Stella was a pretty happy person. She saw the bright side in every situation, tried her best to bring a smile to everyone's face, and lived for the chance to find something cool and new and exciting each and every day. She was determined to make each day even better than the last, and nothing could stop her.
Until, of course, something did. Currently she was staring down that something in her bedroom, as she stretched out across her bed. "You," she declared, gently poking the lazy Purrloin's chest, "are insurance. Wait, that's not it... What's the word again...? Oh, never mind, you're never any help," she grumbled, irritated by his constant judgmental stare. She rolled over instead, reaching for a pen to write in her diary.
~
Whether she was with Fey, or her parents, or someone else entirely, Stella rarely went out by herself. There were actually some perfectly good reasons for that: put simply, her forgetful and trusting nature made navigating the city streets alone rather dangerous if she was by herself. Even she understood that it was incredibly easy for her to get lost. But she had a Pokemon now, even if he was kind of a pain to deal with, so everything would be fine! Okay, maybe she was kind of sneaking out of her home without permission, but she would be fine. Really, her biggest worry was that Nathaniel would be the one to make trouble with his thieving habits.
The sun was starting to set, and the sky was a fiery reddish-orange. It was her second-favorite time of day, just after the sunrise, and her favorite color of the sky. She passed by street signs and shop windows, not quite paying attention, when something occurred to her. "Insufferable," she declared triumphantly, pausing to make eye contact with Nathaniel. "That's what you are. You're insufferable."
Often, when she remembered her abilities and focused on them, Stella thought of them as more a burden than anything else, because she was perfectly aware of how smug her companion felt at the moment. Lately it had sort of felt like she was struggling to accomplish anything, all because he seemingly made it his sole purpose to make her life difficult.
It was these distracted thoughts that led to one wrong turn, and then another. She continued walking, not really caring where they were headed, until she stumbled into someone. It was a few moments later that she realized, and a few more before she noticed that her hand was empty and her pocket was a little lighter. Had that stupid Purrloin made off with her wallet?
She didn't know which way he had come, but didn't care to think about that. Instead she ran off in a random direction, figuring that it had as much of a chance to be the right one as any other. She wasn't keeping count, but it was probably a few minutes before she saw anything familiar - Nathaniel, running in the opposite direction, seemingly pursuing someone.
Stella shifted directions, trying to catch up to her Pokemon, but he seemed to remain three steps ahead no matter which way she went. Eventually, however, he came running towards her, leash trailing behind him and now absolutely covered in dirt. He hadn't quite managed to stop in time, so she was knocked back onto the ground, but reached for the leash with a sigh. "What was so important, anyway?"
He presented her with not just her own wallet, but another as well. As she realized the details she had missed, she could tell exactly what he was saying - that was definitely odd, but she wasn't really paying attention to it at the time, a little more concerned by the obviously stolen item in her Pokemon's paws.
'Only I'm allowed to steal from you!'
"Okay, put that down," Stella ordered, because she didn't really want to send him chasing after whoever had stolen her wallet again, but she definitely didn't want to get in trouble for having a stolen one herself. Nathaniel hesitated for a moment before dropping it, but he did drop it, and she supposed that was the important thing.
It was a few more minutes of idly wandering the streets that Stella realized how late it really was. Oh, she was in so much trouble... "Let's go home. Maybe Mom will take pity on us."
~
There was no such pity from her parents, if only because she had beaten them home by half an hour or so despite how late it was. She found herself sitting on her bed, diary in her lap and pen in her hand, after a shower to get rid of all the dirt she had gotten all over herself and her clothes in her chasing after Nathaniel.
"You know," she began, voice uncharacteristically quiet. "We're... Supposed to be a team, right? But we haven't been acting like it. At least, I don't think so." She realized, after a moment, that his usual judgmental stare and indifference were absent. Instead, he actually seemed to be paying attention. "I think maybe we both need to do better. We're partners, aren't we? So I'm willing to try harder from now on if you are," she declared, holding out one of her hands. "What do you say?"
There were a few brief moments of uncertain silence before Nathaniel reached out one of his paws, and put it in her hand, as it expecting her to shake it - which would have been a fair assumption, because that was precisely what she did, while thinking of how to tell her friends about her latest adventure.
Maybe, for the moment, she'd just keep it to herself. That seemed like a good idea, actually, because she definitely wanted to avoid any lectures about things like responsibility.
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