Sending Sirius home

Sirius stayed with Vali the whole time Lt. Surge had allotted to help her in the morning leaving the Gym Leader foul tempered for reason that the fire-type master-in-training really wasn't too sure about. The man shot a glare towards Sirius while she was handing her pokemon over to the Gym Trainer that would be taking them to get healed up. She cleared her throat as Sirius met that glare with one of his own, "So what's on the agenda today?"

"Rodrick wants you to help him out with the adoptable pokemon today," Lt. Surge answered without breaking the glaring match.

"Okay," Vali heard the door open and spotted Rodrick as he walked inside, "Do I need my camera?"

"Not today," Rodrick answered as he eyed the two glaring men with a small amount of amusement, "How are you today?"

"Trying my best to be okay after yesterday," Vali admitted earning a light nod from Rodrick.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears," Rodrick cleared his throat breaking the staring contest, "Mister Black, it's good to see you again."

"Doctor Cross," Sirius looked a bit pale making Vali wonder if Rodrick was the demon therapist that her godfather had complained about before, "N-nice to see you too,"

Rodrick's smile was all teeth and gums making Vali wonder what exactly Sirius had done to piss the man off. Though given the man's more feminine features and body type, she could probably make a guess and mentally shook her head at Sirius' antics. More than likely, he'd hit on Rodrick before the man could even say a word and probably protested quite a bit about the man's actual gender despite the voice. In any case, Sirius likely deserved whatever 'torture' Rodrick subjected him to, "How have you been since our last session ended?"

Sirius opened him mouth before closing it without a sound. Vali looked at her godfather with some concern before saying, "Siri proposed to Delia."

"Oh?" Rodrick's smile turned gentle as he took his eyes off Sirius and focused on Vali, "That's excellent,"

Lt. Surge cleared his throat looking more than a little amused about how pale his cousin had made Sirius, "I'm going to get to work. Kid, you and your team are off the hook for tonight's training session. I've got things to do."

Vali inwardly groaned as she tried to figure out what she'd do at that point while outwardly nodding to Lt. Surge, "Alright."

Lt. Surge patted her shoulder before heading off. Rodrick smiled at Vali, "Shall we get going?"

"Yeah," Vali rubbed between Vulpix's ears as she moved to follow Rodrick.

Sirius finally spoke as they were leaving the indoor training ground, "Wait up!"

Rodrick looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow, "May I ask where you plan on going, Mister Black?"

"I want to spend time with my Goddaughter," Sirius answered as they began walking out of the gym together, "Is that wrong?"

"No, but you do not have the clearance for where we're going," Rodrick replied earning a frown from Sirius, "Vali has been granted temporary clearance. If you had gone through the training that had been offered, I wouldn't have had a problem with you tagging along. Seeing as you do not and I am not able to grant you temporary clearance due to not being affiliated with the Ranger Union, you are not able to accompany us,"

Vali was a little surprised at the fact she'd been granted any form of clearance since she hadn't done much for the League outside of the whole forest fire incident. Then again, Professor Oak and Lt. Surge had probably pulled some strings to get that clearance especially since she'd exposed the whole Durant issue. She pushed down her surprise to ask, "Rodrick, you aren't affiliated with the Ranger Union?"

"No, I'm strictly League affiliated, but Surge is affiliated with the Ranger Union since he was one until he turned sixteen. One of the best, but he found his true calling with being a pokemon trainer," Rodrick answered making both Sirius and Vali look at him in shock, "It's one of the main reasons he's been granted his position with abused pokemon,"

Which actually made sense, a former pokemon ranger would know how to deal with pokemon in just about any situation. Abused pokemon wouldn't be that difficult to deal with especially if you were used to befriending pokemon without a styler which had only really been given to all Rangers fifteen years ago. Vali's respect for Lt. Surge promptly went up while she began forming questions that she'd be asking him at some point soon with this new information. Sirius let out a small grumble, "I guess I need to go bug Lt. Surge."

"Siri, you could head home and spend time with Delia," Vali suggested earning a slightly hurt look from the Grim animagus, "It's not that I don't like spending time with you and I'm grateful that you've taken the time to come see me. I really am, but you only have a few more days until you're pulled back to duty. Shouldn't you be spending time with your fiancee?"

Sirius frowned at her, "Are you sure, Pup?"

"I'm sure," Vali offered him a weak grin, "Just tell her that I'll be calling later on via my pokenav,"

After quite a few assurances and promises to call home, Sirius left via Alakazam allowing Vali and Rodrick to get going. Rodrick looked at her as he said, "You're holding up well despite what happened yesterday."

"Mostly because I don't want to worry anyone," Vali admitted as they walked together, "I've also been through worse. At least with this, I knew Steven was coming to help me," She glanced at Rodrick, "So what exactly are we doing today?"

"Mostly getting the pokemon bathed and groomed," Rodrick answered not seeming to mind the change in conversation, "You'll mostly be doing the grooming,"

"Sounds like fun," Vali genuinely enjoyed grooming pokemon and making them feel good.

Not to mention, it would give her something to do that required focus and soothed her nerves.