Kishigo: Hello, this is my first Pokemon One-shot :) I think it could have been longer and a bit better, but it's 4 in the morning, so shut up. I don't own Pokemon, enjoy! (Warning, this might be a little sad) :'[
One step after the other. That's how it started, ten years ago. One hard step after one more, than another.
That's how it worked. The trail never changed, it just grew worse. It never lightened, only grew darker, until she was lost. She was lost, and yet to be found. Though, deep in her heart, she knew she wouldn't be.
The ruins of the castle were still very vivid with dieing lust. Lust to see their king again. It had just as much lust as Touko had. They had been waiting for their king.
Ten years.
She tried to relive the times when she did have him. Sometimes when she returned to her old journeyed paths, she stopped by the Ferris wheel. Maybe he was hiding there. Maybe she could find him.
Many times she rode that Ferris wheel. Sometimes she swore she caught a glance of his white shirt or his long green hair but when she turned it had vanished as if it were absolutely nothing. The silhouette just disappeared.
Ten years, she never found him.
The routes. They never grew shorter, the nostalgia never died, the Pokemon never changed, the journey never stopped repeating.
Nothing ever changed, ever. Nothing ever would.
Not until he returned to her. The queen missed her king dearly. What happened to the vow of never leaving each others side? The promise that they would never miss each other because there would never be a situation that they would have to? What happened to that?
Touko asked herself that question for ten years. Ten years. How many times had she sat on that throne of theirs, staring fatally into that door, its golden shine fading as the years went on? Almost none of the grand castle rooms were used anymore, and most of the structure was falling apart from years of use or wear. Touko had honestly released all her Pokemon except for her starter, hoping that the act would allow him to return. Unfortunately, it didn't.
The Unova region and most of its residents were at a standstill. After he left, it rocked Unova and the entire region went into shock; nobody could continue their daily jobs unfazed. Everything changed after that: nobody said hello anymore, no one was friendly anymore, and nobody smiled…there hadn't been a trainer battle in years.
Ten years. To be precise.
Catastrophic.
The champion and the Pokemon league had stepped down and quit. Less and less trainers started their journeys at the age of ten, and a lot didn't start at all. This inevitably led to the fall of the gym leaders as well. There were only three gym leaders left, and they were on the verge of quitting as well. No one battled anymore, anyway.
The remaining Pokemon that were in captivity were commonly used as house pets. This was wrong. Pokemon weren't house pets; they were fighters, battlers, and coordination stilt and built Pokemon that needed battles. They needed the battles they weren't getting.
Touko continued strolling the great hallways of the castle. Team Plasma, of course, had gone long ago, thankfully. What remained were a few hidden shadows of its previous members scattered all over Unova. They didn't cause trouble anymore, and nobody dared to step up and take their place. In her spare time, Touko had tried to solely manage the castle—that didn't last long, so she just tried to maintain herself. That alone was a very hard task. She had also tried to fix some of the damage prone across the region that she was leader of.
She would admit it. It was hard to do alone.
Touko opened a vulnerably weak hinged door—the child's play room. Touko lidded expression deepened as she leaned down slowly to tenderly pick up a toy train, allowing a stuffed Zorua to fall over. She sat down and toddled with it for a while, moving it side to side as a child would do with similar locomotives and vehicles. She let her hands rest on her knees. It was hard to take in, really. Where was he? Why hadn't he returned to his queen? She pondered it…why…
…Ten years ago…
She got up and continued venturing through the corridors, glancing at the old yet agelessly beautiful pictures still hanging on the walls. They stared back at her wearily.
She heard a shuffle behind her, and she turned. In front of her stood Serperior, her calculating, loyal and final Pokemon. It purred as Touko approached it, patting it cautiously on the head. Everyone had changed, yet aside from the dull scales, Serperior had remained remotely the same. She didn't know why. The emerald Pokemon nudged her hand and it let its tail slide near her feet, briskly scathing it. She leaned her head onto the Pokemon. Serperior understood her, unlike so many others; maybe because they had been together since the very beginning.
As they followed each other to the end of the hall, they reached the dining room, long oak table chipped and rotting. Touko blinked, the memories flashing under her eyelids. Oh, the nostalgia. Memories with Gehtsis, the seven sages, the shadow trio…everybody…
Where were they now?
They continued up to the throne room, where she sat. Again she would wait. She would wait for her king. She had been planning it; really, he would come into the room, bursting through the doors as if they were brand new. His crown would glimmer under the light and he would shine and smile, he would stride towards Touko, walk up and kiss her.
If that would happen, she would wait. Just like how she had been doing for ten years. If she had to, she would wait forever. She would die in that throne, for him. Anything for him.
On the far wall, she noticed, was a casing. Inside were the eight Unovian badges, all of them aligned in their won order, the only problem was they didn't shine. Not anymore—heck, they hadn't been polished in forever! They probably wouldn't be polished ever again, actually. They would be left to rot like everything else that Touko thought she couldn't handle.
Finally, she got up, slithered out and walked two rooms down to her final destination for the day. Looking behind her, she realised Serperior was no longer behind her; she remembered he slept in the play room, for he felt the most comfort there, apparently. She paid no heed to it and opened the creaky doors to their… her bedroom. Again, it was hard to watch something they used to share together grow old, withering away like her hopes had of him returning.
Accept it. He wasn't coming back.
She crawled underneath the blankets of the master bed. She knew she cared, she wanted him to come back, she wanted him to be under these blankets with her, cuddling her with his warmth. She had to accept it. She had to. Letting the days events and thoughts rush through her head one more time, she finally let a tear slide down her face, collecting all her pain. Touko sighed,
N had died ten years ago.
R&R Please!