Orion's still getting used to the jarring experience of being instantly transported from one place to the next; he braces a hand against his temple as his head spins. Teleporting to Mauville was the quickest way, but he'd be damned if he didn't hate the way his stomach churned with the sensation.

He registers shouting and chaos, anxiety spiking as he wonders if Circe had missed their mark and teleported them into someone's apartment by mistake.

"After her!"

He glances around wildly, but the attention is not focused on Orion nor his Alakazam. Instead, focus seems to be scattered, chaotic—

And then a vaguely familiar blur dashes across his eye-line, angry voices in hot pursuit.

Annie?

"Thief!" someone yells, and it clicks.

"Circe, can you send us after her?"

His voice drops to a near whisper that only his Alakazam would hear. She closes her eyes and clacks her spoons together: a third eye opens, shimmering and ethereal, a miracle eye that locks onto the fleeing form to establish a psychic connection.

Orion loses Annie amidst the crowds and chaos, but Circe does not.

Without opening her eyes, Circe concentrates her psychic energies and teleports herself and Orion to the mouth of the alley where Annie had run to, effectively blocking her exit. Orion's hand catches the wall, brick grazing knuckles as he steadies himself.

He notices Annie's hand hovering dangerously over a pokeball.

"You going to use that?" He glances over his shoulder as the shouts grow louder, then back to her. There's a firm, serious edge to his tone. "I'm going to need an explanation, and fast."

---

>)
Annie Mei

She took two steps back the way she came. Danger was almost certainly waiting for her, but it was better than waiting in a dead end for somebody to force her hand. But of course, things couldn’t be that simple. Her enemy appeared out of nothing, a trainer warped in by his psychic aid. Frustration almost settled on her face, until she realised that he wasn’t just any old trainer. She knew him. He knew her.

Fuck.

She didn’t know whether to be shocked or angry. Any old trainer, she could have fought, maybe even beaten, if it meant freedom for another day. Attaching a face to her misdeeds made it that much harder to commit them; it was why she kept her head down when she needed to make some extra coin. If she did that much to avoid the face of a stranger she’d never meet again, seeing one that had shown her nothing but kindness…

It was no surprise that she was stunned into inaction, at least for a moment. Then he made demands of her, and something snapped her out of it. Adrenaline, perhaps, or a stubborn determination. Survival skills, maybe. Her hand didn’t move from her Pokeball, her last resort if he made a move. The pause left him enough time to catch a curious detail, if he gave it a moment’s thought. He’d recognised her so quickly because she hadn’t changed since the day the met. Her clothes were more worn and faded from her adventures, but it was undoubtedly the same outfit she’d had on that night in the forest.

“What do you want me to say?” The words were more malicious than she’d meant them to be; the remorse in her eyes said as much, if he caught them before she looked away. Guilt had started to creep in too. “My family needs to eat. I need to eat. I’ll struggle through it if I have to, but I won’t watch them starve if there’s something I can do about it.” She waited for the retorts: ‘not good enough’, ‘nothing justifies this’, ‘scum of the earth’. She’d heard it all before, if not in her own head, then from too many faces she’d chosen to forget. She doubted any of them had been in her shoes. “You would too.”

❤ wizz

Many things are different about the Annie that Orion corners in the alley: the ferocity in her challenge, the look of a cornered animal in her eyes, Orion's perspective of her character.

One thing, however, is the same: her clothes. It might not have struck him as odd under any other circumstances — people wore their same clothes from time to time — if not for the wear-and-tear and the guilt he'd seen before she looked away.

Orion Lykos isn't a stupid man.

Shouts grow louder, footsteps pounding pavement as the girl's pursuers close in on their location. The time has come for him to make a decision, and it's not, perhaps, the one Annie is expecting.

"Do you trust me?" His tone remains serious, but its edges have gone soft. There's something resigned in his voice, a disappointment. "This conversation isn't over, but we can't have it here. Circe'll take us to a place we won't be found."

The look he gives her is clear: it's up to you.

If the angered mob were to find them, it would be out of Orion's hands. It would mean his job to defend her, then.

---

>)
Annie Mei

There really wasn’t much time for her to make her case; some small part of her was glad that he realised that. The rest of her was a few bad words away from fight or flight. It was fortunate, then, that the ranger steered clear of harsh words, or any final judgement for that matter. It still hurt to hear him talk that way, see that look in his eyes, but it could have been so much worse.

Furious voices. Funny, how those had become the least of her troubles for a moment. If the hunters found them, her fate was sealed. If she went with him, her odds were… at least a little bit higher. It wasn’t too clear, and that unsettled her. It didn’t matter how much she was bothered when it was her only real choice.

Annie stayed quiet – a rare achievement, if not for the circumstances that had caused it. She walked, spurred on by the sound of hurried footsteps drawing much too close for comfort. She offered a hand and a brief look. The defeat of a girl that knew her game was up, and remorse for her crime. Or at least, getting caught for it. Still, almost at odds with all else, a silent stubborn resolve held out.

❤ wizz

Orion is guarded upon her approach, like he's not sure if she's going to cooperate or attack. When she holds out her hand, he relaxes and gives his Alakazam a single nod. She knows what he's thinking.

In an instant, they're transported from back-alley-ground to the roof of a nearby building, wind tugging insistently at Orion's hair as he once again regains his composure. Circe spins her spoons around in her deft hands and finally opens her eyes, watching the two trainers with an unreadable stare.

"Thanks, Circe."

Orion turns to Annie, expression warring between disappointment and a begrudging sympathy. Her earlier words stick with him: you would, too. Thing is, he's never been in that situation, never had to make the tough choices that had led them to this awkward confrontation.

"You're going to get yourself in a lot of trouble," he says, at last. He sits down on a nearby protrusion on the roof, some sort of metal duct. "What were you planning to do if they caught up to you, fight? That'd only make it worse."

---

>)
Annie Mei

Annie stumbled, and the hand that was meant to be arming her moved to her head instead. Those weren’t the circumstances she’d expected her first teleportation to be under, but she wasn’t about to complain about being rescued. The beginning of a thanks rested on her lips until she looked up. Saw his face. She wondered if his rage would have been easier to handle. Sure, the betrayal would hurt, but she could have been angry back. Disappointment made it hard for her to even meet his gaze. It felt so much worse to know she was being judged, for all the right reasons.
But she still had to try to defend herself.

“Illusions, earth walls, sandstorms, tunnels. I don’t have to fight, I just need to get out of the area.” Those words weren’t the ones of somebody that had had just had their first tangle, and as she went on, it became clear that she didn’t plan for it to be her last. “I know.” There was a bitter edge to her voice – one she quickly tried to cover up as she went on. Even then, the joy that Annie carried in every word the last time they met was long gone. “I don’t enjoy this. I’m not proud of it. Nobody knows better than I do that it’s the wrong thing to do… But it’s the right thing for me.”

She paused. Bit her lip. Realised it had been much too long since she had told anybody her circumstances in any detail. Her Pokemon couldn’t understand, and it wasn’t exactly polite dinner talk. An exception could be made. He deserved to know. She owed him that much.

“I told you before that I’m not from here. Even in Kanto, I didn’t have much, and that was before Rocket came and burned that to the ground. The home we were in, I mean. Fire didn’t wait for me to pack, so all we had were the clothes on my back.” A hollow laugh escaped her; she hadn’t meant to rhyme, but the words slipped out anyway.

“I’ll… skip the details. Eventually, we found Fortuna, back when she was small. Took a while, but we managed to sneak onto a ship. I’m pretty small, and Kit’s good with illusions, so we hid on board until it docked in Hoenn. It’s been easier here, in some ways. No Rocket and all. But I’m a 'little girl' in a new region. No money, no papers. Anybody that could’ve vouched for me is either dead or thinks I’m dead, probably. There aren’t many jobs going for somebody like that. Not the kind you’d want me to do, at least.” A slow sigh followed. It was, in a weird way, relieving to talk to somebody. Whether or not he’d take kindly to her words was another story. She wasn’t counting on it.

“So I don’t have a lot to offer, and that’s on a good day. Except my Pokemon. They’re the best family that I’ve ever had, and I’ll die before I let them be treated like anything less.” There was that resolve again, in her eyes and her words. A dogged determination to keep going, to fend for what was hers. “They’re everything to me. And I know that it sounds sappy and stupid, but it’s true!” Moist eyes finally met his, if he was still looking.

“If it was just me, I could find another way to take care of myself, but I’ve got a lot more mouths to feed. If this is what I have to do to keep them happy and alive, then-“ She’d all but said that she would keep going, but outright stating to a Ranger that she planned to continue being a criminal was bold, even for her. Red eyes drifted away from him again.

“I'm not proud of it... But if I have to be proud of something, then it’s keeping us going for this long.” There always had to be a silver lining. Something that made her struggles feel like accomplishments. At least that hadn’t changed.

❤ wizz

He's relieved, at least, to know that she wouldn't have sicced her Pokemon on those that had pursued her. He'd seen it before, criminals treating their Pokemon like weapons with which to defend themselves. The Pokemon often had to be put down, and the injuries sustained as a result of fending off such creatures were not a pretty sight.

He doesn't interrupt her as she speaks. In a way, it seems cathartic for her to explain her reasoning, and so Orion watches and listens with a quiet intensity.

She finally looks at him, eyes red and wet.

"It's not stupid."

It's the only thing he can think to say, thoughts whirling with everything she's told him.

"Then you'll keep doing it," he finishes, grimacing. "I know. That's what I'm worried about."

Not just because it was wrong — though that was certainly part of it — but because it was dangerous. If she stole from the wrong person, she could wind up facing worse problems than being arrested.

"I'm — not about to sit here and tell you it's easy to find another way." That would be insulting, especially after she'd poured her heart out. He could see by the shimmer in her eyes that this was tearing her apart, and Orion wasn't cruel. "But you can't keep going like this. You — from what I've seen, anyways, you're a good kid, Annie. Lame, I know, but..." He shrugs, unable to find better words. "I don't want the next I hear of you to be that you've been locked up or worse. And stealing... it might fill empty stomachs, but what about the people you're stealing from?" Should she still be looking at him, his gaze is steady but not unkind. "Can you honestly say that none of them needed the money? They could have kids, medical bills, debt — any number of things."

---

>)
Annie Mei

She was silent, staring at the ground. It’d been months since she’d broken, let another person see her tears. That wasn’t the day planned to break that streak. So she forced back the weakness, kept what pride she had left, even as every question he asked jabbed at her heart a little more. He didn’t have much to say about her supposed victims, and a lot to say about how he worried about her. If he’d meant to leave his mark on her, he was doing a fantastic job. If he was meaning to convince her, that was painfully effective too.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t considered what happened to her marks. She just tried awfully hard not to. “It’s Mauville. A big mall in a bigger city. Most of the people that come here aren’t struggling. They’re out on a shopping spree in the middle of the day instead of working.” She hadn’t had the chance to see what exactly she’d pilfered, but that seemed as good as time as any to check. Perhaps it could even prove her point.

The unassuming wallet was pulled out of her pocket; she showed no hesitation in opening it. Cards. Lots of cards, a license, a picture of a child. She grimaced and went for the largest pocket. Cash was the only thing that could have been useful to her, but there wasn’t much of it. She’d argue it was because everybody preferred cards. He’d argue that there might not have been much to begin with.

She stared at her ill-gotten gains, the conflict painfully clear in her eyes. Was she really prepared to pocket the cash, right in front of him? It was with a heavy heart that she realised she wasn’t. Both hands pushed the wallet shut, seemingly fighting each other more to do the deed. She was no closer to solving her problem, and there was no way she could try again in Mauville while they were looking for her…

But he’d called her a good kid. She’d forgotten until then how much she wanted to be a good kid.

She was slow to offer him the wallet, but he’d compelled her to do the right thing. “…I don’t hold onto them anyway. There’s a lot of stuff in wallets that must suck to replace, and I wouldn’t want to use any of them, even if I could. I’d get Blitz to drop it in front a lost and found or ranger station. Somewhere the right people would find it.” If the stolen goods found their way to their owner, a few missing notes would be an inconvenience, but far less than losing half a dozen cards and ID.

“I’m… sorry. I wasn’t planning to drag you into this. Obviously. A-and it’s really nice of you to not arrest me and everything.” At least, she hoped he didn’t have that in mind. “I haven’t been caught yet. Not for long. I don’t plan on it either, so don’t worry about it.” She forced a smile on, as if that made everything alright. There was no promise of change, no backup plan. “I’ll figure something out for tonight. It’ll be fine.” Her tone made it unclear whether she was trying to convince him or herself.

❤ wizz

He can tell she's waging a war in her mind: his logic versus her own justifications. So Orion keeps quiet and doesn't point out that he often did his own shopping during the middle of the day because rangers kept odd hours, and before he'd been elected to the council he could hardly be considered well-off. Certainly better off than Annie was, but he couldn't have said with honesty that he wouldn't miss an entire wallet full of money.

She examines the wallet, and Orion half expects her to pocket it once it's closed. It would be a bold move, sure, but...

... but she doesn't.

He'd kept himself as composed as he could throughout their interactions, trying not to let either sympathy or disappointment reign supreme. He was doing his best to be a neutral authority figure that could nudge her in the right direction, but relief flickers loud upon his features when she holds it out to him.

"Don't worry about it," he repeats, and his laughter is brief and strained. "You say that like I could in good conscience just let you go off and get yourself into trouble with a clear head."

But he also can't arrest her with a clear conscience, not after she'd told him why she'd done it. He knows that he should, that he could get in trouble if he didn't and someone found out, but... he'd meant what he said. She was a good kid.

"I'll buy you lunch," he says, in a tone that doesn't offer much room for argument. "And if you give the wallet to me, I can drop it off at the ranger station myself and say it was turned in by a civilian, or something. But we've gotta talk about the long-term, too. What have you tried, apart from the stealing?"

---

>)
Annie Mei

He was relieved. Of course he was. Any good person would be happy to see that she’d done the right thing, and Orion was nothing if not a good person. That was why he damn-near demanded that he'd sate her hunger, at least for a few more hours. They both knew that she was in no position to decline, and yet, she couldn't bring herself to celebrate the free food. In that moment, the best she could offer him was a smile. Small and bittersweet at best, but genuine nonetheless.

Then he asked of her other methods. She sighed. Dropped on half a smile. Gave up on even that. Walked around him. Plopped down on the oversized pipe beside him. “Lots. When the weather’s good, I go out hunting. For berries, not Pokemon. They’re not much for me, but they’re better than nothing. My smaller guys can live off them, no problem. But finding enough berries for seven mouths, three times a day…” The problem added up very quickly, to the point that she looked annoyed just thinking about it. "What's it called? A zero-sum game? Imagine that, but it's your entire day. So I had to find something a little less... draining."

“I think I told you about Fortuna before. Now that she’s evolved, she can lay eggs. They tasted really good at first, but I think anybody would get sick of any food if it was all they ate for weeks. Like, I actually feel a bit queasy if I eat them more than once in a while now. So no, I don’t have to be… doing this-“ He was the only one that had called it stealing. “but the alternative isn’t great either. I think the Camp thinks its old too. The way some of them look at me when that’s all I’ve got…” Her eyes flicked away, pain reflecting in them once again. She had to distract herself with something else.

“Sometimes I find jobs. Nothing permanent. Watch this field, deliver this package. I can get a bit of money out of that, but the jobs aren’t always… ‘good’. The kind of jobs you don’t ask questions about.” People like Cotillard had gained a lot from hiring people like her, and she still wasn’t entirely sure what her work had been for. “A lot of them ask for things just as bad as stealing, or worse. I try to avoid those kinds of people, but it’s not always as easy to know who the bad guys are.”

She shuffled around on the pipe, staring at the floor. She’d thought that she liked heart-to-hearts, but she was quickly learning that she only liked positive ones. The part where she had to share her insecurities and vulnerabilities? That made her think twice. It’d been too long since she’d talked about them – at least, with somebody that could say more than their own name… But she knew that she had to try.

“I don’t like asking for help. At all. There’s nothing strong about letting strangers know that you’re struggling. But sometimes things just get that rough. It can’t have been more than a month ago now. There was this big fancy party up on Mount Chimney. Somebody was giving away prize money to tire out this old man, and my eyes lit up. I tried to get these two guys to help me out. They looked pretty well-off, or at least comfortable. I had to suck it up and tell them ‘if I don’t get this money, I’m spending Christmas Day in a box.’”

She paused again, shut her eyes. She muttered the start of a curse, but didn’t bother to finish. “I can’t say I was surprised that they ignored that, but it still stung. Didn't get the money by myself. Obviously. So that’s about as well as that goes, most of the time. Did I miss anything you had in mind?” The words might have sounded sarcastic. If he looked at her, her face told a different story. Her head still tilted towards the ground, but her eyes watched him, furrowed and sad but just a little hopeful.

❤ wizz

Orion listens quietly and carefully, eyes trailing Annie all throughout her nervous pacing until she finally takes a seat next to him.

"The Aurorus Ball," he says at last, after a long pause to digest the information he'd learned. "That's the big party you were talking about, right? Where the avalanche hit and everyone had to evacuate?"

It had been on the news. Orion had been relieved that he wasn't one for parties.

He shakes his head. He's getting distracted; that's not the main point here.

"I'm sorry they ignored you. That's really fucking rude." Even if they hadn't wanted to get involved, Orion's of the opinion that they could have at least acknowledged her. "And random jobs can definitely be... rough. I take most of my jobs through the rangers, but even I've been roped into a couple I didn't feel right about, afterwards."

Cotillard comes to mind. The breeze is suddenly cold on the back of his neck.

He cants his head, thoughtful.

"Ever thought about trying to go through the rangers? I — don't how how old you are, I joined up when I was eighteen, but even a cadet's salary is better than nothing." It had allowed him to tough it out through the terror of breaking away from his family and moving out on his own. His first apartment had been an utter shithole, but it had been more of a home than his parents' place ever was. "You've got the guts for it, that's for sure. Not many random civilians'll charge up to a forest fire."

He offers her a quiet, genuine smile.

"Even if it's not your thing, you might still wanna check out the ranger job postings. We cast a line out for help whenever we're low on extra hands, and it's safer than trusting randoms."

---

>)
Annie Mei

The look of surprise told that he was spot on long before she spoke. It made sense, especially with the mention of the avalanche. She hadn’t had time or the resources to watch, but something like that must have made the regional news. “Yeah, that was the other reason that night sucked.” She hadn’t let it show. Not in front of the people that had spurned her, anyway. If she hadn’t learned to smile through her struggles, she would have been a very different person.

His mention of his employers perked her head up a little. “…Wow. You think I look that mature?” She almost smiled. Almost. Then she remembered that being mistaken for an adult wasn’t the kind of compliment she was looking for. And that she was with him because he’d caught her committing a crime. It wasn’t the best time for a joke, especially when he brought up her good deed. “I know what it’s like to watch your home go down in flames. I don’t want to see it happen to anybody else, if I can help it.” She fidgeted with her hands, staring at the ground ahead of them. One deep breath later, and she’d pushed away the negative thoughts. The day was bad enough without her dwelling on that.

“Yeah, rangers. Too young, they said… Though I guess there’s nothing to prove that now. I can ask again, but I’ve never seen a ranger close to my age, and I’m not sure anybody would trust one either. Fifteen, by the way.” She hoped that the great outdoors hadn’t weathered her face that much. “And pretty short on options, so I guess that’s better than nothing. I’ll try it.” It was the second-best news she'd heard that day, behind realising that she wasn't about to be arrested... And yet, she couldn't seem to muster up the usual enthusiasm for it.

❤ wizz

"It's a miracle everyone got out alive," Orion muses, grimacing. "I saw some of the footage, part of the roof caved in and everything."

Though it's hardly a situation they should be joking about, considering Orion had caught her red-handed in the midst of a crime, he doesn't fault Annie for the attempt at humour. It could very well be a nervous tic, and he lets it slide.

She's fifteen.

He can't help but to feel an overwhelming pity for her. She'd lost her home, moved to an entirely different region, struggled on the streets... and she wasn't even eighteen. He can't even imagine—

But maybe he could help?

"I know one of the Head Rangers," he says, after a pause for thought. "Laurence Anderson... I could maybe talk to him about it? Introduce you?" Sure, his boss could be a little bit prickly at times, but he struck Orion as a nice person below those layers. If he just met Annie, talked to her... maybe there was a chance. Besides, Orion had mentioned the girl who'd helped him fight the fires in his report. That had to count for something, right? "Most of the kids that get turned away for being too young probably aren't in your situation."

---

>)
Annie Mei