Disclaimer: If I owned Nintendo or Pokémon, it would be a lot gayer. Pity.
Pairings: Eventual Nate/Hugh (probably...nah, you'll just have to wait for it), eventual Rosa/Curtis, definitely Isshushipping and either Shiroshipping (Bianca/Touko) or Checkmateshipping (Cheren/Touko). Probably gonna be decided by a vote. They're not important until later, anyway. Also, Touko and Touya are the Monochrome Twins. I know, I know, very original.
A/N: This is basically the result of having the longest summer vacation of my life and still not getting anything done. All my thanks to Izzy for being an awesome help with the teams and for headcanoning with me at 3:39 in the morning.
20th March, Virbank City, 8:12 p.m.
So I'm breaking the habit, I'm breaking the habit tonight.
The pigtailed girl sitting at the corner table nearest to the door grimaces at the music blaring outside – probably a trailer of the newest movie. It makes for a pretty good description of the city she's currently in, in any case.
Her cross-transceiver is plugged into the socket nearby, and she glares at the random boy who comes close to it – probably an extra dawdling in the hope of catching a glimpse of a famous star – causing him to huff and stalk off.
Releasing a long-suffering sigh, she takes the call.
"Roserada, your father has requested your presence at dinner tonight, he has something important to tell you." Miss Louise is absolutely to-the-point, it's one thing she admires in her. Probably the only thing.
"And he couldn't tell me this himself, why?" she asks.
"He's at a screening, as you very well know. Dinner is scheduled at nine, as usual. You need to leave in fifteen minutes if you want to be suitably dressed for the restaurant."
She bites back any comments on Miss Louise' own taste in fashion and nods tersely. "I'll just need to talk to him about my results, today, then?"
"Of course." The screen cuts off, and Rosa jabs her fingers down on the button.
She really fucking hates Miss Louise. If only Nate or Hugh was there...
As if on cue, the cross-transceiver begins to ring again.
The screen blinks to life...and oh wow, looks like her boys are in the same place. Again.
"Let's see, you're at a totally innocent sleepover where you play Mario Kart, am I right?" She asks dryly.
The blue-haired boy blinks at her, and deadpans back: "You sound fucking miserable."
She snorts into the video feed. "Way to put it, Hugh."
"Please be sensitive to her feelings!" the brown-haired boy reprimands, leaning over his shoulder, unaware of the blush slowly suffusing the other's cheeks. "Did the movie release go well?"
"Dunno, I wasn't there. I'm sitting in the Pokémon Center for the time being, waiting for Dad to get prettied up a little more before we go eat." She stares longingly outside –where they're selling all the greasy food that she's not allowed to touch. "I suspect they're going to make me eat Kanto food today."
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with Kanto food – wait, did she put him up to this again?" the brunet asks, still leaning on Hugh.
She nods. "I'd suspect she's more than a PA...but we both know that Dad's...yeah."
"It runs in the family," the brunet chirps.
"Rosa's not gay." Hugh says, aiming a quizzical stare at him, bringing their faces into such close proximity that Rosa nearly squeals. Hugh promptly draws away, face redder than ever.
"I meant attracted to guys," the brunet explains, and Hugh looks...Not Impressed.
"Singular guy in your case?" he mutters, and Nate nods brightly. "Black is the coolest!"
Way to break a moment, Nate. Rosa rolls her eyes. "How did the results go?"
"Well," Nate looks nervous for a split second, and she almost believes the look, but there's a spark in his eye.
"Oh, for Mew's sake...we both passed first class, okay?" Hugh says, ignoring Nate's pout. "What about you, are you going to show them the results?"
Rosa wonders how she's going to break the news to them. "Uhm..."
There's a small commotion outside, and Rosa looks up and out of the window. Then she hears a girl's voice screaming.
"Is something wrong, Ro?" Nate says, but she doesn't look at the screen. Instead she stares at the terrified (vaguely familiar? but why?) blonde waving her hands wildly at the gutters. People are crowding around, but no one seems willing to help.
That green beret…
"Guys...I'm gonna talk to you later, okay?" She hangs up, ignoring the dual protests, unplugs her cross-transceiver (only 10% charge, how wonderful) and makes a beeline for the doors.
She doesn't even let it slide back gently as she dashes onto the street, narrowly remembering to watch for traffic. It's slow today, and she's able to get across easily. She maneuvers her way around the crowd, glaring at random people who scurry away when they recognize her, and comes to a stop in front of the familiar blonde with the signature beret. "Miss Bianca?"
The girl looks up, teary-eyed, before her eyes widen. "Um…Tou – no, how do you?"
"You're kind of famous where I'm from," she says shortly, and bends over at the edge of the street, where the gutters start. "Did something fall in?"
She snaps out of her daze, her worried expression coming back. "It's just, I was supposed to deliver some Pokémon – and the balls…"
She curses mentally. "All of them?"
Bianca shakes her head. "No – one, I'm, I think it was Snivy?"
Grass Pokémon. Frail starting grass Pokémon with a weakness to…poison.
"Shit. Did it happen here?"
"It hasn't even been a minute – I was thinking of going down into the gutters myself, but I don't know the entrance!"
Rosa swears, looks at the time on her cross-transceiver. It's eight-twenty – she should be able to get there in time…right?
"I know where they are – come on!"
20th March, Aspertia City, 8:21 p.m.
"So. Last day of school tomorrow," Nate says, falling back on the bed with a soft thump. "Damn, I can't wait for us to finally get our Trainer Cards."
"I've got a bad feeling about Rosa not being here," Hugh says out of nowhere, tone pensive. Nate sits up and watches the spiky-haired boy frown down at his cross-transceiver.
"You're probably overthinking it. You know Mr. Hawthorne has that premier thing to go to, which is probably why she hasn't told him that she's got her trainer card yet."
"She received it in the mail three days ago, Nate – she'd need, what, five minutes of his time to do it?" Hugh narrows his eyes. "If that damn woman is making her stall, I'm going to give her a piece of my rage!"
Nate rolls over on his belly and stares up at Hugh with distracting chocolate eyes. "Stop thinking so hard about it. She'd tell us if she had trouble, right?"
"…right," Hugh says, putting it away and studiously avoiding those eyes. He turns to stare at Nate's Wii, turned off (and his own Wii will probably remain that way for a long time, because Irena isn't into gaming) and sighs. "We're leaving tomorrow –we've got enough to think about."
"Speaking of which – are you going to take the Gym challenge?" Nate props himself up on his elbows to look at Hugh better. "I mean, Aspertia has a Gym now, to coincide with the graduation date…so we could totally take it on! I mean, it's easier since we're in the same town, at least."
Hugh looks up at the ceiling. "I actually don't know."
"Why not? I mean, you could always train them for the Subway, or the musical, but you'd need well-trained Pokémon for that anyway, right? And they won't obey you without the badges," Nate points out.
Why are you always right? Hugh glances at Nate. "It's about…remember the organization from two years ago?"
Nate's eyes light up like stars; and Hugh groans mentally. Of course he would remem-
"-ber, are you stupid or something." Nate actually sits, up, extremely excited. "Wait, do you mean to say that you believe that newspaper report?"
"Did you keep a clipping or something?" he says skeptically.
"Of course I did, they mentioned him, did you think I wouldn't?" He scrambles off the bed and goes across the attic room to rummage in his drawer. "It should be here somewhere…here!" He flourishes a neatly cut-out piece of the news edit from last week, and Hugh would have been impressed if he wasn't a little annoyed.
It's always for him. Always.
"Anyway, so it says that there have been random disappearances of Pokémon more than usual, but less than the estimated amount from a few years back. People suspect fringe groups, but…"
"…the conspiracy theory is that Team Plasma is coming back to power," Hugh finishes. "I'm sure they have something to do with it, in any case."
"Didn't the Monochrome Twins catch all the Sages of Team Plasma, though?" Hugh's eye twitches at the name. "I suppose some of them were let out for probation…"
"No, only one of them was…there was also a Sage who escaped and everyone tried to cover up his disappearance." The blue-haired boy studies Nate's expression, and the brunet turns solemn in a few seconds. They all remember another disappearance around that time – one that had hit closer to home.
The Champion who had disappeared.
"You think he could be instigating all this?"
"No." Hugh startles himself with the comment. "There were…the main perpetrator was never caught – and neither was the other one."
"Hey, don't call the other Hero a perpetrator!"
"He was indirectly involved." It's best not to reason with Nate. Everyone is good in his eyes. Everything is simple. White.
He doesn't realize that people just don't change like that, Hero or not.
"In any case, it might be possible that Team Plasma is back…and it's also possible that I've used up my impossible scenario quota for the day." Nate snorts and falls back again, this time his head ending up half in Hugh's lap. "Gah, I need sleep. Can we nap 'til dinner?"
"Can't…Mom's going to flip if I don't have dinner today at mine, it'll be a long time before either of us can do that." Hugh tries to keep his thoughts pure, but whispers that say Nate's head is currently in your lap and you're telling him to get off?! keep resurfacing at the back of his mind.
Ha. Get off.
Shut UP, brain.
"Mmkay. Stay a little while, then?"
They could always journey together, he muses. Maybe he'll ask him tomorrow.
"As you wish," he says, voice gentle.
"Sounds familiar." Nate says, snuggling up closer, but is apparently too sleepy to figure out where it's from. Hugh thanks all the Legendaries he knows for it. Hopefully he won't remember it in the morning.
He looks up from his lap and stares at the paper in his hand, the one he'd grabbed from Nate. It shows an open shelter, clearly meant for abused Pokémon, and several broken cages. His blood boils, remembering his sister's crying face.
He couldn't do anything at all, back then. And then a hero – the Hero, had gotten a chance, and tried to finish them, and evidently failed. It wasn't even bitterness arising from Nate's hero-worship – more than anything else, it was a bone-deep anger. Why else would he let the other Hero leave? Why else would he abandon his own region?
Hugh wasn't going to be that guy.
"If this is Team Plasma's fault…they're going to understand what true fear means."
Meanwhile, Nate mumbles out Black's name in his sleep, and Hugh sighs.
20th March, Plasma Frigate, 8:51 p.m.
"Scientists have noticed the temperature drops, you know."
"Those Deerling fools?" The man in the purple robe laughs. "I talked to them when I was in Driftveil. They're worthless – who's going to believe them?"
"But, sir." The Plasma grunt attending to them shifts on his feet nervously. "They say – there's been sightings of the Hero on Twist Mountain."
"We do not speak of him," the Sage hisses at him. The grunt cowers and nods. "Yes – sir."
"But isn't that his plan in the end, Zinzolin?" The man on the video feed smiles. "After all, how will we know the true potential of Pokémon if we do not figure in one of the variables?"
"The other one's dead, you do know that right?" Zinzolin remains unimpressed.
"That's the popular information, I've heard. One does tend to lose track of the news during research."
"Well, just remember that we'll have only once chance to draw them out, and we're pretty sure that it's going to be –" Zinzolin spits the next word – "that traitor. So please keep that in mind."
"One must consider all the possibilities," the blond man on the screen says cheerfully. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Dwebble to investigate. Fascinating creatures." The video feed cuts off, and Zinzolin shakes his head.
"All this talk about that dead Trainer is giving me the chills. Ugh. Never going into that Cold Storage again, thank god it blew up," he mutters, much to the confusion of the other two grunts in the room. He glares at them when he finds them staring. "You're new, aren't you? Bless your fates that you are."
They gulp and say nothing. Zinzolin turns to the first one. "You. Don't bring up the traitor's name in my presence. And if you mention him in front of Ghetsis – you might as well bid your life goodbye."
He stalks away, robes billowing behind him, and the grunt quietly stammers to himself – "B–but it wasn't him I was talking about…"
20th March, Twist Mountain A, 9:30 p.m.
Exactly one timezone away, a hero's eyes open to a storm brewing on the mountainside.
"Come on, Mynx." The Chinchilla Pokémon hops onto her Trainer's shoulder, cropped brown hair whipping her gray ears with the force of the wind. "We've got to find a different shelter."
"Cinnn?"
"You can call him an asshole when we find him, promise."
"Cin." It seems satisfied, and the Trainer brushes off brown shoes and stained jeans and stands up, adjusting the old cap and staring down the cliff.
"Where the hell are you, dude?"
No, Rosa and Nate are not related. It's a running joke that they're twins in this verse, because they look like Touya and Touko.
Reviews and any questions are appreciated!