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Gloria Ainsworth loved her pokemon. She loved training with them. She loved playing with them. She loved brushing their fur. She loved cooking for them. She just loved them.
She often wondered, though, if her cousin had even seen some of them. Johto and Kanto were rather strict upon national borders. Any pokemon brought there had to be in the regional pokedex, available in the wild, or be a registered member of someone’s team. It was annoyingly complicated to work with, especially for visits.
Cinderace were rare, even among Galar. It was hard to find them anywhere other than a breeder or Professor Magnolia’s lab. Gallade were also hard to find in Johto as they were not native to that continent. She also realized that it was unlikely for her cousin to have seen a Meowstic, which were native to Kalos and had migrated to Galar.
Lyra had come to visit her in Galar once before. It hadn’t been under good circumstances. She hadn’t stayed for long, though. It was usually Gloria who traveled over to Johto with her family. And Victor had loved going.
A few weeks before, Gloria had made a point to invite Lyra to come visit. It had been a while since they had last seen each other, actually, it had been almost 2 years. Gloria was shocked that so much time had passed since Eternatus had been released and resealed.
Lyra told her that she would be bringing her husband and friend along, which Gloria had expected. Silver and Gold tended to stay near her. The three were rarely separated for more than two months.
Gloria had a similar longstanding agreement to visit with her friends. She and Bede had been dating for over a year, so they met up often. Hop lived in Wedgehurst, over by Leon, Sonia, Caelum, and Professor Magnolia. He actually spent most of the weekdays traveling, so you could only expect to see him there on the weekends.
Marnie was Spikemuth’s Gym Leader, so she had an apartment there. Her gym was only open on the weekdays and she spent the weekends traveling around. Gloria had an apartment in Hammerlocke.
She liked her apartment. It was close to all of her friends' houses so she could easily visit. It was in the center of the region so that if anything happened, she could fly there right away. It was made of stone, very old fashioned.
Really, she suspected that she liked it because it didn’t have memories of Victor. She didn’t look down the hall and expect Victor to open the door, dressed in his Marching uniform and holding his Clarinet, clearly exhausted.
She didn’t look at the table and remember leaning over to Victor’s seat to elbow him. She didn’t see his curly brown hair in the chair by the fireplace because he hated to be cold, almost as much as she did.
Gloria loved the house she grew up in, really, she did. It was always so happy and full when she was growing up with Victor. It was the house her grandfather had grown up in, so everyone in Postwick knew who they were.
It just wasn’t the same without Victor. Nothing was the same without her younger brother around. It couldn’t be, because Victor was what had made her life full and happy. Victor was what made her childhood memorable.
And now he was gone. He hadn’t had all the fun experiences of a Pokemon journey. He didn’t get to see Zamazenta and Zacian. He missed the sheer power of being in the presence of Eternatus. (Okay, she wasn’t upset about that one. That had been truly terrifying and she realized why people wrote Eldritch Horror.)
If anyone knew how that felt, it would be Lyra. Crystal had disappeared 6 years ago, in the middle of her pokemon journey. It was her disappearance that had pushed Lyra to take on the gym challenge. It was her disappearance that had convinced Gold not to.
Gloria took on the Gym challenge because it hurt too much to be at home. She and Victor had planned out that they would start their journey together. She would wait a year for him to graduate, because even though he was over 2 years younger than she was, he had skipped a grade. She would wait a year to go with him.
But then he was taken from her, leaving behind nothing but memories and dreams. So she pretended she was fine and finished up school. She graduated with excellent grades, because she would not let Victor come back and feel guilty for disappearing.
She started her gym challenge with Hop and met a jerk who had a lot of psychic types. She made friends with Marnie and helped save the world. She beat Leon and became Champion.
But she spent a lot of time crying, too. None of her friends had younger siblings. They didn’t know that feeling, the feeling that made you want to protect them so that nothing would hurt them. They didn’t know how it felt to fail.
Lyra didn’t either, but she knew enough. She knew what it felt like to have her sibling stolen by a creature so powerful that it had sent families to hide on another world. She knew that feeling of wishing they were alive, but realizing that if they were, they were probably being hurt. Lyra knew.
So Gloria invited her over. She wanted to spend time with her cousin. She wanted to introduce Lyra to her friends. She wanted to introduce her to Leon and Sonia’s new little baby, Caelum. She wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons all together, Lyra, Silver, Gold, Marnie, Hop, Bede, and her.
She wanted to have a battle, to see if Lyra really could take her on and win. She wanted to introduce their Pokemon for the first time. Inter-regional travel really was annoying sometimes. Getting passports for all the pokemon you wanted to bring took forever.
Fortunately, Lyra still had a passport for all of her pokemon. She had gotten hers renewed after the Eternatus Disaster so that she wouldn’t miss something again. The passports had only been unvalid for a month, so of course that was when everything went down. If it had taken 3 more days, Lyra could have brought her pokemon.
Gloria would be arriving at Chichester in 30 minutes, an hour before Lyra, Gold, and Silver’s boat would. Bede was planning on meeting her there. They would spend the night in the city and leave for Postwick the next morning.
Gloria arrived on schedule and walked over to a restaurant by the docks to eat lunch after tipping the Taxi. The food was good, she liked seafood. It took a while to get her order, though.
By the time she had eaten, she had a text from Bede saying he was in the area. She found him and they walked to the docks together. They arrived about 5 minutes before the ship did, which was definitely pushing it.
They made sure to stand up close to the people leaving the boat. It was pretty easy to spot them as they got off the boat. Not many people had hair as vibrantly red as Silver did. She waved to them.
Lyra took their arms and dragged both Gold and Silver over to her and Bede. “Gloria! It’s been so long!”
Gloria opened her arms and was crushed by the hug she received from Lyra. She hugged back. “Yeah,” she replied, voice wobbling. “It has been a long time.”
Silver walked up to Bede and offered a hand. Bede met it in a handshake. “I’m Silver Alioth, good to meet you.”
Bede gave a quick smile. “Bede Hawthorn, nice to meet you as well.”
Gold moved to hug her next. Gloria squeezed him back. It had been a while since she had last seen him. It had probably been 10 years.
“Hey, Weasel-rat. You got big,” Gold teased.
Gloria smiled. “An’ ye got old,” she replied.
He laughed and walked over to shake Bede’s hand. “I’m Gold, I used to hang out with Gloria back in Johto.”
He nodded. “I have heard about you from her.”
They left the docks and walked to the hotel. They rented two rooms with two queen beds and a pull out sofa. Lyra and Gloria took one, and Bede joined Gold and Silver in the other. They put the suitcases in the rooms and headed to the Gym.
“Melony an’ Gordie asked if we would train with them. It’s early enough in the Gym challenge that they don’ have challengers, but they want to train their teams. Anyone up for a battle?”
Silver raised a hand, “I would like to battle. What types do they specialize in?”
“Melony specializes in Ice type pokemon,” Bede answered. Silver’s eyes widened, but Lyra ressted an arm on him. “Her son, Gordie, specializes in Rock types. Gordie took over the gym a little over a year ago, but Melony still takes on challengers if specifically asked.”
“So we should battle Gordie?” Lyra asked.
Gloria shrugged. “Ye can battle who ye want. I got ye endorsed for the challenge. I know ye collect badges.”
Lyra beamed at her, “Really? Thank you!”
“I got Silver endorsed, ‘s well. If ye win, ye can get the badges.”
Silver smiled at her. “Thank you, Gloria.”
She flushed a little. “Think nothin’ of it. Twas Hop who came up with the idea, and Lyra told me ye wanted to do the Gym Challenge. An’ the rest of the Gym Leaders thought it was fine because Marnie and Bede supported me. Raihan and Nessa go along ‘cause I babysit their kid,” Gloria rambled.
Lyra hugged her again. “This is great. It’s been a long time since we could challenge the gyms. Brings back memories.”
Gold hummed. “Yep, breaking and entering, the good old days.”
Silver raised an eyebrow and Bede smiled. Lyra laughed, “I will have you know we only broke into 2 facilities.”
“Speak for yourself. Do you not remember how I got Alcide?”
“Okay,” Gold said, “that is a good point. You went off breaking and entering on your own, too. Which is not fair. You should have invited us.”
“You would have had me arrested.”
“Stop making good points, Silver.”
“So, um, who is battling today? Gloria, Lyra, Silver, and I. right?” Bede asked.
They nodded. “If Gordie wants to continue battling, I will,” Gold offered. “I don’t think my team is up for taking on a Gym, though.”
“I will go inform them. You should go change into uniforms.”
Lyra passed a uniform to Lyra and Silver. “There are changing rooms over there,” she pointed. Silver nodded and walked off to change.
“So, you never told me that your boyfriend’s hair is fluffier than my Ampharos.”
Gloria choked. “Wha?”
“Bede. The guy you have been telling me about for about two years. Your boyfriend as of a year ago,” Lyra clarified.
“I’m aware o’ all that. But what?”
“His hair is super fluffy. Like, the volume there is incredible. And is that his natural color? It doesn’t look dyed?”
“Yes?”
“Seriously,” Gold added, “what hair products does he use? I would buy them.”
“Did ye just wait til Bede left so ye could gossip about how hot he is?” Gloria asked.
“Now don’t phrase it like that, I’m married. But yes. I have 6 years worth of revenge to catch up on while I visit Galar. Do you know how much I have to embarrass you?” Lyra questioned sweetly.
“I regret everythin’.”
Gold snorted. “Are you absolutely sure? Everything?”
“Okay, maybe not everythin’, just most things that have ta do with ye.”
Gold nodded sagely. “I can accept that.”
“I was mostly talkin’ ta Lyra, but ye, too.”
Silver walked out of the changing rooms, so Lyra headed to get dressed. She pecked him on the cheek as she walked in, and Gloria thought she noticed him flushing.
“Wait, It’s hard ta tell, ‘cause, ye know, the hair, but are his ears red?” Gloria asked.
“Yep. I have been watching this happen for the last 5 years. His ears turn red every time she kisses him. Every single time.”
“Bede’s the same way. He’s so pale. Poor guy. And he wonders how I knew he liked me.”
“You should tell me about that some time.”
“I should, it’s pretty interesting. Hop says when he gets free time he wants to write a novel about it.”
“Wow, you really should tell me about it,” he decided as Silver walked back to join them. He sat down on a bench by Gold.
They talked about battling for a few minutes. After Bede returned, Gloria got dressed in her uniform, the 13 showing proudly. Bede had a tendency to wear his uniform shirt anyways, but he changed after her.
They walked into the ice maze. Bede said that Melony didn’t care if they all went together, so they did, letting Silver and Lyra take care of the trainers. It was impressive to see how easily they beat them.
Gloria was starting to get concerned for her teammates. Winning against Lyra would not be easy. Winning against Silver would not be easy either, and he had only beat her once in all the years they had trained together.
They made it to the stadium without falling into any holes. That was amazing, because Gloria knew from firsthand experience that falling in those holes sucked. Like, a lot.
Also, Silver looked like he hated the cold. It was probably good that they were getting this Gym out of the way first. Gloria loved Melony, the woman was like another grandmother to her, but it was so dang cold. One could not survive like this.
At least on days when Gordie decorated the Gym was a reasonable temperature. Sure, she always ended up covered in sand and little cuts, but it was better than freezing. There was a reason half her team was Fire types.
“Oh, look at you, darlings!” Melony called. “I’m so glad to see you,” she hugged her tightly and pressed a kiss to Gloria’s cheek. Gloria hugged back obediently and she repeated the process with Bede.
“I’m Silver Alioth. I would be happy to help you train for Gym Challengers,” he greeted her with a handshake. He didn’t sound happy, but he rarely did.
Melony’s eyes held a playful twinkle, which was mildly concerning. “I will take you up on that offer. Would a three on three match work for you?”
Silver looked grimly determined. “It would. I suppose everyone else should leave the battlefield.”
Melony nodded. “Good thinking. Bede, would you take everyone to go sit up by Gordie? I’m sure he will want to study the match.”
“Of course, Melony.” He then pointed to a door on the other side of the stadium. “That door leads to the viewing area. Gordie is waiting there for us.”
The four of them walked up and were greeted by Gordie. They sat down on the bences to watch Silver. He had a pokemon selected and the announcer was about to start the match.
Lyra leaned in to her. “Have I told you that he hates the ice. And has an intense dislike for ice types. He also has bad experiences with Ice type Gym Leaders.”
Gloria blinked. “That doesn’t sound good. Ye sure he’ll be okay?”
Lyra shrugged. “No, not really. Do you think Melony would mind if we got our fire types out?”
“Gordie, can we let out our teams in here?” she checked.
“Sure, just clean up anything they break. And keep your Charizard on the ground. Or in his ball. It took weeks to fix the ceiling from last time.”
Gloria pouted at him. “Yer no fun. Fine.” She opened Seraph’s ball and gestured for her to sit somewhere. She, of course, chose to sit in Gloria’s lap, effectively blocking her view. “Seraph, yer not a wee little Scorbunny, I can’t see.”
Lyra laughed and scooted over enough that she could fit between them. She let out her behemoth of a Typhlosion and they shuffled around. Seraph ended up sitting between Gloria and Lyra, Hestia wrapped herself around their feet, Elaine sat behind Bede with a few of her tails wrapped around him, and Ignatius was glaring at Gordie, but not flying.
She looked to see the announcer drop his flag and race to the podium, where he would be sheltered from most attacks. Silver threw his pokeball to reveal a Weavile. Gloria looked at it in interest. They were very rare in Galar.
Melony had let her Frosmoth out. “Shiver, hail and bug buzz, go!”
“Ice beam, Neiva,” Silver called. The little pokemon jumped in the air and aimed an Ice beam as the Frosmoth summoned a hailstorm. The ice hit the floor and froze the ground.
That was interesting. Nieva continued freezing the battlefield until it resembled an ice rink. Nieva was incredibly fast on the ice, she must have trained with it. When Shiver came to attack her, she just slid right past.
“Shadow claw,” Silver said as Shiver looped around to hit Neiva with bug buzz. The little Weavile sped towards the Frosmoth and ran into it with elongated shadowy claws.
Shiver screeched. Neiva screeched back. “Icy wind!” Melony barked, realizing how serious the battle would be. Shiver summoned a bast of cold wind and sent it to Neiva.
“Icy wind, cover for feint,” Silver called. Neiva sent a stronger blast of ice crystals flying at the one headed for her. They collided and sent a blast out in all directions, ice shards flying at incredible speeds.
Neiva used the thick ice cloud to sneak up on Shiver. “Hurricane!” Melony called. Shiver responded immediately, sending out gale force winds. Neiva was revealed and pushed back. The ice along the floor caused her to continued sliding.
She used it to her advantage and picked up speed before turning and racing back. She leaped up and aimed a punch at the Frosmoth. Shiver dodged, but the real attack was a slice of her claws, right where Shiver had dodged to.
“Good, tackle it.”
“Fly away!”
Neiva leaped in the air and crashed into Shiver, causing her to fall to the ground. “Frosoth is unable to battle!” the judge announced.
Melony nodded and withdrew her. The battle continued on. Silver won, Neiva having beat Melony’s Darmanitan as well. He withdrew her and sent out his Alakazam, who won the match.
Since Silver was unable to Dynamax, Melony refrained from doing so. She admitted her defeat and presented him a badge. He took it and headed through the door to the room where the other trainers were.
Bede stood to go out and battle her. “Good job. Your Weavile was impressive. I suspect it could have taken on her Lapras, as well.”
“Thank you. I look forward to what you will be doing,” Silver responded.
Lyra leaned behind Seraph to whisper to Gloria. “It’s cute that they’re getting along. He’s trying so hard.”
“I know, right. They’re tryin’,” Gloria responded. They looked each other in the eyes and snickered.
“Do I want to know?” Silver asked.
Gold shook his head. “Probably not, at least, I wouldn’t recommend doing so. They’ve been making fun of us, you and Bede specifically, for the last 30 or so minutes.”
Gordie nodded. “It was pretty amusing. Lyra is excellent at making fun of people in a way that makes them like her.”
“The best part is that ye don’ know yer being made fun of til after,” Gloria added. “Oh, Bede’s up now. I wanna see how fast he wipes the floor with her. Also, Elaine has decided ye are worthy of her snuggles, so go cuddle the Ninetales.”
Silver blinked at her.
“If she asks, pet her,” Lyra said. “Refusal ends in psychic attacks.”
“Okay, um, I will?”
“Attaboy, she’ll sit on yer lap if ye let her,” Gloria finished. Silver wisely followed their instructions and sat beside Gloria. Elaine crawled on his lap and wrapped him in her tails. They pretended they didn’t notice the shivering.
Bede’s battle went similarly. He sent out Helix, a Reuniclus. This seemed to shock Melony, as he often went with his Fairy type team. It was a bit silly to expect all of his pokemon to be Fairy types. Gloria knew that he originally specialized in Psychic types.
He told her that after Opal passed away, he intended to have the Gym be another double type. That would bring the total in Galar up to three, Bea and Alistar having a Fighting and Ghost Gym, Melony and Gordie with an Ice and Rock Gym, and Bede, who had teams of Psychic and Fairy types.
Gloria told him to go for it. She often thought it was silly that the Gyms were predetermined types. The challengers could prepare for the individual type. They could train a specific team for a specific Gym.
If the Gyms randomly switched between two types, that would make it more interesting. Sure, some people would do the same thing, but they might get caught completely off guard. They might train a team for one type, but get destroyed by a different one.
Gloria’s opinion was not that popular, though. She supposed that it was because the Gym challenge had been done a specific way since the Treaty, 145 years ago. Galar was already seen as pushing it for changing it as much as they had.
She watched Bede and Helix absolutely wreck Melony’s team. Gloria knew from experience how powerful Reuniclus was, having one on her team, and all. They had a ton of fighting type moves.
Helix took out Melony’s Eiscue in two moves. Her Mr. Rime got a few hits in, but Helix finished the battle with Superpower. He withdrew him after that and sent out Hecate, his signature pokemon. The Hatterene was used in almost every battle he participated in.
The last pokemon Melony sent out was an Avalugg. Gloria knew from experience that they had a really freaking high defence and a stupidly strong attack. They could just take a whole bunch of hits and be fine.
Bede and Hecate would be in for a rough match. She watched the Hatterene set up a future sight as the Avalugg, Frigid, used skull bash. Hecate took it and used dazzling gleam. She moved in to use draining kiss and quickly teleported away.
Hecate used her teleporting prowess to her advantage, avoiding most of the moves Frigid aimed at her. A few psychics and another dazzling gleam wore him down. Frigid got another skull bash in, which sucked, because those were powerful.
It was close, but Hecate pulled off one last teleport-psychic combo. Melony accepted her defeat and Bede withdrew his weakened partner. They walked up through the hallway that led to the viewing area.
Gordie and Lyra went down next. She won the battle, having started with a very impressive Gyarados and wiping out his whole team. Gloria stared in awe. Tethys was incredible. He was a beautiful shade of red and his attacks were so strong.
“Gloria, you’re staring,” Bede said, after she had, well, been staring at the Gyarados open-mouthed for several minutes.
“He’s beautiful, though!”
“Gloria?” Gold asked. Gloria turned to look at him. “Please note that you are saying that to your boyfriend.”
“I gave up a long time ago. I can accept that she finds pokemon more beautiful than me, even though my hair is far better.”
“Also,” Silver added, “Tethys is just… impressive. He gives off an aura of power, not unlike Articuno.”
They turned to stare at him. “The ease at which you just compared your wife’s, admittedly impressive, Gyarados to Articuno leads me to think you have met it in person,” Bede stated.
Silver shrugged. “Yeah, they both just look at you like you are this ultimately inconsequential being. They stare you down, unimpressed. It helps that Tethys is so big, because Articuno is just so powerful that it is hard to see it only as 5 feet tall.”
They continued staring. “Don’t you visit with your region’s legendary dogs on a regular basis? Why are you so surprised that Silver’s Kanto’s birds?”
Gloria shrugged. “I’m not really. Also, they prefer ta hang out with Hop and Marnie.”
After Lyra walked up with her badge, it was Gloria’s turn for a battle. She and Seraph took out his first two pokemon. Gloria recalled her after that so that she wouldn’t get tired and sent out Chloris. The Leafeon took care of Gordie’s Tyranitar, though she wouldn’t be ready to fight for a while.
They departed from the Gym shortly after. They ate dinner at the relatively famous “Bob’s Your Uncle” that was near the hotel. It was nice and they all relaxed together, telling stories and recalling memories.
Before long, it was dark. They split up in their rooms and continued talking. They talked about their favorite books and TV shows, things that were hard to keep updated on if you weren’t constantly around each other.
“Also, you’re going to be an Aunt,” Lyra said, somewhere around 11.
“What?” Gloria asked, entirely too tired to comprehend that statement.
“Technically, you’re going to be a first cousin-once removed, but that just doesn’t have the same ring.”
“What?” Gloria repeated.
Lyra sat there and waited for a minute. Gloria’s brain caught up with her. “Oh. Wow. I’m gonna be an Aunt.”
Lyra nodded, smiling. “Yeah,” she sat up. “Just thought you should know.”
Gloria fumbled her way over to her bed and sat down beside her. She moved to hug Lyra, who reciprocated enthusiastically. “Ye happy?”
Lyra smiled. “I don’t think I’ve been happier,” she whispered. They continued hugging for a few more minutes.
“Well, good night, Lyra,” Gloria said as she moved back to her bed. “Ye, too, little undeveloped fetus.”
Lyra laughed so hard she cried. “Oh my goodness! I am so telling Silver you said that!”
“Mhhm,” Gloria mumbled.
“And Gold.”
“Are ye really?” Gloria replied weakly.
“Good point. He’ll call them that for the rest of their life. I’ll just tell Silver.”
Gloria hummed in response again.
“Good night, Gloria,” Lyra whispered. Gloria had already fallen asleep. Lyra remembered earlier days, when it had been the 5 of them playing. Gold would stare at Crys when he thought no one was looking, Crys would try to boss everyone around. Victor would climb on everyone for piggy-back rides.
Life was different now. She would always miss Crystal. She would always miss Victor. She would miss the others who were stolen back through a Wormhole. But she wouldn’t stop living. Lyra would not let her grief distract her from experiencing life in its fullest.
Because really, loss was a part of life. And Crys hated it when people cried. So she spent the years learning how to live without her. There would always be a Crys sized hole in her heart, but she had new people in her life.
She had Silver. She had become friends with Gold in a much deeper way. She had her little child.
She was not alone. Crys would like that.
~
They had arrived on a Wednesday. They had traveled to Spikemuth and met Marnie the next day. They challenged her on Friday before heading to Postwick.
That evening, they started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Wedgehurst was a short train ride away. They met up with Hop, Leon, Sonia, and Caelum at the lab.
They started building their characters. Bede created a High Elf who was a wizard. Silver chose a Human fighter. Gold was a Dwarven paladin.
Lyra chose a Tiefling and became a bard. Marnie was a Drow assassin. Hop was a monk Gnome. Gloria was a Druid, but couldn’t decide on a species. She eventually chose half human, half halfling.
Leon was the DM, so he started planning out how the game would go. He started laughing maniacally at one point. Sonia translated that to, “At least one of you will probably die.”
They were only doing a character building session, so it was only supposed to take an hour or two. They spent the time talking, laughing, and playing with Caelum. Caelum was a very friendly and happy baby.
Sonia started out by Leon, helping make NPCs. She started passing Caelum around after that. Hop had taken the first turn because he absolutely loved holding his little nephew. It helped that Caelum also adored him.
He was a young baby, nearly 4 months old. He could move his head around and roll over, but that was about it. He was very cute, though, in the way that babies were. He was tiny. His hair was a much redder purple than Leons, but darker and bluer than Sonia’s. His skin was a medium brown and his eyes were blue, like how most babies had blue eyes that changed later.
Hop eventually passed him to Marnie, who took a short turn with him. She passed him to Bede, who regularly freaked out about holding babies. He sat still in his chair and made sure not to move Caelum much. Gloria sat by him so that he wouldn’t worry too much. She knew that he was just worried that he might hurt Caelum, despite the fact that no one else thought he even could.
Sonia laughed and took him, spinning him gently. She sat down by Gold, helping him hold Caelum. Gloria wasn’t sure she had ever seen Gold so happy. He was often cheerful and bubbly, but holding Caelum brought out a joy she hadn’t seen, or, well, heard in him for years.
Sonia took him after that to give him a little nap break. He slept for about 20 minutes while Sonia started her famous curry. Leon took him when he woke up and said that he had a rough outline for the campaign.
By that point, they were mostly just sitting around in the couches and talking, occasionally about their characters. Gloria took Caelum over and sat between Lyra and Silver. She sat with him for a good 20 minutes before Lyra asked if she could hold him.
Leon and Sonia, of course, said yes. Gloria gently passed Caelum to her and adjusted her arms. She had practice holding babies, due to being around both Drake and Caelum.
“He’s so perfect,” she whispered. Caelum squirmed a little, but settled down.
Sonia seemed to materialize out of nowhere. “Yeah, he is. And there’s something special about holding a baby.”
Lyra nodded, tears forming in her eyes, “Thank you.”
Sonia smiled at her and sat down. They started talking and it seemed like they would become good friends. Sonia was the same age as Silver and Lyra was a bit older than they were.
Gloria leaned over to Silver. “Ye can hold the baby if ye want,” she pointed out.
Silver looked conflicted. “But… what if I hurt him?”
Gloria refrained from rolling her eyes. She had a similar conversation with Bede at least once a week. “Ye won’t.”
“But what if I do? He’s so small and precious.”
“Yer sitting. Also, kids don’t break. They don’t have enough bones.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“Look, he’s all soft and squishy. His bones are tinier than they look. It’s mostly cartilage and tissue. Yer not gonna hurt him.”
Silver almost looked comforted by that, which was good. She had tried that on Bede before and it only worked about half of the time. He continued staring at Caelum.
Gloria beckoned Bede over and had him sit on the other side of Silver. With 5 people and a baby, the couch was rather full, but Gloria didn’t mind. She started explaining how to hold a baby to them.
Bede nodded along. Silver looked somewhere between panicked and determined, depending on the second. Gloria took the latter as improvement and continued. “Lyra, can I take Caelum?”
“Yes,” she responded. She sounded a little sad, which made Gloria feel guilty. But it was almost dinner and she didn’t want Silver to go without holding Caelum.
“All right. Silver, hold Caelum.”
Gloria lowered him into Silver’s arms. She helped him get settled. Then she stood up and took a few steps back. “Bede, ye make sure he holds Caelum, right.”
She then headed to the other couch, which Leon, Hop, and Marnie were sitting on. Gold was draped across the chair next to it.
“Aww, look,” Marnie cooed. She was pointing at the other couch. “They’re all smiling.”
Indeed they were. Silver was smiling down at Caelum, who was cooing and smiling back at him. Bede was leaning over and helping. He was smiling at Caelum as well. It was very easy to smile at Caelum.
Sonia had pointed out the fact that Silver was holding Caelum. This led to both of them smiling fondly at the scene before him. Marnie was right, it was adorable.
“Wow,” Leon said. “At this point I just figured that Bede didn’t like Caelum, but he’s doing great.”
“No one can dislike Caelum,” Gold replied, shaking his head. “Just look at his cute face.”
The others nodded in agreement and continued conversations. And if Gloria’s vacant spot caused Lyra to scoot in next to Silver and lean her head on him while playing with Caelum, well, no one said anything.
Their night continued to be joyful and pleasant. They ate Sonia’s curry and swapped stories from their journeys. Gold even told a few stories about what happened at the daycare he worked at.
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Lyra, Gold, and Silver were leaving. It was a Saturday, so they all gathered back in Chichester again. Gloria had accompanied them around Galar so they could challenge all the Gym leaders.
Silver and Bede had become friends, which was nice. He rarely got out and didn’t really talk to anyone other than Hop, Marnie, or her. Even Gloria’s cousin-in-law was an improvement for Bede.
Their D & D campaign went well. Gloria and Hop ended up dying in the last battle, but the others got revenge. It also meant that they got to hold Caelum while the others played. That and eat dessert.
Lyra and Sonia had become really good friends. Gloria was happy about that, too. Lyra hadn’t really talked much about anyone other than Gold and Silver. She probably needed friends, too. And as much as it was great to have guy friends, sometimes one needed to have a girl friend.
Gloria didn’t actually remember much about Crystal. So she had asked Gold about her. She learned a lot about both of them from that, actually. He had pulled a couple of pictures of her out of his backpack and told her about what had happened before each of them.
Gloria loved hearing stories about Crystal. She remembered being young and thinking that she wanted to be like Crys when she grew up. Crys had been her hero. She told Gold that, and he said that he felt the same way.
She told him stories about Victor. She told him about the time he broke his arm climbing over the school fence in Middle School. When he didn’t believe her, she found pictures and journal entries.
They celebrated Hop’s birthday with cake and stories. It was great. Gold had been shocked upon finding out, rather forcefully, that Hop and Marnie were together. That was probably because he had walked in the living room to find them kissing.
Marnie thought it was hilarious, but Hop was embarrassed. Gold said not to worry about it. Lyra said that she had walked in on Gold and Crys kissing a few times, too.
Gold complained that Lyra’s comment was unfair; that he and Crys had kissed a grand total of 5 different times, and Lyra had turned up unexpectedly for 4 of them. How were they supposed to know that Lyra followed them everywhere?
That made Hop feel better. It also reminded Gloria that in the 6 years that Crystal had been gone, Gold had yet to have a steady girlfriend or even go on more than a few dates. Gloria made sure to give him an extra hug.
But after they had completed their Gym challenge and D & D campaign, the Johto crew had to go home. They all gathered at the docks of Chichester to see them off.
Lyra had given everyone two hugs, Gold was giving them away like candy, and Silver had started with handshakes, but started hugging people after the third person just hugged him instead. It was nice. They all made sure that everyone had everyone's phone numbers and emails before letting them board the ship.
It didn’t feel real to Gloria that they were leaving. It had been so fun to have them over, a good refresher. She felt so happy and motivated. She felt like visiting her mom and Grandma, just to check on how they were doing.
She felt like training with her pokemon, who had done spectacularly battling, but couldn’t hold up against Lyra’s team. It might have been different had they done a full out champion battle where teams went until the other was unable to battle, but Lyra had won.
Lyra said that she did have half a decade of experience, so she shouldn’t worry. Gloria took that as a challenge. She would train with her friends and her team. Seraph agreed that Tethys was going down next time.
As the boat left and they waved goodbye, it hit her that she would be back in Johto. She pulled her phone out.
“I will visit in 4 months,” Gloria texted.
“See you then,” was Lyra’s response.
She showed this to her friends and they smiled. 4 months later, they packed their bags and traveled to Johto for 2 weeks. It would be great.