Rainier met Anne every morning in front of the Pokémon Center. It was the place they had first met, and where they eventually ended up becoming friends. Both had been traveling with their Pokémon companions, like most their age, until they reached Jubilife City, but now they just couldn't think of a reason to move on. After all, Jubilife City was where they had each met their best friend. So they stayed, and met every morning, in front of the Pokémon Center.
They never did anything particularly important or special. One day, they would go get ice cream. The next, fishing on Route 218. Occasionally, they would travel a ways along Route 204, battling the wild Pokémon, the other Trainers, and sometimes each other. If you asked them, they would say that it was just to keep their hand in. After all, who knew when they might end up continuing their journey to the next city? It wouldn't do for them or their Pokémon to get rusty. Besides, it was still a lot of fun.
Days turned into weeks, then months, and then, almost a whole year had passed, and still Rainier and Anne could have sworn they had only met the other day. They continued to meet each other at the same place and time every day, filling the time the same meaningless activities until it all started to blur - at least, until something changed.
One day, Rainier didn't show up. Anne waited in front of the Pokémon Center for hours that seemed like days, until finally she had to give up and get something to eat. She went fishing with her lunch, conscious all the while of the empty space on the grass beside her.
The next day, Rainier was late, but, well, better late than never. Anne asked about the bandage on his hand. He told her it was nothing; just a cooking accident. She believed him. After all, why would he lie to her? They were the best of friends. Still, he was awfully quiet for the rest of the day, and Anne started to worry.
The week that followed didn't alleviate Anne's concerns. In fact, if anything, they got worse. Rainier spoke less and less, and absolutely refused to say anything that even came close to the subject of his bandaged right hand. From the way he acted, it was obvious that it still hurt, even though a simple cooking accident would have long since healed by now.
Another week later, Rainier had completely lost the use of his right hand. His arm was now entirely wrapped in bandages, with not a scrap of skin showing below the elbow. Anne pleaded with him to go to the hospital, to see an herbalist, anything. Anything would be better than ignoring it, ignoring her.
Anne didn't show up at the Pokémon Center the day after that. Or the day after that, or the day after that. The sixth day was when Rainier stopped trying. It was clear that he had driven her away. Walking back to the room that he'd rented while he stayed in Jubilife City, he bumped into too many people. Depth perception is one of those things you never notice until it's gone, he discovered.
A bedridden Rainier heard the doorbell ten days later. He didn't bother answering, but the person at the door just rang the doorbell again, and again, and again. Finally, they stopped, and Rainier breathed a sigh of relief. Or, at least, he would have, had he not heard keys rattling in the lock. The door opened, and Anne walked in.
She froze when she caught sight of Rainier, and he suddenly felt worse than he had before, which he hadn't thought possible. After all, it's hard to top the feeling of your entire body burning and melting.
Anne rushed to his side, tears beginning to make their way down her cheeks. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Rainier reached out to comfort her, but his hand fell before it reached her. Suddenly finding it much too hard to breathe, he closed his eyes and let himself drift away. Something held him down for a minute - I can't leave her like this - but it was cut loose, and he was free.
There was no body, and only three people attended the funeral.
"Hey, are you alright?"
He opened his eyes blearily to find a Snivy looking down at him in concern. Shaking the fog of sleep from his mind, he muttered an incoherent reply. The effort made a sharp pain lance through his body, and he convulsed involuntarily. The Snivy hesitated before speaking up again.
"You don't look so good. What happened to you?"
He expelled another jumble of sounds. This time, it didn't hurt quite as much, and what had come out was almost something like speech. Figuring that the third time was the charm, he tried again right away, this time getting it right.
"I don't remember." Unable to muster the willpower to elaborate, he fell silent again.
"It must have been something pretty serious, for you to be this far from home. I don't think anyone's seen a Mudkip - or Marshtomp or Swampert, for that matter - anywhere even remotely close to here for decades." The Snivy thought for a minute, and looked around, as though something would suddenly pop out of the grass and solve the mystery of the mistreated Mudkip. Unfortunately, no such convenient solution presented itself.
"I guess there's nothing else to be done - I'll bring you back to my place. You can rest up there. Here, let's get you on your feet."
He tried to stand up, he really did, but he just ended up rolling over. The Snivy helped, and this time, he was able to stand, although he did feel like he would fall again if left alone for more than a few seconds.
Taking a few tentative steps forward with the assistance of the Snivy, he gradually felt the pain begin to leave his body, which ended up just leaving him bone-tired. He had nearly fallen asleep on his feet when the Snivy said something else.
"What was that? I...I didn't hear."
"I said, what's your name?"
He didn't respond. The Snivy shrugged, and kept walking. Practically carrying a Pokémon more than half as big as her was tiring work. She needed to save her breath and get the Mudkip somewhere that he could recover as soon as possible.
They walked in silence the rest of the way. The silence was broken exactly once, nearly twenty minutes later.
"Rain."
Author's Note: This is unedited. Please point out any errors or discrepancies, and I'll fix them later, when I'm not supposed to be sleeping. Oh, and I have no plans to continue this in the future, so please don't ask.