Mandiane glared piercingly at the starry sky above her. She sat in that stupid grassy field that her and her old best friend used to lie in and gaze at the moon every night. She didn't care much for it anymore since he had left, but today she had felt nostalgic. Stupid her, returning to this dumb field. She didn't even care.
That's what she wanted to believe. She wished she just didn't give a hoot about him anymore.
But most she just wanted to forget him.
Mandiane sat in the grass, pretending like she didn't care. But she really did. The mudkip wished Baine-her old best friend, that stupid, careful bulbasaur-was here sitting in the field with her. They had been best friends for months, forming a rescue team called Team Allies. Mandiane was the one who had named the team. She said it was because the only reason they had made a team together was because they were just allies…not friends or anything. And ESPECIALLY not…you know, 'together'.
That was basically their motto. Well, their motto would be much simpler than that, but you get the idea.
Mandiane sat there with the long grass tickling her nostrils, swallowing in her dry mouth. She wished she could feel Baine's warmth besides her. She wished he was there, even if she couldn't talk to him. Just knowing he was there would've been enough…
But he wasn't here, not anymore.
Mandiane knew very well that he would have to return to the past one day and disappear forever. He figured she wouldn't be aware of that…but he knew that she was exceptionally intelligent.
Their rescue team was quite successful. The leader of the Guild that they had vigilantly trained with, Wigglytuff, was proud of both of them. Mandiane had a feeling that he liked Baine more, because he was happier and 'friendlier' than she was. Wigglytuff always told her to "Cheer up! Tomorrow is always a better day!".
Mandiane usually responded with, "My life must've really sucked on the day I was born, then, because it's not so peachy today."
He would frown and put his hands to his hips (not really his hips, since he was basically a pink blob with arms, legs, and creepy, green, filmy eyes). Chatot would glare at Mandiane for upsetting the Guildmaster, even though he knew very well that if she had upset him in a serious way the entire building would be crumbling down from his pure rage.
Mandiane treasured the memories that she used to hate-Baine dragging her onto rescue missions with an excited voice and a jumpy body. She would tell him to shut up and calm down, but he would only get more thrilled at the thought of cheering Mandiane up.
That was something else that had really torn her up. He was always trying to make everyone happy-especially her. She was his best friend, and he was hers. Actually, he was her only friend, since practically everybody was too afraid to approach her. She often wore a bandanna tied around her face just so nobody would judge her by her appearance. Nobody had ever called her ugly, but nobody had ever called her pretty, either.
Until Baine.
He had said that she was beautiful once, that time they were travelling about in assorted dungeons, searching for an unknown place called the Mysterious Bazaar. She had stopped walking and asked him if he had really just said that.
He just chirruped, "Said what?" And raced forward again.
Mandiane glared after him, feeling her face turn red and hot for some stupid reason.
That memory was actually one that she cherished quite a lot. Not that she would admit that.
Mandiane narrowed her watery green eyes at the sky, her vision blurry and wet. She swallowed tears and silently cursed herself for being so stupidly emotional, shuffling her paws in front of her.
Mandiane remembered the time when Baine had signed her and him up for the talent show that the Guild was hosting. He had rushed into the girls' room, where Mandiane slept on a bunk-bed with Sunflora's mattress on the bottom and hers on the top. Mandiane had screamed at him for not knocking and waking her up, but he continued to smile.
"What're you grinning about!" Mandiane shouted at him.
"Y'know that talent show the Guild is doing?" Baine bounced in place. Mandiane groaned, knowing in advance what was coming.
"I-"
"-signed us up," Mandiane had interrupted him with a growl. "Great."
"I know, huh!" Baine giggled excitedly, not catching her sarcasm. Mandiane had rolled her eyes and dragged herself out of bed, landing rather ungracefully on the ground.
"So, what are we doing for this…Talent Show event?" Mandiane had inquired hastily, ushering Baine out of the room as Sunflora was roused from her sleep, eyeing the two suspiciously with a groggy, somehow creepy grin on her round golden face.
As Baine followed Mandiane down the dirt path inside to the dining hall for breakfast, Mandiane couldn't help noticing how nervous he had become.
She turned around to narrow her eyes at his gaping, embarrassed face.
"You have no idea what we're going to do for this, do you?" She scowled.
Baine shook his head, still smiling.
With an exasperated sigh, Mandiane turned on her heel and stomped into the dining hall, snatching a plate with waffles and an apple on it and bringing it to her usual seat at the end of the long wooden table. Baine grabbed an orange and tossed it into the air, catching it fumblingly against his chest and grinning as he followed Mandiane to his frequenting seat directly next to hers.
"We could…uh, dance?" Baine suggested hopefully.
"No," Mandiane shot it down.
"We could si-,"
"Definitely not," Mandiane snapped with a hint of pain. Her mother had been a singer-and quite the popular one-with a beautiful voice, before she had been kidnapped and gone missing. Baine pursed his lips, silently cursing himself for his mistake. Mandiane stared down at her breakfast, doughy waffles bathed in soggy syrup. She pushed the plate away from her, sighing deeply.
"Erm, we could…"
"-shut up. That's always fun, to be quiet and not annoy Mandiane. You get on my nerves, kid. You really do. And I honestly don't give a care about your poor, tragic little turn from 'human' to bulbasaur. How sad, boo-hoo, you don't know your happy little family anymore. At least you had a family. They probably really cared for you. You cared for them, too, I bet. You loved them, didn't you? You should be happy you had something to love once, and you should be happy to know that one day you could maybe see them again. Good for you, then. Have a good time wallowing around in your easy sympathy and shut your mouth."
Baine cleared his throat and stared down, not daring to talk. He was biting the inside of his cheek.
Mandiane glanced down at her hands and closed her eyes, breathing in. She hadn't meant to have ranted out all of that at Baine, but he had accidentally brought up her weak spot. Mandiane didn't want to hurt his feelings. She didn't like him all that much, but she would never intentionally harm him like that. She glanced over and watched his eyes grow teary.
More of the Pokémon from the Guild streamed into the dining room, and Baine swallowed his apparent sadness and smiled for his associates. Mandiane slumped down in her seat, feeling stupid.
But her heart was glazed over. She wanted to feel sorry for him, but she couldn't. It was his fault he brought up her mother; his fault Mandiane hurt his feelings. She watched him stand and stroll to the food table casually like nothing had ever happened, setting the orange he had absentmindedly brought with him to the table back where he had got it. He greeted Chimecho as he passed, sharing a hollow laugh on his way out of the room. Mandiane had bowed her head, face burning with shame.
Mandiane was always accidentally mean. This gave her a cold outer shell and caused others to generally avoid her. She was also highly intelligent and pretty strong, so mainly everyone figured she was serious and boring. She tried to be funny sometimes, and occasionally attempted to lighten the mood. Nobody understood her jokes, though, and she then came off as intimidating and too smart for others to understand.
As she sat in the grassy clearing her and Baine had previously shared, she thought about what they ended up doing for the show. After Mandiane had finally confronted Baine and tried to path up the giant tear she had torn in him. They sat on Sharpedo Bluff together, the cliff leading down to the ocean with the sunset bubbling off of its shining blue surface. They sat and talked. And talked. That's when Baine learned about Mandiane's love for sewing and rock-throwing, and where Mandiane found out more about Baine's switch from human to Pokémon. They repaired their friendship and set a plan for the Talent Show.
They told jokes. They were practically a comedy duo. The best part was that they completely ad-libbed the entire thing, setting jokes up as if they knew what each other were thinking. They basically did, actually: they had been best friends for a while, after Baine had woken up on the beach as a Pokémon and Mandiane helped him out.
Mandiane reluctantly smiled at the memory of the makeshift stage the Guild had created out of old, empty food boxes. Another rescue team that wasn't performing, Swellow and Seedot of Team Tasty had helpfully held lanterns and passed their hands over the lights to stimulate the flashing light effect, and the small crowd of Guild members assembled on straw mats clapped for whoever was performing, the atmosphere of the thrown-together show somehow extremely enjoyable.
Mandiane stepped onto the stage with Baine following behind her, neither of them knowing which jokes exactly they would be telling. Sunflora had just sung her original song, self-titled and written and predictably named "Oh My Gosh!". Baine and Mandiane shared a look of uncertainty before Baine dove into a loud greeting to the Guild.
"Hi, guys! We're really happy to be here, how about you?"
The Guild broke into hyper applause, cheering for the duo. Mandiane interrupted them with what seemed to her to be a true observation.
"I like what you've done to turn the kitchen into a stage, stacking boxes on top of each other. Quite an amazing feat of architecture on your part, really."
The Guild laughed collectively, laughed harder than both Mandiane and Baine thought they would. Except for Chatot. The grouchy bird squinted at the two kids on the 'stage' angrily. Baine took note of this.
"Uh…it's not that dingy…I mean, whoever did it was obviously influenced by…uh…" The two children telling jokes looked genuinely puzzled for a moment.
"Obviously influenced by a…junkyard." Mandiane finished for Baine, rolling her eyes sarcastically.
The Guild let loose another round of loud laughter. Baine and Mandiane shared a pleased yet faint smile and returned to the crowd.
"Hey now, we wouldn't want to ruffle Chatot's feathers-" Baine began.
"Ha! How would you know I assembled this?" Chatot called form the right side of the crowd, pointing accusingly at the bulbasaur.
"Because you're the only one in this Guild with this horrid a sense of design." Mandiane sniggered. The crowd followed her lead.
"Nah, you know we love you all!" Baine shouted out, grinning widely. The audience cheered.
"We love you, too!" Chimecho sung cheerily.
Grabbing Mandiane by the shoulder and pulling her close to him, Baine smiled cheekily.
"We know you do!" He cried, and the crowd went wild, cheering and shouting with huge smiles spread across their faces. Mandiane glared at Baine for holding her so close-their cheeks were touching, for goodness sake-but she couldn't stop herself from laughing. They went on, calling different Pokémon from the Guild out and teasing them jokingly. They hugged each other at the end of the act, and the Guild rose in laughter and applause. The two felt highly proud for their performance, not embarrassed a bit at being so close to one another for the time being.
That's when the Guild realized how close Baine and her were, when they told jokes together. Assumptions began to flitter about, and rumors flew around like wingull. Mandiane punched practically anyone who asked if the two were 'together', and Baine just blushed severely and laughed, shaking his head.
Mandiane was sitting in the grass, remembering and realizing that she was crying. She wanted to kick herself right then and there. She hadn't cried in years, not since her mother had disappeared.
But she was shedding tears now. Crying, like a whiny baby.
"Are you a whiny baby?" She spat at herself, reaching up and forcefully wiping the tears off of her blue face.
"Idiot," she growled, and then stared up at the glowing half-moon hovering in the sky as she blinked the tears harshly away. An enormous tremor rose up inside of her, crawling its way up her throat.
"Baine!" she screamed before she could stop herself. "Baine!"
She repeated his name, tears trickling down steadily now, her legs shaking. She stood and stumbled around the clearing, screaming at the sky.
"Baine!" she called. She missed him so much. Too much.
"Baine!" Her voice cracked. "Come back…"
And then the glowing orbs of light flickered into her line of vision. The yellow orbs that took Baine away from her in the first place. She figured she was seeing things that weren't really there,like after she had lost her mother, but then she paused.
A shape hovered in the center of the orbiting balls of golden light. A green, breathing shape. A bulbasaur.
"Baine," Mandiane breathed, the last of her tears falling down her face and to the ground. She wasn't there. She wasn't really seeing this. She was dreaming. Yes, that was it. She was dreaming.
But as the orbs gently laid the bulbasaur to the grassy ground and floated away, she knew it. This was real. This was really happening.
The bulbasaur raised his head confusedly, turning around and surveying his surroundings.
"Baine!" Mandiane called, tears of happiness now falling down her cheeks.
His eyes lit up with hers, reflecting the moonlight and surprise.
"Mandi?" He stuttered, shocked. Then a huge smile spread across his face, and the two were idiotically and giddily racing towards each other.
"Don't call me Mandi," Mandiane tried to sound menacing, but she was smiling and crying and she could feel her face reflecting the red color on Baine's cheeks. Just the sight of him-she couldn't begin to describe the terrible fluttering in her stomach, or the stereotypical dizziness she felt when she saw him. Looking at him, she knew he felt the same way.
And before Baine could react, or even before Mandiane could stop herself, their faces were close, very close, and then their lips were touching, and they were both crying and smiling and blushing and overjoyed to see each other again, however confused they were.
The flurries in each of their bellies increased, and they were, indeed, 'together'.
And Mandiane didn't have to punch anyone to let them know that she loved Baine, and he didn't have to smile and blush and shake his head to let anyone know that he loved her.
End.