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waywardstation · 1 year

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Maintenance Check

Akari invites a weary Ingo out of the rain to rest and have a hot meal with her, but Ingo realizes Akari needs some help of her own as well.

I wrote this off of a request to let Ingo relax and have a nice meal with Akari in the wake of Heart Full, Bowl Empty’s events, as well as two requests showing how Ingo and/or Akari would deal with a toothache away from the modern-day dental practices they’re used to.

This was supposed to be my last request fic of 2022, but instead it’s my first request fic of 2023!

OR read here on AO3!

Enjoy!

————

The door to Akari’s unit slid open and shut quickly, the rain from outside clinging to Ingo’s coat as water dripped from the brim of his hat.

“You were gone for a while!” Akari commented, looking up from the cooking pot hanging over her unit’s irori; the sunken hearth in the middle of the room was already heated, warming the room and chasing away the chill that had begun to seep into Ingo’s skin. “Did they not have any?”

Ingo shrugged his wet coat off and hung it up with his cap on the wall; he did not want to drip all over Akari’s floors. He plucked a pouch out from one of the coat pockets and brought it over to Akari, handing it to her. “They did have it, but it, ah… took a considerable amount of time to retrieve from their cargo. I apologize for the delay.”

Ingo decided to refrain from telling Akari about how he suspected Volo left him standing in the rain longer than he needed to, searching through the back of the Ginkgo Guild’s covered wagon for quite a time for something so simple as a single sprig of King’s Leaf. It had left lots of awkward but well-meaning smalltalk with Tuli, until Ginter had decided to call out and ask if Volo needed help looking. Only then did Volo come back around the side of the wagon, King's Leaf in hand.

Maybe he shouldn’t have told the merchant that it was for a soup that he was cooking with Akari in her unit - he had come to notice that Volo wasn’t too keen on how much time the teenager spent with him. But technically, it was Volo’s fault for asking about what he planned to use it for in the first place.

“Sorry about that,” Akari took the pouch and pulled the plant out, a bit flattened, but perfectly preserved and dry. She set it down on a thick board beside her and began to cut the vibrant leaves up into smaller pieces, occasionally glancing at one of the hand-written recipe pages of her Pokedex to make sure she was doing it right. “But thanks for getting it! I didn’t know I was out of them, so it saved me some time.”

“Glad to be of service,” Ingo moved to stand closer to the heated irori, and chase away some of the cold aching that stubbornly clung to his limbs. “Is there anything else I can assist with?”

“No, no, it’s ok!” Akari would have waved him off if her hands weren’t full of freshly-cut King’s Leaf. She dropped the bits into the pot, before grabbing another small bowl full of chopped leeks and vivichokes, dumping that in as well. “You’ve already done so much today, just relax! And all the work is pretty much done, anyways; we just need to wait now.”

With that, Ingo moved to finally sit down with a grunt, at the edge of the irori, finally able to take his weight off his feet. He was silently thankful he could just sit back and rest for a moment. Today had been an exhaustive one, what with the Pearl Clan requesting his help on an icelands hunting trip that was supposed to be over and done by mid-morning, but dragged well into mid-day instead. And by the time he had reached Jubilife Village for whatever was left of his shift at the dojo (excessive rain having begun to pour down halfway there - he knew the sky had been too dark that morning for its own good), Zisu had regretfully let him know work was canceled due to the weather.

Akari had thankfully spotted him leaving the village to return to the highlands, and had asked him to join her in her Jubilife unit to dry off and share some of the soup she was making. He was surprised to see her - she was supposed to be gone on an expedition trip for at least another day - but he was certainly cold, hungry, and exhausted by that point, and very much not looking forward to a long trip back up Mount Coronet, so he had wearily agreed.

“Thank you again for your generosity, Miss Akari,” Ingo slumped forward, the heat of the hearth easing him as the soup began to spread a pleasant scent throughout the room. “I admit, this is much more favorable than traversing up to my highlands station in this current weather.”

“Yeah, well, you looked like you needed someone to give you a break,” Akari half-joked with him as she took a wooden spoon and stirred the contents of the pot a few times, sprinkling some crunchy salt in. Satisfied with the state of the soup, she left it to simmer and moved to sit next to Ingo, the sounds of the rain slicking down the slanted roof of her unit. “And I need someone to share all this soup with!”

————

“These are excellent reports, Miss Akari; very thorough. I’m sure Professor Laventon will appreciate this data. Wild sliggoo are notoriously hard to properly observe.”

Akari gave a small smile as Ingo browsed over her pages of notes, freshly filled out from the expedition she had just gotten back from. She always liked showing Ingo any new observations she had made, as looking over her extensive notes sometimes allowed him to recall some additional information she could add. But, she also knew he took special interest in Hisui’s select species. Just like the voltorb and electrode native to the region, focusing on their differences from what he could dimly remember always intrigued him.

“Hard is an understatement!” Akari glanced over her own notes as well from Ingo’s side, recalling what she had to do to get them as she held her soup secure in her hands. “I couldn’t even get close without them somehow hearing me, and retreating into those big heavy shells of theirs! And you would think they wouldn’t be able to see where they’re going rolling around in them, but they can aim pretty well! Got me good a few times-“

Akari set her bowl down and rolled up one of her black underlayer sleeves as she talked, the survey corps fabric bunching up over it as she showed him a few cuts and bruises she had sustained from scrapes with the sharp metal shells. This caught Ingo’s attention, and his gaze finally drifted off the words and drawings of the page, to the teenager at his side.

“Is all this just from crossing tracks with the sliggoo?” Ingo looked the damage over briefly; it didn’t seem too bad thankfully, but then again, all he could see was her one uncovered arm. Though, he didn’t think she normally got this scraped up from a routine expedition. “Is this why you departed ahead of schedule?”

“Nah, I just finished early.” Akari rolled her sleeve back down to pick her soup back up.“I mean, I sort of rushed it, but I just wanted today off - fieldwork isn’t nearly as fun in the rain. And it’s fine! It’s mostly just soreness now, nothing that won’t heal.”

“Speed but not haste, Miss Akari.” Ingo felt like he had to remind her of that a lot lately. He closed her Pokedex and handed it back to her, so he could pick his own bowl back up and continue eating his soup. “It’s important to maintain safety.”

“Yeah, well if I did that,” Akari tucked her Pokedex back away, “You’d be heading up to the highlands right now with about twenty pounds of rain in your clothes. And I would be too, still trying to get Pokedex pages filled out, and we wouldn’t be sharing this great soup right now, listening to the rain outside while we’re warm inside.”

That earned a small laugh out of Ingo. She wasn’t wrong.

“That certainly tracks,” He stirred what was left in his bowl. “And it would be unfortunate to pass this up - my schedule has not allowed me time to enjoy something like this for a while. The refuel and the maintenance stop are much appreciated.”

Between more frequent hunts with the Pearl Clan, his duties to Lady Sneasler and her kits, and his shifts at the dojo, it had all been constant foot traveling for the last three days. Always walking. Always traversing. Letting the cold cling to him and slip deeper under his skin the longer he immersed himself in the wilderness. No time to stop and eat, either plucking off stunted berries from trees and bushes he happened to walk by, or stuffing potato mochi down on his way out of Jubilife and onto the next destination, being unable to sit down and actually enjoy it. Sleeping in whatever place he happened to be at when the sun set, even if it didn’t exactly have a nice warm bed to comfort him, and ease the pain in his back that would flare up from the cold’s grip.

Akari’s offer for him to come in and sit down, to relax and have a nice meal, was the first time he had been able to really do so in a while.

And it was nice. To take the pressure of walking off his legs and let them rest for once, and relieve the dull throbbing in his feet brought about by traversing rough terrain on worn down shoes. To actually enjoy the taste of his food instead of hastily stuffing down whatever he could get, to simply keep his engine running on his way to the next destination. To let warmth ease him and loosen his tense weariness. While the heated irori thawed his limbs well enough, driving out the deeper frost that had settled into his muscles, the hot soup left a pleasant internal warmth in his body, heating whatever the hearth couldn’t.

“Here, I’ll get you more then,” Akari reached out to take Ingo’s bowl from his hands as he tipped it back and swallowed the last of its contents. “It’s more vegetables than broth, but there’s still some left in the pot.”

“I appreciate it, but I’ve ah, already had seconds,” Ingo tried to object. “And your portions for me have been rather generous. It’s alright. Go ahead and finish it.”

It wasn’t that Ingo found the meal to be unenjoyable. It was genuinely excellent - the best meal he had had in days. Akari had gotten very good with her recipes. He could have had more, but he told himself not to depreciate a comfortable fullness down to a stomachache. But moreso, he just wanted Akari to eat more than the little amount he had seen her put into her own bowl.

On his first serving, he had noticed Akari dumped lots of the larger, tougher soup contents into his bowl - sootfoot roots, leeks, mushrooms - but her own bowl had consisted of smaller chunks amongst mostly broth. It had been easy enough to dismiss, until he noted that she did it again with their second helpings. She wasn’t even really using her spoon, instead opting to sip from the bowl itself. Generally, just eating slower - and less - than she normally did.

Why?

“I’m good,” Akari took one last glance at the soup pot, before moving to sit back down next to Ingo. “It’ll probably just be leftovers then.”

Leftovers? With her typical growing-teenager appetite, the concept of leftovers was practically a foreign one to Akari. Ingo’s gaze flitted over to the sleek orange icebox against the wall - that thing was used more frequently to hold icelands snow than actual food that couldn’t be finished.

“Forgive me for being so upfront Miss Akari, but,” Ingo began, leaning forward to better feel the irori’s heat, as well as get a better look at her face. “are you feeling alright?”

The teenager didn’t have to say anything for Ingo to see the confusion on her face - for her, the question came out of nowhere. Ingo worried insufficient clarity had led to incorrect assumed inferences.

“Apologies, it’s just that it appears you’re, well… drinking more of the soup than you’re eating.” He explained, before repeating himself. “Are you feeling alright?”

Confusion quickly faded, understanding taking its place.

“Oh, no, no!” Akari waved it off. “Like I said earlier, I’m just still a bit sore. My mouth just hurts a little, makes it kinda hard to chew. I’ve been making a lot of soup lately because of it, actually.”

When Akari had said she was sore, Ingo assumed that only extended to achy limbs, and tender muscles. A sore jaw was a bit of a different matter, especially if it influenced what Akari could and couldn’t eat - now he understood why she was mostly just limiting herself to the broth.

The lack of worry in Akari’s voice told Ingo that she didn’t think it was a big deal at all - so much so, that it seemed she didn’t even find it worth mentioning until explicitly asked. She did not appear worried about it, but Ingo couldn’t say the same.

Draugr, the iceland’s territorial alpha mamoswine, had given Ingo the unfortunate opportunity to experience how Hisui deals with dental complications himself.

He did not want to think back on that, and he did not want Akari to have to deal with that agonizing possibility like he did. He had a feeling oral care in Hisui was not nearly as advanced and optimized as it was wherever the two of them had come from, and he was sure Akari was also aware of this to some degree.

“If it’s preventing you from properly eating, perhaps we should go visit Miss Pesselle.” Akari could hear the concern start to bubble up in Ingo’s voice as he shifted to a more attentive position. “When did you first notice the pain?”

“Ingo, it’s ok!” She tried to keep him from getting worried over her. “It started like three days ago, but this happens a lot, trust me; I get roughed up from expedition work, thrown down a few too many times by a wild Pokémon. I knock my jaw maybe, it’s sore for a little bit, but then I get over it. It probably happened when I was out observing the sliggoo. It’s fine, really!”

“I might be inclined to disagree, if it means it obstructs you from having anything else besides soup broth.” Ingo emphasized. “Did you at least perform safety checks, and ensure nothing was damaged? If you’ve possibly cracked a tooth, it must be addressed as soon as possible.”

“Ingo… I didn’t crack a tooth,” Akari dismissed it. She interrupted herself by pushing herself back up onto her feet, and taking their empty bowls in her hands. She was trying to busy herself now. “I’m used to this, really. It’ll go away in a few days.”

She did not check.

Ingo gave her a look telling her he knew she didn’t, which made Akari huff a sigh through her nose as she dropped their dinnerware on her washing table.

“I can’t feel anything sharp with my tongue,” she insisted, her confidence apparently unfaltering as she continued to try and quell Ingo’s worries. She slipped open the lid of her water container, and began to scrub the dishes. “It’s sore, but that’s normal. For me, I mean.”

“Still, it does not hurt to be thorough.” Ingo reasoned. “Something else could require repairs. If you haven’t checked, you cannot know for sure.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Akari simply hummed in acknowledgement as she continued to fret over the dishes. He could tell she was starting to want to drop the subject.

The rain came down against the roof of the warm unit. Busying her hands, no other words were likely to leave Akari’s mouth, while Ingo struggled to get the right string of them out of his.

Perhaps he should talk about it.

“…I had a similar experience, once.” Ingo started after a moment of contemplation, watching Akari needlessly busy herself. “When the Pearl Clan first brought me back to their settlement and were trying to repair the damage that Draugr had caused, they were trying to fix everything they could with haste. They patched me up as best they could, and waited. But as the days went on, it was becoming apparent that something was wrong.”

Akari said nothing, but she stopped scrubbing at the dishes - Ingo could see he had managed to take her nervous energy, and convert it into attention that was trained on him. She always said she didn’t like hearing the more explicit details of his recovery, but by the way she always listened in with a sort of hesitant curiosity, he could tell she said that more for his sake, assuming he had a hard time talking about it.

He did.

It was difficult to think back on that time, and recall how it felt to be so confused and alone.

“I was not eating, or drinking. They could not figure out why, and I regret to say it was because I did not make it easy for them to do so.”

Behavior like that would be laughably unheard of from Ingo now. But at the time, he had known nothing about who or where he was, and all he knew was that he was in an extensive amount of pain, and that he was surrounded by people he did not know or understand, who were endlessly prodding him and just irritating the pain more. It had freaked him out, and admittedly, when he had the strength to, he had become resistant to their invasive monitoring.

“Only once Lady Irida had arrived to check on me herself with a gentler approach, were they able to figure out the issue. I had a cracked tooth, viable for infection, and it needed to be removed.”

“You got a tooth pulled!” Ingo could already hear the flood of excitedly curious requests for him to show her the gap coming.

“It was just a wisdom tooth, its departure did not change much to my cab,” Ingo stopped her in her tracks before she got too far. “It had most likely needed to be removed even before my jaw had a collision with an ice tusk as thick as a tree. But before I knew it, Miss Calaba had checked it over for confirmation, and one of her more eager assistants was already wrenching it out.”

“Oh man,” Akari frowned. “Just pulling it then and there? That sounds… super sucky.”

Akari’s word choice surprised a brief laugh out of Ingo. “It was definitely not favorable, though it could have been much worse. And only due to Lady Irida’s incentive to check herself, were the tracks corrected. It was of utmost importance to be thorough, and to be entirely sure of the situation.”

Akari was starting to bite her cheek, nervousness returning now that the subject was returning back onto the issue at hand, and away from Ingo’s story.

“Miss Akari, I understand your hesitance. I myself have been on that line. Sometimes, maintenance of one’s cab is not an easy track to go down. But if something needs attention, it’s best to attend to it now before it gets worse, and affects the functionality of the rest of the cab… especially with Hisui’s limited medical methods.”

It seemed his own personal example and words of gentle encouragement finally broke through to her. Ingo’s words were followed by a loud silence that drew attention to the sound of muffled rain against the unit’s roof, until Akari let out a deep sigh. Her shoulders slumped, defeated.

“…I know,” she muttered, looking down at her feet for a moment, before turning back to face him. The dishes she once couldn’t get her focus off of were now entirely forgotten behind her. “I know I should probably get it checked. I think my jaw’s fine - it’s my tooth that hurts. I came back early because it was just being so bothersome; I couldn’t really eat anything I found out in the mirelands, so I had to come home. It’s just…”

It was scary.

Ingo could see she found it scary.

“…I know my options are different from what I had back home. If anything, um… happened, my only option would be to get it pulled.” Akari began to explain to him. Her voice was no longer as certain and unfaltering as it was earlier. “And I’ve heard how people manage that whole procedure when they come into Pesselle’s office. I always hear them yelling! And Rei’s told me horror stories about how he’s had to assist her with emergency procedures, just because he was the closest Galaxy Team member nearby. I don’t want to have to get any teeth pulled! I was just hoping to wait and see if it would get better, but… it’s been three days. It’s not.”

A pang of empathy tugged at Ingo’s heart. It was clear now that Akari was just scared - scared that something was irreversibly damaged, and scared that she would have to undergo a worrying procedure that freaked her out. She hadn’t checked out of fear that it would confirm these things.

It was understandable.

Ingo pushed himself back up onto his feet (the heat from the irori was starting to become noticeably uncomfortable anyways) and moved to try and console her - she looked like she was about to start pacing the room out of nervousness.

“You mentioned the soreness only began three days back, correct?” Ingo recalled, putting a hand on Akari’s shoulder. “You may not be experiencing improvement, but that does not give much time for things to worsen. And perhaps nothing is wrong, and it really is just sore. Then we have nothing to worry about. But, we should perform a maintenance check now, and if repair is required, it should be manageable.”

“Yeah,” The complete lack of enthusiasm in Akari’s voice, as well as her glance back at the dishes to her side, told Ingo she would much rather keep avoiding the issue. But she wasn’t, and he appreciated it. “I guess I should.”

“Good.” Ingo encouraged her with a final reassuring pat on the shoulder, before looking around her unit, between the pot of soup and the half-cleaned dishes. “Now, you go check, and I’ll get started on cleaning things up. We can figure out how to navigate the tracks before us once we know what’s going on.”

Akari sucked in a breath and released it, trying to force all her anxiety out with it. “…Ok. I’ll go check.”

Ingo picked up the half-cleaned dishes that Akari had started washing, and began to scrub them clean as she moved into the back section of the unit, where her bed and mirror were set up.

As Ingo scrubbed one of the bowls, occasionally scooping more fresh water out of the table-side container, he fretted over Akari and what she would find.

What if it really was a cracked tooth? She did say she had been bashed around by sliggoo quite a few times… those tough metal shells were not padded at all. He hoped it was nothing more than soreness, but prolonged consistent pain that made it difficult to eat did not sound good.

And removal of a cracked tooth was not fun in the slightest. He should know. It was incredibly painful, even with dulling medicinals, and the throbbing hurt lingered for days afterwards.

But why tell Akari any of this? He hoped nothing was wrong, so that he wouldn’t have to. If something was, then perhaps he would take steps to prepare her for it, but he didn’t want to have to do that.

With the bowls clean, Ingo moved to pick up the soup pot from where it hung over the irori. Looking inside, there was still a small amount left, just enough for about one more bowl. Maybe he should ask Akari if she had something he could store the rest of the soup in-

“Ingo!”

A quick turn of his head, and he spotted Akari standing in front of her bedside mirror, face very close to the glass and thoroughly inspecting her teeth with her head turned at an awkward angle - partially to get the best look at her tooth, and partially to be able to look in the mirror without standing on top of all the assorted junk she had piled around her.

She did love her space-time distortion souvenirs, and often kept all the leftover wrappers and bags neatly stored away. Ingo just had no idea she had so many.

“I think I found the problem!”

“Is it cracked?” Against his wishes, Ingo was beginning to dread the answer, but the fact that she had found something at all worried him.

“No…” Akari pulled the side of her mouth back with a finger, inspecting her teeth again. “I don’t think so? I mean, I definitely see something, but I can’t tell…”

“Allow me to check, if you’d like,” Ingo offered as he approached her, leaving the soup pot behind; now he was curious.

“This one, I think-“ Akari tapped one of her bottom-row bicuspids as she opened her mouth, tugging one of the sides back with a finger, and Ingo lowered down to take a quick peek at it.

Don’t be a cracked tooth, please, don’t be a cracked tooth…

Once he spotted it, Ingo was pleasantly surprised to see that indeed, it was not a cracked tooth.

Instead, it was a developing cavity.

Small and easy to miss, it was not much more than a dark line on the side of her tooth. Thankfully, it was clearly in the early stages of development, and even Ingo could tell that it was not far enough along to be past the point of irreversible damage.

And while a cavity was not a good thing, it certainly was good news to Ingo, considering the alternative. She would not have to lose the tooth.

“Well?” Akari pulled away from him, a little impatient now to know what it was. Ingo could see the concern in her eyes, and it relieved him to know he wouldn’t have to confirm such worries.

“I’m pleased to report that it is not cracked, but there’s a small cavity-“

“-A cavity!”

“Just a small one! It’s in the very early stages, and should be able to be managed without removal. You will be fine if you can stay on top of it.”

“Oh thank Arceus,” Akari heaved a sigh of relief. “So, I can just fix it myself? No tooth pulling?”

“Well, it would still be good to allow Miss Pesselle to take a look at it first, and ensure nothing needs to be done,” Ingo reasoned. “I’d be happy to accompany you if you’d like, but I have a feeling she will simply remind you to brush frequently if she doesn’t think it needs to be pulled.”

“But I already do! I brush my teeth twice a day!” Akari defended herself. “And I rinse! Just like how I always did it at home, and I never got any cavities then!”

Ingo glanced back down at the stacks of empty wrappers and snack bags on the floor. With a sigh, he realized what the problem most likely was, and reached down to pluck one of the bags up from off its stack.

“Well, I regret to inform you that with fuel like this, brushing twice a day might not be enough with Hisui’s dental management methods.” Ingo explained, holding the empty snack bag up. “Current toothpaste may not be enough as is. I recommend you start adding medicinal leek filling to your toothpaste powder until it mends.”

“How do you know that’s going to work?,” Akari frowned as she was handed back the bag, and moved to set it back on its stack.

“You are generous enough to share a considerable amount of these things with me,” Ingo reminded her. “And Miss Calaba was not pleased at all when she discovered I had added such things to my diet. But undeniably, she is very knowledgeable when it comes to medicinals and treatments. Trust me, it is effective.”

Akari made a face, most likely imagining how bitter the toothpaste would become once leek filling was added to it, but Ingo could see that she was ultimately relieved to have such a relatively easy solution to her problem.

“…Alright. I’ll, um… I’ll go see Pesselle when the rain stops, and get it checked out. And I guess I need to pick up some more leeks as well. Would you come with me?”

The heavy, constant rain pattering against the roof of the unit didn’t sound like it was going to stop anytime soon. They’d be here for a while if they were to wait for it to let up, but Ingo didn’t have anywhere else to go for today. And he would not leave her after she asked him to stay - he knew she was looking for a source of comfort.

“Of course, Miss Akari.”

#submas #Ingo #warden Ingo #Akari #Pokemon Akari #Pokémon legends arceus #Pokémon legends #Pokemon legends #Pokemon legends arceus #pokemon #pokemon fanfiction #pokemon fanfic #waywardstationfanfic #to anon who requested Ingo have a good time #I hope you’re feeling better and that this new year is very nice to you!!!!#the dental stuff with this one was difficult to figure out #you can read my thoughts about it at the bottom notes of the AO3 version if you’d like

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