Now that it was over, embarrassment was quickly sinking in. It wasn't that he didn't like Blue (really, a stubborn little seed of fondness had lodged itself in his heart right from the moment she had given that scrawny, snarling Charmeleon the first nice words he'd heard in years), but he was not Sienna, nor was he Blue's lab rat. Even that level of touch was a bit of a big deal to him; the impetuousness of scratching him just to see what would happen rankled that stubborn, overbearing sense of pride.

When he switched back to his human self, it was with a straight back and both his arms and his wings tightly folded. "Coulda just asked about it," Char told her, glancing away. "Green does that all the time."

Not actually true, and not actually the point his pride most wanted to make, but that was easily the most important lie to tell. He would not have Green misrepresented as anything other than the very best Charizard trainer, especially not to Blue.