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“Don’t die alone out there,” Cyllene had told Akari, with what care and concern that she could sneak into her tone. “That’s an order.”
Of course, she had been unable to follow her former subordinate out of the village, to escort her safely to the last place she knows she would be safe. No, she would have to trust that to Lyle and Rei, the man who she felt would always be by her side and the boy who had followed her from that ad hoc orphanage in Hoenn. There was no one she could trust more, now that Kamado had shown himself to no longer be worthy of that trust.
And so the extra large order of mochi that she places with Beni is more silent than usual, and the doors to her office from the hallway and Medical Wing were both locked the minute she returns to the Galaxy Building. The only way to reach her is through the Pokémon Lab, a room that Lyle locks up nightly regardless, with only himself and Rei, his personal assistant within the Survey Corps, having a key. And so, in an hour and a half’s time, it is Lyle that comes through the door to check on her.
“How are you holding up, luv?” The exhaustion must be getting to him if he is dropping work formalities for her, even behind these closed doors.
“Well enough,” Cyllene says as she takes a bite from the potato mochi. It was her second piece so far, the plate of food already cold from sitting on her desk, well within reach but neglected as she buries herself in paperwork.
Lyle takes a look at her, his mouth pulling into a tight line as he removes his knitted hat and sits down across from her. “You know, my mother always says that burying yourself in work to grieve is the way to the grave,” he says softly, taking a pile of the paperwork away from her and taking her spare pen.
“A wise woman,” Cyllene says, a small smile flickering at her lips before disappearing into her normal flat look. At the periphery of her vision, she can see Lyle’s own smile appear briefly. “I see where you get your intelligence.”
A soft snort of laughter is the initial response as Lyle leafs through what Cyllene realizes to be a list of flora in the Obsidian Fieldlands that she had Kana filling out for Tao Hua. The most tedious and least pressing of things on her desk, but also some of the most plentiful. “I’ll have to let her know you think so,” he says after a moment, circling a paragraph and writing a correction to the side to ensure that Tao Hua or whichever Supply Corps member who compiles it doesn’t put something away wrong. “She would certainly agree with you, to my father’s chagrin. That is one trait you both share, being hard people to impress.”
“A trait that has served well,” Cyllene states as she signs off on the form she was reading over. Moving it over, she grabs the next one, a request from Pesselle to look for more places where Medicinal Leeks grow in the Mirelands. Setting it into the tray for Kana’s requests, she slides the next paper in front of her, and pauses.
Surprise! Bet you didn’t expect to see a note from your favorite Surveyor! This is a coupon for a plate of mochi, you just gotta make sure I get 6 star, pleeeeease Ok I should probably get you the mochi anyway, you deserve it, Captain
- Akari (doodled next to her name is Abra’s face, yawning)
The pen in Cyllene’s hand bends as she clenches her fist, her heart pounding in her ears. She can hear Lyle speaking to her, but the words don’t register. She opens her mouth to say something, to shout, to curse, only for a strangled noise to come out before her jaw closes tight, her lower molars grinding against the upper. As the world around begins to swim from the tears in her eyes and her breath begins to quicken, she can feel Lyle’s hands wrap around hers, the fingers of his right hand gently wiggling under her own to loosen her grip.
“Cyllene, dear,” she can finally hear, dulled by the rushing of blood in her ears. “Cyllene, please look at me.” With a shuddering breath to hold back her anger and sorrow, she lifts her chin to look at him properly for the first time since he had stepped in. Lyle looks like he is just as tired and threadbare as she is, his hair mussed from his hat when he normally would have fixed it, and dried tracks of tears where he had refused to wipe them away earlier, now rewetting anew as they stared into each other’s eyes.
“We’ll bring her home,” he says firmly, not an inch of give in his tone. “She will come home safe, and she will not be sent back out.” He draws in a shuddering breath before letting it out, finally uncurling her clenched fist, the pen falling from her grasp as he clasps it between both of his hands.
How naive, Cyllene finds herself thinking, insidious for but a moment. To think that death is something far enough removed that it isn’t a worry. It had been a source of strife in their relationship prior to this, the incongruence of their lives. Cyllene had grown up and helped raise orphans in the middle of a period of war, with nobles looking out only for their coffers and status. Common folk had to fend for themselves among Pokemon, bandits, and deserting soldiers, so death was always lurking. Meanwhile, Lyle had grown up in the safety of the largest city in his home region, a region where internal strife had been cooled for nearly two centuries. Death came from the sick, or those who fell to accidents or the occasional highwayman.
But there was conviction in Lyle’s eyes, and the conviction told Cyllene that the voice in the back of her head wasn’t being fair to him. He's not naive, she asserts to herself as she takes a deep breath, letting him pull her hand to his mouth and plant a soft kiss on it. He knows the risk. But he means it. She swallows hard, pushing whatever blockage that stopped her from speaking out of her mind. “I hope you’re right.”
“I hope so, too,” he says softly, continuing to hold her hand as Cyllene leans back against her chair, closing her eyes and slowly breathing to calm herself down. He runs his thumb in circles on her hand as she softly and silently sobs, the anger melting into sorrow as the events of the day finally process.
Their ad hoc family may be broken apart for now, but that won’t last. It can’t last, she asserts, gripping Lyle’s hand as she pulls herself forward, bringing his hand up to her lips to kiss it. “Thank you for letting me have a moment, dear,” Cyllene says softly, wiping the tears from her eyes before standing up from her desk. Lyle gives her a smile and lets go of her hand, letting her step around her desk and pick up the plate of mochi. “Let’s go find Rei and make sure he has something to eat.”
“A cold plate is better than nothing,” Lyle says with a hollow laugh, putting his knitted cap back on as he stands and follows her out of the room.