Chapter 3 of Cost Of Time

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"Woohoo! So, who's gonna prepare the drinks?" Tyke basically crashed through the door of the rescue team base, ready for another fun night with his friends.

"Of course that's the first thing you'd be thinking of." Cole said, following inside.

"Well, you know me." Tyke pointed at himself with both his thumbs during an awkward pause, before concluding with "drinking!" and breaking into laughter.

"It almost seems like you've had too much already," Blastoise said, as he looked around the inside of the building. It certainly wasn't bad. There was a pool table, several normal tables surrounded with either chairs or couches, and a bar with several drinks. And that was only the first room, though probably also the biggest. It had a door on each side of the room, including the one they just entered through.

"To answer your question," Tierra said, after letting the heavily limping floatzel, who regained consciousness on the way back from the mystery dungeon. "I'd say everyone makes their own drinks."

"That works for me!" Tyke immediately made his way to the bar.

"Since I can barely walk." The floatzel lifted his hand and caressed Tierra's cheek. "Could you make them for me?"

Tierra pushed his hand away. "I was going to, but I suddenly no longer feel like doing that." She left Wave behind, and headed over to Scarlet, who had been patiently waiting for the whole mission.

Wave groaned and muttered something under his breath, when Tyke tapped his shoulder with a drink in each hand.

"You should really stop trying that with Tierra, it's pretty obvious she isn't interested." He said while giving Wave one of the drinks.

"Eh, what do you know." Wave wanted to down his drink in one go, but part of his injuries made it hard to drink, so he could only take small sips at a time.

"I mean… I think it's pretty obvious." Tyke motioned towards Tierra, who was sitting next to Scarlet, gazing into her eyes and caressing her arm while they were talking.

"That means nothing." Wave took another sip. "I'll get her one of these days."

Tyke sighed and moved on, sitting down next to Blastoise, who took a seat on a couch after making himself a drink. "So, do you like it here?"

"I've certainly seen worse." Blastoise chuckled.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes. Have you been in many team bases before?"

"A whole lot of them, yes. Though not many of them had a part just reserved for drinks."

"Well, you just gotta have some fun every now and then, don't you?"

"Yeah. As long as you don't overdo it."

"I'm lucky that I have a pretty high resistance, being a poison type and all. At least I think that's why. The only one who gets drunk regularly is Cole. Talking of, where'd he go?"

Cole was in one of the other rooms, their main storage room, and came back with an oran berry which he gave to Wave, before making himself a drink and heading towards Tyke to sit down next to him.

"Oh, there you are." Tyke looked at him for a moment, before turning back to Blastoise. "So, if you've been to so many bases, why were you so hesitant to join us?"

"I'm pretty much always hesitant to join anyone. But then there's always something, or someone, making me reconsider."

"Huh, that… doesn't really answer my question at all." Tyke said, and then looked at Cole who got up to get himself a second drink. "You probably shouldn't- Eh, whatever."

"I probably shouldn't do what?" Cole came back only a few seconds later.

"Nothing, nevermind."

"You're not worried about me getting drunk again, are you? Come on, it's not like I'm hurting anyone."

"Well, you never know." Blastoise said. "Just because nothing happened yet, that doesn't mean that nothing can happen. But I get you, getting drunk doesn't sound too bad right about now."

"Oh yeah, why is that?"

"I constantly have a lot on my mind, taking a break from that sounds like a good idea every now and then."

"I'll drink to that." Cole said, with a third drink in hand.

"How did you-?" Tyke stared at Cole.

"I'm fast and quiet, like a… uh… I don't have a good comparison."

"Like an alcohol problem?"

"No, that doesn't make any sense." Cole took another sip. "Oh, this is a good one."

Tyke gave Cole a concerned look. "I feel like this is going to kill you one day."

"Fricking killjoy. You're no fun to be around. I'll go look for another place to sit." Cole stood up and looked around.

"Sure man, whatever."

"... Scarlet is looking kinda cute…" Cole laid his eyes on the Sneasel.

"And now you're officially drunk again, huh?"

"... Yep."

"Just go to bed, you won't be missing out on too much." Tyke said, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"I probably shouldn't flirt while I'm drunk… But Imma do it anyways."

"No, seriously, just- ugh…" Cole was again gone before Tyke could finish. "I feel like I should do something, but honestly, if anything happens that's on him."

"Making mistakes is the fastest way to learn," Blastoise said.

"Yeah. I just Hope he doesn't cross any lines. But I think I trust him enough not to do that, drunk or not."

Blastoise glanced around. "You wanna play pool or something?" He said, his eyes falling on the pool table.

"I would, but I have no idea how to play. Thinking of it, I don't even know why we have that thing, I don't think I've ever seen it used to play. Do you know how to play it?"

"I used to. I've learned it decades ago, but haven't played it in a long time, so I don't think I'd know the rules well enough to explain them."

"Decades ago, huh? This question might come off the wrong way, and you don't need to answer if you want to, but how old are you exactly?"

Blastoise's face turned to a dark frown. "I stopped counting not long after the first thousand years."

Tyke stared at Blastoise in bewilderment. "Thousand years? You're kidding, right?"

"I wish I was, but no. That's the thing about being a Blastoise, we can live for thousands of years. Although most don't make it that far."

"That's so cool! I bet you get to see so many different places and people. You gotta tell me about that someday, I'm sure you have plenty of interesting stories to tell."

Blastoise's expression darkened even further, as blurry memories creeped up on his mind. Memories of places, people, friendship, love… family… Long lost things, which even the memories of grow darker and more distant with each moment. The memories were persistent enough to hurt, while also being too far gone to give any comfort.

"Are… you okay?" Tyke noticed Blastoise's expression.

"I don't have as much to tell you as you might think."

"Oh, uneventful life?"

"No, but just because I have a long lifespan doesn't mean my mind can keep more memories than anyone else. Most of my memories are just a blur. No stories to tell, just broken shapes of thoughts, barely resembling a memory."

"Oh, that's…" Tyke stopped himself from saying anything bad, and did his best to redirect his thoughts. "That just means you'll have to make new memories for every memory you lost!"

"And then? I'll just lose those memories as well, along with anything attached to those."

"Well, I mean…" Tyke wanted to talk back, but didn't know what to say. It felt to him like with such a mindset Blastoise would waste away his life, but he didn't know if he could convince him to change anything, but his train of thought was interrupted by Blastoise's voice.

"I know you're right."

Tyke looked at Blastoise with slightly raised eyebrows. "What?"

"I know that I shouldn't let the fear of loss get in the way of my life, but it's hard… It's hard to get attached to someone when you know you're going to outlive them. Not because I can't get attached to them, but because every second I spend with them will be plagued by the thought of losing them. I carry these thoughts with me for years, decades even, a time that would be a lifetime for others, but for me it's just a fragment of my life, in a sea of other fragments that entail the same pain in one way or another. The only other option would be to shut myself off from others entirely, but that's not a life worth living either."

Tyke fell silent, his attempts of trying to find anything positive to say being unsuccessful.

"She said no." Cole let himself fall back on the couch, letting Tyke snap out of his thoughts.

"What a surprise," the toxtricity said. "Totally didn't see that coming."

"This fucking sucks, I need another drink." Cole stood up again, but Tyke grabbed him by the arm.

"You should just go to bed."

Cole stared at Tyke for several seconds, but finally gave in. "Ugh, fiiiine…" He turned around and headed to one of the other rooms.

Tyke glanced around, his eyes falling on Scarlet and Tierra, who both still seemed to have a good time. "Well, at least he didn't do any damage…" He then looked back at Blastoise. "I think I'm gonna get another drink. Do you want anything too?"

"Hypocrite," Blastoise joked. "Sure, just bring me whatever, surprise me."

Tyke got up and headed to the bar, taking his and Blastoise's glasses with him, and coming back with two similar looking drinks in hand.

"There you go, I hope you like it," he said as he handed over the drink.

Blastoise took a sip, and was greeted by the distinct flavor of rowap berries. Unexpected, but not bad.

"You like it?" Tyke looked up at the Blastoise expectantly.

"Yeah, it's good."

"Finally, somebody who appreciates my culinary skills!"

"I don't think this would count as culinary skills, but whatever makes you happy."

"Either way, you have a good taste." Tyke downed his whole drink in one go, when he noticed Wave walking up to him.

"Do you know where Cole went?" The Floatzel asked, looking a lot more steady on his feet than before.

"He went to bed. At least I hope he did."

"Alright, I should probably do the same. See ya tomorrow. Oh, and uh, thanks for helping to save me."

"Well, we ain't letting you die anytime soon. Good night man."

Wave headed over to the same room Cole did, briefly stopping at Scarlet and Tierra to thank them as well.

The four remaining pokemon stayed around until late in the night, finding various conversation topics as well as games to play, be it in their groups of two, or all four of them together.

Blastoise felt a nostalgic feeling plucking at his heartstrings. The feeling of not being alone. The feeling of having company and spending time with other people. Something he hadn't felt in a long time. The dread that clung onto his heart seemed to calm down ever so slightly, and he felt happy for the first time in years.