A Couple of Special Kids

Vs. Nature

Azure awakens from the sunlight pouring into the room from her window. Her eyes flicker open. She didn’t remember laying down to rest, but she did remember having a pleasant dream. She sits up for a bit, feeling a bit of weight on her chest. No, it wasn’t guilt or sadness or anything, but she knew the feeling well. It was just a nuisance to her day plans. She would have to pace herself today. Would she be able to? She checked her Pokégear to get her mind off it all.

Several missed text messages from Winter. Oh dear. She could already tell lowering the stress levels for today would be difficult. She reads through to find it wasn’t anything too bad, and a little report on a new friend. Some kid named Jack. Azure didn’t really think much of it. Generic name for a regular kid, right? Her group was always ready for new members. She adds him to the list of child’s names on a list in one of her reminder apps. She sticks the phone in her pocket and then gets ready for her day, going slowly with the movements this time around. She’d have to bring a few troops to check out whirl islands, it seems.

Once ready, she goes out to the cafeteria to meet up with Hayune and Rust. Rust is asleep at the table, and Hayune as awake as ever. There’s a cast on Rust’s arm, mostly stabilizing his wrist. It seemed like Hayune could tell Azure wasn’t doing so well.

“Good morning! Are you feeling okay? You look a little pale…” Hayune said, pressing his hand to her cheek and then her forehead.

“I’ll be fine. All I need is a bit of water… what’s up with him?” Azure asked, brushing Hayune’s hand away from her head and gesturing towards Rust.

“Either the procedures went on until late last night, or his pain medicine is making him sleepy. I don’t think he even brushed his hair, he just kinda got up and walked here with me just to fall asleep again.” Hayune says, gently poking Rust’s cheek in a small attempt to wake him.

“Maybe you could brush it for him.” Azure joked.

“Oh I want to! It kinda bothers me. I tried… and he swatted at me! See?” Hayune says, moving his sleeve to reveal a bruise.

“Huh.” Azure mumbles. She probably should’ve expected that he actually tried.

“So, you want water? I’ll pick up the food again, so just sit right there and relax!” Hayune said, getting up and heading for the line again.

“So, are you really sleeping?” Azure asked Rust.

Rust responds with a groggy noise.

“So you wish you were.” Azure corrects herself.

“Why did your stupid dark type have to bite me?” He growls through the muffling his hoodie did.

“How the hell should I know? From what Hayune said, it seems like she remembers that you did something fucked up.” Azure answered.

“Either that or she just hates me for no reason.” Rust growled.

“Well, she’d listen to me calling her if it were only a bit of hatred. The reason she attacked was because she saw you as an imminent threat to either her or me, and to eliminate at all costs. I will try not to hold anything against you, but I’m just wondering what the hell you did. We should get Hayune to show us, so that we know you aren’t getting hurt for just any reason, or to just figure out how to prevent more bad instances. I feel a lot can be avoided if we get a good look at past events.” Azure explained.

“Definitely. I wanna know why exactly some of my pokemon seem scared of you too.” Rust says.

Hayune comes back with food and some water for Azure. He smiles and starts up conversation again, but even then Azure seems to get a bit winded from that  alone. Even Rust was starting to get concerned.