Second Term

As it turned out, evolving did nothing to help him get out from behind the couch. In fact, since an umbreon was bigger than an eevee, evolving had only ensured he was stuck behind it. Prez was also stuck, since he couldn't get around Aether.

"Okay," Prez said, "maybe you should have held off for, I dunno, two minutes?"

"I am not smart," said Aether.

"You're plenty smart. What do we do now?"

"I dunno, I'm not smart." He paused. "We could yell for help? It's not like we're the only ones in here."

Prez nodded. "Okay. You do that, then."

Aether whined. "Why me?"

"Because you're the one who's stuck, goofball."

He couldn't argue with that. "Okay," Aether said, and he raised his voice. "Hewwo? Kywie?"

Prez's ears went back. "I immediately regret this."

"Hewp! Me and Pwez got stuck!"

"We don't speak human language, how are you making those sounds with your mouth?"

Thankfully, his cries for help had rapid results. "Oh," a voice said from behind him. "You got stuck? Embarrassing."

"Who's that?" Aether said, dropping the cutesy-speak.

"Prim. I'm Dame's bestie, remember?" The voice paused. "You're an umbreon. That's new."

"Yeah! Prez is gonna be an espeon tomorrow!"

"Hopefully," Prez said. "We might end up trapped here forever."

"I'll get Kyrie," said Prim. Aether heard her walking away. He did not hear her calling for Kyrie.

After a few minutes passed, he whispered to Prez, "Should we be worried?"

Finally, Kyrie found them. They had to drag the couch away from the wall to retrieve them. "You evolved," they said to Aether. "Prez, are you okay with this?"

Prez nodded. Aether stretched his front and back legs, grateful to be out.

"Alright," Kyrie said. "As long as everything's good. I'm going back to bed, alright? We can talk about Prez's evolution ceremony tomorrow."

Aether wandered off towards his own bed, but Prez stopped him. "We have to talk to Snow Queen, right?" he said. "I can't do it alone."

"Right!" Aether snapped to attention. "Sorry, got distracted. Where is ze?"

Prim spoke up. "Ze's with Dame," she said. "Taking up valuable me time."

"Sure," said Aether. "Where is Dame?"

She pointed vaguely towards the kitchen. Aether looked at Prez, shrugged, and followed her direction.

Snow Queen and Dame were lounging by the food dispenser. They both looked up when Aether and Prez approached. "Oh," Dame said. "I guess I should stay out of this. Congrats on evolving, Aether."

"Thanks," Aether said. "Hi, Snow Queen. Prez wants to talk now."

"I can see that," Snow Queen said.

Dame walked away and disappeared into the shadows. Snow Queen stood up. "Well?" ze said when Prez approached.

Prez bowed his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "My behavior made you feel like I don't appreciate you, and I don't want you to feel like that. I'll treat you better from now on."

Snow Queen said nothing, so Aether spoke up instead. "You have to apologize too, Queenie."

"Ze doesn't have to," said Prez.

"I do," said Snow Queen. "After he made me mad, I wanted to ruin Prez's evolution ceremony, and then I did. That was wrong of me. I'm sorry, Prez."

Prez looked up. "Do you still want to be friends?"

"Of course." Snow Queen purred. "I hope your evolution ceremony goes well tomorrow."

"It might not be tomorrow," Aether commented. "I don't know if Kyrie's ready anymore."

---

The ceremony was the next morning.

Kyrie said a few words about how much Prez had grown, but what mattered the most to him was that Snow Queen and Aether were right by his side. While Kyrie went off on a tangent about how glad they were to finally have a proper evolution ceremony, the Prez looked up at the morning sun, shining on the glaceon and umbreon on either side of him–how could he stop himself from evolving?

Kyrie cut themself off in the middle of a sentence to look back at the espeon behind them. "Well," they said, "I guess that's that. Congratulations, Prez!"

Aether and Snow Queen nuzzled his cheeks. Prez purred and nuzzled them right back, surrounded by the love from his closest friends.