Chapter 9: One Year

Eve was pressed so close to me that her shoulder bumped against mine with every step we took. Our hips bumped into each other as we walked, and as was the case more and more recently, her tail was curled innocently around mine. 

The summer sun was warm, almost stiflingly hot. We were on the Fire continent after all. Sunny Day was kind of a given. We had just gotten back from a job really early. The Beedrill who had lost a precious chunk of honeycomb while traveling through a Dungeon hadn’t realized that he had only lost it one floor in. He must have really felt embarrassed as he handed over our 400P reward. So now Eve and I were headed to the market, and then eventually to the library.

“Sierra gave me a list of ingredients that he says he needs for dinners this week,” Eve explained as we got closer and closer to the market. No offense to Eve, but Sierra was an amazing cook. It was worth adding him to the team just for that. He did all of the cooking now, but neither Eve or I complained.

“And then I have a few things that we need. I know Vix uses way more shampoo than she needs to whenever she takes a bath, and Sierra and Abby go through a ton with how thick their fur is. So we need another two bottles of the stuff.” 

I grunted in response. Eve raised an eyebrow at me, but she shook her head and kept going. “And then of course we have to restock our supply of berries, seeds, and wands. Oh, and my bag is getting a little worn out,” she added holding it up so I could see. The leather in the bottom of the bag was extremely faded, the brown going white from age, stress, and strain. I could see one or two holes in the weak material. 

“So I’m going to have to see if I can get it repaired, or else I might have to get a new one.” She paused, as though she expected a response from me. Then she plowed on when I didn’t answer. 

“Once we’re done, I was hoping that we could run by the library again tonight. We have plenty of time and I hope that maybe we can figure something else out.” I grimaced slightly at this. I was beyond honored that Eve spent so much time with me trying to find the Dreamstone, but at the same time it felt like all we ever did was go to the library. She was a maniac, but I guess she was the only reason why we had actually made a small breakthrough.

I can’t believe we hadn’t figured it out earlier, but my father was the linchpin in this whole puzzle. He had to have seen the Dreamstone himself, or at least met someone who had seen the Dreamstone. As far as I knew he had only ever visited three continents. He was born on the Water continent (where my grandfather had lived his whole life), he eventually visited the Mist continent (where he had gone to study and do odd jobs for the Expedition Society since he was an expert in… I want to say types of energy. It never really interested me). There he had met my mother, and once they got married they both moved to the Fire continent. It didn’t narrow our field of search by too much, but it would be much easier to search three continents rather than the whole world.

“-How does that sound?” Eve suddenly asked me. My mind had been elsewhere, so I hadn’t caught the actual question. I grumbled uncommittingly and shrugged.

Eve wrinkled her nose as she glared at me before she suddenly slammed into me, pushing me into a narrow alley. 

“What was that for?” I snapped grumpily. “There was no reason for that, stupid!”

Eve looked like I had just slapped her. To be fair, I might as well have. She wrinkled her nose at me as she growled. “Fine. Be that way. I think I’m gonna go to the market alone today. Perhaps you should go back to the apartment.” She pushed past me, heading deeper into the alley. 

I immediately felt guilty. “Eve, wait,” I called after her. “Please wait, I’m sorry!”

“Oh, you’re sorry . What is your deal?” Eve said as she continued to walk away.

“I am sorry. I’m just going through some stuff today.” I rushed to finish the sentence. I felt horrible, I felt uncomfortable. 

“Going through what? Is that why you are being such a jerk today?” She paused for a moment. “You were fine this morning.”

“No, I’m certain I’ve been quiet all day.” I prompted. I wished I could change the subject. Man I felt so uncomfortable. “Look Eve I’m sorry. Can we just move on?”

“What are you going through?”

“Eve, I don’t want to…”

“Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, I don’t want you with me either. You can head back to the apartment.” She strutted to the other end of the alley.

I sprinted forward and stopped her before she could leave the alley. “Wait!” I took a deep breath. “You are right. There isn’t anything that I should feel uncomfortable talking to you about.” I sighed. “Eve do you know what is in three days?”

Eve cocked her head. “Uhh,” she said looking around as if the answer was written on the wall somewhere. Then I saw her expression change as the answer came to her. “In three days it will be one year since we met. Wow. I can’t believe it has been a year already.”

I nodded agreement. “Yeah, but I am more worried about what was a year ago, today.”

Again Eve looked confused before a look of complete shock and horror appeared on her face. “Your family. Oh Arceus, Slink, I didn’t realize.”

I shook my head fighting back tears. “Yeah. It’s fine, I’ve just been spending a lot of time in my own head. Looking at memories.”

Eve leaned forward and nuzzled at my cheek. “I’m sorry. Would you prefer that we don’t go to the library tonight? We can just stay home tonight. If you want to be alone, I can sleep on the other bed. Or on the couch.”

I took a step forward and draped my head over her shoulder in a makeshift hug. “No, having you all near… it makes me feel better.”

“Okay,” Eve purred, “we can finish shopping and then-”

“Eve!” a new voice shouted. I looked around wildly, and coming up the alleyway behind Eve was a pink and white shape. As I watched the shape exploded into bright, white light. I was almost instantly blinded, then something threw me backwards. 

I’m not sure “thrown backwards” is the best way to describe it. There was no sudden force or physical blow that knocked me backwards. As soon as the light enveloped me, I felt like I was suspended in midair. Simply floating. Then as the light began to fade, I realized that I wasn’t floating. I was falling. Flying backward through the air. I shot through the entryway of the alley, across the street where I crashed directly into a market stall that was selling different types of berries. Well they had been. The shopkeeper behind the stall would now have to sell jam.

My head slammed into the pavement, and everything went completely white for a second. When I came-to there was a deafening ringing in my ears, and I was almost paralyzed from shock.

“Slink,” I heard Eve shout followed by, and my ringing ears may have been deceiving me here, two sets of running footsteps. I was halfway blind, stunned to the point that I couldn’t move, and I think I briefly experienced what the color purple tasted like. Looking back I think I had a concussion.

“Sam! What’d you do?” I heard Eve shout as she slid to a halt at my side. Sam? I wasn’t exactly in any state to ask questions or think about anything really. “Slink, are you okay?”

I fought to try and make a sound. Naturally the breath had been knocked out of me too. “I’ve been better.” I managed to gasp.

“Here,” Eve said pressing something to my lips. I obediently opened my mouth as she slipped what I recognized as an Oran berry between my lips. I had a hell of a time swallowing it, but once I got it down my head cleared of the fog. I got shakily to my feet.

“What the hell happened?” I gasped. 

Eve grimaced. “Slink, this isn’t the way I’d want you guys to meet. This is my sister Sam,” she gestured to the side. I barely noticed the Sylveon standing at her side. She regarded me past her nose that was tilted up slightly higher than was strictly necessary. “She may have attacked you just a little.”

“I noticed,” I said dryly. I winced as a throb of pain shot through my head. I turned to the Golduck who was fuming at me. “There don’t happen to be any Oran berries that I didn’t smash?” If looks could kill, the look he shot me would have stopped my heart. But he handed me a handful of round, blue berries. I wolfed them all down in one go before turning back to Eve and Sam. One looked rather concerned, and the other one continued to look at me down her nose with an eyebrow raised. I’ll let you guess which was which.

Eve turned to her sister. “Why did you attack him?!” I was happy to hear that Eve sounded angry with her sister.

Sam shrugged. When her voice came out, it was higher than Eve’s and sounded sickly-sweet. “He had you backed into an alley, and it looked like he was attacking you.” She turned to Eve, and without dropping her voice at all she said, “Who even is he?”

“He’s on my expedition team,” Eve said trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice, “and he was hugging me. We were good.”

“Okay. Well, I said sorry, so…” To be fair she hadn’t apologized to either of us.

“What are you even doing here Sam?” Eve asked, trying to change the subject. 

“I had to deliver a package here for work,” she said dismissively, “I took the job to come out here and check on you. I wanted to see how my sister was doing.” 

“Oh,” Eve said sounding taken aback.

“Plus, mom and dad want to know how you are doing out here. They wanted me to let them know if you made it and were safe, because you definitely didn’t. It’s been more than a year Eve. You haven’t written, you haven’t visited.”

Eve averted her gaze, “Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“Really, too busy?” Sam asked. “Mom and dad are super worried. They thought you had chased after Shane and gotten into serious trouble.” 

I glanced between the two of them. I could tell that Sam was sincere, but I also sensed a small amount of smug victory as Eve continued to avoid her gaze. I could just feel how uncomfortable she was. “Hey,” I said trying to give Eve a way out, “Sierra, Abby, and Vix are expecting us back soon. We should get shopping done and get back.”

Eve grasped onto my words like they were the last drops of water in a vast desert. “Yeah, um we gotta get shopping done for this week.” Then Eve glanced at me and I could have sworn that I heard forgive me in the back of my head. “So Sam, do you have to head back right away or can you stay for dinner?”

Sam smiled, lighting up. “I’d love to have dinner with you guys. Anything to spend more time with my little sister here.” She started off towards the market, “You don’t mind me tagging along with you two right?”

“You want me to say no, right?” I muttered to Eve. She laughed, but she swatted my shoulder. 

“Be nice,” she protested.

“So Sam, she’s the Sylveon sister you told me about?”

Suddenly Sam was there, and she must have heard me. “Eve, you’ve talked about me before? It better be a good story.”

“Yeah,” Eve pacified, “I was just telling him about how I evolved. I mentioned that my sister who was a Sylveon got attacked by an Arbok, and I evolved to save her.” I laughed as Eve hastily revised the retelling so she wouldn’t mention that Sam had been teasing her, which led to both of them fighting the Arbok. A question came to mind.

“You specified your Sylveon sister last time you told that story. Do you have another sister?”

Sam laughed. “Yeah, one.”

Eve grinned. “Our other sister is a Leafeon, if you wanted to know. We also have a little brother who is still an Eevee. At least he was when I left…” she trailed off awkwardly.

“He still is,” Sam assured her. “Seriously Eve, he is only six. He probably won’t evolve for another two or three years.”

Thankfully at that point we made it to the market, and we were too distracted to talk for a while. The market was usually busy, and that meant that all manner of Pokémon were wandering through the tents and stands looking for what they needed. The problem was that Eve, Sam, and I were only at about shin height for some of these creatures. Most were considerate and made sure to watch where they stepped, but some just charged rudely through the crowds not truly caring who they knocked over or potentially stepped on.

Eve and I were used to “running the gauntlet” as we called it, but Sam wasn’t anywhere close to ready. Every once and a while I would hear her apologizing to some random Pokémon, or occasionally yelping as her tail, or more often her ribbons, were stepped on by a careless foot.

Eve insisted that she carry all of the grocery bags. Normally we split them half and half, but I couldn’t summon any Psychic power without getting a splitting headache. I could have carried one or two normally, but Sam simply scooped them up with her ribbons and held them aloft. 

Eve and I fell into step side by side as we led Sam back to the apartment. All conversation seemed to have dried up, and my head was throbbing once again. In this lul, I felt my memories and sadness encroaching back into my mind, threatening to swallow me up again. Desperate to keep them at bay, I leaned over to Eve and said the first thing that came to mind.

“So you ran away from home, and haven’t talked to your family since?” It was only as they were leaving my mouth that my brain finally comprehended what the words meant. Eve turned her head away from me, deep red blush coloring her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” I tried to retreat, “I don’t know why I asked that.”

Instead of remaining silent, or slapping me (either would have been a suitable reaction), Eve turned back to me. “I’ll tell you later.”

Honestly I had never been more excited to enter our apartment and be with Pokemon who weren’t Eve or Sam. Sierra was sitting quietly at the kitchen table when we walked in, reading a book. Vix was in her usual spot, sprawled across the whole couch watching TV. 

Eve and Sam placed the groceries on the counter, and Eve replaced her key in the bowl by the door. We only had two copies of the key, so whenever someone left they would just grab a set on their way out. It worked most of the time, but Vix had spent a lot of time waiting in the hallway knocking on the door after locking herself out.

Sierra didn’t even look up from his book as we entered. He raised a paw over his shoulder and waved it halfheartedly. Vix didn’t even acknowledge our presence. 

“Hey Sierra,” Eve said with a laugh at our underwhelming welcoming committee. “Where’s Abigail?”

“She decided to go to the library again.” He chuckled to himself. “That child and her books. I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t read through the whole library this year.”

“Or before we do,” I muttered to Eve who worked hard to stifle her giggle. We had decided not to fill in Sierra or Abigail about the whole Dreamstone business. Neither of us wanted to bother them with even more of our problems.

Vix suddenly popped up from the couch. “Hey guys,” she said almost dismissively as she sniffed the air. She hopped down from the couch to come and inspect the bags we had come back with. “Did you buy anything good? Chocolate? Cookies?” She nosed her way into one of the bags and began rooting around inside.

“Vix,” Eve said half exasperated, half laughing, “you literally just had lunch. How can you still be hungry?”

“Correction,” Vix said, still within the bag, “I had lunch over two hours ago, and I am always hungry.”

Vix pulled her head out of the bag to fix Eve with one of her withering glares, but she never made it that far. “Who the heck are you?” She glanced from me, to Eve, and back to Sam. “Seriously, you two need to stop bringing strangers home.”

“Hey,” Sierra protested, finally looking up from his book. He immediately noticed Sam and seemed to get stuck for a moment. His expression seemed frozen halfway between indignant and surprised. Finally he forced out a tiny, “Hello?”

Sam seemed a little taken aback. She looked madly between Sierra and Vix, trying to figure out which one she should address first. 

“Uh, Sierra, Vix,” Eve said, “I’d like you to meet my sister, Samantha, er um, Sam.”

“Is she staying long?” Vix stage whispered to me. Sam raised an eyebrow at the little fox.

“I think she is only staying for dinner.” I actually whispered back.

“Okay.” Vix turned tail (or tails?) and retreated back to the couch. Sam just looked baffled. 

“Er, well I’m Sierra,” Sierra said holding out a paw for Sam. She gingerly took it with one of her ribbons and shook. “My daughter will be back later,” Sierra continued, “she went to the library.” He looked slightly uncomfortable, especially since Sam had yet to say anything. “So, Eve shall I start dinner? I assume I’m cooking for six.”

Eve nodded, and Sierra got straight to work. Sam, Eve, and I went over to the kitchen table and sat down. 

“So what’s everyone’s story?” Sam asked Eve glancing at everyone, including me.

“Well, I found Slink first. He was being attacked by a Mr. Mime and a Toxicroak. I helped him out and he decided to join the Expedition Society with me.” Eve glanced at me, and I nodded in agreement. We didn’t currently have a Psychic connection open, but we had done this enough that we knew which bits of the story to leave out. “We are co-leaders of Team Mindfire.”

“We met Vix going through the Mountain pass,” I continued. “She had been living all by herself in a tiny burrow just off of a Mystery Dungeon for six years.”

“How old is she?” Sam asked.

“Ten,” I said, “her birthday was a couple months ago.”

“So we kinda took her in. She’s a good girl, she just hasn’t had that much social interaction and so she isn’t very good at it.” Eve grinned to herself.

“We met Sierra almost nine months ago,” I continued, “someone had kidnapped his daughter as they were passing through the Fire continent, so we helped him rescue her. They didn’t exactly have anywhere to go, so they stuck here with us.”

“And that’s everyone.” Eve finished evenly. “We work pretty well together, although I must say we don’t exactly have the most varied typing, but that hasn’t really been a problem yet.”

Sam sat there and regarded the two of us for a moment. “Sounds like you have had a hell of a year here sis. Glad that life here is so good. Not that you apparently want to tell anyone back home about it.” The mood around the table immediately went from comfortable and friendly to tense and angry in just a few seconds. 

“Slink,” Eve said with a noticeable tension in her voice, “I think we’re gonna start talking about private, sister stuff. Do you mind?”

I knew this was my cue to leave, but I wanted to know what was going on between Eve and her family. She had promised to tell me, and it was later… “Uh,” I said as I tried to think of an excuse not to leave.

Eve fixed me with a glare that made me involuntarily lean back a bit. “Slink. Now!”

“Of course.” I said hurriedly. “If anyone needs me, I will be watching TV with Vix.”

Sierra fell into step next to me. He seemed to be heading to the couch as well. “I just started a pot boiling. It will take a while before it will be ready,” he hurriedly explained. “Also I don’t want to be anywhere near their ‘sisterly conversation’.”

Unfortunately our couch was rather small. It had been just large enough that Eve, Vix, and I could lay on it comfortably side by side. Since Sierra and Abby had moved in we had bought two pretty comfortable chairs for whomever wanted them. Unfortunately it was rather hard to see the TV from them. Sierra was large enough that usually only one other could share the couch with him, so he typically got a chair.

With the way Vix liked to lay on the couch, there was no way anyone else could lay next to her. She was laying in the exact center, on her back, watching the TV with her head hanging off the edge. Her forelegs were tucked neatly to her chest. Her back legs were splayed wide with her tails fanned out behind her.

“Vix, do you mind?” I asked.

“No, I can still see the TV,” she replied.

“Vix,” I said without any amusement, “get up!”

She huffed at me, but she quickly rolled over and hopped off the couch. Sierra and I leapt up and settled down with our rears toward the center and our heads about on the arm rests. Surprisingly instead of curling up in the empty space between us, Vix leapt up and settled against my chest. Instinctively I draped a foreleg over her, pulling her closer. 

“So what do you think of Sam?” I asked Vix after a while.

She shrugged. “I don’t really know. She seems a bit high and mighty.  Seriously did Eve act like that when we first met her?”

“I don’t think so.” I said. “ Sam attacked me when she first saw us today.”

“I like her already,” Vix grinned. “Why’d she do that?” 

“Well,” I said, still a little indignant about the whole thing, “I was hugging Eve, and she, for some reason, thought I was attacking her.”

“Wait,” Vix said with all of the excitement of a detective finding the last piece of evidence they needed, “you guys were hugging.” She gave me a goofy grin. “Would you two just get together already? You already sleep together. Might as well go all the way.”

“Vix would you stay focused.” The little fox shrugged in front of me. I craned my neck back over the couch. Eve and Sam had their heads practically pressed together and were whispering. “I wonder what they are talking about.” 

“Probably something stupid. Or they could be talking about you.” Vix trailed off as she refocused on the show.

“Thank you,” I grumbled. I felt antsy all of a sudden. Vix had scored a hit. Were they talking about me?

So I did the wrong thing. I reached out with my Psychic senses sending a tendril of thought over to where Eve and Sam were talking. My head throbbed, but I forced myself through it.  Eve would certainly sense me the instant I penetrated her mind, the debate was whether she would force me out. Sam on the other hand was a lot less likely to feel me in her head, but she would be a lot less happy if she did find me snooping around.

I held my breath, crossed every digit I had,  and carefully slipped into Sam’s mind. Immediately I heard her voice, as clear as if I was standing next to her. “So what is the deal with Slink?”

Really? I’m glad I hadn’t betted against Vix. They were talking about me. I spaced out for a second before I realized that I hadn’t heard Eve’s response yet.

“Well, he is a year older than I am. For some reason he never evolved from a Fennekin. Nobody really understands it, even him.” I could only hear Eve’s voice not see her, but even I could hear what seemed to be a blush in her voice.

“That wasn’t what I was asking,” Sam teased. “What is your deal with Slink?”

There was a pause. I could picture Eve looking around to make sure no one was watching or listening. “My deal with Slink. We are really good friends, and he has saved my life more times than I could count. He has risked his life for mine so many times. He says that that is what you do for family. I’ve even risked my life for his a few times.” There was a slight rustle as Eve shifted. “This scar is from that.”

“What happened?” Sam gasped as I imagined her inspecting the thin, white, y-shaped scar on Eve’s chest. 

“I leapt in the way of an attack meant for him. And then he went and risked his life for me again. He donated blood so that they could perform a surgery on me. I’m alive several times over because of him. I know he loves me and…” she paused, and I could sense that she was debating whether to admit the rest to her sister, “… and I know I love him.”

I heard Sam take a long, hissing breath in, but before she could say anything Eve butted in again. “No, you do not get to criticize me over this. Move on!”

“Fine,” Sam barked, “what about Vix?”

“What about Vix,” Eve growled back. I could sense the steadily growing hostility in her voice.

“I mean seriously Eve, are any of you qualified to raise a child? Especially one that is so… strange.” I had to take a moment to step back and wrestle my emotions back into control. The fastest way to be discovered would be for Sam to notice an errant burst of emotion in her head. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself. Vix was fine, how dare she talk about her like that.

Once I was sure I was calm enough I plunged back into Sam’s head. Thankfully from what I was able to hear, Eve was saying what I wanted to.

“… Vix’s mother was killed almost in front of her, and she lived by herself in a Mystery Dungeon for six years. Anyone would be ‘strange’ after that. And yes, we are qualified. The Expedition Society threatened to take away our custody of Vix unless we proved we were capable of taking care of her. Obviously she is still with us.”

“But-” Sam tried to argue, but Eve immediately cut her off. 

“No, you are not allowed to barge in here and judge my friends, my team, my family.”

“Family?” Sam said, pouncing on the opening that Eve had created. “Really, family. You have the gall to call these… Pokemon family when you abandoned yours and haven’t talked to them in over a year. Eve, we missed you. We were worried about you!”

I wasn’t sure I needed the Psychic connection anymore, the sisters were nearly shouting. Eve leaned in and growled in a low voice to Sam. “I’m sorry, but I left for a reason. I’m sorry I didn’t write, but I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted to say. Why does this matter so much to you?”

“Please,” Sam scoffed, “you know exactly why. We grew up together, you don’t think I haven’t felt your Psychic power in my head this whole time?”

“What?” Eve asked, “I haven’t been using Psychic.”

I felt my heart skip a beat, an ice cold burst of adrenaline shooting through my body. I released my Psychic power, returning to my own head. Just in time too. “Slink?” Eve called.

I tried to keep my heart rate down as I turned around, with a look of innocence on my face (I hoped). “Yes?” I said, but even I heard the tremble in my voice.

Eve fixed me with a deathly serious glare. “Were you spying on our conversation?”

I laughed nervously. “Eve, I haven’t moved from the couch. How could I have been snooping?”

“Slink, I’m not an idiot. Don’t you dare lie to me! You and I both know that you were inside Sam’s head.” Sam was glaring at me with a disgusted look on her face. Seriously it wasn’t like I’d killed anybody. Eve looked mad, but at the same time I thought I could sense a slight amount of amusement in Eve’s eyes.

“Yeah,” I said carefully, “but to be fair I was only listening. I didn’t actually look inside of your head Sam.” I waited for the other shoe to drop, but Arceus must have known that I needed someone to bail me out. Thankfully at that moment we heard the sound of jingling keys in the lock as Abigail opened the door.

Right into an entirely new set of problems. Sam took one look at the young Absol and let out a shriek, leaping back, and overturning her chair. Eeveelution and chair fell to the floor with a crash. I could have sworn I heard a tiny squeak from Sam. “Shiny?!”

Sierra, who had been hunkered down on the couch next to me trying to pretend like he didn’t exist, leapt to his feet in an instant. He looked around wildly trying to figure out what had happened. I’m not even sure he noticed that Sam had fallen out of her chair. “Hey Abby, honey. How was the library?”

Abigail opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off as Sam let out another squeak. “This is Abigail?”

“Yes,” Eve said, confusion and apprehension apparent in her voice, “why?”

Sam tried to whisper, but she didn’t do it very well. We all heard what she said next. “You never told me that she was shiny.”

The room was silent for a moment as we all processed this. Abigail’s cheeks were purple with how hard she was blushing. She hung her head slightly, letting the bag full of books she had brought back drag along the floor. Thankfully Vix knew what to do.

“Abby, you want to go play a game?” Vix called out, sounding friendly as if nothing at all had happened. “Gregory got a new game the other day, and he let me borrow it.”

Vix had been a bit hesitant to welcome Sierra and Abby at first. I think that she wasn’t really comfortable with having more people around, heck she had just barely warmed up to Eve and me by the time Sierra came around. However she had quickly grown close with Abigail. Sierra had told Eve and me that Abby was nine, only a few months younger than Vix, and that the young Absol hadn’t been very friendly before. I think we all were happy that the two girls were getting along. 

Vix opened the door to their bedroom and held it open for Abby. She gave me a significant look, and then entered after her. Closing the door firmly behind them.

As soon as they were gone, Sierra’s fur poofed up slightly as he growled deep in his throat. “What do you mean?” He snarled at Sam who looked terrified. Honestly I didn’t blame her. “What is wrong with Abigail being shiny?”

I put a paw on Sierra’s shoulder, trying to calm him down a bit. He shrugged it off, but he seemed to deflate slightly. Instead of arguing with the angry Absol, Sam turned to the one person who might have been even slightly on her side. “Those Pokemon who kidnapped Abigail… they were The Hatred weren’t they?” 

“Yes.” Eve said calmly. She seemed to know exactly how this conversation was going to go. I could sense a calm disappointment inside of her.

“Eve, how could you get involved with the Hatred again?” Sam seemed both fearful and angry. A strange combination. “After what happened last time, with what dad told you…?”

Eve didn’t blink. She didn’t react. She walked past Sam, and pushed open the door to our bedroom. “Sam, can I have a word with you? Alone?” She glared at me.

Sam huffed, but followed her into the room, slamming the door behind them. The room was silent for a minute, only the sound of Sierra’s angry breathing filling the room. 

“Sierra,” I said after a minute, addressing him cautiously, “I’m sorry. When I met her, I didn’t realize that she would react like that. I didn’t realize that she would say those things. It isn’t Abby’s fault, and it isn’t your fault.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled, “It’s Eve’s fault.”

“Wait, no it isn’t her fault either.” I tried.

“You said it yourself, you didn’t know that Sam would react that way, but Eve should have. Eve shouldn’t have brought her here.”

“Hey,” I argued, “yes, Eve should have known, but Sam shouldn’t have just blurted that stuff out.”

Sierra looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he didn’t. He simply moved back into the kitchen and continued to work on dinner. “Sierra?” He didn’t answer me. 

I let him stew, but without someone or something to distract me I began to get restless. What were Eve and Sam talking about in there? Was Eve okay? She would kill me if I started snooping again, but…

I turned to the TV and tried to pretend like I was interested in what was going on, but I couldn’t stay focused. I could feel a slight buzz inside of my head, which began to pound. Apparently I wasn’t completely recovered from the concussion I had received that morning.

I put my paws to my head, massaging my temples, trying to ease the buzz, and the tingle that had developed at the base of my skull. 

As I sat there, I thought I heard faint voices, Eve’s and Sam’s. But then again that was impossible. They were in a separate room with the door closed. And besides even if they were shouting and could be heard out here, Sierra was continuing to cook like nothing was happening.

Then I realized, I was hearing their voices, and I wasn’t feeling the after effects of my concussion. I dove inward, and there in the back of my mind, at the base of my skull there was a glowing pink chord. The voices were echoing down it. I sent my own Psychic force up the pink chord, winding through the door, into the bedroom, and right into Eve’s head.

About time you showed up, genius. Eve’s voice echoed inside of her head.

Wait, now you want me in your head? I wasn’t complaining, but I was a bit confused.

Eve seemed to chuckle, which was a bit odd expressed as a thought. I promised I would tell you more later. Heck I would have let you into my head earlier if you had just asked.

Why though, I asked feeling almost nervous, why let me in on this?

You said it earlier. There isn’t anything I should feel uncomfortable telling you about. I trust you enough to make you a part of this.

As her mental voice quieted, I heard the conversation, or more accurately the argument that Eve and her sister were having.

“… I don’t care. They are my friends.” Eve glared at Sam with her usual stubbornness. 

“But Eve, the Hatred. With them around isn’t it much more risky that-?”

“Sam, we all have a past with the Hatred. Slink’s entire family was killed by the Hatred, and they are still after him. The Hatred killed Vix’s mother, and is after her too.”

“How can you say that so calmly?” Sam gasped. “Don’t you remember what the Hatred did? What they did to you? Why aren’t you more afraid?”

“I told you. Because the others. We band together to protect each other. There aren’t enough of them to completely outmatch us with Types. There is always one of us who can take any of them out.”

“But what about Shane?” Sam asked her voice lowering slightly. “You can’t fight him if he decides to come after you.”

Eve nodded. “I can’t fight him. But Slink can. I already told you that he has saved my life so many times. He protects me from Shane and the Hatred. And I try to protect him.”

Sam was quiet for a moment. “Eve what exactly is your relationship with Slink? I mean you live together, you essentially have a kid together. What is going on?”

I could tell Eve was very conscious of me in her head, but she didn’t force me out. She glanced over at the mirror over the desk and nodded to herself, to me. “We owe each other so much. I can’t imagine my life without him in it. I love him, and although we haven’t talked about it, I think he is my partner. Does that work for you?”

She made it sound like she was asking Sam, but I knew she was really asking me. She was silent both inside and out for a moment, waiting. Of course I said softly, I love you. Eve suddenly snapped her attention back to the mirror, staring at “me” looking surprised. It took me a moment to realize that this was the first time either of us had said that to one another. Unless you count whispering it to her while she was asleep. Wow, she must love me to not be creeped out by that.

Sam looked taken aback, almost guilty. Eve plowed on. “These people protect me, they love me. Slink is my partner and Vix is essentially my daughter. Sierra and Abigail may be new, but they are a part of this family, and I will not sit idly by and watch you insult them.”

The room was silent for quite a while. It was even completely silent inside of Eve’s head. Finally Sam mumbled quietly. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to be the older sister,” she said, “I’m trying to protect you. You went out and saw the world, and I never really did. The world was scarier than I thought, and so I was worried about you. I shouldn’t have been. You have always been better at figuring the world out than me. But what happened last time, when you got involved with the Hatred, that was scary. For all of us. It scares me that you are still involved. What am I going to tell our parents, Emma, and Austin?”

I felt Eve sigh internally. “Tell them the truth. I am safe and happy here. I have good friends who love and protect me. Tell them…” she trailed off, and I felt her mentally glance at me, “tell them that I forgive them, but I’m not ready to talk to them. It won’t be another year though. I’ll write when I am ready.”

Sam sighed before she stepped forward and wrapped her ribbons around Eve, tucking her into a hug. “I’m sorry Eve.” Sam sat there for a moment.

Eve smiled, and I felt a feeling of contentment radiating from her. “Thank you, but you have a few more people to apologize to.”

As they both headed for the door, I closed the Psychic connection and returned to my own head. As soon I settled in I gave off a sharp gasp. My head was pounding, and a dull ache was pulsing between my eyes. That was enough Psychic for today… and potentially tomorrow. 

The door to the bedroom opened slowly, and Eve exited first followed closely by Sam. Eve looked rather pleased with herself, but she refused to meet my gaze just then. We would have to talk later. Sam looked a bit embarrassed, but she had finally lost her superior stance. She no longer looked down her nose at everybody.

“Um, Sierra,” Sam asked quietly. The Absol didn’t respond. He continued bustling around the kitchen getting everything ready for dinner. “Sierra?” Sam asked again, a bit more forcefully. Again the Dark Type didn’t respond.

Sam glanced hopelessly at Eve who simply gave the Sylveon a “go ahead” gesture with her tail. 

“Sierra, please. I want to apologize for what I said earlier.” Sierra froze for a moment before slowly turning to face the Eeveelution. “Sierra, I’m sorry about what I said about your daughter. It was completely unacceptable. My only defense is that I have had some bad experiences with shiny Pokémon in my life, and I hadn’t expected your daughter to be shiny. I realize that this doesn’t excuse my behavior, and I hope that you can forgive me.”

Sierra seemed at a loss. He glanced at Eve and raised an eyebrow at her. Eve laughed, and gave a slight nod. Sam was being sincere. Sierra nodded and then gave Sam half a grin. “Thank you for apologizing. We have faced several hardships because of what Abby is, so we aren’t unfamiliar with your reaction. Your apology though isn’t something we’ve really ever gotten. I forgive you,” he suddenly turned stern, “but you better apologize to Abigail as well.”

Sam then turned to me. “Sorry about what I said Slink. That wasn’t cool. And sorry for getting mad at you for snooping. Being Psychic must make that tempting.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Don’t apologize for that. I was way out of line, entering your head without permission. Can you forgive me?”

Sam giggled. “It’s not like you could have done anything in my head. Growing up with Eve taught me how to build up some serious barriers.” She glanced at her sister.

“Yeah,” I said without thinking, “I bet you and Emma had a handful with Eve around.”

Sam laughed before stopping suddenly. “Emma?” 

I realized my mistake instantly and I tried to recover. “Yeah, your sister Emma.”

“I don’t think I mentioned Emma around you.” Sam stared at me daring me to try and defend myself.

“Well, Eve told me about her.” I attempted, but Sam shot me down.

“No, she told you about our other sister this morning, I was there, and we only said that our sister was a Leafeon. Nothing else.” Sam turned red. “Were you listening in on our conversation again?”

“Yes,” I admitted, “but to be fair, Eve gave me permission this time, and I was in her head.”

Sam was probably less livid than she could have been, but she was still angry. Abigail and Vix however chose that as the perfect moment to leave their room. 

“You totally cheated!” Vix accused playfully, “There is no way you just won eight games in a row.”

“I didn’t cheat,” Abby smirked, “it’s called having a strategy. Besides for that one game you didn’t even move your Wailmer or Kyogre.”

“I didn’t think you would guess there again. Come on who guesses I-8 on their first move?”

Abigail chose to ignore Vix. “Hey dad, is dinner almost ready?”

“Almost,” Sierra said back, “so you and Vix should go get washed up.”

“Wait you two,” Eve said, throwing out her tail to stop the children from moving, “Sam has something she wants to say to you.”

“Er, uh,” Sam said looking a bit uncomfortable. “Vix, I’m sorry if I insulted you. I had no idea about your past-”

“Yeah, you didn’t insult me,” Vix cut her off, “and even if you had I probably wouldn’t have cared.” She turned to Eve. “Can I go now?”

Sam was caught off guard by Vix’s brutal honesty. She didn’t quite know what to say so she turned to Abby.

“Abigail, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted when you walked in. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with shiny Pokémon and I guess I was caught off guard.”

“Were they the Hatred?” Abby asked sweetly. “They kidnapped me a few months ago, but Eve and Slink saved me.”

“They were the Hatred,” Sam said with a small smile, “and thankfully I did have Eve to help me.

Abigail nodded. “Eve’s the best. I have to go wash my paws now before dinner now. Thank you for saying sorry.” The red Absol gave Sam a sincere smile, before turning towards the bathroom door.

Somehow, everyone survived through dinner, and even more surprisingly we all warmed up to Sam. More or less. Sierra still acted a bit lukewarm around her, but Vix and Abby had a lot of fun asking her about Eve.

Actually I had fun talking to Sam about Eve too, hearing all of the stories about her childhood that had never come up in everyday conversation. But I could tell that Sam was avoiding a topic. A black, blue-ringed, topic. With how close Eve and Shane were as kids it seemed a bit odd that Sam never mentioned him.

“So it was our grandmother’s birthday,” Sam began laughing before she even started, “and Eve and Sh- one of her friends had decided they wanted to make her a special soup like our mother always made.”

“Hey, that is what happened,” Eve protested trying not to smile.

“That’s not how I remember it.” Sam countered with a smirk. “So she and her friend gathered up a whole bunch of berries and seeds, and they cut them up and put them in a big bowl of water. Then they decided that wasn’t enough, so they added some other stuff. They added some dirt…”

“The water didn’t look like mom’s soup,” Eve tried to defend.

“…they added cotton balls…”

“It wasn’t thick enough, so we thought we should absorb some of the water…”

“…and I think some soap…”

“We knew that there were germs in dirt, and we didn’t want anyone to get sick!”

“…until they just had a thick, soapy, bowl of mud with chunks of berry in it. And so our parents came home, and they got in so much trouble, because they had used all of the berries in the house.” Abby and Vix burst out laughing, Vix nearly fell out of her chair. I couldn’t help chuckling, but I stopped with the look Eve shot me. 

I glanced away, and noticed the clock above the sink. “Oh, Arceus, it is nine o’clock.” Everyone else shot a look at the clock, as though they didn’t believe me.”

Sierra, who was watching TV over on the couch, looked up suddenly. “Oh, I didn’t realize that it was that late. Abby, you need to get to bed.”

Abby started pouting and Vix smirked at her. The Fire fox looked rather smug, that is until I shut her down. “That means that you should be headed to bed as well. In fact we should all be going to bed.”

Vix huffed at me, “Fine!” 

“Well, I guess I’ll be going then.” Sam said, standing up and stretching.

“Going where?” Eve asked, raising an eyebrow at her sister. 

“I was only planning on staying for dinner. I’ve got to start home.”

“At nine at night?” Eve asked, hoping that her sister was joking. “You do realize that no matter how you try and go home, you will have to pass through a Mystery Dungeon right? It’s night, all the Dungeons are sealed and shifting. Stay the night and head out tomorrow morning.” Eve phrased it like a suggestion, but her tone made it clear that it was a command. 

Sam bit her lip. “Fine, but where am I gonna sleep? The couch?”

Eve rolled her eyes. “There are two beds in my room. You can sleep in there.”

Vix bid us goodnight, briefly nuzzling against both my chest and Eve’s before darting into her room. Abby and Sierra followed a few minutes later.

“What are the sleeping arrangements there?” Sam asked. “I figure that there are two beds in there as well.”

“Yeah,” I answered, “Sierra and Abigail share a bed, and then Vix has the other.”

Sam cocked her head, confused. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for Abigail and Vix to share the bed and Sierra to have a bed to himself.”

“You would think,” I said.

“Yeah, Vix isn’t big on the whole ‘sharing’ thing. It took a while to convince her to share the room with the others.” Eve shrugged. 

Eve led Sam into the bedroom. I followed a moment later after flicking off the lights and the TV with only a thought. Eve was already lying on our bed, and Sam was looking around, not really paying attention. I automatically hopped up onto the bed with Eve and laid down next to her. 

“So, Eve, are you and I sharing a bed, and then Slink gets the other one or…” She trailed off as she turned around and saw us on the bed together. She blushed slightly (instead of red her cheeks turned an obnoxious hot pink) before quietly leaping onto the other bed. 

“Goodnight,” she said softly, rolling so her back was to us. I laughed softly to myself before laying my head down. Eve clicked the lamp beside the bed. 

“Night Eve,” I said softly.

“Night Slink.” I heard her echo.

I snuggled down into the bed curling up tighter, and wiggling so that my back was pressed more tightly against Eve. I sighed in contentment as I let myself relax. But no matter how relaxed I felt, I knew I wasn’t going to sleep any time soon. 

My brain was racing a million miles an hour. If Eve had tried to listen in on my head now, she probably would only have heard a sharp buzzing. When Sam had come literally bursting into our lives, she had thankfully brought me out of my own head. I hadn’t been able to dwell on my own problems. 

Now however, that was all I could think of. I felt a dull ache forming in my stomach as my thoughts eventually strayed towards memories of my family. I shook my head, and tried to refocus, but nothing could distract me. All I could think of was my family, everything seemed to just lead me back to them. So I did something a bit risky.

I didn’t think about the fact that Eve’s sister was only a few feet away. I didn’t consider that we had never consciously done this before. I didn’t think, I acted. I stood up, causing Eve to stiffen beside me. I turned around on the bed trying to make as little noise as possible before I flopped back down curled around her with my belly against her back. 

I lay there completely still for a second as Eve seemed to adjust to my move. Eventually though I felt her relax, melting back into my chest. I hummed happily, pulling her as close as possible and nuzzling the back of her neck. I rubbed my cheek up and down the side of her neck, and even scratched my forehead between her shoulder blades before I finally settled with my head just above hers, with my nose buried in the fur on the back of her neck.

Her scent, sweet like Oran Berries, calmed me in a way that not much else could, and slowly I felt myself able to start drifting off. But as I continued to lay there, with one paw draped over Eve, questions began to spring to mind. What was Eve’s deal with her parents? What had happened to make her run off? She had said that she would tell me later, but then again when was later?

As I lay there, stewing in my own mind I realized that something wasn’t right. Something was missing. The night seemed quieter than usual. (Well relatively quieter. Sam was snoring like a sick Rhyhorn.) By now I was used to Eve’s deep even breathing as she slept. Sure I could feel her taking a deep breath every once in a while, but at the same time it wasn’t right. Was she even asleep?

I decided to risk it. “Eve?” I breathed as quietly as possible. I didn’t want to wake her after all.

“Yeah,” she whispered back.

“Can’t sleep?” I asked. “Is it how I’m laying? I can move if you aren’t comfortable?”

“No that’s not it. I’ve just… got a lot on my mind. That’s all.”

“Oh. Me too.” I said.

We were both silent for a while, before Eve broke the silence. “Do you want to talk about it?” I nodded slowly against her back. “Okay, let’s head into the other room.”

“Do we have to? I think we could have full out battle in here and she wouldn’t wake up.” We both paused for a moment, letting Sam’s earthquake-like snores echo through the room.

“Arceus, I forgot how loud she is. Besides I wasn’t leaving the room for her benefit.” Eve stood up and crept out of the room. I followed right after her. 

The TV glowed still, which was odd. Hadn’t I turned it off? Eve and I gravitated towards it, like Venomoth to a flame. The sound was low, nearly muted which also seemed odd. That is until we saw who was laying on the couch. 

Sierra was laying sprawled across the entire couch, his head leaning back. His eyes were nearly closed, like he was dozing off, but the second he saw us, he snapped awake immediately.

“Sierra,” Eve asked softly, “what are you doing out here? It’s nearly midnight.”

“I could ask you the same question.” Sierra said evasively.

“We wanted to talk, and we didn’t want to wake up Eve’s sister. Your turn.” 

Sierra shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep, and besides I do this every night?”

“Why?” Eve asked, looking more than a little concerned.

The Absol seemed uncomfortable. “I’m waiting for Vix to fall asleep okay. I’m not quite sure she is comfortable around me, especially in the room while she is sleeping. Whenever we go to bed she stares at me. I try to sleep, but I just see her watching me the whole time. I come out here and wait for her to go to bed before I go back in and try to sleep.”

Eve sighed, almost frustrated. I could completely understand why. It had taken us three days to convince Vix to share the other room with Sierra and Abby. At least she had become friends with Abby rather quickly, but I had hoped she wouldn’t treat Sierra like this. “I’m sorry Sierra.”

“No, its fine. I really don’t mind.” Sierra tried to shrug it off, but I cut him off.

“No, it isn’t fine. You are a part of this team, this family now, and Vix needs to treat you like you are. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. I promise.” Sierra stared at me like a deer in the headlights.

Eve chimed in, saving us from the awkward situation. “I just checked. Vix’s mind is dormant. She is asleep. You should be good to go back in.”

Sierra stretched and hopped off the couch. “Umm, thanks.” He said, sounding as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. “And Eve, I’m sorry about the way I acted around your sister today-”

“Don’t be. She was out of line, and I completely understand.” Eve smiled at him.

“Oh, right.” He retreated back to the door to his bedroom.

“Sierra,” Eve said before he opened the door. The Absol looked back over his shoulder, confused. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Sierra said with a smile before he escaped into the room.

Eve and I glanced at each other. “We handled that right, correct?”

“I think so,” Eve said biting her lip. “I guess we will find out tomorrow.”

With that out of the way, and the couch now open, we finally got some time to ourselves. We settled down on the couch, curled up on either end, facing each other. I think that was also the point where we both realized that we didn’t exactly have anything to say.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Eve asked tentatively. 

I knew that what I wanted to say was probably not what she wanted to hear, and it was probably crossing a line. But at the same time, I was worried. So I went for it. “Eve, what happened between you and your family? Sam mentioned that your dad told you to do something, that you ran away, and that you haven’t talked to them in a year. What happened?”

Eve’s expression didn’t change all that much, but I saw her brow furrow slightly. She was thinking. Finally she relaxed her expression and met my gaze. “I will tell you, I promised I would, but is that the only thing on your mind?” 

Only as she said it did I realize that there was an odd pressure at the base of my skull. Neither of us had dissolved the connection between our minds after I had snooped in on her conversation with Sam. My thoughts had been entangled with hers and vice-versa.

“Slink,” Eve said, “I will tell you my story, if you tell me yours. What happened that night a year ago? What happened with the Hatred and your family?”

Her request hit me like a punch to the gut, but I knew that she had opened herself up to me so much today, and she was about to show me more. I had no secrets from her. It was time to do this.

“Okay,” I said, “but you have to go first.”

Eve gave me half a smile. “Sure, but I’m going to warn you. There is a lot here, and I go back a long way. This isn’t just my story. It is Shane’s too.” She bit her lip, thinking before she took a deep breath and started her story…