"Huh?"
Joy stared at the two on the screen, surprised. After a while, she smiled at the screen: "No problem. Is there anything else you need me to pass on?"
The two on the other end looked at each other, then turned back: "No, that's all. Sorry to trouble you, Nurse Joy."
Joy shook her head. After the screen went black, she turned and left the Pokémon Center again.
The path from the community center was a little dark. Joy, holding Wigglytuff's hand, carefully walked towards the town center.
"What if he's already back at the farm by now?" Joy muttered to herself as she walked. She hadn't taken more than a few steps when she ran right into Ron, who was walking Penny home.
Penny waved to Ron, then turned and ducked into her house.
Recalling the conversation from earlier, Joy paused. After Ron had walked away from Penny's house, she quickly stepped in front of him.
"Joy? Did you need something for me?" Ron turned around and saw Joy holding Wigglytuff's hand.
Joy smiled: "Yes, it was Abigail and Haley. They asked me to wish you a happy birthday."
This surprised Ron a little.
However, glancing at the path leading to the community center, Ron decided to take a small detour to walk Joy back.
"By the way— this might sound a bit strange, but— according to the Kalos calendar— when is your birthday?"
For a native of Cindersap Town, this question was a bit odd. After all, according to the Kalos calendar, Cindersap Town would have four birthdays in the time it took for one to pass there.
"January 15th," Ron answered. "And you?"
"I see, that's still a while off," Joy said, then turned to look at Ron. "Mine is July 16th."
Actually, Robin had also asked about Joy's birthday before, but because of the different date systems, Joy chose not to mark a specific day on the calendar as her birthday.
She couldn't quite explain why, but for her, going from growing one year older each year to growing four years older each year here felt a bit cruel, to say the least.
"That's coming up soon too," Ron said, taking out his Pokédex to check: "Calculating, it should be—"
"Stop," Joy quickly stopped Ron. "Let's keep my birthday a secret."
Although celebrating with everyone would probably be very happy, for now, Joy didn't really want to celebrate her birthday in Pelican Town.
"If one day I start a family in Pelican Town, then I will take that day as my birthday here in town," Joy said, looking at a streetlamp and smiling.
Previously, everyone had been busy with their own things. Ron and Joy chatted for a while for the first time in a long time. After taking a look at the last two bundle offerings at the community center, Ron returned to the farm.
Thanks to Robin's special trip to repair the community center, it wasn't as dilapidated as it was at the beginning. Plus, with Joy taking good care of it, it wasn't much different from an ordinary house.
Still, Ron planned to put the restoration of the community center on his schedule as soon as possible, at least to get everything done before next spring.
As he planned, Ron made his way back to the farm.
Entering the cabin, he saw a small Rattata munching away by the Koi Pond, and in the corner, a Froakie playing with Bellossom and Meowth.
"Indeedee?"
Indeedee walked up to Ron's side, tilting its head back and calling at him.
"No need to translate." Ron stopped Meowth immediately. Looking at the Indeedee's gossipy expression, he knew it wasn't about to say anything nice.
"Okay, meow." Meowth sat back down and properly put the hat that Froakie had given it on his head.
This was the hat that Froakie had bought with the Star Tokens he cheated to get with Sam at the Stardew Valley Fair.
Froakie himself didn't really like the thing; he purely thought it looked fun on Indeedee and wanted one for himself.
Seeing Meowth was interested, he gave it to him.
"It looks so good, meow," Meowth said, touching the brim of the hat and thanking Froakie: "It gives me a cowboy feel, meow! Do you guys know about cowboys, meow?"
As he spoke, Meowth stood up and struck a pose for the two Pokémon, twirling an imaginary revolver on his finger before holstering it in a non-existent pocket.
"Froak!"
"Pretty cool, right, meow?" Meowth said, putting his hands on his hips. He remembered a Meowth he had met before and couldn't help but talk about it: "I once saw—at some league tournament or another—a Meowth who wore boots."
Although that Meowth didn't think much of him, and he was very unconvinced, he had to admit that Meowth was truly amazing.
If only he could be that amazing.
Probably because he had put his skill points into language, all the moves that Meowth knew, he didn't know any of them. He then pulled down his hat and sat back on the blanket with a profound look on his face.
After hearing Meowth's introduction, Bellossom paused for a moment. She then gently patted Meowth, scurried out, and after a while, came running back with a pair of boots.
"Bellossom!"
"What beautiful boots!" Meowth looked at the pair of purple boots, took them, and continuously stroked them with his paws: "Are you giving them to Meowth, meow?"
"Bell!" Bellossom called out first, then remembered that the decision for this thing lay with Ron, and couldn't help but look over at him.
Since the Pokémon on the farm all belonged to Ron, he didn't mind them exchanging gifts. It was only then that Bellossom remembered that Meowth wasn't actually one of Ron's Pokémon.
"Sure." Ron glanced at the pair of Space Boots and agreed without much hesitation.
After all, no one could use this thing; even Bellossom had no use for it. If Meowth wanted it, he might as well have it.
"Bellossom!" Bellossom finally relaxed.
Hearing this, Meowth put the boots on.
Out of a Pokémon's intuition, he immediately felt that he had become much stronger. He couldn't explain it, but it was definitely not just a psychological effect.
Just as Meowth was still studying the boots, the door was pushed open from the outside. Sailor, holding a large pile of loot, returned home happily.
"Ratta!"
Sailor pushed the door open with his back and stood proudly in front of Ron.
In his arms was a bucket filled with all sorts of fish, and inside was even a large pearl.
"Rattata!" Sailor patted his chest forcefully.
Even Willy had said it was a one-in-a-million fishing genius, and Sailor was incredibly puffed up with pride now.
Ron crouched down to check and discovered that it had already gotten every type of fish that could be caught with the submarine.
"Ratta!"
"Well done," Ron said, remembering the Legend Fish. He then patted Sailor's head and said with a serious expression. "In that case, I'm counting on you for the matter of the Legend Fish."
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