This fic is for Empress Emopleon's PokeWrite Writing Contest.
He's never met anyone like her before.
Volkner sighs as he looks the gaping hole in his front door, where his doorknob used to be. Shards of frozen metal litter the threshold and emit crunching sounds as he walks on them. He pushes the door open and steps inside, only to be greeted by a massive Mamoswine, which blocks most of the entrance, making his admission nearly impossible. To make matters worse, the enormous Pokemon is fast asleep, and Volkner isn't sure that he wants to wake it up and face its wrath at being disturbed.
So he meekly squeezes around Mamoswine's huge backside, sighing again, this time in exasperation, and walks down the hallway to the dining room, and sees a Glaceon there. The Pokemon doesn't pay much attention to him- only looking up and mewing before settling back down onto the rug again- and Volkner is just glad that his kitchen isn't too messy.
Except for a few bits of popcorn here and there.
Running his hands through his golden hair- he's starting to get a headache now- he makes his way to the living room. He wants to sit on the couch and rest his weary legs- he'd spent the entire day walking barefoot on the beach because there was nothing else to do; the gym was devoid of any challengers anyway- but there's someone else sprawled there. On the table beside the couch there is a half empty bowl of popcorn, although Volkner knows that if the person on the couch would have heard him say that, then she would have reprimanded him and said, in that bright, cheerful way of hers, that bowl is half full.
He then contemplates waking her up, but then decides against it- she looks so peaceful and serene this way, with her dark hair braided into long pigtails and pale porcelain hands folded delicately and her long, glistening eyelashes which look like black petals wet with rain.
So he gazes at her face with a mixture of happiness (because he loves her, and isn't it natural that looking at her would make him happy?) and surprise (because they were supposed to meet next week, what is she doing here now?), and then, after a few minutes, goes to his bedroom with a nap in his mind.
Volkner glances around the room, his eyes resting on each gym leader for a few seconds before flitting away to the next one. Cynthia then enters the room, and, after demanding an excuse from him as to why he wasn't present at the last gym meeting- although he knows she isn't really angry, because her eyes twinkle with suppressed humour- he mutters an excuse about renovating the gym, but the truth is that he didn't really feel like going, it had been a party to welcome their newest Ice-type gym leader, and he isn't fond of parties. Too many people.
He glances at the newest addition to the Sinnoh League, and the first thing he notices is that she is brimming with confidence. According to Volkner's calculations, she's only been gym leader for a month, and yet she acts as if she's been in the League for years; and somehow Volkner admires her for this. He's been a gym leader for nearly six months now, and he hasn't done much except maybe scare off challengers with his strength.
He certainly hasn't made any friends, except Flint, but he has known the guy for years now; on the other hand, Candice- that's her name- seems to have befriended everyone in the room, except him. And Volkner is sure that she would have tried to make friends with him too, had he been present at her welcoming party last month.
He muses for a while more- Ice types are sort of intriguing- and then turns his attention back to Cynthia, who is saying something about shifting the order of the gyms. The new order is- after beating Gardenia, trainers will have to fight Fantina first and then Maylene and Wake, instead of Maylene, Wake and then Fantina. Since it doesn't affect him, Volkner lets his mind wander again.
But somehow his thoughts keep coming back to the dark haired girl sitting across him.
He has barely lain down for five minutes when he suddenly hears a squeal and, before he has time to even open his eyes, someone jumps onto the bed and crashes into him.
"Volkner! Hi! When did you come back?"
He groans and rubs his stomach, where the girl had accidently kicked him in her excitement, and replies, "Nice to see you too, Candice."
Candice throws her head back and laughs, the bell-like sound chiming throughout the room. Volkner loves the tinkling sound of her mirth. Wanting to hear more of it, he sits up and pushes Candice down, and once he has her under him, he moves his hands up and down her torso, fingers rough and roving, tickling her mercilessly, and she bursts into peals of laughter, squirming under his tight grasp.
"S-stop," she gasps, trying to escape, and he smiles (actually it's more of a smirk), and finally stops after several moments, when she's wheezing due to lack of oxygen and tears are spilling out of the corners of her large, brown eyes. After she recovers, she shoots him a dirty look, which makes him laugh.
"Tickle monster," she accuses, and he laughs again, harder.
He hasn't laughed like this in a long time.
The air is filled with the aroma of popcorn and grilled food, the crowd is noisy, happy and boisterous, and every single person he sees has a smile etched on their face. He doesn't have a smile on his, though, but he feels happy enough, and he is one of those people who show their joy subtly.
His companion, Flint, on the other hand, is loud and boisterous like the crowd, and whoops in ecstasy at the sight of a huge, stomach-churning roller coaster.
"Yo, Volkner, let's go on that one," he yells, pointing to the monstrous piece of metal that's whirling through the air, hundreds of feet above them. Overhead, Volkner can hear the cartful of people screaming their lungs out, and he isn't sure he wants to join them. But Flint drags him by the wrist, and before he knows it, he's standing in the queue.
Which is pretty long. And the board on their right tells them that the waiting time is forty-five to fifty minutes. Flint looks slightly crestfallen when he sees this, but the people screeching and yelling snaps him out of it, and he starts looking excited.
They've been waiting for five minutes when Roark joins them, and behind him comes a giggling gang of excited women consisting of Gardenia, Maylene and Candice.
"I love these League Retreats!" says Candice, enthusiastically, and everyone around her smiles and agrees, adding joyful expressions of their own. She looks at Volkner and smiles, and stretches her hand out towards him, saying, "Hi! I'm Candice, Snowpoint's new gym leader. You're Volkner, right? The Shining, Shocking Star?"
She giggles again, and the other two women join her. She keeps on chattering the entire time, telling him about her battle-strategies, about how exciting it is to be a gym leader, and how much fun she's having. Then, suddenly, she has a serious look on her face as she says, "Don't worry. I'll only let the best of trainers come to you."
Her words warm him, and his face stretches into a grin. Upon seeing him smile, Flint feigns shock and tells Candice, "Whoa, Candice, you actually managed to make Volkner smile!" At this, the entire group bursts out laughing, and after a few moments, he joins them.
But when their turn comes to get onto the roller coaster Candice's demeanour completely changes. Her brow is covered with perspiration and she begins trembling. Her expression goes from utterly cheerful to utterly terrified.
"What's wrong?" he asks, concerned about her sudden shift of behaviour.
She swallows, and replies, "I-I'm scared of heights. So…so I thought that if I go on this rollercoaster, I can get rid of my fear." She squeezes her eyes shut and starts swaying. Gardenia and Maylene have already taken their seats, and now watch Candice with worried expressions.
He looks at her petrified form again, and replies, "Don't worry, you can sit next to me."
Her eyes snap open, and she asks, "Are you sure?" and he nods, looking at her encouragingly. "O-okay," she says, as she sits down, and pulls the safety bar over herself. "But…can I ask for one small favour?"
"What?"
"Can I hold your hand?"
He nearly chokes on his saliva. "Why?"
"Please! I won't be able to survive this thing if I don't have someone's hand to hold!"
"Umm…okay," he says, giving her his hand and smiling slightly as she tightly holds his hand with both of hers.
At first, it's a nice feeling. But as the roller coaster starts, and the carts starts moving, Candice's grip becomes tighter. The cart goes higher and higher, and beside him, Volkner can hear Candice whimpering. The cart then comes to the top, and then plunges down, and Candice digs her nails into his skin and screeches her head off.
He's screaming too, partially because he can feel his stomach floating up to his chest, but mostly because of having his skin gouged by Candice's sharp nails.
When the ride is over, and they get off the rollercoaster, Volkner examines his hand. Cuts and scratches mar his tough, calloused skin, making it look as if his hand had been chewed on by a Rattata. Candice hangs her head and looks very guilty as she sees his hand. "Sorry," she whispers.
He flexes his hand, and replies, "No, it's okay. Is your fear of heights gone?"
She shakes her head. "I feel faint if I think about that ride. Maybe I should go on a few more." She glances at him then, almost beseechingly, and after a few moments he gives in. "Fine," he sighs. "I'll come with you." Candice whoops with joy, grabs his wrist and pulls him to another ride.
By the end of the day, his hand is hurting badly and looks mangled and mutated. But somehow, he can't bring himself to mind that much.
"I should be asking you that," he replies. "When did you reach Sunyshore?"
"An hour ago. I closed the gym, and came to Sunyshore."
"And what about my lock? Couldn't you have used the extra pair of keys I gave you?" he says, in mock outrage.
She giggles. "I think I dropped them on the way." He grunts, and after a few minutes of silence, asks, "How did you get here so fast?"
"I borrowed Cynthia's Togekiss."
"Cynthia's in Snowpoint?"
"Yeah, she wanted to talk to Dawn before she goes to the Battle Frontier."
His interest is kindled. "So Dawn's finally going to the Frontier, huh?"
"Yeah, I bet she'll do really well there," Candice answers. Then she pauses, and adds, "But enough of the Frontier, let's go for a movie!"
"Now?" he asks, suddenly remembering his exhaustion, and Candice nods eagerly, saying, "Maylene told me there's a really good one that just came out a week ago! It's a huge hit! And I've got tickets!"
He deliberates for a moment, but his resolve crumbles away when he sees the raven-haired girl's ardent spirit. "Okay, fine, let's go," he tells her, and watches her face blossom into a beautiful smile. "But first things first," he adds, grinning, and pulls her in for a kiss.
Volkner is flabbergasted as he sees Candice frolic around in the knee-deep snow with a short skirt on. The only protection she seems to be having against the cold are her knee high socks and a soft sweater, which is knotted around her waist.
While he is wrapped up in two jumpers, a thick jacket and long woolly socks under long, leather boots, and he's still freezing. He hears her laughing merrily, and decides that she must be immune to the cold. He trudges on behind her, mentally deciding to never visit Candice in Snowpoint ever again.
They've been friends for a year now, and are so close that Flint now teases them about being a couple. Volkner is thinking about how his best friend can be such a pain in the ass at times when he hears Candice yelling, "Volkner! Come fast! What are you doing back there?"
He looks up and sees that she is several meters ahead of him. "It's so cold," he complains. "I can't move!"
She bounds back to him and puts one hand on his forehead. "Sheesh, you're freezing! You really need to get warmed up!" she exclaims. "Look at me, I'm so warm and energetic!"
She's right. Her hand is so warm that for a moment he thinks that she's feverish. Or maybe he's just lost too much body heat.
"Here, let me help you," she whispers. She comes closer and cups his face with her hands. She is so close to him that he can feel her sweet breathe on his face. Her lips are merely millimetres away from his, and soon the gap reduces to zero. He doesn't know whether he came towards her or if she came towards him; the tiny distance makes it difficult to ascertain who took the initiative.
All he knows that she's kissing him, and he's kissing her back, and his arms have somehow found their way around her body, and that he can't think properly, and that she is more intoxicating than the strongest of wines. And that he wants to continue kissing her for the rest of his life.
Their first kiss.
"…and his Golem fainted, I mean, not many people can withstand Abomansnow's Wood Hammer, and other than that type advantage, he didn't any other advantage over me. I mean, he came at me with a Torterra! He had a Ponyta as well, but my Abomansnow's Water Pulse took care of that. That Ponyta was fast, so it took several tries for the attack to hit, but it had low defence, so when the Water Pulse hit it, boom! It fainted!"
They are strolling across a large park to the cinema which is on the other side, and Candice is recounting a story about a young trainer who had come to her yesterday in the hopes of obtaining the Icicle Badge, but had lost and had made a huge fuss about it.
"…and he began screaming at me, saying stuff like he hasn't lost even once until now so I must have been cheating because it's impossible for him to lose, yeah right, and he practically bit my head off, and the other gym trainers had to literally drag him away from the gym."
Amused, Volkner replies, "Well, I'm glad you knocked some sense into his head. Some bratty trainers need that."
Candice laughs, slipping her arm into his. "Well, I had promised you that I'd only let the best get to you. And I've kept my promise pretty well, if I do say so myself. You need to have a lot of focus if you want to get past Candice!"
"And that guy wasn't focused."
"Yup," she nods enthusiastically. "Well, he was, in a way, you know, he was focused solely on attaining the gym badge and so he didn't pay attention to his training and the battle. You need to focus on everything!"
And then she begins telling him about the challenger before that, who had battled fiercely but had lost and broken down into tears. And then there had been a trainer who had challenged her with a team only consisting of Jolteons. Volkner listens, interested, because he doesn't get many challengers, especially intriguing ones like those.
He also likes the way he and Candice communicate so well. Other people may see it as him listening and her talking, but, surprisingly, Candice makes a good listener at times. He likes talking to her. He also meets up with Flint frequently, but they're guys, and guys don't talk, at least not about deep, profound stuff. They slap each other on the back and talk about stuff like food and battling and hot chics (well, Flint talks about hot chics, Volkner tries to get a word in if he can) and then try to determine what the other person is feeling by observing their behaviour. Which is often not an accurate way to guess what the other person is thinking.
And that's why he loves the intimate relationship he has with Candice.
The sheets rustle as Volkner pulls Candice into his arms, one hand on her cheek and the other on her bare waist.
"I felt thrilled during our match. That was a very good battle," he murmurs into her ear, and she laughs lightly, tightening her arms around his neck and kissing him.
They are silent for a few moments, and then Candice speaks up. "I love you, Volkner." She buries her head into his chest, hugging him tighter. "I love you more than hot chocolate and marshmallows on a cold winter morning."
He smiles at her words, and gently plants a kiss on her forehead. "I love you too, Diamond Dust Girl."
The movie is excellent- thrilling, full of suspense, and the actors and actor-Pokemon have performed brilliantly. It had him sitting at the edge of his seat the whole time, and the entire audience was enthralled. Candice, particularly, loved it; she gasped the loudest when, in the end, it was revealed that the pregnant woman, who was the main protagonist, was actually not pregnant, she had just been pretending so that she could track down the killers who had killed her husband and Pokemon.
"It was amazing!" she exclaims as they come out of the cinema hall, gesticulating wildly. "Brilliantly executed, and the ending was awesome! I couldn't believe the woman actually wasn't pregnant! Guess Maylene was right."
"About the film being good?"
"Yeah, that too, but she was also right about the woman not being pregnant."
Confused, Volkner asks, "What do you mean?"
"Well, she'd seen the movie before me, and then when we met up a few days ago she was raving about it, and I really wanted to know what it was about, so she told me," she explains.
He's astonished. "You mean, you already knew what was going to happen?"
"Yup."
"But…but you were gasping like it was your first time seeing it."
She flashes him a bright smile then, and replies, "It's more fun that way!"
He continues staring at her for a few more moments, and then smiles and shakes his head in wonder.
She sure is one of a kind.
She is the one, who dances in the blizzard,
Who isn't afraid of crying,
And does everything as if she's doing it for the first time,
Because,
She values every moment of life,
And loves to live,
And lights up his life,
With a glow in her eyes,
And a smile on her face,
And a skip in her step.
.
.
.
She's one of a kind.
Lol, I had fun writing this. But it was kind of challenging to write the entire thing in present tense. Anyways, I hope you liked it and please review
Btw, the (weird) poetry at the end is of my composition XD