Pandorashipping - Dawn x Saturn I've no idea where this idea came from but since I think it turned out rather okay I can as well post it because there aren't many DawnSaturn out there. I hope you're enjoying this! It's kinda fun writing about unusual couples! :) I'm planning to do a sequel as well, we have to see.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Pandora's Box
Shit.
That was the only thing he could say. Typical. Typical that he had to fall in love with Team Galactic's biggest enemy, the girl that could be seen on every poster inside the headquarters – that stupid, grinning face with eye too big for that little face. Too big for him to escape. The girl that was too skinny – did she eat anything or was she just fit from all the exercising that came (delivered with mail) when you were a trainer? That wore a way too short pink skirt that revealed two pale, but well-formed legs – rather long compared to her overall shortness. Those pink boots that was so girlish he wanted to puke on them. That blue hair that was so (gah, why must he feel this way?) inviting, he only wanted to stop the latest battle they had and let his fingers slid through her locks. He wanted to touch her face, making her look at him without any grins, rolling eyes or skiing eyes, only a normal look, when he could remove that mask and see the person that really was her. Dawn. The girl he hated (and loved.) The one that stood in his way in more than one aspect. She prevented the plan, Cyrus' plan of changing the world – (this world filled with whelps and wrong-makers that killed it with their stupidity) – to the better, and more importantly, she prevented him from impressing the boss. Made him look like a stupid novice that couldn't even prevent a small girl from infiltrate their massive building and destroyed it from the inside. Over and out. He should be a hundred times better than her. But apparently he wasn't. No matter how much he tried; how many Super Potions he threw on his Toxicroak, it just fell. Over and over again. And it was her. She just stood there with that determined shine in her blue eyes, didn't even break a sweat. She wasn't afraid and he would rather eat a Steelix than admitting it out loud but that was one but many things that impressed him. Something like that. But when he fell deeper down the bottomless well and crashed into the wall when he struggled to get out she walked away, with her pink boots, with her blue, thick hair, blue eyes and everything – like he wasn't more than a bug under her foot. A roach crawling up the wall.
And he wasn't. For her. But she was for him.
He was angry, vicious, clenched his teeth only when some of his fellow Galactic member mentioned her name during one of the coffee-breaks in the cafeteria – (which wasn't many.) He was angry when he saw her, when she spook, when he saw her – (ironically enough he couldn't stop looking though) – on television, smiling and holding up a new Gym Badge. Sweet temptation, she was annoying and foolish but he still couldn't get her out of his mind.
Dear, Dialga, how could he be so incredibly stupid? He swore, swore, that he should put any foolish desire (like love) behind just to be the right hand to Cyrus that Saturn knew that he wanted to be. It was true. He would, could, never betray his boss now, he wanted to see where this road where they walked on right now led, the final destination. He respected Cyrus – sure, it was certainly a dog buried under the sand but hey – and more importantly, agreed with his ideas and wanted to discover the true intention with this plan that Team Galactic worked days and night to fulfill. Saturn trusted Cyrus and hoped that the feeling was equal. But it couldn't be if he threw all away for some kid and her stupid Prinplup that hadn't even evolved to an Empoleon yet. Wasn't that a sign that she was still wet behind her ears? Yes. Everything was wrong with her – if only she hadn't been so cute, so innocent, so strong. But "if" was a meaningless word, it didn't mean anything.
If – yes, that word again, he couldn't stop using it – only it had been Mars. Or Jupiter. Even if it was prohibited to show any kind of romantic interest to someone (at least when Cyrus saw it) it would have been more logical. He worked together with them, exchanged words with them and discussed with them. They even had the same goal! Dawn was still hidden behind a huge, foggy cloud that made it impossible for him to read her. He didn't know her, hadn't talked to her more than some furious battle cries that really didn't mean anything, didn't know where she lived or what she liked. Anything. Nothing about this mess was logical. First; she was way younger than him. Still a kid. Two; she probably hated all that Team Galactic stood for (why else this eager will of destroying everything to pieces in the first place?) and would never accept the one he was. And he hated her for trying to stop her. No. It would never work. She was fire, he was ice, no matter what happened they could never mix. And three; why would she be interested in him? Mars and Jupiter were around the same age as him and were rather good-looking, at least if you looked closer, tried to find their inner-beauty hidden under all that makeup. Even if Mars' squeaky voice and Jupiter's self-righteous style annoyed him to hell it was better than to whine after her. So much better. Then he shouldn't have been in this awkward situation when he had to question his own sanity. Hell, he didn't even know what he wanted to do with her. Live with her? Kiss her? Hold her in his arms? Nah – (denying is the leach that kept dragging him forward.) But the problem was that he couldn't do anything than to prevent her from messing with his job.
But. Yes, there was a 'but'. What if Cyrus told him to actually hurt Dawn? Physical damage? To regain his trust he must obey every order that came straight at him – and he would happily do that. (But not that.) Everything but that. He… Alright, just admit it already – he could never ever hurt her. To see that thin figure fall, scream in agony… no. At least not with his hands. And even when he added her persistence to the equation, there was only one answer that seemed logical – that he wanted to see how far she could reach. He was impressed; stunned even by everything she stood for. Okay, fine, he wanted to meet her in person. Talk. Not fight. He couldn't, but he so wished. That meddling kid had taught him something; that you could get how far as you wanted as long as you believed in yourself. She had accomplished much. So had he. But he was doing it for someone. She didn't.
He was loyal to his boss, not her. Forget her. Now. But he couldn't. Everytime he (obliviously) imagined her face in front of him, his stomach whooped and his blood rushed up towards his cheeks. The snakes in his body moved.
Couldn't this desire – that came from nowhere to strike bulls-eye – just rot and vanish like leaves when winter was coming? This was dangerous. Like Pandora's Box – it could change everything. And not in a way he wanted.
"Saturn", he heard a voice and was forced – (not that he minded though) – back to the reality. It was Cyrus. He and a group of Galactic Grunts were standing in the middle of his office, obviously stressed about something. He stared dumbly; what had happened now? "It's not like you to be so… off? Something the matter?"
He straitened his body and looked his boss is his eyes, small dribbles of sweat was running down in face. Not much. Wasn't really used to this kind of unawareness. Always laid one step ahead – that was necessary if you worked together with someone as Cyrus. Maybe that was why Saturn had come so far in this organization, because he always – (well, almost always) – looked at pros and cons before he made his decisions. "Yes, sir… no, no I mean sir", what exactly was he doing? "I'm sorry. Can I help you, sir?"
Cyrus signed deeply and put his hands on his hips. "You can help by being more aware of what's happening. We have a problem. Some Galactic Grunts have reported that there is an intruder in these headquarters and you probably already know who that is? I have some other business to attend to so I'm going to leave it to you to take care of this, Dawn-kid." Saturn shuddered when he heard that name. Typical. So typical that he had to be the one. But as long as the Grunts could take care of her he shouldn't have to face her.
"Roger, sir. Uh, where are you going sir?" he asked even if he knew better to stay away from places that he didn't belong.
"Mt. Coronet", Cyrus answered anyway. "I hope you know that you're doing now, Commander Saturn. Good-bye."
As soon as the boss left Commander Saturn pressed on a button at the wall that was linked to the headphone every member in the team used and commanded them to use everything they got and team up to beat the crap out of the girl. Wait. That didn't sound right. Anyway. He hoped that the Grunts had learned from previously failure and had actually trained their Pokémon. Sure, she would probably just walk past approximately ninety percent of the team – members that still believed that Wumples were gonna take them anywhere – but you could always hope that she underestimate the stronger ones. Hold on. Wasn't that risky? It was like he actually wanted to face Dawn himself…
Okay, fine. He wanted to do that. He wanted to show her. Wanted to show that he was stronger than she though he was.
He tried to wave away Dawn from his mind and focused on reading the newspaper that lay in front of him. Took a sip from his coffee, with smoke that reached for the ceiling like fingers and browsed through the pages. Read a couple of articles that interested him as much as makeup did. Crimes. Well, of course. Sure, in the villagers' eyes, Team Galactic was criminals too. But they failed to understand one thing. That there were always two sides on a coin. They had a reason to do this. And Saturn knew Cyrus' intention. Well, he though he did anyway.
But when he came to the entertainment pages he stopped. What was this? He leaned closer. That blue hair? He dropped the cup and the brown liquid started to eat through the thin paper. He read the headline. "Young Girl rising up towards the League." Even though he wanted to just close the paper and let his Golbat use Air Cutter on it another part of him (the part he hated) forced him to read the article. To his amusement (and fear) he noticed that there were some facts about this handsome little rat. He smiled. This Dawn was fifteen years old – really, he though she was younger, was born in Twinleaf – must be another one of those grots in Sinnoh and she liked to train Pokémon – kinda obvious but okay – and that she still slept with stuffed dolls at home. His smile got bigger. Aw.
Okay, admit it Saturn, you are so floored by this girl. He didn't know when it started but he knew that it wasn't going to end.
He leaned back at his chair and signed. Let his fingers ran through his blue hair. He looked at the monitors that buzzed near the ceiling. The amount of surveillances cameras was huge but surprisingly enough he couldn't see her. But he wasn't – he kinda saw that coming – given much time to think more about that issue when his mobile called. He fished it up from his pocket and held it against his ear. It was Mars. "Hey, I've heard about the infiltration. You have control over it, S?"
"Don't you trust me?" he asked and drummed with his finger on the desk. "But I have. The Grunts should be able to handle one girl."
He heard a mutter in the phone. "I've heard that before. Call me if it get worse though and need reinforcement."
To his surprise he heard a knocking on his door. Not a loud one more of a trace. He raised his eyebrow. How could this be? Probably some Grunt that lost his member card or something. That wasn't the first time. He cut Mars off and laid the phone in front of him, dried up the coffee that was doing to create some (not so) nice markings on the wood. He then sat down again and called the person in.
"Thank you", he heard a voice that he didn't recognize and then did the door open.
And when he saw then it was he nearly fell of the chair. Impossible.
It was Dawn. What the heck? Why hadn't the Grunts called? And what kind of attitude was this; just walking in like this was some kind of planned meeting. She didn't even seem determined to battle. To his terror and dismay he blushed when he noticed how extremely cute – she was way better live – she was and how extremely gripping those blue eyes was.
"Hello again, Saturn", she greeted and walked closer to his desk. "But why are you blushing?" she asked innocently. Where was her fear? He was Commander Saturn, for Arceus' sake and he was both strong and feared. Not well-represented outside these walls.
He gasped and clenched his fist on the edge of the desk. "I'm not blushing! I'm… Sweating!"
She frowned and smiled in a corner of her mouth. "Okay."
He shook his head, still those stupid, burning cheeks, and tried to look straight in her eyes. He failed. "What are you doing here? When will you learn that it's meaningless to try and stop us?"
"When Team Galactic is history." Girly voice. Still young. But oh so determined.
"Come on. That's never gonna happen."
She stepped closer, her pink boots echoed on the floor. To his surprise she actually sat down on the other side of him. His hands shook. What should he do? He should battle with her, not staring at her. But he couldn't turn away. This was the moment. The only moment. He could use what he had, right?
"Saturn, right? I know that you're hiding something. And I know that I'm already too late." She flicked with her blue hair.
"You are."
And she was. Cyrus already had the Red Chain. What now he planned to do with that.
She rose up again, probably she suffered from the thing called restlessness and started walking in circles. He followed her movement, not sure what to do. But unluckily she didn't saw the pile of boxes that he didn't bother to throw away; she tripped and fell helplessly on the floor. He could hear a loud thud when her head reached the floor. Oh. Sweet. Another thing in the schedule that he couldn't foresaw. He should probably take this moment and throw her out but he couldn't. Something as ridiculous as concern filled his veins and he got up and tried to help her up but she backed off.
"Stay away! You're using Pokémon for your own selfish desire! You, Saturn! And I never accept help from someone like you."
It stung. He could admit that. Helplessly he let his arm hang. She couldn't understand. Never. He should be angry, say that she was naïve that didn't see that everything wasn't as clear as she believed it was.
"Dawn I", he started, his voice soft but very confused. "I can't quit. I believe in this."
"You believe what your boss is telling you!" she shouted as tears rolled down her pale cheeks. One after one, aiming for that cold floor. "You're wrong. It's Pokémon. Living creatures. You…" He couldn't hear anymore due to the tears. She just sat there like a sack of potatoes, looking more helpless than he never thought was possible.
What he did then was wrong. He knew. He could never take that back. But it was too late for him to hesitate. He couldn't. He took her in his arms while she contained to cry, wetting his uniform. Awkwardly he patted her on the head, feeling that soft smell from her perfume. His heart rose.
Why? Why must he love this girl? It was stupid, dreadful and could only lead to disasters. But when he was near her, felt her soft fingers touch his arms all of this vanished. Into nothing. Left was only her. And him.
She was wrong. She didn't understand. And he still had to stop her.
For Cyrus.
How was it possible for him to get out of this mess?
