A pink drop of cool sugared water runs slowly down the lollipop, pecha berry flavoured and almost too sweet, cloying onto her tongue, the taste refusing to leave for hours, and really she prefers rawst, bright and tangy and clean, but it was all they had, so she has one anyway. Summer in Nuvema has always been hot, cloying, sticky, annoying, she's more of an autumn person, pretty leaves fluttering down and cooler temperatures, the passing showers and refreshing winds making everything feel like changing, like shedding its skin from all the dust of summer.
The rivulet hesitates at the bottom of the lollipop, until she tilts the thing slightly, lets it run to the stick and then downwards again, and she moves her hand, watches as it makes its way down down until it finally clings to the end of the wooden stick under her fingers, before friction and gravity conspire to pull it downwards where it drops onto her skirt, a tacky pink stain for her to worry about later.
Bianca wonders exactly when it was she found herself alone.
It always used to be all of them. All four of them, squashed onto this bench, old wood scratched with names and jokes and crude messages, and sometimes they'd laugh at them even though they didn't really get it. But mostly, they'd just sit and talk, eat lollipops and ice creams when one of their parents had given them money, she remembers running to the store in excitement, that small bit of freedom making her heart pound in her chest, clutching the money to her chest and so afraid if she dropped it, if she lost it, they'd all be so upset with her. But often, she'd be concentrating so hard on trying to keep her small hands clenched around the abused paper note and trying to keep up with them, the three of them so much more athletic than her; that she'd fall and drop it anyway. Cheren or Touya would lend her a hand up, and she'd morosely hand over the money, but not really because then she didn't have the responsibility for it. Once, she had lost it, and she remembers how they all trudged solemnly back to the bench, and she tried to make herself a small ball on the end of the bench so not to disrupt them because it was her fault.
But that was before pokémon ever came into it. That was before Touya went a bit weird and started isolating himself, before Cheren started taking studying quite so seriously, before Hilda started looking at the horizon with impatience, jealously that she wasn't out there. Bianca didn't really know what to do. She kept up with her studies, but never excelled. She tried to be a good friend to Touya, and although he did end up being quite close, it took her years to get the bottom of that one. And Hilda left as soon as she could. She tried to leave constantly, endlessly being dragged back home by an unamused local, pout on her face that she hadn't even made it to Route 1, and always begged her mother for trips away, and – later on – for a pokémon.
But yes, it had been Touya who'd broken the tradition of the four of them sitting here. She wonders if that was when it started to get a bit old, a bit stale a routine, or maybe it was just that she'd always gotten on best with Touya, calm and not expecting anything more than she could give, happy to let her live at her own pace, rather than Cheren and Hilda who liked nothing more than racing ahead and hated having to stop and wait for her.
But then, it had been her, next. She had always gotten the distinct feeling that Hilda didn't really like her, too ditzy and clumsy, but said nothing because she didn't want to cause a rift between the group. Once Touya had started staying at home more, Cheren and Hilda started to go on and on about pokémon, and it was almost like they'd forgotten Touya had ever existed, and Bianca felt more and more like a shadow to them, because she never had anything to say, and even if she did, there was never any space for a word between the two others, and in their enthusiasm of seeing a rare pokémon dart past, she slipped away and began sitting with Touya, in his living room or just in his bedroom, reading, generally doing nothing much at all, and at some point, she found out that he got quite ill sometimes. But that wasn't the only thing, a dark shadow passing over him at other times never quite got explained, but after she had been flicking through one of his comic books without much interest, wondering if she ought to go home and leave him to it – because he never said much to indicate whether he liked or was annoyed by her visits – he suddenly had started shaking and in her confusion, she just allowed him to cling to her, worried about how he was acting, but never really asking. They were closer after that, although it was years after that she finally pieced information together with her widened knowledge of the world and came to her own conclusions.
It was the moment Hilda turned eighteen, the oldest out of all of them, that everything was completely shattered. Chosing a snivy as her starter, she barely stopped to say any goodbyes, the best being telling Cheren to 'catch up with her' before she ran as fast as she could down Route 1, yelling her freedom to the sky above. Cheren's birthday, only a few weeks later as it turned out, did much the same thing in a more controlled fashion. Bianca's birthday was next, although she wasn't even sure she wanted to leave at first, and after talking to her father and Touya's parents, ended up travelling with him once it was his birthday, and they both nervously yet excitedly took their first steps onto Route 1, months after Hilda and Cheren. It had been autumn then; carpet of leaves on the floor, brisk wind threatening to remove their hats and they laughed, feeling the freedom and liking their first taste of it.
This works for a time, until it becomes apparent to Bianca that she's holding Touya back. It's a revelation that's a bit slow in coming, ending up with a barely veiled argument in Chargestone Cave, where he marches off in one direction while she stays still, her Dewott and Musharna growl at any joltik who come too close to her sobbing form. Touya later calls back to apologise, but she smiles weakly and tells him to go on without her.
It hits the news that Hilda is the Champion, has defeated Team Plasma, is all powerful and great, and quickly leaves the region. Hilda never could stay still, Bianca thinks, and isn't all that surprised – she's more surprised by getting a phone call from her, smiling as she is, sitting happily on Zekrom's back and heading to some far-off place. Bianca wishes her well, and that is the last she hears of Hilda in more than two years. Cheren is grumpy after hearing that news, and something evidently happens that makes him lose whatever spark he has, a lock enforced on his team and a spot in a newly opening gym to replace Lenora's for three years until he is able to train with his old team again. She feels sorry for him, but he answers none of her calls, or Touya's as she hears, and she thinks that the only person who can fix this is who-knows how many miles away in another continent.
Around the same time, Touya gains some kind of light in his eyes that he's been lacking for years now. She's not even sure how they met, or how long they've known each other, but when she meets Touya at some point to catch up, he arrives with a green-haired man and introduces him as N, and although he looks familiar and she knows who he was, she keeps quiet and smiles and isn't all that shocked a few months later when they turn up hand-in-hand, and she wishes them well. They, in turn, fly off somewhere, and somehow it's just her and Cheren in Unova, although it might as well just be her for all that Cheren's responding.
Bianca finds herself here, back in Nuvema, alone and not-quite peaceful in herself. She doesn't know where to go, has the badges that prove nothing but a lot of hard work and going against the grain, and she wonders about things. She wonders when, if, Hilda will come back, if Cheren will finally audibly bare his heart to her, if Touya is happy with N, somewhere in Hoenn right now. She wonders if she'll ever leave Unova, but then dismisses it.
She finds herself not alone anymore, turns to find Professor Juniper sitting next to her, smiling lightly with just a hint of a devious expression. Bianca finds herself smiling back, and hopes sincerely this can be a new beginning.
"What are you up to, here alone? Oh look, your ice cream's all melted…" She looks down, finds the pink patch to have spread, held in her sticky hands is only a stained wooden stick.
She laughs slightly.
"So you're right! Well, I was just thinking."
The professor hums, looks out over the sea for a while and lets the meagre conversation lapse into silence. Bianca starts to think about trying Cheren again later, knowing full well she will not get a response, when she hears the professor speak again. "I think you're lost, Bianca."
"Lost?" she echoes, confused, "How can I be lost? I'm in Nuvema. I know exactly where I am." Her expression turns further into confusion as Aurea chuckles slightly.
"Lost doesn't have to mean where you are right now. It can also refer to where you're going." She lets Bianca think about it for a while, before continuing, "Would you like a job, Bianca?"
"A job?" Her interest is piqued.
"Yes. I require a lab assistant, and I think, having known and watched you for some time, that you could be quite good at it."
"I would?" She can't really see it, herself. She'd never been smart, which she always that you'd need it you were going to work in a lab.
"You would. Your observational skills are good. You'd mainly be working in the field, observing pokémon in their natural habitats. It won't be easy, but it can yield some very interesting results."
She looks down, eyes circling the remnants of the lollipop on her skirt. Idly, she thinks about how it'll need washing, about how if she goes into the field, she'll need some new clothes anyway, ones more durable than these.
She realises she's already decided. If she doesn't like it, she can always quit, can't she? Cheren has a job, Hilda and Touya are still travelling. She's the only one stuck where she is, going nowhere.
Bianca looks up at the professor, nods lightly.
"I'll try it." She gets a smile in return.
"I'm glad. Field observations are so much better with an assistant."
Bianca raises her eyebrows, surprised.
"You go as well?"
Professor Juniper laughs.
"Who'd want to be stuck in the same place all the time? Now, I was thinking about trying to observe Tynamo in Chargestone Cave, next…"
Bianca smiles slightly, and – for once – thinks she might be able to feel on par with the other three.
Hey, instead of a pairing fic, have a really vague non explanation fic about Bianca. Hope you liked it, anyway.