Begging for a Bet
"I think I might be spoiled," Krystal said after finishing off a deluxe sweet Pokepuff.
I laughed and said, "Me? Spoil you? Come on, Krystal. You know I only give you what you deserve."
We were both sitting on a bench, or to be more precise, I was sitting on it and Krystal was lying on it. Her sprawled out body took up about two thirds of the bench, and I occupied the last third.
"Well, I can't help but wonder if you have it in you to say 'no' to me," she said as she licked the back of her right forepaw and cleaned her face with it.
"Well, you never ask for anything unreasonable, and you're a very good Pokemon," I said proudly.
"Either way, I really don't think you could ever tell me 'no', no matter how hard you tried," she said as she put her paw down and smiled at me, "For instance, if I asked for a fancy mocha Pokepuff right now, you'd give it to me."
"You just had a Pokepuff, Krystal," I pointed out.
Krystal's gorgeous eyes seemed to twinkle, and I could tell a clever thought had just taken shape in her mind.
"Well," she began slyly, "I'm willing to bet that I can get you to give me another one."
Curious, I asked, "You mean an actual bet?"
Krystal nodded and said, "Give me your terms. What do I have to do if I lose?"
I stared hard at Krystal's confident face, noticing how cool she looked between her half-lidded eyes and her tuft of pure white hair. While I admired her, I also felt the need to water down her overconfidence a bit, which resulting in me recalling something that would just be too perfect for this situation.
"Okay," I said with a broad smiling, trying as hard as I could to keep from laughing at what I had planned for her, "If I win, you have to sing and dance for me."
This seemed to catch Krystal off-guard, and her head tilted in confusion. "Sing and dance?" she echoed, frowning slightly.
"To a song of my choosing," I added with certainty.
Krystal blinked her eyes at me, but then she smiled as her confidence returned to her. "Fine. There's no way I can lose anyway. So, if I win, I get the Pokepuff."
Now it was my turn to be confused. "Wait, what? But that's the what the bet is. You trying to get me to give you the Pokepuff. How are you getting anything out of the bet?"
"Jayron, I can't lose. It would be wrong to take advantage of you by getting something out of a bet you can't win," she said sweetly, smiling at me all the while.
I truly did admire Krystal's confidence in her abilities, and I took note that I seemed to be finding more and more reasons to love my best friend the longer we traveled together. However, I now wanted to see her do that song and dance more than ever. So, I nodded and said, "Okay then. What are the rules of this bet?"
"I just have to get you to willingly give me the Pokepuff. If you hand it to me, I win. If I give up, you win. Deal?"
Krystal stuck out her right forepaw towards me. I reached out with my right hand and gently held the broad paw, being careful of the large claws, and shook on it. "Deal," I said confidently. I didn't see how I could possibly lose this. All I had to do was just keep saying 'no', which didn't seem like much of a challenge.
The moment I let go of her paw, Krystal cocked her head and blinked her eyes at me. "Jayron, may I please have a Pokepuff? I'm hungry," she said.
It was a simple string of completely innocent sounding words. However, something about the way she had said them caused me to hesitate in answering. Her voice was far more innocent and gentle than it normally was, and those ruby-like eyes were staring right at me.
I eventually snapped out of my trance and said, "You already had one, Krystal. So, no. Maybe later."
Krystal pouted and opened her eyes wide. "But I'm hungry, Jayron," she whined.
"And here's your cute face," I remarked, smiling to hide the fact that my resolve was failing. I really did want to give her the Pokepuff at this point. I loved this Absol so much, so I did want to make her as happy as possible. It's not like she didn't deserve it. She was smart, loyal, kind, and various other positive adjectives. But, I couldn't let her fully realize that by winning this bet. It was the principle of the thing.
So, I endured and said, "I know what you're trying to do here, Krystal. So no. No Pokepuff for you."
Krystal continued to pout, and then proceeded to turn her face away from me.
"Oh boy," I remarked, wearing a slight smile due to her antics. However, that smile was lost when I heard the sounds Krystal was making. I stared at her, seeing that her eyes were closed, and she was making soft noises that sounded like a cross between whimpering and gentle meowing.
I let out a sigh. Obviously she was acting, but that barely made a difference to my emotions. What's more, I've always had good ear for music, so certain sounds had a strong effect on me more often than not.
"Krystal, stop," I urged gently, but the only response I got was her covering her face with her right forepaw as she continued to make those soft pitiful cries. Her tail also fell flat and stopped moving.
I breathed out in frustration. I really wanted to see her sing and dance. Then again, this bet wasn't really gonna cost me anything either way, and carrying on would only prolong the discomfort I was feeling. So, I took out a fancy mocha Pokepuff and said, "Okay, you win, Krystal. The Pokepuff is yours."
Krystal uncovered her face and flashed me a smile. "I told you so!" she said.
I smiled back to show that I had no hard feelings and was about to set the Pokepuff down in front of her, when a sudden idea came to me. It was risky, but I was sure it would be worth it. I just had to hose down her burning overconfidence a bit.
I held the Pokepuff out of reach and said, "Hold on, Krystal."
"Too late, Jayron!" she said with a smirk, "You said it was mine! No take backs!"
"Oh, but I've got a bet for you," I said with a smirk of my own.
Krystal tilted her head in confusion and asked, "What do you mean?"
"I bet that you don't have enough self-control to not eat this Pokepuff," I challenged.
"Not eat it?" Krystal echoed in confusion.
"I'm gonna set the alarm clock on my phone for a few minutes," I explained, "If you can stay here and keep yourself form eating the Pokepuff until the alarm goes off, you win. If you even taste it before then, you lose."
"How many minutes?" Krystal asked.
"A reasonable time," I answered cryptically.
Krystal tapped her fierce claws on the wooden bench she was lying on, her eyes looking downward as she thought it over. Then she let out a quick laugh and said, "Oh, this is too easy. Of course I can wait a few minutes. What are the terms?"
"If you lose, you sing and dance. If you win, I sing and dance," I replied.
Krystal's eyes went wide, "Are you serious?"
"You're not winning this one, Krystal!" I said while chuckling at the look on her face.
Krystal pouted and held out her right forepaws again. "You're gonna regret this, Jayron. Deal!"
I shook her paw again, and then proceeded to set the alarm on my smart phone. I then placed the fancy mocha Pokepuff on the bench right in front of her and started the timer.
Krystal looked down at the treat and sniffed what sounded like a contemptuous one, but it clearly only ended up bringing the sweet scent into her nose. The way her eyes lit up was proof of that. Krystal quickly shook off her excitement and began to stand up.
"Hold it, Krystal," I warned.
"What?"
"Where are you going?"
"For a walk."
"But I said, 'If you can stay here and keep yourself form eating the Pokepuff until the alarm goes off, you win,'," I said with a sly grin.
Krystal stared at me in shook, then gave another one of her cute pouts and resumed lying on the bench in silence.
I turned away from her and focused on my phone, bringing up some of my past articles for the Lumiose Press, as well as a couple of other articles based off of sudden ideas I've gotten. I never really deleted anything, because inspiration can come from anywhere at any times. Old ideas could either be reborn, or recycled into something new.
After some time of cycling through the files, reading the names to refresh my memory, I turned to check on Krystal. Her face was really close to the Pokepuff, and if I paid close attention, I could hear her sniffs.
Krystal's eyes looked up at me and our gazes met. She held perfectly still, and she said to me in a quick, shaky voice, "I'm just smelling it."
I didn't say anything, but I knew that I had this in the bag now. As long as I didn't do anything to scare her off, she'd be sure to end up making the mistake that would hand me the win. I knew that being stuck on the bench with the treat would result in her smelling it, which would result in the inevitable mistake I knew was coming.
I was reading through one of my articles which I selected at random, when I suddenly heard a gasp. I turned towards Krystal and laughed at what I saw. She had quickly raised her head and her eyes were wide and crossed to look at the tip of her nose. It was just as I predicted. She had gotten a little carried away from her sniffing, and ending up getting a bit of frosting on her nose.
"You walked right into my trap!" I declared triumphantly.
She stared at me and said quickly, "I didn't taste it!"
"Yet," I added, feeling more confident that I ever had.
Krystal's body began to shudder, and I knew why. Both instinct and reflex was demanding that she lick the frosting off her nose. I could tell that she was having a hard time resisting the urge, but she appeared to be holding up pretty well. Her nose was twitching madly, her lips were pressed together; she even shut her eyes.
At this point, I began to feel nervous. I began to worry that she might make it. Luckily, just as my nerves were beginning to rattle, I got to see her tongue slip out of her mouth and slide across her nose.
"No no no!" she cried out telepathically, her eyes wide with panic.
I let out a sigh and relief and said, "I gotta admit, you had me worried there, Krystal. I thought you might actually make it."
Krystal blinked her eyes and said, "Really? How much longer did I have?"
At that moment, the alarm on my phone went off.
Krystal frowned, and her eyes displayed a sense of disbelief. "Seriously?" she said in a flat tone.
I turned the alarm off and quickly found the video for the song and dance that had come to mind at the start of all this. "So," I said, "A deal is a deal. Are you ready?"
"First things first," she remarked, and she quickly dove into the Pokepuff in front of her. It took her only a few bites to eat, and she quickly cleaned her face off in her normal feline manner.
"Okay then," I said slowly, "Now, look around. Do you see anyone?"
Krystal did as I said, and she replied, "No. No one's around."
"Good," I said excitedly as I held the phone out to Krystal so she could see the screen, "Then I'm sure you won't mind doing this too much."
I played the video, and I had to hold back my laughter when her jaw dropped, and her eyes widened. When the video ended, Krystal was clearly blushing.
"Well?" I asked with a grin.
Krystal finally closed her mouth, but her blush was still visible. "Well," she began, "I guess. . . it could be worse. . .Not that you'd ever make me do something bad, Jayron! No, you love me. You'd never. So, yeah, it's pretty funny, I guess. And you risked yourself having to do it. And there's no one else around at the moment so. . . ."
Krystal's eyes darted around nervously for a few seconds, then she gave me a look of impatience and said, "Fine, but one condition. You record me doing it."
This caught me off guard, and I asked, "You want me to record it? Why would you-?"
"So, I never have to do it again," Krystal explained, "If you ever doubt that I can be cute and funny, or if you want to remember how cute and funny I can be, you can just watch the video."
At that moment, I was both proud of and impressed by this Absol I've bonded with. Clearly she no longer felt the need to hide her true self from me, and clearly trusted me completely. So, I nodded and said, "Sure, Krystal. I'd be happy to."
So, I activated my phone's camera as Krystal got off of the bench and stood in front of me.
I hit the record button and nodded. "I'm recording. Anytime you're ready," I said as I made sure she was in the center of the shot.
Krystal closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then she opened them and put on the biggest smile she could muster. Then she burst into song with her telepathy, sitting up on her haunches so she can do some jazz hands, or rather jazz forepaws.
"Well..."
She then stuck out her right forepaw and pointed with it as leaned from her right to her left.
"Who wants a lamby, lamby, lamby?"
Krystal then waved cheerily with her left forepaw, and then her right.
"I do! I do!"
She then did a quick hop with her hind legs, a tricky task for a quadruped, but she managed to pull it off, and then proceeded to point with her right forepaw again.
"So, go up and greet your mammy, mammy, mammy"
Krystal kept smiling as she waved cheerily again.
"Hi there! Hi there!"
She then dropped back down on all fours and began marching around in a circle.
"So march, march, march around the daisies,"
Krystal sat up on her haunches again for her finale, complete with more jazz forepaws.
"Don't, don't, don't you forget about the ba-by!"
To top it all off, Krystal gently touched her face with the middle claw of her left forepaw, still smiling widely and adorably.
I stopped the recording and saved the video, smiling at how Krystal impromptu performance was better than I could have ever imagine. I ran right over to her and gave her a loving hug. I gently stroked the tuft of hair on the right side of her head.
"You know, I don't think anyone else deserves to see something so sweet."
"Good."
Gravity Falls - Dipper's Lamby Lamby dance (Original) – TinyURL: lyftaok
