Work Text:
(1)
“So – wait. How much on groceries again?”
“It was 400P, I remember.”
“Oh, yes. Thanks, Sierra. Then we spent 550P on adventuring supplies...”
It was faint over the thundering of the rain outside, but Vix could barely make out the voices through the door. She listened a little longer, waiting for something interesting to come up. But the words blended into one another, numbers and terms she couldn't even really understand...
Vix pulled her ear away from the door with a soft sigh. Then plonked her butt on the ground with a louder, more dramatic one.
“Sorry, Vix!” she heard a voice through the door. “We've put this off long enough already!”
“But-” she started saying, then decided to grumble instead. As loud as she could.
“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-”
“We'll make it up to you later!” came the response, completely missing the point. Vix was bored now ! And with the TV programs being so boring, the rain being so fierce outside, and then Kegan being too responsible to hand a 9-year-old a mission even if she managed to get that far-
Vix slumped onto the couch, sulking. This, she decided, was a boring day.
Yet behind her, the door creaked open. Her saviour? Surely, Eve or Sierra or Slink would come out and she would have something to do. Her ears perked up hopefully, reluctantly.
Then the door shut again, muffling the torturous sounds of accounting. And a few seconds later, an Absol slumped onto the cushions beside her. Shiny, unlike her father.
“Oh, it's you.” Vix didn't bother hiding the disappointment in her voice. Her relationship with the Absol was new enough that she didn't know her, and old enough that it had lost its novelty. Boring, in a word, like the rest of the day.
“Yeah,” Abigail replied. “Do you want me to... not be here?”
Tired Vix might've said yes. Cranky Vix, likewise. But Vix was tired and cranky and also bored.
Thus, after a moment, with all the hesitation in the world-
“...No,” she half-sulked. “There's nothing to do.”
“Yeah. I thought I could help my dad with planning...” The look of pain on Abigail's face finished the sentence well enough.
A minute of silence passed in solidarity, though it was the wretched solidarity of two sad sacks moping to the miserable sound of fiscal responsibility.
Then Abigail broke the silence. “Have you heard of chess?”
And for the first time that day, there was light.
(2)
...Vix was bored again.
It wasn't her fault the world was so boring. There was nothing good on the TV and the adults were all out on errands. Chess had been fun until she figured out Abigail was going soft on her and demanded she use all her strength.
Then the Absol demolished her 5 games in a row and Vix lost interest.
Vix sat there, thinking about what she could be doing instead of thinking, and what she was not doing instead of thinking. But surely something had to be done, and-
“Abby?” Vix called out.
“Yeah?”
“I'm hungry.”
“There's some fruit in the fridge.”
“No,” the Vulpix shook her head insistently. “I'm hungry for food outside.”
“That's our alibi?”
“Yes. And also I'm actually hungry.”
“Let me get the money pouch...”
The outside invigorated Vix, fresh air and hot sun soothing her senses. Perhaps the journey should've ended after the two Pokemon had scarfed down a piping hot pastry each. But they were in the market district, the birthplace of exciting and interesting things.
Vix practically dragged Abigail into its depths – not that the Absol needed any convincing. Within the minute Vix was dashing from store to store, window-shopping, no, window-raiding as Abby chased behind.
“Ooooh, shiny!”
“They're from the Air Continent, little ladies, mined from the mountains of – hey, whereareyougoing-”
“Sorry, gotta go!”
“That's a big blanket!”
“Made it myself! Used my own wool too-”
“It's very beautiful but we don't need one!”
“...Books.”
“Sure are. Feel free to look around-”
“We'll – Ack, she's running already. I'll come back when I have the money!”
“Hi Mrs. Kangaskan!”
“What are you two scamps doing here, looking at Dungeon-exploring supplies?”
“Oh! We're, uh. Here to ask if there's anything new.”
“Funny, that. Slink stopped by to do that just a few minutes ago.”
“Uh...”
“But I'm sure you can catch up if you hurry.”
“Thanks Mrs. Kangaskan! Bye Mrs. Kangaskan!”
When the Fennekin nudged open the door to the apartment, all he saw were two children laid out on the floor, panting into the air.
“...What did you do,” Slink half-asked, sighing.
“Just went – huff – just went out for a bit,” Abby replied.
“I can... see that. Let me guess, you were hungry?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, what are you, a cop?” Vix glared as best as she could with a cheek against the floor.
“No,” Slink sighed. “Just, you know, worried about your wellbeing .”
Vix turned her gaze towards Slink and he met it steadily. Tiredly.
She looked away first. “...Lame.”
Silence from Vix and Slink, as Abby shuffled her paws around.
“...Now that I think about it, there are a few things I bought that need some field testing,” the Fennekin brought up almost nonchalantly.
Two sets of ears perked up. Two sets of eyes slowly swivelled towards the Fennekin, towards the hint of a grin lining his snout.
“Now, we will have to wait for Eve and Sierra to get back-”
“Dibs on the first try!”
“I want dibs on the second.”
“Kids,” Slink snorted, rolling his eyes. “I guess Eve and Sierra will have to settle for fourth and fifth.”
(3)
“Pawn to e4,” Vix said, furrowing her brows.
“Pawn e5,” came Abby's confident answer.
Vix brushed her tails against the ground, concentrating. It wasn't a particularly tricky board, but just a few more moves in...
“Why do you start with the same move every time?” she asked.
“It's a good move. I like it.”
The Vulpix pouted, though she knew it would change nothing. “...Knight to f3.”
She could feel the defeat looming over her already. So Vix puffed up her chest, deploying her greatest gambit.
“You know, Abby,” she groused, in her best impression of a wise old sage. “If you do the same thing over and over, you will never get the chance to improve.”
“...I can try something different,” Abby said, and Vix's ears perked up at the sound of a long-awaited opportunity. Her metaphorical haunches raised, ready to propel her into her metaphorical prey.
She watched as the metaphorical brick wall hit her snout, before guiltily smiling and metaphorically collapsing onto her head.
“Good game,” the Absol offered when the dust settled.
“No it wasn't,” the Vulpix pouted in response.
They sat for a moment, staring at the board. Thinking of how they could've done better.
“...Want to try again?”
“Oh, you bet! I'll get you this time, I swear!”
(4)
It was a pleasant day, lounging on a bed as the world passed by. Two Pokemon staring at the ceiling, white as the clouds beyond.
“Have you thought about what comes after?”
Vix paused, raising her head from the soft comfort of her bed. She considered it.
“After what?”
“After all of...” Abby waved her paws in the air above them, as if trying to encapsulate the whole of their lives.
“After all of this,” she settled on saying, “After Team Hatred, after the Dreamstone, after we've explored every Dungeon we can find.”
Vix took a moment. Not to think of her answer, no – but to think of why the question needed to be asked at all.
“Then we find new Dungeons and explore even more!”
“But,” Abby said, “there has to be something else, right? If we just keep on exploring and exploring....”
“You think we'll get bored?”
“Eventually.”
It was a hard concept for Vix to think about. Getting bored of... exploring? She knew it could happen with food, with games, with TV shows...
...With Abby?
Vix blinked at the surprise thought. She did get bored of Abby sometimes, she had to admit. But she... didn't want to be.
It was a strange feeling, one she didn't know how to make heads or tails of. And the Abby in question was still waiting expectantly, patiently, for the answer she needed to hear.
“Then,” the Vulpix hurriedly said, a stream of words flowing from her mouth. “We keep exploring. Again and again. Further and further, until we get to the end of the world! We can keep finding new things to do. And eventually – we'll find something we never get bored of.”
“...Do you think something like that actually exists?”
"Why not? There's so much we haven't explored! Like... new TV shows! Or new games! Or new Mystery Dungeons across the sea!”
And so the day kept passing by; with two Pokemon lounging on their bed together, a slice of the world tiny as the distant stars. Staring into a too-short ceiling, and dreaming of limitless skies.
(5)
There they were, Absol and Vulpix. Leaping over a trickling stream.
Dancing within the flowers, shining bright as a sunbeam.
The snow was past, the world alive, a new year brought to light.
Running and playing and laughing as a brand new year took flight.