Chapter Text
Urbain packs his bags quicker than he thought he would.
He lays down on his bed one last time and stares at the sunlight filtering through his windows. Fletchlings and Pidgeys chirping in the distance, vines creeping up the railings and a cold breeze making its way in. Room 201 had been his home for the past few months, he couldn’t believe he was leaving it.
Bathroom cleared out, all drawers double-checked and a farewell celebration with the team last night.
(Urbain could’ve sliced the tension in his goodbye dinner last with a rusty butter knife. He didn’t realize there’d be such a unanimous dislike of his leaving. The team tries to hide it, but it’s there. Bubbling under the surface. Lida’s smile was too tight when she wished him good luck. Naveen declining to eat the Croissant Curry dish he made one last time, blaming it on a bad stomach.
And Harmony, well, he wishes couldn't read her as well as he does.)
She’s been avoiding him. He couldn’t blame her. She barely spoke a word to him last night and was quickly in her room after the clean up ended. Her absence has been a gaping wound in his side since he made his decision.
He gives the room a quiet thank you and picks up his bags. Stepping out into the hallway, it hits him that they might give the room to someone else, should they decide to keep the hotel public. They’re all skilled in knowing how to take care of this place. He may have been the one who prepared Corbeau’s room when he came to stay, but that didn’t mean the rest of them didn’t know how to do the same thing.
(He realizes like a punch in the gut that he won’t be part of those strategy meetings anymore.)
The scent of fresh lilies greets him, in a vase laid on a table between the door of 201 and 202. Feeling a surge of courage, he raises a hand and approaches the door to the latter. He’s about to knock when the door to Room 203 opens and Lida steps out.
She looks at him with a blank expression and then stares at his hand still held up to the door. He quickly drops it but it’s too late. She stares at him unimpressed.
“She’s not there.”
Urbain fakes a chuckle. “Professor Mable does have her doing a lot of work. I guess I better go then-”
“She’s on the roof.”
Urbain closes his mouth. He breaks eye contact with her and adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder.
“Leaving without saying goodbye then?” she asks, straight to the point.
“I already said goodbye.”
A pause. “Sure you did.”
And with that, Lida goes towards the elevator and presses the button indicating up. She fixes him with a glance and then walks towards the stairwell and leaves him alone.
Urbain isn’t a coward, but he admits when he stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby, that he does feel like a Furfrou running away with its tail tucked between its legs.
*
From the rooftop, Harmony watches Urbain walk away from Hotel Z.
A massive bag on his back, shoulder bag strapped across his shoulders and a smaller one held in his left hand.
For a moment, he looks like how she did when she first arrived in the city.
A stranger.
She stares at him, wondering if he’ll even look back. His blonde hair shining in the sun, dusty fleece jacket flapping in the wind and solid determination written on his shoulders. He starts to walk and she wonders if she could bury her anger enough to call out to him, despite how much she wants to deck his face in. She’s starting to think he’ll leave without a glance but then he reaches the archway that heads out and turns around.
Her breath is caught in her throat when their eyes meet.
She doesn’t know how long they’re stuck in their staring contest. He’s shaded from the sun under the old Kalosian archway, but she can still see those shining sapphire eyes from a distance. Could drown herself in those eyes forever.
(Did drown herself in those blue oceans once upon a time. Caught up in the waves, legs tangled on seaweed and accepted her fate. Now she doesn't know how to breathe anything else.)
He lifts a hand to wave at her.
(He made the first move. Harmony has, at least, the courtesy to return it.)
She waves at him goodbye.
He lowers his hand and she doesn’t know how she’ll respond to him if decides to speak.
Thankfully, Urbain breaks their contact with a blink. He turns once again and disappears under the arch.
Harmony breathes once.
And then another.
And then brings out her Rotom Phone, hops over the short railing and launches herself off the rooftop.
She swings in the air and lands on top of one of the small buildings that made a border around the hotel. Prism Tower greets her, its new form reminding her once again of the new status quo in the city since The Night That Everything Went To Shit.
Urbain brought her here once, when her first few forays into the city were filled with rocks and crystals blocking her way and learning that ladders and holovators were going to be a daily occurrence in her life. Showing her a quick shortcut in case the front of the hotel gets blocked again.
A hand always reaching out to her, giving her guidance and a smile.
She wishes everything would go back to how it used to be.