[attr="class","littleollie"] his arms folded.

[break][break] "what are you talking about?" he frowned.

[break][break] the rest of the market moved around them, but ollie refused. he was a boulder, staunch in his decisiveness, as he glared at his sister.

[break][break] what was it with everyone telling him that he could do better?

[break][break] first willow atkins, now Eva Morales.

[break][break] "we're just friends, eva."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

Stubborn Morales meets stubborn Morales. Eva may have to look up at Olie, but she holds a presence larger than her petite stature.

“Riiiiiight, that’s why you got all flush at the thought of asking her to the big dance,” her voice rose a fell in a sing-song tune, reminiscent of a young Eva teasing her brother about stammering clumsily over a girl they liked.

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] her words struck a chord.

[break][break] a flush creeped up his neck at the accusation, half in embarrassment and the other in indignation.

[break][break] "hey, i - "

[break][break] rather than fold, his lips twisted into a scowl. if possible, he glared fiercer.

[break][break] "i can't control my face. besides, that doesn't mean anything. just cause i blushed doesn't mean that -" he cleared his throat. "c'mon eva. what do you expect? we were together for a long time."

[break][break] "you telling me that you're never going to talk to matias again?"

[break][break] "you're gonna tell him you wouldn't support him when things got tough?"

[break][break] a dirty blow, for sure, but he was annoyed.

[break][break] why did eva care so much about his love life?

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

Eva felt a familiar sense of victory as the flush return, crawling up his neck to make him choke on his words. She knew it. She was right. Damn.

It was a short-lived victory, of course. It always was.

It probably didn’t hit as hard as he wanted it to. She waved a hand to dismiss the idea that her and Matias were anything like him and Penny, “Of course I would, but I’m not blushing like a little school girl over asking him to party now am I?”

“Boundaries, Ollie,” she said sharply. The little voice in the back of her mind screamed at her in a shrill and accusatory tone HYPOCRITE.

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] "i can't help my face eva," he snapped, repeating his words back again. ollie had always been painfully open when it came to his emotions, especially to family like Eva Morales most of all.

[break][break] regardless of how he felt, how he wanted to feel, it was always bare to the world.

[break][break] "boundaries?" he echoes. "you're one to talk. all the tabloids are talking about how you and matias are gonna get back together again. they saw you at the ranch, ya know."

[break][break] "what were you doing back there?"

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

Her teeth slipped over her lower lip, eyes narrowing on Ollie with a mix of frustration and surprise. Eva didn’t read the tabloids - for obvious reasons. They were unreliable and led to wild assumptions like now.

“Believe or not - work,” she kept the details to herself. It wasn’t her place to tell Ollie she was mistaken for a certain other blonde that he had recently latched on to. Just the brief thought of it churned her stomach and flushed her cheeks red with fury and a hint of jealousy, “He’s otherwise occupied. I’m the last thing on his mind.”

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] just as in tune with her expressions as he was with hers, ollie caught the sight of his sister's reddened face with ease.

[break][break] "see!" he pointed at her face. "you're blushing too."

[break][break] ignorant to the fact that hoenn's brightest was burning for reasons other than embarassment, ollie prattled on.

[break][break] "i can't help it, okay?" he says in exasperation. "she just... she drives me crazy. you know?"

[break][break] softly, he adds, "i just can't help it."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

Eva cackled, almost manically, waving him off again like a pesky Cutiefly before pointing to her flushed cheeks, “This isn’t blush, Ollie, it’s anger,” a very uncharacteristic emotion for the normally empathetic and kind Morales. It seemed both MATIAS SILPH and PENELOPE LIVY had their claws sunk deep in the siblings.

Eva’s sneer softened when empathy returned, shifting slightly as a more uncomfortable realization settled in, “Yeah,” she sighed, the sharpness from her voice gone, “Yeah, I know what you mean,” he obviously drove her crazy too.

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] anger knows no place in the house of the morales. losing your mom has a tendency to do that to you, he thinks. after all, he had spent so much of his childhood doing his best to be cheery and upbeat so that Eva Morales would never need to know sadness, regret.

[break][break] pain.

[break][break] "i hate him," he muttered under his breath. "for doing that to you."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

Eva shook her head and turned to keep walking. They had drawn enough attention to them by raising their voice. Other shoppers cast subtle, suspicious glares in their direction, “Hate doesn’t change anything, Ollie. It only fuels recklessness and more hate. The world doesn’t need more hate.”

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] he huffed, but had no choice but to follow along. after all, she was right in a sense — a crowd had drawn.

[break][break] walking down the rest of the path, he tried to appear nonchalant as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back.

[break][break] "does being the peacekeeper mean you've gotten wise? you sound like one of those old guys in those fairytale books you used you used to like so much as a kid."

[break][break] his lips twitched.

[break][break] "don't worry, i don't hate him enough to do nothin'. penny already told me not to say anything."

[break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉

The laugh she gave him this time was genuine, along with a little shake of her head, “About time one of us got wise, hm?” the baby of the family growing up.

But life wasn’t a fairytale. The ones she read when she was little had happy endings. Nothing now pointed towards a happy ending. For a woman whose foundation rested on a pillar built of hope and love, she had none of that. Hypocrite, was the better word for her.

“That’s what he’ll want, you know. To push your buttons, have you lash out. Don’t give him the satisfaction.”

---

ollie morales

[attr="class","littleollie"] at her words, his jaw locks.

[break][break] he knows exactly what she's saying, and he knows exactly how he let MATIAS SILPH get under his skin. it has nothing to do with PENELOPE LIVY or Eva Morales - okay, maybe a little to do with them - but it's more than that. he trusted matias. he thought matias was going to do good by eva, by them both.

[break][break] "how'd you even choose him, sis?" he sighs. "he seems like an ass almost all the time."

[break][break] he didn't understand how there could be so many good people in the league - illeana reyes, kyle lopez, PENELOPE LIVY - and they let someone like MATIAS SILPH slip through the cracks.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Eva Morales [break]
post-rt

☉