My friend requested this. Her name is Henesee, and she's awesome. Enjoy..... btw, no one's POV.
“Tch. Even with the rain, it’s not any less humid. Merda…”
He tugged at the collar of his long coat and felt the way it clung to the rest of him. As if in tune with this marshy place, his clothes were feeling unbearably sticky and the hot, muggy air seemed to weigh him down even more. If not that, then this pitiful drizzle certainly was.
Giovanni reached into his pocket and pulled out a Poketch, and found to his irritation a failed signal. Was it this gloomy weather or had he traversed higher up the slope than he had thought? ‘It’s getting too dark to try and find my way back to a path anyhow…Better to find some sort of shelter in this forsaken swamp and wait for the weather to clear,’ he thought to himself with a frown. And where was that going to be exactly…? With heavy ‘shlucking’ steps, the self-exiled man sought his way out of the muck in search of some drier routes. The rain dripped off the brim of his hat and once more Giovanni found himself alone with his thoughts. It felt like his days were beginning to blur together. Travelling, training, battling some no-nothing trainer, and all the while on the run from that infernal loud-mouth officer…not that it had been very hard. Even without his money, or his grunts, Giovanni could take care of himself; He was a resourceful man.
But the rain was making that sharp mind wander…
It had been over a year since Archer’s failure at the Goldenrod Radio Tower, although thinking back…Giovanni couldn’t quite remember when he had learned of it.
He could recall the dampness of the cave where the wailing static of a beaten down radio changed into clear cries for his return. He recalled the sudden light footsteps that interrupted his thoughts. Just as he had been so quick to decide to return to his throne, all it took was a child to dash those dreams. Just as it had been three years prior.
How could three years amount to nothing! Nothing when faced with mere children! Children who had yet to face the harsh realities of the world with, no doubt, coddling parents when his own mother...! How could their experiences, a fraction in comparison to his own life, trump all the strength he’d gain?
And how was it that two completely different children could carry the same look in their eyes as they faced down a man with such dirty hands? What was that look…
The sounds of a crackling fire snapped him out of his thoughts and Giovanni quickly chided himself for being so careless. He was standing before a shallow opening in a cliffside where It seemed someone else had already begun setting up camp for the evening. There was a small fire, a bed roll already laid out, a backpack…but the camper themself was nowhere in sight. Battling trainers was one thing, but any sort of extended interaction ran the risk of him getting recognized; He was a wanted criminal after all. Better to take his leave now before the camper retur—
“You’re…!”
Giovanni twisted towards the voice. His gaze fell upon a young trainer, perhaps in her early 20’s, who at first stared at him with wide eyes full of shock. Then all at once those same eyes narrowed into a look that he understood immediately.
Hate.
Unrelenting hate.
She had been carrying an umbrella but soon it had fallen to the wayside, and her hands clenched into shaking fists. Like a Houndour with their hackles raised, the trainer was glaring at him so fiercely that he might have thought someone had set her house on fire. “It’s actually you,” she growled out, “Of all places, you’re actually…Giovanni! You’re going to pay for what you did!” She made a motion to grab at one of the Pokeballs at her side and in turn so did Giovanni reach for his.
The rain poured heavily around them.
“Hmph, do you really think you can ‘make me pay’, as you put it?” he said, breaking their little showdown silence. Both of their hands still hovered over a Pokeball and were merely waiting for that one little push. “If even the International Police can’t keep up, what makes you think that you can lay a hand on me? You obviously know who I am—my organization. And yet you believe that you’ll make me pay for those crimes all on your lonesome?”
“I don’t care about that!”
Those words surprised him, and for just a moment that typical stern expression of his fell.
“I’m not talking about Team Rocket—my vendetta is with you! I want to make you pay for what you did to me!”
…What he did…to her? Giovanni looked over the girl. She were a small, little thing, compared to his own square frame. With a face still just slightly round, whereas his jawline was firm with years of experience. From where he stood, she seemed like any other ordinary trainer. Unremarkable and full of annoying naivety, although those eyes continued to glare with an unnerving amount of ferocity. But in the end, Giovanni was certain of it—she was just some stranger. “If it has nothing to do with my actions as the leader of Team Rocket, then I’ve no idea what you’re talking,” he spat out, “I don’t tend to go out of my way to cause whatever petty trouble you think I’ve done.”
That did it.
“Petty?! You…!” Forgoing the threat of a Pokemon battle entirely, she lunged at Giovanni and the impact sent him staggering back. It wasn’t as if they were particularly strong, it was just…surprising. “You ruined everything you bastard!” she shouted out as her assault on the ex-mob boss continued. “It’s all your fault!”
“Oy! Si matto…! I told you that I don’t kno—Stop already!” What a ridiculous sight this must have been. Him standing there with his arms raised, having to fend off some…some temper tantrum! As if getting stuck in some muggy march in the rain wasn’t irritating enough! He could feel his own anger starting to flare up inside him while there seemed to be no end to either the physical or verbal assault. With a grunt, Giovanni made a grab for her wrist and roughly wrenched her arm to the side. But just as he reached for the other, a fist went flying past and struck quick across his jaw.
“ENOUGH!”
With a heave he slammed the trainer back against stone and pulled until her arms were high above her head. His gloved hands almost circled around her thin wrists twice; It reminded them both just how small they were next to Giovanni. Then nocking his legs between hers, Giovanni made certain that this impetuous little firecracker was completely and utterly…trapped. Nothing else but the rock wall and his own body.
His hair, knocked loose from its usual hold, became wet with the rain but not a single drop that trickled down his neck was cooling that angry heat inside of him. Giovanni stared down at the trainer and watched at how heavily she was breathing. Each breath made her chest heave but she wouldn’t break away her gaze from his own—such a fiery…stupid person, he thought. So much so that he could feel the heat of her fury even through the rain and her clothes. And…as this distance, she must have felt how hot he had become too.
Too hot. Everything about this area was just too damn hot…!
Giovanni leaned forward, inching his face closer to hers. Was that her heartbeat he was hearing? “Do you hate me that much?” he whispered. His grim and gravelly voice came out as almost a steady growl…or perhaps more like a purr? Wait—what exactly was he…
“With…with all of my being,” came her breathy response, surprisingly soft compared to how she was shouting before. She hadn’t flinched when he came closer; instead, she craned her face up to meet him. “I hate you more than anything.”
