How to be (a) snake,
Issue #2: Dragon days, feline nights.
A pink dragon lied on a hastily put together pile of cotton, shielded by a blanket from the cold night's wind, it wasn't the best he had ever slept on but it was more than enough, especially after a whole day of being dragged through the floor with a vine around his neck. His dreams weren't the power fantasies he was so used to, at least not in the conventional sense, instead, they were about having full control of his body and slithering around the world like a normal snake. It was oddly pleasant, and he didn't want to wake up from it, but his body had other plans and forced itself awake in need of some water. Slowly opening his eyes, Hans was surprised by what he was seeing: Arms, his arms! They were back! Hans was ecstatic, finally getting to feel and see them again. He quickly rolled on the bed to get up and—
THUMP
The short distance between the top of the bed and the wooden floor below was enough to actually stir him awake, "Ow," Hans muttered to himself, while his previous joy turned into frustration. He looked around the room and noticed it was the middle of the night. Mr. Gible was snoring loudly on his bed, and Noodle was once again nowhere to be found.
The Dragonair crawled towards the door, part of his body still wrapped in the blanket because of rolling around in his sleep. He looked up at the doorknob and realized that he wouldn't be able to reach it from the ground even if he raised his head. Thankfully, neither of the three had bothered to close the door well enough and it was slightly ajar—that, or someone had been in their room while they slept—what mattered is that he was able to go out.
Hans crawled through the guild halls and went down the stairs to go outside, staining himself with a green trail painted on the floor on the way. Once outside, he took a moment to appreciate the night sky, noticing that it was clear from almost any light pollution and that the stars were in completely different places. This small moment of beautiful scenery made him think that maybe, just maybe, this place wasn't so bad at all.
Recalling what Mr. Gible had told him, Hans slowly moved towards the pond at the back of the guild, as it was the only spot he knew that had water on the place. He took some time to find the pond, having to avoid a field of flowers so as not to crush them and move around a Tropius that was soundly sleeping in the guild's backyard. When he finally reached his objective, the Dragonair didn't think twice and sank his head into the water, drinking more than enough for the night.
The water tasted weird, to say the least, Hans couldn't pinpoint if it was because the water was from another world or if it had something unknown in it. Safe to say, he was more than happy with it and was ready to go back to sleep, but an unknown voice rang behind him when he turned around to leave.
"Psst! Hey you, pink guy!"
The Dragonair looked back, the voice was coming from the bushes but whoever was speaking couldn't be seen, "M- Me?" asked Hans, he was too tired to even think about what was happening and spoke out an instinctual reply.
"The only pink guy around."
Uncharacteristically, Hans did what a normal person would do when hearing voices coming from bushes in the middle of the night and turned around to go away. He felt goosebumps doing so, fearing that whoever was in there would come out and get him. It didn't happen.
When he pulled himself closer to the front doors, Hans caught a glance of something pink and round hanging from the ceiling, it was Noodle's yo-yo. The Dragonair looked up and saw her sitting on the edge of the roof, swinging her legs and staring at the distance. He wanted to ask her what was she doing up so late at night but assumed it was behavior similar to that of cats from the human world and, without a word, continued towards the team's room.
"Up and at 'em, it's morning!" shouted Mr. Gible, making both of his partners groggily get up from their respective beds. Without wasting much time, Noodle wrapped her vine around Hans and dragged him out of the room, even if the pink dragon was still half-asleep.
"What time is it?" Hans asked while bumping down every step of the stairs.
"I have no idea, but the sun is out, and that means we must get up!" quickly replied Mr. Gible "Besides, I want to see what kind of food they serve here, it can't be much worse than plain berries and apples."
"Food? So we're going to that mess hall?" the snake asked with a look of concern.
"Unless you want to try your luck with that innkeeper again."
Hans sighed, "I hope I don't draw too much attention, you know, being a shiny and all," he said right before they entered, "I-I don't like being the center of attention."
Mr. Gible grinned, "Yeah kid, no one does," he chuckled, "Is 'shiny' a word that means girl-colored or something?" he stepped inside, followed by Noodle, "Come on, I don't think anyone really cares about that," the blue dragon called out to his partner.
The Pokémon inside the mess hall noticed the new faces and warmly welcomed them.
And then Hans got dragged in.
"EVERYONE LOOK, THERE'S A SHINY AT THE DOOR!"
"A WHAT?!" "Uh oh" "That's fake and ga—"
"SHINY NEWFAG! SHINY NEWFAG!"
"Fake and gay? Newfag?"
"I NEVER EVEN SAW ONE IN THE GAMES!"
"WHAT ARE THE ODDS?"
"One in five gorillions."
"Six gorillions, actually."
"Is this... Because of you?"
"Why is everyone freaking out so much?!"
"LOCOOO PERO QUE ME ESTÁS CONTANDO."
"That pink really stands out!"
"Great."
"Look Chespin, that's the Gible I saw the other day!"
"Cute onahole-shaped newfag!"
"WHAT?!"
"Two pseudos?! That's unfair!"
"It's not. A single CHILLER mogs them ALL!"
"Chiller?"
"Why is he tied up?"
"God I wish that were me."
"No, you don't."
"AIIIIEEEEE SHINY-SAMA!"
"Shinner."
"I don't get it, where's the shine?"
"Oh, that's the guy that was speaking with the bushes last night"
"Tropius saw that?!"
"It's like pokéworld's melanin."
"..."
After that spontaneous chaos, the team sat down for breakfast. The mess hall had calmed down now, it looked like everyone was in on some sort of inside joke, the pink snake wondered if his partners had something to do with it, even if Mr. Gible and Noodle were clueless to what they said. Unlike them, Hans knew exactly what they meant. He didn't expect the guild to have this kind of people, now he understood why it was called Clover Guild, the thought drew a slight smirk on his face.
While they ate, a small Pokémon walked up to their table, he had his eyes closed and there was a faint blush under his cream fur. "Excuse me miss, I couldn't help but notice your presence," he sat down with them without invitation, "I get called a degenerate for being myself, but when someone like you barges into the mess hall while being tied up for everyone to see, no one bats an eye!"
Hans squinted his eyes in confusion at the Cyndaquil, "Miss? Degenerate?"
"Yes, you and me, missy," he swiftly responded.
The Dragonair hesitated for a moment at his words, "What are you talking about?" he knew exactly what Cyndaquil was talking about.
"Oh, come on, don't make me say it out loud!" Cyndaquil quipped with a grin, "If you don't know what I mean, I could, you know, teach you.*
Was he hitting on him? Hans genuinely couldn't tell but assumed he was, "I'm a guy, you know."
Cyndaquil snickered in response, "And?"
Hans was running out of ideas at this point, he glanced at his teammates for help, but Mr. Gible was focused on his food and Noodle didn't understand what they were talking about, "I-Is that all you want to talk about, Cyndaquil?"
Cyndaquil waved his paws dismissively, "Of course not, I wanted to ask if you'd let me join in on your next session of—"
"I can't move by myself, the vine is for dragging me around," Hans explained, staring in disbelief at the Cyndaquil.
The fire-type pokemon gasped and blushed in response, "T-There's humiliation involved too?! Please, you gotta let me–"
"I'm sorry, mister cinder quill," This time, it was Mr. Gible who interrupted him, slamming his hands on the table and standing up, "But we have to go now, we've got a very important mission to do," He stated, then walked away, not even waiting for his teammates to follow suit.
"But I haven't finished my food..." Noodle protested, but went after her partner with the dragonair in tow.
"Leaving so soon? You didn't even tell me your names!" Cyndaquil called out as the team left the mess hall, the team didn't bother responding.
"I didn't know humans liked vines so much!"
Hans let out a tired sigh before explaining, "He wasn't talking about it like that, Noodle."
"What a freakshow, looks like it's the perfect place for you, fag," Mr. Gible teased with a chuckle.
"Says the guy who thinks the feds are on him," Hans quickly replied, "Besides, it wasn't my idea to come here."
"Are you dumb? The guildmaster is a psychic, he read my mind yesterday!" the small dragon retorted, "And this is all a special operation, it's not like I want to be here with all of these freaks."
While her teammates argued, Noodle grabbed a random request from the nearby job board. She tilted her head to look at it, then flipped the paper sideways, then upside down, then backwards before finally regarding her partners.
"Hey guys," Noodle interrupted them, "There's this mission. It says that a little... Uh, Cyndaquil wants some apples from..." She scratched her head while looking down at the request, "Oran Forest!" She cleared her throat before continuing, "You two wanna do that, as a first job?"
"Are you sure it says that?" Hans asked, noticing how hesitant Noodle was.
"I'm fine with whatever it is to get out of here before the psychics melt my brain," Mr. Gible said, doing the closest thing he could to crossing his arms, "We should go out now. We'll travel slow with this dead weight," he pointed at Hans.
Hans frowned at this, then grunted in frustration, "I hope I'm not too much of a nuisance in there."
"Dont worry, it's just the Oran Forest. I don't think we'll have much trouble, Mr. Gible and I have been there many times before," Noodle stored the item request on her bag and walked out, snake in tow, "But it'll probably take us the whole day to get there because of having to carry you around."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. No need to remind me of it."
"Well, you'd be much easier to carry if you were just a small Dratini."
"It would be even better if I had legs and you didn't have to carry me at all," In that moment, Hans remembered what Dragonair's evolution was, "I-I just realized! I have to evolve into a Dragonite! That way, I would have both arms and legs. And be tall, and powerful, and intimidating and—"
"Blah, blah, blah, power fantasy," Mr. Gible cut him off with a scoff, "How do you even know you can do that, hm?"
Noodle was also curious about her teammate's knowledge, "Yeah, do humans evolve too?"
Hans paused for a moment, "I think they—we do," he responded hesitantly, "You're a native. Any ideas on how to evolve?" he looked up at his feline teammate.
"Well, you have to go somewhere and touch... something," Noodle was quite evasive about his question, "I think there's one of those things in the Air Continent but that's very far from here."
"How do you know that if it's in another continent?" Mr. Gible interrupted with a skeptical look.
"I've been there," Noodle replied nonchalantly.
"Sounds like you're an illegal."
Noodle was visibly startled by his statement, "Tch, I-Illegal? Absolutely not! I've never done a-anything illegal, ever!" she answered nervously, avoiding his gaze.
"I didn't know your kind existed in this place," Mr. Gible added with a chuckle, "Hey Hans, do you think they've got some sort of wall here?"
Hans raised an eyebrow at his question, "Sorry, I don't understand burger humor."
"Well, I don't know what boring sausage men laugh at." Mr. Gible commented.
Hans rolled his eyes at these words, Mr. Gible's constant snarky remarks were getting annoying now, especially the ones that hit a little too close to home.
It was during these moments where he wanted to go back the most, to a place where he didn't have to interact with anyone, to worry about anything. He then thought that he wouldn't be such a nuisance to the team if he let them go out on adventures while he stayed behind doing nothing. They would probably be more efficient without him, and he wasn't even sure if they liked him; Noodle was aloof and evasive when talked to, and Mr. Gible laughed off almost everything he said. This only made Hans despise this body even more than before.
But deep down, Hans knew that he liked hating himself like that, that he liked being alone and isolated. Maybe having friends just wasn't his thing, and he was more than fine with that. After all, he was good at being alone.
"Heh, how pathetic." Hans said out loud without noticing.
"Did you say something?" Mr. Gible asked, turning to look at him.
Hans replied with silence, too lost in thought to hear his words. They all remained like that for the rest of the trip towards Oran Forest; Hans was focused on his thoughts, staring at at the blades of grass off the side of the path, Noodle was acting strange after what Mr. Gible said, looking around as they walked, as if scouting the place. Mr. Gible himself was absent-mindedly fidgeting with his necktie power band.
The team arrived at the dungeon by noon, earlier than they had expected. Once inside, Noodle handed the vine tied around Hans' neck to Mr. Gible, then massaged her shoulder with a sigh.
"Your turn."
"Nice, I don't get to fight."
Seeing how tired Noodle looked, Hans wanted to help his partners and tried to make himself useful, "H-Hey, I can fight too! Remember that... thing I did at the inn?
"I remember we had to save your helpless ass," Mr. Gible dryly stated.
"I don't think there's anything worth using it against in here," added Noodle.
"How did you even do that thing?"
"Uhm, well, I only remember that Crabrawler stepped on my... tail," Hans cringed, "And then I shot it," he looked away in embarrassment, "N-Now that I think about it, Noodle is right, I shouldn't do it here," Hans sheepishly mumbled, but really, he just hated the feeling of shooting it.
"Nuh-uh, no backing out when you offered to help, especially now that we've got company!" Mr. Gible grinned while pointing at a Caterpie that was slowly approaching them.
"For THAT?!" Hans protested, "We should use it against something more powerful!"
"This is your first dungeon, you don't know what is and isn't powerful. Those little shits are more dangerous than they look," Mr. Gible skipped towards the rear end of Hans' body, giggling excitedly, "Come on buddy, take aim!" he practically bounced in place while waiting for his teammate to look at the Caterpie.
Hans sighed in frustration, he turned his head around, hoping that nothing would happen and this whole thing was pointless, "Okay, but just this O-OOO—!" before he could finish speaking, Mr. Gible jumped on his tail with full force, Hans felt the same things from the fight with Crabrawler—energy running through him, muscles tensing up, and finally, a beam of light coming out of his mouth, blasting the Caterpie right in the face and leaving no trace of it once he stopped firing.
Mr. Gible momentarily stared at the short trail the attack left on the ground with a stunned expression, "That was amazing!" he said while clapping, or at least doing the closest thing he could to it, "I didn't know you were a portable nuke!"
Hans was extremely tired after firing the attack. His head felt heavy and his whole body was aching, but hearing Mr. Gible call him that caused a small smile to form on his face, "A weapon... to surpass..." he breathlessly giggled at his own joke.
"You okay?" Noodle indifferently asked while crouching next to him,.
Hans craned his head up to look at his partner with the little energy he had left, that attack had been more powerful than the last one and wasted him even more as a result. He took a deep breath before muttering a single word, "...No..." Noodle grabbed an Oran Berry from her bag and stuffed it into Hans' mouth, but it had no effect, and he eventually fainted.
"Did he die?" Mr. Gible asked, not looking very concerned for his friend while staring at the small crater created where the Caterpie was.
"I doubt it," Noodle shrugged and lightly kicked on Hans' side to make him react, which had no effect, "He's just taking a nap," she stated, then picked up a nearby apple and put it in her satchel, "Come on, we need a few more of these."
Mr. Gible remembered that this time, they went into the dungeon for a job, unlike their previous explorations. He grabbed the vine tied around his partner's neck to carry him along, then walked next to Noodle in silence.
Hans being out cold made the team much quieter, Mr. Gible didn't have anyone to tease and Noodle wasn't very talkative.
They explored the dungeon and collected any item they saw, taking out the weak savage pokemon without much effort. Noodle's style consisted of poised strikes that betrayed her previously obtained combat experience, while Mr. Gible basically threw hands with everyone. The pair wasn't the best at the job, but they were more than enough for a simple low-risk dungeon like Oran Forest.
After a while, they had collected all the apples requested for the job, and before either of them could notice, they were already outside the dungeon.
"I'll never get used to that," Mr. Gible said as he looked around himself to try and reorient himself, then followed a random dirt path, hoping it would lead back to the guild. However, he stopped after a few steps because his stomach was already roaring hungrily. He turned to Noodle with a tired face, "Got any food in there?"
She looked back at him with a knowing grin, "We didn't pack anything before coming here," she rummaged through her bag and took out one of the apples from their job, taking a bite out of it without a second thought.
"Hey! Those are from our mission, right?" Mr. Gible asked, looking more hungry than concerned.
"Yup," Noodle replied with a mouthful of apple, throwing one of the fruits at the dragon.
"Then why are you eating it?!" questioned the Gible, catching the apple in his paws and quickly biting into it, "Why are we? Don't we have a client to give them to?"
"We never even met up with the client," Noodle looked through her bag again, "Because they don't exist," she handed him the job request, which Mr. Gible took in his paws to read.
"It's not translated, you know I can't read this language."
"Which means we can eat these!" Noodle smiled and took another bite.
Mr. Gible played along and laughed uncomfortably, "Yeah... I guess you're right," he walked over and put the request back in her bag, "So, what is it really about?" he insisted.
The feline pokemon shrugged in response, "It doesn't matter, lets call it a test run," she finished her apple, "I'll just put it back up when we get back, we'll do one for real next time."
"Should've said it beforehand," Mr. Gible glanced up at her with a look of suspicion, "We should go back now, I want more of that guild food," but be played along, finishing his apple and standing up to walk away.
The trip back was a bit less quiet than the dungeon exploration, even if both of them were tired and hungry, "Next time, we have to pack supplies before going out," Noodle said with a smirk, "Try not to distract yourself with Hans too much and forget to do so."
"I don't know what you're trying to say but it's wrong," Mr. Gible replied, "We should do an actual job too," he continued with an annoyed, almost scolding tone.
"Yeah, yeah, this won't happen again," she commented with a smirk.
The sky was already getting dark by the time the team got back to the guild. Mr. Gible untied the vine around Hans and Noodle tucked it under her fur. She discreetly put the job request back on the board while her partner carried the Dragonair upstairs, when the blue dragon came back, they both went into the mess hall.
With heavy eyelids, Hans slowly drifted awake, being met with the wooden ceiling he had stared to sleep last night. He winced in pain, every inch of his body hurt, and he couldn't tell if it was a result of the beam he shot or something else. He craned his neck up and glanced around the room; nothing. Hans was, for the first time since getting here, truly alone.
He simply laid there, staring at the ceiling in silence, thinking that being by himself wasn't so fun if he couldn't even move. That little fleeting thought soon turned into a growing feeling of pure dread.
His eyes widened and he felt paralyzed—even if he was already unable to move. Fear wasn't something he was used to, contrary to loneliness, and it didn't take long before he started overthinking the reason of this sudden feeling. He wondered if it was because of being away from his teammates, even if he wasn't a clingy person, then thought it could be an instinct thing, or something related to that body he despised so much. Before he realized it, Hans was already talking out loud to himself.
"Maybe I should—"
The moment he started speaking, Mr. Gible barged inside unceremoniously, making a beeline for his bed and noticing that Hans was awake, "Oh, you're not dead," he commented, then offered the dragonair an apple, "Here, you must be hungry," the blue dragon placed it in front of his partner before continuing, "You could've had actual food if you didn't take that nap."
Hans sighed and took a bite off of the apple, "You wanted me to do the thing."
"You didn't pass out last time," Mr. Gible sat on his bed, "the intelligence operation is going well. I've managed to collect lots of information today."
Hans raised his eyebrows momentarily before realizing what he was talking about. This was all supposed to be some kind of operation, so he played along, "What did you discover?"
"That the 'people'," he made keystrokes with his paws, "...they've sent are as dumb as you," hearing this, Hans wanted to interrupt him with some banter, but let the gible continue this time, "I mean, if you're going to be placed in a cool world and body, why wouldn't you choose a cool name?!" Mr. Gible started ranting, "I'm calling myself like this because I can't reveal my identity, but I swear these guys have picked the worst codenames ever!" Hans nodded as if he understood what his partner was saying, "Remember the chicken-looking hing from last night? His name is KFC!" the Gible scratched his head, "Isn't that a... Chicken factory or something, back in the human world?"
Hans nodded again, "Precisely," he grinned faintly, "Weird name indeed."
"And remember the smiley-face guy I told you about?" Mr. Gible continued, "He kept talking about 'losing the game' and 'sneed,' what does that even mean?"
"You wouldn't get it," Hans held back a laugh, "What else?"
The gible sighed, "I'll tell you later if you care so much, I'm tired now. I've been screaming in my mind all day, trying to keep away the big boss from reading my thoughts."
"T-The... Big boss?!" Hans repeated, perking his head up.
"The guildmaster..." Mr. Gible stared at his teammate in confusion, not knowing why he reacted like that, "The blue cat guy."
"Oh... The big boss," Hans nodded, "Are you sure he's trying to get into your mind? He looked like a cool guy."
"Of course he is! I can feel it in my head... I think," he paused hesitantly, "I don't know where to get tinfoil in this world."
There was a small moment of awkward silence after that before Mr. Gible started talking again, "You know, it's infuriating."
The pink dragon curiously tilted his head, "What? Mind-readers?"
"No, these guys... They're really good at playing nice people, it almost makes me forget that they're all feds," he said with a little smile, glancing out the window.
Hans was surprised to see even a tiny bit of softness from him, "What if they're nice people?"
Mr. Gible grinned cheekily in response, looking back at him sidelong, "Nah..." he walked over to the desk next to the window and picked up the scarves and badges they had left there last night, then threw a pair at Hans, "Here, you should put this on, it's supposed to be our uniform now," he smirked widely before lying down on his bed, "Wake me up when you decide to stop being miserable."
Hans frowned at his nonchalant gesture, then looked down at the scarf and badge his partner had just thrown at him, cursing at himself for not having limbs. How pathetic, he couldn't even put clothes by himself, he thought, then rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling again.
Now unable to sleep, Hans was growing increasingly paranoid, his eyes were wide open and his nerves on edge. He kept glancing around the room over and over, almost instinctively, seeking danger that wasn't there.
He eventually ended up looking at his own body and felt a cold freezing run down his spine. It seemed like the shock of becoming a living noodle was very hard to overcome.
Noodle... that passing thought made Hans remember her, he looked at the empty bed on one side of the room and realized that it had been a couple of hours since Mr. Gible got back without her. What a friend the snane was, completely forgetting about a member of the team and having no clue where she was. He felt uncertain, thinking that she may have left or something bad happened. It was a strange feeling, he had grown attached to his two partners quicker than to anyone else in his life, he wrote this off by murmuring that they just were provisional limbs.
Around the same time as the night before, he grew thirsty again. Should've saved that apple from before, he thought.
Hans rolled sideways until he got off the bed, then crawled towards the door. Last night seemed to be repeating, only this time, is body hurt more than ever before. He winced every time his underside dragged along the wooden boards, and his neck felt stiff, so he was even slower than usual.
Eventually, Hans managed to go outside the guild and make his way to the pond. He caught sight of a small, circular and colorful object seeminly floating in the aur. Before he could dismiss it as a hallucination for lack of sleep, he looked up. Noodle, there she was, perched up on the edge of the roof, playing with her yo-yo and gazing off into distance. She didn't seem to notice the bright pink serpent crawling a few meters under her.
Without thinking too much about it, Hans continued to his destination and left her alone. He grew hesitant when he finally arrived, recalling last night's awkwardness. Still, he dipped his head in, opening his mouth underwater to drink in big gulps. Once he withdrew, the dragonair heard the same voice from his previous trip.
"Psst! Over here!"
Hans looked at the bushes and immediately regretted drinking from the pond again, he thought the water was making him go insane.
"Yeah, you, the pink guy. Come over here," the voice said, the speaker hidden somewhere nearby. Strangely, Hans didn't feel the same fear he had felt later, even though this could be a dangerous situation
"Who... are you?"
"Shhh, you'll see later. Just come over!" the voice demanded. Hans felt oddly compelled by it, even if he knew it was be a bad idea. He couldn't even tell if the voice was really coming from the bushes. Just like last time, Hans turned around silently, and sluggishly crawled back to the entrance of the guild.
Noodle had gotten down from the roof in the meantime, now sitting on the main entrance's steps. She looked at him through the corner of her eye and smirked knowingly, "What are you doing up this late?"
Hans stopped in his tracks for a moment, "What are YOU doing up this late?"
Noodle shrugged while closing her eyes, "It's fun to be awake when everyone else is sleeping."
Hans settled next to her on the stairs, "I... guess you're right," he stared up at the night sky and didn't feel amazed like before, but rather scared. It was inexplicable dread again, the stars reminded him that this was a completely unknown world, and that he was in an almost incomprehensible body. He shivered again, this time, he was sure it wasn't because of the night's cold
Noodle noticed this and glanced down at her partner, "Something's wrong?"
Hans snapped out of his thoughts when hearing her voice and stopped shivering, "Actually, yes. I don't know how to describe it."
She nodded in response, then looked away again, "It happens."
"I guess so," he kept his gaze on the sky above, letting his mind wander again. Hans knew that he should go back to sleep, yet there they remained, side by side under the starry sky.
"These guys say a lot of new gen stuff," Noodle suddenly commented.
"New... gen?" Hans quoted, momentarily stunned by the expression before recalling the lie he told her, "Oh, yeah, new gen. What did they talk about?"
"I didn't understand most of what they said, so you'll have to explain it later. I asked Mr. Gible what 'sneed' meant, but he didn't know what it was."
"I'll do it..." Hans paused hesitantly, "But you'll have to tell me all about this world, I have to learn to live again."
"Sure, but I'm not the best guide there is," she scratched her muzzle before continuing, "Maybe other guildmates know better."
Hans faked a sigh, "I don't think I can do that," there was a momentary pause, he looked up at the moon before continuing, "I'll just rely on you," a slight smirk formed on his face after these words.
An awkward silence settled between them. Noodle didn't seem bothered by it at all, but Hans was already fidgeting uncomfortably, looking around to find something to talk about.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally thought of something, "You know, I really am helpless," he commented with a reassured grin, "That thing I did back at Oran Forest felt like it almost killed me," he added with a fake chuckle, "I... don't think I'll ever do it again."
Noodle, who seemed lost in thought, turned to face her partner after his words, tilting her head slightly to the side, "Okay," she dryly responded, "I've always done all the heavy work anyways."
The dragon was visibly shocked by her dry response, he wanted to sink into his shoulders out of embarrassment but didn't even have them. He looked opposite of her, staring at the grassy floor near him while wishing to disappear. His train of thought kicked off again, his mind swirled by overthinking why she replied like that.
"Do you want another hug?" Noodle suddenly asked in what sounded like a pitiful tone.
"No," Hans quickly replied, so deep in thought that he didn't even process her words, one of them kept drifting back to him, urging to be said aloud ,"Hey Noodle... do you think I should evolve?" he hesitantly asked.
"Maybe," she plainly replied with a shrug, "But I don't think you can."
"Why?" Hans asked in an annoyed tone.
"We shouldn't go to the air continent," she looked away with a frown, "Bad idea."
Hans wondered what her reasoning was, but didn't feel like it was a good time to ask about it. He kept thinking about evolution and going over its benefits, the obvious would be regaining his mobility, though he wondered if he still knew how to handle a body with limbs. Another one would be being able to hug Noodle back, a thought that got him embarrassed at himself, he thanked having pink scales instead of skin, though he didn't know if this body could even blush.
The dragon yawned, fatigue was finally getting to him. He was tired of thinking, tired of doubting his own ideas, tired of himself. Another yawn came by, it wouldn't be long before he drifted off to sleep, but before closing his eyes, he decided to take up on his partner's previous offer.
"Actually, Noodle, I think I do want that hug."