The only solace in today was the taller ranger standing a few feet from him, and the breeze that picked up and rode through the area every few minutes. Everything else? It sucked. Mint was not one for manual labor. In fact, he had overestimated how taxing just picking berries would be for him. His lower back hurt from bending down over and over. His legs hurt from walking around so much, and despite his best efforts with sunscreen and bowed sun hat, the sun has begun to scorch his fair skin a bright pink. Nevertheless, he persevered, and that was only because of the gentle conversation he held with his friend.

He barely noticed the shuffling in the bushes as he set down his half full basket with a soft grunt and stood up to stretch his arms over his head. “Uh..yeah just about!” he called back with a soft laugh, waving off any concerns. “I’m gonna be super sore tomorrow though…” he added with a wince as he dropped his arms back down and turned to watch the ranger work. “What about you? You look like you’ve barely sweat since we got here.” He added, complaining indirectly about his own lack of physical prowess. Mint doesn’t hear the rustling in the bushes continue, nor does he notice a pair of bright brown eyes and a twitching nose emerge from them near his basket. He definitely didn’t see a second pair of magenta ones dart forward and plant their black and white snout on a particularly juicy pecha berry. This only prompted the cream and brown zigzagoon to inch forward and begin to tug back a cheri berry for itself.

Nothing heavy? That was easy for him to say. He was built like a brick house! Meanwhile Mint…the heaviest thing he’d carried by himself was stacks of canvases to the dumpster. He felt the strain on his biceps, but he tried not to whine too loudly about it. Tried being the key word here. “I guess it could be worse…” he relented with a sigh as he swiveled his head around popping something in his neck. He paused; eyes open wide as Vic spoke up before realizing the pinkette was looking further down than usual. He managed to turn just in time to see a Galarian Zigzagoon rush off with a mouth full of berries while a normal Zigzagoon accidentally made off with his wicker basket.

“W-Wait what?!” Mint exclaimed; mouth open in a smile as he let out a confused laugh. What else could you do when you saw a poor wild pokemon run off, half trapped under your berry picking basket? It’d hit him later that the past hour of work he’d done was wasted. “Huh- Oh-! I’ll come with you, Vic! It was more than one of them!” Mint said, relishing the chance to take a break. If this really counted as one. “Don’t want its friend to attack you, right?” he added quickly as he turned to cover up their undemolished harvest, mainly Vic’s work. “Oh…I didn’t know…I feed pokemon a lot so I can pet them….” Mint added scratching his head, guilt plain as day on his face. It had worked for him for the most part. After all, that’s how he’d met Cacio all those years ago in the forest. Granted he’d been extremely lucky a feral pokemon as strong as Cacio hadn’t outright mauled him but whatever.

“Can’t believe it’s been an hour and you’ve scarred a wild Zigzagoon already, Vic.” The grunt added, teasing the ranger as he stepped over squished berries. He heard faint yelping and barking in the distance. Maybe the Zigzagoon had gotten even more stuck in place. “At least I get to see Ranger Wexler in action!!” he added trying not to make his friend feel too guilty.

“I guess you’re right…but they’re just so cute sometimes. They make these faces-!” Mint replied, thinking back to the many times a wild pokemon had probably taken advantage of him. “Like this one time! This wingull walked right up to me and pecked tapped my head with it’s beak-! It was so cute…and then it ate like half my ice cream before flying off….” The grunt lamented, trailing off as Vic continued. He nodded at the ranger before holding back a sigh. “I’ll always lure in the pokemon I wanna catch with food. It’s never failed me once! Cacio doesn’t count.” He stated grinning up at his friend before setting back to the task at hand. Right, a really spooked Zigzagoon stuck in his basket, and another one that might be ready to pounce on them if they got too close.

Mint looked at the trail, picking up a bruised pecha berry and carefully blowing off the dirty. He almost took a bite before remembering he should probably wash these before eating. He laughed at the shove before picking up another bruised berry that hadn’t miraculously burst or been squished. “Alright, aright!...Zigzagoon spooker…” With that he looked above the brush as Vic dropped down. The trees were sparse enough, but the ground was mostly hidden by hedge-like bushes and some tall grass. At the very least, there didn’t seem to be many brambles here. “Uhh…no?” he said, keeping his voice low in case they further startled their quarry.

As he said that a few birds seemed to fly out of nearby tree at the sound of a soft THUNK! Against bark. Mint turned his body in the direction of the sound, standing on his tip toes to see. “I- I think I see the wicker from here?” he said pointing and squinting towards the East. Just then, there seemed to be a muffle yip and the sound of something hitting bark again. “Do you see anything in the berry trail?” Mint asked.

Mint nodded, laughing at the thought. It had not crossed his mind that Cacio had at one point considered him prey while bumbling through the wilds of Sinnoh. “Yeah, but he’s a good boy! Followed me around a lot before he let me catch him.” In Mint’s mind, the Luxio had most likely figured out he was a human…and humans tended to have a lot of food on them or around them. “Aww Taffy!! That’s so cute. Curry must’ve smelled pretty good.” Mint had yet to experience something like that on the grounds that he couldn’t really cook for himself. Most pokemon interactions were on the chance that he stumbled onto them or vice versa and he was quiet enough to pull out a treat or two.

As Vic moved, his eyes darted from where he thought their quarry was to Vic and back. Only for a second later for Mint to clamp his jaws shut as he realized his friend was stripping. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t had the slightest bit of a crush on his friend when they’d first met, and by now that was far gone. But still, BUT STILL even if he was no longer an artist, he still had the eye of one and it was drawn to Vic’s washboard abs. No, he didn’t know how to wash clothes without a washing machine. Yes, he pulled out his phone to take photos, the Zigzagoon forgotten. He could apologize for it later. He held his breath; both form the sight and the careful nature that was working with wild pokemon. And as soon as he sees the cream and brown blur dart out, his phone let loose a series of soft clicks that both caught the tail of the Zigzagoon and its friend disappearing and then pointed squarely at Vic’s chest. After a moment, they turn off and Mint is grinning. “You redeemed yourself!! It looked ok when it ran off!” the breeder congratulated as he stepped closer to look at the remnants of his basket.

“Hope I don’t have to pay for that. They’ll understand…right?” He had some pictures to prove their story after all. He nudged the thing with his foot. “It might…well I can make do until we carry everything back. A shame it just cuts out loads in half or, like, less than half.” He said with a laugh as he pocketed his phone again and picked up the wicker mess.

“Memories! Duh!!” Mint replied as he busied himself pulling pieces of grass out of the wicker basket. “We saved a helpless Zigzagoon!! And they’re cute!! And we hung out again!!” the grunt added excitedly despite his unhurried movements. “We gotta take a photo together later to commemorate this too!” he added. It was all for the gram. Well, that was his excuse anyway. He wouldn’t tell Vic he didn’t have memories like this with friends, much less that he hadn’t ever had a lot of friends. Or any. That was kind of sappy and he didn’t feel like explaining how much of a loser he was. Money really couldn’t buy you everything.

“Yeah…but I can always come back another day. Berry picking is kind of fun!” Mint replied with a small shrug. Despite all the hard labor, and the loss of his hard work, he didn’t seem too perturbed. But that was just a side effect of being able to go out with a friend. “I’m thinking I should learn how to make jams, so even these crushed berries would be of use. Though…I’d have to be careful to not get dirt in them I guess…” he trailed off, unsure how that would work. “But anyway, let’s just head back for now before we lose anymore, ok?” the breeder added nudging his taller friend. He did his best to cover the rather large hole in the basket, tossing in a few of the berries they could save before beginning to head back with the ranger.