(1700 words)
Chapter 10
Night & Day


Thorn lies asleep, listening to the muffled voice. It hasn't gotten any clearer recently. They tried talking to it a few times, but nothing worked. So now, they simply-

"Come on, wake up Thorn!"

Thorn punches Compass in the arm.

"Ow, hey!"

"Sorry, reflex. Probably wouldn't have happened if you didn't wake me up."

"Reflex? Then why hasn't it happened before?"

Thorn sits up and groans. They look out the window and see the sun just peeking over the horizon. "... Compass. What time is it?"

"About 6am."

Thorn resists the urge to punch them again. "... Look, we need to talk about this whole sleep schedule thing."

"I agree. You stay up way too late. I heard from Whiscash that you were wandering around at 1am one night! You need to get more sleep."

"More sleep, huh? You know what would help a lot with that?"

"Ruining your sleep schedule more will NOT help! Early to bed, early to rise, makes a 'mon healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Thorn takes a deep breath. "... We're going to talk about this later. Have you picked a job yet?"

"Nope. That's the best part about getting up early; now we get to pick a job together! Come on, let's go, the early bird gets the worm!"

"And the second mouse gets the cheese..."



"Rescue a lost zubat, 250 coins. Sound good?"

"Sure, whatever, let's just go."

"Well, we should probably have breakfast first. Want to come to my house and have some pancakes?"

"Compass, you know full-well what the answer is." Thorn rummages around their helmet for an apple. "Sheesh, not many left in here... Ah, here we go." They bite into the apple... and notice Compass staring at them. "... What?"

"How's the apple?"

Thorn's eyes go wide. "What did you do?"

"I replaced your apples with mine before you woke up. It tastes fine, right?"

Thorn dumps out the apples in their helmet.

"Hey, don't get them all dirty-"

"Do the words 'invasion of privacy' mean anything to you!?"

"I-I just wanted to prove you could trust me-"

"Trust you? You went behind my back and stole my shit!"

"No, wait, I have your apples in my bag right here-"

"Keep them! I'll just buy some more, along with a box with a combination lock!" Thorn storms off toward the shopping center.

"But I... But... the apple was fine..."



Thorn drives a kick into the sentret's stomach, making them stagger and stumble backward. They follow up with a mighty swing of their club, sending the sentret rolling across the ground before settling face-down, unconscious.

"Thorn, you don't need to be so brutal."

"What? They started the fight. They would've done the same to us."

"We're rescuers, we can't sink down to their level!"

"We can and should. It's certainly better than your sorry performance. Seriously, a summer breeze has more heat than your fire."

"Fire is dangerous! Restraint is important in combat so that you don't cause more damage than necessary. If you don't have proper restraint, you might injure someone."

"Good. It'll serve as a warning to others."

"Thorn, that's how bad pokemon think! We're good pokemon."

"Good, bad, call me a villain for all I care. I do what works. One of us has to."

"Thorn, you're acting like Team Meanies!"

"Team Meanies is on their way to Silver Rank."

"Success doesn't equate to goodness."

"And goodness doesn't equate to success."



Soon enough, the zubat is rescued, and the job is completed. The day goes by, and the team decides to take another job: Escorting a slaking into and out of Silent Chasm. After all, Silent Chasm wasn't home to many powerful pokemon. How hard could it be?
As the slaking leaves after handing over the reward, the team groans. "Oh my god that was HORRIBLE!" Thorn says.

"So much waiting... So slow... Why did they have to take TWO NAPS?!"

"How many hours was that..? What time is it..?"

Compass looks at the sky. It's dark. "Looks like 9pm. Let's head home, get some sleep. You need it."

"Not yet I don't."

"Thorn, you really need to go to bed earlier, or... *yawn* or you won't get enough sleep."

Thorn looks at Compass, and sees how sleepy they are. They probably feel just as awful as Thorn does early in the morning... Oh. Thorn walks over to the bulletin board and grabs a job, recognizing the symbol for difficulty as E-rank. "Hey Compass, what's this job say?"

"Huh? Um, retrieve a lost bracelet in Flooded Forest, but-"

"Sounds easy, let's go." Thorn pulls Compass along.

"Wha- Hey, Thorn, it's too late for more jobs!"

"What are you talking about, the night is young! Perseverance is a virtue! You're not gonna give up that soon, are you?"

"Thorn, hey, noooo, it's too late..."



"Ah, nothing like working to help pokemon in need!" Thorn says, marching through the forest.

"Thorn, WE'RE in need. Of sleep. Right now."

"What, you want to quit so soon? The best part of staying up late is having more time to work! And besides, this job will be easy as-" Thorn pauses as they step into water. Much of the forest floor is submerged in shallow water. "Oh. That's inconvenient."

"It's called the Flooded Forest for a reason. Well, it was called the Flourishing Forest before, but then then the earthquakes hit, and the tides are going wild, and yeah. Now it's flooded."

"Huh. Not a good place to lose a bracelet."

"And not a good TIME to look for one! It's dark! Let's go home and come back when we can see!"

"That's quitter talk. Come on, let's go!"



Compass slogs through the watery floor. "Thoooorn, how long are you going to tolerate all this water before you give up?"

Thorn crouches down and scans the ground. "Probably 'til about midnight."

"Midnight?! Thorn, this is ridiculous, we're never going to find the-"

"Found it!" Thorn lifts the bracelet in victory. "What luck, huh? This is why we don't give up early. Don't you feel silly?"

"Thorn, that's enough! You've been completely unreasonable all day! Over and over, I've been trying to help you, and you just won't let me!"

"Help me? You've been refusing to let me live how I want! You think that YOU get to decide when I sleep, what I eat, how I fight, as if you know everything!"

"I know a few things at least, like that fighting so violently is cruel and wrong! And that you should trust your teammates! And that your sleeping habits are absolutely terrible! Seriously, just because you don't have the willpower to get up in the morning doesn't mean-"

"Hold up, willpower? Seriously? You're assigning morality to SLEEPING now? Look, you can be a morning lark all you want, but I'm a night owl, and you don't get to tell me that's wrong."

"What... Morning lark? Night owl? What are you talking about?"

"... You really don't- Okay, you see how you're an exhausted sleepy train wreck right now, while I'm totally fine? Even though I'm running on 4 hours of sleep? That's because my brain wants to be awake around this time of day. How you're feeling right now? That's how I feel EVERY TIME YOU WAKE ME UP EARLY!!"

"What? I... I had no idea, I... Then why didn't you just tell me?! You didn't need to drag me out here just to prove a point!"

"I DID tell you! Every morning! And you never listened!"

"You didn't tell me anything, you just complained! Except this morning, when you decided to PUNCH me, you jerk!"

"Well sorry for assuming you weren't so stupid that-"

"Look out!!" Compass lunges forward, and is struck by a water gun and knocked to the ground.

Thorn stares at Compass. That water gun was headed for Thorn. And Compass... Why would they...?

Thorn looks up and spots a surprised buizel standing nearby. "YOU!!" They throw their bone club and it strikes right on Buizel's head, staggering them long enough for Thorn to sprint toward them and land a devastating punch to the face, sending them rolling! "Get away!" Thorn shouts, prompting Buizel to scramble to their feet and run off. "And don't let me see you again!"

Thorn sprints back to Compass, grabbing an oran berry. "Shit shit shit, you stupid god damn idiot Compass, why would you do that?!"

"Sorry, reflex... Probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't so sleepy..." Compass eats the oran berry.

"Reflex? I... You... Damn it, you dumbass!" Thorn picks up Compass, who is too tired to complain. "Let's go, we need to get home ASAP."



"Wow," a sneasel says, "I can't believe someone found it already! I didn't think any rescue teams would be working this late."

"And I didn't think the client would still be awake," Thorn says. "Guess we night owls gotta look out for each other, huh?"

"Heh, yeah. Thank you so much!" Sneasel gives Thorn a quick hug, which they return. "Oh, and you too of course!" Sneasel steps toward Compass-

Thorn intercepts. "Nope, sorry, no hugs for them. They gotta get to bed, pronto."



"Compass, I'm so sorry about dragging you out on that job, you were right, that was such a terrible idea, and I got you hurt because of it, when I could've just TALKED to you-"

"Hey, it's okay... I did *yawn* stupid stuff today too... I never though about how you were feeling... And you were right, I tried to control you. That was dumb."

"You can beat yourself up later, just get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah... Okay..." Compass curls up on their bed of hay and quickly drifting off.

Thorn turns to start wandering, as they do at night, but they suddenly yawn. Yeah, turns out getting 4 hours of sleep and then staying awake for 18 hours isn't very much fun. Not to mention they're feeling a bit... emotionally overwhelmed. It's all very tiring.

They take off their helmet and flop onto their bed, waiting for sleep to take them.




If you enjoyed the story, please comment! I love hearing responses to my writing! What was your favorite part?