By the time he got back to D7, his team had finished work for the day and were talking amongst themselves. He noticed Kirstie talking to Abbie which was good, those two needed some serious bonding time. Jeff saw him walk in first so he stood up, an expression of worry on his face.
"Danny!" he said, rushing over to him. "You've been gone for hours mate, where've you been?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Kirstie said before he could answer the question properly. "He's been fucking Ariana."
"You would think that House wouldn't you?" Danny sighed. Maybe he should've finished business with Ariana, either way Kirstie would still presume he had sex with her. "She gave me some money for beating Clair. So I spent it on some equipment for us: Walkie-talkies, a TV and some food."
"You beat Clair?" Jeff asked. Now he looked amazed.
"Of course I did." Danny said, finally feeling some pride for his achievement. "I'll admit, she put up a good fight, but in the end, it was a fairly comfortable victory."
"Oh really?" Kirstie said, laughing at his small lie. "You were down to your last Pokémon and its Overgrow had activated so it must have had barely any energy left. I could've done better."
"It was a strategy," Danny said, waving away her accusations. "And you think that you could have beaten her?"
"Yes, I'm way better than you."
"Tomorrow's battle will decide that." Danny replied, instinctively challenging her to a battle. Right now was too late at night though. "Anyways, I'm shattered. Goodnight guys."
After about an hour, Jeff came into their shared room. He wasn't really tired but he was trying to forget the image in his head of Ariana's body. It was proving to be impossible.
"Can't sleep Danny?" Jeff asked as he changed into some pyjamas.
"No," Danny said, "Just trying to forget what I saw today."
"What did you see?" Jeff asked, puzzled.
"Well," Danny began but stopped. Then he decided that Jeff should know the truth. "You promise not to tell anyone?" Jeff nodded. "I nearly did have sex with Ariana."
"What?" Jeff exclaimed as his jaw dropped. "How can you nearly have sex? How far did you get?"
"Well, she was practically naked, there was a lot of kissing and some brief touching." Danny felt awkward about this. But he trusted Jeff and who knew? Maybe talking to Jeff could help untangle his own thoughts on the subject.
"Is she hot?" he asked.
"More than you think."
"Is that her bra?" Jeff asked, picking the bra out of his jacket pocket which he had casually thrown into the corner of the room.
"Yeah. Don't ask why I kept it."
"If she's hot, why'd you stop?"
"Well," Danny started to say but he stopped himself. Kirstie would never have known for sure if he had done it and from the way things were going between him and Kirstie, he doubted that they would ever get back together. "At the time I was thinking of Kirstie. I still want things to work with her and Ariana is the reason we broke up."
"Kirstie said you broke up because she doesn't like twats."
"She would, wouldn't she?" Danny said, sighing. The story of their break up was awful. "Do you remember that party set up by the executives about two months back?"
"The one with free refreshments?" Jeff asked, scratching his head.
"That's the one," said Danny, nodding. "Well I decided to make the most of it... by drinking a lot of alcohol. And I mean a lot. In fact, I was so drunk that when I had an urgent need to kiss my girlfriend, I accidently, mistook Ariana from behind as her. Kirstie saw me walk up to Ariana and kiss her and she didn't take it well."
"She dumped you?"
"Yeah." Danny said. Saying it out loud made it sounds even more ridiculous and stupid. "And then Ariana presumed that me and her became a couple."
"So now you're dating an executive." Jeff said as he clambered into the bottom bunk. "Get some rest Danny, you need to be raring to go for that battle tomorrow." He was right. Danny wanted to win, but at the same time, felt that it was the more gentlemen-like thing to let her win. Danny dismissed the idea. Maybe Kirstie wouldn't be such a pain in the arse if he beat her. In any case, Jeff was right, he needed some sleep.
He had woken up early the next morning, his head was too full of thoughts about Ariana to sleep. If only he could make some sense out of them. He had been constantly switching between the ideas that it would be good to be with Ariana and that it would be bad to be with Ariana. He still had no idea and as he had woken up so early he thought he would watch some TV quietly until the others woke up. Abbie was the first to get up.
"Hey Abbie," Danny said quietly, "Sleep well?"
"Not really." Abbie replied, "The beds aren't very comfortable and I still haven't had a wash since I got here. So could you tell me where the showers are?"
"On Thursday."
"But I need to wash today." she insisted.
"But our shower day is Thursday." Danny said, confused by how much she wanted to wash.
"We only shower once a week?!"
"Yeah. Problem?" There was a pause in the conversation when it hit Abbie that Team Rocket wasn't as hygienic as she may have first thought.
"No," she sighed and sat down in the armchair. Life must be hard for Abbie. She needed to adjust to the life of a grunt fast, or else it would be obvious who she really was.
"Are you getting on alright with Kirstie?" Danny asked her, hoping the answer was positive.
"Actually, yes," she said, sounding surprised at herself, "Although, she does only talk about one topic."
"What is it?" Danny asked, knowing the answer already.
"You." she answered. There was a brief pause before she continued. "I think she really likes you. She acts like she hates you but I'm pretty sure that deep down, she really does like you." Danny sighed. If Kirstie actually did still like him then Ariana was certainly a bad idea but Kirstie wouldn't admit that she liked him so he couldn't get with Kirstie either. Even good news about his chances with her resulted in a bad and confusing way.
"Anyways, I need to beat her today." Danny said, and tried to forget what Abbie had just told him. Right now, he was just really confused about the mindset of women and by the looks of things, he always would be.
"So what kind of battle are we thinking?" Danny asked, on one side of the battlefield, with Kirstie standing opposite him. The entire team were on the sides of the battlefield and were eager to see the two fight.
"I'm thinking a one-on-one showdown," Kirstie replied. She seemed to be looking forward to their match, for once showing some kind of positivity.
"Sounds good to me." Danny said. He grabbed one of his Pokéballs. Originally, he planned on using Staraptor, but after giving it a few moments thought, he realised what Pokémon Kirstie was going to use. They threw their Pokéballs at the same time.
"Tyrantrum!"
"Kingler!" Danny's faithful orange crab scuttled into action but on the other side of the field, it faced a real challenge. Kirstie's chosen Pokémon was her gigantic Tyrantrum, and it was a brutal fighter. With its powerful jaws and its immense strength, this was going to be a tough fight. "Ladies first," Danny said, gesturing at Kirstie.
"Alright then, use Dragon Dance," Kirstie ordered and Tyrantrum began stomping its feet in a way that vaguely resembled dancing. This wasn't a good start for Danny. Dragon Dance increased Tyrantrum's Attack and Speed, making it even more powerful and fast than before.
"Kingler, use Bubblebeam, now!" Danny said, and Kingler sensed his urgency. Danny wanted to end the fight before it could even start. Kingler scuttled over to the right of the field, opened its claws and fired hundreds of bubbles towards Tyrantrum.
"Dodge it!" Kirstie said, pointing towards Danny's end of the field. Tyrantrum appeared to understand and, with surprising speed and agility, darted across the field, ducking and jumping as Kingler's shots missed their mark. "Now, crunch!" Kingler was too slow to avoid the oncoming attack and it cried out in pain as Tyrantrum sunk its teeth into Kingler's shell.
"C'mon, Kingler, you're tougher than this, now Crabhammer!" Kingler wriggled around, its claw stuck in Tyrantrum's jaws, but then, it was free. Kingler swung its large claw, smashing Tyrantrum square in the face. Tyrantrum roared and fell sideways, giving Kingler a chance to break free.
"Get up!" Kirstie urged and Tyrantrum obeyed. It looked like it had taken almost no damage from Kingler's most powerful attack. "Dragon Claw, trap it!"
"Strength!" Danny ordered and Kingler scuttled to take the Dragon Claw head on, but Danny had made a mistake. Tyrantrum wasn't using its hands like he had thought and instead used its foot, before Kingler could even begin its Strength attack, to smash it into the floor. "Kingler, no!"
"Throw it around, Tyrantrum!" Kirstie said and Tyrantrum plucked Kingler from the ground with its mouth and threw it against the wall behind Danny. Kingler hit it hard, and crumpled to the floor.
"Kingler, you can do this!" Danny urged as Kingler tried to get up, but slipped back down to the floor.
"Finish this with Head Smash!" Kirstie said and Tyrantrum began charging towards Kingler, who was still struggling to get up off the floor. Right now, Kingler was a sitting duck to Tyrantrum's most powerful move but then, Danny thought of an idea.
"Bubblebeam, on the ground!" Danny cried, Kingler had seconds left to avoid the attack. Just before Tyrantrum reached Kingler, Kingler opened its claws and fired hundreds of bubbles into the ground, propelling itself skywards and over Tyrantrum, who collided with the bubbles, rushed through them and crunched into the wall.
"Tyrantrum!" Kirstie gasped as Tyrantrum staggered backwards from the impact of its own attack. Incredibly, it was still standing. And then the recoil damage kicked in and Tyrantrum roared in pain and fell to the ground, no longer able to battle.
"Yeah, go Kingler!" Danny cheered, punching the air in unison with Kingler who punched the air with its claws. "Have a rest Kingler," he said, returning Kingler to its Pokéball, "That was an intense fight House but you need to learn your Pokémon's strengths and its weaknesses. Head Smash may be powerful, but it deals a lot of damage to your own Pokémon as well."
"Good job Tyrantrum," Kirstie said, calling back her fallen Pokémon. "I don't understand though, how did Bubblebeam do more than Crabhammer?"
"Again, learn your own strengths and weaknesses," Danny said, turning the battle into a lesson for everyone, "Tyrantrum has a lot of Defence but not a lot of Special Defence and Bubblebeam is a Special Attack. Combine that damage with recoil damage from Head Smash and ramming itself into the wall, and I doubt that any Pokémon could have taken that damage." Kirstie nodded and walked over to the healing machine to heal up her Tyrantrum. That had been an intense, brutal fight but he had managed to pull through and teach Kirstie a lesson, which he was pleased with and maybe now, she would stop being so annoying. Well, Danny could hope.