Pua’s Restaurant & Bar was a dive on the east outskirts of Hau’oli a few blocks back from the boardwalk. The outside was drab and in need of a fresh coat of paint, but Azophi wasn’t complaining. After six weeks without takoyaki, they were aching for some fried food that wasn’t a donut.

The inside was about what they’d expected from this type of establishment. Padded booths along one wall, little mica-topped tables arranged around the column the middle, and swivel-stool bar in the corner. The only thing that separated it from any Unovan diner was that there was a charcoal-fired grill manned by an aproned Magmar instead of a glass case full of pies. That and the bartender was an Oranguru who mixed the drinks with their hands, but slung the bottles and glasses around with their psychokinesis.

The trio took their seats at one of the booths and Azophi began to read over the menu printed on their paper placemat.

“I still can’t believe you won a Munchlax in the mall raffle!” Chirped Makani. “They’re so rare!”

“I don’t know,” Azophi muttered distractedly with far less enthusiasm. “There’s plenty of them in Johto and they seemed suspiciously happy to send him on his way.”

“Still powerful though,” said Hau. “You should see Mauna in action! We had to order all new strength panels just to get the data on her Mega Punch.”

A waitress came to take their order and Azophi asked for a fruity mixed drink to start. One of the big perks of this island was all of the fresh fruit, particularly berries. There were so many that Azophi had apparently never known the true flavor of until they moved here.

Makani ordered a pog—whatever the hell that was—and Hau asked for a kiawe honey porter. Azophi had never been a fan of beer, but the brews around here sounded interesting. Perhaps they’d ask Hau for a sip.

It didn’t take long for Azophi to get pleasantly buzzed, even as they powered through the impressive spread of classic Alolan fair on the table. Hau, meanwhile—now on his third beer—was decidedly tipsy. Obnoxiously cheerful starter-stealer or no, he was amusing when drunk. That was when all the good stories came out—the ones he was normally too polite to tell. The current anecdote was another of the professor’s near fatal mishaps in the lab. This time involving a Pinsir and the move Guillotine.

Hau leaned across the table towards Azophi, arms spread wide in a pantomime of the action he was describing. “And then just as the pincers close—” Hau stopped short, staring over Azophi’s shoulder at the bar, and his voice dropped to near inaudible. “Oh sweet Tapus it’s Lillie!”

“Eehhh?” That didn’t seem like a punchline. Azophi turned around in the booth and had to lean a bit to see around the pillar, but it was easy enough to pick out the object of Hau’s staring. There was a young woman in a white dress perched primly on one of bar stools at the far side of the establishment. “Is that the girl in Kukui’s lab?

“Yeah,” Makani answered. “I didn’t know she was coming out tonight. Did she text you?” He asked Hau.

Hau was already consulting his phone. “No. I wonder if she’s doing okay.”

These Worry Seeds. “Let’s call her over!”

Hau buried his face in hands and whined. “Noooo… It’s so much harder to pretend I don’t wanna kiss her when I’m drunk.”

Azophi arched an eyebrow at him. “So you do have a thing for her?” Azophi had more or less gleaned Hau had a huge crush on his fellow lab tech from the way he talked about her, but he’d refused to confess to it before now.

Hau snapped back up from his slump. “Yes! But keep it down, okay? She doesn’t know.”

“Why not just ask her out? What’s the big deal?”

“I can’t now. It would make things so awkward.”

Azophi snorted. “It doesn’t have to be. I don’t mind. You’re fine with it, right Makani?”

“Uhhh—”

“Not awkward like that! I mean—It’s just—Not after everything.”

Azophi sighed and gestured for him to spill. “Out with it.”

“I’ve liked her since we met, but she had been through a lot and she was still just getting used to everything. It didn’t seem like a good time to make a move.”

“Okay, I follow you. Good choice. Continue.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know it talking to her now, but when she first moved here she was kinda shy and really nervous. She spent all of her time hiding in the lab. It seemed like she needed a friend, so we became friends.”

“Mmhmm.” So drunk Hau was also a rambler apparently. Noted.

Makani was fiddling with his fingers on the table, staring off into the middle distance at nothing in particular. That was… something.

“And then we became good friends, like really good friends. I mean, we work together and we hang out all the time and she tells me her stuff and I tell her my stuff.”

“Yes, all of those friend things,” Azophi said dryly. Was he ever going to get to his point?

“But I’ve never actually told her that I like her.”

“So you’ve been into her all this time and never done anything about it?” Wow.

“I’ve tried!” Hau bleated in response to Azopi’s tone. “It just never worked out. Like this one time I was going to tell her with a song, but I got really nervous and…”

“Dragged me into it,” Makani finished for him.

“Yeah, so we performed it together.” Hau had the decency to sound embarrassed and contrite, but Azophi still slapped their forehead. “And when we got to the end I…”

“Wound up playing it off like it wasn’t a huge romantic gesture,” Makani summed up with a roll of his eyes.

Hau flinched.

Ah, so maybe it was war flashbacks? It was decidedly more pointed than the bothers’ usual jabs at each other. Whatever was going on, Azophi was getting too the bottom of it.

“And she bought that?”

“Yep,” said Hau in a tone of absolute defeat.

“She can be,” Makani paused a moment to choose his words carefully, “a bit oblivious sometimes. I don’t think she had many friends before she moved here.”

What were they going to do with these two? “So be direct. You’re just psyching yourself out. Go ask her out.” Hau whined even more pitifully than before. “Fine, I’ll go talk to her and then you’ll see there is nothing scary about it.”

“Azophi, no!” Hau called after them.

But they were already up and striding confidently towards the bar. This would be good. They’d have a little fun and prove Hau was a coward. Whenever he finally did ask her out, they could all have a laugh about it—or Azophi and Makani would anyway. They threw a wink back at Hau before tapping Lillie on the shoulder.

She turned to look at them and the opening of “Fat Bottomed Girls” started playing on the bar speakers. Nice. Her pupils dilated and her jaw slackened. Azophi grinned.

“Hi, my name is Azophi.”

“Hi,” she said back, as if from far away. Then she blinked owlishly a few times.

Right. She might not have remembered their name. “I’m Makani’s friend from Johto. You’re Lillie, right?”

“Yes!” There was a spark of recognition, and she cleared her throat. “Makani has been telling me about you for so long that it’s almost difficult to believe we're only just meeting!”

Nice. Good. “I’m glad we ran into each other. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Suddenly she looked a bit stricken. “O-oh?” Hau was right about the nerves.

“Only good things,” they assured her. “The Kāhilis can’t stop singing your praises.”

Her pale face flushed and she looked away. “Well, you know those two.” She waved airily. “They’re much too kind.”

Now that wouldn’t do. Azophi leaned against the bar to put themselves back in her field of vision. “But they didn’t even mention how pretty you are. All they did was tell me you’re lovely on the inside.”

Lillie’s blush deepened and the beginnings of a shy smile began to tug at her lips. “They didn’t mention you were so gorgeous either.”

Damn! Was Hau even trying? If he couldn’t flirt with this one, he was even more of a hopeless amateur than they thought. Azophi was gonna get along great with her. “Then they’re really not doing their jobs.” They leaned in. “We’ll have to give them an earful about sharing all important details when we see them.”

Lillie giggled. It was a charming one too—nervous but genuine and half stifled behind curled fingers. The picture was coming clearer.

“So I hear you work in Kukui’s lab?”

Lillie jolted minutely, breaking the eye contact Azophi had let linger. “Oh, yes, but I’m more of an assistant to the professor than a lab tech like Hau.”

“Not the way I hear it,” Azophi countered. “Seems there’s a betting pool on where you went to school.”

That brought an uncomfortable twist to her lip and her eyes resting on their shoulder. They needed to ease her somehow, this was a chat, not an interrogation. Azophi shifted their weight to nonchalantly cock their hip, further relaxing their posture. Lillie’s eyes followed the movement, running down Azophi’s outline for a second before returning to their face. She swallowed. Perfect.

“So, did you go to college or do you study physics for fun? I won’t tell.”

“I was homeschooled…” She paused and looked down at her drink, stirring the dregs absently. “My father who taught me was a physicist. The subject always came fairly naturally to me and it’s useful in the lab sometimes, so I do my best to study on my own. I’ve taken some online courses, but I don’t have a formal degree.”

Unusual sure, but nothing she needed to be so self-conscious about. “Why not just admit that you’re really bright on top of being beautiful and charming? Why all the coy disguises? You should own it.”

Lillie’s attention snapped back to them and she scanned their face—maybe looking for sarcasm she wasn’t going to find. Azophi may have worded that a bit playfully, but they meant it and met her gaze steadily for as long as it took for the message to go through. Her eyes were bright green, like sunlight through leaves rather than jewel-toned or muddled with brown. All those people who cooed and awed over Azophi’s gray ones back in Johto should hop a plane over here to see some real variation.

Lillie flushed again, this time all the way to the tips of her ears. “You’re really great! Can we go out sometime?” She half shouted out of nowhere.

What? Wait, what?? They had definitely heard that wrong. There was no way that—

Lillie stood up abruptly. “I really put you on the spot. That wasn’t mannerly of me. Why not give me your answer when I return from the ladies’ room? I'm a bit shocked at my own boldness, so I’m going to go hyperventilate in a stall.” Then she bolted.

Oh. Oh no. Azophi had not misheard. (They filed that last bit away for later, when they weren’t having a crisis.) Their big mouth had gotten them into plenty of trouble before, but this current predicament was new and had a lot more twists than they would have liked. They had to go back to the Kāhilis. There was no other way for them to even begin solving this. Besides, they would have seen her run off.