{???'s POV}

A young Leafeon strolled through town with a bag in his jaws.

Just a normal day. Normal job. He thought.

The young Leafeon has just turned twenty two years old, and he was still stuck where he was.

What happened all those years ago he tried to drown in work.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget. No amount of work ever stopped those thoughts from appearing.

He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

Get it together Augustus. That was years ago! He pondered to himself.

He opened his eyes to see his boss, a Drampa, folding two of her legs together.

It was such a sight to even see such a thing.

"You're late again, Gus." She sternly said.

Augustus sighed.

He hated that nickname. His name was Augustus, not Gus.

"My apologizes, Ma'am. It's such a long walk." He politely commentated with a dip of his head.

The Drampa sighed. "What am I going to do with you, Augustus? I understand your past wasn't a good one, but I can't have you coming in constantly late. Have you ever considered getting an actual home and alarm clock?"

The Leafeon sighed.

He inwardly flinched.

"Yes, but you and I both know I don't have the money for an actual house."

Silently, Augustus added, "I barely have enough for food and water."

The Drampa gazed at him with the pity he didn't need.

"This is just a suggestion, but maybe you should at least consider getting another job. I hired you because you would work for minimum wage, but I can only help so much." Drampa said, gazing at the ground.

Augustus glanced at the grass floor.

It wasn't her fault. Her shop wasn't as big of a hit as things such as exploration, or rescue societies.

It was still a nice little shop. It was full of things Pokemon alike could love.

What could be in the shop that Pokémon could both love and hate?

Well, Augustus couldn't complain since it was his job, but the prices on what was being sold were just a smidge too high.

Of course Augustus didn't have a voice when it came to the price. It was cheap for a shop that was even as small as the one he was working at.

There were only three Pokémon this Drampa hired. The list included him.

Speak of the devil. Augustus jokes in his mind, approaching two other Pokémon.

Of course they were already hard at work.

One was furiously scrubbing the counter. For a fire type—yes fire type—this Pokémon was furiously at it with the scrubbing. So in tuned he got spooked by the other employee.

Who was this fire type?

It was none other than a Torkoal.

The Torkoal glared at the other Pokémon.

The other Pokémon—a grass type by the name of Tangrowth—was snickering loudly, enjoying the easy scare of an in tuned cleaning freak.

"Alaric," Augustus greeted with a dip of his head towards the fuming fire type. He wasn't usually this angered. He was usually calm and collected, but there was just something about his coworker that got to the 23 year old Torkoal.

"Tell this no good Tangrowth spooking folks ain't gonna get the job done!" Alaric snarled.

Smoke was coming out of his mouth and the fire type choked on it.

The Tangrowth nearby was just innocently smiling.

Her looks didn't show off who she truly was.

She might be just another coworker, but she was a tricky trickster. Pokemon usually compared her to a ghost, even though when she walked she practically pressed Earthquakes into the ground.

"Calm down! You're supposed to be a calm little man! Sheesh." The Tangrowth giggled, finding it funny she got to him that easily.

"Portia! Shut up!" Augustus commented, slightly smiling.

His face got serious.

"You can't just prank Pokémon on duty. Come on, have a little more respect. The counter needed cleaning more than you needed your everyday laugh."

Portia rolled her eyes at him.

"Maybe so, but you do have to admit it's funny." Portia snickered.

"Enough, children. Enough of that." Drampa said, waddling over to her three employees with a smile on her weird dragon face.

"Back to work!" She chirped, and Portia groaned with a slightly frown on her face.

"Right away Ma'am!" Augustus responded without a second thought.

He padded to the back of the store to check what they had in stock.

Evolutionary stones and items.

Augustus sifted through the items to grab five evolutionary items.

For items such as these the Drampa he was working for sold them all at 400 poke each.

It was a steal.

Thought it was a shame they didn't have more costumers.

They couldn't have local costumers because stones were used only once and once used the Pokémon usually didn't come back unless it was for their family.

Some Pokémon expected their family to evolve into their shoes. As in they expected them to be exactly like them.

Augustus gulped at the thought. Exactly like him....

He didn't have a second longer to think more of it as Alaric padded behind him.

He seemed to have...something on his mind.

"What is it, Alaric? You done already with your cleaning?" Augustus remarked.

Alaric dipped his head. "Yes I'm finished already...."

The young adult Torkoal's voice wavered as he spoke, and he ended up speechless before he could say anything further.

"I see." Augustus simply said, dipping his head. "Anything else?"

Augustus glances over at Alaric. His face expressed a lot of things.

I wonder what he's thinking about? Augustus pondered.

Alaric dipped his head in a swift nod.

His gaze seemed...conflicted with emotions.

The one emotion Augustus knew the best was the one more obvious. The one he knew more than any other: Regret.

What was this Torkoal so regretful of?

"Well? You going to tell me what you came all the way to the back for? Or must I guess?"

A simple affirmative nod.

"You know, I trust you enough to tell you this right? I don't really trust Portia enough to tell her. She might call me a baby for being this upset over anything."

Huh?

Augustus nodded with a friendly smile.

"Of course! You can tell me anything!" Augustus chirped with a swift nod of his head.

The Torkoal nervously moved a paw, a grimace now on his features.

His face lifted back up to look Augustus back in the eyes.

"My...my Father just died, and I don't know what to do to forget because whenever I just think..." the Torkoal paused, tears starting to stain his face.

Whoever said men can't cry or shouldn't cry is a liar because Alaric cried. Sometimes it was often. He would cry over some simple things too, but....

Augustus flinched, attempting to do something to stop his paw from reaching his fractured heart.

Don't try to remember. Remembering it hurts. He reminded himself as he was being watched by Alaric.

"I'm sorry, it's just I was hoping you would be the one to know how I feel because...you've lost someone haven't you?" Alaric wondered.

"I...." The Leafeon began, choking on his own words.

He sighed.

He can't escape this shame can he?

"Yes," he breathed, feeling his chest tighten at the pain.

The only question that remained was: how could Alaric just read him like that? And why would he ask him such a prying question?

....

To be continued.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading this! This was just over 1200 words. I'll try to go for more next chapter I promise.

For now this story will be on hold. And if you're reading this in the future, the further future, and it's not on hold, then you just know that at the time this was put out I was putting stories on hold.

Anyways thanks so much for reading. Be sure to check out my other content—and vote and comment on this, and now on to the fan art. None of this art is mine!!

Technically this counts right? It's a mix of them both, so....hah.

I don't think Augustus would be that happy....but eh.

Yeet. Shiny Umbreon is the same as Umbreon but different colored. Eh.

Anyways once again if you enjoyed this let me know, and make some fan art so I can add it in these authors notes. ❤️❤️❤️