Preserve

'Bonding'

"Your cousin is JINN?" Rubie yelled as Jinn burst out of a flat near the entrance of Wiun City. Kyle shrugged and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, 

"Yeah, but I promise his personality isn't a dominant gene in our family," he reassured. Jinn fell to one knee and kissed Rubies hand, much to her disgust. 

"You own a flat? You're like, sixteen," she asked and pulled her hand away. Jinn shrugged, 

"Seventeen actually, but who's counting? I'm younger than that old hag by three months, anyway!" he shrugged and pointed to Mila, who had just stepped out of the house wearing a white blouse, so long Rubie couldn't tell if she was wearing shorts or not. Without the sunhat, Milas beauty reigned supreme. 

"Oh, shut up. At least I'm nearly an adult. And you rented this flat, like, a week ago. It's barely yours," she snapped and waved hello to Rubie and Kyle. Jinn shrugged. 

"Eh. There are two rooms, I'll share with my baby cousin and you two can share the other one!" Jinn suggested, "You arrived right in time, our train arrived here just an hour ago. Had you come earlier, this would've been quite the travesty, indeed." 

Kyle scowled, clearly unhappy about being called 'baby cousin'. But Rubie was too excited to get a good night's sleep and food to scold Jinn for it. She rushed in and dumped her bag in the kitchen. Milas Eevee was roaming about, so she only saw it fit that Najik was free too and let her out of the Pokeball. The kitchen was pretty sleek and the living room was plush. Rubie smiled, perfect. Swirly began making friends with Najik and a Zorua, which Rubie assumed was Jinns, also joined the party, mainly Eevee eating some poke puffs left out in the open. 

Mila joined Rubie in the kitchen and pulled a pizza out of the oven. She lay it in the centre of the kitchen island and cut it into slices, before grabbing four plates and sitting down on a chair. Rubie sat down opposite her and eagerly took a slice. 

"So how has your pokemon journey been so far?" Rubie asked Mila, concerned about the fact that she was only taking the thinnest of slices. Mila shrugged, 

"Painfull with Jinn around, but he's not so bad of company. He's annoying, yet entertaining," she said as she nibbled the point of a slice before giving up and grabbing a chicken salad out of the fridge and eating that instead, "Although it has been tough training my Halu and Vulpix, as well as the rest of my team. The only good battle I've had in ages since I got the Poison Gym badge was with this pampered ginger girl with a Maantimus, and she only had one gym badge!" 

Rubie dropped her pizza slice. Lil already had a gym badge? And she gave Mila a run for her money? Someone with five gym badges? How do you get that powerful in a day?!

Mila shook her head, 

"What about you? Anything interesting happen?" she asked and started less eating the salad, and more...pecking at it. Rubie nodded, 

"I saw a gang of thugs called 'Team Jurassic' or something steal the rib bones of some ancient pokemon called Khamun," she offered and finished the slice before grabbing another one. Mila scowled, 

"That Team Jurassic, I saw them steal a bunch of bones from a private collector my dad's friends with. I wonder what they're doing," she wondered and began taking the tiniest nibbles Rubie had ever seen on a piece of lettuce, "Oh! Also, do you have any change of clothes for tomorrow?" 

Rubie blinked, 

"I was just gonna wear what I'm wearing now. I only packed pyjamas, I wanted space for extra Pokeballs-" she started but was cut off. 

"Nuh-uh! You will not defy the laws of fashion and basic hygiene by my witness! You can have some of my clothes. I have a tiny body, so they'll fit you," she said, banging her fist on the island. Rubie swallowed, 

"Really? Oh, thank you, so, so much!" 

Kyle walked in wearing what seemed to be his pyjamas, a shirt with a star on it and some baggy shorts. He yawned, pushed his glasses up his nose and grabbed a slice of pizza, smacking it onto his plate. After he sat down he broke the silence. 

"Jinn's asleep." 

A sigh of relief was exchanged between Mila and Rubie. 

"How did he get that way?" Rubie asked, ignorant of how rude that sounded but didn't have it pointed out, Kyle instead shrugged, 

"He's always really lacked attention and started getting overdramatic over time, which turned into this I guess," he responded with his mouth full of greasy cheese and dough. Rubie quickly lost her appetite and pushed her plate away. Mila, who had only eaten a bit of the salad also gave up and threw it back into the fridge. 

"You barely ate anything!" Rubie mentioned as Mila began to walk toward her room. Mila smiled, 

"Standard for me, I have the stomach of a squirrel!" she chuckled and left with the biggest smile Rubie had ever seen and eyes duller than ash. Rubie turned straight to Kyle, 

"Does she normally not eat much?" she asked. Kye shrugged as he peeled an orange and shared a slice of it with his Swirlix after dumping the crusts and slice that Mila nibbled into a bin, "she's a model out here. Didn't you know? She's only gone on a Pokemon adventure this summer because she doesn't do weekends and summers and stuff. She tried it once and hated Summer Campaigns, but still sometimes does shoots when her company decides not to insist she models a line of bikinis," he explained, "I guess she's trying to be skinny. She does eat fats, just not often."

Rubie still wasn't convinced and turned her attention to Kyles satchel dumped on the floor with six great balls tumbling out, Swirlix's Pokeball not present/ missing. She raised an eyebrow and turned to Kyle who was eating the rest of his orange and Swirly munching down on the peel. 

"Where's Swirlys Pokeball?" she asked. Swirly squeaked and Kyle blushed, 

"Uh...she doesn't have one..." he admitted, "I found her in the wild. She was hurt. I took her to a pokemon centre, as I was on holiday in Kalos, and we just kinda clicked!" Rubie raised her eyebrows and grabbed a Pokeball from her backpack at the base of her chair. She handed it to Kyle, 

"Well, why don't you catch her?" 

Kyle looked at Swirly, Swirly nodded. 

He held the Pokeball out in front of his Swirlix, who silently pressed the Pokeball with her nose and allowed herself to be captured. Kyle blinked. He released Swirly from her Pokeball and hugged her. 

"See? Now no one can steal her!" Rubie said looking smug and zipped up her rucksack. She flung it over her shoulder and said goodnight to Kyle and Swirly before she and Najik tiptoed down to 'their' room. Rubie stayed as quiet as possible to the sound of Mila's soft snoring and her Eevee cute sleeping noises. Najik fell asleep of the plush carpet, putting Rubie at ease before she too, drifted into dreamland.