[FIN] Time to Talk~

[TawnyAngel]

Asgard put in blandly, snaking his head down to look at Izaya. really I am, but you're getting severely annoying.> He couldn't claim to know everything about the situation but much as his trainer was an idiot he was on his side, not on this other Rocket's.

"That you are," Aulus cut in, though he did give the Lugia a nod of thanks for the support, "and your point is invalid Nakura, I knew they weren't what I thought they were by then. I took risks, I paid for it, but we succeed. I wasn't planning on lying to Faleen either, it's true so far as I see it.

"And don't even think about having Celty follow me," Aulus gestured at the Spiritomb, "we've got plenty of systems to detect hiding ghosts and I'm not going to tolerate being stalked, by you or by your pokemon. You've got no right Nakura, and if you try it on it won't go well for you."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Nakura visibly jumped at the sound of the telepathic voice in his head. It'd been a while since he'd heard such a thing, and never from anything other than a Jirachi. The difference in thought complexity and presence of mind was enough to give him pause. Not for long, though.

"Haven't you heard? That's my job; being annoying," he ventured to respond to Asgard, craning his head up even higher to view the Lugia from his seated position. "And looks can be deceiving. No offense," he said, borrowing the pokemon's words, "but you're not human and not even humans can hope to understand what makes them tick. Even knowing the limitations of me and my 'illusion-carrying pokemon', your trainer decided to try to blast us into oblivion with enough firepower to take out a whole squad of Rockets. Can you explain why he did that? Because while you may understand physical threats, perceived psychological threats are a whole other ballgame."

A pokemon wanted to argue? Normally Nakura would have found the challenge fun, but his patience was already riddled with holes. It seemed Aulus had had enough as well, because he was already closing himself off to any reasoning the grunt tried to use.

"You can't even say their name," he realized. "'Knew they weren't what you thought they were'? Aulus, this is pathetic!" He was getting desperate and it was audible. He tried to calm down. "You're going to pay twice over if you take those risks again. And you still haven't even given me your word."

Celty wilted when she gathered the gist of what was going on. She wanted to help, but was there really anything she could do? There was no reason to doubt what Aulus said was true, and she didn't want to cause trouble for either Rocket. Finally, Nakura stood up, his legs more steady since the attack.

"Aulus, next time it could be Hayes dying in your arms! And it'll be your fault, no one else's. Not Tethys', not mine - just you and your stubbornness and pride and fear. You want that?!" His voice cracked. "You really think that after almost losing him once, you could do it again - this time for real?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"What? It'll make you happier if I use their damn name? Fine; Galactics." It wasn't a word he liked, stupid as that was, but he wasn't so stupid and pathetic that he couldn't say it. He wasn't pathetic, he wasn't that much of a mess. He could handle himself no matter what Nakura said, and since when had he started rating the skinny freak's opinions? It was because it was a sore topic, that was all, he was going to worry about it when people mention it and-

"That is not going to happen," Aulus hissed, dropping down onto one knee to put his face on a level with Nakura's. "Whether I give you my word to see a shrink or whatever s**t or not that will never happen because whether you are prepared to accept it or not I am damn good at what I do, and I'm getting better every day. If there is anything, anything that is a threat to Elite Hayes I will eviscerate it. Personally."

Asgard glanced between the two humans, not really sure what his input at this point should be. All of this was... he wasn't used to seeing his human like this that was for sure. the Lugia said eventually, meaning the angry brunette not the calm blond but he suspected that wasn't what Aulus wanted to hear.  

[Kitomyx]

"Oh, yes. Like you totally decimated that illusion of him just now. Brilliant."

Grunt Nakura cast Asgard a dubious look as he walked over to Char to take his sushi from the Charizard. Powerful and intelligent though the Legendary clone may have been, it wouldn't change the fact that the man didn't trust pokemon.

"If you're so certain, then you won't mind promising me anyway," he told Aulus, opening his package of sushi.  

[TawnyAngel]

Straightening up again Aulus tried very hard to actually think rather than fantasizing about giving Nakura a smack for his smart comment. A nudge at his elbow drew his attention away from either however and he turned to see Phaethon, tense and alert with his ears pricked up and a look of concern in his deep blue eyes.

Reaching up to scratch the Rapidash behind the ears Aulus also reached a decision. "Fine, you have my word, on the condition that you don't stalk me or have any of your pokemon stalk me. Or ask anyone else to stalk me for that matter. Or mention this in public, or gossip about it. If you want to check that I've kept my word you can ask Elite Hayes." It couldn't hurt, right? Unless it was held against him... but equally not doing anything could be held against him, couldn't it? It was sensible to get your head untangled and.... s**t, he didn't know, but he couldn't shake the niggling feeling that Nakura was right.

Char handed over the sushi without complaint, but he did give Nakura a rather reproachful look.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Fine, I will. But it has to be within the next week before sign-ups for the mission are allowed," Nakura said, popping a piece of sashimi into his mouth. Seeming to remember something, he looked back at Char. "You want one?" he asked, holding out the box.

"Furthermore, you have to keep your mouth shut about what I said here." The grunt walked back over to Aulus when Char was done. The black-haired Rocket could hardly believe how he'd degraded himself with what may as well have been begging. Maybe he was the one losing his edge.

"Aila was good at what she did, too," he murmured when he was close enough for the red-eyed man to hear. "But nothing is for certain and anything can happen, so get off your high horse and forget the word 'never'." He selected a small roll of cucumber, avacado, and Eelektrik before attempting to stick it in the agent's mouth.  

[TawnyAngel]

Slightly placated - slightly - Char picked up a piece of fish delicately between his thumb and foreclaw, bowing his head in thanks as the human moved away to continue speaking to his master.

Aulus listened to Nakura in silence and had in fact been about to reply when he was assaulted by the fish-product. As he had almost been feeling sympathetic against for a moment rather than grabbing Nakura by the arm and throwing him over his shoulder he just grabbed him by the wrist and lent away from the offending item. "You are really weird," he scowled, "one moment you're being sincere, next you're trying to force feed me raw fish." Aulus guessed that he liked to keep people guessing or some s**t like that, as Nakura had said himself being annoying seemed to be about half of his day job.

"But fine, to both parts.... She was. I liked her." And it could happen to anyone, all too easily. Luckily Alex didn't often go out on raids, it wasn't his area, but with the prospect of advanced Galactic tech... he'd just have to be extra alert, that was all. They'd go, and they'd come home safe.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

The man pouted when his wrist was grabbed yet again. "I was under the impression that vegetarians didn't consider fish to be meat...or something to that effect." He inclined his head questioningly. "Is that untrue? Or maybe that was Catholics..."

When Aulus mentioned that he had liked Aila, Nakura's eyes narrowed. "Lots of people did," he answered, feeding himself the piece the agent had rejected before turning to head out the door. "Come on, Celty. We're done here."  

[TawnyAngel]

"You're thinking of pescatarians," Aulus replied, wondering what he should make of that narrowing of the eyes. Did Nakura not like the fact that he'd liked her? It didn't matter all that much he supposed, the encounter was over and that was what mattered but he wouldn't actually relax until the freaky little informant was gone.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Celty looked somewhat distressed and did her best to 'bow' or sort of nod in farewell to Aulus and his pokemon before pursuing her trainer.

"Then you'll have to sort all those out for me the next time we share a meal," the grunt said over his shoulder. "Explain to me why you're a vegetarian, what you have with Claire-san, and how you can stand having pokemon voices in your head that you can't block out. I still have so much to learn about you, agent...but thanks for today's talk. It was...informative."  

[TawnyAngel]

...Yeeeeah, he'd definitely been too open. Not a lot he could do now though. "Shove it up your arse Nakura," Aulus replied shortly.