callan is greeted by a young girl, no older than eighteen, and juggling half a dozen bouquets in her hands. a leavanny tucks more and more stems into her arms with decisive strokes. she has to strain her neck to peer around a huge sunflower to greet him as he walks in. 

"oh, yes. uh, she's tending to the gardens, sir. just go right out that door there."

she gestures with her elbow and sighs exasperatedly when the phone goes off and a little machine on her counter starts printing out another order. 

outside, willow is beside her greenhouse. a few gloom mill about her while an assortment of grass-type pokemon look on. one turtwig attempts to keep them all together while she digs her shovel into the broken earth at her feet. 

she leans back, wipes the back of her gloved hand over her brows, and then notices the newcomer. 

"can i help you?"

Callan Young

☉

"that's me," she says with a smile. she rears the shovel back and then spades the earth with a grunt, affording her something to lean on while he talks to her. he stretches out his hand, but his referral makes her startle. the smile slips somewhat, but she takes his hand nonetheless. 

"you know elisa? have you seen her? is she alright? i've been worried sick."

he continues onward, asking about gracidea seeds. her own flowers are growing, as per elisa's instruction - one of the last gifts from her before she went missing. but she could care less about the seeds, and about his reason for being here, if he knows anything about her.

the gloom, sensing willow's unease, start to drool a bit more. 

Callan Young

☉

it's his expression that makes her realize the glooms' stress. she crouches down and, with her hand (protected by thick gardening gloves), wipes some of the drool away and shakes it out. "stop that now," she chides and shoos them away. gideon hurts them away from the soil and leaves the two trainers alone. 

"oh," she says, trying not to look as disappointed as she felt. she notices him putting the seeds away and shucks off her gloves. 

"she was - is. it's just so...unlike her. but i'm sorry. you came here for something and i made it all about me." she drops the gloves. 

"i know where those should be planted, at least. if you don't mind, i'll just need to tell ophelia i'll be gone for a few hours, and we can head to petalburg."

Callan Young

☉

with the shop all squared away, they head off. ophelia's look of utter terror had flashed to instant relief when boruta maher shouldered his way in, promising will they'd be able to manage. 

"since i was a teenager, really. we moved here from rustboro and my dad fell in love with this quaint little life all over again." she shrugs her shoulders. 

she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and looks sideways at him with a small smile. "sorry for not recognizing you earlier, by the way. we're pretty small town and the only time i hear about the elite four is when they're on the news. but it's callan, right?"

Callan Young

☉

"mhm," she affirms when he mentions her dad, but she's surprised when he turns the question back around on her. what she does remember of rustboro is swathed in sepia tones, nothing but childhood memories, but visiting it as an adult, she can safely say she prefers her secluded life on the farm to the bustle of the city. 

"i fell in love with it too. all flowers mean something, you know. it's beautiful, i think, being able to tell someone your feelings in not so many words."

their walk is leisurely. no wild pokemon to bother them as they go. taillow twitter in the trees and others rustle about in the undergrowth. she still has a couple of pokeballs on her hip. from bo's recounts, she knows these woods aren't as save as they had been. 

she laughs at his question. "yeah, that was bo. he's good." her smile quirks. "he's taking the quiet life in stride."

they pull away from the beaten path and onto a trail that will take them to the woods. back to the spot where she planted her own gracidea seed with ollie morales. 

"have you ever thought of a life like that? even if you're not, uh, headlining anymore, i'm sure you're still plenty busy."

Callan Young

☉

"he's a good person," she agrees. and she's always known that, of course. she's never thought him a bad person. even after finding out about all the rocket stuff, it's...life stays busy? life stays complicated. but she's never really known it any other way. 

as they enter the grove, she checks her own plot of soil. not so long ago she'd been here with ollie morales, planting their dreams for the future together. she wonders, briefly, if he ended up asking penny to be his date for the wedding after all.

"it's not for everyone," she says and lifts her gaze. she understands, really. raising a kid had been hard at her age, but she never did it alone. her mother and father were a big part of ro's life. she always knew the meaning of the word family. 

but mom and dad and kid all under one roof, well, that had taken some time. 

"i'm still figuring things out," she says and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "i'm fairly busy, but if you ever want someone to talk to, well, i get it." 

she moves the seeds around in his palm with her fingers and then smiles. with a squat, and spade in hand, she starts clearing dirt.

"my family. my courage. my life, really. hard not to be grateful, even if it's hard sometimes."

Callan Young

☉