Angelo’s lips gently curl at the edges as Skyler’s voice chimes back into the room to crack at the tension, smile hidden behind the rim of his can as a prickle of reassurance takes the brittleness out of his bones. “Lilycove, Meteor Falls and… One other one. I can’t remember where, though.” He watches her out of the corner of his eye as she leans forward, something soft bubbling beneath the surface as he catches sight of her interest being steadily reeled in, like a fish lured to just the right kind of bait. “Oh yeah? Getting lost in those caves, who knows what you might find…”

He takes another sip of his drink absentmindedly and finds it empty. Although his earlier buzz has been chased away, Angelo makes no attempt to reach for a replacement, instead keeping the drained can in his hands, turning it over in his fingers to distract him from wanting to reach out to take another or touch Skyler’s skin. If he relented, one more beer would become three more and then all of those temptations would have nothing to hold them at bay. Even if he really could do with knocking another back…

The sound of her scoff is like music to his ears. Angelo grins and lets out a soft laugh, fondness warming him and smoothing over a little bit of awkwardness. He can feel his shoulders relax just a little. “Good,” he breathes as he turns to look at her, catching her quirked brow with a grin of his own which only grew as he took note of the slight slur to her voice. “I’d have dragged you to the caves with me, if you said no.” It wouldn’t have felt the same without her if he decided to go, after all.

Then she asks after his ribs. Normally he’d brush it off, having long fell into a habit of downplaying his struggles to others but Skyler had seen the bruises and, even if it felt a little awkward to admit his shortfall out loud, Angelo knew that dismissing it completely would get him nowhere. “Been better,” he concedes after a moment of weighing the words on his tongue, experimenting with a twist of his torso and finding it aching in protest. “But it’ll be fine after a night’s sleep. Or not. Either way, I’m cycling tomorrow,” he shrugs, an edge to his voice that seemed to say that there were worse things to deal with.

“I’m sure those reps are feeling worse than me, anyway.” There's a ghost of a smirk on his lips as he peers at Skyler out of the corner of his eyes, blues regaining a bit of a shine as if he was sharing in a secret.

skyler dross

Any remains of awkwardness that clung to the air are pushed aside with one cheeky comment and a poke to the arm; both of them seeming to turn their backs on their tension for another time.

Raising an eyebrow, there’s a lazy grin in place as Skyler straight up mocks his biceps, her hair cascading towards the floor and moonpools sparkling with a playful, endearing energy as she flops back over the couch. Angelo rolls his eyes and lets out an amused exhale. “Careful there, Sky. I know how proud you are of your muscles. I wouldn't want you getting embarrassed if it turns out I've been letting you show off a bit.” He doesn’t poke her arm in return. Not yet, anyway.

“Maybe. I’m used to sleeping bags though,” he hums, turning his gaze away when she mentions that sleeping on a mattress might help soothe his side a little, knowing that she had a point; even if he wasn’t sure he felt comfortable at what that entailed. Where would she be sleeping, if he was in her bed? He thinks he already knows the answer. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s not that bad… But thanks, no harm in trying it.” Perhaps if he accepted the cream then he can get some wiggle room over the sleeping arrangements.

Thankfully the conversation turns back towards a more light-hearted, yet devious topic; sharing a knowingly devilish smile with his adventuring companion turned partner in crime. Skyler, even upside down, looked bright and sparkling with mischief at the memory of their revenge while Angelo’s recollection turned his eyes from calm waters to a spark of blue flame, subtle yet burning all the same. “I hope they liked my present.” Consider it a taste of their own medicine. Even if it was incredibly petty of him, it had been worth the trouble carrying and putting that Eelektrik in the small cabin which had served as the island representatives office. “I think they’re going to be pretty shocked when they finally get home.”

There’s a small lull in the conversation then, Angelo stewing in the devious satisfaction from earlier, inspired with a brief, mischievous thought. He reaches over, gives her bicep a poke of his own, feeling the relaxed muscle underneath before letting out a sarcastic response, dripping with purposefully unfinished intent. “Huh… Okay.” He leaves that up in the air for her to interpret.

skyler dross

His smile is lazily smug as he’s met with a sharp glare, Skyler’s exasperated reaction tasting sweet amongst all the chaos in his chest; Angelo revelling in the satisfaction of knowing he had wound her around his finger in at least one way tonight.

Not giving him a chance to respond, although he wonders if the silence would be more effective on her anyway, Skyler flips herself back upright with flushed cheeks and metallic eyes glaring out from behind a mane of blonde curls. Lured in by the bait that he had placed in front of her, clearly deciding to take it as a challenge. Unsurprisingly.

He wets his bottom lip before pinching it underneath his teeth, stifling the desire to let his mouth curl into something triumphant or amused as Skyler’s speech slurs at the edges enough for him to catch. He’d lost count on how many beers she’d had but he doubted hanging upside down had helped the intoxication.

She storms off towards the kitchen in an endearing whirling of wild curls and heavy stomps.

“You alright in there?” Angelo calls out to her as he hears clattering and cursing, remaining reclined against the side of the couch as he waits to see what she’s up to, chuckling softly to himself at the sound of her stubborn chaos. He wouldn’t be cleaning the kitchen after Hurricane Skyler had trashed it, that was for sure. “You better not have fallen over. Do you need me to pick you up?”

Skyler returns with a measuring tape and a demand, Angelo’s brow raising in curious intrigue. Oh, so this was how it was going to be...

“What are we doing?” He asks with poorly executed innocence, gripping onto the side of the couch and pushing himself back up to sit on the cushions as he is told, easily ignoring the complaint of a bruise when he’s so drawn into her thunderous determination. “I already said I don’t want to embarrass you. It's not too late to put the measuring tape down and back away, you know.” Angelo gestures to the table, as if daring her to drop the challenge, even though his sparkling gaze goaded her into doing the opposite.

skyler dross

“Wow, there’s a lot at stake, then.” He hums sarcastically as Skyler puts down the winner’s reward, ignoring the way his throat gets a little tight. It’s quickly pushed aside though as he lets her measure his flexed bicep. She leans forward, fingers planting on his shoulder as she tips just a little in disorientation and Angelo instinctively reaches his free hand up to hold onto her arm, grip light just to make sure she doesn’t faceplant into his lap. His blue gaze purposefully focuses on her shoulder.

His brow pinches into a disbelieving frown as he looks down at the numbers stretched across his arm. Did she just say a six? Does Hoenn use some kind of shitty metric measurement system or something? “What? Fuck off.” A laugh tumbles into the space between them as his eyes scan over the tape to competitively dismiss her claim, only to find Skyler’s fingers are in the way, obscuring the truth from his line of sight. He’s one hundred and ten percent certain that she’s doing it on purpose. He lets go of the arm that had held onto his shoulder for support but Skyler was quicker, whipping the strip off his arm and leaving the truth only within her own brain. Damn, she was such a pain in the ass…

“A six? You could have at least given me a pity seven.” There’s a playful edge to Angelo’s voice that hints that he’s not actually talking about arm measurements on a strip of fabric as he takes it from Skyler’s outstretched hand, lips curled into a smirk at her poor, probably tipsy, choice of words. There’s that spark again, fainter than before but undeniably there, as she beckons him to her; stomach twisting. “Then get over here, sunshine and we’ll see what you've got.” He nudged her elbow up with a hand, encouraging her to strike a typical flexing pose just for his own amusement, as he wraps the tape over her bicep.

“I can’t see the number, it's faded,” he finally says, squinting dramatically at the numbers after he has measured her. Then he's moving back, pulling the tape from her limb and lifting it upwards, as if trying to use the light to see. “Hang on, I see it! It looks kind of like a seven but…” Angelo exclaims as he keeps himself away, leaning over the armrest of the couch and pretending to look puzzled as he flipped the tape measure over, a smirk pulling wide. “No wait. It’s just a big, fat L for Loser. So close, Sky.”

skyler dross

“Not me. I didn’t call you that, it was the tape measure,” he corrects her cheekily, foolishly laughing as if he did not hurl himself into the lion’s den with but a stick to arm himself. “But if we’re playing fair and being accurate, it actually says you’re a Big Loser, there’s a difference. I’m sorry Sky but you can’t deny the truth of mathematics.”

Skyler takes her time with her revenge but Angelo remains reclined on the couch, watching her with a smugly curious expression as she seems to lag in her motions, delayed no doubt from the intoxication. Truthfully, he could have easily slipped away but her competitive nature was never one to disappoint, so he kept his butt planted and patiently waited to see what this apparent showdown entailed; he could always do with another reason to laugh with or at her.

Tape measure abandoned on the couch, Angelo finds himself scooped up in her arms again and while back in the jungle he had resisted in his sleeping bag cocoon, this time he did the opposite. He slumped. Becoming a dead weight in her arms as he put little to no resistance or attempt to hold on like she suggested. “Damn... You sure showed me,” he tries to sound dry and sarcastic but her laughter and smugness is contagious, amusement bubbling and threatening to spill. “I’m so embarrassed. Just let me go and end my suffering...”

Dramatically he goes limp, his middle starting to slip through the space in between her arms, threatening to fall to the floor ass first. He's committed until there’s a flash of regret, a pair of grabbing hands and a crash as Angelo hits the ground. “Fuck!”

Afterwards they engage in a couple of strength tests which were all, ultimately, stupid and rigged. Winners hard to come by when facing against two cheats. Angelo is laying on the ground, face up with a wicked and tired grin, after having just won a planking contest where they had competed to see who could maintain the hold the longest. He’d pulled Skyler’s arm out from underneath her while they had been doing it, sending her to the ground but she had cheated at the arm wrestling so, as the saying goes, she could suck it.

“I think I’m running low on ideas, sunshine. Ready to give up and admit defeat yet?”

skyler dross

He lays on his back as Skyler refutes his call to give up, letting out a laugh that comes out a little scratchy on weary tones, drowsiness beginning to creep like a weight in the back of his eyes as time drags on into the night. They don’t close though, not when her hand is suddenly on his chest, calling for his attention to belong to her once again.

Angelo’s lips curl gently at her words, taking her hand in his and bringing it up to his lips, planting a single affectionate kiss on her knuckles as fondness blooms in his weary bones. “I know,” he answers with quiet warmth, not clarifying what exactly he was agreeing with, instead leaving it to drift between them like a whisper on the wind. Even if it was just due to the alcohol in her system lowering inhibitions, Angelo finds himself unconsciously savouring the way her metallic eyes seemed to melt into a softer silver under his gaze anyway; drawn in to another side of Skyler that he wanted to learn more about. It’s a side that he wouldn’t mind seeing again.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” there’s a breath of amusement lingering in his words at her sudden warning because, of course, there’s no way she’d let it go. “We’ll have a proper rematch another time, promise. But I’ll be watching you for any cheating.” His heart gives a little jolt at the new nickname that tumbles off her lips.

Letting go of her hand as she gets to her feet, Angelo slowly sits up as she announces that it was time for them to go to bed, his chest constricting tightly as he recalls their earlier moment and the memory of her legs that had so often draped over him in their shared sleeping bag. It was going to be a long night, he thought, but he didn’t have the energy to protest now that time had worn on deep into the evening. He followed her before she could leave him in the dark.

Skyler claims her side of the bed and Angelo crawls in after her. It’s been a long time since he’s got to sleep on an actual mattress and a content sigh is breathed into the pillow, cheek pressed into the cushion as the scent of clean sheets and her drift over him. Suddenly he feels very tired and, thankfully, relaxed… It makes it easier to not get caught up in stormy grey eyes or the intimate arrangement.

“My hero,” he hums out with a yawn, peering out of one half-lidded eye as he faces her with one last lazy smile, fingertips purposefully thumbing at the corner of the pillowcase to keep him from snaking an arm around Skyler’s waist and pulling her into an embrace. “What would I do without you, trouble?”

Angelo closes his eyes and listens to the sound of her breathing for a little longer…

skyler dross