[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Cecilia's residence is, like so many other things in her life, temporary. She has not been here for long and before her lease is even up, she's bound to move onward to the next place. For now, Petalburg is the closest thing to home she has.

She likes the apartment. It's comfortable, not too big (how she use to hate the Silph home for all its empty places) and not too small. The traditional style of it lends a charm Cecilia doesn't usually find in things.

Most of her time still isn't spent here. Alexander catches her on a day she is home. The knock draws the attention of a dozen eyes. Cecilia, legs stretched out on the couch, tilts her head back to look. Her Pokemon stare it down, ears twitching. With a sigh, she stands, bare feet padding across the floor. She makes sure to take her time.

The door opens and Cecilia blinks as soon as she sees Alexander's face. She moves to stand in the doorway, one shoulder pressed to the frame.

"Not even a text or a call?" she asks, as if she hasn't done the same thing for the past year. "That's very rude, Stone."

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Cecilia pretends to consider this, head tipping side to side. She looks back up, mouth pulled into a thin smile. "I lost your phone number." This is not a lie.

She breathes out a thin, wry laugh and reaches out to pinch the side of his cheek hard between her fingertips. "Did I hurt your feelings? I'm sowwy, Awex."

Cecilia's lips part into a just there smirk.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Have you ever tried to pet a meowth, only to watch it flatten back into itself to avoid being touched? Have you seen a meowth held by a child, a look of suffering in its eyes as its choked half to death?

This is what Cecilia tries and fails to do. She does not draw back fast enough to avoid a hug and when Alexander embraces her, her contempt for this sign of affection is clear.

She makes a show of going as limp as possible, body weight falling to him.

"Gross."

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Out of the same albeit less-than-friendly spite, Cecilia refuses to return the hug for the entire duration it lasts. As soon as he lets her go, she steps back as if he had put a knife between them.

"I don't, I really don't," she assures before making her way back to the couch. Cecilia offers no answer other than a door left open.

One of her pokemon - the Purrloin - approaches Alexander. It stops directly in front of him and makes an effort to sit in his way and the second he goes around it, hooks onto his pants with claws.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Cecilia snorts as she hears Alexander in the background. There are six cat like pokemon. Getting scratched is an inevitable fact of life.

Her face pinches together when Alexander takes a seat but this doesn't deter her. Cecilia drops her legs across his lap and looks at him, eyebrows raised to ask what he expected. A skitty perches on the back of the couch. She makes a point of chewing on a piece of Alexander's hair.

"I don't know," Cecilia answers. There's no sarcasm. "Everything else was boring."

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] "To an extent. Hoenn's drama isn't of much interest to me," she answers with a small shrug. She had distanced herself from it after her parent's death.

Cecilia leans forward, stretching a hand out to brush a curl of hair from Alexander's face. "So I've heard. And you? What are you up to these days, Alex?"

Her hand lingers for a moment longer before she drops it back down.

ALEXANDER STONE

[attr="class","igglybuff-wrapper"] Cecilia, in spite of herself, frowns at the way he tenses but she says nothing about it. But the way Alexander says that includes you leaves her with a distinct feeling of discomfort, the kind she has always felt when people showed any semblence of affection towards her. She laughs.

"Are you my knight in shining armor, then? Going to scare away all the bad people?"

The Skitty grows bored of Alexander's hair but she replaces her newfound boredom by dropping down onto Cecilia's legs and into his lap. The skitty lays there.

FERNANDO SILPH