[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"] a cool breeze pulls in from the window outside, but it does little against the uncomfortable warmth that disapates through the room. cinnabar island was always hot, even in the winter time.

[break][break] he stares out at the shoreline, lips pressed together. he'd been here for several weeks now and from the moment that he'd landed on kanto soil, everything had been busy. he hadn't had time to think about all the things that he'd left behind, all the people had left behind. but on a day like today... it was hard to forget.

[break][break] today was his birthday. december 25th.

[break][break] before he can get too wrapped up in his thoughts, there is a knock at the door. normally, this would not be cause for concern. however, there was a lot one could tell from a knock. if someone wrapped their knuckles softly against the door, the person on the other end of it might be shy or even polite. several knocks in repetition might indicate a mode of urgency. these knocks... sharp, fierce and succinct.

[break][break] he recognized them. even if he didn't know why. he re-arranges the paperwork on his desk, before striding across the room, pulling the door open.

[break][break] his throat runs dry.

[break][break] "e-enforcer pollet."

[break][break]

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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[googlefont=Poppins:500,600,700|Roboto]

"Cross." A nod to the other, hips lips curling further upwards.

A quick flip and he reached into one of his deep coat pockets. A small, flat package with nice wrapping was pulled out before being offered.

"I couldn't miss a friend's birthday." Is purred out, sweet. If jayden cross didn't know any better, it might even sound like he meant it.

Inside was a knife. Serrated. Meant for ripping and pain. A fine gift, in Calem's eyes.

"I also have very important news for you."

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"] kanto brought back demons like no other. his parents legacies buried in the burnt soil did little to quell it, not when their bodies still lay missing. his fingers reach for his shoulder instinctively, brushing against year-old bite marks. he swallows.

[break][break] "ah. to what do i owe the pleasure, sir?" he steps back, allowing the enforcer to enter. as the other passes, he dips his head — there are only a few years between them, but a decade of obligation forces jayden to recognize their difference in status.

[break][break] sure, jayden has risen in ranks since they've last seen each other but he still feels like the eight year old boy, meeting his brother's best friend for the first time.

[break][break] he isn't sure why Calem Pollet is here but a birthday present seems to be the last thing he is expecting. surprise registers in his eyes as he takes the package, blinking down at it.

[break][break] jayden peels it open with caution, but the moment his gaze lands on the serrated blade, his eyes glow. what others may have seen as a threat, he sees as a blessing. he does love a good knife, after all.

[break][break] hopefully this one wasn't going to be plunged into his neck.

[break][break] "thank you. i appreciate it," he says, swallowing. he turns around and walks over to the side-table where he has a few of his favorite knives on display. he balances the new one in front of all the others.

[break][break] "important news?" he blinks, turning around.

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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[googlefont=Poppins:500,600,700|Roboto]

"Very important." Is repeated back. jayden cross should know so well how Calem likes to play his games. It is only after he has had his fun that anything would be revealed.

For his part, Calem makes himself at home. A chair is pulled out so he can sit on it, cross his legs politely with his hands in his lap. There is something predatory even in that small action.

"When I return to Hoenn, you will be coming with me." His smile is not as kind as it was before, even if it was wider. "Underboss Choi was murdered by the League. We need more strong Rockets there until things are stable once again." Not that Calem cared very much about stability. This was just another chance for him to have fun.

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"] very important.

[break][break] despite the other's carefree demeanor, jayden knows more than well enough to dismiss it as such. even if he hadn't known the other nearly half his life, even if they hadn't shared childhood memories with fathers as twisted as theirs, jayden was perfectly well-aware of the enforcer's reputation.

[break][break] still, he tries not to be nervous as he maneuvers towards a nearby expresso maker. he pours the coffee into it, focusing on the smell of it as to contain his nerves. jayden turns as calem makes himself comfortable, walking over to him.

[break][break] it all happens too fast. in a matter of minutes.

[break][break] 'you will be coming home with me.'

[break][break] 'underboss choi was murdered by the league.'

[break][break] the ceramic cup crashes into the floor, shattering.

[break][break] shit.

[break][break] "i-i'm sorry sir," he says quickly, gathering a dustpan and dropping to the floor. the broken pieces slice his wrist, but jayden can hardly feel the pain through the shock. "what did you just say?"

[break][break] he swallows thickly, looking up.

[break][break] "chu-e is — i mean, underboss choi is dead?"

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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[googlefont=Poppins:500,600,700|Roboto]

Calem's smile is sweet. While Calem would rank jayden cross in his 'Friend' circle, that didn't mean he was exempt from whatever fucked up things Calem did. The pain the other was showing, in his own way, was being enjoyed. It was a shame that Jayden had to find out from Calem of all people.

A shame for sure.

"It is no problem, Jayden." He doesn't offer to help. The slice on his wrist is soaked in. Memorized. Calem finds he wants to press it open wider with his thumb, see how the other's flesh spreads. What shade of red he bleeds.

But no, no, this was someone precious. Jayden would be offered Calem's version of kindness.

"Yes. I don't know all the details. He was in an altercation with one of the Elite Four over a child; he lost."

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"] luckily for jayden, his pokemon are at least more empathetic to their trainer's plights than the man himself. one of his gothorita appear, using psychic to both pick up the broken shards as well as hand a bandage to their trainer, wrapping it around his wrist.

[break][break] how horrible it would have been to bleed in front of Calem Pollet .

[break][break] though it likely wasn't the first time that a man bled in front of the enforcer.

[break][break] the intrusion of his pokemon breaks jayden's line of thought, and he forces himself to his feet. as much as his emotions are turbulent right now, his rocket instinct kicks in and steels his resolve. there would be time for the crisis later.

[break][break] he bites his bottom lip.

[break][break] "that's —" he swallows. "thank you for telling me, sir."

[break][break] he turns his back to calem, if only so briefly, so that he can pour another cup of coffee for the other. this one, however, he doesn't drop as he places it on a glass table next to the other.

[break][break] "i understand why we need to strengthen our ranks. underboss choi was an invaluable asset."

[break][break] to some - to jayden - he was more than that.

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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The cup is accepted. Calem lifts it to his lips. This news is unimportant to Calem. Yet, he's fascinated by watching jayden cross fall apart at the seams. Even if he steeled himself against it now, even if Jayden tried to chill his heart, Calem had still seen. Had Jayden cared about Choi? This would be an interesting scab to claw at.

"Yes, invaluable." Calem agrees, even if he doesn't truly care.

The next words that leave him would be glass shards. Spoken kindly so he could deny, yet still meant to slice.

"Perhaps it was a mercy on him. His illness was growing worse and worse, from what I understood." A mercy. Like how putting down a race horse was a mercy after it had grown too old to win.

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"]Calem Pollet had not risen to the ranks of enforcer for nothing. more importantly, he had not gotten dmitri's approval for nothing.

[break][break] there was a reason that the man had been his brother's best friend. his brother who's fangs still left imprints in jayden's skin, even years later.

[break][break] "you think that the league did it as a mercy?" he can't help but ask. to pry. he wants to know more, more than he should be allowed to know. "i don't think the league are capable of such a thing."

[break][break] they were cruel — crueler than rocket themselves.

[break][break] if they weren't, they would've let kanto to fall long ago.

[break][break] but here they were - here jayden was - still fighting, still trying to snuff the flames of rebellion, even long after it was a lost cause.

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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"Oh, of course not." The answer is quick. Calem didn't even have to think about it. Usually Calem didn't like questions when he wasn't asking them. Yet, he would make the exception for jayden cross. His opinions were one of the few he valued. Jayden understood Rocket much in the same way Calem did, after all.

"It was an act of violence. Choi just happened to pick a fight he couldn't win."

A fight that Calem still didn't understand. Why was Choi fighting an Elite Four on his own? Over a child, no less? Was the child valuable? Even if it had been Choi's own child, it still hadn't been worth his life.

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"]if there was a flicker of doubt in his mind of the league's actions, ever, it was snuffed out by the flame that was calem's words. the enforcer only cemented what jayden already knew — what his father had told him.

[break][break] 'a fight he couldn't win.'

[break][break] the words sink like a stone in his chest. jayden knows very well what calem is saying, even as a subtle reminder. of course, he and calem have always been on - somewhat - friendly terms, if only by the nature of their connections with one another. but there is still that thinly veiled reminder of a threat, the same threat that always followed his father's words. his brother's.

[break][break] calem was like family, but in a different way than gavin was.

[break][break] no. in a way that was far more terrifying.

[break][break] he swallows.

[break][break] "how is the child? are they alive?"

[break][break] he had a feeling, but he wanted to know anyway.

[break][break]

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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[googlefont=Poppins:500,600,700|Roboto]

"As far as I am aware she is." Calem's attention goes from his cup back to jayden cross, an eyebrow raised. His head is titled subtly; all so carefully crafted of an act. He and Jayden were just dolls, after all. They needed to play the part even around each other. Like good dolls should.

"Is she important?"

It is probably for the best for Eris Halla to stay off of Calem's radar. Yet, that would put Jayden in a hard position. Will he try and lie, to Calem of all people, and protect her? Or out what he knows?

[nospaces]

[attr="class","jayden"] when Calem Pollet looked at him, it made something clench in his chest. not in the warm, fluttery way that Chu-e Choi once had, or the drop-kick to his stomach when he'd heard when he'd died. no, it was something dreadful; something that made him want to instinctively look away, to run, to hide.

[break][break] the very same feelings that his father had always resurrected in him.

[break][break] but because it reminded him of his father, jayden knew exactly how to cope with it.

[break][break] he held calem's gaze, but in a way that was unreadable. blinking.

[break][break] "isn't every rocket?"

[break][break] to be honest, Eris Halla and jayden were not particularly close. he also didn't have the same protective mentality that many other rockets seemed to have around her. after all, jayden himself had been a child of rocket. in some ways, he'd experienced worse than her.

[break][break] he had no intention of coddling her. nor did he see a need to.

[break][break] jayden cared about eris — that much was true — but he'd only ever been taught to love through pain.

[attr="class","noodles"] Calem Pollet

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