The blue sky smiled on blue-green grass as it was blown by the sea breeze. Buizel watched as a fluffy cloud drifted past, slowly floating towards its unknowable destination as he turned over his father’s reaction to Shaun in his mind.
“Well, I like to think that went over pretty well,” Shaun said, also lying in the grass.
“Ehhh?” Buizel rolled a paw back and forth. “He was a little… weird about you. Especially when you told him your name.”
“Do you think that was a mistake?” Shaun asked.
Something in his tone made Buizel glance at him. He was studying the sky with a slightly worried expression on his face. “I don’t know him well enough to know if that was a bad idea or not,” he continued.
“I don’t think it was,” Buizel said. “Just… having a name is a bit weird. Having a name really sets you apart from every other ‘mon, not always in the best ways.”
Shaun didn’t respond, opting to watch the clouds.
“So, you have no idea how you’re so…” Buizel gestured generally at Shaun with a paw. “Weird?”
“Nope!” responded Shaun cheerfully. “I suspect that this stuff only started happening when I got here.”
Buizel rolled back over to look at the bright sky. A single Wingull was circling high above, its cawing distantly reaching his ears. “That tracks.”
“Huh?” Shaun turned his head to look at him.
“Things were boring, but… peaceful, before you got here. And then things just started to get… strange.” Buizel rolled his head back and forth in the approximation of shaking his head. “I still don’t know what to think of you.”
“Really?”
The response was meant to be a light tease, but Buizel heard a slight tinge of sadness behind it. He sat up and looked at Shaun, who was sprawled on his back on the grass. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, mentally kicking himself.
“Eh, it’s fine.” Shaun waved him off. “You’ve all been awfully kind to me, more than I really deserve, and I’m thankful for that. It’s only fair that you’re wary of a complete stranger.”
There was a moment of silence as they both stewed in their own thoughts. After a while, Shaun spoke. “So I wanted to ask you something.”
“Sure,” Buizel replied, lying back down. “Go for it.”
Shaun opened his mouth, paused, and then seemingly pivoted questions. “Have you ever thought about leaving this island?”
Buizel took a moment to respond. “Yeah, all the time. I’m still too young to become an Explorer, though, so…” He flinched and sat up again as he realized what he said. “Oh, uh, forget that last part.”
Shaun looked at him curiously. “What, the part about being an ‘Explorer’?”
He nodded, embarrassed. He hadn’t meant to talk about that yet.
“What’s so bad about it?” Shaun asked. “I mean, exploring the world seems pretty cool.”
“Oh, Explorers do a lot more than just that.” Buizel’s mind turned to the exciting books about various famous Explorers and their exploits. “They do travel the world, yeah, but they also venture into mystery dungeons and save Pokemon that’ve been trapped in them.”
“That’s a lot more altruistic than I was expecting,” Shaun remarked. He was staring into the sky, watching the Wingull circle far above them. “That seems like a pretty noble profession, not sure why you’re…” He waved a paw in a circle motion. “Jittery about it.”
“Oh. Well…” Buizel shuffled in the grass. “Last time I told Pokemon about it, I was made fun of for it.”
Shaun was quiet for a moment. “Not cool.”
His tone had an edge to it that Buizel hadn’t been expecting. “Oh, it’s fine,” he assured him. “It wasn’t that bad.” His voice quavered a little with the last word.
Shaun glanced at him and then back up at the Wingull. “If you say so,” he said, a little disbelievingly. He rolled over and stretched before standing up. “Man, it’s kinda chilly out here.”
“Let’s go inside,” Buizel suggested, also standing up.
They meandered back into the lighthouse and Buizel nearly knocked over the stack of books sitting by the door. He stopped and considered them for a second before going over to the kitchen and poking his head in. “Hey dad, did you get the ink refilled?”
“Yup,” came Ampharos’ reply, “should be where it always is.”
“Where it always was” turned out to be a shelf on the wall underneath the stairs. Buizel collected a sheaf of paper along with the jar of ink and walked back to the stack of books.
“Ah, translation work,” remarked Shaun, who had sat down on the floor to watch Buizel. “Was wondering when you were going to remember that and put me to work again.”
Buizel rolled his eyes. “You’re just reading a book out loud.”
“Hey, man, that font is really hard to read!” came Shaun’s protest. “Give me an ounce of credit!”
He was smiling slightly as he put down his armload of writing materials onto the floor. “We should probably try and translate one to two a day. I said that we’d get them all translated within the next week, and I feel like we’re behind.”
“Ah, the humble deadline; putting stress on everyone since it was invented,” Shaun said dryly. Buizel could’ve sworn that he heard his dad snort in amusement from the kitchen.
They situated themselves in the living room couch, Shaun with the book propped open in his lap, and Buizel with sheafs of paper and the ink jar. Clearing his throat, he began to read.
“Lessons in normal type moves: tackle, scratch, growl…” he trailed off. “What on earth does any of this mean?”
“Oh, I think I’ve heard of these,” Buizel said, starting to write. “They were used in lieu of TMs before they were invented.”
Shaun looked at him blankly. “TMs?”
“Technical machines,” he clarified. “They teach you new moves somehow. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never used one.” He didn’t add that buying them was restricted to Explorers only.
“Ah.” Shaun was still clearly mystified, but he continued down the list of moves. Eventually, he reached the end of the Normal-type moves and started listing off Fire-type moves. “I think this is a table of contents,” he remarked. “There’s been no info about any of the things listed so far.”
This seemed to be the case, as the book proceeded to list off Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Fighting, Poison, Ground, Flying, Psychic, Bug, Ghost, and Dragon-type moves. It didn’t clarify any of the moves, just listed them off. The book ended after the last Dragon-type move.
Buizel looked at the translation he had written woefully. “This wasn’t an interesting book at all.”
“You can’t win ‘em all,” Ampharos replied as he walked into the room. “Sometimes the past was just as mundane as the present.” He went over to the bookshelf and pulled down something Buizel didn’t recognize, and sat in the unoccupied armchair to read it.
“I get the feeling that there were companion books with this,” Shaun speculated. “It would be really weird to write something like this and then not elaborate on… anything.”
“Not to mention it’s outdated,” Ampharos said from behind his book. “There were no Dark-type, Steel-type, or Fairy-type moves even mentioned in there.”
Shaun skimmed through the book to check. “Looks like, yeah. Were those types only recently discovered, or something?”
“Relatively,” Ampharos replied. “If you count 200 years ago as ‘recent’, I suppose.”
Buizel was slightly confused with how easily Shaun and Ampharos held conversation, but he held out his paws for the book. “Well, that’s one thing translated, at least.”
He hauled the book with the drying translation over by the door. Glancing at the book pile, he grimaced slightly. There were still 11 books to get through, and they had only gotten through two.
“Man,” Shaun groaned. “I don’t want to translate another book and I’m bored.”
“May I recommend the dojo?” Ampharos spoke up. “It’s a decent stress reliever and it’ll give you something to do.”
“We have one of those?” Buizel was cut off by Shaun asking, “Where is it?”
“One building left of the souvenir shop, has the fist symbol on the sign above the door,” Ampharos replied. “Matches are free on weekends.”
“Cool, thanks!” Shaun excitedly rushed out of the building, making Buizel almost forget to close the door behind himself as he tried to keep up with Shaun.
Shaun was laughing as he bounded down the hill. Buizel watched with a faint, sentimental smile on his face. He couldn’t remember the last time he had frolicked in the grass like that.
He started down the path after Shaun. “Hey, wait for me!”
Shaun fell back to Buizel’s side, grinning. “I feel amazing right now. The air is so fresh and clean here!”
“Really?” Buizel inhaled the barely salty air that was blowing in from the ocean. “It feels about the same to me.”
“I guess I’ve never experienced it before.” Shaun suddenly grew introspective. “I don’t think I did, even before coming here.”
There was silence as they walked along the path down to the village. The mid-afternoon sun shone down onto the green grass, bringing out the latent vibrancy in it.
Buizel blinked in sudden realization. “Hey, what time do you think it was when we headed back inside?”
Shaun glanced up at Buizel. “Huh?”
“Look.” Buizel pointed to the sun. “It wasn’t that far over twenty minutes ago.”
Shaun looked in the general direction of the sun. “Now that you mention it, yeah, the sun looks a lot further over than it should be.”
“Last I remember, it was about eleven o’clock,” Buizel continued. “Now it looks closer to two.”
It was an odd feeling. The sky looked normal, but something was off about it anyway. It was like putting something down and then finding it later in a place you don’t remember. His internal clock was screaming at him that it was only about 11:30, but the sky very visibly proved otherwise. It was ever so slightly unnerving.
His thoughts were interrupted as they came to the town plaza. It was bustling with Pokemon, no more chaotic than usual. He wondered if anyone had noticed.
“Alright, one building over from the souvenir shop…” Shaun was muttering as they crossed the plaza. He stopped suddenly in front of a building, Buizel nearly tripping over him in the process. “I think this is it.”
It was a wooden building in-between the two colorful stucco buildings. The sign outside did, in fact, have a fist emblem on it. It was scratched into the wood, along with sharp lines around it, imitating an impact.
Shaun pushed his way inside eagerly, with Buizel lingering outside the door for a moment. He looked around the town plaza, which seemed normal, but something felt off. He peered around, trying to figure out what it was.
Footprint writing drawn out of silhouettes jumped at Buizel, making him gasp a little in surprise. Various rooftop decorations and corners of buildings all formed a message that he could read.
PAY ATTENTION
Buizel blinked and the message was gone, the light changing far too quickly. He shuddered a little with foreboding and followed Shaun into the building.
Shaun stepped into the wooden building. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the sudden dimness of the room as he looked around with anticipation.
It was a very long building, with what he presumed was an arena of some sort at the back. Glancing around, he saw various training weights hung on racks and neatly stacked against the walls. There was a small gaggle of training dummies in one corner, like a small gathering of flour sacks.
Buizel pushed his way in against the swinging wooden door, casting a beam of light on the floor before the door creaked shut behind him. “Wow, kinda dark in here, huh?” Shaun quipped.
“Ah, visitors.” A voice from the darkness made the both of them jump. A tall, blue, dog-like humanoid with dreadlocks stood up from where it had been silently polishing weights to bow. “Welcome to the Island Village Dojo.”
“Thanks!” Shaun replied cheerfully. He looked around, expecting something else to happen, but he was disappointed. “How does this place work?”
“Usually, you pay a small fee to spar in the arena,” the dog-thing said. “But on weekends there’s less demand, so it’s free today and tomorrow.”
“Oh, neat.” Shaun was a fan of free things. “So I assume you just walk back there and start fighting?”
The dog-thing nodded in affirmation.
Buizel was already standing in the arena. “Come on, what’re you waiting for?” He beckoned Shaun over.
It was at this point that Shaun realized with horror that he was going to fight Buizel. He hesitantly stepped onto the raised wooden platform and nervously faced Buizel, who was already in a combat stance. “Your move,” Buizel said.
Shaun desperately tried looking for a way out of the battle, but the blue dog-thing had taken up position at the edge of the middle of the arena. Resignedly, he inhaled and thought about what to do. Do I just charge him? Or would that be too predictable? How do you even fight?
The dog-thing raised an arm and pointed it towards Buizel’s side of the arena. Shaun noticed this and opened his mouth to say something, but Buizel rushed at him with intense speed.
Shaun just barely noticed in time to dodge, but Buizel still clipped him in the side. Buizel stalled out, obviously not expecting to have missed. Shaun took advantage of the opportunity and Tackled Buizel.
Buizel was turning to face Shaun again when he was knocked over. His body hit the wooden surface with a loud impact. Shaun winced. Ow.
Buizel rolled away from Shaun and stood, presumably to rush at him again. Shaun prepared to dodge again, body tensing.
Instead, Buizel waved a paw in the air, creating a ball of water from seemingly nothing before pointing it at Shaun. Shaun blinked at him before seeing a pulsing blast of water rush at him.
Instinctively, he tried to dodge, but to his astonishment, the water curved and slammed into him.
It hurt a lot less than he had expected, causing a large splash where it impacted him and the floor. He realized he was knocked over after a disorienting second and unsteadily rose to his feet to see Buizel grinning at him. “Water Pulse doesn’t miss, dummy!” he quipped.
Something inside of Shaun flared to life at this. He glared at Buizel before running at him.
Shaun didn’t have a plan, not exactly. But as he ran, he felt something building up around him. Buizel’s eyes widened a moment before impact-
WHAM. Shaun hit Buizel at top speed. As he made contact with him, he felt all the energy that had built up leave his body and travel into Buizel in the form of… electricity?
Buizel went flying across the arena and slid on the wooden floor for a foot or so before coming to a stop. After a worrying couple of seconds, he slowly rose to his feet again, shaking out one of his arms. Looking at Shaun, he put on a determined grin. “I knew I was at a disadvantage, but wow.” He stood there and closed his eyes, like he was tired.
Shaun half hoped that he would call off the fight, but those hopes flagged as he saw a star pop into existence and orbit around Buizel. Another 6 stars joined it in quick succession. Buizel then opened his eyes and flicked his head at Shaun.
The stars flew at him. He tried to dodge, but no matter which direction he tried to feint, the stars seemed to anticipate it and hit him anyway. These hurt a lot more than the water from earlier had. A tiny part of Shaun’s mind, the most rational part, was screaming that none of this should be possible, but the rest of his brain was in fight or flight mode.
Panting, he turned to see Buizel rushing at him at high speeds again. This time, Shaun was too winded to dodge properly, so Buizel slammed into him and backflipped off of him to get distance. Even though it had hurt, Shaun grinned at the audacity. “Showoff!” he called.
Buizel was grinning too. “Bet you can’t do better than that!” he taunted.
The spirit of competition was getting to Shaun. He glanced around the room before immediately coming up with his next move. He abruptly turned away from Buizel and started dashing at the wall. When he was about 3 feet from ramming into it, he leapt at an angle.
Mercifully, his claws helped with keeping him stuck to the wall. He smiled in satisfaction as he felt himself running on the wall, claws digging into the wood to keep him from immediately falling back down.
He continued running along the wall, even as his momentum flagged and threatened to drop him. He just had to get close enough to Buizel.
Just when he thought he was about to fall off, he pushed away from the wall and righted himself in midair.
To his utter dismay, 7 stars were advancing to meet him. Shaun gritted his teeth as he uncontrollably flew towards them. He’d just have to take the hit-
Something inside him clicked.
The stars vanished. Surprised, he looked around wildly before crashing into Buizel.
They tumbled on the ground in a flailing ball for a moment before coming to a stop. Shaun and Buizel were both gasping for air as they lay on top of each other.
“I think I’m about ready to call a draw,” Shaun panted.
“Me too,” Buizel said between breaths.
“Yaaaay! Yaaaaaaaay!”
The sound of a child’s cheering made Shaun perk up. Wriggling his way out from underneath Buizel, he looked around for the source.
It took him a second to notice the small brown frog thing jumping up and down at the edge of the arena. It looked friendly enough, save for the purple spines jutting out of the side of its head. “You’re so cool!” It told him, continuing to jump up and down with excitement. “The way the electricity went ZAP! And then you ran on the walls! You’re so cool!”
Praise of similar caliber continued pouring from the frog-thing as Buizel stood up and wandered over to where Shaun was standing by the edge. “Oh, hey Wooper!” he said with surprise. “How’d you get in here?”
“Hi Buizel!” The thing Buizel had called Wooper chirped. “You did pretty great too! Though you shouldn’a used Water Pulse because he’s an Electric-type,” he chided. “And you didn’t use a fourth move. Weren’t you paying attention to Mr. Breloom?”
Buizel’s face, to Shaun’s amusement, turned a faint red. He turned to the dog-thing and asked, “Uh, how long has he been here?”
“Since you started the battle,” came the reply. “I must admit, though it was short, it was certainly an interesting one.”
“Yeah,” Wooper chimed in, “like how you ran on the walls! Or dodged that Swift! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anymon do that before!”
“That’s because it’s almost impossible,” replied a third voice. Shaun looked up to see a humanoid figure walking towards them, carrying what looked like an envelope. It had markings that Shaun first thought to be some kind of pink waistcoat, and floppy ears with long feelers curling away from the base of them. “Hello, Lucario. Message from the Gardener.”
The dog-thing, which Shaun assumed was Lucario, opened the paper and read the contents before looking back up at her. “Dire tidings indeed, Audino.”
Wooper frisked over to Lucario’s side. It made a comical sight, with the tiny Pokemon only reaching up to his knee. “What does it say? Is it for me?”
“It’s not for you,” replied Lucario gently and with a smile. He folded the paper back up and held it out to Audino. “I don’t think this warrants another meeting- at least, not yet- but tell them that I’ve been notified and am aware of the situation.”
Audino took the paper back, but lingered, looking at Shaun. “I see you have our friend, the impossible Shinx,” she told Lucario.
“Pardon?” Shaun was slightly taken aback by this.
“Tell me- did you really dodge a Swift?” Audino asked in a faintly disbelieving tone.
“He did,” Lucario, Wooper, and Buizel chorused. “Wouldn’t have believed it myself, but I saw it happen with my own two eyes,” Lucario added. “He phased out of existence for a moment, causing the move to miss.”
Audino had a skeptical look on her face as she looked around at the four other Pokemon. “Really, now.” The tone sounded even more skeptical, somehow.
“Which attack was Swift?” Shaun whispered to Buizel.
He blinked before replying in a low mutter, “The one with the stars?”
“Swift is a move that manifests as seven stars before homing in on the target and dealing damage,” Audino clarified. “It doesn’t just ‘miss’.”
Shaun stared at her in blank amazement as he processed what just happened. “You heard that?”
“She has very good hearing,” Lucario said with a faint smile. “I wouldn’t advise whispering around her as she’ll hear every word.”
“Yet another reason I wish I got the library,” she muttered under her breath. Louder, she said, “Well, I’d better get going. Other memos to deliver and whatnot.”
The other mons bade her a polite farewell and watched as she left the building. “I wonder why she was so mean,” Wooper thought aloud. “She’s usually a lot nicer than that.”
“She’s had a lot on her mind recently,” Lucario said, with a faintly worried expression. He turned back to Shaun and Buizel. “Would you two like to have another match?”
Shaun shook his head rapidly. “No, thanks. That was exhausting.”
Buizel smiled at this. “Aw, come on, that was barely a battle.”
“Nope!” Shaun refused to fight Buizel again, but he couldn’t put into words why. Instead, he said, “You nearly kicked my butt.”
“Really?” Buizel looked faintly shocked. “If you can dodge a Swift, you could’ve probably beat me really easily.”
Shaun shuffled uncomfortably as he glanced at the other two Pokemon in the room who were listening to this exchange. “That was a fluke.”
Buizel shrugged. “If you say so.” He turned and bowed to Lucario. “Thanks for having us.”
“You are welcome,” it said, bowing in response. “We hope to see you again soon.”
“We do!” chirped Wooper, causing Shaun to smile faintly.
They left the building in high spirits. Buizel chatted conversationally the entire way home, with Shaun providing a running commentary on whatever topic Buizel brought up, making him laugh. Shaun had come to the conclusion that Buizel didn’t laugh nearly enough, and he was trying to change that. Something about this struck Shaun as sad, though, and he didn’t know what it was.
After a few minutes of walking, Buizel veered away from the path they had taken to the lighthouse the last time. “Where are you going?” Shaun asked, surprised.
“Shortcut,” Buizel replied. “I go through here to get home faster.”
Shaun felt a little foreboding travel down his spine, but he couldn’t place why. He tried to shrug it off and followed Buizel into the alleyway.
It was a darker space in-between two other buildings with an exit at the other end letting afternoon light filter into it. There was an unmarked crate pushed to one side, and a rain barrel that looked like it hadn’t been emptied in several years. It smelled of damp and other things Shaun preferred not to think about.
The Pokemon that Shaun vaguely remembered Buizel calling “Grovyle” was leaning against a wall with its eyes closed. Shaun slowed down his approach as he saw this, coming to a stop next to Buizel, who was watching it warily. It was clear that he was extremely uncomfortable being in a dark alleyway with a stranger. Suddenly, Shaun realized that they had walked into a complete question mark in an alleyway with no backup plan.
The Grovyle opened its eyes and looked at them for a second without processing what it was seeing. Then it groaned. “Not more children.”
“I take offense to that,” Shaun replied, feeling slightly miffed. “I’m not that young.”
“Are you from the Expedition Society?” Buizel cut in, curious. “You have a very similar bag.”
Grovyle’s claws automatically went to the bag, but it checked itself. “…No, I’m not from any Expedition Society that you’ve heard of.”
“Really?” Buizel was puzzled. “But there’s only one in the world.”
The Grovyle smiled faintly at this, but didn’t remark on it. Instead, it returned its gaze to Shaun. “Do I know you? You seem familiar.”
Shaun shook his head, making direct eye contact. “No, I don’t think we’ve ever met.”
The Grovyle’s eyes narrowed for a second in thought before widening in some sort of terror. Something was in those eyes- something desperate and cunning.
Shaun blinked.
This seemed to break the apparent spell that he had over the lizard. It shot down the alley with violent alacrity, nearly knocking over Buizel. “Hey!”
He turned and watched as it darted between Pokemon with practiced ease before disappearing into the woods. “What in the world did you do?”
“I- I don’t know!” Shaun was slightly shaken by how violent the Grovyle’s reaction had been. “I just made eye contact and he just… freaked out.”
Buizel stared after the Grovyle for a moment before staring hard into Shaun’s eyes. “Well, your eyes are kinda light blue,” he diagnosed, “but I don’t see how that would make a ’mon freak out so badly.”
“Maybe I reminded him of someone?” Shaun suggested.
They stood there in silence for a while before Buizel shivered. “I feel like standing around in an alleyway is a bad idea,” he pragmatically observed.
“No kidding,” Shaun replied, unnerved. “We should get going.”
They continued through the alleyway in silence, ending up on the other side. A much less worn path joined up with the path to the lighthouse, cutting down on travel time. They were about halfway up the path before Shaun suddenly stopped and coughed.
It was unexpected, making Buizel jump and look at Shaun. Shaun, surprised, kept coughing. And coughing. Each cough brought with it a little more itch behind his eyes, a little more brain fog, a little more sickness. He knelt to the ground as he continued to cough, each one getting slightly weaker than the last.
“Are you okay?” Buizel asked, extremely concerned.
“I- I don’t know,” Shaun replied hoarsely. He felt like he wanted to lay down and die. “I think I’m sick again,” he said unnecessarily as he coughed again.
Buizel was pale. “We’re almost home. Do you think you can make it that far?”
Shaun looked up at the lighthouse, which seemed to have moved halfway across the world from where he was standing. “…No,” he said honestly. “I think I’d die. Painfully.”
Buizel knelt down to give Shaun a piggyback ride, which Shaun accepted gratefully. Buizel practically ran the rest of the distance to the lighthouse, jostling Shaun until it felt like his brain belonged in one of those smoothie glasses from a few hours ago. Buizel didn’t quite kick the door down and rushed Shaun upstairs into his room, where he gently laid Shaun on his bed.
“Hang on, I’ve gotta go tell Mom.” He bounded down the stairs before Shaun could stop him. Shaun took the opportunity to rest his eyes. It felt like his head was going to explode from the pressure on his skull.
He heard Buizel rapidly climbing the stairs, along with a second pair of footsteps. Shaun wrenched open his eyes to see Buizel enter the room, with Floatzel following behind him. She walked over to the bed and felt Shaun’s forehead. “This is an intense fever.” She turned to Buizel. “What happened?”
“I dunno, we sparred a little in the dojo, and then he just suddenly got like this on the way home,” said Buizel, a little too quickly. He glanced at Shaun, the sun reflecting off of the guilt in his eyes before looking back at Floatzel. “I don’t know what happened, and he’s really sick.” The stress in his voice made Shaun mad at himself for getting sick again.
“Well, he needs rest now,” Floatzel said gently. “I’ll see what I can do to make him slightly less miserable, but the sickness will have to run its course.”
Buizel slumped in a defeated way and left the room. Shaun and Floatzel watched him go with varying levels of worry. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this,” Floatzel murmured.
The rest of the afternoon was spent doctoring Shaun. Buizel wanted Shaun to go back to the clinic, but Shaun was adamantly against it. “If I wanted to go back to the clinic, I would’ve just asked you to take me there,” he said, miffed.
“You’d get better care there,” Buizel wheedled.
“Nope,” Shaun replied. “Or do you want me going on more late-night excursions? Because that’s a fantastic way to get me going on more late-night excursions.”
He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t want to spend more lonely nights at the clinic. Maybe it was a bit selfish, Shaun reflected, but at least here he wouldn’t be lonely.
Long after the sun went down, Buizel came back upstairs to Shaun’s room. It was dark, so Shaun couldn’t see his face. “Oh, hey. What brings you up here so late?”
Buizel was silent for a moment. “Just wanted to see if you were okay,” he said heavily. He returned downstairs, much to Shaun’s frustration.
Shaun forced his body to get out of the bed and carefully walked down the stairs into the living room. A fire cast long shadows across the room, the biggest one being cast by the couch. Shaun quietly leapt up onto the back of the couch, where he saw Buizel staring into the fire despondently.
“Alright, man,” Shaun began, causing Buizel to jump and look at him. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re supposed to be in bed!” Buizel protested.
“And you’re supposed to be less depressed,” Shaun countered. “Come on, something is really bothering you.”
“I-“ Buizel looked away, ashamed. “I pushed you too hard.”
Shaun blinked. “What?”
“At the dojo.” Buizel forced the words out. “I made you relapse into sickness.”
“No, you didn’t,” Shaun said sternly. “I don’t know what caused it, but it wasn’t that.”
“You don’t know that.” Buizel was staring into the fire despondently.
Shaun felt himself getting mad. “I do, actually. And I don’t want you blaming yourself for it.”
Buizel looked at Shaun again. The guilt still glinted in his eyes, but his tone was more hopeful. “Really?”
“Truly,” Shaun replied, and coughed. “Look, man,” he said, his voice hoarse. “You need to stop moping around. The more you mope around, the slower I’ll take to recover.”
Buizel snorted, despite himself. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Shaun grinned. “It is. Trust me.”
And then he passed out.