Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

Summary: The first thing that came to her mind when she looked into his eyes were that they looked like the ashes around Mt. Chimney - a beautiful sort of chaos. StevenFlannery, oneshot

Okay, so this is my new pairing obsession. Flannery is one of my absolute favorite gym leaders and Steven is just…yum. Just sayin'. Anyway, I thought I'd give this pairing a try. I'm a tad intimidated, since the people who write this pairing are absolutely excellent at it, but hopefully this is okay! I hope y'all enjoy!


Like Ashes


Flannery wasn't the type to go all nuts over some guy.

That was what she thought, at least, until she met him.

He was the quiet type, or he looked it, with a mop of slightly spiky and unruly gray hair. The way he carried himself exuded silent confidence - something that she found doubly attractive. Most guys that she knew were loudmouths that flaunted their strength for everyone to see, but this guy…this guy was different, she was sure.

He was dressed in an impeccable suit, professional to perfection. Except, there was a slight roughness about him - a swagger, if she got the term correctly. But there was no cockiness to him. Just a silent, grateful exterior masked by an undeniably handsome face. A quiet power that she found herself drawn to. It was strange, the draw that he had over her, and they barely knew each other.

But, despite everything else she had noticed about this man…there was one thing that stood out to her above anything else.

His eyes.

It was something childish to notice, but she couldn't drag herself away from his gaze.

They reminded her of the ashes that fell from and surrounded Mt. Chimney - a beautiful kind of chaos.

She would notice that they could shift in color depending on his mood - lighten or darken. It was a peculiar thing, something that allowed her to notice the slight changes in his actions more acutely. One day they would look like a clear, beautiful gray sky - those were days when he was cheerful and light-hearted. She also noticed that when he had to duel, or when he was in an equally determined mood, they would darken so much so that they looked like liquid steel, hard and ferocious and the very sight of the set of his eyes would cause shivers to break out across her skin, her stomach to twist itself into a knot, followed by a strange tickling sensation in her gut.

He had looked at her, once. It had been a fleeting thing, a simple smile with his eyes that had haunted her to this day, making her feel like some kind of romantic fool with her notions that someone like him would actually stare at her with those intentions. But she was a girl, and girls were allowed their delusions of romance, no matter how left-field or ludicrous.

She realized that she might feel something more for this guy than she originally thought. Well, to be frank, she knew that the first time she saw him. She knew that he was different, that he would be someone that she would come to care for. Just after that first glance, she knew. Which probably made it even more pathetic in other people's eyes. But not to her.

No, definitely not to her.

She kept waiting to get over it - to get over him, but it never happened. Every time she seemed to be getting the thought of him out of her mind, there would be something - the fluidity of the hot springs that reminded her of his eyes. The ashes that constantly fell from Mt. Chimney.

She'd find herself wandering outside Lavaridge and into the place where the ashes flowed more freely, out in the field where they would flow around her, get tangled in her hair, scratch her eyes. She didn't care. It was something that would remind her of him, and she welcomed it, spreading her arms out and embracing the black snow.

She did this, and figured that she'd wait forever.

She'd wait forever just to have him look her way like that.

Just for him to look her way and smile.


End.

So! There it is! It's really short, but I enjoyed writing it. I hope that everyone else liked it too, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this fic of mine! Please review, and thanks for reading!