Pathos「Pokemon Fanfiction」

Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Straight Through

Boots clattered against the compact earth of the ground, and the boy pulled his cloak around his shoulders as he made his way to a building just a few houses away from his.

One part of his new job as Aiden—he found that he always had to remind himself of that name, and it had soon burnt its mark into his mind—was to deceive that girlfriend of his. Lillian didn't look like someone who could be fooled easily, but it wasn't his position to argue with whom he had to keep up his act around.

I've never talked to her much. That thought alone made him nervous; how was he supposed to know how his brother would act around her? For all he knew, Aiden could have been a different person around his partner—and if that was so, his act would be shattered there and then.

He drew a deep breath to calm himself. He would just act the way Aiden did; the boy never changed his behaviour around many people and he would just assume that he acted the same way towards Lillian.

If she found out—he would deal with that later. He couldn't bring himself to accept that reality just yet.

With that thought in mind, he approached the house just a few feet away from him and ignored the rising tremble in his boots.

Lillian's house was larger and different than most others; it had more of a Hoenn flair to it, and he had heard his brother mention his girlfriend's wealth before. Her family seemed far too willing to flaunt their expenses, and that fact alone made his lips form a thin, disapproving line. People, regardless of status, angered him when they reordered their priorities like that.

He couldn't afford to have that expression on his face, however, and he forced himself to smile; to make that same gentle expression that had always irritated him—and he raised his hand to knock, startling just the tiniest bit when hollow noises sounded from behind.

It must be the lack of sleep, he tried to assure himself. That has to be why I'm so jumpy. Nothing else.

His panicked ramble to himself was cut short as the wooden frame swung open, revealing a black-haired man standing behind to greet him. He had the appearance of a butler; at least, he behaved like one too, and he made haste to nod back before being led in.

"The young mistress of the house has been waiting for you." The worker spoke in a tone similar to that of Yveltal's; it had a certain level of apathy and had just the amount of politeness that Avis found himself comfortable with. "Right this way, Sir Aiden."

The teenager was escorted to a room in a matter of seconds, and he took his time to wave the man off with a small smile and a word of thanks before facing the door once again.

It was certainly foreboding, with a layer of glossy obsidian covering up the wood's flaws and a doorknob that chilled his fingers when they brushed against it's surface—still, he had no time to mull over that, and when he heard a muffled sound come from within telling him to enter, he knew that he had no choice but to plunge right into the situation.

He had to snap at himself not to jump, that he wasn't a wimp, and watched the entrance creak open with a smile that he wanted nothing more than to stab.

"Oh. You're here." Lillian approached him with no words of greeting, and he felt those large eyes of hers pierce into his soul and try to dissect every inch of him as if they were strangers. It made him uncomfortable, to say the least, but he had to try and pretend that it was a normal occurrence.

He bit his lip, trying to decide what to say, but the younger girl interrupted him before he could even open his mouth. "I got the information we were looking for last week," she muttered. "The nature of these attacks are varied. Sometimes, they seem to have come from an army of Pokemon, but sometimes it's something else entirely."