Hello! Time for chapter 2 of Green Eyes! I am very happy with all the traffic this story has been getting since it was posted! Anyway, I would like to give a special thank-you to Writerdragon for the review and suggestion, I'm really happy that they took the time to give me a suggestion/ review. You, Writerdragon, are my idol for writing now. . Also, I wanted to apologize to Writerdragon and all the others who take/ have taken the time to read this story for the confusing same-paragraph character dialogue in the first chapter. Again, a big thank-you to Writerdragon, who helped me to realize this. Now, on with the show! P.S. I said Writerdragon quite a lot, didn't I?

Chapter 2

The day remained clear and beautiful as Ash, Cilan and Iris continued to travel. It hadn't been very long since their last rest stop in that clearing, so for now, Ash wasn't asking when they would eat next. Instead, he was focused on their destination: Opelucid City. (No, Ash has NOT gotten all of the other gym badges yet, but Iris has talked Ash into taking a detour to Opelucid to see an "old friend" of hers. Who could it be?) He knew that he couldn't challenge the Opelucid Gym Leader yet, and was slightly miffed that Iris had insisted on going to Opelucid off-schedule (Yes, Ash's idea of a "schedule" is pretty much to only go to a city after he has gotten the previous city's Gym Badge and yes, I am making an order for those, sorry ) , but eventually he just decided that he would use the visit to figure out the Opelucid Gym Leader's Pokémon type and plan a strategy against him.

"Hey Iris, how far is it to Opelucid City, exactly?" Ash inquired.

Iris linked her hands behind her head as she walked. "Well, that depends on how long we've been traveling since we last stopped. It hasn't been too long, maybe twenty minutes or so, so it should be roughly a day or two's travel."

"WHAT?" Ash suddenly stopped walking as his jaw connected with the ground. He turned toward Iris.

"You shouldn't act so surprised. The last stop we took was right near Driftveil City, which is more on the West side of the region. Opelucid is pretty much dead-center North. It's good that we're not following the road through the other cities actually." Iris said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Why's that?"

"Because, if we went that way, it would definitely take us at least two days to get there, actually it would probably take more like three or four."

Ash's eye twitched slightly and he closed his mouth. That's when he noticed that Iris' voice was starting to sound farther away. He snapped out of his stupor, to find that, the reason that Iris was sounding so distant was, in fact, because she was getting farther away. She and Cilan had continued to walk even after Ash had stopped walking.

"What the…..HEY! WAIT UP!" Ash yelled as he ran to catch up with them.

Upon hearing Ash's protest, Iris burst into a fit of giggles. Despite his better judgment, Cilan also smiled and chuckled slightly.

"That was a bit mean, don't you think?" Cilan asked Iris, though he was still smiling noticeably. "I mean, after all, to give him that sour piece of information about the distance to Opelucid City, and then to leave him behind like that? That must have left quite a foul taste."

Iris, still smiling, rolled her eyes at Cilan's "Connoisseur Speak". Sometimes she just didn't get him. At all! Even though she had been traveling with him for a while now. She wanted to know more about him. 'Hmmm…maybe later, after we set up camp for the night?' Iris thought. 'Yeah, that seems good. But then there's another problem; Ash. I'll have to come up with some excuse to make him go away so Cilan and I can talk.' Suddenly Iris turned bright red at how that might be interpreted. 'Um, nothing he shouldn't hear, of course but he's just kind of annoying. It's hard to talk when he's around. Plus it would be kinda weird if were to just sit there watching and listening to Cilan and I have a conversation. Maybe for-'

"Uhhh….Iris?"

Iris was suddenly wrenched from her thoughts. "Firewood! Wait, what?"

"Um, I asked why you did that to Ash." Cilan prompted, trying with some good effort not to laugh.

"Did what? Oh that! Yeah! Well, uh…I guess because I felt like it."

"But why would you really want to?"

"Because sometimes he's just so incredibly….childish. And stupid. And naive. I mean, where did he think Opelucid City was? The next city over? If it was, we would probably be able to see it by now! And you'd think he could take a hint from the fact that I clearly told him 'You won't be able to get that city's badge for a while!' I just can't believe he's so-"

"Alright, I get it." Cilan cut off her rambling. He chuckled slightly and closed his eyes.

"Oh, fine." Iris pouted. She looked back to see if Ash was at all close to catching up with them. At that point, he raced past them and almost hit a tree. Iris facepalmed. Cilan just sighed and smiled.

"Heh heh, guess I caught up with you guys." Ash said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Iris just sighed heavily. "I'll say you did."

The three walked in silence for quite a while.

"…..Hey, Iris?" Ash ventured innocently.

"Hm?" She responded simply.

"When can we stop for the night? I'm hungry."

Iris glared at Ash and was about to state the fact that he's pretty much always hungry when she noticed her own stomach feeling a bit hollow. She also noticed the sun was already well over halfway down. Long shadows fell from the trees, and a crisp breeze was blowing. She stopped glaring and shivered slightly.

"Actually, that sounds like a good idea." She agreed. "Cilan, is that all right with you?"

"Yes, that seems like a tasteful idea to me!" The Connoisseur consented.

"Alright, then let's find a place to rest for the night."

"I'll have Tranquill find us a spot!" Ash suggested. "Tranquill, go!"He released Tranquill out of its Poké ball.

"Tranquill, I need you to go find us a spot where we can rest for the night."

Tranquill gave its trainer a nod, then flew off. Not much later it came back.

"What's up? Did you find a spot?" Ash asked.

"Traaan!" It confirmed. It then flew off again, leading the three trainers to the place it had found.

It didn't take too long to reach the rest area that Tranquill had found. It was a small clearing, but still with enough space to make themselves comfortable, sheltered by many indigenous trees, and a good amount of fire kindling lay nearby on the ground.

"Thanks, Tranquill!" Ash said as he recalled the bird Pokémon back to its Poké ball. Then he, Cilan and Iris began to set up camp.

As Iris worked to unpack, and set up her sleeping bag and sleeping pad, her eyes once again wandered to the green haired Connoisseur who was busy with readying dinner. Again, she stared at him. Her hands worked on autopilot. Her eyes stayed glued to him, watching his ever-shifting form as he worked. The way he hummed, swayed his hips to the tune in his head, everything about him, she watched. And, as she watched, Iris realized….she liked him.

A/N OOOhhhhh, so there is a bit of an attraction beginning to form! Muahaha…! Iris will talk to Cilan while Ash is gone in the next chappie. Also, who do you think Iris' "old friend" is? Leave your ideas in the form of a review, please! Again, any form of suggestion is welcome! I need feedback! Thanks chinchillas!

-XXpeppermintookamixnXX