ii portugal x taiwan (pokemon au)
When he was seven, his Sneasel dug him a picture from beneath their favorite tree. When he was sure it wasn't stolen, he decided to keep it. It depicted a young girl, maybe only five, and it was pretty much the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen so when they got home, he took out a pen and wrote on the blank space behind with a childish, still slightly shaking hand – Formosa.
…
When he was ten, he realized he was in love with the little girl in his picture and would spend much time wondering what she would look like if she was older – still beautiful, surely. He ended up inventing a personality for her of everything he found desirable in a friend – curious like he was, and playful, and strong-willed. Of course she'd love Pokemon too and they'd go on their journeys together.
After his Sneasel and his neighbor Antonio, she was the bestest friend he'd ever had.
…
He left home at thirteen with only his Sneasel as his companion and firm promises to write home as much as he could.
He doesn't journey with his best friend because they were rivals and the agreement was this: whoever recorded all the Pokemon in the world in their Pokedex second would have to live with the knowledge for the rest of his life.
So he catches wild Pokemon and battles with other trainers and fails then wins at Gyms and, without knowing exactly how it happened, crushes the largest unknown underground criminal corporation that specialized in Pokemon cruelty side by side with Antonio. They are both featured in the news and they go through interviews in awkward shyness and when most of the buzz had died down, they go home, arm in arm and together.
…
In a week, he was on the road once more and in the first unfamiliar grassy place he encounters, he finds her.
She should be one year shy of being a Trainer herself though she was tiny. Her stance told him she loved Pokemon but so far only the abandoned ones that needed loving therapy in shelters she's volunteered in, and anxious soon-to-be-mothers that needed comfort, and their eggs that needed just as much care, and the babies they produced in Pokecenters and daycares. Certainly not a perfectly wild Aipom circling her from the trees, the fear for its life so obvious that its threats of attacking were hardly intimidating, but surely overwhelming for someone like her.
So he grabs her hand (soft and smooth and small like it was made for him) and pulls her away as it pounced, then he catches if for her with the help of his Sneasel. He explains that Pokemon are friends and not creatures to be afraid of; she tells him she knew that already and had just been caught unawares, that was all. She said it like she was ashamed of herself so he told her she shouldn't feel that way and that he had been frightened of his Sneasel, Nyura, the first time they met too, but now they were the best of friends.
The dark brown eyes that stared admiringly up at him made something inside his chest twitch.
When he saw to it she got home to his four older brothers safely and agreed to her proposal to meet again someday when she was a Trainer and battle, he looks for an Aipom of his own in the forest with Nyura then, unsuccessful, rests for the night in an inn.
He looks at the picture like he always does when he feels something's… not wrong, but not usual either. When he was calm enough again, he learned he had half the mind to just get rid of it already, because at last he's found something even more beautiful than the face it sheltered. But he remembers it came from the same tree that had led him to his Sneasel, his best friend and current rival, and that for a few years in his mind, he and the girl had actually been friends.
So he keeps the picture. He keeps his old imaginary friend, Formosa, with him.
…
Her name is Mei and they meet again in two years.
She understands Pokemon better than he does and he very nearly loses to her. That was remarkable considering he'd been a Trainer for three years and she just for one, but the way he figured it, she had been a Trainer all her life. He couldn't really analyze that thought at the moment, though.
He's sixteen, she's fourteen, and her heart is as pretty as her face. After leaving the Pokecenter, they lounge at the park where their they let their pets play. She tells him she'd name the Aipom he got her Etaro (sort of like Enrico which is kinda close to his name, but she had help from her favorite brother, who is an otaku, in the naming, so Etaro), that she was traveling around the world to experience the wonders and study the different institutions that care for Pokemon, that when she had her fill and came home, she would put up a Pokemon hospice, which no one's ever done before.
He tells her he thinks it's brilliant, letting her Wurmple lick icecream from his finger on his lap. She reddens and beams at him, and he knew it wouldn't be the last time they would see each other.
…
They make it a point to call up once a month, meet once a year. She's 17 when her brothers made clear that they were getting suspicious but they both countered by making it equally clear there was nothing to get suspicious over.
"Whadya think, old friend?" he asked his favorite picture after asking his best friend's opinion over video chat. "Should I confirm their suspicions, or…?
Formosa grins at him, still five and innocent. Her smile reminds him of Antonio's when he exclaimed "Of course!"
…
Her youngest brother was, like, perfectly cool with them being a thing, the next said it was fine as long as he did nothing that would cause for him (her brother) to teach him (himself) a painful lesson – da-ze! – and the eldest two might as well have brought swords with them when he confronted them, her whole family, about it. They examined the Pokemon he had with him at that time – Nyura, an Eevee and a Ralts – and when they saw they were well-cared for and happy being his, they accepted. If that was how he treated beings that couldn't do the same for him, then maybe – only maybe, mind you – he had a chance at getting their sister.
…
He never really got to finish his Pokemon quest – more and more breeds keep popping up each year anyway, it would be a never-ending chase to the end of the planet's days – but that was okay. He had her.
After two major fights and two equally major reconciliations within five years, they get married.
…
"Henrique, what does 'formosa' mean?" she asks him one day.
He thought about it. "It means you in my mother tongue."
"Eh?"
"Beautiful."
"Aww, that's so sweet!" She kisses his cheek.
They were wrapped in blankets in a winter's night, cuddling with her Cyndaquil and with each other for warmth. They settle to silence and stare at the fire and after a while he says: "When I was little, Nyura found me a picture of a little girl from under a tree in my hometown. I thought she had the most beautiful face in all of the world – I wasn't in love, not yet, but I just thought that that was a fact. The fact. I sucked at my vocabulary then, so I asked my mother what to call little girls like her and she said 'formosa.' I'd written it at the back of her picture."
"Aww, that's so sweet," she repeats. "You said you fell in love with her eventually?"
"Yeah. I was ten, I think. It kinda died down in a couple of years but I still kept her picture. I don't remember what for anymore. She was a pretty girl."
"Hmmm," she sighs sleepily.
They keep silent till he thought she was asleep. Then she says "D'ya wanna know why I asked you?"
He looks at her, interested. She smiles for him and holds up a tiny multicolored square. The colors paint a face he once thought was the most beautiful thing there is in the world. His wife shares the child's grin.
"I was curious – you wrote it at the back of the picture I lost when I was five."
fin
When I was a kid and the sole memes, back then in the form of simple short stories, that went around did so through text messages, my favorite older cousin shared with me something she called "A Cute Love Story." I have no idea who made it up – the version she told me is the plainest form of this story and it's remained with me for nine years. The main idea isn't mine.
Henrique is my personal Rin-approved name for Portugal. The original I thought up was Enrico, but on learning this was actually Spanish, I looked for the Portuguese version.
For more info on Nyura and Etaro and co., check out anillavicecream at tumblr and mangorealrin at deviantart.
Rin – I suck at crossovers. I am sorry. I hope you did not cringe.
