perspective: N's outlook, but Touko-centric
prompt: Alice Barden's Gray
A/N: As a heads up, this one's a little angsty, and leans more towards the abstract. I'm planning something pretty fluffy though, so if you're into that sort of thing, I'll be making it up to you with what's coming soon, hopefully in an update or two. Anyway, thanks for reading!
Pokemon never lie.
That is exactly why he is here. Because there is a girl who's been confusing him, painting the world in all the wrong colors, and now he has to know which one she is, good or bad, black or white, because he can't afford to understand anything else. Not now. So he'll ask the one who knows her best- or at least, the best friend of hers that he can trust. Hours of confusion and agony had led up to this moment, standing before a trainer and her partner, Pignite. So he leans in close, knees brushing the dirt as they see eye to eye, and breathes out anticipation.
"Hey, Pignite. Would you tell me what kind of trainer Touko is?"
At first the meaning comes slowly, words and emotions slurred in his mind's eye, and he translates sloppily as its halting speech goes on. But gradually the Pokemon's words shift, speed and intensity suddenly amplified, and he falls silent, letting the meaning wash over him and waiting for a sense of relief that never comes.
Touko was born in Nuvema Town, lives with her mom, and was given a Pokedex to start off a journey to see the world. Her father left in the summer of her sixth birthday, and she feels guilty because it's still her favorite season, even though she hates to see her mother cry. She loves Sitrus berries and sunshine, and she's scared to be alone, but she worries that she doesn't know what love is, that it'll pass her by because she didn't think to grab it before it was too late. When she wakes up in the morning after dreaming, she keeps her eyes closed so it'll stay with her a little while longer. And I've only heard so much because she talks- cries? (N wonders, because his grasp of this word is only fleeting)- in her sleep, but she wants someone to know these things, and she wants that someone to be you.
N shares none of this with Touko. Because (and he is heartbroken by the realization that he might be among them) people lie. Because suddenly the world isn't just black and white- there is red there, staining his cheeks and running through his veins, but most of all there is gray, uncertainty and good and bad and new shades he's never seen, doesn't understand. So he stumbles through his goodbyes (apologies?), explaining away the silence and wishing he could understand this girl who colors outside the lines. He warns her, tries desperately to make her realize what had to happen, even as he struggles not to admire the image she has created for him. "As a result... Pokemon and trainers who care about one another, like you and your Pokemon, will be separated. And that does break my heart a little," he concludes, and she watches as he disappears. Wishing she could wonder, desperate to find room for doubt- convinced that hating him would be so much easier than this.
(And what is this, if not love?)
A/N: This was my first time writing from canon events (the N encounter in Mistralton, to be exact), and one of few present-tense pieces I've worked on, so hopefully I did an okay job of it xD;; It was more experimental than anything else, so I'm sorry if it's not quite what you expected from the challenge, but I was mostly just testing the water with this one. For me, the word gray immediately brings to mind N's conflicted emotions as the game goes on, when he starts to question the simplicity of the world his father had raised him to believe in. Several people also wanted to see N talking to Touko's Pokemon, so I thought it might be a nice tie-in. I'm confident that the majority of the prompts will be more upbeat than this one orz;;
In any case, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks to Alice Barden for the suggestion! Feel free to leave your own in a review or a PM :3
~Raika