"You did what!?"
Ellie's eyes lit up as she and Marnie sat in a small diner on the opposite side of Motostoke. Ellie sipping from a milkshake while Marnie munched on a platter of french fries. While Marnie did cut out some of the more violent threats she made to Hop, she did tell Ellie about Hop dissing her hometown.
Ellie was bewildered that Marnie would confront Hop in that manner, but the Spikemuth native was very much calm and collected, occasionally feeding a french fry to Morpeko as the hamster-like Pokemon sat atop their table. Eevee of course was sitting next to Ellie, munching away at a bowl of Pokemon food.
"Marnie...I get why, but Hop's...Hop's my friend, too. He does care, even if he shows it in some strange ways." Ellie sighed as she moved to sit criss-cross on the booth, elbows on the table as she leaned in.
"You don't have to worry about him trying to steal me away from my other friends. However...what you do have to worry about being stolen…" Ellie trailed off, quickly swiping a french fry from Marnie's plate and popping it into her mouth, a grin on her face as Marnie's eyes widened.
"Oi, ya' lil' Thievul! Those are mine!" She grumbled, causing Ellie to laugh.
"Technically, this lunch is on me, so those are technically mine." The silver-haired girl smirked at the grumbling punk before grabbing a fry off her own plate, holding it out for Marnie. Surprising Ellie, Marnie leaned in, taking a bite directly from the fry in Ellie's hand.
"Now we're even…" The punk mumbled as she chewed her food, arms still crossed over her chest as she tried to stay mad at the free spirit in front of her.
'She's so dang cute. Arceus, my mom would probably hate me if I told her I was starting to fall for a girl from Spikemuth.' Ellie thought to herself as she gazed at Marnie, continuing to sip at her milkshake as Marnie frowned.
"What? Somethin' on my face?" Marnie muttered quizzically, causing Ellie's heart to skip a beat.
"Uh...yeah, you got some ketchup on your chin!" Ellie lied, averting her attention to Eevee as Marnie quickly grabbed a napkin, wiping at her chin.
"So, you're a Thievul and a lil' Impidimp." Marnie growled lightly, almost forming a pout on her lips. The irony of being referred to as two dark-type Pokemon by the dark-type trainer not lost on Ellie as she blushed slightly.
"S-Sorry…" Ellie whispered, her cheeks growing red as she lowered her head to check on her Pokemon. "Enjoying yourself, buddy?" She asked her Eevee, causing him to look up with a gleeful smile on his face.
While normally, Marnie hated when people lied to her, she realized Ellie wasn't doing it to cause any form of malice. That, or the crush growing for the enigma in front of her had clouded her judgement. However, before Marnie could call Ellie out on trying to avoid her…
"Want to check out the boutique, Marnie?" Marnie couldn't help but blush softly as Ellie offered.
"Uh, sure...yeah, that sounds great."
"Cool, it's a date."
That almost sent Marnie crashing to the floor.