>> Nostus Belongs to @forgottenjade over at: https://bsky.app/profile/softsheepewe.bsky.social

The house became considerably less peaceful after Nostus’s team moved in.

Saturn claimed a section of the living room. Jupiter spent most afternoons in the backyard. Mercury discovered the garden hose. Mars meditated beneath a tree. Venus somehow learned where every object in the kitchen belonged before Ravina did. Sol trained with Nostus early each morning.

And Cinder… Cinder inserted himself into everything.

He followed Jupiter. Challenged Mars to exercises he could not possibly complete. Sat near Sol whenever she trained. Climbed onto sleeping Saturn and once attempted to intimidate Mercury away from Ravina’s breakfast.

It did not work.

The resulting stare lasted almost thirty seconds and Ravina nearly choked laughing. At night, however, Cinder always returned to her room.

At first he slept at the foot of the bed. By the third night he slept against Ravina’s hip. By the fifth, he had somehow begun occupying her pillow.

“You have your own blanket.”

Cinder remained motionless.

“You are literally warm.”

No response.

“You don’t need mine.”

Cinder pulled more of the blanket beneath himself and Ravina stared at her bed companion.

“…Fine.” She sighed and dragged him against her bare chest, sharing a bed with a living hot water bottle had her wearing less each night, but the moment he felt her warmth, Cinder immediately settled.

“Thief.”

A contented chirp was her response as Ravina smiled into his fur. Routine had arrived almost without her noticing. Breakfast together. Training together. Afternoons with Nostus’s team. Dinner.

Then Cinder followed Ravina upstairs as naturally as though they had lived together for years. Eight days ago she hadn’t known him. Now the bedroom felt wrong when he wasn’t inside it.

 

Daphne also became part of the routine. At first she arrived with work, a folder Professor Elm had misplaced, a question about accreditation, a form requiring Nostus’s signature.

Then she stayed for coffee, a few days later she brought pastries, then no folders accompanied her visits.

Ravina noticed immediately as Daphne sat across from Nostus at the kitchen table while Ravina prepared Cinder’s breakfast.

“So.”

Daphne looked toward her. “So?”

Ravina glanced at the empty space beside her. “No catastrophic paperwork today?”

Daphne smiled. “No.”

“Laboratory emergency?”

“No.”

“Professor Elm lost anything?”

“Not that we’ve discovered.”

Ravina nodded thoughtfully. “So this is a social visit.”

Daphne paused as Nostus took a sip of coffee.

“Yes,” Daphne admitted.

Ravina smiled. “Nice.”

She returned to chopping Cinder’s food. As the conversation continued behind her:

“You raised a very observant daughter,” Daphne murmured.

Nostus replied quietly. “Unfortunately.”

Ravina’s ears twitched. “I heard that.”

Both women laughed.

Later that afternoon Ravina returned from the backyard and found them still talking. The work discussion had clearly ended hours ago. The folder Daphne had brought on her first visit remained closed and neither seemed bothered.

Ravina said nothing, but she started noticing other things. Daphne laughing easily around Nostus. Nostus actually putting her work aside when Daphne arrived. Coffee becoming dinner. Daphne growing comfortable enough to scratch Jupiter beneath the chin while discussing town gossip. Once, Ravina walked into the kitchen and found Daphne leaning against the counter beside Nostus, their shoulders touching.

Neither moved away and Ravina quietly backed out as Cinder looked up from her arms.

“Not our business.” Cinder tilted his head. “Yet.”

 

By the seventh morning, the final League notification arrived. Ravina’s Pokégear chimed over breakfast and she opened the message and stared.

Nostus looked up from her coffee. “Well?”

Ravina read it again.

JOHTO POKÉMON LEAGUE

TRAINER REGISTRATION APPROVED

Below it sat her new identification number, challenge eligibility, Pokémon partner registration.

Cinder — Cyndaquil — registered to Ravina Shales.

Ravina’s stomach fluttered. “It’s done.”

Nostus smiled. “Finally.”

“You’re the reason it took a week.”

“I’m the reason it was accepted correctly.”

Professor Elm, visiting to deliver the physical documents, looked offended. “My forms were nearly correct.”

Nostus stared so professor Elm reconsidered. “…Eventually.”

Daphne laughed as Ravina took the new Trainer Card. 

Her photograph looked terrible. “That’s awful.”

“It looks like you,” Nostus said.

“That’s worse.”

“It’s identification.”

“I look confused.”

“You were confused.”

Ravina turned it over. Her name. Registration. Partner. League Challenge status. Something that had seemed hypothetical only days ago now existed in plastic and ink.

Professor Elm set a small case on the table. “And these are yours now.”

Ravina looked over the box and opened it.

Poké Balls. Empty. Waiting for new partners. Ravina stared at them for a long while, Until now she had never carried capture equipment. Because until now she hadn’t needed it.

Elm sat across from her.

“You don’t need to catch every Pokémon you see.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“Good.”

Ravina looked at Cinder. “I think one is already enough work.”

Cinder looked offended and she laughed.

“But Oak asked you to observe Pokémon. Travelling with different species will teach you things a Pokédex scan won’t.”

Ravina nodded as she clipped the empty Ball case onto her belt, the weight felt strange and Cinder immediately sniffed it.

“No.”

He looked up. “Those are not toys.”

A chirp. “I mean it.”

Another. And Ravina narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been spending too much time with Saturn.” As if on cue, The Slaking snored from the adjoining room.

 

That evening, Ravina packed.

Food, Water, Spare clothing, First-aid supplies, Pokédex, Pokégear, Apricorn satchel, Poké Balls, Trainer documents, Cinder’s supplies. And far too many things Nostus insisted she might need.

“Mum.”

“You’ll thank me.”

“I have three different antiseptics.”

“Different uses.”

“I have two emergency blankets.”

“One for you.”

Ravina held up the second. “And?”

“Cinder.”

“He is a Fire-type.”

Nostus stared. “Emergency.” 

Ravina sighed and packed it, Outside, New Bark settled beneath the fading evening sun, tomorrow she would leave again. But this time she wouldn’t be delivering anything.

There was no Professor waiting at the end of the road. No simple errand.

Her goal was Violet City. Somewhere beyond Cherrygrove, past roads Ravina hadn’t walked yet, a Gym waited there.

So did Pokémon she had never seen, trainers she had never met, and probably trouble. Given recent evidence, definitely trouble.

Cinder jumped onto the bed and Ravina looked toward him. “You ready?”

He chirped and Ravina smiled. “Yeah.”

She sat beside him. “I think I am too.”

Cinder climbed into her lap and Ravina wrapped one arm around him and looked out the window toward the road west.

Tomorrow, Ravina Shales will leave New Bark Town as a registered Pokémon Trainer. 

Because she wanted to. And not for the first time since stepping off the train, Johto felt like it was waiting for her.