Equations of Love

Time Signature

Summary: N found mathematical equations beautiful, because the answers were simple – just right or wrong, black or white. Then he meets Touko, and even though she is more complex than Fermat's Last Theorem, he finds her more beautiful. A collection of unrelated Ferriswheelshipping drabbles or one-shots, centered on mathematical terms.

Now, fear the darkness within you that you cannot escape. "Sette," Shikata Akiko

one, a proof too perfect

Touko hugged her knees on the small bed in a rather rural Pokémon Center in Johto. It was now well into her third year of her journey, renewed to search for the other missing hero shortly after she had become Champion. She had quickly told Cheren that she had no intention of sitting around in the League waiting for challengers and signing paperwork when there were still leftover Plasma members to take care of.

True, she had been asked by the International Police to find the seven sages. However, but more than that, she wanted to see N again. She wanted to ask him why he had simply left with a "farewell." She wanted to tell him that they could see the world together.

Before she had faced N in the final battle, she had met the two women responsible for his upbringing. "There is nothing more beautiful and terrifying than innocence," Concordia had told her then. Touko had never seen it that way – innocence was the symbol of childhood, of unforgotten dreams and ambitions. But after she had heard the goddess say so, she could not help but agree.

N was the embodiment of innocence, and he was the proof too perfect that showed the truth of her statement.

Somewhere in her heart she was a tiny bit scared of N. She was scared of how pure he was, how blindly trusting he could be, how much empathy he could put into a statement that he had never seen the other side of. She was scared of how he could trust Ghetsis, even after his motives had been shown. But precisely because of that, she wanted to be with him.

She wanted to be the answer to his equation that would change the world.

Sighing, Touko shook her head. It was too pointless of her, the savior of Unova, to have such feelings for an international criminal. She apathetically clicked the power button on the remote control to the only remotely modern technology in the room. The announcer on the television was showing a frighteningly familiar sign.

The P for Plasma.

Driven with hate and fear, her hand instinctively reached for her waist, and then she realized that she had taken off her Pokeball belt. She could, over the crackling speech of the announcer, hear her partners angrily rocking their cages (she could not deny that at least a part of N's speech had reverberated with her).

Grabbing the belt, she numbly stared at the screen. Had they succeeded in a coup while she had not been in Unova? Was it her fault for prioritizing N over any of the other sages?

The display switched to a photo of a beautiful girl around her age, much more beautiful than she could ever dream of being. The voice continued, "And the second heroine Mei has defeated the reformed Team Plasma of Unova. It seems as though the heroine of two years ago has deserted her mission to capture the sages, as all were present when we arrived to the scene." The screen abruptly flickered out, then back in. "However, Unova has been saved by a very talented young girl – Mei, a superb trainer and currently the most popular actress in the movie world. With her we need not fear that she will follow in the footsteps of her predecessor."

It switched once again, this time to a scene of wreckage, such as after a powerful battle. The edge of the screen stated that this was now live feed. Once again, in the center stood the girl, who looked impeccable though she had most likely been just fighting. And in the corner, a flash of tea green – could that be N?!

The display flickered. She stared, willing it to stay on. It flickered multiple times rapidly, and then turned off.

The girl grabbed the roots of her hair with one hand, while throwing the remote onto the bed with so much force a few feathers fluttered from the covers. Her Pokémon looked up worriedly from inside the red-white spheres.

She grit her teeth and roughly stood up. Clipping the belt to her waist, she stuffed everything into her bag and prepared to leave. She thanked the Nurse Joy, who looked up from whatever she had been doing and waved goodbye, and stepped out the door. Once she had found a suitable clearing for taking off, she summoned her legendary dragon, the one connection that she could guarantee with N.

"Take me to Unova," she whispered. He nodded, then powered up his tail engine to take off.

As she flew over an endless ocean, her unkempt hair (so different from the girl on the screen) whipping her face, she suddenly realized that she was asking a ridiculous amount from him. Unova and Johto were literally half the world apart. She was asking him to do that in one flight.

N's voice came back to her – "I will separate Pokémon and people, and only then will Pokémon become perfect beings!"

Was she doing the right thing?

She was scared of herself. She was scared of how much negative things she carried inside her.

She was scared of tainting N. She was terrified of how pure he was, but more so of herself.

A/N: Thank you for reading! This was the first one, and I have another in mind, so that should come shortly. Maybe weekly updates, I don't know. I personally love math, so that's why this was born.

Please tell me what you think! Good, bad, I should toss it in the trash and rewrite the whole thing…

Requests are also welcome! I can't guarantee that I'll write it, but suggestions such as "such-and-such" math term, N POV, or "more fluff!" will be taken into consideration.

See you soon,

Time Signature