[FIN] A New Need to Vent

[Akira Midoriyama]

Ugh, the nerve of her! Akira couldn't even manage to go back to sleep once he made it back to the apartment. Happa had wanted to try to cheer his trainer up, but he was even less fond of the indoors than he was of the outdoors. The walk home hadn't done much good, so he gave up as his trainer offered to return him to his ball. From there, the brunet went inside and flopped on the couch, staring vacantly up at the ceiling.

Luckily, that night he didn't have to work the graveyard shift as was his usual routine. Unluckily, that just gave him more time to dwell on what had just happened, silently seething and boiling over as the events consumed his thoughts. He needed to talk to someone about it, he felt, or he would surely either implode or explode. Sera, Rosie, nor Luke seemed like likely candidates. He still hardly knew them; only that they had a mountain of their own issues to deal with. So there he was, draped oddly across the back of a couch arm when Nate got home from his jobs.

"Hi, honey," he said in a monotone fashion, raising a hand. "How was your day at work?"  

[Suudonym]

"Oh?" replied a voice from the door as it was pulled shut behind the entrant. "And here I thought you weren't a fan of pet names." Nate picked gloves from his hands and shed his jacket as he moved through the room, tossing the discarded outerwear through the door to his room. "It was ********' cold is what it was," he said, moving next towards the kitchenette. "I'm gonna mix up one o' these lil' packets of hot chocolate and I'm socially obligated to ask if you also want one." Assuming Akira wasn't on his way out the door for work, but he sure didn't look like it.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"I'm not when you use them on me," Akira clarified, "but I don't mind using them on you." He sat up and pulled up the blanket he'd grabbed from his own room at some point. "Thanks, but I had coffee earlier. And you're not socially obligated to do anything with me," he added. "Social obligations are for two-faced bastards and bitches who don't have the gall to be themselves." He drew his knees up to his chin and tugged the blanket about his shoulders. "On another note, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to suffer my presence tonight. Got an evening off."  

[Suudonym]

"Pff, double standards at their finest," he remarked, fishing around for a mug and running some water into it before shutting the whole ensemble in the microwave. He let out a low whistle in response to the heated comment, "Emphasis on 'suffer,' huh? What's got your panties in such a twist?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"I learn from the best," he replied indifferently, shifting around against the couch cushions to get comfortable. At his response, though, he stiffened. "A girl. And no, this time not Seraphine. She goes by 'Dove'," he muttered irritably. "If you want to lessen the suffering, you can go into your room, you know. Or I can go to mine. Either way. Just ask."  

[Suudonym]

"Oh-ho, Hawkgirl," he said, crossing his arms at his chest and leaning against the counter while the mug spun in the microwave. He couldn't imagine there could be but so many 'Doves' in Kodo. "Somehow I'm not surprised. Tell me your sad tale, comrade."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Heh, that your name for her?" Akira asked, sneering. "Hate to bore you like she did me, but the long and short of it is she woke me up this afternoon to call me to talk. Wanted advice on something stupid. So I met up with her in the cold and she brought me all the way out to this stupid greenhouse so we could talk. I think she just wanted to show off where she volunteered," he grumbled.

"So I gave her my advice. She wasn't happy with it. Accused me of accusing her and told me not to speak. Threatened to 'burn me down' with her fire pokemon if I did it again - still in someone else's greenhouse. So I left. All that time wasted for nothing. I couldn't even go back to sleep when I got back, she made me so mad."  

[Suudonym]

The microwave beeped, and Nate removed the mug, tearing open a packet of cocoa powder and pouring it in. "Yeaaahh can't say I'm surprised. She really does love shoving that 'volunteering' business down people's throats huh? Sounds to me like she lost our little bet, then. Not to beat the Rapidash's corpse into the ground but - not surprised." He extricated a spoon from the cabinet and stirred the chocolate flavoring into the boiled water.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Wait, what? What bet?" he asked, sitting up to peer over the back of the couch into the kitchenette. "You mean like telling everyone she does it? This is the first I've heard of it, actually," he admitted. "But I've been doing my best to avoid her since I first found out she came to this region, so maybe that's why. She and I have something of a history by no choice of mine. I thought moving to a different region would put some distance between us, but I guess fate hates me." He turned back around and lay back his head on the couch cushion. "She just won't leave me alone. I told her to quit harping on the past and even tried to start over with her, but she won't let go."  

[Suudonym]

He shook his head, tossing the used spoon into the sink. "She came by the bakery thinking she was going to buy some flour to bake bread in the ********' forest to suit her 'expensive tastes' then bitched me out because I eat the stale bread I take from the place instead of 'donating' it. When I called her a hypocrite she had no idea why and said that maybe a few weeks in the woods would 'shock it out of her.' I told her if she could seriously pull that off, I'd make her a sandwich." He raised his hands as though pushing something away. "Guess who ain't makin' her a sandwich, hint, me."

He raised the cup to his lips to test the temperature of the beverage. "Tell her off, man," he suggested with a half shrug. "Like 'yo, no offense, but don't ever talk to me again you massive stinking bitchwad.'" He assumed the address would be appropriate, given Akira's overall tone on the matter.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"What the hell...? Seriously?!" he asked, shaking his head. It sure sounded like her. "No offense, but I doubt you could make a sandwich to suit her taste anyway. Even if it had gold flecks in it."

Akira laughed aloud, unable to help himself. He knew he shouldn't have, but... "She'd probably sic one of her pokemon on me. Or all of them. Or just try to kill me herself," he concluded. His laughter ebbed, however, when he realized she did have some very real leverage on him.

Surely she wouldn't use it, though? Not even she could be that spiteful, right? "Think she would if she could?" he asked in a half-joking manner.  

[Suudonym]

"Have to raise the wheat by hand, process it into flour - quality stuff, mind you - and then go handpick and slaughter the Miltank for the meat and-- I mean damn, if I'm putting this much effort into a sandwich, I'm ********' eating the thing myself. She coulda come back sainted for all I care. s**t." It was sounding like that was a far cry from the truth of the matter, though, so that was pointless to consider anyway.

"What, kill you?" His hot chocolate satisfactorily assembled, he leaned against the counter once more to drink it, facing the couch and its occupant. "I ********' doubt it. From what I can tell, she's all over this goody-goody image of hers. Closest she'd get is threatening and then backing off because, you know, she's just so above that. Moral high ground or whatever."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"...You do?" the brunet asked, peeking back over the couch again. "But...you can't just get ingredients from the convenience store...?" It was times like these that he couldn't tell if Nate was joking or not. After all, such things weren't exactly an exaggeration for some people.

"Huh...yeah, I guess you're right," he murmured. Would exposing him really have been beneath her, though? If she thought she'd been wronged, what was to stop her from twisting the truth to make herself believe such an action would be justified?

Well, whatever. He wasn't going to worry about it. Even if she did threaten to do such a thing, he wouldn't have given in anyway. "She's just...something else," he grumbled. "You know what she asked me about? Says her parents arranged a marriage between her and this abusive guy she's been dating a while. Only she didn't tell anyone he was abusing her because she 'thought he would grow to love her eventually'."  

[Suudonym]

Nate opened his mouth to reply then reconsidered, frowning in baffled confusion. "No," he said carefully. "That's the super excessive and unrealistic way to do it. You know, for someone who even gold flecks aren't good enough for...?" Sometimes Akira just came out of nowhere with the weirdest questions.

He snorted at the explanation, speaking into his mug as he raised it. "Guessing she didn't stop to think about how stupidly arrogant that sounds, huh? Not to mention plain stupid."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Oh, right, of course," he answered, nodding. "Sorry, I misunderstood." Whoops.

"No, I guess not," Akira murmured, sinking back down into the couch once more. "Maybe I'm remembering her words wrong, though. She might've meant she thought that she would grow to love him or that they would grow to love each other. Do you want to come sit over here? It's hard having to keep craning my neck back there to face you."

"Anyway, that's not all. She said her parents gave her an alternative - either she marry this guy or her parents threatened to cut her off from all their money. And she's asking me for advice because she doesn't want to do one or the other and either way, who will support the people she's done so much to help? Then she goes on about comforting children as they cry themselves to sleep because their heroes have fallen to Team Rocket. I don't know."