Expectations

It would take longer than expected for Simon to get back. Mark had already eaten all of the berries that Rose left him. He tried to control himself but he really was starving.

“So amnesia, huh?” Mark tried to recollect himself in order to explain things to Simon. Too bad Rose was too eager to share and didn’t let him talk.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” It was difficult to decipher Rose’s expression. She was worried, but there was a hint of eagerness in there.

“I don’t even know where I am, so… no.”

The team thought about the situation in silence for a moment before looking at each other, seemingly having come to the same conclusion.

“Why don’t you join our team? That way you can stay with us, and we wouldn’t mind the extra help on missions.”

Simon was serious about this. Why? They literally met him today, there was no way they had this much confidence in him.

“What do you guys do? Because I don’t think I can help much.”

“Do you know how to fight?”

Mark immediately looked directly at Rose. The message was clear.

“Okay, but if you don’t know how to fight, that’s even more reason to be accompanied by someone. Else, you won’t survive out there.”

“What do I do then?”

“You learn.”

Simon said that with such simplicity that it scared Mark. He wasn’t thinking of just starting a fight right there and then, right?

“Relaaax, we’re talking about getting you into a Mystery Dungeon. You know, an easy one, so you get some experience.” Rose leaned on the bed with a smirk, trying to look cool. It’s not working.

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“A Mystery Dungeon. What is that?”

“Oh, right, amnesia, forgot. They are honestly really difficult to explain, and I don’t think either me or Simon are really qualified to get into the details. So long story short: places that change layout at random, with feral Pokémon that can be used to train.”

Pokémon. It was a name that Mark didn’t understand, yet it sounded familiar. Familiar enough to not question it. The use in that sentence could only mean that’s the name of the species at large, right? That’s what he’ll go with until it’s proven otherwise.

Both Simon and Rose were looking at him intensely, waiting for a response. He was really scared, but they made a good point about not having anywhere to go. “Ok, I’ll try, but I’m not promising anything. Can it wait until tomorrow, though? I think I need some time to process all of this.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. Speaking of, I think you should get out of bed for a while, see if you can start moving around.”

“Good idea, Simon. Mind if you do help him? I wanna get some more things at Kecleon’s for tomorrow.”

With a nod from Simon, Rose left, leaving the two alone.

“Ok, let’s see if we can get you to at least stand up.”

Simon grabbed Mark’s paws and pulled slowly. Mark tried to stand on his feet… Emphasis on ‘tried’. His legs trembled and he fell forwards again towards Simon, though at least they didn’t fall all the way to ground like last time.

“There we go, slowly.” Simon was helping, letting himself be a support for the Cubone. Mark found it ironic that after walking alone for so long, the lack of energy would be such a nuisance that he needed help to simply stand up.

It was difficult, but Mark managed. He walked around the room for a bit to get used to it, eventually being able to roam the building. It was cozy, a bit more modern than what he expected (should have expected it from the looks of the room he was in), but his instincts told him that it wasn’t near high-end enough to be comparable to his human home.

“Ok, so… I am a Cubone, what species are you two?”

“Oh, right, Rose mentioned you didn’t know species. I’m a Squirtle, Rose is a Growlithe.”

“And you two are…”

“Siblings! Well, I was adopted, but we’ve always been very close.”

“Adopted? What happened to your parents?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. If they abandoned me when I was a child, then they didn’t care for me, so why should I care back?”

Even though Simon just said that, his expression was more of dismissiveness rather than anger or sadness. At least it was an easy topic to talk about for him.

“Feel free to ask any more questions, I imagine you have a lot you’re wondering about.”

“Uhh… Well, what is this guild you talked about?”

“Oh, pretty much the organization that manages our jobs and all of that stuff. They train the teams and give them the missions that we do.”

“Right, you talked about these missions before, what exactly do you guys do?”

“Eh, it varies. From retrieving items, to escorting other Pokémon, to sometimes rescuing some poor souls that got lost in Mystery Dungeons.”

Rescuing? Now he understood why they wanted to teach him to fight. 

“Okay, I can tell that last one is worrying you, but don’t worry, it’s not as dangerous as it sounds as long as you can defend yourself. Or, in your case, as long as you have someone there if things go wrong.”

“Are you absolutely sure about that? Cause I’m not.”

“Of course! We may not be the best team out there, but we aren’t newbies, you know? You should talk with our guildmaster, they can probably tell you how good we are.” Simon smirked. These two really liked teasing around, didn’t they?

Rose came back soon after that. It was already pretty late, so they all went to sleep.

Mark wanted to take the ‘couch’ (it wasn’t really a couch, but it was similar enough that Mark’s mind decided that’s how he was calling it), but the team insisted that he went back to Simon’s bed. They might be a bit teasy and cocky, but they’re definitely kind.

The next day arrived, the now team of three was already at the entrance of the dungeon. 

“So Poison Garden, huh?”

“Yep! It’s very low level, and type effectiveness will help. Well, it’ll help you, anyways. Simon and I just have to keep watch.”

“What’s that about type effectiveness?”

At that, Simon’s eyes beamed up.

“Oh boy, you just activated his trigger phrase.”

“You are going to be soooo sick of me once I’m done explaining.”

With a gulp from Mark, the three of them entered the dungeon.