Disclaimers: 1) I do not own Pokemon and Saiunkoku Monogatari. 2) I always state the disclaimer to avoid lawsuits. 3) Yes, I am old enough to be sent to jail.


LAKE CONCORD - CHAPTER 2

When Ash finished laughing, he found himself right back where he had started from. He was back at Lake Concord. He was still lying against the same tree. His Pokemon were still sleeping in their proper places.

He looked back at the story which he wrote in his mind. A slice of life that had him play in the lake with Anabel and the Pokemon.

We used to have so much fun... Ash thought as he remembered how he and Anabel used to play in Tohjo Lake back then.

Hehe... We kept getting our clothes wet... I had to get a new set of clothes back at her cottage...

And then, something befell our hero. He remembered the story that he had pictured in his mind earlier.

He felt the urge to continue it.

What if Anabel and I went back to her place to get cleaned up?

Ash began to picture a room. It was Anabel's guest room. He wasn't sure if he got the dimensions and the wallpaper colors right. He wasn't even sure if her home had a guest room in the first place. He was human, after all. Like all humans, he couldn't form accurate images of things in his mind based on memory alone. Besides, he did ask, "What if?"

He pictured himself getting changed in the guest room. Anabel was getting changed in her own room. All of their Pokemon were playing outside. Ash and Anabel bothered to get their Pokemon dried up first before changing into fresh sets of clothes.

Being a dude, Ash didn't take long in getting dressed. After hanging his trunks out to dry, Ash stepped out of his room to check up on Anabel. Her home wasn't big, so it didn't take long for Ash to find her room.

As he walked towards the door, Ash remembered one particular fact about Anabel...

I happen to be a girl.

He remembered the fact that Anabel was a girl. Being a boy, Ash knew that he shouldn't barge into a girl's room, especially if a girl was busy dressing up inside that room. Therefore, he did the polite thing...

Knock on the door. Duh.

But before his clenched fist could hit the carved, wooden door, the aforementioned door opened slightly, leaving a crack in the doorway and an opportunity for Ash to see what a girl's room looked like. Ash thought that he could fight the temptation; unfortunately, he realized that he was wrong when he accidentally took a peek through the crack in the doorway. Now, he couldn't get his eyes off it.

Anabel's room was a simple room. The room's wallpaper matched the wallpaper used for the entire house. A small desk with a mirror was placed on one side of the room. Sitting on top of the desk seemed to be a make-up set and a jewelry box, but Ash couldn't be sure since he had never seen Anabel in either make-up or jewelry. By the desk was a window adorned by a set of lilac-colored curtains that complemented the wallpaper. Finally, there was the bed that was made for one. It was a simple bed with a generic bed cover. What wasn't simple about the bed was its headboard. Judging by the wooden carving and the lilac-colored padding, that headboard was custom-made.

Then, Anabel appeared. Her whole body was wrapped in a towel. Ash guessed that her room had its own bathroom. Master bedrooms normally had their own bathrooms, didn't they?

There she was. Fresh from the shower, Anabel was wrapped in a damp towel.

And there was Ash. Fixating his gaze onto her, he scanned her body from tip to toe. The outfit that she would normally wear would cover almost everything under her neck, so Ash had to use the power of his imagination to picture her figure in his head.

She's not fat, but she might still be hiding some flab underneath... Nah. She can't be flabby. Wait! Maybe she's a body builder who trains her body in secret! Nope. She doesn't act like the physical type. Hm... I'm pretty sure that she doesn't have those "good curves" yet, but what if she did have-?

"Eek!"

Uh-oh...

Slam.


Ash shook the idea off his head.

Ok. Bad idea.

After taking one, deep breath...

Ok. What if I didn't see her wrapped in a towel?

Then, before he went back to his story, Ash hastily added, What if I saw her "after" she had gotten dressed?


But before his clenched fist could hit the carved, wooden door, the aforementioned door opened slightly, leaving a crack in the doorway and an opportunity for Ash to see what a girl's room looked like.

Then, he saw Anabel. She had just finished fixing the last gold button on her lilac blouse. She hadn't noticed the crack in the doorway nor the Peeping Tom behind the door. To her, everything was normal. Nothing seemed out of place. As if nothing bad was going to happen to her in the next two minutes, Anabel walked up to the desk by the wall. She sat on the chair that she pulled out from under the desk.

Ash saw her take out a small box or container of some sort. He could tell that it was an old container because the intricate design on the box was fading and the golden paint was chipping off. Despite its old condition, the container still looked sturdy enough to hold items in it for more years to come.

After opening the lid, Anabel reached into the box and pulled out a pair of earrings. There was a pearl dangling in each one. The pearls had a purplish hue to them. Anabel took them and fastened each one of them onto each of her ears. Then, she modeled them in front of the mirror as if she was Kanto's Angel. She shook her head to see them sway along with her head. Ash had to stop himself from chuckling at this display. Seriously, he would never think that Anabel could be this... girly... If she was girly, then this was how he would imagine her to act like.

Anabel reached into her jewelry box again. This time, she pulled out a gold bracelet. A few gems adorned it. After slipping it onto her right wrist, Anabel gazed into the mirror again. She turned on the electric fan that stood beside the desk. Then, she began to act as if she was in a photo shoot for a magazine. She didn't say a word. Her poses did all the talking and they said, "Look at me! I'm fabulous!" Ash was now having a hard time stopping himself from laughing. If he had to watch one more display like this, then he would roll on the floor and laugh out loud.

Ash brought his attention back onto Anabel. He could see Anabel reach into her jewelry box for a third time. Suddenly, she stopped. Ash noticed the panicked look on her face as she franticly rummaged through her jewelry box. Then, Anabel sighed in relief. She calmed down as she pulled out a necklace from the box. She longingly gazed at the heart-shaped piece of gold that dangled on the golden lace. She pressed against the heart piece and it popped open, revealing a small picture of a girl and an older woman. Both of them had lilac-colored hair. One of them was most likely a younger version of Anabel. The older woman was probably-

"I'll see you again someday, Mommy..."

Anabel switched her gaze between the locket and another container that sat on the desk. She brought the second container closer to her and opened the lid. Tiny shelves popped up from the container. Anabel picked up a small stick that laid in one of the shelves. She pulled the cap off and twisted the stick until a red paste-like substance came out.

"You always told me to be whoever I want to be..."

She pressed the red stick against her lips.

"However, you also told me to never forget that I'm a woman..."

She began covering her lips with the red lipstick.

"That's why you gave me this..."

She pressed her lips together to make sure that every part of her lips was covered in blood red paint.

"Make-up... A woman's war paint..."

Next, she picked up a small brush.

"You watched over me, making sure that I knew what was right from what was wrong."

Then, she dabbed the brush onto a powdery, blue substance.

"I will never forget all that you have taught me, for you taught me out of love."

Then, she dabbed the powdery brush all over her eyelids.

"I'll always follow the path that I choose to take and I'll always take pride in who I am..."

Finally, after placing the brush back onto its proper shelf, Anabel looked at herself in front of the mirror.

"I am a woman. I am the Salon Maiden. I am Anabel."

Ash knew that he shouldn't be eavesdropping, but what Anabel said earlier had touched him. He was proud of her and he knew that her mother would be proud of her, too.

Forgetting that the door wasn't locked, Ash absent-mindedly let his arm lean against the door. He ended up losing his balance, tumbling into Anabel's room, and blowing his cover. As he was getting up, he found Anabel already standing in front of him. He tried to make-up an excuse, but when he looked at Anabel's face, he felt all time stop...


A/N: (Author's Nook)

KnightSoul: Yes, the second mini-story. The part with the make-up actually references Saiunkoku Monogatari, where Lady Kocho gave Shurei Hong a make-up kit when Shurei became one of the Emperor's officials. Lady Kocho calls make-up a woman's war paint.

I'll post the final part of Lake Concord tomorrow...