Little Mareep, Ch. 3: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
"You should know a thing or two about Mareep." Melanie began, as both she and Ash walked through her refinery.
Though 'refinery' was a glorified term compared to the giant buildings that industrialists and big farmers had: this was just a place where she stored the mixtures she made - and had a massive bubblebath when there was money to spare. Still, Ash could hear the humming from each engine and boiler, and he could imagine how noisy it got when this place was busy.
"Sure, they get timid when afraid, but since most Mareep have to fear predators, their senses of smell, sight, touch and hearing are excellent. They also remember faces very well, and I...don't like saying this, but-"
"-I caused a lot of trouble and scared your flock away," Ash humbly admitted, "and I'm going to get them all back. Don't worry. So I bet you have a way around this?"
"Yep. We just have to change a few tiny things. Nothing drastic." She lied. They had to change his appearance entirely, into something the Mareep would find much more lovable. But why tell this unsuspecting boy everything at once when she could spring one surprise after another?
Melanie eyed up her model: Ash was about as tall as her. He had a fair bit of black hair on his head, though not as much as hers, and it spiked out messily to the sides (endearingly so, but that wasn't what they needed). While he was in rather good shape, his skin was rough and brittle from years of travelling. Also, he smelled, and that had to be fixed.
She had a lot of work to do. And a lot of changes to make.
The first thing to fix was the touch. Melanie's Pokemon were used to her soft touch, one she had cultivated using some skin cream she made.
"You see, to make it I combine some Sunflora oil with the sleep powder from a Vileplume, then give it an electric charge so it won't induce sleep, add some berries for nutrition and for-"
Ash found it difficult to keep up with her, yet he was enthralled all the same - he didn't know how Melanie, who could only have been two years older than him at most, was such a science whizz. Did everything she say check out? He was bored by what she used it for, yes, but the way she worked with Pokemon to create it was fascinating.
"-Did you get all that, Ash?"
"Eh, yeah."
"Great!"
Yep, the cream she used was great, if Melanie could say so herself; it left the skin softer and slender than before. Apply it twice a week, and it paid off in under a month.
But they were on a tight schedule, so she just filled an entire tub with it and mixed it with mud.
"This way it's both a moisturiser and a mud-bath!" She beamed. The side-effects couldn't be too bad.
"Wait," Ash, wearing only his boxers, stammered in his step when they reached the small pool. "Are you sure this is safe? I can just have a shower and-"
Melanie shoved him in before he could finish that sentence.
"This is just as nice!" She assured the boy, who sank with a ceremonious 'plop'.
"I could add some bubbles if you like!" The girl hollered, but Ash was busy spitting mud out of his mouth.
When he got out five minutes later, the first thing Melanie had him do was shower off, and when they did they could see he had fortunately not grown a third arm or any horrible conditions like that. But his skin had turned as soft as a peach. His hands, rough from years of travelling across forests, mountains and oceans - now they were so light that he could get a papercut from mishandling a letter.
"Mm, you did come out good." Melanie stroked his hand all the way up to his shoulder. "I should try that treatment myself sometime!" Ash winced when her nail poked against some skin, and Melanie backed off. "Though I might make it two minutes instead of five next time. Sorry."
Ash couldn't say he was pleased. He tried touching the palm of his hand himself - he wasn't just soft, he was skinnier. He'd heard that mud baths had that effect, but his arms and legs seemed at least a size smaller.
"Am I supposed to be smaller?"
"Oh, that? Don't worry about the skinny thing, that wears off in a week, easy." She said nonchalantly. Though Ash was feeling nervous; life is so much easier when people don't fuss over looks, but Melanie was making him fret about it. Was this how girls felt all the time?
Wait a minute, he was comparing himself to girls. That train of thought needed to crash.
"Now that that's done," He said almost dismissively, "I can try again with Little Henry. Where are my clothes?" He looked around the room, but there wasn't anything to wear nearby.
"I put them in the washing."
"What!? I still need those!"
"They were sweaty! Your shirt stunk like a Grimer!" Besides, she smirked, they wouldn't work for what she had in mind. Oh hoh, definitely not.
"Now before you change, let's work on your body odour."
The rancher readied one of the worst things she could have shown Ash - a bottle of perfume from behind her back.
No one in all of Agria that day recoiled with as widely opened eyes as Ash did when he the bottle pointed straight at him.
"Wait wait wait!" He pleaded. The memories of Celadon City and its perfume-ridden shops came flooding back. He'd gone so long since a perfume incident that he'd let himself get vulnerable; just glancing at the bottle made him shiver!
"Oh, don't be shy." The blonde innocently insisted, completely naive to Ash's hatred of perfume. "I wear this stuff all the time: everyone on the ranch is used to it!"
"I am not touching that stuff, Melanie! Give me anything else, but not that! Anything else!"
The black-haired boy backed briskly away, but Melanie cornered him against a wall, and squirted the contents all over him.
Upon the first puff, strong, sweet sensations of pomegranates, persimmons and lotus blossom filled the air. The odours clung to his body with each squirt of the bottle, and the smell overpowered his nostrils, crawling up through them and clouding his brain.
Ash fell unconscious on the spot.
The next minute, Cyndaquil, busily working on the ranch, was baffled by the sight of Melanie carrying his semi-nude trainer, unconscious, out of the refinery and into her house. But at least he smelled nice.
When Ash came to, he found himself sat down in a chair before a timber, six-drawer kneehole, with a mirror and many a cosmetic set up beside it.
"Ah, you're awake!" Melanie beamed. She was bent down beside Ash, her face visible in the mirror. "That only took you twenty minutes. See, I knew you were a real trooper!"
'Trooper' was an appropriate word, as Ash felt shell-shocked. He could barely make sense of his surroundings. He guessed that this wasn't the refinery - perhaps it was Melanie's bedroom.
"I'm sorry if I overdid it with the perfume. I guess it was pretty strong. Try closing your eyes for a while if you feel woozy still, but you should be fine, now."
Actually, he wasn't, because he still stunk of it; he couldn't breathe without feeling how 'nice' he smelt.
But he had to get his thoughts together. There was still a towel strapped around his waist, the black-haired boy was wearing a vest that was loose, airy and suspiciously soft. Strange: where did this come from?
And what about his reflection in the mirror seemed so odd to him?
What was she-
"Melanie, what are you doing to my hair?" Ash asked. The rancher was running her hands through his damp hair, occasionally rubbing fingers in place. She hummed a soft song as she worked away.
"Just working." She said nonchalantly.
"On my hair?" Oh great, something boring. With something as dull as a a hair job happening, Ash didn't even have to worry about staying awake, so he let his weary eyes drop shut.
"Yeah. It's a good thing you used so much of my special shampoo; it's making this a lot easier. Hair takes a lot of work to get right, you know!"
"...No it doesn't." He dismissed. "I've never done anything with it in my life and I got on just fine."
"Well no duh. But if you want great hair like mine, you've got to take good care of it. You've gotta comb it, shower it, treat it-"
"No, you don't." The boy bluntly cut her off. "You don't have to be pretty and gentle to enjoy life. Just let it be."
Melanie frowned, and Ash could tell.
"You don't like fashion very much, then." She sighed.
"Not at all." He dismissed her a third time, and that left Melanie quiet. Ash frowned a little too; stupid though this was, this mattered to her. Why not let her enjoy it?
"Well," she said suddenly, with renewed spirit, "let's see if I can't change your mind!"
"Yeah, maybe." He said half-heartedly: he couldn't blame a girl for trying, even if it was for a lost cause. This trainer had been in enough tough battles to know that.
As time passed, Melanie hummed a little song to herself as she worked, a favoured nursery rhyme of hers. Ash had paid little attention to the technique, but gradually more of his focus returned to his senses. "What are you trying to do, anyway?" Ash asked.
"I'm easing your hair out so it grows better."
"Wait, grows?" That got Ash to open his eyes.
Ash didn't notice first, because he couldn't believe it; as clear as day in the mirror, his hair had grown in volume. He had always had a big head of hair, but it had grown drastically into a spiky bush.
"Steady, steady, we don't want to harm anything." Melanie now had taken out a comb, and began stroking the hair into shape.
"H-how did you do that?" Ash couldn't contain his amazement. This just plain didn't happen.
Likewise, Melanie couldn't contain her pride. "It's that shampoo you used. I owe it all to my Pokemon. I give some special nutrients to Sunkern, get them to trade them back in exchange for proper food, and mix those with some Lum berries and Staryu cells-"
"Really? Sunkern can do that?" He thought Sunkern would only conserve their nutrients; what Melanie had said wasn't even in the Pokedex.
"Yep!" The rancher went on to explain her unorthodox techniques in depth, as she continued to comb and Ash shut his eyes again. Whenever Ash came across a scientific term he didn't know about, she told him. He was amazed by how much he learned about Pokemon he thought he knew so well.
This was something people all over the world would buy into. Why weren't they interested?
"So you told me a little about your travels." She changed the subject. "Do you really think you'll be a master one day?"
"I try my best! If I keep working hard, I will be eventually."
"I'm envious. I wish I could see the places you have. You must have made a lot of friends."
"I have, but none that have been good ranchers and hair stylists."
"You think I'm good? Aw, thank you!" Ash didn't know any hair stylists, but it was nice hearing Melanie in good spirits.
"Since I was a kid I've had a big interest in both taking care of Pokemon and in beauty care. When my Dad got too old and retired, I left the city life and took over the ranch: with a few changes, I made it a good chance to follow both passions."
"But doesn't that give you a lot to do in a day?"
"Oh, Ash, you have no idea!" She chuckled bitterly. "I'm left working until late at night all the time. I always felt I could use some help, but this place is just so poorly known, I could never find anyone; nor can I take the time out to go spread the word." At this point, Melanie glanced at her watch; the hair dye effect of the shampoo should be kicking in at any moment - though she doubted Ash caught that detail on the back of the bottle.
"It gets lonely here. I'm just hoping for a lucky break. If only I had a sister or someone to split chores with, huh?"
Ash pondered how odd that sounded. Robin's Ranch wasn't well known? That surprised him; hadn't he seen Thornsworth with that bottle of hair gel? That must mean someone valued her work. Did Melanie not know?
Come to think of it, she had other bottles, like hair dye; did Thornsworth buy those too? But he was about to lose his train of thought.
"Aaand done! Wanna see?"
When Ash had opened his eyes, his hair was so different, the sight of it almost knocked him off his seat.
The familiar black colour was gone, replaced with a striking blonde like Melanie's to the roots, as yellow as a daffodil. His spiky, untamed hair had been tamed to fall delicately straight behind his head, stopping wavily by his shoulders. The hair to the side of his face grew to his neck, where it began to curve elegantly inward to the chin, framing his face angelically.
It felt even lighter than before.
It felt flowy, it was smooth and the tips of his hair tapped soothingly against his neck.
It felt like a style perfect for a girl.
But it made him want to scream.
"Whoo, I feel very proud of that, let me tell you!" The hairstyling girl beamed.
"This is a girl's hairstyle." Ash muttered.
Melanie found it adorable how he couldn't shake off the frown on his face. "Oh, you just look precious. I love how it curves to your chin: it makes you look like an angel!"
She leaned down by his side, lifting the hair behind him up and down. When she let go, it fell back perfectly to the way it was before, as if it was its natural state.
"But this is a girl's hairstyle!" He squealed uncharacteristically. This didn't suit him at all!
She compared her ponytail to his bangs for good measure. "I know, right? We should go shopping sometime!"
"Don't even joke about it!" He fumed with closed eyes, and Melanie giggled in cheeky defiance. If he just loosened up, he'd be able to have fun too.
"W-we can change this back, right?" The formerly raven-haired boy asked, looking for a pair of scissors. He suddenly cared very much about what Melanie did with his hair.
"Oh, sure, but that's not important right now." Melanie cheekily told him, surprised he hadn't figured out the plan yet. But she was right: now he could go off and find the Mareep, right?
The now-blonde boy stood up, finally free to move about. Clarity was returning to him, with the hair job done and the perfume out of his mind, and he found himself with many a question.
"Why did you give me such a girly hairstyle, anyway?" He asked. "Or this girl's blouse?" Oh no, had he been wearing a blouse this whole time?!
"First, feel this." Melanie handed him two palmful's worth of Mareep's wool, curled into a ball. It was sensational to the touch, warm, fuzzy and vibrant all at once. Ash would be smiling if he weren't so suspicious.
"Why am I holding this?"
She then passed him a bra, just large enough for each ball of wool to fit in.
"Why am I holding that?"
Melanie then opened her wardrobe for him to see, and he finally caught on.
"Oh heck no! Just no! I refuse! You are not getting me to-"
The girl couldn't contain her giddiness as she sat by her bed, waiting for the dressing room door to open like it was Christmas morning.
"Are you ready to come out?"
"Never." The voice behind the doors grunted.
"You have to come out sometime." She sang. "Might as well be now."
So the door opened, and Ash slowly inched out, looking completely different to how he went in.
Ash was wearing heels.
Ash was wearing stockings.
Ash was wearing a bra, a blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.
Ash was wearing Melanie's dress.
It was a different dress to Melanie's, which was now in the wash, in that the lacy stripes on his were pink instead of green. But it was still as white as snow, and still puffy by his shoulders, accentuating his new hairstyle. The double layered petticoat arched down to his knees, moving along with every step he took, shaking with each swerve he made. And of course, it had that loveable purple diamond shape stitched into the center, right where the balls of wool inflated his chest.
Ash's face was bright red like a cherry with embarrassment; the cherry at the top of a beautifully decorated cake.
"You're just...it looks so...I..."
That was all Melanie was able to say before entering the mother of all gigglefits. Arching back and rolling on the bed, she laughed long and loudly, so loud that she could be heard outside, so much that tears were coming out of her eyes. The sheer sight of him(?) was just priceless.
"I-I mean, I knew I was good, but wow! You're adorable!"
The blonde trainer just whimpered audibly on the spot. This couldn't be happening. It was all just a dream. He wasn't being laughed into oblivion right now. Any second soon, he'd wake up in his sleeping bag at a camp. In his proper clothes, with a proper hat, with proper underwear, and a real shirt.
But if it was real, he'd run back home and hide in his bed forever.
"You're prettier than me! I swear, you're prettier than me!" The girl kicked her legs wildly against the bed in her joy. Even when she was laughing so uncontrollably that she fell off the bed, she kept giggling as she picked herself back up, dusting off her black shirt and blue skirt.
Finally, her laughter ended (but the massive grin on her face was there forever), looking at Ash gave her another opinion - he looked like a delicate flower.
"You know, you remind me of a flower. Your hair's soft and yellow like a daffodil, your face is full and red like a rose, and the way you stand there, rooted, is like a shrinking violet! Isn't it wonderful to be so many pretty things at once?"
"I'm not going out like this." He whined as soft as he looked. "I'm not." The effeminate looking boy was already inching back inside the changing room when Melanie grabbed him by the puffy shoulders.
"But you haven't seen how fabulous you look yet!" She turned him towards the mirror, but he immediately tucked his head into his bosomed chest. His elegant hair and wide hat obscured his face completely: between them, not an inch of his face could be seen no matter which way you looked.
Melanie took one look at this veil and let out a baw. That was the most precious pose she had seen in her life.
"It's okay." The rancher told the meek trainer, and stepped three paces in front of him. "Take all the time you need."
She only said this because she was now using her phone to take pictures of him.
The moment Ash heard the first flash he shot his head up and gasped openly, only to provide a perfect shot of his beautiful face for the second and third one.
"Now that's too much!" Ash cried, and ran over to her to make her stop, but in the very first step he took he tripped over his high heels and landed on his back side.
"Oh dear: you still need to work on your posture." The girl was sniggering.
"Y-You're going to delete those, r-right?" Ash stammered, too unused to unwieldy high heels to get back up, too flustered by his petticoat to get his bearings.
"I don't knooow," she winded him up, "you came out awfully well."
"Come on!" he cried: he could not let Misty and Brock see him like this again. That one time at Celadon was bad enough. "With all you did, I can't even recognise myself!"
"Aha, so you do like how good a job I did!" The rancher teased.
"What?!" Ash blushed as bright as a rose, completely flustered. He constantly stammered whatever else he wanted to say at that moment, but never got it out. Melanie was twisting his words, right? He didn't actually just say that, did he?
Melanie offered him a hand, but Ash did not take it; his mind had just cracked. She had to bend down, grab the well-groomed boy by the elbow, and walk him back to the vanity table.
"In fact, there just one more thing..." And when she looked at his face, she saw it - those bolted cheeks of his. Melanie wanted to cover those, so she took some blush and dabbed a brush in it.
"Now hold still."
Ash didn't protest for the first time that day: he just looked defeatedly at the mirror. He had no idea what to do and it was all he could manage to keep from panicking.
"Just a little, I promise." She patted down his quivering cheeks with blush to give them a hazel hue. She couldn't obscure the bolts at all like she wanted, but perhaps they were part of the charm.
Ash hadn't said a word: he had only quivered. "Ash?" Melanie asked, but he didn't answer.
She wondered what to do. She didn't want to hurt his feelings too much.
She also wondered if he'd be even cuter with some eyeshadow!
This part was completely useless to finding Mareep, sure, but Melanie hadn't done anyone's makeup since she was eight!
She got some brown eye shadow ready, and Ash closed his eyes like a decorated automaton when her hand drew near. When he opened them again, his eyes had a soft, smokey look to them.
The blonde girl was right: he did look cuter. Since he hadn't said anything, he clearly didn't mind doing more, right? Right! So what else could he use?
Some mascara, she thought, and she took some out. Without argument, Ash let her define his eyelashes, without a single smudge around his eyes; Melanie just hoped the boy wasn't going to cry anytime soon.
"You won't be wearing my gloves," she noted, since they had been dirtied earlier, "so you get a chance to show off your nails to everybody!"
"Please." Ash croaked, and Melanie could hear the faint 'don't' shortly after. But he clearly meant to say 'Please, don't wait: I need to look fabulous!' She took out some blue nail varnish anyway. The girl held one of his hands in hers and painted away: in a moment, he couldn't look at his impeccably soft hands without noticing a deep cerulean blue on the tip of each finger.
Melanie decided to quit pushing her luck; that'd do, for now at least.
"Aaaand you're done. Perfect, even." The fashionista eyed her model from top to bottom. His skin was sublime, his scent was splendid, his face was glamourous, his puffy petticoat dress was fabulous, and his lengthy gold hair was perfect.
"So, how do you feel?" She asked.
Ash didn't look a thing like himself. He looked nothing like the boy who would one day be a Pokemon Master. Instead, he looked completely like...
...like a girl.
"What have you turned me into?" He mewled.
"Hm," she mulled it over, "how about Ashley Robin? My lovely sister from out of the country, who finally came over to visit? And is now going to help me find my Mareep while I'm recovering? That cover has a nice ring to it!"
"...Okay..." Ashley moaned.
Noctowl had returned not long later. The owl Pokemon met Melanie by the window, but she asked him to wait outside; 'Ashley is nervous and needs some time to come out', she had told him. It was easy to forget, with all that done, that Ash still had to go find Mareep.
Melanie slowly walked out into the hallway, and Ash inched even more slowly behind her. She had given her new little sis her crook to balance with (but mostly because it completed the outfit).
"A girl's gotta pride herself in her posture." She told him, and though it ached to do so she tried to set an example. The slow pace made it easy for the boy to follow, and he was learning to keep his back straight, his steps pointed and his movements gentle and dainty.
"I am not a girl." Ash muttered to himself.
"That reminds me: you've gotta sound like it too. Right now your voice is a little too gruff and moany. Can you lighten it up?"
Ash was quiet. Maybe if he ignored her, the problem would magically go away.
"The Mareep have a good sense of hearing." She turned back at him, knowing she was going to win this argument too. "Little Henry will remember your voice if you don't change it."
He gulped, and lightened his vocal chords as best he could. "I can do my best."
Melanie was fortunate she reached the staircase railing at that point, because she needed something to lean on while she suffered another gigglefit. He could even sound bubbly like her.
"You really can do anything you set your mind to, Ash! I like that about you." But he didn't take the compliment well at all: when she looked back at him, he'd dropped onto his knees sulkingly, stockings against the floorboards.
In his sullen state, his eyes glanced at his blue-nailed hands, and that reminded him of Misty. What if she saw him like this? He'd never hear the end of it! What would Pikachu think? What if his mom showed up for no reason? What if-
"Oh, come on, Ash, don't stop now." She lifted him back onto his feet. "You're doing great! If anyone saw you now, the only thing they'd give you is compliments!"
It's a good thing Melanie put that cosmetic blush on Ash's face, because it helped hide the neverending flood of literal ones.
The two Robins inched down the stairs, one more gingerly than the other. At the rate Ash was moving, it would be the evening by the time they made it out the door.
Melanie wracked her head for any encouragement she could give him. "Do you know what helps me out when I feel nervous? Singing. There's a nursery rhyme that I learned in nursery school, 'Baa Baa Black Mareep'. You remember it?"
Ash did, but not that fondly. He was the kind to play with Pokemon toys and win all the imaginary battles with childhood friends.
"Baa Baa Black Mareep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for my master and one for his dame,
And one for the little boy who lives in the lane."
It was silly, but Ash forgot about his nerves a little just listening to her.
"Now let's do it together, okay?"
And Ash joined in, but very quietly. They sang it together, all the way down the stairs, all the way out of the house. All the way past Cyndaquil, who had been busy cleaning the house, whose baffled thoughts were lost over the melody.
It was only by the second rep that Ash noticed he was already out in the field, with Melanie hiding behind the house door, and Little Henry sleeping behind the fence.
She gave him a thumbs up. Ash breathed in and gathered his courage. He could do this.
Trodding along with his crook against the ground, he opened the fence, and slowly walked in.
Little Henry reared his head from the grass. There was a pleasant looking figure in the distance, heading his way, and a pleasant smell came from her.
"Hello, Little Henry?" She called out lightly and chirpily, and Little Henry could tell it was a friend. Melanie, perhaps?
The Mareep ran up to her side, where she bent down and patted him: her hands felt so soft to touch that he gave a cry of joy.
Little Henry knew there was something odd about Melanie; there were subtle differences only he could tell. But even if this girl wasn't her, he could see her kind intentions, and that's what mattered.
Ash felt an euphoric relief, as he felt just how comforting it was to pat a Mareep, and Melanie cheered from inside the house. It had worked, it had really worked!
When he came back, Melanie congratulated him. "Now you can go save the rest of them!"
"Yeah, I'm glad. Maybe this whole-" Ash said, slipping back into his normal accent, but Melanie held a finger up to his mouth when he did.
"Ah-huh-huh, you've gotta stay in character."
"Maybe this whole," Ash began again, sounding appropriately girly, "dress up to find Mareep thing won't be so bad."
"You see, I knew you'd like it."
"Quit winding me up!" His blush face was quickly becoming his regular face. "I just mean, y'know," he glanced over his puffy shoulder and blonde hair to see Little Henry in the field, jolly at long last, "it's good to see Pokemon happy."
"It really is." Melanie agreed. Even if he didn't share her enthusiasm in some areas, he definitely cared for Pokemon as much as her. That was something they could share anytime.
Noctowl took the moment to swoop in and join them, and a curious Cyndaquil scurried over. Ash's Pokemon eyed him quzzically: the owl barely recognised his trainer and friend, and had to tell Cyndaquil that it was Ash looking like that. But neither of them could understand why. "Don't ask, please." Was all Ash would tell them.
They asked him about the Mareep, and the owl Pokemon confirmed they were safe, but spread out across the valley. He'd located all the stray Mareep and was ready to lead the way.
"Thanks, Noctowl." Ash said, then turned to Melanie. "I'll be back before tonight with all of them, don't worry. Just get well soon, okay?"
"As soon as I can. And Ash? Thanks for everything. I mean it."
The shiny owl soared into the air and flew eastwards, and Ash gently followed him on the ground, crook in hand.
"Remember your posture, Ashley!" She called when she spotted his stride slipping, and he corrected his walk whilst dropping his head in embarrassment. Melanie never got tired of seeing that.
The rancher leaned against the fence, stroking Little Henry's fleece and savouring the sunlight. Today was turning out much better than she expected. She thought it'd be dull, with her doing all the chores; instead, Ash's Pokemon have everything covered, and he was off to get all the Mareep back. So she could just goof off for the whole day - all for doing one satisfying makeover!
...But if she could be honest with herself, she knew Ash hated it. He was a guy, after all. It was just that, for so long, she felt like a slave to work. There were no friends her age within miles, boy or girl; she could never go far to find any because she had to protect the ranch. Ash was the first person her age to have come along in years, and she had a really good time with him.
"Would it be better if I let him give me a makeover too?" She asked Cyndaquil.
He shook his head profusely.
"Oh, I knew it." She frowned.
It was a shame that he'd leave the moment her foot got better, and that the work pileup would return, and this place would remain unnoticed. All she could do was make the most of the time she had.
And view the pictures she had taken. Those flustered looks on his face? Priceless.