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It was a far cry from the struggles that they faced in the beginning, when it had been hard to even get any jobs because of how unknown they were. All the jobs they managed back then were small, with proportionally small rewards, which made it tough to buy big ticket items. But looking at the pouch now, brimming with coins, Nico felt confident that he would be able to buy out the entire stock of Reviver Seeds that the Kecleon shop in town was willing to sell him.

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He felt a bit bad whenever he cleared them out of a particular item he wanted, but he also figured after a while that the Kecleons he dealt with were savvy enough to manage their inventory around the purchasing habits of Pokemon like himself. He doubted that the Reviver Seeds and Gummies that they offered to him were the extent of their stock; it was just the upward limit of what they were willing to sell to him in a day.

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If they had anything really good in terms of wearable equipment, Nico was interested in that too... It would run him a pretty penny, so he would only go all in if it was something hard to find or something someone really needed, but it was nice to know that he could afford it now, if it came to that. It used to be he could only stare wistfully at all the things that would make things easier for them in dungeons.

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But now that they had a reputation and a good amount of members on their roster, things were really a lot easier in a lot of ways. Even if he did complain about having to manage all of it sometimes.

With his priorities sorted, Nico shouldered his pack and headed out. Joli had already said he would meet Nico outside his house. Honestly, considering how much time they spent together, Nico was of half a mind to ask Joli to just move in with him.

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His house was pretty roomy for one Pokemon, and could probably have housed two comfortably, and while Joli was bigger than him, the difference in size wasn't so astronomical as to pose a problem... But he hadn't gotten around to pitching the idea, and even if it would be more practical, he was also wary of imposing on Joli. Joli wasn't really the type who could say no to people, even if they were close... Maybe especially if they were close.

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And the last thing Nico wanted to do was to pressure Joli into doing something that he didn't want to do himself, or that he wasn't completely comfortable with.

So thus, when Nico caught sight of a familiar pink Pokemon, even though the thought was on his mind, he kept it to himself. Instead he smiled -- for all the good it did him, considering no one could see anything beneath the skull on his head -- and said, "Joli! Were you waiting long?"

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Joli turned -- he must have been distracted, since it was unusual for Nico to be able to surprise him with his approach. Joli's ears were some of the sharpest in the Pokemon world, after all. But he immediately broke into a much more visible smile when he saw who it was coming towards him. "Nico! No, I just got here a few minutes ago. You're just in time."

Nico considered his long time team partner for a moment.

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Joli was the type to hide it even when he felt off, but over time Nico had gotten better at reading him. He couldn't tell for sure whether Joli was lying about not having waited long, but at least he did genuinely seem cheerful today. The smile didn't feel like it was covering up anything he might have been concerned about or worrying himself over. So Nico let himself relax a little more, and brandished his shopping list. "That's good. You ready to go to the Kecleons'?"

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"Mhm. I wonder if they'll have some Gummies today... I know you've been looking for them a lot lately." Joli fell into step beside Nico easily. It was a familiar thing, the way that Joli would slow down his pace to match Nico's. When Nico had first noticed it, he felt bad and embarrassed about it, and did his best to walk faster instead. But these days he had grown used to it, and it wasn't such a bad thing to be accommodated.

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Joli just liked to do what he could for people, and as it turned out, walking that fast was pretty tiring for Nico, so... In the end, sometimes he had to just accept that he had limitations, like the fact that he was so short compared to everyone on the team except Lupin. You couldn't win them all, or something like that.

Maybe it was a sign of maturity, or maybe he was just getting old and jaded. Either way, it was their habit now, and that was that.

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If he only evolved into a Marowak, that could change... He would probably be of a height with Joli, and he'd definitely be taller than Lupin that way. But for whatever reason, Nico didn't really want to change. It was strange to think that he could. This was maybe the one aspect of being a Pokemon that he hadn't yet gotten used to, since it didn't seem strange for anyone else who lived here to think about evolving and all that.

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Which wasn't to say they were all of them for it, of course. There were some Pokemon who wanted to evolve, and were eager for it, but others were less decided about it, and some were adamant about staying exactly as they were. So in that sense, Nico's choice not to do it wasn't that strange either, in the eyes of the general community. Plenty of Pokemon chose not to evolve, for one reason or another--- not just him.

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That was nice, at least. He didn't know what he would have done if that wasn't the case. If there was a big pressure from everyone around him to evolve... Well, maybe he would have given into the pressure and taken the plunge. Maybe he wouldn't, and would have been branded an eccentric or a reject of society for staying a Cubone. It wasn't as if he had never faced bad rumors or persecution, after all, so it wasn't that hard a situation to imagine.

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He couldn't really place his discomfort with the idea either. Maybe it was just because he had gone through one 'transformation' and wasn't eager to experience another, even if he couldn't remember his old body very clearly. Or maybe it was just that it was so different from the way that humans grew up. After all, humans grew up slowly, over time, changing a little bit every day, so slowly and imperceptibly that you didn't really notice it as it was happening...

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Or at least that was what he remembered, anyway. A lot of things were fuzzy now, but this wasn't a specific memory so much as it was general knowledge, and that kind of thing tended to stay clearer for him.

But a Pokemon's evolution was all at once. Sure, you built up to it, training and getting stronger, and some of them also had to fulfill other requirements, like acquiring a specific item or going to a specific place...