The hotel room that Finn and Ciri are in right now had two beds and a window that faced west, with the last of the evening light coming in flat across the floor. Finn had the kettle from the courtesy tray of the hotel boiling some water. He made two cups of tea and handed one to Ciri, and they both pulled chairs to the window and sat.
Ciri took a sip. Her expression showed Finn that she didn't hate the test, but she didn't like it either.
Finn added sugar to her cup without being asked. She tried it again and said nothing, which was its own kind of answer. She kept drinking it.
Outside, Solaceon settled into its evening. A trainer walked past below with a Luxio at his heel. The windmill on the far side of the meadow was still turning.
"So… what's your plan?" Finn said.
Ciri turned away from the window. "What do you mean?"
"I told you a lot about your future, back when we met." He turned the cup in his hands. "Some of it matters. Some of it concerns the life of your loved ones."
"Do you know when those things will exactly happen?"
"Well, not at the top of my head."
She was quiet for a moment. "Right now I feel like I'm comfortable just travelling with you."
"You are."
"Can you blame me?" She pulled her knees up onto the chair. "These past few weeks have been the first time in months that I haven't had to think about escaping a building just in case The Wild Hunt shows up. I don't have to look over my shoulder every ten minutes." She looked back out the window. "It's been nice."
"I'm glad," Finn said. "I mean it. But travelling with me isn't a plan, Ciri. At some point your world needs you back in it."
"I know that." She said it without irritation. "At some point I will take care of it. I'm not pretending otherwise." A pause settled as Ciri's face fell a little. "Do you not like my company?"
"I like it fine." He leaned back in his chair. "All this time travelling alone, I didn't realise how much of it I was just talking to myself. At least now I have someone to share this with." He gestured vaguely at the window, the town, everything beyond it. "It's different. A good king of different."
Ciri smiled faintly. She turned the cup in her hands.
"From what you told me," she said, "Geralt offered himself to the Wild Hunt to free Yennefer. They were using her as bait, to draw me out." She thought about it. "But right now there's no bait. Which means either it hasn't happened yet, or—"
"Or they can't find you to set the trap in the first place," Finn said. "Travelling my way has made you harder to track. Maybe Geralt's already given itself up and is riding with the Red Riders as we speak. Or maybe the whole sequence never started."
Ciri frowned. "But I don't feel anything."
"Feel anything?"
"Geralt and I are bound by destiny. I can feel it, loosely, like a thread. When he's in danger it pulls me to him, and vice versa." She turned her cup over in her fingers. "Right now there's nothing. No pull at all."
Finn hummed. "Child of destiny kind of thing."
"Even with the flow of history changed, it tends to correct itself. I've seen it happen." She shrugged one shoulder.
"You really believe that?"
"Stranger things have occurred when destiny is involved." she said simply.
He didn't push it. He looked out at the windmill.
"What about you?" she said. "What's your plan?"
"Me?" He smiled. "Same as always. Travelling portal to portal. See what's there." He set his cup down. "Right now though, I want to catch a pokemon."
Ciri raised her brow. "Catch one?"
"There's a specific one I've had in mind since I was about eight years old. Now that I'm actually here, in this world, I'm not wasting the chance."
"Since you were eight?"
"Pokemon is a story made for children in my world." He said it without embarrassment. "I grew up with it."
"Right," Ciri said. "Do you even know how to catch one?"
"Throw a ball at it. Roughly." He paused. "There's probably a class at the Pokemon Centre. Something introductory. How to catch, how to care for one properly." He glanced at her. "Do you want to catch one too?"
She considered it. "A horse would be nice."
Finn rolled his eyes. "What is it with you and horses?"
"We saw a pony in town," she said, ignoring him. "With fire as a mane. Literal fire. Is that rideable?"
"A Ponyta? Not as it is." He thought about it. "Though it evolves into a Rapidash eventually. It's faster, bigger, and more rideable."
"Evolves?"
Finn sighed and stood up to refill the kettle. "We'll find a class tomorrow. They'll explain it better than I will."
---
A/N: Leave a powerstone and review if you like the story!
also, give me ideas on worlds that they should 'visit'. is anyone even reading this lol.