The Invitation

Vanille was standing in a grassy field. She didn’t know where she was, and usually she would pull out her town map to check, or search the grass to see if any wild Pokémon could clue her in on her whereabouts, but her mind felt a bit foggy at the moment. More than anything she was confused as to why she was here. The trees were in bloom as if it was already spring, but that couldn’t be true. It was fall, and even if she was in Unova, spring ended in September. She turned to look around, maybe an NPC could sort this all out, but to her surprise, she saw Teej standing there in a field behind her, wearing a suit.

“Oh gosh, the new super didn’t kill anyone off did he?” she said to herself in quiet surprise. Hiro has been stating that rent was hard to collect recently and boarders might have to be removed. Vanille didn’t want to see anyone get kicked out, since her and her brother would likely be among the first to get removed. However, secretly she hoped something would be done to rein in Pollack a bit, as his antics the past year has grown beyond tiring. Vanille finally decided to go up to Teej and ask what happened, and as she walked up he looked at her with a grin.

“Hey,” he said with an easygoing smile. Vanille loved that about him; he was easy to relate to and didn’t put himself above others. She had to recollect her thoughts though, she couldn’t embarrass herself in front of him like she used to 2 years ago when they first met. She stumbled in her mind for the right words to say to him, but before she could, he continued to speak.

“I’m so glad you could make it today,” he said, clasping her hand in his, sending her heart into a flutter. She wasn’t sure what was going on but the look in his eyes was sending her spiraling further out of control of her vocal chords, now thoroughly infested with Beautifly. “I know you’ve been busy recently with all the new Pokémon stuff happening, but I’m glad you could make it today.”

“O-of course I’d come see you today,” Vanille says, trying to compose herself and act like she knew what was happening. Maybe she missed a letter than Teej sent her. He tended to make grand gestures even for simple requests and invitations. Somehow she managed to get here without even knowing what was going on, but it was best not to let on about this.

“I wouldn’t miss being with you for anything,” she said with a big smile.

“It means so much to me,” Teej says with a smile. “After all, it’s not every day that I end up get married.”

“Yeah, it’s a great time to-“ she started to say when she suddenly understood what he said and sucked her breath back into her lungs, standing there in shock. “You’re getting married?”

“Oh yes, didn’t you get the invitation?” Teej asked.

“I don’t remember…” Vanille says, turning away and holding her face in shock. What had she been doing to forget all of this? When did Teej even start dating someone to get married?

“Oh, well it must’ve been lost in with all the notes you’ve been making in preparation for your big day,” Teej says with a shrug. “But you’re here now. There’s no reason you can’t stay for the wedding.”

“Yeah, I’d love to stay.” Vanille said. Her voice was a bit raspy as she tried to push the words out of her lungs. “Teej, what have I missed out on?”

“Well, I guess it all started when you missed the Winter Ball this year… I had to go with someone, and well, we hit it off rather well,” Teej says, rubbing the back of his head and looking a bit sheepish. “We did campaigns together, they listened to all of my rants, and we even did some larping and some card tournaments. It’s been a lot of fun and really what I’ve needed, with /qst/ coming into the house.

Vanille was stunned as Teej kept talking, recounting adventures where she wasn’t there. Had she really been so absorbed in her own interests that she forgot about Teej? That she forgot about the Winter Ball? What happened?

“I always sent an invitation to you,” Teej says, snapping Vanille back down to earth and grabbing her full attention. “But I never heard back from you. I was beginning to think I was bothering you, or maybe I had done something wrong.”

His face held a small amount of concern for Vanille, his eyes pleading with her to speak her mind of any problems, but as much as Vanille wanted to just scream at herself and teleport away from this situation, or try to explain to Teej how lost she felt in all of this, it was his wedding day, and the last thing he needed to worry about was Vanille. She put on a fake smile, hoping her bluff would be enough to fool him.

“No, it’s just been me being busy,” she said, her smile pleasant but forced. “I’m sorry for any worry I’ve caused.

Teej held her gaze for a moment. Whether he had seen through her bluff or not, Vanille wasn’t sure, but she felt he was playing the situation carefully for her sake all the same.

“May I ask who are you marrying?” Vanille asked, her cheeks turning at bit crimson at the thought of someone not worth Teej’s time swooping in while he was distracted.

“Well, you’re in luck,” he says, pointing further up at a wedding procession coming towards them. “You’re about to see them.”

Vanille turned and looked, and as she gazed on the mystery person, her heart froze. No. It couldn’t be. Why would Teej marry-

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

“Oi, Vanille!” Viol’s voice called out, snapping Vanille out of her sleep. “Turn off that damn alarm. I’m trying to work over here you bitch.”

Vanille rolled over in bed, still shocked and sweating. What was all of that just now? Was it a dream? That would explain why she was out of the loop on everything. But still a pit remained in her stomach as she thought about why she had such a vivid dream all of a sudden. The blast of the alarm in the background was dulled by her concentrating on her thoughts.

“Hey Karenfag!” Viol called again. “Turn off that alarm before I smash it to bits.”

Vanille reached over and turned off the alarm finally ending the cacophony of noise in the room. She still just sat there, breathing a bit heavily and wiping her face clear of dried sweat.

“You were awful active in bed these past few minutes,” Viol says as he clicks through his PC and not batting an eye her way. “You weren’t having any gross dreams again, were you?”

“Oh shut up and mind your own business,” Vanille said, blushing a bit harder and gathering the blankets close to her chest.

“Was it a bad dream again?” Viol asked, this time looking at her from the corner of his eye, his tone a bit softer.

“No, I’m fine.” she says as she gathers her things. “Stop worrying about me like I’m some kid.”

“I wasn’t worried about you,” Viol says indignantly. “We got a lot to do before our birthday you know. All these leaks to sort through, all these new teams to plan. I’m trying to get us tickets to Alola, but no one’s being helpful on where to get them for free. Well, except /vg/ but he’s kinda weird.”

/vg/ was Viol and Vanille’s weird… uncle? He was a lot like their dad, but extremely obsessed with discussion about specific games. He rarely talked Pokémon with the two of them, but whenever he did it was always warnings about updates and avoiding bricks, whatever the hell that meant.

“Honestly, Vanille, it’s a lot of work,” Viol continued on his rant. “And if we don’t jump on this soon, we’re going to get left behind in the metagame. Imagine, some shitlords from down the street getting into the next region before us.”

“Yeah, I know bro,” Vanille says, her voice low.

“Look, go take a shower or something,” Viol says. “You stink right now and it’s not like you’re doing anything useful right now. Go take care of that and you can catch up on work later.”

“Okay,” she said, knowing this was Viol’s way of looking out for her. She gathered her things and went to the bathroom to shower. It looked like Demona had just been here; the usual amount of semen and blood was clogging the shower drain and had the makings of being freshly produced. Vanille stood in the shower for a time and began to ponder things. Had she been too late? This was a busy time to be sure, but what if she really did somehow miss the Winter Ball? Would that ruin the relationship her and Teej had for the past two years. It was silly to think that he’d actually be interested in her after all. Two years ago he took her as a pity date. And last year he took her and Hex, his ex as dates. If she had blown him off this year, would it show that there really wasn’t anything between them? Vanille sighed to herself in the shower.

There was loud banging on the bathroom door and loud shouting as a few voices were heard yelling out. One of the voices was definitely Pollack shouting one of his rants at someone, but for a change someone else was shouting back. The door to the bathroom hastily opened and two people entered and slammed the door, locking it.

“You fascist cunts aren’t worth my time!” Pollack screamed. “I’ll just ask /o/tan, she was always my first choice!”

Vanille peeked out of the shower stall to see Hex by the door, sighing in relief as Pollack could be heard storming down the hallway. But before Vanille could wonder where the second person was, she was hastily jerked out of the shower, standing naked in front of the last person she’d expect to see here again.

“Well well, it’s not nice to peek in on other people,” Demona said, looking Vanille up and down. “You haven’t changed a bit in two years, have you?”

Demona’s eyes flickered and her tongue wiggled in anticipation in her mouth as Vanille reached for a towel to cover herself, slightly exasperated.

“I’m turning 17 soon,” Vanille said. “Hopefully some changes will happen then.”

“Hey, here’s hoping,” Demona said with a smirk, then turned a bit more serious and apologetic. “We didn’t come here to interrupt your shower, as much fun as that sounds. Pollack was giving Hex here a hard time again, trying to get her to come with him to the Ball again. I figured Teej would have a fit if I let him drag her away again.”

Hex just stood near the door, fidgeting and muttering an incantation of some sort to herself.

“Wait, what Ball?” Vanille asked. “Didn’t the Winter Ball already happen?”

“No, it’s just happening a bit later this year.” Demona said. “Did you miss the memo? /qa/’s been talking about it for over a month in his newsletter.”

Vanille remembered that she had stopped reading /qa/’s newsletters a few months back because of all of the content was reduced to rants about other boarders and the things they did that pissed them off. Vanille couldn’t even remember anything recently from /qa/ that she had been interested in.

“In any case, the Ball’s starting up again soon, so everyone is looking for dates again,” Demona said. “Most notably Pollack since he’s on a power high after winning that war of his. I’d steer clear of him if I were you. I doubt he’s even been with a woman before.”

Hex starts giggling to herself in the corner and then continues her muttering.

“So, got anyone in mind this year?” Demona asked.

	----------

Vanille rushed back to her room as soon as possible, her hair still dripping as she began her plan of action. If people were just starting to get dates to the Winter Ball now, there was still a chance to ask Teej, she had to do it herself this year. The last two years she had waffled on who to go with and Teej had asked her (along with asking Viol to chaperone). She was always glad that he asked her, but this year was different. This year she needed to know how he truly felt, she needed to talk to him herself. While she worked on her letter, Viol stared at her from the PC as she worked.

“Oi, what the hell are you doing? We have work to do you know,” he said. “You can’t ditch all of this on me. And did you even bother drying your hair? You look like you’re ready to prevent a Self-destruct.”

But Vanille just ignored him and continued to work on what she wanted to say in her mail. She didn’t have much room for everything, but she wanted it to be clear how much this meant to her and that she wanted to ask him herself. She wasn’t even sure if Viol wanted to tag along this time. He seemed okay with how things went last year, giving them both a lot more space. And she figured if she told him now he’d argue about how they shouldn’t even think about going with their future plans being in question at the moment.

When she finished her mail, she attached it to one of her Pokémon, put them in the Pokeball, and got ready to go ask Teej. She dried her hair and put on her best outfit, and went to go grab her Pokeball, which had rolled over a bit next to another ball of Viol’s. She rolled her eyes. Everything was always a mess with him around.

As she walked down to the basement to go ask Teej, she felt the familiar feelings of dread and anticipation hit her. She reflected on Demona’s words. She really hadn’t changed in 2 years, but she fought down these feelings. She couldn’t give up. Not now. Not after putting her feelings aside for so long. But as she neared the bottom of the steps, she realized there was someone else down here too. An old man with plaster white skin and greek robes was standing in front of Teej’s door, talking about something. As Vanille inched closer she recognized the man as a recent addition to the house, Herodotus who lived with his granddaughter Historia. When she listened in, Vanille heard him talk about all manner of lewd things from centuries past, including group orgies. Vanille certainly wasn’t innocent and knew about most of the things the man had talked about. She ran a fanfic general in her free time after all. But for the man to talk about it so openly and animated, she was getting flustered on his behalf.

Still, continuing to listen in on their conversation, it became clear to her that the old man was trying to convince Teej to go with him to the Ball. The poor guy was new to the house and probably worried the other boards wouldn’t like him. Undoubtedly someone had told him to hit up Teej; after all, he took pity on the others in the house. It’s why he even bothered to ask Vanille and Viol in the first place. Vanille froze up and wanted to run back to her room. She wanted to forget about asking Teej, or maybe he’ll come and ask her again, taking Herodotus and her and her brother again. A Group date would be nice. No one would have to get hurt.

As she turned to leave though, she shook the thoughts from her head.

“What am I doing?” she said to herself. “I wanted to ask him myself this time, to show how I really feel. If I back down now…”

She sighed to herself and worked to get herself psyched back up again, but before she could make her next move, someone came storming down the stairs behind her.

“Out of the way, sis,” Viol said as he brushed past her. Vanille however was shocked and then grabbed him by the back of his jacket and pulled him back.

“Why the hell are you here?” Vanille asked.

“I remembered I had something to give that bastard,” Viol says shrugging.

“Are you here to spy on me?” she asked.

“No, I said I’m here to give him something, now let me go,” Viol said struggling out of her grip. “You don’t have the guts to give it to him so I will.”

Vanille’s face went beet red as Viol started to walk up to Teej. She couldn’t let him do whatever he was about to do. She had to act fast. She reached into her pocket and flung an iron ball at Viol, hitting him in the back and making him fall over painfully. She then took the opportunity to run past him, but as she went by, he grabbed her ankle and she too tripped. The two of them continued scrambling and fighting, their limbs intertwining and tangling, making their progress even slower and noisier. By this point Teej and Herodotus both took notice of the twins and their antics and Teej came up to help separate the two screaming siblings. Viol rubbed his head a bit where Vanille had left a footprint on his face, and as Teej helped Vanille to her feet she realized her hair was a mess and worked quickly to fix it.

Before Viol had a chance to interject, Vanille held out a Pokeball to Teej.

“I’ve been meaning to give this to you,” she said, her face carrying a deep blush as she worked hard to maintain a serious face. “It has a special message attached to it, so I hope you’ll read it and give me an answer.”

Teej took the ball from her as Viol slaps his hand to his head. Teej reads the message carefully and looks at the two siblings with a smile.

“Vanille, Viol, of course I’ll come with you,” he said.

“R-really?” Vanille gasped. Viol just held his hand over his face and groaned in disgust.

“Of course!” Teej says with a smile. “I wouldn’t miss your birthday for anything.”

Vanille froze on the spot. When she grabbed the ball with her message, she must’ve grabbed one of the balls with birthday invitations on them that she made Viol make a few days ago. Her invitation was still in the room. There’s no way she could play this off and go get him the real invitation now. She was going to have to act like this is what she really wanted to give him.

“Yeah, I guess sis was worried for nothing that you’d be too busy that day,” Viol says stretching as he reached into his pocket. “I also thought you should have this.”

Viol produced another Pokeball, handing it to Teej.

“It’s nothing fancy. If you don’t like it I’ll take it back.” Viol says as he tries to hide his blush. “Just figured it never hurt to give a present early, you know.”

Teej looked at the new ball he was handed, another piece of mail was attached as he read through it. Vanille recognized it as the stationary she used for her confession letter. D-did that mean Viol read her confession? She was horrified at the thought.

As Teej began to read through the letter, he thought about how much the /vp/ twins and he had really connected over the past couple of years. Sure there had been times when they were too busy to talk, but they were still friends all the same. He smiled as he read the letter, he could tell their true selves were shining through on the page, with Vanille’s meandering writing eventually leading to a confession, and Viol’s scratching out of things she wrote and adding his own perspective of how Vanille was just stuck on a childish crush and how he didn’t care either way. He momentarily looked up at the two of them. Vanille was staring at her feet, occasionally stealing glances up but always quickly looking back down when she thought Teej was looking her way. Viol meanwhile had his arms crossed and was staring directly at Teej, occasionally looking back behind him at Herodotus who was at a loss for words at this moment, perhaps staying quiet to witness the making of some history in his presence.

But as his attention came back to finishing the message, the thing that truly caught Teej’s eye was the name of the Pokémon that the mail was attached to, rather than the usual DICKS, it was a simple question.

“Yes or No?”