[FIN] Didn't see it coming

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Sure," Abel replied agreeably, though he still wasn't quite sure. He kept touching his head... Hopefully he didn't have a concussion, those things could be nasty. "Like I said, it's right nearby, so it won't take long to get to - though I dunno how long Sonia'll take to get back," he added as a warning, but regardless began to walk in that direction, a hand half-raised to help Luke if he needed it. "How many pokemon did they take?"  

[Suudonym]

He gave a small nod, raising his uninjured palm against the offer of assistance; he appreciated it, but the only thing wrong with his legs was that his knees were sore from being forced abruptly to the ground, so he was determined to move on his own. "Five," he responded, deflating. "All of them."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Even if he refused his offer, Abel continued to walk close by him just in case. "Damn," he sighed, his gaze shifting to the ground ahead of them as they walked. They took all of his pokemon? That was the shittiest thing - he knew without a doubt that he'd be beyond pissed if anyone so much as tried to take Isaac or Sonia. Especially Isaac. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much, you'll get them back," he went on in more positive tones, then gestured as they approached a building, "this is where my place is. Sonia knows how to get up to our door, and she'll let us know when she's back."

That said, he moved to enter the building, holding the door for Luke as he did so. After a short walk, an elevator ride, and a walk down the resulting hall and around a corner, they arrived at his door. His Zoroark was, unsurprisingly, nowhere in sight. Regardless, the blonde pulled out a key with which to open the door, then held it open for Luke to pass through.  

[Suudonym]

Another faint nod answered the optimism, though he was still undecided on how much he believed it himself. The fact that the Zoroark had yet to return allowed him to continue that debate for a while yet. With a quiet word of thanks, he moved through the held door, autonomously taking in the immediate details of the room that greeted him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The room that greeted them started with a small kitchen to one side that looked out onto the small living room, with two doors along the opposite wall, both open - one led to a bathroom, the other to a bedroom. The apartment as a whole was sparsely furnished, a couch against the wall that faced a TV on a stand and a coffee table between them. A few framed photographs sat along a bookshelf against one wall, and a potted plant in one corner, but that was about it. Abel followed his guest in and waved vaguely at the interior of the apartment, "Go on and sit down, make yourself comfortable. Want some coffee or something?" He asked as he closed the door behind them, then moved into the kitchen to get something for himself. "Isaac, I'm back - and brought a guest."

An Espeon had already moved into the main room from the bedroom, his ears perked and forked tail twitching as he paused to regard the redhead. He looked... very weary. Very weary indeed.  

[Suudonym]

Luke started forward - mostly to remove himself from Abel's path - and moved to seat himself when encouraged to do so. "Uh, no, thanks, I'm fine." He didn't really want to do much of anything before having his pokemon back at his side. It hadn't even been all that long since Mieu's captivity in Team Rocket, and now he was gone again… Surely the pokeballs would be returned, though. They were trainers.

He raised his attention to the Espeon as it made its way to join them, offering a wan smile in greeting. He would have liked to be a bit more enthusiastic, but the pokemon served primarily to remind him that three of the taken five were eeveelutions as well.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"You sure?" He asked, just to be certain. "Got soda, milk, water, beer - I can make coffee. Tea, if you want," he added with a shrug. The poor guy looked so dejected, he felt obligated to offer pretty much everything he had to drink. For himself, though, he hesitated at water before taking out a bottle of beer. He'd had to point and shoot a gun at civilians barely ten minutes ago. Screw water. "So," he started, attempting to find something to talk about, "were you at the convention earlier? I heard some s**t went down after I left, but that was about it. I was only there for a little while, looking at the instruments." That said, he opened the bottle in his hand and took a swig.

Isaac churred a soft response to Luke before trotting across the room and into the kitchen area. Abel glanced down at his friend and quickly interpreted the look the Espeon gave him, so he pulled out a bowl, filled it with water, then set it on the floor for him.  

[Suudonym]

He shook his head lightly in response to the other presented options as well, "It's fine. Thanks." Stomaching even something as simple as water wasn't something he could be particularly confident in at this point, between all the pain and worry. Oh, that was an idea, though. "Oh, maybe like, an ibuprofen?" Yes, that was an idea. A good idea.

The convention was no longer quite the worst thing to have happened to him all day - maybe tied for first place, though - and he nodded in reply. "At the panel, they put up pictures of known members of Team Rocket. My, um… My twin brother was in Team Rocket, and happened to be one of those known members, so there was kind of panic, and then it turned out there were actual Rockets there who were ready to fight to get out…"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh, right, duh - why hadn't he thought of that? He pulled out a bottle from a cupboard, as well as filled a glass with water before moving out into the main room to hand both to Luke. He couldn't help but frown and give a low whistle at the explanation. "Sounds like you've just had a really shitty day overall, huh?" At least he'd gotten out before everything went south, but maybe he could've helped, had he been there... "Oh, wait -- was that why they said you were a Rocket just a bit ago?" Well that certainly made a lot of sense.

Once finished with his water, Isaac walked out of the kitchen to sit near the half-wall dividing the two rooms. A soft sound emanated from the bedroom, as if something hopped off a piece of furniture, and an Umbreon peeked out at the two young men from behind the door. Her ears perked up a bit though as she vaguely recognized the one on the couch -- Luke? It had been over a year since she'd seen Seraphine or any of those she associated with - not that she associated with many apart from Rosie - and he did look sort of familiar, but didn't act like he did before... "Bree?" She trilled softly, uncertainly.  

[Suudonym]

He offered thanks in return, removing a pair of the tablets from the bottle and following them with water - which he could only assume that he would tolerate out of necessity. He hummed a short affirmative, "Probably. There was a trainer who was really set on me being a Rocket even though I wasn't fighting back like the others… Guess he wasn't satisfied with the League clearing me of suspicion."

He wasn't entirely sure of what pokemon Abel kept, so there was nothing especially noteworthy about the sound of another moving about, but the Umbreon that appeared was certainly noteworthy in its own right. Luke's posture straightened as his memories successfully identified the unique rings, "Anastasia?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When the bottle had served its purpose, Abel took it back and returned to the kitchen to replace it in the cabinet, then picked up his bottle to take another sip from it while Luke spoke. "Mm," he replied thoughtfully while he swallowed, "sounds to me like he was a regular little a*****e."

While the appearance of the Umbreon from his bedroom prompted him to offer the pokemon a friendly smile, given her generally depressed and dejected behavior for the week or so that he'd had her, Luke giving a name to the dark-type caused his brows to raise. Before he could comment, though, the Umbreon suddenly raced over to the redhead and began rubbing against his legs and knees, then moved to nose at his hands. "Breon! Umbreon, breeeeeee," she cried, not wanting to leave his side for anything - except, of course, her owner. It was him, it was! He would take her to Seraphine - he would know where she was. "Breeeon!"

Abel watched with a degree of incredulity, then tipped the bottle towards the dark-type as she continued to show every sign of affection and relief and just in general nothing he'd seen from her thus far, "I take it you know her?" Isaac, also, looked a little surprised at the Umbreon's behavior. It was good though, and for that he was glad.  

[Suudonym]

Luke leaned forward with the intention of lifting the Umbreon, but his hand protested despite the fact that Anastasia was smaller and lighter than average. Somewhere in his mind was the thought that that probably wasn't good, but it was overwhelmed and buried by pure relief. Gently he petted her head, wearing a warm smile. "Anastasia! I know someone who's going to be happy to see you." And someone she would be happy to see as well, no doubt.

He turned his attention to Abel at his words, nodding, "This is my friend's Umbreon. She was stolen by a Rocket," around the time Mieu was taken, so, "about a year ago. How long has she been here? Where did you find her?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With plenty of happy noises, the Umbreon nuzzled into the redhead's hand, absolutely overjoyed to see someone that knew Seraphine. When Luke tried and failed to lift her, Anastasia simply jumped up into his lap without hesitation. He would be completely correct - she would be more than happy to see her owner again, though she remained unaware of just how close Sera's friendship with Luke had grown over the past year.

Abel watched quietly with a mixture of amusement, relief, and concern, but his brows rose at Luke's explanation of how he knew this pokemon. "Really? Well damn," he exhaled, frowning a bit. "I found her about a week or so ago, a ways outside Camphoreon. She was stumbling along before collapsing, so I brought her back here. She looked pretty much half-starved, and I'd no idea where she came from or what happened, but she's gotten much better since then." Indeed, the Umbreon did look thinner than she should've been, but she also didn't look, as Abel had described, half-starved.  

[Suudonym]

Luke moved an arm around the Umbreon that placed herself in his lap, rubbing her flank gently. "You've had a hard time, huh?" he said, easily finding the conclusion from Abel's explanation. "Sera hasn't had it easy lately either. She'll be so glad to see you." Finally some good news. He looked to Abel, "Thank you for taking care of her. This Umbreon is really important to my friend."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Bree," the Umbreon replied, though really she appeared absolutely ecstatic at this turn of events and thoroughly enjoyed the physical attention as well.

Abel just smiled, "Of course. This saves me the trouble of figuring out how to find out who she belonged to, too," he added with a wry, vaguely amused smile as he moved around to the main room and stroked Anastasia's head a couple times. While she made more pleased noises, she didn't budge from Luke's lap. "I know there's a pokemon center somewhere around here, but I'm not exactly a proper trainer so I've no idea where it is," he admitted as his hand raised to rub the back of his neck a bit. "I kinda hoped they'd be able to help, but this is much better. I'm glad I could help, though," the blonde ended with a smile.