Interim

by CelestialRedSkies (12Redsky34)

Summary:

Aventurine grows into his role as a cog in the IPC machine, and his pokemon partners grow alongside him.

Or, a fic of miscellaneous scenes set between when Aventurine first joins the IPC and the first time he meets Dr. Ratio.

Notes:

Hello fine folks! This fic is basically going to be a collection of miscellaneous scenes and ideas that I felt didn't quite fit as their own entire fics. It will, for the most part, be lighthearted in nature, and will definitely at minimum include some major milestones such as various members of Aventurine's team evolving, some bonding moments with them all, and his eventual promotion to Stoneheart and what that looks like in this AU. It shouldn't be necessary to read this to understand other entries, but it might give some additional helpful context here and there.

I am also posting this when I should be asleep so there is very minimal editing, haha. If I missed anything, I'll get to it later. I'm also debating making this technically always complete since I don't know how much exactly I'll be adding to this yet... hmm.

Without further ado, happy reading!

Chapter 1: i

Omen has been part of Vasha’s team for a few months now, and she has made three major observations, one interesting and the others troubling.

 

Observation one: Vasha keeps a mask and some carefully crafted distance between strangers and coworkers alike but clearly has a deep sense of loyalty, love, and devotion for every one of his pokemon partners, one that is reciprocated by all of them, if in their own unique ways.

 

She can clearly see that he and Selene have the closest bond of them all, and so far the only thing she’s gleaned from that is they grew up on their home planet together practically attached at the hip. There is clearly more to their bond, but she hasn’t asked, and hasn’t been freely offered the information yet.

 

Grace acts rather cold and indifferent, but he too will consistently watch and observe, then act in a manner that is more for Vasha’s benefit than his own, usually in very small ways. She can see Vasha still cares deeply about him, and is trying to bond more, but there’s a strange barrier keeping that bond from deepening, and she isn’t sure if anyone besides Grace or Vasha themselves know what that barrier really is.

 

Pyrite is the youngest of all of them, and the most eager to please, if a little shy. It wouldn’t talk to her much at first, but eventually came out of its shell enough to start chatting with her occasionally. While preferring to be quiet, she doesn’t mind it.

 

Observation two: other humanoids don’t seem to like Vasha much.

 

She doesn’t know why, but this is something that she sees almost every time she and Vasha are in the same public spaces together. She’s caught people staring, sneering, whispering to each other with cruel smiles, pointing, catcalling, any number of disparaging gestures all aimed at him. Omen finds this baffling, because while Vasha does have a mask on most of the time with intent to keep a certain distance between himself and others, he is still pleasant and kind as long as the situation allows.

 

She’s noticed Selene will usually just put on a stony expression and glare—sometimes even hiss or growl—when jeers or comments get too loud, so she’s begun doing the same. Something about her must be slightly more off-putting, as people usually take one look at her glare and promptly either shut themselves up immediately or just leave.

 

Observation three: Vasha risks his own life and safety often.

 

This is almost more baffling to Omen than the previous observation, but she’s heard him and Selene offhandedly mention some kind of divinely granted “luck.” She does not know any details, but it would explain why his dangerous plans and actions only set off her instincts mildly, though the frequency has taken some getting used to.

 

It isn’t until a quieter, calmer day where Vasha is in his room for a quick nap, and she and the other three are lounging in the living space that she gets some answers. Selene at least usually naps with him, but not always, and today is one of those exceptions.

 

Selene had been poking and prodding at some trinket that Vasha often fidgets with while he’s working or on the phone, but she eventually puts it down and looks towards where Omen is curled up on one end of the sofa, half dozing.

 

“I’ve noticed you making an effort to discourage others from treating Vasha poorly,” she says, “thank you.”

 

Omen cracks her eyes further open and hums. “It only feels natural,” she says, “though I do not understand why he faces hostility so often even from people he works with.”

 

Selene makes a low, unhappy noise. “Our birthplace has some unfortunate prejudice attached,” she mutters.

 

Omen tilts her head, considering. “If you don’t wish to share, then I won’t press,” she says slowly, “but it would help me know what in particular to look out for if I had an idea of what these… opinions are.”

 

Selene sighs and shakes her head. “It’s not from a lack of wanting to share, sometimes I just don’t know where to start,” she admits. Pyrite and Grace have both begun listening in at this point, the former openly curious and the latter pretending he isn’t actually listening.

 

“Then… Why do people seem to hate him even when he’s otherwise coridal?” Omen asks.

 

Selene hums in thought, silent for a few moments. “We are both from a planet called Sigoinia-IV. It was composed mostly of vast, barren desert, and conditions were always very harsh. Vasha grew up in a small community, a tribe, known as the Avgins.”

 

“Oh, that means… Honey?” Pyrite pipes up.

 

Selene stares at it in surprise. “Something like that, yes. How did you know?”

 

Pyrite bobs in place a few times, pleased. “I was curious about where you and Vasha were from! I was doing some research and figured out what planet you came from, but I didn’t get much further than that.”

 

Selene nods slowly. “Right… Well, the Avgins are known for being persuasive and enchanting, according to what Vasha has told me. Outsiders have twisted this to mean that they’re untrustworthy, conniving, and will seduce the money right out of your pockets if you let their guard down, things like that.” She pauses to growl to herself. “Which are things Vasha can do, yes, but him and his people raised us honestly and fairly. I never felt trapped or conned or anything of the sort.”

 

Omen swallows down a growl of her own. “Then it seems I’ll continue putting my glare to good use,” she says bluntly.

 

Selene laughs at that. “I can give you some pointers. Your eyes already make any glare pretty effective, but I have some ideas to really refine it to an art,” she suggests, mischief all over her face.

 

Omen smiles. “I gladly accept.”

 

Vasha walks out of his room at that moment, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

 

“Vasha!” Selene exclaims, visibly lighting up. “Did you sleep well?”

 

Vasha reaches over to brush his fingers along Selene’s chin. “As well as I ever do,” he replies, blinking and glancing around at them. “What were you all up to while I was asleep?”

 

“I explained why people don’t like Avgins,” Selene replies honestly.

 

Vasha’s face falls a little, but he chuckles with a wry smile. “I see.”

 

She hesitates. “… Is that alright?”

 

“It’s fine, not like it’s a secret,” he assures her. “I’m more surprised it didn’t come up earlier, honestly.”

 

He sounds and acts casual as he speaks, but Omen can see him glancing at her, Grace, and Pyrite nervously despite it. She waits for him to make eye contact with her before she declares, “if anyone touches you, I will bite them.”

 

While she does intend to follow through on the promise should she need to, it does have the added bonus of causing him to blink and laugh incredulously.

 

Pyrite evidently shares her sentiment and adds cheerfully, “I can headbutt them!”

 

Grace mutters something like “I’ll douse them in water,” but Vasha is too busy clearing his throat and failing to hide the pleased smile on his face.

 

“Ah—I appreciate it, all of you, but I’d prefer if we don’t go right to violence?”

 

Omen huffs and turns away, eyes closed. “No promises,” she says, mostly joking.

 

“At this rate people will think I’m raising a bunch of guard dogs,” Vasha says to himself, still amused even as he shakes his head. “Well. If it comes to that, I’ll hold you to it,” he says to Omen herself, his hand reaching out in a clearly unconscious move to pet her before pausing. He’s never pet her the way he does Selene, and she hasn’t asked him to since shes’s largely indifferent to the gesture, but she sees the hesitation and closes her eyes, tilting her head to indicate she’s allowing the contact.

 

It comes a moment later, a gentle, barely-there brush of fingers along the fur of her head, and she chuffs her approval as a form of reassurance. The contact remains brief even so, and by the time she opens her eyes, everyone is preparing to go about the remainder of their day as usual.

Chapter 2: ii

Summary:

Kakavasha and Jade face off against each other, ignoring the murmurs and cheers of the crowd gathered around them. Jade eventually makes the first move, pulling a white pokeball from a hidden pocket and tossing it with a practiced motion into the air. It splits open with a burst of pale energy, and in front of her, the long, coiling form of a milotic materialises.

Grace feels like they’re looking at him specifically now, and gets the distinct sense that the forces of fate are laughing at his expense.

Notes:

Hello everyone, and happy new year! Here's a nice, long chapter to start the year off strong. Huge thanks to everyone who's shown even a little interest in this incredibly self-indulgent AU, it means a lot to me :D As always, feel free to check out this AU's tumblr! (I hope to update it more often this year since I've been neglecting it lol)

Hope you enjoy, and happy reading!

Every so often, one of the departments in the IPC will host a battle tournament for those who have pokemon partners. The battles are friendly and casual in nature, meant as competition to test ones’ mettle against another.

 

Grace has participated in a few battles with his previous owners, and watched even more as an observer. He knows Vasha and Selene both have battled too, but in matches that were fought to the death instead of to exhaustion. He hasn’t asked Grace to fight at all since he was introduced into the fold, in fact he usually has Selene and, more recently, Omen handle the combat side of things. When he got wind of this upcoming tournament, however, he asked each of them individually if they would like to participate.

 

Selene had only responded with a deadpan stare, to which Vasha had chuckled and said, “you know I have to ask, Selene.” Grace himself had mulled it over for a while before agreeing when asked directly, figuring he didn’t have anything better to do. That, and he was a little curious how Vasha would handle issuing commands or navigating a friendly bout. Pyrite had enthusiastically agreed to participating, bobbing up and down midair excitedly, and Omen had simply shrugged with a single quiet nod.

 

The day of the tournament saw the group waiting for the proceedings to begin in a quiet corner of the hall where two fields had been set up side by side. Each had a line through the middle indicating the halfway mark where either trainer could not cross, especially once the battle was fully underway. The rules themselves were simple enough; anything goes unless there is risk of severe injury or death, upon which the culprit will be immediately disqualified and provisionally banned from future tournaments. Otherwise, just about anything goes.

 

As far as tournaments and contests go, this is one has among the lowest stakes that Grace has seen from his time hopping between various trainers. Therefore, he feels reasonably concerned that both Kakavasha and Selene look unusually on edge when they have all collectively faced much worse situations.

 

The early rounds are easy enough; Pyrite especially seems very excited for the chance to be a participant, practically vibrating with barely suppressed energy anytime it isn’t actively on the field.

 

“Is there a reason you’re so excited?” He asks Pyrite after a couple preliminary rounds have concluded. It turns to him, and though it has no particular expressions to convey emotion, there’s an unmistakably excited gleam to its single red eye.

 

“Yes! I’ve been thinking and planning new strategies and I’m excited to try them. Plus, if things go how I hope, I might even evolve today!” It says, excited but in a hushed voice. “I want to surprise Vasha with it.”

 

Grace stares wordlessly for a moment, then nods and turns away. He’s had complicated feelings about evolution, especially that of his own, for longer than he can remember. He knows, objectively, that allowing himself to change into a milotic would open several avenues for him; that of strength, of size, of form, of power. And yet, any time he thinks about all his past trainers and the ways they shoved glittering blue scales at him, every demand and expectation for him to “hurry up and evolve already”, he only feels dread and nausea at the idea.

 

Kakavasha has not made a single mention of Grace becoming a milotic, even implicitly, but he still feels as if he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Selene evolved long before they met, Absol do not evolve, and Pyrite is evidently more than willing to go through with his own.

 

That just leaves Grace. Kakavasha has been very kind to him, and to the rest of their team, and he otherwise has no reason to doubt his intent, and yet he still worries.

 

He doesn’t allow himself to dwell on it much further, instead taking a spot next to a very tense, unusually quiet Selene as they wait for their next match and watch the other contestants and their battles. Kakavasha isn’t far away, but he has a similar tense line to his shoulders as Selene, despite the impeccable placid mask plastered on his face as usual. He doesn’t say anything for a while, but by the third loud thump of Selene’s tail behind them, he glances up at her.

 

“Are you alright?” he asks bluntly.

 

Selene blinks hard, then shakes herself, then looks at him, looking a little more present. “Hmm?”

 

“You have been very tense all day. Kakavasha, too. What’s the matter?” He elaborates.

 

Selene’s gaze flicks away almost immediately, and she looks like something hunted suddenly, ever so slightly curling into herself. Grace doesn’t speak any more, waiting for her to either dismiss or explain.

 

“Since I hatched, surviving was it’s own fight. Every day was a struggle for food, for water, for a safe place to sleep. The instant we left our home planet, we were enslaved, and made to kill each other for sport. Even after escaping captivity, we did not have the luxury of casual fights. Our survival hinged on winning, no matter what.” she says quietly after a while. “I’ve spent most of my life facing the fact that I could be killed any day, and so did Vasha. We know the stakes are as low as they can be now, but… it’s hard to shake old habits, old memories.”

 

Grace mulls over that for a few moments. Despite his lack of consistent security, he’s never known the level of strife Selene and Kakavasha have been through their entire lives. It does make sense that when danger is all you know, it’s hard to think of anything else even when you’re safer than you’ve ever been. In the end, he only hums in acknowledgement and leaves the conversation as is.

 

Several more rounds go by, and while the haunted, tense air that hangs over Selene and Kakavasha never quite goes away, some of their tension eases the longer the tournament goes on.

 

It isn’t until several rounds later, leading to the semifinals, that anything of particular note happens.

 

Pyrite has been the one doing the most fighting so far, at its own insistence. Omen has taken part in a couple battles, but has spent most of her time sticking herself to Kakavasha’s side and watching everything quietly. Selene has taken part in the most fights second to Pyrite, and Grace has been hesitant to participate except where he felt the skills he does have would be necessary.

 

Their opponent’s last pokemon goes down to Pyrite’s attacks, and in the next moment, its body is enveloped in blinding white light. Gasps and calls of excitement ripple from other contestants and those watching on the side, but Kakavasha stands there frozen as he watches Pyrite’s glowing form warp and expand into something new, something stronger.

 

The glow fades, and in the place of what was once a beldum, there is now a metang.

 

Pyrite shakes itself before turning to their group, still with no features to form expressions but looking excited all the same. Kakavasha startled out of whatever stupor he found himself in and immediately beams, sprinting forward to clumsily throw his arms around the central part of Pyrite’s body with a series of excited noises of his own. Pyrite’s new arms coil around Kakavasha’s back, clearly trying to be careful of its new, spikier body parts so it doesn’t accidentally stab him.

 

Selene hums at his side, and Grace glances up at her in time to see her nodding with a proud gleam to her eyes. “Pyrite has been working towards this for a while. I’m glad it worked out.”

 

Grace knows he should be happy, proud even, like everyone else. But he sits there, watching Kakavasha and Pyrite embrace and talk excitedly to each other, and he can only feel a mounting sense of dread and unease, yet unable to pinpoint why.

 

Things calm down until the finals, where a surprise guest in the form of Jade makes an appearance. The remaining contestants and the crowd murmur among themselves at her entrance, but she disregards all of that to exchange a few quiet words with the individual hosting the entire event. She turns to look at their group with intent, and Grace gets the distinct impression that she’s here specifically to face them. Why, he doesn’t know, and he doubts Kakavasha does either.

 

This is confirmed when the finalists are announced, along with the host announcing that the winner will be allowed to have a bonus match with Jade herself. Aventurine reveals little about his thoughts on this development, but the other finalist, their opponent, looks caught between excitement and a very raw, honest fear. She is notorious for her team of serpents for a reason.

 

Their last opponent for the tournament has a more solid team of pokemon than the rest of their opponents so far, but Kakavasha is much more cunning and observant than people expect him to be. As such, their win wasn’t much of a question. Against Jade, though? That is an entirely different matter.

 

Kakavasha and Jade face off against each other, ignoring the murmurs and cheers of the crowd gathered around them. Jade eventually makes the first move, pulling a white pokeball from a hidden pocket and tossing it with a practiced motion into the air. It splits open with a burst of pale energy, and in front of her, the long, coiling form of a milotic materialises.

 

Grace feels like they’re looking at him specifically now, and gets the distinct sense that the forces of fate are laughing at his expense.

 

Kakavasha casts an analyzing gaze across them with pursed lips, clearly thinking over types and offensive counters available to them. Selene will not be able to do much to a milotic, nor can Grace. Omen and Pyrite are their best bet, but even then their victory won’t be assured.

 

Omen is the first to take to the field. She makes no outward show of any discomfort or uneasiness, simply standing and watching her opponent, waiting for a command. The silence in the hall is almost stifling, all until the host declares that their fight begin.

 

Jade wastes no time making the first move, commanding her milotic with an ease that comes with years of familiarity. Omen dodges the resulting blast of water with relative ease, and darts forward for a heavy slashing blow. The milotic doesn’t make any effort to dodge, simply taking the attack head on and almost literally shaking it off. The only evidence that the slash did any damage at all is a faint mark on her otherwise smooth body. The rest of Omen’s time on the field goes like this; narrowly dodging some attacks and taking hits from others, and dealing returning blows that the milotic usually doesn’t bother to move out of the way from. The hits are adding up, but it is clear that Omen will tire and fall sooner than the milotic will.

 

Kakavasha turns to the rest of the team. “Brace your ears,” he says simply, then turns back to the fight. Selene immediately clamps her palms over the sides of her head, and though Pyrite has more difficulty, it does the same. Grace does his best with his fins, hoping it’s enough. Kakavasha doesn’t watch them do this, having already turned back to Omen, and shouts, “perish song!”

 

Jade visibly stiffens even with the distance, but she gets no chance to make a counter or recall her milotic before Omen throws her head back and sings a long, grating, dissonant melody that echoes unnaturally in the hall. Even through Grace’s fins, the song feels like its trying to pierce through his skull, but thankfully he remains unaffected. The milotic isn’t as fortunate, eyes squinted shut in clear pain as she shakes her head back and forth with low hissing noises. Though Omen was the one to sing it, she too has clearly been affected by the song.

 

“Clever move, child,” Jade says, her voice carrying clear across the distance.

 

“Your move now, Madam Jade,” is all Kakavasha says in response.

 

Retaliation comes in the form of a final blast of water that Omen is unable to dodge, and she falls to the floor, unconscious. Kakavasha, still staunchly refusing to use their pokeballs unless absolutely necessary, moves in to carefully pull Omen off the field, then nods to Pyrite, who immediately floats on the field to take her place. Selene helps Kakavasha pull Omen further away from the field while Kakavasha turns back to the battle.

 

The milotic doesn’t last much longer under the effects of the song, and Pyrite does well holding out until she succumbs to it. Jade seems unperterbed, however, and simply recalls her milotic, only to toss out another pokeball that reveals a dragonair with glimmering pink scales. A “shiny” variant, where usually their scales would be a deeper blue.

 

Things swiftly go downhill from there. Pyrite does not last long against the new opponent, Selene doesn’t fare much better despite the fact she is much faster than both Omen and Pyrite, and Grace is last. He does his best, but there isn’t much he can do either. Thus, Jade is the ultimate winner of the bonus final round.

 

Grace is mostly out of it at this point, but he’s aware enough to see that Kakavasha doesn’t seem particularly surprised. He gives each of them a few murmured words of praise before they’re taken somewhere to be healed and to recover their energy. None of them speak much of the tournament after it’s over besides to congratulate Pyrite on its new form. At least, not until Kakavasha next takes him to the large pool in the building, usually reserved for humanoids to practice their swimming.

 

Kakavasha makes a point to go there at least once a system week to allow Grace to spread his fins and frolick for a while, and occasionally for him to practice some underwater combat with other people who have aquatic pokemon like him. Selene almost never accompanies them here, citing her distaste for large bodies of water, but there’s always a gleam to her eyes that makes him think there’s more to it than that.

 

This time around is similar enough to the norm, but Grace finds himself swimming up to the edge of the pool where Kakavasha is sitting at the edge, only dipping his feet in and people-watching, as he calls it. Kakavasha blinks in surprise when he notices Grace approaching.

 

“Done already?” He asks.

 

“No,” Grace says, “I want to ask you something.”

 

Kakavasha seems intrigued. “Alright. What is it?”

 

“Will you answer this question honestly when I ask it?” Grace adds.

 

Kakavasha gives him a contemplative stare, though he can’t tell what he’s thinking. “Of course I will. I suspect you want to ask me something you might not like the answer to? I don’t make a habit of being needlessly cruel, if that’s your concern.”

 

Grace doesn’t know what to say in response to that, and simply powers forward with his original intent. “Do you have any expectations of me to evolve at any point, in the near future or otherwise?”

 

Kakavasha’s eyebrows lift, and to his credit he leans back on his hands to silently think over his answer, as opposed to immediately denying or affirming anything.

 

“I’m assuming you’re asking this because you think I want or expect you to evolve,” Kakavasha eventually says. Grace offers no response, so he continues. “Here’s what I think, from the perspective of someone who isn’t a pokemon like you; evolution as a whole has net positives for the kinds of things I do. You’d get more power, be able to last longer in combat in a wider variety of situations, things like that. You’d be larger, which would be beneficial in some situations but not in others.” He looks back at Grace. “That being said, evolving also irreversibly changes your body in ways I can never understand. I will never know how it feels to have your entire body change at that scale, and I will never know better than you if that is something you want for yourself.”

 

Grace mulls over this response. He does appreciate that Kakavasha was more honest than placating, providing his own perspective and the upsides and downsides from that perspective, and the acknowledgement that Kakavasha, at the end of the day, is not a pokemon and thus does not know what it’s like to live as one.

 

“Is there any particular thing that brought this up?” Kakavasha asks after several moments of silence.

 

Grace hesitates. “… You seemed very happy for Pyrite,” is all he manages to say.

 

“Well, that’s only natural. I could tell Pyrite has been working hard, especially recently, and once it evolved I knew this was part of what it wanted to do. Of course I’d be happy and proud it reached a major goal like that after all the work it put in,” Kakavasha says. “But that wasn’t tied to the evolution specifically. If it had been working to another goal, mastering a new skill for instance, I would still be proud and happy. My care and happiness, for all of you, does not hinge on weather or not you can or will evolve.”

 

Something still doesn’t sit right with Grace. “I do not understand why you’re willing to accept that; we all saw Lade Jade’s milotic and how it withstood much more than I ever would as a feebas. Me becoming a milotic would only have net positives for you.”

 

Kakavasha stares at him for a while, then a slightly complicated series of emotions passes across his face in quick succession. “Contrary to how I present myself nowadays,” he says slowly, “I’m not so materialistic and shallow that I care more about what my companions can give me rather than their happiness.”

 

Grace stiffens, realising how he sounded a little too late, but he isn’t given a chance to apologise.

 

“I understand neither of us have had great upbringings,” Kakavasha says, pulling his feet up out of the water to cross them under himself, “but I’m not a mind reader, Grace. I don’t have any way of knowing if I’m giving you the impression that I’m expecting things of you that you don’t want unless you tell me directly.”

 

Grace flusters over a response, eventually only managing a small, “I didn’t mean to imply you’re a shallow person.”

 

Kakavasha sighs and gives him a wry smile. “That was probably unwarranted of me,” he admits, “but my point still stands. I care far more about your comfort and happiness as a whole than any transactional benefit to me personally. Your worth is not tied to what you provide for me, even though that is still appreciated.”

 

Grace lets himself sink a little further into the water, feeling a little ashamed, though he isn’t sure why yet. If Kakavasha notices, he doesn’t comment, instead saying, “it might be worth thinking over why you have such a strong aversion to evolving. It can be as simple as it’s not something you want for yourself, or it could be more layered than that. Think it over for a while.”

 

That ends their conversation. Selene approaches him later that night and says, “Vasha told me about your conversation earlier,” she says. Grace half expects her to be upset with him given he upset Kakavasha, so he’s surprised when she follows up with, “if you ever have questions about evolution and the like, ask me anytime.”

 

“How much did he tell you?” He asks.

 

Selene shrugs. “Just the subject of discussion. I figured it was specifically about your dislike of the concept given what you told me the day we met. I’m sure Pyrite would be more than happy to talk about it too, especially since its experience is much more fresh than mine.”

 

“… I’ll consider it,” he says. Selene nods, but as she turns to leave, Grace stops her. “Actually, can I ask… Why did you evolve? What did it feel like?”

 

She goes still for a moment, then turns back to him, sitting down so they’re a bit closer to eye level with each other. “The why was simple for me. It happened during a match while we were enslaved. The fight was worse than usual. I knew if I didn’t do something, anything, we would both die. While usually that might feel like no choice at all, it wasn’t a difficult one for me. I wanted more than anything to protect Vasha, with my life if necessary, and evolving only benefitted that goal.

 

As for what it felt like? It’s a bit hard to say. That day was a blur already. I recall feeling the physical changes, the way my limbs became longer, the way I became several times my original size. It hurt at the time, but I suspect my injuries and the fact I was halfway to starving didn’t help,” she says, gesturing to the many scars on her body. “Other than that… It felt like fire. I felt like I could melt anything, corrode through anything, if I put my mind to it. The feeling didn’t last more than a day, but it was there. Afterwards, it mostly just took getting used to the fact I was not in the same body anymore, but thankfully I acclimated quickly. Well, except for the fact I kept accidentally burning things I touched since my palms have flame glands on them now,” she says with amusement as she shows him the pink scales on her palms.

 

Grace has seen her threaten people being difficult with Kakavasha with her hands before and fully believes that. “I suppose I see what you mean,” he says, then adds, “thank you for telling me.”

 

Selene smiles at him. “Anytime.”

 

Grace waits another week before approaching Pyrite itself to ask the same things he did Selene. Pyrite is much more outwardly excited about the subject.

 

“Why did I want to? Well, to be stronger, of course! There’s only so much I could do as a beldum,” it says immediately. “Vasha never asked me to, but I wanted to anyway. I didn’t mind needing to get used to new limbs, and I already feel like there’s more I can do now that I’m a metang.”

 

Grace files that response away to mull over himself later. “What did it feel like?” He asks.

 

“It’s kind of hard to describe,” Pyrite says, similar to Selene, “and I think it depends on a lot of things. But for me it was a rush. The physical changes happening so fast were weird, but more than that I felt happy. I’d been working really hard to get to this point and I was so happy that it worked. I still am. That sums a lot of it up for me.”

 

Grace hums and nods. “Okay. Thanks.”

 

Pyrite produces a metallic sounding chime and bobs in place a few times. “Of course!”

 

Another thought occurs to him. “What did you think of Jade’s milotic?”

 

Pyrite stares at him for a while. “I thought she looked cool and strong, but I think that’s more a result of Lady Jade’s training and care than anything else. Why, are you considering evolving too? I did some research on it a while ago and the process can be difficult for feebas.”

 

Grace huffs, amused. “I’m thinking it over. I didn’t want to before, but I also had a lot of pressure from my other trainers to do it.”

 

“That makes sense,” Pyrite agrees with a low humming noise. “Well, decide if you want it for yourself first. Anyone else’s opinion is secondary.”

 

Grace certainly can’t argue with that.

 

---

 

Aventurine knows that Grace has been putting serious thought into their conversation, so his surprise is more over the fact it only took him a month to speak with him one on one again as opposed to several. They’re in the IPC building’s main pool as usual, but Grace hadn’t even taken some time to stretch and swim around before turning to him and asking to talk.

 

“What would you like to talk about?” he asks as he sits and dips his feet in the pool.

 

Grace swims up closer than he’s ever done before and looks him in the eye. “If I become a milotic, I will be much larger than I am now.”

 

“That you would,” he agrees with a chuckle.

 

“I don’t think your apartment would fit all of us.”

 

Aventurine winks with a grin, tapping the side of his nose. “I’ve heard some gossip through the grapevine that I might be getting a promotion or two soon. That will come with much nicer accommodations and a hefty pay raise,” he says, keeping his voice low. “Besides, I could make it work, one way or another.”

 

Grace hums. “I’m open to this, but not until you get that promotion officially.”

 

Aventurine shrugs. “Fine with me. You can also change your mind. Want me to see about getting my hands on a Prism Scale?”

 

“Are they difficult to obtain?” Grace asks, curious.

 

“Not really, but they’re not super common commercially, so I’d have to put in a special request for one,” Aventurine explains. “It mostly just means we might need to wait a bit for one to get imported here, then cleared through customs and security, then delivered to me. You know, administrative stuff.”

 

Grace huffs in amusement. “Alright. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to have it, I suppose.”

 

Aventurine grins. “Then I’ll make sure we have one handy soon.”

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 5 of at least we have each other