Yui's Journey Special Edition – Yellow Roses
Valentine's Day 2003 Special Edition
A/N: Well, this is the first special edition story I will be writing for "Yui's Journey"… But definitely not the last! I don't normally write holiday specials, but Valentine's Day has always been one of my very favorite holidays… This story has nothing to do with Yui, though. This focuses on other characters… You shall see which ones in the story. ^-^
Dedicated to my beloved Tristan, who will be out in Edmonton with me about a month from today…
~*~*~
February 14th… The one day of the whole year that Lance Darien Imoro dreaded. It was partly because every year, his daughter Yui started annoying him about her "very favorite holiday" come mid-January. But there was a bigger reason behind all these little excuses… He had a lot of bad memories that had to do with Valentine's Day. Memories that weren't meant to be bad, but had turned out that way anyway… and memories that he would rather not talk about.
Luckily for him, Yui wasn't home this year to drag him out of bed at 6 o'clock every morning so he could help her decorate the house with pink streamers and little plastic hearts. She had decided to go out on her own to train Pokemon… He didn't know exactly why she'd made this decision, but she had been really enthusiastic about it… So all he could do was give in. His daughter and his son, Koji, were the two most important things in his life, and he wanted them both to be safe… But if the only way to keep Yui safe was to confine her so she wasn't happy with her life, it wasn't worth it. He did worry about her a lot… but he knew she was out there somewhere, running free and getting stronger… and cleaning out his bank account. Which, of course, he wasn't particularly pleased with… But that would be dealt with when Yui returned to the Indigo Plateau. 'Oh well,' he always thought, looking at it from a more optimistic view, 'at least when another $500 goes missing from my account, I at least know she's still alive…'
Also, Lance had another thing going for him… Valentine's Day was still four days away, and nobody had made any mention of the holiday to him. If he was lucky, he could completely avoid celebrating it at all this year. He didn't have any reason to enjoy the day for himself… so this year, he planned to push it right out of his mind. He had more important things to do anyway… Like… His paperwork.
Lance sat sluggishly down at the desk in his office, logging on to the computer system so he could print out all his paperwork. He cleared some space around the printer, and sat back in his chair to wait for his work to be ready. The office was a complete mess; lately, Lance had been out training a lot, so he hadn't had a chance to clean up around there… so the mess just piled up more and more every day. Annoyed, he started looking around the room and stacking up papers; he'd at least try to get some cleaning done before he spent the whole day signing papers.
As the printer started spitting out the first few sheets, Lance moved other sheets of paper out of the way, stacking them up on the shelf behind him, or throwing them into the paper shredder. He opened a drawer, grabbing the loose-leaf sheets that had been hanging out the side and straightening them out. He was about to put them back in the drawer when he noticed something else inside it: the corner of a pink flowery book, sticking out from under even more stacks of paper. Curious, he pulled the book out and stared at the cover; it was a photo album, patterned with pink leafy flowers.
"Hmm… Where did this come from? I don't remember it being in here…" Lance said to himself, opening the album to one of the middle pages. There were two pictures pasted onto each page… And all four of the pictures visible depicted a 2-year-old Yui. She was dressed in a turquoise-green party dress, and her flame-red hair only came down to her chin.
"Oh! This must have been her second birthday party!" he said to himself, flipping the pages. The next page showed a picture of a man who looked similar to Lance, only his hair was black. It was Drake Aurora, Lance's best friend since birth; he was holding up a white stuffed kitten over Yui's head. She was reaching up for it, her eyes lit up with adoration for the little toy. The next one showed her sitting on the floor, screaming with tears, because she hadn't succeeded in reaching the kitten. The third and fourth showed, respectively, Drake handing the kitten to Yui, and her tackling him to the ground in a hug.
"That was her favorite toy when she was little," Lance mumbled, flipping the pages. "She carried it everywhere… I remember having to wash it every single week…" He reached the end of the book, and started flipping backwards, going back to the beginning. "There must be some other pictures in here that I…"
He stopped short. Upon staring at the page he had just turned to, Lance dropped the book in shock. He picked it up and, wide-eyed, stared at the pictures pasted to the pages. The pictures were of him, noticeably younger, standing with a young girl that couldn't have been more than a year younger than him. She had long curly blonde hair, and was wearing a long blue summer dress. Even though it was a faraway view, you could see her sparkling blue eyes in the picture.
"Minako…" Lance sighed, slowly flipping through the first few pages. All of the pictures contained either an adolescent Lance, or his high-school lover, Minako Kinomoto. Every image that he saw of her brought back memories of her…
There were pictures of Minako at 17 years old, holding her and Lance's newborn baby boy, Koji, right before he was put up for adoption. The two of them had been crazy, and really stupid, and they ended up having a child at a young age before they had been ready. Lance had been able to get in contact with his son again, and was able to spend a lot of time with him… but he still regretted not being able to raise him for himself.
The next pictures were of the two years following Koji's birth, when Lance and Minako had decided to stay together and try again for a child when they were older, and responsible enough to raise him by themselves. There were tons of shots from Lance's nineteenth birthday, which was the night they believed that Minako had gotten pregnant with Yui. And after that… There were no more after that. That's when it skipped ahead a few years to the pictures of Yui. Awed, Lance shut the book and stared at the flowery cover, nearly unable to breathe.
"It's been… so long since I've seen her," he said out loud. "Minako…" He clutched the book close to his chest, trying to block out the pressure that was pounding in his heart. Sighing deeply, Lance let his head droop down, and he squeezed the book even tighter. He hardly even noticed when the door opened, and someone walked in, carrying a small tray on a single hand.
"Lance? Are you all right?" asked a feminine voice, making Lance jump. "I brought some cookies that I made for you to try… But if you'd like, I can come back later…"
Lance put the book back down on the desk, and looked up at Karen. He hadn't been crying, but there was a look of pure sorrow on his face. "No… No, you can stay. I think I need somebody to talk to anyway…"
"So I see," Karen sighed sadly, after hearing Lance's long explanation. She was seated next to him behind his desk, looking at an open page of the photo album. There was only one picture on one of the pages, surrounded by a pink, red and gold paper frame. It depicted Lance and Minako, standing in a fancy white gazebo in the middle of a park. Lance had one arm around Minako, and she held a bouquet of yellow roses. "That's such a sad story…"
"I know," Lance replied. "And it's even sadder, because it's true."
"It was so sweet of you," she said, "buying her roses for Valentine's Day even when you could hardly afford them. Then again, you were only a normal trainer back then, and not a regional Champion."
"I couldn't afford the pretty red roses all the other guys bought for their girlfriends," he said. "I got her the yellow ones instead… but it all turned out fine in the end. Yellow was her favorite color."
"And this picture was taken that year on Valentine's Day… The year Yui was born," Karen said, pointing at the photo.
"Yes… The last Valentine's Day we spent together," Lance breathed. "After that… We had so many plans. We were going to raise Yui together… We swore we'd find Koji together, and make sure we kept track of him as he grew up. And then she… she…"
"Lance…" Karen said, holding her arms out as he grabbed her, burying his head in her shoulder. "You don't have to say it. I know… It's okay."
"But it's not okay," Lance looked up at her, his amethyst eyes sparkling with tears. "I don't know why it happened! She was perfectly fine when she had Koji… And she was two years younger then! I just don't see how… How having Yui could have taken her life…"
Karen cringed at the mention of this again. "It… just happens sometimes, I guess," she said, trying to be reassuring. "It's sad, but… there have been a few cases when women have… died giving birth to their children."
"But why did Mina have to be one of them?" Lance said, his voice dropping to an eerily quiet tone. He stared up at Karen, as if he expected her to have an answer.
"I… I don't know," she sighed, lowering her head. He placed his head back onto her shoulder, and she held him as he broke down in tears.
Lance hardly slept that night; he couldn't stop thinking about the pictures he had found. When he finally did get to sleep, it was almost 4 in the morning, and his dreams were haunted with images of his past, and of Minako. At seven o'clock sharp, though, he was out of bed and dressed, sitting in his office and looking at the paperwork he'd printed out the night before.
"I have to take my mind off of this," he said aloud to himself, putting the photo album back in the drawer where he'd found it. "This work needs to be done sometime… I might as well do it before Valentine's Day, so that I can just stay in bed all day for it…"
He wrote the date on the top of the page, in his messy handwriting that looked more like scribbles than words. February 11th… Valentine's Day was getting so close. "To think," he thought as he wrote, "Mina and I would be running around the house today, preparing for her favorite holiday. She would have been happy living here…"
He sighed angrily, slamming his head down onto the desk; he stayed there grumbling to himself for a while, before Karen walked into the room again. She stared strangely at him, and walked over to the desk, looking down at the back of his head curiously.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "I heard a crash in here… was that you?"
"Yeah," he replied, sitting up. "I just got a little frustrated with this work, that's all."
Karen sat down, crossing her arms in front of her and resting them on the desk. "I don't think that's it, Lance," she said. "If you need someone to talk to, I'm here. I'll always be here."
"You should know what's wrong," he sighed. "This was the worst possible time I could have been reminded of Mina. She used to love Valentine's Day. And the reason I hate it is because of what happened to her."
Karen's eyes widened and she looked down at the floor, trying to avoid Lance's depressed gaze. She didn't know what to say to him now… She'd never been in a situation like this, and she wasn't sure how to deal with it. If she said the wrong thing, it could bring him down even further. "I… I've had boyfriends in the past who have left me too," she stammered. "I used to spend Valentine's Day with them… but they're gone now. Even though they're not exactly dead, they still aren't coming back to me."
"I… I guess so," Lance said. "I guess everyone's dealt with this in one way or another…"
"Hey… I must have said the right thing!" Karen thought to herself, smiling slightly. "If I keep going this way, I might be able to bring Lance's mood up, so that he can finish his work… And maybe he'll even spend Valentine's Day with me!"
"But I still celebrate Valentine's Day," she continued, "because I don't want to let one or two bad experiences ruin it for me. Valentine's Day is a time to express love… And even though I'm single, I still have that emotion inside of me. I love my Pokemon, my family, my friends, and everyone else who lives in the Plateau. You don't need romance to express feelings of love."
Lance blushed slightly, and Karen looked away from him. "Please don't tell me that came out the wrong way," she thought, thinking back to what she'd said about loving everyone else in the Plateau. She'd pretty much confessed her love to him right there…
"Besides," she said before he could reply, "all my past boyfriends left me when they stopped loving me. Minako never stopped loving you… And she would have stayed with you if she could. Don't you think she'd want you to be happy?"
"Yeah… She would." Lance smiled, sitting up. "I guess I hadn't thought of it like that… But I still do miss her."
"That's okay," Karen said. "You don't ever have to stop missing her. Just don't give up on love and happiness because of it."
Lance smiled. "You know… You remind me a lot of Mina," he said. "Whenever I got depressed over something, she'd always sit down and talk to me… And she'd come back to talk to me every day until I felt better. So… Thanks."
"Oh… It's not a problem," she said, putting a hand to her cheek. "Anytime you want to talk, I'm here."
He nodded, smiling at her. "Now, I guess I should get this paperwork done," he said, sighing.
"I'll leave you alone, then," Karen said, heading for the door. "And just remember what I said."
"Don't worry," said Lance as he watched her walk out the door. "I'm taking your advice… I'm not going to give up on love."
The next few days went by slowly for everyone at the Plateau, but for Karen it seemed to slow down even more. On the 12th, she kept checking in on Lance in his office, to see how he was doing. But he didn't respond very clearly to anything she said… he seemed very distant, and a little nervous. Karen was worried about these reactions… She was afraid that Lance had caught on to what she had been saying yesterday, and now wanted to avoid her. After about the fifth failed attempt at making conversation with him, she finally retreated to her room for the rest of the day.
The 13th was no better. Lance wasn't in his office all day; he seemed to be avoiding all of the Elite trainers at any cost. Karen was a little relieved that he was now ignoring everyone and not just her, but she was still worried. What if he was still hurting about what had happened to Minako, and was hiding from any help they wanted to offer him? What if he had just become more depressed, and didn't want anyone to know about it? She hoped it didn't have anything to do with her…
Karen wandered the hallways aimlessly, passing by Lance's room a few times. Every time she walked by his door, she was tempted to go inside and look for him. She stopped a few times, contemplating her decision. Finally, she gave up, and walked to her room, sitting down on her bed. The black bed sheets ruffled under her weight as she lay back onto her white lace pillows.
"I don't know what to do," she thought to herself. "I really want to help him… But I don't want to bother him if he's angry at me…" She sighed, turning over onto her side. She faced her bedroom door, staring out into the open hallway, thinking about Lance.
"I told him I'd be there whenever he needed to talk," she thought aloud. "And this seems like a time when he really needs someone to be there for him." Determined to find out what was wrong, she jumped off of the bed and made her way back down the hallway… and inevitably, back in front of Lance's door.
"Hey… Lance?" she questioned, tapping lightly on the door. "It's Karen. Can I come in?"
No response came from the other side. Karen frowned slightly, and opened the door partly. "Lance? I really want to talk to you… Are you okay?"
She peeked into the room; the lights were off and the curtains were almost completely closed, so there wasn't much light in the room. She decided not to turn on the lights, just in case he was sleeping. Instead, she peered around the room, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark so she could see what was going on.
Then, she heard footsteps behind her. She jumped, but recovered quickly, sighing deeply. "Someone must be out in the hallway," she thought, stepping a little farther into Lance's room. Suddenly, a cold hand touched her shoulder, and she spun around quickly. Lance was standing behind her; he flicked on the lights and glared angrily at her.
"Why are you in here?" he asked. "Did you ask to come into my room?"
"No… I was just worried about you," she said. "You've been hiding from me and the others all day… But there's no reason to! I told you that you could come to me if something was wrong… So why are you hiding out?"
Lance blushed, but his face was still angry. "It's none of your business," he said lowly, pointing to the doorway. "Now please, leave so I can have some peace and quiet."
"But… Lance…"
"Leave," he repeated; his head was turned to the floor, and his eyes were shut. Karen paused for a long second, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. She didn't stop until she got back to her own room; she threw herself onto her bed, hiding her face in her pillow.
"Stupid… stupid Lance," she mumbled into the pillow. "Baka. To think I actually wanted to spend Valentine's Day with… someone like him."
Karen turned onto her side, facing away from the door this time. Her eyes were red, and a small tear of anger rolled off of her cheek onto the pillow. She didn't move from that position until she fell asleep.
The next morning, Karen woke up later than anyone else in the Plateau. It was noon by the time she came downstairs to eat breakfast, and after she finished she went straight back up to her room. Lance had been sitting at the table, along with two of the other Elite.
"Whoa… Yesterday, Lance was angry, and today it's Karen's turn," said 19-year-old Andres McCloud, a young man with blue clothing and short silver hair. "I wonder what happened."
"Maybe she's just having Valentine's Day troubles," said William Starr, the 20-year-old Elite Third. "She must be lonely."
"But Karen usually loves Valentine's Day," said Andres. "She wouldn't just all of a sudden get depressed this year… And what about you, sir?" he asked, turning to Lance. "Are you all right from yesterday?"
"I'll be fine," Lance breathed. "And I'm sure Karen will be fine as well."
"Hey… Do you know anything about what happened to her?" Will asked. "You both seem to be kind of… out-of-it…"
"I know nothing, William," Lance snapped, making the young man cringe. "Now stay out of business that does not concern you."
Lance stood up, knocking his chair back, and walked out of the kitchen, heading in the opposite direction that Karen had gone. Will and Andres remained at the table, shocked at his sudden outburst.
"I… I was just asking," Will uttered pointlessly, as Lance was no longer there to listen. Andres blinked and tapped Will's wrist, making him jump. "What now?"
"Call me crazy," Andres whispered, "but do you think there could be something going on between the two of them?"
Will paused. "It's possible," he whispered back. "But… I think it might be smart to leave both of them alone for a little while."
"I concur," Andres said quickly. "Now… Let's go and get ready for our dates tonight, before Lance comes back and decides to bite our heads off again."
The day went by, and nobody heard anything from either Lance or Karen. Valentine's Day was as good as dead in the Plateau this year… nobody had bothered to celebrate it, so it was just pushed aside and forgotten. At eleven-thirty at night, everyone was scattered away from the Plateau; Andres was spending the night at his best friend/crush's house, and Will was out at a night club with his girlfriend and a couple of other friends. Karen had emerged to eat dinner a few hours ago, and had disappeared back into her room immediately afterward… which was where she still was.
As for Lance, he was also still in his room… He hadn't even showed up for dinner. Karen paid no attention to that fact, since she was still angry at him… but she was curious as to what he was doing.
Suddenly, she heard a loud crash coming from Lance's room; she sat up in bed, and thought about going to check it out… but she changed her mind quickly. "Hmph… He doesn't care about me. Why should I care about him?" she asked herself. "It was pointless to even think that Lance would fall in love with me…"
As she was laying her head back onto her pillow, she heard a light knock on the door. She jumped up, nearly falling off of her bed. "Uh… Who's there?" she asked nervously.
"Karen… It's Lance." His voice was light and soft, and she could barely hear it through the door, but his voice was unmistakable. She was about to yell at him and tell him to go away, but something told her not to… She stood up and opened her door, revealing Lance's half-smiling face.
"Listen… I'm really sorry about yesterday," he said. "First of all, I was kind of still feeling a bit depressed… And I was also really nervous. I didn't mean to snap at you."
"Nervous?" Karen questioned. "About what? If… If I did anything or said anything that got to you..."
"No… That's not it at all," he said, cutting her off. "Would you come with me for a second? I have something very important to show you."
"I suppose," she said, following reluctantly as he took her by the hand and led her down the hallway to his room. She stopped him in front of the door, peeking inside a little bit. "I thought I wasn't allowed in here."
"Don't be silly," Lance said. "I just didn't want you in there yesterday. Today will be fine."
"This doesn't make sense," Karen thought as Lance dragged her inside his room. "What happened all of a sudden to make him change his mind?"
Then she stopped… Lance's room was completely illuminated with candlelight. His bed was surrounded with candles, and he had a couple of small last-year's Valentine's Day decorations hung up on the walls. A bunch of roses was sitting on a cushion in the center of his bed; Lance led Karen over, and sat her down on the bed before handing her the bouquet.
"This is for you," he said. "It's for making me realize that I should never give up on love… no matter how terrible my past experiences are."
Karen stared at the flowers in awe… Every one of the roses was red, except for a single yellow one in the center of the arrangement. She blinked once, putting her hand over her face and blushing.
"I… I really don't know what to say," she said, picking out the yellow rose and staring at it. "These look identical to the ones in that picture of Minako."
"That's because they… are identical," Lance said, stammering. "They're the same kind that I bought for her seventeen years ago."
"But don't they bring back those bad memories?" she asked.
"Not anymore," he smiled. "I bought these yellow roses for Minako for one reason… I gave them to her on the day that I first told her that I loved her."
Karen stopped short, her breath catching in her throat. "You… You mean…"
"I've liked you for a long time, Karen," Lance continued. "But I was always too afraid to trust again… After what happened between Mina and I, it has always been hard for me to fall in love. But you've made me see that not expressing my hurts a lot more than keeping it inside."
He took her by the hands, holding her hands close to his chest. "I know it seems… a little sudden," he spoke, "but I love you, Karen. And it's because of you that I can say those three words to someone, and mean it."
"I…" she started to say when Lance cut her off again; but this time, he didn't need words to quiet her down. He kissed her softly, only allowing the kiss to hold for about five seconds before he pulled back.
"Will you… give me another chance at love?" he asked.
"I… Yes," Karen finally spit out; her cheeks blushed furiously as she stared into his sparkling amethyst eyes. "Of course I will…"
"Thank you," he sighed, taking her into his arms. She hugged him back, her head rested on his shoulder. "Thank you, Karen… I love you."
Karen took a deep breath, and backed out of the embrace to look at him. "I love you too."
A candle flickered as the two of them shared their second kiss, this one deeper and more meaningful that the first. The clock on Lance's bedside table read 11:59; the final moment of Valentine's Day 2003 had arrived. And even though this holiday had started out terrible for both Lance and Karen, it would be a day that neither of them would forget for their entire lives.
The End
A/N: Whee! Sappy endings! ^^ We all love sappy endings… o_O; Right. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the special!! As you probably have guessed, this special edition introduces two important parts to the main "Yui's Journey" fic… One, we've introduced a new couple into the story… this is only one of many! And two, I've introduced a new character! The Elite Second, Andres McCloud, makes his first-ever appearance in this fic! You'll see a lot more of him later, but for now this is all you get. ^_~ And I bet you'd like to know who his crush is? And who Will is seeing? And when Chapter 12 is gonna get done? …Okay, I'll stop ranting and let all of you go and do something interesting now. Hehe… And as a closing note:
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
…Oh, and I don't own Pokemon, either. ^_^;;;;