Brandy had hit the Turrfield gym far too early, but she felt she was catching herself up on the experience she'd lacked. Bit by bit, she was understanding how to handle two partners and wanted to at least get good at it before adding in a third. As exciting as the thought of it was!

Her love life wasn't a delicate balancing act like she thought it'd be, but a see-saw. When one went down, the other got raised, and then it was time to switch attention, so they only stayed like that for a short time. She couldn't please Calcine and Sparky all the time, but she could make sure both got their happy moments, and right now, it was Sparky's turn.

"This is so cool," Sparky said as she leaned over the glass counters, looking at the selection of chokers. "I can pick whatever I want?"

Calcine shrugged. "Don't spend all my money immediately, and I don't mind." Brandy took the momentary distraction to take a sip of Calcine's Bubble Tea through the loose straw.

It tasted a lot sweeter than she thought. She was used to mild and soothing tea; this was more like a milkshake without the thickener. She'd thought Calcine shared her love for spicy food but did she have a sweet tooth too? She had pretty enthusiastically stolen Brandy's cakes. Calcine gave her a curious look, and Brandy sucked on the straw to make the drink gurgle.

"Anything..." Sparky was paralyzed with choice, eyes darting over all the options. 

"Would Ma'am like some assistance?" the woman behind the counter asked. From the look of it, a human and one Brandys age, her brown hair done up in tight ringlets. Brandy vaguely remembered her from the year above her back in school, though her name eluded her. Well, at least she didn't seem to have noticed her too.

"Oh hey, that's Brandy! How are you?" 

Shoot. 

"Hi! Uh ... hi!" Brandy said, fumbling over the name. Did it begin with a K? Why didn't she pay attention to hair more? It was so distinctive! "Coach!"

"Aw, you remember me! I'm not your Coach here, though, anymore."

Fuuuuck. What was her name? Coach was so easy!

"Oh, Coach, she talks about you all the time!" Sparky says, "It's good to meet you finally!"

"She does?" the woman behind the counter said, looking surprised before she patted her chest proudly. "Well, I like to know I left an impression."

Brandy was equally surprised, giving Sparky some evil side eye as the Joltik beamed back at her. Not even getting gifts was enough to make her behave, it seemed. Well, two could play at that game.

"Oh, I liked volleyball, but Sparky is the one who loves it." Brandy lied, the words coming smoothly. Was she inheriting a lying tongue from Sparky? That didn't seem healthy. "She's a big fan. You should talk her ear off about it."

"Yeah!" Sparky said, just rolling with the lie to Brandy's annoyance. "I'd love to see you in action. Big fan of anything that involves bouncing. I bet you've got to be fit to do it! Sorry, what was your name?"

"Caramel, though most just called me Kara," Kara said, waving Sparky off. "I'm not bad at it, but Brandy was the star. Volleyball was perfect for her when her head wasn't in the clouds anyway."

Brandy wasn't sure if Sparky was being evil or helpful, teasing the name out. It was always a coin toss with her. Well, it started with a K, so she hadn't been entirely off. It was bad she'd forgotten, though. Had she really daydreamed that much at school?

"She was a sports star?" Calcine asked. 

"Well! I wouldn't say that much, but she was good at it. Had a lot of fans." 

"Really?" Sparky said, "We're learning things today, aren't we, Brandy?"

"Human fans! It's not anything you need to worry about," Brandy said, hiding her face behind her hands. "The only Pokémon who came to our games was mom's, and they mainly just yelled."

Sparky looked wistful, Calcine also tilted her head in thought. Kara politely laughed, "I see you picked two just like you. They're daydreaming too."

"They're thinking about me with girls is what they're doing." Brandy huffed, "Can you show Sparky some options, or she'll tease me all day."

"I can look at things and tease you."

She could, too. As Caramel took them through the choices, they got Brandy to model them so Sparky could see what they looked like. All the while, they tried to tease out a love life from Brandy's school years that hadn't existed! She needed to finish up with this town and move to a place people didn't know so many embarrassing stories about her. 

Kara was finishing one of those stories up as she undid a bright red collar from Brandy. It wouldn't have suited Sparky at all. Brandy was sure Sparky had only picked it because it matched Brandy's hair, but she let Sparky have fun dressing her up. 

"I heard," Kara said, "she got so many Candles for her last Festival of Lights her desk nearly caught fire."

"That's not true," Brandy said, "It did catch fire. I thought it was a prank?"

Sparky couldn't have been happier, the collar had her excited, but stories of Brandy's youth had her beaming. "This is so you. A high school heartthrob, and you never noticed."

"I mean, maybe I had a few dates."

"With who?" Calcine said, just as interested as Sparky was. 

"No way!" Brandy said, shaking her hands in front of her. "There's a limit! I'm taking all that to my grave. They were just cute kids' stuff. It wasn't anything."

"We don't get to do kids' stuff. It's interesting!" Sparky said.

"It was mainly playing pretend, you know. One be the Pokémon and ... why am I telling you this? That's enough!"

Sparky's eyes were shining, electricity crackling in her fur. She'd never looked more excited than she was now. "I have to know, more than anything. Please, please, please. Which Pokémon did you pretend to be?"

"No way, no way! I'm not answering! Pick your collar!"

"They said I was a Ditto," Caramel said as she put away the red choker. "Because I could do anything."

  

"Cute," Sparky said, still bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. "Kind of. Aren't Ditto kinda horror shows?"

"She'd yell at us too," Brandy said in a fake low whisper that everyone could hear. "Very scary. We won all our games because we didn't want to find out what she'd do if we lost."

"You being tall as a Dragapult probably helped, too," Calcine said innocently. 

"I didn't pretend to be a Dragapult. No narrowing it down! I'm not telling you."

"Centiskorch," Sparky said quickly as anything.

"No!"

"Farigiraf" 

Brandy glared at Sparky and picked up a choker from the counter. A navy blue strip of leather attached by a ring that you could roll up into the joining holes to hide the catch. Simple but quite pretty. "This one suits you, the rings magnetic it should boost your electric moves a bit. When you get some."

"My webs are electric, and my tongue" Sparky poked her tongue out at Brandy, crackling an arc along it. Brandy blushed a very bright red. 

"Goodness," Kara said, covering her mouth politely to hide her laugh. "Perhaps I should look into dating a Joltik. I got a Mincinno who visits every day who's clearly doing it for me, but maybe I could handle a double date."

"I can introduce you to one of my Sisters," Sparky said, fixing on the choker. There wasn't any argument about preference. It seems Brandy liking it was more than enough reason for Sparky to pick it over the others. "Or if Brandy doesn't mind me going off for a little, I could introduce you to my tongue right now?"

"Really?" Brandy snorted. She could believe the cheek; it was Sparky, but still! "We just got you something nice!" 

"And I want to tip her for being such a good saleswoman," Sparky said with a shrug and a sly smile. "You trust me?"

"Absolutely not. You broke me with that tongue. But if Coach Caramel is fine with it then you can. Just no frying her brain."

Kara laughed. "You're talking this tongue up a lot. You're not getting a discount."

"Oh, I don't know, I'm very good. I'll ask after." Sparky grinned. "And it's a nice show of trust in me! You and Calcine can do clothes. Show me off the best picks. Skirts! Stockings!"

Brandy admittedly did want to try that combo. She was being won around to the idea that her long legs were something people cared for. Especially now she'd learned she had a not actually at all secret fan club at school because of them. 

"Clothes don't excite me as much," Calcine said, "How about we get those and strategize at the same time? If we're going to take down Mercury. Unless Sparky, you want in on that?"

"Ugh, nerd stuff. No. You two love the planning. I improvise. You can tell me the plan after," Sparky said, though she clearly just wanted a quickie with Kara now. The beaming sales assistant was up for it too. Shameless! Society encouraged these casual bond-making flings, so she wouldn't get in trouble for it, but it still seemed a bit cheeky to do during work hours. 

 "Fine, Sparky, have fun. We'll meet you in the food court. Kara break her hips for me."

"Will do!" Kara said, "I've kept in shape."

Sparky laughed as Kara took her hand. "That's cute. A joke, right? Right? RIGHT?!"

Brandy watched her go, chewing her lip. She was probably going to be okay, Sparky liked athletic girls, and her Electric nature meant she was always full of energy. Letting her work off some of it might be a nice show of trust. Hopefully, she wouldn't break Kara. She didn't want to have to explain that to Kara's manager. 

"Planning then?" Brandy said to Calcine, taking her arm. "I got some ideas, though they'll rely on Sparky to pull it all together."

"Planning," Calcine agreed, "And checking you're ready to get fucked that badly if the whole plan hinges on Sparky."

Mean, but maybe not unwise. Was she ready to lose to Mercury? She'd seen what happened. Even for Brandy, it was a bit much. 

Well, no risk, no reward, right? What's the worst that could happen?