"Are you here to see him?" The nurse asks tentatively.
I nod, Toxis waiting outside, thwomping his tail against concrete. I really don't want to pay to repair the entire road, so I decide to get on with it as soon as possible.
"Come this way."
She opens a room with a view of the sea. Dill is eating pickles and watching some show. On the screen, some guy with black wings is talking to someone else. They're holding hands. Dill has tears running down his face and he's sniffling.
"Dill... how are you?"
He looks at me and spits out his pickle, putting it back in the can. He gives me a green-tinted smile. "Am I going home?"
"Yeah. Only if you're ready."
He stretches out, and exclaims, "Heck yes! This place is so boring. It's just tests, tests, check-up, sit in this room."
"What are you watching?" I ask.
His back paw springs out and hits the remote, turning the TV off. "Nothing! Why do you ask?" His guilty cover-up grin says everything.
I facepalm for a second then I laugh. "Good to know you haven't changed."
"Who, me?"
The air between us grows dense as we both remember the reason he's here in the first place.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry..."
"It's my fault. And you know what? I'm going to tell him."
I reach forwards, arms extended, and he leaps into them, 63 pounds of forgiveness.
The rest of the team has Poke Puffs when I come out.
Khrys is eating hardily and Bronze has a guilty look on his face, the sorry-but-not-really one. I hold up my wallet and coins spill out. It's been opened.
"You guys are insufferable."
"Oh yes, I'm so very sorry." Bronze throws himself at my feet, and pleads sarcastically, "How may I serve you, o great and powerful Ashley?"
"Well, for starters, you could've gotten a few for Dill." Dill walks out from behind me, and the team crowds around him. Dill steers clear of Lilly. Obviously his encounters with electricity are burned into his mind.
The rest of the team, though, he embraces. Sky and Khrys are almost crushed by his paws, which are still strong as ever. "Are we going to head out or not?" He asks.
I pull out the map. "Yeah! Our next stop is... Mahogany Town."
"That's a while away from here."
"Yes, we can stop at Ecruteak." I tell them. "Only one condition."
"What is that?" Dill asks, eyes bright.
"We have to go now. C'mon. Move it move it move it!"
The whole team races off. Dill's sleek design, Sky's four majestic wings, Bronze's powerful strides, the entire team is just so fast now. Fast and strong and beautiful.
I run by them, the golden eyes gleaming, not with the power of one but all of my Pokemon. I want to be alive like this forever. We reach Ecruteak, stay a night, and then head on to Mount Mortar the next morning.
We race through the next cave, Bronze and Lilly running ahead, seeing who can KO the most Pokemon. The rest of the team follows the tracks of burn marks where lightning and fire scorched the walls. Dill and Toxis are attacking stragglers, Toxis careful to make sure Dill doesn't strain any muscles.
Bronze blinks open his eyes, "Oh, glorious light!"
Suddenly, Dill careens in front of the team. "Wait. I have something I need to say." He takes a deep breath. "I-I almost died for not admitting this. I blamed Ashley. But my feelings are mine and mine alone. Here we go... Toxis, I love you."
