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Thank hell he didn’t take that quick smoking break when he heard a voice suddenly call his attention—but he wasn’t exactly mentally prepared for what would happen next. He was secretly thankful he had a major case of poker face, otherwise he’d have let his annoyance flash on his face—but he had to keep his cool, keep his patience.

He blinked a few times as he caught the empty containment unit and then proceeded to follow the traditionally-dressed man (although he couldn’t deny that those piercings and that tattoo he briefly caught sight of seemed to radiate otherwise) and then came the rest of the furious… wait a second. What?

He could only look on in silence as he followed the other into the cave proper, walking silently behind him—and basically taking what was being dished out in his direction, making him blink for a few seconds as he listened in complete silence. He was really itching to trow a witty comeback; but well, words were failing Lars at that very moment and he didn’t know why that was the case.

I actually have my reasons for leaving Hoenn… not only that, I know I failed my team back home, and I only bargained for Suijin before I left. I’m not that pretentious, I just prefer to keep this look I have because you could say I’ve seen quite a lot of things back home. And to be honest? I don’t want to fail all over again. Call me a man-child if you must, but again, I have my own personal reasons for going on another journey in a foreign region altogether… he thought to himself before they eventually came to a much larger portion of the cavern and saw a boat.

Hopefully they didn’t have to go across the water and deeper into the cave for this attempt. Nodding quietly and concentrating on listening to the natural sounds within the enclosed area after the terms and conditions have been laid down; he kept his eyes peeled for a few moments as he walked forward a few steps before coming to a stop, looking around as observantly as he could.

It didn’t take too long for a scuffling noise to make its presence known; and his head turned slightly to the left (as that was where the noise was coming from) before he saw…

He very nearly blurted out a name he thought he’d all but forgotten but caught himself just in time—it was a Bagon!

At the sight of the Dragon-type, he was sorely reminded of his own Salamence back in Hoenn, who was most probably chilling with the rest of his team with his siblings who were acting as their caretakers while he was away. Lars couldn’t help but crouch down—eventually deciding to sit himself down on what he knew was a rocky cave floor and leveled an even-eyed stare at the Bagon, blinking every few moments or so.

He already had an idea of how rough-and-tumble dragons were, and this particular line was no exception to it—he could still remember the time he spent with his old Salemence, having endured more than enough of his fair share of Headbutting shenanigans the Bagon line were prone to whenever they were incredibly frustrated.

He chose to look intently at the Bagon for now, as he was still trying to compose himself—how was he going to do this without having to resort to using another Pokémon in the process?

Okay, maybe not saying anything was a little too overwhelming to the Dragon-type that had appeared in front of him was a bit of a stretch.

He heard his companion begin to talk about some of the traits that this particular Bagon had, but it wasn’t too long before Lars noticed that the Pokémon had quite literally frozen up and was attempting to look for a way out of the extremely awkward situation. He realized that he had only one chance and decided to take the plunge no matter what would happen.

“H-hey there,” he began softly, before clearing his throat and speaking up. “I… I may not know why you’re feeling extremely embarrassed around other people, but… you want to know how I got this scar?” he began quietly, before raising up his bangs and showing the Bagon the vertical-shaped scar that almost cut into his right eyebrow.

“I’ve taken care of another Bagon similar to you back in my home region; and boy he was a handful, let me tell you. He was pretty stubborn, always Headbutting me whenever he wanted attention and to be noticed… kind of like my Mudkip companion right now. I really want to introduce you to him, but that’ll wait until later,” he continued, looking evenly at the embarrassed Dragon-type who was still trembling and pretty much caught between a rock and a hard place.

“I know you want to fly; and it’s incredibly frustrating being stuck on the ground, landbound until who-knows-when. There’s so much more waiting in the world outside, and I’m game to show you everything there is. The good, the bad, the ugly… just basically, everything outside of the cave. Someday, I know I’ll return to this city, and eventually challenge the Dragon-type gym here. And I want you to be beside me, together, for the entire journey…and beyond. There’s so much more in the world outside, and I’d do anything, everything to show you and help you grow into one of the best there ever is… if you’d allow me,” he went on, blinking as he needed because holy shit his eyes were starting to water from holding that look in the Bagon’s line of sight.

Should I risk it? No wait, I definitely should… he thought to himself before slowly, carefully extending his left hand—as his right hand still held the blank containment unit (and he wasn’t too sure if holding that hand out instead would be such a good idea this early on in the game) and that hand was settled comfortably in his lap.

Much tempted as he was to break out into some cheesy opening line of a song that had chosen the completely wrong time to just pop up into his mind as he slowly stretched his hand out for the Bagon to observe, or sniff at, or just basically try to Headbutt him if ever (knowing his luck it was probably the last option but he was willing to take the pain just for that), he held strong and waited for the other’s reaction.

“I can show you the world.”

That… took a most unexpected turn.

He could only blink and watch out of surprise as the Bagon not only ran past him but had latched onto Mateo before eventually feeling a powerful impact on top of his head. He let out a surprised yelp of pain before a blur of white and light-blue had tumbled down right into his lap.

Instead of running away back into the darkness of the cave, though, Lars blinked again as he saw that the Bagon was now refusing to look at him and was…trembling in his lap. He was surprised that the other hadn’t run away at this point, because he was pretty certain he’d messed this all up. It was then he heard the other’s advice, and then realized—hadn’t he been doing the reassurance thing all along with his younger sister and youngest brother back home?

It’s definitely worth a shot… I mean, he didn’t mean to hit me on the head by accident… oww, that really hurt, but I’m used to this. Might as well… he thought to himself as he ignored the throbbing pain atop his forehead and very slowly, extremely carefully and gently picked up the Bagon (never mind if he was going to get his hands bitten off, he was literally throwing himself head-on into actual danger here) and embraced it. He didn’t know if that was in the rules or no, touching the Dragon-type before it was legally caught, but he was literally going to throw everything out on the table at this point.

He didn’t know if the Bagon was trembling in his hold or not, it was time to whip out the pillows (figuratively) and go into full comforting mode. “S-sorry if I scared you. But… isn’t this a start, then? I know you didn’t mean to hit me on purpose, but…” he began, before he had a flash of panic rip through him. What if touching the Dragon-type wasn’t allowed? Oh, shit, what if I get this wrong?! He thought to himself, still holding the Bagon close to himself.

“I may not know what happened to you before, but please don’t be afraid of me. Or of everything else around here. Do you want to take things slowly, because I can definitely do that. I just want you to know that, whatever you do isn’t going to get you in trouble, Like, that was an accident earlier, you, falling on my head? I know you didn’t mean to do that. I’m sorry if I scared you. Heck, I’m not even a telepath so I don’t know what’s going on in your mind, but… I want you to know that you’re not as worthless as you present yourself to be. I know because I speak from experience myself…” he tried again in a much quieter tone while gently rocking the Dragon-type in his arms.

“I can help you overcome your problems. I didn’t have help while I was struggling with mine, but seeing you like this, I want to help you. Would you let me guide you? I have experience… and while it’s a long and tough road, I’d never leave you hanging. I’ll always be here to guide you, no matter what happens. If it’s good, or bad… everything’s a learning experience… we can learn from each other,” he added a few moments later, all the while making calming noises as he spoke to the Dragon-type.

“If you need to cry, you can. Don’t worry about that, it’ll help me understand you better. If you want to talk, you can. I promise to try my best in understanding you…”