A/N: Did another prompt night last night. This is the only one that stuck out to me as standing on its own. Call it kind of the spiritual successor to Years Lost, though it's way shorter since it was written on a time limit.
Worldly
How do you find someone who is also searching, much less who is searching for something intangible?
White and Gold found each other at the base of Mt Coronet. Neither is who the other is searching for, but want and need are often two different things.
Gold is upbeat, enthusiastic, and a braggart; his travels in search of his missing friend, a boy in search of redemption, have done nothing to weaken him either spirit or actual strength. He's been earning badges as he goes, and when White overhears him bragging about his latest, bringing his grand total to 29, she can't help but challenge him.
No one here has heard of the man she's looking for, and though he still insists on a six-vs-six even after seeing the legendary dragon she rode to Sinnoh on, she knows Gold won't know either.
He's far louder and more worldly than N, but something about the Johto boy and the way he affectionately thanks each of his pokemon reminds her of him anyway.
The victory goes to Gold when Reshiram bows and asks White to concede; they can still win easily, but using more of Reshiram's strength would risk severe injury of the older boy's last two pokemon. Maybe it's that humility and concern that leads him to lean over and kiss her as they talk on the Center's couch, or maybe it's just a sign that he's finally starting to mature. In his younger days, he would have insisted they fight until the end.
But in his younger days, he wouldn't have taken her hand and kissed her so gently, either. He's picked up girls before, but always with clever lines and cheesy winks, never with a wistful sigh and a quiet explanation of his own quest.
Silver taught him to listen, but he hadn't really perfected the art in time to stop him from leaving to search for his missing - possibly even dead - father.
White turns her head away at the kiss, warning him that she's in love already, and that she won't fall for the wiles of an older boy so easily. When he apologizes, she asks if he can stand not to look for her when she leaves in the morning.
He answers that Silver is his priority, but he makes no promises beyond that, but reminds her what his home town is, just in case.
He's been in the room of girls he just met that day before, but none with so much dirt beneath their nails and so much history shining in their eyes before. Inwardly he curses the three years he spent idle before Silver vanished as her steady hands trace his form and her lips make light of the two years and six inches he has on her.
While she hasn't traveled nearly as much as Gold, White has known purpose for longer. This time, for the first time out of all the pokemon center beds he's sat naked upon, he is the distraction, the one being used to fulfill ignored needs and refuel emotionally before her quest renews at daybreak.
When she settles onto his lap to claim him, her lips tight against his, he wonders for the first time if he has misunderstood what Silver left to search for.
She laughs dismissively when he thanks her some breathless fraction of an hour later, his arms still tight around her waist, and he feels a pang of jealousy; aimed not at this N she's searching for, over having her heart as his own, but at her, for having found a purpose so easily.