RMWJ: Chapter 9

"Hottie with the Tomb Raider body, come here and sip up this shottie! Get naked—kick up this party, don't be afraid to get naughty!"

"I'm not going out partying with you tonight." Scott had a habit of calling her and singing. It was as if she was learning his language; she now knew what several songs meant, and IDGAF was a party invitation. Scott laughed on the other end of the line, not at all deterred. "I have homework, and not even your pretty singing could make it go away."

"You sure? I have a magnificent voice," he pointed out in a rather failed attempt at a deep baritone. "Okay, I understand. I wasn't sure about going, either. I have band practice later this evening, and Carly's been giving me the evil eye for skipping."

"Common folk just don't understand the importance of waiting in line for a copy of Mass Effect," Ree sighed.

"Or the fact that it takes several hours waiting in the damn line just to get a good spot. So, want me to come over and help?"

"Scottie, I'm doing better than you are. It's just reading, anyway. I can handle it on my own."

"You wound me! I'll have you know that I got a B on that last essay about Brave New World," he informed her proudly.

"And I got an A. Minus." It was a good thing he wasn't the songwriter in the band. He coasted by on bullshit and Ree's help in most of his literature courses, though he could write a pretty decent essay if he put his mind to it. Language was just not his forte. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"If Carly doesn't put a drumstick through my throat first."

"If she does, I'll shove a basketball up her ass. Bye, Scottie. Love you."

"Love you too, babe."

-.-.-

Chapter Nine: Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey Of Running

-.-.-

Ree slotted the pokeball into her pokédex and waited for the information to load up. With a ding, the machine told her about her brand new teammate. It was a girl, ten months old, small for her size but almost fully grown. Then, it prompted her for a name.

"Goddamnit, I suck at naming," she complained, dropping the pokédex and pokeball into her lap. Whippy looked at them both excitedly.

"Naming isn't so bad," Harry reasoned.

"How did you name your other three?" Kev asked helpfully.

"Mister Snivy Whiplash, because he looks like a villain." On cue, he chuckled darkly and rubbed his claws together. "Lala, because she looked like a doll my sister used to have. Harper's named after someone. I'm not following any sort of pattern or anything here."

"Well... You could name her after someone else, I suppose. Or any other dolls in your family? Or... I named Hattie because it looks like she's wearing a hat."

"You could give her a meaningful name. I named my pokémon for the meaning of the name."

"I don't have a naming book with me. ...Maybe I'll pick one up." Getting a naming book reminded her too much of babies, but she knew trainers often bought them. And if she had four now, chances were she'd get two more, and she didn't want to get stuck with this feeling twice more. "In Castelia, I'll grab one somewhere. But I don't want to leave her nameless until then..."

"You could... name her after a song?"

"What? No, that sounds stupid."

"Um..."

"Mimi?" Kev suggested blindly. After Ree's look, he added, "Minccino. Starts with a mi, so you could work with that...? Or some sound in the name. That's pretty popular with trainers, at least the ones who go through Lenora's gym."

"Uh, maybe. I just don't like Mimi. I knew a Mimi, and she was a bitch."

"Well, we can eat supper while we think on it," Harry said as Hattie came back with another tiny batch of some sort of grass. "We decided to go with the old trainer standby—soup. Hattie's been kind enough to get us some seasonings, and I have some ramen noodles in my backpack, so we just need to send someone for water."

Ree and Harry both looked at Kev expectantly. He sighed but smiled. "Fine, I shall be the gentlemen for you both. I will be right back."

As soon as he was out of the firelight, Ree leaned over to Harry and whispered, "He's pretty cute."

"I suppose, and he's very nice. This was all so sudden, though."

"But he's cute."

"Yes. And I've traveled with people for less reason... N-Not you! I mean, in the past, wh-when I was a trainer..." Harry blushed and backpedaled, shaking her head. "I'm just worried that something will happen. We don't know much about him, aside from the fact that he worked with Lenora..."

"Well, that's sort of a government job, so he would've had to have passed a background check at some point. But don't worry. If he turns out to be a crazy serial rapist or something, I still have Sophia, and I think Whippy's been looking for a reason to chew on him," Ree said quietly and looked down at him. He nodded firmly.

"I know," Harry mumbled, "But things happen. And not necessarily by him—what if something bad happens to him? He only has one pokémon, and—we just sent him out for water in the dark alone!"

"He'll survive." Ree rolled the minccino's pokeball back and forth on her thigh, trying to think of a good name. It wasn't as if she could change it later. She figured it was a good idea to keep her in the ball until she had some sort of name, just so she didn't have to call the poor thing one thing and then change it later.

Kev came back, surprisingly with Lala in tow. She had some sort of fish under one arm and a horribly mangled corpse under the other. "I found her near the stream. She can fish?"

"You know, I didn't even know a fluffy grass pokémon could be a hunter, okay? I just don't expect anything and get fucking miracles in return," Ree replied with a shrug. "Good girl, Lala! We're making soup tonight, too."

"Whimsi?" she asked hopefully.

"I... don't know?" Her whimsicott drooped and set the two carcasses near her trainer, then went off a little ways to wring blood out of her neck fluff. Ree poked at the two things with her finger. "Uh... Well, I don't know what your pokémon eats, Kev, but Harry, can yours pick out bits of meat?"

"Oh, yes. Shady doesn't mind meat, but I can separate it out for Jackster and Hattie."

"Visoka doesn't eat much meat, either, so I'll let your pokémon have his share," Kev said.

"...Bless you?"

"What?"

"Vis—what?" Ree asked.

He rolled his eyes. "Visoka is my pokémon, Ree."

"When do we get to meet, um, him?" Harry asked as he helped her put the pot onto the fire. Hattie handed her various herbs, grasses, and leaves, and she dutifully added them into the soup-to-be. Ree sighed to herself and got out her cooking knife, setting the pokeball and Sophia by Whippy. Looked as if butchering was up to her. Again.

"I guess... Now?" Kev pulled a minimized pokeball out of his pocket, tapping it once to maximize it. "He's not very friendly towards strangers, just a warning. But he'll behave." He released his pokémon, and out came... Ree wasn't sure what the thing was. Harry gasped, too, and both girls instinctively backed up.

"Wh-What is that?" It had the head of a tepig, with smaller ears, but it was purple. And had a circle on top of it! And it was bouncing on nothing but some sort of spiral from the neck down. That was no Unovan pokémon. Ree wasn't even aware she was pointing her knife at it until it snorted at her.

"It's a spoink."

"That's... not from here," Harry asked, arms around Jackster as he stared at it. She seemed more surprised than he did. "How did you afford to import it? Him, I mean."

"He came with me," Kev said awkwardly.

"You're... not from Unova." First June, and now Kev. Ree had lived near Castelia for most of her life and she had met maybe half a dozen foreigners, ever. It was strange, and... it made her uncomfortable, for some reason. "I didn't notice, I'm sorry, you don't have an accent."

"I've worked hard not to," he said with a smile. "Unova is a wonderful region, but they don't very much like others, do they? I'm here legally, I can assure you."

"Where are you from?" Harry asked, easing back into the conversation. Ree turned back to cutting apart the dead pokémon. She did suddenly feel better with Sophia beside her.

"Hoenn. I moved here just about four years ago, and have been working in Nacrene for most of that." She ignored the pointed look. "Unova was nice, but I wasn't expecting all of the strange looks, and the treatment."

"Well, you would've come in just after we locked things down again, so... yeah," Ree said lamely. Unova hadn't always been so isolationist, but during Team Plasma's rise to power, they tightened borders and pokémon imports and exports. Too many foreign pokémon and people invited trouble, or so the media decided.

"I'm used to weird looks for my skin tone, but not accent or pokémon," Kev admitted, trying to lighten the mood with a self-conscious chuckle. Ree hadn't given him a second glance just because he had darker skin than she did.

"Other places do that? Why?" Harry asked, echoing her thoughts. "Oh, I mean, that just seems so strange..."

"Unova is a strange place."

"Hey, it's a fucking awesome place. We just think that keeping to ourselves is pretty serious business," Ree said loyally, though she only half believed it herself. She wouldn't have minded seeing pokémon from other regions regularly. The accents and languages were strange, but the pokémon weren't too bad. Although, if they all looked like someone had painted a tepig head purple and put it on a spring...

"Maybe it is, but there's no rationale I would buy for discrimination," he said easily, and the conversation was too deep into 'awkward' territory to salvage it. Silence was the only response.

Ree didn't think she was being discriminatory. He was the one from Hoenn, but she was just a little surprised. Sinnoh, being their closest neighbor, did have some tourist trade with them, so Sinnohans weren't terribly rare. She heard people all over the world came to research with Lenora or work with Burgh, but it wasn't as if she met those people. She just didn't know how to act around him. Was that being mean?

She dropped the meat chunks into the pot, annoyed and angry at herself. She had meant to become a trainer, win eight badges, and pop out a baby. She didn't want to get into politics or social issues. She wasn't blind; she knew there were some problems with Unova. But she hadn't meant to get Kev fired or act all awkward around him.

Just as she opened her mouth to give him a rather angry apology, Lala came over and plopped herself in her lap. Ree looked down at her. Lala, stubby arms crossed, just stared moodily down at her stomach. "...What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Whimsi," she pouted. It seemed as if pokémon didn't care about human affairs; they had their own things to deal with.

"Can you elaborate a bit?"

"Whimsi!" she repeated and pointed at Whippy. He was engaged with the spoink and was balancing the minccino's pokeball on his tail. Sort of a neat trick.

"Whippy? ...Your fight with him earlier?" Lala nodded and crossed her arms again with a sore huff. Ree grimaced and tried to think of what she'd done wrong this time. "...Is it, uh, because I took his side?"

"Scott."

"I don't like seeing things killed in front of me, I'm sorry. It's just a thing, and I hope it doesn't change."

"Whimsi, si whimsicott!" Lala exclaimed. Sometimes, Ree could follow vaguely along, based on gestures or what had just happened. But this wasn't one of those times. She supposed she could see why Lala was upset, but she really hadn't wanted anything killed in front of her. It wasn't as if she was lying, and she thought it was a damn good excuse. Her whimsicott sighed and curled up again. "Si-cott."

"I'm sorry. Dinner's almost ready, so do you wanna eat?" Ree asked, lifting her up. Her fluff would need another trim soon, but in the morning would be better. Lala grudgingly nodded and wiggled out of her grasp.

Harry had four little dishes—one for herself and each of her pokémon. They were labeled, by hand it seemed, and even had different colors for each of them. Ree and Kev stared. She blushed, but smiled. "Well, it's easier this way! And this way, they know which dish is theirs, a-and they can retrieve them without having to read their name on it..."

"They're not house pets," Ree said practically. She had two bowls and a cup, and—shit, she had forgotten to pick something up for Harper in Nacrene. Staying at the center had spoiled her. And she didn't have anything for the minccino, either. It looked as if Kev was sharing his dish with his spoink, too, at least.

"I'm not a trainer right now," Harry retorted and passed the spoon to Kev.

"Aren't you going to have any meat?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm used to not eating much meat out on routes. You and Ree can have it, don't worry. Food's food."

"I'm a vegetarian," he replied, still sounding puzzled. "So is Visoka. Having a pokémon whose species is often raised for food changes your perspective on things."

"Wait, so Lala went hunting and it was only going to be for us?" Ree asked incredulously. After exchanging a glance, both Harry and Kev nodded. She groaned. "Okay, fine then. Duly noted for tomorrow."

She hid Whippy's medicine in his meal and let him and Lala eat first. Lala mostly picked at her meal, she noticed. Harry did ask for seconds for Jackster, but there was more than enough to go around. It was soup, of course, so not super hearty or completely filling, but they wouldn't go to bed hungry, at least. She and Harper got their turn next, and Ree then released the minccino. Most of the paralysis seemed to have worn off, though she was still a little skittish. At least, until she got food. Then she was all sweetness and smiles.

She had no problem eating meat, at least.

Against her prior wishes, the minccino ended up staying out for the rest of the night. Lala left her well enough alone, though Whippy didn't often leave her side. Harper seemed mildly curious at first, having a short conversation at one point, but otherwise didn't seem to care much either way. Jackster didn't seem as nervous as Ree would've expected, with the wilderness all around and unknown pokémon sleeping in camp. Shady worked well as a nightlight, too.

Kev offered to stay up later to make sure the fire died down properly, but that made Ree nervous. Harry, seeing that she was going to take care of it, went to sleep, snuggled up against Jackster with Hattie and Shady near her hair. An open flame near her hair made Ree nervous on her behalf, but she didn't seem bothered.

Kev, however, was—by the fact that Ree was staying up with him. "I can handle this on my own," he said quietly, kicking little bits of dirt onto the fire. They couldn't keep it going all night, but ideally, preserving some of the heat and embers for the colder bits and the morning would be best.

"I'm fine staying up. I'm not too tired yet." Ree helped put some things away and got her sleeping bag ready. Whippy was already sleeping, and it looked like the minccino was about to drift off, too, but Lala and Harper were still very much awake.

"...If this is because—"

"No, it's not," Ree interrupted curtly. "I'm sorry if we came off like racists or something, but you said so yourself. We don't have many other kinds of, uh, people here. Not many immigrants or anything."

"...I didn't mean you two when I said that," he said softly. "I meant people in general. You two seem nice, and you're polite enough. It's not as if anything actually happened, you know."

"...Well, thanks. I guess."

"...I can handle this. You can go to sleep with your pokémon," he said and looked up at her.

"No offense—fuck, I really mean it this time—but I don't care if you're from Hoenn or Kanto or Sinnoh or the middle of the world. But the fact of the matter is that you're a guy we just met today. Don't get snippy with me if I don't want to go to sleep right away in front of you."

"Ah." Kev looked down at his spoink, still bouncing slightly, though his eyes were closed. Visoka did seem like a decent pokémon, and true to his word, he did behave. Though Ree couldn't quite get used to how he looked. Was that racist against pokémon? Now she was going to over-think everything, she just knew it. "...I can understand that. I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable."

Ree groaned. "Ugh, it's not that! We wouldn't be letting you along if we thought you were a murderer or something." She grabbed Sophia and pointed it at him, not threateningly, but perhaps with a note of warning. "If I thought you were a danger to me, my pokémon, or Harry, I would have fucked you up, mister. But you're cute, and nice enough. Just keep in mind. I have a baseball bat and there's no one around to hear you scream."

"Why am I the bad guy here if you have the weapon?" he asked in bewilderment. He kicked a bit more dirt onto the fire, and then, satisfied, slipped into his sleeping bag and brought Visoka into it as well. "Going to bed now. He tends to squeal when he's woken abruptly, so think of it as some sort of alarm, though you also have more pokémon than I do."

"You're older than me," Ree muttered.

"I'm only twenty-two. You can't be that much younger than me." Five years, but she had just started training. "...I've only had Visoka for about four years now. I'm not a trainer anymore, and he's never had any proper training, either. I don't have any badges, from Hoenn or Unova. I'm not trying to be a threat."

Ree would have to show him her handy dandy book on crime statistics. But she had filled her quota, she reminded herself. "...Goodnight, Kev."

"Goodnight, Ree."

-.-.-

Dawn of the third day. Scott stretched, humming to himself, and wished he had brought something other than jeans. It was a nice morning for a run. Still, denim was durable. Something in his gut told him this wasn't going to be as cut and dried as 'find Ree and talk to her and this all works out happily'. Something had to have made her gone off and pick up training, and he still wasn't sure what that something could have been.

Hopefully it wasn't him.

"Are you just coming back?" he asked archly as his krookodile slunk back into camp.

"Kroo," Nigel replied guiltily.

"And now I suppose you'll want to sleep the rest of the day, huh?" As a dark pokémon, Nigel was fond of being nocturnal, but living in a house with other creatures usually put a damper on it. It seemed as if he was quick to readjust, though.

"Dile!"

"Fine, return." Scott called him back and clipped the pokeball onto his belt. "Guys, wake up."

"Scol," Rocio hissed at him, curled up into a little ball on the far end of camp. Beside her, Yorick got up, stretching. He gave his paws a couple licks and smoothed down his messy fur, then slunk over to Scott with a good morning lick for him, too.

"Up, Rocio!" he sang as he began to pack up his things. This would be their third day in Pinwheel Forest—second full day. They were getting closer to Nacrene, probably under a day's journey, but he wasn't sure if Ree would still be there. He knew he hadn't beaten Lenora on his first try (most trainers didn't), but she could have tried again yesterday. He just didn't want to miss her.

Vince nudged Rocio with his snout, then jumped back in surprise as she lashed out at him. "Lith! Gigalith!" he said at once, prancing about her nervously.

Scott knew Rocio wasn't a morning pokémon. She reminded him a lot of Ree in that aspect. Maybe it was a girl thing. "Rocio, come on. Even Barbeque is up! We'll probably make it to Nacrene today, so don't you want to sleep inside again?" She moved a little, but still didn't get up. He walked over and physically hauled her up to her feet. She immediately snarled and pinned him to the ground, pincers hovering over his face, and let out a sour hiss. "Up, Rocio," Scott said levelly. He knew his pokémon would never hurt him.

She backed off with a grumble. Vince came over to make sure he was okay, allowing his trainer to pull himself up on him, and snorted in Rocio's direction. She waved one of her hind antenna at him.

"Well now that everyone's up, we can get a move on." It took his scolipede almost an hour to wake up fully; he knew it was that long because that was when she finally caught on to the fact that he had stolen her circlet and was wearing it himself. She snatched it back from him with another hiss. He chuckled.

He let Rocio and Yorick do their things. Yorick just wanted to scout around the area, fairly peacefully, but Rocio strayed farther. He wasn't sure what she did, probably showing off her trophy to bugs she used to know, but it wasn't as if the wild pokémon in the area posed much of a threat to him. Vince stuck by him, curious but faithful, and Barbeque toddled along behind them. Every so often, Scott would send his gigalith to retrieve a pokémon for the darumaka to battle for some training. Might as well.

Just as he was thinking about stopping for lunch, he heard a scream. A very human, very female scream. Vince nearly jumped out of his skin—or rock—and pointed in the direction it had come from. "Giga!"

"Lead me to her!" He wasn't sure why he thought it was Ree. Well, it was a girl screaming, so if someone else was in danger, he felt obligated to help. It was what trainers did for each other.

And maybe he had a sinking sensation that it was one of his pokémon behind it, too.

Scott was proven correct on one count when he heard Yorick's barking. Vince tore into the clearing, shedding branches and leaves without a care, and Scott ran up after him. Yorick's long fur was standing comically on end and there was a tiny sewaddle in front of him.

The scene made a lot more sense when he finally got Vince out of the way and saw a younger girl with wavy red hair and a painfully bright purple sweater pressed up against a tree, litwick in her arms, a clearly terrified blitzle beside her. "Yorick! Stop terrorizing the trainer!" Scott commanded. Yorick's ears and tail drooped and he shuffled back over to his trainer, though his fur was still crackling with static.

"Th-That's your stoutland?" the girl asked breathlessly, eyes still wide.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about him. He's just really curious, and we're looking for someone, so I guess he got a little overzealous!" Scott laughed nervously and tried to shoo Yorick back out of the clearing.

"You're looking for someone?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, my—Vince!" Scott barked as his gigalith got curious, too. He'd approached the blitzle, but before he could back off, the thing gave a scared whinny and zapped him. Electricity didn't do a whole lot, but it sent a clear message. Cowed, he shuffled back to Scott's side. "No. Remember, you're too big for this area. Play nice."

"You have a lot of very strong pokémon," she said meekly, stepping forward and dragging the sewaddle back closer with her shoe. She then picked that up, too.

"I'm sorry," he repeated helplessly.

"Well, um, I-I'll just be going," she said and beat a hasty retreat, bringing her blitzle along with her by the scarf. He waited until she was gone until he rounded on his two pokémon.

"Just because this is the first time we've been out in years doesn't mean you have to get into anything! Yorick, you know you shouldn't just run up to strangers, too!" he scolded.

"Stout, laaaa," he whined.

"What do you mean she smelled like someone? She is someone. Thank you for helping me look, but don't scare any other newbie trainers, okay? I doubt very many of them have seen a stoutland before."

"...Giga-lith?" Vince asked suddenly, nudging Scott with one foot.

"What? I—oh god, where is Barbeque?" He whirled around, looking for the little darumaka, but he was nowhere to be seen.

-.-.-

"Have you found the stream again? I haven't, and Visoka can't, either," Kev said, delicately stepping over a broken branch. He ran a hand through his hair and glared up at the treetops. "It sure gets warm in here for not much sunlight getting in..."

"Hey, look." Ree, squatting down, poked at the thing she had just found. He came over and looked over her shoulder at the pokémon. "What is this thing?"

"That's a darumaka. Fire pokémon, but they're definitely not native to this area. Either it belongs to someone or was abandoned here..."

"Huh." She poked at it again. It didn't seem to mind the attention. "...So no water?" After leaving their camp that morning, the path seemed to go away from the stream, and they couldn't find where it had gone. They didn't want to circle back, naturally, but it was a little worrying. The map in her pokédex didn't help, either.

"I didn't find any. I can only hope Harry found it."

"Vee-vee, snivy?" Whippy asked and gestured to the darumaka with his tail.

"If it belongs to someone else, we can't catch it. Duh. And plus... if I got a fire pokémon, it'd have to be a heatmor."

"A heatmor?" Kev asked.

"They're my favorite pokémon, and fucking awesome."

"That explains the stuffed one..."

"It was a gift!" she said defensively. It had gotten packed on the trip, and it wasn't as if she could just leave it somewhere. And with a reptile, a plant, a tiny bird, and a tiny furry thing, she was going to cling to whatever quasi-warm thing she could find.

"Snivy?"

"Daaa," it replied sleepily.

A loud bark cut across the scene, making both humans jump. Ree instinctively raised Sophia. Not moments later, a large stoutland bowled the pair of them over, eagerly rubbing his face all over Ree and making that weird growl-purr thing he liked to do. "Yorick! Get off!" Ree cried, panicked. He wasn't Scott, but he was just one step away. Too close for comfort!

"Stou!" he barked happily and clambered off, sitting in front of her, pleased as punch.

"Yorick, you stay away from me. Bad boy. Go back to Scottie."

"Scott—the one you're avoiding?" Kev asked sharply. She was about to nod when Vince burst onto the scene, too, knocking over Yorick and the darumaka. Shit—now she remembered, Scott had called her to tell her he'd gotten a new pokémon! The red thing was probably his, too!

"Egress! Whippy, haul ass!" Ree shrieked and without much more warning, bolted.

And just after, a teenage boy with a long, blond ponytail stumbled through the bushes, panting heavily. "You guys...! I just told you..." He placed a hand against a tree for support. "Oh hey... Found Barbeque! Good... job..."

Kev, rooted to the spot, looked for a quick and unnoticeable escape route. None found. Scott noticed him and cast a glare at his pokémon. The gigalith whined and ducked his head low. "Um."

"I'm sorry... They got away from me. Lost my darumaka," he replied with a gesture. Vince picked up said fire pokémon in his mouth and set him on his back. Barbeque seemed fine to stay there.

"That's... okay."

"...This is probably a really weird question, but did you see a tall girl around here? I'm looking for her. About my age, brown hair, probably screaming and waving some sort of blunt instrument around?" Certainly an apt description of Ree. Kev tried not to grimace and instead stood up, dusting off his jeans. Still no escape routes other than simply—and awkwardly—walking away.

"...Nope. It's just me."

"Oh. Well. Sorry, again." Then, turning aside to his pokémon, he hissed, "Guys, I told you not to run into strangers!"

"Stoutland, land land!" Yorick said excitedly.

"She was—?" Scott turned around to find an empty clearing; Kev booked it out of there the moment his back had turned. He narrowed his eyes. It stood to reason that Ree had traveling companions; she was a social creature by nature. He still wasn't sure why she was avoiding him and telling others to avoid him, but it was now a matter of pride. Donning his aviators, Scott surveyed the clearing once more. "...Okay then, we'll do this the hard way. Yorick, pick up her scent again."

-.-.-

Ree zigzagged, vaulting over low branches and bushes alike, Whippy in the trees above her. At her screaming, Harper swooped in with scared tweeting. "Pii? Pii-dove?"

"Harper, go back and see if you can see Scott! He has a stoutland and gigalith and darumaka with him!" She wasn't sure if the pidove knew what those were, but she'd at least seen a picture of Scott. Hopefully Kev had distracted him somehow. She was making so much noise she couldn't hear if anyone was following her or not.

It wasn't until she slipped off an unseen embankment and skidded down into a muddy little stream that she stopped running.

"...Ow."

"Vee-vee, snivy?" Whippy asked, concern clear in his tone, as he swung down from above. He landed neatly on a rock near her, tail quivering.

"I'm fine, I think. Muddy as shit, but yeah... Hey, isn't water supposed to throw people off the trail?"

By the time Harry and Kev found her again, Harper having led them to her, she and Whippy were covered in mud. There wasn't much to be said after that, since she found out that they had both had run-ins with her vagrant boyfriend. Wait—she was the vagrant. Whatever. They all knew what he looked like, so that was good. They knew who to avoid.

But he knew she was here, and close.

"Ugh, I did not want him to catch up so soon!" she growled, perched moodily on a rock while her companions refilled various water containers.

"Usually, when people find sources of water, they get cleaner. Not messier," Kev said calmly.

"He has a stoutland! He'll be tracking me by scent, I know it, and this throws them off! ...It works in the movies, don't fucking judge me."

"It does work, to a certain extent," Harry broke in. "But Ree, won't you feel all gross? Especially when that dries..."

She was already feeling disgusting. But her fear at being discovered and interrogated and spilling her guts outweighed that. "...It's essentially a mud mask. For my whole body. I'll have kickass skin."

And then she leaned over and retched into the water.

"Are you okay?" Kev asked in alarm, backing away from the stream. Thankfully, she'd been downstream from them.

"Too much running," Ree grumbled. Her stomach had been mildly hurting all morning, but it was easy to ignore. Or had been, she supposed. She had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't the running, but it made for a good excuse. ...Right, she'd have to tell the minccino her deep, dark secret at some point, too. After she got named. Wait, did I ever tell Harper? Ree couldn't actually remember. She'd caught her just before meeting Harry, and hadn't had much alone time since...

"And now you look dazed," Kev noted, hand pressed against her forehead. "You're not running a fever..."

"I'm fine. Just too much running in too short of time." She jerked away from his touch. Whippy was following at her feet with sympathetic whines, but she didn't want his sympathy. She just wanted to be away from Scott and stop feeling icky. She leaned over and dry-heaved onto the rocks near the stream. Not much came up. Was morning sickness actually this bad?

"Was it the meat last night? Maybe it was undercooked, or it was bad, or maybe you're allergic to something else, gosh..." Harry fretted over her, pressing her damp sleeve against Ree's muddy cheek, and her sympathy was slightly more tolerable.

"Maybe," Ree lied. Her stomach felt settled now, at least. Not that there was anything else to throw up.

"Tonight, a vegetarian dinner, then!" Kev declared, pleased with this development. "I'll cook, if your sewaddle would be kind enough to gather herbs again."

"O-Oh, um, sure." Hattie, in her arms, didn't look quite as happy at being volunteered. "I'm sorry, Ree. I know it's terrible to get sick while out on routes... We're only about a day from Nacrene. Do you want to go back?"

"I don't have Ebola!" Ree squawked and stood up straight. "I'm fine! Private Ree Majors, reporting for duty, here to kick ass! I'm not sick, and even if I was, I don't have anything else to get on my shoes. We have our water now, right?"

"Yes..."

"Then let's get moving!"

"If you're sure..."

She was definitely sure. The more distance they could put in between her and Scott, the better. Knowing he was so close was doing nothing for her psyche, she noticed, or her emotions. His team wasn't exactly built for speed, but they were strong enough not to get caught up in random battles, and Yorick could easily follow her scent. Hopefully the mud worked. Even a little bit.

It wasn't until an hour passed that she began to relax. Not that she wasn't expecting him to jump out of the bushes and cart her off or something, but he hadn't caught up yet. That was a good sign. Ree was still on edge, however, and the dried mud flaking off of her skin and clothes wasn't doing much for her mood. Lala came back long enough to realize her trainer was annoyed at the world and then bounced of again. Harper stuck closer, though, and Whippy seemed genuinely concerned for her health.

So did Harry and Kev, for sure, but her snivy knew a key detail that they didn't.

The minccino was mostly put in her pokeball for the day, since Ree didn't quite want to do the new pokémon thing in the middle of the forest. She seemed nice enough, but she could get lost, or hurt, or Lala could act aggressive again. And she still didn't have a name. Lala was gone for most of the day, and Harper wandered off twice, but came back within the hour. Whippy stuck close. It looked like his protective instincts had kicked back in.

True to his word, Kev made dinner that night. He had some rice, and then Visoka and Hattie were sent out to collect various plants. Ree offered to let her pokémon help, too, but they waved her off. Whippy needed his medicine and usually was a little loopy afterward, and Lala demonstrated pretty quickly that she didn't know edible from inedible plants for humans. Ree was left with her team and an unnamed minccino.

"Mi... Mi... No... Chee..." Kev's suggestion about using some sort of sound was a good basis. It was the best idea available, anyway. "No... Cheeno? Mimi? Mino? Ugh, no... Ah, ee, la, loo," she listed off. Straying away from the minccino's species, but sounds were sounds. "Lula! Wait, no, too close to Lala."

"Lila? Lola?" Kev remarked.

"No—too close to Lala! Trying to get away from that. Back to M names..." Ree hung her head and glared at the pokeball in her lap. The only good thing about this situation was that Scott still hadn't caught up. (She waited a beat to make sure he didn't at that precise moment out of karmic spite.) She'd had the minccino for an entire day, interacted with her a little, and was more or less fine with her being part of the team. But she needed a name. Ree planned on getting a naming book in Castelia, but that was still a couple days away. She wanted to be able to use her and call her by name before then.

"Mina?" Harry recommended.

"Mi-something... I don't know. This is hard. Minnie, Michi, Miki, Mika, Mi..."

"Vee-vee?"

"No, I'm not naming her 'vee-vee'."

"Pii?"

"There are several things wrong with that vocalization as a name, Harper."

"Scott."

"That's an even worse idea."

"Are you set on a Mi-name?" Kev asked. She nodded. "Hmm."

"I want something kinda cute, since she is cute. Sweet, maybe. I don't know much else about her yet," she said.

"Cute, huh. What about Mitzi?" Harry suggested.

"Mitzi!" It sounded cute. And moreover, Ree was rapidly losing patience with the name game. "Mitzi, I like that. It works. I'm done now." She fished out her pokédex, flipped it open, and tapped the screen. It was still asking her for a name. Before she could change her mind or something could change it for her, she entered in 'Mitzi', and it was finalized. Ree sighed, pleased, and stowed the machine once more.

As Kev finished up dinner, clearly proud of the strange, obviously foreign dish he produced, Ree released Mitzi to eat, too. "Min?" she inquired politely.

"You're Mitzi, and I'm Ree. Pleased to meet you." Ree scratched her behind her large ears and Mitzi gladly pressed up against her hand. She now officially had four named pokémon to work with. She would have to get stronger to catch up to the rest of the team, but they were in an area with plenty of wild pokémon. Hopefully she'd be caught up before Castelia.

Dinner passed uneventfully. It was much less awkward than the night before, and Kev was a decent enough cook. The food sat better in Ree's stomach, too. She was beginning to wonder what had happened to Scott, though. She couldn't think of any reasons why he hadn't caught up during the day. The trees and foliage were thick enough around them to block out most of the firelight, and he had probably stopped for the night, too, but he could've caught up with them. Surely.

Not that she wanted to see him, of course. But she didn't want anything bad to happen to him or his team, either. She wished he'd just go home or something, or go off to a different part of the region. Now would be a perfect time for him to go visit his dad and let her run through the western half of Unova on her own.

Ree drifted off to sleep that night, amazed that Mitzi could put off so much warmth. She was like a furry little heater.

She had a strange dream. It involved those multicolored ponyta from that cartoon Whippy and Lala were so enamored with, except they were all telling her she needed to love and tolerate more. Ree remembered some sort of level up sequence in which she gained Sophia as a sword—dream logic—but then got thrown into pitch black water by some sort of knight in red and black.

And then, upon hitting the water, Ree woke up uncomfortably. She needed to pee, and badly. Kev and Harry were asleep, and the fire was one faintly glowing ember half-buried under some dirt. Checking her phone, she saw that it was just past midnight. She felt too hot, sweaty and icky, in her sleeping bag. Maybe getting a hot-blooded, furred pokémon hadn't been a great idea. Or maybe she really was getting sick.

She slithered out of the sleeping bag, murmuring something to Whippy as he stirred, and waddled off a ways into the forest. She was aware of wild pokémon probably watching her, but she was too sleepy to care. Even out in the cool air, she felt too warm, and her makeshift pajamas were sticking to her in awkward places. She pulled her shirt off of her chest, giving her poor boobs some air, and then squatted down to relieve herself.

Except something was wrong.

Sleepy Ree was not a smart Ree. It took her several seconds of staring to realize what she was looking at. The feeling and sight were not unknown to her, but they were out of place, and it took her a couple moments to realize why. There was blood in her panties.

"...Harry," Ree croaked, stumbling back up to her feet. She pulled her pants up—fuck, stained clothes, something else she was familiar with—but there should not be blood there because of—"Harry!" It came out as more of a panicked squeak that time around.

"Mm?" Ree practically fell upon her before Harry got up. Rubbing her eyes, hair a mess, she asked, "Wha...? What is it, Ree?"

"HarryI'mbleedinghelpme."

"What...?"

She couldn't get much else out than that first, rushed statement before she burst into dry sobs. That certainly woke Harry up, and she pulled Ree over to her, rubbing her back, but clearly concerned.

"What is it? A-Are you okay? Are you sick again?"

"I'm bleeding," Ree gasped out.

There was a beat of silence. "...Oh." Then, more silence as Ree fought for breath. She couldn't be bleeding—that couldn't be her period. She'd taken half a dozen tests and all of them had told her, firmly, pregnant. The only other cause of bleeding she could think of—Harry began rummaging around in her backpack, beside her pillow, with her other hand still rubbing Ree's back. "I think I have some, um, th-things in my backpack..."

Kev awoke from the noise, sitting up, and said something in a thickly accented foreign language. Then, a moment later, said, "What's going on?"

Harry was her friend. She didn't want anyone outside of her team to know, but Ree could nearly stand telling Harry. Harry was grounded, and safe, and reasonable. Kev was a foreign, albeit charming, man and she didn't want to tell him. He wasn't a bad guy, really, but she hardly knew him. This was supposed to be a secret mission. She didn't want to tell every person she happened to travel with.

But Harry was looking at her with clear concern, and this was a very real and very pressing problem. In a guilty whisper, Ree finally said it aloud to someone else. Not herself in the mirror, not her pokémon. "I can't be bleeding. I'm pregnant."

-.-.-

Next Chapter: What happened to Scott? What's going to happen to Ree? Nothing pretty, on either end.