Their hand fell from their face to their chest, where their heart was starting to slow again. It immediately started racing again as he intercom on the table lit up and the nurse's voice rang through the room.



Locke fumbled for the button at the same moment Angelo jumped for the door. "Y-Yes!" They paused, trying to steady their voice. "Yes, everything's fine! Just had a little surprise is all."



"Right, of course, thank you." Locke released the button, groaning into their hands until the presence, now revealed, returned to their side. They accepted the tray and placed it on the safety of the side table, echoing the name of the troublemaker in the room. "Latias…Right, this was the Pokémon with you before. I kept meaning to ask about her."

He tentatively reached a hand out to pat the…bird? Dragon? He'd never seen a Pokémon like her before.

Or-no, that wasn't true. There was…

"Are Latias always red?"

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

There's a brief moment where Angelo and Latias's eyes lock. He doesn't need to have a special soul connection with her to know that that's guilt flickering in honey eyes, he'd grown familiar with it by experience.

“I'll take the fall with the nurses, if they ask.” Angelo muses, picking up the chair that had clattered over in his haste, although he doesn't sit. “Not like they'd believe the truth, even if I told them. Think there's more chance of them buying a story about a Spoink flying past your window.”

Which he wouldn't.

At the extension of their hand, Latias gives the postman a brief sniff before inching her forehead against their palm.

“Yeah. As far as I know, they are.” He responds simply because, to him, that was the truth. Even the stories back in Alto Mare had always depicted Latias as red.

Slowly, Angelo's gaze drags away to look towards Locke, the question lingering in the air like a scale that had been knocked ever so slightly off balance.

After all, that begs the question...

“How come? You seen one in a different colour?”

"Only briefly. It was blue, and a bit bigger than this one," And dead, but Locke didn't say that part, instead giving Latias a thorough scritching (she was surprisingly soft!) while trying to better recall the similar Pokémon he'd seen in some of his final moments in the other world. Maybe that was just how Latias looked in…whatever version of their world it came from.

Speaking of…

Locke thought for a bit. What was the best way to tell your friend-who you've previously given no reason think of you as anything other than a rational human being-that you were sent to an alternate universe version of your hometown to fight a bunch of other you's to the death?

"So I was sent to an alternate universe version of Vermillion to fight a bunch of other me's, right?" The words felt just as silly coming out of their mouth as when they'd thought of them two seconds prior, but there was no going back now. "That's where I saw the blue Latias, a buncha other legendaries. In fact I'm pretty sure everyone was there was an Avatar but me at first-which was pretty unfair as far as fights to the death go," they chuckled, trying to lighten the mood a little.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

“Sure. As you do.” Comes his response, without missing a beat. Sounding less sarcastic and more so amused by how casually the subject had been dropped, the corner of Angelo's mouth twitching into a smile he can't quite contain. “Nothing like taking part in a doppelgänger tournament on a Friday night. Glad you made it out.”

Much like Locke Jamison, Angelo was often guilty of attempting to lighten the mood. This situation was no exception.

It hides a flicker of concern as he listens to Locke's brief story about the blue Latias, a puzzle piece clicking into place in his head. Being sent to an alternative universe was not a common pastime, even though he'd somehow crossed the border twice at this point...

“Sounds like you saw a Latios while you were there.” Said legendary's sister leans into the scratches as Angelo talks, enjoying the attention. “They're usually siblings, the blue one is Latios - Latias's brother. Back in Alto Mare, the pair of them are seen as guardians. Protected our island a long time ago.”

Which would explain why he knows about them.

But that didn't seem important in the wake of Locke revealing where - or rather, how - he'd seen the eon pokémon.

“Y'know, as someone who's had experience being unjustly tricked into going to an alternative universe,” carefully, Angelo picks himself around the admission he had yet to share, throwing them a line of solidarity. “I'm all ears if you ever want to talk about it, Locke.”

Angelo's own venture with Father Winter still sat heavy on his mind, although his burdens were more self-reflective, than anything else... But that hadn't made it easier to talk about.

"I was the only one who made it out," he replied morosely.

He listened quietly as his friend described the blue Latias-Latios-in more detail, wondering where he was now if he wasn't with his sister. Maybe that was why the legendary was so drawn to the pilot; if Locke'd had an older brother, he'd want one like Angelo.

They gave the monitoring equipment a weary look. "Maybe when the doc says I'm clear for panic attacks again." They wanted to hear about Angelo's little trip as well. But right now they'd take any excuse to move on to lighter topics.

"Tell me more about them? Latias and Latios?"

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

"I was the only one who made it out."

Shit.

Words die a swift death on his tongue. Silently, the pilot reaches towards Locke Jamison, giving the top of their hand a brief squeeze.

It's an attempt at an apology and comfort all in one. Reassurance, too. Although Angelo isn't sure how much he could provide his friend against the weight of unfathomable - incomparable, even - loss crushing down on their shoulders.

Keeping them company, being by their side, was all Angelo could provide.

“Sorry, Locke.”

Why'd it have to be them? He thinks. And when had the postman become someone that Angelo would trade places with in a heartbeat, to spare them from misfortune?

Hiding the worrisome and protective emotions down deep, he draws out a warm smile as he's so practiced at doing, instead. “Sure.”

As he leans back in his chair, Latias gets herself comfortable by taking a place on the floor, paws and head resting upon Angelo's lap. Looking up at him with big honey eyes, as if waiting, too. 

“Legend says there have always been two guardians of Alto Mare - a pair rumoured to be the fastest pokémon to have roamed the skies - and that they once saved us from a great flood with the combined strength of their souls. Latios and Latias...”

As conversation hums with light storytelling through the hospital room, their narrator getting into the performance of the tales as time wears on, a sleek shadow flickers behind the curtains.

An additional audience member that's there one moment, then gone the next.