Free of Shoka's teasing, Kono was happy to get changed into his swimsuit. He was glad the purplenette wasn't coming, but then again, she probably thought he'd be trying to spend a different kind of alone time with the whitenette. He leaned against the wall near the pool, looking down at his bare feet, how everything revolved around steam for the Prince was beyond this one, there was so much more to Arceia than her looks. He was excited to see her, being alone with her even made him a little nervous, but he blamed Shoka for that.

He started thinking about swimming, her form was a little stiff, maybe he could help her with that. They could do some exercises to help with that, he'd never been this nervous about seeing her before. Last time it was always energetic excitement, maybe it was because he hadn't seen her since she'd told him she needed time to think about dating. Maybe today he'd get an answer, maybe today she'd say no.


...Or maybe she'd say yes! He thought of the heart emoji and smiled, yeah! What if she was going to say yes? He assumed a winning pose and smiled, she would definitely say yes! And then she'd be the most fantastic swimmer this side of the Hill. The door opened, and Kono stepped away, puffed up and ready to greet her with a grin, his white swimsuit accenting his lithe form.


"Yo Cei-chan!" She smiled, but wait, something looked off about her expression, Kono tried to act like he didn't notice, but the truth was he did and concern reflected on his face. "You okay?" 

This was where she had to face the music. She had her answer, and she wanted to say it so badly, but she couldn't. She had to find some way of communicating. Something that wouldn't be so informal that she would be texting all the time. Maybe she could carry a notebook around with her a lot?

Still... The answer was clear. She had given it so much thought and she wanted to make sure there was no doubt in her mind first. Nami was someone she felt attached to. Attached unlike any other. She inspired Arceia to dream bigger and try harder. There was no doubt left when she realized his intentions were as he said, and not clouded by starstruck dreams.

So how to communicate that?

Her natural response upon being greeted was to try and respond, but trying to do so resulted in some light coughing, so she returned the greeting with a bow instead and tried to think of a way to pass this off. Immediately, and begrudgingly, she pulled her phone out again.

"Lost my voice. Sorry." she typed out in a notepad app. Instead of sending the text, which would be dumb, she just held her phone out.

The message was not directly a lie, but usually when people lose their voices it's due to a cold or sore throat. This might not come back at all, and if it did, it would be a long time. She wasn't dressed for swimming at all, as she hadn't really come from that far away and she wasn't in her room. That was fine, she thought, as long as she could buy time to fill Kono in on everything.

Without entirely meaning to, he touched her shoulder to comfort her, which turned into touching a lock of hair hanging over it and smoothing his fingers down the tendrils till they slipped free.

"Too bad, you'll get it back though non?" She winked but then observed the rest of her outfit. No swimsuit? Could it be maybe....She wasn't here to swim? Maybe....Maybe she just wanted to see...him? He found himself biting his lip and it might have looked like he was thinking something weird.

"So, no swimsuit eh? Want to talk?" He said as casually as he could muster. It made him even more nervous, was she gonna turn him down? Was this the moment?

That was the question, indeed. Would it come back? She had no way of knowing. She assumed no, and that was probably because of the way she was feeling about everything. She had to really think about what she could do if not for this - Swimming was it. Her real passion in life was taken from her, so was she relying on a fallback passion? That is how it felt. Quickly she typed out another message, one that she had difficulty bringing herself to show him, but she managed it anyway.

"I don't know if it's coming back. Is that okay?"

She was seeking his approval because she had found herself really wanting to say yes. But that was just it - she wanted to SAY yes, not type it out or write it or some nonsense. She needed to say it - it was wrong to do this any other way. Still, if that was true, she may never get the chance... And that was unacceptable. Thankfully he spoke up, bringing her from her deep thought. Talk? What an unfortunate choice of words. She cringed a bit at the word, but nodded and typed something out again.

"I hope you don't mind if I don't say much." she typed out jokingly, trying to poke fun at herself in hopes that comments about talking wouldn't affect her as much as they just had.