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“Oh welcome back Nav,” Lida was the only one in Hotel Z’s lobby as Naveen re-entered and also the one who welcomed him.
“I told you not to call me that,” The lobby looked the same as it normally did, green-ish grey wallpaper, soft wood tones, the bunting and sign for Ansha’s donut shop and Gulpin on it’s table.
Wait a second…
“Where’s Ansha?” Naveen asked, immediately clocking the lack of Team MZ’s doughnut chef.
“I think she went out. She wasn’t here when I got back– she left a note.” Lida pointed to the scrap of paper on the table before her.
Naveen picked up the note. “Is Urbain with her?”
“Uhm. Don’t think so.”
“What about Harmony?”
“Weeeelllll…”
“Korrina, even?”
“...”
“Lida!”
“What? It’s not like I let her go out by herself. She just did.”
“Yeah but she’s still a child. I don’t want her getting lost or hurt in a city as big as Lumiose! Especially since it’s almost sundown!”
“That’s true. We should go look for her.”
“We should. You take the ground and I’ll take the rooftops. Call Harm and Urb while you’re at it.”
“On it.”
Lida rushed out, rotom floating besides her as she told it to call their friends.
Naveen could feel his wings rippling so after climbing the ladder besides Hotel Z, he shook them out, leaving his horns unshifted.
With a jump and a swoop, he was onto a good block of buildings that lead off in a few different directions.
With a whisker of intuition, he picked one and started moving. (Naveen always said that it was his whiskers that guided him, and that his non-whiskered fellows wouldn’t understand. (Even Urbain, despite having whiskers as well, still never quite got what he meant.))
Jumping from one roof to another would’ve been more exhilarating had the feeling not been clouded by worry about their smallest and second newest team member. Between traversing the many bridges that connected the roofs of Lumiose and keeping an eye out for black and pink on the streets below, Naveen didn’t notice the purple haired hybrid he liked to rival with moving towards him as well.
Gwynn let out a high pitched chirp followed by a soft growl as Naveen knocked past her. He didn’t say anything, just looked at her with wide eyes and a sense of worry before moving on. He didn’t have wings last time the met, did he?
Something compelled Gwynn to follow him. She was bored, he was clearly doing something of interest. So why not?
Naveen sensed her presence behind him as he crossed a bridge but didn’t acknowledge it.
“You’ve been following me for 20 minutes, do you need something? Because I don’t have time right now.”
“I was wondering what you were doing.” Gwynn replied, casual for having spent the last 20 minutes within a wings length of the other hybrid.
“Is that all?” Naveen hopped down onto another stretch of roof. “Because you could've just asked, you know.”
“But where’s the fun in that.” Gwynn followed him down.
“Alright fine. I’m looking for Ansha. You know, about this tall, has a hat and a black coat and a Hoopa,” Naveen listed, keeping a steady pace along the rooftops.
“Haven’t seen her since we came by the hotel a few days ago and– what are you doing?”
“Jumping a roof? Don’t tell me you’ve lived in Lumiose as long as I have and never jumped a roof.”
Gwynn wanted to flap her wings in annoyance at how obvious that answer should’ve been but they were still hidden beneath her jacket and she didn’t want to show them for the sole purpose of expressing her emotions then putting them away again.
“Of course I have.” She snapped instead.
“Okay then.”
Naveen stretched his own wings and beat them a few times before taking a running leap at the gap. A single flap propelled him comfortably onto the edge of the roof he was aiming for and he turned round to Gwynn.
“Your turn.”
“I never knew you were a hybrid-shifter.” That was Gwynn’s way of putting off the inevitable.
“I didn’t think you cared.”
Gwynn didn’t. Instead of answering she looked at the gap she had to jump. Her mind was telling her that she could do it and that isn’t wasn’t that big of a jump.
Her heart on the other hand was telling her that no way could she make that jump and that she’d die trying.
She took a running start and oof–
Ow
She’d made it. Barely. And still managed to throw herself onto the lip of the roof and so winded herself and most likely bruised her chin from bringing it down on the roof in the process.
Naveen didn’t comment, Simply offered her a hand and pulled her fully onto the roof.
Gwynn didn’t get to thank him before he rushed over to a small figure sitting on the edge of the roof they had just landed on and knelt down.
“There you are. Are you alright?”
This was Ansha. “Thanks for the concern Naveen but it is of no need. I’m perfectly fine.”
“I’m just making sure. You didn’t tell anyone you were going out.”
“Wh– I left a note!” This one sentence sounded much more childlike than Gwynn had heard from Ansha thus far.
“I know, but I still don’t like the idea of you wondering around without one of us there.” Ansha hummed out a reluctant agreement. “Let’s head back to the hotel.”
Even outside Ansha getting hurt, Gwynn considered Jacinthe and Lebanne. Both would not hesitate to maim someone should anything happen to the girl. Gwynn didn’t doubt that either would.
Naveen took Ansha’s hand before looking back towards Gwynn with a blank look. One that made her feel oddly exposed despite the lack of any real emotion in there.
“Anyways how did you get over here?” He directed his attention back towards the child holding his hand, “You don’t have wings or a rotom phone yet so…”
“Oh, I just used that bridge over there.” She pointed towards a bridge behind Naveen that both he and Gwynn had somehow managed to miss.
Gwynn’s ear twitched. “That’s… annoying.”
They all looked at the bridge for a moment before Ansha spoke again, much quieter this time.
“Hey, Naveen?”
“What’s up?”
“Uhm. Could I maybe have a piggyback ride?”
“Sure.” Ansha’s eyes grew wide as it became obvious she hadn’t expected the request to be granted.
Gwynn watched as Naveen unshifted his wings and made sure to get low enough so Ansha could climb onto his back with ease. She watched as small hands wrapped around his neck and held firmly. She watched as he made sure she was comfortable and secure before walking towards the bridge and looking back at her.
“You coming?”
“Mhm.”
They walked side by side and Gwynn watched as Naveen took as much care as possible to make the journey smooth for Ansha. She figured they’d both come out of this more bruised than before as she watched him land on his knees after sliding down a roof. They did eventually make their way to the Holovator Ansha must’ve used to get up onto the roofs in the first place and zapped down.
“We’ll see you around Gwynn,” Naveen turned down the road that would take them back to Hotel Z.
Ansha, still perched on his back, stopped him, “Naveen, wait please.”
“Hm? Why?” Ansha didn’t humour him with a response.
“Miss Gwynn?” She called instead, “Can I touch your ears?”
What? “I’m sorry?”
Ansha curled more into Naveen’s shoulder, “Actually nevermind. It’s stupid. I’m sorry for asking.”
“No, I just didn’t hear you,” Gwynn had but she didn’t want to make Ansha feel bad. “Sure.”
Ansha absolutely lit up as Naveen stepped closer. The pause allowed Gwynn to reconsider if she had just made a horrible mistake.
As Ansha’s little fingers came into contact with her ear, Gwynn had to suppress a shiver hard. Normally, Canari was the only one allowed to touch her ears and even then it was still rare.
“Your ears are really soft,” Gwynn had to keep from flinching as Ansha stroked her ear, “Thank you.”
Naveen gave a slight shrug as he stepped away from Gwynn, also having no idea what Ansha’s request was about.
“We’d best get back to the Hotel.” Naveen once again turned down the road, this time without being stopped by the dragonling on his back.
How odd, Gwynn thought to herself once Naveen and Ansha were out of sight. The dojo wasn’t too far away so Gwynn decided to just walk, turning the day over in her mind.
Ansha didn’t really have her own room at the Hotel. She didn’t stay there at night and had outgrown naps so none of Team MZ thought to give her one– especially when what few possessions she carried could be kept in her backpack behind the counter when her donut shop was open and on her back when it was not.
For these reasons Naveen was at a complete loss of what to do with the child asleep on his back when he stepped into the lobby for the second time that day.
“Oh hey. There you are. You weren’t answering your phone,” Lida was the first to speak as Naveen absorbed the sight of the other team members in a huddle around Lida’s phone.
“Oh good, you found Ansha. Where was she?” Korrina spoke up.
“Roofs.” Naveen answered, “Anyways, do we have a spare room?”
“Uhh yeah. But what for?” Urbain replied, moving around to dig out a key from under the desk.
Naveen didn’t give a verbal answer, instead moving his head so Ansha’s sleeping form could be seen more clearly.
Awws and coos followed before actual suggestions came in.
“We could take her back to Richissime?”
“I can sort out a room so she can sleep here?”
“We let Lebanne know and she comes to pick Ansha up?”
“Wake her up and ask her what she wants to do?”
“Hmm,” As much as he knew any one of those things would be a far better idea, Naveen wanted to let Ansha sleep. He also wanted to put her down given he’d been carrying her since parting ways with Gwynn half an hour ago. Honestly, Ansha reminded him of his sister. And while she didn’t really need it, Naveen couldn’t help but seeing her as such.
One lift ride and unlocked door later, Naveen was placing Ansha onto his bed and setting up for the night. Naveen himself had a Canari stream to watch and commissions to work on so pulled off Ansha’s hat, coat and boots and threw a blanket over her.
He then pulled out his own rotom phone, headphones, most pressing commission and the hoopa plushie he was working on for Ansha and got as comfortable as he could in his desk chair. His hands would probably be cramped and maybe bleeding by the time he fell asleep at some stupid late hour while a past stream played through his headphones but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make given his current objective was to let Ansha sleep and using the sewing machine would most likely wake her up.
Working on the plushie first would set him back a day or two but it was worth it though, as ninety minutes later, Naveen got to see Ansha curl happily around her new fluffy buddy.
In the morning, Ansha didn’t comment on the plushie. Or the fact she had awoken in Naveen’s room. She simply left the plushie on Naveen’s desk and went downstairs to find Urbain or Harmony to talk to Lebanne.
Naveen also didn’t comment on the attempted return of the plushie. He just took it downstairs and left it on the front desk for Ansha to find later.
He was pleased to see it’s absence later that day and even more thrilled when he noticed it sitting in Ansha’s backpack the following day, knowing he’d brought at least a little more comfort into the girl’s life.