Indigo's face fell with disappointment. Was this what battles fell down to, all the time? Just type advantage? There had to have been some other component he was missing. Type could be an upper-hand but that wasn't all it boiled down to, was it? The thoughts circled around in his head a few times as when gently lifted Hawka from the ground. She let out a stifled grunt in an attempt to push down any indication she was in pain.
"You did good." Indigo fluffed her crest feathers. "Next time." The newly fledged Combusken disappeared in a flash of red Indy withdrew her.
Standing up, he walked over to Margo. "Good job. You got what you wanted."
Margo glared, scrunching up her freckled nose. "What I wanted? Ugh. You really don't get anything, Indigo Rose!"
Indy rolled his eyes. "What are you? My mom? Just call me Indy, sheesh."
"Fine then, Indy," she stretched out his name. "This battle wasn't about winning, you know. It was to prove a point. Your poor Burmy--"
Indy cringed, trying to speak. "Look, I know-"
"You abandoned him! Just because he was ugly! Don't you get that? And now that bratty kid has your Hero! How could you think ugly pokemon weren't valuable? Why--"
"If you'd just let me-"
"--And see how I beat you with Crowne?! DON'T YOU SEE MY POINT- You're not even saying anything!"
Indy exhaled. No, because you wouldn't freakin' let me. Margo, look, I get it. Believe me, no one gets it more than I do." He slunk to the ground, sitting cross-legged and feeling overwhelmed. "I regret what happened. Everyday. And I have to tell my pokemon we're gonna get Hero back." His voice was just on the cusp of cracking. "You don't think I know what I've done?" Letting out a ragged breath, he ran his fingers through his hair. "But I'm trying. I'm trying everyday. I have to apologize to Hero, at least. Whether he comes back or not... Whether my pokemon stick around, that's up to them."
Margo stared, quiet for a moment. Indy did truly look like he had learned his lesson.
"There's only so much yelling's gonna do." Indigo gave a wry, slight smile along with his eye roll.
"Well, that's fair... But I don't think you've completely learned your lesson. I guess you have improved with your Magnemite though."
"How would you know?" Indy asked incredulously. Not to mention he was irritated by how well Margo could read him. He did still think Magnemite was ugly, after all. And he couldn't help but wish Hawka hadn't evolved into something so different from her previous stage. True, he wasn't going to be abandoning them anytime soon, but he wasn't happy with the way his pokemon looked. It absolutely killed him that Margo could tell this, and that he hadn't been able to embrace his new ideal goals.
It was infuriating.
"I come from a family of breeders, of course I'm good at reading Pokemon and trainer bonds," Margo gave an eyeroll, as if this should be common knowledge at this point.
"Alright, so you know everything. Great. Cool. Are we done now?" Indy asked, exasperated.
"No, not yet. I want to know what's up with Dan," Margo said, changing the subject.
Indigo shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, he doesn't really open up and it's harder to talk to him now. He's been acting weird since Kanto."
"If ONLY you guys had called the police that day instead of fighting like morons," Margo snapped, still hurt by the events of Pewter.
Indigo had just about had it with her sarcasm. "Yeah, alright, sure call the police when they challenge you to a battle right there. You don't think that's what I wanted to do? You think I wanted to battle them? I just wanted to get out of there! The guy challenged me and I couldn't do anything! What if he had just used his Mr. Mime to like, kill all of us at once?" Indigo shuddered. "I didn't do it because I wanted to, Margo. I know your Pokemon got super hurt that day, and I should have apologized sooner, but I was just trying to protect all of us! Cripes, okay, give me some credit? I'm trying." The words came out in a burst of emotion that Indy had been otherwise keeping shut out. He had wanted to be calm during their conversation but Margo got under his skin.
She blinked quickly, surprised by Indy's sudden out burst. She was even more surprised by the tinge of guilt she felt for being so upset with the boys for not just calling the police--they were all kids and acted on impulse, the boys moreso than herself, but reckless kids nonetheless. Expression softening, Margo's eyes turned gentle. "Indy..." She sighed, looking up. "I'm sorry too." It was easy to be mad at Indigo Rose, wasn't it? She thought. It was easy to be mad at Indigo instead of herself and her own problems. Maybe she should take tonight as an opportunity to apologize to Dan as well for placing just as much blame on him as she had on Indigo for her pokemon getting hurt.
Indy blinked. "Um... alright. That's... fine." He hadn't expected an apology.
"But we need to figure out what's wrong with Dan," Margo pressed.
He nodded. "I just... I don't know how. I'm not, like, great at talking about... stuff. I dunno."
"Well, let's both try and connect with him tonight. We can have dinner together and just talk. There's a lot we need to talk about instead of just ignoring it, you know? And you may not be good at talking but I can keep a great conversation with anyone, so." Margo flipped her hair and put her hands on her hips in a power pose. While she might not have looked it, Margaret was feeling the tiniest bit of self-loathing prickling her skin. The idea of talking to the boys about the events at Pewter was making her realize that she may have overreacted about their role in harming her pokemon--after all, the thief had told her she could just let him be on his way. She had just as much opportunity to just call the cops instead of battling as any of them.
Indy snorted. "Bet. Alright, well after that I can challenge the gym leader. Or... The head coordinator lady or whatever."
Margo pumped her fist in the air, momentarily forgetting their emotional breakthrough. "Oooh, how exciting. I need to train too! Say, don't forget to text Dan. Let's meet at 5:30 ish at the center?"
Indigo nodded, sending the text to Dan and hoping for the best.
