He's tired.

He's hungry.

It has been harder since Sootopolis. The results of which don't matter, not really, as crystal shifts under his skin like it belongs there. A dull ache deep in his bones that he had once thought was the disease eating him alive. A depression brought on by knowing you were dangerous to everyone around you.

It's a wonder that Eris Halla hasn't noticed. The lethargy. The sleeping. How many more mornings can he just say he's tired and roll over to rot in the prison of his mind? Closed door, dark room, letting the notifications ping unchecked....

He's hungry.

The ache of hunger had been constant since... since whatever had happened. It's palpable. In the back of his mind it hums, a constant, something familiar but also foreign. This hunger is different in that it rumbles his own stomach. The smell of food cooking forces him to shift.

A quick shower. He's greasy and unfit to look at. Chu-e doesn't want anyone to see him like this.

So Eris is done by the time he wanders through, wet head, tired eyes.

The sight of her warms something in his chest.

"Hi, Errie." He rasps before pulling a seat out at the kitchen table. Watching her flit around with so much energy is nice.

"Goob morny to you too." A small laugh. No, he hand't slept well, so he lets that question slide. It can rest under the layers of secrets and terrible things that sit in his mind. No need to worry one sweet girl with his problems.

Eris Halla had enough to worry about on her own.

It's easier to smile when presented with the pancakes. They look good. Even if they end up terrible he knows he'll eat every bite.

"I like both. Do we still have any of the strawberry stuff left?" Or was the fridge barren? He hadn't been shopping in a while... he should do that. Technically, Prince could take care of all the chores, but a pokemon could only go so long when left to their own devices.

Sprinkles, as any cat would, scampers into the room at the promise of food. She sits next to the Luxray and Yamper, ever patient but forcefully expectant.

"Are you having pancakes, too?" Even if he was hungry, Chu-e wouldn't eat till he knew that Eris wouldn't have to suffer from an empty belly.

He raised a brow at Eris Halla' plate. A chunk of his own pancake was sliced off and moved to her plate. Only after would be slather his food with the jam and syrup. Maybe too much but he did have a weakness for sweet things.

With that done, Chu-e made a big show of cutting off a bite, placing it into his mouth, chewing...

"Huh." A pause, swallow, looking a bit surprised. "This is really good, Errie. You said you made this all by yourself?"

And even if his own appetite was usually poor, another bite was taken. Maybe it was his own aching stomach or the craving hunger in the back of his mind but soon the pancake was vanishing down his gullet. It was questionable if he even tasted it. While normally his table manner was decent, now he was more like a starved dog.

He licked his lips of excess syrup, placing his fork down with a small clatter suddenly.

Chu-e's stomach rumbled, angry, sudden.

"Eris." Voice wavering. "Close your eyes."

Which was all the warning she got before he jerked his head to the side, chewed pancakes and black goo splattering in a horrible mush on the floor.

For a moment, Eris Halla's words are lost on him. He's too focused on the burning in his stomach and throat, how it feels like his insides are trying to come out of his mouth. Tears prick his eyes, forced, and they're a pale gray as they crystallize on his cheeks.

When the fountain of vomit stops, he gasp for air, half collapses on the table.

It takes Chu-e a few moments to catch his breath, wipe the filth off his chin, come back to himself.

"I'm.... I'm okay." A lie, one he's quick to correct. "I'll be okay."

He doesn't blame Reiner for growling at him, protecting her. Reiner is a good pokemon.

Sprinkles has long since raised her hackles, hissed and fled the scene. Smart enough to know when to get the hell out of dodge.

Chu-e isn't sure how to answer Eris Halla at first.

"No, no. I'll be fine." He stares down at the black ooze. That one was... a new one.

A napkin is picked up and he starts to wipe himself off, dig the crystals off his cheeks. Standing, wobbly, he motions to the living room.

"Let's not stay in here." The scent of his vomit was acrid and rancid, like death or something worse. A sharp whistle to alert his duo of Slowbro and Slowking there was a mess to clean up.

Is this.... the ugly feelings of a kept secret stir in him, like the guilt over him keeping all this from Leon Vercetti.

Was it time to tell Eris, too?

"I'm really sick, Errie."

He flopped down on the couch, sinking into the cushions, shaking. He was so weak right now.

"I have a disease that makes my body reject my organs. I take medicine for it to slow it down, but there isn't a cure." And it had been getting worse lately, too, but...

"But... at Sootopolis...."

There was a long pause, a twitch of his eye, before black crystal shifted and sparkled over the surface of his skin, a rippling wave before it sunk back under as if it was never there.

"It was induced in me." So, no, in that sense it wasn't natural. However...

"But I know what it is. There just isn't a cure. By the time I was under proper medical care, it had just progressed too much for more treatment." Like how most cancers could be fought if you got to them quick. In his case, it wasn't fast enough to make a difference.

The cup is taken with shaking fingertips, the cool liquid parching his throat and clearing out some of the leftover bile before he continues.

"This," He twitches a finger, lets the crystals bloom once again, stick around for a moment. "I think it's my fault. It will sound dumb but... I licked a strange rock, hoping to make Gavin laugh. It kind of... devolved from there."

A small sigh.

"Someone tried to punch me in the face, an Avatar... I think it would have snapped my neck if not for...."

Quiet, a moment. This thing had saved him so many times. This wasn't even the first.

"Well, now I can do this."

"I think so. I can kind of... feel it, now. In the back of my head. It doesn't talk, I just know it's there." Which was hard to explain. The best he'd been able to put into words was when he was talking to Gavin after the battle. It was like the hum of fluorescent lights. You eventually got used to it, but it was still there.

"This?" He flexes his fingers, has the crystal crawl over him again before tucking it away. "No, it doesn't feel like much of anything. Maybe a little tingly? But, no, it doesn't hurt."

Chu-e points at himself, at the scars on his chest, even if they were hidden from Eris Halla due to his clothes.

"But my illness? Sometimes. I get very tired and weak. Sometimes I have seizures. Trouble sleeping and eating... but I've been doing better, lately." He grimaces. "... until in the kitchen. That's never happened before."