Aurea angrily stomped towards her front door at 12 a.m. in the morning. She snatched the house keys from the rack and and pulled open the door, not even bothering to call out goodbye.
Why her father thought staying up until 12 a.m. without coffee would work, she didn't know. He wasn't twenty-four anymore.
Walking quietly down the street, she shivered and pulled the large coat tightly around her pajamas, a pair of fuzzy pajama pants covered in flying doughnuts (A joke gift from Jenny) and a baby blue tank top. Feeling silly walking outside before dawn Aurea silently laughed at herself, before stopping when she realized she was staring at her reflection in a window.
Her eyes scanned the bold golden words reading,
"ChiMart. Open 6 a.m.-10 p.m."
Shoot. She thought these stores were supposed to be open at all hours.
Grumbling to herself, she trudged on further.
"Looks like I'm going to Lumiose then."
She pulled out her Oran watch and texted her father.
"I'll be out later than expected, the shop's closed."
Minutes later the watch pinged, reading a jumble of letters and a few numbers. Between the mess of confusion she could make out something about hot chocolate and onions. Or was it chocolate and honey? She'd just get both. Just in case.
20 minutes of walking in the dark later, she'd arrived at Lumiose with her guard up. The city was large, well known, and full of characters. At night it always unnerved her, especially since Fennel had told her about that one time where two mobsters came up and tried to rob her. Fennel wasn't stupid though and carried around pepper spray, unlike Aurea.
With a small, "Ding Dong" the door opened and she stepped into the larger "Chi Mart". She wandered the shelves picking up the onions, hot chocolate, chocolate, and coffee grounds, stopping only to pick up creamer her father liked.
She got in an (empty) line and placed her items on the conveyer belt. The man at the register quickly scanned her items
"That's quite an interesting set of items."
Aurea laughed,
"Yes well i have quite the interesting father."
The man laughed as he pressed a few buttons on his computer,
"Well I'm sure his daughter is just as interesting."
Aurea almost snorted but covered it up with a cough,
"Not really." she said, knocking back his attempt at flirting," He sent a text full of gibberish and I guessed. He's always working his body to exhaustion, normally just because he can be absentminded. He's going to get himself killed one day and I'm going to be left telling his corpse i told him so."
The man chuckled, putting the items in a bag,
"Well At least he has someone looking out for him."
"I'm pretty sure it should be the other way around."
"Maybe, but you both take care of each other and that's important." A genuine smile fell over his face,"So," he exclaimed reminding Aurea that she was indeed still talking to a stranger and not an old friend,"to purchase your rare set of one of a kind treasures it will be 12.42 and one date!"
Aurea laughed at the joke reaching for the bags before he pulled them back.
"You're kidding?"