Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or any of the characters depicted in the story. Proper rights are owned by the respected owners individually.
Note: This fic is strongly Hugh-centric because I apparently love writing about Hugh, but Rosa plays an important role throughout the story and at the end, so hopefully you shippers can forgive me if it isn't completely romantic for the shipping week challenge. Also, major thanks goes to a very special friend helped me with some parts about Hugh's character. Anyway, hope any readers enjoy and any and all advice is appreciated.
Hide and Seek
by. Satari-Raine
He leaves to go on a second journey soon after he hears Rosa won the championship.
His mother isn't against it, not like she was the first time he left. She knows, Hugh thinks, that he needs to do this, that he just can't sit still right now; she's always been perceptive enough to read him, to read through his actions and words better than anyone else, and Hugh wonders if he would have realized that sooner if he hadn't been so rash back then. His father holds him close, a hug if it could be called that – more like a crushing embrace – and Hugh only holds him back and says he'll be fine. His father grins and says he better be fine, damnit, and his eyes are misty but he won't cry, not in front of his son.
Hugh just laughs even though he doesn't understand why his father would be upset and says he loves them. They respond with the same, smiling tenderly all the while.
His sister follows him out the door after he accepts money and food from his mother and a spare change of clothes from his dad. The bag on his back feels heavy, a constant weight, different from the smaller pack he always had clasped around his waist; at least his clothes are still the same. His sister's hand is in his, the fingers and palm still small and still warm, and her liepard is walking calmly at her side. Hugh's glad the pokémon warmed up to her instead of spending all its time hissing at him, and seeing his sister's smile, her ruby eyes lighting up whenever the pokémon purrs in her lap or chases a ball around the room, he knows it was worth it, all of what he went through. It's worth it, he tells himself.
He stops by Rosa's house, rapping his knuckles against the hard wood of the door. When he doesn't get an answer, a call sounds off from the garden and Hugh's sister bounces away, flinging herself on the white picket fence, legs kicking back and forth as she hangs from the top.
"Ma'am! Ma'am!"
Crouched down in the dirt, Rosa's mother first spots the trademark pink bow in the child's hair before she sees the girl's grin and meets it with a smile of her own. Standing up, dusting away flecks off dirt from her apron, she walks to the fence, steps mindful of any growing produce. Hugh walks forward, looping an arm around his sister's shoulders as she hops down from the fence.
"Hey, you two." She pauses for good measure; Hugh knows that she's aware of what is going on. "Hugh, you leaving somewhere?" But she's smiling as she asks, observing Hugh's backpack, and when Hugh nods, they find their way into the modest house. Once inside, the room sporting a pleasant cool feel in contrast to the heat of summer, Rosa's mother bustles about the kitchen and hands both Hugh and his sister cups of soda, some grape kind Hugh remembers Rosa always drinking. He drowns his in one gulp, grimacing a bit as the bubbles burn on their way down his throat. His sister sips her from a spot on the couch, her liepard busy playing with the ribbons at the end of her dress; her laughter fills the room as it clears Hugh's mind.
"Yeah." He replies in lieu of the woman's earlier question. "I'm – well, I need to get out more! Since my sister has her pokémon back, I just need –"
"You're feeling lost, aren't you?"
Hugh can feel his sister's gaze on him at that moment. He shoots her a smile over his shoulder and when he turns back to Rosa's mother, he lowers his voice as well as his gaze, the red glazed over, and says, "Kinda. I just need to go, find something to do." He pauses and sighs, not realizing the plastic cup was crushed in his hands; it's soon taken from him by warm hands, and Hugh crams his own inside his pants pocket. A grin, hollow but irate, finds his mouth soon after he leans against the island countertop. "She has her pokémon back, and Team Plasma's pretty much done for. But I don't really have a goal to go after now, not like Rosa does – or well, did – and I–"
"It's all right, Hugh." She leans forward and places her hands on his shoulders. Briefly, Hugh remembers her always doing that as a child, only she had to squat to be on eye-level with him. Now, he's a bit shorter than her but not by much.
It's strange, almost scary, how much of his life has gone by without him watching.
"This time, take a journey for yourself, okay?"
He wants to say that his first one was for himself, that his revenge was all his idea, that even though it was for his sister, it was really for him and his desire to crush Team Plasma under his boot. He wants to say that the nightmares he's been having lately keep him awake at night. He wants to say that leaving, even though he wants to leave, is bad because he has to stay here and keep his family safe, keep Aspertia safe from any more harm – he can't fail, he can't, not again, he wants to be stronger. But he can't explain it and he doesn't really want to, not to this woman with the kind smile and understanding words, and he hasn't even been able to tell his own parents what he just told her, so he just nods and thanks her for the soda and calls his sister to leave.
"Hey, Hugh?"
He turns from his spot at the door and his sister's hand suddenly grips his tight. He smoothes his fingers over her knuckles as a force of habit. Before he finds the older woman's eyes, he looks over at the space of Rosa's room and wonders when it was last used.
Shaking his head, he calls back, "Yeah?"
"If you can, tell Rosa to come home soon, okay?"
He nods. Without realizing it, his smile is warm. "Can do."
On the way towards Aspertia's exit terminal, their steps tapping against the stone pathway in an off-beat rhythm, his sister stops. Both Hugh and her liepard stare at her in confusion, both waiting patiently for her to speak. When she does, Hugh falls to his knees and braces his hands on her shoulders, just as Rosa's mother did for him all those years ago, and he chuckles and hopes it sounds patient.
"You can come with me another time, okay? Soon enough, you'll be old enough for your own journey."
"When you come back, can you take me to the Nimbasa City? Can we go to the pretty shows?"
Hugh laughs as if she was asking for the whole world, nods, and holds her close. Her hands are shaking as they bunch up in his coat, her knuckles white, and it's almost laughable, how small she still is compared to him, how small she's always been compared to her big brother. "Sure thing. When I come back, I'll take you on your own journey! I promise."
"Pinky promise?"
He sets her down and meets her outstretched pinky with his own, mirroring the childish grin. He can't help it.
"Pinky promise. Now, c'mon, time for you to head ho–" But she hugs him, stopping any more words from passing his lips as she wraps her small arms around his neck. He's quick to realize they are shaking, just like they were all those months ago when he walked out of his home, intent on meeting Rosa in the city for one last time before he left for his journey, his revenge. With a small grin, he scoops her up much to her shocked squeal and allows her to hold him tighter, as strong as her little arms can. Liepard paws at Hugh's pants to let her down, but the child merely holds on and Hugh just leans his cheek into soft brown hair and waits for her to be ready to let go.
"I love you, Hugh."
And maybe he's holding on because he wants to.
"Love you, too."
He does. He does love her, more than she'll ever know, and a smile ends his words as it meets her forehead. But he has to let her go. He has to go.
Unhooking her arms from his neck, he places her down on the stone road, ruffles her hair much to the flustered pout resulting from the affection, and ushers her to head home. She goes without fighting it, without begging for more time for him to stay, and when he watches her retreating back, her pink checkered dress swaying at her knees, Liepard turns her head back to meet his red gaze with her blue.
It's always been a beautiful, haunting color – that shade of deep teal. It's always been something Hugh had to chase, had to find, something he had to fight for until he bled, but now it's just something for his sister to wake up to. And it's enough for him, to leave like this with the weight of his family's support on his back.
So he leaves.
The gatekeeper at the terminal shares with him the local news and a few extra potions. The electronic bulletin board reminds him of Rosa's fame as the champion before it shifts to local pokémon sighting and the upcoming weather for the next three days: sun, sun, and more sun. When his shoes hit dirt, he takes a moment to himself and finds the crest of the mountain top in the distance – a dream, a childish one, comes to mind then, about how he always wanted to climb that mountain and pronounce himself the king of it, and how he'd run back and tell Rosa that he did it because she always said he could.
He laughs. It's an embarrassed sound, but he's not mad. And then he walks.
Alder gives him some advice when he passes through Floccesy Town: "Don't trip, look forward." Hugh doesn't even pretend to know what it means but it doesn't matter; Alder's patting him hard on the back, shoving him off towards the next route with a farewell of "Good luck, kid!"
He doesn't walk much farther than that, stopping at the route near the farm.
When night falls, the moon a waning crescent, he's nestled near a warm campfire with his head craned to the stars, picking out constellations and admiring the purple-white stream of lights decorating the obsidian sky. A make-shift tent is set up a few paces away, near a small cluster of trees, and in the distance he hears the rustling of pokémon in the grass and a few trainers walking about on the beaten path. It's quiet and warm, the flames combined with the steady heat of a summer's night, and a pleased sigh falls from his lips when he yanks his coat over his head. His serperior is curled around him in a protective embrace, the pokémon blissfully asleep as Hugh caresses the neck with a gentle hand. Throughout it all, throughout the lingering feeling of content, he's not aware he's smiling.
"'Take a journey for myself.' 'Don't trip, look forward.'"
That night, when he falls to sleep, he wonders just what a journey for himself will bring. He doesn't even try to figure out what Alder meant.
The next day, Virbank welcomes him with a thick fog settled over the tall buildings, a faint glow of the sun peeking out from the thick clouds, and vibrations pulsing underneath his feet; he doesn't even have to second guess himself when he decides the faint music is coming from the pokémon gym.
Tapping at one of the pokéballs at his waist, running his fingers over the groves of the small scratches and marks, Flygon appears in a flash of white light and instantly wraps a wing around Hugh's shoulders, uttering out a pleased cry at the sight of his trainer. Hugh laughs, eyes closed, eyebrows knitted, and cheeks a bit pink at the affection.
"C'mon, let's go."
The afternoon is spent battling at the complex at the end of the city, causing a pleased uproar from bored workers, the men tossing away their bright yellow construction hats as they rush to battle, the headwear bouncing against the pipes and the buildings to spin and land in the grass. Hugh takes all the battles in with an excited stride, crushing some of the opponents with Flygon's stone edge while struggling against the others when the dragon grows tired. In the end, they all receive a stern but understanding talking to from the boss after the battles cease, something about slacking off too much, but everyone's smiling because of the battles, and when Hugh leaves the complex, he's hugged, his hair is ruffled and mused, and he ends up making a promise to come back even though he sounds more annoyed than happy.
The sun starts to set, casting an orange glow that breaks apart the dense fog. It's beautiful, how the color reflects off the metal of the pipes, how it creates a golden ripple in the moats below. As he leans over the railing, watching the light reflect off the water below the city, his unfezant coos softly at his side and starts to doze off. Hugh's not aware he's stroking one of the birds wings gently, carefully, fingers brushing over the feathers in a soothing caress.
Kids walk by and gawk at the bird pokémon, Hugh grinning proudly as one asks if he could ride on it, but the parent says no, not without a harness or a second rider, and Hugh nods in agreement – if it was his sister, he wouldn't let her fly by herself, not in a million years. But the kids get a picture taken with the sleepy pokémon and the bird gets to perform a flashy move much to the adolescent's delighted cries. Hugh shares jokes and plays with the kids, so when the children leave happy and the mother pleased, a smile finds Hugh's face and stays for the rest of the afternoon.
But Hugh grows a bit weary of the same sights and leaves the city after another day passes, feeling tired but strangely content. His pokémon got another challenge out of one of Roxie's band mates and some girl found in him a listening ear, talking about some boy in her life as Hugh really only half-listened, swirling around the water in his glass as he watched Roxie tune her guitar. Why he listened in the first place instead of blowing her off was beyond him – it probably had to do with the fact Roxie would've dragged his ass back in if he dared to do such a thing in her gym.
On his last stop at the pokémon center, stocking up on antidotes and a few sandwiches from a vendor, he passes by the Poké Studios terminal, stops in front of it, but he doesn't spare a glance as he starts to walks away.
He's sure that she's doing well.
Days pass. He goes through the cities – Castelia and Nimbasa – without stopping; Castelia is too crowded and Nimbasa is too loud.
The summer is slowly changing to fall, just as the leaves are shifting from brilliant greens to deep reds, oranges, and bright yellows. He camps out on the routes, sleeps with his pokémon surrounding him, and he battles passing trainers who aren't newbies but aren't experts. He eats roasted fish over campfires, and catches up on the news of Rosa's movie career – she's a full-blown star now, not including her reputation as the champion, and seeing her grinning face in the news feed brings a smile to his own; she deserves it, those moments of fame, of happiness, after all she's done.
He'll never say that aloud, though; he has his own reputation to keep.
But when night falls and he stares at the ever-changing moon and the same blanket of stars, he finds himself growing more and more concerned, more tired and solemn, and it doesn't make sense. He's out on his own without revenge on his mind, traveling with his partners, and back home his family is fine, happy and safe, so when is he supposed to start feeling happy as well?
The sleep he has that night is restless and filled with memories of the past, causing a lingering headache to form and to follow the following day.
When he reaches Driftveil a few nights later, he has a hole in his jeans at the kneecap, blood stained around the torn edges. A bandage covers the gash, and it hurts to walk but he grits his teeth and bears it. His mother frets when he sends in a call, but apparently a clarification that he'll patch up the hole quells her worries.
Hugh doesn't tell her it was from a pair of two rogue Team Plasma grunts, from fighting them. He doesn't tell anyone.
The grunts won't either; he made sure of it.
He spends half of the next day at the market, weaving in and out of crowds and stopping at various vendors, finally leaving the muggy building while stuffing some inexpensive pokédoll for his sister into his backpack. It's then when he wonders how much of this journey was spent for him so far. Buying things for his sister, letting strangers talk away their problems to him, entertaining kids, helping his pokémon gain more experience – sure, he did these things, but they weren't specifically for him. He also wonders if Rosa's mother would be upset with him for that, for spending most of his journey without himself in mind besides the days of sleeping and eating and fishing by the rivers and streams. But she never was the type to belittle him over things like that, and he hopes she won't start now.
But that's just it, isn't it? This whole trip, the meaning behind it, was for him to take a journey for himself, but he doesn't know how to responsible for himself like he is with everything else in his life.
When he walks up to the gym, called there by a few clipped words from Clay, he hopes she'll will forgive him.
Clay welcomes him to the gym with a gruff demand and they battle; Hugh's hesitant, at first, because this man wasn't smart about Team Plasma before and he doesn't know if the leader any smarter now, and Hugh doesn't know if he should completely trust him, but he accepts the challenge anyway. After they tie and allow their pokémon to sleep outside near the house those Team Plasma members who had defected used – now vacant and Hugh doesn't care to know why; but he does, but he won't ask – Clay treats him to a meal of sandwiches and thermoses of soup that Hugh devours faster than Clay can laugh, that loud booming laughter that Hugh's afraid will shake the ground beneath them.
And maybe, just maybe, Clay's not such a bad guy.
It is after the laughter fades and the wind stops rustling the leaves, after Hugh's eaten two sandwiches and drowned a thermos of soup, when Clay asks, "So, where's your girl?"
"She's not my girl." He's aware that some of his old bite, that anger that still clings to him like a second skin, is seeping into his tone; he's aware that his reply is quick. Clay's grin confirms this, the familiarity he has with the tone, and Hugh looks down from the way Clay's wrinkles bunch on his face to find the empty space in his own lap, fingers bunched around the food. "She's busy, I guess. Working on her movie career and battling people."
"You miss her?" Before Hugh can reply, Clay adds, "Yer lookin' lovesick, kiddo."
"Please." But Clay's still grinning and Hugh has to laugh too. It would be inhuman not to, not with that thousand watt grin that isn't as annoying anymore, and contrary to popular belief, Hugh is human. "I'm not lovesick. But she's my friend. I do miss her, I guess."
"Good on ya, then."
Hugh has a mouth half full of a bite of sandwich, a tiny bit of cheese peeking out past his lips, when he sends Clay a confused look, red eyes narrowed. Clay snorts and tips his hat down against the blinding sunlight as the sun dances out from behind a string of clouds – summer was gone, but the heat stayed. How he stayed bundled up in that thick getup of his, Hugh didn't know.
"You can admit you miss someone. You've got guts, kid. Most kids would be actin' all tough."
The young trainer snorts and runs a hand through his spiky hair. "I've had enough of the tough act."
And maybe he has. Maybe the act of being tough, trying to convince everyone and himself that he was strong enough, was a ploy and had been one for all those years. But he doesn't want to think about it right now, it's not worth the headache, and thankfully, Clay doesn't say anything and just leaves Hugh with "Take care of yourself, kiddo, and keep an eye out for your girl."
Hugh says nothing in reply, his frown small, but he steals another sandwich for the road. Clay's laughter follows him as he descends from the hill.
He visits the town of Anville for the first time when he lets out Unfezant for a flying trip. With transportation, usually Flygon is the one to carry him places, but the bird had been restless in his pokéball, squirming here and there, and Hugh eventually just had to relent – it doesn't hurt that he likes flying.
The talons wrap around his wrist, Hugh adjusting the straps on the leather harness connecting his arm and the bird's leg until it's a snug fit, and he closes his eyes as the pokémon lifts him from the ground. It's the only way he can see how to fly now since he trained the pokémon on how to carry his weight; Unfezant just isn't as big as Hugh is now and Hugh's not as small as he once was. Besides, he's used to flying like this now with Unfezant, dangling free from the pokémon's iron grip – it's exhilarating and heart-pounding, and he trusts his pokémon and his strength. The bird's never dropped him before, hopefully he never will.
The railroad tracks glisten under the sunlight as Hugh arrives at the town, his landing causing several onlookers to gasp in what he assumes is concern about his traveling methods. But the air is fresh, crisp, and he sucks in a lungful as he takes in the sights of the tracks and the train cars from his spot at the bridge. A flute's melody is being played a good distance away and as Hugh leans against the railing on the bridge, he finds himself growing more and more relaxed.
His Xtransceiver rings, and it's Rosa. His hands fumble a bit before hitting the call button.
"Hey there, champ."
"Hugh!" Her voice is muffled, only slightly, and judging by the sighs behind her on the screen, she's outside, somewhere with cliffs and tall trees. Water is crashing somewhere in the distance, a faint sound, and Hugh can only guess she's near Victory Road, probably summoned for another battle. And then she's smiling up at the screen and Hugh ignores where she is but there is a bandage on her cheek, one he's about to ask about when she says, "Don't worry about it. It's just a scratch I got when I fell."
He rolls his eyes. "Clumsy as always, I see." She responds by sticking her tongue out at the screen. He can't help but laugh.
"Anyway, where are you? I just heard from Mom that you went on a journey?"
He sighs then, and to any eavesdroppers listening he's positive that he just sounds annoyed. But to Rosa, he knows he's just being his normal self. "Yeah. I'm at Anville right now, visiting the trains. Taking a journey for myself." Her chuckles are quick reach his ears, and she sounds like she's in good spirits. "What's so funny?"
Before she can reply, a strange voice sounds off from one end of the Xtransceiver: a call to battle.
Rosa's smile is apologetic, and Hugh makes sure the one he replies with is forgiving. "No worries, Rosa; make sure to kick their ass. Talk to you soon, okay?"
He ends the call before she can reply, but he's smiling as he turns off the device, just a hint of a grin, and maybe that was something he could take for himself: a conversation with a friend he hasn't seen in a while. It would be something her mother would be proud of him for, and maybe, just maybe, he can allow himself something for once instead of focusing on everything else, giving to everyone else, taking care of anything but himself.
But it's just conversation, he tells himself; regardless, the smile doesn't leave his face until the rain clouds roll in.
Mistralton City is where he gets soaked to the bone, his clothes dripping water in puddles as he runs into the pokécenter; the nurse is quick to situate him with a warm towel and a stern look when he says he's fine. He calls his mother from there, catching her up on the details of his journey. Rosa's mother is in the background, but all she does is send the boy a smile and a wink. He nods to himself while the screen switches from his parents to his sister, the girl currently sporting a cold, bundled up in thick blankets with her pokémon sleeping on her lap.
Hugh has to convince himself that he can't just run home and take care of her. His mother tells him anyway, and Hugh's left sitting there on the pokécenter's couch, silent, as rain droplets find their way down his face, down past his cheeks to trickle off his chin. "Keep me updated on how she is, okay?" He shoots her a grin for good measure after she replies, her voice unsurprised at his tone. He's quick to say he has to go afterwards, and she ends the call saying he needs to worry about himself.
At least it's loving, her voice, but he can't accept her words right now.
Fall in Icirrus City is chilly but beautiful, and Hugh spends a day on the bluffs high about the settlement, lazing around in the dry patches of grass and listening to the rickety sound of the windmills churning and cranking as the breeze drifts by. Down below the hills, a woman plays a flute and a guitar soon joins in, and something about this town and its aura of simplicity is comforting but unnerving, almost too boring. He doesn't do much else but nap in one of the backrooms of the pokécenter that night, lethargy a strange and ever-present weight – he blames it on the chill in the air.
When he reaches Opelucid City, he breathes a sigh of relief: the place isn't covered in ice anymore, although it will soon be covered in snow with fall slowly giving way to winter's arrival. Opelucid City is also where he battles Drayden and loses, but he also catches up on the city's progress, receiving word from the mayor about the Elite Four and Rosa; they've been busy, but that's no surprise – of course they would work themselves to the bone, battling all of those aspiring trainers eager to prove themselves.
But he's never met anyone else that is as strong as Rosa, so he doesn't worry about her title.
Lacunosa Town is where he just passes on through without stopping; his bouffalant runs alongside him. The looks they receive from the townsfolk are priceless, the boy and the pokémon laughing like the world's ending, but Hugh finds that he couldn't care less if he's acting a little bit weird; it's a distraction, and he knows it, knows he needs to distract himself from going home, and this way, by laughing like a fool, acting out of sorts, his own mother and Rosa's would be proud for him not abandoning this journey.
Undella Town is where he starts to wonder how long he's been traveling; that one leg of his jeans is still ripped at the knee, his clothes are worn but comfortable, and he still has food left over that Drayden shared with him. Undella Town is also where he calls Rosa again after he checks in with his father, given news that his sister is well again.
Hugh's seated on the end some beach chair that hopefully no one owns, the night sky causing the bay to be illuminated in a glow so ethereal Hugh has to tell himself that it's real. As the device rings, he traces the stars, picking out dots of white, blue, brown. Falling back against the chair, shifting awkwardly as the rubber straps bend to accommodate his weight, he breathes, in and out, and traces names in the sky with half-lidded eyes.
He doesn't trace his own name, though, not until he's finished making the others.
"Hugh?"
He has the Xtransceiver off of his wrist, holding it up so the person on the other end would see the sky.
"Hey, Rosa. Can you guess where I am?" She yawns and barely mumbles out a few words of "That's pretty, Hugh"; Hugh realizes how late it actually is, and between the urge to mentally slap himself or just not care, he says, "Were you asleep?"
"No, I was awake. Didn't realize how tired I was." She covers up her words in laughter, and proceeds to do her best to pick out different constellations in the Undella sky. He has to correct her more times than he cares to count before he sits up and faces the device's screen. His friend is sporting bags under her eyes but she's still grinning that same old grin, so it's not too bad, not bad enough for him to mention, not yet. But luckily, before he was about to go back on that thought, she asks, "How come you're at Undella, Hugh?"
"Marine Tube." And then he's thrown into another conversation – well, more of him just listening and Rosa talking about how the Marine Tube was an amazing technological feat, how she wishes part of some new movie might involve the ocean, and Hugh's just resting his cheek in his palm, eyes narrowed and bored, sitting at the end of the beach chair with his toes curled in the cold sand, but he's smiling at the screen.
"Hey, can we meet up soon?"
"I thought you were tired."
"Not tonight! I mean, like, in a few days from now. How about we go to Nimbasa together?" He feigns thought for a minute. She huffs in impatience on the other end before he nods. "I've got a break coming up soon, so…two days from now?"
"Sure."
She ends the call with a delighted but exhausted smile, and Hugh just shakes his head and walks back to the pokécenter to sleep.
He doesn't realize that he didn't even step foot inside the aquarium until he's out of the town.
Nimbasa: beautiful, bright, and loud. Rosa is grinning from ear to ear. Hugh is starting to wish he had pain killers.
"What do you wanna do first?"
He turns around from his daze of staring at the giant pikachu statue and finds Rosa a few inches away, gloved hands on her hips, still every bit as fiery as he remembered – she's refined, though, a bit different, and maybe she isn't the same as he remembers; it's not like he could gauge any changes over a telephone call. But she's grown up since their last meeting, their last battle, since the world was saved. She has the eyes of a new champion: tired but still struggling to hold onto that idea that you're not done yet, that there is still more to do, that you're not on the absolute top – struggling to keep that drive.
Tired eyes don't suit her, Hugh thinks –at once, he misses the life they are starting to lack. He wonders what he can do to get it back.
Shrugging, he looks away from her stare and finds the sight of his feet against the tiled roadways.
Don't trip, look forward.
It still doesn't make complete sense - he thinks it means that he shouldn't be looking down too much - but he looks up again.
"C'mon, Hugh! Surely there must be something you want to do."
He snorts, his grin a bit rough; his voice the same, carrying a distinctly annoyed tone that's he knows she's used to hearing. "Well, you'll have to forgive me. It wasn't exactly my idea to come here, your majesty." And if it's a bit sarcastic, who said it was a surprise?
"But you agreed to it!" And Rosa's quick to grab his wrist and yank him to the Ferris wheel, laughing without a care in the world, and maybe Hugh's trying not to chuckle along. And maybe his hand is suddenly being held in hers, and maybe his friend is still a dork. "We rode it together once before, remember? Let's go again!"
There isn't a line; there never is, but the wait is still long enough for Hugh to bundle his thick coat closer to his chest, shifting from foot to foot as his backpack starts to weight more and more by the second. Rosa's fame lets the operator allow them to stay on as long as they want.
The ride up on the Ferris wheel is quiet, the rocking of the gondola the only audible noise besides Hugh breathing out and Rosa breathing in.
She sits on the opposite bench from him, smiling over at him with a smile that shocks him: it's calm, soft, not at all bubbly and way too mature. He finds himself frowning back, the downturn small, and her head tilts as she laughs and turns away as the gondola halts, rocks back and forth once, twice, and then stops. Hugh feels like he missed something, and maybe he did - he hasn't been home in a few months, and his calls with Rosa have been short and brief. But he just shrugs and ignore the nagging feeling when she walks over, steps slow, and plops herself gracelessly at his side, her winter coat – some simple pink button up – left in her place.
"Hugh?"
"Hm?"
She smiles and leans close, their arms touching at the sides. It's warm. Hugh didn't realize he missed the warmth of another, but considering the fact they were bundled up in winter coats outside and snow is just now starting to fall outside, it isn't much of a surprise.
"Let's go home soon, okay?"
She yawns as the words halt just past her mouth, and Hugh's laughing quietly, a raspy and amused sound, when he realizes that was what he should be telling her, not the other way around – he promised her mother but here he is, being upstaged by the star herself. Her reply is to head-butt him in response to the laughter but the pressure lingers, her forehead against his bicep, and Hugh blinks in confusion before he realizes. It's nostalgic, comforting, and even though he scowls (without truly meaning it), he slouches down. Her head falls to his shoulder, falls closer to rest against his collarbone, and he wraps his arm around her shoulders, finally sighing to himself as silence takes over the car.
Words. Who needs them anymore? He's never been good with words.
When she moves closer, it's then when he realizes, a brief thought that ends up straying around his mind to garner attention, that he's a pillar, a column of strength; he's always been one. He serves as something to clutch to, to cling to, to find respite in. It's strange and right but wrong – he knows he isn't right for this, he's not calm enough for this, not patient enough, not smart enough, not brave enough to handle this type of responsibility even though everything in him tells him that he is the one to carry everything.
He has always been a boy with too heavy shoulders.
And maybe it isn't fair, how they can depend on him so heavily, how much he allows it and how much he encourages it, when he can't even allow himself to rely on himself. But fairness had abandoned him when Purrlion was stolen at the expense of his powerlessness, so he can't find it in him to care about fairness, and he can't attempt to make himself feel better with half-hearted sympathy.
Rosa clings. She soon dozes off into a light sleep, body a relaxed weight against him and Hugh then wonders just how hard she is pushing herself, being the reigning champion and a movie star to boot – dealing with battles and fans and the paparazzi every day can't be good for her. But he also wonders if he can match up to her, him just a traveling trainer with no goal and only having revenge's reward under his belt. But then Rosa cuddles closer because she's always been a clingy sleeper, and Hugh just stops thinking.
He turns his head and watches the snow fall, and he's glad she can't see his face; he's grinning like a child again, the same way he did when he rode the ride the first time with her – the only difference is the heights aren't as unnerving as they were before.
The rise down on the Ferris wheel is quiet, the rocking of the gondola the only audible noise besides Rosa breathing in and Hugh breathing out.
Rosa calls the studios after the ride and they give her an extended vacation. She says it's time to visit home, tells Hugh that it is time to visit home, to catch up with their families and neighbors – and he can hear the longing in her voice, the urge to head home as soon as she can, but he asks something of her anyway and they stop by the Marine Tube before they head home, Rosa all too obliging to his quiet demand.
On the way in, underneath the tunnel and the reflections of the rippling water against the shiny glass, Hugh's struck with the thought of him not being too sure when Rosa developed this tendency to hold his hand whenever and wherever, but the concern goes away when he stares at the swimming pokémon; it's beautiful as a relicanth does a fancy twirl, it's warming as a family of magikarp swim by, soothing as the colors of blue reflect against the glass, highlighted by the brilliant shades of the coral, and he's glad he's here, that he has been taking the time on his journey for himself lately and –
Well, that's just it, isn't it? He's doing something for himself.
Walking further in, hand still entwined with his friend's, he starts to think. He still wants to bring his sister here one day, he still needs to take her to Nimbasa. He needs to find time to see more of Rosa's movies. He's still a weird mess of a person who worries about others more than himself. He still wants to get rid of the nightmares and the doubts, his faults, the knowledge that his next failure is somewhere up the road. But regardless of all of that, he's had fun on this trip, training and battling and talking and not worrying about Team Plasma and stolen pokémon. And maybe that's a bit wrong of him, to let go of some worry, to not shoulder it all.
But he'll worry about it all later.
And if his hand squeezes Rosa's a few times or he laughs quietly and rolls his eyes at her excited shouts, he finds that she doesn't say a word.
Comments and critique are always welcomed.