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“Why do you think I have pent up anger, Theo?” she snaps, eyes flashing as her head whips from the battle toward him. “You!”[break][break]
That’s not wholly true. She’s carried the anger inside of her for so long it’s practically a part of her. But she’d started to change. In that other world, she had changed.[break][break]
But now it all feels tender raw, an open wound all over again.[break][break]
They spring in well-timed coordination. Practiced movements that parallel one another from years of working side-by-side. While her Lucario leaps to meet Zapdos, paws curled to batter at it with CLOSE COMBAT, Blue fluidly swivels her hips and plants her stance.[break][break]
She doesn’t care if he’s exasperated or if he’ll knock her down. She levels a sucker punch at Theo’s gut.


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They can’t go back–that’s the long short of it. The companionable peace that once existed between them was shattered irrevocably.[break][break
“Is it? I don’t think it is.”[break][break]
She’s not afraid to pop him in the jaw if he keeps goading her. Maybe she should be, but she isn’t.[break][break]
Her teeth grit in annoyance. “I don’t see you doing much.” Other than the bruxish making an unholy racket. Her lucario focuses, building energy before thrumming AURA SPHERE ripples out and crashes into Zapdos.

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Her look remains sour as Theo speaks. “Har har, you’re so funny,” she retorts. There’s a reluctant piece of her that begrudgingly acknowledges the mild humor of his words.[break][break]
Achingly reminiscent of the banter they once exchanged. A lifetime ago.[break][break]
But that is in the past. Buried under the things he does now. Keeping her here and refusing to just let her go.[break][break]
“You’d be a better target.”[break][break]
Annoyed by all of the bruxish’s screeching, she sends Fang forward to get things started so that the fish might shut up for a moment. The lucario lunges toward Zapdos, expelling a FLASH CANNON in a bright ray of blinding light.


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"Because." It's a childish reply, punctuated by the fold of her arms. She knows it, they both know it. But it doesn't quell the bitter taste of her anger, acrid on her tongue.[break][break]

Her gaze travels upward - watches the bird that glows with electricity through resentful eyes.[break][break]

"No!" Blue spits at his accusation, fury hurled back at him. "Would just rather use my fists." The addition is a resentful grumble as she summons her lucario.[break][break]

Patiently, Fang watches her as she activates the keystone on her dog tag. And then sure enough, he's engulfed in the light of mega evolution.

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It was almost more unbelievable to hear that he accepted her words for what they were. Not that she believed Shinra to be incapable of it, but more because Blue barely believed what happened herself. In the weeks that followed, reports would come out—a litany of experiences of varying degrees of detail. All tied to the strange alternate world dozens of others also experienced. Twenty years. Half a lifetime.[break][break]
But right now? It was fresh. The reality of the passage of time hadn’t been real at all. Awkwardly, her hands shoved in her coat pockets, and her fingers closed around fabric. The eyepatch, stitched with ornate threading around the edges, she laughed in disbelief as she held it out to him. “I lost an eye,” she said, a sliver of her crooked smile finally returning as she looked up at Shinra. “I think I looked pretty fuckin’ badass.”[break][break]
There, that sounded way more like her, didn’t it? Crass, even in the pristine space of his apartment.[break][break]
The boldness flickered away, though, oscillating back toward the strange vulnerability that she found herself capable of with him. That was a frightening thing, being offered that safety, as much as she craved it. And as the conversation turned toward Theo, the raw cut of their disagreement wept with fresh pain all over again.[break][break]
She didn’t like the look that crossed Shinra’s face at the mention of her mentor, friend, either. That stricken expression that he worked to quickly hide, but that Blue caught anyway, out of the corner of her eye. “He said we’d have to flee Hoenn. To avoid repercussion for abandoning Rocket.” Her face set in a frown of stubbornness again, cheeks tingeing with color. “He’s…sort of important there. But I said I wouldn’t leave you behind.”[break][break]
She couldn’t, not when she’d finally made it back. Back to Shinra.[break][break]
Even if she’d come to accept her life in not-Galar Galar, or wherever they were, with a degree of peace—the hope had always been there nagging at the back of her mind. Home, was where Shinra was. Like the feeling of his fingers tangling softly in her hair. Blue’s eyes fluttered closed and she let out a breath, leaning into the contact. Something, she didn’t fail to note, wasn’t gloved. No small thing. “Thanks, Shin.”[break][break]
No formality, and not derisive nicknames. Just Shin.

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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