>>1838815Aria counts the money and hands over 5 256 pokeyen over to the kid with a vacant expression. Lucky bastard. He takes them trying to hide the happiness on his face, but he just can’t. I bet this is a dream come true for him. At least someone is having the day go their way.
“Good fight, you know? Your Horsea was strong.”
Understandably, Aria is in no mood to speak. She turns around and starts walking in my direction. When the bug catcher thinks nobody is watching him anymore, he does a little dance and continuously punches the air in victory. I could judge him, but in the end I know for a fact I’d do the same.
“Aria…” I try to start a talk when she gets closer.
I’m not surprised she’s crying. She just lost half of what she had and it’s her second consecutive loss. Silent tears are running down her face, she’s facing the ground looking defeated with her eyes mostly closed.
I run to hug her, as I should. I suppose our fighting is over.
“It’ll be okay, Aria. Come on, just… let it out.”
She cries in my shoulder, her hands clenching my shirt as hard as she can. I’ll let her get it out of her system, she’ll run out of steam soon enough. I feel sorry for her, though. Maybe I should’ve done something about it?
This changes things, though. I was planning to leave her behind at some point, as I was growing tired of her thinking she had a license to be a lecherous old man to me just because she’s a girl. How can I separate from her now? The only thing she has left to protect herself is an injured Horsea. We have a few Potions, but they’ll take a while to have an effect. Until then, she’s defenseless. She’s… also emotionally vulnerable right now. We’ve had our differences, but I care about this girl, I do.
Her crying stops after a while, but we stay embraced. I have to let her be the one to decide when it’s over.
