"Angelica, you could be a professional stalker, you know."

Alice looks up from her C-Gear to see a tall blonde man bring a tray covered in foil over to the table Alice is sitting at. He isn't exactly muscular, and he's actually very skinny. Alice sighs inwardly as she's reminded some people have good metabolisms.

"Ah-hah, sorry Nicholas. How did you guess what I was doing? I was making an attempt to hide looking at my phone for once since I'm at the dinner table," Alice says guiltily, placing her C-Gear face face down on the table.

As much as she dislikes being that person who's always on their C-Gear, she can't help her own paranoia that if she misses a single second of research time she'll miss something important that'll lead to her being humiliated.

"You always do this sort of thing. You make a stupid decision to debate someone far more popular than yourself while you're mad, and then you research their life story until you can recite it better than they can," Nicholas says calmly as he unwraps the foil covering the tray to reveal what looks like toasted bread covered with asparagus and melted cheese.

"I'd like to say that, excuse you, good sir, I made a very intelligent decision to debate her. Someone needs to put her in her place. She is the literal embodiment of everything I've come to despise," Alice argues back.

"Oh, really now. I'm sure she's quite horrible," he says to taunt her as he walks back over to the connected kitchen to grab plates and utensils. Alice tries to get up to help him, but he waves her down.

"She's from money. She grew up with the only thing she had to worry about is whether or not she owns the latest fashion trends," Alice says as she recalls the files she received the day before. A friend she worked with at the public defenders' office sent them rather late, but that couldn't be helped. The whole transaction is rather illegal.

Not that anyone will get in trouble for it.

Ah, corruption at its finest.

"Yes, clearly nothing else. And I'm sure her immigrant parents from Johto didn't care about her grades at all or make her play three instruments perfectly, right?" the blonde says, placing a plate down in front of his seat and another in front of Alice.

"Her grades were shit, and she played the viola. The viola. Seriously, she's a violist," Alice says as she further recalls the information she was sent.

"Oh, yes, the viola. How atrocious," he jokes while he places forks and knives out.

"Yes. The viola. Do you know what the difference is between a violist and a prostitute is?" Alice says, digging up all the viola jokes she memorized in grade school.

"I can't say I do."

"The difference between a prostitute and a violist is that a prostitute at least knows more than two positions."

The man pauses his journey back to the kitchen and allows his ultramarine eyes to show amusement as he replies, "You remember that I played the piano and not a string instrument, right?"

"It has to do with where your fingers are on the fingerboard. It basically determines finger patterns and how high you can play and—. You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you? How about this one? What's the difference between a violist and a prostitute?"

"What?" 

"The prostitute has a better sense of rhythm."

"You should be glad Elize is with her grandparents for the weekend. Do you want anything to drink?" He says before going back to the kitchen.

"Literally anything carbonated is fine. And it's not like she'd understand what I'm saying if she were here. She'd just say, 'Daddy, what does Auntie mean? What's a prostitute?'" Alice with a smirk, placing her head on her hand.

"And I'd say Auntie Angelica is talking about a field that I don't want her to go into that could be helped by being legalized, taxed, and regulated, but she'd be only more confused. Tonic or regular sparkling?" he asks as he holds up two bottles of liquid.

"I don't have my glasses on, I'll take the tonic water if it's diet and the regular if it isn't. Right, why do you call me Angelica again? I'll never stop asking this question if you haven't noticed." 

"I met you as Angelica, and I'm calling you Angelica. I don't care about the rebranding you're trying to do; I'm calling you Angelica. Not to mention, Alice is such a white name. If you wanted to appeal more to locals, Kahea or something would be better. Also, of course, it's diet. I only ever buy this for when you come over," he answers as he opens the bottle Alice requested.

"Then I'm going to keep calling you Nicholas, you white boy. Your butt white skin gonna burn, why you still here?" Alice says as she devolves into a racist Johtoese accent to emulate a story she's been told by Nicholas several times.

"And look at me now. I'm naturally tanner than you," Nicholas says as he pours the water into a glass he grabbed from the cabinet while Alice was talking.

"That's because you don't wear sunscreen. By the way, wear sunscreen. That is unless you like the idea of wrinkles and skin cancer. Just be like me and get a fake tan instead!"

"I'd be scared to have that stuff on my face, thank you very much. I don't trust the Unovan FDA nearly as much as I do the Kalosan ANSM," Nicholas says as he places the glass of tonic water in front of Alice and a glass of flat water down for himself.

"Yeah, I don't actually even bother with my face. I just use a darker foundation," Alice says as she reaches for the toast on the tray.

"Well, clearly, I can't do that."

"Why not? I'd totally do your makeup every day if you needed me to," Alice laughs as she sees Nicholas look disgusted at the thought.

"I'm quite alright. I don't need even more people thinking I'm gay—"

"Wait, you mean you aren't gay? There's no way someone so submissive could ever have a Y chromosome and not be gay!"

The joke about his sexuality is just an ongoing gag joke. The man is probably just metrosexual, but this is one of those ongoing jokes that formed in college that can't be escaped from.

Not that he cares. If he did, he would have said something long ago.

"Shut up. You've made that joke enough since Elize was born," he complains as he rubs his eyes and reaches for a piece of toast.

"What joke?"

Nicholas groans.

"Oh, you mean that. The joke that I wasn't surprised that Elize was a girl because you're such a submissive bitch that all your sperm probably have X chromosomes?"

"Yes. That one," Nicholas mutters, clearly annoyed as he aggressively saws the toast with his knife. "If you can do half as good pissing off Sienna Abe as you can me, you'll be perfectly fine tomorrow."

Alice pauses after taking a bite out of the toast in her hands. "If I said half the shit I say to you in private in public, my career is ruined. I can barely get away with the fact I called her an avocado whore."

Nicholas uncontrollably laughs, and the piece of toast on his fork falls off. "I'm sorry, you called her an avocado whore?"

"Yes. I don't regret it either because half of her Snapshit or whatever it's called is just pictures of her eating avocado toast for breakfast. 'Hashtag blessed, hashtag rich food, hashtag healthy,' you know, all that crap young people do when they post food pictures."

"Snapgram, dear lord. I didn't think you were on there and stalking other people on it. Not to mention, can't she see you looking at her stuff?" Nicholas asks as he grabs a disposable napkin and offers Alice one as well. She declines as she kills the environment enough as is.

"I have an alt account for everything I might need to follow people on. Tweet Twet, Instachat, and even that platform nobody under thirty is using... I say as a person over thirty. It's LookBook or something."

"Wow, you're more paranoid than I thought you were, and I know you're really paranoid. That Uniting and Strengthening Alola Act proved it to me when you went on a tirade against it a few years ago."

"I think you mean the Uniting and Strengthening Alola by Providing Adequate Tools and Resources to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. As much as I hate the fact the government knows everything I'm doing, I have to say that the staffer who came up with that deserves a raise," Alice says as she makes sure she's saying the words in the correct order.

"Do you just have that memorized?"

"Why yes, I do, actually. This is what I spend my time doing," Alice says before taking a large bite of the asparagus toast.

"That and stalking other people by researching every aspect of their life," Nicholas jokes.

"Yes, speaking of which, I need more creative things for tomorrow's— wait, shit. Did I bring my curling iron?" Alice mutters to herself as she realizes the mistake she made.

"There's one in the back of our bathroom closet. She could never get it to work for her, but she never returned it because she knew you always forgot something whenever you came to Melemele for an event," Nicholas says in a seemingly abstract tone to an unaware person.

"Ah... I'm surprised. I figured she would have returned it to get the money back..."

Nicholas doesn't respond, instead choosing to pick at his food.

"Anyway, should I just take the couch tonight?" Alice awkwardly says as the playful mood dies.

"I can get the air mattress out, don't worry about it," Nicholas mutters.

"Alright. Thank you, then," Alice quietly responds. She's ready for a painfully silent remaining dinner.

Alice quietly munches on her food as she lets Nicholas be as quiet as he wants. It's a common courtesy. Six months isn't that long; he can't be blamed for his reaction.

"You know what they said when they called?" he randomly says.

Alice does know, but she won't say anything. The only thing she can do is listen to him talk.

"She saved ten other people. That sounds so painfully like her. She always cared about others over herself, and I loved her for her empathy. But... There's a disgustingly large part of me that wishes those people were dead instead of her."

Alice tenses as she realizes the rest of dinner is going to be more painful than she thought.

"There's a part of me that hates her for what she did. I can't help but wonder to myself every night if she didn't actually love me or Elize. And what's worse is that I can't get the goddamn thought out of my head that I should be glad she's gone if that's the case, and that the past ten years have been a waste of my life. Or maybe she... I'm sorry, you don't want to hear this, do you?"

Alice pauses as she registers his words. Nicholas had mentioned some of this before in his brief depressive moments, but not what he just said. No wonder he's still so touchy about the subject. Not that she can blame him, of course.

Alice lets out a breath while planning what to say. She begins slowly stating "I'm admittedly... Horrible... At giving emotional support, but I'll listen as long as you need me to. I can't say you should be blamed for feeling this way, and I know you can't help but feel horrible for thoughts you can't get out of your mind—"

"Well, no shit I feel awful! It's not even like you would know what I'm going through! You've been single your whole life, and you'll never have to deal with something like this!"

That hurt. There are very few things that Alice is self-conscious about, but of course, her best friend for the past fourteen years would know it.

She isn't good at emotional support. Why is she the person who has to deal with this? Alice is the person who always sat back and let other people fix the emotional distress of other individuals. She doesn't try interacting with people who need help because she knows it'll never go well.

All she can offer is reality, and that's not what people want to hear. What is she supposed to do? Alice can't just say nothing. She wants to leave really badly, but that will just leave him worse off.

"Yes, I would know nothing," Alice says as she allows herself one passive-aggressive response. "But this is my shitty attempt to help you. I don't like seeing you suffer, and I know Elize doesn't either. She talks to me whenever I babysit her, you know. She doesn't fully understand what happened to her mom, but she knows you're acting weird and that no attempt from her to cheer you up is working."

She hopes it's working. He doesn't say anything, but nothing is better than screaming.

"I don't want to be the crushing voice of reality when she was my friend too, but you're hurting Elize. I'll let you ruin yourself if that's what you want, but I won't let you drag a six-year-old down with you. You need to accept every thought you have. You're only human, and sure, you have thoughts you don't like, but they don't define you.

"What I'm trying to say, in the cruelest way possible, is to try to let go of her. There's nothing wrong with needing to get out emotions like you just did. You shouldn't be letting things fester in your mind until you can barely function due to thinking about them. Don't let it stop you from having a life. You had an outburst. Good. You should get out your feelings once in a while, but you need to accept the fact she's gone, Nick. You—."

"Don't call me Nick. I don't need any more reminders of that vile woman," he interrupts.

Alice can't truly tell what he's doing since he's covering his face with his hands. However, if she has to guess, she thinks he's probably crying.

In an attempt to apologize for calling him Nick, she reaches her hand out to his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. "I'm sorry. I—"

"Don't touch me."

Alice drops her hand back down.

She takes a breath and closes her eyes to try to calm herself.

She gives up.

Alice hears quiet padding from the kitchen, and she looks over to see Noé. The creature was likely brought downstairs by his master's stress. The lilac being locks eyes with Alice, and the two have a silent understanding. The fox-like creature pads over to his master and sits down next to him. The red jewel on his head glows as he attempts to read his owner's mind.

She can't deal with him for any longer.

"Thank you for dinner. I won't bother you for the rest of my time on this island," Alice quietly says as she gets up and pushes in her chair. She figures Noé can deal with Nicholas, so there's no reason for her to stay and make the situation worse.

Alice grabs her phone and turns it on to call a taxi for herself while she walks to the front door. She laces up her boots she left on the shoe rack and grabs her suitcase.

Alice is halfway through the door before Noé slides in front of her path. The meaning is clear. He thinks she shouldn't leave.

"Noé, he doesn't want me near him. You know him as well as I do! If there's one thing he likes that always cheers him up, it's physical contact. Clearly, I'm useless if I'm even ruining that," Alice says as Noé continues to block her path.

"I'm sorry, Noé. I can't help," Alice quietly says. The Espeon pauses. Noé mews before shuffling back inside.

"Don't worry about me. I'm sorry you had to witness that," Nicholas says as he emerges into Alice's view. "I'm just stressed from work, and Elize's grandparents aren't helping either. It was unfair of me to explode on you."

A look that can only be described as calculating appears on Alice's face as she allows herself to look at him. He certainly was crying at the table; she knows that much. As much she wants to run away to avoid emotional confrontations, the better part of her is forcing her to stay.

Alice slowly closes the door and sighs.

"You need to get out more. Make some new friends and hang out with more people, the works."

Nicholas smiles sadly as he says, "You know nobody here wants to talk to a white foreigner."

"Trust me, I know because I'm not helping your case with what I'm doing," Alice says, releasing her grip on her suitcase and goes to untie her shoes.

"Work is always on your mind, huh? Do you need any help preparing for tomorrow?"

"I'll... I won't say I'll be fine because I know I won't be. I just want to finish dinner, maybe mindlessly mess around online a bit, and go to bed," Alice says as she walks back to the dining room. As she's about to pass Nicholas, he makes a move to stop her.

He looks down at the much shorter female and smiles as a sort of apology before asking, "Is there a dessert or something you want? I obviously won't have it done tonight, but I can have something for tomorrow or the day after."

"Ahah, do you even have to ask? Chocolate cake is the reason I'll get diabetes."

"Yeah, I guess I should have known. Anyway—. Angelica?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you hugging me?"

"No reason," Alice says as she looks up from the chest of the taller man.

"You don't do anything for no reason," he replies in a tone almost suspicious.

Wow, is that really the impression she gives?

Alice sighs, readjusting her grip on his back before answering, "You still look like you need it."

Nicholas slowly hugs back as he says, "Maybe. Although, I'd prefer sitting on the couch instead of standing here for five minutes."

"Oh, so you would've preferred it if I forced you onto the couch against your will. Kinky," Alice says with a mildly sadistic smile while her dark brown eyes reflecting the same emotion.

"Oh, I would. I see nothing wrong with the occasional manhandle done to me by a strong and sexy woman."

"I don't know what's more laughable, the fact you like being pushed around, or that you just insinuated I'm strong and sexy," Alice responds while she can feel Nicholas shaking his head.

"Have more faith in yourself. She once told me after that debate you had with a radio host that you picking out his inaccuracies and hypocrisy was sexy as all hell," Nicholas says with a laugh.

"That's because you people are weird. I don't know anyone turned on by someone being made a fool."

"I just appreciate how natural you look while doing it. Anyway, you should finish dinner and come up with more arguments against this woman you seem to hate everything about," Nicholas says as he pats Alice's back for a few seconds before releasing himself from her embrace.

"Everything...That's an understatement," Alice grumbles.

"Really? You don't even like avocados?" Nicholas jokes as he begins to walk back to the dining room.

Nicholas stops as he hears complete silence from Alice. He turns around to see a severely unhappy look on her face.

"You have no idea how much I fucking hate avocados."