Autumn: I'm really not ready for anything more intense than kissing. I want to, I'm just not there yet.
Also Autumn: So I want to tell you about this sex dream I had about you!
Obviously those aren't like mutually exclusive and everything but I really get what Nix means about mixed signals...
A vibrator comes onscreen in the latter half of this. It's not used for its intended purpose, but it exists. There's also some frank discussion of sex.
There is no actual sex scene in this chapter.
Sunlight streams in through the window of the trainer dorm, falling across Autumn's face, and she groans and rolls over.
Morning already, huh...
She sits up heavily, blinking away the fuzz of last night.
She kissed Nix.
A smile leaps to her face, and she ducks her head a little, then glances over towards Nix's bed. It's empty. Nix stands in the kitchen in her slacks and strappy top, something sizzling on the stove in front of her. She has a spatula in her right hand, and a small saucer and a larger plate stacked up with slices of bread on her left.
Autumn blinks. "... egg sandwiches?" she asks.
Nix looks back over her shoulder and smiles. "Kalos toast!", she replies. "I felt like making something special to, um, commemorate the occasion."
Autumn laughs. "All we did was kiss, you know, it's not - um..." She ducks her head. "You know."
"Yeah," Nix admits. "I do kind of see what it looks like." She blushes a little and looks back at the stove.
Autumn pushes the covers off her, and pads over to the kitchen in her bare feet, her skirt swishing gently. She comes up behind Nix and looks over her shoulder at the Kalos toast in the pan. "It's nice to see you cooking for once," Autumn says. "It seems like I make all the meals around here lately."
Nix blushes and dips her head to her chest. "I, um, yeah..."
Autumn blinks. "What?" Then she registers how close she's leaning in. Nix's neck is right there -
She flushes as well and takes a step back. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to - get up in your personal space -"
Nix shakes her head. "No, it's okay! I liked it."
Autumn blinks. "Really?"
Nix nods firmly. "Really."
Autumn looks over and surveys Nix's back. Quite a bit of her shoulders is exposed by her strappy black top, and the curves of her hips are clearly visible at the top of her slacks.
It would be so easy to just step in a little and wrap her arms around Nix...
Autumn looks away. "I... Okay. Okay, okay, okay." She runs her hands through her hair and sits down on Nix's bed heavily. "Keep cooking, please, I just - need to sort something out real quick."
Nix gives Autumn a look over her shoulder. "... Having thoughts?"
Autumn blushes, and nods.
"That's fine," Nix says. "I'm having them too."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "It's just... I've never done any of this before, and I'm scared of - going too fast, or not fast enough, or just - doing something bad for you - or -" She wrings her hands together in her lap. "I don't know how any of this works."
Nix looks back at her frying pan and flips the Kalos toast. "I..." She runs a hand through her hair. "I wouldn't mind, as long as you didn't jump straight to groping me or something..."
Autumn squeaks. "I wasn't thinking of that!"
Nix ducks her head. "I'm not saying you were, but if you had been that would be okay too. It's just... There's a time and place for everything, you know?"
Autumn nods. "So if... If I were to come up behind you and... Hold you, softly..."
Nix moves the slice of Kalos toast from the frying pan to the plate by her left. "I wouldn't mind at all."
Autumn looks at Nix's back, and takes a slow breath. It's hard to feel safe to try, but - Nix already said it was okay. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure." Nix dips another slice of bread in the egg and milk mixture and puts it into the frying pan with a hiss.
Autumn stands up, and squares her shoulders. Her heart's hammering in her chest, but - Nix wants this, and it's - just a hug, really. Just a hug.
She takes the step into the kitchen, moving into Nix's personal space. Nix's gaze stays on the stove, her hands preoccupied with the Kalos toast.
Gently, Autumn presses in from behind Nix and pulls her into a soft embrace, her hands carefully placed just above the top of Nix's slacks. She holds her for a moment just like that, then carefully lowers her chin to rest atop Nix's bare shoulder. Their bodies touch, warm firmness against each other.
Nix goes still. "Autumn," she says softly. She takes a slow breath, sets down the spatula, and turns off the heat for the stove.
"Nix," Autumn replies. Nix's neck is right there, but the tiny distance between it and her lips seems insurmountable. So she kisses Nix's shoulder instead, just at the widest part of the blade.
Nix closes her eyes and leans slightly backwards into Autumn's embrace. She smiles.
"... I..." Autumn bows her head and kisses again, following the curve of Nix's shoulder blade, a little closer to her spine. She rests her face gently against Nix's shoulder, her hands pressing against her skin. "... Nix?"
"Yes, Autumn?" Nix smiles slightly.
"... I think I love you," Autumn says. "I..." She lowers her head and kisses Nix's skin again, just gently. "Spending time with you is... precious and wonderful. You've helped me again and again with so many things. I trust you, and... I think you trust me too. There's been so much we've gone through together, and even if it's only been a few weeks, well... the date at the aquarium really clarified things for me." She bites her lip. "It's normal to love your girlfriend, right?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "It is." She looks down at Autumn's hands on her stomach and takes a slow breath. "... I think that..." She bites her lip. "I think I love you too."
Autumn rests her chin against Nix's shoulder, and presses her in close, and smiles.
"... We said it," she says. "It feels like it took forever to get here."
"Yeah," Nix murmurs. She smiles slightly. "I love you," she says, as if trying out the words. "I love you, Autumn."
"I love you too, Nix." Autumn blushes and kisses Nix's shoulder again, her mouth a little closer still to her spine. She's pressed in so close against her, and - the thought of moving her hands, just a little -
She traces a slow line with her thumb against Nix's hip, and kisses again, closer to her neck, and Nix sighs and trembles in her hands...
Autumn kisses again, and again, her mouth running away with her, her lips moving into the crook of Nix's shoulder where it meets her neck and then higher, pressing against her bare skin -
Nix flushes hard and presses back against Autumn, her breath a little unsteady. "Autumn," she sighs.
"Nix," Autumn replies, her mouth parting from her skin for a moment. "It's not - bad, is it -"
Nix shakes her head. "No, not at all, but... The Kalos toast is going to get cold..."
Autumn considers for a moment, then kisses Nix's neck again. "I don't care."
"Alright," Nix says, and leans her head away from Autumn's mouth, exposing more of her neck.
Autumn kisses again, and after half-dozen more presses of her lips she's brave enough to nip gently with her teeth. Nix sighs hard again and presses back against her, and Autumn finds her hand roaming up Nix's side, caressing gently, her fingers greedy for more of Nix's skin -
Nix's eyelids flutter and her head lolls back against Autumn's shoulder. "Autumn," she says with a hitch in her breath. "I - I love you, Autumn - "
Autumn closes her eyes and rests her mouth in the curve of Nix's shoulder where it meets her neck. She squeezes her close against her, feeling the warmth and firmness of her body in her hands and against her front. "I love you too, Nix," she murmurs.
Nix smiles, and rests back against her. "Wow," she says. "I didn't expect this this morning."
"It's - good, right?" Autumn asks.
"Yeah," Nix says. "It's good." Her hand falls onto Autumn's, which has crept slightly up her side beneath her halter top. She squeezes. "Do you... want more?"
Autumn looks down as if just now realizing where her hand is. "I..." She bites her lip. "It was - really easy to keep kissing, once I started... And the way you, um..." She ducks her head. "The way you move and sigh against me is really, really hot."
Nix chuckles lowly, breath escaping her. "Yeah, it's... easy to get carried away once you start."
Autumn nods. "Kiss me?"
Nix turns her head and offers her lips, and Autumn meets them with her own, once, twice, three times, her breath unsteady. The angle is a little awkward, but the sense of straining to connect just makes each touch more precious.
"This..." Autumn says softly. "... This is really dangerous."
"Yeah," murmurs Nix. "The fun kind, though." Her lips quirk up. "Do you want to stop for now?"
Autumn considers for a moment. "I..." She looks down over Nix's shoulder, and blushes. She's got a front-row seat to Nix's cleavage, and with her pressed so close against her... "I think I'd like to have breakfast."
"Probably a smart idea," Nix admits. She looks back over her shoulder. "Could you let me go and I'll warm up the toast again, then?"
"Yeah," says Autumn, and carefully lowers her hands from Nix's body and steps away. Sitting down on the side of Nix's bed, she takes a slow breath and tries to suppress the movement of her eyes towards Nix's ass.
Nix starts the stove again, and the click of the sparker gives way to a whumph of ignition. She looks back over her head at Autumn. "You could warm the syrup in the microwave if you wanted to be useful."
"Yeah," Autumn says, getting up from the edge of the bed. She walks over to the pantry, gets down a ceramic cup and the small bottle of syrup in the pantry, and fills the cup to brimming. As she goes to put it in the microwave, chimes ring out through the room and Autumn startles, almost dropping the cup.
Nix looks over at the sound. "Was that the microwave?", she asks.
Autumn shakes her head and sets the cup down inside the microwave. "It's my pokétch. It's..." She looks down at the smartwatch's display. "It's my mother."
"Oh." Nix rubs the bridge of her nose. "She really doesn't know when to give up, does she?"
"Should I answer?", Autumn asks. Her heartbeat rushes in her ears, sweat prickling across her body.
"I wouldn't," Nix says. "She can leave a message if she really wants to say something to you. I would have blocked her number as soon as we left Petalburg, but..."
"Yeah." Autumn looks down at the watch as it chimes again, and takes a slow breath. "I don't want to talk to her."
"Then don't," Nix says. She offers a hand to Autumn.
Autumn nods, and fumbles at her pokétch with her other hand. With a handful of taps, she declines the call and blocks her mother's number. Then she crosses the small space between her and Nix and hugs her fiercely around the waist.
Nix stiffens, then brings her hands down onto Autumn's back and holds her softly. "Careful there," she says.
Autumn peels herself off of Nix and takes a breath. "Yeah," she says. She takes an unsteady step back and sits on the side of the bed again, the syrup in the microwave forgotten. "I - this is crazy. It's like - what if she calls again? From a different number? Am I going to have to - deal with a crazy stalker for a mom?"
"I think you're jumping ahead a little there," Nix says. "Even if that happens, we'll just take it one day at a time, alright? I'm here for you." She glances back at the pan and hastily flips the Kalos toast. "Look, this Kalos toast should be warm enough now. Have something to eat and you should settle down a little."
Autumn nods mutely from the side of the bed, her hands twisted together in her lap. "Yeah," she says. "I guess that would help."
Nix steps over to the microwave and starts the syrup warming, then plates the Kalos toast, adds a knife and fork, and passes it over to Autumn. A few moments later Nix puts the warmed syrup on the end table next to Autumn, atop a small saucer. "Go on then, eat. I'll join you in a moment."
Autumn nods, and looks down at the food on her lap. Carefully, she pours a small measure of the syrup onto her place, then cuts a small piece of the toast, spears it with her fork, and puts it into her mouth.
Her breath steadies a little as she chews and swallows, and a few minutes later Nix joins her on the side of the bed with her own plate of Kalos toast.
"Doing okay?", Nix asks.
Autumn takes a slow breath. "I don't know what she's doing, and that's - the worst part. She could have already reported me to the police. She could - I don't know."
Nix rests her hand on Autumn's wrist. "Breathe. If it happens we'll deal with it together."
"Yeah," Autumn says, and sets down her knife to hold Nix's hand for a moment. "It's not... easy at all, but... I've got you. I've got you and I'm free now. I'm not going back."
"Yeah," Nix says softly. "I've got you."
"More important than that," Autumn says. "I've got me." She squeezes Nix's hand. "That's... I thought about it really hard, when I - almost ran. I was scared that you'd end up as... just my mother all over again, someone directing my life for me, someone - making me helpless, making me small, like my mother wanted me to be -" She shakes her head. "But it's not like that. You build me up. You help me grow. You've shown me so much..."
Nix ducks her head. "Really?"
"Really." Autumn smiles slightly. "And... Just the way you kiss tells me enough about how we're going to be, in the long term. You're so careful to make sure that I'm... Not pushing, not straining, not - overtaxing myself. But... You don't turn it down either. I think we both know that... we want each other, and not just for now."
Nix smiles. "Yeah. Having the chance to share kisses with you is... Well, it's been three years for me. It's more than welcome."
Autumn ducks her head. "It's still hard to - reach out and touch you properly - to act, and not just react, but... That intimacy, that vulnerability, means something to me."
Nix squeezes Autumn's hand. "I'm glad I could give that to you. And... more than a little you're reaching out to take it yourself, now, and that's admirable and sweet."
Autumn looks past Nix, over at Selene, the stuffie Sharpedo still sitting on the bedside next to Nix's pillow. "Yeah. I think that... I think that I really like being able to reciprocate. Being able to give you something worth the time you've put into me. And it's nice to see your reserve crack a little and know that you're a little bit gooey inside just like me."
Nix smiles and nods. "Yeah. I... It's hard to be vulnerable. But everyone needs that, even if they won't - admit it to themselves. I've been missing something like that in my life for... a long time. Even though my pokémon are so good to me, there's an element of... human connection... that's missing."
"Admit it, you miss sex." Autumn's lips quirk up.
Nix flushes. "I - where did that come from?"
"It's just the obvious conclusion," Autumn says. She puts her slice of Kalos toast in her mouth and chews. "You can dress it up in - as many fancy words and cute dodges as you like - but I've never even had sex and I still miss it. I... I'm twenty-one, Nix, and I've never had a girlfriend before you, and that - comes at a cost, you know?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "I get that."
"And..." Autumn looks down at her plate of Kalos toast. "I haven't had real privacy for two weeks now, so... that comes at a cost too. It was one I was willing to pay, to learn, but..." She cuts another slice of toast and puts it in her mouth, chewing for a long moment. "That's why it's so hard to - be reasonable. Part of me wants everything at once. I'm scared, still, but - you're so good to me, and I love you, and - I don't think I'm making a mistake if I choose to... be with you physically." Autumn looks down at her plate. "I think it's a question of when and not if, now."
"Yeah," says Nix softly. "I think you're right."
"So..." Autumn says. "Let's talk about it."
Nix looks down at her untouched meal. "We really should, yeah."
"You don't have to right now," Autumn says. "I... if you want to wait that's entirely fine, I'm just... There's only so much time we have together here in Slateport, and my mother could come knocking at any moment, and -" She takes a shaky breath. "I don't want to waste any moment I get with you. It still feels like all of this could evaporate overnight, so..." She ducks her head. "Even though I'm scared, I want to... try."
"Okay," Nix says. "Let me just... finish my meal so I'm not distracted, and then we can talk, okay? I don't want you to... rush into this because you feel pressured, or... anything like that..."
Autumn gets up from the side of the bed and puts her plate in the sink. "I..." She picks up the dish brush and starts scrubbing the plate. "I know I'm going to want it eventually, so... Better to talk about it now. You taught me that."
"Okay," Nix says. She looks down at her plate and starts eating quickly, as if to catch up with Autumn. The quick motions of her fork and knife leave her silent, and for a long minute both Autumn and Nix are silent.
Eventually, Nix stands and brings her syrup-drenched plate over to the sink, and Autumn cleans it in turn. The two girls stay quiet, neither of them willing to start the conversation.
Autumn finishes the plate as Nix watches, then sets it back in the cupboard and turns back to her. "I..." she says. She offers her hand to Nix.
Autumn and Nix step over to the side of the bed, and sit down together, still holding hands. Autumn looks Nix in the eyes, and Nix glances away.
"I... Should probably pick up some condoms," Nix says quietly.
Autumn blinks. "- Why? ... don't tell me you're trans as well."
Nix shakes her head and suppresses a laugh. "No, I haven't had a dick this whole time. December's the trans one, not me. I just, um... It's still best practices to use a condom on, um..." She ducks her head. "I have a vibrator."
Autumn blinks. "Oh! That - does make some sense, then, yeah. Really, December's trans?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "I'm surprised you couldn't tell."
"Now that I think about it, she is kind of tall and broad-shouldered for a - cis woman." Autumn tilts her head. "But her voice is pretty. She must have done a lot of work on it."
"Yeah, she always used to complain about that," Nix says. "But... We're getting off topic."
Autumn nods. "Yeah, we really are. You own a vibrator?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "Um, Marie introduced me to the idea, and - after some experimenting I found one I really liked..." She ducks her head. "It's a rabbit vibe, do you know what that means?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No."
"It, ah, has a bit that goes... inside... and a part that, um, presses up against the... outer part... so it's sort of shaped like bunny ears." Nix ducks her head. "And then the whole thing vibrates."
"Huh," Autumn says. "That sounds... intriguing."
"It's really good," Nix says, then blushes beet red and closes her mouth.
Autumn smiles and strokes her thumb across Nix's wrist. "And how would you know that?"
Nix squeaks and ducks her head. "I - Autumn!"
Autumn blushes. "Sorry, was that too much?"
Nix shakes her head. "I - no, you just took me off guard, is all -" She looks away, but squeezes Autumn's hand. "It's hard to talk about this. I'm not... It's been three years, I'm rusty at all this as hell..."
Autumn smiles slightly, and leans in and kisses Nix's shoulder. "It's cute on you."
Nix takes a slow breath. "I... Okay." She turns back towards Autumn and meets her gaze. "... Do you want to see it?"
Autumn nods.
Across the room, Ziggy hops down from the side of his bed, hits the button on the side of his Pokéball on Autumn's pack, and vanishes as the Return mechanism activates. The flash of red light illuminates the room, and both Autumn and Nix look over -
"I - " Autumn flushes beet red. "I completely forgot about Ziggy."
Nix ducks her head too. "So did I. I -" She smiles despite herself. "Yeah, I think he made the right call, we're definitely going to want privacy for this part."
"He totally heard the part about the vibrator, didn't he?" Autumn runs a hand through her hair. "Fuck, I've destroyed Ziggy's innocence."
"Somehow I doubt he had any in the first place," Nix quips. "Incorrigible bandit he is."
"Yeah," says Autumn quietly. "I guess not." She looks down at Nix's hand in hers and takes a slow breath. "... Am I rushing? I forgot about Ziggy entirely, I - if you don't want this, then we don't have to do it at all -"
Nix shakes her head. "No, that's alright. It's reasonable to... have doubts... but I think it's clear you want this."
"Yeah." Autumn ducks her head and manages a small smile.
"So," says Nix. "... Do you want to see it?"
"Yeah," says Autumn. "I think I do."
Nix stands up and steps over to her purse on the nightstand, digging deep into it and coming up from the bottom with a pink Container Ball. "I..." She sits down on the side of the bed and holds the container ball in her hands. "You're sure?"
Autumn nods. "I'm sure."
Nix unseals the Container Ball, and a tangle of black lace appears on the bed next to her. Autumn can just make out a flash of pink inside it, but the details are hidden by the pile being mostly below Nix's thigh.
Nix turns away, and fiddles with the pile beside her. "Sorry," she says, "I - didn't put this away neatly last time I, um..." She flushes. "You know."
Autumn smiles slightly. "Yeah, I know. That's all lingerie?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "I have a couple sets, just for... feeling attractive, I guess. It's been ages since anyone saw me in them."
Autumn looks over. "So is that flash of pink I see what I think it is?"
Nix nods. "Yeah, I..." She untangles a bra from the pile and sets it aside, then rests her hand on the pink thing. Carefully, she brings it into her lap, and Autumn gets her first proper look at it.
It's a hand-length, slightly curved piece of pink silicone, with a small blunt tip poking out from a bulbous end, and a smaller protrusion of half the length along the inner side. Two buttons hide almost flush against the base of the handle, half-hidden by Nix's hand.
Autumn flushes slightly. "Can I... touch it?"
"Yeah," Nix says. She reverses it, holding it by the bulbous end, and offers Autumn the handle.
Autumn takes it, and feels it in her hand. It's surprisingly heavy for such a small, delicate-looking object - the silicone is dense, and there's the weight of batteries in the lower end.
She pushes the top button, and the vibrator begins to buzz lowly. She presses the button again, and it falls quiet.
She lays the head of the vibe in her other hand, and squeezes it lightly. The silicone gives slightly under her fingers, firm yet pliant.
She looks over at Nix. "This... It's strange, it feels sort of like alien technology. The silicone is - I've never felt a material quite like this before. It has a little give, but it's firm, not soft... And the shape is... It's not exactly, um..."
"It's not shaped like a dick?" Nix asks.
"Yeah," Autumn says. "It's really not. I mean, it is - sort of vaguely phallic - but it's sort of more like a very pink banana than a - penis."
"Try feeling the vibration against your fingers," Nix suggests.
Autumn thumbs the switch again, and the vibrator comes to life with a low buzz. She touches the bulbous head of it softly, feeling the rumble of it against her fingertips. She tilts her head. "That... feels like it's got some power to it, doesn't it?"
"The motors in this are good-quality," Nix says, "and... well, they're not as large as you could get in a wand style toy, but they don't need to be when they're... precisely placed. And they're quieter, too."
"It can carry," Nix says, "But trainer dorms like these have thick walls so that pokémon cries and scuffling and all the rest of it doesn't disturb other trainers when they're sleeping. Which... Comes with some side benefits. I still wouldn't, um, full-throatedly moan, here, but..." She ducks her head. "That's not generally a problem for me."
"Yeah," says Autumn. "I'll bet you learned to be quiet in a house with three brothers."
The corner of Nix's mouth quirks up. "Yeah."
Autumn switches off the vibrator and hands it back to Nix. "I..." Warmth lingers on her cheeks. "Thank you for showing me it."
"It's... nothing, really..." Nix looks down at the vibrator in her hands. "Every girl should have a proper vibrator. It's just... so much more convenient than, um, doing it yourself."
Autumn's lips quirk up. "I'll take your word for it."
"So," Nix says. "If we're... planning on going further... We're going to need to pick up some essentials. Condoms, lube. The basics. And... I think that it would be..." She takes a heavy breath. "I'd like you to come with me when I go get those things." She looks at Autumn seriously. "I want you to - weigh it, seriously, you know?"
Autumn nods. "Alright. I'll come with you. The, um... I know the pokémon center carries both of those."
"Yeah," Nix says quietly. "It does. But I wasn't thinking of going there. There's - a chain of stores that I'd prefer to go to, if there's one here in Slateport..."
"Like, a pharmacy...?" Autumn tilts her head at Nix.
"A sex shop," Nix says. "It's called Intimate Heart. It's... queer friendly, not skeevy like a lot of sex shops can be, and I know it will stock a proper water-based lube and good-quality condoms, and... I also would kind of like you to have a chance to look at the stock and think about it."
Autumn takes Nix's hand gently. "You want to... Go to a sex shop together as a couple?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "I guess I do."
"Then what are we waiting for?", Autumn asks. "Let's go together."
Nix laughs. "There's that spluttery courage of yours again." She leans her head against Autumn's shoulder and smiles. "Yeah, there's not really any reason to wait. I just... I was kind of hoping you'd refuse, for some reason."
Autumn reaches up and strokes Nix's hair softly. "You don't want to have sex?"
Nix takes a slow breath. "No, I do, it's just... It really is a lot all at once, and I'm scared that I'm pressuring you. But you just keep saying that you're ready, that you want this. You've held my vibrator, and it wasn't familiar but it didn't scare you..." She sighs and leans in against Autumn a little more. "I guess... I'm scared of being vulnerable. I know that... if we really do go there... there's going to be no chance of my staying in control the way that I always do. You're kind and gentle but the way that you kissed me with so much hunger... I don't know if I can respond to that properly, if I can... not match you, but..." She trails off.
"It's hard for you to let go." Autumn trails her fingers through Nix's hair.
"Yeah," Nix says. "I want it. I want to be yours. I want to... have everything with you. But at the same time I'm scared that I won't be a good first time for you, that I'll steal your virginity and not give you anything worth remembering. I don't have a lot of experience, and it's been three years since I've done anything with a partner..."
"But you love me?" Autumn asks.
"But I love you." Nix kisses softly at Autumn's throat.
Autumn takes a slow breath, and smiles. "Yeah. I love you too. And I think that... if two girls who love each other and trust each other and - have good heads on their shoulders - can't figure out something as basic as, uh, how to fuck - then there's no hope for any of us, you know?" She smiles slightly. "I don't think it's supposed to be that hard."
Nix nods into Autumn's shoulder. "Mhm. Marie and me figured it out, so... We'll figure it out too. Together."
Autumn slides her hand slowly down off Nix's neck and onto her shoulder, then lower, wrapping it possessively around her girlfriend's waist. "Together." She smiles slightly. "We've done so many things together. And I think that... We'll figure this one out too."
Nix nods, and sits up. She puts the vibrator in her lap aside into the pile of lingerie, and reseals it all in her pink container ball. She looks over at Autumn.
"So," she says. "Intimate Heart?"
"Lead the way," says Autumn. "It can't be worse than Granite Cave."
Nix grins. "Yeah, I guess not."
Finished a chapter. We're at 3 chapters' buffer still.
In this chapter, there's a frank depiction of a visit to a sex shop, followed by an explicit sex scene between our leads. Maybe don't read this one at work.
After about twenty minutes of walking, Autumn and Nix turn off the main thoroughfare and into a small community towards the west edge of Slateport. There's a long row of shops along a quiet street, enfolded by houses on all sides; across the street there's a small garden around a statue of a woman feeding a Taillow, and a Paldean takeout restaurant.
Nix squeezes Autumn's hand. "Intimate Heart should be just past the general store," she says quietly.
Autumn nods, and follows Nix. As they pass the general store, Nix takes a moment to pause and point out a small butterfly in the corner of the shop window. "These mean the business is queer-friendly," she says. "I don't know Slateport very well, but it doesn't surprise me that businesses near an Intimate Heart would advertise that. We might be in a queer community here."
Autumn nods seriously, and squeezes Nix's hand back. "You said it's the next business after the general store?"
"Yeah," says Nix, and she walks onwards.
The next store has a large picture window in front, but it's completely tinted out, making it impossible to see inside. A silver design of flowering roses covers it instead.
The door in has a window as well, but it's tinted too; the same silver traceries spell out "Intimate Heart" in cursive, and below that there's a heart with a keyhole in the center inscribed on the door.
"This is the place," Nix says.
Autumn takes a slow breath. Though the area looks reasonably classy and friendly, it's still... difficult to lay her hand on the handle of the door. She looks back at Nix.
Autumn nods, lets go Nix's hand and takes the door handle. Swinging it open, she steps inside the shop.
She's immediately confronted by a countertop with a twentysomething female clerk on her right, the end of a narrow aisle filled with silicone dicks and vibrators, and a large display to her left full of different kinds of lube. The clerk looks up from the till and smiles, horn-rimmed glasses gleaming in the light, and Autumn can see there's a She/Her pronoun pin attached to her blouse just above her breast.
"Um," Autumn says dumbly. She blushes and looks away, but nowhere is safe to look. Awkwardly she steps past the cashier, putting her back to her, and walks along into the aisle full of toys.
Nix comes in behind Autumn, and nods to the clerk. "Morning," she says.
Autumn looks back over her shoulder, and takes a step back towards Nix. "Um," she manages.
"Morning," the clerk chirps back. "Can I help you find anything?"
Nix smiles at her and shakes her head. "Maybe in a moment. I, ah - my girlfriend's never been, before, so..."
The clerk nods slightly and looks over at Autumn. "Welcome to Intimate Heart, you two. If you need help I'll be happy to direct you to anything you're interested in."
Nix looks over at the clerk. "Well, first things first, let's start with the basics..." She looks over the till and picks up a small tin with an engraved logo of a butterfly on it from the rack beside it. "I'd like these, and..." She turns around and surveys the wall of lube, then selects a single squeeze bottle with a picture of blueberries on it from the far right side. "This as well. But me and my girlfriend are probably going to want to - take a look around and get acclimated a bit, too. I've been to your Rustboro location before, but..." She shrugs. "Can you keep these at the till while we browse?"
"Certainly," replies the clerk with a small smile. "Take your time."
Nix steps over to Autumn, and the pair of them join hands again. Autumn squeezes Nix's hand sharply, her gaze staying firmly on her girlfriend.
"So, um," she manages. "We - you wanted to have a look around?"
"Yeah," says Nix. "I mean - you don't have to do anything, but - I think it's good to... think about it a little."
Autumn swallows, and nods. "Okay." She lets her gaze fall from Nix's face to the aisle of toys beside her. "Um... Okay, so let's try and find... the rabbit vibes. That at least I'm familiar with."
The clerk pipes up. "At the far end of the aisle by the right wall, next to the BDSM section."
Nix steps awkwardly past Autumn on the narrow aisle, and leads her along to the area with the rabbit vibes. There's a dozen different models showcased on the wall, in varying styles and prices; to their right are wand-style vibrators and silicone attachments for them, and to their left is a display with a selection of soft felt collars and spools of bondage tape and rope. Along the bottom of the shelf there's a selection of oddly-shaped metal objects that Autumn decides firmly not to investigate. (Though even at a passing glance it's fairly clear that one of them is intended to hold a dick.)
Nix looks over at Autumn and smiles slightly. "Thinking of getting a vibe of your own?" she asks.
Autumn shakes her head. "I don't think so." Despite herself, her gaze goes to the collars on the rack, and she takes one of the soft felt ones down. It's about as wide as her thumb is long, deep violet with a black center. It's held together with velcro, and there's a black D-ring at the front of it where it closes.
Autumn looks at the collar, and then at Nix, and then back to the collar, and then back to Nix.
Nix leans in. "Thinking you might want to try that on?"
Autumn flushes, and shakes her head. "Actually, I was really thinking it matched your whole aesthetic."
Nix runs a hand through her hair, her violet-painted nails tangling in her black locks. "Really." She tilts her head. "BDSM's not really my thing, though. I try not to knock what I haven't tried, but I've never felt the need to try it before."
Autumn looks down at the collar in her hands. "You're sure you don't want to try it on?"
Nix tilts her head. "Not really. Why do you ask?"
Autumn runs a hand through her own hair. "I guess... I don't know."
"You're sure you don't want to try it on?", Nix asks.
Autumn looks down at the collar in her hands, and turns it over again. "I... Hmmm. Maybe. It's kind of - I don't even know what I'd do about it, if you were to put a collar on me..."
"Nice mental image?" Nix asks.
"It's... intriguing," Autumn admits. "But I think that it'd be hard for me to get past the... Well, you're my mentor already, and - then being pushed around by you on top of that? That sounds scary. If you were wearing it, then it'd just be a little bit of fun, but..."
Nix reaches out with one hand. "Could I see it?"
Autumn passes the collar over. "Here."
Nix holds it up to the lights in the shop, inspecting the D-ring and the soft felt. "You're right, it does kind of match my aesthetic." Her gaze slides over to Autumn. "But I wouldn't use it, so it's not really worth the money." She offers the collar back.
"I kind of want it anyway," Autumn says. "It's... I like the feel of it, it seems like it'd be nice to wear... And it reminds me of you a little... But I can't say I'd use it either." With a sigh, she puts it back on the shelf. "Oh well."
Nix shrugs. "Maybe once we've gotten bored of regular sex we can revisit that thought of yours, hm?"
Autumn cracks a small smile. "Yeah, maybe."
Nix gestures to the surrounding racks. "So is there anything else you'd like to pick up?"
Autumn looks around at the sex toys, her gaze dancing across butt plugs and pocket pussies before alighting back on Nix's face. "I... Honestly all this is kind of overwhelming. I don't know what - I would like to try - and it's kind of..." She steps over to a small wire stand of lingerie at the end of the row and picks up one of the boxes, a haughty-looking blonde model on the cover wearing little more than a g-string and pasties. "... all the packaging is really, really obviously trying to make me horny, and it just - it kind of leaves me cold."
Nix nods. "Yeah, even with a good store like this some of the packaging can be kind of... questionable." She touches her lips softly. "Though at least with the lingerie it's supposed to show you what it'd look like on you. But it's almost always better to go to a proper lingerie store where you can do a fitting than to pick up "one size fits some" sets from a sex shop." She looks over at the clerk. "No offense."
The clerk shakes her head and smiles. "None taken."
Autumn looks around. "I don't know anything about - this kind of shopping - and a lot of the price tags on these are - fairly steep. I don't know what's quality or what's a rip-off, I have no idea what works for me, and - well, it's just plain embarrassing to ask questions."
Nix rubs the back of her head. "Well, there's some things I could say about that... There's such a thing as sex toy review sites, and there's some general guidelines like 'shop at a store that's committed to body-safe toys', which Intimate Heart is... But a lot of it is really individual and up to preferences, and best, ah, learned through experience. I went through a few models before I found a vibrator I liked." She crosses her arms. "I, um..." She bites her inner lip. "There's a few insights I could share, I guess."
"Like what?" Autumn asks.
Nix takes a long breath. "Um... A lot depends on positioning and skill, with any toy... But in general smaller toys are more precise, which is. Useful. There's something to be said for, ah, quantity, but yeah. You also don't want a toy that's too rigid - something that can flex with your body is better. Some people swear by smaller vibrators like the vibrating bullets that they have at the cash register here, but while they're cheap you... get what you pay for, in my experience. You need a certain minimum size of motor for vibrations to really do anything."
Autumn nods, and steps in against Nix's side and holds her arm. "Always the expert, huh?"
"I..." Nix coughs. "You asked."
"It's kind of cute," Autumn says. "Did you do, like, research on this?"
Nix flushes. "I'm not answering that."
"So that's a yes, then." Autumn smirks and kisses Nix's shoulder. "So... If you were recommending something for me to try...?"
Nix bites her lip. "I - have no idea what you'd be interested in, and it's - really awkward to suggest something that I don't know if you'd be into at all. You've already surprised me by suggesting that collar, so..." She shuffles her feet slightly.
"I have no idea what I'd want either," says Autumn. "Except that, um, we already have a rabbit vibe, so it seems like a waste to get a second one."
"Getting you your own would mean you wouldn't have to deal with putting a condom on it every time you use it," Nix replies. "It's still definitely worth something." And she ducks her head. "Also it's just a little... weird for you to borrow my vibrator for your own personal use."
Autumn nods. "Yeah, but at least in that case we could, um, try before we buy."
Nix tilts her head. "That makes sense. We've got a few days yet."
Autumn smiles and nods. "Yeah." She looks down at the packaged dildoes on the shelf, and picks up one in a soft lavender box. The window on the packaging shows a hand-length silicone dildo, perhaps two finger-widths across.
She looks at the price tag, and whistles. "One hundred and nine poké?"
Nix nods. "Yeah, that's what you pay for a proper, body-safe toy that's actually made of pure silicone."
Autumn weighs the package in her hands. "I don't know if I want to gamble over a hundred poké on a toy that might not work out..."
Nix smiles slightly. "Then I'll buy it for you." She takes the package from Autumn with her free hand and looks at it. "This looks like it's a decent size for a beginner like you. I mean, if you're interested, but you're the one who picked it up off the shelf..."
Autumn takes back the dildo and weighs it in her hands. "I think that..." She looks over at Nix. "I mean, you can keep this in your container ball with the rest of it all, and... I mean, if we're going to experiment, this is... I'm sure there are plenty of girls who own dildoes."
Nix smiles slightly. "Just so." She reaches over and runs a hand through Autumn's hair. "You're cute when you're shy like this."
Autumn ducks her head a little. "I... Thank you, I guess?" She looks over at the clerk, leans in against Nix's shoulder, and hands her the dildo back. "I think we're done, I - don't want to look at the rest right now, just buying one thing is enough."
Nix nods. "Okay." She hefts the dildo and looks over towards the register, then back to Autumn, who's still leaning against her. "Um, shall we go pay then?"
Autumn nods and steps away, but her hand finds Nix's free hand and squeezes. "Yeah."
Nix leads Autumn over to the counter, and sets down the package at the counter. "We'd like this as well," she says to the clerk.
The clerk nods and smiles, and efficiently rings through the dildo, along with the tin of condoms and the lube, then gestures to the payment pad. "That comes to one hundred forty-three poké."
Nix produces her card and pays, and the clerk puts all her purchases into a large paper bag with Intimate Heart's keyhole-heart logo blazoned on the side. "Here you go," the clerk chirps, and pushes the bag towards Autumn and Nix.
Nix puts away her card and wallet, then picks up the bag and smiles to Autumn. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Autumn nods. "Yeah, I guess not." She nods blushily at the clerk. "Thank you for your help."
"It's no trouble," the clerk chirps back. "Have a nice day!" A light smile rises to her face.
Autumn drops Nix's hand, and goes and gets the door out for her. Nix follows a moment later, and they step out onto the city pavement with the bag still firmly in Nix's right hand. Autumn grabs Nix's left hand, and the pair start to walk back towards their hotel room.
"So," Nix says. "I have to say, you did well."
Autumn flushes slightly. "It was... a lot easier having you there with me. Having someone who cares there... really matters."
"I was surprised by, ah, some of your thoughts..." Nix trails off, her boots making a slow pace against the pavement. A woman in a blue windbreaker passes in the other direction, and Nix falls silent for a moment.
When the stranger's safely out of earshot, Autumn nods. "Yeah. I... didn't expect to really buy anything, much less... What I ended up actually getting." She looks over at one of the trees along the path.
Nix smiles. "Do you want to, um, when we get back..." She trails off.
Autumn shakes her head. "Not with anything we've bought except maybe the - essentials -" She sighs. "Look, okay, I'm going to try and speak up because it's not like anyone who'd pass us on the street is going to - care about our sex life -" She sighs again. "Involving my purchase would be... a bit fraught. I'd want to get familiar with it before I, um, used it at all."
Nix nods. "Yeah, that all makes sense." She keeps walking. "What about the thing I showed you earlier?"
"That's fine," Autumn says. "Since, I mean, you'd be familiar with it and - could teach me, I guess?" She rubs the back of her neck. "I just don't want to be figuring out a whole bunch of new things at once. One at a time is plenty enough, thanks."
"Okay," Nix says. "We can do that." She squeezes Autumn's hand softly.
Autumn smiles slightly, a blush coming to her cheeks, and squeezes back. "So, um. When we get back..."
Nix smiles back just slightly. "Yeah?"
Autumn takes a breath. "I think I would like to try that thing you showed me earlier. I mean, if you're - okay with that." She looks over at Nix. "What do you think?"
Nix glances back at Autumn, and smiles. "I think that... I'd like that."
Autumn squeezes Nix's hand, and manages a little smile of her own. "Alright, then." She steps in a little closer to Nix and links her arm through hers. "You'll... support me, won't you?"
"Of course," Nix says, and kisses Autumn's cheek.
Autumn nods, closes her eyes, and lets Nix lead on.
~*~
One long walk later, the pair of girls return to their dorm room. Nix drops Autumn's arm and digs in her purse for her keycard; presenting it to the door, she leads the way back into the room and sits down on her bed, setting down the bag from Intimate Heart on the bed next to her.
Autumn comes in behind her, closes the door behind her, and hesitates in the space between the door and bed. "I..." She looks at Nix, then at the bag of essentials on the bed, then back to Nix. Carefully, she walks across the small space and sits on the side of the bed next to Nix, the bag between her and Nix.
Nix digs in the bag and pulls out the tin of condoms and the bottle of lube, and puts them both on the nightstand. Then she pulls the lavender dildo out of the bag, still in its packaging, and sets the bag aside.
Autumn looks down at the dildo in Nix's hands, and crosses her arms. "I..." She looks at it. "Could you put that away for the moment?"
Nix nods, and takes out the pink Container Ball from her purse and seals the dildo in it, still in its packaging. "Whatever makes you comfortable."
Autumn relaxes a little as the dildo vanishes from sight, and takes a slow breath. "Thanks." She reaches out and takes Nix's hand. "It's - easy to say it - but now that it's actually, um... Time to try it..." She looks down at her boots. "My heart's going a million miles an hour right now."
Nix squeezes Autumn's hand gently. "It's okay. It's - your first time is always a little scary," she says. "It should be fun, though. Like you said, it's - not actually that hard? I mean, teenagers more or less figure it out most of the time."
"Yeah," Autumn says softly. "I guess so. It's just..." She sighs. "I'm worried that I'll - ruin it for you, somehow. That I'll be useless at it, or... I don't know." She looks down at Nix's hand. "I guess I never really thought I'd get this far."
Nix nods. "Yeah, I get that. It's... scary for me too, honestly. I'm worried that I won't be a good first time for you. I think it's - pretty clear you want it, now - but I worry about that as well. You're sure I'm not pressuring you?"
Autumn nods firmly. "I'm sure. It's scary, but - I want it. I want you. Even if that means doing this big scary thing."
Nix cracks a small smile. "Just like the date at the aquarium, huh?"
Autumn smiles and nods. "Yeah. It's... easier having done it once already." She strokes the back of Nix's hand with her thumb.
"So," Nix says. "I think that... probably the smart thing to do is just to relax a little. We don't need to rush things. I know you want it, and you know I want it, and... figuring out how is a separate problem, yeah?"
Autumn nods slightly. "Yeah."
Nix squeezes Autumn's hand and then releases it. Leaning down, she starts to undo the buckles on her boots.
Autumn looks down at her own boots, and leans over as well, carefully unlacing them and pulling them off. Holding the heavy hiking boots in one hand, she gets up from the bed and sets them over by the dorm room door. She checks the door handle as she comes in close and finds it solidly locked.
As she turns again to face the room, she sees Nix sitting cross-legged in the center of her bed, pink socks exposed at the bottoms of her slacks. She manages a small smile at Autumn. "Hey," she says.
Autumn crosses the small space, and kneels on the side of the bed across from Nix. Sitting back on her haunches, she looks down at the rose pendant that nestles in Nix's cleavage, then back up at her face.
Nix smiles. "Come kiss me," she says.
Autumn skootches in awkwardly rather than cross Nix's lap, sitting cross-legged next to her on the bed. She looks down at her crossed legs and blushes. "I..." She looks over at Nix next to her, then turns her head and leans in towards her.
Nix leans in as well, and their lips meet, delicate and soft. Nix reaches out and runs a hand down Autumn's back over her blouse, and Autumn stiffens slightly, her muscles tensing at Nix's touch.
Autumn pulls away first, but a moment later she shifts in closer, leaning her head against Nix's shoulder. "I..." She looks down at Nix's lap.
Nix tangles a hand in Autumn's hair and runs it through softly. "It'll get easier the more you do," she says. "Just like with kissing, earlier. This is probably the worst part."
Autumn nods. "Could you..." She works her mouth for a moment. "Could you hold me?"
"Like how?", Nix asks. "In my lap, lying down...?"
"Lying down," Autumn says. "I want to try, um, snuggling."
"Okay," Nix says. She smiles and lays down on the bed, head on the pillow, then spreads her arms in an invitation. "Whenever you're ready."
Autumn lies down carefully in front of Nix, then slowly shifts back until her back presses against Nix. Nix presses in from behind her as best she can despite her shorter height, and lays an arm over Autumn's hip and pulls her in firmly against her.
Autumn flushes as the heat and pressure of Nix's body makes itself known all along her back. She can feel Nix's breasts pressing against her, and her thighs are pressing against her as well, and there's that hand lying just beneath her breasts....
She can feel every hair on her arms rising in goosebumps, and something kindles in her core, a craving to be touched, to be felt, to be held...
She intertwines her fingers with that dangerous hand by her stomach and just squeezes, breathing slowly, her eyes slipping closed.
"How is it?" Nix asks.
Autumn squeezes Nix's hand. "It's... A lot."
"Yeah," says Nix quietly. "It really is."
"Is this... What you felt when I embraced you from behind in the kitchen, this morning?" Autumn asks.
"Something like it," Nix says. "I've got more experience than you, but... Some things don't get old."
Autumn nods, and squeezes Nix's hand again. The thin material of her blouse feels like too little protection, now. Nix is right there, hard against her body, and something in her thrills at it even as her breath quickens and her thoughts race.
Nix stirs behind her, and then she feels something soft yet firm press against the base of her neck...
Autumn stiffens. Nix is kissing her neck oh fuck -
Nix pulls away slowly, and touches her forehead to Autumn's shoulder. "I love you," she murmurs.
"I love you too," Autumn manages. She wiggles forwards a little, releasing Nix's hand and putting space between the two of them. She takes a slow breath. "Sorry, it's just - there's so much all at once."
"Yeah," says Nix quietly. "I remember what it was like, my first time. It's... not something you forget easily."
Autumn nods slightly and blushes. "Yeah."
Nix props herself up on one elbow, and runs her free hand slowly down up and then down Autumn's side, just lightly tracing her fingertips along Autumn's skin through her blouse. "We can take as long as you want," she says. "We have all day."
Autumn closes her eyes and nods again. "Okay." She scootches a little further away, then rolls over onto her back and sits up. "I..." She looks over at Nix, still perched on her elbow. "I'd like to touch you," she says. "I think that - I think it'll be easier if I can - reciprocate."
Nix nods seriously. "Alright. Do you want to hold me, or do something - together - or...?"
"I'd like to hold you," Autumn says. "Like this morning."
"Alright," Nix says. "How?"
Autumn's gaze slides along Nix's body, the curve of her hips, the gleam of the pendant in her cleavage. "I don't know," she admits.
"From behind, maybe?" Nix offers. "Like you did this morning?"
"Yeah, I guess," Autumn says.
Nix sits up as well, and drops her legs off the side of the bed. Gathering her long black hair up in one hand, she pulls it to the side to bare her neck. "Here," she says, tapping the back of her neck. "Kiss me here."
Autumn shifts in behind her, and takes a shaky breath inches from Nix's skin. The warmth of it washes across Nix's skin, and she closes her eyes for a moment, stilling. "Whenever you're ready," Nix says.
Autumn touches her lips softly to the back of Nix's neck, and takes another slow breath.
Nix smiles to herself. "Yeah, like that."
Autumn kisses again, a little further to the right, down along Nix's exposed shoulder. The familiar press of lips against skin is easier, now. Kneeling behind Nix is still a little awkward, but...
Autumn's hand slips in to the strap of Nix's halter top. "I..." she starts.
"Go ahead," Nix says. "It's okay."
Autumn slips the strap off Nix's shoulder, letting it slide halfway down her arm and stop, and kisses where it was, feeling the warmth of Nix's skin against her lips. The craving in her is bright and coiled, now, full of possibilities, and she nuzzles in and hazards a nibble.
Nix sighs lowly, and smiles. "Getting a little easier?", she asks.
"Yeah," says Autumn. "A little." She takes a breath against Nix's skin, her fingers still lingering on her upper arm. "It's - easier to touch you than to be touched."
Nix nods. "I guess I can understand that." She reaches up with her other hand, and very deliberately slips off the other strap of her top. "Oops," she deadpans.
Autumn laughs, and then takes the hint. Shifting over to Nix's other shoulder, she kisses at the swath of newly-exposed skin, nibbling and pressing in. Tentatively, one of her hands rises to tangle in Nix's hair.
Nix makes a small appreciative noise as Autumn's hand sinks into her hair, and leans back against Autumn, letting her weight fall against her girlfriend. "That's nice," she says with a faint smile in her voice.
Autumn smiles as well. "I..." She sits back on her haunches. "... I think I want to go further," she says. She looks down at her own blouse, and tugs at her collar, which suddenly feels too restrictive. "I think that..."
She takes a deep breath, grabs her own blouse by the waist, and pulls it off over her head. She looks at Nix's back and smiles slightly. "Your turn," she says, and drops her blouse into Nix's lap.
Nix picks up the blouse in her lap, and carefully sets it aside on the nightstand. Then she stands up and strips off her own halter top, setting it aside as well. Turning around, she faces Autumn across the bed in her slacks and her strapless bra, and gives her a little smile.
Autumn meets Nix's gaze for only a moment before her gaze drops to Nix's breasts. The bra she's wearing is a simple black one-piece, which pushes her breasts up and forwards subtly. Nix's rose pendant nestles in her cleavage, almost taunting Autumn.
Autumn looks back up at Nix guiltily, only to find that Nix is staring at her breasts in turn. There's something hungry in Nix's gaze, and that slight smile of hers hasn't dissipated at all either.
Autumn blushes under that intense gaze, and looks away - but then Nix moves, kneeling in on the bed across from her and pressing in until her lips meet Autumn's.
Autumn kisses back, and her hands settle in Nix's hair and the small of her bare back. Nix's skin is hot beneath her fingertips, and seems to cling to her, dimpling like modeling clay beneath the soft pressure of her fingertips.
It feels good.
She kisses Nix again, and then again, not wanting to part from her, and her fingers roam across her back. Nix reaches out and embraces her in turn, and hands press in against her back - and then Nix's fingers find the clasp of Autumn's bra.
Nix pulls away slightly. "May I?", she asks.
Autumn nods, too breathless to speak. She manages a smile.
Nix's deft hands unhook Autumn's bra from behind her, and then she pulls it down and away, letting her breasts fall free. Autumn takes her hand from Nix's hair instinctually to shield herself, cupping one breast as the other hides in the crook of her elbow, and blushes hard. "You too," she says. "I - can't get the clasp like you can."
Nix smiles wryly. "It's a bandeau, so it doesn't have one anyway." She pulls it off over her head, but it tangles in her pendant and she has to back up and try again. She gives Autumn a rueful smile. "So much for being smooth," she says. "Apparently neither of us can take my bra off."
Autumn laughs, and then her free hand darts out to take a handful of Nix's right breast. "It's alright," she says. "I'm just happy to, um, see you." She flushes a little, and squeezes gently.
Nix reaches out, and gently lays a hand on the arm shielding Autumn's breasts. "May I?", she asks.
Autumn flushes, but lowers her arm. Her small breasts aren't a match for what Nix has, but Nix smiles sharply when they come into view anyway. Her fingers slip in and trace across Autumn's right breast, feeling the stiffness of her nipple, the softness of her skin.
Autumn takes a sharp breath, but Nix's steady gaze seems... somehow comforting. She sits back a little and brings her freed hand into play, taking firm hold of both of Nix's breasts. Her thumbs press in against Nix's nipples, grinding in gently against the dark areolas.
Nix sighs, and mirrors the motion with her own hands, reciprocating on Autumn's breasts. Her thumbs trail along Autumn's skin, feeling the subtle edges of her areolas.
Autumn lets out a soft gasp as her nipples are rubbed and toyed with, and leans in closer, more into Nix's touch. Her body arches in, her lips half-parted as she wordlessly begs for a kiss -
Nix doesn't keep her waiting. She meets Autumn's lips with her own - and then, a moment later, her tongue quests into Autumn's mouth.
Autumn kisses back hungrily, her lips and tongue unskilled but eager, then pulls away - but her forehead touches Nix's, and she takes a shuddering breath. "Fuck," she says. "I love you."
"I love you too," Nix replies, and gives her a little sharper squeeze of her breasts. "Do you want more?"
Autumn looks down at Nix's slacks, past her breasts. She bites her lip. "I..." She squeezes Nix's breasts back. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."
Nix shifts back. "You're sure?" She meets Autumn's gaze seriously.
Autumn nods. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Nix sits back, and one of her hands goes to the button at the front of her slacks, undoing it and pulling down the zipper. Simple black panties peek out from beneath, in the dip where the zipper lies open.
Autumn's gaze snaps down to that gap, and then she looks back up at Nix and flushes slightly. "I..." She rubs the back of her head. "It's really happening, isn't it."
"Yeah," Nix says softly. "It really is." She slips one thumb into the waistband of her slacks, pushing them down slightly. "... You're really sure?"
Autumn rolls her eyes, and grabs at Nix's slacks, pulling them down herself until they catch at Nix's knees. "Yeah," she says. "I'm sure."
Nix laughs, and shifts off her knees and pulls the slacks off completely, followed moments later by her fuzzy pink socks. Sitting up on the bed in nothing but her panties, she leans back against the headboard and sits cross-legged, entirely at ease even almost completely nude. "I... Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't keep asking, you've said it enough times already." She looks down at Autumn's jeans. "Are you going to take those off?"
Autumn flushes, but nods. She turns away and sits down on the edge of the bed, side-on to Nix. She takes a breath. Then she unbuttons her jeans and takes them off, followed a moment later by her own socks.
Nix watches with interest from the head end of the bed, smiling like a cat despite her side-on view. "You're beautiful," she says. "And very brave."
Autumn rubs the back of her neck. "I don't feel beautiful or brave."
"But you are," Nix says. "You're amazing. And I'm glad to have you as my girlfriend and... my lover."
Autumn blushes hard, but she manages to turn towards Nix. Her own simple boxer panties seem almost comical compared to Nix's easy confidence in her body...
It's Nix, though.
Autumn crawls forwards, seized by a sudden hunger, and kisses Nix before her brain can get in the way.
When they part, Autumn manages a small smile. "Thank you," she says. "For... for everything."
Nix smiles broadly, and reaches down between Autumn's legs and very gently strokes her through her panties. "You're welcome," she murmurs. "My Autumn."
Autumn gasps out sharply as she's touched, her thighs stiffening and jerking away from Nix's hand - but after a moment, she relaxes and presses in again. "Yours," she says. "Your Autumn."
Nix smiles softly, and leans in to kiss Autumn again.
Autumn melts into the kiss, instinct taking over as she grinds in against Nix's hand, her hands still braced on the headboard; then she shifts forwards even further, putting herself into Nix's lap, pressing against her, body against body. Nix pulls her in close, and kisses her again, again, hand still working against Autumn's sex through her panties...
Autumn pulls back, and pulls off her panties. She blushes hard, but it only takes a moment before she meets Nix's lips with her own again. Nix kisses her firmly, and presses in two fingers to either side of Autumn's bared clit, working her gently.
Autumn's breath quickly becomes ragged as she's caressed by Nix, her body unused to being touched by someone other than her. "Fuck," she moans, "Nix, fuck..."
"Yeah, that's what I'm doing," Nix says, and she kisses Autumn again and comes up from her cross-legged posture, pushing Autumn back, pressing her down -
Autumn lets Nix guide her back onto her back, and shields her face with one hand as her spread legs are bared to her girlfriend. Everything's on display, and there's nothing she can do about it...
Nix kisses her again, then goes down to her neck and shoulder and collar, nibbling and lapping at her skin, her fingers still lightly stimulating between Autumn's legs. Autumn shudders, shocks of electricity going through her, and rolls her hips instinctually, and her hand strays to between Nix's legs as well and starts groping at her through her panties as well -
Nix sits back and pulls off her panties as well as Autumn starts to grope at her, and then reaches onto the dresser and pulls out her rabbit vibrator and the bottle of lube. She looks down at Autumn with a fierce grin, and drops the vibrator onto her chest. She unscrews the cap of the bottle of lube and pulls off the seal, then squeezes a measure of it into her other hand and presses that slick, wet hand to Autumn's sex.
Autumn looks down at the vibrator on her chest, and then up at Nix, and despite herself a huge grin comes to her face. "Fuck," she says. "It's really going to happen isn't it?"
"It's already happening," Nix says, and her lube-slicked fingers slip into Autumn.
Autumn tenses and clenches against Nix's fingers, and lets out a shuddering gasp - then her hand goes to Nix's sex, and she clumsily attempts to copy the older girl's technique.
Nix lets out a sigh as Autumn's fingers slip into her as well. Her inner walls squeeze around Autumn's intruding fingers, warm and slick and wet. "Fuck," she says. "I was going to - use the vibe - but this works too." She shifts her fingers inside Autumn. "Do what I do," she instructs. And then she starts making slow, come-hither motions along the inner side of Autumn's sex, her lube-slicked fingers gliding along the inside of Autumn's sex.
Autumn gasps as Nix's fingers find the roots of her clit, but mimics the slow, firm motions as best she can. Nix shudders lightly, and her hips rock in against Autumn's fingers, her eyes slipping closed as her breath comes faster. She braces herself against the bed and grips the sheets hard, her body tensing and shuddering.
Autumn's other hand comes up and starts groping at Nix's breast, the fire kindled inside her by Nix's fingers rolling through her veins, making her whole body light up with bright sensation, the sheets coarse against her skin, her breath tense, her head muddled and cloudy with the thought of Nix, Nix, Nix -
Nix lets out a shuddering breath, and lowers herself to kiss Autumn, her arm rigid and tense as she holds up her faltering body through sheer force of will. Their lips meet, too gentle, too delicate, and Nix pulls away again too quickly -
Autumn pursues, dropping her hand from Nix's breast to have something to prop herself up with, and kisses again, again, again, each kiss building the hunger inside her, coiled and tight, not enough, not ever enough -
Nix's fingers dig deeply into Autumn's g-spot, and she groans hard as a lance of fire burns through her core, so sweet and intense, her fingers inside Nix faltering before she can mimic the motion, feeling the slickness of Nix's inner walls -
Nix groans, and her supporting arm gives out, dropping her on top of Autumn and pinning Autumn's arm and hers between their bodies. "Fuck," she swears, and she withdraws her fingers from Autumn's sex for a moment as she pries herself off her. "Sorry, did I - are you okay?"
Autumn makes a little needy sound as her sex is emptied, but then manages a smile and a little laugh. "It's okay!" She sits up and smiles at Nix, and the vibrator falls from her chest to land between her thighs. "I -" She looks down at the rabbit vibe. "- We had plans, yeah?" She reaches out and caresses Nix's chin. "It's okay. I think that - I think I'm more than ready."
Nix grins and sits back, and reaches over to the nightstand for the tin of condoms. Popping it open, she extracts a condom in a small foil pouch, which she carefully tears open with her fingernails. Picking up the rabbit vibe from between Autumn's legs, she rolls the condom onto the internal prong carefully and settles it into place. Then she looks down at Autumn, meeting her gaze.
"Please," Autumn begs, the heat in her reacting to that confident gaze. "Please, Nix - "
Nix grabs the lube bottle from where it's fallen among the sheets, and squeezes a generous measure onto the head of the condom-sheathed vibrator, then strokes and massages it, making a production of it for Autumn's viewing pleasure. She grins wickedly. "Please what?"
"Please use the vibe on me," Autumn manages. "Please, Nix, I need it so much -"
Nix touches her lube-slicked fingers gently to Autumn's clitoris, making a small circle against the sensitive nub as she aligns the vibe with her other hand. The bulbous head presses in softly to Autumn's folds, spreading her slightly. "What specifically do you want me to do with the vibe?" she teases.
"Please, fill me up," Autumn begs. "I want to feel it inside me, I want to know what it's like, please Nix I want to feel all of it - "
"Since you asked so nicely," Nix says. And she slowly eases the vibe into Autumn, pressing it in until the dual prongs settle against her g-spot and clit.
Autumn groans as Nix's vibrator settles into her, the internal prong thicker than her fingers. She clenches instinctually, another wash of heat and satisfaction rolling through her, her head going cloudy even without the vibrator on. The outer prong nestles in against her clit, soft and teasing...
Nix thumbs one of the buttons, and the internal prong begins to hum softly just against Autumn's g-spot. The hand she's not using on the vibrator goes directly to her own sex, Nix stroking and working her fingers inside herself even as she holds the vibe on Autumn.
Autumn moans hard at the intense, alien sensation, the vibration inside her sending shocks of electricity through her body all the way from her crotch to her head. Her thighs squeeze together instinctually, but it only rocks the head of the vibrator in against her g-spot -
Nix thumbs the other button at the base of the vibe, and the prong against Autumn's clit begins to buzz as well, sharp and insistent. Autumn presses her head back against the wall and pants raggedly, her whole body tensing arching and then relaxing. It's impossible to focus on anything but the sensation inside her; the whole world focuses to a point between her legs, pinned between the paired vibes.
Nix thumbs the buttons again, and the vibrations in both prongs redouble; she shifts the vibrator slowly, rocking it gently back and forth and side to side, subtly varying where the twin prongs meet flesh. Her own fingers work inside her quickly as she kneels over Autumn, her breath almost as ragged -
Autumn's world goes white as the twinned vibrations assault her. It's incredible. Impossible. But it's happening, the wash of pleasure blindingly intense, her senses overloaded totally as her whole body tenses instinctually against the vibe, shuddering, rolling, impossible to control -
The orgasm tears its way out of her like a butterfly from its chrysalis, a sharp, high, almost pained whine tearing its way from her throat as the pleasure overwhelms her. There's nothing but the need and the satisfaction left in her head. Yes, she mouths, fuck yes - but words are beyond her.
"Beautiful girl," Nix whispers, and she kisses Autumn's forehead, her hand still firm against Autumn's sex. The vibrator rumbles, and with a flutter of buttons Nix quiets it to a stop. Nix presses the vibe in with her palm and kisses Autumn deeply on the lips as the rumbles die away.
Autumn closes her eyes and kisses back, unhurried and soft. Her hand finds Nix's free one, and squeezes.
Nix leans in, and Autumn reverses her hand, tilting it back to support Nix's weight. They clasp together like that, half Nix's weight against Autumn's arm as her other hand traces along her inner thigh, cautious of the vibe still inside her. Every small touch sends a cascade of lingering sparks through Autumn, her body still bright and light and right.
The perfect moment stretches as Autumn stares up into Nix's eyes, weight slowly coming back to her, the heaviness of her body returning.
"Wow," she breathes.
Nix giggles. "Yeah." She kisses Autumn again. "I love you."
Autumn kisses back. "I love you too," she says. "It's - better than I imagined. Better than I fantasized about, honestly. Better than I could have dreamed." She takes a shivery breath, the scent of Nix atop her suddenly strong enough to taste, her eyelids fluttering. "I love you so much."
Nix sits back, lets go Autumn's hand, and slips the vibe out of her with one deft pull. Autumn bites her lip - the withdrawal-stroke is harsh against her, a coarseness - but she takes a breath, sits up and kisses Nix again, and it makes it right. Even the imperfections are right.
Nix sets aside the condom-sheathed vibe, and wraps her arms around Autumn, pulling her in close against her. The wetness of her pussy presses in against Autumn's thigh, and Autumn flushes bright red at the heat and slickness pressed against her, still so raw and new.
Nix presses Autumn in hard against her. "I..." She lets out a shivery breath in Autumn's ear that makes tingles run all the way down her spine. "... Just stay still and let me move against you," she manages. Her voice is husky and raw, naked need lending heat to every word.
Autumn stills, and holds her girlfriend close. Nix moves against her, grinding in hard against her thigh, her body stiff in Autumn's embrace, all her muscles locked up. Autumn takes slow breaths, trying to focus, her fingers digging into Nix's thigh -
Nix presses in harder and kisses Autumn's shoulder as her hips work, and finally a soft sigh escapes her and she goes limp in Autumn's arms.
Autumn blushes. "Did you just...?"
Nix kisses her throat, and manages a small nod.
"... I love you." Autumn whispers the words like a promise.
I have a purely technical thought about the mechanics of Autumn and Nix undressing, as a person who doesn't wear bras* but has watched people who do take them off.
I have never seen someone – in person or in adult video – take their conventional bra** with shoulder straps and a rear-clasped band off in anything like the way Autumn and Nix did, and it sounded so awkward compared to the more or less universal "slip straps off shoulders and let gravity help" that it jarred my very nerdy brain straight out of the mood.
* Technically I have a few times, but that was, like, twenty years ago. It never occurred to me to take it off by any method other than the one I just described.
** I am aware of the existence of sports bras, but it didn't sound like either of them was wearing one.
I liked the conversation between Nix and Autumn. Autumn knowing herself enough that she needs a bit of time before she feels ready enough to explore and Nix respecting that, Nix telling Autumn about one of her past relationships, the understanding between the two of them, that they both have tough things that they've gone through and are going through but that that's okay.... It was all very good.
And Ziggy's back, and making up for lost time it seems. "Proof" indeed.
It'll be interesting to see what Nix learned from the website and how she uses it.
The stereotypical romance is one where you've never had any (good) partners before, because otherwise the protagonists' connection isn't "special enough." One of the things I wanted to write about here is that it can be okay to move on. From good and bad things both.
Autumn: I'm really not ready for anything more intense than kissing. I want to, I'm just not there yet.
Also Autumn: So I want to tell you about this sex dream I had about you!
Obviously those aren't like mutually exclusive and everything but I really get what Nix means about mixed signals...
I have a purely technical thought about the mechanics of Autumn and Nix undressing, as a person who doesn't wear bras* but has watched people who do take them off.
I have never seen someone – in person or in adult video – take their conventional bra** with shoulder straps and a rear-clasped band off in anything like the way Autumn and Nix did, and it sounded so awkward compared to the more or less universal "slip straps off shoulders and let gravity help" that it jarred my very nerdy brain straight out of the mood.
* Technically I have a few times, but that was, like, twenty years ago. It never occurred to me to take it off by any method other than the one I just described.
** I am aware of the existence of sports bras, but it didn't sound like either of them was wearing one.
This is one of those things that seems really obvious once you point it out, and yet neither I nor my slate of beta readers noticed it. The bras I generally wear are bandeau style, so I'm used to taking them off over my head; and despite having multiple bra-wearing beta-readers, none of them noticed that I was applying that to a different style of bra and really thought about it in a persnickety way.
Thanks for the mention; I will probably commit some edits to the chapter so that it makes more sense, otherwise this will niggle at me continuously.
Edit: Made the changes, it was only two or three lines.
Autumn and Nix hold each other close, Nix laying her head against Autumn's shoulder. The bed is a mess of tangled sheets and discarded clothing, the rabbit vibe lying in a wet spot to one side. Nix's hands press against Autumn's back as Autumn digs her fingers into Nix's thigh and lower back.
They stay there for a long moment, and then the dorm room phone rings on the bedside table.
Nix holds Autumn close as the phone rings, and sighs. "Of course," she says. "Always at the worst possible moment."
Autumn's lips twitch up. "This has happened to you before?"
"Usually it's that I bump the buttons on my vibe when I don't want to." Nix rolls her eyes and disentangles herself from Autumn, shimmying across the bed to pick up the corded phone over the tin of condoms and Autumn's discarded blouse. She lifts the receiver and brings it to her ear. "Hello?"
She listens for a moment, then extends the phone to Autumn on its spiraling cord. "It's the front desk for you."
Autumn shifts over to the side of the bed, and accepts the phone from Nix. She raises the chunky phone to her ear, the hard plastic pressing in far more harshly than Nix's lips. "Hello?", she says.
The smooth, deep voice of the desk clerk comes over the line in clipped tones. "Autumn Leaf?"
"Yes, that's me." Autumn tucks the phone into her shoulder and shoots Nix a look. "Is there an issue?" Oh god, did someone make a noise complaint? She wasn't, uh, being the most decorous -
"No issue," the clerk replies. "Your mother is just at the front desk asking for you."
Autumn's breath stops. "I - Thank you for telling me. I don't want to talk to her. Goodbye." She reaches over Nix and judders the phone down onto its receiver. Then she grabs Nix with both arms, her heart hammering in her chest so hard it hurts. "It's - it's my mother. How the hell did she find us? What's - what the fuck?"
Nix inhales sharply, and hugs Autumn hard. "Listen to me very carefully, we don't have much time. We have to get dressed and leave, fast. There's no telling what she's capable of."
"I - Okay." Autumn takes a breath and releases Nix, pulling away from the older girl. She takes a shaky breath, grabs her discarded panties and pants from where they lie on the bed, and yanks them on. Nix passes her her blouse from where it sits next to the phone, and she fumbles on her bra and then the blouse atop it.
Nix grabs her own clothes and fumbles them on, her hands busy with her bra clasp. She grabs the vibrator, lube and the tin of condoms and reseals them in her container ball, then stuffs it in her purse and slings it over her shoulder.
Autumn grabs her socks and is trying to get one on over her heel when there's a knock on the door.
"Fuck," Nix swears. "She's already here - okay, I'll handle this." She pulls out a pokéball from her purse and tosses it out, and Lethia appears, hovering in the air by Nix's shoulder. The gems at her neck burn an intense crimson, deeper than Autumn's ever seen them before.
Lethia immediately puts herself between Nix and the door. "Dreavus," she says, her tone flat and uncompromising.
"Autumn!", comes Valerie's voice from the other side of the door. "Autumn, are you there?"
Autumn jerks on her socks, then walks over to stand by Nix's side. "Do we answer?", she whispers.
Nix shakes her head, and shifts up to stand on her tiptoes and look through the peephole in the door. She looks back at Autumn. "Yeah, it's her," she murmurs.
"Autumn, I know you're in there," Valerie continues. "I'm not going away."
"She means it," Autumn murmurs. "She used to do this when I shut myself in my room."
Nix sighs and nods. "That doesn't mean we let her in though."
Autumn nods back.
"Autumn, open up or I'll have to come back with the police," Valerie calls. "Neither of us wants that. I just want to talk."
Autumn lets out a long breath and smooths her slacks. "She wants the pin."
"Yeah," Nix murmurs. "I'm not opening the door, but..." She takes a breath. "If you want to talk you can talk to me," she calls back through the door. "Autumn doesn't want to speak to you."
"She stole something of mine." Valerie calls back. "And you helped. I don't want to press charges, but I will get the police involved if I have to. I'm being very reasonable, here."
"That pin is rightfully Autumn's," Nix calls back. "You said it yourself!"
"When she's become independent," Valerie replies. "She's not with you in the picture. She's besotted with you, I can tell, but you're inciting her to stupid, rash decisions. Can't she even speak for herself?"
Autumn shares a look with Nix, then raises her own voice. "I don't want to talk to you, and the pin is mine. We're not going to let you in and we're not giving back the pin. Go away, or we'll get the police involved."
There's a heavy sigh from behind the door. "Fine. If you're going to be that way, I'll come back with the police. Since you forced my hand."
"You do that," Nix calls back, still looking through the peephole in the door.
Autumn reaches out, and takes Nix's hand. Nix squeezes back, her fingers tangling with Autumn's.
After a long moment, Nix leans back from the door. "I think she's left," she says. "Lethia, go check the other side of the door."
Lethia nods, and phases through the wooden door to the other side. A few moments later she re-emerges and nods. "Dreavus."
"All clear," Nix says. "We don't have long, though."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "How the hell did she find us?"
"Probably hired a private investigator," Nix replies. "That's how December found me when she was sent after me by my dad. I don't know how they do it, but..." She sighs. "We're not going to be able to run if she's invested like this, not without discarding our identities, and I don't want to do that to you. We're going to have to fight this."
Autumn takes a long breath and nods, her heart still hammering in her chest. "Okay." She squeezes Nix's hands. "How?"
"We get a lawyer," Nix says. "I - don't know how that works, precisely, but..." She squeezes Autumn's hands and looks her in the eyes. "Cocoa's been in trouble with the law a couple times, and - you pick things up by osmosis. Whatever happens, it's really, really important that you not talk to the police, okay? Don't say word one without your lawyer directly advising you to say it." She squeezes Autumn's hands even tighter. "I don't expect the police to take an interest in this at all but if they do you can't talk to them. Even if they seem friendly, even if they say you won't be charged. They can and will lie to you. Promise me that if that happens you won't speak to them?"
Autumn takes a shaky breath. "I..."
Nix holds Autumn's gaze. "I know it's hard. But the police are not your friends, and you're in a dicey situation. We might end up having to prove the pin is yours, and in the meantime - well, a lot can happen. So please promise me that you won't talk to them, whatever happens."
Autumn squeezes Nix's hands back and nods. "Okay. I promise."
"Good girl," Nix says. "I promise I won't say anything either if it comes to that." She looks down at her pokétch. "Do you have my mother's number?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No."
"I'll give it to you now." She taps through to her contacts. "Five five five six three two four."
Autumn raises her own pokétch and punches in the number. "Five five five six three two four."
"You've got it." Nix smiles. "I - Okay. Let's get calling around. I'm sure I can find a property lawyer with a little internet browsing..."
Autumn squeezes Nix's hand. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Call my mother and tell her what's happening," Nix says. "She's more familiar with what went on with Cocoa, she might have some advice. I'll get on the internet searches."
"Alright," Autumn says. "I'll do my best."
She raises her pokétch to her waist and punches in Nix's mother's number, then looks up at her. Nix favors her with a small smile. "It's going to be alright," Nix says softly. "We'll get through this together, okay? Just trust in me and do your best."
Autumn nods back. "Okay." And she bends her head to her work.
A tense half hour passes as Autumn informs Nix's mother of the crisis and Nix places calls. Nix's mother seems unsurprised; her voice is droll and low on the phone, as steady as stone. "Don't let them get you talking," she warns. "They can be clever, but you mustn't be fooled. Call me back tomorrow at this time, alright? If you haven't by then I'll assume both of you have been arrested."
Autumn nods into her smartwatch. "Alright."
"Good luck," she says simply.
Autumn smiles slightly. "Yeah. Thanks." She hangs up and lowers her smartwatch. "Nix, where are we on a lawyer?"
Nix shakes her head. "I've got one, but they want five grand as a retainer. That's absolutely worth it if it keeps us out of jail, but..." She sighs. "I can't cover that easily."
"We can go halves on it," Autumn says. "And your mother would contribute, wouldn't she? And Cocoa, and - maybe even Marie if you called her about it."
"Yeah," Nix says. "Beggars can't be choosers. I'll call them back -"
There's a heavy knock on the door. Nix looks up sharply from her seat on the bed, and Autumn looks over as well.
"Excuse me," comes a man's voice from the other side of the door. "I'm looking for Autumn Leaf?"
Nix steps across the room and looks out the peephole in the door. She winces. "Who's asking?"
"Constable Harford of the Slateport PD. Would you please open the door?"
Nix looks back at Autumn, her gaze flicking to the pin that's still on her blouse -
Autumn looks down at the front of her blouse, and quickly unclips the pin and stuffs it in her jeans pocket.
Nix puts the chain on the hotel door, and opens it just to the length of the chain. She stands in the gap, blocking the view of the room from the hallway.
On the other side there's a uniformed man with dark brown hair and an athlete's build. A police badge is on his belt, and he has a pen and a pad of paper in his hands. A Solrock hovers over his shoulder, the sun-shaped pokémon stern and solid. He looks Nix over. "You would be Nicole Chambers?"
Nix neither nods nor shakes her head. "I'm not interested in answering questions for the police, and you may not come in. Come back with a warrant."
Constable Harford's brows draw together and he crosses his arms. "That's hardly polite, now is it? I just have a few simple questions -"
"I'm not interested," Nix reasserts. "Either detain me or move on."
Constable Harford sighs. "You're making things harder on yourselves," he says. "We can clear this up in a few minutes' talk, I'm sure."
Nix just inclines her head and looks at him. "As I said," she repeats. "I'm not interested in answering questions."
Autumn looks down at her hands on the bed, her body all tensed up and shaky. Will the officer just move on already...?
"Is Autumn Leaf with you?", Constable Harford asks.
"For the fourth time," Nix asserts. "I'm not answering any questions."
Constable Harford gives Nix a flat look. "Alright," he says. "If that's how you want to play it." He folds up his pen and paper and slips them into the inside pocket of his uniform jacket. "You and Autumn Leaf are instructed to not leave town for at least the next week." He touches the bill of his policeman's hat. "We'll get in contact with you again as the investigation progresses."
He steps away from the door, and Nix closes it behind him. She watches through the peephole as he walks away.
"Is he gone?", Autumn asks.
Nix steps back from the door. "Yes," she says. "But he'll probably be back with a warrant. We need that lawyer now." She raises her pokétch to her face and taps in a number. "Mom?"
"Nix! I take it it's not good news," comes her mother's tinny voice. "What's happened?"
"A constable just stopped by. It's fairly likely that me and Autumn will be arrested within the day. I don't have December's number anymore, do you have it?"
"No, your dad was the one who knew her -"
"Then call dad and get him to call her, we need her. I have to come up with five grand for a lawyer in the next - like, hour or so -"
"I'll pitch in," her mother says. "We can afford it to get you out of this scrape. Use your savings and we'll figure it out."
"December will probably cover it as soon as we talk to her, it's just getting to her -" Nix sighs. "I shouldn't have deleted her number." She looks down at her poketch. "Alright, I'll make the call. If I don't call, assume the worst."
"Got it," Nix's mother replies. "We'll sort this out, I'm sure we will." There's a warmth in her voice that steadies Autumn. "I'll go make that call."
"See you, mom," Nix replies, and hangs up.
Autumn takes a long breath. "Okay, so... what's going to happen?"
Nix lowers her voice. "Probably the police will talk to the desk clerk and so on, one of them will have seen the pin, and that's enough for a warrant to get the room searched. If they search the room, they will find the pin - there's no way to hide it safely - and then we're in for it. We're going to have to prove the pin is rightfully yours."
Autumn bites her lip. "But... is it...?"
"Your mother said Tobias wanted you to have it, right?" Nix looks at Autumn. "Was there, like, a will or anything...?"
"Yeah," says Autumn quietly. "There was definitely a will. But... I don't know what the specific provisions were. It's possible that, uh..."
"That there's no provision, in which case it's your word against your mother's... or worse, that the provision explicitly says it's your mother's..." Nix sighs. "Well, that's what we need a lawyer for, they'll be able to - handle it no matter which way it goes. Just - remember not to say anything. The next couple days are going to be rough, we'll probably get arrested and go to jail at least until bail is set, that happened to Cocoa once... It's going to suck. But we will get through it if you just keep your mouth shut and listen to the lawyer. Alright?"
Autumn nods. "A-alright."
Nix takes Autumn's hand. "No matter what happens, remember that I'm here for you and we're in this together."
Autumn squeezes Nix's hand back. "Yeah," she breathes. "Okay."
Nix raises her poketch. "Alright. I've got to make some calls. Can you catch up Ziggy for me, he needs to be told to not talk as well."
"Alright," Autumn says. "It'll - help to have something to do."
"We'll get through this," Nix says. "Now I really have to get on this."
Autumn nods. "We - have a little time." She manages a small smile. "- I love you."
"I love you too," Nix replies. Then she dials. "Albert & Packer Law Offices, Nicole Chambers speaking? Yeah, I need to urgently retain one of your associates..."
Autumn takes a deep breath, and gets to work herself.
...Wow. Was not expecting the asshole parent back so quickly. Wasn't she supposed to be not amazingly off financially? This is really far to go over a small piece of jewelry... So either she figured out how much the key stone is worth, or she's extremely vindictive. Or she thinks that this will be extremely quick and easy once she gets the police involved. Could be all of the above really.
...Wow. Was not expecting the asshole parent back so quickly. Wasn't she supposed to be not amazingly off financially? This is really far to go over a small piece of jewelry... So either she figured out how much the key stone is worth, or she's extremely vindictive. Or she thinks that this will be extremely quick and easy once she gets the police involved. Could be all of the above really.
She also just isn't particularly rational, especially when it comes to Autumn. Based off of my experiences with similar parents, I would guess that this entire time she hasn't thought of Autumn cutting off contact with her as anything more than a temper tantrum, and that she expects Autumn to 'snap out of it' if pushed or threatened with consequences. I think that the way she talks to and about Nyx also indicates pretty strongly that she's unable or unwilling to think of Autumn as having any of her own agency; if the decisions Autumn's making aren't the decisions her mother's telling her to make, they must be because of an interloper, instead.
After a few hours' tense wait and a dispirited lunch, Nix's poketch finally rings again. There's been no sign of the police; Autumn and Nix haven't dared to venture out of their hotel room since Constable Harford stopped by.
Autumn looks up from the side of her bed, where she's brushing Ziggy's hair. "Who is it?", she asks.
"I was hoping for December," Nix says. She's sitting across from Autumn on her own bed, going through legal documents on her poketch. "No such luck though, it's Cocoa."
Autumn tilts her head. "Should we pick up?"
Nix nods. "Yeah, he's the one with experience with this kind of thing in the family. I mean, I picked up the basics, but..." She accepts the call and puts the pokétch on speakerphone. "Hey, Cocoa."
The clear tenor voice of Nix's brother comes over the line, made tinny by the tiny speaker. "Hey, Nix. I just woke up and mom had left a message with the news. I figured I should call and let you know what's going to happen, if you two get arrested, and how to manage that."
Autumn pushes Ziggy out of her lap and comes to sit next to Nix on the other bed, leaning slightly against her side. "Nix said that you'd been involved with the police before," Autumn says. "It - I don't want to pry, but what happened?"
"It's not important," Cocoa says. "I don't want to waste time when the police could show up at your door at any minute."
"Smart of you," Nix says, her fingers tangling in her rose pendant. "But I think Autumn deserves the story once you've gotten the practicalities out of the way."
"Alright," Cocoa replies. "So here's the basics. You'll get escorted to the police station. They book you - tell you what you've been arrested for - and then you're escorted to a holding cell. They confiscate your pokéballs and anything they consider contraband at this point - so the pin. At this point you need to ask for your lawyer - and you need to be really clear about it and use the right phrasing, at least in Unova there's a precedent that if you ask in a way like "I need a lawyer, dawg" the police are within their rights to say you're asking for a dog that practices law, which isn't a thing, and so they can deny you it."
Autumn winces. "Seriously?"
Cocoa's tone drips with irony. "Seriously. You need to ask very clearly. "I want a private consultation with my lawyer." Remember those words. They're legally obliged to give you that so you'll get it. At that point you tell the lawyer everything. The lawyer will then give you instructions, which are likely to be "shut up and let me work on the case from outside." The police may try to interrogate you but with your lawyer present they should be rebuffed. Don't say anything."
Autumn sighs. "I know, I know. Nix and your mom have both said as much already."
"Just goes to show how important it is." Cocoa's voice is firm and low. "You wait a few hours, and then they fingerprint you, photograph you, and assign you a number. They take everything you have off you. I mean everything, you don't get to keep your own clothes, you'll be forced to change into a prison uniform. I was strip searched at this point."
Autumn swallows hard. "... Really?"
Cocoa's voice doesn't waver. "Yes, really. They're very serious about people not being able to smuggle things into jail. Then it's back to the holding cell. You wait for... a long time, long enough to lose track of time. Then they come back and get you transferred to jail. You'll be put into a large cell with several others, but the pair of you will be kept in separate cells. You won't be able to see each other."
Nix nods, her fingers still stroking the petals of the rose at her neck. "That... makes sense. It sucks, but it makes sense."
"They don't want people able to talk to their 'accomplices' in jail." Cocoa's voice is flat. "Anyway, you stay in the large cell with these strangers who've also pissed off the police somehow, and that's your home until bail is set. Meals come on big plastic trays with no hard edges at all, just rounded surfaces. I was able to pay for better meals through a commissary, I don't know if they'll have one in Hoenn. You read books, or play cards, or work out. Occasionally you get to go outside, always watched closely by the guards. In some ways it's less bad than it could be, but..." Cocoa sighs. "Yeah. They at least had coffee when I was there, but it was pretty crap coffee. You get what you pay for, I guess."
Autumn sighs back. "Funny. So..."
"So yeah," Cocoa says. "You get a bail hearing eventually. In a high profile case like yours it probably won't take too long. Less than a week, anyway. Bail's set. It'll probably be a couple grand at least given that the charges are serious - there's something called a Master-Rank crime, which stealing a Key Stone absolutely counts as, so bail is likely to be high. You pay the bail - well, hopefully you're able to pay the bail - and the court releases you from jail. You then have to come to the hearing of the case; if you don't show up then the court confiscates your bail and other consequences may happen. If you're out of jail it could take a few days for the hearing to happen."
"And that hearing is where the initial arguments for the case are presented, yeah? We don't even get a chance to produce evidence prior to that," Nix says.
"Got it in one," Cocoa replies. "It's all very... efficient."
Autumn swallows hard. "I..." She takes a long breath. "Fuck."
"Yeah." Cocoa's voice is soft. "It's a lot to take in."
Nix reaches over and draws a hand slowly through Autumn's hair. "Yeah," she says. "It sounds... pretty bad."
"Mhm." Cocoa sighs. "Nobody ever said going to jail was fun."
Autumn winces again. "I still can't believe that this is - really going to happen..."
Nix smiles slightly. "It might not, even still. And... even though the whole process is pretty bleak, it's at least... probably temporary, if our lawyers are competent or the will is in our favor."
"Yeah," Cocoa says. "Things got resolved eventually in my case as well, so it is possible to beat charges like this even if they're... politically fraught, let's say. But you definitely will have a rough time in the middle there."
Autumn leans a little more heavily against Nix. "... Thanks for telling us all this," she says. "It can't be easy to go back through all the... memories of what happened to you, whatever it was..."
Nix raises her voice a little, her hand still occupied with slow circles through Autumn's hair. "I think Autumn deserves that explanation now," she says.
"Yeah, I guess so," Cocoa murmurs. "It's... simple and complex at the same time. Do you really want to hear it?"
Autumn lays her head against Nix's shoulder. "I don't have anything better to be doing right now," she says. "We've already contacted our lawyer and we're waiting on December... She might call, though, so maybe keep it short."
"The short version, then," Cocoa says. "Well, the short version is that I was an activist for pokémon rights for a while, and some of the people in the movement decided that they should stoop to underhanded methods... You remember the prosecutions a couple years back of the leaders, right?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "It was all that was on TV for a while. Ghetsis and... whatever her name was, the girl with the green hair..."
"He's a dude, actually," Cocoa replies. "I don't blame you for forgetting his name, it's ridiculous. 'Natural Harmonia Gropius.' But I always called him N."
"Wait, you knew one of the leaders of Team Plasma?" Autumn raises her eyebrows.
"Yeah. It's a long story. To sum it up, N had a habit of only keeping pokémon for a short period and then releasing them back to the wild, because of his belief that humans shouldn't own pokémon. Grace, my Liepard, is one of the pokémon he released. I caught her from the wild then was surprised to discover she had a trainer number in the registration system already. I contacted the original trainer, and that's how I met N."
"Huh," Autumn says. "What a coincidence."
"Yeah," Cocoa says. "I'll say. He tried to convince me to release her again, we got to talking about philosophy and pokémon rights... We ended up as loose friends, though we never saw eye to eye on the "release all pokémon" thing. I did some activist work on the fringe of the movement as a favor to him, canvassing and so on. So when the police scooped up all N's known associates..."
"You got caught in the net," Autumn replies. She looks up at Nix.
Nix smiles sadly and strokes Autumn's hair a little more. "Mhm."
"Yeah." Cocoa's voice is low and flat. "I was arrested under suspicion of membership in Team Plasma. I had never actually done anything illegal though, and my lawyers were eventually able to get the case dismissed for lack of evidence." Cocoa's voice drips with irony. "So in the end they just made me sympathize with N more. He won his defense as well, eventually. We still keep in touch."
Autumn nods. "I don't think it's wrong to care about pokémon rights, and if you never actually did anything illegal..."
"Yeah. The truth won out in the end. But it sure took its sweet time getting there." Cocoa's tinny voice falls silent for a moment. "I have every belief you can beat these charges, or at least get a deal that's favorable to you. It just might take a while and be fucking uncomfortable in the meantime."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess." Autumn says. "It means something, coming from you."
"Don't mention it," Cocoa says. "Just... stay strong and don't let them get to you, okay? It'll all turn out fine in the end if you're steadfast and don't let them get you talking."
"I'll do my best," Autumn replies.
Ziggy hops up into her lap. "Zigzagoon."
She draws a hand through his fur. "This is going to be awful," she says to him. "And I might not see you for a while. But we'll get through this, okay?"
Ziggy nods firmly. "Zagoon."
Autumn takes a deep breath. "Thanks for calling, Cocoa."
"It's the least I could do," Cocoa says. "And I'm kicking in two grand towards you two's defense, I can afford that right now. The gym circuit's been kind to me."
Autumn smiles. "... That's the best news I've had all day," she says. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it," Cocoa says. "Nix did the same for me when I was arrested."
Nix smiles slightly. "It was only one grand from me when you were arrested."
"Who's counting, right?" Cocoa chuckles. "What matters is that you were there." He falls quiet for a moment. "I should get off the line though, I've heard you're hoping to contact December."
"Yeah," Nix mumbles. "I never should've deleted her number."
"I'd say I told you so, but... I think right now it'd be taken a lot more seriously than I mean it." Cocoa sighs. "Good luck, you two. I hope things turn out alright."
"See you, Cocoa," Nix says.
"See you, sis."
The line goes dead.
Nix stares at her pokétch for a long moment, then rubs her forehead with her free hand.
Autumn leans in closer, and Nix embraces her.
"Yeah," Nix says. "We should... get ready. If December hasn't called yet, then... we're probably on our own." She squeezes Autumn's shoulders. "I should tell Crimson and Lethia what's happened. And..." She looks over at Autumn. "I want to spend as much time with you as I can."
Autumn nods. "Yeah. I..." She sits up a little and draws a hand through Ziggy's fur, her grip tense on his back. She takes a slow breath. "Let's go, together, right now. This - this room feels way too small right now. I need sky."
"Yeah," Nix says. "Let's go."
~*~
In the badly-maintained, benchless park outside the dorms, Nix releases her Ariados once more - then follows it up with the pokeballs for Lethia and Noir. Her Misdreavus and Houndoom spread out in front of her as she steps forward and runs a hand along Crimson's horn.
"Hey," she says softly. "It's been a while."
Crimson shifts into her touch, nuzzling her hand. "Dos," he says.
"Doom," observes Noir.
Autumn stands by Nix's side, cradling Ziggy close. He feels so precious, so necessary. It's hard to imagine ever parting with him...
Autumn steps forward. "Hey," she says softly. She lets Ziggy down from her arms and looks towards Lethia. "Can I get a hug?"
Lethia floats forwards, and settles herself against Autumn's body, her prehensile hair wrapping around her arms and shoulders. "Dreavus," she says, the gems at her neck radiating a dull glow.
"Lethia," Autumn says. "My protector. Who saw me through that night with the Poochyena, through Granite cave, who puts herself between me and danger without a second thought..." She wraps her arms around Lethia lightly, feeling the coolness of her against her skin. "I never thanked you. Noir gets a lot of credit too, and Crimson, but... I never said thank you to anyone but Nix."
Lethia squeezes Autumn softly. "Mis," she says softly.
Crimson steps forward and touches Autumn's side with his horn. "Dos."
Even Noir advances and presses up against Autumn's calf. "Houn," he says gravely.
Ziggy stands up on his back paws and makes little bows to each of the three pokémon in turn. "Zigzag, Zigzagoon," he adds.
"I'm sorry you all can't protect me from this too," Autumn says, still holding Lethia close. "I wish you could. But this is... a human thing, and I don't think you can really help that much."
Ziggy scampers in and nuzzles her feet. "Zigzagoon," he says earnestly and insistently.
"If only I knew what you were saying," Autumn says, looking down at Ziggy. "But I promise, we're going to fight this and we'll all be reunited again eventually."
Ziggy nods firmly. "Zigzagoon."
Nix looks over at Autumn. "I..." Her gaze falls to Lethia in Autumn's arms. "Can I get a hug too?"
Lethia regretfully lets go of Autumn, and phases through her arms to embrace her trainer. "Misdreavus," she says softly and lowly. "Misd."
Nix buries her face in Lethia's shoulder, and breathes long and slow. Her breath hitches, just once. Then she pulls away and looks over at Autumn.
"We're going to beat this." Her voice wavers for a moment, then steadies. "Together, you and me. And all the people who care about us." Nix meets Autumn's gaze. "We'll figure it out. We'll manage it. And we'll win in the end."
"Alright," Autumn murmurs. "If you say so."
Nix lets go of Lethia, and extends a hand to Autumn.
Autumn takes it, and squeezes.
A small smile rises to Nix's face. "Your mom can't keep you down forever," she says. "We'll figure this out. I... I have to believe that."
"Okay," Autumn says. "If you say it, then it must be true." She squeezes Nix's hand again.
"Houn," says Noir. He noses Nix's side gently and licks her leg, careful not to poke her with his curled horns.
"Together," says Nix.
"Always together," says Autumn.
"I love you," says Nix.
"I love you too," says Autumn. "Whatever happens."
"Whatever happens."
Autumn sits down on the grass, and Nix sits next to her. They lean against each other, their pokémon surrounding them, every one of them touching.
And that's how a group of four constables find them an hour later, Constable Harford at their head, his Solrock hovering at his shoulder.
"Autumn Leaf and Nicole Chambers?", he asks.
Neither of them respond.
He sighs. "I have a warrant to search your persons on suspicion of theft of an Evolutionary Stone." He steps forward, his Solrock hovering in close. "Return your pokémon to their pokéballs and comply with the search."
Nix opens her eyes. "I'm complying under protest," she says simply. And she recalls Noir, Crimson and Lethia with a sad smile. She stands slowly, like she has all the time in the world.
Autumn runs her hand through Ziggy's fur one last time, and then returns him to his pokeball. The pin is still in her pocket.
She stands, following Nix's example. "I'm complying under protest," she repeats.
Another officer comes forward and separates Autumn from Nix. "Arms straight out horizontally," he says. "Stand still and don't move." He starts patting Nix down, thorough but swift.
Autumn looks at Constable Harford.
He advances towards her. "Arms straight out horizontally," he says. "Stand still and don't move."
Autumn raises her arms, and stands still as a statue.
A blonde-haired woman in the same uniform as Harford approaches, and pats down Autumn. When she comes to the bulge in her pocket, she reaches in with a handkerchief and turns it out into her hand. It's her wallet, and beneath it... the Key Stone pin.
She holds the pin up to the light. "Let the record show that the allegedly stolen Key Stone was found in the possession of Autumn Leaf in her right jean pocket."
Constable Harford writes this down on his pad of paper. "Noted. Bag it." He looks seriously at Autumn and Nix. "Autumn Leaf, you are hereby arrested on suspicion of theft of an evolutionary stone. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law."
The constable patting down Nix produces a pair of handcuffs, and quickly Nix is handcuffed behind her back. The constable takes Nix's pokéballs off her belt a moment later and adds them to the bandolier across her own body. "Nicole Chambers, you are hereby arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting a Master-Rank crime. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law."
Constable Harford's female assistant passes him the bagged pin, and a moment later Autumn's arms are grabbed, manhandled behind her back, and cuffed firmly. The cuffs bite into her skin closely, hard and solid. The constable takes Ziggy's pokéball off her belt and passes it to Constable Harford as well.
"Take them to the station for questioning," Constable Harford snaps out.
Autumn and Nix share a look - but a moment later, they're frog-marched off by their respective constables in the direction of the police station.
The trip is uncomfortable and treacherous. Autumn almost stumbles a few times, her center of balance off with her arms cuffed behind her. Each time, the police officer escorting her grabs her by the upper arm and holds her upright until she finds her balance again.
Autumn's cheeks burn, and she grits her teeth. People turn and watch her as she's escorted by, strangers she's never met. The journey to the police station seems to take forever. She marches onward, one, two, one, two.
Eventually, the police station comes into view, a squat, stolid brick building. The pair are marched up the stairs and into the foyer.
"Put them in holding for now," Constable Harford says.
"I want a private consultation with my lawyer, and I'm not saying anything else without my lawyer present." Nix says.
"Noted," replies Constable Harford. "We'll fetch you your lawyer. For now, take them to holding."
Autumn takes a deep breath. "I want a private consultation with my lawyer too, and I'm not saying anything else without my lawyer present," she repeats.
Constable Harford rolls his eyes. "Noted." He gestures to the officers escorting Autumn and Nix, and they're each frog-marched off in a different direction.
Autumn glances over her shoulder as Nix vanishes into the police station, stumbles, then takes a breath and focuses on the steps in front of her.
A few minutes later, she's brought in front of a desk with a bored-looking police officer with a handlebar mustache sitting at it. "Hey, Clara," he says to the officer escorting Autumn. "What have you got for me now?"
"Autumn Leaf, 21, accused of theft of an evolutionary stone. I need her processed." Clara's voice is all business.
Autumn takes a slow breath, and says nothing.
"Got it," he says, and steps around his desk. "Her effects have already been confiscated?"
Clara nods. "Yes sir."
"Take her shoes and put her in cell eight." He taps his chin, and stands, producing a set of keys from his pocket. "Not often you see a Master-Class crime around here."
"No, not often," Clara responds. She marches Autumn down the row of open-barred cells to number eight, and looks at the mustached officer.
He opens the cell door, and Clara frog-marches Autumn in and sets her on the hard cot inside. The warden stays by the door, his eyes firmly on Autumn's back.
Clara uncuffs Autumn. "Sit on the bed," she instructs.
Autumn steps forwards, and sits on the bed.
"Take your shoes off," Clara adds.
Autumn complies, glaring daggers at her.
Clara takes Autumn's shoes, and steps out of the cell with them. The warden closes the door behind her and locks it. "If you need to go to the bathroom, call me and I'll escort you to the one at the end of the hall. Supper is in three hours." He grunts lowly, and walks back down the row of cells to his desk, where he sits again. "You're lucky," he calls back. "It's a slow day, nobody else in the cells but our VIP."
Autumn lets out a breath, and settles herself on the narrow bed as best she can. "Alright," she says to herself. "Alright."
The cells are quiet. Desolate. A window high up on the ceiling lets in a little light, but the whole area is cavernous and filled with bars.
Autumn lies down, puts her head on the pillow of the bed, and stares at the ceiling.
So.
It's really happened.
What a crazy two days. Going from having sex with Nix to this inside of twenty-four hours...
And it's all the fault of her fucking mom.
She lets out a long sigh, closes her eyes, and tries her best to sleep.
To my scintillating girlfriend, Seylerius, for sharing her experiences of the arrest process from the inside and helping me get into Autumn's head in these deeply vulnerable moments. I'm proud of your growth, my dove. Fly free.
Autumn lies in her cell for what feels like eternity. She can't sleep, no matter how hard she tries. Her missing shoes and pokéballs ache like a wound. Her pokétch is missing too. She hadn't even caught it being taken off her.
Who knows what's happening with Nix, right now.
She pushes the thought away. It's a mess. A real fucking mess.
She should never have taken that pin...
She gets up from her cell bed and paces the two strides to the bars, then turns around, walks back, and sits down on the edge of her bed, the stiff frame digging into her calves. She presses her face into her hands and sighs heavily.
There's nothing for it but to press on now, though. She... she has to keep it together.
She clasps her hands together, leans back against the cold stone wall, and waits.
~*~
Autumn's eyes open again. The sun angle's different, now. How long has it been? Two hours? Three hours? She doesn't feel hungry, but then again she doubts she could eat anything right now.
Her fingers go to her belt, where her pokéballs hung; she smooths the cloth down, fidgeting at the empty space that should be full. The impression of her pokétch at her wrist itches; her socked feet are cool against the stone floor.
Any minute now, a constable's going to walk through that door and take her to her lawyer.
Any minute now...
Right?
~*~
The sun crawls lower in the sky.
Supper was supposed to be in three hours, right?
It's been three hours, right?
Autumn squints at the high, barred window in the corridor. It's hard to judge.
All she knows is that it's been a long while.
Her stomach feels cold, tight.
She closes her eyes, and waits.
~*~
Very eventually, there's the sound of someone walking down the corridor.
Autumn sits up sharply, her whole body tense. She looks down the hallway -
It's the warden. He has a plastic-wrapped sandwich in his hand.
"Supper," he says gruffly, and tosses it underhand through the bars onto Autumn's bed. And then he's gone, back down the rows of cells to his desk again.
Autumn looks down at the sandwich next to her. It's a little messed up from the toss, but it's real and it's food and it means it's been three hours.
She picks it up, and unwraps it. It's tuna.
She can live with tuna. And it's something to do.
She eats it.
~*~
She's just managed to actually start to fall asleep when the warden returns with a second constable she doesn't recognize. He raps lightly on the cell bars with his baton.
Autumn drags herself vertical, and looks at him. She opens her mouth, and then closes it firmly.
"Your lawyer's arrived," the warden informs her. "You're to be escorted to a consultation room."
Autumn's heart leaps, but she tries her best to keep the relief off her face. She just nods.
The warden gets the keys to the cell, and the other constable comes in, a stubble-faced man with dark hair. "Arms straight out in front of you," he says.
Autumn sticks out her hands, and the constable cuffs her again, the metal bracelets biting into her wrists. She closes her eyes for a moment, takes a sharp breath.
"Come with me," says the constable. And he steps out of the cell and out into the hallway.
Autumn follows, her hands pressed together before her waist. The constable takes her by the upper arm, and marches her down the hallway, out past the jail cells and down into the station. It's not a long hallway.
She's put into a small, windowless room with two chairs, a table, and a door. A small, nebbish man with a briefcase by his side waits at the table, and despite herself Autumn smiles when she sees him.
The constable sits Autumn down across from the man. "Knock on the door when the consultation's over," the constable says. "I'll be right outside."
The lawyer nods. "I'll take it from here, thank you." He looks down at Autumn's wrists. "Is it necessary that she be handcuffed?"
The constable nods. "Master-class crime," he says. "She's considered a flight risk."
"I see," the lawyer says. "And where is she going to fly to while in this room with you posted outside the door?"
The constable shrugs. "It's policy."
"I see," the lawyer replies flatly. He purses his face as if he had just bitten into a lemon. "Very well, then. Please leave the room so my client and I can have some privacy."
The constable nods, and steps out of the room, closing the door behind him.
The lawyer watches the door for a long moment, then nods. He looks at Autumn.
"I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances," he says quietly. "Jason Cartwright. I'm you and Nix's lawyer." He offers his hand to shake.
Autumn reaches out with both hands, and hesitantly clasps Jason's hand. "Autumn Leaf," she says.
Jason shakes once, and then lets Autumn withdraw. "I've already consulted with Nix," he says, "and she's given me most of the story, but there are still some details I'm missing, particularly regarding your mother's statements on the phone. Can we get into that right now?"
Autumn nods. "Go ahead."
"Did your mother say anything on the phone that implied she thought the pin belonged to you?", Jason asks.
"Yeah," Autumn says. "She was going to give it to me. She said my father wanted me to have it, and that... it had been handed down from my grandmother... And that I was supposed to have it when I left for my pokémon journey, I think."
"Are you prepared to swear to that?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "It's my best recollection."
"Alright," Jason says. "Is it true that Nix told Noir to "make sure she" - meaning your mother - "doesn't stalk us?""
Autumn nods. "That's true."
"Alright," Jason says. "That's damaging to our case because from a certain point of view it could be read as intimidation with a pokémon, which is a crime in its own right. Did Nix say this before or after you had the pin?"
"After," Autumn replies. "Definitely after."
Jason nods. "That's good. That probably knocks out the possibility of this being read as a robbery - you never threatened your mother to get her to hand over the pin, yes?"
Autumn nods firmly. "No, I didn't."
"That's good to hear. Given that you had genuine reason to believe the pin was yours, it's possible that, even in the worst case, we may be able to get a deferred prosecution. Do you know what that is?"
Autumn shakes her head. "No, I don't know."
"Basically, what happens with a deferred prosecution is that the police say "do this and we'll drop the case." There is no trial, no evidence is presented. Usually you have to do something - go to a therapy program, do some form of community service, something like that - but nothing goes on your record, and you are still presumed innocent. This is different from a plea bargain, which is where you plead guilty to a less severe crime, and thus have a conviction on your record and perhaps go to prison for some time."
Autumn nods. "Yeah, it - sounds like it would be a lot better if we could get that, even if the will's not favorable."
"This will," Jason says. "Do you recall who possessed it?"
Autumn nods. "There was - a man who came to our house when... when my father died. I would have been six, but he read the will at the time. I just don't recall what was said in it. I was very small."
"So, a family lawyer?"
Autumn nods again. "Yes. I don't know what his name was but I know for sure he existed."
"We should be able to turn up the will in discovery, then," Jason says. He adjusts his tie. "If it's favorable, we'll present it at the hearing. In that case I wouldn't be surprised if all charges were dropped and your mother faced some consequences of her own. She has a duty to know who the pin belongs to - if she's been trying to wrest it from you when you're the proper owner and using the police to do it, the police will take a very dim view of her actions."
Autumn exhales. "I see. Well, all we can do is hope..."
"And prepare." Jason looks over at her across the table. "I'd like to go through everything again with you, from the top. Starting from your first call with your mother. Can you do that?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "I can do that."
Jason gets out a notepad and pen. "Then let's get down to work."
~*~
An exhausting hour of cross-examination later, Jason finally pens down the last of his notes. "Alright," he says. "All this tallies nicely with Nix's story. Thank you for going through this all with me - I know it's hard."
Autumn adjusts her hands in her lap. The cuffs on her ache, the metal gripping her skin. "Yeah." She sighs. "There is one thing I wanted to ask..."
"Go ahead," Jason says, looking up sharply. "Anything I can do to help."
"A friend of mine who's been arrested before said that - when you go to jail they strip-search you. Is there any way that that could... not happen." Autumn looks down at her hands in her lap.
Jason clasps his hands. "Given that the story is as you say it is, a psi search could perhaps be substituted. I generally advise against it for most of my clients, because it can produce additional evidence for the prosecution, but in your case I believe it's reasonably safe. You are taking a small risk that some incidental psychic trace on you is seized on, though." He folds his hands. "It's up to you."
Autumn looks at Jason. "What kind of risk are we talking about, here?"
"Quite low, given the history you've supplied me is true," Jason says. "Given that it's strictly a scan for contraband. But not zero."
Autumn rubs her wrist. "I think..." She sighs. "I would prefer the psi scan."
"You're sure?", Jason asks.
"I'm sure," Autumn says.
"Alright, then," Jason says. "I'll negotiate it with the police. Is there anything else you'd like to ask before I go?"
Autumn sighs. "... how long will it be before I'm transferred out of holding?"
"Probably it'll happen in the morning," Jason says. "They'll do the initial processing after I leave and then you'll be transferred to the actual holding facility early tomorrow."
"Alright," Autumn says. "I can live with that."
"See you in a few days," Jason says. "I'll try to keep you updated as to the status of the will. The bail hearing shouldn't take long to be held, given the nature of the case; no date's been set yet, but I'll inform you as soon as one is."
Autumn nods firmly. "Thank you, Jason."
"It's nothing." He offers his hand. "Good luck."
Autumn takes his hand, the bracelet on her wrist jangling, and shakes again. "Thank you."
Jason stands up, and goes over to the door, which he opens. There's a constable right outside.
Jason nods thoughtfully to the constable. "Our consultation is done. You're going to take her for processing now?"
The constable nods. "Yeah, we've cleared the queue ahead of her."
"Alright, then." Jason nods. "I want to discuss an alternative to the standard strip search with your captain. It shouldn't take long."
The constable nods. "She's consenting to a Psi search?"
"A strictly limited one," Jason replies.
"Alright," the constable says. "I'll take her back to holding while you discuss processing."
"Can she stay in the interview room for a few minutes more?", Jason asks. "You're not using it, are you?"
The constable looks over Jason's shoulder at Autumn. "Well enough," he says. "I'll stay here with her."
Jason looks back at Autumn. "You can stay here; I'll talk to the captain for fifteen minutes or so and negotiate the psi search. I'll come back to see you off when you're taken for processing."
Autumn just nods.
Jason nods back firmly, and steps away into the halls of the police station, his briefcase by his side.
The constable steps in and closes the door behind him, and Autumn's left alone again.
At least it's a change of scenery, she guesses. She leans back in the hard chair and tries to get comfortable.
And she waits.
What if Jason can't secure the psi scan...?
... Well, she'll just. Have to cross that bridge when she comes to it, if it happens...
Autumn takes slow breaths, and rubs her fingers against each other.
She can feel the tension building in her chest, the bubbling fizz of panic; she fights it down. Slow, deep breaths, Autumn. Just breathe. It won't be long before it's over.
She shifts the cuffs against her wrists, the persistent reminder of the sorry state she's been reduced to.
She hopes Nix is okay. Jason said she looked alright. Stressed, of course, under the circumstances, but... Managing.
If only she could see her.
She gets up from the chair, paces to the wall. This shouldn't be a long wait, right? Not like the last couple. Not anything like holding.
It doesn't make it any easier.
She paces back across the room and sits in the chair, trying to settle herself. It doesn't work. She rests her hands on the table, the chain between her wrists clinking against the hard wood.
She can hear footsteps passing in the hallway outside. It's not as barren and desolate as holding. It's not a jail cell.
She can at least appreciate that while it lasts.
~*~
All too soon, Jason returns with the earlier constable - the one that the warden called Clara. She's carrying a small silver case. The male constable posted on the door nods to her, and lets the two of them pass.
Jason looks over at Autumn. "Constable Clara is going to take your fingerprints now," he says. "I've been permitted to remain in the room and observe."
Clara nods to Jason, and pulls the chair he was sitting in around the table to next to Autumn's side. Opening the kit, she produces a paper slip with five slots labelled, and a pad of ink. "Give me your hands," she instructs.
Autumn looks over at Jason.
Jason nods. "Do what she says," he says.
Autumn nods. "Alright." She extends her hands towards Clara.
Clara takes Autumn's right hand by the thumb, positions the ink pad and the paper, and then presses Autumn's thumb firmly into the ink pad. Moving it over to the paper, she presses it into the thumb slot, and rolls it gently from side to side. Autumn's left hand stays on the table, resting just shy of the length of the handcuff chain.
With brisk efficiency, Clara does each of Autumn's remaining fingers on her right hand, then moves her entire setup to Autumn's left side and repeats the process with her left hand. Autumn remains handcuffed the entire time.
Once the final fingerprint has been taken, Clara puts the stamp pad and the taken prints back into the case, and stands up. "Alright," she says. "Now for the psi scan and the identification photographs."
She gestures towards the door of the room. "Follow me," she says.
Autumn follows her, and is brought back into the holding cells. The warden nods to Clara, and hands over to her a deep plastic tray containing an orange jumpsuit and a bundle of underwear and socks.
"Here," he says.
Autumn steps over to Autumn, and undoes her manacles. Then she picks up the tray and hands it to her. "Put on the provided uniform," she says. "You can change in the bathroom at the end of the hall. Your own clothing goes into the tray and is returned to me. We'll hold it until you're released. You'll be psi scanned on your way out of the bathroom, so don't try to keep anything of your own."
Jason has followed along; he gives Autumn a small nod.
Autumn swallows, and nods back. "Alright." She takes the tray, and goes into the bathroom at the end of the hall.
It's windowless, without so much as a mural on the wall or any decoration. Solid stone and tile. No mirror over the sink. A toilet in one corner. She puts the tray on the ledge for the sink, and takes a slow breath, looking down at the bright orange jumpsuit.
Alright. There's nothing for it.
She slips off her shirt, and then her bra. The provided one fits, more or less; Clara must have estimated her size. Cheery thought.
Her pants, underwear socks go next, leaving her mostly nude again for the second time in as many days. The contrast is... Almost funny, honestly. Going from something so warm to something so cold.
She quickly slips on the institutional white underwear, and then steps into the jumpsuit. It's baggy, a little too large for her, and the zipper is cold against her skin.
She zips it up to her collar. Then she gathers her own clothes and puts them all into the plastic tray.
She feels more naked than naked, like this. She's a prisoner. That's what this clothing says.
Hopefully it'll be temporary.
She steps out of the washroom with the tray in her hands, and directly into the baleful gaze of Constable Harford's Solrock. Purple energy sweeps her body in a wave of prickles, once, twice, three times. And then it's over.
Clara looks over at the Solrock. "Any contraband?"
The Solrock twists sideways in the air in an approximation of a headshake, but its slitted eyes stay focused entirely on Autumn. That gaze... isn't human.
Autumn shivers, and hands the tray with her clothes to Clara. "Here," she says.
Clara accepts it, and carries it down the hall to the warden. He picks it up, and vanishes deeper into the police station, leaving Autumn behind entirely.
Jason looks over at Autumn. "I can't stay overnight," he says. "I've got more pressing things to do than stay with you, I'm afraid. But I do have one thing I wanted to pass on before I go."
Autumn looks back at Jason. "What?"
"Nix says 'I love you'," Jason says. "And to be strong."
Autumn smiles, despite everything. "I'll do my best," she says.
Clara comes back down the hallway. "Identification photographs next, and then back into holding." She gestures at a niche in near the holding cells with a height marker on the wall, a small tripod with a camera set up atop it.
Autumn steps into the niche, and faces the camera; a few moments later, the warden returns with a slate with a registration number and Autumn's name on it, and places it on a small stand in between the camera and Autumn.
Clara steps up to the camera. "Look directly into the camera. Neutral expression."
Autumn stares into the camera. It's just like a trainer's license photograph, right? She's done this before. It's okay.
The camera shutter clicks. Clara nods. "Turn ninety degrees and face the left wall. Neutral expression. Look straight ahead."
Autumn turns, and does as she's instructed. The camera clicks again.
"Alright," Clara says. "Back into your cell. You'll be held overnight and transferred to jail in the morning."
Autumn nods, and steps over towards her now-familiar cell. Clara closes it behind her, and locks it.
Jason steps up to the bars. "Goodnight," he says. "I'll do my best to bring you good news tomorrow."
"Thank you," Autumn says. "I'm counting on you."
Jason just nods, and turns to Clara. "If you'll escort me out?"
Clara nods to Jason, and leads the way out of the cells.
Autumn watches Jason as he goes, and then she's alone again, with nothing to do until morning.
How type immunities work in pokemon fanfic tends to vary from author to author. Some authors do not like the idea that a level 1 sentret can no-sell Giratina's Shadow Force, so rather than immunities being absolute they're more like resistances-but-more-so. I assume that something like the above is what's going on here, although it could be a genuine mistake it seems like an unlikely one.
With thanks to and love for my wonderful and deeply kind girlfriend, Seylerius, for delving into the details of a dark and scary time in her life just so that my silly pokémon story could have a little more realistic of a prison system experience. Sharing all this is a mark of how far you've come, darling. I love you.
The next morning, Autumn is jarred awake early by Constable Clara rapping her baton against the bars of her cell.
"Morning," she calls. "It's time for you to be transferred." She has another officer with her, with a Growlithe sitting next to him.
Autumn gets up and stretches her aching body. The cell bed hasn't done wonders for her back. As Clara opens the cell door, she stands and offers her wrists.
Clara cuffs her, then takes her by the shoulder and guides her out of the cell. It's back down the hallway and out of the station, the other officer and his Growlithe keeping pace.
The sun's barely come up outside - it must be six in the morning - but Clara seems to be alert nonetheless. She guides Autumn through the city, leading her out towards the outskirts of town.
It's not a long walk, but multiple people stop to watch them go by. The sight of an orange-jumpsuited criminal being paraded in handcuffs is enough to give anyone pause.
Finally, after a half hour's walk, Clara comes to a large building on the edge of town. She leads Autumn in.
Inside there's a small desk with two barred gates on either side of it. A portly officer with mutton chops is sitting at the desk, a set of keys hanging on the wall behind him.
"Morning, Clara," he says. "Who've you got for me today?"
Autumn stands still in front of the desk and says nothing as the officer with the growlithe closes the barred gate behind her. How long will it be before she sees the sun again...?
The guard at the desk accepts a container ball from the officer with the growlithe, and opens it to reveal the plastic tray containing Autumn's clothes, along with a stack of paperwork on top. He leaves through the document, and nods to himself.
"I'll handle her from here," the warden says. He stands up and takes his keys off the back wall. Opening the inner gate, he beckons with one hand. "Follow me."
The constable with the Growlithe gestures to Autumn, and she nods and steps down the hallway following the warden.
Eventually, he comes to a set of doorways in the hall, each with a barred window to see in. Turning towards one on the left, he turns the key and opens it.
"You'll be staying here," he says. " Take whichever bunk you like."
Autumn is led in, and looks around. It's a long, windowless room with bunk beds along one of the long walls, and three cubicles with curtains on the other side, containing a toilet and two showers. There are other women in it - two the same age as her and one who's older, all in the same orange jumpsuits as Autumn. One of them has spiked red hair and a conspicuous absence of piercings; a second has cupid's bow lips and tanned skin; and the oldest, maybe in her 30s, has black hair and a crooked posture.
"Morning, ladies," the warden says, nodding to them all. The constable and his Growlithe loom in the doorway. "Meet your new cellmate." He produces another key from his ring and undoes Autumn's handcuffs. "Breakfast will be in a half hour. You can order from the commissary using the tablet by the door. If your lawyer gets in contact with us, we'll let you know." He steps out the cell door, closes it behind him, and locks it. Then he nods to the other constable, and walks off down the hall.
Autumn's left rubbing her wrists and staring at her new cellmates. "I, uh..."
The woman with the red spiked hair grins. "I'm Liv," she says. "Shoplifting. And this is Silvia -" she indicates the tanned woman with the cupid's bow lips. "Dine and dash." She raises an eyebrow. "Who are you and what are you in for?"
Autumn rubs the back of her head. "Autumn. Um... Theft of an evolutionary stone. Though it's complicated, it was willed to me... I promise I did not just go into a store and swipe a stone worth thousands, it's from my family."
"Sure, sure," says Liv, waving a hand as if it doesn't matter to her in the slightest. "Sounds like you've got a hell of a story to tell."
"I guess," Autumn says. "I'd rather not get into it."
Liv nods. "Alright!" She chirps the word as if there's nothing to be worried about whatsoever.
Autumn looks over at the third, older woman. "What's she in for?"
"Oh," Liv says, getting a sour expression for a moment. "That's Kaylee. She's in for harassing her ex-boyfriend."
Kaylee raises a hand from where she's sitting on her bunk, then lowers it.
"So anyway," Liv says. "Want to play cards? Silvia knows cribbage and she always beats me at it, I could use someone to play against who isn't leagues better than me."
Despite herself, Autumn manages to smile. "Not for anything, right?"
"Yeah, no, if the guards catch you betting anything they won't be happy," Liv says. "But we can play for glory and that's worth it, right?" She waggles her eyebrows.
"You're wrong there," Kaylee pipes up from across the room. "They don't give a shit. Bet to your heart's content."
Liv looks over at Autumn. "I've only been here a couple days," she says. "Kaylee probably knows better than me. We could bet soups - ramen packs, I mean."
Autumn shakes her head. "No thanks," she says. "I'd rather not risk it. But we can play a game for friendly stakes."
Liv nods, then pulls a deck of cards off her bunk and sits down on the floor. She shuffles with a sloppy overhand deal, then presents the stack to Autumn. "Cut?", she asks.
Autumn picks up the stack of cards and cuts it. "So how do you play cribbage?"
Liv looks over at Silvia. "She's the one who should teach you, not me," she says. "But the basic idea is that you're trying to make hands like on poker, or hands that sum to fifteen. You score points for each hand and the first to one hundred twenty one wins. We keep score on paper because the commisary doesn't offer cribbage boards."
"Okay," Autumn says, handing the deck back. "Deal."
~*~
"... so it looks like you win by..." Autumn checks the scoring sheet. "Thirty-five points?"
Liv grins. "I skunked you!"
Autumn blinks. "You what?"
Liv waves a hand. "If we were playing a set you'd lose two games, not just one. Don't worry, it happens to me when I play Silvia all the time."
Silvia looks up from the book she's reading in her bunk. "It's not my fault you're so bad at this, I've been trying to teach you."
Liv raises an eyebrow. "You talking to her or me?"
Silvia rolls her eyes. "You. You barely explained the rules coherently. Autumn here keeps counting 'fifteen one' after you told her a fifteen was worth a point and then corrected yourself to two."
Liv shrugs. "Hey, I only learned the game three days ago. Give me some credit."
Silvia shrugs. "Whatever."
Liv gathers up the cards again. "Want to play another round?"
Autumn shakes her head. "Not really. What else is there to do in here?"
Liv sighs and sits back on her own bunk. "Not a lot, honestly. I could lend you one of my books if you wanted to read. Silvia works out sometimes, she worries that she'll get out of condition to travel if she stays too long." Liv picks up a crisp-looking paperback and passes it over. "It's a frontier story about a ranger who negotiates peace with foreign pokémon. It's like a fictionalized memoir from about two hundred years ago." She shrugs. "Best of the selection the commissary had. I've read it like three times now."
Autumn accepts the book with a small nod. "Thanks," she says. "I appreciate it."
"It's no problem. Maybe you can go in with me for a spread for lunch?" Liv raises an eyebrow.
Autumn blinks. "What's a spread?"
Liv taps her fingers against her leg. "Well, uh... the food here is. It's okay. That's about the best you can say about it. But the commissary lets you buy nonperishable stuff - cans of tuna, ramen, stuff like that - and they give us hot water from the hot pot -" she indicates a small machine on a stand near the beds. "- so what we usually do is mix a bunch of stuff together, some chips, some ramen, maybe a can of tuna, douse the whole thing in hot water and cook it in a plastic bag until the noodles are done, and that's a spread. Anything you put together yourself with commissary stuff's a spread."
"It's all overpriced though," Silvia adds from her bunk. "Not that it's not worth it, but they're definitely charging more than you'd pay at a convenience store, and the selection's worse."
Liv shrugs. "It's whatever."
There's a knock at the door. "Breakfast, ladies!" the warden calls. He unlocks the door, and rolls in a small cart loaded with edgeless plastic trays. "One at a time."
Autumn looks at Liv and Silvia.
Liv gets up, goes over, and takes the top tray. Bringing it over to her bunk, she settles in. It looks to be a pop up bowl of packaged cereal and a bag of milk.
Silvia goes and gets her tray next, followed by Kaylee. Autumn takes the last remaining tray, and looks around uncertainly. "Um..."
Liv pats the bunk above her. "You can take my top bunk," she says. "There should be enough room for you to sit and eat up there."
Autumn nods. "Thanks, Liv."
"Don't mention it." Liv pours her cereal and adds the milk.
Autumn sets her tray atop the top bunk, then climbs the small ladder and gets into bed, careful not to squash the bag of milk.
The carton of cereal is berry bites. Her favorite.
... If only Nix were here. No, stupid thought, if only her and Nix were back in their dorm and didn't have to worry about all this bullshit. She could cuddle Ziggy and that would make everything okay.
She pours her milk onto the pop-up bowl, picks up her spoon, and eats.
~*~
The hours in jail pass faster than they did in holding. With the book to occupy Autumn and the promise of being let outside for an hour later in the afternoon... It's not comfortable, not by any stretch, but it's tolerable. Liv and Silvia talk quietly to each other about their friends and relatives, people Autumn's never heard of. She tries to drown it out and focus on her book.
Eventually, the book is done, and it's lunchtime.
"So," Liv says. "Want to go in with me on a spread for lunch? You're lucky, today is commissary day - usually you'd have to wait two or three days."
Autumn smiles slightly. "Sure," she says.
"Just go over to the commissary and order a couple ramen, then," Liv says. "I'll handle flavorings and the cooking. You can watch if you want. It's not like there's anything else to do in here."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "Makes sense." She goes over to the commissary and swipes through the list of orderables. They have chicken ramen, that's good enough. The stock's not so good, but at least there's this...
She punches in her order, and steps back, surrendering the console to Liv.
"What flavor did you get?", Liv asks.
"A couple blocks of chicken ramen," Autumn answers.
"Alright, I can work with that." Liv swipes through the menu and taps a few buttons. "There, all ordered."
"Now all there is to do is wait, I guess?"
Liv nods. "Pretty much, yeah."
~*~
Not too much later, the cart rolls into the room again; Liv grabs the ramen, tuna and soy sauce off it without so much as a word, and grabs a large plastic bag off a stack by her bunk and starts filling it with ramen blocks and flavor packets.
Autumn watches as she opens the plastic pouch of tuna and squishes it all out into the mixture. It's not a very pretty sight. The added soy sauce packets dye the water a cloudy brown, and the chicken flavour packets from the ramen give it little bits of spice floating around too.
Liv adds a little more water from the hot pot and kneads the bag firmly, then leaves it to sit.
"There," she says. "We can have that after whatever they've delivered today." Turning to her lunch tray, she picks up the bean burrito that's been given, and starts eating.
Autumn has some difficulty looking away from the spread that Liv's made, simultaneously fascinated, disgusted, and hungry - the spice mix smells good even if the bag does look like a dog's breakfast.
She eats her own burrito on her bunk in silence.
A few minutes later, Liv finishes her burrito and picks up the bag. "Alright," she says, feeling the consistency through the plastic. "This seems done. Silvia, Autumn, you want to bring over your breakfast bowls?"
Silvia produces her breakfast bowl, and Liv pours a generous helping of the infernal mixture into it. Then she looks up at Autumn. "Your turn," she says. "I promise it tastes better than it looks."
Autumn nods, and pulls out her bowl from breakfast. Climbing down from her bunk, she hands it to Liv. Carefully, Liv pours another helping of the mixture into Autumn's bowl.
"You'll want a fork," she says. She offers Autumn one from a pack of cutlery she has on her bed.
"Thanks," Autumn says, and accepts it. Then she picks up her bowl, spears a chunk of tuna with her fork, eyes it for a moment, and then bites into it. She chews contemplatively.
"So," Liv says. "What do you think?"
Autumn raises an eyebrow. "That is surprisingly tasty." She twirls some of the noodles around her fork and pops them into her mouth. "Mmm. It's like homemade ramen but worse!"
Liv giggles. "Yeah, it really is." She looks over at Silvia. "Hey Silvia, do you have any books you don't care to hang onto?"
Silvia shakes her head. "No, but Autumn can borrow the one about the lady with twenty vulpix."
"That one's not that great," Liv says. "But sure, if she wants it."
"I'll take it," Autumn says. "Anything to stave off boredom."
"I'm with you there," Liv agrees.
~*~
Later that afternoon, one of the wardens comes to the door of the cells, unlocks it, and steps inside.
"Autumn Leaf?"
Autumn looks up from where she's reading her book. "Yes?"
"Your lawyer's here for a visit," the warden says. "Do you want to see him?"
Autumn nods firmly, and clambers down from her bunk. "Yes! Yes, of course."
"Alright, then," the warden says. "Hands straight out ahead of you..."
Autumn lets herself be cuffed, and follows the warden.
~*~
The visitor's room isn't too different from the interview room at the police station - one table, four chairs, two doors. The difference is that the table's split down the middle by a pane of reinforced glass with a small grill, like a teller window.
Jason Cartwright is waiting for her on the other side of the glass, his face serious. He nods to the warden.
Autumn sits down across from him, and settles her cuffed hands on the table. "Hey," she says quietly.
"Hey," Jason says back. He smiles. "Can we have the room to ourselves?"
The warden nods, and steps out, closing the door behind himself.
"Okay," Jason says as the door closes. "I'm sure you're wondering what's happened that I'm back here so soon."
Autumn nods somberly. "Yeah. The question is, is it good news or bad news?"
Jason smiles. "It's good news. I was able to track down the will through your family's solicitors, and it's favorable. Do you want to hear the exact wording?"
"Please," Autumn says.
Jason opens his briefcase and pulls out a sheet of paper. He lifts it up, and taps it with two fingers. "Ahem! I leave the Key Stone pin my mother Aoi gave me in turn to my daughter, Autumn Leaf, to be held in trust by my wife Valerie Leaf and relinquished to her care when she departs on her pokémon journey..."
Autumn cuts in. "You know my mother's going to argue that, right? She's going to say I'm not really on a pokémon journey or something like that -"
"I'm not done." Jason gives Autumn a flat look. "Can I finish?"
"Sorry," Autumn says. "Go on."
Jason clears his throat again. "To be relinquished to her care when she departs upon her pokémon journey, or when she turns eighteen years of age, whichever comes first."
Autumn blinks. "Wait. You're telling me that..."
"Your mother's unlawfully withheld that pin from you for over three years, yes." Jason breaks out into a wide grin. "I would say our chances of getting all charges dismissed and the pin returned to you, its rightful owner, are excellent."
Autumn lets out a long breath. "Oh." She looks at Jason. "It's really that simple?"
"It's really that simple," Jason says. "And since your mother was present for the reading of the will she can be proven to have known this and willfully disregarded it in such a way that it got you thrown in jail by the police."
Autumn looks down at her hands. "I see," she says. "That's... wow. A lot to take in."
"I won't congratulate you just yet, but I believe we should be able to beat the charges." Jason smiles. "Even the intimidation charge for Nix, given that she was acting in lawful defense of your property and didn't use unnecessary force."
"Thank you, Jason," Autumn says. "It's such a relief to hear that."
"I came as quickly as I could once I had the will in hand," he says. "The bail hearing has been set for tomorrow, by the way. So you shouldn't be in jail for long at all."
"Thank you," Autumn says. "I'll... do my best to stay okay and occupied in the meantime. Have you told Nix?"
He nods. "I just had an interview with her. She was quite worried about you."
"I'm managing," Autumn says. "It's hard without her, but... Taking it one thing at a time, it's... easier." She looks down at herself, her cuffed wrists, her orange prison jumpsuit. "It's manageable."
"I'm glad," Jason says. "I'll do my best to reunite you two as soon as possible."
"Thank you again," says Autumn. "For all your work."
"It's my job," says Jason. "I'll see you at the bail hearing."
I really appreciate how by the books and almost banal the whole situation is. There's no dramatic jerk cop abusing power, no subtle schemes out to steal an inheritance, no ultra violent cell mates that by all rights shouldn't be in regular lock up. Just authorities doing their jobs, a horrible but regularly shitty parent, normal cell mates with regular crimes.
Well, that basically confirms the mom's a narcissist. She's really assuming that she'll win because she's the main character of the universe and deserves to win. There's no plan to her actions here except for a steadfast belief that reality will bend over backwards to support her.
...Wow. Was not expecting the asshole parent back so quickly. Wasn't she supposed to be not amazingly off financially? This is really far to go over a small piece of jewelry... So either she figured out how much the key stone is worth, or she's extremely vindictive. Or she thinks that this will be extremely quick and easy once she gets the police involved. Could be all of the above really.
I would say that Valerie is mentally reeling from the shock of her "nice" daughter turning into this cold, confrontational person that she feels like she doesn't know. (She also makes a lot of spluttering noises about the pin being snatched out her hand in my head - she sees it as an affront to the respect she deserves as a parent.) She wants to pursue any connection that she possibly has in a hope of maybe getting her daughter back - but in the process she just ends up hurting her more and more. Because she doesn't believe that Autumn can make her own decisions, and she doesn't trust her with the priceless pin.
Valerie did in fact know; Autumn was quite simply mistaken! Just because she's a controlling bitch doesn't mean that she doesn't want her daughter to succeed in the world. She was the one who originally mentioned the pin. (Three years late...)
She also just isn't particularly rational, especially when it comes to Autumn. Based off of my experiences with similar parents, I would guess that this entire time she hasn't thought of Autumn cutting off contact with her as anything more than a temper tantrum, and that she expects Autumn to 'snap out of it' if pushed or threatened with consequences. I think that the way she talks to and about Nyx also indicates pretty strongly that she's unable or unwilling to think of Autumn as having any of her own agency; if the decisions Autumn's making aren't the decisions her mother's telling her to make, they must be because of an interloper, instead.
Alas, as you might be able to tell from the dedications, this story is ultimately all about the family drama. Bon voyage; I hope you find something more to your tastes.
How type immunities work in pokemon fanfic tends to vary from author to author. Some authors do not like the idea that a level 1 sentret can no-sell Giratina's Shadow Force, so rather than immunities being absolute they're more like resistances-but-more-so. I assume that something like the above is what's going on here, although it could be a genuine mistake it seems like an unlikely one.
In the anime there are many examples of pokemon being able to overcome type immunities in various ways, and Lethia has a huge level advantage on this tiny lil level 15 poochyena. (Nix's team is in the lv 30-40 range.) So the outcome of the fight is decided by Lethia's overwhelming power, pretty much.
I really appreciate how by the books and almost banal the whole situation is. There's no dramatic jerk cop abusing power, no subtle schemes out to steal an inheritance, no ultra violent cell mates that by all rights shouldn't be in regular lock up. Just authorities doing their jobs, a horrible but regularly shitty parent, normal cell mates with regular crimes.
Thank you very much. Part of my goal with this story was trying to capture the degree of shittiness that's involved in even totally "normal" legal drama. I've blended and mashed together a few cases I've known to produce this one, and invented several curlicues and add-ons, but the overall feeling and tone is strongly based on real events. I'm glad it rings true for you.
Well, that basically confirms the mom's a narcissist. She's really assuming that she'll win because she's the main character of the universe and deserves to win. There's no plan to her actions here except for a steadfast belief that reality will bend over backwards to support her.
Well, there was sort of a plan. It just wasn't a very good one. Mostly I'd describe her actions as flailing about trying to get back something - Autumn's deference - she doesn't know how she lost in the first place.
The public prosecutor might bring charges for things along the lines of "wasting police time" or "perverting the course of justice" against Mom even if Autumn wants nothing further to do with legal process.
The next day, early in the morning, Autumn's led into the courthouse and seated in the defendant's chair before the bar. She's still wearing the orange jumpsuit; her hair is bedraggled and her wrists are marked by the cuffs.
She sits and waits for the bail hearing to begin.
Jason sits beside her, a quiet presence. He emanates a reassuring aura, despite the stiffness of his suit and his nebbish face.
Across the room, the prosecutor comes in, a tall, broad-shouldered man in a full suit as well. He's carrying a sheaf of documents in his hands, and rests them at his desk.
The last into the room is the judge, a grey-haired man with heavy jowls in a long gown and wig. All rise as he enters the room, and then are seated again.
Autumn casts her gaze over at the gallery, but there's no sign of anyone in the small crowd she recognizes - no Nix, and no Valerie either.
"The court will now hear bail arguments in the matter of League v. Autumn Leaf, Justice Faron presiding." The judge inclines his head to the prosecutor. "Please begin your arguments regarding the nature of the case and Ms. Leaf's status as a flight risk."
The prosecutor stands, and adjusts his tie. "Actually, your honor, in light of newly discovered evidence, the League no longer wishes to bring charges against Ms. Autumn Leaf."
Justice Faron raises an eyebrow. "What evidence is this?"
"May I approach the bench?", the prosecutor asks, producing a familiar-looking piece of paper from his folder.
"You may," says the judge.
The prosecutor crosses the room to the judge's bench, and hands up the slip of paper.
The judge scans it, his eyebrows rising even further. "... You mean to say that the Key Stone in question was Autumn Leaf's legal property when Valerie Leaf made the report, and remains so?"
The prosecutor nods. "Yes, your honor."
"Was Mrs. Leaf aware of this?"
"She was present when this will was read, your honor."
The judge scans through the will again, then seems to come to a decision. "Charges against Autumn Leaf and Nicole Chambers are hereby dismissed. Bailiff, release the defendant, then remand Mrs. Valerie Leaf into custody."
The police officer that's been shadowing Autumn Leaf comes up to her, takes her hands, and undoes her handcuffs. He nods seriously.
Autumn looks over at Jason, and gives him a huge, brilliant smile.
Justice Faron signs a paper, and Jason approaches the bench and accepts it; then he bangs his gavel. "Proceedings are now concluded. All rise as Justice Faron departs."
Jason walks back to Autumn and gives her a thumbs-up where the judge can't see. He waits a moment for the judge to leave the courtroom, then speaks. "Congratulations." He offers his hand to shake.
Autumn takes it, and shakes. "So you talked to the prosecutor before the hearing?"
He nods. "Now let's go get Nix." He holds up the paper. "This will get her released."
Autumn nods seriously. "Let's hurry."
~*~
In a chilly bathroom just outside the inner gates of the jail, Autumn strips off the orange jumpsuit, followed by the institutional white underwear and socks. She steps into her own familiar panties again, then pulls on her own jeans and socks. Her bra and blouse come next, leaving her looking only slightly worse for the wear. Her pokétch cinches onto her wrist where it belongs. Lastly, the pin with its inset stone, hers again at last.
She picks up the discarded orange jumpsuit, too-large as it always was; she folds it twice, over and over itself, and bundles it up with the socks and underwear. It can go on the shelf where the sink is.
She steps over to the bathroom door, and opens it. There's a guard on the other side - and he's holding her backpack, and a very familiar pokéball.
She reaches for the pokéball, but the guard raises a hand. "No releasing pokémon within the jail perimeter," he says. "You'll have to go outside the gates."
Autumn takes a slow breath. "Okay." She takes the pack and slings it onto her back. The weight is comforting. It feels right.
The guard gestures to the corridor out, and Autumn walks out into the sunlight, beyond the outer gates; the guard closes them behind her, shutting her out as much as she was shut in before. Only then does he hand her Ziggy's pokéball.
She looks down at the pokéball in her hand, and presses the button.
Ziggy appears on the ground before her, his soft, furry body drooping a little, his tail low to the ground.
"Ziggy," Autumn says.
"Zigzagoon?" Ziggy looks up at her like she'd never return.
Autumn scoops him up into her arms, and hugs him close. "My Ziggy. You waited all this time for me, didn't you?"
Ziggy just nods. "Zagoon." He nestles in against her body, listening to her heartbeat. He's reassuringly firm and heavy in her arms, his fur warm and slightly scratchy as it always is.
Autumn breathes, and pulls him in, and holds him. She walks a couple steps away, cradling him against her chin, then turns to watch the jail's entrance over a faceful of Ziggy's fur. Nix should be released any moment now...
And here comes Jason, smiling hugely as he pulls open the outer gate - and two strides behind him, Nix, looking unusually plain without her makeup on, her face strained, wearing the same black slacks and halter top she always does, her fingers resting against three pokéballs on her hip -
Autumn's taken three steps headlong before she realizes she's moving, and then she pauses and very carefully sets Ziggy down on the gravel path. She breathes shakily, her body not seeming to realize that the danger is over -
Nix flings herself headlong into Autumn's spread arms, and they hold each other hard and tight, their cheeks tear-stained, and keep each other close until the desperation passes.
Autumn withdraws just enough to look Nix in the face. "I..." She manages a smile. "It's okay. Everything turned out just fine. My mother's probably going to be going to jail. And we're okay. We got through it. All of us got through it."
Nix just hugs her harder. "Shut up and hold me."
Autumn pulls her in close, resting the shorter girl's head on her chest. The weight of her is such a comfort.
"... You really were worried, weren't you," Autumn says.
"It doesn't matter if something bad happens to me," Nix says. "It's you I care about."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "It's the same for me." She raises a hand and gently strokes Nix's black hair, feeling her against her body, reassuringly solid after all their time apart.
Nix breathes, long and shaky, and then pulls back again and manages a huge smile.
"We won," she says.
"We won," Autumn says.
Nix presses in, and kisses her.
~*~
A half hour later, Autumn and Nix arrive at the trainer dorms again.
The man at the front desk gives them a skeptical eyebrow. "You two again," he says. "Out on bail?"
Nix shakes her head. "The charges were dropped," she says. "And the woman who brought them is likely to face consequences." She looks at the clerk levelly, and offers her trainer's license. "We'd like a double room for the next week."
The clerk scans her license, pauses, then nods. "Alright, then. You know our rates - fifty poké a night."
Nix exhales. "Thank you."
"Room 118. Have a pleasant stay," the clerk says, with the fakest smile Autumn's ever seen. He pushes two card keys forward across the desk.
Nix just nods, and passes one of the card keys back to Autumn with a smile of her own. "There," she says. "That's not so hard."
Autumn accepts the card key, and nods to Nix. "I can't wait to get a proper sleep," she says. "The last few days were... Not so great."
Nix nods. "We've got some calls to make, first."
Autumn nods. "Lead on."
~*~
In their newly re-rented dorm room, Nix sits down on the bed and takes a slow breath. "I..." She looks down at her hands. "I was so scared I'd never see you again."
Autumn closes the door behind her, lets Ziggy down from her arms, and settles on the bed next to Nix. "I had faith," she says. "In Jason, and in you. We've gotten through so much together. It was hard, but..." She reaches over and takes Nix's hand. "I never doubted we'd get through it."
"Really?" Nix says. "Not even a little?"
Autumn taps her chin. "I... I wasn't certain the will would be in our favour, but Jason seemed competent, and we were acting entirely reasonably given what we thought was going on... And I think that a judge would have seen that, too. Even if it really was theft. It's hard to hang on to the truth of things when things are so tense, but..." She looks down at her interlinked hand. "I guess you could say I believed in the truth."
Nix smiles and squeezes Autumn's hand back. "Yeah," she says. "It was hard, for me. Not knowing your mother, not knowing if she was - ridiculous enough to have made this move with the will not in her favor -"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "She's like that."
Nix looks at Autumn, and runs a hand through her own hair. "I..." She ducks her head. "I'm proud of you, not saying anything. We sorted it out. We managed. And... now we just need to reckon the damage."
"I want to hold you." The words leap from Autumn's mouth, a surprise to her.
Nix smiles. "Please," she says. And she leans in against Autumn.
Autumn wraps her arm around Nix's shoulder, and rests her head against hers. The warmth of Nix's body soothes her like a heavy blanket.
"We got through it," she whispers.
"Yeah," Nix says. "We did."
"What about my mother, though?" Autumn puffs out a breath.
"What about your mother," Nix says. "What about my mother, she hasn't even been told we've been released yet -"
Autumn laughs. "Yeah, we'd better call. And Cocoa, too, when it gets later. We won, so..." She traces a hand through her own hair. "Everyone deserves to know."
Nix nods. "Yeah," she says. "Let's settle that." She unsnuggles from Autumn, and punches in her mother's contact in her Pokétch.
It buzzes once, twice, thrice. Then there's a click, and the warm tones of Mrs. Chambers' voice come over the line. "Nix?"
"Yeah, mom, it's me." Nix says. She can't keep her smile out of her voice. "We won. All charges were dropped, and Valerie is going to be arrested for making a false report. I don't know what the penalties are for that, but I bet they're not insignificant."
"Wonderful news," Mrs. Chambers says. "Are you okay? Last I heard you were in jail..."
"It was awful," Nix says. "But... There was something to fight for, so I did. We got through it together, Autumn and me. And that's what matters, in the end."
"What was the bill from the lawyer in the end?", Mrs. Chambers asks.
"Six hours at five hundred poké an hour," Nix replies. "Three grand. But we're going to want to keep Jason on retainer to pursue the suit against Valerie - he says he's optimistic we can win our court costs in that case."
Mrs. Chambers's voice gets sharp. "And what does Autumn have to say about that?"
Nix looks over at Autumn. "What do you have to say about that? She's your mother."
Autumn takes a slow breath. "I... It's complicated. She could have gotten me thrown in jail for... potentially years. And she's cost us a huge chunk of our savings. But she is my mother..."
"She's clearly willing to do it to you," Nix says. "Isn't it justice for her to see some consequences to her actions for once?"
Autumn nods firmly. "Yeah," she says. "I think I want to pursue the case. It's - I really hope I won't have to appear in court - but I'll get through it, we've seen worse. And if we can get costs, it would set us up to make a real run at... a new life together."
Nix nods. "Yeah." She smiles slightly and looks away.
"Sounds like you two should press charges, then," says Mrs. Chambers.
"I'll talk to Jason about it," Autumn says. "But for now, I think we want to rest."
"Alright, then," Mrs Chambers replies. "I'll call Cocoa for you two in a few hours. Take your time and rest, alright?" Her voice is warm and rich. "That's what's best for you."
"Alright," Nix says. "See you, mom."
"See you, Nix. And congratulations."
The pokétch clicks, and Nix looks over at Autumn.
"You know," she says. "I think we should snuggle."
Autumn smiles. "I thought you'd never ask." She flops back onto the bed, and beckons.
Nix lays down next to her, and they press in close. The familiar dorm room bed is big enough for the two of them, and softer than soft.
Autumn's hand traces along Nix's side, her fingers feeling her skin beneath her halter top. Her heart fuzzes like a cloud of pink ink in water.
The simple touch makes everything okay.
Autumn snugs Nix a little closer to her, and presses her face against her shoulder.
"I love you," she whispers in Nix's ear.
She sighs, long and low, her eyelids fluttering. "I love you too."
Autumn's hand slips in, nestling against Nix's stomach. She kisses Nix's shoulder, slowly, unhurriedly.
Nix sighs again, and presses back against her with a slight shift of her body.
Autumn flushes, and buries her face against Nix's shoulder. "I..." She kisses again through the strap of Nix's halter top, more lightly.
Nix lays still, and closes her eyes. "What is it?", she asks.
Autumn looks down. "I..." She smiles slightly into Nix's shoulder. "I was just thinking back to what we did before all this happened."
Nix hums, low in her throat. "Were you now."
Autumn settles herself against Nix a little more. "Yeah," she says. "I... I never got a chance to say thank you. For everything. For being there, for fighting for me, for... teaching me so much. I don't think... I don't think the person I was before I met you could have managed jail. You've made me so much stronger, lifted me up so much..."
Nix shakes her head slightly. "No," she says. "It was you who did that. You who decided to stand up to your mother, you who made the call to take the pin, and you who weathered the consequences of that choice. You've been striving, this whole time, to be free of her. And now... Now maybe you can be."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "Maybe I can be."
"We're going to have to talk to Jason," Nix says. "To... see it through. We're going to have so much so sort out -"
"I know," says Autumn. "We'll manage it. We shouldn't be needed for much at trial. They might not even call us. I just... I want to spend time with you now, not think about the future."
"Yeah," Nix says. "We can do that."
~*~
The next day, Autumn and Nix sit around an oak table in a spacious office with Jason, who's wearing his usual suit. There's a fake potted plant in one corner, and a large window that overlooks the city. They're on the fourth floor, so the view isn't half bad.
"So," Jason says. "I'm going to need sworn affidavits from both of you describing your respective experiences with being arrested, and another from you, Autumn, describing what your mother said to you about you being the rightful owner of the pin. We want to prove that she knew the pin was rightfully yours - that she knowingly made a false accusation of theft."
Autumn nods. "Alright," she says, squaring her shoulders. "Whatever you need."
Nix nods as well. "Of course."
Jason looks back at Autumn. "Your mother is going to be facing some very serious charges. She submitted a sworn affidavit to the police where she represented that the pin was hers; that's perjury. On top of that, she represented that a crime had occurred when she ought to have known there was none. That's a separate charge - it falls under "public mischief." Finally, she tried to use the police to reclaim property that wasn't even hers; that's yet a third charge, "obstructing justice" - it covers all attempts to manipulate the police, essentially. The three charges combined would have a maximum penalty of around twenty years in jail - not dissimilar to what you would have faced if you had actually stolen the key stone."
"So what does that work out to in practice?" Autumn leans in a little. "Is my mother likely to be able to get that thing you said - a deferred prosecution?"
"It's not out of the question," Jason allows. "If she has a good enough lawyer it could happen. But I expect the prosecutor of the case will not be easily mollified given her actions to date and the established facts. The League hates when you lie to it. As such, I believe the most likely outcome is that your mother will make a plea bargain of some kind. If I was her lawyer, I'd try for a deferred prosecution, and if that didn't look likely I'd instruct her to plead guilty to one of the lesser charges - public mischief, most likely - in exchange for getting the obstruction charge and ideally the perjury charge dropped as well. I expect her lawyer will have enough sense to so instruct her."
"Do you really think she'll plead guilty?" Nix frowns. "So far as I've seen her before, she doesn't seem the type to make very rational decisions."
Jason nods. "It's possible she'll disregard her lawyer's advice and try to assert her innocence at trial. In that case Autumn will likely have to be cross-examined on her affidavit regarding her mother's statements about the pin. It's a less likely outcome, but we should prepare for it nonetheless."
"You mean I'd have to stand up to my mother's lawyer in court?" Autumn frowns. "That's... not exactly ideal."
"No, it's not," Jason says. "But we can still prepare for it in advance. You're unlikely to be asked many questions even in the worst case, though."
"Really?"
Jason nods. "There's an old piece of lawyer's advice - "never ask a question you don't already know the answer to." Most of the answers you could truthfully give would only damage your mother's case. They might be able to play on your mutual animosity to some degree, but I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to argue that myself."
Autumn nods. "So, first we should get the basics down, right? Write our affidavits, and so on."
"Yes," Jason says. "We can start there." He picks up a small laptop from the side of the room and sets it in front of Autumn. "You can type it up on the office computer."
"Alright," Autumn says. She sets her hands to the keyboard.
"I'll be back in a couple hours when you're done writing that up," Jason says. "I have other cases to attend to in the meantime."
"Thank you for all your help," Autumn says. "I'll do my best."
"That's all anyone can ask for," Jason replies. Then he steps up from his chair, and walks over to the door. "I'll check back in an hour." He nods and lets himself out.
"Alright," Nix says to Autumn. "So what do you recall?"
"It's only been a few days," Autumn says. "But what a few days it's been..."
"Yeah," Nix replies. Her hand goes out and rests atop Autumn's. "Just breathe. We'll get through it together."
Autumn nods, squeezes Nix's hand once, and begins to type.
~*~
"So," Nix says, sitting down on the edge of the dorm room bed. "Three days until your mother gets what she deserves."
Autumn nods, looking down at the message on her pokétch from Jason. "The wait's always the hardest part," she says.
"Yeah," Nix agrees. "We're going to need formal clothes for the trial, and to do some more drilling of your cross-examination..."
Autumn takes a heavy breath. "I just... I just want this all to be over," she says. "I wish I could just snap my fingers and skip to the end." She looks down at Ziggy on the bed next to her, her fingers tracing over his soft back.
"Life doesn't work that way," Nix says. "And besides, wouldn't you miss the time with me?"
Autumn smiles slightly. "Yeah," she says. "I would. Maybe we could go to the outdoor market and make an outing of it?"
"That sounds like a lovely plan," Nix replies. "Let's do it."
~*~
Eventually, the day of the trial comes. Autumn and Nix meet Jason outside the courthouse, each wearing their court clothes - black slacks and a white blouse for each of them. Nix has gone more natural on her makeup today; Autumn's picking at her nails.
"So," Jason says. "The information I have from the prosecutor says that the expected has occurred; Valerie will be entering a guilty plea to the public mischief charge, and the other two will be dismissed. You won't be needed except as spectators."
Autumn exhales. "I see."
"So what kind of penalty does Valerie face, then?" Nix asks.
"Up to five years of jail time." Jason's face is quite serious. "I don't expect she'll serve the full five, though. It's likely she'll get off relatively easy, as it's her first offence."
"Alright, then," Autumn says. "We'll be in the gallery, then?"
"Seems so," Jason replies. "I'm not prosecuting this case - I'm a defense lawyer - so I just need to be here to enter the affidavits into evidence."
Autumn looks over at Nix. "Let's go get our seats, then."
Nix nods.
~*~
Autumn and Nix file into the courtroom and sit down, quietly collecting themselves in the moments before the trial. There aren't many people in the gallery; they seem to be the main attendees, along with a bored-looking man with a steno pad filled with shorthand notes. Jason sits by the prosecutor's bench, along with the same broad-shouldered prosecutor that dropped the charges for Autumn.
The door at the back of the room opens, and Valerie's led in, in the same orange jumpsuit and handcuffs that Autumn was subjected to a few days before. Her face is drawn and lined, and shows her age more than Autumn's ever seen it do before.
Something treacherous in Autumn leaps for joy at that sight - but she fights it down. It's not right to delight in others' suffering, even if they do arguably deserve it. She looks over at Nix, and squeezes her hand.
Nix smiles back, and squeezes Autumn's hand in return. "It'll all be over soon," she says quietly.
"Yeah." Autumn bows her head slightly.
"All rise for Justice Faron," calls the proceedings officer as the familiar heavy-jowled justice takes his place at the bench. Autumn and Nix stand, as do Jason, the prosecutor, and Valerie and her defense lawyer, a man with thinning hair and glasses.
Justice Faron sits at the bar. "We will now begin the proceeding of League v. Valerie Leaf. Mrs. Leaf, you stand accused of public mischief regarding a police report you made regarding your daughter, Autumn. How do you plead?"
Valerie takes a steadying breath. "Guilty, your honor."
"I see." He nods. "Does the defense wish to present any mitigating factors for sentencing?"
Valerie's defense lawyer stands. "My client did not intend for her daughter, Valerie, to be seriously charged with any crime, and deeply regrets the results of her actions. Her report to the police was based on a mistaken belief that she was the legitimate owner of the pin."
Justice Faron nods. He looks out towards Valerie sternly. "Do you understand that as a result of your actions, your daughter was falsely imprisoned for two days, and suffered many indignities in the normal course of justice?"
"I do, your honor." Valerie bows her head. "I'm truly sorry. I never intended for this degree of harm to come from my actions."
Justice Faron raises a skeptical eyebrow. "What did you think would happen?"
"I thought that if I made a police complaint my daughter would see sense and return the pin to me, rather than... risking it on whatever ends she wished to." Valerie manages to look ashamed.
"The pin that you had unlawfully withheld from her for three years?" Justice Faron says.
"I had forgotten the 'at eighteen years of age' portion of the bequest, due to becoming overly focused on whether my daughter would ever depart for her pokémon journey."
"I see..." Justice Faron crosses his arms. "Is there anything more you wish to say?"
"No, your honor."
"Then," Justice Faron says. "This court finds you guilty of public mischief, pursuant to subsection three of the act, "reporting that an offence has been committed when it has not been committed." The sentence is six months' imprisonment, full repayment of all court fees inflicted by your scurrilous accusation, and an additional penalty fine of one thousand poké."
Valerie shrinks into herself as Autumn watches. "Oh," she says.
"This proceeding is now concluded. All rise for Justice Faron."
Autumn stands, and watches as her mother is lead away.
She would like to believe that she's a gentle person. That she doesn't want to see her mother suffer.
But despite that, she can't help but smile.
Nix looks over at her, and rests a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your sentence to hand down," she says. "This is justice."
"Yeah," Autumn says softly. "It is."
~*~
The next morning, Autumn and Nix pack their bags, and make ready to leave Slateport.
"So," Autumn asks Nix. "Where to?"
"Well, before this whole mess we were going to head east," Nix replies. "So that's kind of the default option."
Autumn nods. "I..." She looks down at her lap, and at where Ziggy sits against her foot. "Actually, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"What?", Nix asks.
"Since my mother's... not around in Oldale anymore... I thought I should go and visit," Autumn says. "I never got a real chance to say goodbye to it, not with my mother shoving me out of the door so quickly. It won't take too long - just a day's journey there and back, without much risk from wild pokémon. And... I would really like to visit my father's grave, before... I have to not return to Oldale for the rest of my life."
Nix looks at Autumn seriously. "It sounds like this really matters to you," she says. "I'm in. Like you said, it won't take long."
"Yeah," Autumn says. She picks Ziggy up from the floor and hugs him close. "What do you think, Ziggy? Ready to visit our old home one last time?"
Ziggy nods firmly, and presses into Autumn's body. "Zigzagoon," he says.
"Alright, then," Autumn says. "It's settled."
Nix smiles. "Let's get to it, then."
~*~
Later that day, after a long walk through the tall grass of Route 110 and a crossing over the river in Route 103, Autumn returns to the edge of the town she grew up in. Nix stands by her side, Lethia hovering by her shoulder.
The few scattered buildings of Oldale Town seem quaint and rustic after their weeks in Slateport managing the trial. The wind rustles through the forest, tugs at Autumn's brown hair and at Ziggy's fur in her arms.
"So," Autumn says. "This is where I grew up."
Nix looks around at the enclosing trees. "It's really little more than a village, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "My father wanted to live closer to Pokémon, so he chose here. All the local pokemon are very weak, in this region of the world; so it was okay for me to wander a little." She points at a road out of town. "It's that way to Petalburg."
Nix nods, looking around at the scattered houses. "Which of these is your old house?"
Autumn points. "The one with the pink roof, over there. I always liked the way it looked."
Nix nods, runs a hand through her hair. "So the graveyard is..."
Autumn turns, and walks along a small path through the underbrush. In among a copse of pines, a small yard has been staked out, with a shady beech and several weathered headstones. Only one is still bright and unworn.
Autumn goes and sits by her father's grave.
"Hey, dad," she says. "I'm sorry."
"Zigzagoon," Ziggy says. He hops down from Autumn's arms and sits by the grave as well, paying close attention to it in silence.
Nix stands back and watches, keeping a respectful distance.
"Mom..." Autumn traces a hand across the headstone. "Mom just never really was the same, after you left us. She tried. She tried so hard. But she wanted... She wanted me to be you. And I'm not you. And I never will be you. And that's okay."
She lowers her hand from the gravestone.
"I'm sorry it's been so long since I last visited, but..." She looks over her shoulder at Nix. "A lot has happened, between Mom going crazy over the pin you left me and my... getting out into the world and growing up. I know what it means to love someone now, and... And I'm glad I had the chance to. You taught me what this could be, in a lot of ways."
Autumn turns her attention back to the grave. "I'm going to make you proud, dad. I'll do better than Mom has. And I'll carry your memory with me, for always. I might not visit as much anymore, but then... You're not really here, so." She lets out a long sigh. "I know you would want me to live my life. My real life, with the woman I love."
She takes out her pack, and produces a container ball. "I brought you flowers," she says. "It's kind of disrespectful to ship them in a container ball, I guess. My mom wouldn't approve. But... I don't have to listen to her anymore, and flowers are flowers, either way."
She unseals the ball, and several long-stemmed lilies appear in her cupped arms. She kneels, and places them onto the headstone, their soft white petals stark against the black headstone.
"I love you," Autumn says, softly. "I think that's... I think that's all I have to say." She blinks back tears.
Ziggy slinks over, and hops up into Autumn's lap. "Zigzagoon," he says. "Zag." He rests a paw on her cheek.
Autumn closes her eyes, and pulls Ziggy hard against her. Then she puts away the Container Ball, and stands, leaving the flowers behind.
She looks at Nix, and brushes away her tears.
"Thank you for coming here with me," she says.
"It's nothing," Nix says. "You clearly needed it. Do you feel a little better?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "I really do."
Nix smiles. "I wanted to ask, Autumn..."
"What?" Autumn tilts her head.
"While we're in town, would you be willing to maybe... show me your old room? Valerie's gone, so..."
Autumn smiles. "Yeah," she says. "We can do that."
~*~
Autumn stands on the front step of the pink-roofed house, and pulls a key out of her pocket.
"I never thought I'd get to go back here," she says. "It feels like forever ago that I left."
Nix steps up beside her, and nods. "It's strange, going back. They say that... you can never step in the same river twice."
"Yeah," Autumn says, and unlocks the door. Stepping inside, she ushers in Nix behind her.
The house is small - a combined living room and kitchen area on the first floor, and then a staircase up. The chrome of the sink gleams, spotless. There's no art on the walls; a bookcase holds a selection of gardening books, and a framed photograph, black bands on its upper corners.
Nix steps over to the picture, and picks it up. "So this is what your father looked like?"
"Yeah," Autumn says. "I get my height from him."
Nix sets the photo back down. "Best to leave him in the past, I think." She smiles slightly.
"Yeah," Autumn says. She looks over at the stairs up. "You wanted to see my room?"
"Yeah," Nix says. "I really would like to."
"Alright, then." Autumn leads the way up, past her mother's room, and into the small bedroom that's been hers since she was a child.
Passing through the doorway, she settles on the bed, with its moon-and-stars sheets; she looks over at her poster of Meteor Falls, the full-length mirror that hangs on the back of her door. Her dressers, full of outfits she couldn't take on her journey. A bookcase full of pokémon training guides. Her closet, full of precious things from when she was five or six years old; pretty rocks from trips with her father, old lego sets, pokémon memorabilia. Ziggy's old favorite spot on her bed, where he's already curled up again.
Autumn takes a long breath.
Nix comes, and sits beside her. Her hand takes Autumn.
"I never thought I'd get to share this with you," Autumn says.
Nix just nods.
"I..." Autumn can't find the words.
Nix leans in, and very gently kisses her.
"I think," she says, "You need to move out."
"Yeah," Autumn says. "Properly, this time." And she leans back into Nix and kisses her back.
Nix kisses her lingeringly, and then looks over at Ziggy.
Autumn looks back at Ziggy as well, and nods.
"Ziggy," she says, pulling his pokéball off her belt. "Return."
He flicks his tail, and disappears in a flash of red light.
"Now, then," Autumn says. "We've got the house to ourselves." She ducks her head, blushes.
"... There's only one thing that happens when a very cute girl invites you up to her room," Nix says.
"Yeah," says Autumn. "Let's."
Thank you for reading Zigzagging Through Hoenn. With this, so ends the series. I know it's illegal to actually complete anything as a web serial author, but the story of Autumn and Nix is finished in my mind now that Valerie Leaf has gotten her comeuppance. There may be an eventual epilogue to tie up a few loose ends, but next week I will instead be publishing the first chapter of an entirely new serial, with a different setting and characters. A link to the new thread will be posted here next Wednesday.
Many thanks to all the wonderful people who have been by my side for the past six months of this project; to all my betas, my lovely girlfriends, and to all my readers and commenters. All of you have helped make this project what it is.
In closing, I'd like to dedicate this work to every queer who's had to flee their family. This is for you all - K, R, J, N, S, and all the others I haven't had the privilege to know personally. We know how this story goes, and it's not the family who win in the end. Hope I wrote it down well enough for you all.
Now, enough. The story is told, for good or ill. Onwards, and upwards.
I thought the end was pretty well done. More reasonable and realistic instead of filled with drama which keeps it in character with the last few chapters. It reads smoothly.
And yeah, it's actually finished! I didn't even think that was allowed. Congratulations!🎉
