Welcome to Gaia! ::

The earlier outing with Claire had dragged up all sorts of memories he'd never had the intention to dwell upon, and of course Lucas found himself dwelling upon them. He'd seated himself in a quiet hallway across from a series of windows, the same location he had chosen to practice his guitar some time in the past. This evening, though, the man had with him no guitar, no sheet music, and no pokemon listening at his side. He had only himself, his elbows on his knees and his back to the wall with one hand loosely holding onto his glasses and the other draped across his face. The distinct grimace he wore on his lips was proof that he didn't expect to be found.

"Wha--" He started, straightening his posture and raising his glasses to his face. "Oh, uh... I guess I do, huh?" He grinned, or attempted to, at least. He succeeded in making his mouth smile, but no amount of effort could force his eyes to do the same. "I wound up here by chance, but... Guess it just seemed like a nice place to relax." A slight gesture of his hand indicated the window, through which one could observe the dim gold disc of the sun sinking below the horizon. "Call me an idiot, but I kinda like watching the sun set."

As she moved to seat herself, Lucas moved to rise, immediately turning from Claire and making motions towards leaving. "Ah, I should probably be going. I'll see you around." Company was not particularly high on his list of wants at the moment.

The hand seizing his wrist was completely unexpected, and Lucas turned back to her with an expression that could only be called complete and utter surprise. "Ah..." He reached up with his free hand to rub at the back of his neck, his typical nervous habit. "Well, okay..." He couldn't very well brush her off after giving her that whole speech about chivalry earlier the same day. Somewhat reluctantly, he returned to his seat. "What's on your mind?"

"Ah, no, actually..." In fact he remembered so little that he really had convinced himself he had been dreaming. He had resigned the explanation as a standard lapse in memory, but the timing was so random that it didn't seem to fit...

He listened as she spoke, increasingly concerned the more she said. Her change in expression startled him, and he instinctive moved his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer. Under any other circumstances he wouldn't have dared to lay an unwarranted hand on a coworker, but 'coworker' had currently taken second place against 'girl,' and damned if he was about to let a girl cry on his watch.

"Don't force yourself." There wasn't a single word in the world that he needed to hear at the expense of a girl's tears.

Lucas shook his head, a smile drawing up the corners of his mouth. "Don't worry about it. Any other guy would have done the same." Well, she did seem rather confused about the whole guy code of honor he had explained earlier, so he could sort of imagine why it would seem so strange...

"Wha--?" Between her body language and every other hint he just realized she had dropped, a picture began to form. And though it was dim and blurry, Lucas could already tell he didn't like it one bit. But wait, no, there was always the chance that he had jumped to some conclusion. "What do you-- I mean..." He stared intently forward, brow furrowed. Damn it, what was the tactful way to ask this sort of thing...

He had a distinct sinking feeling, and he pressed his palm against his forehead as if to better absorb the information. What could he even say to that...?

The cold feeling that had washed over him turned frigid as his blood veritably turned to ice in his veins. "Wait-- This was..." He lowered his voice. "Not in Galactic." He phrased it as a statement rather than a question. That was impossible. Completely impossible. He'd been an elite in Galactic while Claire was there.