Cecilia carried the egg everywhere with her; she couldn't help it. She knew that eggs needed a certain amount of interaction with others to hatch, and they needed warmth, so…what else was she to do? She did to leave it with Eloise Joy when she had work, but seeing as though she lived barely a block away from the Center, it was easy enough to drop off before she went to work.

She hadn't really ever been to a Center as frequently as she did now, but…well, she wanted whatever was in the egg to be as healthy as could be when it hatched, which should be any day; Eloise had said that it was probably a couple days overdue. If it hadn't hatched by the end of the week, they'd probably have to manually hatch it to ensure that nothing was wrong. Either that, or she'd take it to a professional. Not that Eloise wasn't professional, but manually hatching eggs was–according to everything she had read online–a tricky business. So she'd probably see about setting up an appointment with the nearest professional. Who that was, she wasn't quite sure. Perhaps Professor Oak? He wasn't far, only an hour's drive away in Pallet Town. The other options she could think of was a breeder on Scissor Street, and she really didn't want to have to go all the way to Celadon for one errand.

Now, Cecilia was aware of a fair few facts about the Center in Viridian City. First, it was one of the biggest in Kanto, due to it's proximity to Victory Road and the eighth Gym. Second, it was the closest to Viridian Airport, the second busiest airport in Kanto. And third, it was the Center her brother often went to after a long interregional flight. The final fact was that there was three Nurse Joys serving it; Eloise, Pippa, and Carmella. She had only met Eloise and Carmella, as Pippa worked the late shift, but it was a higher number than most Centres. Most had one or two, whereas the Viridian Centre had three rostered on constantly, with another two on rotation in case of emergency.

Clearly, it was quite the busy centre. The airport didn't even have it's own centre; they just ferried everyone through Viridian.

So really, it was quite inevitable that she'd run into Hugo while she was there. After all, he'd just gotten back from an impromptu trip to…Unova, she believed. She wondered if he'd seen Elesa while he was there; it'd been a while since they'd managed to have a chat in any way other than over text, what with the time difference and Elesa's work as a gym leader and model, but perhaps she could go there for a week or so, and just cut her trip to Kalos short. She hadn't put in her leave form yet, so perhaps she could afford to take an extra week off…it was certainly something to consider, that was for sure.

But Elesa and the struggles of international friendships aside, Cecilia had expected to run into Hugo at some point, and she was well aware that it would probably happen at the Pokémon Center.

Cecilia had just finished her working day when she saw Hugo for the first time in weeks, at the Center where she was picking up the egg and getting Calla and Peepo checked over; they'd run into a trainer on the way over and had an impromptu battle, which was…rather easy, seeing as they had been using a Poliwag, and Calla had an easy type advantage. Still, it was better to take the opportunity to get them both checked over.

"Cecilia! I didn't expect to see you here!" Hugo's voice was loud, and it boomed through the main foyer of the Center. Cecilia, who had been talking to Nurse Joy, turned around to glare at the source of the sound, before continuing her conversation.

After a couple of minutes, she nodded a farewell to Eloise, who handed over the egg, and finally started walking to Hugo. Once she stopped, she let out Calla and put her hands on her hips. "Hugo, did you need to be so…loud? I thought you'd be tired, what with that long flight and the time difference."

Hugo laughed and tapped Cecilia on the nose. "Well, petite sœur, I was simply excited to see you! It's been weeks since you last visited Maman and Father, and I've been in Unova for such a long time, I missed you and Maman and Father! So I decided that I'd visit you before I went to visit home."

"Hugo, it's been three weeks. Less than a month. I've been busy, anyway. Lots of work to do, lots of stuff to take care of…and not to mention I've been preparing for the egg to hatch. I've been busy, Hugo. I'll visit next week or something, Amanda is giving me next Friday off. Well, I have an appointment in the morning, and then I'll go visit. But still, you could've called. You have your Pokégear, don't you?" Cecilia knew for a fact that her brother had both a phone and his Pokégear; she'd seen him posting on Chattr the day before, but he hadn't called in nearly two weeks. He hadn't even texted; she'd been nearly tearing out her hair in worry. Usually he at least texted, or called from a public phone.

"My Pokégear broke while I was in Unova, I've been meaning to swing by Saffron to get it fixed. And my phone died on the plane!"

Cecilia levelled him with a look that said I know you're lying, but Hugo steamrolled ahead.

"You finished work, right? Did you need to go shopping? I have a couple of hours before I need to get my bus, so we should hang out! It's been ages, and I saw some awesome stuff in Unova that I wanted to tell you about."

Cecilia pinched her brow and groaned quietly. "Alright, fine, I needed to get some groceries anyway. Let's go, the market is this way."

Cecilia pointed at the ribbon she wanted and handed the money over to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper passed her the spool and nodded, waving a farewell to her. She could feel eyes on her back as she turned around to face Hugo again.

"Yes, Hugo?" Her brother was startled out of his thoughts as he looked at her with a confused look.

"Cecilia, I didn't...say anything. Are you alright?"

She shook her head and tapped her chin. "But you were watching me, right? I could've sworn someone was watching me." Her brow furrowed and she looked around slightly with a confused expression.

Hugo glanced around and put an arm around her. "Cecilia...no one here was watching you. Are you sure you're alright? I shouldn't have pushed you into coming with me, this was a mistake…you're probably just tired from work."

She rolled her eyes and shoved him away from her. "I know that feeling, Hugo. Someone was watching me, I know it! It was probably a Pokémon, that's it." She looked over his shoulder, her face lighting up as she saw something in the distance. "Oh, there's some nice jewellery! Excuse me, coming through!"

She hurried away from Hugo, leaving him to wonder what in Yveltal's name she had been talking about as he hurried after her.

Cecilia approached the stand, looking over the brooches and necklaces with careful eyes. They were all beautiful; she could see a pair of earrings made with carved Salamence scales, and a bracelet with a Starmie's gem.

"Excuse me, what Pokémon is that?" She pointed at a delicate brooch of a ghost-type Pokémon holding something; it looks carved from ice, and she suspected that it would be cold to the touch.

"Ah, that's a Froslass. Native to Sinnoh, and that brooch is carved from Eternal Ice; we found a deposit up near Snowpoint a few years back. One of the locals thinks it's from the Hisui period." He shrugged and picked it up. "You want it? It's 53, and I'll wrap it up all nice."

She nodded, and pulled out her purse to pay for the brooch; her mother would love it, she was sure. In her peripheral vision, she could see Hugo making his way towards her, and she waved to get his attention.

"Hugo, over here!" She stood up on her tiptoes as she watched her brother walk towards her, before her vision was blocked by a tall and imposing figure stepping in front of her.

She rolled her eyes and went back to her conversation with the seller, finalising the purchase. Next to her, she heard a deep sigh as the mass of fabric shifted to reveal a familiar uniform; the Champion, Lance.

"Excuse me, which of these was it that was made of Prism Scales?" The seller pointed at a few of the pieces in response, and Cecilia remained silent as he picked out his purchase of choice. She didn't particularly care to disrupt such an important person's shopping trip, nor did she care to get the attention of the people around her who would surely riot if they saw Lance. Besides, they had barely talked, so she could hardly consider him an acquaintance, let alone a friend. It wouldn't be polite to interrupt him, so she wouldn't talk to him unless necessary.

Hugo practically materialised next to her, before tapping Cecilia on the head.

"Hey Cecilia. Why'd you run off on me like that?"

"I saw some nice jewellery over here! And look at this, I bought it for Maman! It's a Froslass, I thought it's go nice with her blue cardigan!"

He nodded and looked at the table of brooches and jewellery, before shrugging. "I probably won't buy anything here today. Was that everything you wanted to do? You had to get your groceries, yes?"

"I wanted to go and get some more tea from the Johto Tea Company's stand, it's…somewhere over there." She waved a hand in the general direction of the stand. Hugo nodded and grabbed her arm.

Cecilia could barely get a word out as he yanked her away from the jewellery stand and she slammed into the person who'd been standing next to her.

Oh, dear.