smash_logs | Once upon a time I was falling in love...

Forgotten? Not a chance. He'd been eagerly awaiting her showing up since he'd woken up a few hours ago. He'd taken plenty of extra care with his appearance, even though he didn't have much more than the clothes on his back and in his travel bag right now.

As soon as he heard the knock he sprung up from where he'd been sitting on the edge of his bed and opened the door wide - huge grin firmly in place.

"Hi! It's good to see you!"

He was so chipper. She wondered how she'd be able to teach herself to be the same way. But then between them both she was always the more calm and composed sort. Polite and well-mannered, but quiet. And in some ways, aloof.

Voile blinked at first, but then her expression relaxed and she slipped her right hand behind her back. The other held up an organza satchel in green to him. "Hello. Did I keep you waiting long?"

"No! Not at all!" Sonny replied. It had been his choice to wait, after all.

He took the offered bag.

"Wow - you look really pretty. I like the color of your dress. I'm sorry I don't have anything nicer to wear right now? I'll get some better clothes soon once I'm a little more settled."

"Thank you," she replied with a smile. "I figured you might be tired of seeing me in frills." Although she did love her frills.

Then she shook her head, "I don't really care what you're wearing. I'm just happy to see you." Which made her pause because it was a very affectionate thing to say and she still wasn't sure if she should be saying anything like that.

So instead, she chose to distract by pointing to his bag, "Pokéblocks."

"I don't mind the frills at all!" Sonny replied. He knew how much she enjoyed the frills, after all. And they were always pretty clothes that she wore. But the summery look was cute too!

"Ah! Pokeblocks! Thank you so much! I'll save them till we get back!" Sonny replied, placing them on his night stand carefully.

She did like the frills. She liked dresses in general, but the frills were cute. Since she was designing all frilly outfits for the contest hall, however, she thought a slight change in her own style would help. Not to mention Cammy's excellent taste in clothes. She really had grown a likeness for maxi skirts.

Poking her head into his room, she curiously looked around and tapped at her chin. "This room suiting you so far? I'm sure Mac is good to you. He's a nice guy, I've heard."

"It's... different. I'm really used to staying with Vinnie. It's weird looking over at the other side of the room and seeing weights and things instead of a little jungle."

But! He was going to do his best and not be sad about that. Especially not right now.

"But Mac is really, really nice! I think we're going to become good friends."

"I'm sure you will!"

She caught just a glimpse of the uncertainty. And that was what made her break past the wall she'd put up. She reached over and rested her hands against his forearms.

"I really am. Keep smiling, if you can. You look good like that." Then she offered her left hand to him. "We can leave when you're ready to."

He visibly relaxed at her touch, his smile becoming much larger and much more genuine.

"I'm glad you like my smile. And I know things are going to be alright, and worrying never fixes anything. I'll try harder. I promise."

He straightened up a little bit and took her hand gently. He'd missed holding hands with her and seeing her smile and hearing her reassurances. Even if it had only been a week, it was still long enough for his sensibilities.

Her expression softened and when he did take her hand, she paused. Then her other hand joined and she simply stood like that for a few moments as she thought over his words.

"When you do things, Sonny, you should do them for yourself. You don't need to promise me anything, because you aren't doing it for me."

It wasn't hard to offer him solace and she was able to put aside her uncertainties for his sake. When she was alone, she could think on them, but as long as he was in her company, her attention was meant to be on him.

"I know I should. I will. I am."

Still, he knew his moods affected her, so, whether he was doing it for himself or not, it was for her too.

He smiled at her again and started walking, closing the door behind them and starting down the hall.

"Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing the Contest Hall! And lunch!"

She wondered for a moment if he actually was. Or if he was trying to appease her. Sonny was always kind, especially to her. She wouldn't have put it past him for him to be a mite self-sacrificing. She didn't want that, however.

As she followed behind him, her expression brightened again, "It's just starting out, so I doubt it's real impressive. You can see the outfits I'm currently tailoring. I think I want to offer them up as contest prizes for future competitions. You can give me your opinion on them."

Sonny had a tendency towards self sacrifice for the sake of peace and happiness in those he cared about. Unfortunately, there was probably no changing this.

"I'll be happy to tell you what I think! I don't really know a whole lot about clothes, but I'll do my best." Sonny replied with a nod. He knew what he liked, even if he wasn't exactly a fashion expert. As could be seen by his khaki shorts and T-shirt combo.

"Oh! And where did you want to go for lunch?"

She wasn't expecting anything spectacular from him, because frankly, anyone would look between the two of them, peg Voile as being the more fashionable one, and they wouldn't be wrong. She'd had a few people tell her she had some style, but every time that came up, she countered with the concept that she was only dressing in what she liked. She simply had the confidence to wear everything that caught her fancy.

His question about lunch made her blink. "Well, to be honest, I'd figured that I would treat you to wherever you wanted to go. It was my offer, after all. Where do you want to go?"

"I have some money too - I can pay for myself. Or maybe even for both of us."

He'd kind of expected he was going to pay so his wallet was at the ready, allowance itching to jump into the cash drawer of some eatery or another.

"But... Umm. Hmm. There are lots of good places I remember. I hope they are all still there! Do you know of any good new places we could try?"

She shook her head at him, "No, no. I've got it. You don't need to pay for anything, okay?" She asked him. She wanted to pay. If he started to pay for her, she'd owe him something and that wasn't necessarily something she wanted.

Settling her left hand upon her hip, she thought before she replied. "Hm... New places. Do you remember the... Oh, gosh. What's the name of the place? Hanging... That place you took me to when we went to the movies?"

Their first official date, she was pretty sure it was. The same place that had the waiter that was later murdered. Although she wasn't focusing on the latter. Simply the memory of former days.

"Well... if you're sure. But let me know if you change your mind!"

Because it was totally OK by him if she changed her mind.

"The hanging garden! They had really good food there. I always smile when I hear about that place..." Whenever he'd seen a coupon in the paper or heard an advertisement for it, it made him grin. It was one of his happiest memories, even if he'd been nervous at the time.

"Believe me," Voile began with a pointed look of amusement. "I've got it. Let me do it for once, hm? The host club turned out to be a great success and I could use a way to celebrate it. You're the one I'm doting on and that's the end of it."

And as if to reiterate, she wagged her index finger at him before her expression brightened again.

"Now then..." Her pace resumed its casual strolling and she nodded, "That was exactly the place I was thinking. Would you like to eat there?"

"Weeeeeell.. OK. When you put it that way, I think it's a really good idea. I'm happy it went so well for you! I wish I'd been in time to see it!"

He grinned cheekily as she wagged her finger - it was cute whenever she did stuff like that.

"I would very much like to eat there, please. It will be nice to see that place again. Hopefully it hasn't changed much."

"I doubt that it has. I've not been since we last went together, naturally."

Then she tipped her head and decided to fill him in on the events along the way. "It was very busy. A lot of people. Or maybe it just seemed like a lot. Bulba scolded me for being a little too uptight, I think."

She smiled, "I was really nervous. I couldn't stay still or anything. I think that's the most I've ever fidgeted. Ever. And I used to be accustomed to being on stage. I guess running a contest is different from actually participating in it."

"That sounds like it was a lot of fun, though! I can see why it would be different to organize a contest instead of just being in one."

Really, he had no idea what went into organizing an event like that, but he could only imagine it would be an incredible amount of work. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and grinned widely.

"The more you do it, the more relaxed you'll feel. My first Gym Battle was really, REALLY nerve wracking. By my third, it was just a lot of fun and I was a lot more calm."

The gesture rendered from her a pause, but her instinctive reaction was to squeeze his hand back in return. She thought about what he had to say and gave a slow nod. He had a point. When she'd first shown an interest in contests, she had been so nervous that she couldn't even perform properly. It was an embarrassing show, to be fair. All things needed a small step first. Everything else could come after.

"Hm... That's a very good point. Thank you, Sonny, for such a good reminder." Then after a moment, her head tilted, "Do you miss the days of battling? I mean, since Red's champion in Kanto, you don't really do much in terms of battling anymore, do you? Isn't it a little sad?"

"I do miss battling!" Sonny replied with an affirmative nod. "I like to battle, especially in big matches with Gym leaders or really strong trainers. I love it. Red always has so much fun watching us use our moves and we're always so happy when we win."

The memories made him so proud, and it showed on his face.

"One day, we'll go on another journey. I'm sure of it. When we were Pokémon League Champions, it was a lot of fun but Red wanted to get moving again, so, we started to go through Johto and beat all those Gyms. There's other regions that would be great to see! Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova. I hope they have really tough Gyms in those places."

He turned to face her. "If we do go, you should come with us! Maybe you could get to see different contest halls in different regions."

He sounded so confident. In a way she understood it and in another, she didn't at all. Sonny was still a mystery in plenty of shades. But she'd always appreciated that and something Vinnie had said to her stuck, too. She was equally enigmatic and probably more so because unlike most of the people she surrounded herself with, Voile never really opened up.

Not really.

"Come with you...?" she asked him as she raised an eyebrow. "With all of you? I don't know about that, Sonny. You know how I'm always reminding you I'm not one of Red's Pokémon? This is going to be one of those times."

Voile shook her head, "Besides, I'm not a contest Pokémon anymore. Those days are old and gone."

"Hurm? Well... I know you aren't on our team. But that doesn't matter, does it? You don't have to be on our team to go places with us."

He didn't see the problem, really - If she'd met Red and gotten to know him, and was friendly with the other members of the team, how could it be a bad idea?

"You run a contest hall. Maybe it would be good to see different contest halls? I don't know. It was just an idea. I'm sorry if it wasn't a good one." he said, feeling just a touch chastened.

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