Isra couldn't decide if her anxiety about being out in the sun was getting better or worse. Normally she didn't dare leave her house during the summer months, doing her best to stay as far away as she could and yet-

Here she was again, with sun hot sand between her toes and the shadow of her banette keeping her save from the rays of the sun that would otherwise boil her blood for her.

With enough time and weaving through people and excuse me and oh sorry! the woman finds the friend she was seeking. Time with Alexei was a preciuos this despite his antics. Because of them even.

"Lexi!" she waves as she approaches, she hasn't yet noticed someone else weaving through the crowd on much the same path as her.

Alexei Ivanov

She drops the parasol and her Banette who has been shadowing her catches it with his shadow. He keeps it over her as she lets go of Remiel Calcifet's hand. There's a split second where she seems stunned by his words but really she's just taking a second to debate.

Then she reaches up to cover his mouth with her hands, both of them, determined that he will stop talking one way or another.

Alexei Ivanov

She didn't really have to in truth. There had been something between them right from the start hadn't there? It had come about before she knew it, before she could really think about it.

"I'm not answering that question." she turns away from him, looking out at the water again with the slightest of pink on her cheeks. She tries her best to keep her composure despite the topic.

There's a small huff, the child is answering now. "I'm fine, just keep dancing." she is, her steps taking them in a slow circle. The gentle sway matching the sea. It'd be pleasant if he'd stop talking about Remiel Calcifet.

Alexei Ivanov

The moment she hears his voice her eyes go wide with alarm. The last thing she had expecte was for Alexei to find her here after their little chat. About the man holding her hand while she ran around the beach.

"Shut up Lexi." she says, turning to him in very clear alarm. It's painted all over her features and how her banette chuckles at the sight of her actually getting flustered by something. A rare notion.

Dare one say it, Isra may even be a bit emberassed here, how surprising.

Alexei Ivanov
>>lmao thank you

Isra chuckles, he's not wrong. They kind of do. She doesn't mind though, besides it gives the egg a little more much needed attention.

"Perhaps you'll have to come over sometimes, it seems I need to look into holding dance lessons." not the alexei could have known the same topic came up in a previous encounter she'd had with her fellow rockets, Caprice Isaac having made a joke (she thought) and asking if she did lessons. She wonders if it may be a worthwhile way to pass the time.

Her brows scrunch together on her forehead. "That's just silly, why would we do that?" she's missing something, she can tell.

Alexei Ivanov

There's a moment where she looks over her shoulder at him. "That is the point of that weaher condition in battle, is it not?"

Then she's more morried about getting him down the steps with her. Her own are silent as she's already abandoned her heels beneath the table knowing that she will not need them on the sands. She wiggles her toes into the still warm grains for a moment before turning to face him as she pulls him out onto the beach with her.

"I did tell you that you only got to buy my drink if we danced the night away didn't I?"

Isra has to be careful how she manuevors this, coming to a stop not far from the bottom of the steps. She places the egg against Alexei's hand and her own over it before reaching for the other with her now free one to do the same. Once they both hand their hands on the egg, holding it between them Isra moves her feet in a gentle sway. There's only a mixture of music and bustling sounds of night life in the distance. It seems to be good enough for her.

Alexei Ivanov

He and his pokemon make themselves useful if nothing else. She can appreciate the quick desire to set the get away sails ablaze. Though most mighht say that revenge is a dish best surved cold Isra tended to think it should be boiling and burning hot. Make sure they'll feel it for the rest of their lives.

Distress, the pirates begin to release their pokemon in droves as if to fend them off but her Banette has alreay begun his ance. The will-o-wips that follow him soon litter the area, burning bright and eery. Setting fire and burns to any that grow near. His toxin spread further and further. It might not kill them but those that feel it won't be going anywhere any time soon.

His sneaking shadow reaches across the space between him and the pirates, plucking their pokeballs from their belts and returning their pokemon to them before tossing them aside. They will soon lay somewhere in the growing mayhem. Isra and her Noivern take toward the cavern they seem to have claimed as their hideaway, seeking to take the pirates for all they are worth. The pokemon she releases next will make sure of that.

The Golurk, the hulking automaton blinks in and out of sight as he moves about the pirate encampment. His cries draw attention to his steeling figure, the iron defence of his boy ensuring their attacks mean little and he makes the sand bellow them shift and quake with every step.

When Isra makes it to the cavern it is with a grin on her face and a glance over her shoulder to see if the man has kept up with her or not.

Here she'll riffle through their blunder to take bck what they've stole, as much as she can, and hopefully ruin enough supplies they won't be taking out any other ships any time soon.

maverick noah ryder
|tBPsnhp

"Wouldn't harsh sunlight work best with fire move learning dragons then? That'd be the reliable route I believe." she's down the rest of her cider because she doesn't feel like leaving a half full glass at the table.

When the glass hits the table her stare is dead serious. "More than you think." the cider means nothing.

Isra's already standing and picking up the egg, craddling it in one arm while she reaches for Alexei's hand with the other.

"You're going to help me hold it, how else?" she's draggiing him to the steps at the end of the bar's patio now, they can come back for more drink later.

Alexei Ivanov

She has to bite her tongue. Bite it hard. Because if she can't survive alone she doesn't deserve to survive at all. She doesn't expect him to understand that, where it comes from.

She ignores the topic all together now.

"I heard somewhere once that the gyms were more about teaching than winning anyway. So mybe that's a good thing." she still couldn't see the point in the gym system, she pursued it as a formality. The badges were nothing more than shiny somethings she let cling to her bag to let the rest of the world know she'd done somethin. She chuckle though, when he mentions the pokemon. "Maybe I should come pay her a visit again."

And the her hands are on the top of the table to keep her fingers from rbbing at her thigh. The scar there being a comfort she knows better than to rely on but can't help some days.

"I think." she paues. "By societies standards we" she draws it out, not wanting to answer, not really. "Already have. Finish your drink, I want to dance before we have another."

Because she wasn't joking, and the closer the sun comes to setting the better for her to be out on the sand just bellow the establishments patio. The stairs down to the beach were calling her.

Alexei Ivanov

"Romance is stupid, love makes you weak." she recites it on instinct as she's about to take another drink and catches herself. The glass comes down a little too hard and she reaches up to cover her mouth.

That's not a side of her that comes out often now is it? Not around him at least.

"Yes, and no and I just wanted to see you." she's setting the egg on the table in between them like a barrier now. Like putting something fragile between them will save her from whatever he's going to say about her comment on love. "It's been awhile, you're the only one I talk to like this."

"How's the gym been? I haven't been able to make it out much with everything going on." she's talking to much to cover hersel up and she knows it but she won't stop once she starts. Talking is the easiest way to drown what she's said. Give him too much to reply to and not enough room to talk.

"And what about the little blue thing? Has it been alright? With everything going on?"

She'll keep going if he lets her.

Alexei Ivanov

He keeps asking her questions she's not sure how to answer in a manner he might understand. Her titles, her position, all the things she is meant to be- they pile up. One in particular makes the idea of anything beyond what alexei is to her dangerous.

So she focuses on the last question he asks. "Hardly. I couldn't care less about that." lies. She cares a lot because anything and everything complicates things further.

Their drinks arrive and Isra takes a long drink of her own.

"I'm not intimidated I just" she cuts herself off again, looking for the right words. "I've never had this happen before. I don't know what to do with it." not quite right, but close enough.

Alexei Ivanov

"I doubt that." It was almost a smirk becuse the woman held her liquor better tha most expected. Especially with her being of average height and seemingly slight build. Most saw dainty and fragile but in truth Isra was anything but.

"Just a cider, please." Isra doesn't have to tell the waitress which one she prefers because she's been here enough for the woman to know and it shows. She nods and moves along without a second thought.

It gives her a chance to return her attention back to alexei and leave it on him. It takes her a moment to think about how to put it.

"Yes. Well. I-"

Deep breath.

"I've told you a little bit, about how my family.... dynamic is a mess yes?" she doesnn't really wait for him. "How..." she thinks. "I think there's someone I, want to pursue."

"And not just for fun I... think I actually want there to be something at the end of the chase."

"And I'm not supposed to and I don't know what to do about that."

And she asks alexei because he's the only one that's never judged her. Maybe he'll uderstand. For now she sets her egg up on the table and her chin atop the egg. As if cuddling it might make things better.

Alexei Ivanov

"Amelia yes, I suppose I would...." she trails off, murmuring something else, partially to the egg. A quiet reassurance that she atually did, on some level, care for it. It was just... a weird sort of care, wasn't it?

There's a moment where she can't quite look at him because she is indeed speak of the now Galarian Ambassador to Hoenn. She wondered how that was really going to go over in the long run, it tumbled around in her brain, the worry surfacing on her face for a moment before his comment makes her chukle and lightens the mood. "On one condition, you must sweep me off my feet afterwards so that we might dance the night away~" she returns the joke, humour dripping from her lips.

And then her smile drops, she serious for a moment as she looks back out at the sea before turning back to Alexei. "I wanted to talk to you about him a little bit, actually. If that's alright?" she taps nervously n the egg's shell without thinking about it.

Alexei Ivanov