You start putting plans under a microscope, nothing's gonna make sense alright?

[lieutenantantichrist]

Who: Carter Blake (lieutenantantichrist) and Shaun Mars (neededlassie)
Where: Goldenrod
When: Afternoon of 11/17
Summary: Blake talks to Shaun before he leaves town.
Rating: PG-13 for Blake's mouth
Log:

Blake was as ready to go as he was going to get. He'd packed his bags, given notice, and cleaned out his apartment. He'd gotten used to the place. It was weird to see it without his bag tossed on the kitchen table and his keys on top of the refrigerator. It hadn't taken as long as he'd thought, since Steve was helping. He could tell she was eager to get going, too. Stretch her little stumpy legs.

When he was done, it was still early. There was nothing to do but sit around and think about who he was heading out with, and why.

After about five minutes he got up.

"Hey," he said to Steve. "Wanna look around town one more time?"

They headed out and wandered by all the old haunts. It wasn't home like Philly, but it wasn't so bad. He was surprised how many people waved to him. He'd gotten known around here. He was less of a stranger than he thought.

As he was passing by the market, Steve went hrrm? When he followed her gaze, he saw the kid.

Carter had caught a glimpse of him now and then, in the crowds or in the tall grass at the outskirts of town. Usually he kept his distance. Shaun sure as hell didn't want to see him, and he didn't get any kicks out of making a little kid cry. This time, he hesitated. There was something in his head about pushing this kid behind him in a place that smelled like dust, and a kind of hulking shadow that wheezed...

By the time he snapped out of it, Steve was gone.

"Wait up!"

When he caught up with her, she was with Shaun, Snubbulling enthusiastically and waving her arms.

Blake came to a stop a few steps away and rubbed his neck.

"Uh," he began awkwardly. "Hey."

Comments

[neededlassie]

Shaun had just gotten off of work for the day and was eyeing the new shipment of TMs, already excited for more to spend his hard-earned money on in order to help his team get stronger. He had done a fairly good job moving on from the nightmares that had plagued him for more than one reason throughout the month of October, in that resilient way that children have. When he woke up from the nightmares, he resumed training as normal. Work, Train, Sleep, maybe squeeze in lunch or dinner if he remembered. You know, the normal routine for a child left practically unattended in a world that had yet to lose its novelty even though he'd been there almost a year.

He was distracted from his window shopping by a tiny pair of nub arms wrapping around his shin.

"Hey, Steve!" he greeted.

He hadn't seen the Snubbull in a while, but, well, who else had such a pretty ribbon on her ear? The pokemon greeted him so enthusiastically that he had to crouch down and scratch at her ears, briefly forgetting that where she went, her trainer would be shortly to follow. He hadn't thought about Carter Blake in a couple of weeks.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Steve's eyes closed and her leg thumped on the ground as she let out a happy sigh. What a nice boy Shaun was.

Blake hung back and watched for a minute. Shaun looked like he was doing pretty good. Granted, most of the times he'd seen him before was either in a case file photo, terrified, or half-dead, so there wasn't a whole lot to compare by. But he looked all in one piece, so Jayden must have been looking out for him all right.

"She would've been mad if I left without letting her say goodbye."

[neededlassie]

Ah. There he is. At the sudden sound of Blake's voice, Shaun lost his balance and fell backward onto his butt, but there wasn't much in the way of fear in his eyes when he looked up at the adult.

The faint memory of a red light and a heavy hand on his shoulder eased his fear, and Shaun didn't know what to make of the fact that he was staring up at Carter Blake and not feeling afraid.

"I haven't seen her in a long time, I thought maybe she forgot me," he said.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Steve gave a muffled yip of distress and reached down to help him up. She was about to growl at Blake for scaring the nice boy, then noticed that, for once, he didn't smell of fear. She sniffed him a few times to make sure.

"Course she wouldn't forget you. Would you, Steve?"

Steve shook her head vigorously.

It had been a while, hadn't it...it didn't feel like that long. It seemed like just he other day he'd run into him. Like he was fighting something, even though he was just a kid and he had to've been scared out of his mind. As scared as Blake had been.

Weird dream.

"How've you been doing?" It came out a little awkward. He had to ask, though. "Is Norman looking out for you?"

[neededlassie]

There wasn't much that Miss Steve could do (at 1'4") to help Shaun up, but Shaun pet her head reassuringly when he saw that she was distressed over him falling.

Shaun had had a similar dream, that was like and unlike his nightmares. He had been strong enough to face his nightmares.

He foggily remembered a blood red glow and a heavy hand on his shoulder, and for some reason that more than anything assuaged his usual fear.

"Yeah. I've been training a lot lately. A lot of my team's level 100 now."

Including Susie. Just by the way.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Blake nodded in approval. "Good for you. Must not be much that can get in your way these days."

It would be a weird thing to say to a little kid, but around here, age doesn't seem to have much to do with how much ass somebody's animals can kick.

"I've been getting lazy about going out in the grass. Steve's getting restless. Nothing around here's tough enough to give her a challenge."

The little Snubbull nodded and flexed her arm to show off her muscle.

Blake put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Point is, we're heading out of here."

[neededlassie]

"Not really. But I've still got some that aren't, so I've been working on training them." Except the Lapras, because water.

Shaun giggled and reached down to feel Steve's big dog muscles.

He looked back up in surprise when Blake said he was heading out.

"Okay."

Like...what is he supposed to say to that? "Cool, see ya"? He'll miss Steve, but he's still got to think about whether or not he'll really notice that Blake's gone.

"Where are you going?"

[lieutenantantichrist]

Steve yapped proudly. Blake felt kind of like an interloper who should be getting out of here and leaving this kid alone. He would. He just had something to do first. He'd been putting it off long enough.

"Not sure yet. Taking the usual tour of the gyms, probably."

Blake fell silent. He glanced around, not sure where to leave his eyes.

He took in a deep breath.

"Look. Kid."

No chickening out now. Steve was looking at him with curious expectation.

"There's something I gotta tell you. Something I've been needing to say for a long time."