[FIN] Coming to an Understanding

[BlackFireKitsune]

With their battle finished and her unconscious pokemon recalled, Sera moved towards a bench nearby and sat on it with a contented sigh. "That was pretty good," she commented, watching Anastasia as the Umbreon trotted over to sit at her feet. The brunette leaned down to pick up the dark-type in her arms and pull her into her lap, then lifted her gaze to Luke as she asked, "Does it feel good to be out with your pokemon again?" She wasn't sure if he'd been out with them yet since regaining his mobility, but she knew quite well he hadn't been able to do much with them, if anything, while he was paralyzed. In fact, she knew that better than anyone, given she usually was the one to take his pokemon out for him.  

[Suudonym]

"You guys have been working hard, huh?" Luke commended his pokemon's performance with an appreciative touch, recalling the larger pair to rest and allowing the remaining Rem to explore as she liked, since she was already wandering off. He moved - carefully - to join Seraphine on the bench; he wasn't especially fond of the whole cane business, but the knowledge that he would be rid of it in time made it tolerable.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod, reaching a hand in an offering for a pat to the Jolteon that settled under the bench, her head poking out between his feet. The offer went unaccepted. "Thanks for taking them out with you before. It looks like they've been keeping up well." He was more than a little displeased that he hadn't been keeping up alongside them, but it was better than nothing. At least they were trained to be able to carry out a battle without constant command, eliminating the specific need for him to be with them for them to fight.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The brunette watched as Luke spoke to his pokemon, complimenting their performance and then as he sat down. She couldn't imagine having to use a cane, but then again, she was kind of a special case in that regard. Using a cane would be difficult considering she just had one hand - what if she had to carry something? What if she had to help someone else? She couldn't really do much effectively if her only hand was occupied with a cane to keep her upright. Oh well, that wasn't really something she had to worry about anyway, so she dismissed it.

"No problem," she said with a shrug, stroking her Umbreon's head and long ears. Said Umbreon saw the Jolteon snub her trainer, and snuck forward a bit to rest her chin on Luke's knee - she would be more than happy to accept the attention he had intended to give his electric-type if she didn't want it. "It was the least I could do to help out, anyway. I think they appreciated being able to get out and train too." Or she assumed they did, anyway, though some of her pokemon had been glad for the additional company and others had been rather displeased about it.  

[Suudonym]

Luke smiled at the Umbreon, roughly understanding her probable thought process, and gently rubbed her head. "I bet so," he replied. "We've been going out every single day for a long time. They start getting all restless if I take a day off." Or several days. They at least seemed to be understanding of the fact that there were important circumstances that had prevented him from training, rather than just laziness or neglect.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Anastasia's blue eyes slid shut as she began making pleased noises, appearing to thoroughly enjoy the attention she was being given. Sera smiled down at the dark-type and ran her hand across her back instead. "Then yeah, I guess they liked going out then. I don't always go out every day, but Isabella's the only one that gets restless." Especially so whenever she was injured - the Absol was most restless after being shot, as well as after injuring her shoulder during the blasts in the desert.

While talk of pokemon and training was nice, there was one topic in particular that Sera really wanted to talk about, but she had no idea at all how to bring it up. Should she just come right out and say it? Should she try to be sneaky and bring it up slowly? Honestly she had no idea how to approach it, so instead she decided to bide her time and wait for a more opportune moment - and also wait to figure out the best way to phrase things for when she inevitably asked. "I think I'm going to start working on all of my pokemon, instead of focusing on just a few," she mused aloud, her gaze lowering to the Umbreon draped over her lap. At her words, there was suddenly a large muzzle near her face, and Sera looked up to find Luna immediately beside her with a very expectant look. The brunette offered the fire-type a wry smile. "I've kind of gotten the impression that maybe Luna wants to start training too."  

[Suudonym]

He nodded his encouragement to her idea, "It seems like there are a lot of benefits to having a whole team that's trained and ready to fight. Different type advantages, more strategies, more firepower against opponents…" Of course, it was also a lot of trouble to catch up one pokemon to the standards set by others on the team, but it was an endeavor that seemed plenty worthwhile to him. "Why is that you only train a few?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She nodded to his statement before considering his question, lowering her gaze to Anastasia as she idly traced a couple fingers over the heart-shaped marking on her flank. "Well, when I first started training with Ray, she told me to just focus on a couple, so I was only working with Isabella and Jacques," she explained with a shrug. "And I've just been focusing on those two ever since, pretty much, though since I got Agatha I've also been trying to work with her, too. But I think that's mostly because she needs it, otherwise she'd probably go around trying to eat every other trainer's pokemon." A frown accompanied her words. She couldn't recall if Ray had told her to only ever work with a couple pokemon, or if she'd told her to work with a couple at first and then expand to her whole team, or to work with a couple at first and then take a break with them and work with a different few pokemon... Whatever Ray had said had completely slipped her mind - or maybe the older woman had said it at one of those times where Sera wasn't paying attention. That happened quite a lot actually, now that she thought about it. "I know you train all of your pokemon. Rosie does, too, I'm pretty sure," the brunette added almost as an afterthought, turning her head slightly to watch Luke out of the corner of her eye.  

[Suudonym]

Indeed, having a pokemon that tried to attack and eat its opponents probably wasn't high on any list of recommendations - and probably had the potential to get Sera in trouble under the wrong circumstances, if his understanding of things that were strictly disallowed was correct. He could see giving priority to Agatha, then, but was glad to hear that Seraphine was considering bringing her others up to speed as well. A more balanced team afforded one vastly superior protection.

He nodded his confirmation, "Well, I only have five pokemon anyway - not even an entire team. I don't think Rosie trains all of hers," the gentle Meganium and ambling old Torkoal came to mind, "but yeah, I know she has a whole team that she trains, possibly plus a few extras?" She certainly had a lot of pokemon; there was no doubt about that.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I have... a lot more than that," she said, averting her gaze as she realized she had twice as many pokemon as Luke did. Wow, that was... kind of a lot. But Rosie had a lot too, so that was alright, she supposed.

Aha! She'd successfully brought the topic to Rosie. Now how to go from here... "Speaking of Rosie, you know she and I went to the mall the other day, right? To go shopping and stuff."  

[Suudonym]

"Maybe it'd be best to focus on just a team's worth, then," he suggested, a mild shrug indicating that he didn't know much more about the matter than she did. He only had a small team, after all, so keeping up their power didn't require a lot of extra effort.

Luke gave no indication that he recognized that Sera might have brought up Rosie for any specific purpose, responding with a slightly inquisitive tone, "Yeah, she mentioned it."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Just a team's worth sounded good, and would be something she'd consider later - right now, she was more interested in furthering the other half of their conversation. In response, she merely nodded to his first statement while debating how to reply to his second. "We also talked about stuff a lot," she finally said at length, turning her head slightly to regard Luke better. For some reason, she'd thought this would be so simple and easy - but no, this was more awkward than she thought it would be. "She uh, told me that you guys... had a certain discussion previously. About feelings, and stuff." Oh yes, perfect - that was absolutely the best way to broach that subject. What a genius. Not. Ugh; oh well.  

[Suudonym]

The stumbling, reluctant way Sera phrased her thoughts led Luke to believe that she was implying something deeply negative; their argument in the hospital came to mind immediately, the falling out at the docks following the competition in Kanto, the long distant confession that he had made an attempt on his own life. He couldn't imagine why any of that would have been brought up in recent conversation, though - especially given recent events - and so his brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh huh…?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His complete ignorance to what she was implying - and she thought she'd done a good job of bringing it up without directly coming out and saying it - gave her pause and she had to wonder if Rosie hadn't dreamed the whole thing up or something. No, she'd said she'd spoken to Luke, and they both shared their mutual feelings - she had no reason to believe Rosie had been mistaken. She certainly hadn't lied, at any rate, as it would've been painfully obvious if she'd even tried to. Thus, all Sera could do was give him a confused, rather flat look. "Well I was trying to be subtle about it, but since that's obviously not gonna work - Rosie told me that you guys said you love each other. We talked about that at the mall." There. Arceus, the one time she tried to avoid being blunt about something and she had to be blunt about it anyway. Her best friends really were something else.  

[Suudonym]

"Oh." Recognition dawned in his features. "Sorry, I thought you were talking about something bad, like an argument or something." His gaze wandered towards his lap, settling on the Umbreon under his hand. "But yeah… that happened, I guess."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Yes, 'oh.' However, his reaction confused her a little. Rosie had seemed very happy about it, if not a little confused as well as excited, but Luke seemed rather... Well, she didn't even know if she could consider any of this any sort of reaction to it. "That happened... you guess?" She parroted, raising a brow at him. "You don't sound too sure about it. Is everything okay?" Had something been said or happened between her day out with Rosie and right now to change things? She hadn't heard of anything happening, so she didn't think anything had, but maybe something did... Maybe he was just confused? She'd had to try and explain the concept of dating to Rosie since the blonde didn't really seem to understand it. Maybe Luke was having similar problems?