I wrote this one night while listening to R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion, thinking it was perfect for Steven. The story it basically about Steven's life before he became champion. I didn't intend for this to become so long but I hope you like it. Please tell me what you think, I didn't have it beta-read so I apologize if the grammer isn't quite right.

Ever since I first laid eyes on her years ago she's been a mystery to me.

I was young, just turning eleven while she was a few years younger. We met near a cave in Mossdeep City, which still feels like faith to me.

She was like something I'd never seen before; her petit form was clothed in a dark grey dress with a huge white ribbon on her lower back, giving her a more mature look. Her long dark brown hair hanged loosely on her back and she had a white ribbon tied near her left ear. She was bare foot but it didn't seem to bother her. But the most fascinating thing about her was her eyes.

They were a mixture of red and brown, reminding me of the color rust, and I couldn't get my eyes off them as she eyed me from behind her bangs.

She looked at me for a while before she delicately opened her mouth before she spoke.

"What were you doing in that cave?" she questioned me in a nice manner, not sounding too pushy. "Were you looking for something?"

I broke out of my trance to glance back at the cave I'd just exited. I'd been doing something I really liked; digging for rare stones. It was something I'd always liked to do but somehow most people found it weird that the son of the president of a large corporation would spend his time 'crawling on all fours in dirt', as they usually referred to it.

She'd kept completely still, not even blinking an eye as she'd waited for my response. I nodded once and let my eyes drop to the almost empty bucket I had with me.

"Something like that. I was actually searching for stones," I replied as I lifted my eyes once more.

She too nodded and took a step forward, twisting her head around as if to see me better. She was at least half a head shorter then me, I noted.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked smiling, her eyes almost glowing.

That was all it took for me to get mesmerized by them again, answering almost as in hypnosis.

"I found a fire stone," I replied and she let out a gorgeous smile, setting her eyes on fire.

"Wow, I've never seen a fire stone before! I heard they're pretty hard to find. You must be really good at looking for stones then?" she beamed at me.

Her last comment made me feel embarrassed and I lifted my hand up to the back of my head awkwardly. No one had ever really taken as much interest in my digging as her and certainly not complemented me like she had.

"Well I haven't been doing it for too long, my father's much more experienced than me," I blabbered to her whilst laughing awkwardly.

She just shook her head.

"I can tell you like it very much, right? So just keep doing it to become as good as you wish to," she said still smiling.

This took me totally off guard and all I could do was stare at her. She kept smiling for a while but when I didn't reply anything she sighed a bit disappointedly before turning around.

"I have to go now, bye!" she exclaimed before she dashed out.

I barely had time to react, stretching my hand up to her whilst shouting.

"I'm Steven! What's your name?" I asked and sighed in relief as she turned around.

Her face was blank for a while before she beamed at me once again.

"I'll tell you the next time I see you Steven!" she shouted back and waved her hand before dashing off once more.

And as I stared at her white ribbon disappear into the horizon I couldn't help but think she was intriguing.

A month later I saw her once more at the very same cave no doubt. She smiled as I emerged from the darkness with my newly caught Aron and walked up to me greeting me happily.

"So?" I asked her as she stroked Aron's head and she gave me a questioning face.

"What's your name? You said you'd tell me when we'd meet again," I reminded her.

She just smiled what seemed like bitterly.

"I try to keep my name a secret because people consider it weird…" she whispered as her eyes met mine.

"Don't worry, it's not like I could judge your name. Heck, my name comes from the word steel but I don't mind," I replied understanding her reasons.

After a while I saw the shade in her eyes change as she briefly glanced at Aron.

"My name's Carnelia. It's a kind of reddish color," she said slowly and focused on me again.

"Carnelia, as in that quartz?" I wondered out loud and she nodded her head. I smiled; well, it made sense when she had such mysterious eyes.

"Carnelia's a great name. I think it suits you," I tried to lift her spirit and looked at Aron for some support.

"Right Aron? Don't you think Carnelia's a beautiful name?" I questioned the little Pokémon and he nodded in agreement.

She laughed.

"So you think my name's beautiful, huh?" she asked whilst smiling at my growing embarrassment.

"So you're really going to take on the league?" she asked me as we walked along a riverside.

I looked at her surprised, even my family was still unaware of my decision to set off for a year or two so how did she know?

I was now seventeen and sick of having to listen to people telling me to go work at the Devon Corporation. My father was hoping I'd start working for the company in the future but he was wise enough to know I wouldn't do so before I'd achieved at least some of my dreams, one which happened to be taking on Hoenn's league challenge and seeing how I'd match up against the gym leaders and possibly the elite four.

"How'd you know that?" I asked her curiously and she just gave me a smirk.

"I can tell it's time you'd do it. It's almost like a now-or-never thing, you know?" she explained and tried to hide a sigh, failing miserably.

I stared at her with concernedly and noticed she was avoiding my gaze, something that alerted me she was unhappy.

I took the time to notice how neither one of us had really changed in the last six years, apart from the growing, we still looked relatively the same. She still had long dark brown hair and she still had those wonderful rust red eyes I could, and would, drown in. Even her clothing hadn't changed much, unlike mine; I now wore a neat purple suit with a red tie. Funny how my taste in clothing had changed during the past years, before I couldn't even imagine myself wearing something like this…

She'd stopped walking in the midst of my thinking, now a good ten feet from me. I too stopped and turned around to look at her.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked her and she answered with a nod.

Seeing she was lying, she hadn't ever been really good in it, I quickly walked up to her and put my hands on her shoulders. After awhile she finally faced me, her rusty red eyes meeting my grayish.

"Don't lie to me, you know you suck at it so don't even bother. What's on your mind?" I tried once more and could see the emotion in her eyes.

"I just thought you'd tell me about it sooner, you know, when you decided about it. I'd like to hear things directly rather from neighbors or frantic fan girls…" she explained and sighed again.

"You know I'll miss you like hell?" she mainly reminded and gave me one of her smiles.

God I loved that smile…

I smirked back and lowered myself to her level – she was still much shorter than me – and looked her in the eye.

"You know I'll miss you too? But it's just like you said, now or never, remember? I'd like to see how far I could go with Aron and Beldum before I'm forced to take over the company. And believe me, I only really decided about it this morning and you would've been the first I'd told," I explained to her and feeling her relax under my hands.

"I know, I just wanted to hear you say it," she replied with a gorgeous smile, her eyes once again burning. "You know what I think Steven? I think you'll be just fine. And when you become champion don't get a big head or anything, cause if you do I'll be forced to take action," she lectured me with a devious smirk and I couldn't help but laugh.

"So you're saying that if for some weird, twisted reason I become champion, you'd beat me?" I let my hands fall from her shoulders and stood up right, pushing my hands into my pockets.

She just gave me a confident smile and placed her hand on her chest.

"Oh I'm sure I could beat you 'cause I know you better than anyone, which means I also know you're weakness," she winked at me.

Well there wasn't any room to argue with her, she did know me better than anyone else.

I left the day after that. She walked me to the edge of town with her Growlite and made me promise to call her every now and then to update on my journey.

"But don't call too often, I want you to train as hard as you can so don't waist too much time on the phone, 'kay?" she smirked and I laughed. There was no way I would turn into something like that.

Just before I left I pushed my hand into my pocket and gave her a present, surprising her greatly as she took it.

"I didn't know you could wrap a present," she joked as she carefully opened the small box, revealing a fire stone. She looked at me confusedly.

"It's the stone I found that day we met. You can use it to evolve your Growlite for example so you'd match up against me if I become too cocky," I explained and gave her a small peck on the check, causing her to blush. I laughed at this and then dashed off, hearing her embarrassed shouting even from afar.

"Steven Stone how dare you! Don't you dare change or I'll seriously have to kick your ass!" she screamed loudly enough for the whole town to here her.

As I saw Wallace's Milotic collapse to the ground after a gruesome, long battle I had to feel every possible emotion possible; joy, relief, excitement, longing, sadness, fear… After over two years, I'd done it.

I was champion. I was really the champion.

As I shook Wallace's hand I felt my face twist with emotion. I was so tired. Years worth of training had earned me and my Pokémon the title as champion.

The reporters were literally fighting to get over to me, shoving their microphones and recorders in my face to get a comment from the new champion of Hoenn. I was blinded by the flashes of the cameras and baffled by the amount of people who'd gathered around to see me. I remember only dimly answering their questions, only scanning the audience for her.

Then I spotted her, probably about twenty meters away, keeping her distance from the crowd so she wouldn't get trampled on. She was still the same, wearing her grey dress and her hair loose. Her eyes were still as marvelous as ever, like fire. She wasn't alone; her Arcanine was lying on the ground behind her, looking ready to battle at any given moment.

I suddenly felt a new wave of joy rush through me just by seeing her smile that wonderful smile as she mouthed the words 'we'll be ready for you champ' and turned to her Arcanine, getting onto his back.

I was brought back to reality when someone bumped their recorder onto my nose, pleading for a comment on whatever someone had asked a moment earlier.

It was then when I noted I hated publicity, a trait that wouldn't change ever.

That evening I couldn't even watch television without seeing my face somewhere. It felt like every channel was doing a special character story on me and it frustrated me, especial when one channel had even sent a reporter to interview people at my hometown.

I watched as people I'd hardly ever seen talked about me like they knew everything about me, always referring to me as the champion that came from this city. It made me furious.

Suddenly the picture focused to the face of a dark brown haired girl with rust red eyes who'd interrupted some random blonde's babbling on how she and I would've had some kind way back in the days. The blonde, whose name was obviously Krissy, got a cold stare from Carnelia as she told her to stop while she was ahead.

The reporter's interest naturally rose and soon he was interrogating her with his questions, asking who she was and what her relationship to me was.

She just smiled as she told him she was a friend – not a close or best friend like all the rest had claimed to be. The reporter was clearly a bit disappointed with who she was but naturally tried to get a few comments from her. He asked her what she thought of me now that I was champion, earning the most solemn and truthful answer of the day.

"I think of Steven in the exact same way as I did when I first met him. I don't see how a title or rank could ever change that unless he himself changes with it," she replied, leaving me staring at her faultless face while the reporter thanked her for her time and started to talk about my hometown in general.

I closed the television and hurried to my PokeNav, selecting her number before waiting her to response. After a few beeps she answered.

"You really think of me the same way as back then?" I asked her as soon as she'd picked up.

I could imagine her smiling at the other end before replying.

"Of course I do. You'll always be that dirty, grey haired little kid that loved to search for stones to me Steven," she answered truthfully and I felt my heart stop.

"Like I said years ago, I know you better than anyone. To everyone else you might be a champion but to me you're you…" she told me with a solemn tone.

I was just about to ask her if she thought I'd changed when I heard an unknown male voice at the end of the line.

"Excuse me but did you say Steven, as in Steven Stone the champion? What do you know about him? You must be really close to him if he called you… Hey, where're you going?" he babbled on as I heard someone release a Pokémon.

"Arcanine, go!" she shouted as I heard her curse under her breath.

"Sorry, I got cornered by a damn reporter... Their all over the city trying to get a story, I think there's about a dozen behind me right now," she explained as I sighed.

"Where're you going?" I asked her tiredly as I too cursed those damn reporters for harassing people. If they wouldn't stop it after a day or two I'd sue them all…

"To route 121, I was in Lilycove to do some shopping but there're reporters here as well. God, they're so damn persistent. Why so they all have to have Dudrios?" she sighed frustrated as the wind blew even harder in the background.

I put on my jacket and grabbed a pokeball as I opened the window of my hotel room. Letting out my Skarmory I hopped onto his back and set off.

"Stay somewhere in the area, I'm coming to get you," I told her as I gave my Pokémon directions. She laughed at my impulsiveness before whispering her answer.
"I'll be waiting for you Steven!"