The Reunion, Ch. 7 ::PITxRED::

CHAPTER 7:
Day Trip to Pinna Park

The next morning, Link came knocking on my door and asked me if I would like to join him and all our friends to Pinna Beach, the amusement park on Delfino. Gathering up my gear and Eevee and Marill, I said that I would.

When we arrived at the town hall building, Ike and Pit were already there, waiting. Thankfully, there was no Zelda in sight. Not that I didn't want her to come, but it was always nice to avoid that special someone after…er, your awkward date with them. There was another guy there, too, named Marth. I had never hung out with Marth much in Brawl, because he was a lot older than I was and seemed like a pretty quiet person. He was really nice, though, and he smiled at me in greeting, although we didn't talk much more the rest of the day.

"Hey, it's Red," Pit said, throwing an arm around my shoulder and crushing my head into his neck. "Looks like the gang's all here. Let's go."

At that moment, Zelda walked up, carrying a basket on her arm and wearing a pink sundress. "Oh, hello, Link. Where are you all going?"

I stared at the back of Link's head, willing him to tell her that we had already made plans.

"Pinna Park." Link jacked his thumb over his shoulder at the island. "Wanna come?"

I wanted to smack my hand against my forehead. Aw Link, come on, I know she's your princess but do you have to ask her to everything?...

"Oh, no thanks..." She turned her head and saw me in Pit's headlock. Her eyebrow slid up in concern. "I have something to do with...Peach..." She hurried away.

I'm not sure if she ran away so fast because she saw me, and I'm probably looking too closely into it, but I felt kind of hurt all the same. Thankfully, Pit dragged me along by the neck, and he and the guys quickly made me forget all about it.

We arrived at the park. I was looking forward to hanging out with Pit as much as I was with Link today, because of the time we had spent the day before. Ike and Marth wandered off by themselves, so Link, Pit, and I decided to stay and go on some rides together. I kept Eevee and Marill out (mostly because they refused to go back in their Pokéballs) and released Chikorita, just for good measure. Link offered to watch her for me if she got tired.

Eevee and Marill stumbled over each other, running towards the Ferris Wheel. Pit stared at it, with its rotating arms and swinging seats. "Let's go on that." He took off after my Pokémon.

I looked back at Link, worried that he wasn't going to accompany us. Holding Chikorita against his chest, Link laughed, shooing me on to follow Pit.

We spent the rest of the morning that way, Pit dragging me to this, that, or the other, and Link seeming content to just sit and watch (which, I wondered why he had asked us to do anything, if he didn't want to participate). Marth and Ike found us again near noon, while we were eating ice cream and throwing pieces of bread to the fish in the water.

"There's a fair going on back on the mainland," Ike said. "Would you like to go?"

The fair was pretty cool. There were stands lined up all along the boardwalk selling colorful, wonderful, kind of useless things, and tons of native Delfino people milled around, checking everything out. I thought the five of us, the swordsmen and I, wouldn't really fit in, being...human and all, but no one seemed to notice. Pit pulled me over to a couple of stands, one of which was selling striped knit socks.

He took a sock and put it on Marill's head. "Look — it's a hat!"

I laughed, because Marill looked pretty cute. I put one on Eevee, who seemed pretty annoyed about it.

Pit basically acted like that the rest of the day. He seemed permanently attached to my side, but I definitely didn't mind. Although he was ordering me around and being pretty bossy, he seemed genuinely interested in showing me things he thought I would like.

"Hey, Red. Look at this," he said, holding up a glass statue with three red, blue, and green-colored figures. I know what he was thinking: they looked exactly like the three starter Pokémon for my region, Kanto — Squirtle, Charizard, Bulbasaur. That was seriously an uncanny resemblance.

"Hey, that's pretty neat," I said. I fingered them, when suddenly I realized that I hadn't gotten a thank you gift for the girl watching my Pokémon at home, so I got one for her and for some friends of mine and one for myself, too, as a souvenir.

A little while later, Ike joined us, but Pit seemed intent on ignoring him.

"Hey, what's this?" Ike held up a paper weight, blue with colored beads floating in it. "Looks kind of like the ocean, doesn't it?"

"Hey, that's great Ike—" Pit punched him in the stomach, making Ike nearly drop it. "Now go away." Ike looked offended and kept attempting conversation with him, but Pit kept brushing him off. I smiled apologetically at him, but I couldn't help but feel the tiny bit pleased that Pit was favoring me today over him.

During lunch, I sat with my chin in my hand, staring at the opposite side of the court. Peach and Zelda were sitting there, chatting. I bet Zelda had told her about me at some point. I know I'm not the center of the universe, but I couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about anyway...

Pit punched me in the back of the head. "Hey. What are you looking at?"

"Ow..." I rubbed the back of my head. He had seemed so gentle yesterday. "Nothin'..."

"Want my French Fries, Red?" Marth pushed his plate towards me. Eevee was leering over his shoulder, clearly looking for some handouts, but Marth was being a good sport and letting him. "I don't want them."

"He has to keep his girlish figure. Ha ha," Pit snickered through his hand.

"Pit - be quiet." Ike frowned at Pit. Ike was always respectful of his first ruler. The two of them began bickering, but Ike actually seemed to be enjoying it, because at least Pit wasn't ignoring him. The guys kept me distracted from thinking about Peach and Zelda anymore. Link just laughed, and smiled at me whenever he caught my eye. Marth blinked at Pit's comment, finally letting Eevee eat his French Fries over his shoulder.

We milled around the fair a little more, until Pit saw the beach through the crowd.

"We should go out to the beach," Pit said. He grabbed my arm and dragged me. "C'mon, Red."

"Don't break him," Link called after us, and Marth laughed.

We played out on the beach the rest of the afternoon. Link and Marth sat at the boardwalk, while Ike stretched out on his back, napping, and eventually I followed his lead. I noticed that Pit was really good with my Pokémon. He tossed a ball for Vaporeon out in the ocean and built another sandcastle with Marill. He even got a hose to give Venusaur fresh water instead of ocean water without me saying. I guess he really had been genuinely curious about them. I was impressed.

"Red, why am I doing all your work for you?" he asked, carrying a bucket of water.

I looked at him over the top of my sunglasses. "They like you better." I pointed to the direction of my room, on the other side of the island. "Venusaur needs his iron pills, if you want to run and go get those."

He dumped the bucket of water on me. Vaporeon took the opportunity to leap over and spray water at my face.

"Hey!" I jumped to my feet, and Pit took off running, Vaporeon at his heels. With a neat bound, Vaporeon cleared Marill's castle, but I wasn't so agile, demolishing one-fourth of it. I was about to continue my tirade but Marill began sobbing, so I had to stop and fix her sandcastle for her. By that time, Vaporeon and Pit were halfway down the beach, but then they began laughing at me and I wasn't about to allow them get away with that. I picked up Marill and ran the rest of the way, tackling Pit to the ground.

Link laughed at this whole spectacle from the sidelines, probably guessing this was typical Red/Pit behavior, and Ike watched us broodingly, as if he were trying to figure out why this was so amusing to him. Marth smiled with his eyebrows raised, probably remembering why he had never hung out with us in Brawl.

I was sad to go home that evening, because I had enjoyed hanging out with everyone. It seemed like the best of old times, just us four guys and my Pokémon with nothing to do. But we still had a couple of days left to the reunion, and Pit and I still had our adventure leftover for Tuesday.