HL: Puppy Problems (Part 1)

Downtown Raccolto was far busier than usual today...even for Annie, who was used to large crowds, was a bit stifled by the sheer amount of people packing themselves into the square. Was there any particular reason for all this commotion? She knew the Moon Festival was certainly creating a stir, but the more the Sceptile looked around the more she realized that she barely recognized any of these faces...there had to be a reason for that!

She was just leaving the nursery, carrying a cluster of succulents in a ceramic pot above her red head. She stuck out far above the crowd and was carefully making her way through the mass. The whole time, you could hear her say,

“...S’cuse me!...Sorry!...Whoops, my bad! Just gotta--get through here, sorry about your foot!”

Midas wasn’t so used to crowds, himself, but it was impertinent he brave the people of Raccolto today. After moving in only recently, he had found himself stuck in a not-so-structurally sound and not-so-dogproof house, and according to his notebook, if he didn’t fix the broken front door and find out where on earth the Electrike came in from, his things would have their share of teeth marks. Midas looked up from the notebook he was carrying and started scanning around for the shop he was looking for. He knew once he found it, he would have to write it down before he forgot where it was, but the problem faced him of… Well, where it was. There was, however, a pet shop nearby that Midas considered to be important given his recent Electrike problem. As he moved off to the side of the moving crowd to scribble in his notebook quickly (‘Pet shop for Electrike is next to the--’) he suddenly collided with another person carrying a ceramic pot above her head.

“M-my apologies miss!” he cried, accidentally dropping his pen, but keeping a firm grip on that notebook.

The sea of people continued to push Annie back and forth as she made her way through, her attention now divided between everyone she brushed up against. It was only a matter of time before--

Thud! The tall woman smacked into some poor soul full force. In an attempt to keep the pair from falling to the ground, she swiveled around the man, who was just a few inches shorter than her (a strangely nice change of pace). Unfortunately, Annie lost her grip on her new succulents, and the pot shattered on the ground. A twinge of embarrassment and disappointment rose up in the grass type,

“Aw man...well there goes 15 bucks…” she muttered to herself. But she turned back to Midas, shaking off her sullen gaze and giving the man a half-crooked smile,

“Naw, don’t worry about it, it’s alright. I really wasn’t paying attention,”

Annie’s smile began to brighten back up, and in her usual friendly manner, she decided to strike up some conversation,

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Are you new to Raccolto?”

The force of the collision knocked Midas off-balance, but the unmistakeable sound of the pot shattering stressed him enough to activate his Levitate ability and prevent a fall. Luckily, the crowd of people thinned because of the new mess and allowed, finally, some breathing room. He looked up at the taller woman and smiled apologetically, one hand out instinctively just to make sure she wasn’t about to fall from the crash. ‘Looks like I’ve never met her before.’

“Yes, I moved in just recently!” Midas replied, giving her a more sincere smile and tucking the notebook under his arm as he leant down to the mess, “I’m sorry about your plants, let me help you with that.”

After retrieving his pen, he began to pick up the broken pieces of pottery.

“I’m quite astonished at how many people are here in Raccolto, I never expected that many people to be living here, to be completely honest!” he said with a small smile, “I assume you’ve lived here a while now?”

Glancing up at the Sceptile, he tried to take in as many details as he could, just to remind himself that he started speaking with someone. Having such an abysmal memory, it was important that he did this.

Ah, good, whoever this was managed to stay...well, not standing anymore, but he was upright. Annie was a bit more focused on salvaging what specimens she could, and failed to notice his feet were no longer on the ground. She went on,

“Oh, good to hear! Hope you’re liking it so far in Raccolto. To be honest, you’ve come at one of the busiest times...I barely ever see it this crowded! And yeah, I’ve lived here for...2 years now, wow. Time sure flies!”

While Annie rambles on, she looks down at her scattered succulents. Almost none of them were salvageable, unfortunately...almost none. The grass type was lucky enough to spy one, still intact plant sitting upon a pile of soil. She had to think quickly if she wanted to save it. She turns back to Midas,

“Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. You don’t have to you know, I don’t wanna trouble you much!”

She began to scoop the dirt up around the lone survivor and searched around frantically for some kind of container she could use, or even just borrow…

“I wonder if someone wouldn’t mind lending me a cup…I bet I could save this little guy if I had one,”

Midas smiled at the new person, appreciating the new info. So it wasn’t usually this crowded? Hmm. He wondered why that could be. Nevertheless, that seemed to be unimportant right now, when he noticed just how few succulents seemed to survive the dramatic fall. Now he didn’t know much about plants like this woman did, but it seemed like their situation was not the best if he was to judge by the worried look on her face.

“Not at all, I’m partly at fault anyway, it’s no trouble to me, really!” he reassured her with a small smile, “A cup, you say? Hmm…”

Midas looked around as Annie did, but could see no reason as to why anyone would have a cup on them. He absent-mindedly felt his back pocket where his wallet was and considered something… Suddenly he was scribbling something down in his notebook quite hastily, making a point to take in Annie’s features as he did so.

“If you’ll wait here, miss, I’ll see what I can do.” he said, jolting up and jogging away through the crowd of people before the stranger could do or say anything.

A few moments passed, and Midas navigated back to where Annie was, reading his notebook again and carrying a tiny pot in his hands. After again consulting his notebook and scanning Annie’s features for confirmation, he approached her gingerly and offered the small empty pot to her.

“It’s not much, but… Here. You can salvage some of the soil, at least... I was at fault for this as well.”

This guy seemed like the kind of person who worked quickly, because the minute Annie made that suggestion, he was taking notes and back on his feet. He was already up and gone when the Sceptile finally thought she should introduce herself. Oh well, she could easily give him her name when he got back. What was he planning to do anyway? And why was he taking so many notes, and looking her over so many times? Annie hoped he wasn’t focusing on her burn...he didn’t say anything about it, so maybe it wasn’t the case.

Her mind drifted off as she began to break down the remains of the succulents and mix them into the soil. Maybe the nutrients from these fallen ones would keep the survivor alive.

When Annie’s new acquaintance returned, she was surprised to see him holding a new, ceramic pot in his hands,

“Oh, man, thank you! You didn’t have to do this, really!”

She accepted the pot and got to work quickly, scooping up the soil and crushed plants, and then, setting the last succulent gingerly into its new home. She made sure it was good and planted,

“It’s really kind of you to go do that...I gotta pay you back for this,”

That was Annie’s stubborn Alabaster blood talking. She never liked leaving a debt unpaid,

“...Oh! I meant to tell you, my name’s Annie! I gotta say it’s nice to meet you,”

She held out a dirt encrusted hand for a second, but immediately retracted to wipe the soil off on her overalls. She had a sheepish smile on her face when she extended her hand again.

Midas beamed at Annie and shook his head slightly, “It’s alright! No need to pay me back, I’m just happy I could help you out.”

Midas was glad that the Sceptile accepted his attempts to right the accident. He tended to overcompensate for his forgetfulness by being as kind and chivalrous as possible; that way, if he happened to forget the person, at least they would remember his kindness and not be too mad at him.

“A pleasure to meet you, miss Annie. My name is Midas.”

Midas chuckled a little at Annie’s dirty hand, but was otherwise nonplussed about the dirt she wiped off when he shook her hand for real. Once again, he took the time to scribble in his notebook, but this time it was his turn to smile sheepishly,

“I… hope you’ll forgive my odd behaviour. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, you see I have the most abysmal memory,” he scratched his head and started again to clean up the remaining dirt and pot pieces, “If I don’t write down what someone looks like, I forget them within minutes.”

He looked up to smile apologetically, unsure if his new acquaintance would believe him.

“I don’t mean to stare. Really.” he said, eyes lingering slightly over Annie’s burn, but snapping back to look her in the eyes normally. He hoped he came across as sincere.

“Midas...well okay then! Nice to formally meet you, Midas!”

She shook her hand with a vigor that could rival most strongmen. She could never control her strength when making introductions, but it was something she started becoming aware of recently. She listened intently as Midas explain the book and his situation. The Sceptile just shook her head,

“It’s alright, if that’s what you need to do then you go right ahead and do it,”

There was a sense of relief Annie felt when she realized that her burn wasn’t something the man was staring at just for the sake of it. If he had a bad memory, than a feature like that is a good way to remember someone. It almost made the grass type feel better about having it…

Anymore attempts Midas made at staring flew over Annie’s head. She chalked it up to keeping his memory up to date. She went on,

“Still, I feel like I owe you something…” She thought aloud as her eyes drifted up. With one arm around the potted plant, her free hand held her chin,

“Well, you said you were new to the islands...Hows about I show you around? Maybe a coffee will make up the cost for the planter? Or you know, whatever you like to drink is fine. Coffee makes me sick, so I drink tea instead. But you know different strokes, different folks!”

She stopped herself before ramble got out of hand.

Ouch, ouch let go let go!! Midas winced at Annie’s strong grip but shook it off as quickly as he could, “L-likewise!” he replied.

So far Annie seemed like a very amiable and understanding person, especially when Midas explained his situation to her. That was a first! Having someone believe him without having to be proven first! It was refreshing, to say the least. Midas breathed a sigh of relief as he smiled gratefully at Annie, getting up and putting the dirt in his hands into a nearby flowerbed. At least that would get some use out of the wasted soil.

He smirked at Annie’s suggestion, raising an eyebrow as he dusted his hands off,

“I can see you aren’t the type to leave favors be!” he chuckled slightly, continuing, “Though I suppose it would be nice to have a chat with someone who lives here. If I’m going to be living here, it wouldn’t hurt to know my way around...”

Whatever Midas was doing before he bumped into Annie, it probably wasn’t important. If there was a chance to make a new friend that… Well, that didn’t mind the fact that he would probably forget they existed once they moved out of eyeshot (or at least would expect that) then Midas was going to take that chance! He had ruined countless relationships already because of his memory, but now that there was an opportunity to start anew, maybe he could do it right this time.

“You know what? I think I’ll take you up on your offer! Ahaha, I’ll let you lead the way,” he grinned, gesturing with his hand. Today might be a good day!

Annie beamed; Midas hit the nail right on the head when it came to repaying favors. There was a small surge of pride in her voice when she said,

“You got that right! Couldn’t have said it better myself! “I know the town like the back of my hand, I’m sure a quick tour will really help in the long run,”

The seasoned resident took a second to survey her surroundings. The most concerning thing to the Sceptile was that the crowd was starting to grow again...but she had a plan of escape! There was a coffee shop just to their right,

“We could swing in over there and grab that drink to start! It’s a nice little place, doesn’t just serve coffee either,”

She took the lead, scratching her head as she lead Midas long,

“This is the main square, so there’s usually a lot of restaurants and craft stores here. I know Rosemary Ross works over there! She sells ceramics. And that up there is a bar! I haven’t been in there yet, but that’s subject to change I’m sure,”

She kept talking, pointing to every location and delivering a small blurb about the place. She was on a roll! For once, Annie felt like she had knowledge of something. She was helpful, she wasn’t the nuisance she thought she was being these past few weeks.

Midas chuckled, “I’m sure it would help, if I remember where everything is!”

He looked around as the people around them gathered once again, feeling quite happy that Annie’s height gave her a distinct advantage in terms of being able to find her in a crowd. He decided to stick near her anyway, hoping he wouldn’t need to use that. When Annie mentioned the cafe she knew, Midas nodded,

“Sounds like a plan!”

He listened intently as Annie pointed out various places, offering her insight and mentioning names of people she obviously knew. He tried his best to look interested and engaged, but knew that Annie’s attempts to show him around would be fruitless come tomorrow; he hadn’t bothered to write any of this down. Midas didn’t want to trouble his new acquaintance by getting them to stop as he made notes; after all, she was doing this out of her own time, and Midas could easily come by another day and study the Square himself. Not wanting to let Annie feel like she was speaking to a brick wall, he piped up,

“So, do you have any favourite spots? Anything in Raccolto you’d visit again and again?”

Oh yeah. Annie was going off, talking about this shop and that, without even thinking considering whether or not Midas would remember this. A lot of what she talked about was all fluff anyway, he didn’t have to take notes or anything,

“Oh, sorry, heh. I uh, I tend to ramble, if I go on for too long, you let me know, okay? Don’t feel like you’re offending me!”

Finally, Annie was out of the crowd and lead the way into the tiny coffee shop. It was older building, built with red bricks and tin ceilings. An equally tiny and equally aged Aipom woman was taking her much younger client’s orders and serving coffee at a surprisingly fast rate. Annie approached her without reservation,

“Hi there! I’d like a green tea to go please!”

The Sceptile had been in this shop many times before, and the old woman fulfilled her order as quickly as she got it. In the meantime, Annie turned back to Midas and kept talking,

“My favorite place? Well...in all of Raccolto? I’d have to say...there’s this one area, in the woods near where I live. There’s this huuuuuge cliff! And it’s covered in moss and vines. I like climbing it when I’m out…

Oh but, if you mean here, in town, I like the nursery. I was just there!” She looked down at her little succulent, “Spencer showed me the place and now I go there all the time,”

She took a minute to pay the woman for her tea, and then turned to Midas,

“Ah! Sorry, what would you like? I’m paying, and you can’t argue against it!”

She firmly insisted on this, in case Midas was planning on subverting her and paying without her knowledge.

Midas chuckled slightly at Annie, giving a reassuring smile as they reached their destination,

“Oh, hey! Don’t you worry about it. I don’t mind hearing you talk about Raccolto,” he started, grinning at her, “If anything it gives me some much needed reassurance that it will be a wonderful place to live in!”

This was true! Hearing Annie ramble on about all her favourite places and people she’d met, it really reassured him a great deal. Midas felt like he’d made the right choice, coming here.

At the namedrop of Spencer, Midas took on a bit of a blank expression. That name rung a bell, but why? Hmm.

Jolted out of his complacency, Annie had already ordered her green tea to go and was firmly solid on her stance of paying for his own drink. Midas raised an eyebrow,

“Well, I paid for this little pot, didn’t I?” he said, giving the ceramic pot a little flick of his finger; he joked, “I suppose I’ll let you pay for my drink.”

... If he could remember what he liked, this would have been easy. In the spirit of getting something to go (quickly, so they could move on), he turned to the Aipom woman and ordered a normal coffee with a smile.

After receiving his coffee, he gestured to outside where they could be out of the way of customers.

Midas glanced over at the Succulent with a curious expression on his face.

“How is our little succulent friend doing?”

Boy, this guy sure was polite! Here Annie was, derailing his day with a tiny plant and a tour, and he wasn’t peeved at all. Or at least, it seemed that way. Politeness had two sides: genuine kindness and interest, and formality for formality’s sake. Annie was well aware of them both, but she could never tell the difference…

But she settled on the former reason when Midas asked about the succulent,

“Oh! He’s doing pretty good!,”

Annie, in a rather precarious balancing act, held up the pot in front of her (you’d think she’d learn to be more careful) and examined the plant carefully...He wasn’t looking too bad at all,

“Succulents are pretty fragile but they can also be pretty sturdy, you know? And the extra nutrients he’s getting should help him pull through just fine. It’s a good thing you got him a new home, otherwise I’m pretty sure he’d be a goner,”

The minute she thought the two of them got a good enough look, she brought the plant down low, away from the danger of falling again,

“So again, thanks for that!”

For a minute she forgot all about the promised tour as her mind drifted to what she should name the little guy.

Midas nearly winced as Annie balanced the pot and her green tea, watching them intently as if that would stop them from overbalancing. It must of worked, because nothing went awry! Logic at its finest.

Of course, now that Midas was distracted from what they were previously doing, he too had forgotten all about the tour and was far more interested in Annie and her plant.

“Extra nutrients? Is there something in the soil?”

A nagging feeling persisted in the back of Midas’ head… Had he forgotten something again? There was only one plant, right? He’d bought Annie a new pot because… The first one broke. Right. There was a lot of dirt for one plant, but he didn’t know much about gardening anyway.

“You seem to know a lot about gardening!” he piped up, shaking the nagging feeling away. “Are you a gardener by trade?”

Annie had a puzzled look on her face, just for a second, before realizing that Midas that perhaps, he had already forgotten what happened, Could someone really have forgotten so quickly? She brushed off the confusion with another smile,

“Oh, yeah! They’re from the other plants that uh...weren’t so lucky,”

Maybe that would help jog his memory. Or not. At this point little things like that wouldn’t get in the way,

“I’m actually a farmer! But gardening kind of comes with the territory. I like plants!”

...Wow. Did she really just say something so obvious. Where was she going with this again? Where were THEY going? Annie lost all track of where she was walking too and just started leading Midas down the main road,

“So what do you do?”

“You had other plants, right, of course!” Midas suddenly smiled. He didn’t remember the other plants, but they must have been there. There was no reason for Annie to lie to him. “Sorry, I forgot.” he added.

As they walked, Midas thought about writing down this information in his notebook, but given he was holding a drink, he didn’t want to have two accidental drops today; just one was enough. Thankfully, that one helped him meet someone new, so it wasn’t all bad!

He glanced over at Annie again, and was suddenly not so surprised that she was a farmer; she looked incredibly fit, just the sort of person he would expect to be able to lift a giant pot of plants with no problem!

“That seems to suit you! I myself am, uh, attempting to organise a ranch. I’ve run into a few problems already, but, uh... “

Suddenly, Midas slowed his pace, appearing to be deep in thought, “This is a bit of an odd question and completely unrelated to what we are talking about, but… Do you know anything about Electrikes?” he asked. If Annie knew anything about this stray that had come to find Midas, then any information would be better than none.

Annie waved off the apology. She kept up her cheery demeanor, but she felt a twinge of empathy for the poor guy. Having a memory that bad probably wasn’t easy to deal with... But with that notebook and all, it seemed like he was aware of it,

“Thanks, heh! Guess I’m a grass type for a reason,

“But ranching huh? That sounds a little more exciting! What livestock do you raise?”

Before she could get an answer to that question, Midas slowed, and Annie slowed down with him,

“Electrikes huh? Aaahh, a little…” she tipped her head, and her eyes veered upward. She was more acquainted with stray cats personally, if the scratches on her arms and legs were any kind of testament...but she she wasn’t completely stumped,

“Well, they’re closer to canines, so naturally they’re more rambunctious...and they’re electric types. You’ll probably want to invest in some electrical tape! It’ll resist the little guy’s shocks. Oh, and it’d be good to just get some general pet supplies,”

…wait a minute

“OH! Hey, since I was taking you on a tour anyway, why don’t I show you to the pet shop? They’ve got some basic stuff you’ll need,”

Too bad Annie managed to lead Midas all the way across the town...they ended up by the ranch, all the way at the other end of where they would need to be.

Midas was really starting to like Annie! He found her cheerful disposition and optimism a welcome change to what he was used to. Not the mention the fact that she didn’t seem fussed at all about his memory problems. He made a mental note to remember her as much as he could. That being said, his mind was soon more occupied with the advice about Electrikes.

“Rambunctious, that’s for sure…” Midas mumbled to himself, face starting to twist into a not-so-pleased expression, “Electical tape, shocks, pet supplies? Will I have to cover the beehives in electrical tape too?!”

An electric-type pokemon! Fantastic! Just the thing you want when Combee are susceptible to electric attacks! This was starting to sound more and more horrible, if Midas wanted his ranch to survive. He hadn’t bought any pokemon for it yet, and already it was falling apart!

“I’m not sure… I mean, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the offer! It’s just…” Midas sighed, slowing to a stop. “This Electrike seems to be a stray. If it’s an electric-type, it’s going to upset my prospective combee if it stays.”

Midas brought a hand to his face in thought; “Perhaps it’s better if I don’t encourage it?”

He looked at Annie with a confused expression, clearly at a loss for what to do. He didn’t mention that he’d already fed it and seemed to resign his old couch for its bed.

Oops, maybe Annie shouldn’t have thrown all that at Midas at once.

“Ah, sorry, I thought he was your pet! A lot of people around here have Electrikes. Bees though, huh, that’s really cool! I don’t meet many bee ranchers,”

She put her hand back to her chin, looking down instead of up. She still didn’t know much about Electrike, and she new even less about bee pokemon...

“Well uh, I don’t think you’d have to cover the WHOLE hive, maybe just...the legs? Sorry, I don’t know much about bees. ‘Cept that they’re good for plants! And they make honey!”

She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly,

“If you’ve got a stray problem...some people drive them away with Nomel berries. They’re pretty poignant! Or you could scare ‘em off yourself but that could get dangerous...but hey, I’ve done my fair share of scaring pests away! I could do it!”

Now that she thought about it, she was hardly one to talk about strays. Her first pet, Duchess, was a stray who basically moved herself in and ate all her food. And rather than getting rid of the Glameow like she probably should’ve have, she kept caring for her. Now she was a beast of a Purugly who liked to bully her bird friends.

Midas’ hand slumped down to his side as he sighed.

“It’s… kind of my pet? I don’t know, maybe I can… train it somehow… to NOT destroy the beehives…”

All of this was sounding more and more ridiculous. If there was any answers to this, there might be some in that book of his! Midas delicately balanced his coffee in one hand and his notebook in the other, single-handedly flicking through the pages until he found what he was looking for;

“I wrote down… Here, there we go; the Electrike seems to have been living either in or around my property before I moved in, and… didn’t have a collar or microchip.” suddenly, he chuckled to himself, and read aloud; “...’Struggling to understand how this pokemon worked, I’ve dubbed it “Puzzle” and called it a day.’”

Well, that still didn’t answer any problems! Further page-turning seemed to reveal more and more of how comfortable the Electrike seemed to be in Midas’ house and in stealing his possessions. Midas let out a groan, but soon smiled apologetically at Annie, feeling like he’d complained too much for the day.

“Thanks for the offer. And the advice too… I can’t ask you to help out someone you just met,” he chuckled slightly, “...Unless you want me to pay you back somehow.”

Midas grinned at Annie and closed his book. A second opinion would be nice, but… he’d just met Annie and didn’t want to ask any favors of her; that might be rude. Still… His front door did seem to be slowly broken to splinters over the last few days from shocks and bite marks…

Annie tried to contain her smile, one born partially out of genuine amusement and partially out of sympathy. The tall woman leaned in, just over Midas’s shoulder and examined his notes,

“Heh, sounds like you’ve got the same problem I did. I had a stray basically move in when...well when I moved in!”

The thought of just how that once skinny, grumpy glameow became the beast she was today briefly crossed her mind. Maybe that was something she should keep to herself…

Annie’s smile widens a bit as she lets out a laugh,

“Hey now, don’t you worry about nothin’! If you need help, just let me know, okay?”

She smiled, taking a final sip of her tea.

Midas kept his groan to himself, but inwardly he was screaming. There was so much he had to do if he was going to make the family proud and look after bees with an Electrike bringing his house down oh dear

“Did you end up keeping your stray?” Midas asked, mentally reminding himself of all things repellant to electricity and electric attacks. He seemed a little distracted, but otherwise interested. If this woman (did her name start with an ‘A’..?) managed to get rid of her stray, maybe he could too.

Annie almost winced at that question. Oh gods, should he tell him about her nightmare cat when he seemed like he was already having some stray troubles? Maybe she could gloss over the fact that one of her oldest companions was a menace to society,

“Well uh...I actually did! She uh...she seemed pretty comfortable around my place, and she wasn’t really bothering me-”

At the time but let’s move on

“But, it’d be a different story if she were a nuisance! And there are always ways to keep strays like that away. I wouldn’t worry too much!”

She looked at him with earnest concern, she felt so bad for the guy! He seemed genuinely worried about this Elecktrike. And Annie could remember a time when she was new to Raccolto, how exciting but scary it was being on her own, and how friendly neighbors helped her plant her roots,

“I’ve got some extra Nomel berries, if you want me to come by your place I can dog-proof your house, easy-peasy!”

Midas snapped out of his reverie and looked over at Annie with uncertainty. She didn’t seem very convicted just now, maybe she was a bit too optimistic about her own situation? Looking up at the sky, Midas brushed a flyaway hair from his face and managed to smile.

“I might have to take you up on your offer! But another time perhaps… I think I… haven’t quite made the ranch guest-worthy yet.”

The claydol took a final sip of his coffee and glanced at the inside of his notebook (which he had bookmarked with his finger) before looking up at Annie with a genuine smile;

“Thanks for the tour, Annie! I have to get going now but it was lovely to meet you.”

He momentarily glanced at the small pot she was carrying, and added,

“I hope your plant does well! Please don’t drop it again, ahaha!”

It looks like Midas caught that less than convincing story. She could see it in his face. At least he wasn’t curious enough to pursue the subject.

“Oh well...okay then! It was no trouble at all, and I appreciate you giving me a hand! I’ll be much more careful, heh. You do what you gotta do, but if you need any help you can...uh well...maybe you could-”

Annie suddenly found herself with a strange problem. How could he reach her? Would he even remember her name by the time she was gone? There was no way he’d remember her address, and she felt like asking for his address, or even his number, seemed intrusive. But she didn’t particularly mind giving her number out. Could that work?

“...Here, wait, I want to give you my number, in case you need some help. Do you care if I write it down in your journal?”

Midas blinked. Give him her number…? That was pretty forward of her. Not that he would actually use it, calling a lady out of the blue would be rude! Still… If worst came to worst, he would need her help.

“Oh, o-of course! I don’t mind.” he stammered finally, flipping to the back of his book where a list of contacts were written neatly. He handed Annie his pen and his book for her to write it in.

“I hope I don’t have to call you, ha ha…” he joked, “Thank you all the same. I appreciate it, really!”

Once Annie jotted down her details he smiled at her gratefully, studying her features once more; he didn’t want to forget her face. This woman was so kind and positive, offering her help like this! He wanted to remember her when he left, but was unsure if he could do so.

“Well, I suppose I’ll be off… Take care!”

Annie, on the other hand, failed to even consider how forward she was being. She just figured it’d be good assurance for someone if they needed some help,

“Thanks, here, lemme just…” she placed the plant at her feet, knowing full-well she would need both her hands for this. The sceptile took the open book and hastily scribbled the following note:

445-030-2265

-Annie’s number. Call if you need help!

As quickly as she took it she handed it back, smiling,

“Hah, well, with any luck I’m sure this problem will clear itself up for you! But hey, now you’ve got some extra assurance,”

The tall woman bent down and picked up her succulent, and gave the man a polite wave,

“You take care too! It was nice meeting you, good luck with yer ranch!”

Annie soon disappeared into the crowd, her orange hair a vague streak in the distance. It was time to head home for the day…