"I can't always protect you."

It's the sad truth of the matter, what Chu-e finally settled on to start this.

He couldn't fault what Eris Halla had done. Honestly, Chu-e didn't like when people undeserving, like Melody Miro, were caught up in Rocket's machinations. He only wished she had been cleaner about it.

"I know that you had a hand in what happened with Melody and Matias. I need you to understand why it is I'll have to punish you."

Calm. Collected. Business.

Even if it hurt.

It sparks- something in him.

Anger, Chu-e thinks, but he's been feeling so hungry and angry lately it was hard to tell the difference. It's not anger at Eris Halla herself, but at her words, the situation as a whole.

On the tabletop, Chu-e clenches his fists till his knuckles pop, turn white from the force.

"You're grounded for two weeks. No dessert while you're grounded, either. And your allowance will be halved for the rest of the month." Which was the punishment from 'Pa'.

He clears his throat, keeps his voice steady.

"You are hereby banned from the Rocket Base. You are only allowed on board if you have a chaperone. If you try to get away from the chaperone, they are instructed to contact me immediately."

A pause, then a sigh. Chu-e stands up and goes to check on the soup. Starts to pour some into bowls for them.

"If I had my way, I would prefer you not in Rocket at all, Errie. You're too reckless with your own life." Said gentler than when he had been doling out the consequences.

"I'm not afraid of Walsh like Gavin is." Is answered back easily. It's true. Walsh might have been in Kanto, but nothing could ever stand up to what Silas. Whatever Walsh could come up with to hurt Chu-e had already been done ten times worse by the previous boss. The worst that could happen is he could try to use Eris Halla against him. And if that happened? Well, Chu-e would just have to kill him then, wouldn't he? Let him or Cillian Quinn ascend the throne.

The bowl of warm soup is placed in front of Eris. Chu-e tops up her lemonade before he sits back down in his own seat. He stares into his own bowl a few moments before deciding to wait, that his stomach was in knots from this whole conversation.

"You have me, right now." Just for now. Not for ever. Not when he was like he was. "... and if you want, I know my family in Sinnoh would take you in. They're all kind people." not like me catches on his tongue, sits heavy on it.

He wishes he didn't have to leave her.

"Do you really think your parents would have wanted you to throw your life away for them?"

He doesn't have a counter to Eris Halla's argument because it's true. Chu-e will leave her, just not of his own free will. He wishes he didn't have to hurt the people around him. Always a barb meant to hurt, even when he didn't want to cause someone else pain. A really terrible person.

"Your parents loved you, Eris." And what kind of parent could hate their child for living?

"And I love you, too." Chu-e found he meant it, too. He wasn't just trying to soothe her with what he thought she wanted to hear. He meant it, like he loved Leon Vercetti, and like he loved Cillian Quinn. How he even loved Raziel Beckett and Zac Ramsay, just in his own way, how he wanted chryssa glasgow to live and succeed in her goals. Eris was easy to love, like all of them were. It was just a shame that Chu-e's love would end up hurting them all.

"I don't want you to get hurt because you don't love yourself."

"Errie...." Chu-e watches her go but doesn't reach out, not at first. Eris Halla is overwhelmed and upset. He'll give her a minute to calm down. This isn't some drama on TV where he has to shake her and yell at her with some mess of feelings. That shit didn't work in real life.

So Chu-e packs away lunch for later, goes to his room to search the top of his closet. It's hard to find, dusty and buried behind old show boxes full of junk, but eventually he pulls out what he's looking for.

Then the slow trek upstairs, huffing and puffing, to knock on Eris's door.

"Can I come in?"

And the ball is in her court. He clutches the small box in his hands, tight.

When the door is opened, Chu-e takes pause to examine the room. His face softens a bit, wistful, as he takes in all Eris Halla has done. She's made this space her own, made it a safe place for herself. It is only after he is given permission he enters, not wanting to strip any of that safety from her any more than his intrusion already might.

"I'm going to sit down, okay?" And with that warning, Chu-e gives her a moment to potentially protest before he is seated next to her. A box is placed in the space between them; a craft box, cardboard and roughly the same size as a shoe box only thinner, lighter, and with a purple and gold filigree swirl. Not something that is usually Chu-e's aesthetic. A bit dusty on top, Chu-e gently removes the lid and sits it aside.

Eris would be able to see a few things. A clipped movie ticket, a post card from the Space Center, a tiny Wailord in a tiny snow-globe from the Slateport Aquarium, a wedding ring. Chu-e moves it aside, a photo revealed of a the Chu-e from four years ago, awkward and smiling and wearing a tuxedo, head tilted together with a blond haired man that she had never seen.

But Chu-e moves that side too, pulls out small spools of thick thread and a tiny pair of scissors shaped like a crane.

"Do you know how to make memory bracelets?" Under everything else, dirty and yellowed, a purple and gold thread bracelet is taken out, to show her. An offer.