Restitution (Remake)

Chapter 15: Awakening

I woke up holding onto Kaitlin from behind. Her ribbons were still wrapped around me, but she was still asleep. I rubbed her head softly, being careful not to wake her up. She stretched her legs and moaned before relaxing again. I smiled, then decided to cuddle with her a little. It felt nice being embraced like this. It was certainly different from what Lute would do, but it felt just as good. After I was satisfied and awake enough, I started to let go of Kaitlin. Her ribbons released me without any resistance, and I covered her up with the blanket so she wouldn't get cold. Though, as I stepped out, I felt a chill surround me.

I shivered, but then as I turned to walk out, I saw what... or who was causing it. Crystal was asleep, but she was on some of the plushies Kaitlin had on the upper floor. As I was thinking about sneaking out, Crystal groaned and started stretching before slowly opening her eyes. She rubbed her eyes, then she turned to look at me. When she saw me, her eyes went wide, then she looked away. I knew what she was thinking about without her having to say a word. The expression on her face said it all. She started to walk towards me after a second, and to make sure Kaitlin wouldn't wake up, I met her halfway. She glanced at me, looked away, then her expression turned remorseful as she let out a sigh and returned her stare to me.

"Dallin... I..." She paused, then lowered her head as her ears fell with it. I glanced back at Kaitlin, making sure that she was still asleep. Once I saw that she wasn't stirring, I looked at Crystal.

"What you did was uncalled for." Crystal looked at me shocked, but then she turned her head away, anxiety now taking over her. I sat down on the ground so that I wouldn't have to look down on her.

"I know you told me the whole thing about shiny Pokémon being sought after and being put up as a trophy mate, and I don't want to force you to suddenly change your mind about that. If anything, I don't want to encourage that at all. But yelling at Kaitlin like that... that wasn't the way to go." Crystal looked at me, her anxiety giving way to a bit of irritation.

"If you already know how I feel about it, then why are you talking to me like I just punched you?" Crystal countered.

"Because like I said, yelling at Kaitlin wasn't the way to go." I responded. "Yes, what she did was... explicit to put it mildly, but she looked up to you Crystal. She still does." Crystal's expression softened a little as she looked at Kaitlin. Her expression started to slowly return to remorse, then she looked at me, sat down, then placed her paws on her head.

"I just... I couldn't bite my tongue." Crystal said. "She knows how much I hate talking about... that... Even mentioning it gets me bothered. You've seen that for yourself when the rest of the family teases me about it!" Crystal was right about that, and when I actually took a minute to think about it, it wasn't just Crystal. Lightning had this same situation going on, teasing her about her name. I started to feel bad after realizing that I laughed at her about it. I softened my tone and tried to relax.

"Then why don't we tell them to stop?" Crystal just pressed her paws harder on her head.

"I've tried, but they just keep telling me-"

"Not just you Crystal." I interrupted. "Me too." Crystal raised her head and looked at me surprised.

"You... you'd do that for me?" I started to relax some more now that Crystal's tone became a lot less agitated.

"Yeah." I put a hand on her head before gently rubbing it. "But I want you to apologize for what you did." Crystal seemed to enjoy the feeling of her head being rubbed, but then she stood up and walked towards me. She jumped up and wrapped her forelegs around my back. It took me a second to realize what was going on, but then I hugged her back.

"I'm sorry for screaming like that." I looked at Crystal, then chuckled softly as I closed my eyes.

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to. Rose and Kaitlin need to hear that."