"Quick! In here!" I urged, pointing in the direction of a small recess in the rock. I ushered Iris inside and followed after her. It was well-timed, too: as soon as we darted beneath the cover of the little rock formation, the already-violent rain began to cascade with even more strength and vigor.
As I shook the rainwater from my hair and wiped the moisture off of my vest, I turned to inspect my surroundings a bit more closely. The area was small, perhaps five feet wide by ten feet deep, and high enough for me to stand up comfortably. It wasn't large enough to be called a cave, but the craggy mountain that housed it gave me hope that perhaps, elsewhere in its perimeter, Ash and Cameron had managed to find an equally suitable shelter.
"Cilan?" I turned to find Iris staring at me, her slight frame quivering from the chill of the bitter air.
"Yes, Iris?" I crossed the dimly-lit cavern and stood in front of her, endeavoring to use my own body to block out some of the wind chill.
"I'm freezing," she replied bluntly.
"I see. Well, let me see what I can do." I knelt and began to dig through my backpack, searching for a pack of matches to light a fire. We usually had Ash's Pignite to assist with this particular task, but in his absence, we were left drenched and utterly freezing. I finally located the aforementioned matches at the bottom of my bag and succeeded in starting a small fire with the fallen branches outside of our makeshift shelter.
Iris leaned against the wall of the rock formation, shivering as the warmth of the fire began to dance through the interior of the hideout. It pained me to see her tiny body in so much discomfort, and I wasted no time in fishing a blanket out of the bottom of my bag and spreading it on the floor of the cavern. She sat immediately and I extracted another, smaller blanket, taking care to wrap it around her shoulders.
"Thank you, Cilan." she whispered, ever-present smile gleaming up at me.
"You're very welcome, Iris. I'm happy to help!" I managed to muster, but my enthusiasm wasn't running nearly as high as usual. I only had one match left, and if this rain persisted... I shuddered at the thought, not particularly relishing in the fact that we were trapped in the pouring rain. Not to mention that we had gotten completely separated from our friends...
Iris, however, noticed my hesitance and crept closer to me on the blanket.
"Is everything alright?" She asked, earthen-colored eyes dancing with worry.
"I – yes, I'm fine, Iris. I'm just a little worried about the others, and I'm hoping this rain slows down so that we can make it to Humilau quickly. I apologize for being so stressed out."
"You don't have to apologize, silly!" Iris exclaimed, throwing herself at me in a spontaneous tackle-hug. I smiled at her playfulness; she was always so full of energy and it never failed to lift my mood. "Wow, you're cold." She noted, her arms still wrapped around my body. "Here, get under the blanket. It's big enough to share."
"Ah, Iris, you don't have t–" She cut me off as she wrapped the blanket around my shoulders as well. "Thank you."
She simply smiled in response, and we were quiet for a moment; staring out at the rain with the blanket draped lengthwise over our shoulders. I was momentarily glad that it was big enough to cover two people in such a position; if it had been much smaller, we would have been uncomfortably smashed together – not that I minded the idea of being pressed up against Iris. In fact, it was the exact opposite: I longed to hold her, to touch her, to inhale that delicious citrusy scent that tempted and teased me every day of my journey...
I was unceremoniously yanked out of my mental soliloquy by Iris sighing wistfully.
"What seems to be on your mind?" I inquired, determined to keep my tone light and conversational to compensate for the dreary weather outside. Had she not been playful and energetic just a moment ago?
"Ash has eight Badges."
I blinked, trying to comprehend why this blatantly obvious fact was stated with so much sadness in her voice.
"...And you find this so saddening because...?" I pried, trying to fit the pieces together. Where was she going with this?
"Because the Unova League is coming up. And after it ends, Ash will want to explore another region, and I don't know what I'm going to do–" her voice cracked at the end, the slight quaver in tonality being the only thing that betrayed the difference between introspection and dismay. She caught herself and steadied it immediately. "–when this journey ends. Will he ask us to go with him, Cilan? Or will he just leave? Will I have to go home? I hate the idea of not being able to travel with you two anymore, because –"
She froze mid-sentence, noticing that I had pulled her into a hug.
"Because you...?"
She glanced up, continuing quietly: "Because I love traveling with the two of you. I'll miss you both so much if our journey ends so suddenly."
"Oh, Iris." I pulled her into another spontaneous hug, longing to hold onto her for as long as she wanted; to tell her that I would follow her anywhere. I left on this journey because I had been inspired by Ash, but along the way, I had fallen in love with Iris. That fact was irrefutable at this point, and I knew she was right: with Ash's impending League challenge, the window of time to declare said fact was rather small. Had our journey really gone by that quickly?
I admit, there had been the briefest bit of hesitance on my part to even admit to myself that I was attracted to, much less in love with, the purple-haired fireball. If someone had asked me just a few short years ago what I thought of when I imagined the woman I wanted to be with, someone with so much manic charisma wouldn't have come to mind. Then again, that was before Iris paraded into my life and decided to make herself comfortable.
It was a strange transition – I hadn't even had much time to transition at all, as Iris' thoughts and opinions were something you got to know all at once. She was an enigma: haphazardly energetic and notoriously hard-headed and recklessly stubborn. And it didn't take long for me to fall in love with every single aspect of her personality. She had things that I lacked: playfulness, assertiveness and aggressive determination. My own vivacity paled in comparison to hers.
Two-and-a-half years ago, I would have described someone totally different when asked about the type of person that I pictured myself with. These days, I couldn't picture myself wanting anyone else.
She wasn't nearly as ladylike as I had pictured, but that was fine. She was a lady in my eyes, and I liked – no, loved – her because of that fact, rather than in spite of it.
It was unusual, really: she had a stubborn streak that reminded me of Chili and a self-assured streak reminiscent of Cress. However, she managed to open my mind to new things in a way that no one ever had before. I suppose it was because Iris had a way of drawing me out of my box in a way that still made me feel comfortable, and as such, I was receptive to testing new ideas and methods when problems inevitably stood in the way. The fact that she did it with such a charming, disarming smile and beautiful chocolate-colored eyes certainly seemed to help, too. Her charisma was incomparable; her zeal unparalleled.
She shifted next to me, the disturbance snapping me back into reality just in time to comprehend what she was saying. "…These have been the best years of my life. I've never been able to share this type of experience with anyone else. I don't want it to end."
"Neither do I. It's been a pleasure knowing you and traveling alongside you for the past two years."
She giggled a bit at that one, and I was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that she was now leaning on me, her small frame delicately propped against my shoulder.
"There are other things that I'll miss, too, you know."
"Oh, really?" I inquired. "Such as?"
"Well, Axew and Scraggy are best friends, so there's that," she noted. "And then the rest of the little things, too. Camping and battling and seeing new places and Ash and… you."
"There's nothing saying that our journey ends here, Iris! You're far too important to just be a phase in my life; I want you around for many, many more adventures."
My breath hitched as I realized what I'd just said, and I could feel her heartbeat quicken from her position at my side. Iris, however, seemed to notice my discomfiture and smiled reassuringly. In a series of fluid motions that seemed to last a nanosecond at best, she shifted and locked her eyes with mine, vivid caramel meeting lush green and filling with light. I knew better than to predict anything other than what was coming next, but I still couldn't help the wave of heat and energy that crashed over me as her lips met mine. It took my brain several seconds longer than I'd care to admit to realize that Iris was kissing me.
Iris.
Was kissing.
Me.
Iris, whom I had known for two years now and shared every special memory from this journey with, was drenched and in my arms in a makeshift shelter in the middle of a monsoon with her lips pressed against my own.
It was everything I had imagined and several things I could never have fathomed; she tasted of sweet citrus and rich honey and so many other delicacies I'd never even had the pleasure of sampling. Her movements were gentle and sweet, but nonetheless performed with all of the gusto I'd come to expect from Iris.
One of her hands found its way to my shoulder, the other tangling with my fingers before she pulled away, exuberance dancing in her brown eyes.
"That's good to know, Cilan," she trilled, "because I wouldn't want it any other way."
It must have taken longer than I realized to recover from the shock, because Iris cocked a single eyebrow and flashed a mischievous grin. "Oh, Cilan, it's okay! You're such a little kid."
A smile made its way across my face as I met her eyes and noted all of the happiness, all of the levity, all of the elation in her voice. It was only a few moments before I found myself speaking again:
"That was absolutely splendid, Iris. Thank you."
She laughed again, a marvelous sound which stood out in stark contrast to the crackling of the fire and the gentle whistle of the wind through the springtime storm. Outside, the rain continued to pound against the lush grass and soil, but inside, our little hideaway was warmed with the campfire and the renewed spirit of adventure.