'This is it' thought Anya, tomorrow is the day she was supposed to move to Viridian, she had finally convinced Faesol to stay behind even if it was only for a month, she would like to have some alone time to settle in before Faesol joins her, she had always wanted to try living on her own and fend for herself without the ties of her name weighting expectations on her.
Currently, she was sitting on a pillow around a table, waiting for Samuel to get back from a quick errand with Delia, Faesol had found her place next to Anya, clinging close to her, she apparently found Anya's body comfortably cool at least that is what she told Anya, she didn't know for sure if it was just an excuse to stick close to her but she had her suspicions.
"Ohh, here you both are" chuckled Samuel as he entered the room with a large covered tray, he set the tray onto the table and Anya could see through the transparent cover that the whole tray was entirely filled with Sushi, with a quick calculation Anya saw that there was easily over a hundred pieces of different Sushi. "Don't worry, I went for maximum variety so there are a lot of different pieces to choose from, some of them doesn't have any fish and are filled with vegetables like cucumber" he said in all seriousness in his voice.
"Now now, don't tease her too much and from what you have told me, she didn't have any problem eating meat and fish should be a bit easier to digest" said Delia as she put down the soy sauce and the dip bowls for the sauce on the table. Anya noticed that Ash wasn't anywhere to be found and she voiced out her concern. As if understanding her Delia immediately gave her an answer, she had apparently left Ash with a babysitter so that she could have some time for Anya's farewell party.
Samuel and Delia both took seat around the table, as Samuel lifted the cover from the sushi platter, the room filled with a pleasant aroma of sushi. Even Faesol caught the smell and instantly bounced upright, something more instinctual towards fish guiding her behavior and she was attentively staring at the platter.
"Well, let's dig in" said Samuel, as soon as those words left his mouth Anya suddenly clamped down on Faesol, holding her in place and stopping her pounce.
Delia laughed at their antics and Samuel sighed in relief, he didn't account for Faesol's instincts as she usually was well behaved around the table and had grown complacent.
After calming Faesol down and telling her to behave, the meal could finally begin in the earnest. Samuel took the first piece with his bare hand, while Delia quickly snatched a piece with a pair of chopsticks. Faesol levitated a piece with her psychical power towards her mouth, Anya too decided to flex her skills and tapped a piece with the side of her cutter and lifted the thing with her defensive matrix, it didn't come to her naturally and she had to concentrate to keep the piece of sushi stuck on her cutter.
This caught the attention of Samuel on the table who was enjoying a cup of Sake with his sushi, he saw Faesol lifting with her psychic powers, it was still withing expectations, but he almost spilled his drink when instead of picking a piece using both tips of her cutters, she casually tapped a piece with single one and lifted it effortlessly towards her mouth, the piece of sushi seemingly going against the laws of physics.
"Your research seems to be going well" Said Samuel as he contemplated on what he just saw. He knew Anya doing a research on the applications of something she called the 'defensive matrix'. A quick interruption from Delia with a fake cough stopped the conversation from starting as it reminded Samuel that they were supposed to not talk about work during dinner at least for today. "Well, anyways, I must say, that is quite something" he said awkwardly afterwards.
"I think, I ordered too much" groaned Samuel "I can't eat even a single piece anymore" seconded Delia, Faesol had passed out after stuffing herself full, at some point she only ate the fish on top of the rice and left the leftovers in a neat line on a plate she got from somewhere, Anya was too busy enjoying the sushi to see what was going on around her, she was still eating, she had paced herself and savored every bite, she did not know if it was the quality of the food or the changes in her taste buds that caused the contrast in the taste.
"I can't believe she is still going" exclaimed Samuel "Where does it all even go"
"Shush now. Can't you see she is enjoying the moment, no need for your crude remarks" said Delia
Anya was unaware of everything that was happening around her as her food induced bliss deepened piece after piece.
"I don't think she can hear us anymore, honestly I have never seen a Pokémon looking so satisfied and enjoying their food, they usually just gorge and overeat themselves like her" Delia said while taking a glance at the sleeping Faesol.
"Well, if this is how she reacts to cheap takeaway sushi, I wonder how she would react when eating the top grade stuff"
The meal ended as Anya had come to a halt, she had reached her limit and was slowly coming back to reality from her food induced bliss.
"Earth to Anya, you are finally back with us" Samuel said with a teasing grin causing Anya's cheeks to redden in embarrassment.
Anya was ashamed, her eyes staring at the table in front of her, her mind slowly calculating how many pieces she had approximately eaten, she was still glad that there were a dozen or so left untouched on the large tray, that she didn't eat all of the sushi.
"You certainly had an appetite" teased Delia. "I was afraid that we would ran out of sushi before you were satisfied"
They soon vacated the table and Samuel packed the rest of the untouched sushi into a small container, leaving the rice base leftovers from Faesol still on the platter while Delia went to brew some tea and brought out some snacks along with the tea.
Few hours of casual chatting and tea, Delia was excused herself and left the lab to relieve the babysitter. Before leaving she gave her well wishes to Anya and hoped she would do great in Viridian, even if she didn't really understand why she wanted to live alone as a Pokémon when Samuel could give her everything that she ever would need.
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Next day at noon a familiar truck was parked in front of the laboratory, Machoke was already sitting in the truck and Jock was having a quick chat with Samuel.
"I'll have these delivered to Viridian in no time" Said Jock with a laugh "This is quite cool if you ask me, it takes something special for a Pokémon to live alone. When I got the order, I asked Machoke for his opinion and he was like daamn" he exaggerated
Samuel chuckled, he knew how out of the standard Anya was acting. Even if the whole thing feels sketchy to Samuel, he couldn't deny being curious and was excitedly waiting for the situation to evolve, Anya was proving to be quite a Pokémon even if he knew her to be a human originally, Samuel truly enjoyed Anya's antics.
The truck left soon after, it had most of Anya's own stuff inside it, initially Anya was unsure if ordering a truck for her stuff would be needed, as she did not have much to begin with. In the end she took her tailoring equipment, most of the materials and the typewriter, everything neatly packed into boxes. To her surprise, even Faesol hesitantly allowed her to take Evie the Eevee plush with her for some reason. She was adamant about that the reason specifically isn't loneliness.
Samuel turned to Anya and said "We still have few hours before they arrive at Viridian. You got anything you want to do?" Instantaneous traveling sure simplified things thought Anya, even if its only limited to place's the teleporting Pokémon has been and the strength of the Pokémon to limit the amount of people being teleported at once. From what she had learned, she knew that most trained teleport Pokémon could only move a single person along with them and have to rest for a while between jumps and possibly inducing nausea due to an unstable teleportation.
By these standards, Samuel's Alakazam was way above the standards of a normal teleport Pokémon as its teleport itself was instantaneous without a problem, only a small tug in ones stomach due to a sudden environmental shifting.
Samuel has often stated how he disliked teleportation, something about a sudden shift in altitude and atmospheric pressure causing discomfort, especially when teleporting to the league headquarters at Indigo plateau.
"Want to go grab lunch in town?" asked Samuel
"[Feef, want to come to town with me and Samuel?]" Anya said while casually nudging the mound under the blanket, where the sleeping Espeon was. Faesol poked her head out from under the blanket, her eyes opened tiredly, she gave Anya a short denial, before pulling her head under the cover again. "[We will be getting some food]" Anya said while trying to lure the Espeon out from her comfort zone.
It did not go without an effect as the mound wiggled a bit, she was interested in food at least.
"[Well, take your time, just so you know, I'll be most likely leaving for Viridian straight after. We will be leaving in a minute or two]" Anya said as she left the room.
A muffled sound soon came from the room and a tired Faesol soon followed after Anya. She wanted to spend the last moments with her, she still didn't understand why Anya couldn't just take her with her, she dreaded the two months without Anya, she did not know why she felt so distressed being separated from her friend, the two months were not that long of a time period, but something in her caused her to feel uncomfortable at the thought of separation.
"[It is quite nice to walk around the town, without feeling the ambient hostility towards me]" Anya said as she walked next to Samuel with Faesol on her otherside, true to her words the town has mellowed its hostilities towards Anya and Faesol these past months, she wasn't sure but she liked to think that the group of housewives were the main cause of this change as they all greeted her happily whenever they saw her, but most likely people getting more informed about Samuel's achievements and wanted to curry favour from the Pokémon Professor.
Looking for a place to eat was surprisingly simple, as it being the weekend, most of the restaurants and eateries were already open by noon. They decided to stick with something simple and entered the first place she ate out at in Pallet.
Nick greeted them happily and told them to find any available seats and he would be soon with them. The whole restaurant was buzzing with a low drone of conversation proof of the many customers enjoying their time inside along with their Pokémon, Anya wasn't sure why, but lately this place seemed to have increased in popularity, maybe because it was one of the first place's that allowed and fed Pokémon along with their owners and trainers.
They sat down on one of the free low tables with cushions for seats, Samuel taking one side of the table, Anya and Faesol taking the other side. The layout of the place has also changed along with the setup of the tables compared to the first time they ate there, now the restaurant was equipped with multiple different type of tables accommodating Pokémon of different proportions, there were high tables, where the trainers either sat on a high chair or ate while standing, the table resembled a bar counter in height, then there were the standard tables, which were around a meter from the floor along with normal seats and lastly there was the traditional low tables that they were currently sitting at.
When Nick came to the table, he had a bowl and two glasses on one hand and the other carried a jug of water. He set the bowl for Faesol and the glasses for Samuel and Anya, he even put a straw on her glass. He took their orders and left for the kitchen.
"[Quite brave of you to take a normal meal instead of Pokémon kibble]" Anya teased Faesol who opted for a fish dish today followed by a melodious laugh like chirp from her.
"[Well, yesterday wasn't that bad]" she gave Anya her reason, she had eaten quite a lot of fish on top of the sushi pieces. "[And I feel I can understand Human food a bit better]"
"[It's okay, I understand, I think its nice that you would try new stuff]"
Samuel was quietly listening them converse from the side.
It didn't take too long for the food to arrive, she was quite glad that the names of the foods were simplified and to the point, she still remembered wondering about the previous food names. Anya had ordered a standard salad that had nuts and oran berry chunks mixed in along with a sweet salad dressing. Faesol had ordered a fish dish without additions, Anya didn't exactly know what it was, she believed it to be a cooked Magikarp filet or something similar. Samuel had ordered fried meat strips with rice and a sauce.
They started eating and Faesol soon said her opinion of her dish being okay but not as good as the cold cuts from the sushi. Something about not tasting the hot food properly and she left it to cool down for now.
"Oh, look at the time!" Samuel exclaimed in surprise as he took a look at her watch. "Anya, we better get going, are you ready soon?" Anya tilted her bowl showing him that she was already done with hers and she indicated with a small nudge of her head towards Faesol who has finally started munching on her fish. Faesol's eyes were closed to slits projecting a sense of happiness as she took a bite of her food.
Samuel gave Anya a soft smile. "Well, maybe we can wait for a while"
