FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Liam used to be a trainer. Long ago and far away, when the Pokemon Journey was first introduced to a young and naive little boy, it seemed to be the only goal worth aspiring to. Those first few months, gamboling through the woods and meeting all kinds of amazing creatures, were a core memory that still made him smile, even now as an adult. He was prepared to build a team, to take it all the way to the championships.

But then, he washed out.

He washed out hard.

All the lessons and TV shows and books and movies and breathless tournament coverage did not prepare young Liam for the realities of Pokemon combat. The ever-mounting stress of watching creatures one has bonded with, their friends, getting hurt and hurting others. The constant strain of being looked to as the sole voice of authority, navigating the violence in real time. The burning knowledge that every single failure to navigate put one lower and lower on the rankings, while ultimately resulting in the same panicked run back to the nearest Pokemon Center.

That was forever ago. Nowadays, he lived a significantly quieter life. Now, he worked the graveyard shift of a Pokemon Mart in a town three stops in to the standard Pokemon Journey. The store was busy, generously, for about two weeks out of the year, when the newest crop of ten-year-olds came screaming into town, on their way to the next Gym. Tonight was not within that two-week window. Around now, the season was wrapping up, which meant that the only people who ever came in were locals and the occasional bug enthusiast who never left the nearby forest. Even then, they only ever came in during the day; on a given shift, Liam would be lucky if he saw four people in total, including whoever he was taking over for and whoever came in for him in the morning.

Of course, there were downsides to working in a League building. Especially now, during the championships. Liam was required to keep a television screen on, at all times, running highlights from the day's battles. A never-ending feed of Pokemon fighting and shouting and getting hurt. He had learned, for the most part, to ignore it. Besides, he was a grown man: the sight of a Pokemon getting beaten up only occasionally caused him to have an anxiety attack, now.

He was about halfway through his second magazine when the two other people he would meet that night wandered in. Well, one person and a Pokemon, to be more accurate. A tall and well-dressed man, only a few years older than Liam, passed through the door and into the shop. Next to him, about four feet of bipedal rabbit gripped his hand, with all the joyful earnestness of a girl on a date.

“Hey, welcome in," he said, closing his magazine and leaning against the counter. “Anything you're looking for?"

“A bunch of stuff," the man replied. “It's okay, I know where everything is." Looking down to his Lopunny, he said “I'll just be a minute, Jez, and then it's back to the office."

“'Kay!" Jez replied, in a bubbly accent of Pokemon speech that Liam had never encountered, before. While her master went off to comb through the aisles, she padded her way to the counter. “Like, hey there, Mart guy."

“Hello." Liam always made it a point to say hi to any partner Pokemon that came in. Strictly speaking, he was supposed to greet the people who came in, not the Pokemon. He did not believe that. Talking to the Pokemon was probably the best part of an otherwise very unengaging job.

Jez giggled. Then, looking up, she spotted the television, which at that point was playing something from the semifinals. She gasped. “Ohmigosh, it's him!" She pointed excitedly, as the trainer on one side called out a different Lopunny. “It's Midnight! I've been following this guy on the circuit since, like, he was just a lil' baby Buneary, you know?"

“Yeah, that's..." Liam looked up at the screen, winced, and then looked away. “...that's definitely another Lopunny."

Jez clapped her paws, excitedly, her eyes glued to the screen. “Go, Midnight! Woo!" Looking back, she grinned at Liam. “He's gonna tear through the tournament. I just know it, you know?"

Liam sighed. “Yeah, no. I'm sorry. I can see why you'd think so, but I don't really think he's gonna win." Jez's expression slackened, into something like disbelief. Liam, not understanding what that meant, pointed in the direction of the screen and explained. “Look at him. He's terrified. The last round he was in was as close as these fights can get, and now that he's facing off against Powers, he's feeling the pressure. And his trainer doesn't see it; she thinks he can do just about anything, at this point." He ventured a look up at the screen, but the fighting had already started. Liam looked away as soon as the opposing Croagunk's fist got too close to Midnight's body. The crowd on screen burst into a cheer. “If he doesn't pull himself together, soon, he's gonna slip up. Maybe even in this fight, but if not... definitely in the next one."

He was expecting an objection, or an argument. Instead, Jez only stared at him, wide-eyed, as if he had just said something impossible. Dumbly, she looked over to her trainer, and that's when Liam noticed that he, too was looking at him with marked interest. Nervously, he looked from one to the other, before saying “Did... I say something wrong?"

“No, no, it's fine." The man walked up to the counter, with Pokeballs and candy bars in equal proportion. “Don't mind Jez. She can be a little scatter-brained, sometimes. Forgets what she was doing, things like that."

“Hey!" Jez looked up at her trainer, grumpily. “I do not forget stuff! My mind's like a steel trap! Made of Steelix! A Steelix trap!"

The man chuckled, putting a hand on Jez's head and scratching her scalp. She tried her best to pretend like such an action didn't have an immediate pacifying effect on her. Looking to Liam, the man said “Sorry if she's been a handful."

Liam shook his head. “Not at all, sir. I've definitely had rowdier fans in here, before. Is this all you were looking to get?"

“Yup."

“Okay. Gimme a second to ring you up, then."

What followed was a transaction, no different than all the other ones he had dealt with. A pleasant wave, a “enjoy your night," and soon he was left alone, prepared to spend the rest of his night alone. On the screen above him, the match had long since drawn to a close.

Midnight lost, apparently.

Outside, the older man spent no time at all, opening the wrapper to one of the candy bars. Eagerly, he brought it up to his mouth, but before he could bite down Jez called out.

“Master!"

The man paused, looking over to Jez. He said only a single word, “Yes," before opening his mouth and once again attempting to take a bite of his chocolate.

“Master!"

“Yes, Jez."

Jez was positively ecstatic, hopping alongside her trainer, rather than walking. “Master! Master Master Master Master Mas...!"

“Jezebel?" the man barked, stopping in mid-stride to stare at her. “Yes. I saw the same thing you did."

“He talked to me!" Jez clasped her hands together, beaming. “Like, really talked! He didn't do that dumb trainer thing of, like, just guessing what I was talking about, y'know?"

The man sighed, realizing that he would have to close the wrapper for a moment. “Yes. It has been a while since we encountered another one. I wasn't expecting to run into someone like him in a place like this."

“So we gotta go back, right?" Jez grabbed her trainer's arm and pulled him towards the Mart. “You gotta go offer him a job or whatever."

“Jez, that's not..." The man sighed, pulling away and out of the Lopunny's grip. “That's not how we do things, okay? We can't just hire the man on the spot because he can talk to Pokemon. We don't even know if he'd be a good fit for the company."

Jez stomped one of her feet. “Like, what do you mean? Why wouldn't he be a fit for..." She paused. The wheels in her head turned slowly. Then, she flinched. “Ohhhh... you think he might not be... like, down for the, like... things we do."

“I don't know if he'd be 'down,'" the man answered. “That's kind of the whole problem. Not a lot of people are okay with the Underground, and we can't just assume he's gonna be, just because he has the talent."

“Well..." The Lopunny put her hands on her hips and looked back in the direction of the Mart. “...well, I think he'd get along, like, super fine."

“Because he's cute?" asked the man, sardonically.

“No!" Jez shouted. Then, more quietly, she added “Not entirely because he's cute."

The man chuckled and shook his head. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he said “You may very well be right, Jez. We just need to learn a little more about him, before we start trying to poach him from the League."

Jezebel continued to stare at the building. Her eyes narrowed in concentration, the wheels in her head turning.

The man knew from long experience not to trust that look. “Jezebel? What are you thinking, right now?"

She turned to her trainer and said “I forgot." Then she shut her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

The man rolled his eyes, taking her by the hand. “Come on. We'll have plenty of time to figure out what to do with our new friend, later. For now, we gotta get back."

“Kay!" Jez ignored the proffered hand, instead snaking her fuzzy arm up to link in to her trainer's. She smirked up at him, before resting her head against him like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. The man shook his head, but let it happen, happy to finally have an opportunity to eat his candy bar. Little did he realize, however, that while she was resting her head against him, her expression was that of a rabbit in diabolical thought. If Master needed to know more about the human in the Poke Mart, then she could think of a few ways to figure those things out...

* * *

The Poke Mart was open twenty-four hours. Liam's shift took him to just about the break of dawn, at least at this time of year. Looking out the window, he was pleased to see that little lightening of the sky that told him that the sun, and his replacement, was due to come around soon. He busied himself by doing all the things that his manager expected him to be doing, all night. He wiped the counters, stocked the shelves, and made sure that he remembered to unmute the television. Around this time, all the feed showed was old pundits talking at length about the latest season. Apparently they had some former champion in the studio, not that Liam would recognize him.

With how small the store was, it was a short job to make sure everything was in order. He was just about done, when he heard the sound of the doors sliding open, behind him. “Oh!" Turning around quickly, he smiled. “Welcome in! What can... oh!" His smile widened, as recognition hit. “Hey! You're back."

Jez smiled and waved. “Yeah. Hello, stranger, and all that junk."

Liam looked behind her. “Where's... where's your trainer? Did you guys need to come back for something?"

The rabbit shook her head, her hip-length ears flopping about a foot behind with the motion. “Master's, like, back in his bed right now. He came out here to try and indulge his, like, major sweet tooth, and then it was back to Snoozeville."

“You..." Liam looked concerned. “...you're out here by yourself?"

“Aww. Are you, like, concerned about me?" Jez chuckled, then puffed out her chest. “Don't gotta worry about me, little man. I may not look it, but I'm championship material. Not a lot out there that'd be able to put their paws on me."

Liam's expression softened. “Okay. I mean, you do look pretty strong."

“That is..." Jez continued, an impish grin on her face as she put her paws behind her back and pushed her chest in Liam's direction. “...unless I, like... want their paws on me, y'know?"

The young man's brow knitted. He was not sure how to interpret that, and so decided to let it just pass. “So," he said, “what's brought you back? What can I help you with?"

Jezebel smirked, to herself, but recovered quickly. “Oh, right. I guess I oughta, like, stop wasting your night. C'mere." She grabbed his hand and started to drag him to the snack section. “Master has his midnight snack cravings and, like, I have mine, y'know?"

“Uh..." Liam was too unsure of what was happening to resist the pull. Looking among the shelves, he scratched his head, with the hand that wasn't currently being gripped in a surprisingly strong paw. “All right. You're after a snack? Okay, that's good. We've got all kinds, here as... as you can see."

“Like, I know. I was hoping you'd help me find something special, y'know?" She joined him in looking among the selection of snack foods. “Master always goes for sweets, but me? I prefer something salty, something savory. You know..." She made a show of counting off some examples. “...like chips, or pretzels, or cock, or semen..."

Liam's heart skipped a beat, and he nearly leapt out of Jezebel's grip in a scandalized panic. “What?" His face turned a sudden and marked shade of pink. “I-I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

It was all she could do to keep a straight face, to continue to feign innocence even as she dropped any pretense at subtlety. “Oh, yeah, right, totally! Like, they say that cum's, like, good for a shiny coat or whatever? Like, I don't think any, like, doctors or anything say that. I think it's just common knowledge and junk, you know? All I know is, I can't sleep at night, unless I know I got somebody off, during the day. It's, like, my 'raisin deeter,' y'know? And, like, I'm not gonna lie: feelin' someone's cock empty itself down my tight little bunny throat makes me feel fucking invincible. You ever gone off in a girl's throat, mister?"

There were no words. Liam was hard-pressed to even form a coherent thought, in the face of a bald-faced confession, like that. When he finally managed to speak, it was not in complete sentences. “What... why... I don't... why would you say something like...?"

That was enough to get the rabbit to crack. If there was one thing that kept her going, it was orgasms. If there was a second thing that kept her going, it was the look on an innocent creature's face as they came face to face with what Jezebel was really about. There was no denying that Liam understood every word that came out of her lips, and as much as her trainer warned her against doing so, seeing a human blush had a nasty tendency to make her want to press her luck.

“Nah, I don't think you have," she said, turning him so they were facing each other. “You strike me as the kinda guy who's totally thought about it, but never asked. I bet you've got too much respect for women to ask them for something so embarrassing." Chuckling, she stepped forward. “You got a girlfriend, champ?"

Liam stepped back. “N-no. No, I... I don't."

She took another step forward. “What about a boyfriend?"

Liam continued to retreat, a noise in the back of his throat that was probably a denial.

“That's good. 'Cause I'm, like, a lot of things, but I'm not a homewrecker, y'know?" Suddenly, she pushed forward, putting her hand on Liam's chest and advancing. Liam, in a panic, backed up until he hit the front counter. Jez pressed up against his body, staring up into his eyes with a wolfish glint in her eyes. “What do you say, human? Do you want to go off in a girl's throat?"

Liam's heart pounded, his mouth agape. Jez was waiting for one of several responses. A stuttering refusal, a rebuke, hands on her shoulders and a stern “where is your trainer..." there were any number of ways this could have gone wrong. Instead, Liam said “Is... is this a dream? Am I dreaming?"

Something warm and hard pressed against her chest.

She smirked.

* * *

Liam never got a straight answer, as to whether or not he had been dreaming. If it was, it was one of the most vivid dreams he had ever had. The air conditioning on his bare thighs felt so real, as did the soft and velvety paw that burrowed into his boxers and gripped at his erection. The pounding in his chest was definitely real.

“Why are you doing this?" He felt himself asking, as his eyes wandered to the world outside.

“Master doesn't think that, like, you'd be into something like me," Jez explained, her eyes lighting up as she fished him out of his underwear. “But, I mean, like... look at you, y'know? This is definitely what interest looks like."

“Ah!" Liam squirmed, against the counter. “No, that's... It isn't like that, I..."

The rabbit made a noise that, for humans, would be akin to a shushing sound. “It's all right, human. I know you're good people." As short as she was, her face was just about level with his crotch. She demonstrated that by bringing her face in and rubbing her cheek against his twitching member. “The fact you can understand what I'm saying proves you're not just one of those guys, y'know?"

“What do you...?" Liam was mostly stalling, when he tried to ask that question. Not that it mattered, because he only got halfway through before she opened her mouth and descended upon him.

Jezebel resented the accusation that she was scatter-brained. She had no problem focusing, whenever it was on something important. When it came to oral, she considered it to be very important. The moment she decided she was going to get somebody off, it was a point of pride that she do it in the best possible way. She was the picture of concentration, as she bobbed up and down on Liam. Eyes closed, large ears taking in every breath and moan. Sure, there was the taste of human pre, the heat and the texture on her tongue, the sheer raw invincibility she felt whenever she had someone by their bits... but to let such things distract from one's goal is the mark of a weaker cocksucker.

Of course poor Liam, who had only ever experienced the occasional awkward makeout session in his life, was not prepared for that level of dedication. In fact, the effect was very much akin to being thrown into an arena with a champion tier Lucario and expected to survive ten rounds of boxing. Any thoughts he might have had about whether this was okay, or whether anybody could see them from the open windows just to his left, or just how many laws he was breaking by letting this happen... none of that seemed to matter at the moment. All he could do was brace against the counter and surrender himself to the passing of that velvet tongue, the pull of her little mouth.

After a moment, she pulled her head off of him, looking up into his eyes. “If you want to put your hand on my head that's, like, totally cool," she said, almost conversationally. “You can even push me down on you, a bit. I don't mind."

“What?" Liam shook his head. “N-n-no, I couldn't do that. What if I hurt you, or...?"

She chuckled. “Ohmigosh you're like, freaking adorable. Okay, like... don't push or nothing, but go ahead and just stick your hand between my ears." Her expression got mysteriously husky as she explained “Makes me feel sexy, y'know?"

“O...okay." Liam did what he was told. A part of him did not want to, knowing that once he did, she would go right back to sucking him. Another part of him was desperate to feel that wet warmth on his cock, again, and would have done just about anything to keep it going. Sure enough, Jezebel wasted very little time, only pausing to shiver before opening her mouth and going down on Liam with renewed vigor. In fact, vigor was an understatement; ferocity might have been a more accurate way to describe it.

Liam threw his head back, eyes wide as if fearful of what he had just set into motion. He was riding on the edge of oblivion faster than he'd ever known himself to be able to. A dumb, animal instinct told him to try and hold back, to try and stave off the inevitable for just a few... more... strokes...

The first kick actually surprised Jezebel. She had grown far too accustomed to males that were more “battle hardened," in a manner of speaking. She had been expecting that she'd have to work a little harder, before her mouth started getting filled, and yet... here it was. Hot seed painted the roof of her mouth, pooled in her cheeks. Without thinking, she lowered herself further down, and began to swallow.

Liam twitched and writhed. Were it not for the rabbit attached to his hips, he might have squirmed his way to the floor. For what felt like an eternity, he would not stop. The shop simply ceased to exist, reduced to a little point between his legs. When he finally found the strength to control his limbs, he found himself curled inward, hand clenched into the fleecy fur of the Lopunny.

He flinched, releasing her head. “I-I'm sorry. Did I pull your fur? Did I... I..."

Jezebel pulled her head up, releasing his cock with a wet pop! She kept her mouth wide open for Liam, showing him that any trace of his orgasm was now in her stomach.

Liam looked down at her, dumbstruck.

She giggled. “Now that's a midnight snack," she declared. “So much healthier than chocolate." With a sigh, she pulled herself back. “You know... I like you."

“What?" Liam scrambled back into his pants, despite the sensitivity in his shrinking cock. “What do you mean, you like me?"

“Oh, right. My bad." Jez patted her head, in mock-chastisement. “Normally you tell somebody you like them before you suck them off. But it's true. I don't care if Master thinks you'd be a good fit or not, I'm giving you his card." With that, she pulled her left ear towards herself. Running her fingers through the large, cottony ball at the end of it, she dug out a business card and offered it to Liam. “Here. Consider this a job offer. Or, like, an interview invite? I dunno how business stuff goes, y'know?"

Liam looked from the card, to the Lopunny. “You're... offering me a job? Doing what?"

“A little bit of everything," she explained, unhelpfully. “Master does good work with Pokemon, and to help him out he's always looking for people who treat Pokemon good." She could see Liam hesitate, at that, and so in response she shook the card in his face. “Go on. Like, take it. It's better than the night shift at a podunk Mart, I can, like, totally guarantee that."

Liam did what he was told, and took the card. He still stared into Jez's eyes, perhaps convinced that there was still a chance she was a dream.

Seeing that there was not a whole lot else to be done, and that the sun was more or less up, at this point, Jez waved and said “All right. That's me done, then. Thanks for the snack, human. Oh and, like... good luck and junk."

She walked out the door and around the corner, and once Liam could no longer see her, the spell she had over him lifted. He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair, said a handful of very choice swears and then double-checked to make sure there was nothing on the floor that would get him hit with a public indecency charge. He checked the stock, momentarily convinced that this was an elaborate ploy for the Lopunny's friends to engage in shoplifting, while he was distracted.

Eventually, he thought to look down at the card he was given. On it were the words “Patias Underground Media, LLC." in crisp, professional letters. A watermark of a Pokeball sat in the bottom right corner. There was a phone number and an address.

Around that time, his replacement came in. He shoved the card into his apron pocket, valiantly pretending like it was just another day at the PokeMart. Then, he made his retreat, off into the streets and towards his little apartment.

* * *

The building he lived in was old, but well cared-for. At dozens of points in its history, the tenants had gotten together to try and keep it in good repair. It was billed as a sort of bonding opportunity between residents, their neighbors, and their partner Pokemon. Liam had never really taken part. All he knew was that the place was cheap, and that so far nobody had thought to ask questions about his Stoutland. That last bit was especially important, and he would consider himself a lucky man if he never had to explain why.

As he opened the door and stepped into his living room, he could hear the old dog from all the way down the hall. It was hard not to. Stoutland snored like an Exploud with a nasal issue. Shutting the door behind him, carefully, he set about opening the curtains and letting the morning light in. Things felt far more normal, in the light of the sun. Liam could almost forget that he'd just had a Lopunny in his lap, only a few hours ago.

Almost.

Almost.

Eager for more semblances of normalcy, he glided over to the kitchen to make breakfast. He glided, perhaps, a bit too fast, as his foot caught against... something in his living room, and he found himself clattering the rest of the way there.

“Whuzzat?" came the cry of alarm from the bedroom, followed by a thundering of paws and braying howls. “Intruder! The house is under siege!"

“It's all right!" Liam called, to the swiftly approaching mass of heavy fur. “It's all right, Stoutland. It's me. I tripped."

The message reached the dog's ears just as he skidded into the room. Stoutland blinked, a bristle in his loose jowls as recognition struck. “Oh. It's just you." His mood soured, as it often did when he realized that he was not destined for battle. “You really ought to clear out some of this junk, you know."

Liam sighed, looking past the Stoutland to the collections of boxes that took up the bulk of his floor space. “Yeah. I'm working on it."

The old dog snuffled. He'd heard something along those lines for years, now, and the pile had only ever gotten larger. He was not the kind to press the issue, however; the only fights he cared about were physical. Instead, he settled for the typical grumbling of a dog pulled from a good nap. “Yeah, well... I was havin' a good dream, too. Can't remember what it was about, but it was good."

“Sorry." Liam motioned back towards the kitchen. “Would it make it up to you if I put on some extra food for you?"

Stoutland squinted. “Some of that fatty meat?"

“You mean bacon?"

“Fancy names be damned, Liam! It's meat and it's fat; do you have any of it?"

“You know, that stuff is probably not good for you. You really ought to be watching what you eat."

“Bah! You humans and your medical talk. Fatty meats have kept me as mighty as ever." With that, he turned and began to waddle in the direction of the front door. “Now let me out, real quick. The Growlithe next door thinks he can mark our yard in the mornings and I won't notice."

Liam sighed, walking past the dog to the door. “We have a dog door for that, you know."

“Dog doors are for Pokemon that just have to take a piss," Stoutland insisted. He stared out into the sunlight with a look of grim determination. “_I'm _going to war."

With that, Liam was once again left in silence. Or, at least, he was for all of five minutes. Turning back into his kitchen, he quickly threw on some breakfast (or, given his work schedule, dinner). By the time he had things on a plate, the sound of two dogs having a spirited shouting match floated in from outside.

“Get out of here, you old fart," came the cry of a Growlithe, muffled by the glass of a bay window. “Don't you dare mark Master's flowerbed!"

“Cry all you want, puppy!" Stoutland growled back. “There is no honor for the honorless!"

Liam found his hand in his apron pocket. Absently, he pulled out the business card and looked at it. Then he found himself remembering who gave it to him, and how, and he immediately regretted his decisions. Tossing the card onto the counter, he shook his head. Whatever job the Lopunny was offering, he was not about to touch it. Not when she had been so vague about what he would be doing. He did not even want to guess, though that was mostly because thinking about it inevitably meant having to think about the best blowjob he'd ever had in his life.

“No! Damn you, Stoutland!"

“Gra-hahahaah! The flowerbed is mine, puppy!"

In a bid to distract himself, as he waited for Stoutland and Growlithe to finish their near-daily pissing contest, Liam wandered back to the living room and started rifling through his things. There was a lot of stuff that he had kept over the years, not because he wanted to, but because the thought of throwing any of it away only ever seemed to occur to him when he was in no position to do so. There was a lot of stuff from his old home, stuff from before he went on his Pokemon journey. A bunch of old workbooks, sketchpads with amateurish doodles of his team. A Pokegear whose battery had long since died. A battered backpack, singed and torn in the aftermath of one particularly panicked retreat from...

A small plastic container fell out of the bag, clattering onto the floor below. In the center was a divot, that at one point held the League insignia. Liam's stomach flipped, as he stared down at it. Putting the bag down, he slowly bent over and reached for the case. It was large enough to fit comfortably in the hand of a child, and built sturdy enough to handle a career spent surrounded by fighting Pokemon. He knew what this case was. He had spent hours on end looking inside of it, in his tent out in the woods. He told himself he would never look inside of it, ever again.

He saw his fingers working the catch that held the lid of the case closed.

“Hey!"

Liam jumped, wheeling around to see Stoutland standing in the door frame. The dog looked up into his eyes, a deep and severe scowl on his wrinkled face.

The two of them stood there in silence, for a moment. Liam put the case down. “I'm sorry," he muttered. Then, he turned towards the kitchen. “There's bacon ready for you, in here."

“Excellent!" Stoutland pushed the front door closed with a back paw, whiskers twitching with contentment. “The neighbor has been sufficiently suppressed. For now, at least. That dog has more spirit than sense."

“Yeah," Liam replied, too distracted to even chastise Stoutland for antagonizing the neighbors. Allowing himself one last, brief look at the case, he followed Stoutland into the kitchen, muttering to himself “Today's been a long day..."

* * *

Liam went to sleep around the time most of the rest of the town was having lunch, and climbed out of his bed around the time that other people were preparing to climb into theirs. Liam could take or leave the night shift. Certainly, there was an appeal to having the streets to himself. Much of the town, built as it was around itinerant trainers and the odd hours they keep, did not sleep. It did, however, get noticeably quieter. Usually, Liam had long stretches of sidewalk, blocks and blocks, where the only noise he heard was the sound of his shoes on the pavement or the cry of a distant nocturnal Pokemon. It was nice. Quiet. Contemplative.

It meant Liam was alone with his own thoughts.

That last one was the “leave" part, when he said he could take or leave the night shift.

As he got about halfway between his apartment and the Mart, he found himself affirming that he was happy with where he was. Sure, he missed out on a few things, and his job has some ups and downs. But who cares? He had made peace with the fact that he was not going to be a League champion, long ago. Super long ago. An age ago. He was an adult now, with a job and bills and everything that came with that. He was part of the overwhelming majority of people in Patias, the people who actually had to keep the region running while starry-eyed kids sent their Pokemon off to fight for glory and riches.

And sure, things could have been better. If he had gotten a few more badges, he might have been able to pick up a less... drudge-filled job. He might have been happy working for the Pokemon Center, or one of the Labs, or any one of the other jobs that demanded that applicants demonstrate proficiency with Pokemon...

He stopped walking, just around the corner from the Mart.

He looked up at the night sky.

He once again affirmed that he was happy, where he was.

Rounding the corner, he passed the automatic doors into the building. There, he saw something that made him stop, once again. The general manager, a smartly dressed middle aged woman, was behind the counter, staring at a monitor in the corner. Next to her was the person who worked the shift just before Liam, a furiously blushing lady just a bit younger than him. The two of them turned, when he entered. The younger woman seemed almost horrified. The older had a look of weary decision on her face.

Liam was not the smartest person, but he could connect the dots pretty quickly, when it came to what people were thinking. His heart began to hammer in his chest, as the manager began to approach him. Almost instinctively, his head turned to the right, and he began noting the locations of all the security cameras. He remembered exactly what that monitor was supposed to display. Despite that, he heard himself saying “Boss? What are you doing here?"

The manager folded her arms, took a deep breath, and said “So, we got some complaints."