Thanks for getting my references
Mikhail blew his bangs out of his face, looking boredly around the square. They, himself, Jordan, and Leighton, were eating at a café for lunch in Saffron City.
He felt a little empty, but he had felt like this for the past six months. He kept thinking back to that morning with Cassius lying there and Natalie fighting off Shelly in a desperate attempt to save her and Cassius.
He felt awful, they all did, because they stood by helplessly and did nothing. They didn't even know if the two were alive! They could be at the bottom of the ocean and the trio wouldn't even know it. He wanted to know. They had to be alive, right? What if Tabitha got a hold of Natalie? She was tough, but, the Magma Commander was stronger. She wouldn't have gotten away if he got his hands on her.
"Mikhail, is everything alright? Do you not like your pasta?" Leighton asked, seeing him push the noodles around his plate, barely eating it. "I know you don't want to go to go watch that contest later on today, but I promise we'll do whatever you want after that."
"It's not that." Mikhail grumbled, putting his fork down. "I miss them." They all went quiet, looking at their food. "We need to find them."
"Mikhail…." Jordan didn't want to be negative, but, they all knew that there was a possibility the two didn't make it out. "This is a big world….who knows where they ended up."
"I know…but….." He and Leighton were starting to get a little teary eyed. If Cassius and Natalie had died saving their lives, they would never be able to forgive themselves. He had been thinking about Cassius a lot, every time he looked at the ocean all he could think about was Cassius, and they had been by the ocean a lot lately.
"Get back here!" They heard an officer shout as two forces collided with their table. Leighton screamed as her salad was destroyed.
"God…" A male muttered, sitting up right in front of Mikhail.
"C-C-C-Cassius?!" Mikhail exclaimed, standing up and knocking his chair over. The male in front of him looked up, his blue eyes shining as they landed on Mikhail.
"Mikhail!" He exclaimed and hugged him tightly. "How are you?"
"No time to talk." Natalie was right behind him, having been the other force that destroyed their lunch, though her eyes did light up when she saw who Cassius was hugging. "Mikhail?"
"Am I just chopped liver?!" Leighton exclaimed, overwhelmed by what was happening. The officer got closer and the two blondes looked at each other.
"Hate to not get to stop and chat but we're in a tight spot…..we'll meet again!" Cassius was off again, Natalie right by him as they hopped over a table and disappeared into the crowd.
"What…" Jordan looked at his friends as they looked after the two. "Well…..they're alive."
"GET BACK HERE!" The cop screamed, going after them.
"Looks like they haven't change." He muttered. Leighton and Mikhail just hugged each other happily, laughing and crying.
They searched the city, but Cassius and Natalie were nowhere to be found. It was really upsetting for the trio, but at least they knew they were alive.
They continued on their journey, which wasn't really a journey, it was just…wondering around. They ended up back in Lavender Town after another two months of traveling. Mikhail was happy to be home to see his sister, and Jordan was pretty at ease in his hometown. Leighton didn't mind it, because she had always wanted to meet Mikhail's older sister.
She was beautiful and she and Mikhail looked so alike, it was amazing. She was really sweet and so nurturing.
"So, tell me about Hoenn!" She exclaimed as they walked around the town one sunny afternoon. She looked so eager to hear it, but the trio had no clue what to tell her. "I heard about those horrible Magmas and Aquas! I'm so glad you three got out of there before anything happened."
"Uh…yeah…" Mikhail rubbed the back of his neck, deciding that maybe it was best not to mention Natalie and Cassius to her. They beat around the truth, mentioning the beautiful cities and of course, the blue clear waters.
"What do you mean it's not here anymore?" They heard a female exclaimed. They glanced over, seeing the backs of two people. She was pissed, that was clear. Her blonde hair was in a long braid down her back and the male next to her had his hair under a blue beanie.
"That's super shitty, man." They heard him sigh, leaning back a little. "Those poor spirits…..well, Nate, what should we do?"
"Nate?" Leighton questioned, looking hopeful. She stepped towards the two, who both sighed and turned around. "NATALIE! CASSIUS!" She was screaming now and running at them. Both look surprised but Cassius caught her and spun her around.
"What are you three doing here?" Natalie questioned as Leighton let Cassius go and hugged her.
"This is my hometown." Mikhail told them, smiling awkwardly at Cassius, who then pulled him into a hug. He felt warm again as Cassius kept his arm around him, smiling widely. "Catarina, these are our friends, Natalie and Cassius. We met them while we were in Hoenn. This is my sister." Cassius and Natalie shook her hand, smiling politely.
"We came for the tower but…" Cassius muttered, glaring back at the radio tower. "Guess it was a lost cause. Don't see how a radio tower could replace a burial ground for pokemon…"
"That's just disrespectful." Natalie complained, crossing her arms. "We came all this way for nothing."
"But you got to see us again!" Leighton exclaimed, a little offended. "It's been months and we barely spoke to you last time we saw you!"
"I'm going to head home to start dinner, will you two be joining us?" She turned to the two blondes, who looked at each other.
"Yes they will!" Leighton and Mikhail both said and Catarina chuckled and left the group, heading for home.
"So, whats been up?" Cassius asked, grinning at the group when they all stared at him and Natalie.
"Why were you being chased by cops?" Jordan asked, referring to the last time they met. The three looked at the two ex criminals. Cassius had a goofy smile and Natalie had her chin raised a bit, glancing at them before looking back to Cassius, who was now looking at her.
"Accident." They said together, looking back to the trio.
"Accident?" Mikhail asked and the two looked at each other again. "I know you two are just communicating telepathically or something."
"No no, we have our stories planned out you know." Cassius shrugged and Natalie sighed. "We ran into trouble, but, what do you expect coming from us? There was a mishap with a Skitty…..and then….a stolen part for a boat? I don't know why they were chasing us."
"You stole a skitty and a boat part!?" Leighton almost screamed and Natalie shushed her.
"The skitty thing was needed. The poor thing was being abused and we didn't mean to do it, but, that's Cassius for you. The boat part was stolen, but, the guy was an ass and kept raising the price." She shrugged it off. "He got what was coming to him."
"What did you do to him?" Mikhail asked with wide eyes.
"Natalie knocked the bastard out. We needed the part and he was being an ass about it." Cassius and Natalie didn't seem too sorry about it at all, but what did they expect? "Johto and Kanto weren't very kind to us. We're going to Sinnoh soon to go visit Lily."
"What happened to her?" Leighton asked, noticing the cheerful blonde wasn't with them.
"Family issues. Had to go back to guard the snow temple….I'll tell you all about it." Natalie said with a mumble.
"We should all go to Sinnoh together." Leighton suggested after dinner. They were out, walking around the town again. Natalie and Cassius weren't planning to stay the night, despite the others protests.
"We're leaving for it tonight." Cassius told them and Leighton gave him a look. "I'm sorry, Leighton, but we like to travel at night. It's….a force of habit."
"But you two aren't criminals anymore!" She replied, not letting them think of themselves as so. "You guys are so smart and capable of so many things!"
"It's not like all we're doing is stealing, you know." Natalie grumbled, ready to leave. She disliked Johto and Kanto. She wanted to go see Lily. She missed her friend. "We'll see you three in Sinnoh, maybe."
"I don't want maybes." Leighton whined and hugged them both tightly.
"We really thought you two had died." Mikhail mumbled sadly, catching Cassius' attention. "And then you two just ran off last time we saw you…and now you're leaving again." He felt really stupid for getting so upset but Cassius and Natalie were just…he worried about them. They were older and maybe they were wiser, but, they were his friends and he really cared about them.
"We'll be fine though." Cassius broke from Leighton's hug and moved on to Mikhail while Leighton kept her hold on Natalie, trying to convince her not to go. "We're going to get Lily and we might go to Unvoa with her so she can have some fun."
"But.." Mikhail felt weird when it came to Cassius. It was different than his feelings for Natalie, she was his friend, but Cassius was something else. "You guys can't just keep going and going."
"We'll stop, eventually, but we haven't been traveling long and this is a big world." He replied, and pulled Mikhail in for a hug. He was warm and smelled like the sea and the salty air. Mikhail didn't want to let him go. "We'll see you soon." Cassius pulled away and Mikhail opened his mouth to reply, but Cassius smiled and it stopped him.
The two ran off into the darkness and Mikhail looked after them whining. His heart hurt and he frowned, starting to realize why he felt so horrible.
"You know, when I said let's go to Sinnoh, I didn't mean my hometown." Leighton complained as they entered Sunyshore City. She didn't want to be here, really, but her parents knew she was here, because they needed a place to stay, so here they were.
"I know you aren't the biggest fan of your family…but it was nice of them to offer up a place for us to stay…" Mikhail mumbled as she led them to the apartment. "It's far away from them, right?"
"Of course."
The unpacked their few things in the apartment, luckily her parents had missed her so they were being nice and furnished the place and let her do as she pleased.
Sunyshore was nice. It was…sunny, right up by the ocean, and the temperature was always nice. She didn't know how long they were planning to stay here, but, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. The city was large with tons to do, so they wouldn't get bored, plus, Sinnoh was an amazing region.
"I guess we'll stay here a little bit."
"I don't want to be here." Natalie declared when they got off Cassius' boat in Sunyshore. Lily was right behind her, giggling. She was so happy that they decided to take her to Sunyshore too. Unvoa was lovely but they spent most of it watching Marlon, the gym leader in the tropical beach city there, flirt with Cassius.
"This place looks great." Cassius pushed them to walk towards the city. "Why don't you want to be here Natalie?"
"Bad feeling." She shivered and kept close to Cassius, he being like her security blanket. The city was beautiful, but she wasn't too sure.
"Oh come on! It's a lovely place!" Lily twirled in front of them, her bright yellow sun dress twirling with her. Natalie had no time to warn her before someone slammed into the girl, knocking her down.
Natalie was in front of her in a second, blaziken out of his pokeball and ready to attack whoever ran into her. "Watch where you're going!" She spat as Cassius helped Lily up.
"Natalie!" Lily chided as a man with a bright red afro and an awful yellow shirt looked in awe at the fire type pokemon. "There's no need to be so brash, it was an accident…" Sometimes Natalie got a little too protective.
"Your friend needs to watch where she's going." A blond male stepped up next to the red haired male. He had a blank expression on his face and Natalie glared at him two. Both were taller than her, but then again, anyone was taller than Natalie. She was barely 5'3.
"Look at this pokemon!" The red head exclaimed, looking at blaziken.
"Natalie, really, I should've watched where I was going." She patted her friend's shoulder and looked at the two men. "I'm really sorry about this." She murmured, face red.
"No worries." The red head exclaimed with a smile. "This pokemon you got here looks tough."
"Wanna fight?" Natalie questioned, lifting an eyebrow at the male.
"Natalie, that's not a good idea." Lily mumbled in her friend's ear. "That's Flint, of the Elite Four, and Volkner, Sunyshore's gym leader. He's the eighth and strongest gym leader in Sinnoh."
"Do I have to remind you who I am?" Natalie grumbled back, not impressed with the two men in front of her. Flint was excited someone recognized him and he took an instant liking to Lily.
"Who are you?" Volkner asked, looking at the short blonde girl. He didn't recognize her and she had an odd accent that he normally didn't hear in Sinnoh.
"None of your business, buddy." Natalie replied, eyeing the gym leader.
"Don't be so catty." Cassius put his arm around her shoulders and grinned at her, before looking to the males in front of them. "I'm Cassius. This is Lily and the shorty with a temper beside me is Natalie."
"I don't have a temper." She told Cassius as Lily shook their hands, smiling. She glanced at Volkner, who was looking at her with a slightly amused expression.