"Oh, I've never been here before, but I've always wanted to stop by," Marianne marveled at the cafe, eyes flitting over nearby board games before settling on the handsome man and the Luxray curled beneath his chair. Her own Klefki jingled pleasantly in mid-air, hovering at her shoulder. "Thanks for inviting me. I've been looking forward to it!"[break][break]

She'd always been curious about the mysterious younger Graves brother. Granted, not because of who he was exactly, but because of who his older brother, GIDEON GRAVES, was: Marianne's boss, who doubled as the accidental object of her unrequited affections.[break][break]

It wasn't as if she didn't know a crush on your boss was a terrible, irrevocably bad idea -- the power imbalance alone would make it questionable, never mind the fact Marianne would rather die than admit her feelings aloud -- but the heart wanted what it wanted. She'd tell herself she didn't, but well, then things like this happened.[break][break]

Things like gifting the wrong Graves with an extravagant present you won in a Pokemon tournament you really had no business entering. And then winding up having lunch with the wrong brother on that false pretense.[break][break]

Typical twenty-something shenanigans and hijincks, Marianne told herself. Nothing weird or embarrassing about it.[break][break]

"Dr. Graves told me that you're enjoying the Zeraora?" she opened in what she hoped was a casual manner, unfolding the cafe menu.

TAGS – Gunner Graves[break]
NOTES – Mission: Sleepless in Slateport (Jan 2024)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner's eyebrows rose into his forehead at the positive response from Marianne. "In that case, do you want to play a game while we eat and chat?" he offered. "Maybe something casual so we're not too distracted?" [break][break]

Still, he picked up the menu when she did. It offered typical café fare: soups, salads, sandwiches, and a couple of delicious-looking desserts. When the waitress stopped by to take their orders, he chose a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries. [break][break]

After the waitress left, Gunner turned his attention back to his date. [break][break]

"I am, though we've only done a few practice battles with some friends," he admitted, before taking a sip of his coffee. "Thank you again for the gift. I have to say, I was surprised to receive it. Did you win it at the recent tournament?" [break][break]

He recalled that the Vital City Tournament in Lilycove City had been handing out Zeraora as prizes to participants above a certain threshold on their battle passes. [break][break]

Marianne didn't strike him as someone skilled at Pokémon battling, but he supposed looks could be deceiving.

TAGS – Marianne Lovelace[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"I did," she confessed, laughing a bit in disbelief at her own behavior. "Would you believe me if I said I beat two Elite Four during it?"[break][break]

MATIAS SILPH and Michael Navidson, to be specific. She even had the badge from the latter to prove it.[break][break]

"Although it was a very casual event, if I'm to be honest," she continued, embarrassed a bit at having over-stated her accomplishments. "So that doesn't mean much. I don't know that I'd be good at training something as fierce-natured as a Zeraora."[break][break]

She fiddled with the laminated menu before settling on a half-soup, half-salad special, opting for a specialty grilled cheese sandwich with chicken noodle. It was cold outside, and the thought of both items was a pleasant one.[break][break]

A delicate sip of her chai tea latte warmed her.[break][break]

"Do you have a casual game you'd recommend? It's been a long time since I played a game for two people."

TAGS – Gunner Graves[break]
NOTES – Mission: Sleepless in Slateport (Jan 2024)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner's eyebrows rose into his forehead at Marianne's declaration. "Two Elite Four? That's impressive," he said, meaning it. "Maybe you should do the gym circuit." [break][break]

When she asked about a game, he scanned the nearest wall for something suitable. Spotting a bright yellow box, he stood to retrieve it. His movements were slow, however; he was still recovering from injuries acquired at the battle against Kyurem, and his doctor had warned him against too much strenuous activity for another few weeks. [break][break]

Returning to the table with the box in hand, and grimacing as he lowered himself back into his chair, Gunner placed the board game between himself and Marianne. On the cover were cartoon illustrations of Combee. [break][break]

"This is a game called Hive. We take turns putting down Combee-shaped pieces to try and surround each other's Vespiquen piece," he explained. He removed the lid and started separating the pieces into two piles. [break][break]

"It's a quick game, though I don't mind playing a few rounds since the company is so sweet." His mouth curling into a smirk, he gave Marianne a sly wink.

TAGS – Marianne Lovelace[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Oh, I've played this one before!" she exclaimed, eyes lighting up with delight. She moved to excitedly start collecting her pieces, not quite registering Gunner Graves's words until... well... she registered them.[break][break]

Was that a wink? Oh. Oh, no.[break][break]

Why had he called her sweet? Was this a date-date?[break][break]

She froze in place, struggling to figure out a way out of this social faux paus that didn't reveal her crush on this man's brother, and briefly short-circuiting in the process.[break][break]

"Did Gideon tell you that?" she blurted instead. "That I'm sweet?"[break][break]

Focusing on this game was going to be impossible.

TAGS – Gunner Graves[break]
NOTES – Mission: Sleepless in Slateport (Jan 2024)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner frowned, confused by Marianne's question. His hands stilled over the game pieces as he looked up at her. "What? No, Gideon didn't say anything…" he began, before the revelation dawned on him. [break][break]

She wasn't interested in Gunner at all, was she? No, she was interested in his brother. [break][break]

The younger Graves made a noise that he hoped came out as a chuckle. In reality, it sounded more like he was choking on something. [break][break]

"Well. Hmm," he said, still gathering his thoughts into reasonable coherency. His ears and cheeks burned with embarrassment. "This is awkward. I, uh, I thought you agreed to get lunch for a different reason." [break][break]

Thankfully, the waitress came by to save them both. She delivered their lunches, maneuvering the dishes around the game pieces already spread out on the table.

TAGS – Marianne Lovelace[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"A different reason?" she repeated slowly, letting that thought settle. Did that mean this confirmed it? This was always meant to be... a date? A date. That made sense, yeah.[break][break]

Arceus, she was an idiot.[break][break]

When the food came, she practically gushed at the waitress in thanks for saving her from that conversational pivot, and began devouring her grilled cheese in order to avoid having something to say.[break][break]

It was not her finest moment, nor her most attractive moment, but it served its purpose of delaying the inevitable.[break][break]

"I'm sorry," she managed out after swallowing the last bite, "I just don't, well, dating my boss's brother would be weird, don't you think? And potentially awkward, if things didn't work out, and besides he speaks so highly of you, and what if we said or did something that upset him, I could never..."[break][break]

Oh god why couldn't she shut up. Why was she still going.[break][break]

"Playing games is good, though!" she finished, looking up at him anxiously. "I like games! They're, they're great... Friendly games. Yeah."[break][break]

She wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

TAGS – Gunner Graves[break]
NOTES – Mission: Sleepless in Slateport (Jan 2024)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner sighed. Striking out with a cute girl wasn't fun, but in retrospect, he didn't want to subject Marianne to the kind of things mila alexopoulos might do if she found out. Much later, he would realize that Marianne was the kind of girl who'd bore him after a few weeks, anyway. [break][break]

That didn't make the sting of rejection hurt any less, though. [break][break]

"I get it, I get it," he said, putting down his sandwich and wiping his fingers with a napkin. Unlike the woman seated across from him, he'd been eating at a slower pace. "No need to keep going." [break][break]

He forced a smile. It felt more rueful than he liked, but hopefully it put Marianne at ease. [break][break]

"Games are good, though." Gunner hoped his tone was agreeable. "Let's at least play this one, since we set it up already. Does that sound good? And then we can both go home." [break][break]

And never run into each other again.

TAGS – Marianne Lovelace[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Great!" she squeaked a little too cheerfully, a forced smile making her cheeks ache with the effort. Relief, nonetheless, found its way into the haze of anxiety and settled its delicate blanket over her shoulders as they untensed.[break][break]

Awkward misunderstanding avoided, then, in favor of awkward not-a-date. Marianne could work with that.[break][break]

She busied herself over the game pieces, taking her time reading the instructions as she refamiliarized herself with the game, even as she could feel the disappointment of the man across the table.[break][break]

Both of them were quite distracted during the game itself, making careless mistakes and stumbling their way to an unsatisfying victory.[break][break]

Later, she'd see a picture of mila alexopoulos on Gunner Graves's social media feed and feel another wave of immense relief that she hadn't broken his heart in any serious way. As she did so, however, she'd scroll and see GIDEON GRAVES beside ollie morales smiling awfully brightly together in another photo, and hit the 'like' button, unaware of the photo's context.[break][break]

It was so nice that Gideon had a good friend as well as a good brother, wasn't it?

TAGS – Gunner Graves[break]
NOTES – Mission: Sleepless in Slateport (Jan 2024)

[attr="class","pkmn"]