Elizabeth's little manuever earned an nod of acknowledgement as Felix found his place beside her once more. Their skates naturely fell back into the same rhymetic wave, slow and steady, like a beating heart.

"I taught myself."

A soft pause spaced his initial response, as he visiably contemplated reveling more. A decision was made a beat later.

"My father had a close friend up in Snowpoint City, so we'd go up there alot. I was usually stuck watching over their kid, so there wasn't much to do other than skate and play video games."

He didn't dare explain how boredom wasn't what originally sparked this passion, but the childish desire to impress the young girl he looked after. Felix also conveniently left out the fact that illeana reyes happened to be that same young girl.

Instead, he kept his eyes fixed forward as the passed their third lap around the rink.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Elisabeth's delicate surprise was both noticeable and completely warranted, given the distance and barriers Felix was known to built up. Trust is a fickle matter within the organization -- the same shared vulnerabilities can easily become the poisonous daggers prepped and primed for one's own demise.

But, somehow, some way, these foundational laws of solid logic lost themselves whenever Felix was around her. There was something about her precense that eased his jaws into motion. It was both dangerous and healing.

Turning, his soften eyes move to meet hers once again, the sounds of their skates blending into the mild and quiet environment.

"Sounds fun," he responded, sincere with his words. Though, if carefully observed, a tinge of remorse could heard, hinging off his final words.

"Do you miss Kalos?"

The question came from natural curiousity. However, part of him wondered if he already knew the answer brewing inside her heart.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

"there's nothing there for me."

Back then, when illeana reyes stood beside him on this same ice, those were the words he used to describe his relationship with sinnoh. So, when Elisabeth replied, he couldn't help but understand her sentiment.

As she skidded away, his eyes would follow, body locked in place by curiosity. What was she running away from, he wondered.

When she returned, joke stashed between her curled lips, he nodded, returning back to their previous pace. Hopefully she'd come to follow. "Not really, no."

There were no friends to miss, or parents worth crying over. Only a casket of painful memories awaiting his return.

"Sinnoh was never really a home for me."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Home was a foreign idea that left his vocabulary the day, the second, the millisecond he stepped out of that average sinnohian brick house, back in old Canalave City. And, even before then, the thought of home never brought any warmth. More than anything else, it came with a shiver of fear; a tinge of anger; a shot of distraught.

For Felix, hell was as synonymous with the thought of home as apathy was to himself.

So, when Elisabeth spoke of the pleasantries of Hoenn, he was relieved. Despite all else, at least she found comfort here. Even if that comfort came with a price.

"I see. I'm sorry to hear that, too."

What did Hoenn offer that was so different, he wondered? Was it her floristry? Or was it...

"Does Rocket help with that? That feeling of home, I mean."

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Felix's eyebrows raised at the response she gave. To view rocket, a place of work, as something akin to a family? It made his mind twist. For once, he questioned whether their similarities up until then were misread. Or maybe, this difference was what marked the divergence of their opposing paths.

"How?"

Hands unraveled flat beside his sides, limb. His leaning posture beckoned for a response than his his expression, which still barely twittered away from it's natural passive tendencies.

Elisabeth Fiorelli

He wanted to say more, but the further he drew to the question, the further he grew to coming across as traitorous. And, as fond as Elisabeth as he was, there were still reasons left to retreat back into the pocket of distance he dug between himself and everyone around him.

It was why it took him longer than a few seconds to meet her response.

"Im...glad you found them, then."

Tinges of jealous licked the inners of his tweetering heart.

Loneliness was far from a familiar feeling for the general. Since joining under Belial Stone, stocism steeped into his bones and chipped at his mind, shaping both into what it was today. At the same time, satisfaction only came from the simple idea of his own brother's safety. Beyond that, there weren't much more left to want for himself.

Until now.

"I think I'm going to head back now. Forgot I had something to do tonight." he glanced back at clock, then at her, eyes duller than they were before. "Sorry."

Elisabeth Fiorelli