Cheren stirred as he felt a dainty hand brush his shoulder.
"Mmmmm," he mumbled, but the gentle sensation continued. The half-asleep Gym Leader found himself enjoying the delicate touch as it continued to glide over his bare arm in soft, flowing movements.
"Cheren," a soft voice whispered.
"Bianca?" he asked, opening his striking cobalt eyes only to be met with the sight of his beautiful little blonde, smiling at him with unparalleled warmth.
"Good morning!" she sang softly.
"Good morning to you, too." he leaned up, eager for her delicate kiss. The feeling of her soft lips against his was all it took to energize him for the day. 'Imagine waking up to this every morning...' he thought. Bianca smiled and offered him her hand, pulling him into an upright position. She twirled and jumped into the little kitchenette, Cheren's eyes taking in every inch of her form: the way her slim-fitting tank top and short-shorts accentuated her form; the motion of her long, toned legs as she reached up to pull the box of tea off of the shelf… Cheren blinked, tearing his eyes away from her.
He stood and walked up behind her, placing a hand on her waist and drawing aside her honey-colored hair. He bent until his lips were just brushing the back of her neck and whispered, "I love you, and you look extraordinarily pretty this morning." Cheren felt Bianca shiver with pleasure under his touch, and he closed the distance between them by giving the sensitive skin a small kiss. He touched the area with his tongue and kissed it a second time, Bianca smiling with excitement all the while.
"I have to go to Accumula Town today to pick up a few things. I would love it if you came with me; maybe we could go out to lunch or something," Bianca smiled, gently pulling herself out of his arms and taking a seat at the table. She blinked and looked up at him, awaiting his response as she stirred her rich, aromatic cup of tea.
"Absolutely," Cheren picked a Pecha Berry out of the basket that sat on the table and took a bite, the sweet flavor spreading across his taste buds.
"That's from a little berry stand in Accumula, too. We can go there today, if you'd like. They just opened." Cheren nodded eagerly. "I also have to get some other stuff, too. Let me go and get ready." She vanished into her bedroom and reappeared several minutes later, fiddling with the strap of her Xtransceiver.
"Remind me to pick up some shampoo while we're out," he said.
"I have shampoo, you can just use that!"
"Yeah, but I mean shampoo that doesn't make me smell like a girl."
"But you like it, right? I mean, you like the scent?" she asked.
"Of course I do, on you." he stated. "It smells delicious." He brushed her hair aside again and whispered against her skin. Bianca inhaled and pulled away, the sensation very nearly too much for her to bear.
She took his hand and led him out the door, locking up behind her. The morning sun shone beautifully above them and draped the town in a pale yellow hue, rays beating down to encase the leaves in a yellow blanket that warmed the earth and stirred up the scents of spring. They walked up Route 1 in comfortable silence, Bianca's excited gait slightly faster than Cheren's leisurely one.
'Funny,' he thought, 'Two years ago, it would have been the reverse. I would have been raring to go and Bianca would have been stopping to notice an unusual flower or smelling the air...' he propped his arms up behind his head and watched the bubbly blonde walk in the direction of Accumula Town. She turned suddenly and looked back at him, and he felt a huge grin cracking across his face. She dashed back and tugged at his arm.
"Hurry up, you!" she huffed with mock impatience. They exchanged glances. "Race you!" she cried suddenly, bursting into a run.
"Oh, no you don't!" he sprinted to catch up to her, the two of them skidding to a halt when they entered the town.
"I'd say that was a tie," Bianca said, breathing heavily.
"Fair enough," the cobalt-eyed Gym Leader agreed. Bianca plopped down onto one of the benches in the small park, watching the town go by. Cheren followed suit. Bianca pulled a list out of her bag, giving it a quick once-over before speaking.
"Poké Mart first," she said, still trying to catch her breath. They stood and walked towards the building.
Cheren bent over to study the brands on the shelf before he found his usual soap. Despite the way the sweet violet scent complimented Bianca, he couldn't convince himself to continue using it. He placed the bottle into his grocery basket and wandered around the store in an effort to find the honey-haired girl. He located her near the check-out, studying a display that contained dozens of varieties of mints.
"These are good," he suggested, lifting a little, round box and placing them into his own basket.
"Alrighty," She placed the same candy on the top of her pile and looked up at him.
"What?"
"This is more fun when you're here."
After leaving the market, Bianca led Cheren to the stand where all of the fresh berries were sold. Pulling out his wallet, he paid for a few bundles of berries – Pecha, Oran, Sitrus and Aguav – before he and Bianca left and headed in the direction of Route 1 and the tiny laboratory. It was almost as though they were kids again, running off and dashing through the tall grass, stirring up whatever mischief they could possibly find. Bianca smiled as the memories came flooding back to her – she, Touko and Touya had always been the ones to cause trouble. Cheren was a reluctant participant, usually sitting cross-legged with a book in his lap while the three of them raced around the fields, but he was always there nonetheless.
The pair returned to the apartment, eager for another comfortable night of chatting and television. Cheren happily settled in next to Bianca as she found a marathon about Gym Leader biographies in the Sinnoh Region. They watched contentedly for a while before Cheren shifted and Bianca looked down, realizing that he had fallen asleep in her lap. She pulled the blanket up around him and stroked his hair, his skin warm and soft under her fingertips. All indications of stressors vanished from his face as he slept; the elegant and severe angles fading back into an expression of softness and innocence. Bianca couldn't help smiling as she thought of how far he had come from the hasty, impatient boy she grew up with. Of course, he could still be hasty and impatient from time to time, but he was now more controlled and well-balanced than ever before.
'He didn't change,' Bianca thought, 'Not really. It's like he ran a fine-toothed comb through his personality a few dozen times, but he's still Cheren, through and through.'
Bianca remembered the day that Cheren had lost to Alder. It was shortly before Touko had run away and Touya left on his quest to see more of the world.
He had sat on a bench by the railing overlooking the sea around Nuvema Town, hands in his lap, staring at his shoes.
Bianca had stepped outside of her house to water her flowers, but the sight of Cheren sitting on that bench had caught her eye.
"Cheren?" she walked over to him. He continued to stare downwards.
"Cheren? Are you okay?" He kept his eyes trained on his lap. She sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, and he finally glanced up, cobalt eyes wide with sadness.
She knew instantly. He didn't need to tell her; she could tell by the look in his eyes. She couldn't recall a time when he had appeared so small, so fragile. She stretched her arms out to him and he collapsed into her, sobbing into her chest. She rested her head on his and allowed him to cry, silently swearing that she'd do everything in her power to prevent him from ever having to endure the sting of this emotion ever again. Ignoring the dampness of his tears seeping into her shirt, she allowed her best friend, the man she loved, her irreplaceable partner-in-crime tremble like a child for as long as he needed to. She ran her hands back and forth across his back, tightening her grip on him as she pulled him closer. Cheren had always been her support system, her steadfast pillar, and so she quietly willed herself to hold him up tonight.
Eventually, his broken sobs slowed, and he looked up to meet her eyes, red-faced and flustered as his breathing steadied. Bianca delicately lifted his frames from the bridge of his nose and used her thumbs to wipe away the stray tears. He finally choked out, "I didn't want you to see me like this..."
"Cheren...!" She half-exclaimed, half-scolded.
"Bianca! This is so pathetic. Look at me!" She understood. Regardless of the boy's impeccable talents and superior depth of knowledge, he had suffered a crushing defeat and his pride had been bruised. It would have been difficult for anyone, particularly the ever-so-slightly egotistical man in front of her. He glanced down again, keeping his eyes hooded; unable to look at her while he said what he was going to say.
"This is so humiliating for me. How can I even..." he paused. "How can I even look you in the eye when all I've done for years is talk about how strong I'm going to be, and then be defeated so easily?"
"Cheren..." she whispered. "Don't. Don't do that to yourself."
"But..." Cheren stuttered. Bianca shook her head.
"Cheren! You have so much zeal! So much faith in your Pokémon! How can you think that one loss changes all of that? Most people can't handle a battle against Alder! It will be fine. You can train harder; you can try again! If you want it badly enough – which I know that you do – it'll come in time. It will."
The next thing that he said was so quiet, she barely heard him.
"But how can I protect you if I can't even handle a battle?" he whispered.
"Protect me?" she asked. "What are you talking about? Is that what this is all about?" she placed her other hand on his shoulder so that she could look directly at him, and stated carefully, "Cheren, I—" The look he was giving her stopped her in the middle of the sentence. She knew what was going through his mind at that moment. Failure. He felt like had failed himself, his Pokémon and Bianca.
He looked up to meet her gaze and, speaking as steadily as his voice would allow, he stated, "I just want to be worthy of you." Bianca drew in a breath, peridot eyes glistening as she listened to his confession. "I thought that for sure, if I defeated Alder, you would be proud of me."
"I'm already proud of you!"
"And I thought that, if I could do it, I wouldn't have to worry anymore. I wouldn't have to feel this..." he gritted his teeth. "Constant, nagging feeling of always being second-best."
"Second-best?" she asked. "To who?"
"To Touko, to Alder..." he paused and then continued, much more quietly, "...to you."
Bianca was stunned.
"Cheren, for years, I've been trying to prove that I could be someone you could truly be proud of."
Cheren's brows furrowed in confusion. Suddenly, Bianca knew exactly what she could say to make him feel better. A thousand times more sincere and supportive than the overused "It will be okay," she decided that it was finally time to confess the true motivation behind the biggest decision of her life.
"Cheren, do you know why I went on a journey?"
"To get out of the house and away from your dad?"
"Actually, that was only a very small part of it." He looked confused, an emotion that was foreign and not particularly well-suited to his face. "It was because of you," she continued. "My entire childhood was spent thinking about how I could prove myself to the brilliant, talented boy with whom I am in love." He opened his mouth to speak, but she proceeded. "So what if people thought that I was going to get away from my dad? That was perfectly fine. I did it so that I could be someone you truly considered a rival; someone with whom you could contend. This was more than just impressing you. This was my opportunity to make you realize that I could be worthy of being called a trainer. That I could deserve you." She drew in a deep breath, winded from the confession she had just poured out. Cheren's expression was one of pure astonishment.
"Bianca..." he leaned in and spoke slowly. "I have spent my entire life worrying about how I could possibly deserve you."
A few stray tears escaped Bianca's eyes and ran down her cheeks. She leaned forward and embraced him, a wave of elation washing over her when he enthusiastically returned the hug. She leaned back and concluded her confession.
"Cheren, you were the biggest motivation to me, and you don't need to worry about your loss. You're still the most impressively intelligent and talented person that I know, and you will always be able to figure out exactly what you need to do. And if you ever feel like you don't know which way is up..." she wiped her eyes and smiled. "You have me. And we can figure it out together."
She leaned forward and kissed him as delicately as she possibly could; a chaste kiss that flooded his body with warmth and sent a surge of hope coursing through his tired mind. Cheren smiled. A small smile, all that his drained body and spirit could muster, but a sincere smile nonetheless. He shifted his position on the bench, laying his head in Bianca's lap. She once again leaned forward ran her fingers down the side of his face before they traveled back up to smooth his hair. He exhaled sharply and closed his eyes, and for a moment, he allowed all of his worries disappear as Bianca's soothing touch lulled him to sleep on the bench overlooking the sea.
Bianca treasured that memory; one that she considered a momentous point in their story – made even better with the knowledge that he valued it the same way.
Glancing down at Cheren's sleeping form, she thought of her ambitious, impatient boy and how now, two years later, he had come so far. She smiled at his calm and gentle expression and took comfort in the fact that he had reached new levels in his quest for strength; his journey in search of knowledge about both truth and ideals. Bianca couldn't have been more pleased with all of it – how he slept in her lap, without worries as to whether or not he was good enough – for himself, for his Pokémon, for his friends, for her.
She took in the sight of his shoulders, rising and falling with each quiet breath. She leaned back into the couch's plush cushions and continued to toy with his soft, onyx-colored hair. Occasionally, her fingers would brush his face and she would feel the softness of his cheeks, or he would let out a little sigh and she would smile lovingly at the Gym Leader who had been her best friend since childhood.
Shifting in her seat as quietly as she could, Bianca laced her fingers between Cheren's and allowed the soft blanket of sleep to wash over her.