They walked into their new home together.
Nova had set up the dining room simply but carefully — candles on the table, soft light, the kind of atmosphere that said effort had been made. It was a genuine attempt at something romantic.
The effect was only slightly undermined by Nidoking.
The Pokémon stood beside the table wearing an apron that had clearly been improvised from a tablecloth, holding a pair of plates in its large clawed hands with the careful concentration of someone who was very much aware it could crush both of them without meaning to. Ni. It set the plates down with surprising delicacy and stepped back.
Nova had not had many options. Of his three current partners, Nidoking was the only one with hands suited to carrying anything. Corviknight was still outside after the flight across the city. And handing fragile crockery to the Hisuian Growlithe — a Pokémon his own system had flagged for its destructive tendencies — was simply not something he was willing to do. He had kept the Growlithe in its Poké Ball for the entire evening and intended to keep it that way until breakfast.
The food itself hadn't come from Nova's kitchen. He had ordered from the highest-rated restaurant in Harmony City and had it delivered. His cooking was perfectly capable of producing three solid meals a day for Pokémon, but putting together a proper dinner for two people was a different matter.
Aresdra's cooking, by contrast, was genuinely excellent. She knew most of the regional cuisines from the Norlandia area and was also skilled in the cooking styles of the Asgard region where she had grown up. Nova had never quite adapted to her hometown dishes — the flavours were good, but unfamiliar in a way that took getting used to — so she didn't make them often.
They sat down across from each other in the candlelight, and both of them remembered at the same time that they each had something to give.
Nova was the more patient of the two, so Aresdra went first.
She pulled the large backpack around from her shoulders and reached inside. There was only one thing in it: a cylindrical glass container with a sealed base and a small panel of controls along the side.
An incubator.
She lifted it carefully onto the table. Inside, resting in the steady warmth of a controlled environment, was a Pokémon Egg — half aqua blue, half a muted lime grey, smooth and quietly glowing under the candlelight. The humidity gauge on the side read perfectly steady. A new life was growing inside it, unhurried and calm.
Nova glanced at it with his scan before he could stop himself.
Purple tier.
He looked up at Aresdra, genuinely taken aback.
She read his expression easily. "It's from Sharif and Mataja," she said. "They were leaving the region the day before yesterday and came back to see me one last time before they went. This Egg is from a joint research project they've been running with Huating University. Sharif gave it to me as a parting gift."
Nova took a moment to process that. "That's an incredibly valuable thing to give away," he said carefully. "It's a farewell gift from the Aleushenko family — you shouldn't just pass something like that on to me."
Aresdra looked at him steadily, with the kind of calm certainty that didn't leave much room for argument.
"Silly. What's mine is yours." She kept her voice light, but the words were completely serious. "By Norlandia custom, Mataja is my aunt — which makes her your aunt too. Sharif is my uncle by marriage, so he's yours as well. There's no mine and yours between us. There's only ours."
She folded her hands on the table.
"I'll be honest — I never really wanted you to become a travelling Trainer. I know what it involves. The Uninhabited Areas. The difficult terrain. The things that can go wrong in places where there's no backup coming. But I also know I have no right to tie your path down with my worries. Your dreams are your own, and I wouldn't want to take them from you."
She looked at the incubator.
"So at least let me contribute something to the journey. I can't travel with you right now. But I can make sure something of mine goes with you. You don't have a Water-type partner yet. What happens if you reach a lake or river with no way across? What if you need to search underwater? What if you're somewhere with no clean water source at all?" She paused. "With this one on your team, I won't have to worry about those things. So please — even if it's just for my sake — accept it."
In the candlelight, her eyes were bright and steady.
Nova looked up at the ceiling for a moment and sniffed.
"Did Uncle Sharif mention what species it is?" he asked, keeping his voice level.
Aresdra smiled, and her tone shifted — lighter now, pleased that he'd accepted. "It should be a Lapras."
Nova was quiet for a second.
Lapras.
He had always had a particular fondness for Lapras. The combination of gentle temperament, reliable size for travel, and genuine battle capability was difficult to argue with. They were the kind of Pokémon that suited nearly every situation, on water or off it. He had simply never expected to have one.
He knew that Sharif Aleushenko was a respected figure in occult studies, but that was a personal interest rather than his profession. Both Sharif and Mataja were primarily Pokémon ecologists. According to Mataja , their recent visit to Huating City had been for an ecology forum centred on the southward migration patterns of Polar-habitat Pokémon. One of Sharif's collaborative research projects was due to be presented there.
At the time, he hadn't mentioned the specific species involved. It seemed that had been deliberate — a small surprise held back for both of them.
Nova stood up, crossed to an inconspicuous corner of the living room, and pushed out a large square case — about one metre on each side, the kind of heavy, padded transport box that serious breeders and nursery staff used for young Pokémon. He guided it to the centre of the room.
Aresdra leaned forward. "What is that?"
"Open it."
She knelt beside the case and, following Nova's quiet instructions, pressed the electronic release on the front panel. There was a soft mechanical click, and two support pillars rose gently to lift the lid.
Inside, curled into the padded lining, a small blue Pokémon was fast asleep.
Its legs and the upper part of its torso were a deep black. The fur at its neck was a warm yellow, like a natural collar it had been born wearing. There were soft black markings across its face, shaped like a mask. And on the back of its front paws, two small white bumps — firm and rounded, like something important developing just beneath the surface.
A Riolu.
The sound of the lid opening and the slight change in the light reached the pup through its sleep. It cracked one eye open, let out a small, drowsy sound, and tucked itself into an even tighter ball, small paws drawn close, tail curled in.
Ri... it murmured, and went back to sleep.
Aresdra didn't say anything for a moment. Her hand moved toward it instinctively, then stopped just short.
Nova watched her face and said nothing either. Some reactions didn't need commentary.
A Riolu in good health with strong potential typically sold for upward of three hundred thousand League Coins when one actually reached the open market — and that was rare, because the number of facilities capable of breeding them properly was small and the waiting lists were long. The surge of attention around Jenny Family Kennels had pushed prices higher still. Nova had been prepared to pay four hundred thousand for this one.
Granny Jenny had charged him two hundred thousand — the base price, nothing more.
She had waved the difference away when he raised it. "Giving a good Pokémon to a Trainer who will care for it properly is worth more than getting the highest price," she had said. "Nova is attentive and thoughtful with his partners. His girlfriend will be the same."
She hadn't been wrong about that.