Dan took a deep breath, his chest feeling a singe of dull pain.
"Well. I guess I'll go from the easiest and go from there."
Dan looked at his own hands, he was shaking, not voluntarily, a side effect from the medicine.
"I guess I never told you why I came here. Not the real reason atleast." He said, looking back at his friends.
"I came to get away, from Mom." He sat in silence for just a moment before speaking again. "I've spent all my life taking care of her. Me and Dad. But since he wasn't here a lot, it was mainly me and because of that, I never really got to be a kid, even though I sure as hell act like one. I always had to be responsible and take care of most people I know. I came here because maybe..."
Silence.
"Maybe I can be a Kid again. A normal kid." He said, his voice shaking a little for a moment.
Indigo sighed sympathetically, nodding. He, Margo, and Dan all had their own fair share of problems. They were all running away from something. Was this common amongst trainers then? Despite the events that had happened, there was a tiny spark of hope ignited within himself.
"I've always loved Pokémon. Ever since I was small I used what little time I had free to study up on them, I've wanted to be a trainer for awhile. But, after being here awhile, I know I'm not that great of a trainer, not even a decent one. I'm mediocre at best, but something about Training and Battling gives me that spark. That energy."
Indigo nodded. He hadn't been the biggest fan of pokemon, and he wasn't sure if he still was. But the past two weeks had been decent at least, even if taking care of his pokemon had ended up being so much work. To see them so brilliant, vibrant, and healthy... It was funner than he had exected, that was for sure.
"But nothing, compares to the smile your Pokémon give you every time they see you. The love, the trust." Dan looked at his thumbs, yet again. "I just wish Twiggy trusted me. I wish he'd stop looking at me like I was a monster." He said, a tear rolling down his cheek. "I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt." He said loudly, more tears forming and sliding down his now rosy cheeks. "So why...." He said quietly "Why do they look at me like one. Why can't this all go away."
Indy opened his mouth, then closed it. He knew that feeling all too well. Poor Hero. Hero the Mothim that had deserved so much better.
"I'm sorry." Dan said, wiping his eyes. "I didn't mean to get worked up. It's just....." He stopped himself for a second, regaining his cool.
“Well, I get what you mean about feeling like a monster,” Indigo admitted after the silence.
“You do?”
“Yeah, duh.” Indy slumped further back into his chair, looking out the window of the room. “I mean… I abandoned my Burmy, remember?” It still stung so badly to admit it out loud, but with every acknowledgement came the power of owning up to his mistake—and choosing to conquer it. “I didn’t really think I was hurting Hero either. At least for me, I was more concerned about myself. I didn’t even think about it. But now Hero’s gone, and even worse, some brat’s got him.” Indigo paused. “Not that—I’m not trying to make this about me. What I’m trying to say is, I relate. Completely. And… I understand how difficult it can be.”
Margo had been silent most of the time, and she kept her thoughts mostly to herself. She was interested in what both Dan and Indigo had to say. Taking the time to observe, the only reactions she gave were nods and “hmms.”
“How do you deal with it? I just… I don’t know how.”
“For starters,” Indigo said gently, “you own up to your mistakes. Look, the truth is, no matter what our intentions were, good or bad, we both hurt our pokemon. It’s up to them to forgive us. But, I think, the more you own up to what you did, the more you apologize, the more you talk about it with your pokemon… The better it’ll be.” That sounded about right, he thought. “But you just have to apologize, let them feel what they want to feel, and just… Hope for the best.” There were no guarantees that Hero would forgive him, Indigo thought. No reassurance at all. And he would have to accept that. Both of them would have to move on from whatever had happened.
“What if they don’t… like me anymore? What if they never like me again?” Dan asked, voice wavering and chin quivering.
That was one of the harder answers, Indy thought glumly. “Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. You just have to accept that they might not like you. I think that’s just… Part of life. I mean, at school there’s people that don’t like you. Or, you know, in general there’s just people that won’t really forgive you.” He exhaled. “But that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. If you’ve made a mistake, you can keep working on yourself. And… If a person or pokemon or whatever doesn’t like you, even after the apologies or after you’ve changed, you just have to accept it. And, even if someone doesn’t forgive you, it doesn’t mean you’re a jerk.” Was he making sense at all, Indigo thought. The words were flowing, but was the meaning present too? He hoped so. “It just means… They don’t like you. And we’re always gonna find someone who doesn’t like us.”
“But Indy-! You’re saying Twiggy and I won’t be friends anymore?” Dan sat up, clutching his sheets with a horrified look on his face.
“That’s not what I’m saying!” Indigo snapped momentarily, forgetting himself. The subject of forgiveness was a touchy one, he knew it all too well. And his own issues were getting in the way of his communication. “I’m just saying… You have to accept what happens. That’s just life. And learn from your mistakes. That’s all you can do. But for the record, I don’t think Twiggy hates you. Give him some time to cool off, and keep showing him that you care. I think… I think he’ll be okay. But you have to actually communicate, Dan. Don’t just shut yourself up and mope. Keep talking to your pokemon.”
Dan settled back into the bed. “I just thought… I didn’t mean to hurt anyone… I get it but… It’s hard.”
“I saw this quote, and it was like, ‘Even the best intentions have consequences.’” Indigo replied, picking at the thread on the bedsheet. “It doesn’t matter about what you meant. You just have to own up to your mistakes.”
There was a long, quiet pause. Dan sniffled and wiped his tears away once more.
“I understand a little better now. Thanks.”
“You’ll be okay, kiddo,” Indy replied, a ghost of a smile on his face. In reality, it was not easy seeing such a pale, sickly boy fraught with worry in a hospital bed. But Indigo was trying his best to be normal.
“There’s some other stuff I need to tell you guys.” Dan clasped and unclasped his hands nervously. "I asked Dad about Uncle Richard. We talked for awhile, turns out he was in Team Rocket, same as Dad, but unlike Dad, he didn't settle down like Dad did once Team Rocket disbanded. Dad hasn't seen him since either, only had a note saying he 'Would be better than Team Rocket ever was!' That's all I was told, at least. Sorry I didn't tell you earlier. Not like it was anything bad."
“Not anything bad?” Indigo looked at Dan with an incredulous expression. “You’re kidding, right? Your uncle poisons us, nearly gets us killed, escapes from the police, he continues doing this Team Rocket stuff, and he left a note saying that he was going to be better than Team Rocket ever was? That is pretty bad, dude.”
“Well, I just,” Dan shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what to do.”
He still hadn’t told them about his father, Indigo thought. How could Dan trust his father? The man lied, cheated, and stole for a living! “I wouldn’t really trust anything your dad says,” Indigo couldn’t help it. “He’s kind of a piece of shit. So…”
“Indy!” Margo’s eyes burned into Indigo from across the room; he didn’t even have to look back to feel them. “There’s a better way to say what you just said.”
Indy looked into Dan’s eyes. “Sorry. I—I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“If I don’t forgive you, I guess you’ll just have to accept it,” Dan retorted back Indigo’s own advice with a sly grin.
Indy chuckled. “Bet.” It seemed that they had dropped Daniel’s family issues for now, and while there was much to be uncovered still, it seemed that Dan truly was in the dark about everything. His father was a different story, but Indy decided to drop the matter for the time being.
"So.... I guess its time to talk about why I'm in the hospital." He didn't want to tell them, but he had to. ”After what had happened in the center."
Indigo and Margo both nodded, leaning in.
"Remember in Pewter, after the Mister Mime hit me and Twiggy with that sonic burst? Well, I had felt like shit for a bit after that. My chest felt like someone had punched it thirty times over. I thought it was because of the force of the blast, but, when I told Mom, she told me to go get myself checked out. Just in case. Because she struggled with heart problems for awhile now."
Dan gripped his shirt.
"Maybe I should've listened to her." He said " Turns out that blast kicked off a condition that's been 'Unnoticed' according to doctors." Dan handed his friends papers listing the disease and other information. And a picture of his now scarred chest.
"Heart Arrhythmia, basically my heart doesn't beat right. It either goes to fast or too slow and can change to each extreme very easily. From stress, too much exercise. That sorta thing.” He pointed to the bottles on the side of his bed, a mix of 8 different pill bottles. "I have to take 8 pills every day, or have a higher risk of a heart attack." "As well as that, I got a pacemaker, to keep my heartbeat on track."
“Cripes,” Indy muttered under his breath, not knowing how to react or what to say. Margo walked up to the bedside and put a comforting hand on Indy’s shoulder, her eyes on Dan with a concerned gaze.
“That’s so awful,” she murmured. “I’m so so sorry.” What else could anyone possibly say?
Dan's frowned deeply "Even with all this stuff, they told me I probably won't live past thirty. I leave to get away from this sorta thing and it just follows me, just my luck." Dan smirked "Least I don't have to exercise any more." he said, trying to bring a little bit of light to the conversation.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, that’s why you’ve been avoiding us?” Margo asked.
"Yeah, that's why I've been avoiding you guys. I just didn’t know how to say it, I’ve been bogging everyone down so much and now this stuff happens… And I was just worried, you know, like, is this gonna change our journey? Or how we travel? I just… I should have told you guys.” Dan said. “I guess, in a weird way, when I ignored it… It was kind of like it wasn’t there, you know?”
“You’re still a moron for not telling us,” Indigo said bluntly, though he had a small smile on his face. “Dunno if I’ve forgiven you just yet. I guess for the time being, it’s okay.”
At this point, Margo stepped in, eyes alight. “But you actually do have to tell us this stuff and keep us updated. When you fell in the center, neither of us knew what you had. The nurses kept asking us, but we didn’t have any info on your condition. Something like this might happen again, Daniel. You have to let us know so we can take care of you if something happens. This is serious. You can’t just ignore it.”
Dan nodded.
“And I doubt it’s going to really change the way we travel, in fact,” Margo said, a grin spreading on her face. “I might have an idea…”
Indigo and Daniel exchanged confused glances before looking at Margo, who was now standing in front of the window, her arms spread out quite dramatically. Looking over her shoulder, there was a glint of mischeviousness in her eyes.
“We need to get flying pokemon!” She jumped ontop of a chair, her hands balled into energetic fists. “Oooooh—this what trainers do! Come together when the going’s are tough! We get going!”
Just like that, the severe atmosphere in the room was broken, and the teens were bubbling with laughter.
“Or maybe, at least pokemon we can kind of ride on, even if they’re not flying types,” Indigo added. “Rapidash would be so pretty and like, the fastest pokemon ever…”
“I just see myself on a big, cool Honchkrow!” Margo said, hugging herself.
“Riding on Twiggy would be like having an entire island to myself,” Dan grinned.
As the night went on, the kids enjoyed themselves by imaging their futures, bright and steady ahead of them. Laughter filled the rest of the night, and they were sure to get a refreshing, comfortable sleep. For the first time in a long time, they would sleep with no anxieties.
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