It was humid in Vermillion that evening, sticky and oppressive despite late spring not yet giving way to summer, and Caleb felt the sweat trickling down his back despite the lack of any exertion on his part. He and Tania were sitting at a small, innocuous 24 hour cafe & diner he’d selected for their meeting. She’d followed his instructions and had dressed in civilian clothing, sitting outside with supplies that suggested a study group or research session - notebooks, pens, and a small stack of encyclopedias. The restaurant was nothing special, neither notably good or notably bad, which was, of course, exactly the sort of venue he’d wanted for this meeting.

”Thanks for meeting me here,” he murmured to her, sliding one of the notebooks across the table towards himself. He picked up a pen and scribbled the following onto the paper: I wasn’t followed on foot, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched from afar. Keep an eye out for any suspicious-looking Flying Pokémon. He turned the notebook back around, subtly, so Tania could see what he’d written. Once she had acknowledged his message with a subtle nod of her head, he ripped the page off and crumpled it up.

It wasn’t a particularly clever ploy - the appearance of two young adults sitting at a late night diner, scribbling notes every so often, cramming for some last minute exam or deadline - but he had meticulously checked and double checked for tails. He doubted anyone knew he and Tania were here. Rocket had bigger fish to fry, and he had been careful about his recent undercover contact with the League.Very careful.

An apron-clad, tired-looking server passed by their table and he ordered two coffees. Once she had retreated back inside, he let out a soft sigh, some of the tension of the last few weeks draining from his body. Finally, someone else would know what he was planning - someone he trusted. And perhaps someone he could also help.

"You’re here because I want to make you an offer,” he spoke quietly, but decisively. "I’m getting out, Tania. And you can come with me.”

Parting [SOCIAL][break]@tania [break][Past] May 2019

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Tania had decided to play along with Caleb's proposed charade: for that much, he was grateful. He had thought he'd come to know this woman fairly well, but one could always be surprised by people...after all, he'd believed Ambrose to be Rocket for some time before the other man had come clean about his true purpose as a spy for the Kanto Resistance. Tania could turn out to be the sort of person who would immediately turn Caleb in for his rebellious decision, find a way to deter his escape, maybe even get him killed for betrayal.

But he didn't think so. He knew that she had once loved something, too. Something Rocket had destroyed.

"I am going to leave Kanto," Caleb explained calmly to the woman sitting across from him, ignoring her comment made out of incredulity. Idly, he doodled some drawings on a different piece of paper, busying his hands. "I have arranged for covert passage out of this very city in a week's time."

He looked up and met her eyes, then. He made no effort to mask the grief he'd been feeling for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality, had only been a few months. The empty hole in his heart was a permanent sort of wound; not a thing you healed, but rather, learned to live with. He would do that learning far away from here, or he'd die trying.

"I can't serve them anymore, Tania," he murmured, voice so low it was almost inaudible. "I just can't."

Parting [SOCIAL][break]@tania [break][Past] May 2019

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Don't look at me like that.

He wanted to say that - the anger, the fear - he wanted her to direct such things anywhere but at him. But he didn't look away, and he didn't ask her to, either. The anger should be for Rocket. The fear, too. Not him. And she knew it.

"Of course I know what they would do," he snapped. "I'm one of the people they send to do it." He paused, letting the sudden frustration that had broken the surface of his otherwise calm and collected demeanor (can't be too careful - make it look like a normal conversation, a study session, a date, anything) fade slightly before continuing. He dropped his voice an octave lower. For her sake. "I know you want out, too. They ruined your life. You have a choice, Tania. I'll do whatever I can to protect you. You think I don't mean that?" He did mean it. He'd have done the same for Zev, too.

But Zev would never understand. Not this. Never this.

Parting [SOCIAL][break]@tania [break][Past] May 2019

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