Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Early Years (Ongoing)

Chapter 7: ...Summer Standards

Running, in hindsight, was a bad idea, but it was too late for Lucia and Dart as they walked towards Furret Farm. They were both out of breath as the last stretch of path outside of town was reached. But even still, Lucia saw Dart was smiling, and she herself had a tired smile on.

She laughed tiredly as she spoke, the warm wind flowing drying them both off the last bits on the journey. "Next time, when we race, we start at the same time. I so would have beaten you if you didn't have a head start."

Dart crossed his arms, a smug, joking smile on his face. "Nope! I was just going easy on you! The next time you beat me in a race will be never!"

Lucia chuckled again, nudging Dart. "No way! This is the first and last time you'll win a race against me!"

"Oh yeah?" He nudged her back, smirking a bit. "Wanna test that out, then?"

She immediately pulled back at that, scratching the back of her head. "Ehhhhh—maybe not right now..."

Dart looked like he was about to say something along the lines of a challenge, but then he let out a soft sigh and chuckle, slouching slightly. "Fair. I'm still tired out from that chase..." He then scratched the back of his own head, looking away slightly. "Thanks again for sticking up for me... you didn't have to..."

Back at the thought of how they treated Dart, she got upset again. Who did they think they were, anyways? She shook her head. "Don't mention it. Besides, who wouldn't? Who doesn't stand up to bad kids like that?"

Dart kicked at the dirt path, looking a bit sad. "Everyone..."

Lucia cocked her head to the side. Did that mean everyone sided with them? "Everyone everyone? Do they actually think those bullies are cool?"

He shook his head quickly, as if to defend those who didn't stick up for him. "No, no—nobody thinks they're cool, they're just scared... and they all choose to pick on me when we have school, so nobody wants to be picked on by saying something..." He then muttered, just barely loud enough for Lucia to hear. "You're the first one to ever stand up to those jerks when it came to being my friend..."

So, the other kids were scared... she could understand that, at least, but it didn't explain everything. "What about the adults? Do they just not care?"

He continued to be quiet while looking down and kicking the dirt. "They don't really believe anything unless they see it, and they say everything's all just us playing when they do... Cameron is really good at making sure that nobody's in the way when they do something."

She couldn't—didn't want to believe that, that everyone just left him to fend for himself, even adults. "All of the adults? Your parents, your teachers, everyone?"

He chuckled a bit sadly. "Teachers don't see to much of what happens, every kid is just playing around to them." He got more somber as he continued. "And my dad would just tell me to stick up for myself or whatever, like getting beat up would solve the problem..." 

Lucia nearly blurted out something about talking to his mom, but she realized that, if he didn't bring her up, maybe she wasn't in the picture for Dart. She still didn't remember much of anything, but something in her knew that it wasn't unusual for someone to be missing somehow, in some way. "That's... that's just not fair to you."

Dart sighed, and smiled sadly. "Well, like my dad always said, life's not fair."

Lucia waited for him to continue, maybe with some kind of lesson his dad had taught him, words of encouragement or wisdom... anything, really. But there was no "so" or "and" or "but". Lucia got the impression that maybe Dart's dad wasn't very good at being that. "That's not right though. It's too unfair."

Dart sighed yet again. "Yeah..." He smiled at her, much less sad than before. "But you made it a little more fair now."

But that didn't make anything right. Not in Lucia's mind, and besides, she didn't think she'd be around long anyways to keep it that way, and just the little bit seemed to be the world to him. But she wouldn't be getting anywhere meaningful talking about it more anyways, no matter how she felt.

Right now, though, it was a topic that should be dropped, as she saw the farm suddenly appear, surprised at how fast they got there. Dart looked up at the sky, looking at the sun for a few moments before he spoke. "Yeah, that was probably kinda less than three hours, just like I said!"

Lucia looked at the sky too, it was around noon, the sun maybe a little bit more east than west, so... around 11:00 AM? She had no idea when they left, but probably not before 8:00, so it was less than three hours. She smiled a bit at Dart. "Yeah, well, thanks for showing me around even with all the uh... stuff!"

Dart stood proudly, even though he didn't manage to show her about half of what he wanted to. "Don't mention it! But... I guess this means I should be going, see you around, Lucia!" He tried to keep his happy demeanor, though was obviously saddened by the prospect of leaving his new friend. Though, he did turn and start to leave.

"Uh—wait!" Lucia just kind of blurted it out, with Dart turning back around when she spoke. Lucia was left thinking for a bit. The Furrets probably wouldn't mind all that much if she was just running around on the farm with someone... right? She decided that it was worth the risk, smiling awkwardly. "You want to play here?"

Dart's face just lit up at that, as he then quickly ran past Lucia and onto the farm, laughing. "You bet I do!"

"Ack—wait!" Lucia then quickly started running behind Dart, smiling a bit as she now chased her new friend. "Let's not ruin anything around here, okay?"

She wasn't completely sure Dart heard her as he laughed and continued to run, but even then, maybe the amount of trouble for that might be worth it for the extra time hanging out with Dart.

Wow, I've actually been doing good with updates now! 5 chapters in about a month, much better pace than before. The first 3 chapters were honestly just intro stuff I had a problem with getting out of the way and writing, since I didn't want to completely brush it off. Though, now that I'm passed that, I can now actually do the plot points that I wanted to write! Or, at least, things I have a better idea of what to write on now. Hope to be getting stuff out at a similar pace now!