“Thanks for your help, Teej,” Vanille says with a small blush as she speaks to the man walking beside her. Teej was her date for the upcoming Ball and she had been hoping to get some alone time with him for a change.
“It’s no problem, Van,” Teej says, the nickname sending a spark down Vanille’s back and making the moment even more awkward for her. “It’s been kinda fun hanging out at the berry field with you, I didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.”
“Y-yeah, well…” She says. “Viol doesn’t waste his time growing anything, and constantly needs items. I get more than enough for the two of us by farming. Feel free to take some, they might help in the future.”
“Oh,” Teej says, a little surprised. “Are you sure you don’t need all of them? You sounded like it was urgent this morning.”
Vanille was struggling for words as the two entered the next town, Camphrier, and Teej marveled at the medieval architecture around them.
“This would be a great place to start a quest from,” Teej says. “There’s even a castle for a King or Lord to give you your first quest.”
“That would be pretty fun,” Vanille says quietly, still a bit pink-cheeked.
“Hey, what’s wrong, Van?” Teej says. “You’ve been quiet the past few minutes.”
“It’s just, I brought you out today so I could talk to you about something,” she says. “It’s hard for me to get to talk to you like this without Viol butting in and-“
“HEY FAGS!” a familiar voice yells out, making the people of Camphrier look up in alarm at the disturbance.
“Fuckin’ Arceus,” Vanille says to herself. Her brother Viol had arrived.
“Hey Vanille, I got something to show you!” Viol says as he grabs her arm. “Teej can come too, I-I guess, but I’m sure it’ll be boring to someone without Pokemon.”
“Hey, I have a Sableye,” Teej says pulling out a Pokeball. “Vanille bred one for me a couple of weeks back.”
“Viol, we’re not going with you,” Vanille says. “We’ve already made plans.”
“Look, it’ll be just half an hour, tops,” Viol says. “And the place is probably going to close soon.”
“Probably?” Vanille asks. “It’s only noon now, what time does it close?”
“I-I didn’t check the hours,” Viol says a bit sheepishly at first before regaining his bravado. “But who has time for stupid shit like that?”
“Normal people,” Vanille says with a bit of anger. “People who aren’t fucking spazzes.”
“It’s okay Vanille,” Teej says with a slight nod to Viol. “You can go do something with Viol for a bit, I kind of want to check out this town and see if I can get a permit to LARP at some point in the future.”
“Yeah,” Viol says returning the nod. “Come on, even a nerd like you would like it.”
“Just, can you give me like two mi-“ Vanille began, but Viol had already hopped on his bike and was pulling Vanille along with him, forcing her to put on her roller skates and follow. She looked back at Teej for a moment, waving them off, and wondered what was going on with him and Viol.
 
“See?” Viol says to Vanille when she catches up to him in the super-packed Lumiose City. He was standing in front of a new restaurant called Le Moyenne. “Pretty cool, huh? It just opened last week and there’s a ton of tough trainers, with loads of money. We won’t have to keep giving the Owner of Le Wow heart attacks anymore.”
“You dragged me away from my plans for the day… for this?” Vanille asks shooting Viol a glare. “What the hell, man?”
“Hey look,” Viol says. “I know you’re not in it for the battling or whatever, but this place is supposed to be really exclusive and cool. I just kinda figured it’d be something you’d like.”
He puts his hands in his pockets, yup, he was trying to guilt Vanille again. After a long pause, she finally sighs.
“Damnit, Viol,” she says under her breath. “Fine, we’ll do one quick meal and then I’m back with Teej, okay?”
“Great!” Viol says with a smirk. “Because this place apparently only does Multi Battles so I’d need a partner anyways.”
“Wait, so this wasn’t about me was it?” Vanille says a bit angry. “This was about you needing a partner to fight.”
“Yeah, a bit,” Viol says. “I’m going to go reserve a table, seeya in a minute!”
“Viol!” she shouts after him. God what a fucking asshole he could be sometimes. She couldn’t wait to get finished here and back to Teej. She stared at him as he talked to the lady outside to make a reservation, and daydreamed a bit about Teej.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T GO IN!?” Viol yells, snapping Vanille out of her thoughts and back to the situation at hand. She walked up to the counter to see what was going on.
“I’m sorry, but you don’t meet ze qualifications for entry, monsieur Pallet,” she says. “Perhaps you can come back at a later date, perhaps with someone who is qualified.”
“This is fucking bullshit!” Viol fumes.
“This is because your style is too low,” Vanille says rolling her eyes. “You know you gotta do other things than battling in the city to get access to stuff, right?”
Viol just stands there fuming as Vanille chuckles at the situation. I guess she’d have to use her clout to get them in.
“I’d like to reserve a table for me and my pig-headed brother then,” Vanille says, flashing her trainer card.
“Ahh, mademoiselle Pallet,” The lady says with a smile. “I ‘ave ‘eard many things about you, and our establishment would be glad to ‘ave you as a guest.”
“See?” Vanille says, shooting a smug look towards her brother.
“But, the qualifications, you don’t meet zem either,” the lady says.
“What?” Vanille says surprised. “But I thought I maxed out my style. How can this be?”
“Hah, not so great after all, are you Vanille?” Viol says sneering at her.
“I am sorry for any trouble,” the lady says. “But ze only guests we can ‘ave ‘ere must be 18. If one of you were older, we could let you in, but we can’t accommodate you zis way.”
“It’s fine,” Vanille says with a smile. “I guess we’ll be back in two years.”
“And we will be happy to ‘ave you,” the lady says with a smile.
 
“Fucking Cheese-eating surrender Mankeys,” Viol says as the two bike back to Camphier Town to meet up with Teej.
“Get over it already, there’s nothing we can do,” Vanille says. “Besides, shouldn’t you have something else to be doing rather than following me?”
“What?” Viol says with a smile. “And leave you alone to be all horny around Teej, in your dreams.”
Vanille contained her anger at the remark as Viol overtook her in racing back.
“See? I always win between the two of us,” Viol says. “Hell I could beat you at that kiddy shit you like to do so much.”
“Yeah, because you’d bulldoze through it with sheer autism,” Vanille says. “There’s more to doing things than to win, you know.”
“Says the one who always loses,” Viol says.
“Yeah, well there’s something that I’ll always beat you at,” Vanille says with a grin. “Being the older sibling.”
The realization crashed through Viol instantly. Vanille was only a few egg cycles older than Viol, but she was right, she was older than him.
“In fact, I bet I’ll be able to get in to Le Moyenne before you,” she says with a smirk.
“N-not if I get there before you!” Viol says, his face getting red from frustration.
“I doubt it, I’ll be there right when I turn 18,” she says. “And you’ll be a few minutes behind, as always.”
“I-I bet you I’ll get there first,” Viol says.
“Oh, are we doing an actual bet?” Vanille asks. “What are the terms?”
“Winner gets to pick an outfit for the loser to wear for a month,” Viol says.
“Sounds like fun,” Vanille says. “Alright, let’s make it an official bet. After all, you’re not going to win.”
“Y-you don’t know that, stupid,” Viol says, frustrated with her. If only he was a bit older…
Wait… that’s it!
“Seeya sis, I’ve got better things to do,” Viol says as he throws out a Pokeball and is carried off by Hawlucha.
Finally, he was gone.
 
Vanille made it back to Camphier and began looking for Teej, finally finding him sitting at a table of a café, dead asleep and face touching the tabletop with a thin line of drool escaping his mouth. She gave a sad smile at the sight, he looked almost vulnerable like this, and it tugged at her heart.
“I’m sorry, do you know this man?” the café owner asks as he walks up to Vanille.
“Uh, yeah,” Vanille says. “He’s a friend, I was supposed to meet him.”
“Well, he came over asking one of our musicians if they were a bard, and told them to play him a tune,” the owner says. “But he fell dead asleep when our musician began to play the Pokeflute. T-that doesn’t usually happen.”
“Yeah, and an induced sleep is going to last awhile,” Vanille says to herself.
“He is free to stay here until he wakes up,” the owner says. “I’m sorry for any inconvenience.”
“It’s fine,” Vanille says smiling at the man. “Thank you for your help.”
“No worries, I always take good care of my guests,” the owner says walking off with a gentle wave.
Vanille could have easily snapped Teej awake with a fresh Chesto berry, but she wasn’t sure if it was the best idea. She didn’t want him to wake up so abruptly, so with a sigh, she decided to go back home. However, before she left, she wrote him a note and left it under his head on the table.
 
Viol ran back to the house as fast as he could, running up the stairs towards Teej’s room. He figured Teej would have to have a way to help him win this bet. He tried to open the door but found it locked. Guess he learned after last time.
“I don’t have time for this,” Viol says, pulling out another Pokeball. “Hey Klefki, how about helping me out here.”
He sent out the small key-carrying Pokemon, who proceeded to use its various keys to try to unlock the door. He didn’t usually take Klefki with him while he was out, but after getting locked in Teej’s room last time, he wasn’t taking any chances. After a few minutes, Klefki found one that fit, and signaled Viol to help unlock the door. Viol turned the key and then returned it to Klefki before calling the little fairy Pokemon back into its ball.
“Now, let’s see what we can find here,” Viol says with a grin as he begins to pour through Teej’s collection of handbooks at his desk. One after the other he’d pour through them looking for a spell or skill that would work, but most were either useless or too convoluted for Viol. Things like enchanting people or making a perfect disguise, those things might help with this moment, but maybe he could find something a bit more lasting.
Finally he came across an older book, worn around the edges from use, it seemed to be something Teej used quite often, but maybe not as much anymore. There was a 3.5 emblazoned on the front of the book, and as Viol went through the contents he could tell he had stumbled upon something good. The spells were pretty useful, but one in particular caught his eye. An aging spell, the wording even seemed vague enough that he could use it on himself. He just needed some dice, and after procuring them from Teej’s stash in the closet, he rolled to cast the spell to age himself 2 years, bracing himself for it to happen.
However, nothing changed. Viol looked back over it, knowing that his roll should have been sufficient, but realized that he couldn’t cast the spell without the proper equipment and training on a character sheet. He sighed out loud, frustrated at how convoluted this all was. He was just about ready to give up.
Until he spotted a folder on a shelf labeled “Old D&D Character Sheets” and dug through them for one that would fill his purpose. Eventually he came across a high level sheet with tons of items that specialized in spells, including the aging one.
“I’m sure Teej won’t mind me borrowing this,” Viol says with a devious grin. “I’ll get it back here before he even notices.”
He begins preparing for the spell, the handbook in his left hand, the character sheet on the table, cupping the dice with his right hand. Just when he went to cast the spell though, Teej enters the room, surprising Viol.
“Viol, what the hell are you doing in here?” Teej asks surprised, taking his hand away from rubbing the crust away from his eye. “I know I locked my door this time.”
Before Viol could respond, he stumbled on the bed post, the dice flew from his hand and landed on the table. The handbook’s pages rustled, flipping to a different page as Viol fell towards the ground.
The book began to glow. He had successfully cast a spell - to Teej’s horror - but before he could see what he had cast, he blacked out.