AN: I'm sorry if this doesn't live up to the usual standard of quality. I kind of rushed this one out as I promised you all this last week. I hope you enjoy anyway, and I'll be back to fix it.
AN 2: House has been kept!
"And after all that, that's when I found the guild," Diana finished her recount as she took the last bite of her apple.
"That's terrible! How'd they manage to kick you out so quickly?" he asked with wide eyes.
Diana's ribbons danced in the air. "Well, you know how it is. The government housing laws are a little, uh, questionable." She smiled smugly. "Aren't they all?" Diana snorted out a laugh, and Ian cracked a smile in return.
"Yeah, but! With the support of the guild, I feel so much better now!"
A loud voice announced from the hall, bringing the conversation to a halt.
Ian groaned as they both looked back.
"Alright," they mumbled softly, "I have to go now." They sighed, beginning to walk away.
"Hey, wait!" Diana stopped him just barely within earshot. "Can we meet back up here after you're done?!"
"Sure. I'd love to hear more about- about, um-" they sputtered out, flustered. Averting their eyes, they quickly disappeared around the corner. Diana blushed, and she knew that it wouldn't be a meeting to miss. Diana sat back down and thought about the best way to pass the time. Anything that she did would have to be close by, and she would have to be back here most likely within the hour. She wasn't hungry either, having just eaten, so that wasn't an option either.
Eventually, a random Ninetails took up the vacant seat next to her, interrupting her thought process.
"Hey there. How's it going?" Diana asked lazily, as if only talking to entertain herself.
Her words were met with equal effort in the form of no response.
She glanced at the Ninetales and saw him effortlessly towering over her. He was easily over three times her height, staring off into the distance with an unsettlingly vacant expression.
Feeling stiff, Diana nervously stood back up again to look for a different seat.
"I am okay, just concerned," the Ninetails finally replied, slowly craning his head downwards to face her. Diana quickly sat back down, like she would get crushed if she was caught trying to leave.
"...About what?" Diana stuttered out, staring at them nervously.
"I have been… looking for someone, and if I fail to find them…" the Ninetails trailed off, regaining his emotionless stare. Her brain began setting into panic mode, but when she saw a chance to gain their favor, she made an offer.
"Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help." She tried to act nonchalant by leaning on the table.
"That's the thing: I don't know," the Ninetails said, masking any hint of emotion. "I should not have spoken so soon. I cannot tell you," they sniffled. Out of nowhere, they sharply jumped out of their seat and walked away. The dread she experienced being with him reminded her of being cold and starving out on the streets after being rejected and betrayed. Her mind leapt between the flashbacks and thinking about the Ninetails rapidly.
'What the hell was up with that guy?'
'How could I be left to die like that? Why did nobody come to check on me for weeks?'
'I feel like he was about to admit to something on accident before he left.'
'What did I really do wrong?'
After she finally calmed down, she got up and wandered off, looking for another way to kill time until her friend returned.
She meandered down the halls, but stopped when she spotted a familiar Pokemon holding a red bag. He was staring at a sign with a puzzled look, as if he was trying to decipher the word "cafeteria".
Diana's innate drama queen senses told her long ago that Steve had drama written all over him, so it came as a pleasant surprise to find him there, all alone, with nothing stopping her from getting it all out of him. But only if she played her cards right.
"Hello," Diana greeted him with a friendly smile, and while she didn't mean to startle him, Steve immediately flinched before turning around.
"...Hi."
He was clearly unprepared to talk to her, and Diana was sure to capitalize on that fact.
"What are you doing here?" She asked fiercely, being sure to also take up a somewhat intimidating stance.
"Help me put some items into storage you?" Despite her efforts, he responded with resilient confidence. His grammar was broken, but one glance at the bag he was holding was enough to make sense of what he wanted.
"I know someone who could help, but first I need to know something from you." She shifted tactics, remembering the Meinshao's office's location.
"Sure, I'll answer."
'Hook, line, and sinker!' Diana thought, and didn't skip a beat jumping into the interrogation.
"What was it that you wrote in that journal?" she asked first.
"It was just a journal for what I think… Uhh, I used cipher on things I didn't want others hearing." Steve looked up at the roof, thinking deeply.
'Great. Just wonderful. Another dead end.' She needed to think of another question, and quickly, as to keep up the tempo that she had going on him.
Without thinking, she started a sentence.
"Then why…"
Her mind drew a blank on how to proceed and started to look for a way out.
Her eyes lit up with false emotion, staring at an empty space behind Steve. By some miracle, he did not turn to look at it. "I need to go. There should be a Meinshao down the hall, talk to her!" Diana pointed him to the Meinshao's office as she sprinted away. It only took a couple of seconds for an obvious question to cross her mind:
"If he never showed the journal to anyone, why the hell did he point out that he had an encryption system?"
Steve's seemingly disappointing answer suddenly got thrust into a new light.
'Of course. He knew that someone had cracked it open! …But who?'
The answer to the second question was equally obvious to the first. 'Elizabeth. She's the only person that would have or could have.'
Just thinking about Elizabeth made Diana's blood boil, but all those thoughts vanished when she saw who was sitting down in the cafeteria.
Today, I was reminded of how it feels to feel helpless. How it feels to have someone breathing down your neck, even if they aren't. Memories of that time still haunt me, and I try not to think about how if it wasn't for that Kecleon, things would have turned out much worse.
It's hard to move past it completely, but I try my best to keep on going.
Despite settling down into a new, safer life, there's still that sense of incompleteness that I can't quite shake off. I'm looking forward to the future, and getting the thing that I've been missing this entire time.
