Time to keep moving.

The three of you finish bathing in silence after that, quietly pouring water on yourselves and scrubbing your bodies clean. Silver and Bugsy both catch you staring at them a few times, the former staring back blankly and the latter just smiling back. You catch them each staring at you as well a few times, and at each other. Eventually though, you are all as clean as you can get, so you get out of the creek and put your clothes back on, muddy as they are.

You and the girls gather up once you’re dressed, and Bugsy speaks up. “Well, that was a ton of fun! Thanks you two!” She smiles brightly at the two of you, like you’d all just seen a movie together or something. “You’re both headed to Pewter City, right? Silver, why don’t you go with Red, so you don’t get lost again?”

“I’ll be okay. Bye.” With that, Silver turns away from you and Bugsy and begins walking… southward.

“Uh, Silver?” You call after her. She turns her head to look back at you, but doesn’t say anything or stop walking. “You’re heading back to Viridian City like that. Pewter City is to the north.”

The redhead freezes in her tracks, then begins slowly backpedaling, walking backwards toward the two of you. When she finally arrives back at her original position, she asks “Can you guide me to Pewter?”, her cheeks very lightly tinged with pink.

You chuckle and pull out that last twig that was still in her hair. She can be cute, huh? “Sure, I downloaded a map before I came in here, so I should be able to get us through.” She nods, her blush quickly fading.

Bugsy, who is stifling her laughter, speaks again. “Well, good luck you two. Hopefully we see each other again sometime!”

“Oh, actually Bugsy, could I ask a favor?” You had thought of an idea earlier, during her and Silver’s battle, and now was your chance to try and get it to happen.

“Hm? What is it?” The purple-haired gym leader looks up at you curiously.

“Yesterday, I battled a group of bug catchers here in the forest. One of them, named Aiden, was actually really strong! He even won the Boulder Badge with only bug type!” You explain. “But he doesn’t seem motivated to keep earning badges, he just stays here in the forest with his buddies trying to beat trainers that pass through for money or sex.”

“Mhm?” Bugsy gestures for you to continue.

“I was just thinking that maybe if you talked to him, showed them your powerful bugs and how strong a bug specialist could be, it might help inspire him. Is that dumb?” You really do want to help the guy, he’s a good trainer!

Bugsy stares at you in surprise for a moment, then shakes her head, chuckling. “You really are a sweetheart, huh? Okay, I’ll see if I can find those guys. They’ll probably challenge me, so I’ll whoop ‘em with my bugs and show them how awesome they are!” She replies enthusiastically, liking the idea of showing off her speciality. “I have to get back to Azalea Town before too long, so I’ll need to hurry. Where were those guys?”

You show her on her map, which she had also downloaded, the area you had run into them. She then grabs her things, turning to the south as she begins to leave. “See you guys! Good luck getting to Pewter City! Byeee!”

You and Silver each wave goodbye to the petite girl, before she vanishes into the forest. Hopefully this does the trick, and Aiden gets his shit together. Now that it’s just the two of you, you turn toward Silver and smile.

“Should we get going? We spent a lot of time here, so we need to hurry if we want to reach Pewter before dark.” You say, and she simply nods in response.

You begin walking back the way you had originally come, finding the path again fairly easily. Thankfully you didn’t get lost after saying you were going to guide her. That would have been pretty embarrassing. Once back on the trail, you start heading north, the stoic redhead following close behind you.