[FIN] Misunderstandings

[TawnyAngel]

"Definitely not," Taavi replied emphaticly with a shake of his head, trying to ignore the worry twisting in his stomach. So the chick bugging them earlier had been Alyssa, thank Arceus Sera hadn't handed Isaac over!... They were going to have to hide the fact that Isaac was back home weren't they? If they didn't Alyssa would probably decide to take him again, or worse. She'd had enough hold over Abel before of course but she'd probably enjoyed having even more, enjoyed knowing how afraid for his friend Abel was. He hadn't asked but Taavi wouldn't have been surprised if she'd started demanding even more money from Abel, she'd used Isaac to make the blonde give away his secrets after all so why not carry on using the threat of hurting the Espeon like that? Only thing was he had no idea where Abel would even get more money. Maybe she got something else from him? Maybe she just enjoyed hurting him.

Back to the present though; he could lie to Sera and maybe even get away with it but that would only hurt Isaac, he didn't have anything to give him right now and if she was willing to buy lunch for him then.... Oh, or was she going to expect him to? She might well. Ugh. Well he did have his overdraft but if he went into that how was he ever going to get out of it? But he had to get Isaac back and if Sera thought anything was wrong then she might refuse to let him go. Would she do that if Isaac resisted? He had no idea.

"Ah, well it would take a while to cook," Taavi admitted with a slight shrug; he wasn't lying there! He'd just failed to mention that he didn't know if the ingredients had arrived yet or not. They would though, he could count on Valour, he could always count on Valour. "So lunch out is probably a good idea. Um. I already ate but I don't mind waiting, I don't want to put off Isaac getting food." It was also true that he had already eaten, he'd had breakfast and had got used to not having lunch soooo he didn't have to feel bad about kind of edging around the truth right? Right.

<> Swift responded with a smile for Isaac's amusement. <> Isaac looked like he was very much in need of lunch, in need of several lunches in fact.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera's eyes squinted a bit as she watched him carefully, and a few long moments later she leaned back with a shrug, her expression shifting back to neutral. "You need to work on your lying, it's kind of obvious - but whatever." He claimed he didn't know such a person even though he'd sounded nervous when she mentioned her, but Isaac was reacting positively towards him and so she opted to side with the Espeon's reaction instead.

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, the brunette frowned a bit before she shrugged once more, "Alright - lunch it is." She wasn't about to send him off to eat at some nebulous time later that day, not when he needed to eat now, so the brunette turned on her heel and began walking once again. Thankfully he'd eaten already, she had no intention of buying him lunch too, so he would've had to buy his own food either way. "There's a nice Italian place nearby I was thinking of going to," she elaborated as she walked along, figuring he'd be curious where she was going, although she didn't bother to try and gesture towards it. Indeed, down the street a ways a small restaurant sat nestled in the row of shops, its signs advertising its Italian cuisine. "They're pretty quick and not too expensive, either." Not too expensive was always good, especially when she didn't really feel like spending much.

Isaac made a quiet noise of agreement - or possibly acknowledgement - at Swift's words, but his eyelids had already mostly closed by that point. Within a few moments they closed completely, and he drifted off into a light sleep again, still curled comfortably in Sera's arms.

When their trainer began walking again, Isabella pushed herself back to her feet and all three pokemon followed at varying gaits; Anya right at her heels, Jacques a bit behind and to the side, with Isabella covering the rear.  

[TawnyAngel]

It hadn't been a lie; he definitely was not with Alyssa, he was as against her as it was possible to be! He didn't want to draw attention to the subject though so he just shook his head with a; "Whatever," of his own as he set off after Sera and her pokemon. He almost wanted to warn her about Alyssa, Sera was a b***h but she obviously had some basic decency but warning her would mean revealing more than he wanted to.... She seemed to have got the idea that Alyssa was bad news anyway though, there was probably no need to worry.

After they'd walked in silence for a short while and Taavi's thoughts had raced around in his head a bit more he reached the conclusion that he should probably thank Sera again, for different reasons than the original thanks. Well, slightly different anyway. Being around her was kind of giving him a headache but that didn't mean he shouldn't try to be decent.

"Um. So. You didn't have to take in a pokemon you didn't know and look after him like you have. A lot of people would have just ignored him, figured he was somebody else's problem. So.... Yeah, thank you. For... um, yeah, just being a good person I guess." Good didn't always mean nice, it was childish to pretend somebody was evil just because you didn't like them personally.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While she'd been content with the silence - especially with this guy - he ended it by opening his mouth to voice words she hadn't expected. She gave him a suitably dubious expression. "Well I dunno about that," she replied somewhat uncertainly, recalling the day they'd found Isaac on the streets. The poor thing had literally run into her leg and practically begged for help - not that he had any knowledge of it. "He was kind of hard to ignore. I would've had to be some really cold-hearted b***h to even try."

They approached the restaurant while Sera spoke, and Jacques trotted ahead of them a bit to open the door for his trainer so she could pass through. Once inside the restaurant - advertised as pokemon-friendly by a sign out front - a member of the waitstaff approached them and promptly showed them to a booth, promised them that a waiter would be with them shortly, and departed. Sera settled herself into it and set Isaac down to her right, between herself and Anya, while Jacques took the spot to her left. Isabella slid herself underneath the table and laid down on the floor, making sure to keep well away from Taavi's feet so he had enough legroom.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmh." Taavi shrugged and frowned a bit. "You'd be amazed, people who thinks they're good people do it every day. Either they think it's not their business, or not worth their time because it's only a pokemon or- I don't even know but they do it. Don't know how." He shrugged again, shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet. He missed working with pokemon, he missed it like hell. When he'd been a ranger, even when he'd just been volunteering for them he'd felt like what he was doing mattered. He'd been making a difference. And now, what, he was stocking shelves with weapons? How had he ended up here? He was grateful for the work but that didn't mean he didn't hate it. Maybe he should look into working or volunteering for the KSO, or for a pokemon centre or shelter? They always needed people to do the unglamorous stuff.

Taavi entered the restaurant and sat down more or less on auto pilot, focusing on the outside world again only when Swift hopped up into his lap and curled up for a doze; the Vulpix had had a good breakfast so he probably wasn't hungry again yet.

"Um. Seems nice in here?" Taavi offered to Sera a little uncertainly, uncertain not of what he was saying but because he was talking to somebody he still didn't know or actually like but was trying to be nice to because she'd been good to his friend. To cover his discomfort he picked up and menu and scanned through for some things Isaac might like so that he could suggest them to the Espeon; he was starting to feel like he really was paying, which was going to hurt but he couldn't exactly dodge it. Maybe he'd knock down the prices of the couple of sculptures he still had, he'd effectively be getting less than minimum wage for them if he did but right now he needed ever dollar and couldn't afford to worry about that.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once she and her pokemon were settled, Sera's left arm remained in her lap while her right hand moved forward to do everything else: She pulled a menu over and left it open on the table in front of her so she could look it over while Taavi did, and then it went to her pocket so she could pull out her phone and tap at it with her thumb. Her expression remained skeptical. "Maybe if they were just walking by and glanced at him, sure," she ceded with a shrug, "but he ran right into my leg because he was so focused on getting away, and he looked -- here." At the last word, the brunette succeeded in pulling up a picture of the emaciated Espeon curled up asleep on her floor, and she turned her phone for Taavi to see. "I took this picture the day I found him. Do people really ignore pokemon like this?" He really did seem to care for the lithe psychic-type, so Sera bet on the fact he'd care to know how he'd been - good or bad. She left his comment on the restaurant alone for the time being.  

[TawnyAngel]

Taavi leaned over to look at the picture and sucked in a sharp breath between his teeth when his eyes fell on it. He'd seen worse but not much, and not a pokemon he knew.

After a heavy paused Taavi managed to say; "Well... No. Not many." Alyssa must have been deliberately starving him, just barely keeping him alive. Did Abel know that? He hoped not but suspected he might.

Taavi swallowed and looked back at his menu, obvious deeply affected by the image of the emaciated psychic type. He didn't know what else to say to Sera now, it wasn't like they had anything to make smalltalk about. Maybe it would be better if he just didn't say anything.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera nodded as she withdrew her phone and put it away, a soft frown on her face. "I didn't think so," she said, then fell silent as he did. Well, this wasn't awkward at all, was it?

Thankfully the waiter came by at that moment with two glasses and a couple shallow, empty bowls, as well as a pitcher of water to fill them all with for both trainers and their pokemon. Since Taavi claimed he'd already eaten Sera ordered for herself and two pokemon; the waiter collected both menus and promised the food would be out shortly before he departed. He returned not a minute later with two baskets of fresh breadsticks which he promptly deposited on their table - came with the meal, he said - and then left once more.

Anya perked up and leaned closer to one of the baskets, bright blue eyes watching intently as Sera took one breadstick and offered it to the dark-type - she accepted it eagerly before curling up to enjoy it - and then took a second one. She succeeded in waking Isaac with just a bit of gentle nudging and offered him the breadstick with a soft "here"; the Espeon accepted it carefully before he slipped off onto the floor to curl up with Isabella. Once both eeveelutions had something to nibble on while they awaited their meal, the brunette took a breadstick for herself. Damn was this awkward as hell, though. "Do you always look like a kicked puppy?" She asked Taavi abruptly, eyebrows furrowed a bit.  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh Arceus this was awkward, and everything smelled so good. This morning's block of noodles felt like a very long time ago and just completely depressing compared to what everyone around them was eating.

When a waiter came over he had carefully rehearsed a line about how he'd eaten but his friend Isaac would have- But Sera went ahead and ordered for him and Taavi quickly put the menu down and gave the waiter an awkward smile. Taavi filled one of the glasses with water and sipped at it, trying not to think about his stomach or to worry about Alyssa or to think about how awful awful awful and awkward this situation was.

And then there were breadsticks.

Taavi spared them a glance but as he was supposed to have eaten already he didn't grab one right away, that was what somebody who was frickin starving would do.

And then Sera made it worse. Of course she did.

In the privacy of his head Taavi thought 'oh you know the look well? Kick a lot of puppies do you?' but the thought remained just that, he couldn't imagine what she'd say if he said that. Instead he shrugged, shook his head, glanced over at Sera and then down at the dozing Vulpix in his lap. "No, I don't." 'Why, are you always this much of a b***h?' He would love to be the sort of person who could say that. "You wouldn't be all smiles if you'd just seen a picture of one of your friends looking like that either." Surely she couldn't take issue with that comment? He hoped not.

Taavi took another sip of water to stop himself from fidgeting in his discomfort, Arceus he hoped this meal didn't take too long. Maybe he should have waited outside - he wouldn't have to be around Sera or smell all this amazing food - but he didn't want to go too far from Isaac; he didn't think Sera would run off with him but... Well it just wouldn't feel right to have found him and then just wandered off again.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera took a bite of her breadstick and frowned as she chewed it. "I guess that's fair," she ceded once she'd swallowed, but her frown deepened, "and no, I wouldn't - but I wouldn't be all mopey and depressed about it, either. I'd be ******** pissed. You can have some breadsticks if you want, I feel weird being the only one eating," she added as she leaned back against her seat and took another awkward bite of her breadstick. Awkward, awkward, awkward - this whole thing was awkward. She didn't really know what to say to this guy she didn't even like, but had to be civil to for Isaac's sake. What could she say? They didn't really have anything in common.

Except they did.

"He was stolen back in - uh - January or something, right? Around then?" The brunette asked suddenly, watching Taavi from across the table. "What happened? He doesn't really remember much."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, um, thanks." Taavi picked up a breadstick and started to nibble at it, it was a really nice breadstick. Ugh, he didn't know what to say in reply to her statement though and he didn't want to get into talking about her question but he guessed there wasn't a lot of choice.

"I was angry when he was taken, I'm just glad he's safe now and... and I wish he hadn't been though that, that's all," Taavi said eventually with a slight lift of his skinny shoulders. "And yeah, it was January." He fiddled with his breadstick, brows knit in a frown and lips pressed into an unhappy line. "My friend Abel was leaving a restaurant with Isaac and some guys jumped them, took off with Isaac. We put in a missing report at the pokemon centre, flyers, and Valour - um, he's a Braviary - flew sweeps of the city for weeks hoping to catch a glimpse of him somewhere but obviously he didn't and... yeah. It wasn't great. Abel's fine now though," sort of, better than he had been anyway, "other than worried sick about his friend of course. Heh." Taavi finally looked away from his breadstick to make eye contact with Sera again and risked a bit of a smile. "I can't wait for him to see Isaac; they've been friends literally since forever, since they were a couple of days old forever."

Despite all the crap, his fears about Alyssa, and his currently conflicting feelings on Sera this was- this was amazing; if he held onto that and thought about how happy Abel and Isaac would be to see one another again maybe he could make it through the rest of this meal with a bit less awkwardness. Hopefully.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Okay good, now he was eating something at least; the interaction grew slightly less awkward in Sera's eyes. Only slightly.

As Taavi spoke and explained the situation - which wasn't a whole lot more than what she'd heard from Isaac, at least the beginning part anyway - the brunette nibbled on her breadstick, a frown slowly overtaking her expression. She hadn't seen any fliers when she'd been out after finding him, but she hadn't thought to try and remember if she'd seen any before. Too late for that now, she supposed, and in the end it didn't really matter anyway. "That's good," she said at length, her gaze shifting to the Umbreon curled up beside her, "that's good. And it wasn't too long, either; that's good too." Less than six months, that was good - especially when they'd been together so long.

She shifted a bit uncomfortably and took another bite of her breadstick, her mind drifting back to the time when Anastasia was missing. This wasn't the first time Isaac's situation reminded her of that period, but nevertheless it still made her uncomfortable to think about. She could only imagine how Isaac's trainer felt - and she was sure she could imagine it pretty accurately.  

[TawnyAngel]

Not too long? It had been nearly six months!... But if he hadn't run into Sera it could have been a lot longer. "Um, yeah," Taavi said a little hesitantly, "it felt like forever but we're lucky really I guess. A lot of pokemon that get stolen never get home at all." He paused then partially to take another drink of his water in the hope that that he was just a bit dehydrated and it would make the headache go away, and partially to think of something else to say. "Um, so, where did you find him? And when? He looks a lot better now than in that picture." That must mean it had been a little while, a few weeks maybe judging by the improvement in his condition?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah," agreed Sera even more awkwardly. No longer wanting her breadstick, she set the half-eaten thing down on the plate in front of her and pulled her napkin into her lap to wipe her fingers off. Anya had been missing for about a year - less than six months wasn't bad at all, and the time frame she would've much preferred. Oh well, it wasn't like she could change that now, and she was glad to have the dark-type back at all. "Yeah that's true. Some do come back, just a lot longer than a few months later, though," she added, then left it at that.

"Oh, uh," she backtracked, her expression screwing up into a thoughtful frown as she tried to recall just what part of the city she'd found him in, "I was going through a shopping district when he ran into me - I think he ran from the residential district near there or something. A Houndoom was chasing him," she added, "and it was.. a few weeks ago for sure, I don't remember the exact day... Early April, I think," the brunette decided after a moment, then shrugged. "We didn't let him out of the apartment until just today, so he could focus on recovering, and just in case. I didn't think we'd actually run into anyone he knew when I brought him out today," Sera admitted, a hint of surprise in her voice. "I thought it'd be a few days before we found anyone he knew."  

[TawnyAngel]

...Hu, that was a little weird; he'd only really picked up on it just now when he saw her pull her hand down into her lap to wipe her fingers but had he ever seen her use the other hand? He didn't think so. Was something going on with that? Definitely not a question to ask. There was something weird about the way she talked about pokemon coming back too but again, he was not touching that one.

He finished off the breadstick but didn't reach for another one just yet, after all he'd had lunch! Ha.

"Only just today?" Taavi echoed with another hesitant smile. "Wow that is lucky." It was easier to say 'lucky' than 'blessed', people often gave you weird looks when you said blessed but he couldn't help but feel like some kind of divine intervention must have been involved for him to just happen to be on a street he didn't usually walk down at exactly the same time as Sera with Isaac, and to spot them, and for it to be the first day he'd been out too. Taavi took another breadstick and fiddled with it. "Um, so I know I already said this but thank you. You... you didn't have any trouble with the Houndoom I hope?" She would have mentioned it if she or any of her pokemon had been hurt before now right?

With everything she'd done for Isaac - looked after him, helped him look for a way home, by the sounds of it fought a Houndoom for him - he felt like he should make some kind of gesture but he couldn't exactly afford to buy her a gift or something. Maybe he could make her a little sculpture of one of her pokemon? He only had a couple of really small bits of wood left - if they were still at the bottom of his bag - so it'd be a real miniature but it would be something right? It was the thought that counted? Would Sera think that? He half worried she might turn her nose up at a silly thing like that but if she that was her problem right?

"Um." More breadstick fiddling. "I'd um... like to do something to say thank you, like, ah," just go for it, "maybe- would you like a little figurine of one of your pokemon." Taavi made a gesture about an inch tall and, though he could feel his cheeks heating with an embarrassed rush of blood as he pre-empted scornful rejection. "It's, ah, I carve a bit you see and it's something a bit different? So. Um. If you'd like that I'd be happy to do that for you. Er. Sorry. That came out a bit.... Yeah." The worst she could do was laugh at him and humiliate him in front of the whole restaurant. Oh Arceus.