[PRP] Friends?

[Tymiko]

It was along the shopping district of Camphoreon City that a girl sat on a bench and watched the people going into and walking out of stores. She was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her hands cupping her chin, legs restlessly swaying to and fro under the bench.

She hummed under her breath, her eyes following the groups of kids around her age while eavesdropping on their conversations. Their chatter seemed so...superficial, so shallow. Did these people really feel like the ones they surrounded themselves with actually cared about them? Did they realize just how rare true friendship really was?

Tymiko continued to watch, feeling half scornful, half envious. Oh, what she wouldn't have given to be that carefree, to not have to worry whether or not she could trust people close to her, to not worry if she was too close or not; if she was being clingy. After all, it was for that reason that the water trainer was afraid to make friends. She didn't trust herself around people.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nicolette walked down the sidewalk, humming lightly herself, as Pascal bounded along by her feet. In the young noble's mind, she ran through a small list of items she needed to buy. None of them were really crucial, but she wanted to go out and buy them nonetheless, and try very hard to not buy anything extra. That seemed to be a bad habit of hers - other things distracted her quite easily, and instead of only buying what she had originally intended to, she returned home with usually twice as much as she'd set out to buy. She'd been scolded for it a number of times now, and this time, this time, she would have self-control and only buy what she needed - nothing more.

Pascal, whose mind was on absolutely nothing related to shopping, paused as they passed behind a bench. He halted, backtracked, and watched the swinging feet as a cat might watch a bird hopping about. Silently, the Buneary crawled under the bench to one side of the feet, watching them very, very carefully. If he planned this right, it would be an excellent test of his reflexes... He crept forward, his ears dragging along the underside of the bench, before he paused rather close to his target so that he could time it perfectly. Suddenly a paw shot out to try and smack - likely not very hard - the swinging foot.  

[Tymiko]

"Eep!" With a little squeak, the girl hopped off the bench in surprise when she felt a tap on her foot. Turning around, she crouched down to look for the perpetrator. "Now, what was that for?" she asked, her tone void of anger, but instead, purely inquisitive.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Bun!" The normal-type cried as he struck a triumphant pose, taking pride in his successful execution of the 'attack.' While he didn't expect her to crouch down to his level, he didn't mind one bit. Actually, he seemed pleasantly surprised. Usually he was lifted to someone else's level, but hardly anyone bent down to his. "Buneary, bun! Bun!" He explained after he'd moved out from under the bench, as if the answer was painfully obvious, before putting his paws on his hips.

At both the surprised noise and subsequent question, Nicolette stopped and glanced around, but what got her backtracking was the very familiar sound of a certain Buneary. "Oh! I apologize," she said hastily once she'd gotten back to the bench, "I apologize for him startling you, and I hope he isn't bothering you." Oh, dear, what had he even done to startle her? Did he jump out to scare her or something? No, that didn't sound like something he'd do...  

[Tymiko]

Ty couldn't help smiling at the Buneary's reaction despite the fact that she had no idea whatsoever what it meant. Before she could reply, though, another girl's voice caught her attention and she looked up in surprise.

"Oh, no, that's okay," she answered with a grin. "I think he was just playing. It served me right for not paying attention." Getting to her feet, she asked, "Is he yours? What's his name?" The trainer wonder if the Buneary was in the habit of going right up to strangers and initiating a playful attack. He almost reminded her of a certain other playful bunny she'd met in Sandalwood.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Her smile pleased him, but her lack of verbal response to his 'explanation' displeased him instead, and he frowned up at her a little. Well, that wasn't as fun.

"He does like to play," Nicolette explained, her tones slightly anxious - mostly because her Buneary had startled this young girl she didn't even know. "He doesn't mean any harm, really - he's just playful. Oh! Forgive me; yes, he's mine, and his name is Pascal," the young girl elaborated once she realized her error, brightening a bit at the change in subject - not that she noticed. "My name is Nicolette. Might I ask your name?"  

[Tymiko]

"I'm sure he doesn't. Sometimes I startle people without meaning too also," she explained empathetically. "I'm Tymiko! It's nice to meet you, Nicolette. You and Pascal." She put her hands on her knees and bent to greet the Buneary formally, holding out a hand. "That's a French name, isn't it? Is there a reason you picked it?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nicolette, who now wasn't sure if she'd startled anyone accidentally, was distracted from what she'd almost started worrying over and instead focused on the young girl. "Tymiko?" She echoed, a smile replaced what would have been concern over whether or not she'd ever accidentally scared anyone. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well!" Her fingers laced themselves together in front of her as she watched Tymiko interact with Pascal, who beamed up at her and offered her his paw to shake.

"Buneary!" He said brightly, offering a small wave as he shook - or attempted to shake - her hand.

"It is," Nicolette replied, her expression brightening as the girl understood the name's origin. "I'm from Grande Ile," she explained, her tones gaining a hint of pride as she mentioned the country she was from, "so I speak French and English." The young noble paused with an apologetic frown though, and tilted her head lightly, "I'm afraid I don't know the origin of your name. What is it? It's very pretty."  

[Tymiko]

Tymiko, it seemed, was completely oblivious to any sort of thought processes she may have inspired or distracted from. She laughed delightedly at the pokemon's handshake, happy to return it before redirecting her attention to his trainer once again.

"Oh! I don't know much about that place," Ty confessed, "Just that it's really fancy and elegant. Did you like it there? How come you came here to Kodo?" At the mention of being bilingual, the girl gasped. "Wow! Two languages? That's amazing! I can hardly remember all the little nuances of English."

When the topic was brought to her own name, the water-loving trainer giggled a little. "Thank you. Your name is very pretty, too! I like the way you pronounce it. 'Ni-co-lette'." Glancing down at her sandals, she replied to Nicolette's question which she seemed to have been stalling answering. "Um...I actually...don't really know. It was probably just made up." She shrugged. "You can call me 'Ty' if you want. It's shorter."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I love it there," Nicolette responded happily, not hesitating even a little in her quick response. "It's absolutely gorgeous. Ah, I came here because I wanted to travel and see and experience other countries, and gain more worldly experience," the girl explained, raising one hand in a vague gesture as if that would help convey her thoughts, then grinned. "Oui, deux langues!"

Tymiko's uncertainty on answering her own question was, in Nicolette's opinion, absolutely and wholly adorable. "A made-up name can be just as pretty, if not prettier, than names everybody else knows and can pick," the girl said as Pascal returned to her side. "And if you think about it this way - somebody had to come up with all the more common names sometime, which means they're all made-up. Just, some were made up a long time ago, and others were made up recently."

With a tilt of her head and a curious smile, she asked, "Do you want me to call you Tymiko or Ty? Ty is shorter, yes, but which do you prefer?" She didn't want to shorten the girl's name if said girl preferred to be called by her whole name rather than a nickname.  

[Tymiko]

"Ooh. Maybe I should come visit there someday, then," Ty responded, inspired by Nicolette's enthusiasm. "That sounds like a great plan, though! That's kind of what I'm trying to do, but as a pokemon trainer." She laughed at the use of French. "Sounds like you have more worldly experience than I do already."

"Thank you," the girl answered gratefully, now glancing down at the ground out of flusterment. "I guess you're right. Wow, I never thought of it that way before."

"Thanks for asking, but I don't really have a preference," she said, touched by Nicolette's consideration. "That's really nice of you to ask, though. Maybe 'Ty' would be better because it's more familiar. Like between friends," she noted. "Want to be friends, Nicolette?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The thought of someone visiting Grande Ile only seemed to brighten Nicolette's already good mood. "Ohh, you should! It's so wonderful and beautiful there - but I think I might be just a little biased," she added with a sheepish smile. It was hard not to love and be proud of her home, after all. She clapped her hands together happily, lacing her fingers together. "Being a pokemon trainer is wonderful, though I admit I don't know too much about it yet."

Nicolette listened closely, smiling and just in general quite happy to have gotten such a reaction from the young girl, though her latter statements made her practically beam. "Ty it is, then," she agreed with a nod, raising her hands to clap them in front of her again in mild excitement. "I would absolutely love to be friends, Ty!" More friends were always absolutely wonderful. A thought seemed to occur to her, and she tilted her head a little as she watched the black-haired girl and asked, "I was on my way to do a little grocery shopping, as I'm going to do some baking later. Did you want to come too?"  

[Tymiko]

She grinned at Nicolette's suspicion of her own bias. "I don't think so. Not everyone loves where they come from and not always so fervently. It certainly sounds like a place to behold." Tilting her head, she asked, "Oh, so are you on a pokemon journey, too? I know you have Pascal, but I know a lot of people who just spend time or even travel with their pokemon without training or battling with them."

"Yay!" she cried, delighted at the other girl's acceptance. "Shopping and baking? I'd love to! I wasn't doing much here anyway," Ty said, gesturing to the bench and playground. "But it'd be great to help out! I'm just...not good with ovens or stoves," she warned, tugging on the bottom of her shirt. "Just tell me what to do and I can take care of anything else, though!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It was almost a foreign concept for someone to not love where they were from, since Nicolette was in love with her home, but she frowned and nodded regardless. "I suppose so, yes," she ceded, though didn't really seem to like the thought much. "Oh! Oh, not really, no," she went on with a shake of her head, her cheeks turning a bit pink. "I'm trying to train, but so far it's rather... difficult. I'm not really on any sort of 'journey' but I am traveling, but in a much broader sense. I'm traveling from my home to here, and after Kodo I'll travel to other regions," the young noble explained happily, turning to begin walking again and expecting Ty to join her, since the girl seemed so eager to help her bake. "But for now, I'm mostly staying in Camphoreon. I would like to see all of Kodo's other cities and towns sometime, though!"

The girl's excitement made her beam and giggle. "I'm glad! It's always much more fun when someone helps me bake, but unfortunately I don't get help very often," Nicolette admitted sadly. Her mother helped her at home sometimes, but here in Kodo, she usually baked alone. "Alright! I can handle the oven just fine by myself, but there's so many other things you can help with! I hope you're not feeling upset that there's one thing you can't help with," she said gently, since Ty seemed to be a little bashful about not being good with ovens or stoves. There was no reason for her to worry or be upset when there was literally everything else that she could help with.  

[Tymiko]

The girl nodded knowingly. "Yeah, training can be pretty tough, especially depending on the pokemon you meet," she noted, winking at the Buneary. "Um...may I ask what you mean by a 'broader' sense?" Ty frowned in puzzlement. "Isn't that what pokemon trainers do too?" She could understand if Nicolette just meant travelling in general, but if she was training pokemon as well, there didn't seem to be much difference. "You mean...you're not collecting badges or something?"

Hopping up to match the other girl's pace, she smiled. "Yeah, Kodo is such a big place. I get so caught up in one part of it I keep forgetting to explore the rest. Even when I just mean to pass through an area, I get stuck."

"You don't?" Tymiko asked, looking surprised. "Well, anytime you need help from now on - for anything, not just baking - feel free to call me! I'll give you my number." Beaming at Nicolette, she shook her head. "As long as you don't mind it and I can still be of some use, I'm happy to be of service." She stopped to do a little elegant bow before skipping to catch up.

"So, may I ask what it is we're baking? Or is it a surprise?"