It took a few minutes for them to settle in, what with Luhan having to juggle between cupping the hot tea in his hands, holding Abra who had fell asleep on his lap almost as soon as he sat down, and resting his injured leg in a spot where Primeape wouldn’t try playing with the cast. He sighed as Ninetails, who had at some point taken on the role of ‘Luhan’s leg-protector,’ growled at the Fighting-type Pokémon. The two had never gotten along too well, both quite protective of their trainer and constantly trying to battle it out to see was better.

            “Stop this, you two,” he snapped, though he sounded more tired than annoyed as he spoke. The two Pokémon ignored him, at which point Minseok was leaning over to a desk that was next to the bed they were sat on. Luhan followed the action with intrigued eyes, only to see the other man pull out a belt from the desk drawer. “Ah, that’s…”

            “Figured it’d come in handy now,” Minseok said with a cheeky smile, handing him the belt as Luhan took it with a quick nod. Quickly, the trainer returned Primeape and Ninetails to their Pokéballs, and after a moment’s pause, decided to return Abra and Butterfree. Haunter had disappeared at some point, likely phasing into different walls to spy on others and play pranks. Luhan could only hope the Ghost-type wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

            “Thanks for that,” Luhan thanked the other properly once he set his belt aside.

            “Are they always like that?” Minseok questioned, though he looked more amused than accusatory.

            “Pretty much. They mean well most of the time, but they tend to get a bit reckless and in over their heads sometimes.” Luhan leaned back, pressing his hands behind him to keep him from falling onto the mattress.

            “Well, I guess that’s something they share in common with their trainer.” Luhan shot up, half-offended and half-incredulous at the words

            “Excuse you! And what exactly do you mean by that?!” Minseok was laughing at his response, and the tinkling sound was enough to even bring a small burst of happiness to his chest, though he squashed it down in favor of being indignant. This guy had just met him, how dare he! He was way more responsible than his Pokémon, thank you very much!

            “Hmm, nothing really.” The mock-thoughtful look on Minseok’s face was almost enough to twitch Luhan’s lips upwards again. No, you’re angry, remember! “Not like angering a swarm of Beedrill is in anyway reckless or counts as getting in over your head. Not at all.”

            “W-why you—” Minseok burst out into laughter once more.

            “And let me guess, it was to catch a Kakuna or something, wasn’t it?”

            “…A Weedle.”

            “I rest my case.” Minseok reached hand over to pat his shoulder comfortingly. “Oh, c’mon, don’t look too down. It’s a mistake that a lot of people have made before, and it’s one that people will continue to make. For now, though, what’s important is that you made it through alive, and you’re safe now.”

            “Well, that’s thanks to you, isn’t it?” The other looked surprised, so Luhan clarified. “Jongdae told me how you saved me from the swarm.”

            “Ah, right. Well, that’s about all I did—Jongdae’s the one who took care of you until you woke up, and Yixing’s the one who healed all your Pokémon.”

            “Well, you’re busy running the ranch, aren’t you?” Luhan questioned. Jongdae had mentioned how, since their parents’ passing a few years ago­­­­, Minseok was the one who kept the reserve going.

            “Yeah, I guess. Still feel a bit bad, though.”

            “Well don’t, you’ve done more than enough.” He really had. The man had saved his and his Pokémon’s lives— there was no way Luhan could ever repay him for that, despite how much he hated being in debt to anyone. He probably would’ve gone insane if the man had done anything more for him. “By the way, who’s this ‘Yixing’ guy?”

            “Ah, Yixing’s our resident healer,” Minseok explained, a grin cracked on his face. “It’s a bit weird to have a healer at a ranch like this—there’s not usually a need for it—but he’s practically like family, so once he stuck around even after he got his nursing license. Ah, right!” Luhan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the sudden outburst, gesturing for the other to continue. “We should go see him—knowing him, he’s probably out in the fields, meaning he’ll be with your Rapidash. You haven’t gotten the chance to see her yet since you woke up, right?” Luhan nodded frantically, making Minseok chuckling a little bit. “Well then, let’s go—oh, actually, the grounds a bit unstable out there, so maybe you should go in a wheelchair instead? It’ll give you more control and let you rest your leg more.”

            Begrudgingly, Luhan accepted. He didn’t entirely like the idea of wheeling around in a wheelchair—something about not being able to walk around freely felt a bit restrictive, a bit frustrating to him. But he knew it was for the best, and the last thing he wanted was to accidentally injure himself even more and extend his recovery time.

            Shifting into the wheelchair was a bit awkward, to say the least. There really wasn’t any good way to get on from where he was sitting from the bed, but because of Ninetails and Primeape’s near-fight earlier, his crutches had been knocked over farther away from where he was and closer to the door. Minseok didn’t seem to realize this, however, because as soon as he had brought a wheelchair over, the man was holding him by the arm and helping him up. Luhan tried to stop him for a moment, but Minseok’s grip was stronger than he expected—probably unintentionally, but still—and he barely had a few seconds before he was being forced to hobble around and turn by the other’s guiding hands, if they could be called that. It didn’t help that the other boy at one point moved his tight grip to Luhan’s hips—a sensitive, ticklish spot for the boy— probably to make sure he didn’t fall into the chair. Of course, Misneok didn’t seem to realize that Luhan could’ve just held onto the arm rests to steady him, and so the pair ended up awkwardly (in Luhan’s mind, at least) bunched close together until the injured boy was finally seated.

            “Would you like me to wheel you there, or would you like to do it yourself?” Minseok asked, and even though Luhan knew the other was just trying to be polite, after his internal embarrassment about the hip-touching incident (it was a miracle he didn’t break out in shivers or laughter), he couldn’t help but be a bit pissy at him. Didn’t he realize the problems he was putting Luhan through?!

            “N… No, I’m good, thanks though,” he eventually panted out, and Minseok just nodded with a small smile.

            “C’mon, we can get to the fields quickly if we go through here.” Luhan looked up and saw the other pointing a glass door in the back of the room. Slowly, he brought his hands up to the wheels of the chair, pushing himself forward gradually to follow Minseok.

            After a couple minutes of wheeling, Luhan almost felt the need to ask for a seatbelt of some sort. He knew the ground would be uneven, but it felt like he couldn’t go for a second without his wheels rolling over some rock or dipping into a mini-sinkhole. An apologetic smile graced Minseok’s features as he explained that the area they were in was a mini-habitat for ground and rock type Pokémon, and as he looked around, Luhan realized that what the other was saying was right. If he looked closely, he could see Digletts popping their heads up from under the ground for a second or two before burrowing down once again. He chuckled as he saw a baby Geodude attempting to camouflage against a particularly large boulder. He’d never been the biggest fan of rock or ground types, but the sight was cute, nonetheless.

            Eventually, the path they were on flattened out, and the further they went, the more colorful things began. Grass sprouted from the ground in vibrant packs, flowers and other small plants sprouted along the area, and different kinds of Pokémon began to sprout up. He found himself waving to a couple of Parases as they passed by him, watching a Venasaur rock a small Bulbasaur to sleep with its vine whip, and sighing pleasantly as the smell of a relaxed, happy Gloom filled the air. Suddenly, a figured raced away from his vision in a blur, and he gasped as he turned his head to see what was barely 20 meters away.

            A sudden gush of emotions filled his chest as he thought of seeing Rapidash. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust this ‘Yixing’ guy. After all Jongdae and Minseok had done for him and shown him, he had no reason not to believe in their abilities, or the abilities of anyone they trusted. But Rapidash was precious to him in a way that he really couldn’t explain even if he wanted. She had been his first Pokémon, trained under his late mother from when she was just a baby Ponyta. After what they’d been through together, being able to see her happy and healthy—she was even jumping over some hurdles in the area—made him practically gush.

            “Oh, Minseok hyung!” The voice snapped Luhan out of his thoughts, and he turned to see a young man running towards them, an Oddish in one hand as he waved with the other.

            “Yixing, good timing! This is Luhan, Rapidash’s trainer,” Minseok introduced quickly, and Luhan gave a small smile and a quick ‘hello’ in greeting. The other man burst into a large grin, and Luhan immediately noticed the other’s deep dimples.

            “Ah, hello! I’m Yixing, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” he introduced himself, and the enthusiasm had Luhan’s smile growing.

            “Likewise—thank you for taking care of my Pokémon so well, I owe you—woah!”

            Rapidash had apparently made her way over to the group, and it seemed she immediately recognized her trainer, because while he was talking, she had practically pounced onto him, bringing her front hooves onto the armrest of the wheelchair and nearly toppling it over as a result.

            “H-hey there, down girl! Oi!” Luhan was shoving at her hooves, but he couldn’t even get mad at her for it, laughing as he finally got her to calm down. Eventually, she settled for just poking her snout at him repeatedly, his face and nuzzling his neck as though to make sure he was real. “Hey, girl, how’re you doing?”

            Rapidash neighed loudly in response, enough that Luhan wondered if his ears were gonna pop, but he just rolled his eyes and her mane in affection.

            “You have no idea how hard it was to get her to let you go when I was bringing you both back from the forest,” Minseok chirped up, and Luhan raised an eyebrow in amusement. “I’m serious! She didn’t have the strength to carry you on her back, but she still insisted on trying. And don’t even get me started on when she needed to go with Yixing to get treatment.”

            “Well, I wouldn’t say Rapidash was the only one who was a bit fussy at that point,” Yixing pitched in. “Your Pokémon all love you quite a bit, I’ll say that much. I’m surprised I managed to keep Primeape from beating me up.”

            “Well, he let you touch him, so that means he trusts you well enough,” Luhan said with a grin. “Usually the only way I can heal him is by using the healing machine at the Center. Take him out of his Pokéball, and thus begins the thrashing.” 

            “Well, aren’t I lucky then?” Yixing said playfully. “I told him that he wouldn’t get to see you until he healed, so maybe that had something to do with it. After that, he was as quiet as a mouse.”

            “What kind of equipment do you have out here, anyway?” Luhan asked as curiosity suddenly struck him. “I mean, isn’t it really hard to get proper machinery if you aren’t a practicing nurse, regardless of whether you have your license or not?”

            “Ah, if I’m being honest, I don’t really have anything in the way of ‘equipment,’” Yixing confessed, and Luhan’s eyes widened in disbelief. “While it’s true suppliers won’t usually sell to non-practicing nurses, that isn’t the biggest problem. Really, more than anything, it’s because of how far we are from the nearby cities. Practically no one is willing to transport that much bulky equipment out so far.”

            “The dense forest around us doesn’t help either,” Minseok added. “It’s great for warding off trespassers and intruders, not so much for keeping contact and trade steady between us and the urban areas.”

            “Wait, how far are we actually from the nearby town?” Yixing furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at the sudden question, and Minseok narrowed his eyes as he thought.

            “Hm… I think there’s a small town around 10 kilometers away, I think? It may be more… Still, through the forest, it’d probably take a day or so to get to on foot.”

            “,” Luhan swore to himself, and the other two men looked over at him in surprise. Luhan didn’t pay attention to them though, muttering quietly under his voice. “If I take it slow and allow myself one night to camp out I can probably make it to the town by tomorrow midday… I probably shouldn’t go on Rapidash, she needs time to rest after everything that’s happened… wait what if that town doesn’t have a hotel what would I have to do then—”

            “What are you talking about?” Minseok cut him off, voice louder to get his attention. “Hotel? That’s nonsense, you’ll be staying here and that’s that.” Luhan blinked.

            “But… you’ve already done enough; I’ll be fine—”

            “Don’t be stupid, you’re already here, you already have a room set up—you’ll stay here ‘til you recover, and after that you can go wherever you like.” Luhan frowned at the finality in Minseok’s voice—he wasn’t giving in that easily.

            “Fine, then at least let me pay you for room and board—”

            “Nope,” Minseok interrupted quickly, and out of the corner of his eyes Luhan noticed Yixing smiling in amusement at the argument. “If you really feel that indebted or whatever, you can talk to Jongdae about maybe helping out around the ranch, but nothing too intensive—you need to heal, and making sure the healing process goes smoothly should be your number one priority right now.” Noticing the frustration in Luhan’s eyes, Minseok sighed, patting him on the shoulder once more even as his words held notes of finality. “You’re here as a guest, so be humble and don’t argue too much, okay?”

            If anything, that made Luhan feel even worse. Not only was he imposing on this family, on the reserve, on Minseok, but now the man was treating him like a kid about it too. He wasn’t trying to be like a pissy, indignant brat, but he had his own pride, and he hated owing anyone anything. Yet here Minseok was, denying practically all of that by showering him in nothing but kindness. He knew he should be grateful about that, not to mention relieved that he wouldn’t have to put himself through more struggles just to have a good place to rest. And deep down, he really was, but he’d be damned if he let himself admit that so quickly.

            Still, as Minseok looked over at him, eyes filled with both a warm, caring glow and a cold, steadfast glow, hand tight on his shoulder in a mix of persistence and comfort, Luhan couldn’t help but simply give in.

            “Okay.”

            Just this once.

looks who was late wow what a surprise
yeah i know me look im sorry im just ty at updating on time can we all just accept that and move on ok cool
anyway next chapter should show some of the domestic lives of everyone so that'll be nice
also gotta love luhan being a prideful rly primeape suits him well
k bye