The Kirlia Girl

"Tense Relations"

"...Did we have to come here..?" Wanona asked, holding a Sitrus Berry cone as she looked at all the couples sitting and eating ice cream together. Brenden had decided to make it up to her for bruising her nose by...taking them to Lily's Ice Cream Parlor in downtown Lilycove City. The place had nice decorations ranging from covered tables and the like to even cute little window stickers on the windows that let one look outside...making it a favorite place for couples to come and share a sweet treat while also getting to know each other more. Which is why she felt so uncomfortable, especially with Brenden being here.

Brenden rubbed his head a little as he took a small bite out of his Oran Berry cone. "I didn't think that there would be this many couples here, to be honest." He explained, his face slightly red from seeing all the couples being cutesy and lovey-dovey. "I thought it would be a bit emptier than this."

Wanona sighed as she took another bite from her cone. Of course, no one would suspect them of being a couple, especially since she was dressed up like her old identity of Wally. "Well it is a Friday afternoon right after school would normally be out. Maybe you should've thought more on the time and day." she says, with a bit of a sarcastic jab at him. Looking out the window, she could see the sea breeze going through the trees and the waves down at the beach crashing as they hit the sand castles that little kids had made. Smiling a little, she imagined what it would be like to live here before Brenden made an awkward cough.

"So um...what have you been doing since Victory Road? You kind of just...disappeared off the face of Hoenn." He asked, worry in his voice. Wanona clenched her fist a little. This was a topic he wanted to ask about? Seriously?

"You mean when you left me after I collapsed after you beat me?" she said, barely veiling her anger. He must have picked up on it, though, as his expression changed from worry to slightly irritated. She didn't care about his feelings right now, he should have known that would've been a touchy subject.

"You mean when I left you to go get help because you had collapsed?" he said, his voice conveying his annoyance. Wanona laughed bitterly at his statement, taking another bite out of her cone.

"Oh please. " she began, anger in her voice as she looked at him with a fierce glare. "We both know you went on to beat the Pokèmon League instead of going to get help! I had to pick myself off the cavern floor while you went to get 'help'!"

Brenden's expression went dark at her statement, before his fist clenched. "And how was I to know they would lock me in until I lost or beat them huh? I wanted one of them to help you, not become Champion while you were left on that cavern floor!" he said darkly, before reaching into his pockets and putting a tip on the table and getting up. Wanona noticed the dark expression hadn't left his face, which worried a part of her slightly. The other part of her was relieved he was leaving and didn't care that his feelings had been hurt in the process.

"See you around Wally...or maybe not since you seem to think I left you on that floor to seek fame and recognition instead of genuinely caring about your health." Brenden said as he took one last bite out of his cone before throwing it away, walked out of the store, and let out one of his Flying-Type Pokèmon presumably to Fly away to an unknown location. Wanona honestly didn't care where, so long as it wasn't her next destination: Mauville City.

Finishing her cone, she also left a tip for the waitress that had brought her and Brenden the cones before walking out and breathing in the sea breeze.

"Yeah...it would be nice to live here someday." she said softly, before starting to walk to the west exit. She wanted to take the long way this time to get there, even though she could just retrieve her Altaria from the box and Fly there. Though as she approached the exit, she couldn't help but remember Brenden's expression at her outburst of anger. It hadn't been all that angry or really even all that irritated. He only got that way when she had accused him of leaving her to become Champion.

"Maybe I went too far..?" she asked herself, pondering on it as she left the city and went on to the route leading to Fortree City...