Christmas Lights

The snowflakes silently fell down to earth.

They were dragged into the room rather fast, mostly because of the strong wind which blew through the hole in the wall. Whenever they hit warm skin, it burned. But she didn´t falter at all, she stood there without moving. She would have spent the whole day at home, if her twin brother Touya hadn´t decided to nag her all day long. Christmas Eve was to be spent with the family, but for some reason Touko had ended up here, blankly staring at this giant hole in the wall. The abandoned castle of Team Plasma was a silent and dusty place now; unlike it had been a couple of years ago. When she first entered it, this one wall had been in one piece, and the castle had burst with life. Grunts all over the place; the Seven Sages and Team Plasma´s leader.

The leader.

She remembered his last words as if she had said them once. She could imagine his desperate smile; the one who had worn when he had silently bid his farewell to the trainer who´d crushed him. She could see his bright blue eyes in front of her; being at the edge of crying but still with the solemn gaze in them. The wind was the same, cold and filled with the snow of winter. But this wasn´t the day she had claimed the title of Isshu Champion, this was a day she wanted to escape from society; from humanity.

Bright white light filled the room and would have blinded her if she hadn´t been used to the brightness of said light.

The silence was something she loved; it was like a cooling pause for her. She was responsible for the Elite Four of her land, she was the woman children admired; trainers wanted to battle. Her face was well-known throughout the land, even beyond the ocean. She wanted to disappear, to fade to nothingness - just for one day.

Being an unknown rookie-trainer like she was when she started her journey. Being a not-so-true-threat to a Gym Leader, getting the first badge and being proud of her achievement. If she went to battle Sanyou Gym again, she would leave the gym leader in a cloud of dust. Unlike the start of her journey. The day she battled Koon of Sanyou she almost lost to him - the Yanappu she had been given not too long before the battle started had lost against a Hiyappu in type-disadvantage. Her Pokabu had given his best, and barely made it out standing.

If she battled Koon now, her once weak Pokabu would take out his entire team with one Flamethrower.

"Huh. I expected everyone, but not you, Touko."

Touko, who had closed her eyes a few minutes ago, snapped them open, frightened.

"Really. It´s the day of Christmas, and the champion herself is standing here, in these ruins of a war in Isshu? You´re as interesting as ever, dear Touko."

The castle had its king back.

Touko thought she was dreaming at first, but soon realized that this was no dream. Reshiram stood a few feet away, the giant white dragon looked more powerful than before. Blazing blue eyes fixed in Touko; and a low growl escaped the dragon.

"Hush. No need for that, Reshiram."

In front of the dragon stood a rather unremarkable young man. With his calm smile and those half-heartedly opened blue eyes, he would´ve been hard to make out in a crowd - if it hadn´t been for his unusual hair. Instead of having a shortcut, the young man´s hair was as long as Touko´s. It was messier than the hair of Souryuu City´s gym leader, Iris. It was a mess of tea green.

"N, what are you doing here?"

This question only caused the man to smile a bit brighter. "Am I not allowed to enter the place and land I grew up in, dear Touko?"

It slightly confused Touko to be addressed as "dear Touko".

She shrugged before answering. "Dunno. I mean, you disappeared rather fast when I defeated you."

"Correction; when you defeated my father. I kind of hoped that Adeku and Cheren would arrest me for being a crazy killer or something; not my father. I thought it would be best to disappear before someone would remember my face in Isshu."

He shook his head with closed eyes and the same smile. The snow, which had blown into here not long, melted before it could reach Reshiram. The Fire Dragon made a sound that sounded like a snort.

Touko saw him whipping around, jumping onto the back of Reshiram and flying away faster than any other Pokemon native to Isshu could have taken him. N, who could be made out easily because his green hair gave him away on the white back of Reshiram, had been gone before Touko could whisper her farewell.

Now he stood in front of her, as if nothing had happened all these years ago, and Touko just wanted to punch him. But she didn´t move at all, she didn´t even dare to breathe loudly. Some part of her thought this was nothing more than an illusion, and this part wanted it to last. The other part knew this happened and wanted to get out.

Cheren, Belle, Prof. Araragi and Senior, Adeku, the Elite Four, the Gym Leaders - everyone once wanted to know what became of the leader of Team Plasma. But as the years went by, everyone began to forget about him. Touko was at the edge of forgetting him when she came here, and now he stood in front of her, unharmed.

"Where have you been?" she asked.

"Here and there. That doesn´t help you at all, right?" he retorted rather sour, and his smile was replaced by a smirk. His blue eyes started sparkling in a weird way.

"Don´t play that kinda game with me; I defeated you once and I could do it again."

"On the night of Christmas? How cruel can you be, dear?"

He was right - as much as I hated to admit it.

Without the snow falling into the castle, it felt like it was summer outside - wrong but wonderful.

Without all these Christmas Lights it felt more peaceful than ever before.

Cheesy. ._.

I wanted to write something else than "Patched in Black"; with all its… macabre stuff, and so I tried writing this in German. I failed big time, so I switched language, and I like most of it - enough to post it.

I´m not proud, I could´ve done better, but as I post this, the clock´s about to hit midnight. I´m tired. ;_;

However, I hope you enjoyed this, and good night! :D

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