Chatting and Realizations

“Hey Sunny, do you think we’ll find any king’s leaf today?” Lilium asked as she patted her gligar’s head. Sunny chirped in response, nodding in agreement. 

Lilium pulled out her larger version of her plant pressing book and fingered through the pages. She was gentle with it, seeing as she had pressed and bound the book and pages herself. She had two books that she pressed plants in, one for the smaller plants and the other for the larger plants. 

“Hmm, we’ll let’s get going! You have the sky view?” She questioned, as she closed her book and put it back into her basket. Sunny chirruped and readied herself to take flight. Lilium watched as the gligar ran at full speed before jumping up into the air, catching an air drift. She glided around above Lilium in circles, chirping excitedly as she did. 

“Bravo, Sunny!!” She called as she slung her woven basket over her shoulders, running out after her pokemon. 

She sprinted forward, following her pokemon as the gligar glided ahead; looking up occasionally as she ran, making sure she still had an eye on Sunny. All the while looking around her surroundings for any plants she didn’t recognize. 

Sunny chirruped from above Lilium; pointing a claw at whatever had caught her attention, before she dove downwards as they approached a small hill. Lilium looked up at Sunny quickly before she looked back down at the hill and she slid down it. 

At the bottom she took a moment to right herself, glanced back up at the sky, and then continued to run forward. After a few more seconds of running she looked up again, failing to notice the man who had just stepped out from behind a bush. He was too busy chatting with his gliscor to notice her sprinting towards him. 

Lilium looked back down and shrieked startled as she plowed into him, and he jumped, startled by her shriek. The force sent them both tumbling to the ground and startling both of their pokemon. 

“Oof!” 

“Glis! Gliscor, cor?!” The man’s gliscor chirped frantically as it glided up to the two quickly. 

“Gli!” Sunny chirped flying down as well. 

“Oowwww…” Lilium whined, leaning back and rubbing her head. At least she had landed on something soft. She looked around to see where the man she had run into was and if he was alright, and then noticed that she was straddling his hips. 

“OooooOOOH ALMIGHTY SINNOH!” She yelped, quickly scrambling back. “I am SO SORRY, ARE YOU OK?!” 

The man sat up, and rubbed his head a bit. Without signature hat knocked off, revealing messy silver hair, Lilium almost didn’t recognize him. Of course she knew who Ingo was, how couldn’t she? Not many outsiders were ever welcomed into her clan, let alone one that later became a Warden. Not to mention, Ingo was a bit of an odd duck, but then, she supposed she was as well.

“Oh! Warden Ingo, I’m sorry about that! And I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going, and I kinda just…ran you over…” she trailed off sheepishly. Personally she liked Ingo a lot, he was nice, and she enjoyed chatting with him when they ran into each other, never this literally though. 

“It’s alright, and just ‘Ingo’ is fine.” Ingo replied, dusting his hair and hat off. He looked at her with pale silver eyes and asked as he stood up, “Are you alright? You were running at full velocity. Your cab is ok? No injuries?” 

Lilium shook her head as he leaned over, offering her a hand. Lilium took it (wow his hands were rough and warm) and dusted herself off. 

Sunny and Ingo’s gliscor chattered to themselves as she and Ingo got their bearings; the two were clearly talking about them. She wondered what they were saying. 

Lilium rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “I really am sorry about earlier, I should have been paying attention to where I was going.” 

“It’s alright, you were on your set track.” He replied. Though he wasn’t smiling, his voice denoted he wasn’t upset about it. “What we’re you so set on? If you don’t mind me asking?” 

“Oh! Well I’m looking for king’s leaf, I uh, I collect and press plants! It’s a hobby!” Lilium replied quickly, smiling. 

She placed her woven basket on the ground and pulled out a hand bound book. Ingo moved closer to look at it with curious eyes as she opened it. They flipped through a few pages, before she stopped on a page.

Her face felt hot, for some reason. It was clearly because of the weather, of course! 

It wasn’t because she was so close to Ingo, she could practically feel his heart beat through his coat. Or that when he looked to her to see why she wasn’t moving and found she was just staring at him, she could see that not only were his eyes silver, there where what she thought to be flecks of white in them as well. 

You have a crush on him. Her mind casually told her.

NO. No, I do not! She snapped back at her self. 

Sure, she had watched him in the Pearl settlement going about his business. She had also watched how he interacted with his pokemon while she walked to her own tent and there was certainly no way he felt the same-

“Miss Lilium?” He asked confused. That yanked her from her thoughts and made her slam the book shut and laugh awkwardly, startling him a little bit. 

“Sorry about that!” Lilium fumbled to put her book back into her woven basket and heave it back onto her shoulders. “I just zone out sometimes! I totally wasn’t staring at how pretty your eyes are!” 

That made Ingo blink surprised and his face flush. Lilium’s face grew redder and she mentally kicked herself. Almighty Sinnoh, this was becoming an absolute disaster. 

“O-oh,” He stammered, adjusting his hat embarrassed. “Thank you, Miss Lilium. You have pretty eyes as well. They’re like sapphires.” His face reddened even more, as did Lilium’s. They were flirting, and she was dying and apparently their pokemon where laughing at them. She heard Sunny and gliscor chittering behind them amused, a sound that was very much like laughing. 

“Thank you!” She blurted a little too loudly, but Ingo didn’t seem to mind. She chewed her bottom lip in the window of silence before she opened her mouth to say something, but Ingo beat her to it. 

“It was nice running into you, I hope you are able to find the king’s leaf. May your tracks be free of any obstacles! And I’d very much like to chat again sometime.” 

Lilium grinned; Sunny scampered up to her as she turned to leave. “Thank you, Ingo! And likewise, let’s talk again!”