A/N: I keep forgetting to put through the message that Drew responds to the people who called him pretty. Drew...
Drew: *Flips hair* I'm glad someone sees it.
Through Cerulean, June 1, 1874
It was nighttime and May was still up. Dawn's mamoswine was doing a steady job of getting us through Cerulean. In fact, it was faster than Tauros. Probably because it is a lot bigger and stronger.
Mamoswine was a little sensitive about anyone steering him but he's usually fine if Dawn's in the jockey seat. But she's getting some shuteye now and as long as that Sinnoh-bred Pokémon didn't turn around they should be in Viridian Forest by morning. Or at least the mouth of it.
May knows she shouldn't but she has been reading her mother's journal again. Not that Leaf would really have any idea how her kind isn't supposed to do that, but it still makes her feel guilty. So she's been reading it secretly. At night. When the ghosts are more likely to come out.
She just hopes she doesn't force her mother to come from the grave and haunt her and her new friends. That would be problematic.
She decided that if she's going to do this, as in read the book, she's going to read it from the beginning. So far, it just things from her childhood. How she grew up. And surprisingly there wasn't anything like the childhood May remembers growing up. Nothing about traveling to different places and making the same trek back or anything about new people and customers that you meet. The lack of children your age besides your siblings. No set home…
In fact, her mother's childhood seems…un-Romani. Like the kind of gaje life that she imagines when she looks out the caravan and sees little children playing with their friends in the street.
It confuses her. She always assumed that her mother was born Romani. What if she wasn't?
A uneven patch in the road made the caravan and May jump in the air a bit, prompting her out of her thoughts. Behind her she heard something fall to the ground and a muttered moan of "Owww." She looked and seen the brown head of Leaf on the ground but she quickly fell asleep again.
May giggled. It was fun to have companions that were girls. Not that Ash wasn't great or anything. He is a great brother. But he's her brother. And well… Ash. It's not exactly the same thing.
She sobers as she thought about how long they're going to stay. Dawn is staying just until Viridian and they've just met her but it's like they've known each other forever. She's fun and May likes having her around. It might hurt when she's going to go.
Leaf. Well, she's going to stay until their little posse gets to Pallet but they've never talked about after. After she visits her mother, then what? Then May's thoughts drift toward her brother. He's more than likely to leave either because he's going to be disgusted even being around her or he is going to find out more of his past. He's going to want to find his family. His real, blood-related family.
May frowned. There was a pattern there and she didn't like it. When it's all mapped out like that why does it seem that everyone's leaving her?
Unbiddingly her thoughts migrated to a certain green-haired jerk. She would argue that she was thinking of Leaf and leaves are green and his hair and eyes are green.
Since when did she notice his eyes? Ugh.
Just. Don't think about him. Just don't. Easy enough. Although, it was ironic that she actually wanted him to go but he came back anyway. It was such a strange coincidence seeing him in Saffron so soon after that disaster in Vermillion. If she ever meets him again Fate might just be trying to tell her something.
She laughs to herself at the joke in her mind. Of course Fate might just be telling her to stay away from people with odd hair colors for now on. Blue and a dark purple are one thing, black hair can sometimes look that color, like Dawn's, but green? Honest-to-goodness grass green, like he was bald as a child and his parents decided to plant some grass on his head so he doesn't grow up without any hair.
She shakes her head to get rid of the thoughts of the Grass Headed One. Not thinking of someone is harder than you think. She focuses on her driving and lightly taps the Sinnohian Pokémon to go faster without letting it know that she's his trainer.
Lavender Town, June 1, 1874
Misty was packing her things into her traveling bag. Her vacation time was over and she had to go back to Cerulean and meet her betrothed. She scowled at the fact that she had to leave, especially what happened earlier.
Mr. Fuji was holding a sniffling cubone in his arms when they walked through the door forlornly. Misty's face was red and puffy from crying and Ash's was dry but his eyes glassy. He nudged her.
Misty nodded. They agreed ahead of time that she'd be the one to break the news to the cubone. She noticed that Ash kept his hand on her elbow. "Mr. Fuji—" She stopped herself and started over. "I— we…" She trailed off and sighed, looking at the floor.
Mr. Fuji sighed. "We know." He rocked the crying Pokémon when it started to get a little louder. "We know."
Apparently the marowak always came before the sun went down. Never later. Always came back just before the sun set. When Ash impulsively ran to investigate the sun was already going down.
The crying cubone wasn't her imagination after all.
Ash and Misty went back to investigate and to carry the mother marowak back to its offspring. There she noticed that the marowak had a scrap of cloth in its paw. It was black cotton with part of a red diagonal line. It stops a few inches before it met the hem of the shirt.
Her brow furrowed and she tucked it into her jeans.
Now, she brings it out again and studies the evidence. She has a feeling that she knows who it belongs to. Scratch that. She knows whom it belongs to.
Some low-life Team Rocket bastards. She doesn't know why it won't stop. Why won't someone take them down already? Shouldn't it be easy? Arrest the grunts, make them say who the boss is, and arrest him?
She puts the cloth in her pocket again and resumes packing. Well, when she thinks it through it won't be that easy. Even if they get the top arcanine someone's always there to bring it back up. She doesn't know how bring down some ultra mega crime lord but if someone at least finds out who they are would be a step in the right direction.
The redhead finishes packing and start to head back to Cerulean, she was going through the kitchen door but stops when she sees Ash at the table, coffee cup in hand, with Pikachu picking at his Pokémon food.
She turns and pulls out a chair. Sitting in front of him she examines him. The exhausted expression, bags under his eyes, staring listlessly into his cup as if it held the world's secrets. Even his hair looked tired. Pikachu had a similar look as his trainer, ears and tail down, picking away at his food.
Misty gets up and puts a ketchup bottle in front of the little Pokémon (apparently he loves the stuff) and he doesn't even blink. Ash hasn't acknowledged her yet, even though she feels like he knows she's watching him.
"So where are you going?" He finally asks.
She looks over to her bag on the floor. "I'm going back to Cerulean. My vacation is over. Can't delay the inevitable any longer." She looks back at him.
"So why are you going?" She can feel the tension in the air. The compelling feeling to avoid the topic that needed to be said.
"Because my vacation is over?" It sounded like a question.
"Oh," He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Right." It was quiet for a while before he continued. "So who do you think did it." It was meant as a question but it didn't sound like one, more like defeat.
Misty breathed. The topic was out and she didn't have to awkwardly start it. Win. "I think that whoever did that was, you know the people I told you about? Team Rocket."
He nodded. Almost absently. Misty would like to say he was thinking but then came the concerns and wonderings about this boy with no background. Is he thinking of a way to convince her it's not Team Rocket? Or that it could be someone else? Someone cruel and cold-hearted? Someone completely unrelated?
She looks away from him. Directing her gaze out past the window above the big kitchen sink, the early morning sunlight making a soft glow around the trees.
"I'm just wondering about who started this Team Rocket and why the general public doesn't know about them. You'd think that something this big wouldn't stay secret for long."
She turns away from the window to look at him. "I don't think that they're that big yet. I think that they are still recruiting. And they probably swear an oath to keep quiet. I think it's an omerta."
He set down his empty cup angrily. "Who would even want to join something like that!"
Misty sighs and runs her hands through her bangs. "I don't know, Ash. Someone who doesn't have a choice?" Her hand stalled in mid-air from combing her bangs. Her face and voice a mixture of tiredness, exasperation and know-it-all-ism.
Ash stood up sharply, his chair falling back. Pikachu looked at him startled. He caught it before it hit the ground. Setting it right he said heatedly, "You always have a choice, Misty."
She stood up so they would be on even ground, arms locked, hands flat on the table. "Not always, Ash! Sometimes in certain circumstances and certain pressures and certain people don't-!" She took a breath in and stepped away from the table. "Have a choice." She finished calmly.
Pikachu head whipped back and forth between his trainer and his new friend. They remind him of charizards courting, always challenging each other. He looked at Misty.
She stared at her bag again. He was talking about people joining that organization. He's delusional if he actually believes that some people have any choice in the matter. She knows that it was about Team Rocket but she took it personally. She shook her head and picked up her bag.
"Sorry for yelling and leaving but I have to go back to Cerulean."
He walked over to her. "I'm sorry too. Didn't want your sendoff to be us arguing. Again." He smiled at her. Goofy and apologizing. Maybe a little sad at her leaving. He held out his hand. "Still friends?"
She smiled sweetly at him and reached behind her. "OW!" Ash clutched his shoulder that Misty had just hit him with a mallet with. She clapped him on the shoulder with the hand not holding the mallet. Making him wince and hiss in his breath. "Still friends. That was for being an idiot." She hugged him a little more gently. "Hope to see you someday soon, Ash."
Ash rolled his shoulder. "Maybe when May gets here we'll go to Cerulean to visit you. Arceus, I've got to remember not to stay in a kitchen with you."
Misty laughed and held up the mallet. "Maybe I'll get one just like it later." She set it down on the table. Ash backed up from her making her laugh again. "You should move to the Pokémon Center. It's free to stay there."
He nodded. "Yeah, I'll do that. Bye, Misty" He still held his shoulder.
Misty waved him goodbye and walked out the door.
Route 6, June 1, 1874
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Are you positive?"
"Good Groudon yes!"
"I just don't want to be walking for three hours only to find out that they won't be there when they're supposed to show up."
Nat gripped his hair. "They'll be there! I've said it a thousand times! I was hiding under their caravan and since they're loud they didn't know I heard them and they are going to Pallet Town!"
Drew flipped his hair. "That's all I wanted to hear."
Nat gaped at him. How did he end up with this guy? He's just… Drew is just… he has no words.
The were going back to Vermillion to catch a train to Viridian. It's a three day trip and with luck they'll get there before May and Leaf. He remembers that train from when he was little. They'll follow the coast of the gulf, go through Route 16 and see people stop for the train, move through a little patch of Viridian Forest and there they are. Easy peasy.
But, with Drew… the trip might be longer than it actually is.
He's an okay person. He's nice and secretly generous, kinda dryly funny but he. Won't. Shut. Up.
Truthfully, he's not too talkative or too quiet but if anything reminds him of that gypsy girl May he just won't stop scowling or muttering. It doesn't really count as talking and it's more like his body language but Nat can just feel when he's obsessing. Which is anytime he checks what time it is. He just doesn't understand why he won't let go of it. It's just a watch not a vital organ like his liver or kidney. Well, there are two kidneys so he could live if she took one. It's not like she took his heart. Yeah, that's better.
He has swiped some stuff in his day but normally foodstuff not a watch. Never felt the need. Why would they want it? They could sell it but it didn't look all that valuable.
He swore he could hear Drew's scowl and sped up.
Train from Vermillion to Viridian, June 1, 1874
Gary was dozing off in the seat across from him. When they left last night they got here as fast as they could but they still missed the last train. They stayed at the Pokémon Center but in the morning and they went to the station, the train doesn't leave until 10:30 A.M.
They still were able to get on and wait in one of the booths but still had to wait until 10:30. It was just coming onto 9:00.
Bored, Paul got up and stretched. He walked down to a different car to stretch his muscles. He was walking past a couple and their Pokémon when in the corner of his eye he thought he saw a trio of familiar heads. He turned fully seeing nothing. Frowning he continued his way. At the caboose he turned around to walk to the front of the train. He was in the two preceding cars to the one that the two guards occupied when he heard a shout for his name.
Ahead of him the three people he thought were in Sinnoh were coming on the train and the small one was barreling towards him.
"Daaaaddy!" Sara ran into his arms and he swept her up into his arms. Hugging her close he stared at the two people that came with her over her shoulder.
He directed his piercing black gaze at them. Reggie was undeterred and Clarisse just beamed brighter at him. Setting Sara down but still holding onto her hand he asks, "What are you doing here?"
Clarisse came forward and engulfed him in a quick hug. "To see you of course!" Wisps of her lilac hair tickled his nose.
"Again. What are you doing here." He demanded.
Reggie stepped forward and didn't attempt a hug. "We were going to the Indigo Plateau to wait for you but I guess we got lucky and met you here. We took a late ship last night and—"
"We flew! Uncle Reggie took out two staravias and we flew here!" Sara interrupted.
Paul absently stroked her head while keeping eye contact with his brother. "Why didn't you just take them and fly to the Plateau?"
"It would take it easier on the Pokémon. A short distance here, a train ride to Viridian, and another short trip up there."
Paul gave a curt nod. "So that's how you got here so quickly."
"I seen a wailord. It helped push us!" Sara exalted. Paul nodded at her and almost awkwardly patted her head.
His sister nudged him, grinning. "Aren't you glad to see us?"
Paul deadpanned. "Ecstatic. But you came at a really inconvenient time."
"Well, we'll help you in whatever you're doing." Clarisse beamed. At his firm 'No' she frowned. Putting a hand on his arm she looked at him seriously. "Paul, Thomas is on a business trip."
Paul sighed and looked away. Sara looked up at him with curious eyes breaking eye contact with her he looked at his sister again. "Fine," he growled. "I'll bring you to Indigo and you three—" His look encompassed all of them. "Will entertain yourselves until I come back."
Sara squealed and jumped up and down while holding his hand. Reggie just smiled at him while Clarisse breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at him. Paul led them to their booth and shook Gary awake.
Gary rubbed the heel of his hand in his eye. "Are we there?" He looked up and saw Paul's family. "What happened?"
Paul plopped the four-year old into his lap. "Babysitting duty." Said baby laughed at Gary's horrified expression.
Train from Vermillion to Viridian, June 1, 1874
A man and a woman sat next to each other in an empty train car. Except for one lone man that walked past them no one goes to the near back of the train often.
The man was discussing his worries about their work. "What if she doesn't show up? We can't wait there forever and the deadline is coming up soon. Instead of chasing her all over Kanto we should just find someone else."
The magenta haired woman slapped him upside the head. "We'll find her." She hissed. "Besides, she's a shoo in. Once her little friend finds out that she's been with a renowned thief why would she want to be with her? And when she gets there she'll learn that the only family and friends that she'll ever have is Team Rocket." She sat back smugly.
"But Jessie." he whined. "She doesn't even know about Team Rocket."
"James! She knows me! She knows you! She even knows Meowth! She'll—" She stopped short when a little parade of purple heads walked past them. She started again when they were out of hearing range. "She'll realize that we were the ones there for her and she'll come running to us with open arms."
James frowned at her and slouched against the hard cushions. "I still can't believe that you told her that we were married."
Jessie cackled and held out her hand admirably. "It was an excuse for the ring."
Viridian Forest, June 1, 1874
Dawn was steering them into Viridian Forest, May on the other end of the jockey seat and Leaf squeezed between them. They decided to gather some supplies in Cerulean and due to the caravan May had a few unexpected customers. They still got to Viridian Forest, Mamoswine rested, they gathered some more money, and they got supplies. It was a very productive day.
The girls were just telling stories and jokes to pass the time by. In such a short time they grew very close. A side effect of having no one else to talk to. "So anyway, this little boy came into the flower shop and asked if pretty girls liked to be given flowers. I said that they do and he handed me a little bouquet of dandelions."
"Aww Leaf! That's so cute!" Cooed Dawn.
"I wonder if he was put up to it." May pondered with a sly smile.
"May! Of course he wasn't!"
May broke into a grin. "Well he could have been a messenger for a older boy that loves Leaf but was too shy to give her flowers himself!"
"Ooooh, Leaf. You didn't tell me you have a boyfriend!"
Leaf blushed and swatted the both of them. "I don't and no it wasn't him!" The two girls laughed at her expense but not cruelly.
They went over a little dirt mound and they heard a thump. Looking down she saw her mother's journal in the open. She scooped it up to try to hide it.
Dawn saw that May picked up Gary's journal but she was occupied keeping Mamoswine in line. "May, I think that's mine. Well, not mine but a friend of mine. It must've fallen out of my pocket."
May's brows furrowed and she looked closer at the cover. It was very similar to her mother's but it wasn't. It was a darker leather and more worn, but it looked like it was better taken care of. That and in the upper right corner it was monogramed with the gold initials of G.O.
Curiosity took hold of May in a stranglehold. Who is this Go person? She took a sneak peek in the book and saw drawings of Pokémon. First was bulbasaur and its evolutions and went on to others, they were all numbered and had different statistics next to them. Average height, weight, their type etc. They were very good and realistic drawings, as she paged through she saw some different Pokémon from different regions. What was more interesting was that there were drawings of a girl.
The girl was on her stomach smelling a flower, in a flower shop deadheading plants, in a tree; it seems that the drawings depict her growing up in each sketch. She finally got to one that showed a full view of her face, a head and shoulder shot. She looked just like Leaf!
It was a charcoal drawing, no color, and she looked a little younger than she did now, but whoever drew her gave her that certain sparkle and life in her eyes. The mischievous quirk to her lips and even her hat that she wears all the time. "She looks just like you, Leaf!" May exclaimed. She shot a panicked look at Dawn. "Sorry! I should've asked to open it first."
Dawn laughed. "To be honest, I was going to look through it too. No worries! What do you mean that Leaf's in there?"
May leaned over and centered the book so that Leaf and Dawn could look at it. "See? Doesn't she look just like her?"
"Wow! She does!" Dawn jerked the reins to the right when they were headed toward the tree line. Her mamoswine shook its head in annoyance.
Leaf took the book from May's hands and looked at the cover. She paled slightly and she felt hot pricks behind her eyes. She turned to the page with her on it. "No! Are you kidding me? Nooo, this doesn't look anything like me." She was proud that her voice didn't quaver. "For one I'm waay thinner, which is not good. And it looks like she has black hair and light eyes."
May took it back. "It's done in charcoal, of course it looks like she has black hair."
Leaf shook her head. "Well my eyes are dark green. If this person had dark eyes they would shade them in more."
May tilted her head, peering at her eyes. "Well, it could depend on the lighting too. In bright light your eyes look lighter, and we are in a forest. Not the greatest light around here."
Leaf shook her head. She took the book from May and tossed it gently behind them. "It isn't me. The person probably drew a person that looked remarkably like me."
Dawn, keeping her eyes on the road, angled her head at them. "He could have drew you from his dreams. You're his dream girl!"
May laughed and Leaf gave a half-hearted chuckle. Leaf rested her elbow on her knee and her chin in the cradle of her hand. She let the lively chatter of May and Dawn wash over her as she stared vacantly at the scenery around them.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-A-U-T-H-O-R-S-N-O-T-E-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
A/N: I feel like there aren't enough Contestshippy moments, which is strange because that's my OTP... I'll try to hurry up with the romance! So what'd you guys think? I lurves me a good review ;) of course all my reviews have been terrific ;D
Random note: I learned this in my psychology class, did you know that sugar helps you with your memory? That part of the brain is mainly made up of glucose and sugar is pure glucose and it feeds your brain!