Karena could only offer a tired, wry smile in response to Nova's cheerful verdict that the family had gotten exactly what they deserved.
"You're looking at it from the outside, so it's easy to say that. But this Torchic was bred in our facility. Regardless of who was at fault, once a lawsuit is filed, we have to respond to it. And she did burn down an entire villa — that's a real safety concern we can't simply ignore. That's why she ended up here."
Nova had already worked out the full sequence of events in his head, fitting the pieces together from what he knew of the Torchic's traits.
She had been selected by the family — and immediately found her new Trainer deeply unimpressive. No bond formed. No warmth. The boy, used to getting his way, had treated her like a novelty item rather than a partner, dragging her out repeatedly to show off to friends that he owned a Shiny Pokémon. Each time, she had resisted. Each time, he had ignored that.
Eventually she had pecked him hard enough that it couldn't be brushed aside.
Then the father had come at her with a bat.
That was when the Wrathful Dash and Ten-Thousand-Degree Fireball traits had both activated at once. The rage had built, the temperature had built with it, and by the next morning the villa was ash.
Nova had made up his mind. But since this was Aresdra's Starter and not his, the final word was hers.
He turned to look for her and found she hadn't moved in some time. She was standing at the cage, watching the Torchic through the bars with a quiet, focused expression.
The Torchic, for her part, had pressed herself as close to the front of the cage as she could physically get. Aresdra's face was less than half a metre away, and that proximity seemed to have overwhelmed her entirely. She let out a soft, trembling "Chamo... chamo..." through the bars, her fluffy chest puffed up as wide as it would go, as though trying to make herself look as appealing as possible.
Aresdra laughed softly at that. It was the kind of reaction that was impossible not to find endearing. She reached through the bars and gently pressed one finger into the Torchic's down.
A warmth spread from the contact — gentle, but alive. Not the oppressive heat of Cornus City's air, but something different. Something with a heartbeat behind it.
It reminded her, oddly, of the warmth she felt whenever she managed to sneak a hand to Nova's chest while he was sleeping. That steady, solid pulse of a life going about its business, unbothered and bright.
By the time Nova finished his conversation with Karena and turned to ask Aresdra's opinion, she already knew her answer.
"I think we should choose her," he said. "What do you think?"
The corner of Aresdra's mouth curved up just slightly — the quiet, private satisfaction of someone who had already reached the same conclusion on her own.
"I'll go with whatever you think."
Karena heard that and moved immediately, before either of them could reconsider. She walked them through the adoption paperwork without delay, then placed the key to the enclosure in Aresdra's hand.
"You should be the one to carry your future partner out yourself."
Aresdra agreed without hesitation.
She unlocked the cage and lifted the Torchic out with both hands. By that point, the little Pokémon had dissolved completely — she was a teary little mess, pea-sized drops rolling steadily down from her eyes as she let out soft, broken "chamo"s into Aresdra's arms.
She had found her Trainer. Finally.
On the taxi ride back, Torchic stayed tucked in Aresdra's arms the entire time, as still and well-behaved as a stuffed toy. Nothing about her suggested the Pokémon who had burned down a villa. She was simply absorbing every stroke and every hug with the quiet contentment of someone who had been waiting a very long time for exactly this.
Watching her, Nova got curious about something.
The Appearance-Fixated trait had a threshold. Trainers who didn't meet it got hostility. Trainers who did got cooperation. Where exactly did he land on that scale?
He reached over and patted Torchic's head.
No reaction. She stayed calm.
He tried her belly. Still nothing — she sat quietly and let him.
Her feet. Fine.
The little tuft of feathers on top of her head. Also fine.
Nova pulled his hand back and looked at her. "Your standards aren't actually that strict, are they."
In truth, he was being harder on himself than the situation warranted. His looks were well above average by any reasonable measure. It was simply that spending every day around someone like Aresdra had quietly recalibrated his reference point in ways he hadn't fully noticed.
Aresdra had been watching with a small smile. She reached over, scooped the Torchic out of the space between them, and deposited her directly into Nova's arms.
Nova took her without thinking.
Sprigatito, who had been sitting on his shoulder observing the entire sequence of events with sharp green eyes, made her opinion known immediately. She fixed Nova with a pointed stare and let out a short, indignant hiss.
You're holding that instead of me?
Aresdra intervened before anything escalated, plucking the cat off Nova's shoulder and settling her firmly onto her lap for a thorough and entirely non-optional round of petting. Sprigatito's protests faded quickly under the attention.
Nova, meanwhile, had discovered the flaw in this arrangement.
Torchic ran hot. All Fire-types did, but Torchic in particular had a body temperature that was noticeably higher than a human's. In winter, he imagined, she would be an excellent hand warmer. In Cornus City, in May, holding her was like trying to stay cool by hugging a hot water bottle.
Sprigatito is so much better for this, he thought, slightly miserably. Cool to the touch, perfectly comfortable.
Torchic, entirely unaware she was being mentally compared to a grass-type and found wanting in terms of thermal comfort, burrowed deeper into his arms.
She had sorted out the situation to her own satisfaction. Aresdra was her Trainer — her person, the one she had chosen the moment she saw her. And Nova was clearly Aresdra's person. Which made him family too, more or less. She was extremely happy with this outcome and saw no reason for anyone to be less than equally happy about it.
After she finished disciplining the cat, Aresdra glanced over at the pair of them with a warm expression. "She really does like you too. Why don't you give her a name?"
"Me again?" Nova said.
"Because she reminds me of you."
Nova held the Torchic up and looked at her from several angles, genuinely trying to see it. He could not.
He strongly suspected this was a roundabout insult and that Aresdra simply wasn't going to explain herself.
She didn't. She just smiled and said nothing.
She was certainly not going to tell him that the main thing Torchic had in common with him was that they were both extremely warm to hold.
As for the name itself — Nova didn't deliberate for even a second.
"Let's call her Sunny."
Aresdra stared at him.
The last one had been JoJo. This one was Sunny. She looked at the golden-feathered Torchic, then back at Nova, and decided not to ask him to explain his reasoning. Some things were better left alone.
Corviknight, from her position on the roof of the taxi, had no such restraint. She glanced at Aresdra with the cool, faintly judgmental look of someone who had witnessed the naming of JoJo and had strong opinions about the pattern.
You're not much better yourself, she seemed to say. At least he names them after what they look like.
"She's a girl, though," Aresdra said finally. "Sunny isn't a bad name, but — are you sure?"
Nova gave this approximately one second of thought. "Sunny is a perfectly good name. It's warm, it's bright, and she glitters. It fits."
Aresdra looked at the golden Torchic, who let out a cheerful "Chamo!" as if she had understood and approved.
Aresdra sighed. "...Fine. Sunny it is."