Written for the LiveJournal community PokePrompts.
Standard disclaimer applies.
"Croaky, no!"
The challenger gave a shout as Jasmine's Steelix burst from underneath the ground, throwing his Politoed into the air. The froglike creature cried out in pain as it tumbled back to the ground and Jasmine flinched in spite of herself.
No. No flinching. Gym Leaders, she told herself sternly, did not let personal problems affect their battles.
Steelix shifted, waiting for her to give him a command, and Jasmine snapped back to attention. Or she tried, anyway. Her brain was feeling so fuzzy lately, and she knew she wasn't putting her full effort into her battles. Their opponent was a Politoed, so perhaps she should order Steelix to use iron tail. Or would it be better if they kept their distance and used flash cannon instead?
"Croaky, use water gun," her opponent shouted, taking her by surprise.
"Steelix! Dodge it! Get underground!" The metal beast reared up in an attempt to tunnel back under the arena, but Jasmine could see immediately that he wasn't going to make it. The water gun hit him in the middle of his body, sending him reeling and snarling in pain.
Idiot—she should've known immediately that tunneling away from a water gun would never work. Jasmine could have smacked herself. She was slacking off, lazing around and complaining while her friend and trusted partner got hurt. What kind of trainer was she?
With a quiet snarl, she launched herself fully into the battle, shaking away all the traces of tiredness from her mind. There'd be time to focus on herself later.
"Alright, Steelix!" she yelled. "Use screech, then follow up with crunch!"
Sensing her enthusiasm, the iron snake roared eagerly as he leapt back into battle.
It wasn't until three hours later that Jasmine finally let go of her death grip on the railing. Sighing, she sunk to the ground, limbs trembling with exhaustion. She wasn't the one actually on the field, of course, but that didn't mean that her job was easy. After the boy with the Politoed, there'd been a girl with a Croagunk who nearly managed to beat her, and then a trio of underprepared kids who obviously hadn't been training long.
"Anna?" Jasmine called over to one of her assistants.
"Yeah?" The girl looked up from where she sat as she groomed her Mawile.
"Is this the end of today's challenges?"
Her head ached, her throat was sore, and her feet seemed like they were about to fall off. Jasmine didn't know what she would do if Anna said they had more people coming.
"Umm… Hey, Corey!" Anna called across to a man on the other side of the room. "We're done, right?"
Corey gave a quick look at the schedule on the wall next to him and nodded.
"Phew." Jasmine let her head loll back against the railing. So that meant she just had to fill out the League's paperwork, sweep up the arena floor, feed and brush the Pokémon her Gym looked after, take her own Pokémon to the center, and make sure her assistants' hours got logged.
Perhaps she had more to do than she thought.
"You don't look so good, Jasmine," Anna said, looking at her with worry.
"No, no. I'm fine," Jasmine said, sitting up. Her assistants had to be at least as tired as she was, but none of them were lying around on the floor like they had nothing to do.
"No, Anna's right," agreed Corey. "You should take the afternoon off. Anna and I know how to close the Gym up."
"What! No!" Jasmine shook her head frantically. Perhaps it was true that she wasn't the biggest help when it came to manual labor, but she couldn't just abandon them to do all the work.
"Really, it's not a big deal," said Anna. "You really look like you need a nap."
It had been a while since she last got a full night's sleep, but that was far from the top of Jasmine's list of worries. She shouldn't leave early. It would be indecent, irresponsible, and a whole lot of other unpleasant big words starting with "i."
But if I leave now, I can go to the lighthouse.
"Alright," Jasmine said, feeling guilty. Morty or Clair would never leave their posts like this.
Once her Pokémon were restored to full health by the friendly Nurse Joy behind the counter, Jasmine headed toward the lighthouse. It was a beautiful day; the sun was bright and a lightly salty breeze was blowing in from the ocean. Families and couples dotted the beach, and Jasmine couldn't help but smile at the sight of them. But, she reminded herself, she hadn't taken off work early so she could sightsee.
She burst through the lighthouse doors, carefully ignoring the headache she could feel coming on.
"Oh, Jasmine," said her uncle as he caught sight of her, "It's good to see you."
She ran into his arms and gave him a quick hug.
He looked down at her in concern as he released her. "Are you sure you should be here? You didn't even leave until two last night—aren't you exhausted?"
"No, no, I'm fine," she said, shaking her head. "How is he?"
Her uncle grimaced. "Not so well, I'm afraid. He's definitely getting worse. Your aunt's up—"
Anything else he might have tried to say to her was lost as she ran for the lighthouse stairs.
Jasmine ran up through the lighthouse, breath pounding in her ears and her entire body screaming in protest. None of the trainers hanging around tried to challenge her, though she couldn't say whether that was because they recognized her as the Olivine City gym leader or just because of the thunderous look on her face.
Her knees buckled for a moment as she finally made it to the top floor and she stumbled, scraping her knees on the concrete floor.
"Ouch," she said as she prodded her knees and winced.
There wasn't much of a cut there—she'd hardly even broken the skin—but it still stung. Carefully, she grabbed hold of the railing and pulled herself back up, then walked into the lantern room.
The lantern room was where Amphy had lived for as long as she could remember. When she was little, she would run upstairs at the break of dawn every morning, her pockets filled with breakfast scraps to give to him. He'd fall asleep after breakfast, exhausted from keeping his tail lit through the night, and Jasmine would spend every day waiting for the sun to set so she could go up and play with him before bed time.
It didn't look like he'd be in the mood to play much of anything today, though.
Distantly, she noticed that her aunt was sitting next to Amphy, wiping at the Pokémon's forehead with a wet cloth. She was more concerned, though, with how terrible Amphy looked. His fur, caked with sweat, had lost its normal luster and was instead a dull, pale yellow. He was panting hard and whimpering, his mouth open and eyes closed. Little sparks of electricity discharged in bright arcs every time he breathed, like fireflies dancing in the air. He'd been sick yesterday, yes. But not this sick.
Jasmine walked over, perfectly calm, and knelt beside him. She was beyond panicking now and straight into full-out gym leader mode. He was hot, she noted as she ran her fingers over his fur, far hotter than was normal for him.
"Jasmine!" her aunt gasped as she finally realized she was there. "Oh, it's good to see you. I..." Her aunt trailed off, shaking her head, and Jasmine noticed tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "I just don't know what to do."
She pulled the cloth from her aunt's hands and dunked it back in the bucket, then carefully set it back on Amphy's forehead.
"Hey, Amphy," she murmured softly. "I'm here now, okay?"
Amphy gave a weak cry at the sound of her voice.
"Auntie, I need you to do something for me."
Her aunt nodded. "Of course, honey. What can I do?"
For a moment, she just sat there. What was she supposed to do about this? She wished that one of the more experienced gym leaders were here—Pryce or Chuck would know what to do, wouldn't they?
Amphy moaned, and Jasmine shook herself. It didn't matter who would be best for the situation. She was here now and she was a gym leader. This was her responsibility.
"Okay," Jasmine said. "I need you to call the Pokémon Center and ask Nurse Joy to come. I need you to bring me a new bucket of cold water and a rag. And," she said, "I need you to call the gym and tell them that I won't be in for a while.
People came and left, but Jasmine stayed. She'd converted the lantern room into a bedroom of sorts, where she could sleep without going too far from Amphy. Not that she slept much, but a few hours here and there were better than nothing at all.
Amphy was slowly getting worse. She knew that, and it was torture to watch it happen right in front of her, but she would never be able to forgive herself if she left now.
Nurse Joy stopped by often, checking Amphy's temperature, monitoring his heart rate, and suggesting one cure after another—moo-moo milk, enigma berry vitamins, soft-boiled Chansey eggs. None of them hurt him, but none of them helped either. And so Nurse Joy left, and Jasmine did not.
Anna and Corey dropped by once to stroke Amphy's fur and give updates on the gym's progress. They were taking care of things nicely, keeping the gym in order and its Pokémon cared for. They didn't say it, but Jasmine knew what they were thinking when they sat there. Soon there would be a League official coming to check on the gym, to see why challenges were no longer being accepted. If she could not keep her personal troubles separate from her duty as a gym leader, than she would not be a gym leader for much longer.
Then one day a challenger came.
Jasmine was not quite sleeping when she heard the knock on the lantern room door. To be honest, these days she spent most of her time almost-but-not sleeping. Even in the early morning hours like these, when Amphy was at his quietest and she could count on not being disturbed, sleep just wouldn't come. No matter what she tried, her body wouldn't let her drift any farther than a sort of half awake stupor, like it expected to be jolted awake at any moment.
Which was exactly what happened when she heard the knock, actually. Jasmine gave a little twitch as she came to, blinking and disoriented. She blinked a few times and groaned as she took stock of her surroundings. Her head felt as fuzzy as a Mareep's wool, and the rest of her body wasn't much more responsive. Amphy shifted in his sleep, snuggling closer to her body, and Jasmine absent-mindedly patted him on the head.
Who would be knocking? The sun was just breaking over the horizon, scattering ruby-red light into the lantern room, so it was far too early for her family or assistants to be checking in. And Nurse Joy didn't knock, just came wheeling on in with a smile on her face and a Blissey by her side. So it wasn't anyone she knew, then.
There was another knock, louder this time.
"Come in," Jasmine called out.
She had one hand hovering over her pokéballs. Anna and Corey were keeping Steelix at the gym, but she still had her Magnemite pair if her guest was looking for a fight.
A moment later a boy walked in, looking around in amazement. He had to be about her age, or perhaps a little younger. The belt he wore, six red and white pokéballs hanging off it, told him he was a trainer like her. His hair was black and messily spiked, though most of it was tucked under a black and yellow cap.
Looking at him, Jasmine was suddenly aware of the fact that it was four days since she last slept, and almost that long since she had a bath. He wasn't stylish, perhaps, but at least he was clean. It was more than she could claim, anyway.
"Wow," he said. "I've never been to the top of a lighthouse before. This is cool!"
Was he here sightseeing?
Amphy murmured, twitching his ears, and Jasmine shushed the boy.
"Oh. Sorry," he whispered sheepishly.
She frowned at him.
"I'm Gold," he said, and held out a hand.
Confused and off-guard, Jasmine took it.
"Why are you here?"
"Well," Gold said with a grin, "I wanted to give you this."
The boy held out a small white pouch. It could have had almost anything inside it, from jewelry to food to pokéballs. Jasmine took it from his outstretched hand and looked at it quizzically.
"Um…Thank you?"
Normally, she would've have shooed this boy off already—he had that look in his eye, the one challengers always wore as they walked into the arena, and she had an idea of what he was here for. But he hadn't tried to get a battle out of her yet, and at least he was interesting.
Gold's grin widened.
"You have no clue what it is, do you?"
She shook her head.
"Open it, then."
Slowly, Jasmine undid the strings keeping the bag shut and turned it over into her palm. Two small brown balls, almost like candy, fell into her palm. Ignoring Gold's smile, she picked one up and held it to the light.
"I still don't know what this even is," she said.
Instead of answering, Gold sat down next to her.
"In that case, can I tell you a quick story?"
"If this involves a request to battle," Jasmine said, suddenly tired of his games, "Then don't bother."
"It doesn't." Gold paused. "Or, at least, not yet anyway."
"Hmm." Jasmine held her wrist up, checking an invisible watch, and then nodded. "You've got three minutes. And talk quietly. Amphy'll be waking up soon."
"Alright," Gold said, nodding. "So, I first made it to Olivine three days ago—great city, by the way—eager to challenge the local gym. But," he continued quickly, noticing her glare, "I heard that the leader wasn't taking challenges because she was taking care of a sick Pokémon. So, I decided not to be a bother and surfed down to Cianwood for my next badge."
"Wait." Jasmine stopped him. "You surfed to Cianwood? Are you crazy? That's practically suicide!"
"Voice," Gold warned her, pointing down at Amphy, and she clapped her hands over her mouth.
"And, yeah," he said with a grimace, "I figured that out along the way. It was kind of rough for a while, but we made it. Anyway, it wasn't like we had any other option. The ferries were closed because of your Ampharos."
"It's not his fault he's sick," she said angrily.
"I know, I know." Gold put his arms up like he was defending himself. "I didn't mean it like that. But, anyway, we made it down there eventually, and I find this little pharmacy out in the middle of nowhere, with a guy who brews up super-potent medicines."
He pointed at the chocolates in her hand.
"Wait," Jasmine said, looking down at them. "You mean this is medicine?"
Gold nodded happily, and Jasmine used her free hand to smack him on the shoulder.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"You could have just told me that without the whole story!"
"Well," he pouted, rubbing at his shoulder, "I wanted you to know how cool I was."
Jasmine had already turned away from him.
"Amphy," she called, ruffling his fur. "Amphy, wake up."
Amphy slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up.
"Hey, buddy," she said. "It's okay, I'm here. Just relax."
"He's supposed to take one, then wait a day before he takes the other," Gold said as he came up behind her.
Jasmine nodded and held out the one of the pills. "Can you eat this for me, please?"
Amphy eyed it cautiously, and then opened his mouth.
"There you go," she said, popping it in. "Just chew it up for me, alright?"
Ampharos slowly chewed the tablet, wincing at the taste. It took him a few tries, but he eventually managed to swallow it without gagging.
"There," she said, petting him. "I should have gotten you some water, huh?"
Was it just her imagination, or was he cooler already? She felt his forehead and, sure enough, he was cooling down. Amphy must have felt it too, because he gave a cheerful cry—still weak, but stronger than he had been only minutes ago.
"He's looking a little better," Gold said, peering at the Ampharos. "Do you think it worked, then?"
"Yeah," Jasmine said. "Yeah, I think it's working."
She wanted to laugh, cry, jump around the room, do something, but she was suddenly exhausted. It felt like all the stress from the past few days had finally caught up to her. She felt like she should probably get up—she had the gym to look after and work to do—but with Amphy lying next to her like a pillow, the lantern room seemed a very comfortable place to lay down for a nap.
Jasmine yawned and Gold beamed.
"So, I guess I should probably wait until tomorrow to challenge you, huh?"
"Mm," Jasmine agreed sleepily. "Yeah, that might be a good idea."
She yawned one more time and then said, "I'm sorry I punched you."
Gold just laughed.
She made it home eventually.
Her aunt and uncle were overjoyed, thanking Gold and pampering Amphy. Jasmine tried to join in the impromptu celebration, but she was so tired she kept dozing off in the middle of conversation. She excused herself as soon as she could; thankfully, her aunt and uncle realized how tired she was and let her go.
She planned on having dinner and then maybe taking a shower, but the moment she walked into her house Jasmine knew that wasn't going to happen. She barely even made it to her bed (warm, cozy, and absolutely wonderful) before she passed out.
And so, four days later, Jasmine finally got her nap.
Reviews and concrit are, as always, greatly appreciated!
Edited 1/27/11 to fix some grammar errors.