It was a quiet, Friday night, at about 9 pm when Kukui and his trusty partner Incineroar finally found a decent place to set up a tent.
Kukui was so exhausted he could drop dead in the deep snowbanks all around him. He squinted at his map yet couldn't seem to identify where in Arceus' name he was. He wasn't worried about freezing to death, although the possibility did cross his mind, but with Incineroar it wasn't gonna happen.
Kukui sighed and started to unpack his large, bulky backpack and started to pitch his tent.
"Alright Incineroar, see if you can finish this up. The aurora borealis should be starting up anytime now"
Kukui's trusted partner nodded and began to pound the metal stakes Kukui had set into the snow down into the soil.
The tanned man reached into the pocket of his overcoat and grabbed the burlap sack he had kept on him for the past three days, back when Burnet...
Kukui shook the negative thoughts from his head and focused on the positive things. Burnet wouldn't want to see her normally upbeat husband so down.
He scanned his surroundings and saw that he was an a clearing that was a little too out of place for him to consider it natural. Kukui suspected it was man made, although the only structure in sight was a snowed-in wooden cabin that looked like it hadn't been inhabited in years.
Kukui glanced up into the sky. Apparently, the aurora borealis looked like the dual sails of Aurorus' back, but a thousand times bigger and constantly changing between countless colors. Kukui couldn't wait to see it.
Incineroar finished pitching the tent and ventured into the surrounding forest, presumably looking for firewood. Or a native Stantler to battle. Either way.
Kukui paced about the border of the clearing. The northern lights would commence any moment now.
"Hello?" called a voice behind him.
A woman was standing at the door of what Kukui thought was an empty cabin.
"Hello!" called Kukui.
The woman took a couple of steps out of the doorway and wound up standing on her poorly kept porch. She shut the door behind her, so the cold air and light snow wouldn't find its way inside her home. The two individuals were close to ten feet apart, if not less.
"Can I help you?" asked the woman, with an odd combination of sarcasm and genuine concern. Through the snowflakes, Kukui could see that this woman was probably in her early twenties, probably 22 or 23, making her a year or two younger than himself, although this thought was fleeting, and soon exited his mind.
"No, it's fine" said Kukui dismissively "I'm just here to see the northern lights"
"You sure?" reiterated the woman "It's just awful late. And you're in my yard"
Kukui cringed and started to talk very fast, like he normally did when he was nervous "Do you mind? I'm only going to be here the night. I just want to see the lights and then I'll be gone" Kukui paused and then when the woman didn't respond, he repeated "I hope you don't mind."
The woman slowly urged herself off of her porch and stood now seven feet away from Kukui. She glanced to her left and saw Kukui's loud, colorful and overall Hawaiian tent, with Incineroar, returning from his expedition waving gleefully at the pair.
"Is that your tent?" enquired the woman in disbelief "And your Pokémon?"
"So I have a place to sleep after I see the lights" said Kukui matter of factly, "And Incineroar has been my partner for, wow, almost a decade now"
"So you pitched a tent in my yard?"
"Yes, I hope you don't mind."
The woman thought for half a minute before saying "I wouldn't say I mind, exactly."
Kukui's mind traveled a mile a minute and he immediately blurted out "You do mind, don't you?"
The woman tried to open her mouth to respond, but Kukui plowed on "You see, it says in your brochure-"
"In my brochure?" asked the woman skeptically. Kukui chuckled and pulled out his brochure from one of his overcoat pockets
"It says that people in Maine are different." he continued "That they live the way people should, like up in Scandinavia or something. They let people like cross country skiers, explorers, people trying to find Articuno and camp out in their yard for free. They just let them."
The woman was now standing directly in front of Kukui. She couldn't have been more than ten inches away, looking at the brochure that Kukui had pulled out. Neither of them had noticed the burlap sack, that had somehow moved itself into Kukui's other hand.
"Well, is it true?" asked Kukui "I am a hiker." When the woman didn't respond, he started to ramble on. "I've never been this far north before. Or east. Did you know that Maine is the only state in the United States that's only connected to one other state?" The woman transferred her incredulous smile from Kukui's brochure to the man himself. "Well, it's true!" insisted Kukui.
The woman took the pamphlet from Kukui and started to fold it while Kukui ventured off a little ways. "It feels like it's the end of the world here. So cold, unpopulated, almost primal."
"Helluva way to get me to let you stay" quipped the woman.
"Are you going to let me stay?" asked Kukui.
"Well-"
Kukui cut the woman off "If someone really needed to"
The woman tried to answer again "Well-"
Kukui interjected again "And I mean really needed to"
"YES!" screamed the woman, who obviously detested being interrupted, but the kindness in her heart won out over the man's tendency to ramble.
Kukui threw his arms around the woman and lifted her off the ground "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he said jollily. Just as quickly as Kukui had picked the woman up, he clumsily put her down and scratched his head awkwardly.
The two took a couple steps in contrasting directions and stayed silent for a few seconds, until Kukui felt the pockets of his overcoat and felt that his burlap sack was gone.
Much to his unwanted surprise, he saw the woman clutching it in her right hand, although she didn't even seem to realize she had it.
"Excuse me, but I need that" said Kukui.
"What?" asked the woman.
"That sack in your hand, I need it"
The woman's eyes widened, and Kukui's hypothesis that the woman didn't realize she had the sack was all but confirmed.
"Oh, sorry" she said. She tossed the sack back to him. Incineroar, who had been prowling the snowbanks for the entirety of the conversation, saw his chance and grabbed the sack out of the air and presented it to Kukui in one fluid motion. Kukui gratefully took the sack from Incineroar and rubbed the Pokémon's skull.
Kukui went back to gazing at the sky, and unfortunately the aurora borealis had not chosen to make an appearance yet.
"So you're just looking for a place to watch the northern lights?" asked the woman.
"Yep. Just for tonight."
"Well, you might not see them tonight" said the woman.
"No, no, no. I'll see them tonight. I'm in a good place. Your latitude is good, and ever since Solgaleo made an appearance in Hawaii, solar activity is at an all time high. And damn, you got a great sky for it. There's a lot of sky here."
"It used to be a Yache Berry farm" said the woman.
"I was gonna guess something like that. No trees around." murmured Kukui, then he raised his tone to a normal speaking voice "So you're a farmer?"
"Oh, no, I used to be a farmer, but the Furret around here would always steal the Berries, so I gave up and became a repairwoman. I fix things."
"Really? You're not a Crawdaunt-Fisher..."
The woman chuckled "No. The ocean is a couple hundred miles away. Can you imagine the commute?"
It was Kukui's turn to chuckle "Well, thank you for letting me stay. I've had a bad enough time lately and it's just that-"
Without any form of warning, the woman threw her arms around Kukui's neck and kissed him.
Before Kukui even had a chance to process what happened, the woman pulled away and started stammering "Oh my Arceus, I'm so sorry. I'm not the type of person to do that. I just...I think I love you."
Kukui scratched the back of his head "Really?"
The woman nodded eagerly "I saw you from my window and I love you"
"Well, that's very sweet and I do appreciate it but there's something you should know. I'm not exactly here for that. I'm here to pay respects to my wife, Burnet."
The woman's face contorted into a powerful cringe "Oh.." She backed away from him slowly and clumsily.
"Yeah, I'm here to pay respects for her. She died recently. On Tuesday, actually. And, y'see, the northern lights" Kukui noticed the woman was starting to head back into her house, probably feeling ashamed, possibly mortified, so Kukui decided to follow her. "Did you know this? The northern lights are actually the departed souls on their way to Heaven. It takes about three days and Burnet died three days ago, so that's why I'm here. I'm not mad about the kiss, there's no way you could've known."
The woman halted in her tracks and spun around to face Kukui again. It was obvious in her face that didn't quite believe Kukui about the kiss, and if Kukui was honest, he didn't know what he was feeling, but he wanted to get to know the woman better.
"I didn't leave things well with Burnet, so I wanted to say one last goodbye, before she has to wait forty-something years to see me again. And I wanted to do this unbothered, but what you just did a few seconds ago, that bothered me. I think"
elaborated Kukui.
"Alright, just please don't go. Just consider what I did a very warm Maine welcome" suggested the woman.
Kukui cracked up "Yes ma'am. Well my name is Kukui."
"I'm Plumeria" said the woman. She offered a hand for Kukui to shake and Kukui obliged. "Funny story, actually, about my name. Plumeria was actually the town I was born in, but there was a screw up on the birth certificate. Plumeria Gonzales, born in Amy, Maine."
Kukui tried not to laugh when he said "I am so sorry. I think I passed through Plumeria on my way here." Kukui paused for a moment, wondering if he should as a question that had been on his mind for a while. He decided that his curiosity was more important than his cautiousness with Plumeria. "Where is here anyways? I couldn't find it on my map."
"You're in Almost" said Plumeria, a smile tugging at her face, as if she'd always wanted to give this explanation but had never gotten the chance until now. "You're in an unorganized territory. You're not gonna find it on your map, because technically, it's not a real town."
Kukui was more confused now having that vague information than he had a few seconds prior not having any information. Funny how that works. "What do you mean?" asked Kukui.
"Well, in order to be a real town, you gotta get organized." added Plumeria "And we never really got around to that. So we're what people call Almost-A-City. Or for short, Almost."
"Oh, cool" said Kukui. If he wasn't so adapted to Californian weather and culture, Kukui would seriously consider moving to Almost.
A sharp pain from his chest brought Kukui to his knees. "Gah, my heart!" he yelled. He tried to find the burlap sack, but the cursed thing seemed to have a mind of its own. Again, somehow, the sack had found itself in Plumeria's grasp.
"Are you alright? Do I need to call an ambulance?" said Plumeria, started to jog in place and wring her hands.
"My heart. It's in that sack. Please give it back to me.." said Kukui.
Plumeria said sure so many times so quickly it was impossible to actually keep track as she handed Kukui the sack back.
"Thank you" breathed Kukui. As suddenly as the pain had come, it had been relieved.
"Did you just say that your heart is in that bag?" asked Plumeria.
"Yes." said Kukui firmly.
"It's heavier than I expected it to be"
"Yes." repeated Kukui firmly.
"Why is it that bag?" asked Plumeria "And not, y'know, in your chest?"
"That's just the way things worked out for me, I guess." Kukui said solemnly "Incineroar, go make sure no Beartic or Dewgong get in our food"
Incineroar reluctantly left, giving Plumeria a pointed look before going of to guard two bags of Doritos.
"Why?" asked Plumeria, after Incineroar was out of earshot.
"It's broken" said Kukui. The rambling, socially oblivious Kukui was gone, replaced with a fractured man mourning his wife.
"What happened?" asked Plumeria, inviting Kukui to sit on the two rocking chair on her porch. Kukui sighed and followed her up.
"Burnet broke it." said Kukui finally.
"Your wife?" inquired Plumeria.
"She went away." he said "With someone else."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I-" Plumeria faltered. What could she say? That she didn't know. She hardly knew the guy and he barely knew her. How come his heart kept winding up in her arms?
"When she did that, I thought my heart would break." continued Kukui "And that's exactly what it did. Hurt so bad I actually wound up going to the hospital. The Nurse there said that my heart wouldn't work anymore, and that she's have to replace it. I went through the surgery to replace my heart with an artificial one. Apparently, during that surgery, one of the Nurses dropped my original heart on the ground, and it broke into twenty four pieces." Kukui moved his gaze from the ground to Plumeria, who was digesting the information silently. Kukui shook the sack around, and it reminded Plumeria of the sound that occurs when someone shakes a bag of coins around.
"Slate" spat Kukui bitterly "It turned to slate".
"Should be good for roofing" said Plumeria, hoping to lighten up the situation. Kukui's expression didn't even come close to changing.
"So wait, you have an artificial heart, yes?" asked Plumeria.
"Yeah."
"So why do you carry around your old one?" asked Plumeria.
"Because it's my heart, duh"
"But it's broken" countered Plumeria.
"Yeah."
"Because your wife left you."
"Yeah..."
"So if she left you, why are you paying respects to her?" asked Plumeria forcefully.
"Because that's what you do when someone dies" answered Kukui with equal force.
"But she left you. It seems to me that a woman like that doesn't deserve respect" reasoned Plumeria.
"Well, like I said earlier, I didn't leave things well with Burnet and I want to make things right" prompted Kukui.
"Why?" asked Plumeria firmly.
"So I can apologize."
"Why?" repeated Plumeria.
"Because" said Kukui, although he knew that Plumeria was going to demand more information.
"Why" repeated Plumeria again.
"Because I'm the one that killed her!" shouted Kukui.
"Oh, oh!" yelped Plumeria. She jumped up from her chair and started for the front door, presumably to go back inside and bar up the door.
"But I want to apologize!" shouted Kukui. Despite this admittedly terrible reasoning, Plumeria felt the urge to hear him out.
"I was in recovery from my surgery when Burnet came to see me. I was almost better, too. Just about to go home. And she told me she wanted me back. And I told her 'Burnet, I have a new heart now. I'm sorry, it doesn't want you back'. And that just killed him."
"Oh, so you didn't.." Plumeria finished her sentence nonverbally by pantomiming stabbing her front door over and over and over and over again.
"Yes, I did. Because when I told her I didn't want her back, she just ran right out of the front door and there was an ambulance rushing in. There was a fire. Anyways, the ambulance rammed her right back through the door. She died right in the lobby."
"Kukui.." consoled Plumeria.
"If my new heart would've been able to take her back, she wouldn't have ran out and gotten ran over. The best thing to do for closure is to just apologize for not being able to-"
Plumeria cut Kukui off by rushing back toward him and kissing him again. This time Kukui did have time to react. He could've thrown Plumeria into the snow and found somewhere else to settle in for the night. He chose not to. He wanted to test something.
Sure enough, his experiment was a success. Every time Plumeria kisses him, his heart wound up in her hands.
When Plumeria separated from him, he immediately reached out and snatched his burlap sack from her hands. "Please don't do that anymore" Kukui ordered. Well, he wanted it to sound like an order, but it sounded like he was begging.
"Why not?" asked Plumeria "I love you."
"Well, don't" said Kukui bluntly.
"Why not?" asked Plumeria.
"Well, because my new heart just pumps blood and that's all. The one that does all the loving is broken. It doesn't work anymore."
Plumeria had the decency to wait for Kukui to finish talking before kissing him again.
Sure enough, the sack appeared in Plumeria's hands again. "Well, I'm a repairwoman. Let's see if I can fix it. It's kinda my thing."
As Plumeria opened the burlap sack, the aurora borealis exploded into being, and Kukui gazed up at the sky. "Goodbye, Burnet." he said softly, then he gazed down at the woman, tenderly holding all twenty four pieces of his heart. "Hello, Plumeria."