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No kid ought to sound that tired, or look as haunted as the young Eris did. Eddie moved to face her fully, brow furrowed with obvious concern, [break][break]

“Hide out? Whatcha hidin' from?” [break][break]

The warmth of the early afternoon sun tried and failed to reach him from where he stood before the monument. He and Eris both stood in its umbral shadow, and something about that vague darkness chilled Eddie to his core. The soldier's eyes narrowed as they scanned the girl for signs of obvious injury; something wasn't right here, [break][break]

“What's goin' on, kiddo? Anythin' I can help with?”

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Eris Halla [break]

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The pieces started to fall into place, between Eris' tired words and the bits of gauze Eddie had finally begun to notice on her. His face paled when the realization dawned on him; Petalburg. The battle there and the fallout of it was about as bad as bad could get. Was that a place Eris had once called home? The thought chilled him more than the looming shadow over them could have ever hoped to, [break][break]

“Yeah, nothin' wrong with gettin' away from it all, sometimes,” he began carefully. [break][break]

But Arceus, what could he even say to her? Should he apologize for his own failure, for letting another corner of Hoenn fall to the Rocket war machine? Should he try to console her, reassure her in some way? None of it seemed right, when he took a second to think about it. But what could he do fix it? [break][break]

He frowned, and plopped down unceremoniously onto the ground next to the still-burning incense, [break][break]

“You wanna talk about it?” [break][break]

Eddie scrubbed at his chin thoughtfully, [break][break]

“Or, uh, I could scram. If yer not wantin' company.”

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Eris Halla [break]

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There was a right way and a wrong way to go about this sort of thing, and Eddie really didn't want to say the wrong thing. He thought it over a moment, concentrating harder on this one singular question than he had on just about anything else he had said in... well, forever, before he finally spoke up again, [break][break]

“Well, how're you feelin'?” he offered. No, wait, was that the right thing to say? Eddie frowned, “Been feelin' a lotta things myself, these days. Sometimes I get a little antsy thinkin' about what Rocket's gonna pull next. Sometimes I think I'm just happy ta be here, yanno?” [break][break]

Here, as in both Dewford and on the other side of some of the more harrowing things he had seen transpire in Hoenn. It was hard not to feel at least a little grateful to be able to come back to the island town, to the sandy beaches and the sapphire horizon of sea and sky. The respite felt a little unearned, though, when Eddie recalled those members of the League felled by Monroe's hand.

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Eris Halla [break]

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Eddie listened carefully and without judgment, but he couldn't help but find Eris' answer haunting. Grief and thoughts of mortality were harrowing to contend with at any age; Eddie could only imagine how much more so it must have been for her. He glanced back at the memorial at the mention of it, [break][break]

“I don't blame ya,” he admitted. The soldier shook his head, as though to rid himself of the thought, [break][break]

“But I'm sure the folks you love would miss you somethin' fierce.” [break][break]

The soldier hesitated, suddenly conflicted. He wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say either, but there was nowhere to go but forward. Eddie cleared his throat and continued, [break][break]

“You talked ta some'a those folks about how yer feelin'? Yer hurt? Hell, I know it doesn't change much'a... well, this – ” [break][break]

He gestured vaguely to their immediate vicinity, [break][break]

“But that sorta thing's like poison if you keep it bottled up.”

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Eris Halla [break]

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“I – I'm sorry.” [break][break]

It was the first thing Eddie could think of to say, but it felt wholly inadequate in the grand scheme of things. His heart sank and left a sort of indescribable, hollow kind of feeling somewhere behind his rib-cage. For as much as he wanted to believe that the world was a good and kind place, the reality of things was proving to be far more harrowing. [break][break]

But that didn't mean he could just give up, right? Some stubborn part of him insisted on finding a way to make things at least a little less terrible for the poor kid, [break][break]

“Well, we don't hafta talk about it,” Eddie insisted, attempting to course-correct, “We could talk about... uh...” [break][break]

He quickly looked around in a vain attempt at Keyser Soze-ing his way to a less sad topic of discussion.

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Eris Halla [break]

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The fact that such tragedy had occurred years ago did little to reassure Eddie. That attempt at a smile, though, was at least enough to get his head on straight. She was obviously trying to keep moving forward, and the soldier felt obligated to make that trek a little easier in whatever way he could, [break][break]

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, a little overeager, “Its good ta have friends.” [break][break]

Eddie, for one, counted himself as one of those folks in her corner, if for no other reason than the fact that Eris deserved all the kindness she could find after dealing with the hand that fate had dealt her, [break][break]

“Lotta good folks in Hoenn, and a lotta good folks in Dewford, especially.” [break][break]

The soldier smiled as some new thought occurred to him, [break][break]

“Hey! Maybe I could introduce ya to some'a my buddies around here! The more the merrier, yeah?”

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Eris Halla [break]