City Summerween

"Come on Kage, this'll be fun!" Soku grinned as he stretched some fake webs between a couple lamp posts.

"I'd hardly call a large event with a lot of other pokemon fun." Kage huffed, arranging some carved pumpkins.

"Not much for crowds I take it?" Soku stepped back a moment to check how the web was looking.

"No." Was Kage's quick response.

"Well I guess that makes sense. Crowds are a bit much for me sometimes too, but a festival like this is something I can enjoy you know?" Soku turned to look at the other sneasel.

"You are aware that Guildmaster Elton said we'd be working right? Helping make sure other attendees feel safe with everything that's been going on." Kage finally looked at him after seemingly being satisfied with the pumpkin's placement.

"We also get to enjoy ourselves. If you'll remember Elton saying that us keeping an eye on things is what we have to do in exchange for our passes." Soku casually walked over to Kage and playfully punched him in the arm. "You need to loosen up a bit my friend. Enjoy the season, and enjoy the eventual festival." He walked over to one of the boxes of supplies and started digging through it.

After a moment Kage sighed and joined Soku in looking through the decorations. "I'm just concerned something will go wrong."

Soku paused and put a hand on Kage's back reassuringly. "If something does go wrong then there will be plenty of guild members there to make sure things will be ok. It's not like we're the only one's who are lending a hand." He gestured widely to the streets around them where pokemon of all sorts were running around putting up decorations. It probably wouldn't be a stretch to say most of them were other guild members that Elton had gotten to help. Either through them simply agreeing or them needing a bit of extra motivation, which Soku would rather call bribery, like Kage had needed.

Kage relaxed slightly, which was a big win for Soku honestly, and nodded. "You're right. I suppose."

Soku placed a hand on his chest dramatically. "You admitting I'm right about something? Am I dreaming?"

"Don't push it." Kage playfully shoved Soku away from him after grabbing some posters from the box. "Now make yourself useful and help me hang these up." He held some out.

Taking some of the offered posters, Soku smirked. "Well since you asked so nicely~" That earned him a much harsher shove that had him falling backwards. Thankfully the posters in his grip were sparred and the fall only hurt a little. The two worked silently side by side. First putting up the posters before moving on to the various other themed decorations.

"Hmm." Kage glanced at the pieces of stalls that were waiting to be assembled. He gestured for Soku to come over, and he did so curiously. "Help me assemble one of these. From there we can gauge if we can do more."

"You think we can put one of these together? I don't mean to doubt our combined might and all that but uh... this seems more suited to either bigger pokemon or maybe ones that can fly." Soku frowned as he took in the unassembled pieces.

"Afraid to try?" Kage gave him a challenging look that had Soku feeling... well certainly feeling. It wasn't often that Kage was teasing like this, typically it had been exclusively Soku doing any sort of teasing.

Deciding he couldn't pass up this rare moment where Kage seemed more relaxed he met that grin with one of his own. "Oh, you know I'm not. Let's do this."

Needless to say it didn't go great. The two of them were trying sure, but it was hard for two smaller pokemon to set up one of the larger stalls on their own. Kage had taken to glaring at the pile of pieces menacingly, and that had most of the other pokemon helping set up keeping a fair distance away from the duo. Soku just let Kage have his moment; it was clear he needed a second alone. Though while he gave him that moment he hadn't expected to be approached by two other pokemon. Honestly he'd thought Kage's rage aura would keep them all away. Yet here came two pokemon, one seemingly an eevee lugia fusion and the other some sort of zorua vulpix fusion perhaps? He wasn't too sure. Despite his confusion he shot the two a wave; one which the two returned with friendly smiles on their faces. "Hey! What can I do for you two?" Soku kept a friendly smile on his face in the hopes that they would simply ignore Kage seething behind him for the time being.

The zorua fusion's ear twitched before he nodded at the sad pile of stall pieces. "We saw that you two were having trouble putting that together. No one else seemed to want to try and offer you any help so we figured we should."

"Oh?" Soku was surprised, not really because of the offer of help but more so because of the fact that no one else seemed to want to help them. "Well I won't say that we couldn't use the help." He hummed and glanced back at Kage. "I'm all for the help but my teammate isn't really a people person."

"We could... sort of tell." The lugia fusion frowned. "Why is he so upset at the pieces?"

"Because he thinks they 'bested him' or whatever. Apparently he really was confident that the two of us could do it. I wasn't too sure and well..." Soku gestured to the pieces again. "You can see for yourself how well it went."

"Well with four of us I think we can get it up in no time." The zorua fusion grinned. "Oh! But first I guess we should introduce ourselves huh?" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "My name is Kit."

"I'm Kyu. Nice to meet you." Kyu gave him a friendly nod and a smile.

"Well it's great to meet you both. I'm Soku and the grump over there is Kage. Me and him are on a team together." Soku gestured to Kage over his shoulder.

Kit nodded. "Us too. Anyway, should we get to work?"

"Probably before your friend there manages to catch the thing or fire or something from just looking at it." Kyu mumbled nervously.

Soku waved off the concern as he started walking back over. "Ah don't worry about that. He's an ice type he can't set stuff on fire. He probably would have done it to me already if he could."

Kage seemed to notice his approach rather quickly, as he turned his head to look at him and then behind him. His more open expression immediately closed off. Yikes. Soku would have to navigate this situation very... delicately. "Who are they?" Kage crossed his arms as he eyed Kit and Kyu suspiciously.

"This is Kit and Kyu." He gestured to the pokemon as he said their names. "They offered to help us get this stall set up." He paused. "Is that ok?"

Kage was very silent for a moment. It was pretty uncomfortable and awkward honestly, and he could hear the other two shifting from foot to foot nervously. "Fine." He finally broke the silence. Soku silently celebrated. That had been easier than he thought it was going to be.

The next several minutes as the group was working together were rather tense. Though Soku had to admit things went a lot smoother when someone who could pick up the pieces with his mind was helping. Being a psychic type must be pretty convenient; at least for things like this.

"Ok hold it steady while I set this into place." Kyu's eyes were narrowed in focus as he tried to gently place a crossbeam in between two of the pillars they'd already set up. Kit was having no issues helping keep the floating piece steady, Soku guessed it was because he was used to it being Kyu's teammate and all, but him and Kage were much less sure. Thankfully it managed to slot into place before Soku went tumbling and dragging Kage down with him. Not on purpose really, but honestly he probably would have done it on purpose given the chance. "You two ok?" Kyu called out nervously. Soku simply gave him a thumbs up but didn't move to get up quite yet.

"You good?" Soku asked Kage quietly.

"The fall didn't hurt at all." Kage huffed. "I'm fine. Now get off of me."

"I didn't mean the fall." Soku gave him a flat look. "You've been tense since Kit and Kyu started helping us."

Kage looked away as best he could. "I think you're trying to see things that aren't there."

"Please, I've been traveling with you long enough at this point to know when you're uncomfortable. Right now though? Right now I don't need to have spent all that time with you to know how you're feeling." Soku frowned. "I wanna help, but I can't if I don't know exactly what's going through that beautiful head of yours."

"Is now really an appropriate time for your sad attempts at flattery?" Kage gave him a disbelieving look.

"I for one think any time is an appropriate time for that but..." He took in their positions a bit more. "I can see where you're coming from on this one. Better tell me quick before I start doing it again though."

"You're insufferable..." Kage sighed. "I'm uncomfortable to be working so closely with strangers. There, does that satisfy you?"

"Not really, cause I already knew that. I wanna know why. I can get you being more uncomfortable in say... a life or death situation but there are literally no stakes here. You don't lose anything by letting them help us and not being awkward about it." Soku frowned.

"It's... simply new for me." Kage sighed through his nose. "I've never met them, therefore I'm uncomfortable around them."

Soku locked eyes with Kage for a moment trying to read more into the lackluster explanation before nodding. "Alright I think I get it." He stood up and offered a hand to Kage. "Just give them a shot ok? They were the only one's to brave your angry aura to offer us help, so maybe they'll be different."

Kage looked at Soku's hand for a moment before taking it. "Fine. I'll try. Happy?"

"Very." Soku grinned as he pulled Kage up.

Things went far smoother from there. The four, while not being the most efficient, were able to set up several stalls before they all decided to call it for the day. The main plaza was looking pretty good honestly, so he didn't feel too bad about bailing while other pokemon were still working. "That was actually pretty fun." Kit hummed.

"Also very tiring." Kyu sighed. Poor guy really did look exhausted. Though to be fair he did do most of the heavy lifting.

"How bout some dinner then, on me." Soku grinned and put an arm over Kage's shoulder's. "Gotta thank you two for the help somehow." Kage gave him an odd look but he ignored it for now.

"Oh! No you don't have to do that. We were already helping decorate." Kit shook his head.

"I insist. You both deserve it." Soku grinned.

"What are you doing." Kage practically hissed into his ear.

"Hopefully making you some new friends." Soku whispered back as he glanced over at him, a softer smile on his face. "I seriously can't be your only friend forever." He only got a huff in answer for that.

"I mean... if you're insisting... I could certainly go for something to eat." Kyu rubbed the back of his head.

"Great!" He slipped his arm from Kage's shoulders and instead took the other sneasel's hand. "I know a good place c'mon." Much to his surprise, and joy, Kage didn't attempt to pull out of his grasp. Now hopefully things would go smoothly and he could get Kage to come out of this with a couple new friends.