know anyway, because..." he trails off, and shakes his head. "Nah, nevermind."
He curiously blinks at him.
The Pangoro takes a breath. "Anyway, Plu is..." A pause. "Well, Plu was a wild."
The Eevee blinks.
The Pangoro continues: "My team and I were in a dungeon one day, and we saw her being chased by other wilds. We at first thought she needed rescue, so we took down her pursuers." He frowns. "Imagine our surprise when she started attacking us. We quickly realized she was a wild as well." He sighs. "Before I could deliver the finishing blow, she...spoke." He frowns at him. "Wilds don't talk. They never do."
Silence.
"What did she say?" the Eevee asks
The larger Pokémon pauses for a bit, and then replies, "'Please don't,' is what she said."
Silence once again.
The Pangoro breaks it with a sigh. "I told her to join me. Thankfully, she did." A soft smile. "And thankfully, Sarah was okay for us to have her as our own."
A sad sigh escapes him as he looks out the window.
"The first year that we had her was tough. She was still wild, after all. She barely knows how things work, and oftentimes she randomly attacks us and destroys things with little to no warning."
He chuckles and shakes his head.
"We had to close the restaurant a lot, and I had to work extra hard in the guild just to get by, because back then, we still haven't paid the place in full yet, and we need to replace the chairs and tables and even the walls, too."
He frowns at him.
"Sarah endured the most of it, but she stayed strong." He smiles. "And it made me strong as well. And in the end..." His smile grows. "We were able to send her to school." He shakes his head. "She can't seem to overcome her shyness though."
He slowly extends a hand towards the Eevee and places it on his furry head.
He still has the same smile, yet it gives off a gentler and a more fatherly feel. "That is until you showed up."
The Eevee rolls his eyes and pushes his hand off of his head. "I did nothing," he says with a frown.
He smirks at him. "Well, that's the story."
The Eevee nods. "Thanks for sharing it, I suppose."
"Anyway," the Pangoro says as he stands up and stretches. "I'm going back to the restaurant. You rest up for now, or something."
"I'm curious about one other thing though."
"Well, spill."
The Eevee tilts his head slightly. "You mentioned Plu attending school, but she doesn't seem to attend anymore?"
The Pangoro chuckles. "It's still spring break, kid. Classes start a week after the festival."
"Ah."
He smiles down at him. "Does the curious Eevee have anymore questions?"
He frowns at him. "No. You can shoo now."
The Pangoro laughs. "I'll be heading back now." He points at the key on his paw. "Don't lose that, by the way." He nods a goodbye before turning and walking out of the room.
With a sigh, the Eevee grabs his rescuer bag sitting on the bed beside him and puts the key inside. Closing the bag, he frowns at the bandages on his paw.
He closes his eyes, sighs, and slowly falls back down on the bed.
His ears twitch to the sounds of footsteps. He turns and stares at an Audino carrying an injured and unconscious Sunkern on her arms, and carefully placing the grass-type on one of the available beds in the room.
He lets out another sigh as he closes his eyes and places his good paw over it. "I need to stop waking up in this place."
A white dot in the darkness.
He puts his good paw back on the bed as he blinks at the ceiling, blinking at the recollection. "...hm."
A large beam of light falls down from the heavens and lands outside the eastern gate of the city. The light quickly disappears, leaving behind three Pokémon.
"That was boring," Cindy groans as she and her two companions head towards the guild.
"Can't be helped," Shino says. "His missions were in GreenLeaf."
The Cyndaquil sighs. "Well at least we get points out of it."
The trio walk up the steps and enter the large guild building. As the two converse with one another, the Vulpix lagging behind them stops and blinks at the Eevee slowly walking down the stairs with one injured paw lifted up.
Frowning, she looks back at her two friends but see them already far ahead, with a number of Pokémon walking to and fro in between. Sighing, she walks up the stairs and stops beside the grumbling normal-type.
"Need a paw?"
He stops and throws a glare at her. "Hah hah. Funny."
She frowns at him. "I wasn't joking."
"Could've fooled me." He sighs as he continues on his slow descent. "Just...leave me alone."
"You're very weird, you know that?"
"I've heard worse." Another careful step down.
"Look, just let me help you."
"Why?" Another step.
She closes her eyes and sighs. "Because you need help."
"I don't want your help."
"Wants and needs are different."
His eye twitches. "And I don't give a—" he slips and yelps.
A beam of ice hits the steps below him, forming a slide down towards the ground floor. He slides on it, shivering from the sudden cold contact and quickly slides to a stop on the ground floor, ignoring the many curious gazes he has gathered. He sighs as he slowly stands back up on three good paws, his ears and tail drooping as the ice slide behind him breaks into tiny powders of snow piling on the steps.
The frowning white Vulpix steps down and opens her mouth to—
"T-thanks," the Eevee quietly says as he starts walking.
She blinks at him. "Uh, you're welcome."
"Vixie!"
Startled, she turns around and sees her two friends approaching her with big grins on their faces while a random Vanillite starts eating the powdery snow on the stairs.
"Guess what?" Cindy asks as the two stand in front of their friend. "We're half-way towards Silver!"
"Oh?" Vixie smiles a small and awkward smile. "That's great, I think?"
"Where were you anyway?" Shino asks, blinking.
"Yeah, I was curious about that," the fire-type says, nodding. And then she grins and playfully punches the ice-type's shoulder. "Did you pay mister grumpy a visit?"
Vixie rolls her eyes. "Yeah. He said we should leave him alone."
"Wait, for real?"
Vixie chuckles. "No. He's...well, not in the room anymore."
"Again?" Cindy groans. "This is the second time he's disappeared after we rescued his sorry butt."
"Well at least us rescuing him added points to our rank this time," Shino says.
"True, I guess," Cindy says and sighs. "I'll never understand that guy."
"Yeah..." Vixie says quietly as they head towards the exit.
"You look like shit," the Bellossom says without looking up at him.
"Yeah, I noticed," the Eevee replies with a frown. He lets out a sigh. "So about this training thing you told me before..."
"It's down the hall," she quickly answers him.
With a nod of thanks, the Eevee slowly leaves the room and walks through the hallway, and sees a large dojo sign above the door on the very end of the hallway. He pushes the door open and enters a very quiet room. The door slowly closing behind him, he looks around and sees a desk with a sleeping and drooling Keldeo behind it.
But what catches his attention the most is a large and dark hole on the other end of the room.
He squints his eyes at it. "Wait... Is that an entrance to a dungeon?"
"Buh?" the Keldeo quickly snaps his head up, and wipes the drool off of his mouth. "I'm not asleep! I swear!" He blinks at the startled Eevee. "Oh, uh, hi!" He smiles as he nonchalantly brushes his tail on the desk, wiping his drool off of it. "Are you here to do some training?"
"Er, not exactly."
The large quadruped frowns at him. "Really? Then why are you here?"
"I wanted to make an appointment if that's okay?"
"Ah," the Keldeo smiles, and nods. "Make a schedule for your team's training day?" He shrugs. "Sure!" He opens a drawer and pulls out a form. "When do you want it?" he asks as he grabs a pen.
"Tomorrow," the Eevee replies as he sits down. He lifts his bandaged paw up and frowns at it. "I think I'll be completely healed by then."
The Keldeo looks at him and winces. "That looks like a nasty injury."
He sighs and carefully puts it back down.
"Oh, and where are your team members?"
The Eevee looks up at him. "I don't have any."
The Keldeo frowns at him. "Huh..." He looks down at the form and continues filling it. "It'll be tough to do missions alone, but you do you, I suppose. I'm going to check your team's..." He blinks. "Er, I mean your performance later and decide what dungeon's a good place for you to train." He looks back at him with a supportive smile. "Anyway, I need your...team's name, please."
"Training, huh?" the Pangoro says as he wipes a table. "Sounds like a good idea to me."
The Eevee says nothing as slowly removes the bandages around his paw.
"But if you ask me, it'll be better if you find team members, or join another team."
"I don't want to do either of those," the Eevee says and frowns at his paw. It's healed at least, but missing a lot of fur, exposing the skin. It still hurts a bit, but he can still move it and feel from it, too. How they attached it back will be a mystery to him, and he's uncertain if he wants to know or not. Sometimes innocence is bliss, he thinks to himself.
The Nickit walks out of the kitchen and gives the Eevee a drink.
He smiles at her. "Thanks, Plu."
She frowns at him as he carefully grabs the bowl with both his paws. "You should be more careful," she scolds him with a pout.
He sighs, his ears drooping. "Yeah, I know..."
"And tomorrow?" the Pangoro asks, scratching his head.
The Eevee turns to him and nods. "Yeah, tomorrow. Why...oh, right." He shakes his head and frowns at him. "First off, I still did not sign up to be your dishwasher."
The Pangoro chuckles as he scratches his head.
"And second, the sooner I get strong enough to properly fend for myself, the sooner I can become Bronze."
"I still think you should recruit more members or join another team."
The Eevee shakes his head as he heads toward the stairs.
The Pangoro and the Nickit watches him go, and then share a look.
Author's Note: Uploads will not be as frequent as before. I am not comfortable publishing new chapters if I am not 15 or so chapters ahead, or if I have not finished writing the entirety of this fic.