Abbee Strauss
Tide Song Hotel Bathroom
Affected RPers: Sorta none, sorta everyone else in the lobby

Abbee attempted to dry her eyes, and compose herself before she attempted to head back into the lobby. Technically she was assigned to be helping Triad, and she was hardly any help now. She still felt the pain in her chest, however figured that focusing on the task at hand would distract her from it. But before she knew it she found herself teary again.

"I've upset you, haven't I...?" said Victini's voice in her head.

She wiped her eyes before chuckling to herself.

"Why ask?" She replied with her thoughts, "If you're poking around in my head to ask this, you already know the answer..."

Abbee was mostly joking with that statement, not being cruel or snide. That sense of humour was what caused her and Victini to click as well as they did over the last few years. She heard a slight chuckle in her thoughts.

"Can we talk?" Victini asked.

"Sure, but I'd just about die of embarrassment of anybody saw me like this..."

"Then I take it you don't have an audience in there?" Victini asked.

"It's empty. You can come in..."

A few moments later, Abbee heard the door creak, as light footsteps made their way towards her. She was still hunched over the sink, looking down, and on the ground in her vision, walked Victini, who looked up at her somberly.

"I'm sorry..." Victini said via Pokespeak, which Abbee had only been able to understand in recent weeks.

"What for?" She asked, jokingly. She was struggling to piece together her emotions to some logical explanation, and figured if she wasn't certain about what was going on in her head, how could he be, and therefore what is he apologizing for?

"Good point..." he chuckled weakly, "If I had a clue, we wouldn't be in this mess would we? So tell me, what's going on? Because you're not usually the sort to let something like this get you this down. Is it because of Cassandra?"

"No!" Abbee said quickly, not wanting Victini to think she held any sort of ill will, or resentment towards Cassandra. After hearing the truth of what happened on and after the S.S. Wishmaker from Jon and Victini, she felt nothing but respect for the Diamond Ladies for the way they turned over a new leaf.

"I'm not mad, and I'm not jealous. I'm just..." Abbee began, before struggling to articulate exactly how she felt, before groaning to herself in frustration at this verbal block she faced.

"You know what happened in the weeks before I met you right?" Abbee asked, knowing Victini knew the answer. He nodded solemnly.

"I lost my Dad, completely by surprise. Mum had been gone for years, and Tyler and I weren't exactly close so Dad was all I had, and he had been ripped from me, and I had no clue that when he dropped me off at the Eon Academy that that would be the last time I would ever see him." Abbee explained, "That week I went back home for the funeral, I had never felt more alone. I was with Tyler, and long term, I was going to live with him, but he and I barely knew a thing about eachother. We had an easier time talking to complete strangers than one-another. After the funeral, I went back to Mossdeep to finish the summer, because the people there felt more like family to me than my own brother did, and I wanted just another week or two before I had to go back to feeling alone. Then you came along, and even after we went home after summer, I didn't feel alone anymore..."

"When you asked me if it would be okay for you to team up with Cassandra again for this mission, I knew that there was a chance that you would want to stay with her when this is all over. And as much as I knew I would miss you if that happened, I wanted you to do what would make you happy. I even released you from your Pokeball, so that the choice would be completely yours...."

Abbee wiped her sleeve against her eyes.

"I was okay with it, because I knew that whether or not you were with me or Cassandra, the bond we had was real, and would persevere. Even if you were on the other side of the planet, we'd always be friends. That our time together meant something." Abbee said, "Then I find out that Cassandra didn't take you on to her team, weeks after you originally left, and instead of being honest with me about it, you left me in the dark. I locked myself in a storage room, because I had no way of knowing whether it was safe to get out, and needed you then..."

Victini remained silent hearing this. Abbee wasn't trying to condemn him, but just trying to explain how she felt about this, and he understood that. It just sting a little.

"Then, after hearing me ask Cassandra to let you know I want to talk to you, you don't even let me know you are there, until Cassandra started talking about how difficult their situation was after the Wishmaker incident, and it was to convince her to come out of hiding. After that, it was more catchup, and I may as well have been a complete stranger, or not even there at all..."

"Abbee..." Victini began, however Abbee continued.

"I'm not angry, and I'm not jealous." Abbee repeated, before taking a brief second to think over her next words.

"I was okay with you teaming up with Cassandra, maybe even staying with her after all this is over, because I believed that our bond would survive that. But then, all this happens, and in a few short weeks, it looks like it is completely gone, that the last three years were nothing..." Abbee said, starting to tear up again, "And all of a sudden, I'm fifteen again, having just been orphaned, alone in the world again, and terrified by it..."

Victini jumped up onto the counter, now closer to eye level with Abbee, who could now see he was teary himself.

"Why are you crying?" She asked jokingly through tears.

"Because of how dense I've been..." Victini retorted back, joking equally through his own tears, before attempting to hug her, however his short limbs made that very difficult.

"I'm sorry." Victini said, "I've been so distracted by what's going on, and wanting to help Cass out, I didn't think enough about how I was treating my other best friend..."

Abbee smiled a little hearing him say that.

"Thank you. It really means a lot..." Abbee said, "And if when this is over, you want to stay with Cass..."

"Abbee, it's-"

"Just keep in touch when you can." Abbee said, "Now and forever. Let me know you're happy, safe and doing well. Let me know you still think of me amidst whatever crazy adventures you get up to. That's all I ask..."

"If..." Victini said, "I decide to stick with Cass, you have my word. Even if I have to learn to read and write, or send a messenger Pidgey..."

Abbee laughed at the thought of Victini attempting to type an email on a public computer with his little arms, before noticing her reflection in the mirror.

"Goddamn, if I don't clean myself up, people will think Alola's fate is in the hands of a pair of cry-babys..." Abbee said, as she picked Victini up, placing him on her shoulder, before trying to clean up her damp eyes.

"If anyone asks about the red eyes, we tell them we were smoking in here..." Victini said, nearly falling off Abbee's shoulder as she jolted with laughter.

"Somehow, I think people would trust a pair of cry-babies more than a pair of stoners to keep the island safe..."

Once Abbee and Victini were content that they weren't going to attract too much attention to what had went down in the bathroom, they both left, trying to slip back into the small crowd that had gathered in the lobby...