Silver opened his eyes, staring at the bleak branches of a snow-coated tree in midwinter, and immediately remembered that he was alone, as always.
He sat up, thrusting himself out of his sleeping bag. Beating the snow off of it, he rolled it up and shoved it in the backpack he'd been using for the past seven years. Someone had bought it for him in the Goldenrod City department store, much to his chagrin at the time, and he could almost still catch her aroma whenever he picked it up.
A pang filled his chest at the thought of her, but he dismissed it gruffly. He'd had roughly three years to get over the fact that he'd ruined things with Lyra, the only person who'd ever really cared about him.
It didn't change the fact that he loved her, even though she looked at him with a dull ache every time she saw him.
In fact, he'd seen her just three days ago in his latest attempt at defeating the Elite Four. Her darkened gaze seemed to stab him vigorously through the heart in the way that her brown eyes and easy smile used to. However, that hadn't been a pleasant stab when she looked at him with a look that was not at all hers.
He wanted to die when her eyes locked onto his with that expression.
"Ral?" Silver glanced over to see his Feraligatr gazing at him. These days, the Pokémon didn't let Silver as much as bring a Pokeball near him without growling. Sometimes Silver wondered if Feraligatr worried that his redheaded Trainer would take his own life or do something to harm himself. After all, it wasn't exactly that far-fetched of a plan.
Silver stumped over, stiff from six hours spent sleeping in the chill surrounding the Lake of Rage after some vigorous training, and patted Feraligatr on the head. "I'm not going to do myself in, you fool," he said, faint affection in his voice. Long ago, there wouldn't have been any kind emotion in his voice at all, talking to his Feraligatr. "If I would've done it, you know it would've been after what I did when I was fourteen."
Gathering his scant belongings, he headed south, toward Mahogany Town.
"…and so after the Hoenn, Marill and I have been in the Sinnoh, trying to figure out the differences in behavior between Johto Marill and Sinnoh Marill. Really, there aren't many, but Sinnoh Marill seem like they're not too bright. Anyway, what've you been up to in the past few years, Lyra?"
Lyra and her long-time friend, Ethan, were eating in a café in the Goldenrod City. They hadn't seen in each other in at least two and a half years, having split up to follow their own paths in life. However, as soon as Ethan directly asked what she'd been up to, Lyra nearly choked on a mouthful of Caesar salad. Swallowing the lump of bitter greens, she twirled one of the ends of her hair nervously. "This and that. I lost my title of Champion to Red again, just yesterday," she said, settling on that answer. It would occupy Ethan. He adored the majorly silent Trainer…and didn't exactly realize that Red was pointedly silent with him and not so much with Lyra—at least, he used to be chatty with Lyra. Regardless, Red actually knew a number of excellent off-color jokes about Blue Oak and his world-renowned grandfather, for example, and most of them had some seriously inappropriate and unexpected punch lines.
Ethan's eyes sparked, thankfully. She wouldn't have to get into the dirty details of what had happened since her fourteenth birthday. "Really? Which of his Pokémon did you in? His Charizard? His Pikachu?"
"His Lapras, actually. It got my Arcanine with Brine. I shouldn't have hit it with that Flamethrower, but I was getting tired of the battle." She stirred the lemonade sitting near her and gazed moodily out the window. Lyra wasn't particularly upset about the loss. She was tired of dodging an overly theatrical Will's pathetic romantic advances and falling prey to a bored Koga's ninja traps, anyway. Plus, Karen and Bruno hadn't exactly been the best company, anyway, being fairly moody and ungodly intense respectively. "I might challenge him again and get back my title someday, but for now, I'm pretty happy without it. I'm actually looking forward to not having any obligation for a while."
Ethan patted his Marill, who was busily munching on a platter full of Oran berries. "You sure? You've been defending that title for years, Lyra."
She shrugged and gave her best smile. "I should work on my Pokedex, anyway. Professor Oak is getting antsy."
Gray eyes directed toward her, Ethan frowned. He leaned forward, gazing at her. "Lyra, I haven't seen you in person for a few years, but I still know when something's wrong with you, and now is one of those times," he said, studying her face.
I battled Silver three days ago. I missed him so much. He was one of my only challenges a few years ago, but I messed up not long after you left. I wanted to apologize for everything and just talk about the stupid things we used to talk about. But I couldn't. I almost lost to him. And then I lost to someone I thought I was able to trust and like, she silently explained, but out loud she responded, "Nope. I'm just tired. I was Champion on and off for six years, Ethan."
Giving her a few seconds' more scrutiny, he shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. "Yeah. You do look kind of frazzled and tired," he decided. He pointed at her bag. "So what Pokémon do you have now?"
"I have Typhlosion, Arcanine and Xatu with me right now," she said, naming three of her original Pokémon, "and three months ago I evolved the Eevee that Bill gave me into a Glaceon by trading it to a pen pal of mine in the Sinnoh. Professor Elm gave me a Mienfoo that was traded to him from some other girl who owns a Pokedex in a different region. Plus, Steven Stone from the Hoenn gave me a Mudkip." She released the Mudkip, who immediately cuddled against her. He was very young, timid, and seemed to not take himself very seriously—training him was going to be difficult, but Lyra accepted the challenge.
Ethan looked at the amphibious little Pokémon and smiled. "Hey, Marill, look! It's a Mudkip! You remember the one we met in the Hoenn region, right?" Marill quit eating for long enough to take a look at the Hoenn starter, shrug, and then resume eating.
Giggling at the Marill's actions, she stroked Mudkip's head fin. If only my little friend here took after Silver's Feraligatr. Thinking of the redhead returned her to a somber state, and Mudkip immediately noticed. He nuzzled her hand, murmuring, "Mudkip, mud." She continued petting him, hoping Ethan wouldn't notice her sudden mood swing.
The two talked a while longer and then parted ways. Ethan was headed back to Newbark Town to celebrate his little sister's fourteenth birthday—had she ever grown up quickly!—and Lyra decided she'd head up to Ecruteak City and stay with the Kimono Girls for a night. Kuni claimed that her Vaporeon wanted to meet Lyra's Glaceon. How she knew that when she couldn't understand her Pokémon's language, Lyra couldn't exactly be sure, but she'd play along with it. She needed something to do, anyway.
Returning Mudkip to his Pokeball in preparation for the snowy cold outside, she left the restaurant and entered the swirling white atmosphere of Goldenrod City in the winter.
"Silver! How's that Sneasel of yours doing?"
The redhead leapt about a mile at the sound of the crotchety old Gym Leader's voice. He can still really creep up on me… "Damn it, Pryce!" Silver sputtered, jumping from his seat outside of the town's run-down little shop. His Feraligatr chortled at the scene, which earned him a glower from Silver. "And are you senile? The idiot's a Weavile now! How long were you standing there?" Silver asked Pryce tetchily, making a horrible attempt at masking his jumpiness with irritation.
The old man poked at him with his cane. "A few minutes, you dolt. What were you doing? Was your head in the clouds, boy?" he asked. Pryce rarely smiled—much like Silver, in that sense—but his old, sharp eyes often expressed what he was feeling far more than the rest of his face did, anyway. Since they were both such grouchy people, Lyra had made them talk and train together back in the day, leading to this strange almost-friendship they had.
And, of course, his thoughts were back to Lyra.
Pryce lifted an eyebrow. "Answer me this: were you thinking about the ex-Champion?"
"Lance? Red?" Silver asked, confused. Either way, I hate both of them, but especially Red. He always seemed to like Lyra so much.
Whacking him in the stomach with his cane, Pryce snapped, "No, Lyra! She lost her title to Red again, stupid! It was just yesterday or the day before, I think."
"Oh." That's my fault, then. I think I broke her heart, showing up like that. How stupid was I? If she knew what was good for her, she'd be angry at me for tripping her up like that. He sat down again on the bench that had recently been installed outside of the shop, staring at his feet with hard, garnet-like eyes.
Pryce stooped to stare at the young man. "If anyone's going to be sitting, it might as well be me," he grumbled and then plopped down heavily beside Silver. He tweaked Feraligatr's tail fondly. "Hey, Toothy," he started, using his affectionate name for the Water-type starter, "did he at least manage to apologize to Lsyra when the two battled?"
Silver whirled on the old man. "How do you know that? I didn't even tell you that we'd battled!" he yelled, earning the attention of a little girl playing with a Swinub nearby. Feraligatr again chortled at his master but then shook his head solemnly to Pryce. He doesn't really know how to, in spite of the passing of three years, his wise, crocodilian eyes seemed to say.
Pryce gazed at Silver and crossed his arms. "Well, was the battle worth it, at least?"
"No. I probably totally screwed things up for her when Red came in to challenge her after me," he said. "You know what I did to her. She had this pained look on her face during the battle. She almost lost, too."
"Well, way to go. You helped unseat the Champion," Pryce joked, clapping the young man on the shoulder. Silver swallowed his nausea and remembered how Lyra looked before he came in. It was undoubtedly a worn-down look about her—it was not at all like her. Sure, she'd been tired at times when she'd travelled around the Kanto with Silver when she was thirteen. But this was something else entirely.
He almost equated her to being world-weary, like him.
Silver glanced up at Pryce. "Quit joking around, baldy. I think she's depressed."
"She's been slowly losing purpose, just like you."
"PRYCE!" Silver snarled, scaring the little girl and her Swinub. Receiving a fierce glare from Feraligatr, he lowered his voice. "You think I don't know that?"
Tapping his cane thoughtfully, Pryce scratched under Feraligatr's jaw before replying, "You're awfully worried about her. You still love her?"
"…never said I did, but yeah." Silver pointedly watched his Feraligatr, who shot him a dopey grin of self-satisfaction. Never asked for your opinion, you fool, Silver thought at his Pokémon with a pointed look.
Pryce against whacked Silver with his cane, earning a few choice words from the seventeen year old. "Then apologize, you idjit! Better late than never! Even if it's too late, at least you know you did what you could with the ridiculous amount of time you gave yourself, you damned procrastinator! Plus…" he shot a look at Silver. "I could call her. See what she's up to in the pretense of knowing what she's doing with herself, now that she isn't the Champion for the time being. Then I'll send you wherever she is."
That isn't a horrible idea, coming from this geezer, Silver thought, exchanging glances with his vigorously-nodding Feraligatr. His strongest Pokémon endorsed it; it couldn't be so horrible, could it?
Smacking the young man with the cane one more time for good luck, he fished a dented Pokegear from his pocket. Without as much as asking Silver for consent, he dialed Lyra's number.
Lyra was in the National Park chatting with a young Bug Catcher about the pros and cons of evolving a Scyther into Scizor when her Pokegear rang. "Excuse me a moment," she apologized to the boy, and she dug into the pocket of her red pea coat to answer the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello, Lyra," said the raspy voice of Pryce. The old man's sudden call startled her; he so very rarely used his Pokegear these days. "I heard about your defeat by Red."
She sighed. Is this what I'll be hearing from the Gym Leaders now? "It came down to the wire, but we lost. Red's always been better me, and he really showed it this time." She grimaced a bit at the thought of the Trainer. He was just another guy who managed to be there for her and suddenly disappear, no thanks to her stupid, sunny attitude.
Oddly, she heard a crash and a muffled curse that didn't come from Pryce in the background. Pryce sighed and replied, "The young man is certainly a tough one. But, Lyra, what are your plans now that you're not Champion? Are you going to regain your title?"
"No." The answer shocked even her. She'd worked so hard for her title; in fact, she stole it back from Lance twice now and Red once. But yet she didn't want it anymore. Lyra realized she was exhausted on a number of levels and just wanted to do something less stressful. "Tonight, I'm staying with some friends and goofing off, but I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life yet…and I kind of like that," she admitted.
Pryce harrumphed. "You youngsters and your capriciousness. Where are you at?"
"I'm in the National Park, but I'm headed up to Ecruteak. Kuni of the kimono girls invited me over to show her my Glaceon and gossip," she said sheepishly. Pryce didn't have time for that sort of story.
He seemed to shrug as he responded, "Good. Do as young ladies do and have some fun for a while. You were very worn out, last I saw you."
"Thanks, Pryce. Do you want to battle sometime soon?" she asked, knowing that she could easily take him down these days even if only three Pokémon of her current party were from her original Championship one.
"No! Just relax and head to Ecruteak and have fun, kiddo. If you see Morty, tell him you're not battling. And then whack him upside the head like so. He borrowed my favorite pair of snowshoes and didn't return them like the miscreant that he is." He abruptly hung up, leaving Lyra to wonder exactly why the cool-eyed Morty had ever needed a pair of snowshoes. Hadn't he always hated snow?
She gave it little extra thought and bade the Bug Catcher she'd been talking to a good evening and headed north through swirling snow. Ecruteak City was on her radar now.
Silver waited impatiently with a throbbing hand from where Pryce last whacked him with his cane as the old man complained about the kimono girls. "They're always getting themselves stuck in the Ice Path and then I have to save their sorry behinds or call Clair to do it, and Clair is never pleased when I ask her to do things. She has little respect for other women. I don't know how Lyra managed to befriend her and the kimono girls on the side, but she did it. She's a miracle worker."
As Pryce took a breath, Silver held out his good hand to silence the old man. "Look. If you hadn't noticed, I need to get to Ecruteak City!" he growled, pointing toward the route heading back toward Ecruteak. "You're right about one thing, and I really do have to try and set things right. So, geezer, I have to run."
"DON'T CALL ME GEEZER!" Pryce roared and lobbed a hastily-made snowball at Silver's back as the young man trotted off with his Feraligatr tottering along behind him. The redhead shot a brief gesture at him that wasn't necessarily kind before disappearing from Pryce's sight.
The old man sighed and plopped down on the bench. "I tell you," he said to no one in particular, aside from one slightly bemused girl and her equally-disturbed Swinub, "if I'd had that conversation with Silver years ago, things wouldn't have unraveled this much between them. I daresay the young man doesn't know how to say sorry. Well, at least Lyra's a good person to learn with. She's far too kind. If someone hasn't already taken advantage of her, someone else certainly will." He dusted the snow off his slacks and hobbled back to his Gym. The doors closed behind him, leaving a quiet world of white snow behind him.
A/N: Welcome to my first-ever fanfic posted for others to see. I'm glad that you're reading this!
A few things to note:
I know Silver's Sneasel stays a Sneasel in the games, but come on. I doubt the power-hungry redhead could resist temptation with a Weavile involved.
I've always interpreted Pryce's character as being that crotchety old man who manages quite a bit of sass. I mean, he doesn't seem like the sweetest guy in the HG/SS or in the originals.
And I'm sorry for the slow first chapter, but I need to set things in motion a little here. Plus, if you're worried that I'm not describing Pokemon physically much, I've heard this before, and I just think that anyone reading Pokemon fics must know what a Feraligatr or a Swinub looks like. They're not my first description priority.
Thanks for reading! Leave a review if you'd like!