Her gaze was brought upwards as she heard the amused inflection in Angelique's voice, the woman brushing off Evee's worries easily with laughter. “Wrong? What in the world could you have done?” The blush coating the girl's cheeks had not yet receded but fortunately did not deepen any more than it had. The green-haired woman seemed too happy for the situation and had gone off in the direction Professor Oak had in order to fetch a few things. Left alone in the lab--save for the dancing pokémon upon her shoulders and the baby that was still snuggling into her chest--Evee looked around, noticing the male from earlier still outside. He seemed exasperated for some reason, though she couldn't quite place it and was hesitant to ask. His eyes moved from the cotton fluff towards her face and she immediately turned away, a bit too nervous to maintain eye contact. Angelique returned with a cloth in her hands, holding it out to Evee.
“Use this to gently wipe down the Cottonee, removing any remaining pieces of eggshell.” She blinked, looking between the fabric and the pokémon in her arms. Was she supposed to take that? She awkwardly reached out, grabbing the cloth and finding it warm to the touch. Angelique was already turning away to attend to Acerus knew what, leaving Evee once more to tend to the situation at hand.
Inwardly, her mind was reeling from what was happening. It was all transpiring so fast and she was just so confused... On one hand, it didn't seem she had done anything worth reprimanding, at least from the way the others seemed to be taking it. On the other, how was she going to explain this to her parents? She lamented over the inevitable conversation with them as she dabbed at the creature, receiving "nee nee" noises as she patted it down. Well, at least this little piece of honey was a sweetheart.
Aria was still dancing around on her shoulders, even more excited than before and reciting chipper melodies in Evee's ear. The girl heard Angelique give a sigh before ordering the pokémon off Evee's shoulders. “Aria – Cool it, please. Make use of yourself – Take Mint her egg, please and thank you.” The pokémon complied and was scampering off faster than the teenager could've anticipated. Before she could even think to catch a glimpse of where Aria had gone, Angelique was already gesturing for her to come outside. There was a bowl of berries in her arms and a small bottle of milk--was that for the baby? Either way, all Evee could do was follow slowly after the woman.
The baby in her arms gave an appreciative squeal, perhaps it caught the scent of the goodies that were in store for it. "Cotton... cottonee!" It flailed its little stubs of arms around, the leaves flapping about and fanning air in Evee's face. It bounded out of her arms, bouncing on the ground gently as it followed the lull of food and quite literally dived into the waiting pile of berries. The juices splattered into its face but it didn't seem to mind, happily eating up any bits that it could find. Angelique moved in front of where the baby was eating, blocking Evee's view of the sight as the woman walked over near her. The woman directed her question towards the professor with a wide smile on her face.
“Sam – It looks like this little ball of cotton has imprinted on this young lady – What are you going to do about it?” Do? Wait, she had been right? It had imprinted on her? Oh no... Neither of the adults seemed to be worrying about this though! Professor Oak only smiled at her as he nodded towards the feeding fluff.
“Tell me, Evee. Given a pokémon...What will your path be?” She looked between the two and back over at the man before trying to voice her answer.
"W-Well, I..." She was cut off as he spoke up, voice highly irritated as he adjusted his glasses.
"Angelique, don't you think you're being rather forward by insinuating that she wants to do anything with pokemon at all? Wait, she never said.. "I mean, sure, she just came to the lab today to ask some questions, but don't you think that could be more for curiosity's sake than anything else? Besides, some people don't want to battle or learn about breeding or go into fashion--some are more than content with having one around the house just for companionship, and that's enough for them." Hang on, he was getting ahead of himself--no one said she didn't want to learn anything, this was just moving to fast... "Can't you see that she's scared about having a pokemon imprinted onto her--a pokemon which, I might add, hatched from the egg that I brought for the professor to study..."
"I'm not--" And once again she found herself cut off as Professor Oak laughed off the man's words with ease. Were they all impervious to her interjections?
"Oh, J. T., it's fine. You're being over-dramatic. It's no big deal--I'll just ask Angelique to get me another--" The man, J.T. seemed to get even more annoyed by this and his voice came out in a bit of a hiss as he continued.
"No, professor! You don't understand--it's not the fact that the egg hatched, it's more the principle of the matter! I went through so much to get that egg--that one egg--for you to study, and what happens when I get back? Miss Romain swoops down from the sky and hands you four and acts like it's no big deal! It might not be a big deal for her, considering it's what she does for a living, but to me, it's such a huge deal taking care of an egg on the road! I brought that egg for you to study, professor, and you and I both know that this particular egg should not have hatched as soon after I arrived as it did!! I'm going to--" Whatever he had been about to say was cut off as the lizard-like wonder she had hugged so tightly earlier tugged on his pants with a confused expression.
J.T. sighed before continuing, voice a bit weary but still firm. "Professor, I promised you that I would hand-deliver an egg for you to study," the intern's voice was much calmer and more collected after a few moments to collect his thoughts. "I'm going to be heading to Unova, come hell or high water, and I assure you that I will be getting another egg for you to study--one that will not hatch in the first five minutes of my arrival." Evee took a step back gently before taking a very large breath and before anyone else could speak over her, she decided to take the initiative.
"Doesn't anyone want to hear what I have to say on the matter?!" Her voice cracked a bit at the end, she wasn't used to raising it quite so loud. But it did the trick, they all turned around to face her. She stopped short, breath hitching in her throat. She wasn't used to this attention either but she had to continue. "I-I'm not some child to be coddled--I may not know much b-but..." Her voice trailed off. She really didn't like confrontations.
"I... I don't know what I want to do," She spoke softly now, looking down at her feet. She felt bad for having spoken so out of term to the others--especially the Professor. "But that doesn't mean that I want the decision made for me. I feel terrible about the egg, even if it doesn't seem like a big deal to you... And I want to make it up somehow." She looked up at J.T. with wide, brown eyes. "If you're going back, at least let me help you--it's my fault that it hatched anyway." At mention of the egg, it seemed that the fluffball became aware it was being chatted about and it bounced right over to her. Its face was covered in berry juice and it flapped its leaf arms again.
"Nee?" It inquired, trying to jump a bit but just floating lightly back to the ground. Evee bent over, picking it up but careful not to get any of the juice on to her clothes.
"Please," She asked weakly. She wasn't sure if J.T. would want anything to do with her now that she had pretty much just admitted she was to blame in the first place. But she felt a certain amount of responsibility and if there was one thing her parents had taught her, it was that she should never back down from any situation--no matter how uncomfortable.