Apples were cheap in Sootopolis, these days. For the first time in a while, fresh produce was finding itself into Sootopolis's stores that were not grown locally. Instead, these had come from far away; a farm in Ultra Desert that Howard had harvested alongside bryan delarosa.

It gave him great satisfaction to see the fruit of his labor. For something to manifest and rise from his passion for the betterment of the world around him. A mere distraction to remind the admin from the fact that he was a member of Team Rocket.

"Hm?" Howard looked over at Sophia and smiled. "Sorry, little lady."

Step. Step. Step.

The figure moved out of her way. As Howard looked past Sophia, he smiled at her father. It was an innocent smile, full of warmth, but this was a man who had strong-armed the Whateleys into a war that they had no reason to be in. All for the sake of 'keeping people alive'.

Yet as long as he didn't say a word to Laurence, this could all pass without iss-

"Doctor, it's a pleasure to see you off the clock!" Howard beamed at the man and offered a handshake to the doctor. "I didn't know that you shopped here."

His eye lingered on the PikaHuts that Laurence had in his cart. Even off the clock, Laurence's fate was chained.

"You're stricter on my diet than you are on your own!"

---

Laurence Whateley

His daughter had remained ignorant of it, of why her father had been stilled and almost growled at the man before them. Howard’s politeness came off as genuine to his daughter, but to Laurence, he knew there was nothing truly nice about him, pawing his child off as an excuse to bring him into Rocket, to fight…The man was everything but polite. The brief movement of Sophia placing the apples in the cart brought the words to his throat, his own smile coated in a visible nihilego poison.

Howard moved closer, breaching the threshold of the basket that Laurence kept between them. His cheerfulness plucked a nerve in Laurence, but he played it off, as suave as he could while Sophia watched him with those curious eyes of hers.

“A pleasure to see you as well Howard, I hope you are faring well.”

He’d brushed off the question of the surprise of seeing him shopping in the store. It’d been only one of few others in the area, and fortunately, this one had been the closest to the Whateley’s residence. But he knew that. Rocket knew exactly how many stores were around in the city they’d had commandeered. The admin’s eyes went to the box of frozen food that had littered Laurence’s cart, the red and black coloring bringing a newfound shame in Laurence once he recognized it.

You're stricter on my diet than you are on your own!

The jest had been harmless, enough to at least bring Sophia’s gaze towards Howard once again as she moved toward’s her father direction, her head barely peaking over the cart as she spoke.

“Are you one of my Daddy’s patients? He is always so strict on food but look at these!”

Her hand rummaged in the cart for a second showing the RedBouffalants, a past-time favorite energy drink for the doctor, innocently showing them off to the man as Laurence blanched. A nervous but controlled laugh came from him, his hand coming to Sophia’s ginger hair, ruffling it up a bit from its neat braids. They looked identical, a spitting image of one another.

“Doctors can eat what they’d like in moderation, and unfortunately for Mr. Slayte, I had him on a strict diet due to his personal life, I don’t want him wasting away in my office…But forgive me for my rudeness, this is my daughter. Sophia.”

It felt like giving gold over when he handed the name to Howard, as if he were simply giving an entry to a door that had been carefully kept shut. Sophia smiled at the man, the introduction a pleasantry for her, and in turn, a way to enjoy seeing someone new.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Slayte. What are you shopping here for? We were going to find what to eat for dinner.”

howard slayte

RedBouffalants? Shit. Howard hadn't drank those in a while. Not likely since his college years, where many sleepless nights were spent poring over geological charts, runic texts, and historical textbooks. Those had been the days, back when he only had 20 PD to himself every month.

Where had those days gone?

"Sophia." Howard nodded to her. His smile made it clear that he realized that Laurence's gift was worth more than gold. Of course, Rocket could have easily did a dig on Laurence's personal life. To an extent, they did. Nonetheless, a gift freely given was worth far more than one forcefully taken.

"Yeah, I'm one of his patients! He saved my life. Your old man's got a heart of gold." He beamed at Sophia, before turning back to Laurence. A heart of gold, a soul of silver, and chains of uncaring cold steel that threatened to take everything away. "I was just buying a few things for the breakroom at work."

The mysterious man who stocked the Team Rocket breakroom with Blitzle Cakes was actually... Howard? For many nameless grunts, the admin was likely a hero.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, little lady." He gave her a smile. "Mind if I talk to your dad for a moment?"

So chivalrous of him to ask the daughter instead of the father, as if Laurence could refuse him. Even off the clock, Laurence was Rocket's. Just as Howard was Rocket's. The best way to avoid the inconvenience of that fact was to simply go with the flow regarding the call of duty.

---

Laurence Whateley

Howard speaking her name brought an involuntary movement from Laurence, a twitch of his lips trying to hold off the scowl that would soon come. He couldn’t speak her name so casually, speak as if he hadn’t dangled her existence like a carrot in front of him. Hearing it could only be akin to hearing the click of a gun being readied to be shot. The question would be, who would come out alive at the end of it?

The reasoning for their meeting hadn’t been a lie, but Laurence had wished that it never happened. He’d have let Howard freeze to death on that cot if he had the chance to do it again, watch as Rocket lost an admin if only he’d be skillful enough to simply escape the watchful gazes from the organization.

Sophia nodded along, going with whatever narrative the man created of her father. Laurence had always been someone who seemed to have a heart full of gold, that much didn’t need much evidence for.

“Well, you’re super lucky! My Dad is very good at doctoring…But okay, you can speak to him. Is that okay with you Dad?”

The request could have been declined, and he could have left Howard foolishly waiting for a conversation that could never happen, but there was no way that he’d have gone without it. Sophia had so innocently perched herself beside the basket, as if to watch over it while the two men talked.

“It’d be a pleasure to talk with you, Howard…”

He had had answered as well, knowing how Howard planned to play this game. He’d been dealt a losing hand in this, but it wouldn’t mean that he would stop playing all together. If he had to continue, then it’d be on his terms. Laurence said something to Sophia, assuring her that he’d be back in a second, and would only be a few feet from her, beside the dried berries and fruit. And took his leave, waiting for Howard. However, once the Admin had gotten over there, Laurence would be the first to speak.

“What do you want, Howard. I am off the clock and you know it.”

@magnetic

"You know better than me that the clock stops for nobody. Least of all you."

A dying patient did not stop dying just because the clock struck midnight. Time was an eternal concept, but humans attempted to track it with mechanical devices such as clocks and sundials. Yet Howard knew better than most that mankind existed within a small bubble of time. They could not control it. Only one could, and last Howard checked, Laurence Whateley was not Dialga.

He was just a human with human problems and a human daughter. As Rocket was familiar with, humans tended to break.

"Your daughter is lovely. You're a lucky man." Howard's tone implied that Laurence wasn't lucky, and the two knew it. It was strange, watching the joy seep from Howard's face as he spoke with Laurence. The mask came off, and the cog in the great machine of Rocket was all that remained. "Good on you. Cherish these moments."

It was not a threat, but it certainly sounded like one. Howard was on Laurence's side. The two were the same, but there were expectations to uphold. Otherwise, the admin would end up just as dead as Laurence if either of them reeked of treason.

"She's still in Sootopolis." He noted as he gave the doctor a look. "Why? Don't you have family you can send her to?"

---

Laurence Whateley

"Not what you said when you told me to join the damn org, Howard. My off days are my off days. Rocket or not."

He tried to quote words as if they meant something to the man, promises on paper could only do so much when the person could ignore them, and who exactly would he go to about it? Human Resources? He’d have a better time trying to catch Dialga.

Howard’s backward compliment hadn’t flattered as it was supposed to, Laurence knowing the tone being as unreal as the simulations they’d brave together. Instead, he simply listened, letting Howard get his words out, the urge to reply simply burning inside him till he was done.

“I plan on continuing to, regardless of whether I am lucky or not."

This came with a fierceness now, with Laurence’s eyes attempting to burn a hole through the ground when he could respond. Sophia was more than lovely to the doctor; she was everything to him. And he’d keep her that way, ignorant of both his and the world’s issues, of Howard, and the sacrifices that had and would have to be made. He wasn’t going to let her know of it. Not yet.

“As for why she’s still here? Her mother, Diana, had passed away a little over four years ago…She too was from here, so you can easily guess where her family had been. As for mine, I don’t have any living relatives who could take her in, and the last thing I want is for her to lose me too. So, she won't. That much is easy to understand.”

The doctor turned to do a quick check on the girl, she quietly waiting for her father to return. Laurence made sure not to break character, to give a faint smile as if he were simply recounting the weather or a fond memory, just to keep the girl’s worry at bay.

“It’s what I owe her, and her mother.”

howard slayte

Laurence owed a debt to a memory. Howard could relate with that. He owed a debt to his dream.

"Poor girl." The admin did not push against the fierce protectiveness of the father. How could he understand Laurence's emotions? Howard was not a father. He did not love another. He simply existed within the great cogs of Team Rocket, chasing after the dream that Rocket promised him. "I pity her. I pity you."

The dream that Howard dreamed was one that the admin couldn't wake from. Despite that, he could not allow Laurence to remain in his dream. It was time to wake up.

"I said that, true. I promised you time off, but that time is coming to an end." Howard frowned at the doctor. The contract that Laurence had signed was writ in blood, but it was one that had to be obeyed. "War is coming. Soon."

Sophia looked so innocent. This must've been the emotion that Navy experienced as his daughter disappeared into the mist of a long-forgotten dream.

"Sophia should not be here when it starts. Broken hearts can mend, but broken bodies cannot. Laurence." He clapped the doctor on the shoulder. His missing eye bored into Laurence's skull with a gaze that saw beyond humanity. "If you will not move her, cherish this moment."

He blinked slowly.

"But you will struggle to keep your promise to her when the walls of Sootopolis fall. Think of Diana."

---

Laurence Whateley

“We don’t need Rocket’s pity.”

And he meant it. What would Rocket’s transactive pity do for him but ask for something in return? He’d rather Howard had been realistic, told him he’d wish the best of luck and that there was a bomb planted on his chest, that would have been much more like the Rocket way.

But in true Howard-like fashion, he reneged on his word, the idea of Laurence ever keeping much time with his daughter only a way to rope the doctor in until the time would come that it’d be taken away. The idea of it almost choked Laurence in his rebuttal, he could feel the agitation and anger rise, but he wouldn’t make a scene. Not here of all places.

“And until it comes, I plan on keeping my time with her. The war will come, and I said I’d join, like a man to my word. But until then, I expect you to remain one to your own. You already have me chained to this place, but I won’t let you chain Sophia’s hopes of having me here. When it comes, I’ll make sure that I send her off…Boarding School someone far from the place. But until that time comes, I’ll keep her safe. I’ll keep her happy.”

He hadn’t wanted to hear Howard speak on the man’s past beloved as if he had known her. He didn’t know anything of the Whateleys as yet here he spoke as if he were an uncle or family friend.

“My promise to her mother, and myself, will be done…That, you don’t have to tell me about. Now, I want to spend time with my child, Howard. If there is nothing else you came to inform me about in this conversation, I suggest you say your final goodbyes to Sophia and leave us be. The breakrooms need refilling today, anyways.”

howard slayte

"It's not Rocket's pity." The words hung in the air for a spell. "It's mine."

Rocket did not pity. They did not care. Laurence was a sack of meat to them. A valuable sack of meat, but not irreplacable. Even Howard was replaceable. Someone else could run his network of supplies. Someone else could hold Regice. Someone else could don the cowboy hat.

During a press conference at Dewford, someone already had.

But Laurence was right. Rocket would ask much from the doctor, and he would answer the call. Just as Howard danced under the weight of bureaucracy, Laurence would dance under the weight of a debt owed to a ghost.

"I haven't chained you. You chained yourself." He snorted, amused. "You are simply another life ruined by this war. Rocket and League will take everything for it. They burned Kanto to win the war. They took Sootopolis to win the war. They've taken me to win the war. They'll take you and everything that you hold dear in order to win the fucking war."

Annoyance leaked into his voice. Rage. Wrath. Scorn. The realization of a man who knew this battle would never end, because it had been fought hundreds of times. That was the truth.

"But I'll let you go. You're right, I can't force you when you're off the clock." Yet, anyway. "I'll see you on Monday?"

Laurence couldn't outrun Rocket forever. Time would fade. His moments with Sophia would fade into mist when he left her alone in the morning.

---

Laurence Whateley

His pity. Laurence couldn’t believe it, he had gotten pity from the man who had signed him up for this. Howard had the nerve. His shifting of blame wouldn’t have him be absolved in the doctor’s gaze, no matter how much he continued to shift the blame onto the organization that had caused such. Howard was a part of Rocket. A cog in that well-oiled, destructive machine that continued to run amok, that continued to be shown as much more of a problem that the league would have to deal with.

“You speak a lot for someone who keeps running errands for them. Yeah, they took me. But I won’t them take anything else of mine.”

Finality. He said it in various ways, and it would never change for him. He was determined, headstrong, and bravely ignorant of the storm that was Rocket, but he’d continue to fight it if it meant for Sophia’s safety. If it meant Diana would rest peacefully. He had turned to go when Howard began to say his goodbyes, his seeming acceptance of the man’s wishes having got to him luckily. Yet, when the man asked if Laurence would be returning to work on Monday, he simply sighed in reply.

“I’ll be in my office Monday. You’ll see me there. Goodbye, Howard.”

And continued to walk, not facing the man as he left him there to stand in the dried fruits, rather, when Laurence got back to Sophia, he said something inaudibly which made the young girl jump for joy, quick to grab hold of the basket and run towards the next isle to grab something else to fill the basket with. To enjoy with her father on his day off.

howard slayte