"Daddy, where are you going?"
Norman turns around to see his son clinging to his leg like it's his lifeline. Ruby barely comes up to his hip; there are long, thick bandages wrapped around his too-small head, peaking out of the knit cap he loves to wear. He's looking up at him with one eye, luminous red and unmarred by the weariness Norman's come to know in adulthood. The other one is shut tight under the bandages.
His son is young, barely five years old. He will be at least seven before Norman sees him again.
"Daddy's going away for a while, Ruby." Norman placates, stooping down to pry Ruby's fingers from the fabric of his pants. The kid's strong, like him, and he feels a surge of pride along with a wave of shame. "But he'll be coming back before you know it."
"Where?"
"To Petalburg." His wife tells Ruby. She's standing a little ways from the two. Her voice is level, but the clench in her hands speak of how hard she's trying to hold everything in. But she's breaking. They all are.
"Why?" Ruby cries. He's starting to tear up and brings up a hand to wipe it. Norman catches it before he accidentally rubs on his bandages, and wipes away the drops that fall with the cuff of his sleeve. His heart wrenches. The boy's five; all he can see is his father leaving him, and he doesn't understand how someone who should love him is choosing something over him.
I'm doing it for you, son. Norman wants to say. I am willing to sacrifice everything so that you can have a slightly better future.
But what does a child know of sacrifice? Norman is doing that is best for his son, even when it comes to lying and leaving him, and Ruby will never forgive him for that. He rubs his thumb across Ruby's unbandaged cheek, soft against his many calluses.
"I got a position at the Petalburg gym. The Pokemon League there needs me." Norman says. It's a white lie, because Ruby doesn't need to know the true reason. "Go see if Sapphire's awake, Ruby. She loves to play with you."
"S-saph-hire's scared of me-e now." Ruby says, his words coming out in hiccups. Behind him, his wife starts to weep silently.
What does a child know of sacrifice? Ruby had stood up against a Salamence with a skitty and poochyena beside him and a frightened girl to his back, and got gouged for his deeds. His skitty is in the ER for massive blunt force trauma, poor Sapphire's avoiding him out of fear, and the salamence released a primal god from its containment in its rampage before being subdued. And now Norman must leave his family behind, a sacrifice he must make for the future of his loved ones. Ruby made a mistake, but if it were Norman there on that fateful day, he would've done the same.
Like father, like son, he supposes. Ruby is so much like his old man. Their courage was their best virtue, and it will be their greatest downfall.
Norman kisses Ruby. Hugs him as hard as he can without squeezing his broken ribs, hoping that this gesture will be the last thing Ruby remembers of his father until they can meet again. Then he gets up and walks away.
When he hears Ruby screaming his name, for him to come back, Norman knows the last memory his son will ever have of his father is how he left him.