“You...sure we’re at the right place, Pom?”

“Pom!”

Hideo didn’t know how long he’d been walking. The GPS app on his phone said he found the place, but he didn’t expect the driveway to be this long. Pom was guiding him along by hand, but shouldn’t they have found the door by now?

At last, they found some steps. Pom was careful to guide him up the steps, though he still tapped away with his cane to make sure he wouldn’t trip over something unexpected. Pom was the one who knocked on the door when they finally reached it, the two patiently waiting for it to be opened.

Once the door was opened, he recognized those noises immediately. He had a Ribombee of his own, after all.

“Nice to meet you too, Mr Ribombee!” Hideo said, waving to the little bug. “This is Andy’s house, right? I just wanna make sure I’m going in the right house.” He stood at the front of the door, waiting for someone he could actually understand to come down - even as he heard the Ribombee get up close to his face (he could even feel the wind off its wings on his face).

To his fortune, the Ribombee caught on to his disability, opting to speak to Pom instead. She nodded, gently pushing Hideo inside the house. He was a little hesitant, but had confidence that Pom wasn’t making a mistake here.

Hideo caught on to what Pom meant when she patted the zipper on his jacket. He took his jacket off, handing it over to Pom - who’d generously hand it over to the Ribombee.

“You here, Andy?” Hideo asked aloud - noting the echo to his voice. The long driveway had been a pretty strong hint to the scale of this house, but hearing it still left him in awe.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo patiently waited, smiling. He’d been too amazed by the echo to consider that maybe, he shouldn’t have been shouting in someone’s house. But he’d been caught off-guard by what kind of place Andy lived in. He didn’t expect him to be this loaded.

He was tempted to shout again, just to hear the echo once more. But Pom had heard the Ribombee loud and clear; when Hideo opened his mouth again, a nice big tail-hand covered it up, muffling his words. She hadn’t used much force - he could easily push it away, but he got the message. “Fiiiiine, I’ll be quiet ‘till he gets here.”

He could only assume that’s what the Ribombee flew off to do anyways. All that he could do was stand around and listen to that clock tick away.

Until something else made some noise - a Yamask. Another Pokemon that lived in this house? Well, not too surprising - there were a few running around his house too. “Hello there!” he said, waving towards where he heard the Pokemon talk, staying where he was.

Though he didn’t expect it to approach them. Flying, he could more easily perceive, whether it was from the sound of flapping wings or the feeling of wind brushing against his body. But floating? Unless they were babbling along, he wouldn’t know where they were. He could only tell where the Yamask was once it was patting Pom, and when it was right in his face smushing his cheeks until it looked like he was going to kiss someone.

But before it could get too uncomfortable, his savior appeared - referring to the Yamask with an odd term. “Your uncle’s a Pokemon?” Hideo asked aloud, looking up to where he heard Andy. Took him a solid moment to realize it was probably just a nickname. “Didn’t know you were part Pokemon~” he added, that grin on his face attempting to pretend that he was in on it the whole time.

Maybe he was channelling Doug a little there.

“So are we gonna be doing it up there? Or down here?” Hopefully down here; with high up Andy sounded, there would be a lot of stairs for him to climb, even with Pom’s help. “Didn’t know you even lived in a place this big. I could only dream of living somewhere like this!”

Andy Blackadder

Oh.

Some Pokemon had unique origins; ghost-types in particular had a habit of being born outside of the usual “leave a couple Pokemon together until an egg ‘mysteriously’ appears” method. Hideo got what Andy meant the moment he mentioned Yamask were reincarnations; this actually was his uncle, just turned into a Pokemon after something happened.

At least, that’s what Hideo assumed Andy would explain. He was more preoccupied listening to Andy’s footsteps, trying to gauge how many steps it’d take to get all the way up there. But between attempting to look like he was listening (mostly just by nodding periodically) and Andy’s speech, he lost track of the exact number. But it was definitely a lot.

He really hoped Andy wouldn’t ask him to climb those stairs.

Dammit. He did. Hideo’s body tensed up for a moment, but he calmed down quick; didn’t want Andy to feel bad. And not like he couldn’t climb them.

At least Andy wasn’t upset about his little joke.

Hideo offered a little wave to the affectionate Yamask, who was whisked away by the Ribombee butler. “I’m...ok with stairs.” He really didn’t like them. Even the ones in his house. It was why he lived on the first floor when his siblings lived on the second. “I got Pom here to help me if I need it. It shouldn’t take me too long to climb.”

“Besides, if I can’t climb stairs, I definitely won’t be that good of a dancer, right? It’s just going to be the ones you came down from, right?” He could get up them, but it would take a while; even with Pom’s help, he’d have to go from step to step, one at a time, while holding on to the railing.

Hopefully, Andy was planning to do this somewhere on this floor.

Andy Blackadder

"Two floors and a basement ain't too special; my house has that too!". A little jest to relieve his stair anxiety - his house was considerably smaller, and there wasn't nearly as much open space. Which was something he actually liked: made it easier to tell where everything was. "Though I only stick around the first floor if I can help it; everything I need is down there."

The mention of outdoor heat didn’t deter Hideo at all. Maybe Andy was less comfortable with the heat, but to him, this was the norm. And it sure beat having to climb up (what he assumed to be) so many stairs. "I don't mind practicing outside; it's where I gotta go whenever I'm training my Pokemon." His house didn't have much open space on the inside - he had to use the backyard for that kind of stuff, unless he was lucky and could leave the house. "You don't gotta worry about me sweating - even when I got this sweater!"

He wouldn't dare let such an easy pun go to waste.

Once he felt Andy’s hand brush against his own, he didn’t hesitate to grab on - a firm grip, but not too tight; he knew pretty well just how much force was best to hold on without being uncomfortable. “You may~” he said, smiling.

His Ambipom would follow from Hideo’s free side, still keeping an eye out in case he tripped on something.

Of course, Hideo wouldn’t just be silent on the way there. "So you live here for long, Andy? Everyone I know would do just about anything to live in a place like this!" He wasn't going to outright ask if this was Andy's parents' house; he wasn't having the best luck asking people about their parents lately.

Andy Blackadder

At least it sounded like that pun joke a rise out of Andy.

Seemed like he made the right move with how he worded his question; he was a lot more careful with asking people about their parents lately, after that faux pas with John Sullivan . Not that it outright confirmed anything had happened to Andy’s parents, but not a lot of kids moved regions on their own.

And it wouldn’t be a one-sided conversation. “Yeah. Born and raised in Slateport. Been at the same house my whole life. Not as big as this place, and it feels even smaller when you’re sharing with four siblings.” At least he had the luxury of having his own room. “But I guess that kinda worked for me; easier to know where everything is when it’s all closer together. And a couple of my siblings moved out, so we got more wiggle room. And more space for my Pokemon to run around!” Couldn’t resist grinning at that one. Not like he had all his Pokemon loose in his home, though his room could get cramped some nights.

Getting down the steps was easy enough. A lot easier than however many steps it would’ve taken to go up a floor. Even so, his Ambipom followed him closely, standing at the side opposite of Andy, just in case. Just by the sound of his footsteps, Hideo could tell he wasn’t walking on wood anymore - it was pretty obvious he was on stone now.

“I bet it is! Best I got at my house is a backyard, and that’s just fenced in. Not like the streets are the best view anyways.” He never heard anyone say much good about how Slateport looked. Always more about the areas around it. This view probably put them to shame. “It’s nice of your aunt to let you stay here!”

Of course, they weren’t here to admire views he couldn’t experience.

His hand free, Hideo took a few steps ahead. “So I...don’t really have much experience with dancing. ‘specially not with another person.” Which was what they were here for, though it didn’t hurt to lay out his (lack of) experience. “I’ve gotten a little bit with that Oricorio I caught last time we went out. But it’s not really the kind of dancing I can do with another person.”

Andy Blackadder

Hideo couldn't resist snorting at how quickly Andy went from politely guiding him around and giving him advice, to cussing out whoever it was that would be playing music. "A real maestro?" Hideo exclaimed, barely managing to contain his laughter behind a grin, "Didn't know we were gonna have some live music!"

That was only spoken in half-jest; he wouldn't be too surprised if there really would be live music, considering how loaded his aunt seemed.

But once he heard that Gengar noises, he realized it was just a joke. The brief hope that it was a music-playing Gengar fell through once he heard the clicking of buttons. Still, he offered a wave to the big ghost - never hurt to greet Andy’s main Pokemon (at least, he assumed this was Epitaph).

Hideo didn’t resist as Andy helped guide his hands, but it did lead to a realization; there was a significant height difference between the two of them. The only other time he'd physically gotten this close to Andy was when they first met - when Andy tackled him out of the way of an attacking Pokemon. But now it was hard to miss that eight inches of difference between them, after feeling where Andy's shoulder and hip were.

"Yeah...just...you're tall," was all he could think of to say, slightly blushing as he realized just how weird of a thing that was to say out of nowhere.  "Didn't think you were that much taller than me."

Better do something before he dug himself deeper. 

When the music finally started, Hideo began to move - just going from side-to-side to the rhythm, with no attempt to try any other maneuver. He didn’t really know how to do them right anyways. “So when’d you learn to dance? Is that something that a lot of kids learn how to do in Galar?”

His Ambipom, meanwhile, was trying her best to stay close - while mimicking his foot movements. Epitaph wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on Hideo, though Pom was having fun mimicking their movements in the process, that unerring smile on her face.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo couldn’t take in the glory of Epitaph’s display, but Pom certainly did; she offered back a pair of birds, courtesy of her tails. She was still grinning - at least she was having fun with it. Best he did that with just her around; a lot of Hideo’s other Pokemon (that understood the gesture) would’ve been less amused.

“Maybe. We’ll just have to wait and see~” Hideo’s only hope there was that he grew slowly; too big a change would throw off how he felt around for things. “But I’m sure you’re still growing too. You’re not that much older than me, right?” He’d guessed Andy was only a little older than him - until he felt how tall he was. Now he was unsure.

With that out of the way, it was time to actually start dancing. He wasn’t the kind of person to trip over his own feet, and they were starting with a slow song, but he still had to be extra careful here; he didn’t know how even the ground was on this patio, and he had to guess where Andy’s feet were relative to his. Even just going from side-to-side left him a little uneasy.

Not to mention he probably looked like a dweeb, just staring straight (through closed eyes) at Andy’s chest.

At least Pom was staying relatively close, in case anything did happen. Not that he was aware.

"You know, I can relate to you with the whole dancing thing." Yeah, this could distract himself a bit. "My big sister got me into singing. She heard me singing to some music I heard on a tv show when I was little. She's been pushing me to learn more stuff ever since - stuff that she likes to listen to. And to be fair, she listens to some good stuff." Though a lot of it was stuff nobody else seemed to have heard of before. Weird. "That one song I sung at that sushi place? She taught me that one."

Andy Blackadder