~Falkner~

It was eleven o'clock by the time the rest of the gym leaders went home, and I was mentally exhausted, telling Jasmine that I was also going to go home, when in reality I just wanted time to think. I needed to get my thoughts straight… my thoughts and my priorities.

Earlier today I had stopped, three feet from the lapping waves, too scared to move any closer, and I had missed out on the chance of a lifetime. All the gym leaders were there though… looking at me, waiting, beckoning as if they wanted me to enter a watery grave. It was horrible… to know that fear and embarrassment had gotten me stuck in such a state of panic.

A silver wing—the rarest of all bird feathers—had drifted by in the water, and I hadn't been able to convince anyone to grab it for me since they enjoyed my trauma even more. I couldn't tell them I couldn't swim because that was embarrassing, and I couldn't say how rare it was because they would only keep it for themselves. All in all I was hopeless.

The feather had disappeared and I was left to think about it all night long. Even after playing spin the bottle with Jasmine's hand lingering over mine and a delicate kiss she had placed on my cheek burning me… I couldn't focus. Dammit I needed that feather.

Two hours now I had been searching the beach for any signs of that silver item. In pitch blackness with nothing but a single flashlight and the water frightening me as the tide brought it up to my sandals every once in a while. I was shivering, soaked to the bone from late night rain, and coughing terribly. But I needed to find it…

My father would be so disappointed to know that I gave up such a miraculous feather to save me some embarrassment. He would have risked his life had he been there in my place… and I couldn't even budge.

Finally though I had to give up. Eventually I would have to call it quits and admit that that feather could have traveled miles down shore already, and that between the rocks and the sand and the chilly rain I would never find it. Misery crept up to my heart, and long before I wanted to go home I found myself on the docks, overlooking the ocean and the dark grey clouds in the horizon. There was no moon beyond them, and with my birds in their pokeballs to escape the cold, I felt lonelier than ever.

Today had ended up going so wrong when all I wanted was for it to go right. I wanted to be able to go back home happy and healthy, telling myself that making friends was absolutely important in being a gym leader. I would have been much easier to believe with high spirits… but now I felt as though I had done everything wrong. My father always told me work before play, and suddenly it seemed as though I was going behind his back. I knew the truth, and I knew it and I didn't want to admit it… but it was still there. Nagging at my mind and telling me that today should have never happened.

I hid my face in the soaked sleeves of Morty's grey sweatshirt, wishing that I could have given it back to him and at least made THAT right. If anything Morty didn't deserve what was happening, and he deserved his clothes back. I felt so responsible for the things everyone said about him today. Had I not invited Morty he wouldn't have had heard everyone making fun of him.

I cursed softly, wondering if I could do anything to set this right. The next gym leader meeting wasn't for a few weeks and I knew Morty wouldn't be showing up anyways. He had no reason to and I didn't blame him, but it still bothered me. I knew one of these days I would have to go to his gym and personally apologize for what happened today. Of course no one else would do it.

I was shaking and coughing for a long time, wishing I was home but too guilty to move. I knew the rest of the birds in the sanctuary were ok for the night, since I had Mama Bird with me and Jake wouldn't fret over being alone, I would have to rent a hotel room tonight on the shore and fly home tomorrow. It was wretched luck that put me in this position and I wasn't going to fly home on the account of luck either. It was beginning to storm, and Pride—though he could handle it—didn't deserve to fly through that.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

I gasped, jolting forward in shock and nearly losing myself over the ledge of the pier. My stomach flipped completely upside down, snarling with a dormant hunger than had me weak. Looming in the midst of the rain was a tall and familiar shape, drenched with painful glare that made me want to curl up in a ball and die.

"Morty I—I" I forced myself to reach for the wet material of his sweatshirt. If there was any chance of me giving it back to him, it was now. It wasn't helping me much anyways.

"Are you crazy?" The ghost trainer snarled. "Look at you! You are soaking wet. Are you trying to die? You ARE suicidal aren't you?"

"No!" I coughed. "Morty I—I'm sorry a—about today. I—I—

"You stood up for me." He finished with a hiss. "I heard you Falkner, you… you…"

I slipped the material of the jacket up over my head and held it out to him. "Here."

"Thank you." He suddenly purred, reaching out to take it.

"Thank you for letting me use it."

"That's not what I meant." He slung the drenched material over the wooden railing and went on as if I hadn't given it to him. "Thank you for sticking up or me today."

I swallowed, teeth clattering. "I—I still feel horrible."

Morty shook his head. Wasn't he fazed by the cold at all?

"I don't want you to feel bad." He insisted. "Falkner… We're friends right?"

I nodded. "Ye—yeah."

"Then can I ask you something?"

"Su—Sure."

"You don't know how to swim."

My heart skipped a beat. What? My mind whirled back to everything that happened today. Surely some of the other gym leaders may be skeptical of me not going in the water, but Morty hadn't even been there! There was no plausible reason to how he could know that I didn't know how to swim. I hid my eyes lamely.

"That's not a question."

"Am I right though?" Morty's eyes gleamed with a sort of pale desire I couldn't escape. I flinched at the way he looked in the blackness of the night.

"I am." Morty agreed with my silent answer. "You need to learn."

"No." I shook my head.

"Oh yes. You're wandering around a beach all by yourself I the middle of the night and you don't know how to swim. If you got dragged into the current or something what would happen? Don't tell me you wouldn't be ok, because I know you wouldn't."

"I don't want to learn how to swim." I shook my head, harder, knowing where this was going already.

"I can teach you."

"I don't want to." I groaned, flushing with embarrassment. It was bad enough Morty knew my secret now; I didn't need him trying to teach me when it was the worst possible time. I wanted nothing to do with the salt water that took my feather.

"Let me teach you." He was purring again, an almost menacing purr that made me shiver. Why was I friends with him again? He never seemed so… creepy until now. Maybe Jasmine and the other leaders where partially right… maybe Morty was strange. Certainly not worthy of being called a freak… but even more different than I had thought.

"No, Morty." I moved to go around, heading for the shore while raindrops battered my head and exposed shoulders.

"Let me at least teach you how not to drowned." He suggested, blocking my path.

"No."

"Yes."

I looked up at him with a stubborn glare, lips perched and my patience wearing quickly. "No, Morty. I do not want to learn how to swim. I don't want you to teach me how not to drowned either. I just want to go home and get dried off a—

"Yes." Morty moved then, in one fluid movement, making me gasp. I barley had chance to see what was happening by the time I was thrown over a solid shoulder, gripped by the back of my legs and being lead forward.

"NO!" I thrashed about in horror as Morty loomed over the docks railing. We were at least a hundred yards from the shore, and a good twenty feet above the lapping ocean waves from below. My heart was thudding in my chest while I tried my hardest to push away from my so called "friend".

"Better hold your breath, bird brain." Morty was unfazed by my shrieking, taking a step onto a cement bench and then to the railing where he stopped and stood, holding me above the water like a psycho. My mind was racing. The other gym leaders were right! He is a freak! I dug my nails into his thick sweater and grit my teeth, wondering why oh why I was his friend and how this happened so fast.

"Fuck you! MORTY!" I cried as he tightened his grip on me and then jumped.

…..

~Morty~

We hit the water with a hard slap, and went down. Sinking, further downward as the waves tugged us forward into the sand that I nearly broke my feet on. The water was deep enough here, but not so deep that I didn't touch the bottom when we landed. I felt Falkner's tender hands ripping at my neck and clawing at my face as he tried to dislodge himself from me, kicking, sending bubbles up in a frantic whir.

What the hell was I thinking? I almost laughed.

What seemed like a very long time was really only a second or so before I found myself and shoved up off the ocean floor. The waves were not heavy enough to be dangerous to someone who knew how to swim, but still strong in their sucking and pulling. I felt like we had gone back and forth twice before reaching the surface.

Falkner was gasping, moaning in despair and coughing madly, but making no attempt to pull away from me now. He sank down to my front and wrapped not just his arms around me, but his legs as well, thoroughly terrified and quivering uncontrollably. I trembled as well, but it was not because of the cold.

"I ha- hate you." Falkner's hand tightened around my neck, digging his nail into the skin and tearing. "Wh—what the fu—fu—fuck were y—you thi—think—thinking?"

I was thinking that I wanted you to have to hold onto me…

"You've got to learn someday!" I tried to pry him away from me.

"Don't tou- touch me!" Falkner demanded in a high pitched voice. "Ta—take—m—me—me ba—back t—to sh—shh—sho—

"Shhh." I cut him off. "Are you going to listen to me or not?"

"N—no."

"It's easy Falkner." I began, though the waves had already pushed us close enough to the shore so that my feet could touch the sand below.

The Navy haired boy was whimpering, terrified and teary eyed from fear. He was unable to control such emotions, and strewn across his face like that I actually felt bad. I had always assumed it was in my nature to scare people, and this was the first time I did so deliberately without feeling bad about it. My heart begun to sink.

"Hey… hey come on." I wrapped my arms tighter around the small of his back. "It's like flying."

He shook his head.

"Haven't you ever heard that Piplup fly in the water?" I murmured. "Think about it. It's not hard. You're legs move in the same motion that your arms do. It's natural even."

Falkner grit his teeth and clutched closer to me. It was a near death grip I couldn't escape, and I loved it, just like that. A selfish desire that had gone far beyond jealousy.

I wanted Falkner to hold onto me for his life. I wanted that shallow affection that he gave Jasmine while she got so much more out of him. She kissed him on the cheek today, and I had made up my mind right then and there. I decided that if Falkner kissed her back I would throw him into the ocean alone, but if he didn't I would teach him how to swim.

And he never kissed her…

"Wh—why a—are yo—you do—doing—th—this to—to me?" Falkner spluttered. "Yo—you wa—want to be fri—f—friends. Frie—ends do—don't try a—an—and drow—drowned ea—each o—other."

"But you're legs are moving." I commented, knowing that it was his knees that were bumping into mine rhythmically. "And the floor is just a few inches lower." I tried to loosen my arms around him.

"Do—DON'T!" Falkner stiffened. "D—don't let me—me go."

Now that's what I wanted to hear…

"You can do it." I whispered. "Swim."

He did not shake his head no this time, but merely opened his eyes—which had been squeezed shut so tight before. I looked up at them lazily, seeing the very faint coloring there and wondering if they were glossy from tears or the ocean water.

"Wha—what if i—I do—don't make it?" he glanced at the shore, which was a good twenty feet away. It was all shallow enough to walk through though.

"As your friend, I won't let you drowned." I could see the wheels starting to turn in his head. His legs stopped for a second, and he was stretching his toes down to find the bottom. His sandals must have been lost in our dramatic landing, but that was the least of my worries.

He took a deep breath as his foot found the ground, the waves lapping at his collar bone and occasionally his cute little chin.

"Yo—you are cra—crazy." Falkner said after a minute on contemplating.

"You don't mean that."

Suddenly something seemed to snap in him then, and at the whisper of my words he drew his arms back and found the ground with both feet. I didn't want to let him go however, I didn't have to since he gripped the material of my sweater and remained very close to me. I could lean forward and kiss his forehead if I wanted to—if I was crazy enough to.

Together we wound up half walking-half swimming up to shore together, ultimately not speaking a word to one another as he used me for support when his knees proved shaky and tired. It took a while, but I enjoyed every splitting second of it until Falkner realized he was only shin-deep and decided to break away from me. He nearly flew up the shore then, out of the water and back into the simple pleasurable rain, still shaking but looking back at me in confusion.

Had all this just happened?

Yes Falkner. Yes. Your shit-out-of-whack friend just took you for a dip in frigid water just so he could hold you… Just so he could feel like maybe, somewhere through the entire trauma you enjoyed yourself too… I almost sighed, ashamed now that I was empty armed and thinking clearly.

"A—are yo—you coming to—to the ne—next meeting?"

I looked up in blatant surprise, seeing as though his face was hard now. He didn't look angry, but more so demanding, like he wasn't fooling around. He flipped back his sopping wet hair to reveal both his eyes, which had me liking my lips carefully. Where had that question even come from?

"No." I shook my head, confused and worried that Falkner was going to block out what happened completely. If anything I wanted Falkner to remember this night as something terrible… rather than nothing at all. I didn't want him to let it go, I felt like he would be letting go of me in a way. "It's the day before Halloween." I finished quietly

Oh Halloween…my favorite holiday. The one day a year where you could be yourself without anyone judging you.

"I—I didn't—thin—think so." Falkner snorted softly and turned, unsure of himself and glancing back twice as he stumbled through the sand towards the street in which a small town lay upon. I got the feeling he thought I was going to stalk him.

"Hey!" I yelled to him, hauling myself forward through the sand.

He stopped and turned once again.

"Thanks again." I said just loud enough so that he could hear me, hoping that maybe he would realize my strange antics as a sign of affection. I couldn't change how I felt about Falkner after today, but I vowed to change how he felt about me. "Thanks for sticking up for me." I repeated louder.

He grimaced, and to my utter amusement—oh the pun—flipped me the bird. However, somewhere beyond the anger and fear and obvious distaste, I could see a strange… humor in his eyes. I smiled wickedly back as the rain fell, watching him go with stinging scratch marks in my neck.

Pain had never felt so good.