Rolling Girl

-A oneshot, Steven and Flannery centered fic-

Rolling Girl is always in a dream that will never come true

"I've decided to hand the gym over to my dear granddaughter, Flannery."

She felt nervous as she stood before the whole Hoenn League. She didn't know what to say, but she knew she had to say something.

When she felt the warmth of her grandfather's hand retreating from her shoulder, she felt uncertainty bubble up inside of her. What was she supposed to do? Was she standing up straight and in a proper, professional manner? Did the rest of the league accept her as the new gym leader of Lavaridge?

Her eyes uneasily scanned over the rest of the gym leaders. When she saw her best friend Winona as well as Wattson, she felt slightly better when they both gave her a reassuring smile.

Before Flannery could open her mouth to speak, to properly greet everyone, she heard someone else speak up before her.

"Are you sure you made the right choice? She seems a bit immature to me," Roxanne said with an air of arrogance.

Flannery stammered and stuttered. She could feel her cheeks turning red from the embarrassment and a stabbing pain in her chest. "I...I...-"

"Roxanne! You're in no position to criticize her!" Winona exclaimed. "We're all here to encourage one another! Not to put each other down with petty insults!"

This time, it was the twin gym leaders that spoke up.

"You know," Tate started.

"We don't mean to be rude and all," Liza continued.

"But Roxanne's right. We both think that Mr. Moore could have made a better decision."

Flannery bowed her head down in defeat as she heard the other gym leaders fighting amongst one another. She heard the harsh criticism from nearly all the gym leaders except for Winona, Wattson, and her grandfather, who were the only people trying to defend her. She felt like running out from the room. She felt like crying or breaking down in front of them. However, she knew she shouldn't. That would only prove them to be right.

She was inexperienced and immature.

"I think she has potential."

Flannery widened her dark red eyes slightly and looked up. At the very end of the long table, she saw the esteemed, current Hoenn League champion, Steven Stone.

There was a moment of disbelief that passed through her head. Did she just hear the champion of the league...complimenting her?

Everyone quickly grew silent. The arguments stopped on both sides as Steven stood up from his seat. He kept his warm, yellow eyes on her as he continued to speak. "I think she'll be a fine gym leader, just like her grandfather." He smiled warmly at her after wards.

Flannery immediately heard a scoff from Roxanne, who was sitting the closest to her.

She lowered her eyes in defeat, quickly forgetting Steven's kind words to her.

It's a mistake, what a mistake

"You know the Lavaridge gym leader? She's so easy to defeat! Getting a badge from her was a piece of cake!"

"She actually considers herself to be a gym leader? That's so sad..."

"Please tell me the rest of the league isn't going to be as easy as her. If that's the case, I'll become champion in no time!"

She heard it. She heard it all. Everything that the trainers she battled would say, everything that the other gym leaders would say...

Even though they quickly shushed each other whenever she was around, they couldn't do it fast enough. She still heard them say those painfully discouraging things.

Weak, pathetic, a failure...

One more time, one more time. "I'll be rolling again today."

It felt...strangely pleasant.

She had been cutting up vegetables in preparation for her dinner. However, upon accident she ended up creating a small cut on her finger with the cutting knife. Flannery stared at the small injury for a while, watching the bright red blood flood out of the wound and down her finger. When it started running down her arm, she took the knife and held it to her finger again.

"She's a failure. It's like she's not even trying to defend her gym."

That's not true.

"She only got the gym because of her grandfather. If it wasn't for him, she would a nobody."

I am trying my hardest...but I don't know why I keep failing.

Those overlapping voices in the air, she just keeps mixing them together.

Flannery kept her eye on her mangled hands as she watched him run his thumb over one of the bandages. She flinched when he accidentally pressed down on a small bruise.

"What happened?" he asked her.

She looked up at him and saw a look of concern over his face.

Please don't look at me like that. I don't deserve it.

"It's nothing," she muttered, quickly taking her hands away from him. Flannery felt irritation rise up inside of her when she felt him reach out to gently touch the gauze pad that was taped to her swollen cheek.

"If someone's hurting you Flannery..."

"Didn't you hear me? I said it was nothing!" She suddenly lashed out at him. Flannery took a step back away from Steven, who looked at her in shock. What was she doing? She was trying to push away one of the few people that actually believed in her. However, she found that she couldn't contain her fiery anger. "Just leave me alone! You don't have to check up on me like I'm some kid!"

Steven lowered his eyes and turned away from her. Instantly, Flannery felt regret for yelling at him, but it was already too late to try and apologize.

"You know," he started, "what I said a few weeks ago...it was true and what I'm about to say right now is true as well. I think you're already a great gym leader."

Flannery glared at the tiled floors, finding herself unable to believe his words. She waited until she heard him leaving the gym. Once he did, she clenched her teeth and whispered out, "liar."

No matter how many times the mistakes are made the slope is tempting me to roll on it again.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

Flannery remained silent as she felt him sweep away her bangs to reveal the bandages on her cheek and the white eyepatch she now adorned. She no longer felt ashamed of her injuries in front of him or in front of anyone else. She no longer felt anger or sadness from what she heard from other people.

"...Your grandfather told me you were a bright, energetic girl."

Used to be. "I see," Flannery murmured, staring blankly at her raw, red hands. They throbbed constantly from the pain that was being inflicted on them daily. It hurt in the beginning, but...she somehow got used to it by now.

"I know what other people say about you."

Don't...

"I thought you would be able to get through it all."

Shut up.

"Where's that potential I saw in you before? Where is that girl, Flannery? The one that will still smile and move on even if someone calls her a failure."

Flannery quickly clapped her hands over her ears and tightly squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear anymore. She couldn't tell what was the truth or what was a lie and frankly, she didn't want to find out anymore. Each criticism, each heart-stabbing comment, she wished to forget them all. She had accepted that she was a failure, weak, and hopeless. She had accepted it all, but then...why didn't the rumors and comments stop?

Please let me roll again one more time.

She was kneeling on the ground. She kept her head down in order to keep from seeing his face.

"How much longer are you going to do this?"

Flannery could feel his eyes on her. She tugged at the sleeves of her long, baggy shirt. She no longer wore her usual clothes that consisted of a tight, baby tee that showed her bruised up skin. "As long as I keep failing...I'll keep doing this."

"Why...?" His voice sounded soft and gentle as always. How she hated it...

"By doing this...maybe I'll find perfection."

"Flannery, look at me."

She slowly raised her head and looked up at him. She gave him a lifeless, cold stare. The flame within her was nothing, but smoldering embers. Her lifelong passion to become one of the best gym leaders was gone, caved in by the harsh critiques of others...and herself.

Without her knowledge, a tear slipped out of her eye as she looked up at him.

She was tired. Tired of doing this to herself and tired of listening to what other people said about her. She was so tired of everything...

Flannery bit her bottom lip and started to cry heavily. She could no longer see him. She could only see a huge blur of nothingness because of her tears. Slowly, her hands made their way up to her neck. Her aching hands tightened around her throat as she said in a broken voice, "I want to stop breathing."

Her unspoken words...

Flannery widened her eyes as she felt him embrace her. It all happened so fast.

Before she could tightened her hold around her neck so much that she was to choke, he fell to his knees and took hold of her wrist, stopping her.

She could smell the freshness of his cologne as he held her head against his shoulder. Somehow, the scent relaxed her.

"That's enough," he whispered in her ear as he held her tightly. "Don't do this to yourself anymore. You're sick and tired of this...aren't you?" Steven took hold of her injured hand and held it tight enough so that it wouldn't slip out of his hands, but gently enough so that she didn't feel any pain.

Flannery felt new tears well up in her eyes when she felt the warmth of his hand. It felt so inviting and comforting...

"You're not weak...you're not hopeless...and you didn't fail. You're not perfect either, but I think you're just fine."

She felt him place her hand on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her. Flannery let her hand slide down until she her wrist touched the cool metal of his armband. Her tears blurred her vision again, but this time, she could see clearly. She looked up at the window that was behind him and saw the bright blue sky. How pretty...

"...So don't stop breathing now," Steven whispered, tenderly holding her. "Not when I need you."

Flannery clutched at the black fabric of his blazer and closed her eyes at the sound of his voice. She felt her tears rolling down her cheeks as she buried her face into his shoulder.

This feels nice too...perhaps even nicer...

Rolling Girl had come to an end...

A/N Yes, this is a oneshot. Maybe it's a songfic because I was greatly inspired by the Vocaloid song "Rolling Girl." I was listening to it for the whole time I was writing this LOL

You can go listen to it here (Please take out the spaces in between): h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = T 8 W C E 0 0 O u Z o

I guess what tempted me to write this was that I thought the theme of the song fit nicely with Steven and Flannery's personalities. Basically, the song talks about a girl that tries her hardest to achieve success/perfection, but she always ends up failing or not satisfying herself. In response to this, she "rolls" which means she just hurts herself for her failures. In the end, her "mentor"/savior stops her from killing herself and tells her everything will be fine.

I thought Steven fit the part of the "mentor" quite well and I know Flannery's a young, new gym leader, so I thought she would be looked down upon by the other, senior gym leaders because of how inexperienced she was. I think her inexperience was shown in the anime episode which had her first appearance. She was very clumsy from what I remember. ^^

Just to note, this oneshot takes place over a course of a few months. It's not like Flannery suddenly started to hurt herself in a short time period of a week or something.

I know it might have been a bit OOC of Flannery to act this way, but I can't help but wonder if she really does receive harsh criticism from other people just because she was a young, inexperienced gym leader as she was portrayed in the manga/anime/games.

Hope you guys enjoyed it!