Organised Trade: Sharada and Hale

“Buizel Buizel Bui Bui Bui!”

Night was just beginning to set in, and as the little water weasel hopped dutifully along the sidewalk in front of his mistress, he kept throwing glances over his shoulder just to check if she was keeping up. Hale shot him a small grin as she stopped by a stall for a moment to purchase what looked like spicy fried Magikarp skewers.

This made Delacroix stop in his tracks as he sniffed the air and savored the scent before he finally gave in, slinking back towards her and tugging at her pants insistently.

“Bui! Buizel Bui!”
Delacroix had his hands open to accept one of the skewers which she handed to him after a teasing few seconds of deliberation and he began to chew on the meat ravenously, having not had his favorite meal of fish in a long time as his dead-set focus on getting to the Pokemon Center was relaxed slightly.

“Boyo, ye need tae learn tae take things slow once in a while.”
Hale noted as she leisurely walked along the pathway, bypassing several businessmen and mothers with grocery and toddlers in arms, all heading home for the night no doubt. Not her. Dusk was she felt most active for some reason though humankind was more or less a Diurnal species.

“Besides, it’s not like we’re gonna be trollin’ alleys like we did those few nights back with that Joey fella. We ain’t gonna get mugged at the Trade Center now, are we?”

They reached the Pokemon Center soon enough as the doors opened and Hale kept an eye out for whomever it was that she had made a deal with much earlier through the newspaper ad. It had been posted by….

“Sharada. Sharada Sewell”
She read the name listed. The seller had a name, but not a face to go with it. This was going to take a while.

“Bui?”
Delacroix gulped down a bite of his skewer and taped Hale’s hip gently before pointing to a bench near the trade center. There was a single girl, seated here, escorted by a graceful-looking Lopunny. Floating close to her head was the critter Hale recognized as a Bronzor—the thing she had come here for.
That had to be her.

“Aye. Pretty sorta filly, ain’t she?”
Hale didn’t even hear herself murmur those words and even if she did she couldn’t have explained why. The way those tresses curtained over her shoulder, the pastel-hued clothes which accentuated her figure beautifully, even the way she was postured, compared to Hale’s own casual getup of leather, jeans and a tanktop, the tomboyish trainer thought they couldn’t have come from more different worlds despite both being female trainers.

“C’mon Dela…let’s go say ---Dela?!”
Snapping out of her thoughts, Hale spotted the Buizel lopping towards this Sharada in an eager manner, watching as he stopped in front of the young lady and bowed deeply, his nose almost kissing the floor before he took Sharada’s free hand into his own to kiss it.

Hale couldn’t help the small grin that made its way upon her lips as she approached the bench and stroked her Buizel’s head crest affectionately.

“Sharada Sewell, I presume?”
Hale held out her hand to the girl instinctively as she took a seat next to her on the bench. For whatever reason, she seemed so…..tense.
Had they been that late?

“Haylene, but call me Hale. And this here caffler is Delacroix, my team’s resident knight in shining armor.”
Digging into the inner pockets of her red bomber jacket, Hale withdrew a cloth pouch bearing an exact amount of change which she offered to the girl while her eyes trailed the movements of the Bronzor.

“Got yer quids right here, every dollar of it. Didn’t keep ye waitin’ too long now, did we?”