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Chapter 4: Simple Right?

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Chapter 4

Simple Right?

Lake was already halfway asleep by the time they reached the room. Her head rested against Ingo's shoulder. He placed her down on the bed and ran his finger over her chin. She must have had something there from dinner. She sat there for a moment feeling someone untying her shoes. The light thud they made when they hit the floor next to the door. Followed by two more, she could hear her brothers walking around the room.

She felt something warm touch her cheek. A warm washcloth, her face was being washed. She opened her eyes for a moment and saw Emmet. She gasped as she felt someone pull her jacket off which resulted in her falling back onto the fluffy blanket.

She heard a chuckle as she looked up at Ingo who put her jacket onto a hanger and placed it into the closet along with theirs.

"Apologies." Ingo said as he stretched.

"Lake..." Lake turned slowly to look at Emmet who pulled back her blanket and patted the spot. She looked between one and the other. There was only one bed. She was getting too old to sleep between them now...right? She slowly got up to walk over to the chair, but then there was that moment of panic within her heart. She didn't want to go too far from them. Rather than going to the chair she went out into the bathroom.

Emmet looked up at his brother who looked baffled for a moment.

"She's still not okay, and something tells me it's not about her throat." Ingo told his brother who didn't seem to be happy with that.

Lake walked out of the bathroom running her fingers over her pants. Apparently there were no towels in the bathroom. Emmet looked into the bathroom fully intending on taking a shower, at least they'd be able to. The last shower they had was three nights ago and he was sure he smelled horrible. He ran his fingers over his chin. His five o'clock shadow looked more like a shaggy hobo now.

Ingo had his soul patch, plus whatever scraggly mess the growth had left behind.

"Hey, what would you think if I started to grow in a soul patch of my own?" Emmet asked, looking down at Lake. Lake looked up at him and shook her head. Ingo had voiced having one when he was in Hisui, Lake said he would look good with one. So Ingo grew it back.

Lake looked up at Emmet and shook her head, she crawled across the bed and looked down at him. Her fingers ran over his face. Emmet leaned into the touch with a soft smile. The one he reserved specially for her.

"No soul patch huh? That's just an Ingo thing huh?" Emmet yawned and lay back. "Come on kitten. Let's get some sleep and then figure out just what is going on in this old town." He stretched and curled up under the blankets.

Lake knew those blankets wouldn't stay on him for an hour tops before he threw them off onto the floor.

Lake curled up on the bed and burrowed into the pillow that smelled a lot like lavender. She felt the blanket pulled up to her chin. She yawned and looked up to see Ingo. He got into the large bed on the other side of her. With a kiss to her forehead or cheek she found herself drifting off almost pleasantly. She even felt warm, and comfortable between them.

It happened sometimes with those who had traumatic experiences, or plagued minds. Nightmares do tend to make things uncomfortable.

Lake opened her eyes and looked around hearing an argument. At first she couldn't make out what was being said. But she saw her brothers talking heatedly at one another. Well that never happened, they either agreed about something strongly or they didn't. They never argued about it.

"No, we can't just keep dragging her around with us. We have got to find a place to stow her." Emmet's voice tried its best to stay quiet.

"We can't just throw her away like that without an explanation. It's not like she's a pet." Ingo spat back picking up the pot of coffee and poured a cup.

"Of course she is, you can see it just as well as I can." Pet? Her? How could he think of her that way? She was definitely human.

"What are you getting at?!" Ingo asked, getting dangerously close to his brother with anger in his features.

"You can see it can't you? She's a pokemon."

Lake woke up with a start. She looked around the darkened room. She felt sick, she almost wanted to throw up. She knew it was just a dream, but the words still hit hard.

She felt arms around her, and a light hush from one of her brothers. She turned and buried her face in his chest. She knew it was Emmet, and she still felt like he hated her. Yet her heart craved comfort and he was readily giving it.

She was still too small to wrap her arms all the way around him, it just barely reached halfway. She felt Ingo curl in around them as well. Was she really that loud when having a nightmare? She couldn't answer the question as her eyes slowly began to close on their own.

She fell asleep like that laying against them.