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Sunset Vista
By: Nanaki BH

I stumbled backward, tripped over a branch, and fell, hitting the back of my head on a rock. I let out a strangled yell (my nose might have been broken, for all I knew) and Typhlo jumped to my rescue. His courage was admirable. He was as beaten and as injured as I was, yet he still had something in him that pushed him to keep fighting for me.

The Heracross made some kind of angry snarling sound and charged. Typhlo was lucky he had the type advantage or else that Heracross would have overpowered him with its Tackle; the same Tackle that finally put me flat on my ass.

Overwhelmed and frightened now by the power of Typhlo's fire, the wild Pokémon retreated, leaving the two of us to rest and catch our breath. Healing myself wouldn't be as easy as healing my Pokémon, I worried. I pushed myself up onto my palms with some effort and dragged myself back until I collapsed against a tree. Each breath that passed my lips was forced and labored. A couple frustrated tears slid down my cheeks.

I was lost.

Lost beyond belief.

Who knew what I was getting myself into when I left New Bark? If my mother saw me, she would have been horrified. I just had no idea that wild Pokémon could be so savage compared to the ones we kept at our house. Getting lost in Ilex Forest was like the worst thing that had ever happened to me. The Pokémon I brought from home were barely helpful as they had hardly been trained. In the end, the Cyndaquill that I got from Professor Elm had proved to be the most helpful to me.

I opened my arms lightly, weakly, welcoming him into my embrace. The flames on his back subsided and he relaxed on my chest. I released one slow, trembling breath and my eyes fell shut.

When I opened my eyes again, I could have sworn it was raining. Alas, it wasn't but there was surely water on my face. My eyes were incredibly foggy. When I tentatively touched my face and peered down at my hand though, I could clearly tell that I had been bleeding. It was dry blood though, probably from my nose. The familiar warmth had left my chest at some point too, I noticed.

Typhlo.

I sat up with a start, my eyes flying open, trying to adjust as quickly as possible. I frantically searched the ground beside me and came face to face with someone I didn't care to see.

"Silver," I growled nasally.

"Gold," he returned, with a bow of his head. "It's good to see that you're doing alright." His voice was just dripping with sarcasm.

My sudden anger was soon to wane though when I noticed him screwing on the top of a water bottle. I rubbed the back of one hand against my cheeks, wiping away the water and cleaning off the dried blood at the same time. To be quite honest, I wasn't feeling so bad anymore. I had felt worse when I fell asleep, that's for sure.

But I wasn't sure if I was supposed to thank him or not. Silver was my rival, after all. I looked back over at him and realized he wasn't paying attention to me anymore. My attention was drawn instead to a rustling in the bushes. My hand instinctively flew to one of the empty pokéballs at my belt and I poised myself to throw. The rustling grew to a crescendo and out tumbled Typhlo and Silver's stolen Totodile. My jaw gaped and the pokéball fell from my now loose grip.

I turned to Silver, grabbed his sleeve, and gave it a tug. "You healed him?"

He didn't reply, though.

I let my fingers slip from the fabric of his shirt. Thanking him would have been of no use to me if he wouldn't want to receive it.

I rested back against the tree again and breathed a relieved sigh as I watched Typhlo play with his friend. He had been agonizing over that recently; the thought that he may never see Totodile again. It was sad, really, watching them play so happily. I knew that in a matter of minutes, Silver would leave and walk away with him again. Typhlo had no idea. Or maybe he did and he was just trying to savor his time with his little pal. They're smarter and more intuitive than I credit them to be.

Somehow, I knew that Silver was thinking the same thing I was. When he stood, I knew that he was standing to leave. Quickly, I grabbed hold of his wrist to keep him there with me. Lord only knows why I stopped him from going. He stopped, though – like I'd hoped. He just stopped, slowly turned in my hold, and looked down at me with that piercing gaze of his. They were sad, pitiful eyes; the eyes of a bully.

"Where are you going to go?" I asked him.

"Anywhere but here."

It wasn't much of an answer, but it satisfied me enough. When I let go of his wrist, he didn't budge. He stood standing in the same place near me, completely still as though pondering something deeply.

His eyes lifted to the sky – or what was visible of it, at least. The thick canopy of leaves overhead only allowed for a little bit of light to filter through. Typhlo and Totodile stopped playing and stood as stiffly as Silver, their heads tilting up to the tops of the threes. I followed their line of vision and looked up, just in time to hear a rustling – a pat, pat, pat – in the trees above.

Quickly, and rather unexpectedly, he turned and grabbed me by the arm, hoisting me up to stand. "Let's go!" he shouted over the rising sound of the rain. He retrieved his Totodile and I had only a few mere seconds to return Typhlo to his pokéball before he dragged me along behind him.

I had never seen rain come down so hard before. It was all so sudden. (Typhlo would have hated it!) At first it was slow pattering on the leaves, but then it was like the leaves couldn't take it anymore. They couldn't stand holding so much rain so they just gave up. They dropped the weight of the water from their hold and it all came flooding down in buckets.

He had to have realized that we wouldn't make it out of the rain in time. In only a couple yards, I was already thoroughly soaked. My shirt and my shorts started to feel heavy with the dampness. As the puddles collected on the dirt path, my socks were soon dripping wet, too. At that point, it wasn't long before my shoes were also flooded with sloshing rain water.

Usually, I don't much like rain, but I found myself uncontrollably laughing as he pulled me along. It was fun. Great, hilarious fun. I tightened my hand in his but I found myself falling behind.

He looked so serious…

He had this incredibly stoic and serious look on his face; like he believed we were running now to save ourselves from getting wet as if that hadn't already happened. I was already completely soaked in water and so was he.

I couldn't help it anymore. An irresistible smile tugged at the corners of my mouth and a laugh found its way to my lips. I tried so hard to keep from laughing anymore – I really did. And the more I laughed then, the more I fell behind. To my surprise though, I tripped. My foot caught a rock in the path and I fell forward, face first, dragging him down with me into the muddy road.

He spun around and tried to catch me but only succeeded in landing on top of me with a grunt; both of his knees landing on either side of my waist. My laughing ceased and was replaced with some uncomfortable groaning. I sat up and rubbed at my scraped knees.

"Idiot!" he snapped at me, lightly whacking the side of my head with the back of his hand. I winced. "You're already hurt, do you want to get sick now, too?"

I looked up into his eyes; they had changed now, somehow. They were softer, gentler, and they completely betrayed the rest of his face. His frowning lips, his bared teeth, and his scowling brow – they tried to portray anger but his eyes were anything but angry.

"Why are you so mad?" I asked.

Not mad, I knew, but concerned.

"You're my rival!" he said, his arms down beside me pinning me effectively in place. A part of me was still a little intimidated by him, though. Sensing that intimidation and fear, he began to back away slowly for me, putting his hands down on his thighs, but leaving his knees where they were beside me.

I noticed the blush on his face. It was almost as bright as the red of his hair; definitely hard to miss. Awkwardly, we stared into each other's eyes, the rain continuing to pour down on us. Inspired by curiosity, I put my hand on top of his. He quickly wrenched it away and glared at me as though I'd done the most offensive thing in the world.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Silently, I wondered the same thing. I must have been crazy. If his reaction to me simply touching his hand that way was so strong, I could only imagine what he would do after what I wanted to do next. There was something in his eyes that told me he wasn't as afraid as I thought he was, though. Hesitantly, I lifted my head, closed my eyes, and leaned forward. I was surprised to feel his lips meet mine halfway in a soft and gentle kiss.

He pulled away soon after, though, his face expressionless.

"You'd better not tell anybody that happened."

Why? Because I was sure that he enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Author's Notes: I actually wrote this out months ago and it had yet to reach any real conclusion. All I had to do was write a couple more lines to end it, too. I hope you enjoyed the story. Reviews are much appreciated!