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“Dory turn the music down already!” Nia groaned, laying on her bunk over Dory’s, able to hear Dory playing NidoQueen songs out loud.
“It helps me think”, Dory retorted from the lower bunk. A sick Toxel sat on the end of her bed, Dory’s Galarian Zigzagoon, Mercury, was trying his best to avoid catching its cold when the Toxel sneezed on one of Dory’s notepads. She’d groan, “Lacey! that Toxel you brought in keeps gettin’ poisonous snot all over my songwritin’ books!”.
Lacey was sitting on his bed that was right between the wall and the bunk bed Nia and Dory shared. He was bandaging a hurt Falinks, one of several pokemon that he brought home to nurse back to health. Lacey had his mother’s white skin and pink hair, but his father’s green eyes, he puffed his cheeks and said, “It’s not my fault he thinks your bed is comfortable!”.
“What does that have to do with my notebooks!”.
Nia groaned, “Can you two talk about this in the morning, or after Dory turns the music down?”.
“I can’t write in the middle of the day when all my friends are awake and I can talk to them!”.
“We’re awake!”, both her siblings shouted and the trio broke into an argument that Peony and Stephanie could hear from their room.
Stephanie groggily got out of bed and went to the kid’s small room. She took a deep breath before entering and saying in a strict voice, “Kids!”.
The siblings all stopped and looked at their mom who had her pink hair down and wearing her nightshirt. They all knew she was annoyed, they looked down and said in unison, “Sorry mum”.
“It’s alright, now Dory”, Stephanie looked at her first daughter and she looked back, “Headphones were invented for a reason”.
“But I do better with the sound playin’ out loud”, Dory pleaded
“It’s night Dory”, she countered, “now say sorry to your sister”.
Dory sighed, “Sorry Nia”.
Stephanie then turned her gaze to her youngest child, she felt she couldn’t be too mad since Lacey just wanted to help some pokemon. She sighed, “Please try to keep Toxel on your bed and be sure to give him plenty of tissues”.
“Yes mum”, he got out of bed and was able to quickly move the sick Toxel to his bed since the room was small.
“Okay, good night lovelies”, she said sweetly while she stepped out of the room.
“Night mum”, her children said in unison before each going back to what they were doing. Stephanie sympathetically looked at the room, knowing from the moment her husband built a bunk bed, that squabbles would become common.
She went back to her bedroom, Peony smiled as she came in, “Looks like things are good now”.
She giggled as she got beside him in bed, “For now”, she said, “They’ll probably fight again, it’s inevitable in a room that small, good night love”. She kissed Peony’s cheek and turned her light off, but Peony didn’t go back to bed.
He reached over his wife to turn on her lamp, “Hun”, he said in a soft tone with a sympathetic look on his face, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something…”.
Stephanie got a little worried and sat up in bed, “What is it?”.
“Well… maybe it’s time we… move out of this apartment…”, he spoke carefully. When they married and were expecting Lacey, she fought hard to convince Peony to move from his home in Motostoke to her home.
“We are not leaving Spikemuth, love”, she said in a stern voice, “you know how much me and Dory love this town”.
“I never implied that… it’s just, well you just saw first hand why we need a bigger place, Dory has her music out loud, Nia needs silence for her studies, and who knows when Lacey will bring a wailord into the house”.
Stephanie gave a soft giggle, “he’d definitely bring in a wailord… but I don’t know if I can move out of this place…”, she said. Her face contorted into a frown as she continued, “Dory’s lived here all her life… I’ve been so used to this place for years… me and Artie used to live here together…”. The second Peony heard the name of Stephanie’s late husband, he put a comforting arm around her, giving a light hug so she knew he was open to listening to her. “We saved up so we could live here after college…”, she began to tear up and he hugged her tighter. She hugged his arm as she got a weak laugh from a memory, “You know… we built Dory’s crib together”.
Peony smiled with her, “Really?”, he asked, hoping the good memory will help her.
“Yeah… he was never much of a builder… but he insisted that he built her crib… and then asked me for help”, she laughed softly before looking around the room. She remembered her first night with Artie, they were confident for their future, they were expecting several kids like other members of the Joy Family, he suggested they look at some other places sometime. Stephanie wiped a tear and sighed, Peony listened, figuring she wouldn’t go for it, she smiled again, “Maybe tomorrow, we can start looking at new apartments in Spikemuth”.
He smiled back, “Sure”.
They kissed, but were quickly interrupted by shouts from the other room, Nia shouted, “Do I get the biggest room then!”.
She was then followed by Lacey who shouted, “I’m taking care of pokemon! I deserve the biggest room”, the two started an argument, making their parents laugh and Peony went to take care of the fight this time.
Next Saturday, the family all went to look at an available apartment in Spikemuth. With them were some of their Pokémon, mostly the ones who spent the most time out of their poke balls around the house, meaning they had to have some say in this move.
The building was on a corner and right outside the Spikemuth field, Dory had seen the building several times before, but only the exterior. As they entered, they were greeted with a small wall to the left of them leading to the main room, it was empty and had 3 windows along the wall, and a series of four doors along the wall adjacent to the entrance. The main living room didn’t have any furniture, but like their old home, the living room and kitchen were all in one room, one major difference being that the bathroom was accessed through a door in the kitchen.
The family split up as they looked around the apartment. Lacey looked at the new bathroom, it had a bathtub instead of a standing shower like their current home, he was already planning to use it to keep hurt warlords.
Nia and Runt looked into three of the four doors, each one was a room about the size of her current bedroom, and each of them had a window. But one of them was on the corner meaning it had two windows, one looking towards the field as the rest, and a second one looking out at the street. Runt seemed to prefer one of the two rooms with one window. Despite Nia usually trusting her beloved Tyrunt, she muttered in the room with two windows: “This one’s mine”.
Peony and Stephanie went into the fourth room that was a little larger and had two windows, clearly a master bedroom. Peony’s Purrserker, “Bygul”, immediately began softly nuzzling the walls of the room to see what they were like to scratch, and he liked it. Stephanie’s Indeedee Lares had to carry Kurt so she didn’t give in to her natural Minccino urges and start sweeping a house they didn’t even own yet.
But then there was Dory, who didn’t seem as excited about the new place. Mercury seemed happy that he could have his own corner again, Pink, her Sylveon, was sad to see a lack of a closet where she could watch anime, and Lucy, her Helioptile, was just happy there were windows she could get sunlight from. Dory shyly walked around, her hood up as she went around, looking oddly at the potential new home.
Peony, Nia, and Lacey seemed excited about the house, they all talked and gushed about how they’d decorate their new rooms and the rest of the home. But Stephanie and Dory were quieter, walking behind them, Stephanie held her own hands while Dory had her hands in her hoodie pocket. Stephanie shyly asked, “So Dory, how did you like the place?”.
“I-it’s nice”, Dory responded.
Stephanie smiled at her, knowing Dory would have a tough time with the move, “Can you see yourself living there?”. Dory just shrugged and Stephanie sighed.
Dory was quiet all weekend, the family decided to give her some time. When Monday morning came around, she walked with Marnie to school, she wore her hoodie over her uniform as she usually did, but she still wore her hood up. Her girlfriend could easily tell something was wrong, she asked, “Is somethin’ wrong love?”.
“I’m fine love”, Dory gave a half-smile. Marnie stepped closer to Dory, putting an arm around her waist, this got Dory a little red, she already knew Marnie was trying to cheer her up. Marnie then pushed one end of her mouth up to make it look like she was giving a big smile, this was enough to get Dory flushed, she started shyly giggling and smiling, “Love~” she cooed.
Marnie gave her a more natural small smile which just got Dory redder, “So what’s wrong love? It’ll help to talk”.
Dory sighed, she was about to go quiet again, but Marnie just kept her comforting smile, “My family is thinkin’ of movin’ out of our old apartment”.
Marnie got worried, “O-out of Spikemuth?”.
Dory put an arm around her when she saw Marnie get worried, “Don’t worry, we may have found a place in Spikemuth but…”, she looked down.
Marnie could read her and hugged her tight, “you can talk it out, love” she said.
“I-… I don’t know, I lived in that apartment all my life… i-i have so many good memories there… the times you and Bea came over… a lot of my song writin’… some of the cheers I wrote for you” she came close to getting more emotional.
Marnie smiled, “We did sleep over a lot… and I do like your songs and cheers”, Dory started twirling her hair. “But you can write songs anywhere”.
“Y-yeah I guess…”, Dory said.
“And you won’t suddenly forget all those memories when you leave…”.
“I-I guess”, Dory repeated before Marnie held her hand.
“And you still have me and Bea to remind you”.
Dory smiled at her, “Yeah… I guess you’re right…, thanks Love”. Dory smiled and kissed Marnie’s forehead as a show of thanks.
Marnie smiled and intertwined their fingers, “You’re welcome love, now let’s hurry before the train leaves”.
Dory started laughing as she looked around and noticed they passed the station while they talked. “Sorry! I was completely lost in the moment”, the lovers laughed as they quickly began rushing to the train to meet with Bea.
The family thankfully had both Stephanie’s Nursing, Lacey’s Allowance (even if it came from Stephanie’s nursing), and Peony’s part-time job as a coach and occasionally endorsing products, and were able to buy the new home. They sold the old apartment and started the moving process, it wasn’t too far so they just had to carry everything over. They made a plan on Saturday to pack their things and move everything to the new apartment.
After breakfast that morning, everyone got to work. Dory invited Marnie, Piers, and Bea to help out. Marnie helped Dory, Nia, and Lacey pack their things, while Piers was helping Stephanie pack. While Stephanie was moving shoe boxes from under her bed, she found one box that meant the most to her, she carefully opened it to look over the contents. Inside were various pictures of her with Artie, Dory’s ultrasound, Artie’s folded up, still stained, Lab coat, and his glasses.
Piers finished putting her clothes away and noticed where she was. She was carefully picking up each item and examining it. He put a hand on her shoulder and asked, “How’re you holdin’ up?”.
She sighed and looked at a picture of her and Artie when they finished moving everything in. They were sitting on the couch, Stephanie had an arm around Artie while he was cleaning his glasses, she wiped her eyes a little and gave Piers a weak smile, “I-I’ll be fine…”.
Piers gave her a small smile to encourage her, “Your stuff is all packed, I’m going get to Peony’s now”,
“Thanks for the help Piers”, she said.
While Piers helped Stephanie, Peony was in the kid’s room deconstructing the beds. Dory was in the living room with her siblings as they finished packing, when she heard a knock and answered to Bea wearing a white sweater, “Hey Dory”, she said.
“Hey, Bea! Nice sweater”, Dory responded as Bea entered.
“Thanks, Melony got it for me, said it would be chilly today”, as Bea entered, she only needed one look at Nia for his face to get all red.
Nia looked at her and said nonchalantly, “Hey Bea”.
“H-hi Nia, y-you look good today”, Bea said while Dory had to push her to the room.
“You too”, Nia said before Dory closed the door.
While Bea was fanning herself, Dory teased, “I still don’t get what you see in her”.
Before she could say anything, Peony joked, “Come on, don’t say that about your sister Dory”.
Bea fixed her hair a bit, “W-what do you need me to do Mr. Rose”.
“You can call me Peony Bea, and I just need help getting all these bed parts to the new place”.
“Alright Mr. Rose”, she said before picking up some of the wooden boards. Their combined efforts made the job pretty fast, moving everything within an hour before moving the couch over with the help of Piers. Soon enough, the whole house was empty, Peony, Nia, and Lacey were already bringing their personal belongings to the new apartment.
Dory went into her old room one last time, she set her bag down at the door, her pokemon were all headed to the new place already. She opened the now emptied closet where Pink once slept and spent most of her time in. Her hand grazed the windowsill where her helioptile, Lucy, basked in the sunlight every morning, she looked at the corner Mercury scratched up, the scratches had to be painted over to make the room more appealing.
Her Mum checked on her, softly knocking on the door one last time. Dory looked over as she said, “Come on love…”.
“O-okay Mum…”, Dory said, stepping towards the door, but stopping to look around again. Stephanie sighed and hugged her daughter, they both began to tear up, hugging each other tightly. “I-I’ll miss this place, mum….”.
Stephanie held tighter, “I know love… I will too, but it’s... just house love…”, Stephanie was just speaking off the top of her head, both she and Dory stepped back and looked at each other. Stephanie looked around and continued, “This is just bricks and mortar… we don’t remember the bricks, we remember the people… I remember Artie and I together…”.
Stephanie was close to crying again as Dory hugged her tight again, “I remember Bea… and Marnie… and you….” She said, smiling up at her mother.
Stephanie smiled and held Dory’s hand, “Ready to go then?”. Dory nodded and they both left the room.
When they arrived outside the building, Peony, Bea, Marnie, and Piers were talking about league stuff, Nia was on her phone, and Lacey was giving all their pokemon a check-up. Peony smiled as he saw Dory and Stephanie come over, the family all grabbed their things and everyone made their way up to the new home.
Peony, Bea, and Piers all got to constructing some beds and moving in the couches and tables, Peony even put up some shelves. Once the beds were set up, Stephanie, Lacey, Dory, and Nia went to their respective rooms to set their stuff up.
Nia’s corner room was the last to have a bed installed. On her and Runt’s way to it, she saw Dory, her pokemon, Marnie in Dory’s new room, Mercury was rolling around his new corner, Pink was under a laundry basket, and Lucy was laying on the window sill. Dory and Marnie were setting up some of Dory’s stuff, they took time as Dory paused to fondly reminisce about certain items. Nia looked down at her Runt who gave her a little nod. She stepped into the room, sighing before she said, “Hey Dors…”.
The two girls looked up at her, Dory responded “Yeah?”.
“Ya know… I think Runt prefers this room… think we can switch?”
Dory smiled, “Sure thing! I’ll tell dad the closet goes in the other room!”. Dory and Marnie happily packed what little they took out again.
“Cool, think Bea can build a shelf or two here?”
“She’d love to”, Marnie said before helping Dory move her things.
Stephanie was finishing up her room when she stepped outside, Peony hung something up and Stephanie got close to try seeing it. He noticed and turned towards her, hiding what he put, he said “Hey, so I figured I’d do something special for us…”.
“Okay…”, Stephanie said curiously as she tried to see it, but Peony went in front of her again.
“B-but if you don’t like it, I will take it down”, he said nervously.
“Let me see Hun…”.
“A-alright”, he stepped aside to show he put up two pictures. One of them was him with his late wife Victoria, the other was the picture Stephanie took with Artie on their first day in the old home. She looked at the picture, stepping closer to it, “P-Piers gave me a picture from your box…” Peony explained, waiting for a response, but Stephanie remained silent. “I-I can take it-“
“I love it…”, Stephanie interrupted, smiling with tears forming in her eyes. She hugged Peony tight and he smiled, hugging her back. They soon finished work for the day, pictures were hung up, shelves installed, couches, tables, and chairs moved in, and Kurt cleaned the home by fulfilling her natural duty.
The bedrooms only had the beds and some shelves installed so far, about a third of the kid’s personal items were out of their boxes, but there was still work to be done. Marnie and Dory finished setting up Dory’s bed with blankets and plush toys, Piers called from the main room, “Hey Sis, we’re headed home!”.
“In a sec bro!” Marnie called back as she got up. She turned to Dory and smiled, “What do you think of the new place?”.
“I-it’s nice…”, Dory said, sitting on her new bed, “But this will take time to get used to…”.
“I can only imagine…”, she became a little red and started fidgeting with her choker, “B-but umm… I-I think you deserve a nice memory for the new place”, she bent down and gave Dory a peck on the lips.
Dory blushed and giggled, “We’ve kissed before love”.
“I-I know… b-but it’s our first kiss here”.
“I guess, thanks love”, Dory smiled and hugged Marnie before she left.
The family had their first dinner together in the new home (they heated some bagel bites for everyone, including the pokemon). Everyone went to their rooms, and Stephanie was happy at the lack of fighting that usually happened at this time, she got in bed beside Peony. “I have a good feeling about this place”.
Peony smiled, “Me too, the kids aren’t fighting, they can decorate however they want, we have space to decorate too, maybe I can let Molly wander around here”.
Stephanie giggled as she turned her lamp off, “It’s still not big enough to fit a Copperajah”.
“I know, but hey, it’s still a good place… night love”.
“Night”, they kissed and went to bed. In a few minutes, there was a knock on the door. They both sat up, Stephanie turned her lamp on and said, “Come in”.
Lacey stepped inside in his Comfey Pajamas, “M-mommy… can I sleep here?”, he asked.
She smiled, “of course Little Healer”, she made space between her and Peony and he rushed in between them. She giggled and asked, “Bring a ghost-type in here?”, he shook his head, “Dark-type?”, he shook his head, “Just feel lonely?”, he nodded and she kissed his forehead, “Good night Little Healer”.
“Night mum”, he said.
From the open door came Dory, in her patterned pajama pants and white tank top, hugging her Hoennian Zigzagoon like he was a stuffed animal. “M-Mum… c-can me and Elton sleep here tonight?”.
Peony smiled at her, “Come on in Dors”, he said as he moved closer to Lacey and Stephanie to give Dory space to join. As Dory went beside him, Nia came in wearing her Amaura nightgown. Stephanie and Peony watched as she tried to think of an excuse to be there, Stephanie just smiled and made space for her to join. Nia puffed her cheeks and said nothing as she went beside Stephanie.
The family was all squeezed in, everyone shared a “Good Night” before sleeping their first night in the new home.