Margo had been training for the last few hours, putting a lot of her effort into training up her less experienced pokemon. Julep and Wulford were very engaged in their exercises while Poinsettia seemed... off. Margo had tried to understand what was bothering her little bug pokemon, but Poinsettia acted avoidant of her trainer's concern, giving a dismissive shake of her head when questioned. The girl thought it strange, but continued their training--she wouldn't find out her pokemon's troubles until later...

After training her three lower-leveled pokemon, Margo had returned each of them to their balls and pulled her sketchbook out of her bag. She had found a nice spot next to the trail to sit under the shade of a tree and observe nature. She let her eyes unfocus, simply staring into the greenery for awhile before her fingers began to work. She had brought a pencil case with a mishmash of random mediums, and she happened to grab a random colored pencil to start her sketch. In the end, Margo created a melancholy little sketch in a dark teal color that contained a simple landscape of Mt. Leeman Trail.

On her way back to the pokemon center, Margo's eyes unfocused once more and she thought about what was happening with Poinsettia. She acted like she was being strained during her training, but she hadn't even done nearly as much as Margo knew she could. She was starting to become paranoid with what might be wrong with her--was she sick? Perhaps when she gets healed at the pokemon center she would be feeling better. She couldn't afford to let Poinsettia get sick before she was able to challenge Indigo.

By the time she got to the center, it was dinner time, but she caught sight of Indy in the cafe. She couldn't possibly be caught by him right now, she just couldn't face him right now--not when she wasn't ready for her battle with him. Instead, she did her best to blend in with the not-quite-crowd of the pokemon center to get to the cafe. She bought a sub sandwich to have for dinner, and possibly breakfast tomorrow morning, before attempting her escape back to her room at the center.

She just barely made it to her room before hearing Dan call out her name. "Cripes.." She muttered under her breath as she slipped in the doorway and closed the door quietly behind her. She planned on making herself scarce until the boat ride tomorrow morning.

Dan quickly rushed to Indy, Dan was so tired his had legs felt like rocks but there wasn't a point in sleeping just yet.
He hadn't notice Margo slip out just a moment before.

"Awesome. Twiggy evolved! Look here, this isn't exactly him but this is what he looks like!" Dan flashed a picture of Twiggy's new form, showing a grotle standing proudly "This form is called grotle he's huge...Well, not the biggest but he's no a small-fry anymore!" Dan said with a smile on his face.

As he waited for Indy to respond he thought about a gift to his mom.

"Oh! Also, there's a store not too far from here that can repurpose the shiny pearl I got a while ago into a nice necklace. Whatya think? Good present or should I get somethin else?" He asked

"Twiggy evolved? That's crazy!" Indigo gasped, half excited half in disbelief. As Dan showed him the picture of the Grotle, he saw that it was certainly a tough looking pokemon. Sturdy with a huge shell and leafy foliage, he had at least doubled in size. But didn't Dan miss the old Twiggy, Indigo wondered. Grotle looked much tougher but it wasn't as cute as Twiggy.

When Hawka evolves she's going to go through some changes too. She won't be the same anymore. How will I deal with that? What is she gonna look like? I hope she doesn't lose her cuteness... I guess I shouldn't be thinking about that. It's not how a pokemon looks, but argh, is that so bad? Is it bad if I like her unevolved form? I wonder if she's ever gonna evolve... Has she not evolved yet because of me? Wait, wait, I'm thinking too much. One thing at a time. Be happy for Dan.

"That's really amazing. You'll have to show me him out of his ball as soon as you can," Indigo smiled. "And you know, that present sounds like a really good idea. I didn't know a bozo like you had it in you, but you proved me wrong." It was a joke, of course. "I decided I was gonna get your mom some flowers. I couldn't think of much else. Think she'll mind?"

Dan forced a chuckle at the joke Indy made.

"No...No, she won't mind. She likes flower. Likes how lively it looks in the house." He said as a short bit of sadness overtook him, but quickly faded.

"I should go soon, I think the shop has flowers for sale, want to come with?" He said regaining a chipper tone.

"C'mon, we haven't hung out all day!"

"Yeah, retail therapy sounds fun," Indigo agreed. A shopping spree, though he had little to no money, was better than doing nothing.

As they headed towards the store, Indigo asked. "Say, can I see Twiggy? I mean see him in the flesh and everything after his evolution. I kinda wanna show Hawka too." I wonder what she'll think... Perhaps she didn't want to evolve, or something to that affect, Indigo mused. Maybe it was something he didn't have to worry about. Although, if he were older and wiser, he would have realized that it was nothing to fret over regardless whether Hawka wanted to evolve or not. As it was, however, being 16 and on the cusp of breaking and building his identity and priorities, he was definitely overthinking it.

"Don't you feel like you miss the old Twiggy at all?"

Dan shrugged
"Eh...yea a tiny bit, but, I see it as he's growing up. So long as Twiggy is happy with his new body, I'm happy. To me, he's the same Twiggy, just older."

Dan said as he headed towards the shop he saw earlier.

"And yea, you can see him, but not here he's far too big to be in the town and people feel comfy." He said

"True..." Indigo trailed off. "Yeah I get that." Truthfully, he wasn't sure if he did understand but at the present it seemed easier to concede to Dan's thought process. The conversation lapsed into an easy silence from there until they reached the shop.

Once they went inside, Indigo was pleasantly surprised by all the different charms and jewelry that were available. It seemed that Daniel had picked a good spot to buy his mother a present from.
"This place is awesome," he commented, examining a necklance made from what looked like glittering black rocks. "I bet she's gonna love the necklace you get her."

Dan smiled
"Yea..." He muttered to himself.

After a quick exchange of all of his current money and the pearl, the clerk got to work on the necklace. Leaving Dan to help Indy look around.

"Hey, what about this...Mom likes red... And it's only a couple bucks..." Dan said as he showed off a small basket of roses, but something else caught his attention. A batch of silver-white flowers, coated in a fresh mist and shining like the sun, it was beautiful and Dan was sure his mom would love it. "OR you could get these, it cost almost everything we got from that job but..." Dan stopped himself for a moment to smell the flower, it's scent smelling of a crisp autumn morning. "Mom would absolutely love these."

"Sure..." Indigo examined the flowers. They were pricy, but they were also in their own pot instead of being cut like the other flowers. They would be a wonderful addition to any windowsill. It was worth getting if Dan's mother would have been happy with them, even more so that they could thrive and not just wither up and die like fresh cut flowers.

"Sold," Indigo said, promptly going to the counter and paying for the flowers, called freesia, he learned. Since they were traveling, it would have been difficult to carry them by hand, especially since they would have been damaged by being stuffed in a backpack. But the clerk promised to have them shipped to Kanto via PC services in no time at all.

"I'll pick them up at the pokemon center when we get into Cerulean, that's where they'll be," Indigo noted to himself and Dan, just so they wouldn't forget. Likely they'd be stopping by the center before seeing Dan's mother anyways. "I'm excited to see your mom, man. It's been too long. She made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. And her hot chocolate was pretty good too. Remember that time she got mad at us for trying to make hot chocolate? We made a huge mess and we used up her whole batch." Indigo grinned at the memory fondly. "That was totally all your fault, by the way." The last quip was dry, but certainly meant to be a friendly jab.

"Uh-huh," Dan grinned as he put on a bad representation of Indy's voice, meaning to poke fun "Don't worry Dan, we can use more coco!" He chuckled. Unlike Indy, Dan chose to keep the gift with him, keeping the necklace inside of a nice lavender case with the maker's initials embroidered onto it. The conversation back slipped into relative silence with the two poking fun once-in-awhile.

When they made it back to the room the slept in, Dan laid down, exhausted from the day, without even trading so much as a good night, he passed out.

5:20am

Margo had gone to bed early yesterday night specifically because she knew how she was in the morning--not very high-functioning. She was hoping the fact that she went to bed early would be her saving grace and help her embrace the morning a little better. Thankfully, her logic was sound.

She woke up feeling not exactly refreshed, but she was ready for this trip to Kanto. Anxiousness was bubbling in her stomach in the form of butterflies, making her movements very jittery as she got herself dressed for the boat ride. She chose a simple white T-shirt and some jean shorts that sat comfortable at her mid-thigh, and put her hair up in a messy bun atop her head. Margo had thought about bringing out one of her pokemon to keep her company while she waited for the boys--and to make it less awkward to ignore Indy--but decided against it as she pulled her backpack over her shoulder and made her way to the pokemon center lobby.

Again, her anger had subsided by this time with Indy, but she felt like instead of 'starting over,' she had to prove a real point to the boy. Maybe a battle would drill it into his head that what he says is wrong and be taught a lesson for his words; it was the only thing she could come up with that might actually get through that boy's thick skull.

Margo found an empty chair--not hard considering how early it was--and sat down with a tiny huff. 'Boys are stupid.' She thought to herself as she waited for Dan and Indy to arrive. The pokemon center was deserted, a Chansey cleaning up behind the Nurse Joy on duty who had given her a lovely smile when she first came out of her room.

Kill me. Why am I up this early? UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH. But somehow, he was just able to rise and get ready for the day of traveling they had ahead of them. When Dan asked him about his appearance, Indigo nodded. "Yeah you look a little tanner than usual. I don't actually remember your dad though. I always thought you looked more like your mom." But perhaps some photo albums from Daniel's house would provide more context.

As they headed into the lobby, Indigo was surprised to see Margo sitting and waiting. She really is coming... When trying to approach her though, it was clear that she didn't want to speak to him. Oh boy, he thought, how awkward. This was going to be a long trip, really.

Dan broke off from Indy to get an early breakfast, he was starving as he skipped dinner yesterday instead opting for sleep, Dan came back with a 3 small plates of eggs and 2 bowls a fruit. He sat down at the table to silence between the two.

"I brought breakfast. I didn't know if either of you is hungry but I'm starving." Dan said "How did your training go Margo? You think you can beat my Turtwig...er, should I say Grotle now." He said smiling hoping she would take the bait, he didn't even care if he won or lost, he just wanted to see how powerful her pokemon had become.

Margo resisted the urge to flinch as she saw Indy appear from his room first. She had hoped it would've been Dan to come out first so that ignoring Indy would've been easier to ease into their reunion. They sat in silence, Margo crossing her arms across her chest and crossing her legs, moving her body away from Indy.

Dan's presence added to the table was a nice addition--at least she could pretend she was ignoring Indy because she was too interested in what Dan had said. She was surprised at his challenge of a battle. "Your pokemon evolved?" Margo questioned, wondering when her own pokemon might evolve. How strong are Dan's pokemon that they had evolved already? Was she maybe doing something wrong with her own training? The thought made her face prickle with embarrassment. Is that why Poinsettia was acting funny the other day?

Another thought came to her, wondering if this would be a good opportunity to actually battle another trainer. Margaret had yet to battle anyone since she started her journey--she normally kept her eyes down and moved forward. Mt. Leeman had kicked her butt with the strong wild pokemon, Margo turning down any challenge with a hurried 'no thanks' and running off before anyone could say something to her. She gave a curt nod in response to Dan now.

"Sure, that sounds like an excellent idea--and even if we lose we're still training our pokemon. I was hoping to save my next battle for another reason..." Margo's voice trailed off, her eyes glancing towards Indy for only a moment before giving a grin at Dan. "Let's do it." She thought a battle this early would be a little rowdy, but hey, they were kids and people could just blame their age for their less-than-planned actions.

"Guys it's like 5:45 am...." Indigo mumbled, not bothering to stifle his yawn. He shoved a a bagel smeared with pecha berry jam into his mouth amd gulped down some orange juice. "I mean it's whatever." He laid his head down on the table and his eyes fluttered. "Two minutes... Just lemme nap for two minutes...Go ahead and have your battle. Take your time. I'll just be chillin' over here..."

Dan stood up, rearing for the upcoming battle, but was disappointed when Indy didn't stand up at all.

"Oh, c'mon man. I need your support to win! The battle wouldn't be the same without you backing me up." He said "But, it's fine. If you absolutely NEED this nap I'll let you nap." He said as he looked towards Margo "I hope you're ready. Twiggy isn't a slack anymore!" He chuckled, as he got ready to go outside for the battle.

Indy, however, did not get up at Dan's insistence. Though it was a battle, it didn't seem like a very serious one. Had it been a gym leader or perhaps a much more significant rival challenging Dan, Indy may have dragged himself from the comfort of his folded arms. As it was, the battle could hardly be considered momentous. Nor did it seem like it would be a close fight either. Margo was even more of a newbie than they were, it seemed.

"You'll be okay," Indy mumbled, before dozing off.

His eyes opened blearily when his attention was drawn by Dan and Margo coming into the center once more. "Didja guys have fun..."

Margo had went into the battle optimistic, following Dan along outside and ignoring Indy's whining voice. He sounded even more like an actual toddler in the morning, woken up for school too early. She smiled at Dan at the mention of his pokemon, giving a quick nod. "I'm hoping all my pokemon won't seem like slackers either with all the training we've been doing."[/b][/color] They stood in front of the pokemon center with a good distance between the two--thankfully since it was so early only a few people were on their way to jobs or their pastures.

Seeing Dan's pokeballs, Margo called across the field. "Three on three, then?" Dan gave a nod before sending out his Grotle, Margo marveling at the beautiful pokemon. It was definitely on the verge of becoming yet another powerful pokemon in the future. Grabbing for Crowne's pokeball, she paused, thinking Oceana might be a better option for her Supersonic attack. The Wingull was released on the field with a twirl of her gangly wings, looking at the Grotle fiercely. She started with her supersonic attack and was able to confuse the turtle, but unfortunately he had been able to land a Razor Leaf attack as he stumbled around in the confusion. Margo gasped audibly as Oceana was immediately defeated, her legs desperately wanting to propel her onto the field and pick up her poor bird--training with actual trainers seemed a lot more emotional than with wild pokemon. Margo took a half step forward and returned her beloved bird, kissing her pokeball softly and whispering her apologies as her other hand found its way to her next pokemon.

Wulford, her roughneck little Spearow, came onto the battlefield now with the same glint of aggression in his eye as Oceana had had. Dan was smart, withdrawing his Grotle to cure the confusion, and sending out his Rattata. The purple pokemon made a hideous screeching noise--similar to Julep, actually--before unleashing a hyper fan attack, his teeth glowing a bright white before sinking into Wulford's tiny body. The Spearow hopped back from the attack, his lively spirit proving effective. "You're doing great Wulford, let's hit him with a Peck!" The pokemon gave a caw of excitement as he took flight and landed said attack. The two exchanged a few more blows before Wulford was able to put in his final peck, the Rattata fainting from exhaustion. Margo, again, resisted the urge to run out on the field and pick up her scrappy little Spearow, the pokemon huffing with his own loss of energy.

Dan threw his Grotle back out onto the field and made quick work of her little bird once more, the elation draining from her face as Wulford gave one last battle cry before falling onto his poor face. Margo returned her pokemon and began to panic as she apologized to her pokemon once more. She knew that Julep and Poinsettia wouldn't have a change but the type effectiveness between Grotle and Squirtle would be just as devastating as Oceana. She swallowed her pride, wishing she had been able to throw her Scatterbug onto the field and paralyze the turtle, and threw Crowne out instead, the Squirtle raising his arms happily upon being released. Twiggy, once more, made quick work of her poor water-type, Crowne having only gotten in one hit before getting knocked out.

Margo gave an exasperated sigh, her chest hurting from the heartbreaking battle. This time, she didn't resist her urge, and she ran out to pick up Crowne. She cradled the little blue turtle lovingly, smiling down at his own smiling face. He just loved to battle, even if it wasn't very close. "Thank you, sweetheart, for giving it your best, even if you were outmatched." The Squirtle made a gurgling noise, as if he was laughing, and pressed closer to his trainer's chest. Margo stood and walked over to Dan, the lump in her throat threatening to crack her voice. "Let's go heal up our pokemon before heading to the boat--who knows what dangers we might face before we get there." She made a half-hearted laugh, carrying Crowne inside the center and handing him, Oceana, and Wulford over to the nurse on duty.

She glanced at the half-comatose Indy, wondering if this just meant she needed to train more in order to beat him. She wasn't upset that she had lost the battle, she was just frustrated with herself that she had been training for so long and yet she hadn't been able to harness the power of her pokemon like Dan had just yet. Perhaps she needed to throw herself more into the training--her pokemon weren't the only ones that needed it, afterall. She stayed silent as Dan came into the center to heal his own pokemon, and to presumably talk to Indy about said battle.

The reaction Dan got from Margo was not at all what he expected. Rather than a 'hey good match!' He got a saddened 'let's go', Dan wasn't stupid he could tell something was wrong, but his body refused to let him ask, rather walking into the center.

Was it something I did? Was I too harsh? Should I have gone easy on her? Many more swirled in his head, distracting him.

Indy piped up asking how the battle went, Dan stopped and looked at his friend saying "Oh yea, It was close, she nearly wiped the floor with me." Dan said, lying hoping to make Margo at least a bit more happy than she seemed to be. "Oh! And that Squirtle she has nearly beat Grotle, but I just barely won with an Absorb." He said enthusiastically "The only reason, I really won was because of Grotle, Oh I gotta heal everyone, Get everything ready here in a sec, we should leave soon." He said as he went towards the desk and dropped off his pokemon. The silence between the two was brutal but Dan decided to pipe up "Margo, I had fun in that fight, Your Pokemon are cute and they aren't slacks either. You have the potential to be a trainer, If you ever need someone to train with I'll help you out." Silence once again. "Was I too rough on your pokemon? Did I go too far? You seem a little off after the battle..." He said, not meaning to offend Margo