[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie could feel her cheeks going pink and her eyebrows rising speculatively at Ruby's comment about blowing her mind. "Looking forward to it," she replied, looking both amused and anticipatory by Ruby's confidence. "I admit, I'm a little out of practice, but I'll try to give as good as I get."

However, the excitement and physical exertion of their heist and getaway were taking their toll, and a wave of tiredness swept over Aurelie, making her feel far older than her twenty-five years. Too sleepy to notice Ruby pulling out her phone rather than taking her hand, the red-haired smith yawned again and headed directly into the bedroom, letting Ruby follow at her own pace. The small room was dominated by a large, comfortable bed piled with a thick comforter, a couple lighter blankets, and two plump pillows. The walls were covered in the same delicate white-and-gold-striped wallpaper as the rest of the apartment, and the air was faintly redolent of spicy cinnamon from the scented candle on the nightstand beside the bed.

Standing by the near side of the bed, Aurelie quickly pulled off her clothes and dropped them on the floor. Thus stripped almost bare, she glanced quickly toward Ruby with a start, before clapping a hand over her right eye and only then taking off her eyepatch. Gesturing for Ruby to take the far side of the bed, Aurelie fastened a black sleep mask around her face, before promptly climbing under the covers and falling asleep.

Neither of them was scoring high on the romance scale so far, it seemed.

What passed between them later on, after they'd both gotten several hours of restful, much-needed sleep, probably wouldn't have counted as romantic, either. Neither of them made any bones about this being anything but a casual fling. There was some initial shyness and fumbling on Aurelie's part as well, particularly when she insisted on putting on her eyepatch first. But there was eagerness and desire too, and the joy of exploration and the dance of lips and tongues and hands. As they learned each other's preferences and rhythms together, they gradually escalated from teasing gentleness to enthusiastic intensity and urgency.

And for that interlude, Aurelie couldn't deny that her mind had been blown.

After dozing for a little while, feeling satisfied and replete, the red-haired smith finally got out of bed, remembering the newly acquired bars of steel waiting in the forge.

"Time to get to work," she said lightly to Ruby as she got dressed. "Each of your knives should take me about a day to finish. So, feel free to sightsee around Lilycove City if you want today and tomorrow, and stay here overnight if you'd like. They should be ready by tomorrow afternoon, assuming everything goes well. And..."

Aurelie paused and smiled softly at the other woman, who had certainly made the last few days both interesting and lucrative for her. "Thank you. This," she said, leaving it ambiguous if she meant the heist, the steel that replenished her dwindling supply, or their interlude, " was exactly what I needed."

With that, she clapped her hands together briskly and headed out toward the stairs that led to the forge on the first floor, where she happily lost herself in the process of sorting and organizing the steel bars, planning and designing the knives she'd envisioned for Ruby, and firing up the propane forge to get started on the forging process.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

"Don't worry about it," Ruby said to Aurelie's uncertainty. "I usually do most of the giving, anyway." She winked.

[break][break]Aurelie didn't seem to notice Ruby on her phone, which was fine by her. She followed the smith to her room, a cozy little place that smelled a bit like spicy cinnamon. Without any preamble, Aurelie removed most of her clothes, only seeming to notice Ruby when it came time to take off her eyepatch. Ruby turned away to shed her own outerwear and give the other woman some privacy.

[break][break]"Wish I knew I'd be saying overnight," she said. "I would have brought a change of clothes." Eh, she'd worry about that later. She slid onto the far side of the bed and saw that Aurelie had fastened a sleep mask over her eyes and gone right to sleep. It took a few minutes for Ruby to close her eyes and join her. She wasn't used to sharing a bed with someone, especially not before a tryst.

[break][break]After their much-needed sleep, Ruby didn't protest Aurelie's wanting to put her eyepatch back on before they got started. "It's kinda hot, actually," she said. Ruby wasn't one for empty compliments, either.

[break][break]She started slow for Aurelie's sake, but she found she liked the teasing buildup. Their dance of skin on skin seemed to embolden her partner, and it was all the more satisfying once they'd built up to that intense, urgent enthusiasm. Just as she'd promised, Ruby took the lead for most of it, but if Aurelie felt brave and wanted to try something, then who was Ruby to say no? Ruby was always quick to take back the reins, though. That bit of control was comforting.

[break][break]There was no pretense of romance behind it, nor was there any cuddling or pillow talk afterward. It was a casual fling, and that was just the way Ruby liked it.

[break][break]They dozed a little while longer before Aurelie got out of bed and announced her intention to start on Ruby's knives. And then, once they were dressed, she smiled softly in a way that Ruby still wasn't used to.

[break][break]"Yeah, well," Ruby answered awkwardly. "I think we both benefited from it." Yes, good, that was smooth, drawing back her confident smile. It was true, too: Getting the knives would help her out in future missions, and damn, had she needed that "stress relief."

[break][break]She lingered for a moment in the forge's front room, watching and mostly listening to Aurelie get lost in her craft. She still had no idea how any of it worked, nor did she plan to stick around and find out, but there was just something about watching that passion turned into unbroken concentration. There was a little pang in her heart as she remembered a past conversation with Isaac Merlo. If Ruby was going to be sticking around for another day or two, anyway...

[break][break]Eh, she'd worry about that question later. No sense letting it tangle her mind while she was out. For now, she'd focus on finding a souvenir to take home. Something unique, not just a random trinket from the Department Store. Maybe she'd even head out to Route 121 if she got sick of the crowds.

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]As Aurelie slipped on her forging apron and safety goggles and started the process of constructing the promised knives for Ruby, she found herself dwelling on Ruby calling her eyepatch "kinda hot, actually" during their tryst. In the heat of the moment, Aurelie hadn't paid much attention to the comment, but now the memory was providing a lot of food for thought. She'd always thought being a one-eyed, eyepatch-wearing cyclops of a woman would be unappealing, but apparently not to Ruby.

But then, Ruby was pretty unique in her own right, wasn't she?

Turning on one of the propane forges, Aurelie let both the glowing, fiery forge heat and the memory of their recent encounter warm her face and redden her cheeks. A smile lingered on her lips as she sliced one of her newly acquired bars of 1095 steel into two halves and used a pair of tongs to place one of the halves inside the forge. Then she bricked up the other end of the forge with a few cinder blocks, sealing more heat within.

The sight of the tongs drew forth another recollection associated with Ruby: their first meeting in the desert, where Aurelie had gone snake-hunting with a hand-forged pair of what the internet had told her were proper snake tongs for hunting and trapping. Ruby had stared at those tongs as if they were the most outlandish things she'd ever seen. And she was probably right, Aurelie thought with a grin. Ruby had caught her Silicobra with good Pokemon teamwork and battle tactics, while Aurelie managed to snare one by basically lunging, yelling, and hoping. I don't know why Ruby and I ended up being allies after that awkward first impression.

While the steel heated up, she sat down at a worktable to plan and design the two knives she'd had in mind for Ruby: a slender, tanto-like stabbing knife and a thick, curved kukri for slashing. She decided to make both of them relatively lightweight and easy to conceal, measuring no more than ten inches long. Both could be used either as tools or weapons, depending on the situation, so they could serve a lot of purposes for Ruby.

Once the half-bar of steel had heated up to forging temperature, she promptly put the other half of the bar inside the forge, before taking the first heated-up bar to the hydraulic press. Using light but firm pressure, Aurelie molded and shaped the bar to the desired length and width for the stabbing knife. She then returned it to the forge before it cooled down too much, letting it heat up again so that she could use a hand hammer to manually pound the metal into the right profile and forge out the tip and bevels on the anvil. She followed the same procedure with the second bar of metal, except that she hammered this one with the classic curved belly of the kukri. This would make the knife an excellent chopper and slasher.

As she worked, Aurelie called upon the memories and impressions that she had of Ruby, which were vivid, if not numerous, given that the two women had only met twice in their lives so far. She thought about their first meeting, where Ruby had been aloof and capable; about how she'd reluctantly shown admiration for Aurelie's skinning skills and fine knives, if not her hunting ability; and about how they had parted on good terms, smiling and joking about secret identities. How they'd planned out the heist on the warehouse, only to find themselves improvising as the guards, the cameras, and the padlock provided new challenges; how Ruby had cleanly taken out the remaining guard in the warehouse without hesitation or fear; how they'd rushed out of the warehouse with their booty in tow; and how Ruby had apprehensively decided to trust her about a safe place to lay low. How she'd scared off that stranger, relaxed once they made it back to the forge, and showed a wonderful warmth and passion during their stress-relief tryst.

She thought of all these memories as she forged and hammered and heated, trying to imbue them into the steel and the knives themselves. Aurelie wanted the knives she made for Ruby to have the best of Ruby's qualities: strength and toughness, but also flexibility and adaptability, so that they wouldn't snap or fall apart under pressure. She wanted these knives, and Ruby herself, to be around for a long while to do exciting, useful, and impressive things for many years to come.

Once both knives were profiled, she put them into the tempering ovens for a few hours. While the knives were in the tempering ovens, Aurelie headed upstairs to her kitchen to throw together a stew of beef, chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onions served with more baguette slices. She left the stew simmering on the stove while she went back to the forge to take the knives out of the tempering ovens, inspecting the metal for cracks, delaminations, and other flaws. Taking a deep breath, she then quenched the blades, uttering a prayer for each moment the knives were submerged in the quenching oil, hoping there would be no flaws, warps, or other issues once she pulled out the knives from the tanks.

To her joy and relief, both blades emerged from the quench both intact and clearly hardened.

That's enough for one day, I think, she decided, laying the knives onto a table and heading back to eat dinner. She ladled out a bowl of stew for Ruby whenever she returned and wolfed down a couple bowls at her table, reading through a fantasy novel as she ate. In the living room, she left a lamp on for Ruby and a note that she'd gone to bed, for whenever the other woman returned, and went straight to bed.

The next day, now all that was left was to add handles to them, put an edge on both blades, and finish the details. For the handle, Aurelie chose durable, lightweight Micarta with a subtle texture engraved across the surface for better gripping, in a dark storm-grey color faintly marbled with delicate veins of brilliant red. She thought it would suit Ruby without looking too flashy or ostentatious. After attaching the handle scales and mechanically fastening them with steel pins to both knives, she contoured both handles to fit perfectly in the hand and ensure excellent indexing and aiming. Arceus knows I've learned enough about Ruby's hands by now to know exactly what would fit well into them, Aurelie reflected with a smirk.

Working quickly and smoothly now that the end was near, she put a fine, razor-like V-shaped edge on the stabbing knife but chose a sturdier apple-seed edge for the kukri. Then she added a series of tooth-like serrations to the stabbing knife so that it could be handy for sawing or ripping. After some more polishing and refining, Aurelie finally set down both knives at around noon and was ready to pronounce herself done.

Taking a deep breath, the red-haired smith inspected her handiwork with pride. Not half bad, if I do say so myself. Aurelie reached for her phone to text Ruby. "Your order is done. Come to the shop whenever you're ready to pick them up."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby stuck to the little shopping district as she browsed, not wanting to deal with the crowds of the city's famous Department Store. Besides, she figured she'd find something more unique in its shadow. Wasn't that how she always operated, anyway? In the shadows, away from the more "acceptable" pursuits that everyone else proudly flocked to? Eh, this cozy collection of shops didn't really fit that description, though. There was probably some commentary to be had on capitalism and how people flocked to things generic and flashy, but Ruby was already tired of thinking in metaphors.

[break][break]Instead, her mind wandered to something more practical. Would it even be possible to operate a service Pokémon breeding and/or training center independently? Before everything had gone to shit, Ruby had been studying under a League-certified program and probably would have gone on to work with an equally League-certified organization. The thought of having to get League certification left a bad taste in her mouth for all kinds of reasons. Not to mention the potential startup costs and however much it took to keep a place like that operating. She glanced back at the Forge. How the heck did Aurelie do it?

[break][break]Argh, being here was making Ruby think too much. She needed to clear her head, and what better way to do that than by finding some actually legal fights to get into?[break][break]

---

[break]Whoever had come up with the idea of prize money for Pokémon battles was a genius. It wasn't anything to make a career out of, but it was always nice to get a bit of extra cash for doing what she did best: fighting. It worked up an appetite, too, so Ruby spent her hard-earned money on lunch for her and her team at a genuine Paldean restaurant that she swore to take Jade to if she ever got the chance. With her head clear and her belly full, Ruby went back to exploring the less-crowded parts of the city, her thoughts only occasionally interrupting her.

[break][break]She returned to the forge after a Chinese buffet dinner to find that Aurelie had already gone to bed, leaving just a note behind. Dang. It wasn't surprising when Ruby thought about it, though. Aurelie wasn't used to sleeping at odd hours, and she'd been working all day, so it made sense she'd gone to bed early. Ruby stepped outside to call Jade and catch her up on a... slightly altered version of the events of the past two days. It wasn't technically lying to say that she was helping Aurelie move materials and equipment around, right?

[break][break]Ruby thought of sliding into bed next to Aurelie once she was ready to sleep, but she decided to take the couch under the excuse of not wanting to disturb the smith. The next morning, she went out for more training while Aurelie finished up her knives. Ruby had already gotten an early lunch when she got Aurelie's text.

[break][break]Sweet, be there soon

[break][break]Indeed, it only took a few minutes to get back to the forge, where Ruby took a good look at her new knives. One for stabbing, one for slashing, both with dark gray handles veined faintly with red. Ruby smiled appreciatively. Definitely an artistic touch, but nothing too flashy. When she held them, she realized the patterning wasn't just for show; it also gave her a better grip. And what a grip it was, fitting perfectly into her hands like... well, like they'd been made for her.

[break][break]"Oh, yeah," she said, looking over the toothy serrations in one of the knives. "Can't wait to break these bad girls in." That might have sounded like she was ready to go out and stab someone, but though they would be good for that, Ruby wasn't in the business of hunting for random people to shank. She wasn't that much of an asshole.

[break][break]With her business done, Ruby didn't have much reason to stick around. Except... She seemed to hesitate as she looked around the forge. As far as she could tell, Aurelie ran this whole show by herself. Ruby had so many questions about how she did it, how Ruby herself could possibly do the same if she wanted, but there were still too many missing pieces. She still wasn't totally sure what she wanted to do if she did follow through on this crazy idea. Breeding? Training? Both? Could she even do that without having the League up her ass? She needed more answers to those questions before she could even think about the finer details of building a business.

[break][break]"If I need anything else made, I'll give you a call," Ruby said once those thoughts were out of the way. "And you've got my number, too, if you ever need anything. Or if you just wanna hook up." She flashed a small smirk and a quick wink.

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]For her part, Aurelie smiled gratefully at Ruby, glad that the other woman had been patient not only through the heist but also during its aftermath. Sneaking in and stealing the crate of steel had taken less than a day, but then making the knives for Ruby had taken considerably longer. And all this for someone who'd originally dropped by her shop just to drop off a knife she'd borrowed!

When she thought about it, Aurelie was amazed by how much the two of them had gone through in less than a week together. We make a good team, she reflected as she watched Ruby testing out the grip on the new knives and examining the serrations along the spine of the tanto-syle stabbing knife. She seems to think she's only good for beating people up, but damn if she isn't also quick-thinking, cool under pressure, and always exactly where you need her to be. And she seems to be a really good trainer too, which says a lot about her.

The red-haired smith didn't say any of this aloud, though, but only smiled with satisfaction at Ruby. "Glad they meet with your approval. I figure you should get something out of our heist, considering we didn't, uh, 'borrow' any other valuables, and I'm, well, not exactly flush with cash to split with you." She flushed with embarrassment at this admission but went on gamely, "So, it seems only fair to exchange your skills with mine. You beat up some guys, I hammer on some metal—seems reasonable, right?"

She handed over a pair of suede sheaths for Ruby to hold the knives when she wasn't using them and nodded with approval as Ruby carefully stored the knives away. Teasingly, she remarked, "Though it does seem like you're getting an increasingly good deal out of all this. The first time we met, you ended up with one knife. Now, you've got two. So, I guess this means the next time we meet, you'll somehow end up with three knives?" She chuckled and shrugged, as though to communicate that it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility.

Aurelie did notice that Ruby seemed hesitant about something, or perhaps was thinking about asking a question or saying something. When Ruby simply moved on, though, Aurelie decided against prying. It might not have anything to do with her at all, after all.

"Anyway, yes, I'll get in touch if anything comes up. Or if I need some more stress relief." Aurelie returned the wink, willing herself not to blush at Ruby's smirk or her comment. "But I don't want to keep you any longer in Lilycove. I'm sure you've got places to be, things to do, people to bash with your nail bat or threaten with your new knives."

She waved her hand in goodbye as Ruby turned to go. "Be seeing you around, Snake Slayer Girl. And until then, take care of yourself. And of those knives too!" Her lips curving into a faint, wry smile, Aurelie pressed her fingertips to her lips and blew her a kiss. Au revoir, she thought, not too soon, but also not too far into the future either. Au revoir.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT