(Original DA Post: December 31, 2016)

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Incinerate woke up the next morning to Makalu nudging at his feet. The Bergmite had his leash in his mouth, wanting to go for a mid-morning walk. Incinerate slowly sat up and stretched. He had forgotten he never went up to his bed last night before falling asleep. He looked around and saw Froaker sitting at the kitchen table with a mug in one hand and his phone in the other.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” He said, looking over to the still half-asleep Incinerate.

“Morning.” replied Incinerate. He looked down at Makalu who was patiently waiting for Incinerate to get up and put his leash on.

“I’ll take you for a walk later, bud. I need coffee.” Incinerate sloppily gets up from the chair and stretches, then immediately goes back to slouching. He slowly makes his way to the kitchen where he can smell rich coffee being made. He walked up to the counter where the coffee maker sat, a cup of fresh coffee waiting underneath it. Incinerate picked up the mug and let the strong scent enter his nostrils, making him shiver a bit. He walked out of the kitchen and sat at the table across from Froaker who was still on his phone.

“So what chores and stuff do I have to do today?” He asked before sipping from his mug.

“Nothin’.” answered Froaker, not looking up from his phone.

Incinerate nearly spit out the coffee in his mouth. “Wait, what? But you said-” he asked confused.

“I told you you weren’t in any extra trouble. Plus I’m in a good mood from last night.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you were serious! I mean, you’ve never been harsh with punishments in the past but doesn’t this deserve something?”

“I don’t think so.” Froaker replied calmly as opposed to Incinerate who was freaking out a bit.

“So, there’s nothing you want me to do?” Incinerate clarified

“You can do the dishes if you really want to.” said Froaker, sarcastically.

Incinerate paused as he realised he was getting himself into doing chores, “Uh...no that’s okay.” he scratched the back of his head and sipped his coffee again. “So what are we gonna do today then?”

“I dunno. We could go get lunch in a bit. It’s quarter to twelve. Early for you, isn’t it?” Froaker said giving Incinerate a sarcastic grin.

“Yeah cause that chair sucks to sleep on.” Incinerate said, stretching his back. “Plus I fell asleep really early last night.”

Froaker chuckled. “You used to fall asleep on that chair all the time when you were younger. But you also fit on it back then.”

“It also wasn’t as worn out. God, my back is killing me.” Incinerate said, twisting his body to try and crack his back.

“Also don’t lay across it next time. No wonder your back hurts.” Froaker informed him.

“I think I’ll just try to remember to go upstairs from now on.” Incinerate said as his back finally cracked. “There we go.”

“We should go soon. I gotta go to Best Buy first.” Froaker said.

“What for?”

“I finally bought a new vacuum. They just got it in today and I need to pick it up.” Froaker replied.

“What’s wrong with the vacuum we have now?” asked Incinerate, sipping his coffee again.

“It exploded. You were there.”

Incinerate stopped drinking from his mug and looked at Froaker “...I was?”

Froaker sighed “Yes, you were right on the-” Incinerate stared at him with a confused look on his face. He obviously had no memory of what Froaker was talking about. “You know what, never mind. Let’s just go.” The two of them got up from their chairs and headed out the front door to Froaker’s car which was parked in the driveway.


Froaker and Incinerate got home around 4 pm. When they pulled up to the house, two other cars were parked in the driveway. One was a dark blue sedan which belonged to Blaze and Incinerate; the other was a black SUV that belonged to Crus. The two walked into the house to be greeted by a barking Makalu who was holding his leash in his mouth.

“Oh right, I never took you for a walk before. C’mon buddy let’s go.” Incinerate strapped the ice mite into the harness-like leash and walked back out the front door. Froaker flopped down onto the couch and stretched.

“Busy day?” asked Crus, who was sitting in the chair next to the couch, holding an open bottle of beer.

“No, just didn’t sleep last night.” Froaker said before yawning and curling up on the couch. He laid his head on the armrest of the couch and felt himself start to doze off. He tried to fight the heaviness of his eyelids, but they ended up closing, and he drifted off to sleep, despite the loudness of the tv only a few feet in front of him. Crus looked over to his brother and chuckled at how quickly he had fallen asleep. He looked behind him as he heard footsteps descending the staircase. Blaze entered the living room and noticed Froaker sleeping.

“He okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, he said he didn’t sleep last night. Him and Incinerate just got back from wherever they were.”

“Where’s Incinerate?”

“Took Makalu out for a walk a few minutes ago.” Crus took a sip of his beer and continued to watch tv. He was watching a cheesy soap opera, which he hates, but still watches if there’s nothing else on.

Incinerate walked with Makalu down the sidewalk of their street. He enjoyed the perfect autumn air as he watched Makalu waddle along the path, occasionally stopping to sniff around the grass or chase a few leaves blowing in the breeze. He eventually came to Tokage’s house. They only lived about ten houses away from each other, Incinerate never bothered to count how many were actually in between. He stopped in front of the house and thought of yesterday and how Tokage acted strange. He shook the idea out of his head.

“Why do I care? He’s a fucking asshole. Deserves whatever punishment he got from his parents.” Incinerate thought, “I mean, it’s his fault. He started it. Even though I kept going with it. Wait, so does that mean it’s my fault?” Incinerate stared at the white house, oblivious to Makalu tugging on the leash, trying to get his owner to keep walking. Incinerate snapped out of it and looked down at the ice mite who was eager to keep going.

“S-sorry bud.” he said as he continued walking, trying to forget about Tokage. They walked for about ten minutes before arriving back home. Incinerate entered the house through the front door and unbuckled Makalu’s leash. The Bergmite immediately ran to a bright green tennis ball that was sitting on the floor. He picked it up in his mouth and ran upstairs to his bed in Incinerate’s room. Incinerate walked two steps before noticing Froaker balled up on the couch asleep. His legs were bent in unnatural looking ways, but Greninja are very flexible, almost to the point of being contortionists. It didn’t look comfortable, to say the least.

“How long has he been like that?” Incinerate asked Crus, who was still watching the same show as before, only with about a quarter of the beer.

“He fell asleep right after you left. Haven’t seen him sleep in the middle of the day like this since he was like, sixteen or so.” Crus said.

“He used to sleep through the day?” asked Incinerate.

“Yeah. You and him when he was your age are really similar. It’s a little scary, considering you’re technically not related.”

“What do you mean, how else were we similar?” Incinerate asked, still standing where he was when he walked in.

“Well, there’s the whole thing about getting in trouble at school. I dunno, you guys just have like, the same personality i guess. The only thing that’s different is that Froaker used to smoke a bunch of stuff and drank all the time. You have no idea how many times Slash and I had to sneak him up to his room when he was drunk so your grandparents wouldn’t know.” Crus said, as he took a sip of the little beer that was left inside the bottle.

“It wasn’t that many times.” Froaker yawned, slightly lifting his head up off of the armrest to look at Crus, albeit with his eyes barely opened.

“Oh, you’ve been awake this whole time?” Crus asked, a little freaked out.

“No, I just woke up a minute ago.” Froaker replied. “Ugh.” he laid his head back down onto the armrest and tried to focus whatever was going on on the tv.

“I always thought you’d have been more of the partying type, Crus.” Incinerate said.

“I went to parties, but I didn’t go crazy like he did. Hey Froaker, remember the first time Slash saw you drunk? He got so scared!” Crus laughed.

“I remember you telling me about it the next day.” Froaker said, sitting up on the couch so he didn’t fall asleep again. He wiped off the side of his tongue that was against the couch.

“Speaking of Slash, where is he? He’s usually home by now.” Crus asked, looking over at the clock on the wall, which now read 5:00 pm.

“Do you really care?” Froaker asked sarcastically, to which Crus replied with a chuckle.

As if on command, Froaker’s phone buzzed with a text from Slash saying he’d be home soon, and that he got held up at work.

“Well, that answers your question.” Froaker said as he showed Crus the text.

“Was kinda hoping he’d be out later. It’s nice when he’s gone.” Crus said.

Incinerate’s two days of suspension went by quicker than he thought they would. He went back to school and, as he expected, was behind in nearly every class, not like he cared all that much. He avoided Tokage as much as he could, and he noticed Tokage seemed to be doing the same. Two weeks went by and the two hadn’t said a word to each other. Overall, it was a much quieter two weeks in school. They made it almost three weeks without speaking until one Monday.

Incinerate excused himself from the classroom to use the restroom. He didn’t really need to go, he just wanted a few minutes to check his phone. The hallways were pretty much empty due to class currently going on. He was walking down the hall, checking random apps on his phone when he accidentally bumped arms with Tokage, who was walking the opposite direction also on his phone. The two looked at each other for a few seconds. Tokage didn’t look angry at all. Incinerate noticed he was getting a look, however.

“What?” He asked with a tone.

Tokage’s face quickly turned to an annoyed expression. “Nothing, what are you looking at?”

“Nothing, I was just minding my own business.”

“Well...so was I. Till you and your stupid blue flamed tail came along. Nearly made me drop my phone.”

That blue flame comment got to Incinerate. He always hated when people bought it up. He clenched his fists as his anger rose. He was ready to lash out at Tokage, but he remembered what Froaker had said: just ignore it. He took a deep breath and relaxed his fists. He gave Tokage a glare as he turned around and continued on his way. Tokage stood there, surprised neither of them blew up at each other. He sighed and continued walking as well.

Incinerate walked down the hall, continuing to go through his phone. He was mindlessly swiping through random things as the insult started to anger him more and more. He had had it with Tokage, and he knew if he showed it at school again he’d be in more trouble than ever. He’d just have to wait until he was home.