Disclaimer: Pokémon and all related concepts are property of Nintendo, Game Freak, Pikachu Project, and the Prime Minister of Japan for all I know. Without further much-ado-about-nothing,

By Lantern Light Studios Presents:

Come Hell and High Water

Memories,
the Chill Wind of Autumn,
and an Unexpected Gift.

The sun rose, the rays of dawn peaking over the top of the forest to burn off the mist that had rolled in overnight from the bay around Mt. Pyre. Cameron Roberts flexed his gloved hands, stiff with the cold. It was that awkward portion of autumn, when the summer's heat had faded but the chill of winter had yet to move in. Cameron shifted the hoe in his hands to lean on his shoulder and lifted his arms so that the gloves were directly in the newly revealed sunlight. As the wan light slowly defrosted his digits, he took a moment to survey his work. He'd been up for several hours already, tilling the post-harvest stalks and stumps back into the soil.

One field over Albireo, the ancient Keckleon that had belonged to his grandfather, was still hard at work doing the same. The small complement of Oddish that lived on the farm were trooping back to their plot for a long day's sleep, and a chorus of sleepy bell-bella's announced that the Bellossom were waking. The two Sunflora (imported from Johto at no small expense by his mother, Guardians rest her soul) were also up. One of them, probably Sora from the markings, was sweeping the porch. Cameron blew out a foggy breath and got back to work. Field wasn't going to clear itself.

They took a quick siesta at lunchtime. After the mist had burned off, the day had warmed up to somewhere around 15°, and Cameron had been grateful for the tray of lemonade that Merri had brought out. The Sunflora had a tendency to mother him and the other Pokémon, including Sora, who didn't always take it well. The two Sunflora often squabbled, but never actually resorted to attacks. Cameron privately supposed that it was only a matter of time before the two went off to make an egg.

Checking the solar battery's power (full green) Cameron flipped on the computer to check his mail. The whirr of the cooling fans synchronized with the hum of the miniature teleporting unit as it came online. Way out here on Route 123 it was several days walk back to Mauville City to the west, Mt. Pyre to the northeast, and trackless forest in every other direction, so the ridiculously expensive unit was a necessity in the case that any of the Pokémon were too injured to take care of at the farm. Sure enough, the 'new mail' icon was blinking at him on the screen. Cameron's heart rose in his chest. He didn't get much mail... or any at all... other than what Ami sent him.

Ami. They'd first met in the middle of a thunderstorm. It had sprung up without warning in the late afternoon, as spring storms are wont to do, and Cameron had been soaked to the bone trying to bring in equipment from the fields. Just as he'd managed to shut the shed doors behind himself, the wind had snatched his wide, conical straw hat from his head. Cursing, he'd chased after it into the thrashing stalks of wheat. A bright flash and immediate deafening crack of thunder prompted him to look up.

The scene would be burned into his memory forever. Himself, in the center of a field of flowering wheat, gazing up as a girl with long brown hair in a blue sundress and a charred Pelipper came crashing down. Some automated system in a pokéball detected failing lifesigns and the critically injured Pelipper disappeared into the red light of a return. Cameron reached out to catch the airborne girl.

The impact had, of course, sent them both tumbling into the mud and painfully wrenched Cameron's left arm from its socket. Carrying the girl with only one working arm proved challenging, but an exhausted Cameron managed, bursting though the door of the farmhouse with the sky-girl over his shoulder and collapsing into the worried arm-leaves of two anxious Sunflora. While he re-located his arm (an excruciating experience) Sora and Merri carried the girl to his old bedroom.

She'd woken up the next day, thankfully uninjured by the fall. After profuse thanks for the rescue and apologies for his arm, she'd begged the use of his teleporter to send her Pelipper to the Pokémon Center. A bemused Cameron had offered to put her up while the Pokémon healed, and she'd gratefully accepted.

Ami, or as she introduced herself, "The up-and-coming #1 water-type Pokémon master," loved water-type Pokémon with all her heart, hated electric-types after a Minun shocked her when she was four, adored Misty (some water-type trainer associated with a gym in Kanto), liked Pidgey-noodle soup, and couldn't stand the noise it made when you blew over a piece of grass. Her Pokémon Journey was nearly halfway done, having collected four badges, and she had been flying to Lilycove from Mauville via Mt. Pyre for shopping when the surprise storm rolled in... All this in one breath. She was bright, cheery, and above all, talkative, especially considering Cameron could go for months at a time where the only conversations he had consisted of the other party saying variations of their own name. She insisted on helping out after seeing how weak his left arm was (it'd fade in a couple of days). Ami and the Sunflora got along like a house on fire, and the Bellossom were fond of her as well.

That had been an interesting conversation, come to think of it. About a week after she'd arrived, the Pelipper (named Popeye, of all things) was still at the Poké Center and Ami was helping Cameron and all the farm's Pokémon chase off a swarm of attacking Nincada intent on devouring the crops. Cameron was methodically thwacking anything that buzzed too close to him with his favorite hoe, while Ami was laying about with a broom he'd loaned her. Things were pretty desperate- even the Oddish had been woken up.

"I'd noticed-" she punctuated the syllable with a heavy swing that connected with an audible crunch, "That you've got-" whoosh-crack, "An awful lot of Oddish-" whoosh-thunk, "And a bunch of Bellossom-" whoosh-crack-thunk (two for one), "But no Gloom? What-" whissh-thwack, "Happened to them? Hii~yah!" whoosh-snap.

Cameron, engaged mano-a-mano with a Ninjask, took a moment to answer. "It's-" ching, "The-" clang, "Damn-" thunk (a parry), "Rocks!" He executed a trick lunge which hooked the hoe blade behind the Ninjask, tearing its wings off, the move cleanly flowing into a devastating spin attack which gave him some breathing room. "Ha! Anyway, half the rocks I've dug out of this field are sunstones. Every time a Oddish evolves into a Gloom, bam! Instant Bellossom. Damndest thing you ever saw." A group of five Nincada gathered their courage and threw themselves at him at once, drawing Cameron back into the fray.

Ami's look of open-mouthed astonishment, quickly replaced by aggrieved annoyance as a Nincada almost got past her, was priceless. "But those are-" whoosh-crash, "Oh no you don't! Those are rare-" whissh-thwap, "And expensive! A-ha!" a sideways stroke sent one of the invasive insects barreling into a group of three others, knocking all four for a loop.

"Good one!" he'd called, and laid into another cluster with great prejudice. "Well, if the crops fail," snickt, "I'll take up rock farming!"

Later, laughing as they'd trudged home covered in bug guts, exhausted but happy, was the first time Cameron had felt the stirring of something that might have been more than friendship.

The continued blinking of the mail icon brought Cameron out of his reverie. Double-clicking, a video window came up. "Hey, Cameron!" Ami's familiar voice came through the tinny distortion. The video pickup showed her in her blue sundress, face shielded from the sun by a cute pink wide-brimmed hat. She was silhouetted against a beach at sunset. A flock of Wingull circled and wheeled in a cloudless orange-and-mauve sky. "Guess where I am? Ever Grande City! Hehehe, I know, right? I never thought I'd really make it! But you gave me the courage to do it. When I saw you, working so hard to make your parents' dream come true, I knew I had to give it my all, too!"

Cameron shook his head. She'd always been giving it her all, a hundred and ten percent, all the time.

"Anyway, the actual League Championship isn't until the beginning of next month, so I figured I'd spend some time relaxing! I'm actually headed out to Pacifidlog Town tomorrow. But, but, but! Today I went fishing... and I caught something!

Cameron raised an eyebrow. For a water Pokémon trainer, Ami had always been terrible at fishing. He had, in fact, never met anyone worse. Despite the fact that her Rod was top-of-the-line and Cameron usually used a stick with some string tied to it, he regularly out-fished her. It was probably a question of patience.

Onscreen, Ami pouted. "Mou~! I can see that face you're making! I did, I really did! And it's super-mega-ultra rare!"

Cameron raised the other eyebrow. From the timestamp, and the sunset, this had been filmed last night. He supposed she just knew him that well.

"Really! He's male, which is like one-in-four, and he's a different color than normal too, which is like, one in a bajillion! Yeah!" Ami gave a victory arm pump, then looked back at the camera. The excited grin faded into a shy smile, and she started blushing slightly. "and well, you know what they say about... anyway, I named him Daisuke. I''m sure you'll figure out why. You'll like him as much as I do!" The fierce grin returned, juxtaposed with her blush. "I'll call you when I get to Pacifidlog, 'kay? Bye~" she blew him a kiss.

Smiling contently, Cameron sat back in the beat-up wicker chair. It was... really sweet. Just like her, really. He'd have to write a good reply later since he didn't have a video pickup. A dialogue box popped up, informing him that the attachment had been loaded to the teleporter. Cameron tapped the return key. Daisuke, huh?

The teleporter activated with a high whine and the crackle of static electricity discharges. In a flash of blinding light, a blue and white ball appeared on the pedestal. Cameron glanced at the indicator for the solar battery; orange- it was pretty much drained. With the flick of a switch the teleporter turned off, and Cameron started to shut down the PC. The solar cells would probably need the rest of today and tomorrow morning to charge. Oh well, so much for typing the reply. He stood up, walked over, and picked the ball up off the pedestal, turning it over in his hands. "Devon Co. Dive Ball" said small lettering on the hinge.

Cameron wasn't a Pokémon Trainer. Despite living and working beside Pokémon for as long as he could remember, he considered himself a farmer. He'd never gone on a Pokémon Journey, never battled for a badge or the sake of battling, and the the only Pokémon "training" he'd ever done was teaching newly-evolved Bellossom how to use their arms to pick weeds. So he felt pretty silly, tossing the pokéball his girlfriend had sent him, saying the formulaic words. Cocking his arm back, he depressed the button and let fly.

"I choose you! Daisuke!"

Halfway across the room, the Dive Ball emitted a lance of red light, then retreated back to Cameron's waiting hand. The formless red blob shaped itself into a stylized heart rotated 90° clockwise, then abruptly gained color and definition.

"Luvdisc love!"

Cameron laughed. "A Luvdisc! I should've known." He juggled the empty ball to his left hand and held out his right, as if to shake. "Hey there Daisuke. Name's Cameron. Looks like you're stuck with me, huh?"

Daisuke swam through the air to nudge his wedge-shaped face against Cameron's palm. "Luvdisc!"

Cameron stroked the Pokémon's top ridge, and Daisuke's eyes closed in bliss. Muttering to himself, he recited, "'There is a custom from long ago of giving a Luvdisc as a gift to express one's feelings.' What's that make you, with your 'heart of gold,' eh?"

"Lo~ve" Daisuke almost purred as the rubbing continued.

"Ha! Got that right." He'd have to spend the rest of the afternoon getting the wording just right on the letter. Cameron was no poet, but a gift like this deserved some effort. Besides, anything for Ami.

Cameron introduced Daisuke to the other farmhands, then spent the rest of the afternoon daydreaming as he worked; of Ami, what he'd write to her, and her next message from Pacifidlog.

That message never came.

Production Notes:

[Alpha]: Blame [Ideal] for this one, it's all his fault. We've already got too many projects going at the same time, and none of them are even posted yet! But it's his birthday, so what he says goes. Ah, about the Daisuke thing. For those of you not up on common multilingual puns, the Japanese name "Daisuke" is phonetically similar to the verb "Daisuki," which is best idiomatically translated as "to like in a romantic sense." What do you know, you've learned a new word! Two, if you count idiomatically. Nah, just funnin' ya.

[Proof]: Not much to say about this one, except that those little accented e's in the middle of all those Poké-words? Yeah, somebody's gonna get a Bic to the eyesocket before this is over. Curse you OpenOffice and your lack of keyboard shortcuts!

[Ideal]: Happy birthday to me! And so, a reverse birthday gift for all of you! This fic sprung fully formed from my head, like Athena, two nights ago, so I badgered the whole studio into getting it written on time. Ain't I a stinker?

Next time: Delays, Some Cause for Alarm, and a Precipitous Decision.