🇪🇸 / [ 🇬🇧 ]
"Hey, Yanny!"
It wasn't the voice the boy expected to hear, despite having returned to the town a month ago, and his reaction showed that. He turned around immediately to see the brawny youngster walking in his direction, his Krookodile behind him. As expected in the first cold days at the end of summer, the street was empty. His whole body went into alert.
"Oh." He tried to disguise his fear. "Hi K-kevin."
"Hey... I heard you were seen talking with Alan," he started once he caught up to the boy.
Before he had a chance to say anything else, a flash left a Sylveon standing between the three of them; from the dark shadows cast by that light, a sudden black flared up and bound the youngster's limbs in strings.
He looked at the pokemon, at the threads and at the boy for a second. "What the fuck is— Oh. Ooh..." He pointed at him, finally understanding. "Right, last time I saw you..."
"You destroyed my camera, nearly broke my nose again and said next time you'd ‘fucking kill me’ because he was sad?" he reminded him in a mocking tone. "Yeah, I apologize if I don't want you to come any closer."
"That's a bit overblown, at least you learnt the type chart," he laughed it off with a wink. "That thing is Fairy type, not like the toothpick from last time, I'm sure this one could take on Fido." He pointed to his pokemon with a thumb, who growled, annoyed at the comment. The boy didn't change his anxious disposition, watching him carefully. "Well anyways, I guess you didn't hear about it." He shrugged. "I don't talk with Alan anymore."
"You don't..." he repeated in disbelief. "That joke's a bit too much, even for you."
"It's not a damn joke. I loved the dude and all but lately..." He whistled. "I get why you were always so tired! He wouldn't give me a fucking break, and since you came back he won't stop whining about you not talking to him. He didn't used to be thaaaat bad."
"Guess I spoiled him in that department." He allowed himself a half smile, unsure.
"See, you get me—" He raised his hand for a high five but the boy flinched by instinct. They both stood still, staring at each other, both slightly embarrassed of their actions. In the present and in the past.
The Sylveon sat next to the boy and rubbed its ribbons against his leg, making its best effort to dispel the awkward situation. Until the shadow binds on the youngster started fading.
The youngster rubbed his neck with the hand he'd raised, pretending it was his original intention. "Don't even mention it, I told him to fuck off, I just don't have as much patience as you for that shit. By the way, nice trick, you finally learnt something useful." He laughed again, stretching his arms after the pressure from the threads disappeared, which made the scratch scars more noticeable under his tattoos. One stood out over the rest, larger, covering his collarbone. "So I guess I shouldn't have been so hard on you, especially just to defend him or whatever I said."
"I— I guess..." He tilted his head, still skeptical. "But... you two knew each other your whole lives, you were like brothers, why now...?"
"Everything has a limit, you know that." He smirked. "If he can't get over a brat like you after all this time, he's not ‘worth it’, like he always used to say."
The boy remained silent upon that comment. He could discern something darker behind his facade, something almost sorrowful. They both awkwardly cleared their throats when the Krookodile growled to hurry things along.
"I doubt you need me to say it but after everything we did for him..." The youngster suddenly became more somber, his voice getting deeper, the switch was intimidating. "Don't get involved, it can't be fixed. You'd be a far worse imbecile than I thought if you got back together with him."
"What? Nonono, it didn't even cross my mind," he said, almost offended. "Believe me, I want absolutely nothing to do with him. That's exactly what I told him when he tried contacting me again."
"Oh great, that was all I wanted to hear!" He patted him on the back way too hard before turning to leave, back to his joking behavior. "Well, I have to go pick my girl up, see you around, Yanny!"
The crocodile also slapped the Sylveon with its tail when it walked past them, nearly throwing it off balance despite its apparently friendly intentions. They stood still as the other duo walked away. It took the boy a second to react. "Your g—... Ceci?"
"Huh?" He looked back, amused. "Nah, Chechu took off as soon as she was done with college. I'm talking about my baby girl," he clarified matter-of-factly, before leaving the boy even more confused than before.
