[FIN] Poffins and Possibilities

[BlackFireKitsune]

In the midst of packing for her departure back to Grande Ile, it struck Nicolette that she should probably see Luke once more before she did. She couldn't wait to see her family again, and tell them of the various Grande Insulaire she found while staying in Kodo, and they always seemed to like hearing about such things during their short phone conversations. The fact that she enjoyed Luke's company and thought so highly of him helped make the decision easier, as well - same for the questions and concerns she had about their recent excursion to rescue Ray and some pokemon that she didn't know who else to ask. Technically she could have asked a number of the others who went, but she preferred to ask Luke.

Thus, Luke would find a message sent to his pokegear one chilly morning:

I'm leaving for Grande Ile tomorrow, but I'd like to ask you some questions about the other week first. Would you like to come over my house later? I made poffins!  

[Suudonym]

Somewhere in the course of things, Luke had forgotten that Nicolette was only staying in Kodo until winter, and her message was somewhat jarring. He'd gotten used to her being around, always investing all of her effort and enthusiasm into learning new things. It was somewhat disappointing to think that she would return to Grande Ile, essentially putting the brakes on her pokemon training experience until who knew how long - not to mention the fact that a friend was suddenly disappearing. He put those feelings aside, however, for the sake of addressing her apparent concerns over the events that had transpired in the mountains, gave his positive reply, arranged a more concrete time for the requested visit, and punctually appeared at her doorstep with a knock to announce his arrival.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Luke wouldn't need to wait long before the door was suddenly pulled open, Nicolette standing in the doorframe with a lightly flushed face and not-quite-breathless but almost. "Luke! Hello," she greeted happily, raising a hand to tuck her hair back behind her ear from where it had fallen. Pascal peered up at the redhead from beside his trainer's foot, one paw on her leg while the other ensured a light pink poffin remained firmly attached to his face, crumbs lining his cheeks. "I was just doing some more packing while I waited. Please, come in," this said as the girl moved aside and opened the door further to allow him entry into the small house.

"Thank you for coming," she said once he had entered, and she closed the door behind him. "There are lots of poffins in the kitchen for any of your pokemon, if they want them, or for you too. Also cupcakes," she made sure to add. There were always cupcakes.  

[Suudonym]

"Thank you," he said with a nod, stepping into the room and lowering his gaze to Pascal with a nod in greeting. The mention of packing was mildly discomforting, but he chose not to bring it up for now. Instead he took her up on her offer, moving towards the kitchen to see the array of poffins she had produced. "You sure do like making these, don't you?" he observed with a slight laugh, picking up one of the small pastry breads and speaking quietly, "Do you want to try one? They're good." After a period of silence, a small yellow creature manifested at Luke's shoulder, cautiously taking the poffin that was raised to its tiny paws.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nicolette was briefly confused at who Luke was talking to when she didn't see anything there, and the sudden appearance of the little creature startled her a little before recognition passed over her features and replaced the surprise that was there. "Isn't that the pokemon from the caves?" That was right - Luke had borrowed a pokeball from Rosie with which to catch it. She had no idea that he'd kept the pokemon, though. Regardless, she offered it a warm, encouraging smile as she laced her fingers together in front of her. "They're fresh. I made them this morning," she said, if that would help the little pokemon at all. She had no idea if it would or not, but she felt much better at least trying.  

[Suudonym]

Said pokemon from the caves promptly disappeared again as it realized it had been spotted by someone else, though the poffin held in its grasp plainly betrayed its location. Luke frowned momentarily at the pokemon's skittishness before addressing Nicolette's question, "Yeah. I wasn't planning on keeping him longer than it took to get him healed, but it seems like he doesn't want to be released." Perhaps the idea of having a place to retreat to in times of danger was simply more appealing than the principle of not being tied down to any place.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Oh! I'm sorry," she immediately apologized as the creature disappeared, feeling wholly responsible for its obvious discomfort. "Please don't be afraid, it's alright."

Pascal shoved the remainder of his poffin into his mouth, seeming completely uninterested in both the pokemon and the conversation between the pair of humans. Instead, he hopped up onto a chair and from there onto the table to take another poffin for himself. Quiet shuffling and the soft sound of other pokemon moving about filtered out from the room beyond the kitchen, though the only other things visible were a few boxes pushed up against the walls; some had been labeled in French with a black marker.

"Well, at least he'll be safer with you," Nicolette hazarded uncertainly, looking from the floating poffin back to Luke. "How is he doing? He does," or did, judging from the short period of time that she saw him before he vanished, "look like he's better now." Or conscious, at least.  

[Suudonym]

The Mew remained unseen, refusing to show himself for the time being. "Sorry, don't take it personally," Luke explained. "He was always kind of people shy before, and I doubt the whole… recent experience helped much with that." Eventually, the poffin changed shape, a small, bite-sized piece suddenly missing, following shortly after by another. "He's okay. Still worn out I think, but okay." The emotional damage, however, would not be rectified as easily as the physical.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With a nod, the girl resigned herself to not taking it personally, as Luke had told her; it wasn't her fault that the poor thing had suffered so at the hands of those brutes. She could only hope its recovery was swift. "Poor thing," she lamented, though was distracted for a few moments as Angeline suddenly ran in and headbutted her leg, then looked up at her expectantly. It took but a second to guess what she wanted - and in all honesty, regardless of how the Eevee behaved, Nicolette would have made the exact same guess - and the young noble pulled a poffin from the table and bent down to give it to the normal-type. With a poffin acquired, the little pokemon made an indistinct noise before dashing out of the room once more.

Once she stood up again and the fluffy distraction had left, Nicolette frowned lightly in thought. "How often do things like that occur? Like what happened recently, I mean," she amended, not wanting to say much of it in detail for fear of causing the yellow legendary further discomfort.  

[Suudonym]

The poffin steadily disappeared until there was no longer any trace of the Mew's presence, leaving only pure faith that it still existed there. Luke watched the Eevee come and go - poffins were apparently quite the hit with Nicolette's team - before giving consideration to Nicolette's question, "It depends what you mean, exactly. This was the first time I'd ever heard of a group like that that wasn't Team Rocket. As far as I know, Rocket is responsible for almost all of the pokemon-related crime in the region."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Faith was something Nicolette had in abundance, so once the poffin disappeared, she had no doubt that the Mew remained, though she gestured to the poffins in a silent offer that it could take more if it so desired. That was what she'd made them all for, after all. "I still don't know that much about Team Rocket," the girl admitted, freely admitting her ignorance on the subject as she raised her hands to her cheeks briefly before folding them in front of her again. "I suppose - do crimes like that happen often? With such unpleasant people who mistreat pokemon."  

[Suudonym]

"More often than I'd like," Luke admitted reluctantly. "We started fighting Team Rocket in the first place because friends kept having their pokemon stolen. It's not an everyday occurrence, but it's still too common for comfort." A shrug. "Even once is too common for comfort, though."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The thought of any of her pokemon being taken from her was frightening, and she earnestly hoped that would never happen - not to her, not to Luke, nor Rosie, nor anyone else. "That's awful," she replied, saddened by the sole thought that such a terrible thing had occurred even once before. "I hope that never happens again." Though even she knew how naive that was, and that it only wouldn't happen again if Team Rocket ceased to exist. If they didn't exist, then no more pokemon would be stolen, or would suffer the same or similar fate to the ones they'd rescued. "I'm glad they're not in Grande Ile," she stated after a moment, as the thought occurred to her, "it would be terrible if they were." Though realistically speaking, the island nation had no trainers and thus no pokemon to steal, so the criminal organization had no reason to be there. Not that she thought of any of that, of course.  

[Suudonym]

"Knock on wood," he said, as though the words alone could de-jinx something that had been spoken. He shrugged faintly, shifting his weight to a side. "I worry about that sometimes - about Team Rocket finding their way to Grande Ile. My understanding is that they built their base here because there were no trainers to get in their way. Now there are trainers here and a daily ferry that would take them straight to the capital of a country with no trainers. I wonder what the port security is like…" Not knowing Team Rocket's exact goals made it difficult to predict if they would actually have any interest in the island nation or not, but he certainly hoped that they would overlook it one way or another.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Knowing that Luke also had the same concern only validated hers, and the possibility of such a mean group of criminals infiltrating her home only served to frighten her and make her anxious. "I hope that doesn't happen," she said with a quick shake of her head, as if that would dispel the bad feelings. "I sincerely hope it doesn't." She knew one thing for sure, though, and that was that this topic was scaring her, and she wanted to neither think of nor talk about it any longer.

Continuing on the topic of their homeland but seizing an opportunity to switch tracks, she said, "I've almost finished packing. Pascal's been helping me." Though, the Buneary's 'help' wasn't actually very helpful.