A/N: The first bit here will be attached at the end of 64 in the public release. No other changes. But you know, there will be a chapter header when we actually get to 65Hope you all enjoy!---Kate never thought she would end up going on a journey with a group, she’d assumed that her journey would be just like all the shows, movies, comics, and books she’d seen her whole life.
But on that first night, when she’d set out with her new partner and wandered into the woods to battle and catch her first addition to the team, she’d realized that in just a few hours of walking she’d become a part of a group without even realizing it.
Of course she’d been alone, spending hours away from everyone to train her team and search for new members, but she’d always ended up back at the camp with the others at the end of the day.
Her team is great, but even with her partner communication is mostly guesswork and context clues, made slightly easier by a hazy notion of what the ‘mon means when she talks.
Some stuff, the books especially, tried to explain how quiet it is to be alone with no one around or outside their pokeballs. She didn't understand it until she’d been walking through the underbrush, accidentally kicked a stone, and realized that was the only sound beyond the distant calls of ‘mon and the wind she’d heard in hours.
After that, every time her group met a trainer traveling all alone, she’d looked at them… differently. Trying to imagine what goes on in their heads that allows them to handle that much quiet.
But now, as Kate rolls her shoulders and stretches her neck in the water of the hot spring, she lifts her head up to look at the girl she’d invited out here.
She’s sitting in her Joy pastel bathing suit and a towel on her head, her distinctive hair and face shape making it clear beyond any doubt that this is an authentic Joy, who is also a trainer.
Seeing that the center of the conversation is still directed at the Joy, she tunes her ears back to the conversation.
“–so why is your partner so big?” Sam asks, gesturing toward the door as if to indicate the absent ‘mon. “I haven't looked into chansey biology too much I guess, but…”
He trails off, prompting Amelia to shrug.
“I don't know. She’s always been big, even as a happiny, and when she evolved it just didn't stop.” She reaches up to adjust the towel on her head. “I do know she’s not unhealthy, she’s had almost every kind of physical and developmental test under the sun done to her since she’d hatched, she’s just big.”
Her response doesn't seem to satisfy anyone, including the speaker, but before they can continue the conversation quiets at the sound of two pairs of footsteps approaching on the footpath to the fenced hotspring area.
They’d chosen this hot spring area specifically because of its remote location and the time, in the day all the old people flock to this place like beedrill to honey on the bus route, but in the night she’d heard it’s almost deserted.
Judging from the fact that they’ve met no one here and are the only people in this swimming pool sized hotspring she’d say her information was accurate.
After a moment Grovyle and Amelia’s partner come into view, and everyone watches at the larger ‘mon approaches the human width gap in the fence and somehow manages to contort herself through the space, all the while her face never leaving an expression of scanning calm, as if trying to give nothing away while giving even attention to everyone in view.
Seeing her partner, Amelia drifts over to the ladder and half pulls herself out of the water, gesturing to the accessibility wooden entrance halfway around the large pool.
She’d passed the gendered hot springs and found that, while they’re both smaller than the unisex one, they’re roughly the same composition of rocks and steaming water, carefully fenced in and dressed to hide the modern additions as seamlessly as possible. Though the unisex spring is much larger.
“Do you think the ramp would be better? You caused some… pretty big waves at the hotel and–”
“–ans chansey.” The ‘mon interrupts with no change in tone or expression, but she begins walking around to the ramp.
Looking at the Joy, half pulled out of the water, Kate is once again reminded how… strange some part of her finds the sight, both in seeing a Joy outside of her uniform, and the physical appearance of the girl herself, because that’s not normal either.
Kate wouldn't consider herself a vain person, but she tries to put some care into her appearance, even on the trail, and seeing the Jo– Amelia half out of the water reveals something she never would have been able to confirm otherwise.
She doesn't seem to have any acne scars, or scars in general, at least nowhere she can see.
Kate spent hours of her life a week to get through the worst phase of her skin and even she has some pits and redness near the hairline and between the shoulderblades, but Amelia? None.
She also looks… weirdly fit? Sure walking around and carrying her bag on the trail has knocked off a bit of stubborn belly fat, but it looks like Amelia took that idea and ran with it.
Are… are all Joys like that?
She’d assumed the skin thing was makeup but she’d believe there’s some secret medical trick they’re hiding for flawless skin. But the fitness?
Realizing it’s rude to stare, the trainer looks away just as Amelia drops back into the water.
Then blinks as she processes what the Joy had just said.
“What. Does your hotel have a pool?”
Turning around, Amelia rubs the back of her neck sheepishly.
“...Ah. Well it’s a funny story for that one.” She says, pulling her head higher to avoid the waves of her partner entering the hot spring, with a comedically small towel on her head. “So I saw this advertisement for some cheap rooms, but apparently they’d sold the last one and forgot to take down the sign, so the guy at the front desk gave me the same deal for an upgraded room, and it had a small hot spring split between a few other rooms.”
There’s a moment of silence as everyone tries to process that statement.
She’d always heard the jokes about Joys being lucky because they’re partnered with chansey, but she’d never thought it would be so literal.
After a few seconds of Amelia glancing around with increasing awkwardness, long enough for a taillow to glide out of the dark and land on the rocks next to his trainer, Tyler breaks the silence.
“Man.” He laughs, shoving a wave at the Joy at the limits of it becoming a splash. “I’ve always heard Joys have it good but I didn't realize you had it that good!”
“Hm? Oh! I think I just got lucky this time actually.” She says, bobbing over the wave with some confusion. “I know sometimes people are… nicer to my family than they’d normally be, but he just made a mistake with the advertisement. What else was he going to do?”
Kate blinks in disbelief as the entire pool falls into a shocked silence, including the chansey she notices, side-eyeing her partner from where she’s bobbling like a buoy, taking up a solid eighth of the other side of the spring.
Eventually the ‘mon coughs gently.
“Sey. Chansey chansey chanchan.”
Amelia looks at her partner and tilts her head.
“Chansey… What are you talking about? That stuff only happens in movies. You can't just say you’ll sell something for one price then charge another. That’s false advertising. He’d get in trouble.”
“No, that's called a tourist trap.” Sam chimes in, looking confused by the fact he has to explain the idea. “They advertise one price and once they get you spending money they hit you with the real price. Like… every hotel ever does it.”
“Why do you think we’re camping outside town? I’d love a real bed you lucky egg.” Tyler adds, then glances at Chansey and coughs as he realizes the slip of the tongue in the common phrase.
Amelia says nothing, looking around at everyone surrounding her as if expecting them to reveal that it was all some kind of joke.
“...Wait, you’re serious?” She asks eventually, looking at a lock of hair that had fallen in front of her face as if interrogating the pink strands. “You’re saying that that’s like… a real thing? Like not just some TV exaggeration, hotels actually scam people like that?”
There’s a slow chorus of nods from the other humans.
“...Did you not know that?” Kate asks slowly.
“How did you not know that?” Sam says at almost the same time, to which Amelia tries to stammer something out through the emotion, but eventually gives up, lowering her head to the point it’s just the top of her nose and eyes above water, blowing a stream of emotional bubbles as she does.
Watching the Joy apparently melt, Kate finds the situation rather funny, but as she opens her mouth to poke a bit of fun, out the corner of her eye she sees Chansey watching carefully from the other side of the steaming water. Her expression unchanging and unreadable as she watches her trainer without so much as a blink.
Then those unreadable eyes glance at her, and something about the look has Kate thinking about ways to change the topic.
CH65
Head Nurse Lily Joy adjusts the towel wrapped around her hair as she steps out of the bathroom and feels her stomach growl at the smell of dinner cooking in the kitchen under the watchful eye of her partner.
Unfortunately it’s not ready yet and neither of them like it when the other hovers around in the kitchen, so the Joy tries to subtly breathe through her mouth before easing herself onto the couch with a groan and the crackle of joints.
Lily glares at her knees, massaging them and intentionally ignoring all the aches and pains caused by her three day excursion to the shrine.
Sure, when she first started doing this it didn't hurt at all, but she’s barely over forty! Her body is just whining.
She’s not that old.
But at the same time, it wouldn't be so bad if Ninetails was slightly more accommodating with checkups. This strange seemingly random rotation of solstices, equinoxes, the quarter days between the two, and a handful of scattered days that drift based on the lunar calendar, makes scheduling anything a nightmare.
It’s that chaos that led to the trainee learning about the family secret, something that hasn't left Lily’s mind since the moment she saw the girl.
She’s far too young to understand the seriousness of the need for secrecy.
The stray thought that Head Nurse Elba took on her as a successor to the job when she was that age whispers to her, then the realization that she is now the same age as Aunt Elba when they first met hits her like a slap to the face.
N-Not only the trainee’s youth, she’s a trainer! Refusing to give her family legacy her full attention is a sure sign that she won't understand the seriousness of this. Because if she understood exactly how important their family's work is she wouldn't be distracting herself by playing trainer.
But even as she thinks all that, her mind flashes with the memory of the trainee approaching an enraged Ninetails, tails twitching with agitation and a snarl on her teeth, only to reach out without hesitation.
‘I’m here to help.’
After a moment, Lily squints and sits up straight to think her way through the cognitive dissonance, and as she does she sees the waxpaper package sitting on the coffee table that the girl had shoved into her chest before sprinting out the door just as the elder Joy had been heading out to attempt to impress upon her the importance of secrecy.
She’d said… something about Venessa asking her to deliver it, but the girl was speaking too quickly and it came out garbled, so that’s all Lily knows.
Looking at it for a moment, the need to distract from the gnawing hunger in her stomach has her pick it up and carefully begin to unwrap it.
Peeling off the pieces of tape one by one, Lilly eventually begins unfolding the paper to see…
Her hands freeze as she catches sight of the unmistakable faded green quilting she’d formed her fondest childhood memories wrapped in or sitting on.
Hurrying to unwrap it further, she tears the last of the waxpaper off and holds up Grandma Gee’s big blanket out in front of her, feeling the rough yarn scrape against her hands and memories in a way only this old thing could.
As the blanket unfolds she hears something hit the floor and, looking down, sees an envelope covered in hasty squiggles.
Placing the blanket in her lap, she picks up the envelope and turns on a tableside light, only to see the writing is more watery than normal, but that clears up when she blinks her eyes a few times.
…Vee’s handwriting hasn't gotten any better.
Squinting, she eventually picks out where each character starts and ends to figure out the message.
‘Happy (early/late/on time) (event where it’s appropriate to give a gift) Lil-L!’
Lily huffs a laugh, carefully peeling the envelope seal to open it without damaging the paper and unfolding the sheet of paper within.
She’ll have to thank Amelia for delivering this.
—--
–_–
—--
Even two days after the hotspring, as Amelia bounces her leg as she sits in an unused empty exam room, she still finds herself thinking about the level of special treatment they think she gets. It’s hard not to when every time she checks into her room in the evening and eats from the complementary breakfast bar in the morning, she’s getting the treatment they claimed was special.
Sure she’d always been aware people are on average nicer to her family, in history classes at school there was almost guaranteed to be at least one paragraph talking about the Joy clan in every chapter, so she knows that until three hundred years ago members of her family were outright immune to being charged with a crime in Hoenn. It’s the same reason that if a Joy needs to go to court she’s not required to stand when the judge enters the room.
At times she felt like she was going paranoid, the thought popping up every time someone waves at her or opens a door to let her in. Questioning whether they would have done it if she didn't have her last name.
Thankfully, most of the time her thoughts were distracted But in the end those thoughts were driven from her mind, replaced with something much more urgent as with the return of Head Nurse Lily, Amelia’s proctored tests and exams for this center had been scheduled.
There are no practical exams this time, but the written test had her frantically reviewing everything that this exam will be testing for with the aid of her much less anxious partner.
But in the end, after three days of studying in every spare moment, she’d entered this room three hours ago, sat down, and took the test.
She thinks she did well, she’d completed it half an hour before it was supposed to be done and she had an answer to every question.
But while Nurse Lily had gotten… marginally nicer to her since helping with Ninetails and promising that she understands not to say anything to anyone, all that disappeared the morning of the test, making it feel like there’s more on the line here than just a bad grade.
With the test done technically she’s allowed to leave, but with this level of anxiety if she leaves all she’s going to do is be anxious about the results somewhere further away from finding them out.
So here she sits, waiting.
…
There is no clock in this room so the ticking sound is purely her imagination, but it sure feels like it’s real.
The faint scratching of pencil on paper, however, is real.
Amelia kicks her leg and spins around in her seat so she’s looking at her partner, where she sits, occupying a solid quarter of the room, scratching away at a floating sheet of scrap paper and pencil provided for the test.
The math for calculating aura interactions is the kind of thing that straddles the line between medicine and physics, to which Amelia found particularly annoying but her partner took to like a second nature.
“So…” She says slowly. “What are you up to?”
“Chansey.”
The trainer blinks.
“...Drawing?”
“Ans.”
“Since when can you draw?” Amelia asks, standing up and walking toward her partner to get a look at the page.
Chansey doesn't respond, or give any reaction when the trainer smooshes into the ‘mon’s bulk to get a look at the page.
Sure enough, it’s just… doodles. Nothing outstandingly good or bad, just a bunch of little figures that–
“Oh! Is that me!?” She asks, pointing at one of the scribbles, and before her partner answers she can feel the amusement in the hesitation before the ‘mon shakes her head.
“Ch, chansey chan ansey an an.”
“Oh, and I assume that’s a completely different Taillow over there too?” Amelia laughs, shoving off her friend’s bulk and walking back to her chair, glancing at his pokeball on her belt, laying on the desk. “Actually. Speaking of Taillow. You’re sure you’re alright with letting him run it this time?”
With the gym challenge tomorrow, she’d suggested that Chansey hang back and for Taillow to take the lead as far as he can take them through the gym. Only after Taillow is tapped out will Chansey get to battle.
She’d not… expected Chansey to make much of a fuss about it, but she’d expected something, instead all the ‘mon gave was a muted acceptance and move on.
This time is no different, Chansey glancing up from her page and giving the closest thing to a shrug her body allows.
“Chan. Chansey ch.” She says, then pauses and indicates Taillow's ball. “Chansey?”
The question has Amelia grimace.
“Yes, the drills we’ve been running have been to counter the two badge team you found on file. But…” She sighs. “...Does that feel like cheating to you? Knowing the team feels like an unfair advantage.”
“Chan ans chanchan.”
“Oh sure, ‘think of it as payment.’” Amelia huffs with amusement. “You know you sound really shady when you say stuff like that?”
Her attempt at a joke, instead of any reaction she was expecting, has her friend looking rather confused. But before the ‘mon can say anything else the door opens, letting in Nurse Lily with two manila envelopes in hand.
The beige paper has all thoughts leave Amelia’s mind, movement falling still as the nurse closes the door and looks at them both, attention lingering on the younger Joy.
“These are your test results.” She says sharply. “You may keep the cover sheet with your grade, but the remaining test material is for review only. Do not discuss it with each other and return it to me before you leave the room. Is that clear?”
“Yes Nurse.” Amelia says back as quickly as she can without slurring her words or shouting, then almost rips her envelope from the woman’s grip and flips it open to the first page.
Her first thought is that she got five questions wrong.
Her second is that it’s out of one hundred fifty
She passed!
The Joy hisses a cheer through her teeth and pumps her fist, looking over to her partner and realizing at the last minute she should not be doing that.
Thankfully, as she turns back to her own page, she sees Chansey meet her eyes and give the smallest of nods.
Flipping through the test to figure out what she got wrong, Amelia quickly memorizes the questions, pockets the cover sheet, and flips it closed. But as she gets up and hands the graded test back, the Head Nurse clears her throat and looks past the far wall as she hesitates to take the offered papers.
“...I will admit Amelia, I had made certain… assumptions about your character when we first met.” She says, mouth twitching as if she’s struggling to say the words. “However, your conduct has proven my assumptions incorrect, and should you choose to be stationed here when you graduate I would be happy to have you.”
The nurse in training blinks, then smiles as she releases the envelope.
“Thanks Aunt Lily.” She says professionally, then laughs. “But I’ve still got a few more days here, plenty of time to mess this up!”
Lily raises an eyebrow imperiously, but the corners of her mouth twitch.
“I reserve the right to retract my offer at any time trainee.”
—--
–_–
—--
“You ready Taillow?”
At his trainer’s question, the first answer crowding out his mind is no.
No of course he’s not ready, the last gym leader he’d seen fight threw around enough electricity it almost beat Chansey. If this gym leader is even a fraction as strong he’s going to become ash.
But as he sits on his friend and trainer’s shoulder, he realizes the fact he knows what fractions are means that he’s different than he was before.
He’s learned, and trained, and trained, then trained some more, he’s been drilled on so many aspects of how to fly in a fight he dreams about radial momentum and engagement distance to speed ratios.
Amelia gives compliments and encouragement like they’re nothing, but the last big training day they’d had Chansey said his flying skill was ‘adequate.’
Adequate!
If his trainer had asked if he was ready right then he would have said he could have beaten the entire forest!
But now…
The ‘mon shuffles on his talons, forcing himself to look at the big building where the fire gym is as he tries to find that same energy within himself to say he can.
But all he finds is fear.
After a moment he looks over the single large eye his trainer has pointed at him from where he’s perched on her shoulder, then back at the building.
Chansey had already gone into the building, to sign them in and to ‘check up on how the staff had taken her advice.’
“...Maybe Chansey should take the lead actually. I don't think–”
“Aw come on! You can do this! I know it!”
Taillow can only shake his head and look away, struggling against the thundercloud of fear in his chest. As long as he can remember his first reaction to something new or unknown is fear, and he hates it.
He hates being so afraid.
But that’s who he is, and he can't change that. It’s who he is, and because of who he is, he cant–
“Hey.”
His trainer’s voice cuts through stormclouds, almost forcing his eyes to open and meet hers as she continues.
“I wouldn't have asked you to battle with me if I didn't know we would win.” She says, the quiet intensity that’s always sitting just beneath the surface coming to the fore, stronger than ever. “If we go in there, we will win.”
Staring into the human’s eyes, Taillow is entranced.
Because as he watches, something within shifts and glitters, barely restrained by the body it’s contained within as it flares with every word, reinforcing those words with such certainty it’s like the outcome is already chosen.
It looks almost like a fire.
And through that fire, he hears just one question.
“Are you ready?”
The fear isn't gone, it’s stronger than ever, but stronger than that is his partner’s conviction, so certain in his victory that there’s only one answer.
Taillow feels himself nodding, and in a blink the fire is gone.
Amelia smiles.
“Alright! Let’s do this!” She cheers, pumping her fist.
And as they walk up to the door to the gym, Taillow is forced to silently wonder what in the world that was.