Lapidary's name couldn't have been worth as much as Calcine splashed out on her. Brandy had to talk her down from buying every outfit she picked out, but it still left them with an armful of shopping bags as they left the store. Add in the cost of her new hiking gear and Brandy was now positive Calcine had more money than she'd let on. Wild Pokémon got occasional bits of cash from the government to encourage them to spend it. After all, the more they visited places where humans had shops, the better the chance for them to meet humans and form bonds. 

It raised a lot of questions. How long had Calcine been saving? Had she ever left that cave? She seemed comfortable shopping, but surely she must be nearly out of pocket by now.

"That's it!" Brandy said as Calcine held her arm. "No more. You're going to go broke."

"I'm enjoying it," Calcine said, pulling Brandy closer and giving the hem of her skirt a flick with her fingers. "Worth it to make you look so good."

Brandy blushed as the rain beat down around them. It was terrible weather to wear a skirt, and she wasn't a skirt person in the first place, but with how much Calcine had fawned over her in the changing room, she'd resigned herself to wearing one for a bit. The tights itched, and if Calcine didn't stop poking them, they wouldn't last the day either, but her legs were apparently too good to resist. That she was getting looks from passersby just made it worse. She wasn't used to this sort of attention!

They'd spent a while shopping but still had to wait for Sparky out in the food court to meet up with them. All the cakes at Pip and Pretty's had left Brandy far from hungry, so she bought a hot chocolate to warm her hands while they waited. Calcine made it her mission to steal it bit by bit as they sat at a table with an umbrella protecting them from the rain. It was nice for a bit of silent calm to unwind after a pretty busy day. Watching the rain sheet down onto other shoppers was kind of soothing, if only because Brandy was glad she wasn't getting wet. 

Calcine trying to sneak a hand up her skirt was not helping the relaxing, but Brandy wouldn't complain. She had warm fingers, and she was only being playful. It was almost sweet. 

Brandy rested her head on Calcine's shoulder and let herself drift off with the moment, relishing her touch and the soft drumbeat of the rain on the canvas above. She could get used to this.

"Thighs!" came a gasp from Brandy's side after a good while, and when she peeked open an eye to look, Sparky was down on her knees beside Brandy's chair, staring in awe at the thin gap of skin between the skirt and tights. 

"Enjoy yourself?" Brandy said, rolling her leg to one side to bat Sparky right in the face with the thigh she was ogling. It backfired as she bit down on the thigh and held on, a happy growl rolling in her throat as Brandy tried to shake her off. "Hey! No chewing!"

"Tashty," Sparky mumbled, mouth full of thigh. Brandy had to physically pry her off, tugging at the sides of her mouth in revenge as she giggled madly. 

"Skip out to sleep with my school coach, and that's the thanks I get!"

"I can't help it! They looked so good! Calcine, you nailed the look."

Calcine smiled as she took the distraction to finish off Brandy's drink with her straw. The mynx had bought her own hot chocolate and hadn't even touched it yet. 

"So you find out anything?" Brandy said as she let go of Sparky's mouth. 

"Hrm?" Sparky said innocently as she got up and took a spot in Brandy's lap instead. She took Calcine's drink. Once again, no one was doing what they were supposed to, and Brandy ended up with the short straw. It was a little annoying that she was even starting to enjoy it. 

However, Brandy wasn't about to let Sparky get away with things this easily. There had to be some give and take. "You didn't just sleep with her because she's hot. You sneak. I know you were after more school stories." 

"I'd never be so crafty!" Sparky gasped, hands on her heart. "But, she did mention you helped the girls practice kissing and never caught on that they were going out of their way to pick you."

"They did not!" Brandy huffed. "They did that with everyone."

"Sure they did. Kara also said that you dated a girl for two years, and it took you about a year to realize you weren't just best friends."

"That didn't happen!" Brandy tried to push Sparky off her lap, but she'd got a good hold around Brandy's neck, so she wasn't going anywhere. "Cherry and I were just good friends, and we became girlfriends later."

"Cherry?" Calcine says, "That's a new name."

It was a name Brandy hadn't really expected to come up. They'd been inseparable in and out of school, but that was so long ago now it felt like a different age. Cherry had always looked up to Trainers, and Brandy had picked up the interest mainly to impress her. Cherry had planted the seed of the idea, but it hadn't gone away when they'd parted. Brandy really had come to share her obsession with it. 

"We broke up at the end of school. It wasn't a big deal." Brandy said, stealing Calcine's straw and taking a big sip of her hot chocolate to calm herself. It didn't work that well. "Well, okay, we both cried a bunch, but it's over now. Not a thing anymore!"

"She said Cherry had to loudly announce you were dating to the entire class before you realized, and you looked like you'd just tried to lick a Pincurchin as it sunk in."

"Kara wasn't there for that! That wasn't what happened." It totally was, but Brandy wasn't going to admit it. "Kara shouldn't be telling you this stuff!"

"Oh, she didn't at first. " Sparky grinned and leaned in to lick Brandy's nose with a crackle of electricity. "I loosened her tongue a lot, though. She's really keen to meet a sister of mine."

Brandy squirmed in her seat. The electric crackle of the lick made her nerves tingle. Kara was probably barely alive after Sparky had gone at her if she'd gone all out. For all that Joltik's were supposed to be small, Sparky was a big exception in many ways and what she currently lacked in stamina, she more than made up for with enthusiasm. She would be an absolute terror once she got better at being a lover. 

"Do we need to find Cherry and apologize for stealing you?" Calcine said, "I don't mind sharing with her."

"No! We haven't seen each other for years. That was forever ago! You're both idiots."

 She really didn't like how Calcine and Sparky laughed like it was the funniest idea in the world that they were the idiots here. All her glares did nothing but make the laugh harder until Sparky was weeping in her lap, and even the usually hard-to-read Calcine had an unmistakable, amused glow to her eyes. With no way to stop them, Brandy eventually gave up and drank her hot chocolate in a pathetic sulk. 

"Calcine look at this thief!" Sparky gasped.

"Shameless" Calcine said, her lip bit to stop herself from laughing too hard.

Brandy raised the straw and blew a bit of hot chocolate at Calcine, the hot drink barely bothering her as it splashed off her bare arms. 

"Wow!" Sparky said, "Wow, wow. We pushed her too far. Sorry, Brandy," Sparky stopped laughing and dried her eyes with her fingers. "I don't mean to tease you that bad. You're our Best Friend."

"Our closest Pal," Calcine nodded as she patted Brandy's thigh. "And possibly more?"

"Fuck you both." Brandy mumbled as she tried to poke the straw back into her drink without using her hands. "I'm going to catch a Grass type who treats me nice."  

"Good luck with that," Sparky said. "We'll teach her to tease you. Be a good way to bond."

Calcine and Sparky fist-bumped, and Brandy took the opportunity to spill Sparky off her lap and into Calcine's. 

"You love each other so much. You can make out without me!"

To her surprise, they did, Calcine getting a grip on Sparky's new choker and pulling her in for a kiss that Sparky eagerly returned. Their tongues danced together as they got messy with it. Sparks cracked, and heat bled out in a miniature, hungry storm of lust. The magnetic ring of Spark's choker crackled with yellow sparks as Calcine pressed her fingers into Sparky's butt and squeezed her in. Brandy could feel the bond between them thrumming with excitement, that heavy heartbeat overlaid with her own, a comforting pressure in the air that enveloped them all.   

Sparky moaned against Calcine's lips, nipping at her bottom lip before pushing back to meet her tongue again, the pair of them absolutely shameless in their display. It made it very hard to be mad at them, and with a sigh, Brandy reached in and hugged them both as they went at each other. 

"So lucky you're both hot. We'll get on the hunt for Mercury today, but since you two are so very eager, how about we pick a fight or two before we set camp?" Brandy said, giving them both a firm hug. "We need the practice, and Sparky has to be close to deepening the bond. Or I wouldn't let her get away with all this shit."

"Awww," Sparky murmured as Calcine peppered her neck with kisses. "I love that you trust me to be terrible. Wear the skirt for it, and we got a deal."

"Skirt? Oh, the skirt's not just for show," Brandy grinned. "It's part of the plan. You'll see."

"It is?" Sparky said, "Any plan with Brandy's thighs in it is a winner. We can't lose."

"Yeah" Calcine nodded, "Vital part. Absolutely."

Brandy hoped Sparky was right that her thighs were undefeatable because if this went wrong, she would end up with them wrapped around Mercury. The idea of that happening was exciting, but if she lost control that badly she could end up worse off than Maple. As much as Calcine and Sparky would no doubt love that show, she was hoping to do a little better than that. 

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Be a short time skip for the next chapter. A whole training arc would be excessive!