Oh, you lovely, lovely patient people. How I adore you all. I'm done with school and I think I did pretty well on my exams, and thus should be able to get this story done by Christmas. I know how genuine promises of things completed 'by Christmas' have proven to be throughout history, but I mean it!
By the way, this chapter title is in no way relevant. I didn't know what to call the chapter, so I asked a friend who isn't at all involved in this fandom and has never read this fic. Good way to get a title, eh.
Time for some replies. Some of you don't have PMs enabled, so yeah. C:
Retse: I'm honoured, and hope you continue to enjoy this story.
RolfeDOL: AND I LOVE YOU TOO.
You've waited long enough. I'll save my ranting.
By the time they reached the Pokémon Centre, N had run out of gems of wisdom from Green Oak about everybody involved with the Indigo League.
"He really didn't say anything about Red?" Black asked for the umpteenth time. When N shook his head irritably, Black added, "He said to me that Red likes snow. That's why he lives on Mt Silver. I thought it was something to do with Team Rocket."
"I bet I could beat Red," N muttered.
Black rolled his eyes.
"I could," N insisted. "I have a wider coverage of Type Advantage Theory in my current party."
"There's more to battles than that."
N shrugged. "I could still beat him."
Black desperately wanted to point out that he had beaten N, but didn't particularly feel like listening to a bitch fit. It had, after all, been quite a progressive day for N; he'd actually apologised for one thing, and he'd spoken about his feelings for another. Black couldn't expect to such milestones everyday, and he couldn't push his luck and expect N to treat his friends with a certain amount of decency.
When they returned to the Goldenrod Pokémon Centre, the nurse called them over and said, "Your sister and her friends are waiting for you in your room."
"…oh," Black said. "Um, thanks."
N scowled.
"I didn't think they'd get here so soon, all right?" Black whispered as they walked down the hallway. "We'll just have to put up with it."
"Fine," N growled. He stopped outside the door numbered 18 and glared like it had caused him some personal dishonour.
Black took a deep breath and opened the door. White and Bianca were sitting side by side on the bottom bunk, Cheren in a chair opposite them. There were noticeable bags under their eyes. All three glanced up at him, down to his hand in N's, away to smirk at each other, then back to Black.
"Hi Black, hi N," White cheerfully said. "Hope you weren't expecting alone time after your date to —"
"Hilda," Black hissed.
White kept smiling.
"Hi Cheren, hi Bianca," Black sighed. "Good to see you, but we can't all sleep in here, so you should get your own room."
"Aww, but we just got here," White whined. "I missed you sooo much, I don't think I'll be able to leave you alone for a minute."
Black gestured to the door. "Get out. Go get some sleep."
Black didn't even need to hear what Cheren muttered to White to know what it was and respond accordingly:
"You're a dick Cheren."
N glanced from Black to Cheren, who he studied for a few seconds, then back to Black. "I don't think he's a dick," N said.
Cheren only had half a second to look smug before N concluded:
"He's not nearly attractive enough."
White immediately started laughing; Bianca covered her mouth and glanced away; Cheren fumed. It was a spectacular moment, and Black had no hesitation in grinning at N.
"Awhaha, I don't care if you stole my baby brother, turned him into Plasmabait and tried to destroy the world, it was all worth it for that." White pointed at the look on Cheren's face and broke down laughing again.
"Get out," Black said again. "Go find your own room."
White kept laughing. Cheren kept glaring. N kept glaring at them both. Bianca, ever the wonderful kind goddess of mercy, stood up and cleared her throat.
"Come on," she said in that calmly commanding tone of hers. "We've all got a lot to deal with tomorrow, and I know how cranky you all get if you don't get enough sleep."
"Bye N," White called before the door snapped shut behind them.
Black smiled at N. "Thanks."
N shrugged and matter-of-factly replied, "I like you enough to deal with them."
Black didn't know how to handle that. He knew he was handling it completely wrong when he found himself saying, "You know, you've been speaking slower."
"And you have been actually speaking," N retorted.
"You were overwhelming!" Black protested.
"Of course," N replied. "I'm not like ordinary humans."
"Sure you are," Black frowned. "You just, act differently."
N stared at Black for a long time. When Black shifted uncomfortably, he finally said, "I don't know if you are brilliant or completely insane."
That was pretty much the last thing Black wanted to hear from N.
The kiss, however, was very welcome. When Black started kissing back, N pulled him closer. It felt better than any kiss yet, until N suddenly pulled away.
"I'm going to bed," he said.
"Um… okay…"
N climbed up to the top bunk without another word.
Black shook his head in confusion.
The next morning, they found White, Cheren and Bianca sitting around a table.
"Finally," White sighed. "Jeez, what'd you to get up to, hmm?"
"Sleeping in," Black smoothly replied. He turned to Cheren and quickly pulled two PokéBalls from his bag. "Got something for you," he said, handing one to Cheren, "and for you." He tossed the other to Bianca.
"Is this what I think it is?" Bianca gasped.
"Yup."
"Hey," White protested. "What about me? You know, your only sibling in the whole wide world?"
"I couldn't find a pokémon good enough for you," Black quickly said.
"…good answer."
N was scowling.
Bianca stood up and quickly opened the PokéBall. The squirtle formed in an instant and cheerfully removed its Dark Sunglasses, before holding his arms open for Bianca's hug. "Ohmygodohmygodthankyou," Bianca squeed.
"Is that one of the ones from Vermillion?" N demanded.
"He liked the idea," Black retorted. "You can ask him yourself. Bianca won't mind."
N walked over to Bianca and her squirtle. Bianca held him up for N to see with a bright, dimpled grin.
"So what'd you get, Cheren?" White asked.
"Nothing worth a fuss," Cheren quickly said. "Though I'm grateful all the same." He walked over to join Bianca, N and the squirtle.
"A clefairy," Black explained.
White laughed.
While N remained distracted by Bianca and her new squirtle, White pulled Black aside and whispered, "He kind of treats you like you're his bitch."
In an instant, Black realised that could apply to a number of people in his life. "Uh…"
"N, I mean," White sighed. "He keeps glaring at me."
"He thought we were, um, you know…"
White stared at him blankly.
"…dating."
White gasped. "Doesn't he know what incest is?"
"Apparently."
White shuddered. "How could he not? Wait, he realises incest isn't okay, right?"
"Pretty sure. He didn't know we're twins."
"Yuck. Urgh."
Black nodded.
"But seriously," White was back to a low whisper, "he acts like he owns you. Like it's sooo terrible if any of us wanna talk to you."
"He decked Silver for hitting on me," Black matter-of-factly replied.
White's jaw dropped. "He… whoa. Silver hit on you?"
Black nodded. White didn't need to know how literal the hitting was.
"That doesn't change that he acts like you're his property," White grumbled. "And don't ask 'what's wrong with that' cos there's a lot wrong with that. You just don't get it cos you're a guy."
"You're the one who keeps telling me to kiss him and whatever," Black pointed out. "So now what're you telling me? To break up with him?"
White shrugged. "Not exactly. Maybe."
Black glanced over to where N sat in front of Bianca's squirtle, with his hair lop-sided from the scyther, with Cheren looking disbelieving and Bianca looking far too polite as N tried on the squirtle's Dark Sunglasses. He felt, once again, like he'd been punched in the gut. When he glanced back to White and saw her arms crossed over her chest and her jaw set in disapproval, Black felt enraged.
"No, I get it," Black growled. "You're a jealous bitch."
"What."
Black nodded. "That's it, isn't it? You can't stand that I'm finally better than you at something, and everybody knows it."
"That's ridi—"
"So is it that I'm the hero and you're not?" Black demanded. "Cos I really can't figure out where the hell you get off telling me how to live my life. You're an hour older, that doesn't mean you know any better than me."
White stared, completely incredulous, and slowly shook her head. "Whatever. Just… whatever. I was just trying to help, but, whatever."
Black immediately felt a surge of regret. "White, wait, I —"
"You should call Gold, or whoever your latest oh-so-mighty friend you wanna show off is," White coolly interrupted. "Tell him about the Shadow Triad and all that."
"White…!"
She turned and walked away, only offering him acknowledgement in a single raised finger over her shoulder.
Gold answered Black's call with great gusto and interrupted Black's explanations about who the Shadow Triad was, their significance and what they had said to him and given him every now and then with mutters of 'awesome'. He then told Black to hold on, set the phone down, and went to loudly consult Silver. Black couldn't make out any sentences, just the odd insult, the sound of whining, lots of sighing and finally a cheer.
"Okay!" Gold shouted into the phone. "WE'RE GONNA GO TO HOENN. Fuck yeah."
Black thought it might have been the ringing in his ears. "To… to Hoenn?"
"That's where all the clues lead, so we're going, we have to go this is an urgent emergency and we're going. Meet you in Olivine!"
Black was starting to get the feeling that Gold was very bored with being Champion.
It took Black several minutes of pleading to get N to agree to go, but only one sentence to convince Bianca: "Ruby still lives there, you know."
"You're right, he does," Bianca gasped. "Think we'd meet him?"
"Well, if we're going with Gold, yeah, probably."
Since Bianca agreed, Cheren agreed (though he used the guise of the PokéDex). White, it seemed, was determined to keep Black as aware as possible that she wasn't talking to him by standing near him talking loudly to everybody else and shooting him the occasional glare.
"So it's settled," Bianca cheerfully declared. "How should we get there? Flying?"
Black started to nod. "Sounds like the best wa— whoa!"
N had grabbed his hand and started to drag Black off. "We're taking Zekrom," he loudly declared.
"Head to the Pokémon Centre," Black managed to call before N had dragged him outside. N released him to grab Zekrom's PokéBall, giving Black a prime opportunity to ask, "What was with that? You're not still jealous, are you?"
"No," N immediately huffed. "It would just be crime for your sister to end up on Reshiram, or that other one."
"Bianca?"
"No. The other one. Bianca's reasonably acceptable, for a typical human."
"I'm glad you made a friend."
N threw Zekrom's PokéBall into the air. The great black dragon appeared in a flash of white light, roaring widely and loudly towards the sky as though stretching and yawning. Zekrom fixed its red eyes on N and let out a gentler roar.
N roared back.
Zekrom growled and jerked its head towards Black, teeth bared far too much for Black's liking.
"Okay," Black sighed.
N climbed onto Zekrom's back and held a hand out to help Black up.
"…it's not gonna… bite me or anything, right?"
N rolled his eyes. "No, he won't. Hurry up."
N not only hauled Black up, but wrapped Black's arms tightly around his waist before urging Zekrom to the air with a roar.
"I don't like your sister," N matter-of-factly said.
"Um. Okay. But Olivine's that way."
N roared something else to Zekrom before muttering, "I wasn't trying to destroy the world."
"I know. Not even close."
"Neither was Ghetsis," N continued, "and he's incredibly stupid, as one would have to be to want to destroy the world."
"Yep." Black had a sinking suspicion that that was exactly what Ghetsis would be trying to do, if he was in Hoenn.
"She said I'm a bad influence," N said, louder, "and that I treat you badly."
Black sighed heavily. He rested his head against N's back. "She said the same thing to me, and I told her to stop being a jealous bitch."
"…good."
Black smiled. "Maybe you should, too."
"Hmph."
"Our dad died when we were pretty young, so Mum was busy most of the time, and White decided she'd be the responsible one by looking after me. It didn't make much sense, since she's you know, an hour older than me, but White doesn't change her mind easily." Black hesitated before adding, "And she's better at beating people up than I am. So I just went with it."
N didn't say anything for a long time. Finally, he said, "You know I don't understand your perception of family."
"Or humans in general. Yep, I know. Doesn't mean you can't try and see things from different people's perspectives, or sympathise."
"…yes it does."
Black rolled his eyes. "You're not a bad influence. You're just beyond reason."
"Hmph."
Black sat up straighter, brushed aside several strands of ridiculously lop-sided hair and kissed the back of N's neck.
After landing, they had to wait several minutes for Cheren, then White, and finally Bianca to catch up.
"I guess we should go to the pier?" Black suggested.
White shoved past him to lead the way. Cheren raised his eyebrows and glanced at Black, who shrugged, before following.
"She's just a jealous bitch," N matter-of-factly informed him.
"Is it a habit of yours, insulting your boyfriend's friends?" Cheren demanded.
"No, though it is very easy," N replied.
Black took N's hand. "Come on."
N seemed pleased with walking hand-in-hand, and Bianca was more than prepared to glare at anybody who look at them funny. Olivine was another pretty city, with pale stone buildings and footpaths, but it seemed like every single person was a sailor leaning against a building smoking.
"There," White called, pointing to a small group of people talking to a captain (Black could tell he was a captain from his extremely large and shapely white hat).
Gold waved madly as they approached and shouted, "BLACK! HURRY UP, BLACK! COME ON I WANNA GO ALREADY!"
Black sheepishly walked around White and over to Gold and Silver, who were joined by Green and, to Black's shock, delight and overall emotionally combustion, Crystal and Red.
"H-hi," Black gasped. Red. His eyes really were red and his pikachu might as well have been made of gold, it was clearly so powerful.
Crystal now had blue hair, glasses and a mature adult scientist outfit, but Red. He was still wearing his trademark outfit and hat!
"Sooo that's Crys, that's Green, yeah I know you've met shut up, and that's Red," Gold quickly introduced. "That's Black, his real name is Hilbert can you even believe that," Black had a distinct moment of wanting to die, "and that's Nat—"
"N," N quickly said. "My name is N."
Gold snickered.
Black glanced up at N, but he seemed to be proving he could talk to people by adding, "This is Bianca, Cheren and White. They are also from Unova, but not as talented Trainers."
"Excuse me?" Cheren snarled.
"I was Champion for a few minutes, and then Black defeated me," N explained. "It may not have been officially registered, but that makes us the two strongest Trainers in Unova."
"Except you cheated and —"
"I don't care!" Gold cried. "You must be good to get this far and I want to battle all of you at the same time."
Silver sighed and grabbed Gold by the back of his shirt to keep him from pulling out PokéBall right there and then.
"I don't know about that," the captain said. "Don't reckon the boat'd be able to take a bunch of League-level battles now, would it?"
"…aww."
"Which gives me plenty of time to check out your PokéDexes," Crystal brightly said.
"…aww," Gold repeated. "You're such a buzz-kill, Ly."
"You gonna go bring the boat around then, old man?" Green demanded.
"Yessir, Mister Oak. I'll get right to it."
Green scanned Black and N over. Black realised they were still holding hands, but N's tightened around his before he could pull away. Green smirked. "Not your boyfriend, eh?"
Black blushed. "That was… he wasn't then."
Red glanced them over, before looking away, disinterested.
This was not how Black had planned to meet his idol.
"So, wait," Crystal interrupted. "As I understand it, we're meant to be helping arrest some international criminal who may or may not be trying to destroy the world."
"That's right. His name's Ghetsis," White said. She nodded at N. "He's his father."
"That doesn't mean anything," Gold suddenly said. "Lots of people aren't anything like their fathers at all. Even if their fathers are vicious criminals."
Silver rolled his eyes. "Subtle."
"That does mean N must be key to figuring out where he would go or what he would be up to, though," Crystal pointed out.
All eyes turned expectantly to N. While the others were likely expecting some kind of hint or clue, Black was anticipating some remark like —
"No, I have great difficulty understanding the minds of the stupid, and Ghetsis is most definitely stupid."
— that.
"Besides," N added as an afterthought, "I don't believe he truly is my father."
"You both have green hair," Cheren deadpanned.
"Um, it's cos these ninja guards of his gave me these," Black interrupted. He quickly pulled the Orbs from his bag and handed them to Crystal. "They're for —"
"The Creation Trio, I know," Crystal replied. "So you thought the suggestion was that Ghetsis, was it, would be going after the Weather Trio?"
Black shrugged. "That's what Gold thought."
Crystal looked surprised. "I didn't know that he did think."
"Neither did I," Silver muttered.
"Hey!"
"It makes some sense," Cheren said, "Ghetsis did seem to like the power of the Reshiram and Zekrom mythology more than anything else, and that fits with the Hoenn myths more than Kanto or Johto ones."
"See," Gold said. "I told you. I think. A lot. Like that."
The captain arrived with a large, luxury yacht and called them all aboard. Black took a moment to pull N aside and ask, "Sooo, what was it that Gold was gonna introduce you as?"
"Nothing," N quickly said. "He just made a mistake."
Black smirked. "So N's a codename too, huh?"
"No, it's what I have been called for as long as I care to remember." N tugged Black's hand. "Let's get on the boat. I mightn't believe that Ghetsis is up to anything, but I do respect the people of Hoenn for being the most intelligent and respectful of pokémon in the world."
"Okay," Black grinned.
His grin fell when he spotted White and Bianca talking to Red, and Red actually talking back.
RUBY'S IN THE NEXT CHAPTER HOLY SHIT I'M SO EXCITED I'MMA START THE NEXT CHAPTER RIGHT FUCKING NOW.
Expect chapter eight no later than the 30th of November.