Liam and Mori set their double date for the first Saturday of the Lunar New Year vacation. Their class had originally planned—it seemed like ages ago—to try for another badge during this break, but the attack on Santiago's over Christmas had changed all that. Miss Snyder had put every student under strict orders not to travel without an adult—effectively scuttling the entire enterprise. Mori was not-so-secretly pleased.
"This is way better than murdering our legs for a badge," she remarked as they caught `Bus 104 for Feather and Petal Street.
Mori had warned Liam to bring a lot of money, which made him nervous. She wouldn't say here they were eating, and Liam didn't know of any restaurants in the winding, narrow walking streets of Feather and Petal. But Mori knew about lots of hidden places. Pizza da Rocchetto was one of them.
Nestled in an old-fashioned Nanzonese house with an enclosed courtyard, Pizza da Rocchetto was a strange meeting of worlds. The architecture and furniture were decidedly local—harkening back to when Everspring was still a mid-sized town with dirt streets and houses made of mud bricks. Yet the cuisine—and the owner—oozed with the bucolic charm of Fiore.
"Ah, it's Mori!" exclaimed Rocchetto. "You come back to me at last."
Rocchetto was a thin, round-faced man, with curly black hair and short beard. He personally escorted them to a second-floor table overlooking the walled courtyard and lighted by flickering candles. Liam took an immediate liking to him. His heavy Fiore accent and theatrical delivery was almost comical, but his enthusiasm was so genuine that it proved contagious. The menu at Pizza da Rocchetto was small, but Rocchetto seemed to have more passion for each item than most restaurateurs had for their whole menu.
"Oh, you must try the lasagna," said Rocchetto as Liam and Chelsea examined the tiny, hand-written menus. "I make it myself. My Charmeleon, he keeps the oven always hot. And the mushroom—fresh from Hempshear. Ah!—delicious."
It was hard to say no to Rocchetto, but Liam had never been keen on lasagna. He and Chelsea decided to split an authentic Fioran pizza, and Rocchetta seemed satisfied with their choice. He swept away their menus and disappeared into the unseen kitchen on the first floor.
"Where'd you find that guy, Mori?" asked Liam.
"Rocchetto's been in Everspring since… I dunno, forever," said Mori. "He's fun. Plus, you can trust him not to rat you out to the parental authorities."
Liam raised an eyebrow.
"Meaning?"
Mori gave a mischievous smile and shot a glance at Dustin. He produced a pack of Jadetower cigarettes from his ragged hoodie and slid it carelessly to the center of the table.
"Crap," said Chelsea in Liam's head. "Bro, are they seriously—?"
"Asthma," said Liam, pushing the pack back towards Dustin. "Also, I prefer not being expelled."
Dustin smiled sardonically, as though Liam had given an incredibly lame excuse.
"I told you Rocchetto's not gonna rat us out," said Mori, lighting her cigarette on the red candle in the middle of the table. "But whatever. Be a coward if you want."
Liam was less offended by Mori's teasing because he knew her opinion of him hadn't changed. It was Dustin's smug expression that bugged him. He really couldn't figure Dustin out. He had an undeniable aura of irreverent coolness—an unaffected mystique that Liam couldn't help but admire. He was too freckled and scrawny to be traditionally handsome, but Liam could see—or sort of see—why Mori looked at him so hungrily. The flicker of his dark eyes and faint curl at the corner of his mouth gave what would have otherwise been a bored, blank expression a fascinating intelligence, and the messiness of his curly, reddish hair added the roguish appeal that Liam imagined was the main draw for Mori. She had readily confessed that she had bad taste in boys.
After the initial shock of the cigarettes, the rest of the evening turned out surprisingly pleasant. Dustin didn't say much, and Chelsea said even less, but the food was excellent, and Liam and Mori had a good time teasing each other, making fun of their absent friends, and debating the relative virtues and vices of their teachers.
"Look, Coach Tang is okay in Battle Class," said Liam. "But I don't know what they were thinking letting her teach PokeChemistry. I think I understand it better than she does, and I don't get it at all."
"She's such a joke," said Mori. "I don't get why Kahakai doesn't fire her."
"I think she's nice," ventured Chelsea. "Even if she is an awful teacher."
"Yeah, well I wish she would be nice when she was grading the equations she didn't teach me how to do," said Mori bitterly. "Hey, you can read her mind, right? Does it make any more sense on the inside of her head?"
It was the first time Mori had acknowledged Chelsea's psychic powers to her face. Liam glanced at his girlfriend, wondering how she would respond.
"I don't read other people's minds on purpose," said Chelsea. "Not without permission, at least. I don't think I've ever tried on Coach Tang."
"I bet the inside of her head is like a mianbao driver's glove compartment," said Dustin.
"Ew," said Mori and Chelsea together.
Mori's Misdreavus, who was tumbling through the rafters of the restaurant, gave a pleased snicker.
"So, Mori," said Chelsea suddenly. "I have a question, if you're okay with—."
"You digging around in my head?" asked Mori suspiciously.
"No way," said Chelsea seriously. "I'm keeping myself busy with what's in his head. I can't multitask. I just wanted to ask about what happened with that… thing I wasn't supposed to know. From last semester."
"Oh," said Mori. "Yeah, that... "
She extinguished her cigarette in the ashtray.
"It was a dead end. Somebody lost some files or something. They have no idea where she is. The only way I'll ever find her is if I go looking for her myself."
Mori leaned back in her chair with a resigned sigh.
"You should take me with you when you graduate," she said to Dustin. "Doesn't a road trip through Hoenn with your girlfriend sound like a fun gap year?"
"Sure," said Dustin, but he said it in such an off-handed way Liam was sure he didn't really mean it at all. Mori, however, seemed content with the noncommittal response.
Perhaps she saw something in it that Liam didn't.
It was nearly nine o'clock when they said goodbye to Rocchetto—who was enjoying a cigarette and a glass of wine in the courtyard of his restaurant—and took a taxi back to New Court. Liam gave Chelsea the front seat so she didn't have to share the back with Mori and Dustin. They had been getting more and more affectionate all evening, and Liam did his best to ignore whatever it was they were doing in the seat next to him. As they disembarked and made their way to the dry fountain in the middle of the New Court apartments, Liam was starting to wonder if they had arrived at the real purpose of the double-date—at least from her point of view.
"So," Liam began, "what do you guys wanna…?"
He trailed off. He had noticed a mischievous sparkle in Mori's dark eyes. Clearly, she already had plans.
"Me and Dustin are gonna go… do stuff," said Mori. "You and your little redhead can spend some alone time or do whatever. I don't really care. But if anyone asks, we were with you."
"Weren't you the one who was lecturing me about how a relationship can't just be kissing all time?" said Liam warily.
Mori shrugged.
"Yeah, well, I'm a hypocrite. Thank me later."
She winked at him and walked off with Dustin, leaving Liam and Chelsea standing awkwardly by the empty fountain. Liam turned to his girlfriend and tried to read her expression. He was embarrassed by Mori's behavior, and as much as he wanted to sneak off to a dark staircase with Chelsea, he had also taken Mori's advice to heart, and he didn't want to cast it aside as flippantly as she had. He noticed that Chelsea was looking at him with trepidation, as if she could sense the conflict inside of him.
"You know, we haven't battled in forever," said Liam after a long pause. "That grassy area under the ring road should be empty. Wanna give our Pokemon some exercise?"
Chelsea grinned, and Liam thought he saw both pleasure and relief on her face.
"That sounds fun, bro."