I am freaking out right now, since this is my first fanfic, but I'm hoping you guys will enjoy this!
Umm, this is a Pokemon fanfic, I think you know, and the shippings are… *drum roll*: Contest, Poke, OldRival, Ikari and very, very very slight Amour (only slightly!). I might add in some more ships later, though I don't think I actually know much more!
This fanfic is based loosely on a vocaloid song called 'Witch Hunt', and I think you'll realise it soon near the end of this chapter if you have listened to it. I'm planning for there to be two parts to the story: the first part is the present time (it's written in past tense, but oh well!) and the second part is the past. The second part will basically build up to the present and will explain why there's something wrong between the girls and the boys. The chapters will take turns between past and present, eg. Chapter 1 is the present time, Chapter 2 is the past time, Chapter 3 is the present time, Chapter 4 is the past time, Chapter 5 is the present time, etc.
Anyway, that's enough of the intro, I suppose! Sit back, relax, and enjoy/hate! (Please do the former, please do the former, please do the former—not wanting to sound desperate, but please do the former!)
Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than the plot and story
(Did I do that right?)
~Hello Again~
"Dawn, how long are you going to take?!" Leaf yelled, tapping her sandal-clad foot impatiently on the floor and drumming her fingers on her arm as she glared above the staircase.
"Just give me a minute!" the said girl yelled back, a crack audible when she spoke.
May released a soft sigh as she twirled a coil of caramel hair, her sapphire gaze in the same direction as the other brunette of the house. Leaf was never very patient, but today she was even more uptight than usual. It was not as if she couldn't understand though—she could comprehend too well the reasons for why Leaf's temper was so inflammable at the time. May just sunk into low spirits rather than allowing nothing to fan the flames of her anger, unlike the girl standing beside her.
And as for Dawn… well, perhaps her memories overwhelmed her for a moment, so she had to reapply mascara to her lashes and conceal the black smudges her tears had poured over her cheeks. She was too emotional, more than she normally was, when she reminisced their past.
May sighed again, a mournful tinge in her tone. If the one who was absent could witness the troubles they had suffered from the villagers, she might have returned and hammered them down six feet under with that mysterious mallet she kept stored away somewhere inside of her. Perhaps there was something more powerful than fairy dust crackling within her fingertips to be able to summon such a dangerous weapon.
"I am done!" Dawn sang through baby pink lips, feigning joy in her voice as she strutted down the stairs in snow white, strappy high heels. May couldn't help a small smile. Even on such a horrid day, the girl always made sure to get up, dress up, show up, and never give up, regardless of her mood.
"I thought we told you not to wear anything but white," Leaf frowned, her hand rising to her hip as she warily eyed the elaborately-designed, pastel pink gown her friend donned—which May had to wonder how she bought, because it looked dreadfully costly.
"But I can't just go out without a little bit of pink! That is breaking all laws of fashion!" Dawn jutted out her lower lip into a pout, flipping her navy hair with a flourish.
"Uh, do you see us wearing pink?" Leaf deadpanned, gesturing to herself and May. "Just your lipstick would have been fine."
"Oh, Leafy, my outfit needs it, too!" Dawn rolled her cobalt blue eyes. "I mean, we can't just go out wearing boring old white, now can we? A splash of colour won't kill the world! Anyway, we're already going against the rules by not putting on black!"
"She's got a point," May nodded, smiling at Leaf. "I mean, I am also wearing red." She motioned to the crimson rose pendant hanging from her necklace. "And you are wearing green." Her hand brushed aside Leaf's hair to reveal the chain of emerald leaves dangling from her ears, and a mirthful chuckle escaped her sheeny ruby-stained lips when she saw the alarmed expression slapping the brunette's face.
"Leafy, you hypocrite!" Dawn gasped in exaggerated horror.
"Oh, be quiet!" Leaf snapped as she batted away her friend's hand, but she couldn't hold back the embarrassed blush spreading across her cheeks. "I just thought… well… she gave them to me, so I might as well wear them, and…" She trailed off, her face flushed a humiliated shade of red and steam fuming from her ears.
Dawn giggled amusedly, much to the brunette's chagrin. "You're too adorable!"
"Sheesh…"
"That's very nice of you, Leaf," May chuckled, giving her distressed friend's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "They look gorgeous on you."
Leaf managed a grateful grin. "Thanks. But…" She released the most agitated sigh, her brows crunching together into a frustrated scowl. "How on earth did my earrings become the topic of conversation?! We're supposed to be talking about Dawn's tardiness and lack of respect for the colour scheme of our outfits!"
"We're just praising your beauty!" Dawn said, her lips curving from ear to ear as she pulled the girl's tresses into a thick pleat, allowing a few rebellious strands to fly out and frame her face. May briefly mused on when she had appeared behind them, but it didn't honestly require much thought. Dawn was a trained ballerina and gymnast—she would have been much more worried if she wasn't so agile and smooth.
"It's such a shame you didn't bother to dress up though, May dear," Dawn sighed, looking sadly at said girl's common attire. "It's an important occasion and yet you only doll up with a bit of makeup—what a waste of your charm!"
"Should I be insulted by that…?"
"Oh, no!" she laughed, shaking her head vigorously. "Trust me, you look fabulous no matter what! It simply wouldn't hurt to put a little more effort into your appearance."
"There is a time and place for dressing up, I believe—today I simply don't think it is appropriate. Not for me, anyway," May hastily added, seeing the blunette's falling face. "I admire how you always look your best even when it's a normal day."
She was speaking the truth and nothing else, but still heaved a discreet sigh of relief when her friend's merry beam returned to her lips. "Shall we make our move then?" she asked, already heading for the door.
"Sure!" Dawn chirruped, patting Leaf's head as a way of telling her she was finished.
Expectedly, Leaf was very irked by the gesture, but she gave a thankful nod towards her and a confirmative nod towards her fellow brunette. Only one step forward—and suddenly, she stopped. May turned to question her, finding a solemn darkness to have veiled her features, a sadness that brought not the light of tears, but a shadow of hatred to her orbs.
"It's only been five years," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else, her tone low and uttered in quiet incredulity.
Dawn's eyes brightened, but not from any joy. "Hard to believe, right? Feels like much longer."
A wistful grin pasted itself upon May's lips. "Only five years."
But what difference could it have made? She would never come back to them.
"Thank you for taking us here, Brendan, Lucas, Rudy." May smiled warmly at the aforementioned men, as they helped she and her friends down their respective horses.
"Don't mention it," Brendan nodded, flashing a deliberate charming smile.
A weed of annoyance sprouted in May's mind. She adored Brendan as much as she did her little brother, but she wished so dearly that he would stop with the flirtatious grins. He had confessed his 'undying love' to her countless times, and she would always reject as politely as she could—even if her heart did quicken ever so slightly when he looked so alluring (it was simply impossible not to be affected). He didn't seem to understand the definition of defeat—though that in itself, she supposed, was quite admirable.
"We drop you here every year, you know. You don't have to thank us so much."
"No, it's necessary," Leaf said, her lips graced with a genuine smile May hadn't seen since the night before. "You always listen to our selfish demands and take us wherever we desire without any hesitation. It would be less than rude not to thank you."
"Oh, you don't have to be so formal with us, Leaf," Lucas winked, causing Dawn to perk an unamused brow. "We will obviously help you out whenever you need us. Besides—who can say no when such beautiful ladies are crying for help?"
"Who says we're crying? We could easily just go and get other people to drop us off, you know."
"Dawn, don't say that!" Leaf hissed. "Sorry about her."
"You don't need to be! That's exactly what I like about you, Dawn Berlitz!" Lucas grinned, leaning forward from his saddle to lift the said girl's chin. Dawn looked at his hand like it was contaminated.
"Uh, ever heard of personal space?" she retorted, dragging May in front of her to block the man's touch.
May felt a small twinge of pity in her soul for the poor man. If he were a little bit earlier, Dawn might have been all over him, but alas, time wasn't such a magnanimous young maiden. Dawn was captivated by different eyes, and she refused to let herself fall for them again. Even if she wanted to love another, it seemed her heart had been stolen by that person, and she would never have deigned to ask for nor steal it back.
"We will wait here for you," Rudy breathed, speaking up for the first time that night.
"Are you sure you don't want to come, Rudy?" Leaf asked worriedly.
"Yeah!" Dawn poked her head out from behind May. "You can go in for just a second! We won't complain!"
Rudy forced his lips into a mournful smile, the glimmer in his eyes fading. He appreciated their concern and their thought, but May knew he just couldn't bear to go with them. It was a simple matter, was it not? His heart would surely break if he had to stand before her shadow.
"I gave her up to the wrong man. I couldn't save her." What others said made no difference—the fault was his and only his, and he would never believe otherwise. He was never to blame, but when someone was convinced to be the reason for a grave mistake, it was difficult to make them turn around. It was already a miracle that he was bringing the girls to the most suffocating place he had ever set foot on.
"Come on, you two."
"Wha—May!" Dawn cried, chasing after the retreating brunette. "What about Rudy?!"
"Rudy will come in his own time," Leaf said softly, but the frown drawn across her brows too clearly betrayed her doubts. "He isn't ready."
"Oh, Lord! He really shouldn't hurt himself like that!" Dawn humphed. "That's too selfish, laying the blame on himself!"
"But he can't help it." May tucked a curl behind her ear, a sorrowful gleam trembling within her orbs. "He loves her. Why wouldn't he feel to blame? He let her go so she could be happy, and yet she is now…" She shook her head. She couldn't say something without knowing what had truly happened. That was a right nobody had. Voicing her suspicions might have evoked more stress from the girls, and that was the last thing she wished for.
"Even though he's not at fault." Dawn snapped out a derisive click of her tongue, her arms crossing dramatically over her chest.
"Honestly, I don't think that's so bad," Leaf uttered distantly as she fingered her earrings—a gesture May had learned that she was deep in thought and memory. "At least he is not an arrogant fool and his feelings for her were sincere."
"Are sincere, Leafy." Shadows that Dawn seldom wore glazed over her eyes, bearing a visage of hopeless longing. "Don't ever say that they were."
Leaf cast her gaze down at the ground, her hand dropping to her side, and her face contorting with resentment and spite at one who she couldn't see. There was nothing she could say to that.
May closed her eyes as a stinging sensation tingled behind them, which threatened to spill over her mascara. Dawn's sensitivity seemed far too contagious as of late. Now every time she heard or saw something that only had the slightest connection to the one they yearned for, tears never failed to shame her in public.
Tentatively, her hand reached for her throat, which had suddenly become full of thick mucus and bile when the prickling ceased, and her eyes reopened. How she despised the atmosphere of the place. Walking through the cemetery was a reminder that someday, she was going to end up the same as the rest underneath her—a rotten corpse buried in darkness, an insignificant skeleton mourned for, then forgotten in a new age. She didn't like to think of them in such a condescending manner, when they, too, were once living, but their spirits only seemed to further heighten her unease, and it was in no way appreciated.
Unease? Oh, the idiocy of her slow reaction almost diverted her attention from the greater matter. When had she become uneasy? Why did she feel sick? She had never felt so ill when she walked through in the past.
"What the hell are they doing here?" she heard Dawn hiss, her tongue dripping with an unfamiliar venom that almost seared her own skin.
Finally, the realisation struck her: she had been walking sightless for the whole time, even when she allowed herself to see again.
The world suddenly slammed into her eyes, jerking and clenching her heart like a beast would pounce on its blind prey, and they painfully tried to look beyond the odd, dark splotches of colour blotting their vision. For a moment, she had been floating in the air, wobbling and bemused, before her feet abruptly landed back on the earth—the hard and gritty stone, and with a final throb the colours dispelled from her sight.
How she wished they could blind her again.
Her heart sunk to her stomach and irksomely beat a disgusting rhythm that stirred her dinner as she regarded the man kneeling before her, his back turned and gaze elsewhere. More stood beside him, but he who was on his knees was the only focused individual in her vision. The ones she couldn't decipher were engulfed in darkness, but she needn't her eyes to know they were there—just as they had always done, their aura stifled and strangled the very air itself, so much so even a god couldn't have breathed in their presence.
"Do we have to bow down to you, Your Majesty?" Leaf sneered. "Or would you tie us to the stakes if we don't do so?"
"Leafy—" one man began.
"Don't you dare call me by that name!" Leaf bellowed with rage so immense the stirring within her friend's stomach had become violent churning. "I am not talking to you, so keep your goddamn mouth shut!"
"Gary, stop it," his companion growled lowly, the usual ice in his voice so intense and fierce that May's knees nearly buckled beneath her. "Don't bother with them."
"Paul, that's not—"
"Did you not hear him, Gary?" Her heart almost shattered merely by the weight of his voice. "When we tell you to stop, we expect you to stop."
Had that growing sickness not given her the strength to keep on standing, she would have certainly collapsed and broken down. If she were to humiliate herself and sob at their feet like a wretched widow, then she could never face herself again. Hatred had become a great and powerful manifestation of her will—that was the only thing keeping her strong. It might have been what people considered pathetic, but if her loathing hadn't smouldered like the flames they had set 'her' alight with, then she would have been nothing more than a breathing shell of a former human being. That would have been an insult to the one who had truly suffered from their burns.
"Long time no see," a chuckle sounded, void of any joy from their reunion, and he rose. A shift in aura, indicating movement, distance—then he turned.
A revolting chill slithered down her spine. May almost couldn't recognise him. His face hadn't changed in the slightest, yet she felt she was looking at a stranger. Was that how he sounded five years ago—despaired, mourning, and so desolate, with no life or happiness? That wasn't the light-hearted, playful and vibrant man she had known.
That did not matter. People changed, whether in five years or five moments—and he was no exception. Even if it was with this person, she could not smile so gladly and courteously when the one she abhorred stood right in front of her. The sickness she realised to be the cause of her will wouldn't allow herself to do such a thing. Bowing to him would have been equivalent to admitting a flaw they never bore, but she couldn't afford to express her rancour so openly when she was speaking to someone so high in status.
Perhaps she could not do the gesture of demanded respect—but there was no reason her tone couldn't act it.
Training a neutral countenance, she stared into his woeful dark russet eyes, and in a soft, steady voice that disgusted even herself, she spoke: "It has been a while, hasn't it, Your Majesty?"
He chuckled again, and the bile writhed like froth in her throat. "Five years, I think. Oh, and don't address me so formally; it feels really weird. Call me what you used to."
His smile was gentle, but still there came a bitterness that dirtied her tongue. "Just call me Ash."
Aaaaaaaaaand that's it! Gah, it feels so amazing to finish the first chapter! There's probably a bit of unnecessary description, but that's kind of how I roll, so I hope you guys can bear with me and like the story! It's not enough to send shivers running down your back, but this is my limit at the moment. I did work quite hard on this, so I'll be pretty sad if this doesn't satisfy you…
So let me get this straight: ASH AND MAY ARE NOT A COUPLE IN THIS FANFIC! I AM NOT AN ADVANCEDSHIPPER (that what you call it?)! And the guy who May couldn't look at… well, I think that's pretty obvious, but I'll give you a clue anyway: he practically has green everything (Another Hint: it's not Harley!).
Anyways, I'm happy to take in any feedback and ways to improve, so please leave a review!
The Happy Pen