“Oh, god, I’m so sorry,” Cyg said, but she was laughing. “I have more water, Phio-- hey, don’t ask Watson to help you wash your face off this time.” But it was too late, the words were already out of his mouth, did this boy never learn?

Gremlin saw Watson and toto-toddled on over, arms swinging-- but on his way, he noticed something, and changed course. It was a mushroom-- a light pink mushroom, with little orange dots, and he grabbed one out of the ground and popped it in his mouth, sitting down on his wide butt to chew.

Phiona handed a bottle of water to Cyg, who passed it to Isaac to rinse out his mouth and clean off his face.

“Have you ever ridden a--,” she almost said real, then stopped and closed her mouth, then opened it again, then closed it again, then-- “a different bike?”

There was a startled, raspy scream as an orange pincer snipped onto Gremlin’s toe. He jumped up and ripped the Paras out of the sand, flailing it as he kicked his foot and hopped around. The angry Paras-- now with only a single mushroom-- went flying in the air, and landed on its back, little legs thrashing. Cyg bounced a Pokeball off the center of its plastron.

“Just, you know. Do you have any-- preferences? If you could pick.”

Isaac Merlo | catch attempt paras
ground, grass, rock

☉

“Uh-huh,” Cyg said, mentally taking notes. That was fine. She could work with this. Literally anything would be better than this disastrous hunk of junk. A bigweel with a lawnmower engine would be preferable to the eyesore he was currently putzing around on.

“It’s okay, my parents wouldn’t let me have one, either. Well, we couldn’t afford one, but even if we could…” she let the thought trail off.

Aw, the sidecar for Watson was cute. Her brow furrowed, completely missing the close friends part. She was deep in thought.

How could she attach a sidecar to a crotch rocket and have it still look cool? It’d have to be something lower, not quite so crotch-rockety… but not a hog. God, no. The only people who rode hogs and took themselves seriously were well over 50.

But out loud she said: “Sidecar. Got it.”

Hovering was another technological marvel. She didn’t think she could build a hovercar, not with all the Rocket tech and science in the world. But then she laughed (to Isaac, it looked like she was laughing at nothing) because, of course, she could. She could power a city off a potato and a paperclip.

“I’m worried the hovering will reduce speed,” she said, when prompted, doing another loop around the Death Machine. “There’s a reason hovering never really took off. It’s not the fastest form of travel.” Even jetpacks, used for military purposes, lacked the zip to really be of any use.

Armor she could do. Paint, she could do-- even better, she was thinking color-changing runner lights. And obviously, the engine would go inside the vehicle, ideally protected by many layers of plasteel.

But the hovering…

“I wouldn’t underestimate the coolness factor of a good pair of wheels.”

Isaac Merlo | catch attempt paras
ground, grass, rock

☉

She hated being the bearer of bad news-- but Isaac also needed to be reminded of practicality in the real world. A hover car would be great for passive travel, but if he was gonna be doing Rocket things, she didn’t want him putzing around in a hodge-podge Jetson’s car wannabe.

“Mmm,” she hums, silently thankful he’s given up on the hover aspect. “I’ll put out some feelers, see what I can come up with. As a Rocket we have some access to vehicles that aren’t quite, ahem, legal beagles.”

She snapped out of her own brain when Isaac excused himself to go deal with whatever it was Watson was doing. She watched him deal with the Numel, boldly putting Watson’s offering in his mouth.

“You’re so brave,” she said, reminiscent of when he’d told her about the Hunka Junka. It remained true. Brave and foolish.

Isaac Merlo | skipping <3
ground, grass, rock

☉

“Definitely at least two,” she agreed, crossing her arms and giving him her best haughty look-- which wasn’t very good, because Cyg and arrogant were about as complimentary as oil and water.

She looked at Watson, head tilted, curious. “I’m amazed yours actually has a brain,” she said, gesturing over to where Gremlin was trying to see how many rocks he could fit in his mouth at once. He toddle-stumbled over to Watson to show him, unable to see because his jaws were open so wide.

She gave Isaac a flat look to say see what I mean?

“Hmm,” she said, tapping one finger against her chin in thought. “That’s a good question. I guess I do have a thing for fancy clothes, now that I can afford them, at least. My entire wardrobe growing up consisted of hand-me-downs.” Suffice to say she didn’t win any awards in school for being fashionable. “But I think… just being able to go to sleep and not wake up to an alarm. That’s my ultimate guilty pleasure.”

She was boring, so sue her.

Isaac Merlo | skipping <3
ground, grass, rock

☉

Well, that’s it, Cyg figured, trying to force a scowl in the blinding light of Isaac’s beaming smile, that’s all folks.

“You’re stuck with me,” she confirmed. Light with sarcasm but heavy like a vow, spoken over the antiquated, metallic, death machine corpse.

She was going to make him a new bike. A better bike. The best bike. Brain-Cyg did one of those little cackling witch numbers, rubbing her hands together in delight at her foolish, even scheme.

Gremlin flashed Watson a Toto-thumbs up as he chomped on his very large rock. Good job! Keep trying!

Cyg came around the side of the bike to stand by Isaac again as he released another Pokemon-- an Aggron, who, bless her heart, had the same, weathered-edge, tired charm of Phiona. Just two big mommas, palling around. Real recognize real, Cyg thought, as the Kangaskhan looked impressively upon the large, domino-spotted beast.

Kiryu looked as confused as Cyg did as a pair of black shades fell into her palms; she bobbled them a bit, but managed not to crush them. She watched him… do whatever the fuck it was he was doing with just the tiniest bit of apprehension. “Ohhhkaaaay,” she said, dragging out the word as she clicked the sunglasses open, “but I should let you know that I’m slightly frightened.”

It was only when the flash of the sun made her wince-- even behind the glasses-- that she realized what he was doing. Sort of.

Oh, no. It was cute.

“Where were you when I was in high school?” she asked, having to swallow a snort of laughter.

She couldn’t wait to tell Elisabeth Fiorelli about this.

Isaac Merlo | <3
ground, grass, rock

☉

She laughed at his choice of words because who in this day and age used the word farting unironically. He was full of surprises. He was so, very boring, as well, in the same breath. He kept making her laugh.

Oh no. Oh, no.

“People like us don’t get that,” she said, and she smiled while she said it but her heart was doing a weird squeezy thing that may have been a health concern on any other given day. People like me, she thought, but didn’t say, don’t get this.

It was, she thought as she felt his hand press against her forehead, the cutest, nicest, dumbest thing anyone had ever done for her. Of course, if she just asked Elisa for the day off, her boss would relent wholeheartedly. She didn’t need… all of this. Isaac didn’t know that. And here he was, Trickster King, helping her accost the rules to get what she wanted.

Because remember, that’s what she named as her dream? A day without alarms?

He was doing that.

“You’re such-- a dork,” she finally spat out, laughing. Laughing still. Laughing even as the desert writhed and a massive gray rock stood up and towered over Watson. Her laughter trailed away as Phiona hustled over the sand, rushing to protect the little Totodile, even though he wasn’t her own.

Isaac Merlo | <3
ground, grass, rock

☉