[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

Unlike her eventual would-be partner in bad luck, Stormy was unassuming and hadn't put the pieces together. She, too, had bumped into and indulged a ten-year-old who had batted his irresistibly adorable lashes at her. He'd taken her hand and lead her to a table to play a game of cups and read her tarot cards - though she was convinced he was making it all up. [break][break]

Regardless, it isn't until later that she realizes her wallet is missing from her purse, only when she's trying to order from a hotdog stand and comes up empty. [break][break]

"I-I'm so sorry, sir. I swear, I just had it a moment ago."[break][break]

But he's already waving her off because she's struggling to pick through the bottom of her purse to find the loose change rattling in the bottom. Over and over again she fumbles it, a growl escaping her throat as the coins drop to the ground and roll away. Just as she collects all of it except one piece, the one coin that would give her exact change, it falls underneath a bench. [break][break]

Instead of walking around to the other side of it, she opts to kneel down beside it, pressing her cheek to the metal as she reaches through to find it. Except all she gets in return is her hand stepped on by a passerby who doesn't even notice her gasp of pain and anger.[break][break]

With her other hand, she snags the coin and gets to her feet, brushing off dust and oblivious to the fact there's a stripe of wet paint against her cheek from the bench. It turns out she'd missed the 'wet paint' sign along the front. Stormy promptly makes her way back to the hotdog stand only to see that he's closed up shop unexpectedly. A sign sits out and the man's back is turned.[break][break]

'out of hot dogs, come back later.'[break][break]

Stormy groans, stomping her foot in exasperation at this unfortunate turn of events. Her stomach growls it's impatience with her incompetence as she glances down the street to the cotton candy vendor stationed next to the beautiful fountain.[break][break]

And that's when she finds out cotton candy wasn't on the menu tonight, either.[break][break]

Just as she's given her spool of sugary-goodness that almost certainly wouldn't have staved her hunger, she feels a hand wrap around her arm and tug sharply. She gasps in horror as she feels her balance shift unexpectedly. Her boot skids, sliding on something that enables her to fall into the man. Together, they crash and flip over the stone lip of the fountain and she gasps again in pain as she bumps her shin painfully off the lip.[break][break]

Water fills her nose and she chokes and sputters as she pushes off of the man roughly, desperate to not drown in such a small amount of water in front of dozens of people - how humiliating.[break][break]

When she pushes herself up enough to not be submerged, her shirt is soaked and her hair sticks to her neck in dark tendrils. She's wearing water-proof mascara, though, probably the only fortunate thing to come out of this. Wiping dirty fountain water from her face and shaking her head, she glares at the young man who's blushing and offering his hand. [break][break]

Even still, she takes his offer of help, praying that he doesn't stumble and drop her a second time.[break][break]

"It's fine, really. It's just some water."[break][break]

But there's a forlorn look in her eye as the cotton candy dissolves before her eyes and she feels the stickiness linger in her hair and on her skin.[break][break]

"You really had it out for that poor cotton candy though, didn't you? Ruthless."

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

She notices immediately how pointedly he stares at her cheek and she blinks rapidly in awkward discomfort. Was there something on her face? It doesn't bother her in the slightest that the rest of the passing crowd stares, only that he does. Their murmurs of disappointment do nothing to fell her confidence - in fact, she almost laughs in the face of their scrutiny.[break][break]

Her hand raises to the dried-but-now-damp paint pressed to her cheek just as he makes a joke. In spite of the embarrassment staining her cheeks a deep pink, Stormy manages to add onto his exasperated attempt at humor with some more of her own.[break][break]

"Yeah, a candy-crusher."[break][break]

While he wades to the edge of the fountain to begin his departure, Stormy hesitates, fingernails peeling at the paint absently. She's muttering under her breath about what could possibly be stuck to her cheek and how it got there - but then her eyes settle on the wet-sign bench down the street and she sighs.[break][break]

But then her attention is directed to the young man pulling out business cards that have absorbed water and become the thickest card of all time. He sets it down on the edge of the fountain and she stifles her laughter for the sake of not embarrassing him further. Except.. it seems that a Wingull has done that for him. She watches as the bird drops a generous gift on his shoulder.[break][break]

Stormy braces herself against the fountain as she pulls herself carefully out of the fountain to drip dry on the stone. Her sandals squelch as she puts weight on them. Gross.[break][break]

While she stares at the dropping on his shoulder, trying to decide a polite way to remove it for him or bring his attention to it without humiliating him, the young man waves around a bill, asking people who didn't give a damn if they can break it. His attention is quickly swept up when a Rookidee lands on his clean shoulder and chirps, directing him elsewhere. It appears the cotton candy vendor gentleman has abandoned his anger.[break][break]

Stormy pulls a miraculously dry stack of napkins from her closed purse and decides to just tackle the mess on Atlan's shoulder without warning or invitation.[break][break]

"I'm so sorry, just hold sti---"[break][break]

But before she could get the majority of it, Atlan pulls away to run off. He bellows another apology and she blinks in surprise, floored by his bizarre behaviour. She doesn't dwell on it for long, however, as she turns to retrieve the stack of business cards and dispose of her napkin. Her stomach growls again and she sighs as she takes another look at the nearby food places.[break][break]

Ultimately, Stormy opts to backtrack and search for her missing wallet, convinced she must have left it somewhere or dropped it along the way. When she comes up empty, she realizes how hungry, damp, and dirty she is. People look upon her with scorn and disgust and she sighs, feeling her shoulders droop in defeat.[break][break]

It doesn't occur to her even still that her misfortune is directly related to her tarot cards, not even the fact that the little boy had proudly predicted almost all of what had happened to her.[break][break]

Well, everything except getting kicked in the face by a familiar stranger and further humiliating herself. That hadn't yet happened but it was sure to, much to her dismay.[break][break]

Stormy makes her way down the street, a damp jacket hanging limp off one shoulder. She's since pulled her hair up and into a messy bun to keep the cold, damp hair off her bare shoulders and looks more than a little frustrated and angry.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

One thing is for certain - today has absolutely not been her day, and she's about ready to throw in the towel. She'd backtracked as far as she remembered last seeing her wallet with no luck, which meant no lunch. The sun was being replaced with upsetting rain clouds and she could feel the humidity cause her clothes to stick to skin.[break][break]

And it was then that she noticed a pair of eyes, two, actually, continue to peek around the corner wherever she went. It was as if she could hear the snickering of a tiny voice any time something unfortunate happened to her. But no matter how quickly she'd turn her head the voice and the face that it belonged to would disappear. [break][break]

She had begun to follow the voice, however, while tripping over or bumping into people that came out of nowhere. She'd torn her jeans and scraped her knee, run into someone with a full plate of saucy... something or other that quickly stained the front of her shirt - and she felt as though she were no closer to finding the reason behind all of her bad luck. The voice had encouraged her to put the pieces together and realise that maybe it was unreasonable for her luck to have been this terrible.[break][break]

Stormy is profusely apologizing to another person of whom she'd bumped into - knocking their change purse open. Coins spill to the ground and she kneels down to begin picking up the pieces before overhearing someone shouting. There's anger in their tone and, as she quickly abandons the change in favor of someone else in need, she watches as the familiar stranger 'Atlan Beckett' as his business cards had read, loses both a slim packet and his wallet down the drain.[break][break]

"Do you need help? Are you stuck?"[break][break]

Without waiting for an answer, Stormy begins to approach, kneeling down by his foot to try and reach her much smaller hands through the grate to grab hold of his shoe. She begins to work at it in an attempt to get it free without losing the shoe as well.[break][break]

"Just... hold still a moment. I've almost got it."

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

Her fingers slip and she lunges forward just as he insists she stop. The next events take place in what feels like slow motion despite occurring in real time. And, despite seeing it about to happen, Stormy is powerless to pull away from him in time to save herself.[break][break]

And, as a result, she earns herself a kick to the face. Pain flares up across her nose and she recoils, stumbling back and landing in the dirt. One hand flies to her mouth just as blood seeps from her nose. Tears well in her eyes but she doesn't cry - it's only a reflex. Instead she blinks through the tears to look up at her unintentional attacker with surprise.[break][break]

"I-it's okay."[break][break]

But it's not okay because blood drips down her hand and stains her shirt and she's worried that this is only the tip of the iceberg of unfortunate events coming her way. She tilts her head back to stop the bleeding but Atlan approaches her with a handkerchief. He presses it into her hand and her fingers curl around it instinctively, holding onto him for a second longer than intended.[break][break]

Following his instruction, the woman sighs in mild relief as she waits for the throbbing to take a backseat so her mind can focus. [break][break]

"If you mean the girl you dunked into a fountain a couple hours ago, then yeah. I'm that girl. There's probably easier ways to talk to a girl you know."[break][break]

She chuckles a bit as she leans back onto her other hand. It seems she's more than happy to sit on the street and wallow in her situation. People passed them by and sneered, but she was oblivious to their disappointment. Instead, she's watching the man kneeling in front of her, his face a brilliant shade of red. She chuckles again before extending her hand in greeting.[break][break]

"My name is Stormy."

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

Stormy breathes a sigh of immense relief at the mere mention of 'dinner'. She practically melts against the pavement, glancing at him with a twinkle of mirth in her eyes as she continues to pinch the bridge of her nose. After a while the pain dulls in intensity to a dull throb and ht bleeding stops.[break][break]

"Dinner first, MRI later."[break][break]

She chuckles a bit, but her attention quickly shifts when she realizes the man's attention is divided. Laughter from a nearby ramen booth ensues as people stare down at them in their plight, but Stormy remains indifferent. [break][break]

"Hey. Don't let them get you down. I'm sure they've experienced their fair share of bad luck - they're just trying to make themselves feel better. I wouldn't give them a second thought."[break][break]

But her words appear to fall on deaf ears as rage bubbles in his throat. The Rookidee on his shoulder burbles a warning, bringing him back to the present. When Atlan looks back down at her his eye's burning intensity smolders into an apology. He offers his hand in greeting but she doesn't let him go because she's using him to pull herself and him back to their feet. [break][break]

With a groan she stretches, using her free hand to gently touch her nose, wincing at the sensitivity of it. Eventually she realizes she's still squeezing Atlan's hand and she drops it awkwardly before brushing it against her shirt. But it seems Atlan is looking off and down at the Kadabra and the kid, and it's then that Stormy realizes how crazy oblivious she had been.[break][break]

"Hey wait a minute... wasn't that kid selling something else earlier today? What a crazy entrepreneur he is."[break][break]

The crease in her brow indicates she isn't buying it though and she glances at her purse again and the missing wallet. How much did she want to bet that little boy probably had an idea of where it had gone? A lot, probably.

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

As soon as they get to their feet and she dusts herself off, it occurs to her that she should probably pay more attention to the kid and his Kadabra than the smear on her jeans. She already looked like trash, there was no sense trying to clean it up.[break][break]

She keeps her hands to herself, suddenly conscious of their brief moment of intimacy and the way he focuses on her makes her feel self-conscious and awkward. Stormy smiles a little bit, forcing the corners of her lip up into a stressed smile.[break][break]

Fortunately, Atlan changes the subject and makes it obvious that he wasn't thinking about how long they'd held hands. Instead, he brings up a reasonable question and she blinks in surprise.[break][break]

"Cheat me out of my cash? N-no.. I don't ---" she pauses as her hand presses against her purse. Suspicion blooms on her face like a rising sun. [break][break]

"Wait... I did lose my wallet but... I thought I'd dropped it."[break][break]

Atlan looks away then to find their pair of thieves had disappeared. More than likely they had overheard their discussion and had realized what sort of danger they were in. [break][break]

Before she has a chance to respond, however, the man grabs her hand and leads her after their missing thieves. They make their way past several groups of people and Stormy remains as close as she can so as to not be left behind.[break][break]

"O-okay!"

[break][break][break]

[attr="class","kheaderbig"]

[attr="class","kthread"][attr="class","league"]

It appears that Atlan's Rookidee has more sense than either of them - or was simply just fortunate enough to have been born with wings. The bird takes flight above their heads as people crowd even tighter along the sidewalk. In a moment of panic, worried she might be swept away by the bumping shoulders, Stormy squeezes tight to Atlan's hand.[break][break]

But then her body is suddenly lurched forward with unseen force as her guide hits what feels like a brick wall. When he falls forward he drags her with him, and suddenly her hands are pressed to his chest and her face inches from his. However, instead of blushing like a fool, Stormy seems more focused on the boy and his Kadabra as they make their grand escape.[break][break]

In fact, she's pretty sure she had seen the psychic-type Pokemon tuck its spoon away. Had it been responsible for the stray food cart?[break][break]

Stormy pays no mind to the attention Atlan gives her, instead choosing to awkwardly fumble at the man's clothes and chest in order to push herself off of him and back to her feet. While she quickly dusts herself off, Atlan shouts a command to the bird. It flies off in hot pursuit but Stormy is itching to follow. [break][break]

"Holy shit, this guy is sneaky."[break][break]

As if upping the ante, Stormy pulls her hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. Without waiting for Atlan to follow or redeem himself further, Stormy takes off after the Rookidee. She appears unwilling to waste any more time - she had figured out that their bad luck was almost certainly related to the Kadabra's obsession with bending spoons.

[break][break][break]