Lilly and I walked through the city in complete silence. Bulbasaur pattered faithfully at her foot, and Haunter swarmed in my shadows as always. I had recalled my other Pokémon back to their Poké Balls for now, respecting the city's rule regarding Pokémon movement – one Pokémon per trainer.
After a few minutes of a short walk, we stumbled upon the ideal spot – an ordinary little café on a street corner. Through the clean, transparent windows, you could see it was almost empty, and judging by the deep armchairs with a small round table in the middle, it looked comfortable and discreet enough.
"Will this do?" I asked, nodding toward the entrance.
Lilly just nodded silently, so I stepped forward and opened the door for her.
"Thank you," she spoke so quietly that for a second I thought I had just imagined it.
I followed her inside. She gave me a quick, somewhat questioning look, so I headed straight for a smaller table with two armchairs in the most hidden corner of the café. The armchairs were pushed right up against the table, so I quickly pulled one out for her so she wouldn't have to struggle with it using one hand, and then I sat down opposite her. As soon as Lilly settled in, Bulbasaur laid down right at her feet.
I vaguely sensed rather than actually saw Haunter childishly provoking Bulbasaur again from the shadow under my chair. He stuck his tongue out at him and theatrically waved his shadow claws in front of his face. I ignored it for now, though, because the Grass-type Pokémon seemed completely fine.
"Pick whatever you feel like having," I smiled at her and gestured toward the small menu standing on the table between us.
"What are you having?" she asked timidly after a moment, keeping her eyes lowered to the paper menu.
"Green tea and some cake, depending on what they have fresh," I replied completely calmly.
I watched her and had to admit to myself that in the short time since we left Pallet Town, she must have gone through something truly terrible. Her personality had done a complete 180. It was the absolute, chilling opposite of the girl I used to know.
After a moment, a waitress approached us with a friendly smile. She had a grinning Jigglypuff embroidered on her apron and held a small notepad in her hand. "What can I get you?" She gave us a look and waited patiently for our order.
I motioned for Lilly to go first. Ladies first, and I definitely didn't want to come across as uncouth.
"I'll have what you're having," Lilly said after a moment, sounding completely unsure, her eyes fixed on the table.
"Two green teas and some berry mix for Bulbasaur," I dictated the basics so her partner would have something to bite on too. "And what kind of cakes do you have on offer, please?"
"Today we have a fresh strawberry Miltank cheesecake or a classic apple strudel," the waitress replied amiably.
"I'll take the apple strudel, then. What about you, Lilly?"
"The cheesecake, please," Lilly requested, looking at me for a second with a slightly more confident smile. It felt as if she had been subconsciously expecting me to get bored of the whole situation, turn around, and leave this entire time.
"Coming right up, kids," the waitress smiled at both of us and immediately headed back to the counter.
As soon as the waitress left, Haunter emerged from the shadow with a quiet, hungry question: "Haunt?"
"You ate a few minutes ago," I replied dryly.
Back behind the Pokémon Center in the battle arena, it had been a bizarre sight altogether. A terrified Lilly, her tiny Bulbasaur, and right next to them my massive Houndoom and Haunter, with both of my lunatics being bigger than the two of them combined.
"Haunt..." the ghost groaned with feigned disappointment, even though he had to know perfectly well that I wasn't going to order him a side of delicious human fear.
A brief, somewhat awkward silence followed. Lilly glanced at me uncertainly here and there, but I finally decided to cut the silence and start talking.
"I'm sorry for those insults back at the orphanage. You didn't deserve that."
She looked up at me in surprise. A fleeting smile crossed her face for a second, but then she just shook her head dismissively.
"You don't have to apologize, Patrik. I wasn't acting well at all and I deserved it... I was more just shocked by your sudden, massive change," she looked resolutely straight into my eyes and added in a quiet voice, "Really."
"If you deserved it, I wouldn't be sitting here apologizing... And as for that change," I paused for a moment, considering how to present the whole thing, and then continued, "I had a minor accident at Professor Oak's. Psychic energy hit me a bit, changed me, and for a while I had, you could say, a split personality. I'm completely fine now, but that doesn't excuse me."
I mentally acknowledged her past. She grew up in an orphanage, exactly like I did. Most kids like that desperately lack love, attention, and a stable background in their lives, and everyone compensates for it in their own way. Plus, Lilly was exceptionally attractive, so you couldn't blame her for being fickle. Thanks to the memories of my second life, I could understand her more empathetically now. Even though I didn't agree with her behavior, the insults and mockery on my part were crossing the line. And worst of all, they stemmed mainly from my bruised ego at the time.
My previous, naive self used to follow her around like a loyal dog, yet at the same time, I was too ashamed to even look her in the eyes. It wasn't until the perfect merging of personalities and acquiring the memories from my second life that I realized how miserably and pathetically I had behaved. Moreover, since the merge didn't happen instantly, at the start of my journey I was just an overconfident brat with a sharp tongue.
While I was deep in thought, Lilly studied me carefully for a moment. Then she sighed deeply and shook her head again.
"You were right back then, Patrik... I was acting like a whore."
As soon as she uttered the harsh word, she giggled quietly and unexpectedly, which surprised me, and immediately continued, "Not physically... I never slept with anyone, you were wrong about that. But morally and psychologically, I absolutely used those guys to milk them for gifts and money. In short, everyone prepared for their trainer journey the best way they knew how, right?"
She smirked self-critically. "You worked honestly part-time for Professor Oak... I, on the other hand, sold all those useless gifts from naive boys to earn money for an expensive teleport and gear. So morally, you were absolutely right back then... I didn't care at all how those guys felt," she admitted with undisguised bitterness in her voice.
Silence fell again, but this time it wasn't so oppressive. A minute later, the waitress arrived with a tray and set down cups of hot water and tea bags right in front of us, fragrant cakes, and finally, a bowl full of multicolored berries for Bulbasaur.
"Thank you," Lilly and I thanked her almost in unison.
"Bulba!" her Pokémon joined in. Even though I didn't understand him, the immense enthusiasm was immediately clear from the tone of his voice.
"You're welcome. If you need anything else, just holler, sweethearts," the waitress smiled at us, gave a friendly wink, and left us alone again.
I went right ahead and unwrapped my tea bag, tossed it into the hot water in the cup, and picked up my fork. I'd been craving apple cake for quite a long time.
But before I could even dig in, an unpleasant scraping sound came from under the table, followed by a sharp, warning: "Bulbasaur!"
I sighed heavily. I didn't even have to look under the table to know exactly what was going on down there again.
"Haunter, leave that bowl alone right now!" I commanded firmly.
At that moment, Lilly burst into an amused laugh. It was finally a genuine, relaxed laugh, and for a second it even seemed like that old, familiar spark had returned to her eyes.
The scraping of the bowl against the floor immediately ceased, Bulbasaur was munching contentedly once again, and so I finally put the first piece of cake into my mouth. It was excellent.
Lilly quickly mirrored me with her cheesecake. It used to be my favorite dessert, but after merging memories with my second life, my tastes had definitely changed, and now I clearly preferred proper fruit cakes.
We all ate peacefully in a pleasant, friendly atmosphere. The cake was seriously good, and for a moment I even debated whether to have another one, but ultimately I just pushed the empty plate aside. It would be dinner time soon anyway, and I didn't want to completely fill my stomach with sweets.
Lilly also seemed relatively more relaxed by now, so I went ahead and asked about the thing that interested me almost the most in that moment.
"Where did you get Bulbasaur, by the way?" I brought it up casually and took a sip from my teacup. But when I looked at her a moment later, I froze instantly.
Suddenly, she looked like she was going to burst into tears in front of me any second. I almost had a heart attack.
"Hey, hey, it's fine, Lilly. You don't have to tell me anything at all, I was just..."
With a trembling hand, she placed her fork back on the plate. I noticed one of Bulbasaur's vines immediately shoot up from under the table, which Lilly gripped tightly with her good hand. A heavy, momentary silence fell. After a short while, however, she resolutely lifted her face and looked straight into my eyes. Her blue eyes were filled with tears, and the sight of her in that moment almost hurt me too.
Fuck, I thought this was going to be a safe topic, I cursed frustratedly in my mind.
Finally, she began to speak, almost in a whisper: "I was so stupid, Patrik... so incredibly stupid."
I decided it was better to stay completely quiet and patiently wait for what was going to come out. She was looking off to the side somewhere, squeezing Bulbasaur's vine tightly with her fingers, and then she continued with visible resolve.
"After leaving the orphanage, Pidgeotto and I stayed right in Pallet Town for a while longer... We trained hard and we were confident. Too confident, overly confident. I bought us a teleport to Pewter City and we defeated Brock. With difficulty, but we won. During the match against Onix, my Pidgeotto even evolved... At that point, I wasn't just confident anymore, I was arrogant. But I ran out of money for another teleport and I didn't want to go on foot... And so I made a massive, colossal mistake," she sighed heavily and wiped the tears streaming down her cheeks with the back of the hand still holding the vine.
It clicked for me in that second. I knew exactly what had happened. She did exactly what they warned us about in school probably every single week.
"Pidgeot was suddenly so strong, fast, and huge... and so it occurred to me that we could simply fly to the next city. Pidgeot was unsure and tried to show me it wasn't a good idea, but I was blinded by that victory. I was convinced we were unstoppable and that we'd manage without a problem. We beat Brock himself, didn't we?" she asked rhetorically with bitterness, and from the tone of her voice, it was clear that if she had her other hand, she would have loved nothing more than to slap herself right then and there.
"And so we just quickly restocked our supplies and took off a little ways past the city. We made sure the rangers wouldn't spot us. A large part of the journey was completely fine. We got over Mt. Moon incredibly fast, until out of nowhere, high up directly above the forest, a wild flock led by a massive Fearow appeared," tears were streaming down her face like a river by this point. Her voice broke in a sob, but she pushed on through the pain.
"We didn't stand a chance. Pidgeot couldn't protect me and fight off a huge numerical advantage at the same time... Fearow's wing suddenly flashed a vicious silver. It was a lightning-fast attack. In the next second, my Pidgeot had a broken wing, desperately trying through the pain to keep me safe as we free-fell from the sky."
She paused for a moment, took a deep, shaky breath, and picked up her horror story once more: "The Spearows and the Fearow... they tore my Pidgeot to pieces right then and there. The Fearow cruelly bit my arm off. It was like some twisted warning, but at least it stopped its flock from finishing me off and eating me alive... Then Bulbasaur found me half-dead in the forest. He saved me and joined me. Without any supplies, we stumbled our way here to Cerulean. A few days before you," she finished sadly. Tears and snot ran uncontrollably down her pale face.
Fortunately, there was a napkin dispenser on the table. While Lilly pulled at them desperately with one hand and blew her nose into them, my mind was racing, trying to figure out what to say so as not to make her cry even more.
Fuck, I'm really not built for this sensitive stuff, flashed through my mind as my brain worked in overdrive.
Ultimately, I banked on pure, raw honesty.
"You really fucked it up," I nodded slowly. Lilly immediately dropped her gaze to the ground, squeezing Bulbasaur's vine convulsively. "You knew damn well yourself that flying is one big NO. We heard it in school all the time, after all."
Lilly just nodded in agreement, resigned and with slumped shoulders. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks, however.
"But tell me... who among us has never made a huge mistake?" I continued in a softer voice. "Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is what we do about them afterward."
I looked at Bulbasaur, who was standing quietly beside her.
"I know you'll never do this again. And that is exactly why you can't allow Pidgeot's death to be just a meaningless tragedy. The best way to honor his memory is to keep moving forward. Grit your teeth, train with Bulbasaur, and prove to him that his final act had meaning."
She lifted her tear-stained face toward me and looked straight into my eyes to see if I was serious. She looked as if she had subconsciously expected me to immediately condemn her and laugh at her. Then, although she managed a strained attempt at a grateful smile, a moment later she burst into bitter tears and loud sobbing once again.
Fuck, I swore helplessly in my head. What am I supposed to do now?
In the end, I just sighed with resignation in my mind, stood up from the armchair, walked around the small table to her, and slowly, extremely carefully, wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
Lilly literally clung to me immediately and cried even harder. And so I just stood there quietly, holding her tight, while she snotted right onto my t-shirt. At that moment, Bulbasaur's other vine inconspicuously nudged my leg. When I cast my eyes down and looked at the small Grass-type Pokémon, he gave me a perfectly serious nod in a gesture of gratitude.
I gave him a manly nod in return.
She cried on my chest for a few more minutes. When she finally calmed down somewhat, we finished our tea in silence and shifted to safer topics. You could tell she felt incredibly relieved. I was probably the only trainer around her in front of whom she could completely drop her mask like this.
Eventually, I paid the bill, and together we set off toward the Pokémon Center for an early dinner.
We walked through the city in a pleasant, unforced silence — that strange kind of silence that no longer creates tension, but rather peace between two people. Thanks to this, I had plenty of time to think about what was next. Two main plans were gradually forming in my head.
The first was to definitively accept Alakazam's offer and take the Abra from him for free. A Pokémon with such a lineage and potential could be a massive asset to my team.
The second problem was significantly more complicated — how to offer Lilly money in a way she wouldn't perceive as an insult.
Her once prominent self-confidence, courage, and cheeky demeanor might have faded into the background under the weight of what she'd experienced, but one thing in her remained unchanged: her pride. The pride of a girl who was used to relying first and foremost on herself.
If I just shoved the money into her hand, she might see it as an expression of pity or sympathy. And that was exactly what I wanted to avoid.
***
Author's note:
Poor Bulbasaur just wanted to enjoy his meal... but our Haunter is a classic little shit :D.
What do you guys think of Lilly's backstory? This really goes to show why a trainer shouldn't fly on a Pokémon that isn't ready... where a territorial flock of wild birds can easily kill both the Pokémon and the trainer.
How do you think our MC should help her out financially without hurting her pride? Any ideas?
I know, I know... it's a brutal world and money is hard to come by... but sometimes it's good to lend a helping hand. You never know when you might need one yourself.
Want to read ahead? The next chapter is already out for free on my official website! Grab the direct link on our Discord community: tgdTNZYVKt
***
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