1. Start
Silence had come to Viridian city, perfect in it's near totalness, lit by dazzling starlight and a full moon. Midnight was approaching, and the residents had long since succumbed to deep slumber. A cold wind teased the boughs of the nearby forest, shaking loose leaves that drifted lazily throught the summer-scented air, finding their way by chance in through the open windows of the small houses, and it was just such a handful that scattered themselves on top of a jam-packed shelf of colourful toys, looking blankly out into the bedroom. The walls were sky blue, and the wallpaper itself was covered in prints of strange animals, from crabs with incredibly dissproportionate claws to small balls of pink fluff, gazing out of the paper with sweet, puppy dog eyes. The room almost seemed to be holding it's breath, waiting tensely for a moment it had clearly been approaching for a long time.
A door was pushed gently open, flooding the bedroom with light, and a woman with long auburn hair walked in, her weary green eyes fixed on the small form she held in her arms as she slowly crossed the floor to the plain little cot she had bought months ago. With a sigh, she finally relinquished her hold on the dozing baby, letting it down gently into the folds of it's soft blankets and carefully wrapping them around it. She stood there for a long moment, watching the rise and fall of her son's tiny chest and dreading this very first moment of letting him alone, beyond her sight...
A thud behind her made her whip around, and she couldn't help rolling her eyes as she saw a man rubbing a foot he had obviously just banged on the rocking horse with a fiery red mane, sat in the corner awaiting it's first ride. He smiled sheepishly, mouthed 'sorry', then walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her, and despite her frustration, she didn't resist.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to just put him down." He whispered, looking down at her with a cheeky smile on his face, his red eyes glinting mischievously.
"You'd have been even worse. You can't leave me for five seconds without getting homesick, Eric." She replied, grinning at him and running a hand over his short black hair, cradling his head and pulling him in for a brief kiss, then leaning on his chest and looking down at their boy again. "So, what now?" She asked, her mind totally devoid of any future beyond that room.
"Well, I don't know about you Danielle, but I'd like a shower..." Eric mumbled, looking down at his rumpled, filthy suit. He'd recieved a phonecall telling him to get home during his break at work, and taking a shortcut through Diglett Cave without any pokemon probably hadn't been the wisest idea. Danielle giggled, looking down at her dressing gown and running a hand through her own slightly greasy hair. Now her mind was finally free to think about anything other than her imminent labour, she realised just how rough she had gotten in her last weeks of pregnancy.
"A shower sounds great." She replied with a smile, "You first." She added, and Eric's mouth snapped shut quickly, smothering the naughty suggestion he'd obviously been forming. Danielle sighed, trying not to sound slightly amused, but giving him another, slightly longer, kiss all the same. They walked out together, arm in arm, supporting each other slightly against their shared fatigue, but they waited a moment at the door. Looking back in at the bed. "Goodnight, Auro." Dannielle whispered, before finally closing the door, allowing darkness to retake the room.
The lazy wind was giving up on it's idle huffing, finally dropping to a complete stop. But the night was by no means silent. A light fluttering on the very edge of hearing came ever closer from Viridian forest, still barely audible as it passed over houses. Another scattering of leaves fell to the baby's bedroom floor, and a small form flew gingerly across the room, lingering over the cot slightly. It's bright blue eyes were almost insectoid in proportion to it's head, but it's hands were exceedingly gentle as they wrapped the child's fingers around something small, that glinted even in the darkness of night. As soon as the strange creature was satisfied it's work was done, it flew quickly away, leaving the city in silence once more. The creature hadn't noticed a pair of eyes quietly watching it, and as the child succumbed to sleep once more, it tightened it's grip on the creature's gift. A bright red ruby, larger than the baby's fist...
...
Over ten years from that day, much had changed within the confines of that room. The walls were the same colour, but no longer were there cute animals across them. No longer was there a rocking horse and most of the cuddly toys had been thrown into the garbage (the rest were hoarded jealously by Danielle in the attic). Draws filled with pens and paper and paints had appeared in there stead, rarely used, but ocassionaly picked over. Pretend pokeballs, round, half white, half red but all plastic, adorned the shelves, each with a pretend and unrealistic pokemon inside them. The biggest difference, however, was the boy curled under the covers of his bed. Now just over ten years old, he was finally passing four feet in height, with short brown hair and red eyes, the image of his thin faced father. The peace of his sleep was interrupted abruptly by his door being slammed open, his mother practically charging into his room and starting to pick up stray clothes and bits of rubbish he'd left around, sighing at his lazy preteen attitude.
"Get up Auro, you have to be heading for Pallet Town in ten minutes." She said firmly, throwing a handful of sweet wrappers into the bin and being determinedly ignored. "I mean it, Auro!" She called over he shoulder, dropping a handful of stray pens into a drawer. This time she got an answer. A loud, clearly fake, snore...
"Ouch!" Auro jumped upright and yelled, in a voice still far from dropping. "That's not fair!" He grumbled at his mother, rubbing his sore side.
"Well, if you don't want to get poked with Onix again, I suggest putting him away and getting up when you're told." She replied with a satisfied smile, putting a hard toy pokemon that looked like a snake made form a series of rocks back in it's large toy pokeball. With a low 'hmph', Auro did as he was told, throwing his pyjamas on the floor, then reminding himself that his mother was still there, whipping the room into shape as she whipped around it, and he quickly folded them and placed them in their drawer, pulling out a pair of green shorts and a white t-shirt from another and putting them on slowly and lazily, until he heard his mother tutting behind him. "Do you want to keep Leyla waiting downstairs forever?" She said, a note of teasing in her voice, and she barely managed to supress a giggle at the look he gave her as he almost instantly span to face her.
"You didn't tell me Leyla was here!" He yelled, looking horrified.
"Well, if you want to walk to Pallet town with her, I suggest you hurry up. She can't wait all day for you!" Dannielle said with a grin, walking out of the room with a pile of washing under her arm and hearing Auro's morning routine speeding up by several thousand times as she shut the door behind her. She rollled her eyes to herself, heading for the stairs. Puppy love was so adorable...
...
"No way!" The little girl's voice echoed across the grassy ground of route 1.
"C'mon, it's quicker this way!" Auro called up to her, feeling slightly exasperated at his freind's unadventurous nature.
"Nu-uh!" She yelled back, standing near the edge of the ledge and looking down once more, then gulping and stepping back, shaking her head, her shoulder length blonde hair whipped back and forth as she did. "It's too high!" She wailed.
"Leyla..." Auro started, looking at the ledge and seeming quite embarrased. "It's barely three feet high..." He said earnestly.
"...will you catch me?" She asked, widening her blue eyes to puppy dog proportions as she always did when she wanted help from him. Auro sighed, but inside he had given in to her right away. He held his arms wide, watching her take a step back and then, after a deep breath, jump down from the ledge. Then all of a sudden, she was far too close and Auro was flat on his back on ground that felt far too hard. Leyla gasped, leapt to her feet and pulled him onto his. "Sorrryyyyyy!" She looked extremely guilty, and Auro didn't have the heart to complain about how badly she had winded him. Instead he forced a smile onto his face, and they started walking towards Pallet town again. Their talk was as it was with all children, mostly about imagining. Imagining the future, imagining their deepest dreams, imagining strange things that made each other giggle. Of course, neither of them were yet old enough to shape their world, so imagine was all they could do. At least, that had been true up until now. As Auro gave Leyla a covert look, he couldn't help being slightly jealous of her. As well as her usual denim dunagarees, yellow t shirt and cream coloured beanie, she was wearing a hefty backpack (hefty for her size anyhow), the small cooking utensils in one pocket jangling together with every step she took. The truth was, Leyla, his best freind in the whole world, was about to set off on her very own pokemon adventure, and there was no way he could follow. When Professor Oak had sent out word that he was looking for three young people to go out on a special adventure with each recieving a pokemon of their very own, Auro had begged and pleaded (and occasionally cried) for her to put his name down on the list. But, as he had expected, she had refused, on the grounds that he was far too young, despite the fact that, according to Oak's leaflet, ten was the perfect age to begin. He suspected that the real reason had far more to do with his mother's lonliness...
Then again, he could hardly accuse her of hiding her true feelings. The real reason he didn't like that Oak had chosen Leyla was that he didn't want her to leave, because he loved her. He had realised he loved her a long time ago, ever since they started sharing toys, playing all their games together and telling each other all of their secrets (except the really secret ones. After all, they were secrets), and if that wasn't love, then what was? He was going to marry her, they were going to have a boy and a girl, and maybe, just maybe, she would kiss him every now and then.
"Auro? Are you listening to me?" Leyla asked, stopping still and putting her hands on her hips, her brow furrowed.
"What?" Auro asked, only just snapping back to attention.
"I asked you if you'd ever seen a pokemon battle." She said after sighing and starting to walk again. She was more than used to Auro wandering off into his own little world.
"Only on TV." He replied, remembering the humongous and monstrously powerful pokemon that he had seen clashing, not recalling their names but able to picture every inch of a dragon's scaly hide, such fear had it invoked in him when he had been younger.
"Me too..." Leyla replied, looking a little sad as she said it.
"What's up?" Auro asked, feeling quite confused. He had no idea why she would feel sad when she was about to have the best adventure ever.
"I...what if i'm no good?" She said, letting her nervousness really show on her face.
"Oh...er...well, you can always...get better?" Auro replied tentatively. Pep talks weren't one of his strong points.
"Thanks for that." Leyla replied, with a look that suggested she didn't mean it. But she didn't have long to stay mad at him. "Oh no!" She wailed as she saw the next ledge on their way to Pallet town came into sight.
...
Well, I hope that was enjoyable :) Obviously this is a slightly slow start, but that's kind of what Pokemon's always been like for me. Pallet town in the next chapter!