notes – A short something (it was intended to be short when I first started on it at least) to celebrate the influx of BW2 news! Loving Cheren and Bianca's new designs so much. SO MUCH. I ship them more than ever now. I love puberty. Yay puberty. I wanted to try Bianca's POV this time. I think she's an adorable girl who uses parenthesis a lot in her mind. Maybe.
my heart's a renegade
The end of their journey marked the beginning of the Changes.
When Bianca had turned fourteen, she dreamed about changing: receiving her first pokémon, travelling Unova with Cheren and White somewhere around the corner, seeing new sights, meeting people from different upbringings. She had fallen in love with the idea of new discoveries, the thrilling sensation of learning something for the first time never failed to captivate her.
Now, she was fifteen and growing older and older and nothing could stop this, and the concept of changing seemed less and less appealing.
White set off on her own with only her favourite pair of boots and her team of pokémon – "to travel" she'd said, but Bianca could tell that there was another reason beneath that brave smile. Maybe White went to search for N. He was bound to be somewhere out there, and she couldn't live with the thought of him being all alone after all he'd been through. A legendary pokémon could only make for a good companion to a certain extent.
Bianca didn't go with her. She wanted to continue studying under Professor Juniper, finally decisive about something for once in her life. Maybe it was all for the better, maybe White needed distance from people and from sympathy right now.
As she bid White farewell at the docks of Castelia, watching the cruise ship lift anchor and sail into the horizon, Bianca realised that this was the first time she and Cheren and White wouldn't be going on an adventure together. She remembered their very first one too – five-years old, a warm spring afternoon in Cheren's backyard, scavenging for four-leaf clovers. She remembered thinking/wishing/believing that she would be with her friends forever.
Ten years didn't even amount to half of that. But suddenly they were fifteen and going down different paths.
The region's climate began to shift. It grew colder and colder as time trickled on. Juniper dedicated more and more resources to solving the sudden mystery in the atmosphere. Bianca had to buy a jacket to keep warm, and while her skirt was cute, it was no longer functional in such conditions.
Cheren stopped wearing his glasses when he became cross with them for falling off during the more intense battles. Bianca intervened when he tried to throw them away ("Wait– don't! Don't!"). She needed at least one thing to keep with her, one thing to remind her of the old times.
He sighed his usual sigh – disapproving but forgiving and kind (in that Cheren-sort of way) – and allowed Bianca to keep them in the drawer of her desk.
So everything changed. The only thing that stayed the same was Cheren himself – a friend and a pillar of support, never wandering too far out of her reach. But even that, Bianca knew, would change someday too.
Cheren didn't just stop wearing glasses. He grew taller, his body became leaner, and he changed the kind of clothes he wore. She could still recognize him though – his eyes never lost that spark of determination, always blazing just a tad, always seeking improvement in any and all ways.
So maybe change wasn't all that bad. Bianca did, after all, learn a lot of things from the professor, things she wouldn't have learned if she'd just stayed in her house with her father in Nuvema.
One afternoon found her sorting through the files upon files of research the professor had instructed her to organize and then transfer into the new cabinet on the first floor of the lab. It was quieter than usual, with Juniper attending to work in another room. With no one else to talk to, Bianca suddenly felt quite alone.
She wondered if White had made any new friends on her travels – if Cheren had made any new friends in Nacrene, where he spent all his time nowadays. Bianca didn't really have any chance to get to meet anyone new since she was assisting the professor so often (and she liked being helpful and learning, so it was all in all a very productive job).
The girl hefted a stack of files under one arm and lifted another with her free hand. She let her mind meander as she walked down from the second floor. What would White and Cheren do if they found out that all she did was think about them and whether they thought about her? Oh, how she missed spending days with White and Cheren all to herself. If only she could live one more day that way. It was such a simple but selfish thought.
Her heel knocked against something hard – strange, the next step hadn't seemed so close. Bianca teetered against the unexpected hit, the files tumbling out of her arms as she tried to gain her footing on the next step… only to misjudge the distance once again. Her shoulder struck the railing and she squeaked as she barreled down the stairs and fell face first onto the floor.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Juniper asked as she hurried over, plucking the files off Bianca's crumpled body.
Bianca groaned, too winded to give a coherent answer. "I… Stairs were blurry… couldn't see," she croaked before giving into the heaviness of her eyelids.
Bianca woke up on a lumpy bed in a room with white walls. She hazily recognized it as the small resting room at the back of the lab. Someone was sitting beside her bed and reading a book of intimidating thickness. He was smudged at the edges, but Bianca could make out the red tie and the ever-furrowed brow on his face. It was Cheren.
Cheren looked up as he turned a page, frowning slightly when he noticed that was she awake. "Honestly, Bianca," he said as he closed the book and placed it at the foot of the bed. "Why didn't you realise you were getting short-sighted?"
"Ehm." Bianca thought hard, Cheren always wanted the most precise answers. "Well, I guess my vision got slowly worse and worse, so I didn't really realise everything was blurry until I tripped down the stairs?"
"I wouldn't put it past you to trip down the stairs even with perfect vision," he lamented, though this was said with more sentiment than anything else.
"Weren't you supposed to be training? Why're you here?" Bianca asked as the haze in her mind lifted.
Yes, Cheren had been training at Lenora's gym constantly once he was offered the chance to be her understudy, and eventually her successor if he proved capable. He loved battles more than most other things (Even food! Bianca still didn't know how that was possible), why was he here now, when all she'd done was get a bump on her head?
"Because the professor gave me a call and told me about the situation," Cheren inserted a hand into his pocket as he explained.
"Here." The boy passed her a small box. Their hands touched briefly when she accepted it, and her fingertips tingled. The boy simply cleared his throat and tucked his hand back. She felt cheated somehow.
"I picked it out myself, I would have waited for you and let you pick them out, but I couldn't trust you to walk around half-blind as is. It resembles the previous pair I wore – apologies if you don't like the colour but I attempted to find something that I thought would– "
"I love them!" Bianca cried, holding the red spectacles in her palms as she lifted them close to her face to get a clearer look.
The frames were half-moons and simple in design – definitely something of Cheren's taste. Personally, Bianca would have preferred something cuter (more round, more yellow), but the fact that this was a present from Cheren instantly made it far better than anything she could buy from the optician.
She quickly slipped them on.
"How do I look?" She made a peace sign with one hand.
Cheren raised an eyebrow.
"Like yourself – only bespectacled?" he answered curtly. Bianca groaned.
"You're horrible," she sputtered, unforgiving.
"What's wrong, Bianca? You're hardly ever disparaging," Cheren ignored the (well-timed!) insult and instead began surveying her with worry. "Is something on your mind?"
Bianca hugged a pillow and squinted at him. "I don't know? Maybe? I'm just, happy? – that you're here. I think my head is still messed up from that fall." She blinked as she adjusted to weight of the glasses on her nose.
Cheren nodded, but the cautious expression on his face indicated that he had failed to understand where she was going with this. "Why would my being here make you happy?" he asked, reflecting over the question himself.
"Because I thought you'd be off battling with all your battling friends, and White off travelling with her travelling friends." Bianca had a knack for spouting the first thing that came to her mind. It was usually either a virtue or a vice. She couldn't tell which it was this time.
"Bianca, I don't have many friends," he said, "you can abandon the idea of me leaving you in the lurch for someone else."
Well, Bianca didn't blame anyone. Cheren was kind of like an acquired taste, with his gawky personality – tight-collared serious and childishly competitive and confidently perceptive. She found all this likeable somehow.
"Yes, but, but, but – there are loads of people smarter and prettier and better than me, I don't understand why you…" she trailed off, not sure when this became a counseling session about her insecurities. She'd been putting on weight recently, with all her days spent sitting at her desk in the lab.
The boy listened intently to her jumbled words. He only spoke when he was sure she was done.
"Bianca, Bianca." Cheren shook his head, vexed just like the old times. "You're fine just as you are, you're perfect."
She felt her face flush. Bianca had expected him to cheer her up, but not to compliment her. For someone as inept with relationships as Cheren, he did a surprisingly good job of making her feel significantly better.
"Now is that really the reason for your fall and for your uneasiness?" the boy asked to make sure. He liked being absolutely sure.
"I'm worried about White," Bianca sighed. Might as well throw it all out. All or nothing. "What if she's gone off somewhere dangerous? What if she's in trouble? Or worse – she's having a great time without us around."
Her friend cupped his chin – Bianca had dubbed this 'the thinking pose' when she was ten – and his eyes stared at the ceiling as he thought. "I'm sure she'll contact us soon. What did we use to do when we were young? Hunt for four-leaf clovers?" he mumbled absently.
"Oh, right! That'll increased our luck, huh?" Bianca sat up on the bed, excited. Cheren placed a hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down.
"Come on, Cheren. Let's go and find some right now." She took his hand in hers as she stood up from the bed, her head delightfully clear now after that nasty fall.
"Bianca – honestly, I have to get back to the gym, my inauguration test is coming up," the boy started to say as they walked hand in hand through the corridors in the lab.
"Oh yeah, I remember!" Bianca said with a smile, looking over her shoulder. Cheren seemed stricken by this, because he closed his mouth and instead placed full concentration on staring at her.
"Good luck with that, I'm sure you'll do fine, probably," she hummed as they stepped out into Nuvema. "We can hunt for clovers next time, then!"
"Probably?" he laughed a short laugh, amused. "Thanks," Cheren said, but didn't let go of her hand.
And they stood like that for awhile, waiting outside the lab. Bianca remembered doing this on the day they set out for their pokémon trainer journey too – waiting for White to meet them. Everything was different now, the air was colder and they'd never have a chance to relive the feeling of receiving their first pokémon. (Well, that was what made it so special afterall!)
"… Or do you want to go and look for some clovers now?" Bianca offered. "As extra luck for your test."
The boy pretended to check his watch. "I have… a little time to spare. I suppose I can't violently object."
"Great!" Bianca squeezed his hand, and Cheren squeezed back, his eyes suddenly far more shy than determined. Bianca thought maybe she could kiss him now, and maybe he'd kiss back. Might as well throw it all out. All or nothing.
So she tipped her toes and pressed her lips against his when he turned to look at her. She wasn't used to wearing spectacles, so they crooked against her nose and poked into Cheren's forehead. He didn't seem to mind.
She remembered why she liked the Changes now. It meant that she'd be able to find more things to love. It also made her treasure the things she wanted to stay the same. Like Cheren and White and finding four-leaf clovers, and being friends forever.
notes - can you tell that I wrote this all in one sitting? you can, can't you?
No regrets though, I just had to get this written down because AHHH I'M SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GAMES. Also, I do love what they did with Bianca's character design. She isn't skinny like a lot of the other young female characters in the games (she wasn't in BW too). She's her-size and the perfect size for her and it sends out a really positive message, the same goes for Skyla as well. She's happy with who she is, and I think she has Cheren and White to thank largely because of that, though she might need a reminder now and again.
P.S. I was onboard the idea that Cheren gave Bianca his old glasses, but upon closer inspection, Cheren's glasses were frameless. They aren't the same as Bianca's. So. This was the route I took instead even though the former idea is so the best.