(Original DA Post: July 1, 2016)

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Incinerate woke up with half of his body hanging off the side of his bed. He pushed himself back to the top of the bed and sat up against the wall. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. His left eye burned a bit. He grabbed his glasses off of his nightstand and went into the bathroom that connected his and Blaze’s rooms. He removed his contact lenses and turned on the faucet. Collecting water in his hands, he splashed it onto his face a few times to wake himself up. He waved his hand around for the towel on the wall. After drying his face, he put on his glasses and walked back into his bedroom.

He noticed Makalu was sitting in his bed, chewing on a tennis ball. Incinerate smiled at him as he opened his door and walked out. He left the door open so Makalu could follow him, which he did.

Incinerate reached the bottom of the stairs. Crus and Slash were sitting on the couch watching football.

“Where’s Froaker?” Incinerate asked.

“Office.” responded Crus, not looking away from the tv screen.

Incinerate walked into the hallway. There were two doors on each side, the right side holding Crus and Slash’s rooms and the left containing Froaker’s room and his office. There was also a bathroom at the very end of the hallway. Froaker worked as an actuary from home most of the time, but he would sometimes need to actually go to an office on some days. Incinerate didn’t really understand what an actuary did, even when Froaker explained it to him.

Incinerate approached the wooden door that led to Froaker’s office. He knocked on the door and immediately heard “Come in!” from Froaker. He walked into the door and saw Froaker cleaning up the room. He was on the floor sorting a bunch of papers into separate boxes.

“How was your nap?” Froaker asked Incinerate, pausing what he was doing.

“It was fine. What time are we supposed to go to dinner again?” asked Incinerate.

“We should leave in about 20 minutes. Did you shower?” asked Froaker.

“No. Do I have to?” Incinerate asked, looking down at his chest and arms.

“Yes.” answered Froaker, waving his hand in front of his nose.

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad, is it?” asked Incinerate.

“Okay, maybe not that bad, but still, go shower. It takes you two minutes anyway.” said Froaker.

“Alright, alright.” said Incinerate, putting his hands up in front of him, his palms facing Froaker.

Incinerate walked back through the hallway and back upstairs into the bathroom. He turned on the shower and waited for the water to get insanely hot. The glass surrounding the tiled shower fogged up, almost to the point of being completely white. Before stepping in, he noticed Makalu standing right behind him.

“Stay out.” He said, opening the glass door and walking into the shower.

Incinerate walked downstairs after his shower, Makalu following right behind him. He saw Froaker and Slash sitting on the couch, waiting for Crus to get out of the downstairs shower. He sat down in the chair next to the couch and pulled out his phone. The three of them sat in silence until Makalu looked up at Incinerate and barked. Incinerate looked over the left side of his chair and saw Makalu staring up at him with his leash in his mouth. Instead of wagging a tail, he wiggled his butt around.

Incinerate groaned and took the leash from Makalu and put the harness on him. The harness was red and it went around Makalu’s legs and around the ice on his back. A leash extended from the top for Incinerate to hold. Makalu was able to walk by Incinerate’s side on his own, but Incinerate kept the leash on incase he wanted to bolt after a Pidgey.

“I’ll be right back.” he said as he walked out the front door. He walked with Makalu down the sidewalk, occasionally checking his phone. Makalu happily walked and enjoyed the slight chill in the outside air. When they got to the end of the road, they turned around and headed back towards the house. Makalu stayed pretty calm on the walk home, only stopping to stare and growl a little at a nearby wild Pokemon.

Incinerate and Makalu walked up the steps to the front door. Incinerate reached for the doorknob but froze. Right above the doorknob, a bright green Spinarak sat motionless on the wooden door. Incinerate shivered just looking at it. He backed up a step, afraid the bug might jump at him.

“Come on.” Incinerate said to Makalu, lightly tugging on the leash. Makalu listened and followed Incinerate to the gate fence next to the house that led to the backyard. He unlocked it and entered the backyard and walked up the porch. He entered the house through the sliding door and took Makalu out of his harness. Froaker was sitting on the couch.

“Why did you come in through that way?” he asked.

“Uh...no reason.” said Incinerate.

“There was a bug, wasn’t there?” asked Froaker in a sarcastic tone. He gave his son a look that just screamed “are you kidding me?”

“N-no, I jus-” started Incinerate. He folded his arms as he usually does when he’s nervous. “S-shut up,” he said as he hunched his shoulders and sat down in a chair at the table. “When are we leaving?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Few minutes. Slash just got out of the shower.” Froaker said, looking back to his phone.

Incinerate looked out the window of the car as they pulled into the parking lot of a big building with an LED sign that read “Long Island Pizzeria.” He had been to this place often, as it was where the family usually ordered pizza from. It had great pizza and was less than five minutes away. The restaurant had been there forever, and the exterior of the building made it obvious. The bricks were faded and run down, the parking lot had lots of holes in the ground, and the handrail on the stairs was insanely loose. The only thing that looked new was the door as it had to be redone because the locks were broken.

Incinerate climbed out of the car along with everyone else. He noticed that Espea and Penn’s car was already parked in the lot. They walked inside and were greeted by a hostess - a Delphox - and were shown to their table. Espea, an Espeon, and Penn, an Umbreon, were already sitting next to each other in the big booth. Espea was Froaker’s oldest child, about five years older than Incinerate and Blaze. She and Penn had been married for close to a year now. Incinerate, Crus, and Slash slid into the other side of the wooden booth and Froaker sat down next to Espea.

“Hey Espea, hey Penn, how have you two been?” Froaker asked with a smile under the tongue that wrapped around his neck.

“We’ve been good. Been a little while since we all went out, huh?” said Espea as she gave Froaker a quick hug. “Well, actually, Blaze isn’t here, so I guess not everyone.”

“Pretty much the same.” blurted out Incinerate, getting comfortable in the corner of the wall and the back of the booth. Espea and Crus chuckled.

Froaker rolled his eyes. “So what’s this big news you have?”

Incinerate’s eyes widened. He knew what the news was. Espea had told him about two weeks ago. He had somehow completely forgotten all about it.

“Well, Incinerate already knows,” started Espea. “I’m guessing he was able to keep it a secret.”

“Yeah, I totally just kept it to myself. I didn’t forget or anything.” joked Incinerate, to which Espea smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Sooo…” Espea said. She looked over to Penn and smiled, who smiled back at her. She looked back at Froaker. “You know how you always said you wanted to be a Grandpa someday?”

Froaker’s eyes widened and he stared at Espea, his body completely still, and responded, “y...yes.” Crus and Slash looked at each other, their mouths hanging open.

“W-wait, you’re…?” Crus started.

“Yup.” Espea cut him off.

Froaker was frozen for a few seconds before saying “That’s so great! Congratulations, you two!” as he hugged the two eeveelutions.

“Yeah, congratulations!” Said Slash.

“You knew about this?” Crus asked Incinerate.

“Yeah, they told me, like, two weeks ago. I just forgot they were telling you guys today.”

“Even though you chose the restaurant.” joked Penn.

“...I di- oh wait, yeah.” Said Incinerate, trying to remember what else he’d forgotten, if anything.

“Did you not have coffee this morning or something?” Asked Froaker as he laughed.

“It’s just been a long day,” He responded. “But it’s not important.”

Just then their waiter came over to their table and took their orders for drinks. Everyone ordered a soda except for Espea who got a glass of water. Eventually they ordered their food, two pepperoni pizzas. They all talked a lot during dinner, mostly about Espea and Penn’s news.

They were there for about an hour and a half before they left. When they left the restaurant, they all said goodbye to each other, and Espea and Penn got into their car and drove back to their house. Froaker, Crus, Slash, and Incinerate did the same.

The four of them arrived back home and were greeted to Blaze and a barking Makalu. Blaze was sitting at the kitchen table finishing the homework he wasn’t able to do because of work. Incinerate flopped down on the big chair next to the couch, which Makalu happily joined him on. The tan chair was insanely comfortable, and there would tend to be arguments over who got to sit in it. Crus and Slash both sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.

“How was dinner?” Blaze asked as he started putting away his papers and books.

Sleepily, Incinerate started “It was fi-” until he was cut off by Froaker.

“It was freaking awesome!” he said, still super excited despite the fact that everyone else was exhausted.

“Why, what happened?” asked Blaze.

Froaker sat down in the chair across the table from Blaze. “Espea and Penn are having a baby!” he said, a little calmer than before.

“Wait, really!?” said Blaze. “So that means Incinerate and I are going to be uncles?”
“Just don’t expect me to babysit.” Incinerate said from across the room, half asleep. It was already close to ten pm, still pretty early early for Incinerate to sleep, especially considering he took a nap just a few hours ago. He felt his eyelids become heavier and drifted off to sleep in the chair, thinking about what dumb chores Froaker would make him do tomorrow while he wasn’t at school.

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We finally meet Espea and Penn! And they have big news! It'll be a while until that becomes a major story element though cause there's OTHER STUFF to focus on too! People have been asking me what happened to Incinerate's eye ;).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this part! As you can see, I'm still experimenting a bit with my art style. Tried to make it easier to practice without worrying about perspective and stuff like that.