Hard days don't warn you that they're on the way.

Hard days sneak up on you. It starts with a shirt not being as dry as you thought and smelling like mildew. It snowballs after that. The coffee you order is wrong, the jeans are tighter than yesterday because you're stressed and it's causing bloating in places that aren't flattering. Then you hit traffic and it's terrible. You head to the warehouse and get to your truck. But when you see the packages you're supposed to deliver, they're damaged and look horrible. You start spinning ideas of what to say to people when you deliver them. Because 'damaged on arrival' isn't gonna fly with all the Karens you know are on your route. You suddenly believe in God, hope and pray they have new yoga classes.

But they don't, and they complain. They complain and they bitch. You just say the same kind thing over and over again. You say sorry more than you're supposed to. They don't care, they just rage, then they feel better and you feel like shit.

The day continues that way until he gets home, where he's met with several pounds of stress and pressure. Rehab's progress is teetering at the door, somewhere between disappointment and rage. He glances at the console and thinks, maybe that will help.

So all he does is strip to nothing but his boxers and socks, throws on a comfort hoodie, and turns on Unovr.

Stumbling back, the petilil whines and glares, but there is a fighting spirit within its eyes. A fighting spirit Derek didn't have at any point in the day. He feels envious. He feels almost angry. As the petilil attacks his rowlet, he wordlessly uses the UI to strike a command for Apollo to follow.

The rowlet lets loose a gust, flapping his wings to create the dangerous wind current. It hits the petilil who is countering with growth, size expanding as it does so.

But Derek is confident he'll win and be able to catch the petilil. He has advantage. And even as the wild petilil uses absorb, Derek instructs Apollo to counter with a peck.

The wild petilil is losing, it's HP has been taken down far enough, and with victory so close, Derek tosses the golden ball.

And something as small as watching the little pokéball wiggle back and forth shouldn't make him so anxious. Shouldn't make him angry enough to say, "I swear to god if this doesn't stay in I'm gonna rage."

But it's been a rough day. One full of defeats. One full of unfairness and a lack of human kindness.

For somebody so codependent trying to hard to be independent because he was raised to think that's the only way life can be lived, he's struggling. Worse yet, he wants to rely on somebody else to help him through life. He doesn't want to be leaning on himself. He wants somebody to lean on him, and him lean on them, and then they're leaning equally and they're holding each other up.

But he hates that. He hates the idea that he feels he needs another person to be happy. But he hates himself, and if all he has is himself. and his negative self-loathing, how will he ever see the good in it?

Maybe this will help. Maybe this game will help.

He's exhausted, and he's tired, and now he's crying. Because the day has been a hard one and that's the only way he can express how hard it's been. That, and something else, but everything sharp is locked up and away from him. And for good measure.