Chapter Four

Friends

White wills herself to not panic. After all, why should she? It's not like she has anything to hide—Cheren's not her mother. Why should he care whether there is a grown man with strange lettuce-esque hair and dead gray eyes in her house?

Oh, right. They're friends. Which isn't something White can say she has too many of.

Cheren scowls at N from over the rim of his glasses. "White, who in the world is this?"

"He's just a...guy, Cheren," White says rather lamely, vainly hoping to ease the tension outof the awkward situation. "He won't hurt my Pokemon."

"Yeah, Cheren," says Bianca breezily, giggling like a young girl. "I'm sure White doesn't need you to try and act like her mother..."

White's face goes blood red, and Bianca shuts her mouth instantly, looking extremely regretful. They all know about her family situation, and how touchy a subject it is. N, who was still utterly silent, shifts around like a restless Buneary.

"More on topic," Cheren says, with a pointed glare at the seemingly indifferent man, "we needed to talk to you, White."

White musters up a blithe smile. "I gathered that from you blowing your top and bursting in here without permission."

"Sorry about that," Bianca cheerfully chirps, her uncharacteristically subdued facial expression perking back up, "but it's really, super-duper important."

"Well, spill it, then."

"We're," Cheren starts, pausing long enough for White to awkwardly fidget from foot to foot, N to gaze at all their faces for an uncomfortably long time, and Bianca to giggle excitedly, "going on our Pokémon journey."

White places a hand over her heart in mock relief. "You had me worried there for a second," she jokes, I thought you were going to say you two were engaged or something."

Cheren let out an unholy sputtering as Bianca turns a beautiful scarlet, the former nearly choking on his incoherency and the latter reduced to silence. "What?" Bianca manages to squeak out, her eyes wide.

"Just kidding." White laughs teasingly. "That was priceless, though. Makes me wish I had a camera, to frame those faces on my wall!"

"White..." Cheren chides maturely, although his pale cheeks are still flushed from her incredibly childish teasing.

White tries to suppress her tinkling laughs. "But is that really all you came for? To tell me you're finally starting something you should've done at least four years ago?"

Cheren clears his throat, fiddling with his rims in a nervous sort of manner. "Actually, no, I - we were hoping you..." he falters briefly.

"We were hoping you would come with us!" Bianca blurts out. Seeing the sudden paralyzing apprehension on White's face, she adds hastily, "It'll be fun, White!"

"I can't." What if they were to come home while she was away?

"Why not?" Bianca whines clamorously, as N moves towards the back as subtly as a ghost Pokemon.

Cheren sighs with obvious annoyance. "You can't seriously be thinking your parents would come—"

"That's not it," White snaps, although her cheeks turn a guilty scarlet at the dead-on remark', "I've got other things to do here-"

"Like be taunted by the townspeople? White, you have to start living your life now and stop trudging in the pa—"

"I have to take care of this injured Pidove, okay?" White feels thankful, although for a terrible reason, that she does actually have to nurse the Pokémon. "I have to take care of this house and my Pokémon and, and—is that mud on my floor?!"

Cheren and Bianca simultaneously glance at their filthy shoes. They hadn't taken them off, and as result, the front floor of White's house was dirt-caked and frankly quite gross-looking.

"Nure's going to hate you guys for this one..."

N stands in the backyard in an aloof way, wondering whether it's safe to go back inside.

On one hand, he really has no business listening in on their conversation, but on the other hand, he shouldn't be forced out of place by a rather stoic man.

White's Oshawott, Nure, waddles up to him and glares up at him. She chatters, and N understands it as, "What are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be with White?"

N smiles at her, despite the evident harshness in her voice, and glances to the back door. The Joltik, Zilt, and Kage sit pressed up against it, obviously listening in, while the calm Deino, Ahi, lies by a deep-sleeping Rupture. "I wish I could be, friend."

"Don't call me that, you green-quilled human," Nure hisses abruptly, thumping her thick tail on the ground in an aggressive manner. "I am not, nor will I ever wish to be, your friend."

N is taken quite aback. Sure, he knew the Oshawott initially distrusted him, but to hate him enough to not want to befriend him? N has never heard that from any Pokemon before.

Ahi perks his head up abruptly, quickly catching N's attention and making him wonder what exactly the Deino has picked up on.

"N? Where are you?"

N sighs and starts to walk back to the back door, causing the not-sp-sublte eavesdroppers to scatter. Kage hisses bad-temperedly, curling his fluffy tail around himself with an air of disdain, as Zilt twitchs agitatedly on his dark fur.

When he reaches the door, it slides right open, as if on cue. White stands in the doorway, looking just slightly startled, before half-smiling hesitantly. "Oh, there you are. I was wondering where you went, since I didn't see you..."

N quietly scrutinizes her as she rambles on, feeling that terrible tugging sense of déjà vu as he looks over her face with meticulous attention to her every feature.

What is it that looks so familiar about her? N realizes, moments too late, that he is studying her so much that she actually goes quiet. The awkward silence is quickly broken by a surprisingly strong squawk of pain.

"Oh, Kizuna!" White exclaims as she rushes back into the house, leaving N blinking in the remnant of her dust. He slowly follows her footsteps, Kage and the others at his heels, to find her cooing to and petting the injured Pidove like a doting mother.

"What did the two people come to talk to you about?" N asks, painfully blunt.

White looks at him. "You mean Cheren and Bianca?"

"...Yes."

"They asked me to go with them on their Pokémon journey, "White says, beginning to gingerly lift Kizuna's wing. "I said no."

N instantly feels relieved. "Why not?"

"I have Kizuna to take care of...and I have other things to wrap up here. By the way, do you see any mud left in the hallway?"

With a quick glance about, N answers, "No. That's all they wanted?"

White shrugs. "Well, since I refused, they at least made me promise to go with them to Professor Juniper's lab later."

N scrunches up his nose. "Why?"

White looks at him oddly. "To get their starters, obviously. They also made me promise to have a battle with them sometime, but—"

"You declined, right?" N asks expectantly, and White blinks at him confusedly.

"Huh? Why would I do that?"

N frowns. "Battles are...very..." he finds his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth as he awkwardly mumbles lowly to himself.

"Yes?"

He slowly shakes his head, his ponytail following his movement. Clearly, his assumptions on this girl's ideals was quite off the target. "Never mind." He says, his words running together into a jumbled mess.

White quirks a skeptical eyebrow, but doesn't say anything, as N fixated on a precise spot on the floor with his hollowed grey eyes.

Suddenly, Kizuna's squawks becomes alarmingly pained under her gentle touch. Worried, White looks back down at the bird-Pokémon, who is practically thrashing his good wing about in a frenzy.

Kizuna keens as if he has been flying for a very long distance, and his burn continues to ooze puss, though it should have at least stopped bleeding by now. Once again, the odd charring on the wing catches White's eye. It looks more like a poison infection, with a distinctly purple tinge to the afflicted wing. Of course, it can be just a trick of her sight, but she has a feeling it's more than her eyes playing cruel jokes on her. Nure waddles to White's side as she keeps a watchful glare, fueled with scorn, on N.

N shifts those dead eyes towards her. "Don't be annoyed with me."

White blinks, having to listen hard to decipher the words he breathes. How can someone talk so fast all the time? Doesn't he get a sore tongue from such ridiculously high-speed chatter? "It's fine."

Kizuna coos more softly this time, and White is pleased to see that liquid has stopped oozing from the wound, with an unpleasantly yellow crust forming around the brunt of the injury.

"Nure, please come here. And get Zilt as well," White orders, motioning to the Oshawott, who obediently calls outside and clambers up to her perch on a chair at the table by White's arm. With a few clipped Oshawott clicks and grunts, Zilt scurries into the room and onto the table with lightining speed.

"Okay, Nure, you wash the wound. And be gentle about it; the wound has just crusted." White looks at Zilt next. "And after she's done, you can apply a sturdy String Shot around the wing."

White steps back to let the two teammates work their magic, pauses, and disappears out the back door. N is quietly awed at the harmony of the duo; they've clearly been working together for a while.

In a hurry, White comes back in with a few berries clutched in her hand, including an Oran, a Rawst and one N doesn't recognize. She mashes them up in a bowl much like before, and after Zilt finishes applying his strong bandage made of his own webs, forces the mush into the beak of the Pidove. She breathes out softly, evdiently relieved when the Pidove swallows the paste, albeit tentatively, and steps away from the Pokemon with a sigh.

White looks at the clock and mutters darkly to herself. N blinks at this sudden change in her ever-volatile mood, confused. "What is it?"

"I have to go meet Cheren and Bianca. Right now!

Tempest Bound: Long wait. Gosh. Sorry! And it seems like N isn't very…happy about the current situation. And poor Kizuna!

Harvest Dragon: Hello readers! No, I'm not dead! :,D

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Side note, He's the Boss readers, thank you for your patience! You shall be rewarded, promise~