Why I chose today of all days to take the night shift is still a mystery to me.
As far as I can tell, the party that has currently rented out Le Yeah is going to be drunk by midnight. Sure, I know that the guests are well known in their own regions (for one reason or another) but if that woman with the long brown hair doesn't stop downing shots, she's going to be swinging by the chandelier.
I sigh. Already, the party banner that says "Happy Birthday Green!" has fallen to the ground and our head chef can't keep up with the hor d'oeuvre orders that the guests keep asking him for. I would feel bad for him, but currently my hands are as tied as him.
"Another glass of champagne please! Your fizziest bottle!" I frown.
"Miss that's already your twentieth glass. Don't you think that you should…I don't know…slow down?" I ask, forgetting the "customer is always right" rule our manager drilled into our heads. The long brown haired woman squints at my nametag before answering.
"C'mon Célesta!" she whines, butchering my Kalosian name. "This is a party for my boyfriend! Can't I just have a little more?" She gives me a Lilipup face, pouting her bottom lip forward.
I'm torn between cracking open another bottle and giving the drink to her or telling her to take a seat and try to sober up by drinking coffee instead. Sure, it's my job as the bartender to serve drinks, but I don't trust giving this woman any more alcohol. Already she's swaying back and forth, as if listening to some song on the radio.
"Puh-lease?" she asks again, her words slurring. "I promise this will be the last Cela…Cell….Celele…." she says, her eyes suddenly dropping. Instantly, I jump over the counter and grab her before she hits the floor.
"You," I say, wrapping my arm around her waist for support. "Are coming with me."
Half helping, half dragging her, I wander through the messed up rooms that used to be Le Yeah before finding two men sitting at a table. Unlike the rest of the party guests (who are currently either drunk, dancing, or kissing) these two are sitting silent, watching the guests currently on the makeshift dance floor.
"Hey." I said, hoisting the drunken woman up. "Do you two know where Green is or even who Green is?" I ask, nudging the drunken woman's face off my shoulder so that the men could get a look at her. "I think his girlfriend here has to go home."
One of the men looks at me, and than at the woman I am holding up. Sighing, he gets up and places an arm around her.
"I'll take it from here." he says, glaring at the woman. "Sorry for bothering you."
I shake my head. "It's cool." I said, trying to ignore the smell of alcohol reeking from the woman. She groans a little before looking up at the man.
"Green…." the woman mumbles, giving the man a bright smile. "Happy birthday…"
I see a faint trail of a blush stain the man's (Green's) cheeks. Coughing embarrassedly, he swoops up the woman up bridal style before and walks towards the exit.
"Have a nice night!" I yell as I watch Green kick our front door open. Once the door closes though, I slump down into an empty chair and let out a sigh.
"J'ai mal à la tête!" I mutter to myself. "That's the last time I ever take the night shift."
"Sounds like you need a drink." a voice suddenly comments. I look up and see the other man who was sitting next to Green. Even though the room is dark, I can still make out the bright shade of red his hair is. I give him a half-hearted smile.
"Can't drink on the job." I said. "And anyway, I'm not a huge fan of getting drunk just for the fun of it." He nods as if understanding.
"Must be hard on you though," he said, "Working while all this is going on."
I shrug. "C'est la vie." I answer." At least the Champion isn't here. It would've been an even wilder event if she was…or he was." I could never remember who the Champion was in Kalos. All I knew was sometimes it was girl and sometimes it was a boy. Sometimes it was someone over the age of twenty, and other times it was a ten-year-old kid.
The red haired man looked surprised at my answer. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again.
"Yeah." he says when he finally chooses to answer. "At least the Champion isn't here." His voice tenses a bit, almost as if he's lying, but I brush it off as just me hearing things due to the loud party music blaring in the background.
Standing up, I stretch and look around. Le Yeah is pretty much trashed and, judging by the lack of food on the table and lack of waiters handing out hor d'ourves, I'm guessing that our head chef has just passed out due to sheer exhaustion.
"Hey." I turn around and see the red haired man standing up. "If you don't mind…. can we get out of here?"
I blink.
"Excuse me?" I ask. He ruffles his head nervously.
"It's just that…. I came here with Green and my sister and…they probably took off without me."
"The drunk one and that quiet guy?"
He nods.
"This whole party was her idea…. and my friends are back in my region so…. I don't really plan on sticking around anymore…."
I stare at him and I can feel myself frowning. Even though he didn't look like the type, I could never be quite sure about men in Kalos…even if they were vacationing from a different region.
"Sir," I said firmly, "If your looking for a one-night stand I am not the type who does that kind of thing."
Instantly a blush paints his cheeks. "N-no! No!" he yells, shaking his head violently. "I-I swear I wasn't looking for something like that!" It's almost as if a façade is broken because he instantly goes from "quiet and mysterious" to "blushing and innocent" in a mere matter of seconds.
"It's just that you look like you want to leave this place as much as I do so-" He rambles on for about a minute, his face getting redder and redder with each sentence. I'm tempted to laugh at his antics but instead I just hold up one of my hand, effectively cutting him off.
"Galettes." I said. He looks at me confused as I walk away towards to exit. Looking behind me, I ask,
"You coming or what?"
XXX
Manager's going to kill me.
No, she's going to murder me for ditching a party as large that.
But, I don't really care.
Red haired guy and me sit on a nearby bench as we silently chew the thin pastry of the Lumiose City Galette. I smile as the sweet brown sugar taste fills my mouth.
"You feel better now?" I ask, looking over at my companion. His face is no longer red, but throughout our entire walk to the stand he remained three feet behind me and kept looking at his feet.
"Y-yeah." he mutters. "I'm sorry about back-"
I wave it off. "It's cool. Really I should be the one apologizing for jumping to conclusions." I give him a small grin. "You get used to hearing words like that if you work in Lumiose long enough."
"Really?" he asked surprised. I nod.
"It's always 'Célesta let's go out!' or 'Célesta wanna hitch a ride back to my place?' or 'Célesta are you an angel cause I fell for you.'" I giggle remembering the last one. "I mean, I get that their drunk but still they could at least try to pronounce my Kalosian name right."
"Your Kalosian name?" he asks.
"Yeah." I said. "When I moved here everyone made fun of my real name so I had to get a Kalosian nickname." I look at him.
"My real name is Kotone."
XXX
Silver and I talked until dawn, sharing stories, laughing at jokes, maybe even flirting a little….
It was the most fun I had in Kalos in years.
My fun came to an end though when Silver's phone vibrated in his pocket, effectively cutting off our conversation. He pulled it out and looked at it.
"It's Green." he said, "Apparently he wants to know where I am." His eyes widened as he suddenly stared at something on his screen.
"42 missed calls?" he muttered. "Damn…." He looked back up and gave me a small smile. "I guess we just kind of lost track of time huh?"
"Yeah." I said, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. As much as I wanted to keep talking, my eyes wouldn't stay open. Twice during our conversation I almost fell asleep. Not because what Silver was saying was boring, but because I was just so tired.
"You should go home." Silver said, brushing a fallen lock of hair out of my face. "You had a long night and I definitely kept you up past your bedtime."
"Not a child Silver." I muttered. I couldn't help but smile though at the light touch of his hand.
"Sure." he said, standing up. He reached down to help me up and I graciously accepted his support. My hands lingered in his a second too long but neither of us seemed to care.
"Can I speak to you again?" I asked. "You know…before you leave?"
"I'm leaving tomorrow…Today I guess technically." Silver said, indicating to the rising orange sun in the distance.
"Oh…." I said sadly. Then,
"Can I get your number then?" I asked.
A surprised look came over Silver's face and for a split second I worry that he would say no. To my relief though, he smiles and tells me to take out my phone. I grinned up at him.
"You know." I said, typing in his contact info, "I'm really glad I took that night shift."
This time a full smile paints over Silver's lips.
"Yeah." he said, ruffling my hair affectionately. "Me too Kotone."
XXX
Yes, I did just write this. And I like it.
So, PokeSpec character Green's birthday is 11/22 and…..That's my birthday too! Yay!
Also, Kotone basically says "I have a headache" and "That's life" when she's speaking French. And did you know that when they released HeartGold/SoulSilver in France Kotone's name was Celeste? I know, I maid her French name her Kalos name! I'm a genius!
Well, I'm off to bed now! Tomorrow I wake up an 18 year old girl!