song inspiration: Invisible, by Taylor Swift
Black is good at running. He's good at running away from his problems, in particular, which is a lot less impressive than Senior Pearl's marathon medals, but it's still true.
The only problem is that this is one problem that's getting harder and harder to run away from.
Case in point: he's actually waiting for it's cause right now, his knees jouncing like a jackhammer beneath the iron table between him and his ever-patient senior.
"It's bad, Diamond. It's real bad."
"Which part?" Diamond asks thoughtfully, sipping loudly from his boba straw. Lady Berlitz is actually up in the very tall, multi-windowed building on the opposite corner; the two ladies are throwing together their brains and names to launch forward White's newest project.
Which means that Black has been talking Diamond's ear off for about three days straight now, coming up on four.
This is not the first installment in Black's Help Me series, which is pretty relieving since most of Black's Pokémon team really couldn't care either way and thus give terrible and very extreme advice.
"The part where she's in love with somebody else," Black rants, "even though he's clearly just in it for the fame. Come on. A fledgling actor just happens to fall in love with one of the new leading film directors in the region? It's so obvious!"
"Maybe he's just enamored with her talent."
"I doubt it. I mean, she's got spades of talent; that's obvious. But he's just gonna use her. I'm sure of it."
"Have you actually told her any of these suspicions?" Diamond suggests, knowing very well that it's a rhetorical question and that he definitely hasn't.
"She already...she already knows that I'm kinda into her. From the Thing that Happened last month? So we've been pretty sketchy ever since, as you could imagine." He sticks his fingers absentmindedly through the grated in the table, distracted and distraught.
"I can imagine."
"Exactly." Black slumps down in his seat, glum. Diamond takes another long sip before chomping down on some squishy boba.
"That's rough, buddy," he says at last, which doesn't really do much in terms of boosting Black's self-confidence.
"Any ideas?"
"Sabotage," says sweet Diamond instinctively, and Black blinks. "You know, like legal political assassination."
"You've been spending too much time with Lady Berlitz's lawyers."
Diamond laughs, his eyes sparkling.
"It's possible. They give me cake when I sign NDAs for them."
"Nice."
"I know."
The two boys sit in silence for a while, watching birds pass by overhead. Somewhere around the corner is a chick playing guitar, a big open case in front of her and a crooning Altaria beside her. They sound excellent, and Black has already deposited some change and compliments in her case. But the song — though still melodious — sounds sad, now, for some reason. Well, it's probably not for any dramatic reason, he decides. Just an excellent mental playlist.
Wow, he wishes he could play music. Then maybe he could serenade White, or just help her pick good tunes for the background of her work. So far, their tastes are pretty polar.
"How did you win Lady Berlitz over?" Black asks, and Diamond surprises him again by snorting loudly.
"She won me."
Well, that's not going to work in his case, but Black senses an interesting story and scoots his chair closer to listen.