“...Hey, Azure,” Sabrina said absentmindedly, gaze lost in her drink. “Who do we work for?”
It was a miracle Azure heard her considering how noisy the bar was. The two sat next to each other around the VIP table overlooking the Gym arena, accompanied by a handful of older men wearing expensive-looking suits, talking and laughing amongst themselves. Each of them some flavor of gang leader or low-ranking government official.
Said bar, though quite big, wasn’t exactly what one would call extravagant, but this night was special. The furniture had been polished. The cups had been washed (with soap, even!) and there were hardly any cockroaches to be seen.
Sabrina, of course, had been practically dragged here by Azure so she could rub shoulders with the leaders of Saffron’s dirty underbelly, unpleasant though the idea was to her. It came naturally to him, of course. With his perfectly ironed black suit, shirt and tie and that tiny white triangle insignia on his lapel, you couldn’t pick him out of a crowd amidst all these people. Sabrina, on the other hand, was the very embodiment of the idiom: ‘like a Magikarp out of water’.
Mew bless his heart, Azure had tried. He’d ordered her to take that dingy hat off and had even given her some not-torn clothes, but even then it was clear how uncomfortable and out of place the girl was amidst this crowd, to the point she barely said a word for what felt like hours. Until, at last, she broke that silence.
“Oh?” Azure lifted an eyebrow, putting down his glass of wine. “It’s odd to hear you ask questions; you never were the curious type. That’s why the higher-ups liked you so much, haha.”
“Don’t dodge the question,” she replied, cutting. “Not that I care much. I just… after so long, I’d like to know. This guy… What are we to him? What are these Gyms to him?”
Azure let out a hearty laugh, reaching with one hand to pat Sabrina on the head, playfully ruffling her hair. An insult usually prevented by her trusty hat. Sabrina glared daggers at him from under his hand.
After a moment, however, he answered.
“You eight Gym leaders are… valuable trainers. That’s all you need to know,” he said, and a second later lifted his hand and raised it over his head, asking the bartender for a round of tequila shots. “But… who knows? Maybe you’ll meet him in person one day.”
He left a pause, a sinister smile frozen on his lips.
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“Maybe he’s even sitting alongside us right now.”
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The two shot glasses -one Sabrina’s, one Azure’s- hit the table in unison, followed by a sharp, pleasured sigh from their owners. It was four or five in the morning, neither of them were sure anymore.
The mafiovernment officials around them kept chatting amongst themselves, mostly about trivial stuff. The tone and volume of their voice, however, changed dramatically in pitch here and there when a certain something was brought up, but to Sabrina it was nothing more than background noise.
Something did catch her attention, though. Hushed, furtive whispers; mentions of a certain someone coming back to Saffron… judging by the tone of their voice, they must’ve been both admired and feared by them. But who-?
“Since you asked me a question before…” Azure’s voice dragged her out of her thoughts. He was refilling the glasses as he spoke. Sabrina winced, preparing for the worst, and she wasn’t wrong. “...I believe it’s my turn now. What do you think about that man with the cross?”
There was a *tonk* as both glasses were slammed down again, followed by identical sighs.
“Why do you ask?” Sabrina formed a mocking smile as she refilled the glasses again, giving one to Azure. “Are you jealous or som-?”
“Yes.”
Sabrina’s reaction was immediate; she choked on the tequila shot, coughing and spluttering it all over the table, earning the displeased eyes of all around her and practically burning her throat.
All she could hear was Azure’s lively laugh. When she finally composed herself, she glanced at him off the corner of her eye. He was playing with her, surely. It was true he showed an unusual level of interest in her person, but to her… it looked like the same type of interest a Meowth showed a Rattata it had caught.
“...My turn,” she said, trying to ignore what had just happened. “How…?”
As she refilled the glasses again, she thought she’d heard a commotion in the distance. Screams, chairs and people being thrown around. Nothing unusual there. Once more, the two of them drank the shot and slammed the glasses down on the table.
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Eh? That’s your question?” Azure smiled, genuinely surprised. “You’re simpler than I thought, haha.”
“Don’t-”
It was then that they found the source of the commotion below. Or, more accurately, said source found them; pushing his way past the numerous guards standing at the end of the staircase leading toward the first floor, a tall, black-haired man made straight for the VIP table, stopping only when she found Sabrina.
A silver cross hung from his neck, resting against his chest.
“I… I came to challenge the Gym leader to a battle!” he screamed, raising a Pokeball toward her.
A long, ominous silence stretched for what felt like hours.
Then, when Sabrina’s mind managed to comprehend the stupidity she’d just witnessed, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh, slapping her palm against her forehead.