Chapter 4: Midnight Talk
After another day of work, Nurse Joy retires to her own bedroom and prepares herself to chill for another weekend break.
"C'mon, Amelia~ You could use a rest. I'll fill in until you're back. Besides," Shiela moves in closer to Amelia, "You could use this chance to make your move on Karsten." She said, wagging her eyebrows at her.
Why she thought of that from Shiela now, she had no idea and she gives herself a mental slap. But she did not care. It was a free weekend off, after all. And she had no other to thank than her collegue, Shiela. I'll have to do the same for you sometime next week. She thought to herself, as if she was Professor X.
As she went through her house and to her room, she thought of how things have been going with everyone. A busy week since Karsten had visited the Pokemon Center, and since then, he'd been busy with his project. Amelia didn't think of bothering him. She might disturb him from work, and she would not want that.
I'd like him to disturb in mine. Amelia picks a whisper in her mind, and immediately punches herself for thinking that. It still remained, causing Amelia to roll her eyes up in annoyance.
Upon crashing to her bed, she slips off her pants and frees her legs and into her casual house wear; A purple shirt that reached just below her hips, a denim shorts that were too short for its own good, but to heck with it! It was time for her to relax. Preferably to the indoors. As if that was going to happen.
After lowering her green ribbon and her pink salmon hair to shoulder length, neatly wrapping up her green ribbon around it, Amelia steps out to find something to snack off.
As she returned to her room with mozzarella sticks and some leftover handout cookies, Amelia prepared to binge-watch on Castflix and snack on 'em. She watches from the floor of the foot of her bed, for a while now.
After a half-hour, it was not long until she heard a knock on a window. She turns her head from window to window, and at her right, she sees a hand. After rising from her blanket to walk, squinting at it, she found it to be familiar.
Amelia peers through her window and found her neighbor, sheepishly smiling at her. "Good evening, Nurse Joy."
So, I'm back to Nurse Joy again? Amelia thought to herself, keeping a pout from forming on her face.
"I was wondering if you would join me in some chocolate?" Karsten says, showing a small box of chocolates. Amelia eyes the chocolates, finding them to be familiar.
"… You're not fond of chocolates, are you?" Amelia pans, wagging her eyebrows at Karsten with a perky smile; her arms crossed as she nears the window with the same smile and waggley eyebrows.
"*sigh* Yeah. You got me. I'm sooo allergic." Karsten jokes, feigning hurt and despair. His performance managed to squeeze a giggle out of Amelia. "Nah, I'm just taking a break. And what better than some chocolates and conversation?"
"Ahh." Amelia chokes out, piqued to carry this out. Karsten's eyes trail over to Amelia, focusing on her casual appearance and green ribbon, tying her hair like a simple housewife. She begins to twiddle her fingers together for a short while, and Karsten blankly stares at her features.
She looks nice. Karsten silently thought, glancing back to her pretty sapphires; remarking her house wear, and she wore them well.
With a small cough, Karsten breaks the silence and attracts Amelia's eyes up to his. "So anyway, would you like to finish this box of chocolates with me?" Karsten asks, gesturing his box of chocolates for them to eat.
Amelia perks up at the invitation, sitting down to the windowsill with a smile. "Gladly, Karsten." Amelia says, bringing up her window and sitting down; her arms placed onto the window's bottom edge.
With that, Karsten snaps his fingers and points a finger upward and Amelia has her brows raised in question to him. "Wait here." Karsten mumbles to her before he exits her sight. When he came back, and with a broad thin plank, Amelia's head tilts slightly. Whatever will you do with that, I wonder?
"How's about a table for this gorgeous night?" Karsten coolly says, his face turn o a soft smirk as he places the plank onto the windowsill, making Amelia smile in awe. She claps at Karsten for thinking of such an idea. Now, their windows are connected by a plank for their share of Karsten's leftover chocolate.
"Bravo, Karsten. Truly, good thinking." She murmurs to him, keeping a smile on her face.
"Thank you." Karsten bows lightly before he and Amelia sit at their mock table and he places the box of chocolates at the center of the plank. "So. How are things in the Pokemon Centre?"
Karsten's first question struck Amelia with a bit of a groan; she found her elbow crashing to the plank table. "Ugh. Don't remind me. This is my weekend out of work. Please don't spoil it." She whines, taking a piece of chocolate and grinds her teeth in between.
Seeing that he set off a nerve, Karsten tries his best to mend. "Yeesh. That bad?"
"Oh nono." Amelia dismisses with a fanning hand. "The job's fine. It's just I want to relax as much as possible, that's all. You?"
… A Nurse Joy sick from work. Maybe from overworking. Or she's just tired and wants some rest.
"Karsten?" Amelia calls for him, as he seemed to have spaced out.
"Hmm? Oh, me." Karsten mumbles, taking a piece of chocolate. He starts to mumble as his fingers fumble over the chocolate. "Still working on the One Energy project. Though, we might have to collaborate with different cities in Sinnoh." Karsten explains.
"And why do you think so?"
"Well, we spent what we got just from finishing up the plans for clean energy but now we need the cities to collaborate with us in setting them up."
"Oh, yeah?" Amelia murmurs, taking another lump of chocolate and chewing on it. She glances back to Karsten, a pink blush softly showing on her face as she is left with her thoughts as Karsten talks.
As Karsten talked about cities holding board meetings, Amelia had no objection on gazing into Karsten's brown eyes that resembled to that of the tree. She can't help it, they were really soft to the eye that Amelia would feel her heart clench when they so much as furrowed. Amelia then took the liberty of studying Karsten's face.
He has the looks of an actor, she remarked as she watched Karsten chew on one more. Midway to his explanation, Amelia catches wind of him going to a conference.
"So, since I'm head-chief of my department, I'll probably be going with Eterna's mayor in our project proposal." Karsten finishes and Amelia's eyes perk up again as she found her shoulders slumping down to the plank.
"Wow." Amelia's eyes became struck with awe. "You're quite the trooper, aren't you?" Amelia says, then her legs and her face tense up at how natural she said, complementing him again.
Amelia's remark made Karsten chuckle and his cheeks faintly splashed with pink, and he couldn't help but smile from her remark. "Thank you." Karsten mumbles through a smile. Amelia's shoulders lose their tension from relief but the pink in her cheeks did not leave. "We were only doing this as a team. That's all." Karsten says in modest.
Amelia picks out another ball of chocolate and stuffs it in. She steals a glance as she nibbles down the last bits of chocolate into her as she glances to Karsten. She can tell that he was being bashful towards her, making a pout form on her face.
Can't you see that you are doing a good thing for this city? She thought of saying what she thought of him, but she didn't want to be prying. Though…
Karsten peeks back and sees the look in her eye, like a glimmer that gazes into him. "… You must be a bigshot in your company to have handled all of that, huh?" Amelia inquires.
"Well, I wouldn't say that – but, many people do look onto me." Karsten pans out, almost stifling a chuckle.
"But you just seem so dependable! What, with yourself now, I'd bet you'd even run your own when you work at it."
Karsten pauses to stare right at Amelia, just sending him an earnest smile that adds onto his dumbstruck look. Do I seem dependable? Am I that hardworking? "I was just working. Nothing special there."
Amelia develops a pout on her face as her nails softly hit onto the faux table, catching Karsten's attention to her sapphire eyes. "Ehh? Can't you tell that you are important? Even I find you important, Karsten. You made my night much more enjoyable." Upon her line, she realized that her heart managed to squeeze out some smitten line and she staggers upon it.
Karsten, however, and his confusion was multiplied from her line. "… Thank you, Nurse Joy. Truly." Karsten replies with a quiet yelp, his cheeks placed in pink tone. Amelia develops a fluffy feeling in her chest as her endearing gaze deepens into Karsten's browns and she feels as if she wants to get closer.
Then, the atmosphere crashes from the sound of joyous uproar. Both of their ears perk up to look at Amelia's tv inside her room. Karsten moves in closer to peek for the tv set.
"… You watching something?" He asks.
"Oh, yeah. Since I have the weekend off, I thought that I would binge down on something."
"Nice. So, what's it about?"
"It's the Fanning Academy. It's basically about young proteges that are taught how to handle magic fans, as in Fanning, to which they will use to protect the people that need them most. They fight against many gangs that intend to take control of New America and destroy the Fanning academies, destroying their only defense from total anarchy."
As Amelia explained, Karsten observed that her sapphires had a glimmer while her lips had formed to a grin matched with wide eyes, making her eyes' glimmer stand out more. It made him feel like he was to admire her for her ecstaticness.
"… Wow. Sounds like you really like that show, huh? ehhehe."
"Of course, Karsten! I actually admire the kids." Amelia starts to murmur, turning Karsten's attention paced upon her eyes. Amelia's eyes still kept their glow as her eyes trailed back to the tv. "I admire these kids – because I get the feeling that I am appreciated for what I do. And I want to have that to others that need it more. Y'know?"
As Amelia went on, Karsten's brown eyes had locked their gaze to her in astonishment. … Is she… even Nurse Joy anymore? She's… she's like her own woman…
Karsten's face loses tension as his brows, feeling a softness rising within him from his locked gaze at Amelia. She spoke with such passion about a show about some kids going hero. Karsten's eyes now have a glimmer in them. An admiration has rubbed off to him.
"Karsten?"
Amelia pops a bubble in Karsten, bringing him back to sound.
"… I-uh." Karsten stammers before he can choke a sentence. Amelia stares at his stammering, failing to notice that both of their cheeks were faintly pink. "… Y-Yeah. That's great that you admire people. Some more recognition would be nice."
"True!" Amelia exclaims as she snacks on another chocolate. She glances down to Karsten's bowl to see that very few chocolate drops are left, like two as a number. Upon the sight, she brainstorms on what they should talk about. Then, her face tenses then rolls up to a smug as she stifles a chuckle. "Hey." She calls and Karsten perks up.
Keeping the smug on her face, she swipes a chocolate from the bowl. Karsten growing confusion, Amelia slicks some of her pink hair back. "Ahhnn~." Amelia coaxed, holding the second last piece of chocolate in two fingers, an open palm just below.
Karsten tensed up, the pink in his cheeks spreading on his cheeks, unsure of what to do except open his mouth and accepting her feeding. He latches his lips as she pushes through. Her fingers lingered by his lips, and the feeling evokes a blush on her face.
As she backed away, she smiled earnestly up at Karsten, striking up a nerve with her soft glowing face. "Di… Did you have to do that?"
Amelia perks up a smile as she leans on the plank. "Why, of course~! You do deserve credit when it's due, you know." She says seriously, her teeth showing a glint as she spoke. Karsten was taken aback by her line, seeming like she could take her own advice.
"A-" Nurse Joy, her fingers tingling for a twiddle behind the table. Karsten catches on Amelia's stammer and faces her. "Aren't you going to return the favor?" Amelia says, shuffling forward and leaning onto the table, her face stopping halfway.
Karsten's face heats up as the surprising question causes his lips to stretch to a quivering smile. In a moment of almost diving into Amelia's sapphires, he snaps himself back to the table and picks up the last choco. As his hand neared to her smooth lips, he gulped his nervousness deep so it wouldn't show but failed to sense his cheeks showing pink. If Amelia could notice, she would dote without a second thought. But Karsten was holding up.
A-Alright. Calm yourself, man. You're just thanking her and returning the favor. Enacting the will of karma, that's all.
He thought fast as his fingers neared to her. Unable to wait any longer, Amelia grew petty and lunged forward. Karsten holds back a grunt and beams at Amelia, feeling her lips slick away as she nibs the choco off of his fingers. Amelia retracts herself and sits back down to her side, chewing on the last choco.
"Mmm - Now, we're even. Feel refreshed?" Amelia asks Karsten, mustering her energy to smile up to Karsten. He, still dumbstruck from her mouth grappling the choco, musters a nervous laugh as he scratches a finger to his nape and through his hair.
"Y-Yeah. Talking with you has been nice, Amelia."
"Glad I made your night eventful."
After their small talk, a silence rolled between the two of them but the atmosphere did not feel awkward one bit for their eyes started gazing into each other. After realizing that she was gazing into Karsten's brown eyes, and she smiles up to him as the same can be said for Karsten.
Is it just me or are his eyes… dreamy?
"… Well, I'd better start picking up after this."
"O-Oh. Sure thing." Amelia says, a little disappointed that he was the first to say that. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm just a knock away." She reminds as Karsten took away the empty bowl and pulled in his wooden plank. From her line, Karsten nods and beams as he places the plank aside.
"Well, I'll look forward to it again. Have fun with your watch, Amelia."
"Good night, Karsten~."
With that, they pulled down their windows and waved at each other through the glass, bidding good night to one another. Amelia plumps herself down to her spot in front of the tv. Finding the remote, her mind lingers on how good her conversation was with Karsten.
So I'm Amelia again… She holds her face by the cheeks as she heats up with a grin. "Hmmm… I hope he does talk to me again, sometime soon." She mumbles to herself with a pink cheeked grin as she wighed her attention to the climax.
The thought still lingered in her head that maybe she would even come to invite him to the small café in the Pokemon Center sometime, if he wasn't busy. Maybe even tomorrow night.