Ugh.
This was why she spent most of her time behind huge aviator sunglasses and dressed in loose cardigans and leggings.
But she'd thought she'd be perfectly fine for a short jog before they hit the road again this morning without—so she'd donned workout clothes that hugged a little more and left off the sunglasses, pulling her buttery-blonde hair into a ponytail that hid nothing of her face.
Big mistake.
“Are you sure? I mean, you look just like her, really."
No, you nosy asshole, I'm not totally sure who I am and just randomly guessed at the answer to your question. Good of you to point that out. Never mind that she was lying to him—she'd clearly stated that she was not the celebrity he was looking for, and he just wasn't taking no for an answer. Inwardly, Ainsley sighed. She didn't want to make a scene here—that would only invite even more questions, and might stop a couple of the pedestrians starting to filter out onto the street for whatever business got them up in the morning.
Whelp, time to bust out the ol' acting chops. Pasting a slightly-oblivious smile on her face, she beamed at the creep. He had to be like twice her age—the middling suit and discount haircut said wage-worker; that was actually less bad. He'd probably have felt more entitled if he were also rich. At least so far all he'd done was act like he didn't believe her claims not to be, well... herself.
So she beamed a sunny smile at him and shrugged, letting herself look almost sheepish. "It's really flattering that you think I look like an actress," she said, rubbing at the back of her shin with the top of her other running shoe. "But really, I'm not. And I've gotta get going; I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend for brunch, so..." Hopefully the mention of a boyfriend would send him packing. It was fucking stupid that that was what it took with some people, but Ainsley was practical about her own safety before anything else, and she'd say she had six boyfriends if that was what it took to get this guy off her case without a fuss.
Unfortunately, the move seemed to have backfired. “Boyfriend, huh? Yeah, I guess a girl like you probably gets chased by a lot of guys, right? What's he do?"
She resisted the urge to cringe. I'm sixteen, assface. If I'm dating in my own age bracket he probably doesn't 'do' anything yet. That kind of answer wasn't going to get rid of him though, so Ainsley picked something vaguely intimidating.
"Professional fighter. Martial arts, you know. Boxing, that kind of thing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm really going to be late—" She smiled, nodded, and made to resume her jog.
His hand closed around her upper arm. Ainsley pushed a breath out through her teeth. Oh, buddy, you are so lucky I'm trying not to make a scene here. I it had been any other situation, she'd either have laid him out herself, gone for the pokéball on her belt, or else started screaming for help. But she really didn't want to spend the rest of the day at a police station—she just wanted to leave town and keep on to Rustboro.
“C'mon, babe, don't be like that." He raised an eyebrow at her. “This guy of yours doesn't sound quite like a real person, you know? I think you're just trying to get away here."
If anything, Ainsley smiled wider. "If you think I want to leave, why are you trying to stop me?" The words dripped with false sweetness.
Before he could form his answer, a sound slightly ahead caught their attention.
There was a tall guy, probably a couple of years older than Ainsley herself, standing at least a yard or two away. It looked like he'd just tripped over something, however; he seemed to catch himself pretty well. He dusted off his shirt, which was just a plain white muscle shirt, and grinned at the people behind him. There was another guy and a girl who fit the same age bracket as the first one.
"I guess all that morning training had its perks," he spoke. They were close enough that Ainsley could hear their conversation. "Still didn't like waking up in the mornings for it, though," he continued, pursing his lips just slightly.
"I'm sure it'll pay off in other ways, too, Nasir. We will be hitting parts of Hoenn with rougher terrain, after all," the girl spoke, giving way to the white-haired boy's name. He merely shrugged his shoulders.
Ainsley had learned pretty early in her career that there was no secret to success. You just had to work hard, not overestimate yourself, and seize opportunity when it arose. Preferably before you missed it.
She'd learned also how to get a read on people, and something about the group was giving her good vibes. Maybe it was mostly that they weren't this guy. But now she needed to decide—quickly—which one of them would be most likely to help.
Sadly, the woman was out, since she'd said 'boyfriend.' Either of the other two looked imposing enough to be a professional fighter, luckily enough, but something about the dark-haired one screamed 'socially awkward.' It was in the way he held himself, shoulders slightly rounded forward, eyes fixed somewhere between the ground and the actual height of him. That left the last guy—the really tall one with the snowy hair.
Hello, tall dark and handsome opportunity.
Here was hoping this worked. The fact that she'd overheard his name was certainly helpful. "Nasir! There you are, love; I'm sorry I'm late!" Either surprise or something else loosened the interloper's grip on her temporarily, but before she could slide out from under it, it tightened again, and she suppressed the urge to sigh. If they played along, she might be able to get out of this without further incident.
The dark-haired guy's eyes snapped up, locking onto her with something almost like alarm. Maybe he'd figured out something was wrong? He immediately glanced towards the other one. "Looks like we found her, Nas."
She could have kissed him for that. Now to hope his friend got the hint.
Nasir blinked slowly, before a large grin spread over his face. "Hey, no worries. We weren't going to leave without you, you know," he replied, making his way closer to her. His eyes went to the interloper's hand, and seemed to harden a bit. The smile never left his face, though. "Is there something you need her for, or do you plan on releasing my girlfriend, here? Personally, I'd prefer it if you did release her, but I'm sure you just wanted to ask her something, right?" Nasir continued, though there was something vaguely similar to a threat behind his tone of voice.
"Otherwise you wouldn't be touching her like that, right?" he continued in the same vein.
For a second, Ainsley feared that the asshole would press his luck, but Nasir's height—and damn, was he tall—and build seemed to make him think twice about it, obvious age gap notwithstanding. “Sorry, man," he said, releasing Ainsley's arm and taking a step back. “Must'a confused her for someone else."
Ainsley had a lot to say about the fact that he was apologizing to her supposed boyfriend and not her, but she kept all of it locked firmly behind her teeth. The important part was that he was leaving now, and as soon as he'd vanished from sight, she let out a long sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said, tilting her head back the distance it took to meet his eyes. "Didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, but some people really can't take a hint, am I right?" She beamed a smile at him, turning it on his companions as well.
"Super-grateful for the save, you guys, I mean it."
"Eh, guys like him put a sour taste in my mouth," Nasir spoke, rubbing his chin in an absent-minded manner. "But you're welcome, I suppose. I'm Nasir, by the way, and this is my cousin, Dominik," he introduced himself, and then pointed to the dark-haired boy, who nodded. Definitely shy, like she'd figured.
"I'm Elaria," the girl spoke, introducing herself as well. "Are you sure you're alright, though? It looked like he had a tight grip on your arm," she sounded a little concerned for Ainsley.
She nodded. "It's fine. worst case scenario it bruises a little, but he was trying to hit on me, not hurt me." She shrugged and tilted her head. "I'm Ai, by the way." She offered her hand forward, first to Dominik who shook with such delicacy she almost laughed at him, and then to Elaria, and finally to Nasir.
"Thanks for being my fake boyfriend." A pause, and then an idea struck her. "So I know our meeting was a lie and all, but can I actually take you guys for brunch or something? To say thanks."
"Uh," Nasir seemed a little lost for words for a second. He glanced towards his companions, and then back to Ainsley. "I don't see why not?" he stated it as a question rather than a definitive answer. He looked almost unsure of how to answer her question. "We were heading to Rustboro, but I guess we can stay a little longer for some brunch," he continued, seemingly setting on his answer.
"Considering you ate a large breakfast, I guess I'm not all too surprised you'd be hungry at this time," Elaria spoke to Nasir, first, before she turned towards Ainsley. "And considering we'll be on the road for a while, one last good meal wouldn't hurt," she stated. Nasir looked to feign a hurt look.
"Be still my aching heart. And here I thought you liked my cooking," he spoke, but it was obvious he was joking.
Ainsley found herself smiling. "Excellent. Follow me." She turned smartly on her heel, deciding to abandon her run for now and get brunch instead. The place she took them to wasn't far, and the atmosphere was casual enough that no one spared her clothes a second glance. They weren't so different from everyday trainer gear, after all.
She handed over her check card to the waiter and told him to keep a running tab, not wanting anyone to feel like they couldn't order more if they wanted it. It wasn't until the first round of food was in front of them—Ainsley had ordered crepes suzette—that she resumed the conversation fully. "So, I guess you're all on journeys, too, then?" she asked, neatly slicing into the first of her rolled columns of deliciousness. Her ponytail fell over her shoulder when she leaned down to take a bite.
"Yeah," Dominik spoke first, since he hadn't tried to eat yet, taking a sip from his orange juice instead. "At this point the divide is sort of academic since we're all really new, but I'm going to be a trainer, Nasir's a ranger in training, and Elaria wants to be a breeder."
She grinned. "That's cool—you've got a variety. And you all know what you want to do. I'm still trying to figure it out, myself. I was heading to Rustboro, since there's a Contest Hall there. I thought I'd see what it was all about."
"My older sister is in the works to becoming a coordinator," Nasir spoke, poking at his food. "I know she's in Hoenn, but I don't know if she'll be in Rustboro when we get there," he continued before taking a bite of his food.
"My older brother is actually the Top Coordinator. He says its fun if that's something you're interested in, but it's a lot of hard work," Elaria chimed in. She hadn't ordered anything to eat, yet, besides the lemonade she was drinking.
"Yeah, but that's with anything you're trying to do. Unless you're like Ami and just have that natural talent," he muttered, sounding slightly bitter. "You said you're heading to Rustboro, right?" Nasir spoke, quirking his eyebrow just slightly.
"We're headed that way too," he stated, taking a bite out of his chocolate cake. "If you want, you can come with us," he continued in a nonchalant fashion. He choked a bit and hit his chest a few times. "At least until we're out of Petalburg so that creep doesn't come back around," he seemed to clarify at what he originally meant.
Ainsley considered that for a moment. Probably if she was in a group like this, she'd be less likely to attract the wrong kind of attention, at least. Of course, that was assuming they were trustworthy, which wasn't a guarantee by any means. But... they did seem nice, and like interesting people to boot, which wasn't exactly a common combination in her life at least. Chewing over her crepe, she allowed herself to consider it.
"Well... I mean if we're all walking in the same direction anyway, I feel like it'd be silly not to walk together. Company makes the trip go faster, right? I know I don't look like much, but I can pull my weight at a campsite, too; I have my own tent and supplies and everything, so if you don't mind I'd like to go with you as far as Rustboro?" She glanced between them. "Unless I'm imposing, in which case feel free to tell me so."
It was clear to Ainsley that Dominik and Nasir were close—they'd been introduced as cousins, but they also seemed like friends, or maybe brothers, even. Elaria, she was less certain about, but she didn't think she'd be interrupting anything especially tight-knit overall. Maybe she'd be the balancing fourth wheel in the dynamic, even, instead of an odd hanger-on. And if not, well... Rustboro wasn't that far away.
"I don't think you'd be imposing at all, though it would be nice to balance out the group a bit," Elaria spoke, smiling a bit awkwardly. It was apparent she seemed a little nervous around Ainsley, but it was unclear as to why. Nasir just shrugged his shoulders.
"She's only been traveling with us since Slateport. She's kind of in the same boat," Nasir stated, nodding his head in Elaria's direction. She nodded as well as if to confirm what Nasir had said. "And it would make dark and gloomy over there, feel a little better if there was another girl around," Nasir stated, grinning in Dominik's direction. He snickered softly, as if he'd found his own statement amusing.
"Another anyone but you, actually," Dominik replied smoothly, though his ears were turning adorably pink.
Ainsley giggled. It seemed her estimation of these people as interesting wasn't far off the mark at all. "Well then," she said, raising her glass to chin height and pinching the straw between her first two fingers. "Count me in."
This was why she spent most of her time behind huge aviator sunglasses and dressed in loose cardigans and leggings.
But she'd thought she'd be perfectly fine for a short jog before they hit the road again this morning without—so she'd donned workout clothes that hugged a little more and left off the sunglasses, pulling her buttery-blonde hair into a ponytail that hid nothing of her face.
Big mistake.
“Are you sure? I mean, you look just like her, really."
No, you nosy asshole, I'm not totally sure who I am and just randomly guessed at the answer to your question. Good of you to point that out. Never mind that she was lying to him—she'd clearly stated that she was not the celebrity he was looking for, and he just wasn't taking no for an answer. Inwardly, Ainsley sighed. She didn't want to make a scene here—that would only invite even more questions, and might stop a couple of the pedestrians starting to filter out onto the street for whatever business got them up in the morning.
Whelp, time to bust out the ol' acting chops. Pasting a slightly-oblivious smile on her face, she beamed at the creep. He had to be like twice her age—the middling suit and discount haircut said wage-worker; that was actually less bad. He'd probably have felt more entitled if he were also rich. At least so far all he'd done was act like he didn't believe her claims not to be, well... herself.
So she beamed a sunny smile at him and shrugged, letting herself look almost sheepish. "It's really flattering that you think I look like an actress," she said, rubbing at the back of her shin with the top of her other running shoe. "But really, I'm not. And I've gotta get going; I'm supposed to be meeting my boyfriend for brunch, so..." Hopefully the mention of a boyfriend would send him packing. It was fucking stupid that that was what it took with some people, but Ainsley was practical about her own safety before anything else, and she'd say she had six boyfriends if that was what it took to get this guy off her case without a fuss.
Unfortunately, the move seemed to have backfired. “Boyfriend, huh? Yeah, I guess a girl like you probably gets chased by a lot of guys, right? What's he do?"
She resisted the urge to cringe. I'm sixteen, assface. If I'm dating in my own age bracket he probably doesn't 'do' anything yet. That kind of answer wasn't going to get rid of him though, so Ainsley picked something vaguely intimidating.
"Professional fighter. Martial arts, you know. Boxing, that kind of thing. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm really going to be late—" She smiled, nodded, and made to resume her jog.
His hand closed around her upper arm. Ainsley pushed a breath out through her teeth. Oh, buddy, you are so lucky I'm trying not to make a scene here. I it had been any other situation, she'd either have laid him out herself, gone for the pokéball on her belt, or else started screaming for help. But she really didn't want to spend the rest of the day at a police station—she just wanted to leave town and keep on to Rustboro.
“C'mon, babe, don't be like that." He raised an eyebrow at her. “This guy of yours doesn't sound quite like a real person, you know? I think you're just trying to get away here."
If anything, Ainsley smiled wider. "If you think I want to leave, why are you trying to stop me?" The words dripped with false sweetness.
Before he could form his answer, a sound slightly ahead caught their attention.
There was a tall guy, probably a couple of years older than Ainsley herself, standing at least a yard or two away. It looked like he'd just tripped over something, however; he seemed to catch himself pretty well. He dusted off his shirt, which was just a plain white muscle shirt, and grinned at the people behind him. There was another guy and a girl who fit the same age bracket as the first one.
"I guess all that morning training had its perks," he spoke. They were close enough that Ainsley could hear their conversation. "Still didn't like waking up in the mornings for it, though," he continued, pursing his lips just slightly.
"I'm sure it'll pay off in other ways, too, Nasir. We will be hitting parts of Hoenn with rougher terrain, after all," the girl spoke, giving way to the white-haired boy's name. He merely shrugged his shoulders.
Ainsley had learned pretty early in her career that there was no secret to success. You just had to work hard, not overestimate yourself, and seize opportunity when it arose. Preferably before you missed it.
She'd learned also how to get a read on people, and something about the group was giving her good vibes. Maybe it was mostly that they weren't this guy. But now she needed to decide—quickly—which one of them would be most likely to help.
Sadly, the woman was out, since she'd said 'boyfriend.' Either of the other two looked imposing enough to be a professional fighter, luckily enough, but something about the dark-haired one screamed 'socially awkward.' It was in the way he held himself, shoulders slightly rounded forward, eyes fixed somewhere between the ground and the actual height of him. That left the last guy—the really tall one with the snowy hair.
Hello, tall dark and handsome opportunity.
Here was hoping this worked. The fact that she'd overheard his name was certainly helpful. "Nasir! There you are, love; I'm sorry I'm late!" Either surprise or something else loosened the interloper's grip on her temporarily, but before she could slide out from under it, it tightened again, and she suppressed the urge to sigh. If they played along, she might be able to get out of this without further incident.
The dark-haired guy's eyes snapped up, locking onto her with something almost like alarm. Maybe he'd figured out something was wrong? He immediately glanced towards the other one. "Looks like we found her, Nas."
She could have kissed him for that. Now to hope his friend got the hint.
Nasir blinked slowly, before a large grin spread over his face. "Hey, no worries. We weren't going to leave without you, you know," he replied, making his way closer to her. His eyes went to the interloper's hand, and seemed to harden a bit. The smile never left his face, though. "Is there something you need her for, or do you plan on releasing my girlfriend, here? Personally, I'd prefer it if you did release her, but I'm sure you just wanted to ask her something, right?" Nasir continued, though there was something vaguely similar to a threat behind his tone of voice.
"Otherwise you wouldn't be touching her like that, right?" he continued in the same vein.
For a second, Ainsley feared that the asshole would press his luck, but Nasir's height—and damn, was he tall—and build seemed to make him think twice about it, obvious age gap notwithstanding. “Sorry, man," he said, releasing Ainsley's arm and taking a step back. “Must'a confused her for someone else."
Ainsley had a lot to say about the fact that he was apologizing to her supposed boyfriend and not her, but she kept all of it locked firmly behind her teeth. The important part was that he was leaving now, and as soon as he'd vanished from sight, she let out a long sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said, tilting her head back the distance it took to meet his eyes. "Didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, but some people really can't take a hint, am I right?" She beamed a smile at him, turning it on his companions as well.
"Super-grateful for the save, you guys, I mean it."
"Eh, guys like him put a sour taste in my mouth," Nasir spoke, rubbing his chin in an absent-minded manner. "But you're welcome, I suppose. I'm Nasir, by the way, and this is my cousin, Dominik," he introduced himself, and then pointed to the dark-haired boy, who nodded. Definitely shy, like she'd figured.
"I'm Elaria," the girl spoke, introducing herself as well. "Are you sure you're alright, though? It looked like he had a tight grip on your arm," she sounded a little concerned for Ainsley.
She nodded. "It's fine. worst case scenario it bruises a little, but he was trying to hit on me, not hurt me." She shrugged and tilted her head. "I'm Ai, by the way." She offered her hand forward, first to Dominik who shook with such delicacy she almost laughed at him, and then to Elaria, and finally to Nasir.
"Thanks for being my fake boyfriend." A pause, and then an idea struck her. "So I know our meeting was a lie and all, but can I actually take you guys for brunch or something? To say thanks."
"Uh," Nasir seemed a little lost for words for a second. He glanced towards his companions, and then back to Ainsley. "I don't see why not?" he stated it as a question rather than a definitive answer. He looked almost unsure of how to answer her question. "We were heading to Rustboro, but I guess we can stay a little longer for some brunch," he continued, seemingly setting on his answer.
"Considering you ate a large breakfast, I guess I'm not all too surprised you'd be hungry at this time," Elaria spoke to Nasir, first, before she turned towards Ainsley. "And considering we'll be on the road for a while, one last good meal wouldn't hurt," she stated. Nasir looked to feign a hurt look.
"Be still my aching heart. And here I thought you liked my cooking," he spoke, but it was obvious he was joking.
Ainsley found herself smiling. "Excellent. Follow me." She turned smartly on her heel, deciding to abandon her run for now and get brunch instead. The place she took them to wasn't far, and the atmosphere was casual enough that no one spared her clothes a second glance. They weren't so different from everyday trainer gear, after all.
She handed over her check card to the waiter and told him to keep a running tab, not wanting anyone to feel like they couldn't order more if they wanted it. It wasn't until the first round of food was in front of them—Ainsley had ordered crepes suzette—that she resumed the conversation fully. "So, I guess you're all on journeys, too, then?" she asked, neatly slicing into the first of her rolled columns of deliciousness. Her ponytail fell over her shoulder when she leaned down to take a bite.
"Yeah," Dominik spoke first, since he hadn't tried to eat yet, taking a sip from his orange juice instead. "At this point the divide is sort of academic since we're all really new, but I'm going to be a trainer, Nasir's a ranger in training, and Elaria wants to be a breeder."
She grinned. "That's cool—you've got a variety. And you all know what you want to do. I'm still trying to figure it out, myself. I was heading to Rustboro, since there's a Contest Hall there. I thought I'd see what it was all about."
"My older sister is in the works to becoming a coordinator," Nasir spoke, poking at his food. "I know she's in Hoenn, but I don't know if she'll be in Rustboro when we get there," he continued before taking a bite of his food.
"My older brother is actually the Top Coordinator. He says its fun if that's something you're interested in, but it's a lot of hard work," Elaria chimed in. She hadn't ordered anything to eat, yet, besides the lemonade she was drinking.
"Yeah, but that's with anything you're trying to do. Unless you're like Ami and just have that natural talent," he muttered, sounding slightly bitter. "You said you're heading to Rustboro, right?" Nasir spoke, quirking his eyebrow just slightly.
"We're headed that way too," he stated, taking a bite out of his chocolate cake. "If you want, you can come with us," he continued in a nonchalant fashion. He choked a bit and hit his chest a few times. "At least until we're out of Petalburg so that creep doesn't come back around," he seemed to clarify at what he originally meant.
Ainsley considered that for a moment. Probably if she was in a group like this, she'd be less likely to attract the wrong kind of attention, at least. Of course, that was assuming they were trustworthy, which wasn't a guarantee by any means. But... they did seem nice, and like interesting people to boot, which wasn't exactly a common combination in her life at least. Chewing over her crepe, she allowed herself to consider it.
"Well... I mean if we're all walking in the same direction anyway, I feel like it'd be silly not to walk together. Company makes the trip go faster, right? I know I don't look like much, but I can pull my weight at a campsite, too; I have my own tent and supplies and everything, so if you don't mind I'd like to go with you as far as Rustboro?" She glanced between them. "Unless I'm imposing, in which case feel free to tell me so."
It was clear to Ainsley that Dominik and Nasir were close—they'd been introduced as cousins, but they also seemed like friends, or maybe brothers, even. Elaria, she was less certain about, but she didn't think she'd be interrupting anything especially tight-knit overall. Maybe she'd be the balancing fourth wheel in the dynamic, even, instead of an odd hanger-on. And if not, well... Rustboro wasn't that far away.
"I don't think you'd be imposing at all, though it would be nice to balance out the group a bit," Elaria spoke, smiling a bit awkwardly. It was apparent she seemed a little nervous around Ainsley, but it was unclear as to why. Nasir just shrugged his shoulders.
"She's only been traveling with us since Slateport. She's kind of in the same boat," Nasir stated, nodding his head in Elaria's direction. She nodded as well as if to confirm what Nasir had said. "And it would make dark and gloomy over there, feel a little better if there was another girl around," Nasir stated, grinning in Dominik's direction. He snickered softly, as if he'd found his own statement amusing.
"Another anyone but you, actually," Dominik replied smoothly, though his ears were turning adorably pink.
Ainsley giggled. It seemed her estimation of these people as interesting wasn't far off the mark at all. "Well then," she said, raising her glass to chin height and pinching the straw between her first two fingers. "Count me in."