CHAPTER 38 – TALKERS AND TEASERS

Ari pored over the streets in the main hub of the island, vainly searching for Dawn amongst the thousands of people moving along the footpaths. He knew that it was going to take a lot of explaining to get back on her good side, and he was prepared to do whatever it took to do so, but at the same time he was scared. Scared because he was going to have to open up about an experience of his life that he wished he would never have to relive again. As he grappled with the prospect of facing his demons, he frantically looked around at the crowds, searching for a soft white hat perched on a sweep of navy blue hair, or some other sign that Dawn was around.

"Come on, Dawn, where'd you run off to?" he muttered, pulling a PokéBall from his waist. He looked down at it, contemplating, before he shook his head and put it back in its place. "No, not this time." He set off again down the street, not looking where he was going, and as he crossed onto the paved road a passing car clipped him on the side. The force of the collision, despite being only a glancing blow, was enough to bowl Ari over and onto the pavement, smacking his head on the asphalt. A worried-looking motorist jumped out of the car, hurrying over and apologising to him, but he quickly stood up and waved him away.

"My fault… wasn't watching where I was going," he said calmly, flicking on a smile before moving on his way. But he hadn't taken two steps before a hand clamped down on his shoulder. "Dawn?" he asked, spinning around. He groaned in disappointment when he saw that the person standing behind him wasn't Dawn, but a tall teenage boy, with a mess of spiky brown hair, wearing a tight-fitting black shirt.

"Guess again, chump," smirked Gary. "But don't tell me your head's been wrecked by a little bump like that, mistaking a Machoke like me for your girlfriend!"

"Well if it's any consolation, Machoke aren't the smartest Pokémon," fired Ari, pushing Gary's hand off him. "And I really don't have time for you; I'm looking for Dawn, alright?"

"What a stroke of fortune, then!" said Gary, clapping his hands together. "I just happened to see Dawn running off down that way—" he jerked his thumb down the street, "about ten minutes ago."

"In that case, sorry but I really must be off," blurted Ari, starting down the road in the direction Gary had pointed, but Gary snatched at his arm and held it, his grip like steel.

"Slow down, speedy," he said, wrenching Ari back around to face him. The latter could see that Gary, now, wasn't in the arrogantly joking mood that he'd been in a moment ago: his eyes were firm, and he wasn't smirking in the slightest. "From what I could see, she was either really angry at something, really upset, or both."

"Yeah, because I—"

"Let me finish," Gary interrupted. "Now I'm sure that you want to go and clear the air with her over… whatever it is that's got her like this, but—"

"Oh come on," rasped Ari, rolling his eyes. "Look, I don't need your advice, Gary! Your track record in serious relationships, from what I've heard, is pretty poor."

"At least I've been in a serious relationship, Ari," shot Gary coldly, his eyes flashing warningly. "I can help."

"Not this time."

"Well, what's the whole deal, eh? You can tell me over a burger or something, my treat," Gary offered kindly. Ari grunted in approval, so Gary let go of his arm and motioned towards a small restaurant nearby. "Come on, this one looks pretty decent." Ari let himself be ushered inside, taking note of the restaurant patrons who were turning to stare at himself and Gary, amazed, and probably feeling privileged, to be in the company of such elite Trainers.

Great, now Gary wants to know...

"Come on, daddy!" squealed a tiny pink-haired girl as she skipped along the sidewalk, heading for a girl's fashion shop around the corner.

"I'll meet you there, Amy, I just want to check out this digital camera!" her father called out, peering into the window of an electronics store. Amy ran the last few steps to the corner and swung around it, crashing into a tall figure and falling onto the ground. "Hey, watch it mister!" she huffed grumpily.

"Watch it yourself, runt, or you'll be sorry," hissed the stranger, fixing Amy with such a sour look that she took to her heels and ran crying back to her father down the street. "Stupid kid…" he muttered, briskly walking along before the man could give chase to him. He heard a shout behind him, so he quickened his pace, his feet thudding along the cement until he turned into Wilson Street and sought cover behind the large maple tree by the bakery where he and Ash's friends had waited for Staravia to find them yesterday. He remembered hearing of Ash's predicament from Ari at this very spot, but the thought of Ari inflamed his mind and drove him to anger. In an attempt to lower his temper he rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a flick-knife from the deepest pocket in his pants. He opened up the blade and drove it into the tree, pushing the knife in up to the handle and shouting out his frustration as he did.

"Alright, Leoric, you're calm, you're cool, you're not angry at Ari, you're angry at yourself," he growled, pulling the handle. The knife didn't budge, and so he planted his foot against the base of the tree and tugged it out, almost losing an ear as it flew past his shoulder and buried itself in the soft grass. "Stupid knife…" he murmured, picking it up and turning back to the tree. He considered slashing a message in the bark, but he decided against it and closed the knife up, stowing it back in his pocket. "Stupid everything!" he bellowed to the heavens, clenching his fists.

"Even stupid me, Leo?" pouted a girl's voice behind him. Leoric spun lightly on his feet and saw a familiar kind-faced orange-haired girl strutting toward him.

"Uh, no, not you, Misty," stuttered Leoric, his hands in his pockets and intentionally looking everywhere else but at her as she came closer.

"Got a Beedrill in your bonnet?" she asked, leaning against the maple tree and raising her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah, it's—ah, never mind, you wouldn't be interested," he said dismissively.

Misty's eyebrows shot up further, disappearing behind her fringe. "Well now, I most certainly am interested! So spill. What's got you stabbing trees?"

"You saw—?" Leoric asked, and Misty winked at him in answer. "Right. Well. I just found out that my best friend, who I have told everything to, has this enormous secret that he's kept from me since when we first started travelling together. It's been about four years since he and I met in Blackthorn City, and he never told me," he said bitterly.

"I thought you were from Hoenn," she commented.

"Well, I was thirteen when I met Ari. He was twelve."

"Okay, that explains it," Misty said warmly. "So—" she pushed off the tree and moved a little closer, "how come you're so worked up over it?"

"Who says I'm worked up?" Leoric asked. "Oh, the tree-stabbing, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well I don't know why I'm so angry, to be honest," he hissed, poking the tree with his shoe. "I guess it's that I was always honest with him – y'know, shared everything with him – and now I found out that he's got all this stuff that he's kept secret? I feel a bit betrayed, to tell the truth."

"Because you don't think he's been honest with you, like you have to him?" Misty put forward.

"Exactly!" shouted Leoric. "You should be a psychologist." Misty blushed and shuffled her feet, but said nothing. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this stuff anyways. I don't even know you, for one."

"True," she said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. She smiled at him. "Which means there's no reason for us not to get to know each other a little more," she whispered suggestively, her eyes twinkling at him.

Now Leoric raised his eyebrows at her. "Was that just what I thought that was?"

"Depends on what you thought it was," she teased.

"I'm thinking that that was a… continuation of you working your little magic, like you obviously were when we were riding on Apache," he winked.

Misty shrugged. "What can I say? When a hot guy has me between himself and his Pokémon – and has his arm around my waist – I might get the wrong idea and something might happen," she said softly, her voice lilting at the end.

"Me, a hot guy? I must say, Misty, I'm flattered. But y'know, there's a fine line between flattery and ass-kissing," he said cheekily, sticking his tongue out.

"Believe me, from where I'm standing, that line isn't the only thing that's fine," replied Misty unashamedly, tilting her head to the side and moving her eyes up and down.

"And I think you just crossed over into ass-kissing."

"Whatever you say, Leo," she said, sensually curving her speech around the last word. "Well, good luck on your spat with Ari," she added, turning around and walking away, excessively swinging her hips in her stride, knowing that Leoric couldn't help but look.

He couldn't. Leoric quickly found his eyes following the dipping, rocking rhythm that her mid-section was making, and he crossed his arms when she bent down to fix the strap on her shoe. After close to a minute Misty finally stood up, and he was extremely surprised to find her walking back towards him. "Back for more?" he called arrogantly.

"Oh, you w—" started Misty, but her feet caught on something in the ground and she tripped, falling towards the ground. Leoric yelled and jumped forwards, his hands clutching under her arms to stop her from cracking her skull on the concrete.

"Come on, you could at least help!" puffed Leoric, trying to heave her back on her feet, but Misty seemed full of dead weight. "Just—oof—put your arms—hah—around me to—pull yourself up—!" He felt Misty put her arms around his waist, and finally he could pull her upright. "You really should focus less on me and more on where you're going," he smirked.

"Sorry, guess a girl can't help herself," she whispered.

Leoric suddenly realised that her hands were in the back pockets of his pants, and that their faces were so close to each other – her nose was nearly touching his. He swiftly reached for her hands and pulled them away from him, taking a nervous but firm step back. Misty flashed a crestfallen look at him, and for a fleeting moment he was tempted to her, but he released his grip on her hands and smiled arrogantly at her. Misty saw the look in his eyes and smirked.

"You're a tease, Leoric Reiger. And you know it."

"Y'know, if you don't touch that, I'm gonna finish that off," remarked Gary. He looked across the table and over his half-eaten chicken burger. Ari hadn't touched his meal; he was just staring at it moodily, his head in his hands. "Losers, weepers!" he said, switching his burger for Ari's and taking a huge bite out of it. The latter just blew out a deep breath and looked away.

"Okay, never mind the burger. Just tell me what the heck's going on with you and Dawn."

"It's not—! It's not her," Ari mumbled, making Gary look at him in surprise; that was the first thing he had said since they walked into the restaurant. "It's me."

"Well if it's not her, it must've been you. I kinda figured that one," he smirked. "So then, what's the problem with you, eh?"

"Stuff that happened a long time ago…"

Gary regarded Ari with a cold set of eyes as the younger Trainer purposely looked everywhere but at him, but the ghost of a smirk played at the corners of his mouth. Unfortunately for him, Ari happened to glance at him at that moment, and his face twisted with anger.

"You think this is funny?!" he shouted, making several people near him turn in confusion.

"This 'stuff that happened a long time ago' wouldn't be that old story of you and Paul, would it?" ventured Gary.

"No, I told her about that nearly a week ago, the first day we met," he explained. "Sort of became necessary after Dawn nearly slapped him off the bridge when we ran into him."

"What'd she slap him for?"

"Because he spat on the ground in front of me."

"And that was before you two were going out, right?"

"We'd only met each other about an hour ago, in fact. But they know each other from before, apparently," he shrugged. "Give me that back," he hissed, grabbing his hamburger from Gary's grasp and tearing a chunk out of the unbitten side.

Gary laughed. "Well, good to see you're finally hungry. I was worrying I'd really have to eat the whole thing!" he joked, and Ari chuckled, his mouth full of burger. "So, if that's not it, what is?" he asked. Ari decided not to answer, continuing to chew his food, so Gary chose to step things up.

"Does it have anything to do with the two bouquets I saw you and a certain arch-rival of yours hurl into the ocean?"

Ari stared at him and started choking on his food. After much coughing and spluttering he finally managed to force the food down his throat, and once he'd done that he looked incredulously at Gary, who let the smirk on his face show. "How do you—?"

"I'll put it this way; you two aren't the only ones who like taking walks."

"Fine, yes it does have to do with that," snarled Ari. "But that's all you're gonna find out about that."

"I can always ask Paul," Gary sneered.

"And he'll be more likely to shoot you than tell you," said Ari coldly, getting to his feet.

"Geez, Ari, who died?" Gary joked.

Ari's mouth twitched in anger as he pulled out a few notes and coins and slammed them down on the table where they were seated. "That should cover me," he seethed, before he strode out of the restaurant and into the open air. Gary looked at the spot where Ari had disappeared before glancing down at the money he'd left. He counted them in his mind and laughed.

Quiz:

*Which of the Weekly Siblings appears in Blackthorn City, and what day does he/she appear?