A Valentine's Renegade
"Rei? Rei!"
"Yeah?"
"Where'd you go?" a frantic voice called out from the other side of the thick brush.
"I'm over here, why?"
"You should really tell someone where you're going before you just run off somewhere, you know that Team Rocket's been after us for the longest." the voice answered back before revealing that it's Rio once he comes within eyesight of her.
"I'm right here and I was just a few feet away." she answered, taken aback at the concern in his voice.
"We just don't need someone going missing and something ends up happening to them is all."
"We?"
"Huh?" he asked, not understanding what she meant.
"… It's nothing, don't worry about it. I'm sorry that I worried y-… everyone." she told him before getting up and walking over to him with a smile. "We should get back before Shin and Zan get mad at us for disappearing like this.
"Hey, wait!" he shouted as she walked by him giggling. "I didn't disappear! You did!"
"If you saaaay soooo." she taunted before jogging back to the camp just in time to receive a tongue lashing from Shin.
"Where the hell were you exactly?" he demanded, not even looking at her.
"I was just on the other side of that bush over there, staring at the sky."
"Next time you decide to go off and daydream like that, tell someone so we don't have to spend precious daylight looking for you when we could be doing more important things with our time, alright?" he growled.
As she processed what he said, a part of her felt like he was being especially stern today for some unknown reason.
"Shin, I'm sorry ok? I was easily within earsh-"
"It doesn't matter whether we could spit on you!" he roared, spooking everyone except Zan who glanced towards him and shook his head disapprovingly. "It's the principle, dammit! You don't see anyone else taking time out to go and have alone time to do whatever the hell they please do you? Do you?"
"Alright that's enough Shin, leave her alone she gets it." Zan finally spoke up.
"You stay out of this, this doesn't have a thing to do with you!" he answered before shooting him a nasty glare.
"Lay off already!" Rio yelled out from behind Rei before walking up to stand next to her.
"…Excuse me?" Shin asked, not really believing that this Lucario actually was standing up to him.
"She was right there, alright! There's no reason for you to sit here and rail on her like this!"
"Unless you plan on doing something to make me stop, runt… I suggest that you crawl back behind Zan and do what you do best… Stay quiet." he growled.
"No…"
"Rio, that's enough. No reason for things to escalate further." Zan reasoned but to no avail, the young Lucario had taken a few steps toward the fuming Raichu.
On the outside, he looked poised and very much ready for what was to come. But… On the inside… he was a ball of nerves, fighting the urge to throw up out of being so incredibly nervous. Here he was standing up to and about ready to possibly fight Shin of all people.
"I've seen you push us around long enough, Shin." he declared while clenching his fist out of both anger and fear.
"So, one of the little ones decides he wants to buck up and fight?" Shin chuckled before folding his arms. "Zan, call him back before he gets both his feelings and body hurt…"
"Rio, enough!" Zan called out once more. "This isn't the time or place for something like that."
"No, it's not. The time and place should've been a long time ago but there's no better time than the present and this is going to happen. He had no right yelling at Rio like that and I'm not going to let him do that to her again!" he answered, causing Rio to blush slightly.
"Oh, I see what this is… Someone has a damn crush and now they want to prove themselves by beating up the big, bad Raichu that his his poor little girlfriend's feelings." Shin mocked before laughing heartily. "Tell me, was I dead-on, lover boy?"
"S-Shutup!" he yelled before diving at the Raichu unsuccessfully. Shin simply ducked his attempt and looked at him over his shoulder.
"Well, I hope you know it's too late now…" he growled to the headstrong Lucario.
"Please stop, you two. Let's just let this pass and we'll forget about it in the morning." Rei pleaded while Nite slowly creeped behind Zan and hid, trying to avoid anything that might come at them.
"Stand back, Rei…" Rio told her under his breath as Shin began to circle around in front of him.
"Rio… don't do this." she asked him. "This isn't wor-"
"Enough! The little bastard wants to step up, let him!" Shin roared before a smile crept across his face.
"Rei, if I don't do this now then things will just continue on the same path that they've been going ever since we met up. And I don't know about you but I'm tired of it and it's best that I do it instead of you or Nite…" he explained before taking another step towards Shin.
"Your move, hero." Shin taunted.
Before too long, Rio lunged at the confident Raichu only to come up short as Shin nimbly ducked to the right with a chuckle causing Rio to slide on his stomach across the ground.
"You'll have to do a lot better than that, hero." he taunted again.
"Shut up…"
"What's that? Couldn't hear you down there on the ground."
"I said Shut Up!" Rio yelled before pushing himself off the ground and flinging his body, head first. The attack caught everyone off-guard, including Shin who couldn't react in time and caught a furious head butt attack in his chest.
"Gah!" he growled while placing a paw over his chest and gasping for air as the attack had knocked the wind out of him. "Y-you…" he muttered under his breath as he dropped to a knee.
As Rio rose slowly back to his feet, a little unsteady from the blow to his head he looked up to find that he struck Shin and dropped him to a knee. The accomplishment sent him over the moon and let him know that he just might stand a chance against him. He might be able to take him after all!
"I… don't hear your mouth now, Shin." Rio now taunted while rubbing his forehead gingerly, feeling as though he had earned the right to do a little of it. But the glare he received from the ailing Raichu alerted him otherwise.
"You… Bastard!" Shin roared.
Without skipping a beat, Shin dove for Rio, catching him in a shoulder tackle and pinned him against a tree. The impact caused Rio to have the wind knocked out him and gasp for air.
"You aren't even in my league!" Shin told him before pushing harder against Rio's neck, the sound of his labored breathing becoming more of a wheeze. "I could end you without so much as breaking a damned sweat and you think you have earned the right to smart off to me?" he yelled.
"Shin that's enough!" Zan yelled out and took a step forward before a static shock made him back up.
"It's enough when I say it is!" the now enraged pokémon replied.
By now everyone was expecting the worse to happen. Everyone involved was just awaiting the kill shot, the anticipation was agonizing. But… Just as soon as things had started… they ended…
Shin's choke hold on Rio slacked up until he let him fall to the ground and took a step back with his head down.
"S-Shin?" Zan called out, wondering why he went from so angry to docile in a few seconds time and let the boastful young pokémon go so easily.
"…"
"Rio, are you alright?" Rei asked as she knelt next to him, still keeping her eyes on Shin.
"Why… why did he let me go, Rei?" Rio wondered while rubbing his throat and trying to catch his breath.
"I… don't know…" she responded before standing back up and facing Shin. "Shin?"
Shin only kept staring, wide-eyed at something behind her, causing her to turn around to see if something had been behind her but only saw what was expected in the forested area.
"Shin, what is it?" she asked again, becoming slightly alarmed at his trance-like state.
Before long he shook his head slightly and looked to her, then Rio and then Zan before looking back to where his attention had been. His eyes then darted back and forth a few times before looking back away from everyone, he then turned his back to the others and suddenly began to walk away.
"What's wrong with him, Zan?" Nite asked, finally stepping out from behind the larger pokémon.
"I honestly don't have a clue." he replied before beginning to briskly walk toward Shin to ask him what was wrong.
"Don't… talk to me" was all the Raichu told him before continuing on, leaving everyone stunned by his sudden actions.
Soon enough, Rio and Rei stood next to Zan with Nite in tow.
"It was almost as if he saw a ghost or something." Rei commented to which they all agreed.
After a few minutes of tending to Rio's wounds and making sure that he was ok, Zan and Nite left Rio and Rei alone. Now that the excitement was over, Rei had asked them to let her have a little alone time with him to ask why he stood up for her so stoutly all of a sudden to which they agreed only after Nite made a jab at her. She couldn't remember exactly what he said, something about sitting in a tree or something like that…
"Um… Rei?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you stand up to him like that?" she asked, not sure how to approach the question without just blurting it out rather bluntly. After hearing herself though, she kinda regretted the way she brought it up.
"Well… I dunno… I mean, I was just tired of him yelling at yo- I mean us." he stammered out, not sure how to word the response either.
"Oh…" she responded, noticing his slight slip up as her face became a light shade of red while she tried to hide a smile. "Well, I'm sure we appreciate you standing up for us Rio." she told him, now showing her smile which caused a smile to find it's way to his face as well.
"That's good… Because I don't know if I could handle trying that again to make sure they appreciated it." he joked which made them both erupt in a fit of laughter before Rio stopped and grabbed his throat again. "Oh… Oh, oh… No laughing… Noooo laughing…" he told her before smiling again.
"Listen Rio… seriously… Thank you, I mean it." she told him, a genuine look of appreciation on her face. "It meant a lot to me that you stood up to him for me. I mean, I'd rather there be no fighting between us. But… well… Thank you."
After hearing her thank him, Rio looked away as he blushed a little. After that heroic way he stood up for her he didn't feel like he should let her see him blush, it'd ruin his image after all.
"It was nothing… I'm sure that the others would've done the same thing in time, Rei…"
"Maybe, but they didn't. And I just wanted you to know that I really really appreciate you sticking your neck out there for me." she told him before leaning in and kissing his cheek affectionately.
The action caught him off-guard and therefore left him speechless and not knowing what to do. But as if on cue…
"Rio, Rei. Let's go, we're moving out." Zan called out which jerked them both out of their possible moment. After the announcement they proceeded to glance at each other once more before she stood up and offered him a hand to get up to which he gladly took and got to his feet.
"Rei… listen… I just want you to know that… well I… You know…" he mumbled, trying desperately to find the words.
"You what, Rio?" she asked, having a feeling that she knew exactly what he was getting at but wanted to hear him say it instead of saying it for him. It just wouldn't be the same that way.
"Wake up…" he told her in a funny tone.
"Huh?" she asked, not understanding what he meant.
"Wake up already!" he yelled out, this time his voice sounding more like Nite's than his own.
"REI, WAKE UP!" a voice screamed at her.
After stirring for a few moments, she sat up and ended up banging her head against something solid.
"Ow!" the voice yelled out which was followed by a thud.
Rei opened her eyes and saw that it was Nite and that she was sitting on a bed of leaves. She also had a throbbing pain in her forehead from when she apparently hit Nite when she jerked herself into an upright position.
"N-Nite?" she asked, not sure what was going on.
"Ow… why'd you do that, Rei?" he cried out, still rubbing the knot on his head.
"I'm… uh, sorry." she stumbled out before looking around and noticing that everyone else was up and about. She also noticed that Rio and Shin seemed to be talking about something which caught her off-guard completely.
"Hey, Nite. Did Rio and Shin have a fight recently or something?"
"Uhh… no. Unless they did it while we were all asleep, why?"
"Oh… no reason…" she replied before getting up slowly and stretching out her limbs.
"…Guess it was all a dream then…" she thought as she stole a look at Rio who caught her eyes in his and smiled before returning to what he and Shin were discussing before being joined by Zan.
"… All a dream…"