The Ereri Project (#2)

Forgiveness (Pokémon)

It was a long few months of arguing, but the courts ended up on the side of the trainers in the end.

The Activists who participated in the evaluations had to pay for whatever damages they caused (a couple of them broke some of Hanji's equipment at her lab and Eren eventually had to Marowak to get checked out because of how scared she was, so physical and mental damage) and the case was closed.

Life moved on.

When trainers started coming up through the League again and Eren had to battle them to defend his champion title, he benched Marowak for a while.

He didn't want to take a chance of her panicking so he left her at Levi's farm to help out as she's become fond of doing lately.

Eren comes home from one of those battles on a bit of an adrenaline high. "You should've seen it, Levi!" he says excitedly. "That kid almost gave me a run for my money."

Levi snorts. "Doesn't seem that difficult to do that."

"That's cause you're better at this than I am, usually."

"Duh," Levi says and walks over to kiss Eren. "Welcome back."

Eren grins and lets his Pokémon back out of their balls. "What's for dinner?" he asks.

Levi shrugs. "No idea."

"Hm," Eren hums as Sylveon jumps up on his shoulder. "What do you think we should have, Vee?"

She mews and shrugs. "Helpful," Levi mutters.

"If I go take a shower will you start cooking before I'm done?"

Levi shrugs, looking through the refrigerator. "Probably not."

"Order something then, I'm starving."

"Yeah sure," Levi mutters, looking for the phone.

Sylveon goes to eat her own dinner while Eren goes to take a shower and Levi orders pizza.

By the time Eren's out and dressed, there's a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" he calls, still drying his hair but already in the living room.

On the other side is not the pizza deliverer, however, it the girl from the festival. "Yes?" Eren asks hesitantly.

"I'd rather not be here," she mutters, not meeting his eyes. "But I came to apologize for what I said to you at the festival."

Eren smiles. "Oh, that? That's no big deal."

Her eyebrows furrow. "But I was so horrible and–"

"Doesn't matter, already forgiven you for it."

"Okay," she says, looking down at her feet with no intention of walking away.

"Was there something else you wanted?"

She glances back up at Eren but for the most part keeps her eyes trained on her feet.

"I realized I had it wrong about trainers," she says. "My dad kept telling me you're all cruel and evil but he was wrong and I know that now."

"I already told you I forg–"

"I wanted to ask you if you could teach me how to be a Pokémon Master!"

Eren is taken aback. "Seriously?"

She nods quickly. "I wanna know what it's like to bond with Pokémon like trainers do."

Eren sizes her up with his eyes. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," she replies in a mumble.

Eren nods. "I was about your age when I started training seriously," he says. "Alright, come back tomorrow and I'll look into getting you your first Pokémon."

She looks back up at him with teary eyes. "Really?!"

"Sure, why not?"

She grins and hugs him. "Thank you so much!"

Eren smiles. "I just need one thing first."

She ends the hug and looks up at him. "What?"

"Your name."

She smiles and holds out her hand. "Petra Ral," she says. "I'm going by my mom's last name now."

Eren shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Petra."