First PokeGame fanfic! Whoo! I wanted to write a bit of my Lyra and her friendship with Silver. Don't like the ship, but BROtp is my love.
If I owned Pokemon, I'd tell y'all where those damned fathers are.
The fire crackled weakly tonight, but if Silver cared, he didn't show it. His eyes were dull and tired, hand resting on his Crobat in the grass.
Lyra looked down at the Crobat with its eyes closed, letting out soft sniffs in its sleep.
Her own Ditto was in her lap. Its weight kept her rooted in place, still.
"Hey," she whispered, "good job today."
"I lost," he muttered.
"Only barely," said Lyra. "You're getting better. I mean, you knocked out Chompers!"
Her Rattata was fine now after a revive, but it was certainly more offended than Silver right now.
Silver bowed his head and was silent for a few moments.
Finally, he looked up and said, "You're right. Thanks."
She smiled. Tonight was a clear sky, and shooting stars were a way to end their day.
Impulsively, she touched his shoulder and he looked up.
"Maybe you'll even scratch Lugia one day!" Lyra smiled and smacked him.
"Hmph. And I'm the one with a bad attitude."
The stars fell across the night sky like tears down her cheeks. When they hit the ground, they'd be nothing.
Lyra felt as though the shock of their fall was blowing her away, alone, into another dimension.
She was also one of those meteors. Great and hot and brilliant and going, going, gone.
"In this world," she muttered, "everything on top must fall."
"They're not from this world," Silver said, "Must be a nasty surprise to them, gravity."
"It's a nasty surprise to me," Lyra said. "But I imagine..."
She stopped and Silver paused, looking at her oddly.
"What's wrong?" he asked after a beat.
"Uh, nothing," Lyra said quickly, waving her hand around. "Hey, whaddya think it'd be like to be one of those stars, er, meteors?"
"Painful," Silver snorted.
"It is-" Lyra said, then stopped and took a bite of the sandwich she'd brought with her.
"Huh," Silver said, narrowing his eyebrows. "'Cause you're a shooting 'star, er, meteor'?"
He regretted it soon. A painful silence ensued where Lyra looked at him with her big brown eyes, anger etched into her whole face; her eyebrows tense and knitted together, mouth set in front of her clenched teeth, jaw stiff.
Silver was about to say something, but then she took a breath in and relaxed.
"Yeah," she chirped, beaming in a way reminiscent of the big, pastel plastic earrings his last date had worn to dinner. Vibrant, lively, and so…fake.
"Sorry," he muttered, not sure what else to say.
Lyra looked at Silver again.
"Nah, it's really alright. Hey, are we sleeping out here tonight? Weather's great!"
"Yeah, I thought so," said Silver. "And no matter how cold it gets, we are not sharing a sleeping bag."
"Aw, I was just being friendly!" Lyra grinned, less forced this time.
Sleep came easily tonight. Silver was exhausted from the battle today, and the tent didn't smell for once.
He woke in a few hours, though, to a cool breeze on his face.
"Hey- Lyra, close the damn tent-"
Silver stood and stumbled over to the opening. He was pretty pissed, and really cold. He stepped out of the tent, rubbing his eyes.
Then he saw her, curled in a ball on the grass outside and hugging her Ditto closely.
"...I guess my fall will be just as brilliant," she whispered.
Silver froze. The happy, carefree girl he knew wasn't here, and tension was building in his chest with this sight. What was going on? Where was the invincible Lyra?
She was silent again. Had she heard him?
Silver was about to go back inside and zip the tent shut, but then he remembered earlier this evening and looked again.
Lyra rarely stopped smiling. When someone she cared about was hurt, she just smiled more, looked on the bright side. If they were in serious trouble, she frowned, but that was rare.
There was one other time she didn't smile. When she thought she was about to lose a battle.
Was she worried? Sad? Insecure? He thought back to the battles they had, that he saw her have. She enjoyed them, yes, but when she got down to one or two Pokemon…
He remembered her face, fleetingly anxious, and the lip bite, and the hand clench, and then he thought about what she, what they both valued.
Strength. Was she afraid of losing, afraid of burning up in the sky like the meteors they'd watched? Afraid that with her position in the hierarchy of trainers, her fall would be twice or three times as painful?
Silver watched her, looking at her Ditto, then walked over and put a hand on her back.
"All that means," he said slowly, his voice almost breaking with the painful admission, "is that you are brilliant."
And when she smiled at him, she was.
"Hey!" Silver winced at the yelp. He was holding a PokeGear to his ear, Lyra on the other end.
"I found the perfect girl for you!" Lyra cried, confident as (almost) always.
"...Okay," he said. "But I don't need to talk about-"
"Her name's Marley, I met her at the Battle Tower. She's super strong and really sweet!"
Silver sighed.
"When do you want me to see her? I'm focused on training."
"That's the thing!" said Lyra, "She's gonna battle you!"
"...Hm." If she was that strong... This might not be a bad plan.
"I… I'm sorry…"
"It's fine, for the fifth time, you don't have to apologize!"
Marley looked at Silver with soulful black eyes. Her sensitivity wasn't a virtue for him today.
"I just… thought you were stronger…"
"Yeah, well," Silver said quickly, "I'm not, and you're not helping."
Months of battle-dates and break-ups later, Silver was sure he was ready for the ultimate pay-back from setting him up in unsuccessful relationships. After blazing through the Elite Four, he sent out his Pokemon against his best friend's.
Lyra grinned recklessly, fleetingly, he knew, if he was lucky.
...In fifteen minutes, it was over.
"You're getting better," Lyra said, trying to lighten the mood.
"...So are you," he practically growled.
"Silver..."
Silver looked at her, Lyra the Champion, defeater of the New Team Rocket...
Defeater of the weak. Defeater of him.
He was trying to be different, a hero, powerful and brave... And this girl was, for all her love, wiping him away with her little finger.
"I'm not asking to be better than you," he said, "Not all the time. I want a rival, not a damned teacher!"
"Silver!" Lyra cried.
"I'm trying to be strong, okay? Strong, you know!"
"Silver," said Lyra, lowly, "Silver... You..."
She walked up, facing him.
"You are strong. Stronger than me."
The look she gave him sent chills down his spine, and not in a gross way.
How...? When Silver looked again, he saw her face, small and cute but somehow sickeningly familiar, like an old memory gone wrong.
Like the nosy pedestrian that day with Giovanni. He shuddered and blinked twice.
What did she mean? Silver didn't ask, suddenly didn't want to know. Her ominous words shook him and he picked up his final PokeBall, pocketed it, and left.
"Bye..."
Days, weeks, passed and her calls were unanswered. Silver trained, ate, slept, and trained more. His face was stony, only softening a tad when looking after his Pokemon.
He wasn't the boy he'd been years ago, and nothing could change that.
Finally, one day he woke up early to a knock on the door.
Too sleepy to suspect the dreaded, Silver made his way over and cracked it open.
She pushed the door open further and stood in front of him. Lyra, small and shaking and saying, "Just give me the chance to explain, please, please..."
And yeah, there she was. His friend, best friend, back again...
"I'll give you ten minutes," he said, and stepped back.
They sat at the table as she explained.
"It was Celebi, the guardian of the forest..." she said, "It showed me and Ethan, showed us you, your father..."
"Giovanni," he cut in, to confirm it.
"Yes," Lyra said, and he swallowed to steady himself. Ethan, the bastard. The last guy he wanted eavesdropping on his conversation with Giovanni... Though even Lyra there wasn't ideal.
"I saw him leaving... I'm sorry..." she shook again. He paused.
"I'm strong...because..."
"B-Because," she hesitated. "Because I was always loved, always knew that I was wanted..."
She hadn't mentioned her father, choosing to disregard him. Typical Lyra.
"I don't know," he said. "I'm sorry, but…why you wanted to see..."
"I just, I wanted to, I wanted to know," Lyra said, her bottom lip trembling like her Tyranitar's earthquake.
"...I would have told you," he said slowly.
"You...?" Lyra looked surprised, shocked, vulnerable in a way he had only seen of her once.
"In time. Lyra," Silver said, looking at her, "you will always be in my life, a part of my..."
This sounded so damned sentimental. He didn't know how to not make it sentimental. How could he say what he was thinking? That she was the first trainer he'd bullied, bruised, smacked down, cut away to get ahead, yet she'd come back pretty as ever? That she'd been there to forgive him, to help him, to train him when she didn't have to? She, who he was sure loved him, for all of his flaws? She, who was his first friend outside of Rocket, the truly strong and smart League Champion that he looked to for guidance, not that sick, pathetic father he had? She, who would be his mentor, but one day perhaps his true equal?
"...You're family," he got out, "close family."
Lyra blinked, then reached for his hand, hers warm and kind.
"I… am." She sounded unsure, but that would change in the future. She was the stubborn, spunky Lyra he knew. "And I'll always want you, okay?"
He smiled slowly. Lyra was completely insufferable, arrogant, occasionally hurtful...
But everyone, he had to know, deserved a second chance.
"...Okay."