I have returned! Sort of.

I'm in a LiveJournal community now that is making me more active in writing. I've mostly been writing for Harry Potter (as you may have seen on my account activity) and my original story idea I like to call Casters (which can be seen on my FictionPress account). But this idea came to me with a stab of inspiration, and so here we are. Hope you don't mind the wait, and the mix of pairings.

Title: star struck
Prompt: Stars & "A moment was the most you could ever expect of perfection." (Chuck Palahniuk)
Word Count: 813
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Fandom: Pokemon (game!verse)
Pairings (if any): Lucian/Dawn, hinted Steven Stone/May and Volkner/Leaf
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con etc): May-December Romance-ish
Summary: Even alone in a coffee shop, Lucian of the Elite Four can't catch a break.

The café was mostly empty, the faintest buzzing from machinery drowning out the clacking of a keyboard. The late night crowd had already vanished, leaving the stragglers behind without remorse. But Lucian wasn't bothered by this; he was quite used to solitude, so he was practically a social butterfly here. The barista humming behind the counter was slightly off-key, just enough discord to jar the peaceful atmosphere. This late at night, the elite didn't have enough energy to muster annoyance.

Smiling at a message on his communicator, the purple-haired gentleman sent a short reply just before a call came in. Giving a soft huff, he answered it.

"Is the castle burning already?" A short pause, broken by a gentle chuckle. "Well, I assumed with your vantage point by the lighthouse that you would see the smoke rising if it were. And how has your evening been, Volkner? Any men with red afros busting down your door?"

The vibration of the device caused him to excuse his absence for a moment. His response was swift, but not unnoticed; Lucian returned to the call and gave an almost inaudible sigh at the first question. "My apologies, Volkner—our illustrious champion was asking about the new applicants. You know how eager she is to battle new, upcoming trainers. …No, it wasn't terribly important. I'm sending them as we speak, and she can handle them without my help."

His finger hovered over the mouse as the conversation made him pause. His eyebrows rose high across his forehead in shock. "Oh? What makes you say that?" One slowly came back down, but the other was perched like a stubborn taillow waiting for a morsel. This materialized in his incredulous tone as he said, "I could imply the same for you and the company you've kept the past few weeks. How many times can you train a Kanto Champion, Volkner? The castle has been rampant with gossip about your brunette friend.

"Now don't you start—I'm not trying to be malicious. You have your friends…" Remembering himself, he finally clicked send on the screen, a faint smile softening his features as he murmured, "I have mine."

The jingle of the door announced another customer-to-be's presence, and Lucian glanced over his shoulder out of habit to see a man with steel blue hair entering the café. Unconsciously lowering his voice, he muttered into the receiver, "You know I'll support you, as will Flint, and the rest of the Elite Four. We just can't help ourselves when rumors start to fly; we speculate." The low conversation from the front distracted him from the gym leader's response as his ears caught the sound of a woman giggling. Another quick glance made him smirk behind his paper cup. "And it looks like you're not the only one who has a thing for brunettes."

Steven Stone, a man of great import in Hoenn and little time to spend away from his precious geology, was directing a tan woman with long brown hair to a window seat. There wasn't much to see this late at night except the stars of Sinnoh, but the woman looked eager to point out the constellations she recognized and wonder about the ones she didn't. She looked rather familiar, now that he thought about it—hadn't he seen her face on a magazine cover before?

"…Yes, I'm still here." Turning away from the couple, he apologized for his inattention. "I've just seen someone very famous from Hoenn enter the café. The barista must feel positively star struck. Oh!" His soft exhalation was followed by a small snort. "I can't believe I didn't recognize her right away. Hoenn's present and previous champions are in here, getting a cup of coffee at two in the morning. The world obviously needs more twenty-four-hour cafés."

An elite and his boss, a gym leader and his visitor—and now, the retired champion and his successor. He saw these different lives coming together with a common focal point and quoted fondly in his mind, "A moment was the most you could ever expect of perfection."

His speculations on Steven Stone and May Maple's possible relationship were put on hold as his communicator started buzzing frantically. Lucian rolled his eyes in affectionate exasperation. "Volkner, I'll have to call you back. The queen demands attention. Oh, I am not whipped, but thank you for the suggestion." His grin came through his cheerful, "Give Leaf a hug and a kiss for me!" The teasing was good-natured and familiar, leaving the Elite Four member chuckling in his chair. Perhaps he'd pay him a visit—make it a double-date.

"Yes, O Impatient One?" Although he rolled his eyes and sighed, his smile was completely genuine. "Now you know you can't rush me, I have several promising trainers to look at and it's impossible to concentrate with you breathing down my neck…"

Lots of dragon-y love,
-DL