they both leave, suddenly, abruptly. once they arrive outside, the woman keeps a narrowed glare as she starts to release his hand. the irritation wasn't lost in her; her time was wasted, more or less. she thought that she was going to be busy, seeing that this job might have taken a bit longer (considering that they didn't even know where to start with this), but here she was, wheezing softly at the result. [break][break]

"that's because" she could have used the day to go on a longer date, instead, she's about to say. he definitely won't shut up about it if she said it "it could have been an easy solution to be solved.." she grumbles instead. "ah.. whatever." she groans, bringing a hand to gently press her fingers against her forehead ".. we can go grab lunch or something with the time we have."

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

the pichu smiles and twitches his little ears, bringing a smile to the trainer. "don't go running off too far, okay?" she calls to the little rodent, who only snickers, coming across a large, monkey-like pokemon. it appears to be meditating in this peaceful place, so it's best not to disturb.

skipping

☉

he has a point..[break][break]

she glances at the primarina, who already has her flipper being held by dal. bad as she feels for leaving the pokemon behind, it's much safer to have professionals move the rubble, rather than have her primarina blast the rocks blindly - at best it would harm a few other pokemon swimming around and at worst, it would injure one of them. no thank you. [break][break]

so she sighs, taking the other flipper of her pokemon and nudge at her to start swimming back up. "mmn.. that sounds like a good idea." her feet start to idly kick to help her move forwards, just so that the primarina doesn't use too much energy trying to drag the both of them through the currents. on their way back, however, fiora does take a gander at the seafloor below, admiring the pokemon and the sights.[break][break]

it's then when she idly hums, forgetting that he could hear her. [break][break]

".. an aquarium date would be a fun idea, some day."

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

shoot her a glare; that won't change how she's feeling amused. a rare time where she snickers at his expense, then for his sake (and later on, for hers) she backs off and presses on down the path. though they've only dated for a few weeks by this point (long enough for her feelings to solidify, and long enough for her doubts to have started peering out from their festering state), and though her heart has been uneasy dating a man she was once tasked to hold accountable with the law, she finds her gaze lowering to their hands, and her fingers gently twine in return, and a warm smile comes to her lips and suddenly everything feels a bit more peaceful. [break][break]

ironic, considering it's him. [break][break]

she can't contain the smile on her face - and she knows he can see it. it's just funny how these things work, and it's a little sad how things progressed for them to get to this point - as they trek down the path. his hold is warm, fingers caressing and cradling hers. it's hard to not smile. at the hand hold, and his little cliche line. hell, she giggles in response. [break][break]

"you're doing great~" she chuckles in response, absentmindedly rubbing the side of his hand with her thumb. "there was an attempt to be cliche and romantic~" she'd be fine if they could keep walking like this, though they come to a clearing soon, and she doesn't need to reach the summit to already know that it's going to be a beautiful sight.

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

she pauses, and stares blankly at him. his words were a joke. she knows his words were intended to be a joke. [break][break]

the only problem is that it isn't a joke. [break][break]

a timer goes off in the woman's head, and her brows furrow as she glances back at the pangoro she's just dealt with. bringing her hands to her face, she raises her head, slightly, to release an exasperated sigh. "no damn wonder they wouldn't breed..!" her exasperation is boundless. shortly after her groan, she walks to the man to grab his hand (she was aiming at his wrist, but that works too) to tug him with her out of the room, only letting go once they're out. she's so quick to turn to the breeder.[break][break]

"they're both male. go get a female pangoro. get two, i dunno. problem solved, case closed, thank you and goodbye." she doesn't want to be rude, nor sudden, but she just can't believe that they were called to get two pandas to breed - when they were both males. no fucking wonder. oh my god--

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

her attempts, futile. why does she even try? [break][break]

still.. the consideration is sweet, and admirable. hell, it surprises her when he mentions one of her colleagues. the comment prompts a soft hum from her as she chews on the cookie, and a little pichu begins to scurry up a woman's leg, tugging at her shirt as it climbs, before ultimately perching upon her shoulder. glancing at the little mouse, her other arm reaches down to grab a cookie, and brings it up for the ball of yellow to nibble. [break][break]

"mm.." she hums, idly watching the pichu enjoy the cookies with the trainer "i can help you with picking it up, then." since he went through the trouble of baking. he shared some, too, even though she doesn't understand why he had to come to her place to bake..[break][break]

".. you could have just baked at your own place.." she still grumbles. when she finishes the cookie, she licks off the crumbs and goes to the kitchen to wash her hands.

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

and he will, probably whether she likes it or not. [break][break]

one thing's for sure, though; he has a nice voice. so much so that she can't deny it - and she still beats herself over the head for feeling at ease and at peace in his presence (though she's getting better about it, despite her initial bias setting in and her continuous attempts to push them aside, especially after a certain incident). she's prickly, but she finds herself glancing his direction in pensive thought, and ultimately brushing them off. [break][break]

... honestly. [break][break]

he's going to be the death of her, one day.

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

she's disgruntled but.. honestly, she doesn't really expect too different an answer by now. after all.. this probably isn't a place she can see him coming for his own leisure. or.. even with another person. meaning, he was here for her, and there's something a little touching about that when she considers it. fuck. [break][break]

seeing the puff of cotton candy, she leans over to pluck it from his fingers to melt against her tongue. so she leans against his shoulder with a small smile to her lips, enjoying the sweet, sweet confectionary. "you'll enjoy it, i promise." she's so confident that he will, at least. he seems like the type who would enjoy it (and worst case scenario, she can always tap into the little competitive spark she'd see here and there). [break][break]

for now, she'll be content talking and finishing the cotton candy before they hop onto the bumper cars. she was starting to get comfortable against his shoulder and arm, anyways.

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

"i--" [break][break]

she knows she was thinking it. she knows she was implying it. she didn't know that he was going to say it. it was so sudden too, and so casually, that she can't help but to bring a hand to her face and rub as she grumbles. she'll ignore it. pretend it never happened. in fact, pay attention to what was happening now. mm.. maybe sulking was a better outcome over upset or tired, but this still needed a bit of work. [break][break]

"your guess is honestly as good as mine.." she hums, crossing her arms before glancing to the pangoro who sits to the left of the room. "i can try to see what's up with that pangoro there. maybe you can see what's up with the other one?" she tilts her head, and with that, she's off to go have a little chat.[break][break]

she tries to bring out mingqiu out to cheer it up with some humming and song, but otherwise, hr attempts are fruitful no matter how she tries to talk to it. so she turns to look over her shoulder to dal, who seemed to be.. standing by his panda. "any luck on your end?"

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

'somewhat familiar' is right, down to the relatively negative outlook on childhoods - and she won't admit that they have more similarities than they do differences, it baffles her knowing that their main one is the paths they'd taken. granted, would they have still ended up like this if they had taken such drastically different actions? who knows. [break][break]

when her father's brought up, she smiles. really, she's always thought fondly of her dad - even and especially when he isn't of her blood. "yeah.. dad liked talking to you last time. it's a little concerning how well you two get along. but less talking," she clicks her tongue, watching as the dots approaching the lyrics began to fill after the music starts to play.[break][break]

"more singing."

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

"it's so your ego doesn't inflate." because god knows it grows in tandem to his audacity. she reaches over to grab another cookie after she's finished her current one, and hums - holding back a smile - at its sweetness. god, she really does have a sweet tooth. save for suddenly coming to her place and claiming that he was going to steal the kitchen for a bit, it's.. nice. It's fairly nice. [break][break]

though she quirks a brow at the trays of cookies - surely that's.. a bit too much for just a few people? "who are these cookies for?" she asks, tilting her head. "usually just a batch is more than enough for two people."

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

"is it?" she hums, keeping her gaze forwards. not that she minds; a hike up a hill wasn't anything too difficult, considering what she'd usually have to go through for training in the event she has to do some extra work on the field. still, she glances over to him, a smile reaching her eyes before reaching over, slightly, to gently tap the back of her hand against his. "you sure you don't need any help from chengqing?~"

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉

ack, she hates it when he's so coy like this, even though it's tugged at her heartstrings once or twice. she hates to admit it. [break][break]

so in an attempt to turn her attention away from him, she urges the primarina to swim just a tad bit quicker, and the songstress' hums are muffled somewhat as she travels down with both ease and grace. it's starting to get darker, but thankfully, surrounding pokemon help to make it a bit more visible. [break][break]

a little more swimming brings them to the perimeter of.. what appeared to be a little cave, with only a small opening, a trail of luvdisc scales following inside. so she taps the primarina gently, urging her to bring the duo over. "arceus.." she mumbles, letting go of the pokemon and working to try and move a bit of rubble, before swimming downwards to check the lower parts of the landslide. no luvdisc trapped under the rocks. [break][break]

"mm.. we could try to remove the rubble ourselves, or we can report back and have others do it." she doesn't know if mingqiu could blow it away without harming any luvdisc, after all.

Dal-yong Nam [break]

☉