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Salieri gave Grant an offhanded wave goodbye. If he volunteered himself to hold off the Route 9 stampede, then he was a decent person at the very least. And so was Benedict, apparently. Mmm, not bad, womanizer.

She glanced quickly up to the mountain's range's cliffside. Because Salieri didn't know Cyllage City was Benedict's hometown, she wasn't sure what the endgame to his proposal was. The Pokémon Center was indeed overstuffed with Ambrette Town residents. She needed someplace more low key to plan her next move to counter The Sniper. Someplace indoors, away from possible vantage points. If Benedict was indeed offering some kind of shelter, Sal had to consider taking it.

It was also quite possible he was hoping for something physical to spring from this. Sal found herself scanning him over, head to toe, before returning to his eyes. I can make my mind up about THAT part later.

"I'm listening," Sal said to Benedict, folding her arms.

((You can never be too sure that you haven't accidentally buttdial your parents))

"Really? I do like free..." Sal pretended to observe the center's interior, as if she was actually debating the decision. Of course she'd say yes. If there were parents involved she'd probably have her own room, where she could have peace of mind in a secluded spot to hide and brainstorm strategies.

She grinned right back at Benedict. "Crashing at your house sounds better than this dump," she said, mindless of hurting the feelings of any nearby employees. "I'll take you up on that favor, Ben."

((Or I guess wristdial, if it's a watch phone. Name's not as funny though))

Benedict's wink and smile for the nurse were not lost on Salieri. The bandanna girl held back a laugh. It's like he can't help himself. Boys will be boys. Guess I'm not so special after all. She held up her hands for a pass when the nurse's desk was opened up to her. Sal's party was at full health from the last visit.

"I have no idea. If you find out, let me know." Sal tapped at Banksy's Pokéball on her hip. "Torkoal problems...so, your parents must be pretty cool if you think they'll let me stay the night. How far is your house from here?" She was eager to get moving, but kept that desire to herself.

((The kind of parents that would raise a gentleman. And not so fun fact: Sal's got low self esteem about actual dating so she tries to use dudes before she thinks they might use her.))

"Voila!" Salieri said, half sarcastically and half glad. It was a very convenient location. "What peril. Here I thought-"

The sign advertising the massage parlor became apparent. Not at all what she was expecting. Then again, she wasn't expecting anything in particular, just the idea of a casanova's house. It dawned on Salieri that she really knew nothing about Benedict. "Your family owns a massage parlor?"

Salieri paused in the doorway. Back in Lumiose City, Gotengo was the hub for most of her social interactions. When it wasn't the treehouse, it was the streets or the school. Rarely did she visit a friend's house besides Mia's, and even rarer still did she meet their parents. This was uncharted territory for her.

Benedict's mother regarded her with the International language instead of Kalosian. With her dark skin and amber eyes, Salieri didn't look the part. It was doubtful she even hailed from Kalos, but it was even harder to place her ethnicity, as she knew firsthand. "I'm with your son, actually," Salieri told Benedict's mother in Kalosian with a small wave. "My name's Salieri Soledad."

((I'd look up the french translations, but time is money. And my current rate per second is like $9.26))

"Sounds good. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Montgomery." Salieri gave Benedict's mom another little wave and smile before following after Benedict. When push came to shove, Salieri could muster up some manners to converse with adults. Still, small talk with parents was not her forte. "Thanks for letting me stay."

Sal followed him down the hall. "Your mom seems nice...does she ever do human massages?"

Salieri poked her head inside to take a look at the quaint bedroom. With her current level of exhaustion, any bed would be comfy. "It's just right." The last few times a boy had invited her to their house, the parents weren't home, or there was some kind of sneaking around. It was becoming increasingly clear that this wasn't a ploy by Benedict to get with her. He was just being generous. Previously, whenever a guy brought her to their house alone, it was to get laid. Between that and the way Moze used to fool around with girls, a certain expectation had been building in her mind. Benedict's sincerity was a surprise and a relief.

"Benedict..." She closed her eyes, shook her head with a grin, then looked back at him. "When I met you and said you weren't sincere, I take it back. Thanks for not bringing me back here just to make out."

Sal would follow up by giving him a punch in the arm. A sign of affection. She stepped through the room's doorway. "I'll see you in the morning." And unless he had something else to add, she'd give him an "Au Revoir," and close the door.

“Maybe some other night,” Salieri tacked on before closing the door. She took a deep, decompressing breath, and slid down to the floor with her back to the door. Safe at last. There was a window in the bedroom, but the only sniping vantage points from there were atop the neighboring buildings. Nevertheless, she wouldn’t sleep near the window tonight.

Salieri let out all of her Pokémon. Banksy, as slow as a turtle, moved to the other side of the room to fall asleep inside her shell. Durendal and Biz Marquis flanked the newly caught Kecleon, eyeing him closely. The Kecleon’s eyes shifted. No one liked being stared at. “So what’s your deal?” she questioned while playing catch with herself using the Kecleon’s Pokéball. “You came a long way for a wild Pokémon just to find me. Were you looking for some closure for the Parfum Palace?”

Revenge was almost always her first guess, and this time it was right. The Kecleon folded his arms and stuck out his long tongue at her. “I would’ve boosted my score if you didn’t get in my way,” Sal sneered. “You’re the one that owes me.” The Kecleon was surprised with her audacity, but she continued. “You’re on my team now, so get used to it. Now, the last time I checked, a Kecleon couldn’t change the color of its stripe. How’d you make it disappear? And how’d you make my stuff disappear too?”

The Kecleon’s shoulders slumped in defeat with a sigh. He pointed down at his stomach so they would all watch, and then proceeded to rapidly grow green scales identical to the others on his body. The scales covered up his stripe, and from there he changed the color of his whole body to purple, then back to normal. Salieri couldn’t check her Pokédex to know for sure what move the Kecleon was using, but based on what she knew about certain reptiles, she had an idea of what was going on. “So you grow your scales on yourself and other things to change their color. Maybe it’s Recover…fine, here’s what we’re gonna do.”

She pointed to Durendal. “If The Sniper attacks again, we need you to cover us. Rock Polish decreases the drag on your body, doubling your speed. It’s a little harder to learn for a Steel type, but you’re pretty smart. Think on it, okay?”

Dune gave her a diligent bow and moved to a corner of the room to practice. Sal got up and, quietly as she could, moved the bed to be away from the window. “Biz, The Sniper definitely has a Remoraid or Octillery. That puts you on point for our defense. You need to become Bulletproof so he can’t use his Octazooka.”

A sweatdrop appeared on Biz’s forehead. Previous training for Bulletproof consisted of Veil firing Octazookas at him non stop. It was unpleasant. “I have an idea, but we can’t really train it up in this room. For now, I want you to concentrate on making seeds. Like for Leech Seeds, but don’t let them trigger. Hold that energy in.” Biz was confused, but he nodded and sat down, visibly trying to will the seeds into existence. Tomorrow, Salieri would teach him Seed Bomb for real.

Her attention landed on the Kecleon. “And you, you connard,” she said with a point, “You need a name…there’s this author that made up a character, a gentleman thief, who starred in a bunch of his stories. You’re no gentleman, but you are a thief, so…your name is Lupin now.”

Sal plopped down on the bed. “Lupin, you get the night off. But if you try to leave, you’re have to answer to them again, so just relax.” She yawned. “Welcome to the crew.”

Lupin wasn’t keen on his new nickname or crew, but with no other option he chose a corner of the room and coiled up to sleep. As all her Pokémon either went to sleep or trained quietly, Salieri flopped back down on the bed. It was comfier than it looked. Now that she had things taken care of for the night, and a plan for the morning, she could finally try to relax.

She wondered what it would be like to see Benedict in the morning. When everyone partied hard into the night at Gotengo, it’d often end up as a large coed sleepover. Sal could count on one hand the number of times she’d slept at a guy’s house without any other friends around. Three out of those five times, the guy only wanted one thing from her. At first it made her feel desired. Shortly after that, it made her feel like a prize. A trophy to put on the shelf and nothing more. One boy had bragged about making out with “Moze’s little sister”, and even Mia didn’t know how much that bothered her. Who she was played second fiddle to the male objective.

Benedict gave off a similar impression at first. Thankfully it turned around very fast. He’d proved he wasn’t just a one note womanizer. It was to a point that Salieri was starting to feel guilty for using him. I don’t want to get him involved with the nobles…but I want to be his friend. Having no pressure to play the dating game was very calming.

Her mind wandered to the other boy of note she met today: Matheson. Matheson wasn’t like Benedict at all. Benedict seemed like the kind of guy who thought every word of his sentences through, for great effect. Math had consistent verbal diarrhea. Talking to him was like being on a rollercoaster. There was one thing the two of them had in common. They were good people.

Sal reached up to her cheek, rubbing where he had punched her in the face hours ago. It felt like it was a long time. “Idiot,” she mumbled to herself. Math made no secret of hiding his attraction to her, but one of the unspoken rules of pursuing the girl was that you never punched them in the face. The pain was long gone, but the time she spent in that cabin lingered. “…idiot…”

When this Sniper business is over, I should call him, she thought as her tired eyes began to close. Her subconscious rewound through time, all the way back to her first kiss, and as she began to think of the mystery boy and their one day together, Salieri drifted off to sleep.

((I'm all set for the next day if you guys are))