“Goodness.” She tried briefly to imagine him in a bikini top. It clashed terribly with his face-plastered trunks, their soulless eyes even now boring into her at a glance.[break][break]

…Yes, the sheer amount of personality this man had could have blasted her to the moon and back, no rocket needed. [break][break]

Having apparently finished his call—and perhaps she was to suspect there would be more?—the duo turned their attention to the matter at hand.[break][break]

“It's a good thing it's safe to swim after eating.” Yujin pat the CEO’s cheek lightly as he leaned in. Unlike the garish gholdengo, she had patience in mountainous spades. [break][break]

So she’d begin to walk over to the ice cream stand, tossing her short hair. “Unless you’re afraid of a little cramp?”

A quaint, controversially mid-to-modest town-city, depending on who you asked.[break][break]

The afternoon sun was beginning to sink through the trees, casting slanted shafts of light between the gaps in the buildings. The air was sea breeze atwixt rustic notes of pine; it reminded her of salted chocolate.[break][break]

Unfortunately, there were a few bars of note in Petalburg. Her hasty encounter with Derek had became a minor mystery, one that she was in no mood to pick apart delicately.[break][break]

“Oh, so I can find him at the gym?”[break][break]

She stood just outside a bar, the third one she'd checked. The locals tittered as if she’d asked a sensitive question.[break][break]

“...Very well, then where is his house?”[break][break]

And now they looked positively scandalized. Presumably because she was an anime-attractive woman, in a loose shirtdress, with a martini between her fingers.

An eyebrow raised at his admittance. The man was broad and had a cute face, but he said such mercurial things. Like a big, bushy lycanroc; she wanted to pet him, and maybe she’d be OK with getting nipped at the same time.[break][break]

“How surprising, we're more alike than I thought.” She was the last person to care about personal integrity. In her line of work, not only do you shoot from behind but you double-tap to ensure nothing gets back up.[break][break]

And the ranger seemed to have strong feelings about the terrorist organization. Though most in this region seemed to, as well.[break][break]

Yujin waved as Derek left, only realizing a few moments later that she had no idea what bar he meant. Surely there was more than one in Petalburg? She didn’t even have his phone number.[break][break]

“Oh… oops.”

At life’s table, all players have their hand. Some hold because they want to keep having everything. Others hold because they want something, anything.[break][break]

By all accounts, this had been easy—two pairs eyes locking across the room the moment they met. On pure chemistry alone, there was something good between them.[break][break]

They were entwined like that for a time: exploring hands and lips, charting something new and exciting for the first time. Time seemed to tick slowly, or maybe quickly, and before long they had to revert back to the base instinct to breathe.[break][break]

But they still had their cards.[break][break]

“...No.”[break][break]

A finger played with the tufts of his clothing, slipping under to trace the line of his collarbone.[break][break]

“Not until you finish what you were saying.” She liked neither loose threads nor unfinished business.[break][break]

And with seemingly great reluctance, she slowly let herself roll off of him, landing on her back and flinging her now muted gaze to the disparate stars.

“Yes. Here, for you.”[break][break]

Yujin placed the bottle of pink champagne between them as a peace offering. Having realized halfway to the rendezvous that they’d be somewhere more exclusive, she’d made a pitstop at the bar.[break][break]

The older woman took a seat across from the hostess: crossed legs, fingers tented on her knee, back straight. Not a typical customer, that much was clear.[break][break]

(The two of them were very different, but were there similarities, as well, hidden beneath the eyes and the hair?)[break][break]

“I don’t plan on being too much of your time. Thank you for hearing me out.”

Yujin nodded at the first query; the blue back-glow of her laptop suffused her with a vespertine halo.[break][break]

“No, but will you forgive me if I laugh anyway?”[break][break]

The body knows the primal danger of darkness, even if all the lights of the civilized world threaten to extinguish it.[break][break]

The engineer rose from her seat with a poorly-suppressed smile, gathering her own jacket and lit phone. Unbidden, she reached for the tool backpack by her foot, scraping a few loose gadgets into the pockets and hoisting it upon her shoulders.[break][break]

Yujin was halfway to the door when she glanced back at Dahlia. “Shall we go on a little adventure? You can stay here too, I don’t mind. Alone. In the dark.” The grin threatened to crack her face sideways.