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Liko huffed with effort as she and Dot continued their journey, the straps of her backpack had been clinging uncomfortably to her shoulders for a few hours now but if they wanted to make it in time then they couldn’t stop for a break. It was only supposed to have been a day's trip. But their adventures had never been known for being predictable so of course they’d had to deal with a side quest that set them back a few hours.
Looking up at the quickly darkening sky, Liko’s brow furrowed in concern. “Do you think we’ll make it back in time?”
Dot frowned, clearly sharing in Liko’s doubts. “Hmm… We probably have about an hour left of walking. Damn, I don’t know if I can keep going for that long,” she sighed in exhaustion.
“If it’s too much for you, maybe we should just stop here? If it gets dark before the ship's in sight then I don’t want us to be stumbling blindly around and end up taking forever to find the ship.” Liko pointed out. She remembered that happening to Roy once, she’d waited on the ship's deck for hours assuming the worst had happened but he’d been fine in the end. She didn’t want to make anyone worry about her like that, and Dot was already pretty tired, so…
“Well, Murdock did overpack my bag just in case. I don’t want to prove that worry wart right but if it’s the best option then maybe we should set up camp here,” Dot agreed.
With their plan decided, the duo quickly got to setting up the tent and laying out their sleeping bags. Whilst Dot handled calling the crew and letting them know what was going on, Liko began to prepare their dinner.
“A few months before I would’ve been terrified at the idea of having to camp outside and sort out my own food. Our time travelling around Paldea really paid off,” Liko smiled reminiscently. Her grandma’s words really had been true, only the first step was scary. Liko’s growing experiences had proved again and again that nothing was as daunting as it appeared at first, once she gave something a shot then the next time she tried she could be much more confident.
Dot leaned forward and peered into the brewing pot of curry. “A few months before I wouldn’t have even been enjoying a homemade curry, I’d just be in my room munching away at those gummies,” she shared Liko’s nostalgic smile.
“To be honest those times hardly even feel real to me now. We’ve all grown a lot. I’m really glad you were able to take those steps with us, Dot. The journey wouldn’t have been the same without you.” Liko spoke with a strong pang of fondness. It was only when she scooped up a portion of curry into a bowl for Dot and handed it to her that she noticed her friend’s tomato-red blush.
“A-ah, well I couldn’t let you two stay ahead of me forever! I have too much pride for that!” Dot tried to smooth things over, hastily shoving a spoonful of curry into her mouth.
Liko chuckled, taking in the sweet taste of their curry. “You know, I was so happy on that day we made curry together. I think it’s one of my most treasured memories ever.”
“It was pretty good curry.” Dot nodded in agreement.
Liko was about to interject, sure the curry had been delightful that day but it paled in comparison to simply seeing Dot allowing herself to relax and enjoy a meal with the crew. But then she saw Dot’s trademark avoidant look, her friend had understood what she’d meant by that but actually confronting the implications of that would probably overload her. Well, so long as her actual feelings had reached Dot then that was all that really mattered.
Eyes drooping with sleepiness, Liko stifled a yawn. The comfort of her sleeping bag was practically screaming out her name by this point, the exhaustion of today's travels wearied her down to the bone. Only, now that she’d made her way to the duo sleeping bags, she noticed a rather troubling issue.
“Ah, Dot, we may have a problem,” Liko called her over and pointed at her sleeping bag. At some point, it seemed that a Goomy had decided to make Liko’s sleeping bag its own nest and was taking up the entrance to the bag.
Dot grumbled in irritation. “Oh come on you have all of Paldea’s nature to sleep in but you had to choose this. We could probably get rid of it with force…” Dot readied a pokeball but Liko stuck at an arm to interject.
“Wait, I’d feel too bad, I mean look at the little guy he looks so cosy. And anyway, the bags are probably too gooey for me to sleep in now anyway,” she sighed. All she’d wanted was a good night's rest.
Dot stood in silence, brain buzzing in calculation. “Then… how about this.” She pulled out the sleeping bag that goomy was sound asleep in, putting it outside the tent. “We could, umm, share a bag if it’s okay with you…” she mumbled with embarrassment.
Liko’s heart skipped a beat. “Us two, together?” It would be a bit of a squeeze, but Dot was quite smaller in comparison to Liko so they could probably manage. “S-sure, if it’s really alright with you.
“Yeah… You should probably go in first then,” Dot advised.
And that was how Liko found herself in a sleeping bag under the Paldean sky, nestled tightly next to one of her closest friends. It surprisingly wasn’t uncomfortable. On the contrary, Dot’s presence so close to her own brought her an intense feeling of comfort. It was… secure, safe.
“You’re not too squished, are you?” Dot asked quietly, her bushy purple hair lowered and brushing slightly against Liko’s chest.
“I’m fine, although my hands feel a little cramped.” She’d always been the type to spread herself out when sleeping, usually latching onto a plushy as she drifted to sleep. “What if we…” Liko silently gulped, moving her hands around blindly in the bag in search of the other girl’s touch. “I-is this okay with you?” she asked, her fingers now intertwined with Dots'.
“W-well, wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable. So if we have to hold hands then I guess there's no choice. For the sake of practicality, of course!” Dot excused, but Liko could've sworn she detected a note of excitement in the girl’s voice.
In this position, Liko had at last secured the comfort she desired. Only now she’d encountered a new problem. Being this close to someone… feeling the softness of their warm touch… it made it very hard for her mind to relax and drift off to sleep.
“Are you still awake, Dot?” Liko gently whispered.
Dot’s head shifted slightly in silent confirmation. “I… I don’t think I can sleep haha… I think there was a blanket in the backpack, maybe I should get it out and use-
“No!” Liko yelped a little louder than intended. “Ah- I mean… I kind of want to stay like this…” she admitted, her cheeks heating up.
“... Me too,” Dot agreed with a tiny voice. “In that case, how about we just talk?” Dot shifted her gaze into Liko’s, she could ever so slightly see the girl's violet coloured orbs that shone strongly behind her bangs. Her eyes had always been beautiful…
“About what?” Liko tried to distract herself from that line of thought, fearful of considering where it could lead if she dared to pursue it.
“How about… Why did you try so hard to befriend me in the first place? Besides our mutual interest in Nidothing, of course,” Dot asked.
“Well, Nidothing did play a massive role in that. But I suppose… I just felt a connection with you? Nidothing aside, I know how it feels to be shut off from the world around you. Your case was more literal than mine, but I’ve also struggled with communicating throughout my life. But since all of this started, I’ve found expressing myself easier and easier… So when I saw someone so similar to me, I just wanted to extend my hand and invite you into the world I’d so recently discovered myself,” Liko sincerely confessed.
Dot paused in silence for a drawn-out few seconds. “Is that so? Well, I’m glad you did all that. It’s like before meeting you I just saw the world in one colour, I thought I had it all figured out. But you showed me so many colours… so many experiences… what I’m trying to say is that you made my world brighter,” Dot chuckled in slight embarrassment.
If she were alone right now, Liko probably would’ve jumped on the spot in glee and danced around awkwardly. “Yeah, this world has endless colours to offer. I hope even after all of this Rakua business is over, the world will continue to show us more and more. Speaking of, what do you think you’ll do once we’ve made it there?”
Dot hummed in consideration. “Well, it’ll just be one mystery solved. I’ve become somewhat of a glutton for them, so I think I’ll just chase the next mystery, and the next after that. Rakua is just one chapter of our lives, there will be plenty more adventures to come afterwards I’m sure.”
“Yeah… so long as we keep seeking, there’ll be something that waits for us to be found. And I hope that… we can continue like this. With our pokemon, the rest of the crew, and…”
“Each other?” Dot finished her sentence.
Liko smiled fondly, tightening her grip on Dot’s hand with an affectionate squeeze.
“Yeah, I’d really like that.”
She’d go to the ends of the world to satiate their desires for adventure if she had to. Every nook and cranny, so that they could see all the colours the world had in store for them. If Dot was beside her throughout it all, she was sure she’d see a rainbow like no other.
With that comforting thought, Liko drifted into a much-needed slumber.