How we meet

Chapter 6

You left the company of the stranger. Yet again you never learned their name. The man with the green hair, who you had now met three times. Even after running into them that many times you only talked once. Neither of you recognized each other from your other encounters. You'd only ever talked once.
Yet you found yourself leaving the strange interaction relaxed and calm. It was nice you thought; having someone make food for you. It was a small thing but it made you unusually happy. After all those years of fending for yourself, doing everything on your own. It was nice to take a break from even the most basic skills of life.
You walked back into the city. The man you met the other day... Bur? Bern? Burgh, that was his name, so you thought it was. Frankly, you sucked at remembering names and faces.
You and your venipede, uh, was it wrong to call him "yours?" He was a wild pokemon, you didn't have a Pokeball for him. You thought about it, as you walked. He was a friend. A buddy, most trainers thought of their pokemon as friends. So did it make sense for you to call a pokemon yours when you didn't train them; when you weren't a trainer? You shook your head, it was a stupid thing to think about. You had him by your side and you were by his, that's all that mattered.
You thought about whatever else came to mind as you walked into the city. It was early, the sky was still slightly purple. The streets in the city only got busier as you walked. Fancy cars, taxis, and busses flooded the streets soon enough. However, you and many others walked across the crowded sidewalk.
Cash wasn't something you had much of. That camera of yours wasn't the wisest purchase you had made. You didn't want to use a bus or the subway. It'd only be a waste in your mind. Why pay when you can walk, it's not like you need to be anywhere in a hurry.
You stopped and bought a few cheap snacks and a drink at a nearby convenience store. Something to eat later, and something so you didn't collapse from dehydration with the new summer heat. Leaving late spring was smart. Constant food in the woods, not too hot to walk, and not that many mosquitoes and nats were around yet.
You'd see what this man wanted before you set out to find a place to work. A fast food place would be fine. You could work a few weeks and quit whenever. They were always hiring, anyone would quit with all the yelling and overworking they had to deal with.
Before you knew it you were walking through sliding glass doors. It was modern inside, slick, clean, whites and grays. Tiled floors, all the things that didn't matter to you. A large black desk that had a lady sitting behind it.
"Welcome to the Castelia Gym, how can I help you today?" she smiled, speaking in an overly sweet voice.
"Uh," you stumbled into a wall of words. What was his name? Where was he? I'm in the right place, right? "I was asked to come here." Oh no. Oh no, I don't know what to say. "His name was... Uh..." Oh, fuck, Oh, fuck.
This lady was looking at you. She tilted her head slightly to the left. "His name?" she asked, her eyebrow raised.
"I think it was Bur? Burgh?" you were frazzled. Nothing in your head made any sense. The name had to have started with B, right?
"Burgh asked for you?" she spoke to herself looking over at something. It was behind the desk where you couldn't see. A note perhaps?
"I.." you mumbled, "I can leave?" you asked more to yourself. You know what he had said. You knew he wanted you to come here. It all just felt like you had just fallen victim to some prank once again.
"Right, Burgh mentioned a possible visitor." She picked up a note and handed it to you. "Down the hall, second right." she pointed across the room.
You nodded frantically to yourself, thanking the woman.
Stupid, stupid, overreacting. Awful, loser. Idiot. You yelled at yourself.
You walked through the hall, the walls were glass. Looking out you could see flowers and ponds. Bug-type pokemon rested in the sun. Each greenhouse that you passed was beautifully put together. You awed at the different types of fauna. You had to force yourself to look away and keep walking.
Venipede stayed on your shoulder as you walked. It observed everything just like you did. He looked around just like you, but never looked at the greenhouses more than a few seconds at a time. As you looked at the plants, Venipede looked down the hall.
So when you took the second right, and opened the door of the most magnificent greenhouse you'd ever seen; you teared up. Venipede looked around and watched everything else. You reached out looking at a plant. You looked closely, at the leaves and stem, before gently tugging off a few leaves and shoving them into your mouth. That caused Venipede to scream.
The small bug type panicked and its loud shrill cry echoed across the greenhouse. You tried calming it down but it only used its small feet to hit you, attempting to get you to spit out the unknown plant.
"What's with all the screaming?" The strange man from the other day spoke.
"I just ate some kale," you answered panicked. You held venipede in your hands as it instantly relaxed. The screaming and fighting stopped in a second. You could have sworn you saw Venipede sigh.