A half-baked idea from the group chat. Their reunion... was less cheesy than anyone had guessed. And more focused on footwear.
It had been nearly three years. Three long years of chasing ideals and finding truths. Touko had been defeated as champion by Iris, who was defeated by a new trainer named Rosa. Touko had been glad from her defeat, Iris was a wonderful trainer and it meant she could travel with her pokemon again. She had been in Kalos when she heard about the fiasco with the reunited Team Plasma freezing half of Unova, and Rosa's heroics. She had seen a news report and decided it was time to go home. Especially when she saw a flash of tea green in the corner of the holocaster.
As she stepped off the boat in Castelia, Touko breathed in the familiar Unova air. And wrinkled her nose. Castelia City smelled bad. She had taken an overnight trip, so she could travel straight home. She headed towards an open space to call out her braviary, but stopped in her tracks, the crowd pushing around her.
She had spotted a patch of light green walking through the crowd. No, she realized as she madly pursued the faint hope, not walking. Gliding? She nearly stopped in confusion, then the crowd thinned as they approached the end of the pier. And when the realization hit Touko, she wished she hadn't pursued him. There was N, the man she'd been hoping to see for most of three years, only a little more grown, and in heelies. Her mouth nearly dropped open, but instead it was a sigh that escaped her lips. I should have expected something like this. Wait, he's not stopping! Touko watched as N, seemingly lost in thought, rolled right off of the pier's edge. She cried out in alarm as he dramatically flailed his arms, belly flopping. His hat was left bobbing in the waves.
Without a second though, Touko dove off the pier. She spotted a blur of green and white thrashing his way towards the surface, then reached out to grab a pale hand and yanked upwards, propelling them both to air. N took several gasping breaths, coughing up a bit of water. "Thank yo- Touko?" N gasped, causing him to cough again. Touko laughed and called out her carracosta to help them out of the water. He even got N's ball cap! After thanking him and returning him to his pokeball, Touko turned back to a still-shocked N.
"It's good to see you unharmed after the incident a few weeks ago." She was trying very hard to ignore the elephant on the pier.
"And you as well. I was looking for you." N had stopped coughing completely, and wrung out his dripping hair. "I have to tell you something."
Touko couldn't take it any longer. "N, can I ask you a question first?" He nodded. "Why the crap are you wearing heelies, that you rolled off the pier in?"
N looked confused, then brightened. "Oh, my shoes! Aren't they wonderful? They're so efficient! I can get places much faster than walking."
Touko simply sighed and shook her head. Of course that's his thought process. "They certainly helped you get to the end of the pier faster. Please don't sacrifice your dignity for the sake of efficiency."
Now he was very confused. "Dignity? But Touya has some, too, and he has dignity. He actually gave these to me."
Touko nearly swore. "No, N, no he doesn't." She started to laugh, the still confused N muttering that he thought he understood dignity. She never could have imagined that their reunion would happen like this. But she wasn't surprised either.