LancexCynthia! This is a new pairing for me! And this was immensely fun to write. Now to just fix the problem of OOCness, as I've never written Lance before, read fics with him, or remember much about him. ;; Also, I'm not sure how familiar Champions of different regions are with one another, so just run with me here.

Theme: Blonde
Pairing: WikiErrorshipping (LancexCynthia), with hints of LancexSolidad and HarleyxSolidad
Warnings: OOCness from Lance? Stereotyping based on hair color. Brief innuendo.

Blonde

Lance never particularly cared for blondes.

All the blonde women he had ever met were either obsessive fan girls (once, to his immense disturbance, one of them had asked to see his Dragonair) or complete ditzes. He was probably just generalizing, but he had yet to meet a blonde that broke the mold.

As Champion of the Indigo Plateau, Lance had a reputation to uphold and couldn't be seen dating the "wrong" person. He preferred redheads like himself, with a fiery personality and fierce determination. Unfortunately though, the one redhead he dated and actually liked left him to further pursue her dream of becoming a top Coordinator in every region and ended up running off with another man who Lance was convinced was gay. But that was another story.

Lance was currently "shirking off" (as Agatha would call it) of his duties as Champion, but when there hadn't been a worthwhile Trainer in who knew how long, he didn't see what the problem was. Champions were allowed to have fun too, right? Having that title though often meant that if Lance wanted to go out in public like a "normal" civilian he would have to be incognito and keep a low profile. He did think dark sunglasses made him look pretty cool though.

As he wandered through the streets of Violet City, Lance came across a quaint outdoor café that would be perfect for scooping out the locals, whether they are girls, or prospective new Trainers. He took a seat and ordered some coffee, gazing intently at the people around him. The café was surprisingly busy, with many a person bustling about.

Lance took a sip of his coffee to only spit it out a moment later when he caught a whiff of a pleasant aroma – something flowery maybe? – and a glimpse of flowing blonde hair. Now Lance should've known better than to continue staring at the woman walking by; she probably wasn't even worth his time of day. But with that sleek, black outfit and air of modest confidence, he couldn't help but be enthralled. Plus, she looked familiar…

She took a seat not too far from Lance's table, smiling warmly as the waiter came to take her order. Lance knew he needed to be more discreet with his observation, and the sunglasses just weren't cutting it.

"Excuse me sir, can I borrow this?" He snatched a newspaper from a passing man before whipping it open to a random page. Lance pretended to be immersed in its contents when in reality he was peering over the top of the pages at the blonde woman.

As the waiter brought her order out to her, she pulled out a book and began reading. Lance had to strain himself to get a good look at the cover. By now, the café patrons were staring at him curiously, but Lance was too absorbed in his own activities to notice. So much for keeping a low profile…

"Ancient Ruins…" Lance murmured to himself once he got a clear shot of the book cover. 'Looks like some pretty heavy stuff. I guess this blonde has brains...'

Absentmindedly, Lance glanced down at some of the day's headlines in the paper.

'Sinnoh Champ Visits Johto Ruins' he read. Below it was a color photo of a blonde woman dressed in all black, a Garchomp towering at her side.

'Whoa, a Garchomp. Nice,' Lance thought, admiring the massive land shark. He stared at the picture longer, realization suddenly dawning on his face. "Wait a minute…" He glanced up at the woman reading then at the photo once more. Lance practically slapped himself for not recognizing her immediately. That woman…was the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia!

Now Lance just couldn't pass up this opportunity. While was may have been blonde, Cynthia was intelligent, confident, beautiful, and not to mention, had a powerful Dragon Pokemon at her disposal. He couldn't come across too strong though. Lance had to act cool, aloof, if he was ever going to impress her.

Dropping the newspaper on the table, he stood up and sauntered over to where she was sitting. "Hey," Lance said suavely, leaning against the chair opposite of Cynthia. "You look pretty into that book. May I ask what it is?"

Cynthia looked up in mild annoyance and then glanced around the café patio before speaking, as if she was afraid of someone catching her talking to him. "Ancient Ruins in Johto," she replied tersely before getting back to her reading.

"You interested in the Ruins of Alph I take it?" Lance asked. "I know my fair share of information about that place. I could, perhaps, show you around there." So…he wasn't exactly being as aloof as he planned, but that act wasn't going to work when the woman was so disinterested.

"No thank you," Cynthia replied politely, flipping the page. "I'm here on official…Elite business."

This is why Lance didn't like blondes. They were two damn difficult. But maybe this was the perfect opportunity to impress her. He just had to reveal his identity without exposing himself to the rest of the world ('Much like a superhero,' he thought, grinning). Lance wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with screaming fans.

"Elite business, eh?" Lance said, taking a seat across from her and leaning in. "I'm quite familiar with that, you know, being Lance, the Champion and dragon master of Johto!" He whispered the last part as dramatically as possible, glancing around quickly to make sure no one had overheard.

"Wow, impressive," Cynthia replied, tone dripping with sarcasm. Lance faltered. "Well, Mr. Dragon Master, this conversation was enlightening, but I have that 'Elite business' to attend to." She jot something down on a slip of paper, something that Lance assumed was for the waiter, before getting up and leaving, blonde hair whipping behind her.

Lance was at a loss. He had never been…so flat-out rejected before. By the Sinnoh Champion no less! How was she not wowed by his status? Sighing, Lance stood up, but the slip of paper caught his eye. He shouldn't be so nosy but… He picked it up, staring at it curiously.

'I wouldn't mind taking you up on that offer, Mr. Dragon Master.'

Below these neatly penned words, was a phone number.

"Score!" Lance exclaimed, punching the air with a fist. He merrily strolled out of the café, all eyes on him.

It was then Lance changed his mind, maybe permanently. Maybe blondes weren't so bad after all…

Just to make myself seem "smart", I'm going to tell you guys that I never made the connection between Ruins of Alph and "alphabet" until writing this fic. Wow, now I feel officially slow.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little experiment of mine and reviews would be appreciated!