Molly and Li 4

Little bit more~

Long pale fingers wound into copper hair, as the researcher adjusted one of her pigtails, chewing on her lip anxiously. “I’ve...never actually met Professor Oak...” She’d only made things worse, and undid the unevenly tied shock of red hair, and combed through it quickly with chilled fingers, elastic clenched between her teeth. “I mean, he lectured at Celadon University all the time, but...”
She sighed, pulling her hair back into a pigtail. Without the sun, the air had a distinct chill, and Molly could feel it biting at her nose and fingers. She drew them securely inside the sleeves of her lab coat, glancing, with a pang of concern, at the bare, scratched feet poking out from beneath the dusty hem of his white uniform pants. She sighed, pulling her arms tighter around herself to fight off the cold, the exhaled breath a visible puff of air that dissipated into the night sky. “Why did you leave Cianwood?”

“I dunno,” he shrugged, teeth chattering audibly, though he did nothing to warm his bare arms or feet. “just couldn’t take it anymore, you know? Trainin’ at the gym, you take on all sorts, from all over, who wanna face the leader. An’ I get to thinkin’ ‘bout where they’ve been and what they’ve seen... there’s a great big world out there, and I’ve never been off the island.” He scratched at the back of his head, wet hair drying into unruly raven spikes. “So, I decided to take a little break, and do a bit of explorin’. Besides...” The knuckles of the large hand he brought unconsciously to the coarse stainless steel chain around his neck were bruised and scarred. “I wanted to go back to Vermillion after training a bit, to take on Lieutenant Surge– or d’you think they’d just let me talk to the fella? Probably, right? I just want a word...” He toyed mindlessly with the thing, and it fell from the collar of his shirt with the dim clatter of metal on metal. It was a set of dog tags, far too old to be his own. He stuffed them hastily back into the safety of his shirt, hands shaking in the wintry air, but she’d been able to catch a glimpse of the name worn into the metal: Daniel Cole. Her curiosity was stirred, tugging intently at her lips, but she thought better of it, and said nothing. “But research– you must go all over, Miss Cedar. Sound’s lovely.”

“Not really,” she confessed, ducking her head. “I grew up in Celadon city. I’ve been between there and Vermillion, and went to Pallet town once. That’s about it. I didn’t even have to leave Celadon for that field research– Grimer everywhere.”