A/N: So I wrote this a while ago, but I only just now got around to posting it. I haven't seen too many Burningleafshippers around, but I hope that they enjoy this little story!
"This can't be right…"
Leaf glanced around, trying to find something in her surroundings that would match the map she was holding. The only thing that looked even remotely like a landmark was the strange rock formation she stood next to, but it wasn't anywhere on her map.
She knew she'd started out the day on Route 119. She had spent the night in the Weather Institute, and planned to visit Fortree in the morning. It was late in afternoon now, and there was no sign of the treetop city. Leaf suspected it was somewhere behind her. Sighing, she put her map back in her bag and continued through the damp landscape.
It was kind of funny. Three weeks ago, she'd been sweating in the desert, and now she was in a forest, shivering a little as a light drizzle came down. Leaf rubbed her arms with the palms of her hands to get rid of the goosebumps that covered her, wishing she had a sweater with her.
The weather in Hoenn was so radically different from Kanto's. Back in Kanto, the temperature rarely went up or down more than a few degrees, except in the winter, and it was almost always sunny. In Hoenn, the day could start out in the low seventies and suddenly go all the way to the mid nineties by noon. Sometimes it looked like the sun would be out all day, and suddenly the sky would be full of clouds. The unpredictability made it hard to dress appropriately.
(Though to be honest, most of her clothes were skirts and sleeveless shirts...)
Leaf looked at the sky and sighed, coming to terms with the fact that she had no idea where she was, or which direction she should be going in.
Okay, so with that out of the way… pick a direction and follow it until you find something! She thought. She could tell by her faint shadow where the sun was above the clouds. Fortree was in the north, and Lilycove was in the east.
She closed her eyes for a few seconds, letting her instincts choose for her. East, something inside of her said. Go east.
Alright then, she was heading east. Leaf let her mind wander as she started in that direction. How long had she been in Hoenn? Almost three months. She would need a calendar to be sure, but she was sure it had been three months. In that time, she'd traveled across most of the western half of the main island. She'd really wanted to visit the littler islands on the eastern half recently, so maybe that was her reason for going east.
After a while, the smell of salty air hit her lungs. Salty air meant the ocean. She picked up the pace, hurrying towards the scent. And suddenly, there it was behind a bunch of trees. Huge and deep blue, it stretched out for miles ahead on either side. She checked her map again and saw that she was around Route 121. (Jeez, she'd bypassed Fortree City completely!) She looked around and saw that Hoenn's Safari Zone was just to her right. A little further ahead and she'd be in Lilycove.
So she wasn't lost anymore. That meant that she could take her time now. She walked right beside the seaside cliffs, a small rush going through her when she saw how high up she was. She was higher than the cliff back home in Pallet Town.
Back home… She thought, a pang of homesickness hitting her suddenly. It had been a long time since she'd thought of Pallet as her home. She'd always had wanderlust, even as a kid, but Pallet was the first place she'd ever thought of as where she belonged. She could lounge around beaches and stumble through snow, loiter in Pokémon Centers in cities she'd never even heard of for days, but she always left, and rarely missed those places. Right now, she honestly missed Pallet.
She missed her friends.
She hadn't seen them since she left the Indigo Plateau almost a year ago. Sure she sent them postcards from the places she visited, sometimes a long letter if she'd stayed in one place for a while, but she hadn't seen them in person. Hadn't even heard their voices, since Red rarely used his Pokegear, and Green was so busy running his new gym. She didn't mind though.
...At least that's what she told herself during the nights when the loneliness made her heart clench in her chest. She'd gotten so used to hearing someone else's breathing nearby, that the lack of it made her realize how alone she really was now.
But so what if she wasn't sharing a tent with Red anymore? It wasn't a big deal. She stopped walking and stared out into the ocean for a while, thinking about him.
Was he lonely up there in that mountain? Did he miss hearing her breathing at night the way she missed his? Did he even think about her at all...?
The thought that he might not hurt worse than the loneliness.
Just then she felt a buzzing at her hip. She looked down into her bag and saw that her Pokegear was ringing. It could still get a signal in Hoenn? Neat. She pulled it out and checked the caller ID.
Her heart nearly skipped a beat. The call was from Johto, specifically from Mt. Silver. It could only be one person. Heart racing, she pressed the call button and held it to her ear
"Hello?" Oh mew, her voice sounded so squeaky. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Hello?"
"Leaf?" Now her heart really skipped a beat. She knew that voice, could recognize it anywhere, even without hearing it for a year. She could feel herself smiling just by hearing her name coming from his mouth.
"Hey Red." She said. It was almost ridiculous, how suddenly happy she was now. Like if she'd been homesick just for his voice.
Like his voice was home.