There was a quiet 'whumpf' as a certain someone lowered himself down into a second giant cushion. Arezu groaned and rolled so she was facing away. "Don't say it," she mumbled. "I didn't say anything."
"Yeah but you thought it." Arezu grumbled and curled into a tighter ball. "I just wanted to take a nap first." She straightened up and glared, giving up on sleep. It was dark out, so she'd gotten at least a few hours of rest. "Well, now that you woke me up, we can talk."
"'Talk'?" Clearly this wasn't the way he'd wanted things to go.
"Yeah. Like, about how you have a name, apparently?" Arezu flipped around so she could see him and flopped down flat. "And you didn't bother telling me." He had to know how awkward she'd been finding it.
Niji shrugged, "It wasn't relevant? You're the only one that seemed to be bothered by it."
"Yeah, and that's all the reason you should need to tell me." Niji, although rightly chastised by that and having made a note to keep it in mind, didn't concede. "Well, you didn't ask, did you? That's an important lesson for you."
Since she was up, Arezu took Shiisa for a nighttime run to the city and the working showers there. Niji claimed he could make a wilderness shower happen but she wasn't going to trust him for that. When she got back, she made dinner over a campfire then settled in to sleep.
Or at least, she tried to sleep, but her earlier nap made it difficult. Finally she gave up, and let out Sham and Shiisa for a midnight run through the woods.
Language, Sham chastised. Though Arezu couldn't understand him, Shiisa snorted.
"Oh shut up you two." Arezu shoved a hand into Shiisa's furry mane and ruffled it roughly. "Either of you got any bright ideas? I really can't see well enough for this." Shiisa and Sham shared a look, and then Shiisa bent down as if suggesting Arezu should get on. "You guys suck."
The next day, late morning, found Arezu pondering over what to do with her prizes from the halloween festival. Most importantly, the GS Balls. Logic said to give them to her least trained members, and to give it as soon as possible. But that wasn't so simple, considering how many pokemon she had that had naturally moved away from being the fighters of her team. Enki, Tanjoubi, even Hakuren to some extent. It was easy to make the decision for those more mature pokemon, but what about the newcomers? Gekkit and Chima- were they going to be battlers as well? Should they get one each?
Niji could use one, but ******** Niji.
(He was still probably going to end up with one).
It was dumb how having more options just made it harder to choose. Oh and hey, here's a thought- should she use any of her other items, like lucky eggs or her taiko drums? Was that overkill, or being efficient? For the first time she felt a pang, wishing for a human to talk to about this, another trainer. Hikaru might take it seriously enough to get it and offer advice, but it wasn't the same as getting another trainer's opinion. And her list of human 'friends', if she could even consider them that, was pathetically small. Suddenly Niji taking on a human form to try and 'relate to her better' didn't sound like just a bullshit excuse.
Congratulations! Over a year in before Arezu realizes having human friends is a good idea, she thought mirthlessly. At least she wasn't stupid enough to voice the thought aloud and have Niji getting up in her business. Hah. 'Shut up, Dad', she thought up an imaginary conversation with him. Made her feel better. Okay maybe Rainbow Butt is okay. Sometimes. Maybe Jay would be up for a talk or something?
In a moment of insight, Arezu realized this could very well be why she had been feeling tension from Hakuren sometimes. Whenever they did something he wasn't interested in, like Taekwondo, he just complained, didn't even try to let her do her thing... But maybe it was just because he wasn't, couldn't, be the catch-all for her relationships. Just like having a human friend for human stuff. Hakuren was basically her brother, but that didn't mean they'd always be interested in the same stuff.
And suddenly she felt a massive weight of guilt drop away, as she realized it was okay to sometimes prefer Hikaru's company, or Ai's, over his. Because they were just different, not better, or worse. Huh, and to think this train of thought came from trying to decide how to use her GS balls.
Although it hadn't factored in to her initial plans when she set out to make her secret base, Arezu had been finding the central location to be pretty useful. It was pretty close to equidistant from...most of the towns in Kanto, and everything else was pretty close anyways. She'd been starting to get a little tired of floating around long distances with Tanjoubi, and at least this way she was able to spend time not needing to go to far. She'd have to look into some other options.
For now, her daily trips to the dojo and training in the woods for her pokemon was enough for her. Maybe she could make a day trip out of traveling somewhere to find training for Sham. And others, if she wanted to take on Sabrina at some point. Arezu had sat in a a gym battle and reluctantly admitted to herself that the psychic was strong. Much stronger that she could handle right now, anyways.
It was odd, the mixed feelings of restlessness and contentment. She was used to moving and traveling, needed it, even. But then, there was something so comforting in having a place to go back to. A routine. People she saw every day. rather than always new faces. She didn't exactly have friends, but she had acquaintances. She still wasn't crazy about interacting with lots of people, but it did feel lively and kind of nice.
The map went up on the largest face of uninterrupted wood, with pins at the edges. Arezu dragged a beanbag over, shooed Hakuren off the beanbag when he jumped on, and flopped down with he eyes on the map. She petted Hakuren absently after he leaped back up and snuggled down next to her. With her other hand she fiddled with the plastic case filled with multicolored pins.
"Hmm. I was gonna mark places we'd been, but... Seems kind of stupid now that I think about it." After all, during that Around the World event, she'd basically been, well, around the world. The whole map would be bristling with pins, aside from Alola. Which seemed like a nice place to visit for maybe a week, tops, before the heat would start to get to her.
"Well, it's not like we really visited everywhere, you know?" Hakuren said, stretching out on his belly. He wasn't even looking at the map. "And why's it gotta focus on cities and stuff? Seems lame to me."
"Huh. Good point." Arezu's eyes switched to looking at the spaces between the cities, while Hakuren smiled to himself. "I really need to get a laptop or something." Though she hadn't made much use of electronics in the past, she was becomming increasingly aware of how useful the internet was. And how annoying having to travel to the city to get at it was, too. Maybe she could get some kind of super wio-fi enabled laptop with a bunch of solar-powered chargers, but it was just another thing that came down to money, which she didn't have.
"Okay so. Let's say red for places we want to visit. Or red for places we've already visited?"
Hakuren snorted. "Don't look at me, I don't know how these things are supposed to work." Despite wanting to appear cool and aloof, he added, "I think we should pin places we wanna go. And... can we keep some kind of, I dunno, separate thing for places we've been?" He wasn't the sentimental type, but he wanted to be sure, completely sure, that he could tell if his memories were tampered with. He wanted to make sure they couldn't be stolen without a trace.
Arezu nodded slowly, feeling the same way. Maybe it was unhealthy to focus so much on memories, or maybe it was exactly what they should be doing. But either way it was how they were moving forward. "Okay. Maybe we do a scrapbook or something."
"A scrapbook
SPACE
SPACE
