Covalence: Chapter 1

The late winter sun crawled higher in the sky, bringing warmth to the narrow streets of Lower Halcyon. The desert’s nighttime chill lingered in the shadows, nipping at the paws and tails of pokémon going about their day.

A pikachu in a drab apron half-watched them through the coffee shop’s front window, leaning on the register and supporting his head with one paw. Now that the morning rush was over, there also weren’t many passersby to watch. He passed the rest of the time watching the sunlight crawl across the red paving stones, the shadows receding minute by monotonous minute. At least the end of his shift would be warm; Lyte hated shivering his way to work in the winter. At only eight inches tall (nine, if you generously rounded up), he was small even for a pikachu, and didn’t do well with cold.

His thoughts kept drifting, mostly towards the future. His raid static was getting really close to a kill on the latest Vicious-tier bosses, so he had that to look forward to tonight. And Weft’s weekly movie night was always fun, later in the week. And this weekend there was that pro-battling tournament! There’d be tons of great matches to watch from that. Maybe Zinnia will be in it this time. She skipped the last one…

“Hey, Lyte.”

Zinnia… Lyte couldn’t get the zigzag-striped yellow and black cat out of his head. From the minute he’d learned the coffee shop regular was a pro battler, he’d been obsessed. Even if she was the underdog most of the time. Maybe because of that. She’s normally here already. Maybe she isn’t coming today…

A prod from a white-furred paw jolted the pikachu out of his reverie. “Lyte!” The braixen who’d poked him crossed her arms over her pale blue apron. Her nametag read “Weft (she/her)”. With a nose ring, multiple ear piercings, and her inner ear fur dyed a deep magenta, Weft looked far more the part of “hipster barista” than Lyte. “Stop daydreaming about your girlfriend and help me clean.”

“I wasn’t— She’s not my—” Lyte protested, then sighed. “Yeah, sorry.” He shuffled along the underbar walkway to start at the emptied pastry display. The counter-height platform ran all the way around the inside of their work area, letting pokémon his size get around without climbing down to the floor and back up or putting his paws on the actual counter proper.

“You’re crushing on her pretty bad, aren’t you?” Weft said, glancing at him over her shoulder between dishes. “Your ears have been going up and down all morning whenever someone comes in.”

Lyte, busy sweeping out the crumbs from empty pastry shelves, sighed. “I guess so, yeah. it’s silly, I know.”

“Wha—Silly? Why’s it silly?”

Isn’t it obvious? “She’s a cool prizefighter, and I’m just, you know, a barista. A glorified cashier.”

The braixen shook her head and tutted. “You gotta decouple your self-worth from your job, or you’re gonna have a bad time,” Weft said. “Other peoples’ too, but especially your own.”

Lyte grunted. “Easy for you to say. You’re popular. You knit.”

“And you bench 90% on Maverick, or whatever—”

“95% on Maven,” Lyte corrected, making his way over past the espresso machine to start wiping down the counters.

“Right, ‘or whatever’. You have things you’re passionate about too.”

“Except most people find MMOs profoundly uncool.”

“Most people don’t even think about them. You didn’t think knitting was cool until I talked your ears off about it. If you show someone why you’re passionate about something, they’ll think it’s cool too.”

Lyte hmphed. He had to admit she had a point about the knitting. And for all her ribbing (and misremembered class names), Weft did actually listen to him chatter about the latest patches from time to time.

“And even if they don’t, so what? There’s no accounting for taste. Zinnia gets punched in the face for money and you think that’s the coolest thing ever.” Weft continued right over top of Lyte’s attempted protests. “Anyway, the point is, you two barely know anything about each other and that’s why you should ask her out.”

“Huh!?” Lyte froze in the middle of wiping up the chesto grounds from around the grinder. But—”

“You’re not gonna get to know each other over the bar,” the braixen pointed out. “Just do something together. See a movie. Get dinner. Hang out. Whatever.”

Lyte pressed his forepaws together. “But what if she says no?”

“What if she says yes?” Weft countered. “Either way you move forward instead of being stuck pining.”

The pikachu went back to cleaning up the chesto grounds. “I’ll, uh, I’ll think about it.” He went quiet, mulling over the braixen’s unsolicited advice. She’s probably right. What am I waiting for? It felt like there was something he was waiting for, but he couldn’t put words to it. Stuck. Stuck in this job, stuck in this city…

Weft spoke up after a minute. “Sorry if I’m being pushy. I just wanted to give you a nudge, y’know.”

“Mhm.”

“Sometimes it’s easier to see this stuff from the outside.”

“It’s cool, seriously. Don’t worry about it.” He was curious what prompted her to get on his case all of a sudden, but not enough to want to keep talking about it.

Lyte was saved from further conversation by the jingle of the bell above the door. He hopped back to the register, ears perked up. This time they stayed up; he knew this silhouette. “Hey Zinnia! How’ve you been?”

Zinnia shuffled inside. Standing five feet even, the yellow and black cat was one of their larger customers. Her gray coat was somehow oversized ever for her, its sleeves almost covering her massive paws. The front was fully unzipped, exposing her muscled, black-furred belly, the longer yellow fur around her neck and shoulders, and the smooth light blue patches of skin in between. Her floofy yellow tail-like appendage stuck out over the top of her coat, draped down over her back. Lyte was never really sure what to make of that. He had no idea what species she was, actually; he’d never seen anyone else in Halcyon Falls who looked like her.

“Hey, Lyte,” she said. She sounded as tired as she looked; her voice was heavy. Zinnia spoke with a slight accent, like she’d grown up with one and some traces still clung to her speech. Lyte couldn’t quite place it.

Lyte’s ears flatted right back down when he got a better look at her. “Uh. You doing okay?”

Weft leaned close enough that her whiskers tickled his ear. “The punching thing was meant to be figurative,” she whispered. “But…”

Lyte shot Weft a glare and whapped her with his tail. He’d only seen Zinnia looking worse in the middle of a losing fight. What fur he could see was disheveled, and the zeraora’s yellow eye—her right one—was part swollen shut. Her left ear was wrapped in a bandage stained red-brown with blood. Lyte was pretty sure that was the ear that already had a notch missing, too. Yep. Right ear’s good. Ouch. And that’s just what I can see. Fur’s good at hiding bruises…

Zinnia shrugged. “A lot better after I get a coffee.”

“Of course!” Lyte hopped into action at the register. “The regular?”

“Mhm. Double shot this time.”

“Double cortado, coming right up!” The pikachu rang her up and waved to the tap-to-pay pad while Zinnia fished out her orb from a coat pocket. He started to scurry over to make her order, but Weft was already at the grinder, measuring out chesto seeds.

“Go,” she hissed, jerking her pointy snout towards Zinnia. “Talk to her, you dork.”

Lyte hesitated, fiddling nervously with his paws. “Now?”

“Three above, Lyte,” Weft swore. “Go cheer her up.”

The pikachu swallowed his nerves and turned back. So much for “just a nudge”, he thought. I encouraged her too much. As if I can’t talk and make coffee at the same time. He scampered over to the pickup counter, where Zinnia was standing. “So!” he said, to get her attention. He really had to crane his head back to make eye contact. “What, uh, what happened?”

“Lost a fight,” Zinnia said.

“But you didn’t have a match scheduled yesterday,” Lyte said.

Zinnia blinked. “What?”

“Er—I mean, I just try to keep up with the match schedules so I can watch all of yours.” He was sure Weft was cringing behind him.

“You watch all my fights?” Her good blue eye was staring at him with… curiosity? Her expression was difficult for Lyte to read at the best of times, and the big bruise on her face wasn’t helping.

“The ones that get orbcast, yeah! I like rooting for you!” I thought I told her that before. Maybe she thought I just watched one once. Is it weird to watch them all? That’s not weird, is it? If this is weird I’m never gonna hear the end of it. Lyte caught himself fiddling with his front paws again and tried to force himself to hold still, with mixed success.

The zeraora seemed to be pondering this. The roar of milk getting steamed gave her time to mull it over. “Didn’t know you were such a fan,” she said, when it was quiet again. “You like watching the fights?”

Oh thank the Three. Lyte felt a wash of relief, lowering his stress levels to merely double normal. “Yeah! I’m a big fan of yours!”

“You seem like a pretty small fan, to me,” Zinnia said, holding a paw over the counter at Lyte’s head height. She chuckled, once, then thought better of it. “Sorry, bad joke. Ignore me; haven’t had coffee yet.”

The little pikachu laughed despite himself. Jokes are a good sign, right? “I’ll let it slide this once.” It was hard to tear his eyes away from her paw; it was almost as big as him, with cyan pawpads that matched the color of her whiskers and chest spot.

“Speaking of coffee,” Weft cut in, “double cortado for you, Zinnia.” She set the saucer and glass down on the counter.

The zeraora nodded. “Thanks.” She took the saucer to the nearest table, against the wall right across from the counter, and flumphed into the chair.

Still plenty close for Lyte to keep chatting. Part of him said he should stop pestering her, but he tried to ignore that. “So was the match somewhere else?”

“Huh? Oh. Nah, it was, uh… practice,” Zinnia said. “Not worth streaming. Got a bit out of paw, though.”

“That was from practice? Oof! You look worse than when you lose a real fight!” He pressed on. “Are you rationing charge again? Running low on it?” She’d told him before that she couldn’t generate her own electricity like most other electric-types could. When she got low on it, her fights tended to be one-sided.

Zinnia took a sip of coffee and nodded. “Trying to make it to Friday. There’s a thunderstorm on the forecast.”

“Ah yeah, so you can recharge? It’s been a while since the last one, hasn’t it.”

“Near the end of the wet season, yeah. Always a rough time of year.”

Lyte glanced around. Weft was finishing cleaning the counters. Nobody else was there, and it was still a bit until lunchtime, when business usually picked up. This could go badly… but it could go great, too. “Can I give you some of mine? Not like I’m using it for anything!” He hoped it wasn’t obvious how nervous he was.

Zinnia finished her sip. “If you’d like, sure,” she said, her casual tone belying the way her ears had perked right up. “I’d appreciate it. C’mere.” She beckoned with a paw. “Don’t try and zap me from over there.”

Whew! “I wasn’t going to!” Lyte said. “Our manager’d kill me.”

“She’d have to get in line,” Weft called from behind him.

The pikachu chuckled. He scampered along the counter-height walkway sticking out of the wall. To get to Zinnia’s table on the opposite wall, he had to go all the way to the end of the shop and back, but there were only a few tables past her so it wasn’t that bad. His weaker right leg was feeling it by the end, though, as he limped up to the zeraora.

Zinnia was waiting for him, nursing her cortado. Up close, he could see some of her snout fur was matted down and darker than the rest.

“Hey… I think you have some blood on your nose,” Lyte said. “Just thought you should know.”

“Oh?” Zinnia rubbed her snout with the back of a paw and glanced at the flakes that clung to her fur. “Hm. So I do. Dried from yesterday.” She shrugged. “Anyway, you’ve rubbed cheeks with other pikachu, yes?”

“Uhh… yeah,” Lyte said, thinking back to the emolga he’d dated in school. He looked up at her blue, zigzag whiskers. “Should I climb up to your shoulder?” Cheek nuzzles are pretty intimate…

She let out a tired laugh. “No, no. Here.” She held up her other paw, showing the blue central pad. “Put your cheek against my paw, and relax.”

“Oh! Oh.” Lyte felt his cheeks get hot. “Right. That makes sense.” He stepped closer, eyeing the paw bigger than his head. The cyan skin of her pawpad made a stark contrast with the yellow fur covering the rest of her paw; Lyte was surprised how smooth it looked. He was pretty sure her pawpads could glow, too. I wonder how that works. Further up, the tips of her claws peeked from the fur covering her fingers. The sight tickled something primal in him, making his heart pound with excitement.

Taking a deep breath, Lyte leaned into Zinnia’s paw, feeling her digits gently curl to grip him. Being around someone several times his size was nothing new for Lyte, but most pokémon couldn’t hold his entire body in their paw. And seeing it was entirely different from feeling her fingers splayed around one ear and her thumb over his belly. He shivered, then wiggled his head around to squish his red cheek spot against her pawpad.

Normally other electric types had strong static in their fur, but Zinnia had, if anything, the opposite. It felt like he’d pressed his cheek against a ground, the static in his fur immediately wicked away. A spark crackled from his cheek to her pawpad, which glimmered with light for a brief moment. Like a stone tossed into a lake, the ripples the only sign it was ever there.

Then he felt her reply. Static fuzzed at his cheek, their bodies wordlessly negotiating how much charge the other could handle. It was an odd sensation; with other ‘chu, it stabilized at low levels, but whatever he offered, the zeraora’s body always answered “Yes. More.” Lyte closed his eyes as he let the charge flow, crackling through his conductive fur.

He’d never shared charge in such quantity or in such a one-sided way before, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Far from it; the high current draw really amplified the sensations of charge-sharing. I could get used to this. Lyte found himself bruxing, grinding his incisors together. He opened his eyes and boggled up at Zinnia. The blue patches on her chest were glowing, he noted. As was the pawpad against his cheek.

“You can really handle a lot of charge,” Lyte said. “Wow.”

“I do get hit by lightning on purpose.”

Oh, right. Obviously.

“But this is still a lot more power than a normal outlet can give,” she added, perhaps noting the way his ears swiveled.

“Really? Wow.” Lyte closed his eyes again and leaned into the zeraora’s paw. He nuzzled against it, rubbing his cheek against the pawpad and tipping his head back to stick his nose between her digits. He liked the feeling of fur against his face. And she smelled nice, actually. He sniffed a little more, nose twitching.

Can I say that? Is that weird? Think… you’re supposed to compliment intentional choices, right? “I like your shampoo,” Lyte said. “Or conditioner. It smells nice.”

“Hmm?” Zinnia glanced down at him, seeing him nuzzling into her paw. Her eyes widened and she yanked her paw away.

Lyte had his eyes closed and was caught off guard. Leaning against suddenly empty air, he stumbled, nearly falling over. “Huh?” I guess it was weird.

“Sorry, this was stupid,” Zinnia said, holding her paw close to her chest. “I, uhh… I’m still covered in blood and stuff from my fight. Like my snout. I shouldn’t be touching you while you’re working. You should go wash off, just in case.”

“I… guess?” Lyte was confused. He hadn’t noticed any blood on her paws. Well, besides the one that she’d rubbed her snout with, but that wasn’t the one he’d been nuzzling. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no, my fault,” said the zeraora. “Not yours.” She drained the rest of her coffee and stood up, turning to leave.

Lyte watched her head for the door. If she’s not just saying that, then maybe… “Wait! Uh… where’re you gonna go when it storms on Friday?”

Zinnia stopped and looked back, tilting her head at him. “Probably the park downriver,” she said. “Why?”

“Want to meet up there?”

She raised an eyebow. “You want to go the park, in the rain, and watch me get hit by lightning?”

“I mean… that sounds pretty cool to me,” Lyte said. “Maybe we could get dinner afterward?”

The zeraora’s tail twitched. She thought for a couple seconds—the longest seconds of Lyte’s life so far, even beating the time he’d been in front of the class and completely forgotten his presentation. “Yeah. I’d like that.” Zinnia waved goodbye and left, the bell jingling on her way out.

Lyte slumped against the wall and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. All in all that could have gone a lot worse. He was glad that his brain’s personal cringe compilation hadn’t gotten another entry to dredge up when he was trying to sleep.

“What was that about?” Weft asked, as soon as Zinnia was out of sight. “What’d you say to her? I was trying not to eavesdrop too much and I missed it.”

“I said she smelled good,” Lyte said. “No, wait. I said I liked her shampoo?”

“Weird,” said Weft. “The way she reacted, I mean. That’s not that weird to say. Maybe she didn’t use any?” The braixen shrugged. “Seems to have worked out all right, though. Did you get her orb number?”

Lyte facepawed. “No. I forgot.”

“It’s probably fine. You can ask her tomorrow, assuming she ever comes back and doesn’t completely ghost us.” Weft was grinning. “What’s with that look? That was a joke! I think you did great!”

“Whatever.” The pikachu slowly hefted himself back up and started shuffling back around the walls to get back to the counter. “I’m gonna go collapse in the sink. That’s enough excitement for one day.”

“See, it wasn’t so bad…”