Prepare for the worst

The next morning went well, it had been a long time since Mark woke up feeling actually rested. Which was strange, considering the loud snore that came from the other side of the tent. There she was, asleep in a position that looked like she got possessed. No sign of Simon, though.

With a stretch, he stood up and got out of the tent. The force field was still up and running, even with the couple purple stains that were on it.

“Morning!” Simon greeted him. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah, I needed that.” He sat next to his teammate. “What’s all that on the force field?”

“Seems like poison, probably got attacked during the night by some ferals.”

“Makes sense. We should at least say thanks to Lance for putting the device together.”

Simon handed some food to Mark. “Honestly, I’m still surprised by the fact that a thing like this was hidden in a book. Did nobody care to read those or what? This would sell like crazy.”

“Stop giving Kecleon more reasons to scam us, Simon.” The two laughed. It was nice to have a normal conversation after the hell both of them went through yesterday.

“Ugh… Morning…” Rachel stepped out of the tent. “I can’t wait to go back to the guild, at least the beds there were decent.”

“C’mon, don’t say that, you’ve been snoring like crazy all night and now you said you haven’t slept well?”

“Har har. Really funny. Get me one of those, will you? I’m hungry as all hell.”

Simon threw a pastry her way, which she easily grabbed.

“So… everything good between you two then?”

“I’d say so. I don’t know how far this relationship thing will go but, I’m at least happy to have my teammate back.” Simon put an arm around Mark’s shoulders. “If anything I’m sad that we didn’t talk about it sooner, but let bygones be bygones. We’re okay now and that’s what matters.”

“I’m glad to hear that, the two of you are cute together.”

Just like that, Simon’s confidence shattered, being replaced by a blush. Not like Mark was any better, but at least he had a way to hide it. It was enough for Rachel to laugh. “See? Look at you so flustered! Adorable!” She was trying to tease them, and it was working.

Mark threw a piece of his food to her face, but even that wasn’t enough to make her stop giggling.

“Okay, okay, I get it, I’ll stop… for now.” She smirked. “We should get going, actually. Maybe we can do a sprint and get to the fortress today.”

“I doubt it, but you are right in that we should be leaving. Do you need help with the tent, Rachel?”

“Need? No. Want? I’d appreciate it, yeah.”

While Simon and Rachel packed the tent up, Mark deactivated the force field and put the device into his bag. The couple purple stains fell to the ground, at least they didn’t have to worry about keeping the barrier clean.

And so they started walking again. There wasn’t much talking, but the air was a lot less oppressive than last time. It was a good kind of silence, not the constant stress that Mark was used to.

“Hey, Rachel, I wanted to ask. After all that has happened, there’s one thing that still makes no sense to me.” Simon asked. “Why did you spread the word that Mark was a human? If what you wanted was to keep this cycle going, why put him in danger like that?”

Honestly, Mark hadn’t even thought about that.

“Truth be told, I didn’t care about this cycle that much. With all the iterations I’ve been through, what’s one more, you know?” She said, looking down. “It’s as I told you, I wanted clues. Clues to whoever is behind this because, as I told you before, I still have no idea.”

“It… it doesn’t sit completely right with me that you were so willing to get him killed, but I get it.”

“It’s like I told you before, Simon. She has been through thousands of cycles. That’s literally more than two years, maybe even three, of doing the same thing over and over with the small hope of something different happening. It’s no wonder she was willing to do anything to get closer to ending this.”

“If anything I’m more surprised that you two let me join you this time around. The other four times we’ve gotten this far, you two blamed me for the chaos. Understandably so, but still.” She hopped over a small log on the ground. “I really wasn’t expecting you to come back for me back at Apollo’s Sanctum.”

“But didn’t you say we fought Legendaries together?”

“And we did, but I had to pretty much stalk you. I always got there when the fight occurred, and you two wanted explanations, which I would give after the battle. Of course, as you can imagine, there never was no ‘after’.”

“So this is our first time working together?”

“Yep. You understand now why I said I would miss this? Being able to simply talk to you like we did on Ione Lake, that’s something that will not happen in a long time if this cycle ends up looping.”

“Just the more reason to give it our all and not let that happen.” Mark said. “This cycle has had too many good things happen, at least these last few days. I’m not letting that go.”

“That’s the spirit! You’ll see, between the three of us, we’re unstoppable.”

Mark envied Simon’s optimism, but at least part of it rubbed off on him. Yeah, they were going to get through this. He already got through too much suffering for them to fail now.

After another break and some more hours of walking, it was time for night number two. They already made their way around Angel’s Peak, just shy of the forest that was behind it. Tomorrow, all they had to do was enter the woods, and find the Unraveling Fortress.

The force field was set so, having already eaten, they were enjoying what little respite they had left before actually going to sleep.

“Hey Rachel…” Simon said. “I wanted to have a talk with Mark if you don’t mind… In private.”

She looked confused for a second before finally getting it. “Oh! Sure, sure. I was already feeling tired anyways.” She entered the tent without a complaint. “Have a good night, you two.”

“So… what did you want to talk about?”

“About us, I guess.” He looked down, clearly he didn’t think much about how exactly to say what he wanted. “It’s just, I don’t know if I’m doing it right? I guess? I don’t know, I feel like I should be doing more if we’re supposed to be together.”

“Honestly… I’m not sure either. But that’s the point, right? To figure it out together.” He gave a small smile to Simon, but he wasn’t having it. “Look, if you’re not comfortable with it, you don’t have to keep trying. We gave it a chance, it didn’t work, that’s it.”

“No. I want to do this. I want to be with you. All I ask is some patience, because I really don’t know what I’m doing.”

Mark got closer to him and held his paw. “Neither am I, Simon. Neither am I. Besides, we still have a goal, don’t we? If we fail, it’ll be like we never amounted to anything. So let’s focus on this, make sure we have a future to look forward to. Then, we can figure everything out, with no rush.”

“I guess so…”

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” Simon sighed. “Too many thoughts running around, and not all of them are good. We’re so close to meeting Dialga and I’m terrified. I’ve been here for so many years, it’s so scary to think that there may have been a reason, you know? And what if they make me remember my old life? Would I even want to know if I’m happy here?”

“Simon, whatever happens, I’m with you all the way, okay? I know this is a big deal, but you’re not alone, remember that.”

Simon was now trembling, like he was fighting with himself in his head. Mark would know, he had been doing that too much.

“Simon, what’s wro-”

And that’s when Simon took initiative and went for a kiss, completely shutting Mark up. It was short, clumsy, but it was still gentle, making sure to not be overwhelming.

When they broke, Simon immediately covered his face up. “I-I don’t know if we’re gonna have another chance so I… um… didn’t want to regret not having done this…”

Mark was speechless, this was the last thing he expected from his teammate, but it felt magical.

Seeing that the Cubone hadn’t responded, Simon got worried. “S-shit, was it too sudden?! I-I fucked it up, didn’t I? God I’m so sorry, I…”

“Shut up…” Mark jumped in for a hug. “I love you, Simon. Way more than you can imagine.”

At that, the Squirtle relaxed. He closed his eyes, enjoying the moment.

This trip was the best thing Mark could’ve ever hoped for.