Head Nurse Lily Joy adjusts the towel wrapped around her hair as she steps out of the bathroom and feels her stomach growl at the smell of dinner cooking in the kitchen under the watchful eye of her partner.

  Unfortunately it’s not ready yet and neither of them like it when the other hovers around in the kitchen, so the Joy tries to subtly breathe through her mouth before easing herself onto the couch with a groan and the crackle of joints.

  Lily glares at her knees, massaging them and intentionally ignoring all the aches and pains caused by her three day excursion to the shrine.

  She’s not that old.

  Sure, when she first started doing this it didn't hurt at all, but she’s barely over forty! Her body is just whining.

  But at the same time, it wouldn't be so bad if Ninetails was slightly more accommodating with checkups. This strange seemingly random rotation of solstices, equinoxes, quarter days, and a handful of scattered days that drift based on the lunar calendar, makes scheduling anything with the ‘mon a nightmare.

  It’s that chaos that led to the trainee learning about the family secret, something that hasn't left Lily’s mind since the moment she saw the girl.

  She’s far too young to understand the seriousness of the need for secrecy.

  The stray thought that Head Nurse Elba took on her as a successor to the job when she was that age whispers to her, then the realization that she is now the same age as Aunt Elba hits her like a slap to the face.

  N-Not only the trainee’s youth, she’s a trainer! Refusing to give her family legacy her full attention is a sure sign that she won't understand the seriousness of this. Because if she understood exactly how important their family's work is she wouldn't be distracting herself by playing trainer.

  But even as she thinks all that, her mind flashes with the memory of the trainee approaching an enraged Ninetails, tails twitching with agitation and a snarl on her teeth, only to reach out without hesitation.

  ‘I’m here to help.’

  After a moment, Lily squints and sits up straight to think her way through the cognitive dissonance, and as she does she sees the waxpaper package sitting on the coffee table that the girl had shoved into her chest before sprinting out the door just as the elder Joy had been heading out to attempt to impress upon her the importance of secrecy.

  She’d said… something about Venessa asking her to deliver it, but the girl was speaking too quickly and it came out garbled, so that’s all Lily knows.

  Looking at it for a moment, the need to distract from the gnawing hunger in her stomach has her pick it up and carefully begin to unwrap the package.

  Peeling off the pieces of tape one by one, Lilly eventually begins unfolding the paper to see…

  Her hands freeze as she catches sight of the unmistakable faded green quilting she’d formed her fondest childhood memories wrapped in or sitting on.

  Hurrying to unwrap it further, she tears the last of the waxpaper off then holds Grandma Gee’s big blanket out in front of her, feeling the rough yarn scrape against her hands and memories in a way only this old thing could.

  As the blanket unfolds she hears something hit the floor and, looking down, sees an envelope covered in hasty squiggles.

  Placing the blanket in her lap, she picks up the envelope and turns on a tableside light, only to see the writing is more blurry than normal, but that clears up when she blinks a few times.

  …Vee’s handwriting hasn't gotten any better.

  Squinting, she eventually picks out where each character starts and ends to figure out the message.

  ‘Happy (event where it’s appropriate to give a gift) Lil-L! Sorry it’s early/late! I keep forgetting to send it!’

  Lily huffs a laugh, carefully peeling the envelope seal to open it without damaging the paper and unfolding the sheet of paper within.

  She’ll have to thank Amelia for delivering this.

  —--

  –_–

  —--

  Even two days after the hotspring, as Amelia bounces her leg as she sits in an unused empty exam room, she still finds herself thinking about the level of special treatment they think she gets. It’s hard not to when every time she checks into her room in the evening and eats from the complementary breakfast bar in the morning, she’s getting the treatment they claimed was special.

  Sure she’d always been aware people are on average nicer to her family, in history classes at school there was almost guaranteed to be at least one paragraph talking about the Joy clan in every chapter, so she knows that until three hundred years ago members of her family were outright immune to being charged with a crime in certain parts of Hoenn. It’s the same reason that if a Joy needs to go to court she’s not required to stand when the judge enters the room.

  At times she felt like she was going paranoid, the thought popping up every time someone waves at her or opens a door to let her in. Questioning whether they would have done it if she didn't have her last name.

  Thankfully, most of those thoughts were driven from her mind lately, replaced with something much more urgent. With the return of Head Nurse Lily, Amelia’s proctored tests and exams for this center had been scheduled.

  There are no practical exams this time, but the written test had her frantically reviewing everything that this exam will be testing for with the aid of her much less anxious partner.

  But in the end, after days of studying in every spare moment, she’d entered this room three hours ago, sat down, and took the test.

  She thinks she did well, she’d completed it half an hour before it was supposed to be done and she had an answer to every question.

  But while Nurse Lily had gotten… marginally nicer to her since helping with Ninetails and promising that she understands not to say anything about the family secret, all that disappeared the morning of the test, making it feel like there’s more on the line here than just a bad grade.

  With the test done technically she’s allowed to leave, but with this level of anxiety if she leaves all she’s going to do is be anxious about the results somewhere further away from finding them out.

  So here she sits, waiting.

  …

  There is no clock in this room so the ticking sound is purely her imagination, but it sure feels like it’s real.

  The faint scratching of pencil on paper, however, is real.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Amelia kicks her leg and spins around in her seat so she’s looking at her partner. It’s hard not to see the ‘mon, she’s occupying a solid quarter of the room, scratching away at a floating sheet of scrap paper and pencil provided for the test.

  The math for calculating aura interactions is the kind of thing that straddles the line between medicine and physics, to which Amelia found particularly annoying but her partner took to like a second nature, so most of the study time in the past few days was actually just that practice math.

  “So…” She says slowly. “What are you up to?”

  “Chansey.”

  The trainer blinks.

  “...Drawing?”

  “Ans.”

  “Since when can you draw?” Amelia asks, standing up and moving toward her partner.

  Chansey doesn't respond or give any reaction when the trainer smooshes into the ‘mon’s bulk to get a better look at the page.

  Sure enough, it’s just… doodles. Nothing outstandingly good or bad, just a bunch of little figures that–

  “Oh! Is that me!?” She asks, pointing at one of the scribbles, and before her partner answers she can feel the amusement in the hesitation before the ‘mon shakes her head.

  “Ch, chansey chan ansey an an.”

  “Oh, and I assume that’s a completely different Taillow over there too?” Amelia laughs, shoving off her friend’s bulk and walking back to her chair, glancing at his pokeball on her belt, laying on the desk. “Actually. Speaking of Taillow. You’re sure you’re alright with letting him run point this time?”

  With the gym challenge tomorrow, she’d suggested that Chansey hang back and for Taillow to take the lead as far as he can take them through the gym. Only after Taillow is tapped out will Chansey get to battle.

  She’d not… expected Chansey to make much of a fuss about it, but she’d expected something, instead all the ‘mon gave was a muted acceptance and moved on.

  This time is no different, Chansey glancing up from her page and giving the closest thing to a shrug her body allows.

  “Chan. Chansey ch.” She says, then pauses and indicates Taillow's ball. “Chansey?”

  The question has Amelia grimace.

  “Yes, the drills we’ve been running have been to counter the two badge team you found on file. But…” She sighs. “...Does that feel like cheating to you? Knowing the team feels like an unfair advantage.”

  “Chan ans chanchan.”

  “Oh sure, ‘think of it as payment.’” Amelia huffs with amusement. “You know you sound really shady when you say stuff like that?”

  The attempt at a joke has her friend looking rather confused for some reason. But before the ‘mon can say anything else the door opens, letting in Nurse Lily with two manila envelopes in hand.

  The sight of the beige paper has all thoughts leave Amelia’s mind, falling still as the nurse closes the door and looks at them both, attention lingering on the younger Joy.

  “These are your test results.” She says sharply. “You may keep the cover sheet with your grade, but the remaining test material is for review only. Do not discuss it with each other and return it to me before you leave the room. Is that clear?”

  “Yes Nurse.” Amelia says back as quickly as she can without slurring her words or shouting, then almost rips her envelope from the woman’s grip and flips it open to the first page.

  Her first thought is that she got five questions wrong.

  Her second is that it’s out of one hundred fifty.

  She passed!

  The Joy hisses a cheer through her teeth and pumps her fist, looking over to her partner and realizing at the last minute she should not be doing that.

  Thankfully, as she turns back to her own page, she sees Chansey meet her eyes and give the smallest of nods.

  Flipping through the test to figure out what she got wrong, Amelia quickly memorizes the questions, pockets the cover sheet, and flips it closed. But as she gets up and hands the graded test back, the Head Nurse clears her throat and looks past the far wall as she hesitates to take the offered papers.

  “...I will admit Amelia, I had made certain… assumptions about your character when we first met.” She says, mouth twitching as if she’s struggling to say the words. “However, your conduct has proven my assumptions incorrect, and should you choose to be stationed here when you graduate I would be happy to have you.”

  The nurse in training blinks, then smiles as she releases the envelope.

  “Thanks Aunt Lily.” She says professionally, then laughs. “But I’ve still got a few more days here, plenty of time to mess this up!”

  Lily raises an eyebrow imperiously, but the corners of her mouth twitch.

  “I reserve the right to retract my offer at any time trainee.”

  —--

  –_–

  —--

  “You ready Taillow?”

  At his trainer’s question, the first answer crowding out his mind is no.

  No of course he’s not ready, the last gym leader he’d seen fight threw around enough electricity it almost beat Chansey. If this gym leader is even a fraction as strong he’s going to become ash.

  But as he sits on his friend and trainer’s shoulder, he realizes the fact he knows what fractions are means that he’s different than he was before.

  He’s learned, and trained, and battled, and trained, then trained some more, he’s been drilled on so many aspects of how to fly in a fight he dreams about radial momentum and engagement distance to speed ratios.

  Amelia gives compliments and encouragement like they’re nothing, but the last big training day they’d had Chansey said his flying skill was ‘adequate.’

  Adequate!

  If his trainer had asked if he was ready right then he would have said he could have beaten the entire forest!

  But now…

  The ‘mon shuffles on his talons, forcing himself to look at the big building where the fire gym is as he tries to find that same energy within himself to say he can.

  But all he finds is fear.

  After a moment he looks over the single large eye his trainer has pointed at him from where he’s perched on her shoulder, then back at the building.

  Chansey had already gone into the building, to sign them in and to ‘check up on how the staff had taken her advice.’

  “...Maybe Chansey should take the lead actually. I don't think–”

  “Aw come on! You can do this! I know it!”

  Taillow can only shake his head and look away, struggling against the thundercloud of fear in his chest.

  As long as he can remember his first reaction to something new or unknown is fear, and he hates it.

  He hates being so afraid.

  But that’s who he is, and he can't change that. It’s who he is, and because of who he is, he cant–

  “Hey.”

  His trainer’s voice cuts through stormclouds, almost forcing his eyes to open and meet hers as she continues.

  “I wouldn't have asked you to battle with me if I didn't know we would win.” She says, the quiet intensity that’s always sitting just beneath the surface coming to the fore, stronger than ever. “If we go in there, we will win.”

  Staring into the human’s eyes, Taillow is entranced.

  Because as he watches, something within shifts and glitters, barely restrained by the body it’s contained within as it flares with every word, reinforcing those words with such certainty it’s like the outcome is already chosen.

  It looks almost like a fire.

  And through that fire, he hears just one question.

  “Are you ready?”

  The fear isn't gone, it’s stronger than ever, but stronger than that is his partner’s conviction, so certain in his victory that there’s only one answer.

  Taillow feels himself nodding, and in a blink the fire is gone.

  Amelia smiles.

  “Alright! Let’s do this!” She cheers, pumping her fist.

  And as they walk up to the door to the gym, Taillow is forced to silently wonder what in the world that was.