An annoying, singsongy voice reached Sabrina’s ears on her way to the Gym, instantly giving her a headache.
“Oh Sabrinaaa~”
“Ugh.”
Azure threw his hand over her shoulder, forcing her to drag him along with every step to her great irritation.
Following her previous fight, Sabrina had chosen to wake up uncharacteristically early in order to train in the outskirts of Saffron, and was in the process of returning to the Gym with slow, tired steps, ready to face any new challengers. Not that she’d gotten many lately.
She hadn’t expected to run into her boss on the way back though. It almost felt wrong, to see Azure out in the open, under the sunlight, a part of her imagining him melting under its rays like some kind of vampire
“Azure,” she greeted him with a smile like salt on a wound. “What an unfortunate coincidence.”
“I heard about yesterday’s battle,” he said. “Very impressive. Though I was surprised to hear your opponent left the Gym still walking. You’re not going soft on me, are you?”
“Tch. Don’t tell me how to do my job.”
And she threw his arm off of her brusquely. Azure stumbled back a step, making an expression as though he were about to cry.
“You’re always sooo cold,” he whimpered, lower lip shaking. “I thought after all this time, we’d finally become good friends!”
Sabrina winced. Theirs was… in all honesty, a pretty unusual relationship. The distrust she felt toward Azure was still there, somewhere in the back of her mind, but it had slowly been giving up ground, becoming little more than a memory.
Truth was, she’d become accustomed to him, to his dark sense of humor, his cryptic ways and the always-present scent of blood whenever he’d return from a mission. She couldn’t complain. After all, wasn’t she hemmed in the same scent? It would be too far to say they were friends, but still…
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They finally reached the Gym, in between snide comments and bad jokes, though this time they decided to enter through the front door, since it was too early for anyone else to have arrived. Sabrina unlocked the padlock, and as she pushed against the heavy steel doors, she was surprised at what was waiting for her in the blood-soaked arena.
“Finally!” A familiar, annoying voice reached her ears. “I’d almost gotten tired of waiting! Were you planning on running away from our duel!? I wouldn’t expect any less from a coward like you.”
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the arena, Sabrina saw two gleams. First that of a Pokeball being drawn, and second that of the silver crucifix hanging from the man’s neck, swaying back and forth.
“En garde!”
“...Huh?”
There was a moment of shocked silence, and then Sabrina sighed.
“...Right, the religious nutjob from yesterday,” she said despectively. “You really came back. So either you’re a complete idiot or you got tired of living, hm?”
“What’d you say!?” he bellowed, the spark behind his eyes lighting up like coals, though he quickly calmed himself down. “No, it’s fine… God forgives you. But that doesn’t mean I won’t wipe that smug smile off your face, brat!”
Beside her, Azure tilted his head like a curious kid, a smile attempting to lift the corners of his mouth.
“Wow, okay! I’m not sure what I’m looking at here, but it sure is interesting!” he said, cheery as usual. “It almost reminds me of the beginning of a tormentous love story, don’t you agree?”
“Wh-!?”
Sabrina turned her head so fast her neck clicked, but something stopped her in her tracks before she could insult Azure. The man’s eyes, one brown and one blue, were locked onto the priest’s black ones, unmoving. For a moment… For just a moment, Sabrina was overwhelmed by their presence, as though she were standing in between two wild Pokemon sizing each other up before they could strike.
“Alright!” Azure finally spoke, clapping his hands together. “I better leave you two to it, wouldn’t wanna… interrupt, hehe!”
And he walked away, humming to himself a song Sabrina was unfamiliar with. Of course, she tried her best to bore a hole into his back with her glare, but the man didn’t seem to notice.
Those two pairs of eyes crossing… Sabrina was regrettably ignorant of what it augured. She had no idea her normal life in the Gym had, with that alone, come to a sudden and complete halt.