All of her stilled beneath the cascade of water, steam rising in the ensuing silence.[break][break]

"Eva?" she repeated at length, once, to reiterate his mistake.[break][break]

Eva Morales. Her name was a match carelessly tossed onto a pile of rotting, dry wood.[break][break]

With his eyes half-lidded as he basked in the lulling heat, he might not expect the hand that abruptly reached for his throat, seeking to shove him against the tile walls. Her eyes flashed with the rot of autumnal gold as she glared at him, dipping her head lower to hiss a warning in his ear: "I'm not your fucking fiancée, Matias."[break][break]

The tension and bitterness in her ached for release.[break][break]

Elisabeth's story had started long before MATIAS SILPH, before she'd fled his brother in a hospital room, before she'd kissed a blue-eyed stranger in a rose meadow, and before she'd ever set foot in Hoenn.[break][break]

She'd learned in the absence of power, you took it in the small places that you were allowed full rein.[break][break]

So she violently seized what little power she possessed over him, roughly crushing his mouth with her own to remind him exactly who she was.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Sometimes Elisabeth wished she was someone else.[break][break]

Someone who didn't feel so deeply. Someone who didn't struggle so much to appear uncaring and unbothered. Someone who didn't learn how to empathize with the most vile men that the world had to offer.[break][break]

But at the same time, she wanted to be desired for who she was, too.[break][break]

What had been meant to be a punishing embrace changed the instant her hands encircled his face, kissing him deeply and passionately as she leaned into him for support.[break][break]

Maybe he'd see it as love. Maybe he'd see it as proof she felt as he did.[break][break]

He'd be wrong, of course.[break][break]

He wouldn't find constancy from her; he wouldn't discover a firm reason or affection behind her actions, either. What he'd feel instead was a fervent desperation to be anything other than alone with her own thoughts, coupled with a demand for validation she knew in her heart she didn't deserve from him or anyone else.[break][break]

"Say it, then," she whispered, their kiss abating for a single breath. Her words rang with the steeliness of a command as her hand gripped his chin. "Say my name."[break][break]

She couldn't bear to face how replaceable she was. That inescapable truth had always been too painful to acknowledge.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

For two reckless and impulsive people, they were predictable enough. Time passed between them the way it always did, lying to themselves and to one another as steam fogged the shower glass.[break][break]

"I want you to stay," he'd said, and she'd humored him briefly in the aftermath, following him to his bed. He collapsed there, exhaustion rendering even the most enduring of the League's Avatars asleep.[break][break]

She couldn't fall asleep as easily, not with his arm around her and not in this place that belonged to him and all his old, discarded dreams. So she waited until the sound of his breathing hit an easy, languid rhythm before she slithered out of his grasp, taking care not to disturb him.[break][break]

He seemed so content in slumber, as if he'd never once threatened her life. Witnessing him in a moment of vulnerability like this felt like a transgression, and she forced herself to look away from him as she departed the bed and his room. The door shut softly behind her.[break][break]

Her clothes had been ready some time ago. She quietly dressed herself, finally taking a moment to look at her phone. A message blinked up at her, the name and number familiar. "Mon oiseau," she murmured into the receiver, leaning against the wall. "No, sorry, I was working late. Time got away from me."[break][break]

A finger twirled a curl of her blonde hair as her emerald eyes swept the room for anything that might betray her presence here. As she did, she caught countless glimpses of what had undoubtedly been Eva Morales's ordinary life. A shiver passed through her, like being watched by a ghost, before she disregarded it.[break][break]

"I have a lot to report to you. Kyogre is on the rampage." She bit her lip, hesitating. "But it's late, I know. This can wait until tomorrow."[break][break]

Anxiety coiled in the pit of her stomach as she awaited BARNABY FINCH's answer, and she stole another glance towards Matias's bedroom door. At this distance, it still appeared closed.[break][break]

"Hm? Why do you assume I'm with him?" The distant laughter on the other end relieved her as much as it vexed her, and the anxiety within her coiled even tighter. "I don't want to talk about this now, Bee," she deflected, an arm wrapping around herself protectively. "But I can meet you in Mauville, if you like. Then I'll tell you anything you want to know."[break][break]

Guilt crept into the back of her mind, but she pushed it back.[break][break]

She'd already reminded MATIAS SILPH of what she was and what she wasn't. She wasn't his girlfriend, she wasn't his fiancée, and she didn't love him. What the Elite Four did with that information was his own fault, at this point. If he refused to see the truth for what it was, so be it. Still, infuriatingly, the guilt lingered.[break][break]

The Butterfree she summoned TELEPORTED her away from Matias and all the problems he'd invited in her life, taking her to another problem that was just as complicated in a different, crueler way.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]