A Heist for Young Lovers (Lay the Very Best - Chapter 406)

Brandy had tried to get more out of Morgan, but the Murkrow had just grabbed Brandy's hand and pulled her deeper into the casino. She was moving with such purpose that Brandy had to dig in her heels and tug back on Morgan's wing-arm, the feathers brushing across her knuckles as the Murkrow stumbled to a halt with a sharp squawk.

"We're doing it right now?" Brandy said, "You don't want to plan?"

"What?" Morgan looked at Brandy, clearly saw the worry in Brandy's eyes, and then, because she was Morgan, grinned at the trouble she'd caused. "No, I know it's the team's special move, but we can't just run in without a plan this time."

"I do love winging it," Sparky said as the others caught up, "Sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing."

"Liar," Calcine put her hands on Sparky's hips and pulled her back into a hug. Sparky squirmed in the gothed-up Carkol's grip until Calcine steadied her with a teasing graze of lips to the edge of her ear, sparking a shiver that buzzed down the Bug's spine. "You always know what you're up to; you just lie about it to avoid the responsibility."

"Caught." Sparky sighed, throwing her head back dramatically, "Punish me for it. I'm the worst."

"Later," Calcine growled. "Right now, Brandy's right. You need to slow down, Morgan, bring us in on everything."

"I'm all for you taking the lead on this gym," Brandy said, squeezing Morgan's hand and pulling her back a step towards the group. "If that's what you want, then you know we'll back you."

"Do I have to do a crime?" Dani said as she wrung her hands together, "I mean, peer pressure will work on me, but I don't want to do a crime!"

"We'll back you, but not if it's an actual crime." Brandy clarified. "Because we're all good girls."

Thankfully, Sparky's cackling was muffled by Calcine's thumb in her mouth. Morgan rolled her eyes at the Bug, but she did seem to relax, all that manic energy bleeding away as she held Brandy's hands tight.

"I do want to try to be a better team member."

"Because Calcine fucked you so good," Sparky said, her words punctuated by a gasp as Calcine rather firmly squeezed her chest as she gnawed on Sparky's ear.

"Because Calcine fucked me so good," Morgan said breezily, with only the slightest quiver of remembrance to her smirk. Didn't even try to deny it! Their date really had gone well. "Shoved her massive dick right into my deep well of emotional issues, and filled it up with hot, sticky love."

"Wasn't easy," Calcine said, voice muffled by Galvantula earflesh. "Had to grease thing up to help it sink in."

"Don't stop talking dirty." Sparky gasped, "This is awesome."

"You want me to flirt with your girlfriend while she treats you like a chew toy?" Morgan teased, fingers bleeding dark energy as she tapped her fingers to Sparky's throat and caressed her choker. "How did this not snap when you were throating that beast?"

"I took it off," Sparky panted. "You're right, I should have left it on, that'd be so hot."

"Hrm." Morgan rubbed her thumb under Sparky's chin, electrical sparks crackling off her fur as she practically vibrated between the two of them. "I want to explain things, can I still be in charge, Brandy?"

Sparky and Calcine seemed very happy with that arrangement right now, which just left Dani, who was drinking from a long, fluted glass.

"Dani? Where'd you get that?"

"That nice lady Delia gave me it on the way past." Dani said, "It's lemonade. I'm not getting tipsy again."

Brandy hadn't seen the hostess float past, but her partners had been distracting. Scanning the casino, Brandy couldn't pick out the hostess's glittering corset, which was a bit odd. Her Compound Eyes made her vision staggeringly good; she could pick out individual hairs on the drunk pack of Zigzagoon rolling dice. Someone as effortlessly stunning as Delia should have stuck out like a sore thumb. How much had she heard? Were they busted already?

"You good with Morgan being in charge, Dani?" Brandy asked, "And seen a spot for us to talk?"

"Oh, for sure! I'd love to see Morgan show off her clever schemes to me. Um, come on! I saw an empty table."

It hadn't been easy getting everyone moving, what with Calcine and Morgan pressing Sparky like a panini between each other, but Brandy was used to herding chaos.

She steered them across the casino floor, past glittering slot machines and noisy tables packed with people gambling with those silver tokens they'd been given, until she found what Dani must've spotted, a round table tucked into the crook of a velvet curtain, the lights low, and the space half-forgotten in the casino's buzz.

Dice and cards were still scattered across the felt surface, like the game had been abandoned in a hurry. A few silver chips were stacked haphazardly near an empty glass, and slumped in one of the deep chairs was a passed-out woman with white and black fur, dressed in a tiny sequined vest and pinstripe shorts, snoring faintly, a rolled-up note tucked into the corner of her mouth.

Brandy tilted her head. "She's fine, right?"

"She's snoozing hard," Dani confirmed, sipping her lemonade. "I've seen so many Pokémon passed out! Those sea ladies really worked us hard sometimes."

Calcine hauled herself into a seat and sat her beloved, wriggling toy in her lap. Morgan flopped into the chair beside Brandy with a dramatic sigh, wing drooped over Brandy and Calcine's shoulder.

"Go on, if Sparky gets Calcine's lap, Dani should have yours."

Sound logic, and well worth the delighted coo from the Magikarp as Brandy picked her up and settled her in her lap. Sipping her lemonade with both hands, she was trying to hide how much she was gushing over the small gesture.

Brandy exhaled slowly and helped smooth out Dani's pigtails and reset her tiny golden crown atop her head. The air was warm with neon heat and the distant jingle of machines, but here, in their little booth, it felt like they'd found the calm eye of a very horny storm.

"Okay," Brandy said, putting her arms around Dani's waist and locking eyes with Morgan. "We're all here. Talk us through it."

"You remember the gym's theme?" Morgan said,

"Make your own luck," Brandy nodded, "Which we tried to do with Super Luck, but it didn't work."

"I know Vivienne from back in Unova; we used to be in a gang together."

Dani gave a tiny gasp. "Criminals!"

"No, not criminals." Morgan flicked her free wing at Dani, tickling her with the feathers. "Murkrow like to make schemes, but we're not thieves. We're there to make life more exciting."

Morgan stopped tickling and scooped up a few playing cards from the table, shuffling them in one hand with deft flicks of the wrist. "Back in Unova, we form little gangs, and whoever has the best schemes leads everyone else. I was very good at it, and Vivienne was very good at stealing credit from me."

"That's shitty," Brandy said, "Why didn't she come up with her own ideas?"

"She did now and then, but she wasn't very good at it. Too complicated, or too much work. I pitched nice slick ideas, like seeing how many lipstick kisses we can sneak onto ladies, while Vivienne always wanted us to bust our tailfeathers for a payoff that wasn't worth it."

"And now she runs this gym", Calcine said between mouthfuls of Sparky. "Big change."

"Hrmmm." Morgan tugged at her hat. "I've got suspicions about that. But first, watch."

Morgan held out a hand with all grass leaf cards and one pink fairy heart. She tapped the pink heart, then shuffled the hand slowly. Brandy followed it with her Compound Eyes, never losing it for even a fraction of a second.

"Where's the heart?"

Brandy knew what her eyes were telling her, and what her heart was saying about Morgan. So she shrugged. "Wherever I don't point. You'll move it somehow, because you cheat."

"I do." Morgan grinned, flicking the cards over to show all grass leaves, and then rolling her hand over them to change them all to pink hearts. "Making my own luck. That's what this challenge is about."

"Cheating?" Brandy said, and from Morgan's thin smile, it was clear she hadn't kept the doubt out of her voice.

"Every gym teaches a lesson to the trainers." Morgan said, "Vivienne gave us a game we couldn't win, even though we cheated. She made it very clear that no matter what we do here, she won't give us a badge. We can't win. We're in a Casino, and every game here is rigged."

"So don't play by the rules at all?" Sparky said, fending off Calcine's bites by cramming half her fist into the Carkol's mouth. "Love the plan, but we don't even know where the Dark Badges are."

"We're playing by the rules," Morgan smiled, "Just the rules are about not following the rules. Vivenne was practically daring me to steal a badge."

"This is why Bug is better. Schemes make my head hurt." Sparky said, leaning back to rest her head against Calcine's. "Brandy make it all make sense."

"Dark is about instinct and desire, so we're going to rob a Casino because we want it that bad," Brandy said as she kneaded Dani's plush hips. "Make it easy for us, Morgan. What's the first step?"

"I'm going to scheme with these three", Morgan said and then pointed to a lively table on the casino floor. "You're going to recruit us some friends."

Brandy's eyes followed Morgan's pointing finger to a table where a tentacled shortstack with sharp teeth was raining silver tokens over a lanky fish lady who had her head fully stuffed in the impressive cleavage of one of the card dealers.

Nibbles and Chew. So that's where they'd got to. Well Brandy had wanted to talk to them, she might as well recruit them for a bit of hyjinx while she was at it.