WHOO new story! :D This is a counterpart fic to Lolipops and Lemonade, which I haven't updated for a week. Oops. ...anyways. Enjoy!
He's never much liked sunny days.
It was the rain, where he was comfortable. The dark, where he felt calm.
So the fact today was all sunshine and rainbows was pretty damn annoying.
He's breathing in and then sighing. Over and over. This was a stupid idea. A really stupid idea.
And he'd never admit it, but he misses Kanto. He hates Johto, with its strange people and stranger accents.
But he can't go back.
He stubbornly pushes his bangs back and reminds himself that he's on a mission. Mission, mission, mission.
There was a boy on the roof of ones of the houses. Ink black hair, shiny and choppily cut. Hair that isn't, you know, the color of a stupid rose and stands out everywhere he goes, the boy thought with a bit of jealousy. Jealous of hair. Christ. The boy had a blue Pokemon, round and cute. Ugh. He had a stupid smile on his face as he stared at the sky. If he was a threat, he was the least threatening threat he had ever seen.
The Pokemon flew off the roof, the boy quickly following suit, running out of his line of vision. He sighed, entertainment gone, and leaned against the building. God, what time was it? Daylight savings or not, where the hell was Elm? He chewed on his lip ignoring the conversation occurring a little while away from him, invisible, but loud. Very loud.
Elm, where were you? He ignored the obnoxious teen's conversation, blocking out every word. His casual, cheerful voice was easily enough forgotten, but his.. friend, the girl…
Girls were so annoying.
He was putting all of his effort into blocking her out when he suddenly realized she was heading towards the lab. A large- almost giant- white hat, and loud, clashy colors popped into view. She dressed like she had blindly picked cute clothes from her closet.
How could she be so damn annoying without even trying? Everything about her, just… defined the word. Somehow. Anyways. Elm, he should be there soon, white coat, glasses, short…She was still there. She was just standing outside the lab, hands together, looking around for something invisible, her hat covering most of her face from the angle he was at.
Without thinking, he was out of the shadow of the lab, trying to get a better look. Why? … She could be Elm's kid, for all he knew. Christ, did he have to have an answer for everything?
She raised her head slightly, looking up, and her features flooded with light. His heartbeat seemed to be broken. Tiny nose, gentle cheeks. Soft bone structure, rounded, per-decent lips. Long eyelashes, a soft brown. Hazel eyes, wondering what the world was asking her to do.
She was stunning.
A beauty in awful clothing, at least.
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
What the hell did he just-?
Oh no. No way in the hell… that, and the annoying girl were the same. What the hell was going on with HIM, anyways? Girls were not things he cared about. They were a waste of time. And yet- shut up, heartbeat- he couldn't stop staring.
Shit.
Her hair-defying gravity as it did so- whipped around and she was staring back at him. He shot back into the shadows as quickly as he could. Heart was still racing. He was screaming mentally, trying to snap back into sanity, just let it END.
She was in front of him now, standing, posture cautious, her giant hat almost blocking out the sun. He stared steadily at it, not daring to allow himself to look at her face again. It was a fluke. He was worried about getting caught. And now he was being caught, right? No more… mistakes.
(Of course, no matter how hard he thought this, it really wasn't changing a thing.)
He stumbled for words- Speak, dammit, speak- trying to find something that would make the fluttering go away.
"What are you staring at?" His words felt odd even to himself. Not the first time he had told someone to shove off like that, but still. Weird. He glared at her. Stupid, annoying girl, go ahead. Say something.
"Ah, sorry, my name's-" He cut her off. Obstacles don't need names. He pushed his palms against her small shoulders, and she almost crashed to the ground. Shit, she was stronger then she looked. She wobbled uncomfortably on her feet. Three words. The most annoying girl he had ever met. He despised her.
That was it.
She was glaring hard back at him, her eyebrows jutted down, her eyes staring at him piercingly, and he takes this anger as a challenge. How angry, he wondered, silencing her again by simply resting her index finger on her cherry lips, could she get?
"Don't mess with me." No more then you already have, he added mentally.
Her feet failed her, and her cheeks glowed pink, her face falling between surprise to anger, to full anger. He turned away.
He didn't know what would happen, if he looked at that face for too long.
Loud stomps alerted him that she had left, and much quieter footsteps informed him that one of Elm's aides had finally arrived and let her in.
He sighed, knowing he would have to wait for her to exit the area before he could launch his mission. He leaned back against the wall, hands folded behind his neck, elbows sticking out on either side of his head.
Don't think about her.
Easier said then done. For a girl who was nameless to him, she was hard to ignore. Why? Because she was beautiful?
Because that was a stupid reason.
There was something more to her, something he didn't understand at all, a divine mystery in life there to taunt him. In fact, that seemed to describe the girl as a whole. He gritted his teeth and moved his mind to something else. He wondered if the sky would stay sunny and bright forever, and what starter he would get, and what the first gym was like, and many other answerless questions only there to serve the purpose of distracting him until she slammed open the door, making him jump. Following her at her ankles was a fire Pokemon, blue and tan with a fiery back. Cyndaquil, wasn't it?
He had made his decision for his own starter, at least, he thought with a small smirk.
She walked towards the grass, and stopped suddenly as the boy from earlier suddenly shot out of nowhere. Where did he come from? He watched the two of them cautiously, making sure to hide in the shadows of the lab.
"That's your starter?" He turned away from her and kneeled on the ground.
"Yep. She's a girl." How could she tell? He hoped his Pokemon wouldn't be a girl. Ugh. "Nameless, as of yet."
"Eva," the boy shot back a second later.
She looked confused. "What?"
"She's definitely an Eva." He said something to the Pokemon, inaudible to him. He could read lips, but he was too far away. He could, however, figure out what she was saying.
"Nuh-uh… Actually, I think you're right. Huh. She is pretty Eva-y." She smiled at her friend, sweet and happy. The redhead bit his lip lightly. The other boy stood up again, and smiled at her.
They were close, the boy lurking in the shadows noted with a grimace. Very close. Not like he cared.
"Hey, you're about to head out, aren't you?" Thank god, he had been waiting for way too long. "Then you better get to your mom's. She's still got your Pokegear, right?" Poke-what? Johto was so weird, Christ.
"Oh snap! You're right, thank you, augh, I almost forgot!" He shut his eyes and sighed, waiting for her to finally leave for good, when her voice started up again. Ugh.
"Ethan!" So that was the ink-colored-haired boy's name. It suited him, in an odd way. He let his mind drift from the conversation. Ethan. Common, meaning, "Firm, Strong, Long-lived." The boy gave an aura of being a fantastic trainer, despite his weak blue Pokemon. Maybe it was just for show.
The girl's name probably meant "anger" or "impatience." He found himself wishing he still had the book that Rita had left. She had been kicked out so fast she had left all of the baby stuff there, including her names book. He read it almost obsessively; enjoying the flood of knowledge it gave him. If he ever saw her again (which he doubted), he really would have to thank her. He grumbled, wishing he had popped it into his bag, but…
Maybe Johto had bookstores. He hadn't seen any, but, truth be told, he had only been to two towns. This one, and the one by the sea. He slept the entire train ride and missed all off the bright, over populated towns and cities shooting past him. He had a map, of course, but all it gave him was a mere overview of the reg-
He suddenly noticed he no longer had to tune out the two friends. The girl went off into a stumbling run. When he turned back to look at Ethan, he was gone. His eyebrows rose high onto his forehead at the teenagers disappearing act. He looked back at the other young member of the town. Even though he couldn't see her face, it was very obvious she was crying, or at least fighting back tears. He stared at her back, feeling awkward.
Watching girls cry was weird. But he couldn't look away. Why would this girl be crying? He would have assumed she didn't even have tear ducts. He forced his eyes to tear away from her.
Despite the fact he definitely hated her, Haruhi did not want to see the girl cry. It was something he didn't understand at all, and felt like the mix of Déjà vu and a headache.
Johto was weird.