Hide-and-Seek

Go to Dragonspiral Tower. I will… I'll search for that Trainer I battled two years ago. And… I plan to say thank you.

And there is also a Trainer I want to tell how I feel…

You… remind me of that Trainer. Now that I think about it, we both rode this Ferris wheel, too. Making dreams come true is hard… I wonder if we will meet again…

"Rosa. Rosa." Tap, tap, tap. "Rosa!"

I lifted my head from my desk, rubbing the fog out of my eyes. When my vision cleared, Hugh's annoyed face materialized in front of me, and I sighed. He wasn't quite the person I expected to see sitting in front of me, even if this had been the last place I was in my consciousness. Still, it was kind of a shock when I expected someone else.

"You've been zoning out a lot lately," Hugh accused as I stretched my arms over my head. I shot him a look, and he narrowed his eyes. "You have. Every time I come over to check up on you, I find you either spaced out at your desk or asleep. What have you done since we stopped Team Plasma? Have you even been out of your room?"

"Of course I have! For your information, I have been shopping quite a bit lately." I stood up, gesturing to a pile of bags near my bed. When Hugh rolled his eyes, I walked towards my door and held it open. "If you're here to insult me, then you can leave. You didn't have to come over, and you didn't have to wake me up."

Hugh didn't move, just smirked instead. "Why? Having a nice dream about a guy?"

I gaped at him for a moment, unable to even deny it, and Hugh's smirk weakened into a frown. My lip trembled as I tried to come up with an excuse, but one never came. I had been thinking about a certain green-haired man ever since I last saw him, replaying our final conversations over and over in my head. But it was only in my sleep that I remembered that he went to go find someone else, that he wasn't looking for me now.

"Ugh, man, gross!" Hugh yelled, deciding that now was the best time to leave. I blocked his path, still trying to come up with some sort of explanation as he attempted to sidestep. "I was joking, Rosa! You could have at least come up with a lie."

"It wasn't like that!" I grabbed his shoulders to stop him from getting around me, and he pulled himself away, dropping down onto my bed. I watched him tiredly as he put his face in his hands. Why did he have to come here now? "I've just been thinking about N a lot lately, and I—"

"Yuck! That freaky guy with the long hair? I did not need to know that you've been having dreams about him." Hugh stood back up from my bed, walking towards me with his finger pointed in my face. "Are you in love with that guy? You don't even know him. He helped you once—he saved you once. You don't know anything about him."

I wasn't in love with him. Well, probably not. Hugh was right: I didn't know anything about N. I knew that he respected and admired Pokémon. I knew that he could communicate with them in a way that I could never hope to understand. I knew that he had once been Champion, but that was only because Cheren told me. I knew that Ghetsis had taken him in as his son for the sole purpose of running Team Plasma. But that was it. I didn't know much more than that.

Oh, wait. I knew one more thing: N was in love with Hilda, the trainer to whom he referred so often. My dreams never let me forget that fact. He loved her, not me—the only reason he tolerated me at all was probably because I reminded him of her. And when he slept at night, I was sure it was her face he saw, not mine.

But…

"I told you, it's not like that," I repeated, and Hugh lowered his finger from my face. "I just… I'm worried about him. He told me that he was going to go find someone, and I… am just concerned that he's going to be with her instead of me." I slid down against the wall, pulling at my hair as I hit the ground. "Shoot. What am I supposed to do? I've never been in love before—and certainly not with someone who is in love with someone else."

"You can't be in love with someone you don't even know," Hugh said quietly, and I looked up at him. "I have to go."

He stood up, walking towards the door in preparation to leave for real this time, and I didn't block his path this time. I leaned my head against the wall, holding my hand out towards him as he started to pass me by. He paused, looking down at me with a rare smile. He had been my best friend for a long time, but even I didn't get one of those smiles very often.

"Hugh. Why'd you wake me up?" I asked.

The smile didn't falter, although his eyes were dull. "Because you looked sad."

And with that, he left. I could hear the door slam downstairs, my mom calling out to him to thank him for stopping by, but I doubted he heard it. I pushed myself back to my feet, hurrying over to my window and watching him pass by on the ground below. He disappeared out of view, and I pressed my hand against the glass as if calling him back. It didn't work.

"Damn it," I muttered, grabbing my jacket from the chair I had fallen asleep in and throwing it on. Maybe I always knew that I was going to go find N, just like he went to go find Hilda. But I hadn't expected that Hugh would be the one to act as the catalyst for this. Did I really look so sad when I slept?

"I'm heading off, Mom," I called as I bounded down the stairs, taking them so quickly that I nearly fell when I hit the ground floor. She jumped up from the couch, as though surprised to see that I was up and about. Had it been that long since I went out? I was so sure that I had just been shopping not too long ago.

"Where are you going?" she asked as I grabbed my bag from the coat rack next to the door, throwing it over my shoulder.

"To find N."

I ran out the front door, throwing a Poké Ball into the air and jumping onto my Archeops's back as it erupted from the confined space. I caught the red and white sphere as we shot up into the sky, holding it tight in my grip as the world below moved farther and farther away. It was only when we leveled out that I stuck it back in my bag, pulling out my PokéGear to look at the numbers.

Everyone and their mothers had given me their contact information, but the only number I didn't have was N's. Of course.

I slid the PokéGear shut with a cry of frustration, shoving it back into the bag hung over my shoulder. This was a whim, I realized, but I should have planned something like this. Why did I just leave like that? Shouldn't I have thought this through a little bit more, did some research to actually find N?

No, it was Hugh who made me leave. His words.

Words. You… remind me of that Trainer. Now that I think about it, we both rode this Ferris wheel, too. Making dreams come true is hard… I wonder if we will meet again… That was what N told me the last time I ever saw him—at the wheel in Nimbasa. Was it a hint? Something he wanted me to know in case I ever went looking for him, too?

There was no guarantee that he even found Hilda, and there was certainly a pretty good chance that he wouldn't be at the Ferris wheel. I just had a feeling that maybe his words were more than what they seemed, that maybe it was a double entendre meant for me. And if it was meant for me, did that mean that I was meant for him?

It was like one big game of hide-and-seek. I would search endlessly for him, just like he would search endlessly for her.

"To Nimbasa," I whispered to my Archeops, hugging my arms around it. I leaned my head on its back, its coarse feathers rubbing against my cheeks. The cool air whipped my hair around me, strands falling out of my buns and lashing around. None of this hurt, though—the feathers, the wind nipping against my skin. The only thing that hurt was the knowledge that I was about to walk into something that could only disappoint me.

No wonder I looked sad when I slept.

On that day two years ago, a certain Trainer and Alder taught me something...

I put my beliefs on the line and battled a certain Trainer! And I lost... But at the same time, I learned something important. To make the world better, you must accept different ideas.

This sure takes me back...

Archeops hit the ground, and I jolted up off its back. When Archeops cried out at me, I smiled weakly at it, before sending it back into its Poké Ball. Here I was, trying to find the guy who sought freedom for Pokémon, and I kept all of mine in these little containers. I squeezed the red and white ball in my hand, the tips of my fingers turning white.

My hair had completely fallen out of the buns, my visor long gone, and my face stung from the wind. I could see my reflection in one of the many windows surrounding me in the city buildings—I resembled a wild child, a frenzied and frantic girl on a mission. Maybe that description was actually more accurate than I wanted to admit. Out on a whim and made wild by the search.

"You go hide," I breathed. "I'll count to a hundred and come find you."

One, two, skip a few.

I took the first step, entering the amusement park and staring at the Ferris wheel on the other end of the park. Even from here, I could see the paint chipping off the giant wheel, bands of red rust looping around the carts. And when I got close enough, I noticed the sign in front of the loading dock, blocking it off from the rest of the world.

"No," I muttered, running a hand across the sign. "I was so sure…"

"Bummed about the Ferris wheel, huh? It closed really recently. The park wants to tear it down, but a lot of people just want to see it renovated."

I spun around, a girl with long brunette hair standing there with a wide smile on her face, as if this was some funny coincidence. Her eyes flashed from me to the Ferris wheel, her hat shielding her eyes from the sun. There was something in her eyes, a brightness that I almost recognized. And when her gaze met mine again, I realized that I used to look like that.

"You're not… you're not Hilda, are you? Champion Hilda?" I asked, and her smile didn't even falter for a second. She simply moved one of her hands to her hips, holding the other out towards me.

"Sure am." When I didn't grab her hand, she lowered it, the smile finally weakening. "Hold on. I think I know you, too. I might've seen you on television before… or maybe a movie? No, wait… you're Champion Rosa, aren't you?" She gaped at me, her eyes as bright as ever. "You know N! He's told me so much about you. I can't thank you enough for stopping Ghetsis while I was away. If I had known…"

My heart skipped a beat at the mention of N. "So, he found you? N found you?"

Hilda held her hand out again, this time flashing me the top of it. A jewel flashed in the sunlight, the band of silver around her ring finger glittering. I stared at it, something vile rising in my throat, and I swallowed to keep it from coming up. That… didn't even make sense. I knew N. I knew the type of person he was…

"He saved me," she corrected, dropping her hand back to her side. "I left to travel the world, but while I was out there… I started to wonder if I would never be anything more than the girl I was at the time I left. I was just some Pokémon trainer whose skills had met their maximum. When I was out there, I just felt more and more lost. But then N came out of nowhere, and… well, he brought be back to my senses."

Even though the ring was out of my line of sight now, I couldn't stop staring in its direction. "And you're…"

"Getting married," Hilda finished for me. She beamed, so genuinely happy. "I know, I was shocked. He doesn't really seem like the marrying type, does he? I'll admit, I was the one who picked out the ring, and it was sort of a mutual proposal. Still… it'll be good for both of us. We haven't decided on a date yet, but you'll be getting a Save the Date soon, I'm sure."

I wanted to hate her, to challenge her to a battle out of pure spite, but I couldn't. She was nice—so nice, and N deserved her. I knew all along that he loved her, anyway. It was never me, and it was wrong of me to chase down a man who I knew loved someone else. I didn't know why I came here in the first place.

"Well, congratulations," I whispered, swallowing and blinking tears away from my eyes. I turned away so she wouldn't see, curling my hands into fists. "I wish you both the best."

Hilda tapped my shoulder, and I hesitated. "I'm sure he'd like to see you," she said, and I clenched my teeth. That was a bad idea. "He just went to talk to the park director about the wheel. We want to have the wedding here, but if it's closed, we won't be able to. I've been trying to get him to do a lot of the communication. It actually reminds me that he's still a regular guy—you know, after what he's been through?"

"I don't think—"

"Oh, look!"

"Rosa?"

My heart stopped this time, completely skipping a beat, and I closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to see him. But when I opened my eyes, there he was, as clear as day. It was no illusion. His eyes, his hair, all of it. And when he walked closer to me, a soft smile on his lips, I wanted to run. Because my feelings were real, too.

"Congratulations," I said, brushing past him, feeling the electric shock of his skin—formulas express the forces behind electricity, its connection to Pokémon, and humans and Pokémon themselves—and heading straight for the exit. And if he came after me, which I suspected he did not and would not, I was already gone. Back up on my Archeops's back and up in the sky again.

I really did know all along. All of the things that he said, the words that he told me in my sleep every night, were always about Hilda. It was a warning that I chose to ignore, and I had no right to be upset about this. As I flew back home, I convinced myself that the tears were the result of the stinging wind hitting my face.

It would take time to get past this even though it was something that I knew was coming. The cure to a broken heart… what was it?

But that can't be proved with numbers. It's the incompleteness theorem...

I wanted him out of my head. It hurt. My stomach felt sick, my heart bruised. Hugh was right, too. He warned me. He told me that I couldn't be in love with someone I didn't know, and I shouldn't have been. But in the end, it hurt the same. I shouldn't have gone to Nimbasa, bothered my Pokémon with the flight when I was there for two minutes.

When I landed, I didn't go back to my house. I wandered around my town, trying to think of what I should do. I wouldn't be like Hilda—I was done being like her. I wouldn't retreat into myself, pull away from everyone, like she did. I wouldn't need to be found. No longer would I be the girl who reminded everyone of her. I wasn't her shadow.

I knocked on Hugh's door, standing quietly as I waited for him to answer it. When the door shot open, there he was, his dark hair poking out in every direction. His eyes searched me for a moment, glancing me up and down, and he nodded. Without words, he understood what occurred. And he opened the door wider.

"Rosa…"

"I left right after you did because you made me angry—I didn't want to look sad. And I kind of felt that I needed to prove to you and to me that this was okay, that it was normal to want to be with him. Turns out I wasn't worried about his safety after all because I would have gone to find him long before this. I was worried about me." I spoke quickly and quietly, no inflection in my tone. Yet Hugh's eyes widened with every word, as though there would be some amazing conclusion at the end. "I went to find him, Hugh. He's engaged."

Hugh fell against the frame of his door, leaning his head against it with a sigh. "That asshole," he said, rubbing a hand over his face.

"No. He deserves to be with her. She's nice… and they know each other."

Hugh lowered his hand from his face as I said this, staring at me. I couldn't fight the tears that were coming, and as soon as one slipped down my cheek, the rest poured out of me. I whimpered, a sad child who never got what she wanted.

"Hugh, have… have you ever been in love with someone who… didn't love you back?" I managed to squeak, unable to see him through the water veil of my tears. But he must have risen from the door, since in a moment his arms were around me, my head pressed against his chest with his hand. And I sobbed loudly into it, latching onto the folds of fabric of his shirt.

"Come on," he replied, ignoring my question, although I knew the answer already through his actions. "I'll make you some tea."

He put his arm around my shoulders, allowing me to continue to hold onto him as he led me into his home. I pulled my face away from his shirt, staring up at my dark-haired friend. It was true that this hurt. That was something universally true—the pain of a broken heart was unmatched. How many people had died because of it?

But things would get easier. Every second that passed, it would get easier. And as Hugh brought me into his arms, into his home, I felt the weight of my heart beginning to lessen. He was the one who had seen me so sad. Did he know the cure to a broken heart if he had once been subject to unrequited love?

I wanted to feel again, but for now, I just wanted to sit with Hugh, drink tea, and move on. And on another day, I would play hide-and-seek all over again.

Ninety-nine, one hundred.

Author's Note: All right, this is the least happy Valentine's Day story I have ever written, haha. Like, this might be cruel. But oh well. Singles Awareness Day FTW!

I actually think this might have been paced too fast, but let me know what you think. In any case, I tried to make it subtly obvious that his unrequited love was for Rosa, and I think there is hope for them in the future. But for this day, Rosa is a hot mess and Hugh is the friendzoned guy who has to help her—not that it's an obligation or anything. He just wants to protect the girl he loves. That was why he called N an asshole. Because he thought N had hurt her. So, yep.

Anyway, happy early Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day! Eat lots of chocolate!