"Clair?"
Upon hearing the voice, she turned, admittedly a little confused. It sounded so much like...
"Lance!" She felt her heart skip slightly (she hoped in shock) at the sight of her cousin, standing in front of her with his arms crossed. "How did you get here?" She mentally cringed as he raised an eyebrow, looking somewhat bemused.
"I came through the door."
"I know that, but I meant why. You haven't visited in forever! You could have called ahead..." She turned slightly back to the dragonair she'd been grooming to keep herself busy while simultaneously listening for an answer and trying to ignore the knowing glare the pokémon was sending her.
"Oh. I was beaten. You might know the one, she would have come through here; brown hair, big hat, quite short..." Clair nodded, colouring a bit - of course she remembered one of the few to beat her. She also recalled refusing to admit the victory, but hopefully Lance hadn't heard about that. He'd lecture her for being childish again, and she always hated it when he did that.
"Are you sad?" she inquired, righting a few feathers that had been ruffled in the last gym battle. The dragon cooed appreciatively, yet still managed to level a look at her which said everything the pokémon needed to convey, even without words. Clair prayed Lance wouldn't notice, because he seemed adept at reading pokémon - thankfully for her he wasn't as good at reading people.
"No, I felt it coming. I was going to visit anyway, but I postponed until I lost, because I knew it would be soon. Lyra was kicking up a storm anyway, it was evident that she had the talent required; it was just whether her pokémon were strong enough, which they turned out to be. It was fun." Clair almost chuckled - for her cousin to declare anything as fun usually meant it was a complete understatement - as in, it was probably the most enjoyable thing in his life so far.
"So what are you doing now?" During his speech, she'd brushed most of the dragonair's wings, only having to give them a general sweep to see them in order, which she did so before he spoke again. She replaced the brush on the side and patted the pokémon gently, who responded by pushing her towards her cousin. She glared at it.
"I was planning on having tea with you. You don't appear busy." he stated clearly, causing Clair to peer past him down the length of the gym. Over the rippling effect of the lava; from which all the people in the gym were protected by the special guards and platforms; she could see most of her trainers dozing, or doing various non-battle related things. Even the man at the door was reading a book. She turned back to smile a little sheepishly at Lance.
"I guess not."
hr
Sipping at the bitter liquid distractedly, Lance observed Clair having an animated discussion with the cashier, obviously a friend of hers. However, he frowned slightly. He came here to have tea with Clair, not drink tea with Clair in the room. Besides, as she'd so rightly pointed out, it had been several months since he last visited, so why was she talking to someone she could speak to any time over him?
Although, thinking of how she'd reacted in the gym, she seemed more surprised and even nervous to see him than happy. He frowned further, staring out the window at Blackthorn, few people wondering around the quiet city.
This wasn't going to plan at all.
He was distracted from his thoughts by Clair placing her drink on the table, then sitting herself.
"What's got you so grumpy? Not content with Johto anymore?" Her voice was teasing, but it seemed wrong somehow. Lance raised an eyebrow, but wasn't given chance to answer her questions. "So what are you going to do next? I mean, there's a league in Hoenn, and Sinnoh... Oh!" She grinned as she remembered something, leaning forward slightly. "I bet you heard about the new league in Unova! It's supposed to be really hard, and all those new pokémon! I bet they have some new dragons we've never even heard of! You should totally go with your Dragonite, they'll never have seen one of those, and that would be so awesome-"
"Is that what you want me to do?" Lance murmured, cutting her off as effectively as if he'd shouted. Clair looked confused and a little put out.
"But you like travelling, and I thought it would be a great opportunity, since you don't have so many commitments now and all that?" He resisted the urge to sigh deeply.
"That wasn't the question."
"Well, I guess you have commitments to the family, but I could probably take care of those for a few years, since I already have been, I'd just have to work harder to pass that damn test, and then-" He placed a hand over hers, wrapped around her as-of-yet untouched teacup, and watched how she managed not to shriek in surprise. The effect was immediate, as her face swiftly turned bright red, and she looked away from him.
"That wasn't answering my question, Clair. I asked you if that was what Iyou/I wanted me to do."
"But why does that matter? It's your future."
And I'd like you in it,he thought, then smirked at the triteness of it. Lance released her hand in favour of stirring his tea and taking a sip, while she delicately pinched a single sugar packet from the container.
"Would you miss me if I went?"
She paused for a moment, then continued to upend the packet into her tea, stirring it.
"I'd cope." While it was still evasive, it indicated a yes to that question. He saw her flick her eyes up to his momentarily before reaching for another sugar packet.
"Still got a sweet tooth then?"
She slumped as if caught, and grabbed a fistful of packets and began dumping the contents into her drink.
"How do you even drink it that bitter? It's horrible! And you know, a friend was telling me about this new drink that's supposed to be fashionable soon - called coffee. I had to try it, so I went on a trip to Goldenrod - I needed some shopping too, the shops around here are hopeless for clothes! - and it was disgusting! All bitter and nasty, apparently it's got some chemical that keeps you awake like tea does, but more. Even with fifty packets of sugar it was still awful! Then I got kicked out the cafe for using so much sugar, and I was like, 'It's not my fault this drink is so awful!' but they wouldn't have it. It kind of smells nice, but that's the only perk. I bet you'd like it, but you're weird like that." She huffed, finally drinking her tea with what looked like a half ratio of tea to sugar, judging by the small mountain of empty packets by her cup. Clair smiled, evidently happy with the taste of her drink, and Lance matched it, still finding Clair's long, animated anecdotes rather amusing, what with her making all these faces and gesturing with her hands.
"You'll just have to take me to have some then." She nodded eagerly.
"Yes! We could go in the department store too, and-" She cut herself off, appearing to think. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward, making Lance panic slightly. "Did you... just ask me on a date?"
"Perhaps." There was a rush of nervousness and anticipation and elation of her finally understanding something, but he managed not to say everything. He didn't know if she wanted to go with him, or even saw him like that. "What if I am?"
Clair sat back, stunned. She couldn't meet his eyes, suddenly vigorously stirring her tea.
"But that's..." she murmured so quietly as to make him wonder whether she'd actually spoken or not.
"What about Lyra?" Lance raised one eyebrow. Just what was she getting at?
"Too young." He was about to question her motives for even suggesting it in the first place, but she, as always, beat him to it.
"What about Karen? Or, or Lorelei? Or, um, Agatha? Or, or, ah, I dunno, Whitney? No, but maybe Jasmine?"
"Is the thought that I might like you so repulsive?" He couldn't quite keep the slight hurt that he felt out of his voice. Clair flicked her face up to face his in horror.
"N-no! It's just..." She blushed, looking down once more. "You have, like, a fan-club and everything! You could have anyone you wanted, so... why me...?" Trailing off, her final words were whispered.
"Why not you?" She laughed somewhat hollowly.
"That's not a valid reason, Lance."
"It's reason enough for me." From under her eyelashes, she peeked up at him, then returned to sip her tea. He could tell that she remained unconvinced of his sincerity. Why, he couldn't tell. She had never seemed like the kind of person to be so self-deprecating when it came to matters like this.
Having finished his drink, Lance put it to one side and leant forward onto his arms, resting on the table.
"Clair. I am not leaving in the near future. I am not pursuing any of the women you just mentioned. I came back here to spend some time with you, and unless you genuinely don't want to, I plan to do exactly that. I advise that you put aside whatever assumptions you've made based on media reports, since they are not true."
Clair vaguely resembled a magikarp out of water, eyes wide and mouth gaping as if she were trying to find elusive words. She'd turned bright red in her embarrassment that he'd been so frank with her, and Lance didn't even bother hiding his smirk.
He stood, holding a hand out to her, while she still observed it in shock. He'd been unaware that anything or anyone could render the talkative Clair speechless, and took a large amount of satisfaction on finding that he could do just that.
"I believe we have plenty of catching up to do."
"You, you're so! Ugh. Yes, I guess we do." Downing the remainder of her drink, she took his hand lightly and matched his motion of standing, and only hesitated slightly on hooking her arm through his.
Yes, that it was Clair was reason enough for him. He'd just have to make her see it the same way.
Title was going to be 'travelling' ion french but I spelt it wrong, so we get 'voyant' which is 'seeing' instead. Nevermind, sounds good all the same.
Also, don't know if they are in character in line with the games? I haven't reached this point in SS yet, so most of this is gleaned from various internet sources, ie not accurate at all.
This is part of a little challenge I'm sort of having with myself in portraying romantic relationships without the characters involved either kissing or saying 'I love you'. I guess I sort of cheated here, but was it alright? Did it even come across?
Lastly, I hope you enjoyed it!