Chapter 12: Kadelast Region: Chapter 11

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

"Spew Pa!"

"Thank you Spewpa." I grabbed the shirt from him and clipped it to the clothesline. It's been a calm couple of days with Ted occasionally visiting to see how Antony and I are doing. 

"Wurm~" I looked down to see Wurmple trying to lift a pair of pants from the basket of clothes. I crouched down and patted him on the head before grabbing the pants. 

"Don't push yourself Wurmple. Stick to the lighter clothes and leave the rest to me." I said with a smile. I gave a small laugh watching him struggle to lift another pair of pants despite what I said. However, my smile quickly turned into a frown as I swapped the pants with a pair of socks for him to hang up. Usually, Antony helps me with the laundry which includes hanging the clothes up to dry. But ever since the incident in the Monarch forest, he's been avoiding any Bug Pokemon he sees. With the only expectation being my little Wurmple and  Spewpa. And I'm pretty sure he's only fine with them because he grew up with both of them. 

"What are we going to do?" I wonder as I hung up a shirt. Antony's new fear of Bug Pokemon would have been a minor problem if we lived anywhere else besides Honeycup. Due to the town's proximity to the Monarch forest, people have learned to live in tandem with the Bug Pokemon that makes the forest their home. Heracross and Pinsirs help builders in their work, Shuckle and Combees are common in bakeries, while the occasional Leavanny can be seen helping the town's tailors. You'll have a difficult time finding a single family that doesn't have at least a pair of Bug Pokemon living with them. 

"Oh, hello Lena." Being brought out of my thoughts, I turned to find Ted still in his lab coat walking towards me.

"Hello to you too, Ted." I gave him a small smile. I looked down towards Wurmple and Spewpa who were working together to lift a large sweater. "Why don't both of you go inside and relax?"

"Wurmple!"

"Nonsense, both of you helped me plenty."

"Wurm?" I let out a small laugh.

" Yea I think I can handle the rest by myself."

"Pa!/Wurm!" Both of them yelled as they left the sweater and raced back inside. Picking up the discarded sweater, I turned to face Ted.

"How have the four of you been doing?" 

"Wurmple and Spewpa are a little sad that Antony is still skittish around them. As for Antony, he's been better since the incident but I fear he won't be back to his old energetic self for a while."

"How about you?" I let out a sigh.

"I've been thinking about moving."

"Really? I thought you love it here."

"I do, but I love my son more. And I think the stress of living in a town full of Bug Pokemon is getting to him. So I've been thinking about moving so he can better recover." 

"Do you have a place to live in mind?" I shook my head.

"No, but I'm sure I can find one."

"Hmm, have you thought about moving back to your parents?" Ted missed my frown when I heard his question. "I know you said you got into a fight with your parents but that was years ago."

"What we fought about isn't something any of us can easily forget about." I hung up another shirt. "And if I do return they would expect me to apologize and return to the family business. Which also means putting their expectations on Antony, and that would only worsen his recovery."

"Oh. I'm sorry." I shook my head.

"You didn't know, and it's not something I like to bring up." He stood there in silence as I continued hanging up the clothes.

"Why don't you four move in with me at Rockfall?" I paused and turned to look at him. Ted started to fidget under my confused gaze.

"Are you sure?" He nodded. "That's kind of you to offer, but I don't want to burden you with housing us." He rapidly shook his head.

"No no no, you're not burdening me. And come on Lena we've been f-friends for years. You helped me countless times over the years, now I can finally return the favour." I turned to face Ted and gave him a light bow,

"Thank you, Ted, I appreciate the help."

"N-no problem Lena, I'm happy to help." I went back to hanging the laundry. 

"I remember you telling me that your current project is almost done."

"Yea, I estimate it would take at most two more weeks to finish."

"I'll make sure to be done with all the packing by then so we could fly together."

"Wonderful! You can call me so I can help you pack."

"You don't have to do that Ted, you're already doing so much for us." We continued chatting for another couple of minutes, planning for the move. Once I finished hanging up all the clothes I grabbed the basket. "Do want to join me for a cup of coffee?"

"I would love to." After putting the basket away, I filled a kettle with water and place it on the stove. While Ted took a seat at the dining table.

"Did the Ranger catch the one responsible for the incident?" I asked while grabbing the coffee grounds.

"Sadly they haven't. My colleagues and I have been helping them when we can, but it's difficult to find them without a solid lead. We don't even have a possible motive for why they caused the incident in the first place. The only solid fact we do have is that they either can mimic sounds or have a Chatot." I frowned at the news while I look for the sugar cubes.

"Is there any risk of anything like the incident occurring again?"

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"I would like to say there isn't, but then I would be lying. However, the Region Rangers did decide to send more people to investigate and patrol the area. So hopefully they would be able to stop the culprit before they can cause another incident."

"Hmm, what about the League? Are they planning to do anything about this?"

"The League has informed the police to look for anyone who has one or more Chatots who were seen near the area. Sadly without any more concrete leads, that's all the help the League can provide. "

"Hopefully they would be able to catch the culprit soon." Ted nodded as I grabbed the kettle off the stove and started making the coffee. 

"Do Uhm, the Vespiquen still visit?" He asked after a moment of silence. 

"She does she even visited this morning. She gave me some honey after we watched Wurmple and Spewpa play with some of her Combees. And Before she left she asked me how Antony was doing."

"Is she still trying to apologize to him?" I nodded.

"I keep trying to tell her that he already forgave her, but she is still adamant about apologizing to him in person."

"That might be difficult after you move." I nodded once more as I placed a cup of coffee in front of him which he happily accepted. "Thanks." 

"You're welcome." I sat down in front of him. "Hopefully she would finally accept Antony's forgiveness once I tell her the news." We both sat in silence enjoying our drinks.

"Oh, I almost forgot." He grabbed a folded-up piece of paper from his lab coat and handed me it. 

"What's this?" I asked as I unfolded the paper.

"Antony's Affinity test results." Opening it up I frown when I saw the results.

"Remember that the test only gives a rough estimate. There are many factors in how well a person gets along with different Pokemon."

"I know that, I also know that the test is a good way to tell how careful someone has to be with certain types." He nodded.

"Yea, I burned myself once while trying to play with a Growlithe because I disregarded my low Fire Affinity. I can still work with Fire Pokemon, I just have to wear special clothing to make up for my low fire resistance."

"It's not the types he has low Affinity for I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is this." I placed the paper on the table and pointed to his Bug Affinity grade. "Are you sure that this grade is correct?"

"Sadly it is."

"S. The highest grade the test can assign to an Affinity."

"Correct." 

"-Sigh- I can only hope that this would help his recovery instead of hinder it." I eyed the other results. "Besides his Bug Affinity and his lower Fairy Affinity, Antony has the same Affinities as I did."

"Really?" I nodded.

"Yea I'm glad he didn't inherit anything from him."

"-Cough- Yea."

"Mom!" Screamed a voice before either of us can continue talking. Turning around I saw Antony running towards us. "Why didn't you call me?!"

"What do you mean sweet heart?"

"The laundry! We always do it together." I couldn't help but smile as he pouted.

"I'm sorry Antony but you looked so invested in what you were reading. I didn't want to interrupt you so I just had Wurmple and Spewpa help me instead." It didn't seem like he liked my answer as he kept pouting. "How about you help me next time."

"Fine, but you better call me next time!" 

"Haha ok, sweetheart." Smiling at my answer, his eyes grew large when I finally noticed Ted.

"Professor Sugar!" Ted started coughing as he was drinking coffee when Anthony shouted. 

"-Cough- Professor S is fine Antony." I giggled when I saw his face turning a bit red.

"Mr. Tru says we should call you Professor Sugar."

"Ignore what he said, he should know that Professor S is fine." 

"Ok Proffores S!"

"Why don't you grab your book so you can show us what you were reading." His eyes started to shine as he ran back to his room.

"-Sigh- I'm never going to be free from that name."

"Come on Ted, I think your name is very sweet." I laughed as he started to groan. 

We continued talking until Antony returned with his book with Wurmple and Spewpa close behind him. Afterwards, the five of us happily spend the rest of the afternoon in each other's company. Eventually, Antony fell asleep on the couch cuddling with the two bug Pokemon. After I returned Antony to his room, Ted and I spent another 2 hours talking before he had to go. Bidding him goodbye, I made a silent wish that the future can have many more days as peaceful as this one.