AN: A project of mine. I'll be exploring relationships and what it means to love someone who's gone.
Touko stares at him in disbelief, shock. She clutches her Pokeball in her hand, trembling. They'd known each other for as long as she could remember, and now everything was changing. She'd beaten Alder, and yet she'd decided she wasn't going to be the Champion. N had come and gone—her chest ached when she thought of it, but she didn't crumble to tears like she had before when no one was looking. He'd left after being used by his father, his dreams crushed, and with him went tiny kisses in the alleyway when no one was looking, fake battles to please others, hands going down her back and tears mingled with laughter. When no one was looking, they were happy. And then he left. They were still enemies, and she had acknowledged that, bitterly. And when he left, the entire world crumbled around her. But her best friend's only question had caught her completely off guard:
"Do you miss him?"
She hadn't expected anyone to notice, let alone care. Her first love, gone. A tear escapes and she doesn't wipe it away, instead hiding her eyes with her bangs. "Yes, I miss him. I miss him so much." What else can she say? She's always told Cheren everything when he asked her. Almost everything, at least. But she's even more surprised when she finds his arms around her, her face in his neck as she crumbles in his strong, steady arms and cries. "It's all right, it's all right," he whispers in her ear, his glasses on the tip of his nose. N was gone and she was here. There was something wrong with that. It had been months and she hadn't been able to forget him yet.
"I want to see him again."
Cheren stiffens when he hears her say that—but he isn't surprised. She can't see him as his eyes close sadly, but he still holds her close. He wants her to be happy... that didn't mean he has to be.