Ch. 65
#70 of True Confessions of a Trainer
Trainer
As annoying as it was for poor Tempest, our competitor was a no-show that night. Something more important to do? Too drunk and forgot? Didn't think they had it in them? Her frustration was a physically tangible thing, but it didn't take too long to hug it out once time had been called and we won by disqualification. We weren't the first team to move forward that way, but most of the others had happened in the first round. Still, I wasn't upset about the girls getting more rest, or having the extra free time that night.
But that did leave us at loose ends for what to do at the moment, with everyone a little too keyed up to just go relax. No time like the present, I suppose, to put a few laps in and burn off the anxious energy we'd been holding on to since that afternoon. It didn't take too long to find our way, the signage guiding us below decks to the gym.
It had plenty of amenities, but I'd kept it light. It gave everyone a chance to burn off some of the tension, and it was nice to have a bag to hit instead of whatever tree was handy. Easier on my bones, too. For my part, I'd done my usual circuit, running into calisthenics into high intensity striking. Enough to work up a proper sweat, since I wasn't the one carrying us through the tournament. It felt good to get back into it, and better that I didn't seem to have much trouble in doing so. I was worried I'd lost a step, but clearly I'd done anything but.
It was nostalgic, honestly. And by the time I'd started my third set, I realized I was being watched, Tempest and Claire both taking it in. They'd never seen me train before. Not in a good facility for it. We'd just gone with whatever patch of dirt we had. So I explained a little about how I was moving, why I was doing what I did. The girls joined in, as best as they could. Different, for those of us on four legs, but the same idea, the same general theory even if the execution was wildly different. Balance, strength, flexibility, and the ability to explode out of unusual postures.
Cocoa impressed me. She'd put in more work than anyone along the way. Perhaps she thought it was the only way to keep up, but by the time we were done, she was right up there with Tempest while everyone else had begun to flag. I didn't remark of it openly, but held her back afterward to help me pick up and wipe down the equipment we were using. We'd walked out together, a little time to just stroll hand in hand, before heading back to the room.
"I'm proud of you." I said. Hardly the first time I'd ever told her, or any of the girls that. We'd found our way back to the top deck, overlooking the partiers, the pools, and all the fun. Isolated, this time of evening. Most folk were either eating, or down below drinking and dancing. "I just wanted you to know it. I'm proud of you, and I love you." I repeated, kissing the top of her head. It was a gentle gesture, a promise of deeper affection, but still chaste enough it could have been brushed off.
I wished we could find a place where I didn't need to worry about what anyone else might have thought, or seen. This wasn't that place, however. She'd have to settle for it, for the subtle squeeze of my arms around her. I'd have to settle for it. For now. Until we were alone again, at least.
The evening breeze was cool, and with the sweat I'd worked up even a bit too much. But her embrace was a warm place to be. Her cheek against my chest, gazing up at me. Silent, a little teary-eyed. So I held her close, swayed slowly with the rhythm of the music below, danced with her beneath the stars. We didn't need another word between us. Not right then.
Just having her close was everything to me right then.
Cocoa
He'd put us through our paces, alright. Found myself shakin' like a leaf by the time we were done. Ached somethin' fierce, but we got through it. I got through it. Helped him pick up, an' figured we'd be right behind the rest, goin' back to sleep in a little early. Boy always loved bein' up with the sun an' the spearows. Loved it about him, even if the others grumbled. Early up, an' quick to get started, felt a little like home.
But there we were, his bein' sweet on me fixin' to make me cry, an' all I could do was hug him tight. Oh, he was always proud of us, always tellin' us how much we meant to him, but somethin' about tonight felt different. Felt special. Kept me there just to say it to me. Just to hold me an' love me, an' make sure I knew it. As if he'd ever skipped a day in tellin' me. Goodness, but he made me feel like a girl again, right down to the butterflies and the nervousness as though it were my very first time.
An' he was proud of me. Nobody'd ever been ashamed of me or the like, but he was proud of me. Proud to be seen with me. Hand in hand, or holding me close. Weren't shy about that at all. Wasn't just there, or somethin' fun to tumble behind the hay bales. Ma'd warned me about that, too. About bein' with someone who didn't seem to want anyone to know they were with me. She'd be happy to know it weren't like that. Arceus knows I was. He was proud of me, and proud to be seen with me.
I was proud of me, too. Spent a lot o' time thinkin' back to how I was when we first met. Couldn'a even walked beside him, an' I just got through one o' his workouts. Weren't easy, the way he made it look, but I got through it all the same. An'... an' here an now was why it was worth it. Arceus, but I loved the boy. With all my heart. Would'a given him anythin'. Anythin' a silly farm girl could'a.
I loved him, an' I wanted him, an' it ached in my chest to want to show him just how much I needed both. How much I needed to show him just how much he meant to me. An' I would, next chance we got. Surely as a sunrise.
But here an' now... this was enough. This was plenty. I just wanted him to hold me. Needed to hold him. Needed him to know how much it meant to me to be with him.
Claire
I had some catching up to do. Maybe I took it for granted, the way I was. Yeah, I could burn the whole place down if I wanted, maybe just tear it open with my mind if I tried. But I wasn't the way Tempest was, or the way master was. I couldn't lift the way he lifted, or punch the way he punched. It wasn't ever a problem, and he never seemed to have an opinion on it either way. Did his best to teach us all within what we could really do.
And it was that thinking that I had been wrong about. If Cocoa could do it? I didn't have an excuse. I'd been too soft. Too complacent. Master deserved better. So I pulled Tempest aside before we made it back to the room, and... begged. Not that I had to, but I couldn't help myself. I begged her to teach me how to throw a punch how to kick. How to do any of the things he could do. She could do. Cocoa could do. Any of the things I never put that much thought into.
Her grin was a little unsettling, and she agreed far too readily. I loved her, and I trusted her, but I also wondered what I just got myself into. It was clearly something she'd already been thinking about, by the way she took my hand and immediately led me back to the gym.
I might have wished I was a little more specific on when. I was already a little worn out, but she still had energy to burn, and we were about to burn together. I could tell by her grip, by the way she looked at me, she wasn't about to let me off too light. I reminded her about the tournament, and she just grinned that almost mean grin she had when she was absolutely sure about something. "Don't worry. You won't have to do a thing tomorrow. It's on me."
I'd have to catch up, to where he was. To where they were. To stop resting on my laurels and work for it the way they did. I owed him that. I owed myself that. If she thought she could handle tomorrow, I could handle tonight. I had to. I owed it to him. I owed it to myself.
So we trained. Away from the others, she and I trained together in the dark and the still of night. And I worried for later for the first time since we departed. Was I going to be strong enough to help us through the fights? Was I going to be enough? Would I falter because I hadn't been taking it seriously the way Cocoa had? I didn't want him to rely on me only to let him down when he needed me.
I had underestimated her, or overestimated myself. Or both. She deserved the time she was getting with him. Deserved it, and earned it, and I wouldn't ever suggest otherwise. I had work to do. And I was grateful for my lover, so fierce, so relentless. I was grateful she was pushing me. Exhausting me. Teaching me. She'd worked just as hard as he did, and was putting in extra time for me now.
We made each other better, one day at a time. Tonight that meant I was going to practice this punch, again and again, until she was tired of teaching me. Of correcting me. She'd teach me, the way he had. One motion at a time. Until it was instinctive. Until it felt as right as breathing. Until I made it as much my own as my tail.
I was already tired.
Sybil
I wouldn't have interrupted, if I'd had any other choice. The miltank needed him, his affirmation, his touch. I could see it in the way she held him. The way she looked at him. I wouldn't have interrupted, but I didn't know if I had minutes or hours before she realized what I'd done. I wasn't going back. I refused to go back. Not one more night of it. So I approached them. Apologized, and interrupted.
She'd be furious. Drunk, and furious. I'd stolen her tablet, figured out how to unlock it. Stupid bitch set her pin to one, two, three, four. I guess it made sense. She'd never remember anything more complicated than that, most nights. But I unlocked it, and went through the steps to release myself. Unregistered her as a trainer, too. Threw it overboard when I was done. A single little splash lost amid all the sounds of the ship passing through the night. Threw it, and her tragic 'career' as a trainer into the ocean. Wish I could've tossed her behind it.
What ever. She wasn't my trainer. Hadn't been for a long time. She was a drunk, and a whore, and she was too busy being sandwiched between two guys and filmed by another to even know the difference. So I just handled the paperwork for her. One last favor in a long and unhappy relationship. I was free. I was free, and Yveltal could take her for all I cared anymore. It wasn't my problem. She wasn't my fucking problem.
"I want you to take me with you." Simple, to the point. "I want you to take me with you, and I want to see how far we get. I'm yours, if you want. But I'm not going back to her, either way. So, what's it going to be?"
The miltank shrugged, looked up at him, and winked. "Seems you two have a bit to talk about, sugar. Don't be too long, okay? I wanna get a shower with you tonight." As easy as that, let us have a moment alone. Divine Dialga, but that's what I needed most right then. A little time. I could have kissed her. I owed her one, for sure.
So I explained to him. Everything. How she acted, how she treated me, how I got away, what I did. I confessed to all of it. Fumed and raged and was about scratching a hole in the railing when he stilled me with one gentle hand on my cheek. And then he explained to me how I'd wandered myself into a world of trouble. A world of trouble that somehow seemed less of a problem than the one I just left.
If he thought I'd change my mind, he had another thing coming. I heard everything he was saying, and all I got out of it was he actually could use a girl like me. More than just as a fuck buddy. Really could stand to have me around. Not that there was anything unappealing about the other half of that, exactly. But it was nice to think I'd have a little more going for me than that.
Trainer
I wasn't sure what I had expected, really. I knew she was in a rough place, but I'd never actually seen a pokemon run away from a trainer. Oh, you hear the rumors, absolutely. The cautionary stories, even a news article every now and then. But being front row to the show was not something I'd ever expected. I felt awful for Sybil. If the little glimpse I'd had was any reflection of her day to day, it was no great mystery why she wanted to leave.
She also had no idea what we were up against. So I explained it. Who we were running from. What the vacation really was. That he'd be trying for my life. For hers, too, if that's what it took. That all our training and all our battles hadn't been 'just for fun' in a long time. That we didn't have that luxury anymore. That if she was with me, she'd be in danger, too. I tried my best to dissuade her, but she only grew more and more adamant about coming with us.
She insisted, waved her claws in front of me, pointed out that she could see in the dark. Made a pretty compelling argument for it, too. It was a little troublesome, if we got caught it'd be a huge problem, maybe. But on paper, she was a free pokemon. The trainer couldn't necessarily prove anything, and I knew it. And I didn't want to see her go back to that environment, either. She also promised, for what felt like the twentieth time that night, to do anything for me, the insinuation as obvious as her claws, and delivered with a confident, almost selfish smirk.
In for a potion, in for a revive, I guess. Sybil was my problem now.
So it was, back to the room, with trouble in tow. Helena was waiting at the door, and sized our new housemate up immediately. "I thought I felt something bothersome was happening." She said, after a sigh. "You gonna bring every stray you find home?" She teased me, with a wink as she turned and walked into the room ahead of us. "Bed's made up, but you need a shower, fucker." She teased me, with a nod to the bathroom door. "Cocoa's waiting."
It was with no small measure of relief that I gave myself the luxury of thinking about it all later. Dug a pokeball out of my pack and handed it to the weavile. "Think it over." I'd said, but she had hit the button herself before I could even finish the words. She'd made up her mind, and that was that. For now, I had a shower to get, and a miltank to enjoy it with.
Helena
One of the worst things about being an absol is feeling it coming. It was a troublesome thing. I could feel the anxiety she was going to feel that she didn't yet. I could feel the worry he didn't know he was going to have yet. I could feel the trouble before it came. And I could have told him what I was feeling. I could've. I didn't. He asked me not to. Not unless I thought he needed to know. I didn't know what it all meant, but it wasn't anything too terrible. Nothing worse than we were used to, at least. So I let it go. Tried to focus on the other things I could anticipate tonight.
I envied Cocoa, a little bit. But I hated being wet, it took forever for my fur to dry, so the shower was their domain as far as I was concerned. But I envied the way he was being made to feel right now. I envied the way I could hear him, faintly, over the water. Hear the ways she clearly knew what she was doing. Her little laughs and giggles, the sound of a slap, and her moan at it. She liked being spanked. I'd have never put up with it, myself. Oh, I'd let him do a lot of things to my ass, and the filthy fucker knew it, and loved doing it. But the rough stuff was for someone else. No, we fucked like lopunnies and I was never shy about letting him drip down my legs, or roll him over my tongue after, but the rest of it was someone else's mess to handle.
Made me grateful for Cocoa and Claire. They took the brunt of that side of him, and clearly enjoyed doing so. Meant I could just do the stuff I wanted to and not think about the rest. We all basically got to have that with him. What we wanted. He wouldn't have asked for anything more, but it was good to know that all the weird shit he was into was well handled even if it wasn't me doing it for him.
But, and maybe it was a bit mean of me, I wasn't about to let on to our troublesome new friend. I couldn't imagine what she thought she was going to get, but if she was going to ride on his back, and ours? I'd make sure she knew it wasn't a free ride. Nobody takes advantage of him. Not while I'm there to look after him. I knew he'd bring her home, too. Soft touch he was. He'd feel sorry for her, and take her in out of the rain. And it wasn't her fault, exactly. I got that. Nobody runs away from something they enjoy. It must have been bad. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to make it up to him. Fucker. It was like looking after a little brother sometimes. A little brother who believed a lot better of the world than actually existed most of the time.
Sybil, huh? That's fine. You're his, and you'll have to play nice.
But that was a problem for tomorrow. Tonight, I just wanted to sleep. I think he would agree with that. Once Cocoa was done tiring him out.
I couldn't believe she still had the energy to. I saw the workout she'd put in. She really was a masochist for him, wasn't she? Guess that explained why she loved it so much when he spanked her, in the middle of being anything but gentle from behind her. He'd made her legs shake in the gym, and was doing it all over again now. It was impressive, in a kind of obsessively servile sort of way. No wonder she was getting to be in such good shape.