Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related characters and materials are property of Game Freak and Nintendo.
Notes: Written for #10 'shooting star' at 500themes on Livejournal. I had this idea for a while and it came out a lot more coherently than I expected it to.
Lights Over the Ocean
By: Nanaki BH
"Somewhere out there," they said, "a little more up north." That was where they saw him; the shape of a dragon flying through the night sky with a young man riding upon its back.
He'd thanked the traveler and gave him a tip for his generous information and started heading north past Black City. There were few trainers on his way there to battle, a quiet path before him. He followed the river most of the way, the sound of the water nearly enough to send him to sleep, but he fought to stay on his feet. All the way, he kept his eyes on the stars, waiting and watching, expecting to see the familiar form of the black Legendary Pokémon soaring above.
Eventually, the river reached its end and spilled out over a waterfall. A few small blue flowers caught his eye, glimmering in the moonlight near the water's edge. Coming off the bridge that crossed the river, he crept to the edge of the cliff and knelt to pick one of the flowers. No matter how he held it, it seemed to reflect the light of the moon in the most amazing way and he smiled. He tucked it into his hoodie's pocket and tried to make sure that he wouldn't crush it.
After the bridge had been crossed, he knew it wouldn't be much longer before he saw the next town. He had a feeling that he knew where the water from the river would let out and his thoughts were confirmed when his feet hit sand.
In the distance, he could see the lights of Undella Town. The small villa town that it was, there were only the sparse lights from houses and street lamps. Towns like Undella without a gym tended to be small and relatively peaceful, away from the attention of many traveling trainers. It made him grateful that the beach at night could be appreciated without any interruption from vacationers and visitors alike as a result.
He came to find him, but even if he didn't meet him, he realized that he would be just fine to sit and enjoy the sound of the waves as they slowly and steadily rolled in to lap at the shore.
No, he thought, reaching for the tiny flower in his pocket. He wouldn't find him. N only appeared when he wanted to be found.
So he would wait for him. The same way he had waited for him in many towns before.
He lifted up the little flower and held it out in front of him, looking up into the sky with it so that it stood out with its shiny blue on black. The way that it glittered like one of the stars, he imagined it to be the biggest of them – like a shooting star. As he stood on the shore, the waves rising up around his ankles, soaking his shoes, he looked at the sky and made a wish upon it.
The wind brushed his hair aside, stroking his cheek. He hardly realized that his eyes had even closed until he heard the sound of the water being interrupted. The wind had stilled.
So soon already, he thought. He had expected to wait at least for another town. He'd passed through so many already looking for him.
He looked up slowly, into the eyes of the dragon Zekrom that gazed down upon him with red eyes that glowed like his flower. They looked at each other for a while that way and for some reason, its size didn't make Touya feel small at all. It was the ocean and the distance, their space between that felt so large. As the Pokémon bent its head, he gently placed the flower atop its nose and patted it.
"He likes those flowers. I think he could tell you had one."
"That's unexpected. He has good taste, though."
N laughed and dismounted, sliding down Zekrom's side and into the water without any concern about getting his feet wet. There was something about N's eyes when he looked at him, just like Zekrom, that made it so easy to see them even when he had his back turned to the moon. His smile, it was like he had no idea how worried he'd made him by being gone for so long.
"There's a guy who's been looking for you all over the place."
N stopped in front of him, hardly a foot between. "Here he is, huh."
Touya looked up at him and couldn't resist the smile that quirked up the corner of his mouth, but he still shook his head. "No, not me. Well, yes, me too, but..."
Gently, N lifted his cap and poked him on the forehead. "I'm not too worried. I have the best bodyguard, after all."
Right. How could he forget about the massive dragon standing behind them? It was probably laughing at him on the inside as it listened to him stumble over all of his words, too. It wasn't like it was a god or anything, but it had an immense presence that went beyond its size. There was no doubt that it was able to keep N safe. One sweep of its wings could probably send a police force flying.
"I should've brought Reshiram with me..." he thought aloud. It was just extraordinarily hard to take the thing anywhere. He didn't want to trap it in a pokéball, so he let it out to do as it pleased. He wasn't psychic; he couldn't just call it and make it appear, so it wasn't very reliable for anything other than showing up at inopportune times.
"Funny that you mention him. He's the reason I'm here. I just saw him yesterday and he told me you were looking for me."
"Are you..." This is N, he had to remind himself. Of course he's serious. Of course Reshiram would tell him about how he was looking all over for him. Now he probably sounded like a stalker.
Never mind that. For as strange as the circumstances were, N was still standing in front of him and that more than made up for anything else. In his head, he hadn't sorted out what all of this probably meant to him, but all that he knew was that he'd be happy as long as he knew that N was safe. The last he saw of him, he was diving off a ledge backwards. Zekrom may have been there to break his fall, but that still wasn't the kind of image you should leave someone with.
Noticing his silence, N cleared his throat and rubbed at the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry," he said. "For getting you worried about me."
"You should worry about yourself. Like I said, there are some people who still aren't too happy about the whole Team Plasma thing. I'm sure you don't have Zekrom with you all the time, and this guy has a tendency to show up when you least expect it. You have to be careful."
"What's his name? Can I get a description, at least? Again, not that I'm too worried," he said reassuringly, patting Zekrom's wide neck.
Touya sighed, finally giving in to the fact that N had no idea how much trouble he could get in.
"His name's Looker. He's... an investigator or something."
"Sounds conceited with a name like that."
"He is, a bit." He made a face. "He hit on my mom."
N chuckled, holding the back of his hand against his mouth in a poor attempt to hide how amusing he'd found that. Relenting to Touya's glare, he waved his had at him and then looked up toward Zekrom. "You want to come with us?"
Riding on Zekrom? It wouldn't be any different than flying on Reshiram, he supposed. Zekrom was staring at him like he was daring him to say no and he'd probably be lying if he told N that he didn't want to come with him anyway. Besides, he'd probably have a better chance of keeping N safe if he accompanied him. If they ran into Looker, then at least he'd be there to explain things better.
He nodded slightly and N was already jumping up onto Zekrom's back, extending a hand out to him. Their feet were dripping, the legs of their pants soaked, but N didn't look like he cared. He just had on that mysterious smile he always had, the brim of his hat casting a wide shadow across half of his face, the moon shining brightly over his left shoulder. Before he even realized what he was doing, Touya's palm was in N's. His fingers felt warm as he gripped his hand and pulled him up. He nearly fell off once up was up there, so he clung tightly to N's waist – jolting back a moment later when he realized what he was doing.
"Hm? You might wanna hold on."
"Bu-" He couldn't spare any words when suddenly Zekrom's large wings were flexing up and flapping with powerful strokes that caused the water around them to splash and rain down on them and then they were taking off, heading up and up with each flap of its wings. His arms instinctively found their way around N's waist again, holding on tight as he tried to keep himself from looking down.
Eventually though, curiosity got the best of him and he cracked open an eye and timidly peeked over Zekrom's side to watch the world beneath them get smaller and smaller.
"We're... really high up."
N reached behind him and put a hand reassuringly on Touya's knee. "Don't look down if you're scared." He pointed up, toward the moon. "Look up."
A familiar sight, the moon was always there in the same spot, even if they were standing right on the ground. Somehow, that worked and made him feel less like he'd fall off at any second. N's hand there on his knee wasn't half bad either.
As faraway and unreachable as it was, it felt like they were soaring toward the moon and the blue shimmering flower, which miraculously stayed right in its same place atop Zekrom's head shone brightly, glistening through the sky now like a real shooting star.