For Her Hand

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Trevor! get back here!" a dripping wet Shauna shouted as she chased after the ginger culprit who had dunked her under the water, with Tierno's help of course.

"Run Trevor!" Tierno laughed as his friend attempted to get away from his pursuer.

As Trevor ran along the water's edge, darting around a child's sandcastle, he tripped over at toy that was left in the sand and was immediately pounced upon by Shauna, putting him face down in the dirt.

"Gotcha ya little stinker!" Shauna grinned, sitting on his back so he couldn't get up.

"Ack! okay, okay!" Trevor cried out, prompting laughter from a few onlookers.

"You guys are a lively bunch aren't you?" Korrina laughed, looking over at Seth who was on his towel, his legs crossed and eyes closed.

Beside Seth was the little Carbink that they had met in the caves. It seemed that Jacquelene and her cohorts had only managed to take the ones in the cages, leaving the one under Seth's care to its own devices. Pawniard and the rest of Seth's team busied themselves with playing in the sand, while those that didn't mind the water, ran along its edge. Hearing Korrina's comment, Seth smiled.

"I do travel with quite an interesting crowd, don't I?" Seth replied, his eyes opening to see the spectacle that was Shauna tickling Trevor. The swordsman rolled his eyes.

He wondered when the ginger would gain the courage to tell Shauna how he felt. Shifting his gaze slightly, he saw Tierno and Serena dancing to the music playing on Tierno's holocaster. After the stressful events in the caves, it made sense to lose yourself in something that worked off the stress.

"You're quite interesting yourself, Seth. It's not every day you meet someone who can use aura, or have their aura be strong enough to be felt all the way from the Tower of Mastery," Korrina added with a slight laugh.

Seth shrugged. "Lucario are known for their heightened senses. Finding me is like a walk in the park for them."

"True, but even I could feel it once we got closer. For the past month, he's been picking up on your aura signature and honestly I was wondering if we'd ever find it," Korrina informed him.

"So he was keeping tabs on me then?" Seth ventured, earning a nervous laugh from the Gym Leader.

"Well, I wouldn't say that, but... sorta? Lucario obsesses over strong opponents. Quite frankly, so do I. Honestly, the only reason we went looking in the first place was because he felt how close you were and decided that he'd had enough waiting. So... we decided to seek you out ourselves," Korrina replied.

"And that's when you came upon the five of us, fighting for our lives," Seth added, glancing at his friends as Serena and Shauna attempted to wrestle Tierno.

It wasn't going very well.

"Hey Seth! give us a hand here will ya!?" Serena laughed as she stood up after being tossed into the water.

Seth shook his head and stood up. "I suppose I should get in the water. I'm starting to bake over here anyway."

"I'll join you then. Maybe you and I could have a little one on one?" Korrina inquired hopefully.

"You're gonna keep asking me aren't you?" Seth responded, giving her a knowning look.

"Hey, when you have an itch, it needs to be scratched right? well I have one. A big one. So let me scratch it dammit," she pouted.

Seth rolled his eyes and smiled at her eagerness.

"Alright, we'll spar. Thanks to your Lucario's Heal Pulse, my hands feel much better," Seth replied, making his way out to the water where his friends were still wrestling.