Interlude – Through Their Eyes

Interlude – Through Their Eyes

INTERLUDE - THROUGH THEIR EYES

"So I just gotta grab your wrist for ten minutes?" Chase asked, finding it difficult not to stare at Grace like she was a moron. "That's it? Nothing else?"

His friend kept shifting uncomfortably like she'd been condemned to the death penalty, and the glances she kept giving her mother, who stood there cross armed, didn't help. It was Chase's first time seeing one of Grace's parents, and they looked so similar you could have thought they'd been cloned. Yeah, Samantha Pastel was about an inch taller, had blue eyes instead of green, and had more freckles, but other than that, she was like what Chase figured Grace would look like in her forties. Honestly, he was surprised she'd come all the way to Canalave for this, all the way to his Pokemon Center room. He was glad that he hadn't been the one to get to Twinleaf, of all places.

He hadn't even bothered to ask why Grace's mother was here. His friend had made sure to tell him not to ask a million times, nearly beating it into his skull. He rolled forward in his chair and outstretched his arm.

"No need to look like I'm about to torture you," he said.

"Just grab it."

Sheesh, she was annoyed today. Well, he wasn't going to ask any questions; he had a bunch of shit to do because Cecilia wanted to meet him and Louis in Sandgem in around a week, and if he was going to spend parts of a day not hard at work, then he was going to make up for it in the the days before. Of course, Cece had told him not to tell Grace, and that she was going to text her to talk things out right afterward.

Things were progressing along quite well with his team, even if they'd had to pivot entirely on the type of moves they used to train. The delay had really helped buy him the time he needed. The Conference was supposed to begin on the fifth of July, now, and already, Roark had been the second to reopen his Gym. More would follow soon enough—hopefully Byron soon.

Chase grabbed Grace's arm, and she immediately shut her eyes, making a weird ass sound that made him want to call her a weirdo. She reopened them a few seconds later with the most disappointed look Chase had ever seen from her. Her lips went flat, and she let out a little 'huh'.

Chase raised an eyebrow. "What's that mean?"

"Nothing. I'm just surprised." She twisted her wrist in his hold a little and hummed again.

"Why are you so fuckin' sweaty?" he asked, ignoring the displeased look in Samantha's eyes when he swore. So what? Get over it, lady. "Is it working? Are you tainting me?"

"Yeah... it's a lot less than I thought, though." She stared intently at his hand with widened eyes. She was seeing something there, so at least Chase knew she wasn't full of shit. "See, mom? I told you it was working, and you made a big deal out of nothing!"

"Then why not do this with your therapist instead of unqualified people?" Samantha foot tapped irritatingly against the ground.

Why was he catching strays? He hadn't asked for any of this.

"Because it works better with her!" Her wrist shook violently in Chase's grasp. "Can you finally stop? I showed you proof, but now you're just moving the goal posts!"

"I'm just worried you might be making a mistake." She shook her head. "I do believe you more now, but this reaction is a lot more different than you had with Maylene." Samantha sighed. "I just want you to be happy."

"Look, it's a new experience for me too. All of this." She stared down at Chase's hand and let out a little laugh. "When Cecilia comes back, we'll—we'll talk. It's all I wanted, but she left, and—and it crushed me. I'm getting better, aren't I? Compared to before?"

"You are."

"I just wish you believed in me—" Grace cut herself off. "Sorry, that sounded kind of guilt trippy. I'm trying to get better with that."

Her mother's eyes softened, and the argument stopped. Arceus help him. Ten minutes was a fucking eternity to hear. That name did activate a few alarms in his head, because—well, no, she wasn't the cause of the break, but she sure as hell had added onto the pile of reasons for it.

He'd tell Cecilia about it when she came back.

—

Three days later.

Denzel's back went through phases now. Sometimes, especially during the early mornings right after he woke up, it hurt so much that it felt like the end of the world, making it impossible to focus on anything else. He literally just had to sit there and endure it. Luckily, the pain was more manageable at other times of the day, and there was no denying that he was getting better. He had walked for the first time a week ago and could manage to move around without a wheelchair when it wasn't morning, even if he was slow about it. His condition was improving, and because of that, his parents had given him a little room to breathe.

They didn't know Grace was going to arrive any minute now. They hadn't seen each other since Justin's funeral, and while they texted a lot—she seemed much happier now than before—they hadn't met in person at all. He had to admit, he missed her. It was odd to spend so little time with her after traveling together for so long, but he got over it by taking it as training for what would happen when she flew to Unova.

Okay, it wasn't that bad. There was no time zone difference, and she was one Teleport away, but he was allowed to be a little dramatic.

Denzel heard footsteps beyond his door, along with two voices. One, he recognized easily. The other—

He didn't have time to think about it. There was a soft knock on the door as Grace called out her name, and he yelled at her to come in. Denzel instinctively felt the need to straighten his back when Maylene Suzuki followed behind her and instantly killed the shitty joke he'd prepared telling Grace that he thought she'd forgotten about him. The two of them were all laughs and giggles as they entered his hospital room—Arceus, it felt weird to see a Gym Leader in casual clothing and outside of their Gym. The closest example Denzel could think of was when you ran into your teacher outside of school, which in Twinleaf had somehow happened less than you would think.

"Nice to meet you—I guess?" Denzel tried. It was his first time actually seeing her in a casual setting. "I'm Denzel Williams. Uh, thinking back, our battle was pretty fun. If you remember it."

"Ew. You're so stiff," Grace complained, wrinkling. "Don't talk to her about work. Relax, okay? She's not going to eat you; she's just a person."

Maylene dragged two chairs close to his bed. "I've heard a lot of cool things about you! I did kind of forgot our battle, though." She inclined her head a little at Grace, who thanked her for the chair. She then sat on hers—backwards, leaning against the backrest. There was this weird thing they both did with their knees, slowly letting them drift toward each other until they swiftly took them away. "I hope that's okay? I go through hundreds and hundreds; it gets a little difficult to remember."

"Oh yeah, that's totally fine; I didn't actually expect you to remember." Denzel had spoken to enough new people that he knew to brush off any awkwardness if he was offered a lifeline. "What does bring you here, actually?"

"The dork and I were hanging out." She nudged her head sideways. Dork? Maylene was a lot less formal than Denzel thought given what he'd heard—wait, why in the world was Grace looking at her like that? "She told me she doublebooked and forgot that she'd planned to go see you, so here I am."

"I didn't doublebook," Grace whined. "I just thought you'd be available at night. You know, like the other days you work?"

"You'll have to forgive me, Grace," Maylene said, tone dripping with playful sarcasm. "I sometimes take my breaks early so I can see you during the day because I like it when the sun shines on your face. It just brightens my day."

"That's not why—" she bit her lip and blushed. "I'll let you win this time, you knave."

"This time? I win every time. I should honestly get a prize for the amount of times I've rolled you," she boasted with an air of smugness around her.

What. The fuck?

Okay, yes, he had said he believed that Grace liked Maylene from what he'd heard about her, but he hadn't expected it to be this blatant. He felt so out of place here and in business that had nothing to do with him that he felt like he had been the one invading their privacy, and they were the ones in his room! The two kept bantering a little bit until Grace apparently remembered he existed and that maybe she shouldn't make fuck eyes at Maylene or flirt when he was literally right there.

"See how fun she is?" Never mind, she didn't have a clue. "That's why I wanted to introduce you! Plus, she told me that it'd be nice to meet one of my friends, at least."

"Erm. Have you—have you told Cece about this?" Denzel had to assume they were dating and that she'd broken up with Cecilia before she left, or something that wouldn't make this horrible. "About you two, I mean."

"Oh, she knows we're hanging out," Grace said. "And I plan to tell her the details when she comes back. I—I know how it might look, but there's nothing going on." The words sounded almost rehearsed.

Could he have misjudged—no, there was just no way. "And Cecilia knows?" he asked again.

"I mean, she's out in the wilderness down south who knows where; I can't keep her updated on every little action I take despite wanting to." Grace bit the inside of her mouth, and her hand tensed on top of her shorts. That had come out a little bitter. "I hope she's doing well; I just wish we could have talked, you know? Or that she would talk to me. But I was toxic to her, and you can't go back in the past. No matter what state she comes back in, I have to tell her. Hiding our friendship would be wrong."

He knew she'd struggled to come to terms with Cece leaving. She'd ranted about it in their texts in those early days, but those had largely stopped after Craig's ceremony. There was a heavy silence that made Denzel want to crawl out of his skin. These were the bane of his existence. Not only did Grace look a little regretful, Maylene's expression, while hard to read, couldn't be described as positive, either.

"Sorry for killing the vibes," Denzel said with a slight, apologetic smile. "So, what's up with you, Grace? Anything I missed?"

He could have pressed for more information about the nature of this weird entangled relationship, but he couldn't.

Not when he couldn't recall seeing Grace this happy in months.

So long as Cece and she spoke, it'd be okay.

—

Two days later.

"Alright, are you ready?" Maylene asked. She was all smiles and could barely contain her excitement. "You didn't peek, right?"

"What? Me? I would never go against the sanctity of surprises." Candice wrapped an arm around Maylene's shoulder and looked right at Gardenia. "I wouldn't say the same about her; she can be devious, as you know."

"Very devious," Maylene added.

Gardenia rolled her eyes, noting to herself that Maylene gotten a lot more combative lately. Maylene had always been this way, especially with Candice, but she'd rarely goof off like this with Gardenia, especially when she was about to present her brand new battlefield. Gardenia knew how much she'd been thinking about reworking her field, and back in the day she would have been incredibly nervous about her and Candice's opinions. She used to always seek validation from her seniors because of how unsure she was of her own capabilities as a Gym Leader. It was just nice to see her confident and happier, especially after Coronet.

Maylene wormed herself away from Candice's hold—Gardenia somewhat wished her best friend would do that with her as well—and placed her full palm on the double doors leading to her side of the battlefield. "Here goes."

They swung open with some oomph, and Candice sprinted over like a little kid, arms swinging wildly at her side. She hadn't really needed to run because they could already see spires of stone rising high in the air.

The heart of the battlefield resembled a small, ancient city of stone, with narrow alleyways, towering stone pillars, and uneven, cobblestone streets that crisscrossed in tight patterns. The walls were high and imposing, constructed from large weathered gray stones, and they created a labyrinthine effect, limiting visibility and movement for both trainers and Pokemon alike. The ground was uneven, with cracks and small boulders scattered throughout, making it difficult for Pokemon to gain any significant speed or maneuverability. If there were a common theme here Gardenia would describe this with, it was dense and oppressive.

Maylene's fighting types were generally Pokemon who you really didn't want to get close to, or you would just lose nine times out of ten. This was going to make any speedsters who weren't fliers or incredibly agile have to work for their buck to keep away from Maymay's Pokemon who would maneuver easier within the dense towers. Sure, you could destroy them, but that was a lot of dense stone to go through unless you brought some serious firepower, and she'd be able to counter you really well while you were doing so. Most of Maylene's Pokemon knew at least a few rock type moves to counter flying types, so using the shattered stone to their advantage would be easy.

Gardenia allowed herself to digest the sight and figured that this would make Maylene a really tough early Gym to tackle, and one that would get more manageable the later you battled her thanks to having more tools at your disposal to deal with the sheer advantage she'd have on the field. She wouldn't be a walk in the park either, but it would be relatively easier to fight her later on.

"So you made your choice, huh?" Gardenia noted amidst a million compliments from Candice. Months ago, shortly after Maylene's breakdown after her Gym Battle with Grace, Gardenia had called her to ask her to decide what kind of Gym Leader she wanted to be.

There were plenty of options beyond the simple slider between 'easy' or 'tough.' A Gym was a spectrum with plenty of attributes to define it, be it its Leader, arena, Gym Trainers, et cetera, et cetera—and other regions with more complicated processes to actually battle Gym Leaders were even more in-depth. Gosh, Gardenia wished she could turn her Gym into a hedge maze full of puzzles, riddles, and ambushes. She hoped Sinnoh would adopt the Unovan model would be adopted in Sinnoh within her tenure.

"I want to have a reputation." Maylene nodded along. "I mean, it's like you said, right? It's all about consistency. I want to be a consistent pain in the butt and force people to adapt to me," she declared with determination in her voice and a clenched fist.

"Oh, she's in fire!" Candice joked. "On a serious note, though, I really like it! It's probably the most unique Gym design after Wake; I might rework mine before the next Circuit too, whenever I have time. What are the costs like?"

"I've run it for three battles so far as a test run; it's not as bad as you'd think," Maylene said with a hint of embarrassment. Gardenia remembered her talking about some money issues, but she'd never gone into much detail. "You don't have to rebuild it the same every time—in fact, it's better to have variation. Roark's already said he'll lend me some rock types so I don't have to train up some of my own to fix this up, and I caught some a few weeks back down south when I went to look for more fighting types. They were very nice about wanting to work with me for a few months."

Candice's mouth fell open. "What?! That hard-ass lent you something for free?" She crossed her arms and stewed in place for a few seconds. "All I got was that fossil for my birthday..."

"Candice, that was an extremely generous gift," Gardenia sighed, still admiring the towers. "An Amaura costs a lot, and they're only found in Kalos and northern Paldea—"

"I know, I know!" she groaned. "I just wanted to complain about him for fun! This is inspiring, Maymay!" Gardenia noticed Maylene frowning a little at the nickname. "I think we've all been resting on our laurels for too long; we got too comfortable in keeping the way our boring predecessors did it! Except grandma; she was awesome."

"Sofia was pretty great..." Gardenia mumbled. Eterna's old Gym Leader had been exceedingly strict to a fault, but that had been because she'd seen potential in her. She needed to call her one of these days so they could catch up.

Candice shrugged. "Meh. She hated me." They had been co-workers for a year, since Candice had ascended to her position earlier than Gardenia.

"That's probably because you're so unserious," Nia shot back with a wry smile. "I like that about you."

"Look at you, being all flirty. What's with that?" Candice tilted her head.

Hm?

Hm?

Hm?

"It's far from the first time I compliment you," she said, as calm as she usually was. Deep inside the recesses of her brain, she was having a massive crisis. Candice had never, ever picked up on any signs. "Do you want me to be flirty?" There, simple and easy to back out of. Nia was giving her the opportunity to take this further should she want to.

Candice elbowed Maylene in the arm and nudged her head toward Gardenia. "Heh. She's shitting bricks right now."

"Can you two just date already?" Maylene sighed. "I'm tired of this."

Why in the world would she—Gardenia had never felt such betrayal! For one, she had no idea if Maylene knew how delicate the situation was in Craig's death and the literal years of slow build-up and planning. Two, people didn't just say that out of the blue. What if you ruined things between the two people you were trying to get together?

"That's a pretty good idea." Candice had her hand pensively on her chin, nodding along. "We should go ice fishing and make out in an igloo or something."

"Are—are you serious, Candice?" Nia stuttered.

Things were a little awkward after that. How could Maylene stay on her lap after a breach of protocol? There were more and more of these every time they hung out; it was impossible to avoid. Here was the thing: Maylene was in love with Grace, and by now, she was pretty certain that she at least had a thing for her, too. There was just no way she would be doing all of this without feeling at least a spark. There had just been so many signals sent her way, and a lot of the time, it was Grace who went further than needed.

And it hurt to think about. Because there was just no way it was going to go anywhere. And she'd resigned to this since she realized her feelings—maybe even since further than that. Cecilia was going to come home, and sooner rather than later, according to what Grace had heard from Chase Karlson, and that would be that.

"Feeling down again?" Grace asked. "My lap's still available."

Maylene's jaw clenched. She could be so unknowingly cruel sometimes, and none of it was only her fault. "I'm fine." She lay back on her stomach. "Do your piano thing, you're—" so cute when you focus, "you better get a better grade than Jess. I don't want her to show you up again; I'll be rooting for you."

There was a little disappointed look on her face, and Maylene allowed herself to see if it would pass or devolve into catastrophizing. To her relief, Grace recovered rather quickly and grabbed her electric keyboard. She was steadily improving these days, even if Maylene still struggled to make her take therapy seriously.

Grace took a deep, consistent breath, and the focus came again. It was odd to see her stare down a piano like she wanted to murder it twice over. Fingers completely still; eyes narrow, intense, and barely blinking; her entire body seemed coiled, like a predator ready to strike. And it was so weird, because she wasn't even getting ready for an important battle or anything. She was just practicing the damn piano for a test worth ten percent of her grade!

Yet, her heart throbbed. A weird part of Maylene wanted Grace to look at her like that.

Then, she struck. Each note she landed was like a command, firm yet flowing, as if she were drawing the music out from the piano. Maylene mostly just listened, but she snuck in a video that she'd look at later. Her camera roll had started to be half Grace, half other things. She was just really photogenic, and Maylene liked to take silly pictures of people living in the moment without any time for them to try to adjust their faces with fake smiles or other expressions. Sometimes, she'd change her background to whatever picture of Grace she'd taken at the time. Right now, it was her running on a treadmill, her ponytail flowing behind her and sweat glistening on her skin.

Ah, that day had been so much fun, even if it was hard to focus because Grace had been looking down at her tummy half the time. Maylene didn't mind, though. She'd known that was the reaction her outfit would bring this time around, and she could have refused to wear it. Grace had worn something pretty revealing too—

The Gym Leader was snapped out of her thoughts by a groan and the end of the music.

"Fuck." Grace sighed, and her fingers tensed. "Arceus, I had it." She stared down the partition like it had hurt her personally.

"Did you mess up?" Maylene asked. "I couldn't tell."

"Yeah, I mistimed a note. I'll go again."

She went again, and again, and again, but she kept getting stuck at that same spot to the point where she was starting to get seriously frustrated with herself.

"You want to take a break?" Maylene asked.

Grace nodded. "My fingers are kind of tired. I wish I had Jess', she can just practice all day. Must be all that Alolan food her dad makes her."

"Hey, I'd never get tired either." Maylene wriggled her fingers in the air, and Grace averted her eyes for whatever reason. "I do wonder, though, why do you stop when you make one mistake? The last forty minutes I've seen you practice here, you've never made it past that spot. How close is it to the end?"

"I just—I have to get it right. It's about halfway."

Arceus, that was a long song. The class must have been an intense one. "But you run the risk of getting a lot less practice than needed."

Grace paused, wanting to fight back, but then she relented with a sigh and sagging shoulders. "I guess it's true that I haven't really done any work on the second half. And if I mess up during the actual test, I'll just have to continue."

"See?"

"It just feels wrong if things don't go perfectly, but I guess I should treat this like a battle. Things are going to go south eventually. No plan survives contact with the enemy." She nodded along to herself as if what she'd posited wasn't ludicrous. That was part of what made her so loveable.

"You're such a dummy," Maylene softly spoke.

Grace beamed like a little Lillipup at the name. "I'd really like to get full marks, though. Ms. Arden said the top five scorers by the end of the course can get referrals to her contacts and stuff, and she knows people in Unova."

"Damn. Kalos and Unova? She's pretty well-connected." Not that Maylene knew anything about the world of classical music, anyway. "Why don't I try and play you a little serenade while you cool off?"

"Maylene, you're going to play something really bad."

"Psht. Me? No way." She waved a hand dismissively. "Pass it to me."

She was horrible. Her playing was an abomination that had no right to be called music. In fact, it was so bad that Grace didn't even have it in her to shit-talk her. The weird part was that logically, her dexterity meant that she should have been good at piano, but it didn't matter when she had no idea what she was doing.

At least it made her laugh; that was always fun. Seeing Grace happier and better equipped to face her eighth Gym, the Conference, and Unova every day was worth everything in the world.

Eventually, their hour and a half came to a close. Maylene struggled to imagine the next time they were going to meet up. It would be at her Gym again, but this time, they were finally going to practice for fifteen minutes. Fifteen. That was such a long time, yet ten was too and it felt like it went by in a flash every time. It had been so long since the last time they practiced, and Grace had been really unsatisfied by the two times she'd done it with Chase. They had planned to watch some other movie, this time recommended by Grace, but Maylene wasn't sure they'd be able to wait until the end of their assigned time together this time.

There was just nothing to say about it, she'd told Maylene. It's just unpleasant, and it feels transactional. It's so weird with him, but I love it with you. It's special. Her mother staring at her so judgingly didn't help, along with the questions that followed.

Needless to say, Maylene was incredibly nervous, especially when there was one special request she wanted to make. She'd wanted to send it over text originally, but that would have felt... wrong. It needed to be face-to-face. So with Grace ready to leave her bedroom with her piano safely inside its case and strapped around her shoulder, Maylene garnered every bit of courage she could scrape within herself and called out.

"Grace, I have something to ask." She fiddled with her fingers, and her eyes constantly alternated between her feet and Grace. "And it's going to sound weird."

Grace blinked at her, all innocently. "I'm pretty sure nothing you could do or ask would weird me out."

"No, this is really weird. Like, I'm weirded out at myself just thinking about it."

"Now I'm curious," she said, leaning slightly in.

Maylene couldn't help but look at her lips. They were so plump—gah, focus! "Okay." She took a deep breath and continued. "So I've already said I've forgiven you for our Gym Battle, but you still struggle with that notion, right? Like you still feel like you have to atone even after all this time. And even after we've gotten so close."

Grace deflated. "Hmhm," was all she could muster.

"I feel like—like you need closure of some kind. And to be honest, I've thought about it a lot, and I think this might be the only way for you." For weeks, Maylene had wracked her mind trying to figure out a way to make Grace reach peace, and it had taken knowing her to figure out that the key to that lay in symbolism. "I think that—that it'd be good to talk about that day in more detail and what our thoughts about it are. And what we were thinking before, during, and after that day as best as we can remember." Maylene's voice turned into a near-inaudable whisper. "And maybe we should both wear what we were wearing that day, too. You know, so it's proper—"

"Wha—" the words died in Grace's throat.

"It's super weird right?" Maylene quickly said, accompanied by a nervous laugh. "I'm sorry, forget I ever brought it up—"

"No!" Grace yelled. "No, I—I was surprised, that's all. To be honest, I think it's a really good idea." Her foot kicked air, and she began looking away as well. "I don't really remember what I was wearing, to be honest. I've done my best not to think about it. Like, I thought about what it did to you, how horrible that was, and how I needed to apologize, but I wanted to avoid the actual battle as much as possible. I can look at the video—"

Words spilled out of Maylene's mouth immediately. "You were wearing that dark pleated skirt you have with those thick winter tights and a gray cotton sweater that was a little too big for you. You had your old white sneakers on because I'm pretty sure those are your most comfortable shoes, your hair was down like today, and you had your Poketch Watch on your right wrist."

"O—oh. You remember it." She slapped her forehead. "Wait, of course, it had such an effect on you. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. And I'll just be wearing my Gym Leader outfit." Words came easy now that Grace had agreed. "Oh, I guess it might be too hot outside; you can change when you get here. In the showers downstairs, or whatever."

"That sounds good." She gave herself a few seconds to think, eyes looking at the ceiling. "Yep, that sounds good," she repeated. "Emi has a decent amount of those clothes, but I should be able to get them from her easily."

Maylene raised an eyebrow. "She has your clothes?"

"Hmhm. We used to move around a lot while she was pretty stationary, so she kind of carried all of our clothes for a decent bit. Mostly, I just forgot to ask her for them back. I could have put them all at my dad's and my mom's by now."

"Ohhh," Maylene said, long and drawn out. "Yeah, I guess traveling with a million clothes is tough. You don't really think about this stuff when you don't participate in the Circuit."

"Now, who's the dummy?"

Maylene reached out to smooth the wrinkles from Grace's overalls she'd gotten while sitting, making her freeze up like a Deerling. "Don't try to turn that nickname back on me; I know you enjoy it way too much." She finished fixing up Grace's outfit and played with a strand of her hair. "You looked really good today, by the way."

"Wh—whu—" She was obviously too tongue-tied to say anything. "Thanks you."

Maylene chuckled. "Thanks you? Come on, try again."

"I—I mean thank you." Grace audibly gulped, and Maylene could tell she was looking at her lips. "See you next time?"

She let go of her hair and smiled. "Yep. Kadabra should be waiting for you outside." They had gotten good at letting the psychics know when and where Grace would need to be Teleported ahead of time.

Maylene guided Grace out of her bedroom and through her living quarters. For a moment, she thought about escorting her all the way out, but Grace knew her way around by now, and lingering too long might overextend their assigned time together. Maylene knew Grace enough to know that it was important to still be punctual and not be sloppy, or she would see it as a sign to start depending on her further. She needed people to keep her centered because she had no self-control. Or at least far less self-control than Maylene did.

"Um. Can I hug you?"

Case in point. She turned toward Maylene with that pleading look in her eyes, as if a refusal would utterly crush her. The 'yes' nearly flew out of Maylene's mouth like it would have been a prayer finally answered, but she bit her tongue, and her foot began to bounce on the floor.

"It'd kind of be a breach of contract, but like, if I'm the one hugging you over your clothes, our skin won't touch." Her pleading look turned almost rapacious, as if she wanted to jump Maylene's bones. "I just want to feel you. Because it's been so long since we've hugged, and I kind of miss it." They hadn't since Grace and Cecilia had come to her Gym to help her out with Oscar. "And you know, it'd be good for you too—"

"That's probably a bad idea," Maylene interrupted her, because she knew Grace would end up cornering her with words. Her restraint was already fraying as is. "I'd like to, don't get me wrong," she added as Grace's face fell. "I just think that—" Maylene really didn't want to say it out loud. "You get it, right?"

"I get it," she sighed, clearly disappointed. "Don't work too late?"

"No promises."

"You've got to take care of yourself," Grace said. "You're lucky I can't check in on you outside of our texting hours."

"You'd just use it as an excuse to chat," Maylene teased. "The last time, you just used it to complain about Ramon being annoying at that lunch." Grace had gone with Ramon a few days ago to train, since she'd been looking for a training partner and that Marley girl was giving her the slip. She had gotten pretty trashed, but she didn't really mind.

"Well, yeah! He doesn't know when to turn off his sarcasm setting! It was just getting mildly annoying when he kept shit-talking my Turtonator and making him angry for getting destroyed by his Delibird. You're way better at banter than he is."

"Grace, I could call you anything, and you'd probably like it." Maylene smirked when a retort didn't immediately come to shut her down.

"Not everything. Just most things," she finally said. Just then, she leaned in a little, her body spry and full of expectation. She wanted to be called something mean.

"You could at least hide how eager you are."

"Just say it."

Maylene snorted. "You're so such a weirdo."

"Hmhm." Grace closed her eyes, taking the words in.

"And you're my favorite idiot."

"Am I?"

She was so close now. Their knuckles and fingers grazed against each other, each point of contact lit aflame by the unspoken tension that crackled between them. Maylene contained the urge to cup her face and do something else, because while she was certain it would lead to what she wanted in the moment, it'd blow up in both of their faces. She couldn't do it.

So she played it off with a joke. "I'm actually serious—like sometimes, I wonder how you got this far."

It had the desired effect, drawing a little laugh and making Grace aware of how close she was so she would take a step back.

"Oh, and also, I would totally not use checking in on you at work as an excuse," she countered in that sweet voice she used when she wanted something. "I'd just check in on you occasionally, like once or twice throughout the day. It was just an idea, though; I wasn't actually serious."

"Uhuh. I believe you," Maylene lied. "You better get going; we don't want Kadabra to be angry."

"See you next time?" Grace asked, almost a question that Maylene thought was meant to ask, are you okay with this? Can we keep going?

She was, and they could. "See you next time."

Maylene fondly rubbed her fingers where she'd been touched. She wanted to cry, to call out her name and tell her everything she felt.

It'd probably be the last time they would see each other like this.