The Acquaintances
I said that I was working on a new story for Pokémon, so here it is! This is set in a kind of royal kingdom-ish setting, with the five female protagonists each being a princess of a kingdom/region. Actually, there are going to be five shippings in this, being Contestshipping, Ikarishipping, Pokeshipping, Ferriswheelshipping, and Soulsilvershipping. Using the english names, except for Touko/Hilda because Touko's prettier.
Disclaimer: I don't own any shippings or characters (except for OCs) in this fanfiction, I don't own Pokemon, I don't own…you know what? How about this: I don't own anything in this story except for the basic plot and OCs. There. All happy!
"Where are they?" May muttered to herself impatiently. "They should've been here by now."
May was sitting in a swing that hung from an old maple tree inside the palace gardens, looking around anxiously for the other princesses to arrive.
"They're almost never late…except for Lyra. Goody-good," May said, not without venom. It was hot outside, being the middle of July, and she was getting irritated. Brendan and Max were gone on a picnic somewhere in La Rousse city, Hoenn's capital, leaving her not only irritated, but bored as well. Her sundress, coloured light purple, the national colour of Hoenn, was thin and breezy, but with the relentless sun beating down, it was starting to feel heavy.
Feeling her silver tiara weigh her head down, May tugged it out of the brown curls that cascaded to her waist carelessly, and stared at the violet amethyst (again, the colour of Hoenn) embedded in the delicate curls of silver, noting silently how it reflected the light of the sun.
"I turned seventeen two weeks ago…Touko's birthday was yesterday…Misty's birthday was in June…Lyra's three days younger than I am…and Dawn's four days after Lyra….wow, I never noticed, but we're all born at such close dates…" May's mumblings were cut suddenly short when a voice drifted from behind her.
"Do you always mumble to yourself? I came to be Acquainted with a princess, not a lunatic, you know," the voice remarked snidely. May turned in the swing to find a tall young man with green hair and eyes looking at her with a smirk on his annoyingly handsome face.
"You're participating in the Acquaintance too, Drew?" May asked, mildly surprised.
"Well, of course I am," he replied, flicking his hair. "I'm eighteen now, and my parents want me to get married, naturally."
"You do know there's only going to be five of us, right? What's the chance that we'll like you?" May pointed out.
"Plenty. Besides, not many guys are going to be in it, either. Just me, that Brendan friend of yours, and a few other aristocrats from all of the regions," Drew countered, but when he saw how May flushed when Brendan's name was mentioned, an odd feeling swept over him, one he couldn't really explain.
"B-Brendan's participating?" May squeaked, her voice a few decibels higher than normal. "But he's engaged to Kris," she stuttered weakly. "How could he participate if he's—"
"Because he has some weird notion of protecting you from all the suitors," Drew explained matter-of-factly, noting how mad May got at the word protecting. "Well, later, May," he said. "See you at the council."
Just after Drew left, four ornately adorned carriages stopped outside the palace gates—one pulled by Rapidash, one pulled by Stantler, one pulled by Sawsbuck, and one pulled by Girafarig. May ran eagerly towards them, watching as four girls stepped daintily out of them, each one helped by a footman. A tall, slim girl dressed in blue leggings with an oversized, knee-length blue top and who had straight orange hair and bright teal eyes stepped out of the Rapidash carriage while completely ignoring the footman, a slightly shorter girl with glossy navy curls and dark blue eyes daintily tiptoed out of the Stantler carriage dressed in a dark red full-skirted dress, a slight, delicate girl with dark, soft brown hair and eyes took the hand of the footman and gilded smoothly down from the Girafarig carriage dressed in an ice-green dress that May could only describe as floaty, and a brunette with sharp brown eyes dressed in a yellow sundress similar to her own carefully padded out of the Sawsbuck carriage. (A.N. : Man, that was a long description…)
The four girls ran to May, excited voices overlapping as the five princesses all tried to talk at once. Finally, they stopped, each girl having said what they had to say, and at long last, there was a blissful moment of silence.
Max and Brendan chose that moment to come back from their picnic.
Immediately, Lyra, the slight delicate princess, yanked the four other girls in a beeline for the palace, not stopping until they were inside May's large bedroom (she knew the way from previous visits) with the door locked securely.
"What…the….hell….." Misty, the girl with the orange hair, panted disbelievingly from her seat on May's massive four-poster bed. "Ly, how…in the world…did you get to be…..so…strong?"
"Yeah," Dawn, the one in the dark red dress, remarked next to Misty, one hand on her heaving chest. "I thought you….were…supposed to be…the weak….one among us….and Mist…was supposed to be….strong…..right, Touko?" This last part was directed at Touko, the girl from the Sawsbuck carriage. Touko herself had gotten the breath knocked out of her, and was currently in a heap on the solid oak floor, only managing a nod and a weak wave of agreement.
"Sorry, guys," Lyra said sheepishly. She was cross-legged on a fluffy purple carpet. "It's just weird for me," she added. "Kris is my cousin, and she's engaged to Brendan…I just don't want to have to deal with questions about her, you know? I mean, Ecruteak may be the capital of Johto, and she may live there, but I honestly think she's spent more time outside of the palace than I have inside it."
"…..That's it?" May asked, surprised. She was sitting on a green beanbag chair, hugging a pillow to her chest. "Seriously? That's your reason for half killing us?" May sounded annoyed, and she was getting that glint in her blue eyes that signaled she was about to murder someone.
"Y-yeah…I'm really sorry! Please don't murder me!" Lyra wailed, terrified, as everybody else winced at the high-pitches of her terror.
"Man, you're lucky the walls are soundproofed," May said. "But I'm not about to kill you," she added, pointing to Lyra. "I'm going to kill whoever chose those dresses for us!"
As one, the princesses spun around to face the entrance to May's large walk-in closet/dressing room, and the new victim of both May's pointing finger and the glint in her eyes, now transformed into a full-on glare. The sheer ferocity reflected in her eyes was astounding.
"Wh-what is that?" Misty demanded, her face full of horror.
"Oh, dear, oh, no, oh, my—" Dawn couldn't even put a sentence together.
"Well…at least there isn't a sweetheart neckline this time," said Lyra, ever the optimist.
"You're kidding me. We're supposed to wear that?" Touko was aghast, mouth agape.
"Who the hell would have enough horrid taste to choose these, anyway?" May's eyes had still not lost that angry glint.
Through the open door to May's closet/dressing room, the girls could clearly see five sleeveless white ankle-length dresses with full skirts lying on top of a wooden bench, a white silk stocking on top of each dress, and five pairs of honest-to-gods glass slippers under the bench. On the hooks that lined the wall, there hung five glittery, half-transparent wraps pinned with a silver-and-gemstone brooch, five ribbons made of the same glittery material as the wraps, and to top it up, five ornate, fancy silver tiaras, each with a gemstone embedded in the silver hung precariously on the hooks. A note accompanied the dresses: You are to wear these clothes to the Acquantaince Council.
The princesses had no doubt that the dress and accessories were beautiful and elegant. They just didn't see how the clothing would look beautiful and elegant on them.
Walking reluctantly into the room, the girls stared miserably at the articles of clothing. They knew which wrap and tiara and ribbon and brooch they should wear, for the colours of the wrap and ribbon were blue and light purple and ice-green and yellow and dark red, the colours of Kanto, Hoenn, Johto, Unova, and Sinnoh respectively, and the gemstones embedded into the tiaras and brooches were blue sapphires for Kanto, purple amethysts for Hoenn, ice-green jade for Johto, yellow topaz for Unova, and dark red rubies for Sinnoh.
Misty was the Golden Princess of Kanto, her three elder sisters being the High Princess, the Aura Princess, and the China Princess of Kanto. (Together, they were the Sensational Princesses.)
May was Princess Royale of Hoenn, Max being the Prince Royal.
Lyra was the Sovereign Princess of Johto, with no siblings.
Touko was Princess Angelique of Unova, with no siblings.
Dawn was the Radiant Princess of Sinnoh, with no siblings.
It was obvious who everything was for.
Dawn, May, Misty, Lyra, and Touko were sitting in their silver thrones, high above the crowd at the Acquantaince Council. The council was just beginning, and the Governor General of Hoenn, Sir Giovanni (A.N.: Surprised? XD), was announcing the ceremonies in his usual iron-like voice.
"We have gathered here today to celebrate the beginning of the Acquantaince. As is tradition, when any princesses of all five regions reach the age of seventeen, the Acquantaince officially begins. Because the princesses differ in age and birth date, rules dictate that princesses can wait until up to nineteen years of age to begin the Acquantaince. However, if only one princess reaches the age of nineteen without any others, then the Acquantaince will be called off and canceled immediately, and the princess will begin courtship in a different way.
"The Acquantaince, as I'm sure you all know, is a special courtship method only used for princesses. The princesses will go on a thorough, all-expenses-provided tour throughout all five regions of the world in the luxury Magnet Train, as well as sail over the oceans and seas of the five regions in a cruise ship. During that time, the princesses can meet young aristocratic men from all five regions, from the ages of eighteen to twenty-one. By the time the tour and cruise end, the princesses should have fallen in love with the young men, and they will be formally engaged at the end of the Acquantaince. This is a foolproof method, and has never failed to provide amitial, long-lasting marriages.
"Now, I shall announce the young men who have chosen to participate in the Acquantaince. Engaged young men can also participate as protectors towards the princesses.
"From Sinnoh: Barry Misfeld, son of the Earl of Canalave City. Kenny Hayes, son of the Grand Duke of Sinnoh, engaged to Lady Zoey of Snowpoint City, protector towards the Radiant Princess, Dawn Berlitz of Sinnoh. And lastly, Paul Lawton, son of the Sinnoh Governor.
"From Hoenn: Drew Hayden, son of the Army General of Hoenn, Kerry Isteni, son of the Shipping Instructor of Hoenn, and Brendan Respile, son of the Earl of Petalburg City, engaged to Lady Kris of New Bark Town, protector towards the Princess Royale, May Maple of Hoenn.
"From Unova: Hugh Istral, son of the Sergeant of Unova, Touya Tamerlane, son of the High Duke of Eastern Unova, engaged to Lady Rosa of Nimbasa City, protector to the Princess Angelique, Touko Eldor of Unova, N Sage, son of the Earl of Mistralton City, and Cheren Pipes, son of the Navy Commander of Unova.
"From Kanto: Gary Oak, grandson to the Royal Pokemon Professor of Kanto, Ash Ketchum, son of Delia Ketchum, Duchess of Viridian City, and Forrest Stone, son of the Baron of Pewter City.
"From Johto: Silver Rocket, my very own son, Ethan Firbank, son of the Baron of Johto, and Adam Feud (OC), son of the Baroness of the Whirl Islands."
As Sir Giovanni said their names, each young man stepped up to a podium that raised them to the same level as the balcony in which the princesses were seated, and they sat in chairs on either side of the thrones—eight to the left, eight to the right.
"As the Governor General of Johto, I hereby proclaim the Acquaintaince to have officially begun!" Giovanni's voice echoed across the Council room, making the crowds go wild, and even the princesses momentarily forgot about the fact that they were wearing dresses they hated (it turns out they actually looked amazing in them, so long as they tied the sash around their waist and didn't breathe so the unyielding waist wouldn't pop), and they looked around at the young men seated around them, each wearing the exact same black suits.
Brendan smiled at May from the left side, and Drew smirked cockily from the right. Kerry Isteni, a guy May didn't know, looked uncomfortable.
Gary Oak, a guy with spiky brown hair and a confident smirk, met Misty's gaze unwaveringly. Forrest Stone, like Kerry, looked uncomfortable, and Ash Ketchum smiled shyly at her, and Misty decided right then and there that Ash was the nicest out of all the Kanto people.
Adam Feud grinned creepily at Lyra, and she shrank slightly back, timid. Ethan, the guy next to him, glared at Adam, then smiled reassuringly at Lyra. She knew Ethan a little, so his friendly smile gave her strength. Silver Rocket had been staring at her since he got on the platform, but it wasn't so much an oogling kind of stare as a curious one. When he saw her noticing, he gave a little polite nod towards her, and she inclined her head in return.
Dawn looked around. She knew Barry—a somewhat overconfident guy who was always fining people, but she wasn't interested. Kenny grinned at her, and she smiled back, but when her gaze turned to the guy with purple hair—Paul—he met her eyes, then looked away arrogantly. Jerk.
Touko glanced at Hugh. His hair was really spiky, like a porcupine and a Qwilfish combined. He gave her a little, polite smile, and she turned her head to Touya. He made a face at her, and she bit her lip to keep from laughing. Cheren Pipes, whom she vaguely knew from a few meetings, smiled cordially, and inclined his head, and Touko did the same in return. N Sage, however, looked the most casual, smiling at Touko comfortably.
The platform was lowered, and the princesses found maids waiting with luggage they'd packed beforehand.
"As is the custom, the princesses will have a few hours to mingle and associate with the young men, as well as say goodbye to family members, before retiring to the Magnet Train to spend the night. In the morning, the Magnet Train will leave for Littleroot Town and begin the Acquantaince." Upon saying this, Giovanni left with the rest of the crowd, leaving the princesses and the young men to follow the maids into the Magnet Train, where the prologue of the Acquantaince would begin.
So, as promised, here is the first chapter. Man, it took me so long to write...and I'm sorry about the random collection of last names, but it was kind of a last-minute thing.