Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Really, I don't.

Lanette blushed, meekly lowering her eyes and pretending to focus on a particularly interesting loose string on her shirt. "I'm sorry to have taken up any of your time, Bill."

"Not at all!" Bill interrupted. "I'm always happy to see you, whatever the weather.

"It's just that I'm, ah, going through a lot at the moment – and…" She paused for a moment, composing her next sentence in her head as if it were an elaborate symphony. "I needed someone to talk to, really." She didn't know why it was so hard to say something as simple as that to a man that she had known for years, but today as she looked into his curiously searching eyes of deep brown, she felt as if she was meeting him for the first time.

Or at least confessing something to him for the first time.

Not that Lanette had confessed anything too candid to Bill before. She knew that she had gained his trust, but she still thought that it was too soon in their friendship to admit her deepest hopes and fears to him. She needed him to prove his trust to her before she did anything too rash.

"Lanette?" Bill's tone became interrogative, developing a harsher, sterner quality that Lanette had never heard in his voice before.

"Yes, Bill?" Lanette said, inadvertently mimicking the tone of voice that Bill had used.

"I don't suppose you…"
"Don't suppose I what?"

"You – I don't suppose you have – I mean, do you have?" Bill looked slightly flustered at his proposition, awkwardly twisting a curl of green hair around his index finger.

Lanette just looked on, bemused.

"Ah – well – oh, Bill, don't be absurd. Of course she has!" He became more and more awkward in his mannerisms, sensing that what he was going to say would shock and repulse Lanette.

"What is it, Bill?"

"Well, it may sound a little intrusive, if not rash, even, but… You don't happen to have any tea around here, do you?"

All Lanette did was smile.

"Of course I do, Bill!" She giggled, with a Mona Lisa smile creeping in. "I'll put the kettle on now, if you want."

"I wouldn't ask for anything less, my dear."

Bill's own awkwardness amused himself. How foolish he had been, acting in such a way around his dearest friend! He made himself comfortable on the settee, became more relaxed and felt an air of ease and goodwill surrounding him. He had always felt comfortable in the presence of Lanette. She was so similar to him in certain ways, yet so unlike him in others.

He almost wished that she was his girlfriend.

"Tea's ready – would you like anything to eat, too?" Lanette asked.

"Oh no, just tea is fine." He looked at the light brown concoction and frowned slightly. That pang of awkwardness that had been banished reared its ugly head again. He took a sip.

"Ah, Lanette?" He asked gingerly. "I don't suppose there's any milk in here, is there?"

Lanette nodded.

"Oh… Damn it all, Lanette! You know that I'm lactose intolerant! How dare you! How very dare you!"

All Lanette did at the sight of Bill spluttering into her fine china tea set was smirk grimly. She loved the way that intelligent people could be so stupid sometimes.