A/N: Thank you for clicking on this story! I hope you somewhat enjoy it, despite its weirdness haha.

This is my entry for Glaceon Mage's The Random Number's Challenge on the Pokémon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The challenge was to write a romantic story about Blaine and Hilda from over 1000 words rated between K and T. So here it is :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Games of Time

The first time I saw her again she didn't know it yet. She was still so young, barely fourteen. She was with her friends visiting my island, her brown hair bobbing in the usual pony tail.

With a voice higher than I remembered, she challenged me to a battle, her blue eyes shining in a way I had come to love so much.

We battled, and I defeated her easily, remembering her Pokémon from before.

Before… Oh, how beautiful that time had been. It was true, sometimes ignorance was bliss.

But I have to admit, there had always been something about her, something that had set her apart from all other girls, something that had attracted and intrigued me.

It still intrigues me.

And maybe it's wrong, but it still attracts me too.

As I watched her leave, her nose stuck in the air as she was talking to her friends, undoubtedly planning her revenge already, I knew I would see her again.

I wondered if she would remember then.

She didn't.

She stood in front of me again, alone this time, her friends gone. Blue fire filled her eyes as she gripped her Pokéballs tightly, and as she called out her Pokémon, a smirk appeared on her face, as if she knew she would win this.

During the battle, the fire burned stronger – the fire of my Pokémon grew stronger, the fire in her eyes burned brighter and the flame of my love and admiration for her grew again.

I hadn't realized that it had actually grown smaller, that my love for her had died down, but as I was watching her, with all that passion and fury and love that I had gotten to know so well burning in her eyes, I felt it flare up again, brighter and stronger than before.

When she lost, she did her very best to hide her disappointment, her long hair falling in her face, hiding it from my eyes. After a few moments of staring at her Pokéball, she looked at me again.

"I will be back," she swore. "Not soon, but I will be back. And I'll make sure you'll remember me."

She didn't know that I already remembered her.

The battle had since long sunk to the back of my mind, but she hadn't. I thought of her every day, recalled all my memories of her, some happenings so old that I was surprised I remembered them.

When she returned, she knew. I could see it in her eyes, as she recognized me, not as the Gym Leader, but as Blaine. She had grown older since our last battle, but she was the same age as she had been in my memories.

She didn't say anything as she approached me. And I didn't say anything either, as I just watched her get closer. Her hair was windswept from the journey to my island, her clothes dirty and worn-out. They were the same clothes as she had worn on the day that I had met her, I suddenly realized.

She hadn't gone back to her family or her friends. She had come straight to me.

As she came closer I saw more details in her face. The lines of worry, of what she had gone through, had been etched in her skin, making her look older than she really was and in her eyes unshed tears were shining.

When she stood in front of me, a tear slid down her dirty face, and when she gently placed a hand on my cheek.

"You've gotten so old..." she whispered, her voice breaking. "I can't believe…"

"It's been fifty years Hilda," I managed to croak as I stared at the girl I had loved so much, the girl I still loved so much, no matter how many times my rational mind told me it was wrong.

"But it was just yesterday. Just yesterday…" she tried to deny the cold, hard fact that fifty years had passed since her departure.

"You should've gone to your family. To your friends. Not to me. Never to me," I told her, trying to sound stern. "You promised."

A sad grin appeared on her face, only vaguely resembling the smile I remembered. "I crossed my fingers."

I let out a sigh. "Hilda…"

"I know!" she interrupted me. "I know, Blaine! But, but…"

"Hilda," I said. "For you, it only happened yesterday. But it's fifty years ago. Please, forget about it. Visit your family and your friends. Remember me as a friend, as an old boyfriend, but… get over this. Treat me as you would treat any ex-boyfriend."

She stared at me for a moment long. "Are you breaking up with me?"

I felt a weird urge to laugh at that statement, but the hurt and tears in her eyes immediately brought me back to the painful reality.

"Hilda… we broke up fifty years ago," I said to her, not sure if that was the right thing to say.

Suddenly her eyes widened. "You have someone else!"

It sounded accusing, confused, hurt.

I don't have someone else. I never had someone else. Because I couldn't forget you. Because I couldn't stop loving you. Because I still can't stop loving you.

All those thoughts tumbled in my head, but I didn't say them out loud. She had a life to live, a life without me. That would be better for her, better for us both. She was a young girl, her whole life still ahead of her, and I was… me. An old man, always living in the past, my life already halfway over.

So instead I said, "I'm sorry Hilda."

The pain in her eyes was indescribable, and I wanted to reach out to her, to tell her that it was a lie, that I did love her, that everything would be okay and that we would make it work – it took all my self control to stand completely still and to keep silent.

With a sob she turned around, and I averted my gaze to the ground so I wouldn't have to see her run away.

I had broken her heart, but I had given her her life back. Maybe, one day, she would realize that. Maybe not. Maybe it was better if she didn't realize that.

And maybe, maybe I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. But perhaps I had made that one years back, when sixteen year old me stuck his nose in other people's business and started asking a strange girl questions she couldn't answer.

If that is my biggest mistake, I thought grimly, a tear sliding down my face, then… then I don't regret it one bit.

"Hey Blaine, how are you?" a brown-haired girl asked her friend as she sat down opposite of him.

The dark-haired boy didn't answer right away. Instead he just stared at her, intently, as if he was trying to see something he usually didn't see.

"What?" she asked, laughing a bit, "Is there something between my teeth?"

He didn't laugh with her, but just continued his staring, and she started to feel a bit uncomfortable under his gaze.

"You are not from here, are you?" he said tonelessly.

"No, I'm from Unova," she answered, laughing a bit awkwardly. "You know-"

"Yes, I know," he cut her off, "but that's not what I meant."

She looked away, fiddling with her hands in her lap to avoid looking at him.

"You aren't from here. Not from this time. You are from the future, aren't you Hilda?"

The girl didn't answer.

"Aren't you?" he pressed.

"Yes."

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! Hope this wasn't too weird haha. Anyway, please leave me a review!
Thanks again!