You're My Inspiration

The Highway to Hellish Decision-making

"-And not to mention how slow that stupid line is! I just wanted my muffin! I hadn't had my muffin yet, Bianca!"

Bianca's lips curled into a smile as Latias complained about how slow people were in the city, carefully applying brush strokes to her canvas while the dragoness went off on a tangent.

Her friend had come back to the garden some time ago, disgruntled after her "mission" of fetching sweets for them, despite her brother's repeated attempts to refuse such delicacies.

Naturally, that ended much the same as it always did, with Latios choking on what appeared to be a scone before begrudgingly swallowing the desert.

Bianca had been far more receptive, and gratefully accepted her own pastry before Latias had launched into a tirade, pausing only to allow Bianca to fetch her supplies and easel.

"And they took so long that I didn't even get a chance to see if he's come back yet!" Her friend pouted as she crunched down on her second muffin.

Rolling her eyes with a snort, Bianca responded with an amused tone, "What, you think today will be different than any other? He hasn't been gone for that long, you know. Give the guy a chance to be with his friends."

"Five months! Five months, Bianca, plus some! Besides, we're his friends, too, right? Why wouldn't he want to come see us?"

"Gee, I dunno, maybe because he knew us for like...three days?" Bianca replied pointedly with a shake of her head, leaning back as she cast a critical eye over her work. "Besides," she continued, giving the canvas a small frown, "it's possible he forgot. Maybe that funny little Rotom thing didn't remind him."

Latias gasped, "Don't say that, that's awful! He'll come back, I'm sure of it!"

Bianca threw a sympathetic look to her friend, knowing that the dragoness missed the trainer and his high-energy antics. In the brief time Ash was here, he had proven to match Latias' energy as they played tag with Latios and Pikachu.

It amused her and Lorenzo to no end, and she could admit that a small part of her missed him, too. While he wasn't running around and making a fool of himself, he was a very eager listener, paying rapt attention as she told his tales of the twins' blunders, much to their dismay.

Apart from being a good conversationalist, it was actually nice having someone her age to talk to for more than a few minutes at a time without having to come up with an excuse to not hang out. Which wasn't to say that the twins were bad company, but the differences in species could sometimes lead to unfortunate misunderstandings.

"Although something tells me Ash would be dumb enough to do what Latios did," Bianca snorted to herself softly as she carefully applied her brush strokes.

"Hmm?" Latias inquired, prompting Bianca to shake her head and reply, "Nothing, just thinking is all."

"Oh? Does it hurt?"

Bianca gave a stink-eye over the snarky comment, electing not to grace her with a response. Instead, she stepped back from the easel once more, only to frown at it deeper.

"I feel like I've done this before," she muttered as she beheld her work. Technically speaking, it was fairly well done, and there wasn't a mistake to be made, yet. However, in terms of composition, it felt...dull.

No, that wasn't the right word. Boring? Somehow, that didn't quite fit either.

"What's wrong?" Latias asked as she glanced between her and the painting, looking concerned at Bianca's displeased face.

"I'm not sure, it's just-"

Before she could get her words out, there was a thump in the distance followed shortly after by a grunt of pain, sending both of them into high alert, Latias fading from view as her feathers bent the light around her.