There was but naught a Pokémon awake in the quaint town of Negosi Junction. All of the shops were shut down for the night, signified by locked doors and big red letters plastered front and center on white signs, which all read 'CLOSED.' The dirt roads that led to these shops and past the town on all three sides were empty, an unusual sight as the town, although small, always seemed to be bustling with various activities.
Despite the gloomy darkness that coupled with the cloudy sky above, hints of moonlight could shine through, slightly illuminating the ground below. Thankfully, it was just enough for a certain duo, consisting of an Oshawott and Snivy, to find their way home after a long day.
Together, they quietly walked on the dirt road that led them into town from the left side, not wanting to accidentally wake anyone up. Their feet softly pounded the floor, kicking up small amounts of dust with each step they took. Once the two had made it to the self-named junction of Negosi, they turned right, headed down the final road that separated them from their house, settled on the edge of town.
A small yawwwn escaped from a pair of lips, "tired Natasha?"
The Snivy chuckled, gazing over to her friend and fellow team member, "just a little bit! Don't try to tell me that you aren't tired too!"
"Shhh, we don't want to get people up and angry, now do we?" Natasha couldn't help but snicker at that, earning her a playful punch on the arm.
"I guess so… Hey, you don't happen to have another stick of celery in your bag, do you Josh?"
"Hmm?" The Oshawott slightly opened the bag he was carrying to see if he had any left, while continuing to walk forward. He dug around with his free paw, finding the opened pack of celery that he cracked open when the two had taken a break to eat before heading back to Negosi.
"Yeah, looks like there's two sticks left… Still hungry?" He asked incredulously, to which Natasha pouted. "What's wrong with that?"
Josh shrugged, "nothing, just that it's pretty late. Might give yourself a bit of a harder time falling asleep too."
The grass type grunted, waving off Josh's worry. "Nonsense, a little snack won't… I'll be fine, promise. Can I have the celery now?"
The otter couldn't help but chuckle at his friend's antics, "Knock yourself out." He handed Natasha the last two sticks of celery, which prompted her to thank him.
Before Natasha could start munching on her veggies, however, the team had finally made it back to the house that they shared. Josh went ahead and opened the door, letting his teammate in first. Once she had stepped inside, he followed, shutting the door behind him in the process.
Natasha walked straight over to her bed, which was found directly across from the entrance. She used a vine, letting it slither out from the yellow leaf on her left shoulder and under her orange scarf, turning on the lamp that sat on top of the nightstand next to her bed. It wasn't particularly bright, but despite that, it was enough to light up most of the small house.
On the other hand, Josh went over to the left, going into the small hallway and stopping at the 'kitchen' that was tucked into the side in its own small space. He put the bag down on top of the small stove that occupied the space, turning on the hood light above it before taking anything out of the bag.
He firstly took out the now-empty celery pack, tossing it into the trash can found next to the stove on its right. Afterwards, the water type pulled out all of the other things that they had bought from the neighboring city, which was mostly snacks that couldn't be bought in Negosi. He carefully placed them down next to the bag, creating a small pile of varied foods, including grapes, nuts, and most importantly, half a dozen of Perfect Apples.
Once everything was taken out, Josh threw the bag away, then got to work on packing the snacks away. He put everything where it needed to go, whether that was in the cupboards that were stationed above the stove or in the fridge found on the left side of the small space. After all of the food got put away, the otter picked up the final item left; a little surprise for Natasha that he had bought when he found an opportunity to sneak away. It was a book detailing advanced battle strategies for fighting Pokémon that have a type advantage, something he knew she'd like.
Now he just had to pick a good hiding spot, somewhere the snake would never think of looking. Easy, right?
With how small the house was, there weren't many good places to choose from. Of course, Josh could have simply put it in his room… if he had one, that is. There were basically only two rooms within these walls, the main living room and the bathroom. Josh was not going to hide his surprise in the bathroom if he could help it, so that only left one option.
The otter used as much effort as he possibly could to silently tiptoe through the hallway, stopping right before the living room. He peeked past the wall to see what Natasha was doing, of which the snake was sitting on her bed, taking a final bite of the very last celery stick she had left. Josh took a deep breath, hiding the book behind his body before walking out, steady and quick. Within a few seconds, he made it to the recliner, which was his so-called bed, plopping right down on it.
"Hey Josh, did you put everything away already? That was pretty… That was fast!"
The water type slightly tensed up, "Yep, figured I may as well get it done sooner than later." While sitting, he reached down to the floor with the book in paw, placing it down on the ground to the left of him. Certain that Natasha didn't see what he was doing, Josh then shoved the book underneath the recliner's flaps, hiding it from plain view. With that, he gave a quiet sigh of relief, settling into the comfy chair.
Still on her bed, Natasha gently stretched her arms and legs before taking her scarf off her neck, carefully placing it on her nightstand. She then opened the bedsheets, slipping herself inside, and laid down on her side.
"You don't mind if I turn the lamp off now, right?" The snake asked, ready for sleep to take her over.
"Go right ahead," Josh responded, "See you in the morning."
Natasha softly smiled, "Night Josh! Sleep tight!"
She extended her arm up and forward, finding the notch and twisting it twice to turn the lamp off. The room immediately became pitch black, save for two or three stray lines of moonlight that crept in through the windows. To go with the newfound darkness, there was an amicable silence, both Pokémon feeling comfortable as they attempted to drift off into slumber.
Natasha rolled onto her other side, closing her eyes as she snuggled into her blankets. Despite her tiredness, the grass type's mind raced with excitement for the following day, as she and Josh would finally get a chance to enhance their training. It took quite a while for Natasha to book a dedicated time, on account of the local dojo often being busily packed with many out-of-towners also wanting to get in on the action.
Instead of actually falling asleep, the snake couldn't help but imagine what the experience was going to be like. Her mind wandered off with repeated thoughts of squaring off with the owner of the dojo, who was a no-nonsense Grapploct that cared deeply for helping to train his pupils. Natasha had heard time and time again what a great mentor he was, and by this point, just the mere thought of meeting him was getting her all riled up.
"Gotta stop thinking…" In an attempt to fall back asleep and calm herself down, she changed positions again, this time laying on her back. Natasha groaned, slightly opening her eyes despite her best effort not to do so. She then quickly gazed over to the recliner on the other side of the room, worried that she might've disturbed Josh's sleep. Of course, with how dark it was, she couldn't actually tell whether or not Josh was still awake, but luckily for her, it seemed that she didn't wake him up.
The grass type forced her eyes shut, "curse my insomnia." Taking a quiet, deep sigh, Natasha relaxed her body somewhat, sinking into her mattress. She slowly turned herself over, choosing to lay on her stomach as she figured that would be the position she would fall asleep in. At the very least, it certainly made her feel a little more comfortable during this late night.
Natasha still couldn't help but to let her mind wander onto other things, however. No matter what the subject was or how she moved in bed, there seemed to be an endless cycle of non-stop ruminating, followed by more shuffling around. It felt like hours had slowly passed her by, and by this point, it was pretty clear that the grass type wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon, regardless of her best efforts to make that happen.
Begrudgingly, the snake opened her eyes yet again, sighing dramatically. Almost immediately after, she covered her own mouth with her paws, cringing internally as she had momentarily forgotten about Josh. Looking back over at the recliner yet again, she anxiously checked for any signs of movement from the otter. It was already bad enough that she wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, but she didn't want to compromise Josh's sleep.
About half a minute passed before Natasha put her paws down from her mouth, "I'm so glad I didn't wake him up," she mumbled. The snake ended up on her back yet again, as she chose to simply stare at the ceiling. Perhaps if she'd just stay like this, her brain would finally shut off for the night…
"How could you wake me up if I'm already awake though?"
The sudden question startled Natasha, causing her heart to skip a beat. She whipped her head back towards the recliner, where the question had come from.
"You're still awake?! Did I… I was moving around too much and being loud, wasn't I? Sorry…" The grass type could already feel the guilt coursing through her body.
Josh chuckled, "Nah, you didn't do anything wrong, no need to be sorry. I suppose I can't seem to fall asleep either."
Natasha ignored his words, "I knew it was a bad idea staying at Korresna for so late, now we're going to be too tired for training tomorrow and it's my fault." She roughly rubbed her face with both paws, feeling a headache coming on.
The water type got up out of his seat, and the old chair gently rocked back into its usual position as he walked over to Natasha's bed, getting on his knees to be at face level with her.
"Hey… it's okay." Josh spoke softly as he turned on the lamp, illuminating the living room once more. "I'm sure that Zeb will understand, he might let us train with him another time."
"I doubt it, why would he change his schedule just for two people? Maybe… Maybe it's better if we don't go to the dojo tomorrow…"
Natasha turned over onto her side that faced away from Josh, moving her paws down from her cheeks to grip her arms tightly. A sharp frown creased onto her face as her feelings of guilt began to diminish, turning into a mix of anger and sadness.
The Oshawott sighed, thinking of what else he could say or do. After a short silence, he stood up, giving his body a second to readjust.
"Well, I'm going to sit and see how long I can stay up for. Feel free to join me if you'd like…"
With that, Josh walked away, heading past the recliner to sit on the floor. Once he was settled, he looked back to see if Natasha would be joining him, hoping that she was going to do so. The otter didn't want to make her any more upset by trying to help, as he knew how severe her meltdowns could get.
The silence that befell the room felt heavy compared to before. Josh turned back around after a minute or so, as he saw that Natasha wasn't coming anytime soon. He awkwardly heaved his shoulders upwards, gently patting his tail on the floor.
It took a while for the grass type to calm down, as she mulled over her options for the night. She slowly nodded her head as she made up her mind, choosing to get out of bed. She quietly ambled over to where Josh was, sitting next to him, much to his surprise. He looked over at her, smiling brightly.
"So… what are we going to do now? It's gonna be… it'll be pretty boring just sitting here," Natasha asked, her voice sounding a little strained.
"What do you want to do? I'm down for whatever," the otter responded, allowing the snake to take the reins. Her eyes widened; a completely unexpected answer uttered from his lips.
"Uhh…" Natasha stopped to think, lazily gazing around the room. Her eyes settled on the shelves that hung on the wall next to the recliner, and she sent out a vine in their direction. It went to the top shelf, grabbing a book before retracting back into the snake's shoulder, allowing her to get the book without going over to the wall.
"Ah, you want to read, eh? Not a bad idea."
Natasha nodded, "Gives me something to do after all! Even if I've read this, like, hundreds of times." She chuckled softly, clearing her throat before opening the book up.
Josh watched as the snake began reading, thinking of whether or not now should be the time he gave her his gift. After a short while of pondering this, the water type decided to go right ahead. He stood up, going over to the recliner's side in order to lift the flap and get the book that was hiding underneath. Once the book was in his paw, Josh walked back, sitting back down next to the snake, who didn't even notice his short-lived absence as she was already quite enthralled by the story she had read time and time again.
"Ya know, it'd be pretty nice to read a new book, right?" He started, catching Natasha's attention.
"I guess it would, yeah," she answered, raising a confused eyebrow at her friend. Strange question.
"Well, it's a good thing I got one!" Josh presented his gift to Natasha, and in response she audibly gasped. She slammed the book in her paws down to the ground, practically ripping the gift out of his paws. Her eyes raced to read the title, a big grin quickly forming on her face.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The grass type exclaimed, putting Josh into a tight hug. He chuckled, reciprocating her embrace.
"No problem!" After a couple seconds, they both let go, and Josh continued to speak. "I just thought that I should give you something… to thank you for being such a kind, generous person and letting me have a place to stay. It's been fun here in the Pokémon world, even if I don't completely understand it just yet."
Natasha, not knowing what to say, simply beamed from ear to ear, truly feeling appreciated. Pink slightly tinted her cheeks as her leafy tail softly whipped around, and she leaned her head on Josh's shoulder, opening her new book up as she began to read it.