Nimbasa festival Arc: An Apology
As they reached the gym, someone just came out of it and disappeared so quickly that the two did not have the opportunity to see who exactly it was. "Who was that?" Mari asked. "Probably a challenger," Jacky speculated. "Elesa hasn't been in her gym for a while, after all.",
"Hm... but she'll be busy with the ball and everything. I hope that she's not getting too swamped with trainers who haven't had the opportunity to challenge her during the whole Sinnoh fiasco." Mari shrugged, then entered the gym with her friend. They saw Elesa putting a box back onto the shelf where the badges rested. "Ah, there you are.",
"Hello, Elesa", Jacky greeted her. "So... we came here, as promised. What's the matter?",
Elesa turned around. "You can come out. They're here."
Footsteps sounded- heavy footsteps- and a bug-like figure came to them. "Hey... that's... isn't that the Scizor from Sinnoh?" Mari asked. "The one that helped us out at Mount Coronet?"
Elesa nodded. "It followed us and somehow made it into the jet", she explained.
"But... what is it doing here?",
"I can't answer that.",
"I think...", Jacky started, "...it wants to come with us.",
"Huh?" Mari looked at her, confused. "Why do you think that?",
"It wouldn't just follow us here to say hi, would it?",
"I mean... you do have a point." Elesa tapped her chin. "This Scizor has seen what happened at the Spear Pillar... it was probably impressed by your deeds and that's why it came here."
Scizor stepped forward and looked at the two before nodding. "Scizor?" Jacky held out a hand to it. "We are really thankful that you helped us out in that dire situation, and if you want to come with us, I'm only too happy to have you on my team.",
"Brown nose", Mari teased her.
"Hey, stop it!" Jacky laughed and then looked back at Scizor. "So? What do you say?" Scizor nodded quietly. Jacky smiled and took out an empty Pokéball before catching it.
"Well... that would mean you got six Pokémon now. Your team is full", Mari stated. Jacky was visibly pleased and pinned the Pokéball to her belt with a grin. "This is so exciting! I finally have enough Pokémon and now I'm stronger than ever with them together!"
Mari chuckled. "I can say you're well-prepared for everything that is to come. I am looking forward to witness your new strength." Then, she turned to Elesa. "You had a challenger here earlier, didn't you?",
"Yes. He was very strong, actually. I was positively surprised by how superior he was in this battle." She sighed briefly, then smiled. "I didn't stand a chance...",
"Wow, that's impressive. I remember we had some degree of trouble facing off against you.",
"Well... that's just the life of a gym leader.",
"I hope you aren't getting too busy dealing with challengers before the ball.",
"Oh, I've actually announced that I will re-open my gym when the festival is over. But, for this young man, I made an exception. I was curious to test him after all, and Jayden did really well. Better than most challengers that come here.",
"Jayden?" Mari repeated. "...so he's here. Damn, he sure moves fast.",
"Yes. An amazing boy, I must admit. He's taken down both me and Burgh in such a short period of time, it's almost unbelievable.",
"Did he say anything?",
"Hmm..." The gym leader put a finger to her lips. "He said that fighting made him hungry, and that he was going to make a stop at the nearest candy store before leaving town.",
"I see, so he will continue his speedrun. In any case, thanks a lot, Elesa. We'll see you tonight.",
"See you tonight." She gave a quick wave before the two left the gym.
They rejoined Yuna and Soleil outside. "Done!" Mari announced. "We can go. Let's conquer the roller coasters!",
"But not that we end up feeling too sick to attend the festival later!" Yuna giggled. "That'd be a shame.",
"It won't be that bad." Mari laughed. "I hope so, at least. But if you're so concerned about it, you could just stay behind and watch~?",
"That's a no!",
"Haha... I figured. What are we waiting for then?"
They hurried past a candy kiosk in the park when Mari suddenly heard someone shouting loudly. "What?! When did chocolates become so expensive?!" She knew that voice. She stopped and peered into the store. "...",
"What do you mean, they're handmade?!" the voice sighed irritably. "Even if I were blind, I'd know!",
"Huh? What's wrong?" Soleil noticed that Mari had stopped and looked to her.
"Oh, n-nothing." Mari shook her head. "You know what? Let's go buy cotton candy. They have them at this store here. Anyone up for it? It's my treat!",
"I would never say no to that!" Soleil rubbed her hands and the four entered the store. Mari pretended not to notice Jayden and turned to the others. She would look for a good opportunity to apologize, so she'd just observe the situation for a moment. "White or pink?" she asked, pointing her thumb at the two different colored cotton candy. Jayden reluctantly slid some coins across the counter and put the chocolates in his pocket when he recognized Mari's voice. He looked up and saw that she was not far from him, but ignoring him. 'She's doing that on purpose!' he thought to himself and for a moment, he was angry. But then, a smile appeared on his face. 'Fine, I'm winning this game. You'll end up talking to me after all, little lady...',
"I'll take the pink one, I think... I've never had pink cotton candy before, so I'll give it a try. Even though I hate pink", Mari stated. "What about you guys?"
"Uhm... I'll take the white one, thanks. This stuff sure contains some sort of food coloring and I'm not keen on having a bright pink tongue when I'm done eating. It won't taste any different from normal-colored cotton candy either.",
"Fair point."
Soleil seemed to have trouble deciding on a color, but in the end, she chose the pink one. Jacky did likewise. Mari waved to the guy behind the counter who came up to them. Jayden leaned against the wall and started to whistle some tune Mari didn't know. "I'd like the pink cotton candy three times and the white one once", she said. The man behind the counter nodded and started preparing their portions. Jayden began to draw Mari's attention again. He took out something golden and turned it around in his hands. It was the pendant that Mari and Jacky had given back to him. She threw an annoyed glance at him, but he didn't return it. 'Jeez, stop pulling off a show! I'll talk to you later!' she thought, but decided not to go the telepathic route. She took the cotton candy the store owner gave to her and handed it out to her friends, also giving Jacky her own. "You guys can go on out and wait for me. I'll pay and then join you in a moment." Jacky nodded. "Okay, we'll wait." They walked out of the store. Jayden put the pendant away and was about to leave as well. He walked past her without looking at her.
"Okay, moron, you can stop your act now", Mari turned around to him after she paid.
"Hmph." He didn't react to her.
"Don't pretend you don't want to talk. Because if you didn't, you would have left already.",
"Sharp as always..." He turned around to her.
"Well, your behavior was just pretty suspicious. Anyway, this is nothing I wanna talk about in public, so let's find a quiet place to talk it over."
He sighed. "Fine then. Lead the way."
Mari walked outside with him and waved towards Jacky who was the only one of her friends facing her direction. 'I'm going to go sort something out. Tell the others there was a little misunderstanding', she told her telepathically. Her friend nodded with a wide-ass smile. 'Gotcha covered.'
They retreated behind the building and Mari turned to him. "Okay. So first off: I wanna say that I do realize that I... may have been a little harsh on you yesterday and... what I said was rude. So... I'm sorry about that. But you have to get my point, as well. It is really offensive of you to assume that I constantly violate everyone's boundaries and read their minds to my heart's content. Because I don't." She shook her head. "If I'm being honest... I don't even know when or what to use this ability for... At the moment, I just make use of it to silently communicate with Jacky. So you have to understand that... what you said was very rude as well.",
"..." Jayden just stood there, listening, and let her finish. Then, he lowered his head and sighed softly. "Yeah... I think that was a little out of line for me to say... sorry... It was pretty stupid, so... you were right about that...",
"Oh? Well, now that we've found common ground here, we can accept each other's apologies and forget about it.",
"Sounds reasonable... You know, you're driving me crazy. Damn crazy even. I just can't get behind what you're thinking sometimes... so... when you called me stupid, I would lie if I said it didn't hurt... But... in hindsight... I guess I earned that one, because... well... that was just plain mean to say.",
She waved it off. "Well... now that that's out of the way... you wanted to leave town, right...? Move on to Driftveil?",
"Yes.",
"I won't stop you any longer then. Seems like you were in a hurry anyway... Elesa had a lot of positive words to say about you.",
"Had she?" He tilted his head. "Well, that's encouraging to know.",
"You've swept through two gyms in such a short period of time. How did you do that, anyway?",
"Well... let's just say, I... had some kind of motivation.",
"What was it?",
"... That's not important." He shook his head and looked away. "But before I leave and probably never see you again... I want to tell you this: I know it may not be obvious enough... but I like you. Maybe more than you like me, but that doesn't matter at this point. It's not like it's mutual or anything.",
"Well... at least you're honest now. Okay, here is a suggestion.",
"Which is?"
"I... uh... I realize that I was... a little violent towards you... maybe... so... uhm... If you so wish... you can slap me.",
"...Huh?!",
"As... well, a return of the favor." She turned her head to the side. "Come on, don't look at me like that. Just do it and we're equal. I can't just leave it at that. Gimme a good slap on the cheek and we're over it. Okay? Please?",
"Uh... I'm not... I mean...",
"Just do it, it's fine.",
"...Okay." He made a step towards her.