Searching Far and Wide - 74 (Patreon)

Cover Art: Amasw.

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Abra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Bulbasaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

Cerulean City XXXIV

Normally, a person wouldn’t be able to relax with the sound of many gyarados close by, between roars and displaced water, never mind the occasional move.

Pierce was not a normal person, however.

Thus, he found himself lying on top of a towel at the same secluded beach that he’d visited before with the recovering gyarados and the Sensational Sisters. At that very moment, he was just resting, with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed at his ankles. The shadow projected by Orion, who was curled beside him, made sure that he wouldn’t get sunburnt and he’d prepared plenty of cold drinks for himself and the Sisters.

All in all, the day was going great.

It was just a shame that Lily – his travel companion, that is – couldn’t join them, but alas… Things were already tense for everyone involved by just taking the gyarados outside to a non-contained area. They’d only been allowed to do that so long as they stuck to the same rules as last time. Only the Sisters and him and the gyarados would stay within a somewhat limited area.

Nobody was too worried after the success of the last visit though, but better to err on the side of caution.

“You look like you are on a vacation instead of working,” a voice said by his side, but he wasn’t surprised. He might have had his eyes closed, but he’d heard the steps on the sand long before they reached him, after all. “One wouldn’t guess you are babysitting traumatized gyarados of all things.”

“Any more unbelievable than me doing literally anything else?” Pierce asked, a smile on his face.

“I mean, it’d be more believable if you were running for the hills,” the woman answered with a giggle. Then he heard clothes rustled and, by the feel of it, she was setting her own towel by his side. When she spoke again, Pierce realized that she’d sat down there. “It is a rather peaceful day, isn’t it?”

“Mhm, rather nice,” he replied, his voice sounding sleepy, more out of how lazy he was feeling then and there than because of anything else. “It’s been a while since I’ve just… done something like this.”

“Pretty sure we did some basking yesterday,” Daisy commented humorously and his lips pulled into a smile as he opened his eyes and turned towards her. She looked positively gorgeous in her bikini. Anyone that said otherwise was a lying liar. “There’s the look I was hoping for. Quite rude of you to go away before I could show off.”

“If it helps, I’m very much regretting not looking at you like this before.” He didn’t even have to lie there. Daisy was a sight to behold, really. He was just…

“Hm, better,” Daisy hummed, but there was no hiding her amusement. “Your team is having a good time.”

“They should. Today is a day for them,” he replied with a hum.

He’d decided that, since the show was done already and he didn’t have to work on it anymore, it was as good a time as any to spoil his team a bit. They’d been more than patient with him and his – mostly self-imposed – responsibilities. Now, it was time to start properly doing his trainer duties again and take care of his team. Sure, none of them had raised a fuss about it, because they understood, but that didn’t make things any less important.

On the opposite side of Daisy, Andromeda shuffled so that she was pressed against the right side of his chest. Taking one of his hands from under his head, he placed it on top of the vaporeon’s head. If he focused, he could hear Narcissa buzzing around or Orion’s breathing. Sometimes, he thought he could have pinpointed Bellatrix in between the cacophony of sounds from the gyarados school. As for Cygnus, well, the abra was playing – ‘Sorry, “training”…’ – with sand some distance away, also in Orion’s shadow too.

Pierce had spent quite a bit pampering them before letting them do whatever. He’d used the wipes on Narcissa and Orion, he’d used the brush on Andromeda and Bellatrix and he’d also spent some time with Cygnus building sand castles. It’d all been quite fun, but they all wanted to do different things, himself included. Thus, he’d set them free so long as they didn’t do anything stupid and he’d join them after he was done being lazy for some extra time with them.

Much better than spending time just training in the Cerulean Gym with the gyarados or fighting in the battlegrounds. Hell, even the quality time they’d spent together at the Pokemon Center didn’t compare, since that was at the end of the day and everyone was more or less ready to just go to sleep. There, at the beach, it was almost like they were back on the roads, with nature everywhere and free to do whatever.

They didn’t do much more than what they normally did, but it was the principle of the matter. There were no limitations, as opposed to before. They could be lazy, or train, or battle, or just play around. There was nothing else to do… except for Pierce intervening whenever the gyarados got rowdy, but they were doing fairly well.

They’d been there for half a day and only had to get involved three times.

“You can’t wait to leave, can you?” Daisy asked and, while she managed a calm tone, there was a hint of sadness there, or maybe disappointment. The question gave him pause, but it wasn’t entirely surprising. She’d probably noticed long before then. She was just now mentioning that. “You are gonna leave as soon as you can, aren’t you?”

“I think so, yeah,” he answered honestly, even if he found himself disappointed too. Opening his eyes slowly, he let out a sigh. Daisy was great, truly, and her sisters weren’t far behind. Cerulean as a whole was an awesome place to spend time at. However… “I have a journey to get back to, or my team would kill me.”

“I somehow doubt that,” Daisy replied with a slight smile on her face.

“Maybe I’m exaggerating, but… I can’t do that to them,” he told her, taking a deep breath in. “They joined me so I could show them the world and make them strong. So… That’s what I’ll do.”

“I guess I can’t convince you to stay here then,” she commented, trying to make it sound like a joke. Pierce wasn’t too sure if she was genuinely alright with things or not, so he decided to err on the side of caution.

“I was that good, huh?”

Swiftly, he received a slap from both Daisy and Andromeda.

“Don’t go getting a big head now,” the woman told him, giggling. “It was nice having a friendly face around every day though, I’ll admit,” she commented, hugging her legs up to her chest as she gazed towards the waves. “Misty has been doing a lot better thanks to you too and… Yeah, I wouldn’t say no to some more dates. I didn’t have a terrible time.”

“Wow, don’t compliment me too much, woman,” he replied but there was no heat in his words. Besides, he found it more funny than insulting, which was the point. “You weren’t horrible either.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s not like I’ll disappear off to another world,” Pierce continued then, although there was no helping the stab of pain in his chest. ‘At least, I hope it doesn’t happen again…’ “So, we’ll see each other again. I’ll probably teleport here to visit and such every so often.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Daisy told him, smiling. “Good to see you aren’t crying and clinging to my leg. I thought that might happen.”

“Excuse me? You were the one that was all but asking me to stay.”

“I did nothing of the sort.”

“It was implied.”

“No, you are just an idiot,” she replied with a scoff. “But seriously… I wouldn’t say no to an actual relationship, just to let you know,” she told him, winking in his direction and a smile formed on his face, but it was a sad one. “Still the same answer, huh?” she asked when he grimaced.

“Sorry,” he said, and he meant it. During their date, he’d explained that he wasn’t really looking for a serious relationship at the moment. Surprisingly – at least for him – she’d been fine with that. Maybe she’d expected that, just as she’d expected him to say no to the date.

He was making great progress in just… feeling better and part of the world around him, but Pierce was far from being perfectly fine. Maybe he’d get there one day, but that day wasn’t quite there just yet. So… it didn’t feel right to agree to a relationship when his mind was such a mess. It wouldn’t be fair to either Daisy or himself, he felt.

He hadn’t quite explained it with all the facts, but he’d told the woman what he could.

She had been surprisingly understanding, which made it all even more of a shame.

“Don’t worry about it,” Daisy waved off calmly. “I’d hurry up if you want to have a chance with all this,” she added, gesturing towards herself. “Because I won’t be waiting forever, just to let you know.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind.”

“I was that good, huh?” she asked, throwing his words back at him and making him chuckle.

“Yeah, you were,” he answered, bluntly and completely honestly. He didn’t expect the slightly wide-eyed blushing face that earned him, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. “You look so adorable when you are blushing.”

“Shut up,” she grumbled, punching his arm lightly. Beside him, Andromeda made an amused sound. “I heard that,” Daisy added, pouting. “No wonder she joined you,” she added, glaring off at the waves but not moving from her spot next to him at all. If anything, she shuffled so she was sitting close enough that they’d be touching if either moved any more.

Neither said much else for a long moment though, simply enjoying the nice day and the peace at the coast.

“... So, I was thinking,” he started eventually, during a moment where even the gyarados seemed to calm down… Or maybe they just took their rowdy selves underwater. It could be either or, really.

“Sounds dangerous already,” Daisy commented jokingly and making him roll his eyes.

“You are an idiot,” he huffed with a smile on his face. “Say, do you want to go on another date?”

“Trying to get to the third one? Because it’s a little late for that,” Daisy replied, laughter in her voice.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t try for more, does it?” he followed along.

“I really was that good, wasn’t I?” she said, preening a little. “And I guess you really weren’t too terrible,” she continued, giving him a smile. Pierce was no Psychic but he did wonder if he was reading it right when he thought there was some relief and eagerness in her expression. Had she been looking forward to more dates?

She had said she wouldn’t mind being in an actual relationship but since he’d said no to that… He expected her to pull away after their one date. So, this response was quite surprising, to say the least. Still…

“Is that a yes?”

“I didn’t expect to be asked out by the guy that didn’t know what to do the day before yesterday and told me he still didn’t think he was ready for a relationship,” Daisy commented, peering at him curiously. “If this is you pitying me I swear to God-” she started then, narrowing her eyes, but he didn’t let her get very far.

“If you are fine with me being an idiot,” he interrupted with, calmly and softly. “Then I’d be even more of one not to want another date, regardless of everything else,” he finished and he wondered if the way her expression softened was good or bad.

“Hm, I don’t have plans other than the usual anyway, I guess,” she said, trying to play the disinterested card and failing. “What did you have in mind?” she asked then, throwing the coy act out the window.

Pierce couldn’t help the grin that formed on his face.

[}-o-{]

He caught the plastic hoop in his hand, giving it a twirl for effect that earned him a roll of Andromeda’s eyes. However, Pierce just grinned as he looked at his pokemon gathering around. It wasn’t often that they all did something together, after all. More often than not, they ended up divided in groups and when they did participate in something together, it was often just training or something like that.

So, having them just playing was a rare but very welcome sight.

His improvised idea had worked well.

“Don’t give me that, Andromeda,” he said, deciding to humor his vaporeon and call her by her full name. Following that, he continued the game by throwing the hoop at her. A second later, the vaporeon caught it with her crest, shaking her head so that she could twirl the hoop and throw it harder. Up in the air, Narcissa swooped in, catching the hoop in one of her stingers and then dropping it off over Bellatrix in the water by the beach they were standing on.

The game was simple but entertaining, if the fact that they’d been at it for quite a while was any indication.

They had to catch and pass the hoop around.

That was it.

Simple, but very interesting, especially since his pokemon were getting more and more creative with it. Narcissa had started off catching it in her mouth, like many of the others, but she’d moved on to using her arm-stingers and Pierce was half expecting her to go for her tail-stinger eventually. Cygnus, for his part, used both his hands and his feet for it. Furthermore, the Psychic type had also started using Teleport to practice maneuvering around.

How his pokemon had managed to turn a game into training was beyond him and it was slightly exasperating, he’d admit. Those were his pokemon though, and he supposed expecting them not to do that had been foolish. No matter what, if they could squeeze something to get stronger into anything they did, they sure would.

Didn’t mean Pierce didn’t roll his eyes when Cygnus had explained it to him.

Then there were those that were a little less lucky with their options. Orion, Bellatrix and Andromeda all used their crests on top of their heads and their mouths, but there was very little else they could do. The vaporeon had tried to use her paws, but had been met with less than ideal results. Orion, for his part, had managed one or two good catches with his tail and Bellatrix had, probably through a fluke, managed to catch the hoop once with one of her dorsal fins. Pierce was sure that had only happened because she overextended trying to catch it with her crest though.

All in all, everyone was having fun, even if some of them were trying to take the fun out of it.

“Oh, shut up,” Cygnus told him, and he could almost hear the eye-roll in his voice. “Training can be fun.”

‘There’s a thing called having fun for having fun’s sake,’ he replied with a smile, but let his abra be. He seemed to actually be having fun, after all. Pierce would just need to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t push himself too hard. Because no matter how much his pokemon reassured him, he’d always worry. Besides, it wasn’t like they had unbiased opinions.

He was sure they’d all run themselves ragged if he left them to their own devices.

Even the usually reasonable Cygnus and Andromeda.

Pierce pretended not to notice the abra’s mental eye-roll and caught the hoop when Orion passed it towards him. He did have to run and jump a bit, but that was fine. His pokemon didn’t have great control or aim when they weren’t using their preferred methods, like Cygnus with his hands or Bellatrix with her mouth.

Besides, he hadn’t been working out as much as usual, with how busy his days were, so some-

“Aha!” Cygnus exclaimed accusingly and Pierce grimaced.

It seemed he’d been caught doing the same thing he’d chided his Psychic type for. He’d… grudgingly admit that he was a hypocrite. In his defense though, he wasn’t pushing himself further to train. He was just seeing the benefits of things. It was totally different.

‘It is!’ he replied, glaring at Cygnus when he felt the doubt bleed through their link. ‘Stupid abra, aren’t you supposed to be smart?’ he grumbled, which only earned him amusement from his pokemon. He could at least pretend to be apologetic…

Cygnus was a little shit like that, he supposed.

Thus, Pierce threw the hoop extra hard towards him.

Not that the Psychic had much difficulty getting it, what with Teleport, but it was the principle of the matter.

“That looks fun,” a voice commented and he turned to see Daisy and her sisters approaching with the members of their teams that could be on land comfortably. “Can we join?” the blond Sister asked, giving him a beaming smile.

“You really did a number on her, didn’t you? She can’t stay aw-” Lily started, only to be interrupted by Daisy elbowing her side. “Hey! You know I’m not wrong.”

“Being jealous doesn’t suit you, Lily,” Pierce commented, resolutely ignoring the ensuing protests and continuing. “We’ve talked about this already, haven’t we?”

“I do think she’s considering it-”

“Violet!”

“But for now, we just thought we could spend some more time with you,” the blue-haired Sister continued undeterred. “We know you are going to leave soon, so… Gotta make the most of the remaining time, right? We’ll miss having you around.”

“Speak for yours-” Lily started, only to get elbowed again. “Would you stop with that?” she hissed before taking a deep breath in and sighing. “Anyway, yeah. I guess it’ll be sad not to have you around to make things easier and make Daisy be ni- Cut it out already!”

It seemed that even her Golduck had decided to join in on the elbowing fun.

[}-o-{]

“You are just a gift that keeps on giving, Martha, truly,” Pierce said, grinning widely and earning a giggle and a light tap from the woman.

“Oh, stop that,” the woman told him goodnaturedly. “It’s a pleasure to have you around. The least I can do is offer some snacks.”

“Some snacks, she says. Can you believe this woman?” he asked Andromeda, who for once made a show of agreeing with him.

Maybe she was a tsundere princess, but Martha was a sweetheart and she’d offered them all the hospitality they could wish for when they visited. Granted, he wasn’t just there to take advantage of the poor Clarks. While he was at it, he’d help them with their pokemon problem a bit.

Narcissa was loving giving the spearow flock the challenge they wanted in order to define a leader. Although, by the looks of things, the pokemon group was getting there. There were a few of the bird pokemon that were very clearly standing out from the crowd. One of them would take the spot of leader soon enough and that’d be that.

Pierce had a feeling that John might miss them now that they were on better terms.

He’d have to plant some seeds so that the flock and the Clarks could continue to spend time together. The old couple could definitely use some help keeping an eye on their lands. And the spearow were mean and all, sure, but they weren’t so bad once you got to know them. He was sure both would enjoy each other’s company.

“See, Andy agrees-” he started, getting a Water Gun to the face. “-with me,” he finished. His vaporeon would, one day, not react like that to the nickname he came up for her. Andromeda sounded great and all, but it was a bit of a mouthful. Then again… maybe her patience would win over his, who knew?

Stranger things had happened.

“Maybe you should listen to the lady’s preferences,” Martha advised, making him groan.

“Take it from someone who knows what he’s talking about, kid,” John told him, looking more than a little amused. “Never argue with a woman. They’ll win anyway and if you do, then you’ll lose extra hard.”

“Oh, is that so?” Martha asked, narrowing her eyes at her now nervous husband.

“I think we better not get involved in that,” Pierce said to Andromeda in a whisper, getting a nod from the vaporeon. So, from there, the two just watched as Martha started chewing out her husband. It was a very entertaining show, after all.

“That might be you one day, Helper-Voice,” Cygnus commented from where he sat off to the side while eating a berry. “We’ll watch too, I assure you, and we’ll also find it highly amusing.”

“And I’ll accept that… with payback and all,” he replied in his mind, smile still in place. Normally, he’d just answer in his head, but Andromeda and Orion were around, the latter curled behind where they were sitting, acting as a backrest for Pierce as he usually did. So, with them around and being able to hear Cygnus “talk”, he might as well speak his part out loud and not leave them out… Even if it probably made him look weird for other people. John and Martha were preoccupied anyway. “Because that might be you one day too, Cygnus.” His abra visibly shuddered at the idea. “Fear the future, child, because the past is already gone.”

“That’s… surprisingly deep,” Cygnus commented, slightly awed.

“You are very mean. Have I ever told you that?” Pierce replied flatly.

“Once or twice,” his pokemon answered casually. “I do try though.”

Andromeda snorted beside him and he could only roll his eyes. Why did he even bring these two with him on his journey? The least they could do was pretend to be nice like Orion and Bellatrix.

“What about Fighter-Challenger?” Cygnus asked innocently, referring to Narcissa.

“Narcissa isn’t mean to me,” he answered, getting stares from all three of his pokemon that were around. “Much,” he added reluctantly. He wasn’t even joking. The meanest thing Narcissa did to him was force him to exercise and that barely counted in his books. Certainly better than Cygnus and Andromeda all but bullying him.

Why did he get those two to join him?

Both of the troublesome pokemon rolled their eyes at him.

“Anyway, what’s this the nice girl said about you going on a date, dear?” Martha asked and Pierce felt a chill run down his spine. He didn’t need to ask who the “nice girl” was, because that had to have been Lily when they dropped by. He wasn’t sure when she’d managed to get the gossip to Martha, but it had to have been her.

“I just had dinner with a good friend, I’d barely count that as-”

“You have to tell me everything. Who did you go with? Did you have a good time?” Martha asked enthusiastically and Pierce put on a grimace of a smile.

“Did you have a good time?” John asked, waggling his eyebrows and earning himself a smack from his wife. “Oh, come on!”

“Ignore the old man,” Martha told him before proceeding to ignore John’s protests. “You will tell me everything,” she demanded, correcting her own previous statement.

Looking at the two, Pierce found it somewhat amusing and slightly… saddening that they reacted as they did. It reminded him about how his own family had reacted whenever he went on dates. ‘Life goes on, I guess,’ he thought, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath in.

Then he opened them.

“A gentleman never kisses and tells, John,” Pierce answered, sharing a grin with the old man and making Martha roll her eyes.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Welp, some nice time for the characters to chill after a job well done. We are quickly approaching the end and I find myself a little torn. On the one hand, this arc has gone on entirely too long. On the other, I’ve grown fond of Cerulean and its characters. I feel like I could write another hundred chapters here.

People might come to burn down my home though, so I guess we won’t have that…

Probably.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Anything you are looking forward to for future arcs? (Don’t remember if I’ve asked that already, so if I did, just deal with it, I guess.)

See you.