Hero of Kalos

"You say that like half the city would not immediately try to make it fashionable." His fingers curled gently around hers as his face lit up in stark amusement. "Though I admit, the mental image of you trying to glare down reporters while your hair refuses to cooperate is almost worth the risk."

The amusement in his expression deepened at her mention of headlines. Adam could practically see them splashed across magazines and gossip sites alike, exaggerated beyond all reason. His nose wrinkled faintly in mock horror.

"Please." he replied, lifting their joined hands slightly. "I am well aware how wild the speculation can be. Showing up disheveled would only encourage them.” Another quiet chuckle left him, softer this time. "And if anyone caught me in sleep clothes, every rival designer in Kalos would file a formal complaint on the spot."

For a heartbeat longer, he simply looked at her - sunlight catching at the edges of her features, laughter still lingering in the air between them. Then, with reluctant amusement, he inclined his head toward the bedroom.

He is right—she knows that. Claims of influence and mimicry that stems from existence alone, and an inability to care about making deliberate statements rooted in appearances. There would be, she argues, no better person in the region to know how one change in her style could bring about a much welcome or minorly hair-pulling shift in trends. And so she offers him a grin, a gentle squeeze of their hands. The lifting of the tops of cheeks towards warm and grey eyes that remain resting upon his features.

“It does give us time,” She says, “I think the last thing either of us need is any more stress than what is already waiting at work.”

Perhaps her unintentional shifts in fashion paradigms have not been too much of a headache, given how he looks at her. How she has remained for years a muse of his. How his store stands tall with his name in the face of boutiques full of exorbitant prices attached to lacklustre quality, rather than windows of vacant and distant memories.

“…Although, personally, I’d like to think that if you were to be caught in sleepwear, it would send all of the designers in the region into a panic. Afraid that maybe you had caught onto the start of a trend that they hadn’t noticed.”

There is a reluctance in the way that hands slip away from his, and yet no other moment seems the most opportune to—that could placate the cold that washes over fingers and palms, in the air that comes between them as Serena takes a step back. A glance tosses itself over her shoulder—to where the hallway rests, just as it had been this morning. As it had been last night, only more familiar. And with hesitance in the most minute details of movement does the heroine make her way back over to it, stopping only to look back to Adam.

sunset version <3

(sunset alt version below)

"Everyone's like 'I think Lysandre's still alive' this and 'I think I recognize the logo on the coffee truck baristas' aprons' that. Are Kalosians usually making weird conspiracy theories?"

"...It's no secret that, since the incident with Team Flare, the people of Kalos have become somewhat hypervigilant and even more distrustful of large corporations—or itching to be the next 'Hero of Kalos'—, but..."

A hand lifts to her lips, pressing against them, hiding behind fingers a line both tight and twitching.

"Well... How do I put this..."

Who is going to tell her.

Collection X Packaging (2013)

Artist: 5ban Graphics