wishes

secrecy

"braixen, what're you reading?"

a voice made braixens heart drop, she looked up nervously.

it was mudkip.

she met his accusing stare, with a wide-eyed glance. she shifted uncomfortably.

"oh .. mudkip. why're you here so early?" she asked, trying to buy some time for her to think up an excuse.

"answer my question first. what are you reading." he demanded.

braixen sighed, breezy and trying to play her fear off. "oh, it's just a letter from my mom for when i get back. to do the dishes." she said, nodding.

mudkip squinted at her, obviously skeptical. though he didn't push her. "i'm here early because i had lost something here. i was going to retrieve it, it was chespins."

her gut twisted, was he referencing the letter? mudkip wouldn't be stupid enough to leave evidence laying around, right? 

"ohh .. well, i'll keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary." she nodded, wary.

she looked off behind mudkip, spotting bulbasaur along with tepig and cyndaquil. they walked into the park, waving to the two of them.

"wow, mudkips here before us? that's a surprise, he's always the latest." cyndaquil remarked, chuckling. "maybe he'll do something other than yell at us today." he joked.

mudkip shot him a glare, and cyndaquils smile dropped. tepig and bulbasaur exchanged a glance, a worried one.

yesterdays argument had probably been the worst one in a while, and by the looks on everyones faces, they hadn't really gotten over it. cyndaquil was noticeably trying to lighten the mood, though was pretty harshly failing.

braixen stood, and shot a look at cyndaquil as a way of telling him 'i have something to show you later', and cyndaquil stared back. 

"well , i printed out some more of the posters! i think if we keep this up, we'll spread the message pretty far and someone from farther away might fi--" bulbasaur was cut off

"there's no point. we've been putting up posters for like . . four days now." mudkip retorted, with a sharp sigh. "we need to do something different, or nothing will happen.

braixen stared at mudkip, a knowing glance flashed in her eyes. 

"what do you suggest then, smart guy?" cyndaquil said, challenging mudkip.

mudkip huffed, "i was going to suggest searching the woods, if he did end up running away, that would be our main source of evidence."

braixen thought. the woods? why was he trying to direct the group into the woods? all this was too suspicious for her . . but she didn't say anything about it.

tepig and bulbasaur nodded along, likely because they were just desperate to find chespin. cyndaquil seemed hesitant about it, but it added up to an extent in his head. braixen nodded, going along with the rest of the group.

"okay, so . . i guess we'll do that." bulbasaur shrugged, and headed toward the forest following mudkip.

braixen hung back, signalling for cyndaquil to talk to her. he stopped in his tracks, and walked over to her.

"look . . i found this." she showed cyndaquil the note, and his eyes grew wide.

"are you implying that mudkip might have a part to play in this ..?" he asked, seeming to be thinking about the possibility.

"yes . . just .. let's be a bit careful about what we do from now on around him, okay?" she said, nervously.

cyndaquil nodded, and followed the rest into the forest.

braixen hesitated a bit, before following herself.