==== Chapter Three: Powder Snow ====
The feathery whiteness curling in the air looked like smoke; but it was very different in quality. Prima shivered, and pulled her scarf more tightly around her neck.
She tried to focus on her notes, but her eyes kept wandering to her new assistant, who was feeding Prima's lapras, cooing affectionately at it. Her pampered togetic, hampered by the flying pokémon dislike of ice, seemed happy enough wrapped in blankets and a hot water bottle in a basket by her feet. The girl firmly refused to be separated from the creature for more than a few minutes. It justified her attention, too - Prima had never seen such a joyful, if spoiled, pokémon.
Misty seemed far less vulnerable than her employer to the frigid temperature of the Ice Room. Because of the sympathy between water and ice pokémon, the Cerulean Gym kept one inner pool around freezing point, for the comfort of dual water/ice types. Glittering snow coated every solid surface and drifted through the air, and ice bobbed in the pool itself. Misty didn't go so far as to strip off and swim among the ice-crystals, but the temperature only seemed to affect her by adding an extra glow to her vivid young face.
Lapras bent her long neck and affectionately rubbed her cheek against Misty's for a moment. Misty reached up a small hand to stroke the giant pokémon, then startled. In the next moment she was by Prima's side, grasping both her hands in unselfconscious excitement rather than intimacy.
"Lapras spoke to me!" Her eyes were dancing blue-green flames, as if they had been fueled by driftwood.
Prima smiled, abandoning all pretence at studying. The pretty girl holding her hands through woolly mittens was far more fascinating. Besides, wasn't it her job to impart knowledge? "Water and ice pokémon have an affinity with psychic powers. Sometimes their minds can communicate with a receptive human. What did she say?"
Misty hesitated. "She said. not words, precisely. images and feelings. She was happy. grateful. A voice like a song." Her own voice softened with the wonder of the memory.
Prima squeezed her hands. "The heart communicates more truly than the mind. Lapras knows you love her." She had never seen a face so. alive. as Misty's right at this moment. She could not drag her eyes away.
"Lapras are so beautiful! I knew one that spoke in words once. Not to me, to my friend." Her face clouded, and Prima did not press the subject. Part of her very much wanted to know why this bright-spirited girl was so depressed sometimes, but her desire to bring the sparkle back to those aqua eyes was more pressing.
"That is very unusual. It must have been very highly trained, and it must have had a strong empathic link with its trainer. If hearts are one, miracles can happen, in pokémon training as well as in." She caught herself up. What on earth was she doing, flirting like this with a woman who was little more than a child? She unobtrusively released her grip on Misty's hands.
Misty still looked a little sad, although that might have been because they were no longer holding hands. But that was a foolish thought. "I've never known anyone who loved pokémon as much as he did. But this wasn't his lapras. He caught one later - but he couldn't talk to it. It was only a baby, really." She smiled fondly at the memory. "It carried us around the Orange Islands. That's how I first met you."
"Lapras have always brought me good luck," Prima said, for no other reason than a selfish desire to see the shadow lift from Misty's face. It worked. the younger woman gave her a luminous look, then flushed and turned back to Prima's lapras.
"You're a beautiful girl, yes you are," she crooned to the blue pokémon, obviously trying to cover her pleased confusion.
Prima tried very hard to feel guilty for yielding to the temptation to say something nice to her most faithful fan. It was abundantly obvious that Misty had a painful crush on her. A slight word of praise made her face light up like a rosy sunrise, and she had obviously been cursed with the redhead's fate of frequent and easy blushing. And then, there was the way her sisters plagued her, and then hinted broadly to Prima that they would make a cute couple.
It was hardly the first crush, from someone of either sex, that Prima had found herself dealing with. When she had been one of the Elite Four, she had taken it for granted that she would be the recipient of a certain amount of idol-worshipping, although it had lessened since she had fallen out of the magic few. Prima knew that she should put a stop to this particular situation before it spiralled out of control. Misty was her employee and, after all, very young. eighteen or nineteen at most. The last thing she should do was encourage her infatuation.
The only problem was that it was. nice. Very nice, to have such blatant adoration focussed on her. And nice to have the power to create such happiness in someone so very easily. And Prima shied away from the thought of hurting Misty. She was very fond of her already, after just over a week of working with her. She was such a sweet child, and so filled with fire. And then there was the problem of her fits of depression and self-hatred.. They fit so strangely with Misty's outgoing personality that Prima was fascinated, and worried about damaging her fragile self-esteem further.
Still... perhaps, she thought, she should not encourage her quite so much.
Prima had forgotten that most people were uncomfortable with long, dreamy silences in the middle of conversations. Sometimes she suspected she spent so much time alone with her thoughts and her pokémon that she wasn't quite sure how normal people behaved anymore. There was a slight edge of embarrassment in Misty's voice as she said, "You are so lucky to have such a beautiful and powerful pokémon."
Prima snuggled into her coats, and said, "You think physical beauty is important in a pokémon?"
"Well of course! It's all very well to talk about inner beauty, but." Her voice trailed off into discomfiture. "I'm sorry. I sound like Team Rocket, don't I?" Prima stared at her in mystification, wondering why Misty would compare herself to a huge criminal organisation, but the girl was rushing on. "I don't mean to be shallow, and I know it's not fair or right. But it's the same for humans, isn't it?" Her tone was bitter. "Look at my sisters. I'm by far the better trainer, but it's not because of *me* that the Cerulean Gym is famous."
Prima looked curiously at her, at the bright copper hair shining against the soft white snow of the platform, the vivacious little face. All she said, however, was, "Your sisters are indeed. unique."
"You're telling me." Misty sighed, and came back to sit beside Prima. "I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. You know," she added softly, seemingly more to herself, "I used to tell myself I was as pretty as them. That I was naturally cute, and that was better than looking like an artificial slutty tramp like my sisters or Jesse. Who wants to look like a prostitute, right?" Prima didn't ask who Jesse was, not wanting to disrupt Misty's chain of thought or scare her out of opening up. "But in the end, I just had to face up to the fact that I'm a scrawny tomboy, and I always will be. I'm not pretty and it's just dumb to fool myself that I am."
She made a sudden, impatient gesture, pushing red hair out of those wide innocent eyes. "You wouldn't understand. You're even more gorgeous than they are."
//Don't do this,// Prima told herself. //Stop this right now, before you regret it./// But her gloved hand had come up of her own accord, and stroked the side of Misty's triangular face. "Sunlight on water is most beautiful of all, Misty."
Misty's face flushed dark rose. "What do you mean?"
Prima was not prone to blushing herself, but her lashes dropped, upset with herself at her mistake. She was supposed to be discouraging the girl, not paying her compliments. And the brutal fact was that Misty was intelligent enough to realise she really couldn't compete with sisters on a purely physical level. . But she had looked so pathetic, and so adorable. There had to be a better way to deal with the problem than saying things that could be. misunderstood. "It doesn't matter. Look. This is my favourite pokémon."
She pulled pokéball from her belt, and tossed it into the air. With a silent explosion of light, Jynx materialised on the ice, and expressed her pleasure at the low temperature in her weird, deep voice.
"There - pretty, isn't she?"
Misty gawked at the ice/psychic pokémon, with her vaguely humanoid shape, the flat inhuman features, the yellow not-quite-hair and the disturbingly coconut-like breasts. She obviously couldn't quite find the appropriate words. "Well, I guess... she's powerful and rare, and that's more important than being attractive," she finally said, doubtfully. It was only too evident she was trying to find an answer that would win Prima's approval, reciting a moral without really believing in it.
Prima laughed, calling the pokémon over to her with a touch of her mind. "It's alright, Misty. Jynx has been with me a very long time. We connect. And your sisters might be superficially attractive, but I don't connect with *them* at all." She watched the slow dawning of colour on Misty's face, and realised she might just have made things much worse.
She was aware she probably should feel a lot more guilt than she actually did. But. at least she hadn't right out told Misty she was more attractive than her sisters. Yes, that made her conscience much more at ease. She wasn't behaving inappropriately at all.
She sighed, her breath as white as the powdery mists of snow, and tried to turn back to her notes. After a few minutes, she gave up, and began to gather together her papers. "Misty?"
Her assistant was conscientiously, if somewhat nervously, trying to befriend Jynx, but she looked up immediately she heard her idol's voice. Prima had a distinct pang at the sight of her eager face. "Yes, Prima?"
"If it's any comfort, your sisters keep giving me tips about low-fat food and exercise."
"I - I - I'll kill them!" Misty shrieked, seeming to grow several inches in her fury.
Prima laughed, and patted her shoulder on the way out of the Ice Room. She needed to find some warmth. and not in her assistant's eyes.
~tbc~
The feathery whiteness curling in the air looked like smoke; but it was very different in quality. Prima shivered, and pulled her scarf more tightly around her neck.
She tried to focus on her notes, but her eyes kept wandering to her new assistant, who was feeding Prima's lapras, cooing affectionately at it. Her pampered togetic, hampered by the flying pokémon dislike of ice, seemed happy enough wrapped in blankets and a hot water bottle in a basket by her feet. The girl firmly refused to be separated from the creature for more than a few minutes. It justified her attention, too - Prima had never seen such a joyful, if spoiled, pokémon.
Misty seemed far less vulnerable than her employer to the frigid temperature of the Ice Room. Because of the sympathy between water and ice pokémon, the Cerulean Gym kept one inner pool around freezing point, for the comfort of dual water/ice types. Glittering snow coated every solid surface and drifted through the air, and ice bobbed in the pool itself. Misty didn't go so far as to strip off and swim among the ice-crystals, but the temperature only seemed to affect her by adding an extra glow to her vivid young face.
Lapras bent her long neck and affectionately rubbed her cheek against Misty's for a moment. Misty reached up a small hand to stroke the giant pokémon, then startled. In the next moment she was by Prima's side, grasping both her hands in unselfconscious excitement rather than intimacy.
"Lapras spoke to me!" Her eyes were dancing blue-green flames, as if they had been fueled by driftwood.
Prima smiled, abandoning all pretence at studying. The pretty girl holding her hands through woolly mittens was far more fascinating. Besides, wasn't it her job to impart knowledge? "Water and ice pokémon have an affinity with psychic powers. Sometimes their minds can communicate with a receptive human. What did she say?"
Misty hesitated. "She said. not words, precisely. images and feelings. She was happy. grateful. A voice like a song." Her own voice softened with the wonder of the memory.
Prima squeezed her hands. "The heart communicates more truly than the mind. Lapras knows you love her." She had never seen a face so. alive. as Misty's right at this moment. She could not drag her eyes away.
"Lapras are so beautiful! I knew one that spoke in words once. Not to me, to my friend." Her face clouded, and Prima did not press the subject. Part of her very much wanted to know why this bright-spirited girl was so depressed sometimes, but her desire to bring the sparkle back to those aqua eyes was more pressing.
"That is very unusual. It must have been very highly trained, and it must have had a strong empathic link with its trainer. If hearts are one, miracles can happen, in pokémon training as well as in." She caught herself up. What on earth was she doing, flirting like this with a woman who was little more than a child? She unobtrusively released her grip on Misty's hands.
Misty still looked a little sad, although that might have been because they were no longer holding hands. But that was a foolish thought. "I've never known anyone who loved pokémon as much as he did. But this wasn't his lapras. He caught one later - but he couldn't talk to it. It was only a baby, really." She smiled fondly at the memory. "It carried us around the Orange Islands. That's how I first met you."
"Lapras have always brought me good luck," Prima said, for no other reason than a selfish desire to see the shadow lift from Misty's face. It worked. the younger woman gave her a luminous look, then flushed and turned back to Prima's lapras.
"You're a beautiful girl, yes you are," she crooned to the blue pokémon, obviously trying to cover her pleased confusion.
Prima tried very hard to feel guilty for yielding to the temptation to say something nice to her most faithful fan. It was abundantly obvious that Misty had a painful crush on her. A slight word of praise made her face light up like a rosy sunrise, and she had obviously been cursed with the redhead's fate of frequent and easy blushing. And then, there was the way her sisters plagued her, and then hinted broadly to Prima that they would make a cute couple.
It was hardly the first crush, from someone of either sex, that Prima had found herself dealing with. When she had been one of the Elite Four, she had taken it for granted that she would be the recipient of a certain amount of idol-worshipping, although it had lessened since she had fallen out of the magic few. Prima knew that she should put a stop to this particular situation before it spiralled out of control. Misty was her employee and, after all, very young. eighteen or nineteen at most. The last thing she should do was encourage her infatuation.
The only problem was that it was. nice. Very nice, to have such blatant adoration focussed on her. And nice to have the power to create such happiness in someone so very easily. And Prima shied away from the thought of hurting Misty. She was very fond of her already, after just over a week of working with her. She was such a sweet child, and so filled with fire. And then there was the problem of her fits of depression and self-hatred.. They fit so strangely with Misty's outgoing personality that Prima was fascinated, and worried about damaging her fragile self-esteem further.
Still... perhaps, she thought, she should not encourage her quite so much.
Prima had forgotten that most people were uncomfortable with long, dreamy silences in the middle of conversations. Sometimes she suspected she spent so much time alone with her thoughts and her pokémon that she wasn't quite sure how normal people behaved anymore. There was a slight edge of embarrassment in Misty's voice as she said, "You are so lucky to have such a beautiful and powerful pokémon."
Prima snuggled into her coats, and said, "You think physical beauty is important in a pokémon?"
"Well of course! It's all very well to talk about inner beauty, but." Her voice trailed off into discomfiture. "I'm sorry. I sound like Team Rocket, don't I?" Prima stared at her in mystification, wondering why Misty would compare herself to a huge criminal organisation, but the girl was rushing on. "I don't mean to be shallow, and I know it's not fair or right. But it's the same for humans, isn't it?" Her tone was bitter. "Look at my sisters. I'm by far the better trainer, but it's not because of *me* that the Cerulean Gym is famous."
Prima looked curiously at her, at the bright copper hair shining against the soft white snow of the platform, the vivacious little face. All she said, however, was, "Your sisters are indeed. unique."
"You're telling me." Misty sighed, and came back to sit beside Prima. "I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. You know," she added softly, seemingly more to herself, "I used to tell myself I was as pretty as them. That I was naturally cute, and that was better than looking like an artificial slutty tramp like my sisters or Jesse. Who wants to look like a prostitute, right?" Prima didn't ask who Jesse was, not wanting to disrupt Misty's chain of thought or scare her out of opening up. "But in the end, I just had to face up to the fact that I'm a scrawny tomboy, and I always will be. I'm not pretty and it's just dumb to fool myself that I am."
She made a sudden, impatient gesture, pushing red hair out of those wide innocent eyes. "You wouldn't understand. You're even more gorgeous than they are."
//Don't do this,// Prima told herself. //Stop this right now, before you regret it./// But her gloved hand had come up of her own accord, and stroked the side of Misty's triangular face. "Sunlight on water is most beautiful of all, Misty."
Misty's face flushed dark rose. "What do you mean?"
Prima was not prone to blushing herself, but her lashes dropped, upset with herself at her mistake. She was supposed to be discouraging the girl, not paying her compliments. And the brutal fact was that Misty was intelligent enough to realise she really couldn't compete with sisters on a purely physical level. . But she had looked so pathetic, and so adorable. There had to be a better way to deal with the problem than saying things that could be. misunderstood. "It doesn't matter. Look. This is my favourite pokémon."
She pulled pokéball from her belt, and tossed it into the air. With a silent explosion of light, Jynx materialised on the ice, and expressed her pleasure at the low temperature in her weird, deep voice.
"There - pretty, isn't she?"
Misty gawked at the ice/psychic pokémon, with her vaguely humanoid shape, the flat inhuman features, the yellow not-quite-hair and the disturbingly coconut-like breasts. She obviously couldn't quite find the appropriate words. "Well, I guess... she's powerful and rare, and that's more important than being attractive," she finally said, doubtfully. It was only too evident she was trying to find an answer that would win Prima's approval, reciting a moral without really believing in it.
Prima laughed, calling the pokémon over to her with a touch of her mind. "It's alright, Misty. Jynx has been with me a very long time. We connect. And your sisters might be superficially attractive, but I don't connect with *them* at all." She watched the slow dawning of colour on Misty's face, and realised she might just have made things much worse.
She was aware she probably should feel a lot more guilt than she actually did. But. at least she hadn't right out told Misty she was more attractive than her sisters. Yes, that made her conscience much more at ease. She wasn't behaving inappropriately at all.
She sighed, her breath as white as the powdery mists of snow, and tried to turn back to her notes. After a few minutes, she gave up, and began to gather together her papers. "Misty?"
Her assistant was conscientiously, if somewhat nervously, trying to befriend Jynx, but she looked up immediately she heard her idol's voice. Prima had a distinct pang at the sight of her eager face. "Yes, Prima?"
"If it's any comfort, your sisters keep giving me tips about low-fat food and exercise."
"I - I - I'll kill them!" Misty shrieked, seeming to grow several inches in her fury.
Prima laughed, and patted her shoulder on the way out of the Ice Room. She needed to find some warmth. and not in her assistant's eyes.
~tbc~
