The Present is a Gift

Chapter 13: In Which Old Friends Return

After the encounter with Drowzee, Twig was left grasping at straws to explain why she slammed the door on Darkrai when they were supposed to be heading out to the market. He had run into it face-first, and was understandably (and also terrifyingly) upset by that. She had said that a drowzee passed by who was deathly allergic to nightmares and wanted to play it safe, and apologized for not warning him— she was worried about exposing the drowzee to Darkrai's weird Legend aura nightmare thing and sending the poor guy to a clinic. He seemed understanding at that, but Twig was so terrified by the close call with someone who could have recognized Darkrai that she ended up holing herself up inside for the next few days. Regrettably, the pantry did not stay full, and she had to venture out to the market once more— and Darkrai tagged along as always.

People were used to seeing Darkrai now, and he was able to go about town without raising any alarms like Twig had feared initially. He offered to carry the bag of groceries as Twig shopped for more pantry staples and a few miscellaneous items that had been depleted as well— she'd completely exhausted her store of chesto berries in particular, and she needed more if she wanted to survive her new normal.

She looked over her list once again. "There's a few more things I need to grab— flour and some more persim berries— but once I grab those, we can head back."

Darkrai hummed distractedly.

"What is it?" She cast a wary glance over her shoulder. "Do you need something, too?"

"No." His brow furrowed, and he continued to stare off into the crowd. "Pardon my directness, but... Do you smell something?"

Twig narrowed her eyes and tried to catch whatever scent he was referring to. Sure enough, something powerful was wafting through the air, enough to make numerous market-goers hold their noses or vacate entirely. She frowned. "Ew. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Ugh, it smells like..."

"If it ain't the reigning wimp herself!" Hollered a familiar voice.

Oh, great.

Koffing, Zubat, and Skuntank stormed through the crowd, giving little attention to maintaining a polite distance from the pokemon doing their shopping and completely disregarding the idea that you shouldn't shout from across the street to someone who didn't want to see your face ever again. Skuntank laughed heartily as he approached, Zubat and Koffing snickering and chortling shortly behind him.

"It's been ages, kid!" Koffing said. "You still look scrawny as ever!"

"Gee, thanks," Twig said with a sneer. "I don't want to talk to you guys."

"Aw, c'mon, we're all friends. Why wouldn't you want to talk to us?"

"Huh. I dunno. Maybe because you guys were jerks to me and Kip when we were apprentices?"

"What?" Zubat's ear twitched in surprise. "We were just messing with you two, don't take it so hard."

"I don't need to worry about 'taking it so hard' when we were stuck taking the fall for you guys every time you did something to ruin our day. Do I need to bring up the perfect apple escapade?"

"Perfect apple..." Skuntank's eyes widened in recognition. "Aw yeah! That was great! Wigglytuff really tanned our hides in the end, though. Never did like that guy. He was always a creep."

"Hey, speaking of, who's tall, dark, and freaky over there?"

Twig was instantly reminded of Darkrai's presence as he introduced himself. "I am Ark," he said, voice dripping with icy distaste. "And you are?"

"Team Skull. We haven't been on any jobs in a while, but it still has a nice ring to it, eh?"

Twig's lip curled in disgust. "You need to complete a minimum of three jobs per year to maintain your exploration team's activity status, you know. You guys aren't in the books because you didn't ever go on any expeditions other than that one as apprentices."

"Still a stick in the mud, then, huh?" Skuntank let out a hearty guffaw. "You're the same teacher's pet as always! Makes me wonder why Chatot would get on your case so much."

"Gee, I wonder why."

"Where's the other half of the wimp-o duo? What's his name... Tick? Trick?"

"I think it was Blip, boss."

"Wasn't it Nip?"

Yeah, it made sense that these jerks couldn't remember the name of the guy they'd bullied so thoroughly and terribly that he doubted he could chase his dreams even years down the line. She gritted her teeth. "Kip. He's off on a big archaeological expedition—"

"Without you?!" They all asked in unison.

"... Yes? Why wouldn't he?"

The three broke into uproarious laughter.

"Wow," Koffing wheezed, "He must have finally grown a spine of his own then, if he's not still attached to your hip! Yikes, must be weird to not have the little guy to follow around, huh?"

Twig readied a rebuttal, but the three had turned around and left without another word, cackling all the way. She scowled as she watched them go.

She hated them. She hated them so, so much.

"Who is this Kip I keep hearing about?" Darkrai asked.

"My friend. We used to be in an exploration team together. We were apprentices and partners at Wigglytuff's Guild when those three knuckleheads were even worse than they were just now."

He looked off at where they'd disappeared into the crowd and narrowed his eyes. "I don't care for them."

"Yeah, no joke. Me neither. Ugh, they were the worst. I can't believe they have the guts to show their faces to me and act like they didn't do anything wrong..." She resumed shopping, ranting to Darkrai all the while. "They started off stealing from Kip. He was way younger than them, first of all, and they thought it was funny to shove him over and grab an heirloom from his parents when he dropped it— and then they decided to talk about selling it in front of him when he tried to get it back. Agh, and that's not even to mention when they showed up as apprentices the first time..."

Twig spent the rest of the shopping and trip back home rambling about all of Team Skull's misdeeds and how they always managed to pin the blame on her and her partner. She surprised herself with how long she spoke on the subject— clearly she was still ticked about all the awful stuff they did despite not realizing this— but she was even more surprised by Darkrai's reaction when she apologized for talking his ear off.

"No, no. I'm grateful for it." She glanced back at his awe-inspired tone and was shocked to find him looking oddly touched. "Thank you for confiding in me. It means more than I can say."

"Uh." She blinked. "Yeah. Sure. No problem."

"You've not been so open before now. Not willingly."

She frowned.

"Your trust in me is appreciated."

His words rattled around in her head as they stepped inside her home— she accepted the bag of groceries from him and put them away, wondering all the while if she somehow had said too much by telling him about some childhood bullies.