a flower shop which lacks flowers [erika]

{short posts are fine~}

Oh, that was right! This was the woman from beforehand, in the meadow – the one who turned out to be the Nature-Loving Princess of the Kanto. And it was no wonder they called her that too! Halinor had never seen someone (in person, that is) pull off wearing a kimono so well before. She was actually a little jealous of that.

“Yes, we did.” She was almost embarrassed by how simple her answer was. But what else was she supposed to say? It was a closed-end question so there was no need to feel embarrassed with a closed-end answer. And anyway, Erika had said more. She mentioned the ‘red-haired’ man’s unhelpfulness.

Hah! It had been fun to butt heads with him at the start. She would have to remember to try and charge him double if she ever caught him in this store while she was working.

“Not many men in general are helpful when it comes to gardening.” It was true. Not many even knew how to garden if they were brought up outside of what Halinor called a “gardening city”…. Oh crap—she was starting to sound like her mother. “… what I call a blahblah” was her mother’s silly phrase, not hers!

“Thank you so much, by the way.” Halinor said suddenly, as if she were about to forget to say it in the next five seconds. “It’s really nice to have such an expert help out, even if it’s only a little.

“So, are you after some flowers?” With the help of Grass-Pokemon the flowers could probably survive longer journeys than usual – even to faraway places like the Kanto region.

She had never been to Celadon City – or anywhere in the Kanto region, actually – so Halinor could only take Erika’s word for it. After all, it was a city and not a small little town like Floaroma. Halinor knew how downright impossible it could seem to grow plants in a big city. There had never been much room for anything more than plot plants in her father’s home in Hearthome City. And it wasn’t looked well upon to start up a gardening project on land which was owned by the city council.

“Your Gym must look amazing then. Gyms full of flora always do,” she said, remembering how Eterna’s Gym had looked the last time she had set foot there. It had been absolutely… no, Halinor didn’t know how to describe it, and she wasn’t too eager to think about it too hard.

Oh, so Erika did want to buy some flowers after all? Halinor’s face brightened at the suggestion, although it did look a little guilty for temporarily forgetting that she was minding a business, not simply housesitting. “That would be great.” Ooops, she had sounded like a pouncing sales clerk. “I mean, business has slowed down here a bit. A lot.”

She moved out from behind a counter, looking over at bunches of flowers as she walked over to Erika. “Gym Leaders usually call the shots in their areas, don’t they? I’m sure that you could claim a plot of land for yourself to garden on.” It was a joke, of course. Well, half a joke. It didn’t actually sound like a bad idea to Halinor at all, so long as the said plot of land wasn’t actually being used for anything. “Anyway, you want colourful so… were there any particular colours that you had in mind?”

“I will one day,” Halinor replied. At first she felt as though she had made an empty promise, but remembered that she was going to be spending a fair amount of time in the Kanto region. Maybe she would get to visit it soon. The more Erika described it, the more Halinor wanted to visit. Just as she had expected, the Gym sounded like a wonderful place.

Unlike another expectation which turned out to be false. Erika had been demoted to a citizen? That was a surprise. Weren’t all the league members jumping into the role of City Admin? (What a shame; she wouldn’t be able to claim some unused land to turn into a garden after all). “I’m sure everything will pick up again once…” Halinor paused for a second, and changed what she was going to say. “… everything calms down a bit.”

Business time. As Erika told her the different colours she wanted, Halinor started to mentally check off different flowers from the list in her head. Orange, blue and white. Orange, blue and white. Aha! Halinor made a beeline straight for a vase of white amaryllis flowers. “How about these? They don’t quite have a yellow hidden centre, but they still look lovely. And I could probably find some orange on…” Wait no, that wouldn’t work. The orange ones had grown in the meadow. The had been destroyed with the others. [b“Hydrangeas! We actually have some oranges ones of those. Blue and white too. Come and look.”