With Seren lingering at the park, Jason had several additional encounters with the blue-haired Professor's assistant—specifically when he crashed and burned.
"Here..." said Seren, gliding over to Jason as he was taking a break, lying atop an off-white park bench with a bunch of holes that prevented it from absorbing too much heat from the sun.
Opening his eyes and turning his head, Jason found Seren presenting him with a water bottle. As such, he reluctantly sat up, accepted it with a curt, "Thanks..." and flipped up the nozzle. As he did, Seren sat next to him, her slender, sun-kissed body glossy from sweat, and her cheeks flushed from nearly two hours of skating around and showing off.
Noticing that Seren was staring at him rather intently as he drank the cool electrolyte solution within the orange and grey bottle, Jason turned to her with raised brows and asked, "What's up?"
"If we're going to have sex, then we're already boyfriend and girlfriend, right?" asked Seren, leaving Jason at a brief loss for words. She wasn't wrong, per se, but he was confused about why she was asking.
"I've never kissed anyone before..." revealed Seren, her distinctive blue-yellow eyes boring into Jason as she stared at him unblinkingly.
"Then...do you want to...?" asked Jason, his throat tightening slightly even though he had just wet it. In response, Seren didn't speak. Instead, while continuing to hold his gaze, she gently bumped him with her left shoulder.
Interpreting Seren's behavior as an affirmation, Jason searched her face for a moment before tentatively reaching up to comb back the bangs that framed the right side of her sweat-beaded face. Then, leaning around and twisting his head and upper body, he planted a tentative, lingering kiss on her lips. He wasn't certain how far she wanted to take things, but when he felt her lips part and her tongue extend, he readily engaged it—leading to a slow, smacking series of kisses.
"Touch me like you did Maeve..." muttered Seren, briefly separating from Jason's lips to speak.
"That's not the kind of thing you do in public..." countered Jason, briefly evading Seren's lips and tongue to respond.
"This isn't public...it's a private, closed beach..." reminded Seren, her tone matter-of-fact. Jason wanted to refute this, but as it wasn't uncommon to see women sunbathing naked atop towels, just as Korrina used to, Seren's assertion wasn't wrong.
"Just a bit..." conceded Jason, his left hand coming to rest on Seren's left thigh, prompting her to lean back and spread her legs. Jason was hesitant to do so, but as they resumed making out, he eventually slipped his hand between her extertion-warmed thighs and touched her through the fabric of her denim shorts.
"Maeve wasn't lying..." noted Seren, leaving Jason confused until she flatly appended, "It feels much better when you touch me than when I touch myself..."
"It's the same as tickling yourself...it's not impossible, but when someone else tickles you, your body is more sensitive from anticipation..." explained Jason, believing that Seren's background as a Professor's Assistant would make her appreciate a proper explanation.
"I see..." muttered Seren, using the fingers of her right hand to undo the brass button keeping her shorts closed. Before things could progress any further, however, Jason smiled, shook his head, and expressed, "This may be a private beach, but these types of things are best left to the bedroom. If you really can't wait..."
Seeing Jason turn his head and glance in the direction of a cube-shaped, sand-colored building with two doorless entrances—the skate park's and beach's public restroom—Seren nodded affirmingly, stood up, and pulled on his right hand. Her behavior left Jason feeling at a loss, but instead of insisting they wait, he got up and allowed her to pull him to the men's side of the restroom. This reminded him of how Korrina would happily pull him along, but once they got inside the restroom, his thoughts and focus were entirely on Seren...
...
..
.
[Seventy-three minutes later]
Emerging from the restroom sweatier than when they had entered, Jason felt compelled to ask, "Should I still expect you to spend the night, or has your curiosity been sated?"
"For the time being..." responded Seren, nodding. The way her left hand moved to and caressed her abdomen filled Jason with a strange tension, but he recovered quickly, averted his eyes to glance in the direction of the obstacle course, and asked, "Should I walk you back?"
Shaking her head, Seren calmly responded, "I'll be fine. You should pick up Ren and retrieve your subspace orb. I'll contact Professor Burnet and let her know I'll no longer be spending the night..."
"Alright, then...I guess I'll see you when I see you..." muttered Jason, turning to meet Seren's gaze as he spoke. She immediately understood the reason for his doing so, so with a faint smile, she moved toward him, stood on the very tips of her toes, and exchanged one final kiss with him before they parted ways—he for the obstacle course and she for the tiny research lab she shared with Bianca. The duo's principal fields of research were the relationships between people and Pokémon and how their bonds influenced their growth. This primarily involved conducting regular check-ups on all the Pokémon Jason came into contact with, leaving them with a fair amount of free time. As such, as Jason briefly lingered to glance back at the departing Seren over his right shoulder, he expected that he would be seeing her a lot from then on...
...
..
.
After reuniting with Ren and Audino and retrieving his subspace from the researchers, Jason returned to Ellaine's place for lunch. Along the way, he passed by a trio of tanned Aether Foundation personnel tanning toplessly on the beach. But as it wasn't uncommon to see them tanning completely in the buff, he politely refused their offer to apply a fresh batch of tanning oil to their bodies and continued on his way.
kacha
"We're back...!" Jason called out, his voice loud but not quite a shout as he entered through the front door of Ellaine's refurbished home.
"Rena~!"
Running past Jason's legs, Ren made a beeline for the bath while Audino routinely made her way toward the kitchen. At the same time, Wicke, who had been lounging on the sofa, watching TV and eating chips, rose to her feet and turned to face him with a smile, already wearing her form-fitting battle attire.
"Welcome back~" Wicke greeted, turning her head in the direction of the hallway, where Lillie emerged with her incubator in her arms and a bright smile.
"Lunch has been finished for quite a while now. Once you and Ren have finished tidying yourselves, we'll eat it together," stated Lillie, setting her incubator on the kitchen counter before approaching Jason to welcome him with a kiss. Wicke wasn't far behind her, obligating Jason to kiss her as well before he expressed, "Sorry for returning so late...we shouldn't be too long in the bath..."
"Take all the time you need~" chimed Lillie, briefly entering the kitchen before returning with a glass of iced lemonade for Jason to quench his thirst. As he did, Wicke, observing his condition, questioned, "Should we take a break for today? You're looking more worn than usual."
Since it was only a matter of time before the entire research team knew, Jason shook his head and revealed, "Seren managed to tempt me into an unplanned tryst. I had wanted to wait until this evening, but even without saying much, she can be...persistent..."
"Does that mean she'll no longer be spending the night...?" asked Lillie, extending her hands to accept Jason's emptied glass. Jason was briefly tempted to ask how she knew Seren was planning to stay the night, but he already knew the answer. The research team had a group chat that he was also a member of, but since he allowed his Rotom to basically do as it pleased, he very rarely saw what was typed in it.
"That seems to be the case," affirmed Jason, nodding. That said, he was looking forward to spending the evening relaxing before Wicke suddenly proposed, "Then, shall I spend the night instead? I know we just had sex yesterday afternoon, but it feels better each time we do."
Sparring Jason the need to consider his resopnse, Lillie rather abruptly chimed, "Hmph! That's quite enough of that! Jason is clearly fatigued, so we should allow him to rest properly!"
Blinking in surprise, Wicke, posing with her arms crossed, was tempted to point out that Lillie was the person who exhausted Jason's stamina more than anyone else. But since Lillie was ultimately the daughter of her boss, she restrained herself, looked to Jason, and said, "Some other time, then," with an expectant gleam in her yellow-green eyes.
"Definitely..." affirmed Jason, offering a slow, affirming nod before giving both women kisses and leaving them to chat amongst themselves. By the time he reached the bath, Ren was already naked, waiting impatiently for him atop her Riolu-sized wooden bath stool. It took him nearly an hour to thoroughly clean the sand from her fur, but since her contentment would soften the blow of learning their afternoon battle had been cancelled, he dutifully lathered and cleaned even the spaces between her toes...
...
..
.
In place of their afternoon battling, Jason sat with Ren in the living room with Lillie, Wicke, and Audino observing as he attempted to teach her how to speak. Pokémon in the human-like egg group had a nearly human vocal range, so by investing AP into her Intelligence, Jason was hoping that Ren would be able to speak fluently without the use of telepathy.
"A-Ay...B-Bee...Shi-Shi-Shi..." intonated Ren, seated atop Jason's lap with him holding open a children's alphabet book. She struggled with receding letters like c, d, and e, but letters that flowed outward or from contracting the throat came out smoothly.
"How about this? Can you read this...?" asked Jason, unfolding a piece of paper with his name written on it.
"J-Ja-Jay...a-a-ay...so-o-o...e-en...Jaysoen...!" exclaimed Ren, perking up as she recognized that the word was Jason's name. Upon realizing that, she happily wiggled her body and swayed her head, repeating, "Jaysoen, Jaysoen, Jaysoen~!" as if it were her new favorite word.
"Try to remove the o...here...repeat after me..." said Jason, holding Ren still, prompting her to tilt her head back and look up at him as he slowly intonated, "Jaaaay..."
"Jaaaay..." repeated Ren.
"Son..." punctuated Jason.
"Sonn," repeated Ren, extending the n a bit.
"Jaaaason..." hummed Jason, unable to keep a smile from his face as Ren, with a look of supreme focus, repeated, "Jaaaasonnn...". She still placed a little too much emphasis on the n, but it was undeniably progress.
"Now try saying it all at once," said Jason.
"Jasonn," recited Ren, her red eyes lighting up as she began repeating, "Jasonn, Jasonn, Jasonn~" in a happy, sing-song tone. Afterward, Jason gave her a tiny cube of savory, gravy-covered meat to reinforce that she was doing well before getting her to try Lillie's, Wicke's, Audino's, and, of course, her own name. Lillie's came out like Lee-Lou and Lee-Lee, Wicke's came out like Weakee, and Audino's came out like Auwadinou, but she got her own after just two tries. From that day on, Jason knew he would have to deal with her calling his name incessantly, but that was a small price to pay to see her taking an interest in learning, not just training and battling...
[The Wanderer of Myriad Realms nods in approval and gifts you 1,000 AP for your efforts.]
[The Rabbit Who Meanders Between Mountains gifts you 1,000 AP and encourages you to keep working hard.]
[The Great Sage Who Peeks Under Skirts rolls its eyes but flicks 1,000 AP your way.]
[The Dragon Who Slumbers Beside a Hearth sponsors you 10,000 AP and encourages you to get some much-deserved rest.]
Though he was surprised to see a 10,000 AP donation roll in, Jason just nodded at the scrolling chat interface to his right and returned his focus to Ren's lessons. He was somewhat reluctant when Lillie suggested that he broadcast the lesson, but seeing how many people supported him, he felt encouraged to broadcast similar scenes in the future...
...
..
.