[A Week Later]
A large screen TV in the corner of the bedroom pinged as a reporter with brown hair appeared on screen.
"The situation within Viridian Forest has been described as unprecedented by the Kanto Ranger Corps. Every single Beedrill within the forest... including those within League Sanctioned areas went into a frenzy, attacking and killing multiple trainers and rangers across a forty-kilometer stretch of the forest. The crisis has since been resolved by our very own Champion, Red from Pallet Town, who has returned to the Indigo Plateau following the incident. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the mass aggression and a full report is expected—"
At the very corner of the room, Félix sat on the floor with his face buried in his knees.
It had been like this for the past week. Nurse Joy was worried.
He hadn't taken food in days, barely drank water unless Chansey physically brought the cup to his mouth, and refused to speak to anyone.
She looked at him from the door with her hand on the frame. He didn't want to talk to the other kids here or anything. He had been like that since the Champion left.
'What do I do about him…?' She thought as she closed the door gently and walked back to her front desk.
Not even cuddles from Chansey would help. He needed therapy before anything, and she had already contacted his only living relative... an aunt who lived in Lumiose City in the Kalos Region but there were issues with the airlines between Kalos and Kanto right now. Something about a scheduling disruption so her arrival would be delayed a bit.
It even sounded like the woman didn't want to come so the Nurse wasn't sure when she would arrive.
Félix kept looking down. Once she left, he slowly raised his head.
This room wasn't a singular bedroom but a bunk room.
There were six beds arranged in bunks of three on each side and apparently there were five other kids here too.
He could hear them outside in the hallway but he didn't care... He didn't know what to do... He didn't know what came next.
His parents were in the ground under a rock that said MOM, DAD AND GROWLY, and he was sitting on a cold floor in a Pokémon Center in Viridian City with nothing.
No Pokémon... No family... No home to go back to... The house in Viridian City where they had lived was still there but he couldn't go back to it because there was no one inside it anymore and an empty house with all the furniture still in place was worse than no house at all.
He looked at the ring finger on his left hand. There was nothing on it... It was just a small pale hand belonging to a boy who couldn't fight, couldn't protect anyone, and couldn't even keep himself from crying for an entire week straight.
Just then the door creaked open. Instead of Nurse Joy, it was the kids in question. Five of them. Among the five children, who were about the same age or a little older than he was, three of them were boys and the other two were girls.
One of them walked in front of him and kicked his knee.
"Hey, don't disturb him." One of the other boys said from behind.
"Hey." The boy kicked him again. "Get off the ground."
Félix looked up at him.
"Come on, your parents just died." The boy said. "What's the big deal, huh?"
The room went quiet and all of them glared at the boy as he shrugged.
"What? I'm just sayi—"
Félix jumped on him.
They hit the ground and immediately began throwing blows at each other with Félix swinging wild and the other boy swinging back.
The other children scrambled to separate them with the biggest one grabbing Félix from behind while shouting.
"Hey hey HEY STOP IT!"
One of the girls turned and ran out of the room to get Nurse Joy.
Félix was still trying to get to the other boy despite the bruises already forming on his face. His lip was split and his knuckles were scraped and the hits hurt. Despite the fact that he was the one who initiated the fight, he had the most wounds on his face as well while the other boy barely had a scratch.
Nurse Joy came back and looked at both of them sternly.
"Stop fighting immediately!" She said, pointing her finger at each of them in turn. "Kevin, sit on your bed. Félix, you too. The rest of you, leave."
The other four children filed out quickly.
Minutes later, Félix and Kevin were sitting on their opposite beds at the bottom bunks of the room and looking at each other. Nurse Joy sat on Félix's bed with Chansey standing next to her.
"Cha Cha~" Chansey let out, and a soft healing pulse covered Félix's face.
The bruises and the split lip sealed up and the pain faded. However, for some reason Nurse Joy took out a bandage and strapped it across the bridge of his nose anyway.
She patted his head.
"There there, Félix. Can you tell me why you were fighting?" She asked.
Félix looked down at the ground.
"H-he said… what's the big deal that my parents died." He said quietly.
Nurse Joy gasped and turned her eyes to Kevin, who was already looking guilty. He had been healed by Chansey as well and was staring at his feet.
"I didn't think before I spoke and I'm sorry." Kevin said without looking up. "I didn't really mean it like that."
"Kevin." Nurse Joy said firmly. "You should never say things like that again. They are very insensitive..."
He nodded.
Félix's stomach grumbled... loudly. It was loud enough that Kevin looked up and Chansey tilted her head.
"You haven't eaten for a long time, you know?" Nurse Joy said, and Félix sighed. He really didn't have the energy to refuse food anymore since his body had made the decision for him. "You're lucky I kept food for you. I was expecting this."
She stood up.
"Wait here while I bring it." She told him, and left the room. Félix and Kevin sat in the quiet room with Chansey between them.
Félix cleared his throat.
"Sorry for beating you up." He said.
Kevin looked up.
"Beat me up?" Kevin said. "I'm the one that beat you up though."
Félix gritted his teeth but then he let it go. So what if he didn't know how to fight? He would learn, and especially the next time that he fought Kevin, he would beat him up instead.
"So everyone here…" Félix said, looking at the floor. "They're the same as me?"
He looked at Chansey.
"Chan?" Chansey tilted her head.
Kevin looked at the ground.
"Yeah." Kevin said. "Pretty much."
Félix swallowed.
"I know this is insensitive… but how did your parents, you know…?"
"Oh, die?" Kevin said. "Don't worry. It'll be a lot better if you talk to the rest of us at the same time."
Before Félix could ask what he meant by that, Nurse Joy came back with a steaming hot bowl of Pidgey soup. She set it on his lap and he looked at it as his stomach growled again.
It was a good looking soup with Pidgey meat swirling in it. His Mom used to make it.
The broth was clear with a golden tint, small pieces of vegetables floating alongside the strips of meat, and the steam rising off it carried a smell that went straight through him and hit something deep in his chest.
You had to swallow all of the soup before eating the Pidgey meat, that was the rule his Mom had set, and that was what he did. He tilted the bowl up and swallowed everything in one huge gulp... it burned going down but he didn't care before using the fork to pick up the Pidgey meat and put it into his mouth.
As he chewed, his eyes stung again... not because of pain but because it tasted close enough to his Mom's that his body reacted before his brain could stop it.
Nurse Joy watched him.
"Did you like it?" She asked.
He swallowed and handed her an empty bowl, just like what his Mom had taught him.
"Yes Ma'am. I liked it very much." He said.
Nurse Joy smiled.
"There's more where that came from, but that'll be for dinner." She said. "For now, why don't you go play with the others?"
"Play…?" Félix said, and before he could process the word Kevin grabbed his hand and pulled him off the bed. Kevin gave Nurse Joy a salute.
"Nurse Joy, I got him." Kevin said.
With that Kevin ran out of the bedroom with Félix in hand, leaving Nurse Joy at the bed. She mouthed 'Thank you, Kevin' as they disappeared down the hallway then she turned to Chansey and smiled while pulling up her sleeves.
"Why don't we cook up the best dinner we can?" She said. "After dealing with our customers..."
"Chaansey!" Chansey puffed up her stubby hands and they exited the room.
…
Félix blinked as he found himself in the backyard of the Pokémon Center. The other children were already there playing with a Frisbee. One of the girls threw it and a boy caught it mid-air while turning to them.
"About time you showed up, Ke— you managed to bring him along." The boy who caught it said, and then extended his hand to Félix. "Hey. My name's Nate... I'm from Viridian City and I'm 13 years old."
Félix shook his hand. Nate was taller than the rest of them, broader in the shoulders and had the kind of confidence that came from being the oldest in any group.
"I'm Zack." The boy standing next to Nate said, throwing up a peace sign.
He had messy brown hair and a gap between his front teeth that showed when he grinned. "I'm 12, same as most of us. I'm from Pewter City."
"I'm Lucas." The third boy said. He was quieter than the others, thin, with dark eyes and his hands in his pockets. "12 and from Cerulean."
The girl who had thrown the Frisbee walked over. She had short black hair and a bandage on her elbow.
"I'm Mia." She said while crossing her arms. "12... Saffron City."
The last one was standing a bit behind the others. She had green hair that fell past her shoulders and was holding the hem of her shirt with both hands.
"U-um… I'm… I'm Selene." She said, her voice barely making it across the distance between them. "I'm… I'm also 12 and… I'm from V-Viridian City too."
Félix looked at all of them.
"I'm Félix." He said. "I'm 11. I'm from… I was from Viridian City too, I guess."
Nate nodded and then looked at everyone before looking at Félix.
"We wanted to be friends with you." Nate said. "We understand how you feel... all of us do and we're here if you need to talk about it." He paused, then bowed his head slightly.
"I also want to apologize for Kevin's insensitive words earlier."
Félix shook his head.
"N-no, I'm not mad anymore." He said, and Kevin shrugged like he hadn't expected the forgiveness but was going to take it.
"Why don't we play a game of Frisbee?" Nate suggested. "We can talk while we play."
Everyone got into position spread across the yard. Nate held the Frisbee and threw it first... a clean flat throw across the grass at Zack, who leapt up and caught it one-handed.
"My parents died in a house fire." Nate said while Zack held the Frisbee. "Our neighbor's Magmar got out of its Pokéball at night and everything caught and I was sleeping over at a friend's place that weekend." He paused. "I really miss them."
Zack threw the Frisbee over to Kevin, who ran forward to catch it.
It tipped off his fingertips and he kicked it back up with his knee, then it bounced from one hand to the other as he struggled with it for a few seconds before finally clamping both hands on it and landing on his ass.
"My father went to get milk..." Zack said with a shrug. "And my mother ran away three weeks later so technically they're not dead but they might as well be."
Kevin threw the Frisbee at Lucas, who caught it cleanly against his chest.
"My mom got sick." Kevin said. "And my dad left after. He couldn't handle it, I guess. He just packed a bag one morning and that was it. I came home from school and the house was empty."
Lucas threw the Frisbee to Mia and she snagged it out of the air and spun it on her finger.
"It was a car accident while we were in Viridian." Lucas said quietly. "Both of them died… while I was at school."
Mia threw it to Selene. The Frisbee wobbled in the air and Selene caught it against her stomach with both arms.
"My dad was a p-police officer in Saffron City." Mia said. "He got hurt during a Rocket incident. My mom couldn't… she couldn't handle it after that and she's in the hospital now."
Everyone looked at Selene. She was holding the Frisbee with both hands pressed flat against it.
"M-my… my parents… th-they…" She swallowed and tried again. Her hands were shaking around the Frisbee. "They l-left me at the P-Pokémon Center when I was r-really little. I was… I was a b-baby. Nurse Joy s-said they never… they n-never came back for me. She d-doesn't even know what they l-looked like because the person who d-dropped me off was wearing a hood."
She held the Frisbee tighter.
"S-so I don't know… I don't know h-how they died or if they're even d-dead. They might be alive s-somewhere. I just… I just know they d-didn't want me."
Nobody said anything for a long moment. Kevin opened his mouth and then closed it, which might have been the most considerate thing he had ever done.
Selene threw the Frisbee to Félix who caught and held it.
"My parents died in that Beedrill attack." Félix said and all of them looked at him somberly. "That happened last week..."
Then he threw it back at Nate.
"Now that we know each other," Nate said, "we should all be friends. And as friends, we shouldn't be afraid of telling stuff to each other. Besides, not everyone's going to be here forever... some of us, our relatives will come to collect us soon."
He looked at each of them. "So why doesn't everyone say their goals?"
"Goals?" Kevin raised an eyebrow.
"What you want to be in the future." Nate explained. "Something like that. Why don't I go first?"
He threw the Frisbee to Zack. "I want to be a Pokémon Ranger."
"I hope you don't become as useless as them." Kevin said.
Nate ignored him. He had clearly been ignoring Kevin for a while and had gotten very good at it.
"Who's next?" He asked.
Selene spoke up.
"I… I w-want to be a N-Nurse." She said, her cheeks reddening. "I d-don't have any relatives coming for me so I t-told Nurse Joy I would a-assist her."
"Ooh~ That's nice." Kevin said, and everyone else nodded. For someone who had just been insensitive, he could switch to being genuinely supportive pretty fast.
Zack caught the Frisbee and threw it to Lucas.
"I want to be a researcher." Lucas said, catching it against his chest without breaking stride. "Like Professor Oak. I want to study Pokémon behavior... why they do what they do, why some of them are aggressive and some of them aren't. Maybe if someone had studied those Beedrill before…" He trailed off and threw the Frisbee to Mia.
"I want to open my own gym one day." Mia said while snatching it out of the air cleanly. "Fighting-type. The kind where you walk in and you know you're going to lose but you try anyway because the gym leader is that good." She threw it at Kevin hard enough that he had to step back to absorb it.
Kevin caught the next one and held it for a second.
"I'm going to be rich." Kevin said flatly. "That's my goal. I don't know how yet but I'm going to be rich... Rich enough that I never have to depend on anybody ever again."
Nobody laughed at that as they all understood why then they all turned to Félix.
"M-me…?" He said.
He closed his eyes.
All he could see was Red... Standing on the hillside with Pikachu on his shoulder, the wind in his jacket, one Thunderbolt ending everything. He wanted to be that. He wanted to simply be a Pokémon Champion!
"I want to be a Pokémon Champion." Félix said. "Like Champion Red."
They looked at him. Zack walked over and put his hand on Félix's shoulder.
"Put the fries in the bag man." Zack said. "We're two years older than Champion Red when he started his journey. And even then, Champion Red became the Champion of Kanto Region at 11 years old, and he was only crowned the Champion because he spent one year tracking down every single Kanto Region Pokémon, catching one regular form and one shiny variant of every kind and even Alpha variants of some of them too"
The more Félix heard, the more he wanted to give up. But before he even thought about it, someone spoke up.
"I… Uh… I believe you can do it, Félix!" Selene yelled out.
Everyone's attention snapped to her. Her face was bright red and she looked like she wanted to disappear into the grass but she held her ground.
Félix smiled.
"Thank you." He said.
Nate intervened.
"It's good that everybody has goals. We all have to work extra hard to achieve our dreams." He said. "We probably won't all be here by this time next year, so we have to put in the work." He looked at everyone. "Why don't we come back to this exact Viridian City Pokémon Center when we're like 19? On today's exact date. And show our progress."
"19?" Zack said. "Isn't that too far away?"
"Way too far." Mia agreed.
"We'll become Pokémon Trainers by 18." Nate said. "We won't have achieved anything by then, so a year after is good. April 4th. Right here. This exact Pokémon Center. We walk in, we show each other what we've done. Deal?"
"Deal." They all said one by one. Even Kevin, who said it with his arms crossed but said it all the same.
They agreed, and they continued playing with the Frisbee.
Félix threw some too, and some of them were bad throws that wobbled sideways and some of them were decent.
One of them hit Kevin in the face which Félix insisted was an accident. Kevin threw the next one back at Félix with double the force and insisted it was also an accident. Nate told them both to grow up and then Mia hit Nate in the back with one and said nothing.
The sun was going down by the time they stopped running.
The backyard of the Pokémon Center was small but they had covered every inch of it at least twice over. Félix was breathing hard and his legs hurt from running but it was a different kind of hurt than the one he had been carrying for a week.
This one was good...
Chansey came through the back door of the Pokémon Center and waved at them.
"Cha Chaaaa~"
"She's saying it's time for dinner." Kevin said, and they ran in the direction of Chansey.
She was right on time as Félix was starving.
…
"If you're going to become a big strong Champion, then you have to drink your milk." Nurse Joy said while patting Félix's head.
"Uh-huh." He said, and she smiled.
"Make sure you have a goodnight sleep too~" She said.
She did that for each of the children according to their goals.
She told Kevin that rich people needed beauty sleep and that every billionaire she had ever read about slept exactly eight hours.
She told Mia that gym leaders needed strong bones and strong bones came from rest and calcium.
She told Selene that good nurses always rested properly because tired nurses made mistakes and Selene nodded so seriously that it looked like she was taking a mental exam.
She told Nate that rangers needed to be alert in the morning because Pokémon didn't wait for you to wake up.
She told Lucas that researchers needed sharp minds and sharp minds came from deep sleep and she told Zack that whatever he wanted to do next also required sleeping before midnight, so no sneaking out to the vending machine like last Tuesday.
Zack looked at the ceiling and said nothing. She walked to the door and turned back.
"Goodnight everyone." She said warmly.
"Goodnight Nurse Joy!" They all said together, and she closed the door.
Félix pulled the covers over himself and turned to face the wall with a small smile on his face.
It still hurt but it felt a bit distant now. His Mom and Dad would very much want him to have friends. He enjoyed spending time with these people. Nate was pretty confident. Selene was pretty shy but she was a nice girl and as for Kevin—
A pillow hit him in the back of the head from the opposite bunk.
Félix sighed, picked up the pillow, and threw it back. It hit Kevin square in the face. Kevin immediately came down from his bunk in his pajamas with another pillow raised.
"PILLOW FIGH—"
The door creaked open. Chansey's eyes glowed through the gap in the door, two pink dots in the dark hallway staring directly at Kevin.
"I was just returning to my bed and sleeping, dear Chansey." Kevin said in the most formal voice Félix had ever heard come out of the twelve-year-old's mouth.
He walked back to his bunk, set his pillow down, pulled the covers over himself, closed his eyes, and didn't move.
Chansey stared for three more seconds, then closed the door.
The room burst into quiet laughter and it was quiet because nobody wanted Chansey to come back.
'Yes…' Félix thought while smiling. 'I like it here.'
…
[One Year Later — Viridian City Airport]
It had already been one year.
Quite literally everyone in the old group had left. Nate had gone on his way with his uncle and had sent letters saying he was attending the Ranger Academy in Almia and doing well. Kevin left with his grandmother two months after the group formed... he wrote once saying he was "working on the rich thing" and left it at that.
Zack's older cousin came from Pewter City and took him back. Zack cried on the way out even though he tried to hide it by pretending he had something in his eye.
He had something in both eyes apparently.
Lucas went to an aunt in Cerulean who actually seemed to like him, which was a relief. Mia's mother recovered enough to take her back to Saffron but Mia didn't cry when she left.
She punched Félix in the arm, told him not to give up on the Champion thing, and walked out with her bag over her shoulder like she was already a gym leader leaving for the next town.
The date had been set.
They would visit each other on April 4th once they were 19 and Nate was 20. It was so long away that it almost didn't feel real... eight years for them but they had all agreed and they had all shaken hands on it.
Nate had made them do it one by one so nobody could say they forgot… April 4th... Viridian City.. Pokémon Center. There were no excuses unless you were dead.
The last person was Selene, and that was currently who Félix was standing opposite at the airport gate. She was wearing a mini Pokémon Center nurse uniform... a pink apron over a white dress, way too big for her, clearly one of Nurse Joy's old ones taken in with safety pins at the back and the sides.
The hem reached her ankles and the sleeves had been folded up four times so her hands could stick out.
She looked ridiculous and she also looked like the happiest person in the airport.
Nurse Joy was a few meters away talking with his aunt, who had blonde hair.
From where Félix was standing, his aunt's face looked pleasant enough. She was smiling at Nurse Joy. She had a nice voice when she was talking to other adults.
It was only when she talked to Félix on the phone during the arrangements that her voice changed into something flat and irritated.
"You better take care of yourself." Selene told him.
Her stuttering was gone when it was just the two of them as she had gotten used to him. "Make sure to always eat. Drink water. And all of the above. Got it?"
"Yes Ma'am." He said.
Since they were the last two people, they had gotten to spend a lot of time together over the past year. Being a Nurse was a long-time wish of hers and he hoped she would be able to achieve it... She was already helping Chansey organize medicine cabinets and she could bandage a wound faster than most adults.
"I have a gift for you." Selene said, and pulled something out of her apron pocket. She took his hand, turned it over, and slid a ring onto his finger. It was a bit big... clearly meant for an adult hand but it sat on his ring finger without falling off.
"What is this?" Félix asked while looking at it.
"It's a Friendship ring." Selene said, and held up her own hand showing him the matching gold ring on her finger. "You should cherish it."
He looked at the ring and then back at her.
"I will." He said.
Selene blushed then she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek and Félix blinked as his hand went to his cheek.
"That was a Friendship kiss!" Selene said quickly, her face completely red. "Don't get any wrong ideas!"
With that she waved and ran behind Nurse Joy, who patted her head. Félix walked toward the plane with his aunt. He waved at Nurse Joy and Selene with a smile on his face and they waved back, Selene with both arms going back and forth and Nurse Joy with one calm hand.
The instant he started climbing the steps leading into the passenger side of the plane, his aunt turned to him.
The smile that had been on her face while talking to Nurse Joy was gone like it had been peeled off and thrown away on the tarmac behind them. Her eyes were cold and her mouth was a thin line.
"Let me make something clear to you right now." She said in a voice that was quiet enough that no one on the stairs could hear but it was sharp enough that every word could be heard like him. "I don't like you. I didn't like your father either, and he is the reason my older sister is dead. If Marc hadn't taken Solène into that forest, she would still be alive. She would still be here. She would still be my sister..."
She kept walking up the steps without looking at him.
"I'm only picking you up because I need work done in the house. You will cook. You will clean. You will do what I say when I say it. You will not complain. You will not talk back. You will not bring friends over. You will not make noise." She reached the top of the stairs and stood at the entrance to the aircraft. "And if you dare do anything else... anything at all... I will leave you on the streets where you belong. Do you understand me?"
Félix didn't answer as he just kept walking up the steps behind her and they entered the plane.
Félix's face fell. The warmth from Selene's kiss was still on his cheek but everything else had gone cold.
They got to their designated seats and he sat down at the window and he looked outside. Selene had come back out onto the tarmac and was still waving.
"All seats are now occupied. The aircraft will begin taxiing in approximately one minute. Please ensure your seatbelts are fastened and all electronic devices are switched off. Thank you for flying with us today."
'I…' Félix thought as he waved back through the glass, though he doubted she could see him.
The plane began moving as the doors sealed shut. It gained speed pretty quickly down the runway and then they had ascended into the sky. Selene and Nurse Joy became small figures on the ground, then dots, then nothing.
'I'll come back…'
…
About a month later, Félix sat on the ground in the yard.
The yard was small and the grass hadn't been cut in weeks. Félix sat on the ground with his back against the fence because the chair his aunt had outside was for guests and she didn't consider him a guest or anything else worth sitting in a chair for.
According to her, he was closer to furniture than family.
He wasn't doing anything. He wasn't allowed to do anything after chores. His aunt had made it clear that playing was loud, loud was annoying, and annoying meant no dinner. So Félix sat.
Something hit the fence behind his head and he flinched. A ball bounced off the wood and rolled into the yard stopping at his feet. He stared at it.
Then the fence shook.
Two hands appeared at the top, followed by a face… a girl around his age with messy hair and a scratch on her chin that she clearly didn't care about. She pulled herself up and sat on top of the fence with both legs dangling on his side.
"Hey." She said. "That's my ball… but hold on, what are you doing here?"
"Nothing." Félix said.
"Nothing? Like actually nothing?"
"Yeah."
She looked at him like he had said something confusing and then dropped down into the yard, landing on both feet and picking up the ball.
"FÉLIX! ARE YOU TALKING TO ANOTHER KID OUT THERE?!" His aunt's voice came from inside the house sounding sharp and loud through the window.
Félix didn't reply. He looked at the girl and the girl looked at him and then she looked at the fence.
"Can you climb?" She asked.
"I think so."
"Then come on."
She was already halfway up by the time he got to his feet. He grabbed the top of the fence and pulled himself up... his arms were weak, way weaker than they should have been from a month of sitting on the ground and doing housework and eating barely enough but the fence wasn't that tall and the girl grabbed his sleeve at the top to help him over.
She pulled hard enough that he almost went headfirst over the other side but she caught his arm at the last second and they both wobbled on top for a moment before dropping down together.
They landed on the other side just as the back door opened and his aunt came out.
"FÉLIX! FÉLIX GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!"
They were already running. The girl handed the ball to a younger kid waiting on the street who took it and ran off, and then she grabbed Félix's arm and pulled him forward.
"Hehe~ Let's have fun. Oh right, before you ask… I know your name's Félix so I'll tell you mine. I'm Taunie."
"Taunie…" Félix said as they ran down the street.
"And we're going to have fun!"
Félix didn't know where they were going... He didn't know this girl... He didn't know anything about her except her name and the fact that she could climb a fence faster than anyone he had ever met but for the first time in a month, he was running somewhere instead of sitting still.
"Yes… Let's have..."
…
"Fun!" Félix raised both of his arms up suddenly awake. He blinked as he wasn't running with Taunie when they were kids.
He was in a barber's chair, in a shop, with a cape around his neck and a mirror in front of him.
Paxton gave him a side-eye from the chair next to him. Ralts was on his head with Riolu was sitting on his shoulder drinking from a baby bottle.
"I was about to wake you up." Paxton said, then gestured at the mirror. "Look."
Félix turned his head and looked in the mirror. His eyes widened.
His hair was completely different. The messy blond mop that had been sitting on his head for years was gone. It had been cut short on the sides with a clean fade, the top left a bit longer and swept to the right in a way that actually had shape and direction to it.
The edges were sharp... The line along his forehead was precise too.
He turned to the GTA Barber.
"Thank you very much… this means a lot to me."
The woman adjusted his glasses and looked at her work quiet satisfaction.
"No problems." She said. "I'll just have to spray it."
"Spray?" Félix asked innocently.
He relaxed on the chair. He didn't know what spray meant in this context. He assumed it was some kind of finishing product... Something nice... Maybe it would smell good... Maybe it was like a cologne for hair...
The GTA Barber reached for a bottle on the counter and Paxton's eyes went to the bottle ten back to Félix.
He considered warning him by saying something like "brace yourself" or "hold onto the armrests" or "this is going to feel like your scalp is on fire for about four seconds."
He decided not to as some things you had to experience for yourself….
What followed was screaming.
"AAAAAAH! AAAAAAHH! WHAT IS THAT?! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! AAAAAHHH! STOP! STOP STOP STOP—"
The entire shop heard it.
Ralts covered her ears with both hands, Riolu stopped drinking mid-suck and stared with wide red eyes at the source of the noise.
Two customers in the waiting area looked at each other and one of them quietly stood up and moved to a seat further away from the chair, A woman outside the shop window paused to look in and a Furfrou being groomed two chairs down flinched and its groomer had to hold its head still.
The GTA Barber stood there with the spray bottle raised and her glasses completely still on her face, waiting for Félix to stop moving so she could finish the other side.
The woman retrieved his spray and set it back on the counter. Félix sat there looking like he had been violated. His eyes were watering and his hands were still gripping the armrests hard enough that his knuckles were white.
His mouth was open in a silent continuation of the scream that had already come out and his scalp was tingling in a way that was either the product working or permanent nerve damage as he couldn't tell which.
"It gets easier the second time." The GTA Barber said. That was a lie but the woman said it to everyone.
Paxton placed a hand on his shoulder and Félix managed a smile through the pain.
"Thanks Pa—"
Immediately he was sent standing and spinning out of the chair as Paxton sat down on it instead.
Paxton leaned back, crossed one leg over the other, ran a hand through his own hair to feel where the edges were getting long, and turned to the GTA Barber.
"I sense a disturbance in the force. I need a new cut." He said.
He needed to look crisp, of course.