Other Short Stories

Gabriel pauses, in the middle of his room and looks around, Aster recons he’s just being paranoid but he feels like he’s being watched – and it’s been going on since they got back from that cave and rescued that Smeargle. Which is the other reason Aster thinks it’s just being paranoid about it.
But he’s seen it! The ends of what seem to be whiskers and legs, he thought it might be a coloured Nincada at first but it soon became clear that this wasn’t the case. Arch saw what seemed to be a dog type tail and arch is sure that it heard barking and dog like panting the other night. He’s been shaking it off, trying to believe Aster and the fact that he’s just seeing and hearing things, it checked with the neighbours and none of them reported seeing any new pokemon recently.
However, just as it was giving up, he happened to be out on his porch.
The sun’s setting and it’s something he loves to watch, sure that it looks better here then it did back when he was a human – or that could just be his wishful thinking – movement catches the corner of it’s eye.
“Hey you!” He calls out, snapping trying to get their attention but also trying to curb his tone as to not scare them off, but it clearly doesn’t work as he spots a small white tail disappear under his porch.
Gabriel’s had enough of this game of cat and mouse and takes a step back before crouching and leaping over the edge of his porch, back toes touching the railing as it goes, but he manages to land correctly.
He can see a figure hunkered down in the mud and he kneels to show he’s not meaning any harm,
“Look, I’m not mad but you’ve been driving me mad – I couldn’t even work out if you were real which you can understand why that would be driving me a little mad.” It explains and the form, though it looks more like a lump right now begins to shake a little and Gabriel has to try his hardest not to groan at the reaction, how many times does he have to emphasis that he isn’t actually made at them.
“I’m really sorry.” And Gabriel practically melts, it may be still kind of new about this whole being a pokemon thing now, but it’s clear to tell that what he’s dealing with right now is a child.
“Look, why don’t you come out from under then and come in for a nice warm drink, it’s been getting pretty cold these last few nights… have you been staying under there?” The form begins to shake again and harder this time, “Look, I’m not upset if you have been – just concerned for your sake.” He tacks on.
It backs up as he can see them begin to stand, though they can’t from their position, so they’re still crawling, belly still brushing against the dirt, using all six of it’s limbs to move forward. It tries to ensure its posture and expression is soft and comforting as they get closer, and he’s soon face with a surprisingly large pokemon for what he was expecting. Some variety of a Maschiff and Nincada fusion, and he’s defiantly on the larger natural end of that scale, and the way it’s holding itself it’s very clear that they’re a child still. Ears dropped and any of that natural aggression that all Maschiff’s seem to have completely gone.
“You’re, you’re not angry at me, are you?” It asks, voice soft.
Gabriel shakes his head and tries to wag it’s tail in the most positive and comforting manner, these things are hard to work out how to use exactly and he’s already gotten into a couple of scraps because he’s come off as both too aggressive and also too friendly at a couple of times.
“Of course not, do you have something I can call you? My name’s Gabriel.” He asks, head tilting to the side slightly.
The child in front of him shifts on it’s paws a little nervously. It’s wings buzzing slightly, in what’s clearly a nervous manner.
“No one’s really called me anything before,” It’s heart breaks, “I quite fancy Good Boy though… People call those they like that…” Its voice gets quieter as he goes, clearly anxious about this whole thing.
Gabriel walks up to him and gently raises a paw, brushing it across the child’s cheek,
“Well then Good Boy, why don’t you come in and tell me how you like your Hot Chocolate and we can grab some blankets and we can talk about what’s going on with you. I can promise whatever you tell me I won’t be mad.” It comforts, and the way the Good Boy’s eyes widen and the hope he can see in it’s eyes shows that he might have to be very good at hiding his anger, though doubts any of it will be aimed at Good Boy himself. 

Good Boy follows incredibly closely behind Gabriel into the house, as if he’s still expecting Gabriel to turn around and shut the door in it’s face and that hurts them a lot, he’d never dream of doing such a thing to anyone let alone a child. He can already sense that he’s probably about to end up with a child, not that he’s overly complaining he’s pretty self-sufficient if the fact he seems to have been living alone is anything to go by.
It has to practically shake him off to get him sat in the living room while he heads through to make the hot drinks for the both of them – if it’s honest, it didn’t really fancy one but it’s very clear that the child would be too anxious to drink it without him also having something. Arch can’t help but glance back into the other room while it’s preparing the drinks, Good Boy is sat nervously on the sofa, the little insect front legs nervously tapping together and his tail has a nervous wag to it. It can also tell that he’s trying to not make it obvious but his eyes are searching the room and the others parts of the room which it can see from his current position. Their eyes nearly meet and Gabriel quickly turns his attention back to the drinks to make sure that it doesn’t think that he’s judging him in anyway.
It sighs softly as it carefully grasps the two cups, not really sure how he’s managing to carry both of them at the same time, if he thinks about it too much, he'll probably drop them both. Arch can already see it, Adis turning up in the morning, probably with some quest or other for them to be doing and then having to get the full explanation to why a small child is on it’s soda and that angels house is now for two rather then one. It thinks they have the funds to make that spare room full of boxes into another bedroom, hopefully Good Boy will be fine enough staying on the sofa with blankets until they can get that sorted.
It should occur to him, that Gabriel is making all of these plans without having even asked the child if they do want to stay with him yet – but this isn’t really anything to worry about, Good Boy will say yes. This is something it does not even need to think about worrying about as he passes over the hot drink and Good Boy just seems to huddle into the warmth of the cup, his thanks clear without a single word needing to be uttered from the child. As Gabriel hops up and sits into their own seat, he waits, ready for Good Boy to talk – whenever and whatever he’s happy to talk about.