The stretch of time from her victory to Palmer’s arrival was mostly filled with an anticipatory silence that felt almost tragically unfulfilled. As lovely as it would’ve been to leave immediately once Catherine had her eighth badge, nightfall was still a handful of hours away, and thus back to the little hiding spot in the Kurosawa grounds she went. Clair had been sent to babysit her again, or whatever Lance sugarcoated it as.

“More like it’s my room you’re in,” she deadpanned.

Never mind then, Catherine would go flee to her phone then - sent a text her brother’s way, admittedly felt a small bit of affection when she checked the rest of her messages.

From Silver, “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” (“just wait til lance shows up.”)

From Blaise, “again, remember that part about going for it so long as you don’t do one simple little thing?” (“i must’ve forgotten.”)

Cashing in her victory high from the badge, she pressed on Morty’s tab with a half-calm neutrality.

[2:02] why do i see loki on the trainer itinerary
[4:38] cath i know you’re at lance’s i wasn’t born yesterday
[4:38] catherine please

[6:07] I guess this sort of postpones our big talk, huh.

[6:08] cath you know there’s more to this right now.

[6:08] i’m sorry, there was a bit to go through.

[6:08] a bit. Just another gym, and a gyarados, and loki.
[6:08] it was palmer who put you up to this, wasn’t he.

[6:09] morty.

[6:10] are you okay? With the gyarados. Or palmer. Okay enough to text or someone else?
[6:10] They said you were hurt.

[6:10] im fine, i promise. Just a little sore.
[6:11] because of the gyarados :v

[6:11] cath.

[6:11] morty.

And then, before Morty could overtake it with other pressing matters:

[6:11] I wish I still could have told you this in person once i got back.
[6:12] Or that I just put my foot down before all of this
[6:12] because honestly
[6:12] I knew back then too.
[6:12] that it’s over for good, i mean.
[6:12] i think you knew that too.
[6:12] and it’s so shitty to do this over text when this deserves more. God knows you’ll probably have to delete this as soon as you see it, or get your ghosts to do something or whatever
[6:12] but i don’t think i can do any better now, so forgive me.
[6:13] just
[6:13] i still love you, even though it’s just as a friend.
[6:13] and i won’t ask you to feel the same.
[6:13] not after only a week.
[6:14] but i hope, when the dust is settled for
[6:14] well
[6:14] everything.
[6:14] we can meet up again.

Silence hung smothering and featherlight all at once as she finished her rambling. Her heartbeat felt oddly normal, her breathing easy the entire time, and she couldn’t tell if it was a good or a bad thing yet. Would have set the phone down if Morty didn’t respond faster than expected.

[6:15] count on it.
[6:15] and yeah, this is
[6:15] a bit of a mess.

She laughed despite herself. Didn’t miss Clair’s Look from the corner of her eye.

[6:15] a little.
[6:16] i know it’s not much and you probably could’ve done it yourself
[6:16] i wouldn’t even consider it a real apology, but
[6:16] i made sure these bastards gave you immunity, don’t let them play that card if they try.

[6:17] they’re free to try.

The three little dots that signaled Morty writing something went on for quite a bit. Catherine braced herself for the inevitable paragraph.

[6:20] gotta handle league business.
[6:20] i’ll see you, cath.

[6:20] (ﾉ•̀ヮ•́)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

And that was that.

A molotov cocktail of emotions cracked quietly inside her, happiness and regret and a little bit of worry running over themselves as Catherine wasn’t quite sure where to settle - left her fairly satisfied all the same. It’d been like a diploma after exams, expected but never quite assured. (Was this really a big deal? Should she downplay it because it was something she was supposed to do anyway? The timing felt so off, but it’s not like everything could be perfect - )

Regardless.

A serene sort of anticipation draped itself over her as she moved from messages to the web, that sort of physical jolt that woke you up after you’d washed your face, or dipped in the pool or shower, or just fought an eighth badge Kingdra and all that entailed - a palette cleanser. She scrolled past pictures on pictures of flowers and stars and cute baby Pokemon until a video clip popped up violently on her feed, autoplay blaring to life when she deigned to tap it.

[i]“Reports show that Lance of the Elite Four was the one to take Garnet under apparent custody, but we’ve just received new information pertaining to the event. While not yet official, there have been reports from bystanders who witnessed a gym battle between Draco Kurosawa, the elite’s cousin and gym leader of Blackthorn City, and -”[/i]

“News travels quick,” Catherine murmured. “I swear boys gossip more than girls.”

Clair inclined her head, sent her a stupid look that left the other girl almost impressed, despite herself. “What did you expect from an eighth badge match during Blackthorn’s busy season?”

“That everyone would be in Mahogany for me anyway,” she replied lightly, went on at the other girl’s withering look. “What? I’m not wrong. Your cousin’s banking on me getting as huge as possible.”

The blue haired girl opened her mouth, pursed it tight and looked away to her phone. “Whatever.”

Catherine almost let her be, but the silence made her skin crawl soon enough, snuffed out everything else with a curious chill. The text messages felt ages ago and she didn’t have the heart to reread them just yet. “For someone who seems pretty involved with all this, you don’t seem all that happy about it.”

Clair scowled, but kept her eyes glued to her phone screen. “About what, the fact that my cousin is basically gambling his life away on some foreign slut, or that we lose either way?”

Beg pardon. "Yeah, I totally slept with Palmer and Lance for the job offers where I do [i]them[/i] massive favors."

“I’m sure that’s what they called it. Not even a week after Morty too, nice.”

She waved it off. "Anyway. He would’ve gone through with it with or without me - hell, he’s doing this at least partly for you, isn’t he?” And because the temperature in the room rose a couple degrees, still too cold, much too cold, “You’re pretty ungrateful, you know that?”

It seemed to have struck a nerve as Clair bristled, as the grip on her phone tightened. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“But that’s what you’re doing, aren’t you?” Catherine quirked an eyebrow. “He said that the policy was still in favor of the clan’s best interests, and I think we both know what that really means, given you’re helping him out. You want this, why are you so upset?”

“You think I want this? That I [i]approve[/i] of my cousin losing his title, that maybe my brother will too? That lines had to be crossed much worse than they had to?” she asked too sharp to be calm, the phone lowered and her glare icy. Catherine’s satisfaction boiled in turn. “I know loyalty is a foreign concept to you, but that means sticking through the thick [i]and[/i] the thin - not just running away and leaving everyone else to suffer while you scramble on some pretense of glory.”

“Glory, really?” she asked, bewilderment genuine. “Do you think I went in thinking I’d get this far when I started? That’s so stupid.”

“If you were [i]smart[/i] you would have,” the other girl snapped. “You had all this potential to do something from the beginning and it took everyone else getting dragged in too until you did something with it! And there’s a chance you might not even make it anyway.”

Catherine almost laughed, her words derisive all the same. “And what, you think you could’ve done any better?”

Silence reigned for a moment, just a second before Clair snapped that “that wasn’t the point,” still enough to get Catherine to excited because oh, [i]oh[/i].

Honestly, Clair’s bitching was hardly a ripple of annoyance, the worst still just literal playground slurs back home. But Catherine still felt a little off-kilter, stranger in a strange land, and she was tired of letting others just [i]take[/i] from her without protest, so she grasped for whatever semblance of normalcy she could. (But was it really normalcy when she hadn’t pushed this angle since before Loki? Let’s call it a long overdue return to form.)

So she stood, and she smiled regally, and approached as Clair stiffened and rose herself - regarded Catherine like a feral animal. She’d obliged. There was no odd hum in the air, no outrageous excitement that swallowed her up. It was clear, and while a little rusty, easy enough to slip into habit.

“Sure, you could’ve dropped everything and threw everyone you loved under the bus directly. But you didn’t, did you?” she asked, voice delicate. “You didn’t take the risk, so of course you didn’t get the reward for it. Lance is doing what he can to make the transition for you that much simpler and you’re still throwing a fit.”

“Back off!” the girl snarled as she backed away, fist raised as she bumped against the wall - just to drop it when Catherine swung her own hand out, hit the wall and basically pinned her in place.

“Because you wanted to be the trailblazer, didn’t you? You knew you could’ve,” she continued, ignoring the protests as she hovered ever closer, as Clair still kept her hands down, and Catherine’s tone dipped condescendingly pitiful.

“But you thought better of it. Because of the clan, right? The loyalty won out, and it's not like I had to worry about throwing a prestigious family under the bus. But you did, only you, so instead you get to sit here in wasted potential, just to find out that you could’ve been the one. You had it all planned out. You [i]deserved[/i] it so much more." Closer, now. Centimeters, a dangerous distance. She smelled like lillies (and smoke and leather, Proton’s smile flashing.) "But life doesn't work on deserving, does it? And it's it’s killing you, and you're upset, and you don’t even get to take it out on Lance directly now.”

Waited for Clair's breath to hitch before she brushed dangerously close against her cheek, murmured in her ear. “Poor little clan girl. If I look in the closet, do you think I’d find the backpack of clothes you pilfered from your brother? The application letter? How long did you spend practicing the fake signature?”

Clair let out a choked little noise, and mustered, “You’d find [i]nothing[/i].”

“Oh,” she said, and dropped her hand. “So you’re throwing a tantrum on something you’ve already given up on. How disappointing.”

The poor thing shot her a truly furious look, the flicker of fear enough to get Catherine to flash her teeth as she smiled at how [i]adorable[/i] it was, there might be hope for you yet -

There was a knock at the back door.

Catherine blinked and let go as the tension in the air vanished, and was admittedly a little surprised Clair just didn’t throw herself at the other girl anyway. She could almost respect the racist bitch.

Palmer just eyed them both warily - flashed a tired smile at the blue haired girl, and then at Catherine. “I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

She regarded Clair questioningly, shrugged when the woman pointedly wouldn’t look at her. “Just a bit of venting, it’s alright.”

“...Right.” He sighed. “Well, let’s not delay any more, huh, Kit?”

She made sure to thank Clair for the kind hospitality on the way out.