"I do believe in the power of story. I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners." - Hayao Miyazaki
Legacies
by luckylucyheartfilia
[ Chapter 1 ]
Sunlight softly trickled over the rooftops, flooding slowly into the tiny town of Vaniville. Its residents began to rouse themselves from slumber, ready to start a new day. Wild Fletchling began their morning song as curtains were pulled back and doors were opened, the smell of breakfast cooking starting to fill the air. Adults began to set up tables as children met up with each other and continued to play from where they left off the day before.
It was another day of tradition that hadn't been broken in decades: Vanivillers were famous in the Kalos region for waking early and eating breakfast together in the town square. With such a tiny population, this was incredibly easy and there wasn't anything particularly unpleasant about it, unless you didn't really like waking up early.
Serena Summers, unfortunately for all who ever had to wake her, was one of those people.
"Rise and shine, kiddo!" Grace Bellamy flung open the curtains above Serena's bed, not sympathetic in the least when Serena cringed away from the sunlight and buried herself further in her blanket nest. The woman frowned down at the girl when she still refused to budge. "Se-ree-naaa," she whined, shaking the girl. "You promised to meet Calem after breakfast, remember?"
The girl murmured something in her sleep that was muffled by her pillow, but Grace knew her well enough to tell it was probably something along the lines of "go away" or "five more hours." The woman growled, unable to believe how awful her daughter's sleeping habits were. Back during her Rhyhorn racing days, she woke herself up around four to train, but Serena would never willingly wake up before twelve if she could. Truth be told, she wasn't that surprised, as Serena reminded her of a close friend of hers who had very similar habits.
"Serena Lucy Summers, you better get up right now!" There was silence again, and with each passing second Grace felt like throwing a tantrum. Finally, Serena rolled over and stared up at her tiredly. She opened her mouth to speak, and for a foolish moment Grace felt hopeful. Sadly, the small bud of hope was quickly squashed when Serena spoke.
"No."
Grace's howl of frustration echoed throughout the small town, rudely disrupting the Fletchling's song.
An hour later, Serena found herself almost asleep in her breakfast without any recollection of how she got there. At the next table over, her mother was chatting away suspiciously cheerfully with Angelique Victor, completely ignoring the girl. A few of the other Vanivillers snickered and waved at her when they noticed she was conscious. They had quickly grown fond of the two newcomers since their arrival three months before, and they found Serena's sleeping patterns hilarious.
She finished her breakfast and stumbled back sleepily to her house, only managing to make it back in one piece with the help of a few of the neighbouring Pokémon who made sure that she didn't trip into one of her neighbour's rose bushes. When she entered her yard, she glanced over at the house next door, wondering if her neighbour-friend was home. He had promised to meet up with her around breakfast so he could introduce her to his other friends, but even though she had seen his mother there, he was nowhere to be found. Usually he'd bring her some food to wake her up whenever she slept in, which was pretty much everyday, but today Grace had been a bit more vicious in her attempt to wake her up and eliminated the need for that.
She held back a yawn as she glided over to her mother's Rhyhorn, who had opened his eyes to watch over her when she tiptoed into the yard.
"G'morning, Orion." Serena collapsed to her knees in front of the Pokémon, the yawn escaping from her lips. "Has Calem stopped by yet?" She shuffled closer to the family pet, eyes fluttering as her head dipped a bit. Orion gave an exasperated yet fond snort as the girl went limp without warning, dutifully staying still while she used his head as a pillow and eventually closed his eyes again.
Serena had probably been asleep for about fifteen minutes when Orion picked up a loud chatter coming from the Vaniville Pathway. The gates to the village swung open with a loud creak, and Orion opened one eye slowly as the laughter and footsteps got closer to Serena's yard.
The conversation was mostly one-sided, from a brunette who could easily pass off as a Vaniviller by how happy she was so early in the day. Her words were loud and cheerful as she skipped over to the entrance of the yard. Her companion pulled her back as Orion growled at her. Serena stirred at the sound, blinking wearily in the bright sunlight.
Orion did recognize the newcomer's friend, and made a noise of welcome even as he eyed the new girl critically. The boy made a gesture for the stranger to stay where she was, and moved forward into the yard, his stride relaxed as Serena rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty," he said, sitting down next to her. Serena yawned again, before smiling blearily at him.
"Hi Calem." She tilted her head slightly, noticing that her neighbour had a new outfit. He was wearing a blue and white jacket, jeans, and boots, and the colour scheme suited his dark hair and eyes. "You look nice."
"You do too." Serena beamed at him, proud of her creation. She always had an interest in fashion, and had taught herself how to sew for the purpose of making her own clothing. This outfit was one of her favourites, something she had finished the night before. The dress fell to her knees, a soft baby pink and decorated with lace at the end. Over it, she wore a white shrug which had a large white bow at the back, and to match the outfit she wore long white socks and pink mary-janes.
Calem poked her cheek, and she let out a small squeak as her train of thought was broken.
"You didn't even listen to the rest of what I said, did you?" he asked teasingly. "Well, I'm not surprised. It's not even 8:30, I can't believe that you're actually awake." Before Serena could stutter out an angry but weak comeback in defense of her awful sleeping habits, the presence of a stranger at the entrance distracted her.
"Caaaleeem," the girl huffed, crossing her arms. "Stop being selfish and let me meet Serena now! I waited three whole months for you to introduce us! Three months!"
"Do you want to be gutted by her Rhyhorn?" Calem retorted, although he did pat Orion's head and promised him that the girl was a friend. Orion snorted derisively, but put his head back down and closed his eyes. The moment he did, the girl skipped into the yard and plopped herself down on the grass next to them. Serena's smile weakened as Calem gave her a concerned look, but she turned to the stranger and gave her a small welcoming wave.
The brunette leaned forward, a huge grin on her face. "Hi Serena! I'm Shauna, congratulations on making Mr. Grumpy Pants smile!" Calem reached over and flicked her forehead, smirking at the sound she made and taking Shauna's attention off Serena for a short time. Serena took the opportunity to take in Shauna's appearance and calm down.
Childish pigtails curled towards the girl's face, a style that complimented her despite its oddness, and she wore clothes adorned with bows to further emphasize how young she looked. She couldn't have been older than fourteen or so, and her eyes were a piercing shade of green that reflected her innocence. She seemed like a sweet girl, if a little too loud and excitable, and despite her reservations Serena found herself liking the brunette already.
At some point during this examination, Shauna must have realized that Serena was nervous, as she lowered her voice when she sat back down on her heels.
"It's super nice to meet you, Serena!" Shauna told her, giving her a reassuring smile. "I hope we can become really good friends! There are two other boys in our group, so it's great to have another girl besides me!"
Calem nudged Serena lightly, and she smiled back shyly at the pigtailed girl. She isn't that bad, Serena mused, hoping Calem's other two friends would be the same. Shauna grinned widely, sensing that Serena was starting to warm up to her, and stood.
"Anyway, guess what!" Shauna exclaimed. "Today we're getting our own Pokémon, and you can too, if you wanna!"
"I've already told her, Shauna," Calem said, looking more at ease now that Serena was more comfortable around the zealous girl. "You go on ahead and tell Trevor and Tierno that we're on our way."
"Alright!" Shauna agreed easily, jumping up and down. "Don't take too long, though, you know Trevie hates waiting!" Without waiting for a response, she dashed past the gates and down the path to Aquacorde Town. Calem stood and dusted himself off before offering his hand to Serena.
She patted Orion's head one last time before accepting Calem's hand, letting him pull her up.
"Come on, neighbour," Calem said with a grin as he tugged her over to the gates. Relieved that he wasn't facing her, she tried to hide her blush at their still entwined hands. "Let's go get our first Pokémon!"
-:-
Route 1 was a short walk between Vaniville and Aquacorde. The locals from both towns took advantage of its small size and lack of wild Pokémon, planting trees and flowers on either side of the paved path before dubbing it the Vaniville Pathway. Neither towns had much to offer in terms of tourist attractions, but in springtime the path burst with colour and fragrance as the flowers began to bloom, and it wasn't uncommon to have a few visitors interested in admiring the route.
Serena took in the scenery as she and Calem walked side by side down the sunny path in companionable silence. Left alone to her own thoughts, she wondered about Calem's friends and how they'd feel about her. Judging from the five minutes that they had known each other, Shauna was more than happy to have her join the group, but that didn't necessarily mean that their other two friends would as well. She sighed inwardly, starting to regret her agreement to Calem's idea.
It had been a while since Serena's family had stayed in one place for so long. Before Grace retired, she and Serena were constantly moving around for her races. Never having a proper home wasn't a huge misfortune, as there were so many places to see and Serena was never bored, but it was lonely. She had always been rather shy, and it only got worse the more she was moved around. A lot of the people she had hung out with had just wanted to meet her mom, and those who had been genuine she had to leave behind.
She was grateful that Calem took her under his wing and wanted her to join his group of friends. They met the day Serena and Grace arrived in Vaniville. His mother claimed he had been watching them from his window as she snuck up behind him, and she had startled him so badly that he actually fell out the window and into the shrubs dividing their two yards. Serena had to fish him out with Orion's help and his mother crying as she apologized frantically from above. Serena remembered panicking because Grace and the movers were laughing, her new neighbours were watching and a cute boy fell from the sky oh my god.
As soon as she had saved Calem from the horrors of landscaping, she fled to her room and left a still snickering Grace to handle the incident. Calem then decided to be the most obnoxious, stubborn, nosy, inconsiderate boy Serena ever had the displeasure to meet.
He had knocked on their door every morning, asking a positively gleeful Grace if Serena wanted to hang out. She finally gave in a week later, throwing the door open just as a surprised Calem was about to knock. Her desire to punch that smug grin off his face was stronger than her shyness and instinct to run away.
As it turned out, Calem was also the sweetest, kindest, empathetic and genuine boy Serena ever had the pleasure to meet.
"Are you okay?"
Serena twitched as his voice broke her out of her memories.
"A little better. Shauna is nice," she admitted, thinking back to how the pigtailed girl seemed in tune to how she was feeling. "I was just thinking."
Calem raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Anyway, you told me about how we were going to get Pokémon from Professor Sycamore for a project, but you didn't tell me how I was chosen to join said project, or what exactly the project is."
"I made a request for you to join me and the other students, and Sycamore talked to your mom."
That was something she had never heard about. She wondered how long her mother had been hiding the news from her.
"You'll learn about it later, but it means I'll have to leave home and travel for a long time. I didn't want to leave you alone in Vaniville. You're so shy, you probably wouldn't make any other friends."
Serena bristled. "I could if I wanted to!" She knew he was right though; there was an at least five-year age gap between them and everyone else in Vaniville. Calem had forced his way into her life, and he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon.
Unfortunately for her, Calem just shook his head, dropping the conversation with a lazy smile laced with fondness. In the end, Serena was grateful for his intervention, and both knew that well.
"HEY! Serena, Calem! Over here!"
They had finally reached Aquacorde Town, and found Shauna waving at them frantically in front of the town's only café. She was jumping up and down on a chair which wobbled precariously as a waiter and short ginger-haired boy hastily tried to coax her off of it. Off to the side was a Swanna, who looked embarrassed as it watched the pigtailed girl.
Shauna finally sat down at the circular table as Calem trailed over to them, tugging a hesitant Serena behind him. The short boy slid into the chair on Shauna's right, turning to the contrastingly larger teen next to him. The other boy was tapping his feet along to the beat of the music from speakers set up next to the café, and he looked up as Calem took the seat next to him, leaving an empty space between him and Shauna for Serena to take.
"Alright, introductions," said Calem, not even bothering to say hi to his other friends as he turned to Serena. He gestured to the large boy directly to his left, who gave a thumbs up and wink to Serena in welcome. "Serena, meet Tierno Floris. He has the sickest moves this part of Kalos, and he wants to make the best Pokémon dance team in the region. His dad owns this café, although they don't seem to be getting much business."
Tierno snorted, raising an eyebrow at Calem. "Are you kidding me? Aquacorde functions in a completely different way from Vaniville. Almost no one in town is awake before noon."
"I should have moved to Aquacorde," Serena sulked, trying to figure out how she arrived at breakfast that morning. The others snickered at Calem's fake affronted expression.
The ginger haired boy reached across the table to extend a hand to Serena, which she shook politely.
"I'm Trevor Appleby," he said quietly, and Serena could tell he was someone she'd get along with right away. "It's nice to meet you, Serena."
"Trevor's a child genius. He's also as shy as you are, so you can bond over your inept social skills. Also, don't call him short unless you want to lose a limb or two." Trevor made a move to jump up and strangle him, and Shauna and Tierno calmly pushed him back into his chair without even a glance at him.
Calem was irritatingly amused as Serena pushed his shoulder with a frown. "Guys, this is Serena Summers. She's too nice to me for her own good, is actually really scary when she's mad and sleeps an average of fourteen hours a day."
Shauna threw a crumpled napkin at his face, booing.
"And you're Calem Victor, who isn't allowed to do introductions anymore," she told him, and Serena found herself nodding in agreement with her new friends. Calem shook his head, pleased that Serena was getting along with the others.
"Anyway," Tierno said, putting on an official air. "Now that Calem's horrible descriptions are over with, we need a new nickname. I vote Reenie."
"Riri sounds cuter," Shauna declared immediately. "She's a Riri."
"No, it's too cutesy. Don't you think she has an elegant air around her?"
"How is Reenie elegant?" Shauna fired back. "Riri."
Tierno stood, towering over the tiny girl. "She's definitely a Reenie!"
"No way!" Shauna yelled, shoving her chair back and climbing up on it so she'd be taller than Tierno. Turning her head slightly, Serena could see the waiter from before standing by the café doors and glaring at Shauna. "She's totally a Riri! Trevie, what do you think?"
Trevor just about jumped five feet into the air when Shauna focused her glare on him. "What? Shauna, do you really want me to nickname someone I just met?" Shauna just gave him a 'well, duh' look, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. "I mean, if I have to, Seri is nice?" Shauna looked as if Trevor had stabbed her, and he cringed. The three turned to Serena, who panicked and looked at Calem. He shrugged, not too concerned about his friends' intensity over nicknames.
"Y-you can call me whatever you want, I guess?" she stammered out, growing increasingly uncomfortable under their gazes. "You don't have to use the same one."
"I'm calling you Riri!" the smaller girl exclaimed, jumping down from her chair and doing a little victory dance. For a second, Serena was afraid she'd fling herself over the table to hug her. Shauna actually did look like she was considering it, but she glanced over at Calem and settled with grinning brightly at her new friend. As terrified as she was, Serena found herself beginning to relax as she returned a tiny smile.
"It's good to know you guys have your priorities in order, but Tierno, I think you're forgetting—" Calem was interrupted by Tierno shooting up from his chair and digging through his pocket.
"I just remembered; Shauns, my dad wanted me to give you this recipe for your moms to try out." Serena turned to Calem, asking silently if it was a regular occurrence for their conversations to be derailed. Calem sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"Nuh-uh, no way," Shauna said instantly, pushing the envelope he offered her away from her. "They like using us as test dummies, and not everything they make turns out good! Sophie has a cast-iron stomach, but the last time they had a baking spree, Renée, Roxy and I had to hide out at Trevie's house for three days!"
"Roxy braided my hair," Trevor said quietly, shivering. "Annalise and Aunt Monique will never let me live it down." Serena fidgeted, trying not to giggle at the mental image for Trevor's sake.
"As fascinating as it is to discuss how many people the Fairweather family have scarred for life," Calem cut in again, looking like he had been expecting for this to happen, "We're getting our first Pokémon today, right?"
Tierno started, face flushed when he realized how far off track he had gotten. He picked a backpack off the ground and unzipped it, pulling out a red case with a glass cover. Three shiny Poké Balls were clearly visibly inside, and Shauna let out a long 'ooh' of admiration.
"Right, here are the three starters!" Tierno proclaimed proudly. "Trevs and I already chose ours, and you guys get a choice of Froakie, Fennekin or Chespin!" Pressing a button on the side of the case, the lid sprang open and the Poké Balls opened simultaneously, releasing the creatures inside in a flash of light, a small explosion of confetti, and an 8-bit version of the Kalosian national anthem.
Serena shut her eyes at the flash, and over the music she could hear the other four muttering loud complaints about Professor Sycamore's lack of a social life. When they all recovered, they turned their attention back to the starters, who didn't seem to be affected by how they were sent out.
She was immediately drawn to the pale gold fox in the center, who was much more calmer than the other two starters, a frog who was hopping excitedly and a hedgehog who seemed half asleep. The fox held itself proudly, red eyes assessing the three kids before locking sight with Serena. It regarded her for a moment, before showing what looked like a small smile.
"The blue frog is Froakie, the gold fox is Fennekin, and the green and brown hedgehog is Chespin," Tierno explained. "Fennekin's the only girl."
"Alright, Riri, you can choose first!" Shauna chimed happily. Even so, Serena could see her watching the Chespin intently as he fell over and didn't try to get back up. Calem seemed to be doing the same thing with the Froakie, and she relaxed, glad that she wouldn't be disappointing either of them.
"Fennekin, would you like to go with me?" The fire-type seemed almost smug as she sauntered forward to Serena, jumping up to her shoulder and settling herself there. She briefly wondered if she bit off more than she could chew by choosing the starter that acted as confident as Calem did. Her doubts were cleared when the fox nuzzled her cheek fondly, and she found herself smiling at her first Pokémon.
Tierno and Trevor were the only ones who noticed this exchange, as Calem and Shauna were still fixated on the other two starters, and they smiled at her as Tierno handed her a Poké Ball before turning to Shauna.
"Shauns, Froakie or Ches—"
"Chespin!" Shauna had already lunged forward to grab the spiky nut Pokémon, and was now hugging it fiercely. Amazingly, it didn't seem to be short of air or annoyed that its new trainer had it in a death grip. Evidently, it was a match made in heaven. "Oh my gosh you're so cute oh my gosh you're so cute oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh—"
Calem turned to Froakie, looking satisfied with how things worked out. The Froakie croaked, jumping onto his head. "Nice to meet you, Froakie. Thanks to you, I can finally become a real trainer."
"Are you guys going to nickname your Pokémon?" Tierno asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table.
"Stella," Serena said instantly, rubbing her starter's head. She could feel the Fennekin straighten up, proud of her new name.
After a little deliberation, Calem said, "Ambroise." His Froakie croaked again, jumping back down onto the table to bump fists with his trainer.
"Cupcake," Shauna said as soon as they all turned to her, only to receive blank stares in response.
"Shauna, are you sure?" Trevor asked tentatively. "Chespin evolves into—"
"Absolutely." Shauna said it so firmly there wasn't any room for arguments. The newly named Chespin didn't seem to mind anyway, so they dropped the subject. Tierno turned expectantly to Trevor, who pulled three red cards from his backpack. He distributed them to Serena, Calem and Shauna, before taking his own out of his bag.
"The very reason we're going on a journey is to complete the Pokédex for Professor Sycamore."
Serena was startled by this information, having heard about the Pokédex Project before. It started years ago, by the famous researcher Professor Oak. The Pokédex was designed as an encyclopedia to record every Pokémon in existence. He had three kids work on completing the original, but one of them went missing and they had been too busy looking for him to keep working on it. Professor Oak then decided to ask the other regions' professors to help out with filling it. There were usually only two or three kids who were chosen to help, and those with the title of Pokédex owner were highly respected.
Well, that explained why Calem said he was going to be away for a long time. Did Grace actually consent to this? Serena wondered, dazed. I thought she retired so we could be together more often. Since she had new friends, it didn't bother her that much that her mother was essentially kicking her out of the house, but she still had to wonder what on earth was she was thinking.
Calem nudged her while Trevor recited a long speech about the Pokédex and the responsibilities of an owner. Both Shauna and Tierno had a glassy look in their eyes while Cupcake rolled around on unconcerned on the table. Stella was napping on Serena's shoulder while Ambroise snored loudly on Calem's head. "We should go back to Vaniville and say goodbye to our families. The others will hang around Route 2 for a while so we can all head through Santalune Forest together."
"Alright," Serena whispered back, stroking Stella's head. "Are all five of us going to travel together?"
"I expect the others will split off often, but they'll probably be in the same area, so technically it'll be as a group. Shauna will probably force us to all meet up at every town just so no one gets left behind. I'll stay with you, if you want."
Serena smiled at him. "You want to be like your parents, right? I don't know what I'm going to do yet, and I don't want to slow you down." Calem shook his head, however, shaking Ambroise off his spot. He returned the Froakie back to his Poké Ball before he responded.
"Don't worry," he said easily. "You won't—" Shauna shot up suddenly, effectively cutting off Trevor's speech and waking Tierno.
"Daisy!" she yelped frantically, turning to the Swanna who had been ignored this whole time. "You can go home now!" The Swanna only huffed, spreading her wings and lightly smacking Shauna across the face. The bird Pokémon made an affectionate sound in her throat as she took off into the air and flew north of the town. "That's fascinating, Trevie, but don't you think we should go now? It takes longer to get to Santalune on foot than it does by flying-type."
Trevor looked disappointed that his exposition had been cut short, but he turned to Serena and Calem who were standing and getting ready to return home.
"I take it you two will go back to Vaniville?" he asked as he gestured for Shauna and Tierno to stand too. Shauna scooped Cupcake into her arms and Tierno stretched with a loud yawn. "We'll stay around Route 2 for an hour then, so be quick, okay?" Serena nodded and waved goodbye as they turned to leave.
Before they could go two steps, Shauna yelled, "Hold it right there!"
"Serena, cover your ears," Calem murmured aside to her. This time Shauna really did tackle-hug her, startling Stella awake, before she turned to do the same to Calem. She then twirled around to jump on Tierno and picked Trevor up and swung him around. When she finished, she threw them into a group hug, yelling at the top of her lungs:
"WE'RE FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY POKÉMON TRAINERS!"
i write all my fics on my ipod and i didnt realize how long this was until i uploaded it oops
i actually hate when people barge into other peoples lives like that, especially if theyre shy and easily made uncomfortable, but i have a friend who did that for me and i guess its kind of endearing in a really irritating way
