Rabbit-Hearted Girl [561 words; Sapphire Birch]
It's a Dark!fic and it's mostly head!canon for me but I like it. I was listening to Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by Florence and the Machine, hence title.
Enjoy!
Her Papa's friend doesn't become a gym leader, and her new friend was hurt in their ambush from a wild Salamence. Her Papa scolded her for being reckless but Sapphire wanted to say that she should be scolded for being afraid. Wanted to tell her father that it's her fault that boy got hurt. They return to Hoenn.
Sapphire doesn't sleep well, the memory of the Salamence and of the boy invading her dreams normally so sweet and nice. She can still hear the ferocious roar ringing in her ears and like a ghostly film over her eyes; she can see the blood dribble down his face, following the curve of his cheeks and in droplets fall off his chin. Sapphire shudders when they're at their most vivid resolution, digs her nails into her arms until her own blood beads in those half-crescent impressions.
She feels like someone scooped out her insides, feels hallow. She hates the feeling, wants to fill the void where only ill memories like poisonous vapors swirl around, making her sick.
Sapphire finds the solution in the spring, months after the incident.
Sapphire looks down at the frilly dress she wore, vaguely remembers worrying about it tearing before she and the boy went off into the park. Something inside her, whatever it was that was left, snapped. This. Sapphire grips the fabric. This is my weakness.
Her mother comes into her room some odd hours later, wondering if her daughter was napping because she hadn't popped out of her room for so long. The room is in shambles, curtains (white, lacy, girly) torn from their rungs and on the floor; plushies torn (a cute pichu, a cute azumarill, a cute jigglypuff) and their stuffing everywhere; the bed cover strewn and pillows tossed haphazardly across the room. Sapphire is amongst the mess in one of her father's white t-shirts, hair mussed up and with an odd look in her namesake eyes.
Her mother is shocked and asks what she thinks she's doing.
"Becoming fearless," Sapphire says, oddly calm. She's got bundle of her dresses and she pushes past her mother and goes to find that fire-type pokemon from Lavridge Town. And when she does Sapphire puts it in its Pokéball and takes that with her to the fire-pit her parents use in the backyard. Sapphire dumps the clothes into the pit, releases the pokemon from tits ball. She remembers a command her father told her about.
"Use Ember," she points to the pit. The pokemon spits out flames and the dresses burn. Her mother watches from the window, wondering if her child has gone mad. But she hasn't; Sapphire has been killed and been reborn in the flames. The girly, dress-wearing child burns with her dresses in the pit and from the ashes, a braver girl will be reborn. She watches her former self die.
She goes on her father's expeditions into the jungle. Climbs trees but slips and falls onto her butt and Sapphire is tempted to cry but she rubs the back of her hand against her nose and get up. Sapphire tries again, digs her nails into the bark and pulls herself up. This is the beginning of a new life, a braver life, a braver Sapphire.
She hopes the boy would be proud of her.
[end.]