[Yandere Meowscarada x Reader] I'll Make Them All Disappear!

63 | Last Flicker of Life

"Go figure," said Avery, and tilted up her head to look at you. "You're really the real deal." She was holding onto your badge case, the fresh one you copped from a flashy store down in Levincia City. It was peppered in green glitter and golden trim you believed better suited for a feline companion of yours rather than a young man with little to no interest in shiny, girly things. You bought it anyway (anything to make Meowscarada happy) and each time you cracked that thing open and both the badges within and the decorations outside sparkled like jewels, Meowscarada was over the moon.

Avery poked a finger at each gym badge laid within the conveniently-shaped molds; four total. Four compared to her one. She'd won it through real hard work and only the help of her Vaporeon, but the road stopped when she went for the second badge. No matter the number of rematches she proposed to Larry, every subsequent battle ended in a referee calling to the audience, which had grown thinner and thinner with every one of her attempts, that Vaporeon was unable to battle. Having a second or, if she wanted to be bold, third teammate would have done wonders, but Avery was trying to be a lot like you, her only peer capable of trashing four gym leaders in a row with only one Pokémon. She quickly learned she wasn't capable of such feats; Vappy wasn't as much of a powerhouse as crackhead Meowscarada, she herself wasn't as skilled in assuming her role as the commander in battle. As she looked from shiny gym badge to gym badge, she realized her face must look a little jealous.

"You're not taking trainer shortcuts, are you?" she asked in somewhat of a part-playing, mostly-snappy voice.

"Trainer shortcuts aren't a thing," you said. "It's either you're a good trainer or you're not. Win or you lose." Win or you lose, you were just reciting what you'd heard from the last gym leader you challenged, Brassius. A trip to a quaint town teeming with flowers and the freshest aromas in all of Paldea became a delighted lesson for you. Win or you lose, battling is an art form both ways, and I've lost fair and square against you; I'll take this time to ruminate and pour my loss into a splash of creativity on the canvas.

That he did, damn good at his job, creating abstract portraits of Pokémon only vaguely distinguishable from their real-life selves. If there wasn't a canvas filled to the brim with a piece of art worth well over a fortune, there was a sculpture worth double the fortune sitting in the corner of the room. You supposed he was already plenty well off but liked to imagine how much more well off he'd be if he sold some of that big stuff.

"You know, I really do envy you. You and your crazy cat," Avery said and took her eyes off the gym badges. She went to kick her feet up on the coffee table from the couch and accidentally managed to smack her open water bottle off. "Shoot!"

Not the new carpet, you wanted to say, but found no need when a thick vine shot out from around the couch and grasped the falling bottle. With little effort the vine propped the bottle back up on the coffee table. The little bit of water that had splashed past the rim was caught in a small blanket of grass, sucked up like a sponge.

"Crazy cat," you echoed Avery's words as Meowscarada came sauntering out from behind the couch. "Speak of the devil." Everyone knew a cat's reflexes were second to none, and you'd seen that firsthand when watching Meowscarada take short falls from the couch or high up on the fridge (yes, she could actually make the jump, unlike most normal cats). Meowscarada's reflexes were something else. Sometimes it made you wonder if she was a psychic-type, rather than a dark, and if she always had tricks right up her fur sleeves (or little telepathic eyeballs hidden around the house).

"Caught it like it was nothin'," said Avery, her jealousy from before simmering down into amusement. "Bet I could jump from a building and be perfectly fine with her catching me."

You shot her a look. "What an odd thing to say."

"What?" Avery rolled her eyes, and you had gotten the faintest cringe on your face just from how nonchalant she was being. "How's it odd? It's just a building..."