After sharing some marshmallows that weren't the best because of the rain, the group agreed to separate. After all, Maple seemed keen to get to know Mahi better, and Calcine wasn't about to do a double date. She'd booked Brandy for the evening and learned from Sparky that she had to be sure she got her time with how easily Brandy got distracted. 

The rain didn't let up as they walked back into town.  

"I can put you in the ball if you want?" Brandy said to Calcine, who was pressing in so tightly under the umbrella it was actually pushing Brandy out now and then. 

"No," Calcine said, "I want to spend time with you still, and this is nice."

"For you, maybe!" Sparky huffed. "You're not the one getting squashed by all this hard skin." 

"Can ball you too, Sparky?" 

"No way, I got excuses to rub on you. I love this,"

Calcine punched Sparky's arm for the cheek of lying, which she used to propel herself into Brandy and rub against her. Absolutely shameless. 

"We're going to be on time for the date, are we? That kind of took a bit," Brandy said, kicking her way through a puddle that Calcine skimmed around. Her boots and coat were the only bits of her clothes that were not a little threadbare now, but if she had to pick, she'd have chosen those, so it wasn't so bad. Any chill she'd get from having holes in her clothes was more than made up by being trapped between the Calcine rock and the warm bundle of energy that was Sparky. 

"No, we got time, though, if you want to be efficient."

"Nope!"

Calcine ignored Sparky. "If you want to be efficient, we could discuss some things now?"

"Non-relationship things? Or am I not going to be able to talk on this date because my mouth will be full constantly?"

Calcine grinned. "You'll find out." 

Brandy really wanted to know if Calcine had organized this date while she was expressing her Fire side or not now. It'd be the difference between having an enjoyable meal with them and being an enjoyable meal *for* them. 

Still it wasn’t Brandy’s only worry. "The biggest worry is money. I don't want to hit the gym again until we know each other well enough that you get a new move."

"Do well enough on the date, and one of us might!" Sparky said, "Early in relationships, we grow a lot quicker. I remember Tinnitus got Sucker Punch from her first kiss."

Brandy squinted at Sparky to see if she was joking, but it was still hard to tell. She gave her the benefit of the doubt on this one. "Wouldn't Sucker Punch be a pretty bad first kiss?"

"Yeah, but memorable!" Sparky said with an added little cackle. "Still not living it down." 

"Who's Tinnitus?" Calcine asked, just idly curious as she shied from the rain. 

"My sister"

Sparky squeaked as she walked out into the rain because Calcine and Brandy had stopped. "The heck?"

"You have a sister?" Brandy said, finding it hard to put Sparky and family in the same head. She seemed such a relentless free agent. 

"Psh, no. I have sisters. Like, twenty, maybe? You lose count. Joltik groups are super big."

"Oh, Arceus, that's terrifying." Calcine said, "Are they all like you?"

"Yeah! We're all great."

"Fuck." Brandy shivered. "How is Turrfield still on the map?"

"What? Hey!" Sparky jumped to pinch Brandy's cheeks. "You love me. You'd love more of me." 

"Fuck no, one is enough. I'm not that strong a Trainer." Brandy felt a deep dread in her stomach. Were there going to be family visits? Could she survive such a high concentration of teasing?

"We could capture them all. You'd get stronger quick with all of us. Could be the first Joltik Ace!" 

"Let's ... diverse the team a bit more first," Calcine said diplomatically, giving Brandy a peck of a kiss to share comfort over the terror of the Joltik apocalypse before continuing, "You have one binding ball left, Brandy. Are you looking for anything in particular? We could use someone with some Soft Moves. Is there any Pokémon, in particular, you'd like to capture?"

"Gardevoir," Brandy said immediately.

Calcine and Sparky stared at Brandy, blue and orange glowing in sync as they studied her face.

"I mean, yeah, obviously," Calcine said with a shrug.

"Duh. I'd fuck a Gardevoir. They're hot as hell," Sparky said, biting her lip. "Mmf."

"Let's exclude the one every trainer wants," Calcine said, squeezing Brandy's side. "Pick another, and if you say Milotic, I will smack you."

It was hardly fair to take the super hot snake lady off the table, but Brandy guessed it was another simple answer. Brandy had to mull this over now. It wasn't easy because there weren't many Pokémon she didn't have the hots for. If she wanted to cover their future Rock weakness, it left Fighting, Steel, and Ground. Calcine was hard enough that she wasn't up for going with Steel yet. She'd have bruises, and Ground types were rare and a bit of a pain to capture. Their personality wasn't really her thing now. She enjoyed the outgoing parts of her partners' personalities too much to get someone reclusive. 

"A Fighting would be good, actually." She settled on.

"They're not really soft moves?" Calcine said, but she looked curious. 

"They could be! Like a Clobbopus, maybe?"

"Woah. Muscles and tentacles. That's a real type, Brandy," Sparky grinned, wiggling her tongue at Brandy. "You can barely handle us. They'd turn you to mush."

"You jealous of the tentacles?"

"No way. I'd watch them ruin you. Heck, I'd give tips."

Sparky squeaked as Brandy ruffled her hair, pressing at her cheeks as the Joltik squirmed. Calcine held the umbrella firmly as the two tussled. "Maybe I'd have them ruin you! Pest."

"It's not a bad pick," Calcine said, sounding rather pleased at a sensible choice. "I'm happy with a Fighting type, and we could use someone more on the battle side. Sparky is full of sneaky tricks, and I'm more of a lynchpin for you to rest on. Someone quick who can land good hits would be really useful."

“Mercury could do that," Sparky said. "She's not Fighting, which I think would be cool. But we all know Mercury's strong as hell."

"Yeah, but we couldn't capture her." Brandy said, "She's nearly got a hundred wins and put Maple in the Poké-Center. I'm not really up for getting my insides rearranged today."

"We couldn't capture her now. But what if we got her to show a move?" Calcine said, "It's not just naming that has a reward. There are bucks to be earned for revealing the moves of Pokémon."

"And no one's got any out of Mercury yet. She runs them over too fast. We get a few of her moves. We get money, and we can gear up some," Sparky said, nuzzling onto Brandy's side. "Believe in you."

It was a terrible idea. Even with two Pokémon, she was pretty sure Mercury would take them apart. The Galar Rapidash knew how to fight and had beat scores of Trainers all while giving nothing away. What would they even do to make her give up a move? Brandy gave a long sigh as she considered it. 

"She'd be quite weak to Sparky," Calcine offered. "Bug is her weakness. We'd stand a shot if we exploit that." 

Brandy narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Why was Calcine volunteering this now? She was usually so cautious. "Is this a test? You want to see if I'm being sensible?"

"No," Calcine said, "Well, sort of. How would you go about it if you wanted to do this?"

"Planning," Brandy said. "We'd need a good plan to do it, a way to disable her speed. Some way to force her to use a move and a way to escape. That's a lot."

Calcine beamed, picking Brandy up in a hug. "See, you're learning. You can not rush in when you want to."

"I'm cautious of my hips. I don't want them broken."

"Progress!" Sparky laughed, "If you can resist not charging at a gorgeous Fairy Pokémon, that's huge. Usually, you get all stupid around pretty Pokémon. " 

"That's not true. I'm plenty stupid with you two," Brandy said as if this was going to win her any points. They both beamed at her. "Oh. Yeah. That's a compliment, isn't it? Shoot," 

"Idiot," Calcine said, ruffling Brandy's hair in commiseration.

"But our idiot!" Sparky slapped Brandy's butt. "Tall, hot, and stupid. We got lucky."

"I take it back. I'm going to find a Pokémon that only says nice things about me, and we're going to marry." 

"As if. A Wooloo would bully you. You're just so very teasable. Must be a human type thing." Sparky said with a massive grin. She loved this way too much. 

"This date better be amazing," Brandy huffed, "Or I'm trading you both in for a Sharpedo and a Scorbunny and living the dream."

"Aha! I knew you had a thing for Sharks and Bunnies." Calcine said, hip-bumping Brandy, "We'll see what we can do there. I'm not above spoiling you."

Brandy *really* wanted to know what this date was about now. It sounded like she was in for a tougher time than she'd had at the gym.