Welcome to Gaia! ::

While Hayes couldn't see Faleen toss the substantial Eeveelution away, he could hear the splash and her commanding tone of voice.

Yeah, she's definitely okay.

"It's okay," he repeated, giving his hands a quick rinse in the water as best her could before wiping the hair out of his eyes. It stuck to his temples in strings, brown from the moisture, but he could blink his eyes open enough to make out the blurry shape of the shore and start wading toward it, more slowly than he'd gone in owing to his ankle and waterlogged clothes. "I don't think he broke the skin-"

Binary's ears slicked back; she would take Umbreon's growl as a 'no,' and followed Hayes instead. "Breon," she called over the lap-lap of her paws in the water. "Umbreon." The dark type scrambled up on the log as her human sat down on it to look at the wound, letting Faleen deal with her pokemon. His bootlaces left dark streaks on his fingers; everything from the bottom of his pants down was dark with silty mud, and his t-shirt stuck to him like a second skin. He worked the sodden boot off and tossed it aside; there were deep puncture marks in the back, punched right through the leather. His ankle was an ebbing ache, but he didn't see any telltale red on his sock, which was uncomfortably squodgy as he peeled it off.

What he did see, however, were two half-circles of blunted depressions - one on either side of his ankle - that throbbed in the open air. Hayes ran his thumb over them thoughtfully, then looked up. "Looks pretty good," he told Faleen with a rather rueful half-smile. Umbreon were powerful; it could've been a lot worse.

"Bree.." Binary nosed at the bite, then regretted the taste of stream water when she licked it. The young Umbreon peered over her human's leg at the angry, sodden creature who'd been banished to shore. She didn't understand a thing that just happened.

Not knowing what else to do, Binary had laid her head on Hayes' leg, ears low. The whole situation had left her unnerved and uncertain - and once Umbreon was back in his ball, alone. As Faleen moved toward her and her trainer, the dark-type made a distressed little noise in the back of her throat that bordered on a tremulous growl.

"Hey," Hayes warned, reaching for her Pokeball. "Quit." Binary fell silent and pressed herself against his leg, eyes locked on Faleen; the Rocket's hand found the thick, sodden fur at her neck.

The blond looked over his glasses at the woman-shaped blur spreaking in Faleen's voice. "It's okay," he repeated. He didn't sound angry, just in pain, and there was a strained element to his smile as he gripped his ankle. The expression wasn't forced, just warring with the urge to grimace. "I know you're not that kind of trainer." I know this wasn't carelessness on your part, and you'll take care of it. "He must've seen me as a threat."

The Rocket sounded a little puzzled about that.

"I'm not going to say it wasn't- ..weird," Hayes admitted, inserting a brief pause before he settled on how to describe the wordless line of thought running through his head. "But you'll figure it out; you know him. How 'bout we just don't go in any more streams for now?" He smiled with rueful humor and turned his attention to his foot. Binary watched intently, nostrils flaring at the scent of silty water.

It was definitely going to bruise, and felt tender, but his thick boots had stopped quite a bit of the blow and nothing felt broken or sprained. The Rocket flexed his ankle experimentally, then pulled his sodden sock back on - something even less pleasant than peeling it off - and slipped his foot back in the boot to put a little weight on it. When no pain that wasn't bearable came Hayes tied the laces, then pushed himself up and set his weight on both feet, then swiped his hair out of his eyes again. "Think I'm good. How's your pack?"

The blond grinned. "I know."

Binary nearly tripped over her feet and Hayes' trying to stay as close to him as possible as he approached Faleen. She was the only Umbreon here now, so if something went wrong - wronger - she'd have to deal with it all on her own. She barked an uncertain 'Breon' at the female Rocket as Hayes leaned over to have a look and winced. "..yeah."

"So," Hayes started after a moment of thought. "It's probably not a great idea to stay here tonight now." He was starting to feel chilly in his wet clothes, and they would wick away more body heat as they dried. "There's some motels and stuff pretty close to here; we could get showers, dry our stuff, then come back in the morning and hike out. Are you okay with that?"

Hayes frowned faintly. "You want my sweatshirt?" he offered. Faleen wasn't complaining, but she had flushed cheeks and the fine hairs on her arms had risen. "It-" -had been around his waist when he'd gone in, and was as soaking wet as the rest of him. "-never mind," he laughed, and hauled his own pack upright to dig through it. Binary peered out at Faleen from the space between his legs and the bag.

After a moment of searching, Hayes found what he was looking for and tossed it to Faleen - a space blanket, packed into tight layers of silver foil. "Here." He shook out one of his own. "Should last us to the van. And.. no, not really." He glanced down at the little dark type, who sneezed and shook herself vigorously. "I don't know what's up with her." His earlier words came back to him, and his brows drew together. "It's like she really thinks you're a threat.. Bines, c'mon. It's Faleen."

"Breeeeeee," Binary protested, giving Hayes an entreating look. That was exactly the problem.

"Aren't they great?" Hayes grinned back, with the little chuckle of someone who knows he looks absolutely ridiculous. And he did. With the silvery foil blanket wrapped around him and little streams forming in the wrinkles from his dripping hair, the agent looked like an extremely concerned conspiracy theorist who'd gone for a swim or a human-sized baked potato. "Never go anywhere without 'em."

The blond looked down at his Pokemon, who looked back with big concerned eyes, and creased his brow. "I dunno," he answered honestly, then shrugged. "Anyway, let's get back."

- - -

Sandalwood City was the closest thing on Kodo to what could be called a college town, and attracted seasonal visitors from all over. While there were plenty of lodgings within the treetop towers themselves, small motels on the outskirts of the forest did steady business with travelers who preferred to stay ground-bound. It was one of these that the Rockets found themselves at after a short, soggy drive - quiet and tucked into an outlying copse, the sort of place parents would stay when they visited their college-aged children over break.

Needless to say, the staff gave them a few looks.

"Okay," Hayes said as he pulled the keycard out and pushed the door open, letting light into the unoccupied room. It was decorated in the inoffensively tasteless style of motels everywhere with an appropriately woody motif, and there were two beds. The way the receptionist had accented her words had given him a vague premonition of an overused plot device trying to land on him, so he'd been specific about the arrangements. Two. Not one. "Showers. You want first dibs?"

Binary, trotting right alongside his ankles, hopped up on the first bed for a better look around.

"Hey, get off of there." Mock scolding, Hayes shed his pack by the door and wrapped his arms around Binary's middle, lifting the Umbreon off the bed to a surprised "Bre-!" The dark type kicked her paws until Hayes moved an arm under them for support, whereupon she settled.

"You can use some of mine," the blond offered, as craned her neck to watch Absol explore the room. "I mean-" He shrugged lest she get any weird ideas about his intentions, "-they're clean." It seemed like a better option than wearing things drenched in untreated silty water right out of the shower, and a girl wearing guy's clothing was considerably less suspect than the other way around.

Binary kicked her feet again and twisted in Hayes' arms. "Bre!" While she didn't mind being held - it was something that hadn't happened much after she'd evolved - she wouldn't be able to do anything if something happened, and Faleen was on the move.

Hayes paused in the act of releasing his Pokemon to the floor. "Well yeah," he blinked, sounding a little puzzled himself. "I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't." Then he laughed - one of those short bursts that dissolved tension - and straightened up. "Really, it's cool. I'll set some stuff out 'n you can use it if you want." Another shrug and a mild smile. "Don't worry about it."

Apparently not one to argue the offer of first shower, the blond knelt again and opened his pack, sorting through various supplies for clothing to take into the bathroom and feeling a little uncharacteristically odd about doing so. Probably because back at HQ his state of dress coming out of the bathroom than going in, as it was a shared space while his room was not and neither he nor Aulus had any wish to recreate their first meeting where both of them had looked (in his partner's words) 'like complete berks.' It seemed equally if not more important not to do the same in front of another coworker who wasn't also his best friend. Faleen was.. friendly, certainly, but she held herself with a certain reserve that Aulus didn't.

Also, she was a girl. There were more social taboos about going shirtless in front of them.

While the tech located a couple of ziploc bags containing a t-shirt in one (promptly tossed onto the nearby bed) and pajama pants in another (almost tossed, then thought better of and held on to), Binary peered around the corner of the bed at the other Rocket, a watchful pair of eyes while her human's back was turned.

"..'kay." After tossing another bag on the bed (this one containing pants he'd intended for tomorrow) and removing his hiking boots, Hayes straightened up with clothing for himself and a glance for Faleen and headed into the bathroom, stepping around Absol as he went. Unwilling to leave him alone and reluctant to be left alone, Binary slipped through the door before it closed.

Presently a tap creaked and running water masked the sound of someone moving about.