As Eris Halla sits at the pool side, a chilly cold slowly approaches from her side.

A small Snom wearing sunglasses wiggles over the floor towards her at a snail's pace, cool as a cucumber thanks to its icy cocoon. It turned up its sunglassed gaze at her, before squealing a little salute.

"Oi, away from the water, Daran." Came a familiar voice as a few steps came by, a body dropping into the pool's water shortly after. It was long before the familiar visage of Doug broke the water's surface, straw hat and scuba headset on display as he threw his arms over the edge of the pool, leaning against it. "'Sup Eris! How ya been?"

Off into the distance, she would probably be able to recognize the Scizor lazily floating in the water, flapping its wings every so often. Presumably, the water bug outside of the pool nearby, constantly spraying playful baby pokemon with Soak to keep them cool, was one of Doug's as well.

"Hoenn's heat gets a little crazy, don't it?"

---

TAG: Eris Halla

Lo and behold, the past of two whole days or so ago caught up to Eris, absolutely terrifying in its friendly grin and silly get up.

To Reiner's flash of teeth, Doug offered a casual two fingered salute.

"Ya can say that again; even the fields didn't get this hot in summer." He said with a groan, sinking his shoulders deeper into the water, shying away from the burning rays of the sun.

If he noticed her wince, he certainly didn't say anything.

"Pretty good; got my ass whooped by Hideo Kino earlier today; couldn't decide if my pride was wounded or overflowing, so I came 'ere to do both." He said, gesturing to his snom to come closer as he spoke. Soon as it was within reach, he picked it up and put it onto his nape, sighing in relief. "Much better."

A comfortable (on his side anyway) settled between the two, the youth's eyes fluttering shut as he rested his head between his arms.

"Oh! Yeah, I nearly forgot; Hideo's worried 'bout'cha, so give'im a call whenever ya got time, eh?"

---

TAG: Eris Halla

"Why wouldn't we be?" Doug said with a laugh, reaching over to pat Eris Halla head, ruffling her hair.

Doug pouted as he heard of her own defeat, ruffling her hair further.

"Don'cha worry 'bout that, shortstuff. You'll get 'im next time. Course, I gotta say the same to him next I see 'im." He said with a wink and a chuckle. "I'm glad ya decided to participate in the tournament too."

After he went and publicly sponsored her, he would have been pretty sad if she didn't show up. And his chances of not making it last at the Gym Leader's bet would have been halved at best, too.

After a moment, he yawned, looked up at her face, noticed her deep, worried pensiveness... and snorted.

"What'cha looking like that for anyway?" He asked casually, picking his nose jokingly. "... it about the Cycling Pass?"

He casually pulled out... nothing, though he still flicked it, before smirking.

"Ya do know kids like you can't be held accountable for anything that happened there, right?" He said with a wink. "Specially when we all cover for ya and don't mention any of it."

Her 'teacher' though? That guy was toast, soon as Doug found his ass.

Suddenly, the youth's headwear popped up and off his hair, revealing a little mass of mercury-like metal woobling in place, it's one solid piece a golden nut wearing the youth's straw hat.

"Oi Slime, stop that." The youth said, reaching over to gently drag his finger over the pokemon's nut head, the little bunch of slime cooing as it leaned up against his digit. Doug grinned. "Don'tcha worry, I saw a scrap heap on the way here. We'll make a stop there 'fore going for our next match."

A moment later, the youth blinked, before looking at Eris.

"Uh, don't panic. This cutie is A-ok." He said, before grinning wide at Eris. "Turns out we didn't really kill 'em all! Just kinda... put 'em on a long sleep. Crazy, right? These little guy came outta my clothes while I was on laundry duty."

As the little Meltans waved and wiggled at each other, Doug smiled softly, thankful towards Eris' good friend; hopefully he would get to meet them some day and thank them properly.

Plucking the little Meltan off his head, he gently placed it at the edge of the pool- were naturally, it immediately scrambled for Eris' lap, wanting to wiggle closer to its kin.

"I'm guessin' Hideo's gonna be finding one in 'is close pretty soon too." Doug said, eyeing the two as they played, somewhat surprised that Eris had one of her own as well. "Not too sure how I feel 'bout that; he was pretty naughty that day."

Being sassy and being bratty were two different things, and Hideo Kino certainly made the distinction sharp. He would rather the boy wasn't rewarded for being overly reckless- hypocritical as that might be, given Doug's own history.

Do as I say, not as I do, blah blah.

Doug simply tilted a brow at Eris' doubt, grinning.

"Nothing really happened, Eris." He said simply, ruffling her hair once more. "We got there, met cute mons, ran into trouble, fought for our lives, and came out as well as we could. And I've been meaning to thank ya. You kept Hideo safe while it all went down. I'm really thankful for that."

He had heard it from Josh Dragomir of course- her escape, the exchange leading up to it.

Eris' orphaned status had always been somewhat clear to him, but that had more or less made him fully realize things. Perhaps she had been able to tell for him as well.

As Eris began to apologize, he plucked his hat off his head, before settling it atop hers.

"Ya don't need to apologize, Eris; Kids are allowed to make mistakes. God knows I make 'em every day." He said, grinning. "Just try n' rely more on yer friends in the future, eh? I got heated and stressed then, but they would've gone over my dead body 'fore I let 'em do anythin' to ya."

Josh's too; probably Eva Morales's as well, if she heard of the League trying to question a child. They weren't bloody rockets- to put a small kid through that kind of stress was absolutely forbidden.

"If ya ever are in trouble, ring me up. Hideo Kino, Andy Blackadder, Ruby Walker, Arashi Akiyama- We lived through a lot together! Ya got all of us to fall back on if anythin' happens. We'll do our best to help ya out one way or another- Even if it's dealing with that kinda mess. Yer our friend after all."