Companion

"Has it been a week since we last met in Viridian City, Korinna?" Cinder asked with a smile. He wasn't expecting to run into his friend that came from Kalos on his stay here in the Pokemon Center at the foot of Mt. Moon.

"Around that. Fafnir had grown so big the last time I saw him, I'm glad you didn't forsaken his development needs, Cinder." Korrina responded and said as she played with the heavy infant dragon-type on her lap as she occasionally took a spoonful of her crepe dessert.

"Tch! Of course I won't." Cinder snorted, but it was much more in amusement than annoyance. "Fafnir is technically my adopted pokemon child since I was there when he'd hatched. I would never do that to him. Although I can't help but say it was slightly a pain and not to mention costly to raise Fafnir within the time after he had hatched, but we are managing."

"More power to you then." Korinna encouraged half-heartedly. "I wasn't expecting I would be able to catch up to you on the road though. I thought you might have already arrived in Cerulean by now challenging the Cerulean Gym, or at least camping within the forest on route 4."

"That was my plan initially..." Cinder thought of Paul and their encounter. "However, I met a confounding trainer inside the tunnels of Mt. Moon, not only that, he was also a rookie like us, he started a lot better in preparation than most, outlook wise in pokemon training..." He shared his encounter, his battle with Paul and how he decided to train in this place for a couple of days to Korrina, who took her time to listen as she ate her food.

She couldn't help but exclaim in bewilderment. "He used a tool like the Pokedex in such a way? Although in theory he had a point, pokemon with the latent potential in spite of growing up untrained in the wild, are much better compared to the ones with inferior capabilities, that's for sure, it is like comparing a human with a high IQ to a low IQ one." She frowned. "However, I wouldn't side with his standpoint. His view of pokemon is borderline aloof, and indifferent. He has to consider his pokemon's feelings too."

"That's how I also thought and reacted at first." Cinder reciprocated her opinion with his. "But still, we barely know the guy, maybe he's just hard on the outside... But when he's with his pokemon, he takes care of them and is soft on the inside?"

"Hmmm, maybe." Korrina nodded casually, not particularly interested much in dwelling on it. She suddenly grinned, flashing a beautiful smile that made Cinder dazed for a moment.

Cinder blinked, then he got out of his stupor as he coughed on his hand whilst looking away, abashed. "*Cough* W-what is it?"

"Hehe, I am done delivering the article my grandfather and Professor Sycamore requested me to hand out to Professor Oak. I didn't want to go back to my homeland just yet. So, I decided to challenge the Gym Circuit here and try my hand at the infamous Indigo Conference." Although confused by Cinder's act, Korinna brought out her words which surprised Cinder. She flashed a Boulder Badge that was pinched between her middle and index finger, keeping her enchanting grin on. "I already have beaten Brock, the Gym Leader in Pewter yesterday."

"You already beat Brock?" Cinder blinked in surprise as he took on the similar badge from her fingers. "Really?"

"Yeah!" She grinned. "I registered at that time when I was in Pallet, Professor Oak helped me, and there's still what, thirteen months before the Indigo League comes around? I've got tons of time to train although I started out slightly later than most who registered, what could a week or so make any difference anyways?"

"When will you leave?" Cinder asked curiously.

"Tomorrow or the day after that." She admitted. "I'll train my pokemon for a bit, Alpha and the rest needed to train and gain experience, seeing as how you are doing, I bet it was beneficial training here."

"It was." Cinder nodded. "There are a lot of veteran trainers though, we beat a few, but that would only be a minority compared to how many we challenged. Fellow rookies are much easier to battle on, as we will have a similar starting point and also, we mostly won those battles, right? Hercule, Storm?"

Storm and Hercule who were eating their food at the side of the table thrilled their agreement with pride.

Korinna eyed scrutinizingly. "It seems like your Storm evolved." Her eyes then lit up with a knowing glint. "Was it the battle against Brock?"

Cinder swallowed the food he was eating and acknowledged. "Yeah, it was a rough battle at the start, Hercule was knocked out by his Geodude on the beginning of the battle, he didn't fainted for nothing though, Geodude was almost knocked out by the time Hercule did, if an Ice Beam would have connected, it would have been a different scenario. Storm evolved after defeating that titanic of an Onix, and then the rest was history."

"We also had a tough experience against Brock." Korrina nodded solemnly. Gym Battles aren't easy after all, it was already commendable if a rookie managed to achieve five gym badges within their season, even if they wouldn't be able to qualify for the League. "So, what's next for you?" Korrina asked Cinder.

Cinder shrugged, as he stared at his food. "Who knows? I'm gonna take a shot at Saffron's Gym after Cerulean, by 'taking a shot', I meant I'm not confident enough to battle that Gym as of the moment, Sabrina is an infamously powerful gym leader in Kanto, even though she's still young, a couple years older than us, maybe catching a defensive battler pokemon along the way too. Aside from that and training, I've got no immediate plans."

Cinder so far had majorly planned on their course of actions, when he got to Saffron and felt that he wasn't qualified enough to battle Sabrina yet, then he could always go to Vermillion or Celadon to try the Gyms there.

Their conversation stopped as they focused on their food, Cinder was thinking about something for a minute before he proposed to Korrina. "Hey, what do you say about travelling together?"

Korrina blankly stared at Cinder.

Before she could decide, he continued. "We're not leaving anytime soon either. Like what you've postulated, we've been enjoying the three days on our stay here..." He looked over to his food as he tapped his fork against the tray absentmindedly. "If you want... We're all going to the same place anyway, Cerulean, to challenge the Gym there, so..." He shrugged a bit, trying to keep his face neutral but friendly. "If you're willing, we can all go together. No reason not to, right?"

Korrina's eyes blinked rapidly. Butterfree suddenly on her stomach. "You'd be okay with that? I mean, I don't mind in case you're wondering..."

Just to be honest, Korrina was feeling quite lonesome, she decided to travel to Kanto, one reason was because of all the foreign pokemon she couldn't come across in Kalos, partially, she has already accepted that she would be alone. Her pokemon helped keeping her company and all that, so it didn't necessarily made it boring. And now...

Someone was just proposing to let her tag along with them out of the blue. It was... Sudden.

Not unpleasant, though. She just couldn't find the right words to describe it.

She liked Cinder, as a friend. She still wasn't quite sure why. They started off rocky knowing each other, and Korrina wouldn't be able to shake that memory off anytime soon. But for reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint, it didn't bother her.

Besides, the thought of having another human to talk to while on the road was something that... Appealed to her greatly as well. Having someone, like Cinder, who was the only one around her age she made friends with in this foreign region, to travel together around Kanto would be nice. She couldn't help but curve her lips upwards just a little bit.

Cinder once again got distracted by that enchanting smile. He stuttered. "U-umm... Korrina? Is that smile a yes? A simple 'sure, I would like that' would do just fine, you know."

Korrina jolted out of her thoughts and shook her head frantically for a second or two, as he then looked over apologetically at the gray-haired teenage boy.

"Sorry about that, but... Yeah, sure, I would love to join you." She meant to utter 'like' but 'love' came out of her mouth like that. She chuckled a bit to hide it, in a nervous tone as she tried to regain her bearings, a red tint couldn't help but make their way towards her cheeks and ears.

Cinder couldn't understand this at all with how dense he was, so he returned to eating his bacon, giving a quick thumbs up on response.

With that decided, they continued to eat their meals along with Cinder's pokemon. According to Korrina, her pokemon was still recovering from their training with the help of Nurse Joy. Soon after, breakfast ended. Cinder and Korrina had continued to talk for a bit while eating, although none of the topics were particularly noteworthy. Nonetheless, the small talk between the two of them was enjoyable. At least it was for Cinder, although Korrina also seemed to like it herself. They spoke to each other without a preference, just saying whatever came to mind for them. And, the two felt but couldn't help but like it that way.

It was nice. Nothing much else to say.

...

In his office at the Viridian Gym, Giovanni sat on his chair, staring at a huge, glowing screen on one wall for several minutes in silence. After reading the data gleaned from the most recent reports, he took the phone on his desk, one out of many, and dialed a number. It rang once before someone picked up on the other end of the line.

"Initiate 'Operation Mt. Moon.', Hunter." Giovanni began with a stern, authoritative tone.

Silence was his answer, before a rough voice, but one could noticeably discern that a woman responded. "I'm not one of your grunts, Team Rocket Leader. I'm your associate, hmph!" Giovanni frowned as the other end hung up. He slowly put down the phone, continuing on looking at the screen with a calculating look.

**I decided, Korrina will be the love interest of Cinder. For those wondering of her look, you can check the paragraph comment.**