A Memory to Share
After acquiring the first 3 badges on his journey, Calem decided to return to Santalune City and Santalune Forest to train a newly-hatched member of his team. Making sure his EXP Share device was set to the "off" position, he continued south on Route 3 until he was near the entrance to the forest. He stopped in front of the entrance and looked up toward the tops of the trees, watching them sway in the breeze. A group of Fletchling flew out of the forest, flew out into the open air for a bit, before making a u-turn and flying back in. Calem sighed. He knew everyone was far ahead, preparing for the next stage in their journey, whether it be preparing for the next gym, or gathering information on places and pokemon to help them along their path, so he had retreated back here to sort out his mind. He had caught a bunch of pokemon, and really wanted to take some time to find out which ones he wanted to continue his journey with. He was also doing this to rid himself of other thoughts that had been bothering him recently, especially ones concerning some of his new friends.
He was snapped out of his trance by someone lightly tugging on the sleeve of his blue jacket. Knowing none of his pokemon were out at the time, he slowly turned around to find a familiar face looking back into his gray eyes. Her unique hairstyle and pink tee adorned with three black bows were easily recognizable to the young boy.
"Hey, Shauna. What are you doing back here?" Calem asked, surprised at her appearance here.
"I-I kind of followed you back here, and I was going to ask you the same thing." She replied, concern showed on her face
"I just hatched a pokemon egg recently, and I decided to come back here to raise and train it for a little bit. I'll be back with everyone soon, don't worry." He tried to assure the curious brunette
"Is that your only reason?" She asked, staring intently at Calem's face
"I wanted to come back here to train, yes." Calem replied, turning away to hide his embarrassed face. He didn't want to admit that she was one of the reasons he wanted to be alone.
"It'll help focus my mind for the challenges that will be waiting for us on the road ahead." He continued, looking back up at the treetops
"Ok. I started to get a little worried, C-Meist… Calem." She said, slightly relieved before going to stand at his left side. She also looked up at the trees when she noticed he was.
"It's ok, you can call me whichever name you want." Calem said, chuckling slightly and glancing at her.
"If it were up to me, you'd be 'Li'l C', since you lived here the shortest of all of us." She said, glancing back and giggling.
They both looked back at the forest again, and Shauna let out a small sigh.
"This was the first place we all went to as a group. Our first real memories as Pokemon Trainers with our pokemon." She recalled, not noticing that Calem was pulling out a small cube-shaped box out of his bag. "Do you remem-"
"Yes, I do, Shauna." Calem interrupted "They were my first memories of not only our pokemon journey, but of Kalos also."
Calem turned toward her and, fighting off the nervous feeling plaguing him, tapped her shoulder. She turned to him with a curious look on her face.
"Actually, I remember more than you may think." He said before setting the small box in her hands.
Shauna stepped back, shocked and surprised at the sudden gift. She looked down intently at it, trying to guess what was inside. Calem, once he was sure Shauna was distracted by his present, quietly walked into the forest and out of sight. His face was red now, flustered by the fact that he was finally able to give it to her.
Shauna opened the top flap of the box to find a pokeball. The top red part had a sticker on the front that was just like the bows on her shirt and shoulder bag. This caused her to let out a loud gasp.
"Calem…" she said softly, covering her mouth with her free hand, "I-is it really…?"
She took the pokeball out of the box, letting the box fall to the ground. She held the pokeball in her hand for a few seconds, eyes glimmering with excitement and happiness, before flipping it into the air to release the pokemon inside. The light travelled down to the ground and took the shape of a mouse. Shauna let out another loud gasp when the mouse was shown to be a female Pikachu.
"It is!" She exclaimed, holding both hands over her mouth now "Oh my Arceus! Thank you Cal-"
She stopped when she looked around to find out that Calem was no longer there with her. Her face immediately fell, and she frowned.
"Aw, Calem, why did you leave me? You didn't give me the chance to say thank you…" She said as she crouched down and embraced her knees and looked at her new pokemon.
Her new Pikachu noticed her sadness and walked up to her and leaned against her knees. Then Pikachu noticed some paper in the discarded box, and went over to investigate. Shauna's eyes followed the electric mouse before noticing the paper herself.
"Oh, there's something else here." She said, taking the paper and sitting down on a nearby bench to read it, her new Pikachu followed and sat next to her. The letter read:
"Shauna, of everything I remember from our adventure in Santalune Forest, I also remember hearing you say that you wanted a Pikachu before we all exited, but couldn't seem to find one. I happened to meet and catch this very one while we were all in there. I wanted to give it to you, but every other time we were together; we were too busy doing something, or I was too nervous.
Our pokemon journeys are about making memories, and I knew that this would be something you will always remember. I want you to continue making great memories on your journey. With this Pikachu, with me, and with everyone.
Your good friend, Calem"
Shauna smiled, placing the note in her bag "He's right. I'll see him plenty of times after this, and we'll do plenty of things on our journey worth remembering, like that fireworks show at the castle…"
She blushed remembering the fireworks, "When I see him again, we're going to give him a great big hug, ok?" She told her Pikachu, who responded back with enthusiasm.
"Ok, come on, Pikachu, we got some work to do!" She said, standing up and running back north to Santalune City with Pikachu following behind.
Disclaimer- Pokemon and all characters and aspects therein are copyrighted to Nintendo and Game Freak
Geez, I'm in front of the second gym, and I already get this kind of feel for Shauna in the game. You spend the most amount of time with her (which I know is the same no matter which sex your player is), but I honestly get a different connotation from what she says in the game when your character is male, like in Santalune and in Camphrier Town, and ESPECIALLY in Parfum Palace during that fireworks show.
When I first got the idea for this, I had no clue if shipping titles were already created for all of the XY characters, but I really wanted to use "FireworksShipping" for this pair just because of that particular scene in the castle. However, when I researched it, it turns out that not only was that title taken already, but this pairing was already named "BrightTomorrowShipping" I now mark this shipping as one of my favorites that I support.
I've been marinating this idea for a couple of days, and it finally came together, and I wanted to get this done as soon as I could before the idea left, as inspiration is a fleeting luxury for me now.
