Clive was surprised to hear the offer Yulia presented after returning from the car, where she had left her bags. "Oh, it was no problem," he said, somewhat abashed. He rubbed the back of his head with one hand and cleared his throat. "But since you're offering, why not?"
After Yulia had ordered the pizza, the pair of detectives had quickly dropped onto the couch in the same seats they had assigned themselves the night before and flicked the television on. The movement was natural, almost too natural, but the familiarity was comforting and neither one of them cared to question it. "We should... give Jean a visit soon," Clive said. He let out a small sigh after lifting his legs onto the coffee table. His ankle still hurt, if only a little. He pretended to have a sudden interest at his pair of black socks, observing his feet while tilting his head to the side. "He's strong, so he'll recover... But he's probably going to be in a lot of pain for a while."
The man sat silently for a long while, suddenly growing stoic. He watched Fritz curiously, his eyes almost transfixed as he continued to tilt his head to one side and the other as the cat Pokemon moved around. Yulia may have spoken, but Clive would not have heard it over another thought that crossed his mind. "I wonder if his Pokemon are still in the Pokemon Center," he suddenly said. "I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. They're probably worried, on top of dealing with their own injuries." He locked eyes with Yulia. "After we eat, we should try to see them." His feet quickly dropped to the floor, and Clive hardly noticed the shockwave in his ankle while he was preoccupied with typing a message in his phone. He was tense, focused, as if locating Jean's Pokemon had become a top priority. It was only after hitting send did he seem to snap out of it. "Oh, uh, I guess you have a long trip back. You might not want to stay even later if you don't want to."
While discussing, the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the pizza. A rather small and skinny boy stood at the door step, carefully balancing the food on one hand while holding the receipt with a pen and clipboard in the other. Clive took the food while Yulia signed the receipt, and the youngster hurried off. Clive vanished into the kitchen, reemerging with a couple of plates and paper towels for them both, which he made space for on the suddenly crowded coffee table. They chatted more as they ate, the conversation growing more casual as the time passed. "You know, I got a few letters today. Some people had dropped them off at the station, because of what I said the other day. They were... very positive, actually. Seems like for every fuckhead like Oliver Burnstine, Channel 9 news there's three or four journalists trying to spin the whole thing as a positive." He wiped his fingers with a napkin, then twisted the napkin up in his hands while he spoke. "I probably shouldn't have, but I read a few of the articles. Some of them brought up stuff about my dad, the kind of guy he was. I guess that was the kind of stupid thing that he would have done, so they're trying to draw some kind of parallels. Lazy writing, I guess."
Once they were done eating, Clive tossed the plates into the dishwasher before grabbing some of his things. "We better hurry if you still wanted to visit the Pokemon Center with me. We shouldn't stay too late."
Soon after arriving at the Pokemon Center, the nurse escorted them to where Jean's Pokemon had been resting. "There was another visitor earlier, his partner? She had long green hair, you just missed her. She will be back tomorrow to pick them up, as long as they're all healed up by then. Ah, here we are. Watch your step, it's a rather large room, but we wanted to make sure they could all stay together since they've been anxious about their trainer. We had to accommodate for the space requirements for such large Pokemon."
Clive glanced around the large room once he had stepped inside. It had felt like he stepped into a stadium. There was no ceiling, but there were plenty of places that were shaded by trees or manmade structures for the Pokemon inside. Clive counted each one of Jean's Pokemon as he spotted them, nursing their bandages or even training.
"Machamp! What did I say about putting weight on that arm?!" the nurse shouted. Machamp stopped his one-arm pushups, and rose to his feet.
"Ma," he snorted, before glancing over to Clive and Yulia. "Machamp?"
"Hey," Clive said with a quick nod. The nurse stepped away from them, opting to watch from a distance. "We wanted to see that you were all okay. Would you mind calling the others over?" Clive stepped back, avoiding Machamp's large arms that protruded from its back as the Pokemon turned and shouted to the other Pokemon. The earth rumbled beneath his feet as they slid, ran, marched, and burrowed over to them.
They talked with the Pokemon for a while, reassuring them that what they had done to protect others the day before was remarkable. After a while, each Pokemon wandered off and went back to their favored resting spots. Just when he was preparing to leave himself, Clive's eye caught Conkeldurr. The large Pokemon stood stoically, leaning heavily on the concrete pillars it always carried. Clive approached the lone Pokemon, placing a hand on its shoulder. "You did the right think, Conkeldurr," Clive said. "Jean is very proud of you. It must have been hard to follow his order and save those girls instead of your trainer, but that's exactly what he wanted. "
Conkeldurr looked back at Clive for a long while, before turning his head back forward and nodding in understanding. "Conk..."
Clive sighed. "Be seeing you." It was about time to go, and he accepted the nurse's offer to lead them back to the lobby of the Pokemon Center.
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