Chapter 18: Preparations

3 Months passed like it was a minute. Ark was now in his room checking over all of the items he was going to pack. Reaching underneath his bed, he grabbed his trusty bag which he had used for the past 4 years and started to pack it in all neatly. Once he had managed to squeeze it all in, he hung it over his shoulder to test its weight. As the bag lifted off the ground, a large ripping sound made Ark sweat buckets.

"Shit... Just my luck"

Ark looked at the damage and found that the bag had torn along the seams. While he could get it repaired, there was a high chance that it would just break again but next time in a more dangerous situation. While Ark had his own Pocket storage due to the Mastery System, he planned to carry around a small backpack of items so that people don't raise questions about the fact that he was traveling without any items. Heaving a sigh, Ark went downstairs. Much to his surprise, there was a certain someone talking to his Mother in the living room.

"Oh Ark! It's about time you came down"

Arks Mother smiled before she went to go and get him a drink.

Ark turned to the visitor and smiled.

"Good Morning Delia, you're looking beautiful today"

With this, Ark walked over to Delia and hugged her, to which she reciprocated with a smile on her face.

"Thank you, Ark, I came here to give you something."

Ark tilted his head as he had not been expecting to suddenly receive a gift.

"Give me something? What would that be?"

Delia smiled at Arks confusion before a mischievous smile floated on her lips.

"You will have to wait until your Mother gets back, only patient boys get rewards"

Ark was a bit frustrated at the way she phrased it as it was almost like she was treating him as a child. To clear his frustration, Ark approached Delia and buried his face into Delias neck. As Delia started to move away, Ark gently licked a small part of her neck before moving away.

Delia released a cute yelp as her face reddened and her breath gradually quickened. After Ark had confessed his intentions to Delia, he had become bolder with his actions. When the atmosphere started to heat up, a cough sounded from the entrance way.

Standing there with her arms crossed was arks mother. Her face was slightly red however the frown portrayed that she was not impressed.

"I am sorry to interrupt your little flirting but I believe we had something to give to Ark, no?"

His Mothers words were sharp causing both Ark and Delia to sweat slightly.

"Right, right. Ark, your Mother and I have been working on a small project together. For you, of course."

As Delia managed to squeeze out her explanation under his Mothers cold eyes, she handed Ark a small box with a heart on top. Turning to his Mother, he noticed she had the same but a larger version of the box in her arms. Reaching out for his Mothers first, he sat it on the coffee table and opened the lid. Apprehensively, Ark lifted the contents out of the box. Much to his surprise, the present given by his Mother was a black, medium sized backpack with a moon ball design. His body warmed up as happiness filled his very being, though it may be a coincidence that his old bag broke, however it was obvious that his Mother had put a lot of effort into making this customised backpack that was perfect for his build.

Ark turned to his Mother and hugged her tightly before telling her 'Thank you', finishing it off with a kiss on the cheek. Her face had a bright smile on it as she held Ark, all of her effort was paying off when she saw how grateful he was. After a few minutes of silent gratitude, Ark turned to Delia who was watching over the scene with a gentle smile. In her hands was the next present. Without hesitating, Ark took the box and opened it's top.

Once again he was overwhelmed with emotion as he lifted the item up and inspected it. Within his hands was a pair of black gloves with blue finger tips and a blue crescent moon on the back of each hand.

"Thank you, Delia, I love them so much"

Ark latched onto Delia and hugged her tightly, his hands slowly moved down her back to her waist. He held her waist firmly and planted small kisses on her neck. Though he had not received an answer from her yet, that did not matter to Ark right now. He was so overcome by emotion that he found it hard holding back, if not for his Mother watching over them with a warm smile, he may have pushed Delia down right then.

"Ark we made these for your journey. Even if you're away from Pallet, at the very least we can be with you through these gifts that we poured all of our love into"

His Mother had to hold back the tears that threatened to escape when she thought about him leaving, luckily Delia carried on before she broke down.

"Exactly, plus they make sure you won't forget about us when you're out on a journey seducing who knows how many pretty girls"

Ark scratched the back of his head as he heard Delia's words. Though he knew she was joking, he could not deny her accusations.

"That would never happen, the two of you mean the world to me. If I could, I would bring you with me but don't worry, I will make sure to find a way so that we can meet more often."

The girls smiled at his declaration before sitting down.

The three continued to talk about how everything would go and agreed to meet up at the Professors lab tomorrow before Ark leaves. He made sure that Delia promised to uphold her promise from 4 months ago. Though she nodded with what seemed like a nonchalant smile, a faint blush filled her cheeks.

Night fell and Ark walked Delia home. While he was there, he made sure to remind Ash not to be late tomorrow, though he knew it was a fruitless effort.

When Ark had gotten home, he went straight to his room to pack his stuff into his new backpack. The sheer excitement was shown on his face as he held his new backpack. He made sure to remember to pay them both back for the kindness they had shown him.

He put them all in neatly with only the necessities such a spare set of clothes, a water bottle and flask as well as his wallet. As for the rest of his necessities such as his soap, sleeping bag and tent set, he stored it all into his Pocket Storage. Every time he opened it, he pondered how much he could actually store in it, he knew he could not store anything that possessed life energy, yet he could never figure out it's true size.

"Well whatever, it doesn't really matter as long as I can fit what I want in their. With that, I should have everything ready to leave tomorrow."

As Ark was talking to himself, the door was opened and a lady wearing a deep purple baby doll lingerie slowly crept in. The moment she saw Ark awake, she froze on the spot.

"Mother?"

Arks eyes were widened as he inspected her current appearance. He unintentionally gulped as dangerous thoughts surfaced in his mind.

"Mother... why are you here so late at night? Is something wrong?"

He feigned calmness as he questioned his frozen Mother. When she heard his question, a small amount of animation returned to her as she answered in a small sheepish voice.

"It's your last night here... so I wanted to sneak in before it gets really lonely here..."

His Mother refused to look Ark in the eyes as he sat down on the bed. His mind cleared up when he heard her reasons.

"I see, well then, would you care to join me, my lady?"

Ark gestured to the spot next to him with a poor attempt at a butler. A small smile grew on her face as she laid down on Arks bed and hugged his arm tightly.

"Good night"

Thus, Arks final day in Pallet passed.