"you're not," she says with a warm smile. she's outside on the covered patio. a fan swings overhead, staving off the worst of the heat, but condensation drips thickly down her glass of water. it was only just poured. she does a little half-stand and then just gestures for him to take a seat. 

"i have another pitcher of water on the way. gods, it's hot out here."

the menus are already off the table as well. it is, perhaps, rude of her to have done, but of the several appetizers she'd ordered, he must like one of them.

"thanks for meeting, though. i've enjoyed working with you in the past, morales. you and your sister. am i correct in that this is your first meeting too?"

ollie morales

☉

the words startle her. last they'd talked, he couldn't remember much of galar. but that's how these things sneak up on you, she's found. reaching for people who aren't there. grieving losses that never existed in the first place. it's its own form of torture. 

sometimes she thinks she might visit galar. in the flesh.

"i'd travel there, if i could. maybe when this is all over." there's a chance it's never over, and that remains unsaid, though it hangs all the same between the two of them. 

"i can think of no finer man," she says with a smile. feels surreal. 

"yeah. i -" can't believe i'm back. but enough of the past. "i'm nervous. there are some who i believe oppose my taking the seat." 

ollie morales

☉

there is a haze over his eyes and she understands. his brain rewrites itself to make it make sense and she looks to the side, out over the stretch of the city around them, suddenly reminded of her own rewriting. her own rewiring. everything she was and everything she wanted all tangled up - 

"yeah? what, you want to run away together, morales?" she says just as cheekily, happy to be dragged from more dour thoughts. 

thoughts that have plagued her since the announcement of the meeting. 

she snorts. "no? i've my fair share of failings. i won't be the first to admit that. but MATIAS SILPH and i don't see eye to eye." she cherry-picks her words. "we never have."

ollie morales

☉

it's easier, when you're strangers. when you haven't yet had a chance to hurt each other. when you haven't yet made mistakes you can't come back from. fresh, waxen skin, free of scars (except both of them are anything but unscarred).

she reaches for a krabby cake and munches on it thoughtfully, her future suspended for the moment. they could do anything they wanted, really. they could pretend this moment would stretch into the next and into forever, settling into a small apartment in circhester and living plainly. simply. 

a boring fantasy, by her standards. 

she takes a big gulp of her water and laments only the loss of shedding hoenn's heat when letting the possible future shatter. 

the darkness over his face doesn't surprise her in the slightest, but it's still sudden. she raises a brow and then covers her mouth with a laugh, still chewing. 

"well, i appreciate that, but i don't think the bar for 'preference of company' is too high there."

at this point, their appetizers are gone, swept up and munched on without their noticing. the server comes to drop off the check and with plenty of daylight still left, freya asks, "do you have time to stay for a couple of drinks?"

ollie morales

☉